“The good Mme. de Lorcy scolded me about a bouquet of camellias she saw
on my table, just like those for which I have been grateful to my angel.
I don’t know what notions she got into her head about them. Ah!
well, _ma chere demoiselle_, I have learned since that these double
camellias--they are variegated, red and white--came to me from a man,
for, at present, as it would appear, men have taken to give me bouquets
and making me visits; it is rather late in the day. The particular man
to whom I refer presented himself one fine morning, and, telling me that
you had spoken to him of me, said that he wished to assure himself
that I was well and wanted nothing. He returned several times, always
pampering me with some attention or other. But the best of all was when
he came to tell me that my angel had returned. What a man he is! he has
surely dropped right down from the skies! One evening when I was sick he
gave me my medicine himself, and would have sat up with me all night
if I had been willing to let him. You must tell me who he is, for
it puzzles me greatly. He has the head of some grand lion; he is as
generous as he is handsome, but very sad. He must have some great sorrow
on his heart. The misfortune, so far as I am concerned, is that he
cannot spoil me much longer--it is almost over now. He expects to leave
here in two days; and he has announced to me that he will come to make
his adieus, to-morrow afternoon.
“You will come soon, won’t you, _ma chere demoiselle_? I burn with
impatience to embrace you, since you permit me to embrace you. You are
my angel and my sunshine, and I am your very humble and devoted servant,
“LOUISE GALET.”
This letter of Mlle. Louise Galet continued nothing definite, beyond,
perhaps, the passage relative to the early vegetables, and the
supposed scenes with her _chambriere_. Whatever may have been the good
demoiselle’s past record, she certainly was not void of principles, and
she prided herself on her truthfulness; only she did not always see
the necessity of telling everything she knew; in her narratives she
frequently omitted certain details. She had written at the instigation
of Samuel Brohl, who had not explained to her his motives. To be sure,
she had partially divined these, being shrewd and sly. He had commended
himself to her discretion, for which he had paid liberally. Mlle. Galet
had at first refused the round sum he had offered her; she had ended by
accepting it with tender gratitude. These little pampering attentions
make good friends.
An audacious idea suddenly came to Mlle. Moriaz; there was no time to
recoil from it. She ordered up her coupe. M. Moriaz had just gone out
to make a call in the neighbourhood. She determined to profit by his
absence, and besought Mlle. Moiseney to make ready in haste to accompany
her to Paris, where she had to confer with her dressmaker. Ten minutes
later she stepped into her carriage, having ordered her coachman to
drive like the wind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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