Page:Des Grieux, The Prelude to Teleny.djvu/134

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

The man came close to the side of the bed and stopped for a minute.

What was he doing? My heart was giving some mighty thumps. Perhaps he was smothering the nurse with her own bolster like the little princes in the tower. Presently I heard a sound, but it was very much like a kiss, then another and still another.

No, I could not be mistaken.

"Oh! Guillaume, is it you, so you're come." Thereupon she moved on one side, as if she was making place for him.

But then, thought I, this man is no burglar; moreover she was expecting him.

Who could he be?

In the whole house there were several Guillaumes, one of the older boys, one of the junior masters, and a sturdy Auvergnat of a servant man were all Williams, which of them was the conqueror? Moreover was he so very fond of this old virago that he had stealthily crept into her room like a thief, only to kiss her?

Whilst I was lost in these surmises, I saw his bare legs and feet disappear, and by the

126