Part 47 (2/2)
”You will believe them, and I can thank G.o.d for that, for then perhaps you will not regret me.”
”He will _not_ die a second-cla.s.s clerk!” said Marneffe to Hulot, as he led his wife away, saying roughly, ”Come, madame; if I am foolish to you, I do not choose to be a fool to others.”
Valerie left the house, Crevel's Eden, with a last glance at the Baron, so cunning that he thought she adored him. The Justice of the Peace gave Madame Marneffe his arm to the hackney coach with a flourish of gallantry. The Baron, who was required to witness the report, remained quite bewildered, alone with the police-officer. When the Baron had signed, the officer looked at him keenly, over his gla.s.ses.
”You are very sweet on the little lady, Monsieur le Baron?”
”To my sorrow, as you see.”
”Suppose that she does not care for you?” the man went on, ”that she is deceiving you?”
”I have long known that, monsieur--here, in this very spot, Monsieur Crevel and I told each other----”
”Oh! Then you knew that you were in Monsieur le Maire's private snuggery?”
”Perfectly.”
The constable lightly touched his hat with a respectful gesture.
”You are very much in love,” said he. ”I say no more. I respect an inveterate pa.s.sion, as a doctor respects an inveterate complaint.--I saw Monsieur de Nucingen, the banker, attacked in the same way--”
”He is a friend of mine,” said the Baron. ”Many a time have I supped with his handsome Esther. She was worth the two million francs she cost him.”
”And more,” said the officer. ”That caprice of the old Baron's cost four persons their lives. Oh! such pa.s.sions as these are like the cholera!”
”What had you to say to me?” asked the Baron, who took this indirect warning very ill.
”Oh! why should I deprive you of your illusions?” replied the officer.
”Men rarely have any left at your age!”
”Rid me of them!” cried the Councillor.
”You will curse the physician later,” replied the officer, smiling.
”I beg of you, monsieur.”
”Well, then, that woman was in collusion with her husband.”
”Oh!----”
”Yes, sir, and so it is in two cases out of every ten. Oh! we know it well.”
”What proof have you of such a conspiracy?”
”In the first place, the husband!” said the other, with the calm ac.u.men of a surgeon practised in unbinding wounds. ”Mean speculation is stamped in every line of that villainous face. But you, no doubt, set great store by a certain letter written by that woman with regard to the child?”
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