inspect somewhat closer the beautiful girls whom his first
glance had already particularized.
“Louise here! Louise a maid of honor to Madame!” murmured
Raoul, and his eyes, which did not suffice to satisfy his
reason, wandered from Louise to Montalais. The latter had
already emancipated herself from her assumed timidity, which
she only needed for the presentation and for her reverences.
Mademoiselle de Montalais, from the corner of the room to
which she had retired, was looking with no slight confidence
at the different persons present; and, having discovered
Raoul, she amused herself with the profound astonishment
which her own and her friend’s presence there caused the
unhappy lover. Her waggish and malicious look, which Raoul
tried to avoid meeting, and which yet he sought inquiringly
from time to time, placed him on the rack. As for Louise,
whether from natural timidity, or some other reason for
which Raoul could not account, she kept her eyes constantly
cast down; intimidated, dazzled, and with impeded
respiration, she withdrew herself as much as possible aside,
unaffected even by the nudges Montalais gave her with her
elbow. The whole scene was a perfect enigma for Raoul, the
key to which he would have given anything to obtain. But no
one was there who could assist him, not even Malicorne; who,
a little uneasy at finding himself in the presence of so
many persons of good birth, and not a little discouraged by
Montalais’s bantering glances, had described a circle, and
by degrees succeeded in getting a few paces from the prince,
behind the group of maids of honor, and nearly within reach
of Mademoiselle Aure’s voice, she being the planet around
which he, as her attendant satellite, seemed constrained to
gravitate. As he recovered his self-possession, Raoul
fancied he recognized voices on his right hand that were
familiar to him, and he perceived De Wardes, De Guiche, and
the Chevalier de Lorraine, conversing together. It is true
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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
they were talking in tones so low, that the sound of their
words could hardly be heard in the vast apartment. To speak
in that manner from any particular place without bending
down, or turning round, or looking at the person with whom
one may be engaged in conversation, is a talent that cannot
be immediately acquired by newcomers. Long study is needed
for such conversations, which, without a look, gesture, or
movement of the head, seem like the conversation of a group
of statues. In fact, in the king’s and queen’s grand
assemblies, while their majesties were speaking, and while
every one present seemed to be listening in the midst of the
most profound silence, some of these noiseless conversations
took place, in which adulation was not the prevailing
feature. But Raoul was one among others exceedingly clever
in this art, so much a matter of etiquette, that from the
movement of the lips he was often able to guess the sense of
the words.
“Who is that Montalais?” inquired De Wardes, “and that La
Valliere? What country-town have we had sent here?”
“Montalais?” said the chevalier, — “oh, I know her; she is
a good sort of a girl, whom we shall find amusing enough. La
Valliere is a charming girl, slightly lame.”
“Ah! bah!” said De Wardes.
“Do not be absurd, De Wardes, there are some very
characteristic and ingenious Latin axioms about lame
ladies.”
“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” said De Guiche, looking at Raoul
with uneasiness, “be a little careful, I entreat you.”
But the uneasiness of the count, in appearance at least, was
not needed. Raoul had preserved the firmest and most
indifferent countenance, although he had not lost a word
that passed. He seemed to keep an account of the insolence
and license of the two speakers in order to settle matters
with them at the earliest opportunity.
De Wardes seemed to guess what was passing in his mind, and
continued:
“Who are these young ladies’ lovers?”
“Montalais’s lover?” said the chevalier.
“Yes, Montalais first.”
“You, I, or De Guiche, — whoever likes, in fact.”
“And the other?”
“Mademoiselle de la Valliere?”
“Yes.”
“Take care, gentlemen,” exclaimed De Guiche, anxious to put
a stop to De Wardes’s reply; “take care, Madame is listening