第96章

"As for you, Lupin," said Rigou, in a tone of authority, "be off to the Prefecture and see the beautiful Madame Sarcus at once! You must get her to tell you all the Shopman says and does at the Prefecture."

"Then I shall have to stay all night," replied Lupin.

"So much the better for Sarcus the rich; he'll be the gainer," said Rigou."She is not yet out of date, Madame Sarcus--"

"Oh! Monsieur Rigou," said Madame Soudry, in a mincing tone, "are women ever out of date?"

"You may be right about Madame Sarcus; she doesn't paint before the glass," retorted Rigou, who was always disgusted by the exhibition of the Cochet's ancient charms.

Madame Soudry, who thought she used only a "suspicion" of rouge, did not perceive the sarcasm and hastened to say:--

"Is it possible that women paint?"

"Now, Lupin," said Rigou, without replying to this naivete, "go over to Gaubertin's to-morrow morning.Tell him that my fellow-mayor and I"

(striking Soudry on the thigh) "will break bread with him at breakfast somewhere about midday.Tell him everything, so that we may all have thought it over before we meet, for now's the time to make an end of that damned Shopman.As I drove over here I came to the conclusion it would be best to get up a quarrel between the courts and him, so that the Keeper of the Seals would be wary of making the changes he may ask in their members."

"Bravo for the son of the Church!" cried Lupin, slapping Rigou on the shoulder.

Madame Soudry was here struck by an idea which could come only to a former waiting-maid of an Opera divinity.

"If," she said, "one could only get the Shopman to the fete at Soulanges, and throw some fine girl in his way who would turn his head, we could easily set his wife against him by letting her know that the son of an upholsterer has gone back to the style of his early loves."

"Ah, my beauty!" said Soudry, "you have more sense in your head than the Prefecture of police in Paris."

"That's an idea which proves that Madame reigns by mind as well as by beauty," said Lupin, who was rewarded by a grimace which the leading society of Soulanges were in the habit of accepting without protest for a smile.

"One might do better still," said Rigou, after some thought; "if we could only turn it into a downright scandal."

"Complaint and indictment! affair in the police court!" cried Lupin.

"Oh! that would be grand!"

"Glorious!" said Soudry, candidly."What happiness to see the Comte de Montcornet, grand cross of the Legion of honor, commander of the Order of Saint Louis, and lieutenant-general, accused of having attempted, in a public resort, the virtue--just think of it!"

"He loves his wife too well," said Lupin, reflectively."He couldn't be got to that."

"That's no obstacle," remarked Rigou; "but I don't know a single girl in the whole arrondissement who is capable of making a sinner of a saint.I have been looking out for one for the abbe."

"What do you say to that handsome Gatienne Giboulard, of Auxerre, whom Sarcus, junior, is mad after?" asked Lupin.

"That's the only one," answered Rigou, "but she is not suitable; she thinks she has only to be seen to be admired; she's not complying enough; we want a witch and a sly-boots, too.Never mind, the right one will turn up sooner or later."

"Yes," said Lupin, "the more pretty girls he sees the greater the chances are."

"But perhaps you can't get the Shopman to the fair," said the ex-

gendarme."And if he does come, will he go to the Tivoli ball?"

"The reason that has always kept him away from the fair doesn't exist this year, my love," said Madame Soudry.

"What reason, dearest?" asked Soudry.

"The Shopman wanted to marry Mademoiselle de Soulanges," said the notary."The family replied that she was too young, and that mortified him.That is why Monsieur de Soulanges and Monsieur de Montcornet, two old friends who both served in the Imperial Guard, are so cool to each other that they never speak.The Shopman doesn't want to meet the Soulanges at the fair; but this year the family are not coming."

Usually the Soulanges party stayed at the chateau from July to October, but the general was then in command of the artillery in Spain, under the Duc d'Angouleme, and the countess had accompanied him.At the siege of Cadiz the Comte de Soulanges obtained, as every one knows, the marshal's baton, which he kept till 1826.

"Very true," cried Lupin."Well, it is for you, papa," he added, addressing Rigou, "to manoeuvre the matter so that we can get him to the fair; once there, we ought to be able to entrap him."

The fair of Soulanges, which takes place on the 15th of August, is one of the features of the town, and carries the palm over all other fairs in a circuit of sixty miles, even those of the capital of the department.Ville-aux-Fayes has no fair, for its fete-day, the Saint-

Sylvestre, happens in winter.

From the 12th to the 15th of August all sorts of merchants abounded at Soulanges, and set up their booths in two parallel lines, two rows of the well-known gray linen huts, which gave a lively appearance to the usually deserted streets.The two weeks of the fair brought in a sort of harvest to the little town, for the festival has the authority and prestige of tradition.The peasants, as old Fourchon said, flocked in from the districts to which labor bound them for the rest of the year.

The wonderful show on the counters of the improvised shops, the collection of all sorts of merchandise, the coveted objects of the wants or the vanities of these sons of the soil, who have no other shows or exhibitions to enjoy exercise a periodical seduction over the minds of all, especially the women and children.So, after the first of August the authorities posted advertisements signed by Soudry, throughout the whole arrondissement, offering protection to merchants, jugglers, mountebanks, prodigies of all kinds, and stating how long the fair would last, and what would be its principal attractions.