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464 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
" I shall have my quarter's pay on Saturday. I was coming
to you then," said Philip.
" Was it that I was speaking of? What ! you are all cowards,
men all ! Oh, that I have been beast, beast, to think at last I
had found a man of heart !"
How much or how often this poor Ariadne had trusted and
been forsaken, I have no means of knowing, or desire of inquiring.
Perhaps it is as well for the polite reader, who is taken into my
entire confidence, that we should not know Madame de Smolensk's
history from the first page to the last. Granted that Ariadne was
deceived by Theseus : but then she consoled herself, as we may
all read in " Smith's Dictionary "; and then she must have deceived
her father in order to run away with Theseus. I suspect—I suspect,
I say, that these women who are so very much betrayed, are
________ but we are speculating on this French lady's antecedents, when
Charlotte, her lover, and her family are the persons with whom we
have mainly to do.
These two, I suppose, forgot self, about which each for a
moment had been busy, and Madame resumed :—" Yes, you have
reason ; Miss is here. It was time. Hold ! Here is a note from
her." And Philip's kind messenger once more put a paper into
his hands.
" My dearest father is very very ill. Oh, Philip ! I am so
unhappy; and he is so good, and gentle, and kind, and loves
me so !"
"It is true," Madame resumed. "Before Charlotte came, he
thought only of her. When his wife comes up to him, he turns
from her. I have not loved her much, that lady, that is true.
But to see her now, it is navrant. He will take no medicine from
her. He pushes her away. Before Charlotte came, he sent for
me, and spoke as well as his poor throat would let him, this poor
General ! His daughter's arrival seemed to comfort him. But he
says, ' Not my wife ! not my wife!' And the poor thing has to
go away and cry in the chamber at the side. He says—in his
French, you know—he has never been well since Charlotte went
away. He has often been out. He has dined but rarely at our
table, and there has always been a silence between him and Madame
la Générale. Last week he had a great inflammation of the chest.
Then he took to bed, and Monsieur the Docteur came—the little
doctor whom you know. Then a quinsy has declared itself, and
he now is scarce able to speak. His condition is most grave. He
lies suffering, dying, perhaps—yes, dying, do yon hear ? And you
are thinking of your little schoolgirl ! Men are all the same.
Monsters ! Go !"