The Parisians, Book 12.

mier days, when he had first made her acquaintance, the apartment no doubt had been infinitely more splendid, more abunda

d fresh billets, seated him in the easiest of easy-chairs, knelt beside him, and chafed his numbed hands in hers; and as her br

tave passed his arm round her neck and sought to draw her on his lap, she slid from his embrace, shaki

ooked at

to address Mademoiselle Julie Caumartin?' 'That is my name,' I said, surprised; and, looking at him more intently, I recognised his face. He had come into the cafe a few days before with thine old acquaintance Frederic Lemercier, and stood by when I asked Frederic to give me news of thee. 'Mademoiselle,' he continued, with a serious melancholy smile, 'I shall startle you when I sa

had been separated from her husband, and for certain family reasons had found it so difficult to rear and provide for me herself, that she had accepted the offer of Madame Surville to adopt me as her own child. While he sp

to this gentleman, who was distantly connected with her, with full power to him to take it to himself, or give it to my use should he discover me, at his discretion. 'I ask you,' continued the Monsieur, 'to go with me to Mons. N---'s, because the sum is still in his hands. He will confirm my st

d up, and said with his customary sneer, "Did your Monsieur, fort bel homme, you say, inf

e, to be given to him, with the accumulations of interest, on the death of the lady who had deposited it. If that Monsieur had instructions how to dispose of the money, they were not known t

enerous. Perhaps you wil

bids me to

try to deceive me? Do I not know my Paris? A fort bel homme does not make himself guardian to a fort belle fine so

ly, half plaintively, "I see that my guardian knew you better than I di

rted. "But own that thy story is strange; and this guardian, who knows m

st bequeathed to him by seeing me safe in the love of some worthy man who"-she paused for a moment with an expression of compressed anguish, and then hurried o

faltered Gus

he would choose for me: that thou wert not-no, I cannot wound thee by repeating what he sa

and-" He approached again, seeking to embrace her. She recoiled. "No, Gustave, no. I have sworn solemnly by the m

prise, there was a ring at the outer door, and the old bonne ushered in

y broken faith with

Rameau. I did not seek, but I met him unexpectedly. I owed to him an explanation. I invited him here to give that explana

we know, not wanting in personal courage, felt cowed by his fal

comte. "Nay, Julie," he added, in softened tones, "fear nothi

d to Julie, and led her from the room. Then, closing the door

little I have seen already of Mademoiselle impresses me with sincere interest in her fate. I look with compassion on what she may have been in the past; I anticipate with hope what she may be in the future. I do not ask you to see her in either with my eyes. I say frankly that it is my intention, and I may add, my resolve, that the ward thus left t

act." He added, feelingly: "It is true her heart has never been corrupted that is good

as he passed by De Mauleon and gained the anteroom. There a side-do

e may never meet again,-though our fates divide us,-b

d looking him in the face with a wild fixed stare. "Hush!

rightly forbids my visits; and even were I free to offer you my

following Gustave into the ante-room, stood s

plied to the pathetic ap

with propriety and truth. Suffer him to depart. He belo

e left her to the care of the old bonne. On re-entering the anteroom, he found Gustave still lingering by the outer door. "You will pardon me, Monsieur," he said to the Vicomte, "but in fact I feel so uneasy, so unh

few minutes musing. Th

the salon. Let u