"Madame, the property which Madame Germeuil left must be administered; I feared that it would be painful to you to attend to these details which are indeed your husband"s concern, but we require your signature, and I have brought the papers."
"Oh! give them to me, give them to me! I will sign anything; I consent to give up everything! But at least let my retirement no longer be disturbed by your presence!"
As she spoke, Adeline seized the papers which Dufresne handed her, she signed them all blindly, and handed them back to him, and was turning away, but he grasped her with violence by the arm, just as she was about to leave the salon.
"One moment, madame; you are in a great hurry to leave me. For my own part, I propose to recompense myself for the time I have pa.s.sed without seeing you; besides, I have news of your husband for you."
A cruel smile gleamed in Dufresne"s eyes; Adeline shuddered and tried to escape.
"Do not detain me," she cried, "or I shall find a way to punish your audacity."
"Oh! don"t be so proud, my lovely Adeline! Do you suppose that I have not taken my precautions? Your gardener is busy at the end of the garden, your maid has gone down to her kitchen, where she cannot hear you; for I know this house perfectly. You will stay here because I wish it; you will listen to me, and then we will see."
"Villain! do not think to frighten me; the hatred which you inspire in me will double my strength."
"Ah! so you hate me still; you refuse to be reasonable? I am of better composition; I would forget your insults if you would consent to love me at last. But beware; my patience will wear out, and then I shall be capable of anything."
"O mon Dieu! must I listen to such infamous words?"
"Come, no temper! you cannot love your husband any longer, for he abandons you, forgets you, ruins you, consorts with prost.i.tutes and haunts gambling houses. He is now almost as much of a rake as of a gambler, and that is not saying little; he will bring you to the gutter!--But I will give you riches; nothing will cost too much that will gratify your desires. Open your eyes! and see if I am not the equal of your imbecile Edouard! You are silent? Good,--I see that you realize the justice of my words.--Let us make peace."
Dufresne walked toward Adeline; she uttered a piercing shriek.
"What! still the same harsh treatment? Oh! I will not make this journey for nothing; I must have a kiss."
"Monster! I would rather die!"
"Oh, no! one doesn"t die for so small a matter."
In vain did the unhappy woman try to flee, the villain held her fast; he was about to sully with his impure breath the lips of beauty, when a loud noise was heard, and in another instant Jacques entered the salon, followed by Sans-Souci.
Dufresne had not had time to leave the room; the struggle that Adeline had sustained had exhausted her strength; she could only falter these words:
"Deliver me, save me from this monster!" then she fell unconscious to the floor.
Jacques ran to Adeline, shaking his fist at Dufresne. The latter tried to go out, but Sans-Souci barred his pa.s.sage, crying:
"One moment, comrade; you have failed in respect to this young lady, and you don"t get off like this."
"You are wrong," replied Dufresne, doing his utmost to conceal the perturbation which had seized him at sight of Jacques. "This lady is subject to attacks of hysteria; I hurried here in response to her cries; I came to help her. Let me go for her servants."
Sans-Souci was hesitating, he did not know what to think; but Jacques, struck by Dufresne"s voice, had turned and was examining him carefully; he soon recognized him and shouted to Sans-Souci:
"Stop that villain; don"t let him escape; it is Breville,--that scoundrel who robbed me at Brussels! Ten thousand cartridges! he has got to pay me for that!"
"Aha! my comrade," said Sans-Souci, "you didn"t expect to be recognized!
It is disagreeable, I agree; but you have got to dance. Forward!"
Dufresne saw that it was impossible to escape by stratagem; his only resource was in flight. Jacques was still busy over Adeline, who had not recovered her senses; therefore there was only Sans-Souci to stop him; but Dufresne was stout and strong, Sans-Souci small and thin. He at once made up his mind; he rushed upon his adversary, whirled him about, threw him down before he had time to realize what was happening, and leaping over him, opened the door and descended the stairs four at a time. But Louise had accompanied Jacques and Sans-Souci to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges; they had come to invite Madame Murville to be one of a small party, which they were preparing for Guillot"s birthday. On entering the courtyard and not finding the gardener, the farmer"s wife had gone to the kitchen to learn where madame was; and Jacques and his companion were waiting at the foot of the stairs when they heard shrieks and hastened up to Adeline"s a.s.sistance.
In his flight Dufresne encountered Louise, who was going up to the salon; he roughly pushed her aside, she stumbled and fell between his legs. While he was trying to disentangle himself, Sans-Souci, who had risen, and who was frantic at being worsted by the villain, ran up, armed with his knotted stick; he overtook Dufresne, and bestowed upon his head and shoulders a perfect hailstorm of blows, which he had not time to ward off. Thereupon he ran toward the garden, with Sans-Souci in pursuit; but Dufresne, who knew all the windings, succeeded in eluding his enemy. Coming to a wall along which there ran a trellis, he climbed over, jumped down into the fields, and fled toward Paris, cursing his misadventure.
Sans-Souci returned to the house when he found that the man he was looking for had escaped. Adeline had recovered consciousness, thanks to the attentions of Jacques, who had not left her. She opened her eyes, and saw Jacques at her feet and the farmer"s wife at her side.
"Ah! my friends," she said, in a voice trembling with emotion, "without you I should have been lost!"
"The villain!" said Jacques; "oh! I have known him for a long time; he robbed me once; I will tell you about that, madame."
"Ah! the rascal!" said the farmer"s wife in her turn; "he threw me head over heels just as if I was a dog; but Sans-Souci gave him a fine beating, I tell you! You couldn"t see the stick!"
At that moment Sans-Souci returned with an air of vexation.
"Well," said Jacques, "did you stop him?"
"No; I don"t know how he did it, but I lost sight of him in the garden, which he seems to know. For my part, I didn"t know which way to turn; but no matter, he got a trouncing. If madame wishes, I will beat up the fields and search the village."
"No, it is no use," said Adeline; "I thank you for your zeal; but we will let the villain go; I flatter myself that he will never dare to show his face here again."
"Didn"t he steal anything, madame?" said Jacques.
"No, he came here about some business, to get some information; then he dared to speak to me of love; and flying into a rage at my contempt, he was about to proceed to the last extremity, when you arrived."
"The monster! Ah! if I find him----"
"Pardi! what a miserable scamp! To think of falling in love with a sweet, pretty woman like Madame Murville! I wouldn"t let him touch the end of my finger!"
"He had better not think of touching anything of yours, or of looking at madame," said Sans-Souci; "or by the battle of Austerlitz, the hilt of my sword will serve him for a watch chain."
Tranquillity was restored; but Adeline, sorely distressed by the loss of her mother, and by what the treacherous Dufresne had told her of Edouard, refused to go to Guillot"s party, to the great disappointment of the people at the farm. In vain did Louise and her companions try to shake her resolution; they could obtain no promise; they had to return, sadly enough, without Madame Murville, and to leave her a prey to the sorrow with which she seemed overwhelmed.
Jacques and Sans-Souci offered to pa.s.s the night in the house, in order to defend her against any new enterprises on the part of the villain who had escaped them; but Adeline would not consent; she thanked them, a.s.suring them that she had nothing more to fear; but urged them to come often to see her.
The people from the farm took their leave regretfully, and Jacques registered an inward vow to watch over his brother"s wife.
XXV
THE LOTTERY OFFICE
"How does it happen that I am ruined, while I see other men win all the time? Shall I never be able to find a way to grow rich rapidly?"
Thus did Edouard commune with himself on the day of Dufresne"s departure for Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. He came out of an academy--a decent method of designating a gambling h.e.l.l,--where he had lost a large part of the sum he had borrowed on his house. He strode angrily along the streets of Paris; he dreamed of cards, of martingales, of series, of _parolis_, and of all those unlucky combinations which constantly perturb the brain of a gambler. A noisy burst of music, the booming of a ba.s.s drum, the strains of two clarinets and a pair of cymbals, roused him from his reverie; he raised his eyes with the intention of walking away from the musicians, whose uproar tired him, and saw that he was in front of a lottery office. The music which he heard was produced by one of those travelling bands which, for a forty-sou piece given them by the keeper of the office, raise an infernal tumult before the door and attract all the gossips of the neighborhood to the "lucky office" where the list of _ambes_, _ternes_, and even _quaternes_, said to have been won, is hung at the door with an exact statement of the result of the lottery; the whole embellished with pink and blue ribbons like the sweetmeats in a confectioner"s window.
Edouard stopped instinctively, and like all the rest, gazed at the seductive list. Seventy-five thousand francs won with twenty sous! That was very enticing! To be sure, the winner had had a _quaterne_; that is very rare; but still it has been seen, and one man"s chance is as good as another"s.