"I showed the visitor into mademoiselle"s drawing-room as madame ordered, but it is not Madame de Mirecourt."
"Who is it, then?"
"M. le Marquis de Maillefort, madame."
"That detestable man!" exclaimed the baron. "A visit at this hour is an inexcusable familiarity on his part."
The baroness motioned to her husband to be more guarded before the servants, then whispered to Ernestine, who seemed surprised at this incident:
"M. de la Rochaigue does not like M. de Maillefort, who is really one of the most spiteful and mischief-making hunchbacks imaginable."
"A positive devil!" added Helena.
"It seems to me that I have heard my mother speak of a M. de Maillefort," remarked Ernestine, thoughtfully.
"That is more than likely, my dearest child," replied the baroness, smiling, "though no one ever speaks of M. de Maillefort as one"s good angel."
"I do not recollect to have heard her say anything either good or bad about M. de Maillefort," answered the orphan. "I merely remember the name."
"And the name is that of a veritable ogre," said the baron, spitefully.
"But if M. de Maillefort is so objectionable, why do you receive him, madame?" inquired the orphan, hesitatingly.
"Ah, my dear child, in society one is obliged to make many concessions, particularly when a person of M. de Maillefort"s birth is concerned."
Then addressing the baron, she added:
"It is impossible to prolong the meal farther, for coffee has been served in the drawing-room."
Madame de la Rochaigue arose from the table. The baron, concealing his annoyance as best he could, offered his arm to his ward, and the entire party returned to the drawing-room where M. de Maillefort was waiting.
The marquis had so long been accustomed to concealing his love for Madame de Beaumesnil,--the one pa.s.sion of his life, but one which she alone had divined,--that, on seeing Ernestine, he betrayed none of the interest he felt in her. He remembered, too, not without annoyance, that it would be necessary to appear curt and sarcastic before the orphan, as any sudden change in his manner or language would be sure to arouse the suspicions of the Rochaigues, and, in order to protect Ernestine from them, and, perhaps, even from herself, or, in other words, to carry out her mother"s last wishes, he must carefully refrain from exciting the distrust of those around her.
M. de Maillefort, who was endowed with remarkably acute powers of perception, noted, with a pang of real anguish, the unpleasant impression his appearance seemed to make upon Ernestine; for the latter, still under the influence of the slanders that had been heaped upon him, had involuntarily shuddered, and averted her gaze from his distorted form.
Painful as the feelings of the marquis were, he had the courage to conceal them, and, advancing towards Madame de la Rochaigue, with a smile on his lips and an ironical gleam in his eye, he said:
"I am very bold, am I not, my dear baroness? But you know, or rather you are ignorant, that one has friends only to impose upon their good nature, at least unless, like Mlle. de la Rochaigue here," he added, bowing low to that lady, "one has no faults at all, but is nothing more or less than an angel descended from heaven for the edification of the faithful. Then it is even worse, I believe, for when one is perfect, one inspires one"s friends with envy, or with admiration, for with many people these two sentiments are one and the same."
Then, turning to M. de la Rochaigue, he continued:
"Am I not right, baron? I appeal to you who have the good fortune not to wound either by your virtues or your failings."
The baron smiled until he showed his long teeth in the most startling fashion, then, trying to conceal his ill-humour, he exclaimed:
"Ah, marquis, marquis, always sarcastic, but always charming!"
Then seeing that he could not avoid introducing M. de Maillefort to Ernestine, who was watching the hunchback with growing uneasiness, the baron said to his ward:
"My dear Ernestine, allow me to introduce M. le Marquis de Maillefort, one of my particular friends."
After bowing to the young girl, who returned the bow with an embarra.s.sed air, the hunchback said, with formal politeness:
"I am delighted, mademoiselle, to have still another reason for often coming to Madame de la Rochaigue"s house."
And as if he considered himself released from the necessity of paying any further attention to the orphan by this commonplace remark, he bowed again, and then took a seat beside the baroness, while her husband tried to conceal his ill-temper by sipping his coffee very slowly, and Helena took Ernestine a few steps aside, under pretext of calling her attention to the plants in a jardiniere.
The marquis, without seeming to pay the slightest attention to Ernestine, never once lost sight of them. He had a remarkably keen sense of hearing, and he hoped to catch a few words of the conversation between the devotee and the orphan, while he chatted gaily with Madame de la Rochaigue, both of them endeavouring to conceal their real thoughts under the airiest persiflage, and to try and discover what the other was driving at, in vulgar parlance.
The frivolous character of such a conversation favoured the hunchback"s intentions, so, while he listened to Madame de la Rochaigue with a distrait ear, he listened eagerly with the other to Ernestine, the baron, and Helena.
The devotee and her brother, believing the marquis absorbed in his conversation with Madame de la Rochaigue, reminded the orphan, in the course of their conversation, of the promise she had made to accompany Helena to church the next morning at nine o"clock, and also to go with the baron a couple of days afterwards to view the wonders of the Luxembourg.
Though there was nothing extraordinary in these plans, M. de Maillefort"s distrust of the Rochaigue family was so great that he deemed it advisable to neglect no detail, however insignificant it might appear, so he noted these facts carefully, even while replying with his accustomed wit to Madame de la Rochaigue"s commonplaces.
The hunchback"s attention had been divided in this way for, perhaps, a quarter of an hour, when he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Helena make a whispered remark to Ernestine, accompanied by a glance at Madame de la Rochaigue, as if to say that it was not worth while to interrupt her conversation, after which the orphan, Helena, and the baron left the room.
Madame de la Rochaigue did not perceive their intention until the door closed behind them, but their departure suited her perfectly. The presence of other persons would prevent the explanation she considered it absolutely necessary to have with the marquis, for she was too shrewd and too well versed in the ways of the world not to have felt certain, as she had said to her husband, that the marquis, in thus renewing their acquaintance after a long interruption, had been actuated by a desire to meet the heiress, concerning whom, consequently, he must have some secret designs.
The hunchback"s love for Madame de Beaumesnil having been suspected by no one, and his last interview with the dying countess being likewise a secret, Madame de la Rochaigue did not and could not suspect the solicitude the marquis felt concerning Ernestine.
But wishing to ascertain the designs of the hunchback, so as to circ.u.mvent them if they interfered with her own, Madame de la Rochaigue abruptly changed the subject as soon as the door had closed upon the orphan, by saying:
"Well, marquis, what do you think of Mlle. de Beaumesnil?"
"I think her very generous."
"Very generous, marquis? What do you mean by that?"
"Why, with her fortune, your ward would have a perfect right to be as ugly and humpbacked as I am. But does she really possess many admirable traits of character?"
"I have known her so short a time, I scarcely know how to answer you."
"Why this reticence? You must feel sure that I did not come to ask your ward"s hand in marriage."
"Who knows?" retorted the baroness, laughing.
"I know, and I have told you."
"Seriously, marquis, I am positive that at this very moment a hundred matrimonial projects have already been formed--"
"Against Mlle. de Beaumesnil?"
""Against" is very suggestive. But one moment, marquis. I wish to be perfectly frank with you."
"Indeed!" exclaimed the hunchback, in mocking surprise. "Ah, well, so do I. Come, my dear baroness, let us have this little treat in the way of sincerity, which is such a rare thing, alas!"
And M. de Maillefort drew his chair nearer the sofa on which the baroness was seated.