登陆注册
15459300000081

第81章 CHAPTER XIX(4)

"Yes, but women like Amelie never lay off their armor! They seem born in it, like Minerva. But your vanity will not let you believe me, Renaud! So go try her, and tell me your luck! She won't scratch you, nor scold. Amelie is a lady, and will talk to you like a queen. But she will give you a polite reply to your proposal that will improve your opinions of our sex."

"You are mocking me, Angelique, as you always do! One never knows when you are in jest or when in earnest. Even when you get angry, it is often unreal and for a purpose! I want you to be serious for once. The fortune of the Tillys and De Repentignys is the best in New France, and we can make it ours if you will help me."

"I am serious enough in wishing you those chests full of gold, and those broad lands that a crow cannot fly over in a day; but I must forego my share of them, and so must you yours, brother!" Angelique leaned back in her chair, desiring to stop further discussion of a topic she did not like to hear.

"Why must you forego your share of the De Repentigny fortune, Angelique? You could call it your own any day you chose by giving your little finger to Le Gardeur! you do really puzzle me."

The Chevalier did look perplexed at his inscrutable sister, who only smiled over the table at him, as she nonchalantly cracked nuts and sipped her wine by drops.

"Of course I puzzle you, Renaud!" said she at last. "I am a puzzle to myself sometimes. But you see there are so many men in the world,--poor ones are so plenty, rich ones so scarce, and sensible ones hardly to be found at all,--that a woman may be excused for selling herself to the highest bidder. Love is a commodity only spoken of in romances or in the patois of milkmaids now-a-days!"

"Zounds, Angelique! you would try the patience of all the saints in the calendar! I shall pity the fellow you take in! Here is the fairest fortune in the Colony about to fall into the hands of Pierre Philibert--whom Satan confound for his assurance! A fortune which I always regarded as my own!"

"It shows the folly and vanity of your sex! You never spoke a word to Amelie de Repentigny in the way of wooing in your life! Girls like her don't drop into men's arms just for the asking."

"Pshaw! as if she would refuse me if you only acted a sister's part!

But you are impenetrable as a rock, and the whole of your fickle sex could not match your vanity and caprice, Angelique."

She rose quickly with a provoked air.

"You are getting so complimentary to my poor sex, Renaud," said she, "that I must really leave you to yourself, and I could scarcely leave you in worse company."

"You are so bitter and sarcastic upon one!" replied he, tartly; "my only desire was to secure a good fortune for you, and another for myself. I don't see, for my part, what women are made for, except to mar everything a man wants to do for himself and for them!"

"Certainly everything should be done for us, brother; but I have no defence to make for my sex, none! I dare say we women deserve all that men think of us, but then it is impolite to tell us so to our faces. Now, as I advised you, Renaud, I would counsel you to study gardening, and you may one day arrive at as great distinction as the Marquis de Vandriere--you may cultivate chou chou if you cannot raise a bride like Amelie de Repentigny."

Angelique knew her brother's genius was not penetrating, or she would scarcely have ventured this broad allusion to the brother of La Pompadour, who, by virtue of his relationship to the Court favorite, had recently been created Director of the Royal Gardens.

What fancy was working in the brain of Angelique when she alluded to him may be only surmised.

The Chevalier was indignant, however, at an implied comparison between himself and the plebeian Marquis de Vandriere. He replied, with some heat,--"The Marquis de Vandriere! How dare you mention him and me together! There's not an officer's mess in the army that receives the son of the fishmonger! Why do you mention him, Angelique? You are a perfect riddle!"

"I only thought something might happen, brother, if I should ever go to Paris! I was acting a charade in my fancy, and that was the solution of it!"

"What was? You would drive the whole Sorbonne mad with your charades and fancies! But I must leave you."

"Good-by, brother,--if you will go. Think of it!--if you want to rise in the world you may yet become a royal gardener like the Marquis de Vandriere!" Her silvery laugh rang out good-humoredly as he descended the stairs and passed out of the house.

She sat down in her fauteuil. "Pity Renaud is such a fool!" said she; "yet I am not sure but he is wiser in his folly than I with all my tact and cleverness, which I suspect are going to make a greater fool of me than ever he is!"

She leaned back in her chair in a deep thinking mood. "It is growing dark," murmured she. "Le Gardeur will assuredly be here soon, in spite of all the attractions of Belmont. How to deal with him when he comes is more than I know: he will renew his suit, I am sure."

For a moment the heart of Angelique softened in her bosom. "Accept him I must not!" said she; "affront him I will not! cease to love him is out of my power as much as is my ability to love the Intendant, whom I cordially detest, and shall marry all the same!"

She pressed her hands over her eyes, and sat silent for a few minutes. "But I am not sure of it! That woman remains still at Beaumanoir! Will my scheming to remove her be all in vain or no?"

Angelique recollected with a shudder a thought that had leaped in her bosom, like a young Satan, engendered of evil desires. "I dare hardly look in the honest eyes of Le Gardeur after nursing such a monstrous fancy as that," said she; "but my fate is fixed all the same. Le Gardeur will vainly try to undo this knot in my life, but he must leave me to my own devices." To what devices she left him was a thought that sprang not up in her purely selfish nature.

In her perplexity Angelique tied knot upon knot hard as pebbles in her handkerchief. Those knots of her destiny, as she regarded them, she left untied, and they remain untied to this day--a memento of her character and of those knots in her life which posterity has puzzled itself over to no purpose to explain.

同类推荐
  • 吴地记

    吴地记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 辩正论

    辩正论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 明伦汇编皇极典帝统部

    明伦汇编皇极典帝统部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 郑史编年辑录

    郑史编年辑录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 慈明瑞象灯仪

    慈明瑞象灯仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 若思醉尔

    若思醉尔

    既然无心为何撩拨我心既然不爱为何缠我既然无份为何让我遇见既然遇见那你便是我的永生永世都是我的逃也逃不掉
  • 冲霄一跃

    冲霄一跃

    是魔的惩罚,是仙的劫数,亦或者是谁的局?万载岁月无尽轮回,重复的剧本重复的桎梏又将如何打破……重复万载沉寂万载,时间久了大伙都忘了吧!
  • 世界上最伟大的员工精神

    世界上最伟大的员工精神

    《世界上最伟大的员工精神》为职场中的每一个人提供了一套标准,我们可借此标准评判出哪些员工是真正优秀的员工。同时,《世界上最伟大的员工精神》还提供了相应的提升方法,企业可以按照这套标准和方法来培养员工,员王则可以以此作为提升自己的最佳参考书。
  • 星月城

    星月城

    以主人公安娜的口吻讲述她的魔法经历。因为父亲的离开不得不自己去魔法学院上学,随着艾柯猫的帮助,成为了星月城的最厉害的魔法师,然而当她有能力救父亲的时候,却发现有些事情,再也回不到从前......
  • 夜末月之殇

    夜末月之殇

    我,没有过去也不知未来,有的只是现在与我的名字,吾名唤之——夜殇。
  • 再次遇到you

    再次遇到you

    爱另一个人是每个人的权利,别人没有资格去议论!
  • 寒鸦记

    寒鸦记

    一个穿越故事。一个杀手穿到架空世界的故事。在这个世界,杀手学会了如何成为一个人的故事。这个故事里,有欢笑、有悲伤、有愤怒、有伙伴、有爱情......
  • 无敌侦探

    无敌侦探

    写出了一个名叫杨锐的侦探在一次破案时发现了有一个邪恶组织在进行交易,邪恶组织发现了他给他灌下了毒药。因为这个毒药并没有研制成功,所以他并没有死,而是变成了一个小孩。变成了小孩之后他被他的女友郭苆带回家中。最后他解开重重迷案,把这个邪恶组织揪了出来。
  • 九州江湖记

    九州江湖记

    徐徐为你展开一个芊芊世界,红的似火,绿的如翡。清风过九州,秀林起百府。有蓝天白云,山川河泊,鱼鸟虫兽;亦有温伦孝悌,忠义虔诚,勾心斗角。侠者行者,有的只为那一腔热血,有的追求那功名利禄。望眼这一方天地,回思着那武侠梦。
  • 古今战神

    古今战神

    这个故事,发生在他穿越的三年之后!纪连城,一步步成就古今第一战神!