Honore de Balzac: Cousin Betty

1. PART I: THE PRODIGAL FATHER (continued)

Having barred the gate, Madame Olivier told of the bribe that the War Office chief had tried to offer her.

"You behaved like an angel, my dear Olivier; we shall talk of that to-morrow."

Valerie flew like an arrow to the third floor, tapped three times at Lisbeth's door, and then went down to her room, where she gave instructions to Mademoiselle Reine, for a woman must make the most of the opportunity when a Montes arrives from Brazil.

"By Heaven! only a woman of the world is capable of such love," said Crevel to himself. "How she came down those stairs, lighting them up with her eyes, following me! Never did Josepha--Josepha! she is cag-mag!" cried the ex-bagman. "What have I said? Cag-mag--why, I might have let the word slip out at the Tuileries! I can never do any good unless Valerie educates me--and I was so bent on being a gentleman.-- What a woman she is! She upsets me like a fit of the colic when she looks at me coldly. What grace! What wit! Never did Josepha move me so. And what perfection when you come to know her!--Ha, there is my man!"

He perceived in the gloom of the Rue de Babylone the tall, somewhat stooping figure of Hulot, stealing along close to a boarding, and he went straight up to him.

"Good-morning, Baron, for it is past midnight, my dear fellow. What the devil are your doing here? You are airing yourself under a pleasant drizzle. That is not wholesome at our time of life. Will you let me give you a little piece of advice? Let each of us go home; for, between you and me, you will not see the candle in the window."

The last words made the Baron suddenly aware that he was sixty-three, and that his cloak was wet.

"Who on earth told you--?" he began.