“Monsieur,” said Cachan, “you are not attached to the Treasury? You may be told all the facts——”
“Be quite easy,” said Corentin, “I give you my word of honor I am not employed by the Treasury.”
Cachan, who had just signed to everybody to say nothing, gave expression to his satisfaction.
“Monsieur,” Corentin went on, “if the whole estate were but a million, a natural child’s share would still be something considerable. But we have not come to threaten a lawsuit; on the contrary, our purpose is to propose that you should hand over one hundred thousand francs, and we will depart——”
“One hundred thousand francs!” cried Cachan, interrupting him. “But, monsieur, old Sechard left twenty acres of vineyard, five small farms, ten acres of meadowland here, and not a sou besides——”
“Nothing on earth,” cried David Sechard, “would induce me to tell a lie, and less to a question of money than on any other.—Monsieur,” he said, turning to Corentin and Derville, “my father left us, besides the land——”
Courtois and Cachan signaled in vain to Sechard; he went on:
“Three hundred thousand francs, which raises the whole estate to about five hundred thousand francs.”
“Monsieur Cachan,” asked Eve Sechard, “what proportion does the law allot to a natural child?”
“Madame,” said Corentin, “we are not Turks; we only require you to swear before these gentlemen that you did not inherit more than five hundred thousand francs from your father-in-law, and we can come to an understanding.”