“Not in the least! To see him you would swear that his face had been whittled out of a block, with a dull knife. He looks like the ugliest of all his marionettes. Like this one, for instance!”
And Christian pointed to the grotesque physiognomy of a police officer that stuck out of the box, and which Margaret would probably have seen herself if she had not been so preoccupied.
“What, really!” said she, a little apprehensively. “And is that his conjuring-box? Does he occupy this room with you?”
“No; don’t be afraid, you will not see him. He has gone out, and he asked as a favor, of M. Goefle, to be allowed to leave his baggage here.”
“Poor fellow!” said Margaret, pensively; “and so he is as ugly as that! What stories people tell! Some persons who have seen him insist that he is handsome. And is he old?”
“Somewhere about forty-five. But what are you thinking about, and why are you so sad?”
“I don’t know—only I feel sad.”
“What—although you are to remain at the chateau, and see the marionettes this evening?”
“Ah! please, Monsieur Goefle, do not treat me quite so much like a child. Last night, at the ball, it is true that I was gay; I enjoyed myself and felt happy, because I thought I had once for all escaped from the baron. But to-day I see very well that my aunt has renewed her hopes, and I must meet again a man whom I shall always sincerely hate from this time forward. Did he not insult me in a cowardly manner yesterday? It is useless for my aunt to say that he was joking. One does not joke with a girl of my age as with a child. I have been trying to cure my wounded pride by persuading myself that he was delirious—that his nervous attack had already begun when he spoke so coarsely to me, and that is what my friends think also. But how do I know what will happen to-day, when I meet him? Whether he is ill-tempered or crazy, who will defend me if he insults me again? You will not be there, and nobody else will dare—”
“What! Nobody dare? But what sort of men have you around you then? And all those brave young fellows whom I saw last evening—”