THE LION OF THE BALL.
On the day following Olivier Raymond's chance meeting with Gerald, the
mother of the latter gave a dancing party.
The Duchesse de Senneterre, both by birth and by marriage, was connected
with the oldest and most illustrious families of France, and though her
fortune was insignificant and her house small, she gave every year four
or five small but extremely elegant and exclusive dancing receptions, of
which she and her two young daughters did the honours with perfect
grace. The Duc de Senneterre, dead for two years, had held a high office
under the Restoration.
The three windows of the salon where the guests danced opened into a
very pretty garden, and the day being superb, many ladies and gentlemen
stepped out for a chat or a stroll through the paths bordered with
flowering shrubs during the intervals between the dances.
Four or five men, chancing to meet near a big clump of lilacs, had
paused to exchange the airy nothings that generally compose the
conversation at such a gathering.
Among this group were two men that merit attention. One, a man about
thirty-five years of age, but already obese, with an extremely pompous,
indolent, and supercilious manner and a lack-lustre eye, was the Comte
de Mornand, the same man who had been mentioned at Commander Bernard's
the evening before, when Olivier and Gerald were comparing their
reminiscences of college life.
M. de Mornand occupied a hereditary seat in the Chamber of Peers.
The other, an intimate friend of the count, was a man of about the same
age,--tall, slim, angular, a trifle round-shouldered, and also a little
bald,--whose flat head, prominent and rather bloodshot eyes imparted an
essentially reptilian character to his visage. This was the Baron de
Ravil. Though his means of support were problematical in the extreme
when compared with his luxurious style of living, the baron was still
received in the aristocratic society in which his birth entitled him to
a place, but never did any intriguer--we use the word in its lowest,
most audacious sense--display more brazen effrontry or daring impudence.
"Have you seen the lion of the ball?" inquired one of the men of the
party, addressing M. de Mornand.
"I have but just arrived, and have no idea to whom you refer," replied
the count.
"Why, the Marquis de Maillefort."
"That cursed hunchback!" exclaimed M. de Ravil; "it is all his fault
that this affair seems so unconscionably dull. His hideous presence is
enough to cast a damper over any festivity."
"How strange it is that the marquis appears in society for a few weeks,
now and then, and then suddenly disappears again," remarked another
member of the group.
"I believe he is a manufacturer of counterfeit money and emerges from
his seclusion, now and then, to put his spurious coin in circulation,"
remarked M. de Ravil. "This much is certain--incomprehensible as it
appears--he actually loaned me a thousand franc note, which I shall
never return, the other night, at the card-table. And what do you
suppose the impertinent creature said as he handed it to me? 'It will
afford me so much amusement to dun you for it, baron.' He need have no
fears. He will amuse himself in that way a long time."
"But all jesting aside, this marquis is a very peculiar man," remarked
another member of the party. "His mother, the old Marquise de
Maillefort, left him a very handsome fortune, but no one can imagine
what he does with his money, for he lives very modestly."
"I used to meet him quite frequently at poor Madame de Beaumesnil's."
"By the way, do you know they say she is said to be lying at the point
of death?"
"Madame de Beaumesnil?"
"Yes; she is about to receive the last sacrament. At least that is what
they told Madame de Mirecourt, who stopped to inquire for her on her way
here."
"Her case must, indeed, have been incurable, then, for her physician is
that famous Doctor Gasterini, who is as great a savant as he is a
gourmand, which is certainly saying a good deal."
"Poor woman! she is young to die."
"And what an immense fortune her daughter will have," exclaimed M. de
Mornand. "She will be the richest heiress in France, and an orphan
besides. What a rare titbit for a fortune-hunter!"
As he uttered these words, M. de Mornand's eyes encountered those of his
friend Ravil.
Both started slightly, as if the same idea had suddenly occurred to both
of them. With a single look they must have read each other's thoughts.
"The richest heiress in France!"
"And an orphan!"
"And an immense landed property besides!" exclaimed the three other men
in accents of undisguised covetousness.
After which, one of them, without noticing the interchange of glances
between M. de Mornand and his friend, continued:
"And how old is this Mlle. de Beaumesnil?"
"Not over fifteen," replied M. de Ravil, "and exceedingly
unprepossessing in appearance, sickly and positively insignificant
looking, in fact."
"Sickly,--that is not objectionable, by any means, quite the contrary,"
said one of the party, reflectively.
"And homely?" remarked another, turning to Ravil. "You have seen her,
then?"
"Not I, but one of my aunts saw the girl at the Convent of the Sacred
Heart before Beaumesnil took her to Italy by the physician's order."
"Poor Beaumesnil, to die in Naples from a fall from his horse!"
"And you say that Mlle. de Beaumesnil is very homely?" he continued,
while M. de Mornand seemed to grow more and more thoughtful.
"Hideous! I think it more than likely that she's going into a decline,
too, from what I hear," responded Ravil, disparagingly; "for, after
Beaumesnil's death, the physician who had accompanied them to Naples
declared that he would not be responsible for the result if Mlle. de
Beaumesnil returned to France. She is a consumptive, I tell you, a
hopeless consumptive."
"A consumptive heiress!" exclaimed another man ecstatically. "Can any
one conceive of a more delightful combination!"
"Ah, yes, I understand," laughed Ravil, "but it is absolutely necessary
that the girl should live long enough for a man to marry her, which
Mlle. de Beaumesnil is not likely to do. She is doomed. I heard this
through M. de la Rochaigue, her nearest relative. And he ought to know,
as the property comes to him at her death, if she doesn't marry. Perhaps
that accounts for his being so sanguine."
"What a lucky thing it would be for Madame de la Rochaigue, who is so
fond of luxury and society!"
"Yes, in other people's houses."
"It is very strange, but it seems to me I have heard that Mlle. de
Beaumesnil strongly resembles her mother, who used to be one of the
prettiest women in Paris," remarked another gentleman.
"This girl is atrociously ugly, I tell you," said M. de Ravil. "In fact,
I'm not sure that she isn't deformed as well."
"Yes," remarked M. de Mornand, awakening from his reverie, "several
other persons have said the very same thing about the girl that Ravil
does."
"But why didn't her mother accompany her to Italy?"
"Because the poor woman had already been attacked by the strange malady
to which she is about to succumb, it seems. People say that it was a
terrible disappointment to her because she could not follow her daughter
to Naples, and that this disappointment has contributed not a little to
her present hopeless state."
"It would seem, then, that Doctor Dupont's musical cure has proved a
failure."
"What musical cure?"
"Knowing Madame de Beaumesnil's passionate love of music, the doctor, to
mitigate his patient's sufferings and arouse her from her langour,
ordered that soft and soothing music should be played or sung to her."
"Not a bad idea, though revived from the times of Saul and David,"
commented Ravil.
"Well, what was the result?"
"Madame de Beaumesnil seemed benefited at first, they say, but her
malady soon regained the ascendency."
"I have heard that poor Beaumesnil's sudden death was a terrible shock
to her."
"Bah!" exclaimed M. de Mornand, with a contemptuous shrug of the
shoulders, "she never cared a straw for Beaumesnil. She only married him
for his millions of millions. Besides, as a young girl she had any
number of lovers. In short," continued M. de Mornand, puffing out his
cheeks with an air of supercilious dignity, "Madame de Beaumesnil is
really a woman of no reputation whatever, and, in spite of the enormous
fortune she will leave, no honourable man would ever be willing to marry
the daughter of such a mother."
"Scoundrel!" exclaimed a voice which seemed to respond indignantly to M.
de Mornand's last words from behind the clump of lilacs.
There was a moment of amazed silence; then M. de Mornand, purple with
anger, made a hasty circuit of the clump of shrubbery. He found no one
there, however. The path at this place making an abrupt turn, the person
who uttered the opprobrious epithet could make his escape with
comparative ease.
"There are no more infamous scoundrels than the persons who insult
others without daring to show themselves," cried M. de Mornand, in a
loud voice.
This strange incident had scarcely taken place before the sound of the
orchestra drew the promenaders back to the salon.
M. de Mornand being left alone with Ravil, the latter said to him:
"Somebody who dared not show himself called you a scoundrel. We had
better say no more about it. But did you understand me?"
"Perfectly. The same idea suddenly, I might almost say simultaneously,
occurred to me, and for an instant I was dazzled--even dazed by it."
"An income of over three millions! What an incorruptible minister you
will be, eh?"
"Hush! It is enough to turn one's brain."
The conversation was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a third
party, who, addressing M. de Mornand, said, with the most scrupulous
politeness:
"Monsieur, will you do me the favour to act as my vis-a-vis?"
M. de Mornand's surprise was so great that he started back without
uttering a word on hearing this request, for the person who had just
made it was no other than the Marquis de Maillefort, the singular
hunchback, of whom frequent mention has already been made in these
pages.
There was also another feeling that prevented M. de Mornand from
immediately replying to this strange proposition, for, in the full,
vibrating voice of the speaker, M. de Mornand fancied, for an instant,
that he recognised the voice of the unseen person who had called him a
scoundrel when he spoke in such disparaging terms of Madame de
Beaumesnil.
The Marquis de Maillefort, pretending not to notice the air of
displeased surprise with which M. de Mornand had greeted the proposal,
repeated in the same tone of scrupulous politeness:
"Monsieur, will you do me the favour to act as my vis-a-vis in the next
quadrille?"
On hearing this request on the part of the deformed man thus reiterated,
M. de Mornand, without concealing his desire to laugh, exclaimed:
"Act as your vis-a-vis,--yours, monsieur?"
"Yes, monsieur," replied the marquis, with the most innocent air
imaginable.
"But,--but what you ask is--is--permit me to say--very remarkable."
"And very dangerous, my dear marquis," added the Baron de Ravil, with
his usual sneer.
"As for you, baron, I might put a no less offensive and, perhaps, even
more dangerous question to you," retorted the marquis, smiling. "When
will you return the thousand francs I had the pleasure of loaning to you
the other evening?"
"You are too inquisitive, marquis."
"Come, come, baron, don't treat M. de Talleyrand's _bon mots_ as you
treat thousand franc notes."
"What do you mean by that, marquis?"
"I mean that it costs you no more to put one in circulation than the
other."
M. de Ravil bit his lip.
"This explanation is not altogether satisfactory, M. le marquis," he
said, coldly.
"You have an unquestionable right to be very exacting in the matter of
explanations, baron," retorted the marquis, in the same tone of
contemptuous persiflage; "but you have no right to be indiscreet, as you
certainly are at this moment. I had the honour to address M. de Mornand,
and you intrude yourself into our conversation, which is exceedingly
annoying to me."
Then, turning to M. de Mornand, the hunchback continued:
"You did me the honour, just now, to say that my request that you would
act as my vis-a-vis was very remarkable, I believe."
"Yes, monsieur," replied M. de Mornand, quite gravely this time, for he
began to suspect that this singular proposal was only a pretext, and the
longer he listened to the voice, the more certain he became that it was
the same which had styled him a scoundrel. "Yes, monsieur," he
continued, with mingled hauteur and assurance, "I did say, and I repeat
it, that this request to act as your vis-a-vis was very remarkable on
your part."
"And why, may I ask, if you do not think me too inquisitive?"
"Because--why--because it is--it is, I think, very singular that--"
Then as M. de Mornand did not finish the sentence:
"I have a rather peculiar habit, monsieur," the marquis said, lightly.
"What is it, monsieur?"
"Having the misfortune to be a hunchback and consequently an object of
ridicule, I have reserved for myself the exclusive right to ridicule my
deformity, and as I flatter myself I do that to the satisfaction of
people in general--excuse my conceit, monsieur, I beg--I do not permit
any one to do badly what I do so well myself."
"Monsieur!" exclaimed M. de Mornand, vehemently.
"Permit me to give you an example," continued the marquis in the same
airy tone, "I just asked you to do me the favour to act as my vis-a-vis.
Ah, well, instead of answering, 'Yes, monsieur,' or 'No, monsieur,' in a
polite manner, you respond in a voice choked with laughter, 'Your
request for me to act as your vis-a-vis is very remarkable.' And when I
ask you to finish the sentence, you hesitate and stammer and say
nothing."
"But, monsieur--"
"But, monsieur," hastily exclaimed the hunchback, interrupting his
companion afresh; "if, instead of being polite, you are disposed to
enjoy yourself at my expense, you ought to say something decidedly
impertinent, as, for example: 'M. de Maillefort, I have a horror of
deformities and really cannot bear the idea of seeing you dance;' or
'Really, M. de Maillefort, I have too much pride to show myself in the
back to back figure with you.' So you see, my dear M. de Mornand,"
continued the hunchback, with increasing jovialness, "that, as I can
ridicule myself better than any one else can, I am perfectly right not
to allow any one else to do clumsily what I can do so admirably myself."
"You say that you will not allow," began M. de Mornand, impatiently--
"Come, come, Mornand, this is all nonsense," exclaimed Ravil. "And, you,
marquis, are much too sensible a man--"
"That is not the question," replied Mornand, hotly. "This gentleman says
he will not allow--"
"Any person to ridicule me," interrupted the marquis. "No, I will not
tolerate it for a single instant; I repeat it."
"But Mornand certainly never thought for a single instant of ridiculing
you, I am sure, marquis," cried Ravil.
"Is that true, baron?"
"Yes, certainly, certainly."
"Then the gentleman will do me the favour to explain what he meant by
his reply."
"That is very simple. I will volunteer--"
"My dear Ravil," interposed M. de Mornand, firmly, "you are going
entirely too far. As M. de Maillefort descends to sarcasm and threats, I
deem it proper to refuse him any explanation whatever, and M. de
Maillefort is at perfect liberty to impute any meaning he pleases to my
words."
"Impute any meaning to your words?" exclaimed the hunchback, laughing.
"Really, I could not take any such task as that upon myself. That is the
business of your honourable colleagues in the Chamber of Peers when you
treat them to one of those superb speeches--which you alone have the
ability to understand--"
"Let us put an end to this," exclaimed M. de Mornand, exasperated beyond
endurance. "Consider my words as insulting as any words could possibly
be, monsieur."
"You are mad," cried Ravil. "All this is, or will be, supremely
ridiculous if taken seriously."
"You are right, my poor baron," said the marquis, with a contrite air;
"it will become supremely ridiculous as you say, but, monsieur, see what
a good fellow I am, I will be content with the following apology made
verbally by M. de Mornand in the presence of three or four witnesses of
my own choosing: 'M. le Marquis de Maillefort, I very humbly and
contritely ask your pardon for having dared--'"
"Enough, monsieur!" exclaimed M. de Mornand. "You must believe me either
a coward or an egregious fool."
"So you refuse the reparation I demand?" asked the marquis; "you refuse
it, absolutely?"
"Absolutely, monsieur, absolutely."
"Then I feel obliged to terminate this interview as I began it, by again
having the honour to say to you: 'Will you do me the favour to act as my
vis-a-vis?'"
"What, monsieur, as your vis-a-vis?" repeated M. de Mornand, in profound
astonishment.
"My vis-a-vis in a _danse a deux_," added the hunchback, with a meaning
gesture. "Do you understand me?"
"A duel--with you?" cried M. de Mornand, who, in his first transport of
anger, had forgotten the high social position of the hunchback, and the
ridicule which would be heaped upon him if he engaged in a personal
encounter with such an adversary. "A duel with you, monsieur? Really--"
"Are you going to plead as an excuse that such a position would be
too--too remarkable or too dangerous, as your friend Ravil would say?"
"No, monsieur, I do not consider it too dangerous--but too ridiculous."
"Yes, frightfully ridiculous to you, as I remarked to your honest friend
here a moment ago."
"Really, gentlemen," exclaimed Ravil, "I will never permit--"
Then seeing Gerald de Senneterre passing through the garden, he added:
"Here comes the Duc de Senneterre, the son of the house. I shall ask him
to assist me in putting a stop to this foolish quarrel."
"Yes, gentlemen, the duke's coming is most opportune," replied the
hunchback. And turning towards the young man, he called out:
"Gerald, my friend, we need your assistance."
"What is the matter, marquis?" asked Gerald, in a manner that was both
deferential and affectionate.
"Have you any cigars?"
"Plenty of them, marquis."
"Well, my dear Gerald, these gentlemen and I are dying to smoke. Won't
you take us up to your rooms?"
"Certainly," replied Gerald, gaily. "I have no engagement for this
dance, so I have a quarter of an hour at my disposal."
"That is all the time we shall need," said the hunchback, with a meaning
look at Mornand and Ravil. "Come, gentlemen," he added, taking Gerald's
arm and walking on ahead of the future minister and his friend.
A minute or two afterwards the four gentlemen reached Gerald's
apartments, which consisted of three rooms,--one, extremely large, on
the third floor of the house.
The young duke having politely begged Messieurs de Mornand and de Ravil
to pass in first, M. de Maillefort, locking the door and slipping the
key in his pocket, remarked to Gerald:
"Allow me, my friend."
"But why do you lock the door, M. le marquis," asked Gerald, greatly
surprised.
"So we shall not be disturbed," answered the hunchback, "but be able to
smoke in peace."
"You are certainly a very cautious man, M. le marquis," said Gerald,
laughing, as he ushered the party into the furthermost room, which,
being much larger than the others, served both as a sitting-room and
study for the young duke.
Upon one of the panels in this room hung a large shield covered with
crimson velvet, on which quite a number of weapons were displayed.