“In the street the stranger asked me for some
details about the baroness, whom he had found charming.
But I did not hear anything more from either of them.
“Three months passed by.
“One morning, hardly two weeks ago, she came
here at about lunch time, and, placing a roll of bills
in my hand, said: ’My dear, you are an
angel! Here are fifty thousand francs; I am buying
your crucifix, and I am paying twenty thousand francs
more for it than the price agreed upon, on condition
that you always—always send your clients
to me—for it is sill for sale.’”
A party of men were chatting in the smoking room after
dinner. We were talking of unexpected legacies,
strange inheritances. Then M. le Brument, who
was sometimes called “the illustrious judge”
and at other times “the illustrious lawyer,”
went and stood with his back to the fire.
“I have,” said he, “to search for
an heir who disappeared under peculiarly distressing
circumstances. It is one of those simple and
terrible dramas of ordinary life, a thing which possibly
happens every day, and which is nevertheless one of
the most dreadful things I know. Here are the
facts:
“Nearly six months ago I was called to the bedside
of a dying woman. She said to me:
“’Monsieur, I want to intrust to you the
most delicate, the most difficult, and the most wearisome
mission that can be conceived. Be good enough
to notice my will, which is there on the table.
A sum of five thousand francs is left to you as a
fee if you do not succeed, and of a hundred thousand
francs if you do succeed. I want you to find my
son after my death.’
“She asked me to assist her to sit up in bed,
in order that she might talk with greater ease, for
her voice, broken and gasping, was whistling in her
throat.
“It was a very wealthy establishment. The
luxurious apartment, of an elegant simplicity, was
upholstered with materials as thick as walls, with
a soft inviting surface.
“The dying woman continued:
“’You are the first to hear my horrible
story. I will try to have strength enough to
finish it. You must know all, in order that you,
whom I know to be a kind-hearted man as well as a
man of the world, may have a sincere desire to aid
me with all your power.
“’Listen to me:
“’Before my marriage, I loved a young
man, whose suit was rejected by my family because
he was not rich enough. Not long afterward, I
married a man of great wealth. I married him
through ignorance, through obedience, through indifference,
as young girls do marry.
“’I had a child, a boy. My husband
died in the course of a few years.
“’He whom I had loved had married, in
his turn. When he saw that I was a widow, he
was crushed by grief at knowing he was not free.
He came to see me; he wept and sobbed so bitterly,
that it was enough to break my heart. He came
to see me at first as a friend. Perhaps I ought
not to have received him. What could I do?
I was alone, so sad, so solitary, so hopeless!
And I loved him still. What sufferings we women
have sometimes to endure!
