Part 16 (1/2)
”Oh! by no means!”
”Eh! well! you cannot believe that we are foolish enough to make a crime of your birth? Eh! Monsieur, I know very well that it is not permitted to all the world to be Englis.h.!.+ The entire earth cannot be English--at least, not for many years. But one may be an honest man and a learned man without having really been born in England.”
”As for integrity, Madame, it is a virtue which we transmit from father to son. As for intelligence, I have just enough to be a doctor. But, unfortunately, I have no illusions in regard to my physical defects, and----”
”You wish to say that you are ugly? No, Monsieur, you are not ugly. You have an intelligent face. Mary-Ann, is not Monsieur's face intelligent?”
”Yes, mamma!” Mary-Ann replied. If she blushed as she answered her mother saw it better than I, for my eyes were fixed obstinately on the ground.
”Monsieur,” added Mrs. Simons, ”were you ten times uglier, you would not then be as ugly as my late husband. And, more than that, I beg you to believe that I was as pretty as my daughter the day I gave him my hand.
What have you to say to that?”
”Nothing, Madame, except that you confuse me, and that it will not be my fault if you are not on the road to Athens to-morrow.”
”What do you count on doing? This time try to find a means less ridiculous than that the other day!”
”I hope to satisfy you if you will listen to me to the end.”
”Yes, Monsieur.”
”Without interrupting me?”
”I will not interrupt you. Have I ever interrupted you?”
”Yes!”
”No!”
”Yes!”
”When?”
”Always! Madame, Hadgi-Stavros has all his funds invested in the firm of Barley & Company.”
”With our firm?”
”No. 31 Cavendish Square, London. Last Wednesday he dictated, in our presence, a business letter to Mr. Barley.”
”And you never told me before?”
”You would never give me the opportunity.”
”But this is monstrous! Your conduct is inexplicable! We could have been at liberty six days ago! I will go straight to him; I will tell him our relations----”
”And he will demand of you two or three hundred thousand francs! Believe me, Madame, the best way is to say nothing to him. Pay your ransom; make him give you a receipt, and in fifteen days send to him a statement, with the following note: 'Item, 100,000 francs paid, personally, by Mrs.
Simons, our partner, as per receipt!' In this way you will get back your money, without the aid of the soldiers. Is it clear?”
I raised my eyes and saw the pretty smile which broke over Mary-Ann's face as she saw through the plot. Mrs. Simons angrily shrugged her shoulders, and seemed moved only by ill-humor.