And she in her turn stopped short, as a woman does who feels herself carried away by the torrent of her confessions; struck, too, by Lisbeth’s eager attention, she thought well to make sure of Lisbeth before revealing her last secrets.
“You see, dear child, how entire is my confidence in you!” she presently added, to which Lisbeth replied by a most comforting nod.
An oath may be taken by a look and a nod more solemnly than in a court of justice.
“I keep up every appearance of respectability,” Valerie went on, laying her hand on Lisbeth’s as if to accept her pledge. “I am a married woman, and my own mistress, to such a degree, that in the morning, when Marneffe sets out for the office, if he takes it into his head to say good-bye and finds my door locked, he goes off without a word. He cares less for his boy than I care for one of the marble children that play at the feet of one of the river-gods in the Tuileries. If I do not come home to dinner, he dines quite contentedly with the maid, for the maid is devoted to monsieur; and he goes out every evening after dinner, and does not come in till twelve or one o’clock. Unfortunately, for a year past, I have had no ladies’ maid, which is as much as to say that I am a widow!
“I have had one passion, once have been happy—a rich Brazilian—who went away a year ago—my only lapse!—He went away to sell his estates, to realize his land, and come back to live in France. What will he find left of his Valerie? A dunghill. Well! it is his fault and not mine; why does he delay coming so long? Perhaps he has been wrecked—like my virtue.”
“Good-bye, my dear,” said Lisbeth abruptly; “we are friends for ever. I love you, I esteem you, I am wholly yours! My cousin is tormenting me to go and live in the house you are moving to, in the Rue Vanneau; but I would not go, for I saw at once the reasons for this fresh piece of kindness——”
“Yes; you would have kept an eye on me, I know!” said Madame Marneffe.
“That was, no doubt, the motive of his generosity,” replied Lisbeth. “In Paris, most beneficence is a speculation, as most acts of ingratitude are revenge! To a poor relation you behave as you do to rats to whom you offer a bit of bacon. Now, I will accept the Baron’s offer, for this house has grown intolerable to me. You and I have wit enough to hold our tongues about everything that would damage us, and tell all that needs telling. So, no blabbing—and we are friends.”
“Through thick and thin!” cried Madame Marneffe, delighted to have a sheep-dog, a confidante, a sort of respectable aunt. “Listen to me; the Baron is doing a great deal in the Rue Vanneau——”
“I believe you!” interrupted Lisbeth. “He has spent thirty thousand francs! Where he got the money, I am sure I don’t know, for Josepha the singer bled him dry.—Oh! you are in luck,” she went on. “The Baron would steal for a woman who held his heart in two little white satin hands like yours!”