up). Know, Glavis, she has actually refused me! GLAVIS (aside). So she has me! · very consoling! In all cases of heartache, the application of another man's disappointment draws out the pain, and allays the irritation. you! and wherefore? BEAUSEANT. (Aloud) Refused I know not, unless it be because the Revolution swept away my father's title of Marquis — and she will not marry a commoner. Now, as we have no noblemen left in France, as we are all citizens and equals, she can only hope that, in spite of the war, some English Milord or German Count will risk his life, by coming to Lyons and making her my Lady. Refused me, and with scorn! By heaven, I'll not submit to it tamely - I'm in a perfect fever of morti fication and rage. Refuse me, indeed! GLAVIS. Be comforted, my dear fellow - I will tell you a secret. For the same reason she refused ME! You! BEAUSEANT. that's a very different matter! But give me your hand, Glavis we'll think of some plan to humble her. By Jove, I should like to see her married to a strolling player! (Enter Landlord and his Daughter, from the Inn.) LANDLORD. Your servant, citizen Beauseant servant, Sir. Per haps you will take dinner before you proceed to your chateau; our larder is most plentifully supplied. I have no appetite. BEAUSEANT. GLAVIS. Nor I. Still it is bad travelling on an empty stomach. What have you got? (Takes and looks over the bill of fare.) (Shout without) - "Long live the Prince! the Prince!" BEAUSEANT. Long live The Prince! what Prince is that? I thought we had no princes left in France. LANDLORD. Ha, ha! the lads always call him Prince. He has just won the prize in the shooting-match, and they are taking him home in triumph. BEAUSEANT. Him! and who 's M. Him? LANDLORD. Who should he be, but the pride of the village, Claude Melnotte? notte? Of course you have heard of Claude Mel GLAVIS (giving back the bill of fare). Never had that honour. Soup — ragout of hare chicken, and, in short, all you have! BEAUSEANT. The son of old Melnotte, the gardener? LANDLORD. Exactly so a wonderful young man. Nay, he don't garden any more; his father left him well off. He's only a genus. A what? GLAVIS. LANDLORD. A genus! a man who can do everything in life, except anything that's useful; that's a genus. BEAUSEANT. You raise my curiosity - proceed. LANDLORD. Well, then, about four years ago, old Melnotte died and left his son well to do in the world. We then all observed that a great change came over young Claude: he took to reading and Latin, and hired a professor from Lyons, who had so much in his head that he was forced to wear a great full-bottom wig to cover it. Then he took a fencing-master, and a dancing-master, and a music-master; and then he learned to paint; and at last it was said that young Claude was to go to Paris, and set up for a painter. The lads laughed at him at first; but he is a stout fellow, is Claude, and as brave as a lion, and soon taught them to laugh on the wrong side of their mouths; and now all the boys swear by him, and all the girls pray for him. BEAUSEANT. A promising youth, certainly! And why do they call him Prince? LANDLORD. Partly because he is at the head of them all, and partly because he has such a proud way with him, and And what could have turned the foolish fellow's brain? Why, then, I hear from his mother, good soul! that it is no less a person than the Beauty of Lyons, Pauline Deschappelles. BEAUSEANT AND GLAVIS. Ha! ha! Capital! |