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Updated: May 28, 2025
"Sacre bleu!" he exclaimed: "what a handsome woman!" Without too much affectation, Maxence fell back a step or two. He felt himself blushing to his very ears, and trembled lest his sudden emotion were noticed, and he were questioned; for it was Mlle. Lucienne who thus excited M. Costeclar's noisy enthusiasm. Once already she had been around the lake; and she was continuing her circular drive.
Why had he not known all this sooner? Better late than never, however. "Ah! you are right, M. le Marquis, a hundred times right!" he declared. "This girl must evidently know Vincent Favoral's secret, the key of the enigma that we are vainly trying to solve. What she would not tell to you, a stranger, she will tell to Lucienne, her friend." Maxence offered to go himself for Zelie Cadelle.
"Then it's time you began," was Rateau's dry comment, which was greeted with much laughter from his abominable companions. Lucienne was forced to go. It would, of course, have been futile and madness to resist. This had occurred three hours since. The Rue de Seine was not far, but the poor woman had not returned. Esther was left with this additional horror weighing upon her soul.
And now I have said all that I will ever say to you in this life. If you have a spark of humanity left in you, you will, at least, let me prepare for death in peace." She went round to where poor old Lucienne still sat, like an insentient log, panic-stricken. She knelt down on the floor and rested her arm on the old woman's knees.
He was in for it now, and he was determined to play up. He crossed the floor, and smiled down at the girl on the arm of the chair. "So you 'ave come," she said in broken English. "I told Lucienne that you would not." "Lucienne!" exclaimed Peter, and looked back at Pennell. That traitor laughed, and seated himself on the edge of the bed, drawing the other girl to him.
Allow justice and the police to pursue their work. Whatever may be your suspicions, hide them. I shall do for you as I would for Lucienne, whom I love as if she were my own child; for it so happens, that, in helping you, I shall help her." He could not help laughing at the astonishment, which at those words depicted itself upon Maxence's face; and gayly, "You don't understand," he added.
Lucienne might have some capital interest in thus making a confidant of him. She had not told him the explanation given her by the peace-officer. Had she not, perhaps, succeeded in lifting a corner of the veil which covered the secret of her birth? Was she on the track of her enemies? and had she discovered the motive of their animosity?
Lucienne took a seat in it. Her toilet was richer, and more showy still, than the first time. Maxence jumped into a cab. "You see that carriage," he said to the coachman, "Wherever it goes, you must follow it. I give ten francs extra pay." "All right!" replied the driver, whipping up his horses. And much need he had, too, of whipping them; for the carriage that carried off Mlle.
Then old Lucienne, who had been Esther's nurse in the happy, olden days, and was an unpaid maid-of-all-work and a loved and trusted friend now, would bring in the lamp and pull the well-darned curtains over the windows. She would spread a clean cloth upon the table and bring in a meagre supper of coffee and black bread, perhaps a little butter or a tiny square of cheese.
Indeed, it was a perfect godsend for her, the fact of lodging the son of that cashier who had stolen twelve millions, and had thus suddenly become a celebrity. Seeing Maxence and Mlle. Lucienne coming, she stepped toward them, and, with her most obsequious smile, "Back already?" she said. But they made no answer; and, entering the narrow corridor, they hurried to their fourth story.
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