Can the brute have vices that nobody knows of?"
He returned to the desk, added up the subtracted money and found a total
of five hundred and forty-five francs. Where was this deficiency to come
from? The inspection was close at hand, and if the crotchety colonel
should take it into his head to examine a single page, the murder would
be out and Burle would be done for.
This idea froze the major, who left off cursing, picturing Mme Burle
erect and despairing, and at the same time he felt his heart swell with
personal grief and shame.
"Well," he muttered, "I must first of all look into the rogue's
business; I will act afterward."
As he walked over to Burle's office he caught sight of a skirt vanishing
through the doorway. Fancying that he had a clue to the mystery, he
slipped up quietly and listened and speedily recognized Melanie's shrill
voice. She was complaining of the gentlemen of the divan. She had signed
a promissory note which she was unable to meet; the bailiffs were in
the house, and all her goods would be sold. The captain, however, barely
replied to her. He alleged that he had no money, whereupon she burst
into tears and began to coax him. But her blandishments were apparently
ineffectual, for Burle's husky voice could be heard repeating,
"Impossible! Impossible!" And finally the widow withdrew in a towering
passion.
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