"What is it?" inquired Blanche, eagerly. "Who has come?"
"Ah, Madame--that is, Mademoiselle, if you only knew----"
"_Will_ you speak?"
"The Marquis de Sairmeuse is below, in the blue drawing-room; and he begs Mademoiselle to grant him a few moments" conversation."
Had a thunder-bolt riven the earth at the feet of the murderess, she could not have been more terrified.
"All must have been discovered!" this was her first thought. That alone would have brought Martial there.
She almost decided to reply that she was not at home, or that she was extremely ill; but reason told her that she was alarming herself needlessly, perhaps, and that, in any case, the worst was preferable to suspense.
"Tell the marquis that I will be there in a moment," she replied.
She desired a few minutes of solitude to compose her features, to regain her self-possession, if possible, and to conquer the nervous trembling that made her shake like a leaf.
But just as she was most disquieted by the thought of her peril, a sudden inspiration brought a malicious smile to her lip.
"Ah!" she thought, "my agitation will seem perfectly natural. It may even be made of service."
As she descended the grand staircase, she could not help saying to herself:
"Martial"s presence here is incomprehensible."
It was certainly very extraordinary; and it had not been without much hesitation that he resolved upon this painful step.
But it was the only means of procuring several important doc.u.ments which were indispensable in the revision of M. d"Escorval"s case.
These doc.u.ments, after the baron"s condemnation, had been left in the hands of the Marquis de Courtornieu. Now that he had lost his reason, it was impossible to ask him for them; and Martial was obliged to apply to the daughter for permission to search for them among her father"s papers.
This was why Martial said to himself that morning:
"I will carry the baron"s safe-conduct to Marie-Anne, and then I will push on to Courtornieu."
He arrived at the Borderie gay and confident, his heart full of hope.
Alas! Marie-Anne was dead.
No one would ever know what a terrible blow it had been to Martial; and his conscience told him that he was not free from blame; that he had, at least, rendered the execution of the crime an easy matter.
For it was indeed he who, by abusing his influence, had caused the arrest of Maurice at Turin.
But though he was capable of the basest perfidy when his love was at stake, he was incapable of virulent animosity.
Marie-Anne was dead; he had it in his power to revoke the benefits he had conferred, but the thought of doing so never once occurred to him.
And when Jean and Maurice insulted him, he revenged himself only by overwhelming them by his magnanimity. When he left the Borderie, pale as a ghost, his lips still cold from the kiss pressed on the brow of the dead, he said to himself:
"For her sake, I will go to Courtornieu. In memory of her, the baron must be saved."
By the expression on the faces of the valets when he dismounted in the court-yard of the chateau and asked to see Mme. Blanche, the marquis was again reminded of the profound sensation which this unexpected visit would produce. But, what did it matter to him? He was pa.s.sing through one of those crises in which the mind can conceive of no further misfortune, and is therefore indifferent to everything.
Still he trembled when they ushered him into the blue drawing-room.
He remembered the room well. It was here that Blanche had been wont to receive him in days gone by, when his fancy was vacillating between her and Marie-Anne.
How many pleasant hours they had pa.s.sed together here! He seemed to see Blanche again, as she was then, radiant with youth, gay and laughing.
Her naivete was affected, perhaps, but was it any the less charming on that account?
At this very moment Blanche entered the room. She looked so careworn and sad that he scarcely knew her. His heart was touched by the look of patient sorrow imprinted upon her features.
"How much you must have suffered, Blanche," he murmured, scarcely knowing what he said.
It cost her an effort to repress her secret joy. She saw that he knew nothing of her crime. She noticed his emotion, and saw the profit she could derive from it.
"I can never cease to regret having displeased you," she replied, humbly and sadly. "I shall never be consoled."
She had touched the vulnerable spot in every man"s heart.
For there is no man so sceptical, so cold, or so _blase_ that his vanity is not pleased with the thought that a woman is dying for his sake.
There is no man who is not moved by this most delicious flattery, and who is not ready and willing to give, at least, a tender pity in exchange for such devotion.
"Is it possible that you could forgive me?" stammered Martial.
The wily enchantress averted her face as if to prevent him from reading in her eyes a weakness of which she was ashamed. It was the most eloquent of replies.
But Martial said no more on this subject. He made known his pet.i.tion, which was granted, then fearing, perhaps, to promise too much, he said:
"Since you do not forbid it, Blanche, I will return--to-morrow--another day."
As he rode back to Montaignac, Martial"s thoughts were busy.
"She really loves me," he thought; "that pallor, that weakness could not be feigned. Poor girl! she is my wife, after all. The reasons that influenced me in my rupture with her father exist no longer, and the Marquis de Courtornieu may be regarded as dead."
All the inhabitants of Sairmeuse were congregated on the public square when Martial pa.s.sed through the village. They had just heard of the murder at the Borderie, and the abbe was now closeted with the justice of the peace, relating the circ.u.mstances of the poisoning.
After a prolonged inquest the following verdict was rendered: "That a man known as Chupin, a notoriously bad character, had entered the house of Marie-Anne Lacheneur, and taken advantage of her absence to mingle poison with her food."
The report added that: "Said Chupin had been himself a.s.sa.s.sinated, soon after his crime, by a certain Balstain, whose whereabouts were unknown."
But this affair interested the community much less than the visits which Martial was paying to Mme. Blanche.
It was soon rumored that the Marquis and the Marquise de Sairmeuse were reconciled, and in a few weeks they left for Paris with the intention of residing there permanently. A few days after their departure, the eldest of the Chupins announced his determination of taking up his abode in the same great city.
Some of his friends endeavored to dissuade him, a.s.suring him that he would certainly die of starvation.
"Nonsense!" he replied, with singular a.s.surance; "I, on the contrary, have an idea that I shall not want for anything there."