Page:Cerise, a tale of the last century (IA cerisetaleoflast00whytrich).pdf/107

 One or two more of her cutting sayings, and she will sever the cord, already frayed very thin, by which she holds on to fortune. Then she becomes but yesterday's bouquet, and we need trouble ourselves no more with her! Exit Madame de Sabran. Enter—whom shall we name, my beautiful cousin? Whoever it is will have it in her power to become Queen of France. Now there is only Madame de Parabére left; but alas! she is the most dangerous and the most powerful of all. It is against her that I must ask you, madame, to lend me your assistance."

"Mine!" repeated the Marquise, half surprised and half unwilling, though with no especial liking for the lady in question. "Mine! what can I do?"

"Much," replied Malletort, earnestly. "Indeed, everything! Yet, it is very little I will ask you to undertake, though it must eventually lead to the greatest results. Listen. The Regent, while he has confessed to me over and over again that he grows weary of Madame de Parabére, is yet fascinated by her beauty—the beauty, after all, of a baby-face with a skin like cream. Such beauty as even the devil must have possessed when he was young. She has neither wit, nor grace, nor intellect, nor form, nor even features. But she has her skin, and that I must admit is wonderfully clear and soft. This attraction possesses some incredible fascination for the Duke. If she went out in the sun to-morrow and came home tanned, adieu to her power for ever! I cannot make her go out in the sun, but I think if you will help me I can arrange that she shall become tanned—aye, worse than tanned, speckled all over like a toad. Do you remember once when they praised your beauty at the late King's dinner, she said, 'Yes, you were very well for a mulatto?'"

"I have not forgotten it!" replied the Marquise, and her flashing eye showed that neither had she forgiven the offence.

"That little compliment alone would make me her enemy," continued the Abbé, "if I allowed myself such luxuries as likes and dislikes; but she is in our way, and that is a far better reason for putting her aside. Now my beautiful cousin has admired those flowers in the window more than once. She thinks they are an offering from her