"Monsieur Antoine Thierry!" said the servant in a loud voice.
Julie rose with a gesture of surprise. The marchioness, who was standing, sat down again with an angry exclamation. The horticulturist entered, embarrassed, awkward as usual, but none the less holding his head erect, with the irascible countenance which always presented such a curious contrast to his timid manners. Without a direct salutation to anyone, he walked forward in a zigzag line, but very quickly, to the table, to the document, to the inkstand, and, looking at Julie, said in a sullen tone, in which an indefinable trace of anxiety could be detected:
"Have you concluded anything?"
"Nothing is concluded, since you are here," replied Marcel. "Do you happen to have come to make a bid, monsieur my uncle?"
"No one can bid," said the marchioness, in great excitement. "Everything is settled. I appeal to the good faith of——"
"Good faith is safe enough," retorted Marcel. "We were subjected to harsh conditions. No one ever blamed a man condemned to death, however resigned he might be, for accepting a pardon when it came to him as a surprise. Come, monsieur my uncle, speak! You want the hôtel D'Estrelle. I say more, you need it; you can pull down the wall and make a fine addition to your garden. The hôtel De Melcy is old and dismal and depressing and badly located. This one is cheerful, cool in summer, warm in winter. You want it, you claim it, do you not?"
"This is an outrageous proceeding!" cried the marchioness. "Madame's consent is equivalent to a signature, and an agreement is never retracted at the last moment."
"I beg your pardon, madame," rejoined Marcel, "you were warned. I resisted to the very last minute, and I said to you three times during the discussion: if the door should open at this moment, and a new bidder appear, I don't care who he might be, I would tear up this draft of an agreement which I consider most lamentable for my client. I submitted, I did not consent; I invoke the testimony of my colleague here present. Uncle, everyone knows that you are infallible on questions of honor; tell me, have I the right to object to my client's signing before you have spoken?"
"To be sure," replied Monsieur Antoine, "especially as my rights antedate madame la marquise's. Let us look over this paper!"
He ran his eye over it and said: