Volume Ii Part 54 (1/2)
”As much money as I ask!--By Mercury! pretty lady's-maid, this deserves consideration!--Moreover, I am too gallant to refuse to hold an interview with your mistress, whom I know to be as generous as she is beautiful.--Faith! so much the worse for my new master; I will tell him that the spots stuck like the devil; I can always find some fable to tell him.--Let us be off.”
”Choose the place where you will await my mistress.”
”Let me see; I must try to think of a place where there are not too many pa.s.sers, so that we may talk undisturbed. Yes; I have what we want--on Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, I know a place where there have been no houses built as yet; there is a hollow there, where one can talk as comfortably as in one's own house; and it is not far from madame la marquise's hotel.”
”Let us make haste, then.”
Bahuchet and Miretta doubled their pace. The sometime clerk knew his Paris perfectly, and the streets one could take to lessen the distance.
In a short time they reached Rue des Francs-Bourgeois. The little man stopped at a vacant lot, where building materials had been dropped.
”This is the place; it is very convenient for a private conversation, you see.”
”It is well. Remain here, while I go to fetch my mistress.”
”She will not be long?”
”I promise you that she will be here within half an hour.”
”Very good! Above all things, do not let her bring one of her tall lackeys with her! If I see one of them in the distance, off I go, and I give you my word that you will not catch me!”
”Do you think that my mistress is setting a trap for you, Monsieur Bahuchet?”
”No, pretty brunette, I certainly do not think that; but, look you, when one has been thrashed as I was, one may well retain some apprehension.”
”Fie! a man, and afraid! At least, you should not admit it. I am only a woman, but I have never known what fear is!--Stay here, Monsieur Bahuchet, and fear nothing; you will be handsomely paid.”
Miretta fled with the swiftness of a deer; and Bahuchet seated himself on a stone, saying to himself:
”That girl is well fitted to enter one of these new companies of mousquetaires which are said to be forming; I am sure that she would march into fire without a tremor.--After all, I have no occasion for fear; although there are very few pa.s.sers on this street, still there are some. I myself chose the place of rendezvous.--So the fair Valentine is still in love with the handsome Comte Leodgard! Hum! these women!
when a pa.s.sion has taken firm root in their heart, all the obstacles they encounter simply whet their appet.i.te.--And that man who is waiting for me in his bathtub? Faith! let him wait! he will be all the cleaner for it! Besides, Plumard is with him; he will tell him lies to keep him patient. But money--all the money I want! That I know is a way of speaking; but still, the fair marchioness is generous--generous and amorous; and she flings her money away freely!”
Bahuchet had not been at his post twenty-five minutes, when he spied two women at the end of the street; one of them, enveloped in a cloak, and with her head covered by a thick veil, glanced occasionally to the right and left. They were the marchioness and her confidante. About fifty yards from Bahuchet, Valentine told Miretta to stop, and went forward alone toward the little ex-Basochian, who bowed low in the distance.
”Here I am, Monsieur Bahuchet; I have not kept you waiting too long, I hope?”
”No, madame. Oh! I knew that with madame la marquise I should not lose my time.”
”Do not waste it in empty words. Will you undertake to carry this letter to the Comte de Marvejols?”
”With great pleasure, madame.”
”Here it is; accept at the same time this purse, and my promise to give you twice as much as it contains if you bring me a reply from the count--a line written by him.”
Bahuchet could hardly hold in his hand the purse that Valentine placed there, it was stuffed so full of gold pieces to its very mouth. He was dazzled; he gazed at the purse in respectful admiration; and when he heard the marchioness promise him twice as much more, his devotion could contain itself no longer, and he cried:
”You shall have a reply from monsieur le comte, madame! You shall have it, even if I have to write it myself!--No, not that; my zeal carries me away; I do not know what I am saying!--But, once more, madame, the count shall send you a reply; I will make it my business.”
”You will take this letter to him at once?”
”Yes, madame. Oh! on the instant.--The other man may keep on bathing; I don't care a fig for that!”