The Flower Girl of The Chateau d'Eau Volume Ii Part 41

"Yes, monsieur; can you imagine that she does not come to take care of him, her father, when he is sick?"

"Did he tell you why she was not with him?"

"No, monsieur; he simply said that it was his fault.--But come in, monsieur; he is sound asleep."

"Yes, I will come in. Stay here, my child, and talk with Georget; but don't talk too loud."

"No, there's no danger of that, monsieur," said Georget; "we understand each other perfectly well simply by looking at each other."

The count entered the room occupied by Roncherolle. A single tallow candle, which was badly in need of snuffing, lighted that room with a dim, uncertain light; it enabled the visitor, however, to distinguish a cheap wall paper, torn or lacking altogether in several places; a window with large cracks, and without curtains, in which one pane was broken, its place being ill supplied by paper; two or three pieces of cheap black walnut furniture; a painted cot, on which was a coa.r.s.e flock bed and a very thin mattress; on the mantel, a small mirror in a wooden frame, and on the hearth two tiny bits of wood, which were hardly burning.

Everything in that abode indicated poverty and privation; and the cold that one felt there, the wind that one could hear whistling in all directions, heightened the melancholy impression which one was certain to feel at finding an invalid in such a place.

Monsieur de Brevanne noticed and scrutinized everything; then he walked to the bed and gazed at Roncherolle, whose features were more than ever changed by suffering and want, and who, even in his sleep, seemed to be struggling with pain.

"The wretched man!" said the count to himself; "is this what the future seemed to promise him? Endowed with every advantage, possessor of a handsome fortune, this is what his pa.s.sions have brought him to!--It is all over; I can think no more of the vengeance which I was determined to wreak upon him; heaven has undertaken that duty; and besides, I should not have the courage to deprive Violette of her father; I do not know whether men will blame me, but something tells me that the time has come to forgive."

Roncherolle moved in his sleep, and the count instantly left the room and joined the two young sweet-hearts, who had not found the time long.

"Well, monsieur, you have seen him," said Violette; "is he really the man whom you used to know?"

"Yes, my child; but not a word about my visit!"

"Oh! have no fear, monsieur."

"Come, Georget, let us go."

Georget considered that he had had very little time to talk to Violette; but he dared not make any remark, and took his leave with the count, after exchanging a loving pressure of the hand with his sweetheart.

The next morning, about nine o'clock, Violette was in her neighbor's room once more; he was feeling a little better, and was telling her about a strange dream he had had, when Chicotin arrived, bringing with him a letter, which he handed to Roncherolle.

"For you, bourgeois; it just came, so your concierge told me."

"Who can have written me? I don't know this writing," said Roncherolle, as he broke the seal. But in an instant, he uttered a cry of surprise.

"My children, you could never guess what this letter contains; listen.

"'Monsieur:

"'One of your debtors, Monsieur de Juvigny, has instructed me to send you a thousand francs on account of what he owes you.'

"Signed--the devil take me if I can read it--Dubois or Dubosc.--But the thousand-franc note is inside all right; here it is!"

"Ah! what good luck, monsieur! how happy it makes me for you!" said Violette.

"Name of an--excuse me, bourgeois, but I am so glad that I brought that letter for you!"

"Thanks, my friends, thanks, I am trying to remember--Yes, Juvigny did owe me money--I can't remember just how much; but when I inquired about him a few months ago, I was told that he was travelling."

"He must have sent word to this person to send you this sum, monsieur."

"Faith! I hardly expected this rest.i.tution. The money arrives most opportunely, but I can't get over my surprise!"

"You see, monsieur, that I told you that your dream meant good luck."

"You can buy all the syrup of Poupee that you want now, bourgeois."

"Yes, my boy, and my little neighbor will be kind enough to do that for me, and change this note. Here, my dear, is the note, here's the thousand francs which seems to have fallen from heaven!"

"Ah! I have a strong suspicion where it fell from, myself!" thought Violette as she left the room.

XLII

THE PIE

Ten days after the receipt of the letter containing the thousand francs, Roncherolle was walking on the boulevard, alert and active, feeling not a trace of his gout, and wrapped in a warm, stylish overcoat, with a new hat on his head, patent leather shoes on his feet, in a word, dressed with a care and elegance which changed him completely and made him look almost like a young man.

In front of the Gymnase Theatre, Roncherolle felt a hand on his arm, and he turned and recognized his former neighbor, young Alfred de Saint-Arthur.

"Ah! good-morning, my dear monsieur, delighted to meet you!"

"Good-morning, my dear Monsieur de Roncherolle. I can no longer say my neighbor, for you are not my neighbor now. You went off like a bomb without telling me, without leaving me your address; that was very unkind. That idiot of a Beauvinet,--you know, the young man at the hotel,--insisted upon it that you lived at Pa.s.sage I-don't-know-where.

Ah! that was a good one! that was very good!"

"You didn't try to find me at that place?"

"Oh, no! I wasn't taken in by that blockhead of a Beauvinet. I said to myself: 'My neighbor must have had reasons for moving and not leaving his address; such things happen every day, and indeed I think that it may happen to me very soon.'--But I regretted you all the same; on my word of honor I regretted you."

"That is too kind of you."

"But there was someone who regretted you much more than I did. Can't you guess?"

"Faith, no."

"It was Zizi--you know--Zizi Dutaillis."

"Oh, yes! I remember perfectly--a very agreeable little woman."

"Well, you made a conquest of her. Every day she said to me: 'Do find Monsieur de Roncherolle; invite me to dine again with Monsieur de Roncherolle; I want him to teach me other ways of--you know what.'--In fact, I never see her that she doesn't talk about you, and if you were younger and--and--and fresher, I should be jealous of you."

"Thanks, thanks, a thousand times!"

"By the way, allow me to congratulate you; you walk very well; have you got rid of your gout?"