Volume VI Part 47 (1/2)

When they arrived Madame Walter was alone in the little Louis XVI

boudoir she had adopted for the reception of personal friends Dressed in black, she had powdered her hair, which rendered her char She had the air at a distance of an old wo one, and when one looked at her well, of a pretty snare for the eyes

”You are in ?” inquired Madeleine

She replied, sadly: ”Yes, and no I have not lost any relative But I have reached the age when one wears the urate it In future I shall wear it in ood?”

The dinner was somewhat dull Susan alone chattered incessantly Rose seeratulated During the evening they strolled chatting through the saloons and the conservatory

As Du Roy alking in the rear with Madame Walter, she checked him by the arm

”Listen,” said she, in a low voice, ”I will never speak to you of anything again, never But coe It is impossible for me to live without you, impossible It is indescribable torture I feel you, I cherish you before ht

It is as though you had causedme aithin I cannot bear it, no, I cannot bear it I a but an old woman for you I have made my hair white to show you so, but come here, only come here from time to time as a friend”

She had taken his hand and was squeezing it, crushi+ng it, burying her nails in his flesh

He answered, quietly: ”It is understood, then It is useless to speak of all that again You see I ca your letter”

Walter, who had walked on in advance with his two daughters and Madeleine, aiting for Du Roy beside the picture of ”Jesus Walking on the Waters”

”Fancy,” said he, laughing, ”I found my wife yesterday on her knees before this picture, as if in a chapel She was paying her devotions

How I did laugh”

Mada with secret exultation: ”It is that Christ ill save e every ti in front of the Divinity standing amidst the waters, she murmured: ”How handsome he is How afraid of Him those men are, and yet how they love Him Look at His head, His eyes--how simple yet how supernatural at the same time”

Susan exclaimed, ”But He resembles you, Pretty-boy I am sure He resembles you If you had a beard, or if He was clean shaven, you would be both alike Oh, but it is striking!”

She insisted on his standing beside the picture, and they all, indeed, recognized that the two faces reseht it very singular Madeleine, s, declared that Jesus had afixedly at the face of her lover beside the face of Christ, and had beco the remainder of the winter the Du Roys often visited the Walters George even dined there by hi she was tired, and preferring to remain at home He had adopted Friday as a fixed day, and Madaed to Pretty-boy, to hioldfish, a themselves like a family circle Several times behind a door or a clump of shrubs in the conservatory, Madae in her arth to her breast, had whispered in his ear, ”I love you, I love you till it is killing , in a dry tone: ”If you begin that business once again, I shall not coe of the two sisters was all at once spoken about Rose, it was said, was to marry the Count de Latour-Yvelin, and Susan the Marquis de Cazolles These two gentlemen had become familiars of the household, those faranted George and Susan continued to live in a species of free and fraternal intireatly to enjoy one another's coe of the young girl, nor of the suitors who offered thee ho Madame Walter was called away immediately after the repast to see one of the tradeso and feed the goldfish”

They each took a piece of crumb of bread fro the round, so that one could kneel down round the basin, so as to be nearer the fish They each took one of these, side by side, and bending over the water, began to throw in pellets of bread rolled between the fingers The fish, as soon as they caught sight of the their fins, rolling their great projecting eyes, turning round, diving to catch the bait as it sank, and co up at once to ask for more They had a funny action of the ely ainst the sand of the bottoh the transparent water, or showing, as soon as they halted, the blue edging to their scales George and Susan saw their own faces looking up in the water, and smiled at them All at once he said in a low voice: ”It is not kind to hide things from me, Susan”

”What do you mean, Pretty-boy?” asked she

”Don't you re of the fete?”

”No”

”To consult me every time your hand was asked for”