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She shook with fever; her teeth chattered. And yet she could not believe that Marius was betraying her, nor that he could have the thought of marrying such a girl as M. Favoral had described, and for money too! Poor, ah! No, that was not admissible.
The velvet on the chairs was darned at the angles as with the needle of a fairy. Stitches of new worsted showed through the faded designs on the hearth-rugs. The curtains had been turned so as to display their least worn side. All the guests enumerated by the shop-keeper, and a few others besides, were in the parlor when M. Favoral came in.
"At last we have a positive fact," he went on, "a foundation upon which to base our accusations. Don't be uneasy. That letter is going to place into our hands the scoundrel who assaulted you, who will make known the go-between, who himself will not fail to surrender the Baroness de Thaller. Lucienne shall be avenged. If we could only now lay our hands on Vincent Favoral! But we'll find him yet.
Besides, don't you know that father has fully resolved to separate himself from Maxence? Think of yourself alone here with father." Mme. Favoral shuddered at the mere idea. "I would not suffer very long," she murmured. Mlle. Gilberte kissed her. "It is because I wish you to live to be happy that I refuse to marry," she exclaimed. "Must you not have your share of happiness in this world?
And, as he was a man fertile in expedients, he went the next day to take a walk in the neighborhood of the Mutual Credit; and, having met M. Favoral by chance, he told him how his son Maxence was ruining himself for a young lady whose toilets were a scandal, insinuating delicately that it was his duty, as the head of the family, to put a stop to such a thing.
Do as your parents did when they did their best; and, if it's well, I shall not complain of the expense. Take a good cook, hire a waiter who understands his business well." She was utterly confounded; and yet she was not at the end of her surprises. Soon M. Favoral declared that their table-ware was not suitable, and that he must buy a new set.
Favoral shook her head. "Then," said she, "you will yield." "Never!" "Then there must be some reason you do not tell me." "None, except that I do not wish to leave you. Have you ever thought what would be your existence if I were no longer here? Have you ever asked yourself what would become of you, between my father, whose despotism will grow heavier with age, and my brother?"
Maxence had risen to receive him; but, when he saw him, he stepped back, his eyes glaring in utter surprise. "Ah, great heavens!" he muttered in a smothered voice. But M. de Tregars seemed not to notice his stupor. Quite self-possessed, notwithstanding his emotion, he cast a rapid glance over the Count de Villegre, Mme. Favoral and Mlle. Gilberte.
He soon came to take to the letter what his mother had told him, and to prove to his own satisfaction that to deprive himself of a pleasure was to deprive her. He asked for ten francs one day, then ten francs another, and gradually resumed his old habits. He was at this time about leaving school. "The moment has come," said M. Favoral, "for him to select a career, and support himself."
She did not, therefore, venture a single allusion; and nearly a week elapsed, during which the names of her late guests were not once mentioned. It was through a newspaper, which M. Favoral had forgotten in the parlor, that she learned that the Baron de Thaller had just founded a new stock company, the Mutual Credit Society, with a capital of several millions.
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