The Milkmaid of Montfermeil (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XX)Kock, Paul de
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The Milkmaid of Montfermeil (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XX)
Kock, Paul de
France -- Fiction; French fiction -- Translations into English
"Yes, monsieur. But where does Monsieur Dalville live now? Do you know,
monsieur? It is absolutely necessary that I should see him and speak to
him! Oh! if I only could have got this money sooner--what I owe him! But
tell me, monsieur,--must I go somewhere else?"
"My little mamzelle, I don't think you will find Monsieur Dalville very
easy."
"Why not, monsieur? I am ready to go anywhere--no matter where."
"I tell you it's too late. How do you expect to find the address of a
man who's going round the world?"
"What's that?--Monsieur Auguste----"
"He started off this very day mit my friend Pertrand."
"Gone!"
"Ach ja! He got ruined here, so he's going to try to make a fortune
somewhere else."
"He has gone away! You don't know where he is?"
"Yes, I do--don't I tell you he's gone round the world?"
"Oh! how unlucky! I have come too late!"
With that Denise lost consciousness and fell; but Schtrack caught her in
his arms, and after laying his pipe on the post, carried her into the
house. He took her into his lodge. When she swooned, the girl dropped
the bag that she carried; it burst, and the five-franc pieces rolled
about the courtyard. Schtrack, sorely embarrassed because he happened to
be alone for the moment, ran from Denise to the money and from the money
to his pipe, crying:
"Sacretié! this girl has to go and faint just when my wife ain't in!
Well, well! my pipe's gone out, and the money's rolling all about!
Sacretié!"
Luckily for the old German and for Denise, another lady entered the
house at this juncture. It was Mademoiselle Virginie, who had come to
invite herself to breakfast with Auguste, and who, when she saw the
five-franc pieces scattered about the courtyard, exclaimed in surprise:
"Mon Dieu! what magnificence! They throw money out o'window here! I seem
to have come just in time."
"Don't touch! don't touch!" cried Schtrack from his lodge; "it belongs
to this girl who won't open her eyes."
"Well, old Dutchman, am I touching your money? What an uncivil old
villain it is! What do you take me for, Monsieur Helvetian?--What girl
can he be talking about?"
And as she spoke, Virginie walked toward the lodge, and she uttered a
cry of surprise when she saw the young girl from Montfermeil, whom
Schtrack was drenching with vinegar.
"It's Denise! it's my poor Denise!" she said, pushing Schtrack aside and
taking charge of the young woman.
"Poor Denise! She ain't so poor, for I tell you that bag of crowns is
hers," said Schtrack, returning to the courtyard to recover his pipe and
pick up the money.
Virginie's efforts were soon successful in restoring Denise to
consciousness. When she opened her eyes they rested on Virginie, and she
exclaimed, sobbing bitterly:
"Oh! he has gone away, madame!"
"Who, pray, my dear love?"
"Monsieur Auguste."
"Auguste gone away! nonsense! he'll come back, of course, won't he?"
"Oh, no, madame! I shall never see him again. He's gone a long way."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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