Gil Blas, Alain-René Lesage [best romance ebooks .txt] 📗

as a mere ebullition of humor, a lawful stratagem of amorous warfare; and the jade of a go-between, with conscience still more callous than her master’s, was delighted with the probability of the manoeuvre. It seemed to be so much the more happily imagined, as they knew Helena to be a proud girl, capable of taking decisive measures in the moment of surprise and indignation. Don George undertook to be the herald of my fickleness, and by way of coloring the contrivance more naturally, to confront the pretended correspondent with her. This project was executed as soon as formed. The father, with counterfeit emotions of displeasure, said to Doña Helena, ‘Daughter, it is not enough now to tell you that our relations inveigh against an alliance with Don Austin’s murderer; a still stronger reason henceforward presses to detach you from Don Gastón. It may well overwhelm you with shame to have been his dupe so long. Here is an undeniable proof of his inconstancy. Only read this letter, just received by a merchant of Coria from Italy.’

“The trembling Helena caught at this forged paper, glanced over the writing, then weighed every expression, and stood aghast at the import of the whole. A keen pang of disappointment wrung from her a few reluctant tears; but pride came to her assistance; she wiped away the falling drops of weakness, and said to her father, in a determined tone, ‘Sir, you have just been witness of my folly; now bear testimony to my triumph over myself. The delusion is past; Don Gastón is the object of my utter contempt. I am ready to meet Don Blas at the altar, and be beforehand with the traitor in the pledge of our transferred affections.’

“Don George, transported with joy at this change, embraced his daughter, extolled her spirit to the skies, and hastened the necessary preparations, with all the self-complacency of a successful plotter.

“Thus was Doña Helena snatched from me. She threw herself into the arms of Combados in a pet, not listening to the secret whispers of love within her breast, nor suspecting a story which ought to have seemed so improbable in the annals of true passion. The haughty are always the victims of their own rash conclusions. Resentment of insulted beauty triumphed wholly over the suggestions of tenderness. And yet, a few days after marriage, there came over her some feelings of remorse for her precipitation; it struck her that the letter might have been a forgery; and the very possibility disturbed her peace. But the enamoured Don Blas left his wife no time to nurse up thoughts injurious to their newfound joys; a succession of gayety and pleasure kept her in a thoughtless whirl, and shielded her from the pangs of unavailing repentance.

“She appeared to be in high good humor with so spirit-stirring a husband, so that they were living together in perfect unanimity, when my aunt adjusted my affair with Don Austin’s relations. Of this she wrote me word to Italy. I returned on the wings of love. Doña Eleonora, not having announced the marriage, informed me of it on my arrival, and remarking what pain it gave me, said, ‘You are in the wrong, nephew, to show so much feeling for a faithless fair. Banish from your memory a person so unworthy to share in its tender recollections.’

“As my aunt did not know how Doña Helena had been played upon, she had reason to talk as she did; nor could she have given me better advice. To affect indifference, if not to conquer my passion, was my bounden duty. Yet there could be no harm in just inquiring by what means this union had been brought to bear. To get at the truth, I determined on applying to Felicia’s friend, Theodora. There I met with Felicia herself, who was confounded at my unwelcome presence, and would have escaped from the necessity of explanation. But I stopped her.

“ ‘Why do you avoid me?’ said I. ‘Has your perjured mistress forbidden you to give ear to my complaints? or would you make a merit with the ungrateful woman of your voluntary refusal?’

“ ‘Sir,’ answered the plotting abigail, ‘I confess my fault, and throw myself on your mercy. Your appearance here has filled me with remorse. My mistress has been betrayed, and unhappily in part by my agency.’

“The particulars of their infernal device followed this avowal, with an endeavor to make me amends for its lamentable consequence. To this effect, she offered me her services with her mistress, and promised to undeceive her; in a word, to work night and day, that she might soften the rigor of my sufferings, and open the career of hope.

“I pass over the numberless contradictions she experienced before she could accomplish the projected interview. It was at length arranged to admit me privately, while Don Blas was at his hunting-seat. The plot did not linger. The husband went into the country, and they sent for me to his lady’s apartment.

“My onset was reproachful in the extreme, but my mouth was soon shut upon the subject. ‘It is useless to look back upon the past,’ said the lady. ‘It can be no part of our present intention to work upon each other’s feelings; and you are grievously mistaken if you fancy me inclined to flatter your aspiring hopes. My sole inducement for receiving you here was to tell you personally that you have only henceforth to forget me. Perhaps I might have been better satisfied with my lot had it been united with yours; but, since heaven has ordered it otherwise, we must submit to its decrees.’

“ ‘What! madam,’ answered I, ‘is it not enough to have lost you, to see my successful rival in quiet possession of all my soul holds dear, but I must also banish you from my thoughts? You would tear from me even my passion, my only remaining blessing! And think you that a man, whom you have once enchanted, can recover his self-possession? Know yourself