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Updated: May 12, 2025
This was Master Griveau, one of the principal notaries of Paris, and a man that had been employed not a little by the Prince de Gonzague.
Master Griveau, with the air of one who could take a joke as well as any man if the joke were proffered in august company, produced a large, folded paper bound about with green ribbon. He bowed profoundly to Gonzague.
Master Griveau settled himself comfortably in his seat and took up his pen. Turning to the hunchback, he began: "Give me your names, your surnames, your birthplaces " The hunchback interrupted him: "Have you signed?" "Certainly," Master Griveau answered, something astonished at being thus carelessly treated.
"Gabrielle," he said, "if I die here, I die as I have lived your lover." And Gabrielle had answered him in the heart of her heart: "I love you, my lover." Now, when Navailles addressed him, the hunchback moved forward, and waved away the little, glittering crowd of gentlemen that gathered about Master Griveau at the table, ordering them to move. "Make space, sirs, for my wife and me.
For this reason his face was familiar to most of those present, and the faces of most of those present were familiar to Master Griveau, and Master Griveau nodded and bowed and smirked and smiled, and showed in a hundred little ways with a hundred little airs and graces that he was quite the man of the world and quite at home in fashionable circles.
The hunchback patted the notary on the back with a pat that made him give at the knees and look somewhat ruefully about him as if an earthquake had occurred, and introduced him to the company: "Here, sirs, is my Cupid nay, better than Cupid, for Cupid had no pockets, whereas Maître Griveau has, and my marriage contract in one of them."
"Æsop is a nickname. My true name will divert you more. Sign, sirs, sign." Master Griveau, with due solemnity, unfolded the contract and spread it before him. Then he dipped a pen in the ink, and stood waiting for the illustrious company to sign the contract. "Give me the pen," said Gonzague.
Gonzague addressed the notary: "Have you entered the names of groom and bride?" Master Griveau gave a little, protesting cough. "I do not know them, your highness. I have left blank spaces for the names." Gonzague pointed to Gabrielle, where she sat apart. "The lady is Mademoiselle de Lagardere." Then he turned to the hunchback. "And you, what is your lawful name, Æsop?"
While Master Griveau, with a very much offended air, edged himself into the circle of Gonzague's friends as one that had earned the right to move freely in such company, the hunchback began rapidly to fill in the blank spaces on the parchment before him. Master Griveau felt it his duty to say a few words of protest on behalf of the slightly offended majesty of the law.
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