Other Peoples Money | Page 7

have both come to him. He has been sent for by the shop-keeper whom his wife deceives, and by the millionaire who has been blackmailed. To his office, as to a lay confessional, all passions fatally lead. In his presence the dirty linen of two millions of people is washed en famille.
A Paris commissary of police, who after ten years' practice, could retain an illusion, believe in something, or be astonished at any thing in the world, would be but a fool. If he is still capable of some emotion, he is a good man.
The one who had just walked into M. Favoral's apartment was already past middle age, colder than ice, and yet kindly, but of that commonplace kindliness which frightens like the executioner's politeness at the scaffold.
He required but a single glance of his small but clear eyes to decipher the physiognomies of all these worthy people standing around the disordered table. And beckoning to the agents who accompanied him to stop at the door,--"Monsieur Vincent Favoral?" he inquired. The cashier's guests, M. Desormeaux excepted, seemed stricken with stupor. Each one felt as if he had a share of the disgrace of this police invasion. The dupes who are sometimes caught in clandestine "hells" have the same humiliated attitudes.
At last, and not without an effort,
"M. Favoral is no longer here," replied M. Chapelain, the old lawyer.
The commissary of police started. Whilst they were discussing with him through the door, he had perfectly well understood that they were only trying to gain time; and, if he had not at once burst in the door, it was solely owing to his respect for M. Desormeaux himself, whom he knew personally, and still more for his title of head clerk at the Department of Justice. But his suspicions did not extend beyond the destruction of a few compromising papers. Whereas, in fact:
"You have helped M. Favoral to escape, gentlemen?" said he.
No one replied.
"Silence means assent," he added. "Very well: which way did he get off?"
Still no answer. M. Desclavettes would have been glad to add something to the forty-five thousand francs he had just lost, to be, together with Mme. Desclavettes, a hundred miles away.
"Where is Mme. Favoral?" resumed the commissary, evidently well informed. "Where are Mlle. Gilberte and M. Maxence Favoral?"
They continued silent. No one in the dining-room knew what might have taken place in the other room; and a single word might be treason.
The commissary then became impatient.
"Take up a light," said he to one of the agents who had remained at the door, "and follow me. We shall see."
And without a shadow of hesitation, for it seems to be the privilege of police-agents to be at home everywhere, he crossed the parlor, and reached Mlle. Gilberte's room just as she was withdrawing from the window.
"Ah, it is that way he escaped!" he exclaimed.
He rushed to the window, and remained long enough leaning on his elbows to thoroughly examine the ground, and understand the situation of the apartment.
"It's evident," he said at last, "this window opens on the courtyard of the next house."
This was said to one of his agents, who bore an unmistakable resemblance to the servant who had been asking so many questions in the afternoon.
"Instead of gathering so much useless information," he added, "why did you not post yourself as to the outlets of the house?"
He was "sold"; and yet he manifested neither spite nor anger. He seemed in no wise anxious to run after the fugitive. Upon the features of Maxence and of Mlle. Gilberte, and more still in Mme. Favoral's eyes, he had read that it would be useless for the present.
"Let us examine the papers, then," said he.
"My husband's papers are all in his study," replied Mme. Favoral.
"Please lead me to it, madame."
The room which M. Favoral called loftily his study was a small room with a tile floor, white-washed walls, and meanly lighted through a narrow transom.
It was furnished with an old desk, a small wardrobe with grated door, a few shelves upon which were piled some bandboxes and bundles of old newspapers, and two or three deal chairs.
"Where are the keys?" inquired the commissary of police.
"My father always carries them in his pocket, sir," replied Maxence.
"Then let some one go for a locksmith." Stronger than fear, curiosity had drawn all the guests of the cashier of the Mutual Credit Society, M. Desormeaux, M. Chapelain, M. Desclavettes himself; and, standing within the door-frame, they followed eagerly every motion of the commissary, who, pending the arrival of the locksmith, was making a flying examination of the bundles of papers left exposed upon the desk.
After a while, and unable to hold in any longer:
"Would it be indiscreet," timidly inquired the old bronze-merchant, "to ask the nature of the charges against that poor Favoral?"
"Embezzlement, sir."
"And