Joseph Balsamo by Alexandre Dumas

so, great will be your disappointment.”
    ” Pardon me, sir,” said Andre, in her usual calm manner ; “but if Nicole has rightly understood me, we shall have another dish. I have given her the recipe for one.”
    ” The recipe ? You have given a recipe to your maid ? Thefemme de chambre turned cook ! It only requires one step more turn cook yourself, I beg you ! Did the Duchess de Chateaurouxor the Marchioness de Pompadour
     
    JOSEPH BALSAMO. 61
    ever cook for the king ? Oil the contrary, it was he who dressed omelets for them. Jour de Dieu ! have I lived to see women cooking in my house ? Baron, excuse my daughter, I beseech you.”
    ” But, father, we must eat,” said Andre, quietly. ” Well, Legay,” added she in a louder tone, ” is it done ? “
    “Yes, mademoiselle ‘ replied the maid, bringing in “a dish of a very tempting odor.
    ” I know one, at least, who will not eat of that dish,” said the baron, furious, and breaking his plate as he spoke.
    ” Perhaps you will eat some, sir ? ” said Andre, coldly ; then turning to her father, ” You know, sir, we have now only seven plates of that set which my mother left me ; ” and so saying, she proceeded to carve the smoking viands which Mile. Legay, the pretty waiting-maid, had just placed on the table.
     
    CHAPTER VI.
    AXDREE DE TAVEKXEY.
    THE searching intellect of Balsamo found ample food for study in each detail of the strange and isolated life led by this family in a corner of Lorraine.
    The salt-cellar alone revealed to him one phase of the baron’s character, or, rather, his character in all its bearings. He called up all his penetration, therefore, as he scrutinized the features of Andre, while she handed him that salt-cellar.
    At length, Avhether moved by curiosity or some deeper feeling, Balsamo gazed on Andre so fixedly, that two or three times, in less than ten minutes, the eyes of the young girl met his. At first she bore his look without confusion, but its intensity became by degrees so great that a feverish impatience, which made the blood mount to her cheeks, took possession of her. Then, feeling that this look had something supernatural in its power,
     
    62 JOSEPH BALSAMO.
    she tried to brave it, and, in her turn, she gazed at the baron with her large, limpid, dilated eyes. But this time again she was obliged to yield ; and, filled with the magnetic fluid which flowed in streams from his flaming orbs, her eyelids weighed down, sunk timidly, no longer to be raised but with hesitation.
    While this silent struggle went on between the young girl and the mysterious traveler, the baron grumbled, laughed, and found fault, and swore like a true country gentleman, and pinched La Brie whenever he was within his reach, feeling that he must vent his spleen on some one. He was going to do the same to Nicole, when his eyes, for the first time, no doubt, rested on the hands of the young waiting-maid. The baron was an adorer of fine hands all his youthful follies might be attributed to the power of a fine hand over him.
    “Only see,” cried he, “what pretty fingers this little rogue has how the nail tapers ! it would bend over the tip a great beauty, if washing bottles and cutting wood did not wear down the horn ; for it is horn you have at the ends of your fingers, Mademoiselle Nicole.”
    Not accustomed to compliments from her master, Nicole looked at him with half a smile, in which there was more astonishment than gratification.
    ” Yes, yes,” said the baron, who saw what passed in the mind of the young flirt “turn away play the coquette, I beg of you ; but I must inform you, my dear guest, that Mademoiselle Nicole Legay, this young lady here present, is not a prude like her mistress, and is not at all afraid of a compliment. “
    Balsamo turned quickly toward the baron’s daughter and saw an expression of supreme disdain on her handsome features. Then, thinking it right to adapt his expression to hers, he looked haughtily away, at