The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy Orczy (most interesting books to read txt) 📕

love us all!” said a buxom wench, who was clinging to the arm of a nervous-looking youth, “I believe they're coming for more money.”

On the elevated platform at the further end of the tent, a slim figure had just made its appearance, that of a young woman dressed in peculiarly sombre colours, and with a black lace hood thrown lightly over her head.

Marguerite thought that the face seemed familiar to her, and she also noticed that the woman carried a large embroidered reticule in her bemittened hand.

There was a general exodus the moment she appeared. The Richmond yokels did not like the look of that reticule. They felt that sufficient demand had already been made upon their scant purses, considering the meagerness of the entertainment, and they dreaded being lured to further extravagance.

When Marguerite turned away from the mechanical toy, the last of the little crowd had disappeared, and she was alone in the booth with the woman in the dark kirtle and black lace hood.

“For the poor of Paris, Madame,” said the latter mechanically, holding out her reticule.

Marguerite was looking at her intently. The face certainly seemed familiar, recalling to her mind the far-off days in Paris, before she married. Some young actress no doubt driven out of France by that terrible turmoil which had caused so much sorrow and so much suffering. The face was pretty, the figure slim and elegant, and the look of obvious sadness in the dark, almond-shaped eyes was calculated to inspire sympathy and pity.

Yet, strangely enough, Lady Blakeney felt repelled and chilled by this sombrely-dressed young person: an instinct, which she could not have explained and which she felt had no justification, warned her that somehow or other, the sadness was not quite genuine, the appeal for the poor not quite heartfelt.

Nevertheless, she took out her purse, and dropping some few sovereigns into the capacious reticule, she said very kindly:

“I hope that you are satisfied with your day's work, Madame; I fear me our British country folk hold the strings of their purses somewhat tightly these times.”

The woman sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh, Madame!” she said with a tone of great dejection, “one does what one can for one's starving countrymen, but it is very hard to elicit sympathy over here for them, poor dears!”

“You are a Frenchwoman, of course,” rejoined Marguerite, who had noted that though the woman spoke English with a very pronounced foreign accent, she had nevertheless expressed herself with wonderful fluency and correctness.

“Just like Lady Blakeney herself,” replied the other.

“You know who I am?”

“Who could come to Richmond and not know Lady Blakeney by sight.”

“But what made you come to Richmond on this philanthropic errand of yours?”

“I go where I think there is a chance of earning a little money for the cause which I have at heart,” replied the Frenchwoman with the same gentle simplicity, the same tone of mournful dejection.

What she said was undoubtedly noble and selfless. Lady Blakeney felt in her heart that her keenest sympathy should have gone out to this young woman—pretty, dainty, hardly more than a girl—who seemed to be devoting her young life in a purely philanthropic and unselfish cause. And yet in spite of herself, Marguerite seemed unable to shake off that curious sense of mistrust which had assailed her from the first, nor that feeling of unreality and staginess with which the Frenchwoman's attitude had originally struck her.

Yet she tried to be kind and to be cordial, tried to hide that coldness in her manner which she felt was unjustified.

“It is all very praiseworthy on your part, Madame,” she said somewhat lamely. “Madame...?” she added interrogatively.

“My name is Candeille—Desiree Candeille,” replied the Frenchwoman.

“Candeille?” exclaimed Marguerite with sudden alacrity, “Candeille... surely...”

“Yes... of the Varietes.”

“Ah! then I know why your face from the first seemed familiar to me,” said Marguerite, this time with unaffected cordiality. “I must have applauded you many a time in the olden days. I am an ex-colleague, you know. My name was St. Just before I married, and I was of the Maison Moliere.”

“I knew that,” said Desiree Candeille, “and half hoped that you would remember me.”

“Nay! who could forget Demoiselle Candeille, the most popular star in the theatrical firmament?”

“Oh! that was so long ago.”

“Only four years.”

“A fallen star is soon lost out of sight.”

“Why fallen?”

“It was a choice for me between exile from France and the guillotine,” rejoined Candeille simply.

“Surely not?” queried Marguerite with a touch of genuine sympathy. With characteristic impulsiveness, she had now cast aside her former misgivings: she had conquered her mistrust, at any rate had relegated it to the background of her mind. This woman was a colleague: she had suffered and was in distress; she had every claim, therefore, on a compatriot's help and friendship. She stretched out her hand and took Desiree Candeille's in her own; she forced herself to feel nothing but admiration for this young woman, whose whole attitude spoke of sorrows nobly borne, of misfortunes proudly endured.

“I don't know why I should sadden you with my story,” rejoined Desiree Candeille after a slight pause, during which she seemed to be waging war against her own emotion. “It is not a very interesting one. Hundreds have suffered as I did. I had enemies in Paris. God knows how that happened. I had never harmed anyone, but someone must have hated me and must have wished me ill. Evil is so easily wrought in France these days. A denunciation—a perquisition—an accusation—then the flight from Paris... the forged passports... the disguise... the bribe... the hardships... the squalid hiding places.... Oh! I have gone through it all... tasted every kind of humiliation... endured every kind of insult.... Remember! that I was not a noble aristocrat... a Duchess or an impoverished Countess...” she added with marked bitterness, “or perhaps the English cavaliers whom the popular voice has called the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel would have taken some interest in me. I was only a poor actress and had to find my way out of France alone, or else perish on the guillotine.”

“I am so sorry!” said Marguerite simply.

“Tell me how you got on, once you were in England,” she continued after a while, seeing that Desiree Candeille seemed absorbed in thought.

“I had a few engagements at first,” replied the Frenchwoman. “I played at Sadler's Wells and with Mrs. Jordan at Covent Garden, but the Aliens' Bill put an end to my chances of livelihood. No manager cared to give me a part, and so...”

“And so?”