"It rains, Mathias; shall I take you home?" said Solonet. "My cabriolet is here.""My carriage is here too," said Paul, manifesting an intention to accompany the old man.
"I won't rob you of a moment's pleasure," said Mathias. "I accept my friend Solonet's offer.""Well," said Achilles to Nestor, as the cabriolet rolled away, "you have been truly patriarchal to-night. The fact is, those young people would certainly have ruined themselves.""I felt anxious about their future," replied Mathias, keeping silent as to the real motives of his proposition.
At this moment the two notaries were like a pair of actors arm in arm behind the stage on which they have played a scene of hatred and provocation.
"But," said Solonet, thinking of his rights as notary, "isn't it my place to buy that land you mentioned? The money is part of our dowry.""How can you put property bought in the name of Mademoiselle Evangelista into the creation of an entail by the Comte de Manerville?" replied Mathias.
"We shall have to ask the chancellor about that," said Solonet.
"But I am the notary of the seller as well as of the buyer of that land," said Mathias. "Besides, Monsieur de Manerville can buy in his own name. At the time of payment we can make mention of the fact that the dowry funds are put into it.""You've an answer for everything, old man," said Solonet, laughing.
"You were really surpassing to-night; you beat us squarely.""For an old fellow who didn't expect your batteries of grape-shot, Idid pretty well, didn't I?"
"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Solonet.
The odious struggle in which the material welfare of a family had been so perilously near destruction was to the two notaries nothing more than a matter of professional polemics.
"I haven't been forty years in harness for nothing," remarked Mathias.
"Look here, Solonet," he added, "I'm a good fellow; you shall help in drawing the deeds for the sale of those lands.""Thanks, my dear Mathias. I'll serve you in return on the very first occasion."While the two notaries were peacefully returning homeward, with no other sensations than a little throaty warmth, Paul and Madame Evangelista were left a prey to the nervous trepidation, the quivering of the flesh and brain which excitable natures pass through after a scene in which their interests and their feelings have been violently shaken. In Madame Evangelista these last mutterings of the storm were overshadowed by a terrible reflection, a lurid gleam which she wanted, at any cost, to dispel.
"Has Maitre Mathias destroyed in a few minutes the work I have been doing for six months?" she asked herself. "Was he withdrawing Paul from my influence by filling his mind with suspicion during their secret conference in the next room?"She was standing absorbed in these thoughts before the fireplace, her elbow resting on the marble mantel-shelf. When the porte-cochere closed behind the carriage of the two notaries, she turned to her future son-in-law, impatient to solve her doubts.
"This has been the most terrible day of my life," cried Paul, overjoyed to see all difficulties vanish. "I know no one so downright in speech as that old Mathias. May God hear him, and make me peer of France! Dear Natalie, I desire this for your sake more than for my own. You are my ambition; I live only in you."Hearing this speech uttered in the accents of the heart, and noting, more especially, the limpid azure of Paul's eyes, whose glance betrayed no thought of double meaning, Madame Evangelista's satisfaction was complete. She regretted the sharp language with which she had spurred him, and in the joy of success she resolved to reassure him as to the future. Calming her countenance, and giving to her eyes that expression of tender friendship which made her so attractive, she smiled and answered:--"I can say as much to you. Perhaps, dear Paul, my Spanish nature has led me farther than my heart desired. Be what you are,--kind as God himself,--and do not be angry with me for a few hasty words. Shake hands."Paul was abashed; he fancied himself to blame, and he kissed Madame Evangelista.
"Dear Paul," she said with much emotion, "why could not those two sharks have settled this matter without dragging us into it, since it was so easy to settle?""In that case I should not have known how grand and generous you can be," replied Paul.
"Indeed she is, Paul," cried Natalie, pressing his hand.
"We have still a few little matters to settle, my dear son," said Madame Evangelista. "My daughter and I are above the foolish vanities to which so many persons cling. Natalie does not need my diamonds, but I am glad to give them to her.""Ah! my dear mother, do you suppose that I will accept them?""Yes, my child; they are one of the conditions of the contract.""I will not allow it; I will not marry at all," cried Natalie, vehemently. "Keep those jewels which my father took such pride in collecting for you. How could Monsieur Paul exact--""Hush, my dear," said her mother, whose eyes now filled with tears.
"My ignorance of business compels me to a greater sacrifice than that.""What sacrifice?"
"I must sell my house in order to pay the money that I owe to you.""What money can you possibly owe to me?" she said; "to me, who owe you life! If my marriage costs you the slightest sacrifice, I will not marry.""Child!"
"Dear Natalie, try to understand that neither I, nor your mother, nor you yourself, require these sacrifices, but our children.""Suppose I do not marry at all?"
"Do you not love me?" said Paul, tenderly.
"Come, come, my silly child; do you imagine that a contract is like a house of cards which you can blow down at will? Dear little ignoramus, you don't know what trouble we have had to found an entail for the benefit of your eldest son. Don't cast us back into the discussions from which we have just escaped.""Why do you wish to ruin my mother?" said Natalie, looking at Paul.
"Why are you so rich?" he replied, smiling.