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Read Ebook: Madame X: a story of mother-love by Bisson Alexandre McConaughy J W Volkert Edward Charles Illustrator
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Ebook has 1601 lines and 52213 words, and 33 pages
The doctor bowed his appreciation and Floriot, who had never taken his eyes off his friend, remarked with a smile:
"You look in very good health for a dead man." Noel turned and asked with whimsical surprise: "Then you heard of my suicide?"
"Yes," returned his friend gravely, "and the papers said you were dead."
"In the words of a great American humorist," laughed Noel, 'The report was greatly exaggerated!'"
"Two bullets, they said."
"Yes, and they were right," nodded the "suicide," brightly. "But two bullets were not enough for me. I've always been a bit hardheaded, you know, though one of the doctors had another explanation."
The other two looked at him inquiringly, particularly Dr. Chennel, who was prepared to combat any heretical theory.
"When I was on the highway to recovery," resumed Noel, "one of the doctors told me that he didn't think that I would ever get to be marksman enough to hit my brain. Said I ought to practise trying to hit a pea in a wine barrel before I tried it again. Then I found out I could laugh," and he burst into one to prove it, "and decided that as long as I could take enough interest in life to laugh there was no occasion for my going on with my suicide plans."
Dr. Chennel and Floriot joined in the laugh with considerable restraint and the former felt that he was the "undesirable third."
"Well, I must be going," he said, gathering up his hat and bag and shaking hands with both the friends. "You have a good deal to tell each other. I'll be back in the morning," he added to Floriot. Then with many injunctions about the medicine and food he departed.
"And now," said Noel, putting a hand affectionately on each shoulder and holding his friend off at arm's length, "let me have a look at you, Louis, old man!" He paused and gravely scrutinized the smiling face. "Life has not been much kinder to you than to me, judging from your looks," he said at last. The hands fell and he turned away.
"Find me looking old, do you?"
"No, not old for your age," smiled Noel. "How old are you--forty?"
"Thirty-five!" protested Floriot.
"Well, nobody would say that you were a day more than forty-two!" his friend gravely assured him.
"Thank you!" was the ironic response, and they smiled into each other's eyes.
"Fancy! Five whole years since I saw you!"
"And five weeks' separation, in the old days, seemed a century!"
"You're going to stay here all night and take breakfast with me in the morning."
"Most assuredly."
"An early breakfast, though," Floriot smiled a warning. "I have to be in court at nine."
"Ah, of course!" nodded his friend. "You're Deputy Attorney now."
"Yes, I received my promotion more than a year ago."
"I always knew you'd get on!" exclaimed Noel, patting his shoulder.
Floriot turned away with a sigh.
"I have not much to worry about there," he said, without enthusiasm. "But, I want to hear about you, old man! What happened to you? Why did you want to commit suicide. Who was she?"
Noel threw him a quick, searching glance.
"Of course it was! For some time before you went away I noticed a change in you."
Again there was the sharp look.
"Ah, you did, did you?"
"Yes, you were not as jolly and lively as you had been before," Floriot continued gently. "And you used to be away for days at a time; so I knew it must be a woman. You loved her?"
A long steady gaze answered him.
"And she was false to you?"
"She did not even know I loved her!" was the low response.
"Didn't you tell her?" asked Floriot, surprised.
"No!"
"Why?" he persisted with freedom of a friend. "Was she free?"
"She loved another man," replied Noel. There was not a tremor in his voice but he stood very still and did not meet his friend's questioning eyes. "When I heard of her marriage I felt that my life was of no particular use to me. So," with a shrug of the shoulders, "I tried to get rid of it--and failed. Ridiculous, eh?"
Floriot laid his hand on his friend's arm. The grip of the fingers told his unspoken sympathy.
"Oh, I am used to being a fool!" declared Noel, lightly, but with a sub-current of bitterness in his voice. "I was the fool of the family at home and one of the best jokes they ever had at school. I might have known that the woman I loved would have sense enough to pick out another man. I even made a fool of myself when I tried to take my life!"
"But you were badly hurt?"
"Pretty badly," replied Noel gravely; "but I was soon on my feet again. Then," the shrug again, "having nothing on earth to live for but an occasional laugh--which doesn't cost much--I made a ridiculous amount of money in the Canadian fur business."
"But, why didn't you write to me?" demanded Floriot, reproachfully. Noel turned to him apologetically.
"I wanted to forget and to be forgotten, old man," he said. "The papers reported me dead, and the fact that I didn't die didn't seem to interest them, so I seized the opportunity to stay dead until it suited my pleasure to come to life again."
"Are you married?"
"No!" was the emphatic reply. "I shall never marry!"
"So you still love her?"
Noel made an impatient movement
"I don't want anyone else!" he answered, curtly. "Besides, I'm too old to think of marrying now Let's talk about you, Louis. Are you happy? How is Jacqueline? Little Jennie Wren, we used to call her," he went on with a tenderly reminiscent smile. "What a pretty, lively little thing she was! I suppose she's more quiet now after five years with a solemn old crank like you. Why, Louis! What's the matter?"
Floriot had sunk into an armchair, his face white and drawn. In two strides his friend was beside him, bending over him in alarm.
"Don't--don't worry! It's nothing--nothing!" said Floriot unsteadily. "My child has been at death's door--for the last few days and I thought --I--had lost him. My nerves are just a little--out of joint. That's all!"
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