FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  
ur poor patient's last wishes.... A few minutes ago, she told me the secret of your double life, and of your connection with her.... And now, in view of death, which she feels approaching so rapidly, for she is under no delusion, the unhappy woman wishes to die at peace with heaven, with the consolation of having regulated her equivocal position, and of having become your wife." Monsieur de Saint-Juery sat upright, with a bewildered look, while he moved his hands nervously; in his grief he was incapable of manifesting any will of his own, or of opposing this unexpected attack. "Oh! anything that Charlotte wishes, doctor; anything, and I will myself go and tell her so, on my knees!" * * * * * The wedding took place discreetly, with something funereal about it, in the darkened room, where the words which were spoken had a strange sound, almost of anguish. Charlotte, who was lying in bed, with her eyes dilated through happiness, had put both trembling hands into those of Monsieur de Saint-Juery, and she seemed to expire with the word: "Yes" on her lips. The doctor looked at the moving scene, grave and impassive, with his chin buried in his white cravat, and his two arms resting on the mantel-piece, while his eyes twinkled behind his glasses.... The next week, Madame de Saint-Juery began to get better, and that wonderful recovery about which Monsieur de Saint-Juery tells everybody with effusive gratitude, who will listen to him, has so increased Doctor Rabatel's reputation, that at the next election he will be made a member of the Academy of Medicine. THE WILL I knew that tall young fellow, Rene de Bourneval. He was an agreeable man, though of a rather melancholy turn of mind, who seemed prejudiced against everything, very skeptical, and able to tear worldly hypocrisies to pieces. He often used to say: "There are no honorable men, or at any rate, they only appear so when compared to low people." He had two brothers, whom he never saw, the Messieurs de Courcils, and I thought they were by another father, on account of the difference in the name. I had frequently heard that something strange had happened in the family, but I did not know the details. As I took a great liking to him, we soon became intimate, and one evening, when I had been dining with him alone, I asked him by chance: "Are you by your mother's first or second marriage?" He grew rather pale, and then
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Monsieur
 

wishes

 

strange

 

doctor

 

Charlotte

 
worldly
 
melancholy
 

pieces

 
hypocrisies
 

skeptical


prejudiced

 

Doctor

 
increased
 

Rabatel

 
reputation
 

election

 
effusive
 
gratitude
 

listen

 

member


fellow

 

Bourneval

 

agreeable

 

Medicine

 

Academy

 

honorable

 

difference

 

account

 

frequently

 

father


dining

 
evening
 

happened

 

family

 

details

 
liking
 

intimate

 
thought
 

compared

 
marriage

recovery
 

Messieurs

 
chance
 
Courcils
 

people

 

mother

 
brothers
 

position

 
upright
 

equivocal