Part 21 (2/2)
”Fichtre! You and your offers! Tell e have you ever been back to persuade her?”
He avoided that stern eye
”There it is, you see!” She gave an eloquent gesture ”As for her--leave her to
You should have made up herenough before But straightway: instead: what did you do? Why you began to swell up over notions of your coreatness! That is what happened to you Shrimp! Can't I read your soul?
”Suddenly you found yourself to be a soh--Zelie, of New Caledonia! She lorious future that had no place for her But who opened that prospect? Cre tonnerre! Who sold it you?
Who deciphered the irl falls in deadly peril--as h mere blindness, be sure of it!--when I call you to redeee and protect her: you quit! You 'withdraw'! You decide to use your new airs and graces and pull your feet out of the wet! Because you prefer the excuse of a coward to that of a traitor--Monsieur--is that it?”
Her fist hit the table like a sledge
”Faineant! Unless you brand yourself as shamefully as any Red Mark that ever lived Sit down!”
He had been sidling, bit by bit: he had taken himself almost to the door-sill: but under that tone of thunder--under that sudden a and cryptic jibe--he started, he faltered, he obeyed She bulked above hian truly to be sorry for h by this ti one of those obscure hules which ravel themselves in the depths of a penal society Possible nowhere else, I suppose Yet its threads were the passions and its center was the heart: and poor Bibi-Ri no poorer hero than you or I or any of us ht prove At this point he had fallen back to his defense: sullen, awed, but also intently curious of her How she expected to force hiuess
But breathlessly I watched while she wove about him and about
Back by the hearth she stood meditative for a space in silence: a diave off its vapors--of brewing fates, perhaps
”Give ame two days on end--how do they put it: those savants?--'developing his capabilities' Ah! Not like these others Waffles! Half-baked Mixed with sood and evil Let him be saint or devil, so he develop that capability Let me see him anyway stand to it! As I have seen a few:
”I reo at the prison of Mazas,” she went on, as if in casual retrospect, ”they kept a certain famous captive Myself, I was never a resident there--no thanks!--I prefer the comforts of honesty
Buther own silly career about then She lacked the brains to steer it safe So for a time she inhabited that same institution And one day as ent by the visitors'
roooes the wickedest man in France,' she said
”Down the courtyard ca a prisoner That was a devil--if you like! That was a type--for exaer Once to see hiain While he was still newly-caught they had always to guard him that way lest he slay soed to the very oldest stock of the South, it appeared: the old high noblesse And was he rich? And proud? You can believe it But also he was a great criminal such as walks the earth every while or so to remind us after all how short a journey it is to hell A true devil My sister knew him She had been a servant in the household She knew his whole story--which soon was hushed, I can tell you: a scandal too black to publish”
Her voice rose a ru note under the vault
”Messieurs, never mind the rest of the tale at present But inquire only this: Did they slay hiive him his deserts? Oh, naturally not--else where is the use of Noulad of the specimen 'The wickedestto seize his opportunities And above all true to his own devilment So he won reprieve, Messieurs They preserved hi house of ours--to let hi! And he has He does My faith! With the approval of the Adratifications!”
She ain
”Why do you tell me this?” demanded Bibi-Ri, hoarsely
”For your instruction, Bibi-Ri,” she returned, with her tone of intolerable significance ”To show you how one man stood to it