anied by the parish
priest of Villeneuvele-Roi, presented himself before M. de Lamotte at
Buisson-Souef. For the moment M. de Lamotte was rejoiced to see
the little man; at last he would get news of his wife. But he was
disappointed. Derues could tell him only what he had been told already,
that his wife had sold their estate and gone away with the money.

M. de Lamotte was hardly convinced. How, he asked Derues, had he found
the 100,000 livres to buy Buisson-Souef, he who had not a halfpenny a
short time ago? Derues replied that he had borrowed it from a friend;
that there was no use in talking about it; the place was his now, his
alone, and M. de Lamotte had no longer a right to be there; he was very
sorry, poor dear gentleman, that his wife had gone off and left him
without a shilling, but personally he would always be a friend to him
and would allow him 3,000 livres a year for the rest of his life. In the
meantime, he said, he had already sold forty casks of the last year's
vintage, and would be obliged if M. de Lamotte would see to their being
sent off at once.

By this time the anger and indignation of M. de Lamotte blazed forth. He
told Derues that his story was a pack of lies, that he was still master
at Buisson-Souef, and not a bottle of wine should leave it. "You are
torturing me," he exclaimed, "I know something has happened to my wife
and child. I am coming to Paris myself, and if it is as I fear,
you shall answer for it with your head!" Derues, undismayed by this
outburst, re-asserted his ownership and departed in defiant mood,
leaving on the premises a butcher of the neighbourhood to look after his
property.

But things were going ill with Derues. M. de Lamotte meant to show
fight; he would have powerful friends to back him; class against class,
the little grocer would be no match for him. It was immediate possession
of Buisson-Souef that Derues wanted, not lawsuits; they were expensive
and the results uncertain. He spoke freely to his friends of the
difficulties of the situation.

What could he do? The general opinion seemed to be that some fresh
news of Mme. de Lamotte--her reappearance, perhaps--would be the
only effective settlement of the dispute. He had made Mme. de Lamotte
disappear, why should he not make her reappear? He was not the man to
stick at trifles. His powers of female impersonation, with which he
had amused his good friends at Buisson-Souef, could now be turned to
practical account.