He read them over to Gaudin slowly and distinctly; and, as he concluded, laid them upon a marble table close at hand.
‘We have here neither pen nor ink,’ said Gaudin.
‘Pshaw! this evasion is contemptible,’ replied Exili, as he threw up his loose black sleeve. ‘See here—the yellow shrivelled skin will barely cover these blue veins. They are full of blood, and easily opened.’
He took a lancet from his pouch and pierced one of the vessels; then, as the blood sluggishly trickled forth, he twisted a slip of parchment to a point spirally, and loading it with the red fluid, gave it to Gaudin.
‘You might write fairer characters with a better pen,’ he said; ‘but this will answer every purpose. I use it from necessity, not to make the document more impressive; for blood is to me no more than ink.’
Sainte-Croix hastily signed the paper; and then Exili took it up, and, having looked to see that all was fairly done, replaced it in his vest.
‘You can continue your enjoyments,’ he said; ‘but do not seek to follow me. Hereafter I will receive you. I make no mystery to you of the way by which I came here. The passage below this door has a communication with the Palais des Thermes, and I occupy the vault for my laboratory. You will find me there, if you enter from the Rue de la Harpe, and show the man at the gate this talisman. The place is, to all appearance, a cooper’s workshop.’
He placed a small triangular piece of parchment, covered with fantastic figures, which might have been an amulet for any dupe that had consulted him, in Gaudin’s hand. He then entered a species of closet, the back panel of which revolved on a pivot, allowing him to pass out, after he had reclosed the masked door of the book-case.
CHAPTER XXIV.
LOUISE GAUTHIER FALLS INTO DANGEROUS HANDS
The same company filled the apartments as Gaudin and Marie returned. But the mirth was wilder, and the laugh louder; the equivocal jest was hazarded with greater freedom and the repartee was bolder. Several of the company still preserved their masks; but many of the females had discarded theirs, who hitherto had kept their faces closely veiled, and now demonstrated the singular grades of female society, from the highest to the very lowest, that had collected together. A branch-room had been fitted up as a temporary stage, and on this a number of dancers from Versailles were performing a ballet lately produced at court, La Naissance de Venus, in such costumes as were especially appropriate to the subject. It concluded as the Marchioness arrived in the salon.