THE MARQUIS OF LETORIERE. [_FROM THE FRENCH._] BOSTON: NICHOLS & HALL 1873 CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Tailor CHAPTER II The Ex-Professor of Plessis College CHAPTER III The Debtor CHAPTER IV Mysteries CHAPTER V The Cavalier CHAPTER VI Mademoiselle de Soissons CHAPTER VII The Lawsuit CHAPTER VIII The Chateau Soubise CHAPTER IX The Departure CHAPTER X The Governor of Henferester CHAPTER XI The Supper CHAPTER XII Confidences CHAPTER XIII Doctor Sphex CHAPTER XIV The Councillor Flachsinfingen CHAPTER XV The Interview CHAPTER XVI The Judgment CHAPTER XVII The Adieux CHAPTER XVIII The Return CHAPTER XIX The Duel CHAPTER XX The Abbey THE MARQUIS OF LETORIERE. CHAPTER I THE TAILOR In 1769 there was in the Rue St. Honoré, not far from the Palais Royal, a small tailor's shop, having for its sign an enormous pair of gilt scissors, suspended above the door by an iron triangle. Master Landry, proprietor of The Golden Scissors, a little lean, pale, and apathetic man, offered a striking contrast to his wife Madelaine. She was a woman of thirty-five or forty years, robust and active, with hard features, and a gait like a man's, and her quick and imperious voice told that her dominion over her household was absolute. It was eleven o'clock one dark, rainy day in December. Master Landry, seated on his counter, plied alternately his scissors and needle, in company with Martin Kraft, his apprentice, a big, heavy, phlegmatic German, about twenty years old, whose red and puffed-out cheeks, and long hair, more yellow than blonde, gave him a stupid air. The tailor's wife seemed to be in a very bad humor. Landry and his apprentice maintained a prudent silence, until at length Madeleine snapped out at her husband, scornfully: "I give up; thou hast no blood in thy veins; thou would'st allow thyself to be robbed of thy last customer; imbecile!" Landry exchanged an elbow-touch and a glance with Martin Kraft, but kept quiet, handling his needle with redoubled dexterity. Irritated, no doubt, by the meekness of her victim, the housewife resumed, addressing her husband vehemently: "To whom do I speak, if you please?" The tailor and the apprentice continued mute. The exasperated woman administered a vigorous slap to her husband, saying: "It appears to me that when I speak to a fool, it is thou whom I address, and thou would'st do well to reply--ill-bred as thou art!" "By St. Genevieve!" cried the tailor, putting his hand to his cheek, and turning to his apprentice,--"how's that, Kraft?" The apprentice answered only by a violent stroke of his iron goose, applied to the seams of a coat; but this blow had such an expression of temper, that Dame Landry, with a dexterous hand, inflicted on the phlegmatic German the same correction she had applied to Landry, saying to him: "I'll teach you to censure my conduct, you sluggard!" "How do you find that, Master Landry?" said the apprentice, in his turn, looking towards his master.