"Several suspicious circ.u.mstances; besides, he says so."
"Fine authority that! He lies, I am certain of it."
"But, Florestan, he is rich, and the girl I loved, or rather whom I still love in spite of myself, is terribly poor."
"The devil!"
"Besides, she has an invalid connection to take care of. This scoundrel"s offers must have dazzled the poor child, or want may have induced her to listen to the voice of the tempter, as so many others do.
What does the discovery of this wealth profit me now? I care nothing for it if I cannot share it with Mariette."
"Listen, Louis, I know you, and I feel confident that you must have placed your affections wisely."
"Yes; and for more than a year Mariette has given every proof of her faithful attachment to me, but yesterday, without the slightest warning, came a letter breaking our engagement."
"A good girl who has loved a man as poor as you were faithfully for a year would not have been so quickly won over by the promises of an old villain like Porquin. He lied to you; I haven"t a doubt of it."
Then calling out at the top of his voice, to the great surprise of Louis, he exclaimed:
"Commandant de la Miraudiere, come here a minute!"
"What are you going to do, Florestan?" asked Louis, as the usurer appeared in the doorway.
"Keep still and let me manage this affair," replied his friend. Then, turning to the usurer, he continued:
"M. de la Miraudiere, I feel sure that you must be labouring under a misapprehension in relation to a very nice young girl who--according to your account--has fallen a victim to your charms. Will you do me the favour to tell me the truth so I may know what action to take in the matter?"
Concluding that it would be politic to sacrifice a caprice that he had little chance of gratifying to the advantage of having Louis Richard for a client, Porquin replied:
"I must confess that I deeply deplore a stupid jest that seems to have annoyed M. Richard so much."
"I told you so," remarked Florestan, turning to his friend. "And now M.
le commandant must do me the favour to explain how the idea of this stupid jest, or rather what I should call an atrocious calumny, happened to occur to him."
"The explanation is very simple, monsieur. I saw Mlle. Mariette several times in the establishment where she is employed. Her beauty struck me.
I asked for her address, secured it, and, finding her G.o.dmother at home when I called, I proposed to her that--"
"Enough, monsieur, enough!" cried Louis, indignantly.
"Permit me to add, however, that the aforesaid G.o.dmother declined my offer, and that the young lady, herself, chancing to come about that time, coolly ordered me out of the house. I am making a frank confession, you see, M. de Saint-Herem. I do it, I admit, in the hope that it will gain me M. Richard"s confidence, and that he will decide to accept my services. As for you, M. de Saint-Herem," continued the usurer, in his most ingratiating manner, "I have examined the securities you submitted to me, and I will bring you the money you want this evening. And, by the way, when you hear the offer I have made to M.
Richard, I feel confident that you will consider my terms very reasonable."
"I do not want your money, monsieur," said Louis, "and I consider it an insult for you to think me capable of trading upon my father"s death, as it were--"
"But, my dear client, permit me to say--"
"Come, Florestan, let us go," Louis said to his friend, without paying the slightest attention to the usurer"s protest.
"You see, my too dear M. Porquin," said Saint-Herem, as he turned to depart, "you see there are still a few honest men and women left in the world. It is useless to hope that this discovery will serve either as an example or a lesson for you, however. You are too set in your ways ever to reform; but it is some comfort to know of your double defeat."
"Ah, my dear Florestan," remarked Louis, as they left the house, "thanks to you, I am much less miserable. The fact that Mariette treated this villain with the scorn he deserved is some comfort, even though she has decided to break her engagement with me."
"Did she tell you so?"
"No, she wrote me to that effect, or rather she got some other person to do it for her."
"What, she got some other person to write such a thing as that for her!"
"You will sneer, perhaps, but the poor girl I love can neither read nor write."
"How fortunate you are! You will at least escape such epistles as I have been receiving from a pretty little perfumer I took away from a rich but miserly old banker. I have been amusing myself by showing her a little of the world,--it is so pleasant to see people happy,--but I have not been able to improve her grammar, and such spelling! It is of the antediluvian type. Mother Eve must have written in much the same fashion. But if your Mariette can neither read nor write, how do you know but her secretary may have distorted the facts?"
"With what object?"
"I don"t know, I am sure. But why don"t you have an explanation with her? You will know exactly how you stand, then."
"But she implored me, both for the sake of her peace of mind and her future, to make no attempt to see her again."
"On the contrary, see her again, and at once, for the sake of her future, now you are a prospective millionaire."
"You are right, Florestan, I will see her, and at once; and if this cruel mystery can be satisfactorily explained, if I find her as loving and devoted as in the past, I shall be the happiest man in the world.
Poor child, her life up to this time has been one of toil and privation.
She shall know rest and comfort now, for I cannot doubt that my father will consent. My G.o.d!"
"What is the matter?"
"All this has made me entirely forget something that will surprise you very much. My father insists that I shall marry your cousin."
"What cousin?"
"Mlle. Ramon. A short time ago I went to Dreux; in fact, I have just returned from there. I had not the slightest suspicion of my father"s plans, when I first saw the young lady, but, even if I had not been in love with Mariette, your uncle"s daughter impressed me so unfavourably that nothing in the world--"
"So my uncle is not ruined, as he pretended he was several years ago,"
said Florestan, interrupting his friend. "No, evidently not, for if your father wishes you to marry my cousin, it is because he thinks such an alliance would be to your advantage. Doubtless my uncle"s pretended failure was only a subterfuge."
"My father resorted to the same expedient, I think, though he has always given me to understand that extreme poverty was the cause of the parsimonious manner in which we lived."
"Ah, Uncle Ramon, I knew that you were sulky, ill-tempered, and detestable generally, but I did not believe you capable of such cleverness of conception. From this day on I shall admire and revere you. I am not your heir, it is true, but it is always delightful to know that one has a millionaire uncle. It is such a comforting thought in one"s financial difficulties; one can indulge in all sorts of delightful hypotheses, in which apoplexy and even cholera present themselves to the mind in the guise of guardian angels."
"Without going quite as far as that, and without wishing for any one"s death," said Louis, smiling, "I must admit that I would much rather see your uncle"s fortune pa.s.s into your hands than into those of his odious daughter. You would at least enjoy the possession of it, and, with all that wealth, I feel sure that you would--"
"Contract debts without number," Saint-Herem interrupted, majestically.
"What, Florestan, with a fortune like that--"
"I should contract debts without number, I tell you. Yes, of course I should."
"What, with a fortune of two or three million francs?"
"With ten, even twenty millions, I should still contract debts. My theory is that of the government,--the larger a country"s debt, the better that country"s credit is. But I will expound my financial theories some other time. Don"t lose a moment now in hastening to Mariette, and be sure and tell me what success you meet with. Here it is nearly noon, and I promised the little perfumer--who amuses me immensely--that she should try a new saddle-horse to-day, the handsomest hack in Paris,--it cost me a nice price, by the way,--and she wrote me this morning to remind me that I had promised to take her to the Bois. So hasten to your Mariette. I feel confident that your love affair will end happily after all. But write to me, or else come and see me as soon as possible, for I shall be so anxious to hear the result of your interview."