“M. Elgin,--I have deceived you. It was not ten thousand dollars I had
taken, but sixty thousand five hundred dollars.
“Thanks to false entries, I have been able to conceal my defalcations
until now; but I can do so no longer. The board of directors have begun
to suspect me; and the president has just told me that tomorrow the
books will be examined. I am lost.
“I ought to kill myself, I know; but I have not the courage to do so.
I venture to ask you to furnish me the means of escaping from this
country. I beseech you on my knees, in the name of all that is dear to
you, for mercy’s sake; for I am penniless, and cannot even pay the fare
on the railway as far as the frontier. Nor can I return to my house; for
I am watched.
“Once more, M. Elgin, have pity on a poor man, and leave the answer with
the concierge. I will come by about nine o’clock. A. Malgat.”
Not on the margin, as before, but across the lines, M. Elgin had written
these laconic words:--
“Answered immediately. No! The scamp!”
Daniel could not have uttered a word to save his life; he was too
fearfully excited. Miss Brandon continued,--
“We were dining alone that day; and M. Elgin was so indignant, that he
forgot his usual reserve, and told us everything. Ah! I felt only pity
for the poor man; and I besought him to give the wretch the means to
escape. But he was inflexible. Seeing, however, how excited I was, he
tried to reassure me by telling me that Malgat would certainly not come,
that he would not dare to expect an answer to such a letter.”
She pressed both her hands on her heart, as if to still its beating; and
then continued, in a weak voice,--
“Nevertheless, he came, and, seeing his hopes disappointed, he insisted
upon speaking to us. The servants let him go up, and he entered. Ah!
if I lived a thousand years, I should never forget that fearful scene.
Feeling that all was lost, this thief, this defaulter, had become
enraged; he demanded money. At first he asked for it on his knees in
humble words; but, when he found that this did not answer, he suddenly
rose in a perfect fury, his mouth foaming, his eyes bloodshot, and
overwhelmed us with the coarsest insults. At last M. Elgin’s patience
gave out, and he rang for the servants. They had to employ force to drag
him out; and, as they pushed him down stairs, he threatened us with his
fist, and swore that he would be avenged.”
Miss Brandon shuddered till she appeared to be all in a quiver; and, for
a moment, Daniel thought she was going to be ill. But she made an effort
to overcome her weakness; and, in a more decided tone, she continued,--
“Forty-eight hours passed; and the impression of this horrible scene
began to fade from our minds, till it appeared like a bad dream. If we
mentioned Malgat at all, it was with pity and contempt; for what could
he do to us? Nothing, you will say. Even if he should dare to accuse
us of some great crime, we thought no one would listen to him, and we
should never hear of it. How could we imagine that the world would set
to work doubting our honor upon the mere word of a wretch like him?
“His crime had, in the meantime, become known; and all the papers were
full of it, adding a number of more or less reliable stories. They
exaggerated the sums he had stolen; and they said he had succeeded in
escaping to England, and that the police had lost his traces in London.
“I, poor girl, had nearly forgotten the whole matter.
“He had really fled; but, before leaving Paris, he had succeeded in
preparing everything for the vengeance which he had threatened. Where
could he have found people mean enough to serve his purposes? and who
were they? I do not know. Perhaps he did nothing more, as Mrs. Brian
suggested, than to address two or three anonymous letters to some of our
acquaintances, who he knew did not like us, or envied us.
“At all events, in less than a week after his disappearance, it was
reported everywhere, that I, Sarah Brandon, had been an accomplice of
this defaulter, and, worse than that, that the sums he had stolen might
easily be found, if a certain bureau in my bedchamber could be searched.
“Yes, that is what they said, at first in a whisper and most cautiously,
then louder, and finally openly, and before all the world.
“Soon the papers took it up. They repeated the facts, arranging them
to suit their purpose, and alluding to me in a thousand infamous
innuendoes. They said that Malgat’s defalcation was after the American
style, and that it was perfectly natural he should go to a foreign
country, after having been associated with a certain foreign lady.”
She had become crimson all over; her bosom rose; and shame, indignation,
and resentment alternately appeared on her face, changing finally into
an ardent desire of vengeance.
“We, in the meantime,” she continued, “quiet and safe in our honesty,
did not even suspect these infamous proceedings. It is true, I had
been struck by some strange whisperings, by curious looks and singular
smiles, when I passed some of my friends; but I had not noticed them
specially.
“A paper which had been left at the house one afternoon, when we were
out, showed us the true state of things. It was a summons. I was ordered
to appear before a magistrate.
“It was a thunderbolt. Mad with wrath and grief, M. Elgin swore I
should not go, that he would most assuredly find out the authors of this
infamous libel, and that, in the meantime, he would challenge and kill
every one who dared repeat it.
“In vain did Mrs. Brian and myself beseech him, on our knees, not to
leave the house until he had grown cooler. He pushed us aside almost
with brutality, and rushed out, taking with him the papers and letters
written by Malgat.
“We were at the end of our endurance, having suffered all the tortures
of anxiety, when, at last, near midnight, M. Elgin returned, pale,
exhausted, and distressed. He had found no one willing even to listen to
him; everybody telling him that he was much too good to give a thought
to such infamous reports; that they were too absurd to be believed.”
She nearly gave way, sobs intercepting her words; but she mastered her
emotion, and continued,--
“The next day I went to the court-house; and, after being kept waiting
for a long time in a dark passage, I was brought before the magistrate.
He was an elderly man, with hard features and piercing eyes, who
received me almost brutally, as if I had been a criminal. But, when I
had shown him the letters which you have just read, his manner suddenly
changed, pity got the better of him; and I thought I saw a tear in his
eye. Ah! I shall be eternally grateful to him for the words he said when
I left his office,--
“‘Poor, poor young girl! Justice bows reverently before your innocence.
Would to God that the world could be made to do the same!’”
She fixed her eyes, trembling with fear and hope, upon Daniel, and
added, in a voice of supplication and touching humility,--
“The world has been more cruel than justice itself but you, sir, will
you be harder than the magistrate?”
Alas! Daniel was sorely embarrassed what to answer. He felt as if all
his senses were in an uproar and in utter confusion.
“Sir!” begged Miss Brandon again. “M. Champcey!”
She continued to fix her eyes upon him. He turned his head aside,
feeling as if, under her obstinate gaze, his mind left him, his energy
evaporated, and all the fibres of his strong will were breaking.
“Great God!” exclaimed Miss Brandon, with grieved surprise; “he still
doubts me. Sir, I pray you, speak! Do you doubt the authenticity of
these letters? Ah, if you do, take them; for I do not hesitate to
confide them, the only proofs of my innocence, to your honor. Take them
and show them to the other clerks who have been sitting for twenty years
in the same office with Malgat; and they will tell you that it is his
handwriting; that he has signed his own condemnation. And, if that is
not enough for you, go to the magistrate who examined me; his name is
Patrigent.”
And she waited, waited, but not a word came forth.
Daniel had sunk, undone, into a chair; and his elbow resting on a small
stand, his brow in his hands, he endeavored to think, to reason. Then
Miss Brandon rose, came gently up to him, and taking his hand, said
softly,--
“I beseech you!”
But as if suddenly electrified by the touch of this soft, warm hand,
Daniel rose so hastily, that he upset the chair; and, trembling with
mysterious terror, he cried out,--
“Kergrist!”
It was as if a fearful insult had set Miss Brandon on fire. Her face
turned crimson, and then, almost instantly, livid; and, stepping back a
little, she darted at Daniel a look of burning hatred.
“Oh!” she murmured, “oh!” finding, apparently, no words to express all
she felt.
Was she going away? It looked as if she thought of it, for she walked
to the door; but, suddenly changing her mind, she came back to where she
had stood, facing Daniel.
“This is the first time in my life,” she said, trembling with rage,
“that I condescend to justify myself against such infamous charges; and
you abuse my patience by heaping insult after insult upon me. But never
mind. I look upon you as upon Henrietta’s husband; and, since I have
commenced, I mean to finish.”