Monsieur Cherami. Paul de Kock

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ me a hundred times that he would not interfere with my choice; that he was sure that I would not marry anyone who would not make me happy.'

      "For my part, I wanted to be married at once, but Fanny desired to add a little more to her capital before marrying, so that she might have a more substantial dowry to offer me. It was of no use for me to say that I cared nothing about that; I could not make her listen to reason."

      "If you took that for love, my dear Gustave, you can hardly claim to be a connoisseur.—Here's your very good health!"

      "Ah! monsieur; Fanny was always so amiable! her eyes always had such a sweet look in them when they met mine! she had such pretty, caressing little ways with me!"

      "Yes, yes, I know. The whole battery of the petticoat file!"

      "Six months more passed, and I implored Fanny to fix a date for our wedding. Unluckily, her operations in railroads no longer showed a profit; the shares she had bought had gone down; it was necessary to wait; and Fanny was angry at the way things were going on the Bourse.—It was about that time—— Ah! it was then that my misfortunes began."

      "Courage, dear Gustave!—and another glass of Moët! Do take a wing of this capon—just a bit of white meat. What! nothing? Well, then, sapristi! I will sacrifice myself and eat the whole bird. Never mind what the result may be; but I will drink, too, for I must wash it down.—Your health!"

      "As I was saying, it was about this time that Monsieur Auguste Monléard made the acquaintance of the Gerbault family—at a ball, I believe; he asked and obtained from the father permission to come occasionally and play and sing with the young ladies. I did not know that until later, for I did not happen to meet him for some time. The very first time that I saw him, I had a presentiment that his presence in Monsieur Gerbault's house would be fatal to my love. This Monléard made a great parade; he had a cabriolet and a negro footman; indeed, he had, so it was said, forty thousand francs a year. All that would have been a matter of indifference to me, if I had not noticed that he was very attentive, very gallant, to Fanny. However, she continued to smile on me in the most charming way; but when I said to her: 'Fix a day for our wedding, I beg you, and let me speak to your father,' she replied: 'Oh! not yet; we have plenty of time; I must increase my capital first.'

      "One morning, I had escaped from my duties at my uncle's, who scolded me sometimes because love led me to neglect business."

      "Did your uncle approve your matrimonial plans?"

      "Not very warmly; he had said to me several times: 'You're too young to marry; wait awhile.'

      "But when he saw how dearly I loved Fanny, he finally said: 'Do as you please; but if I were in your place, I'd have nothing to do with a young woman who speculates in railroad stocks.'"

      "I am much of your uncle's opinion."

      "And he added: 'You know that I will not give you a sou to be married on, don't you?'

      "I replied: 'And you know that I ask you for nothing but your affection.'"

      "A noble reply! and one that binds you to nothing.—Have a glass of champagne."

      "I have already had one."

      "So much the more reason for taking another. I say, my boy, order us a Périgord macaroni, and a parfait à la vanille."

      "Yes, monsieur."

      "Waiter, how is the wedding party getting along?"

      "They're at the second course, monsieur."

      "They have not got beyond that!"

      "What a delightful fellow this dear Gustave is! because he doesn't eat, he fancies that nobody else has any appetite."

      "Is the bride eating, waiter?"

      "Yes, monsieur; she's eating everything, I may say."

      "Everything!"

      Gustave angrily resumed his seat at the table, and held out his plate, saying to his companion:

      "Very good! then I will eat, too! Give me some capon, Arthur; give me a lot of it!"

      "Ah! good, good! spoken like a man! Now you're a man again! There's nothing left of the capon but one drumstick and the carcass, but they're the most delicate parts."

      "Give them to me, give them to me! Oh! what a fool, what an idiot, I have been! To give way to despair for a woman who makes sport of me, who eats everything, when she knows that I am consumed by grief!"

      "You acted like a fool, and that's just what I've been killing myself telling you."

      "Give me some wine!"

      "Bravo! let's drink! This champagne is delicious, and I know what I'm talking about."

      "Yes, I will think no more of her, I will forget everything, I will love some other woman."

      "Pardieu! that's the true way! In love especially, I believe in homœopathy."

      Gustave swallowed his glass of wine at a draught, then ate a few mouthfuls with a sort of avidity; but he soon pushed his plate away, and let his head fall on his breast, muttering:

      "Oh! no, I shall never love another woman; I know well enough that it would be impossible."

      "The deuce! here he is in another paroxysm of his passion! We shall have some difficulty in curing the dear boy; but we will succeed, even though that should necessitate our not leaving him for a second for ten years to come! Be yourself, Gustave, and finish your story, which, I presume, must be drawing near its end, and which interests me in the highest degree."

      "Yes, yes; you are right!—I was saying that one morning, having gone to Monsieur Gerbault's house, I found Mademoiselle Adolphine alone. She greeted me with such a sorrowful air that I could not refrain from asking her what caused her sadness, and she replied: 'I suffer for your sake, I am grieved for you; for I know how dearly you love my sister, and I foresee how you will suffer when you learn that she is going to be married, and not to you.'

      "'Great heaven!' I cried; 'can it be possible? Fanny, false to me! Fanny, give herself to another!'

      "'Yes,' said Adolphine. 'It seems to me that it is especially cruel to let you hope on, when her marriage to Monsieur Auguste Monléard was decided on a fortnight ago.'

      "'She is going to marry Monsieur Monléard!' I cried; 'she throws me over for that man! And she smiled at me only yesterday when I swore to love her all my life!'

      "'That's the reason I determined to tell you all,' said Adolphine. 'I did not choose that you should be deceived any longer.'

      "I need not tell you what a state of despair I was in. Adolphine tried in vain to comfort me; I could not believe in Fanny's treachery, and I insisted upon seeing her, and learning from her own lips that she preferred my rival to me.

      "The next day, I found her alone. Can you believe that she greeted me with the same tranquillity, the same smile, as usual? So much so, that I cried: 'It isn't true, is it, Fanny, that you are going to marry another man?'—Thereupon, with a little pout to which she tried to give a fitting touch of melancholy, she replied: СКАЧАТЬ