“In an affair of this kind, madame,” continued the attorney from Mantes, suddenly returning to business, “there are two things which it is most important to know. In the first place, whether the property is sufficient to be worth troubling about; and in the second, who the next-of-kin may be; for if the property is the booty, the next-of-kin is the enemy.”
La Cibot immediately began to talk of Remonencq and Elie Magus, and said that the shrewd couple valued the pictures at six hundred thousand francs.
“Would they take them themselves at that price?” inquired the lawyer. “You see, madame, that men of business are shy of pictures. A picture may mean a piece of canvas worth a couple of francs or a painting worth two hundred thousand. Now, paintings worth two hundred thousand francs are usually well known; and what errors in judgment people make in estimating even the most famous pictures of all! There was once a great capitalist whose collection was admired, visited, and engraved—actually engraved! He was supposed to have spent millions of francs on it. He died, as men must, and—well, his genuine pictures did not fetch more than two hundred thousand francs! You must let me see these gentlemen.—Now for the next-of-kin,” and Fraisier again relapsed into his attitude of listener.
When President Camusot’s name came up, he nodded with a grimace which riveted Mme. Cibot’s attention. She tried to read the forehead and the villainous face, and found what is called in business a “wooden head.”
“Yes, my dear sir,” repeated La Cibot. “Yes, my M. Pons is own cousin to President Camusot de Marville; he tells me that ten times a day. M. Camusot the silk mercer was married twice—”
“He that has just been nominated for a peer of France?—”
“And his first wife was a Mlle. Pons, M. Pons’ first cousin.”
“Then they are first cousins once removed—”
“They are ‘not cousins.’ They have quarreled.”
It may be remembered that before M. Camusot de Marville came to Paris, he was President of the Tribunal of Mantes for five years; and not only was his name still remembered there, but he had kept up a correspondence with Mantes. Camusot’s immediate successor, the judge with whom he had been most intimate during his term of office, was still President of the Tribunal, and consequently knew all about Fraisier.