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Valgrand struggled to his feet. His head was heavy, and he had an irresistible desire to hold his tongue and just stay where he was. Partly from gallantry and partly from his desire not to move, he murmured, not without a certain aptness: "I believe only in the god of love, madame, and he bids me remain!"
Then the sound of their footsteps died away along the corridors, and the Baronne de Vibray and her friends left the theatre. Valgrand turned back into his dressing-room and locked the door, then dropped into the low and comfortable chair that was set before his dressing-table.
Valgrand exclaimed gaily. "The choice of the spot, and the desire to see me in my costume as Gurn, are evidence of a positive refinement in sensation! See? The lady, and I the counterpart of Gurn and, right opposite, the real Gurn in his cell! Quick, man: my cloak! My cane!" "Do think, sir," Charlot protested: "it is absolutely absurd! A man like you "
Charlot hesitated a moment in surprise, then broke into voluble explanations. "M. Valgrand is not here yet. What, didn't you know? Why, at the end of the performance the Minister of Public Instruction sent for him to congratulate him! That's a tremendous honour, and it's the second time it has been paid to M. Valgrand."
"I have," Valgrand replied, and again declaimed the written words: "'if you promise to be discreet, and true, you shall never regret it. Does one ever regret it even if one does not keep one's promises?" "At lovers' perjuries " Charlot quoted. "Drunken promises!" Valgrand retorted. "By the way, I am dying for a drink. Give me a whisky and soda."
And listen to this one: 'At Buenos Ayres, at Melbourne, and New York, wherever I am I hear the praises of my friend Valgrand!" "Something like a globe-trotter!" said Mme. Holbord. "I expect he belongs to the Comédie Française." Colonel Holbord interrupted, calling to his wife. "Simone, come and listen to what our friend de Baral is telling me: it is really very curious."
It was a shrewd idea. You noticed the sensation when he came on the stage?" "Yes, I did," said the Colonel; "I wondered what the exclamations from all over the house meant." "Try to find a portrait of Gurn in some one of the illustrated papers," said the Comte, "and compare it with Ah, I think this is Valgrand coming!"
I will crush you to my heart!" and he tried to draw her close to him. But this time Lady Beltham threw him off with the violence of despair. "Stand back! You brute!" she cried, in tones that there was no mistaking. Valgrand recoiled in real dismay, and stood silent in the middle of the room, while Lady Beltham went to the wall farthest from him and leaned for support against it.
"I admire you, but I will not imitate you," he said, and unceremoniously tipped a generous helping of the sugar into his own cup. Lady Beltham watched him with haggard eyes. While they were sipping their tea, there was silence between them. Lady Beltham went back to the sofa, and Valgrand took a chair quite close to her.
Valgrand was standing, taking in every detail of the squalid room in which he found himself with this woman whose wealth, and taste, and sumptuous home at Neuilly were notorious. "I must clear up this mystery," he thought, while he moved to the window to see that it was shut, and searched about, in vain, for a little coal to put upon the fire.
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