The Lerouge Case, Émile Gaboriau [old books to read TXT] 📗

at the first glance, they startled the beholder like a flash of lightning. Her forehead was a little high, and her mouth unmistakably large, notwithstanding the provoking freshness of her lips. Her eyebrows were so perfect they seem to have been drawn with India ink; but, unhappily the pencil had been used too heavily; and they gave her an unpleasant expression when she frowned. On the other hand, her smooth complexion had a rich golden pallor; and her black and velvety eyes possessed enormous magnetic power. Her teeth were of a pearly brilliancy and whiteness, and her hair, of prodigious opulence, was black and fine, and glossy as a raven’s wing.

On perceiving Noel, as he pushed aside the silken hangings, she half arose and leaned upon her elbow. “So you have come at last?” she observed in a tone of vexation; “you are very kind.”

The barrister felt almost suffocated by the oppressive temperature of the room. “How warm it is!” said he; “it is enough to stifle one!”

“Do you find it so?” replied the young woman. “Well, I am actually shivering! It is true though, that I am very unwell. Waiting is unbearable to me, it acts upon my nerves; and I have been waiting for you ever since yesterday.”

“It was quite impossible for me to come,” explained Noel, “quite impossible!”

“You knew, however,” continued the lady, “that today was my settling day; and that I had several heavy accounts to settle. The tradesmen all came, and I had not a halfpenny to give them. The coachmaker sent his bill, but there was no money. Then that old rascal Clergot, to whom I had given an acceptance for three thousand francs, came and kicked up a frightful row. How pleasant all this is!”

Noel bowed his head like a schoolboy rebuked for having neglected his lessons. “It is but one day behind,” he murmured.

“And that is nothing, is it?” retorted the young woman. “A man who respects himself, my friend, may allow his own signature to be dishonoured, but never that of his mistress! Do you wish to destroy my credit altogether? You know very well that the only consideration I receive is what my money pays for. So as soon as I am unable to pay, it will be all up with me.”

“My dear Juliette,” began the barrister gently.

“Oh, yes! that’s all very fine,” interrupted she. “Your dear Juliette! your adored Juliette! so long as you are here it is really charming; but no sooner are you outside than you forget everything. Do you ever remember then that there is such a person as Juliette?”

“How unjust you are!” replied Noel. “Do you not know that I am always thinking of you; have I not proved it to you a thousand times? Look here! I am going to prove it to you again this very instant.” He withdrew from his pocket the small packet he had taken out of his bureau drawer, and, undoing it, showed her a handsome velvet casket. “Here,” said he exultingly, “is the bracelet you longed for so much a week ago at Beaugrau’s.”

Madame Juliette, without rising, held out her hand to take the casket, and, opening it with the utmost indifference, just glanced at the jewel, and merely said, “Ah!”

“Is this the one you wanted?” asked Noel.

“Yes, but it looked much prettier in the shop window.” She closed the casket, and threw it carelessly on to a small table near her.

“I am unfortunate this evening,” said the barrister, much mortified.

“How so?”

“I see plainly the bracelet does not please you.”

“Oh, but it does. I think it lovely⁠ ⁠… besides, it will complete the two dozen.”

It was now Noel’s turn to say: “Ah!⁠ ⁠…” and as Juliette said nothing, he added: “Well, if you are pleased, you do not show it.”

“Oh! so that is what you are driving at!” cried the lady. “I am not grateful enough to suit you! You bring me a present, and I ought at once to pay cash, fill the house with cries of joy, and throw myself upon my knees before you, calling you a great and magnificent lord!”

Noel was unable this time to restrain a gesture of impatience, which Juliette perceived plainly enough, to her great delight.

“Would that be sufficient?” continued she. “Shall I call Charlotte, so that she may admire this superb bracelet, this monument of your generosity? Shall I have the concierge up, and call the cook to tell them how happy I am to possess such a magnificent lover.”

The barrister shrugged his shoulders like a philosopher, incapable of noticing a child’s banter. “What is the use of these insulting jests?” said he. “If you have any real complaint against me, better to say so simply and seriously.”

“Very well,” said Juliette, “let us be serious. And, that being so, I will tell you it would have been better to have forgotten the bracelet, and to have brought me last night or this morning the eight thousand francs I wanted.”

“I could not come.”

“You should have sent them; messengers are still to be found at the street-corners.”

“If I neither brought nor sent them, my dear Juliette, it was because I did not have them. I had trouble enough in getting them promised me for tomorrow. If I have the sum this evening, I owe it to a chance upon which I could not have counted an hour ago; but by which I profited, at the risk of compromising myself.”

“Poor man!” said Juliette, with an ironical touch of pity in her voice. “Do you dare to tell me you have had difficulty in obtaining ten thousand francs⁠—you?”

“Yes⁠—I!”

The young woman looked at her lover, and burst into a fit of laughter. “You are really superb when you act the poor young man!” said she.

“I am not acting.”

“So you say, my own. But I see what you are aiming at. This amiable confession is the preface. Tomorrow you will declare that your affairs are very much embarrassed, and the day after tomorrow⁠ ⁠… Ah! you are becoming very