The Lady of the Camellias
id to my companion, ' I'm so glad to see you.
d of being i
ll who were present that, despite the familiar way in which she greeted him, Gaston was
w me to present Mon
iven Prudence l
naging to make more or less intelligible sounds, 'I ha
searching among her memories, but she did
ng, for I behaved quite ridiculously and must surely have seemed very tiresom
sn't that you were ridiculous, but I who was a tease. As I st
ut her hand wh
o embarrass people I see for the first time. It's very silly. My doctor says it's b
ook extrem
e been v
kno
told
find out how you were, and I was very
brought me
er lef
day to ask after me all the time I was
a
e done that, ' she added, turning to Monsieur de N but not before giving me
r only two months, '
e for only five minutes. You al
ess with people
ddened and b
I was, and Marguerite's callous frankness must have made him
when we arrived, ' I then
sure of treating me like an
her, 'Gaston knows exactly what my playing is like. It's all very well when I
?' replied Monsieur de N, with a smi
me for doing so. It's the only ti
ld not say anything right. He gave th
she continued, 'did
es
ter. We have things to talk about, so yo
that we ?or rather I ?have managed a second introduction to
wasn't intended for you. On the
extremely handsome wat
ing to the clu
did not rep
ay from the mantelpiece
bye, m
e rose to
ar Count, must y
fear I b
ore than any other day. Whe
permit.' 'Go
of her, you
cellent character. He simply kissed the hand which Marguerite rather no
ugh the doorway, he sho
shoulders in a
t I did al
arguerite, ' show
e door open
she reappeared, 'he's gone; that yo
o you, so thoughtful. On your mantelpiece, there's yet another watch that he's g
ards the mantelpiece, was now playing with t
s at
gh in one hand what he gives me and, in the other, the things he sa
y is in love
who is in love with me, I wouldn'
er the piano, after which
nything? I'd love
ce of chicken, ' said Prude
go out for suppe
have supp
Nanine a
ut for
hall I
, but be quick, as
e wen
like a child, 'we are going to have su
enchanted I was. She was entrancingly b
t in cont
tion for her beauty. Proof of her disinterestedness was provided by the fact that she could turn down a fashionable and w
woman something ap
rge eyes faintly ringed with blue, all pointed to one of those passionate natures which give out a bouquet of sensuality, jus
ntly with flashes of desires which, if spoken, would have been a heaven- sent relevation to any man she loved. But
could have turned into the most loving, the most pure of virgins. Marguerite still had something of a proud spirit and an urge to imdependence ?two sentiments which, when violat
, 'it was you who came for
es
y quite sublime! And wha
and call on you fr
six, and from eleven to midnight. I say, Ga
hy
and secondly because I can never ma
find diffic
, the passage w
no and began to play Weber's splendid melod
note which she accompanied in a soft singing voice and, when Gaston reached the passage whic
, mi, re...that's the pa
in, after which Marg
et me
ll her stubborn fingers tripped over one or ot
You won't believe it, but sometimes I sit up working on it until two in the morning! And when I think that fool of
in, and still wit
ng the score to the other end of the room. 'Would anybody
rms, glaring at us an
r cheeks and a small c
her hair in a mirror, 'you'll only get angry an make yourself ill. L
piano and began quietly crooning a squalid song ?
, and they truned it
ulgar rubbish, ' I said to Marguerite c
' she said, smiling and ho
or my sake
nt: 'Oh! it's a long time since I h
cture, Nani
eady?' asked
e, in just
e, 'you haven't seen round the a
he drawing-roo
en she called Gaston and went with him into
ents of a shelf from which she picked up a Dresden
ch o
holding a cage w
ve it if yo
uldn't depriv
id, I think it's hideous. But
She put her shepherd boy to one side, and led me into the dressing-
love with Marguerite. He's the one w
I asked, pointing to
Vicomte de L. He
hy
ined. Now there was somebody
e she loved h
her. The evening of the day he went away, she went to the th
ared, and announced t
was leaning against one wall and Gaston, who wa
ng to do with you. You can't wait two years after getting to know a woman like me before askin
Marguerite sat him on her right, me o
tchen and tell them they're not to
given at one
e and Marguerite. Gaston was enjoying himself unreservedly: he was a young man whose heart was in the right place, but his mind had been a little warped by the kind of people he had mixed with in his early days. At one point, I had opted to steel myself, to make my heart and my thoughts immune to the spectacle before my eyes, a
a need to forget, a restlessness, a nervous reaction. With each glass of champagne, her cheeks took on a feverish flush, and a cough, which had been nothing at the start of s
ly excesses must have inflicted
han any she had had while I had been there. It was as though her chest was being torn to pieces from the inside. The poor girl turned purple, close
h Marguerite?'
blood, ' said Prudence. 'Oh, it won't be anything, it happens every day
the great astonishment of Prudence and Nanine w