Bildungsromans; Christian women saints -- Fiction; Egypt -- Fiction; Mary, of Egypt, Saint -- Fiction; Picaresque fiction
“Go,” she said to me, “fly, and don’t fear for me. It’s a surprise I
have rather wished for. He began to get tired of me, and this encounter
is quite efficacious to reanimate his desires and season his love. Go
and leave the alone. The first moment will be hard, for he is of a very
violent disposition. He’ll strike me, but after, t shall be still dearer
to him. Farewell!”
“Alas!” I exclaimed, “did you take me then, Jahel, for Nothing but to
sharpen the desires of my rival?”
“I wonder that you also want to quarrel with me. Go, I say!”
“What! leave you like this?”
“It’s necessary. Farewell! He must not meet you here, I want to make him
jealous, but in a delicate manner. I Farewell! Farewell.”
I had hardly gone a few steps between the labyrinth of tombstones
when M. d’Anquetil, having come forward to enable him to recognise his
mistress, began to shout and to curse loud enough to awaken the village
dead. I was anxious to tear Jahel away from his rage; I thought he would
kill her. I glided between the tombstones to her assistance. But after
a few minutes, observing them very closely, I saw M. d’Anquetil pulling
her out of the cemetery and leading her towards Gaulard’s inn with a
remainder of fury she was easily capable of calming, alone and without
help.
I returned to my room after they had entered theirs I could not sleep
the whole of the night, and looking out at daybreak, through an opening
in the window curtains I saw them crossing the courtyard apparently the
best of friends.
Jahel’s departure augmented my sorrow. I stretched myself full length on
my stomach on the floor of my room, and with my face in my hands cried
until the evening.
CHAPTER XXIV
I am pardoned and return to Paris--Again at the _Queen Pedauque_--I go
as Assistant to M. Blaizot--Burning of the Castle of Sablons--Death of
Mosaide and of M. d’Asterac.
From now onwards my life loses the interest which events had lent it,
and my destiny, having again become in conformity with my character,
offers nothing but ordinary occurrences. If I should prolong my memoirs
my narrative would very soon become tiresome. I’ll bring it to a
close with but few words. The Vicar of Vallars gave me a letter of
introduction to a wine merchant at Macon, with whom I was employed for a
couple of months, after which my father wrote to me that he had arranged
my affair and that I was free to return to Paris.
I took coach immediately and travelled with some recruits. My heart beat
violently when I again saw the Rue Saint Jacques, the clock of Saint
Benoit le Betourne, the signboard of the _Three Virgins_ and the _Saint
Catherine_ of M. Blaizot.
My mother cried when she saw me; I also cried, and we embraced and cried
together again.
My father came in haste from the _Little Bacchus_ and said with a moving
dignity:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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