"Listen, Marcel! when I say such things as that to you, I give you permission to curse me."
"That's all right, we'll speak no more of it."
At that moment the bell of the gate was heard. Chaudoreille uttered an exclamation, half rose, and dropped on his chair again.
"That will be monseigneur," said Marcel, taking a light, and he ran to open the door, leaving his guest divided between fear and hope.
Marcel soon returned; he was alone, but he held a small roll which he placed on the table before Chaudoreille, and presented him with a paper on which somebody had written two lines in pencil, saying,—
"Here is what monseigneur has sent you; read it!"
Chaudoreille could not believe his eyes, he looked in turn at the roll, at the paper, and at Marcel.
"Why don't you read it," said the latter to him.
Finally, he took the paper with a trembling hand, and read: "I have seen her; you have surpassed my hopes and I double the promised recompense."
"O my God, Marcel! he's doubled the hundred pistoles."