ckly as possible, while she was telling her story, now in a
low, and then in a shrill voice, the woman picked up the marchioness'
dress, cloak, lace-edged drawers, silk petticoat, and little varnished
shoes, pulled her out of bed, without giving her time to let her know
what she was doing, or to moan, or to have a fit of hysterics, and
carried her off, as if she had been a doll, with all her pretty toggery,
to a large, empty cupboard in the dining room, that was concealed by
Flemish tapestry. 'You are a man... Try to get out of the mess,' she
said to Stanis as she shut the door; 'I will be answerable for Madame.'
And the enormous woman, who was out of breath by hurrying upstairs as
she had done, and whose kind, large red face was dripping with
perspiration, while her ample bosom shook beneath her loose jacket, took
Madame de Frejus onto her knees as if she had been a baby, whose nurse
was trying to quiet her.
"She felt the poor little culprit's heart beating as if it were going to
burst, while shivers ran over her skin, which was so soft and delicate
that the porter's wife was afraid that she would hurt it with her coarse
hands. She was struck with wonder at the cambric chemise, which a gust
of wind would have carried off as if it had been a pigeon's feather, and
by the delicate odor of that scarce flower which filled the narrow
cupboard, and which rose up in the darkness from that supple body, that
was impregnated with the warmth of the bed.
"She would have liked to be there, in that profaned room, and to tell
them in a loud voice--with her hands upon her lips like at the time when
she used to serve brandy to her comrades at _Daddy l'Arb's_--that they
had no common sense, that they were none of them good for much, neither
the Police Commissary, the husband nor the subordinates, to come and
torment a pretty young thing, who was having a little bit of fun, like
that. It was a nice job, to get over the wall in that way, to be absent
from the second call of names, especially when they were all of the same
sort, and were glad of five francs an hour! She had certainly done quite
right to get out sometimes and to have a sweetheart, and she was a
charming little thing, and that she would say, if she were called before
the Court as a witness!
"And she took Madame de Frejus in her arms to quiet her, and repeated
the same thing a dozen times, whispered pretty things to her, and
interrupted her occasionally to listen whether
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