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Updated: May 18, 2025
The struggle within him, no doubt, was terrible. He was stifled. "Twenty thousand francs!" he said in a hoarse voice. "Is it not enough?" asked the young girl. "Yes, you are right: it is very little. But I have as much again for you, twice as much." With haggard eyes, Mechinet had approached the table, and was convulsively handling the pile of papers, while he repeated, "Twenty thousand francs!
She was a woman of forty-five or fifty years, very dark, short, and fat, trying hard to breathe in the corsets which were specially made for her by the Misses Mechinet, the clerk's sisters. When she was young, she had been rather pretty: now she still kept the red cheeks of her younger days, a forest of jet black hair, and excellent teeth. But she was not happy.
I see light in their windows." M. de Chandore stopped. "What am I to do next?" he asked. "You are going to give me the bonds, grandpapa, and to wait for me here, walking up and down, whilst I am going to the Misses Mechinet. I would ask you to come up too; but they would be frightened at seeing you.
And, above all, he had carried on the inquiry solely in the interests of a conviction, as if the crime had been proved, and the prisoner had not protested his innocence. Now, Mechinet firmly believed in this innocence; and he was fully persuaded that the day on which Jacques de Boiscoran saw his counsel would be the day of his justification.
But they were hardly in the passage when they were met by Mechinet, who came running up out of breath, and half mad with delight. "M. Daubigeon sends me to say you must come to him at once. Great news! Great news!" And immediately he told them in a few words what had happened in the morning, Trumence's statement, and the deposition of the maid of Countess Claudieuse.
He obeyed. She followed him, and, as soon as she was in the room, she shut the door again, pushing even a bolt which she had noticed. Mechinet the clerk was famous in Sauveterre for his coolness. Dionysia was timidity personified, and blushed for the smallest trifle, remaining speechless for some time. At this moment, however, it was certainly not the young girl who was embarrassed.
Then having put the note into an envelope, she called the old nurse, who had brought her up, and, with all the recommendations which extreme prudence could suggest, she said to her, "You must see to it that M. Mechinet the clerk gets this note to-night. Go! make haste!" During the last twenty-four hours, Mechinet had changed so much, that his sisters recognized him no longer.
They went in; and, as they passed the door, Mechinet whispered into the attorney's ear, "Sir, that man is certainly innocent. A guilty man would never have received us thus." "Silence, sir!" said the commonwealth attorney, however much he was probably of his clerk's opinion. "Silence!" And grave and sad he went and stood in one of the window embrasures.
"Pshaw!" exclaimed M. de Chandore. "To bribe an official," continued M. Folgat, "is a very grave offence. The Criminal Code has a certain paragraph, No. 179, which does not trifle, and punishes the man who bribes, as well as the man who is bribed." "Well, so much the better!" cried Dionysia. "If poor M. Mechinet has to go to prison, I'll go with him!"
"You can no doubt imagine, M. Mechinet, what I have suffered, since M. de Boiscoran has been sent to prison, charged with the meanest of all crimes!" "Oh, surely, I do!" replied Mechinet. And, carried away by his emotion, he added,
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