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"True," replied Dupleisis; "but in this case she has had rivals." "I choose to amuse myself with a crowd, who eat my suppers and make me laugh." "And among the jesters you number the Minister of War and Chief of Police." "I may need their aid." "Mademoiselle Milan, you do need their aid; but, with all your charming courtesies, you have not secured it." "M. Dupleisis chooses to speak in enigmas.
"You may think it singular, also, that when, shortly afterward, you started for Bordeaux, I went by the same train; and that when you concluded to prolong your journey to Brazil by the French packet, via Lisbon, it was I who assisted with your luggage." "There is nothing low enough to be singular in M. Dupleisis." "Mademoiselle Milan, one week ago you and Edgar Fay went into the hall-way of Mr.
Disgusted at the necessity which compelled his presence, and annoyed at the stupidity of the few people he had met, he commented savagely on their peculiarities, and anathematized with merciless ingenuity. "Pshaw, M. Dupleisis! you are only angry because you cannot have chicken-pie every day for dinner. What have the Brazilians done to you?" Dupleisis gazed at the speaker in astonishment.
"True art, mademoiselle, lies in its concealment. My life has been one of concealment." "Now you pique my curiosity," she replied. "Do let me learn the 'veritable historie." The smile on Mademoiselle Milan's face showed that the interest was feigned, but the grim look about Dupleisis' mouth proved him conscious of it.
Dupleisis took from a pocket-book a half-sheet of thin, closely-written letter-paper, and spread it out on the table before him. "It was about two months ago that this document was blown from your window. Am I right, Mademoiselle Milan?" "It was blown from my writing-desk into the street." "I knew I was right; for 'twas I that picked it up.
About the woman they would say, "She is Mademoiselle Milan, just arrived on the French packet, to fill an engagement as leading lady at the Alcasar." Concerning Dupleisis, except that he had arrived recently on the English steamer, that he seemed to be a man of leisure, and paid promptly for what he received, they could tell you nothing.
A man without an object would have changed the subject at once; but Dupleisis had an object, and did not. "I was ushered into this land of hope and sunny smiles with scarcely any other patrimony than a name." "What limited resources!" ejaculated the lady, with a slight sneer.
Dupleisis looked at her in astonishment. Edgar Fay, pale and trembling, was standing behind them. He must have heard every word; for he sunk helplessly and faint on the floor, hiding his face in the depth of his degradation. Why should we follow them any further?
"Mademoiselle, I make no apologies. Buttons will come off, and stockings will contract holes. Washer-women are heartless. The mountain will not come to Mahomet: therefore I darn 'em myself." "A philosopher under all circumstances. And pray what have you done with your pupil in morality and economy?" "Oh, Dupleisis?
Dupleisis sat listening to the dreary history entranced. There was love, and feeling, and fond womanly devotion; there was refined thought, gentle pity, and warm generous charity; and there was a neglected heart, a gloomy, embittered mind, a life lost in utter desolation. The glorious being whom God had created to cheer and encourage man was a beautiful statue.
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