Within an Inch of His Life Part 64

And he went toward the door. He was on the point of leaving, when Jacques cried out, almost in agony,--

"Great G.o.d, he forsakes me!"

"No," replied the advocate; "but I cannot discuss matters with you in the state of excitement in which you now are. You will think it over, and I will come again to-morrow."

He left; and Jacques de Boiscoran fell, utterly undone, on one of the prison chairs.

"It is all over," he stammered: "I am lost."

XV.

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 a.s.sembled 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 pa.s.sage: they have shut the wicket, and the door is ma.s.sive."

"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 antic.i.p.ations; 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 a.s.sembled thus reminded her of a funeral.

The sudden arrival of Dr. Seignebos cut short her remarks. He was in a great pa.s.sion, 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 a.s.suredly 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.