Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 13, 2025
And after an hour spent in paradise, Francezka and Gaston walked hand in hand to the château, the servants and dependents were summoned, and Francezka, kneeling among them, with her hand on Gaston's shoulder, humbly gave thanks to God for having restored her best beloved to her. The news spread like wildfire, and roused the entire country.
Her courage was in truth greater than Madame Riano's, for madame loved battle; Francezka did not love it, neither did she fear it. She accepted Count Saxe's hand, and he led her across the courtyard and up the stairway, where she disappeared within the door, first making a curtsy to us all as well as to Count Saxe. My master came down the stairway three steps at a time.
There was a deep and perfect silence within and without, and it seemed to cast a spell upon Francezka and upon me, so near together, and she all unknowing. And then, feeling rather than seeing some one near me, I turned and saw a figure in a black cloak pass me; the same figure that had passed before me in the shadowy streets of Prague the man I thought to be Gaston Cheverny.
It was impossible for it to be otherwise, or that she should fail to be a little intoxicated at the splendid vista opening before her youth, beauty, great riches and liberty, such as no French woman knew. Outwardly, Francezka was a French woman; inwardly, she was quite unlike a French woman. That mixture of Scotch and Spanish blood is a hot and riotous brew.
He was but two and twenty, after all; but under this effervescence, I saw a deep and true passion that possessed him body and soul. Presently he calmed himself and talked seriously of Francezka.
The little priest had seen all along that Count Saxe was a personage, and treated him always with the greatest deference. The bishop was escorted to the red saloon and placed in a large gilt chair he was the sort of man to like large gilt chairs. Madame Riano seated herself on one side of him, and Francezka, beautifully demure and well behaved, sat on the other side.
One week went by, and then another, and we heard nothing of Francezka and Gaston. We had other things to give us thought, for we got news that Bibikoff was looking for us, with four thousand Russians, and, as soon as we were found, General Lacy was to step in and finish us if he could.
The bishop, swelling with wrath, rose and walked twice, thrice up and down the room. I fancied he was saying in his mind Was there ever so vexatious a creature as this Francezka? She never had any proper respect for authority! And there sat that easy young brother of his, smiling at his discomfiture the discomfiture of a bishop!
So, meeting him to-day, as I say, in the gardens of the Palais Royal, and bringing him home with me in fact, asking him to come and sup with us, for his entertainment always pays for his supper, you perceived the reception he got from my lady Francezka and Madame Riano. Now, what am I to do?"
It was to be expected that Francezka and Gaston should live with splendor and gaiety at the Hôtel Kirkpatrick, and they did; this, too, upon a scale that probably made Francezka's father, the prudent old Scotchman, writhe in his grave. Balls, masques, concerts and ballets followed each other with dazzling swiftness.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking