He amused himself with her,
however, like a mischievous child who greedily sucks the juice of the
cherry and flings away the stone. The next morning at breakfast time,
when she was fully convinced that she was a lady and the mistress of
the house, Castanier uttered one by one the thoughts that filled her
mind as she drank her coffee.
"Do you know what you are thinking, child?" he said, smiling. "I will
tell you: 'So all that lovely rosewood furniture that I coveted so
much, and the pretty dresses that I used to try on, are mine now! All
on easy terms that Madame refused, I do no know why. My word! if I
might drive about in a carriage, have jewels and pretty things, a box
at the theatre, and put something by! with me he should lead a life of
pleasure fit to kill him if he were not as strong as a Turk! I never
saw such a man!'--Was not that just what you were thinking," he went
on, and something in his voice made Jenny turn pale. "Well, yes,
child; you could not stand it, and I am sending you away for your own
good; you would perish in the attempt. Come, let us part good
friends," and he coolly dismissed her with a very small sum of money.
The first use that Castanier had promised himself that he would make
of the terrible power brought at the price of his eternal happiness,
was the full and complete indulgence of all his tastes.
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