Monsieur Lantin, greatly disturbed, asked:
"How much is it worth?"
"Well, I sold it for twenty thousand francs. I am willing to take it back for eighteen thousand, when you inform me, according to our legal formality, how it came to be in your possession."
This time, Monsieur Lantin was dumfounded. He replied:
"But-but-examine it well. Until this moment I was under the impression that it was imitation."
The jeweler asked:
"What is your name, sir?"
"Lantin-I am in the employ of the Minister of the Interior. I live at number sixteen Rue des Martyrs."
The merchant looked through his books, found the entry, and said: "That necklace was sent to Madame Lantin"s address, sixteen Rue des Martyrs, July 20, 1876."
The two men looked into each other"s eyes-the widower speechless with astonishment; the jeweler scenting a thief. The latter broke the silence.
"Will you leave this necklace here for twenty-four hours?" said he; "I will give you a receipt."
Monsieur Lantin answered hastily: "Yes, certainly." Then, putting the ticket in his pocket, he left the store.
He wandered aimlessly through the streets, his mind in a state of dreadful confusion. He tried to reason, to understand. His wife could not afford to purchase such a costly ornament. Certainly not.
But, then, it must have been a present!-a present!-a present, from whom? Why was it given her?
He stopped, and remained standing in the middle of the street. A horrible doubt entered his mind-She? Then, all the other jewels must have been presents, too! The earth seemed to tremble beneath him-the tree before him to be falling; he threw up his arms, and fell to the ground, unconscious. He recovered his senses in a pharmacy, into which the pa.s.sers-by had borne him. He asked to be taken home, and, when he reached the house, he shut himself up in his room, and wept until nightfall. Finally, overcome with fatigue, he went to bed and fell into a heavy sleep.
The sun awoke him next morning, and he began to dress slowly to go to the office. It was hard to work after such shocks. He sent a letter to his employer, requesting to be excused. Then he remembered that he had to return to the jeweler"s. He did not like the idea; but he could not leave the necklace with that man. He dressed and went out.
It was a lovely day; a clear, blue sky smiled on the busy city below. Men of leisure were strolling about with their hands in their pockets.
Monsieur Lantin, observing them, said to himself: "The rich, indeed, are happy. With money it is possible to forget even the deepest sorrow. One can go where one pleases, and in travel find that distraction which is the surest cure for grief. Oh if I were only rich!"
He perceived that he was hungry, but his pocket was empty. He again remembered the necklace. Eighteen thousand francs! Eighteen thousand francs! What a sum!
He soon arrived in the Rue de la Paix, opposite the jeweler"s. Eighteen thousand francs! Twenty times he resolved to go in, but shame kept him back. He was hungry, however-very hungry-and not a cent in his pocket. He decided quickly, ran across the street, in order not to have time for reflection, and rushed into the store.
The proprietor immediately came forward, and politely offered him a chair; the clerks glanced at him knowingly.
"I have made inquiries, Monsieur Lantin," said the jeweler, "and if you are still resolved to dispose of the gems, I am ready to pay you the price I offered."
"Certainly, sir," stammered Monsieur Lantin.
Whereupon the proprietor took from a drawer eighteen large bills, counted, and handed them to Monsieur Lantin, who signed a receipt; and, with trembling hand, put the money into his pocket.
As he was about to leave the store, he turned toward the merchant, who still wore the same knowing smile, and lowering his eyes, said:
"I have-I have other gems, which came from the same source. Will you buy them, also?"
The merchant bowed: "Certainly, sir."
Monsieur Lantin said gravely: "I will bring them to you." An hour later, he returned with the gems.
The large diamond earrings were worth twenty thousand francs; the bracelets, thirty-five thousand; the rings, sixteen thousand; a set of emeralds and sapphires, fourteen thousand; a gold chain with solitaire pendant, forty thousand-making the sum of one hundred and forty-three thousand francs.
The jeweler remarked, jokingly:
"There was a person who invested all her savings in precious stones."
Monsieur Lantin replied, seriously:
"It is only another way of investing one"s money."
That day he lunched at Voisin"s, and drank wine worth twenty francs a bottle. Then he hired a carriage and made a tour of the Bois. He gazed at the various turnouts with a kind of disdain, and could hardly refrain from crying out to the occupants:
"I, too, am rich!-I am worth two hundred thousand francs."
Suddenly he thought of his employer. He drove up to the bureau, and entered gaily, saying:
"Sir, I have come to resign my position. I have just inherited three hundred thousand francs."
He shook hands with his former colleagues, and confided to them some of his projects for the future; he then went off to dine at the Cafe Anglais.
He seated himself beside a gentleman of aristocratic bearing; and, during the meal, informed the latter confidentially that he had just inherited a fortune of four hundred thousand francs.
For the first time in his life, he was not bored at the theatre, and spent the remainder of the night in a gay frolic.
Six months afterward, he married again. His second wife was a very virtuous woman; but had a violent temper. She caused him much sorrow.
FASCINATION
I can tell you neither the name of the country, nor the name of the man. It was a long, long way from here on a fertile and burning sh.o.r.e. We had been walking since the morning along the coast, with the blue sea bathed in sunlight on one side of us, and the sh.o.r.e covered with crops on the other. Flowers were growing quite close to the waves, those light, gentle, lulling waves. It was very warm, a soft warmth permeated with the odor of the rich, damp, fertile soil. One fancied one was inhaling germs.
I had been told, that evening, that I should meet with hospitality at the house of a Frenchman who lived in an orange grove at the end of a promontory. Who was he? I did not know. He had come there one morning ten years before, and had bought land which he planted with vines and sowed with grain. He had worked, this man, with pa.s.sionate energy, with fury. Then as he went on from month to month, year to year, enlarging his boundaries, cultivating incessantly the strong virgin soil, he acc.u.mulated a fortune by his indefatigable labor.
But he kept on working, they said. Rising at daybreak, he would remain in the fields till evening, superintending everything without ceasing, tormented by one fixed idea, the insatiable desire for money, which nothing can quiet, nothing satisfy. He now appeared to be very rich. The sun was setting as I reached his house. It was situated as described, at the end of a promontory in the midst of a grove of orange trees. It was a large square house, quite plain, and overlooked the sea. As I approached, a man wearing a long beard appeared in the doorway. Having greeted him, I asked if he would give me shelter for the night. He held out his hand and said, smiling:
"Come in, monsieur, consider yourself at home."
He led me into a room, and put a man servant at my disposal with the perfect ease and familiar graciousness of a man-of-the-world. Then he left me saying:
"We will dine as soon as you are ready to come downstairs."