He had remained there very long; and he was wondering, as he walked out, whether Maxence had not got tired waiting for him in the little caf where he had sent him.
But Maxence had remained faithfully at his post. And when Marius de Tregars came to sit by him, whilst exclaiming, "Here you are at last!" he called his attention at the same time with a gesture, and a wink from the corner of his eye, to two men sitting at the adjoining table before a bowl of punch.
Certain, now, that M. de Tregars would remain on the lookout, Maxence was knocking on the table with his fist, to call the waiter, who was busy playing billiards with a customer.
And when he came at last, justly annoyed at being disturbed, "Give us two mugs of beer," Maxence ordered, "and bring us a pack of cards."
M. de Tregars understood very well that something extraordinary had happened; but, unable to guess what, he leaned over towards his companion.
"What is it?" he whispered.
"We must hear what these two men are saying; and we'll play a game of piquet for a subterfuge."
The waiter returned, bringing two glasses of a muddy liquid, a piece of cloth, the color of which was concealed under a layer of dirt, and a pack of cards horribly soft and greasy.
"My deal," said Maxence.
And he began shuffling, and giving the cards, whilst M. de Tregars was examining the punch-drinkers at the next table.
In one of the two, a man still young, wearing a striped vest with alpaca sleeves, he thought he recognized one of the rascally-looking fellows he had caught a glimpse of in Mme. Zelie Cadelle's carriage-house.
The other, an old man, whose inflamed complexion and blossoming nose betrayed old habits of drunkenness, looked very much like a coachman out of place. Baseness and duplicity bloomed upon his countenance; and the brightness of his small eyes rendered still more alarming the slyly obsequious smile that was stereotyped upon his thin and pale lips.
They were so completely absorbed in their conversation, that they paid no attention whatever to what was going on around them.
"Then," the old one was saying, "it's all over."
"Entirely. The house is sold."
"And the boss?"
"Gone to America."
"What! Suddenly, that way?"
"No. We supposed he was going on some journey, because, every day since the beginning of the week, they were bringing in trunks and boxes; but no one knew exactly when he would go. Now, in the night of Saturday to Sunday, he drops in the house like a bombshell, wakes up everybody, and says he must leave immediately. At once we harness up, we load the baggage up, we drive him to the Western Railway Station, and good-by, Vincent!"
"And the young lady?"
"She's got to get out in the next twenty-four hours; but she don't seem to mind it one bit. The fact is we are the ones who grieve the most, after all."
"Is it possible?"
"It is so. She was a good girl; and we won't soon find one like her."
The old man seemed distressed.
"Bad luck!" he growled. "I would have liked that house myself."
"Oh, I dare say you would!"
"And there is no way to get in?"
"Can't tell. It will be well to see the others, those who have bought. But I mistrust them: they look too stupid not to be mean."
Listening intently to the conversation of these two men, it was mechanically and at random that M. de Tregars and Maxence threw their cards on the table, and uttered the common terms of the game of piquet, "Five cards! Tierce, major! Three aces."
Meantime the old man was going on, "Who knows but what M. Vincent may come back?"
"No danger of that!"
"Why?"
The other looked carefully around, and, seeing only two players absorbed in their game, "Because," he replied, "M. Vincent is completely ruined, it seems.