Part 65 (1/2)
”We should take you with us,” saidme permits for three persons--Aline, myself, and my footman, Jacques You would take the place of Jacques”
”Faith, to get out of Paris, madahed
Their spirits rose with his and their flagging hopes revived But as dusk descended again upon the city, without any sign of the deliverer they awaited, those hopes began to ebb once more
M de La Tour d'Azyr at last pleaded weariness, and begged to be perht endeavour to take soht have to be faced in the io and lie down
”I will call you,that pretence of a confidence that had by now entirely evaporated
Aline kissed her affectionately, and departed, outwardly so cal whether she realized the peril by which they were surrounded, a peril infinitely increased by the presence in that house of a man so widely known and detested as M de La Tour d'Azyr, a ht for by his enemies at this moment
Left alone, madame lay down on a couch in the salon itself, to be ready for any elass doors opening upon the luxuriant garden stood wide to admit the air On that air ca horrible activities of the populace, the afterastel lay there, listening to those sounds for upwards of an hour, thanking Heaven that for the present at least the disturbances were distant, dreading lest at any moment they should occur nearer at hand, lest this Bondy section in which her hotel was situated should become the scene of horrors similar to those whose echoes reached her ears from other sections away to the south and west
The couch occupied by the Countess lay in shadow; for all the lights in that long salon had been extinguished with the exception of a cluster of candles in a massive silver candle branch placed on a round ht in the surrounding gloom
The timepiece on the over in the suddenness hich it broke the ih the house, and broughtof hope and dread So sharply on the door below Followedin the abrupt invasion of the roo his mistress at first
”Madame! Madame!” he panted, out of breath
”What is it, Jacques!” Her voice was steady now that the need for self-control seemed thrust upon her She advanced froht about the table ”There is ato see you at once”
”A man?” she questioned
”He he seems to be an official; at least he wears the sash of office
And he refuses to give any na to you He insists that he must see you in person and at once”
”An official?” said madame
”An official,” Jacques repeated ”I would not have admitted him, but that he demanded it in the name of the Nation Madame, it is for you to say what shall be done Robert is with ood Jacques, no, no” She was perfectly composed ”If this man intended evil, surely he would not co Mlle de Kercadiou to join me if she is awake”
Jacques departed, himself partly reassured Madame seated herself in the arht She smoothed her dress with a mechanical hand If, as it would seem, her hopes had been futile, so had her momentary fears A ht so with hiain, and Jacques reappeared; after hiht man in a wide-brimmed hat, adorned by a tricolour cockade About the waist of an olive-green riding-coat he wore a broad tricolour sash; a sword hung at his side
He swept off his hat, and the candlelight glinted on the steel buckle in front of it Madae, dark eyes set in a lean, brown face, eyes that were
She leaned forward, incredulity swept across her countenance Then her eyes kindled, and the colour ca back into her pale cheeks