Moths by Ouida — page 208: what you’re looking at

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

A CaaS MOTHS. She told herself that she had been conjecturing a vain and base- Jess thing. Why should he care? He was merely there, in the pavilion that was to have been Noisette’s, because, no doubt, all artistes were his comrades; and he replaced the actress from the same good-fellowship as he sold roses at Madame Lila’s stall, and ivory carvings at Cecile Chal- - Jon’s. It could have been nothing more. He never approached her. She could see his graceful head and throat above the throng, as he sold his puppets and his playthings; she could hear the thrill of his guitar, the echo of his voice, the delighted shouts of his child-troop, the laughter with which women pelted him with flowers as in Carnival time; she could see him nearly all day long, as he stood under Noisette’s rosy garlands or wandered with jest and compliment through the fair. But toherhe nevercame. At sunsethe wasmissing. The flag, with the Love caught in the thorns of the roses, was down; a negro stood like a statue cut in ebony between the pink cur- tains of Noisette’s tent. It wasa slave of Soudan who had long been a free man in his service—a picturesque figure, well known to Paris. He did not speak, but he had ascroll in his hands, a scroll that hung down, and on which was writien, ‘‘ Desole de us quitter, mais un pauvre luthier west past maitre de soi-meme.” ‘‘It was charming of Correze,” said Madame de Sonnaz. “Very charming of him. He had only twenty-four kours his own between the last night at Covent Garden and the royal fetes in Brussels. And he spent those twenty-four Lours in answering my call and coming to help our Kermesse. He is gone to Belgium to-night. It was really charming. And the use he has been! the impetus he gave! the money he has got for us! I shall always be grateful to him.” Whilst she spoke, she thought nevertheless, ‘*‘ It was very elo= quent that he should never have gone near her. They must un- derstand each other very well, if at all. He never took all that trouple for nothing, and no mere accident could have been se perfectly apropos.” The house-party and the host of Felicite dined at ten o’cloclz that night with her at the Chalet Ludoff, | Vere, pleading great fatigue, drove homeward in the pale moonlight, through the cool air, sweet with the scent of the ap» ple-orchards and the sea. Madame Nelaguine accompanied her: neither spoke. , | In Paris at that hour, Mademoiselle Noisette, arriving hot with the sun, enraged with the dust, furious at leaving Trouville, and ready for murder if she could not have vengeance, burst, as the hurricane and the ‘storm burst over lake and mountain, into the peaceful retreat where the director of her theater passed his leis- ure moments, and found that there was no new pensionnaire to play Julie Malmaison, that her greatness was on the same unap- : Sontanape pone it had occupied ever since herdebut, that her ector and her public alike were the most loyal and submissive ef slaves—that in a word, she had been hoaxed. : “ut done a voulu me mystifier!? she screamed a thousand #imes, and plunged into abysses of suspicion, and was only pac» chee | } heey Sica are comicbooks.co