The Blood And Spirits, Which
Had Suffered A Revulsion From Her, Crowded Back To Her As I Did It.
Now the two travellers, who had spoke to me in the coach-yard,
happening at that crisis to be
Passing by, and observing our
communications, naturally took it into their heads that we must be
MAN AND WIFE at least; so, stopping as soon as they came up to the
door of the Remise, the one of them who was the Inquisitive
Traveller, ask'd us, if we set out for Paris the next morning? - I
could only answer for myself, I said; and the lady added, she was
for Amiens. - We dined there yesterday, said the Simple Traveller. -
You go directly through the town, added the other, in your road to
Paris. I was going to return a thousand thanks for the
intelligence, THAT AMIENS WAS IN THE ROAD TO PARIS, but, upon
pulling out my poor monk's little horn box to take a pinch of
snuff, I made them a quiet bow, and wishing them a good passage to
Dover. - They left us alone. -
- Now where would be the harm, said I to myself, if I were to beg
of this distressed lady to accept of half of my chaise? - and what
mighty mischief could ensue?
Every dirty passion, and bad propensity in my nature took the
alarm, as I stated the proposition. - It will oblige you to have a
third horse, said Avarice, which will put twenty livres out of your
pocket; - You know not what she is, said Caution; - or what scrapes
the affair may draw you into, whisper'd Cowardice. -
Depend upon it, Yorick! said Discretion, 'twill be said you went
off with a mistress, and came by assignation to Calais for that
purpose; -
- You can never after, cried Hypocrisy aloud, show your face in the
world; - or rise, quoth Meanness, in the church; - or be any thing in
it, said Pride, but a lousy prebendary.
But 'tis a civil thing, said I; - and as I generally act from the
first impulse, and therefore seldom listen to these cabals, which
serve no purpose, that I know of, but to encompass the heart with
adamant - I turned instantly about to the lady. -
- But she had glided off unperceived, as the cause was pleading,
and had made ten or a dozen paces down the street, by the time I
had made the determination; so I set off after her with a long
stride, to make her the proposal, with the best address I was
master of: but observing she walk'd with her cheek half resting
upon the palm of her hand, - with the slow short-measur'd step of
thoughtfulness, - and with her eyes, as she went step by step, fixed
upon the ground, it struck me she was trying the same cause
herself. - God help her! said I, she has some mother-in-law, or
tartufish aunt, or nonsensical old woman, to consult upon the
occasion, as well as myself: so not caring to interrupt the
process, and deeming it more gallant to take her at discretion than
by surprise, I faced about and took a short turn or two before the
door of the Remise, whilst she walk'd musing on one side.
IN THE STREET. CALAIS.
Having, on the first sight of the lady, settled the affair in my
fancy "that she was of the better order of beings;" - and then laid
it down as a second axiom, as indisputable as the first, that she
was a widow, and wore a character of distress, - I went no further;
I got ground enough for the situation which pleased me; - and had
she remained close beside my elbow till midnight, I should have
held true to my system, and considered her only under that general
idea.
She had scarce got twenty paces distant from me, ere something
within me called out for a more particular enquiry; - it brought on
the idea of a further separation: - I might possibly never see her
more: - The heart is for saving what it can; and I wanted the
traces through which my wishes might find their way to her, in case
I should never rejoin her myself; in a word, I wished to know her
name, - her family's - her condition; and as I knew the place to
which she was going, I wanted to know from whence she came: but
there was no coming at all this intelligence; a hundred little
delicacies stood in the way. I form'd a score different plans. -
There was no such thing as a man's asking her directly; - the thing
was impossible.
A little French debonnaire captain, who came dancing down the
street, showed me it was the easiest thing in the world: for,
popping in betwixt us, just as the lady was returning back to the
door of the Remise, he introduced himself to my acquaintance, and
before he had well got announced, begg'd I would do him the honour
to present him to the lady. - I had not been presented myself; - so
turning about to her, he did it just as well, by asking her if she
had come from Paris? No: she was going that route, she said. -
Vous n'etes pas de Londres? - She was not, she replied. - Then Madame
must have come through Flanders. - Apparemment vous etes Flammande?
said the French captain. - The lady answered, she was. - Peut etre de
Lisle? added he. - She said, she was not of Lisle. - Nor Arras? - nor
Cambray? - nor Ghent? - nor Brussels? - She answered, she was of
Brussels.
He had had the honour, he said, to be at the bombardment of it last
war; - that it was finely situated, pour cela, - and full of noblesse
when the Imperialists were driven out by the French (the lady made
a slight courtesy) - so giving her an account of the affair, and of
the share he had had in it, - he begg'd the honour to know her
name, - so made his bow.
- Et Madame a son Mari?
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