BIJOU
BY
GYP
TRANSLATED
BY
ALYS HALLARD.
LONDON
HUTCHINSON & CO.
34 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1897
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIV.
Chapter XV.
Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVII.
BIJOU.
I.
Madame de Bracieux was working for her poorpeople. She poked her thick, light, tortoise-shellcrochet-needle into the ball of coarse wool, andputting that down on her lap, lifted her head andlooked across at her great-nephew, Jean de Blaye.
"Jean," she said, "what are you gazing at thatis so interesting? You stand there with your noseflattened against the window-pane, just exactlyas you did when you were a little boy, and were soinsufferable."
Jean de Blaye lifted his head abruptly. He hadbeen leaning his forehead against the glass of thebay-window.
"I?" he answered, hesitating slightly. "Oh,nothing, aunt—nothing at all!"
"Nothing at all? Oh, well, I must say thatyou seem to be looking at nothing at all with agreat deal of attention."[2]
"Do not believe him, grandmamma!" saidMadame de Rueille in her beautiful, grave, expressivevoice; "he is hoping all the time to see a cabappear round the bend of the avenue."
"Is he expecting someone?" asked themarchioness.
"Oh, no!" explained M. de Rueille, laughing;"but a cab, even a Pont-sur-Loire cab,would remind him of Paris. Bertrade is teasinghim."
"I don't care all that much about being remindedof Paris," muttered Jean, without stirring.
Madame de Rueille gazed at him in astonishment."One would almost think he was inearnest!" she remarked.
"In earnest, but absent-minded!" said themarchioness, and then, turning towards a youngabbé, who was playing loto with the de Rueillechildren, she asked:
"Monsieur, will you tell us whether there is anythinginteresting taking place on the terrace?"
The abbé, who was seated with his back to thebay-window, looked behind him over his shoulder,and replied promptly:
"I do not see anything in the slightest degreeinteresting, madame."[3]
"Nothing whatever," affirmed Jean, leaving thewindow, and taking his seat on a divan.
One of the de Rueille children,