Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/134

122 at me with some anxiety and kept whispering to her neighbours. Two or three times she turned to me to ask me in the gentlest voice in the world:

"'How do you feel, my dear?'

"'Very well,' I told her, 'very well indeed.'

"But in spite of this assurance, she shook her head and kept sighing so sadly that I really began to be anxious about myself, and, on rising from the table, looked at myself in a mirror. The examination reassured me; my face was beaming with happiness and health.

"The company, however, appeared to think otherwise; for two or three of the guests, before leaving, came up to me to ask if I was ill, and in spite of my answer in the negative, wrung my hand pathetically as they took their leave.

"I even thought I heard the word 'cholera' mentioned in a whisper; but when I asked if any of our acquaintances had been attacked by the disease, they said No; so I came to the conclusion I had misunderstood.

"I looked round for my beautiful bride, who approached me with anxious eyes. I tried to question her, but she only gazed at me and wiped away a tear, murmuring, 'Poor fellow, poor fellow!' I took leave of my guests, whom I longed to be rid of, rubbing my nose against theirs, as the custom is. My correspondent was the last to go. I rubbed his nose with extra cordiality, for it was he, you will remember, who had acted as intermediary in the negotiations leading to my marriage. I pointed with a knowing smile to the lovely Vanly, who was making softly for the bed-chamber, giving him to understand I was on the point of following her.

"'You would do much better to send for the doctor,' he said—and with these startling words he followed the other departing guests.

"I could make nothing of it. However, I was not going to trouble my head to find out what it all meant. I shut the house door, and hurried eagerly into the bed-chamber.

"The beautiful Vanly was already there, standing by the table, on which was spread a charming collation set out among fruits and flowers; she was busy pouring a pink liquid from one vessel into another. I had never seen anything look more appetising; it was for all the world like distilled rubies.

"'Look here, darling' I said as I came in, 'can you tell me why it is my present circumstances, which I find pre-eminently satisfactory, seem to call for pity on the part of everybody else? They keep asking me how I feel, am I a little better, and advise me to send for the doctor. Upon my word! I seem to be like a certain character in a French play I once saw at Amsterdam; all his friends try to persuade him he has got the fever and tell him this so often and so emphatically that he ends by believing them, and after bidding good night all round, goes off and takes to his bed.'

"'Ah!' faltered Vanly, 'if it was only the fever you had, with Peruvian bark we could cure that.'

"'What! if it was only the fever I had, but I have not got the fever, I beg to tell you.'

"'Dear Olifus,' said Vanly, 'now that we two are alone, now you need make no concealment, tell me frankly what you feel.'

"'What I feel? I feel a most burning desire to tell you I love you,—and better still, to . . .'

"'And not the least little cramp in your stomach?' asked Vanly.

"'Not the very least.'

"'Not a slight chill?'

"'Quite the contrary.'

"'Not a touch of colic?

"'Come, come; why, if I had the cholera, darling, you could not ask me more questions.'

"'Why, yes," precisely. . . now you have said the word.'

"'What next? '

"'We thought we noticed during supper . . .'

"'Noticed what? '

"'That you turned pale and put your hand several times to your stomach, and later on . . .'

"'Oh, the fact is, just at first I could not quite stomach the look of your mice in honey; then you see your woodlouse sauce . . . we don't use these sauces, you see, in my country. To top all, your castor oil dressing . . . but there, it passed off with the help of a little fresh air. Why, God bless me, what an idea, to think I am going to have the cholera on my wedding night of all times! Pla, ha, ha!'

"'Well, my dear, that is precisely what