Free Memoirs of a Physician by Alexandre Dumas

Nicole ; and in place of going to Trianon, and entering the household of the dauphiuess with mademoiselle instead of coquetting with the fine lords and rich gentlemen, as you will not fail to do if you remain with the family instead of all this, you will be sent to enjoy the society of your admirer, Monsieur Beausire, an exempt, a soldier ! Oh, what a direfnl fall ! What a noble ambition Mademoiselle Nicole’s is to be the favored fair one of a guardsman ! “
    And Gilbert began to hum, in a low voice, with a most malicious accent :
     
    ” In the Garde Frangaise I had a faithful lover.”
    “In mercy, Monsieur Gilbert,” said Nicole, “do not look at me in that ill-natured manner. Your eyes pierce me, even in the darkness. Do not laugh, either your laugh terrifies me.”
    ” Then open the door,” said Gilbert, imperatively ; ” open the door for me, Nicole, and not another word of all this.”
    Nicole opened the door with so violent a nervous trembling, that her shoulders and head shook like those of an old woman.
    Gilbert tranquilly stepped out first, and seeing that the young girl was leading him toward the door of the garden, he said :
    ” No, no ; you have your means for admitting people here, I have my means for leaving it. Go to the greenhouse, to Monsieur Beausire, who must be waiting impatiently for you, and remain with him ten minutes longer than you intended to do. I will grant you this recompense for your discretion.”
    ” Ten minutes, and why ten minutes ? ” asked Nicole, trembling.
     
    51 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.
    ” Because I require ten minutes to disappear. Go, Nicole, go ; and like Lot’s wife, whose story I told you at Taverney, when you gave me a rendezvous among the hay-stacks, do not turn round, else something worse will happen to you than to be changed into a statue of salt. Go, beautiful siren, go ; I have nothing else to say to yon.”
    Nicole, subdued, alarmed, conquered, by the coolness and presence of mind shown by Gilbert, who held her future destiny in his hands, turned with drooping head toward the greenhouse, where Beausire was already uneasy at her prolonged absence.
    Gilbert, on his side, observing the same precautions as before to avoid discovery, once more reached the wall, seized his rope, and, assisted by the vine and trellis-work, gained the first story in safety, and quickly ascended the stairs. As luck would have it, he met no one on his way up ; the neighbors were already in bed, and Therese was still at supper.
    Gilbert was too much excited by his victory over Nicole to entertain the least fear of missing his footing in the leaden gutter. He felt as if he could have walked on the edge of a sharpened razor, had the razor been a league long. He regained his attic in safety therefore, closed the window, seized the note which no one had touched, and tore it in pieces. Then he stretched himself with a delicious feeling of languor upon his bed.
    Half an hour afterward Therese kept her word, and came to the door to inquire how he was. Gilbert thanked her, in a voice interrupted by terrific yawns, as if he were dying of sleep. He was eager to be alone, quite alone, in darkness and sileDce, to collect his thoughts, and analyze the varied emotions of this ever-memorable day.
    Soon, indeed, everything faded from his mind’s eye ; the baron, Philip, Nicole, Beausire, disappeared from view, to give place to the vision of Andre at her toilet, her arms raised above her head, and detaching pins from her long and flowing hair.
     
    MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 55
     
    CHAPTER VIII.
    THE BOTANISTS.
    THE events which we have just related happened on Friday evening ; so that it was the second day after that the excursion which Rousseau looked forward to with so much pleasure was to take place.
    Gilbert, indifferent to everything since he had heard that Andre was soon to depart for Trianon, had spent the entire day leaning on his window-sill. During this day the window of Andre’s room