Chapter X
THE BLACK VEIL
Speaking the language fluently, and with unlimited money, there wasnothing to prevent my enjoying all that was enjoyable in the Frenchcapital. You may easily suppose how two days were passed. At the end ofthat time, and at about the same hour, Monsieur Droqville called again.
Courtly, good-natured, gay, as usual, he told me that the masqueradeball was fixed for the next Wednesday, and that he had applied for acard for me.
How awfully unlucky. I was so afraid I should not be able to go.
He stared at me for a moment with a suspicious and menacing look, whichI did not understand, in silence, and then inquired rather sharply. Andwill Monsieur Beckett be good enough to say why not?
I was a little surprised, but answered the simple truth: I had made anengagement for that evening with two or three English friends, and didnot see how I could.
"Just so! You English, wherever you are, always look out for yourEnglish boors, your beer and _'bifstek'_; and when you come here,instead of trying to learn something of the people you visit, andpretend to study, you are guzzling and swearing, and smoking with oneanother, and no wiser or more polished at the end of your travels thanif you had been all the time carousing in a booth at Greenwich."
He laughed sarcastically, and looked as if he could have poisoned me.
"There it is," said he, throwing the card on the table. "Take it orleave it, just as you please. I suppose I shall have my trouble for mypains; but it is not usual when a man such as I takes trouble, asks afavor, and secures a privilege for an acquaintance, to treat him so."
This was astonishingly impertinent.
I was shocked, offended, penitent. I had possibly committed unwittinglya breach of good breeding, according to French ideas, which almostjustified the brusque severity of the Marquis's undignified rebuke.
In a confusion, therefore, of many feelings, I hastened to make myapologies, and to propitiate the chance friend who had showed me so muchdisinterested kindness.
I told him that I would, at any cost, break through the engagement inwhich I had unluckily entangled myself; that I had spoken with toolittle reflection, and that I certainly had not thanked him at all inproportion to his kindness, and to my real estimate of it.
"Pray say not a word more; my vexation was entirely on your account; andI expressed it, I am only too conscious, in terms a great deal toostrong, which, I am sure, your good nature will pardon. Those who knowme a little better are aware that I sometimes say a good deal more thanI intend; and am always sorry when I do. Monsieur Beckett will forgetthat his old friend Monsieur Droqville has lost his temper in his cause,for a moment, and--we are as good friends as before."
He smiled like the Monsieur Droqville of the Belle Etoile, and extendedhis hand, which I took very respectfully and cordially.
Our momentary quarrel had left us only better friends.
The Marquis then told me I had better secure a bed in some hotel atVersailles, as a rush would be made to take them; and advised my goingdown next morning for the purpose.
I ordered horses accordingly for eleven o'clock; and, after a littlemore conversation, the Marquis d'Harmonville bade me good-night, and randown the stairs with his handkerchief to his mouth and nose, and, as Isaw from my window, jumped into his close carriage again and drove away.
Next day I was at Versailles. As I approached the door of the Hotel deFrance it was plain that I was not a moment too soon, if, indeed, I werenot already too late.
A crowd of carriages were drawn up about the entrance, so that I had nochance of approaching except by dismounting and pushing my way among thehorses. The hall was full of servants and gentlemen screaming to theproprietor, who in a state of polite distraction was assuring them, oneand all, that there was not a room or a closet disengaged in his entirehouse.
I slipped out again, leaving the hall to those who were shouting,expostulating, and wheedling, in the delusion that the host might, if hepleased, manage something for them. I jumped into my carriage and drove,at my horses' best pace, to the Hotel du Reservoir. The blockade aboutthis door was as complete as the other. The result was the same. It wasvery provoking, but what was to be done? My postilion had, a littleofficiously, while I was in the hall talking with the hotel authorities,got his horses, bit by bit, as other carriages moved away, to the verysteps of the inn door.
This arrangement was very convenient so far as getting in again wasconcerned. But, this accomplished, how were we to get on? There werecarriages in front, and carriages behind, and no less than four rows ofcarriages, of all sorts, outside.
I had at this time remarkably long and clear sight, and if I had beenimpatient before, guess what my feelings were when I saw an opencarriage pass along the narrow strip of roadway left open at the otherside, a barouche in which I was certain I recognized the veiled Countessand her husband. This carriage had been brought to a walk by a cartwhich occupied the whole breadth of the narrow way, and was moving withthe customary tardiness of such vehicles.
I should have done more wisely if I had jumped down on the_trottoir_, and run round the block of carriages in front of thebarouche. But, unfortunately, I was more of a Murat than a Moltke, andpreferred a direct charge upon my object to relying on _tactique_.I dashed across the back seat of a carriage which was next mine, I don'tknow how; tumbled through a sort of gig, in which an old gentleman and adog were dozing; stepped with an incoherent apology over the side of anopen carriage, in which were four gentlemen engaged in a hot dispute;tripped at the far side in getting out, and fell flat across the backsof a pair of horses, who instantly began plunging and threw me headforemost in the dust.
To those who observed my reckless charge, without being in the secret ofmy object, I must have appeared demented. Fortunately, the interestingbarouche had passed before the catastrophe, and covered as I was withdust, and my hat blocked, you may be sure I did not care to presentmyself before the object of my Quixotic devotion.
I stood for a while amid a storm of _sacre_-ing, tempereddisagreeably with laughter; and in the midst of these, while endeavoringto beat the dust from my clothes with my handkerchief, I heard a voicewith which I was acquainted call, "Monsieur Beckett."
I looked and saw the Marquis peeping from a carriage-window. It was awelcome sight. In a moment I was at his carriage side.
"You may as well leave Versailles," he said; "you have learned, nodoubt, that there is not a bed to hire in either of the hotels; and Ican add that there is not a room to let in the whole town. But I havemanaged something for you that will answer just as well. Tell yourservant to follow us, and get in here and sit beside me."
Fortunately an opening in the closely-packed carriages had justoccurred, and mine was approaching.
I directed the servant to follow us; and the Marquis having said a wordto his driver, we were immediately in motion.
"I will bring you to a comfortable place, the very existence of which isknown to but few Parisians, where, knowing how things were here, Isecured a room for you. It is only a mile away, and an old comfortableinn, called the Le Dragon Volant. It was fortunate for you that mytiresome business called me to this place so early."
I think we had driven about a mile-and-a-half to the further side of thepalace when we found ourselves upon a narrow old road, with the woods ofVersailles on one side, and much older trees, of a size seldom seen inFrance, on the other.
We pulled up before an antique and solid inn, built of Caen stone, in afashion richer and more florid than was ever usual in such houses, andwhich indicated that it was originally designed for the private mansionof some person of wealth, and probably, as the wall bore many carvedshields and supporters, of distinction also. A kind of porch, lessancient than the rest, projected hospitably with a wide and florid arch,over which, cut in high relief in stone, and painted and gilded, was thesign of the inn. This was the Flying Dragon, with wings of brilliant redand gold, expanded, and its tail, pale green and gold, twisted andknotted into ever
so many rings, and ending in a burnished point barbedlike the dart of death.
"I shan't go in--but you will find it a comfortable place; at all eventsbetter than nothing. I would go in with you, but my incognito forbids.You will, I daresay, be all the better pleased to learn that the inn ishaunted--I should have been, in my young days, I know. But don't alludeto that awful fact in hearing of your host, for I believe it is a soresubject. Adieu. If you want to enjoy yourself at the ball, take myadvice and go in a domino. I think I shall look in; and certainly, if Ido, in the same costume. How shall we recognize one another? Let me see,something held in the fingers--a flower won't do, so many people willhave flowers. Suppose you get a red cross a couple of inches long--you'rean Englishman--stitched or pinned on the breast of your domino,and I a white one? Yes, that will do very well; and whatever room you gointo keep near the door till we meet. I shall look for you at all thedoors I pass; and you, in the same way, for me; and we _must_ findeach other soon. So that is understood. I can't enjoy a thing of thatkind with any but a young person; a man of my age requires the contagionof young spirits and the companionship of someone who enjoys everythingspontaneously. Farewell; we meet tonight."
By this time I was standing on the road; I shut the carriage-door; bidhim good-bye; and away he drove.