FullReads

“Only a few lines; and those not easy to understand, unless one had an inkling.”

“Had you the inkling?”

“Perhaps, monsieur,” replied Medallion seriously. They eyed each other.

“We will have Parpon in after the will is read,” said Armand suddenly, looking at the Avocat. The Avocat drew the deed from his pocket. He looked up hesitatingly, and then said to Armand: “You insist on it being read now?”

Armand nodded coolly, after a quick glance at Medallion. Then the Avocat began, and read to that point where the Seigneur bequeathed all his property to his son, should he return–on a condition. When the Avocat came to the condition Armand stopped him.

“I do not know in the least what it may be,” he said, “but there is only one by which I could feel bound. I will tell you. My father and I quarrelled”–here he paused for a moment, clinching his hands before him on the table–“about a woman; and years of misery came. I was to blame in not obeying him. I ought not to have given any cause for gossip. Whatever the condition as to that matter may be, I will fulfil it. My father is more to me than any woman in the world; his love of me was greater than that of any woman. I know the world–and women.”

There was a silence. He waved his hand to the Avocat to go on, and as he did so the Cure caught his arm with a quick, affectionate gesture. Then Monsieur Garon read the conditions: “That Farette the miller should have a deed of the land on which his mill was built, with the dam of the mill–provided that Armand should never so much as by a word again address Julie, the miller’s wife. If he agreed to the condition, with solemn oath before the Cure, his blessing would rest upon his dear son, whom he still hoped to see before he died.”

When the reading ceased there was silence for a moment, then Armand stood up, and took the will from the Avocat; but instantly, without looking at it, handed it back. “The reading is not finished,” he said. “And if I do not accept the condition, what then?”

Again Monsieur Garon read, his voice trembling a little. The words of the will ran: “But if this condition be not satisfied, I bequeath to my son Armand the house known as the House with the Tall Porch, and the land, according to the deed thereof; and the residue of my property–with the exception of two thousand dollars, which I leave to the Cure of the parish, the good Monsieur Fabre–I bequeath to Parpon the dwarf.”

Then followed a clause providing that, in any case, Parpon should have in fee simple the land known as the Bois Noir, and the hut thereon.

Armand sprang to his feet in surprise, blurting out something, then sat down, quietly took the will, and read it through carefully. When he had finished he looked inquiringly, first at Monsieur Garon, then at the Cure. “Why Parpon?” he said searchingly.

The Cure, amazed, spread out his hands in a helpless way. At that moment Sylvie announced Parpon. Armand asked that he should be sent in. “We’ll talk of the will afterwards,” he added.

Parpon trotted in, the door closed, and he stood blinking at them. Armand put a stool on the table. “Sit here, Parpon,” he said. Medallion caught the dwarf under the arms and lifted him on the table.

Parpon looked at Armand furtively. “The wild hawk comes back to its nest,” he said. “Well, well, what is it you want with the poor Parpon?”

He sat down and dropped his chin in his hands, looking round keenly. Armand nodded to Medallion, and Medallion to the priest, but the priest nodded back again. Then Medallion said: “You and I know the Rock of Red Pigeons, Parpon. It is a good place to perch. One’s voice is all to one’s self there, as you know. Well, sing us the song of the little brown diver.”