Part 43 (2/2)

The party were just gone--it was already the peep of day--the wheels of the last carriage had died in the distance.

Madame de Merville had dismissed her woman, and was seated in her own room, leaning her head musingly on her hand.

Beside her was the table that held her MSS. and a few books, amidst which were scattered vases of flowers. On a pedestal beneath the window was placed a marble bust of Dante. Through the open door were seen in perspective two rooms just deserted by her guests; the lights still burned in the chandeliers and girandoles, contending with the daylight that came through the half-closed curtains. The person of the inmate was in harmony with the apartment. It was characterised by a certain grace which, for want of a better epithet, writers are p.r.o.ne to call cla.s.sical or antique. Her complexion, seeming paler than usual by that light, was yet soft and delicate--the features well cut, but small and womanly.

About the face there was that rarest of all charms, the combination of intellect with sweetness; the eyes, of a dark blue, were thoughtful, perhaps melancholy, in their expression; but the long dark lashes, and the shape of the eyes, themselves more long than full, gave to their intelligence a softness approaching to languor, increased, perhaps, by that slight shadow round and below the orbs which is common with those who have tasked too much either the mind or the heart. The contour of the face, without being sharp or angular, had yet lost a little of the roundness of earlier youth; and the hand on which she leaned was, perhaps, even too white, too delicate, for the beauty which belongs to health; but the throat and bust were of exquisite symmetry.

”I am not happy,” murmured Eugenie to herself; ”yet I scarce know why.

Is it really, as we women of romance have said till the saying is worn threadbare, that the destiny of women is not fame but love. Strange, then, that while I have so often pictured what love should be, I have never felt it. And now,--and now,” she continued, half rising, and with a natural pang--”now I am no longer in my first youth. If I loved, should I be loved again? How happy the young pair seemed--they are never alone!”

At this moment, at a distance, was heard the report of fire-arms--again!

Eugenie started, and called to her servant, who, with one of the waiters hired for the night, was engaged in removing, and nibbling as he removed, the re mains of the feast. ”What is that, at this hour?--open the window and look out!”

”I can see nothing, madame.”

”Again--that is the third time. Go into the street and look--some one must be in danger.”

The servant and the waiter, both curious, and not willing to part company, ran down the stairs, and thence into the street.

Meanwhile, Morton, after vainly attempting Birnie's window, which the traitor had previously locked and barred against the escape of his intended victim, crept rapidly along the roof, screened by the parapet not only from the shot but the sight of the foe. But just as he gained the point at which the lane made an angle with the broad street it adjoined, he cast his eyes over the parapet, and perceived that one of the officers had ventured himself to the fearful bridge; he was pursued--detection and capture seemed inevitable. He paused, and breathed hard. He, once the heir to such fortunes, the darling of such affections!--he, the hunted accomplice of a gang of miscreants! That was the thought that paralysed--the disgrace, not the danger. But he was in advance of the pursuer--he hastened on--he turned the angle--he heard a shout behind from the opposite side--the officer had pa.s.sed the bridge: ”it is but one man as yet,” thought he, and his nostrils dilated and his hands clenched as he glided on, glancing at each cas.e.m.e.nt as he pa.s.sed.

Now as youth and vigour thus struggled against Law for life, near at hand Death was busy with toil and disease. In a miserable grabat, or garret, a mechanic, yet young, and stricken by a lingering malady contracted by the labour of his occupation, was slowly pa.s.sing from that world which had frowned on his cradle, and relaxed not the gloom of its aspect to comfort his bed of Death. Now this man had married for love, and his wife had loved him; and it was the cares of that early marriage which had consumed him to the bone. But extreme want, if long continued, eats up love when it has nothing else to eat. And when people are very long dying, the people they fret and trouble begin to think of that too often hypocritical prettiness of phrase called ”a happy release.” So the worn-out and half-famished wife did not care three straws for the dying husband, whom a year or two ago she had vowed to love and cherish in sickness and in health. But still she seemed to care, for she moaned, and pined, and wept, as the man's breath grew fainter and fainter.

”Ah, Jean!” said she, sobbing, ”what will become of me, a poor lone widow, with n.o.body to work for my bread?” And with that thought she took on worse than before.

”I am stifling,” said the dying man, rolling round his ghastly eyes.

”How hot it is! Open the window; I should like to see the light-daylight once again.”

”Mon Dieu! what whims he has, poor man!” muttered the woman, without stirring.

The poor wretch put out his skeleton hand and clutched his wife's arm.

”I sha'n't trouble you long, Marie! Air--air!”

”Jean, you will make yourself worse--besides, I shall catch my death of cold. I have scarce a rag on, but I will just open the door.”

”Pardon me,” groaned the sufferer; ”leave me, then.” Poor fellow!

perhaps at that moment the thought of unkindness was sharper than the sharp cough which brought blood at every paroxysm. He did not like her so near him, but he did not blame her. Again, I say,--poor fellow! The woman opened the door, went to the other side of the room, and sat down on an old box and began darning an old neck-handkerchief. The silence was soon broken by the moans of the fast-dying man, and again he muttered, as he tossed to and fro, with baked white lips:

”Je m'etoufee!--Air!”

There was no resisting that prayer, it seemed so like the last. The wife laid down the needle, put the handkerchief round her throat, and opened the window.

”Do you feel easier now?”

”Bless you, Marie--yes; that's good--good. It puts me in mind of old days, that breath of air, before we came to Paris. I wish I could work for you now, Marie.”

<script>