Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

40 THE SKIRMISH. Jacques let fall his glass. ‘It is neither you nor I who have made the world what it is, and itis not your fault if your father was not at least a chevalier. A prudent father, in the times in which we live, ought always to be born a count or a baron.”’ ‘*Monsieur, I go to Paris,’’ exclaimed Jacques, fright- ened. “To Paris! eh! eh! it is an amiable city for rich and handsome young men; but when you have only the hand- some part, it is well enough to avoid entering the cabaret. Gentlemen leave it tipsy, poor devils leave it plucked. Paris is a place where pleasures abound, only they cost very dear, above all those which cost nothing. It is true that when one is a handsome fellow, one has an additional chance. My faith, yes! Why the devil did I not think of it? One might please some dowager who places you then in her affections just between her spaniel and her con- fessor; in the morning you leave her apartment through the secret door. At the end of a month you are a boarder at the house in quality of secretary; you have a florid complexion, a vermilion mouth, and have the whole day to repose yourself.”’ Jacques made a gesture of disgust. ‘No! then there remains to us the hope of becoming an intendant. Good trade! Do you know how to steal, Jacques?’’ Jacques grew pale and stood up. ‘‘Monsieur!’’ said he, in a voice strangled by emotion. Monsieur d@’Assonville looked at him without a muscle of his face trembling. Jacques ran his hands through the long curls of his blonde hair. A deep sigh came from his breast, and he sat down again. ‘Pardon me, Monsieur le Comte,’’ he said; ‘‘I did not expect this outrage from you who have slept in my father’s arms! You have undoubtedly wished to punish me for having so promptly forgotten the distance which exists between us, but you have done it maliciously, Mon- sisur le Comte. You have no desire to come to my aid, I can well see. I will take counsel, then, of circumstances; but, whatever may come to pass and in whatever situation I find myself, believe me, never shall I forget that I have, co judging me, my God up yonder and my father here elow.”’ ‘You are an honest and loyal fellow, friend Jacques, and lam proud to press your hand,’’ replied Monsieur d’Assonville. ‘‘I have wished to prove you, and now that Comicbooks: co