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Page 19
"What! not even to gratify me?"
"Not even for that, madam, and were it the only means of succeeding in
doing so."
I bowed to her smilingly after these words, which I had emphasized in such
a positive manner that she insisted no more. She dropped my arm abruptly
and returned to join a group of dancers who were observing us at a
distance with manifest interest. She was received by them with whispers
and smiles, to which she replied with a few rapid sentences, among which I
only caught the word _revanche_. I paid no further attention to the matter
for the time being, and my soul went to converse amid the clouds with the
soul of Madame Durmaitre.
The next day a grand hunt was to take place in the forest. I had arranged
to take no share in it, wishing to make the best of a whole day of
solitude to push forward my hopeless undertaking. Toward noon, the hunters
met in the court-yard of the chateau, which rang again for some fifteen
minutes with the loud blast of the trumpets, the stamping of horses, and
the yelping of the pack. Then the tumultuous crowd disappeared down the
avenue, the noise gradually died away, and I remained master of myself and
of my mind, in the midst of a silence the more grateful that it is the
more rare on this meridian.
I had been enjoying my solitude for a few minutes, and I was turning over
the folio pages of the _Neustra pia_, while smiling at my own happiness,
when I fancied I heard the gallop of a horse in the avenue, and soon after
on the pavement of the court. Some hunter behind time, I thought, and,
taking up my pen, I began extracting from the enormous volume the passage
relating to the General Chapters of the Benedictines; but a new and more
serious interruption came to afflict me; some one was knocking at the
library-door. I shook my head with ill-humor, and I said "Come in!" in the
same tone in which I might have said "Go away!" Some one did come in. I
had seen, a few moments before, Madame de Palme taking her flight,
feathers and all, at the head of the cavalcade, and I was not a little
surprised to find her again within two steps of me as soon as the door was
open. Her head was bare, and her hair was tucked up behind in an odd
manner; she held her whip in one hand, and with the other lifted up the
long train of her riding-habit. The excitement of the rapid ride she had
just had seemed further to intensify the expression of audacity which is
habitual to her look and to her features. And yet her voice was less
assured than usual when she exclaimed as she came in:
"Ah! I beg your pardon! I thought Madame de Malouet was here?"
I had risen at once to my full height.
"No, madam, she is not here."
"Ah! excuse me. Do you know where she is?"
"I do not, madam; but I can go and ascertain, if you wish."
"Thanks, thanks! I'll find her easily enough. The fact is, I met with a
little accident."
"Indeed!"
"Oh, not much! a trailing limb tore the band off my hat, and my feathers
dropped off."
"Your blue feathers, madam?"
"Yes, my blue feathers. In short, I have returned to the chateau to have
my hat-band sewed on again. You are comfortable there to work?"
"Perfectly so, madam, I could not be better."
"Are you very busy just now?"
"Well, yes, madam, rather busy."
"Ah! I am sorry."
"Why so?"
"Because, I had an idea. I thought of asking you to accompany me to the
forest. The gentlemen will be nearly there when I am ready to start
again--and I cannot very well go on alone so far."
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