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Updated: May 12, 2025
"True," replied Father Benart, "and I take it that Madame Riano is to blame for Lisa Embden's lapse from virtue." The bishop glared at his brother Father Benart standing, smiling and blinking in the sun.
Then Madame Riano urged us to stop at Capello, which was directly upon our road from Brussels to Paris. Mademoiselle Capello, from the time she had first fallen into our hands, had never ceased to picture the pleasure she would one day have of our company at her château of Capello, and so Count Saxe thankfully accepted Madame Riano's invitation.
Gaston showed his admiration more openly. We went into the inn, were shown the best room, and then exchanged the story of our adventures. As Gaston surmised, the Russians had not meant to be very severe on Madame Riano, and after detaining her a month at a small village not far from Mitau had let her go.
All this would have been easily checked in an ordinary woman; but Madame the Countess Riano del Valdozo y Kirkpatrick, with a vast fortune, with a powerful backing at the courts of France and Spain for she never lacked friends was a considerable person, and as Francezka told us, with dancing eyes, Madame Riano had made good her promise never to leave any place until she was ready.
I can conjure up that charming Francezka as if she were before me now!" So could I. By the artful subterfuge of sending Madame Riano the news of Paris, for which she thirsted, Gaston had been lucky enough to keep in constant communication with the château of Capello. Madame Riano often used Francezka as her amanuensis, and I grew to know her clear, firm handwriting well.
None of us believed that any very severe measures would be taken against Madame Riano, and we spoke cheerfully of Francezka's speedily rejoining her. To this Francezka listened attentively. For an hour we sat thus, in the light of the fire's red blaze.
It was the first time since Gaston's return that I had heard him mention Regnard's name. Francezka gave Jacques Haret a cold bow. I do not think Madame Riano would have hesitated to order him out of the garden, but she never could resist the charm of battle. Jacques Haret was worthy of her steel in a wordy war, and the temptation was too great for this militant lady.
One is charming the other is not." That very evening, the two Chevernys and myself being at the château, we sat down to cards with Francezka and Madame Riano. It was stormy outside, and a sudden gust of wind coming, all the lights were in an instant blown out.
She asks no pay, but I would give her more than all the child actors in my company get, if I could always command her services." "And when Madame Riano finds it out?" asked Monsieur Voltaire. "Then, God be my help!" "But, Monsieur Haret," said Mademoiselle Lecouvreur, "truly, it is not right that a young girl of her condition should be allowed to mix with the class of children you have here."
There are, as I heard Madame Riano say some years afterward, such things as praying rogues and swearing saints but though I prayed, I was not a rogue. It may be imagined that I went not far from Gaston Cheverny's lodgings during that twenty-four hours.
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