Alfred de Rosann — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

24 ALFRED DE ROSANN. Rosann, I always declared you were a fine gentleman, but a bad rogue. “ The noise you made in opening the cupboards of the haunted room at Louis Dorval’s old house awoke me. But I did not move; I feigned sleep, and watched all your motions. ‘The instant 1 saw the papers in your hands, I recollected Francois’ tale ; and I relied upon your honour, as a friend, to entrust me with the secret ; seeing that when men travel to- gether, everything is in common between them,—an apophthegm I once whispered to a gentleman whom I eased of his watch in a erowd last summer on the Place de lg Bastille. “ But you did not utter one word ; and I kept my counsel till the proper opportunity arrived. You read the document at the hotel in St. Malo; and your subsequent gaiety, added to the sudden change in your determination relative to our journey to Paris, et cetera, betrayed the result of the perusal, and the favourable contents of the papers. ‘Had you acted honourably, Alfred De Rosann, I should never have thought of outwitting you; but, if we ever meet again, recollect that scarcely your own thoughts are concealed from an experienced personage like Pierre Belle-Rose. ‘Towards a companion I my- self invariably observe a straightforward conduct ; and I expect it in others, or else the hypocrite and the deceiver shall be themselves deceived. “I merely scribble this to save you an useless jour- ney to London, where—if you persist in going thither on a fool’s errand—.we may haply meet. ' Adieu.’’ This letter, which was without signature or date, fell from De Rosann’s hands as his eye glance over the last syllable ; and he threw himself upon a chair, overcome by the fermentation of inward passions, and the working of terrible emotions. He could not have fancied Belle-Rose capable of so much duplicity; but, on reflection, he knew that, according to the loose ideas of self-appropriation professed by all adven- EOPMICGLOO KSaEO)