Djalma made no answer; leaning with his arm on the mantelpiece, he threw dark and piercing glances upon the princess.His involuntary hatred of this woman filled his heart.
"Ah, my dear aunt!" resumed Adrienne, in a tone of self-reproach; "have I presumed too much on the goodness of your heart? Have you not even sympathy for vipers? For whom, then, have you any? After all, I can very well understand it," added Adrienne, as if to herself; "vipers are so thin.But, to lay aside these follies," she continued, gayly, as she saw the ill-repressed rage of the pious woman, "tell us at once, my dear aunt, all the tender things which the sight of our happiness inspires."
"I hope to do so, my amiable niece.First, I must congratulate this dear prince, on having come so far to take charge, in all confidence, and with his eyes shut, of you, my poor child, whom we were obliged to confine as mad, in order to give a decent color to your excesses.You remember the handsome lad, that we found in your apartment.You cannot be so faithless, as already to have forgotten his name? He was a fine, youth, and a poet--one Agricola Baudoin--and was discovered in a secret place, attached to your bed-chamber.All Paris was amused with the scandal--for you are not about to marry an unknown person, dear prince; her name has been in every mouth."
At these unexpected and dreadful words, Adrienne, Djalma, and Mother Bunch, though under the influence of different kinds of resentment, remained for a moment mute with surprise; and the princess, judging it no longer necessary to repress her infernal joy and triumphant hatred, exclaimed, as she rose from her seat, with flushed cheek, and flashing eyes, "Yes, I defy you to contradict me.Were we not forced to confine you, on the plea of madness? And did we not find a workman (your lover)
concealed in your bedroom?"
On this horrible accusation, Djalma's golden complexion, transparent as amber, became suddenly the color of lead; his eyes, fixed and staring showed the white round the pupil--his upper lip, red as blood, was curled in a kind of wild convulsion, which exposed to view the firmly-set teeth --and his whole countenance became so frightfully threatening and ferocious, that Mother Bunch shuddered with terror.Carried away by the ardor of his blood, the young Oriental felt a sort of dizzy, unreflecting, involuntary rage--a fiery commotion, like that which makes the blood leap to the brave man's eyes and brain, when he feels a blow upon his face.If, during that moment, rapid as the passage of the lightning through the cloud, action could have taken the place of thought, the princess and Adrienne, Mother Bunch and himself, would all have been annihilated by an explosion as sudden and fatal as that of the bursting of a mine.He would have killed the princess, because she accused Adrienne of infamous deception he would have killed Adrienne, because she could even be suspected of such infamy--and Mother Bunch, for being a witness of the accusation--and himself, in order not to survive such horrid treachery.But, oh wonder! his furious and bloodshot gaze met the calm look of Adrienne--a look so full of dignity and serene confidence--and the expression of ferocious rage passed away like a flash of lightning.
Much more: to the great surprise of the princess and the young workgirl, as the glances which Djalma cast upon Adrienne went (as it were) deeper into that pure soul, not only did the Indian grow calm, but, by a kind of transfiguration, his countenance seemed to borrow her serene expression, and reflect, as in a mirror, the noble serenity impressed on the young lady's features.Let us explain physically this moral revolution, as consoling to the terrified workgirl, as provoking to the princess.
Hardly had the princess distilled the atrocious calumny from her venomous lips, than Djalma, then standing before the fireplace, had, in the first paroxysm of his fury, advanced a step towards her; but, wishing as it were to moderate his rage, he held by the marble chimney-piece, which he grasped with iron strength.A convulsive trembling shook his whole body, and his features, altered and contracted, became almost frightful.
