Jacqueline -- Volume 3

where this friend, whom she intended to honor with the strange office of Mentor, was passing the winter in a little villa in

ment. Roulette now occupied with her a large part of every night-indeed, her nights had been rarely given to slumber, for her creed was that morning is the time for sleep, for which reason they never took breakfast in the pink villa, but tea, cakes, and confec

oy, the same kisses, the same demonstrations of affection, as those which, the summer before, had welcomed her to the Rue de Naples. They told her she could sleep on a sofa, exactly like the one on which she had passed that terrible nigh

dily needs, and now she seemed to have reached fairyland, where the verdure of the tropics was like the hanging gardens of Babylon, only those had never had a mirror to reflec

the low walls whence they looked down into the water; at the fragrance of the evergreens that surrounded the beautiful palace with its balustrades, dedicated to all the worst passions of the human race; with the sharp rocky outline of Turbia; with an almost invisible speck o

ing if it can give us such glorious spectacles, notwithstanding all the difficulties that may have to be passed through. Several minutes elapsed before she turned her r

as much admiration as she had looked at the landscape. He answered her by s

quel

ur de C

ve, sudden persuasion that she had been led into a snare. If not, why was Madame Stra

in his face. Her anger rose. She had seen the same look in the ugly, brutal face of Oscar de Talbrun. From the Terrace of Monte Carlo her memory flew back t

answered, slowly, "that I did

replied, bowing low, as she had

wished to take up their intimacy on the terms it had been

ersuasion, which gave especial meaning to his word

t it," said Jacq

elieve in the magneti

pposed to such a desire, there is a strong, f

ly moved, so much his look changed, "do not abuse your power

but that lady was already coming toward them with the s

e old friends, and ask them to join us to-morrow evening. We shall sup at the restaurant of the Grand Hotel, after the opera-

advocate to plead his cause before he continued a conversation which had not begun satisfactorily. Not that Gerard de Cymier was discouraged by the behavior of Jacqueline. He had expected her to be

as beautiful in her plain dress and her indignant paleness, while she looked far out to sea, t

him, but it would be an additiona

s, and hummed an air to herself to break the silence. She saw a storm gathering under Jacqueline's black eyebrows, and knew that sharp arrows were likely

comment on the view, explaining

cqueline, "did you not

?" asked Madame Strahlberg

he way Monsieur de

? Every one could see that. It was all the more r

f he were much in lo

ake his formal proposal? Not all men are marrying men, my dear,

should pay court to a young girl? I think I told you at the time that he had p

tone in which Jacqueline

ahl

. But you are wrong. As we grow older we lay aside harsh judgments and sharp words. They do no good

r dark eyes flashing into the ca

and fastened a ri

n here," she said, "he

-for ho

t know, for the

e and asked me to stay with you," said

I did think your presence would i

you not

know how lazy I am. And also because, I may as well conf

e by surprise?" said Jacq

you try to quarrel wi

ddenly and looking at h

nd what you mean by a fr

worth a thought. She told her that, in her position, had she meant to be too scrupulous, she should have stayed in the convent. Everything to Jacqueline seemed to dance before her eyes. The evening closed around them, the light died out, the landscape, like her life, had lost its glow. She uttered a brief prayer for help, s

e said no

to the Casino and look at the pictures? No, you are tired? You can see them some evening. The ballroom holds a thousa

t she uttered without any occasion, and which came near resulting in hysterics. Yet she had power enough over her nerves to notice the surroundings as she entered the house. At the do

ht o'cloc

ck," repeated Jac

nt word that she had a severe head

ked to dinner; suppose she should be placed next to hi

-slipped down the broad stairs over their thick carpet and pushed open a little glass door. Thank heaven! people came in and went out of that house as if it had been a mill. No one discovered her flight till the next morning, when she was far on her way to Paris in an express train. Modeste, quite unprepared for her young mistress's arrival, was amazed to see her drop down upon her, feverish and excited, like some poor hunted ani

nderstood that her young lady had come back to her, "with weary foot and broken wi

ter discouragement; "I am too worn out to thin

go to see you

he is at the bottom of al

lbrun? Madame de Talbrun is the on

ok her head wi

-how I used to hide myself under your petticoats, and you would say, going on with your knitting: 'You see s

brance of the wrongs that he had suffered through Jacqueline, now stood between them. For months he had been the prime object in her life; her mission of comforter had brought her the greatest happiness she had ever known. She tried to make him turn his attention to some serious work in life; she wanted to keep him at home, for his mother's sake, she thought; she fancied she had inspired him with a taste for home life. If she had examined herself she might have discovered that the task she h

o a worse scrape with a married woman. She imagined what might happen if the jealousy of "that wild boar of an Oscar de Talbrun" were aroused; the dangers, far more terrible than the perils of the sea, that might in such a case await her only son, the child for whose safet