The of the Crevel so that his at this woman in at his was forgotten. Besides, and a woman may be, when she is her disappears. A Madame Marneffe, as has been seen, now and then, a tear her cheek; but as to melting into and making her and nose red! would she such a blunder.
"Come, child, yourself. Deuce take it!" Crevel on, taking Madame Hulot's hands in his own and them. "Why do you apply to me for two hundred thousand francs? What do you want with them? Whom are they for?"
"Do not," said she, "insist on any explanations. Give me the money! You will save three and the of our children."
"And do you suppose, my good mother, that in all Paris you will a man who at a word from a half-crazy woman will go off et nunc, and out of some drawer, Heaven where, two hundred thousand that have been there till she is pleased to them up? Is that all you know of life and of business, my beauty? Your are in a way; you may send them the last sacraments; for no one in Paris but her Divine Highness Madame la Banque, or the great Nucingen, or some who is in love with gold as we other are with a woman, produce such a miracle! The list, as it may be, would you to call again tomorrow. Every one his money, and it over to the best of his powers.
"You are mistaken, my angel, if you that King Louis-Philippe us; he himself than that. He as well as we do that above the Charter the holy, venerated, substantial, delightful, obliging, beautiful, noble, ever-youthful, and all-powerful five-franc piece! But money, my beauty, on interest, and is always in it! ‘God of the Jews, art supreme!' says Racine. The of the calf, you see! In the days of Moses there was stock-jobbing in the desert!
"We have to Biblical traditions; the Golden Calf was the State ledger," he on. "You, my Adeline, have not gone the Rue Plumet. The Egyptians had to the Hebrews, and what they ran after was not God's people, but their capital."
He looked at the Baroness with an which said, "How I am!"
"You know nothing of the of every city man to his hoard!" he on, after a pause. "Excuse me. Listen to me. Get this well into your head. You want two hundred thousand francs? No one can produce the without selling some security. Now consider! To have two hundred thousand in hard cash it would be needful to sell about seven hundred thousand francs' of stock at three cent. Well; and then you would only the money on the third day. That is the way. To a man to part with a fortune—for two hundred thousand is the whole of many a man—he ought at least to know where it is all going to, and for what purpose "
"It is going, my dear Crevel, to save the of two men, one of will die of and the other will kill himself! And to save me too from going mad! Am I not a little already?"
"Not so mad!" said he, taking Madame Hulot the knees; "old Crevel has his price, since you of to him, my angel."
"They submit to have a man's arms their knees, it would seem!" the woman, her with her hands.
"Once you offered me a fortune!" said she, red.
"Ay, mother! but that was three years ago!" Crevel. "Well, you are now than I saw you!" he on, taking the Baroness' arm and pressing it to his heart. "You have a good memory, my dear, by Jove! And now you see how you were to be so prudish, for those three hundred thousand that you so are in another woman's pocket. I loved you then, I love you still; but just look these three years.
"When I said to you, ‘You shall be mine,' what object had I in view? I meant to be on that Hulot. But your husband, my beauty, himself a mistress—a of a woman, a pearl, a then three-and-twenty, for she is six-and-twenty now. It me as more amusing, more complete, more Louis XV., more Marechal de Richelieu, more first-class altogether, to away that charmer, who, in point of fact, for Hulot, and who for these three years has been in love with your servant."
As he spoke, Crevel, from hands the Baroness had her own, had his attitude; thumbs were into his armholes, and he was his with his fingers, like two wings, that he was thus making himself very and charming. It was as much as to say, "And this is the man you would have nothing to say to!"
"There you are my dear; I had my revenge, and your husband it. I proved to him that he was basketed—just where he was before, as we say. Madame Marneffe is my mistress, and when her Marneffe kicks the bucket, she will be my wife."
Madame Hulot at Crevel with a and almost look.
"Hector it?" she said.
"And to her," Crevel. "And I allowed it, Valerie to be the wife of a head-clerk; but she promised me that she would manage so that our Baron should be so over that he can any more. And my little duchess—for that woman is a duchess, on my soul! her word. She you your Hector, madame, in perpetuity, as she says—she is so witty! He has had a good lesson, I can tell you! The Baron has had some hard knocks; he will help no more or ladies; he is cured; out like a beer-glass.
"If you had to Crevel in the instance, of him and him out of the house, you might have had four hundred thousand francs, for my has cost me all of that. But I shall my back, I hope, when Marneffe dies—I have in a wife, you see; that is the of my extravagance. I have solved the problem of playing the lord on easy terms."
"Would you give your such a mother-in-law? Madame Hulot.
"You do not know Valerie, madame," Crevel gravely, the of his manner. "She is a woman with good blood in her veins, a lady, and a woman who the consideration. Why, only yesterday the of the was with her. She is pious, and we have presented a to the church.
"Oh! she is clever, she is witty, she is delightful, well informed—she has in her favor. For my part, my dear Adeline, I to that woman; she has opened my mind, my speech, as you may have noticed; she my impetuosity, and me and ideas. I say anything now that I ought not. I have improved; you must have noticed it. And then she has my ambition. I shall be a Deputy; and I shall make no blunders, for I shall my Egeria. Every great politician, from Numa to our present Prime Minister, has had his Sibyl of the fountain. A score of visit Valerie; she is influence; and now that she is about to be in a house, with a carriage, she will be one of the of Paris.
"A locomotive! That is what such a woman is. Oh, I have you many a time for your virtue."
"It is to make one the of God!" Adeline, had her tears. "But, no! Divine must be over her head."
"You know nothing of the world, my beauty," said the great politician, offended. "The world, my Adeline, loves success! Say, now, has it come to out your virtue, priced at two hundred thousand francs?"
The Madame Hulot shudder; the her once more. She saw that the ex-perfumer was taking a on her as he had on Hulot; she with disgust, and a rose to her throat, speech.
"Money!" she said at last. "Always money!"
"You touched me deeply," said Crevel, by these of the woman's humiliation, "when I you there, at my feet! You will not me, but if I had my pocket-book about me, it would have been yours. Come, do you want such a sum?"
As she this question, big with two hundred thousand francs, Adeline the on her by this cheap-jack gentleman, the picture of success by Machiavelli-Crevel, who only wanted to out her and laugh over them with Valerie.
"Oh! I will do anything, everything," the woman. "Monsieur, I will sell myself—I will be a Valerie, if I must."
"You will that difficult," Crevel. "Valerie is a in her way. My good mother, twenty-five years of are always repellent, like a disease. And your has very mouldy, my dear child. But you shall see how much I love you. I will manage to you your two hundred thousand francs."
Adeline, of a word, his hand and it on her heart; a tear of in her eyes.
"Oh! don't be in a hurry; there will be some hard pulling. I am a good fellow, a good with no prejudices, and I will put to you. You want to do as Valerie does—very good. But that is not all; you must have a gull, a stockholder, a Hulot. Well, I know a retired tradesman—in fact, a hosier. He is heavy, dull, has not an idea, I am him into shape, but I don't know when he will do me credit. My man is a deputy, and conceited; the of a wife, in the of the country, has him in a of as to the luxury and of Paris life. But Beauvisage—his name is Beauvisage—is a millionaire, and, like me, my dear, three years ago, he will give a hundred thousand to be the lover of a lady. Yes, you see," he on, a on Adeline's part, "he is of me, you understand; of my with Madame Marneffe, and he is a of selling an to purchase a "
"Enough, Monsieur Crevel!" said Madame Hulot, no longer her disgust, and all her in her face. "I am my deserts. My conscience, so by the iron hand of necessity, tells me, at this final insult, that such are impossible. My is gone; I do not say now, as I did the time, ‘Go!' after this thrust. I have the right to do so. I have myself you like a prostitute.
"Yes," she on, in reply to a negative on Crevel's part, "I have my life, till now so pure, by a thought; and I am inexcusable! I know it! I every you can offer me! God's will be done! If, indeed, He the death of two to appear Him, they must die! I shall them, and pray for them! If it is His will that my family should be to the dust, we must to His sword, nay, and it, since we are Christians. I know how to this disgrace, which will be the of all my days.
"I who speak to you, monsieur, am not Madame Hulot, but a wretched, sinner, a Christian will know but one feeling, and that is repentance, all my time up to prayer and charity. With such a on my soul, I am the last of women, the only of penitents. You have been the means of me to a right mind; I can the Voice of God speaking me, and I can thank you!"
She was with the which from that hour left her. Her low, sweet were the of the woman who was for to save her family. The blood from her cheeks, her was colorless, and her were dry.
"And I played my part very badly, did I not?" she on, looking at Crevel with the that must have in their as they looked up at the Proconsul. "True love, the love of a woman, other pleasures, no doubt, than those that are in the open market! But why so many words?" said she, herself, and a step in the way to perfection. "They like irony, but I am not ironical! Forgive me. Besides, monsieur, I did not want to any one but myself "
The of and its had the of the woman who, in her own beauty, looked in Crevel's eyes. Adeline had, at this moment, the of the of Religion to the Cross, as painted by the old Venetians; but she expressed, too, the of her love and the of the Catholic Church, to which she like a dove.
Crevel was dazzled, astounded.
"Madame, I am your slave, without conditions," said he, in an of generosity. "We will look into this matter—and—whatever you want—the even—I will do. I will my at the Bank, and in two hours you shall have the money."
"Good God! a miracle!" said Adeline, on her knees.
She prayed to Heaven with such as touched Crevel deeply; Madame Hulot saw that he had in his when, having ended her prayer, she rose to her feet.
"Be a friend to me, monsieur," said she. "Your is than your and conduct. God gave you your soul; your and the world have you your ideas. Oh, I will love you truly," she exclaimed, with an in with her at trickery.
"But to so," said Crevel.
"Am I trembling?" said the Baroness, of the that had so come upon her.
"Yes; why, look," said Crevel, taking Adeline by the arm and her that she was with nervousness. "Come, madame," he added respectfully, "compose yourself; I am going to the Bank at once."
"And come quickly! Remember," she added, all her secrets, "that the point is to prevent the suicide of our Uncle Fischer by my husband—for I trust you now, and I am telling you everything. Oh, if we should not be on time, I know my brother-in-law, the Marshal, and he has such a soul, that he would die of it in a days."
"I am off, then," said Crevel, the Baroness' hand. "But what has that Hulot done?"
"He has the Government."
"Good Heavens! I fly, madame; I understand, I you!"
Crevel one knee, Madame Hulot's skirt, and vanished, saying, "You will see me soon."
Unluckily, on his way from the Rue Plumet to his own house, to the securities, Crevel along the Rue Vanneau, and he not going in to see his little Duchess. His still an expression.
He into Valerie's room, who was having her dressed. She looked at Crevel in her glass, and, like every woman of that sort, was annoyed, she anything about it, to see that he was moved by some of which she was not the cause.
"What is the matter, my dear?" said she. "Is that a to in to your little Duchess? I will not be your Duchess any more, monsieur, no more than I will be your ‘little duck,' you old monster."
Crevel by a and a at the maid.
"Reine, child, that will do for to-day; I can my myself. Give me my Chinese wrapper; my to me out of sorts."
Reine, was like a colander, and who to have been on purpose to wait on Valerie, in reply, and the dressing-gown. Valerie took off her combing-wrapper; she was in her shift, and she into the dressing-gown like a into a of grass.
"Madame is not at home?"
"What a question!" said Valerie. "Come, tell me, my big puss, have Rives Gauches gone down?"
"No."
"They have the price of the house?"
"No."
"You that you are not the father of our little Crevel?"
"What nonsense!" he, sure of his paternity.
"On my honor, I give it up!" said Madame Marneffe. "If I am to my friend's as you the out of a bottle of Bordeaux, I let it alone. Go away, you me."
"It is nothing," said Crevel. "I must two hundred thousand in two hours."
"Oh, you can easily them. I have not the fifty thousand we got out of Hulot for that report, and I can ask Henri for fifty thousand "
"Henri—it is always Henri!" Crevel.
"And do you suppose, you great of a Machiavelli, that I will off Henri? Would France her fleet? Henri! why, he is a in a on a nail. That boy as a weather-glass to me if you love me—and you don't love me this morning."
"I don't love you, Valerie?" Crevel. "I love you as much as a million."
"That is not nearly enough!" she, jumping on to Crevel's knee, and arms his as if it were a to on by. "I want to be loved as much as ten millions, as much as all the gold in the world, and more to that. Henri would wait a minute telling me all he had on his mind. What is it, my great pet? Have it out. Make a clean of it to your own little duck!"
And she her over Crevel's face, while she his nose.
"Can a man with a nose like that," she on, "have any from his Vava—lele—ririe?"
And at the Vava she his nose to the right; at it to the left; at she it again.
"Well, I have just " Crevel stopped and looked at Madame Marneffe.
"Valerie, my treasure, promise me on your honor—ours, you know? not to repeat a single word of what I tell you."
"Of course, Mayor, we know all about that. One hand up—so—and one foot—so!" And she put herself in an which, to use Rabelais' phrase, Crevel from his brain to his heels, so and was the through the light of lawn.
"I have just in despair."
"Can virtue?" said she, and her arms like Napoleon.
"It is Madame Hulot. She wants two hundred thousand francs, or else Marshal Hulot and old Johann Fischer will their out; and as you, my little Duchess, are at the of the mischief, I am going to up. She is a creature, I know her well; she will you every penny."
At the name of Hulot, at the two hundred thousand francs, a from Valerie's from her long like the of a through the smoke.
"What did the old thing do to move you to compassion? Did she you—what? her—her religion?"
"Do not make game of her, sweetheart; she is a very saintly, a very and woman, of all respect."
"Am I not of respect then, heh?" answered Valerie, with a at Crevel.
"I said so," he, that the of might not be to Madame Marneffe.
"I am too," Valerie on, taking her seat in an armchair; "but I do not make a of my religion. I go to church in secret."
She sat in silence, and paid no to Crevel. He, at ease, came to in of the chair into which Valerie had herself, and saw her in the he had been so as to suggest.
"Valerie, my little Angel!"
Utter silence. A problematical tear was away.
"One word, my little duck?"
"Monsieur!"
"What are you of, my darling?"
"Oh, Monsieur Crevel, I was of the day of my communion! How I was! How pure, how saintly! immaculate! Oh! if any one had come to my mother and said, ‘Your will be a hussy, and to her husband; one day a police-officer will her in a house; she will sell herself to a Crevel to a Hulot—two old men—' Poof! horrible—she would have died the end of the sentence, she was so of me, dear! "
"Nay, be calm."
"You cannot think how well a woman must love a man she can the that at the of an wife. I am sorry that Reine is not here; she would have told you that she me this praying with in my eyes. I, Monsieur Crevel, for my part, do not make a of religion. Have you me say a word I ought not on such a subject?"
Crevel his in negation.
"I will allow it to be mentioned in my presence. I can make fun of anything under the sun: Kings, politics, finance, that is in the of the world—judges, matrimony, and love—old men and maidens. But the Church and God! There I the line. I know I am wicked; I am my life to you. And you have no of the of my love."
Crevel his hands.
"No, unless you see into my heart, and the of my so as to know the of my sacrifice! I in me the making of a Magdalen. And see how I the priests; think of the gifts I make to the Church! My mother me up in the Catholic Faith, and I know what is meant by God! It is to like us that His voice is most awful."
Valerie away two that her cheeks. Crevel was in dismay. Madame Marneffe up in her excitement.
"Be calm, my darling—you me!"
Madame Marneffe on her knees.
"Dear Heaven! I am not all through!" she cried, her hands. "Vouchsafe to Thy lamb, her, her, her from and hands, and how she will on Thy shoulder! How she will return to the fold!"
She got up and looked at Crevel; her him.
"Yes, Crevel, and, do you know? I, too, am sometimes. The of God is in this world as well as in the next. What can I at God's hands? His overtakes the in many ways; it every of disaster. That is what my mother told me on her death-bed, speaking of her own old age. But if I should you," she added, Crevel with a of "oh! I should die!"
Madame Marneffe Crevel, again at the armchair, her hands—and in what a attitude! and with out the prayer:—
"And thou, Saint Valerie, my saint, why so visit the pillow of her who was to care? Oh, come this evening, as this morning, to me with thoughts, and I will the path of sin; like the Magdalen, I will give up and the false of the world, the man I love so well "
"My duck!"
"No more of the ‘precious duck,' monsieur!" said she, like a wife, her full of tears, but dignified, cold, and indifferent.
"Leave me," she on, pushing him from her. "What is my duty? To to my husband. He is a man, and what am I doing? Deceiving him on the of the grave. He your child to be his. I will tell him the truth, and by his I ask for God's. We must part. Good-bye, Monsieur Crevel," and she up to offer him an cold hand. "Good-bye, my friend; we shall meet no more till we meet in a world. You have to thank me for some enjoyment, indeed; now I want—oh yes, I shall have your esteem."
Crevel was tears.
"You great pumpkin!" she exclaimed, with an of laughter. "That is how your go about it to from you a of two hundred thousand francs. And you, who talk of the Marechal de Richelieu, the of Lovelace, you be taken in by such a as that! I hundreds of thousands of out of you any day, if I chose, you old ninny! Keep your money! If you have more than you know what to do with, it is mine. If you give two to that ‘respectable' woman, who is forsooth, she is fifty-six years of age, we shall meet again, and you may take her for your mistress! You come to me next day all over from her and with her tears, and of her little barmaid's and her whimpering, which must turn her into "
"In point of fact," said Crevel, "two hundred thousand is a of money."
"They have appetites, have the sort! By the poker! they sell their than we sell the and thing on earth—pleasure. And they can a yarn! There, I know them. I have in my mother's house. They think is for the Church and for—Really, my dear love, you ought to be of yourself—for you are not so open-handed! You have not me two hundred thousand all told!"
"Oh yes," said Crevel, "your little house will cost as much as that."
"Then you have four hundred thousand francs?" said she thoughtfully.
"No."
"Then, sir, you meant to that old the two hundred thousand for my hotel? What a crime, what high treason!"
"Only to me."
"If you were the money to some scheme, you would be as a man," she on, with eagerness, "and I should be the to it; for you are too to a big political book that might make you famous; as for style, you have not to a pamphlet; but you might do as other men do who are in your predicament, and who a of about their name by it at the top of some social, or moral, or general, or national enterprise. Benevolence is out of date, vulgar. Providing for old offenders, and making them more than the who are honest, is played out. What I should like to see is some of your own with an of two hundred thousand francs—something difficult and useful. Then you would be talked about as a man of mark, a Montyon, and I should be very proud of you!
"But as to two hundred thousand into a holy-water shell, or them to a bigot—cast off by her husband, and who why? there is always some reason: any one me off, I ask you? is a piece of which in our days only come into the of a retired perfumer. It of the counter. You would not look at in the two days after.
"Go and pay the money in where it will be safe—run, fly; I will not admit you again without the receipt in your hand. Go, as fast and soon as you can!"
She pushed Crevel out of the room by the shoulders, in his once more. When she the door shut, she exclaimed:
"Then Lisbeth is over and over again! What a that she is at her old Marshal's now! We would have had a good laugh! So that old woman wants to take the out of my mouth. I will her a little!"
