"But why did the Bourgeois
restrict his choice to the ladies of Quebec, when he knew I came
from the Three Rivers?"
"Oh, he was afraid of you, Hortense; you would make Belmont too good
for this world! What say you, Father de Berry? Do you ever walk on
the cape?"
The friar, in a merry mood, had been edging close to Hortense. "I
love, of all things, to air my gray gown on the cape of a breezy
afternoon," replied the jovial Recollet, "when the fashionables are
all out, and every lady is putting her best foot foremost. It is
then I feel sure that Horace is the next best thing to the Homilies:
"'Teretesque suras laudo, et integer ego!'"
The Chevalier La Corne pinched the shrugging shoulder of Hortense as
he remarked, "Don't confess to Father de Berey that you promenade on
the cape! But I hope Pierre Philibert will soon make his choice!
We are impatient to visit him and give old Provencal the butler a
run every day through those dark crypts of his, where lie entombed
the choicest vintages of sunny France."
The Chevalier said this waggishly, for the benefit of old Provencal,
who stood behind his chair looking half alarmed at the threatened
raid upon his well-filled cellars.
Pages:
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426