Page:Eekhoud - The New Carthage.djvu/210

182 "Sir!…" said Béjard, jumping to his feet; "Dupoissy is a blackmailer whom I shall put in jail!"

But without even listening to the interruption, Dobouziez was continuing:

"And you have gone from bad to worse! To stoop to becoming a dealer in human flesh! Really, I am beginning to believe the stories that they tell about you. First dealing in negroes, then in whites; it's quite proper! On my word of honor, I don't know which I should rather have, a slave-dealer or an emigration agent. You haven't even had enough shame to change the name of the "Gina," which now carries off all those poor wretches to Buenos Aires! And your political jobbery! I suppose that I borrowed from your cash-register all the goldpieces and banknotes with which you had yourself elected deputy … I don't have to remind you with how much enthusiasm and sincerity!…"

And, terrible, regaining the commanding air and bitter tone of other days, Dobouziez threw all his grievances in his son-in-law's face.

"And as if all this were not enough," he continued; "not content with having stupidly ruined yourself, and having lost with criminal laxity the property of your wife and child, you are making Gina unhappy; you not only sacrifice her to your political ambition, but you have mistresses, too … you have to keep actresses … with the excuse that it's a man's privilege! And that's not all. The houses of ill-fame in the Riet-Dijk have no customer as frequent and as prodigal as Deputy Béjard! Look here! If I could follow my own inclination, I should take Gina and her child home with me, and I should let you give yourself all