双语·邦斯舅舅 五十七、许模克至诚格天

LVII

Have they gone, Mme. Cibot? asked the unhappy Pons, when she came back again.

Gone?... who? asked she.

Those men.

What men? There, now, you have seen men, said she. "You have just had a raving fit; if it hadn't been for me you would have gone out the window, and now you are still talking of men in the room. Is it always to be like this?"

What! was there not a gentleman here just now, saying that my relatives had sent him?

Will you still stand me out? said she. "Upon my word, do you know where you ought to be sent?—To the asylum at Charenton. You see men—"

Elie Magus, Remonencq, and—

Oh! as for Remonencq, you may have seen him, for he came up to tell me that my poor Cibot is so bad that I must clear out of this and come down. My Cibot comes first, you see. When my husband is ill, I can think of nobody else. Try to keep quiet and sleep for a couple of hours; I have sent for Dr. Poulain, and I will come up with him.... Take a drink and be good—

Then was there no one in the room just now, when I waked?...

No one, said she. "You must have seen M. Remonencq in one of your looking-glasses."

You are right, Mme. Cibot, said Pons, meek as a lamb.

Well, now you are sensible again.... Good-bye, my cherub; keep quiet, I shall be back again in a minute.

When Pons heard the outer door close upon her, he summoned up all his remaining strength to rise.

They are cheating me, he muttered to himself, "they are robbing me! Schmucke is a child that would let them tie him up in a sack."

The terrible scene had seemed so real, it could not be a dream, he thought; a desire to throw light upon the puzzle excited him; he managed to reach the door, opened it after many efforts, and stood on the threshold of his salon. There they were—his dear pictures, his statues, his Florentine bronzes, his porcelain; the sight of them revived him. The old collector walked in his dressing-gown along the narrow spaces between the credence-tables and the sideboards that lined the wall; his feet bare, his head on fire. His first glance of ownership told him that everything was there; he turned to go back to bed again, when he noticed that a Greuze portrait looked out of the frame that had held Sebastian del Piombo's Templar. Suspicion flashed across his brain, making his dark thoughts apparent to him, as a flash of lightning marks the outlines of the cloud-bars on a stormy sky. He looked round for the eight capital pictures of the collection; each one of them was replaced by another. A dark film suddenly overspread his eyes; his strength failed him; he fell fainting upon the polished floor. So heavy was the swoon, that for two hours he lay as he fell, till Schmucke awoke and went to see his friend, and found him lying unconscious in the salon. With endless pains Schmucke raised the half-dead body and laid it on the bed; but when he came to question the death-stricken man, and saw the look in the dull eyes and heard the vague, inarticulate words, the good German, so far from losing his head, rose to the very heroism of friendship. Man and child as he was, with the pressure of despair came the inspiration of a mother's tenderness, a woman's love. He warmed towels (he found towels!), he wrapped them about Pons' hands, he laid them over the pit of the stomach; he took the cold, moist forehead in his hands, he summoned back life with a might of will worthy of Apollonius of Tyana, laying kisses on his friend's eyelids like some Mary bending over the dead Christ, in a pieta carved in bas-relief by some great Italian sculptor. The divine effort, the outpouring of one life into another, the work of mother and of lover, was crowned with success. In half an hour the warmth revived Pons; he became himself again, the hues of life returned to his eyes, suspended faculties gradually resumed their play under the influence of artificial heat; Schmucke gave him balm-water with a little wine in it; the spirit of life spread through the body; intelligence lighted up the forehead so short a while ago insensible as a stone; and Pons knew that he had been brought back to life, by what sacred devotion, what might of friendship!

But for you, I should die, he said, and as he spoke he felt the good German's tears falling on his face. Schmucke was laughing and crying at once. Poor Schmucke! he had waited for those words with a frenzy of hope as costly as the frenzy of despair; and now his strength utterly failed him, he collapsed like a rent balloon. It was his turn to fall; he sank into the easy-chair, clasped his hands, and thanked God in fervent prayer. For him a miracle had just been wrought. He put no belief in the efficacy of the prayer of his deeds; the miracle had been wrought by God in direct answer to his cry. And yet that miracle was a natural effect, such as medical science often records.

A sick man, surrounded by those who love him, nursed by those who wish earnestly that he should live, will recover (other things being equal), when another patient tended by hirelings will die. Doctors decline to see unconscious magnetism in this phenomenon; for them it is the result of intelligent nursing, of exact obedience to their orders; but many a mother knows the virtue of such ardent projection of strong, unceasing prayer.

My good Schmucke—

Say nodings; I shall hear you mit mein heart... rest, rest! said Schmucke, smiling at him.

Poor friend, noble creature, child of God, living in God!... The one being that has loved me.... The words came out with pauses between them; there was a new note, a something never heard before, in Pons' voice. All the soul, so soon to take flight, found utterance in the words that filled Schmucke with happiness almost like a lover's rapture.

Yes, yes. I shall be shtrong as a lion. I shall vork for two!

Listen, my good, my faithful, adorable friend. Let me speak, I have not much time left. I am a dead man. I cannot recover from these repeated shocks.

Schmucke was crying like a child.

Just listen, continued Pons, "and cry afterwards. As a Christian, you must submit. I have been robbed. It is La Cibot's doing.... I ought to open your eyes before I go; you know nothing of life.... Somebody has taken away eight of the pictures, and they were worth a great deal of money."

Vorgif me—I sold dem.

You sold them?

Yes, I, said poor Schmucke. "Dey summoned us to der court—"

Summoned?.... Who summoned us?

Wait, said Schmucke. He went for the bit of stamped-paper left by the bailiff, and gave it to Pons.

Pons read the scrawl through with close attention, then he let the paper drop and lay quite silent for a while. A close observer of the work of men's hands, unheedful so far of the workings of the brain, Pons finally counted out the threads of the plot woven about him by La Cibot. The artist's fire, the intellect that won the Roman scholarship—all his youth came back to him for a little.

My good Schmucke, he said at last, "you must do as I tell you, and obey like a soldier. Listen! go downstairs into the lodge and tell that abominable woman that I should like to see the person sent to me by my cousin the President; and that unless he comes, I shall leave my collection to the Musee. Say that a will is in question."

Schmucke went on his errand; but at the first word, La Cibot answered by a smile.

My good M. Schmucke, our dear invalid has had a delirious fit; he thought that there were men in the room. On my word, as an honest woman, no one has come from the family.

Schmucke went back with his answer, which he repeated word for word.

She is cleverer, more astute and cunning and wily, than I thought, said Pons with a smile. "She lies even in her room. Imagine it! This morning she brought a Jew here, Elie Magus by name, and Remonencq, and a third whom I do not know, more terrific than the other two put together. She meant to make a valuation while I was asleep; I happened to wake, and saw them all three, estimating the worth of my snuff-boxes. The stranger said, indeed, that the Camusots had sent him here; I spoke to him.... That shameless woman stood me out that I was dreaming!... My good Schmucke, it was not a dream. I heard the man perfectly plainly; he spoke to me.... The two dealers took fright and made for the door.... I thought that La Cibot would contradict herself—the experiment failed.... I will lay another snare, and trap the wretched woman.... Poor Schmucke, you think that La Cibot is an angel; and for this month past she has been killing me by inches to gain her covetous ends. I would not believe that a woman who served us faithfully for years could be so wicked. That doubt has been my ruin.... How much did the eight pictures fetch?"

Vife tausend vrancs.

Good heavens! they were worth twenty times as much! cried Pons; "the gems of the collection! I have not time now to institute proceedings; and if I did, you would figure in court as the dupe of those rascals.... A lawsuit would be the death of you. You do not know what justice means—a court of justice is a sink of iniquity.... At the sight of such horrors, a soul like yours would give way. And besides, you will have enough. The pictures cost me forty thousand francs. I have had them for thirty-six years.... Oh, we have been robbed with surprising dexterity. I am on the brink of the grave, I care for nothing now but thee—for thee, the best soul under the sun.... I will not have you plundered; all that I have is yours. So you must trust nobody, Schmucke, you that have never suspected any one in your life. I know God watches over you, but He may forget for one moment, and you will be seized like a vessel among pirates.... La Cibot is a monster! She is killing me; and you think her an angel! You shall see what she is. Go and ask her to give you the name of a notary, and I will show you her with her hand in the bag."

Schmucke listened as if Pons proclaimed an apocalypse. Could so depraved a creature as La Cibot exist? If Pons was right, it seemed to imply that there was no God in the world. He went right down again to Mme. Cibot.

Mein boor vriend Bons feel so ill, he said, "dat he vish to make his vill. Go und pring ein nodary."

This was said in the hearing of several persons, for Cibot's life was despaired of. Remonencq and his sister, two women from neighboring porters' lodges, two or three servants, and the lodger from the first floor on the side next the street, were all standing outside in the gateway.

Oh! you can just fetch a notary yourself, and have your will made as you please, cried La Cibot, with tears in her eyes. "My poor Cibot is dying, and it is no time to leave him. I would give all the Ponses in the world to save Cibot, that has never given me an ounce of unhappiness in these thirty years since we were married."

And in she went, leaving Schmucke in confusion.

Is M. Pons really seriously ill, sir? asked the first-floor lodger, one Jolivard, a clerk in the registrar's office at the Palais de Justice.

He nearly died chust now, said Schmucke, with deep sorrow in his voice.

M. Trognon lives near by in the Rue Saint-Louis, said M. Jolivard, "he is the notary of the quarter."

Would you like me to go for him? asked Remonencq.

I should pe fery glad, said Schmucke; "for gif Montame Zipod cannot pe mit mine vriend, I shall not vish to leaf him in der shtate he is in—"

Mme. Cibot told us that he was going out of his mind, resumed Jolivard.

Bons! out off his mind! cried Schmucke, terror-stricken by the idea. "Nefer vas he so clear in der head... dat is chust der reason vy I am anxious for him."

The little group of persons listened to the conversation with a very natural curiosity, which stamped the scene upon their memories.

Schmucke did not know Fraisier, and could not note his satanic countenance and glittering eyes. But two words whispered by Fraisier in La Cibot's ear had prompted a daring piece of acting, somewhat beyond La Cibot's range, it may be, though she played her part throughout in a masterly style. To make others believe that the dying man was out of his mind—it was the very corner-stone of the edifice reared by the petty lawyer.

The morning's incident had done Fraisier good service; but for him, La Cibot in her trouble might have fallen into the snare innocently spread by Schmucke, when he asked her to send back the person sent by the family.