Volume VIII Part 5 (1/2)
”Did you, in Paris, know a certain M Marechal--Leon Marechal?”
M and Mme Roland both exclaimed at once: ”I should think so!”
”He was a friend of yours?”
Roland replied: ”Our best friend, ot away from the boulevard He was head clerk in the exchequer office I have never seen hi to each other When people are far apart, you know--”
The lawyer gravely put in:
”M Marechal is deceased”
Both man and wife responded with the little enuine or false, but always ready, hich such news is received
Maitre Lecanu went on:
”My colleague in Paris has just communicated to me the main item of his will, by which he atee”
They were all too le word Mme Roland was the first to control her emotions and stammered out:
”Good heavens! Poor Leon--our poor friend! Dear me! Dear me! Dead!”
The tears started to her eyes, a worief from her very soul, which trickle down her cheeks and see less of the loss than of the prospect announced Still, he dared not at once inquire into the clauses of the will and the a facts he asked
”And what did he die of, poor Marechal?”
Maitre Lecanu did not know in the least
”All I know is,” said he, ”that, dying without any direct heirs, he has left the whole of his fortune--about twenty thousand francs a year (3,840) in three per cents--to your second son, whoacy If M Jean should refuse thehospitals”
Old Roland could not conceal his delight and exclaiht of a kind heart And if I had no heir I would not have forgotten him; he was a true friend”
The lawyer slad,” he said, ”to announce the event to you ood news”
It had not struck hiood neas that of the death of a friend, of Roland's best friend; and the old otten the intimacy he had just spoken of with so much conviction
Only Mme Roland and her sons still lookedher eyes with her handkerchief, which she then pressed to her lips to smother her deep sobs
The doctor ood fellow, very affectionate He often invited us to dine with hi eyes, laid his hand on his handsoers down it to the tip of the last hairs, as if to pull it longer and thinner
Twice his lips parted to utter so meditation he could only say this:
”Yes, he was certainly fond of me He would always embrace hts had set off at a gallop--galloping round this inheritance to co behind the door which would walk in quite soon, to-morrow, at a word of consent
”And there is no possible difficulty in the way?” he asked ”No lawsuit--no one to dispute it?”