“Then we can make his acquaintance together; for I intend accompanying you to Paris, when you return there to settle up your affairs before establishing yourself here to superintend the forge.”
At this unexpected announcement of a step which would prove his utter ruin, Louis was stupefied. In answer to his brother’s questioning look, he gasped out.
“You are going to Paris?”
“Certainly I am. Why should I not go?”
“There is no reason why.”
“I hate Paris, although I have never been there. But I am called there by interest, by sacred duties,” he hesitatingly said. “The truth is, I understand that Mlle. de la Verberie lives in Paris, and I wish to see her.”
“Ah!”
Gaston was silent and thoughtful for some moments, and then said, nervously:
“I will tell you, Louis, why I wish to see her. I left our family jewels in her charge, and I wish to recover them.”
“Do you intend, after a lapse of twenty-three years, to claim these jewels?”