"Why in the devil do you come here and disturb us?" demanded Sans-Cravate. "We"ve no business with you. I"d like to know if we ain"t at liberty to drink and sing, and quarrel a little too, if we want to?"
The detectives, who had already scrutinized everybody in the room, did not answer Sans-Cravate; but one of them went to the table under which the ex-inspector of the Market had taken refuge, and dragged him forth from his hiding-place by the legs.
"This is the gentleman we"re looking for," he said.--"Come, up with you!
you must go with us!"
"Messieurs," cried Laboussole, trying to bury his nose in his cravat, "this is a mistake, I a.s.sure you; I must be the victim of an unfortunate resemblance. I know more than twenty men who look like me."
"No, no, you"re the man we want; come, off you go--and step lively!"
"What are you arresting this man for?" demanded Sans-Cravate; while Jean Ficelle pulled him by the jacket and whispered in his ear:
"Defend him! thrash the curs! you"re strong enough."
"Because he"s a thief!" replied the detective, pushing Laboussole toward the stairs.
Paul glanced at Sans-Cravate, who turned pale and neither moved nor spoke. The word _thief_ had sobered him in an instant.
IX
A STUDIO PARTY.--A FETICH.--THE BURGUNDIAN
It is very disagreeable to be disappointed in one"s expectations; but the disappointment is especially keen after an amorous rendezvous: you have dreamed of happiness in its most seductive form; your imagination has conceived the most touching pictures, the most gratifying situations. All these thoughts have heated your brain and your mind--when you have one--and your pa.s.sions at least, in default of a mind; and when all your antic.i.p.ations result in nothing at all, you beat a retreat in dire distress, like the crow in the fable. But if, instead of the kisses that you hoped to steal, you have received a blow, you are quite justified in being vexed and angry, as well as distressed.
It is said that a blow from a woman"s hand does no harm; doubtless because, being often dealt in obedience to a hasty impulse, it is followed by repentance, and the recipient is accorded the privilege of earning another. But take a sharp, stinging blow, and nothing more. I doubt whether the fact that it was delivered by the loveliest of women and the prettiest hand would make it welcome to you.
You will say, perhaps, that Madame Plays had not given young Pigeonnier a rendezvous. True; but she had accepted his escort, she had consented to go to a private dining-room with him; and those concessions, in the judgment of discerning persons, would be tantamount to giving her consent that he should take Albert"s place in every respect.
The little fellow reflected profoundly, as he walked from the Champs-elysees to Rue Taitbout; he walked very fast, for one rarely moves slowly when intensely excited.
"Can it be that Albert didn"t write what he dictated to himself?" he thought. "I ought to have read his letter before delivering it. Can he have written some insulting thing about her? Was it a deliberate scheme to make a fool of me? _Fichtre!_ if I knew that, he"d hear something more from me! I don"t propose to be made a guy of!"
In his excitement, the young man brandished his beautiful gold-headed cane, as if he proposed to break somebody"s head; and in his gesticulations he came within an ace of knocking off the hat of a respectable lady, its somewhat exaggerated brim happening to be directly under his cane as he imitated the exploits of a drum-major. Luckily, the ribbons tied under the lady"s chin prevented the hat from falling, and it was simply thrown back on her shoulders. But the gentleman who was with the lady, and who was indignant that a pa.s.ser-by should presume to knock his wife"s hat off with a cane, walked up to Tobie, and said to him in a threatening tone:
"I say, monsieur, what sort of a performance is this? You threaten us with your cane! You nearly put my wife"s eye out, and you knocked off her hat, which would have fallen into the street if it hadn"t been for the ribbons!"
"Oh! monsieur, madame, a thousand pardons!" stammered Tobie; "I was so preoccupied--I didn"t see you."
"What! are we dwarfs?"
"No, monsieur--far from it; you are very tall. But when a man is thinking about something else----"
"That"s a fine reason! We were thinking of something else, too, monsieur. Do you suppose we were thinking of your cane? By heaven! if you had destroyed my wife"s eye, you wouldn"t have taken your own home with you!"
"I am sure of it, monsieur; I ask a thousand pardons."
"When you carry a cane, monsieur, you ought to know how to use it."
"It was because I thought that I was using it that I was gesticulating with it."
During this colloquy the lady had readjusted her hat; and she drew her husband away, saying:
"Come, my dear; as monsieur did it accidentally, let"s accept his apologies."
"Accidentally! upon my word, it would be very pretty if he had intended to do it! By all the devils! if I believed that----"
And the gentleman, becoming more and more enraged as he became more convinced of his adversary"s terror, began to grind his teeth and act as if he proposed to fall upon Tobie; but Tobie was already far away; he had taken to his heels, trying to thrust his cane into his pocket, as a means of avoiding any further disaster.
This incident calmed the young man"s excitement.
"I cannot accuse Albert," he said to himself, as he reached the painter"s door; "I have no proofs. I ought to have picked up the letter, when Madame Plays threw it on the floor. I"ll go back to the cafe to-morrow and ask the waiter if he found it. Meanwhile, I won"t be such a donkey as to tell what happened to me, for they would laugh at me unmercifully. On the contrary, I must make them think that my triumph was complete."
Balivan lived on Rue Taitbout, in the same house as young Elina and her aunt. His apartments were on the third floor; he had three small rooms, and a studio which was large enough for him, as he painted nothing but portraits.
Several times, as he was returning home, the young artist had met the little dressmaker going to her work; and he had been impressed by her beauty. Knowing that she was his neighbor, he had tried to form an acquaintance with her, and had proposed to paint her portrait, if she would be his model for a study which he intended to exhibit at the Salon. But Elina had declined his offers, and had always refused to enter the painter"s studio. And yet, it is a very pleasant thing to have one"s own portrait. How many women and girls allow themselves to be allured by such an offer, by the desire to see their faces at the Salon, and to have an opportunity to listen to the compliments certain to be lavished upon them. What joy to say to their companions in the workroom: "My portrait is at the Salon; I represent an Italian peasant--a Swiss peasant--and a wood nymph. The painter insisted on putting my face in all his pictures."--Elina, too, had been tempted; but she had resisted the temptation. To be sure, Balivan was very ugly.
The artist"s studio was lighted by a lamp placed on the stove; its rays fell upon a full-length portrait of a very pretty woman in a ball dress, and upon the head of an old soldier, whose nose was not finished; scattered here and there, on the floor, or hung on the walls, were various canvases, in all stages of completion, from the merest sketch to the finished portrait. Some plaster busts, easels, a manikin in female dress, sketches, and several portraits refused admission to the Salon, or by the persons for whom they were painted, and relegated by the artist to the darkest corners of the studio, combined to give a unique aspect to the apartment.
Four young men, seated around a table in the middle of the room, were enjoying with great zest the pleasures of bouillotte. On a small table, close at hand, stood an enormous salad bowl filled with blazing punch; and gla.s.ses, pipes, cigars, tobacco pouches, and even snuffboxes, were scattered over another small table of Chinese lacquer, which had momentarily deserted the artist"s salon to embellish his studio.
When Tobie appeared, the card table was occupied by Albert, Celestin, Mouillot, and a young man, who was not of the dinner party at the Maison-Doree, but had joined the band of roisterers when they left the restaurant, and had asked for nothing better than to pa.s.s the night with them at bouillotte.
This young man, who was the possessor of an insignificant and utterly expressionless face, had hair so light that it was almost white, and eyebrows of the same color, which gave him some resemblance to an albino; still, in spite of that, he might have been considered a good-looking fellow enough, if his manner had been less indolent; but he had about twelve thousand francs a year, which his family permitted him to consume in Paris; the result being that in society, and especially among the high livers, Monsieur Varinet"s company was much sought after.
Not that he was amiable and jovial in society: he was always cold and impa.s.sive, and not even wine had the power to enliven him; but he spent his money with the same indifference which he displayed in every other action of his life; and he would lose large sums at cards without any sign of emotion. All his friends esteemed him highly on that account.
Gold and silver were scattered over the table, and the animated air of the players indicated that the game was beginning to be warm.
Balivan himself was filling the gla.s.ses with punch, and Dupetrain sat in front of the manikin dressed as a woman, which he seemed to be scrutinizing with care.
"Ah! here"s Tobie! _Vive Tobie!_" cried the artist, as Pigeonnier entered the room. And, despite their absorbing interest in the game, the card players joined in the cry:
"Here"s Tobie! Here"s that Don Juan of a Tobie!"
The young man with white eyebrows was the only one who said nothing; he contented himself with saluting the new-comer, as one salutes a person with whom he is but slightly acquainted.
"Yes, messieurs, it"s I," said Pigeonnier, wiping his forehead. "You are well started already, I see. I speak for a place."
"You can come in with Balivan," said Celestin. "There are six of us now; two will go out on the quarter-hour."
"And Monsieur Dupetrain?"
"Who ever heard of Dupetrain playing cards? Upon my soul, I believe he"s trying to magnetize my manikin!"
"Well, Tobie," said Albert, "what news of our fair one? Are you content?