Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/211

Rh Blandine?" the little Guidon asked his friend. "I see such a strange look in her eyes."

"A slight indisposition; nothing at all; it will pass. Don't worry about it."

The poor woman often went about the house, like a lunatic, banging the doors and oversetting the furniture with great noise, through an impulse to break something or to cry aloud her intolerable pain; but, if she encountered Kehlmark he daunted and subdued her with a look.

One day, when Landrillon had particularly enervated her by threatening that he would no longer spare Kehlmark unless she gave herself up to him, she escaped once more from his odious importunities, and her head a little over-balanced, made a sudden irruption into the studio where the Count was sitting with his pupil. Her feelings were beyond her control. She could not resist casting a glance of disapproval at the peasant boy. The two friends were in the act of reading. None of the three said a word. But never was silence fuller of menace. She retired immediately, alarmed at the consequences of her intrusion.

"Blandine, you forget our agreement,"