Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/336

 finding nothing there, she saw the letter that her godfather had told her to go and fetch; she opened it, and read it, as well as the will in favor of Savinien.

“The letters of the handwriting,” she said to the curé, “were shining as if they had been traced with the sun’s rays, they burnt my eyes.”

When she looked at her uncle to thank him, she saw a kindly smile upon his colorless lips. And then, in its weak but clear voice, the spectre showed her Minoret in the passage listening to the secret, going to unscrew the lock and taking the packet of papers. Then, with his right hand, he seized his ward and forced her to walk with the step of the dead in order to follow Minoret to the post-house. Ursule went through the town, entered the post-house and Zélie’s old room, where the spectre made her look at the despoiler unsealing the letters, reading them and burning them.

“He could only make the third match light to burn the papers,” said Ursule, “and he buried the remains in the ashes. Afterward, my godfather brought me back to our house and I saw Monsieur Minoret-Levrault creeping into the library, whence he took, in the third volume of the Pandects, the three bonds, each twelve thousand francs a year, as well as the value of the arrears in banknotes. My godfather then said to me: ‘He is the author of the tortures which have laid you at Death’s door; but God wills that you should be happy. You will not die yet, you will marry