Castles in the Air eBook

Baroness Emma Orczy
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 235 pages of information about Castles in the Air.

Castles in the Air eBook

Baroness Emma Orczy
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 235 pages of information about Castles in the Air.

“I know, Monsieur,” she rejoined with the same calm dignity which already had commanded my respect, “I know that you think me a selfish old woman; but my Angele—­she is an angel, of a truth!—­made all the arrangements, and I could not help but obey her.  But have no fears for her safety, Monsieur.  My son would not dare lay hands on her as often as he has done on me.  Angele will be brave, and our relations at St. Claude will, directly we arrive, make arrangements to go and fetch her and bring her back to me.  My brother is an influential man; he would never have allowed my son to martyrize me and Angele had he known what we have had to endure.”

Of course I could not then tell her that all her fears for herself and the lovely Angele could now be laid to rest.  Her ruffianly son was even now being conveyed by Leroux and his gendarmes to the frontier, where the law would take its course.  I was indeed not sorry for him.  I was not sorry to think that he would end his evil life upon the guillotine or the gallows.  I was only grieved for Angele who would spend a night and a day, perhaps more, in agonized suspense, knowing nothing of the events which at one great swoop would free her and her beloved mother from the tyranny of a hated brother and send him to expiate his crimes.  Not only did I grieve, Sir, for the tender victim of that man’s brutality, but I trembled for her safety.  I did not know what minions or confederates Fournier-Berty had left in the lonely house yonder, or under what orders they were in case he did not return from his nocturnal expedition.

Indeed for the moment I felt so agitated at thought of that beautiful angel’s peril that I looked down with anger and scorn at the fat old woman who ought to have remained beside her daughter to comfort and to shield her.

I was on the point of telling her everything, and dragging her back to her post of duty which she should never have relinquished.  Fortunately my sense of what I owed to my own professional dignity prevented my taking such a step.  It was clearly not for me to argue.  My first duty was to stand by this helpless woman in distress, who had been committed to my charge, and to convey her safely to St. Claude.  After which I could see to it that Mademoiselle Angele was brought along too as quickly as influential relatives could contrive.

In the meanwhile I derived some consolation from the thought that at any rate for the next four and twenty hours the lovely creature would be safe.  No news of the arrest of Aristide Fournier could possibly reach the lonely house until I myself could return thither and take her under my protection.

So I said nothing; but with perfect gallantry, just as if fat Mme. Fournier had been a young and beautiful woman, I begged her to give herself the trouble of mounting into the carriage which was waiting for her.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Castles in the Air from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.