She turned and spoke to her woman,who replied in a low voice,tossing her head the while and glaring at me in speechless indignation.Had there been anything else for it,they would doubtless have flouted my offer still;but apparently Fanchette could suggest nothing,and presently mademoiselle,with a sullen air,bade me lead on.
Taking this for permission,the lanky youth in the black soutane,who had remained at my bridle throughout the discussion,now listening and now staring,nodded and resumed his way;and Ifollowed.After proceeding a little more than fifty yards he stopped before a mean-looking doorway,flanked by grated windows,and fronted by a lofty wall which I took to be the back of some nobleman's garden.The street at this point was unlighted,and little better than an alley;nor was the appearance of the house,which was narrow and ill-looking,though lofty,calculated,as far as I could make it out is the darkness,to allay mademoiselle's suspicions.Knowing,however,that people of position are often obliged in towns to lodge in poor houses,Ithought nothing of this,and only strove to get mademoiselle dismounted as quickly as possible.The lad groped about and found two rings beside the door,and to these I tied up the horses.Then,bidding him lead the way,and begging mademoiselle to follow,I plunged into the darkness of the passage and felt my way to the foot of the staircase,which was entirely unlighted,and smelled close and unpleasant.
'Which floor?'I asked my guide.
'The fourth,'he answered quietly.
'Morbleu!'I muttered,as I began to ascend,my hand on the wall.'What is the meaning of this?'
For I was perplexed.The revenues of Marsac,though small,should have kept;my mother,whom I had last seen in Paris before the Nemours edict,in tolerable comfort--such modest comfort,at any rate,as could scarcely be looked for in such a house as this--obscure,ill-tended,unlighted.To my perplexity was added,before I reached the top of the stairs,disquietude--disquietude on her account as well as on mademoiselle's.I felt that something was wrong,and would have given much to recall the invitation I had pressed on the latter.
What the young lady thought herself I could pretty well guess,as I listened to her hurried breathing at my shoulder.With every step I expected her to refuse to go farther.But,having once made up her mind,she followed me stubbornly,though the darkness was such that involuntarily I loosened my dagger,and prepared to defend myself should this turn out to be a trap.
We reached the top,however,without accident.Our guide knocked softly at a door and immediately opened it without waiting for an answer.A feeble light shone out on the stair-head,and bending my head,for the lintel was low,I stepped into the room.
I advanced two paces and stood looking about me in angry bewilderment.The bareness of extreme poverty marked everything on which my eyes rested.A cracked earthenware lamp smoked and sputtered on a stool in the middle of the rotting floor.An old black cloak nailed to the wall,and flapping to and fro in the draught like some dead gallowsbird,hung in front of the unglazed window.A jar in a corner caught the drippings from a hole in the roof.An iron pot and a second stool--the latter casting a long shadow across the floor--stood beside the handful of wood ashes,which smouldered on the hearth.And that was all the furniture I saw,except a bed which filled the farther end of the long narrow room,and was curtained off so as to form a kind of miserable alcove.
A glance sufficed to show me all this,and that the room was empty,or apparently empty.Yet I looked again and again,stupefied.At last finding my voice,I turned to the young man who had brought us hither,and with a fierce oath demanded of him what he meant.
He shrank back behind the open door,and yet;answered with a kind of sullen surprise that I had asked for Madame de Bonne's,and this was it.
'Madame de Bonne's!'I muttered.'This Madame de Bonne's!'
He nodded.
'Of course it is!And you know it!'mademoiselle hissed in my ear,her voice,as she interposed,hoarse with passion.'Don't think that you can deceive us any longer.We know all!This,'
she continued,looking round,her cheeks scarlet,her eyes ablaze with scorn,'is your mother's,is it!Your mother who has followed the court hither--whose means are narrow,but not so small as to deprive her of the privileges of her rank!This is your mother's hospitality,is it?You are a cheat,sir!and a detected cheat!Let us begone!Let me go,sir,I say!'
Twice I had tried to stop the current of her words;but in vain.
Now with anger which surpassed hers a hundredfold--for who,being a man,would hear himself misnamed before his mother?--Isucceeded,'Silence,mademoiselle!'I cried,my grasp on her wrist.'Silence,I say!This is my mother!'
And running forward to the bed,I fell on my knees beside it.Afeeble hand had half withdrawn the curtain,and through the gap my mother's stricken face looked out,a great fear stamped upon it.
