Laura by George Sand Read Free Book Online

my side. I do not know how many moments earlier she had left; but, until the moment when Walter came to speak to me, I had distinctly seen her charming image in the crystal. I tried to see Walter’s there; with terror, I saw that it did not appear, and that this limpid substance was rejecting my friend’s reflection as if his approach had changed it into a block of coal.
    The evening was wearing on, and Laura had taken to dancing with a sort of frenzy, as if her lightness of character had wanted to protest against the revelations of her ideal being. I felt most fatigued by the noise of this little celebration, and I withdrew without anyone noticing. I was still staying in a part of the establishment separated from my uncle’s lodgings by the botanical garden; but, as I had become assistant curator of the museum in place of Walter, who had been promoted, and as I exercised a jealous watchfulness over the scientific riches entrusted to my keeping, in order to reach my domicile I took the path which led past the mineralogical gallery.
    I was walking along the glass cases, running the brightness of my candle over the pigeonholes, not looking in front of me, when I almost bumped into a strange person whose presence in this place, to which I alone had the keys, surprised me a great deal.
    Who are you? I asked him, raising my lantern close to his face and speaking to him threateningly. What are you doing here, and how did you get in?
    Calm this great anger, replied the bizarre stranger, andknow that since I belong to the house, I know its ins and outs.
    You do not belong to this house, since I do, and I do not know you. You are going to follow me to my Uncle Tungstenius and explain yourself.
    So, my little Alexis, went on the stranger, for it can only be you who are speaking to me, you take me for a thief! … Know that you are considerably mistaken, bearing in mind that the most beautiful specimens in this collection were furnished by myself, the majority of them given free of charge. Indeed, your Uncle Tungstenius knows me, and we shall go and see him shortly; but before doing so, I want to talk with you and ask for a little information.
    I declare to you, I replied, that it shall not be so. You inspire no confidence at all in me despite the richness of your Persian costume, and I do not know the meaning of a disguise of this type on the body of a man who speaks my language without any trace of a foreign accent. You undoubtedly wish to lull my suspicions by pretending to know me, and you believe you will escape from me without my ensuring …
    I believe, heaven protect me, that you are planning to arrest me and search me! replied the stranger, looking at me with disdain. A novice’s fervour, my little friend! It is good form to take the duties of one’s job to heart; but one must know whom one is dealing with.
    As he said this, he seized me by the throat with an iron hand, not gripping me any tighter than was necessary to prevent me shouting and struggling; he made me leave the gallery, whose doors I found open, and took me into the garden without letting go of me.
    There, he made me sit down on a bench and sat down at my side, telling me with a laugh that was as strange as his face, his clothes and his manners:
    Well! do me the pleasure of recognising me and asking forgiveness from your Uncle Nasias for having taken him for a lock-picker. Recognise in me the former husband of your Aunt Gertrude and the father of Laura.
    You! I cried out, you!
    Nasias is my name abroad, he replied. I have just arrived from the depths of Asia, where—thanks to God—I did some rather good business and made some rather precious discoveries. Learn that I am now domiciled at the court of Persia, where the sovereign treats me with the greatest consideration because of certain rarities which I procured for him, and that, if I have broken off from my great occupations to come here, it is not with the intention of stealing from your little museum a