diff options
Diffstat (limited to '1453-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 1453-0.txt | 7363 |
1 files changed, 7363 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/1453-0.txt b/1453-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef8ec62 --- /dev/null +++ b/1453-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7363 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1453 *** + +THE ALKAHEST + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Madame Josephine Delannoy nee Doumerc. + + Madame, may God grant that this, my book, may live longer than I, + for then the gratitude which I owe to you, and which I hope will + equal your almost maternal kindness to me, would last beyond the + limits prescribed for human affection. This sublime privilege of + prolonging life in our hearts for a time by the life of the work + we leave behind us would be (if we could only be sure of gaining + it at last) a reward indeed for all the labor undertaken by those + who aspire to such an immortality. + + Yet again I say--May God grant it! + + DE BALZAC. + + + + + +THE ALKAHEST + +(THE HOUSE OF CLAES) + + + + +CHAPTER I + +There is a house at Douai in the rue de Paris, whose aspect, interior +arrangements, and details have preserved, to a greater degree than those +of other domiciles, the characteristics of the old Flemish buildings, so +naively adapted to the patriarchal manners and customs of that excellent +land. Before describing this house it may be well, in the interest +of other writers, to explain the necessity for such didactic +preliminaries,--since they have roused a protest from certain ignorant +and voracious readers who want emotions without undergoing the +generating process, the flower without the seed, the child without +gestation. Is Art supposed to have higher powers than Nature? + +The events of human existence, whether public or private, are so closely +allied to architecture that the majority of observers can reconstruct +nations and individuals, in their habits and ways of life, from the +remains of public monuments or the relics of a home. Archaeology is to +social nature what comparative anatomy is to organized nature. A mosaic +tells the tale of a society, as the skeleton of an ichthyosaurus +opens up a creative epoch. All things are linked together, and all +are therefore deducible. Causes suggest effects, effects lead back to +causes. Science resuscitates even the warts of the past ages. + +Hence the keen interest inspired by an architectural description, +provided the imagination of the writer does not distort essential facts. +The mind is enabled by rigid deduction to link it with the past; and to +man, the past is singularly like the future; tell him what has been, +and you seldom fail to show him what will be. It is rare indeed that +the picture of a locality where lives are lived does not recall to +some their dawning hopes, to others their wasted faith. The comparison +between a present which disappoints man’s secret wishes and a future +which may realize them, is an inexhaustible source of sadness or of +placid content. + +Thus, it is almost impossible not to feel a certain tender sensibility +over a picture of Flemish life, if the accessories are clearly given. +Why so? Perhaps, among other forms of existence, it offers the best +conclusion to man’s uncertainties. It has its social festivities, its +family ties, and the easy affluence which proves the stability of its +comfortable well-being; it does not lack repose amounting almost to +beatitude; but, above all, it expresses the calm monotony of a frankly +sensuous happiness, where enjoyment stifles desire by anticipating it. +Whatever value a passionate soul may attach to the tumultuous life +of feeling, it never sees without emotion the symbols of this Flemish +nature, where the throbbings of the heart are so well regulated that +superficial minds deny the heart’s existence. The crowd prefers +the abnormal force which overflows to that which moves with steady +persistence. The world has neither time nor patience to realize the +immense power concealed beneath an appearance of uniformity. Therefore, +to impress this multitude carried away on the current of existence, +passion, like a great artist, is compelled to go beyond the mark, to +exaggerate, as did Michael Angelo, Bianca Capello, Mademoiselle de la +Valliere, Beethoven, and Paganini. Far-seeing minds alone disapprove +such excess, and respect only the energy represented by a finished +execution whose perfect quiet charms superior men. The life of this +essentially thrifty people amply fulfils the conditions of happiness +which the masses desire as the lot of the average citizen. + +A refined materialism is stamped on all the habits of Flemish life. +English comfort is harsh in tone and arid in color; whereas the +old-fashioned Flemish interiors rejoice the eye with their mellow tints, +and the feelings with their genuine heartiness. There, work implies +no weariness, and the pipe is a happy adaptation of Neapolitan +“far-niente.” Thence comes the peaceful sentiment in Art (its most +essential condition), patience, and the element which renders its +creations durable, namely, conscience. Indeed, the Flemish character +lies in the two words, patience and conscience; words which seem at +first to exclude the richness of poetic light and shade, and to make the +manners and customs of the country as flat as its vast plains, as cold +as its foggy skies. And yet it is not so. Civilization has brought her +power to bear, and has modified all things, even the effects of climate. +If we observe attentively the productions of various parts of the globe, +we are surprised to find that the prevailing tints from the temperate +zones are gray or fawn, while the more brilliant colors belong to the +products of the hotter climates. The manners and customs of a country +must naturally conform to this law of nature. + +Flanders, which in former times was essentially dun-colored and +monotonous in tint, learned the means of irradiating its smoky +atmosphere through its political vicissitudes, which brought it under +the successive dominion of Burgundy, Spain, and France, and threw +it into fraternal relations with Germany and Holland. From Spain it +acquired the luxury of scarlet dyes and shimmering satins, tapestries of +vigorous design, plumes, mandolins, and courtly bearing. In exchange for +its linen and its laces, it brought from Venice that fairy glass-ware in +which wine sparkles and seems the mellower. From Austria it learned the +ponderous diplomacy which, to use a popular saying, takes three steps +backward to one forward; while its trade with India poured into it the +grotesque designs of China and the marvels of Japan. + +And yet, in spite of its patience in gathering such treasures, its +tenacity in parting with no possession once gained, its endurance of all +things, Flanders was considered nothing more than the general storehouse +of Europe, until the day when the discovery of tobacco brought into +one smoky outline the scattered features of its national physiognomy. +Thenceforth, and notwithstanding the parcelling out of their territory, +the Flemings became a people homogeneous through their pipes and +beer.[*] + + [*] Flanders was parcelled into three divisions; of which Eastern + Flanders, capital Ghent, and Western Flanders, capital Bruges, are + two provinces of Belgium. French Flanders, capital Lille, is the + Departement du Nord of France. Douai, about twenty miles from + Lille, is the chief town of the arrondissement du Nord. + +After assimilating, by constant sober regulation of conduct, the +products and the ideas of its masters and its neighbors, this country of +Flanders, by nature so tame and devoid of poetry, worked out for itself +an original existence, with characteristic manners and customs which +bear no signs of servile imitation. Art stripped off its ideality and +produced form alone. We may seek in vain for plastic grace, the swing of +comedy, dramatic action, musical genius, or the bold flight of ode and +epic. On the other hand, the people are fertile in discoveries, and +trained to scientific discussions which demand time and the midnight +oil. All things bear the ear-mark of temporal enjoyment. There men look +exclusively to the thing that is: their thoughts are so scrupulously +bent on supplying the wants of this life that they have never risen, in +any direction, above the level of this present earth. The sole idea +they have ever conceived of the future is that of a thrifty, prosaic +statecraft: their revolutionary vigor came from a domestic desire to +live as they liked, with their elbows on the table, and to take their +ease under the projecting roofs of their own porches. + +The consciousness of well-being and the spirit of independence which +comes of prosperity begot in Flanders, sooner than elsewhere, that +craving for liberty which, later, permeated all Europe. Thus the +compactness of their ideas, and the tenacity which education grafted +on their nature made the Flemish people a formidable body of men in +the defence of their rights. Among them nothing is half-done,--neither +houses, furniture, dikes, husbandry, nor revolutions; and they hold a +monopoly of all that they undertake. The manufacture of linen, and that +of lace, a work of patient agriculture and still more patient industry, +are hereditary like their family fortunes. If we were asked to show in +human form the purest specimen of solid stability, we could do no better +than point to a portrait of some old burgomaster, capable, as was +proved again and again, of dying in a commonplace way, and without the +incitements of glory, for the welfare of his Free-town. + +Yet we shall find a tender and poetic side to this patriarchal life, +which will come naturally to the surface in the description of an +ancient house which, at the period when this history begins, was one of +the last in Douai to preserve the old-time characteristics of Flemish +life. + +Of all the towns in the Departement du Nord, Douai is, alas, the most +modernized: there the innovating spirit has made the greatest strides, +and the love of social progress is the most diffused. There the old +buildings are daily disappearing, and the manners and customs of +a venerable past are being rapidly obliterated. Parisian ideas and +fashions and modes of life now rule the day, and soon nothing will be +left of that ancient Flemish life but the warmth of its hospitality, its +traditional Spanish courtesy, and the wealth and cleanliness of Holland. +Mansions of white stone are replacing the old brick buildings, and +the cosy comfort of Batavian interiors is fast yielding before the +capricious elegance of Parisian novelties. + +The house in which the events of this history occurred stands at about +the middle of the rue de Paris, and has been known at Douai for more +than two centuries as the House of Claes. The Van Claes were formerly +one of the great families of craftsmen to whom, in various lines of +production, the Netherlands owed a commercial supremacy which it has +never lost. For a long period of time the Claes lived at Ghent, and +were, from generation to generation, the syndics of the powerful Guild +of Weavers. When the great city revolted under Charles V., who tried +to suppress its privileges, the head of the Claes family was so deeply +compromised in the rebellion that, foreseeing a catastrophe and bound to +share the fate of his associates, he secretly sent wife, children, and +property to France before the Emperor invested the town. The syndic’s +forebodings were justified. Together with other burghers who were +excluded from the capitulation, he was hanged as a rebel, though he was, +in reality, the defender of the liberties of Ghent. + +The death of Claes and his associates bore fruit. Their needless +execution cost the King of Spain the greater part of his possessions in +the Netherlands. Of all the seed sown in the earth, the blood of martyrs +gives the quickest harvest. When Philip the Second, who punished revolt +through two generations, stretched his iron sceptre over Douai, the +Claes preserved their great wealth by allying themselves in marriage +with the very noble family of Molina, whose elder branch, then poor, +thus became rich enough to buy the county of Nourho which they had long +held titularly in the kingdom of Leon. + +At the beginning of the nineteenth century, after vicissitudes which +are of no interest to our present purpose, the family of Claes was +represented at Douai in the person of Monsieur Balthazar Claes-Molina, +Comte de Nourho, who preferred to be called simply Balthazar Claes. Of +the immense fortune amassed by his ancestors, who had kept in motion +over a thousand looms, there remained to him some fifteen thousand +francs a year from landed property in the arrondissement of Douai, and +the house in the rue de Paris, whose furniture in itself was a fortune. +As to the family possessions in Leon, they had been in litigation +between the Molinas of Douai and the branch of the family which remained +in Spain. The Molinas of Leon won the domain and assumed the title of +Comtes de Nourho, though the Claes alone had a legal right to it. But +the pride of a Belgian burgher was superior to the haughty arrogance of +Castile: after the civil rights were instituted, Balthazar Claes cast +aside the ragged robes of his Spanish nobility for his more illustrious +descent from the Ghent martyr. + +The patriotic sentiment was so strongly developed in the families exiled +under Charles V. that, to the very close of the eighteenth century, the +Claes remained faithful to the manners and customs and traditions of +their ancestors. They married into none but the purest burgher families, +and required a certain number of aldermen and burgomasters in the +pedigree of every bride-elect before admitting her to the family. They +sought their wives in Bruges or Ghent, in Liege or in Holland; so that +the time-honored domestic customs might be perpetuated around their +hearthstones. This social group became more and more restricted, until, +at the close of the last century, it mustered only some seven or eight +families of the parliamentary nobility, whose manners and flowing robes +of office and magisterial gravity (partly Spanish) harmonized well with +the habits of their life. + +The inhabitants of Douai held the family in a religious esteem that was +well-nigh superstition. The sturdy honesty, the untainted loyalty of +the Claes, their unfailing decorum of manners and conduct, made them the +objects of a reverence which found expression in the name,--the House +of Claes. The whole spirit of ancient Flanders breathed in that mansion, +which afforded to the lovers of burgher antiquities a type of the modest +houses which the wealthy craftsmen of the Middle Ages constructed for +their homes. + +The chief ornament of the facade was an oaken door, in two sections, +studded with nails driven in the pattern of a quineunx, in the centre of +which the Claes pride had carved a pair of shuttles. The recess of the +doorway, which was built of freestone, was topped by a pointed arch +bearing a little shrine surmounted by a cross, in which was a statuette +of Sainte-Genevieve plying her distaff. Though time had left its mark +upon the delicate workmanship of portal and shrine, the extreme care +taken of it by the servants of the house allowed the passers-by to note +all its details. + +The casing of the door, formed by fluted pilasters, was dark gray in +color, and so highly polished that it shone as if varnished. On either +side of the doorway, on the ground-floor, were two windows, which +resembled all the other windows of the house. The casing of white stone +ended below the sill in a richly carved shell, and rose above the window +in an arch, supported at its apex by the head-piece of a cross, which +divided the glass sashes in four unequal parts; for the transversal bar, +placed at the height of that in a Latin cross, made the lower sashes of +the window nearly double the height of the upper, the latter rounding +at the sides into the arch. The coping of the arch was ornamented with +three rows of brick, placed one above the other, the bricks alternately +projecting or retreating to the depth of an inch, giving the effect of +a Greek moulding. The glass panes, which were small and diamond-shaped, +were set in very slender leading, painted red. The walls of the house, +of brick jointed with white mortar, were braced at regular distances, +and at the angles of the house, by stone courses. + +The first floor was pierced by five windows, the second by three, +while the attic had only one large circular opening in five divisions, +surrounded by a freestone moulding and placed in the centre of the +triangular pediment defined by the gable-roof, like the rose-window of +a cathedral. At the peak was a vane in the shape of a weaver’s shuttle +threaded with flax. Both sides of the large triangular pediment which +formed the wall of the gable were dentelled squarely into something like +steps, as low down as the string-course of the upper floor, where the +rain from the roof fell to right and left of the house through the jaws +of a fantastic gargoyle. A freestone foundation projected like a step at +the base of the house; and on either side of the entrance, between the +two windows, was a trap-door, clamped by heavy iron bands, through which +the cellars were entered,--a last vestige of ancient usages. + +From the time the house was built, this facade had been carefully +cleaned twice a year. If a little mortar fell from between the bricks, +the crack was instantly filled up. The sashes, the sills, the copings, +were dusted oftener than the most precious sculptures in the Louvre. The +front of the house bore no signs of decay; notwithstanding the deepened +color which age had given to the bricks, it was as well preserved as +a choice old picture, or some rare book cherished by an amateur, which +would be ever new were it not for the blistering of our climate and the +effect of gases, whose pernicious breath threatens our own health. + +The cloudy skies and humid atmosphere of Flanders, and the shadows +produced by the narrowness of the street, sometimes diminished the +brilliancy which the old house derived from its cleanliness; moreover, +the very care bestowed upon it made it rather sad and chilling to the +eye. A poet might have wished some leafage about the shrine, a little +moss in the crevices of the freestone, a break in the even courses of +the brick; he would have longed for a swallow to build her nest in +the red coping that roofed the arches of the windows. The precise and +immaculate air of this facade, a little worn by perpetual rubbing, gave +the house a tone of severe propriety and estimable decency which would +have driven a romanticist out of the neighborhood, had he happened to +take lodgings over the way. + +When a visitor had pulled the braided iron wire bell-cord which hung +from the top of the pilaster of the doorway, and the servant-woman, +coming from within, had admitted him through the side of the double-door +in which was a small grated loop-hole, that half of the door escaped +from her hand and swung back by its own weight with a solemn, ponderous +sound that echoed along the roof of a wide paved archway and through the +depths of the house, as though the door had been of iron. This archway, +painted to resemble marble, always clean and daily sprinkled with fresh +sand, led into a large court-yard paved with smooth square stones of +a greenish color. On the left were the linen-rooms, kitchens, and +servants’ hall; to the right, the wood-house, coal-house, and offices, +whose doors, walls, and windows were decorated with designs kept +exquisitely clean. The daylight, threading its way between four red +walls chequered with white lines, caught rosy tints and reflections +which gave a mysterious grace and fantastic appearance to faces, and +even to trifling details. + +A second house, exactly like the building on the street, and called in +Flanders the “back-quarter,” stood at the farther end of the court-yard, +and was used exclusively as the family dwelling. The first room on the +ground-floor was a parlor, lighted by two windows on the court-yard, +and two more looking out upon a garden which was of the same size as the +house. Two glass doors, placed exactly opposite to each other, led at +one end of the room to the garden, at the other to the court-yard, and +were in line with the archway and the street door; so that a visitor +entering the latter could see through to the greenery which draped the +lower end of the garden. The front building, which was reserved for +receptions and the lodging-rooms of guests, held many objects of art and +accumulated wealth, but none of them equalled in the eyes of a Claes, +nor indeed in the judgment of a connoisseur, the treasures contained in +the parlor, where for over two centuries the family life had glided on. + +The Claes who died for the liberties of Ghent, and who might in these +days be thought a mere ordinary craftsman if the historian omitted to +say that he possessed over forty thousand silver marks, obtained by +the manufacture of sail-cloth for the all-powerful Venetian navy,--this +Claes had a friend in the famous sculptor in wood, Van Huysum of Bruges. +The artist had dipped many a time into the purse of the rich craftsman. +Some time before the rebellion of the men of Ghent, Van Huysum, grown +rich himself, had secretly carved for his friend a wall-decoration in +ebony, representing the chief scenes in the life of Van Artevelde,--that +brewer of Ghent who, for a brief hour, was King of Flanders. This +wall-covering, of which there were no less than sixty panels, contained +about fourteen hundred principal figures, and was held to be Van +Huysum’s masterpiece. The officer appointed to guard the burghers +whom Charles V. determined to hang when he re-entered his native town, +proposed, it is said, to Van Claes to let him escape if he would give +him Van Huysum’s great work; but the weaver had already despatched it to +Douai. + +The parlor, whose walls were entirely panelled with this carving, which +Van Huysum, out of regard for the martyr’s memory, came to Douai to +frame in wood painted in lapis-lazuli with threads of gold, is therefore +the most complete work of this master, whose least carvings now sell for +nearly their weight in gold. Hanging over the fire-place, Van Claes +the martyr, painted by Titian in his robes as president of the Court +of Parchons, still seemed the head of the family, who venerated him as +their greatest man. The chimney-piece, originally in stone with a very +high mantle-shelf, had been made over in marble during the last century; +on it now stood an old clock and two candlesticks with five twisted +branches, in bad taste, but of solid silver. The four windows were +draped by wide curtains of red damask with a flowered black design, +lined with white silk; the furniture, covered with the same material, +had been renovated in the time of Louis XIV. The floor, evidently +modern, was laid in large squares of white wood bordered with strips +of oak. The ceiling, formed of many oval panels, in each of which Van +Huysum had carved a grotesque mask, had been respected and allowed to +keep the brown tones of the native Dutch oak. + +In the four corners of this parlor were truncated columns, supporting +candelabra exactly like those on the mantle-shelf; and a round table +stood in the middle of the room. Along the walls card-tables were +symmetrically placed. On two gilded consoles with marble slabs there +stood, at the period when this history begins, two glass globes filled +with water, in which, above a bed of sand and shells, red and gold and +silver fish were swimming about. The room was both brilliant and sombre. +The ceiling necessarily absorbed the light and reflected none. Although +on the garden side all was bright and glowing, and the sunshine danced +upon the ebony carvings, the windows on the court-yard admitted +so little light that the gold threads in the lapis-lazuli scarcely +glittered on the opposite wall. This parlor, which could be gorgeous +on a fine day, was usually, under the Flemish skies, filled with soft +shadows and melancholy russet tones, like those shed by the sun on the +tree-tops of the forests in autumn. + +It is unnecessary to continue this description of the House of Claes, in +other parts of which many scenes of this history will occur: at present, +it is enough to make known its general arrangement. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Towards the end of August, 1812, on a Sunday evening after vespers, a +woman was sitting in a deep armchair placed before one of the windows +looking out upon the garden. The sun’s rays fell obliquely upon the +house and athwart the parlor, breaking into fantastic lights on the +carved panellings of the wall, and wrapping the woman in a crimson halo +projected through the damask curtains which draped the window. Even an +ordinary painter, had he sketched this woman at this particular moment, +would assuredly have produced a striking picture of a head that was full +of pain and melancholy. The attitude of the body, and that of the +feet stretched out before her, showed the prostration of one who loses +consciousness of physical being in the concentration of powers absorbed +in a fixed idea: she was following its gleams in the far future, just as +sometimes on the shores of the sea, we gaze at a ray of sunlight which +pierces the clouds and draws a luminous line to the horizon. + +The hands of this woman hung nerveless outside the arms of her chair, +and her head, as if too heavy to hold up, lay back upon its cushions. A +dress of white cambric, very full and flowing, hindered any judgment +as to the proportions of her figure, and the bust was concealed by the +folds of a scarf crossed on the bosom and negligently knotted. If the +light had not thrown into relief her face, which she seemed to show +in preference to the rest of her person, it would still have been +impossible to escape riveting the attention exclusively upon it. Its +expression of stupefaction, which was cold and rigid despite hot tears +that were rolling from her eyes, would have struck the most thoughtless +mind. Nothing is more terrible to behold than excessive grief that is +rarely allowed to break forth, of which traces were left on this woman’s +face like lava congealed about a crater. She might have been a +dying mother compelled to leave her children in abysmal depths of +wretchedness, unable to bequeath them to any human protector. + +The countenance of this lady, then about forty years of age and not +nearly so far from handsome as she had been in her youth, bore none of +the characteristics of a Flemish woman. Her thick black hair fell in +heavy curls upon her shoulders and about her cheeks. The forehead, very +prominent, and narrow at the temples, was yellow in tint, but beneath it +sparkled two black eyes that were capable of emitting flames. Her face, +altogether Spanish, dark skinned, with little color and pitted by the +small-pox, attracted the eye by the beauty of its oval, whose outline, +though slightly impaired by time, preserved a finished elegance and +dignity, and regained at times its full perfection when some effort of +the soul restored its pristine purity. The most noticeable feature in +this strong face was the nose, aquiline as the beak of an eagle, and +so sharply curved at the middle as to give the idea of an interior +malformation; yet there was an air of indescribable delicacy about it, +and the partition between the nostrils was so thin that a rosy light +shone through it. Though the lips, which were large and curved, betrayed +the pride of noble birth, their expression was one of kindliness and +natural courtesy. + +The beauty of this vigorous yet feminine face might indeed be +questioned, but the face itself commanded attention. Short, deformed, +and lame, this woman remained all the longer unmarried because the world +obstinately refused to credit her with gifts of mind. Yet there were +men who were deeply stirred by the passionate ardor of that face and its +tokens of ineffable tenderness, and who remained under a charm that was +seemingly irreconcilable with such personal defects. + +She was very like her grandfather, the Duke of Casa-Real, a grandee of +Spain. At this moment, when we first see her, the charm which in earlier +days despotically grasped the soul of poets and lovers of poesy now +emanated from that head with greater vigor than at any former period of +her life, spending itself, as it were, upon the void, and expressing a +nature of all-powerful fascination over men, though it was at the same +time powerless over destiny. + +When her eyes turned from the glass globes, where they were gazing at +the fish they saw not, she raised them with a despairing action, as if +to invoke the skies. Her sufferings seemed of a kind that are told to +God alone. The silence was unbroken save for the chirp of crickets and +the shrill whirr of a few locusts, coming from the little garden then +hotter than an oven, and the dull sound of silver and plates, and the +moving of chairs in the adjoining room, where a servant was preparing to +serve the dinner. + +At this moment, the distressed woman roused herself from her abstraction +and listened attentively; she took her handkerchief, wiped away her +tears, attempted to smile, and so resolutely effaced the expression of +pain that was stamped on every feature that she presently seemed in the +state of happy indifference which comes with a life exempt from +care. Whether it were that the habit of living in this house to which +infirmities confined her enabled her to perceive certain natural effects +that are imperceptible to the senses of others, but which persons under +the influence of excessive feeling are keen to discover, or whether +Nature, in compensation for her physical defects, had given her more +delicate sensations than better organized beings,--it is certain that +this woman had heard the steps of a man in a gallery built above the +kitchens and the servants’ hall, by which the front house communicated +with the “back-quarter.” The steps grew more distinct. Soon, without +possessing the power of this ardent creature to abolish space and meet +her other self, even a stranger would have heard the foot-fall of a man +upon the staircase which led down from the gallery to the parlor. + +The sound of that step would have startled the most heedless being into +thought; it was impossible to hear it coolly. A precipitate, headlong +step produces fear. When a man springs forward and cries, “Fire!” his +feet speak as loudly as his voice. If this be so, then a contrary +gait ought not to cause less powerful emotion. The slow approach, the +dragging step of the coming man might have irritated an unreflecting +spectator; but an observer, or a nervous person, would undoubtedly have +felt something akin to terror at the measured tread of feet that seemed +devoid of life, and under which the stairs creaked loudly, as though two +iron weights were striking them alternately. The mind recognized at once +either the heavy, undecided step of an old man or the majestic tread of +a great thinker bearing the worlds with him. + +When the man had reached the lowest stair, and had planted both feet +upon the tiled floor with a hesitating, uncertain movement, he stood +still for a moment on the wide landing which led on one side to the +servants’ hall, and on the other to the parlor through a door concealed +in the panelling of that room,--as was another door, leading from the +parlor to the dining-room. At this moment a slight shudder, like the +sensation caused by an electric spark, shook the woman seated in the +armchair; then a soft smile brightened her lips, and her face, moved by +the expectation of a pleasure, shone like that of an Italian Madonna. +She suddenly gained strength to drive her terrors back into the depths +of her heart. Then she turned her face to the panel of the wall which +she knew was about to open, and which in fact was now pushed in with +such brusque violence that the poor woman herself seemed jarred by the +shock. + +Balthazar Claes suddenly appeared, made a few steps forward, did not +look at the woman, or if he looked at her did not see her, and stood +erect in the middle of the parlor, leaning his half-bowed head on his +right hand. A sharp pang to which the woman could not accustom herself, +although it was daily renewed, wrung her heart, dispelled her smile, +contracted the sallow forehead between the eyebrows, indenting that line +which the frequent expression of excessive feeling scores so deeply; +her eyes filled with tears, but she wiped them quickly as she looked at +Balthazar. + +It was impossible not to be deeply impressed by this head of the family +of Claes. When young, he must have resembled the noble family martyr who +had threatened to be another Artevelde to Charles V.; but as he stood +there at this moment, he seemed over sixty years of age, though he +was only fifty; and this premature old age had destroyed the honorable +likeness. His tall figure was slightly bent,--either because his labors, +whatever they were, obliged him to stoop, or that the spinal column +was curved by the weight of his head. He had a broad chest and square +shoulders, but the lower parts of his body were lank and wasted, though +nervous; and this discrepancy in a physical organization evidently once +perfect puzzled the mind which endeavored to explain this anomalous +figure by some possible singularities of the man’s life. + +His thick blond hair, ill cared-for, fell over his shoulders in the +Dutch fashion, and its very disorder was in keeping with the general +eccentricity of his person. His broad brow showed certain protuberances +which Gall identifies with poetic genius. His clear and full blue eyes +had the brusque vivacity which may be noticed in searchers for occult +causes. The nose, probably perfect in early life, was now elongated, and +the nostrils seemed to have gradually opened wider from an involuntary +tension of the olfactory muscles. The cheek-bones were very prominent, +which made the cheeks themselves, already withered, seem more sunken; +his mouth, full of sweetness, was squeezed in between the nose and a +short chin, which projected sharply. The shape of the face, however, was +long rather than oval, and the scientific doctrine which sees in every +human face a likeness to an animal would have found its confirmation in +that of Balthazar Claes, which bore a strong resemblance to a horse’s +head. The skin clung closely to the bones, as though some inward fire +were incessantly drying its juices. Sometimes, when he gazed into space, +as if to see the realization of his hopes, it almost seemed as though +the flames that devoured his soul were issuing from his nostrils. + +The inspired feelings that animate great men shone forth on the pale +face furrowed with wrinkles, on the brow haggard with care like that of +an old monarch, but above all they gleamed in the sparkling eye, whose +fires were fed by chastity imposed by the tyranny of ideas and by the +inward consecration of a great intellect. The cavernous eyes seemed +to have sunk in their orbits through midnight vigils and the terrible +reaction of hopes destroyed, yet ceaselessly reborn. The zealous +fanaticism inspired by an art or a science was evident in this man; +it betrayed itself in the strange, persistent abstraction of his mind +expressed by his dress and bearing, which were in keeping with the +anomalous peculiarities of his person. + +His large, hairy hands were dirty, and the nails, which were very long, +had deep black lines at their extremities. His shoes were not cleaned +and the shoe-strings were missing. Of all that Flemish household, the +master alone took the strange liberty of being slovenly. His black cloth +trousers were covered with stains, his waistcoat was unbuttoned, his +cravat awry, his greenish coat ripped at the seams,--completing an array +of signs, great and small, which in any other man would have betokened +a poverty begotten of vice, but which in Balthazar Claes was the +negligence of genius. + +Vice and Genius too often produce the same effects; and this misleads +the common mind. What is genius but a long excess which squanders time +and wealth and physical powers, and leads more rapidly to a hospital +than the worst of passions? Men even seem to have more respect for vices +than for genius, since to the latter they refuse credit. The profits +accruing from the hidden labors of the brain are so remote that the +social world fears to square accounts with the man of learning in his +lifetime, preferring to get rid of its obligations by not forgiving his +misfortunes or his poverty. + +If, in spite of this inveterate forgetfulness of the present, Balthazar +Claes had abandoned his mysterious abstractions, if some sweet and +companionable meaning had revisited that thoughtful countenance, if the +fixed eyes had lost their rigid strain and shone with feeling, if he had +ever looked humanly about him and returned to the real life of common +things, it would indeed have been difficult not to do involuntary homage +to the winning beauty of his face and the gracious soul that would then +have shone from it. As it was, all who looked at him regretted that the +man belonged no more to the world at large, and said to one another: “He +must have been very handsome in his youth.” A vulgar error! Never was +Balthazar Claes’s appearance more poetic than at this moment. Lavater, +had he seen him, would fain have studied that head so full of patience, +of Flemish loyalty, and pure morality,--where all was broad and noble, +and passion seemed calm because it was strong. + +The conduct of this man could not be otherwise than pure; his word +was sacred, his friendships seemed undeviating, his self-devotedness +complete: and yet the will to employ those qualities in patriotic +service, for the world or for the family, was directed, fatally, +elsewhere. This citizen, bound to guard the welfare of a household, +to manage property, to guide his children towards a noble future, was +living outside the line of his duty and his affections, in communion +with an attendant spirit. A priest might have thought him inspired by +the word of God; an artist would have hailed him as a great master; an +enthusiast would have taken him for a seer of the Swedenborgian faith. + +At the present moment, the dilapidated, uncouth, and ruined clothes that +he wore contrasted strangely with the graceful elegance of the woman who +was sadly admiring him. Deformed persons who have intellect, or nobility +of soul, show an exquisite taste in their apparel. Either they dress +simply, convinced that their charm is wholly moral, or they make others +forget their imperfections by an elegance of detail which diverts the +eye and occupies the mind. Not only did this woman possess a noble soul, +but she loved Balthazar Claes with that instinct of the woman which +gives a foretaste of the communion of angels. Brought up in one of the +most illustrious families of Belgium, she would have learned good taste +had she not possessed it; and now, taught by the desire of constantly +pleasing the man she loved, she knew how to clothe herself admirably, +and without producing incongruity between her elegance and the defects +of her conformation. The bust, however, was defective in the shoulders +only, one of which was noticeably much larger than the other. + +She looked out of the window into the court-yard, then towards the +garden, as if to make sure she was alone with Balthazar, and presently +said, in a gentle voice and with a look full of a Flemish woman’s +submissiveness,--for between these two love had long since driven out +the pride of her Spanish nature:-- + +“Balthazar, are you so very busy? this is the thirty-third Sunday since +you have been to mass or vespers.” + +Claes did not answer; his wife bowed her head, clasped her hands, +and waited: she knew that his silence meant neither contempt nor +indifference, only a tyrannous preoccupation. Balthazar was one of those +beings who preserve deep in their souls and after long years all their +youthful delicacy of feeling; he would have thought it criminal to +wound by so much as a word a woman weighed down by the sense of physical +disfigurement. No man knew better than he that a look, a word, suffices +to blot out years of happiness, and is the more cruel because it +contrasts with the unfailing tenderness of the past: our nature leads us +to suffer more from one discord in our happiness than pleasure coming in +the midst of trouble can bring us joy. + +Presently Balthazar appeared to waken; he looked quickly about him, and +said,-- + +“Vespers? Ah, yes! the children are at vespers.” + +He made a few steps forward, and looked into the garden, where +magnificent tulips were growing on all sides; then he suddenly stopped +short as if brought up against a wall, and cried out,-- + +“Why should they not combine within a given time?” + +“Is he going mad?” thought the wife, much terrified. + +To give greater interest to the present scene, which was called forth +by the situation of their affairs, it is absolutely necessary to glance +back at the past lives of Balthazar Claes and the granddaughter of the +Duke of Casa-Real. + +Towards the year 1783, Monsieur Balthazar Claes-Molina de Nourho, then +twenty-two years of age, was what is called in France a fine man. He +came to finish his education in Paris, where he acquired excellent +manners in the society of Madame d’Egmont, Count Horn, the Prince +of Aremberg, the Spanish ambassador, Helvetius, and other Frenchmen +originally from Belgium, or coming lately thence, whose birth or wealth +won them admittance among the great seigneurs who at that time gave the +tone to social life. Young Claes found several relations and friends +ready to launch him into the great world at the very moment when that +world was about to fall. Like other young men, he was at first more +attracted by glory and science than by the vanities of life. He +frequented the society of scientific men, particularly Lavoisier, who +at that time was better known to the world for his enormous fortune as +a “fermier-general” than for his discoveries in chemistry,--though later +the great chemist was to eclipse the man of wealth. + +Balthazar grew enamored of the science which Lavoisier cultivated, +and became his devoted disciple; but he was young, and handsome as +Helvetius, and before long the Parisian women taught him to distil wit +and love exclusively. Though he had studied chemistry with such ardor +that Lavoisier commended him, he deserted science and his master for +those mistresses of fashion and good taste from whom young men take +finishing lessons in knowledge of life, and learn the usages of good +society, which in Europe forms, as it were, one family. + +The intoxicating dream of social success lasted but a short time. +Balthazar left Paris, weary of a hollow existence which suited neither +his ardent soul nor his loving heart. Domestic life, so calm, so tender, +which the very name of Flanders recalled to him, seemed far more fitted +to his character and to the aspirations of his heart. No gilded Parisian +salon had effaced from his mind the harmonies of the panelled parlor and +the little garden where his happy childhood had slipped away. A man +must needs be without a home to remain in Paris,--Paris, the city of +cosmopolitans, of men who wed the world, and clasp her with the arms of +Science, Art, or Power. + +The son of Flanders came back to Douai, like La Fontaine’s pigeon to +its nest; he wept with joy as he re-entered the town on the day of the +Gayant procession,--Gayant, the superstitious luck of Douai, the glory +of Flemish traditions, introduced there at the time the Claes family +had emigrated from Ghent. The death of Balthazar’s father and mother had +left the old mansion deserted, and the young man was occupied for a time +in settling its affairs. His first grief over, he wished to marry; he +needed the domestic happiness whose every religious aspect had fastened +upon his mind. He even followed the family custom of seeking a wife in +Ghent, or at Bruges, or Antwerp; but it happened that no woman whom he +met there suited him. Undoubtedly, he had certain peculiar ideas as +to marriage; from his youth he had been accused of never following the +beaten track. + +One day, at the house of a relation in Ghent, he heard a young lady, +then living in Brussels, spoken of in a manner which gave rise to a long +discussion. Some said that the beauty of Mademoiselle de Temninck was +destroyed by the imperfections of her figure; others declared that she +was perfect in spite of her defects. Balthazar’s old cousin, at whose +house the discussion took place, assured his guests that, handsome or +not, she had a soul that would make him marry her were he a marrying +man; and he told how she had lately renounced her share of her parents’ +property to enable her brother to make a marriage worthy of his name; +thus preferring his happiness to her own, and sacrificing her future +to his interests,--for it was not to be supposed that Mademoiselle de +Temninck would marry late in life and without property when, young and +wealthy, she had met with no aspirant. + +A few days later, Balthazar Claes made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle +de Temninck; with whom he fell deeply in love. At first, Josephine de +Temninck thought herself the object of a mere caprice, and refused to +listen to Monsieur Claes; but passion is contagious; and to a poor girl +who was lame and ill-made, the sense of inspiring love in a young and +handsome man carries with it such strong seduction that she finally +consented to allow him to woo her. + +It would need a volume to paint the love of a young girl humbly +submissive to the verdict of a world that calls her plain, while she +feels within herself the irresistible charm which comes of sensibility +and true feeling. It involves fierce jealousy of happiness, freaks of +cruel vengeance against some fancied rival who wins a glance,--emotions, +terrors, unknown to the majority of women, and which ought, therefore, +to be more than indicated. The doubt, the dramatic doubt of love, is the +keynote of this analysis, where certain souls will find once more the +lost, but unforgotten, poetry of their early struggles; the passionate +exaltations of the heart which the face must not betray; the fear +that we may not be understood, and the boundless joy of being so; the +hesitations of the soul which recoils upon itself, and the magnetic +propulsions which give to the eyes an infinitude of shades; the +promptings to suicide caused by a word, dispelled by an intonation; +trembling glances which veil an inward daring; sudden desires to speak +and act that are paralyzed by their own violence; the secret eloquence +of common phrases spoken in a quivering voice; the mysterious workings +of that pristine modesty of soul and that divine discernment which +lead to hidden generosities, and give so exquisite a flavor to silent +devotion; in short, all the loveliness of young love, and the weaknesses +of its power. + +Mademoiselle Josephine de Temninck was coquettish from nobility of soul. +The sense of her obvious imperfections made her as difficult to win as +the handsomest of women. The fear of some day displeasing the eye roused +her pride, destroyed her trustfulness, and gave her the courage to hide +in the depths of her heart that dawning happiness which other women +delight in making known by their manners,--wearing it proudly, like a +coronet. The more love urged her towards Balthazar, the less she dared +to express her feelings. The glance, the gesture, the question and +answer as it were of a pretty woman, so flattering to the man she loves, +would they not be in her case mere humiliating speculation? A beautiful +woman can be her natural self,--the world overlooks her little follies +or her clumsiness; whereas a single criticising glance checks the +noblest expression on the lips of an ugly woman, adds to the ill-grace +of her gesture, gives timidity to her eyes and awkwardness to her whole +bearing. She knows too well that to her alone the world condones no +faults; she is denied the right to repair them; indeed, the chance to do +so is never given. This necessity of being perfect and on her guard at +every moment, must surely chill her faculties and numb their exercise? +Such a woman can exist only in an atmosphere of angelic forbearance. +Where are the hearts from which forbearance comes with no alloy of +bitter and stinging pity. + +These thoughts, to which the codes of social life had accustomed her, +and the sort of consideration more wounding than insult shown to her by +the world,--a consideration which increases a misfortune by making it +apparent,--oppressed Mademoiselle de Temninck with a constant sense of +embarrassment, which drove back into her soul its happiest expression, +and chilled and stiffened her attitudes, her speech, her looks. Loving +and beloved, she dared to be eloquent or beautiful only when alone. +Unhappy and oppressed in the broad daylight of life, she might have been +enchanting could she have expanded in the shadow. Often, to test the +love thus offered to her, and at the risk of losing it, she refused to +wear the draperies that concealed some portion of her defects, and her +Spanish eyes grew entrancing when they saw that Balthazar thought her +beautiful as before. + +Nevertheless, even so, distrust soiled the rare moments when she yielded +herself to happiness. She asked herself if Claes were not seeking a +domestic slave,--one who would necessarily keep the house? whether he +had himself no secret imperfection which obliged him to be satisfied +with a poor, deformed girl? Such perpetual misgivings gave a priceless +value to the few short hours during which she trusted the sincerity and +the permanence of a love which was to avenge her on the world. Sometimes +she provoked hazardous discussions, and probed the inner consciousness +of her lover by exaggerating her defects. At such times she often wrung +from Balthazar truths that were far from flattering; but she loved the +embarrassment into which he fell when she had led him to say that what +he loved in a woman was a noble soul and the devotion which made each +day of life a constant happiness; and that after a few years of married +life the handsomest of women was no more to a husband than the ugliest. +After gathering up what there was of truth in all such paradoxes tending +to reduce the value of beauty, Balthazar would suddenly perceive the +ungraciousness of his remarks, and show the goodness of his heart by the +delicate transitions of thought with which he proved to Mademoiselle de +Temninck that she was perfect in his eyes. + +The spirit of devotion which, it may be, is the crown of love in a +woman, was not lacking in this young girl, who had always despaired of +being loved; at first, the prospect of a struggle in which feeling +and sentiment would triumph over actual beauty tempted her; then, she +fancied a grandeur in giving herself to a man in whose love she did not +believe; finally, she was forced to admit that happiness, however short +its duration might be, was too precious to resign. + +Such hesitations, such struggles, giving the charm and the +unexpectedness of passion to this noble creature, inspired Balthazar +with a love that was well-nigh chivalric. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The marriage took place at the beginning of the year 1795. Husband and +wife came to Douai that the first days of their union might be spent +in the patriarchal house of the Claes,--the treasures of which were +increased by those of Mademoiselle de Temninck, who brought with her +several fine pictures of Murillo and Velasquez, the diamonds of her +mother, and the magnificent wedding-gifts, made to her by her brother, +the Duke of Casa-Real. + +Few women were ever happier than Madame Claes. Her happiness lasted for +fifteen years without a cloud, diffusing itself like a vivid light +into every nook and detail of her life. Most men have inequalities of +character which produce discord, and deprive their households of the +harmony which is the ideal of a home; the majority are blemished with +some littleness or meanness, and meanness of any kind begets bickering. +One man is honorable and diligent, but hard and crabbed; another kindly, +but obstinate; this one loves his wife, yet his will is arbitrary and +uncertain; that other, preoccupied by ambition, pays off his affections +as he would a debt, bestows the luxuries of wealth but deprives the +daily life of happiness,--in short, the average man of social life is +essentially incomplete, without being signally to blame. Men of talent +are as variable as barometers; genius alone is intrinsically good. + +For this reason unalloyed happiness is found at the two extremes of +the moral scale. The good-natured fool and the man of genius alone +are capable--the one through weakness, the other by strength--of that +equanimity of temper, that unvarying gentleness, which soften the +asperities of daily life. In the one, it is indifference or stolidity; +in the other, indulgence and a portion of the divine thought of which he +is the interpreter, and which needs to be consistent alike in principle +and application. Both natures are equally simple; but in one there is +vacancy, in the other depth. This is why clever women are disposed to +take dull men as the small change for great ones. + +Balthazar Claes carried his greatness into the lesser things of life. He +delighted in considering conjugal love as a magnificent work; and like +all men of lofty aims who can bear nothing imperfect, he wished to +develop all its beauties. His powers of mind enlivened the calm of +happiness, his noble nature marked his attentions with the charm of +grace. Though he shared the philosophical tenets of the eighteenth +century, he installed a chaplain in his home until 1801 (in spite of the +risk he ran from the revolutionary decrees), so that he might not thwart +the Spanish fanaticism which his wife had sucked in with her mother’s +milk: later, when public worship was restored in France, he accompanied +her to mass every Sunday. His passion never ceased to be that of +a lover. The protecting power, which women like so much, was never +exercised by this husband, lest to that wife it might seem pity. He +treated her with exquisite flattery as an equal, and sometimes mutinied +against her, as men will, as though to brave the supremacy of a pretty +woman. His lips wore a smile of happiness, his speech was ever tender; +he loved his Josephine for herself and for himself, with an ardor that +crowned with perpetual praise the qualities and the loveliness of a +wife. + +Fidelity, often the result of social principle, religious duty, or +self-interest on the part of a husband, was in this case involuntary, +and not without the sweet flatteries of the spring-time of love. Duty +was the only marriage obligation unknown to these lovers, whose love was +equal; for Balthazar Claes found the complete and lasting realization of +his hopes in Mademoiselle de Temninck; his heart was satisfied but not +wearied, the man within him was ever happy. + +Not only did the daughter of Casa-Real derive from her Spanish blood the +intuition of that science which varies pleasure and makes it infinite, +but she possessed the spirit of unbounded self-devotion, which is the +genius of her sex as grace is that of beauty. Her love was a blind +fanaticism which, at a nod, would have sent her joyously to her death. +Balthazar’s own delicacy had exalted the generous emotions of his +wife, and inspired her with an imperious need of giving more than she +received. This mutual exchange of happiness which each lavished upon +the other, put the mainspring of her life visibly outside of her +personality, and filled her words, her looks, her actions, with an +ever-growing love. Gratitude fertilized and varied the life of each +heart; and the certainty of being all in all to one another excluded the +paltry things of existence, while it magnified the smallest accessories. + +The deformed woman whom her husband thinks straight, the lame woman whom +he would not have otherwise, the old woman who seems ever young--are +they not the happiest creatures of the feminine world? Can human passion +go beyond it? The glory of a woman is to be adored for a defect. To +forget that a lame woman does not walk straight may be the glamour of +a moment, but to love her because she is lame is the deification of +her defects. In the gospel of womanhood it is written: “Blessed are the +imperfect, for theirs is the kingdom of Love.” If this be so, surely +beauty is a misfortune; that fugitive flower counts for too much in +the feeling that a woman inspires; often she is loved for her beauty as +another is married for her money. But the love inspired or bestowed by a +woman disinherited of the frail advantages pursued by the sons of Adam, +is true love, the mysterious passion, the ardent embrace of souls, a +sentiment for which the day of disenchantment never comes. That woman +has charms unknown to the world, from whose jurisdiction she withdraws +herself: she is beautiful with a meaning; her glory lies in making her +imperfections forgotten, and thus she constantly succeeds in doing so. + +The celebrated attachments of history were nearly all inspired by women +in whom the vulgar mind would have found defects,--Cleopatra, Jeanne +de Naples, Diane de Poitiers, Mademoiselle de la Valliere, Madame de +Pompadour; in fact, the majority of the women whom love has rendered +famous were not without infirmities and imperfections, while the greater +number of those whose beauty is cited as perfect came to some tragic end +of love. + +This apparent singularity must have a cause. It may be that man lives +more by sentiment than by sense; perhaps the physical charm of beauty is +limited, while the moral charm of a woman without beauty is infinite. Is +not this the moral of the fable on which the Arabian Nights are based? +An ugly wife of Henry VIII. might have defied the axe, and subdued to +herself the inconstancy of her master. + +By a strange chance, not inexplicable, however, in a girl of Spanish +origin, Madame Claes was uneducated. She knew how to read and write, but +up to the age of twenty, at which time her parents withdrew her from a +convent, she had read none but ascetic books. On her first entrance into +the world, she was eager for pleasure and learned only the flimsy art of +dress; she was, moreover, so deeply conscious of her ignorance that she +dared not join in conversation; for which reason she was supposed to +have little mind. Yet, the mystical education of a convent had one good +result; it left her feelings in full force and her natural powers of +mind uninjured. Stupid and plain as an heiress in the eyes of the world, +she became intellectual and beautiful to her husband. During the first +years of their married life, Balthazar endeavored to give her at least +the knowledge that she needed to appear to advantage in good society: +but he was doubtless too late, she had no memory but that of the +heart. Josephine never forgot anything that Claes told her relating +to themselves; she remembered the most trifling circumstances of their +happy life; but of her evening studies nothing remained to her on the +morrow. + +This ignorance might have caused much discord between husband and wife, +but Madame Claes’s understanding of the passion of love was so simple +and ingenuous, she loved her husband so religiously, so sacredly, and +the thought of preserving her happiness made her so adroit, that she +managed always to seem to understand him, and it was seldom indeed that +her ignorance was evident. Moreover, when two persons love one another +so well that each day seems for them the beginning of their passion, +phenomena arise out of this teeming happiness which change all the +conditions of life. It resembles childhood, careless of all that is not +laughter, joy, and merriment. Then, when life is in full activity, when +its hearths glow, man lets the fire burn without thought or discussion, +without considering either the means or the end. + +No daughter of Eve ever more truly understood the calling of a wife than +Madame Claes. She had all the submission of a Flemish woman, but her +Spanish pride gave it a higher flavor. Her bearing was imposing; she +knew how to command respect by a look which expressed her sense of birth +and dignity: but she trembled before Claes; she held him so high, so +near to God, carrying to him every act of her life, every thought of +her heart, that her love was not without a certain respectful fear +which made it keener. She proudly assumed all the habits of a Flemish +bourgeoisie, and put her self-love into making the home life liberally +happy,--preserving every detail of the house in scrupulous cleanliness, +possessing nothing that did not serve the purposes of true comfort, +supplying her table with the choicest food, and putting everything +within those walls into harmony with the life of her heart. + +The pair had two sons and two daughters. The eldest, Marguerite, was +born in 1796. The last child was a boy, now three years old, named +Jean-Balthazar. The maternal sentiment in Madame Claes was almost equal +to her love for her husband; and there rose in her soul, especially +during the last days of her life, a terrible struggle between those +nearly balanced feelings, of which the one became, as it were, an enemy +of the other. The tears and the terror that marked her face at the +moment when this tale of a domestic drama then lowering over the quiet +house begins, were caused by the fear of having sacrificed her children +to her husband. + +In 1805, Madame Claes’s brother died without children. The Spanish law +does not allow a sister to succeed to territorial possessions, which +follow the title; but the duke had left her in his will about sixty +thousand ducats, and this sum the heirs of the collateral branch did not +seek to retain. Though the feeling which united her to Balthazar Claes +was such that no thought of personal interest could ever sully it, +Josephine felt a certain pleasure in possessing a fortune equal to that +of her husband, and was happy in giving something to one who had so +nobly given everything to her. Thus, a mere chance turned a marriage +which worldly minds had declared foolish, into an excellent alliance, +seen from the standpoint of material interests. The use to which this +sum of money should be put became, however, somewhat difficult to +determine. + +The House of Claes was so richly supplied with furniture, pictures, and +objects of art of priceless value, that it was difficult to add anything +worthy of what was already there. The tastes of the family through long +periods of time had accumulated these treasures. One generation +followed the quest of noble pictures, leaving behind it the necessity +of completing a collection still unfinished; and thus the taste became +hereditary in the family. The hundred pictures which adorned the gallery +leading from the family building to the reception-rooms on the first +floor of the front house, as well as some fifty others placed about the +salons, were the product of the patient researches of three centuries. +Among them were choice specimens of Rubens, Ruysdael, Vandyke, Terburg, +Gerard Dow, Teniers, Mieris, Paul Potter, Wouvermans, Rembrandt, +Hobbema, Cranach, and Holbein. French and Italian pictures were in a +minority, but all were authentic and masterly. + +Another generation had fancied Chinese and Japanese porcelains: this +Claes was eager after rare furniture, that one for silver-ware; in fact, +each and all had their mania, their passion,--a trait which belongs in +a striking degree to the Flemish character. The father of Balthazar, a +last relic of the once famous Dutch society, left behind him the finest +known collection of tulips. + +Besides these hereditary riches, which represented an enormous capital, +and were the choice ornament of the venerable house,--a house that was +simple as a shell outside but, like a shell, adorned within by pearls +of price and glowing with rich color,--Balthazar Claes possessed a +country-house on the plain of Orchies, not far from Douai. Instead of +basing his expenses, as Frenchmen do, upon his revenues, he followed the +old Dutch custom of spending only a fourth of his income. Twelve hundred +ducats a year put his costs of living at a level with those of the +richest men of the place. The promulgation of the Civil Code proved +the wisdom of this course. Compelling, as it did, the equal division of +property, the Title of Succession would some day leave each child with +limited means, and disperse the treasures of the Claes collection. +Balthazar, therefore, in concert with Madame Claes, invested his wife’s +property so as to secure to each child a fortune eventually equal to his +own. The house of Claes still maintained its moderate scale of living, +and bought woodlands somewhat the worse for wars that had laid waste the +country, but which in ten years’ time, if well-preserved, would return +an enormous value. + +The upper ranks of society in Douai, which Monsieur Claes frequented, +appreciated so justly the noble character and qualities of his wife +that, by tacit consent she was released from those social duties to +which the provinces cling so tenaciously. During the winter season, when +she lived in town, she seldom went into society; society came to her. +She received every Wednesday, and gave three grand dinners every month. +Her friends felt that she was more at ease in her own house; where, +indeed, her passion for her husband and the care she bestowed on the +education of her children tended to keep her. + +Such had been, up to the year 1809, the general course of this +household, which had nothing in common with the ordinary run of +conventional ideas, though the outward life of these two persons, +secretly full of love and joy, was like that of other people. Balthazar +Claes’s passion for his wife, which she had known how to perpetuate, +seemed, to use his own expression, to spend its inborn vigor and +fidelity on the cultivation of happiness, which was far better than the +cultivation of tulips (though to that he had always had a leaning), and +dispensed him from the duty of following a mania like his ancestors. + +At the close of this year, the mind and the manners of Balthazar Claes +underwent a fatal change,--a change which began so gradually that at +first Madame Claes did not think it necessary to inquire the cause. One +night her husband went to bed with a mind so preoccupied that she felt +it incumbent on her to respect his mood. Her womanly delicacy and her +submissive habits always led her to wait for Balthazar’s confidence; +which, indeed, was assured to her by so constant an affection that she +had never had the slightest opening for jealousy. Though certain of +obtaining an answer whenever she should make the inquiry, she still +retained enough of the earlier impressions of her life to dread a +refusal. Besides, the moral malady of her husband had its phases, and +only came by slow degrees to the intolerable point at which it destroyed +the happiness of the family. + +However occupied Balthazar Claes might be, he continued for several +months cheerful, affectionate, and ready to talk; the change in his +character showed itself only by frequent periods of absent-mindedness. +Madame Claes long hoped to hear from her husband himself the nature of +the secret employment in which he was engaged; perhaps, she thought, he +would reveal it when it developed some useful result; many men are led +by pride to conceal the nature of their efforts, and only make them +known at the moment of success. When the day of triumph came, surely +domestic happiness would return, more vivid than ever when Balthazar +became aware of this chasm in the life of love, which his heart would +surely disavow. Josephine knew her husband well enough to be certain +that he would never forgive himself for having made his Pepita less than +happy during several months. + +She kept silence therefore, and felt a sort of joy in thus suffering by +him for him: her passion had a tinge of that Spanish piety which allows +no separation between religion and love, and believes in no sentiment +without suffering. She waited for the return of her husband’s affection, +saying daily to herself, “To-morrow it may come,”--treating her +happiness as though it were an absent friend. + +During this stage of her secret distress, she conceived her last child. +Horrible crisis, which revealed a future of anguish! In the midst of +her husband’s abstractions love showed itself on this occasion an +abstraction even greater than the rest. Her woman’s pride, hurt for +the first time, made her sound the depths of the unknown abyss which +separated her from the Claes of earlier days. From that time Balthazar’s +condition grew rapidly worse. The man formerly so wrapped up in his +domestic happiness, who played for hours with his children on the parlor +carpet or round the garden paths, who seemed able to exist only in the +light of his Pepita’s dark eyes, did not even perceive her pregnancy, +seldom shared the family life, and even forgot his own. + +The longer Madame Claes postponed inquiring into the cause of his +preoccupation the less she dared to do so. At the very idea, her blood +ran cold and her voice grew faint. At last the thought occurred to +her that she had ceased to please her husband, and then indeed she was +seriously alarmed. That fear now filled her mind, drove her to despair, +then to feverish excitement, and became the text of many an hour of +melancholy reverie. She defended Balthazar at her own expense, calling +herself old and ugly; then she imagined a generous though humiliating +consideration for her in this secret occupation by which he secured +to her a negative fidelity; and she resolved to give him back his +independence by allowing one of those unspoken divorces which make the +happiness of many a marriage. + +Before bidding farewell to conjugal life, Madame Claes made some attempt +to read her husband’s heart, and found it closed. Little by little, +she saw him become indifferent to all that he had formerly loved; he +neglected his tulips, he cared no longer for his children. There could +be no doubt that he was given over to some passion that was not of the +heart, but which, to a woman’s mind, is not less withering. His love +was dormant, not lost: this might be a consolation, but the misfortune +remained the same. + +The continuance of such a state of things is explained by one +word,--hope, the secret of all conjugal situations. It so happened +that whenever the poor woman reached a depth of despair which gave her +courage to question her husband, she met with a few brief moments of +happiness when she was able to feel that if Balthazar was indeed in the +clutch of some devilish power, he was permitted, sometimes at least, to +return to himself. At such moments, when her heaven brightened, she +was too eager to enjoy its happiness to trouble him with importunate +questions: later, when she endeavored to speak to him, he would suddenly +escape, leave her abruptly, or drop into the gulf of meditation from +which no word of hers could drag him. + +Before long the reaction of the moral upon the physical condition began +its ravages,--at first imperceptibly, except to the eyes of a loving +woman following the secret thought of a husband through all its +manifestations. Often she could scarcely restrain her tears when she saw +him, after dinner, sink into an armchair by the corner of the fireplace, +and remain there, gloomy and abstracted. She noted with terror the slow +changes which deteriorated that face, once, to her eyes, sublime +through love: the life of the soul was retreating from it; the structure +remained, but the spirit was gone. Sometimes the eyes were glassy, and +seemed as if they had turned their gaze and were looking inward. When +the children had gone to bed, and the silence and solitude oppressed +her, Pepita would say, “My friend, are you ill?” and Balthazar would +make no answer; or if he answered, he would come to himself with a +quiver, like a man snatched suddenly from sleep, and utter a “No” so +harsh and grating that it fell like a stone on the palpitating heart of +his wife. + +Though she tried to hide this strange state of things from her friends, +Madame Claes was obliged sometimes to allude to it. The social world +of Douai, in accordance with the custom of provincial towns, had made +Balthazar’s aberrations a topic of conversation, and many persons +were aware of certain details that were still unknown to Madame Claes. +Disregarding the reticence which politeness demanded, a few friends +expressed to her so much anxiety on the subject that she found herself +compelled to defend her husband’s peculiarities. + +“Monsieur Claes,” she said, “has undertaken a work which wholly absorbs +him; its success will eventually redound not only to the honor of the +family but to that of his country.” + +This mysterious explanation was too flattering to the ambition of a +town whose local patriotism and desire for glory exceed those of other +places, not to be readily accepted, and it produced on all minds a +reaction in favor of Balthazar. + +The supposition of his wife was, to a certain extent, well-founded. +Several artificers of various trades had long been at work in the garret +of the front house, where Balthazar went early every morning. After +remaining, at first, for several hours, an absence to which his wife and +household grew gradually accustomed, he ended by being there all day. +But--unexpected shock!--Madame Claes learned through the humiliating +medium of some women friends, who showed surprise at her ignorance, +that her husband constantly imported instruments of physical science, +valuable materials, books, machinery, etc., from Paris, and was on the +highroad to ruin in search of the Philosopher’s Stone. She ought, so her +kind friends added, to think of her children, and her own future; it was +criminal not to use her influence to draw Monsieur Claes from the fatal +path on which he had entered. + +Though Madame Claes, with the tone and manner of a great lady, silenced +these absurd speeches, she was inwardly terrified in spite of her +apparent confidence, and she resolved to break through her present +system of silence and resignation. She brought about one of those little +scenes in which husband and wife are on an equal footing; less timid at +such a moment, she dared to ask Balthazar the reason for his change, +the motive of his constant seclusion. The Flemish husband frowned, and +replied:-- + +“My dear, you could not understand it.” + +Soon after, however, Josephine insisted on being told the secret, gently +complaining that she was not allowed to share all the thoughts of one +whose life she shared. + +“Very well, since it interests you so much,” said Balthazar, taking his +wife upon his knee and caressing her black hair, “I will tell you that +I have returned to the study of chemistry, and I am the happiest man on +earth.” + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Two years after the winter when Monsieur Claes returned to chemistry, +the aspect of his house was changed. Whether it were that society was +affronted by his perpetual absent-mindedness and chose to think itself +in the way, or that Madame Claes’s secret anxieties made her less +agreeable than before, certain it is that she no longer saw any but +her intimate friends. Balthazar went nowhere, shut himself up in his +laboratory all day, sometimes stayed there all night, and only appeared +in the bosom of his family at dinner-time. + +After the second year he no longer passed the summer at his +country-house, and his wife was unwilling to live there alone. Sometimes +he went to walk and did not return till the following day, leaving +Madame Claes a prey to mortal anxiety during the night. After causing +a fruitless search for him through the town, whose gates, like those of +other fortified places, were closed at night, it was impossible to send +into the country, and the unhappy woman could only wait and suffer +till morning. Balthazar, who had forgotten the hour at which the gates +closed, would come tranquilly home next day, quite unmindful of the +tortures his absence had inflicted on his family; and the happiness of +getting him back proved as dangerous an excitement of feeling to his +wife as her fears of the preceding night. She kept silence and dared not +question him, for when she did so on the occasion of his first absence, +he answered with an air of surprise:-- + +“Well, what of it? Can I not take a walk?” + +Passions never deceive. Madame Claes’s anxieties corroborated the rumors +she had taken so much pains to deny. The experience of her youth had +taught her to understand the polite pity of the world. Resolved not to +undergo it a second time, she withdrew more and more into the privacy of +her own house, now deserted by society and even by her nearest friends. + +Among these many causes of distress, the negligence and disorder of +Balthazar’s dress, so degrading to a man of his station, was not the +least bitter to a woman accustomed to the exquisite nicety of Flemish +life. At first Josephine endeavored, in concert with Balthazar’s valet, +Lemulquinier, to repair the daily devastation of his clothing, but +even that she was soon forced to give up. The very day when Balthazar, +unaware of the substitution, put on new clothes in place of those that +were stained, torn, or full of holes, he made rags of them. + +The poor wife, whose perfect happiness had lasted fifteen years, during +which time her jealousy had never once been roused, was apparently and +suddenly nothing in the heart where she had lately reigned. Spanish +by race, the feelings of a Spanish woman rose within her when she +discovered her rival in a Science that allured her husband from her: +torments of jealousy preyed upon her heart and renewed her love. +What could she do against Science? Should she combat that tyrannous, +unyielding, growing power? Could she kill an invisible rival? Could +a woman, limited by nature, contend with an Idea whose delights are +infinite, whose attractions are ever new? How make head against the +fascination of ideas that spring the fresher and the lovelier out of +difficulty, and entice a man so far from this world that he forgets even +his dearest loves? + +At last one day, in spite of Balthazar’s strict orders, Madame Claes +resolved to follow him, to shut herself up in the garret where his life +was spent, and struggle hand to hand against her rival by sharing +her husband’s labors during the long hours he gave to that terrible +mistress. She determined to slip secretly into the mysterious laboratory +of seduction, and obtain the right to be there always. Lemulquinier +alone had that right, and she meant to share it with him; but to prevent +his witnessing the contention with her husband which she feared at the +outset, she waited for an opportunity when the valet should be out of +the way. For a while she studied the goings and comings of the man with +angry impatience; did he not know that which was denied to her--all that +her husband hid from her, all that she dared not inquire into? Even a +servant was preferred to a wife! + +The day came; she approached the place, trembling, yet almost happy. For +the first time in her life she encountered Balthazar’s anger. She had +hardly opened the door before he sprang upon her, seized her, threw her +roughly on the staircase, so that she narrowly escaped rolling to the +bottom. + +“God be praised! you are still alive!” he cried, raising her. + +A glass vessel had broken into fragments over Madame Claes, who saw her +husband standing by her, pale, terrified, and almost livid. + +“My dear, I forbade you to come here,” he said, sitting down on the +stairs, as though prostrated. “The saints have saved your life! By what +chance was it that my eyes were on the door when you opened it? We have +just escaped death.” + +“Then I might have been happy!” she exclaimed. + +“My experiment has failed,” continued Balthazar. “You alone could I +forgive for that terrible disappointment. I was about to decompose +nitrogen. Go back to your own affairs.” + +Balthazar re-entered the laboratory and closed the door. + +“Decompose nitrogen!” said the poor woman as she re-entered her chamber, +and burst into tears. + +The phrase was unintelligible to her. Men, trained by education to have +a general conception of everything, have no idea how distressing it is +for a woman to be unable to comprehend the thought of the man she loves. +More forbearing than we, these divine creatures do not let us know when +the language of their souls is not understood by us; they shrink from +letting us feel the superiority of their feelings, and hide their pain +as gladly as they silence their wishes: but, having higher ambitions in +love than men, they desire to wed not only the heart of a husband, but +his mind. + +To Madame Claes the sense of knowing nothing of a science which absorbed +her husband filled her with a vexation as keen as the beauty of a rival +might have caused. The struggle of woman against woman gives to her who +loves the most the advantage of loving best; but a mortification +like this only proved Madame Claes’s powerlessness and humiliated the +feelings by which she lived. She was ignorant; and she had reached a +point where her ignorance parted her from her husband. Worse than all, +last and keenest torture, he was risking his life, he was often in +danger--near her, yet far away, and she might not share, nor even know, +his peril. Her position became, like hell, a moral prison from which +there was no issue, in which there was no hope. Madame Claes resolved +to know at least the outward attractions of this fatal science, and +she began secretly to study chemistry in the books. From this time the +family became, as it were, cloistered. + +Such were the successive changes brought by this dire misfortune upon +the family of Claes, before it reached the species of atrophy in which +we find it at the moment when this history begins. + +The situation grew daily more complicated. Like all passionate +women, Madame Claes was disinterested. Those who truly love know that +considerations of money count for little in matters of feeling and are +reluctantly associated with them. Nevertheless, Josephine did not hear +without distress that her husband had borrowed three hundred thousand +francs upon his property. The apparent authenticity of the transaction, +the rumors and conjectures spread through the town, forced Madame +Claes, naturally much alarmed, to question her husband’s notary and, +disregarding her pride, to reveal to him her secret anxieties or let him +guess them, and even ask her the humiliating question,-- + +“How is it that Monsieur Claes has not told you of this?” + +Happily, the notary was almost a relation,--in this wise: The +grandfather of Monsieur Claes had married a Pierquin of Antwerp, of the +same family as the Pierquins of Douai. Since the marriage the latter, +though strangers to the Claes, claimed them as cousins. Monsieur +Pierquin, a young man twenty-six years of age, who had just succeeded +to his father’s practice, was the only person who now had access to the +House of Claes. + +Madame Balthazar had lived for several months in such complete solitude +that the notary was obliged not only to confirm the rumor of the +disasters, but to give her further particulars, which were now well +known throughout the town. He told her that it was probably that her +husband owed considerable sums of money to the house which furnished him +with chemicals. That house, after making inquiries as to the fortune and +credit of Monsieur Claes, accepted all his orders and sent the supplies +without hesitation, notwithstanding the heavy sums of money which became +due. Madame Claes requested Pierquin to obtain the bill for all the +chemicals that had been furnished to her husband. + +Two months later, Messieurs Protez and Chiffreville, manufacturers +of chemical products, sent in a schedule of accounts rendered, which +amounted to over one hundred thousand francs. Madame Claes and Pierquin +studied the document with an ever-increasing surprise. Though +some articles, entered in commercial and scientific terms, were +unintelligible to them, they were frightened to see entries of precious +metals and diamonds of all kinds, though in small quantities. The large +sum total of the debt was explained by the multiplicity of the articles, +by the precautions needed in transporting some of them, more especially +valuable machinery, by the exorbitant price of certain rare chemicals, +and finally by the cost of instruments made to order after the designs +of Monsieur Claes himself. + +The notary had made inquiries, in his client’s interest, as to Messieurs +Protez and Chiffreville, and found that their known integrity was +sufficient guarantee as to the honesty of their operations with Monsieur +Claes, to whom, moreover, they frequently sent information of results +obtained by chemists in Paris, for the purpose of sparing him expense. +Madame Claes begged the notary to keep the nature of these purchases +from the knowledge of the people of Douai, lest they should declare the +whole thing a mania; but Pierquin replied that he had already delayed to +the very last moment the notarial deeds which the importance of the +sum borrowed necessitated, in order not to lessen the respect in which +Monsieur Claes was held. He then revealed the full extent of the evil, +telling her plainly that if she could not find means to prevent her +husband from thus madly making way with his property, in six months the +patrimonial fortune of the Claes would be mortgaged to its full value. +As for himself, he said, the remonstrances he had already made to his +cousin, with all the consideration due to a man so justly respected, had +been wholly unavailing. Balthazar had replied, once for all, that he was +working for the fame and the fortune of his family. + +Thus, to the tortures of the heart which Madame Claes had borne for two +years--one following the other with cumulative suffering--was now added +a dreadful and ceaseless fear which made the future terrifying. Women +have presentiments whose accuracy is often marvellous. Why do they fear +so much more than they hope in matters that concern the interests of +this life? Why is their faith given only to religious ideas of a future +existence? Why do they so ably foresee the catastrophes of fortune and +the crises of fate? Perhaps the sentiment which unites them to the +men they love gives them a sense by which they weigh force, measure +faculties, understand tastes, passions, vices, virtues. The perpetual +study of these causes in the midst of which they live gives them, no +doubt, the fatal power of foreseeing effects in all possible relations +of earthly life. What they see of the present enables them to judge +of the future with an intuitive ability explained by the perfection +of their nervous system, which allows them to seize the lightest +indications of thought and feeling. Their whole being vibrates in +communion with great moral convulsions. Either they feel, or they see. + +Now, although separated from her husband for over two years, Madame +Claes foresaw the loss of their property. She fully understood the +deliberate ardor, the well-considered, inalterable steadfastness of +Balthazar; if it were indeed true that he was seeking to make gold, he +was capable of throwing his last crust into the crucible with absolute +indifference. But what was he really seeking? Up to this time maternal +feeling and conjugal love had been so mingled in the heart of this woman +that the children, equally beloved by husband and wife, had never come +between them. Suddenly she found herself at times more mother than wife, +though hitherto she had been more wife than mother. However ready she +had been to sacrifice her fortune and even her children to the man who +had chosen her, loved her, adored her, and to whom she was still the +only woman in the world, the remorse she felt for the weakness of her +maternal love threw her into terrible alternations of feeling. As a +wife, she suffered in heart; as a mother, through her children; as a +Christian, for all. + +She kept silence, and hid the cruel struggle in her soul. Her husband, +sole arbiter of the family fate, was the master by whose will it must be +guided; he was responsible to God only. Besides, could she reproach him +for the use he now made of his fortune, after the disinterestedness he +had shown to her for many happy years? Was she to judge his purposes? +And yet her conscience, in keeping with the spirit of the law, told +her that parents were the depositaries and guardians of property, and +possessed no right to alienate the material welfare of the children. To +escape replying to such stern questions she preferred to shut her eyes, +like one who refuses to see the abyss into whose depths he knows he is +about to fall. + +For more than six months her husband had given her no money for the +household expenses. She sold secretly, in Paris, the handsome diamond +ornaments her brother had given her on her marriage, and placed +the family on a footing of the strictest economy. She sent away the +governess of her children, and even the nurse of little Jean. Formerly +the luxury of carriages and horses was unknown among the burgher +families, so simple were they in their habits, so proud in their +feelings; no provision for that modern innovation had therefore been +made at the House of Claes, and Balthazar was obliged to have his stable +and coach-house in a building opposite to his own house: his present +occupations allowed him no time to superintend that portion of his +establishment, which belongs exclusively to men. Madame Claes suppressed +the whole expense of equipages and servants, which her present isolation +from the world rendered unnecessary, and she did so without pretending +to conceal the retrenchment under any pretext. So far, facts had +contradicted her assertions, and silence for the future was more +becoming: indeed the change in the family mode of living called for no +explanation in a country where, as in Flanders, any one who lives up to +his income is considered a madman. + +And yet, as her eldest daughter, Marguerite, approached her sixteenth +birthday, Madame Claes longed to procure for her a good marriage, and to +place her in society in a manner suitable to a daughter of the Molinas, +the Van Ostron-Temnincks, and the Casa-Reals. A few days before the +one on which this story opens, the money derived from the sale of the +diamonds had been exhausted. On the very day, at three o’clock in the +afternoon, as Madame Claes was taking her children to vespers, she met +Pierquin, who was on his way to see her, and who turned and accompanied +her to the church, talking in a low voice of her situation. + +“My dear cousin,” he said, “unless I fail in the friendship which binds +me to your family, I cannot conceal from you the peril of your position, +nor refrain from begging you to speak to your husband. Who but you can +hold him back from the gulf into which he is plunging? The rents from +the mortgaged estates are not enough to pay the interest on the sums he +has borrowed. If he cuts the wood on them he destroys your last chance +of safety in the future. My cousin Balthazar owes at this moment thirty +thousand francs to the house of Protez and Chiffreville. How can you pay +them? What will you live on? If Claes persists in sending for reagents, +retorts, voltaic batteries, and other such playthings, what will become +of you? Your whole property, except the house and furniture, has been +dissipated in gas and carbon; yesterday he talked of mortgaging the +house, and in answer to a remark of mine, he cried out, ‘The devil!’ It +was the first sign of reason I have known him show for three years.” + +Madame Claes pressed the notary’s arm, and said in a tone of suffering, +“Keep it secret.” + +Overwhelmed by these plain words of startling clearness, the poor woman, +pious as she was, could not pray; she sat still on her chair between +her children, with her prayer-book open, but not turning its leaves; her +mind was sunk in meditations as absorbing as those of her husband. The +Spanish sense of honor, the Flemish integrity, resounded in her +soul with a peal louder than any organ. The ruin of her children was +accomplished! Between them and their father’s honor she must no longer +hesitate. The necessity of a coming struggle with her husband terrified +her; in her eyes he was so great, so majestic, that the mere prospect of +his anger made her tremble as at a vision of the divine wrath. She must +now depart from the submission she had sacredly practised as a wife. The +interests of her children compelled her to oppose, in his most cherished +tastes, the man she idolized. Must she not daily force him back to +common matters from the higher realms of Science; drag him forcibly from +a smiling future and plunge him into a materialism hideous to artists +and great men? To her, Balthazar Claes was a Titan of science, a man big +with glory; he could only have forgotten her for the riches of a mighty +hope. Then too, was he not profoundly wise? she had heard him talk +with such good sense on every subject that he must be sincere when he +declared he worked for the glory and prosperity of his family. His love +for his wife and family was not only vast, it was infinite. That feeling +could not be extinct; it was magnified, and reproduced in another form. + +Noble, generous, timid as she was, she prepared herself to ring into the +ears of this noble man the word and the sound of money, to show him the +sores of poverty, and force him to hear cries of distress when he was +listening only for the melodious voice of Fame. Perhaps his love for her +would lessen! If she had had no children, she would bravely and joyously +have welcomed the new destiny her husband was making for her. Women who +are brought up in opulence are quick to feel the emptiness of material +enjoyments; and when their hearts, more wearied than withered, have once +learned the happiness of a constant interchange of real feelings, they +feel no shrinking from reduced outward circumstances, provided they +are still acceptable to the man who has loved them. Their wishes, their +pleasures, are subordinated to the caprices of that other life outside +of their own; to them the only dreadful future is to lose him. + +At this moment, therefore, her children came between Pepita and her true +life, just as Science had come between herself and Balthazar. And thus, +when she reached home after vespers, and threw herself into the deep +armchair before the window of the parlor, she sent away her children, +directing them to keep perfectly quiet, and despatched a message to her +husband, through Lemulquinier, saying that she wished to see him. +But although the old valet did his best to make his master leave the +laboratory, Balthazar scarcely heeded him. Madame Claes thus gained time +for reflection. She sat thinking, paying no attention to the hour nor +the light. The thought of owing thirty thousand francs that could not be +paid renewed her past anguish and joined it to that of the present +and the future. This influx of painful interests, ideas, and feelings +overcame her, and she wept. + +As Balthazar entered at last through the panelled door, the expression +of his face seemed to her more dreadful, more absorbed, more distracted +than she had yet seen it. When he made her no answer she was magnetized +for a moment by the fixity of that blank look emptied of all expression, +by the consuming ideas that issued as if distilled from that bald brow. +Under the shock of this impression she wished to die. But when she heard +the callous voice, uttering a scientific wish at the moment when her +heart was breaking, her courage came back to her; she resolved to +struggle with that awful power which had torn a lover from her arms, a +father from her children, a fortune from their home, happiness from all. +And yet she could not repress a trepidation which made her quiver; in +all her life no such solemn scene as this had taken place. This dreadful +moment--did it not virtually contain her future, and gather within it +all the past? + +Weak and timid persons, or those whose excessive sensibility magnifies +the smallest difficulties of life, men who tremble involuntarily before +the masters of their fate, can now, one and all, conceive the rush of +thoughts that crowded into the brain of this woman, and the feelings +under the weight of which her heart was crushed as her husband slowly +crossed the room towards the garden-door. Most women know that agony of +inward deliberation in which Madame Claes was writhing. Even one whose +heart has been tried by nothing worse than the declaration to a husband +of some extravagance, or a debt to a dress-maker, will understand how +its pulses swell and quicken when the matter is one of life itself. + +A beautiful or graceful woman might have thrown herself at her husband’s +feet, might have called to her aid the attitudes of grief; but to Madame +Claes the sense of physical defects only added to her fears. When she +saw Balthazar about to leave the room, her impulse was to spring towards +him; then a cruel thought restrained her--she should stand before him! +would she not seem ridiculous in the eyes of a man no longer under the +glamour of love--who might see true? She resolved to avoid all dangerous +chances at so solemn a moment, and remained seated, saying in a clear +voice, + +“Balthazar.” + +He turned mechanically and coughed; then, paying no attention to his +wife, he walked to one of the little square boxes that are placed at +intervals along the wainscoting of every room in Holland and Belgium, +and spat in it. This man, who took no thought of other persons, never +forgot the inveterate habit of using those boxes. To poor Josephine, +unable to find a reason for this singularity, the constant care which +her husband took of the furniture caused her at all times an unspeakable +pang, but at this moment the pain was so violent that it put her beside +herself and made her exclaim in a tone of impatience, which expressed +her wounded feelings,-- + +“Monsieur, I am speaking to you!” + +“What does that mean?” answered Balthazar, turning quickly, and casting +a look of reviving intelligence upon his wife, which fell upon her like +a thunderbolt. + +“Forgive me, my friend,” she said, turning pale. She tried to rise and +put out her hand to him, but her strength gave way and she fell back. “I +am dying!” she cried in a voice choked by sobs. + +At the sight Balthazar had, like all abstracted persons, a vivid +reaction of mind; and he divined, so to speak, the secret cause of this +attack. Taking Madame Claes at once in his arms, he opened the door +upon the little antechamber, and ran so rapidly up the ancient wooden +staircase that his wife’s dress having caught on the jaws of one of the +griffins that supported the balustrade, a whole breadth was torn off +with a loud noise. He kicked in the door of the vestibule between their +chambers, but the door of Josephine’s bedroom was locked. + +He gently placed her on a chair, saying to himself, “My God! the key, +where is the key?” + +“Thank you, dear friend,” said Madame Claes, opening her eyes. “This +is the first time for a long, long while that I have been so near your +heart.” + +“Good God!” cried Claes, “the key!--here come the servants.” + +Josephine signed to him to take a key that hung from a ribbon at her +waist. After opening the door, Balthazar laid his wife on a sofa, and +left the room to stop the frightened servants from coming up by giving +them orders to serve the dinner; then he went back to Madame Claes. + +“What is it, my dear life?” he said, sitting down beside her, and taking +her hand and kissing it. + +“Nothing--now,” she answered. “I suffer no longer. Only, I would I had +the power of God to pour all the gold of the world at thy feet.” + +“Why gold?” he asked. He took her in his arms, pressed her to him and +kissed her once more upon the forehead. “Do you not give me the greatest +of all riches in loving me as you do love me, my dear and precious +wife?” + +“Oh! my Balthazar, will you not drive away the anguish of our lives as +your voice now drives out the misery of my heart? At last, at last, I +see that you are still the same.” + +“What anguish do you speak of, dear?” + +“My friend, we are ruined.” + +“Ruined!” he repeated. Then, with a smile, he stroked her hand, holding +it within his own, and said in his tender voice, so long unheard: +“To-morrow, dear love, our wealth may perhaps be limitless. Yesterday, +in searching for a far more important secret, I think I found the means +of crystallizing carbon, the substance of the diamond. Oh, my dear +wife! in a few days’ time you will forgive me all my forgetfulness--I +am forgetful sometimes, am I not? Was I not harsh to you just now? Be +indulgent for a man who never ceases to think of you, whose toils are +full of you--of us.” + +“Enough, enough!” she said, “let us talk of it all to-night, dear +friend. I suffered from too much grief, and now I suffer from too much +joy.” + +“To-night,” he resumed; “yes, willingly: we will talk of it. If I fall +into meditation, remind me of this promise. To-night I desire to leave +my work, my researches, and return to family joys, to the delights of +the heart--Pepita, I need them, I thirst for them!” + +“You will tell me what it is you seek, Balthazar?” + +“Poor child, you cannot understand it.” + +“You think so? Ah! my friend, listen; for nearly four months I have +studied chemistry that I might talk of it with you. I have read +Fourcroy, Lavoisier, Chaptal, Nollet, Rouelle, Berthollet, Gay-Lussac, +Spallanzani, Leuwenhoek, Galvani, Volta,--in fact, all the books +about the science you worship. You can tell me your secrets, I shall +understand you.” + +“Oh! you are indeed an angel,” cried Balthazar, falling at her feet, +and shedding tears of tender feeling that made her quiver. “Yes, we will +understand each other in all things.” + +“Ah!” she cried, “I would throw myself into those hellish fires which +heat your furnaces to hear these words from your lips and to see you +thus.” Then, hearing her daughter’s step in the anteroom, she sprang +quickly forward. “What is it, Marguerite?” she said to her eldest +daughter. + +“My dear mother, Monsieur Pierquin has just come. If he stays to dinner +we need some table-linen; you forgot to give it out this morning.” + +Madame Claes drew from her pocket a bunch of small keys and gave them +to the young girl, pointing to the mahogany closets which lined the +ante-chamber as she said: + +“My daughter, take a set of the Graindorge linen; it is on your right.” + +“Since my dear Balthazar comes back to me, let the return be complete,” + she said, re-entering her chamber with a soft and arch expression on her +face. “My friend, go into your own room; do me the kindness to dress for +dinner, Pierquin will be with us. Come, take off this ragged clothing; +see those stains! Is it muratic or sulphuric acid which left these +yellow edges to the holes? Make yourself young again,--I will send you +Mulquinier as soon as I have changed my dress.” + +Balthazar attempted to pass through the door of communication, +forgetting that it was locked on his side. He went out through the +anteroom. + +“Marguerite, put the linen on a chair, and come and help me dress; I +don’t want Martha,” said Madame Claes, calling her daughter. + +Balthazar had caught Marguerite and turned her towards him with a joyous +action, exclaiming: “Good-evening, my child; how pretty you are in your +muslin gown and that pink sash!” Then he kissed her forehead and pressed +her hand. + +“Mamma, papa has kissed me!” cried Marguerite, running into her mother’s +room. “He seems so joyous, so happy!” + +“My child, your father is a great man; for three years he has toiled for +the fame and fortune of his family: he thinks he has attained the object +of his search. This day is a festival for us all.” + +“My dear mamma,” replied Marguerite, “we shall not be alone in our joy, +for the servants have been so grieved to see him unlike himself. Oh! put +on another sash, this is faded.” + +“So be it; but make haste, I want to speak to Pierquin. Where is he?” + +“In the parlor, playing with Jean.” + +“Where are Gabriel and Felicie?” + +“I hear them in the garden.” + +“Run down quickly and see that they do not pick the tulips; your father +has not seen them in flower this year, and he may take a fancy to look +at them after dinner. Tell Mulquinier to go up and assist your father in +dressing.” + + + + +CHAPTER V + +As Marguerite left the room, Madame Claes glanced at the children +through the windows of her chamber, which looked on the garden, and saw +that they were watching one of those insects with shining wings spotted +with gold, commonly called “darning-needles.” + +“Be good, my darlings,” she said, raising the lower sash of the window +and leaving it up to air the room. Then she knocked gently on the door +of communication, to assure herself that Balthazar had not fallen into +abstraction. He opened it, and seeing him half-dressed, she said in +joyous tones:-- + +“You won’t leave me long with Pierquin, will you? Come as soon as you +can.” + +Her step was so light as she descended that a listener would never have +supposed her lame. + +“When monsieur carried madame upstairs,” said the old valet, whom she +met on the staircase, “he tore this bit out of her dress, and he broke +the jaw of that griffin; I’m sure I don’t know who can put it on again. +There’s our staircase ruined--and it used to be so handsome!” + +“Never mind, my poor Mulquinier; don’t have it mended at all--it is not +a misfortune,” said his mistress. + +“What can have happened?” thought Lemulquinier; “why isn’t it a +misfortune, I should like to know? has the master found the Absolute?” + +“Good-evening, Monsieur Pierquin,” said Madame Claes, opening the parlor +door. + +The notary rushed forward to give her his arm; as she never took any but +that of her husband she thanked him with a smile and said,-- + +“Have you come for the thirty thousand francs?” + +“Yes, madame; when I reached home I found a letter of advice from +Messieurs Protez and Chiffreville, who have drawn six letters of +exchange upon Monsieur Claes for five thousand francs each.” + +“Well, say nothing to Balthazar to-day,” she replied. “Stay and dine +with us. If he happens to ask why you came, find some plausible pretext, +I entreat you. Give me the letter. I will speak to him myself about +it. All is well,” she added, noticing the lawyer’s surprise. “In a few +months my husband will probably pay off all the sums he has borrowed.” + +Hearing these words, which were said in a low voice, the notary looked +at Mademoiselle Claes, who was entering the room from the garden +followed by Gabriel and Felicie, and remarked,-- + +“I have never seen Mademoiselle Marguerite as pretty as she is at this +moment.” + +Madame Claes, who was sitting in her armchair with little Jean upon her +lap, raised her head and looked at her daughter, and then at the notary, +with a pretended air of indifference. + +Pierquin was a man of middle height, neither stout nor thin, with vulgar +good looks, a face that expressed vexation rather than melancholy, and a +pensive habit in which there was more of indecision than thought. People +called him a misanthrope, but he was too eager after his own interests, +and too extortionate towards others to have set up a genuine divorce +from the world. His indifferent demeanor, his affected silence, his +habitual custom of looking, as it were, into the void, seemed to +indicate depth of character, while in fact they merely concealed the +shallow insignificance of a notary busied exclusively with earthly +interests; though he was still young enough to feel envy. To marry into +the family of Claes would have been to him an object of extreme desire, +if an instinct of avarice had not underlain it. He could seem generous, +but for all that he was a keen reckoner. And thus, without explaining +to himself the motive for his change of manner, his behavior was harsh, +peremptory, and surly, like that of an ordinary business man, when he +thought the Claes were ruined; accommodating, affectionate, and almost +servile, when he saw reason to believe in a happy issue to his cousin’s +labors. Sometimes he beheld an infanta in Margeurite Claes, to whom no +provincial notary might aspire; then he regarded her as any poor girl +too happy if he deigned to make her his wife. He was a true provincial, +and a Fleming; without malevolence, not devoid of devotion and +kindheartedness, but led by a naive selfishness which rendered all his +better qualities incomplete, while certain absurdities of manner spoiled +his personal appearance. + +Madame Claes recollected the curt tone in which the notary had spoken to +her that afternoon in the porch of the church, and she took note of the +change which her present reply had wrought in his demeanor; she guessed +its meaning and tried to read her daughter’s mind by a penetrating +glance, seeking to discover if she thought of her cousin; but the young +girl’s manner showed complete indifference. + +After a few moments spent in general conversation on the current topics +of the day, the master of the house came down from his bedroom, where +his wife had heard with inexpressible delight the creaking sound of his +boots as he trod the floor. The step was that of a young and active man, +and foretold so complete a transformation, that the mere expectation +of his appearance made Madame Claes quiver as he descended the stairs. +Balthazar entered, dressed in the fashion of the period. He wore highly +polished top-boots, which allowed the upper part of the white silk +stockings to appear, blue kerseymere small-clothes with gold buttons, +a flowered white waistcoat, and a blue frock-coat. He had trimmed his +beard, combed and perfumed his hair, pared his nails, and washed his +hands, all with such care that he was scarcely recognizable to those +who had seen him lately. Instead of an old man almost decrepit, his +children, his wife, and the notary saw a Balthazar Claes who was forty +years old, and whose courteous and affable presence was full of its +former attractions. The weariness and suffering betrayed by the thin +face and the clinging of the skin to the bones, had in themselves a sort +of charm. + +“Good-evening, Pierquin,” said Monsieur Claes. + +Once more a husband and a father, he took his youngest child from his +wife’s lap and tossed him in the air. + +“See that little fellow!” he exclaimed to the notary. “Doesn’t such a +pretty creature make you long to marry? Take my word for it, my dear +Pierquin, family happiness consoles a man for everything. Up, up!” he +cried, tossing Jean into the air; “down, down! up! down!” + +The child laughed with all his heart as he went alternately to the +ceiling and down to the carpet. The mother turned away her eyes that she +might not betray the emotion which the simple play caused her,--simple +apparently, but to her a domestic revolution. + +“Let me see how you can walk,” said Balthazar, putting his son on the +floor and throwing himself on a sofa near his wife. + +The child ran to its father, attracted by the glitter of the gold +buttons which fastened the breeches just above the slashed tops of his +boots. + +“You are a darling!” cried Balthazar, kissing him; “you are a Claes, +you walk straight. Well, Gabriel, how is Pere Morillon?” he said to his +eldest son, taking him by the ear and twisting it. “Are you struggling +valiantly with your themes and your construing? have you taken sharp +hold of mathematics?” + +Then he rose, and went up to the notary with the affectionate courtesy +that characterized him. + +“My dear Pierquin,” he said, “perhaps you have something to say to me.” + He took his arm to lead him to the garden, adding, “Come and see my +tulips.” + +Madame Claes looked at her husband as he left the room, unable to +repress the joy she felt in seeing him once more so young, so affable, +so truly himself. She rose, took her daughter round the waist and kissed +her, exclaiming:-- + +“My dear Marguerite, my darling child! I love you better than ever +to-day.” + +“It is long since I have seen my father so kind,” answered the young +girl. + +Lemulquinier announced dinner. To prevent Pierquin from offering her his +arm, Madame Claes took that of her husband and led the way into the next +room, the whole family following. + +The dining-room, whose ceiling was supported by beams and decorated with +paintings cleaned and restored every year, was furnished with tall oaken +side-boards and buffets, on whose shelves stood many a curious piece of +family china. The walls were hung with violet leather, on which designs +of game and other hunting objects were stamped in gold. Carefully +arranged here and there above the shelves, shone the brilliant plumage +of strange birds, and the lustre of rare shells. The chairs, which +evidently had not been changed since the beginning of the sixteenth +century, showed the square shape with twisted columns and the low back +covered with a fringed stuff, common to that period, and glorified by +Raphael in his picture of the Madonna della Sedia. The wood of these +chairs was now black, but the gilt nails shone as if new, and the stuff, +carefully renewed from time to time, was of an admirable shade of red. + +The whole life of Flanders with its Spanish innovations was in this +room. The decanters and flasks on the dinner-table, with their graceful +antique lines and swelling curves, had an air of respectability. The +glasses were those old goblets with stems and feet which may be seen +in the pictures of the Dutch or Flemish school. The dinner-service of +faience, decorated with raised colored figures, in the manner of Bernard +Palissy, came from the English manufactory of Wedgwood. The silver-ware +was massive, with square sides and designs in high relief,--genuine +family plate, whose pieces, in every variety of form, fashion, and +chasing, showed the beginnings of prosperity and the progress towards +fortune of the Claes family. The napkins were fringed, a fashion +altogether Spanish; and as for the linen, it will readily be supposed +that the Claes’s household made it a point of honor to possess the best. + +All this service of the table, silver, linen, and glass, were for +the daily use of the family. The front house, where the social +entertainments were given, had its own especial luxury, whose marvels, +being reserved for great occasions, wore an air of dignity often lost +to things which are, as it were, made common by daily use. Here, in +the home quarter, everything bore the impress of patriarchal use and +simplicity. And--for a final and delightful detail--a vine grew outside +the house between the windows, whose tendrilled branches twined about +the casements. + +“You are faithful to the old traditions, madame,” said Pierquin, as he +received a plate of that celebrated thyme soup in which the Dutch and +Flemish cooks put little force-meat balls and dice of fried bread. “This +is the Sunday soup of our forefathers. Your house and that of my uncle +des Racquets are the only ones where we still find this historic soup +of the Netherlands. Ah! pardon me, old Monsieur Savaron de Savarus of +Tournai makes it a matter of pride to keep up the custom; but everywhere +else old Flanders is disappearing. Now-a-days everything is changing; +furniture is made from Greek models; wherever you go you see helmets, +lances, shields, and bows and arrows! Everybody is rebuilding his house, +selling his old furniture, melting up his silver dishes, or exchanging +them for Sevres porcelain,--which does not compare with either old +Dresden or with Chinese ware. Oh! as for me, I’m Flemish to the core; +my heart actually bleeds to see the coppersmiths buying up our beautiful +inlaid furniture for the mere value of the wood and the metal. The fact +is, society wants to change its skin. Everything is being sacrificed, +even the old methods of art. When people insist on going so fast, +nothing is conscientiously done. During my last visit to Paris I was +taken to see the pictures in the Louvre. On my word of honor, they +are mere screen-painting,--no depth, no atmosphere; the painters were +actually afraid to put colors on their canvas. And it is they who talk +of overturning our ancient school of art! Ah, bah!--” + +“Our old masters,” replied Balthazar, “studied the combination of colors +and their endurance by submitting them to the action of sun and rain. +You are right enough, however; the material resources of art are less +cultivated in these days than formerly.” + +Madame Claes was not listening to the conversation. The notary’s remark +that porcelain dinner-services were now the fashion, gave her the +brilliant idea of selling a quantity of heavy silver-ware which she +had inherited from her brother,--hoping to be able thus to pay off the +thirty thousand francs which her husband owed. + +“Ha! ha!” Balthazar was saying to Pierquin when Madame Claes’s mind +returned to the conversation, “so they are discussing my work in Douai, +are they?” + +“Yes,” replied the notary, “every one is asking what it is you spend so +much money on. Only yesterday I heard the chief-justice deploring that a +man like you should be searching for the Philosopher’s stone. I ventured +to reply that you were too wise not to know that such a scheme was +attempting the impossible, too much of a Christian to take God’s work +out of his hands; and, like every other Claes, too good a business man +to spend your money for such befooling quackeries. Still, I admit that I +share the regret people feel at your absence from society. You might as +well not live here at all. Really, madame, you would have been delighted +had you heard the praises showered on Monsieur Claes and on you.” + +“You acted like a faithful friend in repelling imputations whose least +evil is to make me ridiculous,” said Balthazar. “Ha! so they think me +ruined? Well, my dear Pierquin, two months hence I shall give a fete in +honor of my wedding-day whose magnificence will get me back the respect +my dear townsmen bestow on wealth.” + +Madame Claes colored deeply. For two years the anniversary had been +forgotten. Like madmen whose faculties shine at times with unwonted +brilliancy, Balthazar was never more gracious and delightful in +his tenderness than at this moment. He was full of attention to his +children, and his conversation had the charms of grace, and wit, +and pertinence. This return of fatherly feeling, so long absent, was +certainly the truest fete he could give his wife, for whom his looks +and words expressed once more that unbroken sympathy of heart for heart +which reveals to each a delicious oneness of sentiment. + +Old Lemulquinier seemed to renew his youth; he came and went about +the table with unusual liveliness, caused by the accomplishment of +his secret hopes. The sudden change in his master’s ways was even more +significant to him than to Madame Claes. Where the family saw happiness +he saw fortune. While helping Balthazar in his experiments he had come +to share his beliefs. Whether he really understood the drift of his +master’s researches from certain exclamations which escaped the chemist +when expected results disappointed him, or whether the innate tendency +of mankind towards imitation made him adopt the ideas of the man in +whose atmosphere he lived, certain it is that Lemulquinier had conceived +for his master a superstitious feeling that was a mixture of terror, +admiration, and selfishness. The laboratory was to him what a +lottery-office is to the masses,--organized hope. Every night he went +to bed saying to himself, “To-morrow we may float in gold”; and every +morning he woke with a faith as firm as that of the night before. + +His name proved that his origin was wholly Flemish. In former days the +lower classes were known by some name or nickname derived from their +trades, their surroundings, their physical conformation, or their moral +qualities. This name became the patronymic of the burgher family which +each established as soon as he obtained his freedom. Sellers of linen +thread were called in Flanders, “mulquiniers”; and that no doubt was +the trade of the particular ancestor of the old valet who passed from +a state of serfdom to one of burgher dignity, until some unknown +misfortune had again reduced his present descendant to the condition of +a serf, with the addition of wages. The whole history of Flanders and +its linen-trade was epitomized in this old man, often called, by way of +euphony, Mulquinier. He was not without originality, either of character +or appearance. His face was triangular in shape, broad and long, and +seamed by small-pox which had left innumerable white and shining patches +that gave him a fantastic appearance. He was tall and thin; his whole +demeanor solemn and mysterious; and his small eyes, yellow as the wig +which was smoothly plastered on his head, cast none but oblique glances. + +The old valet’s outward man was in keeping with the feeling of curiosity +which he everywhere inspired. His position as assistant to his master, +the depositary of a secret jealously guarded and about which he +maintained a rigid silence, invested him with a species of charm. The +denizens of the rue de Paris watched him pass with an interest mingled +with awe; to all their questions he returned sibylline answers big with +mysterious treasures. Proud of being necessary to his master, he assumed +an annoying authority over his companions, employing it to further his +own interests and compel a submission which made him virtually the ruler +of the house. Contrary to the custom of Flemish servants, who are deeply +attached to the families whom they serve, Mulquinier cared only for +Balthazar. If any trouble befell Madame Claes, or any joyful event +happened to the family, he ate his bread and butter and drank his beer +as phlegmatically as ever. + +Dinner over, Madame Claes proposed that coffee should be served in +the garden, by the bed of tulips which adorned the centre of it. The +earthenware pots in which the bulbs were grown (the name of each flower +being engraved on slate labels) were sunk in the ground and so +arranged as to form a pyramid, at the summit of which rose a certain +dragon’s-head tulip which Balthazar alone possessed. This flower, named +“tulipa Claesiana,” combined the seven colors; and the curved edges of +each petal looked as though they were gilt. Balthazar’s father, who had +frequently refused ten thousand florins for this treasure, took such +precautions against the theft of a single seed that he kept the plant +always in the parlor and often spent whole days in contemplating it. The +stem was enormous, erect, firm, and admirably green; the proportions +of the plant were in harmony with the proportions of the flower, whose +seven colors were distinguishable from each other with the clearly +defined brilliancy which formerly gave such fabulous value to these +dazzling plants. + +“Here you have at least thirty or forty thousand francs’ worth of +tulips,” said the notary, looking alternately at Madame Claes and at the +many-colored pyramid. The former was too enthusiastic over the beauty +of the flowers, which the setting sun was just then transforming into +jewels, to observe the meaning of the notary’s words. + +“What good do they do you?” continued Pierquin, addressing Balthazar; +“you ought to sell them.” + +“Bah! am I in want of money?” replied Claes, in the tone of a man to +whom forty thousand francs was a matter of no consequence. + +There was a moment’s silence, during which the children made many +exclamations. + +“See this one, mamma!” + +“Oh! here’s a beauty!” + +“Tell me the name of that one!” + +“What a gulf for human reason to sound!” cried Balthazar, raising +his hands and clasping them with a gesture of despair. “A compound of +hydrogen and oxygen gives off, according to their relative proportions, +under the same conditions and by the same principle, these manifold +colors, each of which constitutes a distinct result.” + +His wife heard the words of his proposition, but it was uttered so +rapidly that she did not seize its exact meaning; and Balthazar, as +if remembering that she had studied his favorite science, made her a +mysterious sign, saying,-- + +“You do not yet understand me, but you will.” + +Then he apparently fell back into the absorbed meditation now habitual +to him. + +“No, I am sure you do not understand him,” said Pierquin, taking his +coffee from Marguerite’s hand. “The Ethiopian can’t change his skin, nor +the leopard his spots,” he whispered to Madame Claes. “Have the goodness +to remonstrate with him later; the devil himself couldn’t draw him out +of his cogitation now; he is in it for to-day, at any rate.” + +So saying, he bade good-bye to Claes, who pretended not to hear him, +kissed little Jean in his mother’s arms, and retired with a low bow. + +When the street-door clanged behind him, Balthazar caught his wife round +the waist, and put an end to the uneasiness his feigned reverie was +causing her by whispering in her ear,-- + +“I knew how to get rid of him.” + +Madame Claes turned her face to her husband, not ashamed to let him +see the tears of happiness that filled her eyes: then she rested her +forehead against his shoulder and let little Jean slide to the floor. + +“Let us go back into the parlor,” she said, after a pause. + +Balthazar was exuberantly gay throughout the evening. He invented games +for the children, and played with such zest himself that he did not +notice two or three short absences made by his wife. About half-past +nine, when Jean had gone to bed, Marguerite returned to the parlor after +helping her sister Felicie to undress, and found her mother seated in +the deep armchair, and her father holding his wife’s hand as he talked +to her. The young girl feared to disturb them, and was about to retire +without speaking, when Madame Claes caught sight of her, and said:-- + +“Come in, Marguerite; come here, dear child.” She drew her down, kissed +her tenderly on the forehead, and said, “Carry your book into your own +room; but do not sit up too late.” + +“Good-night, my darling daughter,” said Balthazar. + +Marguerite kissed her father and mother and went away. Husband and wife +remained alone for some minutes without speaking, watching the last +glimmer of the twilight as it faded from the trees in the garden, whose +outlines were scarcely discernible through the gathering darkness. +When night had almost fallen, Balthazar said to his wife in a voice of +emotion,-- + +“Let us go upstairs.” + +Long before English manners and customs had consecrated the wife’s +chamber as a sacred spot, that of a Flemish woman was impenetrable. The +good housewives of the Low Countries did not make it a symbol of +virtue. It was to them a habit contracted from childhood, a domestic +superstition, rendering the bedroom a delightful sanctuary of tender +feelings, where simplicity blended with all that was most sweet and +sacred in social life. Any woman in Madame Claes’s position would have +wished to gather about her the elegances of life, but Josephine had done +so with exquisite taste, knowing well how great an influence the aspect +of our surroundings exerts upon the feelings of others. To a pretty +creature it would have been mere luxury, to her it was a necessity. +No one better understood the meaning of the saying, “A pretty woman is +self-created,”--a maxim which guided every action of Napoleon’s first +wife, and often made her false; whereas Madame Claes was ever natural +and true. + +Though Balthazar knew his wife’s chamber well, his forgetfulness of +material things had lately been so complete that he felt a thrill of +soft emotion when he entered it, as though he saw it for the first time. +The proud gaiety of a triumphant woman glowed in the splendid colors of +the tulips which rose from the long throats of Chinese vases judiciously +placed about the room, and sparkled in the profusion of lights whose +effect can only be compared to a joyous burst of martial music. The +gleam of the wax candles cast a mellow sheen on the coverings of +pearl-gray silk, whose monotony was relieved by touches of gold, soberly +distributed here and there on a few ornaments, and by the varied colors +of the tulips, which were like sheaves of precious stones. The secret +of this choice arrangement--it was he, ever he! Josephine could not tell +him in words more eloquent that he was now and ever the mainspring of +her joys and woes. + +The aspect of that chamber put the soul deliciously at ease, cast out +sad thoughts, and left a sense of pure and equable happiness. The +silken coverings, brought from China, gave forth a soothing perfume +that penetrated the system without fatiguing it. The curtains, carefully +drawn, betrayed a desire for solitude, a jealous intention of guarding +the sound of every word, of hiding every look of the reconquered +husband. Madame Claes, wearing a dressing-robe of muslin, which was +trimmed by a long pelerine with falls of lace that came about her +throat, and adorned with her beautiful black hair, which was exquisitely +glossy and fell on either side of her forehead like a raven’s wing, went +to draw the tapestry portiere that hung before the door and allowed no +sound to penetrate the chamber from without. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +At the doorway Josephine turned, and threw to her husband, who was +sitting near the chimney, one of those gay smiles with which a sensitive +woman whose soul comes at moments into her face, rendering it beautiful, +gives expression to irresistible hopes. Woman’s greatest charm lies +in her constant appeal to the generosity of man by the admission of a +weakness which stirs his pride and wakens him to the nobler sentiments. +Is not such an avowal of weakness full of magical seduction? When the +rings of the portiere had slipped with a muffled sound along the wooden +rod, she turned towards Claes, and made as though she would hide her +physical defects by resting her hand upon a chair and drawing herself +gracefully forward. It was calling him to help her. Balthazar, sunk for +a moment in contemplation of the olive-tinted head, which attracted +and satisfied the eye as it stood out in relief against the soft gray +background, rose to take his wife in his arms and carry her to her sofa. +This was what she wanted. + +“You promised me,” she said, taking his hand which she held between her +own magnetic palms, “to tell me the secret of your researches. Admit, +dear friend, that I am worthy to know it, since I have had the courage +to study a science condemned by the Church that I might be able to +understand you. I am curious; hide nothing from me. Tell me first how +it happened, that you rose one morning anxious and oppressed, when over +night I had left you happy.” + +“Is it to hear me talk of chemistry that you have made yourself so +coquettishly delightful?” + +“Dear friend, a confidence which puts me in your inner heart is the +greatest of all pleasures for me; is it not a communion of souls which +gives birth to the highest happiness of earth? Your love comes back to +me not lessened, pure; I long to know what dream has had the power to +keep it from me so long. Yes, I am more jealous of a thought than of +all the women in the world. Love is vast, but it is not infinite, while +Science has depths unfathomed, to which I will not let you go alone. +I hate all that comes between us. If you win the glory for which +you strive, I must be unhappy; it will bring you joy, while I--I +alone--should be the giver of your happiness.” + +“No, my angel, it was not an idea, not a thought; it was a man that +first led me into this glorious path.” + +“A man!” she cried in terror. + +“Do you remember, Pepita, the Polish officer who stayed with us in +1809?” + +“Do I remember him!” she exclaimed; “I am often annoyed because my +memory still recalls those eyes, like tongues of fire darting from coals +of hell, those hollows above the eyebrows, that broad skull stripped +of hair, the upturned moustache, the angular, worn face!--What awful +impassiveness in his bearing! Ah! surely if there had been a room in any +inn I would never have allowed him to sleep here.” + +“That Polish gentleman,” resumed Balthazar, “was named Adam de +Wierzchownia. When you left us alone that evening in the parlor, we +happened by chance to speak of chemistry. Compelled by poverty to give +up the study of that science, he had become a soldier. It was, I think, +by means of a glass of sugared water that we recognized each other as +adepts. When I ordered Mulquinier to bring the sugar in pieces, the +captain gave a start of surprise. ‘Have you studied chemistry?’ he +asked. ‘With Lavoisier,’ I answered. ‘You are happy in being rich and +free,’ he cried; then from the depths of his bosom came the sigh of a +man,--one of those sighs which reveal a hell of anguish hidden in the +brain or in the heart, a something ardent, concentrated, not to be +expressed in words. He ended his sentence with a look that startled +me. After a pause, he told me that Poland being at her last gasp he +had taken refuge in Sweden. There he had sought consolation for his +country’s fate in the study of chemistry, for which he had always felt +an irresistible vocation. ‘And I see you recognize as I do,’ he added, +‘that gum arabic, sugar, and starch, reduced to powder, each yield a +substance absolutely similar, with, when analyzed, the same qualitative +result.’ + +“He paused again; and then, after examining me with a searching eye, he +said confidentially, in a low voice, certain grave words whose general +meaning alone remains fixed on my memory; but he spoke with a force of +tone, with fervid inflections, with an energy of gesture, which stirred +my very vitals, and struck my imagination as the hammer strikes the +anvil. I will tell you briefly the arguments he used, which were to me +like the live coal laid by the Almighty upon Isaiah’s tongue; for my +studies with Lavoisier enabled me to understand their full bearing. + +“‘Monsieur,’ he said, ‘the parity of these three substances, in +appearance so distinct, led me to think that all the productions of +nature ought to have a single principle. The researches of modern +chemistry prove the truth of this law in the larger part of natural +effects. Chemistry divides creation into two distinct parts,--organic +nature, and inorganic nature. Organic nature, comprising as it does all +animal and vegetable creations which show an organization more or less +perfect,--or, to be more exact, a greater or lesser motive power, which +gives more or less sensibility,--is, undoubtedly, the more important +part of our earth. Now, analysis has reduced all the products of +this nature to four simple substances, namely: three gases, nitrogen, +hydrogen, and oxygen, and another simple substance, non-metallic and +solid, carbon. Inorganic nature, on the contrary, so simple, devoid of +movement and sensation, denied the power of growth (too hastily +accorded to it by Linnaeus), possesses fifty-three simple substances, or +elements, whose different combinations make its products. Is it probable +that means should be more numerous where a lesser number of results are +produced? + +“‘My master’s opinion was that these fifty-three primary bodies have +one originating principle, acted upon in the past by some force the +knowledge of which has perished to-day, but which human genius ought to +rediscover. Well, then, suppose that this force does live and act again; +we have chemical unity. Organic and inorganic nature would apparently +then rest on four essential principles,--in fact, if we could decompose +nitrogen which we ought to consider a negation, we should have but +three. This brings us at once close upon the great Ternary of the +ancients and of the alchemists of the Middle Ages, whom we do wrong to +scorn. Modern chemistry is nothing more than that. It is much, and yet +little,--much, because the science has never recoiled before difficulty; +little, in comparison with what remains to be done. Chance has served +her well, my noble Science! Is not that tear of crystallized pure +carbon, the diamond, seemingly the last substance possible to create? +The old alchemists, who thought that gold was decomposable and therefore +creatable, shrank from the idea of producing the diamond. Yet we have +discovered the nature and the law of its composition. + +“‘As for me,’ he continued, ‘I have gone farther still. An experiment +proved to me that the mysterious Ternary, which has occupied the human +mind from time immemorial, will not be found by physical analyses, which +lack direction to a fixed point. I will relate, in the first place, the +experiment itself. + +“‘Sow cress-seed (to take one among the many substances of organic +nature) in flour of brimstone (to take another simple substance). +Sprinkle the seed with distilled water, that no unknown element may +reach the product of the germination. The seed germinates, and sprouts +from a known environment, and feeds only on elements known by analysis. +Cut off the stalks from time to time, till you get a sufficient quantity +to produce after burning them enough ashes for the experiment. Well, +by analyzing those ashes, you will obtain silicic acid, aluminium, +phosphate and carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, the sulphate and +carbonate of potassium, and oxide of iron, precisely as if the cress +had grown in ordinary earth, beside a brook. Now, those elements did not +exist in the brimstone, a simple substance which served for soil to the +cress, nor in the distilled water with which the plant was nourished, +whose composition was known. But since they are no more to be found +in the seed itself, we can explain their presence in the plant only by +assuming the existence of a primary element common to all the substances +contained in the cress, and also to all those by which we environed +it. Thus the air, the distilled water, the brimstone, and the various +elements which analysis finds in the cress, namely, potash, lime, +magnesia, aluminium, etc., should have one common principle floating in +the atmosphere like light of the sun. + +“‘From this unimpeachable experiment,’ he cried, ‘I deduce the existence +of the Alkahest, the Absolute,--a substance common to all created +things, differentiated by one primary force. Such is the net meaning +and position of the problem of the Absolute, which appears to me to +be solvable. In it we find the mysterious Ternary, before whose shrine +humanity has knelt from the dawn of ages,--the primary matter, the +medium, the product. We find that terrible number THREE in all things +human. It governs religions, sciences, and laws. + +“‘It was at this point,’ he went on, ‘that poverty put an end to my +researches. You were the pupil of Lavoisier, you are rich, and master of +your own time, I will therefore tell you my conjectures. Listen to the +conclusions my personal experiments have led me to foresee. The PRIME +MATTER must be the common principle in the three gases and in carbon. +The MEDIUM must be the principle common to negative and positive +electricity. Proceed to the discovery of the proofs that will establish +those two truths; you will then find the explanation of all phenomenal +existence. + +“‘Oh, monsieur!’ he cried, striking his brow, ‘when I know that I +carry here the last word of Creation, when intuitively I perceive the +Unconditioned, is it LIVING to be dragged hither and thither in the ruck +of men who fly at each other’s throats at the word of command without +knowing what they are doing? My actual life is an inverted dream. My +body comes and goes and acts; it moves amid bullets, and cannon, and +men; it crosses Europe at the will of a power I obey and yet despise. My +soul has no consciousness of these acts; it is fixed, immovable, plunged +in one idea, rapt in that idea, the Search for the Alkahest,--for that +principle by which seeds that are absolutely alike, growing in the same +environments, produce, some a white, others a yellow flower. The same +phenomenon is seen in silkworms fed from the same leaves, and apparently +constituted exactly alike,--one produces yellow silk, another white; and +if we come to man himself, we find that children often resemble neither +father nor mother. The logical deduction from this fact surely involves +the explanation of all the phenomena of nature. + +“‘Ah, what can be more in harmony with our ideas of God than to believe +that he created all things by the simplest method? The Pythagorean +worship of ONE, from which come all other numbers, and which represented +Primal Matter; that of the number TWO, the first aggregation and the +type of all the rest; that of the number THREE, which throughout +all time has symbolized God,--that is to say, Matter, Force, and +Product,--are they not an echo, lingering along the ages, of some +confused knowledge of the Absolute? Stahl, Becker, Paracelsus, Agrippa, +all the great Searchers into occult causes took the Great Triad for +their watchword,--in other words, the Ternary. Ignorant men who despise +alchemy, that transcendent chemistry, are not aware that our work is +only carrying onward the passionate researches of those great men. Had +I found the Absolute, the Unconditioned, I meant to have grappled with +Motion. Ah! while I am swallowing gunpowder and leading men uselessly to +their death, my former master is piling discovery upon discovery! he +is soaring towards the Absolute, while I--I shall die like a dog in the +trenches!’ + +“When this poor grand man recovered his composure, he said, in a +touching tone of brotherhood, ‘If I see cause for a great experiment +I will bequeath it to you before I die.’--My Pepita,” cried Balthazar, +taking his wife’s hands, “tears of anguish rolled down his hollow +cheeks, as he cast into my soul the fiery arguments that Lavoisier had +timidly recognized without daring to follow them out--” + +“Oh!” cried Madame Claes, unable to refrain from interrupting her +husband, “that man, passing one night under our roof, was able to +deprive us of your love, to destroy with a phrase, a word, the happiness +of a family! Oh, my dear Balthazar, did he make the sign of the cross? +did you examine him? The Tempter alone could have had that flaming eye +which sent forth the fire of Prometheus. Yes, none but the devil could +have torn you from me. From that day you have been neither husband, nor +father, nor master of your family.” + +“What!” exclaimed Balthazar, springing to his feet and casting a +piercing glance at his wife, “do you blame your husband for rising above +the level of other men that he may lay at your feet the divine purple +of his glory, as a paltry offering in exchange for the treasures of your +heart! Ah, my Pepita,” he cried, “you do not know what I have done. In +these three years I have made giant strides--” + +His face seemed to his wife at this moment more transfigured under the +fires of genius than she had ever seen it under the fires of love; and +she wept as she listened to him. + +“I have combined chlorine and nitrogen; I have decomposed many +substances hitherto considered simple; I have discovered new metals. +Why!” he continued, noticing that his wife wept, “I have even decomposed +tears. Tears contain a little phosphate of lime, chloride of sodium, +mucin, and water.” + +He went on speaking, without observing the spasm of pain that contracted +Josephine’s features; he was again astride of Science, which bore him +with outspread wings far away from material existence. + +“This analysis, my dear,” he went on, “is one of the most convincing +proofs of the theory of the Absolute. All life involves combustion. +According to the greater or the lesser activity of the fire on its +hearth is life more or less enduring. In like manner, the destruction +of mineral bodies is indefinitely retarded, because in their case +combustion is nominal, latent, or imperceptible. In like manner, again, +vegetables, which are constantly revived by combinations producing +dampness, live indefinitely; in fact, we still possess certain +vegetables which existed before the period of the last cataclysm. But +each time that nature has perfected an organism and then, for some +unknown reason, has introduced into it sensation, instinct, or +intelligence (three marked stages of the organic system), these three +agencies necessitate a combustion whose activity is in direct proportion +to the result obtained. Man, who represents the highest point of +intelligence, and who offers us the only organism by which we arrive at +a power that is semi-creative--namely, THOUGHT--is, among all zoological +creations, the one in which combustion is found in its most intense +degree; whose powerful effects may in fact be seen to some extent in the +phosphates, sulphates, and carbonates which a man’s body reveals to +our analysis. May not these substances be traces left within him of +the passage of the electric fluid which is the principle of all +fertilization? Would not electricity manifest itself by a greater +variety of compounds in him than in any other animal? Should not he have +faculties above those of all other created beings for the purpose of +absorbing fuller portions of the Absolute principle? and may he not +assimilate that principle so as to produce, in some more perfect +mechanism, his force and his ideas? I think so. Man is a retort. In my +judgment, the brain of an idiot contains too little phosphorous or other +product of electro-magnetism, that of a madman too much; the brain of an +ordinary man has but little, while that of a man of genius is saturated +to its due degree. The man constantly in love, the street-porter, the +dancer, the large eater, are the ones who disperse the force resulting +from their electrical apparatus. Consequently, our feelings--” + +“Enough, Balthazar! you terrify me; you commit sacrilege. What, is my +love--” + +“An ethereal matter disengaged, an emanation, the key of the Absolute. +Conceive if I--I, the first, should find it, find it, find it!” + +As he uttered the words in three rising tones, the expression of his +face rose by degrees to inspiration. “I shall make metals,” he cried; “I +shall make diamonds, I shall be a co-worker with Nature!” + +“Will you be the happier?” she asked in despair. “Accursed science! +accursed demon! You forget, Claes, that you commit the sin of pride, the +sin of which Satan was guilty; you assume the attributes of God.” + +“Oh! oh! God!” + +“He denies Him!” she cried, wringing her hands. “Claes, God wields a +power that you can never gain.” + +At this argument, which seemed to discredit his beloved Science, he +looked at his wife and trembled. + +“What power?” he asked. + +“Primal force--motion,” she replied. “This is what I learn from the +books your mania has constrained me to read. Analyze fruits, flowers, +Malaga wine; you will discover, undoubtedly, that their substances come, +like those of your water-cress, from a medium that seems foreign to +them. You can, if need be, find them in nature; but when you have them, +can you combine them? can you make the flowers, the fruits, the Malaga +wine? Will you have grasped the inscrutable effects of the sun, of the +atmosphere of Spain? Ah! decomposing is not creating.” + +“If I discover the magistral force, I shall be able to create.” + +“Will nothing stop him?” cried Pepita. “Oh! my love, my love! it is +killed! I have lost him!” + +She wept bitterly, and her eyes, illumined by grief and by the sanctity +of the feelings that flooded her soul, shone with greater beauty than +ever through her tears. + +“Yes,” she resumed in a broken voice, “you are dead to all. I see it +but too well. Science is more powerful within you than your own self; +it bears you to heights from which you will return no more to be the +companion of a poor woman. What joys can I still offer you? Ah! I would +fain believe, as a wretched consolation, that God has indeed created you +to make manifest his works, to chant his praises; that he has put within +your breast the irresistible power that has mastered you--But no; God is +good; he would keep in your heart some thoughts of the woman who adores +you, of the children you are bound to protect. It is the Evil One alone +who is helping you to walk amid these fathomless abysses, these clouds +of outer darkness, where the light of faith does not guide you,--nothing +guides you but a terrible belief in your own faculties! Were it +otherwise, would you not have seen that you have wasted nine hundred +thousand francs in three years? Oh! do me justice, you, my God on earth! +I reproach you not; were we alone I would bring you, on my knees, all +I possess and say, ‘Take it, fling it into your furnace, turn it into +smoke’; and I should laugh to see it float away in vapor. Were you poor, +I would beg without shame for the coal to light your furnace. Oh! could +my body yield your hateful Alkahest, I would fling myself upon those +fires with joy, since your glory, your delight is in that unfound +secret. But our children, Claes, our children! what will become of them +if you do not soon discover this hellish thing? Do you know why Pierquin +came to-day? He came for thirty thousand francs, which you owe and +cannot pay. I told him that you had the money, so that I might spare you +the mortification of his questions; but to get it I must sell our family +silver.” + +She saw her husband’s eyes grow moist, and she flung herself +despairingly at his feet, raising up to him her supplicating hands. + +“My friend,” she cried, “refrain awhile from these researches; let us +economize, let us save the money that may enable you to take them up +hereafter,--if, indeed, you cannot renounce this work. Oh! I do not +condemn it; I will heat your furnaces if you ask it; but I implore you, +do not reduce our children to beggary. Perhaps you cannot love them, +Science may have consumed your heart; but oh! do not bequeath them a +wretched life in place of the happiness you owe them. Motherhood has +sometimes been too weak a power in my heart; yes, I have sometimes +wished I were not a mother, that I might be closer to your soul, your +life! And now, to stifle my remorse, must I plead the cause of my +children before you, and not my own?” + +Her hair fell loose and floated over her shoulders, her eyes shot forth +her feelings as though they had been arrows. She triumphed over her +rival. Balthazar lifted her, carried her to the sofa, and knelt at her +feet. + +“Have I caused you such grief?” he said, in the tone of a man waking +from a painful dream. + +“My poor Claes! yes, and you will cause me more, in spite of yourself,” + she said, passing her hand over his hair. “Sit here beside me,” she +continued, pointing to the sofa. “Ah! I can forget it all now, now that +you come back to us; all can be repaired--but you will not abandon +me again? say that you will not! My noble husband, grant me a woman’s +influence on your heart, that influence which is so needful to the +happiness of suffering artists, to the troubled minds of great men. You +may be harsh to me, angry with me if you will, but let me check you a +little for your good. I will never abuse the power if you will grant it. +Be famous, but be happy too. Do not love Chemistry better than you love +us. Hear me, we will be generous; we will let Science share your heart; +but oh! my Claes, be just; let us have our half. Tell me, is not my +disinterestedness sublime?” + +She made him smile. With the marvellous art such women possess, she +carried the momentous question into the regions of pleasantry where +women reign. But though she seemed to laugh, her heart was violently +contracted and could not easily recover the quiet even action that was +habitual to it. And yet, as she saw in the eyes of Balthazar the rebirth +of a love which was once her glory, the full return of a power she +thought she had lost, she said to him with a smile:-- + +“Believe me, Balthazar, nature made us to feel; and though you may wish +us to be mere electrical machines, yet your gases and your ethereal +disengaged matters will never explain the gift we possess of looking +into futurity.” + +“Yes,” he exclaimed, “by affinity. The power of vision which makes the +poet, the power of deduction which makes the man of science, are based +on invisible affinities, intangible, imponderable, which vulgar minds +class as moral phenomena, whereas they are physical effects. The prophet +sees and deduces. Unfortunately, such affinities are too rare and too +obscure to be subjected to analysis or observation.” + +“Is this,” she said, giving him a kiss to drive away the Chemistry she +had so unfortunately reawakened, “what you call an affinity?” + +“No; it is a compound; two substances that are equivalents are neutral, +they produce no reaction--” + +“Oh! hush, hush,” she cried, “you will make me die of grief. I can never +bear to see my rival in the transports of your love.” + +“But, my dear life, I think only of you. My work is for the glory of my +family. You are the basis of all my hopes.” + +“Ah, look me in the eyes!” + +The scene had made her as beautiful as a young woman; of her whole +person Balthazar saw only her head, rising from a cloud of lace and +muslin. + +“Yes, I have done wrong to abandon you for Science,” he said. “If I fall +back into thought and preoccupation, then, my Pepita, you must drag me +from them; I desire it.” + +She lowered her eyes and let him take her hand, her greatest beauty,--a +hand that was both strong and delicate. + +“But I ask more,” she said. + +“You are so lovely, so delightful, you can obtain all,” he answered. + +“I wish to destroy that laboratory, and chain up Science,” she said, +with fire in her eyes. + +“So be it--let Chemistry go to the devil!” + +“This moment effaces all!” she cried. “Make me suffer now, if you will.” + +Tears came to Balthazar’s eyes, as he heard these words. + +“You were right, love,” he said. “I have seen you through a veil; I have +not understood you.” + +“If it concerned only me,” she said, “willingly would I have suffered +in silence, never would I have raised my voice against my sovereign. But +your sons must be thought of, Claes. If you continue to dissipate your +property, no matter how glorious the object you have in view the world +will take little account of it, it will only blame you and yours. But +surely, it is enough for a man of your noble nature that his wife has +shown him a danger he did not perceive. We will talk of this no more,” + she cried, with a smile and a glance of coquetry. “To-night, my Claes, +let us not be less than happy.” + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +On the morrow of this evening so eventful for the Claes family, +Balthazar, from whom Josephine had doubtless obtained some promise as +to the cessation of his researches, remained in the parlor, and did not +enter his laboratory. The succeeding day the household prepared to +move into the country, where they stayed for more than two months, only +returning to town in time to prepare for the fete which Claes determined +to give, as in former years, to commemorate his wedding-day. He now +began by degrees to obtain proof of the disorder which his experiments +and his indifference had brought into his business affairs. + +Madame Claes, far from irritating the wound by remarking on it, +continually found remedies for the evil that was done. Of the seven +servants who customarily served the family, there now remained only +Lemulquinier, Josette the cook, and an old waiting-woman, named Martha, +who had never left her mistress since the latter left her convent. It +was of course impossible to give a fete to the whole society of Douai +with so few servants, but Madame Claes overcame all difficulties by +proposing to send to Paris for a cook, to train the gardener’s son as +a waiter, and to borrow Pierquin’s manservant. Thus the pinched +circumstances of the family passed unnoticed by the community. + +During the twenty days of preparation for the fete, Madame Claes was +cleverly able to outwit her husband’s listlessness. She commissioned him +to select the rarest plants and flowers to decorate the grand staircase, +the gallery, and the salons; then she sent him to Dunkerque to order one +of those monstrous fish which are the glory of the burgher tables in the +northern departments. A fete like that the Claes were about to give is a +serious affair, involving thought and care and active correspondence, in +a land where traditions of hospitality put the family honor so much +at stake that to servants as well as masters a grand dinner is like a +victory won over the guests. Oysters arrived from Ostend, grouse were +imported from Scotland, fruits came from Paris; in short, not the +smallest accessory was lacking to the hereditary luxury. + +A ball at the House of Claes had an importance of its own. The +government of the department was then at Douai, and the anniversary fete +of the Claes usually opened the winter season and set the fashion to the +neighborhood. For fifteen years, Balthazar had endeavored to make it +a distinguished occasion, and had succeeded so well that the fete was +talked of throughout a circumference of sixty miles, and the toilettes, +the guests, the smallest details, the novelties exhibited, and the +events that took place, were discussed far and wide. These preparations +now prevented Claes from thinking, for the time being, of the Alkahest. +Since his return to social life and domestic bliss, the servant of +science had recovered his self-love as a man, as a Fleming, as the +master of a household, and he now took pleasure in the thought of +surprising the whole country. He resolved to give a special character +to this ball by some exquisite novelty; and he chose, among all +other caprices of luxury, the loveliest, the richest, and the most +fleeting,--he turned the old mansion into a fairy bower of rare plants +and flowers, and prepared choice bouquets for all the ladies. + +The other details of the fete were in keeping with this unheard-of +luxury, and nothing seemed likely to mar the effect. But the +Twenty-ninth Bulletin and the news of the terrible disasters of the +grand army in Russia, and at the passage of the Beresina, were made +known on the afternoon of the appointed day. A sincere and profound +grief was felt in Douai, and those who were present at the fete, moved +by a natural feeling of patriotism, unanimously declined to dance. + +Among the letters which arrived that day in Douai, was one for Balthazar +from Monsieur de Wierzchownia, then in Dresden and dying, he wrote, +from wounds received in one of the late engagements. He remembered his +promise, and desired to bequeath to his former host several ideas on the +subject of the Absolute, which had come to him since the period of their +meeting. The letter plunged Claes into a reverie which apparently did +honor to his patriotism; but his wife was not misled by it. To her, this +festal day brought a double mourning: and the ball, during which the +House of Claes shone with departing lustre, was sombre and sad in spite +of its magnificence, and the many choice treasures gathered by the hands +of six generations, which the people of Douai now beheld for the last +time. + +Marguerite Claes, just sixteen, was the queen of the day, and on this +occasion her parents presented her to society. She attracted all eyes by +the extreme simplicity and candor of her air and manner, and especially +by the harmony of her form and countenance with the characteristics of +her home. She was the embodiment of the Flemish girl whom the painters +of that country loved to represent,--the head perfectly rounded and +full, chestnut hair parted in the middle and laid smoothly on the brow, +gray eyes with a mixture of green, handsome arms, natural stoutness +which did not detract from her beauty, a timid air, and yet, on the +high square brow an expression of firmness, hidden at present under an +apparent calmness and docility. Without being sad or melancholy, she +seemed to have little natural enjoyment. Reflectiveness, order, a +sense of duty, the three chief expressions of Flemish nature, were the +characteristics of a face that seemed cold at first sight, but to which +the eye was recalled by a certain grace of outline and a placid pride +which seemed the pledges of domestic happiness. By one of those freaks +which physiologists have not yet explained, she bore no likeness to +either father or mother, but was the living image of her maternal +great-grandmother, a Conyncks of Bruges, whose portrait, religiously +preserved, bore witness to the resemblance. + +The supper gave some life to the ball. If the military disasters forbade +the delights of dancing, every one felt that they need not exclude the +pleasures of the table. The true patriots, however, retired early; only +the more indifferent remained, together with a few card players and the +intimate friends of the family. Little by little the brilliantly lighted +house, to which all the notabilities of Douai had flocked, sank into +silence, and by one o’clock in the morning the great gallery was +deserted, the lights were extinguished in one salon after another, +and the court-yard, lately so bustling and brilliant, grew dark and +gloomy,--prophetic image of the future that lay before the family. When +the Claes returned to their own appartement, Balthazar gave his wife the +letter he had received from the Polish officer: Josephine returned it +with a mournful gesture; she foresaw the coming doom. + +From that day forth, Balthazar made no attempt to disguise the weariness +and the depression that assailed him. In the mornings, after the family +breakfast, he played for awhile in the parlor with little Jean, and +talked to his daughters, who were busy with their sewing, or embroidery +or lace-work; but he soon wearied of the play and of the talk, and +seemed at last to get through with them as a duty. When his wife came +down again after dressing, she always found him sitting in an easy-chair +looking blankly at Marguerite and Felicie, quite undisturbed by the +rattle of their bobbins. When the newspaper was brought in, he read it +slowly like a retired merchant at a loss how to kill the time. Then he +would get up, look at the sky through the window panes, go back to his +chair and mend the fire drearily, as though he were deprived of all +consciousness of his own movements by the tyranny of ideas. + +Madame Claes keenly regretted her defects of education and memory. It +was difficult for her to sustain an interesting conversation for any +length of time; perhaps this is always difficult between two persons who +have said everything to each other, and are forced to seek for subjects +of interest outside the life of the heart, or the life of material +existence. The life of the heart has its own moments of expansion which +need some stimulus to bring them forth; discussions of material life +cannot long occupy superior minds accustomed to decide promptly; and the +mere gossip of society is intolerable to loving natures. Consequently, +two isolated beings who know each other thoroughly ought to seek their +enjoyments in the higher regions of thought; for it is impossible to +satisfy with paltry things the immensity of the relation between them. +Moreover, when a man has accustomed himself to deal with great subjects, +he becomes unamusable, unless he preserves in the depths of his heart +a certain guileless simplicity and unconstraint which often make great +geniuses such charming children; but the childhood of the heart is a +rare human phenomenon among those whose mission it is to see all, know +all, and comprehend all. + +During these first months, Madame Claes worked her way through this +critical situation, by unwearying efforts, which love or necessity +suggested to her. She tried to learn backgammon, which she had never +been able to play, but now, from an impetus easy to understand, she +ended by mastering it. Then she interested Balthazar in the education of +his daughters, and asked him to direct their studies. All such resources +were, however, soon exhausted. There came a time when Josephine’s +relation to Balthazar was like that of Madame de Maintenon to Louis +XIV.; she had to amuse the unamusable, but without the pomps of power or +the wiles of a court which could play comedies like the sham embassies +from the King of Siam and the Shah of Persia. After wasting the revenues +of France, Louis XIV., no longer young or successful, was reduced to the +expedients of a family heir to raise the money he needed; in the midst +of his grandeur he felt his impotence, and the royal nurse who had +rocked the cradles of his children was often at her wit’s end to rock +his, or soothe the monarch now suffering from his misuse of men and +things, of life and God. Claes, on the contrary, suffered from too much +power. Stifling in the clutch of a single thought, he dreamed of the +pomps of Science, of treasures for the human race, of glory for himself. +He suffered as artists suffer in the grip of poverty, as Samson suffered +beneath the pillars of the temple. The result was the same for the two +sovereigns; though the intellectual monarch was crushed by his inward +force, the other by his weakness. + +What could Pepita do, singly, against this species of scientific +nostalgia? After employing every means that family life afforded her, +she called society to the rescue, and gave two “cafes” every week. Cafes +at Douai took the place of teas. A cafe was an assemblage which, during +a whole evening, the guests sipped the delicious wines and liqueurs +which overflow the cellars of that ever-blessed land, ate the Flemish +dainties and took their “cafe noir” or their “cafe au lait frappe,” + while the women sang ballads, discussed each other’s toilettes, and +related the gossip of the day. It was a living picture by Mieris or +Terburg, without the pointed gray hats, the scarlet plumes, or the +beautiful costumes of the sixteenth century. And yet, Balthazar’s +efforts to play the part of host, his constrained courtesy, his forced +animation, left him the next day in a state of languor which showed but +too plainly the depths of the inward ill. + +These continual fetes, weak remedies for the real evil, only increased +it. Like branches which caught him as he rolled down the precipice, they +retarded Claes’s fall, but in the end he fell the heavier. Though he +never spoke of his former occupations, never showed the least regret for +the promise he had given not to renew his researches, he grew to have +the melancholy motions, the feeble voice, the depression of a sick +person. The ennui that possessed him showed at times in the very manner +with which he picked up the tongs and built fantastic pyramids in the +fire with bits of coal, utterly unconscious of what he was doing. When +night came he was evidently relieved; sleep no doubt released him from +the importunities of thought: the next day he rose wearily to encounter +another day,--seeming to measure time as the tired traveller measures +the desert he is forced to cross. + +If Madame Claes knew the cause of this languor she endeavored not to see +the extent of its ravages. Full of courage against the sufferings of the +mind, she was helpless against the generous impulses of the heart. She +dared not question Balthazar when she saw him listening to the laughter +of little Jean or the chatter of his girls, with the air of a man +absorbed in secret thoughts; but she shuddered when she saw him shake +off his melancholy and try, with generous intent, to seem cheerful, that +he might not distress others. The little coquetries of the father with +his daughters, or his games with little Jean, moistened the eyes of +the poor wife, who often left the room to hide the feelings that heroic +effort caused her,--a heroism the cost of which is well understood by +women, a generosity that well-nigh breaks their heart. At such times +Madame Claes longed to say, “Kill me, and do what you will!” + +Little by little Balthazar’s eyes lost their fire and took the glaucous +opaque tint which overspreads the eyes of old men. His attentions to his +wife, his manner of speaking, his whole bearing, grew heavy and inert. +These symptoms became more marked towards the end of April, terrifying +Madame Claes, to whom the sight was now intolerable, and who had all +along reproached herself a thousand times while she admired the Flemish +loyalty which kept her husband faithful to his promise. + +At last, one day when Balthazar seemed more depressed than ever, she +hesitated no longer; she resolved to sacrifice everything and bring him +back to life. + +“Dear friend,” she said, “I release you from your promise.” + +Balthazar looked at her in amazement. + +“You are thinking of your researches, are you not?” she continued. + +He answered by a gesture of startling eagerness. Far from remonstrating, +Madame Claes, who had had leisure to sound the abyss into which they +were about to fall together, took his hand and pressed it, smiling. + +“Thank you,” she said; “now I am sure of my power. You sacrificed more +than your life to me. In future, be the sacrifices mine. Though I have +sold some of my diamonds, enough are left, with those my brother gave +me, to get the necessary money for your experiments. I intended those +jewels for my daughters, but your glory shall sparkle in their stead; +and, besides, you will some day replace them with other and finer +diamonds.” + +The joy that suddenly lighted her husband’s face was like a death-knell +to the wife: she saw, with anguish, that the man’s passion was stronger +than himself. Claes had faith in his work which enabled him to walk +without faltering on a path which, to his wife, was the edge of a +precipice. For him faith, for her doubt,--for her the heavier burden: +does not the woman ever suffer for the two? At this moment she chose to +believe in his success, that she might justify to herself her connivance +in the probable wreck of their fortunes. + +“The love of all my life can be no recompense for your devotion, +Pepita,” said Claes, deeply moved. + +He had scarcely uttered the words when Marguerite and Felicie entered +the room and wished him good-morning. Madame Claes lowered her eyes +and remained for a moment speechless in presence of her children, +whose future she had just sacrificed to a delusion; her husband, on the +contrary, took them on his knees, and talked to them gaily, delighted to +give vent to the joy that choked him. + +From this day Madame Claes shared the impassioned life of her husband. +The future of her children, their father’s credit, were two motives as +powerful to her as glory and science were to Claes. After the diamonds +were sold in Paris, and the purchase of chemicals was again begun, the +unhappy woman never knew another hour’s peace of mind. The demon of +Science and the frenzy of research which consumed her husband now +agitated her own mind; she lived in a state of continual expectation, +and sat half-lifeless for days together in the deep armchair, paralyzed +by the very violence of her wishes, which, finding no food, like those +of Balthazar, in the daily hopes of the laboratory, tormented her spirit +and aggravated her doubts and fears. Sometimes, blaming herself for +compliance with a passion whose object was futile and condemned by the +Church, she would rise, go to the window on the courtyard and gaze with +terror at the chimney of the laboratory. If the smoke were rising, an +expression of despair came into her face, a conflict of thoughts and +feelings raged in her heart and mind. She beheld her children’s future +fleeing in that smoke, but--was she not saving their father’s life? was +it not her first duty to make him happy? This last thought calmed her +for a moment. + +She obtained the right to enter the laboratory and remain there; but +even this melancholy satisfaction was soon renounced. Her sufferings +were too keen when she saw that Balthazar took no notice of her, or +seemed at times annoyed by her presence; in that fatal place she went +through paroxysms of jealous impatience, angry desires to destroy the +building,--a living death of untold miseries. Lemulquinier became to +her a species of barometer: if she heard him whistle as he laid the +breakfast-table or the dinner-table, she guessed that Balthazar’s +experiments were satisfactory, and there were prospects of a coming +success; if, on the other hand, the man were morose and gloomy, she +looked at him and trembled,--Balthazar must surely be dissatisfied. +Mistress and valet ended by understanding each other, notwithstanding +the proud reserve of the one and the reluctant submission of the other. + +Feeble and defenceless against the terrible prostrations of thought, the +poor woman at last gave way under the alternations of hope and despair +which increased the distress of the loving wife, and the anxieties of +the mother trembling for her children. She now practised the doleful +silence which formerly chilled her heart, not observing the gloom that +pervaded the house, where whole days went by in that melancholy parlor +without a smile, often without a word. Led by sad maternal foresight, +she trained her daughters to household work, and tried to make them +skilful in womanly employments, that they might have the means of +living if destitution came. The outward calm of this quiet home covered +terrible agitations. Towards the end of the summer Balthazar had used +the money derived from the diamonds, and was twenty thousand francs in +debt to Messieurs Protez and Chiffreville. + +In August, 1813, about a year after the scene with which this history +begins, although Claes had made a few valuable experiments, for which, +unfortunately, he cared but little, his efforts had been without result +as to the real object of his researches. There came a day when he ended +the whole series of experiments, and the sense of his impotence crushed +him; the certainty of having fruitlessly wasted enormous sums of money +drove him to despair. It was a frightful catastrophe. He left the +garret, descended slowly to the parlor, and threw himself into a chair +in the midst of his children, remaining motionless for some minutes as +though dead, making no answer to the questions his wife pressed upon +him. Tears came at last to his relief, and he rushed to his own chamber +that no one might witness his despair. + +Josephine followed him and drew him into her own room, where, alone with +her, Balthazar gave vent to his anguish. These tears of a man, these +broken words of the hopeless toiler, these bitter regrets of the husband +and father, did Madame Claes more harm than all her past sufferings. The +victim consoled the executioner. When Balthazar said to her in a tone of +dreadful conviction: “I am a wretch; I have gambled away the lives of +my children, and your life; you can have no happiness unless I kill +myself,”--the words struck home to her heart; she knew her husband’s +nature enough to fear he might at once act out the despairing wish: an +inward convulsion, disturbing the very sources of life itself, seized +her, and was all the more dangerous because she controlled its violent +effects beneath a deceptive calm of manner. + +“My friend,” she said, “I have consulted, not Pierquin, whose friendship +does not hinder him from feeling some secret satisfaction at our ruin, +but an old man who has been as good to me as a father. The Abbe de +Solis, my confessor, has shown me how we can still save ourselves from +ruin. He came to see the pictures. The value of those in the gallery is +enough to pay the sums you have borrowed on your property, and also all +that you owe to Messieurs Protez and Chiffreville, who have no doubt an +account against you.” + +Claes made an affirmative sign and bowed his head, the hair of which was +now white. + +“Monsieur de Solis knows the Happe and Duncker families of Amsterdam; +they have a mania for pictures, and are anxious, like all parvenus, +to display a luxury which ought to belong only to the old families: +he thinks they will pay the full value of ours. By this means we can +recover our independence, and out of the purchase money, which will +amount to over one hundred thousand ducats, you will have enough to +continue the experiments. Your daughters and I will be content with very +little; we can fill up the empty frames with other pictures in course of +time and by economy; meantime you will be happy.” + +Balthazar raised his head and looked at his wife with a joy that was +mingled with fear. Their roles were changed. The wife was the protector +of the husband. He, so tender, he, whose heart was so at one with his +Pepita’s, now held her in his arms without perceiving the horrible +convulsion that made her palpitate, and even shook her hair and her lips +with a nervous shudder. + +“I dared not tell you,” he said, “that between me and the Unconditioned, +the Absolute, scarcely a hair’s breadth intervenes. To gasify metals, I +only need to find the means of submitting them to intense heat in some +centre where the pressure of the atmosphere is nil,--in short, in a +vacuum.” + +Madame Claes could not endure the egotism of this reply. She expected a +passionate acknowledgment of her sacrifices--she received a problem in +chemistry! The poor woman left her husband abruptly and returned to the +parlor, where she fell into a chair between her frightened daughters, +and burst into tears. Marguerite and Felicie took her hands, kneeling +one on each side of her, not knowing the cause of her grief, and asking +at intervals, “Mother, what is it?” + +“My poor children, I am dying; I feel it.” + +The answer struck home to Marguerite’s heart; she saw, for the first +time on her mother’s face, the signs of that peculiar pallor which only +comes on olive-tinted skins. + +“Martha, Martha!” cried Felicie, “come quickly; mamma wants you.” + +The old duenna ran in from the kitchen, and as soon as she saw the livid +hue of the dusky skin usually high-colored, she cried out in Spanish,-- + +“Body of Christ! madame is dying!” + +Then she rushed precipitately back, told Josette to heat water for a +footbath, and returned to the parlor. + +“Don’t alarm Monsieur Claes; say nothing to him, Martha,” said her +mistress. “My poor dear girls,” she added, pressing Marguerite and +Felicie to her heart with a despairing action; “I wish I could live +long enough to see you married and happy. Martha,” she continued, “tell +Lemulquinier to go to Monsieur de Solis and ask him in my name to come +here.” + +The shock of this attack extended to the kitchen. Josette and Martha, +both devoted to Madame Claes and her daughters, felt the blow in their +own affections. Martha’s dreadful announcement,--“Madame is dying; +monsieur must have killed her; get ready a mustard-bath,”--forced +certain exclamations from Josette, which she launched at Lemulquinier. +He, cold and impassive, went on eating at the corner of a table before +one of the windows of the kitchen, where all was kept as clean as the +boudoir of a fine lady. + +“I knew how it would end,” said Josette, glancing at the valet and +mounting a stool to take down a copper kettle that shone like gold. +“There’s no mother could stand quietly by and see a father amusing +himself by chopping up a fortune like his into sausage-meat.” + +Josette, whose head was covered by a round cap with crimped borders, +which made it look like a German nut-cracker, cast a sour look at +Lemulquinier, which the greenish tinge of her prominent little eyes +made almost venomous. The old valet shrugged his shoulders with a motion +worthy of Mirobeau when irritated; then he filled his large mouth with +bread and butter sprinkled with chopped onion. + +“Instead of thwarting monsieur, madame ought to give him more money,” he +said; “and then we should soon be rich enough to swim in gold. There’s +not the thickness of a farthing between us and--” + +“Well, you’ve got twenty thousand francs laid by; why don’t you give ‘em +to monsieur? he’s your master, and if you are so sure of his doings--” + +“You don’t know anything about them, Josette. Mind your pots and pans, +and heat the water,” remarked the old Fleming, interrupting the cook. + +“I know enough to know there used to be several thousand ounces of +silver-ware about this house which you and your master have melted up; +and if you are allowed to have your way, you’ll make ducks and drakes of +everything till there’s nothing left.” + +“And monsieur,” added Martha, entering the kitchen, “will kill madame, +just to get rid of a woman who restrains him and won’t let him swallow +up everything he’s got. He’s possessed by the devil; anybody can see +that. You don’t risk your soul in helping him, Mulquinier, because you +haven’t got any; look at you! sitting there like a bit of ice when +we are all in such distress; the young ladies are crying like two +Magdalens. Go and fetch Monsieur l’Abbe de Solis.” + +“I’ve got something to do for monsieur. He told me to put the laboratory +in order,” said the valet. “Besides, it’s too far--go yourself.” + +“Just hear the brute!” cried Martha. “Pray who is to give madame her +foot-bath? do you want her to die? she has got a rush of blood to the +head.” + +“Mulquinier,” said Marguerite, coming into the servants’ hall, which +adjoined the kitchen, “on your way back from Monsieur de Solis, call at +Dr. Pierquin’s house and ask him to come here at once.” + +“Ha! you’ve got to go now,” said Josette. + +“Mademoiselle, monsieur told me to put the laboratory in order,” + said Lemulquinier, facing the two women and looking them down, with a +despotic air. + +“Father,” said Marguerite, to Monsieur Claes who was just then +descending the stairs, “can you let Mulquinier do an errand for us in +town?” + +“Now you’re forced to go, you old barbarian!” cried Martha, as she heard +Monsieur Claes put Mulquinier at his daughter’s bidding. + +The lack of good-will and devotion shown by the old valet for the family +whom he served was a fruitful cause of quarrel between the two women and +Lemulquinier, whose cold-heartedness had the effect of increasing the +loyal attachment of Josette and the old duenna. + +This dispute, apparently so paltry, was destined to influence the future +of the Claes family when, at a later period, they needed succor in +misfortune. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Balthazar was again so absorbed that he did not notice Josephine’s +condition. He took Jean upon his knee and trotted him mechanically, +pondering, no doubt, the problem he now had the means of solving. He saw +them bring the footbath to his wife, who was still in the parlor, +too weak to rise from the low chair in which she was lying; he gazed +abstractedly at his daughters now attending on their mother, without +inquiring the cause of their tender solicitude. When Marguerite or +Jean attempted to speak aloud, Madame Claes hushed them and pointed to +Balthazar. Such a scene was of a nature to make a young girl think; and +Marguerite, placed as she was between her father and mother, was old +enough and sensible enough to weigh their conduct. + +There comes a moment in the private life of every family when the +children, voluntarily or involuntarily, judge their parents. Madame +Claes foresaw the dangers of that moment. Her love for Balthazar +impelled her to justify in Marguerite’s eyes conduct that might, to the +upright mind of a girl of sixteen, seem faulty in a father. The very +respect which she showed at this moment for her husband, making +herself and her condition of no account that nothing might disturb his +meditation, impressed her children with a sort of awe of the paternal +majesty. Such self-devotion, however infectious it might be, only +increased Marguerite’s admiration for her mother, to whom she was more +particularly bound by the close intimacy of their daily lives. This +feeling was based on the intuitive perception of sufferings whose causes +naturally occupied the young girl’s mind. No human power could have +hindered some chance word dropped by Martha, or by Josette, from +enlightening her as to the real reasons for the condition of her home +during the last four years. Notwithstanding Madame Claes’s reserve, +Marguerite discovered slowly, thread by thread, the clue to the domestic +drama. She was soon to be her mother’s active confidante, and later, +under other circumstances, a formidable judge. + +Madame Claes’s watchful care now centred upon her eldest daughter, +to whom she endeavored to communicate her own self-devotion towards +Balthazar. The firmness and sound judgment which she recognized in +the young girl made her tremble at the thought of a possible struggle +between father and daughter whenever her own death should make the +latter mistress of the household. The poor woman had reached a point +where she dreaded the consequences of her death far more than death +itself. Her tender solicitude for Balthazar showed itself in the +resolution she had this day taken. By freeing his property from +encumbrance she secured his independence, and prevented all future +disputes by separating his interests from those of her children. She +hoped to see him happy until she closed her eyes on earth, and she +studied to transmit the tenderness of her own heart to Marguerite, +trusting that his daughter might continue to be to him an angel of +love, while exercising over the family a protecting and conservative +authority. Might she not thus shed the light of her love upon her dear +ones from beyond the grave? Nevertheless, she was not willing to lower +the father in the eyes of his daughter by initiating her into the secret +dangers of his scientific passion before it became necessary to do so. +She studied Marguerite’s soul and character, seeking to discover if the +girl’s own nature would lead her to be a mother to her brothers and her +sister, and a tender, gentle helpmeet to her father. + +Madame Claes’s last days were thus embittered by fears and mental +disquietudes which she dared not confide to others. Conscious that the +recent scene had struck her death-blow, she turned her thoughts wholly +to the future. Balthazar, meanwhile, now permanently unfitted for the +care of property or the interests of domestic life, thought only of the +Absolute. + +The heavy silence that reigned in the parlor was broken only by the +monotonous beating of Balthazar’s foot, which he continued to trot, +wholly unaware that Jean had slid from his knee. Marguerite, who was +sitting beside her mother and watching the changes on that pallid, +convulsed face, turned now and again to her father, wondering at his +indifference. Presently the street-door clanged, and the family saw the +Abbe de Solis leaning on the arm of his nephew and slowly crossing the +court-yard. + +“Ah! there is Monsieur Emmanuel,” said Felicie. + +“That good young man!” exclaimed Madame Claes; “I am glad to welcome +him.” + +Marguerite blushed at the praise that escaped her mother’s lips. For +the last two days a remembrance of the young man had stirred mysterious +feelings in her heart, and wakened in her mind thoughts that had lain +dormant. During the visit made by the Abbe de Solis to Madame Claes on +the occasion of his examining the pictures, there happened certain of +those imperceptible events which wield so great an influence upon life; +and their results were sufficiently important to necessitate a brief +sketch of the two personages now first introduced into the history of +this family. + +It was a matter of principle with Madame Claes to perform the duties +of her religion privately. Her confessor, who was almost unknown in the +family, now entered the house for the second time only; but there, as +elsewhere, every one was impressed with a sort of tender admiration at +the aspect of the uncle and his nephew. + +The Abbe de Solis was an octogenarian, with silvery hair, and a withered +face from which the vitality seemed to have retreated to the eyes. +He walked with difficulty, for one of his shrunken legs ended in a +painfully deformed foot, which was cased in a species of velvet bag, and +obliged him to use a crutch when the arm of his nephew was not at hand. +His bent figure and decrepit body conveyed the impression of a delicate, +suffering nature, governed by a will of iron and the spirit of religious +purity. This Spanish priest, who was remarkable for his vast learning, +his sincere piety, and a wide knowledge of men and things, had been +successively a Dominican friar, the “grand penitencier” of Toledo, +and the vicar-general of the archbishopric of Malines. If the French +Revolution had not intervened, the influence of the Casa-Real family +would have made him one of the highest dignitaries of the Church; +but the grief he felt for the death of the young duke, Madame Claes’s +brother, who had been his pupil, turned him from active life, and he now +devoted himself to the education of his nephew, who was made an orphan +at an early age. + +After the conquest of Belgium, the Abbe de Solis settled at Douai to be +near Madame Claes. From his youth up he had professed an enthusiasm for +Saint Theresa which, together with the natural bent of his mind, led +him to the mystical time of Christianity. Finding in Flanders, where +Mademoiselle Bourignon and the writings of the Quietists and Illuminati +made the greatest number of proselytes, a flock of Catholics devoted to +those ideas, he remained there,--all the more willingly because he +was looked up to as a patriarch by this particular communion, which +continued to follow the doctrines of the Mystics notwithstanding the +censures of the Church upon Fenelon and Madame Guyon. His morals were +rigid, his life exemplary, and he was believed to have visions. In spite +of his own detachment from the things of life, his affection for his +nephew made him careful of the young man’s interests. When a work of +charity was to be done, the old abbe put the faithful of his flock +under contribution before having recourse to his own means; and his +patriarchal authority was so well established, his motives so pure, his +discernment so rarely at fault, that every one was ready to answer +his appeal. To give an idea of the contrast between the uncle and the +nephew, we may compare the old man to a willow on the borders of a +stream, hollowed to a skeleton and barely alive, and the young man to a +sweet-brier clustering with roses, whose erect and graceful stems spring +up about the hoary trunk of the old tree as if they would support it. + +Emmanuel de Solis, rigidly brought up by his uncle, who kept him at his +side as a mother keeps her daughter, was full of delicate sensibility, +of half-dreamy innocence,--those fleeting flowers of youth which bloom +perennially in souls that are nourished on religious principles. The old +priest had checked all sensuous emotions in his pupil, preparing him for +the trials of life by constant study and a discipline that was almost +cloisteral. Such an education, which would launch the youth unstained +upon the world and render him happy, provided he were fortunate in his +earliest affections, had endowed him with a purity of spirit which gave +to his person something of the charm that surrounds a maiden. His modest +eyes, veiling a strong and courageous soul, sent forth a light that +vibrated in the soul as the tones of a crystal bell sound their +undulations on the ear. His face, though regular, was expressive, and +charmed the eye with its clear-cut outline, the harmony of its +lines, and the perfect repose which came of a heart at peace. All was +harmonious. His black hair, his brown eyes and eyebrows, heightened +the effect of a white skin and a brilliant color. His voice was such as +might have been expected from his beautiful face; and something feminine +in his movements accorded well with the melody of its tones and with +the tender brightness of his eyes. He seemed unaware of the charm he +exercised by his modest silence, the half-melancholy reserve of his +manner, and the respectful attentions he paid to his uncle. + +Those who saw the young man as he watched the uncertain steps of the +old abbe, and altered his own to suit their devious course, looking +for obstructions that might trip his uncle’s feet and guiding him to +a smoother way, could not fail to recognize in Emmanuel de Solis the +generous nature which makes the human being a divine creation. There +was something noble in the love that never criticised his uncle, in +the obedience that never cavilled at the old man’s orders; it seemed as +though there were prophecy in the gracious name his godmother had given +him. When the abbe gave proof of his Dominican despotism, in their own +home or in the presence of others, Emmanuel would sometimes lift his +head with so much dignity, as if to assert his metal should any other +man assail him, that men of honor were moved at the sight like artists +before a glorious picture; for noble sentiments ring as loudly in the +soul from living incarnations as from the imagery of art. + +Emmanuel had accompanied his uncle when the latter came to examine the +pictures of the House of Claes. Hearing from Martha that the Abbe de +Solis was in the gallery, Marguerite, anxious to see so celebrated a +man, invented an excuse to join her mother and gratify her curiosity. +Entering hastily, with the heedless gaiety young girls assume at times +to hide their wishes, she encountered near the old abbe, clothed in +black and looking decrepit and cadaverous, the fresh, delightful face +of a young man. The naive glances of the youthful pair expressed their +mutual astonishment. Marguerite and Emmanuel had no doubt seen each +other in their dreams. Both lowered their eyes and raised them again +with one impulse; each, by the action, made the same avowal. Marguerite +took her mother’s arm, and spoke to her to cover her confusion and +find shelter under the maternal wing, turning her neck with a swan-like +motion to keep sight of Emmanuel, who still supported his uncle on his +arm. The light was cleverly arranged to give due value to the pictures, +and the half-obscurity of the gallery encouraged those furtive glances +which are the joy of timid natures. Neither went so far, even in +thought, as the first note of love; yet both felt the mysterious trouble +which stirs the heart, and is jealously kept secret in our youth from +fastidiousness or modesty. + +The first impression which forces a sensibility hitherto suppressed +to overflow its borders, is followed in all young people by the same +half-stupefied amazement which the first sounds of music produce upon a +child. Some children laugh and think; others do not laugh till they have +thought; but those whose hearts are called to live by poetry or love, +listen stilly and hear the melody with a look where pleasure +flames already, and the search for the infinite begins. If, from an +irresistible feeling, we love the places where our childhood first +perceived the beauties of harmony, if we remember with delight the +musician, and even the instrument, that taught them to us, how much more +shall we love the being who reveals to us the music of life? The first +heart in which we draw the breath of love,--is it not our home, our +native land? Marguerite and Emmanuel were, each to each, that Voice of +music which wakes a sense, that hand which lifts the misty veil, and +reveals the distant shores bathed in the fires of noonday. + +When Madame Claes paused before a picture by Guido representing an +angel, Marguerite bent forward to see the impression it made upon +Emmanuel, and Emmanuel looked at Marguerite to compare the mute thought +on the canvas with the living thought beside him. This involuntary and +delightful homage was understood and treasured. The old abbe gravely +praised the picture, and Madame Claes answered him, but the youth and +the maiden were silent. + +Such was their first meeting: the mysterious light of the picture +gallery, the stillness of the old house, the presence of their elders, +all contributed to trace upon their hearts the delicate lines of this +vaporous mirage. The many confused thoughts that surged in Marguerite’s +mind grew calm and lay like a limpid ocean traversed by a luminous ray +when Emmanuel murmured a few farewell words to Madame Claes. That voice, +whose fresh and mellow tone sent nameless delights into her heart, +completed the revelation that had come to her,--a revelation which +Emmanuel, were he able, should cherish to his own profit; for it often +happens that the man whom destiny employs to waken love in the heart +of a young girl is ignorant of his work and leaves it unfinished. +Marguerite bowed confusedly; her true farewell was in the glance which +seemed unwilling to lose so pure and lovely a vision. Like a child +she wanted her melody. Their parting took place at the foot of the old +staircase near the parlor; and when Marguerite re-entered the room she +watched the uncle and the nephew till the street-door closed upon them. + +Madame Claes had been so occupied with the serious matters which caused +her conference with the abbe that she did not on this occasion observe +her daughter’s manner. When Monsieur de Solis came again to the house +on the occasion of her illness, she was too violently agitated to notice +the color that rushed into Marguerite’s face and betrayed the tumult of +a virgin heart conscious of its first joy. By the time the old abbe was +announced, Marguerite had taken up her sewing and appeared to give it +such attention that she bowed to the uncle and nephew without looking at +them. Monsieur Claes mechanically returned their salutation and left +the room with the air of a man called away by his occupations. The good +Dominican sat down beside Madame Claes and looked at her with one of +those searching glances by which he penetrated the minds of others; the +sight of Monsieur Claes and his wife was enough to make him aware of a +catastrophe. + +“My children,” said the mother, “go into the garden; Marguerite, show +Emmanuel your father’s tulips.” + +Marguerite, half abashed, took Felicie’s arm and looked at the young +man, who blushed and caught up little Jean to cover his confusion. When +all four were in the garden, Felicie and Jean ran to the other side, +leaving Marguerite, who, conscious that she was alone with young de +Solis, led him to the pyramid of tulips, arranged precisely in the same +manner year after year by Lemulquinier. + +“Do you love tulips?” asked Marguerite, after standing for a moment in +deep silence,--a silence Emmanuel seemed little disposed to break. + +“Mademoiselle, these flowers are beautiful, but to love them we must +perhaps have a taste of them, and know how to understand their beauties. +They dazzle me. Constant study in the gloomy little chamber in which I +live, close to my uncle, makes me prefer those flowers that are softer +to the eye.” + +Saying these words he glanced at Marguerite; but the look, full as it +was of confused desires, contained no allusion to the lily whiteness, +the sweet serenity, the tender coloring which made her face a flower. + +“Do you work very hard?” she asked, leading him to a wooden seat with +a back, painted green. “Here,” she continued, “the tulips are not so +close; they will not tire your eyes. Yes, you are right, those colors +are dazzling; they give pain.” + +“Do I work hard?” replied the young man after a short silence, as he +smoothed the gravel with his foot. “Yes; I work at many things. My uncle +wished to make me a priest.” + +“Oh!” exclaimed Marguerite, naively. + +“I resisted; I felt no vocation for it. But it required great courage +to oppose my uncle’s wishes. He is so good, he loves me so much! Quite +recently he bought a substitute to save me from the conscription--me, a +poor orphan!” + +“What do you mean to be?” asked Marguerite; then, immediately checking +herself as though she would unsay the words, she added with a pretty +gesture, “I beg your pardon; you must think me very inquisitive.” + +“Oh, mademoiselle,” said Emmanuel, looking at her with tender +admiration, “except my uncle, no one ever asked me that question. I am +studying to be a teacher. I cannot do otherwise; I am not rich. If I +were principal of a college-school in Flanders I should earn enough to +live moderately, and I might marry some single woman whom I could love. +That is the life I look forward to. Perhaps that is why I prefer a +daisy in the meadows to these splendid tulips, whose purple and gold +and rubies and amethysts betoken a life of luxury, just as the daisy is +emblematic of a sweet and patriarchal life,--the life of a poor teacher +like me.” + +“I have always called the daisies marguerites,” she said. + +Emmanuel colored deeply and sought an answer from the sand at his feet. +Embarrassed to choose among the thoughts that came to him, which he +feared were silly, and disconcerted by his delay in answering, he said +at last, “I dared not pronounce your name”--then he paused. + +“A teacher?” she said. + +“Mademoiselle, I shall be a teacher only as a means of living: I shall +undertake great works which will make me nobly useful. I have a strong +taste for historical researches.” + +“Ah!” + +That “ah!” so full of secret thoughts added to his confusion; he gave a +foolish laugh and said:-- + +“You make me talk of myself when I ought only to speak of you.” + +“My mother and your uncle must have finished their conversation, I +think,” said Marguerite, looking into the parlor through the windows. + +“Your mother seems to me greatly changed,” said Emmanuel. + +“She suffers, but she will not tell us the cause of her sufferings; and +we can only try to share them with her.” + +Madame Claes had, in fact, just ended a delicate consultation which +involved a case of conscience the Abbe de Solis alone could decide. +Foreseeing the utter ruin of the family, she wished to retain, unknown +to Balthazar who paid no attention to his business affairs, part of the +price of the pictures which Monsieur de Solis had undertaken to sell in +Holland, intending to hold it secretly in reserve against the day when +poverty should overtake her children. With much deliberation, and after +weighing every circumstance, the old Dominican approved the act as one +of prudence. He took his leave to prepare at once for the sale, which +he engaged to make secretly, so as not to injure Monsieur Claes in the +estimation of others. + +The next day Monsieur de Solis despatched his nephew, armed with letters +of introduction, to Amsterdam, where Emmanuel, delighted to do a service +to the Claes family, succeeded in selling all the pictures in the +gallery to the noted bankers Happe and Duncker for the ostensible sum of +eighty-five thousand Dutch ducats and fifteen thousand more which were +paid over secretly to Madame Claes. The pictures were so well known that +nothing was needed to complete the sale but an answer from Balthazar to +the letter which Messieurs Happe and Duncker addressed to him. Emmanuel +de Solis was commissioned by Claes to receive the price of the pictures, +which were thereupon packed and sent away secretly, to conceal the sale +from the people of Douai. + +Towards the end of September, Balthazar paid off all the sums that he +had borrowed, released his property from encumbrance, and resumed his +chemical researches; but the House of Claes was deprived of its noblest +ornament. Blinded by his passion, the master showed no regret; he felt +so sure of repairing the loss that in selling the pictures he reserved +the right of redemption. In Josephine’s eyes a hundred pictures were +as nothing compared to domestic happiness and the satisfaction of her +husband’s mind; moreover, she refilled the gallery with other paintings +taken from the reception-rooms, and to conceal the gaps which these left +in the front house, she changed the arrangement of the furniture. + +When Balthazar’s debts were all paid he had about two hundred thousand +francs with which to carry on his experiments. The Abbe de Solis and his +nephew took charge secretly of the fifteen thousand ducats reserved by +Madame Claes. To increase that sum, the abbe sold the Dutch ducats, to +which the events of the Continental war had given a commercial value. +One hundred and sixty-five thousand francs were buried in the cellar of +the house in which the abbe and his nephew resided. + +Madame Claes had the melancholy happiness of seeing her husband +incessantly busy and satisfied for nearly eight months. But the shock +he had lately given her was too severe; she sank into a state of languor +and debility which steadily increased. Balthazar was now so completely +absorbed in science that neither the reverses which had overtaken +France, nor the first fall of Napoleon, nor the return of the Bourbons, +drew him from his laboratory; he was neither husband, father, nor +citizen,--solely chemist. + +Towards the close of 1814 Madame Claes declined so rapidly that she +was no longer able to leave her bed. Unwilling to vegetate in her own +chamber, the scene of so much happiness, where the memory of vanished +joys forced involuntary comparisons with the present and depressed her, +she moved into the parlor. The doctors encouraged this wish by declaring +the room more airy, more cheerful, and therefore better suited to her +condition. The bed in which the unfortunate woman ended her life was +placed between the fireplace and a window looking on the garden. There +she passed her last days, sacredly occupied in training the souls of +her young daughters, striving to leave within them the fire of her own. +Conjugal love, deprived of its manifestations, allowed maternal love +to have its way. The mother now seemed the more delightful because her +motherhood had blossomed late. Like all generous persons, she passed +through sensitive phases of feeling that she mistook for remorse. +Believing that she had defrauded her children of the tenderness that +should have been theirs, she sought to redeem those imaginary wrongs; +bestowing attentions and tender cares which made her precious to them; +she longed to make her children live, as it were, within her heart; to +shelter them beneath her feeble wings; to cherish them enough in the few +remaining days to redeem the time during which she had neglected them. +The sufferings of her mind gave to her words and her caresses a glowing +warmth that issued from her soul. Her eyes caressed her children, her +voice with its yearning intonations touched their hearts, her hand +showered blessings on their heads. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The good people of Douai were not surprised that visitors were no longer +received at the House of Claes, and that Balthazar gave no more fetes on +the anniversary of his marriage. Madame Claes’s state of health seemed a +sufficient reason for the change, and the payment of her husband’s debts +put a stop to the current gossip; moreover, the political vicissitudes +to which Flanders was subjected, the war of the Hundred-days, and the +occupation of the Allied armies, put the chemist and his researches +completely out of people’s minds. During those two years Douai was so +often on the point of being taken, it was so constantly occupied either +by the French or by the enemy, so many foreigners came there, so many of +the country-people sought refuge within its walls, so many lives were +in peril, so many catastrophes occurred, that each man thought only of +himself. + +The Abbe de Solis and his nephew, and the two Pierquins, doctor and +lawyer, were the only persons who now visited Madame Claes; for whom +the winter of 1814-1815 was a long and dreary death-scene. Her husband +rarely came to see her. It is true that after dinner he remained some +hours in the parlor, near her bed; but as she no longer had the strength +to keep up a conversation, he merely said a few words, invariably the +same, sat down, spoke no more, and a dreary silence settled down upon +the room. The monotony of this existence was broken only on the days +when the Abbe de Solis and his nephew passed the evening with Madame +Claes. + +While the abbe played backgammon with Balthazar, Marguerite talked with +Emmanuel by the bedside of her mother, who smiled at their innocent joy, +not allowing them to see how painful and yet how soothing to her wounded +spirit were the fresh breezes of their virgin love, murmuring in fitful +words from heart to heart. The inflection of their voices, to them +so full of charm, to her was heart-breaking; a glance of mutual +understanding surprised between the two threw her, half-dead as she +was, back to the young and happy past which gave such bitterness to +the present. Emmanuel and Marguerite with intuitive delicacy of feeling +repressed the sweet half-childish play of love, lest it should hurt the +saddened woman whose wounds they instinctively divined. + +No one has yet remarked that feelings have an existence of their own, a +nature which is developed by the circumstances that environ them, and in +which they are born; they bear a likeness to the places of their growth, +and keep the imprint of the ideas that influenced their development. +There are passions ardently conceived which remain ardent, like that of +Madame Claes for her husband: there are sentiments on which all life +has smiled; these retain their spring-time gaiety, their harvest-time +of joy, seasons that never fail of laughter or of fetes; but there are +other loves, framed in melancholy, circled by distress, whose pleasures +are painful, costly, burdened by fears, poisoned by remorse, or +blackened by despair. The love in the heart of Marguerite and Emmanuel, +as yet unknown to them for love, the sentiment that budded into life +beneath the gloomy arches of the picture-gallery, beside the stern old +abbe, in a still and silent moment, that love so grave and so discreet, +yet rich in tender depths, in secret delights that were luscious to the +taste as stolen grapes snatched from a corner of the vineyard, wore in +coming years the sombre browns and grays that surrounded the hour of its +birth. + +Fearing to give expression to their feelings beside that bed of pain, +they unconsciously increased their happiness by a concentration which +deepened its imprint on their hearts. The devotion of the daughter, +shared by Emmanuel, happy in thus uniting himself with Marguerite and +becoming by anticipation the son of her mother, was their medium +of communication. Melancholy thanks from the lips of the young girl +supplanted the honeyed language of lovers; the sighing of their +hearts, surcharged with joy at some interchange of looks, was scarcely +distinguishable from the sighs wrung from them by the mother’s +sufferings. Their happy little moments of indirect avowal, of unuttered +promises, of smothered effusion, were like the allegories of Raphael +painted on a black ground. Each felt a certainty that neither avowed; +they knew the sun was shining over them, but they could not know what +wind might chase away the clouds that gathered about their heads. They +doubted the future; fearing that pain would ever follow them, they +stayed timidly among the shadows of the twilight, not daring to say to +each other, “Shall we end our days together?” + +The tenderness which Madame Claes now testified for her children nobly +concealed much that she endeavored to hide from herself. Her children +caused her neither fear nor passionate emotion: they were her +comforters, but they were not her life: she lived by them; she died +through Balthazar. However painful her husband’s presence might be to +her, lost as he was for hours together in depths of thought from which +he looked at her without seeing her, it was only during those cruel +moments that she forgot her griefs. His indifference to the dying woman +would have seemed criminal to a stranger, but Madame Claes and her +daughters were accustomed to it; they knew his heart and they forgave +him. If, during the daytime, Josephine was seized by some sudden +illness, if she were worse and seemed near dying, Claes was the +only person in the house or in the town who remained ignorant of it. +Lemulquinier knew it, but neither the daughters, bound to silence by +their mother, nor Josephine herself let Balthazar know the danger of the +being he had once so passionately loved. + +When his heavy step sounded in the gallery as he came to dinner, Madame +Claes was happy--she was about to see him! and she gathered up her +strength for that happiness. As he entered, the pallid face blushed +brightly and recovered for an instant the semblance of health. Balthazar +came to her bedside, took her hand, saw the misleading color on her +cheek, and to him she seemed well. When he asked, “My dear wife, how are +you to-day?” she answered, “Better, dear friend,” and made him think she +would be up and recovered on the morrow. His preoccupation was so great +that he accepted this reply, and believed the illness of which his wife +was dying a mere indisposition. Dying to the eyes of the world, in his +alone she was living. + +A complete separation between husband and wife was the result of this +year. Claes slept in a distant chamber, got up early in the morning, and +shut himself into his laboratory or his study. Seeing his wife only in +presence of his daughters or of the two or three friends who came to +visit them, he lost the habit of communicating with her. These two +beings, formerly accustomed to think as one, no longer, unless at rare +intervals, enjoyed those moments of communion, of passionate unreserve +which feed the life of the heart; and finally there came a time when +even these rare pleasures ceased. Physical suffering was now a boon +to the poor woman, helping her to endure the void of separation, which +might have killed her had she been truly living. Her bodily pain became +so great that there were times when she was joyful in the thought that +he whom she loved was not a witness of it. She lay watching Balthazar +in the evening hours, and knowing him happy in his own way, she lived +in the happiness she had procured for him,--a shadowy joy, and yet it +satisfied her. She no longer asked herself if she were loved, she forced +herself to believe it; and she glided over that icy surface, not daring +to rest her weight upon it lest it should break and drown her soul in a +gulf of awful nothingness. + +No events stirred the calm of this existence; the malady that was slowly +consuming Madame Claes added to the household stillness, and in this +condition of passive gloom the House of Claes reached the first weeks +of the year 1816. Pierquin, the lawyer, was destined, at the close of +February, to strike the death-blow of the fragile woman who, in the +words of the Abbe de Solis, was well-nigh without sin. + +“Madame,” said Pierquin, seizing a moment when her daughters could not +hear the conversation, “Monsieur Claes has directed me to borrow three +hundred thousand francs on his property. You must do something to +protect the future of your children.” + +Madame Claes clasped her hands and raised her eyes to the ceiling; then +she thanked the notary with a sad smile and a kindly motion of her head +which affected him. + +His words were the stab that killed her. During that day she had yielded +herself up to sad reflections which swelled her heart; she was like the +wayfarer walking beside a precipice who loses his balance and a mere +pebble rolls him to the depth of the abyss he had so long and so +courageously skirted. When the notary left her, Madame Claes told +Marguerite to bring writing materials; then she gathered up her +remaining strength to write her last wishes. Several times she paused +and looked at her daughter. The hour of confidence had come. + +Marguerite’s management of the household since her mother’s illness had +amply fulfilled the dying woman’s hopes that Madame Claes was able to +look upon the future of the family without absolute despair, confident +that she herself would live again in this strong and loving angel. Both +women felt, no doubt, that sad and mutual confidences must now be made +between them; the daughter looked at the mother, the mother at the +daughter, tears flowing from their eyes. Several times, as Madame Claes +rested from her writing, Marguerite said: “Mother?” then she dropped as +if choking; but the mother, occupied with her last thoughts, did not ask +the meaning of the interrogation. At last, Madame Claes wished to seal +the letter; Marguerite held the taper, turning aside her head that she +might not see the superscription. + +“You can read it, my child,” said the mother, in a heart-rending voice. + +The young girl read the words, “To my daughter Marguerite.” + +“We will talk to each other after I have rested awhile,” said Madame +Claes, putting the letter under her pillow. + +Then she fell back as if exhausted by the effort, and slept for several +hours. When she woke, her two daughters and her two sons were kneeling +by her bed and praying. It was Thursday. Gabriel and Jean had been +brought from school by Emmanuel de Solis, who for the last six months +was professor of history and philosophy. + +“Dear children, we must part!” she cried. “You have never forsaken me, +never! and he who--” + +She stopped. + +“Monsieur Emmanuel,” said Marguerite, seeing the pallor on her mother’s +face, “go to my father, and tell him mamma is worse.” + +Young de Solis went to the door of the laboratory and persuaded +Lemulquinier to make Balthazar come and speak to him. On hearing of the +urgent request of the young man, Claes answered, “I will come.” + +“Emmanuel,” said Madame Claes when he returned to her, “take my +sons away, and bring your uncle here. It is time to give me the last +sacraments, and I wish to receive them from his hand.” + +When she was alone with her daughters she made a sign to Marguerite, who +understood her and sent Felicie away. + +“I have something to say to you myself, dear mamma,” said Marguerite +who, not believing her mother so ill as she really was, increased +the wound Pierquin had given. “I have had no money for the household +expenses during the last ten days; I owe six months’ wages to the +servants. Twice I have tried to ask my father for money, but did not +dare to do so. You don’t know, perhaps, that all the pictures in the +gallery have been sold, and all the wines in the cellar?” + +“He never told me!” exclaimed Madame Claes. “My God! thou callest me to +thyself in time! My poor children! what will become of them?” + +She made a fervent prayer, which brought the fires of repentance to her +eyes. + +“Marguerite,” she resumed, drawing the letter from her pillow, “here is +a paper which you must not open or read until a time, after my death, +when some great disaster has overtaken you; when, in short, you are +without the means of living. My dear Marguerite, love your father, but +take care of your brothers and your sister. In a few days, in a few +hours perhaps, you will be the head of this household. Be economical. +Should you find yourself opposed to the wishes of your father,--and it +may so happen, because he has spent vast sums in searching for a secret +whose discovery is to bring glory and wealth to his family, and he will +no doubt need money, perhaps he may demand it of you,--should that time +come, treat him with the tenderness of a daughter, strive to reconcile +the interests of which you will be the sole protector with the duty +which you owe to a father, to a great man who sacrificed his happiness +and his life to the glory of his family; he can only do wrong in act, +his intentions are noble, his heart is full of love; you will see him +once more kind and affectionate--YOU! Marguerite, it is my duty to say +these words to you on the borders of the grave. If you wish to soften +the anguish of my death, promise me, my child, to take my place beside +your father; to cause him no grief; never to reproach him; never to +condemn him. Be a gentle, considerate guardian of the home until--his +work accomplished--he is again the master of his family.” + +“I understand you, dear mother,” said Marguerite, kissing the swollen +eyelids of the dying woman. “I will do as you wish.” + +“Do not marry, my darling, until Gabriel can succeed you in the +management of the property and the household. If you married, your +husband might not share your feelings, he might bring trouble into the +family and disturb your father’s life.” + +Marguerite looked at her mother and said, “Have you nothing else to say +to me about my marriage?” + +“Can you hesitate, my child?” cried the dying woman in alarm. + +“No,” the daughter answered; “I promise to obey you.” + +“Poor girl! I did not sacrifice myself for you,” said the mother, +shedding hot tears. “Yet I ask you to sacrifice yourself for all. +Happiness makes us selfish. Be strong; preserve your own good sense to +guard others who as yet have none. Act so that your brothers and your +sister may not reproach my memory. Love your father, and do not oppose +him--too much.” + +She laid her head on her pillow and said no more; her strength was +gone; the inward struggle between the Wife and the Mother had been too +violent. + +A few moments later the clergy came, preceded by the Abbe de Solis, +and the parlor was filled by the children and the household. When the +ceremony was about to begin, Madame Claes, awakened by her confessor, +looked about her and not seeing Balthazar said quickly,-- + +“Where is my husband?” + +Those words--summing up, as it were, her life and her death--were +uttered in such lamentable tones that all present shuddered. Martha, in +spite of her great age, darted out of the room, ran up the staircase and +through the gallery, and knocked loudly on the door of the laboratory. + +“Monsieur, madame is dying; they are waiting for you, to administer the +last sacraments,” she cried with the violence of indignation. + +“I am coming,” answered Balthazar. + +Lemulquinier came down a moment later, and said his master was following +him. Madame Claes’s eyes never left the parlor door, but her husband +did not appear until the ceremony was over. When at last he entered, +Josephine colored and a few tears rolled down her cheeks. + +“Were you trying to decompose nitrogen?” she said to him with an angelic +tenderness which made the spectators quiver. + +“I have done it!” he cried joyfully; “Nitrogen contains oxygen and a +substance of the nature of imponderable matter, which is apparently the +principle of--” + +A murmur of horror interrupted his words and brought him to his senses. + +“What did they tell me?” he demanded. “Are you worse? What is the +matter?” + +“This is the matter, monsieur,” whispered the Abbe de Solis, indignant +at his conduct; “your wife is dying, and you have killed her.” + +Without waiting for an answer the abbe took the arm of his nephew and +went out followed by the family, who accompanied him to the court-yard. +Balthazar stood as if thunderstruck; he looked at his wife, and a few +tears dropped from his eyes. + +“You are dying, and I have killed you!” he said. “What does he mean?” + +“My husband,” she answered, “I only lived in your love, and you have +taken my life away from me; but you knew not what you did.” + +“Leave us,” said Claes to his children, who now re-entered the room. +“Have I for one moment ceased to love you?” he went on, sitting down +beside his wife, and taking her hands and kissing them. + +“My friend, I do not blame you. You made me happy--too happy, for I have +not been able to bear the contrast between our early married life, so +full of joy, and these last days, so desolate, so empty, when you are +not yourself. The life of the heart, like the life of the body, has its +functions. For six years you have been dead to love, to the family, to +all that was once our happiness. I will not speak of our early married +days; such joys must cease in the after-time of life, but they ripen +into fruits which feed the soul,--confidence unlimited, the tender +habits of affection: you have torn those treasures from me! I go in +time: we live together no longer; you hide your thoughts and actions +from me. How is it that you fear me? Have I ever given you one word, +one look, one gesture of reproach? And yet, you have sold your last +pictures, you have sold even the wine in your cellar, you are borrowing +money on your property, and have said no word to me. Ah! I go from +life weary of life. If you are doing wrong, if you delude yourself in +following the unattainable, have I not shown you that my love could +share your faults, could walk beside you and be happy, though you led me +in the paths of crime? You loved me too well,--that was my glory; it is +now my death. Balthazar, my illness has lasted long; it began on the +day when here, in this place where I am about to die, you showed me that +Science was more to you than Family. And now the end has come; your wife +is dying, and your fortune lost. Fortune and wife were yours,--you could +do what you willed with your own; but on the day of my death my property +goes to my children, and you cannot touch it; what will then become of +you? I am telling you the truth; I owe it to you. Dying eyes see far; +when I am gone will anything outweigh that cursed passion which is now +your life? If you have sacrificed your wife, your children will count +but little in the scale; for I must be just and own you loved me +above all. Two millions and six years of toil you have cast into the +gulf,--and what have you found?” + +At these words Claes grasped his whitened head in his hands and hid his +face. + +“Humiliation for yourself, misery for your children,” continued the +dying woman. “You are called in derision ‘Claes the alchemist’; soon +it will be ‘Claes the madman.’ For myself, I believe in you. I know +you great and wise; I know your genius: but to the vulgar eye genius is +mania. Fame is a sun that lights the dead; living, you will be unhappy +with the unhappiness of great minds, and your children will be ruined. +I go before I see your fame, which might have brought me consolation for +my lost happiness. Oh, Balthazar! make my death less bitter to me, let +me be certain that my children will not want for bread--Ah, nothing, +nothing, not even you, can calm my fears.” + +“I swear,” said Claes, “to--” + +“No, do not swear, that you may not fail of your oath,” she said, +interrupting him. “You owed us your protection; we have been without it +seven years. Science is your life. A great man should have neither wife +nor children; he should tread alone the path of sacrifice. His virtues +are not the virtues of common men; he belongs to the universe, he cannot +belong to wife or family; he sucks up the moisture of the earth about +him, like a majestic tree--and I, poor plant, I could not rise to the +height of your life, I die at its feet. I have waited for this last day +to tell you these dreadful thoughts: they came to me in the lightnings +of desolation and anguish. Oh, spare my children! let these words echo +in your heart. I cry them to you with my last breath. The wife is dead, +dead; you have stripped her slowly, gradually, of her feelings, of her +joys. Alas! without that cruel care could I have lived so long? But +those poor children did not forsake me! they have grown beside my +anguish, the mother still survives. Spare them! Spare my children!” + +“Lemulquinier!” cried Claes in a voice of thunder. + +The old man appeared. + +“Go up and destroy all--instruments, apparatus, everything! Be careful, +but destroy all. I renounce Science,” he said to his wife. + +“Too late,” she answered, looking at Lemulquinier. “Marguerite!” she +cried, feeling herself about to die. + +Marguerite came through the doorway and uttered a piercing cry as she +saw her mother’s eyes now glazing. + +“MARGUERITE!” repeated the dying woman. + +The exclamation contained so powerful an appeal to her daughter, she +invested that appeal with such authority, that the cry was like a dying +bequest. The terrified family ran to her side and saw her die; the vital +forces were exhausted in that last conversation with her husband. + +Balthazar and Marguerite stood motionless, she at the head, he at the +foot of the bed, unable to believe in the death of the woman whose +virtues and exhaustless tenderness were known fully to them alone. +Father and daughter exchanged looks freighted with meaning: the daughter +judged the father, and already the father trembled, seeing in his +daughter an instrument of vengeance. Though memories of the love with +which his Pepita had filled his life crowded upon his mind, and gave to +her dying words a sacred authority whose voice his soul must ever +hear, yet Balthazar knew himself helpless in the grasp of his attendant +genius; he heard the terrible mutterings of his passion, denying him the +strength to carry his repentance into action: he feared himself. + +When the grave had closed upon Madame Claes, one thought filled the +minds of all,--the house had had a soul, and that soul was now departed. +The grief of the family was so intense that the parlor, where the noble +woman still seemed to linger, was closed; no one had the courage to +enter it. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +Society practises none of the virtues it demands from individuals: every +hour it commits crimes, but the crimes are committed in words; it paves +the way for evil actions with a jest; it degrades nobility of soul by +ridicule; it jeers at sons who mourn their fathers, anathematizes those +who do not mourn them enough, and finds diversion (the hypocrite!) in +weighing the dead bodies before they are cold. + +The evening of the day on which Madame Claes died, her friends cast a +few flowers upon her memory in the intervals of their games of whist, +doing homage to her noble qualities as they sorted their hearts and +spades. Then, after a few lachrymal phrases,--the fi, fo, fum of +collective grief, uttered in precisely the same tone, and with +neither more nor less of feeling, at all hours and in every town in +France,--they proceeded to estimate the value of her property. Pierquin +was the first to observe that the death of this excellent woman was +a mercy, for her husband had made her unhappy; and it was even more +fortunate for her children: she was unable while living to refuse her +money to the husband she adored; but now that she was dead, Claes was +debarred from touching it. Thereupon all present calculated the fortune +of that poor Madame Claes, wondered how much she had laid by (had she, +in fact, laid by anything?), made an inventory of her jewels, rummaged +in her wardrobe, peeped into her drawers, while the afflicted family +were still weeping and praying around her death-bed. + +Pierquin, with an appraising eye, stated that Madame Claes’s possessions +in her own right--to use the notarial phrase--might still be recovered, +and ought to amount to nearly a million and a half of francs; basing +this estimate partly on the forest of Waignies,--whose timber, counting +the full-grown trees, the saplings, the primeval growths, and the recent +plantations, had immensely increased in value during the last twelve +years,--and partly on Balthazar’s own property, of which enough remained +to “cover” the claims of his children, if the liquidation of their +mother’s fortune did not yield sufficient to release him. Mademoiselle +Claes was still, in Pierquin’s slang, “a four-hundred-thousand-franc +girl.” “But,” he added, “if she doesn’t marry,--a step which would +of course separate her interests and permit us to sell the forest and +auction, and so realize the property of the minor children and reinvest +it where the father can’t lay hands on it,--Claes is likely to ruin them +all.” + +Thereupon, everybody looked about for some eligible young man worthy to +win the hand of Mademoiselle Claes; but none of them paid the lawyer the +compliment of suggesting that he might be the man. Pierquin, however, +found so many good reasons to reject the suggested matches as unworthy +of Marguerite’s position, that the confabulators glanced at each +other and smiled, and took malicious pleasure in prolonging this truly +provincial method of annoyance. Pierquin had already decided that Madame +Claes’s death would have a favorable effect upon his suit, and he began +mentally to cut up the body in his own interests. + +“That good woman,” he said to himself as he went home to bed, “was as +proud as a peacock; she would never gave given me her daughter. Hey, +hey! why couldn’t I manage matters now so as to marry the girl? Pere +Claes is drunk on carbon, and takes no care of his children. If, after +convincing Marguerite that she must marry to save the property of her +brothers and sister, I were to ask him for his daughter, he will be glad +to get rid of a girl who is likely to thwart him.” + +He went to sleep anticipating the charms of the marriage contract, and +reflecting on the advantages of the step and the guarantees afforded for +his happiness in the person he proposed to marry. In all the provinces +there was certainly not a better brought-up or more delicately lovely +young girl than Mademoiselle Claes. Her modesty, her grace, were like +those of the pretty flower Emmanuel had feared to name lest he +should betray the secret of his heart. Her sentiments were lofty, her +principles religious, she would undoubtedly make him a faithful wife: +moreover, she not only flattered the vanity which influences every man +more or less in the choice of a wife, but she gratified his pride by +the high consideration which her family, doubly ennobled, enjoyed in +Flanders,--a consideration which her husband of course would share. + +The next day Pierquin extracted from his strong-box several +thousand-franc notes, which he offered with great friendliness to +Balthazar, so as to relieve him of pecuniary annoyance in the midst +of his grief. Touched by this delicate attention, Balthazar would, he +thought, praise his goodness and his personal qualities to Marguerite. +In this he was mistaken. Monsieur Claes and his daughter thought it was +a very natural action, and their sorrow was too absorbing to let them +even think of the lawyer. + +Balthazar’s despair was indeed so great that persons who were disposed +to blame his conduct could not do otherwise than forgive him,--less +on account of the Science which might have excused him, than for +the remorse which could not undo his deeds. Society is satisfied by +appearances: it takes what it gives, without considering the intrinsic +worth of the article. To the world real suffering is a show, a species +of enjoyment, which inclines it to absolve even a criminal; in its +thirst for emotions it acquits without judging the man who raises a +laugh, or he who makes it weep, making no inquiry into their methods. + +Marguerite was just nineteen when her father put her in charge of the +household; and her brothers and sister, whom Madame Claes in her last +moments exhorted to obey their elder sister, accepted her authority with +docility. Her mourning attire heightened the dewy whiteness of her skin, +just as the sadness of her expression threw into relief the gentleness +and patience of her manner. From the first she gave proofs of feminine +courage, of inalterable serenity, like that of angels appointed to shed +peace on suffering hearts by a touch of their waving palms. But although +she trained herself, through a premature perception of duty, to hide her +personal grief, it was none the less bitter; her calm exterior was not +in keeping with the deep trouble of her thoughts, and she was destined +to undergo, too early in life, those terrible outbursts of feeling +which no heart is wholly able to subdue: her father was to hold her +incessantly under the pressure of natural youthful generosity on the one +hand, and the dictates of imperious duty on the other. The cares which +came upon her the very day of her mother’s death threw her into a +struggle with the interests of life at an age when young girls are +thinking only of its pleasures. Dreadful discipline of suffering, which +is never lacking to angelic natures! + +The love which rests on money or on vanity is the most persevering of +passions. Pierquin resolved to win the heiress without delay. A few days +after Madame Claes’s death he took occasion to speak to Marguerite, and +began operations with a cleverness which might have succeeded if +love had not given her the power of clear insight and saved her from +mistaking appearances that were all the more specious because Pierquin +displayed his natural kindheartedness,--the kindliness of a notary who +thinks himself loving while he protects a client’s money. Relying on +his rather distant relationship and his constant habit of managing the +business and sharing the secrets of the Claes family, sure of the +esteem and friendship of the father, greatly assisted by the careless +inattention of that servant of science who took no thought for the +marriage of his daughter, and not suspecting that Marguerite could +prefer another,--Pierquin unguardedly enabled her to form a judgment +on a suit in which there was no passion except that of self-interest, +always odious to a young soul, and which he was not clever enough to +conceal. It was he who on this occasion was naively above-board, it was +she who dissimulated,--simply because he thought he was dealing with a +defenceless girl, and wholly misconceived the privileges of weakness. + +“My dear cousin,” he said to Marguerite, with whom he was walking about +the paths of the little garden, “you know my heart, you understand how +truly I desire to respect the painful feelings which absorb you at this +moment. I have too sensitive a nature for a lawyer; I live by my heart +only, I am forced to spend my time on the interests of others when I +would fain let myself enjoy the sweet emotions which make life happy. I +suffer deeply in being obliged to talk to you of subjects so discordant +with your state of mind, but it is necessary. I have thought much +about you during the last few days. It is evident that through a fatal +delusion the fortune of your brothers and sister and your own are in +jeopardy. Do you wish to save your family from complete ruin?” + +“What must I do?” she asked, half-frightened by his words. + +“Marry,” answered Pierquin. + +“I shall not marry,” she said. + +“Yes, you will marry,” replied the notary, “when you have soberly +thought over the critical position in which you are placed.” + +“How can my marriage save--” + +“Ah! I knew you would consider it, my dear cousin,” he exclaimed, +interrupting her. “Marriage will emancipate you.” + +“Why should I be emancipated?” asked Marguerite. + +“Because marriage will put you at once into possession of your property, +my dear little cousin,” said the lawyer in a tone of triumph. “If you +marry you take your share of your mother’s property. To give it to you, +the whole property must be liquidated; to do that, it becomes necessary +to sell the forest of Waignies. That done, the proceeds will be +capitalized, and your father, as guardian, will be compelled to invest +the fortune of his children in such a way that Chemistry can’t get hold +of it.” + +“And if I do not marry, what will happen?” she asked. + +“Well,” said the notary, “your father will manage your estate as he +pleases. If he returns to making gold, he will probably sell the timber +of the forest of Waignies and leave his children as naked as the little +Saint Johns. The forest is now worth about fourteen hundred thousand +francs; but from one day to another you are not sure your father won’t +cut it down, and then your thirteen hundred acres are not worth three +hundred thousand francs. Isn’t it better to avoid this almost certain +danger by at once compelling the division of property on your marriage? +If the forest is sold now, while Chemistry has gone to sleep, your +father will put the proceeds into the Grand-Livre. The Funds are at +59; those dear children will get nearly five thousand francs a year for +every fifty thousand francs: and, inasmuch as the property of minors +cannot be sold out, your brothers and sister will find their fortunes +doubled in value by the time they come of age. Whereas, in the other +case,--faith, no one knows what may happen: your father has already +impaired your mother’s property; we shall find out the deficit when we +come to make the inventory. If he is in debt to her estate, you will +take a mortgage on his, and in that way something may be recovered--” + +“For shame!” said Marguerite. “It would be an outrage on my father. +It is not so long since my mother uttered her last words that I have +forgotten them. My father is incapable of robbing his children,” she +continued, giving way to tears of distress. “You misunderstand him, +Monsieur Pierquin.” + +“But, my dear cousin, if your father gets back to chemistry--” + +“We are ruined; is that what you mean?” + +“Yes, utterly ruined. Believe me, Marguerite,” he said, taking her hand +which he placed upon his heart, “I should fail of my duty if I did not +persist in this matter. Your interests alone--” + +“Monsieur,” said Marguerite, coldly withdrawing her hand, “the true +interests of my family require me not to marry. My mother thought so.” + +“Cousin,” he cried, with the earnestness of a man who sees a fortune +escaping him, “you commit suicide; you fling your mother’s property into +a gulf. Well, I will prove the devotion I feel for you: you know not +how I love you. I have admired you from the day of that last ball, three +years ago; you were enchanting. Trust the voice of love when it speaks +to you of your own interests, Marguerite.” He paused. “Yes, we must call +a family council and emancipate you--without consulting you,” he added. + +“But what is it to be emancipated?” + +“It is to enjoy your own rights.” + +“If I can be emancipated without being married, why do you want me to +marry? and whom should I marry?” + +Pierquin tried to look tenderly at his cousin, but the expression +contrasted so strongly with his hard eyes, usually fixed on money, that +Marguerite discovered the self-interest in his improvised tenderness. + +“You would marry the person who--pleases you--the most,” he said. “A +husband is indispensable, were it only as a matter of business. You are +now entering upon a struggle with your father; can you resist him all +alone?” + +“Yes, monsieur; I shall know how to protect my brothers and sister when +the time comes.” + +“Pshaw! the obstinate creature,” thought Pierquin. “No, you will not +resist him,” he said aloud. + +“Let us end the subject,” she said. + +“Adieu, cousin, I shall endeavor to serve you in spite of yourself; I +will prove my love by protecting you against your will from a disaster +which all the town foresees.” + +“I thank you for the interest you take in me,” she answered; “but I +entreat you to propose nothing and to undertake nothing which may give +pain to my father.” + +Marguerite stood thoughtfully watching Pierquin as he departed; she +compared his metallic voice, his manners, flexible as a steel spring, +his glance, servile rather than tender, with the mute melodious poetry +in which Emmanuel’s sentiments were wrapped. No matter what may be said, +or what may be done, there exists a wonderful magnetism whose effects +never deceive. The tones of the voice, the glance, the passionate +gestures of a lover may be imitated; a young girl can be deluded by a +clever comedian; but to succeed, the man must be alone in the field. +If the young girl has another soul beside her whose pulses vibrate in +unison with hers, she is able to distinguish the expressions of a true +love. Emmanuel, like Marguerite, felt the influence of the chords which, +from the time of their first meeting had gathered ominously about their +heads, hiding from their eyes the blue skies of love. His feeling for +the Elect of his heart was an idolatry which the total absence of hope +rendered gentle and mysterious in its manifestations. Socially too far +removed from Mademoiselle Claes by his want of fortune, with nothing but +a noble name to offer her, he saw no chance of ever being her husband. +Yet he had always hoped for certain encouragements which Marguerite +refused to give before the failing eyes of her dying mother. Both +equally pure, they had never said to one another a word of love. Their +joys were solitary joys tasted by each alone. They trembled apart, +though together they quivered beneath the rays of the same hope. They +seemed to fear themselves, conscious that each only too surely belonged +to the other. Emmanuel trembled lest he should touch the hand of the +sovereign to whom he had made a shrine of his heart; a chance contact +would have roused hopes that were too ardent, he could not then have +mastered the force of his passion. And yet, while neither bestowed the +vast, though trivial, the innocent and yet all-meaning signs of love +that even timid lovers allow themselves, they were so firmly fixed +in each other’s hearts that both were ready to make the greatest +sacrifices, which were, indeed, the only pleasures their love could +expect to taste. + +Since Madame Claes’s death this hidden love was shrouded in mourning. +The tints of the sphere in which it lived, dark and dim from the first, +were now black; the few lights were veiled by tears. Marguerite’s +reserve changed to coldness; she remembered the promise exacted by +her mother. With more freedom of action, she nevertheless became more +distant. Emmanuel shared his beloved’s grief, comprehending that the +slightest word or wish of love at such a time transgressed the laws +of the heart. Their love was therefore more concealed than it had ever +been. These tender souls sounded the same note: held apart by grief, as +formerly by the timidities of youth and by respect for the sufferings of +the mother, they clung to the magnificent language of the eyes, the mute +eloquence of devoted actions, the constant unison of thoughts,--divine +harmonies of youth, the first steps of a love still in its infancy. +Emmanuel came every morning to inquire for Claes and Marguerite, but he +never entered the dining-room, where the family now sat, unless to bring +a letter from Gabriel or when Balthazar invited him to come in. +His first glance at the young girl contained a thousand sympathetic +thoughts; it told her that he suffered under these conventional +restraints, that he never left her, he was always with her, he shared +her grief. He shed the tears of his own pain into the soul of his dear +one by a look that was marred by no selfish reservation. His good heart +lived so completely in the present, he clung so firmly to a happiness +which he believed to be fugitive, that Marguerite sometimes reproached +herself for not generously holding out her hand and saying, “Let us at +least be friends.” + +Pierquin continued his suit with an obstinacy which is the unreflecting +patience of fools. He judged Marguerite by the ordinary rules of the +multitude when judging of women. He believed that the words marriage, +freedom, fortune, which he had put into her mind, would geminate and +flower into wishes by which he could profit; he imagined that her +coldness was mere dissimulation. But surround her as he would with +gallant attentions, he could not hide the despotic ways of a man +accustomed to manage the private affairs of many families with a high +hand. He discoursed to her in those platitudes of consolation common to +his profession, which crawl like snails over the suffering mind, leaving +behind them a trail of barren words which profane its sanctity. His +tenderness was mere wheedling. He dropped his feigned melancholy at the +door when he put on his overshoes, or took his umbrella. He used the +tone his long intimacy authorized as an instrument to work himself still +further into the bosom of the family, and bring Marguerite to a marriage +which the whole town was beginning to foresee. The true, devoted, +respectful love formed a striking contrast to its selfish, calculating +semblance. Each man’s conduct was homogenous: one feigned a passion and +seized every advantage to gain the prize; the other hid his love and +trembled lest he should betray his devotion. + +Some time after the death of her mother, and, as it happened, on the +same day, Marguerite was enabled to compare the only two men of whom she +had any opportunity of judging; for the social solitude to which she +was condemned kept her from seeing life and gave no access to those who +might think of her in marriage. One day after breakfast, a fine morning +in April, Emmanuel called at the house just as Monsieur Claes was going +out. The aspect of his own house was so unendurable to Balthazar that he +spent part of every day in walking about the ramparts. Emmanuel made a +motion as if to follow him, then he hesitated, seemed to gather up his +courage, looked at Marguerite and remained. The young girl felt sure +that he wished to speak with her, and asked him to go into the garden; +then she sent Felicie to Martha, who was sewing in the antechamber on +the upper floor, and seated herself on a garden-seat in full view of her +sister and the old duenna. + +“Monsieur Claes is as much absorbed by grief as he once was by science,” + began the young man, watching Balthazar as he slowly crossed the +court-yard. “Every one in Douai pities him; he moves like a man who has +lost all consciousness of life; he stops without a purpose, he gazes +without seeing anything.” + +“Every sorrow has its own expression,” said Marguerite, checking her +tears. “What is it you wish to say to me?” she added after a pause, +coldly and with dignity. + +“Mademoiselle,” answered Emmanuel in a voice of feeling, “I scarcely +know if I have the right to speak to you as I am about to do. Think only +of my desire to be of service to you, and give me the right of a teacher +to be interested in the future of a pupil. Your brother Gabriel is over +fifteen; he is in the second class; it is now necessary to direct his +studies in the line of whatever future career he may take up. It is for +your father to decide what that career shall be: if he gives the matter +no thought, the injury to Gabriel would be serious. But then, again, +would it not mortify your father if you showed him that he is neglecting +his son’s interests? Under these circumstances, could you not yourself +consult Gabriel as to his tastes, and help him to choose a career, so +that later, if his father should think of making him a public officer, +an administrator, a soldier, he might be prepared with some special +training? I do not suppose that either you or Monsieur Claes would wish +to bring Gabriel up in idleness.” + +“Oh, no!” said Marguerite; “when my mother taught us to make lace, and +took such pains with our drawing and music and embroidery, she often +said we must be prepared for whatever might happen to us. Gabriel ought +to have a thorough education and a personal value. But tell me, what +career is best for a man to choose?” + +“Mademoiselle,” said Emmanuel, trembling with pleasure, “Gabriel is +at the head of his class in mathematics; if he would like to enter the +Ecole Polytechnique, he could there acquire the practical knowledge +which will fit him for any career. When he leaves the Ecole he can +choose the path in life for which he feels the strongest bias. Thus, +without compromising his future, you will have saved a great deal of +time. Men who leave the Ecole with honors are sought after on all sides; +the school turns out statesmen, diplomats, men of science, engineers, +generals, sailors, magistrates, manufacturers, and bankers. There is +nothing extraordinary in the son of a rich or noble family preparing +himself to enter it. If Gabriel decides on this course I shall ask you +to--will you grant my request? Say yes!” + +“What is it?” + +“Let me be his tutor,” he answered, trembling. + +Marguerite looked at Monsieur de Solis; then she took his hand, and +said, “Yes”--and paused, adding presently in a broken voice:-- + +“How much I value the delicacy which makes you offer me a thing I can +accept from you. In all that you have said I see how much you have +thought for us. I thank you.” + +Though the words were simply said, Emmanuel turned away his head not to +show the tears that the delight of being useful to her brought to his +eyes. + +“I will bring both boys to see you,” he said, when he was a little +calmer; “to-morrow is a holiday.” + +He rose and bowed to Marguerite, who followed him into the house; when +he had crossed the court-yard he turned and saw her still at the door of +the dining-room, from which she made him a friendly sign. + +After dinner Pierquin came to see Monsieur Claes, and sat down between +father and daughter on the very bench in the garden where Emmanuel had +sat that morning. + +“My dear cousin,” he said to Balthazar, “I have come to-night to talk +to you on business. It is now forty-two days since the decease of your +wife.” + +“I keep no account of time,” said Balthazar, wiping away the tears that +came at the word “decease.” + +“Oh, monsieur!” cried Marguerite, looking at the lawyer, “how can you?” + +“But, my dear Marguerite, we notaries are obliged to consider the limits +of time appointed by law. This is a matter which concerns you and your +co-heirs. Monsieur Claes has none but minor children, and he must +make an inventory of his property within forty-five days of his wife’s +decease, so as to render in his accounts at the end of that time. It is +necessary to know the value of his property before deciding whether to +accept it as sufficient security, or whether we must fall back on the +legal rights of minors.” + +Marguerite rose. + +“Do not go away, my dear cousin,” continued Pierquin; “my words concern +you--you and your father both. You know how truly I share your grief, +but to-day you must give your attention to legal details. If you do not, +every one of you will get into serious difficulties. I am only doing my +duty as the family lawyer.” + +“He is right,” said Claes. + +“The time expires in two days,” resumed Pierquin; “and I must begin the +inventory to-morrow, if only to postpone the payment of the legacy-tax +which the public treasurer will come here and demand. Treasurers have no +hearts; they don’t trouble themselves about feelings; they fasten their +claws upon us at all seasons. Therefore for the next two days my clerk +and I will be here from ten till four with Monsieur Raparlier, the +public appraiser. After we get through the town property we shall go +into the country. As for the forest of Waignies, we shall be obliged to +hold a consultation about that. Now let us turn to another matter. +We must call a family council and appoint a guardian to protect the +interests of the minor children. Monsieur Conyncks of Bruges is your +nearest relative; but he has now become a Belgian. You ought,” continued +Pierquin, addressing Balthazar, “to write to him on this matter; you can +then find out if he has any intention of settling in France, where he +has a fine property. Perhaps you could persuade him and his daughter to +move into French Flanders. If he refuses, then I must see about making +up the council with the other near relatives.” + +“What is the use of an inventory?” asked Marguerite. + +“To put on record the value and the claims of the property, its debts +and its assets. When that is all clearly scheduled, the family council, +acting on behalf of the minors, makes such dispositions as it sees fit.” + +“Pierquin,” said Claes, rising from the bench, “do all that is necessary +to protect the rights of my children; but spare us the distress +of selling the things that belonged to my dear--” he was unable to +continue; but he spoke with so noble an air and in a tone of such deep +feeling that Marguerite took her father’s hand and kissed it. + +“To-morrow, then,” said Pierquin. + +“Come to breakfast,” said Claes; then he seemed to gather his scattered +senses together and exclaimed: “But in my marriage contract, which was +drawn under the laws of Hainault, I released my wife from the obligation +of making an inventory, in order that she might not be annoyed by it: it +is very probable that I was equally released--” + +“Oh, what happiness!” cried Marguerite. “It would have been so +distressing to us.” + +“Well, I will look into your marriage contract to-morrow,” said the +notary, rather confused. + +“Then you did not know of this?” said Marguerite. + +This remark closed the interview; the lawyer was far too much confused +to continue it after the young girl’s comment. + +“The devil is in it!” he said to himself as he crossed the court-yard. +“That man’s wandering memory comes back to him in the nick of +time,--just when he needed it to hinder us from taking precautions +against him! I have cracked my brains to save the property of those +children. I meant to proceed regularly and come to an understanding +with old Conyncks, and here’s the end of it! I shall lose ground with +Marguerite, for she will certainly ask her father why I wanted an +inventory of the property, which she now sees was not necessary; and +Claes will tell her that notaries have a passion for writing documents, +that we are lawyers above all, above cousins or friends or relatives, +and all such stuff as that.” + +He slammed the street door violently, railing at clients who ruin +themselves by sensitiveness. + +Balthazar was right. No inventory could be made. Nothing, therefore, was +done to settle the relation of the father to the children in the matter +of property. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +Several months went by and brought no change to the House of Claes. +Gabriel, under the wise management of his tutor, Monsieur de Solis, +worked studiously, acquired foreign languages, and prepared to pass the +necessary examinations to enter the Ecole Polytechnique. Marguerite and +Felicie lived in absolute retirement, going in summer to their father’s +country place as a measure of economy. Monsieur Claes attended to his +business affairs, paid his debts by borrowing a considerable sum of +money on his property, and went to see the forest at Waignies. + +About the middle of the year 1817, his grief, slowly abating, left him +a prey to solitude and defenceless under the monotony of the life he +was leading, which heavily oppressed him. At first he struggled bravely +against the allurements of Science as they gradually beset him; he +forbade himself even to think of Chemistry. Then he did think of it. +Still, he would not actively take it up, and only gave his mind to his +researches theoretically. Such constant study, however, swelled his +passion which soon became exacting. He asked himself whether he was +really bound not to continue his researches, and remembered that his +wife had refused his oath. Though he had pledged his word to himself +that he would never pursue the solution of the great Problem, might he +not change that determination at a moment when he foresaw success? He +was now fifty-nine years old. At that age a predominant idea contracts a +certain peevish fixedness which is the first stage of monomania. + +Circumstances conspired against his tottering loyalty. The peace +which Europe now enjoyed encouraged the circulation of discoveries +and scientific ideas acquired during the war by the learned of +various countries, who for nearly twenty years had been unable to hold +communication. Science was making great strides. Claes found that the +progress of chemistry had been directed, unknown to chemists themselves, +towards the object of his researches. Learned men devoted to the higher +sciences thought, as he did, that light, heat, electricity, galvanism, +magnetism were all different effects of the same cause, and that the +difference existing between substances hitherto considered simple must +be produced by varying proportions of an unknown principle. The fear +that some other chemist might effect the reduction of metals and +discover the constituent principle of electricity,--two achievements +which would lead to the solution of the chemical Absolute,--increased +what the people of Douai called a mania, and drove his desires to a +paroxysm conceivable to those who devote themselves to the sciences, or +who have ever known the tyranny of ideas. + +Thus it happened that Balthazar was again carried away by a passion all +the more violent because it had lain dormant so long. Marguerite, +who watched every evidence of her father’s state of mind, opened the +long-closed parlor. By living in it she recalled the painful memories +which her mother’s death had caused, and succeeded for a time in +re-awaking her father’s grief, and retarding his plunge into the gulf to +the depths of which he was, nevertheless, doomed to fall. She determined +to go into society and force Balthazar to share in its distractions. +Several good marriages were proposed to her, which occupied Claes’s +mind, but to all of them she replied that she should not marry until +after she was twenty-five. But in spite of his daughter’s efforts, in +spite of his remorseful struggles, Balthazar, at the beginning of the +winter, returned secretly to his researches. It was difficult, however, +to hide his operations from the inquisitive women in the kitchen; and +one morning Martha, while dressing Marguerite, said to her:-- + +“Mademoiselle, we are as good as lost. That monster of a Mulquinier--who +is a devil disguised, for I never saw him make the sign of the +cross--has gone back to the garret. There’s monsieur on the high-road to +hell. Pray God he mayn’t kill you as he killed my poor mistress.” + +“It is not possible!” exclaimed Marguerite. + +“Come and see the signs of their traffic.” + +Mademoiselle Claes ran to the window and saw the light smoke rising from +the flue of the laboratory. + +“I shall be twenty-one in a few months,” she thought, “and I shall know +how to oppose the destruction of our property.” + +In giving way to his passion Balthazar necessarily felt less respect +for the interests of his children than he formerly had felt for the +happiness of his wife. The barriers were less high, his conscience was +more elastic, his passion had increased in strength. He now set forth in +his career of glory, toil, hope, and poverty, with the fervor of a man +profoundly trustful of his convictions. Certain of the result, he worked +night and day with a fury that alarmed his daughters, who did not know +how little a man is injured by work that gives him pleasure. + +Her father had no sooner recommenced his experiments than Marguerite +retrenched the superfluities of the table, showing a parsimony worthy of +a miser, in which Josette and Martha admirably seconded her. Claes never +noticed the change which reduced the household living to the merest +necessaries. First he ceased to breakfast with the family; then he only +left his laboratory when dinner was ready; and at last, before he went +to bed, he would sit some hours in the parlor between his daughters +without saying a word to either of them; when he rose to go upstairs +they wished him good-night, and he allowed them mechanically to kiss +him on both cheeks. Such conduct would have led to great domestic +misfortunes had Marguerite not been prepared to exercise the authority +of a mother, and if, moreover, she were not protected by a secret love +from the dangers of so much liberty. + +Pierquin had ceased to come to the house, judging that the family ruin +would soon be complete. Balthazar’s rural estates, which yielded sixteen +thousand francs a year, and were worth about six hundred thousand, were +now encumbered by mortgages to the amount of three hundred thousand +francs; for, in order to recommence his researches, Claes had borrowed +a considerable sum of money. The rents were exactly enough to pay the +interest of the mortgages; but, with the improvidence of a man who +is the slave of an idea, he made over the income of his farm lands to +Marguerite for the expenses of the household, and the notary calculated +that three years would suffice to bring matters to a crisis, when the +law would step in and eat up all that Balthazar had not squandered. +Marguerite’s coldness brought Pierquin to a state of almost hostile +indifference. To give himself an appearance in the eyes of the world of +having renounced her hand, he frequently remarked of the Claes family in +a tone of compassion:-- + +“Those poor people are ruined; I have done my best to save them. Well, +it can’t be helped; Mademoiselle Claes refused to employ the legal means +which might have rescued them from poverty.” + +Emmanuel de Solis, who was now principal of the college-school in Douai, +thanks to the influence of his uncle and to his own merits which made +him worthy of the post, came every evening to see the two young girls, +who called the old duenna into the parlor as soon as their father had +gone to bed. Emmanuel’s gentle rap at the street-door was never missing. +For the last three months, encouraged by the gracious, though mute +gratitude with which Marguerite now accepted his attentions, he became +at his ease, and was seen for what he was. The brightness of his pure +spirit shone like a flawless diamond; Marguerite learned to understand +its strength and its constancy when she saw how inexhaustible was the +source from which it came. She loved to watch the unfolding, one by one, +of the blossoms of his heart, whose perfume she had already breathed. +Each day Emmanuel realized some one of Marguerite’s hopes, and illumined +the enchanted regions of love with new lights that chased away the +clouds and brought to view the serene heavens, giving color to the +fruitful riches hidden away in the shadow of their lives. More at his +ease, the young man could display the seductive qualities of his heart +until now discreetly hidden, the expansive gaiety of his age, the +simplicity which comes of a life of study, the treasures of a delicate +mind that life has not adulterated, the innocent joyousness which goes +so well with loving youth. His soul and Marguerite’s understood each +other better; they went together to the depths of their hearts and +found in each the same thoughts,--pearls of equal lustre, sweet fresh +harmonies like those the legends tell of beneath the waves, which +fascinate the divers. They made themselves known to one another by an +interchange of thought, a reciprocal introspection which bore the signs, +in both, of exquisite sensibility. It was done without false shame, but +not without mutual coquetry. The two hours which Emmanuel spent with the +sisters and old Martha enabled Marguerite to accept the life of anguish +and renunciation on which she had entered. This artless, progressive +love was her support. In all his testimonies of affection Emmanuel +showed the natural grace that is so winning, the sweet yet subtile mind +which breaks the uniformity of sentiment as the facets of a diamond +relieve, by their many-sided fires, the monotony of the stone,--adorable +wisdom, the secret of loving hearts, which makes a woman pliant to the +artistic hand that gives new life to old, old forms, and refreshes with +novel modulations the phrases of love. Love is not only a sentiment, it +is an art. Some simple word, a trifling vigilance, a nothing, reveals to +a woman the great, the divine artist who shall touch her heart and yet +not blight it. The more Emmanuel was free to utter himself, the more +charming were the expressions of his love. + +“I have tried to get here before Pierquin,” he said to Marguerite one +evening. “He is bringing some bad news; I would rather you heard it from +me. Your father has sold all the timber in your forest at Waignies +to speculators, who have resold it to dealers. The trees are already +felled, and the logs are carried away. Monsieur Claes received three +hundred thousand francs in cash as a first instalment of the price, +which he has used towards paying his bills in Paris; but to clear off +his debts entirely he has been forced to assign a hundred thousand +francs of the three hundred thousand still due to him on the +purchase-money.” + +Pierquin entered at this moment. + +“Ah! my dear cousin,” he said, “you are ruined. I told you how it +would be; but you would not listen to me. Your father has an insatiable +appetite. He has swallowed your woods at a mouthful. Your family +guardian, Monsieur Conyncks, is just now absent in Amsterdam, and Claes +has seized the opportunity to strike the blow. It is all wrong. I have +written to Monsieur Conyncks, but he will get here too late; everything +will be squandered. You will be obliged to sue your father. The suit +can’t be long, but it will be dishonorable. Monsieur Conyncks has no +alternative but to institute proceedings; the law requires it. This +is the result of your obstinacy. Do you now see my prudence, and how +devoted I was to your interests?” + +“I bring you some good news, mademoiselle,” said young de Solis in his +gentle voice. “Gabriel has been admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique. The +difficulties that seemed in the way have all been removed.” + +Marguerite thanked him with a smile as she said:-- + +“My savings will now come in play! Martha, we must begin to-morrow on +Gabriel’s outfit. My poor Felicie, we shall have to work hard,” she +added, kissing her sister’s forehead. + +“To-morrow you shall have him at home, to remain ten days,” said +Emmanuel; “he must be in Paris by the fifteenth of November.” + +“My cousin Gabriel has done a sensible thing,” said the lawyer, eyeing +the professor from head to foot; “for he will have to make his own way. +But, my dear cousin, the question now is how to save the honor of the +family: will you listen to what I say this time?” + +“No,” she said, “not if it relates to marriage.” + +“Then what will you do?” + +“I?--nothing.” + +“But you are of age.” + +“I shall be in a few days. Have you any course to suggest to me,” she +added, “which will reconcile our interests with the duty we owe to our +father and to the honor of the family?” + +“My dear cousin, nothing can be done till your uncle arrives. When he +does, I will call again.” + +“Adieu, monsieur,” said Marguerite. + +“The poorer she is the more airs she gives herself,” thought the notary. +“Adieu, mademoiselle,” he said aloud. “Monsieur, my respects to you”; +and he went away, paying no attention to Felicie or Martha. + +“I have been studying the Code for the last two days, and I have +consulted an experienced old lawyer, a friend of my uncle,” said +Emmanuel, in a hesitating voice. “If you will allow me, I will go +to Amsterdam to-morrow and see Monsieur Conyncks. Listen, dear +Marguerite--” + +He uttered her name for the first time; she thanked him with a smile and +a tearful glance, and made a gentle inclination of her head. He paused, +looking at Felicie and Martha. + +“Speak before my sister,” said Marguerite. “She is so docile and +courageous that she does not need this discussion to make her resigned +to our life of toil and privation; but it is best that she should see +for herself how necessary courage is to us.” + +The two sisters clasped hands and kissed each other, as if to renew some +pledge of union before the coming disaster. + +“Leave us, Martha.” + +“Dear Marguerite,” said Emmanuel, letting the happiness he felt in +conquering the lesser rights of affection sound in the inflections of +his voice, “I have procured the names and addresses of the purchasers +who still owe the remaining two hundred thousand francs on the felled +timber. To-morrow, if you give consent, a lawyer acting in the name +of Monsieur Conyncks, who will not disavow the act, will serve an +injunction upon them. Six days hence, by which time your uncle will have +returned, the family council can be called together, and Gabriel put +in possession of his legal rights, for he is now eighteen. You and your +brother being thus authorized to use those rights, you will demand your +share in the proceeds of the timber. Monsieur Claes cannot refuse you +the two hundred thousand francs on which the injunction will have been +put; as to the remaining hundred thousand which is due to you, you +must obtain a mortgage on this house. Monsieur Conyncks will demand +securities for the three hundred thousand belonging to Felicie and Jean. +Under these circumstances your father will be obliged to mortgage his +property on the plain of Orchies, which he has already encumbered to the +amount of three hundred thousand francs. The law gives a retrospective +priority to the claims of minors; and that will save you. Monsieur +Claes’s hands will be tied for the future; your property becomes +inalienable, and he can no longer borrow on his own estates because they +will be held as security for other sums. Moreover, the whole can be +done quietly, without scandal or legal proceedings. Your father will be +forced to greater prudence in making his researches, even if he cannot +be persuaded to relinquish them altogether.” + +“Yes,” said Marguerite, “but where, meantime, can we find the means of +living? The hundred thousand francs for which, you say, I must obtain a +mortgage on this house, would bring in nothing while we still live +here. The proceeds of my father’s property in the country will pay the +interest on the three hundred thousand francs he owes to others; but how +are we to live?” + +“In the first place,” said Emmanuel, “by investing the fifty thousand +francs which belong to Gabriel in the public Funds you will get, +according to present rates, more than four thousand francs’ income, +which will suffice to pay your brother’s board and lodging and all his +other expenses in Paris. Gabriel cannot touch the capital until he is of +age, therefore you need not fear that he will waste a penny of it, and +you will have one expense the less. Besides, you will have your own +fifty thousand.” + +“My father will ask me for them,” she said in a frightened tone; “and I +shall not be able to refuse him.” + +“Well, dear Marguerite, even so, you can evade that by robbing yourself. +Place your money in the Grand-Livre in Gabriel’s name: it will bring you +twelve or thirteen thousand francs a year. Minors who are emancipated +cannot sell property without permission of the family council; you will +thus gain three years’ peace of mind. By that time your father will +either have solved his problem or renounced it; and Gabriel, then of +age, will reinvest the money in your own name.” + +Marguerite made him explain to her once more the legal points which she +did not at first understand. It was certainly a novel sight to see this +pair of lovers poring over the Code, which Emmanuel had brought with him +to show his mistress the laws which protected the property of +minors; she quickly caught the meaning of them, thanks to the natural +penetration of women, which in this case love still further sharpened. + +Gabriel came home to his father’s house on the following day. When +Monsieur de Solis brought him up to Balthazar and told of his admission +to the Ecole Polytechnique, the father thanked the professor with a wave +of his hand, and said:-- + +“I am very glad; Gabriel may become a man of science.” + +“Oh, my brother,” cried Marguerite, as Balthazar went back to his +laboratory, “work hard, waste no money; spend what is necessary, but +practise economy. On the days when you are allowed to go out, pass your +time with our friends and relations; contract none of the habits which +ruin young men in Paris. Your expenses will amount to nearly three +thousand francs, and that will leave you a thousand francs for your +pocket-money; that is surely enough.” + +“I will answer for him,” said Emmanuel de Solis, laying his hand on his +pupil’s shoulder. + +A month later, Monsieur Conyncks, in conjunction with Marguerite, +had obtained all necessary securities from Claes. The plan so wisely +proposed by Emmanuel de Solis was fully approved and executed. Face to +face with the law, and in presence of his cousin, whose stern sense +of honor allowed no compromise, Balthazar, ashamed of the sale of the +timber to which he had consented at a moment when he was harassed by +creditors, submitted to all that was demanded of him. Glad to repair the +almost involuntary wrong that he had done to his children, he signed the +deeds in a preoccupied way. He was now as careless and improvident as a +Negro who sells his wife in the morning for a drop of brandy, and cries +for her at night. He gave no thought to even the immediate future, and +never asked himself what resources he would have when his last ducat was +melted up. He pursued his work and continued his purchases, apparently +unaware that he was now no more than the titular owner of his house and +lands, and that he could not, thanks to the severity of the laws, raise +another penny upon a property of which he was now, as it were, the legal +guardian. + +The year 1818 ended without bringing any new misfortune. The sisters +paid the costs of Jean’s education and met all the expenses of the +household out of the thirteen thousand francs a year from the sum placed +in the Grand-Livre in Gabriel’s name, which he punctually remitted to +them. Monsieur de Solis lost his uncle, the abbe, in December of that +year. + +Early in January Marguerite learned through Martha that her father had +sold his collection of tulips, also the furniture of the front house, +and all the family silver. She was obliged to buy back the spoons and +forks that were necessary for the daily service of the table, and +these she now ordered to be stamped with her initials. Until that day +Marguerite had kept silence towards her father on the subject of his +depredations, but that evening after dinner she requested Felicie to +leave her alone with him, and when he seated himself as usual by the +corner of the parlor fireplace, she said:-- + +“My dear father, you are the master here, and can sell everything, +even your children. We are ready to obey you without a murmur; but I am +forced to tell you that we are without money, that we have barely enough +to live on, and that Felicie and I are obliged to work night and day to +pay for the schooling of little Jean with the price of the lace dress +we are now making. My dear father, I implore you to give up your +researches.” + +“You are right, my dear child; in six weeks they will be finished; +I shall have found the Absolute, or the Absolute will be proved +undiscoverable. You will have millions--” + +“Give us meanwhile the bread to eat,” replied Marguerite. + +“Bread? is there no bread here?” said Claes, with a frightened air. “No +bread in the house of a Claes! What has become of our property?” + +“You have cut down the forest of Waignies. The ground has not been +cleared and is therefore unproductive. As for your farms at Orchies, +the rents scarcely suffice to pay the interest of the sums you have +borrowed--” + +“Then what are we living on?” he demanded. + +Marguerite held up her needle and continued:-- + +“Gabriel’s income helps us, but it is insufficient; I can make both ends +meet at the close of the year if you do not overwhelm me with bills that +I do not expect, for purchases you tell me nothing about. When I think +I have enough to meet my quarterly expenses some unexpected bill for +potash, or zinc, or sulphur, is brought to me.” + +“My dear child, have patience for six weeks; after that, I will be +judicious. My little Marguerite, you shall see wonders.” + +“It is time you should think of your affairs. You have sold +everything,--pictures, tulips, plate; nothing is left. At least, refrain +from making debts.” + +“I don’t wish to make any more!” he said. + +“Any more?” she cried, “then you have some?” + +“Mere trifles,” he said, but he dropped his eyes and colored. + +For the first time in her life Marguerite felt humiliated by the +lowering of her father’s character, and suffered from it so much that +she dared not question him. + +A month after this scene one of the Douai bankers brought a bill of +exchange for ten thousand francs signed by Claes. Marguerite asked the +banker to wait a day, and expressed her regret that she had not been +notified to prepare for this payment; whereupon he informed her that +the house of Protez and Chiffreville held nine other bills to the same +amount, falling due in consecutive months. + +“All is over!” cried Marguerite, “the time has come.” + +She sent for her father, and walked up and down the parlor with hasty +steps, talking to herself:-- + +“A hundred thousand francs!” she cried. “I must find them, or see my +father in prison. What am I to do?” + +Balthazar did not come. Weary of waiting for him, Marguerite went up to +the laboratory. As she entered she saw him in the middle of an immense, +brilliantly-lighted room, filled with machinery and dusty glass vessels: +here and there were books, and tables encumbered with specimens and +products ticketed and numbered. On all sides the disorder of scientific +pursuits contrasted strongly with Flemish habits. This litter of retorts +and vaporizers, metals, fantastically colored crystals, specimens hooked +upon the walls or lying on the furnaces, surrounded the central figure +of Balthazar Claes, without a coat, his arms bare like those of a +workman, his breast exposed, and showing the white hair which covered +it. His eyes were gazing with horrible fixity at a pneumatic trough. +The receiver of this instrument was covered with a lens made of +double convex glasses, the space between the glasses being filled +with alchohol, which focussed the light coming through one of the +compartments of the rose-window of the garret. The shelf of the receiver +communicated with the wire of an immense galvanic battery. Lemulquinier, +busy at the moment in moving the pedestal of the machine, which was +placed on a movable axle so as to keep the lens in a perpendicular +direction to the rays of the sun, turned round, his face black with +dust, and called out,-- + +“Ha! mademoiselle, don’t come in.” + +The aspect of her father, half-kneeling beside the instrument, +and receiving the full strength of the sunlight upon his head, the +protuberances of his skull, its scanty hairs resembling threads +of silver, his face contracted by the agonies of expectation, the +strangeness of the objects that surrounded him, the obscurity of parts +of the vast garret from which fantastic engines seemed about to spring, +all contributed to startle Marguerite, who said to herself, in terror,-- + +“He is mad!” + +Then she went up to him and whispered in his ear, “Send away +Lemulquinier.” + +“No, no, my child; I want him: I am in the midst of an experiment no one +has yet thought of. For the last three days we have been watching +for every ray of sun. I now have the means of submitting metals, in a +complete vacuum, to concentrated solar fires and to electric currents. +At this very moment the most powerful action a chemist can employ is +about to show results which I alone--” + +“My father, instead of vaporizing metals you should employ them in +paying your notes of hand--” + +“Wait, wait!” + +“Monsieur Merkstus has been here, father; and he must have ten thousand +francs by four o’clock.” + +“Yes, yes, presently. True, I did sign a little note which is payable +this month. I felt sure I should have found the Absolute. Good God! If I +could only have a July sun the experiment would be successful.” + +He grasped his head and sat down on an old cane chair; a few tears +rolled from his eyes. + +“Monsieur is quite right,” said Lemulquinier; “it is all the fault of +that rascally sun which is too feeble,--the coward, the lazy thing!” + +Master and valet paid no further attention to Marguerite. + +“Leave us, Mulquinier,” she said. + +“Ah! I see a new experiment!” cried Claes. + +“Father, lay aside your experiments,” said his daughter, when they were +alone. “You have one hundred thousand francs to pay, and we have not +a penny. Leave your laboratory; your honor is in question. What will +become of you if you are put in prison? Will you soil your white hairs +and the name of Claes with the disgrace of bankruptcy? I will not allow +it. I shall have strength to oppose your madness; it would be dreadful +to see you without bread in your old age. Open your eyes to our +position; see reason at last!” + +“Madness!” cried Balthazar, struggling to his feet. He fixed his +luminous eyes upon his daughter, crossed his arms on his breast, and +repeated the word “Madness!” so majestically that Marguerite trembled. + +“Ah!” he cried, “your mother would never have uttered that word to me. +She was not ignorant of the importance of my researches; she learned +a science to understand me; she recognized that I toiled for the human +race; she knew there was nothing sordid or selfish in my aims. The +feelings of a loving wife are higher, I see it now, than filial +affection. Yes, Love is above all other feelings. See reason!” he went +on, striking his breast. “Do I lack reason? Am I not myself? You say +we are poor; well, my daughter, I choose it to be so. I am your father, +obey me. I will make you rich when I please. Your fortune? it is a +pittance! When I find the solvent of carbon I will fill your parlor +with diamonds, and they are but a scintilla of what I seek. You can well +afford to wait while I consume my life in superhuman efforts.” + +“Father, I have no right to ask an account of the four millions you have +already engulfed in this fatal garret. I will not speak to you of +my mother whom you killed. If I had a husband, I should love him, +doubtless, as she loved you; I should be ready to sacrifice all to him, +as she sacrificed all for you. I have obeyed her orders in giving myself +wholly to you; I have proved it in not marrying and compelling you to +render an account of your guardianship. Let us dismiss the past and +think of the present. I am here now to represent the necessity which you +have created for yourself. You must have money to meet your notes--do +you understand me? There is nothing left to seize here but the portrait +of your ancestor, the Claes martyr. I come in the name of my mother, who +felt herself too feeble to defend her children against their father; +she ordered me to resist you. I come in the name of my brothers and my +sister; I come, father, in the name of all the Claes, and I command +you to give up your experiments, or earn the means of pursuing them +hereafter, if pursue them you must. If you arm yourself with the power +of your paternity, which you employ only for our destruction, I have on +my side your ancestors and your honor, whose voice is louder than that +of chemistry. The Family is greater than Science. I have been too long +your daughter.” + +“And you choose to be my executioner,” he said, in a feeble voice. + +Marguerite turned and fled away, that she might not abdicate the part +she had just assumed: she fancied she heard again her mother’s voice +saying to her, “Do not oppose your father too much; love him well.” + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +“Mademoiselle has made a pretty piece of work up yonder,” said +Lemulquinier, coming down to the kitchen for his breakfast. “We were +just going to put our hands on the great secret, we only wanted a scrap +of July sun, for monsieur,--ah, what a man! he’s almost in the shoes +of the good God himself!--was almost within THAT,” he said to Josette, +clicking his thumbnail against a front tooth, “of getting hold of the +Absolute, when up she came, slam bang, screaming some nonsense about +notes of hand.” + +“Well, pay them yourself,” said Martha, “out of your wages.” + +“Where’s the butter for my bread?” said Lemulquinier to the cook. + +“Where’s the money to buy it?” she answered, sharply. “Come, old +villain, if you make gold in that devil’s kitchen of yours, why don’t +you make butter? ‘Twouldn’t be half so difficult, and you could sell it +in the market for enough to make the pot boil. We all eat dry bread. The +young ladies are satisfied with dry bread and nuts, and do you expect to +be better fed than your masters? Mademoiselle won’t spend more than one +hundred francs a month for the whole household. There’s only one dinner +for all. If you want dainties you’ve got your furnaces upstairs where +you fricassee pearls till there’s nothing else talked of in town. Get +your roast chickens up there.” + +Lemulquinier took his dry bread and went out. + +“He will go and buy something to eat with his own money,” said Martha; +“all the better,--it is just so much saved. Isn’t he stingy, the old +scarecrow!” + +“Starve him! that’s the only way to manage him,” said Josette. “For a +week past he hasn’t rubbed a single floor; I have to do his work, for +he is always upstairs. He can very well afford to pay me for it with the +present of a few herrings; if he brings any home, I shall lay hands on +them, I can tell him that.” + +“Ah!” exclaimed Martha, “I hear Mademoiselle Marguerite crying. Her +wizard of a father would swallow the house at a gulp without asking +a Christian blessing, the old sorcerer! In my country he’d be burned +alive; but people here have no more religion than the Moors in Africa.” + +Marguerite could scarcely stifle her sobs as she came through the +gallery. She reached her room, took out her mother’s letter, and read as +follows:-- + + My Child,--If God so wills, my spirit will be within your heart + when you read these words, the last I shall ever write; they are + full of love for my dear ones, left at the mercy of a demon whom I + have not been able to resist. When you read these words he will + have taken your last crust, just as he took my life and squandered + my love. You know, my darling, if I loved your father: I die + loving him less, for I take precautions against him which I never + could have practised while living. Yes, in the depths of my coffin + I shall have kept a resource for the day when some terrible + misfortune overtakes you. If when that day comes you are reduced + to poverty, or if your honor is in question, my child, send for + Monsieur de Solis, should he be living,--if not, for his nephew, + our good Emmanuel; they hold one hundred and seventy thousand + francs which are yours and will enable you to live. + + If nothing shall have subdued his passion; if his children prove + no stronger barrier than my happiness has been, and cannot stop + his criminal career,--leave him, leave your father, that you may + live. I could not forsake him; I was bound to him. You, + Marguerite, you must save the family. I absolve you for all you + may do to defend Gabriel and Jean and Felicie. Take courage; be + the guardian angel of the Claes. Be firm,--I dare not say be + pitiless; but to repair the evil already done you must keep some + means at hand. On the day when you read this letter, regard + yourself as ruined already, for nothing will stay the fury of that + passion which has torn all things from me. + + My child, remember this: the truest love is to forget your heart. + Even though you be forced to deceive your father, your + dissimulation will be blessed; your actions, however blamable they + may seem, will be heroic if taken to protect the family. The + virtuous Monsieur de Solis tells me so; and no conscience was ever + purer or more enlightened than his. I could never have had the + courage to speak these words to you, even with my dying breath. + + And yet, my daughter, be respectful, be kind in the dreadful + struggle. Resist him, but love him; deny him gently. My hidden + tears, my inward griefs will be known only when I am dead. Kiss my + dear children in my name when the hour comes and you are called + upon to protect them. + + May God and the saints be with you! + +Josephine. + + +To this letter was added an acknowledgment from the Messieurs de Solis, +uncle and nephew, who thereby bound themselves to place the money +entrusted to them by Madame Claes in the hands of whoever of her +children should present the paper. + +“Martha,” cried Marguerite to the duenna, who came quickly; “go to +Monsieur Emmanuel de Solis, and ask him to come to me.--Noble, discreet +heart! he never told me,” she thought; “though all my griefs and cares +are his, he never told me!” + +Emmanuel came before Martha could get back. + +“You have kept a secret from me,” she said, showing him her mother’s +letter. + +Emmanuel bent his head. + +“Marguerite, are you in great trouble?” he asked. + +“Yes,” she answered; “be my support,--you, whom my mother calls ‘our +good Emmanuel.’” She showed him the letter, unable to repress her joy in +knowing that her mother approved her choice. + +“My blood and my life were yours on the morrow of the day when I first +saw you in the gallery,” he said; “but I scarcely dared to hope the time +might come when you would accept them. If you know me well, you know +my word is sacred. Forgive the absolute obedience I have paid to your +mother’s wishes; it was not for me to judge her intentions.” + +“You have saved us,” she said, interrupting him, and taking his arm to +go down to the parlor. + +After hearing from Emmanuel the origin of the money entrusted to him, +Marguerite confided to him the terrible straits in which the family now +found themselves. + +“I must pay those notes at once,” said Emmanuel. “If Merkstus holds them +all, you can at least save the interest. I will bring you the remaining +seventy thousand francs. My poor uncle left me quite a large sum in +ducats, which are easy to carry secretly.” + +“Oh!” she said, “bring them at night; we can hide them when my father is +asleep. If he knew that I had money, he might try to force it from me. +Oh, Emmanuel, think what it is to distrust a father!” she said, weeping +and resting her forehead against the young man’s heart. + +This sad, confiding movement, with which the young girl asked +protection, was the first expression of a love hitherto wrapped in +melancholy and restrained within a sphere of grief: the heart, too full, +was forced to overflow beneath the pressure of this new misery. + +“What can we do; what will become of us? He sees nothing, he cares for +nothing,--neither for us nor for himself. I know not how he can live in +that garret, where the air is stifling.” + +“What can you expect of a man who calls incessantly, like Richard III., +‘My kingdom for a horse’?” said Emmanuel. “He is pitiless; and in that +you must imitate him. Pay his notes; give him, if you will, your whole +fortune; but that of your sister and of your brothers is neither yours +nor his.” + +“Give him my fortune?” she said, pressing her lover’s hand and looking +at him with ardor in her eyes; “you advise it, you!--and Pierquin told a +hundred lies to make me keep it!” + +“Alas! I may be selfish in my own way,” he said. “Sometimes I long for +you without fortune; you seem nearer to me then! At other times I want +you rich and happy, and I feel how paltry it is to think that the poor +grandeurs of wealth can separate us.” + +“Dear, let us not speak of ourselves.” + +“Ourselves!” he repeated, with rapture. Then, after a pause, he added: +“The evil is great, but it is not irreparable.” + +“It can be repaired only by us: the Claes family has now no head. +To reach the stage of being neither father nor man, to have no +consciousness of justice or injustice (for, in defiance of the laws, he +has dissipated--he, so great, so noble, so upright--the property of +the children he was bound to defend), oh, to what depths must he have +fallen! My God! what is this thing he seeks?” + +“Unfortunately, dear Marguerite, wrong as he is in his relation to his +family, he is right scientifically. A score of men in Europe admire him +for the very thing which others count as madness. But nevertheless +you must, without scruple, refuse to let him take the property of his +children. Great discoveries have always been accidental. If your father +ever finds the solution of the problem, it will be when it costs him +nothing; in a moment, perhaps, when he despairs of it.” + +“My poor mother is happy,” said Marguerite; “she would have suffered +a thousand deaths before she died: as it was, her first encounter with +Science killed her. Alas! the strife is endless.” + +“There is an end,” said Emmanuel. “When you have nothing left, Monsieur +Claes can get no further credit; then he will stop.” + +“Let him stop now, then,” cried Marguerite, “for we are without a +penny!” + +Monsieur de Solis went to buy up Claes’s notes and returned, bringing +them to Marguerite. Balthazar, contrary to his custom, came down a few +moments before dinner. For the first time in two years his daughter +noticed the signs of a human grief upon his face: he was again a father, +reason and judgment had overcome Science; he looked into the court-yard, +then into the garden, and when he was certain he was alone with his +daughter, he came up to her with a look of melancholy kindness. + +“My child,” he said, taking her hand and pressing it with persuasive +tenderness, “forgive your old father. Yes, Marguerite, I have done +wrong. You spoke truly. So long as I have not FOUND I am a miserable +wretch. I will go away from here. I cannot see Van Claes sold,” he went +on, pointing to the martyr’s portrait. “He died for Liberty, I die for +Science; he is venerated, I am hated.” + +“Hated? oh, my father, no,” she cried, throwing herself on his breast; +“we all adore you. Do we not, Felicie?” she said, turning to her sister +who came in at the moment. + +“What is the matter, dear father?” said his youngest daughter, taking +his hand. + +“I have ruined you.” + +“Ah!” cried Felicie, “but our brothers will make our fortune. Jean is +always at the head of his class.” + +“See, father,” said Marguerite, leading Balthazar in a coaxing, filial +way to the chimney-piece and taking some papers from beneath the clock, +“here are your notes of hand; but do not sign any more, there is nothing +left to pay them with--” + +“Then you have money?” whispered Balthazar in her ear, when he recovered +from his surprise. + +His words and manner tortured the heroic girl; she saw the delirium of +joy and hope in her father’s face as he looked about him to discover the +gold. + +“Father,” she said, “I have my own fortune.” + +“Give it to me,” he said with a rapacious gesture; “I will return you a +hundred-fold.” + +“Yes, I will give it to you,” answered Marguerite, looking gravely at +Balthazar, who did not know the meaning she put into her words. + +“Ah, my dear daughter!” he cried, “you save my life. I have thought of a +last experiment, after which nothing more is possible. If, this time, I +do not find the Absolute, I must renounce the search. Come to my arms, +my darling child; I will make you the happiest woman upon earth. You +give me glory; you bring me back to happiness; you bestow the power to +heap treasures upon my children--yes! I will load you with jewels, with +wealth.” + +He kissed his daughter’s forehead, took her hands and pressed them, and +testified his joy by fondling caresses which to Marguerite seemed almost +obsequious. During the dinner he thought only of her; he looked at +her eagerly with the assiduous devotion displayed by a lover to his +mistress: if she made a movement, he tried to divine her wish, and +rose to fulfil it; he made her ashamed by the youthful eagerness of his +attentions, which were painfully out of keeping with his premature old +age. To all these cajoleries, Marguerite herself presented the contrast +of actual distress, shown sometimes by a word of doubt, sometimes by a +glance along the empty shelves of the sideboards in the dining-room. + +“Well, well,” he said, following her eyes, “in six months we shall fill +them again with gold, and marvellous things. You shall be like a queen. +Bah! nature herself will belong to us, we shall rise above all created +beings--through you, you my Marguerite! Margarita,” he said, smiling, +“thy name is a prophecy. ‘Margarita’ means a pearl. Sterne says so +somewhere. Did you ever read Sterne? Would you like to have a Sterne? it +would amuse you.” + +“A pearl, they say, is the result of a disease,” she answered; “we have +suffered enough already.” + +“Do not be sad; you will make the happiness of those you love; you shall +be rich and all-powerful.” + +“Mademoiselle has got such a good heart,” said Lemulquinier, whose +seamed face stretched itself painfully into a smile. + +For the rest of the evening Balthazar displayed to his daughters all +the natural graces of his character and the charms of his conversation. +Seductive as the serpent, his lips, his eyes, poured out a magnetic +fluid; he put forth that power of genius, that gentleness of spirit, +which once fascinated Josephine and now drew, as it were, his daughters +into his heart. When Emmanuel de Solis came he found, for the first +time in many months, the father and the children reunited. The young +professor, in spite of his reserve, came under the influence of the +scene; for Claes’s manners and conversation had recovered their former +irresistible seduction! + +Men of science, plunged though they be in abysses of thought and +ceaselessly employed in studying the moral world, take notice, +nevertheless, of the smallest details of the sphere in which they live. +More out of date with their surroundings than really absent-minded, they +are never in harmony with the life about them; they know and forget +all; they prejudge the future in their own minds, prophesy to their own +souls, know of an event before it happens, and yet they say nothing of +all this. If, in the hush of meditation, they sometimes use their +power to observe and recognize that which goes on around them, they are +satisfied with having divined its meaning; their occupations hurry them +on, and they frequently make false application of the knowledge they +have acquired about the things of life. Sometimes they wake from their +social apathy, or they drop from the world of thought to the world of +life; at such times they come with well-stored memories, and are by no +means strangers to what is happening. + +Balthazar, who joined the perspicacity of the heart to that of the +brain, knew his daughter’s whole past; he knew, or he had guessed, the +history of the hidden love that united her with Emmanuel: he now showed +this delicately, and sanctioned their affection by taking part in it. +It was the sweetest flattery a father could bestow, and the lovers were +unable to resist it. The evening passed delightfully,--contrasting +with the griefs which threatened the lives of these poor children. When +Balthazar retired, after, as we may say, filling his family with light +and bathing them with tenderness, Emmanuel de Solis, who had shown some +embarrassment of manner, took from his pockets three thousand ducats in +gold, the possession of which he had feared to betray. He placed them +on the work-table, where Marguerite covered them with some linen she +was mending; and then he went to his own house to fetch the rest of the +money. When he returned, Felicie had gone to bed. Eleven o’clock struck; +Martha, who sat up to undress her mistress, was still with Felicie. + +“Where can we hide it?” said Marguerite, unable to resist the pleasure +of playing with the gold ducats,--a childish amusement which proved +disastrous. + +“I will lift this marble pedestal, which is hollow,” said Emmanuel; +“you can slip in the packages, and the devil himself will not think of +looking for them there.” + +Just as Marguerite was making her last trip but one from the work-table +to the pedestal, carrying the gold, she suddenly gave a piercing cry, +and let fall the packages, the covers of which broke as they fell, and +the coins were scattered about the room. Her father stood at the parlor +door; the avidity of his eyes terrified her. + +“What are you doing,” he said, looking first at his daughter, whose +terror nailed her to the floor, and then at the young man, who had +hastily sprung up,--though his attitude beside the pedestal was +sufficiently significant. The rattle of the gold upon the ground was +horrible, the scattering of it prophetic. + +“I could not be mistaken,” said Balthazar, sitting down; “I heard the +sound of gold.” + +He was not less agitated than the young people, whose hearts were +beating so in unison that their throbs might be heard, like the ticking +of a clock, amid the profound silence which suddenly settled on the +parlor. + +“Thank you, Monsieur de Solis,” said Marguerite, giving Emmanuel a +glance which meant, “Come to my rescue and help me to save this money.” + +“What gold is this?” resumed Balthazar, casting at Marguerite and +Emmanuel a glance of terrible clear-sightedness. + +“This gold belongs to Monsieur de Solis, who is kind enough to lend it +to me that I may pay our debts honorably,” she answered. + +Emmanuel colored and turned as though to leave the room: Balthazar +caught him by the arm. + +“Monsieur,” he said, “you must not escape my thanks.” + +“Monsieur, you owe me none. This money belongs to Mademoiselle +Marguerite, who borrows it from me on the security of her own property,” + Emmanuel replied, looking at his mistress, who thanked him with an +almost imperceptible movement of her eyelids. + +“I shall not allow that,” said Claes, taking a pen and a sheet of +paper from the table where Felicie did her writing, and turning to the +astonished young people. “How much is it?” His eager passion made him +more astute than the wiliest of rascally bailiffs: the sum was to be +his. Marguerite and Monsieur de Solis hesitated. + +“Let us count it,” he said. + +“There are six thousand ducats,” said Emmanuel. + +“Seventy thousand francs,” remarked Claes. + +The glance which Marguerite threw at her lover gave him courage. + +“Monsieur,” he said, “your note bears no value; pardon this purely +technical term. I have to-day lent Mademoiselle Claes one hundred +thousand francs to redeem your notes of hand which you had no means +of paying: you are therefore unable to give me any security. These one +hundred and seventy thousand francs belong to Mademoiselle Claes, who +can dispose of them as she sees fit; but I have lent them on a pledge +that she will sign a deed securing them to me on her share of the now +denuded land of the forest of Waignies.” + +Marguerite turned away her head that her lover might not see the tears +that gathered in her eyes. She knew Emmanuel’s purity of soul. Brought +up by his uncle to the practice of the sternest religious virtues, the +young man had an especial horror of falsehood: after giving his heart +and life to Marguerite Claes he now made her the sacrifice of his +conscience. + +“Adieu, monsieur,” said Balthazar, “I thought you had more confidence in +a man who looked upon you with the eyes of a father.” + +After exchanging a despairing look with Marguerite, Emmanuel was shown +out by Martha, who closed and fastened the street-door. + +The moment the father and daughter were alone Claes said,-- + +“You love me, do you not?” + +“Come to the point, father. You want this money: you cannot have it.” + +She began to pick up the coins; her father silently helped her to gather +them together and count the sum she had dropped; Marguerite allowed +him to do so without manifesting the least distrust. When two thousand +ducats were piled on the table, Balthazar said, with a desperate air,-- + +“Marguerite, I must have that money.” + +“If you take it, it will be robbery,” she replied coldly. “Hear me, +father: better kill us at one blow than make us suffer a hundred deaths +a day. Let it now be seen which of us must yield.” + +“Do you mean to kill your father?” + +“We avenge our mother,” she said, pointing to the spot where Madame +Claes died. + +“My daughter, if you knew the truth of the matter, you would not use +those words to me. Listen, and I will endeavor to exlain the great +problem--but no, you cannot comprehend me,” he cried in accents of +despair. “Come, give me the money; believe for once in your father. Yes, +I know I caused your mother pain: I have dissipated--to use the word +of fools--my own fortune and injured yours; I know my children are +sacrificed for a thing you call madness; but my angel, my darling, +my love, my Marguerite, hear me! If I do not now succeed, I will give +myself up to you; I will obey you as you are bound to obey me; I will do +your will; you shall take charge of all my property; I will no longer be +the guardian of my children; I pledge myself to lay down my authority. I +swear by your mother’s memory!” he cried, shedding tears. + +Marguerite turned away her head, unable to bear the sight. Claes, +thinking she meant to yield, flung himself on his knees beside her. + +“Marguerite, Marguerite! give it to me--give it!” he cried. “What are +sixty thousand francs against eternal remorse? See, I shall die, this +will kill me. Listen, my word is sacred. If I fail now I will abandon my +labors; I will leave Flanders,--France even, if you demand it; I will go +away and toil like a day-laborer to recover, sou by sou, the fortunes +I have lost, and restore to my children all that Science has taken from +them.” + +Marguerite tried to raise her father, but he persisted in remaining on +his knees, and continued, still weeping:-- + +“Be tender and obedient for this last time! If I do not succeed, I will +myself declare your hardness just. You shall call me a fool; you shall +say I am a bad father; you may even tell me that I am ignorant and +incapable. And when I hear you say those words I will kiss your hands. +You may beat me, if you will, and when you strike I will bless you as +the best of daughters, remembering that you have given me your blood.” + +“If it were my blood, my life’s blood, I would give it to you,” she +cried; “but can I let Science cut the throats of my brothers and sister? +No. Cease, cease!” she said, wiping her tears and pushing aside her +father’s caressing hands. + +“Sixty thousand francs and two months,” he said, rising in anger; “that +is all I want: but my daughter stands between me and fame and wealth. +I curse you!” he went on; “you are no daughter of mine, you are not a +woman, you have no heart, you will never be a mother or a wife!--Give it +to me, let me take it, my little one, my precious child, I will love you +forever,”--and he stretched his hand with a movement of hideous energy +towards the gold. + +“I am helpless against physical force; but God and the great Claes see +us now,” she said, pointing to the picture. + +“Try to live, if you can, with your father’s blood upon you,” cried +Balthazar, looking at her with abhorrence. He rose, glanced round the +room, and slowly left it. When he reached the door he turned as a beggar +might have done and implored his daughter with a gesture, to which she +replied by a negative motion of her head. + +“Farewell, my daughter,” he said, gently, “may you live happy!” + +When he had disappeared, Marguerite remained in a trance which separated +her from earth; she was no longer in the parlor; she lost consciousness +of physical existence; she had wings, and soared amid the immensities +of the moral world, where Thought contracts the limits both of Time and +Space, where a divine hand lifts the veil of the Future. It seemed to +her that days elapsed between each footfall of her father as he went up +the stairs; then a shudder of dread went over her as she heard him enter +his chamber. Guided by a presentiment which flashed into her soul with +the piercing keenness of lightning, she ran up the stairway, without +light, without noise, with the velocity of an arrow, and saw her father +with a pistol at his head. + +“Take all!” she cried, springing towards him. + +She fell into a chair. Balthazar, seeing her pallor, began to weep as +old men weep; he became like a child, he kissed her brow, he spoke in +disconnected words, he almost danced with joy, and tried to play with +her as a lover with a mistress who has made him happy. + +“Enough, father, enough,” she said; “remember your promise. If you do +not succeed now, you pledge yourself to obey me?” + +“Yes.” + +“Oh, mother!” she cried, turning towards Madame Claes’s chamber, “YOU +would have given him all--would you not?” + +“Sleep in peace,” said Balthazar, “you are a good daughter.” + +“Sleep!” she said, “the nights of my youth are gone; you have made me +old, father, just as you slowly withered my mother’s heart.” + +“Poor child, would I could re-assure you by explaining the effects of +the glorious experiment I have now imagined! you would then comprehend +the truth.” + +“I comprehend our ruin,” she said, leaving him. + +The next morning, being a holiday, Emmanuel de Solis brought Jean to +spend the day. + +“Well?” he said, approaching Marguerite anxiously. + +“I yielded,” she replied. + +“My dear life,” he said, with a gesture of melancholy joy, “if you had +withstood him I should greatly have admired you; but weak and feeble, I +adore you!” + +“Poor, poor Emmanuel; what is left for us?” + +“Leave the future to me,” cried the young man, with a radiant look; “we +love each other, and all is well.” + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Several months went by in perfect tranquillity. Monsieur de Solis made +Marguerite see that her petty economies would never produce a fortune, +and he advised her to live more at ease, by taking all that remained +of the sum which Madame Claes had entrusted to him for the comfort and +well-being of the household. + +During these months Marguerite fell a prey to the anxieties which beset +her mother under like circumstances. However incredulous she might +be, she had come to hope in her father’s genius. By an inexplicable +phenomenon, many people have hope when they have no faith. Hope is the +flower of Desire, faith is the fruit of Certainty. Marguerite said +to herself, “If my father succeeds, we shall be happy.” Claes and +Lemulquinier alone said: “We shall succeed.” Unhappily, from day to day +the Searcher’s face grew sadder. Sometimes, when he came to dinner he +dared not look at his daughter; at other times he glanced at her in +triumph. Marguerite employed her evenings in making young de Solis +explain to her many legal points and difficulties. At last her masculine +education was completed; she was evidently preparing herself to execute +the plan she had resolved upon if her father were again vanquished in +his duel with the Unknown (X). + +About the beginning of July, Balthazar spend a whole day sitting on a +bench in the garden, plunged in gloomy meditation. He gazed at the mound +now bare of tulips, at the windows of his wife’s chamber; he shuddered, +no doubt, as he thought of all that his search had cost him: his +movements betrayed that his thoughts were busy outside of Science. +Marguerite brought her sewing and sat beside him for a while before +dinner. + +“You have not succeeded, father?” + +“No, my child.” + +“Ah!” said Marguerite, in a gentle voice. “I will not say one word of +reproach; we are both equally guilty. I only claim the fulfilment of +your promise; it is surely sacred to you--you are a Claes. Your children +will surround you with love and filial respect; but you now belong to +me; you owe me obedience. Do not be uneasy; my reign will be gentle, +and I will endeavor to bring it quickly to an end. Father, I am going +to leave you for a month; I shall be busy with your affairs; for,” she +said, kissing him on his brow, “you are now my child. I take Martha with +me; to-morrow Felicie will manage the household. The poor child is +only seventeen, and she will not know how to resist you; therefore be +generous, do not ask her for money; she has only enough for the barest +necessaries of the household. Take courage: renounce your labors and +your thoughts for three or four years. The great problem may ripen +towards discovery; by that time I shall have gathered the money that +is necessary to solve it,--and you will solve it. Tell me, father, your +queen is clement, is she not?” + +“Then all is not lost?” said the old man. + +“No, not if you keep your word.” + +“I will obey you, my daughter,” answered Claes, with deep emotion. + +The next day, Monsieur Conyncks of Cambrai came to fetch his +great-niece. He was in a travelling-carriage, and would only remain +long enough for Marguerite and Martha to make their last arrangements. +Monsieur Claes received his cousin with courtesy, but he was obviously +sad and humiliated. Old Conyncks guessed his thoughts, and said with +blunt frankness while they were breakfasting:-- + +“I have some of your pictures, cousin; I have a taste for pictures,--a +ruinous passion, but we all have our manias.” + +“Dear uncle!” exclaimed Marguerite. + +“The world declares that you are ruined, cousin; but the treasure of +a Claes is there,” said Conyncks, tapping his forehead, “and here,” + striking his heart; “don’t you think so? I count upon you: and for that +reason, having a few spare ducats in my wallet, I put them to use in +your service.” + +“Ah!” cried Balthazar, “I will repay you with treasures--” + +“The only treasures we possess in Flanders are patience and labor,” + replied Conyncks, sternly. “Our ancestor has those words engraved upon +his brow,” he said, pointing to the portrait of Van Claes. + +Marguerite kissed her father and bade him good-bye, gave her last +directions to Josette and to Felicie, and started with Monsieur Conyncks +for Paris. The great-uncle was a widower with one child, a daughter +twelve years old, and he was possessed of an immense fortune. It was not +impossible that he would take a wife; consequently, the good people of +Douai believed that Mademoiselle Claes would marry her great-uncle. The +rumor of this marriage reached Pierquin, and brought him back in hot +haste to the House of Claes. + +Great changes had taken place in the ideas of that clever speculator. +For the last two years society in Douai had been divided into hostile +camps. The nobility formed one circle, the bourgeoisie another; the +latter naturally inimical to the former. This sudden separation took +place, as a matter of fact, all over France, and divided the country +into two warring nations, whose jealous squabbles, always augmenting, +were among the chief reasons why the revolution of July, 1830, +was accepted in the provinces. Between these social camps, the +one ultra-monarchical, the other ultra-liberal, were a number of +functionaries of various kinds, admitted, according to their importance, +to one or the other of these circles, and who, at the moment of the fall +of the legitimate power, were neutral. At the beginning of the struggle +between the nobility and the bourgeoisie, the royalist “cafes” displayed +an unheard-of splendor, and eclipsed the liberal “cafes” so brilliantly +that these gastronomic fetes were said to have cost the lives of some +of their frequenters who, like ill-cast cannon, were unable to withstand +such practice. The two societies naturally became exclusive. + +Pierquin, though rich for a provincial lawyer, was excluded from +aristocratic circles and driven back upon the bourgeoisie. His self-love +must have suffered from the successive rebuffs which he received when +he felt himself insensibly set aside by people with whom he had rubbed +shoulders up to the time of this social change. He had now reached his +fortieth year, the last epoch at which a man who intends to marry can +think of a young wife. The matches to which he was able to aspire were +all among the bourgeoisie, but ambition prompted him to enter the upper +circle by means of some creditable alliance. + +The isolation in which the Claes family were now living had hitherto +kept them aloof from these social changes. Though Claes belonged to the +old aristocracy of the province, his preoccupation of mind prevented him +from sharing the class antipathies thus created. However poor a daughter +of the Claes might be, she would bring to a husband the dower of social +vanity so eagerly desired by all parvenus. Pierquin therefore returned +to his allegiance, with the secret intention of making the necessary +sacrifices to conclude a marriage which should realize all his +ambitions. He kept company with Balthazar and Felicie during +Marguerite’s absence; but in so doing he discovered, rather late in the +day, a formidable competitor in Emmanuel de Solis. The property of the +deceased abbe was thought to be considerable, and to the eyes of a man +who calculated all the affairs of life in figures, the young heir seemed +more powerful through his money than through the seductions of the +heart--as to which Pierquin never made himself uneasy. In his mind the +abbe’s fortune restored the de Solis name to all its pristine value. +Gold and nobility of birth were two orbs which reflected lustre on one +another and doubled the illumination. + +The sincere affection which the young professor testified for Felicie, +whom he treated as a sister, excited Pierquin’s spirit of emulation. He +tried to eclipse Emmanuel by mingling a fashionable jargon and sundry +expressions of superficial gallantry with anxious elegies and business +airs which sat more naturally on his countenance. When he declared +himself disenchanted with the world he looked at Felicie, as if to let +her know that she alone could reconcile him with life. Felicie, who +received for the first time in her life the compliments of a man, +listened to this language, always sweet however deceptive; she took +emptiness for depth, and needing an object on which to fix the vague +emotions of her heart, she allowed the lawyer to occupy her mind. +Envious perhaps, though quite unconsciously, of the loving attentions +with which Emmanuel surrounded her sister, she doubtless wished to be, +like Marguerite, the object of the thoughts and cares of a man. + +Pierquin readily perceived the preference which Felicie accorded him +over Emmanuel, and to him it was a reason why he should persist in +his attentions; so that in the end he went further than he at first +intended. Emmanuel watched the beginning of this passion, false perhaps +in the lawyer, artless in Felicie, whose future was at stake. Soon, +little colloquies followed, a few words said in a low voice behind +Emmanuel’s back, trifling deceptions which give to a look or a word a +meaning whose insidious sweetness may be the cause of innocent mistakes. +Relying on his intimacy with Felicie, Pierquin tried to discover the +secret of Marguerite’s journey, and to know if it were really a +question of her marriage, and whether he must renounce all hope; but, +notwithstanding his clumsy cleverness in questioning them, neither +Balthazar nor Felicie could give him any light, for the good reason +that they were in the dark themselves: Marguerite in taking the reins +of power seemed to have followed its maxims and kept silence as to her +projects. + +The gloomy sadness of Balthazar and his great depression made it +difficult to get through the evenings. Though Emmanuel succeeded in +making him play backgammon, the chemist’s mind was never present; during +most of the time this man, so great in intellect, seemed simply stupid. +Shorn of his expectations, ashamed of having squandered three fortunes, +a gambler without money, he bent beneath the weight of ruin, beneath the +burden of hopes that were betrayed rather than annihilated. This man of +genius, gagged by dire necessity and upbraiding himself, was a tragic +spectacle, fit to touch the hearts of the most unfeeling of men. Even +Pierquin could not enter without respect the presence of that caged +lion, whose eyes, full of baffled power, now calmed by sadness and faded +from excess of light, seemed to proffer a prayer for charity which the +mouth dared not utter. Sometimes a lightning flash crossed that withered +face, whose fires revived at the conception of a new experiment; then, +as he looked about the parlor, Balthazar’s eyes would fasten on the spot +where his wife had died, a film of tears rolled like hot grains of sand +across the arid pupils of his eyes, which thought had made immense, +and his head fell forward on his breast. Like a Titan he had lifted the +world, and the world fell on his breast and crushed him. + +This gigantic grief, so manfully controlled, affected Pierquin and +Emmanuel powerfully, and each felt moved at times to offer this man the +necessary money to renew his search,--so contagious are the convictions +of genius! Both understood how it was that Madame Claes and Marguerite +had flung their all into this gulf; but reason promptly checked the +impulse of their hearts, and their emotion was spent in efforts at +consolation which still further embittered the anguish of the doomed +Titan. + +Claes never spoke of his eldest daughter, and showed no interest in her +departure nor any anxiety as to her silence in not writing either to him +or to Felicie. When de Solis or Pierquin asked for news of her he seemed +annoyed. Did he suspect that Marguerite was working against him? Was he +humiliated at having resigned the majestic rights of paternity to his +own child? Had he come to love her less because she was now the father, +he the child? Perhaps there were many of these reasons, many of these +inexpressible feelings which float like vapors through the soul, in the +mute disgrace which he laid upon Marguerite. However great may be the +great men of earth, be they known or unknown, fortunate or unfortunate +in their endeavors, all have likenesses which belong to human nature. +By a double misfortune they suffer through their greatness not less than +through their defects; and perhaps Balthazar needed to grow accustomed +to the pangs of wounded vanity. The life he was leading, the evenings +when these four persons met together in Marguerite’s absence, were full +of sadness and vague, uneasy apprehensions. The days were barren like +a parched-up soil; where, nevertheless, a few flowers grew, a few +rare consolations, though without Marguerite, the soul, the hope, the +strength of the family, the atmosphere seemed misty. + +Two months went by in this way, during which Balthazar awaited the +return of his daughter. Marguerite was brought back to Douai by her +uncle who remained at the house instead of returning to Cambrai, no +doubt to lend the weight of his authority to some coup d’etat planned +by his niece. Marguerite’s return was made a family fete. Pierquin and +Monsieur de Solis were invited to dinner by Felicie and Balthazar. When +the travelling-carriage stopped before the house, the four went to meet +it with demonstrations of joy. Marguerite seemed happy to see her home +once more, and her eyes filled with tears as she crossed the court-yard +to reach the parlor. When embracing her father she colored like a guilty +wife who is unable to dissimulate; but her face recovered its serenity +as she looked at Emmanuel, from whom she seemed to gather strength to +complete a work she had secretly undertaken. + +Notwithstanding the gaiety which animated all present during the dinner, +father and daughter watched each other with distrust and curiosity. +Balthazar asked his daughter no questions as to her stay in Paris, +doubtless to preserve his parental dignity. Emmanuel de Solis imitated +his reserve; but Pierquin, accustomed to be told all family secrets, +said to Marguerite, concealing his curiosity under a show of +liveliness:-- + +“Well, my dear cousin, you have seen Paris and the theatres--” + +“I have seen little of Paris,” she said; “I did not go there for +amusement. The days went by sadly, I was so impatient to see Douai once +more.” + +“Yes, if I had not been angry about it she would not have gone to the +Opera; and even there she was uneasy,” said Monsieur Conyncks. + +It was a painful evening; every one was embarrassed and smiled vaguely +with the artificial gaiety which hides such real anxieties. Marguerite +and Balthazar were a prey to cruel, latent fears which reacted on the +rest. As the hours passed, the bearing of the father and daughter grew +more and more constrained. Sometimes Marguerite tried to smile, but +her motions, her looks, the tones of her voice betrayed a keen anxiety. +Messieurs Conyncks and de Solis seemed to know the meaning of the secret +feelings which agitated the noble girl, and they appeared to encourage +her by expressive glances. Balthazar, hurt at being kept from a +knowledge of the steps that had been taken on his behalf, withdrew +little by little from his children and friends, and pointedly kept +silence. Marguerite would no doubt soon disclose what she had decided +upon for his future. + +To a great man, to a father, the situation was intolerable. At his age +a man no longer dissimulates in his own family; he became more and more +thoughtful, serious, and grieved as the hour approached when he would be +forced to meet his civil death. This evening covered one of those crises +in the inner life of man which can only be expressed by imagery. The +thunderclouds were gathering in the sky, people were laughing in the +fields; all felt the heat and knew the storm was coming, but they held +up their heads and continued on their way. Monsieur Conyncks was the +first to leave the room, conducted by Balthazar to his chamber. +During the latter’s absence Pierquin and Monsieur de Solis went away. +Marguerite bade the notary good-night with much affection; she said +nothing to Emmanuel, but she pressed his hand and gave him a tearful +glance. She sent Felicie away, and when Claes returned to the parlor he +found his daughter alone. + +“My kind father,” she said in a trembling voice, “nothing could have +made me leave home but the serious position in which we found +ourselves; but now, after much anxiety, after surmounting the greatest +difficulties, I return with some chances of deliverance for all of us. +Thanks to your name, and to my uncle’s influence, and to the support +of Monsieur de Solis, we have obtained for you an appointment under +government as receiver of customs in Bretagne; the place is worth, they +say, eighteen to twenty thousand francs a year. Our uncle has given +bonds as your security. Here is the nomination,” she added, drawing +a paper from her bag. “Your life in Douai, in this house, during the +coming years of privation and sacrifice would be intolerable to you. Our +father must be placed in a situation at least equal to that in which he +has always lived. I ask nothing from the salary you will receive from +this appointment; employ it as you see fit. I will only beg you to +remember that we have not a penny of income, and that we must live on +what Gabriel can give us out of his. The town shall know nothing of +our inner life. If you were still to live in this house you would be +an obstacle to the means my sister and I are about to employ to restore +comfort and ease to the home. Have I abused the authority you gave me by +putting you in a position to remake your own fortune? In a few years, if +you so will, you can easily become the receiver-general.” + +“In other words, Marguerite,” said Balthazar, gently, “you turn me out +of my own house.” + +“I do not deserve that bitter reproach,” replied the daughter, quelling +the tumultuous beatings of her heart. “You will come back to us in a +manner becoming to your dignity. Besides, father, I have your promise. +You are bound to obey me. My uncle has stayed here that he might himself +accompany you to Bretagne, and not leave you to make the journey alone.” + +“I shall not go,” said Balthazar, rising; “I need no help from any one +to restore my property and pay what I owe to my children.” + +“It would be better, certainly,” replied Marguerite, calmly. “But now I +ask you to reflect on our respective situations, which I will explain in +a few words. If you stay in this house your children will leave it, so +that you may remain its master.” + +“Marguerite!” cried Balthazar. + +“In that case,” she said, continuing her words without taking notice of +her father’s anger, “it will be necessary to notify the minister of your +refusal, if you decide not to accept this honorable and lucrative post, +which, in spite of our many efforts, we should never have obtained but +for certain thousand-franc notes my uncle slipped into the glove of a +lady.” + +“My children leave me!” he exclaimed. + +“You must leave us or we must leave you,” she said. “If I were your only +child, I should do as my mother did, without murmuring against my fate; +but my brothers and sister shall not perish beside you with hunger and +despair. I promised it to her who died there,” she said, pointing to +the place where her mother’s bed had stood. “We have hidden our troubles +from you; we have suffered in silence; our strength is gone. My father, +we are not on the edge of an abyss, we are at the bottom of it. +Courage is not sufficient to drag us out of it; our efforts must not be +incessantly brought to nought by the caprices of a passion.” + +“My dear children,” cried Balthazar, seizing Marguerite’s hand, “I will +help you, I will work, I--” + +“Here is the means,” she answered, showing him the official letter. + +“But, my darling, the means you offer me are too slow; you make me lose +the fruits of ten years’ work, and the enormous sums of money which my +laboratory represents. There,” he said, pointing towards the garret, +“are our real resources.” + +Marguerite walked towards the door, saying:-- + +“Father, you must choose.” + +“Ah! my daughter, you are very hard,” he replied, sitting down in an +armchair and allowing her to leave him. + +The next morning, on coming downstairs, Marguerite learned from +Lemulquinier that Monsieur Claes had gone out. This simple announcement +turned her pale; her face was so painfully significant that the old +valet remarked hastily:-- + +“Don’t be troubled, mademoiselle; monsieur said he would be back at +eleven o’clock to breakfast. He didn’t go to bed all night. At two in +the morning he was still standing in the parlor, looking through the +window at the laboratory. I was waiting up in the kitchen; I saw him; he +wept; he is in trouble. Here’s the famous month of July when the sun is +able to enrich us all, and if you only would--” + +“Enough,” said Marguerite, divining the thoughts that must have assailed +her father’s mind. + +A phenomenon which often takes possession of persons leading sedentary +lives had seized upon Balthazar; his life depended, so to speak, on the +places with which it was identified; his thought was so wedded to his +laboratory and to the house he lived in that both were indispensable to +him,--just as the Bourse becomes a necessity to a stock-gambler, to whom +the public holidays are so much lost time. Here were his hopes; here the +heavens contained the only atmosphere in which his lungs could breathe +the breath of life. This alliance of places and things with men, which +is so powerful in feeble natures, becomes almost tyrannical in men of +science and students. To leave his house was, for Balthazar, to renounce +Science, to abandon the Problem,--it was death. + +Marguerite was a prey to anxiety until the breakfast hour. The former +scene in which Balthazar had meant to kill himself came back to her +memory, and she feared some tragic end to the desperate situation in +which her father was placed. She came and went restlessly about the +parlor, and quivered every time the bell or the street-door sounded. + +At last Balthazar returned. As he crossed the courtyard Marguerite +studied his face anxiously and could see nothing but an expression of +stormy grief. When he entered the parlor she went towards him to bid him +good-morning; he caught her affectionately round the waist, pressed her +to his heart, kissed her brow, and whispered,-- + +“I have been to get my passport.” + +The tones of his voice, his resigned look, his feeble movements, crushed +the poor girl’s heart; she turned away her head to conceal her tears, +and then, unable to repress them, she went into the garden to weep at +her ease. During breakfast, Balthazar showed the cheerfulness of a man +who had come to a decision. + +“So we are to start for Bretagne, uncle,” he said to Monsieur Conyncks. +“I have always wished to go there.” + +“It is a place where one can live cheaply,” replied the old man. + +“Is our father going away?” cried Felicie. + +Monsieur de Solis entered, bringing Jean. + +“You must leave him with me to-day,” said Balthazar, putting his son +beside him. “I am going away to-morrow, and I want to bid him good-bye.” + +Emmanuel glanced at Marguerite, who held down her head. It was a +gloomy day for the family; every one was sad, and tried to repress +both thoughts and tears. This was not an absence, it was an exile. +All instinctively felt the humiliation of the father in thus publicly +declaring his ruin by accepting an office and leaving his family, at +Balthazar’s age. At this crisis he was great, while Marguerite was firm; +he seemed to accept nobly the punishment of faults which the tyrannous +power of genius had forced him to commit. When the evening was over, and +father and daughter were again alone, Balthazar, who throughout the day +had shown himself tender and affectionate as in the first years of his +fatherhood, held out his hand and said to Marguerite with a tenderness +that was mingled with despair,-- + +“Are you satisfied with your father?” + +“You are worthy of HIM,” said Marguerite, pointing to the portrait of +Van Claes. + +The next morning Balthazar, followed by Lemulquinier, went up to +the laboratory, as if to bid farewell to the hopes he had so fondly +cherished, and which in that scene of his toil were living things to +him. Master and man looked at each other sadly as they entered the +garret they were about to leave, perhaps forever. Balthazar gazed at the +various instruments over which his thoughts so long had brooded; each +was connected with some experiment or some research. He sadly ordered +Lemulquinier to evaporate the gases and the dangerous acids, and to +separate all substances which might produce explosions. While taking +these precautions, he gave way to bitter regrets, like those uttered by +a condemned man before going to the scaffold. + +“Here,” he said, stopping before a china capsule in which two wires of +a voltaic pile were dipped, “is an experiment whose results ought to be +watched. If it succeeds--dreadful thought!--my children will have driven +from their home a father who could fling diamonds at their feet. In a +combination of carbon and sulphur,” he went on, speaking to himself, +“carbon plays the part of an electro-positive substance; the +crystallization ought to begin at the negative pole; and in case of +decomposition, the carbon would crop into crystals--” + +“Ah! is that how it would be?” said Lemulquinier, contemplating his +master with admiration. + +“Now here,” continued Balthazar, after a pause, “the combination is +subject to the influence of the galvanic battery, which may act--” + +“If monsieur wishes, I can increase its force.” + +“No, no; leave it as it is. Perfect stillness and time are the +conditions of crystallization--” + +“Confound it, it takes time enough, that crystallization,” cried the old +valet impatiently. + +“If the temperature goes down, the sulphide of carbon will crystallize,” + said Balthazar, continuing to give forth shreds of indistinct thoughts +which were parts of a complete conception in his own mind; “but if the +battery works under certain conditions of which I am ignorant--it must +be watched carefully--it is quite possible that--Ah! what am I thinking +of? It is no longer a question of chemistry, my friend; we are to keep +accounts in Bretagne.” + +Claes rushed precipitately from the laboratory, and went downstairs to +take a last breakfast with his family, at which Pierquin and Monsieur +de Solis were present. Balthazar, hastening to end the agony Science had +imposed upon him, bade his children farewell and got into the carriage +with his uncle, all the family accompanying him to the threshold. +There, as Marguerite strained her father to her breast with a despairing +pressure, he whispered in her ear, “You are a good girl; I bear you no +ill-will”; then she darted through the court-yard into the parlor, and +flung herself on her knees upon the spot where her mother had died, and +prayed to God to give her strength to accomplish the hard task that lay +before her. She was already strengthened by an inward voice, sounding in +her heart the encouragement of angels and the gratitude of her mother, +when her sister, her brother, Emmanuel, and Pierquin came in, after +watching the carriage until it disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +“And now, mademoiselle, what do you intend to do!” said Pierquin. + +“Save the family,” she answered simply. “We own nearly thirteen hundred +acres at Waignies. I intend to clear them, divide them into three farms, +put up the necessary buildings, and then let them. I believe that in a +few years, with patience and great economy, each of us,” motioning to +her sister and brother, “will have a farm of over four-hundred acres, +which may bring in, some day, a rental of nearly fifteen thousand +francs. My brother Gabriel will have this house, and all that now stands +in his name on the Grand-Livre, for his portion. We shall then be able +to redeem our father’s property and return it to him free from all +encumbrance, by devoting our incomes, each of us, to paying off his +debts.” + +“But, my dear cousin,” said the lawyer, amazed at Marguerite’s +understanding of business and her cool judgment, “you will need at least +two hundred thousand francs to clear the land, build your houses, and +purchase cattle. Where will you get such a sum?” + +“That is where my difficulties begin,” she said, looking alternately at +Pierquin and de Solis; “I cannot ask it from my uncle, who has already +spent much money for us and has given bonds as my father’s security.” + +“You have friends!” cried Pierquin, suddenly perceiving that the +demoiselles Claes were “four-hundred-thousand-franc girls,” after all. + +Emmanuel de Solis looked tenderly at Marguerite. Pierquin, unfortunately +for himself, was a notary still, even in the midst of his enthusiasm, +and he promptly added,-- + +“I will lend you these two hundred thousand francs.” + +Marguerite and Emmanuel consulted each other with a glance which was a +flash of light to Pierquin; Felicie colored highly, much gratified to +find her cousin as generous as she desired him to be. She looked at her +sister, who suddenly guessed the fact that during her absence the +poor girl had allowed herself to be caught by Pierquin’s meaningless +gallantries. + +“You shall only pay me five per cent interest,” went on the lawyer, +“and refund the money whenever it is convenient to do so; I will take a +mortgage on your property. And don’t be uneasy; you shall only have the +outlay on your improvements to pay; I will find you trustworthy farmers, +and do all your business gratuitously, so as to help you like a good +relation.” + +Emmanuel made Marguerite a sign to refuse the offer, but she was too +much occupied in studying the changes of her sister’s face to perceive +it. After a slight pause, she looked at the notary with an amused smile, +and answered of her own accord, to the great joy of Monsieur de Solis:-- + +“You are indeed a good relation,--I expected nothing less of you; but an +interest of five per cent would delay our release too long. I shall wait +till my brother is of age, and then we will sell out what he has in the +Funds.” + +Pierquin bit his lip. Emmanuel smiled quietly. + +“Felicie, my dear child, take Jean back to school; Martha will go with +you,” said Marguerite to her sister. “Jean, my angel, be a good boy; +don’t tear your clothes, for we shall not be rich enough to buy you as +many new ones as we did. Good-bye, little one; study hard.” + +Felicie carried off her brother. + +“Cousin,” said Marguerite to Pierquin, “and you, monsieur,” she said +to Monsieur de Solis, “I know you have been to see my father during my +absence, and I thank you for that proof of friendship. You will not do +less I am sure for two poor girls who will be in need of counsel. Let us +understand each other. When I am at home I shall receive you both with +the greatest of pleasure, but when Felicie is here alone with Josette +and Martha, I need not tell you that she ought to see no one, not even +an old friend or the most devoted of relatives. Under the circumstances +in which we are placed, our conduct must be irreproachable. We are vowed +to toil and solitude for a long, long time.” + +There was silence for some minutes. Emmanuel, absorbed in contemplation +of Marguerite’s head, seemed dumb. Pierquin did not know what to say. He +took leave of his cousin with feelings of rage against himself; for +he suddenly perceived that Marguerite loved Emmanuel, and that he, +Pierquin, had just behaved like a fool. + +“Pierquin, my friend,” he said, apostrophizing himself in the street, +“if a man said you were an idiot he would tell the truth. What a fool +I am! I’ve got twelve thousand francs a year outside of my business, +without counting what I am to inherit from my uncle des Racquets, which +is likely to double my fortune (not that I wish him dead, he is so +economical), and I’ve had the madness to ask interest from Mademoiselle +Claes! I know those two are jeering at me now! I mustn’t think of +Marguerite any more. No. After all, Felicie is a sweet, gentle little +creature, who will suit me much better. Marguerite’s character is iron; +she would want to rule me--and--she would rule me. Come, come, let’s be +generous; I wish I was not so much of a lawyer: am I never to get that +harness off my back? Bless my soul! I’ll begin to fall in love with +Felicie, and I won’t budge from that sentiment. She will have a farm +of four hundred and thirty acres, which, sooner or later, will be worth +twelve or fifteen thousand francs a year, for the soil about Waignies +is excellent. Just let my old uncle des Racquets die, poor dear man, +and I’ll sell my practice and be a man of leisure, with +fifty--thou--sand--francs--a--year. My wife is a Claes, I’m allied +to the great families. The deuce! we’ll see if those Courtevilles and +Magalhens and Savaron de Savarus will refuse to come and dine with a +Pierquin-Claes-Molina-Nourho. I shall be mayor of Douai; I’ll obtain the +cross, and get to be deputy--in short, everything. Ha, ha! Pierquin, my +boy, now keep yourself in hand; no more nonsense, because--yes, on my +word of honor--Felicie--Mademoiselle Felicie Van Claes--loves you!” + +When the lovers were left alone Emmanuel held out his hand to +Marguerite, who did not refuse to put her right hand into it. They rose +with one impulse and moved towards their bench in the garden; but as +they reached the middle of the parlor, the lover could not resist his +joy, and, in a voice that trembled with emotion, he said,-- + +“I have three hundred thousand francs of yours.” + +“What!” she cried, “did my poor mother entrust them to you? No? then +where did you get them?” + +“Oh, my Marguerite! all that is mine is yours. Was it not you who first +said the word ‘ourselves’?” + +“Dear Emmanuel!” she exclaimed, pressing the hand which still held hers; +and then, instead of going into the garden, she threw herself into a low +chair. + +“It is for me to thank you,” he said, with the voice of love, “since you +accept all.” + +“Oh, my dear beloved one,” she cried, “this moment effaces many a grief +and brings the happy future nearer. Yes, I accept your fortune,” she +continued, with the smile of an angel upon her lips, “I know the way to +make it mine.” + +She looked up at the picture of Van Claes as if calling him to witness. +The young man’s eyes followed those of Marguerite, and he did not notice +that she took a ring from her finger until he heard the words:-- + +“From the depths of our greatest misery one comfort rises. My father’s +indifference leaves me the free disposal of myself,” she said, holding +out the ring. “Take it, Emmanuel. My mother valued you--she would have +chosen you.” + +The young man turned pale with emotion and fell on his knees beside her, +offering in return a ring which he always wore. + +“This is my mother’s wedding-ring,” he said, kissing it. “My Marguerite, +am I to have no other pledge than this?” + +She stooped a little till her forehead met his lips. + +“Alas, dear love,” she said, greatly agitated, “are we not doing wrong? +We have so long to wait!” + +“My uncle used to say that adoration was the daily bread of +patience,--he spoke of Christians who love God. That is how I love you; +I have long mingled my love for you with my love for Him. I am yours as +I am His.” + +They remained for a few moments in the power of this sweet enthusiasm. +It was the calm, sincere effusion of a feeling which, like an +overflowing spring, poured forth its superabundance in little wavelets. +The events which separated these lovers produced a melancholy which only +made their happiness the keener, giving it a sense of something sharp, +like pain. + +Felicie came back too soon. Emmanuel, inspired by that delightful tact +of love which discerns all feelings, left the sisters alone,--exchanging +a look with Marguerite to let her know how much this discretion cost +him, how hungry his soul was for that happiness so long desired, which +had just been consecrated by the betrothal of their hearts. + +“Come here, little sister,” said Marguerite, taking Felicie round the +neck. Then, passing into the garden they sat down on the bench where +generation after generation had confided to listening hearts their words +of love, their sighs of grief, their meditations and their projects. In +spite of her sister’s joyous tone and lively manner, Felicie experienced +a sensation that was very like fear. Marguerite took her hand and felt +it tremble. + +“Mademoiselle Felicie,” said the elder, with her lips at her sister’s +ear. “I read your soul. Pierquin has been here often in my absence, and +he has said sweet words to you, and you have listened to them.” Felicie +blushed. “Don’t defend yourself, my angel,” continued Marguerite, “it +is so natural to love! Perhaps your dear nature will improve his; he is +egotistical and self-interested, but for all that he is a good man, and +his defects may even add to your happiness. He will love you as the best +of his possessions; you will be a part of his business affairs. Forgive +me this one word, dear love; you will soon correct the bad habit he has +acquired of seeing money in everything, by teaching him the business of +the heart.” + +Felicie could only kiss her sister. + +“Besides,” added Marguerite, “he has property; and his family belongs +to the highest and the oldest bourgeoisie. But you don’t think I would +oppose your happiness even if the conditions were less prosperous, do +you?” + +Felicie let fall the words, “Dear sister.” + +“Yes, you may confide in me,” cried Marguerite, “sisters can surely tell +each other their secrets.” + +These words, so full of heartiness, opened the way to one of those +delightful conversations in which young girls tell all. When Marguerite, +expert in love, reached an understanding of the real state of Felicie’s +heart, she wound up their talk by saying:-- + +“Well, dear child, let us make sure he truly loves you, and--then--” + +“Ah!” cried Felicie, laughing, “leave me to my own devices; I have a +model before my eyes.” + +“Saucy child!” exclaimed Marguerite, kissing her. + +Though Pierquin belonged to the class of men who regard marriage as the +accomplishment of a social duty and the means of transmitting property, +and though he was indifferent to which sister he should marry so long as +both had the same name and the same dower, he did perceive that the +two were, to use his own expression, “romantic and sentimental girls,” + adjectives employed by commonplace people to ridicule the gifts which +Nature sows with grudging hand along the furrows of humanity. The lawyer +no doubt said to himself that he had better swim with the stream; +and accordingly the next day he came to see Marguerite, and took +her mysteriously into the little garden, where he began to talk +sentiment,--that being one of the clauses of the primal contract which, +according to social usage, must precede the notarial contract. + +“Dear cousin,” he said, “you and I have not always been of one mind as +to the best means of bringing your affairs to a happy conclusion; but +you do now, I am sure, admit that I have always been guided by a great +desire to be useful to you. Well, yesterday I spoiled my offer by a +fatal habit which the legal profession forces upon us--you understand +me? My heart did not share in the folly. I have loved you well; but I +have a certain perspicacity, legal perhaps, which obliges me to see +that I do not please you. It is my own fault; another has been more +successful than I. Well, I come now to tell you, like an honest man, +that I sincerely love your sister Felicie. Treat me therefore as a +brother; accept my purse, take what you will from it,--the more you +take the better you prove your regard for me. I am wholly at your +service--WITHOUT INTEREST, you understand, neither at twelve nor at one +quarter per cent. Let me be thought worthy of Felicie, that is all I +ask. Forgive my defects; they come from business habits; my heart is +good, and I would fling myself into the Scarpe sooner than not make my +wife happy.” + +“This is all satisfactory, cousin,” answered Marguerite; “but my +sister’s choice depends upon herself and also on my father’s will.” + +“I know that, my dear cousin,” said the lawyer, “but you are the mother +of the whole family; and I have nothing more at heart than that you +should judge me rightly.” + +This conversation paints the mind of the honest notary. Later in life, +Pierquin became celebrated by his reply to the commanding officer at +Saint-Omer, who had invited him to be present at a military fete; the +note ran as follows: “Monsieur Pierquin-Claes de Molina-Nourho, mayor of +the city of Douai, chevalier of the Legion of honor, will have THAT of +being present, etc.” + +Marguerite accepted the lawyer’s offer only so far as it related to his +professional services, so that she might not in any degree compromise +either her own dignity as a woman, or her sister’s future, or her +father’s authority. + +The next day she confided Felicie to the care of Martha and Josette (who +vowed themselves body and soul to their young mistress, and seconded +all her economies), and started herself for Waignies, where she began +operations, which were judiciously overlooked and directed by Pierquin. +Devotion was now set down as a good speculation in the mind of that +worthy man; his care and trouble were in fact an investment, and he +had no wish to be niggardly in making it. First he contrived to save +Marguerite the trouble of clearing the land and working the ground +intended for the farms. He found three young men, sons of rich farmers, +who were anxious to settle themselves in life, and he succeeded, through +the prospect he held out to them of the fertility of the land, in making +them take leases of the three farms on which the buildings were to be +constructed. To gain possession of the farms rent-free for three years +the tenants bound themselves to pay ten thousand francs a year the +fourth year, twelve thousand the sixth year, and fifteen thousand for +the remainder of the term; to drain the land, make the plantations, and +purchase the cattle. While the buildings were being put up the farmers +were to clear the land. + +Four years after Balthazar Claes’s departure from his home Marguerite +had almost recovered the property of her brothers and sister. Two +hundred thousand francs, lent to her by Emmanuel, had sufficed to put up +the farm buildings. Neither help nor counsel was withheld from the brave +girl, whose conduct excited the admiration of the whole town. Marguerite +superintended the buildings, and looked after her contracts and leases +with the good sense, activity, and perseverance, which women know so +well how to call up when they are actuated by a strong sentiment. By the +fifth year she was able to apply thirty thousand francs from the rental +of the farms, together with the income from the Funds standing in her +brother’s name, and the proceeds of her father’s property, towards +paying off the mortgages on that property, and repairing the devastation +which her father’s passion had wrought in the old mansion of the Claes. +This redemption went on more rapidly as the interest account decreased. +Emmanuel de Solis persuaded Marguerite to take the remaining one hundred +thousand francs of his uncle’s bequest, and by joining to it twenty +thousand francs of his own savings, pay off in the third year of her +management a large slice of the debts. This life of courage, +privation, and endurance was never relaxed for five years; but all went +well,--everything prospered under the administration and influence of +Marguerite Claes. + +Gabriel, now holding an appointment under government as engineer in +the department of Roads and Bridges, made a rapid fortune, aided by his +great-uncle, in a canal which he was able to construct; moreover, he +succeeded in pleasing his cousin Mademoiselle Conyncks, the idol of her +father, and one of the richest heiresses in Flanders. In 1824 the whole +Claes property was free, and the house in the rue de Paris had repaired +its losses. Pierquin made a formal application to Balthazar for the hand +of Felicie, and Monsieur de Solis did the same for that of Marguerite. + +At the beginning of January, 1825, Marguerite and Monsieur Conyncks left +Douai to bring home the exiled father, whose return was eagerly desired +by all, and who had sent in his resignation that he might return to his +family and crown their happiness by his presence. Marguerite had often +expressed a regret at not being able to replace the pictures which had +formerly adorned the gallery and the reception-rooms, before the day +when her father would return as master of his house. In her absence +Pierquin and Monsieur de Solis plotted with Felicie to prepare +a surprise which should make the younger sister a sharer in the +restoration of the House of Claes. The two bought a number of fine +pictures, which they presented to Felicie to decorate the gallery. +Monsieur Conyncks had thought of the same thing. Wishing to testify to +Marguerite the satisfaction he had taken in her noble conduct and in the +self-devotion with which she had fulfilled her mother’s dying mandate, +he arranged that fifty of his fine pictures, among them several of +those which Balthazar had formerly sold, should be brought to Douai +in Marguerite’s absence, so that the Claes gallery might once more be +complete. + +During the years that had elapsed since Balthazar Claes left his home, +Marguerite had visited her father several times, accompanied by her +sister or by Jean. Each time she had found him more and more changed; +but since her last visit old age had come upon Balthazar with alarming +symptoms, the gravity of which was much increased by the parsimony with +which he lived that he might spend the greater part of his salary in +experiments the results of which forever disappointed him. Though he was +only sixty-five years of age, he appeared to be eighty. His eyes were +sunken in their orbits, his eyebrows had whitened, only a few hairs +remained as a fringe around his skull; he allowed his beard to grow, and +cut it off with scissors when its length annoyed him; he was bent like a +field-laborer, and the condition of his clothes had reached a degree of +wretchedness which his decrepitude now rendered hideous. Thought still +animated that noble face, whose features were scarcely discernible +under its wrinkles; but the fixity of the eyes, a certain desperation +of manner, a restless uneasiness, were all diagnostics of insanity, or +rather of many forms of insanity. Sometimes a flash of hope gave him the +look of a monomaniac; at other times impatient anger at not seizing a +secret which flitted before his eyes like a will o’ the wisp brought +symptoms of madness into his face; or sudden bursts of maniacal laughter +betrayed his irrationality: but during the greater part of the time, he +was sunk in a state of complete depression which combined all the phases +of insanity in the cold melancholy of an idiot. However fleeting and +imperceptible these symptoms may have been to the eye of strangers, they +were, unfortunately, only too plain to those who had known Balthazar +Claes sublime in goodness, noble in heart, stately in person,--a Claes +of whom, alas, scarcely a vestige now remained. + +Lemulquinier, grown old and wasted like his master with incessant +toil, had not, like him, been subjected to the ravages of thought. The +expression of the old valet’s face showed a singular mixture of +anxiety and admiration for his master which might easily have misled +an onlooker. Though he listened to Balthazar’s words with respect, and +followed his every movement with tender solicitude, he took charge of +the servant of science very much as a mother takes care of her child, +and even seemed to protect him, because in the vulgar details of life, +to which Balthazar gave no thought, he actually did protect him. These +old men, wrapped in one idea, confident of the reality of their hope, +stirred by the same breath, the one representing the shell, the other +the soul of their mutual existence, formed a spectacle at once tender +and distressing. + +When Marguerite and Monsieur Conyncks arrived, they found Claes living +at an inn. His successor had not been kept waiting, and was already in +possession of his office. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Through all the preoccupations of science, the desire to see his native +town, his house, his family, agitated Balthazar’s mind. His daughter’s +letters had told him of the happy family events; he dreamed of crowning +his career by a series of experiments that must lead to the solution +of the great Problem, and he awaited Marguerite’s arrival with extreme +impatience. + +The daughter threw herself into her father’s arms and wept for joy. This +time she came to seek a recompense for years of pain, and pardon for the +exercise of her domestic authority. She seemed to herself criminal, like +those great men who violate the liberties of the people for the safety +of the nation. But she shuddered as she now contemplated her father +and saw the change which had taken place in him since her last visit. +Monsieur Conyncks shared the secret alarm of his niece, and insisted on +taking Balthazar as soon as possible to Douai, where the influence +of his native place might restore him to health and reason amid the +happiness of a recovered domestic life. + +After the first transports of the heart were over,--which were far +warmer on Balthazar’s part than Marguerite had expected,--he showed a +singular state of feeling towards his daughter. He expressed regret at +receiving her in a miserable inn, inquired her tastes and wishes, and +asked what she would have to eat, with the eagerness of a lover; his +manner was even that of a culprit seeking to propitiate a judge. + +Marguerite knew her father so well that she guessed the motive of this +solicitude; she felt sure he had contracted debts in the town which he +wished to pay before his departure. She observed him carefully for +a time, and saw the human heart in all its nakedness. Balthazar had +dwindled from his true self. The consciousness of his abasement, and +the isolation of his life in the pursuit of science made him timid and +childish in all matters not connected with his favorite occupations. His +daughter awed him; the remembrance of her past devotion, of the energy +she had displayed, of the powers he had allowed her to take away from +him, of the wealth now at her command, and the indefinable feelings that +had preyed upon him ever since the day when he had abdicated a paternity +he had long neglected,--all these things affected his mind towards her, +and increased her importance in his eyes. Conyncks was nothing to him +beside Marguerite; he saw only his daughter, he thought only of her, and +seemed to fear her, as certain weak husbands fear a superior woman +who rules them. When he raised his eyes and looked at her, Marguerite +noticed with distress an expression of fear, like that of a child +detected in a fault. The noble girl was unable to reconcile the majestic +and terrible expression of that bald head, denuded by science and by +toil, with the puerile smile, the eager servility exhibited on the lips +and countenance of the old man. She suffered from the contrast of that +greatness to that littleness, and resolved to use her utmost influence +to restore her father’s sense of dignity before the solemn day on which +he was to reappear in the bosom of his family. Her first step when they +were alone was to ask him,-- + +“Do you owe anything here?” + +Balthazar colored, and replied with an embarrassed air:-- + +“I don’t know, but Lemulquinier can tell you. That worthy fellow knows +more about my affairs than I do myself.” + +Marguerite rang for the valet: when he came she studied, almost +involuntarily, the faces of the two old men. + +“What does monsieur want?” asked Lemulquinier. + +Marguerite, who was all pride and dignity, felt an oppression at her +heart as she perceived from the tone and manner of the servant that some +mortifying familiarity had grown up between her father and the companion +of his labors. + +“My father cannot make out the account of what he owes in this place +without you,” she said. + +“Monsieur,” began Lemulquinier, “owes--” + +At these words Balthazar made a sign to his valet which Marguerite +intercepted; it humiliated her. + +“Tell me all that my father owes,” she said. + +“Monsieur owes, here, about three thousand francs to an apothecary who +is a wholesale dealer in drugs; he has supplied us with pearl-ash and +lead, and zinc and the reagents--” + +“Is that all?” asked Marguerite. + +Again Balthazar made a sign to Lemulquinier, who replied, as if under a +spell,-- + +“Yes, mademoiselle.” + +“Very good,” she said, “I will give them to you.” + +Balthazar kissed her joyously and said,-- + +“You are an angel, my child.” + +He breathed at his ease and glanced at her with eyes that were less sad; +and yet, in spite of this apparent joy, Marguerite easily detected the +signs of deep anxiety upon his face, and felt certain that the three +thousand francs represented only the pressing debts of his laboratory. + +“Be frank with me, father,” she said, letting him seat her on his knee; +“you owe more than that. Tell me all, and come back to your home without +an element of fear in the midst of the general joy.” + +“My dear Marguerite,” he said, taking her hands and kissing them with a +grace that seemed a memory of her youth, “you would scold me--” + +“No,” she said. + +“Truly?” he asked, giving way to childish expressions of delight. “Can I +tell you all? will you pay--” + +“Yes,” she said, repressing the tears which came into her eyes. + +“Well, I owe--oh! I dare not--” + +“Tell me, father.” + +“It is a great deal.” + +She clasped her hands, with a gesture of despair. + +“I owe thirty thousand francs to Messieurs Protez and Chiffreville.” + +“Thirty thousand francs,” she said, “is just the sum I have laid by. I +am glad to give it to you,” she added, respectfully kissing his brow. + +He rose, took his daughter in his arms, and whirled about the room, +dancing her as though she were an infant; then he placed her in the +chair where she had been sitting, and exclaimed:-- + +“My darling child! my treasure of love! I was half-dead: the +Chiffrevilles have written me three threatening letters; they were about +to sue me,--me, who would have made their fortune!” + +“Father,” said Marguerite in accents of despair, “are you still +searching?” + +“Yes, still searching,” he said, with the smile of a madman, “and I +shall FIND. If you could only understand the point we have reached--” + +“We? who are we?” + +“I mean Mulquinier: he has understood me, he loves me. Poor fellow! he +is devoted to me.” + +Conyncks entered at the moment and interrupted the conversation. +Marguerite made a sign to her father to say no more, fearing lest he +should lower himself in her uncle’s eyes. She was frightened at the +ravages thought had made in that noble mind, absorbed in searching for +the solution of a problem that was perhaps insoluble. Balthazar, who +saw and knew nothing outside of his furnaces, seemed not to realize the +liberation of his fortune. + +On the morrow they started for Flanders. During the journey Marguerite +gained some confused light upon the position in which Lemulquinier and +her father stood to each other. The valet had acquired an ascendancy +over his master such as common men without education are able to obtain +over great minds to whom they feel themselves necessary; such men, +taking advantage of concession after concession, aim at complete +dominion with the persistency that comes of a fixed idea. In this case +the master had contracted for the man the sort of affection that grows +out of habit, like that of a workman for his creative tool, or an Arab +for the horse that gives him freedom. Marguerite studied the signs of +this tyranny, resolving to withdraw her father from its humiliating yoke +if it were real. + +They stopped several days in Paris on the way home, to enable Marguerite +to pay off her father’s debts and request the manufacturers of chemical +products to send nothing to Douai without first informing her of any +orders given by Claes. She persuaded her father to change his style of +dress and buy clothes that were suitable to a man of his station. This +corporal restoration gave Balthazar a certain physical dignity which +augured well for a change in his ideas; and Marguerite, joyous in the +thought of all the surprises that awaited her father when he entered his +own house, started for Douai. + +Nine miles from the town Balthazar was met by Felicie on horseback, +escorted by her two brothers, Emmanuel, Pierquin, and some of the +nearest friends of the three families. The journey had necessarily +diverted the chemist’s mind from its habitual thoughts; the aspect of +his own Flanders acted on his heart; when, therefore, he saw the joyous +company of his family and friends gathering about him his emotion was +so keen that the tears came to his eyes, his voice trembled, his eyelids +reddened, and he held his children in so passionate an embrace, seeming +unable to release them, that the spectators of the scene were moved to +tears. + +When at last he saw the House of Claes he turned pale, and sprang from +the carriage with the agility of a young man; he breathed the air of the +court-yard with delight, and looked about him at the smallest details +with a pleasure that could express itself only in gestures: he drew +himself erect, and his whole countenance renewed its youth. The tears +came into his eyes when he entered the parlor and noticed the care +with which his daughter had replaced the old silver candelabra that he +formerly had sold,--a visible sign that all the other disasters had been +repaired. Breakfast was served in the dining-room, whose sideboards and +shelves were covered with curios and silver-ware not less valuable than +the treasures that formerly stood there. Though the family meal lasted +a long time, it was still too short for the narratives which Balthazar +exacted from each of his children. The reaction of his moral being +caused by this return to his home wedded him once more to family +happiness, and he was again a father. His manners recovered their former +dignity. At first the delight of recovering possession kept him from +dwelling on the means by which the recovery had been brought about. His +joy therefore was full and unalloyed. + +Breakfast over, the four children, the father and Pierquin went into +the parlor, where Balthazar saw with some uneasiness a number of legal +papers which the notary’s clerk had laid upon a table, by which he +was standing as if to assist his chief. The children all sat down, and +Balthazar, astonished, remained standing before the fireplace. + +“This,” said Pierquin, “is the guardianship account which Monsieur Claes +renders to his children. It is not very amusing,” he added, laughing +after the manner of notaries who generally assume a lively tone in +speaking of serious matters, “but I must really oblige you to listen to +it.” + +Though the phrase was natural enough under the circumstances, Monsieur +Claes, whose conscience recalled his past life, felt it to be a +reproach, and his brow clouded. + +The clerk began the reading. Balthazar’s amazement increased as little +by little the statement unfolded the facts. In the first place, the +fortune of his wife at the time of her decease was declared to have been +sixteen hundred thousand francs or thereabouts; and the summing up of +the account showed clearly that the portion of each child was intact and +as well-invested as if the best and wisest father had controlled it. In +consequence of this the House of Claes was free from all lien, Balthazar +was master of it; moreover, his rural property was likewise released +from encumbrance. When all the papers connected with these matters were +signed, Pierquin presented the receipts for the repayment of the moneys +formerly borrowed, and releases of the various liens on the estates. + +Balthazar, conscious that he had recovered the honor of his manhood, +the life of a father, the dignity of a citizen, fell into a chair, and +looked about for Marguerite; but she, with the distinctive delicacy of +her sex, had left the room during the reading of the papers, as if to +see that all the arrangements for the fete were properly prepared. Each +member of the family understood the old man’s wish when the failing +humid eyes sought for the daughter,--who was seen by all present, with +the eyes of the soul, as an angel of strength and light within the +house. Gabriel went to find her. Hearing her step, Balthazar ran to +clasp her in his arms. + +“Father,” she said, at the foot of the stairs, where the old man caught +her and strained her to his breast, “I implore you not to lessen your +sacred authority. Thank me before the family for carrying out your +wishes, and be the sole author of the good that has been done here.” + +Balthazar lifted his eyes to heaven, then looked at his daughter, folded +his arms, and said, after a pause, during which his face recovered an +expression his children had not seen upon it for ten long years,-- + +“Pepita, why are you not here to praise our child!” + +He strained Marguerite to him, unable to utter another word, and went +back to the parlor. + +“My children,” he said, with the nobility of demeanor that in former +days had made him so imposing, “we all owe gratitude and thanks to +my daughter Marguerite for the wisdom and courage with which she has +fulfilled my intentions and carried out my plans, when I, too absorbed +by my labors, gave the reins of our domestic government into her hands.” + +“Ah, now!” cried Pierquin, looking at the clock, “we must read the +marriage contracts. But they are not my affair, for the law forbids +me to draw up such deeds between my relations and myself. Monsieur +Raparlier is coming.” + +The friends of the family, invited to the dinner given to celebrate +Claes’s return and the signing of the marriage contracts, now began to +arrive; and their servants brought in the wedding-presents. The company +quickly assembled, and the scene was imposing as much from the quality +of the persons present as from the elegance of the toilettes. The three +families, thus united through the happiness of their children, seemed to +vie with each other in contributing to the splendor of the occasion. The +parlor was soon filled with the charming gifts that are made to bridal +couples. Gold shimmered and glistened; silks and satins, cashmere +shawls, necklaces, jewels, afforded as much delight to those who gave +as to those who received; enjoyment that was almost childlike shone +on every face, and the mere value of the magnificent presents was lost +sight of by the spectators,--who often busy themselves in estimating it +out of curiosity. + +The ceremonial forms used for generations in the Claes family for +solemnities of this nature now began. The parents alone were seated, +all present stood before them at a little distance. To the left of the +parlor on the garden side were Gabriel and Mademoiselle Conyncks, next +to them stood Monsieur de Solis and Marguerite, and farther on, Felicie +and Pierquin. Balthazar and Monsieur Conyncks, the only persons who were +seated, occupied two armchairs beside the notary who, for this occasion, +had taken Pierquin’s duty. Jean stood behind his father. A score of +ladies elegantly dressed, and a few men chosen from among the nearest +relatives of the Pierquins, the Conyncks, and the Claes, the mayor of +Douai, who was to marry the couples, the twelve witnesses chosen from +among the nearest friends of the three families, all, even the curate of +Saint-Pierre, remained standing and formed an imposing circle at the +end of the parlor next the court-yard. This homage paid by the whole +assembly to Paternity, which at such a moment shines with almost regal +majesty, gave to the scene a certain antique character. It was the only +moment for sixteen long years when Balthazar forgot the Alkahest. + +Monsieur Raparlier went up to Marguerite and her sister and asked if all +the persons invited to the ceremony and to the dinner had arrived; on +receiving an affirmative reply, he returned to his station and took up +the marriage contract between Marguerite and Monsieur de Solis, which +was the first to be read, when suddenly the door of the parlor opened +and Lemulquinier entered, his face flaming. + +“Monsieur! monsieur!” he cried. + +Balthazar flung a look of despair at Marguerite, then, making her a +sign, he drew her into the garden. The whole assembly were conscious of +a shock. + +“I dared not tell you, my child,” said the father, “but since you +have done so much, you will save me, I know, from this last trouble. +Lemulquinier lent me all his savings--the fruit of twenty years’ +economy--for my last experiment, which failed. He has come no doubt, +finding that I am once more rich, to insist on having them back. Ah! my +angel, give them to him; you owe him your father; he alone consoled me +in my troubles, he alone has had faith in me,--without him I should have +died.” + +“Monsieur! monsieur!” cried Lemulquinier. + +“What is it?” said Balthazar, turning round. + +“A diamond!” + +Claes sprang into the parlor and saw the stone in the hands of the old +valet, who whispered in his ear,-- + +“I have been to the laboratory.” + +The chemist, forgetting everything about him, cast a terrible look on +the old Fleming which meant, “You went before me to the laboratory!” + +“Yes,” continued Lemulquinier, “I found the diamond in the china capsule +which communicated with the battery which we left to work, monsieur--and +see!” he added, showing a white diamond of octahedral form, whose +brilliancy drew the astonished gaze of all present. + +“My children, my friends,” said Balthazar, “forgive my old servant, +forgive me! This event will drive me mad. The chance work of seven years +has produced--without me--a discovery I have sought for sixteen years. +How? My God, I know not--yes, I left sulphide of carbon under the +influence of a Voltaic pile, whose action ought to have been watched +from day to day. During my absence the power of God has worked in my +laboratory, but I was not there to note its progressive effects! Is it +not awful? Oh, cursed exile! cursed chance! Alas! had I watched that +slow, that sudden--what can I call it?--crystallization, transformation, +in short that miracle, then, then my children would have been richer +still. Though this result is not the solution of the Problem which I +seek, the first rays of my glory would have shone from that diamond upon +my native country, and this hour, which our satisfied affections have +made so happy, would have glowed with the sunlight of Science.” + +Every one kept silence in the presence of such a man. The disconnected +words wrung from him by his anguish were too sincere not to be sublime. + +Suddenly, Balthazar drove back his despair into the depths of his own +being, and cast upon the assembly a majestic look which affected +the souls of all; he took the diamond and offered it to Marguerite, +saying,-- + +“It is thine, my angel.” + +Then he dismissed Lemulquinier with a gesture, and motioned to the +notary, saying, “Go on.” + +The two words sent a shudder of emotion through the company such as +Talma in certain roles produced among his auditors. Balthazar, as he +reseated himself, said in a low voice,-- + +“To-day I must be a father only.” + +Marguerite hearing the words went up to him and caught his hand and +kissed it respectfully. + +“No man was ever greater,” said Emmanuel, when his bride returned to +him; “no man was ever so mighty; another would have gone mad.” + +After the three contracts were read and signed, the company hastened +to question Balthazar as to the manner in which the diamond had been +formed; but he could tell them nothing about so strange an accident. He +looked through the window at his garret and pointed to it with an angry +gesture. + +“Yes, the awful power resulting from a movement of fiery matter which no +doubt produces metals, diamonds,” he said, “was manifested there for one +moment, by one chance.” + +“That chance was of course some natural effect,” whispered a guest +belonging to the class of people who are ready with an explanation +of everything. “At any rate, it is something saved out of all he has +wasted.” + +“Let us forget it,” said Balthazar, addressing his friends; “I beg you +to say no more about it to-day.” + +Marguerite took her father’s arm to lead the way to the reception-rooms +of the front house, where a sumptuous fete had been prepared. As he +entered the gallery, followed by his guests, he beheld it filled with +pictures and garnished with choice flowers. + +“Pictures!” he exclaimed, “pictures!--and some of the old ones!” + +He stopped short; his brow clouded; for a moment grief overcame him; he +felt the weight of his wrong-doing as the vista of his humiliation came +before his eyes. + +“It is all your own, father,” said Marguerite, guessing the feelings +that oppressed his soul. + +“Angel, whom the spirits in heaven watch and praise,” he cried, “how +many times have you given life to your father?” + +“Then keep no cloud upon your brow, nor the least sad thought in your +heart,” she said, “and you will reward me beyond my hopes. I have been +thinking of Lemulquinier, my darling father; the few words you said a +little while ago have made me value him; perhaps I have been unjust to +him; he ought to remain your humble friend. Emmanuel has laid by nearly +sixty thousand francs which he has economized, and we will give them +to Lemulquinier. After serving you so well the man ought to be made +comfortable for his remaining years. Do not be uneasy about us. Monsieur +de Solis and I intend to lead a quiet, peaceful life,--a life without +luxury; we can well afford to lend you that money until you are able to +return it.” + +“Ah, my daughter! never forsake me; continue to be thy father’s +providence.” + +When they entered the reception-rooms Balthazar found them restored and +furnished as elegantly as in former days. The guests presently descended +to the dining-room on the ground-floor by the grand staircase, on every +step of which were rare plants and flowering shrubs. A silver service of +exquisite workmanship, the gift of Gabriel to his father, attracted all +eyes to a luxury which was surprising to the inhabitants of a town where +such luxury is traditional. The servants of Monsieur Conyncks and of +Pierquin, as well as those of the Claes household, were assembled to +serve the repast. Seeing himself once more at the head of that table, +surrounded by friends and relatives and happy faces beaming with +heartfelt joy, Balthazar, behind whose chair stood Lemulquinier, was +overcome by emotions so deep and so imposing that all present kept +silence, as men are silent before great sorrows or great joys. + +“Dear children,” he cried, “you have killed the fatted calf to welcome +home the prodigal father.” + +These words, in which the father judged himself (and perhaps prevented +others from judging him more severely), were spoken so nobly that all +present shed tears; they were the last expression of sadness, however, +and the general happiness soon took on the merry, animated character of +a family fete. + +Immediately after dinner the principal people of the city began to +arrive for the ball, which proved worthy of the almost classic splendor +of the restored House of Claes. The three marriages followed this happy +day, and gave occasion to many fetes, and balls, and dinners, which +involved Balthazar for some months in the vortex of social life. His +eldest son and his wife removed to an estate near Cambrai belonging +to Monsieur Conyncks, who was unwilling to separate from his daughter. +Madame Pierquin also left her father’s house to do the honors of a fine +mansion which Pierquin had built, and where he desired to live in +all the dignity of rank; for his practise was sold, and his uncle des +Racquets had died and left him a large property scraped together by slow +economy. Jean went to Paris to finish his education, and Monsieur and +Madame de Solis alone remained with their father in the House de Claes. +Balthazar made over to them the family home in the rear house, and took +up his own abode on the second floor of the front building. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Marguerite continued to keep watch over her father’s material comfort, +aided in the sweet task by Emmanuel. The noble girl received from +the hands of love that most envied of all garlands, the wreath that +happiness entwines and constancy keeps ever fresh. No couple ever +afforded a better illustration of the complete, acknowledged, spotless +felicity which all women cherish in their dreams. The union of two +beings so courageous in the trials of life, who had loved each other +through years with so sacred an affection, drew forth the respectful +admiration of the whole community. Monsieur de Solis, who had long held +an appointment as inspector-general of the University, resigned those +functions to enjoy his happiness more freely, and remained at Douai +where every one did such homage to his character and attainments that +his name was proposed as candidate for the Electoral college whenever +he should reach the required age. Marguerite, who had shown herself so +strong in adversity, became in prosperity a sweet and tender woman. + +Throughout the following year Claes was grave and preoccupied; and yet, +though he made a few inexpensive experiments for which his ordinary +income sufficed, he seemed to neglect his laboratory. Marguerite +restored all the old customs of the House of Claes, and gave a family +fete every month in honor of her father, at which the Pierquins and the +Conyncks were present; and she also received the upper ranks of +society one day in the week at a “cafe” which became celebrated. Though +frequently absent-minded, Claes took part in all these assemblages and +became, to please his daughter, so willingly a man of the world that the +family were able to believe he had renounced his search for the solution +of the great problem. + +Three years went by. In 1828 family affairs called Emmanuel de Solis to +Spain. Although there were three numerous branches between himself +and the inheritance of the house of Solis, yellow fever, old age, +barrenness, and other caprices of fortune, combined to make him the last +lineal descendant of the family and heir to the titles and estates of +his ancient house. Moreover, by one of those curious chances which +seem impossible except in a book, the house of Solis had acquired the +territory and titles of the Comtes de Nourho. Marguerite did not wish +to separate from her husband, who was to stay in Spain long enough to +settle his affairs, and she was, moreover, curious to see the castle +of Casa-Real where her mother had passed her childhood, and the city of +Granada, the cradle of the de Solis family. She left Douai, consigning +the care of the house to Martha, Josette, and Lemulquinier. Balthazar, +to whom Marguerite had proposed a journey into Spain, declined to +accompany her on the ground of his advanced age; but certain experiments +which he had long meditated, and to which he now trusted for the +realization of his hopes were the real reason of his refusal. + +The Comte and Comtesse de Solis y Nourho were detained in Spain longer +than they intended. Marguerite gave birth to a son. It was not until the +middle of 1830 that they reached Cadiz, intending to embark for Italy +on their way back to France. There, however, they received a letter from +Felicie conveying disastrous news. Within a few months, their father +had completely ruined himself. Gabriel and Pierquin were obliged to +pay Lemulquinier a monthly stipend for the bare necessaries of the +household. The old valet had again sacrificed his little property to his +master. Balthazar was no longer willing to see any one, and would not +even admit his children to the house. Martha and Josette were dead. The +coachman, the cook, and the other servants had long been dismissed; +the horses and carriages were sold. Though Lemulquinier maintained the +utmost secrecy as to his master’s proceedings, it was believed that the +thousand francs supplied by Gabriel and Pierquin were spent chiefly +on experiments. The small amount of provisions which the old valet +purchased in the town seemed to show that the two old men contented +themselves with the barest necessaries. To prevent the sale of the House +of Claes, Gabriel and Pierquin were paying the interest of the sums +which their father had again borrowed on it. None of his children had +the slightest influence upon the old man, who at seventy years of age +displayed extraordinary energy in bending everything to his will, +even in matters that were trivial. Gabriel, Conyncks, and Pierquin had +decided not to pay off his debts. + +This letter changed all Marguerite’s travelling plans, and she +immediately took the shortest road to Douai. Her new fortune and her +past savings enabled her to pay off Balthazar’s debts; but she wished +to do more, she wished to obey her mother’s last injunction and save him +from sinking dishonored to the grave. She alone could exercise enough +ascendancy over the old man to keep him from completing the work +of ruin, at an age when no fruitful toil could be expected from his +enfeebled faculties. But she was also anxious to control him without +wounding his susceptibilities,--not wishing to imitate the children of +Sophocles, in case her father neared the scientific result for which he +had sacrificed so much. + +Monsieur and Madame de Solis reached Flanders in the last days of +September, 1831, and arrived at Douai during the morning. Marguerite +ordered the coachman to drive to the house in the rue de Paris, which +they found closed. The bell was loudly rung, but no one answered. A +shopkeeper left his door-step, to which he had been attracted by the +noise of the carriages; others were at their windows to enjoy a sight +of the return of the de Solis family to whom all were attached, enticed +also by a vague curiosity as to what would happen in that house on +Marguerite’s return to it. The shopkeeper told Monsieur de Solis’s +valet that old Claes had gone out an hour before, and that Monsieur +Lemulquinier was no doubt taking him to walk on the ramparts. + +Marguerite sent for a locksmith to force the door,--glad to escape a +scene in case her father, as Felicie had written, should refuse to +admit her into the house. Meantime Emmanuel went to meet the old man and +prepare him for the arrival of his daughter, despatching a servant to +notify Monsieur and Madame Pierquin. + +When the door was opened, Marguerite went directly to the parlor. Horror +overcame her and she trembled when she saw the walls as bare as if a +fire had swept over them. The glorious carved panellings of Van Huysum +and the portrait of the great Claes had been sold. The dining-room was +empty: there was nothing in it but two straw chairs and a common deal +table, on which Marguerite, terrified, saw two plates, two bowls, two +forks and spoons, and the remains of a salt herring which Claes and his +servant had evidently just eaten. In a moment she had flown through her +father’s portion of the house, every room of which exhibited the same +desolation as the parlor and dining-room. The idea of the Alkahest had +swept like a conflagration through the building. Her father’s bedroom +had a bed, one chair, and one table, on which stood a miserable pewter +candlestick with a tallow candle burned almost to the socket. The house +was so completely stripped that not so much as a curtain remained at +the windows. Every object of the smallest value,--everything, even the +kitchen utensils, had been sold. + +Moved by that feeling of curiosity which never entirely leaves us even +in moments of misfortune, Marguerite entered Lemulquinier’s chamber and +found it as bare as that of his master. In a half-opened table-drawer +she found a pawnbroker’s ticket for the old servant’s watch which he had +pledged some days before. She ran to the laboratory and found it filled +with scientific instruments, the same as ever. Then she returned to her +own appartement and ordered the door to be broken open--her father had +respected it! + +Marguerite burst into tears and forgave her father all. In the midst +of his devastating fury he had stopped short, restrained by paternal +feeling and the gratitude he owed to his daughter! This proof of +tenderness, coming to her at a moment when despair had reached its +climax, brought about in Marguerite’s soul one of those moral reactions +against which the coldest hearts are powerless. She returned to the +parlor to wait her father’s arrival, in a state of anxiety that was +cruelly aggravated by doubt and uncertainty. In what condition was she +about to see him? Ruined, decrepit, suffering, enfeebled by the fasts +his pride compelled him to undergo? Would he have his reason? Tears +flowed unconsciously from her eyes as she looked about the desecrated +sanctuary. The images of her whole life, her past efforts, her useless +precautions, her childhood, her mother happy and unhappy,--all, even her +little Joseph smiling on that scene of desolation, all were parts of a +poem of unutterable melancholy. + +Marguerite foresaw an approaching misfortune, yet she little expected +the catastrophe that was to close her father’s life,--that life at once +so grand and yet so miserable. + +The condition of Monsieur Claes was no secret in the community. To the +lasting shame of men, there were not in all Douai two hearts generous +enough to do honor to the perseverance of this man of genius. In the +eyes of the world Balthazar was a man to be condemned, a bad father +who had squandered six fortunes, millions, who was actually seeking the +philosopher’s stone in the nineteenth century, this enlightened century, +this sceptical century, this century!--etc. They calumniated his +purposes and branded him with the name of “alchemist,” casting up to +him in mockery that he was trying to make gold. Ah! what eulogies are +uttered on this great century of ours, in which, as in all others, +genius is smothered under an indifference as brutal a that of the gate +in which Dante died, and Tasso and Cervantes and “tutti quanti.” The +people are as backward as kings in understanding the creations of +genius. + +These opinions on the subject of Balthazar Claes filtered, little by +little, from the upper society of Douai to the bourgeoisie, and from +the bourgeoisie to the lower classes. The old chemist excited pity among +persons of his own rank, satirical curiosity among the others,--two +sentiments big with contempt and with the “vae victis” with which the +masses assail a man of genius when they see him in misfortune. Persons +often stopped before the House of Claes to show each other the rose +window of the garret where so much gold and so much coal had been +consumed in smoke. When Balthazar passed along the streets they pointed +to him with their fingers; often, on catching sight of him, a mocking +jest or a word of pity would escape the lips of a working-man or some +mere child. But Lemulquinier was careful to tell his master it was +homage; he could deceive him with impunity, for though the old man’s +eyes retained the sublime clearness which results from the habit of +living among great thoughts, his sense of hearing was enfeebled. + +To most of the peasantry, and to all vulgar and superstitious minds, +Balthazar Claes was a sorcerer. The noble old mansion, once named by +common consent “the House of Claes,” was now called in the suburbs and +the country districts “the Devil’s House.” Every outward sign, even the +face of Lemulquinier, confirmed the ridiculous beliefs that were current +about Balthazar. When the old servant went to market to purchase the few +provisions necessary for their subsistence, picking out the cheapest +he could find, insults were flung in as make-weights,--just as butchers +slip bones into their customers’ meat,--and he was fortunate, poor +creature, if some superstitious market-woman did not refuse to sell him +his meagre pittance lest she be damned by contact with an imp of hell. + +Thus the feelings of the whole town of Douai were hostile to the grand +old man and to his attendant. The neglected state of their clothes added +to this repulsion; they went about clothed like paupers who have seen +better days, and who strive to keep a decent appearance and are ashamed +to beg. It was probable that sooner or later Balthazar would be insulted +in the streets. Pierquin, feeling how degrading to the family any public +insult would be, had for some time past sent two or three of his own +servants to follow the old man whenever he went out, and keep him +in sight at a little distance, for the purpose of protecting him if +necessary,--the revolution of July not having contributed to make the +citizens respectful. + +By one of those fatalities which can never be explained, Claes and +Lemulquinier had gone out early in the morning, thus evading the secret +guardianship of Monsieur and Madame Pierquin. On their way back from +the ramparts they sat down to sun themselves on a bench in the place +Saint-Jacques, an open space crossed by children on their way to school. +Catching sight from a distance of the defenceless old men, whose faces +brightened as they sat basking in the sun, a crowd of boys began to +talk of them. Generally, children’s chatter ends in laughter; on this +occasion the laughter led to jokes of which they did not know the +cruelty. Seven or eight of the first-comers stood at a little distance, +and examined the strange old faces with smothered laughter and remarks +which attracted Lemulquinier’s attention. + +“Hi! do you see that one with a head as smooth as my knee?” + +“Yes.” + +“Well, he was born a Wise Man.” + +“My papa says he makes gold,” said another. + +The youngest of the troop, who had his basket full of provisions and was +devouring a slice of bread and butter, advanced to the bench and said +boldly to Lemulquinier,-- + +“Monsieur, is it true you make pearls and diamonds?” + +“Yes, my little man,” replied the valet, smiling and tapping him on the +cheek; “we will give you some of you study well.” + +“Ah! monsieur, give me some, too,” was the general exclamation. + +The boys all rushed together like a flock of birds, and surrounded the +old men. Balthazar, absorbed in meditation from which he was drawn by +these sudden cries, made a gesture of amazement which caused a general +shout of laughter. + +“Come, come, boys; be respectful to a great man,” said Lemulquinier. + +“Hi, the old harlequin!” cried the lads; “the old sorcerer! you are +sorcerers! sorcerers! sorcerers!” + +Lemulquinier sprang to his feet and threatened the crowd with his cane; +they all ran to a little distance, picking up stones and mud. A workman +who was eating his breakfast near by, seeing Lemulquinier brandish his +cane to drive the boys away, thought he had struck them, and took their +part, crying out,-- + +“Down with the sorcerers!” + +The boys, feeling themselves encouraged, flung their missiles at the +old men, just as the Comte de Solis, accompanied by Pierquin’s servants, +appeared at the farther end of the square. The latter were too late, +however, to save the old man and his valet from being pelted with mud. +The shock was given. Balthazar, whose faculties had been preserved by a +chastity of spirit natural to students absorbed in a quest of discovery +that annihilates all passions, now suddenly divined, by the phenomenon +of introsusception, the true meaning of the scene: his decrepit body +could not sustain the frightful reaction he underwent in his feelings, +and he fell, struck with paralysis, into the arms of Lemulquinier, who +brought him to his home on a shutter, attended by his sons-in-law and +their servants. No power could prevent the population of Douai from +following the body of the old man to the door of his house, where +Felicie and her children, Jean, Marguerite, and Gabriel, whom his sister +had sent for, were waiting to receive him. + +The arrival of the old man gave rise to a frightful scene; he struggled +less against the assaults of death than against the horror of seeing +that his children had entered the house and penetrated the secret of +his impoverished life. A bed was at once made up in the parlor and every +care bestowed upon the stricken man, whose condition, towards evening, +allowed hopes that his life might be preserved. The paralysis, though +skilfully treated, kept him for some time in a state of semi-childhood; +and when by degrees it relaxed, the tongue was found to be especially +affected, perhaps because the old man’s anger had concentrated all +his forces upon it at the moment when he was about to apostrophize the +children. + +This incident roused a general indignation throughout the town. By a +law, up to that time unknown, which guides the affects of the masses, +this event brought back all hearts to Monsieur Claes. He became once +more a great man; he excited the admiration and received the good-will +that a few hours earlier were denied to him. Men praised his patience, +his strength of will, his courage, his genius. The authorities wished +to arrest all those who had a share in dealing him this blow. Too +late,--the evil was done! The Claes family were the first to beg that +the matter might be allowed to drop. + +Marguerite ordered furniture to be brought into the parlor, and the +denuded walls to be hung with silk; and when, a few days after his +seizure, the old father recovered his faculties and found himself once +more in a luxurious room surrounded by all that makes life easy, he +tried to express his belief that his daughter Marguerite had returned. +At that moment she entered the room. When Balthazar caught sight of her +he colored, and his eyes grew moist, though the tears did not fall. He +was able to press his daughter’s hand with his cold fingers, putting +into that pressure all the thoughts, all the feelings he no longer had +the power to utter. There was something holy and solemn in that farewell +of the brain which still lived, of the heart which gratitude revived. +Worn out by fruitless efforts, exhausted in the long struggle with the +gigantic problem, desperate perhaps at the oblivion which awaited his +memory, this giant among men was about to die. His children surrounded +him with respectful affection; his dying eyes were cheered with images +of plenty and the touching picture of his prosperous and noble family. +His every look--by which alone he could manifest his feelings--was +unchangeably affectionate; his eyes acquired such variety of expression +that they had, as it were, a language of light, easy to comprehend. + +Marguerite paid her father’s debts, and restored a modern splendor to +the House of Claes which removed all outward signs of decay. She never +left the old man’s bedside, endeavoring to divine his every thought and +accomplish his slightest wish. + +Some months went by with those alternations of better and worse which +attend the struggle of life and death in old people; every morning his +children came to him and spent the day in the parlor, dining by his +bedside and only leaving him when he went to sleep for the night. The +occupation which gave him most pleasure, among the many with which his +family sought to enliven him, was the reading of newspapers, to which +the political events then occurring gave great interest. Monsieur Claes +listened attentively as Monsieur de Solis read them aloud beside his +bed. + +Towards the close of the year 1832, Balthazar passed an extremely +critical night, during which Monsieur Pierquin, the doctor, was summoned +by the nurse, who was greatly alarmed at the sudden change which took +place in the patient. For the rest of the night the doctor remained to +watch him, fearing he might at any moment expire in the throes of inward +convulsion, whose effects were like those of a last agony. + +The old man made incredible efforts to shake off the bonds of his +paralysis; he tried to speak and moved his tongue, unable to make a +sound; his flaming eyes emitted thoughts; his drawn features expressed +an untold agony; his fingers writhed in desperation; the sweat stood +out in drops upon his brow. In the morning when his children came to his +bedside and kissed him with an affection which the sense of coming death +made day by day more ardent and more eager, he showed none of his usual +satisfaction at these signs of their tenderness. Emmanuel, instigated by +the doctor, hastened to open the newspaper to try if the usual reading +might not relieve the inward crisis in which Balthazar was evidently +struggling. As he unfolded the sheet he saw the words, “DISCOVERY OF THE +ABSOLUTE,”--which startled him, and he read a paragraph to Marguerite +concerning a sale made by a celebrated Polish mathematician of the +secret of the Absolute. Though Emmanuel read in a low voice, and +Marguerite signed to him to omit the passage, Balthazar heard it. + +Suddenly the dying man raised himself by his wrists and cast on his +frightened children a look which struck like lightning; the hairs that +fringed the bald head stirred, the wrinkles quivered, the features were +illumined with spiritual fires, a breath passed across that face and +rendered it sublime; he raised a hand, clenched in fury, and uttered +with a piercing cry the famous word of Archimedes, “EUREKA!”--I have +found. + +He fell back upon his bed with the dull sound of an inert body, and +died, uttering an awful moan,--his convulsed eyes expressing to the +last, when the doctor closed them, the regret of not bequeathing to +Science the secret of an Enigma whose veil was rent away,--too late!--by +the fleshless fingers of Death. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Note: The Alkahest is also known as The Quest of the Absolute and is +referred to by that title when mentioned in other addendums. + + Casa-Real, Duc de + The Quest of the Absolute + A Marriage Settlement + + Chiffreville, Monsieur and Madame + Cesar Birotteau + The Quest of the Absolute + + Claes, Josephine de Temninck, Madame + The Quest of the Absolute + A Marriage Settlement + + Protez and Chiffreville + The Quest of the Absolute + Cesar Birotteau + + Savaron de Savarus + The Quest of the Absolute + Albert Savarus + + Savarus, Albert Savaron de + The Quest of the Absolute + Albert Savarus + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Alkahest, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1453 *** |