Chapter II.15
During all this time, they were suffering intense anxiety at M. de Chandore's house. Ever since eight o'clock in the morning the two aunts, the old gentleman, the marchioness, and M. Folgat had been assembled in the dining-room, and were there waiting for the result of the interview. Dionysia had only come down later; and her grandfather could not help noticing that she had dressed more carefully than usual.
"Are we not going to see Jacques again?" she replied with a smile full of confidence and joy.
She had actually persuaded herself that one word from Jacques would suffice to convince the celebrated lawyer, and that he would reappear triumphant on M. Magloire's arm. The others did not share these expectations. The two aunts, looking as yellow as their old laces, sat immovable in a corner. The marchioness was trying to hide her tears; and M. Folgat endeavored to look absorbed in a volume of engravings. M. de Chandore, who possessed less self-control, walked up and down in the room, repeating every ten minutes,--
"It is wonderful how long time seems when you are waiting!" At ten o'clock no news had come.
"Could M. Magloire have forgotten his promise?" said Dionysia, becoming anxious.
"No, he has not forgotten it," replied a newcomer, M. Seneschal. It was really the excellent mayor, who had met M. Magloire about an hour before, and who now came to hear the news, for his own sake, as he said, but especially for his wife's sake, who was actually ill with anxiety.
Eleven o'clock, and no news. The marchioness got up, and said,--
"I cannot stand this uncertainty a minute longer. I am going to the prison." "And I will go with you, dear mother," declared Dionysia.
But such a proceeding was hardly suitable. M. de Chandore opposed it, and was supported by M. Folgat, as well as by M. Seneschal.
"We might at least send somebody," suggested the two aunts timidly. "That is a good idea," replied M. de Chandore.
He rang the bell; and old Anthony came in. He had established himself the evening before in Sauveterre, having heard that the preliminary investigation was finished.
As soon as he had been told what they wanted him to do, he said,-- "I shall be back in half an hour."
He nearly ran down the steep street, hastened along National Street, and then climbed up more slowly Castle Street. When M. Blangin, the keeper, saw him appear, he turned very pale; for M. Blangin had not slept since Dionysia had given him the seventeen thousand francs. He, once upon a time the special friend of all gendarmes, now trembled when one of them entered the jail. Not that he felt any remorse about having betrayed his duty; oh, no! but he feared discovery.
More than ten times he had changed the hiding-place of his precious stocking; but, wherever he put it, he always fancied that the eyes of his visitors were riveted upon that very spot. He recovered, however, from his fright when Anthony told him his errand, and replied in the most civil manner,--
"M. Magloire came here at nine o'clock precisely. I took him immediately to M. de Boiscoran's cell; and ever since they have been talking, talking." "Are you quite sure?"
"Of course I am. Must I not know every thing that happens in my jail? I went and listened. You can hear nothing from the passage: they have shut the wicket, and the door is massive."
"That is strange," murmured the old servant.
"Yes, and a bad sign," declared the keeper with a knowing air. "I have noticed that the prisoners who take so long to state their case to their advocate always catch the maximum of punishment."
Anthony, of course, did not report to his masters the jailer's mournful anticipations; but what he told them about the length of the interview did not tend to relieve their anxiety.
Gradually the color had faded from Dionysia's cheeks; and the clear ring of her voice was half drowned in tears, when she said, that it would have been better, perhaps, if she had put on mourning, and that seeing the whole family assembled thus reminded her of a funeral.
The sudden arrival of Dr. Seignebos cut short her remarks. He was in a great passion, as usual; and as soon as he entered, he cried,--
"What a stupid town Sauveterre is! Nothing but gossip and idle reports! The people are all of them old women. I feel like running away, and hiding myself. On my way here, twenty curious people have stopped me to ask me what M. de Boiscoran is going to do now. For the town is full of rumors. They know that Magloire is at the jail now; and everybody wants to be the first to hear Jacques's story."
He had put his immense broad brimmed hat on the table, and, looking around the room at all the sad faces he asked,--
"And you have no news yet?"
"Nothing," replied M. Seneschal and M. Folgat at the same breath. "And we are frightened by this delay," added Dionysia.
"And why?" asked the physician.
Then taking down his spectacles, and wiping them diligently, he said,--
"Did you think, my dear young lady, that Jacques de Boiscoran's affair could be settled in five minutes? If they let you believe that, they did wrong. I, who despise all concealment, I will tell you the truth. At the bottom of all these occurrences at Valpinson, there lies, I am perfectly sure, some dark intrigue. Most assuredly we shall put Jacques out of his trouble; but I fear it will be hard work."
"M. Magloire!" announced old Anthony.
The eminent advocate of Sauveterre entered. He looked so undone, and bore so evidently the traces of his excitement, that all had the same terrible thought which Dionysia expressed.
"Jacques is lost!"
M. Magloire did not say no. "I believe he is in danger."
"Jacques," murmured the old marchioness,--"my son!"
"I said in danger," repeated the advocate; "but I ought to have said, he is in a strange, almost incredible, unnatural position."
"Let us hear," said the marchioness.
The lawyer was evidently very much embarrassed; and he looked with unmistakable distress, first at Dionysia, and then at the two old aunts. But nobody noticed this, and so he said,--
"I must ask to be left alone with these gentlemen."
In the most docile manner the Misses Lavarande rose, and took their niece and Jacques's mother with them: the latter was evidently near fainting. As soon as the door was shut, Grandpapa Chandore, half mad with grief, exclaimed,--
"Thanks, M. Magloire, thanks for having given me time to prepare my poor child for the terrible blow. I see but too well what you are going to say. Jacques is guilty."
"Stop," said the advocate: "I have said nothing of the kind. M. de Boiscoran still protests energetically that he is innocent; but he states in his defence a fact which is so entirely improbable, so utterly inadmissible"--
"But what does he say?" asked M. Seneschal.
"He says that the Countess Claudieuse has been his mistress."
Dr. Seignebos started, and, readjusting his spectacles, he cried triumphantly,-- "I said so! I have guessed it!"
M. Folgat had, on this occasion, very naturally, no deliberative voice. He came from Paris, with Paris ideas; and, whatever he might have been told, the name of the Countess Claudieuse revealed to him nothing. But, from the effect which it produced upon the others, he could judge what Jacques's accusation meant. Far from being of the doctor's opinion M. de Chandore and M. Seneschal both seemed to be as much shocked as M. Magloire.
"That is incredible," said one.
"That is impossible," added the other. M. Magloire shook his head, and said,-- "That is exactly what I told Jacques."
But the doctor was not the man to be surprised at what public opinion said, much less to fear it. He exclaimed,--
"Don't you hear what I say? Don't you understand me? The proof that the thing is neither so incredible nor so impossible is, that I had suspected it. And there were signs of it, I should think. Why on earth should a man like Jacques, young, rich, well made, in love with a charming girl, and beloved by her, why should he amuse himself with setting houses on fire, and killing people? You tell me he did not like Count Claudieuse. Upon my word! If everybody who does not like Dr. Seignebos were to come and fire at him forthwith, do you know my body would look like a sieve! Among you all, M. Folgat is the only one who has not been struck with blindness."
The young lawyer tried modestly to protest. "Sir"--
But the other cut him short, and went on,--
"Yes, sir, you saw it all; and the proof of it is, that you at once went to work in search of the real motive, the heart,--in fine, the woman at the bottom of the riddle. The proof of it is, that you went and asked everybody,--Anthony, M. de Chandore, M. Seneschal, and myself,--if M. de Boiscoran had not now, or had not had, some love- affair in the country. They all said No, being far from suspecting the truth. I alone, without giving you a positive answer, told you that I thought as you did, and told you so in M. de Chandore's presence."
"That is so!" replied the old gentleman and M. Folgat.
Dr. Seignebos was triumphant. Gesticulating, and continually handling his spectacles, he added,--
"You see I have learnt to m