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Updated: May 31, 2025
I've got these men on my hands. What did she tell you?" "Nothing!" harshly cried Hawke, "and I wash my hands of you and her. Settle your intrigues as you will!" Not a word was spoken, as Alan Hawke gravely opened the door to Madame Berthe Louison's reception room. Hugh Johnstone's yellow face paled as the Major breaking the silence, coldly said: "Madame!
He marked the tender challenge of her dreamy eyes as Berthe Louison's loving soul spoke out to the radiant young beauty only held away from her heart by the stern old skeleton at the feast. The long-drawn-out splendors of the feast were over, and the ladies had, at last, retired.
"We're all alone, Aunt Marianna," he said. "Leslie and Annie will be here in the morning, and Alice told me to tell you that she hoped " "Chris," the sick woman interrupted, gazing at him with an intense and painful stare, "this child here Norma! I I must straighten it all out now, Chris. Kate knows. Kate has all the papers letters Louison's letters! Ask Kate " She shut her eyes.
The respectful tone of his manner touched Berthe Louison's heart. He was beginning to win his way to her regard by judiciously effacing himself. "I am entirely at home, thanks to your thoughtful provision," she smiled. "There is nothing to-night. Have you seen Johnstone?" Her dark eyes were steadfastly fixed upon him now. "Yes; he sent for me.
Later, I'll have my own little innings with General Willoughby, and, finally play the gracious host while Ram Lal watches Madame Louison's cat-like play upon her victim. Money I must have, her money first, to pay the piper," he laughed, which proposed liberality was destined to doubly bribe the wily old jewel merchant.
But Major Alan Hawke, of the Provisional Staff, hearkened wisely to the banker's words: "Don't be fool enough to think that you can trifle with Madame Louison's interests. The noble Viceroy has placed you on duty, at her own personal request, to give you a last chance to regain all the promise of your youth. One word from her, and and you will be suspended or, dropped!
Louison did not hesitate a moment to take the woman, whose appearance was so repulsive, to her home. When she asked the crazy woman, who gazed at her, "Mother, do you wish to go with me?" the deserted woman nodded, and from that day on she was sheltered. Who could tell but that Louison's voice recalled to that clouded memory the recollection of happier days?
"I was busied in the bazaars, buying jewels," he expostulated, when Jules Victor led him into Madame Louison's boudoir. Even then Major Hawke was curiously noting the dismantled condition of the reception-room, where Johnstone had at last thrown off the mask. "I leave Major Hawke here to close all my business, Ram Lal," she said. "I go to Calcutta. I may be gone for some months.
"Now, I will return and await your success," concluded Hawke as he read over a dozen times Madame Berthe Louison's long dispatch, ordering him to prepare her pied de terre in Delhi. "Gad! Milady means to do the thing in style," he murmured. "She is a deep one, and she must have a pot of money!" He lit a cheroot and sauntered away to show up officially at the club.
"It touches his one little raw spot!" And calling a boy the old Commissioner dispatched the note, carefully sealed, to the Club. The last one to seek his rest in the marble house, old Johnstone was strangely shaken by the events of the day. Berthe Louison's threats, Ram Lal's stubborn refusal, and the useless quarrel with Hawke had unmanned him.
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