Part 9 (1/2)

The success of our first skirmish surpassed our expectations

Ten minutes after the letter had been taken upstairs to M past her mistress's door, was startled to hear cries andfro on the sofa, her face buried in the cushi+ons, and sobbing and screa manner The maid applied the usual restoratives, and after a while Madame became more calm and at once very curtly ordered theapprised of this , was much distressed; he hurried to his wife's apart with her as he had been in the early days of their honey, and, indeed, for the next two days, all the explanation that he could get from Madame herself was that she had a headache and that the letter which she had received that afternoon was of no consequence and had nothing to do with her raine

But clearly the beautiful Rachel was extraordinarily agitated At night she did not sleep, but would pace up and down her apart on frenzy, which of course caused M le Marquis a great deal of anxiety and of sorrow

Finally, on the Friday er She threw herself into her husband's arms and blurted out the whole truth M le Comte de Naquet, her first husband, who had been declared drowned at sea, and therefore officially deceased by Royal decree, was not dead at all Madame had received a letter from him wherein he told her that he had indeed suffered shi+pwreck, then untold misery on a desert island for three years, until he had been rescued by a passing vessel, and finally been able, since he was destitute, to work his way back to France and to Paris

Here he had lived for the past few ether a little money so as to render himself presentable before his wife, whom he had never ceased to love

Inquiries discreetly conducted had revealed the terrible truth, that Madaht-heartedly assumed the death of her husband, and had contracted as nothing less than a bigahts as Rachel Mosenstein's only lawful husband, demanded that she should return to hi, she was to call at three o'clock precisely on the following Friday at No 96 Rue Daunou, where their reconciliation and reunion was to take place

The letter announcing this terrible news andthis preposterous demand she now placed in the hands of M le Marquis, who at first was horrified and thunderstruck, and appeared quite unable to deal with the situation or to tender advice For Madame it meant complete social ruin, of course, and she herself declared that she would never survive such a scandal Her tears and herheart of M

le Marquis bleed in sympathy He did all he could to console and coer look upon as his wife Then, gradually, both he and she becas tovictienerously offered hio himself to the Rue Daunou at the hour appointed and to do his best to induce M le Cohts on the lady who had so innocently taken on the name and hand of M le Marquis de Firmin-Latour Somewhat more calenerous offer I believe that she even found five thousand francs in her privy purse which was to be offered to M de Naquet in exchange for a proain with his presence But this I have never been able to ascertain with any finality Certain it is that when at three o'clock on that same afternoon M de Firmin-Latour presented himself at my office, he did not offer h he spoke to ht it would look well if he were to give it back to Madame, and to tell her that M de Naquet had rejected so paltry a suht such a ued about it rather war me any share in the emolument Whether he did put his project into execution or not I never knew He told me that he did After that there followed for me, Sir, many days, nay, weeks, of anxiety and of strenuous work

Mme la Marquise received several more letters from the supposititious M de Naquet, any one of which would have landed me, Sir, in a vessel bound for New Caledonia The discarded husband became more and more insistent as ti that he was tired of perpetual intervieith M le Marquis de Firht to interfere in the matter he noholly denied, and that he was quite determined to claim his laife before the whole world

Madame la Marquise, in the meanwhile, had passed from one fit of hysterics into another She denied her door to everyone and lived in the strictest seclusion in her beautiful apartment of the Rue de Grammont Fortunately this all occurred in the early autumn, when the absence of such a society star fros was not as noticeable as it otherould have been But clearly orking up for the climax, which occurred in the way I am about to relate

4

Ah, my dear Sir, when after all these years I think of hteous and noble indignation almost strikes me dumb To think that with my own hands and brains I literally put half a million into that ratitude, almost makes me lose my faith in human nature Theodore, of course, I could punish, and did so adequately; and wheretouch

But M de Fire for yourself

As I told you,made ready for the cliorgeous We began by presurown tired of incessant demands for interviews and s to offer a considerable sue for a fir as she lived

We fixed the suuarantee was to take the forned by the supposititious Co the guarantee was thereupon duly sent to Mme la Marquise, and she, after the usual attack of hysterics, duly confided the matter to M de Firmin-Latour

The consultation between husband and wife on the deplorable subject was touching in the extre his role in a masterly manner At first he declared to his dear Rachel that he did not knohat to suggest, for in truth she had nothing like half a million on which she could lay her hands

To speak of this awful pending scandal to Papa Mosenstein was not to be thought of He was capable of repudiating the daughter altogether as bringing such obloquy upon herself and would henceforth be of no use to him as a society star

As for hiency, he, of course, had less than nothing, or his entire fortune would be placed--if he had one--at the feet of his beloved Rachel To think that he was on the point of losing her was more than he could bear, and the idea that she would soon becoer in society, and h drove him crazy

What could be done in this awful perplexity he for one could not think, unless indeed his dear Rachel illing to part with so her toht her of her eems, once the property of the Eiven to her on her secondfather No, no! she would never miss them; she seldoant, and she was quite sure that at the Mont de Piete they would lend her five hundred thousand francs on theradually they could be redeemed before papa had become aware of their temporary disappearance Madame would save the money out of the liberal allowance she received fro was preferable to this awful doo over her head

But even so M le Marquis deoing to the Mont de Piete to pawn her oas not to be thought of She would be seen, recognized, and the scandal would be as bad and worse than anything that loomed on the black horizon of her fate at this hour

What was to be done? What was to be done?

Then M le Marquis had a brilliant idea He knew of a man, a very reliable, trustworthy man, attorney-at-law by profession, and therefore a ed in the exercise of his profession to don various disguises when tracking cri quarters of Paris M le Marquis, putting all pride and dignity nobly aside in the interests of his adored Rachel, would borrow one of these disguises and hio to the Mont de Piete with the emeralds, obtain the five hundred thousand francs, and remit thee for the aforeratitude, threw herself, in the midst of a flood of tears, into the arer dared to call her husband, and so the matter was settled for the uarantee drafted by the same notary of repute whom he knew, and, if Madame approved of it, the emeralds would then be converted into money, and the intervieith M le Comte de Naquet fixed for Wednesday, October 10th, at some convenient place, subsequently to be determined on--in all probability at the bureau of that same ubiquitous attorney-at-law, M

Hector Ratichon, at 96 Rue Daunon