The speaker was a man about forty-five years of age, with regular though rather haggard features and a long moustache, made as black and l.u.s.trous by some cosmetic as his artistically curled locks, which evidently owed their raven hue to artificial means. The stranger"s physiognomy impressed one as being a peculiar combination of deceitfulness, cunning, and impertinence. He had large feet and remarkably large hands; in short, despite his very evident pretensions, it was easy to see that he was one of those vulgar persons who cannot imitate, but only parody real elegance. Dressed in execrable taste, with a broad red ribbon in the b.u.t.tonhole of his frock coat, he affected a military bearing. With his hat still on his head, he had seated himself a short distance from the bed, and as he talked with the invalid he gnawed the jewelled handle of a small cane that he carried.
Madame Lacombe was gazing at the stranger with mingled surprise and distrust. She was conscious, too, of a strong aversion, caused, doubtless, by his both insolent and patronising air.
"As your G.o.ddaughter is out, my good woman, I can state my business with you very plainly."
These were the words that Mariette overheard on reaching the landing.
The conversation that ensued was, in substance, as follows:
"You asked, monsieur, if I were the Widow Lacombe, Mariette Moreau"s G.o.dmother," said the sick woman tartly. "I told you that I was. Now, what do you want with me? Explain, if you please."
"In the first place, my good woman--"
"My name is Lacombe, Madame Lacombe."
"Oh, very well, Madame Lacombe," said the stranger, with an air of mock deference, "I will tell you first who I am; afterwards I will tell you what I want. I am Commandant de la Miraudiere." Then, touching his red ribbon, he added, "An old soldier as you see--ten campaigns--five wounds."
"That is nothing to me."
"I have many influential acquaintances in Paris, dukes, counts, and marquises."
"What do I care about that?"
"I keep a carriage, and spend at least twenty thousand francs a year."
"While my G.o.ddaughter and I starve on twenty sous a day, when she can earn them," said the sick woman, bitterly. "That is the way of the world, however."
"But it is not fair, my good Mother Lacombe," responded Commandant de la Miraudiere, "it is not fair, and I have come here to put an end to such injustice."
"If you"ve come here to mock me, I wish you"d take yourself off,"
retorted the sick woman, sullenly.
"Mock you, Mother Lacombe, mock you! Just hear what I have come to offer you. A comfortable room in a nice apartment, a servant to wait on you, two good meals a day, coffee every morning, and fifty francs a month for your snuff, if you take it, or for anything else you choose to fancy, if you don"t,--well, what do you say to all this, Mother Lacombe?"
"I say--I say you"re only making sport of me, that is, unless there is something behind all this. When one offers such things to a poor old cripple like me, it is not for the love of G.o.d, that is certain."
"No, Mother Lacombe, but for the love of two beautiful eyes, perhaps."
"Whose beautiful eyes?"
"Your G.o.ddaughter"s, Mother Lacombe," replied Commandant de la Miraudiere, cynically. "There is no use beating about the bush."
The invalid made a movement indicative of surprise, then, casting a searching look at the stranger, inquired:
"You know Mariette, then?"
"I have been to Madame Jourdan"s several times to order linen, for I am very particular about my linen," added the stranger, glancing down complacently at his embroidered shirt-front. "I have consequently often seen your G.o.ddaughter there; I think her charming, adorable, and--"
"And you have come to buy her of me?"
"Bravo, Mother Lacombe! You are a clever and sensible woman, I see. You understand things in the twinkling of an eye. This is the proposition I have come to make to you: A nice suite of rooms, newly furnished for Mariette, with whom you are to live, five hundred francs a month to run the establishment, a maid and a cook who will also wait on you, a suitable outfit for Mariette, and a purse of fifty louis to start with, to say nothing of the other presents she will get if she behaves properly. So much for the substantials. As for the agreeable part, there will be drives in the park, boxes at the theatre,--I know any number of actors, and I am also on the best of terms with some very high-toned ladies who give many b.a.l.l.s and card-parties,--in short, your G.o.ddaughter will have a delightful, an enchanted life, Mother Lacombe, the life of a d.u.c.h.ess. Well, how does all this strike you?"
"Very favourably, of course," responded the sick woman, with a sardonic smile. "Such cattle as we are, are only fit to be sold when we are young, or to sell others when we are old."
"Ah, well, Mother Lacombe, to quiet your scruples, if you have any, you shall have sixty francs a month for your snuff, and I shall also make you a present of a handsome shawl, so you can go around respectably with Mariette, whom you are never to leave for a moment, understand, for I am as jealous as a tiger, and have no intention of being made a fool of."
"All this tallies exactly with what I said to Mariette only this morning. "You are an honest girl," I said to her, "and yet you can scarcely earn twenty sous a day making three hundred franc chemises for a kept woman.""
"Three hundred franc chemises ordered from Madame Jourdan"s? Oh, yes, Mother Lacombe, I know. They are for Amandine, who is kept by the Marquis de Saint-Herem, an intimate friend of mine. It was I who induced her to patronise Madame Jourdan,--a regular bonanza for her, though the marquis is very poor pay, but he makes all his furnishers as well as all his mistresses the fashion. This little Amandine was a clerk in a little perfumery shop on the Rue Colbert six months ago, and Saint-Herem has made her the rage. There is no woman in Paris half as much talked about as Amandine. The same thing may happen to Mariette some day, Mother Lacombe. She may be wearing three hundred franc chemises instead of making them. Don"t it make you proud to think of it?"
"Unless Mariette has the same fate as another poor girl I knew."
"What happened to her, Mother Lacombe?"
"She was robbed."
"Robbed?"
"She, too, was promised mountains of gold. The man who promised it placed her in furnished apartments, and at the end of three months left her without a penny. Then she killed herself in despair."
"Really, Mother Lacombe, what kind of a man do you take me for?"
demanded the stranger, indignantly. "Do I look like a scoundrel, like a Robert Macaire?"
"I don"t know, I am sure."
"I, an old soldier who have fought in twenty campaigns, and have ten wounds! I, who am hand and glove with all the lions of Paris! I, who keep my carriage and spend twenty thousand francs a year! Speak out, what security do you want? If you say so, the apartment shall be furnished within a week, the lease made out in your name, and the rent paid one year in advance; besides, you shall have the twenty-five or thirty louis I have about me to bind the bargain, if you like."
And as he spoke, he drew a handful of gold from his pocket and threw it on the little table by the sick woman"s bed, adding: "You see I am not like you. I am not afraid of being robbed, Mother Lacombe."
On hearing the c.h.i.n.k of coin, the invalid leaned forward, and cast a greedy, covetous look upon the glittering pile. Never in her life had she had a gold coin in her possession, and now she could not resist the temptation to touch the gleaming metal, and let it slip slowly through her fingers.
"I can at least say that I have handled gold once in my life," the sick woman murmured, hoa.r.s.ely.
"It is nothing to handle it, Mother Lacombe. Think of the pleasure of spending it."
"There is enough here to keep one in comfort five or six months," said the old woman, carefully arranging the gold in little piles.
"And remember that you and Mariette can have as much every month if you like, Mother Lacombe, in good, shining gold, if you wish it."
After a long silence, the sick woman raised her hollow eyes to the stranger"s face, and said:
"You think Mariette pretty, monsieur. You are right, and there is not a better-hearted, more deserving girl in the world. Well, be generous to her. This money is a mere trifle to a man as rich as you are. Make us a present of it."
"Eh?" exclaimed the stranger, in profound astonishment.
"Monsieur," said the consumptive, clasping her hands imploringly, "be generous, be charitable. This sum of money is a mere trifle to you, as I said before, but it would support us for months. We should be able to pay all we owe. Mariette would not be obliged to work night and day. She would have time to look around a little, and find employment that paid her better. We should owe five or six months of peace and happiness to your bounty. It costs us so little to live! Do this, kind sir, and we will for ever bless you, and for once in my life I shall have known what happiness is."
The sick woman"s tone was so sincere, her request so artless, that the stranger, who could not conceive of any human creature being stupid enough really to expect such a thing of a man of his stamp, felt even more hurt than surprised, and said to himself:
"Really, this is not very flattering to me. The old hag must take me for a country greenhorn to make such a proposition as that."