“My son! oh! you are my guardian angel,” cried Marguerite, endeavoring to kiss the hand which held the paper to her.
“Silence! someone is coming--whatever may happen, you will find one at Achards.”
Marguerite suddenly closed the door without replying to him, for she had heard: the sound of her brother’s footsteps. Paul turned round, and went to meet him, which he did, near the table.
“I expected you at another time, sir, and in less numerous company,” said Emanuel, who was the first to speak.
“It appears to me that we are alone at this moment,” said Paul, glancing around the room.
“Yes, but it is here that the contract is to be signed, and in an instant this room will be full.”
“But many things may be said in an instant, count.”
“You are right, sir, but you must meet a man who does not require more than an instant to comprehend them.”
“You spoke to me of letters,” rejoined Emanuel, drawing nearer to him, and lowering his voice.
“It is true,” said Paul, with the same calmness.
“Well, then! if you are a man of honor, for that price, for the sum enclosed in this pocket-book, you ought now to be prepared to give them up.”
“Yes, sir, yes,” replied Paul, “the case stood thus, as long as I believed your sister, forgetful of the vows she had made, the fault she had committed, and even the child to which she had given birth, was seconding your ambition by her perjury. Then, I thought it would be a sufficiently bitter fate for the poor child to enter upon life without a name and without a family, not to allow him to enter it without a fortune also, and I then demanded of you, it is true, that sum in exchange for the letters in my possession. But now the state of things is altered, sir. I saw your sister throw herself upon her knees before you, I heard her entreat you not to force her into this infamous marriage, and neither prayers, nor tears, nor supplications could make any impression on your heart. It is now for me, for me who hold your honor, and the honor of your family within my hands, it is for me to save the mother from despair, as I would have saved the child from penury and misery. Those letters, sir, shall be delivered to you, when you shall, upon this table, instead of signing the marriage contract of your sister with the Baron de Lectoure, sign that of Mademoiselle Marguerite d’Auray with Anatole de Lusignan.”