"And how can you insist? We are both in the same boat, and sink or swim together."
"Are you certain of that?"
"So certain that I repeat from this day I wash my hands of you."
"I am afraid you are in error."
"How so?"
"Because for twelve months past; I have given food and shelter to a girl of the name of Clarisse. Do you by any chance know her?"
At the mention of this name, the lawyer started, as a man starts who, walking peacefully along, suddenly sees a deadly serpent coiled across his path.
"Clarisse," stammered he, "how did you know of her? who told you?"
But the sarcastic sneer upon the lips of his two confederates wounded his pride so deeply, that in an instant he recovered his self-possession.
"I am getting foolish," said he, "to ask these men how they learned my secret. Do they not always work by infamous and underhand means?"
"You see I know all," remarked Mascarin, "for I foresaw the day would come when you would wish to sever our connection, and even give us up to justice, if you could do so with safety to yourself. I therefore took my precautions. One thing, however, I was not prepared for, and that was, that a man of your intelligence should have played so paltry a game, and even twelve months back thought of betraying us. It is almost incredible. Do you ever read the _Gazette des Tribunaux_? I saw in its pages yesterday a story nearly similar to your own. Shall I tell it to you? A lawyer who concealed his vices beneath a mantle of joviality and candor, brought up from the country a pretty, innocent girl to act as servant in his house. This lawyer occupied his leisure time in leading the poor child astray, and the moment at last came when the consequences of her weakness were too apparent. The lawyer was half beside himself at the approaching scandal. What would the neighbors say? Well, to cut the story short, the infant was suppressed,--you understand, suppressed, and the mother turned into the street."
"Baptiste, have mercy!"
"It was a most imprudent act, for such things always leak out somehow.
You have a gardener at your house at Champigny, and suppose the idea seized upon this worthy man to dig up the ground round the wall at the end of the garden."
"That is enough," said Catenac, piteously. "I give in."
Mascarin adjusted his spectacles, as he always did in important moments.
"You give in, do you? Not a bit. Even now you are endeavoring to find a means of parrying my home thrusts."
"But I declare to you----"
"Do not be alarmed; dig as deeply as he might, your gardener would discover nothing."
The lawyer uttered a stifled exclamation of rage as he perceived the pit into which he had fallen.
"He would find nothing," resumed Mascarin, "and yet the story is all true. Last January, on a bitterly cold night, you dug a hole, and in it deposited the body of a new-born infant wrapped in a shawl. And what shawl? Why the very one that you purchased at the _Bon Marche_, when you were making yourself agreeable to Clarisse. The shopman who sold it to you has identified it, and is ready to give evidence when called upon.
You may look for that shawl, Catenac, but you will not find it."
"Have you got that shawl?" asked Catenac hoa.r.s.ely.
"Am I a fool?" asked Mascarin contemptuously. "Tantaine has it; but _I_ know where the body is, and will keep the information to myself. Do not be alarmed; act fairly, and you are safe; but make one treacherous move, and you will read in the next day"s papers a paragraph something to this effect: "Yesterday some workmen, engaged in excavations near so-and-so, discovered the body of a new-born infant. Every effort is being made to discover the author of the crime." You know me, and that I work promptly. To the shawl I have added a handkerchief and a few other articles belonging to Clarisse, which will render it an easy matter to fix the guilt on you."
Catenac was absolutely stunned, and had lost all power of defending himself. The few incoherent words that he uttered showed his state of utter despair.
"You have killed me," gasped he, "just as the prize, that I have been looking for for twenty years, was in my grasp."
"Work does a man no harm," remarked the doctor sententiously.
There was, however, little time to lose; the Marquis de Croisenois and Paul might be expected to arrive at any moment, and Mascarin hastened to restore a certain amount of calmness to his prostrate antagonist.
"You make as much noise as if we were going to hand you over to the executioner on the spot. Do you think that we are such a pair of fools as to risk all these hazards without some almost certain chance of success? Hortebise was as much startled as yourself when I first spoke to him of this affair, but I explained everything fully to him, and now he is quite enthusiastic in the matter. Of course you can lay aside all fear, and, as a man of the world, will bear no malice against those who have simply played a better game than yourself."
"Go on," said Catenac, forcing a smile, "I am listening."
Mascarin made a short pause.
"What we want of you," answered he, "will not compromise you in the slightest degree. I wish you to draw up a doc.u.ment, the particulars of which I will give you presently, and you will outwardly have no connection with the matter."
"Very good."
"But there is more yet. The Duke of Champdoce has placed a difficult task in your hands. You are engaged in a secret on his behalf."
"You know that also?"
"I know everything that may be made subservient to our ends. I also know that instead of coming direct to me you went to the very man that we have every reason to dread, that fellow Perpignan, who is nearly as sharp as we are."
"Go on," returned Catenac impatiently. "What do you expect from me on this point?"
"Not much; you must only come to me first, and report any discovery you may have made, and never give any information to the Duke without first consulting us."
"I agree."
The contending parties seemed to have arrived at an amicable termination, and Dr. Hortebise smiled complacently.
"Now," said he, "shall we not confess, after all, that there was no use in making such a fuss?"
"I allow that I was in the wrong," answered Catenac meekly; and, extending his hands to his two a.s.sociates with an oily smile, he said: "Let us forget and forgive."
Was he to be trusted? Mascarin and the doctor exchanged glances of suspicion. A moment afterward a knock came to the door, and Paul entered, making a timid bow to his two patrons.
"My dear boy," said Mascarin, "let me present you to one of my oldest and best friends." Then, turning to Catenac, he added: "I wish to ask you to help and a.s.sist my young friend here. Paul Violaine is a good fellow, who has neither father nor mother, and whom we are trying to help on in his journey through life."
The lawyer started as he caught the strange, meaning smile which accompanied these words.
"Great heavens!" said he, "why did you not speak sooner?"
Catenac at once divined Mascarin"s project, and understood the allusion to the Duke de Champdoce.
CHAPTER XVII.
SOME Sc.r.a.pS OF PAPER.
The Marquis de Croisenois was never punctual. He had received a note asking him to call on Mascarin at eleven o"clock, and twelve had struck some time before he made his appearance. Faultlessly gloved, his gla.s.s firmly fixed in his eye, and a light walking cane in his hand, and with that air of half-veiled insolence that is sometimes affected by certain persons who wish the world to believe that they are of great importance, the Marquis de Croisenois entered the room.