The Red Cockade. Weyman Stanley John

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СКАЧАТЬ sake, stop!" he cried passionately, yet kept his voice low. "What can one do against two hundred? Go back, man, go back, and I will-"

      "You will!" I answered with fierce contempt, yet in the same low tone-the ushers were staring curiously at us from the door by which I had entered. "You will? You will do, I suppose, as much as you did last night, Monsieur."

      "Never mind that now!" he answered earnestly; though he winced, and the colour rose to his brow. "Only go! Go to Saux, and-"

      "Keep out of the way!"

      "Yes," he said, "and keep out of the way. If you will do that-"

      "Keep out of the way?" I repeated savagely.

      "Yes, yes; then everything will blow over."

      "Thank you!" I said slowly; and I trembled with rage. "And how much, may I ask, are you to have, M. le Comte, for ridding the Assembly of me?"

      He stared at me. "Adrien!" he cried.

      But I was ruthless. "No, Monsieur le Comte-not Adrien!" I said proudly; "I am that only to my friends."

      "And I am no longer one?"

      I raised my eyebrows contemptuously. "After last night?" I said. "After last night? Is it possible, Monsieur, that you fancy you played a friendly part? I came into your house, your guest, your friend, your all but relative; and you laid a trap for me, you held me up to ridicule and odium, you-"

      "I did?" he exclaimed.

      "Perhaps not with your own voice. But you stood by and saw it done! You stood by and said no word for me! You stood by and raised no finger for me! If you call that friendship-"

      He stopped me with a gesture full of dignity. "You forget one thing, M. le Vicomte," he said, in a tone of proud reticence.

      "Name it!" I answered disdainfully.

      "That Mademoiselle de St. Alais is my sister!"

      "Ah!"

      "And that, whether the fault was yours or not, you last evening treated her lightly-before two hundred people! You forget that, M. le Vicomte."

      "I treated her lightly?" I replied, in a fresh excess of rage. We had moved, as if by common consent, a little from the door, and by this time were glaring into one another's eyes. "And with whom lay the fault if I did? With whom lay the fault, Monsieur? You gave me the choice-nay, you forced me to make choice between slighting her and giving up opinions and convictions which I hold, in which I have been bred, in which-"

      "Opinions!" he said more harshly than he had yet spoken. "And what are, after all, opinions? Pardon me, I see that I annoy you, Monsieur. But I am not philosophic; I have not been to England; and I cannot understand a man-"

      "Giving up anything for his opinions!" I cried, with a savage sneer. "No, Monsieur, I daresay you cannot. If a man will not stand by his friends he will not stand by his opinions. To do either the one or the other, M. le Comte, a man must not be a coward."

      He grew pale, and looked at me strangely. "Hush, Monsieur!" he said-involuntarily, it seemed to me. And a spasm crossed his face, as if a sharp pain shot through him.

      But I was beside myself with passion. "A coward!" I repeated. "Do you understand me, M. le Comte? Or do you wish me to go inside and repeat the word before the Assembly?"

      "There is no need," he said, growing as red as he had before been pale.

      "There should be none," I answered, with a sneer. "May I conclude that you will meet me after the Assembly rises?"

      He bowed without speaking; and then, and not till then, something in his silence and his looks pierced the armour of my rage; and on a sudden I grew sick at heart, and cold. It was too late, however; I had said that which could never be unsaid. The memory of his patience, of his goodness, of his forbearance, came after the event. I saluted him formally; he replied; and I turned grimly to the door again.

      But I was not to pass through it yet.

      A second time when I had the latch in my grasp, and the door an inch open, a hand plucked me back; so forcibly, that the latch rattled as it fell, and I turned in a rage. To my astonishment it was Louis again, but with a changed face-a face of strange excitement. He retained his hold on me.

      "No," he said, between his teeth. "You have called me a coward, M. le Vicomte, and I will not wait! Not an hour. You shall fight me now. There is a garden at the back, and-"

      But I had grown as cold as he hot. "I shall do nothing of the kind," I said, cutting him short. "After the Assembly-"

      He raised his hand and deliberately struck me with his glove across the face.

      "Will that persuade you, then?" he said, as I involuntarily recoiled. "After that, Monsieur, if you are a gentleman, you will fight me. There is a garden at the back, and in ten minutes-"

      "In ten minutes the Assembly may have risen," I said.

      "I will not keep you so long!" he answered sternly. "Come, sir! Or must I strike you again?"

      "I will come," I said slowly. "After you, Monsieur."

      CHAPTER III.

      IN THE ASSEMBLY

      The blow, and the insult with which he accompanied it, put an end for the moment to my repentance. But short as was the distance across the floor from the one door to the other, it gave me time to think again; to remember that this was Louis; and that whatever cause I had had to complain of him, whatever grounds to suspect that he was the tool of others, no friend could have done more to assuage my wrath, nor the most honest more to withhold me from entering on an impossible task. Melting quickly, melting almost instantly, I felt with a kind of horror that if kindness alone had led him to interpose, I had made him the worst return in the world; in fine, before the outer door could be opened to us, I repented anew. When the usher held it for me to pass, I bade him close it, and, to Louis' surprise, turned, and, muttering something, ran back. Before he could do more than utter a cry I was across the vestibule; a moment, and I had the door of the Assembly open.

      Instantly I saw before me-I suppose that my hand had raised the latch noisily-tiers of surprised faces all turned my way. I heard a murmur of mingled annoyance and laughter. The next moment I was threading my way to my place with the monotonous voice of the President in my ears, and the scene round me so changed-from that low-toned altercation outside, to this Chamber full of light and life, and thronged with starers-that I sank into my seat, dazzled and abashed; and almost forgetful for the time of the purpose which brought me thither.

      A little, and my face grew hotter still; and with good reason. Each of the benches on which we sat held three. I shared mine with one of the Harincourts and M. d'Aulnoy, my place being between them. I had scarcely taken it five seconds, when Harincourt rose slowly, and, without turning his face to me, moved away down the gangway, and, fanning himself delicately with his hat, assumed a leaning position against a desk with his gaze on the President. Half a minute, and D'Aulnoy followed his example. Then the three behind me rose, and quietly and without looking at me found other places. The three before me followed suit. In two minutes I sat alone, isolated, a mark for all eyes; a kind of leper in the Assembly!

      I ought to have been prepared for some such demonstration. But I was not, and my cheeks burned, as if the curious looks to which I was exposed were a hot fire. It was impossible СКАЧАТЬ