Some moments later Fandor left the actor and was hastening down the Rue Lepic as fast as his legs would take him.
XXVII
THE MOTHER SUPERIOR
"The Mother Superior, if you please?"
The door shut automatically upon Fandor. He was in the little inner court of the small convent, face to face with a Sister, who gazed in alarm at the unexpected guest. The journalist persisted:
"Can I see the Mother Superior?"
"Well, sir, yes--no, I think not."
The worthy nun evidently did not know what to say. Finally making up her mind she pointed to a pa.s.sage, and, drawing aside to let the journalist pa.s.s, said:
"Be good enough to go in there and wait a few moments."
Fandor was ushered into a large, plain and austere room--doubtless the parlour of the community. At the windows hung long, white curtains, while before the half-dozen armchairs lay tiny rugs of matting; the floor, very waxed, was slippery to the tread. The journalist regarded curiously the walls upon which were hung here and there religious figures or chromos of an edifying kind. Above the chimney hung a great crucifix of ebony. But for the noise from without, the pa.s.sing of the trains and motors, and were it not also for the fine savour of cooking and roast onions, one might have thought oneself a hundred leagues from the world in the peaceful calm of this little convent.
Fandor, on leaving Bonardin, had decided to fulfill without delay a pious mission given him by Juve"s victim.
Taken in at the time of his accident by the Sisters of the Rue Charmille, Bonardin had received from them the first aid his condition required, and as he had left them without a word of thanks, he had begged Fandor to return and hand them on his behalf a fifty-franc bill for their poor.
After some minutes the door opened and a nun appeared. She greeted Fandor with a slight movement of the head; while the journalist bowed deferentially before her.
"Have I the honour of speaking to the Mother Superior?"
"Our Mother sends her excuses," murmured the nun, "for not being able to receive you at this moment. However, I can take her place, sir. I am in charge of the finances of the house."
"I bring you news, Sister."
The nun clasped her hands.
"Good news, I hope! How is the poor young man doing?"
"As well as can be expected; the ball was extracted without trouble by the doctors."
"I shall thank St. Comus, the patron saint of surgeons. And his a.s.sailant? Surely he will be well punished?"
Fandor smiled.
"His a.s.sailant was the victim of a terrible misconception. He is a most upright man."
"Then I will pray to St. Yves, the patron saint of advocates, to get him out of his difficulty."
"Well," cried Fandor, "since you have so many saints at command, Sister, you would do well to point out to me one who might favour the efforts of the police in their struggle with the ruffians."
The nun was a woman of sense who understood a joke. She rejoined: "You might try St. George, sir, the patron saint of warriors." Then becoming serious again, the Sister made an end of the interview. "Our Mother Superior will be much touched, sir, when I report the kind step you have taken in coming here to us."
"Allow me, Sister," broke in Fandor, "my mission is not over yet."
Here the journalist discreetly proffered the note.
"This is from M. Bonardin, for your poor."
The nun was profuse in her thanks, and looking at Fandor with a touch of malice:
"You may perhaps smile, sir, if I say I shall thank St. Martin, the patron saint of the charitable. In any case I shall do it with my whole heart."
The soft sound of a bell came from the distance; the Sister instinctively turned her head and looked through the windows at the inner cloister of the convent.
"The bell calls you, no doubt, Sister?" he inquired.
"It is, indeed, the hour of Vespers."
Fandor, followed by the Sister, left the parlour and reached the outer gate. Already the porter was about to open it for him when he pulled up short. Moving at a measured pace, one behind the other, the ladies of the community crossed the courtyard, going toward the chapel at the far end of the garden.
"Sister," Fandor inquired anxiously, "who is that nun who walks at the head?"
"That is our holy Mother Superior."
Fandor was lucky enough to find a taxi as he left the little convent, into which he jumped: he was immersed in such deep reflections that when the taxi stopped he was quite surprised to find himself in Rue Bonaparte, when he had meant to go up to Bonardin"s and expected to reach Montmarte.
"Where did I tell you to go?" he asked the driver.
The man looked at his fare in amazement:
"To the address you gave me, I suppose."
Fandor did not reply, but paid his fare.
"Heaven inspires me," he thought. "To be sure I wanted to see Bonardin to tell him I had done his commission, but it was to prove I should have gone after what I found out at the convent."
The journalist remained motionless on the pavement without seeming to feel the jostling of the pa.s.sers-by. He stood there with his eyes fixed on the ground, his mind lost in a dream. He had unconsciously gone back several years, to his mysterious childhood, stormy and restless. He went over again in thought, this last affair, which had once more brought him so intimately into Juve"s life: the abominable crime in the Cite Frochot, in which Chaleck and Loupart were involved, and behind them Fantomas--the crime of which the victim--as Juve had clearly established--was no other than Lady----
He quickly entered the house and rushed up the stairs, but halted on the landing.
"What have I come here for? If I am to believe the papers, Juve is under lock and key: It must be instinct that guides me. I feel that I am going to see Juve: besides, I must."
He did not ring, for he enjoyed the unique favour of a key which allowed him to enter Juve"s place at will. He entered and went straight to the study: it was empty. He then cried out:
"Juve! Many things have happened since I had the pleasure of seeing you!
Be good enough to let me into your office. I have two words to say to you."