Then he rang his bell, and, when Merle appeared, he said to him: 'Show in the prefect of the Somme.' But he immediately added, still keeping his eyes on the list of names: 'Wait a moment. Are Monsieur and Madame Charbonnel there? Show them in.'
The usher's voice could be heard calling out, 'Monsieur and Madame Charbonnel.' And thereupon the couple from Plassans appeared, followed by the astonished eyes of the other occupants of the ante-chamber. M. Charbonnel wore a dress-coat with square tails and a velvet collar, and Madame Charbonnel was dressed in puce silk, with a bonnet trimmed with yellow ribbons. They had been patiently waiting for two hours.
'You ought to have sent your card in to me,' said Rougon. 'Merle knows you.' Then, interrupting their stammering greeting, in which the words 'your excellency' again and again recurred, he gaily exclaimed: 'Victory! The Council of State has given judgment. We have beaten that terrible bishop!'
The old lady's emotion upon hearing this was so great that she was obliged to sit down, while her husband leant for support against an arm-chair.
'I learned this good news yesterday evening,' the minister continued. 'And as I was anxious to tell it to you, myself, I asked you to come here. It's a pretty little windfall, five hundred thousand francs, eh?'
He began to jest, feeling quite happy at the sight of the emotion on their faces. Some time elapsed before Madame Charbonnel, in a choking timorous voice, could ask: 'Is it really all over, then? Really? Can't they start the suit again?'
'No, no; be quite easy about it,' answered Rougon. 'The fortune is yours.'
Then he gave them certain particulars. The Council of State had refused to allow the Sisters of the Holy Family to take possession of the bequest upon the ground that natural heirs were living, and that the will did not present the necessary appearances of genuineness. Monseigneur Rochart was in a terrible rage, said Rougon; he had met the bishop the previous day at the Ministry of Public Instruction, and still laughed at the recollection of his angry looks. He seemed, indeed, quite delighted with his triumph over the prelate.
'His Grace hasn't been able to gobble me up, you see,' he continued; 'I am too big a mouthful for him. I don't think, though, that it's all over between us. I could see that by the look of his eyes. He is a man who never forgets anything, I should imagine. However, the rest will be my own business.'
The Charbonnels were profuse in their expressions of gratitude and respect. They should leave Paris that same evening, they said; for all at once great anxiety had come upon them. Their cousin Chevassu's house, at Faverolles, had been left in the charge of a bigoted old woman who was extremely devoted to the Sisters of the Holy Family, and on learning the issue of the trial she might perhaps strip the house of its contents and go off with them. The Sisters, said the Charbonnels, were capable of anything.