31. CHAPTER XXXI.
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
I must throw out a flag and sign of love.
— Othello.
That day Vinal drove to the Quartier Latin, called upon
his friend Richards, and asked him to dine at the Trois
Frères Provençaux. Mr. Richards was never known to
decline such an invitation.
To the Trois Frères accordingly they repaired. Richards,
whose social position at home was much inferior to that of
his entertainer, thought the latter a capital fellow; especially
when Vinal flattered him by deferring to his better taste and
experience in the ordering of the dinner. But when, after
nightfall, they issued forth again upon the open area of the
Palais Royal, the delicate Vinal shivered with the cold. A
chill wind and a dreary rain had set in, and Vinal, always
cautious in such matters, said that before proceeding on their
evening's amusements, he would go to Meurice's and get an
overcoat.
The overcoat being found, Vinal, buttoned to the chin,
came down the stairway, and rejoined Richards.
Morton had just before sent a servant for a carriage, to
drive to the opera, and was waiting wrapped in his cloak,
on the steps outside the door.
“What shall our first move be?” asked Richards of Vinal,
as they passed out.
“Whatever you like.”
“You had better give the word.”
“Then suppose we go and see your friend, the professor.”
“Who the deuse is Richards's friend, the professor?”
thought Morton, as the others passed without observing him.
“The professor” was a cant term for Mr. Henry Speyer.
Speyer lived in an obscure part of the Latin quarter; and
Richards, who was vain of his intimacy with this scoundrel,
as indicating how deeply he was versed in Paris life, approached
his lodging with much circumspection, by dim and
devious routes.
“My name is Wilton, and I hail from New Orleans,” said
Vinal, as they reached the patriot's threshold.
As Mr. Wilton, of New Orleans, then, Vinal became known
to Mr. Henry Speyer. The latter's quarters were any thing
but commodious or attractive; and Richards invited him to a
petit souper at his own lodgings, which were not very remote.
Leaving Speyer to make his own way thither, he proceeded
to summon two additional guests, in the persons of two
friends of his own, his favorite partners at the Chaumière.
With the aid of wine and cigars, the party became, in time,
very animated. Vinal, who had a quick and pungent wit,
drew upon himself much applause, and Speyer regarded him
with especial commendation. But while he played his part
thus successfully, he was studying his companions, as a scholar
studies a book; studiously keeping himself cool; sipping a
few drops of his wine, and slyly spilling the rest under the
table, while he did his best to stimulate the others, and especially
Speyer, to drink. Speyer drank, indeed, but the wine
seemed to produce no more effect on him than water. He
remained as cool as Vinal himself. The latter, young as he
was, was a close and penetrating judge of men; and when,
at two o'clock in the morning, he returned to his hotel, he
carried with him the conviction that, in his present beggared
condition, a few hundred francs would bribe the patriot to
commit any moderately safe villany.
The evening, however, had had one result which Vinal
regretted. Mr. Richards, being obfuscated with champagne,
had repeatedly called him by his true name; so that Speyer
was fully aware that his new acquaintance was not Mr. Wilton,
of New Orleans, but Mr. Horace Vinal, of Boston.
