Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/265

 the Chinese pavilion, here is the key; raise the marble top of the Boule sideboard, and under it you will find a sealed letter addressed to you; take it, come back and show it to me, for I shall not die peacefully unless I see it in your hands. When I am dead, you are not to tell it at once; but send for Monsieur de Portenduère, you will read the letter together, and you must swear to me in your name and his to fulfil my last wishes. When he shall have obeyed me, you will announce my death, and the heirs’ farce will begin. God grant that these monsters do not ill-treat you!”

“Yes, godfather.”

The postmaster did not listen to the rest of the scene; he scampered away on tiptoe, remembering that the study lock was on the side of the library. He had been present at the time of the discussion between the architect and the locksmith, who declared that, if anyone were to get into the house by the window looking on to the river, it would be more prudent to put the lock on the side of the library, the study being intended as one of the pleasure-rooms in summer. Dazzled by self-interest and with the blood tingling in his ears, Minoret unscrewed the lock with a knife with all a thief’s smartness. He entered the study, took the packet of papers without stopping to unseal it, re-screwed the lock, restored things in place, and went to sit down in the dining-room, waiting until La Bougival should have taken up the poultice before he left the house. He managed his flight all the more easily, as poor Ursule thought it more