His Excellency the Minister Part 49

"Congratulate?" she said slowly.

"The woman he marries is pretty enough, I think?"

"Ah! my dear, a truce to insolent trifles!--what is it that has possessed you for some time past?"

"Nothing, but something has possessed you--or some one."

"Rosas?"

"No, Vaudrey!"

"I will restore him to you. Oh! oh! you are surprisingly interested in Vaudrey. Vaudrey or his wife?" she remarked.

She smiled with her wicked expression.

"d.u.c.h.ess," said Lissac, "accustom yourself to respect virtuous women!"

"Is it to talk of such pleasant trifles that you have gained access to my box?"

"No, it is to ask you for some special information."

"What?"

"Is it true, is it really true that you are about to wed Rosas?" he asked in an almost cordial tone.

"Why not?" she replied, as she raised her head.

"Because--I am going to be frank--I have always regarded you as an absolutely straightforward woman, a woman of honor--You once claimed so to be. Mad, fantastic, you often are; charming, always; but dishonest, never. To take Rosas's love, even his fortune, would be natural enough, but to take his name would be a very questionable act and a skilful one, but lacking in frankness."

"That is to say that I may devour him like a courtesan, but not marry him as a--"

"As a young girl, no, you cannot do that. And you put me--I am bound to tell you so and I take advantage of the intermission to do so--in a delicate position. If I declared the truth to Rosas, I act toward you as a rascal. If I keep silent to my friend, my true friend, I act almost like a knave."

"Did Rosas ask you to speak to me?"

"No, but there is a voice within me that p.r.i.c.ks me to speech and tells me that if I allow you to marry the duke, I am committing myself to a questionable affair--Do you know what he asked me?--To be his witness."

If Marianne had been in a laughing mood, she would have laughed heartily.

"It is absurd," she said. "You did not consent?"

"Yes, indeed, I have consented. Because I really hoped that you would relieve me from such an undesirable duty, a little too questionable."

"You would like?--What would you like?"

"I wish--no, I would have you not marry Monsieur de Rosas."

Marianne shrugged her shoulders.

She clearly felt the threat conveyed in Lissac's words, but she desired to show from the first that she disdained them. What right, after all, had this casual acquaintance to mix himself up in her life affairs?

Because, one day, she had been charitable enough to give him her youth and her body! The duty of friendship! The rights of friendship! To protect Vaudrey! To defend Rosas! Words, tiresome words!

"And what if I wish to marry him, myself?--Would you prevent it?"

"Yes, if I could!" he said firmly. "It is time that to the freemasonry of women we should oppose the freemasonry of men."

"You are cruelly cowardly enough when you are alone, what would you be then when you are together?" said Marianne, with a malignant expression.

"In fact," said she, after a moment's pause, "what would you have? What?

Decide!--Will you send my letters to the duke?"

"That is one way," said Lissac, calmly. "It is a _woman's_ way, that!"

"You have my letters still?"

"Preciously preserved."

He had not contemplated such a threat, but she quickly scented a danger therein.

"Suppose I should ask the return of those letters, perhaps you would restore them to me?"

"Probably," he said.

"Suppose I asked you to bring them to me, you know, in that little out of the way room of which I spoke to you one day?"

She had leaned gently toward Lissac and her elbows grazed the knees of her former lover.

"I would wear, that day, one of those otter-trimmed toques that you have not forgotten."

She saw that he trembled, as if he were moved by some unsatisfied desire for her. She felt rea.s.sured.

"Nonsense!" she said with a smiling face. "You are not so bad as you pretend to be."

The manager tapped the customary three blows behind the curtain, and the orchestra began the prelude to the third act.

"Adieu for a brief period, my enemy!" said Marianne, extending her hand.

He hesitated to take that hand. At length, taking it in his own, he said:

"Leave me Rosas!"

"Fie! jealous one! Don't I leave Vaudrey to you?"

She laughed, while Lissac went away dissatisfied.

"I will have my letters, at all risks," thought Marianne when he had disappeared. "It is more prudent."

That night she slept badly, and the following morning rose in a very ill-humor. Her face expressed fatigue, her eyes were encircled with dark rings and burned feverishly, but withal, her beauty was heightened. All the morning she debated as to the course she should take, and finally decided to write to Guy, when Sulpice Vaudrey arrived, and beaming with delight, informed Marianne that he had the entire day to spend with her.

"I learned through Jouvenet this morning that you were able to go to the theatre. Naughty one, to steal an evening from me. But I have all to-day, at least."