Fanchette was staring at me,her black eyes round as saucers,her mouth half-open.'Well,madame,'I muttered at length,'to tell you the truth,at present,you must understand,I have been forced to--'
'What,Gaston?'Madame de Bonne half rose in bed.Her voice was sharp with disappointment and apprehension;the grasp of her fingers on my hand grew closer.
I could not resist that appeal.I flung away the last rag of shame.'To reduce my establishment somewhat,'I answered,looking a miserable defiance at mademoiselle's averted figure.
She had called me a liar and a cheat--here in the room!I must stand before her a liar and a cheat confessed.'I keep but three lackeys now,madame.'
Still it is creditable,'my mother muttered thoughtfully,her eyes shining.'Your dress,however,Gaston--only my eyes are weak--seems to me--'
'Tut,tut!It is but a disguise,'I answered quickly.
'I might have known that,'she rejoined,sinking back with a smile and a sigh of content.'But when I first saw you I was almost afraid that something had happened to you.And I have been uneasy lately,'she went on,releasing my hand,and beginning to play with the coverlet,as though the remembrance troubled her.'There was a man here a while ago--a friend of Simon Fleix there--who had been south to Pau and Nerac,and he said there was no M.de Marsac about the Court.'
'He probably knew less of the Court than the wine-tavern,'Ianswered with a ghastly smile.
'That was just what I told him,'my mother responded quickly and eagerly.'I warrant you I sent him away ill-satisfied.'
'Of course,'I said;'there will always be people of that kind.
But now,if you will permit me,madame,I will make such arrangements for mademoiselle as are necessary.'
Begging her accordingly to lie down and compose herself--for even so short a conversation,following on the excitement of our arrival,had exhausted her to a painful degree--I took the youth,who had just returned from stabling our horses,a little aside,and learning that he lodged in a smaller chamber on the farther side of the landing,secured it for the use of mademoiselle and her woman.In spite of a certain excitability which marked him at times,he seemed to be a quick,ready fellow,and he willingly undertook to go out,late as it was,and procure some provisions and a few other things which were sadly needed,as well for my mother's comfort as for our own.I directed Fanchette to aid him in the preparation of the other chamber,and thus for a while Iwas left alone with mademoiselle.She had taken one of the stools,and sat cowering over the fire,the hood of her cloak drawn about her head;in such a manner that even when she looked at me,which she did from time to time,I saw little more than her eyes,bright with contemptuous anger.
'So,sir,'she presently began,speaking in a low voice,and turning slightly towards me,'you practise lying even here?'
I felt so strongly the futility of denial or explanation that Ishrugged my shoulders and remained silent under the sneer.Two more days--two more days would take us to Rosny,and my task would be done,and Mademoiselle and I would part for good and all.What would it matter then what she thought of me?What did it matter now?
For the first time in our intercourse my silence seemed to disconcert and displease her.'Have you nothing to say for yourself?'she muttered sharply,crushing a fragment of charcoal under her foot,and stooping to peer at the ashes.'Have you not another lie in your quiver,M.de Marsac?'De Marsac!'And she repeated the title,with a scornful laugh,as if she put no faith in my claim to it.
But I would answer nothing--nothing;and we remained silent until Fanchette,coming in to say that the chamber was ready,held the light for her mistress to pass out.I told the woman to come back and fetch mademoiselle's supper,and then,being left alone with my mother,who had fallen asleep,with a smile on her thin,worn face,I began to wonder what had happened to reduce her to such dire poverty.
I feared to agitate her by referring to it;but later in the evening,when her curtains were drawn and Simon Fleix and I were left together,eyeing one another across the embers like dogs of different breeds--with a certain strangeness and suspicion--my thoughts recurred to the question;and determining first to learn something about my companion,whose pale,eager face and tattered,black dress gave him a certain individuality,I asked him whether he had come from Paris with Madame de Bonne.
He nodded without speaking.
I asked him if he had known her long.
'Twelve months,'he answered.'I lodged on the fifth,madame on the second,floor of the same house in Paris.'
I leaned forward and plucked the hem of his black robe.'What is this?'I said,with a little contempt.'You are not a priest,man.'
'No,'he answered,fingering the stuff himself,and gazing at me in a curious,vacant fashion.'I am a student of the Sorbonne.'
I drew off from him with a muttered oath,wondering--while Ilooked at him with suspicious eyes--how he came to be here,and particularly how he came to be in attendance on my mother,who had been educated from childhood in the Religion,and had professed it in private all her life.I could think of no one who,in old days,would have been less welcome in her house than a Sorbonnist,and began to fancy that here should lie the secret of her miserable condition.
'You don't like,the Sorbonne?'he said,reading my thoughts;which were,indeed,plain enough.
'No more than I love the devil!'I said bluntly.
