CHAPTER III.
The Law Suit.
“So,” said she after having listened with attention, “there is no way of losing it?”
“The opinion of my father as well as of myself, is that in order to lose it, it would be necessary to desire its loss.”
“But your worthy father has surely understood that I did wish it absolutely?”
“No, madame,” replied I with firmness, for it was a question of my duty, and I assumed the only part proper for me to play, in the presence of this noble lady. “No, my father does not so understand it. His conscience forbids him to betray the interests confided to him by M. le comte d’Ionis. He thinks that you will induce your husband to adopt a compromise and he will render it as acceptable as possible to the adversaries that you protect. But he will never bring himself to persuade M. d’Ionis that his cause is bad in justice.”
“In legal justice,” she replied, with a sweet sad smile; “but, in real justice, in moral and natural justice, your worthy father knows well that our right leads us to exercise a cruel spoliation.”
“What my father thinks of this subject,” I replied a little confused, “he is only accountable for to his own conscience. When a lawyer can defend a cause where the two justices of which you speak are in his favor, he is very fortunate, thoroughly compensated for those cases where he finds them in opposition; but he ought never to observe this distinction when he has voluntarily accepted the charge, and you know, madame, that my father has only consented to oppose M. d’Aillane because you wished him to do so.”
“I did wish it, yes! I obtained my husband’s consent that this suit should not be confided to another; I hoped that your father, the best and most honest man of my acquaintance would succeed in saving this unhappy family from the rigorous pursuit of my own. A lawyer can always show himself reticent and generous, above all when he knows that he will not be blamed by his principal client. And I am this client, monsieur. It concerns my fortune, and not M. d’Ionis, which nothing menaces.”
“It is true, madame but you are in the power of your husband; and the husband, like the chief of the community....”