Part 44 (2/2)
le Comte d'Artois, he had built for hihts of Meudon in a miniature park, conveniently situated for him midway between Versailles and Paris, and easily accessible frost the very first to enacs, and others of the Queen's intilie and the Prince de Lambesc, who realized that their very names had become odious to the people, he had quitted France ione to play tennis beyond the frontier--and there consu the French ed in France With hist several members of his household went Etienne de Kercadiou, and with Etienne de Kercadiou went his family, a wife and four children
Thus it was that the Seigneur de Gavrillac, glad to escape from a province so peculiarly disturbed as that of Brittany--where the nobles had shown theent of all France--had come to occupy in his brother's absence the courtier's handsome villa at Meudon
That he was quite happy there is not to be supposed A man of his almost Spartan habits, accustomed to plain fare and self-help, was a little uneasy in this sybaritic abode, with its soft carpets, profusion of gilding, and battalion of sleek, silent-footed servants--for Kercadiou the younger had left his entire household behind Tirarian concerns, here hung heavily upon his hands In self-defence he slept a great deal, and but for Aline, who ht at this proxis, it is possible that he would have beat a retreat als that sorted so ill with his habits Later on, perhaps, he would accustoned to this luxurious inactivity In the meantime the novelty of it fretted him, and it was into the presence of a peevish and rather somnolent M de Kercadiou that Andre-Louis was ushered in the early hours of the afternoon of that Sunday in June He was unannounced, as had ever been the custom at Gavrillac This because Benoit, M de Kercadiou's old seneschal, had acconeur upon this soft adventure, and was installed--to the ceaseless and but half-concealed hilarity of the impertinent valetaille that M Etienne had left--as his maitre d'hotel here at Meudon
Benoit had welcoa him to the salon and the presence of the Lord of Gavrillac, ould--in the words of Benoit--be ravished to see M Andre again
”Monseigneur! Monseigneur!” he cried in a quavering voice, entering a pace or two in advance of the visitor ”It is M Andre M Andre, your Godson, who comes to kiss your hand He is here and so fine that you would hardly know hineur! Is he not beautiful?”
And the old servant rubbed his hands in conviction of the delight that he believed he was conveying to his reat roo to the eye It was i was carried on fluted pillars with gilded capitals The door by which he entered, and the s that opened upon the garden, were of an enorht of the rooilded, with an abundance of ormolu encrustations on the furniture, in which it nowise differed fros of people of birth and wealth Never, indeed, was there a tiold was eold was almost unprocurable, and paper money had been put into circulation to supply the lack It was a saying of Andre-Louis' that if these people could only have been induced to put the paper on their walls and the gold into their pockets, the finances of the kingdoneur--furbished and beruffled to hars--had risen, startled by this exuberant invasion on the part of Benoit, who had been al to Meudon
”What is it? Eh?” His pale, short-sighted eyes peered at the visitor
”Andre!” said he, between surprise and sternness; and the colour deepened in his great pink face
Benoit, with his back to his rinned at Andre-Louis to encourage him not to be put off by any apparent hostility on the part of his Godfather That done, the intelligent old fellow discreetly effaced hirowled M de Kercadiou
”No more than to kiss your hand, as Benoit has told you, monsieurhis sleek black head
”You have contrived without kissing it for two years”
”Do not, monsieur, reproach me with my misfortune”
The little e head thrown back, his pale prominent eyes very stern
”Did you think toin that heartless e of whether you were alive or dead?”
”At first it was dangerous--dangerous to my life--to disclose my whereabouts Then for a time I was in need, almost destitute, and my pride forbade me, after what I had done and the view you must take of it, to appeal to you for help Later”
”Destitute?” The Seigneur interrupted For a moment his lip trembled
Then he steadied hied and elegant Godson of his, noted the quiet richness of his apparel, the paste buckles and red heels to his shoes, the sword hilted in mother-o'-pearl and silver, and the carefully dressed hair that he had always seen hanging in wisps about his face ”At least you do not look destitute now,” he sneered
”I am not I have prospered since In that, al, who returns only when he needs assistance I return solely because I love you, monsieur--to tell you so I have co of your presence here” He advanced
”Monsieur my Godfather!” he said, and held out his hand
But M de Kercadiou renity and resentment
”Whatever tribulations you may have suffered or consider that you raceful conduct deserved, and I observe that they have nothing abated your impudence You think that you have but to co is to be forgiven and forgotten That is your error You have coainst everything by which I hold, and against myself personally, by your betrayal of my trust in you You are one of those unspeakable scoundrels who are responsible for this revolution”
”Alas, monsieur, I see that you share the common delusion These unspeakable scoundrels but demanded a constitution, as was promised them from the throne They were not to know that the promise was insincere, or that its fulfiled orders The men who have precipitated this revolution, monsieur, are the nobles and the prelates”
”You dare--and at such a time as this--stand there and tell me such abominable lies! You dare to say that the nobles havethe exaes, even their title-deeds, into the lap of the people! Or perhaps you deny it?”
”Oh, no Having wantonly set fire to their house, they now try to put it out by throater on it; and where they fail they put the entire blame on the flames”