“Will you have the goodness to explain why you show yourself so obliging towards the daughter of our enemy?”
“For the sole reason that she is the daughter of our enemy.”
“It may be very chivalrous on your part, but to me it appears stupid.”
“Do you intend to introduce the fair sex into your quarrels?”
“I should like to see how Lichtenbach would treat your mother and sister if ever they fell into his power!”
“Let us hope we may never experience it. Still, Baradier and Graff are not obliged to act like Lichtenbach. Ask my uncle what he thinks about it.”
“Oh, your uncle is too sentimental. For the last hour I have been trying to find motives for this intervention. Evidently Lichtenbach wishes to throw us off the scent by this demonstration of affection for Mademoiselle de Trémont, but it is this very thing which awakens my suspicions. Do you know what Barentin, of the Supreme Court, told me lately? Not twenty-five per cent. of the criminals are ever discovered, and then only by their own folly. The rich calculate, and are almost sure of impunity.”
“My dear father, if the whole might of the law cannot seize a murderer, how can you expect Baradier and Graff to succeed? We must be sensible, and not attempt impossibilities. We will do the best we can—you by protecting Mademoiselle de Trémont, and I by assuring her the fortune her father promised her. For the rest let us trust in Providence.”
“In Providence!” growled Baradier. “Trust rather in the devil! Attend to what I tell you, Marcel. Your mother, yourself, and myself are all involved in the quarrel between Lichtenbach and your uncle. Lichtenbach is one of those revengeful men who strike both their enemies and their enemies’ offspring. Trémont has met his fate; it will be our turn next.”
“No, father, our turn will never come,” said Marcel, energetically. “At the very first threat, the faintest attempt, I will go to Lichtenbach myself, and settle all our accounts with him at a single time. That I swear!”