The Flower Girl of The Chateau d'Eau Volume Ii Part 23

"Perhaps so, a little; I got wet through; I have just come from Nogent, and I was out in part of the storm."

"You must go to bed at once when you get home, and try to keep very warm."

Violette took the young messenger's arm. They crossed the bridge at Rue d'Angouleme, and soon reached Rue de Crussol. The girl stopped in front of the house where Chicotin had found rooms for Roncherolle.

"This is the place," said Violette.

"Ah! what a coincidence! this is my customer's house. Which floor do you live on?"

"Oh! way up at the top, under the eaves; I believe it's the sixth floor; but the room is very pleasant, I a.s.sure you."

"That must be right over my gouty man. Is Mere Lamort your concierge?"

"Yes, a very good-hearted woman who always wants to get my breakfast."

"Well, mamzelle, take my advice and tell her to bring you up a mulled egg to-night; that will prevent you from being sick. Good-night, mamzelle; when I go to see my old gentleman, I'll ask the concierge about you. You don't bear me any grudge, mamzelle, do you?"

"Oh! no indeed, Chicotin; on the contrary, you prevented me from committing a crime, and you have brought hope back to my heart."

"Good-night then, mamzelle; I'll go back to look after the coal."

x.x.xV

THE VICISSITUDES OF FORTUNE

Let us turn back a little and pay a visit to Madame de Grangeville, whom we left at the moment when she found herself alone with her husband, in the little wood belonging to Monsieur Glumeau.

That meeting excited the lady intensely, not with that emotion which makes the heart beat fast by recalling pleasant memories, for the baroness had always been too much of a flirt to be sentimental; but the sight of her husband had caused her anxiety, almost terror; then, turning back for a moment to the past and comparing it with her present situation, she had been unable to keep from regretting the position which she occupied when she was Comtesse de Brevanne, and the fortune which permitted her to gratify all her whims.

The five hundred francs which Monsieur de Merval had handed her, on the pretence that he owed them to her, had not lasted long in the hands of a woman who had always been a consumer of money.

When Madame de Grangeville saw at a milliner's a hat or a bonnet to her liking, she must have it, no matter at what price. As for the interior of her establishment, we have seen that she turned over the management of it to her maid Lizida; the result was that the creditors were numerous.

On the morning after the little party given by the Glumeaus, at which the baroness was present, she rang for Lizida the instant she woke.

"Did madame enjoy herself yesterday at Nogent?" asked the maid. "Madame returned at daybreak, I believe. Was there a carriage there to bring madame back to Paris?"

"Oh! my dear Lizida, I have many things to tell you. Yes, some young gentlemen brought me back in their carriage. They were very good-looking, those same young gentlemen, and dressed in the latest fas.h.i.+on. But if you knew whom I met at the party! I am still all of a quiver thinking of it!"

"Some suitor, some lover of madame, who would have liked to abduct her by force, to carry her off into the country?"

"Oh, no! you are nowhere near it!--At that party I met--my husband!"

"Is it possible?"

"Yes, Lizida, and you must understand how that upset me. Luckily it was in the woods; he was not very near me, but I recognized him instantly; he has hardly changed at all; it is surprising, but I really thought that he was better-looking than he used to be."

"And of course he recognized madame too?"

"Oh! instantly; I saw that by his expression."

"He looked at madame with affection, I warrant?"

"No, there was no affection in his eyes. He is such a proud man, so absurdly proud! Just imagine that everybody else had left, and we two were all alone in the woods."

"Did madame try to have an interview with her husband?"

"No, I did not want to. But I don't know what the matter was with me; my emotion took away all my strength, and I could not move; I was afraid."

"What folly! and monsieur your husband took advantage of that moment to fall at your knees, to ask your pardon for his base conduct----"

"Oh! yes, of course! He glanced at me askance; he was leaning against a tree, and I a.s.sure you that I didn't feel safe at all. Luckily the company, disturbed at my non-appearance in the salon, sent three or four young men to look for me; they found me in the woods, and I a.s.sure you that I was very glad to go back with them."

"And after that--your husband?"

"Oh! he didn't come into the salon, and I was delighted. I didn't see him again.--Well, Lizida, what do you say to all this?"

"Faith, madame, I say that monsieur le comte certainly is not agreeable; when he found himself alone with a charming little woman like madame, after a long separation, then or never was the time to throw himself at her feet, to be reconciled, and to come together again!"

"Yes, it is certain that many husbands would have done that."

"And madame is so kind, I am sure that she would have forgiven him."

"That is very possible; but, however, that didn't happen. All the same, I am delighted that that man saw me with the dress I wore yesterday; he could not have suspected that I am short of money."

"Madame's costume was certainly magnificent."

"Just look in my bureau, Lizida, in the top drawer, and see how much money I still have."

Mademoiselle Lizida looked into the drawer and answered:

"Madame, I find twenty francs."

"What! only twenty francs! and you changed a note for five hundred only a few days ago! It isn't possible; you haven't looked thoroughly."

"I a.s.sure you, madame, that there is no more. But if madame will remember all that she has spent, she will understand that there can hardly be any more.--In the first place, we paid the dressmaker one hundred and twenty-three francs, then the grocer ten francs, and after that fifty more, because he came and made a row."

"That is true; it is hateful to have to give so much money to those people."

"And then, madame bought that lovely hat that she wore yesterday--sixty francs, I believe."

"Yes, and that was none too much."

"And then madame bought that superb silk dress with the figured flounces--one hundred and twenty francs, I believe----"