Thanks to an expedient
devised by me, we shall obtain for twenty hours a release from all
the mortgages that now encumber your estates. On that very day we
will request a certificate from the recorder. This certificate
will declare that your estates are free from all encumbrances; you
will show this statement to M. de Chalusse, and all his doubts--
that is, if he has any--will vanish. The plan was very simple;
the only difficulty was about raising the money, but I have
succeeded in doing so. All your creditors but two lent themselves
very readily to the arrangement. I have now won the consent of
the two who at first refused, but we shall have to pay dearly for
it. It will cost you about twenty-six thousand francs."
M. de Valorsay was so delighted that he could not refrain from
clapping his hands. "Then the affair is virtually concluded," he
exclaimed. "In less than a month Mademoiselle Marguerite will be
the Marquise de Valorsay, and I shall have a hundred thousand
francs a year again." Then, noting how gravely M. Fortunat shook
his head: "Ah! so you doubt it!" he cried. "Very well; now it is
your turn to listen. Yesterday I had a long conference with the
Count de Chalusse, and everything has been settled. We exchanged
our word of honor, Master Twenty-per-cent. The count does things
in a princely fashion; he gives Mademoiselle Marguerite two
millions."
"Two millions!" the other repeated like an echo.
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