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Updated: May 18, 2025
"Pardon!" said M. Ferraud, with a blithe laugh. "The butterfly I was describing was not so big." Breitmann freed himself amid general laughter. And with Laura's rising the little after-dinner party became disorganized. It was yet early; but perhaps she had some thought she wished to be alone with.
On his part, the new arrival never so much as gave the secretary a second glance the first was sufficient. And while the admiral read on, M. Ferraud examined the broken skin on his palms. "Mr. Ferraud! Well, well; this is a great honor, I'm sure. It was very kind of them to send you here. Where is your luggage?" "I am stopping at Swan's Hotel." "We shall have your things up this very night."
"What has it to do with France?" "Much or little. It depends upon this side of the Rhine." "What imagination! But for your credentials, Monsieur Ferraud, I should not listen to you one moment." "I have seen some documents." "Forgeries!" contemptuously. "Not in the least," suavely. "They are in every part genuine. They are his own." The chancellor paused, frowning. "Well, even then?"
"In your case, the point of law is unknown to the Code, and can only be decided as a point in equity, as a jury decides in the delicate cases presented by the social eccentricities of some criminal prosecutions. Now, you had no children by your marriage; M. le Comte Ferraud has two.
Monsieur Ferraud ruminated, as he took the seat by the window in the second-class carriage for Munich. "All the finer the sport. Ten thousand marks! He forgot himself for a moment. And I might have gone further and said that ninety thousand marks would be added to those ten thousand if the bribe was accepted and the promise fulfilled." Ah, it would be beautiful to untangle this snarl all alone.
They bent over the cases, agreed and disagreed, the one with the sharp gestures, the other with the rise and fall of the voice. For them nothing else existed; they were truly engrossed. Breitmann, hiding a smile that was partly a yawn, stole quietly away. Butterflies did not excite his concern in the least. M. Ferraud was charmed. He was voluble.
"Why did you not tell the whole story? A Frenchman, and to deny oneself a climax like this?" M. Ferraud remained silent. "If you had not meddled! Well, you have, and these others must bear the brunt with you, should anything serious happen." "Without my permission you will not remain in Ajaccio a single hour. But that would not satisfy me. I wish to prove to you your blindness.
"Good luck attend you, my savant," said the minister, with a friendliness which was deep and genuine. He had known Monsieur Ferraud in other days. "And, above all, take care of yourself." "Trust me, Count." And the secret agent departed, to appear again in these chambers only when his work was done. "A strange man," mused the minister when he was alone.
If Germany had left him alone he would to-day have been a good citizen, who would never have permitted futile dreams to enter his head, and who would have contemplated his greatness with the smile of a philosopher. And who can say where this will end? It is pitiful." "Pitiful?" repeated Breitmann. "Why that?" calmly. M. Ferraud repressed the admiration in his eyes. It was a singular duel.
Ask me nothing; leave it all to me. There! They are coming. Not a word." The admiral's fury was boundless, and his utterances were touched here and there by strong sailor expressions. The scoundrel! The black-leg! And he had trusted him without reservation. He wanted to start at once. Laura finally succeeded in calming him, and the cold reason of M. Ferraud convinced him of the folly of haste.
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