“Before any thing is decided, there is one fact which you all ought to
know. Listen.”
Pale like death, for it cost her a great struggle to reveal thus the
secret of her heart, but with a voice full of energy, and an eye full of
fire, she told them what she had already confessed to her grandfather;
viz., the propositions she had made to Jacques, and his obstinate
refusal to accede to them.
“Well done, madame!” said Dr. Seignebos, full of enthusiasm. “Well done!
Jacques is very unfortunate, and still he is to be envied.”
Dionysia finished her recital. Then, turning with a triumphant air to M.
Magloire, she added,--
“After that, is there any one yet who could believe that Jacques is a
vile assassin?”
The eminent advocate of Sauveterre was not one of those men who prize
their opinions more highly than truth itself.
“I confess,” he said, “that, if I were to go and see Jacques to-morrow
for the first time, I should not speak to him as I did before.”
“And I,” exclaimed the Marquis de Boiscoran,--“I declare that I answer
for my son as for myself, and I mean to tell him so to-morrow.”
Then turning towards his wife, and speaking so low, that she alone could
hear him, he added,--
“And I hope you will forgive me those suspicions which now fill me with
horror.”
But the marchioness had no strength left: she fainted, and had to be
removed, accompanied by Dionysia and the Misses Lavarande. As soon as
they were out of the room, Dr. Seignebos locked the door, rested his
elbow on the chimney, and, taking off his spectacles to wipe them, said
to M. Folgat,--
“Now we can speak freely. What news do you bring us?”