"Though I detest mixing up with what does not concern me, I did try one
day to talk with her. With infinite precaution and delicacy, and without
letting her see that I knew all, I tried to show her the abyss near
which she was drawing."
"And what did she reply?"
"Nothing. She laughed and joked, as women who have a secret which they
wish to conceal, do. Besides, I could not get a quarter of an hour alone
with her, and it was necessary to act, I knew--for I was her best
friend--before committing this imprudence of speaking to her. Not a day
passed that she did not come to my garden and cull my rarest
flowers--and I would not, look you, give one of my flowers to the Pope
himself. She had instituted me her florist in ordinary. For her sake I
collected my briars of the Cape--"
He was talking on so wide of his subject that M. Lecoq could not repress
a roguish smile. The old man was about to proceed when he heard a noise
in the hall, and looking up he observed Robelot for the first time. His
face at once betrayed his great annoyance.
"You were there, were you?" he said.
The bone-setter smiled obsequiously.
"Yes, Monsieur, quite at your service."
"You have been listening, eh?"
"Oh, as to that, I was waiting to see if Madame Courtois had any
commands for me."
A sudden reflection occurred to M. Plantat; the expression of his eye
changed. He winked at M. Lecoq to call his attention, and addressing the
bone-setter in a milder tone, said: "Come here, Master Robelot."
Lecoq had read the man at a glance. Robelot was a small,
insignificant-looking man, but really of herculean strength. His hair,
cut short behind, fell over his large, intelligent forehead. His eyes
shone with the fire of covetousness, and expressed, when he forgot to
guard them, a cynical boldness. A sly smile was always playing about his
thin lips, beneath which there was no beard. A little way off, with his
slight figure and his beardless face, he looked like a Paris gamin--one
of those little wretches who are the essence of all corruption, whose
imagination is more soiled than the gutters where they search for lost
pennies.
Robelot advanced several steps, smiling and bowing. "Perhaps," said he,
"Monsieur has, by chance, need of me?"
"None whatever, Master Robelot, I only wish to congratulate you on
happening in so apropos, to bleed Monsieur Courtois. Your lancet has,
doubtless, saved his life."
"It's quite possible."
"Monsieur Courtois is generous--he will amply recompense this great
service."
"Oh, I shall ask him nothing. Thank God, I want nobody's help. If I am
paid my due, I am content."
"I know that well enough; you are prosperous--you ought to be
satisfied."
M. Plantat's tone was friendly, almost paternal. He was deeply
interested, evidently, in Robelot's prosperity.
"Satisfied!" resumed the bone-setter. "Not so much as you might think.
Life is very dear for poor people."
"But, haven't you just purchased an estate near d'Evry?"
"Yes."
"And a nice place, too, though a trifle damp. Happily you have stone to
fill it in with, on the land that you bought of the widow Frapesle."
Robelot had never seen the old justice of the peace so talkative, so
familiar; he seemed a little surprised.
"Three wretched pieces of land!" said he.
"Not so bad as you talk about. Then you've also bought something in the
way of mines, at auction, haven't you?"
"Just a bunch of nothing at all."
"True, but it pays well. It isn't so bad, you see, to be a doctor
without a diploma."
Robelot had been several times prosecuted for illegal practicing; so he
thought he ought to protest against this.
"If I cure people," said he, "I'm not paid for it."
"Then your trade in herbs isn't what has enriched you."
The conversation was becoming a cross-examination. The bone-setter was
beginning to be restless.
"Oh, I make something out of the herbs," he answered.
"And as you are thrifty, you buy land."
"I've also got some cattle and horses, which bring in something. I raise
horses, cows, and sheep."
"Also without diploma?"
Robelot waxed disdainful.
"A piece of parchment does not make science. I don't fear the men of the
schools. I study animals in the fields and the stable, without bragging.
I haven't my equal for raising them, nor for knowing their diseases."