The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (best book club books .TXT) 📕

of returning to Beaucaire.’

“ ‘Ah,’ responded the woman, with an expression impossible to describe; ‘I thought it was for something else.’

“ ‘Woman, woman⁠—why do you have such ideas?’ cried Caderousse; ‘or, if you have them, why don’t you keep them to yourself?’

“ ‘Well,’ said La Carconte, after a moment’s pause, ‘you are not a man.’

“ ‘What do you mean?’ added Caderousse.

“ ‘If you had been a man, you would not have let him go from here.’

“ ‘Woman!’

“ ‘Or else he should not have reached Beaucaire.’

“ ‘Woman!’

“ ‘The road takes a turn⁠—he is obliged to follow it⁠—while alongside of the canal there is a shorter road.’

“ ‘Woman!⁠—you offend the good God. There⁠—listen!’

“And at this moment there was a tremendous peal of thunder, while the livid lightning illumined the room, and the thunder, rolling away in the distance, seemed to withdraw unwillingly from the cursed abode. ‘Mercy!’ said Caderousse, crossing himself.

“At the same moment, and in the midst of the terrifying silence which usually follows a clap of thunder, they heard a knocking at the door. Caderousse and his wife started and looked aghast at each other.

“ ‘Who’s there?’ cried Caderousse, rising, and drawing up in a heap the gold and notes scattered over the table, and which he covered with his two hands.

“ ‘It is I,’ shouted a voice.

“ ‘And who are you?’

“ ‘Eh, pardieu! Joannes, the jeweller.’

“ ‘Well, and you said I offended the good God,’ said La Carconte with a horrid smile. ‘Why, the good God sends him back again.’ Caderousse sank pale and breathless into his chair.

“La Carconte, on the contrary, rose, and going with a firm step towards the door, opened it, saying, as she did so:

“ ‘Come in, dear M. Joannes.’

“ ‘Ma foi,’ said the jeweller, drenched with rain, ‘I am not destined to return to Beaucaire tonight. The shortest follies are best, my dear Caderousse. You offered me hospitality, and I accept it, and have returned to sleep beneath your friendly roof.’

“Caderousse stammered out something, while he wiped away the sweat that started to his brow. La Carconte double-locked the door behind the jeweller.”

XLV The Rain of Blood

“As the jeweller returned to the apartment, he cast around him a scrutinizing glance⁠—but there was nothing to excite suspicion, if it did not exist, or to confirm it, if it were already awakened. Caderousse’s hands still grasped the gold and banknotes, and La Carconte called up her sweetest smiles while welcoming the reappearance of their guest.

“ ‘Well, well,’ said the jeweller, ‘you seem, my good friends, to have had some fears respecting the accuracy of your money, by counting it over so carefully directly I was gone.’

“ ‘Oh, no,’ answered Caderousse, ‘that was not my reason, I can assure you; but the circumstances by which we have become possessed of this wealth are so unexpected, as to make us scarcely credit our good fortune, and it is only by placing the actual proof of our riches before our eyes that we can persuade ourselves that the whole affair is not a dream.’

“The jeweller smiled. ‘Have you any other guests in your house?’ inquired he.

“ ‘Nobody but ourselves,’ replied Caderousse; ‘the fact is, we do not lodge travellers⁠—indeed, our tavern is so near the town, that nobody would think of stopping here.’

“ ‘Then I am afraid I shall very much inconvenience you.’

“ ‘Inconvenience us? Not at all, my dear sir,’ said La Carconte in her most gracious manner. ‘Not at all, I assure you.’

“ ‘But where will you manage to stow me?’

“ ‘In the chamber overhead.’

“ ‘Surely that is where you yourselves sleep?’

“ ‘Never mind that; we have a second bed in the adjoining room.’

“Caderousse stared at his wife with much astonishment.

“The jeweller, meanwhile, was humming a song as he stood warming his back at the fire La Carconte had kindled to dry the wet garments of her guest; and this done, she next occupied herself in arranging his supper, by spreading a napkin at the end of the table, and placing on it the slender remains of their dinner, to which she added three or four fresh-laid eggs. Caderousse had once more parted with his treasure⁠—the banknotes were replaced in the pocketbook, the gold put back into the bag, and the whole carefully locked in the cupboard. He then began pacing the room with a pensive and gloomy air, glancing from time to time at the jeweller, who stood reeking with the steam from his wet clothes, and merely changing his place on the warm hearth, to enable the whole of his garments to be dried.

“ ‘There,’ said La Carconte, as she placed a bottle of wine on the table, ‘supper is ready whenever you are.’

“ ‘And you?’ asked Joannes.

“ ‘I don’t want any supper,’ said Caderousse.

“ ‘We dined so very late,’ hastily interposed La Carconte.

“ ‘Then it seems I am to eat alone,’ remarked the jeweller.

“ ‘Oh, we shall have the pleasure of waiting upon you,’ answered La Carconte, with an eager attention she was not accustomed to manifest even to guests who paid for what they took.

“From time to time Caderousse darted on his wife keen, searching glances, but rapid as the lightning flash. The storm still continued.

“ ‘There, there,’ said La Carconte; ‘do you hear that? upon my word, you did well to come back.’

“ ‘Nevertheless,’ replied the jeweller, ‘if by the time I have finished my supper the tempest has at all abated, I shall make another start.’

“ ‘It’s the mistral,’ said Caderousse, ‘and it will be sure to last till tomorrow morning.’ He sighed heavily.

“ ‘Well,’ said the jeweller, as he placed himself at table, ‘all I can say is, so much the worse for those who are abroad.’

“ ‘Yes,’ chimed in La Carconte, ‘they will have a wretched night of it.’

“The jeweller began eating his supper, and the woman, who was ordinarily so querulous and indifferent to all who approached her, was suddenly transformed into the most smiling and attentive hostess. Had the unhappy man on whom she lavished her assiduities been previously acquainted with her, so sudden an alteration might well have excited suspicion in his mind, or at least have greatly astonished him. Caderousse, meanwhile, continued to pace