But that's nothing yet. With renewed zeal, Victor Chupin had resumed his investigations. He had undertaken the examination of the marriage-registers in all the parishes of Paris, and, as early as the following week, he discovered at Notre Dame des Lorettes the entry of the marriage of Euphrasie Taponnet with Frederic de Thaller."
Though she must have expected that name, the baroness started up violently and livid, and with a haggard look.
"It's false!" she began in a choking voice.
A smile of ironical pity passed over Marius' lips.
"Five minutes' reflection will prove to you that it is useless to deny," he interrupted. "But wait. In the books of that same church, Victor Chupin has found registered the baptism of a daughter of M. and Mme de Thaller, bearing the same names as the first one, - Euphrasie Cesarine."
With a convulsive motion the baroness shrugged her shoulder.
"What does all that prove?" she said.
"That proves, madame, the well-settled intention of substituting one child for another; that proves that my father was imprudently deceived when he was made to believe that the second Cesarine was his daughter, the daughter in whose favor he had formerly disposed of over five hundred thousand francs; that proves that there is somewhere in the world a poor girl who has been basely forsaken by her mother, the Marquise de Javelle, now become the Baroness de Thaller."
Beside herself with terror and anger, "That is an infamous lie!" exclaimed the baroness. M. de Tregars bowed.
"The evidence of the truth of my statements," he said, "I shall find at Louveciennes, and at the Hotel des Folies, Boulevard du Temple, Paris."
Night had come. A footman came in carrying lamps, which he placed upon the mantelpiece. He was not all together one minute in the little parlor; but that one minute was enough to enable the Marquise de Thaller to recover her coolness, and to collect her ideas. When the footman retired, she had made up her mind, with the resolute promptness of a person accustomed to perilous situations. She gave up the discussion, and, drawing near to M. de Traggers, "Enough allusions," she said: "let us speak frankly, and face to face now. What do you want?"
But the change was too sudden not to arouse Marius's suspicions.
"I want a great many things," he replied.
"Still you must specify."
"Well, I claim first the five hundred thousand francs which my father had settled upon his daughter, - the daughter whom you cast off."
"And what next?"
"I want besides, my own and my father's fortune, of which we have been robbed by M. de Thaller, with your assistance, madame."
"Is that all, at least?"
M. de Tregars shook his head.
"That's nothing yet," he replied.
"Oh!"
"We have now to say something of Vincent Favoral's affairs."
An attorney who is defending the interests of a client is neither calmer nor cooler than Mme. de Thaller at this moment.
"Do the affairs of my husband's cashier concern me, then?" she said with' a shade of irony.
"Yes, madame, very much."
"I am glad to hear it."
"I know it from excellent sources, because, on my return from Louveciennes, I called in the Rue du Cirque, where I saw one Zelie Cadelle."
He thought that the baroness would at least start on hearing that name. Not at all. With a look of profound astonishment, "Rue du Cirque," she repeated, like a person who is making a prodigious effort of memory, - "Rue du Cirque! Zelie Cadelle!
Really, I do not understand."
But, from the glance which M. de Traggers cast upon her, she must have understood that she would not easily draw from him the particulars which he had resolved not to tell.
"I believe, on the contrary," he uttered, "that you understand perfectly."
"Be it so, if you insist upon it. What do you ask for Favoral?"
"I demand, not for Favoral, but for the stockholders who have been impudently defrauded, the twelve millions which are missing from the funds of the Mutual Credit."
Mme. de Thaller burst out laughing.
"Only that?" she said.
"Yes, only that!"
"Well, then, it seems to me that you should present your reclamations to M. Favoral himself. You have the right to run after him."
"It is useless, for the reason that it is not he, the poor fool! who has carried off the twelve millions."
"Who is it, then?"
"M. le Baron de Thaller, no doubt."
With that accent of pity which one takes to reply to an absurd proposition, - " You are mad, my poor marquis," said Mme. de Thaller.
"You do not think so."
"But suppose I should refuse to do any thing more?"
He fixed upon her a glance in which she could read an irrevocable determination; and slowly, "I have a perfect horror of scandal," he replied, "and, as you perceive, I am trying to arrange every thing quietly between us.
But, if I do not succeed thus, I must appeal to the courts."
"Where are your proofs?"
"Don't be afraid: I have proofs to sustain all my allegations."
The baroness had stretched herself comfortably in her arm-chair.
"May we know them?" she inquired.
Marius was getting somewhat uneasy in presence of Mme. de Thaller's imperturbable assurance. What hope had she? Could she see some means of escape from a situation apparently so desperate? Determined to prove to her that all was lost, and that she had nothing to do but to surrender, "Oh! I know, madame," he replied, "that you have taken your precautions. But, when Providence interferes, you see, human foresight does not amount to much. See, rather, what happens in regard to your first daughter, - the one you had when you were still only Marquise de Javelle."
And briefly he called to her mind the principal incidents of Mlle.