“What can have happened to Dionysia, that she does not come back?”
murmured Grandpapa Chandore, as he walked up and down the Square, and
looked, for the twentieth time, at his watch. For some time the fear of
displeasing his grandchild, and of receiving a scolding, kept him at
the place where she had told him to wait for her; but at last it was too
much for him, and he said,--
“Upon my word, this is too much! I’ll risk it.”
And, crossing the road which separates the Square from the houses, he
entered the long, narrow passage in the house of the sisters Mechinet.
He was just putting his foot on the first step of the stairs, when he
saw a light above. He distinguished the voice of his granddaughter, and
then her light step.
“At last!” he thought.
And swiftly, like a schoolboy who hears his teacher coming, and fears
to be caught in the act, he slipped back into the Square. Dionysia was
there almost at the same moment, and fell on his neck, saying,--
“Dear grandpapa, I bring you back your bonds,” and then she rained a
shower of kisses upon the old gentleman’s furrowed cheeks.
If any thing could astonish M. de Chandore, it was the idea that there
should exist in this world a man with a heart hard, cruel, and barbarous
enough, to resist his Dionysia’s prayers and tears, especially if
they were backed by twenty thousand francs. Nevertheless, he said
mournfully,--
“Ah! I told you, my dear child, you would not succeed.”
“And you were mistaken, dear grandpapa, and you are still mistaken; for
I have succeeded!”
“But--you bring back the money?”
“Because I have found an honest man, dearest grandpapa,--a most
honorable man. Poor fellow, how I must have tempted his honesty! For he
is very much embarrassed, I know it from good authority, ever since he
and his sisters bought that house. It was more than comfort, it was a
real fortune, I offered him. Ah! you ought to have seen how his eyes
brightened up, and how his hands trembled, when he took up the bonds!
Well, he refused to take them, after all; and the only reward he asks
for the very good service which he is going to render us”--