Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 399: what you’re looking at

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

386 the evenings when he was not thus occupied, and | had no company of his own to receive, he was in- variably out,—sometimes, as I understood, till a late hour in the night. I had been in my new place about two months —and it was now verging towards the end of February—when the Duke one morning said to me, as I was opening his letters and arranging his newspapers on the breakfast-table (for he and the Duchess took this meal separately, in their own private apartments),—“ You must by this time be- gin to know Paris tolerably well ?” IT answered in the affirmative; and the Duke, taking a sealed billet from his ‘writing-desk, in- quired whether I thought I could find my way ms a certain street which he named, and which, as I afterwards found, was about two miles wes the mansion, I was not previously acquainted with this particular street: but when I was informed of the neighbourhood in which it was, I assured the. Duke that I should be enabled to find my way thither. He bade me take the note and wait for an answer: but as I was about to quit the apart- ment, he called me back, to bid me conceal the billet in my pocket, and not mention to any of my fellow-servants the fact of my being charged with this particular mission. I set off accordingly ; and experienced little difficulty in inquirmg my way: but it was not until I entered the street which was my destination, that I drew forth the note to refresh my memory as to the precise number of the house to which I was directed, I now observed that the letter was addressed to Mademoiselle Ligny. Now, as Mademoiselle te- presents “ Miss” in English, I of course compre- hended that it was to a single lady I was proceed- ing as a messenger; and the injunction of secrecy which I had received from the Duke, led me to draw an inference which the reader will agree with me was natural enough—namely, that it was some little intrigue in which my ducal master was en- gaged. I did not much like being employed in the affair: but there was no help for it: I was bound to deliver the note and await the answer. Almost every house in Paris has its gate- porter ; and on reaching the particular dwelling indicated by the address of the note, I inquired for Mademoiselle Ligny. The porter directed me to ascend to the second storey; and on reaching the door of the suite of apartments to which T thus mounted, my summons at. the bell was responded to by an elderly and respectable-looking female servant. I gave her the note: she took it to an inner room; and almost immediately returned, de- siring me to walk in. I was conducted intoa plainly but decently furnished parlour,—where I found myself in the presence of a lady about thirty years of age, and who had evidently once been ex- ceedingly beautiful: but the ravages of care and illness seemed to have changed her much. She was very pale—and her cheeks were sunken: her eyes, large and dark, were hollow and encircled by bluish rings. Her hair was also dark; and being gathered up negligently in a knot at the back of the head, left her entire face all the more exposed ; so that its thinness and unnatural pallor were un- relieved by the curtaining veil which those luxu- riant masses might have been made partially to form if allowed to q~yend in tresses or ringlets. but it had Her figure had evidently been fine: JOSEPH WILMOT 5 OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT, age afterward—she looked ten years lost its willowy elasticity, its suppleness, and its rounded firmness of contours. She was somewhat negligently dressed at the moment I was intro- duced to her presence; and thus not even the artificial aids of the toilet concealed or compen- sated for the decay of charms which had once no doubt been considerable. Though not more than thirty, as I have alfeady said—for I learnt her older ; although a beautiful set of teeth, faultlessly pre- served, gave a younger air to a countenance other- wise waning and fading. I must add that not- withstanding I thus found Mademoiselle Ligny in deshabillée, there was a certain elegance about her which bespoke the well-bred woman; and I could readily fancy that before her beauty had succumbed beneath the wasting, blighting, wither- ing influences of ¢are and sickness—and when apparelled with all the graces of the toilet—her appearance must have been distinguished and at- tractive to no ordinary degree. In an affable but amrabed manner—and ad- dressing mein English, which she spoke fluently — she desired me to be seated, while she wrote an answer to the note which I had brought: but scarcely had she begun to pen the response, when there was a violent ring at the outer door of the suite of apartments: so that she started nervously and looked as if seized with sudden affright. _ “Is Mademoiselle Ligny at home?” inquired a female voice, thus addressing the elderly domestic who had answered*that summons: and this voice was that of the Duchess de Paulin herself. Mademoiselle Ligny recognised it also as wellas - I did; and springing up from her chair in the strongest excitement, she said, “There! there !”— at the same time opening the door of an inner room, clutching me by the arm, and pushing me ~ | into it. Searcely had she closed this door upon - me, when I heard the other door of the room which I had just left, thrown open. I was in Mademoiselle Ligny’s bed-chamber ; and I felt that my position was by no means a pleasant one. ‘The thought that there wasindeed some improper intimacy between the Duke and Mademoiselle Ligny, recurred tome with additional force,—coupled with the idea that the Duchess had discovered the intrigue and that some terrific scene was about to take place. I feared that in her jealous rage the Duchess might possibly take it into her head to penetrate into the chamber where I now found myself —a proceeding which I thought she was likely exough to adopt if her husband should have happened to have gone out imme- diately after I left hint, in which case she might search to see if he were there. I looked for an- other outlet, with the intention of beating a retreat, if possible: but there was none: the only door belonging to the chamber, was that by which I had just entered. An animated conversation had in the meantime at once commenced between the Duchess and Mademoiselle Ligny: but I was not sufficiently proficient in the French language to follow it with ease: nor indeed did I study to be- come an attentive listener; for I felt that it was a matter of extreme delicacy, into which a sense of honour forbade me deliberately to pry. I could not however help overhearing somewhat that was said; and I will endeavour to put it into its most connected form. ~ ELNOOlKS (E00) <S —— OOO im