“Perhaps, indeed, I have not been wholly foreign to M. Favoral’s
disaster. At least I may have hastened it a few months, a few
days only, perhaps; for it was inevitable, fatal. Nevertheless,
had I suspected the real facts, I would have given up my designs
--Gilberte, I swear it--rather than risk injuring your father.
There is no undoing what is done; but the evil may, perhaps, be
somewhat lessened.”
Mlle. Gilberte started.
“Great heavens!” she exclaimed, “do you, then, believe my father
innocent?”
Better than any one else, Mlle. Gilberte must have been convinced
of her father’s guilt. Had she not seen him humiliated and
trembling before M. de Thaller? Had she not heard him, as it were,
acknowledge the truth of the charge that was brought against him?
But at twenty hope never forsakes us, even in presence of facts.
And when she understood by M. de Tregars’ silence that she was
mistaken,
“It’s madness,” she murmured, dropping her head:
“I feel it but too well. But the heart speaks louder than reason.
It is so cruel to be driven to despise one’s father!”
She wiped the tears which filled her eyes, and, in a firmer voice,
“What happened is so incomprehensible!” she went on. “How can I help
imagining some one of those mysteries which time alone unravels.
For twenty-four hours we have been losing ourselves in idle
conjectures, and, always and fatally, we come to this conclusion,
that my father must be the victim of some mysterious intrigue.
“M. Chapelain, whom a loss of a hundred and sixty thousand francs
has not made particularly indulgent, is of that opinion.”
“And so am I,” exclaimed Marius.
“You see, then--”
But without allowing her to proceed and taking gently her hand,
“Let me tell you all,” he interrupted, “and try with you to find
an issue to this horrible situation. Strange rumors are afloat
about M. Favoral. It is said that his austerity was but a mask,
his sordid economy a means of gaining confidence. It is affirmed
that in fact he abandoned himself to all sorts of disorders; that
he had, somewhere in Paris, an establishment, where he lavished the
money of which he was so sparing here. Is it so? The same thing
is said of all those in whose hands large fortunes have melted.”
The young girl had become quite red.
“I believe that is true,” she replied. “The commissary of police
stated so to us. He found among my father’s papers receipted bills
for a number of costly articles, which could only have been intended
for a woman.”