Other People's Money by Emile Gaboriau (ebook smartphone txt) 📕

time to solve this riddle, I concluded that I must be the victim of my own imagination; and I turned my attention to making the best possible use of my sudden fortune.  On the same day, I took a little room in the Faubourg St. Denis; and I bought myself a sewing-machine.  Before the week was over, I had work before me for several months.  Ah! this time it seemed indeed that I had nothing more to apprehend from destiny; and I looked forward, without fear, to the future.  At the end of a month, I was earning four to five francs a day, when, one afternoon, a stout man, very well dressed, looking honest and good-natured, and speaking French with some difficulty, made his appearance at my room.  He was an American he stated, and had been sent to me by the woman for whom I worked.  Having need of a skilled Parisian work-woman, he came to propose to me to follow him to New York, where he would insure me a brilliant position.

“But I knew several poor girls, who, on the faith of dazzling promises, had expatriated themselves.  Once abroad, they had been shamefully abandoned, and had been driven, to escape starvation, to resort to the vilest expedients.  I refused, therefore, and frankly gave him my reasons for doing so.

“My visitor at once protested indignantly.  Whom did I take him for?  It was a fortune that I was refusing.  He guaranteed me in New York board, lodging, and two hundred francs a month.  He would pay all traveling and moving expenses.  And, to prove to me the fairness of his intentions, he was ready, he said, to sign an agreement, and pay me a thousand down.

“These offers were so brilliant, that I was staggered in my resolution.

“‘Well,’ I said, ‘give me twenty-four hours to decide.  I wish to see my employer.’

“He seemed very much annoyed; but, as I remained firm in my purpose, he left, promising to return the next day to receive my final answer.

“I ran at once to my employer.  She did not know what I was talking about.  She had sent no one, and was not acquainted with any American.

“Of course, I never saw him again; and I couldn’t help thinking of this singular adventure, when, one evening during the following week, as I was coming home at about eleven o’clock, two policemen arrested me, and, in spite of my earnest protestations, took me to the station-house, where I was locked up with a dozen unfortunates who had just been taken up on the Boulevards.  I spent the night crying with shame and anger; and I don’t know what would have become of me, if the justice of the peace, who examined me the next morning, had not happened to be a just and kind man.  As soon as I had explained to him that I was the victim of a most humiliating error he sent an agent in quest of information, and having satisfied himself that I was an honest girl, working for my living, he discharged me.  But, before permitting me to go,

“‘Beware, my child,’ he said to me:  ‘it is upon a formal and well-authenticated declaration that you were arrested.  Therefore you must have enemies.  People have an interest in getting rid of you.’”

Mademoiselle Lucienne was evidently almost exhausted with fatigue:  her voice was failing her.  But it was in vain that Maxence begged her to take a few moments of rest.

“No,” she answered, “I’d rather get through as quick as possible.”

And, making an effort, she resumed her narrative, hurrying more and more.

“I returned home, my mind all disturbed by the judge’s warnings.  I am no coward; but it is a terrible thing to feel one’s self incessantly threatened by an unknown and mysterious danger, against which nothing can be done.

“In vain did I search my past life:  I could think of no one who could have any interest in effecting my ruin.  Those alone have enemies who have had friends.  I had never had but one friend, the kind-hearted girl who had turned me out of her home in a fit of absurd jealousy.  But I knew her well enough to knew that she was incapable of malice, and that she must long since have forgotten the unlucky cause of our rupture.

“Weeks after weeks passed without any new incident.  I had plenty of work and was earning enough money to begin saving.  So I felt comfortable, laughed at my former fears, and neglected the precautions which I had taken at first; when, one evening, my employer, having a very important and pressing order, sent for me.  We did not get through our work until long after midnight.

“She wished me to spend the rest of the night with her; but it would have been necessary to make up a bed for me, and disturb the whole household.

“‘Bash!’  I said, ‘this will not be the first time I cross Paris in the middle of the night.’

“I started; and I was going along, walking as fast as I could, when, from the angle of a dark, narrow street, a man sprang upon me, threw me down, struck me, and would doubtless have killed me, but for two brave gentlemen who heard my screams and rushed to my assistance.  The man ran off; and I was able to walk the rest of the way home, having received but a very slight wound.

“But the very next morning I ran to see my friend, the justice of the peace.  He listened to me gravely, and, when I had concluded,

“‘How were you dressed?’ he inquired.

“‘All in black,’ I replied, ‘very modestly, like a workwoman.’

“‘Had you nothing on your person that could tempt a thief?’

“‘Nothing.  No watch-chain, no jewelry, no ear-rings even.’

“‘Then,’ he uttered, knitting his brows, ‘it is not a fortuitous crime:  it is another attempt on the part of your enemies.’

“Such was also my opinion.  And yet: 

“‘But, sir,’ I exclaimed, ‘who can have any interest to destroy me, —a poor obscure girl as I am?  I have thought carefully and well, and I have not a single enemy that I can think of.’  And, as I had full confidence in his kindness, I went on telling him the story of my life.

“‘You are a natural child,’ he said as soon as I had done, ‘and you have been basely abandoned.  That fact alone would be sufficient to justify every supposition.  You do not know your parents; but it is quite possible that they may know you, and that they may never have lost sight of you.  Your mother was a working-girl, you think?  That may be.  But your father?  Do you know what interests your existence may threaten?  Do you know what elaborate edifice of falsehood and infamy your sudden appearance might tumble to the ground?’

“I was listening dumfounded.

“Never had such conjectures crossed my mind; and, whilst I doubted their probability, I had, at least, to admit their possibility.

“‘What must I do, then?’  I inquired.