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diff --git a/old/1223.txt b/old/1223.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..075a525 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1223.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9489 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ursula, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ursula + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: February, 1997 [Etext #1223] +Posting Date: February 21, 2010 +Last Updated: February 14, 2015 + + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK URSULA *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers and Bonnie Sala + + + + + +URSULA + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + +DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Sophie Surville, + + It is a true pleasure, my dear niece, to dedicate to you this + book, the subject and details of which have won the + approbation, so difficult to win, of a young girl to whom the + world is still unknown, and who has compromised with none of + the lofty principles of a saintly education. Young girls are + indeed a formidable public, for they ought not to be allowed + to read books less pure than the purity of their souls; they + are forbidden certain reading, just as they are carefully + prevented from seeing social life as it is. Must it not + therefore be a source of pride to a writer to find that he has + pleased you? + + God grant that your affection for me has not misled you. Who can tell? + --the future; which you, I hope, will see, though not, perhaps. + + Your uncle, + De Balzac. + + + + + +URSULA + + + + +CHAPTER I. THE FRIGHTENED HEIRS + +Entering Nemours by the road to Paris, we cross the canal du Loing, the +steep banks of which serve the double purpose of ramparts to the fields +and of picturesque promenades for the inhabitants of that pretty little +town. Since 1830 several houses had unfortunately been built on the +farther side of the bridge. If this sort of suburb increases, the place +will lose its present aspect of graceful originality. + +In 1829, however, both sides of the road were clear, and the master of +the post route, a tall, stout man about sixty years of age, sitting one +fine autumn morning at the highest part of the bridge, could take in at +a glance the whole of what is called in his business a "ruban de queue." +The month of September was displaying its treasures; the atmosphere +glowed above the grass and the pebbles; no cloud dimmed the blue of the +sky, the purity of which in all parts, even close to the horizon, showed +the extreme rarefaction of the air. So Minoret-Levrault (for that was +the post master's name) was obliged to shade his eyes with one hand to +keep them from being dazzled. With the air of a man who was tired of +waiting, he looked first to the charming meadows which lay to the +right of the road where the aftermath was springing up, then to the +hill-slopes covered with copses which extend, on the left, from Nemours +to Bouron. He could hear in the valley of the Loing, where the sounds on +the road were echoed back from the hills, the trot of his own horses and +the crack of his postilion's whip. + +None but a post master could feel impatient within sight of such +meadows, filled with cattle worthy of Paul Potter and glowing beneath +a Raffaelle sky, and beside a canal shaded with trees after Hobbema. +Whoever knows Nemours knows that nature is there as beautiful as art, +whose mission is to spiritualize it; there, the landscape has ideas and +creates thought. But, on catching sight of Minoret-Levrault an artist +would very likely have left the view to sketch the man, so original was +he in his native commonness. Unite in a human being all the conditions +of the brute and you have a Caliban, who is certainly a great thing. +Wherever form rules, sentiment disappears. The post master, a living +proof of that axiom, presented a physiognomy in which an observer could +with difficulty trace, beneath the vivid carnation of its coarsely +developed flesh, the semblance of a soul. His cap of blue cloth, with +a small peak, and sides fluted like a melon, outlined a head of vast +dimensions, showing that Gall's science has not yet produced its chapter +of exceptions. The gray and rather shiny hair which appeared below the +cap showed that other causes than mental toil or grief had whitened +it. Large ears stood out from the head, their edges scarred with the +eruptions of his over-abundant blood, which seemed ready to gush at the +least exertion. His skin was crimson under an outside layer of +brown, due to the habit of standing in the sun. The roving gray eyes, +deep-sunken, and hidden by bushy black brows, were like those of the +Kalmucks who entered France in 1815; if they ever sparkled it was +only under the influence of a covetous thought. His broad pug nose was +flattened at the base. Thick lips, in keeping with a repulsive double +chin, the beard of which, rarely cleaned more than once a week, was +encircled with a dirty silk handkerchief twisted to a cord; a short +neck, rolling in fat, and heavy cheeks completed the characteristics of +brute force which sculptors give to their caryatids. Minoret-Levrault +was like those statues, with this difference, that whereas they +supported an edifice, he had more than he could well do to support +himself. You will meet many such Atlases in the world. The man's torso +was a block; it was like that of a bull standing on his hind-legs. His +vigorous arms ended in a pair of thick, hard hands, broad and strong +and well able to handle whip, reins, and pitchfork; hands which his +postilions never attempted to trifle with. The enormous stomach of this +giant rested on thighs which were as large as the body of an ordinary +adult, and feet like those of an elephant. Anger was a rare thing with +him, but it was terrible, apoplectic, when it did burst forth. Though +violent and quite incapable of reflection, the man had never done +anything that justified the sinister suggestions of his bodily presence. +To all those who felt afraid of him his postilions would reply, "Oh! +he's not bad." + +The master of Nemours, to use the common abbreviation of the country, +wore a velveteen shooting-jacket of bottle-green, trousers of green +linen with great stripes, and an ample yellow waistcoat of goat's +skin, in the pocket of which might be discerned the round outline of +a monstrous snuff-box. A snuff-box to a pug nose is a law without +exception. + +A son of the Revolution and a spectator of the Empire, Minoret-Levrault +did not meddle with politics; as to his religious opinions, he had never +set foot in a church except to be married; as to his private principles, +he kept them within the civil code; all that the law did not forbid or +could not prevent he considered right. He never read anything but +the journal of the department of the Seine-et-Oise, and a few printed +instructions relating to his business. He was considered a clever +agriculturist; but his knowledge was only practical. In him the moral +being did not belie the physical. He seldom spoke, and before speaking +he always took a pinch of snuff to give himself time, not to find ideas, +but words. If he had been a talker you would have felt that he was out +of keeping with himself. Reflecting that this elephant minus a trumpet +and without a mind was called Minoret-Levrault, we are compelled to +agree with Sterne as to the occult power of names, which sometimes +ridicule and sometimes foretell characters. + +In spite of his visible incapacity he had acquired during the last +thirty-six years (the Revolution helping him) an income of thirty +thousand francs, derived from farm lands, woods and meadows. If Minoret, +being master of the coach-lines of Nemours and those of the Gatinais to +Paris, still worked at his business, it was less from habit than for the +sake of an only son, to whom he was anxious to give a fine career. This +son, who was now (to use an expression of the peasantry) a "monsieur," +had just completed his legal studies and was about to take his degree as +licentiate, preparatory to being called to the Bar. Monsieur and Madame +Minoret-Levrault--for behind our colossus every one will perceive +a woman without whom this signal good-fortune would have been +impossible--left their son free to choose his own career; he might be a +notary in Paris, king's-attorney in some district, collector of customs +no matter where, broker, or post master, as he pleased. What fancy of +his could they ever refuse him? to what position of life might he +not aspire as the son of a man about whom the whole countryside, from +Montargis to Essonne, was in the habit of saying, "Pere Minoret doesn't +even know how rich he is"? + +This saying had obtained fresh force about four years before this +history begins, when Minoret, after selling his inn, built stables and a +splendid dwelling, and removed the post-house from the Grand'Rue to the +wharf. The new establishment cost two hundred thousand francs, which the +gossip of thirty miles in circumference more than doubled. The Nemours +mail-coach service requires a large number of horses. It goes to +Fontainebleau on the road to Paris, and from there diverges to Montargis +and also to Montereau. The relays are long, and the sandy soil of the +Montargis road calls for the mythical third horse, always paid for but +never seen. A man of Minoret's build, and Minoret's wealth, at the head +of such an establishment might well be called, without contradiction, +the master of Nemours. Though he never thought of God or devil, being +a practical materialist, just as he was a practical agriculturist, a +practical egoist, and a practical miser, Minoret had enjoyed up to +this time a life of unmixed happiness,--if we can call pure materialism +happiness. A physiologist, observing the rolls of flesh which covered +the last vertebrae and pressed upon the giant's cerebellum, and, above +all, hearing the shrill, sharp voice which contrasted so absurdly with +his huge body, would have understood why this ponderous, coarse being +adored his only son, and why he had so long expected him,--a fact proved +by the name, Desire, which was given to the child. + +The mother, whom the boy fortunately resembled, rivaled the father in +spoiling him. No child could long have resisted the effects of such +idolatry. As soon as Desire knew the extent of his power he milked his +mother's coffer and dipped into his father's purse, making each author +of his being believe that he, or she, alone was petitioned. Desire, +who played a part in Nemours far beyond that of a prince royal in his +father's capital, chose to gratify his fancies in Paris just as he had +gratified them in his native town; he had therefore spent a yearly sum +of not less than twelve thousand francs during the time of his legal +studies. But for that money he had certainly acquired ideas that would +never had come to him in Nemours; he had stripped off the provincial +skin, learned the power of money and seen in the magistracy a means of +advancement which he fancied. During the last year he had spent an extra +sum of ten thousand francs in the company of artists, journalists, and +their mistresses. A confidential and rather disquieting letter from his +son, asking for his consent to a marriage, explains the watch which the +post master was now keeping on the bridge; for Madame Minoret-Levrault, +busy in preparing a sumptuous breakfast to celebrate the triumphal +return of the licentiate, had sent her husband to the mail road, +advising him to take a horse and ride out if he saw nothing of the +diligence. The coach which was conveying the precious son usually +arrived at five in the morning and it was now nine! What could be the +meaning of such delay? Was the coach overturned? Could Desire be dead? +Or was it nothing worse than a broken leg? + +Three distinct volleys of cracking whips rent the air like a discharge +of musketry; the red waistcoats of the postilions dawned in sight, ten +horses neighed. The master pulled off his cap and waved it; he was +seen. The best mounted postilion, who was returning with two gray +carriage-horses, set spurs to his beast and came on in advance of the +five diligence horses and the three other carriage-horses, and soon +reached his master. + +"Have you seen the 'Ducler'?" + +On the great mail routes names, often fantastic, are given to the +different coaches; such, for instance, as the "Caillard," the "Ducler" +(the coach between Nemours and Paris), the "Grand Bureau." Every new +enterprise is called the "Competition." In the days of the Lecompte +company their coaches were called the "Countess."--"'Caillard' could not +overtake the 'Countess'; but 'Grand Bureau' caught up with her finely," +you will hear the men say. If you see a postilion pressing his horses +and refusing a glass of wine, question the conductor and he will +tell you, snuffing the air while his eye gazes far into space, "The +'Competition' is ahead."--"We can't get in sight of her," cries +the postilion; "the vixen! she wouldn't stop to let her passengers +dine."--"The question is, has she got any?" responds the conductor. +"Give it to Polignac!" All lazy and bad horses are called Polignac. +Such are the jokes and the basis of conversation between postilions and +conductors on the roofs of the coaches. Each profession, each calling in +France has its slang. + +"Have you seen the 'Ducler'?" asked Minoret. + +"Monsieur Desire?" said the postilion, interrupting his master. "Hey! +you must have heard us, didn't our whips tell you? we felt you were +somewhere along the road." + +Just then a woman dressed in her Sunday clothes,--for the bells were +pealing from the clock tower and calling the inhabitants to mass,--a +woman about thirty-six years of age came up to the post master. + +"Well, cousin," she said, "you wouldn't believe me--Uncle is with Ursula +in the Grand'Rue, and they are going to mass." + +In spite of the modern poetic canons as to local color, it is quite +impossible to push realism so far as to repeat the horrible blasphemy +mingled with oaths which this news, apparently so unexciting, brought +from the huge mouth of Minoret-Levrault; his shrill voice grew sibilant, +and his face took on the appearance of what people oddly enough call a +sunstroke. + +"Is that true?" he asked, after the first explosion of his wrath was +over. + +The postilions bowed to their master as they and their horses passed +him, but he seemed to neither see nor hear them. Instead of waiting for +his son, Minoret-Levrault hurried up to the Grand'Rue with his cousin. + +"Didn't I always tell you so?" she resumed. "When Doctor Minoret +goes out of his head that demure little hypocrite will drag him into +religion; whoever lays hold of the mind gets hold of the purse, and +she'll have our inheritance." + +"But, Madame Massin--" said the post master, dumbfounded. + +"There now!" exclaimed Madame Massin, interrupting her cousin. "You are +going to say, just as Massin does, that a little girl of fifteen +can't invent such plans and carry them out, or make an old man of +eighty-three, who has never set foot in a church except to be married, +change his opinions,--now don't tell me he has such a horror of priests +that he wouldn't even go with the girl to the parish church when she +made her first communion. I'd like to know why, if Doctor Minoret hates +priests, he has spent nearly every evening for the last fifteen years of +his life with the Abbe Chaperon. The old hypocrite never fails to give +Ursula twenty francs for wax tapers every time she takes the sacrament. +Have you forgotten the gift Ursula made to the church in gratitude to +the cure for preparing her for her first communion? She spent all her +money on it, and her godfather returned it to her doubled. You men! +you don't pay attention to things. When I heard that, I said to myself, +'Farewell baskets, the vintage is done!' A rich uncle doesn't behave +that way to a little brat picked up in the streets without some good +reason." + +"Pooh, cousin; I dare say the good man is only taking her to the door of +the church," replied the post master. "It is a fine day, and he is out +for a walk." + +"I tell you he is holding a prayer-book, and looks sanctimonious--you'll +see him." + +"They hide their game pretty well," said Minoret, "La Bougival told me +there was never any talk of religion between the doctor and the abbe. +Besides, the abbe is one of the most honest men on the face of the +globe; he'd give the shirt off his back to a poor man; he is incapable +of a base action, and to cheat a family out of their inheritance is--" + +"Theft," said Madame Massin. + +"Worse!" cried Minoret-Levrault, exasperated by the tongue of his +gossiping neighbour. + +"Of course I know," said Madame Massin, "that the Abbe Chaperon is an +honest man; but he is capable of anything for the sake of his poor. He +must have mined and undermined uncle, and the old man has just tumbled +into piety. We did nothing, and here he is perverted! A man who never +believed in anything, and had principles of his own! Well! we're done +for. My husband is absolutely beside himself." + +Madame Massin, whose sentences were so many arrows stinging her fat +cousin, made him walk as fast as herself, in spite of his obesity and +to the great astonishment of the church-goers, who were on their way to +mass. She was determined to overtake this uncle and show him to the post +master. + +Nemours is commanded on the Gatinais side by a hill, at the foot of +which runs the road to Montargis and the Loing. The church, on the +stones of which time has cast a rich discolored mantle (it was rebuilt +in the fourteenth century by the Guises, for whom Nemours was raised to +a peerage-duchy), stands at the end of the little town close to a +great arch which frames it. For buildings, as for men, position does +everything. Shaded by a few trees, and thrown into relief by a neatly +kept square, this solitary church produces a really grandiose effect. As +the post master of Nemours entered the open space, he beheld his uncle +with the young girl called Ursula on his arm, both carrying prayer-books +and just entering the church. The old man took off his hat in the porch, +and his head, which was white as a hill-top covered with snow, shone +among the shadows of the portal. + +"Well, Minoret, what do you say to the conversion of your uncle?" cried +the tax-collector of Nemours, named Cremiere. + +"What do you expect me to say?" replied the post master, offering him a +pinch of snuff. + +"Well answered, Pere Levrault. You can't say what you think, if it is +true, as an illustrious author says it is, that a man must think his +words before he speaks his thoughts," cried a young man, standing near, +who played the part of Mephistopheles in the little town. + +This ill-conditioned youth, named Goupil, was head clerk to Monsieur +Cremiere-Dionis, the Nemours notary. Notwithstanding a past conduct that +was almost debauched, Dionis had taken Goupil into his office when a +career in Paris--where the clerk had wasted all the money he inherited +from his father, a well-to-do farmer, who educated him for a notary--was +brought to a close by his absolute pauperism. The mere sight of Goupil +told an observer that he had made haste to enjoy life, and had paid +dear for his enjoyments. Though very short, his chest and shoulders were +developed at twenty-seven years of age like those of a man of forty. +Legs small and weak, and a broad face, with a cloudy complexion like +the sky before a storm, surmounted by a bald forehead, brought out still +further the oddity of his conformation. His face seemed as though it +belonged to a hunchback whose hunch was inside of him. One singularity +of that pale and sour visage confirmed the impression of an invisible +gobbosity; the nose, crooked and out of shape like those of many +deformed persons, turned from right to left of the face instead of +dividing it down the middle. The mouth, contracted at the corners, like +that of a Sardinian, was always on the qui vive of irony. His hair, thin +and reddish, fell straight, and showed the skull in many places. His +hands, coarse and ill-joined at the wrists to arms that were far too +long, were quick-fingered and seldom clean. Goupil wore boots only fit +for the dust-heap, and raw silk stockings now of a russet black; his +coat and trousers, all black, and threadbare and greasy with dirt, +his pitiful waistcoat with half the button-moulds gone, an old silk +handkerchief which served as a cravat--in short, all his clothing +revealed the cynical poverty to which his passions had reduced him. This +combination of disreputable signs was guarded by a pair of eyes with +yellow circles round the pupils, like those of a goat, both lascivious +and cowardly. No one in Nemours was more feared nor, in a way, more +deferred to than Goupil. Strong in the claims made for him by his very +ugliness, he had the odious style of wit peculiar to men who allow +themselves all license, and he used it to gratify the bitterness of +his life-long envy. He wrote the satirical couplets sung during the +carnival, organized charivaris, and was himself a "little journal" of +the gossip of the town. Dionis, who was clever and insincere, and for +that reason timid, kept Goupil as much through fear as for his keen mind +and thorough knowledge of all the interests of the town. But the master +so distrusted his clerk that he himself kept the accounts, refused to +let him live in his house, held him at arm's length, and never confided +any secret or delicate affair to his keeping. In return the clerk fawned +upon the notary, hiding his resentment at this conduct, and watching +Madame Dionis in the hope that he might get his revenge there. Gifted +with a ready mind and quick comprehension he found work easy. + +"You!" exclaimed the post master to the clerk, who stood rubbing his +hands, "making game of our misfortunes already?" + +As Goupil was known to have pandered to Dionis' passions for the last +five years, the post master treated him cavalierly, without suspecting +the hoard of ill-feeling he was piling up in Goupil's heart with every +fresh insult. The clerk, convinced that money was more necessary to him +than it was to others, and knowing himself superior in mind to the whole +bourgeoisie of Nemours, was now counting on his intimacy with Minoret's +son Desire to obtain the means of buying one or the other of three town +offices,--that of clerk of the court, or the legal practice of one of +the sheriffs, or that of Dionis himself. For this reason he put up +with the affronts of the post master and the contempt of Madame +Minoret-Levrault, and played a contemptible part towards Desire, +consoling the fair victims whom that youth left behind him after each +vacation,--devouring the crumbs of the loaves he had kneaded. + +"If I were the nephew of a rich old fellow, he never would have given +God to ME for a co-heir," retorted Goupil, with a hideous grin which +exhibited his teeth--few, black, and menacing. + +Just then Massin-Levrault, junior, the clerk of the court, joined his +wife, bringing with him Madame Cremiere, the wife of the tax-collector +of Nemours. This man, one of the hardest natures of the little town, had +the physical characteristics of a Tartar: eyes small and round as sloes +beneath a retreating brow, crimped hair, an oily skin, huge ears without +any rim, a mouth almost without lips, and a scanty beard. He spoke like +a man who was losing his voice. To exhibit him thoroughly it is enough +to say that he employed his wife and eldest daughter to serve his legal +notices. + +Madame Cremiere was a stout woman, with a fair complexion injured by +red blotches, always too tightly laced, intimate with Madame Dionis, and +supposed to be educated because she read novels. Full of pretensions to +wit and elegance, she was awaiting her uncle's money to "take a certain +stand," decorate her salon, and receive the bourgeoisie. At present her +husband denied her Carcel lamps, lithographs, and all the other trifles +the notary's wife possessed. She was excessively afraid of Goupil, who +caught up and retailed her "slapsus-linquies" as she called them. One +day Madame Dionis chanced to ask what "Eau" she thought best for the +teeth. + +"Try opium," she replied. + +Nearly all the collateral heirs of old Doctor Minoret were now assembled +in the square; the importance of the event which brought them was so +generally felt that even groups of peasants, armed with their scarlet +umbrellas and dressed in those brilliant colors which make them so +picturesque on Sundays and fete-days, stood by, with their eyes fixed on +the frightened heirs. In all little towns which are midway between +large villages and cities those who do not go to mass stand about in the +square or market-place. Business is talked over. In Nemours the hour of +church service was a weekly exchange, to which the owners of property +scattered over a radius of some miles resorted. + +"Well, how would you have prevented it?" said the post master to Goupil +in reply to his remark. + +"I should have made myself as important to him as the air he breathes. +But from the very first you failed to get hold of him. The inheritance +of a rich uncle should be watched as carefully as a pretty woman--for +want of proper care they'll both escape you. If Madame Dionis were here +she could tell you how true that comparison is." + +"But Monsieur Bongrand has just told me there is nothing to worry +about," said Massin. + +"Oh! there are plenty of ways of saying that!" cried Goupil, laughing. +"I would like to have heard your sly justice of the peace say it. If +there is nothing to be done, if he, being intimate with your uncle, +knows that all is lost, the proper thing for him to say to you is, +'Don't be worried.'" + +As Goupil spoke, a satirical smile overspread his face, and gave such +meaning to his words that the other heirs began to feel that Massin +had let Bongrand deceive him. The tax-collector, a fat little man, as +insignificant as a tax-collector should be, and as much of a cipher as a +clever woman could wish, hereupon annihilated his co-heir, Massin, with +the words:--"Didn't I tell you so?" + +Tricky people always attribute trickiness to others. Massin therefore +looked askance at Monsieur Bongrand, the justice of the peace, who was +at that moment talking near the door of the church with the Marquis du +Rouvre, a former client. + +"If I were sure of it!" he said. + +"You could neutralize the protection he is now giving to the Marquis +du Rouvre, who is threatened with arrest. Don't you see how Bongrand +is sprinkling him with advice?" said Goupil, slipping an idea of +retaliation into Massin's mind. "But you had better go easy with your +chief; he's a clever old fellow; he might use his influence with your +uncle and persuade him not to leave everything to the church." + +"Pooh! we sha'n't die of it," said Minoret-Levrault, opening his +enormous snuff-box. + +"You won't live of it, either," said Goupil, making the two women +tremble. More quick-witted than their husbands, they saw the privations +this loss of inheritance (so long counted on for many comforts) would +be to them. "However," added Goupil, "we'll drown this little grief in +floods of champagne in honor of Desire!--sha'n't we, old fellow?" he +cried, tapping the stomach of the giant, and inviting himself to the +feast for fear he should be left out. + + + + +CHAPTER II. THE RICH UNCLE + +Before proceeding further, persons of an exact turn of mind may like to +read a species of family inventory, so as to understand the degrees +of relationship which connected the old man thus suddenly converted +to religion with these three heads of families or their wives. This +cross-breeding of families in the remote provinces might be made the +subject of many instructive reflections. + +There are but three or four houses of the lesser nobility in Nemours; +among them, at the period of which we write, that of the family of +Portenduere was the most important. These exclusives visited none but +nobles who possessed lands or chateaus in the neighbourhood; of the +latter we may mention the d'Aiglemonts, owners of the beautiful estate +of Saint-Lange, and the Marquis du Rouvre, whose property, crippled by +mortgages, was closely watched by the bourgeoisie. The nobles of the +town had no money. Madame de Portenduere's sole possessions were a +farm which brought a rental of forty-seven hundred francs, and her town +house. + +In opposition to this very insignificant Faubourg St. Germain was a +group of a dozen rich families, those of retired millers, or former +merchants; in short a miniature bourgeoisie; below which, again, lived +and moved the retail shopkeepers, the proletaries and the peasantry. The +bourgeoisie presented (like that of the Swiss cantons and of other +small countries) the curious spectacle of the ramifications of certain +autochthonous families, old-fashioned and unpolished perhaps, but who +rule a whole region and pervade it, until nearly all its inhabitants are +cousins. Under Louis XI., an epoch at which the commons first made +real names of their surnames (some of which are united with those of +feudalism) the bourgeoisie of Nemours was made up of Minorets, Massins, +Levraults and Cremieres. Under Louis XIII. these four families had +already produced the Massin-Cremieres, the Levrault-Massins, the +Massin-Minorets, the Minoret-Minorets, the Cremiere-Levraults, +the Levrault-Minoret-Massins, Massin-Levraults, Minoret-Massins, +Massin-Massins, and Cremiere-Massins,--all these varied with juniors +and diversified with the names of eldest sons, as for instance, +Cremiere-Francois, Levrault-Jacques, Jean-Minoret--enough to drive a +Pere Anselme of the People frantic,--if the people should ever want a +genealogist. + +The variations of this family kaleidoscope of four branches was now so +complicated by births and marriages that the genealogical tree of +the bourgeoisie of Nemours would have puzzled the Benedictines of +the Almanach of Gotha, in spite of the atomic science with which they +arrange those zigzags of German alliances. For a long time the Minorets +occupied the tanneries, the Cremieres kept the mills, the Massins were +in trade, and the Levraults continued farmers. Fortunately for the +neighbourhood these four stocks threw out suckers instead of depending +only on their tap-roots; they scattered cuttings by the expatriation +of sons who sought their fortune elsewhere; for instance, there are +Minorets who are cutlers at Melun; Levraults at Montargis; Massins +at Orleans; and Cremieres of some importance in Paris. Divers are the +destinies of these bees from the parent hive. Rich Massins employ, of +course, the poor working Massins--just as Austria and Prussia take the +German princes into their service. It may happen that a public office is +managed by a Minoret millionaire and guarded by a Minoret sentinel. Full +of the same blood and called by the same name (for sole likeness), these +four roots had ceaselessly woven a human network of which each thread +was delicate or strong, fine or coarse, as the case might be. The same +blood was in the head and in the feet and in the heart, in the working +hands, in the weakly lungs, in the forehead big with genius. + +The chiefs of the clan were faithful to the little town, where the +ties of family were relaxed or tightened according to the events which +happened under this curious cognomenism. In whatever part of France you +may be, you will find the same thing under changed names, but without +the poetic charm which feudalism gave to it, and which Walter Scott's +genius reproduced so faithfully. Let us look a little higher and +examine humanity as it appears in history. All the noble families of the +eleventh century, most of them (except the royal race of Capet) extinct +to-day, will be found to have contributed to the birth of the Rohans, +Montmorencys, Beauffremonts, and Mortemarts of our time,--in fact they +will all be found in the blood of the last gentleman who is indeed a +gentleman. In other words, every bourgeois is cousin to a bourgeois, and +every noble is cousin to a noble. A splendid page of biblical genealogy +shows that in one thousand years three families, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, +peopled the globe. One family may become a nation; unfortunately, a +nation may become one family. To prove this we need only search back +through our ancestors and see their accumulation, which time increases +into a retrograde geometric progression, which multiplies of itself; +reminding us of the calculation of the wise man who, being told to +choose a reward from the king of Persia for inventing chess, asked +for one ear of wheat for the first move on the board, the reward to be +doubled for each succeeding move; when it was found that the kingdom was +not large enough to pay it. The net-work of the nobility, hemmed in by +the net-work of the bourgeoisie,--the antagonism of two protected races, +one protected by fixed institutions, the other by the active patience of +labor and the shrewdness of commerce,--produced the revolution of 1789. +The two races almost reunited are to-day face to face with collaterals +without a heritage. What are they to do? Our political future is big +with the answer. + +The family of the man who under Louis XV. was simply called Minoret was +so numerous that one of the five children (the Minoret whose entrance +into the parish church caused such interest) went to Paris to seek +his fortune, and seldom returned to his native town, until he came to +receive his share of the inheritance of his grandfather. After suffering +many things, like all young men of firm will who struggle for a place in +the brilliant world of Paris, this son of the Minorets reached a nobler +destiny than he had, perhaps, dreamed of at the start. He devoted +himself, in the first instance, to medicine, a profession which demands +both talent and a cheerful nature, but the latter qualification even +more than talent. Backed by Dupont de Nemours, connected by a lucky +chance with the Abbe Morellet (whom Voltaire nicknamed Mords-les), and +protected by the Encyclopedists, Doctor Minoret attached himself as +liegeman to the famous Doctor Bordeu, the friend of Diderot, D'Alembert, +Helvetius, the Baron d'Holbach and Grimm, in whose presence he felt +himself a mere boy. These men, influenced by Bordeu's example, became +interested in Minoret, who, about the year 1777, found himself with +a very good practice among deists, encyclopedists, sensualists, +materialists, or whatever you are pleased to call the rich philosophers +of that period. + +Though Minoret was very little of a humbug, he invented the famous balm +of Lelievre, so much extolled by the "Mercure de France," the weekly +organ of the Encyclopedists, in whose columns it was permanently +advertised. The apothecary Lelievre, a clever man, saw a stroke +of business where Minoret had only seen a new preparation for the +dispensary, and he loyally shared his profits with the doctor, who was +a pupil of Rouelle in chemistry as well as of Bordeu in medicine. Less +than that would make a man a materialist. + +The doctor married for love in 1778, during the reign of the "Nouvelle +Heloise," when persons did occasionally marry for that reason. His +wife was a daughter of the famous harpsichordist Valentin Mirouet, +a celebrated musician, frail and delicate, whom the Revolution slew. +Minoret knew Robespierre intimately, for he had once been instrumental +in awarding him a gold medal for a dissertation on the following +subject: "What is the origin of the opinion that covers a whole family +with the shame attaching to the public punishment of a guilty member of +it? Is that opinion more harmful than useful? If yes, in what way can +the harm be warded off." The Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences at +Metz, to which Minoret belonged, must possess this dissertation in the +original. Though, thanks to this friendship, the Doctor's wife need +have had no fear, she was so in dread of going to the scaffold that +her terror increased a disposition to heart disease caused by the +over-sensitiveness of her nature. In spite of all the precautions taken +by the man who idolized her, Ursula unfortunately met the tumbril of +victims among whom was Madame Roland, and the shock caused her death. +Minoret, who in tenderness to his wife had refused her nothing, and had +given her a life of luxury, found himself after her death almost a +poor man. Robespierre gave him an appointment as surgeon-in-charge of a +hospital. + +Though the name of Minoret obtained during the lively debates to which +mesmerism gave rise a certain celebrity which occasionally recalled +him to the minds of his relatives, still the Revolution was so great a +destroyer of family relations that in 1813 Nemours knew little of Doctor +Minoret, who was induced to think of returning there to die, like the +hare to its form, by a circumstance that was wholly accidental. + +Who has not felt in traveling through France, where the eye is often +wearied by the monotony of plains, the charming sensation of coming +suddenly, when the eye is prepared for a barren landscape, upon a fresh +cool valley, watered by a river, with a little town sheltering beneath +a cliff like a swarm of bees in the hollow of an old willow? Wakened by +the "hu! hu!" of the postilion as he walks beside his horses, we shake +off sleep and admire, like a dream within a dream, the beautiful +scene which is to the traveler what a noble passage in a book is to a +reader,--a brilliant thought of Nature. Such is the sensation caused +by a first sight of Nemours as we approach it from Burgundy. We see it +encircled with bare rocks, gray, black, white, fantastic in shape like +those we find in the forest of Fontainebleau; from them spring scattered +trees, clearly defined against the sky, which give to this particular +rock formation the dilapidated look of a crumbling wall. Here ends the +long wooded hill which creeps from Nemours to Bouron, skirting the road. +At the bottom of this irregular amphitheater lie meadow-lands through +which flows the Loing, forming sheets of water with many falls. This +delightful landscape, which continues the whole way to Montargis, is +like an opera scene, for its effects really seem to have been studied. + +One morning Doctor Minoret, who had been summoned into Burgundy by a +rich patient, was returning in all haste to Paris. Not having mentioned +at the last relay the route he intended to take, he was brought without +his knowledge through Nemours, and beheld once more, on waking from a +nap, the scenery in which his childhood had been passed. He had lately +lost many of his old friends. The votary of the Encyclopedists had +witnessed the conversion of La Harpe; he had buried Lebrun-Pindare and +Marie-Joseph de Chenier, and Morellet, and Madame Helvetius. He assisted +at the quasi-fall of Voltaire when assailed by Geoffroy, the continuator +of Freton. For some time past he had thought of retiring, and so, when +his post chaise stopped at the head of the Grand'Rue of Nemours, his +heart prompted him to inquire for his family. Minoret-Levrault, the post +master, came forward himself to see the doctor, who discovered him to +be the son of his eldest brother. The nephew presented the doctor to +his wife, the only daughter of the late Levrault-Cremiere, who had died +twelve years earlier, leaving him the post business and the finest inn +in Nemours. + +"Well, nephew," said the doctor, "have I any other relatives?" + +"My aunt Minoret, your sister, married a Massin-Massin--" + +"Yes, I know, the bailiff of Saint-Lange." + +"She died a widow leaving an only daughter, who has lately married a +Cremiere-Cremiere, a fine young fellow, still without a place." + +"Ah! she is my own niece. Now, as my brother, the sailor, died a +bachelor, and Captain Minoret was killed at Monte-Legino, and here I am, +that ends the paternal line. Have I any relations on the maternal side? +My mother was a Jean-Massin-Levrault." + +"Of the Jean-Massin-Levrault's there's only one left," answered +Minoret-Levrault, "namely, Jean-Massin, who married Monsieur +Cremiere-Levrault-Dionis, a purveyor of forage, who perished on the +scaffold. His wife died of despair and without a penny, leaving one +daughter, married to a Levrault-Minoret, a farmer at Montereau, who is +doing well; their daughter has just married a Massin-Levrault, notary's +clerk at Montargis, where his father is a locksmith." + +"So I've plenty of heirs," said the doctor gayly, immediately proposing +to take a walk through Nemours accompanied by his nephew. + +The Loing runs through the town in a waving line, banked by terraced +gardens and neat houses, the aspect of which makes one fancy that +happiness must abide there sooner than elsewhere. When the doctor turned +into the Rue des Bourgeois, Minoret-Levrault pointed out the property of +Levrault-Levrault, a rich iron merchant in Paris who, he said, had just +died. + +"The place is for sale, uncle, and a very pretty house it is; there's a +charming garden running down to the river." + +"Let us go in," said the doctor, seeing, at the farther end of a +small paved courtyard, a house standing between the walls of the +two neighbouring houses which were masked by clumps of trees and +climbing-plants. + +"It is built over a cellar," said the doctor, going up the steps of +a high portico adorned with vases of blue and white pottery in which +geraniums were growing. + +Cut in two, like the majority of provincial houses, by a long passage +which led from the courtyard to the garden, the house had only one room +to the right, a salon lighted by four windows, two on the courtyard and +two on the garden; but Levrault-Levrault had used one of these windows +to make an entrance to a long greenhouse built of brick which extended +from the salon towards the river, ending in a horrible Chinese pagoda. + +"Good! by building a roof to that greenhouse and laying a floor," said +old Minoret, "I could put my book there and make a very comfortable +study of that extraordinary bit of architecture at the end." + +On the other side of the passage, toward the garden, was the +dining-room, decorated in imitation of black lacquer with green and +gold flowers; this was separated from the kitchen by the well of the +staircase. Communication with the kitchen was had through a little +pantry built behind the staircase, the kitchen itself looking into the +courtyard through windows with iron railings. There were two chambers on +the next floor, and above them, attic rooms sheathed in wood, which were +fairly habitable. After examining the house rapidly, and observing that +it was covered with trellises from top to bottom, on the side of the +courtyard as well as on that to the garden,--which ended in a terrace +overlooking the river and adorned with pottery vases,--the doctor +remarked:-- + +"Levrault-Levrault must have spend a good deal of money here." + +"Ho! I should think so," answered Minoret-Levrault. "He liked +flowers--nonsense! 'What do they bring in?' says my wife. You saw inside +there how an artist came from Paris to paint flowers in fresco in the +corridor. He put those enormous mirrors everywhere. The ceilings were +all re-made with cornices which cost six francs a foot. The dining-room +floor is in marquetry--perfect folly! The house won't sell for a penny +the more." + +"Well, nephew, buy it for me: let me know what you do about it; here's +my address. The rest I leave to my notary. Who lives opposite?" he +asked, as they left the house. + +"Emigres," answered the post master, "named Portenduere." + +The house once bought, the illustrious doctor, instead of living +there, wrote to his nephew to let it. The Folie-Levraught was therefore +occupied by the notary of Nemours, who about that time sold his practice +to Dionis, his head-clerk, and died two years later, leaving the house +on the doctor's hands, just at the time when the fate of Napoleon was +being decided in the neighbourhood. The doctor's heirs, at first misled, +had by this time decided that his thought of returning to his native +place was merely a rich man's fancy, and that probably he had some tie +in Paris which would keep him there and cheat them of their hoped-for +inheritance. However, Minoret-Levrault's wife seized the occasion +to write him a letter. The old man replied that as soon as peace +was signed, the roads cleared of soldiers, and safe communications +established, he meant to go and live at Nemours. He did, in fact, put in +an appearance with two of his clients, the architect of his hospital and +an upholsterer, who took charge of the repairs, the indoor arrangements, +and the transportation of the furniture. Madame Minoret-Levrault +proposed the cook of the late notary as caretaker, and the woman was +accepted. + +When the heirs heard that their uncle and great-uncle Minoret was really +coming to live in Nemours, they were seized (in spite of the political +events which were just then weighing so heavily on Brie and on the +Gatinais) with a devouring curiosity, which was not surprising. Was +he rich? Economical or spendthrift? Would he leave a fine fortune or +nothing? Was his property in annuities? In the end they found out +what follows, but only by taking infinite pains and employing much +subterraneous spying. + +After the death of his wife, Ursula Mirouet, and between the years 1789 +and 1813, the doctor (who had been appointed consulting physician to the +Emperor in 1805) must have made a good deal of money; but no one knew +how much. He lived simply, without other extravagancies than a carriage +by the year and a sumptuous apartment. He received no guests, and dined +out almost every day. His housekeeper, furious at not being allowed to +go with him to Nemours, told Zelie Levrault, the post master's wife, +that she knew the doctor had fourteen thousand francs a year on the +"grand-livre." Now, after twenty years' exercise of a profession which +his position as head of a hospital, physician to the Emperor, and member +of the Institute, rendered lucrative, these fourteen thousand francs a +year showed only one hundred and sixty thousand francs laid by. To have +saved only eight thousand francs a year the doctor must have had either +many vices or many virtues to gratify. But neither his housekeeper +nor Zelie nor any one else could discover the reason for such moderate +means. Minoret, who when he left it was much regretted in the quarter +of Paris where he had lived, was one of the most benevolent of men, and, +like Larrey, kept his kind deeds a profound secret. + +The heirs watched the arrival of their uncle's fine furniture and large +library with complacency, and looked forward to his own coming, he being +now an officer of the Legion of honor, and lately appointed by the king +a chevalier of the order of Saint-Michel--perhaps on account of his +retirement, which left a vacancy for some favorite. But when the +architect and painter and upholsterer had arranged everything in +the most comfortable manner, the doctor did not come. Madame +Minoret-Levrault, who kept an eye on the upholsterer and architect as if +her own property was concerned, found out, through the indiscretion of a +young man sent to arrange the books, that the doctor was taking care of +a little orphan named Ursula. The news flew like wild-fire through the +town. At last, however, towards the middle of the month of January, +1815, the old man actually arrived, installing himself quietly, almost +slyly, with a little girl about ten months old, and a nurse. + +"The child can't be his daughter," said the terrified heirs; "he is +seventy-one years old." + +"Whoever she is," remarked Madame Massin, "she'll give us plenty of +tintouin" (a word peculiar to Nemours, meaning uneasiness, anxiety, or +more literally, tingling in the ears). + +The doctor received his great-niece on the mother's side somewhat +coldly; her husband had just bought the place of clerk of the court, and +the pair began at once to tell him of their difficulties. Neither Massin +nor his wife were rich. Massin's father, a locksmith at Montargis, +had been obliged to compromise with his creditors, and was now, at +sixty-seven years of age, working like a young man, and had nothing to +leave behind him. Madame Massin's father, Levrault-Minoret, had just +died at Montereau after the battle, in despair at seeing his farm +burned, his fields ruined, his cattle slaughtered. + +"We'll get nothing out of your great-uncle," said Massin to his wife, +now pregnant with her second child, after the interview. + +The doctor, however, gave them privately ten thousand francs, with which +Massin, who was a great friend of the notary and of the sheriff, began +the business of money-lending, and carried matters so briskly with the +peasantry that by the time of which we are now writing Goupil knew him +to hold at least eighty thousand francs on their property. + +As to his other niece, the doctor obtained for her husband, through +his influence in Paris, the collectorship of Nemours, and became his +bondsman. Though Minoret-Levrault needed no assistance, Zelie, his wife, +being jealous of the uncle's liberality to his two nieces, took her +ten-year old son to see him, and talked of the expense he would be to +them at a school in Paris, where, she said, education costs so much. The +doctor obtained a half-scholarship for his great-nephew at the school of +Louis-le-Grand, where Desire was put into the fourth class. + +Cremiere, Massin, and Minoret-Levrault, extremely common persons, were +"rated without appeal" by the doctor within two months of his arrival +in Nemours, during which time they courted, less their uncle than his +property. Persons who are led by instinct have one great disadvantage +against others with ideas. They are quickly found out; the suggestions +of instinct are too natural, too open to the eye not to be seen at a +glance; whereas, the conceptions of the mind require an equal amount of +intellect to discover them. After buying the gratitude of his heirs, and +thus, as it were, shutting their mouths, the wily doctor made a pretext +of his occupations, his habits, and the care of the little Ursula to +avoid receiving his relatives without exactly closing his doors to them. +He liked to dine alone; he went to bed late and he got up late; he had +returned to his native place for the very purpose of finding rest +in solitude. These whims of an old man seemed to be natural, and his +relatives contented themselves with paying him weekly visits on Sundays +from one to four o'clock, to which, however, he tried to put a stop by +saying: "Don't come and see me unless you want something." + +The doctor, while not refusing to be called in consultation over serious +cases, especially if the patients were indigent, would not serve as a +physician in the little hospital of Nemours, and declared that he no +longer practiced his profession. + +"I've killed enough people," he said, laughing, to the Abbe Chaperon, +who, knowing his benevolence, would often get him to attend the poor. + +"He's an original!" These words, said of Doctor Minoret, were the +harmless revenge of various wounded vanities; for a doctor collects +about him a society of persons who have many of the characteristics of +a set of heirs. Those of the bourgeoisie who thought themselves entitled +to visit this distinguished physician kept up a ferment of jealousy +against the few privileged friends whom he did admit to his intimacy, +which had in the long run some unfortunate results. + + + + +CHAPTER III. THE DOCTOR'S FRIENDS + +Curiously enough, though it explains the old proverb that "extremes +meet," the materialistic doctor and the cure of Nemours were soon +friends. The old man loved backgammon, a favorite game of the +priesthood, and the Abbe Chaperon played it with about as much skill as +he himself. The game was the first tie between them. Then Minoret was +charitable, and the abbe was the Fenelon of the Gatinais. Both had had +a wide and varied education; the man of God was the only person in all +Nemours who was fully capable of understanding the atheist. To be able +to argue, men must first understand each other. What pleasure is there +in saying sharp words to one who can't feel them? The doctor and the +priest had far too much taste and had seen too much of good society +not to practice its precepts; they were thus well-fitted for the little +warfare so essential to conversation. They hated each other's opinions, +but they valued each other's character. If such conflicts and such +sympathies are not true elements of intimacy we must surely despair of +society, which, especially in France, requires some form of antagonism. +It is from the shock of characters, and not from the struggle of +opinions, that antipathies are generated. + +The Abbe Chaperon became, therefore, the doctor's chief friend. This +excellent ecclesiastic, then sixty years of age, had been curate of +Nemours ever since the re-establishment of Catholic worship. Out of +attachment to his flock he had refused the vicariat of the diocese. If +those who were indifferent to religion thought well of him for so +doing, the faithful loved him the more for it. So, revered by his +sheep, respected by the inhabitants at large, the abbe did good without +inquiring into the religious opinions of those he benefited. His +parsonage, with scarcely furniture enough for the common needs of life, +was cold and shabby, like the lodging of a miser. Charity and avarice +manifest themselves in the same way; charity lays up a treasure in +heaven which avarice lays up on earth. The Abbe Chaperon argued with his +servant over expenses even more sharply than Gobseck with his--if indeed +that famous Jew kept a servant at all. The good priest often sold the +buckles off his shoes and his breeches to give their value to some poor +person who appealed to him at a moment when he had not a penny. When he +was seen coming out of church with the straps of his breeches tied +into the button-holes, devout women would redeem the buckles from the +clock-maker and jeweler of the town and return them to their pastor with +a lecture. He never bought himself any clothes or linen, and wore his +garments till they scarcely held together. His linen, thick with darns, +rubbed his skin like a hair shirt. Madame de Portenduere, and other good +souls, had an agreement with his housekeeper to replace the old clothes +with new ones after he went to sleep, and the abbe did not always find +out the difference. He ate his food off pewter with iron forks and +spoons. When he received his assistants and sub-curates on days of high +solemnity (an expense obligatory on the heads of parishes) he borrowed +linen and silver from his friend the atheist. + +"My silver is his salvation," the doctor would say. + +These noble deeds, always accompanied by spiritual encouragement, were +done with a beautiful naivete. Such a life was all the more meritorious +because the abbe was possessed of an erudition that was vast and varied, +and of great and precious faculties. Delicacy and grace, the inseparable +accompaniments of simplicity, lent charm to an elocution that was worthy +of a prelate. His manners, his character, and his habits gave to his +intercourse with others the most exquisite savor of all that is most +spiritual, most sincere in the human mind. A lover of gayety, he was +never priest in a salon. Until Doctor Minoret's arrival, the good man +kept his light under a bushel without regret. Owning a rather fine +library and an income of two thousand francs when he came to Nemours, +he now possessed, in 1829, nothing at all, except his stipend as parish +priest, nearly the whole of which he gave away during the year. The +giver of excellent counsel in delicate matters or in great misfortunes, +many persons who never went to church to obtain consolation went to the +parsonage to get advice. One little anecdote will suffice to complete +his portrait. Sometimes the peasants,--rarely, it is true, but +occasionally,--unprincipled men, would tell him they were sued for debt, +or would get themselves threatened fictitiously to stimulate the abbe's +benevolence. They would even deceive their wives, who, believing their +chattels were threatened with an execution and their cows seized, +deceived in their turn the poor priest with their innocent tears. He +would then manage with great difficulty to provide the seven or eight +hundred francs demanded of him--with which the peasant bought himself +a morsel of land. When pious persons and vestrymen denounced the fraud, +begging the abbe to consult them in future before lending himself to +such cupidity, he would say:-- + +"But suppose they had done something wrong to obtain their bit of land? +Isn't it doing good when we prevent evil?" + +Some persons may wish for a sketch of this figure, remarkable for the +fact that science and literature had filled the heart and passed through +the strong head without corrupting either. At sixty years of age the +abbe's hair was white as snow, so keenly did he feel the sorrows of +others, and so heavily had the events of the Revolution weighed upon +him. Twice incarcerated for refusing to take the oath he had twice, as +he used to say, uttered in "In manus." He was of medium height, +neither stout nor thin. His face, much wrinkled and hollowed and quite +colorless, attracted immediate attention by the absolute tranquillity +expressed in its shape, and by the purity of its outline, which seemed +to be edged with light. The face of a chaste man has an unspeakable +radiance. Brown eyes with lively pupils brightened the irregular +features, which were surmounted by a broad forehead. His glance wielded +a power which came of a gentleness that was not devoid of strength. The +arches of his brow formed caverns shaded by huge gray eyebrows which +alarmed no one. As most of his teeth were gone his mouth had lost its +shape and his cheeks had fallen in; but this physical destruction was +not without charm; even the wrinkles, full of pleasantness, seemed to +smile on others. Without being gouty his feet were tender; and he walked +with so much difficulty that he wore shoes made of calf's skin all the +year round. He thought the fashion of trousers unsuitable for priests, +and he always appeared in stockings of coarse black yarn, knit by his +housekeeper, and cloth breeches. He never went out in his cassock, but +wore a brown overcoat, and still retained the three-cornered hat he had +worn so courageously in times of danger. This noble and beautiful old +man, whose face was glorified by the serenity of a soul above reproach, +will be found to have so great an influence upon the men and things of +this history, that it was proper to show the sources of his authority +and power. + +Minoret took three newspapers,--one liberal, one ministerial, one +ultra,--a few periodicals, and certain scientific journals, +the accumulation of which swelled his library. The newspapers, +encyclopaedias, and books were an attraction to a retired captain of the +Royal-Swedish regiment, named Monsieur de Jordy, a Voltairean nobleman +and an old bachelor, who lived on sixteen hundred francs of pension and +annuity combined. Having read the gazettes for several days, by favor +of the abbe, Monsieur de Jordy thought it proper to call and thank +the doctor in person. At this first visit the old captain, formerly a +professor at the Military Academy, won the doctor's heart, who returned +the call with alacrity. Monsieur de Jordy, a spare little man much +troubled by his blood, though his face was very pale, attracted +attention by the resemblance of his handsome brow to that of Charles +XII.; above it he kept his hair cropped short, like that of the +soldier-king. His blue eyes seemed to say that "Love had passed that +way," so mournful were they; revealing memories about which he kept such +utter silence that his old friends never detected even an allusion to +his past life, nor a single exclamation drawn forth by similarity +of circumstances. He hid the painful mystery of his past beneath a +philosophic gayety, but when he thought himself alone his motions, +stiffened by a slowness which was more a matter of choice than the +result of old age, betrayed the constant presence of distressful +thoughts. The Abbe Chaperon called him a Christian ignorant of his +Christianity. Dressed always in blue cloth, his rather rigid demeanor +and his clothes bespoke the old habits of military discipline. His +sweet and harmonious voice stirred the soul. His beautiful hands and the +general cut of his figure, recalling that of the Comte d'Artois, showed +how charming he must have been in his youth, and made the mystery of +his life still more mysterious. An observer asked involuntarily what +misfortune had blighted such beauty, courage, grace, accomplishment, +and all the precious qualities of the heart once united in his person. +Monsieur de Jordy shuddered if Robespierre's name were uttered before +him. He took much snuff, but, strange to say, he gave up the habit +to please little Ursula, who at first showed a dislike to him on that +account. As soon as he saw the little girl the captain fastened his eyes +upon her with a look that was almost passionate. He loved her play so +extravagantly and took such interest in all she did that the tie between +himself and the doctor grew closer every day, though the latter never +dared to say to him, "You, too, have you lost children?" There are +beings, kind and patient as old Jordy, who pass through life with a +bitter thought in their heart and a tender but sorrowful smile on their +lips, carrying with them to the grave the secret of their lives; letting +no one guess it,--through pride, through disdain, possibly through +revenge; confiding in none but God, without other consolation than his. + +Monsieur de Jordy, like the doctor, had come to die in Nemours, but he +knew no one except the abbe, who was always at the beck and call of +his parishioners, and Madame de Portenduere, who went to bed at nine +o'clock. So, much against his will, he too had taken to going to bed +early, in spite of the thorns that beset his pillow. It was therefore a +great piece of good fortune for him (as well as for the doctor) when +he encountered a man who had known the same world and spoken the same +language as himself; with whom he could exchange ideas, and who went to +bed late. After Monsieur de Jordy, the Abbe Chaperon, and Minoret had +passed one evening together they found so much pleasure in it that the +priest and soldier returned every night regularly at nine o'clock, the +hour at which, little Ursula having gone to bed, the doctor was free. +All three would then sit up till midnight or one o'clock. + +After a time this trio became a quartette. Another man to whom life +was known, and who owed to his practical training as a lawyer, +the indulgence, knowledge, observation, shrewdness, and talent for +conversation which the soldier, doctor, and priest owed to their +practical dealings with the souls, diseases, and education of men, was +added to the number. Monsieur Bongrand, the justice of peace, heard of +the pleasure of these evenings and sought admittance to the doctor's +society. Before becoming justice of peace at Nemours he had been for ten +years a solicitor at Melun, where he conducted his own cases, according +to the custom of small towns, where there are no barristers. He became a +widower at forty-five years of age, but felt himself still too active +to lead an idle life; he therefore sought and obtained the position of +justice of peace at Nemours, which became vacant a few months before +the arrival of Doctor Minoret. Monsieur Bongrand lived modestly on his +salary of fifteen hundred francs, in order that he might devote his +private income to his son, who was studying law in Paris under the +famous Derville. He bore some resemblance to a retired chief of a civil +service office; he had the peculiar face of a bureaucrat, less sallow +than pallid, on which public business, vexations, and disgust leave +their imprint,--a face lined by thought, and also by the continual +restraints familiar to those who are trained not to speak their minds +freely. It was often illumined by smiles characteristic of men who +alternately believe all and believe nothing, who are accustomed to see +and hear all without being startled, and to fathom the abysses which +self-interest hollows in the depths of the human heart. + +Below the hair, which was less white than discolored, and worn flattened +to the head, was a fine, sagacious forehead, the yellow tones of which +harmonized well with the scanty tufts of thin hair. His face, with the +features set close together, bore some likeness to that of a fox, +all the more because his nose was short and pointed. In speaking, +he spluttered at the mouth, which was broad like that of most great +talkers,--a habit which led Goupil to say, ill-naturedly, "An umbrella +would be useful when listening to him," or, "The justice rains +verdicts." His eyes looked keen behind his spectacles, but if he took +the glasses off his dulled glance seemed almost vacant. Though he was +naturally gay, even jovial, he was apt to give himself too important +and pompous an air. He usually kept his hands in the pockets of his +trousers, and only took them out to settle his eye-glasses on his nose, +with a movement that was half comic, and which announced the coming of +a keen observation or some victorious argument. His gestures, his +loquacity, his innocent self-assertion, proclaimed the provincial +lawyer. These slight defects were, however, superficial; he redeemed +them by an exquisite kind-heartedness which a rigid moralist might call +the indulgence natural to superiority. He looked a little like a fox, +and he was thought to be very wily, but never false or dishonest. His +wiliness was perspicacity; and consisted in foreseeing results and +protecting himself and others from the traps set for them. He loved +whist, a game known to the captain and the doctor, and which the abbe +learned to play in a very short time. + +This little circle of friends made for itself an oasis in Mironet's +salon. The doctor of Nemours, who was not without education and +knowledge of the world, and who greatly respected Minoret as an honor +to the profession, came there sometimes; but his duties and also his +fatigue (which obliged him to go to bed early and to be up early) +prevented his being as assiduously present as the three other friends. +This intercourse of five superior men, the only ones in Nemours who +had sufficiently wide knowledge to understand each other, explains old +Minoret's aversion to his relatives; if he were compelled to leave them +his money, at least he need not admit them to his society. Whether the +post master, the sheriff, and the collector understood this distinction, +or whether they were reassured by the evident loyalty and benefactions +of their uncle, certain it is that they ceased, to his great +satisfaction, to see much of him. So, about eight months after the +arrival of the doctor these four players of whist and backgammon made +a solid and exclusive little world which was to each a fraternal +aftermath, an unlooked for fine season, the gentle pleasures of which +were the more enjoyed. This little circle of choice spirits closed +round Ursula, a child whom each adopted according to his individual +tendencies; the abbe thought of her soul, the judge imagined himself her +guardian, the soldier intended to be her teacher, and as for Minoret, he +was father, mother, and physician, all in one. + +After he became acclimated old Minoret settled into certain habits of +life, under fixed rules, after the manner of the provinces. On Ursula's +account he received no visitors in the morning, and never gave dinners, +but his friends were at liberty to come to his house at six o'clock and +stay till midnight. The first-comers found the newspapers on the table +and read them while awaiting the rest; or they sometimes sallied forth +to meet the doctor if he were out for a walk. This tranquil life was not +a mere necessity of old age, it was the wise and careful scheme of a man +of the world to keep his happiness untroubled by the curiosity of +his heirs and the gossip of a little town. He yielded nothing to that +capricious goddess, public opinion, whose tyranny (one of the present +great evils of France) was just beginning to establish its power and +to make the whole nation a mere province. So, as soon as the child was +weaned and could walk alone, the doctor sent away the housekeeper whom +his niece, Madame Minoret-Levrault had chosen for him, having discovered +that she told her patroness everything that happened in his household. + +Ursula's nurse, the widow of a poor workman (who possessed no name but a +baptismal one, and who came from Bougival) had lost her last child, aged +six months, just as the doctor, who knew her to be a good and honest +creature, engaged her as wetnurse for Ursula. Antoinette Patris (her +maiden name), widow of Pierre, called Le Bougival, attached herself +naturally to Ursula, as wetmaids do to their nurslings. This blind +maternal affection was accompanied in this instance by household +devotion. Told of the doctor's intention to send away his housekeeper, +La Bougival secretly learned to cook, became neat and handy, and +discovered the old man's ways. She took the utmost care of the house and +furniture; in short she was indefatigable. Not only did the doctor wish +to keep his private life within four walls, as the saying is, but he +also had certain reasons for hiding a knowledge of his business affairs +from his relatives. At the end of the second year after his arrival La +Bougival was the only servant in the house; on her discretion he knew he +could count, and he disguised his real purposes by the all-powerful open +reason of a necessary economy. To the great satisfaction of his heirs he +became a miser. Without fawning or wheedling, solely by the influence of +her devotion and solicitude, La Bougival, who was forty-three years old +at the time this tale begins, was the housekeeper of the doctor and +his protegee, the pivot on which the whole house turned, in short, +the confidential servant. She was called La Bougival from the admitted +impossibility of applying to her person the name that actually belonged +to her, Antoinette--for names and forms do obey the laws of harmony. + +The doctor's miserliness was not mere talk; it was real, and it had an +object. From the year 1817 he cut off two of his newspapers and ceased +subscribing to periodicals. His annual expenses, which all Nemours could +estimate, did not exceed eighteen hundred francs a year. Like most old +men his wants in linen, boots, and clothing, were very few. Every six +months he went to Paris, no doubt to draw and reinvest his income. In +fifteen years he never said a single word to any one in relation to his +affairs. His confidence in Bongrand was of slow growth; it was not until +after the revolution of 1830 that he told him of his projects. Nothing +further was known of the doctor's life either by the bourgeoisie at +large or by his heirs. As for his political opinions, he did not meddle +in public matters seeing that he paid less than a hundred francs a year +in taxes, and refused, impartially, to subscribe to either royalist or +liberal demands. His known horror for the priesthood, and his deism were +so little obtrusive that he turned out of his house a commercial runner +sent by his great-nephew Desire to ask a subscription to the "Cure +Meslier" and the "Discours du General Foy." Such tolerance seemed +inexplicable to the liberals of Nemours. + +The doctor's three collateral heirs, Minoret-Levrault and his wife, +Monsieur and Madame Massin-Levrault, junior, Monsieur and Madame +Cremiere-Cremiere--whom we shall in future call simply Cremiere, +Massin, and Minoret, because these distinctions among homonyms is quite +unnecessary out of the Gatinais--met together as people do in little +towns. The post master gave a grand dinner on his son's birthday, a ball +during the carnival, another on the anniversary of his marriage, to +all of which he invited the whole bourgeoisie of Nemours. The collector +received his relations and friends twice a year. The clerk of the court, +too poor, he said, to fling himself into such extravagance, lived in +a small way in a house standing half-way down the Grand'Rue, the +ground-floor of which was let to his sister, the letter-postmistress +of Nemours, a situation she owed to the doctor's kind offices. +Nevertheless, in the course of the year these three families did meet +together frequently, in the houses of friends, in the public promenades, +at the market, on their doorsteps, or, of a Sunday in the square, as on +this occasion; so that one way and another they met nearly every day. +For the last three years the doctor's age, his economies, and his +probable wealth had led to allusions, or frank remarks, among the +townspeople as to the disposition of his property, a topic which made +the doctor and his heirs of deep interest to the little town. For the +last six months not a day passed that friends and neighbours did not +speak to the heirs, with secret envy, of the day the good man's eyes +would shut and the coffers open. + +"Doctor Minoret may be an able physician, on good terms with death, but +none but God is eternal," said one. + +"Pooh, he'll bury us all; his health is better than ours," replied an +heir, hypocritically. + +"Well, if you don't get the money yourselves, your children will, unless +that little Ursula--" + +"He won't leave it all to her." + +Ursula, as Madame Massin had predicted, was the bete noire of the +relations, their sword of Damocles; and Madame Cremiere's favorite +saying, "Well, whoever lives will know," shows that they wished at any +rate more harm to her than good. + +The collector and the clerk of the court, poor in comparison with the +post master, had often estimated, by way of conversation, the doctor's +property. If they met their uncle walking on the banks of the canal or +along the road they would look at each other piteously. + +"He must have got hold of some elixir of life," said one. + +"He has made a bargain with the devil," replied the other. + +"He ought to give us the bulk of it; that fat Minoret doesn't need +anything," said Massin. + +"Ah! but Minoret has a son who'll waste his substance," answered +Cremiere. + +"How much do you really think the doctor has?" + +"At the end of twelve years, say twelve thousand francs saved each year, +that would give one hundred and forty-four thousand francs, and the +interest brings in at least one hundred thousand more. But as he +must, if he consults a notary in Paris, have made some good strokes of +business, and we know that up to 1822 he could get seven or eight per +cent from the State, he must now have at least four hundred thousand +francs, without counting the capital of his fourteen thousand a year +from the five per cents. If he were to die to-morrow without leaving +anything to Ursula we should get at least seven or eight hundred +thousand francs, besides the house and furniture." + +"Well, a hundred thousand to Minoret, and three hundred thousand apiece +to you and me, that would be fair." + +"Ha, that would make us comfortable!" + +"If he did that," said Massin, "I should sell my situation in court +and buy an estate; I'd try to be judge at Fontainebleau, and get myself +elected deputy." + +"As for me I should buy a brokerage business," said the collector. + +"Unluckily, that girl he has on his arm and the abbe have got round him. +I don't believe we can do anything with him." + +"Still, we know very well he will never leave anything to the Church." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. ZELIE + +The fright of the heirs at beholding their uncle on his way to mass will +now be understood. The dullest persons have mind enough to foresee a +danger to self-interests. Self-interest constitutes the mind of the +peasant as well as that of the diplomatist, and on that ground the +stupidest of men is sometimes the most powerful. So the fatal reasoning, +"If that little Ursula has influence enough to drag her godfather into +the pale of the Church she will certainly have enough to make him leave +her his property," was now stamped in letters of fire on the brains of +the most obtuse heir. The post master had forgotten about his son in his +hurry to reach the square; for if the doctor were really in the church +hearing mass it was a question of losing two hundred and fifty thousand +francs. It must be admitted that the fears of these relations came from +the strongest and most legitimate of social feelings, family interests. + +"Well, Monsieur Minoret," said the mayor (formerly a miller who had now +become royalist, named Levrault-Cremiere), "when the devil gets old the +devil a monk would be. Your uncle, they say, is one of us." + +"Better late than never, cousin," responded the post master, trying to +conceal his annoyance. + +"How that fellow will grin if we are defrauded! He is capable of +marrying his son to that damned girl--may the devil get her!" cried +Cremiere, shaking his fists at the mayor as he entered the porch. + +"What's Cremiere grumbling about?" said the butcher of the town, a +Levrault-Levrault the elder. "Isn't he pleased to see his uncle on the +road to paradise?" + +"Who would ever have believed it!" ejaculated Massin. + +"Ha! one should never say, 'Fountain, I'll not drink of your water,'" +remarked the notary, who, seeing the group from afar, had left his wife +to go to church without him. + +"Come, Monsieur Dionis," said Cremiere, taking the notary by the arm, +"what do you advise me to do under the circumstances?" + +"I advise you," said the notary, addressing the heirs collectively, "to +go to bed and get up at your usual hour; to eat your soup before it gets +cold; to put your feet in your shoes and your hats on your heads; +in short, to continue your ways of life precisely as if nothing had +happened." + +"You are not consoling," said Massin. + +In spite of his squat, dumpy figure and heavy face, Cremiere-Dionis +was really as keen as a blade. In pursuit of usurious fortune he did +business secretly with Massin, to whom he no doubt pointed out such +peasants as were hampered in means, and such pieces of land as could +be bought for a song. The two men were in a position to choose their +opportunities; none that were good escaped them, and they shared the +profits of mortgage-usury, which retards, though it does not prevent, +the acquirement of the soil by the peasantry. So Dionis took a lively +interest in the doctor's inheritance, not so much for the post master +and the collector as for his friend the clerk of the court; sooner or +later Massin's share in the doctor's money would swell the capital with +which these secret associates worked the canton. + +"We must try to find out through Monsieur Bongrand where the influence +comes from," said the notary in a low voice, with a sign to Massin to +keep quiet. + +"What are you about, Minoret?" cried a little woman, suddenly descending +upon the group in the middle of which stood the post master, as tall +and round as a tower. "You don't know where Desire is and there you are, +planted on your two legs, gossiping about nothing, when I thought you on +horseback!--Oh, good morning, Messieurs and Mesdames." + +This little woman, thin, pale, and fair, dressed in a gown of white +cotton with pattern of large, chocolate-colored flowers, a cap trimmed +with ribbon and frilled with lace, and wearing a small green shawl +on her flat shoulders, was Minoret's wife, the terror of postilions, +servants, and carters; who kept the accounts and managed the +establishment "with finger and eye" as they say in those parts. Like the +true housekeeper that she was, she wore no ornaments. She did not give +in (to use her own expression) to gew-gaws and trumpery; she held to the +solid and the substantial, and wore, even on Sundays, a black apron, in +the pocket of which she jingled her household keys. Her screeching voice +was agony to the drums of all ears. Her rigid glance, conflicting with +the soft blue of her eyes, was in visible harmony with the thin lips +of a pinched mouth and a high, projecting, and very imperious forehead. +Sharp was the glance, sharper still both gesture and speech. "Zelie +being obliged to have a will for two, had it for three," said Goupil, +who pointed out the successive reigns of three young postilions, of +neat appearance, who had been set up in life by Zelie, each after seven +years' service. The malicious clerk named them Postilion I., Postilion +II., Postilion III. But the little influence these young men had in the +establishment, and their perfect obedience proved that Zelie was merely +interested in worthy helpers. + +This attempt at scandal was against probabilities. Since the birth of +her son (nursed by her without any evidence of how it was possible for +her to do so) Madame Minoret had thought only of increasing the family +fortune and was wholly given up to the management of their immense +establishment. To steal a bale of hay or a bushel of oats or get the +better of Zelie in even the most complicated accounts was a thing +impossible, though she scribbled hardly better than a cat, and knew +nothing of arithmetic but addition and subtraction. She never took a +walk except to look at the hay, the oats, or the second crops. She sent +"her man" to the mowing, and the postilions to tie the bales, telling +them the quantity, within a hundred pounds, each field should bear. +Though she was the soul of that great body called Minoret-Levrault and +led him about by his pug nose, she was made to feel the fears which +occasionally (we are told) assail all tamers of wild beasts. She +therefore made it a rule to get into a rage before he did; the +postilions knew very well when his wife had been quarreling with him, +for his anger ricocheted on them. Madame Minoret was as clever as she +was grasping; and it was a favorite remark in the whole town, "Where +would Minoret-Levrault be without his wife?" + +"When you know what has happened," replied the post master, "you'll be +over the traces yourself." + +"What is it?" + +"Ursula has taken the doctor to mass." + +Zelie's pupils dilated; she stood for a moment yellow with anger, then, +crying out, "I'll see it before I believe it!" she rushed into the +church. The service had reached the Elevation. The stillness of the +worshippers enabled her to look along each row of chairs and benches as +she went up the aisle beside the chapels to Ursula's place, where she +saw old Minoret standing with bared head. + +If you recall the heads of Barbe-Marbois, Boissy d'Anglas, Morellet, +Helvetius, or Frederick the Great, you will see the exact image of +Doctor Minoret, whose green old age resembled that of those celebrated +personages. Their heads coined in the same mint (for each had the +characteristics of a medal) showed a stern and quasi-puritan profile, +cold tones, a mathematical brain, a certain narrowness about the +features, shrewd eyes, grave lips, and a something that was surely +aristocratic--less perhaps in sentiment than in habit, more in the ideas +than in the character. All men of this stamp have high brows retreating +at the summit, the sign of a tendency to materialism. You will find +these leading characteristics of the head and these points of the face +in all the Encyclopedists, in the orators of the Gironde, in the men +of a period when religious ideas were almost dead, men who called +themselves deists and were atheists. The deist is an atheist lucky in +classification. + +Minoret had a forehead of this description, furrowed with wrinkles, +which recovered in his old age a sort of artless candor from the manner +in which the silvery hair, brushed back like that of a woman when making +her toilet, curled in light flakes upon the blackness of his coat. He +persisted in dressing, as in his youth, in black silk stockings, shoes +with gold buckles, breeches of black poult-de-soie, and a black coat, +adorned with the red rosette. This head, so firmly characterized, the +cold whiteness of which was softened by the yellowing tones of old age, +happened to be, just then, in the full light of a window. As Madame +Minoret came in sight of him the doctor's blue eyes with their reddened +lids were raised to heaven; a new conviction had given them a new +expression. His spectacles lay in his prayer-book and marked the place +where he had ceased to pray. The tall and spare old man, his arms +crossed on his breast, stood erect in an attitude which bespoke the full +strength of his faculties and the unshakable assurance of his faith. +He gazed at the altar humbly with a look of renewed hope, and took no +notice of his nephew's wife, who planted herself almost in front of him +as if to reproach him for coming back to God. + +Zelie, seeing all eyes turned upon her, made haste to leave the church +and returned to the square less hurriedly than she had left it. She +had reckoned on the doctor's money, and possession was becoming +problematical. She found the clerk of the court, the collector, and +their wives in greater consternation than ever. Goupil was taking +pleasure in tormenting them. + +"It is not in the public square and before the whole town that we +ought to talk of our affairs," said Zelie; "come home with me. You too, +Monsieur Dionis," she added to the notary; "you'll not be in the way." + +Thus the probable disinheritance of Massin, Cremiere, and the post +master was the news of the day. + +Just as the heirs and the notary were crossing the square to go to the +post house the noise of the diligence rattling up to the office, which +was only a few steps from the church, at the top of the Grand'Rue, made +its usual racket. + +"Goodness! I'm like you, Minoret; I forgot all about Desire," said +Zelie. "Let us go and see him get down. He is almost a lawyer; and his +interests are mixed up in this matter." + +The arrival of the diligence is always an amusement, but when it comes +in late some unusual event is expected. The crowd now moved towards the +"Ducler." + +"Here's Desire!" was the general cry. + +The tyrant, and yet the life and soul of Nemours, Desire always put the +town in a ferment when he came. Loved by the young men, with whom he was +invariably generous, he stimulated them by his very presence. But his +methods of amusement were so dreaded by older persons that more than one +family was very thankful to have him complete his studies and study +law in Paris. Desire Minoret, a slight youth, slender and fair like his +mother, from whom he obtained his blue eyes and pale skin, smiled from +the window on the crowd, and jumped lightly down to kiss his mother. A +short sketch of the young fellow will show how proud Zelie felt when she +saw him. + +He wore very elegant boots, trousers of white English drilling held +under his feet by straps of varnished leather, a rich cravat, admirably +put on and still more admirably fastened, a pretty fancy waistcoat, in +the pocket of said waistcoat a flat watch, the chain of which hung down; +and, finally, a short frock-coat of blue cloth, and a gray hat,--but his +lack of the manner-born was shown in the gilt buttons of the waistcoat +and the ring worn outside of his purple kid glove. He carried a cane +with a chased gold head. + +"You are losing your watch," said his mother, kissing him. + +"No, it is worn that way," he replied, letting his father hug him. + +"Well, cousin, so we shall soon see you a lawyer?" said Massin. + +"I shall take the oaths at the beginning of next term," said Desire, +returning the friendly nods he was receiving on all sides. + +"Now we shall have some fun," said Goupil, shaking him by the hand. + +"Ha! my old wag, so here you are!" replied Desire. + +"You take your law license for all license," said Goupil, affronted by +being treated so cavalierly in presence of others. + +"You know my luggage," cried Desire to the red-faced old conductor of +the diligence; "have it taken to the house." + +"The sweat is rolling off your horses," said Zelie sharply to the +conductor; "you haven't common-sense to drive them in that way. You are +stupider than your own beasts." + +"But Monsieur Desire was in a hurry to get here to save you from +anxiety," explained Cabirolle. + +"But if there was no accident why risk killing the horses?" she +retorted. + +The greetings of friends and acquaintances, the crowding of the young +men around Desire, and the relating of the incidents of the journey took +enough time for the mass to be concluded and the worshippers to issue +from the church. By mere chance (which manages many things) Desire saw +Ursula on the porch as he passed along, and he stopped short amazed at +her beauty. His action also stopped the advance of the relations who +accompanied him. + +In giving her arm to her godfather, Ursula was obliged to hold her +prayer-book in one hand and her parasol in the other; and this she +did with the innate grace which graceful women put into the awkward +or difficult things of their charming craft of womanhood. If mind does +truly reveal itself in all things, we may be permitted to say that +Ursula's attitude and bearing suggested divine simplicity. She was +dressed in a white cambric gown made like a wrapper, trimmed here and +there with knots of blue ribbon. The pelerine, edged with the same +ribbon run through a broad hem and tied with bows like those on the +dress, showed the great beauty of her shape. Her throat, of a pure +white, was charming in tone against the blue,--the right color for a +fair skin. A long blue sash with floating ends defined a slender waist +which seemed flexible,--a most seductive charm in women. She wore a +rice-straw bonnet, modestly trimmed with ribbons like those of the gown, +the strings of which were tied under her chin, setting off the whiteness +of the straw and doing no despite to that of her beautiful complexion. +Ursula dressed her own hair naturally (a la Berthe, as it was then +called) in heavy braids of fine, fair hair, laid flat on either side +of the head, each little strand reflecting the light as she walked. +Her gray eyes, soft and proud at the same time, were in harmony with a +finely modeled brow. A rosy tinge, suffusing her cheeks like a cloud, +brightened a face which was regular without being insipid; for nature +had given her, by some rare privilege, extreme purity of form combined +with strength of countenance. The nobility of her life was manifest in +the general expression of her person, which might have served as a model +for a type of trustfulness, or of modesty. Her health, though brilliant, +was not coarsely apparent; in fact, her whole air was distinguished. +Beneath the little gloves of a light color it was easy to imagine +her pretty hands. The arched and slender feet were delicately shod +in bronzed kid boots trimmed with a brown silk fringe. Her blue sash +holding at the waist a small flat watch and a blue purse with gilt +tassels attracted the eyes of every woman she met. + +"He has given her a new watch!" said Madame Cremiere, pinching her +husband's arm. + +"Heavens! is that Ursula?" cried Desire; "I didn't recognize her." + +"Well, my dear uncle," said the post master, addressing the doctor and +pointing to the whole population drawn up in parallel hedges to let the +doctor pass, "everybody wants to see you." + +"Was it the Abbe Chaperon or Mademoiselle Ursula who converted you, +uncle," said Massin, bowing to the doctor and his protegee, with +Jesuitical humility. + +"Ursula," replied the doctor, laconically, continuing to walk on as if +annoyed. + +The night before, as the old man finished his game of whist with Ursula, +the Nemours doctor, and Bongrand, he remarked, "I intend to go to church +to-morrow." + +"Then," said Bongrand, "your heirs won't get another night's rest." + +The speech was superfluous, however, for a single glance sufficed the +sagacious and clear-sighted doctor to read the minds of his heirs by +the expression of their faces. Zelie's irruption into the church, her +glance, which the doctor intercepted, this meeting of all the expectant +ones in the public square, and the expression in their eyes as they +turned them on Ursula, all proved to him their hatred, now freshly +awakened, and their sordid fears. + +"It is a feather in your cap, Mademoiselle," said Madame Cremiere, +putting in her word with a humble bow,--"a miracle which will not cost +you much." + +"It is God's doing, madame," replied Ursula. + +"God!" exclaimed Minoret-Levrault; "my father-in-law used to say he +served to blanket many horses." + +"Your father-in-law had the mind of a jockey," said the doctor severely. + +"Come," said Minoret to his wife and son, "why don't you bow to my +uncle?" + +"I shouldn't be mistress of myself before that little hypocrite," cried +Zelie, carrying off her son. + +"I advise you, uncle, not to go to mass without a velvet cap," said +Madame Massin; "the church is very damp." + +"Pooh, niece," said the doctor, looking round on the assembly, "the +sooner I'm put to bed the sooner you'll flourish." + +He walked on quickly, drawing Ursula with him, and seemed in such a +hurry that the others dropped behind. + +"Why do you say such harsh things to them? it isn't right," said Ursula, +shaking his arm in a coaxing way. + +"I shall always hate hypocrites, as much after as before I became +religious. I have done good to them all, and I asked no gratitude; but +not one of my relatives sent you a flower on your birthday, which they +know is the only day I celebrate." + +At some distance behind the doctor and Ursula came Madame de +Portenduere, dragging herself along as if overcome with trouble. She +belonged to the class of old women whose dress recalls the style of the +last century. They wear puce-colored gowns with flat sleeves, the cut of +which can be seen in the portraits of Madame Lebrun; they all have black +lace mantles and bonnets of a shape gone by, in keeping with their slow +and dignified deportment; one might almost fancy that they still wore +paniers under their petticoats or felt them there, as persons who have +lost a leg are said to fancy that the foot is moving. They swathe their +heads in old lace which declines to drape gracefully about their cheeks. +Their wan and elongated faces, their haggard eyes and faded brows, are +not without a certain melancholy grace, in spite of the false fronts +with flattened curls to which they cling,--and yet these ruins are all +subordinate to an unspeakable dignity of look and manner. + +The red and wrinkled eyes of this old lady showed plainly that she had +been crying during the service. She walked like a person in trouble, +seemed to be expecting some one, and looked behind her from time to +time. Now, the fact of Madame de Portenduere looking behind her was +really as remarkable in its way as the conversion of Doctor Minoret. + +"Who can Madame de Portenduere be looking for?" said Madame Massin, +rejoining the other heirs, who were for the moment struck dumb by the +doctor's answer. + +"For the cure," said Dionis, the notary, suddenly striking his forehead +as if some forgotten thought or memory had occurred to him. "I have an +idea! I'll save your inheritance! Let us go and breakfast gayly with +Madame Minoret." + +We can well imagine the alacrity with which the heirs followed the +notary to the post house. Goupil, who accompanied his friend Desire, +locked arm in arm with him, whispered something in the youth's ear with +an odious smile. + +"What do I care?" answered the son of the house, shrugging his +shoulders. "I am madly in love with Florine, the most celestial creature +in the world." + +"Florine! and who may she be?" demanded Goupil. "I'm too fond of you to +let you make a goose of yourself wish such creatures." + +"Florine is the idol of the famous Nathan; my passion is wasted, I know +that. She has positively refused to marry me." + +"Sometimes those girls who are fools with their bodies are wise with +their heads," responded Goupil. + +"If you could but see her--only once," said Desire, lackadaisically, +"you wouldn't say such things." + +"If I saw you throwing away your whole future for nothing better than +a fancy," said Goupil, with a warmth which might even have deceived +his master, "I would break your doll as Varney served Amy Robsart in +'Kenilworth.' Your wife must be a d'Aiglement or a Mademoiselle du +Rouvre, and get you made a deputy. My future depends on yours, and I +sha'n't let you commit any follies." + +"I am rich enough to care only for happiness," replied Desire. + +"What are you two plotting together?" cried Zelie, beckoning to the two +friends, who were standing in the middle of the courtyard, to come into +the house. + +The doctor disappeared into the Rue des Bourgeois with the activity of +a young man, and soon reached his own house, where strange events had +lately taken place, the visible results of which now filled the minds +of the whole community of Nemours. A few explanations are needed to make +this history and the notary's remark to the heirs perfectly intelligible +to the reader. + + + + +CHAPTER V. URSULA + +The father-in-law of Doctor Minoret, the famous harpsichordist and +maker of instruments, Valentin Mirouet, also one of our most celebrated +organists, died in 1785 leaving a natural son, the child of his old age, +whom he acknowledged and called by his own name, but who turned out a +worthless fellow. He was deprived on his death bed of the comfort of +seeing this petted son. Joseph Mirouet, a singer and composer, having +made his debut at the Italian opera under a feigned name, ran away with +a young lady in Germany. The dying father commended the young man, who +was really full of talent, to his son-in-law, proving to him, at the +same time, that he had refused to marry the mother that he might not +injure Madame Minoret. The doctor promised to give the unfortunate +Joseph half of whatever his wife inherited from her father, whose +business was purchased by the Erards. He made due search for his +illegitimate brother-in-law; but Grimm informed him one day that after +enlisting in a Prussian regiment Joseph had deserted and taken a false +name and that all efforts to find him would be frustrated. + +Joseph Mirouet, gifted by nature with a delightful voice, a fine figure, +a handsome face, and being moreover a composer of great taste and much +brilliancy, led for over fifteen years the Bohemian life which Hoffman +has so well described. So, by the time he was forty, he was reduced to +such depths of poverty that he took advantage of the events of 1806 +to make himself once more a Frenchman. He settled in Hamburg, where he +married the daughter of a bourgeois, a girl devoted to music, who fell +in love with the singer (whose fame was ever prospective) and chose +to devote her life to him. But after fifteen years of Bohemia, Joseph +Mirouet was unable to bear prosperity; he was naturally a spendthrift, +and though kind to his wife, he wasted her fortune in a very few years. +The household must have dragged on a wretched existence before Joseph +Mirouet reached the point of enlisting as a musician in a French +regiment. In 1813 the surgeon-major of the regiment, by the merest +chance, heard the name of Mirouet, was struck by it, and wrote to Doctor +Minoret, to whom he was under obligations. + +The answer was not long in coming. As a result, in 1814, before the +allied occupation, Joseph Mirouet had a home in Paris, where his wife +died giving birth to a little girl, whom the doctor desired should +be called Ursula after his wife. The father did not long survive the +mother, worn out, as she was, by hardship and poverty. When dying the +unfortunate musician bequeathed his daughter to the doctor, who was +already her godfather, in spite of his repugnance for what he called the +mummeries of the Church. Having seen his own children die in succession +either in dangerous confinements or during the first year of their +lives, the doctor had awaited with anxiety the result of a last hope. +When a nervous, delicate, and sickly woman begins with a miscarriage +it is not unusual to see her go through a series of such pregnancies as +Ursula Minoret did, in spite of the care and watchfulness and science +of her husband. The poor man often blamed himself for their mutual +persistence in desiring children. The last child, born after a rest +of nearly two years, died in 1792, a victim of its mother's nervous +condition--if we listen to physiologists, who tell us that in the +inexplicable phenomenon of generation the child derives from the father +by blood and from the mother in its nervous system. + +Compelled to renounce the joys of a feeling all powerful within him, the +doctor turned to benevolence as a substitute for his denied paternity. +During his married life, thus cruelly disappointed, he had longed more +especially for a fair little daughter, a flower to bring joy to the +house; he therefore gladly accepted Joseph Mirouet's legacy, and gave to +the orphan all the hopes of his vanished dreams. For two years he took +part, as Cato for Pompey, in the most minute particulars of Ursula's +life; he would not allow the nurse to suckle her or to take her up or +put her to bed without him. His medical science and his experience +were all put to use in her service. After going through many trials, +alternations of hope and fear, and the joys and labors of a mother, he +had the happiness of seeing this child of the fair German woman and the +French singer a creature of vigorous health and profound sensibility. + +With all the eager feelings of a mother the happy old man watched the +growth of the pretty hair, first down, then silk, at last hair, fine and +soft and clinging to the fingers that caressed it. He often kissed the +little naked feet the toes of which, covered with a pellicle through +which the blood was seen, were like rosebuds. He was passionately fond +of the child. When she tried to speak, or when she fixed her beautiful +blue eyes upon some object with that serious, reflective look which +seems the dawn of thought, and which she ended with a laugh, he would +stay by her side for hours, seeking, with Jordy's help, to understand +the reasons (which most people call caprices) underlying the phenomena +of this delicious phase of life, when childhood is both flower and +fruit, a confused intelligence, a perpetual movement, a powerful desire. + +Ursula's beauty and gentleness made her so dear to the doctor that he +would have liked to change the laws of nature in her behalf. He declared +to old Jordy that his teeth ached when Ursula was cutting hers. When old +men love children there is no limit to their passion--they worship them. +For these little beings they silence their own manias or recall a whole +past in their service. Experience, patience, sympathy, the acquisitions +of life, treasures laboriously amassed, all are spent upon that young +life in which they live again; their intelligence does actually take the +place of motherhood. Their wisdom, ever on the alert, is equal to the +intuition of a mother; they remember the delicate perceptions which in +their own mother were divinations, and import them into the exercise of +a compassion which is carried to an extreme in their minds by a sense of +the child's unutterable weakness. The slowness of their movements takes +the place of maternal gentleness. In them, as in children, life is +reduced to its simplest expression; if maternal sentiment makes the +mother a slave, the abandonment of self allows an old man to devote +himself utterly. For these reasons it is not unusual to see children in +close intimacy with old persons. The old soldier, the old abbe, the old +doctor, happy in the kisses and cajoleries of little Ursula, were never +weary of answering her talk and playing with her. Far from making +them impatient her petulances charmed them; and they gratified all her +wishes, making each the ground of some little training. + +The child grew up surrounded by old men, who smiled at her and made +themselves mothers for her sake, all three equally attentive and +provident. Thanks to this wise education, Ursula's soul developed in +a sphere that suited it. This rare plant found its special soil; it +breathed the elements of its true life and assimilated the sun rays that +belonged to it. + +"In what faith do you intend to bring up the little one?" asked the abbe +of the doctor, when Ursula was six years old. + +"In yours," answered Minoret. + +An atheist after the manner of Monsieur Wolmar in the "Nouvelle Heloise" +he did not claim the right to deprive Ursula of the benefits offered +by the Catholic religion. The doctor, sitting at the moment on a bench +outside the Chinese pagoda, felt the pressure of the abbe's hand on his. + +"Yes, abbe, every time she talks to me of God I shall send her to her +friend 'Shapron,'" he said, imitating Ursula's infant speech, "I wish to +see whether religious sentiment is inborn or not. Therefore I shall do +nothing either for or against the tendencies of that young soul; but in +my heart I have appointed you her spiritual guardian." + +"God will reward you, I hope," replied the abbe, gently joining his +hands and raising them towards heaven as if he were making a brief +mental prayer. + +So, from the time she was six years old the little orphan lived under +the religious influence of the abbe, just as she had already come under +the educational training of her friend Jordy. + +The captain, formerly a professor in a military academy, having a +taste for grammar and for the differences among European languages, had +studied the problem of a universal tongue. This learned man, patient as +most old scholars are, delighted in teaching Ursula to read and write. +He taught her also the French language and all she needed to know of +arithmetic. The doctor's library afforded a choice of books which could +be read by a child for amusement as well as instruction. + +The abbe and the soldier allowed the young mind to enrich itself with +the freedom and comfort which the doctor gave to the body. Ursula +learned as she played. Religion was given with due reflection. Left +to follow the divine training of a nature that was led into regions of +purity by these judicious educators, Ursula inclined more to sentiment +than to duty; she took as her rule of conduct the voice of her own +conscience rather than the demands of social law. In her, nobility of +feeling and action would ever be spontaneous; her judgment would confirm +the impulse of her heart. She was destined to do right as a pleasure +before doing it as an obligation. This distinction is the peculiar sign +of Christian education. These principles, altogether different from +those that are taught to men, were suitable for a woman,--the spirit and +the conscience of the home, the beautifier of domestic life, the queen +of her household. All three of these old preceptors followed the same +method with Ursula. Instead of recoiling before the bold questions of +innocence, they explained to her the reasons of things and the best +means of action, taking care to give her none but correct ideas. +When, apropos of a flower, a star, a blade of grass, her thoughts went +straight to God, the doctor and the professor told her that the priest +alone could answer her. None of them intruded on the territory of the +others; the doctor took charge of her material well-being and the +things of life; Jordy's department was instruction; moral and spiritual +questions and the ideas appertaining to the higher life belonged to +the abbe. This noble education was not, as it often is, counteracted by +injudicious servants. La Bougival, having been lectured on the subject, +and being, moreover, too simple in mind and character to interfere, did +nothing to injure the work of these great minds. Ursula, a privileged +being, grew up with good geniuses round her; and her naturally fine +disposition made the task of each a sweet and easy one. Such manly +tenderness, such gravity lighted by smiles, such liberty without danger, +such perpetual care of soul and body made little Ursula, when nine years +of age, a well-trained child and delightful to behold. + +Unhappily, this paternal trinity was broken up. The old captain died the +following year, leaving the abbe and the doctor to finish his work, of +which, however, he had accomplished the most difficult part. Flowers +will bloom of themselves if grown in a soil thus prepared. The old +gentleman had laid by for ten years past one thousand francs a year, +that he might leave ten thousand to his little Ursula, and keep a place +in her memory during her whole life. In his will, the wording of which +was very touching, he begged his legatee to spend the four or five +hundred francs that came of her little capital exclusively on her dress. +When the justice of the peace applied the seals to the effects of his +old friend, they found in a small room, which the captain had allowed +no one to enter, a quantity of toys, many of them broken, while all +had been used,--toys of a past generation, reverently preserved, which +Monsieur Bongrand was, according to the captain's last wishes, to burn +with his own hands. + +About this time it was that Ursula made her first communion. The abbe +employed one whole year in duly instructing the young girl, whose mind +and heart, each well developed, yet judiciously balancing one another, +needed a special spiritual nourishment. The initiation into a knowledge +of divine things which he gave her was such that Ursula grew into +the pious and mystical young girl whose character rose above all +vicissitudes, and whose heart was enabled to conquer adversity. Then +began a secret struggle between the old man wedded to unbelief and the +young girl full of faith,--long unsuspected by her who incited it,--the +result of which had now stirred the whole town, and was destined to have +great influence on Ursula's future by rousing against her the antagonism +of the doctor's heirs. + +During the first six months of the year 1824 Ursula spent all her +mornings at the parsonage. The old doctor guessed the abbe's secret +hope. He meant to make Ursula an unanswerable argument against him. +The old unbeliever, loved by his godchild as though she were his own +daughter, would surely believe in such artless candor; he could not fail +to be persuaded by the beautiful effects of religion on the soul of a +child, where love was like those trees of Eastern climes, bearing both +flowers and fruit, always fragrant, always fertile. A beautiful life is +more powerful than the strongest argument. It is impossible to resist +the charms of certain sights. The doctor's eyes were wet, he knew not +how or why, when he saw the child of his heart starting for the church, +wearing a frock of white crape, and shoes of white satin; her hair bound +with a fillet fastened at the side with a knot of white ribbon, and +rippling upon her shoulders; her eyes lighted by the star of a first +hope; hurrying, tall and beautiful, to a first union, and loving her +godfather better since her soul had risen towards God. When the doctor +perceived that the thought of immortality was nourishing that spirit +(until then within the confines of childhood) as the sun gives life to +the earth without knowing why, he felt sorry that he remained at home +alone. + +Sitting on the steps of his portico he kept his eyes fixed on the iron +railing of the gate through which the child had disappeared, saying as +she left him: "Why won't you come, godfather? how can I be happy without +you?" Though shaken to his very center, the pride of the Encyclopedist +did not as yet give way. He walked slowly in a direction from which he +could see the procession of communicants, and distinguish his little +Ursula brilliant with exaltation beneath her veil. She gave him an +inspired look, which knocked, in the stony regions of his heart, on +the corner closed to God. But still the old deist held firm. He said +to himself: "Mummeries! if there be a maker of worlds, imagine the +organizer of infinitude concerning himself with such trifles!" He +laughed as he continued his walk along the heights which look down upon +the road to the Gatinais, where the bells were ringing a joyous peal +that told of the joy of families. + +The noise of backgammon is intolerable to persons who do not know the +game, which is really one of the most difficult that was ever invented. +Not to annoy his godchild, the extreme delicacy of whose organs and +nerves could not bear, he thought, without injury the noise and the +exclamations she did not know the meaning of, the abbe, old Jordy while +living, and the doctor always waited till their child was in bed before +they began their favorite game. Sometimes the visitors came early +when she was out for a walk, and the game would be going on when she +returned; then she resigned herself with infinite grace and took her +seat at the window with her work. She had a repugnance to the game, +which is really in the beginning very hard and unconquerable to some +minds, so that unless it be learned in youth it is almost impossible to +take it up in after life. + +The night of her first communion, when Ursula came into the salon where +her godfather was sitting alone, she put the backgammon-board before +him. + +"Whose throw shall it be?" she asked. + +"Ursula," said the doctor, "isn't it a sin to make fun of your godfather +the day of your first communion?" + +"I am not making fun of you," she said, sitting down. "I want to give +you some pleasure--you who are always on the look-out for mine. When +Monsieur Chaperon was pleased with me he gave me a lesson in backgammon, +and he has given me so many that now I am quite strong enough to beat +you--you shall not deprive yourself any longer for me. I have conquered +all difficulties, and now I like the noise of the game." + +Ursula won. The abbe had slipped in to enjoy his triumph. The next day +Minoret, who had always refused to let Ursula learn music, sent to +Paris for a piano, made arrangements at Fontainebleau for a teacher, and +submitted to the annoyance that her constant practicing was to him. One +of poor Jordy's predictions was fulfilled,--the girl became an excellent +musician. The doctor, proud of her talent, had lately sent to Paris for +a master, an old German named Schmucke, a distinguished professor who +came once a week; the doctor willingly paying for an art which he had +formerly declared to be useless in a household. Unbelievers do not like +music--a celestial language, developed by Catholicism, which has taken +the names of the seven notes from one of the church hymns; every note +being the first syllable of the seven first lines in the hymn to Saint +John. + +The impression produced on the doctor by Ursula's first communion though +keen was not lasting. The calm and sweet contentment which prayer and +the exercise of resolution produced in that young soul had not their due +influence upon him. Having no reasons for remorse or repentance himself, +he enjoyed a serene peace. Doing his own benefactions without hope of a +celestial harvest, he thought himself on a nobler plane than religious +men whom he always accused for making, as he called it, terms with God. + +"But," the abbe would say to him, "if all men would be so, you must +admit that society would be regenerated; there would be no more +misery. To be benevolent after your fashion one must needs be a great +philosopher; you rise to your principles through reason, you are a +social exception; whereas it suffices to be a Christian to make us +benevolent in ours. With you, it is an effort; with us, it comes +naturally." + +"In other words, abbe, I think, and you feel,--that's the whole of it." + +However, at twelve years of age, Ursula, whose quickness and natural +feminine perceptions were trained by her superior education, and whose +intelligence in its dawn was enlightened by a religious spirit (of all +spirits the most refined), came to understand that her godfather did +not believe in a future life, nor in the immortality of the soul, nor in +providence, nor in God. Pressed with questions by the innocent creature, +the doctor was unable to hide the fatal secret. Ursula's artless +consternation made him smile, but when he saw her depressed and sad he +felt how deep an affection her sadness revealed. Absolute devotion has +a horror of every sort of disagreement, even in ideas which it does +not share. Sometimes the doctor accepted his darling's reasonings as he +would her kisses, said as they were in the sweetest of voices with +the purest and most fervent feeling. Believers and unbelievers speak +different languages and cannot understand each other. The young girl +pleading God's cause was unreasonable with the old man, as a spoilt +child sometimes maltreats its mother. The abbe rebuked her gently, +telling her that God had power to humiliate proud spirits. Ursula +replied that David had overcome Goliath. + +This religious difference, these complaints of the child who wished to +drag her godfather to God, were the only troubles of this happy life, so +peaceful, yet so full, and wholly withdrawn from the inquisitive eyes +of the little town. Ursula grew and developed, and became in time the +modest and religiously trained young woman whom Desire admired as she +left the church. The cultivation of flowers in the garden, her music, +the pleasures of her godfather, and all the little cares she was able to +give him (for she had eased La Bougival's labors by doing everything for +him),--these things filled the hours, the days, the months of her calm +life. Nevertheless, for about a year the doctor had felt uneasy about +his Ursula, and watched her health with the utmost care. Sagacious and +profoundly practical observer that he was, he thought he perceived some +commotion in her moral being. He watched her like a mother, but seeing +no one about her who was worthy of inspiring love, his uneasiness on the +subject at length passed away. + +At this conjuncture, one month before the day when this drama begins, +the doctor's intellectual life was invaded by one of those events which +plough to the very depths of a man's convictions and turn them over. But +this event needs a succinct narrative of certain circumstances in his +medical career, which will give, perhaps, fresh interest to the story. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. A TREATISE ON MESMERISM + +Towards the end of the eighteenth century science was sundered as widely +by the apparition of Mesmer as art had been by that of Gluck. After +re-discovering magnetism Mesmer came to France, where, from time +immemorial, inventors have flocked to obtain recognition for their +discoveries. France, thanks to her lucid language, is in some sense the +clarion of the world. + +"If homoeopathy gets to Paris it is saved," said Hahnemann, recently. + +"Go to France," said Monsieur de Metternich to Gall, "and if they laugh +at your bumps you will be famous." + +Mesmer had disciples and antagonists as ardent for and against his +theories as the Piccinists and the Gluckists for theirs. Scientific +France was stirred to its center; a solemn conclave was opened. Before +judgment was rendered, the medical faculty proscribed, in a body, +Mesmer's so-called charlatanism, his tub, his conducting wires, and +his theory. But let us at once admit that the German, unfortunately, +compromised his splendid discovery by enormous pecuniary claims. Mesmer +was defeated by the doubtfulness of facts, by universal ignorance of the +part played in nature by imponderable fluids then unobserved, and by his +own inability to study on all sides a science possessing a triple +front. Magnetism has many applications; in Mesmer's hands it was, in +its relation to the future, merely what cause is to effect. But, if +the discoverer lacked genius, it is a sad thing both for France and +for human reason to have to say that a science contemporaneous with +civilization, cultivated by Egypt and Chaldea, by Greece and India, met +in Paris in the eighteenth century the fate that Truth in the person of +Galileo found in the sixteenth; and that magnetism was rejected and cast +out by the combined attacks of science and religion, alarmed for their +own positions. Magnetism, the favorite science of Jesus Christ and +one of the divine powers which he gave to his disciples, was no better +apprehended by the Church than by the disciples of Jean-Jacques, +Voltaire, Locke, and Condillac. The Encyclopedists and the clergy were +equally averse to the old human power which they took to be new. The +miracles of the convulsionaries, suppressed by the Church and smothered +by the indifference of scientific men (in spite of the precious writings +of the Councilor, Carre de Montgeron) were the first summons to make +experiments with those human fluids which give power to employ certain +inward forces to neutralize the sufferings caused by outward agents. But +to do this it was necessary to admit the existence of fluids intangible, +invisible, imponderable, three negative terms in which the science of +that day chose to see a definition of the void. In modern philosophy +there is no void. Ten feet of void and the world crumbles away! To +materialists especially the world is full, all things hang together, are +linked, related, organized. "The world as the result of chance," said +Diderot, "is more explicable than God. The multiplicity of causes, the +incalculable number of issues presupposed by chance, explain creation. +Take the Eneid and all the letters composing it; if you allow me time +and space, I can, by continuing to cast the letters, arrive at last at +the Eneid combination." + +Those foolish persons who deify all rather than admit a God recoil +before the infinite divisibility of matter which is in the nature of +imponderable forces. Locke and Condillac retarded by fifty years the +immense progress which natural science is now making under the great +principle of unity due to Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire. Some intelligent +persons, without any system, convinced by facts conscientiously studied, +still hold to Mesmer's doctrine, which recognizes the existence of a +penetrative influence acting from man to man, put in motion by the will, +curative by the abundance of the fluid, the working of which is in fact +a duel between two forces, between an ill to be cured and the will to +cure it. + +The phenomena of somnambulism, hardly perceived by Mesmer, were revealed +by du Puysegur and Deleuze; but the Revolution put a stop to their +discoveries and played into the hands of the scientists and scoffers. +Among the small number of believers were a few physicians. They were +persecuted by their brethren as long as they lived. The respectable body +of Parisian doctors displayed all the bitterness of religious warfare +against the Mesmerists, and were as cruel in their hatred as it was +possible to be in those days of Voltairean tolerance. The orthodox +physician refused to consult with those who adopted the Mesmerian +heresy. In 1820 these heretics were still proscribed. The miseries and +sorrows of the Revolution had not quenched the scientific hatred. It is +only priests, magistrates, and physicians who can hate in that way. +The official robe is terrible! But ideas are even more implacable than +things. + +Doctor Bouvard, one of Minoret's friends, believed in the new faith, +and persevered to the day of his death in studying a science to which +he sacrificed the peace of his life, for he was one of the chief "betes +noires" of the Parisian faculty. Minoret, a valiant supporter of +the Encyclopedists, and a formidable adversary of Desion, Mesmer's +assistant, whose pen had great weight in the controversy, quarreled with +his old friend, and not only that, but he persecuted him. His conduct +to Bouvard must have caused him the only remorse which troubled the +serenity of his declining years. Since his retirement to Nemours the +science of imponderable fluids (the only name suitable for magnetism, +which, by the nature of its phenomena, is closely allied to light and +electricity) had made immense progress, in spite of the ridicule of +Parisian scientists. Phrenology and physiognomy, the departments of Gall +and Lavater (which are in fact twins, for one is to the other as cause +is to effect), proved to the minds of more than one physiologist the +existence of an intangible fluid which is the basis of the phenomena +of the human will, and from which result passions, habits, the shape of +faces and of skulls. Magnetic facts, the miracles of somnambulism, those +of divination and ecstasy, which open a way to the spiritual world, were +fast accumulating. The strange tale of the apparitions of the farmer +Martin, so clearly proved, and his interview with Louis XVIII.; a +knowledge of the intercourse of Swedenborg with the departed, carefully +investigated in Germany; the tales of Walter Scott on the effects of +"second sight"; the extraordinary faculties of some fortune-tellers, who +practice as a single science chiromancy, cartomancy, and the horoscope; +the facts of catalepsy, and those of the action of certain morbid +affections on the properties of the diaphragm,--all such phenomena, +curious, to say the least, each emanating from the same source, were now +undermining many scepticisms and leading even the most indifferent minds +to the plane of experiments. Minoret, buried in Nemours, was ignorant of +this movement of minds, strong in the north of Europe but still weak +in France where, however, many facts called marvelous by superficial +observers, were happening, but falling, alas! like stones to the bottom +of the sea, in the vortex of Parisian excitements. + +At the bottom of the present year the doctor's tranquillity was shaken +by the following letter:-- + + +My old comrade,--All friendship, even if lost, has rights which it is +difficult to set aside. I know that you are still living, and I +remember far less our enmity than our happy days in that old hovel of +Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. + +At a time when I expect to soon leave the world I have it on my heart to +prove to you that magnetism is about to become one of the most important +of the sciences--if indeed all science is not _one_. I can overcome +your incredulity by proof. Perhaps I shall owe to your curiosity the +happiness of taking you once more by the hand--as in the days before +Mesmer. Always yours, + +Bouvard. + + +Stung like a lion by a gadfly the old scientist rushed to Paris and +left his card on Bouvard, who lived in the Rue Ferou near Saint-Sulpice. +Bouvard sent a card to his hotel on which was written "To-morrow; nine +o'clock, Rue Saint-Honore, opposite the Assumption." + +Minoret, who seemed to have renewed his youth, could not sleep. He went +to see some of his friends among the faculty to inquire if the world +were turned upside down, if the science of medicine still had a school, +if the four faculties any longer existed. The doctors reassured him, +declaring that the old spirit of opposition was as strong as ever, only, +instead of persecuting as heretofore, the Academies of Medicine and +of Sciences rang with laughter as they classed magnetic facts with the +tricks of Comus and Comte and Bosco, with jugglery and prestidigitation +and all that now went by the name of "amusing physics." + +This assurance did not prevent old Minoret from keeping the appointment +made for him by Bouvard. After an enmity of forty-four years the +two antagonists met beneath a porte-cochere in the Rue Saint-Honore. +Frenchmen have too many distractions of mind to hate each other long. In +Paris especially, politics, literature, and science render life so vast +that every man can find new worlds to conquer where all pretensions +may live at ease. Hatred requires too many forces fully armed. None but +public bodies can keep alive the sentiment. Robespierre and Danton +would have fallen into each other's arms at the end of forty-four years. +However, the two doctors each withheld his hand and did not offer it. +Bouvard spoke first:-- + +"You seem wonderfully well." + +"Yes, I am--and you?" said Minoret, feeling that the ice was now broken. + +"As you see." + +"Does magnetism prevent people from dying?" asked Minoret in a joking +tone, but without sharpness. + +"No, but it almost prevented me from living." + +"Then you are not rich?" exclaimed Minoret. + +"Pooh!" said Bouvard. + +"But I am!" cried the other. + +"It is not your money but your convictions that I want. Come," replied +Bouvard. + +"Oh! you obstinate fellow!" said Minoret. + +The Mesmerist led his sceptic, with some precaution, up a dingy +staircase to the fourth floor. + +At this particular time an extraordinary man had appeared in Paris, +endowed by faith with incalculable power, and controlling magnetic +forces in all their applications. Not only did this great unknown +(who still lives) heal from a distance the worst and most inveterate +diseases, suddenly and radically, as the Savior of men did formerly, +but he was also able to call forth instantaneously the most remarkable +phenomena of somnambulism and conquer the most rebellious will. The +countenance of this mysterious being, who claims to be responsible to +God alone and to communicate, like Swedenborg, with angels, resembles +that of a lion; concentrated, irresistible energy shines in it. His +features, singularly contorted, have a terrible and even blasting +aspect. His voice, which comes from the depths of his being, seems +charged with some magnetic fluid; it penetrates the hearer at every +pore. Disgusted by the ingratitude of the public after his many +cures, he has now returned to an impenetrable solitude, a voluntary +nothingness. His all-powerful hand, which has restored a dying daughter +to her mother, fathers to their grief-stricken children, adored +mistresses to lovers frenzied with love, cured the sick given over +by physicians, soothed the sufferings of the dying when life became +impossible, wrung psalms of thanksgiving in synagogues, temples, and +churches from the lips of priests recalled to the one God by the same +miracle,--that sovereign hand, a sun of life dazzling the closed eyes +of the somnambulist, has never been raised again even to save the +heir-apparent of a kingdom. Wrapped in the memory of his past mercies +as in a luminous shroud, he denies himself to the world and lives for +heaven. + +But, at the dawn of his reign, surprised by his own gift, this man, +whose generosity equaled his power, allowed a few interested persons to +witness his miracles. The fame of his work, which was mighty, and could +easily be revived to-morrow, reached Dr. Bouvard, who was then on the +verge of the grave. The persecuted mesmerist was at last enabled to +witness the startling phenomena of a science he had long treasured +in his heart. The sacrifices of the old man touched the heart of the +mysterious stranger, who accorded him certain privileges. As Bouvard now +went up the staircase he listened to the twittings of his old antagonist +with malicious delight, answering only, "You shall see, you shall see!" +with the emphatic little nods of a man who is sure of his facts. + +The two physicians entered a suite of rooms that were more than modest. +Bouvard went alone into a bedroom which adjoined the salon where he left +Minoret, whose distrust was instantly awakened; but Bouvard returned +at once and took him into the bedroom, where he saw the mysterious +Swedenborgian, and also a woman sitting in an armchair. The woman did +not rise, and seemed not to notice the entrance of the two old men. + +"What! no tub?" cried Minoret, smiling. + +"Nothing but the power of God," answered the Swedenborgian gravely. He +seemed to Minoret to be about fifty years of age. + +The three men sat down and the mysterious stranger talked of the rain +and the coming fine weather, to the great astonishment of Minoret, who +thought he was being hoaxed. The Swedenborgian soon began, however, to +question his visitor on his scientific opinions, and seemed evidently to +be taking time to examine him. + +"You have come here solely from curiosity, monsieur," he said at +last. "It is not my habit to prostitute a power which, according to my +conviction, emanates from God; if I made a frivolous or unworthy use +of it, it would be taken from me. Nevertheless, there is some hope, +Monsieur Bouvard tells me, of changing the opinions of one who has +opposed us, of enlightening a scientific man whose mind is candid; +I have therefore determined to satisfy you. That woman whom you see +there," he continued, pointing to her, "is now in a somnambulic sleep. +The statements and manifestations of somnambulists declare that this +state is a delightful other life, during which the inner being, freed +from the trammels laid upon the exercise of our faculties by the visible +world, moves in a world which we mistakenly term invisible. Sight and +hearing are then exercised in a manner far more perfect than any we know +of here, possibly without the help of the organs we now employ, which +are the scabbard of the luminous blades called sight and hearing. To a +person in that state, distance and material obstacles do not exist, or +they can be traversed by a life within us for which our body is a +mere receptacle, a necessary shelter, a casing. Terms fail to describe +effects that have lately been rediscovered, for to-day the words +imponderable, intangible, invisible have no meaning to the fluid whose +action is demonstrated by magnetism. Light is ponderable by its heat, +which, by penetrating bodies, increases their volume; and certainly +electricity is only too tangible. We have condemned things themselves +instead of blaming the imperfection of our instruments." + +"She sleeps," said Minoret, examining the woman, who seemed to him to +belong to an inferior class. + +"Her body is for the time being in abeyance," said the Swedenborgian. +"Ignorant persons suppose that condition to be sleep. But she will prove +to you that there is a spiritual universe, and that the mind when +there does not obey the laws of this material universe. I will send her +wherever you wish to go,--a hundred miles from here or to China, as you +will. She will tell you what is happening there." + +"Send her to my house in Nemours, Rue des Bourgeois; that will do," said +Minoret. + +He took Minoret's hand, which the doctor let him take, and held it for a +moment seeming to collect himself; then with his other hand he took that +of the woman sitting in the arm-chair and placed the hand of the doctor +in it, making a sign to the old sceptic to seat himself beside this +oracle without a tripod. Minoret observed a slight tremor on the +absolutely calm features of the woman when their hands were thus united +by the Swedenborgian, but the action, though marvelous in its effects, +was very simply done. + +"Obey him," said the unknown personage, extending his hand above the +head of the sleeping woman, who seemed to imbibe both light and life +from him, "and remember that what you do for him will please me.--You +can now speak to her," he added, addressing Minoret. + +"Go to Nemours, to my house, Rue des Bourgeois," said the doctor. + +"Give her time; put your hand in hers until she proves to you by what +she tells you that she is where you wish her to be," said Bouvard to his +old friend. + +"I see a river," said the woman in a feeble voice, seeming to look +within herself with deep attention, notwithstanding her closed eyelids. +"I see a pretty garden--" + +"Why do you enter by the river and the garden?" said Minoret. + +"Because they are there." + +"Who?" + +"The young girl and her nurse, whom you are thinking of." + +"What is the garden like?" said Minoret. + +"Entering by the steps which go down to the river, there is the right, +a long brick gallery, in which I see books; it ends in a singular +building,--there are wooden bells, and a pattern of red eggs. To the +left, the wall is covered with climbing plants, wild grapes, Virginia +jessamine. In the middle is a sun-dial. There are many plants in pots. +Your child is looking at the flowers. She shows them to her nurse--she +is making holes in the earth with her trowel, and planting seeds. The +nurse is raking the path. The young girl is pure as an angel, but the +beginning of love is there, faint as the dawn--" + +"Love for whom?" asked the doctor, who, until now, would have listened +to no word said to him by somnambulists. He considered it all jugglery. + +"You know nothing--though you have lately been uneasy about her health," +answered the woman. "Her heart has followed the dictates of nature." + +"A woman of the people to talk like this!" cried the doctor. + +"In the state she is in all persons speak with extraordinary +perception," said Bouvard. + +"But who is it that Ursula loves?" + +"Ursula does not know that she loves," said the woman with a shake of +the head; "she is too angelic to know what love is; but her mind is +occupied by him; she thinks of him; she tries to escape the thought; +but she returns to it in spite of her will to abstain.--She is at the +piano--" + +"But who is he?" + +"The son of a lady who lives opposite." + +"Madame de Portenduere?" + +"Portenduere, did you say?" replied the sleeper. "Perhaps so. But +there's no danger; he is not in the neighbourhood." + +"Have they spoken to each other?" asked the doctor. + +"Never. They have looked at one another. She thinks him charming. He is, +in fact, a fine man; he has a good heart. She sees him from her window; +they see each other in church. But the young man no longer thinks of +her." + +"His name?" + +"Ah! to tell you that I must read it, or hear it. He is named Savinien; +she has just spoken his name; she thinks it sweet to say; she has +looked in the almanac for his fete-day and marked a red dot against +it,--child's play, that. Ah! she will love well, with as much strength +as purity; she is not a girl to love twice; love will so dye her soul +and fill it that she will reject all other sentiments." + +"Where do you see that?" + +"In her. She will know how to suffer; she inherits that; her father and +her mother suffered much." + +The last words overcame the doctor, who felt less shaken than surprised. +It is proper to state that between her sentences the woman paused for +several minutes, during which time her attention became more and more +concentrated. She was seen to see; her forehead had a singular aspect; +an inward effort appeared there; it seemed to clear or cloud by some +mysterious power, the effects of which Minoret had seen in dying persons +at moments when they appeared to have the gift of prophecy. Several +times she made gestures which resembled those of Ursula. + +"Question her," said the mysterious stranger, to Minoret, "she will tell +you secrets you alone can know." + +"Does Ursula love me?" asked Minoret. + +"Almost as much as she loves God," was the answer. "But she is very +unhappy at your unbelief. You do not believe in God; as if you could +prevent his existence! His word fills the universe. You are the cause of +her only sorrow.--Hear! she is playing scales; she longs to be a better +musician than she is; she is provoked with herself. She is thinking, 'If +I could sing, if my voice were fine, it would reach his ear when he is +with his mother.'" + +Doctor Minoret took out his pocket-book and noted the hour. + +"Tell me what seeds she planted?" + +"Mignonette, sweet-peas, balsams--" + +"And what else?" + +"Larkspur." + +"Where is my money?" + +"With your notary; but you invest it so as not to lose the interest of a +single day." + +"Yes, but where is the money that I keep for my monthly expenses?" + +"You put it in a large book bound in red, entitled 'Pandects of +Justinian, Vol. II.' between the last two leaves; the book is on the +shelf of folios above the glass buffet. You have a whole row of them. +Your money is in the last volume next to the salon--See! Vol. III. is +before Vol. II.--but you have no money, it is all in--" + +"--thousand-franc notes," said the doctor. + +"I cannot see, they are folded. No, there are two notes of five hundred +francs." + +"You see them?" + +"Yes." + +"How do they look?" + +"One is old and yellow, the other white and new." + +This last phase of the inquiry petrified the doctor. He looked at +Bouvard with a bewildered air; but Bouvard and the Swedenborgian, who +were accustomed to the amazement of sceptics, were speaking together in +a low voice and appeared not to notice him. Minoret begged them to allow +him to return after dinner. The old philosopher wished to compose his +mind and shake off this terror, so as to put this vast power to some new +test, to subject it to more decisive experiments and obtain answers to +certain questions, the truth of which should do away with every sort of +doubt. + +"Be here at nine o'clock this evening," said the stranger. "I will +return to meet you." + +Doctor Minoret was in so convulsed a state that he left the room without +bowing, followed by Bouvard, who called to him from behind. "Well, what +do you say? what do you say?" + +"I think I am mad, Bouvard," answered Minoret from the steps of the +porte-cochere. "If that woman tells the truth about Ursula,--and none +but Ursula can know the things that sorceress has told me,--I shall say +that _you are right_. I wish I had wings to fly to Nemours this minute +and verify her words. But I shall hire a carriage and start at ten +o'clock to-night. Ah! am I losing my senses?" + +"What would you say if you knew of a life-long incurable disease healed +in a moment; if you saw that great magnetizer bring sweat in torrents +from an herpetic patient, or make a paralyzed woman walk?" + +"Come and dine, Bouvard; stay with me till nine o'clock. I must find +some decisive, undeniable test!" + +"So be it, old comrade," answered the other. + +The reconciled enemies dined in the Palais-Royal. After a lively +conversation, which helped Minoret to evade the fever of the ideas which +were ravaging his brain, Bouvard said to him:-- + +"If you admit in that woman the faculty of annihilating or of traversing +space, if you obtain a certainty that here, in Paris, she sees and hears +what is said and done in Nemours, you must admit all other magnetic +facts; they are not more incredible than these. Ask her for some one +proof which you know will satisfy you--for you might suppose that we +obtained information to deceive you; but we cannot know, for instance, +what will happen at nine o'clock in your goddaughter's bedroom. +Remember, or write down, what the sleeper will see and hear, and then go +home. Your little Ursula, whom I do not know, is not our accomplice, +and if she tells you that she has said and done what you have written +down--lower thy head, proud Hun!" + +The two friends returned to the house opposite to the Assumption and +found the somnambulist, who in her waking state did not recognize Doctor +Minoret. The eyes of this woman closed gently before the hand of the +Swedenborgian, which was stretched towards her at a little distance, and +she took the attitude in which Minoret had first seen her. When her hand +and that of the doctor were again joined, he asked her to tell him what +was happening in his house at Nemours at that instant. "What is Ursula +doing?" he said. + +"She is undressed; she has just curled her hair; she is kneeling on +her prie-Dieu, before an ivory crucifix fastened to a red velvet +background." + +"What is she saying?" + +"Her evening prayers; she is commending herself to God; she implores +him to save her soul from evil thoughts; she examines her conscience and +recalls what she has done during the day; that she may know if she has +failed to obey his commands and those of the church--poor dear little +soul, she lays bare her breast!" Tears were in the sleeper's eyes. +"She has done no sin, but she blames herself for thinking too much of +Savinien. She stops to wonder what he is doing in Paris; she prays to +God to make him happy. She speaks of you; she is praying aloud." + +"Tell me her words." Minoret took his pencil and wrote, as the sleeper +uttered it, the following prayer, evidently composed by the Abbe +Chaperon. + + "My God, if thou art content with thine handmaid, who worships + thee and prays to thee with a love that is equal to her devotion, + who strives not to wander from thy sacred paths, who would gladly + die as thy Son died to glorify thy name, who desires to live in + the shadow of thy will--O God, who knoweth the heart, open the + eyes of my godfather, lead him in the way of salvation, grant him + thy Divine grace, that he may live for thee in his last days; save + him from evil, and let me suffer in his stead. Kind Saint Ursula, + dear protectress, and you, Mother of God, queen of heaven, + archangels, and saints in Paradise, hear me! join your + intercessions to mine and have mercy upon us." + +The sleeper imitated so perfectly the artless gestures and the inspired +manner of his child that Doctor Minoret's eyes were filled with tears. + +"Does she say more?" he asked. + +"Yes." + +"Repeat it." + +"'My dear godfather; I wonder who plays backgammon with him in Paris.' +She has blown out the light--her head is on the pillow--she turns to +sleep! Ah! she is off! How pretty she looks in her little night-cap." + +Minoret bowed to the great Unknown, wrung Bouvard by the hand, ran +downstairs and hastened to a cab-stand which at that time was near the +gates of a house since pulled down to make room for the Rue d'Alger. +There he found a coachman who was willing to start immediately for +Fontainebleau. The moment the price was agreed on, the old man, who +seemed to have renewed his youth, jumped into the carriage and started. +According to agreement, he stopped to rest the horse at Essonne, but +arrived at Fontainebleau in time for the diligence to Nemours, on which +he secured a seat, and dismissed his coachman. He reached home at five +in the morning, and went to bed, with his life-long ideas of physiology, +nature, and metaphysics in ruins about him, and slept till nine o'clock, +so wearied was he with the events of his journey. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. A TWO-FOLD CONVERSION + +On rising, the doctor, sure that no one had crossed the threshold of +his house since he re-entered it, proceeded (but not without extreme +trepidation) to verify his facts. He was himself ignorant of any +difference in the bank-notes and also of the misplacement of the Pandect +volumes. The somnambulist was right. The doctor rang for La Bougival. + +"Tell Ursula to come and speak to me," he said, seating himself in the +center of his library. + +The girl came; she ran up to him and kissed him. The doctor took her on +his knee, where she sat contentedly, mingling her soft fair curls with +the white hair of her old friend. + +"Do you want something, godfather?" + +"Yes; but promise me, on your salvation, to answer frankly, without +evasion, the questions that I shall put to you." + +Ursula colored to the temples. + +"Oh! I'll ask nothing that you cannot speak of," he said, noticing how +the bashfulness of young love clouded the hitherto childlike purity of +the girl's blue eyes. + +"Ask me, godfather." + +"What thought was in your mind when you ended your prayers last evening, +and what time was it when you said them." + +"It was a quarter-past or half-past nine." + +"Well, repeat your last prayer." + +The girl fancied that her voice might convey her faith to the sceptic; +she slid from his knee and knelt down, clasping her hands fervently; a +brilliant light illumined her face as she turned it on the old man and +said:-- + +"What I asked of God last night I asked again this morning, and I shall +ask it till he vouchsafes to grant it." + +Then she repeated her prayer with new and still more powerful +expression. To her great astonishment her godfather took the last words +from her mouth and finished the prayer. + +"Good, Ursula," said the doctor, taking her again on his knee. "When +you laid your head on the pillow and went to sleep did you think to +yourself, 'That dear godfather; I wonder who is playing backgammon with +him in Paris'?" + +Ursula sprang up as if the last trumpet had sounded in her ears. She +gave a cry of terror; her eyes, wide open, gazed at the old man with +awful fixity. + +"Who are you, godfather? From whom do you get such power?" she asked, +imagining that in his desire to deny God he had made some compact with +the devil. + +"What seeds did you plant yesterday in the garden?" + +"Mignonette, sweet-peas, balsams--" + +"And the last were larkspur?" + +She fell on her knees. + +"Do not terrify me!" she exclaimed. "Oh you must have been here--you +were here, were you not?" + +"Am I not always with you?" replied the doctor, evading her question, to +save the strain on the young girl's mind. "Let us go to your room." + +"Your legs are trembling," she said. + +"Yes, I am confounded, as it were." + +"Can it be that you believe in God?" she cried, with artless joy, +letting fall the tears that gathered in her eyes. + +The old man looked round the simple but dainty little room he had given +to his Ursula. On the floor was a plain green carpet, very inexpensive, +which she herself kept exquisitely clean; the walls were hung with a +gray paper strewn with roses and green leaves; at the windows, which +looked to the court, were calico curtains edged with a band of some pink +material; between the windows and beneath a tall mirror was a pier-table +topped with marble, on which stood a Sevres vase in which she put her +nosegays; opposite the chimney was a little bureau-desk of charming +marquetry. The bed, of chintz, with chintz curtains lined with pink, was +one of those duchess beds so common in the eighteenth century, which had +a tuft of carved feathers at the top of each of the four posts, which +were fluted on the sides. An old clock, inclosed in a sort of monument +made of tortoise-shell inlaid with arabesques of ivory, decorated the +mantelpiece, the marble shelf of which, with the candlesticks and +the mirror in a frame painted in cameo on a gray ground, presented a +remarkable harmony of color, tone, and style. A large wardrobe, the +doors of which were inlaid with landscapes in different woods (some +having a green tint which are no longer to be found for sale) contained, +no doubt, her linen and her dresses. The air of the room was redolent of +heaven. The precise arrangement of everything showed a sense of order, a +feeling for harmony, which would certainly have influenced any one, even +a Minoret-Levrault. It was plain that the things about her were dear +to Ursula, and that she loved a room which contained, as it were, her +childhood and the whole of her girlish life. + +Looking the room well over that he might seem to have a reason for +his visit, the doctor saw at once how the windows looked into those +of Madame de Portenduere. During the night he had meditated as to +the course he ought to pursue with Ursula about his discovery of this +dawning passion. To question her now would commit him to some course. +He must either approve or disapprove of her love; in either case his +position would be a false one. He therefore resolved to watch and +examine into the state of things between the two young people, and +learn whether it were his duty to check the inclination before it was +irresistible. None but an old man could have shown such deliberate +wisdom. Still panting from the discovery of the truth of these magnetic +facts, he turned about and looked at all the various little things +around the room; he wished to examine the almanac which was hanging at a +corner of the chimney-piece. + +"These ugly things are too heavy for your little hands," he said, taking +up the marble candlesticks which were partly covered with leather. + +He weighed them in his hand; then he looked at the almanac and took it, +saying, "This is ugly too. Why do you keep such a common thing in your +pretty room?" + +"Oh, please let me have it, godfather." + +"No, no, you shall have another to-morrow." + +So saying he carried off this possible proof, shut himself up in his +study, looked for Saint Savinien and found, as the somnambulist had told +him, a little red dot at the 19th of October; he also saw another before +his own saint's day, Saint Denis, and a third before Saint John, the +abbe's patron. This little dot, no larger than a pin's head, had been +seen by the sleeping woman in spite of distance and other obstacles! +The old man thought till evening of these events, more momentous for him +than for others. He was forced to yield to evidence. A strong wall, +as it were, crumbled within him; for his life had rested on two +bases,--indifference in matters of religion and a firm disbelief in +magnetism. When it was proved to him that the senses--faculties purely +physical, organs, the effects of which could be explained--attained to +some of the attributes of the infinite, magnetism upset, or at least it +seemed to him to upset, the powerful arguments of Spinoza. The finite +and the infinite, two incompatible elements according to that remarkable +man, were here united, the one in the other. No matter what power +he gave to the divisibility and mobility of matter he could not help +recognizing that it possessed qualities that were almost divine. + +He was too old now to connect those phenomena to a system, and compare +them with those of sleep, of vision, of light. His whole scientific +belief, based on the assertions of the school of Locke and Condillac, +was in ruins. Seeing his hollow ideas in pieces, his scepticism +staggered. Thus the advantage in this struggle between the Catholic +child and the Voltairean old man was on Ursula's side. In the dismantled +fortress, above these ruins, shone a light; from the center of these +ashes issued the path of prayer! Nevertheless, the obstinate old +scientist fought his doubts. Though struck to the heart, he would not +decide, he struggled on against God. + +But he was no longer the same man; his mind showed its vacillation. +He became unnaturally dreamy; he read Pascal, and Bossuet's sublime +"History of Species"; he read Bonald, he read Saint-Augustine; +he determined also to read the works of Swedenborg, and the late +Saint-Martin, which the mysterious stranger had mentioned to him. The +edifice within him was cracking on all sides; it needed but one more +shake, and then, his heart being ripe for God, he was destined to fall +into the celestial vineyard as fall the fruits. Often of an evening, +when playing with the abbe, his goddaughter sitting by, he would put +questions bearing on his opinions which seemed singular to the priest, +who was ignorant of the inward workings by which God was remaking that +fine conscience. + +"Do you believe in apparitions?" asked the sceptic of the pastor, +stopping short in the game. + +"Cardan, a great philosopher of the sixteenth century said he had seen +some," replied the abbe. + +"I know all those that scholars have discussed, for I have just reread +Plotinus. I am questioning you as a Catholic might, and I ask if you +think that dead men can return to the living." + +"Jesus reappeared to his disciples after his death," said the abbe. +"The Church ought to have faith in the apparitions of the Savior. As for +miracles, they are not lacking," he continued, smiling. "Shall I tell +you the last? It took place in the eighteenth century." + +"Pooh!" said the doctor. + +"Yes, the blessed Marie-Alphonse of Ligouri, being very far from +Rome, knew of the death of the Pope at the very moment the Holy Father +expired; there were numerous witnesses of this miracle. The sainted +bishop being in ecstasy, heard the last words of the sovereign pontiff +and repeated them at the time to those about him. The courier who +brought the announcement of the death did not arrive till thirty hours +later." + +"Jesuit!" exclaimed old Minoret, laughing, "I did not ask you for +proofs; I asked you if you believed in apparitions." + +"I think an apparition depends a good deal on who sees it," said the +abbe, still fencing with his sceptic. + +"My friend," said the doctor, seriously, "I am not setting a trap for +you. What do you really believe about it?" + +"I believe that the power of God is infinite," replied the abbe. + +"When I am dead, if I am reconciled to God, I will ask Him to let me +appear to you," said the doctor, smiling. + +"That's exactly the agreement Cardan made with his friend," answered the +priest. + +"Ursula," said Minoret, "if danger ever threatens you, call me, and I +will come." + +"You have put into one sentence that beautiful elegy of 'Neere' by Andre +Chenier," said the abbe. "Poets are sublime because they clothe both +facts and feelings with ever-living images." + +"Why do you speak of your death, dear godfather?" said Ursula in a +grieved tone. "We Christians do not die; the grave is the cradle of our +souls." + +"Well," said the doctor, smiling, "we must go out of the world, and when +I am no longer here you will be astonished at your fortune." + +"When you are here no longer, my kind friend, my only consolation will +be to consecrate my life to you." + +"To me, dead?" + +"Yes. All the good works that I can do will be done in your name to +redeem your sins. I will pray God every day for his infinite mercy, that +he may not punish eternally the errors of a day. I know he will summon +among the righteous a soul so pure, so beautiful, as yours." + +That answer, said with angelic candor, in a tone of absolute certainty, +confounded error and converted Denis Minoret as God converted Saul. +A ray of inward light overawed him; the knowledge of this tenderness, +covering his years to come, brought tears to his eyes. This sudden +effect of grace had something that seemed electrical about it. The +abbe clasped his hands and rose, troubled, from his seat. The girl, +astonished at her triumph, wept. The old man stood up as if a voice had +called him, looking into space as though his eyes beheld the dawn; then +he bent his knee upon his chair, clasped his hands, and lowered his eyes +to the ground as one humiliated. + +"My God," he said in a trembling voice, raising his head, "if any one +can obtain my pardon and lead me to thee, surely it is this spotless +creature. Have mercy on the repentant old age that this pure child +presents to thee!" + +He lifted his soul to God; mentally praying for the light of divine +knowledge after the gift of divine grace; then he turned to the abbe and +held out his hand. + +"My dear pastor," he said, "I am become as a little child. I belong to +you; I give my soul to your care." + +Ursula kissed his hands and bathed them with her tears. The old man took +her on his knee and called her gayly his godmother. The abbe, deeply +moved, recited the "Veni Creator" in a species of religious ecstasy. +The hymn served as the evening prayer of the three Christians kneeling +together for the first time. + +"What has happened?" asked La Bougival, amazed at the sight. + +"My godfather believes in God at last!" replied Ursula. + +"Ah! so much the better; he only needed that to make him perfect," cried +the old woman, crossing herself with artless gravity. + +"Dear doctor," said the good priest, "you will soon comprehend the +grandeur of religion and the value of its practices; you will find +its philosophy in human aspects far higher than that of the boldest +sceptics." + +The abbe, who showed a joy that was almost infantine, agreed to +catechize the old man and confer with him twice a week. Thus the +conversion attributed to Ursula and to a spirit of sordid calculation, +was the spontaneous act of the doctor himself. The abbe, who for +fourteen years had abstained from touching the wounds of that heart, +though all the while deploring them, was now asked for help, as a +surgeon is called to an injured man. Ever since this scene Ursula's +evening prayers had been said in common with her godfather. Day after +day the old man grew more conscious of the peace within him that +succeeded all his conflicts. Having, as he said, God as the responsible +editor of things inexplicable, his mind was at ease. His dear child +told him that he might know by how far he had advanced already in God's +kingdom. During the mass which we have seen him attend, he had read the +prayers and applied his own intelligence to them; from the first, he +had risen to the divine idea of the communion of the faithful. The +old neophyte understood the eternal symbol attached to that sacred +nourishment, which faith renders needful to the soul after conveying to +it her own profound and radiant essence. When on leaving the church he +had seemed in a hurry to get home, it was merely that he might once +more thank his dear child for having led him to "enter religion,"--the +beautiful expression of former days. He was holding her on his knee in +the salon and kissing her forehead sacredly at the very moment when his +relatives were degrading that saintly influence with their shameless +fears, and casting their vulgar insults upon Ursula. His haste to return +home, his assumed disdain for their company, his sharp replies as he +left the church were naturally attributed by all the heirs to the hatred +Ursula had excited against them in the old man's mind. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE CONFERENCE + +While Ursula was playing variations on Weber's "Last Thought" to her +godfather, a plot was hatching in the Minoret-Levraults' dining-room +which was destined to have a lasting effect on the events of this drama. +The breakfast, noisy as all provincial breakfasts are, and enlivened by +excellent wines brought to Nemours by the canal either from Burgundy +or Touraine, lasted more than two hours. Zelie had sent for oysters, +salt-water fish, and other gastronomical delicacies to do honor to +Desire's return. The dining-room, in the center of which a round table +offered a most appetizing sight, was like the hall of an inn. Content +with the size of her kitchens and offices, Zelie had built a pavilion +for the family between the vast courtyard and a garden planted with +vegetables and full of fruit-trees. Everything about the premises was +solid and plain. The example of Levrault-Levrault had been a warning to +the town. Zelie forbade her builder to lead her into such follies. The +dining-room was, therefore, hung with varnished paper and furnished with +walnut chairs and sideboards, a porcelain stove, a tall clock, and a +barometer. Though the plates and dishes were of common white china, the +table shone with handsome linen and abundant silverware. After Zelie +had served the coffee, coming and going herself like shot in a +decanter,--for she kept but one servant,--and when Desire, the budding +lawyer, had been told of the event of the morning and its probably +consequences, the door was closed, and the notary Dionis was called upon +to speak. By the silence in the room and the looks that were cast on +that authoritative face, it was easy to see the power that such men +exercise over families. + +"My dear children," said he, "your uncle having been born in 1746, is +eighty-three years old at the present time; now, old men are given to +folly, and that little--" + +"Viper!" cried Madame Massin. + +"Hussy!" said Zelie. + +"Let us call her by her own name," said Dionis. + +"Well, she's a thief," said Madame Cremiere. + +"A pretty thief," remarked Desire. + +"That little Ursula," went on Dionis, "has managed to get hold of his +heart. I have been thinking of your interests, and I did not wait until +now before making certain inquiries; now this is what I have discovered +about that young--" + +"Marauder," said the collector. + +"Inveigler," said the clerk of the court. + +"Hold your tongue, friends," said the notary, "or I'll take my hat and +be off." + +"Come, come, papa," cried Minoret, pouring out a little glass of rum and +offering it to the notary; "here, drink this, it comes from Rome itself; +and now go on." + +"Ursula is, it is true, the legitimate daughter of Joseph Mirouet; +but her father was the natural son of Valentin Mirouet, your uncle's +father-in-law. Being therefore an illegitimate niece, any will the +doctor might make in her favor could probably be contested; and if +he leaves her his fortune in that way you could bring a suit against +Ursula. This, however, might turn out ill for you, in case the court +took the view that there was no relationship between Ursula and the +doctor. Still, the suit would frighten an unprotected girl, and bring +about a compromise--" + +"The law is so rigid as to the rights of natural children," said the +newly fledged licentiate, eager to parade his knowledge, "that by the +judgment of the court of appeals dated July 7, 1817, a natural child can +claim nothing from his natural grandfather, not even a maintenance. +So you see the illegitimate parentage is made retrospective. The law +pursues the natural child even to its legitimate descent, on the ground +that benefactions done to grandchildren reach the natural son through +that medium. This is shown by articles 757, 908, and 911 of the civil +Code. The royal court of Paris, by a decision of the 26th of January of +last year, cut off a legacy made to the legitimate child of a natural +son by his grandfather, who, as grandfather, was as distant to a natural +grandson as the doctor, being an uncle, is to Ursula." + +"All that," said Goupil, "seems to me to relate only to the bequests +made by grandfathers to natural descendants. Ursula is not a blood +relation of Doctor Minoret. I remember a decision of the royal court at +Colmar, rendered in 1825, just before I took my degree, which declared +that after the decease of a natural child his descendants could no +longer be prohibited from inheriting. Now, Ursula's father is dead." + +Goupil's argument produced what journalists who report the sittings of +legislative assemblies are wont to call "profound sensation." + +"What does that signify?" cried Dionis. "The actual case of the bequest +of an uncle to an illegitimate child may not yet have been presented for +trial; but when it is, the sternness of French law against such children +will be all the more firmly applied because we live in times when +religion is honored. I'll answer for it that out of such a suit as I +propose you could get a compromise,--especially if they see you are +determined to carry Ursula to a court of appeals." + +Here the joy of the heirs already fingering their gold was made manifest +in smiles, shrugs, and gestures round the table, and prevented all +notice of Goupil's dissent. This elation, however, was succeeded by deep +silence and uneasiness when the notary uttered his next word, a terrible +"But!" + +As if he had pulled the string of a puppet-show, starting the little +people in jerks by means of machinery, Dionis beheld all eyes turned on +him and all faces rigid in one and the same pose. + +"_But_ no law prevents your uncle from adopting or marrying Ursula," he +continued. "As for adoption, that could be contested, and you would, +I think, have equity on your side. The royal courts would never trifle +with questions of adoptions; you would get a hearing there. It is +true the doctor is an officer of the Legion of honor, and was formerly +surgeon to the ex-emperor; but, nevertheless, he would get the worst of +it. Moreover, you would have due warning in case of adoption--but how +about marriage? Old Minoret is shrewd enough to go to Paris and marry +her after a year's domicile, and give her a million by the marriage +contract. The only thing, therefore, that really puts your property in +danger is your uncle's marriage with the girl." + +Here the notary paused. + +"There's another danger," said Goupil, with a knowing air,--"that of +a will made in favor of a third person, old Bongrand for instance, who +will hold the property in trust for Mademoiselle Ursula--" + +"If you tease your uncle," continued Dionis, cutting short his +head-clerk, "if you are not all of you very polite to Ursula, you will +drive him into either a marriage or into making that private trust which +Goupil speaks of,--though I don't think him capable of that; it is a +dangerous thing. As for marriage, that is easy to prevent. Desire there +has only got to hold out a finger to the girl; she's sure to prefer a +handsome young man, cock of the walk in Nemours, to an old one." + +"Mother," said Desire to Zelie's ear, as much allured by the millions as +by Ursula's beauty, "If I married her we should get the whole property." + +"Are you crazy?--you, who'll some day have fifty thousand francs a year +and be made a deputy! As long as I live you never shall cut your throat +by a foolish marriage. Seven hundred thousand francs, indeed! Why, the +mayor's only daughter will have fifty thousand a year, and they have +already proposed her to me--" + +This reply, the first rough speech his mother had ever made to him, +extinguished in Desire's breast all desire for a marriage with the +beautiful Ursula; for his father and he never got the better of any +decision once written in the terrible blue eyes of Zelie Minoret. + +"Yes, but see here, Monsieur Dionis," cried Cremiere, whose wife had +been nudging him, "if the good man took the thing seriously and married +his goddaughter to Desire, giving her the reversion of all the property, +good-by to our share in it; if he lives five years longer uncle may be +worth a million." + +"Never!" cried Zelie, "never in my life shall Desire marry the daughter +of a bastard, a girl picked up in the streets out of charity. My son +will represent the Minorets after the death of his uncle, and the +Minorets have five hundred years of good bourgeoisie behind them. That's +equal to the nobility. Don't be uneasy, any of you; Desire will marry +when we find a chance to put him in the Chamber of deputies." + +This lofty declaration was backed by Goupil, who said:-- + +"Desire, with an allowance of twenty-four thousand francs a year, will +be president of a royal court or solicitor-general; either office leads +to the peerage. A foolish marriage would ruin him." + +The heirs were now all talking at once; but they suddenly held their +tongues when Minoret rapped on the table with his fist to keep silence +for the notary. + +"Your uncle is a worthy man," continued Dionis. "He believes he's +immortal; and, like most clever men, he'll let death overtake him before +he has made a will. My advice therefore is to induce him to invest his +capital in a way that will make it difficult for him to disinherit you, +and I know of an opportunity, made to hand. That little Portenduere +is in Saint-Pelagie, locked-up for one hundred and some odd thousand +francs' worth of debt. His old mother knows he is in prison; she is +crying like a Magdalen. The abbe is to dine with her; no doubt she wants +to talk to him about her troubles. Well, I'll go and see your uncle +to-night and persuade him to sell his five per cent consols, which are +now at 118, and lend Madame de Portenduere, on the security of her farm +at Bordieres and her house here, enough to pay the debts of the prodigal +son. I have a right as notary to speak to him in behalf of young +Portenduere; and it is quite natural that I should wish to make him +change his investments; I get deeds and commissions out of the business. +If I become his adviser I'll propose to him other land investments for +his surplus capital; I have some excellent ones now in my office. If his +fortune were once invested in landed estate or in mortgage notes in this +neighbourhood, it could not take wings to itself very easily. It is easy +to make difficulties between the wish to realize and the realization." + +The heirs, struck with the truth of this argument (much cleverer than +that of Monsieur Josse), murmured approval. + +"You must be careful," said the notary in conclusion, "to keep your +uncle in Nemours, where his habits are known, and where you can watch +him. Find him a lover for the girl and you'll prevent his marrying her +himself." + +"Suppose she married the lover?" said Goupil, seized by an ambitious +desire. + +"That wouldn't be a bad thing; then you could figure up the loss; the +old man would have to say how much he gives her," replied the notary. +"But if you set Desire at her he could keep the girl dangling on till +the old man died. Marriages are made and unmade." + +"The shortest way," said Goupil, "if the doctor is likely to live much +longer, is to marry her to some worthy young man who will get her out +of your way by settling at Sens, or Montargis, or Orleans with a hundred +thousand francs in hand." + +Dionis, Massin, Zelie, and Goupil, the only intelligent heads in the +company, exchanged four thoughtful smiles. + +"He'd be a worm at the core," whispered Zelie to Massin. + +"How did he get here?" returned the clerk. + +"That will just suit you!" cried Desire to Goupil. "But do you think you +can behave decently enough to satisfy the old man and the girl?" + +"In these days," whispered Zelie again in Massin's year, "notaries look +out for no interests but their own. Suppose Dionis went over to Ursula +just to get the old man's business?" + +"I am sure of him," said the clerk of the court, giving her a sly look +out of his spiteful little eyes. He was just going to add, "because I +hold something over him," but he withheld the words. + +"I am quite of Dionis's opinion," he said aloud. + +"So am I," cried Zelie, who now suspected the notary of collusion with +the clerk. + +"My wife has voted!" said the post master, sipping his brandy, though +his face was already purple from digesting his meal and absorbing a +notable quantity of liquids. + +"And very properly," remarked the collector. + +"I shall go and see the doctor after dinner," said Dionis. + +"If Monsieur Dionis's advice is good," said Madame Cremiere to Madame +Massin, "we had better go and call on our uncle, as we used to do, every +Sunday evening, and behave exactly as Monsieur Dionis has told us." + +"Yes, and be received as he received us!" cried Zelie. "Minoret and +I have more than forty thousand francs a year, and yet he refused our +invitations! We are quite his equals. If I don't know how to write +prescriptions I know how to paddle my boat as well as he--I can tell him +that!" + +"As I am far from having forty thousand francs a year," said Madame +Massin, rather piqued, "I don't want to lose ten thousand." + +"We are his nieces; we ought to take care of him, and then besides we +shall see how things are going," said Madame Cremiere; "you'll thank us +some day, cousin." + +"Treat Ursula kindly," said the notary, lifting his right forefinger to +the level of his lips; "remember old Jordy left her his savings." + +"You have managed those fools as well as Desroches, the best lawyer +in Paris, could have done," said Goupil to his patron as they left the +post-house. + +"And now they are quarreling over my fee," replied the notary, smiling +bitterly. + +The heirs, after parting with Dionis and his clerk, met again in the +square, with face rather flushed from their breakfast, just as vespers +were over. As the notary predicted, the Abbe Chaperon had Madame de +Portenduere on his arm. + +"She dragged him to vespers, see!" cried Madame Massin to Madame +Cremiere, pointing to Ursula and the doctor, who were leaving the +church. + +"Let us go and speak to him," said Madame Cremiere, approaching the old +man. + +The change in the faces of his relatives (produced by the conference) +did not escape Doctor Minoret. He tried to guess the reason of this +sudden amiability, and out of sheer curiosity encouraged Ursula to stop +and speak to the two women, who were eager to greet her with exaggerated +affection and forced smiles. + +"Uncle, will you permit me to come and see you to-night?" said Madame +Cremiere. "We feared sometimes we were in your way--but it is such a +long time since our children have paid you their respects; our girls are +old enough now to make dear Ursula's acquaintance." + +"Ursula is a little bear, like her name," replied the doctor. + +"Let us tame her," said Madame Massin. "And besides, uncle," added the +good housewife, trying to hide her real motive under a mask of economy, +"they tell us the dear girl has such talent for the forte that we are +very anxious to hear her. Madame Cremiere and I are inclined to take her +music-master for our children. If there were six or eight scholars in a +class it would bring the price of his lessons within our means." + +"Certainly," said the old man, "and it will be all the better for me +because I want to give Ursula a singing-master." + +"Well, to-night then, uncle. We will bring your great-nephew Desire to +see you; he is now a lawyer." + +"Yes, to-night," echoed Minoret, meaning to fathom the motives of these +petty souls. + +The two nieces pressed Ursula's hand, saying, with affected eagerness, +"Au revoir." + +"Oh, godfather, you have read my heart!" cried Ursula, giving him a +grateful look. + +"You are going to have a voice," he said; "and I shall give you masters +of drawing and Italian also. A woman," added the doctor, looking at +Ursula as he unfastened the gate of his house, "ought to be educated to +the height of every position in which her marriage may place her." + +Ursula grew red as a cherry; her godfather's thoughts evidently +turned in the same direction as her own. Feeling that she was too near +confessing to the doctor the involuntary attraction which led her to +think about Savinien and to center all her ideas of affection upon him, +she turned aside and sat down in front of a great cluster of climbing +plants, on the dark background of which she looked at a distance like a +blue and white flower. + +"Now you see, godfather, that your nieces were very kind to me; yes, +they were very kind," she repeated as he approached her, to change the +thoughts that made him pensive. + +"Poor little girl!" cried the old man. + +He laid Ursula's hand upon his arm, tapping it gently, and took her to +the terraces beside the river, where no one could hear them. + +"Why do you say, 'Poor little girl'?" + +"Don't you see how they fear you?" + +"Fear me,--why?" + +"My next of kin are very uneasy about my conversion. They no doubt +attribute it to your influence over me; they fancy I deprive them of +their inheritance to enrich you." + +"But you won't do that?" said Ursula naively, looking up at him. + +"Oh, divine consolation of my old age!" said the doctor, taking his +godchild in his arms and kissing her on both cheeks. "It was for her +and not for myself, oh God! that I besought thee just now to let me live +until the day I give her to some good being who is worthy of her!--You +will see comedies, my little angel, comedies which the Minorets and +Cremieres and Massins will come and play here. You want to brighten and +prolong my life; they are longing for my death." + +"God forbids us to hate any one, but if that is--Ah! I despise them!" +exclaimed Ursula. + +"Dinner is ready!" called La Bougival from the portico, which, on the +garden side, was at the end of the corridor. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. A FIRST CONFIDENCE + +Ursula and her godfather were sitting at dessert in the pretty +dining-room decorated with Chinese designs in black and gold lacquer +(the folly of Levrault-Levrault) when the justice of peace arrived. The +doctor offered him (and this was a great mark of intimacy) a cup of his +coffee, a mixture of Mocha with Bourbon and Martinique, roasted, ground, +and made by himself in a silver apparatus called a Chaptal. + +"Well," said Bongrand, pushing up his glasses and looking slyly at the +old man, "the town is in commotion; your appearance in church has put +your relatives beside themselves. You have left your fortune to the +priests, to the poor. You have roused the families, and they are +bestirring themselves. Ha! ha! I saw their first irruption into the +square; they were as busy as ants who have lost their eggs." + +"What did I tell you, Ursula?" cried the doctor. "At the risk of +grieving you, my child, I must teach you to know the world and put you +on your guard against undeserved enmity." + +"I should like to say a word to you on this subject," said Bongrand, +seizing the occasion to speak to his old friend of Ursula's future. + +The doctor put a black velvet cap on his white head, the justice of +peace wore his hat to protect him from the night air, and they walked up +and down the terrace discussing the means of securing to Ursula what her +godfather intended to bequeath her. Bongrand knew Dionis's opinion as +to the invalidity of a will made by the doctor in favor of Ursula; for +Nemours was so preoccupied with the Minoret affairs that the matter +had been much discussed among the lawyers of the little town. Bongrand +considered that Ursula was not a relative of Doctor Minoret, but he +felt that the whole spirit of legislation was against the foisting into +families of illegitimate off-shoots. The makers of the Code had foreseen +only the weakness of fathers and mothers for their natural children, +without considering that uncles and aunts might have a like tenderness +and a desire to provide for such children. Evidently there was a gap in +the law. + +"In all other countries," he said, ending an explanation of the legal +points which Dionis, Goupil, and Desire had just explained to the heirs, +"Ursula would have nothing to fear; she is a legitimate child, and +the disability of her father ought only to affect the inheritance from +Valentine Mirouet, her grandfather. But in France the magistracy is +unfortunately overwise and very consequential; it inquires into the +spirit of the law. Some lawyers talk morality, and might try to show +that this hiatus in the Code came from the simple-mindedness of the +legislators, who did not foresee the case, though, none the less, they +established a principle. To bring a suit would be long and expensive. +Zelie would carry it to the court of appeals, and I might not be alive +when the case was tried." + +"The best of cases is often worthless," cried the doctor. "Here's the +question the lawyers will put, 'To what degree of relationship ought the +disability of natural children in matters of inheritance to extend?' and +the credit of a good lawyer will lie in gaining a bad cause." + +"Faith!" said Bongrand, "I dare not take upon myself to affirm that +the judges wouldn't interpret the meaning of the law as increasing the +protection given to marriage, the eternal base of society." + +Without explaining his intentions, the doctor rejected the idea of a +trust. When Bongrand suggested to him a marriage with Ursula as the +surest means of securing his property to her, he exclaimed, "Poor little +girl! I might live fifteen years; what a fate for her!" + +"Well, what will you do, then?" asked Bongrand. + +"We'll think about it--I'll see," said the old man, evidently at a loss +for a reply. + +Just then Ursula came to say that Monsieur Dionis wished to speak to the +doctor. + +"Already!" cried Minoret, looking at Bongrand. "Yes," he said to Ursula, +"send him here." + +"I'll bet my spectacles to a bunch of matches that he is the +advance-guard of your heirs," said Bongrand. "They breakfasted together +at the post house, and something is being engineered." + +The notary, conducted by Ursula, came to the lower end of the garden. +After the usual greetings and a few insignificant remarks, Dionis asked +for a private interview; Ursula and Bongrand retired to the salon. + +The distrust which superior men excite in men of business is very +remarkable. The latter deny them the "lesser" powers while recognizing +their possession of the "higher." It is, perhaps, a tribute to them. +Seeing them always on the higher plane of human things, men of business +believe them incapable of descending to the infinitely petty details +which (like the dividends of finance and the microscopic facts of +science) go to equalize capital and to form the worlds. They are +mistaken! The man of honor and of genius sees all. Bongrand, piqued +by the doctor's silence, but impelled by a sense of Ursula's interests +which he thought endangered, resolved to defend her against the heirs. +He was wretched at not knowing what was taking place between the old man +and Dionis. + +"No matter how pure and innocent Ursula may be," he thought as he looked +at her, "there is a point on which young girls do make their own law and +their own morality. I'll test here. The Minoret-Levraults," he began, +settling his spectacles, "might possibly ask you in marriage for their +son." + +The poor child turned pale. She was too well trained, and had too much +delicacy to listen to what Dionis was saying to her uncle; but after a +moment's inward deliberation, she thought she might show herself, and +then, if she was in the way, her godfather would let her know it. The +Chinese pagoda which the doctor made his study had outside blinds to +the glass doors; Ursula invented the excuse of shutting them. She begged +Monsieur Bongrand's pardon for leaving him alone in the salon, but he +smiled at her and said, "Go! go!" + +Ursula went down the steps of the portico which led to the pagoda at +the foot of the garden. She stood for some minutes slowly arranging the +blinds and watching the sunset. The doctor and notary were at the end +of the terrace, but as they turned she heard the doctor make an answer +which reached the pagoda where she was. + +"My heirs would be delighted to see me invest my property in real estate +or mortgages; they imagine it would be safer there. I know exactly what +they are saying; perhaps you come from them. Let me tell you, my good +sir, that my disposition of my property is irrevocably made. My heirs +will have the capital I brought here with me; I wish them to know that, +and to let me alone. If any one of them attempts to interfere with what +I think proper to do for that young girl (pointing to Ursula) I shall +come back from the other world and torment him. So, Monsieur Savinien +de Portenduere will stay in prison if they count on me to get him out. I +shall not sell my property in the Funds." + +Hearing this last fragment of the sentence Ursula experienced the first +and only pain which so far had ever touched her. She laid her head +against the blind to steady herself. + +"Good God, what is the matter with her?" thought the old doctor. "She +has no color; such an emotion after dinner might kill her." + +He went to her with open arms, and she fell into them almost fainting. + +"Adieu, Monsieur," he said to the notary, "please leave us." + +He carried his child to an immense Louis XV. sofa which was in his +study, looked for a phial of hartshorn among his remedies, and made her +inhale it. + +"Take my place," said the doctor to Bongrand, who was terrified; "I must +be alone with her." + +The justice of peace accompanied the notary to the gate, asking him, but +without showing any eagerness, what was the matter with Ursula. + +"I don't know," replied Dionis. "She was standing by the pagoda, +listening to us, and just as her uncle (so-called) refused to lend +some money at my request to young de Portenduere who is in prison for +debt,--for he has not had, like Monsieur du Rouvre, a Monsieur Bongrand +to defend him,--she turned pale and staggered. Can she love him? Is +there anything between them?" + +"At fifteen years of age? pooh!" replied Bongrand. + +"She was born in February, 1813; she'll be sixteen in four months." + +"I don't believe she ever saw him," said the judge. "No, it is only a +nervous attack." + +"Attack of the heart, more likely," said the notary. + +Dionis was delighted with this discovery, which would prevent the +marriage "in extremis" which they dreaded,--the only sure means by which +the doctor could defraud his relatives. Bongrand, on the other hand, saw +a private castle of his own demolished; he had long thought of marrying +his son to Ursula. + +"If the poor girl loves that youth it will be a misfortune for her," +replied Bongrand after a pause. "Madame de Portenduere is a Breton and +infatuated with her noble blood." + +"Luckily--I mean for the honor of the Portendueres," replied the notary, +on the point of betraying himself. + +Let us do the faithful and upright Bongrand the justice to say that +before he re-entered the salon he had abandoned, not without deep regret +for his son, the hope he had cherished of some day calling Ursula his +daughter. He meant to give his son six thousand francs a year the day he +was appointed substitute, and if the doctor would give Ursula a hundred +thousand francs what a pearl of a home the pair would make! His Eugene +was so loyal and charming a fellow! Perhaps he had praised his Eugene +too often, and that had made the doctor distrustful. + +"I shall have to come down to the mayor's daughter," he thought. +"But Ursula without any money is worth more than Mademoiselle +Levrault-Cremiere with a million. However, the thing to be done is to +manoeuvre the marriage with this little Portenduere--if she really loves +him." + +The doctor, after closing the door to the library and that to the +garden, took his goddaughter to the window which opened upon the river. + +"What ails you, my child?" he said. "Your life is my life. Without your +smiles what would become of me?" + +"Savinien in prison!" she said. + +With these words a shower of tears fell from her eyes and she began to +sob. + +"Saved!" thought the doctor, who was holding her pulse with great +anxiety. "Alas! she has all the sensitiveness of my poor wife," he +thought, fetching a stethoscope which he put to Ursula's heart, applying +his ear to it. "Ah, that's all right," he said to himself. "I did not +know, my darling, that you loved any one as yet," he added, looking at +her; "but think out loud to me as you think to yourself; tell me all +that has passed between you." + +"I do not love him, godfather; we have never spoken to each other," she +answered, sobbing. "But to hear that he is in prison, and to know that +you--harshly--refused to get him out--you, so good!" + +"Ursula, my dear little good angel, if you do not love him why did you +put that little red dot against Saint Savinien's day just as you put one +before that of Saint Denis? Come, tell me everything about your little +love-affair." + +Ursula blushed, swallowed a few tears, and for a moment there was +silence between them. + +"Surely you are not afraid of your father, your friend, mother, doctor, +and godfather, whose heart is now more tender than it ever has been." + +"No, no, dear godfather," she said. "I will open my heart to you. Last +May, Monsieur Savinien came to see his mother. Until then I had never +taken notice of him. When he left home to live in Paris I was a child, +and I did not see any difference between him and--all of you--except +perhaps that I loved you, and never thought of loving any one else. +Monsieur Savinien came by the mail-post the night before his mother's +fete-day; but we did not know it. At seven the next morning, after I +had said my prayers, I opened the window to air my room and I saw the +windows in Monsieur Savinien's room open; and Monsieur Savinien was +there, in a dressing gown, arranging his beard; in all his movements +there was such grace--I mean, he seemed to me so charming. He combed +his black moustache and the little tuft on his chin, and I saw his white +throat--so round!--must I tell you all? I noticed that his throat and +face and that beautiful black hair were all so different from yours when +I watch you arranging your beard. There came--I don't know how--a +sort of glow into my heart, and up into my throat, my head; it came so +violently that I sat down--I couldn't stand, I trembled so. But I longed +to see him again, and presently I got up; he saw me then, and, just for +play, he sent me a kiss from the tips of his fingers and--" + +"And?" + +"And then," she continued, "I hid myself--I was ashamed, but happy--why +should I be ashamed of being happy? That feeling--it dazzled my soul and +gave it some power, but I don't know what--it came again each time I saw +within me the same young face. I loved this feeling, violent as it +was. Going to mass, some unconquerable power made me look at Monsieur +Savinien with his mother on his arm; his walk, his clothes, even the tap +of his boots on the pavement, seemed to me so charming. The least little +thing about him--his hand with the delicate glove--acted like a spell +upon me; and yet I had strength enough not to think of him during +mass. When the service was over I stayed in the church to let Madame de +Portenduere go first, and then I walked behind him. I couldn't tell you +how these little things excited me. When I reached home, I turned round +to fasten the iron gate--" + +"Where was La Bougival?" asked the doctor. + +"Oh, I let her go to the kitchen," said Ursula simply. "Then I saw +Monsieur Savinien standing quite still and looking at me. Oh! godfather, +I was so proud, for I thought I saw a look in his eyes of surprise and +admiration--I don't know what I would not do to make him look at me +again like that. It seemed to me I ought to think of nothing forevermore +but pleasing him. That glance is now the best reward I have for any good +I do. From that moment I have thought of him incessantly, in spite of +myself. Monsieur Savinien went back to Paris that evening, and I have +not seen him since. The street seems empty; he took my heart away with +him--but he does not know it." + +"Is that all?" asked the old man. + +"All, dear godfather," she said, with a sigh of regret that there was +not more to tell. + +"My little girl," said the doctor, putting her on his knee; "you are +nearly sixteen and your womanhood is beginning. You are now between your +blessed childhood, which is ending, and the emotions of love, which +will make your life a tumultuous one; for you have a nervous system of +exquisite sensibility. What has happened to you, my child, is love," +said the old man with an expression of deepest sadness,--"love in its +holy simplicity; love as it ought to be; involuntary, sudden, coming +like a thief who takes all--yes, all! I expected it. I have studied +women; many need proofs and miracles of affection before love +conquers them; but others there are, under the influence of sympathies +explainable to-day by magnetic fluids, who are possessed by it in an +instant. To you I can now tell all--as soon as I saw the charming woman +whose name you bear, I felt that I should love her forever, solely and +faithfully, without knowing whether our characters or persons suited +each other. Is there a second-sight in love? What answer can I give to +that, I who have seen so many unions formed under celestial auspices +only to be ruptured later, giving rise to hatreds that are well-nigh +eternal, to repugnances that are unconquerable. The senses sometimes +harmonize while ideas are at variance; and some persons live more by +their minds than by their bodies. The contrary is also true; often minds +agree and persons displease. These phenomena, the varying and secret +cause of many sorrows, show the wisdom of laws which give parents +supreme power over the marriages of their children; for a young girl is +often duped by one or other of these hallucinations. Therefore I do not +blame you. The sensations you feel, the rush of sensibility which has +come from its hidden source upon your heart and upon your mind, the +happiness with which you think of Savinien, are all natural. But, +my darling child, society demands, as our good abbe has told us, the +sacrifice of many natural inclinations. The destinies of men and women +differ. I was able to choose Ursula Mirouet for my wife; I could go to +her and say that I loved her; but a young girl is false to herself if +she asks the love of the man she loves. A woman has not the right which +men have to seek the accomplishment of her hopes in open day. Modesty is +to her--above all to you, my Ursula,--the insurmountable barrier which +protects the secrets of her heart. Your hesitation in confiding to me +these first emotions shows me you would suffer cruel torture rather than +admit to Savinien--" + +"Oh, yes!" she said. + +"But, my child, you must do more. You must repress these feelings; you +must forget them." + +"Why?" + +"Because, my darling, you must love only the man you marry; and, even if +Monsieur Savinien de Portenduere loved you--" + +"I never thought of it." + +"But listen: even if he loved you, even if his mother asked me to +give him your hand, I should not consent to the marriage until I had +subjected him to a long and thorough probation. His conduct has been +such as to make families distrust him and to put obstacles between +himself and heiresses which cannot be easily overcome." + +A soft smile came in place of tears on Ursula's sweet face as she said, +"Then poverty is good sometimes." + +The doctor could find no answer to such innocence. + +"What has he done, godfather?" she asked. + +"In two years, my treasure, he has incurred one hundred and twenty +thousand francs of debt. He has had the folly to get himself locked up +in Saint-Pelagie, the debtor's prison; an impropriety which will always +be, in these days, a discredit to him. A spendthrift who is willing to +plunge his poor mother into poverty and distress might cause his wife, +as your poor father did, to die of despair." + +"Don't you think he will do better?" she asked. + +"If his mother pays his debts he will be penniless, and I don't know a +worse punishment than to be a nobleman without means." + +This answer made Ursula thoughtful; she dried her tears, and said:-- + +"If you can save him, save him, godfather; that service will give you a +right to advise him; you can remonstrate--" + +"Yes," said the doctor, imitating her, "and then he can come here, and +the old lady will come here, and we shall see them, and--" + +"I was thinking only of him," said Ursula, blushing. + +"Don't think of him, my child; it would be folly," said the doctor +gravely. "Madame de Portenduere, who was a Kergarouet, would never +consent, even if she had to live on three hundred francs a year, to +the marriage of her son, the Vicomte Savinien de Portenduere, with +whom?--with Ursula Mirouet, daughter of a bandsman in a regiment, +without money, and whose father--alas! I must now tell you all--was the +bastard son of an organist, my father-in-law." + +"O godfather! you are right; we are equal only in the sight of God. I +will not think of him again--except in my prayers," she said, amid the +sobs which this painful revelation excited. "Give him what you meant to +give me--what can a poor girl like me want?--ah, in prison, he!--" + +"Offer to God your disappointments, and perhaps he will help us." + +There was silence for some minutes. When Ursula, who at first did not +dare to look at her godfather, raised her eyes, her heart was deeply +moved to see the tears which were rolling down his withered cheeks. The +tears of old men are as terrible as those of children are natural. + +"Oh what is it?" cried Ursula, flinging herself at his feet and kissing +his hands. "Are you not sure of me?" + +"I, who longed to gratify all your wishes, it is I who am obliged to +cause the first great sorrow of your life!" he said. "I suffer as +much as you. I never wept before, except when I lost my children--and, +Ursula--Yes," he cried suddenly, "I will do all you desire!" + +Ursula gave him, through her tears a look that was vivid as lightning. +She smiled. + +"Let us go into the salon, darling," said the doctor. "Try to keep +the secret of all this to yourself," he added, leaving her alone for a +moment in his study. + +He felt himself so weak before that heavenly smile that he feared he +might say a word of hope and thus mislead her. + + + + +CHAPTER X. THE FAMILY OF PORTENDUERE + +Madame de Portenduere was at this moment alone with the abbe in her +frigid little salon on the ground floor, having finished the recital of +her troubles to the good priest, her only friend. She held in her hand +some letters which he had just returned to her after reading them; these +letters had brought her troubles to a climax. Seated on her sofa beside +a square table covered with the remains of a dessert, the old lady was +looking at the abbe, who sat on the other side of the table, doubled up +in his armchair and stroking his chin with the gesture common to +valets on the stage, mathematicians, and priests,--a sign of profound +meditation on a problem that was difficult to solve. + +This little salon, lighted by two windows on the street and finished +with a wainscot painted gray, was so damp that the lower panels showed +the geometrical cracks of rotten wood when the paint no longer binds it. +The red-tiled floor, polished by the old lady's one servant, required, +for comfort's sake, before each seat small round mats of brown straw, on +one of which the abbe was now resting his feet. The old damask curtains +of light green with green flowers were drawn, and the outside blinds had +been closed. Two wax candles lighted the table, leaving the rest of +the room in semi-obscurity. Is it necessary to say that between the two +windows was a fine pastel by Latour representing the famous Admiral de +Portenduere, the rival of the Suffren, Guichen, Kergarouet and Simeuse +naval heroes? On the paneled wall opposite to the fireplace were +portraits of the Vicomte de Portenduere and of the mother of the old +lady, a Kergarouet-Ploegat. Savinien's great-uncle was therefore the +Vice-admiral de Kergarouet, and his cousin was the Comte de Portenduere, +grandson of the admiral,--both of them very rich. + +The Vice-admiral de Kergarouet lived in Paris and the Comte de +Portenduere at the chateau of that name in Dauphine. The count +represented the elder branch, and Savinien was the only scion of the +younger. The count, who was over forty years of age and married to +a rich wife, had three children. His fortune, increased by various +legacies, amounted, it was said, to sixty thousand francs a year. As +deputy from Isere he passed his winters in Paris, where he had bought +the hotel de Portenduere with the indemnities he obtained under +the Villele law. The vice-admiral had recently married his niece by +marriage, for the sole purpose of securing his money to her. + +The faults of the young viscount were therefore likely to cost him the +favor of two powerful protectors. If Savinien had entered the navy, +young and handsome as he was, with a famous name, and backed by the +influence of an admiral and a deputy, he might, at twenty-three years +of age, been a lieutenant; but his mother, unwilling that her only son +should go into either naval or military service, had kept him at Nemours +under the tutelage of one of the Abbe Chaperon's assistants, hoping that +she could keep him near her until her death. She meant to marry him to a +demoiselle d'Aiglemont with a fortune of twelve thousand francs a year; +to whose hand the name of Portenduere and the farm at Bordieres enabled +him to pretend. This narrow but judicious plan, which would have carried +the family to a second generation, was already balked by events. +The d'Aiglemonts were ruined, and one of the daughters, Helene, had +disappeared, and the mystery of her disappearance was never solved. + +The weariness of a life without atmosphere, without prospects, without +action, without other nourishment than the love of a son for his mother, +so worked upon Savinien that he burst his chains, gentle as they were, +and swore that he would never live in the provinces--comprehending, +rather late, that his future fate was not to be in the Rue des +Bourgeois. At twenty-one years of age he left his mother's house to make +acquaintance with his relations, and try his luck in Paris. The contrast +between life in Paris and life in Nemours was likely to be fatal to a +young man of twenty-one, free, with no one to say him nay, naturally +eager for pleasure, and for whom his name and his connections opened the +doors of all the salons. Quite convinced that his mother had the savings +of many years in her strong-box, Savinien soon spent the six thousand +francs which she had given him to see Paris. That sum did not defray his +expenses for six months, and he soon owed double that sum to his hotel, +his tailor, his boot maker, to the man from whom he hired his +carriages and horses, to a jeweler,--in short, to all those traders and +shopkeepers who contribute to the luxury of young men. + +He had only just succeeded in making himself known, and had scarcely +learned how to converse, how to present himself in a salon, how to +wear his waistcoats and choose them and to order his coats and tie his +cravat, before he found himself in debt for over thirty thousand francs, +while still seeking the right phrases in which to declare his love for +the sister of the Marquis de Ronquerolles, the elegant Madame de Serizy, +whose youth had been at its climax during the Empire. + +"How is that you all manage?" asked Savinien one day, at the end of a +gay breakfast with a knot of young dandies, with whom he was intimate +as the young men of the present day are intimate with each other, all +aiming for the same thing and all claiming an impossible equality. +"You were no richer than I and yet you get along without anxiety; you +contrive to maintain yourselves, while as for me I make nothing but +debts." + +"We all began that way," answered Rastignac, laughing, and the laugh +was echoed by Lucien de Rubempre, Maxime de Trailles, Emile Blondet, and +others of the fashionable young men of the day. + +"Though de Marsay was rich when he started in life he was an exception," +said the host, a parvenu named Finot, ambitious of seeming intimate with +these young men. "Any one but he," added Finot bowing to that personage, +"would have been ruined by it." + +"A true remark," said Maxime de Trailles. + +"And a true idea," added Rastignac. + +"My dear fellow," said de Marsay, gravely, to Savinien; "debts are the +capital stock of experience. A good university education with tutors for +all branches, who don't teach you anything, costs sixty thousand francs. +If the education of the world does cost double, at least it teaches you +to understand life, politics, men,--and sometimes women." + +Blondet concluded the lesson by a paraphrase from La Fontaine: "The +world sells dearly what we think it gives." + +Instead of laying to heart the sensible advice which the cleverest +pilots of the Parisian archipelago gave him, Savinien took it all as a +joke. + +"Take care, my dear fellow," said de Marsay one day. "You have a great +name; if you don't obtain the fortune that name requires you'll end your +days in the uniform of a cavalry-sergeant. 'We have seen the fall of +nobler heads,'" he added, declaiming the line of Corneille as he took +Savinien's arm. "About six years ago," he continued, "a young Comte +d'Esgrignon came among us; but he did not stay two years in the paradise +of the great world. Alas! he lived and moved like a rocket. He rose to +the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and fell to his native town, where he is +now expiating his faults with a wheezy old father and a game of whist +at two sous a point. Tell Madame de Serizy your situation, candidly, +without shame; she will understand it and be very useful to you. +Whereas, if you play the charade of first love with her she will pose +as a Raffaelle Madonna, practice all the little games of innocence +upon you, and take you journeying at enormous cost through the Land of +Sentiment." + +Savinien, still too young and too pure in honor, dared not confess his +position as to money to Madame de Serizy. At a moment when he knew not +which way to turn he had written his mother an appealing letter, to +which she replied by sending him the sum of twenty thousand francs, +which was all she possessed. This assistance brought him to the close +of the first year. During the second, being harnessed to the chariot of +Madame de Serizy, who was seriously taken with him, and who was, as the +saying is, forming him, he had recourse to the dangerous expedient of +borrowing. One of his friends, a deputy and the friend of his cousin the +Comte de Portenduere, advised him in his distress to go to Gobseck or +Gigonnet or Palma, who, if duly informed as to his mother's means, would +give him an easy discount. Usury and the deceptive help of renewals +enabled him to lead a happy life for nearly eighteen months. Without +daring to leave Madame de Serizy the poor boy had fallen madly in love +with the beautiful Comtesse de Kergarouet, a prude after the fashion +of young women who are awaiting the death of an old husband and making +capital of their virtue in the interests of a second marriage. Quite +incapable of understanding that calculating virtue is invulnerable, +Savinien paid court to Emilie de Kergarouet in all the splendor of +a rich man. He never missed either ball or theater at which she was +present. + +"You haven't powder enough, my boy, to blow up that rock," said de +Marsay, laughing. + +That young king of fashion, who did, out of commiseration for the lad, +endeavor to explain to him the nature of Emilie de Fontaine, merely +wasted his words; the gloomy lights of misfortune and the twilight of a +prison were needed to convince Savinien. + +A note, imprudently given to a jeweler in collusion with the +money-lenders, who did not wish to have the odium of arresting the young +man, was the means of sending Savinien de Portenduere, in default of one +hundred and seventeen thousand francs and without the knowledge of his +friends, to the debtor's prison at Sainte-Pelagie. So soon as the fact +was known Rastignac, de Marsay, and Lucien de Rubempre went to see him, +and each offered him a banknote of a thousand francs when they found +how really destitute he was. Everything belonging to him had been seized +except the clothes and the few jewels he wore. The three young men (who +brought an excellent dinner with them) discussed Savinien's situation +while drinking de Marsay's wine, ostensibly to arrange for his future +but really, no doubt, to judge of him. + +"When a man is named Savinien de Portenduere," cried Rastignac, "and +has a future peer of France for a cousin and Admiral Kergarouet for a +great-uncle, and commits the enormous blunder of allowing himself to be +put in Sainte-Pelagie, it is very certain that he must not stay there, +my good fellow." + +"Why didn't you tell me?" cried de Marsay. "You could have had my +traveling-carriage, ten thousand francs, and letters of introduction for +Germany. We know Gobseck and Gigonnet and the other crocodiles; we could +have made them capitulate. But tell me, in the first place, what ass +ever led you to drink of that cursed spring." + +"Des Lupeaulx." + +The three young men looked at each other with one and the same thought +and suspicion, but they did not utter it. + +"Explain all your resources; show us your hand," said de Marsay. + +When Savinien had told of his mother and her old-fashioned ways, and the +little house with three windows in the Rue des Bourgeois, without other +grounds than a court for the well and a shed for the wood; when he had +valued the house, built of sandstone and pointed in reddish cement, and +put a price on the farm at Bordieres, the three dandies looked at each +other, and all three said with a solemn air the word of the abbe +in Alfred de Musset's "Marrons du feu" (which had then just +appeared),--"Sad!" + +"Your mother will pay if you write a clever letter," said Rastignac. + +"Yes, but afterwards?" cried de Marsay. + +"If you had merely been put in the fiacre," said Lucien, "the government +would find you a place in diplomacy, but Saint-Pelagie isn't the +antechamber of an embassy." + +"You are not strong enough for Parisian life," said Rastignac. + +"Let us consider the matter," said de Marsay, looking Savinien over as a +jockey examines a horse. "You have fine blue eyes, well opened, a white +forehead well shaped, magnificent black hair, a little moustache which +suits those pale cheeks, and a slim figure; you've a foot that tells +race, shoulders and chest not quite those of a porter, but solid. You +are what I call an elegant male brunette. Your face is of the style +Louis XII., hardly any color, well-formed nose; and you have the thing +that pleases women, a something, I don't know what it is, which men take +no account of themselves; it is in the air, the manner, the tone of +the voice, the dart of the eye, the gesture,--in short, in a number of +little things which women see and to which they attach a meaning which +escapes us. You don't know your merits, my dear fellow. Take a certain +tone and style and in six months you'll captivate an English-woman with +a hundred thousand pounds; but you must call yourself viscount, a title +which belongs to you. My charming step-mother, Lady Dudley, who has not +her equal for matching two hearts, will find you some such woman in the +fens of Great Britain. What you must now do is to get the payment of +your debts postponed for ninety days. Why didn't you tell us about them? +The money-lenders at Baden would have spared you--served you perhaps; +but now, after you have once been in prison, they'll despise you. A +money-lender is, like society, like the masses, down on his knees before +the man who is strong enough to trick him, and pitiless to the lambs. +To the eyes of some persons Sainte-Pelagie is a she-devil who burns the +souls of young men. Do you want my candid advice? I shall tell you as I +told that little d'Esgrignon: 'Arrange to pay your debts leisurely; keep +enough to live on for three years, and marry some girl in the provinces +who can bring you an income of thirty thousand francs.' In the course of +three years you can surely find some virtuous heiress who is willing to +call herself Madame la Vicomtesse de Portenduere. Such is virtue,--let's +drink to it. I give you a toast: 'The girl with money!" + +The young men did not leave their ex-friend till the official hour for +parting. The gate was no sooner closed behind them than they said to +each other: "He's not strong enough!" "He's quite crushed." "I don't +believe he'll pull through it?" + +The next day Savinien wrote his mother a confession in twenty-two pages. +Madame de Portenduere, after weeping for one whole day, wrote first to +her son, promising to get him out of prison, and then to the Comte de +Portenduere and to Admiral Kergarouet. + +The letters the abbe had just read and which the poor mother was holding +in her hand and moistening with tears, were the answers to her appeal, +which had arrived that morning, and had almost broken her heart. + + +Paris, September, 1829. + +To Madame de Portenduere: + +Madame,--You cannot doubt the interest which the admiral and I both feel +in your troubles. What you ask of Monsieur de Kergarouet grieves me all +the more because our house was a home to your son; we were proud of him. +If Savinien had had more confidence in the admiral we could have taken +him to live with us, and he would already have obtained some good +situation. But, unfortunately, he told us nothing; he ran into debt of +his own accord, and even involved himself for me, who knew nothing +of his pecuniary position. It is all the more to be regretted because +Savinien has, for the moment, tied our hands by allowing the authorities +to arrest him. + +If my nephew had not shown a foolish passion for me and sacrificed our +relationship to the vanity of a lover, we could have sent him to travel +in Germany while his affairs were being settled here. Monsieur de +Kergarouet intended to get him a place in the War office; but this +imprisonment for debt will paralyze such efforts. You must pay his +debts; let him enter the navy; he will make his way like the true +Portenduere that he is; he has the fire of the family in his beautiful +black eyes, and we will all help him. + +Do not be disheartened, madame; you have many friends, among whom I +beg you to consider me as one of the most sincere; I send you our best +wishes, with the respects of + +Your very affectionate servant, Emilie de Kergarouet. + + +The second letter was as follows:-- + + +Portenduere, August, 1829. + +To Madame de Portenduere: + +My dear aunt,--I am more annoyed than surprised at Savinien's pranks. +As I am married and the father of two sons and one daughter, my fortune, +already too small for my position and prospects, cannot be lessened to +ransom a Portenduere from the hands of the Jews. Sell your farm, pay his +debts, and come and live with us at Portenduere. You shall receive +the welcome we owe you, even though our views may not be entirely in +accordance with yours. You shall be made happy, and we will manage to +marry Savinien, whom my wife thinks charming. This little outbreak is +nothing; do not make yourself unhappy; it will never be known in this +part of the country, where there are a number of rich girls who would be +delighted to enter our family. + +My wife joins me in assuring you of the happiness you would give us, +and I beg you to accept her wishes for the realization of this plan, +together with my affectionate respects. + +Luc-Savinien, Comte de Portenduere. + + +"What letters for a Kergarouet to receive!" cried the old Breton lady, +wiping her eyes. + +"The admiral does not know his nephew is in prison," said the Abbe +Chaperon at last; "the countess alone read your letter, and has answered +it for him. But you must decide at once on some course," he added after +a pause, "and this is what I have the honor to advise. Do not sell your +farm. The lease is just out, having lasted twenty-four years; in a few +months you can raise the rent to six thousand francs and get a premium +for double that amount. Borrow what you need of some honest man,--not +from the townspeople who make a business of mortgages. Your neighbour +here is a most worthy man; a man of good society, who knew it as it was +before the Revolution, who was once an atheist, and is now an earnest +Catholic. Do not let your feelings debar you from going to his house +this very evening; he will fully understand the step you take; forget +for a moment that you are a Kergarouet." + +"Never!" said the old mother, in a sharp voice. + +"Well, then, be an amiable Kergarouet; come when he is alone. He will +lend you the money at three and a half per cent, perhaps even at three +per cent, and will do you this service delicately; you will be pleased +with him. He can go to Paris and release Savinien himself,--for he will +have to go there to sell out his funds,--and he can bring the lad back +to you." + +"Are you speaking of that little Minoret?" + +"That little Minoret is eighty-three years old," said the abbe, smiling. +"My dear lady, do have a little Christian charity; don't wound him,--he +might be useful to you in other ways." + +"What ways?" + +"He has an angel in his house; a precious young girl--" + +"Oh! that little Ursula. What of that?" + +The poor abbe did not pursue the subject after these significant words, +the laconic sharpness of which cut through the proposition he was about +to make. + +"I think Doctor Minoret is very rich," he said. + +"So much the better for him." + +"You have indirectly caused your son's misfortunes by refusing to give +him a profession; beware for the future," said the abbe sternly. "Am I +to tell Doctor Minoret that you are coming?" + +"Why cannot he come to me if he knows I want him?" she replied. + +"Ah, madame, if you go to him you will pay him three per cent; if he +comes to you you will pay him five," said the abbe, inventing this +reason to influence the old lady. "And if you are forced to sell your +farm by Dionis the notary, or by Massin the clerk (who would refuse +to lend you the money, knowing it was more their interest to buy), you +would lose half its value. I have not the slightest influence on the +Dionis, Massins, or Levraults, or any of those rich men who covet your +farm and know that your son is in prison." + +"They know it! oh, do they know it?" she exclaimed, throwing up +her arms. "There! my poor abbe, you have let your coffee get cold! +Tiennette, Tiennette!" + +Tiennette, an old Breton servant sixty years of age, wearing a short +gown and a Breton cap, came quickly in and took the abbe's coffee to +warm it. + +"Let be, Monsieur le recteur," she said, seeing that the abbe meant to +drink it, "I'll just put it into the bain-marie, it won't spoil it." + +"Well," said the abbe to Madame de Portenduere in his most insinuating +voice, "I shall go and tell the doctor of your visit, and you will +come--" + +The old mother did not yield till after an hour's discussion, during +which the abbe was forced to repeat his arguments at least ten times. +And even then the proud Kergarouet was not vanquished until he used the +words, "Savinien would go." + +"It is better that I should go than he," she said. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. SAVINIEN SAVED + +The clock was striking nine when the little door made in the large door +of Madame de Portenduere's house closed on the abbe, who immediately +crossed the road and hastily rang the bell at the doctor's gate. He fell +from Tiennette to La Bougival; the one said to him, "Why do you come so +late, Monsieur l'abbe?" as the other had said, "Why do you leave Madame +so early when she is in trouble?" + +The abbe found a numerous company assembled in the green and brown +salon; for Dionis had stopped at Massin's on his way home to re-assure +the heirs by repeating their uncle's words. + +"I believe Ursula has a love-affair," said he, "which will be nothing +but pain and trouble to her; she seems romantic" (extreme sensibility +is so called by notaries), "and, you'll see, she won't marry soon. +Therefore, don't show her any distrust; be very attentive to her and +very respectful to your uncle, for he is slyer than fifty Goupils," +added the notary--without being aware that Goupil is a corruption of the +word vulpes, a fox. + +So Mesdames Massin and Cremiere with their husbands, the post master and +Desire, together with the Nemours doctor and Bongrand, made an unusual +and noisy party in the doctor's salon. As the abbe entered he heard +the sound of the piano. Poor Ursula was just finishing a sonata of +Beethoven's. With girlish mischief she had chosen that grand music, +which must be studied to be understood, for the purpose of disgusting +these women with the thing they coveted. The finer the music the less +ignorant persons like it. So, when the door opened and the abbe's +venerable head appeared they all cried out: "Ah! here's Monsieur +l'abbe!" in a tone of relief, delighted to jump up and put an end to +their torture. + +The exclamation was echoed at the card-table, where Bongrand, the +Nemours doctor, and old Minoret were victims to the presumption with +which the collector, in order to propitiate his great-uncle, had +proposed to take the fourth hand at whist. Ursula left the piano. The +doctor rose as if to receive the abbe, but really to put an end to the +game. After many compliments to their uncle on the wonderful proficiency +of his goddaughter, the heirs made their bow and retired. + +"Good-night, my friends," cried the doctor as the iron gate clanged. + +"Ah! that's where the money goes," said Madame Cremiere to Madame +Massin, as they walked on. + +"God forbid that I should spend money to teach my little Aline to make +such a din as that!" cried Madame Massin. + +"She said it was Beethoven, who is thought to be fine musician," said +the collector; "he has quite a reputation." + +"Not in Nemours, I'm sure of that," said Madame Cremiere. + +"I believe uncle made her play it expressly to drive us away," said +Massin; "for I saw him give that little minx a wink as she opened the +music-book." + +"If that's the sort of charivari they like," said the post master, "they +are quite right to keep it to themselves." + +"Monsieur Bongrand must be fond of whist to stand such a dreadful +racket," said Madame Cremiere. + +"I shall never be able to play before persons who don't understand +music," Ursula was saying as she sat down beside the whist-table. + +"In natures richly organized," said the abbe, "sentiments can be +developed only in a congenial atmosphere. Just as a priest is unable to +give the blessing in presence of an evil spirit, or as a chestnut-tree +dies in a clay soil, so a musician's genius has a mental eclipse when he +is surrounded by ignorant persons. In all the arts we must receive from +the souls who make the environment of our souls as much intensity as we +convey to them. This axiom, which rules the human mind, has been made +into proverbs: 'Howl with the wolves'; 'Like meets like.' But the +suffering you felt, Ursula, affects delicate and tender natures only." + +"And so, friends," said the doctor, "a thing which would merely give +pain to most women might kill my Ursula. Ah! when I am no longer here, +I charge you to see that the hedge of which Catullus spoke,--'Ut flos,' +etc.,--a protecting hedge is raised between this cherished flower and +the world." + +"And yet those ladies flattered you, Ursula," said Monsieur Bongrand, +smiling. + +"Flattered her grossly," remarked the Nemours doctor. + +"I have always noticed how vulgar forced flattery is," said old Minoret. +"Why is that?" + +"A true thought has its own delicacy," said the abbe. + +"Did you dine with Madame de Portenduere?" asked Ursula, with a look of +anxious curiosity. + +"Yes; the poor lady is terribly distressed. It is possible she may come +to see you this evening, Monsieur Minoret." + +Ursula pressed her godfather's hand under the table. + +"Her son," said Bongrand, "was rather too simple-minded to live in Paris +without a mentor. When I heard that inquiries were being made here about +the property of the old lady I feared he was discounting her death." + +"Is it possible you think him capable of it?" said Ursula, with such +a terrible glance at Monsieur Bongrand that he said to himself rather +sadly, "Alas! yes, she loves him." + +"Yes and no," said the Nemours doctor, replying to Ursula's question. +"There is a great deal of good in Savinien, and that is why he is now in +prison; a scamp wouldn't have got there." + +"Don't let us talk about it any more," said old Minoret. "The poor +mother must not be allowed to weep if there's a way to dry her tears." + +The four friends rose and went out; Ursula accompanied them to the gate, +saw her godfather and the abbe knock at the opposite door, and as +soon as Tiennette admitted them she sat down on the outer wall with La +Bougival beside her. + +"Madame la vicomtesse," said the abbe, who entered first into the little +salon, "Monsieur le docteur Minoret was not willing that you should have +the trouble of coming to him--" + +"I am too much of the old school, madame," interrupted the doctor, "not +to know what a man owes to a woman of your rank, and I am very glad to +be able, as Monsieur l'abbe tells me, to be of service to you." + +Madame de Portenduere, who disliked the step the abbe had advised so +much that she had almost decided, after he left her, to apply to the +notary instead, was surprised by Minoret's attention to such a degree +that she rose to receive him and signed to him to take a chair. + +"Be seated, monsieur," she said with a regal air. "Our dear abbe has +told you that the viscount is in prison on account of some youthful +debts,--a hundred thousand francs or so. If you could lend them to him I +would secure you on my farm at Bordieres." + +"We will talk of that, madame, when I have brought your son back to +you--if you will allow me to be your emissary in the matter." + +"Very good, monsieur," she said, bowing her head and looking at the abbe +as if to say, "You were right; he really is a man of good society." + +"You see, madame," said the abbe, "that my friend the doctor is full of +devotion to your family." + +"We shall be grateful, monsieur," said Madame de Portenduere, making +a visible effort; "a journey to Paris, at your age, in quest of a +prodigal, is--" + +"Madame, I had the honor to meet, in '65, the illustrious Admiral de +Portenduere in the house of that excellent Monsieur de Malesherbes, and +also in that of Monsieur le Comte de Buffon, who was anxious to question +him on some curious results of his voyages. Possibly Monsieur de +Portenduere, your late husband, was present. Those were the glorious +days of the French navy; it bore comparison with that of Great Britain, +and its officers had their full quota of courage. With what impatience +we awaited in '83 and '84 the news from St. Roch. I came very near +serving as surgeon in the king's service. Your great-uncle, who is still +living, Admiral Kergarouet, fought his splendid battle at that time in +the 'Belle-Poule.'" + +"Ah! if he did but know his great-nephew is in prison!" + +"He would not leave him there a day," said old Minoret, rising. + +He held out his hand to take that of the old lady, which she allowed him +to do; then he kissed it respectfully, bowed profoundly, and left the +room; but returned immediately to say:-- + +"My dear abbe, may I ask you to engage a place in the diligence for me +to-morrow?" + +The abbe stayed behind for half an hour to sing the praises of his +friend, who meant to win and had succeeded in winning the good graces of +the old lady. + +"He is an astonishing man for his age," she said. "He talks of going to +Paris and attending to my son's affairs as if he were only twenty-five. +He has certainly seen good society." + +"The very best, madame; and to-day more than one son of a peer of France +would be glad to marry his goddaughter with a million. Ah! if that +idea should come into Savinien's head!--times are so changed that the +objections would not come from your side, especially after his late +conduct--" + +The amazement into which the speech threw the old lady alone enabled him +to finish it. + +"You have lost your senses," she said at last. + +"Think it over, madame; God grant that your son may conduct himself in +future in a manner to win that old man's respect." + +"If it were not you, Monsieur l'abbe," said Madame de Portenduere, "if +it were any one else who spoke to me in that way--" + +"You would not see him again," said the abbe, smiling. "Let us hope that +your dear son will enlighten you as to what occurs in Paris in these +days as to marriages. You will think only of Savinien's good; as you +really have helped to compromise his future you will not stand in the +way of his making himself another position." + +"And it is you who say that to me?" + +"If I did not say it to you, who would?" cried the abbe rising and +making a hasty retreat. + +As he left the house he saw Ursula and her godfather standing in their +courtyard. The weak doctor had been so entreated by Ursula that he had +just yielded to her. She wanted to go with him to Paris, and gave a +thousand reasons. He called to the abbe and begged him to engage the +whole coupe for him that very evening if the booking-office were still +open. + +The next day at half-past six o'clock the old man and the young girl +reached Paris, and the doctor went at once to consult his notary. +Political events were then very threatening. Monsieur Bongrand had +remarked in the course of the preceding evening that a man must be a +fool to keep a penny in the public funds so long as the quarrel between +the press and the court was not made up. Minoret's notary now indirectly +approved of this opinion. The doctor therefore took advantage of his +journey to sell out his manufacturing stocks and his shares in the +Funds, all of which were then at a high value, depositing the proceeds +in the Bank of France. The notary also advised his client to sell the +stocks left to Ursula by Monsieur de Jordy. He promised to employ an +extremely clever broker to treat with Savinien's creditors; but said +that in order to succeed it would be necessary for the young man to stay +several days longer in prison. + +"Haste in such matters always means the loss of at least fifteen per +cent," said the notary. "Besides, you can't get your money under seven +or eight days." + +When Ursula heard that Savinien would have to say at least a week longer +in jail she begged her godfather to let her go there, if only once. Old +Minoret refused. The uncle and niece were staying at a hotel in the +Rue Croix des Petits-Champs where the doctor had taken a very suitable +apartment. Knowing the scrupulous honor and propriety of his goddaughter +he made her promise not to go out while he was away; at other times +he took her to see the arcades, the shops, the boulevards; but nothing +seemed to amuse or interest her. + +"What do you want to do?" asked the old man. + +"See Saint-Pelagie," she answered obstinately. + +Minoret called a hackney-coach and took her to the Rue de la Clef, where +the carriage drew up before the shabby front of an old convent then +transformed into a prison. The sight of those high gray walls, with +every window barred, of the wicket through which none can enter without +stooping (horrible lesson!), of the whole gloomy structure in a quarter +full of wretchedness, where it rises amid squalid streets like a supreme +misery,--this assemblage of dismal things so oppressed Ursula's heart +that she burst into tears. + +"Oh!" she said, "to imprison young men in this dreadful place for money! +How can a debt to a money-lender have a power the king has not? _He_ +there!" she cried. "Where, godfather?" she added, looking from window to +window. + +"Ursula," said the old man, "you are making me commit great follies. +This is not forgetting him as you promised." + +"But," she argued, "if I must renounce him must I also cease to feel an +interest in him? I can love him and not marry at all." + +"Ah!" cried the doctor, "there is so much reason in your +unreasonableness that I am sorry I brought you." + +Three days later the worthy man had all the receipts signed, and the +legal papers ready for Savinien's release. The payings, including the +notaries' fees, amounted to eighty thousand francs. The doctor went +himself to see Savinien released on Saturday at two o'clock. The young +viscount, already informed of what had happened by his mother, thanked +his liberator with sincere warmth of heart. + +"You must return at once to see your mother," the old doctor said to +him. + +Savinien answered in a sort of confusion that he had contracted certain +debts of honor while in prison, and related the visit of his friends. + +"I suspected there was some personal debt," cried the doctor, smiling. +"Your mother borrowed a hundred thousand francs of me, but I have paid +out only eighty thousand. Here is the rest; be careful how you spend it, +monsieur; consider what you have left of it as your stake on the green +cloth of fortune." + +During the last eight days Savinien had made many reflections on the +present conditions of life. Competition in everything necessitated +hard work on the part of whoever sought a fortune. Illegal methods and +underhand dealing demanded more talent than open efforts in face of day. +Success in society, far from giving a man position, wasted his time and +required an immense deal of money. The name of Portenduere, which his +mother considered all-powerful, had no power at all in Paris. His cousin +the deputy, Comte de Portenduere, cut a very poor figure in the Elective +Chamber in presence of the peerage and the court; and had none too much +credit personally. Admiral Kergarouet existed only as the husband of his +wife. Savinien admitted to himself that he had seen orators, men from +the middle classes, or lesser noblemen, become influential personages. +Money was the pivot, the sole means, the only mechanism of a society +which Louis XVIII. had tried to create in the likeness of that of +England. + +On his way from the Rue de la Clef to the Rue Croix des Petits-Champs +the young gentleman divulged the upshot of these meditations (which were +certainly in keeping with de Marsay's advice) to the old doctor. + +"I ought," he said, "to go into oblivion for three or four years and +seek a career. Perhaps I could make myself a name by writing a book on +statesmanship or morals, or a treatise on some of the great questions of +the day. While I am looking out for a marriage with some young lady who +could make me eligible to the Chamber, I will work hard in silence and +in obscurity." + +Studying the young fellow's face with a keen eye, the doctor saw the +serious purpose of a wounded man who was anxious to vindicate himself. +He therefore cordially approved of the scheme. + +"My friend," he said, "if you strip off the skin of the old nobility +(which is no longer worn these days) I will undertake, after you have +lived for three or four years in a steady and industrious manner, +to find you a superior young girl, beautiful, amiable, pious, and +possessing from seven to eight hundred thousand francs, who will make +you happy and of whom you will have every reason to be proud,--one whose +only nobility is that of the heart!" + +"Ah, doctor!" cried the young man, "there is no longer a nobility in +these days,--nothing but an aristocracy." + +"Go and pay your debts of honor and come back here. I shall engage the +coupe of the diligence, for my niece is with me," said the old man. + +That evening, at six o'clock, the three travelers started from the Rue +Dauphine. Ursula had put on a veil and did not say a word. Savinien, who +once, in a moment of superficial gallantry, had sent her that kiss +which invaded and conquered her soul like a love-poem, had completely +forgotten the young girl in the hell of his Parisian debts; moreover, +his hopeless love for Emilie de Kergarouet hindered him from bestowing +a thought on a few glances exchanged with a little country girl. He did +not recognize her when the doctor handed her into the coach and then sat +down beside her to separate her from the young viscount. + +"I have some bills to give you," said the doctor to the young man. "I +have brought all your papers and documents." + +"I came very near not getting off," said Savinien, "for I had to order +linen and clothes; the Philistines took all; I return like a true +prodigal." + +However interesting were the subjects of conversation between the young +man and the old one, and however witty and clever were certain remarks +of the viscount, the young girl continued silent till after dusk, her +green veil lowered, and her hands crossed on her shawl. + +"Mademoiselle does not seem to have enjoyed Paris very much," said +Savinien at last, somewhat piqued. + +"I am glad to return to Nemours," she answered in a trembling voice +raising her veil. + +Notwithstanding the dim light Savinien then recognized her by the heavy +braids of her hair and the brilliancy of her blue eyes. + +"I, too, leave Paris to bury myself in Nemours without regret now that I +meet my charming neighbour again," he said; "I hope, Monsieur le docteur +that you will receive me in your house; I love music, and I remember to +have listened to Mademoiselle Ursula's piano." + +"I do not know," replied the doctor gravely, "whether your mother would +approve of your visits to an old man whose duty it is to care for this +dear child with all the solicitude of a mother." + +This reserved answer made Savinien reflect, and he then remembered the +kisses so thoughtlessly wafted. Night came; the heat was great. Savinien +and the doctor went to sleep first. Ursula, whose head was full +of projects, did not succumb till midnight. She had taken off her +straw-bonnet, and her head, covered with a little embroidered cap, +dropped upon her uncle's shoulder. When they reached Bouron at dawn, +Savinien awoke. He then saw Ursula in the slight disarray naturally +caused by the jolting of the vehicle; her cap was rumpled and half off; +the hair, unbound, had fallen each side of her face, which glowed from +the heat of the night; in this situation, dreadful for women to whom +dress is a necessary auxiliary, youth and beauty triumphed. The sleep +of innocence is always lovely. The half-opened lips showed the pretty +teeth; the shawl, unfastened, gave to view, beneath the folds of her +muslin gown and without offence to her modesty, the gracefulness of +her figure. The purity of the virgin spirit shone on the sleeping +countenance all the more plainly because no other expression was there +to interfere with it. Old Minoret, who presently woke up, placed his +child's head in the corner of the carriage that she might be more at +ease; and she let him do it unconsciously, so deep was her sleep after +the many wakeful nights she had spent in thinking of Savinien's trouble. + +"Poor little girl!" said the doctor to his neighbour, "she sleeps like +the child she is." + +"You must be proud of her," replied Savinien; "for she seems as good as +she is beautiful." + +"Ah! she is the joy of the house. I could not love her better if she +were my own daughter. She will be sixteen on the 5th February. God grant +that I may live long enough to marry her to a man who will make her +happy. I wanted to take her to the theater in Paris, where she was for +the first time, but she refused, the Abbe Chaperon had forbidden it. +'But,' I said, 'when you are married your husband will want you to go +there.' 'I shall do what my husband wants,' she answered. 'If he asks me +to do evil and I am weak enough to yield, he will be responsible before +God--and so I shall have strength to refuse him, for his own sake.'" + +As the coach entered Nemours, at five in the morning, Ursula woke up, +ashamed at her rumpled condition, and confused by the look of admiration +which she encountered from Savinien. During the hour it had taken the +diligence to come from Bouron to Nemours the young man had fallen in +love with Ursula; he had studied the pure candor of her soul, the beauty +of that body, the whiteness of the skin, the delicacy of the features; +he recalled the charm of the voice which had uttered but one expressive +sentence, in which the poor child said all, intending to say nothing. A +presentiment suddenly seemed to take hold of him; he saw in Ursula the +woman the doctor had pictured to him, framed in gold by the magic words, +"Seven or eight hundred thousand francs." + +"In three of four years she will be twenty, and I shall be +twenty-seven," he thought. "The good doctor talked of probation, work, +good conduct! Sly as he is I shall make him tell me the truth." + +The three neighbours parted in the street in front of their respective +homes, and Savinien put a little courting into his eyes as he gave +Ursula a parting glance. + +Madame de Portenduere let her son sleep till midday; but the doctor +and Ursula, in spite of their fatiguing journey, went to high mass. +Savinien's release and his return in company with the doctor had +explained the reason of the latter's absence to the newsmongers of the +town and to the heirs, who were once more assembled in conventicle on +the square, just as they were two weeks earlier when the doctor attended +his first mass. To the great astonishment of all the groups, Madame de +Portenduere, on leaving the church, stopped old Minoret, who offered +her his arm and took her home. The old lady asked him to dinner that +evening, also asking his niece and assuring him that the abbe would be +the only other guest. + +"He must have wished Ursula to see Paris," said Minoret-Levrault. + +"Pest!" cried Cremiere; "he can't take a step without that girl!" + +"Something must have happened to make old Portenduere accept his arm," +said Massin. + +"So none of you have guessed that your uncle has sold his Funds and +released that little Savinien?" cried Goupil. "He refused Dionis, but he +didn't refuse Madame de Portenduere--Ha, ha! you are all done for. The +viscount will propose a marriage-contract instead of a mortgage, and the +doctor will make the husband settle on his jewel of a girl the sum he +has now paid to secure the alliance." + +"It is not a bad thing to marry Ursula to Savinien," said the butcher. +"The old lady gives a dinner to-day to Monsieur Minoret. Tiennette came +early for a filet." + +"Well, Dionis, here's a fine to-do!" said Massin, rushing up to the +notary, who was entering the square. + +"What is? It's all going right," returned the notary. "Your uncle has +sold his Funds and Madame de Portenduere has sent for me to witness the +signing of a mortgage on her property for one hundred thousand francs, +lent to her by your uncle." + +"Yes, but suppose the young people should marry?" + +"That's as if you said Goupil was to be my successor." + +"The two things are not so impossible," said Goupil. + +On returning from mass Madame de Portenduere told Tiennette to inform +her son that she wished to see him. + +The little house had three bedrooms on the first floor. That of Madame +de Portenduere and that of her late husband were separated by a +large dressing-room lighted by a skylight, and connected by a little +antechamber which opened on the staircase. The window of the other +room, occupied by Savinien, looked, like that of his late father, on the +street. The staircase went up at the back of the house, leaving room +for a little study lighted by a small round window opening on the court. +Madame de Portenduere's bedroom, the gloomiest in the house, also looked +into the court; but the widow spent all her time in the salon on the +ground floor, which communicated by a passage with the kitchen built at +the end of the court, so that this salon was made to answer the double +purpose of drawing-room and dining-room combined. + +The bedroom of the late Monsieur de Portenduere remained as he had +left it on the day of his death; there was no change except that he was +absent. Madame de Portenduere had made the bed herself; laying upon it +the uniform of a naval captain, his sword, cordon, orders, and hat. The +gold snuff-box from which her late husband had taken snuff for the last +time was on the table, with his prayer-book, his watch, and the cup from +which he drank. His white hair, arranged in one curled lock and framed, +hung above a crucifix and the holy water in the alcove. All the little +ornaments he had worn, his journals, his furniture, his Dutch spittoon, +his spy-glass hanging by the mantel, were all there. The widow had +stopped the hands of the clock at the hour of his death, to which they +always pointed. The room still smelt of the powder and the tobacco of +the deceased. The hearth was as he left it. To her, entering there, he +was again visible in the many articles which told of his daily habits. +His tall cane with its gold head was where he had last placed it, with +his buckskin gloves close by. On a table against the wall stood a gold +vase, of coarse workmanship but worth three thousand francs, a gift from +Havana, which city, at the time of the American War of Independence, he +had protected from an attack by the British, bringing his convoy safe +into port after an engagement with superior forces. To recompense this +service the King of Spain had made him a knight of his order; the +same event gave him a right to the next promotion to the rank of +vice-admiral, and he also received the red ribbing. He then married his +wife, who had a fortune of about two hundred thousand francs. But +the Revolution hindered his promotion, and Monsieur de Portenduere +emigrated. + +"Where is my mother?" said Savinien to Tiennette. + +"She is waiting for you in your father's room," said the old Breton +woman. + +Savinien could not repress a shudder. He knew his mother's rigid +principles, her worship of honor, her loyalty, her faith in nobility, +and he foresaw a scene. He went up to the assault with his heart beating +and his face rather pale. In the dim light which filtered through the +blinds he saw his mother dressed in black, and with an air of solemnity +in keeping with that funereal room. + +"Monsieur le vicomte," she said when she saw him, rising and taking his +hand to lead him to his father's bed, "there died your father,--a man of +honor; he died without reproach from his own conscience. His spirit +is there. Surely he groaned in heaven when he saw his son degraded by +imprisonment for debt. Under the old monarchy that stain could have been +spared you by obtaining a lettre de cachet and shutting you up for a +few days in a military prison.--But you are here; you stand before your +father, who hears you. You know all that you did before you were sent +to that ignoble prison. Will you swear to me before your father's shade, +and in presence of God who sees all, that you have done no dishonorable +act; that your debts are the result of youthful folly, and that your +honor is untarnished? If your blameless father were there, sitting +in that armchair, and asking an explanation of your conduct, could he +embrace you after having heard it?" + +"Yes, mother," replied the young man, with grave respect. + +She opened her arms and pressed him to her heart, shedding a few tears. + +"Let us forget it all, my son," she said; "it is only a little less +money. I shall pray God to let us recover it. As you are indeed worthy +of your name, kiss me--for I have suffered much." + +"I swear, mother," he said, laying his hand upon the bed, "to give you +no further unhappiness of that kind, and to do all I can to repair these +first faults." + +"Come and breakfast, my child," she said, turning to leave the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. OBSTACLES TO YOUNG LOVE + +In 1829 the old noblesse had recovered as to manners and customs +something of the prestige it had irrevocably lost in politics. Moreover, +the sentiment which governs parents and grandparents in all that relates +to matrimonial conventions is an imperishable sentiment, closely allied +to the very existence of civilized societies and springing from the +spirit of family. It rules in Geneva as in Vienna and in Nemours, +where, as we have seen, Zelie Minoret refused her consent to a possible +marriage of her son with the daughter of a bastard. Still, all social +laws have their exceptions. Savinien thought he might bend his mother's +pride before the inborn nobility of Ursula. The struggle began at once. +As soon as they were seated at table his mother told him of the horrible +letters, as she called them, which the Kergarouets and the Portendueres +had written her. + +"There is no such thing as family in these days, mother," replied +Savinien, "nothing but individuals! The nobles are no longer a compact +body. No one asks or cares whether I am a Portenduere, or brave, or a +statesmen; all they ask now-a-days is, 'What taxes does he pay?'" + +"But the king?" asked the old lady. + +"The king is caught between the two Chambers like a man between his wife +and his mistress. So I shall have to marry some rich girl without +regard to family,--the daughter of a peasant if she has a million and is +sufficiently well brought-up--that is to say, if she has been taught in +school." + +"Oh! there's no need to talk of that," said the old lady. + +Savinien frowned as he heard the words. He knew the granite will, called +Breton obstinacy, that distinguished his mother, and he resolved to know +at once her opinion on this delicate matter. + +"So," he went on, "if I loved a young girl,--take for instance your +neighbour's godchild, little Ursula,--would you oppose my marriage?" + +"Yes, as long as I live," she replied; "and after my death you would +be responsible for the honor and the blood of the Kergarouets and the +Portendueres." + +"Would you let me die of hunger and despair for the chimera of nobility, +which has no reality to-day unless it has the lustre of great wealth?" + +"You could serve France and put faith in God." + +"Would you postpone my happiness till after your death?" + +"It would be horrible if you took it then,--that is all I have to say." + +"Louis XIV. came very near marrying the niece of Mazarin, a parvenu." + +"Mazarin himself opposed it." + +"Remember the widow Scarron." + +"She was a d'Aubigne. Besides, the marriage was in secret. But I am very +old, my son," she said, shaking her head. "When I am no more you can, as +you say, marry whom you please." + +Savinien both loved and respected his mother; but he instantly, though +silently, set himself in opposition to her with an obstinacy equal +to her own, resolving to have no other wife than Ursula, to whom this +opposition gave, as often happens in similar circumstances, the value of +a forbidden thing. + +When, after vespers, the doctor, with Ursula, who was dressed in pink +and white, entered the cold, stiff salon, the girl was seized with +nervous trembling, as though she had entered the presence of the queen +of France and had a favor to beg of her. Since her confession to the +doctor this little house had assumed the proportions of a palace in her +eyes, and the old lady herself the social value which a duchess of the +Middle Ages might have had to the daughter of a serf. Never had Ursula +measured as she did at that moment the distance which separated Vicomte +de Portenduere from the daughter of a regimental musician, a former +opera-singer and the natural son of an organist. + +"What is the matter, my dear?" said the old lady, making the girl sit +down beside her. + +"Madame, I am confused by the honor you have done me--" + +"My little girl," said Madame de Portenduere, in her sharpest tone. "I +know how fond your uncle is of you, and I wished to be agreeable to him, +for he has brought back my prodigal son." + +"But, my dear mother," said Savinien cut to the heart by seeing the +color fly into Ursula's face as she struggled to keep back her tears, +"even if we were under no obligations to Monsieur le Chevalier Minoret, +I think we should always be most grateful for the pleasure Mademoiselle +has given us by accepting your invitation." + +The young man pressed the doctor's hand in a significant manner, adding: +"I see you wear, monsieur, the order of Saint-Michel, the oldest order +in France, and one which confers nobility." + +Ursula's extreme beauty, to which her almost hopeless love gave a depth +which great painters have sometimes conveyed in pictures where the +soul is brought into strong relief, had struck Madame de Portenduere +suddenly, and made her suspect that the doctor's apparent generosity +masked an ambitious scheme. She had made the speech to which Savinien +replied with the intention of wounding the doctor in that which was +dearest to him; and she succeeded, though the old man could hardly +restrain a smile as he heard himself styled a "chevalier," amused to +observe how the eagerness of a lover did not shrink from absurdity. + +"The order of Saint-Michel which in former days men committed follies to +obtain," he said, "has now, Monsieur le vicomte, gone the way of other +privileges! It is given only to doctors and poor artists. The kings have +done well to join it to that of Saint-Lazare who was, I believe, a poor +devil recalled to life by a miracle. From this point of view the order +of Saint-Michel and Saint-Lazare may be, for many of us, symbolic." + +After this reply, at once sarcastic and dignified, silence reigned, +which, as no one seemed inclined to break it, was becoming awkward, when +there was a rap at the door. + +"There is our dear abbe," said the old lady, who rose, leaving Ursula +alone, and advancing to meet the Abbe Chaperon,--an honor she had not +paid to the doctor and his niece. + +The old man smiled to himself as he looked from his goddaughter to +Savinien. To show offence or to complain of Madame de Portenduere's +manners was a rock on which a man of small mind might have struck, but +Minoret was too accomplished in the ways of the world not to avoid +it. He began to talk to the viscount of the danger Charles X. was +then running by confiding the affairs of the nation to the Prince de +Polignac. When sufficient time had been spent on the subject to avoid +all appearance of revenging himself by so doing, he handed the old lady, +in an easy, jesting way, a packet of legal papers and receipted bills, +together with the account of his notary. + +"Has my son verified them?" she said, giving Savinien a look, to which +he replied by bending his head. "Well, then the rest is my notary's +business," she added, pushing away the papers and treating the affair +with the disdain she wished to show for money. + +To abase wealth was, according to Madame de Portenduere's ideas, to +elevate the nobility and rob the bourgeoisie of their importance. + +A few moments later Goupil came from his employer, Dionis, to ask for +the accounts of the transaction between the doctor and Savinien. + +"Why do you want them?" said the old lady. + +"To put the matter in legal form; there have been no cash payments." + +Ursula and Savinien, who both for the first time exchanged a glance with +offensive personage, were conscious of a sensation like that of touching +a toad, aggravated by a dark presentiment of evil. They both had the +same indefinable and confused vision into the future, which has no name +in any language, but which is capable of explanation as the action of +the inward being of which the mysterious Swedenborgian had spoken to +Doctor Minoret. The certainty that the venomous Goupil would in some +way be fatal to them made Ursula tremble; but she controlled herself, +conscious of unspeakable pleasure in seeing that Savinien shared her +emotion. + +"He is not handsome, that clerk of Monsieur Dionis," said Savinien, when +Goupil had closed the door. + +"What does it signify whether such persons are handsome or ugly?" said +Madame de Portenduere. + +"I don't complain of his ugliness," said the abbe, "but I do of his +wickedness, which passes all bounds; he is a villain." + +The doctor, in spite of his desire to be amiable, grew cold and +dignified. The lovers were embarrassed. If it had not been for the +kindly good-humor of the abbe, whose gentle gayety enlivened the +dinner, the position of the doctor and his niece would have been almost +intolerable. At dessert, seeing Ursula turn pale, he said to her:-- + +"If you don't feel well, dear child, we have only the street to cross." + +"What is the matter, my dear?" said the old lady to the girl. + +"Madame," said the doctor severely, "her soul is chilled, accustomed as +she is to be met by smiles." + +"A very bad education, monsieur," said Madame de Portenduere. "Is it +not, Monsieur l'abbe?" + +"Yes," answered Minoret, with a look at the abbe, who knew not how +to reply. "I have, it is true, rendered life unbearable to an angelic +spirit if she has to pass it in the world; but I trust I shall not die +until I place her in security, safe from coldness, indifference, and +hatred--" + +"Oh, godfather--I beg of you--say no more. There is nothing the matter +with me," cried Ursula, meeting Madame de Portenduere's eyes rather than +give too much meaning to her words by looking at Savinien. + +"I cannot know, madame," said Savinien to his mother, "whether +Mademoiselle Ursula suffers, but I do know that you are torturing me." + +Hearing these words, dragged from the generous young man by his +mother's treatment of herself, Ursula turned pale and begged Madame de +Portenduere to excuse her; then she took her uncle's arm, bowed, left +the room, and returned home. Once there, she rushed to the salon and sat +down to the piano, put her head in her hands, and burst into tears. + +"Why don't you leave the management of your affairs to my old +experience, cruel child?" cried the doctor in despair. "Nobles never +think themselves under any obligations to the bourgeoisie. When we +do them a service they consider that we do our duty, and that's all. +Besides, the old lady saw that you looked favorably on Savinien; she is +afraid he will love you." + +"At any rate he is saved!" said Ursula. "But ah! to try to humiliate a +man like you!" + +"Wait till I return, my child," said the old man leaving her. + +When the doctor re-entered Madame de Portenduere's salon he found Dionis +the notary, accompanied by Monsieur Bongrand and the mayor of Nemours, +witnesses required by law for the validity of deeds in all communes +where there is but one notary. Minoret took Monsieur Dionis aside and +said a word in his ear, after which the notary read the deeds aloud +officially; from which it appeared that Madame de Portenduere gave a +mortgage on all her property to secure payment of the hundred thousand +francs, the interest on which was fixed at five per cent. At the reading +of this last clause the abbe looked at Minoret, who answered with an +approving nod. The poor priest whispered something in the old lady's ear +to which she replied,-- + +"I will owe nothing to such persons." + +"My mother leaves me the nobler part," said Savinien to the doctor; "she +will repay the money and charges me to show our gratitude." + +"But you will have to pay eleven thousand francs the first year to meet +the interest and the legal costs," said the abbe. + +"Monsieur," said Minoret to Dionis, "as Monsieur and Madame de +Portenduere are not in a condition to pay those costs, add them to the +amount of the mortgage and I will pay them." + +Dionis made the change and the sum borrowed was fixed at one hundred and +seven thousand francs. When the papers were all signed, Minoret made his +fatigue an excuse to leave the house at the same time as the notary and +witnesses. + +"Madame," said the abbe, "why did you affront the excellent Monsieur +Minoret, who saved you at least twenty-five thousand francs on those +debts in Paris, and had the delicacy to give twenty thousand to your son +for his debts of honor?" + +"Your Minoret is sly," she said, taking a pinch of snuff. "He knows what +he is about." + +"My mother thinks he wishes to force me into marrying his niece by +getting hold of our farm," said Savinien; "as if a Portenduere, son of a +Kergarouet, could be made to marry against his will." + +An hour later, Savinien presented himself at the doctor's house, where +all the relatives had assembled, enticed by curiosity. The arrival of +the young viscount produced a lively sensation, all the more because its +effect was different on each person present. Mesdemoiselles Cremiere and +Massin whispered together and looked at Ursula, who blushed. The mothers +said to Desire that Goupil was right about the marriage. The eyes of all +present turned towards the doctor, who did not rise to receive the young +nobleman, but merely bowed his head without laying down the dice-box, +for he was playing a game of backgammon with Monsieur Bongrand. The +doctor's cold manner surprised every one. + +"Ursula, my child," he said, "give us a little music." + +While the young girl, delighted to have something to do to keep her +in countenance, went to the piano and began to move the green-covered +music-books, the heirs resigned themselves, with many demonstrations of +pleasure, to the torture and the silence about to be inflicted on them, +so eager were they to find out what was going on between their uncle and +the Portendueres. + +In sometimes happens that a piece of music, poor in itself, when +played by a young girl under the influence of deep feeling, makes more +impression than a fine overture played by a full orchestra. In all +music there is, besides the thought of the composer, the soul of the +performer, who, by a privilege granted to this art only, can give both +meaning and poetry to passages which are in themselves of no great +value. Chopin proves, for that unresponsive instrument the piano, the +truth of this fact, already proved by Paganini on the violin. That +fine genius is less a musician than a soul which makes itself felt, and +communicates itself through all species of music, even simple chords. +Ursula, by her exquisite and sensitive organization, belonged to this +rare class of beings, and old Schmucke, the master, who came every +Saturday and who, during Ursula's stay in Paris was with her every +day, had brought his pupil's talent to its full perfection. "Rousseau's +Dream," the piece now chosen by Ursula, composed by Herold in his young +days, is not without a certain depth which is capable of being developed +by execution. Ursula threw into it the feelings which were agitating her +being, and justified the term "caprice" given by Herold to the fragment. +With soft and dreamy touch her soul spoke to the young man's soul and +wrapped it, as in a cloud, with ideas that were almost visible. + +Sitting at the end of the piano, his elbow resting on the cover and his +head on his left hand, Savinien admired Ursula, whose eyes, fixed on the +paneling of the wall beyond him, seemed to be questioning another world. +Many a man would have fallen deeply in love for a less reason. Genuine +feelings have a magnetism of their own, and Ursula was willing to show +her soul, as a coquette her dresses to be admired. Savinien entered +that delightful kingdom, led by this pure heart, which, to interpret its +feelings, borrowed the power of the only art that speaks to thought by +thought, without the help of words, or color, or form. Candor, openness +of heart have the same power over a man that childhood has; the same +charm, the same irresistible seductions. Ursula was never more honest +and candid than at this moment, when she was born again into a new life. + +The abbe came to tear Savinien from his dream, requesting him to take +a fourth hand at whist. Ursula went on playing; the heirs departed, all +except Desire, who was resolved to find out the intentions of his uncle +and the viscount and Ursula. + +"You have as much talent as soul, mademoiselle," he said, when the young +girl closed the piano and sat down beside her godfather. "Who is your +master?" + +"A German, living close to the Rue Dauphine on the quai Conti," said the +doctor. "If he had not given Ursula a lesson every day during her stay +in Paris he would have been here to-day." + +"He is not only a great musician," said Ursula, "but a man of adorable +simplicity of nature." + +"Those lessons must cost a great deal," remarked Desire. + +The players smiled ironically. When the game was over the doctor, who +had hitherto seemed anxious and pensive, turned to Savinien with the air +of a man who fulfills a duty. + +"Monsieur," he said, "I am grateful for the feeling which leads you +to make me this early visit; but your mother attributes unworthy and +underhand motives to what I have done, and I should give her the right +to call them true if I did not request you to refrain from coming here, +in spite of the honor your visits are to me, and the pleasure I should +otherwise feel in cultivating your society. Tell your mother that if +I do not beg her, in my niece's name and my own, to do us the honor of +dining here next Sunday it is because I am very certain that she would +find herself indisposed on that day." + +The old man held out his hand to the young viscount, who pressed it +respectfully, saying:-- + +"You are quite right, monsieur." + +He then withdrew; but not without a bow to Ursula, in which there was +more of sadness than disappointment. + +Desire left the house at the same time; but he found it impossible to +exchange even a word with the young nobleman, who rushed into his own +house precipitately. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. BETROTHAL OF HEARTS + +This rupture between the Portendueres and Doctor Minoret gave talk +among the heirs for a week; they did homage to the genius of Dionis, and +regarded their inheritance as rescued. + +So, in an age when ranks are leveled, when the mania for equality puts +everybody on one footing and threatens to destroy all bulwarks, even +military subordination,--that last refuge of power in France, where +passions have now no other obstacles to overcome than personal +antipathies, or differences of fortune,--the obstinacy of an +old-fashioned Breton woman and the dignity of Doctor Minoret created a +barrier between these lovers, which was to end, as such obstacles often +do, not in destroying but in strengthening love. To an ardent man a +woman's value is that which she costs him; Savinien foresaw a struggle, +great efforts, many uncertainties, and already the young girl was +rendered dearer to him; he was resolved to win her. Perhaps our feelings +obey the laws of nature as to the lastingness of her creations; to a +long life a long childhood. + +The next morning, when they woke, Ursula and Savinien had the same +thought. An intimate understanding of this kind would create love if it +were not already its most precious proof. When the young girl parted her +curtains just far enough to let her eyes take in Savinien's window, she +saw the face of her lover above the fastening of his. When one reflects +on the immense services that windows render to lovers it seems natural +and right that a tax should be levied on them. Having thus protested +against her godfather's harshness, Ursula dropped the curtain and opened +her window to close the outer blinds, through which she could continue +to see without being seen herself. Seven or eight times during the day +she went up to her room, always to find the young viscount writing, +tearing up what he had written, and then writing again--to her, no +doubt! + +The next morning when she woke La Bougival gave her the following +letter:-- + + +To Mademoiselle Ursula: + +Mademoiselle,--I do not conceal from myself the distrust a young man +inspires when he has placed himself in the position from which your +godfather's kindness released me. I know that I must in future +give greater guarantees of good conduct than other men; therefore, +mademoiselle, it is with deep humility that I place myself at your feet +and ask you to consider my love. This declaration is not dictated by +passion; it comes from an inward certainty which involves the whole of +life. A foolish infatuation for my young aunt, Madame de Kergarouet, was +the cause of my going to prison; will you not regard as a proof of my +sincere love the total disappearance of those wishes, of that image, now +effaced from my heart by yours? No sooner did I see you, asleep and so +engaging in your childlike slumber at Bouron, than you occupied my soul +as a queen takes possession of her empire. I will have no other wife +than you. You have every qualification I desire in her who is to bear my +name. The education you have received and the dignity of your own mind, +place you on the level of the highest positions. But I doubt myself +too much to dare describe you to yourself; I can only love you. After +listening to you yesterday I recalled certain words which seem as though +written for you; suffer me to transcribe them:-- + +"Made to draw all hearts and charm all eyes, gentle and intelligent, +spiritual yet able to reason, courteous as though she had passed her +life at court, simple as the hermit who had never known the world, the +fire of her soul is tempered in her eyes by sacred modesty." + +I feel the value of the noble soul revealed in you by many, even the +most trifling, things. This it is which gives me the courage to ask you, +provided you love no one else, to let me prove to you by my conduct and +my devotion that I am not unworthy of you. It concerns my very life; you +cannot doubt that all my powers will be employed, not only in trying to +please you, but in deserving your esteem, which is more precious to me +than any other upon earth. With this hope, Ursula--if you will suffer +me so to call you in my heart--Nemours will be to me a paradise, the +hardest tasks will bring me joys derived through you, as life itself is +derived from God. Tell me that I may call myself + +Your Savinien. + + +Ursula kissed the letter; then, having re-read it and clasped it with +passionate motions, she dressed herself eagerly to carry it to her +uncle. + +"Ah, my God! I nearly forgot to say my prayers!" she exclaimed, turning +back to kneel on her prie-Dieu. + +A few moments later she went down to the garden, where she found her +godfather and made him read the letter. They both sat down on a bench +under the arch of climbing plants opposite to the Chinese pagoda. Ursula +awaited the old man's words, and the old man reflected long, too long +for the impatient young girl. At last, the result of their secret +interview appeared in the following answer, part of which the doctor +undoubtedly dictated. + + +To Monsieur le Vicomte Savinien de Portenduere: + +Monsieur,--I cannot be otherwise than greatly honored by the letter in +which you offer me your hand; but, at my age, and according to the rules +of my education, I have felt bound to communicate it to my godfather, +who is all I have, and whom I love as a father and also as a friend. I +must now tell you the painful objections which he has made to me, and +which must be to you my answer. + +Monsieur le vicomte, I am a poor girl, whose fortune depends entirely, +not only on my godfather's good-will, but also on the doubtful success +of the measures he may take to elude the schemes of his relatives +against me. Though I am the legitimate daughter of Joseph Mirouet, +band-master of the 45th regiment of infantry, my father himself was my +godfather's natural half-brother; and therefore these relatives may, +though without reason, being a suit against a young girl who would be +defenceless. You see, monsieur, that the smallness of my fortune is not +my greatest misfortune. I have many things to make me humble. It is for +your sake, and not for my own, that I lay before you these facts, which +to loving and devoted hearts are sometimes of little weight. But I beg +you to consider, monsieur, that if I did not submit them to you, I might +be suspected of leading your tenderness to overlook obstacles which the +world, and more especially your mother, regard as insuperable. + +I shall be sixteen in four months. Perhaps you will admit that we are +both too young and too inexperienced to understand the miseries of a +life entered upon without other fortune than that I have received +from the kindness of the late Monsieur de Jordy. My godfather desires, +moreover, not to marry me until I am twenty. Who knows what fate may +have in store for you in four years, the finest years of your life? do +not sacrifice them to a poor girl. + +Having thus explained to you, monsieur, the opinions of my dear +godfather, who, far from opposing my happiness, seeks to contribute to +it in every way, and earnestly desires that his protection, which must +soon fail me, may be replaced by a tenderness equal to his own; there +remains only to tell you how touched I am by your offer and by the +compliments which accompany it. The prudence which dictates my letter +is that of an old man to whom life is well-known; but the gratitude I +express is that of a young girl, in whose soul no other sentiment has +arisen. + +Therefore, monsieur, I can sign myself, in all sincerity, + +Your servant, Ursula Mirouet. + + +Savinien made no reply. Was he trying to soften his mother? Had this +letter put an end to his love? Many such questions, all insoluble, +tormented poor Ursula, and, by repercussion, the doctor too, who +suffered from every agitation of his darling child. Ursula went often +to her chamber to look at Savinien, whom she usually found sitting +pensively before his table with his eyes turned towards her window. At +the end of the week, but no sooner, she received a letter from him; the +delay was explained by his increasing love. + + To Mademoiselle Ursula Mirouet: + +Dear Ursula,--I am a Breton, and when my mind is once made up nothing +can change me. Your godfather, whom may God preserve to us, is right; +but does it follow that I am wrong in loving you? Therefore, all I want +to know from you is whether you could love me. Tell me this, if only by +a sign, and then the next four years will be the finest of my life. + +A friend of mine has delivered to my great-uncle, Vice-admiral +Kergarouet, a letter in which I asked his help to enter the navy. The +kind old man, grieved at my misfortune, replies that even the king's +favor would be thwarted by the rules of the service in case I wanted +a certain rank. Nevertheless, if I study three months at Toulon, the +minister of war can send me to sea as master's mate; then after a cruise +against the Algerines, with whom we are now at war, I can go through an +examination and become a midshipman. Moreover, if I distinguish myself +in an expedition they are fitting out against Algiers, I shall certainly +be made ensign--but how soon? that no one can tell. Only, they will make +the rules as elastic as possible to have the name of Portenduere again +in the navy. + +I see very plainly that I can only hope to obtain you from your +godfather; and your respect for him makes you still dearer to me. Before +replying to the admiral, I must have an interview with the doctor; on +his reply my whole future will depend. Whatever comes of it, know this, +that rich or poor, the daughter of a band master or the daughter of a +king, you are the woman whom the voice of my heart points out to me. +Dear Ursula, we live in times when prejudices which might once have +separated us have no power to prevent our marriage. To you, then, I +offer the feelings of my heart, to your uncle the guarantees which +secure to him your happiness. He has not seen that I, in a few hours, +came to love you more than he has loved you in fifteen years. + +Until this evening. Savinien. + + +"Here, godfather," said Ursula, holding the letter out to him with a +proud gesture. + +"Ah, my child!" cried the doctor when he had read it, "I am happier than +even you. He repairs all his faults by this resolution." + +After dinner Savinien presented himself, and found the doctor walking +with Ursula by the balustrade of the terrace overlooking the river. +The viscount had received his clothes from Paris, and had not missed +heightening his natural advantages by a careful toilet, as elegant as +though he were striving to please the proud and beautiful Comtesse de +Kergarouet. Seeing him approach her from the portico, the poor girl +clung to her uncle's arm as though she were saving herself from a fall +over a precipice, and the doctor heard the beating of her heart, which +made him shudder. + +"Leave us, my child," he said to the girl, who went to the pagoda and +sat upon the steps, after allowing Savinien to take her hand and kiss it +respectfully. + +"Monsieur, will you give this dear hand to a naval captain?" he said to +the doctor in a low voice. + +"No," said Minoret, smiling; "we might have to wait too long, but--I +will give her to a lieutenant." + +Tears of joy filled the young man's eyes as he pressed the doctor's hand +affectionately. + +"I am about to leave," he said, "to study hard and try to learn in six +months what the pupils of the Naval School take six years to acquire." + +"You are going?" said Ursula, springing towards them from the pavilion. + +"Yes, mademoiselle, to deserve you. Therefore the more eager I am to go, +the more I prove to you my affection." + +"This is the 3rd of October," she said, looking at him with infinite +tenderness; "do not go till after the 19th." + +"Yes," said the old man, "we will celebrate Saint-Savinien's day." + +"Good-by, then," cried the young man. "I must spend this week in Paris, +to take the preliminary steps, buy books and mathematical instruments, +and try to conciliate the minister and get the best terms that I can for +myself." + +Ursula and her godfather accompanied Savinien to the gate. Soon after +he entered his mother's house they saw him come out again, followed by +Tiennette carrying his valise. + +"If you are rich," said Ursula to her uncle, "why do you make him serve +in the navy?" + +"Presently it will be I who incurred his debts," said the doctor, +smiling. "I don't oblige him to do anything; but the uniform, my dear, +and the cross of the Legion of honor, won in battle, will wipe out many +stains. Before six years are over he may be in command of a ship, and +that's all I ask of him." + +"But he may be killed," she said, turning a pale face upon the doctor. + +"Lovers, like drunkards, have a providence of their own," he said, +laughing. + +That night the poor child, with La Bougival's help, cut off a sufficient +quantity of her long and beautiful blond hair to make a chain; and the +next day she persuaded old Schmucke, the music-master, to take it to +Paris and have the chain made and returned by the following Sunday. When +Savinien got back he informed the doctor and Ursula that he had signed +his articles and was to be at Brest on the 25th. The doctor asked him to +dinner on the 18th, and he passed nearly two whole days in the old man's +house. Notwithstanding much sage advice and many resolutions, the lovers +could not help betraying their secret understanding to the watchful eyes +of the abbe, Monsieur Bongrand, the Nemours doctor, and La Bougival. + +"Children," said the old man, "you are risking your happiness by not +keeping it to yourselves." + +On the fete-day, after mass, during which several glances had been +exchanged, Savinien, watched by Ursula, crossed the road and entered the +little garden where the pair were practically alone; for the kind old +man, by way of indulgence, was reading his newspapers in the pagoda. + +"Dear Ursula," said Savinien; "will you make a gift greater than my +mother could make me even if--" + +"I know what you wish to ask me," she said, interrupting him. "See, here +is my answer," she added, taking from the pocket of her apron the box +containing the chain made of her hair, and offering it to him with a +nervous tremor which testified to her illimitable happiness. "Wear +it," she said, "for love of me. May it shield you from all dangers by +reminding you that my life depends on yours." + +"Naughty little thing! she is giving him a chain of her hair," said the +doctor to himself. "How did she manage to get it? what a pity to cut +those beautiful fair tresses; she will be giving him my life's blood +next." + +"You will not blame me if I ask you to give me, now that I am leaving +you, a formal promise to have no other husband than me," said Savinien, +kissing the chain and looking at Ursula with tears in his eyes. + +"Have I not said so too often--I who went to see the walls of +Sainte-Pelagie when you were behind them?--" she replied, blushing. "I +repeat it, Savinien; I shall never love any one but you, and I will be +yours alone." + +Seeing that Ursula was half-hidden by the creepers, the young man could +not deny himself the happiness of pressing her to his heart and kissing +her forehead; but she gave a feeble cry and dropped upon the bench, +and when Savinien sat beside her, entreating pardon, he saw the doctor +standing before them. + +"My friend," said the old man, "Ursula is a born sensitive; too rough +a word might kill her. For her sake you must moderate the enthusiasm +of your love--Ah! if you had loved her for sixteen years as I have, +you would have been satisfied with her word of promise," he added, to +revenge himself for the last sentence in Savinien's second letter. + +Two days later the young man departed. In spite of the letters which +he wrote regularly to Ursula, she fell a prey to an illness without +apparent cause. Like a fine fruit with a worm at the core, a single +thought gnawed her heart. She lost both appetite and color. The first +time her godfather asked her what she felt, she replied:-- + +"I want to see the ocean." + +"It is difficult to take you to a sea-port in the depth of winter," +answered the old man. + +"Shall I really go?" she said. + +If the wind was high, Ursula was inwardly convulsed, certain, in spite +of the learned assurances of the doctor and the abbe, that Savinien was +being tossed about in a whirlwind. Monsieur Bongrand made her happy for +days with the gift of an engraving representing a midshipman in uniform. +She read the newspapers, imagining that they would give news of the +cruiser on which her lover sailed. She devoured Cooper's sea-tales and +learned to use sea-terms. Such proofs of concentration of feeling, often +assumed by other women, were so genuine in Ursula that she saw in dreams +the coming of Savinien's letters, and never failed to announce them, +relating the dream as a forerunner. + +"Now," she said to the doctor the fourth time that this happened, "I +am easy; wherever Savinien may be, if he is wounded I shall know it +instantly." + +The old doctor thought over this remark so anxiously that the abbe and +Monsieur Bongrand were troubled by the sorrowful expression of his face. + +"What pains you?" they said, when Ursula had left them. + +"Will she live?" replied the doctor. "Can so tender and delicate a +flower endure the trials of the heart?" + +Nevertheless, the "little dreamer," as the abbe called her, was working +hard. She understood the importance of a fine education to a woman of +the world, and all the time she did not give to her singing and to the +study of harmony and composition she spent in reading the books chosen +for her by the abbe from her godfather's rich library. And yet while +leading this busy life she suffered, though without complaint. Sometimes +she would sit for hours looking at Savinien's window. On Sundays she +would leave the church behind Madame de Portenduere and watch her +tenderly; for, in spite of the old lady's harshness, she loved her as +Savinien's mother. Her piety increased; she went to mass every morning, +for she firmly believed that her dreams were the gift of God. + +At last her godfather, frightened by the effects produced by this +nostalgia of love, promised on her birthday to take her to Toulon to see +the departure of the fleet for Algiers. Savinien's ship formed part of +it, but he was not to be informed beforehand of their intention. The +abbe and Monsieur Bongrand kept secret the object of this journey, +said to be for Ursula's health, which disturbed and greatly puzzled the +relations. After beholding Savinien in his naval uniform, and going on +board the fine flag-ship of the admiral, to whom the minister had given +young Portenduere a special recommendation, Ursula, at her lover's +entreaty, went with her godfather to Nice, and along the shores of the +Mediterranean to Genoa, where she heard of the safe arrival of the fleet +at Algiers and the landing of the troops. The doctor would have liked to +continue the journey through Italy, as much to distract Ursula's mind as +to finish, in some sense, her education, by enlarging her ideas through +comparison with other manners and customs and countries, and by the +fascination of a land where the masterpieces of art can still be seen, +and where so many civilizations have left their brilliant traces. But +the tidings of the opposition by the throne to the newly elected Chamber +of 1830 obliged the doctor to return to France, bringing back his +treasure in a flourishing state of health and possessed of a charming +little model of the ship on which Savinien was serving. + +The elections of 1830 united into an active body the various Minoret +relations,--Desire and Goupil having formed a committee in Nemours +by whose efforts a liberal candidate was put in nomination at +Fontainebleau. Massin, as collector of taxes, exercised an enormous +influence over the country electors. Five of the post master's farmers +were electors. Dionis represented eleven votes. After a few meetings +at the notary's, Cremiere, Massin, the post master, and their adherents +took a habit of assembling there. By the time the doctor returned, +Dionis's office and salon were the camp of his heirs. The justice of +peace and the mayor, who had formed an alliance, backed by the nobility +in the neighbouring castles, to resist the liberals of Nemours, now +worsted in their efforts, were more closely united than ever by their +defeat. + +By the time Bongrand and the Abbe Chaperon were able to tell the doctor +by word of mouth the result of the antagonism, which was defined for the +first time, between the two classes in Nemours (giving incidentally such +importance to his heirs) Charles X. had left Rambouillet for Cherbourg. +Desire Minoret, whose opinions were those of the Paris bar, sent for +fifteen of his friends, commanded by Goupil and mounted on horses from +his father's stable, who arrived in Paris on the night of the 28th. +With this troop Goupil and Desire took part in the capture of the +Hotel-de-Veille. Desire was decorated with the Legion of honor and +appointed deputy procureur du roi at Fontainebleau. Goupil received the +July cross. Dionis was elected mayor of Nemours, and the city council +was composed of the post master (now assistant-mayor), Massin, Cremiere, +and all the adherents of the family faction. Bongrand retained his place +only through the influence of his son, procureur du roi at Melun, whose +marriage with Mademoiselle Levrault was then on the tapis. + +Seeing the three-per-cents quoted at forty-five, the doctor started by +post for Paris, and invested five hundred and forty thousand francs in +shares to bearer. The rest of his fortune which amounted to about two +hundred and seventy thousand francs, standing in his own name in the +same funds, gave him ostensibly an income of fifteen thousand francs a +year. He made the same disposition of Ursula's little capital bequeathed +to her by de Jordy, together with the accrued interest thereon, which +gave her about fourteen hundred francs a year in her own right. La +Bougival, who had laid by some five thousand francs of her savings, did +the same by the doctor's advice, receiving in future three hundred and +fifty francs a year in dividends. These judicious transactions, agreed +on between the doctor and Monsieur Bongrand, were carried out in perfect +secrecy, thanks to the political troubles of the time. + +When quiet was again restored the doctor bought the little house which +adjoined his own and pulled it down so as to build a coach-house and +stables on its side. To employ a capital which would have given him +a thousand francs a year on outbuildings seemed actual folly to the +Minoret heirs. This folly, if it were one, was the beginning of a new +era in the doctor's existence, for he now (at a period when horses and +carriages were almost given away) brought back from Paris three fine +horses and a caleche. + +When, in the early part of November, 1830, the old man came to church on +a rainy day in the new carriage, and gave his hand to Ursula to help +her out, all the inhabitants flocked to the square,--as much to see the +caleche and question the coachman, as to criticize the goddaughter, to +whose excessive pride and ambition Massin, Cremiere, the post master, +and their wives attributed this extravagant folly of the old man. + +"A caleche! Hey, Massin!" cried Goupil. "Your inheritance will go at top +speed now!" + +"You ought to be getting good wages, Cabirolle," said the post master to +the son of one of his conductors, who stood by the horses; "for it is +to be supposed an old man of eighty-four won't use up many horse-shoes. +What did those horses cost?" + +"Four thousand francs. The caleche, though second-hand, was two +thousand; but it's a fine one, the wheels are patent." + +"Yes, it's a good carriage," said Cremiere; "and a man must be rich to +buy that style of thing." + +"Ursula means to go at a good pace," said Goupil. "She's right; she's +showing you how to enjoy life. Why don't you have fine carriages and +horses, papa Minoret? I wouldn't let myself be humiliated if I were +you--I'd buy a carriage fit for a prince." + +"Come, Cabirolle, tell us," said Massin, "is it the girl who drives our +uncle into such luxury?" + +"I don't know," said Cabirolle; "but she is almost mistress of the +house. There are masters upon masters down from Paris. They say now she +is going to study painting." + +"Then I shall seize the occasion to have my portrait drawn," said Madame +Cremiere. + +In the provinces they always say a picture is drawn, not painted. + +"The old German is not dismissed, is he?" said Madame Massin. + +"He was there yesterday," replied Cabirolle. + +"Now," said Goupil, "you may as well give up counting on your +inheritance. Ursula is seventeen years old, and she is prettier than +ever. Travel forms young people, and the little minx has got your uncle +in the toils. Five or six parcels come down for her by the diligence +every week, and the dressmakers and milliners come too, to try on her +gowns and all the rest of it. Madame Dionis is furious. Watch for Ursula +as she comes out of church and look at the little scarf she is wearing +round her neck,--real cashmere, and it cost six hundred francs!" + +If a thunderbolt had fallen in the midst of the heirs the effect would +have been less than that of Goupil's last words; the mischief-maker +stood by rubbing his hands. + +The doctor's old green salon had been renovated by a Parisian +upholsterer. Judged by the luxury displayed, he was sometimes accused +of hoarding immense wealth, sometimes of spending his capital on Ursula. +The heirs called him in turn a miser and a spendthrift, but the saying, +"He's an old fool!" summed upon, on the whole, the verdict of the +neighbourhood. These mistaken judgments of the little town had the one +advantage of misleading the heirs, who never suspected the love between +Savinien and Ursula, which was the secret reason of the doctor's +expenditure. The old man took the greatest delights in accustoming his +godchild to her future station in the world. Possessing an income of +over fifty thousand francs a year, it gave him pleasure to adorn his +idol. + +In the month of February, 1832, the day when Ursula was eighteen, her +eyes beheld Savinien in the uniform of an ensign as she looked from her +window when she rose in the morning. + +"Why didn't I know he was coming?" she said to herself. + +After the taking of Algiers, Savinien had distinguished himself by an +act of courage which won him the cross. The corvette on which he was +serving was many months at sea without his being able to communicate +with the doctor; and he did not wish to leave the service without +consulting him. Desirous of retaining in the navy a name already +illustrious in its service, the new government had profited by a general +change of officers to make Savinien an ensign. Having obtained leave +of absence for fifteen days, the new officer arrived from Toulon by the +mail, in time for Ursula's fete, intending to consult the doctor at the +same time. + +"He has come!" cried Ursula rushing into her godfather's bedroom. + +"Very good," he answered; "I can guess what brings him, and he may now +stay in Nemours." + +"Ah! that's my birthday present--it is all in that sentence," she said, +kissing him. + +On a sign, which she ran up to make from her window, Savinien came over +at once; she longed to admire him, for he seemed to her so changed +for the better. Military service does, in fact, give a certain grave +decision to the air and carriage and gestures of a man, and an erect +bearing which enables the most superficial observer to recognize a +military man even in plain clothes. The habit of command produces this +result. Ursula loved Savinien the better for it, and took a childlike +pleasure in walking round the garden with him, taking his arm, and +hearing him relate the part he played (as midshipman) in the taking of +Algiers. Evidently Savinien had taken the city. The doctor, who had been +watching them from his window as he dressed, soon came down. Without +telling the viscount everything, he did say that, in case Madame de +Portenduere consented to his marriage with Ursula, the fortune of his +godchild would make his naval pay superfluous. + +"Alas!" said Savinien. "It will take a great deal of time to overcome my +mother's opposition. Before I left her to enter the navy she was placed +between two alternatives,--either to consent to my marrying Ursula or +else to see me only from time to time and to know me exposed to the +dangers of the profession; and you see she chose to let me go." + +"But, Savinien, we shall be together," said Ursula, taking his hand and +shaking it with a sort of impatience. + +To see each other and not to part,--that was the all of love to her; she +saw nothing beyond it; and her pretty gesture and the petulant tone of +her voice expressed such innocence that Savinien and the doctor were +both moved by it. The resignation was written and despatched, and +Ursula's fete received full glory from the presence of her betrothed. +A few months later, towards the month of May, the home-life of the +doctor's household had resumed the quite tenor of its way but with one +welcome visitor the more. The attentions of the young viscount were +soon interpreted in the town as those of a future husband,--all the more +because his manners and those of Ursula, whether in church, or on the +promenade, though dignified and reserved, betrayed the understanding of +their hearts. Dionis pointed out to the heirs that the doctor had never +asked Madame de Portenduere for the interest of his money, three years +of which was now due. + +"She'll be forced to yield, and consent to this derogatory marriage of +her son," said the notary. "If such a misfortune happens it is probable +that the greater part of your uncle's fortune will serve for what Basile +calls 'an irresistible argument.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. URSULA AGAIN ORPHANED + +The irritation of the heirs, when convinced that their uncle loved +Ursula too well not to secure her happiness at their expense, became as +underhand as it was bitter. Meeting in Dionis's salon (as they had done +every evening since the revolution of 1830) they inveighed against +the lovers, and seldom separated without discussing some way of +circumventing the old man. Zelie, who had doubtless profited by the fall +in the Funds, as the doctor had done, to invest some, at least, of her +enormous gains, was bitterest of them all against the orphan girl and +the Portendueres. One evening, when Goupil, who usually avoided the +dullness of these meetings, had come in to learn something of the +affairs of the town which were under discussion, Zelie's hatred was +freshly excited; she had seen the doctor, Ursula, and Savinien returning +in the caleche from a country drive, with an air of intimacy that told +all. + +"I'd give thirty thousand francs if God would call uncle to himself +before the marriage of young Portenduere with that affected minx can +take place," she said. + +Goupil accompanied Monsieur and Madame Minoret to the middle of their +great courtyard, and there said, looking round to see if they were quite +alone: + +"Will you give me the means of buying Dionis's practice? If you will, I +will break off the marriage between Portenduere and Ursula." + +"How?" asked the colossus. + +"Do you think I am such a fool as to tell you my plan?" said the +notary's head clerk. + +"Well, my lad, separate them, and we'll see what we can do," said Zelie. + +"I don't embark in any such business on a 'we'll see.' The young man is +a fire-eater who might kill me; I ought to be rough-shod and as good a +hand with a sword or a pistol as he is. Set me up in business, and I'll +keep my word." + +"Prevent the marriage and I will set you up," said the post master. + +"It is nine months since you have been thinking of lending me a paltry +fifteen thousand francs to buy Lecoeur's practice, and you expect me to +trust you now! Nonsense; you'll lose your uncle's property, and serve +you right." + +"It if were only a matter of fifteen thousand francs and Lecoeur's +practice, that might be managed," said Zelie; "but to give security for +you in a hundred and fifty thousand is another thing." + +"But I'll do my part," said Goupil, flinging a seductive look at Zelie, +which encountered the imperious glance of the post mistress. + +The effect was that of venom on steel. + +"We can wait," said Zelie. + +"The devil's own spirit is in you," thought Goupil. "If I ever catch +that pair in my power," he said to himself as he left the yard, "I'll +squeeze them like lemons." + +By cultivating the society of the doctor, the abbe, and Monsieur +Bongrand, Savinien proved the excellence of his character. The love +of this young man for Ursula, so devoid of self-interest, and so +persistent, interested the three friends deeply, and they now never +separated the lovers in their thoughts. Soon the monotony of this +patriarchal life, and the certainty of a future before them, gave to +their affection a fraternal character. The doctor often left the pair +alone together. He judged the young man rightly; he saw him kiss her +hand on arriving, but he knew he would ask no kiss when alone with her, +so deeply did the lover respect the innocence, the frankness of the +young girl, whose excessive sensibility, often tried, taught him that a +harsh word, a cold look, or the alternations of gentleness and roughness +might kill her. The only freedom between the two took place before the +eyes of the old man in the evenings. + +Two years, full of secret happiness, passed thus,--without other events +than the fruitless efforts made by the young man to obtain from his +mother her consent to his marriage. He talked to her sometimes for hours +together. She listened and made no answer to his entreaties, other than +by Breton silence or a positive denial. + +At nineteen years of age Ursula, elegant in appearance, a fine musician, +and well brought up, had nothing more to learn; she was perfected. The +fame of her beauty and grace and education spread far. The doctor was +called upon to decline the overtures of Madame d'Aiglemont, who was +thinking of Ursula for her eldest son. Six months later, in spite of the +secrecy the doctor and Ursula maintained on this subject, Savinien +heard of it. Touched by so much delicacy, he made use of the incident +in another attempt to vanquish his mother's obstinacy; but she merely +replied:-- + +"If the d'Aiglemonts choose to ally themselves ill, is that any reason +why we should do so?" + +In December, 1834, the kind and now truly pious old doctor, then +eighty-eight years old, declined visibly. When seen out of doors, his +face pinched and wan and his eyes pale, all the town talked of his +approaching death. "You'll soon know results," said the community to the +heirs. In truth the old man's death had all the attraction of a problem. +But the doctor himself did not know he was ill; he had his illusions, +and neither poor Ursula nor Savinien nor Bongrand nor the abbe were +willing to enlighten him as to his condition. The Nemours doctor who +came to see him every day did not venture to prescribe. Old Minoret felt +no pain; his lamp of life was gently going out. His mind continued firm +and clear and powerful. In old men thus constituted the soul governs +the body, and gives it strength to die erect. The abbe, anxious not to +hasten the fatal end, released his parishioner from the duty of hearing +mass in church, and allowed him to read the services at home, for the +doctor faithfully attended to all his religious duties. The nearer he +came to the grave the more he loved God; the lights eternal shone upon +all difficulties and explained them more and more clearly to his mind. +Early in the year Ursula persuaded him to sell the carriage and horses +and dismiss Cabirolle. Monsieur Bongrand, whose uneasiness about +Ursula's future was far from quieted by the doctor's half-confidence, +boldly opened the subject one evening and showed his old friend the +importance of making Ursula legally of age. Still the old man, though +he had often consulted the justice of peace, would not reveal to him the +secret of his provision for Ursula, though he agreed to the necessity +of securing her independence by majority. The more Monsieur Bongrand +persisted in his efforts to discover the means selected by his old +friend to provide for his darling the more wary the doctor became. + +"Why not secure the thing," said Bongrand, "why run any risks?" + +"When you are between two risks," replied the doctor, "avoid the most +risky." + +Bongrand carried through the business of making Ursula of age so +promptly that the papers were ready by the day she was twenty. That +anniversary was the last pleasure of the old doctor who, seized perhaps +with a presentiment of his end, gave a little ball, to which he invited +all the young people in the families of Dionis, Cremiere, Minoret, and +Massin. Savinien, Bongrand, the abbe and his two assistant priests, +the Nemours doctor, and Mesdames Zelie Minoret, Massin, and Cremiere, +together with old Schmucke, were the guests at a grand dinner which +preceded the ball. + +"I feel I am going," said the old man to the notary towards the close +of the evening. "I beg you to come to-morrow and draw up my guardianship +account with Ursula, so as not to complicate my property after my +death. Thank God! I have not withdrawn one penny from my heirs,--I +have disposed of nothing but my income. Messieurs Cremiere, Massin, +and Minoret my nephew are members of the family council appointed for +Ursula, and I wish them to be present at the rendering of my account." + +These words, heard by Massin and quickly passed from one to another +round the ball-room, poured balm into the minds of the three families, +who had lived in perpetual alternations of hope and fear, sometimes +thinking they were certain of wealth, oftener that they were +disinherited. + +When, about two in the morning, the guests were all gone and no one +remained in the salon but Savinien, Bongrand, and the abbe, the old +doctor said, pointing to Ursula, who was charming in her ball dress; "To +you, my friends, I confide her! A few days more, and I shall be here no +longer to protect her. Put yourselves between her and the world until +she is married,--I fear for her." + +The words made a painful impression. The guardian's account, rendered a +day or two later in presence of the family council, showed that Doctor +Minoret owed a balance to his ward of ten thousand six hundred francs +from the bequest of Monsieur de Jordy, and also from a little capital +of gifts made by the doctor himself to Ursula during the last fifteen +years, on birthdays and other anniversaries. + +This formal rendering of the account was insisted on by the justice of +the peace, who feared (unhappily, with too much reason) the results of +Doctor Minoret's death. + +The following day the old man was seized with a weakness which compelled +him to keep his bed. In spite of the reserve which always surrounded the +doctor's house and kept it from observation, the news of his approaching +death spread through the town, and the heirs began to run hither and +thither through the streets, like the pearls of a chaplet when the +string is broken. Massin called at the house to learn the truth, and was +told by Ursula herself that the doctor was in bed. The Nemours doctor +had remarked that whenever old Minoret took to his bed he would die; +and therefore in spite of the cold, the heirs took their stand in the +street, on the square, at their own doorsteps, talking of the event so +long looked for, and watching for the moment when the priests should +appear, bearing the sacrament, with all the paraphernalia customary in +the provinces, to the dying man. Accordingly, two days later, when the +Abbe Chaperon, with an assistant and the choir-boys, preceded by the +sacristan bearing the cross, passed along the Grand'Rue, all the heirs +joined the procession, to get an entrance to the house and see that +nothing was abstracted, and lay their eager hands upon its coveted +treasures at the earliest moment. + +When the doctor saw, behind the clergy, the row of kneeling heirs, who +instead of praying were looking at him with eyes that were brighter than +the tapers, he could not restrain a smile. The abbe turned round, saw +them, and continued to say the prayers slowly. The post master was the +first to abandon the kneeling posture; his wife followed him. Massin, +fearing that Zelie and her husband might lay hands on some ornament, +joined them in the salon, where all the heirs were presently assembled +one by one. + +"He is too honest a man to steal extreme unction," said Cremiere; "we +may be sure of his death now." + +"Yes, we shall each get about twenty thousand francs a year," replied +Madame Massin. + +"I have an idea," said Zelie, "that for the last three years he hasn't +invested anything--he grew fond of hoarding." + +"Perhaps the money is in the cellar," whispered Massin to Cremiere. + +"I hope we shall be able to find it," said Minoret-Levrault. + +"But after what he said at the ball we can't have any doubt," cried +Madame Massin. + +"In any case," began Cremiere, "how shall we manage? Shall we divide; +shall we go to law; or could we draw lots? We are adults, you know--" + +A discussion, which soon became angry, now arose as to the method +of procedure. At the end of half an hour a perfect uproar of voices, +Zelie's screeching organ detaching itself from the rest, resounded in +the courtyard and even in the street. + +The noise reached the doctor's ears; he heard the words, "The house--the +house is worth thirty thousand francs. I'll take it at that," said, or +rather bellowed by Cremiere. + +"Well, we'll take what it's worth," said Zelie, sharply. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," said the old man to the priest, who remained beside +his friend after administering the communion, "help me to die in peace. +My heirs, like those of Cardinal Ximenes, are capable of pillaging the +house before my death, and I have no monkey to revive me. Go and tell +them I will have none of them in my house." + +The priest and the doctor of the town went downstairs and repeated the +message of the dying man, adding, in their indignation, strong words of +their own. + +"Madame Bougival," said the doctor, "close the iron gate and allow +no one to enter; even the dying, it seems, can have no peace. Prepare +mustard poultices and apply them to the soles of Monsieur's feet." + +"Your uncle is not dead," said the abbe, "and he may live some time +longer. He wishes for absolute silence, and no one beside him but his +niece. What a difference between the conduct of that young girl and +yours!" + +"Old hypocrite!" exclaimed Cremiere. "I shall keep watch of him. It is +possible he's plotting something against our interests." + +The post master had already disappeared into the garden, intending +to watch there and wait his chance to be admitted to the house as an +assistant. He now returned to it very softly, his boots making no noise, +for there were carpets on the stairs and corridors. He was able to +reach the door of his uncle's room without being heard. The abbe and the +doctor had left the house; La Bougival was making the poultices. + +"Are we quite alone?" said the old man to his godchild. + +Ursula stood on tiptoe and looked into the courtyard. + +"Yes," she said; "the abbe has just closed the gate after him." + +"My darling child," said the dying man, "my hours, my minutes even, are +counted. I have not been a doctor for nothing; I shall not last till +evening. Do not cry, my Ursula," he said, fearing to be interrupted +by the child's weeping, "but listen to me carefully; it concerns your +marriage to Savinien. As soon as La Bougival comes back go down to the +pagoda,--here is the key,--lift the marble top of the Boule buffet and +you will find a letter beneath it, sealed and addressed to you; take it +and come back here, for I cannot die easy unless I see it in your hands. +When I am dead do not let any one know of it immediately, but send for +Monsieur de Portenduere; read the letter together; swear to me now, +in his name and your own, that you will carry out my last wishes. When +Savinien has obeyed me, then announce my death, but not till then. +The comedy of the heirs will begin. God grant those monsters may not +ill-treat you." + +"Yes godfather." + +The post master did not listen to the end of this scene; he slipped away +on tip-toe, remembering that the lock of the study was on the library +side of the door. He had been present in former days at an argument +between the architect and a locksmith, the latter declaring that if the +pagoda were entered by the window on the river it would be much safer to +put the lock of the door opening into the library on the library side. +Dazzled by his hopes, and his ears flushed with blood, Minoret sprang +the lock with the point of his knife as rapidly as a burglar could have +done it. He entered the study, followed the doctor's directions, +took the package of papers without opening it, relocked the door, put +everything in order, and went into the dining-room and sat down, waiting +till La Bougival had gone upstairs with the poultice before he ventured +to leave the house. He then made his escape,--all the more easily +because poor Ursula lingered to see that La Bougival applied the +poultice properly. + +"The letter! the letter!" cried the old man, in a dying voice. "Obey me; +take the key. I must see you with that letter in your hand." + +The words were said with so wild a look that La Bougival exclaimed to +Ursula:-- + +"Do what he asks at once or you will kill him." + +She kissed his forehead, took the key and went down. A moment later, +recalled by a cry from La Bougival, she ran back. The old man looked at +her eagerly. Seeing her hands empty, he rose in his bed, tried to speak, +and died with a horrible gasp, his eyes haggard with fear. The poor +girl, who saw death for the first time, fell on her knees and burst into +tears. La Bougival closed the old man's eyes and straightened him on +the bed; then she ran to call Savinien; but the heirs, who stood at the +corner of the street, like crows watching till a horse is buried before +they scratch at the ground and turn it over with beak and claw, flocked +in with the celerity of birds of prey. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. THE DOCTOR'S WILL + +While these events were taking place the post master had hurried home to +open the mysterious package and know its contents. + + +To my dear Ursula Mirouet, daughter of my natural half-brother, Joseph +Mirouet, and Dinah Grollman:-- + +My dear Angel,--The fatherly affection I bear you--and which you have +so fully justified--came not only from the promise I gave your father +to take his place, but also from your resemblance to my wife, Ursula +Mirouet, whose grace, intelligence, frankness, and charm you constantly +recall to my mind. Your position as the daughter of a natural son of my +father-in-law might invalidate all testamentary bequests made by me in +your favor-- + +"The old rascal!" cried the post master. + +Had I adopted you the result might also have been a lawsuit, and I +shrank from the idea of transmitting my fortune to you by marriage, for +I might live years and thus interfere with your happiness, which is +now delayed only by Madame de Portenduere. Having weighted these +difficulties carefully, and wishing to leave you enough money to secure +to you a prosperous existence-- + +"The scoundrel, he has thought of everything!" + + --without injuring my heirs-- + +"The Jesuit! as if he did not owe us every penny of his money!"--I +intend you to have the savings from my income which I have for the last +eighteen years steadily invested, by the help of my notary, seeking +to make you thereby as happy as any one can be made by riches. Without +means, your education and your lofty ideas would cause you unhappiness. +Besides, you ought to bring a liberal dowry to the fine young man who +loves you. You will therefore find in the middle of the third volume +of Pandects, folio, bound in red morocco (the last volume on the first +shelf above the little table in the library, on the side of the room +next the salon), three certificates of Funds in the three-per-cents, +made out to bearer, each amounting to twelve thousand francs a year-- + +"What depths of wickedness!" screamed the post master. "Ah! God would +not permit me to be so defrauded." + +Take these at once, and also some uninvested savings made to this date, +which you will find in the preceding volume. Remember, my darling child, +that you must obey a wish that has made the happiness of my whole life; +a wish that will force me to ask the intervention of God should +you disobey me. But, to guard against all scruples in your dear +conscience--for I well know how ready it is to torture you--you will +find herewith a will in due form bequeathing these certificates to +Monsieur Savinien de Portenduere. So, whether you possess them in your +own name, or whether they come to you from him you love, they will be, +in every sense, your legitimate property. + +Your godfather, Denis Minoret. + + +To this letter was annexed the following paper written on a sheet of +stamped paper. + + +This is my will: I, Denis Minoret, doctor of medicine, settled in +Nemours, being of sound mind and body, as the date of this document will +show, do bequeath my soul to God, imploring him to pardon my errors in +view of my sincere repentance. Next, having found in Monsieur le Vicomte +Savinien de Portenduere a true and honest affection for me, I bequeath +to him the sum of thirty-six thousand francs a year from the Funds, at +three per cent, the said bequest to take precedence of all inheritance +accruing to my heirs. + +Written by my own hand, at Nemours, on the 11th of January, 1831. + +Denis Minoret. + + +Without an instant's hesitation the post master, who had locked himself +into his wife's bedroom to insure being alone, looked about for the +tinder-box, and received two warnings from heaven by the extinction of +two matches which obstinately refused to light. The third took fire. He +burned the letter and the will on the hearth and buried the vestiges of +paper and sealing-wax in the ashes by way of superfluous caution. Then, +allured by the thought of possessing thirty-six thousand francs a year +of which his wife knew nothing, he returned at full speed to his uncle's +house, spurred by the only idea, a clear-cut, simple idea, which was +able to piece and penetrate his dull brain. Finding the house invaded by +the three families, now masters of the place, he trembled lest he +should be unable to accomplish a project to which he gave no reflection +whatever, except so far as to fear the obstacles. + +"What are you doing here?" he said to Massin and Cremiere. "We can't +leave the house and the property to be pillaged. We are the heirs, but +we can't camp here. You, Cremiere, go to Dionis at once and tell him to +come and certify to the death; I can't draw up the mortuary certificate +for an uncle, though I am assistant-mayor. You, Massin, go and ask old +Bongrand to attach the seals. As for you, ladies," he added, turning to +his wife and Mesdames Cremiere and Massin, "go and look after Ursula; +then nothing can be stolen. Above all, close the iron gate and don't let +any one leave the house." + +The women, who felt the justice of this remark, ran to Ursula's bedroom, +where they found the noble girl, so cruelly suspected, on her knees +before God, her face covered with tears. Minoret, suspecting that the +women would not long remain with Ursula, went at once to the library, +found the volume, opened it, took the three certificates, and found in +the other volume about thirty bank notes. In spite of his brutal nature +the colossus felt as though a peal of bells were ringing in each ear. +The blood whistled in his temples as he committed the theft; cold as the +weather was, his shirt was wet on his back; his legs gave way under him +and he fell into a chair in the salon as if an axe had fallen on his +head. + +"How the inheritance of money loosens a man's tongue! Did you hear +Minoret?" said Massin to Cremiere as they hurried through the town. "'Go +here, go there,' just as if he knew everything." + +"Yes, for a dull beast like him he had a certain air of--" + +"Stop!" said Massin, alarmed at a sudden thought. "His wife is there; +they've got some plan! Do you do both errands; I'll go back." + +Just as the post master fell into the chair he saw at the gate the +heated face of the clerk of the court who returned to the house of death +with the celerity of a weasel. + +"Well, what is it now?" asked the post master, unlocking the gate for +his co-heir. + +"Nothing; I have come back to be present at the sealing," answered +Massin, giving him a savage look. + +"I wish those seals were already on, so that we could go home," said +Minoret. + +"We shall have to put a watcher over them," said Massin. "La Bougival +is capable of anything in the interests of that minx. We'll put Goupil +there." + +"Goupil!" said the post master; "put a rat in the meal!" + +"Well, let's consider," returned Massin. "To-night they'll watch the +body; the seals can be affixed in an hour; our wives could look after +them. To-morrow we'll have the funeral at twelve o'clock. But the +inventory can't be made under a week." + +"Let's get rid of that girl at once," said the colossus; "then we can +safely leave the watchman of the town-hall to look after the house and +the seals." + +"Good," cried Massin. "You are the head of the Minoret family." + +"Ladies," said Minoret, "be good enough to stay in the salon; we can't +think of our dinner to-day; the seals must be put on at once for the +security of all interests." + +He took his wife apart and told her Massin's proposition about Ursula. +The women, whose hearts were full of vengeance against the minx, as they +called her, hailed the idea of turning her out. Bongrand arrived with +his assistants to apply the seals, and was indignant when the request +was made to him, by Zelie and Madame Massin, as a near friend of the +deceased, to tell Ursula to leave the house. + +"Go and turn her out of her father's house, her benefactor's house +yourselves," he cried. "Go! you who owe your inheritance to the +generosity of her soul; take her by the shoulders and fling her into +the street before the eyes of the whole town! You think her capable of +robbing you? Well, appoint a watcher of the seals; you have a right to +do that. But I tell you at once I shall put no seals on Ursula's room; +she has a right to that room, and everything in it is her own property. +I shall tell her what her rights are, and tell her too to put everything +that belongs to her in this house in that room--Oh! in your presence," +he said, hearing a growl of dissatisfaction among the heirs. + +"What do you think of that?" said the collector to the post master and +the women, who seemed stupefied by the angry address of Bongrand. + +"Call _him_ a magistrate!" cried the post master. + +Ursula meanwhile was sitting on her little sofa in a half-fainting +condition, her head thrown back, her braids unfastened, while every now +and then her sobs broke forth. Her eyes were dim and their lids swollen; +she was, in fact, in a state of moral and physical prostration which +might have softened the hardest hearts--except those of the heirs. + +"Ah! Monsieur Bongrand, after my happy birthday comes death and +mourning," she said, with the poetry natural to her. "You know, _you_, +what he was. In twenty years he never said an impatient word to me. +I believed he would live a hundred years. He has been my mother," she +cried, "my good, kind mother." + +These simple thoughts brought torrents of tears from her eyes, +interrupted by sobs; then she fell back exhausted. + +"My child," said the justice of peace, hearing the heirs on the +staircase. "You have a lifetime before you in which to weep, but you +have now only a moment to attend to your interests. Gather everything +that belongs to you in this house and put it into your own room at once. +The heirs insist on my affixing the seals." + +"Ah! his heirs may take everything if they choose," cried Ursula, +sitting upright under an impulse of savage indignation. "I have +something here," she added, striking her breast, "which is far more +precious--" + +"What is it?" said the post master, who with Massin at his heels now +showed his brutal face. + +"The remembrances of his virtues, of his life, of his words--an image of +his celestial soul," she said, her eyes and face glowing as she raised +her hand with a glorious gesture. + +"And a key!" cried Massin, creeping up to her like a cat and seizing a +key which fell from the bosom of her dress in her sudden movement. + +"Yes," she said, blushing, "that is the key of his study; he sent me +there at the moment he was dying." + +The two men glanced at each other with horrid smiles, and then at +Monsieur Bongrand, with a meaning look of degrading suspicion. Ursula +who intercepted it, rose to her feet, pale as if the blood had left her +body. Her eyes sent forth the lightnings that perhaps can issue only at +some cost of life, as she said in a choking voice:-- + +"Monsieur Bongrand, everything in this room is mine through the kindness +of my godfather; they may have it all; I have nothing on me but the +clothes I wear. I shall leave the house and never return to it." + +She went to her godfather's room, and no entreaties could make her leave +it,--the heirs, who now began to be slightly ashamed of their conduct, +endeavoring to persuade her. She requested Monsieur Bongrand to engage +two rooms for her at the "Vieille Poste" inn until she could find some +lodging in town where she could live with La Bougival. She returned to +her own room for her prayer-book, and spent the night, with the abbe, +his assistant, and Savinien, in weeping and praying beside her uncle's +body. Savinien came, after his mother had gone to bed, and knelt, +without a word, beside his Ursula. She smiled at him sadly, and thanked +him for coming faithfully to share her troubles. + +"My child," said Monsieur Bongrand, bring her a large package, "one of +your uncle's heirs has taken these necessary articles from your drawers, +for the seals cannot be opened for several days; after that you will +recover everything that belongs to you. I have, for your own sake, +placed the seals on your room." + +"Thank you," she replied, pressing his hand. "Look at him again,--he +seems to sleep, does he not?" + +The old man's face wore that flower of fleeting beauty which rests upon +the features of the dead who die a painless death; light appeared to +radiate from it. + +"Did he give you anything secretly before he died?" whispered M. +Bongrand. + +"Nothing," she said; "he spoke only of a letter." + +"Good! it will certainly be found," said Bongrand. "How fortunate for +you that the heirs demanded the sealing." + +At daybreak Ursula bade adieu to the house where her happy youth was +passed; more particularly, to the modest chamber in which her love +began. So dear to her was it that even in this hour of darkest grief +tears of regret rolled down her face for the dear and peaceful haven. +With one last glance at Savinien's windows she left the room and the +house, and went to the inn accompanied by La Bougival, who carried the +package, by Monsieur Bongrand, who gave her his arm, and by Savinien, +her true protector. + +Thus it happened that in spite of all his efforts and cautions the worst +fears of the justice of peace were realized; he was now to see Ursula +without means and at the mercy of her benefactor's heirs. + +The next afternoon the whole town attended the doctor's funeral. When +the conduct of the heirs to his adopted daughter was publicly known, +a vast majority of the people thought it natural and necessary. An +inheritance was involved; the good man was known to have hoarded; +Ursula might think she had rights; the heirs were only defending their +property; she had humbled them enough during their uncle's lifetime, for +he had treated them like dogs and sent them about their business. + +Desire Minoret, who was not going to do wonders in life (so said those +who envied his father), came down for the funeral. Ursula was unable to +be present, for she was in bed with a nervous fever, caused partly by +the insults of the heirs and partly by her heavy affliction. + +"Look at that hypocrite weeping," said some of the heirs, pointing to +Savinien, who was deeply affected by the doctor's death. + +"The question is," said Goupil, "has he any good grounds for weeping. +Don't laugh too soon, my friends; the seals are not yet removed." + +"Pooh!" said Minoret, who had good reason to know the truth, "you are +always frightening us about nothing." + +As the funeral procession left the church to proceed to the cemetery, a +bitter mortification was inflicted on Goupil; he tried to take Desire's +arm, but the latter withdrew it and turned away from his former comrade +in presence of all Nemours. + +"I won't be angry, or I couldn't get revenge," thought the notary's +clerk, whose dry heart swelled in his bosom like a sponge. + +Before breaking the seals and making the inventory, it took some time +for the procureur du roi, who is the legal guardian of orphans, to +commission Monsieur Bongrand to act in his place. After that was done +the settlement of the Minoret inheritance (nothing else being talked of +in the town for ten days) began with all the legal formalities. Dionis +had his pickings; Goupil enjoyed some mischief-making; and as the +business was profitable the sessions were many. After the first of these +sessions all parties breakfasted together; notary, clerk, heirs, and +witnesses drank the best wines in the doctor's cellar. + +In the provinces, and especially in little towns where every one lives +in his own house, it is sometimes very difficult to find a lodging. When +a man buys a business of any kind the dwelling-house is almost always +included in the purchase. Monsieur Bongrand saw no other way of removing +Ursula from the village inn than to buy a small house on the Grand'Rue +at the corner of the bridge over the Loing. The little building had a +front door opening on a corridor, and one room on the ground-floor with +two windows on the street; behind this came the kitchen, with a glass +door opening to an inner courtyard about thirty feet square. A small +staircase, lighted on the side towards the river by small windows, led +to the first floor where there were three chambers, and above these were +two attic rooms. Monsieur Bongrand borrowed two thousand francs from +La Bougival's savings to pay the first instalment of the price,--six +thousand francs,--and obtained good terms for payment of the rest. +As Ursula wished to buy her uncle's books, Bongrand knocked down the +partition between two rooms on the bedroom floor, finding that their +united length was the same as that of the doctor's library, and gave +room for his bookshelves. + +Savinien and Bongrand urged on the workmen who were cleaning, painting, +and otherwise renewing the tiny place, so that before the end of March +Ursula was able to leave the inn and take up her abode in the ugly +house; where, however, she found a bedroom exactly like the one she had +left; for it was filled with all her furniture, claimed by the justice +of peace when the seals were removed. La Bougival, sleeping in the +attic, could be summoned by a bell placed near the head of the +young girl's bed. The room intended for the books, the salon on the +ground-floor and the kitchen, though still unfurnished, had been hung +with fresh papers and repainted, and only awaited the purchases which +the young girl hoped to make when her godfather's effects were sold. + +Though the strength of Ursula's character was well known to the abbe and +Monsieur Bongrand, they both feared the sudden change from the comfort +and elegancies to which her uncle had accustomed her to this barren and +denuded life. As for Savinien he wept over it. He did, in fact, make +private payments to the workman and to the upholsterer, so that Ursula +should perceive no difference between the new chamber and the old one. +But the young girl herself, whose happiness now lay in Savinien's own +eyes, showed the gentlest resignation, which endeared her more and more +to her two old friends, and proved to them for the hundredth time that +no troubles but those of the heart could make her suffer. The grief she +felt for the loss of her godfather was far too deep to let her even feel +the bitterness of her change of fortune, though it added fresh obstacles +to her marriage. Savinien's distress in seeing her thus reduced did her +so much harm that she whispered to him, as they came from mass on the +morning on the day when she first went to live in her new house: + +"Love could not exist without patience; let us wait." + +As soon as the form of the inventory was drawn up, Massin, advised by +Goupil (who turned to him under the influence of his secret hatred to +the post master), summoned Monsieur and Madame de Portenduere to pay off +the mortgage which had now elapsed, together with the interest accruing +thereon. The old lady was bewildered at a summons to pay one hundred +and twenty-nine thousand five hundred and seventeen francs within +twenty-four hours under pain of execution on her house. It was +impossible for her to borrow the money. Savinien went to Fontainebleau +to consult a lawyer. + +"You are dealing with a bad set of people who will not compromise," was +the lawyer's opinion. "They intend to sue in the matter and get your +farm at Bordieres. The best way for you would be to make a voluntary +sale of it and so escape costs." + +This dreadful news broke down the old lady. Her son very gently +pointed out to her that had she consented to his marriage in Minoret's +life-time, the doctor would have left his property to Ursula's husband +and they would to-day have been opulent instead of being, as they now +were, in the depths of poverty. Though said without reproach, this +argument annihilated the poor woman even more than the thought of +her coming ejectment. When Ursula heard of this catastrophe she was +stupefied with grief, having scarcely recovered from her fever, and the +blow which the heirs had already dealt her. To love and be unable to +succor the man she loves,--that is one of the most dreadful of all +sufferings to the soul of a noble and sensitive woman. + +"I wished to buy my uncle's house," she said, "now I will buy your +mother's." + +"Can you?" said Savinien. "You are a minor, and you cannot sell out your +Funds without formalities to which the procureur du roi, now your legal +guardian, would not agree. We shall not resist. The whole town will be +glad to see the discomfiture of a noble family. These bourgeois are like +hounds after a quarry. Fortunately, I still have ten thousand francs +left, on which I can support my mother till this deplorable matter is +settled. Besides, the inventory of your godfather's property is not yet +finished; Monsieur Bongrand still thinks he shall find something for +you. He is as much astonished as I am that you seem to be left without +fortune. The doctor so often spoke both to him and to me of the +future he had prepared for you that neither of us can understand this +conclusion." + +"Pooh!" she said; "so long as I can buy my godfather's books and +furniture and prevent their being dispersed, I am content." + +"But who knows the price these infamous creatures will set on anything +you want?" + +Nothing was talked of from Montargis to Fontainebleau but the million +for which the Minoret heirs were searching. But the most minute search +made in every corner of the house after the seals were removed, brought +no discovery. The one hundred and twenty-nine thousand francs of the +Portenduere debt, the capital of the fifteen thousand a year in the +three per cents (then quoted at 76), the house, valued at forty thousand +francs, and its handsome furniture, produced a total of about six +hundred thousand francs, which to most persons seemed a comforting sum. +But what had become of the money the doctor must have saved? + +Minoret began to have gnawing anxieties. La Bougival and Savinien, who +persisted in believing, as did the justice of peace, in the existence +of a will, came every day at the close of each session to find out from +Bongrand the results of the day's search. The latter would sometimes +exclaim, before the agents and the heirs were fairly out of hearing, +"I can't understand the thing!" Bongrand, Savinien, and the abbe often +declared to each other that the doctor, who received no interest from +the Portenduere loan, could not have kept his house as he did on fifteen +thousand francs a year. This opinion, openly expressed, made the post +master turn livid more than once. + +"Yet they and I have rummaged everywhere," said Bongrand,--"they to find +money, and I to find a will in favor of Monsieur de Portenduere. They +have sifted the ashes, lifted the marbles, felt of the slippers, bored +into the wood-work of the beds, emptied the mattresses, ripped up the +quilts, turned his eider-down inside-out, examined every inch of paper +piece by piece, searched the drawers, dug up the cellar floor--and I +have urged on their devastations." + +"What do you think about it?" said the abbe. + +"The will has been suppressed by one of the heirs." + +"But where's the property?" + +"We may whistle for it!" + +"Perhaps the will is hidden in the library," said Savinien. + +"Yes, and for that reason I don't dissuade Ursula from buying it. If it +were not for that, it would be absurd to let her put every penny of her +ready money into books she will never open." + +At first the whole town believed the doctor's niece had got possession +of the unfound capital; but when it was known positively that fourteen +hundred francs a year and her gifts constituted her whole fortune the +search of the doctor's house and furniture excited a more wide-spread +curiosity than before. Some said the money would be found in bank bills +hidden away in the furniture, others that the old man had slipped them +into his books. The sale of the effects exhibited a spectacle of the +most extraordinary precautions on the part of the heirs. Dionis, who was +doing duty as auctioneeer, declared, as each lot was cried out, that +the heirs only sold the article (whatever it was) and not what it might +contain; then, before allowing it to be taken away it was subjected to a +final investigation, being thumped and sounded; and when at last it left +the house the sellers followed with the looks a father might cast upon a +son who was starting for India. + +"Ah, mademoiselle," cried La Bougival, returning from the first session +in despair, "I shall not go again. Monsieur Bongrand is right, you could +never bear the sight. Everything is ticketed. All the town is coming +and going just as in the street; the handsome furniture is being ruined, +they even stand upon it; the whole place is such a muddle that a hen +couldn't find her chicks. You'd think there had been a fire. Lots of +things are in the courtyard; the closets are all open, and nothing in +them. Oh! the poor dear man, it's well he died, the sight would have +killed him." + +Bongrand, who bought for Ursula certain articles which her uncle +cherished, and which were suitable for her little house, did not appear +at the sale of the library. Shrewder than the heirs, whose cupidity +might have run up the price of the books had they known he was buying +them for Ursula, he commissioned a dealer in old books living in Melun +to buy them for him. As a result of the heir's anxiety the whole library +was sold book by book. Three thousand volumes were examined, one by one, +held by the two sides of the binding and shaken so that loose papers +would infallibly fall out. The whole amount of the purchases on Ursula's +account amounted to six thousand five hundred francs or thereabouts. +The book-cases were not allowed to leave the premises until carefully +examined by a cabinet-maker, brought down from Paris to search for +secret drawers. When at last Monsieur Bongrand gave orders to take the +books and the bookcases to Mademoiselle Mirouet's house the heirs were +tortured with vague fears, not dissipated until in course of time they +saw how poorly she lived. + +Minoret bought up his uncle's house, the value of which his co-heirs ran +up to fifty thousand francs, imagining that the post master expected +to find a treasure in the walls; in fact the house was sold with a +reservation on this subject. Two weeks later Minoret disposed of his +post establishment, with all the coaches and horses, to the son of +a rich farmer, and went to live in his uncle's house, where he spent +considerable sums in repairing and refurnishing the rooms. By making +this move he thoughtlessly condemned himself to live within sight of +Ursula. + +"I hope," he said to Dionis the day when Madame de Portenduere was +summoned to pay her debt, "that we shall soon be rid of those nobles; +after they are gone we'll drive out the rest." + +"That old woman with fourteen quarterings," said Goupil, "won't want to +witness her own disaster; she'll go and die in Brittany, where she can +manage to find a wife for her son." + +"No," said the notary, who had that morning drawn out a deed of sale at +Bongrand's request. "Ursula has just bought the house she is living in." + +"That cursed fool does everything she can to annoy me!" cried the post +master imprudently. + +"What does it signify to you whether she lives in Nemours or not?" asked +Goupil, surprised at the annoyance which the colossus betrayed. + +"Don't you know," answered Minoret, turning as red as a poppy, "that my +son is fool enough to be in love with her? I'd give five hundred francs +if I could get Ursula out of this town." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. THE TWO ADVERSARIES + +Perhaps the foregoing conduct on the part of the post master will have +shown already that Ursula, poor and resigned, was destined to be a thorn +in the side of the rich Minoret. The bustle attending the settlement of +an estate, the sale of the property, the going and coming necessitated +by such unusual business, his discussions with his wife about the most +trifling details, the purchase of the doctor's house, where Zelie wished +to live in bourgeois style to advance her son's interests,--all this +hurly-burly, contrasting with his usually tranquil life hindered the +huge Minoret from thinking of his victim. But about the middle of May, a +few days after his installation in the doctor's house, as he was coming +home from a walk, he heard the sound of a piano, saw La Bougival sitting +at a window, like a dragon guarding a treasure, and suddenly became +aware of an importunate voice within him. + +To explain why to a man of Minoret's nature the sight of Ursula, who had +no suspicion of the theft committed upon her, now became intolerable; +why the spectacle of so much fortitude under misfortune impelled him to +a desire to drive the girl out of town; and how and why it was that +this desire took the form of hatred and revenge, would require a whole +treatise on moral philosophy. Perhaps he felt he was not the real +possessor of thirty-six thousand francs a year so long as she to whom +they really belonged lived near him. Perhaps he fancied some mere chance +might betray his theft if the person despoiled was not got rid of. +Perhaps to a nature in some sort primitive, almost uncivilized, and +whose owner up to that time had never done anything illegal, the +presence of Ursula awakened remorse. Possibly this remorse goaded him +the more because he had received his share of the property legitimately +acquired. In his own mind he no doubt attributed these stirrings of his +conscience to the fact of Ursula's presence, imagining that if she were +removed all his uncomfortable feelings would disappear with her. But +still, after all, perhaps crime has its own doctrine of perfection. A +beginning of evil demands its end; a first stab must be followed by the +blow that kills. Perhaps robbery is doomed to lead to murder. Minoret +had committed the crime without the slightest reflection, so rapidly +had the events taken place; reflection came later. Now, if you have +thoroughly possessed yourself of this man's nature and bodily presence +you will understand the mighty effect produced on him by a thought. +Remorse is more than a thought; it comes from a feeling which can no +more be hidden than love; like love, it has its own tyranny. But, just +as Minoret had committed the crime against Ursula without the slightest +reflection, so he now blindly longed to drive her from Nemours when he +felt himself disturbed by the sight of that wronged innocence. Being, +in a sense, imbecile, he never thought of the consequences; he went from +danger to danger, driven by a selfish instinct, like a wild animal which +does not foresee the huntsman's skill, and relies on its own rapidity +or strength. Before long the rich bourgeois, who still met in Dionis's +salon, noticed a great change in the manners and behavior of the man who +had hitherto been so free of care. + +"I don't know what has come to Minoret, he is all _no how_," said his +wife, from whom he was resolved to hide his daring deed. + +Everybody explained his condition as being, neither more nor less, ennui +(in fact the thought now expressed on his face did resemble ennui), +caused, they said, by the sudden cessation of business and the change +from an active life to one of well-to-do leisure. + +While Minoret was thinking only of destroying Ursula's life in Nemours, +La Bougival never let a day go by without torturing her foster child +with some allusion to the fortune she ought to have had, or without +comparing her miserable lot with the prospects the doctor had promised, +and of which he had often spoken to her, La Bougival. + +"It is not for myself I speak," she said, "but is it likely that +monsieur, good and kind as he was, would have died without leaving me +the merest trifle?--" + +"Am I not here?" replied Ursula, forbidding La Bougival to say another +word on the subject. + +She could not endure to soil the dear and tender memories that +surrounded that noble head--a sketch of which in black and white hung +in her little salon--with thoughts of selfish interest. To her fresh +and beautiful imagination that sketch sufficed to make her _see_ her +godfather, on whom her thoughts continually dwelt, all the more because +surrounded with the things he loved and used,--his large duchess-sofa, +the furniture from his study, his backgammon-table, and the piano he had +chosen for her. The two old friends who still remained to her, the Abbe +Chaperon and Monsieur Bongrand, the only visitors whom she received, +were, in the midst of these inanimate objects representative of the +past, like two living memories of her former life to which she attached +her present by the love her godfather had blessed. + +After a while the sadness of her thoughts, softening gradually, gave +tone to the general tenor of her life and united all its parts in an +indefinable harmony, expressed by the exquisite neatness, the exact +symmetry of her room, the few flowers sent by Savinien, the dainty +nothings of a young girl's life, the tranquillity which her quiet habits +diffused about her, giving peace and composure to the little home. After +breakfast and after mass she continued her studies and practiced; then +she took her embroidery and sat at the window looking on the street. +At four o'clock Savinien, returning from a walk (which he took in all +weathers), finding the window open, would sit upon the outer casing and +talk with her for half an hour. In the evening the abbe and Monsieur +Bongrand came to see her, but she never allowed Savinien to accompany +them. Neither did she accept Madame de Portenduere's proposition, which +Savinien had induced his mother to make, that she should visit there. + +Ursula and La Bougival lived, moreover, with the strictest economy; they +did not spend, counting everything, more than sixty francs a month. The +old nurse was indefatigable; she washed and ironed; cooked only twice +a week,--mistress and maid eating their food cold on other days; for +Ursula was determined to save the seven hundred francs still due on the +purchase of the house. This rigid conduct, together with her modesty and +her resignation to a life of poverty after the enjoyment of luxury and +the fond indulgence of all her wishes, deeply impressed certain persons. +Ursula won the respect of others, and no voice was raised against her. +Even the heirs, once satisfied, did her justice. Savinien admired the +strength of character of so young a girl. From time to time Madame de +Portenduere, when they met in church, would address a few kind words +to her, and twice she insisted on her coming to dinner and fetched her +herself. If all this was not happiness it was at least tranquillity. +But a benefit which came to Ursula through the legal care and ability of +Bongrand started the smouldering persecution which up to this time had +laid in Minoret's breast as a dumb desire. + +As soon as the legal settlement of the doctor's estate was finished, the +justice of peace, urged by Ursula, took the cause of the Portendueres in +hand and promised her to get them out of their trouble. In dealing with +the old lady, whose opposition to Ursula's happiness made him furious, +he did not allow her to be ignorant of the fact that his devotion to her +service was solely to give pleasure to Mademoiselle Mirouet. He chose +one of his former clerks to act for the Portendueres at Fontainebleau, +and himself put in a motion for a stay of proceedings. He intended to +profit by the interval which must elapse between the stoppage of the +present suit and some new step on the part of Massin to renew the lease +at six thousand francs, get a premium from the present tenants and the +payment in full of the rent of the current year. + +At this time, when these matters had to be discussed, the former +whist-parties were again organized in Madame de Portenduere's salon, +between himself, the abbe, Savinien, and Ursula, whom the abbe and he +escorted there and back every evening. In June, Bongrand succeeded +in quashing the proceedings; whereupon the new lease was signed; he +obtained a premium of thirty-two thousand francs from the farmer and a +rent of six thousand a year for eighteen years. The evening of the day +on which this was finally settled he went to see Zelie, whom he knew to +be puzzled as to how to invest her money, and proposed to sell her the +farm at Bordieres for two hundred and twenty thousand francs. + +"I'd buy it at once," said Minoret, "if I were sure the Portendueres +would go and live somewhere else." + +"Why?" said the justice of peace. + +"We want to get rid of the nobles in Nemours." + +"I did hear the old lady say that if she could settle her affairs she +should go and live in Brittany, as she would not have means enough left +to live here. She is thinking of selling her house." + +"Well, sell it to me," said Minoret. + +"To you?" said Zelie. "You talk as if you were master of everything. +What do you want with two houses in Nemours?" + +"If I don't settle this matter of the farm with you to-night," said +Bongrand, "our lease will get known, Massin will put in a fresh claim, +and I shall lose this chance of liquidation which I am anxious to make. +So if you don't take my offer I shall go at once to Melun, where some +farmers I know are ready to buy the farm with their eyes shut." + +"Why did you come to us, then?" said Zelie. + +"Because you can pay me in cash, and my other clients would make me wait +some time for the money. I don't want difficulties." + +"Get _her_ out of Nemours and I'll pay it," exclaimed Minoret. + +"You understand that I cannot answer for Madame de Portenduere's +actions," said Bongrand. "I can only repeat what I heard her say, but I +feel certain they will not remain in Nemours." + +On this assurance, enforced by a nudge from Zelie, Minoret agreed to +the purchase, and furnished the funds to pay off the mortgage due to the +doctor's estate. The deed of sale was immediately drawn up by Dionis. +Towards the end of June Bongrand brought the balance of the purchase +money to Madame de Portenduere, advising her to invest it in the Funds, +where, joined to Savinien's ten thousand, it would give her, at five +per cent, an income of six thousand francs. Thus, so far from losing her +resources, the old lady actually gained by the transaction. But she +did not leave Nemours. Minoret thought he had been tricked,--as though +Bongrand had had an idea that Ursula's presence was intolerable to him; +and he felt a keen resentment which embittered his hatred to his victim. +Then began a secret drama which was terrible in its effects,--the +struggle of two determinations; one which impelled Minoret to drive his +victim from Nemours, the other which gave Ursula the strength to +bear persecution, the cause of which was for a certain length of time +undiscoverable. The situation was a strange and even unnatural one, +and yet it was led up to by all the preceding events, which served as a +preface to what was now to occur. + +Madame Minoret, to whom her husband had given a handsome silver service +costing twenty thousand francs, gave a magnificent dinner every Sunday, +the day on which her son, the deputy procureur, came from Fontainebleau, +bringing with him certain of his friends. On these occasions Zelie +sent to Paris for delicacies--obliging Dionis the notary to emulate +her display. Goupil, whom the Minorets endeavored to ignore as a +questionable person who might tarnish their splendor, was not invited +until the end of July. The clerk, who was fully aware of this intended +neglect, was forced to be respectful to Desire, who, since his entrance +into office, had assumed a haughty and dignified air, even in his own +family. + +"You must have forgotten Esther," Goupil said to him, "as you are so +much in love with Mademoiselle Mirouet." + +"In the first place, Esther is dead, monsieur; and in the next I have +never even thought of Ursula," said the new magistrate. + +"Why, what did you tell me, papa Minoret?" cried Goupil, insolently. + +Minoret, caught in a lie by a man whom he feared, would have lost +countenance if it had not been for a project in his head, which was, +in fact, the reason why Goupil was invited to dinner,--Minoret having +remembered the proposition the clerk had once made to prevent the +marriage between Savinien and Ursula. For all answer, he led Goupil +hurriedly to the end of the garden. + +"You'll soon be twenty-eight years old, my good fellow," said he, "and +I don't see that you are on the road to fortune. I wish you well, for +after all you were once my son's companion. Listen to me. If you can +persuade that little Mirouet, who possesses in her own right forty +thousand francs, to marry you, I will give you, as true as my name is +Minoret, the means to buy a notary's practice at Orleans." + +"No," said Goupil, "that's too far out of the way; but Montargis--" + +"No," said Minoret; "Sens." + +"Very good,--Sens," replied the hideous clerk. "There's an archbishop at +Sens, and I don't object to devotion; a little hypocrisy and there +you are, on the way to fortune. Besides, the girl is pious, and she'll +succeed at Sens." + +"It is to be fully understood," continued Minoret, "that I shall not pay +the money till you marry my cousin, for whom I wish to provide, out of +consideration for my deceased uncle." + +"Why not for me too?" said Goupil maliciously, instantly suspecting a +secret motive in Minoret's conduct. "Isn't it through information you +got from me that you make twenty-four thousand a year from that land, +without a single enclosure, around the Chateau du Rouvre? The fields and +the mill the other side of the Loing make sixteen thousand more. Come, +old fellow, do you mean to play fair with me?" + +"Yes." + +"If I wanted to show my teeth I could coax Massin to buy the Rouvre +estate, park, gardens, preserves, and timber--" + +"You'd better think twice before you do that," said Zelie, suddenly +intervening. + +"If I choose," said Goupil, giving her a viperish look; "Massin would +buy the whole for two hundred thousand francs." + +"Leave us, wife," said the colossus, taking Zelie by the arm, and +shoving her away; "I understand him. We have been so very busy," he +continued, returning to Goupil, "that we have had no time to think of +you; but I rely on your friendship to buy the Rouvre estate for me." + +"It is a very ancient marquisate," said Goupil, maliciously; "which will +soon be worth in your hands fifty thousand francs a year; that means a +capital of more than two millions as money is now." + +"My son could then marry the daughter of a marshal of France, or the +daughter of some old family whose influence would get him a fine place +under the government in Paris," said Minoret, opening his huge snuff-box +and offering a pinch to Goupil. + +"Very good; but will you play fair?" cried Goupil, shaking his fingers. + +Minoret pressed the clerk's hands replying:-- + +"On my word of honor." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. THE MALIGNITY OF PROVINCIAL MINDS + +Like all crafty persons, Goupil, fortunately for Minoret, believed that +the proposed marriage with Ursula was only a pretext on the part of the +colossus and Zelie for making up with him, now that he was opposing them +with Massin. + +"It isn't he," thought Goupil, "who has invented this scheme; I know my +Zelie,--she taught him his part. Bah! I'll let Massin go. In three years +time I'll be deputy from Sens." Just then he saw Bongrand on his way to +the opposite house for his whist, and he rushed hastily after him. + +"You take a great interest in Mademoiselle Mirouet, my dear Monsieur +Bongrand," he said. "I know you will not be indifferent to her future. +Her relations are considering it, and there is the programme; she ought +to marry a notary whose practice should be in the chief town of an +arrondisement. This notary, who would of course be elected deputy in +three years, should settle on a dower of a hundred thousand francs on +her." + +"She can do better than that," said Bongrand coldly. "Madame de +Portenduere is greatly changed since her misfortunes; trouble is killing +her. Savinien will have six thousand francs a year, and Ursula has a +capital of forty thousand. I shall show them how to increase it a la +Massin, but honestly, and in ten years they will have a little fortune. + +"Savinien will do a foolish thing," said Goupil; "he can marry +Mademoiselle du Rouvre whenever he likes,--an only daughter to whom the +uncle and aunt intend to leave a fine property." + +"Where love enters farewell prudence, as La Fontaine says--By the bye, +who is your notary?" added Bongrand from curiosity. + +"Suppose it were I?" answered Goupil. + +"You!" exclaimed Bongrand, without hiding his disgust. + +"Well, well!--Adieu, monsieur," replied Goupil, with a parting glance of +gall and hatred and defiance. + +"Do you wish to be the wife of a notary who will settle a hundred +thousand francs on you?" cried Bongrand entering Madame de Portenduere's +little salon, where Ursula was seated beside the old lady. + +Ursula and Savinien trembled and looked at each other,--she smiling, he +not daring to show his uneasiness. + +"I am not mistress of myself," said Ursula, holding out her hand to +Savinien in such a way that the old lady did not perceive the gesture. + +"Well, I have refused the offer without consulting you." + +"Why did you do that?" said Madame de Portenduere. "I think the position +of a notary is a very good one." + +"I prefer my peaceful poverty," said Ursula, "which is really wealth +compared with what my station in life might have given me. Besides, my +old nurse spares me a great deal of care, and I shall not exchange the +present, which I like, for an unknown fate." + +A few weeks later the post poured into two hearts the poison of +anonymous letters,--one addressed to Madame de Portenduere, the other to +Ursula. The following is the one to the old lady:-- + + "You love your son, you wish to marry him in a manner conformable + with the name he bears; and yet you encourage his fancy for an + ambitious girl without money and the daughter of a regimental + band-master, by inviting her to your house. You ought to marry him + to Mademoiselle du Rouvre, on whom her two uncles, the Marquis de + Ronquerolles and the Chevalier du Rouvre, who are worth money, would + settle a handsome sum rather than leave it to that old fool the + Marquis du Rouvre, who runs through everything. Madame de Serizy, + aunt of Clementine du Rouvre, who has just lost her only son in the + campaign in Algiers, will no doubt adopt her niece. A person who is + your well-wisher assures you that Savinien will be accepted." + +The letter to Ursula was as follows:-- + + Dear Ursula,--There is a young man in Nemours who idolizes you. He + cannot see you working at your window without emotions which prove + to him that his love will last through life. This young man is + gifted with an iron will and a spirit of perseverance which + nothing can discourage. Receive his addresses favorably, for his + intentions are pure, and he humbly asks your hand with a sincere + desire to make you happy. His fortune, already suitable, is + nothing to that which he will make for you when you are once his + wife. You shall be received at court as the wife of a minister and + one of the first ladies in the land. + + As he sees you every day (without your being able to see him) put + a pot of La Bougival's pinks in your window and he will understand + from that that he has your permission to present himself. + +Ursula burned the letter and said nothing about it to Savinien. Two days +later she received another letter in the following language:-- + + "You do wrong, my dear Ursula, not to answer one who loves you + better than life itself. You think you will marry Savinien--you + are very much mistaken. That marriage will not take place. Madame + de Portenduere went this morning to Rouvre to ask for the hand of + Mademoiselle Clementine for her son. Savinien will yield in the + end. What objection can he make? The uncles of the young lady are + willing to guarantee their fortune to her; it amounts to over + sixty thousand francs a year." + +This letter agonized Ursula's heart and afflicted her with the tortures +of jealousy, a form of suffering hitherto unknown to her, but which +to this fine organization, so sensitive to pain, threw a pall over the +present and over the future, and even over the past. From the moment +when she received this fatal paper she lay on the doctor's sofa, her +eyes fixed on space, lost in a dreadful dream. In an instant the chill +of death had come upon her warm young life. Alas, worse than that! it +was like the awful awakening of the dead to the sense that there was +no God,--the masterpiece of that strange genius called Jean Paul. Four +times La Bougival called her to breakfast. When the faithful creature +tried to remonstrate, Ursula waved her hand and answered in one harsh +word, "Hush!" said despotically, in strange contrast to her usual gentle +manner. La Bougival, watching her mistress through the glass door, saw +her alternately red with a consuming fever, and blue as if a shudder of +cold had succeeded that unnatural heat. This condition grew worse and +worse up to four o'clock; then she rose to see if Savinien were coming, +but he did not come. Jealousy and distrust tear all reserves from love. +Ursula, who till then had never made one gesture by which her love could +be guessed, now took her hat and shawl and rushed into the passage as if +to go and meet him. But an afterthought of modesty sent her back to her +little salon, where she stayed and wept. When the abbe arrived in the +evening La Bougival met him at the door. + +"Ah, monsieur!" she cried; "I don't know what's the matter with +mademoiselle; she is--" + +"I know," said the abbe sadly, stopping the words of the poor nurse. + +He then told Ursula (what she had not dared to verify) that Madame de +Portenduere had gone to dine at Rouvre. + +"And Savinien too?" she asked. + +"Yes." + +Ursula was seized with a little nervous tremor which made the abbe +quiver as though a whole Leyden jar had been discharged at him; he felt +moreover a lasting commotion in his heart. + +"So we shall not go there to-night," he said as gently as he could; +"and, my child, it would be better if you did not go there again. +The old lady will receive you in a way to wound your pride. Monsieur +Bongrand and I, who had succeeded in bringing her to consider your +marriage, have no idea from what quarter this new influence has come to +change her, as it were in a moment." + +"I expect the worst; nothing can surprise me now," said Ursula in a +pained voice. "In such extremities it is a comfort to feel that we have +done nothing to displease God." + +"Submit, dear daughter, and do not seek to fathom the ways of +Providence," said the abbe. + +"I shall not unjustly distrust the character of Monsieur de +Portenduere--" + +"Why do you no longer call him Savinien?" asked the priest, who detected +a slight bitterness in Ursula's tone. + +"Of my dear Savinien," cried the girl, bursting into tears. "Yes, my +good friend," she said, sobbing, "a voice tells me he is as noble in +heart as he is in race. He has not only told me that he loves me alone, +but he has proved it in a hundred delicate ways, and by restraining +heroically his ardent feelings. Lately when he took the hand I held out +to him, that evening when Monsieur Bongrand proposed to me a husband, it +was the first time, I swear to you, that I had ever given it. He began +with a jest when he blew me a kiss across the street, but since then our +affection has never outwardly passed, as you well know, the narrowest +limits. But I will tell you,--you who read my soul except in this one +region where none but the angels see,--well, I will tell you, this love +has been in me the secret spring of many seeming merits; it made me +accept my poverty; it softened the bitterness of my irreparable loss, +for my mourning is more perhaps in my clothes now than in my heart--Oh, +was I wrong? can it be that love was stronger in me than my gratitude +to my benefactor, and God has punished me for it? But how could it be +otherwise? I respected in myself Savinien's future wife; yes, perhaps +I was too proud, perhaps it is that pride which God has humbled. God +alone, as you have often told me, should be the end and object of all +our actions." + +The abbe was deeply touched as he watched the tears roll down her pallid +face. The higher her sense of security had been, the lower she was now +to fall. + +"But," she said, continuing, "if I return to my orphaned condition, I +shall know how to take up its feelings. After all, could I have tied a +mill-stone round the neck of him I love? What can he do here? Who am +I to bind him to me? Besides, do I not love him with a friendship so +divine that I can bear the loss of my own happiness and my hopes? You +know I have often blamed myself for letting my hopes rest upon a grave, +and for knowing they were waiting on that poor old lady's death. If +Savinien is rich and happy with another I have enough to pay for my +entrance to a convent, where I shall go at once. There can no more be +two loves in a woman's heart than there can be two masters in heaven, +and the life of a religious is attractive to me." + +"He could not let his mother go alone to Rouvre," said the abbe, gently. + +"Do not let us talk of that, my dear good friend," she answered. "I will +write to-night and set him free. I am glad to have to close the windows +of this room," she continued, telling her old friend of the anonymous +letters, but declaring that she would not allow any inquiries to be made +as to who her unknown lover might be. + +"Why! it was an anonymous letter that first took Madame de Portenduere +to Rouvre," cried the abbe. "You are annoyed for some object by evil +persons." + +"How can that be? Neither Savinien nor I have injured any one; and I am +no longer an obstacle to the prosperity of others." + +"Well, well, my child," said the abbe, quietly, "let us profit by this +tempest, which has scattered our little circle, to put the library in +order. The books are still in heaps. Bongrand and I want to get them in +order; we wish to make a search among them. Put your trust in God, and +remember also that in our good Bongrand and in me you have two devoted +friends." + +"That is much, very much," she said, going with him to the threshold of +the door, where she stretched out her neck like a bird looking over its +nest, hoping against hope to see Savinien. + +Just then Minoret and Goupil, returning from a walk in the meadows, +stopped as they passed, and the colossus spoke to Ursula. + +"Is anything the matter, cousin; for we are still cousins, are we not? +You seem changed." + +Goupil looked so ardently at Ursula that she was frightened, and went +back into the house without replying. + +"She is cross," said Minoret to the abbe. + +"Mademoiselle Mirouet is quite right not to talk to men on the threshold +of her door," said the abbe; "she is too young--" + +"Oh!" said Goupil. "I am told she doesn't lack lovers." + +The abbe bowed hurriedly and went as fast as he could to the Rue des +Bourgeois. + +"Well," said Goupil to Minoret, "the thing is working. Did you notice +how pale she was. Within a fortnight she'll have left the town--you'll +see." + +"Better have you for a friend than an enemy," cried Minoret, frightened +at the atrocious grin which gave to Goupil's face the diabolical +expression of the Mephistopheles of Joseph Brideau. + +"I should think so!" returned Goupil. "If she doesn't marry me I'll make +her die of grief." + +"Do it, my boy, and I'll GIVE you the money to buy a practice in Paris. +You can then marry a rich woman--" + +"Poor Ursula! what makes you so bitter against her? what has she done to +you?" asked the clerk in surprise. + +"She annoys me," said Minoret, gruffly. + +"Well, wait till Monday and you shall see how I'll rasp her," said +Goupil, studying the expression of the late post master's face. + +The next day La Bougival carried the following letter to Savinien. + +"I don't know what the dear child has written to you," she said, "but +she is almost dead this morning." + +Who, reading this letter to her lover, could fail to understand the +sufferings the poor girl had gone through during the night. + + My dear Savinien,--Your mother wishes you to marry Mademoiselle du + Rouvre, and perhaps she is right. You are placed between a life + that is almost poverty-stricken and a life of opulence; between + the betrothed of your heart and a wife in conformity with the + demands of the world; between obedience to your mother and the + fulfilment of your own choice--for I still believe that you have + chosen me. Savinien, if you have now to make your decision I wish + you to do so in absolute freedom; I give you back the promise you + made to yourself--not to me--in a moment which can never fade from + my memory, for it was, like other days that have succeeded it, of + angelic purity and sweetness. That memory will suffice me for my + life. If you should persist in your pledge to me, a dark and + terrible idea would henceforth trouble my happiness. In the midst + of our privations--which we have hitherto accepted so gayly--you + might reflect, too late, that life would have been to you a better + thing had you now conformed to the laws of the world. If you were + a man to express that thought, it would be to me the sentence of + an agonizing death; if you did not express it, I should watch + suspiciously every cloud upon your brow. + + Dear Savinien, I have preferred you to all else on earth. I was + right to do so, for my godfather, though jealous of you, used to + say to me, "Love him, my child; you will certainly belong to each + other one of these days." When I went to Paris I loved you + hopelessly, and the feeling contented me. I do not know if I can + now return to it, but I shall try. What are we, after all, at this + moment? Brother and sister. Let us stay so. Marry that happy girl + who can have the joy of giving to your name the lustre it ought to + have, and which your mother thinks I should diminish. You will not + hear of me again. The world will approve of you; I shall never + blame you--but I shall love you ever. Adieu, then! + +"Wait," cried the young man. Signing to La Bougival to sit down, he +scratched off hastily the following reply:-- + + My dear Ursula,--Your letter cuts me to the heart, inasmuch as you + have needlessly felt such pain; and also because our hearts, for + the first time, have failed to understand each other. If you are + not my wife now, it is solely because I cannot marry without my + mother's consent. Dear, eight thousand francs a year and a pretty + cottage on the Loing, why, that's a fortune, is it not? You know + we calculated that if we kept La Bougival we could lay by half our + income every year. You allowed me that evening, in your uncle's + garden, to consider you mine; you cannot now of yourself break + those ties which are common to both of us.--Ursula, need I tell + you that I yesterday informed Monsieur du Rouvre that even if I + were free I could not receive a fortune from a young person whom I + did not know? My mother refuses to see you again; I must therefore + lose the happiness of our evenings; but surely you will not + deprive me of the brief moments I can spend at your window? This + evening, then--Nothing can separate us. + +"Take this to her, my old woman; she must not be unhappy one moment +longer." + +That afternoon at four o'clock, returning from the walk which he +always took expressly to pass before Ursula's house, Savinien found his +mistress waiting for him, her face a little pallid from these sudden +changes and excitements. + +"It seems to me that until now I have never known what the pleasure of +seeing you is," she said to him. + +"You once said to me," replied Savinien, smiling,--"for I remember all +your words,--'Love lives by patience; we will wait!' Dear, you have +separated love from faith. Ah! this shall be the end of our quarrels; we +will never have another. You have claimed to love me better than I love +you, but--did I ever doubt you?" he said, offering her a bouquet of +wild-flowers arranged to express his thoughts. + +"You have never had any reason to doubt me," she replied; "and, besides, +you don't know all," she added, in a troubled voice. + +Ursula had refused to receive letters by the post. But that afternoon, +without being able even to guess at the nature of the trick, she had +found, a few moments before Savinien's arrival, a letter tossed on her +sofa which contained the words: "Tremble! a rejected lover can become a +tiger." + +Withstanding Savinien's entreaties, she refused to tell him, out of +prudence, the secret of her fears. The delight of seeing him again, +after she had thought him lost to her, could alone have made her recover +from the mortal chill of terror. The expectation of indefinite evil is +torture to every one; suffering assumes the proportions of the unknown, +and the unknown is the infinite of the soul. To Ursula the pain was +exquisite. Something without her bounded at the slightest noise; yet she +was afraid of silence, and suspected even the walls of collusion. Even +her sleep was restless. Goupil, who knew nothing of her nature, delicate +as that of a flower, had found, with the instinct of evil, the poison +that could wither and destroy her. + +The next day passed without a shock. Ursula sat playing on her piano +till very late; and went to bed easier in mind and very sleepy. About +midnight she was awakened by the music of a band composed of a clarinet, +hautboy, flute, cornet a piston, trombone, bassoon, flageolet, and +triangle. All the neighbours were at their windows. The poor girl, +already frightened at seeing the people in the street, received a +dreadful shock as she heard the coarse, rough voice of a man proclaiming +in loud tones: "For the beautiful Ursula Mirouet, from her lover." + +The next day, Sunday, the whole town had heard of it; and as Ursula +entered and left the church she saw the groups of people who stood +gossiping about her, and felt herself the object of their terrible +curiosity. The serenade set all tongues wagging, and conjectures were +rife on all sides. Ursula reached home more dead than alive, determined +not to leave the house again,--the abbe having advised her to say +vespers in her own room. As she entered the house she saw lying in the +passage, which was floored with brick, a letter which had evidently been +slipped under the door. She picked it up and read it, under the idea +that it would obtain an explanation. It was as follows:-- + + +"Resign yourself to becoming my wife, rich and idolized. I am resolved. +If you are not mine living you shall be mine dead. To your refusal you +may attribute not only your own misfortunes, but those which will fall +on others. + +"He who loves you, and whose wife you will be." + + +Curiously enough, at the very moment that the gentle victim of this +plot was drooping like a cut flower, Mesdemoiselles Massin, Dionis, and +Cremiere were envying her lot. + +"She is a lucky girl," they were saying; "people talk of her, and court +her, and quarrel about her. The serenade was charming; there was a +cornet-a-piston." + +"What's a piston?" + +"A new musical instrument, as big as this, see!" replied Angelique +Cremiere to Pamela Massin. + +Early that morning Savinien had gone to Fontainebleau to endeavor to +find out who had engaged the musicians of the regiment then in garrison. +But as there were two men to each instrument it was impossible to find +out which of them had gone to Nemours. The colonel forbade them to play +for any private person in future without his permission. Savinien had +an interview with the procureur du roi, Ursula's legal guardian, and +explained to him the injury these scenes would do to a young girl +naturally so delicate and sensitive, begging him to take some action to +discover the author of such wrong. + +Three nights later three violins, a flute, a guitar, and a hautboy began +another serenade. This time the musicians fled towards Montargis, where +there happened then to be a company of comic actors. A loud and ringing +voice called out as they left: "To the daughter of the regimental +bandsman Mirouet." By this means all Nemours came to know the profession +of Ursula's father, a secret the old doctor had sedulously kept. + +Savinien did not go to Montargis. He received in the course of the day +an anonymous letter containing a prophecy:-- + + "You will never marry Ursula. If you wish her to live, give her up + at once to a man who loves her more than you love her. He has made + himself a musician and an artist to please her, and he would + rather see her dead than let her be your wife." + +The doctor came to Ursula three times in the course of that day, for +she was really in danger of death from the horror of this mysterious +persecution. Feeling that some infernal hand had plunged her into the +mire, the poor girl lay like a martyr; she said nothing, but lifted her +eyes to heaven, and wept no more; she seemed awaiting other blows, and +prayed fervently. + +"I am glad I cannot go down into the salon," she said to Monsieur +Bongrand and the abbe, who left her as little as possible; "_He_ would +come, and I am now unworthy of the looks with which _he_ blessed me. Do +you think _he_ will suspect me?" + +"If Savinien does not discover the author of these infamies he means to +get the assistance of the Paris police," said Bongrand. + +"Whoever it is will know I am dying," said Ursula; "and will cease to +trouble me." + +The abbe, Bongrand, and Savinien were lost in conjectures and +suspicions. Together with Tiennette, La Bougival, and two persons on +whom the abbe could rely, they kept the closest watch and were on their +guard night and day for a week; but no indiscretion could betray Goupil, +whose machinations were known to himself only. There were no more +serenades and no more letters, and little by little the watch relaxed. +Bongrand thought the author of the wrong was frightened; Savinien +believed that the procureur du roi to whom he had sent the letters +received by Ursula and himself and his mother, had taken steps to put an +end to the persecution. + +The armistice was not of long duration, however. When the doctor had +checked the nervous fever from which poor Ursula was suffering, and just +as she was recovering her courage, a rope-ladder was found, early one +morning in July, attached to her window. The postilion of the mail-post +declared that as he drove past the house in the middle of the night a +small man was in the act of coming down the ladder, and though he tried +to pull up, his horses, being startled, carried him down the hill so +fast that he was out of Nemours before he stopped them. Some of the +persons who frequented Dionis's salon attributed these manoeuvres to +the Marquis du Rouvre, then much hampered in means, for Massin held +his notes to a large amount. It was said that a prompt marriage of his +daughter to Savinien would save Chateau du Rouvre from his creditors; +and Madame de Portenduere, the gossips added, would approve of anything +that would discredit and degrade Ursula and lead to this marriage of her +son. + +So far from this being true, the old lady was well-nigh vanquished by +the sufferings of the innocent girl. The abbe was so painfully overcome +by this act of infernal wickedness that he fell ill himself and was kept +to the house for several days. Poor Ursula, to whom this last insult +had caused a relapse, received by post a letter from the abbe, which +was taken in by La Bougival on recognizing the handwriting. It was as +follows:-- + + +My child,--Leave Nemours, and thus evade the malice of your enemies. +Perhaps they are seeking to endanger Savinien's life. I will tell you +more when I am able to go to you. + +Your devoted friend, + +Chaperon. + + +When Savinien, who was almost maddened by these proceedings, carried +this letter to the abbe, the poor priest read it and re-read it; so +amazed and horror-stricken was he to see the perfection with which his +own handwriting and signature were imitated. The dangerous condition +into which this last atrocity threw poor Ursula sent Savinien once more +to the procureur du roi with the forged letter. + +"A murder is being committed by means that the law cannot touch," +he said, "upon an orphan whom the Code places in your care as legal +guardian. What is to be done?" + +"If you can find any means of repression," said the official, "I will +adopt them; but I know of none. That infamous wretch gives the best +advice. Mademoiselle Mirouet must be sent to the sisters of the +Adoration of the Sacred Heart. Meanwhile the commissary of police at +Fontainebleau shall at my request authorize you to carry arms in your +own defence. I have been myself to Rouvre, and I found Monsieur du +Rouvre justly indignant at the suspicions some of the Nemours people +have put upon him. Minoret, the father of my assistant, is in treaty +for the purchase of the estate. Mademoiselle is to marry a rich Polish +count; and Monsieur du Rouvre himself left the neighbourhood the day I +saw him, to avoid arrest for debt." + +Desire Minoret, when questioned by his chief, dared not tell his +thought. He recognized Goupil. Goupil, he fully believed, was the only +man capable of carrying a persecution to the very verge of the penal +code without infringing a hair's-breadth upon it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. A TWO-FOLD VENGEANCE + +Impunity, secrecy, and success increased Goupil's audacity. He made +Massin, who was completely his dupe, sue the Marquis du Rouvre for +his notes, so as to force him to sell the remainder of his property to +Minoret. Thus prepared, he opened negotiations for a practice at Sens, +and then resolved to strike a last blow to obtain Ursula. He meant +to imitate certain young men in Paris who owed their wives and their +fortunes to abduction. He knew that the services he had rendered to +Minoret, to Massin, and to Cremiere, and the protection of Dionis and +the mayor of Nemours would enable him to hush up the affair. He resolved +to throw off the mask, believing Ursula too feeble in the condition to +which he had reduced her to make any resistance. But before risking this +last throw in the game he thought it best to have an explanation with +Minoret, and he chose his opportunity at Rouvre, where he went with his +patron for the first time after the deeds were signed. + +Minoret had that morning received a confidential letter from his son +asking him for information as to what was happening in connection with +Ursula, information that he desired to obtain before going to Nemours +with the procureur du roi to place her under shelter from these +atrocities in the convent of the Adoration. Desire exhorted his father, +in case this persecution should be the work of any of their friends, to +give to whoever it might be warning and good advice; for even if the law +could not punish this crime it would certainly discover the truth and +hold it over the delinquent's head. Minoret had now attained a great +object. Owner of the chateau du Rouvre, one of the finest estates in the +Gatinais, he had also a rent-roll of some forty odd thousand francs +a year from the rich domains which surrounded the park. He could well +afford to snap his fingers at Goupil. Besides, he intended to live on +the estate, where the sight of Ursula would no longer trouble him. + +"My boy," he said to Goupil, as they walked along the terrace, "let my +young cousin alone, now." + +"Pooh!" said the clerk, unable to imagine what capricious conduct meant. + +"Oh! I'm not ungrateful; you have enabled me to get this fine brick +chateau with the stone copings (which couldn't be built now for two +hundred thousand francs) and those farms and preserves and the park and +gardens and woods, all for two hundred and eighty thousand francs. No, +I'm not ungrateful; I'll give you ten per cent, twenty thousand francs, +for your services, and you can buy a sheriff's practice in Nemours. I'll +guarantee you a marriage with one of Cremiere's daughters, the eldest." + +"The one who talks piston!" cried Goupil. + +"She'll have thirty thousand francs," replied Minoret. "Don't you see, +my dear boy, that you are cut out for a sheriff, just as I was to be a +post master? People should keep to their vocation." + +"Very well, then," said Goupil, falling from the pinnacle of his hopes; +"here's a stamped cheque; write me an order for twenty thousand francs; +I want the money in hand at once." + +Minoret had eighteen thousand francs by him at that moment of which his +wife knew nothing. He thought the best way to get rid of Goupil was to +sign the draft. The clerk, seeing the flush of seigniorial fever on the +face of the imbecile and colossal Machiavelli, threw him an "au revoir," +by way of farewell, accompanied with a glance which would have made any +one but an idiotic parvenu, lost in contemplation of the magnificent +chateau built in the style in vogue under Louis XIII., tremble in his +shoes. + +"Are you not going to wait for me?" he cried, observing that Goupil was +going away on foot. + +"You'll find me on our path, never fear, papa Minoret," replied Goupil, +athirst for vengeance and resolved to know the meaning of the zigzags of +Minoret's strange conduct. + +Since the day when the last vile calumny had sullied her life Ursula, a +prey to one of those inexplicable maladies the seat of which is in the +soul, seemed to be rapidly nearing death. She was deathly pale, speaking +only at rare intervals and then in slow and feeble words; everything +about her, her glance of gentle indifference, even the expression of her +forehead, all revealed the presence of some consuming thought. She was +thinking how the ideal wreath of chastity, with which throughout all +ages the Peoples crowned their virgins, had fallen from her brow. +She heard in the void and in the silence the dishonoring words, the +malicious comments, the laughter of the little town. The trial was +too heavy, her innocence was too delicate to allow her to survive the +murderous blow. She complained no more; a sorrowful smile was on her +lips; her eyes appealed to heaven, to the Sovereign of angels, against +man's injustice. + +When Goupil reached Nemours, Ursula had just been carried down from her +chamber to the ground-floor in the arms of La Bougival and the doctor. +A great event was about to take place. When Madame de Portenduere became +really aware that the girl was dying like an ermine, though less injured +in her honor than Clarissa Harlowe, she resolved to go to her and +comfort her. The sight of her son's anguish, who during the whole +preceding night had seemed beside himself, made the Breton soul of the +old woman yield. Moreover, it seemed worthy of her own dignity to revive +the courage of a girl so pure, and she saw in her visit a counterpoise +to all the evil done by the little town. Her opinion, surely more +powerful than that of the crowd, ought to carry with it, she thought, +the influence of race. This step, which the abbe came to announce, made +so great a change in Ursula that the doctor, who was about to ask for a +consultation of Parisian doctors, recovered hope. They placed her on +her uncle's sofa, and such was the character of her beauty that she +lay there in her mourning garments, pale from suffering, she was +more exquisitely lovely than in the happiest hours of her life. When +Savinien, with his mother on his arm, entered the room she colored +vividly. + +"Do not rise, my child," said the old lady imperatively; "weak and ill +as I am myself, I wished to come and tell you my feelings about what is +happening. I respect you as the purest, the most religious and excellent +girl in the Gatinais; and I think you worthy to make the happiness of a +gentleman." + +At first poor Ursula was unable to answer; she took the withered hands +of Savinien's mother and kissed them. + +"Ah, madame," she said in a faltering voice, "I should never have had +the boldness to think of rising above my condition if I had not been +encouraged by promises; my only claim was that of an affection without +bounds; but now they have found the means to separate me from him I +love,--they have made me unworthy of him. Never!" she cried, with a ring +in her voice which painfully affected those about her, "never will I +consent to give to any man a degraded hand, a stained reputation. I +loved too well,--yes, I can admit it in my present condition,--I love a +creature almost as I love God, and God--" + +"Hush, my child! do not calumniate God. Come, my daughter," said the old +lady, making an effort, "do not exaggerate the harm done by an infamous +joke in which no one believes. I give you my word, you will live and you +shall be happy." + +"We shall be happy!" cried Savinien, kneeling beside Ursula and kissing +her hand; "my mother has called you her daughter." + +"Enough, enough," said the doctor feeling his patient's pulse; "do not +kill her with joy." + +At that moment Goupil, who found the street door ajar, opened that of +the little salon, and showed his hideous face blazing with thoughts of +vengeance which had crowded into his mind as he hurried along. + +"Monsieur de Portenduere," he said, in a voice like the hissing of a +viper forced from its hole. + +"What do you want?" said Savinien, rising from his knees. + +"I have a word to say to you." + +Savinien left the room, and Goupil took him into the little courtyard. + +"Swear to me by Ursula's life, by your honor as a gentleman, to do by me +as if I had never told you what I am about to tell. Do this, and I +will reveal to you the cause of the persecutions directed against +Mademoiselle Mirouet." + +"Can I put a stop to them?" + +"Yes." + +"Can I avenge them?" + +"On their author, yes--on his tool, no." + +"Why not?" + +"Because--I am the tool." + +Savinien turned pale. + +"I have just seen Ursula--" said Goupil. + +"Ursula?" said the lover, looking fixedly at the clerk. + +"Mademoiselle Mirouet," continued Goupil, made respectful by Savinien's +tone; "and I would undo with my blood the wrong that has been done; I +repent of it. If you were to kill me, in a duel or otherwise, what good +would my blood do you? can you drink it? At this moment it would poison +you." + +The cold reasoning of the man, together with a feeling of eager +curiosity, calmed Savinien's anger. He fixed his eyes on Goupil with a +look which made that moral deformity writhe. + +"Who set you at this work?" said the young man. + +"Will you swear?" + +"What,--to do you no harm?" + +"I wish that you and Mademoiselle Mirouet should not forgive me." + +"She will forgive you,--I, never!" + +"But at least you will forget?" + +What terrible power the reason has when it is used to further +self-interest. Here were two men, longing to tear one another in pieces, +standing in that courtyard within two inches of each other, compelled to +talk together and united by a single sentiment. + +"I will forgive you, but I shall not forget." + +"The agreement is off," said Goupil coldly. Savinien lost patience. He +applied a blow upon the man's face which echoed through the courtyard +and nearly knocked him down, making Savinien himself stagger. + +"It is only what I deserve," said Goupil, "for committing such a folly. +I thought you more noble than you are. You have abused the advantage I +gave you. You are in my power now," he added with a look of hatred. + +"You are a murderer!" said Savinien. + +"No more than a dagger is a murderer." + +"I beg your pardon," said Savinien. + +"Are you revenged enough?" said Goupil, with ferocious irony; "will you +stop here?" + +"Reciprocal pardon and forgetfulness," replied Savinien. + +"Give me your hand," said the clerk, holding out his own. + +"It is yours," said Savinien, swallowing the shame for Ursula's sake. +"Now speak; who made you do this thing?" + +Goupil looked into the scales as it were; on one side was Savinien's +blow, on the other his hatred against Minoret. For a second he was +undecided; then a voice said to him: "You will be notary!" and he +answered:-- + +"Pardon and forgetfulness? Yes, on both sides, monsieur--" + +"Who is persecuting Ursula?" persisted Savinien. + +"Minoret. He would have liked to see her buried. Why? I can't tell you +that; but we might find out the reason. Don't mix me up in all this; +I could do nothing to help you if the others distrusted me. Instead of +annoying Ursula I will defend her; instead of serving Minoret I will +try to defeat his schemes. I live only to ruin him, to destroy him--I'll +crush him under foot, I'll dance on his carcass, I'll make his bones +into dominoes! To-morrow, every wall in Nemours and Fontainebleau and +Rouvre shall blaze with the letters, 'Minoret is a thief!' Yes, I'll +burst him like a gun--There! we're allies now by the imprudence of that +outbreak! If you choose I'll beg Mademoiselle Mirouet's pardon and tell +her I curse the madness which impelled me to injure her. It may do her +good; the abbe and the justice are both there; but Monsieur Bongrand +must promise on his honor not to injure my career. I have a career now." + +"Wait a minute;" said Savinien, bewildered by the revelation. + +"Ursula, my child," he said, returning to the salon, "the author of all +your troubles is ashamed of his work; he repents and wishes to ask +your pardon in presence of these gentlemen, on condition that all be +forgotten." + +"What! Goupil?" cried the abbe, the justice, and the doctor, all +together. + +"Keep his secret," said Ursula, putting a finger on her lips. + +Goupil heard the words, saw the gesture, and was touched. + +"Mademoiselle," he said in a troubled voice, "I wish that all Nemours +could hear me tell you that a fatal passion has bewildered my brain and +led me to commit a crime punishable by the blame of honest men. What I +say now I would be willing to say everywhere, deploring the harm done +by such miserable tricks--which may have hastened your happiness," he +added, rather maliciously, "for I see that Madame de Portenduere is with +you." + +"That is all very well, Goupil," said the abbe, "Mademoiselle forgives +you; but you must not forget that you came near being her murderer." + +"Monsieur Bongrand," said Goupil, addressing the justice of peace. "I +shall negotiate to-night for Lecoeur's practice; I hope the reparation +I have now made will not injure me with you, and that you will back my +petition to the bar and the ministry." + +Bongrand made a thoughtful inclination of his head; and Goupil left +the house to negotiate on the best terms he could for the sheriff's +practice. The others remained with Ursula and did their best to restore +the peace and tranquillity of her mind, already much relieved by +Goupil's confession. + +"You see, my child, that God was not against you," said the abbe. + +Minoret came home late from Rouvre. About nine o'clock he was sitting +in the Chinese pagoda digesting his dinner beside his wife, with whom +he was making plans for Desire's future. Desire had become very sedate +since entering the magistracy; he worked hard, and it was not unlikely +that he would succeed the present procureur du roi at Fontainebleau, +who, they said, was to be advanced to Melun. His parents felt that they +must find him a wife,--some poor girl belonging to an old and noble +family; he would then make his way to the magistracy of Paris. Perhaps +they could get him elected deputy from Fontainebleau, where Zelie was +proposing to pass the winter after living at Rouvre for the summer +season. Minoret, inwardly congratulating himself for having managed his +affairs so well, no longer thought or cared about Ursula, at the very +moment when the drama so heedlessly begun by him was closing down upon +him in a terrible manner. + +"Monsieur de Portenduere is here and wishes to speak to you," said +Cabirolle. + +"Show him in," answered Zelie. + +The twilight shadows prevented Madame Minoret from noticing the sudden +pallor of her husband, who shuddered as he heard Savinien's boots on +the floor of the gallery, where the doctor's library used to be. A vague +presentiment of danger ran through the robber's veins. Savinien entered +and remaining standing, with his hat on his head, his cane in his hand, +and both hands crossed in front of him, motionless before the husband +and wife. + +"I have come to ascertain, Monsieur and Madame Minoret," he said, "your +reasons for tormenting in an infamous manner a young lady who, as the +whole town knows, is to be my wife. Why have you endeavored to tarnish +her honor? why have you wished to kill her? why did you deliver her over +to Goupil's insults?--Answer!" + +"How absurd you are, Monsieur Savinien," said Zelie, "to come and ask us +the meaning of a thing we think inexplicable. I bother myself as little +about Ursula as I do about the year one. Since Uncle Minoret died I've +not thought of her more than I do of my first tooth. I've never said +one word about her to Goupil, who is, moreover, a queer rogue whom I +wouldn't think of consulting about even a dog. Why don't you speak up, +Minoret? Are you going to let monsieur box your ears in that way +and accuse you of wickedness that's beneath you? As if a man with +forty-eight thousand francs a year from landed property, and a castle +fit for a prince, would stoop to such things! Get up, and don't sit +there like a wet rag!" + +"I don't know what monsieur means," said Minoret in his squeaking voice, +the trembling of which was all the more noticeable because the voice +was clear. "What object could I have in persecuting the girl? I may have +said to Goupil how annoyed I was at seeing her in Nemours. My son Desire +fell in love with her, and I didn't want him to marry her, that's all." + +"Goupil has confessed everything, Monsieur Minoret." + +There was a moment's silence, but it was terrible, when all three +persons examined one another. Zelie saw a nervous quiver on the heavy +face of her colossus. + +"Though you are only insects," said the young nobleman, "I will make +you feel my vengeance. It is not from you, Monsieur Minoret, a +man sixty-eight years of age, but from your son that I shall seek +satisfaction for the insults offered to Mademoiselle Mirouet. The first +time he sets his foot in Nemours we shall meet. He must fight me; he +will do so, or be dishonored and never dare to show his face again. If +he does not come to Nemours I shall go to Fontainebleau, for I will have +satisfaction. It shall never be said that you were tamely allowed to +dishonor a defenceless young girl--" + +"But the calumnies of a Goupil--are--not--" began Minoret. + +"Do you wish me to bring him face to face with you? Believe me, you had +better hush up this affair; it lies between you and Goupil and me. Leave +it as it is; God will decide between us and when I meet your son." + +"But this sha'n't go one!" cried Zelie. "Do you suppose I'll stand +by and let Desire fight you,--a sailor whose business it is to handle +swords and guns? If you've got any cause of complaint against Minoret, +there's Minoret; take Minoret, fight Minoret! But do you think my boy, +who, by your own account, knew nothing of all this, is going to bear +the brunt of it? No, my little gentleman! somebody's teeth will pin your +legs first! Come, Minoret, don't stand staring there like a big canary; +you are in your own house, and you allow a man to keep his hat on before +your wife! I say he shall go. Now, monsieur, be off! a man's house is +his castle. I don't know what you mean with your nonsense, but show +me your heels, and if you dare touch Desire you'll have to answer to +_me_,--you and your minx Ursula." + +She rang the bell violently and called to the servants. + +"Remember what I have said to you," repeated Savinien to Minoret, paying +no attention to Zelie's tirade. Suspending the sword of Damocles over +their heads, he left the room. + +"Now, then, Minoret," said Zelie, "you will explain to me what this all +means. A young man doesn't rush into a house and make an uproar like +that and demand the blood of a family for nothing." + +"It's some mischief of that vile Goupil," said the colossus. "I promised +to help him buy a practice if he would get me the Rouvre property cheap. +I gave him ten per cent on the cost, twenty thousand francs in a note, +and I suppose he isn't satisfied." + +"Yes, but why did he get up those serenades and the scandals against +Ursula?" + +"He wanted to marry her." + +"A girl without a penny! the sly thing! Now Minoret, you are telling me +lies, and you are too much of a fool, my son, to make me believe them. +There is something under all this, and you are going to tell me what it +is." + +"There's nothing." + +"Nothing? I tell you you lie, and I shall find it out." + +"Do let me alone!" + +"I'll turn the faucet of that fountain of venom, Goupil--whom you're +afraid of--and we'll see who gets the best of it then." + +"Just as you choose." + +"I know very well it will be as I choose! and what I choose first and +foremost is that no harm shall come to Desire. If anything happens to +him, mark you, I'll do something that may send me to the scaffold--and +you, you haven't any feeling about him--" + +A quarrel thus begun between Minoret and his wife was sure not to +end without a long and angry strife. So at the moment of his +self-satisfaction the foolish robber found his inward struggle against +himself and against Ursula revived by his own fault, and complicated +with a new and terrible adversary. The next day, when he left the house +early to find Goupil and try to appease him with additional money, the +walls were already placarded with the words: "Minoret is a thief." All +those whom he met commiserated him and asked him who was the author of +the anonymous placard. Fortunately for him, everybody made allowance for +his equivocal replies by reflecting on his utter stupidity; fools get +more advantage from their weakness than able men from their strength. +The world looks on at a great man battling against fate, and does not +help him, but it supplies the capital of a grocer who may fail and lose +all. Why? Because men like to feel superior in protecting an incapable, +and are displeased at not feeling themselves the equal of a man of +genius. A clever man would have been lost in public estimation had he +stammered, as Minoret did, evasive and foolish answers with a frightened +air. Zelie sent her servants to efface the vindictive words wherever +they were found; but the effect of them on Minoret's conscience still +remained. + +The result of his interview with his assailant was soon apparent. Though +Goupil had concluded his bargain with the sheriff the night before, he +now impudently refused to fulfil it. + +"My dear Lecoeur," he said, "I am unexpectedly enabled to buy up +Monsieur Dionis's practice; I am therefore in a position to help you +to sell to others. Tear up the agreement; it's only the loss of two +stamps,--here are seventy centimes." + +Lecoeur was too much afraid of Goupil to complain. All Nemours knew +before night that Minoret had given Dionis security to enable Goupil +to buy his practice. The latter wrote to Savinien denying his charges +against Minoret, and telling the young nobleman that in his new position +he was forbidden by the rules of the supreme court, and also by his +respect for law, to fight a duel. But he warned Savinien to treat him +well in future; assuring him he was a capital boxer, and would break his +leg at the first offence. + +The walls of Nemours were cleared of the inscription; but the quarrel +between Minoret and his wife went on; and Savinien maintained a +threatening silence. Ten days after these events the marriage of +Mademoiselle Massin, the elder, to the future notary was bruited about +the town. Mademoiselle Massin had a dowry of eighty thousand francs and +her own peculiar ugliness; Goupil had his deformities and his practice; +the union therefore seemed suitable and probable. One evening, towards +midnight, two unknown men seized Goupil in the street as he was leaving +Massin's house, gave him a sound beating, and disappeared. The notary +kept the matter a profound secret, and even contradicted an old woman +who saw the scene from her window and thought that she recognized him. + +These great little events were carefully studied by Bongrand, who became +convinced that Goupil held some mysterious power over Minoret, and he +determined to find out its cause. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. APPARITIONS + +Though the public opinion of the little town recognized Ursula's perfect +innocence, she recovered slowly. While in a state of bodily exhaustion, +which left her mind and spirit free, she became the medium of phenomena +the effects of which were astounding, and of a nature to challenge +science, if science had been brought into contact with them. + +Ten days after Madame de Portenduere's visit Ursula had a dream, with +all the characteristics of a supernatural vision, as much in its moral +aspects as in the, so to speak, physical circumstances. Her godfather +appeared to her and made a sign that she should come with him. She +dressed herself and followed him through the darkness to their former +house in the Rue des Bourgeois, where she found everything precisely as +it was on the day of her godfather's death. The old man wore the clothes +that were on him the evening before his death. His face was pale, +his movements caused no sound; nevertheless, Ursula heard his voice +distinctly, though it was feeble and as if repeated by a distant echo. +The doctor conducted his child as far as the Chinese pagoda, where he +made her lift the marble top of the little Boule cabinet just as she had +raised it on the day of his death; but instead of finding nothing there +she saw the letter her godfather had told her to fetch. She opened it +and read both the letter addressed to herself and the will in favor +of Savinien. The writing, as she afterwards told the abbe, shone as if +traced by sunbeams--"it burned my eyes," she said. When she looked +at her uncle to thank him she saw the old benevolent smile upon his +discolored lips. Then, in a feeble voice, but still clearly, he told her +to look at Minoret, who was listening in the corridor to what he said to +her; and next, slipping the lock of the library door with his knife, and +taking the papers from the study. With his right hand the old man seized +his goddaughter and obliged her to walk at the pace of death and follow +Minoret to his own house. Ursula crossed the town, entered the post +house and went into Zelie's old room, where the spectre showed her +Minoret unfolding the letters, reading them and burning them. + +"He could not," said Ursula, telling her dream to the abbe, "light the +first two matches, but the third took fire; he burned the papers and +buried their remains in the ashes. Then my godfather brought me back to +our house, and I saw Minoret-Levrault slipping into the library, where +he took from the third volume of Pandects three certificates of twelve +thousand francs each; also, from the preceding volume, a number of +banknotes. 'He is,' said my godfather, 'the cause of all the trouble +which has brought you to the verge of the tomb; but God wills that you +shall yet be happy. You will not die now; you will marry Savinien. +If you love me, and if you love Savinien, I charge you to demand your +fortune from my nephew. Swear it.'" + +Resplendent as though transfigured, the spectre had so powerful an +influence on Ursula's soul that she promised all her uncle asked, hoping +to put an end to the nightmare. She woke suddenly and found herself +standing in the middle of her bedroom, facing her godfather's portrait, +which had been placed there during her illness. She went back to bed and +fell asleep after much agitation, and on waking again she remembered all +the particulars of this singular vision; but she dared not speak of it. +Her judgment and her delicacy both shrank from revealing a dream the +end and object of which was her pecuniary benefit. She attributed the +vision, not unnaturally, to remarks made by La Bougival the preceding +evening, when the old woman talked of the doctor's intended liberality +and of her own convictions on that subject. But the dream returned, with +aggravated circumstances which made it fearful to the poor girl. On +the second occasion the icy hand of her godfather was laid upon her +shoulder, causing her the most horrible distress, an indefinable +sensation. "You must obey the dead," he said, in a sepulchral voice. +"Tears," said Ursula, relating her dreams, "fell from his white, +wide-open eyes." + +The third time the vision came the dead man took her by the braids of +her long hair and showed her the post master talking with Goupil and +promising money if he would remove Ursula to Sens. Ursula then decided +to relate the three dreams to the Abbe Chaperon. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," she said, "do you believe that the dead reappear?" + +"My child, sacred history, profane history, and modern history, have +much testimony to that effect; but the Church has never made it an +article of faith; and as for science, in France science laughs at the +idea." + +"What do _you_ believe?" + +"That the power of God is infinite." + +"Did my godfather ever speak to you of such matters?" + +"Yes, often. He had entirely changed his views of them. His conversion, +as he told me at least twenty times, dated from the day when a woman in +Paris heard you praying for him in Nemours, and saw the red dot you made +against Saint-Savinien's day in your almanac." + +Ursula uttered a piercing cry, which alarmed the priest; she remembered +the scene when, on returning to Nemours, her godfather read her soul, +and took away the almanac. + +"If that is so," she said, "then my visions are possibly true. My +godfather has appeared to me, as Jesus appeared to his disciples. He was +wrapped in yellow light; he spoke to me. I beg you to say a mass for the +repose of his soul and to implore the help of God that these visions may +cease, for they are destroying me." + +She then related the three dreams with all their details, insisting +on the truth of what she said, on her own freedom of action, on the +somnambulism of her inner being, which, she said, detached itself from +her body at the bidding of the spectre and followed him with perfect +ease. The thing that most surprised the abbe, to whom Ursula's veracity +was known, was the exact description which she gave of the bedroom +formerly occupied by Zelie at the post house, which Ursula had never +entered and about which no one had ever spoken to her. + +"By what means can these singular apparitions take place?" asked Ursula. +"What did my godfather think?" + +"Your godfather, my dear child, argued my hypothesis. He recognized +the possibility of a spiritual world, a world of ideas. If ideas are of +man's creation, if they subsist in a life of their own, they must have +forms which our external senses cannot grasp, but which are perceptible +to our inward senses when brought under certain conditions. Thus your +godfather's ideas might so enfold you that you would clothe them with +his bodily presence. Then, if Minoret really committed those actions, +they too resolve themselves into ideas; for all action is the result +of many ideas. Now, if ideas live and move in a spiritual world, your +spirit must be able to perceive them if it penetrates that world. These +phenomena are not more extraordinary than those of memory; and those of +memory are quite as amazing and inexplicable as those of the perfume of +plants--which are perhaps the ideas of the plants." + +"How you enlarge and magnify the world!" exclaimed Ursula. "But to hear +the dead speak, to see them walk, act--do you think it possible?" + +"In Sweden," replied the abbe, "Swedenborg has proved by evidence that +he communicated with the dead. But come with me into the library and +you shall read in the life of the famous Duc de Montmorency, beheaded +at Toulouse, and who certainly was not a man to invent foolish tales, +an adventure very like yours, which happened a hundred years earlier at +Cardan." + +Ursula and the abbe went upstairs, and the good man hunted up a little +edition in 12mo, printed in Paris in 1666, of the "History of Henri +de Montmorency," written by a priest of that period who had known the +prince. + +"Read it," said the abbe, giving Ursula the volume, which he had opened +at the 175th page. "Your godfather often re-read that passage,--and see! +here's a little of his snuff in it." + +"And he not here!" said Ursula, taking the volume to read the passage. + + "The siege of Privat was remarkable for the loss of a great number + of officers. Two brigadier-generals died there--namely, the + Marquis d'Uxelles, of a wound received at the outposts, and the + Marquis de Portes, from a musket-shot through the head. The day + the latter was killed he was to have been made a marshal of + France. About the moment when the marquis expired the Duc de + Montmorency, who was sleeping in his tent, was awakened by a voice + like that of the marquis bidding him farewell. The affection he + felt for a friend so near made him attribute the illusion of this + dream to the force of his own imagination; and owing to the + fatigues of the night, which he had spent, according to his + custom, in the trenches, he fell asleep once more without any + sense of dread. But the same voice disturbed him again, and the + phantom obliged him to wake up and listen to the same words it had + said as it first passed. The duke then recollected that he had + heard the philosopher Pitrat discourse on the possibility of the + separation of the soul from the body, and that he and the marquis + had agreed that the first who died should bid adieu to the other. + On which, not being able to restrain his fears as to the truth of + this warning, he sent a servant to the marquis's quarters, which + were distant from him. But before the man could get back, the king + sent to inform the duke, by persons fitted to console him, of the + great loss he had sustained. + + "I leave learned men to discuss the cause of this event, which I + have frequently heard the Duc de Montmorency relate: I think that + the truth and singularity of the fact itself ought to be recorded + and preserved." + +"If all this is so," said Ursula, "what ought I do do?" + +"My child," said the abbe, "it concerns matters so important, and which +may prove so profitable to you, that you ought to keep absolutely +silent about it. Now that you have confided to me the secret of these +apparitions perhaps they may not return. Besides, you are now strong +enough to come to church; well, then, come to-morrow and thank God and +pray to him for the repose of your godfather's soul. Feel quite sure +that you have entrusted your secret to prudent hands." + +"If you knew how afraid I am to go to sleep,--what glances my godfather +gives me! The last time he caught hold of my dress--I awoke with my face +all covered with tears." + +"Be at peace; he will not come again," said the priest. + +Without losing a moment the Abbe Chaperon went straight to Minoret and +asked for a few moments interview in the Chinese pagoda, requesting that +they might be entirely alone. + +"Can any one hear us?" he asked. + +"No one," replied Minoret. + +"Monsieur, my character must be known to you," said the abbe, fastening +a gentle but attentive look on Minoret's face. "I have to speak to you +of serious and extraordinary matters, which concern you, and about which +you may be sure that I shall keep the profoundest secrecy; but it is +impossible for me to do otherwise than give you this information. While +your uncle lived, there stood there," said the priest, pointing to a +certain spot in the room, "a small buffet made by Boule, with a marble +top" (Minoret turned livid), "and beneath the marble your uncle placed +a letter for Ursula--" The abbe then went on to relate, without omitting +the smallest circumstance, Minoret's conduct to Minoret himself. When +the last post master heard the detail of the two matches refusing to +light he felt his hair begin to writhe on his skull. + +"Who invented such nonsense?" he said, in a strangled voice, when the +tale ended. + +"The dead man himself." + +This answer made Minoret tremble, for he himself had dreamed of the +doctor. + +"God is very good, Monsieur l'abbe, to do miracles for me," he said, +danger inspiring him to make the sole jest of his life. + +"All that God does is natural," replied the priest. + +"Your phantoms don't frighten me," said the colossus, recovering his +coolness. + +"I did not come to frighten you, for I shall never speak of this to any +one in the world," said the abbe. "You alone know the truth. The matter +is between you and God." + +"Come now, Monsieur l'abbe, do you really think me capable of such a +horrible abuse of confidence?" + +"I believe only in crimes which are confessed to me, and of which the +sinner repents," said the priest, in an apostolic tone. + +"Crime?" cried Minoret. + +"A crime frightful in its consequences." + +"What consequences?" + +"In the fact that it escapes human justice. The crimes which are not +expiated here below will be punished in another world. God himself +avenges innocence." + +"Do you think God concerns himself with such trifles?" + +"If he did not see the worlds in all their details at a glance, as you +take a landscape into your eye, he would not be God." + +"Monsieur l'abbe, will you give me your word of honor that you have had +these facts from my uncle?" + +"Your uncle has appeared three times to Ursula and has told them and +repeated them to her. Exhausted by such visions she revealed them to me +privately; she considers them so devoid of reason that she will never +speak of them. You may make yourself easy on that point." + +"I am easy on all points, Monsieur Chaperon." + +"I hope you are," said the old priest. "Even if I considered these +warnings absurd, I should still feel bound to inform you of them, +considering the singular nature of the details. You are an honest man, +and you have obtained your handsome fortune in too legal a way to wish +to add to it by theft. Besides, you are an almost primitive man, and +you would be tortured by remorse. We have within us, be we savage or +civilized, the sense of what is right, and this will not permit us to +enjoy in peace ill-gotten gains acquired against the laws of the society +in which we live,--for well-constituted societies are modeled on the +system God has ordained for the universe. In this respect societies have +a divine origin. Man does not originate ideas, he invents no form; +he answers to the eternal relations that surround him on all sides. +Therefore, see what happens! Criminals going to the scaffold, and having +it in their power to carry their secret with them, are compelled by the +force of some mysterious power to make confessions before their heads +are taken off. Therefore, Monsieur Minoret, if your mind is at ease, I +go my way satisfied." + +Minoret was so stupefied that he allowed the abbe to find his own way +out. When he thought himself alone he flew into the fury of a choleric +man; the strangest blasphemies escaped his lips, in which Ursula's name +was mingled with odious language. + +"Why, what has she done to you?" cried Zelie, who had slipped in on +tiptoe after seeing the abbe out of the house. + +For the first and only time in his life, Minoret, drunk with anger and +driven to extremities by his wife's reiterated questions, turned +upon her and beat her so violently that he was obliged, when she fell +half-dead on the floor, to take her in his arms and put her to bed +himself, ashamed of his act. He was taken ill and the doctor bled him +twice; when he appeared again in the streets everybody noticed a great +change in him. He walked alone, and often roamed the town as though +uneasy. When any one addressed him he seemed preoccupied in his mind, he +who had never before had two ideas in his head. At last, one evening, he +went up to Monsieur Bongrand in the Grand'Rue, the latter being on his +way to take Ursula to Madame de Portenduere's, where the whist parties +had begun again. + +"Monsieur Bongrand, I have something important to say to my cousin," he +said, taking the justice by the arm, "and I am very glad you should be +present, for you can advise her." + +They found Ursula studying; she rose, with a cold and dignified air, as +soon as she saw Minoret. + +"My child, Monsieur Minoret wants to speak to you on a matter of +business," said Bongrand. "By the bye, don't forget to give me your +certificates; I shall go to Paris in the morning and will draw your +dividend and La Bougival's." + +"Cousin," said Minoret, "our uncle accustomed you to more luxury than +you have now." + +"We can be very happy with very little money," she replied. + +"I thought money might help your happiness," continued Minoret, "and I +have come to offer you some, out of respect for the memory of my uncle." + +"You had a natural way of showing respect for him," said Ursula, +sternly; "you could have left his house as it was, and allowed me to +buy it; instead of that you put it at a high price, hoping to find some +hidden treasure in it." + +"But," said Minoret, evidently troubled, "if you had twelve thousand +francs a year you would be in a position to marry well." + +"I have not got them." + +"But suppose I give them to you, on condition of your buying an estate +in Brittany near Madame de Portenduere,--you could then marry her son." + +"Monsieur Minoret," said Ursula, "I have no claim to that money, and I +cannot accept it from you. We are scarcely relations, still less are +we friends. I have suffered too much from calumny to give a handle for +evil-speaking. What have I done to deserve that money? What reason have +you to make me such a present? These questions, which I have a right to +ask, persons will answer as they see fit; some would consider your gift +the reparation of a wrong, and, as such, I choose not to accept it. +Your uncle did not bring me up to ignoble feelings. I can accept nothing +except from friends, and I have no friendship for you." + +"Then you refuse?" cried the colossus, into whose head the idea had +never entered that a fortune could be rejected. + +"I refuse," said Ursula. + +"But what grounds have you for offering Mademoiselle Ursula such a +fortune?" asked Bongrand, looking fixedly at Minoret. "You have an +idea--have you an idea?--" + +"Well, yes, the idea of getting her out of Nemours, so that my son will +leave me in peace; he is in love with her and wants to marry her." + +"Well, we'll see about it," said Bongrand, settling his spectacles. +"Give us time to think it over." + +He walked home with Minoret, applauding the solicitude shown by the +father for his son's interests, and slightly blaming Ursula for her +hasty decision. As soon as Minoret was within his own gate, Bongrand +went to the post house, borrowed a horse and cabriolet, and started for +Fontainebleau, where he went to see the deputy procureur, and was +told that he was spending the evening at the house of the sub-prefect. +Bongrand, delighted, followed him there. Desire was playing whist with +the wife of the procureur du roi, the wife of the sub-prefect, and the +colonel of the regiment in garrison. + +"I come to bring you some good news," said Bongrand to Desire; "you love +your cousin Ursula, and the marriage can be arranged." + +"I love Ursula Mirouet!" cried Desire, laughing. "Where did you get that +idea? I do remember seeing her sometimes at the late Doctor Minoret's; +she certainly is a beauty; but she is dreadfully pious. I certainly took +notice of her charms, but I must say I never troubled my head seriously +for that rather insipid little blonde," he added, smiling at the +sub-prefect's wife (who was a piquante brunette--to use a term of the +last century). "You are dreaming, my dear Monsieur Bongrand; I thought +every one knew that my father was a lord of a manor, with a rent roll +of forty-five thousand francs a year from lands around his chateau at +Rouvre,--good reasons why I should not love the goddaughter of my late +great-uncle. If I were to marry a girl without a penny these ladies +would consider me a fool." + +"Have you never tormented your father to let you marry Ursula?" + +"Never." + +"You hear that, monsieur?" said the justice to the procureur du roi, +who had been listening to the conversation, leading him aside into the +recess of a window, where they remained in conversation for a quarter of +an hour. + +An hour later Bongrand was back in Nemours, at Ursula's house, whence he +sent La Bougival to Minoret to beg his attendance. The colossus came at +once. + +"Mademoiselle--" began Bongrand, addressing Minoret as he entered the +room. + +"Accepts?" cried Minoret, interrupting him. + +"No, not yet," replied Bongrand, fingering his glasses. "I had scruples +as to your son's feelings; for Ursula has been much tried lately about a +supposed lover. We know the importance of tranquillity. Can you swear +to me that your son truly loves her and that you have no other intention +than to preserve our dear Ursula from any further Goupilisms?" + +"Oh, I'll swear to that," cried Minoret. + +"Stop, papa Minoret," said the justice, taking one hand from the pocket +of his trousers to slap Minoret on the shoulder (the colossus trembled); +"Don't swear falsely." + +"Swear falsely?" + +"Yes, either you or your son, who has just sworn at Fontainebleau, in +presence of four persons and the procureur du roi, that he has never +even thought of his cousin Ursula. You have other reasons for offering +this fortune. I saw you were inventing that tale, and went myself to +Fontainebleau to question your son." + +Minoret was dumbfounded at his own folly. + +"But where's the harm, Monsieur Bongrand, in proposing to a young +relative to help on a marriage which seems to be for her happiness, and +to invent pretexts to conquer her reluctance to accept the money." + +Minoret, whose danger suggested to him an excuse which was almost +admissible, wiped his forehead, wet with perspiration. + +"You know the cause of my refusal," said Ursula; "and I request you +never to come here again. Though Monsieur de Portenduere has not told +me his reason, I know that he feels such contempt for you, such dislike +even, that I cannot receive you into my house. My happiness is my only +fortune,--I do not blush to say so; I shall not risk it. Monsieur de +Portenduere is only waiting for my majority to marry me." + +"Then the old saw that 'Money does all' is a lie," said Minoret, looking +at the justice of peace, whose observing eyes annoyed him so much. + +He rose and left the house, but, once outside, he found the air as +oppressive as in the little salon. + +"There must be an end put to this," he said to himself as he re-entered +his own home. + +When Ursula came down, bring her certificates and those of La Bougival, +she found Monsieur Bongrand walking up and down the salon with great +strides. + +"Have you no idea what the conduct of that huge idiot means?" he said. + +"None that I can tell," she replied. + +Bongrand looked at her with inquiring surprise. + +"Then we have the same idea," he said. "Here, keep the number of +your certificates, in case I lose them; you should always take that +precaution." + +Bongrand himself wrote the number of the two certificates, hers and that +of La Bougival, and gave them to her. + +"Adieu, my child, I shall be gone two days, but you will see me on the +third." + +That night the apparition appeared to Ursula in a singular manner. She +thought her bed was in the cemetery of Nemours, and that her uncle's +grave was at the foot of it. The white stone, on which she read the +inscription, opened, like the cover of an oblong album. She uttered a +piercing cry, but the doctor's spectre slowly rose. First she saw his +yellow head, with its fringe of white hair, which shone as if surmounted +by a halo. Beneath the bald forehead the eyes were like two gleams of +light; the dead man rose as if impelled by some superior force or will. +Ursula's body trembled; her flesh was like a burning garment, and there +was (as she subsequently said) another self moving within her bodily +presence. "Mercy!" she cried, "mercy, godfather!" "It is too late," he +said, in the voice of death,--to use the poor girl's own expression when +she related this new dream to the abbe. "He has been warned; he has paid +no heed to the warning. The days of his son are numbered. If he does not +confess all and restore what he has taken within a certain time he must +lose his son, who will die a violent and horrible death. Let him know +this." The spectre pointed to a line of figures which gleamed upon the +side of the tomb as if written with fire, and said, "There is his doom." +When her uncle lay down again in his grave Ursula heard the sound of +the stone falling back into its place, and immediately after, in the +distance, a strange sound of horses and the cries of men. + +The next day Ursula was prostrate. She could not rise, so terribly had +the dream overcome her. She begged her nurse to find the Abbe Chaperon +and bring him to her. The good priest came as soon as he had said mass, +but he was not surprised at Ursula's revelation. He believed the robbery +had been committed, and no longer tried to explain to himself the +abnormal condition of his "little dreamer." He left Ursula at once and +went directly to Minoret's. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," said Zelie, "my husband's temper is so soured I don't +know what he mightn't do. Until now he's been a child; but for the last +two months he's not the same man. To get angry enough to strike me--me, +so gentle! There must be something dreadful the matter to change him +like that. You'll find him among the rocks; he spends all his time +there,--doing what, I'd like to know?" + +In spite of the heat (it was then September, 1836), the abbe crossed the +canal and took a path which led to the base of one of the rocks, where +he saw Minoret. + +"You are greatly troubled, Monsieur Minoret," said the priest going +up to him. "You belong to me because you suffer. Unhappily, I come to +increase your pain. Ursula had a terrible dream last night. Your uncle +lifted the stone from his grave and came forth to prophecy a great +disaster in your family. I certainly am not here to frighten you; but +you ought to know what he said--" + +"I can't be easy anywhere, Monsieur Chaperon, not even among these +rocks, and I'm sure I don't want to know anything that is going on in +another world." + +"Then I will leave you, monsieur; I did not take this hot walk for +pleasure," said the abbe, mopping his forehead. + +"Well, what do you want to say?" demanded Minoret. + +"You are threatened with the loss of your son. If the dead man told +things that you alone know, one must needs tremble when he tells things +that no one can know till they happen. Make restitution, I say, make +restitution. Don't damn your soul for a little money." + +"Restitution of what?" + +"The fortune the doctor intended for Ursula. You took those three +certificates--I know it now. You began by persecuting that poor girl, +and you end by offering her a fortune; you have stumbled into lies, you +have tangled yourself up in this net, and you are taking false steps +every day. You are very clumsy and unskilful; your accomplice Goupil has +served you ill; he simply laughs at you. Make haste and clear your +mind, for you are watched by intelligent and penetrating eyes,--those of +Ursula's friends. Make restitution! and if you do not save your son (who +may not really be threatened), you will save your soul, and you will +save your honor. Do you believe that in a society like ours, in a little +town like this, where everybody's eyes are everywhere, and all things +are guessed and all things are known, you can long hide a stolen +fortune? Come, my son, an innocent man wouldn't have let me talk so +long." + +"Go to the devil!" cried Minoret. "I don't know what you _all_ mean by +persecuting me. I prefer these stones--they leave me in peace." + +"Farewell, then; I have warned you. Neither the poor girl nor I have +said a single word about this to any living person. But take care--there +is a man who has his eye upon you. May God have pity upon you!" + +The abbe departed; presently he turned back to look at Minoret. The +man was holding his head in his hands as if it troubled him; he was, +in fact, partly crazy. In the first place, he had kept the three +certificates because he did not know what to do with them. He dared not +draw the money himself for fear it should be noticed; he did not wish +to sell them, and was still trying to find some way of transferring the +certificates. In this horrible state of uncertainty he bethought him of +acknowledging all to his wife and getting her advice. Zelie, who always +managed affairs for him so well, she could get him out of his troubles. +The three-per-cent Funds were now selling at eighty. Restitution! why, +that meant, with arrearages, giving up a million! Give up a million, +when there was no one who could know that he had taken it--! + +So Minoret continued through September and a part of October irresolute +and a prey to his torturing thoughts. To the great surprise of the +little town he grew thin and haggard. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. REMORSE + +An alarming circumstance hastened the confession which Minoret was +inclined to make to Zelie; the sword of Damocles began to move above +their heads. Towards the middle of October Monsieur and Madame Minoret +received from their son Desire the following letter:-- + + My dear Mother,--If I have not been to see you since vacation, it + is partly because I have been on duty during the absence of my + chief, but also because I knew that Monsieur de Portenduere was + waiting my arrival at Nemours, to pick a quarrel with me. Tired, + perhaps, of seeing his vengeance on our family delayed, the + viscount came to Fontainebleau, where he had appointed one of his + Parisian friends to meet him, having already obtained the help of + the Vicomte de Soulanges commanding the troop of cavalry here in + garrison. + + He called upon me, very politely, accompanied by the two + gentlemen, and told me that my father was undoubtedly the + instigator of the malignant persecutions against Ursula Mirouet, + his future wife; he gave me proofs, and told me of Goupil's + confession before witnesses. He also told me of my father's + conduct, first in refusing to pay Goupil the price agreed on for + his wicked invention, and next, out of fear of Goupil's malignity, + going security to Monsieur Dionis for the price of his practice + which Goupil is to have. + + The viscount, not being able to fight a man sixty-seven years of + age, and being determined to have satisfaction for the insults + offered to Ursula, demanded it formally of me. His determination, + having been well-weighed and considered, could not be shaken. If I + refused, he was resolved to meet me in society before persons + whose esteem I value, and insult me openly. In France, a coward is + unanimously scorned. Besides, the motives for demanding reparation + should be explained by honorable men. He said he was sorry to + resort to such extremities. His seconds declared it would be wiser + in me to arrange a meeting in the usual manner among men of honor, + so that Ursula Mirouet might not be known as the cause of the + quarrel; to avoid all scandal it was better to make a journey to + the nearest frontier. In short, my seconds met his yesterday, and + they unanimously agreed that I owed him reparation. A week from + to-day I leave for Geneva with my two friends. Monsieur de + Portenduere, Monsieur de Soulanges, and Monsieur de Trailles will + meet me there. + + The preliminaries of the duel are settled; we shall fight with + pistols; each fires three times, and after that, no matter what + happens, the affair terminates. To keep this degrading matter from + public knowledge (for I find it impossible to justify my father's + conduct) I do not go to see you now, because I dread the violence + of the emotion to which you would yield and which would not be + seemly. If I am to make my way in the world I must conform to the + rules of society. If the son of a viscount has a dozen reasons for + fighting a duel the son of a post master has a hundred. I shall + pass the night in Nemours on my way to Geneva, and I will bid you + good-by then. + +After the reading of this letter a scene took place between Zelie and +Minoret which ended in the latter confessing the theft and relating +all the circumstances and the strange scenes connected with it, even +Ursula's dreams. The million fascinated Zelie quite as much as it did +Minoret. + +"You stay quietly here," Zelie said to her husband, without the +slightest remonstrance against his folly. "I'll manage the whole thing. +We'll keep the money, and Desire shall not fight a duel." + +Madame Minoret put on her bonnet and shawl and carried her son's letter +to Ursula, whom she found alone, as it was about midday. In spite of her +assurance Zelie was discomfited by the cold look which the young girl +gave her. But she took herself to task for her cowardice and assumed an +easy air. + +"Here, Mademoiselle Mirouet, do me the kindness to read that and tell me +what you think of it," she cried, giving Ursula her son's letter. + +Ursula went through various conflicting emotions as she read the letter, +which showed her how truly she was loved and what care Savinien took +of the honor of the woman who was to be his wife; but she had too much +charity and true religion to be willing to be the cause of death or +suffering to her most cruel enemy. + +"I promise, madame, to prevent the duel; you may feel perfectly +easy,--but I must request you to leave me this letter." + +"My dear little angel, can we not come to some better arrangement. +Monsieur Minoret and I have acquired property about Rouvre,--a really +regal castle, which gives us forty-eight thousand francs a year; we +shall give Desire twenty-four thousand a year which we have in the +Funds; in all, seventy thousand francs a year. You will admit that there +are not many better matches than he. You are an ambitious girl,--and +quite right too," added Zelie, seeing Ursula's quick gesture of denial; +"I have therefore come to ask your hand for Desire. You will bear your +godfather's name, and that will honor it. Desire, as you must have seen, +is a handsome fellow; he is very much thought of at Fontainebleau, and +he will soon be procureur du roi himself. You are a coaxing girl and +can easily persuade him to live in Paris. We will give you a fine house +there; you will shine; you will play a distinguished part; for, with +seventy thousand francs a year and the salary of an office, you and +Desire can enter the highest society. Consult your friends; you'll see +what they tell you." + +"I need only consult my heart, madame." + +"Ta, ta, ta! now don't talk to me about that little lady-killer +Savinien. You'd pay too high a price for his name, and for that little +moustache curled up at the points like two hooks, and his black hair. +How do you expect to manage on seven thousand francs a year, with a +man who made two hundred thousand francs of debt in two years? +Besides--though this is a thing you don't know yet--all men are alike; +and without flattering myself too much, I may say that my Desire is the +equal of a king's son." + +"You forget, madame, the danger your son is in at this moment; which +can, perhaps, be averted only by Monsieur de Portenduere's desire to +please me. If he knew that you had made me these unworthy proposals that +danger might not be escaped. Besides, let me tell you, madame, that I +shall be far happier in the moderate circumstances to which you allude +than I should be in the opulence with which you are trying to dazzle me. +For reasons hitherto unknown, but which will yet be made known, Monsieur +Minoret, by persecuting me in an odious manner, strengthened the +affection that exists between Monsieur de Portenduere and myself--which +I can now admit because his mother has blessed it. I will also tell you +that this affection, sanctioned and legitimate, is life itself to me. No +destiny, however brilliant, however lofty, could make me change. I love +without the possibility of changing. It would therefore be a crime if +I married a man to whom I could take nothing but a soul that is +Savinien's. But, madame, since you force me to be explicit, I must tell +you that even if I did not love Monsieur de Portenduere I could not +bring myself to bear the troubles and joys of life in the company of +your son. If Monsieur Savinien made debts, you have often paid those +of your son. Our characters have neither the similarities nor +the differences which enable two persons to live together without +bitterness. Perhaps I should not have towards him the forbearance a +wife owes to her husband; I should then be a trial to him. Pray cease to +think of an alliance of which I count myself quite unworthy, and which +I feel I can decline without pain to you; for with the great advantages +you name to me, you cannot fail to find some girl of better station, +more wealth, and more beauty than mine." + +"Will you swear to me," said Zelie, "to prevent these young men from +taking that journey and fighting that duel?" + +"It will be, I foresee, the greatest sacrifice that Monsieur de +Portenduere can make to me, but I shall tell him that my bridal crown +must have no blood upon it." + +"Well, I thank you, cousin, and I can only hope you will be happy." + +"And I, madame, sincerely wish that you may realize all your +expectations for the future of your son." + +These words struck a chill to the heart of the mother, who suddenly +remembered the predictions of Ursula's last dream; she stood still, her +small eyes fixed on Ursula's face, so white, so pure, so beautiful in +her mourning dress, for Ursula had risen too to hasten her so-called +cousin's departure. + +"Do you believe in dreams?" said Zelie. + +"I suffer from them too much not to do so." + +"But if you do--" began Zelie. + +"Adieu, madame," exclaimed Ursula, bowing to Madame Minoret as she heard +the abbe's entering step. + +The priest was surprised to find Madame Minoret with Ursula. The +uneasiness depicted on the thin and wrinkled face of the former post +mistress induced him to take note of the two women. + +"Do you believe in spirits?" Zelie asked him. + +"What do you believe in?" he answered, smiling. + +"They are all sly," thought Zelie,--"every one of them! They want to +deceive us. That old priest and the old justice and that young scamp +Savinien have got some plan in their heads. Dreams! no more dreams than +there are hairs on the palm of my hand." + +With two stiff, curt bows she left the room. + +"I know why Savinien went to Fontainebleau," said Ursula to the abbe, +telling him about the duel and begging him to use his influence to +prevent it. + +"Did Madame Minoret offer you her son's hand?" asked the abbe. + +"Yes." + +"Minoret has no doubt confessed his crime to her," added the priest. + +Monsieur Bongrand, who came in at this moment, was told of the step +taken by Zelie, whose hatred to Ursula was well known to him. He looked +at the abbe as if to say: "Come out, I want to speak to you of Ursula +without her hearing me." + +"Savinien must be told that you refused eighty thousand francs a year +and the dandy of Nemours," he said aloud. + +"Is it, then, a sacrifice?" she answered, laughing. "Are there +sacrifices when one truly loves? Is it any merit to refuse the son of a +man we all despise? Others may make virtues of their dislikes, but that +ought not to be the morality of a girl brought up by a de Jordy, and the +abbe, and my dear godfather," she said, looking up at his portrait. + +Bongrand took Ursula's hand and kissed it. + +"Do you know what Madame Minoret came about?" said the justice as soon +as they were in the street. + +"What?" asked the priest, looking at Bongrand with an air that seemed +merely curious. + +"She had some plan for restitution." + +"Then you think--" began the abbe. + +"I don't think, I know; I have the certainty--and see there!" + +So saying, Bongrand pointed to Minoret, who was coming towards them on +his way home. + +"When I was a lawyer in the criminal courts," continued Bongrand, "I +naturally had many opportunities to study remorse; but I have never +seen any to equal that of this man. What gives him that flaccidity, +that pallor of the cheeks where the skin was once as tight as a drum and +bursting with the good sound health of a man without a care? What has +put those black circles round his eyes and dulled their rustic vivacity? +Did you ever expect to see lines of care on that forehead? Who would +have supposed that the brain of that colossus could be excited? The man +has felt his heart! I am a judge of remorse, just as you are a judge +of repentance, my dear abbe. That which I have hitherto observed has +developed in men who were awaiting punishment, or enduring it to get +quits with the world; they were either resigned, or breathing vengeance; +but here is remorse without expiation, remorse pure and simple, +fastening on its prey and rending him." + +The judge stopped Minoret and said: "Do you know that Mademoiselle +Mirouet has refused your son's hand?" + +"But," interposed the abbe, "do not be uneasy; she will prevent the +duel." + +"Ah, then my wife succeeded?" said Minoret. "I am very glad, for it +nearly killed me." + +"You are, indeed, so changed that you are no longer like yourself," +remarked Bongrand. + +Minoret looked alternately at the two men to see if the priest had +betrayed the dreams; but the abbe's face was unmoved, expressing only a +calm sadness which reassured the guilty man. + +"And it is the more surprising," went on Monsieur Bongrand, "because +you ought to be filled with satisfaction. You are lord of Rouvre and +all those farms and mills and meadows and--with your investments in the +Funds, you have an income of one hundred thousand francs--" + +"I haven't anything in the Funds," cried Minoret, hastily. + +"Pooh," said Bongrand; "this is just as it was about your son's love +for Ursula,--first he denied it, and now he asks her in marriage. +After trying to kill Ursula with sorrow you now want her for a +daughter-in-law. My good friend, you have got some secret in your +pouch." + +Minoret tried to answer; he searched for words and could find nothing +better than:-- + +"You're very queer, monsieur. Good-day, gentlemen"; and he turned with a +slow step into the Rue des Bourgeois. + +"He has stolen the fortune of our poor Ursula," said Bongrand, "but how +can we ever find the proof?" + +"God may--" + +"God has put into us the sentiment that is now appealing to that man; +but all that is merely what is called 'presumptive,' and human justice +requires something more." + +The abbe maintained the silence of a priest. As often happens in similar +circumstances, he thought much oftener than he wished to think of the +robbery, now almost admitted by Minoret, and of Savinien's happiness, +delayed only by Ursula's loss of fortune--for the old lady had privately +owned to him that she knew she had done wrong in not consenting to the +marriage in the doctor's lifetime. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. SHOWING HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO STEAL THAT WHICH SEEMS + VERY EASILY STOLEN + +The following day, as the abbe was leaving the altar after saying mass, +a thought struck him with such force that it seemed to him the utterance +of a voice. He made a sign to Ursula to wait for him, and accompanied +her home without having breakfasted. + +"My child," he said, "I want to see the two volumes your godfather +showed you in your dreams--where he said that he placed those +certificates and banknotes." + +Ursula and the abbe went up to the library and took down the third +volume of the Pandects. When the old man opened it he noticed, not +without surprise, a mark left by some enclosure upon the pages, which +still kept the outline of the certificate. In the other volume he found +a sort of hollow made by the long-continued presence of a package, which +had left its traces on the two pages next to it. + +"Yes, go up, Monsieur Bongrand," La Bougival was heard to say, and the +justice of the peace came into the library just as the abbe was putting +on his spectacles to read three numbers in Doctor Minoret's hand-writing +on the fly-leaf of colored paper with which the binder had lined the +cover of the volume,--figures which Ursula had just discovered. + +"What's the meaning of those figures?" said the abbe; "our dear doctor +was too much of a bibliophile to spoil the fly-leaf of a valuable +volume. Here are three numbers written between a first number preceded +by the letter M and a last number preceded by a U." + +"What are you talking of?" said Bongrand. "Let me see that. Good God!" +he cried, after a moment's examination; "it would open the eyes of an +atheist as an actual demonstration of Providence! Human justice is, I +believe, the development of the divine thought which hovers over the +worlds." He seized Ursula and kissed her forehead. "Oh! my child, you +will be rich and happy, and all through me!" + +"What is it?" exclaimed the abbe. + +"Oh, monsieur," cried La Bougival, catching Bongrand's blue overcoat, +"let me kiss you for what you've just said." + +"Explain, explain! don't give us false hopes," said the abbe. + +"If I bring trouble on others by becoming rich," said Ursula, forseeing +a criminal trial, "I--" + +"Remember," said the justice, interrupting her, "the happiness you will +give to Savinien." + +"Are you mad?" said the abbe. + +"No, my dear friend," said Bongrand. "Listen; the certificates in the +Funds are issued in series,--as many series as there are letters in +the alphabet; and each number bears the letter of its series. But the +certificates which are made out 'to bearer' cannot have a letter; they +are not in any person's name. What you see there shows that the day the +doctor placed his money in the Funds, he noted down, first, the number +of his own certificate for fifteen thousand francs interest which bears +his initial M; next, the numbers of three inscriptions to bearer; these +are without a letter; and thirdly, the certificate of Ursula's share in +the Funds, the number of which is 23,534, and which follows, as you see, +that of the fifteen-thousand-franc certificate with lettering. This +goes far to prove that those numbers are those of five certificates of +investments made on the same day and noted down by the doctor in case of +loss. I advised him to take certificates to bearer for Ursula's fortune, +and he must have made his own investment and that of Ursula's little +property the same day. I'll go to Dionis's office and look at the +inventory. If the number of the certificate for his own investment is +23,533, letter M, we may be sure that he invested, through the same +broker on the same day, first his own property on a single certificate; +secondly his savings in three certificates to bearer (numbered, but +without the series letter); thirdly, Ursula's own property; the transfer +books will show, of course, undeniable proofs of this. Ha! Minoret, you +deceiver, I have you--Motus, my children!" + +Whereupon he left them abruptly to reflect with admiration on the ways +by which Providence had brought the innocent to victory. + +"The finger of God is in all this," cried the abbe. + +"Will they punish him?" asked Ursula. + +"Ah, mademoiselle," cried La Bougival. "I'd give the rope to hang him." + +Bongrand was already at Goupil's, now the appointed successor of Dionis, +but he entered the office with a careless air. "I have a little matter +to verify about the Minoret property," he said to Goupil. + +"What is it?" asked the latter. + +"The doctor left one or more certificates in the three-per-cent Funds?" + +"He left one for fifteen thousand francs a year," said Goupil; "I +recorded it myself." + +"Then just look on the inventory," said Bongrand. + +Goupil took down a box, hunted through it, drew out a paper, found the +place, and read:-- + +"'Item, one certificate'--Here, read for yourself--under the number +23,533, letter M." + +"Do me the kindness to let me have a copy of that clause within an +hour," said Bongrand. + +"What good is it to you?" asked Goupil. + +"Do you want to be a notary?" answered the justice of peace, looking +sternly at Dionis's proposed successor. + +"Of course I do," cried Goupil. "I've swallowed too many affronts not to +succeed now. I beg you to believe, monsieur, that the miserable +creature once called Goupil has nothing in common with Maitre +Jean-Sebastien-Marie Goupil, notary of Nemours and husband of +Mademoiselle Massin. The two beings do not know each other. They are no +longer even alike. Look at me!" + +Thus adjured Monsieur Bongrand took notice of Goupil's clothes. The new +notary wore a white cravat, a shirt of dazzling whiteness adorned with +ruby buttons, a waistcoat of red velvet, with trousers and coat of +handsome black broad-cloth, made in Paris. His boots were neat; his +hair, carefully combed, was perfumed--in short he was metamorphosed. + +"The fact is you are another man," said Bongrand. + +"Morally as well as physically. Virtue comes with practice--a practice; +besides, money is the source of cleanliness--" + +"Morally as well as physically," returned Bongrand, settling his +spectacles. + +"Ha! monsieur, is a man worth a hundred thousand francs a year ever +a democrat? Consider me in future as an honest man who knows what +refinement is, and who intends to love his wife," said Goupil; "and +what's more, I shall prevent my clients from ever doing dirty actions." + +"Well, make haste," said Bongrand. "Let me have that copy in an hour, +and notary Goupil will have undone some of the evil deeds of Goupil the +clerk." + +After asking the Nemours doctor to lend him his horse and cabriolet, he +went back to Ursula's house for the two important volumes and for +her own certificate of Funds; then, armed with the extract from the +inventory, he drove to Fontainebleau and had an interview with the +procureur du roi. Bongrand easily convinced that official of the theft +of the three certificates by one or other of the heirs,--presumably by +Minoret. + +"His conduct is explained," said the procureur. + +As a measure of precaution the magistrate at once notified the Treasury +to withhold transfer of the said certificates, and told Bongrand to go +to Paris and ascertain if the shares had ever been sold. He then wrote a +polite note to Madame Minoret requesting her presence. + +Zelie, very uneasy about her son's duel, dressed herself at once, +had the horses put to her carriage and hurried to Fontainebleau. The +procureur's plan was simple enough. By separating the wife from the +husband, and bringing the terrors of the law to bear upon her, he +expected to learn the truth. Zelie found the official in his private +office and was utterly annihilated when he addressed her as follows:-- + +"Madame," he said; "I do not believe you are an accomplice in a theft +that has been committed upon the Minoret property, on the track of which +the law is now proceeding. But you can spare your husband the shame of +appearing in the prisoner's dock by making a full confession of what +you know about it. The punishment which your husband has incurred is, +moreover, not the only thing to be dreaded. Your son's career is to be +thought of; you must avoid destroying that. Half an hour hence will be +too late. The police are already under orders for Nemours, the warrant +is made out." + +Zelie nearly fainted; when she recovered her senses she confessed +everything. After proving to her that she was in point of fact an +accomplice, the magistrate told her that if she did not wish to injure +either son or husband she must behave with the utmost prudence. + +"You have now to do with me as an individual, not as a magistrate," he +said. "No complaint has been lodged by the victim, nor has any publicity +been given to the theft. But your husband has committed a great crime, +which may be brought before a judge less inclined than myself to be +considerate. In the present state of the affair I am obliged to make you +a prisoner--oh, in my own house, on parole," he added, seeing that +Zelie was about to faint. "You must remember that my official duty would +require me to issue a warrant at once and begin an examination; but I am +acting now individually, as guardian of Mademoiselle Ursula Mirouet, and +her best interests demand a compromise." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Zelie. + +"Write to your husband in the following words," he continued, placing +Zelie at his desk and proceeding to dictate the letter:-- + + "My Friend,--I am arrested, and I have told all. Return the + certificates which uncle left to Monsieur de Portenduere in the + will which you burned; for the procureur du roi has stopped + payment at the Treasury." + +"You will thus save him from the denials he would otherwise attempt to +make," said the magistrate, smiling at Zelie's orthography. "We will see +that the restitution is properly made. My wife will make your stay in +our house as agreeable as possible. I advise you to say nothing of the +matter and not to appear anxious or unhappy." + +Now that Zelie had confessed and was safely immured, the magistrate sent +for Desire, told him all the particulars of his father's theft, which +was really to Ursula's injury, but, as matters stood, legally to that of +his co-heirs, and showed him the letter written by his mother. Desire at +once asked to be allowed to go to Nemours and see that his father made +immediate restitution. + +"It is a very serious matter," said the magistrate. "The will having +been destroyed, if the matter gets wind, the co-heirs, Massin and +Cremiere may put in a claim. I have proof enough against your father. +I will release your mother, for I think the little ceremony that has +already taken place has been sufficient warning as to her duty. To her, +I will seem to have yielded to your entreaties in releasing her. Take +her with you to Nemours, and manage the whole matter as best you can. +Don't fear any one. Monsieur Bongrand loves Ursula Mirouet too well to +let the matter become known." + +Zelie and Desire started soon after for Nemours. Three hours later the +procureur du roi received by a mounted messenger the following letter, +the orthography of which has been corrected so as not to bring ridicule +on a man crushed by affliction. + + +To Monsieur le procureur du roi at Fontainebleau: + +Monsieur,--God is less kind to us than you; we have met with an +irreparable misfortune. When my wife and son reached the bridge at +Nemours a trace became unhooked. There was no servant behind the +carriage; the horses smelt the stable; my son, fearing their impatience, +jumped down to hook the trace rather than have the coachman leave the +box. As he turned to resume his place in the carriage beside his mother +the horses started; Desire did not step back against the parapet in +time; the step of the carriage cut through both legs and he fell, the +hind wheel passing over his body. The messenger who goes to Paris for +the best surgeon will bring you this letter, which my son in the midst +of his sufferings desires me to write so as to let you know our entire +submission to your decisions in the matter about which he was coming to +speak to me. + +I shall be grateful to you to my dying day for the manner in which you +have acted, and I will deserve your goodness. + +Francois Minoret. + + +This cruel event convulsed the whole town of Nemours. The crowds +standing about the gate of the Minoret house were the first to tell +Savinien that his vengeance had been taken by a hand more powerful than +his own. He went at once to Ursula's house, where he found both the abbe +and the young girl more distressed than surprised. + +The next day, after the wounds were dressed, and the doctors and +surgeons from Paris had given their opinion that both legs must be +amputated, Minoret went, pale, humbled, and broken down, accompanied by +the abbe, to Ursula's house, where he found also Monsieur Bongrand and +Savinien. + +"Mademoiselle," he said; "I am very guilty towards you; but if all the +wrongs I have done you are not wholly reparable, there are some that +I can expiate. My wife and I have made a vow to make over to you in +absolute possession our estate at Rouvre in case our son recovers, and +also in case we have the dreadful sorrow of losing him." + +He burst into tears as he said the last words. + +"I can assure you, my dear Ursula," said the abbe, "that you can and +that you ought to accept a part of this gift." + +"Will you forgive me?" said Minoret, humbly kneeling before the +astonished girl. "The operation is about to be performed by the first +surgeon of the Hotel-Dieu; but I do not trust to human science, I rely +only on the power of God. If you will forgive us, if you ask God to +restore our son to us, he will have strength to bear the agony and we +shall have the joy of saving him." + +"Let us go to the church!" cried Ursula, rising. + +But as she gained her feet, a piercing cry came from her lips, and +she fell backward fainting. When her senses returned, she saw her +friends--but not Minoret who had rushed for a doctor--looking at her +with anxious eyes, seeking an explanation. As she gave it, terror filled +their hearts. + +"I saw my godfather standing in the doorway," she said, "and he signed +to me that there was no hope." + +The day after the operation Desire died,--carried off by the fever and +the shock to the system that succeed operations of this nature. Madame +Minoret, whose heart had no other tender feeling than maternity, became +insane after the burial of her son, and was taken by her husband to the +establishment of Doctor Blanche, where she died in 1841. + +Three months after these events, in January, 1837, Ursula married +Savinien with Madame de Portenduere's consent. Minoret took part in the +marriage contract and insisted on giving Mademoiselle Mirouet his estate +at Rouvre and an income of twenty-four thousand francs from the Funds; +keeping for himself only his uncle's house and ten thousand francs a +year. He has become the most charitable of men, and the most religious; +he is churchwarden of the parish, and has made himself the providence of +the unfortunate. + +"The poor take the place of my son," he said. + +If you have ever noticed by the wayside, in countries where they poll +the oaks, some old tree, whitened and as if blasted, still throwing out +its twigs though its trunk is riven and seems to implore the axe, you +will have an idea of the old post master, with his white hair,--broken, +emaciated, in whom the elders of the town can see no trace of the jovial +dullard whom you first saw watching for his son at the beginning of +this history; he does not even take his snuff as he once did; he carries +something more now than the weight of his body. Beholding him, we feel +that the hand of God was laid upon that figure to make it an awful +warning. After hating so violently his uncle's godchild the old man now, +like Doctor Minoret himself, has concentrated all his affections on her, +and has made himself the manager of her property in Nemours. + +Monsieur and Madame de Portenduere pass five months of the year +in Paris, where they have bought a handsome house in the Faubourg +Saint-Germain. Madame de Portenduere the elder, after giving her house +in Nemours to the Sisters of Charity for a free school, went to live +at Rouvre, where La Bougival keeps the porter's lodge. Cabirolle, the +former conductor of the "Ducler," a man sixty years of age, has married +La Bougival and the twelve hundred francs a year which she possesses +besides the ample emoluments of her place. Young Cabirolle is Monsieur +de Portenduere's coachman. + +If you happen to see in the Champs-Elysees one of those charming little +low carriages called 'escargots,' lined with gray silk and trimmed with +blue, and containing a pretty young woman whom you admire because +her face is wreathed in innumerable fair curls, her eyes luminous as +forget-me-nots and filled with love; if you see her bending slightly +towards a fine young man, and, if you are, for a moment, conscious of +envy--pause and reflect that this handsome couple, beloved of God, have +paid their quota to the sorrows of life in times now past. These married +lovers are the Vicomte de Portenduere and his wife. There is not another +such home in Paris as theirs. + +"It is the sweetest happiness I have ever seen," said the Comtesse de +l'Estorade, speaking of them lately. + +Bless them, therefore, and be not envious; seek an Ursula for +yourselves, a young girl brought up by three old men, and by the best of +all mothers--adversity. + +Goupil, who does service to everybody and is justly considered the +wittiest man in Nemours, has won the esteem of the little town, but he +is punished in his children, who are rickety and hydrocephalous. Dionis, +his predecessor, flourishes in the Chamber of Deputies, of which he is +one of the finest ornaments, to the great satisfaction of the king +of the French, who sees Madame Dionis at all his balls. Madame Dionis +relates to the whole town of Nemours the particulars of her receptions +at the Tuileries and the splendor of the court of the king of the +French. She lords it over Nemours by means of the throne, which +therefore must be popular in the little town. + +Bongrand is chief-justice of the court of appeals at Melun. His son is +in the way of becoming an honest attorney-general. + +Madame Cremiere continues to make her delightful speeches. On the +occasion of her daughter's marriage, she exhorted her to be the working +caterpillar of the household, and to look into everything with the eyes +of a sphinx. Goupil is making a collection of her "slapsus-linquies," +which he calls a Cremiereana. + +"We have had the great sorrow of losing our good Abbe Chaperon," said +the Vicomtesse de Portenduere this winter--having nursed him herself +during his illness. "The whole canton came to his funeral. Nemours is +very fortunate, however, for the successor of that dear saint is the +venerable cure of Saint-Lange." + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Bouvard, Doctor + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + Dionis + The Member for Arcis + + Estorade, Madame de l' + Letters of Two Brides + The Member for Arcis + + Kergarouet, Comte de + The Purse + The Ball at Sceaux + + Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des + The Muse of the Department + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + Marsay, Henri de + The Thirteen + The Unconscious Humorists + Another Study of Woman + The Lily of the Valley + Father Goriot + Jealousies of a Country Twon + A Marriage Settlement + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Ball at Sceaux + Modeste Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + + Mirouet, Ursule (see Portenduere, Vicomtesse Savinien de) + + Nathan, Madame Raoul + The Muse of the Department + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor's Establishment + Eugenie Grandet + The Imaginary Mistress + A Prince of Bohemia + A Daughter of Eve + The Unconscious Humorists + + Portenduere, Vicomte Savinien de + The Ball at Sceaux + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Beatrix + + Portenduere, Vicomtesse Savinien de + Another Study of Woman + Beatrix + + Ronquerolles, Marquis de + The Imaginary Mistress + The Peasantry + A Woman of Thirty + Another Study of Woman + The Thirteen + The Member for Arcis + + Rouvre, Marquis du + The Imaginary Mistress + A Start in Life + + Rouvre, Chevalier du + The Imaginary Mistress + + Rubempre, Lucien-Chardon de + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + Schmucke, Wilhelm + A Daughter of Eve + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Cousin Pons + + Serizy, Comtesse de + A Start in Life + The Thirteen + A Woman of Thirty + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Imaginary Mistress + + Trailles, Comte Maxime de + Cesar Birotteau + Father Goriot + Gobseck + A Man of Business + The Member for Arcis + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + Beatrix + The Unconscious Humorists + + Vandenesse, Marquise Charles de + Cesar Birotteau + The Ball at Sceaux + A Daughter of Eve + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ursula, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK URSULA *** + +***** This file should be named 1223.txt or 1223.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/2/1223/ + +Produced by John Bickers and Bonnie Sala + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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