Page:The Works of Honoré de Balzac Volume 29.djvu/74

46 "Is there nothing in this to make you blush?" said the young man in a low voice. "Are you in such straits for money that you have to take the road for it?"

"I am so in want of it, Marquis, that I could put my heart in pledge for it, I think, if it were still in my keeping," she said, smiling coquettishly at him. "Where can you come from to think of employing Chouans without allowing them to plunder the Blues now and again? Don't you know the proverb, 'Thievish as an owl,' and what else is a Chouan? Besides," she went on, raising her voice, "is it not a righteous action? Have not the Blues robbed us, and taken the property of the Church?"

Again a murmur from the Chouans greeted her words, a very different sound from the growl with which they had answered the Marquis. The color on the young man's brow grew darker, he stepped a little aside with the lady, and began with the lively petulance of a well-bred man:

"Will these gentlemen come to the Vivetière on the appointed day?"

"Yes," she answered, "all of them, l'Intimé, Grand Jacques, and possibly Ferdinand."

"Then permit me to return thither, for I canned sanction such brigandage by my presence. Yes, madame, I say it is brigandage. A noble may allow himself to be robbed, but——"

"Very well, then," she broke in; "I shall have your share, and I am obliged to you for giving it up to me. The prize money will put me in funds. My mother has delayed sending money to me for so long that I am fairly desperate."

"Good-bye," said the Marquis, and he disappeared. The lady hurried quickly after him.

"Why won't you stay with me?" she asked, with a glance half tyrannous, half tender; such a glance as a woman gives to a man over whom she exerts a claim, when she desires to make her wishes known to him.

"Are you not going to plunder the coach?"