The next day Moses (who noticed that I had not yet bought the ring) was obliged to go out on business, and asked for the loan of my carriage for the whole day, telling me that he would come for his daughter in the evening. I had the horses harnessed, and when he was gone I bought the ring for six hundred sequins, but on my own terms. I was in my own house, and Leah could not deceive me. As soon as the father was safely out of the way I possessed myself of the daughter. She proved a docile and amorous subject the whole day. I had reduced her to a state of nature, and though her body was as perfect as can well be imagined I used it and abused it in every way imaginable. In the evening her father found her looking rather tired, but he seemed as pleased as I was. Leah was not quite so well satisfied, for till the moment of their departure she was expecting me to give her the ring, but I contented myself with saying that I should like to reserve myself the pleasure of taking it to her.
On Easter Monday a man brought me a note summoning me to appear at the police office.
CHAPTER XII
My Victory Over the Deputy Chief of Police—My Departure— Chamberi—Desarmoises’s Daughter—M. Morin—M * * * M * * *— At Aix—The Young Boarder—Lyons—Paris
This citation, which did not promise to lead to anything agreeable, surprised and displeased me exceedingly. However, I could not avoid it, so I drove to the office of the deputy-superintendent of police. I found him sitting at a long table, surrounded by about a score of people in a standing posture. He was a man of sixty, hideously ugly, his enormous nose half destroyed by an ulcer hidden by a large black silk plaster, his mouth of huge dimensions, his lips thick, with small green eyes and eyebrows which had partly turned white. As soon as this disgusting fellow saw me, he began,—
“You are the Chevalier de Seingalt?”
“That is my name, and I have come here to ask how I can oblige you?”
“I have summoned you here to order you to leave the place in three days at latest.”
“And as you have no right to give such an order, I have come here to tell you that I shall go when I please, and not before.”
“I will expel you by force.”