A loud rapping at the street door made me tremble. It was not yet daylight. I was the only one in the house awake. I dressed myself hurriedly. A second knock was heard, then came a third, just as I rushed into the vestibule.
I opened the door all in a tremble. I know not what connection there was in my mind between this nocturnal visit and the cause of my anguish; but whoever the visitor might be, I had a presentiment that all would now be satisfactorily arranged. And such proved to be the case, although I could not then understand the connection with subsequent events that were soon to extricate me from my position.
The visitor was one of Madame d’Ionis’ servants who came post haste with a letter for my father or for myself, as it was addressed to both.
While they were getting up in the house to answer the summons, I read the following: “Stop the law suit. I have this moment received and now transmit to you a serious piece of news which releases you from your engagements with M. d’Ionis. He is no more. You will receive the official tidings during the day.”
I carried the letter to my father.
“À la bonne heure!” said he. “This is a fortunate piece of business for our beautiful client, if this disagreeable dead man does not leave her too many debts; a fortunate thing, too, for the d’Aillanes. The court will lose the opportunity of rendering a fine judgment, and thou that of making a fine speech. Come—let us go to sleep again, since there is nothing better to do.”
He turned over towards the wall; then called me back as I was leaving the room.
“My dear child,” said he, “one thing worries my mind, and that is if you are in love with Madame d’Ionis, and if she is left penniless”——
“No, no, father,” I cried, “I am not in love with Madame d’Ionis.”
“But you have been? Come, speak the truth, and that is the cause of this change for the better in thee. The ambitious tastes which thou hast developed and the melancholy which worries thy mother so much.”——