Having written these lines, she handed the paper to Pascal, and said to the notary:
"I beg your pardon, sir; it concerned a condition relating to the deed that I desire to submit to M. Pascal."
"Certainly, madame," replied the notary, while the financier was reading.
He had hardly concluded his examination of the note, when he said to the notary, in a changed voice, as if he were eager to escape a great danger:
"I am going, monsieur, to give you a reading of it before signing," replied the notary, drawing the deed from his pocketbook, and slowly unfolding it.
But M. Pascal snatched it rudely from his hands and said, as if his sight were overcast:
"Here, monsieur, and approve the document first, but it is customary--"
Pascal wrote the approval of the document with a spasmodic and trembling hand, signed it, threw the pen on the desk, and inclined his head so as not to meet the glance of Madeleine.
"There is no flourish here," said the careful notary.
Pascal made the flourish; the notary took the deed with a surprised, almost frightened look, so sinister and dreadful was the expression of Pascal's face.
The marquise, perfectly cool, took up her letter of credit lying on the desk, and said to the financier:
"As I will have need of all my funds for my journey, monsieur, and as I leave this evening, I am going, if you please, to receive the whole amount of this letter of credit."
"Pass to the counting-room," replied Pascal, mechanically, his eyes wandering and bloodshot; his livid pallor had suddenly turned to a purplish red.
Madeleine preceding the notary, who made a pretext of saluting Pascal in order to look at him again, still with an air of alarm, went out of the office, shut the door, and said to the servant:
"The first door on the left in the court, madame."
The marquise left the parlour when a loud noise was heard in the office of M. Pascal.
It sounded like the fall of a body on the floor.
The servant, leaving Madeleine and the notary at once, ran to his master's room.
The marquise, after having received bank-bills to the amount of her letter of credit, was just about to enter her carriage, accompanied by the notary, when she saw the servant rush out of the gateway with a frightened air.