FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  
sion to the doctor this little house had assumed the proportions of a palace in her eyes, and the old lady herself the social value which a duchess of the Middle Ages might have had to the daughter of a serf. Never had Ursula measured as she did at that moment the distance which separated Vicomte de Portenduere from the daughter of a regimental musician, a former opera-singer and the natural son of an organist. "What is the matter, my dear?" said the old lady, making the girl sit down beside her. "Madame, I am confused by the honor you have done me--" "My little girl," said Madame de Portenduere, in her sharpest tone. "I know how fond your uncle is of you, and I wished to be agreeable to him, for he has brought back my prodigal son." "But, my dear mother," said Savinien cut to the heart by seeing the color fly into Ursula's face as she struggled to keep back her tears, "even if we were under no obligations to Monsieur le Chevalier Minoret, I think we should always be most grateful for the pleasure Mademoiselle has given us by accepting your invitation." The young man pressed the doctor's hand in a significant manner, adding: "I see you wear, monsieur, the order of Saint-Michel, the oldest order in France, and one which confers nobility." Ursula's extreme beauty, to which her almost hopeless love gave a depth which great painters have sometimes conveyed in pictures where the soul is brought into strong relief, had struck Madame de Portenduere suddenly, and made her suspect that the doctor's apparent generosity masked an ambitious scheme. She had made the speech to which Savinien replied with the intention of wounding the doctor in that which was dearest to him; and she succeeded, though the old man could hardly restrain a smile as he heard himself styled a "chevalier," amused to observe how the eagerness of a lover did not shrink from absurdity. "The order of Saint-Michel which in former days men committed follies to obtain," he said, "has now, Monsieur le vicomte, gone the way of other privileges! It is given only to doctors and poor artists. The kings have done well to join it to that of Saint-Lazare who was, I believe, a poor devil recalled to life by a miracle. From this point of view the order of Saint-Michel and Saint-Lazare may be, for many of us, symbolic." After this reply, at once sarcastic and dignified, silence reigned, which, as no one seemed inclined to break it, was becoming awkward, when
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

doctor

 
Ursula
 

Portenduere

 

Madame

 

Michel

 

Lazare

 
brought
 
daughter
 

Monsieur

 

Savinien


painters

 

styled

 

chevalier

 

restrain

 

struck

 
ambitious
 

amused

 
scheme
 

masked

 

strong


suspect

 

apparent

 

generosity

 
relief
 

wounding

 

dearest

 

succeeded

 

conveyed

 
intention
 

speech


suddenly

 

replied

 
pictures
 

symbolic

 

recalled

 

miracle

 
awkward
 
inclined
 

sarcastic

 

dignified


silence
 

reigned

 

committed

 

follies

 

obtain

 

absurdity

 

eagerness

 
shrink
 

vicomte

 
artists