第44章

"Is that all, my child?" said Father Alexis."I will hoist you up here."Gilbert raised himself by his right arm, and Father Alexis drawing him up, they soon found themselves seated face to face, uniting to their heart's content the blue smoke of their chibouques.

"Have you not noticed," said Father Alexis, "that Kostia Petrovitch has been in a charming humor to-day? I told you that he had his pleasant moments! Vladimir Paulitch has already done him much good.What a physician this Vladimir is! It is a great pity that he does not believe in God; but some day, perhaps, grace will touch his heart, and then he will be a complete man.""If I were in your place, father, I should be afraid of this Vladimir," said Gilbert."Ivan pretends that he is something of a sorcerer.Aren't you afraid that some fine day he may rob you of your secret?"Father Alexis shrugged his shoulders.

"Ivan talks foolishly," said he."If Vladimir Paulitch were a sorcerer, would he not have long since penetrated the mystery which he burns to fathom? for he does more than love Count Kostia; he is devoted to him even to fanaticism.It is certain that having discovered that the Countess Olga was enceinte, he had the barbarity to become her denouncer; and that letter which announced to Count Kostia his dishonor, that letter which made him return from Paris like a thunder-clap, that letter in short which caused the death of Olga Vassilievna, was written by him--Vladimir Paulitch.""And Morlof," said Gilbert, "was it this Vladimir who denounced him to the unjust fury of the Count?""On the contrary, Vladimir pleaded his cause; but his eloquence failed against the blind prejudices of Kostia Petrovitch.This Morlof was, unfortunately for himself, a fashionable gentleman, well known for his gallantries.A man of honor, however, incapable of betraying a friend; this reputation for gallant successes, of which he boasted, was his destruction.When Count Kostia interrogated his wife, and she refused to denounce her seducer, it occurred to him to name Morlof, and the energy with which she defended him confirmed the Count's suspicion.To disabuse him, it needed but that tragic meeting of which I was informed too late.

In breathing his last sigh, Morlof extended his hand to his murderer and gasped 'I die innocent!' And in these last words of a dying man, there was such an accent of truth that Count Kostia could not resist it: light broke in upon his soul."As the darkness increased, Father Alexis closed the shutters and lit a candle.

"My child," said he, refilling and lighting his pipe, "I must tell you something I learned to-day, a few moments before dinner, which appeared to me very strange.Listen attentively, and I am sure you will share in my astonishment."Gilbert opened his ears, for he had a presentiment that Father Alexis was about to speak of Stephane.