"If Madame la comtesse," he said, "feels anything strange upon her
tongue, a prickly, bitter, strong salt taste, reject the food. Let the
child's clothes be washed under her own eye and let her keep the key
of the chest which contains them. Should anything happen to the child
send instantly to me."
These instructions sank deep into Jeanne's heart. She begged
Beauvouloir to regard her always as one who would do him any service
in her power. On that the poor man told her that she held his
happiness in her hands.
Then he related briefly how the Comte d'Herouville had in his youth
loved a courtesan, known by the name of La Belle Romaine, who had
formerly belonged to the Cardinal of Lorraine. Abandoned by the count
before very long, she had died miserably, leaving a child named
Gertrude, who had been rescued by the Sisters of the Convent of Poor
Clares, the Mother Superior of which was Mademoiselle de Saint-Savin,
the countess's aunt. Having been called to treat Gertrude for an
illness, he, Beauvouloir, had fallen in love with her, and if Madame
la comtesse, he said, would undertake the affair, she should not only
more than repay him for what she thought he had done for her, but she
would make him grateful to her for life.
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