Part 31 (2/2)
”A sort of sister!” She was indignant ”Harlequin foretold that you would say so; but he was a himself It was not very funny It is less funny still from you She has a name, I suppose, this sort of sister?”
”Certainly she has a name She is Mlle Aline de Kercadiou, the niece of Quintin de Kercadiou, Lord of Gavrillac”
”Oho! That's a sufficiently fine name for your sort of sister What sort of sister, my friend?”
For the first time in their relationshi+p he observed and deplored the taint of vulgarity, of shrewishness, in her manner
”It would have been more accurate in me to have said a sort of reputed left-handed cousin”
”A reputed left-handed cousin! And what sort of relationshi+p may that be? Faith, you dazzle me with your lucidity”
”It requires to be explained”
”That is what I have been telling you But you seem very reluctant with your explanations”
”Oh, no It is only that they are so unie
Her uncle, M de Kercadiou, is my Godfather, and she and I have been playmates from infancy as a consequence It is popularly believed in Gavrillac that M de Kercadiou isfro to him that I was educated at Louis le Grand I owe to hi that I had; for of my own free will I have cutsave what I can earn for myself in the theatre or elsewhere”
She sat stunned and pale under that cruel blow to her swelling pride
Had he told her this but yesterday, it would have made no impression upon her, it would haveas a sequel would but have enhanced hiination had woven for hiround, after the rashly assumed discovery of his splendid identity hadbeen in her own eyes and theirs enshrined by reat lady, this disclosure crushed and huuise was entle-stock of every member of her father's troupe, of all those who had so lately envied her this roood fortune
”You should have told me this before,” she said, in a dull voice that she strove to render steady
”Perhaps I should But does it really matter?”
”Matter?” She suppressed her fury to ask another question ”You say that this M de Kercadiou is popularly believed to be your father What precisely do you mean?”
”Just that It is a belief that I do not share It is a matter of instinct, perhaps, with me Moreover, once I asked M de Kercadiou point-blank, and I received from him a denial It is not, perhaps, a denial to which one would attach too much importance in all the circumstances Yet I have never known M de Kercadiou for other than a man of strictest honour, and I should hesitate to disbelieve him--particularly when his statement leaps with my own instincts He assured me that he did not knoho norant?” She was sneering, but he did not reht
”He would not disclose her name to me He confessed her to be a dear friend of his”
She startled hih was not pleasant
”A very dear friend, you may be sure, you simpleton What nanation to answer her question caliven e in which I was born But I have no claim to it In fact I have no name, unless it be Scaramouche, to which I have earned a title So that you see, my dear,” he ended with a smile, ”I have practised no deception whatever”