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Updated: June 5, 2025
"A pretty riddle to guess," remarked Tantaine. "An enigma that it is impossible to solve," returned Perpignan. "How is one to get hold of a boy who vanished ten years ago, and who must now be a grown-up man?" "We could do it."
Tantaine tells me that you are a charming young man, strictly honest, and well educated; and now that I have had the pleasure of meeting you, I am sure that he is right; but I can only deal with proofs, and must be quite certain before I act on your behalf with third parties." "I have nothing to conceal, sir, and am ready to answer any questions," responded Paul.
The expression in Perpignan's face changed from astonishment to fear. "Why, this Mascarin knows everything," muttered he. "No," replied Tantaine, "my master does not know everything, and the proof of this is, that I have come to ask you what occurred between Catenac's client and yourself, and this is the service that we expect from you." "Well, if I must, I must.
The Count felt that he was choking. He tore off his cravat, and cried wildly, "Proofs! Give me proofs!" During the last five minutes Tantaine had shifted his ground so skilfully that the heavy library table now stood between himself and the Count, and he was comparatively safe behind this extemporized defence. "Proofs?" answered he. "Do you think that I carry them about with me?
They both slept late, and were sitting down to a luxurious breakfast, when the servant announced M. Tantaine, and that worthy man made his appearance with the same smile upon his face which Paul remembered so well in the Hotel de Perou. The sight of him threw the young man into a state of fury. "At last we meet," cried he. "I have an account to settle with you."
"Good, Mother Brigaut; that will do; you can leave us now." As Paul listened to this brief conversation, he wondered if he was awake or asleep. Tantaine stood at the door and watched the woman down stairs; then he closed it carefully, and coming up to Paul, said, "Well, what do you think of all this?"
At Rouen he abandoned his luggage, which he had taken care should afford no clue as to ownership, he also relinquished his beard and spectacles, and returned to Paris as the well-known banker, Martin Rigal, the pretty Flavia's father, having, as he thought, obliterated Mascarin as completely as he had done Tantaine; but he had not noticed in the train with him a very dark young man with piercing eyes, who looked like the traveller of some respectable commercial firm.
"You hold me as in a vice, and I admit myself vanquished. Stringent as your conditions are, I accept them." "That is the right style of way to talk in," remarked Tantaine cheerfully. "Then," continued the Count, with a ray of hope gleaming in his face, "why should I give my daughter to De Croisenois at all? surely this is utterly unnecessary.
"All the better for me," exclaimed he; "and now let us hunt up Caroline Schimmel." "Is she here? I could not find her." "Because you did not know where to look for her. She is at cards in the coffee-room. Come along, sir." But Tantaine laid his hand upon the boy's arm. "One moment," said he. "Did you tell the woman just what I ordered you to say?" "I did not omit a single word."
The five hundred francs of old Tantaine, or at any rate a portion of them, had been well spent, and his clothes did credit to his own taste and the skill of his tailor. Indeed, in his fine feathers he looked so handsome, that many women turned to gaze after him.
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