Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/120

116 Again the familiar voice speaks. "Love her! Bah! We never love these fine ladies who give us such tender glances from opera-boxes. We never admire these great heiresses, who fall in love with a handsome face, and have not enough modesty to keep the sentiment a secret; who think they honour us by a marriage which they are ashamed to confess; and who fancy we must needs be devoted to them, because, after their fashion, they are in love with us."

"Have you heard enough?" asked Raymond Marolles.

"Give me a pistol or a dagger!" she gasped, in a hoarse whisper; "let me shoot him dead, or stab him to the heart, that I may go away and die in peace!"

"So," muttered Raymond, "she has heard enough. Come, madame. Yet—stay, one last look. You are sure that is Monsieur de Lancy?"

The man and the girl are standing a few yards from them; his back is turned to Valerie, but she would know him amongst a thousand by the dark hair and the peculiar bend of the head.

"Sure!" she answers. "Am I myself?"

"Come, then; we have another place to visit to-night. You are satisfied, are you not, madame, now that you have had ocular demonstration?"

Monsieur Marolles offers his arm to lead Valerie de Cevennes back to the coach, it is accepted passively enough. Little matter now what new degradation she endures. Her pride can never fall lower than it has fallen. Despised by the man she loved so tenderly, the world's contempt is nothing to her.

In a few minutes they are both seated in the coach driving through the Champs Elysées.

"Are you taking me home?" she asks.

"No, madame, we have another errand, as I told you."

"And that errand?"

"I am going to take you where you will have your fortune told."

"My fortune!" she exclaims, with a bitter laugh.

"Bah! madame," says her companion. "Let us understand each other. I hope I have not to deal with a romantic and lovesick girl. I will not gall your pride by recalling to your recollection in what a contemptible position I have found you. I offer my services to rescue you from that contemptible