The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 3 of 6

"You have none; not visible at least. Your household furniture, your horses, do not belong to you, as you declare; this has to me the appearance of a disgraceful fraud."

"You are severe, sir; but, admitting what you say, do you not suppose that I shall turn everything into money in such a desperate extremity? Only, as it will be impossible for me to procure, between this and noon to-morrow, the one hundred thousand francs, I entreat you to employ the money I have just handed to you in procuring this unfortunate bill, or, at least, as you are very rich, advance the money. Do not leave me in such a position."

"Me? Why, is the man mad?"

"Sir, I beseech you, in my father's name, which you have mentioned to me, be so kind as to – "

"I am kind to those who deserve it," said the notary, harshly. "An honest man myself, I hate swindlers, and should not be sorry to see one of those high-minded gentlemen, without faith or honour, impious and reprobate, put in the pillory, as an example to others; but I hear your horses, who are impatient to depart, M. le Vicomte," said the notary, with a smile that displayed his black fangs.

At this moment some one knocked at the door of the apartment.

"Who's there?" inquired Jacques Ferrand.

"Madame the Countess d'Orbigny," said the chief clerk.

"Request her to wait a moment."

"The stepmother of the Marchioness d'Harville?" exclaimed M. de Saint-Remy.

"Yes, sir; she has an appointment with me, – so, your servant, sir."

"Not a word of this, sir!" cried M. de Saint-Remy, in a menacing voice.

"I told you, sir, that a notary is as discreet as a confessor."

Jacques Ferrand rang, and the clerk appeared.

"Show Madame d'Orbigny in." Then, addressing the viscount, "Take these thirteen hundred francs, sir; they will be something towards an arrangement with M. Petit-Jean."

Madame d'Orbigny (formerly Madame Roland) entered at the moment when M. de Saint-Remy went out, his features convulsed with rage at having so uselessly humiliated himself before the notary.

"Ah, good day, M. de Saint-Remy," said Madame d'Orbigny; "what a time it is since I saw you!"

"Why, madame, since D'Harville's marriage, at which I was present, I do not think I have had the pleasure of meeting you," said M. de Saint-Remy, bowing, and assuming an affable and smiling demeanour. "You have remained in Normandy ever since, I think?"

"Why, yes! M. d'Orbigny will only live in the country, and what he likes I like; so you see in me a complete country wife. I have not been in Paris since the marriage of my dear stepdaughter with that excellent M. d'Harville. Do you see him frequently?"

"D'Harville has grown very sullen and morose; he is seldom seen in the world," said M. de Saint-Remy, with something like impatience, for the conversation was most irksome to him, both because of its untimeliness and that the notary seemed amused at it; but Madame d'Harville's stepmother, enchanted at thus meeting with a dandy of the first water, was not the woman to allow her prey to escape her so easily.

"And my dear stepdaughter," she continued, – "she, I hope, is not as morose as her husband?"

"Madame d'Harville is all the fashion, and has the world at her feet, as a lovely woman should have. But I take up your time, and – "

"Not at all, I assure you. It is quite agreeable to me to meet the 'observed of all observers,' – the monarch of fashion, – for, in ten minutes, I shall be as au fait of Paris as if I had never left it. And your dear M. de Lucenay, who was also present at M. d'Harville's marriage?"

"A still greater oddity. He has been travelling in the East, and returned in time to receive a sword-wound yesterday, – nothing serious, though."

"Poor dear duke! And his wife, always lovely and fascinating?"

"Madame, I have the honour to be one of her profoundest admirers, and my testimony would, therefore, be received with suspicion. I beg, on your return to Aubiers, you will not forget my regards to M. d'Orbigny."

"He will, I am sure, be most sensible of your kindness; he often talks of you, and says you remind him of the Duke de Lauzun."

"His comparison is a eulogy in itself, but, unfortunately, infinitely more flattering than true. Adieu, madame, for I fear I must not ask to be allowed to pay my respects to you before your departure."

"I should lament to give you the trouble of calling on me, for I have pitched my tent for a few days in a furnished hôtel; but if, in the summer or autumn, you should be passing our way, en route to some of those fashionable châteaus where the leaders of ton dispute the pleasure of receiving you, pray give us a few days of your society, if it be only by way of contrast, and to rest yourself with us poor rustic folk from the whirl of your high life of fashion and distinction; for where you are it is always delightful to be."

"Madame!"

"I need not say how delighted M. d'Orbigny and myself would be to receive you; but adieu, sir, I fear the kind attorney (she pointed to Ferrand) will grow impatient at our gossip."

"Quite the reverse, madame, quite the reverse," said Ferrand, with an emphasis that redoubled the repressed rage of M. de Saint-Remy.

"Is not M. Ferrand a terrible man?" said Madame d'Orbigny, affectedly. "Mind now, I tell you, that, if he has charge of your affairs, he will scold you awfully. He is the most unpitying man – But that's my nonsense; on the contrary, why, such an exquisite as you to have M. Ferrand for his solicitor is a proof of reformation, for we know very well that he never allows his clients to do foolish things; if they do, he gives up their business. Oh, he will not be everybody's lawyer!" Then, turning to Jacques Ferrand: "Do you know, most puritanical solicitor, that you have made a splendid conversion there? If you reform the exquisite of exquisites, the King of the Mode – "

"It is really a conversion, madame. The viscount left my study a very different man from what he entered it."

"There, I tell you that you perform miracles!"

"Ah, madame, you flatter me," said Jacques Ferrand, with emphasis.

M. de Saint-Remy made a low bow to Madame d'Orbigny, and then, as he left the notary, desirous of trying once more to excite his pity, he said to him, in a careless tone, which, however, betrayed deep anxiety:

"Then, my dear M. Ferrand, you will not grant me the favour I ask?"

"Some wild scheme, no doubt. Be inexorable, my dear Puritan," cried Madame d'Orbigny, laughing.

"You hear, sir? I must not contradict such a handsome lady."

"My dear M. Ferrand, let us speak seriously of serious things, and, you know, this is a most serious matter. Do you really refuse me?" inquired the viscount, with an anxiety which he could not altogether dissemble.

The notary was cruel enough to appear to hesitate; M. de Saint-Remy had an instant's hope.

"What, man of iron, do you yield?" said Madame d'Harville's stepmother, laughing still. "Do you, too, yield to the charm of the irresistible?"

"Ma foi, madame! I was on the point of yielding, as you say; but you make me blush for my weakness," added M. Ferrand. And then, addressing himself to the viscount, he said to him, with an accent of which Saint-Remy felt all the meaning, "Well then, seriously," (and he dwelt on the word), "it is impossible."

"Ah, the Puritan! Hark to the Puritan!" said Madame d'Orbigny.

"See M. Petit-Jean. He will think precisely as I do, I am sure, and, like me, will say to you 'No!'"

M. de Saint-Remy rushed out in despair.

After a moment's reflection he said to himself, "It must be so!" Then he added, addressing his chasseur, who was standing with the door of his carriage opened, "To the Hôtel de Lucenay."

Whilst M. de Saint-Remy is on his way to see the duchess, we will present the reader at the interview between M. Ferrand and the stepmother of Madame d'Harville.

CHAPTER V