CHAPTER VIII. THE WAGES OF PHILOSOPHY.
On the morning of the next day, the Doctor, a mere spectre of himself,was brought back in the custody of Casimir. They found Anastasie and theboy sitting together by the fire; and Desprez, who had exchanged histoilette for a ready-made rig-out of poor materials, waved his hand as heentered, and sank speechless on the nearest chair. Madame turned directto Casimir.
'What is wrong?' she cried.
'Well,' replied Casimir, 'what have I told you all along? It has come.It is a clean shave, this time; so you may as well bear up and make thebest of it. House down, too, eh? Bad luck, upon my soul.'
'Are we--are we--ruined?' she gasped.
The Doctor stretched out his arms to her. 'Ruined,' he replied, 'you areruined by your sinister husband.'
Casimir observed the consequent embrace through his eyeglass; then heturned to Jean-Marie. 'You hear?' he said. 'They are ruined; no morepickings, no more house, no more fat cutlets. It strikes me, my friend,that you had best be packing; the present speculation is about workedout.' And he nodded to him meaningly.
'Never!' cried Desprez, springing up. 'Jean-Marie, if you prefer toleave me, now that I am poor, you can go; you shall receive your hundredfrancs, if so much remains to me. But if you will consent to stay'--theDoctor wept a little--'Casimir offers me a place--as clerk,' he resumed.'The emoluments are slender, but they will be enough for three. It istoo much already to have lost my fortune; must I lose my son?'
Jean-Marie sobbed bitterly, but without a word.
'I don't like boys who cry,' observed Casimir. 'This one is alwayscrying. Here! you clear out of this for a little; I have business withyour master and mistress, and these domestic feelings may be settledafter I am gone. March!' and he held the door open.
Jean-Marie slunk out, like a detected thief.
By twelve they were all at table but Jean-Marie.
'Hey?' said Casimir. 'Gone, you see. Took the hint at once.'
'I do not, I confess,' said Desprez, 'I do not seek to excuse hisabsence. It speaks a want of heart that disappoints me sorely.'
'Want of manners,' corrected Casimir. 'Heart, he never had. Why,Desprez, for a clever fellow, you are the most gullible mortal increation. Your ignorance of human nature and human business is beyondbelief. You are swindled by heathen Turks, swindled by vagabondchildren, swindled right and left, upstairs and downstairs. I think itmust be your imagination. I thank my stars I have none.'
'Pardon me,' replied Desprez, still humbly, but with a return of spiritat sight of a distinction to be drawn; 'pardon me, Casimir. You possess,even to an eminent degree, the commercial imagination. It was the lackof that in me--it appears it is my weak point--that has led to theserepeated shocks. By the commercial imagination the financier forecaststhe destiny of his investments, marks the falling house--'
'Egad,' interrupted Casimir: 'our friend the stable-boy appears to havehis share of it.'
The Doctor was silenced; and the meal was continued and finishedprincipally to the tune of the brother-in-law's not very consolatoryconversation. He entirely ignored the two young English painters,turning a blind eyeglass to their salutations, and continuing his remarksas if he were alone in the bosom of his family; and with every secondword he ripped another stitch out of the air balloon of Desprez's vanity.By the time coffee was over the poor Doctor was as limp as a napkin.
'Let us go and see the ruins,' said Casimir.
They strolled forth into the street. The fall of the house, like theloss of a front tooth, had quite transformed the village. Through thegap the eye commanded a great stretch of open snowy country, and theplace shrank in comparison. It was like a room with an open door. Thesentinel stood by the green gate, looking very red and cold, but he had apleasant word for the Doctor and his wealthy kinsman.
Casimir looked at the mound of ruins, he tried the quality of thetarpaulin. 'H'm,' he said, 'I hope the cellar arch has stood. If ithas, my good brother, I will give you a good price for the wines.'
'We shall start digging to-morrow,' said the sentry. 'There is no morefear of snow.'
'My friend,' returned Casimir sententiously, 'you had better wait tillyou get paid.'
The Doctor winced, and began dragging his offensive brother-in-lawtowards Tentaillon's. In the house there would be fewer auditors, andthese already in the secret of his fall.
'Hullo!' cried Casimir, 'there goes the stable-boy with his luggage; no,egad, he is taking it into the inn.'
And sure enough, Jean-Marie was seen to cross the snowy street and enterTentaillon's, staggering under a large hamper.
The Doctor stopped with a sudden, wild hope.
'What can he have?' he said. 'Let us go and see.' And he hurried on.
'His luggage, to be sure,' answered Casimir. 'He is on the move--thanksto the commercial imagination.'
'I have not seen that hamper for--for ever so long,' remarked the Doctor.
'Nor will you see it much longer,' chuckled Casimir; 'unless, indeed, weinterfere. And by the way, I insist on an examination.'
'You will not require,' said Desprez, positively with a sob; and, castinga moist, triumphant glance at Casimir, he began to run.
'What the devil is up with him, I wonder?' Casimir reflected; and then,curiosity taking the upper hand, he followed the Doctor's example andtook to his heels.
The hamper was so heavy and large, and Jean-Marie himself so little andso weary, that it had taken him a great while to bundle it upstairs tothe Desprez' private room; and he had just set it down on the floor infront of Anastasie, when the Doctor arrived, and was closely followed bythe man of business. Boy and hamper were both in a most sorry plight;for the one had passed four months underground in a certain cave on theway to Acheres, and the other had run about five miles as hard as hislegs would carry him, half that distance under a staggering weight.
'Jean-Marie,' cried the Doctor, in a voice that was only too seraphic tobe called hysterical, 'is it--? It is!' he cried. 'O, my son, my son!'And he sat down upon the hamper and sobbed like a little child.
'You will not go to Paris now,' said Jean-Marie sheepishly.
'Casimir,' said Desprez, raising his wet face, 'do you see that boy, thatangel boy? He is the thief; he took the treasure from a man unfit to beentrusted with its use; he brings it back to me when I am sobered andhumbled. These, Casimir, are the Fruits of my Teaching, and this momentis the Reward of my Life.'
'_Tiens_,' said Casimir.
PRINTED BYSPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW-STREET SQUARELONDON
Footnotes
{5} Boggy.
{15} Clock
{16} Enjoy.
{140} To come forrit--to offer oneself as a communicant.
{144} It was a common belief in Scotland that the devil appeared as ablack man. This appears in several witch trials and I think in Law's_Memorials_, that delightful store-house of the quaint and grisly.
{263} Let it be so, for my tale!
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends