she rose, with a fresh supply of magnetism.
Andrea acted like the racehorse which overtaxes itself to accomplish the master's will, however unfair. She walked through the doorway, where he had opened the door, and, still asleep, descended the stairs slowly.
Chapter VII.
The Maid And The Mistress.
Gilbert had passed this time in unspeakable anguish. Balsamo was but a man, but he was a strong one, and the youth was weak: He had attempted twenty times to mount to the assault of the guest room, but his trembling limbs gave way under him and he fell on his knees.
Then the idea struck him to get the gardener's ladder and by its means climb up outside to the window, and listen and spy. But as he stooped to pick up this ladder, lying on the grass where he remembered, he heard a rustling noise by the house, and he turned.
He let the ladder fall, for he fancied he saw a shade flit across the doorway. His terror made him believe it, not a ghost—he was a budding philosopher who did not credit them—but Baron Taverney. His conscience whispered another name, and he looked up to the second floor. But Nicole had put out her light, and not another, or a sound came from all over the house—the guest's room excepted.
Seeing and hearing nothing, convinced that he had deluded himself, Gilbert took up the ladder and had set foot on it to climb where he placed it, when Andrea came down from Balsamo's room. With a lacerated heart, Gilbert forgot all to follow her into the parlor where again she sat at the instrument; her candle still burned beside it.
Gilbert tore his bosom with his nails to think that here he had kissed the hem of her robe with such reverence. Her condescension must spring from one of those fits of corruption recorded in the vile books which he had read—some freak of the senses.
But as he was going to invade the room again, a hand came out of the darkness and energetically grasped him by the arm.
"So I have caught you, base deceiver! Try to deny again that you love her and have an appointment with her!"
Gilbert had not the power to break from the clutch, though he might readily have done so, for it was only a girl's. Nicole Legay held him a prisoner.
"What do you want?" he said testily.
"Do you want me to speak out aloud?"
"No, no; be quiet," he stammered, dragging her out of the antechamber.
"Then follow me!" which was what Gilbert wanted, as this was removing Nicole from her mistress.
He could with a word have proved that while he might be guilty of loving the lady, the latter was not an accomplice; but the secret of Andrea was one that enriches a man, whether with love or lucre.
"Come to my room," she said; "who would surprise us there! Not my young lady, though she may well be jealous of her fine gallant! But folks in the secret are not to be dreaded. The honorable lady jealous of the servant,—I never expected such an honor! It is I who am jealous, for you love me no more."
In plainness, Nicole's bedroom did not differ from the others in that dwelling. She sat on the edge of the bed, and Gilbert on the dressing-case, which Andrea had given her maid.
Coming up the stairs, Nicole had calmed herself, but the youth felt anger rise as it cooled in the girl.
"So you love our young lady," began Nicole with a kindling eye. "You have love-trysts with her; or will you pretend you went only to consult the magician?"
"Perhaps so, for you know I feel ambition——"
"Greed, you mean?"
"It is the same thing, as you take it."
"Don't let us bandy words: you avoid me lately."
"I seek solitude——"
"And you want to go up into solitude by a ladder? Beg pardon, I did not know that was the way to it."
Gilbert was beaten in the first defenses.
"You had better out with it, that you love me no longer, or love us both."
"That would only be an error of society, for in some countries men have several wives."
"Savages!" exclaimed the servant, testily.
"Philosophers!" retorted Gilbert.
"But you would not like me to have two beaux on my string?"
"I do not wish tyrannically and unjustly to restrain the impulses of your heart. Liberty consists in respecting free will. So, change your affection, for fidelity is not natural—to some."
Discussion was the youth's strong point; he knew little, but more than the girl. So he began to regain coolness.
"Have you a good memory, Master Philosopher?" said Nicole. "Do you remember when I came back from the nunnery with mistress, and you consoled me, and taking me in your arms, said: 'You are an orphan like me; let us be brother and sister through similar misfortune.' Did you mean what you said?"
"Yes, then; but five months have changed me; I think otherwise at present."
"You mean you will not wed me? Yet Nicole Legay is worth a Gilbert, it seems to me."
"All men are equal; but nature or education improves or depreciates them. As their faculties or acquirements expand, they part from one another."
"I understand that we must part, and that you are a scamp. How ever could I fancy such a fellow?"
"Nicole, I am never going to marry, but be a learned man or a philosopher. Learning requires the isolation of the mind; philosophy that of the body."
"Master Gilbert, you are a scoundrel, and not worth a girl like me. But you laugh," she continued, with a dry smile more ominous than his satirical laugh; "do not make war with me; for I shall do such deeds that you will be sorry, for they will fall on your head, for having turned me astray."
"You are growing wiser; and I am convinced now that you would refuse me if I sued you."
Nicole reflected, clenching her hands and gritting her teeth.
"I believe you are right, Gilbert," she said; "I, too, see my horizon enlarge, and believe I am fated for better things than to be so mean as a philosopher's wife. Go back to your ladder, sirrah, and try not to break your neck, though I believe it would be a blessing to others, and may be for yourself."
Gilbert hesitated for a space in indecision, for Nicole, excited by love and spite, was a ravishing creature; but he had determined to break with her, as she hampered his passion and his aspirations.
"Gone," murmured Nicole in a few seconds.
She ran to the window, but all was dark. She went to her mistress' door, where she listened.
"She is asleep; but I will know all about it to-morrow."
