Ethel Watts Mumford

“ Jean and Mathilde, rushing in, found me lying unconscious across the table, while under the wreck of steel lay Montajon—dead.
There is not much more to relate. Cerebral hemorrhage was the verdict at the inquest—but I saw his torn throat. The metal spikes, they said, had made those gashes; but I never see my dear Valérie without imagining in dim outline the huge protecting presences of the lions—a paw on either shoulder, and claws meeting above the courageous head of the last of the house of Castel. ”

“ Of all women in the whole world of my acquaintance, Valérie was the only one so situated as to make a secret marriage possible. She was the only child, an orphan. When she had come of legal age, all her property had become hers without restraint whatsoever. There was not even a trustee to be considered. Nothing easier than to procure the offices of a magistrate on one of of her distant provincial estates to attend to the legal formalities of a civic union. I seemed for a moment transported into Montajon's brain. ”

“ The table, a huge oblong affair, had square corners forming the point of high relief shields, setting forth the full arms of Castel. Overhead a heavy wrought iron chandelier with pans for wax lights, dating back to the time of good Adalbert himself, featured the rampant lions again. The silver that adorned the massive serving tables was emblazoned, as were the chair: room fairly crawled with the creatures of heraldic dreams.
Montajon was never present when I came. ”

“ I was angry and ill at ease, and as soon as possible I dismissed the whole disagreeable evening from my mind.
The ensuing weeks were crowded ones, and I had all but forgotten the incident when one day Madame la Marquise de Bonclier de Bezanson was announced. My heart misgave me. I knew with what ardent disapproval she regarded both my father and myself, not to mention the interesting members of our entourage. That she should deign to present herself in our unfashionable quarter, even at our unhallowed door, argued something little short of coercion. ”

“ In short, you might as well send off your claptrap dining room paneling, because I am going to give you 'the Zoo.'”
I looked at her amazed. “You please yourself to joke, Madame Do Nothing! How could I part you from your cherished menagerie? I do not know how one feeds your animals, and heaven is witness, I have a few of my own spouting worthy copybook texts at me. You will please to stable your beasts yourself.”
Valérie shrugged. ”

“ I exclaimed, “he's the most unattractive man in the whole room. Why, he's got all the hallmarks of criminal tendency. His head is assymmetrical; can't you see for yourself that the left eye cavity is higher and deeper than the right? His ears have no lobes to speak of; the jawbones protrude, the frontal bone recedes.” I was speaking the language of Lombroso in sober earnest, but Valérie took it as part of our “pretend.” ”

“ It is an ideal place for self-communing or for intimate confidences. But the lure of its remote quiet did not seem to make Valérie find her task easy, for that she had set herself a task in this interview I sensed at once. I knew it concerned Montajon, and I was determined to give her warning when she gave me the slightest opening. We talked of everything in the world except what was uppermost in our minds, and it was not until she rose to go that she mastered her embarrassment.
“Do you keep someone always within call?” ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1940, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 83 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”