"I say,--look"ee,--you"ll lose your pretty lady. She has gone into the alley leading to No. 17."
"Open the door."
"I"m coming, sir."
And quickly following the steps of his wife, M. d"Harville entered the obscure pa.s.sage up which she had disappeared. Madame d"Harville, however, had so far the start as to have entered the house previously.
Attracted by the most devouring curiosity, Madame Pipelet, with her melancholy Alfred and her friend the oyster-woman, were huddled close together on the sill at the lodge door. The staircase was so dark that a person just emerging from the daylight into the gloom of the pa.s.sage could not discern a single step of it; and Madame d"Harville, agitated and almost sinking with apprehension, found herself constrained to apply to Madame Pipelet for further advice how to proceed, saying, in a low, tremulous voice:
"Which way must I turn, madame, to find the staircase of the house?"
"Stop, if you please. Pray, whom do you want?"
"I wish to go to the apartments of M. Charles, madame."
"Monsieur who?" repeated the old woman, feigning not to have heard her, but in reality to afford sufficient leisure to her husband and her friend thoroughly to scrutinise the unhappy woman"s countenance, even through the folds of her thick veil.
"M. Charles, madame," repeated Clemence, in a low, trembling tone, and bending down her head, so as to escape the rude and insolent examination to which her features were subjected.
"Ah! M. Charles; very well; you should have spoken so that one could hear you. Well, my pretty dear, if you want M. Charles,--and a good-looking fellow he is as ever won a woman"s heart,--go straight on, and the door will stare you in the face. Eh! eh! eh!" laughed out the old woman, shaking her fat sides with spiteful glee, "it seems he has not waited for nothing this time. Success to love and love-makings, and a merry end to it!"
The marquise, ready to sink with confusion, began slowly to grope her way up the dingy staircase.
"I say," bawled out the old sh.e.l.l-fish woman, "our commandant knows what he is about, don"t he? Leave him alone to choose a pretty girl. His marm is a regular swell, ain"t she?"
Had it not been requisite for her to run the gauntlet of the trio who occupied the entrance-door, Madame d"Harville, ready to sink with shame and terror, would gladly have retraced her steps. She made another effort, and at last reached the landing-place, where, to her unutterable consternation and surprise, she saw Rodolph waiting, impatiently, her arrival. Instantly flying to meet her, he hastily placed a purse in her hand, saying, in a hurried manner:
"Your husband knows all, and is now following your very steps."
At this instant, the sharp tones of Madame Pipelet were heard crying out, "Where are you going to, sir?"
""Tis he!" exclaimed Rodolph, and then, almost forcing Madame d"Harville up the second staircase, he added, in a rapid manner, "make all haste to the very top of the house; on the fifth floor you will find a wretched family, named Morel. Remember your sole business in coming hither was to relieve their distress."
"I tell you, sir," screamed Madame Pipelet, "that unless you tell me your name, you shall trample over me, as they walked over our brave men at Waterloo, before I let you pa.s.s."
Having, from the entrance to the alley, observed Madame d"Harville stop to speak to the porteress, the marquis had likewise prepared himself to pa.s.s through some sort of questioning.
"I belong to the lady who just now entered," said the marquis.
"Bless me!" exclaimed Madame Pipelet, looking the picture of wonderment, "why, that, of course, is a satisfactory answer. You can pa.s.s on, if you please."
Hearing an unusual stir, M. Charles Robert had set the door of his apartments ajar, and Rodolph, unwilling to be recognised by M.
d"Harville, whose quick, searching eye might have detected him, spite of the murkiness of the staircase, hearing him rapidly ascending the stairs, just as he reached the landing-place, dashed into the chamber of the astonished commandant, locking the door after him. M. Charles Robert, magnificently attired in his _robe de chambre_ of scarlet damask with orange-coloured stripes, and Greek cap of embroidered velvet, was struck with astonishment at the unexpected appearance of Rodolph, whom he had not seen the preceding evening at the emba.s.sy, and who was upon the present occasion very plainly dressed.
"What is the meaning of this intrusion?" asked he at length, a.s.suming a tone of killing haughtiness.
"Be silent!" replied Rodolph; and there was that in his voice and manner that Charles Robert obeyed, even in spite of his own determination to strike terror into the bold invader of his private moments.
A violent and continued noise, as of some heavy substance falling from one stair to the other, resounded through the dull silence of the gloomy staircase.
"Unhappy man! He has murdered her!" exclaimed Rodolph.
"Murdered!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed M. Charles Robert, turning very pale; "for the love of Heaven, what is all this about?"
But, without heeding his inquiry, Rodolph partially opened the door, and discovered little Tortillard half rolling, half limping, down the stairs, holding in his hand the red silk purse Rodolph had just given to Madame d"Harville. Tortillard, with another scrambling shuffle, disappeared at the bottom of the last flight of stairs. The light step of Madame d"Harville, and the heavier tread of her husband, as he continued his pursuit of her from one story to another, could be distinctly heard. Somewhat relieved of his worst fears, yet unable to make out by what chance the purse so recently committed to Madame d"Harville"s hands should have been transferred to those of Tortillard, Rodolph said, authoritatively, to M. Robert:
"Do not think of quitting your apartments for the next hour, I request!"
"Upon my life and soul, that is a pretty thing to say to a gentleman in his own house," replied M. Robert in an impatient and wrathful tone. "I ask you, again, what is the meaning of all this? Who the devil are you, sir? And how dare you dictate to me, a gentleman?"
"M. d"Harville is informed of everything,--has followed his wife to your very door,--and is now pursuing her to the upper part of the house."
"G.o.d bless me! Here"s a situation!" exclaimed Charles Robert, with an appearance of utter consternation. "But what is to be done? What is the use of her going up-stairs? And how will she manage to get down again un.o.bserved?"
"Remain where you are, neither speak nor move until the porteress comes to you," rejoined Rodolph, who hastened to give his final instructions to Madame Pipelet, leaving the commandant a prey to the most alarming apprehensions.
"Well! well!" cried Madame Pipelet, her face radiant with chuckling exultation; "there"s rare sport going on! The lady who came to visit my fine gentleman on the first floor has been followed by another gentleman, who seems rather in a pa.s.sion,--the husband of that silly young creature, I make no doubt. Directly the truth flashed across me, I tells him to go straight up; for, thinks I, he"ll be sure to murder our commandant. That"ll make a deal of talk in the neighbourhood; and folks will come crowding to see the house, just as they did at No. 36 after the man was killed there. Lord! I wonder the fighting has not begun yet. I have been listening to hear them set to; but I can"t catch the least sound."
"My dear Madame Pipelet, will you do me a great favour?" said Rodolph, putting five louis into her hand. "When this lady comes down-stairs, ask her how she found the poor Morels. Tell her she has performed an act of real charity in coming to see them, according to her promise, the last time she called to inquire respecting them."
Madame Pipelet looked first at the money and then at Rodolph, with an air of petrified astonishment.
"What am I to do with this money?" inquired she, at length; "do you give it to me? Ah, I see! This handsome lady, then, does not come altogether for the commandant?"
"The gentleman who followed her was her husband, as you justly supposed; but, being warned in time, the poor lady went straight on to the Morels, as though her only business here was to afford them succour. Now do you understand!"
"I should think I did,--clear as noonday. "A nod is as good as a wink,"
as the old woman said. I know! You want me to help you cheat the husband? Lord bless you! I"m up to all those things,--quick as lightning, silent as the grave! Go along with you! I"m a regular good hand at keeping husbands in the dark; you might fancy I"d been used to it all my life. But tell me--"
The huge hat of M. Pipelet was here observed sending its dark shadow across the floor of the lodge.
"Anastasie," said Alfred, gravely, "you are like M. Cesar Bradamanti; you have no respect for anything or anybody. And let me tell you that there are subjects that should never be made the subject of a jest, even amongst the most familiar acquaintances."
"Nonsense, my old darling. Don"t stand there rolling up your eyes, and looking about as wise as a pig in a pound. You know well enough I was only joking; you know well enough that no living soul beneath the canopy of heaven can ever say I gave him a liberty. But that"ll do; so let"s talk of this good gentleman"s business. Suppose I do go out of my usual way to save this young lady, I"m sure I do it solely to oblige our new lodger, who, for his generosity, may well deserve to be called the king of lodgers." Then, turning towards Rodolph, she added, "You shall see how cleverly I will go to work. Just hide yourself there in that corner behind the curtain. Quick,--quick! I hear them coming."
Rodolph had scarcely time to conceal himself ere M. and Madame d"Harville descended the stairs. The features of the marquis shone with happiness, mingled with a confused and astonished expression, while the countenance of his wife, as she hung on his arm, looked calm but pale.
"Well, my good lady," cried Madame Pipelet, going out of her lodge to address her, as she descended the last stair, "how did you find the poor creatures,--I mean the Morels? Ah, I doubt not, such a sight made your heart ache? G.o.d knows your charity was well bestowed! I told you the other day, when you called to inquire about them, what a state of starvation and misery they were in. Be a.s.sured, kind lady, these poor things are fit objects of your bounty; you will never have to regret coming to this out-of-the-way place to examine into their case. They really are deserving all your kindness,--don"t you think so, Alfred?"
Alfred, the strictness of whose ideas touching a due regard for all conjugal duties made him revolt at the thoughts of helping to deceive a husband, replied only by a sort of grumbling sound, as vague as discordant.
"Please to excuse my husband, madame," resumed Madame Pipelet; "he has got the cramp in his stomach, and cannot speak loud enough to be understood, or he would tell you as well as myself that the poor people you have so fortunately relieved will pray of the Almighty, night and day, to bless and reward you, my worthy lady."
M. d"Harville gazed on his wife with feelings approaching to adoration, as he exclaimed, "Angel of goodness, how has base slander dared to disturb your heavenly work!"
"An angel!" repeated Madame Pipelet; "that she is, and one of the very best heaven could send. There is not a better."
"Let us return home, I entreat!" said Madame d"Harville, who was suffering acutely under the restraint she had put upon herself since entering the house, and, now that the necessity for exertion was over, found her strength rapidly forsaking her.