"This ally, who can decimate a population, may carry away with him in the shroud that he drags at his heels, the whole of an accursed race; but even he must respect the life of that great intangible body, which does not perish with the death of its members--for the spirit of the Society of Jesus is immortal!"
"And this ally?"
"Oh, this ally," resumed Rodin, "who advances with slow steps, and whose terrible coming is announced by mournful presentiments--"
"Is--"
"The Cholera!"
These words, p.r.o.nounced by Rodin in an abrupt voice, made the Princess and Father d"Aigrigny grow pale and tremble. Rodin"s look was gloomy and chilling, like a spectre"s. For some moments, the silence of the tomb reigned in the saloon. Rodin was the first to break it. Still impa.s.sible, he pointed with imperious gesture to the table, where a few minutes before he had himself been humbly seated, and said in a sharp voice to Father d"Aigrigny, "Write!"
The reverend father started at first with surprise; then, remembering that from a superior he had become an inferior, he rose, bowed lowly to Rodin, as he pa.s.sed before him, seated himself at the table, took the pen, and said, "I am ready."
Rodin dictated, and the reverend Father wrote as follows: "By the mismanagement of the Reverend Father d"Aigrigny, the affair of the inheritance of the Rennepont family has been seriously compromised.
The sum amounts to two hundred and twelve millions. Notwithstanding the check we have received, we believe we may safely promise to prevent these Renneponts from injuring the Society, and to restore the two hundred and twelve millions to their legitimate possessors. We only ask for the most complete and extensive powers."
A quarter of an hour after this scene, Rodin left Saint Dizier House, brushing with his sleeve the old greasy hat, I which he had pulled off to return the salute of the porter by a very low bow.
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE STRANGER.
The following scene took place on the morrow of the day in which Father d"Aigrigny had been so rudely degraded by Rodin to the subaltern position formerly occupied by the socius.
It is well known that the Rue Clovis is one of the most solitary streets in the Montagne St. Genevieve district. At the epoch of this narrative, the house No. 4, in this street, was composed of one princ.i.p.al building, through which ran a dark pa.s.sage, leading to a little, gloomy court, at the end of which was a second building, in a singularly miserable and dilapidated condition. On the ground-floor, in front of the house, was a half-subterraneous shop, in which was sold charcoal, f.a.gots, vegetables, and milk. Nine o"clock in the morning had just struck. The mistress of the shop, one Mother a.r.s.ene, an old woman of a mild, sickly countenance, clad in a brown stuff dress, with a red bandanna round her head, was mounted on the top step of the stairs which led down to her door, and was employed in setting out her goods--that is, on one side of her door she placed a tin milk-can, and on the other some bunches of stale vegetables, flanked with yellowed cabbages. At the bottom of the steps, in the shadowy depths of the cellar, one could see the light of the burning charcoal in a little stove. This shop situated at the side of the pa.s.sage, served as a porter"s lodge, and the old woman acted as portress. On a sudden, a pretty little creature, coming from the house, entered lightly and merrily the shop. This young girl was Rose-Pompon, the intimate friend of the Baccha.n.a.l Queen.--Rose-Pompon, a widow for the moment, whose baccha.n.a.lian cicisbeo was Ninny Moulin, the orthodox scapegrace, who, on occasion, after drinking his fill, could transform himself into Jacques Dumoulin, the religious writer, and pa.s.s gayly from dishevelled dances to ultramontane polemics, from Storm-blown Tulips to Catholic pamphlets.
Rose-Pompon had just quitted her bed, as appeared by the negligence of her strange morning costume; no doubt, for want of any other head-dress, on her beautiful light hair, smooth and well-combed, was stuck jauntily a foraging-cap, borrowed from her masquerading costume. Nothing could be more sprightly than that face, seventeen years old, rosy, fresh, dimpled, and brilliantly lighted up by a pair of gay, sparkling blue eyes. Rose Pompon was so closely enveloped from the neck to the feet in a red and green plaid cloak, rather faded, that one could guess the cause of her modest embarra.s.sment. Her naked feet, so white that one could not tell if she wore stockings or not, were slipped into little morocco shoes, with plated buckles. It was easy to perceive that her cloak concealed some article which she held in her hand.
"Good-day, Rose-Pompon," said Mother a.r.s.ene with a kindly air; "you are early this morning. Had you no dance last night?"
"Don"t talk of it, Mother a.r.s.ene; I had no heart to dance. Poor Cephyse--the Baccha.n.a.l Queen--has done nothing but cry all night. She cannot console herself, that her lover should be in prison."
"Now, look here, my girl," said the old woman, "I must speak to you about your friend Cephyse. You won"t be angry?"
"Am I ever angry?" said Rose-Pompon, shrugging her shoulders.
"Don"t you think that M. Philemon will scold me on his return?"
"Scold you! what for?"
"Because of his rooms, that you occupy."
"Why, Mother a.r.s.ene, did not Philemon tell you, that, in his absence, I was to be as much mistress of his two rooms as I am of himself?"
"I do not speak of you, but of your friend Cephyse, whom you have also brought to occupy M. Philemon"s lodgings."
"And where would she have gone without me, my good Mother a.r.s.ene? Since her lover was arrested, she has not dared to return home, because she owes ever so many quarters. Seeing her troubles. I said to her: "Come, lodge at Philemon"s. When he returns, we must find another place for you.""
"Well, little lovey--if you only a.s.sure me that M. Philemon will not be angry--"
"Angry! for what? That we spoil his things? A fine set of things he has to spoil! I broke his last cup yesterday--and am forced to fetch the milk in this comic concern."
So saying, laughing with all her might, Rose-Pompon drew her pretty little white arm from under her cloak, and presented to Mother a.r.s.ene one of those champagne gla.s.ses of colossal capacity, which hold about a bottle.
"Oh, dear!" said the greengrocer in amazement; "it is like a gla.s.s trumpet."
"It is Philemon"s grand gala-gla.s.s, which they gave him when he took his degrees in boating," said Rose-Pompon, gravely.
"And to think you must put your milk in it--I am really ashamed," said Mother a.r.s.ene.
"So am I! If I were to meet any one on the stairs, holding this gla.s.s in my hand like a Roman candlestick, I should burst out laughing, and break the last remnant of Philemon"s bazaar, and he would give me his malediction."
"There is no danger that you will meet any one. The first-floor is gone out, and the second gets up very late."
"Talking of lodgers," said Rose-Pompon, "is there not a room to let on the second-floor in the rear house? It might do for Cephyse, when Philemon comes back."
"Yes, there is a little closet in the roof--just over the two rooms of the mysterious old fellow," said Mother a.r.s.ene.
"Oh, yes! Father Charlemagne. Have you found out anything more about him?"
"Dear me, no, my girl! only that he came this morning at break of day, and knocked at my shutters. "Have you received a letter for me, my good lady?" said he--for he is always so polite, the dear man!--"No, sir,"
said I."--"Well, then, pray don"t disturb yourself, my good lady!" said he; "I will call again." And so he went away."
"Does he never sleep in the house?"
"Never. No doubt, he lodges somewhere else--but he pa.s.ses some hours here, once every four or five days."
"And always comes alone?"
"Always."
"Are you quite sure? Does he never manage to slip in some little puss of a woman? Take care, or Philemon will give you notice to quit," said Rose-Pompon, with an air of mock-modesty.
"M. Charlemagne with a woman! Oh, poor dear man!" said the greengrocer, raising her hands to heaven; "if you saw him, with his greasy hat, his old gray coat, his patched umbrella, and his simple face, he looks more like a saint than anything else."
"But then, Mother a.r.s.ene, what does the saint do here, all alone for hours, in that hole at the bottom of the court, where one can hardly see at noon-day?"
"That"s what I ask myself, my dovey, what can he be doing? It can"t be that he comes to look at his furniture, for he has nothing but a flock bed, a table, a stove, a chair, and an old trunk."
"Somewhat in the style of Philemon"s establishment," said Rose-Pompon.
"Well, notwithstanding that, Rosey, he is as much afraid that any one should come into his room, as if we were all thieves, and his furniture was made of ma.s.sy gold. He has had a patent lock put on the door, at his own expense; he never leaves me his key; and he lights his fire himself, rather than let anybody into his room."
"And you say he is old?"
"Yes, fifty or sixty."
"And ugly?"