"I believe he is a manufacturer of counterfeit money and emerges from his seclusion, now and then, to put his spurious coin in circulation,"
remarked M. de Ravil. "This much is certain--incomprehensible as it appears--he actually loaned me a thousand franc note, which I shall never return, the other night, at the card-table. And what do you suppose the impertinent creature said as he handed it to me? 'It will afford me so much amusement to dun you for it, baron.' He need have no fears. He will amuse himself in that way a long time."
"But all jesting aside, this marquis is a very peculiar man," remarked another member of the party. "His mother, the old Marquise de Maillefort, left him a very handsome fortune, but no one can imagine what he does with his money, for he lives very modestly."
"I used to meet him quite frequently at poor Madame de Beaumesnil's."
"By the way, do you know they say she is said to be lying at the point of death?"
"Madame de Beaumesnil?"
"Yes; she is about to receive the last sacrament. At least that is what they told Madame de Mirecourt, who stopped to inquire for her on her way here."
"Her case must, indeed, have been incurable, then, for her physician is that famous Doctor Gasterini, who is as great a savant as he is a gourmand, which is certainly saying a good deal."
"Poor woman! she is young to die."
"And what an immense fortune her daughter will have," exclaimed M. de Mornand. "She will be the richest heiress in France, and an orphan besides. What a rare titbit for a fortune-hunter!"
As he uttered these words, M. de Mornand's eyes encountered those of his friend Ravil.
Both started slightly, as if the same idea had suddenly occurred to both of them. With a single look they must have read each other's thoughts.
"The richest heiress in France!"
"And an orphan!"
"And an immense landed property besides!" exclaimed the three other men in accents of undisguised covetousness.
After which, one of them, without noticing the interchange of glances between M. de Mornand and his friend, continued:
"And how old is this Mlle. de Beaumesnil?"
"Not over fifteen," replied M. de Ravil, "and exceedingly unprepossessing in appearance, sickly and positively insignificant looking, in fact."
"Sickly,--that is not objectionable, by any means, quite the contrary,"
said one of the party, reflectively.
"And homely?" remarked another, turning to Ravil. "You have seen her, then?"
"Not I, but one of my aunts saw the girl at the Convent of the Sacred Heart before Beaumesnil took her to Italy by the physician's order."
"Poor Beaumesnil, to die in Naples from a fall from his horse!"
"And you say that Mlle. de Beaumesnil is very homely?" he continued, while M. de Mornand seemed to grow more and more thoughtful.
"Hideous! I think it more than likely that she's going into a decline, too, from what I hear," responded Ravil, disparagingly; "for, after Beaumesnil's death, the physician who had accompanied them to Naples declared that he would not be responsible for the result if Mlle. de Beaumesnil returned to France. She is a consumptive, I tell you, a hopeless consumptive."
"A consumptive heiress!" exclaimed another man ecstatically. "Can any one conceive of a more delightful combination!"
"Ah, yes, I understand," laughed Ravil, "but it is absolutely necessary that the girl should live long enough for a man to marry her, which Mlle. de Beaumesnil is not likely to do. She is doomed. I heard this through M. de la Rochaigue, her nearest relative. And he ought to know, as the property comes to him at her death, if she doesn't marry. Perhaps that accounts for his being so sanguine."
"What a lucky thing it would be for Madame de la Rochaigue, who is so fond of luxury and society!"
"Yes, in other people's houses."
"It is very strange, but it seems to me I have heard that Mlle. de Beaumesnil strongly resembles her mother, who used to be one of the prettiest women in Paris," remarked another gentleman.
"This girl is atrociously ugly, I tell you," said M. de Ravil. "In fact, I'm not sure that she isn't deformed as well."
"Yes," remarked M. de Mornand, awakening from his reverie, "several other persons have said the very same thing about the girl that Ravil does."
"But why didn't her mother accompany her to Italy?"
"Because the poor woman had already been attacked by the strange malady to which she is about to succumb, it seems. People say that it was a terrible disappointment to her because she could not follow her daughter to Naples, and that this disappointment has contributed not a little to her present hopeless state."
"It would seem, then, that Doctor Dupont's musical cure has proved a failure."
"What musical cure?"
"Knowing Madame de Beaumesnil's passionate love of music, the doctor, to mitigate his patient's sufferings and arouse her from her langour, ordered that soft and soothing music should be played or sung to her."
"Not a bad idea, though revived from the times of Saul and David,"
commented Ravil.
"Well, what was the result?"
"Madame de Beaumesnil seemed benefited at first, they say, but her malady soon regained the ascendency."
"I have heard that poor Beaumesnil's sudden death was a terrible shock to her."
"Bah!" exclaimed M. de Mornand, with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders, "she never cared a straw for Beaumesnil. She only married him for his millions of millions. Besides, as a young girl she had any number of lovers. In short," continued M. de Mornand, puffing out his cheeks with an air of supercilious dignity, "Madame de Beaumesnil is really a woman of no reputation whatever, and, in spite of the enormous fortune she will leave, no honourable man would ever be willing to marry the daughter of such a mother."
"Scoundrel!" exclaimed a voice which seemed to respond indignantly to M.
de Mornand's last words from behind the clump of lilacs.
There was a moment of amazed silence; then M. de Mornand, purple with anger, made a hasty circuit of the clump of shrubbery. He found no one there, however. The path at this place making an abrupt turn, the person who uttered the opprobrious epithet could make his escape with comparative ease.
"There are no more infamous scoundrels than the persons who insult others without daring to show themselves," cried M. de Mornand, in a loud voice.
This strange incident had scarcely taken place before the sound of the orchestra drew the promenaders back to the salon.
M. de Mornand being left alone with Ravil, the latter said to him:
"Somebody who dared not show himself called you a scoundrel. We had better say no more about it. But did you understand me?"
"Perfectly. The same idea suddenly, I might almost say simultaneously, occurred to me, and for an instant I was dazzled--even dazed by it."
"An income of over three millions! What an incorruptible minister you will be, eh?"