Brought up at hap-hazard, in the kitchen much more than in the parlor, until she was twelve, and, later, dragged by her mother anywhere,-to the races, to the first representations, to the watering-places, always escorted by a squadron of the young men of the bourse, Mlle. de Thaller had adopted a style which would have been deemed detestable in a man. As soon as some questionable fashion appeared, she appropriated it at once, never finding any thing eccentric enough to make herself conspicuous. She rode on horseback, fenced, frequented pigeon-shooting matches, spoke slang, sang Theresa"s songs, emptied neatly her gla.s.s of champagne, and smoked her cigarette.
The guests were struck dumb with astonishment.
"But those people must spend millions!" interrupted M. Chapelain.
M. Favoral started as if he had been slapped on the back.
"Bash!" he answered. "They are so rich, so awfully rich!"
He changed the conversation that evening; but on the following Sat.u.r.day, from the very beginning of the dinner, "I believe," he said, "that M. de Thaller has just discovered a husband for his daughter."
"My compliments!" exclaimed M. Desormeaux. "And who may this bold fellow be?"
"A n.o.bleman, of course," he replied. "Isn"t that the tradition? As soon as a financier has made his little million, he starts in quest of a n.o.bleman to give him his daughter."
One of those painful presentiments, such as arise in the inmost recesses of the soul, made Mlle. Gilberte turn pale. This presentiment suggested to her an absurd, ridiculous, unlikely thing; and yet she was sure that it would not deceive her,-so sure, indeed, that she rose under the pretext of looking for something in the side-board, but in reality to conceal the terrible emotion which she antic.i.p.ated.
"And this gentleman?" inquired M. Chapelain.
"Is a marquis, if you please,-the Marquis de Tregars."
Well, yes, it was this very name that Mlle. Gilberte was expecting, and well that she did; for she was thus able to command enough control over herself to check the cry that rose to her throat.
"But this marriage is not made yet," pursued M. Favoral. "This marquis is not yet so completely ruined, that he can be made to do any thing they please. Sure, the baroness has set her heart upon it, oh! but with all her might!"
A discussion which now arose prevented Gilberte from learning any more; and as soon as the dinner, which seemed eternal to her, was over, she complained of a violent headache, and withdrew to her room.
She shook with fever; her teeth chattered. And yet she could not believe that Marius was betraying her, nor that he could have the thought of marrying such a girl as M. Favoral had described, and for money too! Poor, ah! No, that was not admissible. Although she remembered well that Marius had made her swear to believe nothing that might be said of him, she spent a horrible Sunday, and she felt like throwing herself in the Signor Gismondo"s arms, when, in giving her his lesson the following Monday, "My poor pupil," he said, "feels miserable. A marriage has been spoken of for him, for which he has a perfect horror; and he trembles lest the rumor may reach his intended, whom he loves exclusively."
Mlle. Gilberte felt re-a.s.sured after that. And yet there remained in her heart an invincible sadness. She could hardly doubt that this matrimonial scheme was a part of the plan planned by Marius to recover his fortune. But why, then, had he applied to M. de Thaller? Who could be the man who had despoiled the Marquis de Tregars?
Such were the thoughts which occupied her mind on that Sat.u.r.day evening when the commissary of police presented himself in the Rue St. Gilles to arrest M. Favoral, charged with embezzling ten or twelve millions.
XXII
The hour had now come for the denouement of that home tragedy which was being enacted in the Rue St. Gilles.
The reader will remember the incidents narrated at the beginning of this story,-M. de Thaller"s visit and angry words with M. Favoral, his departure after leaving a package of bank-notes in Mlle. Gilberte"s hands, the advent of the commissary of police, M. Favoral"s escape, and finally the departure of the Sat.u.r.day evening guests.
The disaster which struck Mme. Favoral and her children had been so sudden and so crushing, that they had been, on the moment, too stupefied to realize it. What had happened went so far beyond the limits of the probable, of the possible even, that they could not believe it. The too cruel scenes which had just taken place were to them like the absurd incidents of a horrible nightmare.
But when their guests had retired after a few commonplace protestations, when they found themselves alone, all three, in that house whose master had just fled, tracked by the police,-then only, as the disturbed equilibrium of their minds became somewhat restored, did they fully realize the extent of the disaster, and the horror of the situation.
Whilst Mme. Favoral lay apparently lifeless on an arm-chair, Gilberte kneeling at her feet, Maxence was walking up and down the parlor with furious steps. He was whiter than the plaster on the halls; and a cold perspiration glued his tangled hair to his temples.
His eyes glistening, and his fists clinched, "Our father a thief!" he kept repeating in a hoa.r.s.e voice, "a forger!"
And in fact never had the slightest suspicion arisen in his mind. In these days of doubtful reputations, he had been proud indeed of M. Favoral"s reputation of austere integrity. And he had endured many a cruel reproach, saying to himself that his father had, by his own spotless conduct, acquired the right to be harsh and exacting.
"And he has stolen twelve millions!" he exclaimed.
And he went on, trying to calculate all the luxury and splendor which such a sum represents, all the cravings gratified, all the dreams realized, all it can procure of things that may be bought. And what things are not for sale for twelve millions!
Then he examined the gloomy home in the Rue St. Gilles,-the contracted dwelling, the faded furniture, the prodigies of a parsimonious industry, his mother"s privations, his sister"s penury, and his own distress. And he exclaimed again, "It is a monstrous infamy!"
The words of the commissary of police had opened his eyes; and he now fancied the most wonderful things. M. Favoral, in his mind, a.s.sumed fabulous proportions. By what miracles of hypocrisy and dissimulation had he succeeded in making himself ubiquitous as it were, and, without awaking a suspicion, living two lives so distinct and so different,-here, in the midst of his family, parsimonious, methodic, and severe; elsewhere, in some illicit household, doubtless facile, smiling, and generous, like a successful thief.
For Maxence considered the bills found in the secretary as a flagrant, irrefutable and material proof.
Upon the brink of that abyss of shame into which his father had just tumbled, he thought he could see, not the inevitable woman, that incentive of all human actions, but the entire legion of those bewitching courtesans who possess unknown crucibles wherein to swell fortunes, and who have secret filtres to stupefy their dupes, and strip them of their honor, after robbing them of their last cent.
"And I," said Maxence,-"I, because at twenty I was fond of pleasure, I was called a bad son! Because I had made some three hundred francs of debts, I was deemed a swindler! Because I love a poor girl who has for me the most disinterested affection, I am one of those rascals whom their family disown, and from whom nothing can be expected but shame and disgrace!"
He filled the parlor with the sound of his voice, which rose like his wrath.
And at the thought of all the bitter reproaches which had been addressed to him by his father, and of all the humiliations that had been heaped upon him, "Ah, the wretch!" he fairly shrieked, "-the coward!"
As pale as her brother, her face bathed in tears, and her beautiful hair hanging undone, Mlle. Gilberte drew herself up.
"He is our father, Maxence," she said gently.
But he interrupted her with a wild burst of laughter. "True," he answered; "and, by virtue of the law which is written in the code, we owe him affection and respect."
"Maxence!" murmured the girl in a beseeching tone. But he went on, nevertheless, "Yes, he is our father, unfortunately. But I should like to know his t.i.tles to our respect and our affection. After making our mother the most miserable of creatures, he has embittered our existence, withered our youth, ruined my future, and done his best to spoil yours by compelling you to marry Costeclar. And, to crown all these deeds of kindness, he runs away now, after stealing twelve millions, leaving us nothing but misery and a disgraced name.
"And yet," he added, "is it possible that a cashier should take twelve millions, and his employer know nothing of it? And is our father really the only man who benefitted by these millions?"
Then came back to the mind of Maxence and Mlle. Gilberte the last words of their father at the moment of his flight, "I have been betrayed; and I must suffer for all!"
And his sincerity could hardly be called in question; for he was then in one of those moments of decisive crisis in which the truth forces itself out in spite of all calculation.
"He must have accomplices then," murmured Maxence.
Although he had spoken very low, Mme. Favoral overheard him. To defend her husband, she found a remnant of energy, and, straightening herself on her seat, "Ah! do not doubt it," she stammered out. "Of his own inspiration, Vincent could never have committed an evil act. He has been circ.u.mvented, led away, duped!"
"Very well; but by whom?"
"By Costeclar," affirmed Mlle. Gilberte.
"By the Messrs. Jottras, the bankers," said Mme. Favoral, "and also by M. Saint Pavin, the editor of "the Financial Pilot.""
"By all of them, evidently," interrupted Maxence, "even by his manager, M. de Thaller."
When a man is at the bottom of a precipice, what is the use of finding out how he has got there,-whether by stumbling over a stone, or slipping on a tuft of gra.s.s! And yet it is always our foremost thought. It was with an eager obstinacy that Mme. Favoral and her children ascended the course of their existence, seeking in the past the incidents and the merest words which might throw some light upon their disaster; for it was quite manifest that it was not in one day and at the same time that twelve millions had been subtracted from the Mutual Credit. This enormous deficit must have been, as usual, made gradually, with infinite caution at first, whilst there was a desire, and some hope, to make it good again, then with mad recklessness towards the end when the catastrophe had become inevitable.
"Alas!" murmured Mme. Favoral, "why did not Vincent listen to my presentiments on that ever fatal day when he brought M. de Thaller, M. Jottras, and M. Saint Pavin to dine here? They promised him a fortune."
Maxence and Mlle. Gilberte were too young at the time of that dinner to have preserved any remembrance of it; but they remembered many other circ.u.mstances, which, at the time they had taken place, had not struck them. They understood now the temper of their father, his perpetual irritation, and the spasms of his humor. When his friends were heaping insults upon him, he had exclaimed, "Be it so! let them arrest me; and to-night, for the first time in many years, I shall sleep in peace."
There were years, then, that he lived, as it were upon burning coals, trembling at the fear of discovery, and wondering, as he went to sleep each night, whether he would not be awakened by the rude hand of the police tapping him on the shoulder. No one better than Mme. Favoral could affirm it.
"Your father, my children," she said, "had long since lost his sleep. There was hardly ever a night that he did not get up and walk the room for hours."
They understood, now, his efforts to compel Mlle. Gilberte to marry M. Costeclar.
"He thought that Costeclar would help him out of the sc.r.a.pe," suggested Maxence to his sister.
The poor girl shuddered at the thought, and she could not help feeling thankful to her father for not having told her his situation; for would she have had the sublime courage to refuse the sacrifice, if her father had told her?
"I have stolen! I am lost! Costeclar alone can save me; and he will save me if you become his wife."
M. Favoral"s pleasant behavior during the siege was quite natural. Then he had no fears; and one could understand how in the most critical hours of the Commune, when Paris was in flames, he could have exclaimed almost cheerfully, "Ah! this time it is indeed the final liquidation."
Doubtless, in the bottom of his heart, he wished that Paris might be destroyed, and, with it, the evidences of his crime. And perhaps he was not the only one to form that impious wish.
"That"s why, then," exclaimed Maxence,-"that"s why my father treated me so rudely: that"s why he so obstinately persisted in closing the offices of the Mutual Credit against me."
He was interrupted by a violent ringing of the door-bell. He looked at the clock: ten o"clock was about to strike.
"Who can call so late?" said Mme. Favoral.
Something like a discussion was heard in the hall,-a voice hoa.r.s.e with anger, and the servant"s voice.
"Go and see who"s there," said Gilberte to her brother.
It was useless; the servant appeared.
"It"s M. Bertan," she commenced, "the baker-" He had followed her, and, pushing her aside with his robust arm, he appeared himself. He was a man about forty years of age, tall, thin, already bald, and wearing his beard trimmed close.
"M. Favoral?" he inquired.
"My father is not at home," replied Maxence.
"It"s true, then, what I have just been told?"
"What?"
"That the police came to arrest him, and he escaped through a window."
"It"s true," replied Maxence gently.
The baker seemed prostrated.
"And my money?" he asked.
"What money?"
"Why, my ten thousand francs! Ten thousand francs which I brought to M. Favoral, in gold, you hear? in ten rolls, which I placed there, on that very table, and for which he gave me a receipt. Here it is,-his receipt."
He held out a paper; but Maxence did not take it.
"I do not doubt your word, sir," he replied; "but my father"s business is not ours."
"You refuse to give me back my money?"
"Neither my mother, my sister, nor myself, have any thing."
The blood rushed to the man"s face, and, with a tongue made thick by anger, "And you think you are going to pay me off in that way?" he exclaimed. "You have nothing! Poor little fellow! And will you tell me, then, what has become of the twenty millions your father has stolen? for he has stolen twenty millions. I know it: I have been told so. Where are they?"
"The police, sir, has placed the seals over my fathers papers."
"The police?" interrupted the baker, "the seals? What do I care for that? It"s my money I want: do you hear? Justice is going to take a hand in it, is it? Arrest your father, try him? What good will that do me? He will be condemned to two or three years" imprisonment. Will that give me a cent? He will serve out his time quietly; and, when he gets out of prison, he"ll get hold of the pile that he"s got hidden somewhere; and while I starve, he"ll spend my money under my very nose. No, no! Things won"t suit me that way. It"s at once that I want to be paid."
And throwing himself upon a chair his head back, and his legs stretched forward- "And what"s more," he declared, "I am not going out of here until I am paid."
It was not without the greatest efforts that Maxence managed to keep his temper.
"Your insults are useless, sir," he commenced.
The man jumped up from his seat.
"Insults!" he cried in a voice that could have been heard all through the house. "Do you call it an insult when a man claims his own? If you think you can make me hush, you are mistaken in your man, M. Favoral, Jun. I am not rich myself: my father has not stolen to leave me an income. It is not in gambling at the bourse that I made these ten thousand francs. It is by the sweat of my body, by working hard night and day for years, by depriving myself of a gla.s.s of wine when I was thirsty. And I am to lose them? By the holy name of heaven, we"ll have to see about that! If everybody was like me, there would not be so many scoundrels going about, their pockets filled with other people"s money, and from the top of their carriage laughing at the poor fools they have ruined. Come, my ten thousand francs, canaille, or I take my pay on your back."
Maxence, enraged, was about to throw himself upon the man, and a disgusting struggle was about to begin, when Mlle. Gilberte stepped between them.
"Your threats are as cowardly as your insults, Monsieur Bertan," she uttered in a quivering voice. "You have known us long enough to be aware that we know nothing of our father"s business, and that we have nothing ourselves. All we can do is to give up to our creditors our very last crumb. Thus it shall be done. And now, sir, please retire."
There was so much dignity in her sorrow, and so imposing was her att.i.tude, that the baker stood abashed.
"Ah! if that"s the way," he stammered awkwardly; "and since you meddle with it, mademoiselle-" And he retreated precipitately, growling at the same time threats and excuses, and slamming the doors after him hard enough to break the part.i.tions.
"What a disgrace!" murmured Mme. Favoral. Crushed by this last scene, she was choking; and her children had to carry her to the open window. She recovered almost at once; but thus, through the darkness, bleak and cold, she had like a vision of her husband; and, throwing herself back, "O great heavens!" she uttered, "where did he go when he left us? Where is he now? What is he doing? What has become of him?"
Her married life had been for Mme. Favoral but a slow torture. It was in vain that she would have looked back through her past life for some of those happy days which leave their luminous track in life, and towards which the mind turns in the hours of grief. Vincent Favoral had never been aught but a brutal despot, abusing the resignation of his victim. And yet, had he died, she would have wept bitterly over him in all the sincerity of her honest and simple soul. Habit! Prisoners have been known to shed tears over the grave of their jailer. Then he was her husband, after all, the father of her children, the only man who existed for her. For twenty-six years they had never been separated: they had sat at the same table: they had slept side by side.
Yes, she would have wept over him. But how much less poignant would her grief have been than at this moment, when it was complicated by all the torments of uncertainty, and by the most frightful apprehensions!
Fearing lest she might take cold, her children had removed her to the sofa, and there, all shivering, "Isn"t it horrible," she said, "not to know any thing of your father? -to think that at this very moment, perhaps, pursued by the police, he is wandering in despair through the streets, without daring to ask anywhere for shelter."
Her children had no time to answer and comfort her; for at this moment the door-bell rang again.
"Who can it be now?" said Mme. Favoral with a start.
This time there was no discussion in the hall. Steps sounded on the floor of the dining-room; the door opened; and M. Desclavettes, the old bronze-merchant, walked, or rather slipped into the parlor.
Hope, fear, anger, all the sentiments which agitated his soul, could be read on his pale and cat-like face.