"_Ma soeur, voici le bras qui venge nos deux freres, Le bras qui rompt le cours de nos destins contraires, Qui nous rend maitres d"Albe_" ...
A piercing scream from Madame Marotte, a general cry on the part of the audience, and a strong smell of burning, brought the dancing-master to a sudden stop. He looked round, bewildered.
"Your wig! Your wig"s on fire!" cried every one at once.
Monsieur Dorinet clapped his hand to his head, which was now adorned with a rapidly-spreading glory; burned his fingers; and cut a frantic caper.
"Save him! save him!" yelled Madame Marotte.
But almost before the words were out of her mouth, Muller, clearing the candles at a bound, had rushed to the rescue, scalped Monsieur Dorinet by a _tour de main_, cast the blazing wig upon the floor, and trampled out the fire.
Then followed a roar of "inextinguishable laughter," in which, however, neither the tragic Camille nor the luckless Horace joined.
"Heavens and earth!" murmured the little dancing-master, ruefully surveying the ruins of his blonde peruke. And then he put his hand to his head, which was as bald as an egg.
In the meanwhile Mdlle. Honoria, who had not yet succeeded in uttering a syllable of her part, took no pains to dissemble her annoyance; and was only pacified at last by a happy proposal on the part of Monsieur Philomene, who suggested that "this gifted demoiselle" should be entreated to favor the society with a soliloquy.
Thus invited, she draped herself again, stalked down to the footlights for the third time, and in a high, shrill voice, with every variety of artificial emphasis and studied gesture, recited Voltaire"s famous "Death of Coligny," from the _Henriade_.
In the midst of this performance, just at that point when the a.s.sa.s.sins are described as falling upon their knees before their victim, the door of the room was softly opened, and another guest slipped in unseen behind us. Slipped in, indeed, so quietly that (the backs of the audience being turned that way) no one seemed to hear, and no one looked round but myself.
Brief as was that glance, and all in the shade as he stood, I recognised him instantly.
It was the mysterious stranger of the Cafe Procope.
CHAPTER x.x.xIV.
MY AUNT"S FLOWER GARDEN.
Having despatched the venerable Coligny much to her own satisfaction and apparently to the satisfaction of her hearers, Mdlle. Honoria returned to private life; Messieurs Philomene and Dorinet removed the footlights; the audience once more dispersed itself about the room; and Madame Marotte welcomed the new-comer as Monsieur Lenoir.
"_Monsieur est bien aimable_," she said, nodding and smiling, and, with tremulous hands, smoothing down the front of her black silk gown. "I had told these young ladies that we hoped for the honor of Monsieur"s society. Will Monsieur permit me to introduce him?"
"With pleasure, Madame Marotte."
And M. Lenoir--white cravatted, white kid-gloved, hat in hand, perfectly well-dressed in full evening black, and wearing a small orange-colored rosette at his b.u.t.ton-hole--bowed, glanced round the room, and, though his eyes undoubtedly took in both Muller and myself, looked as if he had never seen either of us in his life.
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"By Heaven!" he exclaimed, "it is--it must be ... look at him, Arbuthnot! If that isn"t the man who stole my sketch-book, I"ll eat my head!"
"It _is_ the man," I replied. "I recognised him ten minutes ago, when he first came in."
"You are certain?"
"Quite certain."
"And yet--there is something different!"
There _was_ something different; but, at the same time, much that was identical. There was the same strange, inscrutable look, the same bronzed complexion, the same military bearing. M. Lenoir, it was true, was well, and even elegantly dressed; whereas, the stranger of the Cafe Procope bore all the outward stigmata of penury; but that was not all.
There was yet "something different." The one looked like a man who had done, or suffered, a wrong in his time; who had an old quarrel with the world; and who only sought to hide himself, his poverty, and his bitter pride from the observation of his fellow men. The other stood before us dignified, _decore_, self-possessed, a man not only of the world, but apparently no stranger to that small section of it called "the great world." In a word, the man of the Cafe, sunken, sullen, threadbare as he was, would have been almost less out of his proper place in Madame Marotte"s society of small trades-people and minor professionals, than was M. Lenoir with his _grand air_ and his orange-colored ribbon.
"It"s the same man," said Muller; "the same, beyond a doubt. The more I look at him, the more confident I am."
"And the more I look at him," said I, "the more doubtful I get."
Madame Marotte, meanwhile, had introduced M. Lenoir to the two Conservatoire pupils and their mammas; Monsieur Dorinet had proposed some "_pet.i.ts jeux_;" and Monsieur Philomene was helping him to re-arrange the chairs--this time in a circle.
"Take your places, Messieurs et Mesdames--take your places!" cried Monsieur Dorinet, who had by this time resumed his wig, singed as it was, and shorn of its fair proportions. "What game shall we play at?"
"_Pied de Boeuf_" "_Colin Maillard_" and other games were successively proposed and rejected.
"We have a game in Alsace called "My Aunt"s Flower Garden"" said Muller.
"Does any one know it?"
""My Aunt"s Flower Garden?"" repeated Monsieur Dorinet. "I never heard of it."
"It sounds pretty," said Mdlle. Rosalie.
"Will M"sieur teach it to us, if it is not very difficult?" suggested Mdlle. Rosalie"s mamma.
"With pleasure, Madame. It is not a bad game--and it is extremely easy.
We will sit in a circle, if you please--the chairs as they are placed will do quite well."
We were just about to take our places when Madame Marotte seized the opportunity to introduce Muller and myself to M. Lenoir.
"We have met before, Monsieur," said Muller, pointedly.
"I am ashamed to confess, Monsieur, that I do not remember to have had that pleasure," replied M. Lenoir, somewhat stiffly.
"And yet, Monsieur, it was but the other day," persisted Muller.
"Monsieur, I can but reiterate my regret."
"At the Cafe Procope."
M. Lenoir stared coldly, slightly shrugged his shoulders, and said, with the air of one who repudiates a discreditable charge:--
"Monsieur, I do not frequent the Cafe Procope."
"If Monsieur Muller is to teach us the game, Monsieur Muller must begin it!" said Monsieur Dorinet.
"At once," replied Muller, taking his place in the circle.
As ill-luck would have it (the rest of us being already seated), there were but two chairs left; so that M. Lenoir and Muller had to sit side by side.