Vedie was sent to wait upon him, and found him in the morning with his
eyes
swollen and red with
weeping. For a week or more, poor Rouget had
breakfasted alone, and Heaven knows on what food!
The day after Philippe's conversation with Monsieur Hochon, he
determined to pay a second visit to his uncle, whom he found much
changed. Flore stayed beside the old man,
speakingtenderly and
looking at him with much
affection; she played the
comedy so well that
Philippe guessed some immediate danger, merely from the solicitude
thus displayed in his presence. Gilet, whose
policy it was to avoid
all
collision with Philippe, did not appear. After watching his uncle
and Flore for a time with a discerning eye, the
colonel judged that
the time had come to strike his grand blow.
"Adieu, my dear uncle," he said, rising as if to leave the house.
"Oh! don't go yet," cried the old man, who was comforted by Flore's
false
tenderness. "Dine with us, Philippe."
"Yes, if you will come and take a walk with me."
"Monsieur is very feeble," interposed Mademoiselle Brazier; "just now
he was
unwilling even to go out in the carriage," she added, turning
upon the old man the fixed look with which keepers quell a maniac.
Philippe took Flore by the arm, compelling her to look at him, and
looking at her in return as fixedly as she had just looked at her
victim.
"Tell me,
mademoiselle," he said, "is it a fact that my uncle is not
free to take a walk with me?"
"Why, yes he is,
monsieur," replied Flore, who was
unable to make any
other answer.
"Very well. Come, uncle. Mademoiselle, give him his hat and cane."
"But--he never goes out without me. Do you,
monsieur?"
"Yes, Philippe, yes; I always want her--"
"It would be better to take the carriage," said Flore.
"Yes, let us take the carriage," cried the old man, in his
anxiety to
make his two tyrants agree.
"Uncle, you will come with me, alone, and on foot, or I shall never
return here; I shall know that the town of Issoudun tells the truth,
when it declares you are under the
dominion of Mademoiselle Flore
Brazier. That my uncle should love you, is all very well," he resumed,
holding Flore with a fixed eye; "that you should not love my uncle is
also on the cards; but when it comes to your making him unhappy--halt!
If people want to get hold of an
inheritance, they must earn it. Are
you coming, uncle?"
Philippe saw the eyes of the poor imbecile roving from himself to
Flore, in
painful hesitation.
"Ha! that's how it is, is it?" resumed the lieutenant-
colonel. "Well,
adieu, uncle. Mademoiselle, I kiss your hands."
He turned quickly when he reached the door, and caught Flore in the
act of making a menacing
gesture at his uncle.
"Uncle," he said, "if you wish to go with me, I will meet you at your
door in ten minutes: I am now going to see Monsieur Hochon. If you and
I do not take that walk, I shall take upon myself to make some others
walk."
So
saying, he went away, and crossed the place Saint-Jean to the
Hochons.
Every one can imagine the scenes which the revelations made by
Philippe to Monsieur Hochon had brought about within that family. At
nine o'clock, old Monsieur Heron, the notary, presented himself with a
bundle of papers, and found a fire in the hall which the old miser,
contrary to all his habits, had ordered to be lighted. Madame Hochon,
already dressed at this
unusual hour, was sitting in her
armchair at
the corner of the
fireplace. The two grandsons, warned the night
before by Adolphine that a storm was
gathering about their heads, had
been ordered to stay in the house. Summoned now by Gritte, they were
alarmed at the
formal preparations of their grandparents, whose
coldness and anger they had been made to feel in the air for the last
twenty-four hours.
"Don't rise for them," said their
grandfather to Monsieur Heron; "you
see before you two miscreants,
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unworthy of pardon."
"Oh, grandpapa!" said Francois.
"Be silent!" said the old man
sternly. "I know of your nocturnal life
and your
intimacy with Monsieur Maxence Gilet. But you will meet him
no more at Mere Cognette's at one in the morning; for you will not
leave this house, either of you, until you go to your respective
destinations. Ha! it was you who ruined Fario, was it? you, who have
narrowly escaped the police-courts-- Hold your tongue!" he said,
seeing that Baruch was about to speak. "You both owe money to Monsieur
Maxence Gilet; who, for six years, has paid for your debauchery.
Listen, both of you, to my
guardianship
accounts; after that, I shall
have more to say. You will see, after these papers are read, whether
you can still
trifle with me,--still
trifle with family laws by
betraying the secrets of this house, and reporting to a Monsieur
Maxence Gilet what is said and what is done here. For three thousand
francs, you became spies; for ten thousand, you would, no doubt,
become assassins. You did almost kill Madame Bridau; for Monsieur
Gilet knew very well it was Fario who stabbed him when he threw the
crime upon my guest, Monsieur Joseph Bridau. If that jail-bird did so
wicked an act, it was because you told him what Madame Bridau meant to
do. You, my grandsons, the spies of such a man! You, house-breakers
and marauders! Don't you know that your
worthy leader killed a poor
young woman, in 1806? I will not have assassins and
thieves in my
family. Pack your things; you shall go hang elsewhere!"
The two young men turned white and stiff as
plaster casts.
"Read on, Monsieur Heron," said Hochon.
The old notary read the
guardianship
accounts; from which it appeared
that the net fortune of the two Borniche children
amounted to seventy
thousand francs, a sum derived from the dowry of their mother: but
Monsieur Hochon had lent his daughter various large sums, and was now,
as
creditor, the owner of a part of the property of his Borniche
grandchildren. The
portion coming to Baruch
amounted to only twenty
thousand francs.
"Now you are rich," said the old man, "take your money, and go. I
remain master of my own property and that of Madame Hochon, who in
this matter shares all my intentions, and I shall give it to whom I
choose;
namely, our dear Adolphine. Yes, we can marry her if we please
to the son of a peer of France, for she will be an heiress."
"A noble fortune!" said Monsieur Heron.
"Monsieur Maxence Gilet will make up this loss to you," said Madame
Hochon.
"Let my hard-saved money go to a scapegrace like you? no, indeed!"
cried Monsieur Hochon.
"Forgive me!" stammered Baruch.
"'Forgive, and I won't do it again,'" sneered the old man, imitating a
child's voice. "If I were to
forgive you, and let you out of this
house, you would go and tell Monsieur Maxence what has happened, and
warn him to be on his guard. No, no, my little men. I shall keep my
eye on you, and I have means of
knowing what you do. As you
behave, so
shall I
behave to you. It will be by a long course of good conduct,
not that of a day or a month, but of years, that I shall judge you. I
am strong on my legs, my eyes are good, my health is sound; I hope to
live long enough to see what road you take. Your first move will be to
Paris, where you will study
banking under Messieurs Mongenod and Sons.
Ill-luck to you if you don't walk straight; you will be watched. Your
property is in the hand of Messieurs Mongenod; here is a cheque for
the
amount. Now then,
release me as
guardian, and sign the
accounts,
and also this receipt," he added,
taking the papers from Monsieur
Heron and handing them to Baruch.
"As for you, Francois Hochon, you owe me money instead of having any
to receive," said the old man, looking at his other grandson.
"Monsieur Heron, read his
account; it is all clear--perfectly clear."
The
reading was done in the midst of perfect stillness.
"You will have six hundred francs a year, and with that you will go to
Poitiers and study law," said the
grandfather, when the notary had
finished. "I had a fine life in
prospect for you; but now, you must
earn your living as a
lawyer. Ah! my young rascals, you have deceived
me for six years; you now know it has taken me but one hour to get
even with you: I have seven-leagued boots."
Just as old Monsieur Heron was preparing to leave with the signed
papers, Gritte announced Colonel Bridau. Madame Hochon left the room,
taking her grandsons with her, that she might, as old Hochon said,
confess them
privately and find out what effect this scene had
produced upon them.
Philippe and the old man stood in the embrasure of a window and spoke
in low tones.
"I have been reflecting on the state of your affairs over there," said
Monsieur Hochon pointing to the Rouget house. "I have just had a talk
with Monsieur Heron. The
security for the fifty thousand francs a year
from the property in the Funds cannot be sold unless by the owner
himself or some one with a power of
attorney from him. Now, since your
arrival here, your uncle has not signed any such power before any
notary; and, as he has not left Issoudun, he can't have signed one
elsewhere. If he attempts to give a power of
attorney here, we shall
know it
instantly; if he goes away to give one, we shall also know it,
for it will have to be registered, and that excellent Heron has means
of
finding it out. Therefore, if Rouget leaves Issoudun, have him
followed, learn where he goes, and we will find a way to discover what
he does."
"The power of
attorney has not been given," said Philippe; "they are
trying to get it; but--they--will--not--suc--ceed--" added the
vagabond, whose eye just then caught sight of his uncle on the steps
of the opposite house: he
pointed him out to Monsieur Hochon, and
related succinctly the particulars, at once so petty and so important,
of his visit.
"Maxence is afraid of me, but he can't evade me. Mignonnet says that
all the officers of the old army who are in Issoudun give a yearly
banquet on the
anniversary of the Emperor's
coronation; so Maxence
Gilet and I are sure to meet in a few days."
"If he gets a power of
attorney by the morning of the first of
December," said Hochon, "he might take the mail-post for Paris, and
give up the banquet."
"Very good. The first thing is, then, to get possession of my uncle;
I've an eye that cows a fool," said Philippe, giving Monsieur Hochon
an atrocious glance that made the old man tremble.
"If they let him walk with you, Maxence must believe he has found some
means to win the game," remarked the old miser.
"Oh! Fario is on the watch," said Philippe, "and he is not alone. That
Spaniard has discovered one of my old soldiers in the
neighborhood of
Vatan, a man I once did some service to. Without any one's suspecting
it, Benjamin Bourdet is under Fario's orders, who has lent him a horse
to get about with."
"If you kill that
monster who has corrupted my grandsons, I shall say
you have done a good deed."
"Thanks to me, the town of Issoudun now knows what Monsieur Maxence
Gilet has been doing at night for the last six years," replied
Philippe; "and the
cackle, as you call it here, is now started on him.
Morally his day is over."
The moment Philippe left his uncle's house Flore went to Max's room to
tell him every particular of the nephew's bold visit.
"What's to be done?" she asked.
"Before
trying the last means,--which will be to fight that big
reprobate," replied Maxence, "--we must play double or quits, and try
our grand stroke. Let the old idiot go with his nephew."
"But that big brute won't mince matters," remonstrated Flore; "he'll
call things by their right names."
"Listen to me," said Maxence in a harsh voice. "Do you think I've not
kept my ears open, and reflected about how we stand? Send to Pere
Cognette for a horse and a char-a-banc, and say we want them
instantly: they must be here in five minutes. Pack all your
belongings, take Vedie, and go to Vatan. Settle yourself there as if
you mean to stay; carry off the twenty thousand francs in gold which
the old fellow has got in his
drawer. If I bring him to you in Vatan,
you are to refuse to come back here unless he signs the power of
attorney. As soon as we get it I'll slip off to Paris, while you're
returning to Issoudun. When Jean-Jacques gets back from his walk and