Monsieur Beaucaire | Page 5

know you if you escaped the others.
She stood within a yard of you when Nash expelled you the
pump-room."
M. Beaucaire flushed slightly. "You think I did not see?" he asked.
"Do you dream that' because Winterset introduces a low fellow he will
be tolerated - that Bath will receive a barber?"
"I have the distinction to call monsieur's attention," replied the young
man gayly, "I have renounce that profession."
"Fool!"
"I am now a man of honor!"
"Faugh!"
"A man of the parts," continued the the young Frenchman, "and of
deportment; is it not so? Have you seen me of a fluster, or gross ever,
or, what sall I say - bourgeois? Shall you be shame' for your guest'
manner? No, no! And my appearance, is it of the people? Clearly, no.
Do I not compare in taste of apparel with your yo'ng Englishman? Ha,
ha! To be hope'. Ha, ha! So I am goin' talk with Lady Mary Carlisle."
"Bah!" The Duke made a savage burlesque. "'Lady Mary Carlisle, may
I assume the honor of presenting the barber of the Marquis de
Mirepoix?' So, is it?"
"No, monsieur," smiled the young man. "Quite not so. You shall have
nothing to worry you, nothing in the worl'. I am goin' to assassinate my
poor mustachio - also remove this horrible black peruke, and emerge in

my own hair. Behol'!" He swept the heavy curled, mass from his head
as he spoke, and his hair, coiled under the great wig, fell to his
shoulders, and sparkled yellow in the candle-light. He tossed his head
to shake the hair back from his cheeks. "When it is dress', I am
transform nobody can know me; you shall observe. See how little I ask
of you, how very little bit. No one shall reco'nize 'M. Beaucaire' or
'Victor.' Ha, ha! 'Tis all arrange'; you have nothing to fear."
"Curse you," said the Duke, "do you think I'm going to be saddled with
you wherever I go as long as you choose?"
"A mistake. No. All I requi - All I beg - is this one evening. 'Tis all
shall be necessary. After, I shall not need monsieur.
"Take heed to yourself - after!" vouchsafed the Englishman between
his teeth.
"Conquered!" cried M. Beaucaire, and clapped his hands gleefully.
"Conquered for the night! Aha, it ts riz'nable! I shall meet what you
send - after. One cannot hope too much of your patience. It is but
natural you should attemp' a little avengement for the rascal trap I was
such a wicked fellow as to set for you. I shall meet some strange frien's
of yours after to-night; not so? I must try to be not too much frighten'."
He looked at the Duke curiously. "You want to know why I create this
tragedy, why I am so unkind as to entrap monsieur?"
His Grace of Winterset replied with a chill glance; a pulse in the
nobleman's cheek beat less relentlessly; his eye raged not so bitterly;
the steady purple of his own color was returning; his voice was less
hoarse; he was regaining his habit. "'Tis ever the manner of the vulgar,"
he observed, "to wish to be seen with people of fashion."
"Oh, no, no, no!" The Frenchman laughed. "'Tis not that. Am I not
already one of these 'men of fashion'? I lack only the reputation of birth.
Monsieur is goin' supply that. Ha, ha! I shall be noble from to-night.
'Victor,' the artis', is condemn' to death; his throat shall be cut with his
own razor. 'M. Beaucaire - ' Here the young man sprang to his feet,
caught up the black wig, clapped into it a dice-box from the table, and

hurled it violently through the open door. "'M. Beaucaire' shall be
choke' with his own dice-box. Who is the Phoenix to remain? What
advantage have I not over other men of rank who are merely born to it?
I may choose my own. No! Choose for me, monsieur. Shall I be
chevalier, comte, vicomte, marquis, what? None. Out of compliment to
monsieur can I wish to be anything he is not? No, no! I shall be M. le
Duc, M. le Duc de - de Chateaurien. Ha, ha! You see? You are my
confrere."
M. Beaucaire trod a dainty step or two, waving his hand politely to the
Duke, as though in invitation to join the celebration of his rank. The
Englishman watched, his eye still and harsh, already gathering in
craftiness. Beaucaire stopped suddenly. "But how I forget my age! I am
twenty-three," he said, with a sigh. "I rejoice too much to be of the
quality. It has been too great for me, and I had always belief' myself
free of such ambition. I thought it was