CHAPTER II.
Two days after the traveling-carriage described by Lomaque hadpassed the diligence on the road to Paris, Madame Danville sat in thedrawing-room of an apartment in the Rue de Grenelle, handsomely dressedfor driving out. After consulting a large gold watch that hung ather side, and finding that it wanted a quarter of an hour only totwo o'clock, she rang her hand-bell, and said to the maid-servant whoanswered the summons, "I have five minutes to spare. Send Dubois herewith my chocolate."
The old man made his appearance with great alacrity. After handing thecup of chocolate to his mistress, he ventured to use the privilege oftalking, to which his long and faithful services entitled him, and paidthe old lady a compliment. "I am rejoiced to see madame looking so youngand in such good spirits this morning," he said, with a low bow and amild, deferential smile.
"I think I have some reason for being in good spirits on the day when myson's marriage-contract is to be signed," said Madame Danville, with agracious nod of the head. "Ha, Dubois, I shall live yet to see him witha patent of nobility in his hand. The mob has done its worst; the endof this infamous revolution is not far off; our order will have its turnagain soon, and then who will have such a chance at court as my son? Heis noble already through his mother, he will then be noble alsothrough his wife. Yes, yes; let that coarse-mannered, passionate, oldsoldier-father of hers be as unnaturally republican as he pleases, hehas inherited a name which will help my son to a peerage! The VicomteD'Anville (D with an apostrophe, Dubois, you understand?), the VicomteD'Anville--how prettily it sounds!"
"Charmingly, madame--charmingly. Ah! this second marriage of my youngmaster's begins under much better auspices than the first."
The remark was an unfortunate one. Madame Danville frowned portentously,and rose in a great hurry from her chair.
"Are your wits failing you, you old fool?" she exclaimed, indignantly."What do you mean by referring to such a subject as that, on this day,of all others? You are always harping on those two wretched people whowere guillotined, as if you thought I could have saved their lives. Wereyou not present when my son and I met, after the time of the Terror? Didyou not hear my first words to him, when he told me of the catastrophe?Were they not 'Charles, I love you; but if I thought you had let thosetwo unfortunates, who risked themselves to save me, die without riskingyour life in return to save them, I would break my heart rather thanever look at you or speak to you again!' Did I not say that? And did henot answer, 'Mother, my life was risked for them. I proved my devotionby exposing myself to arrest--I was imprisoned for my exertions--andthen I could do no more!' Did you not stand by and hear him give thatanswer, overwhelmed while he spoke by generous emotion? Do you not knowthat he really was imprisoned in the Temple? Do you dare to think thatwe are to blame after that? I owe you much, Dubois, but if you are totake liberties with me--"
"Oh, madame! I beg pardon a thousand times. I was thoughtless--onlythoughtless--"
"Silence! Is my coach at the door? Very well. Get ready to accompany me.Your master will not have time to return here. He will meet me, for thesigning of the contract, at General Berthelin's house at two precisely.Stop! Are there many people in the street? I can't be stared at by themob as I go to my carriage."
Dubois hobbled penitently to the window and looked out, while hismistress walked to the door.
"The street is almost empty, madame," he said. "Only a man with a womanon his arm, stopping and admiring your carriage. They seem like decentpeople, as well as I can tell without my spectacles. Not mob, I shouldsay, madame; certainly not mob!"
"Very well. Attend me downstairs; and bring some loose silver with you,in case those two decent people should be fit objects for charity.No orders for the coachman, except that he is to go straight to thegeneral's house."
The party assembled at General Berthelin's to witness the signatureof the marriage-contract, comprised, besides the persons immediatelyinterested in the ceremony of the day, some young ladies, friends of thebride, and a few officers, who had been comrades of her father's in pastyears. The guests were distributed, rather unequally, in two handsomeapartments opening into each other--one called in the house thedrawing-room, and the other the library. In the drawing-room wereassembled the notary, with the contract ready, the bride, the youngladies, and the majority of General Berthelin's friends. In the library,the remainder of the military guests were amusing themselves at abilliard-table until the signing of the contract should take place,while Danville and his future father-in-law walked up and down the roomtogether, the first listening absently, the last talking with allhis accustomed energy, and with more than his accustomed allowanceof barrack-room expletives. The general had taken it into his head toexplain some of the clauses in the marriage-contract to the bridegroom,who, though far better acquainted with their full scope and meaning thanhis father-in-law, was obliged to listen for civility's sake. While theold soldier was still in the midst of his long and confused harangue, aclock struck on the library mantel-piece.
"Two o'clock!" exclaimed Danville, glad of any pretext for interruptingthe talk about the contract. "Two o'clock; and my mother not here yet!What can be delaying her?"
"Nothing," cried the general. "When did you ever know a woman punctual,my lad? If we wait for your mother--and she's such a rabid aristocratthat she would never forgive us for not waiting--we shan't sign thecontract yet this half-hour. Never mind! let's go on with what we weretalking about. Where the devil was I when that cursed clock struck andinterrupted us? Now then, Black Eyes, what's the matter?"
This last question was addressed to Mademoiselle Berthelin, who at thatmoment hastily entered the library from the drawing-room. She was a talland rather masculine-looking girl, with superb black eyes, dark hairgrowing low on her forehead, and something of her father's decision andbluntness in her manner of speaking.
"A stranger in the other room, papa, who wants to see you. I suppose theservants showed him upstairs, thinking he was one of the guests. Ought Ito have had him shown down again?"
"A nice question! How should I know? Wait till I have seen him, miss,and then I'll tell you!" With these words the general turned on hisheel, and went into the drawing-room.
His daughter would have followed him, but Danville caught her by thehand.
"Can you be hard-hearted enough to leave me here alone?" he asked.
"What is to become of all my bosom friends in the next room, you selfishman, if I stop here with you?" retorted mademoiselle, struggling to freeherself.
"Call them in here," said Danville gayly, making himself master of herother hand.
She laughed, and drew him away toward the drawing-room.
"Come," she cried, "and let all the ladies see what a tyrant I amgoing to marry. Come, and show them what an obstinate, unreasonable,wearisome--"
Her voice suddenly failed her; she shuddered, and turned faint.Danville's hand had in one instant grown cold as death in hers; themomentary touch of his fingers, as she felt their grasp loosen, strucksome mysterious chill through her from head to foot. She glancedround at him affrightedly, and saw his eyes looking straight into thedrawing-room. They were fixed in a strange, unwavering, awful stare,while, from the rest of his face, all expression, all character, allrecognizable play and movement of feature, had utterly gone. It wasa breathless, lifeless mask--a white blank. With a cry of terror, shelooked where he seemed to be looking; and could see nothing but thestranger standing in the middle of the drawing-room. Before she couldask a question--before she could speak even a single word--her fathercame to her, caught Danville by the arm, and pushed her roughly backinto the library.
"Go there, and take the women with you," he said, in a quick, fiercewhisper. "Into the library!" he continued, turning to the ladies,and raising his voice. "Into the library, all of you, along with mydaughter."
The women, terrified by his manner, obeyed him in the greatestconfusion. As they hurried past him into the library, he signed to thenotary to follow; and then closed the door of communic
ation between thetwo rooms.
"Stop where you are!" he cried, addressing the old officers, who hadrisen from their chairs. "Stay, I insist on it! Whatever happens,Jacques Berthelin has done nothing to be ashamed of in the presence ofhis old friends and companions. You have seen the beginning, now stayand see the end."
While he spoke, he walked into the middle of the room. He had neverquitted his hold of Danville's arm; step by step they advanced togetherto the place where Trudaine was standing.
"You have come into my house, and asked me for my daughter inmarriage--and I have given her to you," said the general, addressingDanville, quietly. "You told me that your first wife and her brotherwere guillotined three years ago in the time of the Terror--and Ibelieved you. Now look at that man--look him straight in the face. Hehas announced himself to me as the brother of your wife, and he assertsthat his sister is alive at this moment. One of you two has deceived me.Which is it?"
Danville tried to speak, but no sound passed his lips; tried to wrenchhis arm from the grasp that was on it, but could not stir the oldsoldier's steady hand.
"Are you afraid? are you a coward? Can't you look him in the face?"asked the general, tightening his hold sternly.
"Stop! stop!" interposed one of the old officers, coming forward. "Givehim time. This may be a case of strange accidental resemblance, whichwould be enough, under the circumstances, to discompose any man. Youwill excuse me, citizen," he continued, turning to Trudaine; "but youare a stranger. You have given us no proof of your identity."
"There is the proof," said Trudaine, pointing to Danville's face.
"Yes, yes," pursued the other; "he looks pale and startled enough,certainly. But I say again, let us not be too hasty; there are strangecases on record of accidental resemblances, and this may be one ofthem!"
As he repeated those words, Danville looked at him with a faint,cringing gratitude, stealing slowly over the blank terror of his face.He bowed his head, murmured something, and gesticulated confusedly withthe hand that he was free to use.
"Look!" cried the old officer; "look, Berthelin; he denies the man'sidentity."
"Do you hear that?" said the general, appealing to Trudaine. "Have youproofs to confute him? If you have, produce them instantly."
Before the answer could be given the door leading into the drawing-roomfrom the staircase was violently flung open, and Madame Danville--herhair in disorder, her face in its colorless terror looking like the verycounterpart of her son's--appeared on the threshold, with the old manDubois and a group of amazed and startled servants behind her.
"For God's sake, don't sign! for God's sake, come away!" she cried."I have seen your wife--in the spirit, or in the flesh, I know notwhich--but I have seen her. Charles! Charles! as true as Heaven is aboveus, I have seen your wife!"
"You have seen her in the flesh, living and breathing as you see herbrother yonder," said a firm, quiet voice, from among the servants onthe landing outside.
"Let that man enter, whoever he is!" cried the general.
Lomaque passed Madame Danville on the threshold. She trembled as hebrushed by her; then, supporting herself by the wall, followed him afew paces into the room. She looked first at her son--after that, atTrudaine--after that back again at her son. Something in her presencesilenced every one. There fell a sudden stillness over all theassembly--a stillness so deep that the eager, frightened whispering, andsharp rustling of dresses among the women in the library, became audiblefrom the other side of the closed door.
"Charles," she said, slowly advancing; "why do you look--" She stopped,and fixed her eyes again on her son more earnestly than before; thenturned them suddenly on Trudaine. "You are looking at my son, sir," shesaid, "and I see contempt in your face. By what right do you insult aman whose grateful sense of his mother's obligations to you made himrisk his life for the saving of yours and your sister's? By whatright have you kept the escape of my son's wife from death by theguillotine--an escape which, for all I know to the contrary, hisgenerous exertions were instrumental in effecting--a secret from my son?By what right, I demand to know, has your treacherous secrecy placed usin such a position as we now stand in before the master of this house?"
An expression of sorrow and pity passed over Trudaine's face whileshe spoke. He retired a few steps, and gave her no answer. The generallooked at him with eager curiosity, and, dropping his hold of Danville'sarm, seemed about to speak; but Lomaque stepped forward at the sametime, and held up his hand to claim attention.
"I think I shall express the wishes of Citizen Trudaine," he said,addressing Madame Danville, "if I recommend this lady not to press fortoo public an answer to her questions."
"Pray who are you, sir, who take it on yourself to advise me?" sheretorted, haughtily. "I have nothing to say to you, except that I repeatthose questions, and that I insist on their being answered."
"Who is this man?" asked the general, addressing Trudaine, and pointingto Lomaque.
"A man unworthy of credit," cried Danville, speaking audibly for thefirst time, and darting a look of deadly hatred at Lomaque. "An agent ofpolice under Robespierre."
"And in that capacity capable of answering questions which refer to thetransactions of Robespierre's tribunals," remarked the ex-chief agent,with his old official self-possession.
"True!" exclaimed the general; "the man is right--let him be heard."
"There is no help for it," said Lomaque, looking at Trudaine; "leave itto me--it is fittest that I should speak. I was present," he continued,in a louder voice, "at the trial of Citizen Trudaine and his sister.They were brought to the bar through the denunciation of CitizenDanville. Till the confession of the male prisoner exposed the fact,I can answer for Danville's not being aware of the real nature of theoffenses charged against Trudaine and his sister. When it became knownthat they had been secretly helping this lady to escape from France, andwhen Danville's own head was consequently in danger, I myself heardhim save it by a false assertion that he had been aware of Trudaine'sconspiracy from the first--"
"Do you mean to say," interrupted the general, "that he proclaimedhimself in open court as having knowingly denounced the man who was ontrial for saving his mother?"
"I do," answered Lomaque. (A murmur of horror and indignation rose fromall the strangers present at that reply.) "The reports of the Tribunalare existing to prove the truth of what I say," he went on. "As to theescape of Citizen Trudaine and the wife of Danville from the guillotine,it was the work of political circumstances, which there are personsliving to speak to if necessary; and of a little stratagem of mine,which need not be referred to now. And, last, with reference to theconcealment which followed the escape, I beg to inform you that it wasabandoned the moment we knew of what was going on here; and that it wasonly persevered in up to this time, as a natural measure of precautionon the part of Citizen Trudaine. From a similar motive we now abstainfrom exposing his sister to the shock and the peril of being presenthere. What man with an atom of feeling would risk letting her even lookagain on such a husband as that?"
He glanced round him, and pointed to Danville, as he put the question.Before a word could be spoken by any one else in the room, a low wailingcry of "My mistress! my dear, dear mistress!" directed all eyes first onthe old man Dubois, then on Madame Danville.
She had been leaning against the wall, before Lomaque began to speak;but she stood perfectly upright now. She neither spoke nor moved. Notone of the light gaudy ribbons flaunting on her disordered head-dressso much as trembled. The old servant Dubois was crouched on his kneesat her side, kissing her cold right hand, chafing it in his, reiteratinghis faint, mournful cry, "Oh! my mistress! my dear, dear mistress!" butshe did not appear to know that he was near her. It was only when herson advanced a step or two toward her that she seemed to awaken suddenlyfrom that death-trance of mental pain. Then she slowly raised the handthat was free, and waved him back from her. He stopped in obedience tothe gesture, and endeavored to speak. She waved her hand again, and thedeathly stillnes
s of her face began to grow troubled. Her lips moved alittle--she spoke.
"Oblige me, sir, for the last time, by keeping silence. You and I havehenceforth nothing to say to each other. I am the daughter of a race ofnobles, and the widow of a man of honor. You are a traitor and a falsewitness--a thing from which all true men and true women turn withcontempt. I renounce you! Publicly, in the presence of these gentlemen,I say it--I have no son."
She turned her back on him; and, bowing to the other persons in theroom with the old formal courtesy of by-gone times, walked slowly andsteadily to the door. Stopping there, she looked back; and then theartificial courage of the moment failed her. With a faint, suppressedcry she clutched at the hand of the old servant, who still keptfaithfully at her side; he caught her in his arms, and her head sank onhis shoulder.
"Help him!" cried the general to the servants near the door. "Help himto take her into the next room!"
The old man looked up suspiciously from his mistress to the persons whowere assisting him to support her. With a strange, sudden jealousy heshook his hand at them. "Home," he cried; "she shall go home, and I willtake care of her. Away! you there--nobody holds her head but Dubois.Downstairs! downstairs to her carriage! She has nobody but me now, and Isay that she shall be taken home."
As the door closed, General Berthelin approached Trudaine, who hadstood silent and apart, from the time when Lomaque first appeared in thedrawing-room.
"I wish to ask your pardon," said the old soldier, "because I havewronged you by a moment of unjust suspicion. For my daughter's sake,I bitterly regret that we did not see each other long ago; but I thankyou, nevertheless, for coming here, even at the eleventh hour."
While he was speaking, one of his friends came up, and touching him onthe shoulder, said: "Berthelin, is that scoundrel to be allowed to go?"
The general turned on his heel directly, and beckoned contemptuously toDanville to follow him to the door. When they were well out of ear-shot,he spoke these words:
"You have been exposed as a villain by your brother-in-law, andrenounced as a liar by your mother. They have done their duty by you,and now it only remains for me to do mine. When a man enters the houseof another under false pretenses, and compromises the reputation ofhis daughter, we old army men have a very expeditious way of making himanswer for it. It is just three o'clock now; at five you will find meand one of my friends--"
He stopped, and looked round cautiously--then whispered the rest inDanville's ear--threw open the door, and pointed downstairs.
"Our work here is done," said Lomaque, laying his hand on Trudaine'sarm. "Let us give Danville time to get clear of the house, and thenleave it too."
"My sister! where is she?" asked Trudaine, eagerly.
"Make your mind easy about her. I will tell you more when we get out."
"You will excuse me, I know," said General Berthelin, speaking to allthe persons present, with his hand on the library door, "if I leave you.I have bad news to break to my daughter, and private business after thatto settle with a friend."
He saluted the company, with his usual bluff nod of the head, andentered the library. A few minutes afterward, Trudaine and Lomaque leftthe house.
"You will find your sister waiting for you in our apartment at thehotel," said the latter. "She knows nothing, absolutely nothing, of whathas passed."
"But the recognition?" asked Trudaine, amazedly. "His mother saw her.Surely she--"
"I managed it so that she should be seen, and should not see. Our formerexperience of Danville suggested to me the propriety of making theexperiment, and my old police-office practice came in useful in carryingit out. I saw the carriage standing at the door, and waited till the oldlady came down. I walked your sister away as she got in, and walked herback again past the window as the carriage drove off. A moment did it,and it turned out as useful as I thought it would. Enough of that! Goback now to your sister. Keep indoors till the night mail starts forRouen. I have had two places taken for you on speculation. Go! resumepossession of your house, and leave me here to transact the businesswhich my employer has intrusted to me, and to see how matters end withDanville and his mother. I will make time somehow to come and bid yougood-by at Rouen, though it should be only for a single day. Bah! nothanks. Give us your hand. I was ashamed to take it eight years ago--Ican give it a hearty shake now! There is your way; here is mine. Leaveme to my business in silks and satins, and go you back to your sister,and help her to pack up for the night mail."