"Monsieur!" she exclaimed, in the same tone as if she
would have called "Fire!" "here is Monsieur de Valorsay."
M. Fortunat sprang up and turned extremely pale. "What to the
devil brings him here?" he anxiously stammered. "Tell him that
I've gone out--tell him--"
But it was useless, for the marquis at that very moment entered
the room, and the agent could only dismiss his housekeeper and
Chupin.
M. de Valorsay seemed to be very angry, and it looked as if he
meant to give vent to his passion. Indeed, as soon as he was
alone with M. Fortunat, he began: "So this is the way you betray
your friends, Master Twenty-per-Cent! Why did you deceive me last
night about the ten thousand francs you had promised me? Why
didn't you tell me the truth? You knew of the misfortune that had
befallen M. de Chalusse. I heard of it first scarcely an hour ago
through a letter from Madame Leon."
M. Fortunat hesitated somewhat. He was a quiet man, opposed to
violence of any kind; and it seemed to him that M. de Valorsay was
twisting and turning his cane in a most ominous manner. "I must
confess, Monsieur le Marquis," he at last replied, "that I had not
the courage to tell you of the dreadful misfortune which had
befallen us."
"How--US?"
"Certainly. If you lose the hope of several millions, I also lose
the amount I advanced to you, forty thousand francs--my entire
fortune. And yet, you see that I don't complain.
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