Joseph Balsamo (11 page)

” What a singular resemblance ! ” he murmured to himself. At this moment the light in the garret was extinguished, although its occupant was not yet in 1 bed.

Balsamo leaned against the wall, listening anxiously. The notes of the harpsichord still sounded in his ears. He assured himself that its harmony alone awoke the midnight silence around ; then opening the door which La Brie had shut, he cautiously descended the stairs, and gently pushed opened the door of the saloon.

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Andre heard nothing ; her white hands continued to wander over the old yellow keys of the instrument. Opposite her was a mirror set in an old carved frame, the gilding of which had changed to a dull gray. The air she played was melancholy, or, rather, she played merely harmonies instead of an air. No doubt it was all extempore ; and she was thus reproducing in music her early recollections, or indulging in the dreams of her imagination. Perhaps her spirit, saddened by her residence at Taverney, had left the chateau to wander in the large shady gardens of the convent of the Annonciades at Nancy, ringing with the merry voices of troops of happy boarders. “Whether such were her dreams or not, her vague gaze seemed to lose itself in the somber mirror before her, which reflected only indistinctly the different objects in the vast apartment, dimly lighted by the single candle placid on the harpsichord.

Sometimes she suddenly ceased. It was when she recalled the strange vision of the evening, and her unac-countable impressions, but before her thoughts had time to take any precise form, her heart beat, she felt a thrill run through her limbs, and she started as though a living being had come into contact with her. All at once, as she tried to account for these feelings, they returned. She felt a thrill as if from an electric shock. Her eye became fixed, her floating thoughts became embodied, as it were, and she perceived something move over the dim mirror.

The door of the saloon had opened noiselessly, and in the doorway a shadow appeared. She shuddered ; her fingers wandered involuntarily over the keys ; yet nothing could be more easily accounted for than the appearance of the figure. Might it not be her father, or Nicole, or La Brie, who, before retiring, had returned to the apartment upon some household errand ? La Brie’s visits of that kind were frequent ; and on these occasions, the faithful creature never made a sound. But, no ; the eyes of her soul showed her that the being whom she did not see was none of those we have named.

The shadow drew nearer, becoming more distinct in the

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mirror ; and when within the circle of the light afforded by the caudle the stranger was seen, his dress of black velvet increasing the ghastly pallor of his face ; he had for some mysterious reason laid aside the silk one which he wore at sapper.*

She would have turned and screamed, but Balsamo extended his arms, and she remained motionless. She made another effort. ” Sir,” said she, ‘ iii the name of Heaven, what do you want ? “

He smiled the glass reflected his smile, and she watched it with eager gaze, but he did not reply.

She tried once more to rise, but could not. An irresistible power, a paralyzing feeling, which was not without a pleasurable sensation attending it, fixed her to her chair, while her eye never left the magic mirror. This new sensation alarmed her, for she felt that she was altogether in the power of the unknown. She made another almost supernatural efftrt to call for aid, but Balsamo extended both his hands above her head, and no sound escaped her lips. She continued dumb, her bosom loaded with a stu-pefying heat which ascended slowly in invading billows to her brain. She had no longer strength or will her head sank on her shoulder.

At this moment Balsamo thought he heard a slight noise ; he turned, the face of the man he had seen before was at the window. He frowned, and, strange to say, the frown was reflected on the young girl’s face.

Then, turning again to Andre, he drow down his hands, which he had hitherto he’d above her head, then he raised them again gently, again drew them down, and continued thus to overwhelm her with column upon column of the electric fluid.

“Sleep!” said he.

She still struggled against his power.

” Sleep ! ” he repeated, in a voice of command. ” Sleep ; it is my will ! “

* It is weH known that silk is a bad conductor, and repels the electric fluid. It is almost impossible to magnetize a person who wears a dress of silk.

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Then all her faculties yielded to that all-powerful will ; she leaned her elbow on the harpsichord, dropped her head on her hand, and slept.

Balsamo now, without turning his face from her, left the room, closed the door, and went up to his own chamber. Scarcely had he retired when the face once more appeared at the window. It was Gilbert’s.

CHAPTER VIII. ATTRACTION.

GILBERT, whose menial position in the Chateau de Taveruey caused him to be excluded from the saloon, watched all evening those whose rank permitted them that privilege. During supper he saw Balsamo’s looks and gestures. He remarked Andre’s attention to him, the baron’s unusual affability, and the respectful eagerness of La Brie.

When the party rose from table, he hid in a clump of shrubs, lest Nicole, in closing the shutters, or in going to her own room, might see him, and put an end to his espionage. Nicole had, indeed, made her round to secure all for the night, but one of the shutters of the saloon she was forced to leave open, the half-unfixed hinge of which would not permit it to close. Gilbert knew that such was the case, BO he remained out certain that he could continue his watchings when Legay was gone.

His watchings, have we said r* What reason had Gilbert to watch ? Having been brought up at Taverney, did he not know it perfectly, as well as the habits of the family ? The reason was, that on that evening he had other motives than those which usually actuated him; he not only watched, but waited.

When Nicole quitted the saloon, leaving Andre there, after having slowly closed the doors and shutters, she walked for a few minutes up and down in front of the

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house, as if she expected some one. Then she looked furtively on all sides, peeped into the saloon, waited a little longer, and at length made up her mind to go to bed.

Gilbert, motionless, bending down close to the trunk of a tree, and scarcely venturing to breathe, saw every movement and gesture of Xicole ; and, when she had disappeared, and when he saw a light in the windows of her apartment, he stole again on tiptoe to the window, leaned forward, and continued, although scarcely knowing why, with eager eyes, to devour Andre, Avho was sitting at her harpsichord in a listless attitude.

Just then Joseph Balsamo entered the saloon. Gilbert started, and every faculty was strained to enable him to comprehend the scene which we have just described. He thought that Balsamo complimented Andre on her musical talent, that she replied with her usual coldness, that, with a smile, he repeated his praise, and that then she stopped to reply, and to dismiss him for the night. He admired the grace with which the stranger retired backward, but he had in reality understood nothing of the scene, as it had all pass d in silence. He had heard no words, he had seen the lips and hands of the pair before him move, and, close observer as he was, he discovered no mystery in what appeared to pass so naturally.

Balsamo gone, Gilbert remained no longer in an attitude of observation, but apparently lost in observation of Andre, so beautiful in her careless attitude ; but soon, to his amazement, he discovered that she was asleep. He remained for some moments longer in the same, position, to be certain that such was the case ; then, when he was quite convinced, he clasped his forehead with both hands, like one who feared for his senses in the flood of thoughts and sensations which poured on his brain. ” Oh,” said he, wildly, “her hand! that my lips might only touch her hand! Gilbert, Gilbert, rouse thee. I WILL do it ! “

As he spoke, he rushed into the anteroom, and reached the door of the saloon, which, as when Balsamo entered, opened without noise. But scarcely was it open, scarcely did he find the young girl before him without any-

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thing separating them, than he felt all the importance of the step he had taken. He, the son of a farmer and a peasant woman he, the timid young man, who, in hislowness dared hardly raise his eyes to his haughty mistress he was going to press to his lips the hem of the robe or the tip of the finger of this sleeping majesty, who, if she awoke, would, with a look, crush him to the dust. At this idea all that had intoxicated him arid made him bold vanished: he stopped, and clung to the doorpost, for he trembled and felt as if he should fall.

But Andre’s meditation or sleep for Gilbert could not yet decide whether she slept or was only buried in thought was so deep that he in no way disturbed her, yet one might have heard the beating of his heart which he tried in vain to still. He remained a minute gazing on her she stirred not ; she was so beautiful with her head gently bent forward on her hand, her long, unpowdered hair falling on her shoulders, that the flame which fear for a moment had extinguished rekindled. His madness returned ; he must at least touch something touched by her ; he made a step toward her. The floor creaked under his unsteady footstep, a cold moisture stood on his forehead but she seemed to have heard nothing.

” She sleeps ! ” he murmured. ” Oh, joy ! she sleeps ! “

But before he advanced three steps farther, he stopped again ; it was the unusual brightness of the candle which alarmed him now, for it had burned down in the socket, and gave, as is usual, a larger flame just before it expired. But not a sound, not a breath in the house. La Brie had retired to bed, and no doubt to sleep, and the light in Nicole’s chamber was extinguished.

” Conrag ! ” said he, and he advanced anew. Strange the floor creaked again, but Andre stirred not, and Gilbert himself could scarcely avoid being frightened by this mysterious repose.

” She sleeps ! ” repeated he again, with that varying resolution peculiar to the lover and the coward and lie who is not master of his heart is always a coward. ” She sleeps ! Oh, heaven ! oh. heaven ! “

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In the midst of all these feverish altercations of fear and hope, x he still advanced, and at last found himself within two paces of Andre. Then he felt as if fascinated ; he would have fled, were flight possible ; but once within the circle of attraction, of which she was the center, he felt himself rooted to the spot, and, conquered, subdued, he fell on both his knees.

Andre remained motionless as a statue. Gilbert took the hem of her dress in both hands, and kissed it ; then he looked up slowly, breathlessly his eyes met hers, which were wide open, yet she saw him not.

Gilbert no longer knew what to think ; he was overwhelmed with astonishment. For a moment the horrible idea that she was dead flashed across his mind ; he seized her hand, it was warm, and the pulse beat softly ; but this hand remained unresisting in his. Then, bewildered by having touched it, he imagined that she saw, that she felt, that she had discovered his maddening passion poor, blinded heart ! that she expected his visit, that her silence indicated consent, her immovability favor. He raised her hand to his lips, and imprinted on it a long and burning kiss. Immediately a shudder ran through her frame, and Gilbert felt that she repelled him.

” I am lost ‘ he murmured, relinquishing her hand, and throwing himself upon the floor.

Andre rose as if moved by a spring, and not once casting her eyes to the floor, on which Gilbert lay, overcome by shame and fear, without even strength to ask a pardon, which he knew would not be granted her head erect, her neck rigid, and with a painful and constrained step, she moved toward the door. She passed on like one drawn by a secret spell to some unseen goal, and in passing she touched Gilbert’s shoulder. He raised himself on one hand, turned slowly, and followed her with eyes full of amazement. She opened the door, passed into the anteroom, and reached the foot of the stairs. Pale and trembling, Gilbert dragged himself after her on his knees.

” Oh,” thought he, ” she is so indignant that she would not herself deign to show her anger. She is going to the

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baron to relate my shameful infatuation, and I shall be turned out like a disgraced lackey ! “

The thought that he should be dismissed that he should no longer see her who was his light, his life, his soul, gave him courage ; he arose and hurried after her. ” Oh, pardon, mademoiselle in the name of heaven, pardon ! ” murmured he.

Andre appeared not to have heard him, passed on, but did not enter her father’s apartment. Gilbert breathed more freely. She advanced toward the staircase, and began to ascend.

“Great Heaven!” murmured he, “where can she be going ! That is the way to the red room which the stranger occupies, and to La Erie’s loft. It may be to call him yet she would ring she must be going oh impossible, impossible ! ” and he wrung his hands with rage at the thought that she was going into Balsamo’s apartment.

She stopped before the door. A cold perspiration trickled down Gilbert’s forehead ; he grasped the iron of the balustrade that he might not fall, for he had continued to follow her and all that he saw and all that he fancied filled him with horror.

Balsamo’s door was half open. Andre did not knock, but pushed it wider, and entered the room. The light within fell on her noble features, and was reflected with a golden luster from her large open eyes. Gilbert could see the stranger standing in the middle of the chamber with his eyes fixed, his brow contracted, and one hand extended with a commanding gesture.

This was all the door was shut again.

Gilbert felt his strength abandon him. He put his hand to his head, and fell heavily on the cold stone of the upper step of the stairs, but with his eyes turned on the accursed door, which entombed his past dreams, his present happiness, his future hopes.