PROVOCATION.
"For her, for her I will drink the cup to the dregs."
A. DE VIGNY (Chatterton).
—A thousand pardons, said the Captain, but the door was open and I have knocked twice. Monsieur le Curé, I have the honour to salute you. I am not disturbing you?
—Not at all, Monsieur le Capitaine, quite the contrary, I am happy to see you; please come in, stammered Marcel, trying to conceal his confusion, and to look pleasantly at the old soldier. He eagerly brought forward an arm-chair for him, the one on which Suzanne had sat.
"Ah," he thought, "if he knew that his daughter was there, at this same place!"
The Captain sat down, and, tapping his cane on the floor, seemed to be seeking for a way of entering on his subject; he appeared anxious, and Marcel noticed that he no longer had his decisive scoffing manner.
—Monsieur le Curé, he said after a moment's silence, you must be a little surprised to see me … although, after what I believe I heard, I may not be altogether a stranger here.
—My parishioners are no strangers, Captain.
—Parishioner! oh, I am hardly that. I was not making allusion to that title, but to my name, which was uttered at the very moment when I was at your door.