The Clique of Gold | Page 5

her face was still
painfully rigid. Life had come back before the mind had recovered; and
it was evident that she was utterly unconscious of her situation, and of
what was going on around her. This troubled the two ladies not a little,
although they felt very much relieved, and disposed to do everything,
now that they were no longer expected to open their purses.
"Well, that is always the way," said Papa Ravinet boldly. "However,
the doctor will bleed her, if there is any necessity."
And, turning to Master Chevassat, he added,--
"But we are in the way of these ladies; suppose we go down and take
something? We can come back when the child is comfortably put to
bed."
The good man lived, to tell the truth, in the same rooms in which the
thousand and one things he was continually buying were piled up in
vast heaps. There was no fixed place for his bed even. He slept where
he could, or, rather, wherever an accidental sale had cleared a space for
the time,--one night in a costly bed of the days of Louis XIV., and the
next night on a lounge that he would have sold for a few francs. Just
now he occupied a little closet not more than three- quarters full; and
here he asked the concierge to enter.
He poured some brandy into two small wineglasses, put a teakettle on
the fire, and sank into an arm-chair; then he said,--
"Well, M. Chevassat, what a terrible thing this is!"
His visitor had been well drilled by his wife, and said neither yes nor
no; but the old merchant was a man of experience, and knew how to
loosen his tongue.
"The most disagreeable thing about it," he said with an absent air, "is,
that the doctor will report the matter to the police, and there will be an
investigation."
Master Chevassat nearly dropped his glass.
"What? The police in the house? Well, good-by, then, to our lodgers;
we are lost. Why did that stupid girl want to die, I wonder! But no
doubt you are mistaken, my dear sir."

"No, I am not. But you go too fast. They will simply ask you who that
girl is, how she supports herself, and where she lived before she came
here."
"That is exactly what I cannot tell."
The dealer in old clothes seemed to be amazed; he frowned and said,--
"Halloo! that makes matters worse. How came it about that Miss
Henrietta had rooms in your house?"
The concierge was evidently ill at ease; something was troubling him
sorely.
"Oh! that is as clear as sunlight," he replied; "and, if you wish it, I'll tell
you the story; you will see there is no harm done."
"Well, let us hear."
"Well, then, it was about a year ago this very day, when a gentleman
came in, well dressed, an eyeglass stuck in his eye, impudent like a
hangman's assistant, in fact a thoroughly fashionable young man. He
said he had seen the notice that there was a room for rent up stairs, and
wanted to see it. Of course I told him it was a wretched garret, unfit for
people like him; but he insisted, and /I/ took him up."
"To the room in which Miss Henrietta is now staying?"
"Exactly. I thought he would be disgusted; but no. He looked out of the
window, tried the door if it would shut, examined the partition- wall,
and at last he said, 'This suits me; I take the room.' And thereupon he
hands me a twenty-franc piece to make it a bargain. I was amazed."
If M. Ravinet felt any interest in the story, he took pains not to show it;
for his eyes wandered to and fro as if his thoughts were elsewhere, and
he was heartily tired of the tedious account.
"And who is that fashionable young man?" he asked.
"Ah! that is more than I know, except that his name is Maxime."
That name made the old merchant jump as if a shower-bath had
suddenly fallen upon his head. He changed color; and his small
yellowish eyes had a strange look in them.
But he recovered promptly, so promptly, that his visitor saw nothing;
and then he said in a tone of indifference,--
"The young man did not give you his family name?"
"No."
"But ought you not to have inquired?"
"Ah, there is the trouble! I did not do it."

Gradually, and by a great effort, Master Chevassat began to master his
embarrassment. It looked as if he were preparing himself for the assault,
and to get ready for the police-officer.
"I know it was wrong," he continued; "but you would not have acted
differently in my place, my dear sir, I am