"Yes, of course."
The niece was not present.
The guests drank a great deal of wine, and laughed very loudly; and risky jokes did not give any offence, all present experiencing that sense of relief which follows a somewhat prolonged period of constraint.
Martinon alone displayed anything like gravity. He refused to drink champagne, as he thought this good form, and, moreover, he a.s.sumed an air of tact and politeness, for when M. Dambreuse, who had a contracted chest, complained of an oppression, he made repeated enquiries about that gentleman"s health, and then let his blue eyes wander in the direction of Madame Dambreuse.
She questioned Frederick in order to find out which of the young ladies he liked best. He had noticed none of them in particular, and besides, he preferred the women of thirty.
"There, perhaps, you show your sense," she returned.
Then, as they were putting on their pelisses and paletots, M. Dambreuse said to him:
"Come and see me one of these mornings and we"ll have a chat."
Martinon, at the foot of the stairs, was lighting a cigar, and, as he puffed it, he presented such a heavy profile that his companion allowed this remark to escape from him:
"Upon my word, you have a fine head!"
"It has turned a few other heads," replied the young magistrate, with an air of mingled self-complacency and annoyance.
As soon as Frederick was in bed, he summed up the main features of the evening party. In the first place, his own toilet (he had looked at himself several times in the mirrors), from the cut of his coat to the knot of his pumps left nothing to find fault with. He had spoken to influential men, and seen wealthy ladies at close quarters. M. Dambreuse had shown himself to be an admirable type of man, and Madame Dambreuse an almost bewitching type of woman. He weighed one by one her slightest words, her looks, a thousand things incapable of being a.n.a.lysed. It would be a right good thing to have such a mistress. And, after all, why should he not? He would have as good a chance with her as any other man.
Perhaps she was not so hard to win? Then Martinon came back to his recollection; and, as he fell asleep, he smiled with pity for this worthy fellow.
He woke up with the thought of the Marechale in his mind. Those words of her note, "After to-morrow evening," were in fact an appointment for the very same day.
He waited until nine o"clock, and then hurried to her house.
Some one who had been going up the stairs before him shut the door. He rang the bell; Delphine came out and told him that "Madame" was not there.
Frederick persisted, begging of her to admit him. He had something of a very serious nature to communicate to her; only a word would suffice. At length, the hundred-sous-piece argument proved successful, and the maid let him into the anteroom.
Rosanette appeared. She was in a negligee, with her hair loose, and, shaking her head, she waved her arms when she was some paces away from him to indicate that she could not receive him now.
Frederick descended the stairs slowly. This caprice was worse than any of the others she had indulged in. He could not understand it at all.
In front of the porter"s lodge Mademoiselle Vatnaz stopped him.
"Has she received you?"
"No."
"You"ve been put out?"
"How do you know that?"
""Tis quite plain. But come on; let us go away. I am suffocating!"
She made him accompany her along the street; she panted for breath; he could feel her thin arm trembling on his own. Suddenly, she broke out:
"Ah! the wretch!"
"Who, pray?"
"Why, he--he--Delmar!"
This revelation humiliated Frederick. He next asked:
"Are you quite sure of it?"
"Why, when I tell you I followed him!" exclaimed the Vatnaz. "I saw him going in! Now do you understand? I ought to have expected it for that matter--"twas I, in my stupidity, that introduced him to her. And if you only knew all; my G.o.d! Why, I picked him up, supported him, clothed him!
And then all the paragraphs I got into the newspapers about him! I loved him like a mother!"
Then, with a sneer:
"Ha! Monsieur wants velvet robes! You may be sure "tis a speculation on his part. And as for her!--to think that I knew her to earn her living as a seamstress! If it were not for me, she would have fallen into the mire twenty times over! But I will plunge her into it yet! I"ll see her dying in a hospital--and everything about her will be known!"
And, like a torrent of dirty water from a vessel full of refuse, her rage poured out in a tumultuous fashion into Frederick"s ear the recital of her rival"s disgraceful acts.
"She lived with Jumillac, with Flacourt, with little Allard, with Bertinaux, with Saint-Valery, the pock-marked fellow! No, "twas the other! They are two brothers--it makes no difference. And when she was in difficulties, I settled everything. She is so avaricious! And then, you will agree with me, "twas nice and kind of me to go to see her, for we are not persons of the same grade! Am I a fast woman--I? Do I sell myself? Without taking into account that she is as stupid as a head of cabbage. She writes "category" with a "th." After all, they are well met. They make a precious couple, though he styles himself an artist and thinks himself a man of genius. But, my G.o.d! if he had only intelligence, he would not have done such an infamous thing! Men don"t, as a rule, leave a superior woman for a hussy! What do I care about him after all? He is becoming ugly. I hate him! If I met him, mind you, I"d spit in his face." She spat out as she uttered the words.
"Yes, this is what I think about him now. And Arnoux, eh? Isn"t it abominable? He has forgiven her so often! You can"t conceive the sacrifices he has made for her. She ought to kiss his feet! He is so generous, so good!"
Frederick was delighted at hearing Delmar disparaged. He had taken sides with Arnoux. This perfidy on Rosanette"s part seemed to him an abnormal and inexcusable thing; and, infected with this elderly spinster"s emotion, he felt a sort of tenderness towards her. Suddenly he found himself in front of Arnoux"s door. Mademoiselle Vatnaz, without his attention having been drawn to it, had led him down towards the Rue Poissonniere.
"Here we are!" said she. "As for me, I can"t go up; but you, surely there is nothing to prevent you?"
"From doing what?"
"From telling him everything, faith!"
Frederick, as if waking up with a start, saw the baseness towards which she was urging him.
"Well?" she said after a pause.
He raised his eyes towards the second floor. Madame Arnoux"s lamp was burning. In fact there was nothing to prevent him from going up.
"I am going to wait for you here. Go on, then!"
This direction had the effect of chilling him, and he said:
"I shall be a long time up there; you would do better to return home. I will call on you to-morrow."
"No, no!" replied the Vatnaz, stamping with her foot. "Take him with you! Bring him there! Let him catch them together!"
"But Delmar will no longer be there."
She hung down her head.