Part 19 (1/2)
”To speak frankly, I haven't 'staggered' you this time?”
”Not very much.”
”I seem to you to have played a secondary part. For, after all, what have I done? We arrived. We listened to Jean Louis' tale of woe. I had a midwife fetched. And that was all.”
”Exactly. I want to know if that _was_ all; and I'm not quite sure.
To tell you the truth, our other adventures left behind them an impression which was--how shall I put it?--more definite, clearer.”
”And this one strikes you as obscure?”
”Obscure, yes, and incomplete.”
”But in what way?”
”I don't know. Perhaps it has something to do with that woman's confession.
Yes, very likely that is it. It was all so unexpected and so short.”
”Well, of course, I cut it short, as you can readily imagine!” said Renine, laughing. ”We didn't want too many explanations.”
”What do you mean?”
”Why, if she had given her explanations with too much detail, we should have ended by doubting what she was telling us.”
”By doubting it?”
”Well, hang it all, the story is a trifle far-fetched! That fellow arriving at night, with a live baby in his pocket, and going away with a dead one: the thing hardly holds water. But you see, my dear, I hadn't much time to coach the unfortunate woman in her part.”
Hortense stared at him in amazement:
”What on earth do you mean?”
”Well, you know how dull-witted these countrywomen are. And she and I had no time to spare. So we worked out a little scene in a hurry ... and she really didn't act it so badly. It was all in the right key: terror, _tremolo_, tears....”
”Is it possible?” murmured Hortense. ”Is it possible? You had seen her beforehand?”
”I had to, of course.”
”But when?”
”This morning, when we arrived. While you were t.i.tivating yourself at the hotel at Carhaix, I was running round to see what information I could pick up. As you may imagine, everybody in the district knows the d'Imbleval-Vaurois story. I was at once directed to the former midwife, Mlle. Boussignol. With Mlle. Boussignol it did not take long. Three minutes to settle a new version of what had happened and ten thousand francs to induce her to repeat that ... more or less credible ... version to the people at the manor-house.”
”A quite incredible version!”
”Not so bad as all that, my child, seeing that you believed it ... and the others too. And that was the essential thing. What I had to do was to demolish at one blow a truth which had been twenty-seven years in existence and which was all the more firmly established because it was founded on actual facts. That was why I went for it with all my might and attacked it by sheer force of eloquence. Impossible to identify the children? I deny it. Inevitable confusion? It's not true. 'You're all three,' I say, 'the victims of something which I don't know but which it is your duty to clear up!' 'That's easily done,' says Jean Louis, whose conviction is at once shaken. 'Let's send for Mlle. Boussignol.' 'Right! Let's send for her.'
Whereupon Mlle. Boussignol arrives and mumbles out the little speech which I have taught her. Sensation! General stupefaction ... of which I take advantage to carry off our young man!”
Hortense shook her head: