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 to-night. 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."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 bank-notes, 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 themore parted with his treasure — the banknotes were replaced in the
pocket-book, 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
to-morrow 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 the room