Volume Ii Part 47 (2/2)

Thelenie listened to these last words without wincing, without the least trace of emotion. Her contracted eyebrows and the disdainful expression of her mouth alone disclosed the secret wrath which agitated her heart.

But when his master ceased to speak, Ami stepped nearer to the visitor and showed his teeth.

”My dog recognized you,” continued Paul; ”he is able to distinguish unerringly between my friends and my enemies; he was always hostile to you, and I might have learned from him your real sentiments toward me.

He is just the same to-day to you. Dogs do not change; they set a useful example to men; and that is the reason, I presume, why the latter beat them so often; they are humiliated to find in a beast virtues which they do not possess.--Now, madame, I fancy that you have nothing more to say to me, and I am glad to believe that you have no further business here.”

With that, Paul turned his back on Thelenie and walked away, motioning to his dog to follow him, which he did not do until he had walked around the amazon several times, growling most significantly.

Thelenie was furious; her pride was irritated by Monsieur Duronceray's outspoken contempt. She had been so long accustomed to be flattered and adulated, that she longed to crush the man who had treated her so disdainfully.

Finding that she was alone in the courtyard, for Mere Lucas had retired long before, the magnificent creature struck with her crop everything within her reach; but her wrath expended itself on a few boxes of flowers and empty pots.

At last she left the place, returned to her horse which was tied to the gate, sprang to the saddle, gave him the rein and galloped away along the first road that she spied. That road was broad and smooth at first, but soon narrowed and became stony. On both sides rose hills in which the road was boxed, as it were; on these hills were trees whose shade imparted a gloomier and more melancholy aspect to the road.

”What a horrible path I chose!” said Thelenie to herself, with an indefinable feeling of alarm. ”No one seems to be pa.s.sing; I have lost my way; I certainly did not come this way. Come, Brillant! let us make haste to get out of here.--Well! what's the matter with the beast? he won't go forward a step! What are you afraid of, coward? Oh! I tell you that you've got to go on.”

As she spoke, she dealt the horse a violent blow on the side with her crop. But he, instead of going forward, jumped like a sheep, then s.h.i.+ed so violently that, an excellent rider though she was, Thelenie lost her balance, fell backward and rolled on the ground at the foot of a cross standing by the roadside. It was that cross that had frightened her horse.

Although slightly bruised by her fall, Thelenie rose and looked about her, and her eyes fell on the wooden cross on its little mound of earth.

She realized that she had fallen on a grave, and after examining the place more carefully, she faltered:

”Mon Dieu! this solitary path, this ravine--this is where they fought, and beneath this cross lies the body of Comte Adhemar! What fatality brought me here? If he had seen me, he would say that it was Providence!”

Summoning all her strength, Thelenie hurried away from the scene of her fall. Her horse was waiting for her some thirty yards away. She mounted again, much less proudly than before; the accident which had happened to her had calmed her rage very sensibly.

XVIII

THE BEGINNING OF A FeTE

As she approached the village, Thelenie's terror rapidly vanished and her schemes of vengeance acquired new force in her mind.

”How that man treated me!” she thought; ”how contemptuously he drove me from his presence! Ah! if I ever have an opportunity to show him how I hate him, I will not let it slip.--Shall I mention this meeting to Croque? No! He would be afraid of dog and master alike, and would be quite capable of flying the country on the instant; I must, on the contrary, conceal from him the fact that Duronceray lives in the neighborhood.”

Many people from Paris, who had been invited for the whole day, had already arrived at Goldfish Villa. Mademoiselle Helose was of the number, as well as several others of Thelenie's old friends, before whom she was very glad to parade her new splendor.

Chamoureau, who was unacquainted with most of his wife's guests, was greatly embarra.s.sed in doing the honors of his house to so many people, and was impatiently awaiting Thelenie's return.

At last the majestic equestrian appeared and her husband ran to meet her, crying:

”Hurry, hurry, my dear love! More than twenty people have come already, and I don't know any of them, except Mademoiselle Helose, whom I know a little. I have no idea how to entertain so many people.”

”Why, monsieur, you must tell everyone to do what he pleases; no sort of restraint; that's how people amuse themselves in the country. Isn't the baron here, to help you to do the honors?”

”Monsieur de Schtapelmerg is playing, madame; he's an indefatigable gambler, you know. Whenever he can get hold of anybody to play with him, he goes at it. At this moment he is at a game of billiards with Monsieur Luminot, who has just arrived; and the baron is making some magnificent shots.”

”I hope, monsieur, that you won't both drink too much to-day as you did yesterday; I understand that the baron fell into a mud-hole.”

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