Part 24 (2/2)
you look as if you'd had a fright!”
”Ah! my dear friend, I have good reason to!--something has happened--a circ.u.mstance--I am in a terrible plight. Wait till I look out of the window; but first be good enough to draw the curtain so that he can't see me.”
”Are you going mad, neighbor?”
Raymond did not answer me; he went to the window and looked out, taking care to conceal himself behind the curtain, and putting his head out with the utmost precaution. I saw that he became paler than ever.
”He's there,” he said at last.
”Who, pray?”
”Gerville.”
”Oh, yes! so he is. But what difference does that make to you?”
”It makes a great difference to me. Don't you know that he is horribly jealous and quite capable of going to terrible lengths?”
”What of it?”
”Understand that he's here on my account. I am sure that he is watching for me; and he has some reason to, for I am with his mistress.”
”What! can it possibly be Mademoiselle Agathe whom you chose to transform into a lady with a carriage and livery of her own?”
”What would you have, my dear fellow? I did it in order to disguise her better, to spare her reputation.”
”Oh! so far as that goes, you may take my word that she has nothing to fear. Ha! ha! ha! Monsieur Raymond, what you must have are cruel creatures, women of a certain style!”
”You may jest about it later, my friend, but save me now, I implore you; my only hope is in you to extricate me from the frightful position I am in.”
”For heaven's sake, explain yourself!”
”Gerville will come into this house, I am perfectly sure. Somebody must have told him that I am here. Be obliging enough to take my place for a moment, and give me yours in this room; I will leave my door open, he will see that I am alone, and his suspicions will vanish.”
”But why don't you lock yourself in with your inamorata? he won't break down your door.”
”He is quite capable of it! or else he would wait for me on the boulevard; and if I should go out with Agathe, you can judge for yourself what a scandalous scene there would be. Furthermore, we live in the same house, you know; and if he has discovered anything, how shall I ever dare to go home? He's just the man to lie in wait for me on the stairs at night.”
”Then why in the devil did you meddle with his mistress?”
”What can you expect? a moment of folly. It was that morning I waited with her on our landing that it took me.”
”Ah, yes! the morning you both played the spy on me.”
”Oh! great G.o.d! he has come in!” cried Raymond, who had glanced out on the boulevard; ”save me, my friend--in pity's name! Go--I'll join you later.”
Giving me no time to reply, Raymond jammed my hat over my ears, dragged and pushed me out of my private room, and locked himself in. I made no resistance, and without any idea as yet as to what I proposed to do for my neighbor, whose most distinctive quality courage certainly was not, I entered the room where Agathe was. She uttered a cry of surprise when she saw me.
”Mon Dieu! it's Eugene! Is it you? is it really you?”
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