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Then Hippolyte engaged two assistants, and clad them in white duck jackets, and his wife fabricated a new blouse of blue silk, and seated herself behind the desk with an engaging smile. The enterprise was fairly launched, and experience was not slow in proving the theories of Espérance to be well founded. The quartier was épaté from the start, and took with enthusiasm the bait held forth.
"Was Bertuccio with my father?" "Yes, sir." "In what direction did he go?" "I know not, and I assure you that no one in the hôtel knows more than I." Coucon was glad when this examination was over. Esperance was never harsh or severe with his people, but they never felt at ease with him as with his father.
Many who could not get admission waited outside the theatre to get news during the intervals. The corridors were full of French and foreign reporters. Behind the scenes Esperance stood looking at herself in the mirror. It was almost time for the curtain to go up. Dressed in the convent robe, the strings of pearls was still about her neck. Should she unclasp it, should she not?
She colored deeply, and in much agitation answered quickly: "No, my friend, I am not hurt. It was a slight accident, and this gentleman saved me." Esperance started, because he felt sure that this voice and the one that had addressed to him the strange words he had repeated to Goutran, was the same. The man turned and looked at the Count.
Should Vampa be offended, he will burn our hut over our heads and murder us all without pity. However, both your wounded friend and yourself shall have such poor shelter as our humble roof affords." Giovanni was aided to arise, and, taking him between them, Espérance and the peasant began their walk.
We left Esperance in the house at Courberrie just when the panels had been thrown open. He uttered a cry of horror. What did he see? Around a table covered with glasses sat a number of women singing drunken songs, and among these women sat one pale as a ghost, and this one was Jane! Ah! poor child! Of what terrible machination was she the victim?
She let herself fall rather than sit in the chair to which Albert Styvens had conducted her. Here she found herself between the Count and the young Baron de Montrieux, who attempted, with the most charming courtesy to forestall her every want and monopolize all her attention. The Baron was overflowing with wit and Esperance listened with delight.
"Yes, papa; but why both of them should have been so bound, unless they were accomplices, I cannot see; I even went so far as to accuse Espérance of complicity, whereupon he grew as white as chalk and protested his entire innocence, and in his confusion uttered the name of Luigi Vampa." "Zuleika, Zuleika, you certainly misunderstood your brother; he could not have mentioned the name of that man!
Finally magnetized by the looks fixed upon her, Esperance turned her head away with a little cry of surprise. Mlle. Frahender, who had been asleep, opened her eyes, and straightened the angle of her bonnet. Esperance shook her pretty head laughing, while Maurice exhibited his sketch and announced to his cousin his desire to paint her portrait. "How pleased my father will be," she cried.
A frown contracted the leader's visage; he glanced at Espérance and the Viscount with a look of hate and rage; then, turning to the lieutenant, he said: "Well?" "We found Ludovico lying in the road a little distance from here," replied the short, thick-set man, with a trace of emotion in his rough voice. "He was shot in the heart and had been dead for some time."