Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

66 A HOUSE IN THE RUE CASSETTE. ‘*Better than that.’’ ‘*A visit.’’ | ‘Exactly. A visit such as the greatest gentleman of our glorious king would be pleased to receive..’’ ‘Tt is a woman, then?’’ ‘‘And one of the prettiest—brown eyes, soft and _bril- liant, hair like silken threads, a slender little nose, lips to shame the freshest roses, and what teeth! Ah! my gentle- man, how willingly one would change one’s self into a cherry to be bitten by those teeth!’’ ‘‘Monsieur Mériset, poetry has made you forget my rank; no gentility, if you please.’’ ‘*He persists in it,’’ thought the honest landlord. And he continued, aloud: ‘‘For fifty-two years I have been liv- ing in the Rue du Pot-de-Fer St. Sulpice, and never before did I see a similar face.’’ ‘*What is she—a soubrette?’’ ‘‘A soubrette! ah, fi! with that figure of a great lady— she is a marquise. ’’ ‘*Did she tell you so?’”’ **T guessed it.’’ Belle-Rose smiled, having a personal experience of his host’s perspicacity. *‘Agreed that she is a marquise,’’said he. ‘‘At least she has told you something?’’ ‘‘Certainly. She told me that she would return.’’ “* Ah hb: ‘Then she has gone away again in the chaise which brought her.’’ ‘*Without saying anything?”’ ‘‘Faith no; but I understood from her air that she was vexed because she did not get to see you.’’ Belle-Rose did not fora moment doubt but what the marquise of his host was an emissary from the Rue Cas- sette. Consequently the next day he remained at home all day and waited. Nooneappeared. It was the same the following day. Belle-Rose returned to his recruits. ‘*Parbleu!’’ said he, ‘‘if any one wishes to see me let them write tome. There are pens for everybody.”’ As he was returning two days after, toward evening, he saw at the end of the street a carriage standing still; a woman was standing before the portiére, and by the wo- man’s side a man was bending over, his cap in hand. This man was Monsieur Mériset. The intelligent landlord per- ceived Belle-Rose with the corner of his eye and made him an imperceptible sign to induce him to make haste. Belle- EGcomichbooks.co