Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 18, 2025
A quarter of an hour later all three were seated at a table in the Cafe Anglais. "I present to you General Lenaieff," said Henri to his guest. "You should be more incensed against him than against me, for, if he had done his duty, you would probably have had me imprisoned again." "Not imprisoned shot!" the Captain replied, with conviction.
The young mistress of the house was seated on one side, between the Duc de Montgeron and the Marquis de Prerolles. Facing her sat the Duchesse de Montgeron, between General Lenaieff and the Chevalier de Sainte-Foy.
As the curtain fell on this act the spectators turned their backs to the footlights, and Lenaieff, indicating Zibeline to his friend, said in his slightly Slavonic accent: "Who is that pretty woman, my dear Henri?" "One of Jules Verne's personages, a product of the land of furs." "Do you know her?" "Not at all. I have a prejudice against girls that are too rich. Why do you ask?"
"We three, meeting in Paris, can prove the truth of that proverb." "Not only in Paris," said Lenaieff. "If you were in Saint Petersburg, Henri, you might, any evening, see your old flame, Fanny Dorville." "Does she keep a table d'hote?" "No, indeed, my boy. She plays duenna at the Theatre Michel, as that fat Heloise used to do at the Palais-Royal. She must have died long ago, that funny old girl!"
"You are too good a player at this game not to win it," Lenaieff replied, "and I am not a Paul Landry, to dispute it with you. Here is a letter of safe-conduct made out in due form; write upon it any name you choose. As for myself, I regard you absolutely as a Belgian citizen, and I shall make no report of this occurrence.
It was Henri whose memory was first revived. "Captain, you are my prisoner!" he said, gayly, seizing the stranger by the collar. "What! The Commandant de Prerolles!" cried the elderly man, in a reproachful tone, from which fifteen years had not removed the bitterness. "I know who he is!" said Lenaieff. "Monsieur is your former jailer of the frontier fortress!"
He was vexed at his sister for having brought them together; he was angry with himself that he had allowed his mind to be turned so quickly from his former prejudices; and, however indifferent he forced himself to appear, he was irritated against Lenaieff because of the attentions which that gentleman showered upon Zibeline, upon whom he revenged himself by assuming the aggressive attitude for which the Duchess had reproached him.
Mademoiselle de Vermont had granted the eager request of Lenaieff that she would waltz with him, an occupation in which the Russian officer acquitted himself with the same respectful correctness that had formerly obtained for him the high favor of some grand duchess at the balls in the palace of Gatchina.
"But," Lenaieff exclaimed, "you told me that you did not know her!" "I have made her acquaintance since then." "Ah! Where?" Eugenie inquired, with interest. "At my sister's house, during the meeting of a charitable society." "Had it anything to do with the society for which Monsieur Desvanneaux asked me to appear in a kermess?" "Well, yes.
On entering her dining-room Eugenie took the arm of Lenaieff, placed Henri de Prerolles on her left and Samoreau opposite her in his character of senior member, so that no one could mistake his transitory function with that of an accredited master of the house.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking