"I, doctor!" replied a sweet and sorrowful voice--a voice that he knew but could not immediately recognize. "I, Andree de Taverney," continued she.
"Oh, mon Dieu! what is the matter?" cried the doctor; "is she ill?"
"She! who?"
The doctor felt that he had committed an imprudence.
"Excuse me, but I saw a lady going away just now, perhaps it was you."
"Oh, yes, there has been a lady here before me, has there not?" asked Andree, in a tone of emotion.
"My dear child," replied the doctor, "of whom do you speak? what do you want to know?"
"Doctor," answered Andree, in a sorrowful voice, "you always speak the truth, do not deceive me now; I am sure there was a woman here before me."
"Doubtless. Why should I deceive you? Madame de Misery was here."
"It was Madame de Misery who came?"
"Certainly; what makes you doubt? What inexplicable beings women are."
"Dear doctor."
"Well, but to the point. Is she worse?"
"Who?"
"Pardieu, the queen."
"The queen!"
"Yes, the queen, for whom Madame de Misery came to fetch me, and who was troubled with her palpitations. If you come from her, tell me, and we will go back together."
"No, doctor, I do not come from the queen, and was even ignorant that she was suffering. But pardon me, doctor, I scarcely know what I an saying." In fact, she seemed on the point of fainting.
The doctor supported her. She rallied by a strong effort. "Doctor," she said, "you know I am nervous in the dark; I lost my way in these intricate pa.s.sages, and have grown frightened and foolish."
"And why the devil should you be wandering about these dark pa.s.sages, since you came for nothing?"
"I did not say I came for nothing, only that no one sent me."
"Well, if you have anything to say to me, come away from here, for I am tired of standing."
"Oh, I shall not be ten minutes; can any one hear us?"
"No one."
"Not even your patient in there?"
"Oh, no fear of his hearing anything."
Andree clasped her hands. "Oh, mon Dieu!" she cried, "he is, then, very ill?"
"Indeed he is not well. But tell me quickly what brings you here, for I cannot wait."
"Well, doctor, we have spoken of it; I came to ask after him."
Doctor Louis received this confession with a solemn silence, which Andree took for a reproach.
"You may excuse this step, doctor," she said, "as he was wounded in a duel with my brother."
"Your brother! I was ignorant of that."
"But now that you know it, you understand why I inquire after him."
"Oh, certainly, my child," said the good doctor, enchanted to find an excuse for being indulgent; "I could not know this."
"A duel between two gentlemen is a thing of everyday occurrence, doctor."
"Certainly; the only thing that could make it of importance would be that they have fought about a lady!"
"About a lady!"
"About yourself, for example."
Andree sighed.
"Oh, doctor! they did not fight about me."
"Then," said the doctor, "is it your brother that has sent you for news of M. de Charny?"
"Oh, yes, my brother, doctor."
Dr. Louis looked at her scrutinizingly.
"I will find out the truth," thought he. Then he said, "Well, I will tell you the truth, that your brother may make his arrangements accordingly; you understand."
"No, doctor."
"Why, a duel is never a very agreeable thing to the king, and if it makes a scandal, he often banishes or imprisons the actors; but when death ensues, he is always inflexible. Therefore counsel your brother to hide for a time."
"Then," cried Andree, "M. de Charny is--dangerously ill?"
"My dear young lady, if he is not out of danger by this time to-morrow, if before that time I cannot quell the fever that devours him, M. de Charny is a dead man."
Andree bit her lips till the blood came, and clenched her hands till the nails stuck into the flesh, to stifle the cry that was ready to burst from her. Having conquered herself, she said, "My brother will not fly; he wounded M. de Charny in fair fight, and if he has killed him, he will take his chance."
The doctor was deceived. She did not come on her own account, he thought.