"It would rejoice my heart to see your prediction fulfilled, commander,"
said Gerald, laughing. Then, turning to Olivier, he continued: "It will surprise you very much, I think, when I tell you what I know of M.
Celestin de Macreuse. I have told you, I believe, how very exclusive the society is in which my mother has always moved, so you can judge of my astonishment when one evening, shortly after my return to Paris, I heard the name of M. de Macreuse announced in my mother"s drawing-room. It was the very man. I had retained such an unpleasant recollection of the fellow, that I went to my mother and said:
""Why do you receive that man who just spoke to you,--that big, light-haired, sallow man?"
""Why, that is M. de Macreuse," my mother replied, in tones indicative of the profoundest respect.
""And who is M. de Macreuse, my dear mother? I never saw him in your house before."
""No, for he has just returned from his travels," she answered. "He is a very distinguished and highly exemplary young man,--the founder of the St. Polycarpe Mission."
""The deuce! And what is the St. Polycarpe Mission, my dear mother?"
""It is a society that strives to make the poor resigned to their misery by teaching them that the more they suffer here, the happier they will be hereafter."
""_Se non e vero, e ben trovato_," I laughingly remarked. "But it seems to me that this fellow has a very plump face to be advocating the good effects of starvation."
""My son, I meant every word that I just said to you," replied my mother, gravely. "Many highly esteemed persons have connected themselves with M. de Macreuse"s work,--a work to which he devotes himself with truly evangelical zeal. But here he comes. I would like to introduce you to him."
""Pray do nothing of the kind, mother," I retorted, quickly. "I am sure to be impolite; I do not like the gentleman"s looks; besides, what I already know of him makes my antipathy to his acquaintance insurmountable. We were at college together, and--"
"But I was unable to say any more; Macreuse was now close to my mother, and I was standing beside her. "My dear M. de Macreuse," she said to her protege, in the most amiable manner, after casting a withering look at me, "I wish to introduce my son, one of your former cla.s.smates, who will be charmed to renew his acquaintance with you."
"Macreuse bowed profoundly, then said, in a rather condescending way, "I have been absent from Paris some time, monsieur, and was consequently ignorant of your return to France, so I did not expect to have the honour of meeting you at your mother"s house this evening. We were at college together, and--"
""That is true," I interrupted, "and I recollect perfectly well how you played the spy on us to ingratiate yourself with the teachers; how you would stoop to any dirty trick to make a penny; and how you put out the eyes of little birds with pins. Possibly this last was in the charitable hope that their sufferings here would profit them hereafter.""
"A clever thrust that!" exclaimed the commander, with a hearty laugh.
"And what did Macreuse say?" asked Olivier.
"The scoundrel"s big moon face turned scarlet. He tried to smile and stammer out a few words, but suddenly my mother, looking at me with a reproachful air, rose, and to rescue our friend from his embarra.s.sment, I suppose, said, "M. de Macreuse, may I ask you to take me to get a cup of tea?""
"But how did this man gain an entrance into such an exclusive circle as that of the Faubourg St Germain?" inquired Olivier.
"n.o.body knows exactly," replied Gerald. "This much is true, however. If one door in our circle opens, all the others soon do the same. But this first door is hard to open, and who opened it for Macreuse n.o.body knows, though some persons seem to think that it was Abbe Ledoux, a favourite spiritual director in our set. This seems quite probable, and I have taken almost as strong a dislike to the abbe as to Macreuse. If this dislike needed any justification, it would have it, so far as I am concerned, in the estimate of Macreuse"s character formed by a singular man who is rarely deceived in his judgment of persons."
"And who is this infallible man, pray?" inquired Olivier, smiling.
"A hunchback no taller than that," replied Gerald, indicating with his hand a height of about four and a half feet.
"A hunchback?" repeated Olivier, greatly surprised.
"Yes, a hunchback, as quick-witted and determined as his satanic majesty himself,--stiff as an iron bar to those whom he dislikes and despises, but full of affection and devotion to those whom he honours--though such persons, I am forced to admit, are rare--and never making the slightest attempt to conceal from any individual the liking or aversion he or she inspires."
"It is fortunate for him that his infirmity gives him this privilege of plain speaking," remarked the commander. "But for that, your hunchback would be likely to have a hard time of it."
"His infirmity?" said Gerald, laughing. "Though a hunchback, the Marquis de Maillefort is, I a.s.sure you--"
"He is a marquis?" interrupted Olivier.
"Yes, a marquis, and an aristocrat of the old school. He is a scion of the ducal house of Haut-martel, the head of which has resided in Germany since 1830. But though he is a hunchback, M. de Maillefort, as I was about to remark before, is as alert and vigorous as any young man, in spite of his forty-five years. And, by the way, you and I consider ourselves pretty good swordsmen, do we not?"
"Well, yes."
"Very well; the marquis could touch us eight times out of twelve. He rivals the incomparable Bertrand. His movements are as light as a bird"s, and as swift as lightning itself."
"This brave little hunchback interests me very much," said the veteran.
"If he has fought any duels his adversaries must have cut strange figures."
"The marquis has fought several duels, in all of which he evinced the greatest coolness and courage, at least so my father, who was a personal friend of the marquis, once told me."
"And he goes into society in spite of his infirmity?" inquired Olivier.
"Sometimes he frequents it a.s.siduously; then absents himself for months at a time. His is a very peculiar nature. My father told me that for many years the marquis seemed to be in a state of profound melancholy, but I have never seen him other than gay and amusing."
"But with his courage, his skill in the use of weapons, and his quick wit, he is certainly a man to be feared."
"Yes, and you can easily imagine how greatly his presence disquiets certain persons whom society continues to receive on account of their birth, in spite of their notorious villainies. Macreuse, for instance, as soon as he sees the marquis enter by one door, makes his escape by another."
The conversation was here interrupted by an incident which would have been unworthy even of comment in some parts of the town, but rare enough in the Batignolles.
The arbour in which the little party had dined skirted the garden wall, and at the farther end of it was a latticed gate, which afforded the occupants a view of the street beyond. A handsome carriage, drawn by two superb horses stopped exactly in front of this gate.
This carriage was empty.
The footman on the box beside the driver, and, like him, dressed in rich livery, descended from his seat, and drawing from his pocket a letter that evidently bore an address, looked from side to side as if in search of a number, then disappeared, after motioning the coachman to follow him.
"This is the first vehicle of that kind I"ve seen in the Batignolles in ten years," remarked the old sailor. "It is very flattering to the neighbourhood."
"I never saw finer horses," said Olivier, with the air of a connoisseur.
"Do they belong to you, Gerald?"
"Do you take me for a millionaire?" responded the young duke, gaily. "I keep a saddle-horse, and I put one of my mother"s horses in my cabriolet, when she is not using them. That is my stable. This does not prevent me from loving horses, or from being something of a sporting man. But, speaking of horses, do you remember that dunce, Mornand, another of our college mates?"
"And still another of our mutual antipathies,--of course I do. What has become of him?"
"He is quite a distinguished personage now."
"He! Nonsense!"
"But I tell you he is. He is a member of the Chamber of Peers. He discourses at length, there. People even listen to him. In short, he is a minister in embryo."
"De Mornand?"
"Yes, my worthy friend. He is as dull as ever, and twice as arrogant and self-complacent. He doubts everything except his own merit. He possesses an insatiable ambition, and he belongs to a coterie of jealous and spiteful individuals,--spiteful because they are mediocre, or, rather, mediocre because they are spiteful. Such men rise in the world with, marvellous rapidity, though Mornand has a broad back and supple loins,--he will succeed, one aiding the other."
Just then the footman who had disappeared with the carriage returned, and, seeing through the latticed gate the little party in the arbour, approached, and, raising his hand to his hat, said: