The Bath Keepers Volume I Part 32

"Do you hear? That is how he has turned virtuous, how he has reformed, the scapegrace! That is how he turns over a new leaf!"

"Mon Dieu! Ambroisine, what difference does it make to me? You say that as if it interested me."

"Well! he stared at you so! And then, you think him good-looking."

"I think him so, because he is. But what does that prove? Are you going to scold me now because that young gentleman looked at me? Is it my fault?"

"Scold you, dear Bathilde! oh, no! But, you see, it is my duty to look after you, as if I were your older sister; for we made ourselves responsible for you to your father, and I should not want any misfortune to happen to you; it would seem to me as if I were the cause."

"Misfortune! Mon Dieu! what misfortune do you dread for me?"

Ambroisine dared not reply. Suddenly the Chevalier Pa.s.sedix stood on tiptoe and exclaimed:

"Sandioux! she is over there! I see her in the light of a torch. She is a Venus, the little dear! By Roland! I must join her, even though I have to push this whole crowd out of my way!"

And the tall Gascon, beginning at once to work his arms and legs like a windmill, forced aside all those who stood in his path, and soon reached that part of the square where Miretta had stopped.

Ambroisine followed Pa.s.sedix with her glance, and she also spied her new friend in the crowd at some distance; but in order to join her she would have had to plunge into the midst of the mob that separated them and to give up the good places they had secured; and Master Hugonnet had declared that he would not stir. Ambroisine tried in vain, by raising her arms and making signs, to attract Miretta's attention.

Nevertheless, Cedrille's pretty cousin turned her eyes in every direction. Surely she too was looking for someone; but was it her friend Ambroisine?

Suddenly Miretta felt a hand on her arm, and a shrill voice exclaimed:

"Ah! sandis! so I have found you at last, O my G.o.ddess! I was seeking you, I will not say _per montes et vitulos_, but among all the groups of pretty women. Will you do me the honor to accept my arm?"

Miretta a.s.sumed a stern expression and answered curtly:

"No, monsieur, I will not accept your arm; and since I meet you here, I will take the opportunity to tell you that you are wasting your time by following me constantly, that your obstinacy in pursuing me is most annoying to me----"

"Eh! cadedis! the little one plays the haughty dame! So you refuse my homage--and this is the way you acknowledge the services I rendered you, ingrate! I, who saved you from the most imminent danger! Your cousin Cedrille did me more justice! I was his friend, his faithful companion.

I am very sorry that he has returned to Pau; he would have spoken to you in my behalf."

"Cedrille would not have encouraged your undertakings, monsieur le chevalier; he knew too well that you had nothing to hope from me. I do not know whether he had reason to congratulate himself on having taken you for a comrade, but I know very well that he made only a very brief stay in Paris, and that he went away with a black eye, saying that he had had enough of the capital and that he had not enjoyed himself here at all.--However, monsieur, if you did take up my defence when I was insulted, it seems to me that you should not regret it; it was your duty as a man of honor. But I do not consider that it gave you the right to spy upon my every movement and to be always at my heels."

The Gascon chevalier was cut to the quick, and the firm and decided tone in which Miretta had answered him added to his irritation; for a woman's voice, while it may sometimes soften the most severe words, is no less able to impart greater bitterness to the simplest rebuke. In all things, it is the tone that makes the music.

The tone adopted by the pretty brunette exasperated Pa.s.sedix; he ran his fingers through his beard and tried to sneer, as he muttered:

"Ah! so that's the way it is! so we choose to adopt that tone! By Roland! it is very pretty! And it is a paltry serving maid--a lady's-maid--a mere fille de chambre, who indulges in these manners of a grand d.u.c.h.ess, when I condescend to honor her by letting my glance rest on her back hair! Ah! my love, beware! I have never met any cruel charmers--especially among your kind--and if you do not take my arm, I am capable----"

"Capable of what?" demanded a young man, dressed as a simple mechanic, who had suddenly stepped between Miretta and Pa.s.sedix, at the latter of whom he gazed fixedly, while forcing him back several steps with his left arm.

"What business is it of yours, clown, who presume to question me? I find you exceedingly bold! Knave! stand aside instantly, or I unsheathe----"

And the Gascon chevalier, crimson with wrath, was already standing on guard, with his right hand on the hilt of Roland; while Miretta, having glanced at the young man who had come to her rescue, uttered an exclamation of surprise, while her eyes beamed with joy and delight.

"I will not stand aside, unless it is mademoiselle's pleasure to accept my arm and leave this crowd which is pressing upon her," rejoined the new-comer.

"You! take this little one away from under my nose--from my very beard!

You shall die ten deaths first!"

And Pa.s.sedix instantly drew Roland from its sheath. The sight of that bare sword waving in the midst of the crowd made the women shriek and the children weep; but before he who held it could make use of it the young man's hand seized the chevalier's wrist and squeezed it with such force that the fingers opened and the sword fell to the ground.

"Sandioux! I know that grip; I have felt it before somewhere!" cried Pa.s.sedix. "Disarm me! Shame! that is unfair! it is treachery!"

But while the Gascon shouted, and shook his benumbed arm, the _soi-disant_ mechanic took Miretta's arm and disappeared with her in the crowd.

At that moment loud cries arose on all sides; the great pile had been set on fire. Thereupon the crowd swayed hither and thither, some trying to draw nearer the fire in order to see better, others to move away because they were afraid.

A powerful wave carried Pa.s.sedix ten or fifteen yards away from the spot where his sword had fallen. Thereupon he began to whine and lament in the midst of the crowd, these words being distinguishable:

"Look out, my friends! In the name of what you hold most dear, do not step on it! If it is broken, I shall not survive; I shall bury the fragments in my heart!"

But the mult.i.tude, engrossed by what it had come to see, paid no heed to the cries and groans and entreaties of the unhappy chevalier, who struggled in vain to return to the place where he had lost Roland, and who before long had no idea himself in which direction it was.

This lasted until the fire died out.

As soon as it was entirely extinct, the crowd scattered; everyone returned home discussing the pleasure he had had, and some looking forward to that which the evening promised them.

Soon n.o.body was left on the square except two men, one very short, the other quite tall, both of whom were on their hands and knees searching in every corner, one for his cap, the other for his sword. Suddenly they came nose to nose, or rather head to head, in that occupation.

"Are you helping me to look for it!" Pa.s.sedix asked the clerk of the Basoche; "thanks, my boy, that is very amiable on your part. If you find it, I will give you six deniers; I have received some funds from my family."

"If I find it, I don't want your deniers!" rejoined Plumard, in a surly tone. "It is mine, my own property, and if you find it you will have to give it to me; don't think for a moment that I will let you keep it!"

"What is the little fellow chattering about? If you find it, you propose to keep it? Why, you are mad, my dear fellow! What would you do with it, pray? It is twice too long for you; you could not even wear it."

"I couldn't wear it! that's a good one, that is! On the contrary, it fits me like an angel; while you don't need it, for you have a cap on your head."

"Why should my cap prevent me from wearing it, fool that you are?"

"Do you mean to say that you would put it on over your cap? That would look very pretty! At all events, it's my property."

"Hold your tongue, you little thief! just let me find it and I'll punish you with it!"

The two worthies who had had this altercation, being still on all fours, were about to rush at each other like two frantic cats, when a third personage appeared on the scene, laughing and singing. It was Bahuchet, with long Roland in his hand, twirling his comrade's cap at the end of the blade.

"I say! you fellows! here's a find! the cap is mine, and the sword is mine!"

At sight of the objects they were seeking, Pa.s.sedix and Plumard rose spontaneously and pounced upon them. The former seized his sword, the latter his cap, which he pulled over his eyes, and ran away at full speed. The chevalier replaced Roland in its sheath, and then he strode rapidly away.

Bahuchet, left alone in the square, looked after them and said to himself:

"Well! they are very polite! they did not so much as thank me!"

XX