"Try to keep the
secret of all this to yourself," he added, leaving her alone for a
moment in his study.
He felt himself so weak before that heavenly smile that he feared he
might say a word of hope and thus mislead her.
CHAPTER X
THE FAMILY OF PORTENDUERE
Madame de Portenduere was at this moment alone with the abbe in her
frigid little salon on the ground floor, having finished the recital
of her troubles to the good priest, her only friend. She held in her
hand some letters which he had just returned to her after reading
them; these letters had brought her troubles to a climax. Seated on
her sofa beside a square table covered with the remains of a dessert,
the old lady was looking at the abbe, who sat on the other side of the
table, doubled up in his armchair and stroking his chin with the
gesture common to valets on the stage, mathematicians, and priests,--a
sign of profound meditation on a problem that was difficult to solve.
This little salon, lighted by two windows on the street and finished
with a wainscot painted gray, was so damp that the lower panels showed
the geometrical cracks of rotten wood when the paint no longer binds
it.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177