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Introduced into the avocat's waiting-room a vast parlour with fine white muslin curtains, having for its sole ornament a large and beautiful copy of Tintoretto's Dead Christ his doubt and trouble changed into indignant conviction. It was not possible! He had been deceived as to Le Merquier.
"No doubt" said the baron, disengaging himself, as he opened the door noiselessly, showing the deep workroom, whose lamp burned solitarily before the enormous empty chair. "Come, good-bye, I must go; I have my mail to despatch." "Our visit to Le Merquier still holds good. The picture we were going to present to him, you know. What day?" "Ah, yes, Le Merquier true eh well, soon.
At last his turn came, and if a doubt as to M. Le Merquier had remained, he doubted no longer when he saw this great office, simple and severe, yet a little more ornate than the waiting-room, a fitting frame for the austerity of the lawyer's principles, and for his thin form, tall, stooping, narrow-shouldered, squeezed into a black coat too short in the sleeves, from which protruded two black fists, broad and flat, two sticks of Indian ink with hieroglyphs of great veins.
"And for mitigating the strictures of my report, eh, Monsieur?" cried Le Merquier, springing to his feet, a threatening figure, with his hand on the bell. "I have seen many shameless performances in my life, but never anything equal to this. Such offers to me, in my own house!" "But, my dear colleague, I swear "
At first he went about in the corridors, to the library, to the restaurant, to the Salle des Conférences, like the others, overjoyed to leave his footprints in every corner of that majestic labyrinth; but, being a stranger to the majority, cut by some members of the club on Rue Royale, who avoided him, detested by the whole clerical coterie, of which Le Merquier was the leader, and by the financial clique, naturally hostile to that billionaire, with his power to cause a rise or fall in stocks, like the vessels of large tonnage which divert the channel in a harbor, his isolation was simply emphasized by change of locality, and the same hostility accompanied him everywhere.
Little light hats quivered in all their bright-hued plumes, round arms encircled with gold leaned on the rail in order to listen more at their ease. The solemn Le Merquier had imparted to the sitting the entertainment of a play, had introduced the little comical note permitted at charitable concerts as a lure to the profane.
"How can that be?" The baron stared at him in amazement. "Come, come, you're losing your hold! Why, by giving him one, two, three hundred thousand francs, if necessary." "What do you mean? Le Merquier, that upright man 'My conscience, as he is called."
Below as a postscript, a very small hand had written very legibly: "A religious picture, as good as possible." What was he to think of this letter? Was there real good-will in it, or polite evasion? In any case hesitation was no longer possible. Time pressed. Jansoulet made a bold effort, then for he was very frightened of Le Merquier and called on him one morning.
Wait a moment and let me tell you." She turned to the journalist: "I had two sons, Monsieur " Moëssard was no longer there. She returned to Le Merquier: "Two sons, Monsieur " Le Merquier had disappeared.
Jansoulet drew a long breath of relief. "Ah! Monsieur le Duc, how much good you do me by talking to me thus. I was beginning to lose all my confidence. My enemies are so powerful! And on top of all the rest there's another piece of ill-luck. Le Merquier, of all people, is assigned to make the report concerning my election." "Le Merquier? the devil!"
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