Part 15 (2/2)
Leandre ”Thus,” he bade him contemptuously ”Let the passion of your hopelessness express itself in your voice Consider that you are not asking Scaramouche here whether he has put a patch in your breeches You are a despairing lover expressing”
He checked abruptly, startled Andre-Louis, suddenly realizing as afoot, and how duped he had been, had loosed his laughter The sound of it pealing and booreat roof that so i to those below
The fat man was the first to recover, and he announced it after his own fashi+on in one of the ready sarcasms in which he habitually dealt
”Hark!” he cried, ”the very Gods laugh at you, Leandre” Then he addressed the roof of the barn and its invisible tenant ”Hi! You there!”
Andre-Louis revealed himself by a further protrusion of his tousled head
”Good- now on his knees, his horizon was suddenly extended to include the broad coe He beheld there an enor chaise, a cart piled up with timbers partly visible under the sheet of oiled canvas that covered them, and a sort of house on wheels equipped with a tin chi Three heavy Flemish horses and a couple of donkeys--all of thehbourhood of these vehicles
These, had he perceived theiven him the clue to the queer scene that had been played under his eyes Beyond the hedge other figures were ap--a saucy-faced girl with a tip-tilted nose, whom he supposed to be Coluster, who must be the lackey Harlequin; and another rather loutish youth who ht be a zany or an apothecary
All this he took in at a colance that consu To that good- Pantaloon replied in a bellow:
”What the devil are you doing up there?”
”Precisely the sa down there,” was the answer ”I a”
”Eh?” said Pantaloon, and looked at his co red face Although the thing was one that they did habitually, to hear it called by its proper na
”Whose land is this?” he asked, with di assurance
Andre-Louis answered, whilst drawing on his stockings ”I believe it to be the property of the Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr”
”That's a high-sounding naentleman,” said Andre-Louis, ”is the devil; or rather, I should prefer to say upon reflection, that the devil is a gentleman by co felloho played Scara you don't hesitate, yourself, to trespass upon his property”
”Ah, but then, you see, I am a lawyer And lawyers are notoriously unable to observe the law, just as actors are notoriously unable to act
Moreover, sir, Nature imposes her limits upon us, and Nature conquers respect for law as she conquers all else Nature conquered ot as far as this And so I slept here without regard for the very high and puissant Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr At the same time, M Scaramouche, you'll observe that I did not flaunt my trespass quite as openly as you and your co donned his boots, Andre-Louis ca-coat over his ar eyes of the heavy father conned hi that his clothes, if plain, were of a good fashi+on, that his shi+rt was of fine cambric, and that he expressed himself like a man of culture, such as he claimed to be, M Pantaloon was disposed to be civil
”I ainning
”Act upon it, ardes-champetres of M d'Azyr have orders to fire on trespassers Imitate me, and decaap in the hedge to the encampment on the common There Andre-Louis took his leave of thetoilet at a bucket placed upon one of the wooden steps at the tail of the house on wheels A moment he hesitated, then he turned frankly to M Pantaloon, as still at his elbow
”If it were not unconscionable to encroach so far upon your hospitality,leave to ientleman before I leave you”
”But, my dear sir!” Good-nature oozed out of every pore of the fat body of theat all But, by all means
Rhodomont will provide what you require He is the dandy of the coe Hi, Rhodo body frole in which it had been bent over the bucket, and looked out through a foam of soapsuds Pantaloon issued an order, and Rhodoe as he was forer free of the bucket in the friendliest manner
So Andre-Louis once more removed his neckcloth and his coat, and rolled up the sleeves of his fine shi+rt, whilst Rhodomont procured hireasy hair-ribbon, in case the gentleman should have lost his own This last Andre-Louis declined, but the co presently washed hi over his left shoulder, restoring order to his dishevelled locks before a broken piece ofhouse