"
"Yes, yes, but where did she come from? What was the field where she
grew?"
"To be sure, monsieur. It was like this," responded the other.
Thereupon M. Fille proceeded to tell the history, musical with legend, of
Jean Jacques' Grand Tour, of the wreck of the Antoine, of the marriage of
the "seigneur," the home-coming, and the life that followed, so far as
rumour, observation, and a mind with a gift for narrative, which was not
to be incomplete for lack of imagination, could make it. It was only when
he offered his own reflections on Carmen Dolores, now Carmen Barbille,
and on women generally, that Judge Carcasson pulled him up.
"So, so, I see. She has temperament and so on, but she's unsteady, and
regarded by her neighbours not quite as one that belongs. Bah, the
conceit of every race! They are all the same. The English are the
worst--as though the good God was English. But the child--so beautiful,
you say, and yet more like the father than the mother. He is not
handsome, that Jean Jacques, but I can understand that the little one
should be like him and yet beautiful too. I should like to see the
child."
Suddenly the Clerk of the Court stopped and touched the arm of his
distinguished friend and patron. "That is very easy, monsieur," he said
eagerly, "for there she is in the red wagon yonder, waiting for her
father.
Pages:
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62