“I see only one way, mademoiselle,” I answered, and before she could protest I caught her up in my arms and was splashing through the muddy water. Just as I reached the middle of it a passing carriage barred my progress. An irresistible attraction drew my eyes to the window, and I saw there the face of Louise Dacour. She was looking into my eyes, a disdainful smile just curving her lips. I bowed to her, but she made no sign of recognition, and in an instant had disappeared.
CHAPTER XIII
AT THE THÉÂTRE-FRANÇAIS
I left Mlle. de Launay at the Tuileries, promising to call at eight o’clock for the papers, and returned to the Rue des Saints Pères in no very happy frame of mind. Why Mlle. Dacour had chosen to ignore me was a problem which I tried in vain to solve, and preoccupied with this mystery, I pushed my way through the crowd without seeing it. Jacques had dinner awaiting my return, and after changing my clothes, which had been sadly bespattered in the passage of the Rue St. Honoré, I hastened to appease my hunger. When I was once more alone before the fire with a bottle of wine at my elbow, I turned again to the solution of the problem. But in all those sweet perplexities of woman’s nature I was the merest novice,—though I have since grown wiser by dint of much careful study,—and I puzzled my head to no purpose. Twilight came while I sat there musing, and Jacques entered with the candles.
“Has monsieur decided where he will spend the evening?” he asked.
“Why, no,” I said. “I have an engagement at eight o’clock, but ’twill keep me no longer than half an hour.”
“Permit me to remind monsieur that M. le Duc has always places reserved at the Opéra and the Comédie, and that these are at monsieur’s service.”
“A thousand thanks, Jacques, for your thoughtfulness!” I cried. “And what is the programme for this evening?”
“The Opéra will be closed, as a new piece is in preparation there, but at the Comédie will be produced M. Voltaire’s tragedy of ‘Œdipe,’ which has created such a furore since its first representation a month ago.”
In fact, I had myself seen many of the bills announcing the tragedy and had heard some talk of it on the streets.
“I shall go,” I said. “Thanks, again, for your thoughtfulness, Jacques.”