GOOD NEWS.
By the alteration in the countenance of Father d'Aigrigny, his pale cheek, and the feebleness of his walk, one might see that the terrible scene in the square of Notre-Dame, had violently reacted upon his health.
Yet his face was radiant and triumphant, as he entered Rodin's chamber, exclaiming: "Excellent news!"
On these words, Rodin started.In spite of his weakness, he raised his head, and his eves shone with a curious, uneasy, piercing expression.
With his lean hand, he beckoned Father d'Aigrigny to approach the bed, and said to him, in a broken voice, so weak that it was scarcely audible:
"I am very ill--the cardinal has nearly finished me--but if this excellent news--relates to the Rennepont affair--of which I hear nothing --it might save me yet!"
"Be saved then!" cried Father d'Aigrigny, forgetting the recommendations of Dr.Baleinier; "read, rejoice! What you foretold is beginning to be realized!"
So saying, he drew a paper from his pocket, and delivered it to Rodin, who seized it with an eager and trembling hand.Some minutes before, Rodin would have been really incapable of continuing his conversation with the cardinal, even if prudence had allowed him to do so; nor could he have read a single line, so dim had his sight become.But, at the words of Father d'Aigrigny, he felt such a renewal of hope and vigor, that, by a mighty effort of energy and will, he rose to a sitting posture, and, with clear head, and look of intelligent animation, he read rapidly the paper that Father d'Aigrigny had just delivered to him.
The cardinal, amazed at this sudden transfiguration, asked himself if he beheld the same man, who, a few minutes before, had fallen back on his bed, almost insensible.Hardly had Rodin finished reading, than he uttered a cry of stifled joy, saying, with an accent impossible to describe: "ONE gone! it works--'tis well!" And, closing his eyes in a kind of ecstatic transport, a smile of proud triumph overspread his face, and rendered him still more hideous, by discovering his yellow and gumless teeth.His emotion was so violent, that the paper fell from his trembling hand.
"He has fainted," cried Father d'Aigrigny, with uneasiness, as he leaned over Rodin."It is my fault, I forgot that the doctor cautioned me not to talk to him of serious matters."
"No; do not reproach yourself," said Rodin, in a low voice, half-raising himself in the bed."This unexpected joy may perhaps cure me.Yes--I scarce know what I feel--but look at my cheeks--it seems to me, that, for the first time since I have been stretched on this bed of pain, they are a little warm."
Rodin spoke the truth.A slight color appeared suddenly on his livid and icy cheeks; his voice though still very weak, became less tremulous, and he exclaimed, in a tone of conviction that startled Father d'Aigrigny and the prelate, "This first success answers for the others.I read the future.Yes, yes; our cause will triumph.Every member of the execrable Rennepont family will be crushed--and that soon you will see--"
Then, pausing, Rodin threw himself back on the pillow, exclaiming: "Oh! I am choked with joy.My voice fails me."
"But what is it?" asked the cardinal of Father d'Aigrigny.
The latter replied, in a tone of hypocritical sanctity: "One of the heirs of the Rennepont family, a poor fellow, worn out with excesses and debauchery, died three days ago, at the close of some abominable orgies, in which he had braved the cholera with sacrilegious impiety.In consequence of the indisposition that kept me at home, and of another circumstance, I only received to-day the certificate of the death of this victim of intemperance and irreligion.I must proclaim it to the praise of his reverence"--pointing to Rodin--"that he told me, the worst enemies of the descendants of that infamous renegade would be their own bad passions, and that the might look to them as our allies against the whole impious race.And so it has happened with Jacques Rennepont."
"You see," said Rodin, in so faint a voice that it was almost unintelligible, "the punishment begins already.One of the Renneponts is dead--and believe me--this certificate," and he pointed to the paper that Father d'Aigrigny held in his hand, "will one day be worth forty millions to the Society of Jesus--and that--because--"
The lips alone finished the sentence.During some seconds, Rodin's voice had become so faint, that it was at last quite imperceptible.His larynx, contracted by violent emotion, no longer emitted any sound.The Jesuit, far from being disconcerted by this incident, finished his phrase, as it were, by expressive pantomime.Raising his head proudly he tapped his forehead with his forefinger, as if to express that it was to his ability this first success was owing.But he soon fell back again on the bed, exhausted, breathless, sinking, with his cotton handkerchief pressed once more to his parched lips.The good news, as Father d'Aigrigny called it, had not cured Rodin.For a moment only, he had had the courage to forget his pain.But the slight color on his cheek soon disappeared; his face became once more livid.His sufferings, suspended for a moment, were so much increased in violence, that he writhed beneath the coverlet, and buried his face in the pillow, extending his arms above his head, and holding them stiff as bars of iron.After this crisis, intense as it was rapid: during which Father d'Aigrigny and the prelate bent anxiously over him, Rodin, whose face was bathed in cold sweat, made a sign that he suffered less, and that he wished to drink of a potion to which he pointed.Father d'Aigrigny fetched it for him, and while the cardinal held him up with marked disgust, the abbe administered a few spoonfuls of the potion, which almost immediately produced a soothing effect.
"Shall I call M.Rousselet?" said Father d'Aigrigny, when Rodin was once more laid down in bed.