United States or Belarus ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Can you not say what you have to say where you are?" came the Marquise's voice. "No, Madame," answered La Boulaye coldly, "I cannot." "Oh, it is 'Madame' and 'Mademoiselle' now, eh? What have you done to the man, child, to have earned us so much deference." "May I remind Mademoiselle," put in La Boulaye firmly, "that time presses, and that there is much to be done?"
The whole of one side of the room was filled by the Marquise's bed. It was large, and raised upon a kind of dais covered with a carpet of subdued tones. At the foot of the bed, on the right, was a large window, fastened half open despite the keen cold, no doubt for hygienic reasons.
How know you?" "I had it from the ostler at the Veau qui Tete that a certain Captain Fortunio an Italian soldier of fortune who commands the men at Condillac was at the Auberge de France last night, offering wine to whomsoever would drink with him, and paying for it out of Madame la Marquise's purse.
The scarlet rose in the Marquise's hair had the appearance of a splash of purple fallen from the clouds upon her head. As Yvette looked on from her end, the Marquise rested, as if by carelessness, her bare hand upon Saval's hand; but the young girl made a motion and the Marquise withdrew her hand with a quick gesture, pretending to readjust something in the folds of her corsage.
Before I fully realised what I was doing, monsieur, I had blurted out the whole history of Mme. la Marquise's flight and of M. le Vicomte's sickness to him. He drew me under the cover of an open doorway, and he and his friend listened to me without speaking a word until I had told them my pitiable tale to the end. When I had finished he said quietly: "Take me to see Mme. la Marquise, old friend.
And he served me well indeed, as presently you shall learn. Two days before Madame le Marquise gave birth to your son and heir, a certain handsome peasant named Margot Bourdaloue also entered into the world a son of yours which was not your heir. Think you that it is Madame la Marquise's son who ruffles it here in Paris under the name of the Chevalier du Cévennes?
And Licquet, with his almost genial skilfulness, so easily fathomed the Marquise's proud soul was such a perfect actor in the way he stood before her, spoke to her, and looked at her with an air of submissive admiration, that it was no wonder she thought he was ready to serve her; and as she was not the sort of woman to use any discretion with a man of his class, she immediately despatched the turnkey to offer him the sum of 12,000 francs, half down, if he would consent to promote her interests.
"Does not mademoiselle herself agree with me?" She was about to speak; her glance had looked eager, her lips had parted. Then, of a sudden, the little colour faded from her cheeks again, and she seemed stricken with a silence. Garnache's eyes, directed in a sidelong glance to the Marquise's face, surprised there a frown that had prompted that sudden change.
On the way we halted at a respectable eating-house, where my protector gave me some money wherewith to buy a bottle of good wine and sundry provisions and delicacies which we carried home with us. Never shall I forget the look of horror which came in Mme. la Marquise's eyes when she saw me entering our miserable attic in the company of a stranger.
She shuddered from head to foot, and turning she put her hands to her face and rushed within, followed by the Marquise's derisive laughter. "Mon Dieu! It is horrible! Horrible!" she cried as she sank into the nearest chair, and clapped her hands to her ears. But she could not shut it out. Still she heard the humming of the whip and the cruel sound of the falling blows.
Word Of The Day