About ten o’clock a cab stopped before the house, and Madame Vauthier looking out exclaimed:—­

“Oh! it is Monsieur Godefroid.”

Auguste at once took the key of his apartment and went up to meet the protector of his family; but he found Godefroid’s face and manner so changed that he hesitated to address him until, generous lad that he was, the thought of his grandfather’s danger came over him and gave him courage.

XVIII

WHO MONSIEUR BERNARD WAS

The cause of this change and of the sternness in Godefroid’s face was an event which had just taken place in the rue Chanoinesse.  When the initiate arrived there he found Madame de la Chanterie and her friends assembled in the salon awaiting dinner; and he instantly took Monsieur Joseph apart to give him the four volumes on “The Spirit of Modern Laws.”  Monsieur Joseph took the voluminous manuscript to his room and returned for dinner; then, after sharing in the conversation for part of the evening, he went back to his room, intending to begin the reading of the book that night.

Godefroid was much astonished when Manon came to him soon after Monsieur Joseph’s retirement and asked if he would at once go up and speak to that gentleman.  He went up, conducted by Manon, and was unable to pay any heed to the apartment (which he had never before entered) so amazed was he by the agitated look and manner of a man who was usually calm and placid.

“Do you know,” asked Monsieur Joseph, once more a judge, “who the author of this work is?”

“He is Monsieur Bernard,” said Godefroid; “I know him only under that name.  I did not open the package.”

“True,” said Monsieur Joseph, as if to himself, “I broke the seals myself.  You have not tried to find out anything about his antecedents?”

“No, I only know that he made a love-match with the daughter of General Tarlowski; that the daughter is named after the mother, Vanda; the grandson is called Auguste; and I have seen a portrait of Monsieur Bernard in the red robes of a president of the Royal Courts.”

“Here, read that,” said Monsieur Joseph, pointing to the titlepage of the manuscript, written probably in Auguste’s handwriting:—­

ON THE

SPIRIT OF MODERN LAWS

By M. Bernard-Jean-Baptiste Macloud,
Baron Bourlac.

Formerly attorney-general to the Royal Court of Rouen. 
Grand officer of the Legion of honor.

“Ha! the slayer of Madame’s daughter! of the Chevalier du Vissard! the man who condemned her to twenty years’ imprisonment!” said Godefroid, in a feeble voice.  His legs gave way under him, and he dropped into a chair.  “What a beginning!” he muttered.

“This matter, my dear Godefroid,” resumed Monsieur Joseph, “concerns us all.  You have done your part; leave the rest to us.  I beg you to have no more to do with it; go and fetch the things you have left behind you.  Don’t say a word of all this.  Practise absolute discretion.  Tell the Baron de Bourlac to address himself to me.  By that time we shall have decided how to act under the circumstances.”