But Jaune declined this liberal offer, and declined also to leave his
address, which would have involved a revelation of his name. It was a
comfort to him to know that his name was safe--a great comfort. So the
garments of the forever departed Marquis were put up in a big bundle,
and Jaune journeyed homeward to his studio in Greenwich--bearing his
sheaves with him--in a Bleecker Street car.
"Well, you are a cheeky beggar, d'Antimoine," said Vandyke Brown,
cheerfully, the next morning, as he came into Jaune's studio with a
newspaper in his hand. "So you are the Marquis who has been setting the
town wild for the last week, eh? And whom did you bet with? And what
started you in such a crazy performance, anyway? Tell me all about it.
It's as funny--Good heavens! d'Antimoine, what's the matter? Are you
ill?" For Jaune had grown deathly pale and was gasping.
"I do not know of what it is that you talk," he answered, with a great
effort.
"Oh, come now, that's too thin, you know. Why, here's a whole column
about it, telling how you made a bet with somebody that you could set
all the town to talking about you, and yet do it all in such a clever
disguise that nobody would know who you really were, not even your most
intimate friends. And I should say that you had won handsomely. Why,
I've seen you on Broadway a dozen times myself this last week, and I
never had the remotest suspicion that the Marquis was you. I must say,
though," continued Brown, reflectively, and looking closely at Jaune,
"that it was stupid of me. I did think that you had a familiar sort of
look; and once, I remember, it did occur to me that you looked
astonishingly like yourself. It--it was the clothes, you see, that
threw me out. Where ever did you get such a stunning rig? I don't
believe that I'd have known you dressed like that, even if you hadn't
been gray and wrinkled. But tell me all about it, old man. It must have
been jolly fun!"
"Fun!" groaned Jaune; "it was the despair!" And then, his heart being
very full and his longing for sympathy overpowering, Jatine told Brown
the whole story. "But what is this of one bet, my dear Van," he
concluded, "I do not of the least know."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account