This was like a thunder-clap.He walked up and down the room,going from one window to another at a regular pace,his arms folded.
'Have you had bad news,or are you ill?'his wife asked him timidly,while Rosalie helped her to undress.He made no reply.
'You can go,Rosalie,'said Madame de Merret to her maid;'I can put in my curl-papers myself.'--She scented disaster at the mere aspect of her husband's face,and wished to be alone with him.As soon as Rosalie was gone,or supposed to be gone,for she lingered a few minutes in the passage,Monsieur de Merret came and stood facing his wife,and said coldly,'Madame,there is some one in your cupboard!'
She looked at her husband calmly,and replied quite simply,'No,monsieur.'
This 'No'wrung Monsieur de Merret's heart;he did not believe it;and yet his wife had never appeared purer or more saintly than she seemed to be at this moment.He rose to go and open the closet door.
Madame de Merret took his hand,stopped him,looked at him sadly,and said in a voice of strange emotion,'Remember,if you should find no one there,everything must be at an end between you and me.'
The extraordinary dignity of his wife's attitude filled him with deep esteem for her,and inspired him with one of those resolves which need only a grander stage to become immortal.
'No,Josephine,'he said,'I will not open it.In either event we should be parted for ever.Listen;I know all the purity of your soul,I know you lead a saintly life,and would not commit a deadly sin to save your life.'--At these words Madame de Merret looked at her husband with a haggard stare.--'See,here is your crucifix,'he went on.'Swear to me before God that there is no one in there;I will believe you--I will never open that door.'
Madame de Merret took up the crucifix and said,'I swear it.'
'Louder,'said her husband;'and repeat:I swear before God that there is nobody in that closet.'She repeated the words without flinching.
'That will do,'said Monsieur de Merret coldly.After a moment's silence:'You have there a fine piece of work which I never saw before,'said he,examining the crucifix of ebony and silver,very artistically wrought.
'I found it at Duvivier's;last year when that troop of Spanish prisoners came through Vendome,he bought it of a Spanish monk.'
'Indeed,'said Monsieur de Merret,hanging the crucifix on its nail;and he rang the bell.
He had to wait for Rosalie.Monsieur de Merret went forward quickly to meet her,led her into the bay of the window that looked on to the garden,and said to her in an undertone:
'I know that Gorenflot wants to marry you,that poverty alone prevents your setting up house,and that you told him you would not be his wife till he found means to become a master mason.--Well,go and fetch him;tell him to come here with his trowel and tools.Contrive to wake no one in his house but himself.His reward will be beyond your wishes.Above all,go out without saying a word--or else!'and he frowned.
Rosalie was going,and he called her back.'Here,take my latch-key,'said he.
'Jean!'Monsieur de Merret called in a voice of thunder down the passage.Jean,who was both coachman and confidential servant,left his cards and came.
'Go to bed,all of you,'said his master,beckoning him to come close;and the gentleman added in a whisper,'When they are all asleep --mind,/asleep/--you understand?--come down and tell me.'
Monsieur de Merret,who had never lost sight of his wife while giving his orders,quietly came back to her at the fireside,and began to tell her the details of the game of billiards and the discussion at the club.When Rosalie returned she found Monsieur and Madame de Merret conversing amiably.
Not long before this Monsieur de Merret had had new ceilings made to all the reception-rooms on the ground floor.Plaster is very scarce at Vendome;the price is enhanced by the cost of carriage;the gentleman had therefore had a considerable quantity delivered to him,knowing that he could always find purchasers for what might be left.It was this circumstance which suggested the plan he carried out.
'Gorenflot is here,sir,'said Rosalie in a whisper.
'Tell him to come in,'said her master aloud.
Madame de Merret turned paler when she saw the mason.