Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/178

154 young woman, stopping on the first step.

"Oh, it's no use playing the innocent! We know what we know, hang it all! Thou hast been his mistress, don't deny it."

"Landrillon!"

"Ay, it is the gossip of Zoudbertinge and even of all Smaragdis. The Rev. Balthus Bomberg never ceases to thunder against 'the Dykgrave's street-walker'."

Giving up her intention of ascending the stairs, she retraced her steps, let herself sink into a chair, fainting, and almost lifeless with grief and shame.

A prelude on the piano broke the silence which they both kept.

Guidon was singing up there, with his rustic voice, (just broken and still a little defective, but of singularly magnetic power), a wrecker's ballad, which Kehlmark accompanied on the piano.

Her body shaken with sobs, that seemed to keep time, Blandine, grief-struck, listened to the measure of the song; the young fellow's voice seemed to put the crowning touch to her woe.

An equivocal smile curled the lips of the valet as he heard the song, and he regarded unhappy Blandine with a no less ironical look.