"A pretty question!if you don't know that,my joking friend,why should I believe you?""Go and ask Nathan,who has left you to look for his other mistress,where he passed the night,three days ago.He tried to kill himself without a word to you,my dear,--and all for want of money.That shows how much you know about the affairs of a man whom you say you love,and who leaves you without a penny,and kills himself,--or,rather,doesn't kill himself,for his misses it.Suicides that don't kill are about as absurd as a duel without a scratch.""That's a lie,"said Florine."He dined with me that very day.The poor fellow had the sheriff after him;he was hiding,as well he might.""Go and ask at the hotel du Mail,rue du Mail,if he was not taken there that morning,half dead of the fumes of charcoal,by a handsome young woman with whom he has been in love over a year.Her letters are at this moment under your very nose in your own house.If you want to teach Nathan a good lesson,let us all three go there;and I'll show you,papers in hand,how you can save him from the sheriff and Clichy if you choose to be the good girl that you are.""Try that on others than Florine,my little man.I am certain that Nathan has never been in love with any one but me.""On the contrary,he has been in love with a woman in society for over a year--""A woman in society,he!"cried Florine."I don't trouble myself about such nonsense as that.""Well,do you want me to make him come and tell you that he will not take you home from here to-night.""If you can make him tell me that,"said Florine,"I'll take YOU home,and we'll look for those letters,which I shall believe in when I see them,and not till then.He must have written them while I slept.""Stay here,"said Felix,"and watch."
第45章 A LOVER SAVED AND LOST(9)（1 / 3）