The Bashful Lover Part 65

"Yes, monsieur."

"You see that I am well informed, mademoiselle, that I did not deceive you when I said that I was the marquis's friend."

"Oh, yes! I see that, monsieur."

During this dialogue, Poterne sauntered up to Darena and whispered:

"There's a chance to make a turn here."

Darena retorted with a blow of his elbow in the ribs, muttering:

"So I see, you fool!"

Then, turning to Louise, he continued:

"Mademoiselle, if you do not wish to call at my friend Cherubin's, it does not seem to me fitting that you should remain in the street. In Paris, you see, there are certain proprieties that one must always observe. Young and pretty as you are, you must not expose yourself to the risk of being insulted by some scoundrel. Take my arm; you are my friend's foster-sister, his playmate, and I naturally declare myself your protector. Pray take my arm."

"Oh! how kind you are, monsieur!" replied Louise, timidly putting her arm through Darena's. "Are you really going to take the trouble to take me to Monsieur de Monfreville's?"

"I will take you wherever you choose--to the king if you have anything to say to him.--Poterne, why don't you take mademoiselle's bundle?"

"You are too kind, monsieur, but it does not trouble me."

"No matter; I will not allow my friend Cherubin's foster-sister to carry a bundle when she has my arm."

Poterne had already taken the bundle from Louise's hands; and she, confused by so much courtesy, walked on with her arm through Darena's, while Poterne followed, feeling the bundle to find out what there was in it.

As they walked along, the girl told Darena how she had left Gagny to enter Madame de Noirmont's service, and her grief because Cherubin had forgotten her; in fact, she omitted nothing save the visit Madame de Noirmont had paid to her during the night.

"And what do you propose to do at Monfreville's?" asked Darena, fixing his eyes on Louise's lovely ones.

"I am going to give him a letter which was given to me for him."

"To induce him to reconcile you and your dear friend Cherubin, no doubt?"

"Oh! no, monsieur! it's about something that he alone knows about."

Louise said no more, deeming it improper to admit a third person to the secret of what Madame de Noirmont had said to her. Darena paid little heed to that matter; he was thinking what he should do with Louise.

Suddenly he remembered the little house on the outer boulevard, which he had hired for the Polish intrigue, and which was still in his possession, as he had been obliged to take it for six months. Turning to Poterne, he said with a wink:

"Monsieur de Poterne, my friend Monfreville is still living in his _pet.i.te maison_ on the boulevards, outside the wall, is he not?"

"He is, monsieur le comte," replied Poterne innocently. "But Monsieur de Monfreville often goes away on short journeys about the neighborhood; I can't vouch for it that he is at home now."

"At all events, we will take mademoiselle there. If he is absent, we will consider what Mademoiselle Louise, my friend Cherubin's foster-sister, can do until his return. Ah! there's a cab; let us take it, for it's a long way from here to Monfreville's."

Poterne summoned a cab, and Louise entered it with her two chance acquaintances; the girl was entirely unsuspicious; she was convinced that the gentleman who had offered her his arm was a friend of Cherubin, and in her eyes that t.i.tle was enough to banish suspicion.

The cab stopped in front of the house near Barriere de la Chopinette, which had been occupied since the abortive Chichemann affair by little Bruno alone, whom they left in charge. Darena whispered a word in Poterne's ear, and that gentleman took pains to enter first. Louise remained with Darena, who wasted a long time paying the cab-driver. At last he ushered the girl into the house, the boy having received his instructions.

"We wish to speak with Monsieur de Monfreville," Darena said to Bruno.

"Here is a young lady, my intimate friend Marquis Cherubin's foster-sister, who is most anxious to see him."

Bruno eyed Louise impertinently as he replied:

"Monsieur de Monfreville's away; he'll probably come back to-morrow or next day; if anybody wants to wait for him, he told me to offer his room to any of his friends who might come to see him."

Louise was in despair; she looked at Darena and murmured:

"The gentleman is away; what shall I do?"

"In the first place, my child, you must go upstairs and rest," said Darena; "then we will see, we will consider. Come, follow me without fear; in Monfreville's house, I act as if I were at home."

Louise went upstairs with Darena, who, to dispel every shadow of fear from her mind, made a show of treating her with the greatest respect, and kept always at a considerable distance from her. She was rather surprised that the person to whom Madame de Noirmont had sent her should occupy a house of such humble appearance, and so modestly furnished; but she had not told her that he was rich, she had simply said that he could tell her who her father was, and that was why she was so eager to see him.

"My lovely maid," said Darena, after a moment, "you know no one in Paris--except Cherubin; and you do not wish to go to him to ask for shelter, I presume?"

"Oh! no, monsieur!"

"To return to Gagny and then come here again would be a waste of time; besides, if you travel alone, you expose yourself to a thousand encounters that are most annoying to a young lady. It seems to me, therefore, that the best thing for you to do, in view of your position, is to wait here until Monfreville returns."

"Here, monsieur! alone in this house, with n.o.body but the little boy I saw downstairs," replied Louise, with a shudder of dismay; "oh! I should not dare."

"Alone, my child? no, indeed. If that were the case I would not make the suggestion; but there is a concierge here, Monfreville's confidential servant, a most respectable person. That little fellow is her nephew; she probably is not far away, and he is watching the house during her absence."

"Oh! that is a very different matter! If there is a respectable woman here, and she is willing to look after me until Monsieur de Monfreville returns----"

"Wait; I will go down and see what has become of her."

Darena hurried downstairs and said to Poterne:

"You will send this little rascal away instantly and find a woman between forty and sixty years of age, who has a face that is somewhere near respectable; that will give the girl confidence, and she will stay here. I am not sorry to get rid of Monsieur Bruno anyway, after he admitted so readily those people who ruined our last affair."

"A respectable woman," said Poterne--"I don't know any such. How in the devil do you expect me to find anything of the kind at La Courtille?"

"Where you choose--nonsense--a dealer in old clothes--a fortune-teller--a charwoman--and teach her her lesson."

Darena returned to keep Louise company and told her that the concierge had gone to the central market, because there was no market in that quarter, but that she would soon return.

Meanwhile Poterne began by discharging Monsieur Bruno, who was much displeased to be turned out-of-doors, and who ventured to indulge in some far from respectful gestures as he withdrew. But Poterne did not amuse himself watching Bruno's antics; he went about to the neighboring wine-shops, and from house to house, inquiring for what he wanted. At last, after two hours search, he found it. He returned to the house with a woman of about fifty years, tall as a grenadier, with a cap on her head which certainly had not been washed for a year, and a dress the color of which was no longer distinguishable; a pimply face, blear-eyes and a nose smeared with snuff completed her portrait.

"This is Madame Ratouille, Monsieur de Monfreville's confidential servant," said Poterne, presenting his companion.

Madame Ratouille, to whom Poterne had given careful instructions, curtsied very low to Darena and greeted Louise most affably, a.s.suring her that the house was at her disposal, and that her master, Monsieur de Monfreville, would approve of her having urged the young lady to wait for him. Madame Ratouille, being extremely loquacious and anxious to play her part well, because she had been promised six francs a day and all that she wanted to eat, lost herself in a sea of words intended to prove to Louise that she would be out of reach of insult in that house.

The girl, feeling certain that Madame de Noirmont could not have sent her to any but respectable persons, thanked Madame Ratouille warmly, and consented to await Monsieur de Monfreville's return under her care.

Darena pa.s.sed some time with Louise; Poterne seized the opportunity to show the new concierge over the house, where she was supposed to have lived for a long while. He urged her not to talk too much, for fear of making some slip, and above all things not to allow anyone to have access to the girl who was placed in her charge; then he went away with Darena, who bade Louise adieu, informing her that he would come the next day to find out whether his friend Monfreville had returned, and whether she had everything that she needed.