They opened it.It contained twenty Bank of St.Farce notes like those which had so much astounded them the month before.
"How ******!" said Richard.
"How ******!" repeated Moncharmin.And he continued with his eyes fixed upon Mme.Giry, as though trying to hypnotize her.
"So it was the ghost who gave you this envelope and told you to substitute it for the one which we gave you? And it was the ghost who told you to put the other into M.Richard's pocket?""Yes, it was the ghost."
"Then would you mind giving us a specimen of your little talents?
Here is the envelope.Act as though we knew nothing.""As you please, gentlemen."
Mme.Giry took the envelope with the twenty notes inside it and made for the door.She was on the point of going out when the two managers rushed at her:
"Oh, no! Oh, no! We're not going to be `done' a second time!
Once bitten, twice shy!"
"I beg your pardon, gentlemen," said the old woman, in self-excuse, "you told me to act as though you knew nothing....Well, if you knew nothing, I should go away with your envelope!""And then how would you slip it into my pocket?" argued Richard, whom Moncharmin fixed with his left eye, while keeping his right on Mme.Giry: a proceeding likely to strain his sight, but Mon-MME.GIRY'
charmin was prepared to go to any length to discover the truth.
"I am to slip it into your pocket when you least expect it, sir.
You know that I always take a little turn behind the scenes, in the course of the evening, and I often go with my daughter to the ballet-foyer, which I am entitled to do, as her mother;I bring her her shoes, when the ballet is about to begin...in fact, I come and go as I please....The subscribers come and go too.
...So do you, sir....There are lots of people about...
I go behind you and slip the envelope into the tail-pocket of your dress-coat....There's no witchcraft about that!""No witchcraft!" growled Richard, rolling his eyes like Jupiter Tonans.
"No witchcraft! Why, I've just caught you in a lie, you old witch!"Mme.Giry bristled, with her three teeth sticking out of her mouth.
"And why, may I ask?"
"Because I spent that evening watching Box Five and the sham envelope which you put there.I did not go to the ballet-foyer for a second.""No, sir, and I did not give you the envelope that evening, but at the next performance...on the evening when the under-secretary of state for fine arts..."At these words, M.Richard suddenly interrupted Mme.Giry:
"Yes, that's true, I remember now! The under-secretary went behind the scenes.He asked for me.I went down to the ballet-foyer for a moment.I was on the foyer steps....The under-secretary and his chief clerk were in the foyer itself.I suddenly turned around...you had passed behind me, Mme.Giry...You seemed to push against me....Oh, I can see you still, I can see you still!""Yes, that's it, sir, that's it.I had just finished my little business.
That pocket of yours, sir, is very handy!"And Mme.Giry once more suited the action to the word, She passed behind M.Richard and, so nimbly that Moncharmin himself was impressed by it, slipped the envelope into the pocket of one of the tails of M.Richard's dress-coat.
"Of course!" exclaimed Richard, looking a little pale."It's very clever of O.G.The problem which he had to solve was this:
how to do away with any dangerous intermediary between the man who gives the twenty-thousand francs and the man who receives it.
And by far the best thing he could hit upon was to come and take the money from my pocket without my noticing it, as I myself did not know that it was there.It's wonderful!""Oh, wonderful, no doubt!" Moncharmin agreed."Only, you forget, Richard, that I provided ten-thousand francs of the twenty and that nobody put anything in my pocket!"
