Knowing the condition of the country, and the state of public opinion, the cure endeavored to convince the obstinate man of his mistake; but upon this subject the duke would not permit contradiction, or even raillery; and he was fast losing his temper, when Bibiaine appeared at the parlor door.
"Monsieur le Duc," said she, "Monsieur Lacheneur and his daughter are without and desire to speak to you."
CHAPTER IV.
This name Lacheneur awakened no recollection in the mind of the duke.
First, he had never lived at Sairmeuse.
And even if he had, what courtier of the _ancien regime_ ever troubled himself about the individual names of the peasants, whom he regarded with such profound indifference.
When a _grand seigneur_ addressed these people, he said: "Halloo! hi, there! friend, my worthy fellow!"
So it was with the air of a man who is making an effort of memory that the Duc de Sairmeuse repeated:
"Lacheneur--Monsieur Lacheneur----"
But Martial, a closer observer than his father, had noticed that the priest"s glance wavered at the sound of this name.
"Who is this person, Abbe?" demanded the duke, lightly.
"Monsieur Lacheneur," replied the priest, with very evident hesitation, "is the present owner of the Chateau de Sairmeuse."
Martial, the precocious diplomat, could not repress a smile on hearing this response, which he had foreseen. But the duke bounded from his chair.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, "it is the rascal who has had the impudence--Let him come in, old woman, let him come in."
Bibiaine retired, and the priest"s uneasiness increased.
"Permit me, Monsieur le Duc," he said, hastily, "to remark that Monsieur Lacheneur exercises a great influence in this region--to offend him would be impolitic----"
"I understand--you advise me to be conciliatory. Such sentiments are purely Jacobin. If His Majesty listens to the advice of such as you, all these sales of confiscated estates will be ratified. Zounds! our interests are the same. If the Revolution has deprived the n.o.bility of their property, it has also impoverished the clergy."
"The possessions of a priest are not of this world, Monsieur," said the cure, coldly.
M. de Sairmeuse was about to make some impertinent response, when M.
Lacheneur appeared, followed by his daughter.
The wretched man was ghastly pale, great drops of perspiration stood out upon his temples, his restless, haggard eyes revealed his distress of mind.
Marie-Anne was as pale as her father, but her att.i.tude and the light that burned in her eyes told of invincible energy and determination.
"Ah, well! friend," said the duke, "so we are the owner of Sairmeuse, it seems."
This was said with such a careless insolence of manner that the cure blushed that they should thus treat, in his own house, a man whom he considered his equal.
He rose and offered the visitors chairs.
"Will you take a seat, dear Monsieur Lacheneur?" said he, with a politeness intended as a lesson for the duke; "and you, also, Mademoiselle, do me the honor----"
But the father and the daughter both refused the proffered civility with a motion of the head.
"Monsieur le Duc," continued Lacheneur, "I am an old servant of your house----"
"Ah! indeed!"
"Mademoiselle Armande, your aunt, accorded my poor mother the honor of acting as my G.o.dmother----"
"Ah, yes," interrupted the duke. "I remember you now. Our family has shown great goodness to you and yours. And it was to prove your grat.i.tude, probably, that you made haste to purchase our estate!"
The former ploughboy was of humble origin, but his heart and his character had developed with his fortunes; he understood his own worth.
Much as he was disliked, and even detested, by his neighbors, everyone respected him.
And here was a man who treated him with undisguised scorn. Why? By what right?
Indignant at the outrage, he made a movement as if to retire.
No one, save his daughter, knew the truth; he had only to keep silence and Sairmeuse remained his.
Yes, he had still the power to keep Sairmeuse, and he knew it, for he did not share the fears of the ignorant rustics. He was too well informed not to be able to distinguish between the hopes of the _emigres_ and the possible. He knew that an abyss separated the dream from the reality.
A beseeching word uttered in a low tone by his daughter, made him turn again to the duke.
"If I purchased Sairmeuse," he answered, in a voice husky with emotion, "it was in obedience to the command of your dying aunt, and with the money which she gave me for that purpose. If you see me here, it is only because I come to restore to you the deposit confided to my keeping."
Anyone not belonging to that cla.s.s of spoiled fools which surround a throne would have been deeply touched.
But the duke thought this grand act of honesty and of generosity the most simple and natural thing in the world.
"That is very well, so far as the princ.i.p.al is concerned," said he. "Let us speak now of the interest. Sairmeuse, if I remember rightly, yielded an average income of one thousand louis per year. These revenues, well invested, should have amounted to a very considerable amount. Where is this?"
This claim, thus advanced and at such a moment, was so outrageous, that Martial, disgusted, made a sign to his father, which the latter did not see.
But the cure hoping to recall the extortioner to something like a sense of shame, exclaimed:
"Monsieur le Duc! Oh, Monsieur le Duc!"
Lacheneur shrugged his shoulders with an air of resignation.
"The income I have used for my own living expenses, and in educating my children; but most of it has been expended in improving the estate, which today yields an income twice as large as in former years."
"That is to say, for twenty years, Monsieur Lacheneur has played the part of lord of the manor. A delightful comedy. You are rich now, I suppose."
"I possess nothing. But I hope you will allow me to take ten thousand francs, which your aunt gave to me."