The Chevalier roared with laughter. "And all I did was to kiss the la.s.s and compliment her cheeks. There"s a warning for you, lad."
Breton looked aggrieved. His master"s gallantries never ceased to cause him secret unrest.
"Yesterday your quarterly remittance from Monsieur le Marquis, your father, arrived."
"Was there a letter?" with subdued eagerness.
"There was nothing but the gold, Monsieur," answered Breton, his eyes lowered. How many times during the past four years had his master asked this question, always to receive the same answer?
The Chevalier"s shoulders drooped. "Who brought it?"
"Jehan," said the lackey.
"Had he anything to say?"
"Very little. Monsieur le Marquis has closed the chateau in Perigny and is living at the hotel in Roch.e.l.le."
"He mentions my name?"
"No, Monsieur."
The Chevalier crossed the room and stood by one of the windows. It was snowing ever so lightly. The snow-clouds, separating at times as they rushed over the night, discovered the starry bowl of heaven. Some n.o.ble lady"s carriage pa.s.sed surrounded by flaring torches. But the young man saw none of these things. A sense of incompleteness had taken hold of him. The heir to a marquisate, the possessor of an income of forty thousand livres the year, endowed with health and physical beauty, and yet there was a flaw which marred the whole. It was true that he was light-hearted, always and ever ready for a rout, whether with women or with men, whether with wine or with dice; but under all this brave show there was a canker which ate with subtile slowness, but surely. To be disillusioned at the age of sixteen by one"s own father! To be given gold and duplicate keys to the wine-cellars! To be eye-witness of Roman knights over which this father had presided like a Tiberius!
The d.u.c.h.esse de Montbazon had been in her youth a fancy of the marquis, his father. Was it not a fine stroke of irony to decide that this son of his should marry the obscure daughter of madame?--the daughter about whom very few had ever heard? Without the Chevalier"s sanction, miniatures had been exchanged. When the marquis presented him with that of Mademoiselle de Montbazon, together with his desires, he had ground the one under foot without glancing at it, and had laughed at the other as preposterous. Since that night the marquis had ceased to recall his name. The Chevalier"s mother had died at his birth; thus, he knew neither maternal nor paternal love; and a man must love something which is common with his blood. Even now he would have gone half-way, had his father"s love come to meet him. But no; Monsieur le Marquis loved only his famous wines, his stories, and his souvenirs.
Bah! this daughter had been easily consoled. The Comte de Brissac was fully sixty. The Chevalier squared his shoulders and shifted his baldric.
With forced gaiety he turned to his lackey. "Lad, let us love only ourselves. Self-love is always true to us. We will spend our gold and play the b.u.t.terfly while the summer lasts. It will be cold soon, and then . . . pouf! To-morrow you will take the gold and balance my accounts."
"Yes, Monsieur. Will Monsieur permit a familiarity by recalling a forbidden subject?"
"Well?"
"Monsieur le Comte de Brissac died last night," solemnly.
"What! of old age?" ironically.
"Of steel. A gallant was entering by a window, presumably to entertain madame, who is said to be young and as beautiful as her mother was.
Monsieur le Comte appeared upon the scene; but his guard was weak. He was run through the neck. The gallant wore a mask. That is all I know of the scandal."
"Happy the star which guided me from the pitfall of wedded life! What an escape! I must inform Monsieur le Marquis. He will certainly relish this bit of scandal which all but happened at his own fireside.
Certainly I shall inform him. It will be like caviar to the appet.i.te.
I shall dine before the effect wears off." The Chevalier put on his hat and cloak, and took a final look in the Venetian mirror. "Don"t wait for me, lad; I shall be late. Perhaps to-night I shall learn her name."
Breton smiled discreetly as his master left the room. Between a Catharine of the millinery and a mysterious lady of fashion there was no inconsiderable difference.
CHAPTER III
THE MUTILATED HAND
"Monsieur Paul?" cried the handsome widow of Monsieur Boisjoli, stepping from behind the pastry counter.
"Yes, Mignon, it is I," said the Chevalier; "that is, what remains of me."
"What happiness to see you again!" she exclaimed. She turned to a waiter. "Charlot, bring Monsieur le Chevalier the pheasant pie, the ragout of hare, and a bottle of chambertin from the bin of "36."
"Sorceress!" laughed the Chevalier; "you have sounded the very soul of me. Thanks, Mignon, thanks! Next to love, what is more to a man than a full stomach? Ah, you should have seen me when I came in! And devil take this nose of mine; not even steam and water have thawed the frost from it." He chucked her under the chin and smiled comically, all of which made manifest that the relations existing between the hostess of the Candlestick and her princ.i.p.al tenant were of the most cordial and Platonic character.
"And you have just returned from Rome? Ah, what a terrible ride!"
"Abominable, Mignon."
"And I see you hungry!" She sighed, and her black eyes grew moist and tender. Madame Boisjoli was only thirty-two. She was young.
"But alive, Mignon, alive; don"t forget that."
"You have had adventures?" eagerly; for she was a woman who loved the recital of exploits. Monsieur Boisjoli had fallen as a soldier at Charenton.
"Adventures? Oh, as they go," slapping his rapier and his pockets which had recently been very empty.
"You have been wounded?"
"Only in the pockets, dear, and in the tender quick of comfort. And will you have Charlot hasten that pie? I can smell it from afar, and my mouth waters."
"This moment, Monsieur;" and she flew away to the kitchens.
The Chevalier took this temporary absence as an opportunity to look about him. Only one table was occupied. This occupant was a priest who was gravely dining off black bread and milk served in a wooden bowl. But for the extreme pallor of his skin, which doubtless had its origin in the constant mortification of the flesh, he would have been a singularly handsome man. His features were elegantly designed, but it was evident that melancholy had recast them in a serious mold. His face was clean-shaven, and his hair clipped, close to the skull. There was something eminently n.o.ble in the loftiness of the forehead, and at the same time there was something subtly cruel in the turn of the nether lip, as though the spirit and the flesh were constantly at war.
He was young, possibly not older than the Chevalier, who was thirty.
The priest, as if feeling the Chevalier"s scrutiny, raised his eyes.
As their glances met, casually in the way of gratifying a natural curiosity, both men experienced a mental disturbance which was at once strange and annoying. Those large, penetrating grey eyes; each seemed to be looking into his own as in a mirror.
The Chevalier was first to disembarra.s.s himself. "A tolerably shrewd night, Monsieur," he said with a friendly gesture.
"It is the frost in the air, my son," the priest responded in a mellow barytone. "May Saint Ignatius listen kindly to the poor. Ah, this gulf you call Paris, I like it not."
"You are but recently arrived?" asked the Chevalier politely.
"I came two days ago. I leave for Rouen this night."
"What! you travel at night, and leave a cheery tavern like this?" All at once the crinkle of a chill ran across the Chevalier"s shoulders.
The thumb, the forefinger and the second of the priest"s left hand were twisted, reddened stumps.
"Yes, at night; and the wind will be rough, beyond the hills. But I have suffered worse discomforts;" and to this statement the priest added a sour smile. He had seen the shudder. He dropped the maimed hand below the level of the table.
"You ride, however?" suggested the Chevalier.