Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Part 48

"If the characters of cerebral congestion are well ascertained, we have here, considering the patient's age, a sufficient cause of death,"

observed Desplein, looking at the enormous ma.s.s of material.

"Did he sup here?" asked Bianchon.

"No," said Corentin; "he came here in great haste from the Boulevard, and found his daughter ruined----"

"That was the poison if he loved his daughter," said Bianchon.

"What known poison could produce a similar effect?" asked Corentin, clinging to his idea.

"There is but one," said Desplein, after a careful examination. "It is a poison found in the Malayan Archipelago, and derived from trees, as yet but little known, of the strychnos family; it is used to poison that dangerous weapon, the Malay kris.--At least, so it is reported."

The Police Commissioner presently arrived; Corentin told him his suspicions, and begged him to draw up a report, telling him where and with whom Peyrade had supped, and the causes of the state in which he found Lydie.

Corentin then went to Lydie's rooms; Desplein and Bianchon had been examining the poor child. He met them at the door.

"Well, gentlemen?" asked Corentin.

"Place the girl under medical care; unless she recovers her wits when her child is born--if indeed she should have a child--she will end her days melancholy-mad. There is no hope of a cure but in the maternal instinct, if it can be aroused."

Corentin paid each of the physicians forty francs in gold, and then turned to the Police Commissioner, who had pulled him by the sleeve.

"The medical officer insists on it that death was natural," said this functionary, "and I can hardly report the case, especially as the dead man was old Canquoelle; he had his finger in too many pies, and we should not be sure whom we might run foul of. Men like that die to order very often----"

"And my name is Corentin," said Corentin in the man's ear.

The Commissioner started with surprise.

"So just make a note of all this," Corentin went on; "it will be very useful by and by; send it up only as confidential information. The crime cannot be proved, and I know that any inquiry would be checked at the very outset.--But I will catch the criminals some day yet. I will watch them and take them red-handed."

The police official bowed to Corentin and left.

"Monsieur," said Katt. "Mademoiselle does nothing but dance and sing.

What can I do?"

"Has any change occurred then?"

"She has understood that her father is just dead."

"Put her into a hackney coach, and simply take her to Charenton; I will write a note to the Commissioner-General of Police to secure her being suitably provided for.--The daughter in Charenton, the father in a pauper's grave!" said Corentin--"Contenson, go and fetch the parish hea.r.s.e. And now, Don Carlos Herrera, you and I will fight it out!"

"Carlos?" said Contenson, "he is in Spain."

"He is in Paris," said Corentin positively. "There is a touch of Spanish genius of the Philip II. type in all this; but I have pitfalls for everybody, even for kings."

Five days after the nabob's disappearance, Madame du Val-n.o.ble was sitting by Esther's bedside weeping, for she felt herself on one of the slopes down to poverty.

"If I only had at least a hundred louis a year! With that sum, my dear, a woman can retire to some little town and find a husband----"

"I can get you as much as that," said Esther.

"How?" cried Madame du Val-n.o.ble.

"Oh, in a very simple way. Listen. You must plan to kill yourself; play your part well. Send for Asie and offer her ten thousand francs for two black beads of very thin gla.s.s containing a poison which kills you in a second. Bring them to me, and I will give you fifty thousand francs for them."

"Why do you not ask her for them yourself?" said her friend.

"Asie would not sell them to me."

"They are not for yourself?" asked Madame du Val-n.o.ble.

"Perhaps."

"You! who live in the midst of pleasure and luxury, in a house of your own? And on the eve of an entertainment which will be the talk of Paris for ten years--which is to cost Nucingen twenty thousand francs! There are to be strawberries in mid-February, they say, asparagus, grapes, melons!--and a thousand crowns' worth of flowers in the rooms."

"What are you talking about? There are a thousand crowns' worth of roses on the stairs alone."

"And your gown is said to have cost ten thousand francs?"

"Yes, it is of Brussels point, and Delphine, his wife, is furious. But I had a fancy to be disguised as a bride."

"Where are the ten thousand francs?" asked Madame du Val-n.o.ble.

"It is all the ready money I have," said Esther, smiling. "Open my table drawer; it is under the curl-papers."

"People who talk of dying never kill themselves," said Madame du Val-n.o.ble. "If it were to commit----"

"A crime? For shame!" said Esther, finis.h.i.+ng her friend's thought, as she hesitated. "Be quite easy, I have no intention of killing anybody.

I had a friend--a very happy woman; she is dead, I must follow her--that is all."

"How foolis.h.!.+"

"How can I help it? I promised her I would."

"I should let that bill go dishonored," said her friend, smiling.

"Do as I tell you, and go at once. I hear a carriage coming. It is Nucingen, a man who will go mad with joy! Yes, he loves me!--Why do we not love those who love us, for indeed they do all they can to please us?"

"Ah, that is the question!" said Madame du Val-n.o.ble. "It is the old story of the herring, which is the most puzzling fish that swims."

"Why?"

"Well, no one could ever find out."

"Get along, my dear!--I must ask for your fifty thousand francs."