THE MINISTER'S CABINET.
The carriage had stopped before some steps covered with snow, which led to a vestibule lighted by a lamp.The better to ascend the steps, which were somewhat slippery, Adrienne leaned upon the doctor's arm.
"Dear me! how you tremble," said he.
"Yes," replied she, shuddering, "I feel deadly cold.In my haste, I came out without a shawl.But how gloomy this house appears," she added, pointing to the entrance.
"It is what you call the minister's private house, the sanctum sanctorum, whither our statesman retires far from the sound of the profane," said Dr.Baleinier, with a smile."Pray come in!" and he pushed open the door of a large hall, completely empty.
"They are right in saying," resumed Dr.Baleinier, who covered his secret agitation with an appearance of gayety, "that a minister's house is like nobody else's.Not a footman--not a page, I should say--to be found in the antechamber.Luckily," added he, opening the door of a room which communicated with the vestibule, "`In this seraglio reared, I know the secret ways.'"
Mdlle.de Cardoville was now introduced into an apartment hung with green embossed paper, and very simply furnished with mahogany chairs, covered with yellow velvet; the floor was carefully polished, and a globe lamp, which gave at most a third of its proper light, was suspended (at a much greater height than usual) from the ceiling.Finding the appearance of this habitation singularly plain for the dwelling of a minister, Adrienne, though she had no suspicion, could not suppress a movement of surprise and paused a moment on the threshold of the door.M.Baleinier, by whose arm she held, guessed the cause of her astonishment, and said to her with a smile:
"This place appears to you very paltry for `his excellency,' does it not?
If you knew what a thing constitutional economy is!--Moreover, you will see a `my lord,' who has almost as little pretension as his furniture.
But please to wait for me an instant.I will go and inform the minister you are here, and return immediately."
Gently disengaging himself from the grasp of Adrienne, who had involuntarily pressed close to him, the physician opened a small side-
door, by which he instantly disappeared.Adrienne de Cardoville was left alone.
Though she could not have explained the cause of her impression, there was something awe-inspiring to the young lady in this large, cold, naked, curtainless room; and as, by degrees, she noticed certain peculiarities in the furniture, which she had not at first perceived, she was seized with an indefinable feeling of uneasiness.
Approaching the cheerless hearth, she perceived with surprise that an iron grating completely enclosed the opening of the chimney, and that the tongs and shovel were fastened with iron chains.Already astonished by this singularity, she was about mechanically to draw towards her an armchair placed against the wall, when she found that it remained motionless.She then discovered that the back of this piece of furniture, as well as that of all the other chairs, was fastened to the wainscoting by iron clamps.Unable to repress a smile, she exclaimed:
"Have they so little confidence in the statesman in whose house I am, that they are obliged to fasten the furniture to the walls?"
Adrienne had recourse to this somewhat forced pleasantry as a kind of effort to resist the painful feeling of apprehension that was gradually creeping over her; for the most profound and mournful silence reigned in this habitation, where nothing indicated the life, the movement and the activity, which usually surround a great centre of business.Only, from time to time, the young lady heard the violent gusts of wind from without.
More than a quarter of an hour had elapsed, and M.Baleinier did not return.In her impatient anxiety, Adrienne wished to call some one to inquire about the doctor and the minister.She raised her eyes to look for a bell-rope by the side of the chimney-glass; she found none, but she perceived, that what she had hitherto taken for a glass, thanks to the half obscurity of the room, was in reality a large sheet of shining tin.
Drawing nearer to it, she accidentally touched a bronzed candlestick; and this, as well as a clock, was fixed to the marble of the chimney-piece.
In certain dispositions of mind, the most insignificant circumstances often assume terrific proportions.This immovable candlestick, this furniture fastened to the wainscot, this glass replaced by a tin sheet, this profound silence, and the prolonged absence of M.Baleinier, had such an effect upon Adrienne, that she was struck with a vague terror.
Yet such was her implicit confidence in the doctor, that she reproached herself with her own fears, persuading herself that the causes of them were after all of no real importance, and that it was unreasonable to feel uneasy at such trifles.
Still, though she thus strove to regain courage, her anxiety induced her to do what otherwise she would never have attempted.She approached the little door by which the doctor had disappeared, and applied her ear to it.She held her breath, and listened, but heard nothing.
Suddenly, a dull, heavy sound, like that of a falling body, was audible just above her head; she thought she could even distinguish a stifled moaning.Raising her eyes, hastily, she saw some particles of the plaster fall from the ceiling, loosened, no doubt, by the shaking of the floor above.
No longer able to resist the feeling of terror, Adrienne ran to the door by which she had entered with the doctor, in order to call some one.To her great surprise, she found it was fastened on the outside.Yet, since her arrival, she had heard no sound of a key turning in the lock.
More and more alarmed, the young girl flew to the little door by which the physician had disappeared, and at which she had just been listening.
This door also was fastened on the outside.