Volume II Part 48 (1/2)
”I am ignorant, madame.”
”You are ignorant?”
”He has only made himself known to me by his inexhaustible goodness.
Thanks to heaven! I found myself in his way.”
”Where did you meet him?”
”One night, in the city, madame,” said La Goualeuse, casting down her eyes, ”a man wanted to strike me; this unknown benefactor courageously defended me. Such was my first encounter with him.”
”He was, then, a man of the common order?”
”The first time I saw him he had their dress and language, but afterward--”
”Afterward?”
”The manner in which he spoke to me, the profound respect shown him by the people to whom he confided me, all proved to me that he had disguised himself as one of the men who frequent the city.”
”But for what purpose?”
”I do not know.”
”And the name of this mysterious protector, do you know it?”
”Oh, yes, madame, thank heaven!” said Goualeuse, with warmth; ”for I can bless and adore without ceasing this name. My deliverer is known as Rudolph, madame.”
Clemence blushed deeply.
”And has he no other name?” asked she, quickly, of Fleur-de-Marie.
”I do not know, madame. At the farm where he sent me, he was only known by the name of Rudolph.”
”And his age?”
”He is still young, madame.”
”And handsome?”
”Oh, yes! handsome, n.o.ble--as his heart.”
The grateful, feeling manner with which Fleur-de-Marie p.r.o.nounced these words, caused a disagreeable sensation to Madame d'Harville. An invincible, an inexplicable presentiment told her that this Rudolph was the prince.
”The observations of the inspectress were well founded,” thought Clemence. ”The Goualeuse loves Rudolph; it was his name she p.r.o.nounced in her sleep. Under what strange circ.u.mstances had the prince and this poor girl met? Why did Rudolph go disguised into the city?” She could not resolve these questions; only she remembered that Sarah had formerly, wickedly and falsely, related to her some pretended eccentricities of Rudolph, and of his strange amours. Was it not, indeed, strange that he had taken from a life of misery this creature, of ravis.h.i.+ng beauty and of no common mind?
Clemence had n.o.ble qualities, but she was a woman, and she loved Rudolph profoundly, although she had determined to bury this secret in the very depths of her heart. Without reflecting that this, no doubt, was one of those generous actions which the prince was accustomed to do secretly; without reflecting that, perhaps, she confounded with love a sentiment of warm grat.i.tude; without reflecting, finally, that of this sentiment, even if it were more tender, Rudolph might be ignorant, the lady, in the first feeling of bitterness and injustice, could not prevent herself considering the Goualeuse as a rival. Her pride revolted in feeling that she blushed; that she suffered, in spite of herself, at a rivalry so abject. She resumed, then, in a cold manner, which cruelly contrasted with the affectionate benevolence of her first words, ”And how is it, girl, that your protector leaves you in prison? How did you get here?”
”Madame,” said Fleur-de-Marie, timidly, struck with this change of language: ”have I displeased you in any way?”
”How could you have displeased me?” demanded Madame d'Harville, with haughtiness.
”It seems to me that just now you spoke to me with more kindness, madame.”