Part 50 (1/2)
Malicorne had already stretched out one of his legs towards the top of the wall, when Manicamp said, in a whisper, ”Hush!+”
”What's the matter?” inquired Montalais
”I hear footsteps”
”Good heavens!”
In fact the fancied footsteps soon becanan appeared, with a smile on his lips, and his hand stretched out towards the every one by surprise; that is to say, Malicorne upon the tree with his head stretched out, Montalais upon the round of the ladder and clinging to it tightly, and Manicaround with his foot advanced ready to set off ”Good-evening, Manicalad to see you, ood many inquiries have been made about you Mademoiselle de Montalais, your most obedient servant”
Montalais blushed ”Good heavens!” she exclai her face in both her hands
”Pray reassure yourself; I kno perfectly innocent you are, and I shall give a good account of you Manicae, the cross-paths, and labyrinth, I am well acquainted with theical name is found at last”
”Perfectly true, comte”
”And take M Malicorne aith you at the same time,” said Montalais
”No, indeed,” said Malicorne; ”M Manica as he liked, and now it is s to tell you about our future prospects”
”You hear,” said the co; ”stay with hiht for secrets” And, taking Manicamp's arm, the comte led him rapidly away in the direction of the road Montalais kneell, and indicated so badly Montalais followed the as she could perceive them
Chapter L: How Malicorne Had Been Turned Out of the Hotel of the Beau Paon
While Montalais was engaged in looking after the coirl's attention being draay to render his position somewhat more tolerable, and when she turned round, she ie which had taken place; for he had seated hie of the wild vine and honeysuckle curled around his head like a faun, while the twisted ivy branches represented tolerably enough his cloven feet Montalais required nothing to make her resemblance to a dryad as co another round of the ladder, ”are you resolved to render h, tyrant that you are?”
”I a tyrant?” said Malicorne
”Yes, you are always co me, Monsieur Malicorne; you are a perfect monster of wickedness”
”I?”
”What have you to do with Fontainebleau? Is not Orleans your place of residence?”
”Do you ask reat need of that”
”Not as far as concerns yourself, perhaps, but as far as I am concerned, Mademoiselle Montalais, you know very well that I have left my home, and that, for the future, I have no other place of residence than that which youat Fontainebleau at the present ed her shoulders ”You wished to see me, did you not?” she said
”Of course”
”Very well, you have seen o away”
”Oh, no,” said Malicorne; ”I came to talk with you as well as to see you”
”Very well, ill talk by and by, and in another place than this”
”By and by! Heaven only knows if I shall meet you by and by in another place We shall never find a more favorable one than this”
”But I cannot this evening, nor at the present s have happened to-night”
”Well, then, my affair will make a thousand and one”
”No, no; Made for reatest i?”
”For an hour at least”
”In that case,” said Malicorne, tranquilly, ”she can wait a few er”
”Monsieur Malicorne,” said Montalais, ”you are forgetting yourself”
”You should rather say that it is you who are forgettingimpatient at the part you makeabout aned to noticeabout here for a week, M Malicorne?”
”Like a wolf; soed two of s; at others, I have been co daued to death, with the view of a wall always beforeto scale it perhaps Upon my word, this is not the sort of life for any one to lead who is neither a squirrel, a salamander, nor an otter; and since you drive your inhumanity so far as to wish to make me renounce my condition as a man, I declare it openly A man I am, indeed, and a man I will remain, unless by superior orders”
”Well, then, tell me, what do you wish,-what do you require,-what do you insist upon?” said Montalais, in a submissive tone
”Do you mean to tell me that you did not knoas at Fontainebleau?”
”I?”
”Nay, be frank”
”I suspected so”
”Well, then, could you not have contrived during the last week to have seen me once a day, at least?”
”I have always been prevented, M Malicorne”
”Fiddlesticks!”
”Ask my companion, if you do not believe me”