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

“It must be so by your looks,” replied she, “and I will fairly own that I delight in doing a kindness to people of quality, that is my weak side. I watched you through my window. You looked very earnestly at a lady who has just left me. Perhaps you may have taken a fancy to her? tell me so plainly.”

“By the honor of my house,” answered I, “she has shot me through the heart. I never saw anything so tempting; a most divine creature! Do bring us acquainted, my dear, and rely on my gratitude. It is worth while to do these little offices for us of the beau monde; they are better paid than our bills.”

“I have told you once for all,” replied the old woman, “I am entirely devoted to people of condition; it is my passion to be useful to them: I receive here, for example, a certain class of ladies, whom appearances prevent from seeing their favorites at home. I lend them my house, and thus the warmth of their constitutions is indulged, without risk to their characters.”

“Vastly well,” quoth I, “and you have just done that kindness to the lady in question?”

“No,” answered she, “this is a young widow of quality, in want of an admirer; but so difficult in her choice, that I do not know whether you will do for her, however great your requisites may be. I have already introduced to her three well-furnished gallants, but she turned up her nose at them.”

“O! egad, my life,” exclaimed I confidently, “you have only to stick me in her skirts, I will give you a good account of her, take my word for it. I long to have a grapple with a beauty of such peremptory demands; they have not yet fallen in my way.”

“Well then,” said the old woman, “you have only to come hither tomorrow at the same hour: your curiosity shall be satisfied.”

“I will not fail,” rejoined I; “we shall see whether a young nobleman can miss a conquest.”

I returned to the little barber’s without looking for other adventures, but deeply interested in the event of this. Therefore, on the following day, I went in splendid attire, to the old woman’s an hour sooner than the time. “My lord,” said she, “you are punctual, and I take it kindly. To be sure the game is worth the chase. I have seen our young widow, and we have had a good deal of talk about you. Not a word was to be said; but I have taken such a liking to you that I cannot hold my tongue. You have made yourself agreeable, and will soon be a happy man. Between ourselves, the lady is a relishing morsel, her husband did not live long with her; he glided away like a shadow: she has all the merit of an absolute girl.” The good old lady, no doubt, meant one of those clever girls who contrive not to live single, though they live unmarried.

The heroine of the assignation came soon in a hired carriage, as on the day before, dressed very magnificently. As soon as she came into the room, I led off with five or six coxcombical bows, accompanied by the most fashionable grimaces. After this, I went up to her with a very familiar air, and said: “My adored angel, you behold a gentleman of no mean rank, whom your charms have undone. Your image, since yesterday, has taken complete possession of my fancy; you have turned a duchess neck and heels out of my heart, who was beginning to establish a footing there.”

“The triumph is too glorious for me,” answered she, throwing off her veil, “but still my transports are not without alloy. Young men of fashion love variety, and their hearts are, they say, bandied about from one to the other like a piece of base money.”

“Ah! my sovereign mistress,” replied I, “let us leave the future to shift for itself, and think only of the present. You are lovely: I am in love. If my passion is not hateful to you, let it take its course at random. We will embark like true sailors, set the storms and shipwreck of a long voyage at defiance, and only take the fair weather of the time present into the account.”

In flashing this speech, I threw myself in raptures at the feet of my nymph; and the better to hit off my assumed character, pressed her with some little peevishness not to delay my bliss. She seemed a little touched by my remonstrances, but thought it too soon to yield, and, giving me a gentle rebuff: “Hold,” said she, “you are too importunate; this is like a rake. I fear you are but a loose young fellow.”

“For shame, madam!” exclaimed I; “can you set your face against what women of the first taste and condition encourage? A prejudice against what is vulgarly called vice may be all very well for citizens’ wives.”

“That is decisive,” replied she; “there is no resisting so forcible a plea. I see plainly that with men of your order dissimulation is to no purpose; a woman must meet you half way. Learn then your victory,” added she with an appearance of disorder, as if her modesty suffered by the avowal; “you have inspired me with sentiments such as are new to my heart, and I only wait to know who you are, that I may take you for my acknowledged lover. I believe you a young lord and a gentleman, yet there is no trusting to appearances; and, however prepossessed I may be in your favor, I would not give away my affections to a stranger.”

I recollected at the moment how Don Antonio’s servant had got out of a similar perplexity, and determining, after his example, to pass for my master: “Madam,” said I to my dainty widow, “I will not excuse myself from telling you my name; it