第75章

The next morning, when the poor boy woke alone in that apartment so lately occupied by his mother and grandfather, the painful emotions of his cruel position filled his mind.The solitude of his home, where up to this time every moment had had its duty and its occupation, seemed so hard to bear that he went down to Madame Vauthier to ask if she had received any news of his grandfather.The woman answered sneeringly that he knew very well, or he might know, where to find his grandfather; the reason why he had not come in, she said, was because he had gone to live at the chateau de Clichy.This malicious speech, from the woman who had coaxed and wheedled him the evening before, put the lad into another frenzy, and he rushed to the hospital once more, desperate with the idea that his grandfather was in prison.

Baron Bourlac had wandered all night round the hospital, where he was refused entrance, and round the private residence of Dr.Halpersohn from whom he wished, naturally, to obtain an explanation of such treatment.The doctor did not get home till two in the morning.At half-past one the old man was at his door; on being told he was absent, he turned and walked about the grand alley of the Champs Elysees until half-past two.When he again went to the house, the porter told him that Monsieur Halpersohn had returned, gone to bed, was asleep, and could not be disturbed.

The poor father, in despair, wandered along the quay and under the frost-laden trees of the Cours-la-reine, waiting for daylight.At nine o'clock in the morning he again presented himself at the doctor's house, demanding to know the reason why his daughter was thus virtually imprisoned.

"Monsieur," replied the doctor, to whose presence he was admitted, "yesterday I told you I would answer for your daughter's recovery; but to-day I am responsible for her life and you will readily understand that I must be the sovereign master in such a case.Yesterday your daughter took a medicine intended to bring out her disease, the /plica polonica/; until that horrible disease shows itself on the surface you cannot see her.I will not allow excitement or any mistake of management to carry off my patient and your daughter.If you positively insist on seeing her, I shall call a consultation of three physicians, so as to relieve myself of responsibility, for the patient may die of it."The old man, worn out with fatigue, dropped on a chair; but he rose immediately, saying:--"Forgive me, monsieur.I have spent the night waiting for you in dreadful distress of mind.You cannot know to what degree I love my daughter; I have nursed her for fifteen years hovering between life and death, and this week of waiting is torture to me."The baron left the room staggering like a drunken man.The doctor followed and supported him by the arm until he saw him safely down the staircase.

An hour later Auguste de Mergi entered the doctor's room.On questioning the porter at the hospital the unhappy lad heard that his grandfather had been refused an entrance and had gone away to find Monsieur Halpersohn, who could probably give information about him.As Auguste entered the doctor's study Halpersohn was breakfasting on a cup of chocolate and a glass of water.He did not disturb himself at the young man's entrance, but went on sopping his bread in the chocolate; for he never ate anything for breakfast but a small roll cut into four strips with careful precision.

"Well, young man," he said, glancing at Vanda's son, "so you have come, too, to find out about your mother?""Yes, monsieur;" replied Auguste de Mergi.

Auguste was standing near the table on which lay several bank-notes among a pile of gold louis.Under the circumstances in which the unhappy boy was placed the temptation was stronger than his principles, solid as they were.He saw a means of saving his grandfather and the fruits of almost a lifetime of toil.He yielded.

The fascination was rapid as thought; and it was justified to the child's mind by the idea of self-devotion."I destroy myself, but Isave my mother and my grandfather," he thought.Under the strain put upon his reason by this criminal temptation he acquired, like madmen, a singular and momentary dexterity.

Halpersohn, an experienced observer, had divined, retrospectively, the life of the old man and that of the lad and of the mother.He felt or perceived the truth; the Baronne de Mergi's remarks had helped to unveil it to him; and the result was a feeling of benevolent pity for his new clients.As for respect or admiration, he was incapable of those emotions.

"Well, my dear boy," he replied familiarly, "I am taking care of your mother, and I shall return her to you young and handsome and perfectly well in health.Here is one of those rare cases in which physicians take an interest.Besides, through her mother, she is a compatriot of mine.You and your grandfather must for two weeks have the courage to keep away from Madame--?""The Baronne de Mergi."

"Ah! if she is a baroness, you must be a baron," remarked Halpersohn.

At that instant the theft was accomplished.While the doctor was looking at his sopped bread heavy with chocolate, Auguste snatched four notes and put them into his pocket, as if he were merely putting his hand there by accident.