Pride: One of the Seven Cardinal Sins

"How strange, Ernestine! Did you notice – ?"

"That some one turned the key in that door."

Without replying, Herminie ran to the door and turned the knob.

Further doubt was impossible. Some one had, indeed, locked the door on the outside.

"Great Heavens! what does this mean?" whispered Ernestine, really frightened now. "And all the servants are out. Ah, fortunately, Placide, one of Mlle. Helena's maids remained at home."

And rushing to the bell-rope, Mlle. de Beaumesnil pulled it violently several times.

Meanwhile Herminie had recalled the vague uneasiness the marquis had shown that afternoon when he alluded to the intimacy between Ravil and Macreuse, but though she was considerably alarmed herself she did not wish to increase Ernestine's terror, so she said:

"Don't be frightened, my dear; the person you rang for can explain what surprises you so much, probably."

"But she doesn't come, and this is the third time I have rung for her!" exclaimed Mlle. de Beaumesnil.

Then, trembling like a leaf, she added, in a whisper, pointing this time to the door which separated her chamber from Madame Laîné's':

"Listen. Oh, my God! don't you hear somebody walking about in there?"

Herminie made her a reassuring gesture, but Mlle. de Beaumesnil, after listening again for an instant, exclaimed with even greater terror:

"Herminie, I tell you I hear some one moving about! They are coming towards the door. Listen!"

"We'll push the bolt and fasten ourselves in," said Herminie, promptly, hastening towards the door.

But just as the young girl was about to place her hand on the bolt, the door suddenly opened, and M. de Macreuse entered the room.

On seeing him, Herminie uttered a cry and sprang back, while this model young man, turning towards some one who had remained in the next room, exclaimed, in accents of amazement and baffled rage:

"Hell! she is not alone! All is lost!"

On hearing these words, a second intruder appeared.

It was Ravil.

And at the sight of Herminie, he cried, in a no less surprised and angry tone:

"Damnation! that girl here!"

Herminie and Ernestine had retreated to the farther end of the room, and there, clasped in each other's arms as if to afford each other mutual support, they stood, paralysed with fright, and unable to utter a word.

Macreuse and Ravil, at first astounded, and then infuriated by the unexpected presence of Herminie, which seemed likely to ruin their plans, also stood silent and motionless for a moment, gazing inquiringly at each other as if to read in each other's faces what they had better do under such unforeseen circumstances.

The two girls, in spite of their terror, had noted the exclamations of astonishment and dismay which had escaped both Macreuse and his accomplice on finding that Mlle. de Beaumesnil was not alone, as they had anticipated.

The two girls had also noticed the state of consternation in which the founder of the St. Polycarpe mission and his accomplice had been momentarily plunged.

Both these observations served to restore a little courage to the sisters, and, reason coming to their aid, they finally came to the conclusion that together they were as strong as they would have been helpless had either of them found herself at the mercy of these wretches, alone.

So Mlle. de Beaumesnil, realising how great was the danger from which Herminie's presence had saved her, exclaimed, with a tenderness and gratitude which proved the intensity of her anxiety and dread:

"See, Herminie, Heaven has again sent you to act as my protector! But for you I should be lost."

"Courage, my dear, courage!" whispered the duchess. "See how disconcerted the scoundrels look!"

"You are right, Herminie! Such a blissful day as this has been to us can not be spoiled! I have a blind confidence in our star now."

Cheered by this brief interchange of whispered words, the orphans, strengthened, too, by the thought of the radiant future before them, gradually recovered their composure, and at last Ernestine, addressing Macreuse and his accomplice, said, bravely:

"You will not succeed in terrifying us. The first shock is over and your audacity arouses only disdain. In a short time the servants will return, and you will be put out of the house as disgracefully as you entered it."

"It is true we may be compelled to endure your presence for awhile," added Herminie, with bitter scorn; "but in spite of our contempt and aversion, Mlle. de Beaumesnil and I have both been subjected to more severe ordeals."

"What a courageous man you are, M. de Macreuse, to steal at night, with an accomplice, into the room of a young girl you believe to be alone, in order to secure a cowardly revenge for the humiliation that M. de Maillefort, who knows you, inflicted upon you in public!" added Ernestine.

Macreuse and Ravil listened to these sarcasms in silence, interchanging wrathful looks the while.

"My dear Herminie," resumed Mlle. de Beaumesnil, whose countenance was gradually regaining its accustomed serenity, "I may seem very silly to you, and it may be that the great happiness we have experienced to-day has upset me a little, but really all this seems so utterly absurd and ridiculous to me that I can scarcely help laughing."

"I, too, must admit that it seems ridiculous, and even grotesque, to me."

"The discomfiture of these scoundrels is really pitiable," remarked Mlle. de Beaumesnil, bursting into a hearty laugh this time.

"The impotent rage of these conspirators, who excite mirth rather than fear, is extremely amusing," chimed in Herminie, no less gaily.

In fact, the bewilderment of these two scoundrels, who did not consider themselves in the least subjects for mirth, was so ludicrous that the orphans, either because their happiness had, indeed, made them bold, or because they were really brave enough to face this danger unflinchingly, gave way to another burst of feverish, vindictive gaiety, – feverish, because the two girls were naturally excited by the very strangeness of the situation, vindictive, because they were fully conscious of the disappointment and exasperation they were causing Macreuse and Ravil.

The intruders, momentarily disconcerted by the unexpected presence of Herminie, and by the strange hilarity of the young girls, soon began to recover their assurance.

Macreuse, whose drawn features were assuming a more and more threatening expression, whispered a few words in Ravil's ear, whereupon that worthy hastily stepped to the only window in the room, and slipped a small steel chain around the fastening, thus effectually closing the window as well as the inside shutters, and then united the two ends of the chain with a padlock.

This done, it was impossible, of course, to open either the window or shutters from the inside and call for help.

The two girls thus found themselves at the mercy of Macreuse and De Ravil.

The door leading into the sitting-room had been locked on the other side by Mlle. Helena's maid, for it is needless to say that this saintly creature and her attendant were Macreuse's accomplices, but both were ignorant that Herminie was still with Mlle. de Beaumesnil.

While Ravil was thus engaged, Macreuse, whose countenance expressed the most execrable sentiments, folded his arms upon his breast, and said, with portentous calmness:

"My first plan has failed by reason of the presence of this accursed creature (indicating Herminie by a gesture). I am frank, you see. But I have ingenuity in plenty, and a devoted friend. You are both in our power. We have two hours at our disposal, and I will convince you that I am not a person to be laughed at long."

These threats, as well as the tone and expression of the man that made them, were rendered even more terrifying by the solitude and entirely defenceless position in which the two girls found themselves; but if tragical things are once viewed in a ridiculous light, anything that increases the horror of them likewise seems to increase the laughter of the beholder, which soon becomes irrepressible.

Macreuse's threats produced this very effect upon the two young girls, for, unfortunately, as he spoke he made an involuntary movement that caused his hat to slip far back on his head, and this, in spite of his threatening, almost ferocious expression, gave such an odd appearance to his rather broad face that the two girls burst into a fresh fit of merriment.

Then came the accomplice's turn.