Volume I Part 15 (1/2)
”If that were so, it seems to me, Widow Cadichard, that it is my business!--Will you sew on my b.u.t.tons?”
”I! I should think not! Go to your mistress!”
Pa.s.sedix stamped the floor in vexation. At that moment the door of the room was suddenly thrown open, and the Gascon uttered an exclamation of satisfaction, for he expected to see the maid-servant of the hotel; but he was speedily undeceived. Instead of Popelinette, it was the foreigner who appeared in the doorway.
XI
THE FOREIGNER
The new tenant of the Hotel du Sanglier paused on the threshold when he saw that there was someone with his hostess; he even took a step backward, as if he did not intend to enter. But in a moment, changing his mind, he walked into the room with a certain gravity of demeanor which was not without distinction.
The Gascon chevalier scrutinized the new arrival with interest, for he suspected that it was the foreigner whom Dame Cadichard was so proud to have under her roof, and he was curious to see whether he deserved the high-flown praise which his hostess had lavished on him.
A single glance was sufficient to satisfy Pa.s.sedix that the sprightly widow had not exaggerated at all. The gentleman who had just entered the room was still young, tall and well built; his features were handsome and refined, his eyes slightly veiled, but full of fire and expression; he wore no beard on his chin, but only small moustaches curled a little upward at the ends.
He wore with easy grace a rich velvet cloak, over an elegant pale-blue doublet; a beautiful white plume lay along the broad brim of his hat, and the sword at his side was suspended from a belt trimmed with rich lace.
The stranger bowed most courteously as he walked into the room. Pa.s.sedix made haste to return his salutation, saying to himself:
”He is a good-looking fellow, sandioux! I am too just to deny it. Almost as handsome a man as myself, and that is no small thing to say!”
Widow Cadichard had risen hastily on the entrance of her tenant, to whom she made a low reverence.
”Monsieur de Carvajal, your servant,” she exclaimed; ”I have the honor to salute you! Pray be kind enough to take a seat, monsieur le comte; do you wish for anything? Perhaps you are looking for Popelinette? She hasn't returned yet, and that annoys you. She is not very quick when she has an errand to do. Would you like me to go to meet her, monseigneur?”
The stranger waited till this torrent of words had ceased, then replied, with a smile:
”What I wish first of all, my dear hostess, is that you will not put yourself out and that you will continue your repast.”
”Oh! indeed I will do nothing of the sort, monsieur le comte; I know too well what I owe to you.”
”In that case, madame, you will compel me to withdraw, for I do not like ceremony.”
”Oh! monsieur le comte, since you insist, since you command me, I will do it to obey you. But allow me first to offer you a chair.”
While Madame Cadichard bustled about the room, looking for her best easy-chair and the best place in the room to put it, Pa.s.sedix approached the new-comer and addressed him, trying all the while to hide with his cloak that part of his doublet from which the b.u.t.tons were missing.
”I presume that I have the honor to salute one of my neighbors? I say _neighbors_, because we both live in the same hotel; only I am at the top and monsieur le comte is at the bottom. But men of honor are always on the same level.”
”Ah! does monsieur live in this hotel?” rejoined the stranger, bowing to the Gascon.
”With your kind permission.”
”What, monsieur! why, I can only be flattered to have monsieur for my neighbor.”
”Castor Pyrrhus de Pa.s.sedix, G.o.dson of the most honorable Chaudoreille, who left me only this sword, his trusty Roland, a finely tempered blade, which I dare to say that I use in an honorable way! My reputation in that regard is made!--And monsieur is the Comte de Carvajal, the n.o.ble Spaniard whom Dame Cadichard is so fortunate as to have as her tenant in the Hotel du Sanglier?”
”Madame Cadichard would do well, then, to be a little more discreet, and to respect the incognito which her guests desire to maintain.”