toward me. "Myhusband is late. Do you come from him? It is not bad news, Monsieur?"
The tone of anxiety in which she uttered her last question, and thequickness with which she raised her lamp to scan my face, went to myheart, already softened by this young mother in her home. I hastenedto answer that I had no bad news, and wished merely to see her husbandon business connected with his employment.
"He is very late," she said, a shade of perplexity crossing her face."I have never known him so late before. Monsieur is unfortunate."
I replied that with her leave I would wait; on which she very readilyplaced a stool for me, and sat down herself by the cradle, I venturedto remark that perhaps M. Nicholas had detained her husband: sheanswered simply that it might be so, but that she had never known ithappen before.
"M. Felix has evening employment?" I asked after a moment'sreflection.
She looked at me in some wonder. "No," she said. "He spends hisevenings with me, Monsieur. It is not much, for he is at work allday."
I bowed, and was preparing another question, when the sound offootsteps ascending the stairs in haste reached my ears, and led me topause. Madame heard the noise at the same moment and rose. "It is myhusband," she said, looking toward the door with such a light inher eyes as betrayed the sweetheart lingering in the wife. "I wasafraid--I do not know what I feared," she muttered to herself.
SHE SPRANG FORWARD. _Page 37_.]
Proposing to myself the advantage of seeing Felix before he saw me, Ipushed back my stool into the shadow, contriving to do this sodiscreetly that the young woman noticed nothing. A moment later itappeared I might have spared my pains; for at sight of her husband, acomely young man who came in with lack-lustre eye and drooping head,she sprang forward with a cry of dismay, and, utterly forgetting mypresence, appealed to him to know what was the matter.
He threw himself on to a stool, the first he reached, and, leaning hiselbows on the table in an attitude of extreme dejection, covered hisface with his hands. "What is it?" he said in a hollow tone. "We areruined, Margot. I have no more work. I am dismissed."
"Dismissed?" she ejaculated.
He nodded. "Nicholas discharged me this morning," he said, almost in awhisper. He dared not speak louder, for he could not command hisvoice.
"Why?" she asked gently, as she leant over him. "What had you done?"
"Nothing!" he answered with bitterness. "He said clerks wereplentiful, and the King or I must starve."
Hitherto I had witnessed the scene in silence, a prey to emotions sovarious I will not attempt to describe them. But hearing the King'sname thus prostituted and put to base uses, I started forward with aviolence which in a moment made my presence known. Felix, confoundedby the sight of a stranger at his elbow, rose hurriedly from his seat,and retreating before me with vivid alarm painted on his countenance,asked with a faltering tongue who I was.
I replied in as soothing a manner as possible, that I was a friend,anxious to assist him. Nevertheless, seeing that I kept my cloak aboutmy face--for I was not willing to be recognized--he continued to lookat me with distrust and terror. "What do you want?" he said, raisingthe lamp much as his wife had done, to see me the better.
"The answers to one or two questions," I replied firmly. "Answer themtruly, and I promise you your troubles are at an end." So saying, Idrew from my pouch the scrap of paper which had come to me sostrangely. "When did you write this, my friend?" I continued, placingit before him.
He drew a deep breath at sight of it, and a look of comprehension anddismay crossed his face. For a moment he hesitated. Then in a hurriedmanner he said that he had never seen the paper.
"Come," I rejoined sternly, "look at it again. Let there be nomistake. When did you write that, and why?"
But still he shook his head; and, though I pressed him hard, continuedso stubborn in his denial that, but for the look I had seen on hisface when I first produced the paper, and the strange coincidence ofhis dismissal, I might have believed him. As it was, I saw nothing forit but to have him arrested and brought to my house, where I did notdoubt he would tell the truth; and I was about to retire to give thenecessary orders, when something in the sidelong glance I saw him castat his wife caught my eye and furnished me with a new idea. Acting onthis, I affected to be satisfied. I apologized for my intrusion on theground of mistake, and gradually withdrawing to the door asked him atthe last moment to light me downstairs.
Complying with a shaking hand, he went out before me, and had nearlyreached the foot of the staircase when I touched him on the shoulder.
"Now," I said bluntly, fixing him with my eyes, "your wife is nolonger listening, and you can tell me the truth. Who employed you towrite these words?"
Trembling so violently he had to lean on the balustrade for support,he answered me.
"Madame Nicholas," he whispered.
"What?" I cried, recoiling. I had no doubt he was telling me the truthnow.
"The secretary's wife, do you mean? Be careful, man."
He nodded.
"When?" I asked suspiciously.
"Yesterday," he answered. "She is an old cat!" he continued, almostfiercely. "I hate her! But my wife is jealous."
"And did you throw it into my coach," I said, "on the Pont du Change,to-day?"
"God forbid!" he replied, shrinking into himself again. "I wrote itfor her, and she took it away. She said it was a jest she was playing.That is all I know."
I saw it was, and after a few more words was content to dismiss him,bidding him keep silence on the matter, and remain at home in case Ineeded him. At the last, he plucked up spirit to ask me who I was; butpreferring to keep that discovery for a day still to come, when Imight appear as the benefactor of this little family, I told himsharply that I was one of the King's servants, and so left him.
It will be believed, however, that I found the information I hadreceived little to my mind. The longer I dwelt on it, the more seriousseemed the matter. While I could scarcely conceive any circumstancesin which a woman would be likely to inform against her husband withoutcause, I could recall more than one dangerous conspiracy which hadbeen frustrated by informers of that class--sometimes out of regardfor the very persons against whom they informed. Viewed in this lightonly, the warning seemed to my mind sufficiently alarming, but when Icame also to consider the secrecy with which Madame Nicholas had bothprepared it--so that her hand might not be known--and conveyed it tome, the aspect of the case grew yet more formidable. In the result, Ihad not passed through two streets before my mind was made up to laythe case before the King, and the sagacity and penetration which werenever wanting to my gracious master.
An unexpected rencontre which awaited me on my return to the Arsenalboth confirmed me in this resolution and enabled me to carry it intoeffect. We succeeded in slipping in without difficulty, and duly foundMaignan on guard at the door of my apartments. But a single glance athis face sufficed to show that something was wrong; nor did it needthe look of penitence which he assumed on seeing us--a look so piteousthat at another time it must have diverted me--to convince me that hehad infringed my orders.
"How now, sirrah?" I said angrily, without waiting for him to speak."What have you been doing?"
"They would take no refusal, Monseigneur," he answered plaintively,waving his hand toward the door.
"What!" I cried sternly, astonished; for this was an instance of suchdirect disobedience as I could scarce understand. "Did I not give youthe strictest orders to deny me to everybody?"
"They would take no refusal, Monseigneur," he answered penitently,edging away from me as he spoke.
"Who are they?" I asked sternly, leaving the question of hispunishment for another season. "Speak, rascal, though it shall notsave you."
"There are M. le Marquis de la Varenne, and M. de Vitry," he saidslowly, "and M. de Vic, and M. Erard, the engineer, and M. deFontange, and----"
"_Pardieu!_" I cried, cutting him short in a rage; for he was going oncounting on his fingers in a manner the most provoking. "Ha
ve you letin all Paris, dolt? Grace! that I should be served by a fool! Open thedoor, and let me see them!"
With that I was about to enter; when the door, which I had notperceived to be ajar, was suddenly thrown open, and a laughing facethrust out. It was the King's.
IT WAS THE KING. _Page 48_.]
"Ha, ha! Grand-master!" he cried, vastly diverted by the success ofhis jest and the abrupt change which doubtless came over mycountenance. "Never was such graceful hospitality, I'll be sworn! Butcome, pardon this varlet. And now embrace me, and tell me where youhave been playing truant."
Saying these words with the charm which never failed him, and in histime won to
The Snowball Page 3
