The Greatest Historical Novels. Rafael Sabatini

There was an arch mysteriousness about her, a latent something that may have been elation or amusement, or perhaps both. Andre–Louis could not determine it.

      “Since obviously you are all eagerness to tell, why should I ask?” quoth he.

      “If you are caustic I shall not tell you even if you ask. Oh, yes, I will. It will teach you to treat me with the respect that is my due.”

      “I hope I shall never fail in that.”

      “Less than ever when you learn that I am very closely concerned in the visit of M. de La Tour d’Azyr. I am the object of this visit.” And she looked at him with sparkling eyes and lips parted in laughter.

      “The rest, you would seem to imply, is obvious. But I am a dolt, if you please; for it is not obvious to me.”

      “Why, stupid, he comes to ask my hand in marriage.”

      “Good God!” said Andre–Louis, and stared at her, chapfallen.

      She drew back from him a little with a frown and an upward tilt of her chin. “It surprises you?”

      “It disgusts me,” said he, bluntly. “In fact, I don’t believe it. You are amusing yourself with me.”

      For a moment she put aside her visible annoyance to remove his doubts. “I am quite serious, monsieur. There came a formal letter to my uncle this morning from M. de La Tour d’Azyr, announcing the visit and its object. I will not say that it did not surprise us a little . . . ”

      “Oh, I see,” cried Andre–Louis, in relief. “I understand. For a moment I had almost feared . . . ” He broke off, looked at her, and shrugged.

      “Why do you stop? You had almost feared that Versailles had been wasted upon me. That I should permit the court-ship of me to be conducted like that of any village wench. It was stupid of you. I am being sought in proper form, at my uncle’s hands.”

      “Is his consent, then, all that matters, according to Versailles?”

      “What else?”

      “There is your own.”

      She laughed. “I am a dutiful niece . . . when it suits me.”

      “And will it suit you to be dutiful if your uncle accepts this monstrous proposal?”

      “Monstrous!” She bridled. “And why monstrous, if you please?”

      “For a score of reasons,” he answered irritably.

      “Give me one,” she challenged him.

      “He is twice your age.”

      “Hardly so much,” said she.

      “He is forty-five, at least.”

      “But he looks no more than thirty. He is very handsome — so much you will admit; nor will you deny that he is very wealthy and very powerful; the greatest nobleman in Brittany. He will make me a great lady.”

      “God made you that, Aline.”

      “Come, that’s better. Sometimes you can almost be polite.” And she moved along the terrace, Andre–Louis pacing beside her.

      “I can be more than that to show reason why you should not let this beast befoul the beautiful thing that God has made.”

      She frowned, and her lips tightened. “You are speaking of my future husband,” she reproved him.

      His lips tightened too; his pale face grew paler.

      “And is it so? It is settled, then? Your uncle is to agree? You are to be sold thus, lovelessly, into bondage to a man you do not know. I had dreamed of better things for you, Aline.”

      “Better than to be Marquise de La Tour d’Azyr?”

      He made a gesture of exasperation. “Are men and women nothing more than names? Do the souls of them count for nothing? Is there no joy in life, no happiness, that wealth and pleasure and empty, high-sounding titles are to be its only aims? I had set you high — so high, Aline — a thing scarce earthly. There is joy in your heart, intelligence in your mind; and, as I thought, the vision that pierces husks and shams to claim the core of reality for its own. Yet you will surrender all for a parcel of make-believe. You will sell your soul and your body to be Marquise de La Tour d’Azyr.”

      “You are indelicate,” said she, and though she frowned her eyes laughed. “And you go headlong to conclusions. My uncle will not consent to more than to allow my consent to be sought. We understand each other, my uncle and I. I am not to be bartered like a turnip.”

      He stood still to face her, his eyes glowing, a flush creeping into his pale cheeks.

      “You have been torturing me to amuse yourself!” he cried. “Ah, well, I forgive you out of my relief.”

      “Again you go too fast, Cousin Andre I have permitted my uncle to consent that M. le Marquis shall make his court to me. I like the look of the gentleman. I am flattered by his preference when I consider his eminence. It is an eminence that I may find it desirable to share. M. le Marquis does not look as if he were a dullard. It should be interesting to be wooed by him. It may be more interesting still to marry him, and I think, when all is considered, that I shall probably — very probably — decide to do so.”

      He looked at her, looked at the sweet, challenging loveliness of that childlike face so tightly framed in the oval of white fur, and all the life seemed to go out of his own countenance.

      “God help you, Aline!” he groaned.

      She stamped her foot. He was really very exasperating, and something presumptuous too, she thought.

      “You are insolent, monsieur.”

      “It is never insolent to pray, Aline. And I did no more than pray, as I shall continue to do. You’ll need my prayers, I think.”

      “You are insufferable!” She was growing angry, as he saw by the deepening frown, the heightened colour.

      “That is because I suffer. Oh, Aline, little cousin, think well of what you do; think well of the realities you will be bartering for these shams — the realities that you will never know, because these cursed shams will block your way to them. When M. de La Tour d’Azyr comes to make his court, study him well; consult your fine instincts; leave your own noble nature free to judge this animal by its intuitions. Consider that . . . ”

      “I consider, monsieur, that you presume upon the kindness I have always shown you. You abuse the position of toleration in which you stand. Who are you? What are you, that you should have the insolence to take this tone with me?”

      He bowed, instantly his cold, detached self again, and resumed the mockery that was his natural habit.

      “My congratulations, mademoiselle, upon the readiness with which you begin to adapt yourself to the great role you are to play.”

      “Do you adapt yourself also, monsieur,” she retorted angrily, and turned her shoulder to him.

      “To be as the dust beneath the haughty feet of Madame la Marquise. I hope I shall know my place in future.”

      The phrase arrested her. She turned to him again, and he perceived that her eyes were shining now suspiciously. In an instant the mockery in him was quenched in contrition.

      “Lord, what a beast I am, Aline!” he cried, as he advanced. “Forgive me if you can.”

      Almost had she turned to sue forgiveness from him. But his contrition removed the need.

      “I’ll try,” said she, “provided that you undertake not to offend again.”

      “But I shall,” said he. “I am like that. I will fight to save you, from yourself if need be, whether you forgive me or not.”

      They were standing so, confronting each other a little breathlessly, a little defiantly, when the others issued from