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Less than ever did Chupin now forgive Wilkie for the insult he had cast in the face of Madame Lia d'Argeles, who was probably his mother. As for the play, M. Fortunat's emissary did not hear twenty words of it. He was so overcome with fatigue that he soon fell asleep. The noise and bustle of each entr'acte aroused him a little, but he did not thoroughly wake up until the close of the performance.
He was standing silent and motionless in the centre of the room, and his eyes were fixed upon her with a strange, persistent stare in which she could read all the contradictory feelings which were battling for mastery in his mind anger, hatred, pity, and forgiveness. Madame d'Argeles shuddered. So her cup of sorrow was not yet full. A new misfortune was about to fall upon her.
"And will he have no suspicions?" "He will have no proofs to offer, in any case." Madame d'Argeles seemed to resign herself to the inevitable. "I hope you will, at least, tell me on whose behalf you acted," she remarked. "Impossible," replied M. de Coralth.
"Come back, gentleman, come back," he cried, angrily. "We are wasting precious time. While you have been trifling there, I might have gained or lost a hundred louis." He was nevertheless greatly alarmed, and the prolonged absence of Madame d'Argeles increased his fears each moment. At the end of an hour he could restrain himself no longer.
His attention was so absorbed by what he had just heard that he could not fix his mind upon the object of his mission; and he only abandoned his conjectures on hearing a rustling of skirts against the panels of the door leading into the hall. The next moment Madame Lia d'Argeles entered the room.
In any case, call here again at four o'clock." But the thought of meeting Madame d'Argeles again was anything but pleasing to Wilkie. "I would willingly yield that undertaking to some one else," said he. "Cannot some one else go in my place?" Fortunately M. de Coralth knew how to encourage him. "What! are you afraid?" he asked. Afraid! he? never!
Thus it was not strange if some one had set a snare for him; it was rather a miracle that he had not fallen into one before. The dangers that threatened him were so formidable that he was almost tempted to relinquish his attack on Madame d'Argeles. Was it prudent to incur the risk of making this woman an enemy? All Sunday he hesitated. It would be very easy to get out of the scrape.
It is true that Madame d'Argeles was in despair during forty-eight hours or so; for the police had begun a sort of investigation, and she feared this might frighten her visitors and empty her drawing-rooms. Not at all, however; on the contrary, she had good cause to congratulate herself upon the notoriety she gained through this suicide.
To receive this fortune, I should be obliged to confess that Lia d'Argeles is a Chalusse and that is a confession which no consideration whatever will wring from me." She imagined that this declaration would silence and discomfit Wilkie, but she was mistaken.
"Accept in Heaven's name accept this inheritance; if not for yourself, for the sake of " In his excitement, he was about to commit a terrible blunder. He saw it in time, and checked himself. "For the sake of whom?" asked Madame d'Argeles, in an altered voice. "For the sake of Mademoiselle Marguerite, madame; for the sake of this poor child, who is your niece.
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