"You may be reassured, monsieur," said Indiana; "the man you killed will
be quite well in a few days; at least we hope so, although he is not yet
able to talk."
"That's not the question, madame," said the colonel, in a voice that
trembled with suppressed passion; "I insist upon knowing the name of
this interesting patient of yours, and how it came about that he mistook
the wall of my park for the avenue to my house."
"I have absolutely no idea," replied Madame Delmare with such a cold and
haughty air that her redoubtable spouse was bewildered for an instant.
But his jealous suspicions soon regained the upper hand.
"I shall find out, madame," he said in an undertone; "you may be sure
that I shall find out."
Thereupon, as Madame Delmare pretended not to notice his rage and
continued her attentions to the wounded man, he left the room, in order
not to explode before the women, and recalled the gardener.
"What is the name of the man who, you say, resembles our prowler?"
"Monsieur de Ramière. It is he who has just bought Monsieur de Cercy's
little English house."
"What sort of man is he? a nobleman, a fop, a fine gentleman?"
"A fine gentleman, monsieur; noble, I think."
"Undoubtedly," rejoined the colonel with emphasis. "Monsieur de
Ramière! Tell me, Louis," he added, lowering his voice, "have you ever
seen this fop prowling about here?"
"Last night, monsieur," Louis replied, with an embarrassed air, "I
certainly saw--as to its being a fop, I can't say, but it was a man,
sure enough."
"And you saw him?"
"As plainly as I see you, under the windows of the orangery."
"And you didn't fall upon him with the handle of your shovel?"
"I was just going to do it, monsieur; but I saw a woman in white come
out of the orangery and go to meet him. At that I said to myself:
'Perhaps it's monsieur and madame, who have taken a fancy to walk a bit
before daybreak;' and I went back to bed. But this morning I heard
Lelièvre talking about a thief whose tracks he had seen in the park,
and I said to myself: 'There's something under this.'"
"And why didn't you tell me immediately, stupid?"
"_Dame!_ monsieur, there are some things in life that are _so
delicate!_"
"I understand--you presume to have doubts. You are a fool; if you ever
have another insolent idea of this sort I'll cut off your ears. I know
very well who the thief is and why he came into the garden. I have put
all these questions to you simply to find out what care you take of your
orangery. Remember that I have some rare plants there that madame sets
great store by, and that there are collectors who are insane enough to
rob their neighbors' hothouses; it was I whom you saw last night with
Madame Delmare."
And the poor colonel walked away, more tormented, more exasperated than
before, leaving his gardener far from convinced that there are
horticulturists fanatical enough to risk a bullet in order to purloin a
shoot or a cutting.
Monsieur Delmare returned to the billiard-room and, paying no heed to
the symptoms of returning consciousness which the wounded man displayed
at last, he was preparing to search the pockets of his jacket which lay
on a chair, when he put out his hand and said in a faint voice:
"You wish to know who I am, monsieur, but it is useless. I will tell you
when we are alone. Until then spare me the embarrassment of making
myself known in my present disagreeable and absurd position."
"It is a great pity in truth!" retorted the colonel sourly; "but I
confess that I hardly appreciate it. However, as I trust that we shall
meet again, and alone, I consent to defer an acquaintance until then.
Meanwhile will you kindly tell me where I shall have you taken."
"To the public house in the nearest village, if you please."
"But monsieur is no condition to be moved, is he, Ralph?" said Madame
Delmare hastily.
"Monsieur's condition affects you far too much, madame," said the
colonel. "Leave the room, all of you," he said to the women in
attendance. "Monsieur feels better, and he will find strength now to
explain his presence on my premises."
"Yes, monsieur," rejoined the wounded man, "and I beg all those who have
been kind enough to bestow any care upon me to listen to my
acknowledgment of my misconduct. I feel that is of much importance that
there should be no misunderstanding here of my motives, and it is of
importance to myself that I should not be deemed what I am not. Let me
tell you then what rascally scheme brought me to your park. You have
installed, monsieur, by methods of extreme simplicity, known to you
alone, a factory which is immeasurably superior to all similar factories
in the province, both in respect to its processes and its product. My
brother owns a very similar establishment in the south of France, but
the cost of running it is enormous. His business was approaching
shipwreck when I learned of the success of your venture; whereupon I
determined to come and ask you to give me advice on certain points,--a
generous service which could not possibly injure your own interests, as
my brother's output is of an entirely different nature from yours. But
the gate of your English garden was rigorously closed to me; and when I
asked for an interview with you, I was told that you would not even
allow me to look over your establishment. Repelled by these discourteous
refusals, I determined to save my brother's life and honor even at the
peril of my own; I entered your premises at night by scaling the wall,
and tried to obtain entrance to the factory in order to examine the
machinery. I had determined to hide in a corner; to bribe your workmen,
to steal your secret,--in a word, to enable an honest man to profit by
it without injuring you. Such was my crime. Now, monsieur, if you demand
any other reparation than that which you have just taken, I am ready to
offer it to you as soon as I am strong enough; indeed, I may perhaps
demand it."
"I think that we should cry quits, monsieur," replied the colonel, half
relieved from a great anxiety. "Take notice, all of you, of the
explanation monsieur has given me. I am over-avenged, assuming that I
require any revenge. Go now and leave us to discuss my profitable
business operations."
The servants left the room; but they alone were deceived by this
reconciliation. The wounded man, weakened by his long speech, was not
capable of appreciating the tone of the colonel's last words. He fell
back into Madame Delmare's arms and lost consciousness a second time.
She leaned over him, not deigning to raise her eyes to her angry
husband, and the two strikingly contrasted faces of Monsieur Delmare and
Monsieur Brown, the one pale and distorted by anger, the other calm and
expressionless as usual, questioned each other in silence.
Monsieur Delmare did not need to say a word to make himself understood;
however he drew Sir Ralph aside and said, crushing his fingers in his
grasp:
"This is an admirably woven intrigue, my friend. I am delighted,
perfectly delighted with this young fellow's quick wit, which enabled
him to save my honor in the eyes of my servants. But, _mordieu!_ he
shall pay dear for the insult, which I feel in the depths of my heart.
And that woman nursing him, who pretends not to know him! Ah! how true
it is that cunning is inborn in those creatures!"
Sir Ralph, utterly nonplussed, walked methodically up and down the room
three times. At his first turn he drew the conclusion: _improbable_; at
the second: _impossible_; at the third: _proven._ Then, returning with
his impassive face to the colonel, he pointed to Noun, who was standing
behind the wounded man, wringing her hands, with haggard eyes and livid
cheeks, in the immobility of despair, terror and misery.
A real discovery carries with it such a power of swift and overwhelming
conviction, that the colonel was more impressed by Sir Ralph's emphatic
gesture than he would have been by the most persuasive eloquence.
Doubtless Sir Ralph had more than one means of striking the right scent;
he recalled the fact that Noun was in the park when he called her, her
wet hair, her damp, muddy shoes, which testified to a strange fancy for
walking abroad in the rain--trivial details which had made but slight
impression on him at the time that Madame Delmare fainted, but which
recurred to his memory now. Then, too, the extraordinary terror she had
manifested, her convulsive agitation, and the cry she had uttered when
she heard the shot.
Monsieur Delmare did not require all this evidence; being more
penetrating because he had more interest in the matter, he had only to
look at the girl's face to see that she alone was guilty. But his wife's
assiduity in ministering to the hero of this amorous adventure became
more and more distasteful to him.
"Leave us, Indiana," he said. "It is late and you are not well. Noun
will remain with monsieur to take care of him during the night, and
to-morrow, if he is better, we will see about having him taken home."
There was nothing to say in reply to this unexpected complaisance.
Madame Delmare, who was so determined in her resistance to her husband's
violence, always yielded to his milder moods. She requested Sir Ralph to
remain a little longer with the patient, and withdrew to her bedroom.
Not without ulterior motives had the colonel arranged things thus. An
hour later, when everybody had gone to bed and the house was still, he
stole softly into the room where Monsieur de Ramière lay, and, hiding
behind a curtain, was speedily convinced, by the young man's
conversation with the lady's-maid, that an amorous intrigue between the
two was in progress. The young creole's unusual beauty had created a
sensation at the rustic balls in the neighborhood. She had not lacked
offers of homage, even from members of some of the first families of the
province. More than one handsome officer of lancers, in garrison at
Melun, had put himself out to please her; but Noun was still to have her
first love affair, and only one of her suitors had succeeded in pleasing
her: Monsieur de Ramière.
Colonel Delmare was by no means desirous of following the development of
their liaison; so he retired as soon as he had made sure that his wife
had not for an instant occupied the thoughts of the Almaviva of this
adventure. He heard enough of it, however, to realize the difference
between the love of poor Noun, who threw herself into the affair with
all the vehemence of her passionate nature, and that of the well-born
youth, who yielded to the impulse of a day without abjuring the right to
resume his reason on the morrow.
When Madame Delmare awoke she found Noun beside her bed, embarrassed and
downcast. But she had ingenuously given credence to Monsieur de
Ramière's explanation, the more readily as persons interested in
Monsieur Delmare's line of trade had previously tried to surprise the
secrets of the Delmare factory, by stratagem or by fraud. She attributed
her companion's embarrassment therefore to the excitement and fatigue of
the night, and Noun took courage when she saw the colonel calmly enter
his wife's room and discuss the affair of the previous evening with her
as a perfectly natural occurrence.
In the morning Sir Ralph had satisfied himself as to the patient's
condition. The fall, although a severe one, had had no serious result;
the wound in the hand had already closed; Monsieur de Ramière had
expressed a desire to be taken to Melun, and he had distributed the
contents of his purse among the servants to induce them to keep quiet
concerning his adventure, in order, he said, that his mother, who lived
within a few leagues, might not be alarmed. Thus the story became known
very slowly, and in several different versions. Certain information
concerning the English factory of Monsieur de Ramière, the brother,
added weight to the fiction the intruder had happily improvised. The
colonel and Sir Ralph had the delicacy to keep Noun's secret, without
even letting her know that they knew it; and the Delmare family soon
ceased to give any thought to the incident.