THE
MARQUIS OF LETORIERE.
[FROM THE FRENCH.]
BOSTON:
NICHOLS & HALL
1873
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
The Tailor
CHAPTER II
The Ex-Professor of Plessis College
CHAPTER III
The Debtor
CHAPTER IV
Mysteries
CHAPTER V
The Cavalier
CHAPTER VI
Mademoiselle de Soissons
CHAPTER VII
The Lawsuit
CHAPTER VIII
The Chateau Soubise
CHAPTER IX
The Departure
CHAPTER X
The Governor of Henferester
CHAPTER XI
The Supper
CHAPTER XII
Confidences
CHAPTER XIII
Doctor Sphex
CHAPTER XIV
The Councillor Flachsinfingen
CHAPTER XV
The Interview
CHAPTER XVI
The Judgment
CHAPTER XVII
The Adieux
CHAPTER XVIII
The Return
CHAPTER XIX
The Duel
CHAPTER XX
The Abbey
THE MARQUIS OF LETORIERE.
CHAPTER I
THE TAILOR
In 1769 there was in the Rue St. Honoré, not far from the Palais Royal,a small tailor's shop, having for its sign an enormous pair of giltscissors, suspended above the door by an iron triangle.
Master Landry, proprietor of The Golden Scissors, a little lean, pale,and apathetic man, offered a striking contrast to his wife Madelaine.
She was a woman of thirty-five or forty years, robust and active, withhard features, and a gait like a man's, and her quick and imperiousvoice told that her dominion over her household was absolute.
It was eleven o'clock one dark, rainy day in December. Master Landry,seated on his counter, plied alternately his scissors and needle, incompany with Martin Kraft, his apprentice, a big, heavy, phlegmaticGerman, about twenty years old, whose red and puffed-out cheeks, andlong hair, more yellow than blonde, gave him a stupid air.
The tailor's wife seemed to be in a very bad humor. Landry and hisapprentice maintained a prudent silence, until at length Madeleinesnapped out at her husband, scornfully:
"I give up; thou hast no blood in thy veins; thou would'st allow thyselfto be robbed of thy last customer; imbecile!"
Landry exchanged an elbow-touch and a glance with Martin Kraft, but keptquiet, handling his needle with redoubled dexterity.
Irritated, no doubt, by the meekness of her victim, the housewiferesumed, addressing her husband vehemently:
"To whom do I speak, if you please?"
The tailor and the apprentice continued mute.
The exasperated woman administered a vigorous slap to her husband,saying:
"It appears to me t