doctor? No, Blanche and I went to fetch Dr. Pradel but he was not in."
Maurin remained silent for a minute or two and then said decisively:
"I am sure — or nearly sure that it was not Pradel. Of course the fog was very dense and I may have been mistaken. But I don't think I was. At any rate..."
He paused, and thoughtfully sipped his coffee over the rim of his cup; he seemed to be watching his vis-à-vis very intently.
Suddenly he said:
"I shall be going to the Town Hall presently. Will you accompany me, Monsieur le Professeur?"
"To the Town Hall? I regret but I..."
"It won't take up much of your time," the young lawyer insisted, "and your presence would be very helpful to me."
"How so?"
"As a witness."
"Would you mind explaining? I don't quite understand."
Maurin called for another Fine, drank it down at a gulp and went on:
"Should I be boring you, Monsieur le Professeur, if I were to tell you something of my own sentimental history. You are, I know, an intimate friend of the Levets, and my story is closely connected with theirs. Shall I be boring you?" he reiterated.
"Not in the least," Blakeney answered courteously.
The young man leaned across the table and lowering his voice to a whisper he began:
"I love Blanche Levet. My great desire is to make her my wife. Unfortunately her father hates me like poison. Though I am a moderate, if convinced Republican, he classes me with all those whom he calls assassins and regicides." He paused a moment, then once more insisted: "You are quite sure that this does not bore you, Monsieur le Professeur?"
"Quite sure," Blakeney replied.
"You are very kind. I was hoping to enlist your sympathy, perhaps your co-operation, because Blanche has often told me that old Levet has a great regard for you."
"And I for him."
"Quite so. Now, my dear Professeur," the lawyer went on confidentially, "when I saw just now old Levet introducing a man surreptitiously into his house, a scheme suggested itself to me which I fervently hope will bring about my union with the woman of my choice. I cannot tell you what put it into my head that Levet was acting surreptitiously, all I know is that the thought did occur to me, and that it gave rise in my mind to the scheme which, with your permission, I will now put before you, as I say, with a view to soliciting your kind co-operation. Will you allow me to proceed?"
"Please do," Blakeney responded. "You interest me enormously."
"You are very kind."
Once more the lawyer paused. The noise in the room made conversation difficult. He leaned further over the table, and went on still in a subdued tone of voice:
"Whether the man who was with Charles Levet just now, and whom he took into his house was a genuine priest or not, I neither know nor care. He may be the fugitive Abbé Edgeworth for aught it matters to me. I am practically certain that it wasn't the doctor, but anyway he is just a pawn in the close game which I propose to play, a game, the ultimate stakes of which are my future welfare and success in my career. Old Levet has more money than you would think," he added unblushingly, "and Blanche, besides being very attractive — I am really in love with her — will have a considerable dot, whilst I...."
He gave a significant shrug and added: "Well! we understand one another, do we not, Monsieur le Professeur? With us black-coated workers money is the only ladder to success."
"Quite so," Blakeney assented imperturbably.
"Anyway what I am going to do is this. I have just sent a letter to the Chief of Section at the Town Hall, denouncing the Levet family as harbouring a traitor in their house. I enjoy a great deal of prestige with our local authorities and they will take my word for it that the Levets' guest is a dangerous conspirator against the Republic. Now do you guess my purpose?"
"Not exactly."
"It is really quite simple. Just think for a moment how we shall all stand within the next few hours. Levet, his daughter, his son and his guest arrested. I, Louis Maurin, using my influence with the authorities to get the family liberated. Levet's gratitude expressed by granting me his daughter's hand in marriage. Surely you can see how splendidly it will all work."
"Not quite," Blakeney remarked after a slight pause.
"Where's the hitch?"
"I was thinking of the guest. Will your influence be extended towards his liberation also?"
"Oh!" the lawyer replied airily, "I am not going to trouble myself about him. If nothing is proved against him, if he is really just a constitutional priest called in to administer the sacraments to a dying woman, he will get his release without interference on my part."
"He may not."
The lawyer shrugged. "Anyway he will have to take his chance. My dear friend," he went on with an affected sigh, "a great many heads will fall within the next few days, weeks, months perhaps; are we not on the eve of far bigger things than have occurred as yet? One head more or less ... what does it matter?"
To this Blakeney made no immediate reply, and presently the young lawyer resumed, putting all the persuasiveness he could command into his tone:
"You will not refuse me your co-operation, will you, Monsieur le Professeur."
"You will pardon me," Blakeney responded, "but you have not yet told me what you desire me to do."
"Just for the moment, only to come with me as far as the Town Hall, and bear witness to the fact that old Levet introduced a man surreptitiously into his house this afternoon."
"But I don't know that he did."
Maurin shrugged. "Does that matter?" he queried blandly, "between friends?"
Then as Monsieur le Professeur made no comment on this amazing suggestion, he continued glibly:
"It is all perfectly simple, my dear Professeur, as you will see, and nothing that will happen need upset your over-sensitive conscience. I will merely call upon you to confirm with a word or two, my statement that Charles Levet introduced someone furtively into his house, at the very time when his wife was breathing her last. There will be no question of an oath or anything of the sort, just a few words. But we will both insist that Levet's actions were furtive. Won't we? I can reckon on you for this can I not, my dear friend? I may call you my friend, may I not?"
"If you like."
"You really are most kind. And you will plead my cause with old Levet when my marriage with Blanche comes on the tapis presently, won't you, my friend? Funnily enough I felt you were going to be my friend the moment I sat down at this table opposite to you. But then Blanche had often spoken to me about you, and in what high regard her father held you ... Well!" he concluded, after he had paused for breath for a few seconds, "what do you say?" and his eyes glowing and eager, fastened themselves on the other's face.
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