"What! you! Sophie--Roxane--Mademoiselle B------, is it possible?--"

My confusion was extreme, but she appeared to view it without annoyance.

"I saw you," she went on, "in one corner of the pit. I knew you
instantly and played for you. Say, did I play well? I am so glad to see
you again!--"

She asked me news of M. l'Abbe Coignard, and when I told her my good
master had just perished miserably, she burst into tears.

She was good enough to inform me of the chief events of her life:

"My aunt," she said, "used to mend her laces for Madame de Saint-Remi,
who, as you must know, is an admirable actress. A short while after the
night when you did me such yeoman service, I went to her house to take
home some pieces of lace. The lady told me I had a face that interested
her. She then asked me to read some verses, and concluded I was not
without wits. She had me trained. I made my first appearance at the
Comedie last year. I interpret passions I have felt myself, and the
public credits me with some talent. M. le Duc de La ------ exhibits a
very dear friendship for me, and I think he will never cause me pain and
disappointment, because I have learnt to ask of men only what they can
give. At this moment he is expecting me at supper. I must not break my
word."

But, reading my vexation in my eyes, she added:

"However, I have told my people to go the longest way round and to drive
slowly."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merrie Tales Of Jacques
Tournebroche, by Anatole France

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