Volume II Part 45 (1/2)
”Downstairs in the dining-roo to breakfast alone?”
”That depends Perhaps one of h I haven't invited any one”
”Please ring the bell in case you want to be served,” said Coucou, as he left the roo-desk for a time, and his dark eyes were humid He shoved a brown velvet curtain aside and entered a small, dark rooer upon the blinds caused theh the high s The walls, which were hung with brown velvet, foron, and opposite the broad ere two pictures in gold frames The vicomte's look rested on these pictures They were the features of his parents which had been placed upon the canvas by the hand of an artist In all her goodness, Haydee, Ali Tebelen's daughter, looked down upon her son, and the bold, proud face of Ed look
”Ah, my mother,” whispered Spero, softly, ”if you were only within life without him? The future looks blank and dark tolived for! What a present the proud naht where the shadow threatens to suffocatein the labyrinth of life without a guide!”
Froerated in his letter to his son He dos, and so it happened that Spero hardly dared to express a thought of his own
Spero was never heard to praise or admire this or that, before he had first inquired whether such an opinion would be proper to express The father recognized too late that his son lacked independence of thought
He had, as he thought, schooled his son for the battle of life He had taught him how to carry the weapons, but in his anxiety about exterior and trivial things he had forgotten toThe for itself now in a telling way The demands of ordinary life were unknown to Spero He had put his are of a Mucius Scaevola, and quailed before the prick of a needle
Suddenly the door-bell rang, and breathing more freely the vicomte left the little roo hi card to the vicomte on a silver salver, and hardly had Spero thrown a look at it, when he joyfully cried:
”Bring the gentle-rooether”
CHAPTER XXIX
FORWARD, MARCH
When Spero entered the dining-rooe hurried toward him with outstretched arms
”How are you, my dear Spero?” he vivaciously cried
”Oh, thank you, very well Do you know, Gontram, that you couldn't have come at a more appropriate hour?”
”Really? That pleases me,” said the new-coreat reputation Laying his hand on Spero's shoulder, he looked steadily at hireeable happened to you?”
”No; what makes you think so?” replied Spero, confused
”Your appearance is different from usual Your eyes sparkle, and you are feverishly excited Perhaps you have sothey indulged in general conversation
”Do you know that my father has left Paris suddenly?” asked Spero in the course of the conversation
”No Where has the count gone to?”