Raoul himself was to encamp in the house where
the office of the new journal was established.
Such was the rival of the innocent Madame de Vandenesse. Raoul was the
connecting link between the actress and the countess,--a knot severed
by a duchess in the days of Louis XV. by the poisoning of Adrienne
Lecouvreur; a not inconceivable vengeance, considering the offence.
Florine, however, was not in the way of Raoul's dawning passion. She
foresaw the lack of money in the difficult enterprise he had
undertaken, and she asked for leave of absence from the theatre. Raoul
conducted the negotiation in a way to make himself more than ever
valuable to her. With the good sense of the peasant in La Fontaine's
fable, who makes sure of a dinner while the patricians talk, the
actress went into the provinces to cut faggots for her celebrated man
while he was employed in hunting power.
CHAPTER VI
ROMANTIC LOVE
On the morrow of the ball given by Lady Dudley, Marie, without having
received the slightest declaration, believed that she was loved by
Raoul according to the programme of her dreams, and Raoul was aware
that the countess had chosen him for her lover. Though neither had
reached the incline of such emotions where preliminaries are abridged,
both were on the road to it. Raoul, wearied with the dissipations of
life, longed for an ideal world, while Marie, from whom the thought of
wrong-doing was far, indeed, never imagined the possibility of going
out of such a world.
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