Dinah wished to show La Baudraye to her two visitors, and the farce was
duly played out of remembering the papers left by Bianchon in his room
at Anzy. Gatien flew off at a gallop to obey his sovereign; Madame
Piedefer went to do some shopping in Sancerre; and Dinah went on to
Cosne alone with the two friends. Lousteau took his seat by the lady,
Bianchon riding backwards. The two friends talked affectionately
and with deep compassion for the fate of this choice nature so ill
understood and in the midst of such vulgar surroundings. Bianchon
served Lousteau well by making fun of the Public Prosecutor, of Monsieur
Gravier, and of Gatien; there was a tone of such genuine contempt in
his remarks, that Madame de la Baudraye dared not take the part of her
adorers.
“I perfectly understand the position you have maintained,” said the
doctor as they crossed the Loire. “You were inaccessible excepting to
that brain-love which often leads to heart-love; and not one of those
men, it is very certain, is capable of disguising what, at an early
stage of life, is disgusting to the senses in the eyes of a refined
woman. To you, now, love is indispensable.”
“Indispensable!” cried Dinah, looking curiously at the doctor. “Do you
mean that you prescribe love to me?”
“If you go on living as you live now, in three years you will be
hideous,” replied Bianchon in a dictatorial tone.
“Monsieur!” said Madame de la Baudraye, almost frightened.
“Forgive my friend,” said Lousteau, half jestingly. “He is always the
medical man, and to him love is merely a question of hygiene. But he
is quite disinterested--it is for your sake only that he speaks--as is
evident, since he is starting in an hour--”
At Cosne a little crowd gathered round the old repainted chaise, with
the arms on the panels granted by Louis XIV. to the new La Baudraye.
Gules, a pair of scales or; on a chief azure (color on color) three
cross-crosslets argent. For supporters two greyhounds argent, collared
azure, chained or. The ironical motto, _Deo sic patet fides et
hominibus_, had been inflicted on the converted Calvinist by Hozier the
satirical.
“Let us get out; they will come and find us,” said the Baroness,
desiring her coachman to keep watch.
Dinah took Bianchon’s arm, and the doctor set off by the banks of the
Loire at so rapid a pace that the journalist had to linger behind. The
physician had explained by a single wink that he meant to do Lousteau a
good turn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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