V
Had the commissary received any information in advance? or was heguided only by the scent peculiar to men of his profession, and thehabit of suspecting every thing, even that which seems most unlikely?
At any rate he expressed himself in a tone of absolute certainty.
The agents who had accompanied and assisted him in his researcheswere winking at each other, and giggling stupidly. The situationstruck them as rather pleasant.
The others, M. Desclavettes, M. Chapelain, and the worthy M.Desormeaux himself, could have racked their brains in vain to findterms wherein to express the immensity of their astonishments.Vincent Favoral, their old friend, paying for cashmeres, diamonds,and parlor sets! Such an idea could not enter in their minds. Forwhom could such princely gifts be intended? For a mistress, forone of those redoubtable creatures whom fancy represents crouchingin the depths of love, like monsters at the bottom of their caves!
But how could any one imagine the methodic cashier of the MutualCredit Society carried away by one of those insane passions whichknew no reason? Ruined by gambling, perhaps, but by a woman!
Could any one picture him, so homely and so plain here, Rue St.Gilles, at the head of another establishment, and leading elsewherein one of the brilliant quarters of Paris, a reckless life, such asstrike terror in the bosom of quiet families?
Could any one understand the same man at once miserly-economical andmadly-prodigal, storming when his wife spent a few cents, and robbingto supply the expenses of an adventuress, and collecting in the samedrawer the jeweler's accounts and the butcher's bills?
"It is the climax of absurdity," murmured good M. Desormeaux.
Maxence fairly shook with wrath. Mlle. Gilberte was weeping.
Mme. Favoral alone, usually so timid, boldly defended, and with herutmost energy, the man whose name she bore. That he might haveembezzled millions, she admitted: that he had deceived and betrayedher so shamefully, that he had made a wretched dupe of her for somany years, seemed to her insensate, monstrous, impossible.
And purple with shame:
"Your suspicions would vanish at once, sir," she said to thecommissary, "if I could but explain to you our mode of life."
Encouraged by his first discovery, he was proceeding more minutelywith his perquisitions, undoing the strings of every bundle.
"It is useless, madame," he answered in that brief tone which made somuch impression upon M. Desclavettes. "You can only tell me what youknow; and you know nothing."
"Never, sir, did a man lead a more regular life than M. Favoral."
"In appearance, you are right. Besides, to regulate one's disorderis one of the peculiarities of our time. We open credits to ourpassions, and we keep account of our infamies by double entry. Weoperate with method. We embezzle millions that we may hang diamondsto the ears of an adventuress; but we are careful, and we keep thereceipted bills."
"But, sir, I have already told you that I never lost sight of myhusband."
"Of course."
"Every morning, precisely at nine o'clock, he left home to go to M.de Thaller's office."
"The whole neighborhood knows that, madame."
"At half-past five he came home."
"That, also, is a well-known fact."
"After dinner he went out to play a game, but it was his onlyamusement; and at eleven o'clock he was always in bed."
"Perfectly correct."
"Well, then, sir, where could M. Favoral have found time to abandonhimself to the excesses of which you accuse him?"
Imperceptibly the commissary of police shrugged his shoulders.
"Far from me, madame," he uttered, "to doubt your good faith. Whatmatters it, moreover, whether your husband spent in this way or inthat way the sums which he is charged with having appropriated? Butwhat do your objections prove? Simply that M. Favoral was veryskillful, and very much self-possessed. Had he breakfasted when heleft you at nine? No. Pray, then, where did he breakfast? In arestaurant? Which? Why did he come home only at half-past five,when his office actually closed at three o'clock? Are you quitesure that it was to the Cafe Turc that he went every evening?Finally, why do not you say anything of the extra work which healways had to attend to, as he pretended, once or twice a month?Sometimes it was a loan, sometimes a liquidation, or a settlementof dividends, which devolved upon him. Did he come home then? No.He told you that he would dine out, and that it would be moreconvenient for him to have a cot put up in his office; and thusyou were twenty-four or forty-eight hours without seeing him.Surely this double existence must have weighed heavily upon him;but he was forbidden from breaking off with you, under penalty ofbeing caught the very next day with his hand in the till. It isthe respectability of his official life here which made the otherpossible,--that which has absorbed such enormous sums. The harsherand the closer he were here, the more magnificent he could showhimself elsewhere. His household in the Rue St. Gilles was forhim a certificate of impunity. Seeing him so economical, every onethought him rich. People who seem to spend nothing are alwaystrusted. Every privation which he imposed upon you increased hisreputation of austere probity, and raised him farther abovesuspicion."
Big tears were rolling down Mme. Favoral's cheeks.
"Why not tell me the whole truth?" she stammered.
"Because I do not know it," replied the commissary; "because theseare all mere presumptions. I have seen so many instances of similarcalculations!"
Then regretting, perhaps, to have said so much,
"But I may be mistaken," he added: "I do not pretend to beinfallible." He was just then completing a brief inventory of allthe papers found in the old desk. There was nothing left but toexamine the drawer which was used for a cash drawer. He found init in gold, notes, and small change, seven hundred and eighteenfrancs.
Having counted this sum, the commissary offered it to Mme. Favoral,saying,
"This belongs to you madame."
But instinctively she withdrew her hand.
"Never!" she said.
The commissary went on with a gesture of kindness,--"I understandyour scruples, madame, and yet I must insist. You may believe mewhen I tell you that this little sum is fairly and legitimatelyyours. You have no personal fortune."
The efforts of the poor woman to keep from bursting into loud sobswere but too visible.
"I possess nothing in the world, sir," she said in a broken voice."My husband alone attended to our business-affairs. He never spoketo me about them; and I would not have dared to question him. Alonehe disposed of our money. Every Sunday he handed me the amount whichhe thought necessary for the expenses of the week, and I rendered himan account of it. When my children or myself were in need of anything, I told him so, and he gave me what he thought proper. Thisis Saturday: of what I received last Sunday I have five francs left:that, is our whole fortune."
Positively the commissary was moved.
"You see, then, madame," he said, "that you cannot hesitate: you mustlive."
Maxence stepped forward.
"Am I not here, sir?" he said.
The commissary looked at him keenly, and in a grave tone,
"I believe indeed, sir," he replied, "that you will not suffer yourmother and sister to want for any thing. But resources are notcreated in a day. Yours, if I have not been deceived, are more thanlimited just now."
And as the young man blushed, and did not answer, he handed the sevenhundred francs to Mlle. Gilberte, saying,
"Take this, mademoiselle: your mother permits it." His work was done.To place his seals upon M. Favoral's study was the work of a moment.
Beckoning, then, to his agents to withdraw, and being ready to leavehimself,
"Let not the seals cause you any uneasiness, madame," said thecommissary of police to Mme. Favoral. "Before forty-eight hours,some one will come to remove these papers, and restore to you thefree use of that room."
He went out; and, as soon as the door had closed behind him,
/> "Well?" exclaimed M. Desormeaux;
But no one had any thing to say. The guests of that house wheremisfortune had just entered were making haste to leave. Thecatastrophe was certainly terrible and unforeseen; but did it notreach them too? Did they not lose among them more than three hundredthousand francs?
Thus, after a few commonplace protestations, and some of thosepromises which mean nothing, they withdrew; and, as they were goingdown the stairs,
"The commissary took Vincent's escape too easy," remarked M.Desormeaux. "He must know some way to catch him again."