‘Ah, monsieur,’ exclamed Gavrolles, ‘how shall I thank you for this interview? I know, monsieur, I must be de trop at such a time as this, but I am as it were a mere machine. I follow not my own inclinations, but the force of circumstances; they have brought me here.’
‘Is this what you have come to say to me?’ asked Forster coldly.
‘Not all, by no means all,’ returned the Frenchman eagerly; ‘but before we proceed to business I must express to you, monsieur, my deep condolence in a great affliction which has befallen you!’
Forster’s face grew livid, he half rose from his chair; then remembering his promise to Sutherland he sank back again with a groan.
‘Be careful,’ he said sternly. ‘If you come here on business, pray state it without further preamble; at all events be good enough not to allude again to my domestic affairs.’
The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders and turned upon Forster a pair of eyes lit with a sickly sinister light.
‘Pardon, monsieur,’ he returned blandly. ‘I am sorry if I have pained you—but in this world it is not the fortune of any one that his path should be all sunshine. Though it is much against my inclination, it is of your affairs that I must speak. Listen, monsieur. A little bird has already whispered abroad that Auguste de Gavrolles and Madame Forster were acquainted. Having learned so much, the curious are naturally anxious to hear more. They love romances. Here is one ready made, they say, but there is only one man who can tell it truly; and that man is Gavrolles. Accordingly Gavrolles is besieged. Well, he does not wish to speak, for though he has been maligned he is a man of honour and an artiste. He is on the horns of a dilemma. The only course for him to take would be to travel far away, but he is a poor man, and without money one can do nothing—absolutely nothing. Do you understand, monsieur?’
Forster shook his head.
‘I confess I do not.’
‘Then I must speak more plainly. Would it not be well, if you said to me, “Monsieur Gavrolles, since I am a rich man, it shall not be for the want of a little filthy lucre that my wife’s name is unpleasantly discussed. You shall not want the means to move away.”’