"I recognize your patience and ingenuity thoroughly, only I am going with one word to crush the fabric of hope that you have so carefully erected."
Catenac might be a coward, he might also be a traitor but he was a clever and clear-sighted man too. Consequently Hortebise shivered as he heard these words, but Mascarin smiled disdainfully, basking in his dream of success.
"Go on then," said he.
"Well, then, let me tell you that you will not overreach and deceive the Duke."
"And why not, pray?" asked Mascarin. "But are you sure that I wish to deceive him? You have not been open with me, why should I be frank with you? Am I in the habit of confiding in those who do not repose confidence in me? Does Perpignan for a moment suspect the part that he is to play? Why may I not have judged it best to keep from you the fact that Paul is really the child you are seeking?"
Mascarin spoke so confidently that Catenac gazed upon him, hardly knowing to what conclusion to come, for his conscience was by no means clear. His intellect quickly dived into the depths of all probabilities, and yet he could not see in all these combinations any possible peril to himself.
"I only hope," said he, "that Paul is all that you represent him to be; but why all these precautions? Only, mark my words, the Duke has an infallible way of detecting, or rather of preventing, any attempt at imposition. It is ever thus, the most trivial circ.u.mstance will overset the best laid plans, and the inevitable destroy the combinations of the most astute intellect."
Mascarin interrupted his a.s.sociate.
"Paul is the son of the Duke de Champdoce," said he decisively.
What was the meaning of this? Catenac felt that he was being played with, and grew angry.
"As you please; but you will, I presume, permit me to convince myself of the truth of this a.s.sertion."
Then, advancing towards Paul, the lawyer said,--
"Have the goodness to remove your coat."
Paul took it off, and threw it upon the back of a chair.
"Now," added Catenac, "roll up your right shirt sleeve to the shoulder."
Scarcely had the young man obeyed, and the lawyer cast a rapid glance at the bare flesh, than he turned to his a.s.sociates and observed,--
"No, he is not the right man."
To his extreme surprise, Mascarin and Hortebise burst into a fit of unrestrained laughter.
"No," pursued the lawyer, "this is not the child who was sent to the Hospital of Vendome, and the Duke will recognize this better than I can.
You laugh, but it is because you do not know all."
"Enough," returned Mascarin, and then, turning to the doctor, he remarked, "Tell him, my friends, that we know more than he thinks."
"And so," said Hortebise, taking Paul"s hand, "you are certain that this is not the lost child because he has not certain marks about him; but these will be seen upon the day on which Paul is introduced to the Duke, and legibly enough to satisfy the most unbelieving."
"What do you mean?"
"Let me explain in my own way. If in early childhood Paul had been scalded on his shoulder by boiling water, he would have a scar whose appearance would denote its origin?"
Catenac nodded, "You are quite accurate," said he.
"Well, then listen. Paul is coming home with me. I shall take him into my consulting-room; he will lie on a couch. I shall give him chloroform, for I do not wish him to suffer any pain. Mascarin will help me. Then I shall apply, on the proper part, a piece of flannel steeped in a certain liquid which is an invention of my own. I am not a fool, as you may have discovered before this; and in a drawer at home is a piece of flannel cut so as exactly to resemble the irregular outline of a scar of the kind you describe, and a few little bits here and there will do the rest of the work artistically. When the liquid has effected its work, which will be in ten minutes, I shall remove it, and apply an ointment, another invention of my own, to the wound; then I shall restore Paul to his senses, and go to dinner."
Mascarin rubbed his hands with delight.
"But you forget that a certain s.p.a.ce of time is required to give a scar the appearance of not having been recent," objected Catenac.
"Let me speak," broke in the doctor. "If we only needed time--six months, say, or a year--we should postpone our concluding act until then; but I, Hortebise, a.s.sure you that in two months, thanks to another discovery of my own--will show you a scar that will pa.s.s muster, not perhaps before a fellow-pract.i.tioner, but certainly before the Duke."
Catenac"s sunken eyes blazed as he thought of the prospective millions.
"May the devil fly away with all scruples!" cried he. "My friends, I am yours soul and body; you may rely on your devoted Catenac."
The doctor and Mascarin exchanged a look of triumph.
"Of course we share and share alike," observed the lawyer. "It is true that I come in rather late; but the part I play is a delicate and an important one, and you can do nothing without me."
"You shall have your share," answered Mascarin evasively.
"One word more," said the lawyer. "Do you think that the Duke has kept nothing back? The infant was hardly seen by him or the d.u.c.h.ess; but Jean saw it, and he, though very old and infirm, would come forward at any moment to defend the name and honor of the Champdoce family."
"Well, and what then?"
"Jean, you know, was against the subst.i.tution of another child. May he not have foreseen the chance of such a case as this arising?"
Mascarin looked grave. "I have thought of that before," returned he; "but what can be done?"
"I will find out," said Catenac. "Jean has the most implicit confidence in me, and I will question him."
The cold calmness of the lawyer had vanished, and Catenac only displayed the zealous eagerness of the man who, admitted at a late hour into an enterprise which he imagines will be lucrative, burns to do as much as he can to further it.
"But," added he, as an after-thought, "how can we be certain that there is no one to recognize Paul?"
"I can answer for that; his poverty had isolated him from all but a woman named Rose, and I took care that she should be sent to the prison of St. Lazare. At one time I was a little anxious, as I heard that Paul had a patron; but he, as I have found out, was the Count de Mussidan, the murderer of Montlouis, who, as you may have guessed, was Paul"s father."
"We have nothing, then, to fear from that quarter," said the doctor.
"Nothing; and while you get on with your work, I will hurry on Paul"s marriage with Rigal"s daughter. But this will not prevent my busying myself in another quarter; for before a month Henri de Croisenois will have floated his Company, and become the husband of Sabine de Mussidan."
"I think that it is about time for dinner," remarked Hortebise, and, turning to the _protege_ of the a.s.sociation, he added, "Come, Paul."
But Paul made no movement, and then for the first time it was seen that the poor boy had fainted, and they had to sprinkle cold water upon him before he regained consciousness.
"Surely," remarked the doctor, "it is not the idea of a trifling operation that you will not feel which has so frightened you?"
Paul shook his head. "It is not that," said he.
"What, then, is it?"
"Simply that the real man exists; I know him, and know where he lives."