Page:The Reverberator (2nd edition, American issue, London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1888).djvu/172

162 would be perpetrated?" Mme. de Cliché went on, coming nearer to her. She had a manner of forced calmness—as if she wished it to he understood that she was one of those who could be reasonable under any provocation, though she were trembling within—which made Francie draw back. "C'est pourtant rempli de choses—which we know you to have been told of—by what folly, great heaven! It's right and left—no one is spared—it's a deluge of insult. My sister perhaps will have told you of the apprehensions I had—I couldn't resist them, though I thought of nothing so awful as this, God knows, the day I met you at Mr. Waterlow's with your journalist."

"I have told her everything—don't you see she's anéantie? Let her go, let her go!" exclaimed Mme. de Brécourt, still at the window.

"Ah, your journalist, your journalist, mademoiselle!" said Maxime de Cliché, "I am very sorry to have to say anything in regard to any friend of yours that can give you so little pleasure; but I promise myself the satisfaction of administering him with these hands a dressing he won't forget; if I may trouble you so far as to ask you to let him know it!"

M. de Cliché fingered the points of his moustache; he diffused some powerful scent; his eyes were dreadful to Francie. She wished Mr. Probert would say something kind to her; but she had now determined to be strong. They were ever