Part 68 (1/2)

”What is the use of worrying you?--Reflect for yourself, my good man!

You don't need me to emphasize your blunders. By the way, you know, our mad mistress?--She is in the theatre.”

”I have seen her!” said Vaudrey, turning very pale.

”She is not yet a d.u.c.h.ess, but that will be patched up in four days. If one were only a rascal, how one could punish the hussy! But what is the use? And this devilish Rosas, who is mad enough over her to tie himself to her and to overlook everything he ought to know, would be capable of marrying her all the same! Much good may it do him!”

”But, tell me,” continued Lissac, whose cutting tone suddenly became serious, ”have you read the paper?”

”No! What is there in it?”

They were then in the corridor of the Opera, and heard the prelude to the curtain-raising. Guy took the _Soir_ from his pocket and handed it to Vaudrey:

”Here, see!--That poor Ramel!--You were very fond of him, were you not?”

”Ramel!”

Vaudrey had no need to read. He knew everything as soon as Guy showed him the paper and mentioned Denis's name in a mournful tone.

Dead!--He died peacefully in his armchair near the window, as if falling asleep.--”The death is announced,” so read the paragraph, ”of one of the oldest members of the Parisian press, Monsieur Denis Ramel, who was formerly a celebrated man and for a long time directed the _Nation Francaise_, once an important journal, now no longer in existence.”--Not a word beyond the brief details of his death. No word of praise or regret, merely the commonplace statement of a fact. Vaudrey thought it was a trifling notice for a man who had held so large a place in the public eye.

”What do you think of it?” he said to Lissac. ”People are ungrateful.”

”Why, what would you have? Why didn't he write operettas?”

They parted after exchanging almost an ordinary grasp of the hand, though, perhaps, somewhat sad. Sulpice wished to cast a last look at Rosas's box. Marianne was standing, her outline clearly defined against the brightly-lighted background of the box. She was holding a saucer in her hand, eating an ice. He saw her once more as she stood near the buffet at Madame Marsy's, stirring her sherbet, a silver-gilt spoon smoothly gliding over her tongue. He closed his eyes, and with a nervous start quickly descended the grand stairway, where he found himself alone.

In order to forget Marianne, he turned his thoughts to Ramel.

Denis had been suffering for a long time. He smiled as he felt the hour of his departure draw near. He wished to disappear without stir, and in a civil way as he said, without attracting attention, _a l'Anglaise_.

Poor man! his wish was accomplished.

Vaudrey threw himself into a carriage and was driven to Batignolles. On the way he thought of the eternal ant.i.theses of Parisian life: the news of the death of a friend communicated to him at the Opera while a waltz-tune was being played!

And thinking to himself:

”_From the Opera to the Opera!_ That, moreover, is the history of my ministry--and that of the Granet administration, probably!”

The portress at Rue Boursault led him to Denis Ramel's apartment. Lying on his bed with a kindly smile on his face, the old journalist seemed as if asleep. The cold majesty of death gave a look of power to his face. One might almost believe at times, from the scintillating light placed near his bony brow, that its rigid muscles moved.

Denis Ramel! the sure guide of his youth and his counsellor through life! He recalled his entry on public life, his arrival in Paris, the first articles brought into the old editorial rooms of the _Nation Francaise_! If for a moment he had been one of the heads of the State, it was due to the man stretched out before him now!

He gently stooped over the corpse and pressed a farewell kiss on the dead man's brow.

As he turned round, he saw a man whom he had not at first seen and who had risen.

The man was very pale and greeted him with a timid air.

Vaudrey recognized Garnier, the man whom he had seen previously at Ramel's, a cough-racked, patient, dying man.

The consumptive had nevertheless outlived the old man.