Amid events
that were shaking a nation to its foundations the death of a
fencing-master passed almost unnoticed even among his pupils, most
of whom did not come to the academy during the two days that his
body lay there. Some few, however, did come, and these conveyed the
news to others, with the result that the master was followed to Pere
Lachaise by a score of young men at the head of whom as chief mourner
walked Andre-Louis.
There were no relatives to be advised so far as Andre-Louis was
aware, although within a week of M. des Amis' death a sister turned
up from Passy to claim his heritage. This was considerable, for the
master had prospered and saved money, most of which was invested in
the Compagnie des Eaux and the National Debt. Andre-Louis consigned
her to the lawyers, and saw her no more.
The death of des Amis left him with so profound a sense of loneliness
and desolation that he had no thought or care for the sudden access
of fortune which it automatically procured him. To the master's
sister might fall such wealth as he had amassed, but Andre-Louis
succeeded to the mine itself from which that wealth had been
extracted, the fencing-school in which by now he was himself so well
established as an instructor that its numerous pupils looked to him
to carry it forward successfully as its chief.
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