[Chapter 15]
Monsieur Judas at Bay
Monsieur Jules Guinaud was not quite satisfied in his own mind with regard to the result of his interview of the previous night. It was true that by using the documents he had stolen from Melstane's packet he had succeeded in obtaining Marson's consent to his marriage with Florry, but it was also true that he had found an unexpected obstacle to his plans in the person of Judith Varlins. He was cynical in his estimate of the female sex, regarding them as beings quite inferior to the male, but at the same time he was too clever a man to underestimate the result of a quick-witted woman opposing herself to his will. Florry was a mere cypher, whom he loved in a sensual fashion for her beauty, and in a worldly fashion for her money, but Judith was quite a different stamp of woman to this negative type of inane loveliness. She had a masculine brain, she had a strong will, she had a fearless nature, and Guinaud dreaded the upshot of any interference on her part.
A genius, this man—a genius in a wicked way, with wonderful capabilities of arranging his plans, and brushing aside any obstacle that might interfere with their fulfilment, In this case Judith interfered, so Judas, taking a rapid survey of the situation, saw a means by which he could silence her effectively, and determined to do so without delay. He wished to marry Florry Marson; he wished to enjoy the income, the position, and the benefits derived from being a son-in-law of Marson, and was consequently determined to let nothing stand in the way of the realisation of his hopes. Judas was not a brave man, but he was wonderfully crafty, and the fox, as a rule, gains his ends where the lion fails; so the Frenchman determined to go up to the Hall on the night following his first interview, see Judith, and let her know at once what to expect if she meddled with his arrangements.
This was all very nicely arranged, and if Monsieur Guinaud had been undisturbed, he would no doubt have succeeded in his wicked little plans; but Fate, not approving of this usurpation of her role as arbitrator of human lives, interfered, and Octavius Fanks was the instrument she used to defeat all the Frenchman's schemes.
In playing with Fate, that goddess has a nasty habit of forcing her opponent's hand before he desires to show it, and this is what she did now, to the great discomfiture of Monsieur Judas.
It was about eight o'clock on the night following that momentous interview at the Hall, and all Mrs. Binter's boarders had left the jail on the ticket of-leave system except Judas, who sat in the drawing-room cell arranging everything in his crafty brain before setting out on his errand to Miss Varlins. The head-jailer had several times entered the room and intimated that he had better run out for a breath of fresh air; but Judas, saying he would go later on, kept his seat by the diminutive fire, and declined to obey Mrs. Binter, much to that good lady's disgust.
"Why, drat the man," she said, in her stony fashion, to one of the under-warders, "what does he mean by wastin' coals an' ile? Why don't he walk his dinner off by usin' his legs instead of robbin' me of my profits by takin' it out of his thirty shillin's weekly?"
The under-warder suggested respectfully that Monsieur Judas might be expecting a friend that night, as on a previous occasion, to which the jailer made prompt reply:
"Oh, I dare say! That friend he had here was a furriner. I heard 'em talking their French gabble. It's more like a turkey gobblin' than a man talkin'. Why don't these furriners learn English? There's the front-door bell! P'r'aps it's that friend again. I'll go myself."