Part 64 (1/2)
She extended her hand to him, that soft hand that imparted an electrical influence when he touched it.
”Well, what!--You are pouting?”
”I love you,” he replied distractedly. ”I love you, you hear, and I wish to keep you!”
”Ah! no, no! no roughness,” she said with a laugh, as he, taking a seat near her, tried to draw her to him in his arms.
”To keep you, although belonging to another,” whispered Vaudrey slowly.
”For whom do you take me?” said Marianne, proudly drawing herself up.
”If I have a husband, I require that he be respected. A man who gives his name to a woman is clearly ent.i.tled to be dealt with truthfully!”
”Then,” stammered Sulpice, ”what?--Must we never see each other again?”
”We shall recognize each other.”
”You drive me away?”
”As a lover!”
”Ah! stay,” said Vaudrey, as, pale with anger, he walked across the room, ”you are a miserable woman, a courtesan, you understand, a courtesan!--Guy has told me everything! You gave yourself to Jouvenet to avenge yourself on Lissac, you made a tool of me and you are making a sport of Rosas who is marrying you!--What have I not done for you!--I have ruined myself! yes, ruined myself!”
”My dear,” interrupted Marianne, ”see the difference between a gentleman like Monsieur de Rosas and a little bourgeois like yourself. The duke might have ruined himself for me but he would never have reproached me.
One never speaks of money to a woman. You are a very honest, domestic man and you were born to wors.h.i.+p your wife! You should stick to her! You are not made of the stuff of a true-born lover. What you have just told me is the remark of a loon!”
”Ah! if I had only known you!”
”Or anything! But I am better than you, you see. I was better advised than you. The bill of exchange that you owe to the Dujarrier or to Gochard,--whichever you like--it inconveniences you, I know!”
”Yes,” said Vaudrey, ”but--”
”You would not, I think, desire me to pay it with the duke's money, that Monsieur de Rosas should pay your debts?”
”Marianne,” cried Sulpice, livid with rage.
”Bless me! you speak to me of money? You chant your ruin to me! The _De Profundis_ of your money-box, should I know that? I question with myself as to what it means!--However, knowing you to be financially embarra.s.sed, I have myself found you help--Yes, I told someone who understands how to extricate business men, that you were embarra.s.sed!”
”I?”
”There is nothing to blush about. I told Molina the _Tumbler_--You know him?”
Did he know him! At that very moment he saw the ruddy gold moon that represented the banker's face amid all the expanse of his s.h.i.+ning flesh.
He trembled as if in the face of temptation.
”Molina is a man of means,” said Marianne. ”If you need money, you can have it there! And now, once more, leave me to my new life! The past is as if it had never been!--_Bonjour, Bonsoir!_--and adieu, go!--Give me your hand!”
She smiled so strangely, half lying on the divan, and stretched out her white hand, which he covered with kisses, murmuring:
”Well, yes, adieu! Yes, adieu!--But once more--once!--this evening--I love you so dearly!--Will you?”