Part 3 (1/2)
She had opened again the book which she had been reading when I first noticed her. From my saddle I saw that it was Moliere. I examined her, in detail, from the tips of her small wooden shoes to the scarlet velvet-banded skirt, then slowly upward, noting the laced bodice of velvet, the bright hair under the b.u.t.terfly coiffe of Alsace, the delicate outline of nose and brow and throat. The ensemble was theatrical.
”Why do you tend turkeys?” I asked.
”Because it pleases me,” she replied, raising her eyebrows in faint displeasure.
”For that same reason you read Monsieur Moliere?” I suggested.
”Doubtless, monsieur.”
”Who are you?”
”Is a pa.s.sport required in France?” she replied, languidly.
”Are you what you pretend to be, an Alsatian turkey tender?”
”Parbleu! There are my turkeys, monsieur.”
”Of course, and there is your peasant dress and there are your wooden shoes, and there also, mademoiselle, are your soft hands and your accented speech and your plays of Moliere.”
”You are very wise for a hussar,” she said.
”Perhaps,” said I, ”but I have asked you a question which remains parried.”
She balanced the hazel rod across her shoulders with a faintly malicious smile.
”One might almost believe that you are not a hussar, but an officer of the Imperial Police,” she said.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”'ACROSS THAT MEADOW,' SAID THE YOUNG GIRL”]
”If you think that,” said I, ”you should answer my question the sooner--unless you come from La Trappe. Do you?”
”Sometimes.”
”Oh! And what do you do at the Chateau de la Trappe?”
”I tend poultry--sometimes,” she replied.
”And at other times?”
”I do other things, monsieur.”
”What things?”
”What things? Mon Dieu, I read a little, as you perceive, monsieur.”
”Who are you?” I demanded.
”Oh, a mere n.o.body in such learned company,” she said, shaking her head with a mock humility that annoyed me intensely.
”Very well,” said I, conscious every moment of her pleasure in my discomfiture; ”under the circ.u.mstances I am going to ask you to accept my escort to La Trappe; for I think you are Mademoiselle Elven, recently of the Odeon theatre.”