"Your father!" she stammered.
"Yes. For years he has been using the money that was intrusted to him, until the deficit now amounts to twelve millions."
"Great heavens!"
"And, notwithstanding the enormity of that sum, he was reduced, during the latter months, to the most miserable expedients,-going from door to door in the neighborhood, soliciting deposits, until he actually basely swindled a poor newspaper-vender out of five hundred francs."
"Why, this is madness! And how did you find out?"
"Last night they came to arrest him. Fortunately we had been notified; and I helped him to escape through a window of my sister"s room, which opens on the yard of an adjoining house."
"And where is he now?"
"Who knows?"
"Had he any money?"
"Everybody thinks that he carries off millions. I do not believe it. He even refused to take the few thousand francs which M. de Thaller had brought him to facilitate his flight."
Mlle. Lucienne shuddered.
"Did you see M. de Thaller?" she asked.
"He got to the house a few moments in advance of the commissary of police; and a terrible scene took place between him and my father."
"What was he saying?"
"That my father had ruined him."
"And your father?"
"He stammered incoherent phrases. He was like a man who has received a stunning blow. But we have discovered incredible things. My father, so austere and so parsimonious at home, led a merry life elsewhere, spending money without stint. It was for a woman that he robbed."
"And-do you know who that woman is?"
"No. But I can find out from the writer of the article in this paper, who says that he knows her. See!"
Mlle. Lucienne took the paper which Maxence was holding out to her: but she hardly condescended to look at it.
"But what"s your idea now?"
"I do not believe that my father is innocent; but I believe that there are people more guilty than he,-skillful and prudent knaves, who have made use of him as a man of straw,-villains who will quietly digest their share of the millions (the biggest one, of course), while he will be sent to prison."
A fugitive blush colored Mlle. Lucienne"s cheeks.
"That being the case," she interrupted, "what do you expect to do?"
"Avenge my father, if possible, and discover his accomplices, if he has any."
She held out her hand to him.
"That"s right," she said. "But how will you go about it?"
"I don"t know yet. At any rate, I must first of all run to the newspaper office, and get that woman"s address."
But Mlle. Lucienne stopped him.
"No," she uttered: "it isn"t there that you must go. You must come with me to see my friend the commissary."
Maxence received this suggestion with a gesture of surprise, almost of terror.
"Why, how can you think of such a thing?" he exclaimed. "My father is fleeing from justice; and you want me to take for my confidant a commissary of police,-the very man whose duty it is to arrest him, if he can find him!"
But he interrupted himself for a moment, staring and gaping, as if the truth had suddenly flashed upon his mind in dazzling evidence.
"For my father has not gone abroad," he went on. "It is in Paris that he is hiding: I am sure of it. You have seen him?"
Mlle. Lucienne really thought that Maxence was losing his mind.
"I have seen your father-I?" she said.
"Yes, last evening. How could I have forgotten it? While you were waiting for me down stairs, between eleven and half-past eleven a middle-aged man, thin, wearing a long overcoat, came and asked for me."
"Yes, I remember."
"He spoke to you in the yard."
"That"s a fact."
"What did he tell you?"
She hesitated for a moment, evidently trying to tax her memory; then, "Nothing," she replied, "that he had not already said before the Fortins; that he wanted to see you on important business, and was sorry not to find you in. What surprised me, though, is, that he was speaking as if he knew me, and knew that I was a friend of yours." Then, striking her forehead, "Perhaps you are right," she went on. "Perhaps that man was indeed your father. Wait a minute. Yes, he seemed quite excited, and at every moment he looked around towards the door. He said it would be impossible for him to return, but that he would write to you, and that probably he would require your a.s.sistance and your services."
"You see," exclaimed Maxence, almost crazy with subdued excitement, "it was my father. He is going to write; to return, perhaps; and, under the circ.u.mstances, to apply to a commissary of police would be sheer folly, almost treason."
She shook her head.
"So much the more reason," she uttered, "why you should follow my advice. Have you ever had occasion to repent doing so?"
"No, but you may be mistaken."
"I am not mistaken."
She expressed herself in a tone of such absolute certainty, that Maxence, in the disorder of his mind, was at a loss to know what to imagine, what to believe.
"You must have some reason to urge me thus," he said.
"I have."
"Why not tell it to me then?"
"Because I should have no proofs to furnish you of my a.s.sertions. Because I should have to go into details which you would not understand. Because, above all, I am following one of those inexplicable presentiments which never deceive."
It was evident that she was not willing to unveil her whole mind; and yet Maxence felt himself terribly staggered.
"Think of my agony," he said, "if I were to cause my father"s arrest."
"Would my own be less? Can any misfortune strike you without reaching me? Let us reason a little. What were you saying a moment since? That certainly your father is not as guilty as people think; at any rate, that he is not alone guilty; that he has been but the instrument of rascals more skillful and more powerful than himself; and that he has had but a small share of the twelve millions?"
"Such is my absolute conviction."
"And that you would like to deliver up to justice the villains who have benefitted by your father"s crime, and who think themselves sure of impunity?"
Tears of anger fell from Maxence"s eyes.
"Do you wish to take away all my courage?" he murmured.
"No; but I wish to demonstrate to you the necessity of the step which I advise you to take. The end justifies the means; and we have not the choice of means. Come, "tis to an honest man and a tried friend that I shall take you. Fear nothing. If he remembers that he is commissary of police, it will be to serve us, not to injure you. You hesitate? Perhaps at this moment he already knows more than we do ourselves."
Maxence took a sudden resolution.
"Very well," he said: "let us go."
In less than five minutes they were off; and, as they went out, they had to disturb Mme. Fortin, who stood at the door, gossiping with two or three of the neighboring shop-keepers.
As soon as Maxence and Mlle. Lucienne were out of hearing, "You see that young man," said the honorable proprietress of the Hotel des Folies to her interlocutors. "Well, he is the son of that famous cashier who has just run off with twelve millions, after ruining a thousand families. It don"t seem to trouble him, either; for there he is, going out to spend a pleasant day with his mistress, and to treat her to a fine dinner with the old man"s money."
Meantime, Maxence and Lucienne reached the commissary"s house. He was at home; they walked in. And, as soon as they appeared, "I expected you," he said.
He was a man already past middle age, but active and vigorous still. With his white cravat and long frock-coat, he looked like a notary. Benign was the expression of his countenance; but the l.u.s.tre of his little gray eyes, and the mobility of his nostrils, showed that it should not be trusted too far.
"Yes, I expected you," he repeated, addressing himself as much to Maxence as to Mlle. Lucienne. "It is the Mutual Credit matter which brings you here?"
Maxence stepped forward, "I am Vincent Favoral"s son, sir," he replied. "I have still my mother and a sister. Our situation is horrible. Mlle. Lucienne suggested that you might be willing to give me some advice; and here we are."
The commissary rang, and, on the bell being answered, "I am at home for no one," he said.
And then turning to Maxence, "Mlle. Lucienne did well to bring you," he said; "for it may be, that, whilst rendering her an important service, I may also render you one. But I have no time to lose. Sit down, and tell me all about it." With the most scrupulous exactness Maxence told the history of his family, and the events of the past twenty-four hours.
Not once did the commissary interrupt him; but, when he had done, "Tell me your father"s interview with M. de Thaller all over again," he requested, "and, especially, do not omit any thing that you have heard or seen, not a word, not a gesture, not a look."
And, Maxence having complied, "Now," said the commissary, "repeat every thing your father said at the moment of going."
He did so. The commissary took a few notes, and then, "What were," he inquired, "the relations of your family with the Thaller family?"
"There were none."
"What! Neither Mme. nor Mlle. de Thaller ever visited you?"
"Never."
"Do you know the Marquis de Tregars?"
Maxence stared in surprise.
"Tregars!" he repeated. "It"s the first time that I hear that name."
The usual clients of the commissary would have hesitated to recognize him, so completely had he set aside his professional stiffness, so much had his freezing reserve given way to the most encouraging kindness.
"Now, then," he resumed, "never mind M. de Tregars: let us talk of the woman, who, you seem to think, has been the cause of M. Favoral"s ruin."
On the table before him lay the paper in which Maxence had read in the morning the terrible article headed: "Another Financial Disaster."
"I know nothing of that woman," he replied; "but it must be easy to find out, since the writer of this article pretends to know."
The commissary smiled, not having quite as much faith in newspapers as Maxence seemed to have.
"Yes, I read that," he said.
"We might send to the office of that paper," suggested Mlle. Lucienne.
"I have already sent, my child."
And, without noticing the surprise of Maxence and of the young girl, he rang the bell, and asked whether his secretary had returned. The secretary answered by appearing in person.
"Well?" inquired the commissary.
"I have attended to the matter, sir," he replied. "I saw the reporter who wrote the article in question; and, after beating about the bush for some time, he finally confessed that he knew nothing more than had been published, and that he had obtained his information from two intimate friends of the cashier, M. Costeclar and M. Saint Pavin."
"You should have gone to see those gentlemen."
"I did."
"Very well. What then?"
"Unfortunately, M. Costeclar had just gone out. As to M. Saint Pavin, I found him at the office of his paper, "The Financial Pilot." He is a coa.r.s.e and vulgar personage, and received me like a pickpocket. I had even a notion to-"
"Never mind that! Go on."
"He was closeted with another gentleman, a banker, named Jottras, of the house of Jottras and Brother. They were both in a terrible rage, swearing like troopers, and saying that the Favoral defalcation would ruin them; that they had been taken in like fools, but that they were not going to take things so easy, and they were preparing a crushing article."
But he stopped, winking, and pointing to Maxence and Mlle. Lucienne, who were listening as attentively as they could.
"Speak, speak!" said the commissary. "Fear nothing."
"Well," he went on, "M. Saint Pavin and M. Jottras were saying that M. Favoral was only a poor dupe, but that they would know how to find the others."
"What others?"