Memoirs of a Physician (7 page)

Andre cast down her eyes, and Philip, taking her hand, said :

46 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

” Our father is right, Andre, you are everything he described. None can be more worthy to enter Versailles than you.”

” But I shall be separated from you,” replied Andre.

” By no means, by no means,” interrupted the baron ; ” Versailles is large, my dear.”

” Yes, but Trianon is little,” replied Andre, haughty and rather unmanageable when she was opposed.

” Trianon will always be large enough to provide a chamber for Monsieur de Taverney. A man such as I am always finds room,” added he, with a modesty which meant always knows how to make room for himself.

Andre, not much comforted by this promised proximity of her father, turned to Philip.

“My sister,” said the latter, “you will certainly not belong to what is called the court. Instead of placing you in a convent and paying your dowry, the dauphiness, who wishes to distinguish you, will keep you near herself in some employment. Etiquette is not so rigid now as in the time of Louis XIV. Offices are more easily fused together and separated. You can occupy the post of reader or companion to the clanphiness ; she will draw with yon, she will always keep you near her ; probably you will never appear in public, but you will enjoy her immediate protection, and consequently, will inspire envy. That is what you fear, is it not ? “

” Yes, my brother.”

” However,” said the baron, ” we shall not grieve for such a trifle as one or two envious persons. Get better quickly, therefore, Andre, and I shall have the pleasure of taking you to Trianon myself ; it is the dauphiness’s commands.”

“Very well, father, I shall go.”

” Apropos, Philip, have you any money ? ” asked the baron.

” If you want some, sir,” replied the young man, ” I have not enough to offer you ; if yon wish to give me some, I shall answer you, on the contrary, that I have enough for myself.”

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” True ; you are a philosopher,” said the baron, laughing sarcastically. ” Are you a philosopher, also, Andre, who has nothing to ask from me, or is there anything you wish for ? “

” I am afraid of embarrassing you, father.”

” Oh, we are not at Taverney now. The king has sent me five hundred louis-d’ors ; on account, his majesty said. Think of your wardrobe, Andre.”

” Thank you, my dear father,” said the young girl, joyously.

” There, there ‘ said the baron, ” see the extremes ; only a minute ago she wanted nothing, now she would ruin the Emperor of China. But no matter, ask ; fine dresses will become you well, Andre.”

Then, giving her a very affectionate kiss, the baron opened the door of an apartment which separated his own from his daughter’s chamber, and left the room, saying :

“That cursed Nicole is not here to show me light.”

” Shall I ring for her, father ? “

” No ; I have La Brie, who is sleeping in some armchair or other. Good night, my children.”

Philip now rose in his turn.

“Goodnight, brother,” said Andre. “I am dreadfully tired. It is the first time I have spoken so much since my accident. Good night, dear Philip.”

And she gave her hand to the young man, who kissed it with brotherly affection, but at the same time with a sort of respect with which his sister always inspired him, and retired, touching, as he passed, the door behind which Gilbert was concealed.

“Shall I call Nicole ?” asked he, as he left the room.

“No, no,” said Andre j ” I can undress alone j adieu, Philip.”

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CHAPTER VII.

WHAT GILBERT HAD FORESEEN”.

WHEN Andre was alone, she rose from the chair, and a shudder passed through Gilbert’s frame.

The young girl stood upright, and with her hands, white as alabaster, she took the hair-pins one by one from her headdress, while the light shawl in which she was wrapped slipped from her shoulders, and showed her snowy graceful neck, and her arms, which, raised carelessly above her head, displayed to advantage the muscles of her exquisite throat and bosom, palpitating under the cambric.

Gilbert, on his knees, breathless, intoxicated, felt the blood rush furiously to his heart and forehead. Fiery waves circulated in his veins, a cloud of flame descended over his sight, and strange, feverish noises boiled in his ears. His state of mind bordered on madness. He was on the point of crossing the threshold of Andre’s door, and cr-ying :

“Yes, thou art beautiful, thou art indeed beautiful. But be not so proud of thy beauty, for thou owest it to me I saved thy life ! “

All at once, a knot in her waist-band embarrassed the young girl ; she became impatient, stamped with her foot, and sat down, weak and trembling, on her bed, as if this slight obstacle had overcome her strength. Then, bending toward the cord of the bell, she pulled it impatiently.

This noise recalled Gilbert to his senses. Nicole had left the door open to hear, therefore she would come.

” Farewell, my dream ! ” murmured he. ” Farewell, happiness ! henceforth only a baseless vision henceforth only a remembrance, ever burning in my imagination, ever present to my heart ! “

Gilbert endeavored to rush from the pavilion, but the baron, on entering, had closed the doors of the corridor

MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 4Q

after him. Not calculating on this interruption, he was some moments before he could open them.

Just as he entered Nicole’s apartment, Nicole reached the pavilion. The young man heard the gravel of the garden walk grinding under her steps. He had only time to conceal himself in the shade, in order to let the young girl pass him ; for, after crossing the antechamber, the door of which she locked, she flew along the corridor as light as a bird.

Gilbert gained the antechamber and attempted to es-cape into the garden, but Nicole, while running on and crying, ” I am coming, mademoiselle ! I am coming ! I am just closing the door ! ” had closed it indeed, and not only closed it and double-locked it, but in her confusion had put the key into her pocket.

Gilbert tried in vain to open the door. Then he had recourse to the windows, but they were barred, and after five minutes’ investigation, he saw that it was impossible to escape.

The young man crouched into a corner, fortifying himself with the firm resolve to make Nicole open the door for Mm.

As for the latter, when she had given the plausible ex-cuse for her absence, that she had gone to close the windows of the greenhouse lest the night air might injure her young lady’s flowers, she finished undressing Andre, and assisted her to bed.

There was atremulousnessin Nicole’s voice, an unsteadiness in her hands, and an eagerness in all her attentions, which were very unusual, and indicated some extraordinary emotion. But from the calm and lofty sphere in which Andre’s thoughts revolved, she rarely looked down upon the lower earth, and when she did so, the inferior beings whom she saw seemed like atoms in her eyes. She, therefore, perceived nothing. Meanwhile, Gilbert was boiling with impatience, since he found the retreat thus cut off. He now longed only for liberty.

Andre dismissed Nicole after a short chat, in which the latter exhibited all the wheedling manner of a remorseful waiting-maid.

3 DUMAS VOL. VII.

50 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

Before retiring, she turned back her mistress’s coverlet, lowered the lamp, sweetened the warm drink which was standing in a silver goblet upon an alabaster night-lamp, wished her mistress good night in her sweetest voice, and left the room on tiptoe. As she came out she closed the glass door. Then, humming gaily as if her mind was perfectly tranquil, she crossed the antechamber and advanced toward the door leading into the garden.

Gilbert guessed Nicole’s intention, and for a moment he asked himself if he should not, in place of making himself known, slip out suddenly, taking advantage of the opportunity to escape when the door should be opened. But in that case he would be seen without being recognized, and he would be taken for a robber. Nicole would cry for help, he would not have time to reach the cord, and even if he should reach it he would be seen in his aerial flight, his retreat discovered, and himself made the object of the Taverneys’ displeasure, which could not fail to be deep and lasting, considering the feeling toward him by the head of the family.

True, he might expose Nicole, and procure her dismissal ; but of what use would that be to him ? He would, in that case, nave done evil without reaping any corresponding advantage ; in short, from pure revenge ; and Gilbert was not so feeble-minded as to feel satisfied when he was revenged. Useless revenge was to him worse than a bad action, it was folly.

As Nicole approached the door where Gilbert was in waiting, he suddenly emerged from the shadow in which he was concealed, and appeared to the young girl in the full rays of the moonlight, which was streaming through the window. Nicole was on the point of crying out, but she took Gilbert for another, and said, after the first emotion of terror was past :

“You here ! What imprudence “

“Yes, it is I,” replied Gilbert, in a whisper, “but do not cry out for me more than you would do for another.”

This time Nicole recognized her interlocutor.

NICOLE’S TWENTY-FIVE LOUIS O’OR:

Dumas, I’oi. Seven

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“Gilbert I” she exclaimed, “oh, Heaven !”

” I requested you not to cry out,” said the young man, coldly.

” But what are you doing here, sir ? ” exclaimed Nicole, angrily.

” Come ‘ said Gilbert, as coolly as before, “a, moment ago you called rne imprudent, and now you are more imprudent than I.”

” I think I am only too to kind you in asking what you are doing here,” said Nicole ; “for I know very well.-“

” What am I doing, then ? “

” You came to see Mademoiselle Andre.”

” Mademoiselle Andre ? ” said Gilbert, as calmly as before.

” Yes, you are in love with her ; but, fortunately, she does not love you.”

“Indeed?”

“But take care, Monsieur Gilbert,” said Nicole, threateningly.

“Oh, I must take care ?”

“Yes.”

“Of what ?”

“Take care that I do not inform on you.”

” You, Nicole ? “

” Yes, I ; take care I don’t get you dismissed from the house.”

” Try,” said Gilbert, smiling.

“You defy me?”

” Yes, absolutely defy you.”

” What will happen then, if I tell mademoiselle, Monsieur Philip, and the baron that I met you here ? “

” It will happen as you have said not that I shall be dismissed I am, thank God, dismissed already but that I shall be tracked and hunted like a wild beast. But she who will be dismissed will be Nicole.”

” How Nicole ? “

(t Certainly ; Nicole, who has stones thrown to her over the walls.”

“Take care, Monsieur Gilbert,” said Nicole, in a

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threatening tone, ” a piece of mademoiselle’s dre<=r-V.TS found in your hand upon the Place Louis XV.”

“You think so ?”’

” Monsieur Philip told his father so. He suspects nothing as yet, but if he gets a hint or two, perhaps he will suspect in the end.”

” And who will give him the hint ?”

“I shall.”

“Take care, Nicole ! One might suspect, also, that when you seem to be drying lace, you are picking up the stones that are thrown over the wall.”

‘ ‘ It is false ! ” cried Nicole. Then, retracting her denial, she continued, ” At all events, it is not a crime to receive a letter not like stealing in here while mademoiselle is undressing. Ah ! what will you say to that, Monsieur Gilbert ? “

” I shall say, Mademoiselle Nicole, that it is also a crime for such a well-conducted young lady as you are to slip keys under the doors of gardens.”

Nicole trembled.

“I shall say,” continued Gilbert, “that if I, who am known to Monsieur de Taverney, to Monsieur Philip, to Mademoiselle Andre, have committed a crime in entering here, in my anxiety to know how the family I so long served were, and particularly Mademoiselle Andre, whom I endeavored so strenuously to save on the evening of the fireworks, that a piece of her dress remained in my hand I shall say, that if I have committed this pardonable crime, you have committed the unpardonable one of introducing a stranger into your master’s house, and are now going to meet him a second time, in the greenhouse, where you have already spent an hour in his company “

“Gilbert! Gilbert!”

” Oh ! how virtuous we are all of a sudden, Mademoiselle Nicole ! You deem it very wicked that I should be found here, while “

” Gilbert ! “

” Yes, go and tell mademoiselle that I love her. I shall say that it is you whom I love, and she will believe

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me, for you were foolish enough to tell her so at Tav-ern ey.

“Gilbert, my friend!”

” And you will be dismissed, Nicole ; and in place of going to Trianon, and entering the household of the dauphiuess with mademoiselle instead of coquetting with the fine lords and rich gentlemen, as you will not fail to do if you remain with the family instead of all this, you will be sent to enjoy the society of your admirer, Monsieur Beausire, an exempt, a soldier ! Oh, what a direfnl fall ! What a noble ambition Mademoiselle Nicole’s is to be the favored fair one of a guardsman ! “

And Gilbert began to hum, in a low voice, with a most malicious accent :

” In the Garde Frangaise I had a faithful lover.”

“In mercy, Monsieur Gilbert,” said Nicole, “do not look at me in that ill-natured manner. Your eyes pierce me, even in the darkness. Do not laugh, either your laugh terrifies me.”

” Then open the door,” said Gilbert, imperatively ; ” open the door for me, Nicole, and not another word of all this.”

Nicole opened the door with so violent a nervous trembling, that her shoulders and head shook like those of an old woman.

Gilbert tranquilly stepped out first, and seeing that the young girl was leading him toward the door of the garden, he said :