She
could never quite get rid of that feeling.
In her anxiety--for she was in the affair for good or ill--she went again
to Monsieur Garon.
"You believe in Monsieur Valmond, dear avocat?" she asked.
The little man looked at her admiringly, though his admiration was a
quaint, Arcadian thing; and, perching his head on one side abstractedly,
he answered:
"Ah, yes, ah, yes! Such candour! He is the son of Napoleon and a certain
princess, born after Napoleon's fall, not long before his death."
"Then, of course, Monsieur Valmond is really nameless?" she asked.
"Ah, there is the point--the only point; but His Excellency can clear up
all that, and will do so in good time, he says. He maintains that France
will accept him."
"But the Government here, will they put him down? proceed against him?
Can they?"
"Ah, yes, I fear they can proceed against him. He may recruit men, but he
may not drill and conspire, you see. Yet"--the old man smiled, as though
at some distant and pleasing prospect "the cause is a great one; it is
great. Ah, madame, dear madame"--he got to his feet and stepped into the
middle of the floor--"he has the true Napoleonic spirit.
Pages:
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188