Part 15 (1/2)
The child--she was no more than that, perhaps twenty at the most--possessed, in addition to the allurements of face and shape that went very near perfection, a sparkling vivacity and a grace of movement the like of which Andre-Louis did not remember ever before to have beheld assembled in one person And her voice too--that musical, silvery voice that had awakened him--possessed in its exquisite modulations an allureht, in the ugliest of her sex She wore a hoodedthrown back, her dainty head was all revealed to hi sun fro in a cluster of curls about her oval face Her complexion was of a delicacy that he could compare only with a rose petal He could not at that distance discern the colour of her eyes, but he guessed them blue, as he admired the sparkle of them under the fine, dark line of eyebrows
He could not have told you why, but he was conscious that it aggrieved hi felloas partly clad, as it appeared, in the cast-offs of a nobleuess her station, but the speech that reached him was cultured in tone and word He strained to listen
”I shall know no peace, Leandre, until we are safely wedded,” she was saying ”Not until then shall I count myself beyond his reach And yet if we marry without his consent, we buthis consent I alht Andre-Louis, her father was a h the shabby finery of M Leandre, and was not to be dazzled by cheap paste buckles
”My dear Cli squarely before her, and holding both her hands, ”you are wrong to despond If I do not reveal to you all the stratagem that I have prepared to win the consent of your unnatural parent, it is because I am loath to rob you of the pleasure of the surprise that is in store But place your faith in enious friend of whom I have spoken, and who should be here at any moment”
The stilted ass! Had he learnt that speech by heart in advance, or was he by nature a pedantic idiot who expressed himself in this set and formal manner? How ca? And what a ridiculous name the creature owned!
Thus Andre-Louis to hi
”That is what my heart desires, Leandre, but I aem should be too late I am to marry this horrible Marquis of Sbrufadelli this very day He arrives by noon He con the contract--to make me the Marchioness of Sbrufadelli Oh!” It was a cry of pain fro heart ”The very name burns my lips If it were mine I could never utter it--never! The man is so detestable Save me, Leandre Save me! You areof disappointhts he had expected of her She was evidently infected by the stilted manner of her ridiculous lover There was an atrocious lack of sincerity about her words They touched his mind, but left his heart unmoved Perhaps this was because of his antipathy to M Leandre and to the issue involved
So her father washer to a marquis! That implied birth on her side And yet she was content to pair off with this dull young adventurer in the tarnished lace! It was, he supposed, the sort of thing to be expected of a sex that all philosophy had taught hiard as the maddest part of a mad species
”It shall never be!” M Leandre was stor passionately ”Never! I swear it!” And he shook his puny fist at the blue vault of heaven--Ajax defying Jupiter ”Ah, but here comes our subtle friend” (Andre-Louis did not catch the naap in the hedge) ”He will bring us news, I know”
Andre-Louis looked also in the direction of the gap Through it eht man in a rusty cloak and a three-cornered hat ell down over his nose so as to shade his face And when presently he doffed this hat andlovers, Andre-Louis confessed to hi countenance he would have worn his hat in precisely such a manner, so as to conceal as , in part at least, the cast-offs of noble the cast-offs of M Leandre Yet despite his vile clothes and viler face, with its three days' growth of beard, the fellow carried himself with a certain air; he positively strutted as he advanced, and hein a manner that was courtly and practised
”Monsieur,” said he, with the air of a conspirator, ”the time for action has arrived, and so has the Marquis That is why”
The young lovers sprang apart in consternation; Climene with clasped hands, parted lips, and a bosoly under its white fichu-ape, the very picture of foolishness and dismay
Meanwhile the newcoo when he descended there, and I studied hi done so, not a single doubt remains me of our success
As for what he looks like, I could entertain you at length upon the fashi+on in which nature has designed his gross fatuity But that is no matter We are concerned hat he is, with the wit of him And I tell you confidently that I find him so dull and stupid that youinto each and all of the traps I have so cunningly prepared for him”
”Tellout her hands in a supplication no man of sensibility could have resisted And then on the instant she caught her breath on a faint screa distractedly fro! We are lost!”
”You must fly, Climene!” said M Leandre
”Too late!” she sobbed ”Too late! He is here”
”Cal her ”Keep calm and trust to me I promise you that all shall be well”
”Oh!” cried M Leandre, limply ”Say what you will, my friend, this is ruin--the end of all our hopes Your ill never extricate us froap strode now an enorreat nose, decently dressed after the fashi+on of a solid bourgeois There was no er, but the expression that it found was an amazement to Andre-Louis
”Leandre, you're an ihboy! Have you considered what theyhis round hat froesture, he took his stand at M Leandre's side, and repeated the very words that Leandre had lately uttered, what time the three observed him coolly and attentively
”Oh, say what you will, my friend, this is ruin--the end of all our hopes Your ill never extricate us from this Never!”
A frenzy of despair vibrated in his accents He swung again to face M