The old man smiled to himself as he looked from his goddaughter to Savinien. To show offence or to complain of Madame de Portenduere's manners was a rock on which a man of small mind might have struck, but Minoret was too accomplished in the ways of the world not to avoid it.
He began to talk to the viscount of the danger Charles X. was then running by confiding the affairs of the nation to the Prince de Polignac. When sufficient time had been spent on the subject to avoid all appearance of revenging himself by so doing, he handed the old lady, in an easy, jesting way, a packet of legal papers and receipted bills, together with the account of his notary.
"Has my son verified them?" she said, giving Savinien a look, to which he replied by bending his head. "Well, then the rest is my notary's business," she added, pushing away the papers and treating the affair with the disdain she wished to show for money.
To abase wealth was, according to Madame de Portenduere's ideas, to elevate the nobility and rob the bourgeoisie of their importance.
A few moments later Goupil came from his employer, Dionis, to ask for the accounts of the transaction between the doctor and Savinien.
"Why do you want them?" said the old lady.
"To put the matter in legal form; there have been no cash payments."
Ursula and Savinien, who both for the first time exchanged a glance with offensive personage, were conscious of a sensation like that of touching a toad, aggravated by a dark presentiment of evil. They both had the same indefinable and confused vision into the future, which has no name in any language, but which is capable of explanation as the action of the inward being of which the mysterious Swedenborgian had spoken to Doctor Minoret. The certainty that the venomous Goupil would in some way be fatal to them made Ursula tremble; but she controlled herself, conscious of unspeakable pleasure in seeing that Savinien shared her emotion.
"He is not handsome, that clerk of Monsieur Dionis," said Savinien, when Goupil had closed the door.
"What does it signify whether such persons are handsome or ugly?" said Madame de Portenduere.
"I don't complain of his ugliness," said the abbe, "but I do of his wickedness, which passes all bounds; he is a villain."
The doctor, in spite of his desire to be amiable, grew cold and dignified. The lovers were embarrassed. If it had not been for the kindly good-humor of the abbe, whose gentle gayety enlivened the dinner, the position of the doctor and his niece would have been almost intolerable. At dessert, seeing Ursula turn pale, he said to her:--
"If you don't feel well, dear child, we have only the street to cross."
"What is the matter, my dear?" said the old lady to the girl.
"Madame," said the doctor severely, "her soul is chilled, accustomed as she is to be met by smiles."
"A very bad education, monsieur," said Madame de Portenduere. "Is it not, Monsieur l'abbe?"
"Yes," answered Minoret, with a look at the abbe, who knew not how to reply. "I have, it is true, rendered life unbearable to an angelic spirit if she has to pass it in the world; but I trust I shall not die until I place her in security, safe from coldness, indifference, and hatred--"
"Oh, godfather--I beg of you--say no more. There is nothing the matter with me," cried Ursula, meeting Madame de Portenduere's eyes rather than give too much meaning to her words by looking at Savinien.
"I cannot know, madame," said Savinien to his mother, "whether Mademoiselle Ursula suffers, but I do know that you are torturing me."
Hearing these words, dragged from the generous young man by his mother's treatment of herself, Ursula turned pale and begged Madame de Portenduere to excuse her; then she took her uncle's arm, bowed, left the room, and returned home. Once there, she rushed to the salon and sat down to the piano, put her head in her hands, and burst into tears.
"Why don't you leave the management of your affairs to my old experience, cruel child?" cried the doctor in despair. "Nobles never think themselves under any obligations to the bourgeoisie. When we do them a service they consider that we do our duty, and that's all.
Besides, the old lady saw that you looked favorably on Savinien; she is afraid he will love you."
"At any rate he is saved!" said Ursula. "But ah! to try to humiliate a man like you!"
"Wait till I return, my child," said the old man leaving her.
When the doctor re-entered Madame de Portenduere's salon he found Dionis the notary, accompanied by Monsieur Bongrand and the mayor of Nemours, witnesses required by law for the validity of deeds in all communes where there is but one notary. Minoret took Monsieur Dionis aside and said a word in his ear, after which the notary read the deeds aloud officially; from which it appeared that Madame de Portenduere gave a mortgage on all her property to secure payment of the hundred thousand francs, the interest on which was fixed at five per cent. At the reading of this last clause the abbe looked at Minoret, who answered with an approving nod. The poor priest whispered something in the old lady's ear to which she replied,--
"I will owe nothing to such persons."
"My mother leaves me the nobler part," said Savinien to the doctor;
"she will repay the money and charges me to show our gratitude."
"But you will have to pay eleven thousand francs the first year to meet the interest and the legal costs," said the abbe.
"Monsieur," said Minoret to Dionis, "as Monsieur and Madame de Portenduere are not in a condition to pay those costs, add them to the amount of the mortgage and I will pay them."
