CARMEN.
Very stately and magnificent were the offices of the _Banque de Credit
Imperial_. The prospectus made one's mouth water. It was a magnificent
conception of the Emperor's. To interest small capitalists would
naturally result in great popularity.
Napoleon III. always felt a great interest in the money of other people,
and also, to use a vulgar expression, liked to have his hand in
everybody's pie.
The governor elected was Monsieur de Laisangy, who was looked upon as a
marvelous financier. Although an old man, his activity was immense, both
of mind and body.
It was about ten o'clock in the morning. In an exquisite room, where
each detail was in the best of taste and very rich, Carmen, in a
peignoir trimmed with lace, was half lying on a couch. Her beautiful
hair was loosely tied, and fell over her shoulders in a golden cascade.
She was a beautiful creature, and yet there was a certain refinement
lacking. Her hands, though white, were not delicately made, and her
foot, in its rose-colored slipper, was not as slender as those of
Parisian women. She seemed to be wrapped in thought. Finally, as if
weary of arguing with herself, she extended her hand and rang the bell.
A pretty maid servant entered.
"What o'clock is it?"
"Half-past ten."
"Send a footman to tell Monsieur de Laisangy that I am waiting for him
to come to breakfast."
"But are you not going to dress?" asked the woman in surprise.
"What for? I am not going out until four o'clock."
"Yes, but you will not care to go to the dining-room in your peignoir?"
"No, I will breakfast here in my boudoir."
"With Monsieur de Laisangy?"
"Yes. You look astonished. I do not like such airs. Arrange that small
table, and wait upon us yourself."
"Very good, Mademoiselle."
As the woman left the room, she said to herself:
"They are certainly very queer people, but it is none of my business if
a young lady chooses to breakfast half dressed with her father!"
In less than fifteen minutes the banker knocked at the door of the
boudoir. He took his daughter's hand and pressed a paternal kiss upon
it. As they were alone, Carmen withdrew her hand, and said quickly:
"None of that, if you please!"
The old man looked strangely disturbed, and fearing that these words had
been spoken in too audible a voice, he laid a warning finger on his lip.
They presently seated themselves at the table. The breakfast was served
_a la Russe_--that is, with every thing on the table at once.
"You can leave us," said Carmen to her maid.
Laisangy ate heartily, but Carmen merely nibbled. The banker did not
speak until he had eaten so much he could eat no more. He drank only
water.
Carmen began to be impatient.
"It seems to me that I was never so hungry in my life before!" said
Laisangy.
"Ah!" answered Carmen, "and yet there were times in your life when you
were starving!"
Laisangy was eating a bit of cheese. He stopped with his fork in the
air.
"We will not talk of that!" he replied.
"And why not? Everybody is not born with a million in his cradle. I,
too, have been near starvation!"
"Carmen!"
"It is true, but pray finish your breakfast. I want to talk to you."
If Goutran, assisted by some magician, had been able to see and hear
this interview, he would have been thunderstruck. What a tone! What an
expression! Not that she was less pretty, but there was a something in
her manner and appearance which would have offended his taste.
Laisangy finally stopped eating. Any other person would have been
crimson after such a meal, but he actually looked paler than ever.
Carmen rang the bell for coffee, and then they were again alone.
"My dear Carmen, I am ready to listen to you," said the banker. She had
lighted a cigarette, and was smoking, with her eyes fixed on him.
"You want money, I suppose?"
"No--I want information."
"Information!"
"Ah! that makes you uneasy, does it not? I am well aware that you are
not fond of questions."
Laisangy, who was drinking his third cup of coffee, shivered a little at
these words.
"I do not understand you," he said.
"You will, presently. But I never saw anybody with such an appetite.
When I was sixteen and could hardly get a crust of bread, I could not
eat like that."
"Why dwell on these memories, Carmen?"
"Because, if I remind you of what and who I am, I shall have a better
chance, perhaps, to learn who you are."
"Carmen! Carmen!" said the old man imploringly, and becoming even paler
than before.
"I tell you that I intend to know who you are. Now hold your tongue and
let me speak. I have had a weight on my heart for a long time, and now I
intend to make a clean breast of it."
No words can describe the terror on the face of the banker. He stammered
and choked.
"But, Carmen, we are so comfortable and happy. What do you want more?"
"I wish to have my curiosity satisfied," answered Carmen, coldly.
"Everything about you is a mystery and a fraud. In fact, you terrify
me!"
"But----"
"Yes--even your way of eating is not natural. There is something of the
wild beast about you, and I tell you I am afraid!"
"But this is childish. You have known me a long time."
"Yes. I am twenty-two now, and I was fifteen when you took me, while
Mamma Lousteau was your cook at Florence--"
"Hush! Carmen, you will be heard!"
"Who cares! Yes, the whole world may hear the story of a girl whose
mother was cook in a banker's house. The banker entered the girl's room
in the night, the mother discovered it. Her rage and distress brought on
an attack of apoplexy. She died, and I remained with you! These are the
bare facts."
"Carmen!"
"Oh! I am not complaining. You were rich, you gave me jewels and fine
clothes. I was only sixteen, I forgot your brutality and I remained with
you. When you came back to France you told me that a certain regard must
be paid to appearances, that we must lie, in short, and I agreed to pass
as your daughter. And now, I ask"--she folded her arms on her breast--"I
ask why you did not marry me?"
"Good heavens! because--"
"Because what? You cannot give me a good reason. Not a word of truth can
ever be torn from you. I am convinced that back of all these lies there
is some horrible infamy which you dare not acknowledge even to me."
"Carmen! no more of this, I implore you! What has gone wrong with you?"
"Everything. I simply wish to know, and am resolved to know, who you
are--if not--"
"If not?"
"I have not quite decided. There are some things, bad as I am, which I
will not stand, and I will make it the business of my life to discover
what crimes you have committed, and I will denounce you!"
Laisangy started to his feet.
"Look at yourself in the mirror," cried Carmen, "and tell me if you do
not look like a murderer!"
Laisangy bit his lips so fiercely that the blood started. Then suddenly,
as if a thought had struck him, he cried:
"Come now, Carmen, don't say any more nasty things to me. I am an old
man and have had many troubles."
"Indeed?"
"You have never questioned me like this before. Even my appetite offends
you. Surely, there is no crime in that! You want to know something about
me. One thing I will tell you--it may strike you as rather a joke. Once
in Italy, going from one city to another, I had a large sum of money
with me, and I was taken by brigands. These villains took it into their
heads to sell me every mouthful I ate at its weight in gold. For some
time I would not yield, and was nearly starved. Since that time I have
had paroxysms of violent hunger. Do you see?"
Carmen did not see, and she said:
"But why did not the brigands take your money without subjecting you to
this torture?"
Laisangy looked troubled as he replied:
"I am sure I don't know."
"It looks to me as if these men whom you call brigands were inflicting a
chastisement upon you, perhaps."
"Carmen!"
"Come, throw down your cards. I tell you I will no longer submit to this
miserable farce we are playing here. I will no longer call myself your
daughter, nor will I be dragged into the maze of intrigues which I
divine."
"Carmen! once more I implore you--"
"I will not be your accomplice and be dragged by you into an abyss of
infamy!"
"But why should you say such things? I am rich, and honored by the favor
of the Emperor."
"A fine recommendation, that!" cried Carmen, disdainfully.
"I am respected and honored by every one."
Carmen rose from her chair and looked the banker full in the face.
"Then tell me why, when we were at the _soiree_ last evening, at a name
pronounced by a lacquey you became ghastly pale."
"You are mistaken--"
"It is true; you fled as if you had seen a ghost, and the name was
Monte-Cristo."
Laisangy was terrible to look at.
"Hold your tongue! Hold your tongue!" and the banker rushed toward her
with uplifted hand.
But Carmen, with her arms folded upon her breast, looked at him with
such disdain that his arm fell at his side.
"And this is not all," she continued. "You met many enemies last
evening, it seems; for some one said in the garden, 'Take care that you
do not learn my name too soon, Monsieur de Laisangy.' These may not be
the precise words, but they are nearly so."
"Ah! you are a spy, then! Look out!"
"I am not in the least afraid of you; but let me tell you that your
present conduct strengthens all my suspicions, and I, in my turn, bid
you look out! I shall learn the truth, and then--"
"And then--"
"I shall leave you. But if, in self-defence, you raise a finger against
one whom I esteem, I will denounce you!"
Laisangy, exasperated beyond all self-control, seized a knife from the
table. The door opened and the maid entered.
"Here is a card which the gentleman wished me to hand you at once, sir."
Carmen took the card and read the name.
"Signor Fagiano!" she read aloud. "Ah! he has come to tell you his right
name, I fancy!"
Laisangy took the card from Carmen's hand and dashed from the room.
Carmen said, half aloud:
"Goutran is the friend of the Vicomte de Monte-Cristo. I will watch!"