"Antoinette sends you her most affectionate greetings.She adores Saint Moritz; you would think that she had found something here which has wrought a charm over her.For my own part, I am delighted to have recovered my appetite, my sleep, and all the rest, and yet I regret having come; can you reconcile that? Let me know as soon as possible what you think of my Pole; but, pray do not condemn him unheard.No hasty decision, I entreat; an expert is bound not to be influenced by his prejudices, but to weigh his judgments as his words.Adieu, dear madame; pity me in spite of my full cheeks."Madame de Lorcy replied in these words, by return mail:
"You are indeed innocent, my dear professor, and your finesse is but too apparent; I could not help understanding.Is she, indeed so foolish.I did not think her overwise; but here she astonishes me more than I would have believed.You can tell her, for me--or rather don't say anything to her; I will only speak to you, I am too angry to reason with her.I will see your Pole, I await him resolutely; but, in truth, I have seen him already.I am well acquainted with him, I know him by heart; I have no doubt that he is some impostor.I will examine him without prejudice, with religious impartiality.You are so good as to remind me that an expert suspends his judgment.I will hold my police force in reserve, and I will let you know before long what I think of your adventurer.Ah! yes, I do pity you, poor man.After all, however, you alone are to blame; is it my fault that you did not know how to act? God bless you!"1
grove, was conversing with phantoms, Mme.de Lorcy, alone in her /salon/, was occupied with her needlework, and her thoughts, which revolved in a circle, like a horse in a riding-school.She had for several days been expecting Count Abel Larinski's visit; she wondered at his want of promptness, and suspected that he was afraid of her.
This suspicion pleased her.Several times she fancied she heard a man's step in the antechamber, at which she started nervously, and the rose-coloured strings of her cap fluttered on her shoulders.
Suddenly, while she was counting her stitches, with head bent down, some one entered without her perceiving it, seized her hand, and, devoutly kissing it, threw his hat on the table, and then dropped into a chair, where he remained motionless, with his legs stretched out, and his eyes riveted on the floor.
"Oh! It is you, Camille," exclaimed Mme.de Lorcy."You come apropos.
Well?"
"Well! yes, madame, that is it," replied M.Langis; "and you see before you the most unhappy of men.Why is your pond dry? I want to fling myself into it head foremost."Mme.de Lorcy laid down her embroidery, and crossed her arms."So you have returned?" said she.
"Would to God I never had gone there! It is a land where poison is sold, and I have drunk of it.""Don't abuse metaphors.You have seen her? What did you say to her?""Nothing, madame--nothing of what is in my heart.I made her believe that I had reflected, and changed my views; that I was entirely cured of my foolish passion for her; that I was simply making her a friendly visit.Yes, madame, I remained half a day with her, and during the half day I never once betrayed myself.I convinced her that the mask was a face.Tell me, conscientiously, have you ever read of a more heroic act in Plutarch's /Lives of Great Men/?""She herself, what did she say to you?"
"She was so enchanted, so delighted with the change, that she was dying to embrace me.""She shall pay for it.And he, did you see him?""Just caught a glimpse of him, looked up to him as was befitting the humility of my position.This fortunate man, this glorious mortal, was enthroned on the top of the mail-coach.""Is he really so fascinating?"
"He has, I assure you, a certain look of deep profundity, and he bears his exploits inscribed on his brow.What am I, to contend against him!
You must allow that I have the appearance of a school-boy.And yet, if I were to boast.This road in Transylvania for which I had the contract was by no means easy to construct.We had to cut through the solid rock, working in the air, suspended by ropes.This perilous labour so disheartened our workmen that some of them left us; to encourage the rest, I was slung up like them, and like them handled the pickaxe.One day, in the explosion of a charge a piece of stone struck the rope of one of my men with such violence that it cut it as clean in two as the edge of a razor would have done.The man fell--Ibelieved him to be lost; by a miracle, his clothes caught in some brushwood, to which he succeeded in clinging.It was I who went to his assistance, and I swear to you that in this rescue I proved the strength of my muscles, and ran the risk twenty times of breaking my neck.The workmen had mistrusted me on account of my youth; from that day, I can assure you, they held me in respect.""Did you relate this incident to Antoinette?""What would have been the use? With women it does not suffice to be a great man; you must have the look of one too." And Camille Langis cried out, clinching his hands: "Ah! madame, I entreat you, do you know where I can procure a Polish head, a Polish mustache, a Polish smile? Pray, where are these articles to be had, and what is their market price? I will not haggle! O women! what a set you are--plague on you!""And are aunts the same?" gravely asked Mme.de Lorcy.
He answered more calmly: "No, madame, you are a woman without an equal, and I name you every day in my prayers.You are my only resource, my consolation, my counsel.Do not refuse me your precious instructions! What ought I to do?"Mme.de Lorcy gazed up at the ceiling for an instant, and then said:
"Love elsewhere, my dear; abandon this foolish girl to her fate and her Pole."He started and replied: "You demand what is impossible.I am no longer my own master; she has taken possession of me--she holds me.Love elsewhere? Can you think of it? I detest her--I curse her--but I adore her!"She rejoined: "You should not use hyperbole any more than metaphors.
