When at length it was evidently impossible to borrow any longer, whether because the amount of the debt was now so greatly increased, or because Castanier was unable to pay the large amount of interest on the aforesaid sums of money, the cashier saw bankruptcy before him.On making this discovery, he decided for a fraudulent bankruptcy rather than an ordinary failure, and preferred a crime to a misdemeanor.He determined, after the fashion of the celebrated cashier of the Royal Treasury, to abuse the trust deservedly won, and to increase the number of his creditors by making a final loan of the sum sufficient to keep him in comfort in a foreign country for the rest of his days.
All this, as has been seen, he had prepared to do.
Aquilina knew nothing of the irksome cares of this life; she enjoyed her existence, as many a woman does, making no inquiry as to where the money came from, even as sundry other folk will eat their buttered rolls untroubled by any restless spirit of curiosity as to the culture and growth of wheat; but as the labor and miscalculations of agriculture lie on the other side of the baker's oven, so beneath the unappreciated luxury of many a Parisian household lie intolerable anxieties and exorbitant toil.
While Castanier was enduring the torture of the strain, and his thoughts were full of the deed that should change his whole life, Aquilina was lying luxuriously back in a great armchair by the fireside, beguiling the time by chatting with her waiting-maid.As frequently happens in such cases the maid had become the mistress'
confidant, Jenny having first assured herself that her mistress'
ascendency over Castanier was complete.
"What are we to do this evening? Leon seems determined to come," Mme.
de la Garde was saying, as she read a passionate epistle indited upon a faint gray notepaper.
"Here is the master!" said Jenny.
Castanier came in.Aquilina, nowise disconcerted, crumpled up the letter, took it with the tongs, and held it in the flames.
"So that is what you do with your love-letters, is it?" asked Castanier.
"Oh goodness, yes," said Aquilina; "is it not the best way of keeping them safe? Besides, fire should go to fire, as water makes for the river.""You are talking as if it were a real love-letter, Naqui----""Well, am I not handsome enough to receive them?" she said, holding up her forehead for a kiss.There was a carelessness in her manner that would have told any man less blind than Castanier that it was only a piece of conjugal duty, as it were, to give this joy to the cashier, but use and wont had brought Castanier to the point where clear-sightedness is no longer possible for love.
"I have taken a box at the Gymnase this evening," he said; "let us have dinner early, and then we need not dine in a hurry.""Go and take Jenny.I am tired of plays.I do not know what is the matter with me this evening; I would rather stay here by the fire.""Come, all the same though, Naqui; I shall not be here to bore you much longer.Yes, Quiqui, I am going to start to-night, and it will be some time before I come back again.I am leaving everything in your charge.Will you keep your heart for me too?""Neither my heart nor anything else," she said; "but when you come back again, Naqui will still be Naqui for you.""Well, this is frankness.So you would not follow me?""No."
"Why not?"
"Eh! why, how can I leave the lover who writes me such sweet little notes?" she asked, pointing to the blackened scrap of paper with a mocking smile.
"Is there any truth in it?" asked Castanier."Have you really a lover?""Really!" cried Aquilina; "and have you never given it a serious thought, dear? To begin with, you are fifty years old.Then you have just the sort of face to put on a fruit stall; if the woman tried to see you for a pumpkin, no one would contradict her.You puff and blow like a seal when you come upstairs; your paunch rises and falls like a diamond on a woman's forehead! It is pretty plain that you served in the dragoons; you are a very ugly-looking old man.Fiddle-de-dee.If you have any mind to keep my respect, I recommend you not to add imbecility to these qualities by imagining that such a girl as I am will be content with your asthmatic love, and not look for youth and good looks and pleasure by way of a variety----""Aquilina! you are laughing, of course?"
"Oh, very well; and are you not laughing too? Do you take me for a fool, telling me that you are going away? 'I am going to start to-night!' " she said, mimicking his tones."Stuff and nonsense! Would you talk like that if you were really going from your Naqui? You would cry, like the booby that you are!""After all, if I go, will you follow?" he asked.
"Tell me first whether this journey of yours is a bad joke or not.""Yes, seriously, I am going."
"Well, then, seriously, I shall stay.A pleasant journey to you, my boy! I will wait till you come back.I would sooner take leave of life than take leave of my dear, cozy Paris----""Will you not come to Italy, to Naples, and lead a pleasant life there--a delicious, luxurious life, with this stout old fogy of yours, who puffs and blows like a seal?""No."
"Ungrateful girl!"
"Ungrateful?" she cried, rising to her feet."I might leave this house this moment and take nothing out of it but myself.I shall have given you all the treasures a young girl can give, and something that not every drop in your veins and mine can ever give me back.If, by any means whatever, by selling my hopes of eternity, for instance, I could recover my past self, body and soul (for I have, perhaps, redeemed my soul), and be pure as a lily for my lover, I would not hesitate a moment! What sort of devotion has rewarded mine? You have housed and fed me, just as you give a dog food and a kennel because he is a protection to the house, and he may take kicks when we are out of humor, and lick our hands as soon as we are pleased to call him.And which of us two will have been the more generous?""Oh! dear child, do you not see that I am joking?" returned Castanier.
