"Because, last night I was in the main vestibule when that old gentleman arrived."
"Well! what then?"
"All your servants were there, and also a clerk from the office of your aunt's solicitor, who had come to give her some information about some business—a debt due her, or something else, I don't know what! But, as you may imagine, they told the little clerk—for he is a very small fellow—they told him that there was a grand reception going on, and that madame could not receive him."
"What relation has all this to the old Marquis de Marvejols?"
"Why, mademoiselle, when Monsieur Bahuchet—that is the little clerk's name—when he found that he could not be received, he put his papers in his pocket, saying: 'Very well; I will return to-morrow.'—But, instead of going away at once, as the guests were arriving, he remained a long while in the vestibule, talking with the major-domo and the servants. He is a great gossip, but he is amusing; for he made comments on everybody who arrived, and I assure you, mademoiselle, that sometimes he said some very comical things.—So, when this old gentleman arrived, and the servant announced Monsieur le Marquis de Marvejols, the little clerk cried:
"'Ah! I know that nobleman, and his son too. He had a pretty little pile of debts, had the son; but the father paid them all some time ago; it was my master, my solicitor, who called the creditors together. Comte Léodgard promised to reform, but he doesn't reform; he is beginning to run in debt again; and then, he's a great fellow for midnight intrigues! I'll wager that he won't come here to-night; he is too fully occupied elsewhere!'"
"The clerk said that?"
"Yes, mademoiselle; I was quite near him and I heard him plainly."
"Well! what else did he say? go on!"
"He said nothing more on that subject, mademoiselle; for other persons arrived, and he had comments to make on them. It seems that that young man knows all Paris; but nothing more was said about the son of Monsieur le Marquis de Marvejols."