People would recognize them at once; besides, they form a part of
my stock-in-trade. An actor doesn't sell his costumes because
he's hungry--he goes without food--and when it's time for the
curtain to rise, he dons his satin and velvet garments, and,
despite his empty stomach, he chants the praises of a bountiful
table and rare old wine. That is what I am doing--I, Robert
Dalbou, Marquis de Valorsay! At the races at Vincennes, about a
fortnight ago, I was bowling along the boulevard behind my four-
in-hand, when I heard a laborer say, 'How happy those rich people
must be!' Happy, indeed! Why, I envied him his lot. He was sure
that the morrow would be like the day that preceded it. On that
occasion my entire fortune consisted of a single louis, which I
had won at baccarat the evening before. As I entered the
enclosure, Isabelle, the flower-girl, handed me a rose for my
button-hole. I gave her my louis--but I longed to strangle her!"
He paused for a moment, and then, in a frenzy of passion, he
advanced toward M. Fortunat, who instinctively retreated into the
protecting embrasure of a window. "And for eight months I have
lived this horrible life!" he resumed. "For eight months each
moment has been so much torture. Ah! better poverty, prison, and
shame! And now, when the prize is almost won, actuated either by
treason or caprice, you try to make all my toil and all my
suffering unavailing. You try to thwart me on the very threshold
of success! No! I swear, by God's sacred name, it shall not be! I
will rather crush you, you miserable scoundrel--crush you like a
venomous reptile!"
There was such a ring of fury in his voice that the crystals of
the candelabra vibrated; and Madame Dodelin, in her kitchen, heard
it, and shuddered.
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