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Updated: June 13, 2025
I have waited my chance for three years, and for eighteen months one of my men has been in the service of the Marquis de Croisenois, and up to now this band of villains has cost the government over ten thousand francs. That superlative scoundrel, Mascarin, has put several white threads in my hair. I believe him to be Tantaine; yes, and Martin Rigal too.
A man does not start upon such an expedition as this without money; and it was conclusively proved that on the day of De Croisenois' disappearance he had not more than a thousand francs about him, half of which was in Spanish doubloons, won at whist before dinner.
Under cover of breaking the seal, Mascarin viewed this model servant attentively. He was a stranger to him, for he had never supplied Croisenois with a domestic. "It seems, my good fellow," said he, "that your master was up earlier than usual this morning?" The man frowned a little at this familiar address, and then slowly replied,
The shareholders in the Tafila Copper Mining Company, Limited, must not look for a dividend of more than six, or at the utmost seven, per cent. "Well," interrupted Mascarin, "what do you think of this for a beginning?" "It seems fair enough," answered De Croisenois, "but suppose others than those whose names you have in your black list take shares, what do you say we are to do then?"
I have an immense mass of documentary evidence, but it is not always easy to realize the value they represent, and I wait upon your assistance to enable me to do so." Croisenois' face fell. Was he to take compromising letters round to his acquaintances and boldly say, "Your purse or your honor?"
"Then, I will begin by asking if you have any remembrance of a young man in your own sphere of society, who, at the time of your marriage, was well known in every Parisian salon. I speak of the Marquis de Croisenois." The Countess leaned back in her chair, and contracted her brow, and pursed up her lips, as though vainly endeavoring to remember the name. "The Marquis de Croisenois?" repeated she.
She told me that both she and her husband had determined to yield, and that Sabine, though evidently broken-hearted, would not oppose the marriage." "Good," said Mascarin; "and now, if Croisenois only follows out the orders that I have given him, the marriage will take place without the knowledge of either De Breulh or Andre. Then we need fear them no longer.
Marie did not start; she had evidently prepared herself for this blow. Her face assumed a more proud and disdainful expression, and the light in her dark eyes grew brighter and brighter. "You are wrong," said she, "M. de Croisenois was not my lover." "You need no longer take the pains to lie; I ask nothing now." Marie's utter calmness jarred inexpressibly upon Norbert's exasperated frame of mind.
It is perfectly plain to me that they hand over their daughter to De Croisenois under pressure of some kind, and that means that a terrible secret exists with which Croisenois threatens them." "Your deduction is wrong, sir," exclaimed Andre eagerly, "and you are quite wrong." "Very good," was the calm reply. "Your emphatic denial shows that I am in the right. I want no further proofs.
His fortune was terribly involved, because he had insisted on living at the same rate as men who had ten times his income. Forming one of the recklessly extravagant band of which the Duke de Saumeine was the head, Croisenois, too, kept his racehorses, which was certainly the quickest way to wreck the most princely fortune.
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