His Excellency the Minister Part 48

"Time pa.s.ses so quickly, and yet one has a desire to spur it on."

Now in the solitude of her house she felt weary. She could neither read nor think, and became feverish. She regretted that she had written to Vaudrey. She wished to go to the theatre. A new operetta would be a diversion, and why should she not go? She had the ticket for her box.

She could at once inform Vaudrey that her headache had vanished.

"And then he bores me!--Especially now."

Matters, however, must not be abruptly changed. Suppose Rosas should take a sudden fancy to fly off again! Besides, she had mutual interests with the minister, there was an account to be settled.

"The Gochard paper?--Bah! he will pay it. More-ever, I am not involved in that."

Suddenly she thought that she would act foolishly if she did not go where she pleased. Sulpice might think what he pleased. She got her maid to dress her hair.

"Madame is going to the theatre?"

"Yes, Justine. To the Renaissance!"

She was greatly amused at the theatre, and was radiant with pleasure.

She was the object of many glances, and felt delighted at being alone.

One of the characters in the operetta was a d.u.c.h.ess whose adventures afforded the audience much diversion. She abandoned herself to her dreams, her thoughts wandering far from the theatre, the footlights and the actors, to the distant orange groves yonder.

During an entr'acte some one knocked at the door of her box. She turned around in surprise. It was Jouvenet, the Prefect of Police, who came to greet her in a very gallant fas.h.i.+on. The prefect--he had gained at the palais in former days, the t.i.tle of _L'Avocat Pathelin_,--with insinuating and wheedling manners, hastened to pay his meed of respect to Marianne when he met her. There was no necessity to stand on ceremony with him. He knew all her secrets. Such a man, more-ever, must be treated prudently, as he can make himself useful. Never had Jouvenet spoken to her of Vaudrey, he was too politic in matters of state. But as a man who knows that everything in this world is transient, he skilfully maintained his place in the ranks, considering that a Prefect of Police might not be at all unlikely to succeed a President of the Council.

Marianne permitted him to talk, accepted all his gallantries as she might have done bonbons, and with a woman's wit kept him at a distance without wounding his vanity.

Jouvenet with the simple purpose of showing her that he was well-informed, asked her, stroking his whiskers as he did so, if she often saw the Duc de Rosas. What a charming man the duke was! And while the young woman watched him as if to guess his thoughts, he smiled at her.

The prefect, not wis.h.i.+ng to appear too persistent, changed the conversation with the remark:

"Ah! there is one of our old friends ogling you!"

"An old friend?"

It was in fact Guy de Lissac who was standing at the balcony training his gla.s.s upon the box.

Marianne had only very occasionally met Lissac, but for some time she had suspected him of being secretly hostile to her. Guy bore her a grudge for having taken Sulpice away from Adrienne. He pitied Madame Vaudrey and perhaps his deep compa.s.sion was blended with another sentiment in which tenderness had taken the place of a more modified interest. He was irritated against the blind husband because he could not see the perfect charms of that delicate soul, so timid and at the same time so devoted. Although he had not felt justified in showing his annoyance to Vaudrey, he had manifested his dislike to Marianne under cover of his jesting manner, and she had been exceedingly piqued thereby. Wherefore did this man who could not understand her, interfere, and why did he add to the injuries of old the mockery of to-day?

"After all, perhaps it is through jealousy," she thought. "The dolt!"

Guy did not cease to look at her through his gla.s.s.

"Does that displease you?" Jouvenet asked.

"Not at all. What is that to me?"

"This Lissac was much in love with you!"

"Ah! Monsieur le Prefet!" Marianne observed sharply. "I know that your office inclines you to be somewhat inquisitive, but it would be polite of you to allow my past to sleep in your dockets. They are famous shrouds!"

Jouvenet bit his lips and in turn brought his gla.s.s to bear on Lissac.

"See," he said, "he makes a great deal of the cross of the Christ of Portugal! It is in very bad taste! I thought he was a shrewder man!"

"The order of Christ is then in bad odor?"

"On the contrary; but as it is like the Legion of Honor in color, he is prohibited from wearing it in his b.u.t.tonhole without displaying the small gold cross--And I see only the red there--"

"I beg your pardon, Monsieur le Prefet, there is one."

"Oh! my gla.s.s is a wretched one!--But even so, I do not believe Monsieur de Lissac is authorized by the Grand Chancellor to wear his decoration.

That is easily ascertained!--I will nevertheless not fail to insert in the _Officiel_ to-morrow a note relative to the illegality of wearing certain foreign decorations--"

"Is this note directed against Lissac?"

"Not at all. But he reminds me of a step that I have wished to take for a long time: the enforcement of the law."

The entr'acte was over. Jouvenet withdrew, repeating all kinds of remarks with double meanings that veiled declarations of love; that if the occasion arose, he would place himself entirely at her service, and that some day she might be very glad to meet him--

"I thank you, Monsieur le Prefet, and I will avail myself of your kindness," replied Marianne, out of courtesy.

Something suggested to her that Guy would pay his respects to her during the next entr'acte, were it only to jest about Jouvenet's visit, seeing that he was regarded as a compromising acquaintance, and she was not wrong.

Behind his monocle, his keen, mocking glance seemed like a taunting smile.

"Well," he said, in a somewhat abrupt tone, as he sat near Marianne, "I congratulate you, my dear friend."

"Why?" she answered with surprise.

"On the great news, _parbleu!_ Your marriage."

She turned slightly pale.

"How do you know?--"

"I have seen the duke. He called on me."

"On you? What for?"

"Can't you make a little guess--a very little guess--"

"To ask you if I had been your mistress? Lissac, you are very silly."

"Yes, my dear Marianne, prepare yourself somewhat for the position of a d.u.c.h.ess. A gentleman, to whom you have sworn that I have never been your lover, could not doubt your word!--Jose asked me nothing. He simply stated his determination to see what I would say, or gather from my looks what I thought of it."

"And you said?"

"What I had to say to him: I congratulated him!"

Marianne raised her gray eyes to Lissac's face.