"Will you not both take my mother's carriage?" he asked.
His voice, slow, correct, a little distant, fell on the ear of the
young actress.
"But," Jean objected quickly, "I have engaged the landau from the
Grand Hotel."
"Very well, we three can go in that," said the Count, as he guided the
old lady and the young one towards a perfectly appointed _coupe_,
drawn by two magnificent sorrels.
Esperance, who had been brimful of joy, not ten minutes before, at
finding herself in Brussels, now felt a cloud upon her spirits. The
manner, almost the authority, of this tall, young man of distinction,
but of no beauty, of no magnetism, depressed her. She did not wish to
have him take it upon himself to conduct her small affairs, and she
stepped into the Countess Styvens's beautiful carriage with the
feeling that she was leaving her liberty behind.
Albert Styvens got into the hotel landau with the two other young men.
They knew the Count very slightly, and regarded him with some
curiosity. Although but twenty-seven, he had a reputation for
austerity most unusual for one of his age.
As the carriage drew up at the hotel, all three young men jumped
lightly out to be ready to help the girl. Mlle. Frahender was received
on the Count's arm. At the same instant Esperance had bounded out of
the other door, pleased to have escaped the obligation of thanking the
Legation Secretary.
When she entered the suite that had been reserved, she stopped
a moment in silent astonishment before the flowering vases and
ribbon-bedecked baskets that filled the reception-room with their
rich colours and delicate perfumes.
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