"O Plumard! I say, Plumard! where are you? I have got enough to buy you a wig! but I won't buy it!"
XXV
THE MAN WITH FIVE FACES
When the messenger from her aunt's solicitor had gone, Valentine rose noiselessly and beckoned to her maid to follow her. They soon reached Mademoiselle de Mongarcin's bedroom, and the latter, after bidding Miretta to lock the door, said to her:
"We can talk more at ease here, Miretta. I do not know how to tell you what is taking place in my heart. I am chagrined, angry, almost furious. And yet, I do not love this Léodgard; but I would be glad to make sure that that youth has not been telling us a parcel of lies.—Miretta, you must help me to discover the truth; you are in my service to do whatever I wish; you will help me, will you not?"
"I am devoted to you, mademoiselle, and you may rely upon me."
"Good! good! Oh! I will reward you handsomely, I promise you!"
"Do not speak of rewards, mademoiselle; I am in need of nothing; you are too kind to me now; I shall be happy to prove to you that I am not ungrateful."
"You are not moved by selfish motives, I have noticed that already; you are not an ordinary lady's-maid; besides, you love, you adore your lover. Therefore, you will understand me.—The Comte de Marvejols, the man whom my friends have selected for my husband, make love to a bath keeper's daughter! pass all his time with her! and, to be with her, refuse to attend balls and receptions! Oh! I cannot believe it yet; but if it is so, you will agree that I shall be justified in refusing him, in spurning that alliance; and if anyone should ask me for my reasons, how sweet it would be to me to avenge myself by revealing the noble conduct, the honorable love affairs of Comte Léodgard! that fashionable nobleman, that soul of honor, that gentleman of the court of Louis XIII! A noble gentleman, on my word! who does not shrink from marring his escutcheon!—Oh! I don't know what is the matter with me! Give me water; give me that phial of salts! I need to inhale it a moment."
Miretta zealously waited upon her young mistress, whose nerves were in a state of high tension because her self-esteem was humiliated and she could not endure the thought that a bath keeper's daughter had prevented her destined husband from accepting her invitation.
At last, when she had become somewhat calmer, Valentine sat for some time deep in thought. Miretta awaited in silence the commands of the nobly born heiress, who already felt that she hated the plebeian maiden whom she did not know.