第58章

"I must pay those notes at once," said Emmanuel."If Merkstus holds them all, you can at least save the interest.I will bring you the remaining seventy thousand francs.My poor uncle left me quite a large sum in ducats, which are easy to carry secretly.""Oh!" she said, "bring them at night; we can hide them when my father is asleep.If he knew that I had money, he might try to force it from me.Oh, Emmanuel, think what it is to distrust a father!" she said, weeping and resting her forehead against the young man's heart.

This sad, confiding movement, with which the young girl asked protection, was the first expression of a love hitherto wrapped in melancholy and restrained within a sphere of grief: the heart, too full, was forced to overflow beneath the pressure of this new misery.

"What can we do; what will become of us? He sees nothing, he cares for nothing,--neither for us nor for himself.I know not how he can live in that garret, where the air is stifling.""What can you expect of a man who calls incessantly, like Richard III., 'My kingdom for a horse'?" said Emmanuel."He is pitiless; and in that you must imitate him.Pay his notes; give him, if you will, your whole fortune; but that of your sister and of your brothers is neither yours nor his.""Give him my fortune?" she said, pressing her lover's hand and looking at him with ardor in her eyes; "you advise it, you!--and Pierquin told a hundred lies to make me keep it!""Alas! I may be selfish in my own way," he said."Sometimes I long for you without fortune; you seem nearer to me then! At other times I want you rich and happy, and I feel how paltry it is to think that the poor grandeurs of wealth can separate us.""Dear, let us not speak of ourselves."

"Ourselves!" he repeated, with rapture.Then, after a pause, he added:

"The evil is great, but it is not irreparable.""It can be repaired only by us: the Claes family has now no head.To reach the stage of being neither father nor man, to have no consciousness of justice or injustice (for, in defiance of the laws, he has dissipated--he, so great, so noble, so upright--the property of the children he was bound to defend), oh, to what depths must he have fallen! My God! what is this thing he seeks?""Unfortunately, dear Marguerite, wrong as he is in his relation to his family, he is right scientifically.A score of men in Europe admire him for the very thing which others count as madness.But nevertheless you must, without scruple, refuse to let him take the property of his children.Great discoveries have always been accidental.If your father ever finds the solution of the problem, it will be when it costs him nothing; in a moment, perhaps, when he despairs of it.""My poor mother is happy," said Marguerite; "she would have suffered a thousand deaths before she died: as it was, her first encounter with Science killed her.Alas! the strife is endless.""There is an end," said Emmanuel."When you have nothing left, Monsieur Claes can get no further credit; then he will stop.""Let him stop now, then," cried Marguerite, "for we are without a penny!"Monsieur de Solis went to buy up Claes's notes and returned, bringing them to Marguerite.Balthazar, contrary to his custom, came down a few moments before dinner.For the first time in two years his daughter noticed the signs of a human grief upon his face: he was again a father, reason and judgment had overcome Science; he looked into the court-yard, then into the garden, and when he was certain he was alone with his daughter, he came up to her with a look of melancholy kindness.

"My child," he said, taking her hand and pressing it with persuasive tenderness, "forgive your old father.Yes, Marguerite, I have done wrong.You spoke truly.So long as I have not FOUND I am a miserable wretch.I will go away from here.I cannot see Van Claes sold," he went on, pointing to the martyr's portrait."He died for Liberty, Idie for Science; he is venerated, I am hated.""Hated? oh, my father, no," she cried, throwing herself on his breast;"we all adore you.Do we not, Felicie?" she said, turning to her sister who came in at the moment.

"What is the matter, dear father?" said his youngest daughter, taking his hand.

"I have ruined you."

"Ah!" cried Felicie, "but our brothers will make our fortune.Jean is always at the head of his class.""See, father," said Marguerite, leading Balthazar in a coaxing, filial way to the chimney-piece and taking some papers from beneath the clock, "here are your notes of hand; but do not sign any more, there is nothing left to pay them with--""Then you have money?" whispered Balthazar in her ear, when he recovered from his surprise.

His words and manner tortured the heroic girl; she saw the delirium of joy and hope in her father's face as he looked about him to discover the gold.

"Father," she said, "I have my own fortune.""Give it to me," he said with a rapacious gesture; "I will return you a hundred-fold.""Yes, I will give it to you," answered Marguerite, looking gravely at Balthazar, who did not know the meaning she put into her words.