Belle-Rose — page 108: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A SERPENT IN THE SHADOW. 97 of twigs crushed under an invisible foot broke the silence. Belle-Rose, accustomed through his watches around the bivouac to take note of the most confused sounds, turned his head | “It is a squirrel frightened by the noise of a kiss,’’ said Madame de Chateaufort. . Farther on, the soldier thought he saw, between the clumps of trees, a rapid shadow fleeing; but before he could distinguish its outline, the apparition had vanished. _ **You see phantoms and do not see my smile,’’ said his mistress. One evening they came toa part of the park where the wall formed an angle. At the point of the angle, under some clusters of honeysuckle and clematis, a door opened upon the country. The brown tones of stone and wood were confounded under a trembling curtain of foliage. The grass seemed trampled around the door; two or three broken branches hung along the walls. ‘‘Do the guards make use of this door?’’ asked Belle- Rose. ‘*No, it is almost unknown to the employees of the chateau.’ ‘“Some one has passed through it nevertheless. ' “No one has the key to this “door,” ’ replied Nndarie de Chateaufort. ‘‘Look,’’ repeated Belle-Rose, indicating with his finger a tuft of ‘bruised mallow. ‘‘Yesterday we passed along the wall; your hands were in mine; do you know where our feet were placed?”’ Nevertheless Belle-Rose was not the plaything of an il- lusion. While Madame de Chateaufort was dissipating his momentarily awakened fears, Monsieur de Villebrais was following them from copse to copse. Dressed in common clothes, he had taken lodging, under a borrowed name, in a disreputable inn in the neighborhood, and when night came he introduced himself into Madame de Chateaufort’s park, where the desire for vengeance called him. Aston-— ished at the silence of Madame de Chateaufort, who had not answered his letters, Monsieur de Villebrais, as soon as he was able to walk, had asked foran interview. But when Madame de Chateaufort forgot, she did not half for- set. She sent back then to Monsieur de Villebrais the let- ters which he had addressed to her, at the same time ask- ing him to return hers, and to renounce all hope of ever seeing her again. The lieutenant of artillery knew the in- 4 cS (Eo) fluence of the duchess, he obeyed so as to avoid making £7...