Other People's Money Part 18

"What?"

"M. Favoral accepted a role in one of those terrible financial dramas which ruin a thousand poor dupes to the benefit of two or three clever rascals. Your father wanted to be rich: he needed money to carry on his intrigues. He allowed himself to be tempted. But whilst he believed himself one of the managers, called upon to divide the receipts, he was but a scene-s.h.i.+fter with a stated salary. The moment of this denouement having come, his so-called partners disappeared through a trap-door with the cash, leaving him alone, as they say, to face the music."

"If that's the case," replied the young girl, "why didn't my father speak?"

"What was he to say?"

"Name his accomplices."

"And suppose he had no proofs of their complicity to offer? He was the cas.h.i.+er of the Mutual Credit; and it is from his cash that the millions are gone."

Mlle. Gilberte's conjectures had run far ahead of that sentence. Looking straight at Marius, "Then," she said, "you believe, as M. Chapelain does, that M. de Thaller-"

"Ah! M. Chapelain thinks-"

"That the manager of the Mutual Credit must have known the fact of the frauds."

"And that he had his share of them?"

"A larger share than his cas.h.i.+er, yes."

A singular smile curled M. de Tregars' lips. "Quite possible," he replied: "that's quite possible."

For the past few moments Mlle. Gilberte's embarra.s.sment was quite evident in her look. At last, overcoming her hesitation, "Pardon me," said she, "I had imagined that M. de Thaller was one of those men whom you wished to strike; and I had indulged in the hope, that, whilst having justice done to your father, you were thinking, perhaps, of avenging mine."

M. de Tregars stood up, as if moved by a spring. "Well, yes!" he exclaimed. "Yes, you have correctly guessed. But how can we obtain this double result? A single misstep at this moment might lose all. Ah, if I only knew your father's real situation; if I could only see him and speak to him! In one word he might, perhaps, place in my hands a sure weapon,-the weapon that I have as yet been unable to find."

"Unfortunately," replied Mlle. Gilberte with a gesture of despair, "we are without news of my father; and he even refused to tell us where he expected to take refuge."

"But he will write, perhaps. Besides, we might look for him, quietly, so as not to excite the suspicions of the police; and if your brother Maxence was only willing to help me-"

"Alas! I fear that Maxence may have other cares. He insisted upon going out this morning, in spite of mother's request to the contrary."

But Marius stopped her, and, in the tone of a man who knows much more than he is willing to say,-"Do not calumniate Maxence," he said: "it is through him, perhaps, that we will receive the help that we need."

Eleven o'clock struck. Mlle. Gilberte started.

"Dear me!" she exclaimed, "mother will be home directly."

M. de Tregars might as well have waited for her. Henceforth he had nothing to conceal. Yet, after duly deliberating with the young girl, they decided that he should withdraw, and that he would send M. de Villegre to declare his intentions. He then left, and, five minutes later, Mme. Favoral and M. Chapelain appeared.

The ex-attorney was furious; and he threw the package of bank-notes upon the table with a movement of rage.

"In order to return them to M. de Thaller," he exclaimed, "it was at least necessary to see him. But the gentleman is invisible; keeps himself under lock and key, guarded by a perfect cloud of servants in livery."

Meantime, Mme. Favoral had approached her daughter.

"Your brother?" she asked in a whisper.

"He has not yet come home."

"Dear me!" sighed the poor mother: "at such a time he forsakes us, and for whose sake?"

XXV

Mme. Favoral, usually so indulgent, was too severe this time; and it was very unjustly that she accused her son. She forgot, and what mother does not forget, that he was twenty-five years of age, that he was a man, and that, outside of the family and of herself, he must have his own interests and his pa.s.sions, his affections and his duties. Because he happened to leave the house for a few hours, Maxence was surely not forsaking either his mother or his sister. It was not without a severe internal struggle that he had made up his mind to go out, and, as he was going down the steps, "Poor mother," he thought. "I am sure I am making her very unhappy; but how can I help it?"

This was the first time that he had been in the street since his farther's disaster had been known; and the impression produced upon him was painful in the extreme. Formerly, when he walked through the Rue St. Gilles, that street where he was born, and where he used to play as a boy, every one met him with a friendly nod or a familiar smile. True he was then the son of a man rich and highly esteemed; whereas this morning not a hand was extended, not a hat raised, on his pa.s.sage. People whispered among themselves, and pointed him out with looks of hatred and irony. That was because he was now the son of the dishonest cas.h.i.+er tracked by the police, of the man whose crime brought disaster upon so many innocent parties.

Mortified and ashamed, Maxence was hurrying on, his head down, his cheek burning, his throat parched, when, in front of a wine-shop, "Halloo!" said a man; "that's the son. What cheek!"

And farther on, in front of the grocer's.

"I tell you what," said a woman in the midst of a group, "they still have more than we have."

Then, for the first time, he understood with what crus.h.i.+ng weight his father's crime would weigh upon his whole life; and, whilst going up the Rue Turenne: "It's all over," he thought: "I can never get over it." And he was thinking of changing his name, of emigrating to America, and hiding himself in the deserts of the Far West, when, a little farther on, he noticed a group of some thirty persons in front of a newspaper-stand. The vender, a fat little man with a red face and an impudent look, was crying in a hoa.r.s.e voice, "Here are the morning papers! The last editions! All about the robbery of twelve millions by a poor cas.h.i.+er. Buy the morning papers!"

And, to stimulate the sale of his wares, he added all sorts of jokes of his own invention, saying that the thief belonged to the neighborhood; that it was quite flattering, etc.

The crowd laughed; and he went on, "The cas.h.i.+er Favoral's robbery! twelve millions! Buy the paper, and see how it's done."

And so the scandal was public, irreparable. Maxence was listening a few steps off. He felt like going; but an imperative feeling, stronger than his will, made him anxious to see what the papers said.

Suddenly he made up his mind, and, stepping up briskly, he threw down three sous, seized a paper, and ran as if they had all known him.

"Not very polite, the gentleman," remarked two idlers whom he had pushed a little roughly.

Quick as he had been, a shopkeeper of the Rue Turenne had had time to recognize him.

"Why, that's the cas.h.i.+er's son!" he exclaimed. "Is it possible?"

"Why don't they arrest him?"

Half a dozen curious fellows, more eager than the rest, ran after him to try and see his face. But he was already far off.

Leaning against a gas-lamp on the Boulevard, he unfolded the paper he had just bought. He had no trouble looking for the article. In the middle of the first page, in the most prominent position, he read in large letters, "At the moment of going to press, the greatest agitation prevails among the stock-brokers and operators at the bourse generally, owing to the news that one of our great banking establishments has just been the victim of a theft of unusual magnitude.

"At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the manager of the Mutual Credit Society, having need of some doc.u.ments, went to look for them in the office of the head cas.h.i.+er, who was then absent. A memorandum forgotten on the table excited his suspicions. Sending at once for a locksmith, he had all the drawers broken open, and soon acquired the irrefutable evidence that the Mutual Credit had been defrauded of sums, which, as far as now known, amount to upwards of twelve millions.

"At once the police was notified; and M. Brosse, commissary of police, duly provided with a warrant, called at the guilty cas.h.i.+er's house.

"That cas.h.i.+er, named Favoral,-we do not hesitate to name him, since his name has already been made public,-had just sat down to dinner with some friends. Warned, no one knows how, he succeeded in escaping through a window into the yard of the adjoining house, and up to this hour has succeeded in eluding all search.

"It seems that these embezzlements had been going on for years, but had been skillfully concealed by false entries.

"M. Favoral had managed to secure the esteem of all who knew him. He led at home a more than modest existence. But that was only, as it were, his official life. Elsewhere, and under another name, he indulged in the most reckless expenses for the benefit of a woman with whom he was madly in love.

"Who this woman is, is not yet exactly known.

"Some mention a very fascinating young actress, who performs at a theatre not a hundred miles from the Rue Vivienne; others, a lady of the financial high life, whose equipages, diamonds, and dresses are justly famed.

"We might easily, in this respect, give particulars which would astonish many people; for we know all; but, at the risk of seeming less well informed than some others of our morning contemporaries, we will observe a silence which our readers will surely appreciate. We do not wish to add, by a premature indiscretion, any thing to the grief of a family already so cruelly stricken; for M. Favoral leaves behind him in the deepest sorrow a wife and two children,-a son of twenty-five, employed in a railroad office, and a daughter of twenty, remarkably handsome, who, a few months ago, came very near marrying M. C. --.

"Next-"

Tears of rage obscured Maxence's sight whilst reading the last few lines of this terrible article. To find himself thus held up to public curiosity, though innocent, was more than he could bear.

And yet he was, perhaps, still more surprised than indignant. He had just learned in that paper more than his father's most intimate friends knew, more than he knew himself. Where had it got its information? And what could be these other details which the writer pretended to know, but did not wish to publish as yet? Maxence felt like running to the office of the paper, fancying that they could tell him there exactly where and under what name M. Favoral led that existence of pleasure and luxury, and who the woman was to whom the article alluded.

But in the mean time he had reached his hotel,-the Hotel des Folies. After a moment of hesitation, "Bas.h.!.+" he thought, "I have the whole day to call at the office of the paper."

And he started in the corridor of the hotel, a corridor that was so long, so dark, and so narrow, that it gave an idea of the shaft of a mine, and that it was prudent, before entering it, to make sure that no one was coming in the opposite direction. It was from the neighboring theatre, des Folies-Nouvelles (now the Theatre Dejazet), that the hotel had taken its name.

It consists of the rear building of a large old house, and has no frontage on the Boulevard, where nothing betrays its existence, except a lantern hung over a low and narrow door, between a Cafe and a confectionery-shop. It is one of those hotels, as there are a good many in Paris, somewhat mysterious and suspicious, ill-kept, and whose profits remain a mystery for simple-minded folks. Who occupy the apartments of the first and second story? No one knows. Never have the most curious of the neighbors discovered the face of a tenant. And yet they are occupied; for often, in the afternoon, a curtain is drawn aside, and a shadow is seen to move. In the evening, lights are noticed within; and sometimes the sound of a cracked old piano is heard.

Above the second story, the mystery ceases. All the upper rooms, the price of which is relatively modest, are occupied by tenants who may be seen and heard,-clerks like Maxence, shop-girls from the neighborhood, a few restaurant-waiters, and sometimes some poor devil of an actor or chorus-singer from the Theatre Dejazet, the Circus, or the Chateau d'Eau. One of the great advantages of the Hotel des Folies-and Mme. Fortin, the landlady, never failed to point it out to the new tenants, an inestimable advantage, she declared-was a back entrance on the Rue Beranger.

"And everybody knows," she concluded, "that there is no chance of being caught, when one has the good luck of living in a house that has two outlets."

When Maxence entered the office, a small, dark, and dirty room, the proprietors, M. and Mme. Fortin were just finis.h.i.+ng their breakfast with an immense bowl of coffee of doubtful color, of which an enormous red cat was taking a share.

"Ah, here is M. Favoral!" they exclaimed.

There was no mistaking their tone. They knew the catastrophe; and the newspaper lying on the table showed how they had heard it.

"Some one called to see you last night," said Mme. Fortin, a large fat woman, whose nose was always besmeared with snuff, and whose honeyed voice made a marked contrast with her bird-of-prey look.

"Who?"

"A gentleman of about fifty, tall and thin, with a long overcoat, coming down to his heels."

Maxence imagined, from this description, that he recognized his own father. And yet it seemed impossible, after what had happened, that he should dare to show himself on the Boulevard du Temple, where everybody knew him, within a step of the Cafe Turc, of which he was one of the oldest customers.

"At what o'clock was he here?" he inquired.

"I really can't tell," answered the landlady. "I was half asleep at the time; but Fortin can tell us."

M. Fortin, who looked about twenty years younger than his wife, was one of those small men, blonde, with scanty beard, a suspicious glance, and uneasy smile, such as the Madame Fortins know how to find, Heaven knows where.

"The confectioner had just put up his shutters," he replied: "consequently, it must have been between eleven and a quarter-past eleven."

"And didn't he leave any word?" said Maxence.

"Nothing, except that he was very sorry not to find you in. And, in fact, he did look quite annoyed. We asked him to leave his name; but he said it wasn't worth while, and that he would call again."

At the glance which the landlady was throwing toward him from the corner of her eyes, Maxence understood that she had on the subject of that late visitor the same suspicion as himself.

And, as if she had intended to make it more apparent still, "I ought, perhaps, to have given him your key," she said.

"And why so, pray?"

"Oh! I don't know, an idea of mine, that's all. Besides, Mlle. Lucienne can probably tell you more about it; for she was there when the gentleman came, and I even think that they exchanged a few words in the yard."

Maxence, seeing that they were only seeking a pretext to question him, took his key, and inquired, "Is-Mlle. Lucienne at home?"

"Can't tell. She has been going and coming all the morning, and I don't know whether she finally staid in or out. One thing is sure, she waited for you last night until after twelve; and she didn't like it much, I can tell you."

Maxence started up the steep stairs; and, as he reached the upper stories, a woman's voice, fresh and beautifully toned, reached his ears more and more distinctly.

She was singing a popular tune,-one of those songs which are monthly put in circulation by the singing Cafes- "To hope! O charming word, Which, during all life, Husband and children and wife Repeat in common accord!

When the moment of success From us ever further slips, 'Tis Hope from its rosy lips Whispers, To-morrow you will bless.

'Tis very nice to run, But to have is better fun."

"She is in," murmured Maxence, breathing more freely.

Reaching the fourth story, he stopped before the door which faced the stairs, and knocked lightly.

At once, the voice, which had just commenced another verse stopped short, and inquired, "Who's there?"

"I, Maxence!"

"At this hour!" replied the voice with an ironical laugh. "That's lucky. You have probably forgotten that we were to go to the theatre last night, and start for St. Germain at seven o'clock this morning."

"Don't you know then?" Maxence began, as soon as he could put in a word.

"I know that you did not come home last night."

"Quite true. But when I have told you-"

"What? the lie you have imagined? Save yourself the trouble."

"Lucienne, I beg of you, open the door."

"Impossible, I am dressing. Go to your own room: as soon as I am dressed, I'll join you."

And, to cut short all these explanations, she took up her song again: "Hope, I've waited but too long For thy manna divine!

I've drunk enough of thy wine, And I know thy siren song: Waiting for a lucky turn, I have wasted my best days: Take up thy magic-lantern And elsewhere display its rays.

'Tis very nice to run, But to have is better fun!"

XXVI