CHAPTER X. THE CROWD SEES
THEODORE MASSIGNAC was installed at the box-office! Theodore Massignac, when a dispute of any kind occurred, left his desk and hastened to settle it! Theodore Massignac walked up and down, examining the tickets, showing people to their places, speaking a pleasant word here, giving a masterful order there and doing all these things with his everlasting smile and his obsequious graciousness.
Of embarrassment not the slightest sign, Everybody knew that Theodore Massignac was the fellow with the broad face and the wide-cleft mouth who was attracting the general attention. And everybody was fully aware that Theodore Massignac was the man of straw who had carried out the whole business and made away with Noel Dorgeroux. But nothing interfered with Theodore Massignac's jovial mood: not the sneers, nor the apparent hostility of the public, nor the more or less discreet supervision of the detectives attached to his person.
He had even had the effrontery to paste on boardings, to the right and left of the entrance, a pair of great posters representing Noel Dorgeroux's handsome face, with its grave and candid features!
These posters gave rise to a brief altercation between us. It was pretty lively, though it passed unnoticed by others. Scandalized by the sight of them, I went up to him, a little while before the time fixed for the opening; and, in a voice trembling with anger, said:
“Remove those at once. I will not have them displayed. The rest I don't care about. But this is too much of a good thing: it's a disgrace and an outrage.”
He feigned an air of amazement:
“An outrage? You call it an outrage to honour your uncle's memory and to display the portrait of the talented inventor whose discovery is on the point of revolutionizing the world? I thought I was doing homage to him.”
I was beside myself with rage:
“You shan't do it,” I spluttered. “I will not consent, I will not consent to be an accomplice in your infamy.”
“Oh, yes, you will!” he said, with a laugh. “You'll consent to this as you do to all the rest. It's all part of the game, young fellow. You've got to swallow it. You've got to swallow it because Uncle Dorgeroux's fame must be made to soar above all these paltry trifles. Of course, I know, a word from you and I'm jugged. And then? What will become of the great invention? In the soup, that's where it'll be, my lad, because I am the sole possessor of all the secrets and all the formulae. The sole possessor, do you understand? Friend Velmot, the man with the glasses, is only a super, a tool. So is Berangere, Therefore, with Theodore Massignac put away, there's an end of the astounding pictures signed 'Dorgeroux.' No more glory, no more immortality. Is that what you want, young man?” Without waiting for any reply, he added: “And then there's something else; a word or two which I overheard last night. Ha, ha, my dear sir, so we're in love with Berangere! We're prepared to defend her against all dangers! Well, in that case — do be logical — what have I to fear? If you betray me, you betray your sweetheart. Come, am I right or wrong? Daddy and his little girl... hand and glove, you might say. If you cut off one, what becomes of the other?... Ah, you're beginning to understand! You'll be good now, won't you? There, that's much better! We shall see a happy ending yet, you'll have heaps of children crowding round your knee and who will thank me then for getting him a nice little settlement? Why, Victorien!
He stopped and watched me, with a jeering air. Clenching my fists, I shouted, furiously:
“You villain!... Oh, what a villain you make yourself appear!”
But some people were coming up and he turned his back on me, after whispering:
“Hush, Victorien! Don't insult your father-in-law elect.”
I restrained myself. The horrible brute was right. I was condemned to silence by motives so powerful that Theodore Massignac would soon be able to fulfil his task without having to fear the least revolt of conscience on my part. Noel Dorgeroux and Berangere were watching over him.