United States or Isle of Man ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Suddenly, here, over there, opposite the toy-shop, which is mine, by the way, the wheel of the carriage catches into the wheel of an enormous truck; and at once, palata! the coachman is thrown down, and so is the lady, who was inside, a very pretty girl, who lives in this hotel." Leaving there the obliging narrator, M. de Tregars rushed through the narrow corridor of the Hotel des Folies.
She had wasted no time upon her dress; for she wore a plain blue cashmere wrapper, fastened at the waist with a sort of silk scarf of similar color. From the very threshold, "Dear me!" she exclaimed, "how very singular!" M. de Tregars stepped forward. "What?" he inquired. "Oh, nothing!" she replied, "nothing at all!"
"I swear," she uttered, "that I went to the station with M. Vincent; that he assured me that he was going to Brazil; that he had his passage-ticket; and that all his baggage was marked, 'Rio de Janeiro." The disappointment was great: and M. de Tregars manifested it by a gesture. "At least," he insisted, "tell me who the woman was whose place you took here."
"Then," she resumed, "he begins at once to explain that I remind him of a person whom he loved tenderly, and whom he has just had the misfortune to lose, adding, that he would deem himself the happiest of men if I would allow him to take care of me, and insure me a brilliant position." "You see! That rascally Vincent!" said M. de Tregars, just to be saying something. Mme. Zelie shook her head.
The old servant came in, and advancing to the centre of the room with a mysterious look, "Madame la Baronne de Thaller," he said in a low voice. Marius de Tregars started violently. "Where?" he asked. "She is down stairs in her carriage," replied the servant. "Her footman is here, asking whether monsieur is at home, and whether she can come up."
"Believe me, madame," replied M. de Tregars, "I have perfectly understood how much naive boasting there was in all that Mlle. Cesarine told me." "Then, really, you do not judge her too severely?" "Your heart has not more indulgence for her than my own." "And yet it is from you that her first real sorrow comes." "From me?"
If she had afterwards made a gesture of joy, it was because he had just informed her that the coachman had been killed at the same time, and that she found herself thus rid of a dangerous accomplice. The commissary of police shook his head. "All this is quite probable," he murmured; "but that's all." Again M. de Tregars stopped him. "I have not done yet," he said.
"It is impossible," she exclaimed, "that you should regret having paid what your father owed." A bitter smile contracted M. de Tregars' lips. "And suppose I were to tell you," he replied, "that my father in reality owed nothing?" "Oh!" "Suppose I told you they took from him his entire fortune, over two millions, as audaciously as a pick-pocket robs a man of his handkerchief?
"When she came home, I gave her the letter. She read it; and, in presence of a number of her servants, she handed me these two thousand francs." At the sight of the bank notes, the commissary jumped to his feet. "Now we have it!" he exclaimed. "Here is the proof that we wanted." It was after four o'clock when M. de Tregars was at last permitted to return home.
The baroness was listening with the air of a person who is compelled by politeness to hear a tiresome story. "That is a rather gloomy preamble," she said. M. de Tregars took no notice of the interruption. "At all times," he went on, "my father seemed careless of his affairs: that affectation, he thought, was due to the name he bore. But his negligence was only apparent.