no, only fools are squeamish—I have no prejudices. It is my due and I shall take it. Don’t you have any scruples, either. The only matter to debate is your training. You have the solid education of the middle class with the more showy one of your own; you paint just such landscapes as the Dauphiness doats upon. As for your beauty, the King will not fail to notice it. As for conversation, which Count Artois and Count Provence like—you will charm them. So you will not only be welcome but adored. That is the word,” concluded the cynic, rubbing his hands and laughing so unnaturally that Philip stared to see if it were a human being.
But, taking Andrea’s hand as she lowered her eyes, the young gentleman said:
“Father is right; you are all he says, and nobody has more right to go to Versailles Palace.”
“But I would be parted from you,” remonstrated Andrea.
“Not at all,” interrupted the baron; “Versailles is large enough to hold all the Taverneys.”
“True, but the Trianon is small,” retorted Andrea, who could be proud and willful.
“Trianon is large enough to find a room for Baron Taverney,” returned the old nobleman, “a man like me always finds a place”—meaning “can find a place. Any way, it is the Dauphiness’s order.”
“I will go,” said Andrea.
“That is good. Have you any money, Philip?” asked the old noble.
“Yes, if you want some; but if you want to offer me it, I should say that I have enough as it is.”
“Of course, I forgot you were a philosopher,” sneered the baron. “Are you a philosopher, too, my girl, or do you need something?”
“I should not like to distress you, father.”
“Oh, luck has changed since we left Taverney. The King has given me five hundred louis—on account, his Majesty said. Think of your wardrobe, child.”
“Oh, thank you, papa,” said Andrea, joyously.
“Oho, going to the other extreme now! A while ago, you wanted for nothing—now you would ruin the Emperor of China. Never mind, for fine dresses become you, darling.”
With a tender kiss, he opened the door leading into his own room, and disappeared, saying:
“Confound that Nicole for not being in to show me a light!”
“Shall I ring for her, father?”
“No, I shall knock against Labrie, dozing on a chair. Good night, my dears.”
“Good night, brother,” said Andrea as Philip also stood up: “I am overcome with fatigue. This is the first time, I have been up since my accident.”
The gentleman kissed her hand with respect mixed with his affection always entertained for his sister and he went through the corridor, almost brushing against Gilbert.
“Never mind Nicole—I shall retire alone. Good bye, Philip.”
CHAPTER VI.
WHAT GILBERT EXPECTED.
A SHIVER ran through the watcher as the girl rose from her chair. With her alabaster hands she pulled out her hairpins one by one while the wrapper, slipping down upon her shoulders, disclosed her pure and graceful neck, and her arms, carelessly arched over her head, threw out the lower curve of the body to the advantage of the exquisite throat, quivering under the linen.
Gilbert felt a touch of madness and was on the verge of rushing forward, yelling:
“You are lovely, but you must not be too proud of your beauty since you owe it to me—it was I saved your life!”
Suddenly a knot in the corset string irritated Andrea who stamped her foot and rang the bell.
This knell recalled the lover to reason. Nicole had left the door open so as to run back. She would come.
He wanted to dart out of the house, but the baron had closed the other doors as he came along. He was forced to take refuge in Nicole’s room.
From there he saw her hurry in to her mistress, assist her to bed and retire, after a short chat, in which she displayed all the fawning of a maid who wishes to win her forgiveness for delinquency.
Singing to make her peace of mind be believed, she was going through on the way to the garden when Gilbert showed himself in a moonbeam.
She was going to scream but taking him for another, she said, conquering her fright:
“Oh, it is you—what rashness!”
“Yes, it is I—but do not scream any louder for me than the other,” said Gilbert.
“Why, whatever are you doing here?” she challenged, knowing her fellow-dependent at Taverney. “But I guess—you are still after my mistress. But though you love her, she does not care for you.”
“Really?”
“Mind that I do not expose you and have you thrown out,” she said in a threatening tone.
“One may be thrown out, but it will be Nicole to whom stones are tossed over the wall.”
“That is nothing to the piece of our mistress’s dress found in your hand on Louis XV Square, as Master Philip told his father. He does not see far into the matter yet, but I may help him.”
“Take care, Nicole, or they may learn that the stones thrown over the wall are wrapped in love-letters.”
“It is not true!” Then recovering her coolness, she added: “It is no crime to receive a love-letter—not like sneaking in to peep at poor young mistress in her private room.”
“But it is a crime for a waiting-maid to slip keys under garden doors and keep tryst with soldiers in the greenhouse!”
“Gilbert, Gilbert!”
“Such is the Nicole Virtue! Now, assert that I am in love with Mdlle. Andrea and I will say I am in love with my playfellow Nicole and they will believe that the sooner. Then you will be packed off. Instead of going to the Trianon Palace with your mistress, and coqueting with the fine fops around the Dauphiness, you will have to hang around the barracks to see your lover the corporal of the Guards. A low fall, and Nicole’s ambition ought to have carried her higher. Nicole, a dangler on a guardsman!”
And he began to hum a popular song:
“In the French Guards my sweetheart marches!”
“For pity’s sake, Gilbert, do not eye me thus—it alarms me.”
“Open the door and get that swashbuckler out of the way in ten minutes
