THE NABOB.
61

p who stared at me from the other side
of the table with his small auger-like eyes I felt
myself so thoroughly penetrated, searched, and
turned inside outto the farthest recesses, to
tbe verv depth of my consciencethat, in spite
of my innocence, I felt inclined to make a con-
fession A confession of what?-l don't know ;
but that is the effect produced by a judicial ex-
amination. That confounded man stared at
me for fully five minutes without speaking a
single word, turning over, all the time, the
leaves of a copy-book full of a round hand-
writing which was not unknown to me.
Suddenly, he addressed me with a tone ot
voice at once sneering and severe:             .
"Well Monsieur Passajon, how long is it
since you last played the drayman's trick?'
The remembrance of certain little misdeeds,
in which I had taken a part in days of distress,
was already so far from me, that I did not
understand him, at first; but a few words of
the judge soon proved to me how thoroughly
he was acquainted with the history of our bank.
That terrible man knew everything, down to
the least details, down to the most secret par-
ticulars.
Who could have informed him so well? Add
to that, his sharp, dry tone, and, whenever I
tried to enlighten him by a few sagacious ob-
servations, an imperious way of telling me:
' ' None of your phrases, if you please, all the
more wounding to hear, at my age, with my
reputation as a fine speaker, that we were not
alone iu his chamber. A clerk was sitting next
to me and taking down my words; and, behind
me, I heard the noise of big leaves that were
being turned. The judge asked me all sorts of
questions relative to the Nabob, the time when
he had made his deposits, and the place where
we kept our books; and all at once, addressing
the person behind me, whom I could not see :
" Show the cash-book here, Monsieur l'Ex-
pert."                                                      ,
A little man in a white cravat placed a large
ledger upon the table. It was Monsieur Joy-
euse, Hemerlingue & Son's late cashier; but I
had no time to pay him my respects.
" Who did that?" the judge asked me, open-
ing the ledger at a place where a page had been
torn out. " Come, Sir, tell the truth." I could
not tell a lie, knowing nothing, and never hav-
ing meddled with the books. Nevertheless, I
thought it my duty to mention Monsieur de
Gery, the Nabob's secretary, who often came to
the office during the evening, and locked him-
self up alone in the room where the books were
kept. Thereupon the little Monsieur Joyeuse
became scarlet with anger:
" That is absurd, Monsieur le Juge dUnstruc-
tion.  Monsieur de Gery is the young man whom
I mentioned to you.   When he went to the Ter
ritoriale, his object was to ascertain how things
were getting on; and he felt too much interest
in that poor Monsieur Jansoulet to destroy the
acknowledgments of his deposits, the proof of
his blind but perfect uprightness. But Monsieur
de Gery, after having long been detained at
Tunis, is now on his way home, and will soon
be able to furnish all necessary explanations."
I felt that my zeal was compromising me.
" Take care, Passajon," said the judge, severe-
ly, to me.    " Hitherto you have been here as a
witness only, but if you try to lead justice
astray, you might well come again as an ac-
cused."   And this terrible man really looked as )
though he meant it.    " Come, Sir, tell us who
tore out this page?"   Fortunately, I. suddenly
rememberedvery seasonable, you will confess
that, a few days before leaving Paris, our
Governor had ordered me to take the books to
.his private residence, where they had remained
till the next day.    The clerk took down my
evidence on this point, after which the judge
dismissed me by a sign, warning me, at the
same time, that 1 must consider myself at his
disposal, should he again require my presence.
When I had reached the door he called me
back:   "Here, Monsieur Passajon,  take that
with ;y ou;   I don't require it anymore."   He
gave me the papers which he had been consult-
ing while examining me; and you may judge
-what was my confusion, when, on the cover, I
perceived the word Memoirs written in my finest
roundhand.    I had actually furnished arms to
the courtprecious information, which the sud-
denness of our disaster had prevented, me from
concealing from the police, when they swooped
dow n upon our office.    Fancy that !
My first impulse on coming home was to tear
those indiscreet papers to pieces; but on second
thoughts, after having ascertained that those
Memoirs contained nothing which could com-
promise me, instead of destroying them I re-
solved to continue them, feeling certain that I
should some day or other get something for
them.    There are plenty of   novel-writers in
Paris, who have no imagination, who can only
patch up true stories in their books, and who,
therefore, will be but too glad to buy from me
this   little   work,   replete   with   information.
Thus I shall have my revenge on that society
of distinguished swindlers, with whom, for my
shame and misfortune, I found myself mixed up.
Besides, I must find occupation for my leisure
hours.    There is nothing to do in the office.    It
is completely abandoned since the judicial in-
vestigation, and my only occupation is to pile
up every day the heaps of summonses which I
receive.
Now, I have begun again to keep the ac-
counts of the second-floor cook, Mademoiselle
Soraphine, from whom, in return, I accept pro-
visions, which I keep in the strong-box, again
turned into a provision-safe.    The Governor's
wife is also very kind to me, and stuffs my
pockets with good things every time I call to see
her, in her grand apartment of the Chausse
d'Antin.    Nothing changed there.    The same
comfort, the same luxury as ever, with the addi-
tion of a little baby three months oldthe sev-
enth-childand a magnificent nurse, who, with
her Caux bonnet, excites great admiration at the
Bois de Boulogne.    I suppose that when people
are moving along on Fortune's rails it takes some
time before they can slacken their speed and
come to a standstill.    Besides, that scoundrel,
Paganetti, foreseeing what would happen, had
put everything in his wife's name.    That, per-
haps, is the reason why that Italian woman has
conceived for him an admiration which nothing
can diminish.    He is off, hiding somewhere;
but she remains convinced, nevertheless, that
her husband is as innocent as a little Saint John,
a victim of his own kindness  and credulity.
You should hear her:
You know him, Monsieur Passajon; you
know if he is scrupulous. I tell you, as true as
there is un Dieu, if my husband had done any
of the dishonest things of which he is accused,
I should be the first, do you hear, the first, to
put a gun in his hands and tell him: ' le
Tchecco! blow your brains out.'"
And from the way in which she opens the
nostrils of her little turned-up nose, and her
eyes as round and black as two balls of jet, it
is easy to see the little Corsican woman would
have done as she says. What a clever fellow
that scamp of a Governor must be, though, to
have been able to deceive even his wife, to
play a comedy even in his own home, where the
most clever men generally appear as they are!
In the meantime all those people make splen
did dinners. Bois-Landry, at Mazas, gets his
meals from the Cafe Anglais, and "Uncle'
Passajon is reduced to the necessity of eating
stew made from pieces collected here and there
in several kitchens. Well, let us not com-
plain too much. There are others more to be
pitied than we areMonsieur Francis, for ex-
ample, who came this morning to the Territo-
riale, thin, pale, his linen in a disgraceful state,
his cuffs all crumpled, though he still pulls at
them by habit.
I was just broiling a good piece of bacon be-
fore the fire in the board-room, my plate, knife
and fork nicely arranged on a newspaper spread
out on a corner of the inlaid table, in order
not   to soil anything.    I   asked   Monpavon s
valet   to   share   my   frugal   luncheon.    But,
because ' he   served   a   Marquis,   he   fancies
himself a nobleman, and he thanked me with a
dignified air which would have made you laugh,
had you seen his hollow cheeks.    He began by
telling me that he was still without news of his
master; that, for himself, he had been turned
out of the Rue Royale Club; that all the papers
there were under seal ; and that all the creditors
fell like a swarm of locusts on the few things
left behind by the Marquis.    " So that you see
me rather short of cash," added Monsieur Fran-
cis.    In other words, he had not a penny in his
pocket, and had slept the two previous nights
on the benches of   the Boulevards, awakened
every moment by a policeman, obliged to move
on and to pretend to be intoxicated, in order to
reach another shelter.    As for meals, I don't
think he had made one for some time past; for
he cast such famished looks on my provisions
that it was really painful to see ; and when I had
placed before him a rasher and a glass of wine,
he fell to like a hungry wolf. The blood at once
rushed up to his cheeks, and without losing a
mouthful he began to gabble and gabble:
"You know, Passajon," said he, between
two mouthfuls, " I know where he is. I saw
him."
He winked knowingly, as he said this, and I
looked at him very much astonished.
" Whom do you mean, Monsieur Francis?"
" Why, the Marquis, my masteryonder in
the little white house behind Notre-Dame. "
He did not say the Morgue, because that is
an ugly word.
" I was quite sure I should find him there; I
went straight thither, the next day.    There he
was.    Very well disguised, I assure you.   None
but his valet could have known him".    His hair
quite gray, his teeth gone.    All his wrinkles!
He looked the sixty years that he disguised so
well!   Upon that   marble flag,  with the tap
dropping its water upon him, he looked just as
he used to do before his toilet-table. "
"And did not you say anything?"
"No; I had long known his intentions on
that point, and I let him go as he wisheddis-
creetly.   But for all that, he might have left me
a morsel of bread before he went, for I served
him for twenty years."
And all at once, striking the table with his
fist, in a fit of rage :
" When I think that instead of serving Mon-
pavon I might have entered Mora's service, have
had Louis' place-----   What chance that fellow !
What a number of thousand-franc rolls he man-
aged to get when his Duke died! And the left-
off clothes! Hundreds of shirts, a morning-
gown in blue-fox skin, worth twenty thousand
francs if a penny! And Noel, he, too, knew
bow to provide for a rainy day! He was
quick about it, too, for he knew that it would
not lastthere are no scrapings to be had now at
the Place Vendme. The mother, who manages
everything, is an old gendarme Half of tbe
house is to let. The game is up, therenothing
more to be done."
I must confess that on hearing this I could
not restrain my satisfaction; for it is that
wretched Jansoulet who is the cause of all our
misfortunes. A man who boasted of being so
rich, and said so everywhere! The public were
taken by the bait, like fishes which see shining
scales in the net. He lost millions, it is said.
Well! grant it; but why did he make us be-
lieve he had so many, others? They arrested
Bois-Landry; but why did they not sooner
arrest him? Ah, if we had had another expert,
I am sure it would be done already. But, as I
said to Francis, you have only to look at that
parvenu Jansoulet to know exactly what he is
what a proud brigand's head!
" And so vulgar," added the late valet.
" Not the least morality!"
" An absolute want of tenue !"
"Well, he is sinking," added Francis, "and
so is Jenkins, and so are many others besides."
" What!   the Doctor,  too?    I'm  sorry for
him, such a polite, amiable man."
"Yes, sold out too! Horses, carriages, furni-
ture, everything. All round the yard, nothing
but auctioneer's billsit is as if death had passed
there. The Nanterre Villa is put up for sale;
there were still half a dozen young Bethlehems
left, but they sent them off in a cab. The dis-
aster is complete, I tell you, Passajon; such a
disaster as perhaps we shall not see the end of,
old as both of us arecompletethoroughit's
all rottennesseverything must go!"
It was an awful sight to see that old wreck of
the empire, thin, broken down, all covered with
mud, and crying, like Jeremiah, "The end is
come!" with a toothless mouth, all black and
wide open. I was afraid and ashamed before
him and felt a great desire to see him gone.
Within myself I thought: "Oh, Mr. Chalmette!
Oh, my little vineyard at Montbars!"
Same date.Great newsMadame Paganetti
came this afternoon, very mysteriously, on pur-
pose to bring me a letter from the Governor.
He is in London, getting up a magnificent
affair: splendid offices in the finest part of the
city_limited liability company! He asks me to
join him. ' ' Happy," says he, " to be able thus
to repair the wrong which he has done me.'
I shall have double the salary that I got at the
Territoriale, with lodging, coals, five shares in
the new concern, and all my arrears fully paid
up. I have only to advance the money for my
journey, and pay a few pressing debts in the
neighborhood. Vive la joie ! My fortune 13
made; I write by this post to the notary at
Montbars to mortgage my vineyard.
'
!

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