They remained for a moment face to face, looking into each other"s eyes. Then, "What have you decided?" asked M. de Tregars.
Without perhaps, suspecting that his offer was a new insult, "I will go as far as fifteen hundred thousand francs," replied M. de Thaller, "and I pay cash."
"Is that your last word?"
"It is."
"If I enter a complaint, with the proofs in my hands, you are lost."
"We"ll see about that."
To insist further would have been puerile.
"Very well, we"ll see, then," said M. de Tregars. But as he walked out and got into his cab, which had been waiting for him at the door, he could not help wondering what gave the Baron de Thaller so much a.s.surance, and whether he was not mistaken in his conjectures.
It was nearly eight o"clock, and Maxence, Mme. Favoral and Mlle. Gilberte must have been waiting for him with a feverish impatience; but he had eaten nothing since morning, and he stopped in front of one of the restaurants of the Boulevard.
He had just ordered his dinner, when a gentleman of a certain age, but active and vigorous still, of military bearing, wearing a mustache, and a tan-colored ribbon at his b.u.t.tonhole, came to take a seat at the adjoining table.
In less than fifteen minutes M. de Tregars had despatched a bowl of soup and a slice of beef, and was hastening out, when his foot struck his neighbor"s foot, without his being able to understand how it had happened.
Though fully convinced that it was not his fault, he hastened to excuse himself. But the other began to talk angrily, and so loud, that everybody turned around.
Vexed as he was, Marius renewed his apologies.
But the other, like those cowards who think they have found a greater coward than themselves, was pouring forth a torrent of the grossest insults.
M. de Tregars was lifting his hand to administer a well-deserved correction, when suddenly the scene in the grand parlor of the Thaller mansion came back vividly to his mind. He saw again, as in the gla.s.s, the ill-looking man listening, with an anxious look, to Mme. de Thaller"s propositions, and afterwards sitting down to write.
"That"s it!" he exclaimed, a mult.i.tude of circ.u.mstances occurring to his mind, which had escaped him at the moment.
And, without further reflection, seizing his adversary by the throat, he threw him over on the table, holding him down with his knee.
"I am sure he must have the letter about him," he said to the people who surrounded him.
And in fact he did take from the side-pocket of the villain a letter, which he unfolded, and commenced reading aloud, "I am waiting for you, my dear major, come quick, for the thing is pressing,-a troublesome gentleman who is to be made to keep quiet. It will be for you the matter of a sword-thrust, and for us the occasion to divide a round amount."
"And, that"s why he picked a quarrel with me," added M. de Tregars.
Two waiters had taken hold of the villain, who was struggling furiously, and wanted to surrender him to the police.
"What"s the use?" said Marius. "I have his letter: that"s enough. The police will find him when they want him."
And, getting back into his cab, "Rue St. Gilles," he ordered, "and lively, if possible."
VIII
In the Rue St. Gilles the hours were dragging, slow and gloomy. After Maxence had left to go and meet M. de Tregars, Mme. Favoral and her daughter had remained alone with M. Chapelain, and had been compelled to bear the brunt of his wrath, and to hear his interminable complaints.
He was certainly an excellent man, that old lawyer, and too just to hold Mlle. Gilberte or her mother responsible for Vincent Favoral"s acts. He spoke the truth when he a.s.sured them that he had for them a sincere affection, and that they might rely upon his devotion. But he was losing a hundred and sixty thousand francs; and a man who loses such a large sum is naturally in bad humor, and not much disposed to optimism.
The cruellest enemies of the poor women would not have tortured them so mercilessly as this devoted friend.
He spared them not one sad detail of that meeting at the Mutual Credit office, from which he had just come. He exaggerated the proud a.s.surance of the manager, and the confiding simplicity of the stockholders. "That Baron de Thaller," he said to them, "is certainly the most impudent scoundrel and the cleverest rascal I have ever seen. You"ll see that he"ll get out of it with clean hands and full pockets. Whether or not he has accomplices, Vincent will be the scapegoat. We must make up our mind to that."
His positive intention was to console Mme. Favoral and Gilberte. Had he sworn to drive them to distraction, he could not have succeeded better.
"Poor woman!" he said, "what is to become of you? Maxence is a good and honest fellow, I am sure, but so weak, so thoughtless, so fond of pleasure! He finds it difficult enough to get along by himself. Of what a.s.sistance will he be to you?"
Then came advice.
Mme. Favoral, he declared, should not hesitate to ask for a separation, which the tribunal would certainly grant. For want of this precaution, she would remain all her life under the burden of her husband"s debts, and constantly exposed to the annoyances of the creditors.
And always he wound up by saying, "Who could ever have expected such a thing from Vincent,-a friend of twenty years" standing! A hundred and sixty thousand francs! Who in the world can be trusted hereafter?"
Big tears were rolling slowly down Mme. Favoral"s withered cheeks. But Mlle. Gilberte was of those for whom the pity of others is the worst misfortune and the most acute suffering.
Twenty times she was on the point of exclaiming, "Keep your compa.s.sion, sir: we are neither so much to be pitied nor so much forsaken as you think. Our misfortune has revealed to us a true friend,-one who does not speak, but acts."
At last, as twelve o"clock struck, M. Chapelain withdrew, announcing that he would return the next day to get the news, and to bring further consolation.
"Thank Heaven, we are alone at last!" said Mlle. Gilberte.
But they had not much peace, for all that.
Great as had been the noise of Vincent Favoral"s disaster, it had not reached at once all those who had intrusted their savings to him. All day long, the belated creditors kept coming in; and the scenes of the morning were renewed on a smaller scale. Then legal summonses began to pour in, three or four at a time. Mme. Favoral was losing all courage.
"What disgrace!" she groaned. "Will it always be so hereafter?"
And she exhausted herself in useless conjectures upon the causes of the catastrophe; and such was the disorder of her mind, that she knew not what to hope and what to fear, and that from one minute to another she wished for the most contradictory things.
She would have been glad to hear that her husband was safe out of the country, and yet she would have deemed herself less miserable, had she known that he was hid somewhere in Paris.
And obstinately the same questions returned to her lips, "Where is he now? What is he doing? What is he thinking about? How can he leave us without news? Is it possible that it is a woman who has driven him into the precipice? And, if so, who is that woman?"
Very different were Mlle. Gilberte"s thoughts.
The great calamity that befell her family had brought about the sudden realization of her hopes. Her father"s disaster had given her an opportunity to test the man she loved; and she had found him even superior to all that she could have dared to dream. The name of Favoral was forever disgraced; but she was going to be the wife of Marius, Marquise de Tregars.
And, in the candor of her loyal soul, she accused herself of not taking enough interest in her mother"s grief, and reproached herself for the quivers of joy which she felt within her.
"Where is Maxence?" asked Mme. Favoral.
"Where is M. de Tregars? Why have they told us nothing of their projects?"
"They will, no doubt, come home to dinner," replied Mlle. Gilberte.
So well was she convinced of this, that she had given orders to the servant to have a somewhat better dinner than usual; and her heart was beating at the thought of being seated near Marius, between her mother and her brother.
At about six o"clock, the bell rang violently.
"There he is!" said the young girl, rising to her feet.
But no: it was only the porter, bringing up a summons ordering Mme. Favoral, under penalty of the law, to appear the next day, at one o"clock precisely, before the examining judge, Barban d"Avranchel, at his office in the Palace of Justice.
The poor woman came near fainting.
"What can this judge want with me? It ought to be forbidden to call a wife to testify against her husband," she said.
"M. de Tregars will tell you what to answer, mamma," said Mlle. Gilberte.
Meantime, seven o"clock came, then eight, and still neither Maxence nor M. de Tregars had come.
Both mother and daughter were becoming anxious, when at last, a little before nine, they heard steps in the hall.
Marius de Tregars appeared almost immediately.
He was pale; and his face bore the trace of the crushing fatigues of the day, of the cares which oppressed him, of the reflections which had been suggested to his mind by the quarrel of which he had nearly been the victim a few moments since.
"Maxence is not here?" he asked at once.
"We have not seen him," answered Mlle. Gilberte.
He seemed so much surprised, that Mme. Favoral was frightened.
"What is the matter again, good G.o.d!" she exclaimed.
"Nothing, madame," said M. de Tregars,-"nothing that should alarm you. Compelled, about two hours ago, to part from Maxence, I was to have met him here. Since he has not come, he must have been detained. I know where; and I will ask your permission to run and join him."
He went out; but Mlle. Gilberte followed him in the hall, and, taking his hand, "How kind of you!" she began, "and how can we ever sufficiently thank you?"
He interrupted her.
"You owe me no thanks, my beloved; for, in what I am doing, there is more selfishness than you think. It is my own cause, more than yours, that I am defending. Any way, every thing is going on well."
And, without giving any more explanations, he started again. He had no doubt that Maxence, after leaving him, had run to the Hotel des Folies to give to Mlle. Lucienne an account of the day"s work. And, though somewhat annoyed that he had tarried so long, on second thought, he was not surprised.
It was, therefore, to the Hotel des Folies that he was going. Now that he had unmasked his batteries and begun the struggle, he was not sorry to meet Mlle. Lucienne.
In less than five minutes he had reached the Boulevard du Temple. In front of the Fortins" narrow corridor a dozen idlers were standing, talking.
M. de Tregars was listening as he went along.
"It is a frightful accident," said one,-"such a pretty girl, and so young too!"
"As to me," said another, "it is the driver that I pity the most; for after all, if that pretty miss was in that carriage, it was for her own pleasure; whereas, the poor coachman was only attending to his business."
A confused presentiment oppressed M. de Tregars" heart. Addressing himself to one of those worthy citizens, "Have you heard any particulars?"
Flattered by the confidence, "Certainly I have," he replied. "I didn"t see the thing with my own proper eyes; but my wife did. It was terrible. The carriage, a magnificent private carriage too, came from the direction of the Madeleine. The horses had run away; and already there had been an accident in the Place du Chateau d"Eau, where an old woman had been knocked down. Suddenly, here, over there, opposite the toy-shop, which is mine, by the way, the wheel of the carriage catches into the wheel of an enormous truck; and at once, palata! the coachman is thrown down, and so is the lady, who was inside,-a very pretty girl, who lives in this hotel."
Leaving there the obliging narrator, M. de Tregars rushed through the narrow corridor of the Hotel des Folies. At the moment when he reached the yard, he found himself in presence of Maxence.
Pale, his head bare, his eyes wild, shaking with a nervous chill, the poor fellow looked like a madman. Noticing M. de Tregars, "Ah, my friend!" he exclaimed, "what misfortune!"
"Lucienne?"
"Dead, perhaps. The doctor will not answer for her recovery. I am going to the druggist"s to get a prescription."
He was interrupted by the commissary of police, whose kind protection had hitherto preserved Mlle. Lucienne. He was coming out of the little room on the ground-floor, which the Fortins used for an office, bedroom, and dining-room.
He had recognized Marius de Tregars, and, coming up to him, he pressed his hand, saying, "Well, you know?"
"Yes."
"It is my fault, M. le Marquis; for we were fully notified. I knew so well that Mlle. Lucienne"s existence was threatened, I was so fully expecting a new attempt upon her life, that, whenever she went out riding, it was one of my men, wearing a footman"s livery, who took his seat by the side of the coachman. To-day my man was so busy, that I said to myself, "Bash, for once!" And behold the consequences!"
It was with inexpressible astonishment that Maxence was listening. It was with a profound stupor that he discovered between Marius and the commissary that serious intimacy which is the result of long intercourse, real esteem, and common hopes.
"It is not an accident, then," remarked M. de Tregars.
"The coachman has spoken, doubtless?"
"No: the wretch was killed on the spot."
And, without waiting for another question, "But don"t let us stay here," said the commissary.
"Whilst Maxence runs to the drug-store, let us go into the Fortins" office."
The husband was alone there, the wife being at that moment with Mlle. Lucienne.
"Do me the favor to go and take a walk for about fifteen minutes," said the commissary to him. "We have to talk, this gentleman and myself."
Humbly, without a word, and like a man who does himself justice, M. Fortin slipped off.
And at once,-"It is clear, M. le Marquis, it is manifest, that a crime has been committed. Listen, and judge for yourself. I was just rising from dinner, when I was notified of what was called our poor Lucienne"s accident. Without even changing my clothes, I ran. The carriage was lying in the street, broken to pieces. Two policemen were holding the horses, which had been stopped. I inquire. I learn that Lucienne, picked up by Maxence, has been able to drag herself as far as the Hotel des Folies, and that the driver has been taken to the nearest drug-store. Furious at my own negligence, and tormented by vague suspicions, it is to the druggist"s that I go first, and in all haste. The driver was in a backroom, stretched on a mattress.
"His head having struck the angle of the curbstone, his skull was broken; and he had just breathed his last. It was, apparently, the annihilation of the hope which I had, of enlightening myself by questioning this man. Nevertheless, I give orders to have him searched. No paper is discovered upon him to establish his ident.i.ty; but, in one of the pockets of his pantaloons, do you know what they find? Two bank-notes of a thousand francs each, carefully wrapped up in a fragment of newspaper."
M. de Tregars had shuddered.
"What a revelation!" he murmured.
It was not to the present circ.u.mstance that he applied that word. But the commissary naturally mistook him.
"Yes," he went on, "it was a revelation. To me these two thousand francs were worth a confession: they could only be the wages of a crime. So, without losing a moment, I jump into a cab, and drive to Brion"s. Everybody was upside down, because the horses had just been brought back. I question; and, from the very first words, the correctness of my presumption is demonstrated to me. The wretch who had just died was not one of Brion"s coachmen. This is what had happened. At two o"clock, when the carriage ordered by M. Van Klopen was ready to go for Mlle. Lucienne, they had been compelled to send for the driver and the footman, who had forgotten themselves drinking in a neighboring wine-shop, with a man who had called to see them in the morning. They were slightly under the influence of wine, but not enough so to make it imprudent to trust them with horses; and it was even probable that the fresh air would sober them completely. They had then started; but, they had not gone very far, for one of their comrades had seen them stop the carriage in front of a wine-shop, and join there the same individual with whom they had been drinking all the morning."