M. Chapelain shrugged his shoulders.
"If you were alone," he went on, "I would say as you do, 'What does it matter?' But you are no longer alone: you have your mother and sister to take care of. You must think of food before thinking of vengeance. How much a month do you earn? Two hundred francs! It is not much for three persons. I would never suggest that you should solicit M. de Thaller's protection; but it would be well, perhaps, to let him know that he has nothing to fear from you. Why shouldn't you do so when you take his fifteen thousand francs back to him? If, as every thing indicates, he has been your father's accomplice, he will certainly be touched by the distress of your family, and, if he has any heart left, he will manage to make you find, without appearing to have any thing to do with it, a situation better suited to your wants. I know that such a, step must be very painful; but I repeat it, my dear child, you can no longer think of yourself alone; and what one would not do for himself, one does for a mother and a sister."
Maxence said nothing. Not that he was in any way affected by the worthy old lawyer's speech; but he was asking himself whether or not he should confide to him the events which in the past twenty-four hours had so suddenly modified the situation. He did not feel authorized to do so.
Marius de Tregars had not bound him to secrecy; but an indiscretion might have fatal consequences. And, after a moment of thought, "I am obliged to you, sir," he replied evasively, "for the interest you have manifested in our welfare; and we shall always greatly prize your advice. But for the present you must allow me to leave you with my mother and sister. I have an appointment with - a friend."
And, without waiting for an answer, he slipped M. de Thaller's fifteen thousand francs in his pocket, and hurried out. It was not to M. de Tregars that he went first, however, but to the Hotel des Folies.
"Mlle. Lucienne has just come home with a big bundle," said Mme.
Fortin to Maxence, with her pleasantest smile, as soon as she had seen him emerge from the shades of the corridor.
For the past twenty-four hours, the worthy hostess had been watching for her guest, in the hopes of obtaining some information which she might communicate to the neighbors. Without even condescending to answer, a piece of rudeness at which she felt much hurt, he crossed the narrow court of the hotel at a bound, and started up stairs.
Mlle. Lucienne's room was open. He walked in, and, still out of breath from his rapid ascension, "I am glad to find you in," he exclaimed. The young girl was busy, arranging upon her bed a dress of very light colored silk, trimmed with ruches and lace, an overdress to match, and a bonnet of wonderful shape, loaded with the most brilliant feathers and flowers.
"You see what brings me here," she replied. "I came home to dress.
At two o'clock the carriage is coming to take me to the bois, where I am to exhibit this costume, certainly the most ridiculous that Van Klopen has yet made me wear."
A smile flitted upon Maxence's lips.
"Who knows," said he, "if this is not the last time you will have to perform this odious task? Ah, my friend! what events have taken place since I last saw you!"
"Fortunate ones?"
"You will judge for yourself."
He closed the door carefully, and, returning to Mlle. Lucienne, "Do you know the Marquis de Tregars?" he asked.
"No more than you do. It was yesterday, at the commissary of police, that I first heard his name."
"Well, before a month, M. de Tregars will be Mlle. Gilberte Favoral's husband."
"Is it possible?" exclaimed Mlle. Lucienne with a look of extreme surprise.
But, instead of answering, "You told me," resumed Maxence, "that once, in a day of supreme distress, you had applied to Mme. de Thaller for assistance, whereas you were actually entitled to an indemnity for having been run over and seriously hurt by her carriage."
"That is true.
"Whilst you were in the vestibule, waiting for an answer to your letter, which a servant had taken up stairs, M. de Thaller came in; and, when he saw you, he could not repress a gesture of surprise, almost of terror.
That is true too."
"This behavior of M. de Thaller always remained an enigma to you."
An inexplicable one."
"Well, I think that I can explain it to you now."
"You?"
Lowering his voice; for he knew that at the Hotel des Folies there was always to fear some indiscreet ear.
"Yes, I," he answered; "and for the reason that yesterday, when M. de Tregars appeared in my mother's parlor, I could not suppress an exclamation of surprise, for the reason, Lucienne, that, between Marius de Tregars and yourself, there is a resemblance with which it is impossible not to be struck."
Mlle. Lucienne had become very pale.
"What do you suppose, then?" she asked.
"I believe, my friend, that we are very near penetrating at once the mystery of your birth and the secret of the hatred that has pursued you since the day when you first set your foot in M. de Thaller's house."
Admirably self-possessed as Mlle. Lucienne usually was, the quivering of her lips betrayed at this moment the intensity of her emotion.
After more than a minute of profound meditaton, "The commissary of police," she said, "has never told me his hopes, except in vague terms. He has told me enough, however, to make me think that he has already had suspicions similar to yours."
"Of course! Would he otherwise have questioned me on the subject of M. de Tregars?"
Mlle. Lucienne shook her head.
"And yet," she said, "even after your explanation, it is in vain that I seek why and how I can so far disturb M. de Thaller's security that he wishes to do away with me."
Maxence made a gesture of superb indifference. "I confess," he said, "that I don't see it either. But what matters it? Without being able to explain why, I feel that the Baron de Thaller is the common enemy, yours, mine, my father's, and M. de Tregars'. And something tells me, that, with M. de Tregars' help, we shall triumph.