Serge Panine -- Volume 04

entering his wife's room like a madman, unawares. She seemed to hear a cry of rage, answered by a sigh of terror; then a double shot resounded, the room filled with smoke, and,

able to lie in bed, arose, and now and again, to pass the time, stole on tiptoe to her daughter's room. Miche

the light of the lamp

face, and a sigh

remembrance of these sad days will be wiped out, and I shall see he

m full of smoke came before her eyes again. She shook her head to chase

indow and cooled her burning brow in the fresh morning air. Th

of wheels rolling by was heard. Th

ly. Madame Desvarennes greeted him with a grateful smile. She felt that she was really loved by this good fellow, who understood her so thoroughly. She begged h

uch a narrow escape. He went upstairs with a comparatively light step, and tossed his overcoat to a very sleepy footman who had risen to receive him. He went into the card-room. Baccarat was just finishing. It was three o'clock in the morning. The appearance of the Prince lent the game a little fresh animati

ablutions were over he wrote a note to Jeanne, saying that he had reflected, and could not possibly let her go away with him. He implored her to do all i

t could he do with Jeanne? The presence of his mistress would prevent his being able to go ba

returned, and ascertain the real facts of the po

ontrary, he held that the gay colors of the furniture and the glitter of the gilded cornices were bound to have a fascination for prospective shareholders. Suzanne had rese

victoria. Herzog had returned. The Prince quiet

ugh the newspapers. When Serge entered he rose. The two men stood

t me without news during you

, calmly, "the only news

should hav

of the operation h

ontinued, becoming animated. "I did not know where I w

erzog. "Play has its chances. One s

"the shares which you sold ought n

ally. "If they ought not to have gone out of my han

le party on whom he could pour out all the bitterness

y scruples, and would have felt ready to crown me. It has failed; you are trying to get out of the responsibility, and are on the point of treating me a

ked hard

that this speculation, which brings rui

erved the financier, iro

e!" cried Serge, in

and turned red in the face. He seized

r insults you heap upon

e my p

anine, exasperated at

financier, in a jesting to

of the Prince, he w

g after him

until you have given me the mea

difficulty. Let us boldly call a general meeting. I will explain the thing, and amaze everybody. We shall get a vote of co

ot suit me to do a yet more shameful thing in order to get ou

I been ruined and three times have I risen again. My head is good! I am down now. I shall rise again, and when I am well off, and have a few millions to s

d to go free?" asked Serge

re I shall treat with the shareholders of the Universal Credit.

d Serge, in

ve been. But as you have decided, let me give you a piece of advice which will be worth t

ut a hand to Serge w

zog. "After all it is you

ng a word the P

. He had been to Cayrol's, but could not see him. The banker, who had shut himself up in his private office where he had worked all night, had given orders that no one should in

gate swung on its hinges, and a carriage rolled into the c

yro

him to leave her, and the ban

y, the banker was rosy, firm, and upright as an oak, now he was bent, and withered like an old man. His hair

toward him, and in one wor

?" sh

e, raised his eyes to th

thi

e not

to kill him. I thought it was an easier matter t

nd troubled to find that she had been so easily u

my own roof. The law allowed me, if not the actual right to kill them, at least an excuse if I did so. Well, at

was a

you goin

will failed me in the one case; my want of skill would fail me in the other. I will not fight Serge. Not because I fear death, for my life is blighted, a

d h

g him to d

f he r

head menacingly

sist, I will bring hi

Desvarennes, goin

ered the banke

the mistress. "Think well what you are

rol. "Your son-in-law is a robber, who

enge himself after the manner you s

ht. I am only a financier. Money is my weapon. The Prince

svarennes

r account. I

ld I not rather have chosen to be ruined than be betrayed as I am? You can never r

ll you be less unhappy! Oh! Cayrol, take heed that you lose not in dignity what you gain in revenge. The less one is respected by others the more one

e idea that that woman belongs to another drives me mad. I ought to hate her, but, notwithstanding everything, I cannot live w

Madame Desvarennes sh

ved Serge as Cay

aw the house abandoned, Micheline and Serge in foreign lands, and she alone in the midst of

to me? You are a good man and will not forget the past. You have been outraged and have the right of seeking revenge, bu

his face did not relax

good feelings I had, have been consumed by this execrable love. There is nothing left but love for her. For her, I forget

n!" murmured

" sobbed Cayrol, fal

hed him, and quietly place

are weeping?

e and, with low

between Jeanne and Serge. If he has not gone away by toni

sisted. She saw that the husband

ht have taken action without doing so. Good-by, Cayrol

bowed, an

od-

step, almost tott

air, and in the deep blue sky swallows were flying to and fro. This earthly joy exasperated Madame Desvarennes. She

her daughter might escape from her, and follow the infamous husband whom she adored in spite of his faults-perhaps

bad to worse, and would drag her down with him! The mistress pictured her daughter, that child whom she had brought up with the ten

motherly love gained the mastery, and in the

shall

one of those superb personages dressed in blue and red cloth, who were so important in the eyes of the shareholders, that the evening before, owing to the complaint of a director, the police had entered the offices, and taken the books away, and that the official seal had been placed

ers outran even the hatred of Cayrol. What would the judges call Herzog's underhand dealings? Would it be embezzlement? Or forgery? Would they come and arrest the

ppeared. Marechal was more alarmed at this sudden vigor than he had been at her late depres

g, Madame?" he inqu

m a look that terrif

quare accounts w

e door leading to the l

t up to her son