Laughing in her sleeve, the traitress glided away in the dark.
“Again I succeed,” thought Richelieu: “but I must be getting old to be rebuffed by this little imp. Never mind, if I come out the winner.”
CHAPTER XXV.
SECOND SIGHT.
FROM his garret, Gilbert was watching, or rather devouring Andrea’s room. It would be hard to tell whether his eyes now gazed with love or hatred. But the curtains were drawn and he could see nothing in that quarter; he turned to another.
Here he espied the plume of Corporal Beausire, as the soldier to beguile his waiting, whistled a tune. It was not till ten minutes had elapsed that Nicole appeared. She made her lover a sign which he understood, for he nodded and went towards a walk in a cutting leading to the Little Trianon.
Nicole ran back as lightly as a bird.
“Ha, ha,” thought Gilbert, “Nicole and her trooper have something to say to each other which will not bear witnesses. Good!”
He was no longer curious about Nicole’s flirtations, but he regarded her as a natural enemy and it was wise to know all her doings. In her immorality he wanted to find the weapon with which he might victoriously meet her in case she should attack him. He did not doubt that the campaign would open and he meant to have a good supply of weapons, like a true warrior.
So he nimbly came down from his loft, and reached the gardens by the chapel side-door. He had nothing to fear now as he knew all the coverts of the place like a fox at home. Thus he was able to reach the clump where he heard a strange sound for the woods—the chink of coin on a stone. Gliding like a serpent up to the terrace wall, hedged with lilacs, he saw Nicole at the grating, emptying a purse on a stone out of Beausire’s reach by being on her side of the railing. It was the purse given by Richelieu, or strictly speaking the cash for the Treasury notes which she had converted. The fat gold pieces clinked down, glittering, while the corporal, with kindled eye and trembling hand, attentively looked at Nicole and them without comprehending how they came into company.
“My dear Beausire, more than once you have wanted me to elope,” began Nicole.