"I do not understand you, monseigneur."
"Listen, dear countess; if you were less in a pa.s.sion, I would tell you that it is useless to behave like this--you are always equally charming; but as at each compliment I fear to be dismissed, I abstain."
"You fear to be dismissed? Really, I beg pardon of your eminence, but you become unintelligible."
"It is, however, quite clear, what I say. The other day, when I came to see you, you complained that you were lodged unsuitably to your rank. I thought, therefore, that to restore you to your proper place would be like restoring air to the bird whom the experimenter has placed under his air-pump. Consequently, beautiful countess, that you might receive me with pleasure, and that I, on my part, might visit you without compromising either you or myself----" He stopped and looked at her.
"Well!" she said.
"I hoped that you would deign to accept this small residence; you observe, I do not call it "pet.i.te maison.""
"Accept! you give me this house, monseigneur?" said Jeanne, her heart beating with eagerness.
"A very small gift, countess; but if I had offered you more, you would have refused."
"Oh, monseigneur, it is impossible for me to accept this."
"Impossible, why? Do not say that word to me, for I do not believe in it. The house belongs to you, the keys are here on this silver plate; do you find out another humiliation in this?"
"No, but----"
"Then accept."
"Monseigneur, I have told you."
"How, madame? you write to the ministers for a pension, you accept a hundred louis from an unknown lady----"
"Oh, monseigneur, it is different."
"Come, I have waited for you in your dining-room. I have not yet seen the boudoir, nor the drawing-room, nor the bedrooms, for I suppose there are all these."
"Oh, monseigneur, forgive me; you force me to confess that you the most delicate of men," and she blushed with the pleasure she had been so long restraining. But checking herself, she sat down and said, "Now, will your eminence give me my supper?"
The cardinal took off his cloak, and sat down also.
Supper was served in a few moments. Jeanne put on her mask before the servants came in.
"It is I who ought to wear a mask," said the cardinal, "for you are at home, among your own people."
Jeanne laughed, but did not take hers off. In spite of her pleasure and surprise, she made a good supper. The cardinal was a man of much talent, and from his great knowledge of the world and of women, he was a man difficult to contend with, and he thought that this country girl, full of pretension, but who, in spite of her pride, could not conceal her greediness, would be an easy conquest, worth undertaking on account of her beauty, and of a something piquant about her, very pleasing to a man "blase" like him. He therefore never took pains to be much on his guard with her; and she, more cunning than he thought, saw through his opinion of her, and tried to strengthen it by playing the provincial coquette, and appearing silly, that her adversary might be in reality weak in his over-confidence.
The cardinal thought her completely dazzled by the present he had made her--and so, indeed, she was; but he forgot that he himself was below the mark of the ambition of a woman like Jeanne.
"Come," said he, pouring out for her a gla.s.s of cyprus wine, "as you have signed your contract with me, you will not be unfriendly any more, countess."
"Oh no!"
"You will receive me here sometimes without repugnance?"
"I shall never be so ungrateful as to forget whose house this really is."
"Not mine."
"Oh yes, monseigneur."
"Do not contradict me, I advise you, or I shall begin to impose conditions."
"You take care on your part----"
"Of what?"
"Why, I am at home here, you know, and if your conditions are unreasonable, I shall call my servants----"
The cardinal laughed.
"Ah, you laugh, sir; you think if I call they will not come."
"Oh, you quite mistake, countess. I am nothing here, only your guest.
Apropos," continued he, as if it had just entered his head, "have you heard anything more of the ladies who came to see you?"
"The ladies of the portrait?" said Jeanne, who, now knowing the queen, saw through the artifice.
"Yes, the ladies of the portrait."
"Monseigneur, you know them as well and even better than I do, I feel sure."
"Oh, countess, you do me wrong. Did you not express a wish to learn who they were?"
"Certainly; it is natural to desire to know your benefactors."
"Well, if knew, I should have told you."
"M. le Cardinal, you do know them."
"No."
"If you repeat that "no," I shall have to call you a liar."
"I shall know how to avenge that insult."
"How?"
"With a kiss."
"You know the portrait of Maria Theresa?"
"Certainly, but what of that?"