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The Muse of the Department by Honoré de Balzac
page 88 of 249 (35%)
dark."

"'"Very good," said I.

"'We had got as far as this, when the carriage drew up under a garden
wall.

"'"You must allow me to bandage your eyes," said the maid. "You can
lean on my arm, and I will lead you."

"'She tied a handkerchief over my eyes, fastening it in a tight knot
at the back of my head. I heard the sound of a key being cautiously
fitted to the lock of a little side door by the speechless lover who
had sat opposite to me. In a moment the waiting-woman, whose shape was
slender, and who walked with an elegant jauntiness'--_meneho_, as they
call it," Monsieur Gravier explained in a superior tone, "a word which
describes the swing which women contrive to give a certain part of
their dress that shall be nameless.--'The waiting-woman'--it is the
surgeon-major who is speaking," the narrator went on--"'led me along
the gravel walks of a large garden, till at a certain spot she
stopped. From the louder sound of our footsteps, I concluded that we
were close to the house. "Now silence!" said she in a whisper, "and
mind what you are about. Do not overlook any of my signals; I cannot
speak without terrible danger for both of us, and at this moment your
life is of the first importance." Then she added: "My mistress is in a
room on the ground floor. To get into it we must pass through her
husband's room and close to his bed. Do not cough, walk softly, and
follow me closely, so as not to knock against the furniture or tread
anywhere but on the carpets I laid down."

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