--Poor things! I am sorry for them!
"And who slandered me so?"
"Victorin," said Crevel.
"Then why did you not stop his mouth, the odious legal macaw! with the
story of the two hundred thousand francs and his mamma?"
"Oh, the Baroness had fled," said Lisbeth.
"They had better take care, Lisbeth," said Madame Marneffe, with a
frown. "Either they will receive me and do it handsomely, and come to
their stepmother's house--all the party!--or I will see them in lower
depths than the Baron has reached, and you may tell them I said so!
--At last I shall turn nasty. On my honor, I believe that evil is the
scythe with which to cut down the good."
At three o'clock Monsieur Berthier, Cardot's successor, read the
marriage-contract, after a short conference with Crevel, for some of
the articles were made conditional on the action taken by Monsieur and
Madame Victorin Hulot.
Crevel settled on his wife a fortune consisting, in the first place,
of forty thousand francs in dividends on specified securities;
secondly, of the house and all its contents; and thirdly, of three
million francs not invested. He also assigned to his wife every
benefit allowed by law; he left all the property free of duty; and in
the event of their dying without issue, each devised to the survivor
the whole of their property and real estate.
Pages:
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594