"Yes; was it not through you that I was accused of theft by that oldhag, Madame Loupins?"Tantaine shrugged his shoulders.
"Dear me," said he; "I thought that M. Mascarin had explainedeverything, and that you were anxious to marry Mademoiselle Flavia,and that, above all, you were a young man of intelligence and tact."Hortebise roared with laughter, and Paul, seeing his folly, blusheddeeply and remained silent.
"I regret having disturbed you, doctor," resumed Tantaine, "but I hadstrict orders to see you.""Is there anything new then?""Yes; Mademoiselle de Mussidan is out of danger, and M. de Croisenoiscan commence proceedings at once."The doctor drank off a glass of wine. "To the speedy marriage of ourdear friend the Marquis and Mademoiselle Sabine," said he gayly.
"So be it," said Tantaine; "I am also directed to beg M. Paul not toleave this house, but to send for his luggage and remain here."Hortebise looked so much annoyed that Tantaine hastened to add: "Onlyas a temporary measure, for I am on the lookout for rooms for himnow."Paul looked delighted at the idea of having a home of his own.
"Good!" exclaimed the doctor merrily. "And now, my dear Tantaine, asyou have executed all your commissions, you can stay and breakfastwith us.""Thanks for the honor; but I am very busy with affairs of the Duke deChampdoce and must see Perpignan at once." As he spoke he rose, makinga little sign which Paul did not catch, and Hortebise accompanied himto the door of the vestibule. "Don't leave that lad alone," saidTantaine; "I will see about him to-morrow; meanwhile prepare him alittle.""I comprehend," answered Hortebise; "my kind regards to that dearfellow, Perpignan."This Perpignan was well known--some people said too well known--inParis. His real name was Isidore Crocheteau, and he had started lifeas a cook in a Palais Royal restaurant. Unfortunately a breach of theEighth Commandment had caused him to suffer incarceration for a periodof three years, and on his release he bloomed out into a privateinquiry agent. His chief customers were jealous husbands, but assurely as one of these placed an affair in his hands, he would go tothe erring wife and obtain a handsome price from her for his silence.
Mascarin and Perpignan had met in an affair of this kind; and as theymutually feared each other, they had tacitly agreed not to cross eachother's path in that great wilderness of crime--Paris. But whilePerpignan knew nothing of Mascarin's schemes and operations, theformer was very well acquainted with the ex-cook's doings. He knew,for instance, that the income from the Inquiry Office would not coverPerpignan's expenses, who dressed extravagantly, kept a carriage,affected artistic tastes, played cards, betted on races, and likedgood dinners at the most expensive restaurants. "Where can he get hismoney from?" asked Mascarin of himself; and, after a long search, hesucceeded in solving the riddle.
Daddy Tantaine, after leaving the doctor's, soon arrived at theresidence of M. Perpignan, and rang the bell.
A fat woman answered the door. "M. Perpignan is out," said she.
"When will he be back?""Some time this evening.""Can you tell me where I can find him, as it is of the utmostimportance to both of us that I should see him at once?""He did not say where he was going to.""Perhaps he is at the factory," said Tantaine blandly.
The fat woman was utterly taken aback by this suggestion. "What do youknow about that?" faltered she.
"You see I /do/ know, and that is sufficient for you. Come, is hethere?""I think so.""Thank you, I will call on him then. An awfully long journey,"muttered Tantaine, as he turned away; "but, perhaps, if I catch theworthy man in the midst of all his little business affairs, he will bemore free in his language, and not so guarded in his actualadmissions."The old man went to his task with a will. He passed down the RueToumenon, skirted the Luxemburg, and made his way into the Rue GuyLussac; from thence he walked down the Rue Mouffetard, and thencedirect into one of those crooked lanes which run between the GobelinsFactory and the Hopital de l'Oursine. This is a portion of the cityutterly unknown to the greater number of Parisians. The streets arenarrow and hardly afford room for vehicles. A valley forms the centreof the place, down which runs a muddy, sluggish stream, the banks ofwhich are densely crowded with tanyards and iron works. On the oneside of this valley is the busy Rue Mouffetard, and on the other oneof the outer boulevard, while a long line of sickly-looking poplarsmark the course of the semi-stagnant stream. Tantaine seemed to knowthe quarter well, and went on until he reached the Champs desAlouettes. Then, with a sigh of satisfaction, he halted before alarge, three-storied house, standing on a piece of ground surroundedby a mouldering wooden fence. The aspect of the house had somethingsinister and gloomy about it, and for a moment Tantaine paused as ifhe could not make up his mind to enter it; but at last he did so. Theinterior was as dingy and dilapidated as the outside. There were tworooms on the ground floor, one of which was strewn with straw, with afew filthy-looking quilts and blankets spread over it. The next roomwas fitted up as a kitchen; in the centre was a long table composed ofboards placed on trestles, and a dirty-looking woman with her headenveloped in a coarse red handkerchief, and grasping a big woodenspoon, was stirring the contents of a large pot in which someterrible-looking ingredients were cooking. On a small bed in a cornerlay a little boy. Every now and then a shiver convulsed his frame, hisface was deadly pale, and his hands almost transparent, while hisgreat black eyes glittered with the wild delirium of fever. Sometimeshe would give a deep groan, and then the old beldame would turnangrily and threaten to strike him with her wooden spoon.
"But I am so ill," pleaded the boy.
"If you had brought home what you were told, you would not have beenbeaten, and then you would have had no fever," returned the womanharshly.
"Ah, me! I am sick and cold, and want to go away," wailed the child;"I want to see mammy."Even Tantaine felt uneasy at this scene, and gave a gentle cough toannounce his presence. The old woman turned round on him with an angrysnarl. "Who do you want here?" growled she.
"Your master.""He has not yet arrived, and may not come at all, for it is not hisday; but you can see Poluche.""And who may he be?""He is the professor," answered the hag contemptuously.
"And where is he?""In the music-room."Tantaine went to the stairs, which were so dingy and dilapidated as tomake an ascent a work of danger and difficulty. As he ascended higher,he became aware of a strange sound, something between the grinding ofscissors and the snarling of cats. Then a moment's silence, a loudexecration, and a cry of pain. Tantaine passed on, and coming to arickety door, he opened it, and in another moment found himself inwhat the old hag downstairs had called the music-room. The partitionsof all the rooms on the floor had been roughly torn down to form thisapartment; hardly a pane of glass remained intact in the windows; thedingy, whitewashed walls were covered with scrawls and drawings incharcoal. A suffocating, nauseous odor rose up, absolutelyoverpowering the smell from the neighboring tanyards. There was nofurniture except a broken chair, upon which lay a dog whip withplaited leather lash. Round the room, against the wall, stood sometwenty children, dirty, and in tattered clothes. Some had violins intheir hands, and others stood behind harps as tall as themselves. Uponthe violins Tantaine noticed there were chalk marks at variousdistances. In the middle of the room was a man, tall and erect as adart, with flat, ugly features and lank, greasy hair hanging down onhis shoulders. He, too, had a violin, and was evidently giving thechildren a lesson. Tantaine at once guessed that this was ProfessorPoluche.
"Listen," said he; "here, you Ascanie, play the chorus from the/Chateau de Marguerite/." As he spoke he drew his bow across hisinstrument, while the little Savoyard did his best to imitate him, andin a squeaking voice, in nasal tone, he sang:
"Ah! great heavens, how fine and grand Is the palace!""You young rascal!" cried Poluche. "Have I not bid you fifty timesthat at the word 'palace' you are to place your bow on the fourthchalkmark and draw it across? Begin again."Once again the boy commenced, but Poluche stopped him.
"I believe, you young villain, that you are doing it on purpose. Now,go through the whole chorus again; and if you do not do it right, lookout for squalls."Poor Ascanie was so muddled that he forgot all his instructions.
Without any appearance of anger, the professor took up the whip andadministered half a dozen severe cuts across the bare legs of thechild, whose shouts soon filled the room.
"When you are done howling," remarked Poluche, "you can try again; andif you do not succeed, no supper for you to-night, my lad. Now,Giuseppe, it is your turn."Giuseppe, though younger than Ascanie, was a greater proficient on theinstrument, and went through his task without a single mistake.
"Good!" said Poluche; "if you get on like that, you will soon be fitto go out. You would like that, I suppose?""Yes," replied the delighted boy, "and I should like to bring in a fewcoppers too."But the Professor did not waste too much time in idle converse.
"It is your turn now, Fabio," said he.
Fabio, a little mite of seven, with eyes black and sparkling as thoseof a dormouse, had just seen Tantaine in the doorway and pointed himout to the professor.
Poluche turned quickly round and found himself face to face withTantaine, who had come quickly forward, his hat in his hand.
Had the professor seen an apparition, he could not have started moreviolently, for he did not like strangers.
"What do you want?" asked he.
"Reassure yourself, sir," said Tantaine, after having for a fewseconds enjoyed his evident terror; "I am the intimate friend of thegentleman who employs you, and have come here to discuss an importantmatter of business with him."Poluche breathed more freely.
"Take a chair, sir," said he, offering the only one in the room. "Mymaster will soon be here."But Daddy Tantaine refused the offer, saying that he did not wish tointrude, but would wait until the lesson was over.
"I have nearly finished," remarked Poluche; "it is almost time to letthese scamps have their soup."Then turning to his pupils, who had not dared to stir a limb, hesaid,--"There, that is enough for to-day; you can go."The children did not hesitate for a moment, but tumbled over eachother in their eagerness to get away, hoping, perhaps, that he mightomit to execute certain threats that he had held out during thelesson. The hope was a vain one, for the equitable Poluche went to thehead of the stairs and called out in a loud voice,--"Mother Butor, you will give no soup to Monte and put Ravillet on halfallowance."Tantaine was much interested, for the scene was an entirely new one.
The professor raised his eyes to heaven.
"Would," said he, "that I might teach them the divine science as Iwould wish; but the master would not allow me; indeed, he woulddismiss me if I attempted to do so.""I do not understand you.""Let me explain to you. You know that there are certain old women who,for a consideration, will train a linnet or a bullfinch to whistle anyair?"Tantaine, with all humility, confessed his ignorance of these matters.
"Well," said the professor, "the only difference between those oldwomen and myself is, that they teach birds and I boys; and I knowwhich I had rather do."Tantaine pointed to the whip.
"And how about this?" asked he.
Poluche shrugged his shoulders.
"Put yourself in my place for a little while," remarked he. "You seemy master brings me all sorts of boys, and I have to cram music intothem in the briefest period possible. Of course the child revolts, andI thrash him; but do not think he cares for this; the young impsthrive on blows. The only way that I can touch them is through theirstomachs. I stop a quarter, a half, and sometimes the whole of theirdinner. That fetches them, and you have no idea how a littlestarvation brings them on in music."Daddy Tantaine felt a cold shiver creep over him as he listened tothis frank exposition of the professor's mode of action.
"You can now understand," remarked the professor, "how some airsbecome popular in Paris. I have forty pupils all trying the samething. I am drilling them now in the /Marguerite/, and in a littletime you will have nothing else in the streets."Poluche was proceeding to give Tantaine some further information, whena step was heard upon the stairs, and the professor remarked,--"Here is the master; he never comes up here, because he is afraid ofthe stairs. You had better go down to him."
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