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"That is just what we want to-day," said the Countess, drawing back a little to make him understand that she had no wish for promises given under his breath. "So long as you satisfy Mme. de Senonches, you can count upon me," she added, with a royal movement of her fan. Petit-Claud looked toward the door of the boudoir, and saw Cointet standing there.
The Cointets will come this evening, and you shall see if I can defend your interests." "Ah! monsieur, I should be very glad," said Eve. "Very well," said Petit-Claud; "this evening, at seven o'clock." "Thank you," said Eve; and from her tone and glance Petit-Claud knew that he had made great progress in his fair client's confidence. "You have nothing to fear; you see I was right," he added.
Petit-Claud read it, looked at it, fingered the paper as he talked, and still taking, presently, as if through absence of mind, folded it up and put it in his pocket. Then he linked his arm in David's, and they went out together, the order for release having come during the conversation. It was like heaven to David to be at home again.
The little lawyer was the guardian of the widow and orphan by virtue of his office, and it seemed to them that they could take no other advice. Petit-Claud was delighted to see his clients, and insisted that M. and Mme. Sechard should do him the pleasure of breakfasting with him. "Do the Cointets want six thousand francs of you?" he asked, smiling.
"If you can find Sechard's hiding-place and put him in our hands, somebody will lend you twenty thousand francs to buy his business, and very likely there will be a newspaper to print. So, set about it," he had said. Petit-Claud put more faith in Cerizet's activity than in all the Doublons in existence; and then it was that he promised Cointet that Sechard should be arrested.
The reasoning was plausible enough; Basine gave way, and David went. Petit-Claud was just taking leave as he came up and at his cry of "Lucien!" the two brothers flung their arms about each other with tears in their eyes. Life holds not many moments such as these. Lucien's heart went out in response to this friendship for its own sake.
Boniface Cointet also was there, in his best maroon coat of clerical cut, with a diamond pin worth six thousand francs displayed in his shirt frill the revenge of the rich merchant upon a poverty-stricken aristocracy. Petit-Claud himself, scoured and combed, had carefully removed his gray hairs, but he could not rid himself of his wizened air.
He took Petit-Claud aside, and asked him for the real truth about David's affairs, reproaching him for allowing his brother-in-law to go into hiding, and tried to match his wits against the little lawyer. The whole machinery of modern society is so infinitely more complex than in ancient times, that the subdivision of human faculty is the result.
"If David can prove that he has succeeded, I shall not hesitate to go into partnership with him, and reckon his discovery as half the capital," the tall Cointet told him. The old man of the people did not suspect that Petit-Claud was in the plot, nor had he any idea of the toils woven to ensnare the great secret.
"M. Petit-Claud," said the Countess, with haughty dignity, "you mean to be on the side of the Government. Learn that the first principle of government is this never to have been in the wrong, and that the instinct of power and the sense of dignity is even stronger in women than in governments."
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