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A dry cough was heard outside, and in another moment Catenac entered the room. Nature, or profound dissimulation, had gifted Catenac with an exterior which made every one, when first introduced to him, exclaim, "This is an honest and trustworthy man." Catenac always looked his clients boldly in the face.
He assayed rather risky matters, which might bring both parties into the clutches of the criminal law, or, at any rate, leave them with a taint upon both their names. A sensational lawsuit is begun, and the public eagerly await the result; suddenly the whole thing collapses, for Catenac has acted as mediator. He has even settled the disputes of murderers quarreling over their booty.
Catenac watched Mascarin as he was speaking with an expression of ill-concealed enmity. "You are well informed, on my word," muttered he. "I think I am," returned Mascarin. "After this you will go back to the hotel, and not until then do you understand? and you will consult as to the first steps to be taken. The plan proposed by Perpignan is an excellent one." "What! you know it then?"
We have the Marquis de Croisenois with us." "My dear sir," broke in the lawyer. "Wait a little; we must have your assistance, and " Catenac rose from his seat. "That is enough," said he. "You have made a very great mistake if it is on this matter that you have sent for me; I told you this before." He was turning away, and looking for his hat, proposed to beat a retreat; but Dr.
"As you please; but you will, I presume, permit me to convince myself of the truth of this assertion." Then, advancing towards Paul, the lawyer said, "Have the goodness to remove your coat." Paul took it off, and threw it upon the back of a chair. "Now," added Catenac, "roll up your right shirt sleeve to the shoulder."
By this time the banker had contrived to reassure the doctor. "Besides," he added, "everything is going on well, even our Tafila mines. I have taxed our people, according to their means, from one to twenty thousand francs, and we are certain of a million." The doctor rubbed his hands, and a delicious prospect of enjoyments stretched out before him. "I have seen Catenac," continued Martin Rigal.
"Yes, and I remember too that those inner scruples never hindered you from drawing your share of the profits." "That is to say," burst in the doctor, "you repudiated the work, but shared the booty. You wished to play the game without staking anything." Catenac was in no way disconcerted at this trenchant argument.
Paul, Hortebise, and Catenac gazed upon each other with faces in which astonishment at the strange recital, and then at the power of the man who had collected these facts together, were mingled, and Catenac was the first who spoke. The sound of his own voice seemed gradually to dispel the vague sense of apprehension that hung about the office.
"Well," answered Mascarin coldly, "I have been certain of success from the very commencement." "Have you been to Vendome?" asked Catenac. "Never mind, I have been somewhere, and at this very moment could place my hand upon the shoulder of the heir to the dukedom of Champdoce." "Are you in earnest?" "I was never more in earnest in my life.
Hortebise stood between him and the door, gazing upon him with no friendly expression of countenance. Catenac was not a man to be easily alarmed, but the doctor's appearance was so threatening, and the smile upon Mascarin's lips was of so deadly a character, that he stood still, positively frightened into immobility. "What do you mean?" stammered he; "what is it you say now?"
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