Part 63 (1/2)

”Ah! it was Jasmin who told you to say that, was it? Very well; you may go; but henceforth take your orders from me alone.”

The concierge bowed and left the room, delighted that he had come off so cheap.

Old Jasmin turned purple; he twisted his mouth, like a child about to cry. Cherubin walked up to him and said in a tone in which there was more reproach than anger:

”And so, Jasmin, it was you who ordered my dear Nicole and Louise to be turned away? It was you who arranged matters so that the people who brought me up must inevitably think me proud and unfeeling and ungrateful!--Ah! that was very ill done of you--and I don't recognize your kind heart in that business.”

Jasmin drew his handkerchief and wept.

”You are right, monsieur!” he cried; ”it was a shame, it was downright folly, but it wasn't my idea; I should never have thought of it. It was your tutor who told me that we must prevent your seeing Nicole and little Louise, because it would be very dangerous for you. As Monsieur Gerondif is a scholar, I thought that he must be right, and I did what he told me.”

While the old valet was speaking, Monsieur Gerondif scratched his nose with all his might, as if to prepare for the attack that he was about to undergo; and in fact it was to him that Cherubin turned after listening to Jasmin, and there was the ring of righteous anger in his voice as he cried:

”So all this comes from you, monsieur? I should have suspected as much.--So it was dangerous for me to see the people from the village, who love me like their own child!”

Monsieur Gerondif threw one of his legs back, puffed out his chest, raised his head, and began with abundant a.s.surance:

”Well, yes, my ill.u.s.trious pupil! and I consider that I was right. _Non est discipulus super magistrum._--Listen to my reasons: You left the village and the fields with great regret; you might have been tempted to return thither, and it was necessary to remove that temptation--always in your interest. The _Sadder_, abridged from the _Zend_, which contains all the tenets of the religion founded by Zoroaster, ordains that every man must make a strict examination of his conscience at the end of each day; and mine----”

”Oh! I am not talking about Zoroaster, monsieur! Was it in my interest too, that, at the time of your last visit to the village, you told Nicole that I had become a rake and a seducer in Paris; that I intended to make Louise my mistress; and that it was absolutely necessary to find a place for her in Paris, and to make me believe that she was in Bretagne?”

Monsieur Gerondif was petrified; he could think of no quotations to make; he hung his head and did not know which leg to stand on; while Jasmin, when he heard what the tutor had said of his young master, ran to the fireplace, seized the tongs, and prepared to strike Monsieur Gerondif:

”You dare to tell such infamous lies about my master!” he exclaimed; ”to slander him like that! Let me thrash him, monsieur! I believe that I can do that with as much force as I had at twenty years.”

But Cherubin stopped Jasmin, and said to the tutor:

”What were your reasons for lying so, monsieur?”

”To tell the truth, my n.o.ble pupil, I do not know;--a temporary aberration, a----”

”Well, I shall find out later. But, first of all, where is Louise?”

”The young and interesting foundling?”

”Come, come, monsieur, answer me, and no more lies; where is Louise?”

”In an honorable family, I venture to flatter myself; I obtained her a situation as lady's maid with Madame de Noirmont.”

”A lady's maid! my foster-sister! You have made my old playmate a lady's maid!--Ah! that's an outrage!”

”The wages are good, and I thought that, as she has no fortune----”

”Hold your peace! Poor Louise! so this is the reward of your sworn attachment to me!--But she shall not remain another day in that position. Jasmin, call a cab at once, and you, monsieur, come with me.”

Monsieur Gerondif did not wait for the order to be repeated; he followed Cherubin, who took his hat and hastened downstairs. Jasmin called a cab, the young marquis stepped in, ordered Monsieur Gerondif to take his place beside him and to give the driver Madame de Noirmont's address.

The tutor obeyed and they drove away.

Cherubin did not open his mouth during the drive, and Gerondif did not dare even to blow his nose. When the cab stopped in front of the Noirmont mansion, Cherubin said to his tutor: