When the count and Madame Bertha reappeared, they were scarcely to be recognized, so much had both changed.Monsieur Hector seemed to have grown twenty years older.Would they keep the oath made at the death-bed of Sauvresy, of which everyone was apprised? This was asked with all the more curiosity, because their profound sorrow for a man who well merited it, was admired."The judge of instruction stopped M.Plantat with a motion of his hand.
"Do you know," asked he, "whether the rendezvous at the Hotel Belle Image had ceased?""I suppose so, sir; I think so."
"I am almost sure of it," said Dr.Gendron."I have often heard it said - they know everything at Corbeil - that there was a heated explanation between M.de Tremorel and the pretty Parisian lady.
After this quarrel, they were no longer seen at the Belle Image."The old justice of the peace smiled.
"Melun is not at the end of the world," said he, "and there are hotels at Melun.With a good horse, one is soon at Fontainebleau, at Versailles, even at Paris.Madame de Tremorel might have been jealous; her husband had some first-rate trotters in his stables."Did M.Plantat give an absolutely disinterested opinion, or did he make an insinuation? The judge of instruction looked at him attentively, to reassure himself, but his visage expressed nothing but a profound serenity.He told the story as he would any other, no matter what.
"Please go on, Monsieur," resumed M.Domini.
"Alas!" said M.Plantat, "nothing here below is eternal, not even grief.I know it better than anybody.Soon, to the tears of the first days, to violent despair, there succeeded, in the count and Madame Bertha, a reasonable sadness, then a soft melancholy.And in one year after Sauvresy's death Monsieur de Tremorel espoused his widow."During this long narrative the mayor had several times exhibited marks of impatience.At the end, being able to hold in no longer, he exclaimed:
"There, those are surely exact details; but I question whether they have advanced us a step in this grave matter which occupies us all - to find the murderers of the count and countess."M.Plantat, at these words, bent on the judge of instruction his clear and deep look, as if to search his conscience to the bottom.
"These details were indispensable," returned M.Domini, "and they are very clear.Those rendezvous at the hotel struck me; one knows not to what extremities jealousy might lead a woman - "He stopped abruptly, seeking, no doubt, some connection between the pretty Parisian and the murderers; then resumed:
"Now that I know the Tremorels as if I had lived with them intimately, let us proceed to the actual facts."The brilliant eye of M.Plantat immediately grew dim; he opened his lips as if to speak; but kept his peace.The doctor alone, who had not ceased to study the old justice of the peace, remarked the sudden change of his features.
"It only remains," said M.Domini, "to know how the new couple lived."M.Courtois thought it due to his dignity to anticipate M.Plantat.
"You ask how the new couple lived," said he hastily; "they lived in perfect concord; nobody knows better about it than I, who was most intimate with them.The memory of poor Sauvresy was a bond of happiness between them; if they liked me so well, it was because Ioften talked of him.Never a cloud, never a cross word.Hector - I called him so, familiarly, this poor, dear count - gave his wife the tender attentions of a lover; those delicate cares, which I fear most married people soon dispense with.""And the countess?" asked M.Plantat, in a tone too marked not to be ironical.
"Bertha?" replied the worthy mayor - "she permitted me to call her thus, paternally - I have cited her many and many a time as an example and model, to Madame Courtois.She was worthy of Hector and of Sauvresy, the two most worthy men I have ever met!
Then, perceiving that his enthusiasm somewhat surprised his hearers, he added, more softly:
"I have my reasons for expressing myself thus; and I do not hesitate to do so before men whose profession and character will justify my discretion.Sauvresy, when living, did me a great service - when I was forced to take the mayoralty.As for Hector, I knew well that he had departed - from the dissipations of his youth, and thought I discerned that he was not indifferent to my eldest daughter, Laurence; and I dreamed of a marriage all the more proper, as, if the Count Hector had a great name, I would give to my daughter a dowry large enough to gild any escutcheon.Only events modified my projects."The mayor would have gone on singing the praises of the Tremorels, and his own family, if the judge of instruction had not interposed.
"Here I am fixed," he commenced, "now, it seems to me - "He was interrupted by a loud noise in the vestibule.It seemed like a struggle, and cries and shouts reached the drawing-room.
Everybody rose.
"I know what it is," said the mayor, "only too well.They have just found the body of the Count de Tremorel."
