Raoul saw that his game was lost. He tremblingly went to the cupboard, and pulled out several bundles of bank-notes, and an enormous package of pawn-broker’s tickets.
“Very well done,” said M. Verduret, as he carefully examined the money and papers: “this is the most sensible step you ever took.”
Raoul relied on this moment, when everybody’s attention would be absorbed by the money, to make his escape. He slid toward the door, gently opened it, slipped out, and locked it on the outside; the key being still in the lock.
“He has escaped!” cried M. Fauvel.
“Naturally,” replied M. Verduret, without even looking up: “I thought he would have sense enough to do that.”
“But is he to go unpunished?”
“My dear sir, would you have this affair become a public scandal? Do you wish your wife’s name to be brought into a case of this nature before the police-court?”
“Oh, monsieur!”
“Then the best thing you can do, is to let the rascal go scot free. Here are receipts for all the articles which he has pawned, so that we should consider ourselves fortunate. He has kept fifty thousand francs, but that is all the better for you. This sum will enable him to leave France, and we shall never see him again.”
Like everyone else, M. Fauvel yielded to the ascendancy of M. Verduret.