Part 10 (2/2)
”You wish the happiness of Mademoiselle Natalie.”
”Above all things.”
”To be happy in France,” said the notary, ”means being mistress of the home. She can lead that fool of a Manerville by the nose if she chooses; he is so dull he has actually seen nothing of all this. Even if he now distrusts you, he will always trust his wife; and his wife is YOU, is she not? The count's fate is still within your power if you choose to play the cards in your hand.”
”If that were true, monsieur, I know not what I would not do to show my grat.i.tude,” she said, in a transport of feeling that colored her cheeks.
”Let us now return to the others, madame,” said Solonet. ”Listen carefully to what I shall say; and then--you shall think me incapable if you choose.”
”My dear friend,” said the young notary to Maitre Mathias, ”in spite of your great ability, you have not foreseen either the case of Monsieur de Manerville dying without children, nor that in which he leaves only female issue. In either of those cases the entail would pa.s.s to the Manervilles, or, at any rate, give rise to suits on their part. I think, therefore, it is necessary to stipulate that in the first case the entailed property shall pa.s.s under the general deed of gift between husband and wife; and in the second case that the entail shall be declared void. This agreement concerns the wife's interest.”
”Both clauses seem to me perfectly just,” said Maitre Mathias. ”As to their ratification, Monsieur le comte can, doubtless, come to an understanding with the chancellor, if necessary.”
Solonet took a pen and added this momentous clause on the margin of the contract. Paul and Natalie paid no attention to the matter; but Madame Evangelista dropped her eyes while Maitre Mathias read the added sentence aloud.
”We will now sign,” said the mother.
The volume of voice which Madame Evangelista repressed as she uttered those words betrayed her violent emotion. She was thinking to herself: ”No, my daughter shall not be ruined--but he! My daughter shall have the name, the t.i.tle, and the fortune. If she should some day discover that she does not love him, that she loves another, irresistibly, Paul shall be driven out of France! My daughter shall be free, and happy, and rich.”
If Maitre Mathias understood how to a.n.a.lyze business interests, he knew little of the a.n.a.lysis of human pa.s.sions. He accepted Madame Evangelista's words as an honorable ”amende,” instead of judging them for what they were, a declaration of war. While Solonet and his clerk superintended Natalie as she signed the doc.u.ments,--an operation which took time,--Mathias took Paul aside and told him the meaning of the stipulation by which he had saved him from ultimate pain.
”The whole affair is now 'en regle.' I hold the doc.u.ments. But the contract contains a rescript for the diamonds; you must ask for them.
Business is business. Diamonds are going up just now, but may go down.
The purchase of those new domains justifies you in turning everything into money that you can. Therefore, Monsieur le comte, have no false modesty in this matter. The first payment is due after the formalities are over. The sum is two hundred thousand francs; put the diamonds into that. You have the lien on this house, which will be sold at once, and will pay the rest. If you have the courage to spend only fifty thousand francs for the next three years, you can save the two hundred thousand francs you are now obliged to pay. If you plant vineyards on your new estates, you can get an income of over twenty-five thousand francs upon them. You may be said, in short, to have made a good marriage.”
Paul pressed the hand of his old friend very affectionately, a gesture which did not escape Madame Evangelista, who now came forward to offer him the pen. Suspicion became certainty to her mind. She was confident that Paul and Mathias had come to an understanding about her. Rage and hatred sent the blood surging through her veins to her heart. The worst had come.
After verifying that all the doc.u.ments were duly signed and the initials of the parties affixed to the bottom of the leaves, Maitre Mathias looked from Paul to his mother-in-law, and seeing that his client did not intend to speak of the diamonds, he said:--
”I do not suppose there can be any doubt about the transfer of the diamonds, as you are now one family.”
”It would be more regular if Madame Evangelista made them over now, as Monsieur de Manerville has become responsible for the guardians.h.i.+p funds, and we never know who may live or die,” said Solonet, who thought he saw in this circ.u.mstance fresh cause of anger in the mother-in-law against the son-in-law.
”Ah! mother,” cried Paul, ”it would be insulting to us all to do that,--'Summum jus, summum injuria,' monsieur,” he said to Solonet.
”And I,” said Madame Evangelista, led by the hatred now surging in her heart to see a direct insult to her in the indirect appeal of Maitre Mathias, ”I will tear that contract up if you do not take them.”
She left the room in one of those furious pa.s.sions which long for the power to destroy everything, and which the sense of impotence drives almost to madness.
”For Heaven's sake, take them, Paul,” whispered Natalie in his ear. ”My mother is angry; I shall know why to-night, and I will tell you. We must pacify her.”
Calmed by this first outburst, madame kept the necklace and ear-rings, which she was wearing, and brought the other jewels, valued at one hundred and fifty thousand francs by Elie Magus. Accustomed to the sight of family diamonds in all valuations of inheritance, Maitre Mathias and Solonet examined these jewels in their cases and exclaimed upon their duty.
”You will lose nothing, after all, upon the 'dot,' Monsieur le comte,”
said Solonet, bringing the color to Paul's face.
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