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Updated: June 27, 2025
When they separated for the night, Gerfaut, bored by his evening and wounded by his reception from Clemence, which, he thought, surpassed anything he could have expected of her capricious disposition, addressed to the young woman a profound bow and a look which said: "I am here in spite of you; I shall stay here in spite of you; you shall love me in spite of yourself."
"Fear nothing," said Gerfaut, who did not reply to her question, "I will respect the hair which serves you as a crown. I know where I must cut it, and, if my ambition is great, my hand shall be discreet."
A remnant of common-sense made him realize that he was treading upon dangerous ground and was upon the point of committing an unpardonable indiscretion. Fortunately, the Baron had paid no attention to his words; but Gerfaut was frightened at his friend's jabbering, and threw him a glance of the most threatening advice to be prudent.
All his attentions were reserved for Mademoiselle de Corandeuil and Aline, who listened with unconcealed pleasure to the man whom she regarded as her saviour; for the young girl's remembrance of the danger which she had run excited her more and more. After supper Mademoiselle de Corandeuil proposed a game of whist to M. de Gerfaut, whose talent for the game had made a lasting impression upon her.
At this unexpected retort, Madame de Bergenheim lost countenance and sat speechless before the young maiden, like a pupil who has just been punished by his teacher. "Where the devil did the little serpent get that idea?" thought Gerfaut, who was very ill at ease between the two wardrobes where he was concealed.
I accidentally turned over one day to the article upon my family in the Dictionnaire de Saint-Allais; I found that one of my ancestors, Christophe de Gerfaut, married, in 1569, a Mademoiselle Yolande de Corandeuil. "'O my ancestor! O my ancestress! I exclaimed, 'you had strange baptismal names; but no matter, I thank you.
Gerfaut listened for some time in silence, with his head leaning against the drawing-room door. Clemence wandered through vague melodies without fixing upon any one in particular. At last a thought seemed to captivate her.
"There will be one difficulty in the way, though they expect about twenty persons at dinner, and all her time will probably be taken up with her duties as hostess." "That is true," exclaimed Gerfaut, jumping up so suddenly that he upset his chair. "You still forget that Mademoiselle de Corandeuil's room is beneath us."
"You are not speaking seriously," said Christian, turning pale; "you, a gentleman, would not denounce me! And, besides, would not my being sentenced injure the woman in whom you take so much interest?" "I know all that," Gerfaut replied; "I too cling to the honor of my name, and yet I expose it. I have plenty of enemies who will be glad enough to outrage my memory.
"A cock!" exclaimed she, after a moment's reflection; "a cock upon Madame's shield! What can that mean, 'bon Dieu'! and it is not engraved nor lithographed; it is drawn with a pencil." "It is not a cock, it is a crowned gerfaut," said Madame de Bergenheim. "A gerfaut! How do you know what a gerfaut is?
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