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In consequence of this the House of Claes was free from all lien, Balthazar was master of it; moreover, his rural property was likewise released from encumbrance. When all the papers connected with these matters were signed, Pierquin presented the receipts for the repayment of the moneys formerly borrowed, and releases of the various liens on the estates.
You are now entering upon a struggle with your father; can you resist him all alone?" "Yes, monsieur; I shall know how to protect my brothers and sister when the time comes." "Pshaw! the obstinate creature," thought Pierquin. "No, you will not resist him," he said aloud. "Let us end the subject," she said.
"This," said Pierquin, "is the guardianship account which Monsieur Claes renders to his children. It is not very amusing," he added, laughing after the manner of notaries who generally assume a lively tone in speaking of serious matters, "but I must really oblige you to listen to it."
"No, I am sure you do not understand him," said Pierquin, taking his coffee from Marguerite's hand. "The Ethiopian can't change his skin, nor the leopard his spots," he whispered to Madame Claes. "Have the goodness to remonstrate with him later; the devil himself couldn't draw him out of his cogitation now; he is in it for to-day, at any rate."
"My friend, go into your own room; do me the kindness to dress for dinner, Pierquin will be with us. Come, take off this ragged clothing; see those stains! Is it muratic or sulphuric acid which left these yellow edges to the holes? Make yourself young again, I will send you Mulquinier as soon as I have changed my dress."
"What good do they do you?" continued Pierquin, addressing Balthazar; "you ought to sell them." "Bah! am I in want of money?" replied Claes, in the tone of a man to whom forty thousand francs was a matter of no consequence. There was a moment's silence, during which the children made many exclamations. "See this one, mamma!" "Oh! here's a beauty!" "Tell me the name of that one!"
Madame Claes begged the notary to keep the nature of these purchases from the knowledge of the people of Douai, lest they should declare the whole thing a mania; but Pierquin replied that he had already delayed to the very last moment the notarial deeds which the importance of the sum borrowed necessitated, in order not to lessen the respect in which Monsieur Claes was held.
The property of the deceased abbe was thought to be considerable, and to the eyes of a man who calculated all the affairs of life in figures, the young heir seemed more powerful through his money than through the seductions of the heart as to which Pierquin never made himself uneasy. In his mind the abbe's fortune restored the de Solis name to all its pristine value.
Pierquin tried to look tenderly at his cousin, but the expression contrasted so strongly with his hard eyes, usually fixed on money, that Marguerite discovered the self-interest in his improvised tenderness. "You would marry the person who pleases you the most," he said. "A husband is indispensable, were it only as a matter of business.
Madame Claes requested Pierquin to obtain the bill for all the chemicals that had been furnished to her husband. Two months later, Messieurs Protez and Chiffreville, manufacturers of chemical products, sent in a schedule of accounts rendered, which amounted to over one hundred thousand francs. Madame Claes and Pierquin studied the document with an ever-increasing surprise.
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