Paul and His Dog Volume Ii Part 47

"Take care, monsieur! I am married now!"

"You are married! Who, then, is the unhappy wretch who has given you his name? an idiot or a knave--it must be one or the other!"

Thelenie bit savagely at the head of her crop, but she tried in vain to recover her usual self-possession.

"Come, madame," continued Paul, "tell me why you came here. Tell me at once and let us hasten to put an end to an interview which, I trust, will never be repeated."

"Monsieur, I came--your infernal dog is the cause of my coming. If he hadn't thrown himself at me--at my horse--not long ago, to defend a little boy who was throwing stones at me, I shouldn't have tried to find out to whom he belonged."

"Doubtless Ami recognized you, madame; he has a better memory than you; he always recognizes my friends, and my enemies as well."

"What! is this that great gaunt creature that you used to have? He has grown so big and strong! I confess that I didn't recognize him; I thought at first that he belonged to a lady who foolishly took sides with the little good-for-nothing."

"So you are Madame de Belleville, are you?" cried Paul, to whom Honorine had described her adventure with the handsome equestrian.

"To be sure! does that surprise you?"

"Nothing could astonish me on your part."

"Yes, monsieur, I have married Monsieur de Belleville, a very worthy man, a young man--in good society. I have nearly forty thousand francs a year, I have my own carriage, and not long ago we bought a beautiful estate in Ch.e.l.les."

"What! you were not afraid to buy a house in this neighborhood?"

"Pray, monsieur, why should I be afraid of this neighborhood? Please tell me what I have to dread here?"

"Oh! nothing! such a woman as you never feels remorse."

"Remorse! because I left you when I had ceased to love you! Ha! ha!

Really, monsieur, anyone can see that you no longer go into society, that you live like a wolf! You seem to have forgotten entirely what is a daily occurrence in society. Two people form a liaison, they adore each other for a while; but there comes a day when one of them ceases to love the other, and then----"

"And then, madame, that one says so frankly, and does not continue to feign love for the man she is deceiving."

"Mon Dieu! messieurs, if we were always perfectly frank with you, you would cut a sorry figure too often! I believe that most men would rather be deceived than know what there is in the bottom of our hearts; and they are wise! for they would make such painful discoveries!"

"A truce to your jests, madame! If you had done nothing more than deceive me, than feign a love which you no longer felt, when no sacrifice was too great for me to give you pleasure, when I balked at nothing to prove my love for you, I should have no reproaches for you!

Indeed, I should be very foolish to complain, for your conduct would have differed in no respect from that of those women who pride themselves on paying for every benefaction by an infidelity.--Don't be alarmed; that was not my reason for becoming a hermit!--But you were more than unfaithful to me--you were cowardly, inhuman. In order to conceal from me the ident.i.ty of your real lover, you had the cunning to make me suspect, accuse, insult a young man who was not thinking of you, but whom, by some fatality, or rather by means of some perfidious scheme prepared beforehand, I found alone with you when I was seeking your lover. When you heard me, in my blind jealousy, accuse and challenge Comte Adhemar de Hautmont, you could with a word have put an end to my error. You had only to say to me: 'It is not this gentleman who is your rival, but Beauregard, your dear friend Beauregard, your intimate, inseparable friend!' Far from that, you did your utmost to make my misunderstanding complete! Nor did Comte Adhemar, when I insulted him, try to undeceive me; he had received one of those affronts which a gallant man does not forgive; he demanded prompt, immediate satisfaction, and I, for my part, wanted nothing better than to fight.

You saw us go out together, without seconds, without attendants, from that fatal house at Couberon, where I found the count with you. You saw us both, frantic with rage, armed with pistols; you knew that we were going to fight, and you did not try to prevent that fatal duel; yes, fatal, in very truth, for I was unfortunate enough to be the victor. The ill-fated Adhemar, mortally wounded, told me the whole truth.

"He had received an urgent invitation from you to come to your country house at Couberon; but it had never occurred to him to make love to you, for he loved another woman, he had a child, a daughter whom he adored; his death was certain to drive to despair a young woman to whom he expected soon to be married! Those two beloved beings had no one but him to depend upon; he was on the point of naming them to me, of telling me his last wishes, when death closed his lips; and he left no paper, no sign to enable me to discover those unfortunate creatures whose lives I had wrecked! Thanks to you, to your atrocious treachery, I had killed a young man who had done me no wrong; and with the same shot I deprived a child of its father, a mother of her husband!--That, madame, that is what I have never forgiven myself: that I became a criminal for you--for a Thelenie!"

"Monsieur!"

"Hush, wretched creature! and since you have had the audacity to return to this neighborhood to live, go to a spot close by, in the ravine near the Noisy road; it was there that Adhemar and I fought on leaving your house. It was there that the unfortunate man fell, dying, at my feet.

Poor fellow! with his last breath he forgave me; he gave me his hand; but those two poor creatures whom he loved so dearly, and with whom he begged me to replace him--that woman and that child; he was on the point of telling me their names, and where I could find them; but he could not! To no purpose did I resort to the most minute and painful search; I discovered nothing; I could never learn the whereabouts of those two, to whom I would gladly have offered my whole fortune, in compensation for the injury I had done them.

"Then I was overwhelmed with shame; I conceived a horror of that society, where, under the mask of love and friends.h.i.+p, I had found nothing but falseness and perfidy. But I wished to be able to weep over my victim's grave, to be where I could go every day to beg his forgiveness for that terrible mistake which has left me a prey to everlasting remorse. That is why I bought this estate. I returned to this part of the country, not to cut a dash and give great parties, but to be near the unfortunate Adhemar's grave."

Thelenie listened to these last words without wincing, without the least trace of emotion. Her contracted eyebrows and the disdainful expression of her mouth alone disclosed the secret wrath which agitated her heart.

But when his master ceased to speak, Ami stepped nearer to the visitor and showed his teeth.

"My dog recognized you," continued Paul; "he is able to distinguish unerringly between my friends and my enemies; he was always hostile to you, and I might have learned from him your real sentiments toward me.

He is just the same to-day to you. Dogs do not change; they set a useful example to men; and that is the reason, I presume, why the latter beat them so often; they are humiliated to find in a beast virtues which they do not possess.--Now, madame, I fancy that you have nothing more to say to me, and I am glad to believe that you have no further business here."

With that, Paul turned his back on Thelenie and walked away, motioning to his dog to follow him, which he did not do until he had walked around the amazon several times, growling most significantly.

Thelenie was furious; her pride was irritated by Monsieur Duronceray's outspoken contempt. She had been so long accustomed to be flattered and adulated, that she longed to crush the man who had treated her so disdainfully.

Finding that she was alone in the courtyard, for Mere Lucas had retired long before, the magnificent creature struck with her crop everything within her reach; but her wrath expended itself on a few boxes of flowers and empty pots.

At last she left the place, returned to her horse which was tied to the gate, sprang to the saddle, gave him the rein and galloped away along the first road that she spied. That road was broad and smooth at first, but soon narrowed and became stony. On both sides rose hills in which the road was boxed, as it were; on these hills were trees whose shade imparted a gloomier and more melancholy aspect to the road.

"What a horrible path I chose!" said Thelenie to herself, with an indefinable feeling of alarm. "No one seems to be pa.s.sing; I have lost my way; I certainly did not come this way. Come, Brillant! let us make haste to get out of here.--Well! what's the matter with the beast? he won't go forward a step! What are you afraid of, coward? Oh! I tell you that you've got to go on."

As she spoke, she dealt the horse a violent blow on the side with her crop. But he, instead of going forward, jumped like a sheep, then s.h.i.+ed so violently that, an excellent rider though she was, Thelenie lost her balance, fell backward and rolled on the ground at the foot of a cross standing by the roadside. It was that cross that had frightened her horse.

Although slightly bruised by her fall, Thelenie rose and looked about her, and her eyes fell on the wooden cross on its little mound of earth.

She realized that she had fallen on a grave, and after examining the place more carefully, she faltered:

"Mon Dieu! this solitary path, this ravine--this is where they fought, and beneath this cross lies the body of Comte Adhemar! What fatality brought me here? If he had seen me, he would say that it was Providence!"

Summoning all her strength, Thelenie hurried away from the scene of her fall. Her horse was waiting for her some thirty yards away. She mounted again, much less proudly than before; the accident which had happened to her had calmed her rage very sensibly.

XVIII

THE BEGINNING OF A FeTE

As she approached the village, Thelenie's terror rapidly vanished and her schemes of vengeance acquired new force in her mind.

"How that man treated me!" she thought; "how contemptuously he drove me from his presence! Ah! if I ever have an opportunity to show him how I hate him, I will not let it slip.--Shall I mention this meeting to Croque? No! He would be afraid of dog and master alike, and would be quite capable of flying the country on the instant; I must, on the contrary, conceal from him the fact that Duronceray lives in the neighborhood."

Many people from Paris, who had been invited for the whole day, had already arrived at Goldfish Villa. Mademoiselle Helose was of the number, as well as several others of Thelenie's old friends, before whom she was very glad to parade her new splendor.

Chamoureau, who was unacquainted with most of his wife's guests, was greatly embarra.s.sed in doing the honors of his house to so many people, and was impatiently awaiting Thelenie's return.

At last the majestic equestrian appeared and her husband ran to meet her, crying:

"Hurry, hurry, my dear love! More than twenty people have come already, and I don't know any of them, except Mademoiselle Helose, whom I know a little. I have no idea how to entertain so many people."

"Why, monsieur, you must tell everyone to do what he pleases; no sort of restraint; that's how people amuse themselves in the country. Isn't the baron here, to help you to do the honors?"

"Monsieur de Schtapelmerg is playing, madame; he's an indefatigable gambler, you know. Whenever he can get hold of anybody to play with him, he goes at it. At this moment he is at a game of billiards with Monsieur Luminot, who has just arrived; and the baron is making some magnificent shots."

"I hope, monsieur, that you won't both drink too much to-day as you did yesterday; I understand that the baron fell into a mud-hole."