After having awaited the following evening with much impatience he arrived about eight o'clock on the Quai d'Anjou; it was a fine clear winter's night; the cold was sharp and biting, and the moon shone out in all the brilliancy of a frosty sky. After awaiting some little time, the little door opened, and Iris, closely muffled up, appeared at its entrance. M. de Brévannes had left his vehicle at some little distance, he therefore hastened towards the young mulatto, who, trembling violently, took his arm.
CHAPTER XXI
[THE INTERVIEW]
"In the first place," said M. de Brévannes, endeavouring to slip a purse of gold into the hand of the mulatto, "take this, my good girl, for your own trouble."
Iris, however, indignantly rejected the propitiatory offering, saying, in a tone of offended pride, "You are evidently under some mistake, monsieur."
"Nay," said M. de Brévannes, trying to force it upon her acceptance, "nay, accept it as a feeble mark of my esteem."
"Esteem!" responded the mulatto with an expression of ironical contempt so unequivocally displayed, that M. de Brévannes, perceiving his error, returned his purse into his pocket, saying, "I believe I have the pleasure of speaking to the young person acting as companion to the Princess de Hansfeld?"
"You are perfectly correct, sir?"
"May I ask whether you have held that situation long?"
"Very long."