Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/379

Rh His deputy’s mother once confessed and shut up, the magistrate sent for Désiré, related to him in detail the theft secretly committed by his father to Ursule’s harm, and obviously to the injury of his co-heirs, and showed him the letter written by Zélie. Désiré was the first to ask permission to go to Nemours to see that his father made restitution.

“It is all very serious,” said the magistrate. “The will having been destroyed, if the matter is spread about, the Massin and Crémière heirs, your relations, may interfere. I now have enough proofs against your father. I restore you your mother, who has been sufficiently enlightened as to her duties by this little ceremony. Before her, I shall appear to have yielded to your entreaties in setting her free. Go to Nemours with her, and bring all these difficulties to a good end. Do not be afraid of anybody. Monsieur Bongrand is too fond of Mademoiselle Mirouët ever to be guilty of any indiscretion.”

Zélie and Désiré started immediately afterward for Nemours. Three hours after the departure of his deputy, an express messenger brought the public prosecutor the following letter, the orthography of which has been corrected, so as to spare any derision of a man overtaken by misfortune:

“,

“God has not been so lenient with us as you were, and we are afflicted by an irreparable misfortune. Upon arriving at