LITMIR.BIZ

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      “What?” she faltered; “this gold was not yours, my father? To whom did it belong? From whence did it come?”

      The unhappy man had gone too far to retract.

      “I will tell you all, my daughter,” he replied, “and you shall judge. You shall decide. When the Sairmeuse family fled from France, I had only my hands to depend upon, and as it was almost impossible to obtain work, I wondered if starvation were not near at hand.

      “Such was my condition when someone came after me one evening to tell me that Mademoiselle Armande de Sairmeuse, my godmother, was dying, and wished to speak with me. I ran to the chateau.

      “The messenger had told the truth. Mademoiselle Armande was sick unto death. I felt this on seeing her upon her bed, whiter than wax.

      “Ah! if I were to live a hundred years, never should I forget her face as it looked at that moment. It was expressive of a strength of will and an energy that would hold death at bay until the task upon which she had determined was performed.

      “When I entered the room I saw a look of relief appear upon her countenance.

      “‘How long you were in coming!’ she murmured faintly.

      “I was about to make some excuse, when she motioned me to pause, and ordered the women who surrounded her to leave the room.

      “As soon as we were alone:

      “‘You are an honest boy,’, said she, ‘and I am about to give you a proof of my confidence. People believe me to be poor, but they are mistaken. While my relatives were gayly ruining themselves, I was saving the five hundred louis which the duke, my brother, gave me each year.’

      “She motioned me to come nearer, and to kneel beside her bed.

      “I obeyed, and Mademoiselle Armande leaned toward me, almost glued her lips to my ear, and added:

      “‘I possess eighty thousand francs.’

      “I felt a sudden giddiness, but my godmother did not notice it.

      “‘This amount,’ she continued, ‘is not a quarter part of the former income from our family estates. But now, who knows but it will, one day, be the only resource of the Sairmeuse? I am going to place it in your charge, Lacheneur. I confide it to your honor and to your devotion. The estates belonging to the emigrants are to be sold, I hear. If such an act of injustice is committed, you will probably be able to purchase our property for seventy thousand francs. If the property is sold by the government, purchase it; if the lands belonging to the emigrants are not sold, take that amount to the duke, my brother, who is with the Count d’Artois. The surplus, that is to say, the ten thousand francs remaining, I give to you—they are yours.’

      “She seemed to recover her strength. She raised herself in bed, and, holding the crucifix attached to her rosary to my lips, she said:

      “‘Swear by the image of our Saviour, that you will faithfully execute the last will of your dying godmother.’

      “I took the required oath, and an expression of satisfaction overspread her features.

      “‘That is well,’ she said; ‘I shall die content. You will have a protector on high. But this is not all. In times like these in which we live, this gold will not be safe in your hands unless those about you are ignorant that you possess it. I have been endeavoring to discover some way by which you could remove it from my room, and from the chateau, without the knowledge of anyone; and I have found a way. The gold is here in this cupboard, at the head of my bed, in a stout oaken chest. You must find strength to move the chest—you must. You can fasten a sheet around it and let it down gently from the window into the garden. You will then leave the house as you entered it, and as soon as you are outside, you must take the chest and carry it to your home. The night is very dark, and no one will see you, if you are careful. But make haste; my strength is nearly gone.’

      “The chest was heavy, but I was very strong.

      “In less than ten minutes the task of removing the chest from the chateau was accomplished, without a single sound that would betray us. As I closed the window, I said:

      “‘It is done, godmother.’

      “‘God be praised!’ she whispered; ‘Sairmeuse is saved!’

      “I heard a deep sigh. I turned; she was dead.”

      This scene that M. Lacheneur was relating rose vividly before him.

      To feign, to disguise the truth, or to conceal any portion of it was an impossibility.

      He forgot himself and his daughter; he thought only of the dead woman, of Mlle. Armande de Sairmeuse.

      And he shuddered on pronouncing the words: “She was dead.” It seemed to him that she was about to speak, and to insist upon the fulfilment of his pledge.

      After a moment’s silence, he resumed, in a hollow voice:

      “I called for aid; it came. Mademoiselle Armande was adored by everyone; there was great lamentation, and a half hour of indescribable confusion followed her death. I was able to withdraw, unnoticed, to run into the garden, and to carry away the oaken chest. An hour later, it was concealed in the miserable hovel in which I dwelt. The following year I purchased Sairmeuse.”

      He had confessed all; and he paused, trembling, trying to read his sentence in the eyes of his daughter.

      “And can you hesitate?” she demanded.

      “Ah! you do not know——”

      “I know that Sairmeuse must be given up.”

      This was the decree of his own conscience, that faint voice which speaks only in a whisper, but which all the tumult on earth cannot overpower.

      “No one saw me take away the chest,” he faltered. “If anyone suspected it, there is not a single proof against me. But no one does suspect it.”

      Marie-Anne rose, her eyes flashed with generous indignation.

      “My father!” she exclaimed; “oh! my father!”

      Then, in a calmer tone, she added:

      “If others know nothing of this, can you forget it?”

      M. Lacheneur appeared almost ready to succumb to the torture of the terrible conflict raging in his soul.

      “Return!” he exclaimed. “What shall I return? That which I have received? So be it. I consent. I will give the duke the eighty thousand francs; to this amount I will add the interest on this sum since I have had it, and—we shall be free of all obligation.”

      The girl sadly shook her head.

      “Why do you resort to subterfuges which are so unworthy of you?” she asked, gently. “You know perfectly well that it was Sairmeuse which Mademoiselle Armande intended to intrust to the servant of her house. And it is Sairmeuse which must be returned.”

      The word “servant” was revolting to a man, who, at least, while the empire endured, had been a power in the land.

      “Ah! you are cruel, my daughter,” he said, with intense bitterness; “as cruel as a child who has never suffered—as cruel as one who, having never himself been tempted, is without mercy for those who have yielded to temptation.

      “It is one of those acts which God alone can judge, since God alone can read the depths of one’s secret soul.

      “I am only a depositary, you tell me. It was, indeed, in this light that I formerly regarded myself.

      “If your poor sainted mother was still alive, she would tell you the anxiety and anguish I felt on being made the master of riches which were not mine. I trembled lest I should yield to their seductions; I was afraid of myself. I felt as a gambler might feel who had the winnings of others confided to his care;

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