Monsieur de Camors -- Volume 2

il the honor of the General under penalty of being in his own eyes, as a gentleman, a felon and foresworn. He had accepted from this old man confidence, affection

him most. He entertained for her, at once, the interest which attaches to forbidden fruit, to the attraction of strange beauty, and to the mystery of an impenetrable sphinx. She was, at this time, more goddess-l

d really to be made divine by the rays of this splendor. Large, blonde, graceful, the eyes blue and unfathomable, the forehead grave, the mouth pure and proud it was impossible to se

ayed her difficult part of young bride to an old man so perfectly as to avoid scandal. Without any pretence of extraordinary devotion, she knew how to join to her worldly pomps the exercise of charity, and all the other practices of an elegant piety. Madame de la Roche-Jugan, who watched her closely, as one watching a prey, testified, herself, in her favor; and judged her more and more worthy of her son. And Camors, who observed her, in spite of himse

me wickedness. It is true she never was with him precisely as she was before the world. The character of their relations was marked by a peculiar tone. It was precisely that tone of covert irony adopted by two persons

d this provocation, vague as it was, coming from this beautiful, cold, and inscrutable cre

Tecle and her daughter. The visit was a painful one, this year, for Madame de Tecle. Her confidence deserted her, and serious concern took its place. She had,

s, and several times public rumor had

in spite of her beautiful blue eyes, like her mother's, and her curly hair, he preserved a frozen indifference. For Camors had other anxieties, of which Madame de Tecle knew nothing. The manner of Madame Campv

ly to shorten his

g beyond the trees at the great black clouds sailing over the valley, when he heard the sound of a voic

alk with me

d immediately. At the

. "I wish to walk round the p

and they began walking, side by si

would have looked for a page behind her, but she had none, and her long blue robe-she rarel

probably?" she said,

ou dreaming

watching the

oming poetic

for becoming, for I alr

so. Shall you

sha

so

usiness e

Vau-Vautrot-is

e secretary of

ot do everythi

I do not like

adame d'Oilly, as a freethinker, and at the same time by

amu

, "he is intelligent and wi

d y

What o

so write a

you, whenev

ill you wr

e with which the Marquise sustained this dialogue, without once slackening her pa

er prose or verse, as

w how to com

am ins

are you

in the

e evening. That is no

had no desire to i

know what I should like to put there?" and she stopped sudden

not

I should like to put an

? In your place I shou

he Marquise, and walking

I like to hear thunder

hear it thund

hy

n I should n

e no ima

but I smo

you of hiding your merits,

conceal my mer

ly. "Why? Out of charity, Monsieur, not to dazzle me, and in regard for

and on the yellow sand of the alley. The day was dyin

the young woman; "this

r a few steps a bright flash broke over her head, the noise of

s almost as large as the village chapel-the broken walls half concealed under a thick mantle of ivy. Its branches had pushed through the roof and mingled with the boughs of the old trees which surrounded and shaded it.

midst of this rubbish, in the narrow

walls, inundating the soil in the ancient nave. The lightning flashed incessantly. Every now a

ificent!" said Ma

he crumbling roof which half protected them;

would better go!"

ar fo

o good, I a

ad fallen upon it. After a slight pause, she suddenly raised her uncovered head and cas

e of these flashes of lightning would kill yo

lly I should take a

ow

Do you know," he said, "there are moment

example, at this moment. Do you know what I should wish? I wish I cou

hat re

self, and who refused me, and that this man still lives.

us, Madame?" r

laug

ke-and in bad taste, I admit. But seriously now, cousin, what

ou I am entir

ed which is cast upon her soul may produce a terrible harvest? Do you not believe this? Answer me! And should I not be excusable if I entertained toward you the sentiment of an exterminating angel; and have I not some merit

her face toward the lowering sky

raining," she sa

had been transformed into a lake of mud and water.

g at her light shoes. Then, turning

will you ge

into the greasy mud and stagnant water w

said, "I shall find you some b

he door;" and without waiting for the young man's reply, she tucked up

thought for a moment she was jesting;

you afraid?

all afraid,

ou are not st

I should th

d the door with his strange burden. He was obliged to be very careful not to slip on the wet earth, and this absorbed him during t

howed her fine white teeth; the same expression of ungovernable malice burned in her dark eyes, which she riveted for some seconds on those of Camors

o drive me mad

ws?" she

lf from his arms, and placing her fo

word. Just before entering the house the young

t heart I am ve

o leave the next morning, as he had previously decided. He carri

inflamed his hopeless passi

s under the broken ice. He resolved sincerely to close it again between them, and forever. The best way to succeed in this, avowedly, was to cease all intercourse with the Marquise. But how could such conduct be explained to the General, without awaken

eir strictest form. This society, which had only been vaguely spoken of in public under the name of "Societe des Raffines," and also as "The Templars" which latter was its true name- had nothing in common with "The Devourers," illustrated by Balzac. It had nothing in it of a romantic or dramatic character. Th

elonging to this association who either insulted or interfered with the wife or relative of one of his colleagues. The only penalty was exclusion: but the consequences of this exclusion were grave; for all the members ceased thereafter to associate with, recognize, or e

ed accepted it with enthusiasm. They were happy in being able to substitute a sort of positive and formal religion for restraints so limited as their own confused and floating notions of honor. For Camors himself, as is easily understood, it was a new barrier which he wished to erect between himself and the passion which fascinated him. He attached himself t

him more simply and more naturally than ever, with no recurrence to the past, no allusion to the scene in the park during the storm; as if she had, on that day, disclosed everything that had lain hidden in her heart. This conduct so much resembled indifference, that Camors should have been delighted; but he was not-on the contrary he was annoyed by it. A cruel but

entr'acte prevented his going as soon as usual to pay his respects to his cousin. At last, after the fourth act, he went to visit her in her box, where he found her alone, the General having descended to the par

excites my ner

with hiding my merits, why do you hide yours? If y

t. Oh, heavens! If you only k

mystery

mystery? Only that? Very well-be happ

the bottom of my soul. It seems to me that women who give themselves for so little must be base creatures. As for myself, I remember having said to you one day-it is a million years since then!-that my person is sacred to me; and to commit a sacrilege I should wish, like the vestals of Rome, a love as great as my crime, and as terrible as death. I wept just now during that magnificent fourth act. It was not because I listened to the most marvellous music ever heard on this earth; it was because I admire and envy passionat

the hand she extended to him coldly, and left

ing him by the arm. "I must communicate to you an

dea, Ge

g girls. This set me to thinking of you, and I even said to

Gen

, why

-if one makes a mistake in hi

a great deal of religion, not much imagination, and no fancies. Tha

al, I will t

a serious tone; and went to join his

ood herself, and analyzed her own

t and the taste for pleasure. They lose in the midst of this enchanted and false life, like theatrical fairyland, the true idea of life in general, and Christian life in particular. And we can confidently affirm that all those who do not make for themselves, apart from the crowd, a kind of Thebaid-and there are such-are pagans. They are pagans, because the pleasures of the senses and of the mind alone interest them, an

hter side, in its childish whirl, and the trifling follies it entails, who make rendezvous, waste their time, who dress and are busy day and night doing nothing, who dance franti

as she also said to herself in one of her serious moments when a woman's destiny is decided by the

k with all the harmony that surrounded the Marquise, he regret

k often the society of his beautiful cousin, and even contracted the habit of repairing to her house two or three times a week, after leaving the Chamber of Deputies. Whenever he found her alone, their conversation invariably assumed a tone of irony and of raillery, in which

are also musicians; but that is imagin

th the grace of a queen. This evening she wore a very simple costume, as was becoming in the courteous hostess. It was a gown of dark velvet, with a t

a more lively skirmish than usual. He was struck by her brilliancy-her beauty heightened, without doubt, by the secret ardo

yielding, against his will, to an involunta

this evening. Enough so t

edly in his ey

at," and then left him,

, and tapping the Coun

nce, as usual. Let us

s were removed, two heavy curtains isolated the room completely from the neighboring gallery. It was there that the General usually played cards and slept during his fetes. A small card-table was placed before a divan. Except thi

ving kept you so long away from the ladies. I give you

piece, warmed his feet, one after the other. The General threw himself on the divan, ran his eye over the 'Moniteur de l'Armee', appr

harmonies, through the murmurs and warm perfume of the ball, he followed, in thought, all the evolutions of her who wa

utiful, living, palpitating statue. She was really for him more than a woman-more than a mortal. The antique fables of amorous goddesses and drunken Bacchantes-the superhuman volupt

surmounted by her coronet. She threw a rapid glance over the boudoir, and after a moment's pause, let the curtain fall gently, and advanced directly toward Camors, who stood dazzled and imm

all else, he bent, and im

he same instant the Marquise was standing before him, her hands resting on

s of apology, but she laughingl

e come in search of my cousin, for th

ery. The young man; pale a

wild light burning in her eyes. Then, before she was los

is the