Saratoga Trunk Page #9

worry about such things.

You're so-

you should have everything

that's beautl-

well, beautiful.

You're so kind.

You smoke cigarettes,

mrs. Du chenfrais?

Well, i've never seen a lady

smoke a cigarette before.

It's a continental

custom, i suppose.

I've smoked since

i was a baby.

Yes, but...

people will...

well, in a hotel,

people talk.

How kind of you to

protect me like that.

I'm not used

to american ways,

but a cigarette...

a cigarette is sometimes

cozy when one is lonely.

Don't you find it so,

mr. Van steed?

I'm a cigar

smoker myself.

Oh, but of course.

So masculine.

I shouldn't think you'd be

lonely, mrs. Du chenfrais.

You're so popular

and...

well, a woman

of the world.

Oh,

mrs. Du chenfrais!

Have i

said something?

A woman of the world.

Imagine for yourself if your

dear sister, for example,

would suddenly find herself

a widow and alone in paris,

alone with only a servant

or two and knowing no one.

She follows the way to which she is

accustomed in her old loved america.

Is that a woman

of the world?

Oh, mrs. Du chenfrais-

clio, i...

you called me clio.

How dear, how good...

how friendly.

What?

You're such a help to me.

Help? I?

You can't guess how much

i would like to do for you.

All i can say is that your

friendship is the most beautiful thing

that ever happened

to me.

Shall we go in?

The music's started.

Colonel maroon.

Countess.

We might as well

get rid of this.

Van steed

won't be here now.

I saw him on the arm

of the countess.

You could have your poker game

if i could have the other arm.

Van seems to be going all

the way for this french girl.

Or is the french girl

going for him?

Before he's through,

he might find that more

expensive than poker.

I'll tilt you

1,000.

Are they that

good, colonel?

You can throw in

a handful of stock

in that saratoga

trunk line of yours

if you're short of chips.

Looks like it won't be

worth much nohow

when soule and his crowd

gets through with it.

Why do you

want it?

Why are you

interested?

If i had it, i wouldn't let

anybody take it away from me.

Leastways,

not without a scrap.

And how do you propose to do that?

You don't understand

all this fight involves.

It's tied up

in politics.

Soule's crowd has

sewed up the law courts.

Law? Where

i come from,

possession is

nine points of that.

They've got

the legislature,

and they've

manipulated the stock.

Even down in texas,

we know that watering stock

don't only mean

just giving the cows a drink.

But you're right.

All that stuff-

dirty politics-

that ain't up my alley...

but fighting is.

I've never seen one yet

that wasn't won by

being quicker on the draw.

I'd fight them

barehanded-

same old plan

we used out west

when the sheepmen tried to run

the cattlemen off the range.

Soule's crowd

is wrecking your railroad.

You've got to keep it running

or lose your franchise.

I'd battle them bloody.

I'd run them off the range.

Lordy, lordy,

i think maybe you would.

Where have you been

hiding this man?

I'd get me a bunch of boys

together, the real hard-muscled kind.

There's a lot of them

down where i come from

that don't like railroads any

more than they do rattlers.

Worse.

It's the wild east.

We hang men down there

for less crimes

than you boys do to

each other just in fun.

What can we lose that

we aren't losing now?

Maybe we'd better let this

minority stockholder in

just to take care of us.

All right, it will cost

you all a fistful of stock.

A big fistful.

It's worth it, colonel,

if you can do this.

I'll do it.

I'll go the whole hog

to put my brand

on that crowd that

came through texas.

I've got a little score

of my own to settle.

Win this, and you won't have to

stop with any fistful of stock.

I'll take you along with

me, right up the line.

I ought to warn you... likely,

i'll have the whole railroad

before i'm through.

Colonel, i think

you're my boy.

Just hang a welcome sign on the front

door of that house of yours on wall street.

You've just acquired

yourself a partner.

Morning,

colonel.

Hey, what's up?

The cats seem to be meowing

louder than ordinary this morning.

Colonel maroon, you kill

me the way you put things.

It's madame van steed.

Madame van steed

has arrived.

You don't say.

Battle 'em bloody!

Run them up the range!

Son of a gun!

Ha ha ha!

I listen to

all the poker games.

I'm just keyhole-sized.

Quit talking!

Wranglers and poker games-who

cares about all that?

Where's mr. Clint

all the time?

Where have you been?

You ain't touched

your lunch, honey.

Mr. Clint.

Saw the bellboy

stagger

and thought i'd help him with his load.

Bartholomew's

splurging.

Flowers. That's

a northerner for you.

Why ain't he sent you

jewelry?

To take jewelry

from a man

that's not your husband,

that isn't nice.

My ma never had any

husband any more than you,

but she got jewelry-

diamonds and ruby rings

and large stone necklaces.

I'll give you

my diamond stickpin

if you want it, honey.

How are you making out

with little bart?

Wonderfully.

That's fine, countess.

I reckon i just wasn't

worth frettin' about

that day

at the french market.

Where have you been,

clint? Why don't i see you?

Business-

playing railroad,

gettinne,

too.

You know, i'd like to

take you around, honey,

but i had a little

matter to attend to.

Now, bart, he'd come a

- running if he knew you wanted to go out.

Why don't you send

cupidon over with a note?

How dare you!

What's up? Have i said something-

how dare you say to me

that you're busy

and suggest that i go around asking

other men to take me here and there?

Hold on. I didn't say

anything about other men.

I said bart. He's the man

you're fixing to marry.

Oh. So that's it.

You're jealous.

Yeah. Leastways, i

would be if i had time,

but i'm busy

as a sheepdog.

It's too bad your plan

isn't working out so well.

Whose plan isn't?

In a game like yours,

you got to work quick

and get out before

they find the pea

under

the walnut shell.

Yeah. It's too bad

you're too late.

Too late?

I sure hate

to tell you.

It seems

downright cruel.

Bart's mama's come.

Mama van steed.

Yes, ma'am,

countess.

The queen of saratoga, the head cat.

The lioness has come

to defend her cub.

When?

She descended this

morning, they tell me,

with her claws showing

and her fangs bared.

The other tabbies are paying court

to her on the piazza right now.

I wonder how your pretty

skin's gonna look in ribbons?

Angelique,

get my things.

Cupidon,

get the carriage

and take miss clio

for a drive.

I think she'll need

some fresh air.

You betcha.

Mrs. Du chenfrais

is coming now, mother.

De trigononai du chenfrais

de fiddlesticks.

She's an adventuress.

It's written all over her.

Good morning,

countess.

Colonel maroon.

Fetch her.

Oh, mrs. Du chenfrais.

My mother says she would

very much like to meet you.

She has heard

so much about you.

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