Chapter 50
And the sleeve of her dress, slipping up a little, showed on her left wrist a bracelet adorned with three opals.
Frederick noticed it.
"Look here! why----"
All three looked into one another's faces, and reddened.
The door was cautiously half-opened; the brim of a hat could be seen, and then Hussonnet's profile exhibited itself.
"Pray excuse me if I disturb the lovers!"
But he stopped, astonished at seeing Cisy, and that Cisy had taken his own seat.
Another cover was brought; and, as he was very hungry, he s.n.a.t.c.hed up at random from what remained of the dinner some meat which was in a dish, fruit out of a basket, and drank with one hand while he helped himself with the other, all the time telling them the result of his mission. The two bow-wows had been taken home. Nothing fresh at the house. He had found the cook in the company of a soldier--a fict.i.tious story which he had especially invented for the sake of effect.
The Marechale took down her cloak from the window-screw. Frederick made a rush towards the bell, calling out to the waiter, who was some distance away:
"A carriage!"
"I have one of my own," said the Vicomte.
"But, Monsieur!"
"Nevertheless, Monsieur!"
And they
At last, the Marechale took Cisy's arm, and pointing towards the Bohemian seated at the table:
"Pray mind him! He's choking himself. I wouldn't care to let his devotion to my pugs be the cause of his death."
The door closed behind him.
"Well?" said Hussonnet.
"Well, what?"
"I thought----"
"What did you think?"
"Were you not----?"
He completed the sentence with a gesture.
"Oh! no--never in all my life!"
Hussonnet did not press the matter further.
He had an object in inviting himself to dinner. His journal,--which was no longer called _L'Art_, but _Le Flambart_,[14] with this epigraph, "Gunners, to your cannons!"--not being at all in a flouris.h.i.+ng condition, he had a mind to change it into a weekly review, conducted by himself, without any a.s.sistance from Deslauriers. He again referred to the old project and explained his latest plan.
[Footnote 14: _The Blaser._]
Frederick, probably not understanding what he was talking about, replied with some vague words. Hussonnet s.n.a.t.c.hed up several cigars from the tables, said "Good-bye, old chap," and disappeared.
Frederick called for the bill. It had a long list of items; and the waiter, with his napkin under his arm, was expecting to be paid by Frederick, when another, a sallow-faced individual, who resembled Martinon, came and said to him:
"Beg pardon; they forgot at the bar to add in the charge for the cab."
"What cab?"
"The cab the gentleman took a short time ago for the little dogs."
And the waiter put on a look of gravity, as if he pitied the poor young man. Frederick felt inclined to box the fellow's ears. He gave the waiter the twenty francs' change as a _pour-boire_.
"Thanks, Monseigneur," said the man with the napkin, bowing low.