Part 18 (1/2)
”You sent for me, Lucien. I have come.”
He bent his head, and taking her hand raised it to his lips. At that moment he had no thought for Pauline. Yet he felt there was something lacking in Jeanne's greeting. He would make her understand directly.
”How good of you!” he murmured. ”Tell me of your journey. Last night, strangely enough, I heard of you, and since then have been in a fever of unrest.”
”You heard of me! At the Lion d'Or?”
”Were you there? No, that is not what I heard. It was a strange place to lodge you in. Tell me everything.”
”Tell me first why you sent for me,” she answered. ”It is not so very long since I left Paris; yet, in some way, you have grown unfamiliar.”
”It is this perhaps,” and he laughed as he touched the tri-color which he wore. ”You are unfamiliar too. We are both masquerading.”
He told her the history of his imprisonment and of his release; he laughed as he explained that his safety lay in appearing to be a good patriot, and grew serious as he told her with lowered voice that, under this deceit, he was working night and day for the King, the imprisoned n.o.bility, and for the emigres.
”I was in danger, Jeanne, grave danger, but I did not send for you. Do you imagine I would have brought you into peril on any pretext?”
”You promised to send for me if you were in danger. It was a compact.”
”One that any man would feel himself justified in breaking. Rouzet, poor fellow, acted without my knowledge. He was from the first very fearful for my safety, and to ease his mind I showed him the trinket and told him of our compact. Directly I was arrested and taken to the Conciergerie he must have planned to come to Beauvais.”
”But how did the trinket come into his possession? I thought you always wore it.”
”I did, but in such a hurry were they to arrest me that they came while I was yet in bed. I had to dress with two men watching me, and I left the gold star in a drawer.”
”And Rouzet found it?”
”How else could he have started to ride to Beauvais with it?” said Lucien. ”Truly, Jeanne, you seem as hard to convince as if you were really a market woman suspecting every purchaser of trying to get the better of her in a bargain.”
”Forgive me, but I have come through such a maze of deceit that full belief is difficult,” she answered. ”Have you no friend named Mercier?”
”Half the ragged fellows pa.s.sing in the street might claim friends.h.i.+p with me, so well do I play the part of patriot; but I am not conscious of having a friend of that name.”
”There is such a man, and his knowledge of you is intimate. He brought me the gold star.”
”Tell me the whole story, Jeanne. I may find a clew in it.”
He listened to the tale, asking no questions. There was excitement in his face as she recounted her adventure at the Lion d'Or and her rescue by Barrington. It was simply told, yet dramatically, and Lucien's face flushed and paled. This beautiful woman had pa.s.sed through this terrible experience because she loved him.
”They shall pay for it,” he said, between his closed teeth, it was the only thought in his mind at the moment--”they shall pay, by Heaven! they shall.”
His earnestness pleased her. This was the Lucien she knew.
”What was it you heard of me last night?” she asked.
”I was told that Rouzet had been watched and followed, that he had been killed on the high road, and the star stolen; that no message could possibly have reached you at Beauvais. It is evident there are others who have plotted to bring you into danger.”
”And succeeded,” she answered.
”You must be placed in safety without delay, Jeanne. These scoundrels will follow you hot-footed to Paris.”