Volume I Part 59 (2/2)
Chamoureau took his coat and trousers and was about to depart without a word; but Freluchon stopped him.
”Where are you going?”
”I am going away.”
”You run off because I speak of Eleonore! _Quantum mutatus ab illo!_--Come, stay; I won't mention her again; and if, instead of that, I should make you the fortunate vanquisher of the superb Sainte-Suzanne----”
”What! Sainte-Suzanne? You know--he knows--Monsieur Edmond, did you tell him?”
”No, no! Edmond hasn't told me anything; I learned of your intrigue at Rouen; news of that sort is despatched at once by the railroads.”
”I don't understand.”
”That makes no difference; it's enough for you to know that your friend is at work for you, and that, knowing that you sighed for a cruel beauty, he said to himself:
”'Chamoureau must be made happy!'
”And I have manoeuvred so well and pulled the wires so skilfully with the fair Thelenie, that I have changed her views completely with respect to you! The result is that she gives you an a.s.signation for nine o'clock this evening, on the Champs-Elysees. She will be in a coupe opposite the Jardin d'Hiver.”
”It can't be possible! No, I know you, Freluchon--you're playing a joke on me!”
”I give you my word of honor--and you know that I don't give it lightly--that the charming person with whom you are in love will be in a coupe, opposite the Jardin d'Hiver, at nine o'clock this evening; and that the coachman will open the carriage door, if you open your left hand twice in front of him.--Do you believe me, now?”
”Dear Freluchon! embrace me!”
”I knew it would be so: he is the one who wants to embrace me now. Oh!
these men! Someone has said: 'Woman changes oft, and foolish is the man,' et cetera; one might as fitly say: 'Man changes oft, and an a.s.s is the man who trusts him!'--I am rewriting Francois I; but there have been those who have ventured to rewrite Racine; and frankly I think that he was a greater poet than Francois.”
”In heaven's name, Freluchon, repeat what you just told me! This evening, at nine o'clock, I shall find Thelenie in a coupe on the Champs-Elysees?”
”Yes, in front of the Jardin d'Hiver, on the other side of the avenue.”
”And, to induce the coachman to open the door, I am to shake my fist at him?”
”Sapristi! if that's the way you hear! you are to open your left hand twice, before his face.”
”Ah! very good! I will open my left hand twice. But, what the devil!----”
”Well, what difficulty is there about that?”
”When I have opened my left hand once, how am I to open it again?”
”Why, you idiot, you must close it again, of course!”
”Ah, yes! to be sure; I won't open it again till I have closed it. It is love that unsettles my mind. And I shall find Thelenie, she will be waiting for me, and she will not spurn my homage!”
”d.a.m.nation! my dear fellow, when a lady gives you an a.s.signation at night, in a carriage, that doesn't indicate an intention to be very severe; and if you don't come out of the affair the victor, it will be your own fault.”
<script>