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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Parisian Points of View, by Ludovic Halevy
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Parisian Points of View
+
+Author: Ludovic Halevy
+
+Commentator: Brander Matthews
+
+Translator: Edith V. B. Matthews
+
+Release Date: March 25, 2005 [EBook #15465]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARISIAN POINTS OF VIEW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+MASTER-TALES
+
+PARISIAN
+POINTS OF VIEW
+
+BY
+LUDOVIC HALEVY
+
+TRANSLATED BY
+EDITH V.B. MATTHEWS
+
+WITH INTRODUCTION BY
+BRANDER MATTHEWS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1894, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
+
+_All rights reserved._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                      PAGE
+
+INTRODUCTION                                           vii
+ONLY A WALTZ                                             3
+THE DANCING-MASTER                                      37
+THE CIRCUS CHARGER                                      49
+BLACKY                                                  69
+THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN PARIS                       83
+THE STORY OF A BALL-DRESS                              113
+THE INSURGENT                                          137
+THE CHINESE AMBASSADOR                                 147
+IN THE EXPRESS                                         161
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+
+
+THE SHORT STORIES OF M. LUDOVIC HALEVY
+
+
+To most American readers of fiction I fancy that M. Ludovic Halevy is
+known chiefly, if not solely, as the author of that most charming of
+modern French novels, _The Abbe Constantin_. Some of these readers may
+have disliked this or that novel of M. Zola's because of its bad moral,
+and this or that novel of M. Ohnet's because of its bad taste, and all
+of them were delighted to discover in M. Halevy's interesting and
+artistic work a story written by a French gentleman for young ladies.
+Here and there a scoffer might sneer at the tale of the old French
+priest and the young women from Canada as innocuous and saccharine; but
+the story of the good Abbe Constantin and of his nephew, and of the girl
+the nephew loved in spite of her American millions--this story had the
+rare good fortune of pleasing at once the broad public of indiscriminate
+readers of fiction and the narrower circle of real lovers of literature.
+Artificial the atmosphere of the tale might be, but it was with an
+artifice at once delicate and delicious; and the tale itself won its way
+into the hearts of the women of America as it had into the hearts of the
+women of France.
+
+There is even a legend--although how solid a foundation it may have in
+fact I do not dare to discuss--there is a legend that the lady-superior
+of a certain convent near Paris was so fascinated by _The Abbe
+Constantin_, and so thoroughly convinced of the piety of its author,
+that she ordered all his other works, receiving in due season the lively
+volumes wherein are recorded the sayings and doings of Monsieur and
+Madame Cardinal, and of the two lovely daughters of Monsieur and Madame
+Cardinal. To note that these very amusing studies of certain aspects of
+life in a modern capital originally appeared in that extraordinary
+journal, _La Vie Parisienne_--now sadly degenerate--is enough to
+indicate that they are not precisely what the good lady-superior
+expected to receive. We may not say that _La Famille Cardinal_ is one of
+the books every gentleman's library should be without; but to appreciate
+its value requires a far different knowledge of the world and of its
+wickedness than is needed to understand _The Abbe Constantin_.
+
+Yet the picture of the good priest and the portraits of the little
+Cardinals are the work of the same hand, plainly enough. In both of
+these books, as in _Criquette_ (M. Halevy's only other novel), as in _A
+Marriage for Love_, and the twoscore other short stories he has written
+during the past thirty years, there are the same artistic qualities, the
+same sharpness of vision, the same gentle irony, the same constructive
+skill, and the same dramatic touch. It is to be remembered always that
+the author of _L'Abbe Constantin_ is also the half-author of "Froufrou"
+and of "Tricoche et Cacolet," as well as of the librettos of "La Belle
+Helene" and of "La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein."
+
+In the two novels, as in the twoscore short stories and sketches--the
+_contes_ and the _nouvelles_ which are now spring-like idyls and now
+wintry episodes, now sombre etchings and now gayly-colored pastels--in
+all the works of the story-teller we see the firm grasp of the
+dramatist. The characters speak for themselves; each reveals himself
+with the swift directness of the personages of a play. They are not
+talked about and about, for all analysis has been done by the playwright
+before he rings up the curtain in the first paragraph. And the story
+unrolls itself, also, as rapidly as does a comedy. The movement is
+straightforward. There is the cleverness and the ingenuity of the
+accomplished dramatist, but the construction has the simplicity of the
+highest skill. The arrangement of incidents is so artistic that it seems
+inevitable; and no one is ever moved to wonder whether or not the tale
+might have been better told in different fashion.
+
+Nephew of the composer of "La Juive"--an opera not now heard as often as
+it deserves, perhaps--and son of a playwright no one of whose
+productions now survives, M. Halevy grew up in the theatre. At fourteen
+he was on the free-list of the Opera, the Opera-Comique, and the Odeon.
+After he left school and went into the civil service his one wish was to
+write plays, and so to be able to afford to resign his post. In the
+civil service he had an inside view of French politics, which gave him a
+distaste for the mere game of government without in any way impairing
+the vigor of his patriotism; as is proved by certain of the short stones
+dealing with the war of 1870 and the revolt of the Paris Communists. And
+while he did his work faithfully, he had spare hours to give to
+literature. He wrote plays and stories, and they were rejected. The
+manager of the Odeon declared that one early play of M. Halevy's was
+exactly suited to the Gymnase, and the manager of the Gymnase protested
+that it was exactly suited to the Odeon. The editor of a daily journal
+said that one early tale of M. Halevy's was too brief for a novel, and
+the editor of a weekly paper said that it was too long for a short
+story.
+
+In time, of course, his luck turned; he had plays performed and stories
+published; and at last he met M. Henri Meilhac, and entered on that
+collaboration of nearly twenty years' duration to which we owe
+"Froufrou" and "Tricoche et Cacolet," on the one hand, and on the other
+the books of Offenbach's most brilliant operas--"Barbebleue," for
+example, and "La Perichole." When this collaboration terminated, shortly
+before M. Halevy wrote _The Abbe Constantin_, he gave up writing for the
+stage. The training of the playwright he could not give up, if he
+would, nor the intimacy with the manners and customs of the people who
+live, move, and have their being on the far side of the curtain.
+
+Obviously M. Halevy is fond of the actors and the actresses with whom he
+spent the years of his manhood. They appear again and again in his
+tales; and in his treatment of them there is never anything
+ungentlemanly as there was in M. Jean Richepin's recent volume of
+theatrical sketches. M. Halevy's liking for the men and women of the
+stage is deep; and wide is his knowledge of their changing moods. The
+young Criquette and the old Karikari and the aged Dancing-master--he
+knows them all thoroughly, and he likes them heartily, and he
+sympathizes with them cordially. Indeed, nowhere can one find more
+kindly portraits of the kindly player-folk than in the writings of this
+half-author of "Froufrou"; it is as though the successful dramatist felt
+ever grateful towards the partners of his toil, the companions of his
+struggles. He is not blind to their manifold weaknesses, nor is he the
+dupe of their easy emotionalism, but he is tolerant of their failings,
+and towards them, at least, his irony is never mordant.
+
+Irony is one of M. Halevy's chief characteristics, perhaps the chiefest.
+It is gentle when he deals with the people of the stage--far gentler
+then than when he is dealing with the people of Society, with
+fashionable folk, with the aristocracy of wealth. When he is telling us
+of the young loves of millionaires and of million-heiresses, his touch
+may seem caressing, but for all its softness the velvet paw has claws
+none the less. It is amusing to note how often M. Halevy has chosen to
+tell the tale of love among the very rich. The heroine of _The Abbe
+Constantin_ is immensely wealthy, as we all know, and immensely wealthy
+are the heroines of _Princesse_, of _A Grand Marriage,_ and of _In the
+Express_.[A] Sometimes the heroes and the heroines are not only
+immensely wealthy, they are also of the loftiest birth; such, for
+instance, are the young couple whose acquaintance we make in the pages
+of _Only a Waltz_.
+
+[Footnote A: Perhaps the present writer will be forgiven if he wishes to
+record here that _In the Express (Par le Rapide)_ was published in Paris
+only towards the end of 1892, while a tale not wholly unlike it, _In the
+Vestibule Limited_, was published in New York in the spring of 1891.]
+
+There is no trace or taint of snobbery in M. Halevy's treatment of all
+this magnificence; there is none of the vulgarity which marks the pages
+of _Lothair_, for example; there is no mean admiration of mean things.
+There is, on the other hand, no bitterness of scourging satire. He lets
+us see that all this luxury is a little cloying and perhaps not a little
+enervating. He suggests (although he takes care never to say it) that
+perhaps wealth and birth are not really the best the world can offer.
+The amiable egotism of the hero of _In the Express_, and the not
+unkindly selfishness of the heroine of that most Parisian love-story,
+are set before us without insistence, it is true, but with an irony so
+keen that even he who runs as he reads may not mistake the author's real
+opinion of the characters he has evoked.
+
+To say this is to say that M. Halevy's irony is delicate and playful.
+There is no harshness in his manner and no hatred in his mind. We do not
+find in his pages any of the pessimism which is perhaps the dominant
+characteristic of the best French fiction of our time. To M. Halevy, as
+to every thinking man, life is serious, no doubt, but it need not be
+taken sadly, or even solemnly. To him life seems still enjoyable, as it
+must to most of those who have a vivid sense of humor. He is not
+disillusioned utterly, he is not reduced to the blankness of despair as
+are so many of the disciples of Flaubert, who are cast into the outer
+darkness, and who hopelessly revolt against the doom they have brought
+on themselves.
+
+Indeed, it is Merimee that M. Halevy would hail as his master, and not
+Flaubert, whom most of his fellow French writers of fiction follow
+blindly. Now, while the author of _Salamnbo_ was a romanticist turned
+sour, the author of _Carmen_ was a sentimentalist sheathed in irony. To
+Gustave Flaubert the world was hideously ugly, and he wished it
+strangely and splendidly beautiful, and he detested it the more because
+of his impossible ideal. To Prosper Merimee the world was what it is,
+to be taken and made the best of, every man keeping himself carefully
+guarded. Like Merimee, M. Halevy is detached, but he is not
+disenchanted. His work is more joyous than Merimee's, if not so vigorous
+and compact, and his delight in it is less disguised. Even in the
+Cardinal sketches there is nothing that leaves an acrid after-taste,
+nothing corroding--as there is not seldom in the stronger and sterner
+short stories of Maupassant.
+
+More than Maupassant or Flaubert or Merimee, is M. Halevy a Parisian.
+Whether or not the characters of his tale are dwellers in the capital,
+whether or not the scene of his story is laid in the city by the Seine,
+the point of view is always Parisian. The _Circus Charger_ did his duty
+in the stately avenues of a noble country-place, and _Blacky_ performed
+his task near a rustic water-fall; but the men who record their
+intelligent actions are Parisians of the strictest sect. Even in the
+patriotic pieces called forth by the war of 1870, in the _Insurgent_ and
+in the _Chinese Ambassador_, it is the siege of Paris and the struggle
+of the Communists which seem to the author most important. His style
+even, his swift and limpid prose--the prose which somehow corresponds to
+the best _vers de societe_ in its brilliancy and buoyancy--is the style
+of one who lives at the centre of things. Cardinal Newman once said that
+while Livy and Tacitus and Terence and Seneca wrote Latin, Cicero wrote
+Roman; so while M. Zola on the one side, and M. Georges Ohnet on the
+other, may write French, M. Halevy writes Parisian.
+
+BRANDER MATTHEWS.
+
+
+
+
+ONLY A WALTZ
+
+
+"Aunt, dear aunt, don't believe a word of what he is going to tell you.
+He is preparing to fib, to fib outrageously. If I hadn't interrupted him
+at the beginning of his talk, he would have told you that he had made up
+his mind to marry me from his and my earliest childhood."
+
+"Of course!" exclaimed Gontran.
+
+"Of course not," replied Marceline. "He was going to tell you that he
+was a good little boy, having always loved his little cousin, and that
+our marriage was a delightful romance of tenderness and sweetness."
+
+"Why, yes, of course," repeated Gontran.
+
+"Nonsense! The truth, Aunt Louise, the real truth, in short, is this,
+never, never should we have been married if on the 17th of May, 1890,
+between nine and eleven o'clock, he had not lost 34,000 points at
+bezique at the club, and if all the boxes had not been sold, that same
+night, at the Bouffes-Parisiens Theatre."
+
+Gontran began to laugh.
+
+"Oh, you can laugh as much as you please! You know very well that but
+for this--on what does fate depend?--I should now be married and a
+duchess, it is true; but Duchess of Courtalin, and not Duchess of
+Lannilis. Well, perhaps that would have been better! At any rate, I wish
+to give Aunt Louise the authentic history of our marriage."
+
+"Tell away, if it amuses you," said Gontran.
+
+"Yes, sir, it amuses me. You shall know all, Aunt Louise--all,
+absolutely all; and I beg you to be judge of our quarrel."
+
+This scene was taking place eight days after Marceline de Lorlauge, at
+the Church of the Madeleine, before the altar, hidden under a mountain
+of roses, had answered "yes," with just the right amount of nervousness
+and emotion (neither too much nor too little, but exactly right), when
+she was asked if she was willing to take for husband her cousin, Jean
+Leopold Mathurin Arbert Gontran, Duke of Lannilis.
+
+This marriage had been the great marriage of the season. There had been
+an absolute crush under the colonnade and against the railings of the
+church to see the bride walk down those fearful steps of the Madeleine.
+What an important feat that is! Merely to be beautiful is not all that
+is needful; it is necessary besides to know how to be beautiful. There
+is an art about being pretty which requires certain preparations and
+study. In society, as in the theatre, success rarely comes at once. Mme.
+de Lannilis had the good-fortune to make her first appearance with
+decisive success. She was at once quite easily and boldly at home in her
+beauty; she had only to appear to triumph. Prince Nerins had not a
+moment's hesitation concerning it, and he it is, as every one knows,
+who, with general consent, has made himself the distributor of the
+patents of supreme Parisian elegance; so while the new duchess, beneath
+the fire of a thousand eyes and behind the ringing staffs, was taking
+her first steps as a young married woman with calm assurance, Nerins,
+struck with admiration, was giving way, under the colonnade of the
+Madeleine, to veritable transports of enthusiasm. He went from group to
+group repeating:
+
+"She is aerial! There is no other expression for her--aerial! She does
+not walk, she glides! If she had the fantasy, with one little kick of
+her heel, she could raise herself lightly over the heads of those two
+tall fellows with spears, cross the Place de la Concorde, and go and
+place herself on the pediment of the Chamber of Deputies. Look at her
+well; that is true beauty, radiant beauty, blazing beauty! She is a
+goddess, a young goddess! she will reign long, gentlemen--as long as
+possible."
+
+The young goddess, for the present, did not go farther than Lannilis, in
+Poitou, to her husband's home--her home--in a mansion that had seen many
+Duchesses of Lannilis, but never one more charming, and never, it must
+be said, one more absolutely in love. This little duchess of nineteen
+was wild about this little duke of twenty-five, who was jealously
+carrying her off for himself alone to a quiet and solitary retreat.
+
+They had arrived Thursday, the 24th of June, at about two o'clock--on an
+exquisite night beneath a star-spangled sky--and they were suddenly
+astounded at receiving a letter from their Aunt Louise, dated July 1:
+
+"Eight days' steady tete-a-tete," she wrote, "is enough, quite enough.
+Trust to the experience of an old countrywoman, who would be delighted
+to kiss her little nephew and niece. Don't eat all your love in the
+bud--keep a little for the future."
+
+Thursday, the 1st of July! Eight days! They had been eight days at
+Lannilis! It was impossible! They tried to put some order in their
+reflections. What had they done Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? But all
+was vague, and became confused in their minds. The days and the nights,
+and the nights and days. What had they done? It was always the same,
+same thing; and the same thing had somehow never been the same thing.
+
+They had just loved, loved, loved; and, quite given up to this very wise
+occupation, they had completely forgotten that near Lannilis, in the old
+residence of Chatellerault, there was dear old Aunt Louise, who was
+expecting their first bridal visit--a visit which was due her, for she
+had the best claim in the world, on account of her eighty-four years,
+her kindness, and also because of the gift of a magnificent pearl
+necklace to Marceline.
+
+So it was necessary to be resigned, to leave off dreaming, and to come
+back to reality; and it was during this visit that, before the old aunt,
+much amused at the quarrel, this great dispute had abruptly burst forth
+between the young married couple.
+
+Aunt Louise had accepted the position of arbitrator, and, presiding over
+the discussion, she had made the two contestants sit down before her in
+arm-chairs, at a respectful distance. Marceline, before being seated,
+had already taken the floor.
+
+"Every one agreed upon this point (you know it, Aunt Louise; mamma must
+often have told you in her letters)--every one was agreed on this point:
+that there were really only two suitable matches for me--the Duke of
+Lannilis here present, and the Duke of Courtalin. I had the weakness to
+prefer him--him over there. Why? I can scarcely tell-a childish habit,
+doubtless. We had played together when we were no higher than that at
+being little husband and wife. I had remained faithful to that childhood
+love, whereas he--"
+
+"Whereas I--"
+
+"All in due season, sir, and you will lose nothing by waiting. However,
+there were all sorts of good reasons for preferring--the other one, who
+had a larger fortune and was of more ancient nobility."
+
+"Oh, as to that--in money, maybe, but as to birth--"
+
+"It is indisputable! You are both dukes by patent."
+
+"We in 1663."
+
+"And the Courtalin--"
+
+"In 1666 only."
+
+"Agreed."
+
+"Well, then?"
+
+"Oh, just wait! I am posted on the question; mamma studied it thoroughly
+when things looked, three months ago, as if I should be Duchess of
+Courtalin. One morning mamma went to the archives with an old friend of
+hers, a great historian, who is a member of the Institute. You date
+from 1663, and the Courtalin from 1666; that is correct. But Louis
+XIV., in 1672, by a special edict, gave the precedence to the
+Courtalins; and you have not, I suppose, any idea of disputing what
+Louis XIV. thought best to do. Now, Aunt Louise, can he?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"But Saint Simon--"
+
+"Oh, let us leave Saint Simon alone; he is prejudice and inaccuracy
+itself! I know he is on your side, but that doesn't count; but I will,
+to be agreeable to you, acknowledge that you are better looking and
+taller than M. de Courtalin--"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Oh, my dear, I begin to see! You are dying for me to tell you that.
+Well, yes, you are a fairly handsome man; but that is only a very
+perishable advantage, and you have too much respect for
+conventionalities to wish to make that equal to the decree of Louis XIV.
+However, I loved you--I loved you faithfully, tenderly, fondly,
+stupidly; yes, stupidly, for when I had come out in society, the year
+before, in April, 1889, at Mme. de Fresnes's ball, when I had allowed my
+poor, little, thin shoulders to be seen for the first time (I must have
+been about seventeen), I noticed that the young marriageable men in our
+set (they are all quoted, noted, and labelled) drew away from me with
+strange, respectful deference. I appeared to be of no importance or
+interest, in spite of my name, my dowry, and my eyes. You see, I had
+singed myself. I had so ridiculously advertised my passion for you that
+I no longer belonged to myself; I was considered as belonging to you. As
+soon as I had put on my first long dress, which gave me at once the
+right to think of marriage and speak of love, I had told all my friends
+that I loved, and would never love or marry any one but you--you or the
+convent. Yes, I had come to that! My friends had told their brothers and
+cousins, who had repeated it to you (just what I wanted), but it put me
+out of the race. Dare to say, sir, that it is not all true, strictly
+true!"
+
+"I am saying nothing--?"
+
+"Because you are overcome, crushed by the evidence. You say nothing now,
+but what did you say last year? Last year! When I think that we could
+have been married since last year! A year, a whole year lost! And it was
+so long, and it could have been so short! Well, he was there, at the
+Fresnes' ball. He condescended to do me the honor of dancing three times
+with me. I came home intoxicated, absolutely intoxicated with joy. But
+that great happiness did not last long, for this is what that Gontran
+the next day said to his friend Robert d'Aigremont, who told his sister
+Gabrielle, who repeated it to me, that he saw clearly that they wished
+to marry him to his cousin Marceline. I had, the day before, literally
+thrown myself into his arms; he had thought right, from pure goodness of
+heart, to show some pity for the love of the little school-girl, so he
+had resolved to dance with me; but he had done, quite done--he wouldn't
+be caught again. He would keep carefully away from coming-out balls;
+they were too dangerous a form of gayety. Marriage did not tempt him in
+the least. He had not had enough of a bachelor's life yet--besides, he
+knew of nothing more absurd than those marriages between cousins. The
+true pleasure of marriage, he said, must be to put into one's life
+something new and unexpected, and to call by her first name, all at
+once, on Tuesday morning, a person whom one didn't so call Monday night.
+But a person whom one already knew well, where would be the pleasure? He
+made a movement, Aunt Louise; did you see?"
+
+"I saw--"
+
+"He recognized the phrase."
+
+"True. I remember--"
+
+"Ah! but you did not say that phrase only--you said all the others. But
+that is nothing as yet, Aunt Louise. Do you know what was his principal
+objection to a marriage with me? Do you know what he told Robert? That
+he had seen me in evening-dress the night before for the first time, and
+that I was too thin! Too thin! Ah! that was a cruel blow to me! For it
+was true. I was thin. The evening after Gabrielle had told me that awful
+fact, that evening in undressing I looked at my poor little shoulders,
+with their poor little salt-cellars, and I had a terrible spasm of
+sorrow--a flood of tears that wouldn't stop--a torrent, a real torrent;
+and then mamma appeared. I was alone, disrobed, hair flying, studying my
+shoulders, deploring their meagreness--a true picture of despair! Mamma
+took me in her arms. 'My angel, my poor dear, what is the matter?' I
+answered only by sobbing. 'My child, tell me all.' Mamma was very
+anxious, but I could not speak; tears choked my voice. 'My dearest, do
+you wish to kill me?' So to reassure mamma I managed to say between my
+sobs: 'I am too thin, mamma; last night Gontran thought me too thin!' At
+that mamma began to laugh heartily; but as she was good-humored that
+evening, after laughing she explained to me that she, at seventeen, had
+been much thinner than I, and she promised me in the most solemn manner
+that I should grow stouter. Mamma spoke true; I have fattened up. Will
+you have the goodness, sir, to declare to our aunt that the salt-cellars
+have entirely disappeared, and that you cannot have against me, in that
+respect, any legitimate cause of complaint?"
+
+"I will declare so very willingly; but you will permit me to add--"
+
+"I will permit you no such thing. I have the floor, let me speak; but
+you will soon have a chance to justify yourself. I intend to put you
+through a little cross-questioning."
+
+"I'll wait, then--"
+
+"Yes, do. So last spring I began my first campaign. I do not know, Aunt
+Louise, what the customs were in your time, but I know that to-day, at
+the present time, the condition of young girls is one of extreme
+severity. We are kept confined, closely confined, till eighteen, for
+mamma was very indulgent in bringing me out when I was only seventeen;
+but mamma is goodness itself, and then she isn't coquettish for a
+sou--she didn't mind admitting that she had a marriageable daughter. All
+mothers are not like that, and I know some who are glad to put off the
+public and official exhibition of their poor children so as to gain a
+year. At the same time that they race at Longchamps and Chantilly the
+great fillies of the year, they take from their boxes the great
+heiresses of the year who are ripe for matrimony, and in a series of
+white balls given for that purpose, between Easter Sunday and the Grand
+Prix, they are made to take little trial gallops before connoisseurs.
+They have to work rapidly and find a buyer before the Grand Prix; for
+after that all is up, the young girls are packed back to their
+governesses, dancing-masters, and literary professors. The campaign is
+over. That is all for the year. They are not seen again, the poor
+things, till after Lent. So mamma took me last year to a dozen large
+balls, which were sad and sorrowful for me. He was not there! He didn't
+wish to marry! He told it to every one insolently, satirically. He would
+never, never, never marry! He told it to me."
+
+"At your mother's request."
+
+"Yes, that is true. I know since that it was at mamma's petition that he
+talked that way; she hoped it would prevent my being stubborn in my
+craze for him."
+
+"Craze!" exclaimed Aunt Louise.
+
+"Excuse me, Aunt Louise, it is a word of to-day."
+
+"And means--"
+
+"It means a sort of unexplainable, absurd, and extravagant love that
+comes without its being possible to know why--in short, Aunt Louise,
+exactly the love I have for him."
+
+"Much obliged! But you do not tell everything. You do not say that your
+mother desired your marriage with Courtalin--"
+
+"Yes, of course; mamma was quite right. M. de Courtalin has a thousand
+sterling merits that you have not--that you will never have; and then M.
+de Courtalin had a particularly good point in mamma's eyes: he did not
+find me too thin, and he asked for my hand in marriage. One day about
+four o'clock (that was the 2d of June last year) mamma came into my room
+with an expression on her face I had never seen before. 'My child,' she
+said--'my dear child!' She had no need to finish; I had understood. M.
+de Courtalin all the evening before, at the Princess de Viran's, had
+hovered about me, and the next day his mother had come to declare to
+mamma that her son knew of nothing more delightful than my face. I
+answered that I knew of nothing less delightful than M. de Courtalin's
+face. I added that, besides, I was in no hurry to marry. Mamma tried to
+make me hear reason. I was going to let slip an admirable chance. The
+Duke of Courtalin was the target of all the ambitious mothers--a great
+name, a great position, a great fortune! I should deeply regret some day
+to have shown such disdain for advantages like these, etc. And to all
+these things, which were so true and sensible, I could find only one
+word to say: his name, Gontran, Gontran, Gontran! Gontran or the
+convent, and the most rigorous one of all, the Carmel, in sackcloth and
+ashes! Oh, Aunt Louise, do look at him! He listens to all this with an
+unbearable little air of fatuity."
+
+"You have forbidden me to speak."
+
+"True. Don't speak; but you have deserved a little lesson in modesty and
+humility. Good gracious! you think perhaps it was for your merits that I
+chose you, insisted on you. You would be far from the mark, my poor
+dear. It is, on the contrary, because of your want of merit. Now, as to
+M. de Courtalin. Why, there is a man of merit! I had, from morning to
+night, M. de Courtalin's merit dinned into my ears, and that was why I
+had taken a dislike to him. What I dreaded more than anything for a
+husband was what is called a superior man; and mamma went the wrong way
+to work to win me over to her candidate when she said to me: 'He is a
+very intelligent, very serious, very deep-thinking, and very
+distinguished man; he has spent his youth honorably; he has been a model
+son, and would make a model husband.' It made me shiver to hear mamma
+talk so. I know nothing more awful than people who are always, always
+right; who, under all circumstances, give evidence of unfailing good
+sense; who crush us with their superiority. With Gontran I am easy,
+quite easy. It isn't he who would crush me with his superiority. I do
+not know much, Aunt Louise, but my ignorance beside his is learning. He
+had great trouble in getting his baccalaureate. He flunked three times."
+
+"Flunked!" exclaimed Aunt Louise.
+
+"It means failed. He taught me the word. All the queer words I use, Aunt
+Louise, were taught me by him."
+
+"Come, now--"
+
+"Yes, all. I can see him now, coming to the house one day, and I can
+hear him say, 'Flunked again!' That was the third time. Then he went and
+took his examination in the country at a little college at Douai; it was
+easier, and he passed at last. M. de Courtalin has never been flunked;
+he is everything that one can be at his age: bachelor, advocate, lawyer,
+and grave, exact, and severe in his language, and dressed--always in a
+black frock-coat, with two rows of buttons, always all buttoned--in
+short, a man of the past. And what a future before him! Already a member
+of the General Council, and very eloquent, very influential, he will be
+deputy in three years, and then, when we have a government that people
+of our class can recognize, minister, ambassador, and I know not what!
+The highest offices wait for him, and all his ambitions will be
+legitimate when he has a chance to put his superior talents at the
+service of the monarchy. That's one of mamma's phrases. Whereas you, my
+poor Gontran--you will never be anything other than a very funny and
+very nice old dear, whom I shall lead as I like with my little finger."
+
+"Oh! oh!"
+
+"You will see. Besides, you have seen for eight days."
+
+"The first eight days don't count."
+
+"I will continue, rest assured. I love you, besides. I love you, and do
+you know why? It is because you are not a man of the past; you are
+distinctly modern, very modern. Look at him, Aunt Louise. Isn't he very
+nice, very well turned out, very modern, in fact--I repeat it--in his
+little pearl-gray suit. He is devoted to his clothes. He consults for
+hours and hours with his tailor, which delights me, for I intend to
+consult for hours and hours with my dress-maker. And he will pay the
+bills without a tremor, for he will be charmed to see me very stylish
+and very much admired. Ah, we shall make the most brilliant and most
+giddy little couple! He is modern, I shall be modern, we shall be
+modern! After three, four, or five weeks (we do not know exactly)
+dedicated to pure love, we shall take flight towards the country, where
+one has a good time; and then we shall be talked about, Aunt Louise, we
+shall be talked about. And now, where was I in my story? I am sure I do
+not know at all."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"Ah, I know. Mme. de Courtalin had come to ask my hand for her honorable
+son, and when mamma had spoken to me of that I had exclaimed, 'Sooner
+the convent!' I do not know exactly what mamma said to Mme. de
+Courtalin--at any rate, I was left alone for the time being. There was a
+rush to the Grand Prix, and then a general breaking-up. We went to spend
+a month at Aix-les-Bains for papa's complaint, and then a fortnight
+here, Aunt Louise; and then, do you remember, you received the
+confessions of my poor torn heart. Ah! I must say you are the only young
+member of the family--you were the only one who did not make a long face
+when I spoke of my love for that rogue. Mamma, however, had preached to
+you, and you vaunted the advantages of an alliance with Courtalin, but
+without conviction. I felt that you were at bottom on my side against
+mamma, and it was so easily explained--mamma could not understand me,
+whereas you! They think we little girls know nothing, and we know
+everything. I knew that mamma had made a worldly marriage, which had,
+however, turned out very well; and you, Aunt Louise, had married for
+love. You must have battled to get the husband you wished, and you had
+him, and you resolutely conquered your happiness. Yes, I knew all that;
+I dared even to allude to those things of the past, and those memories
+brought a smile to your lips and tears to your eyes. And to-day again,
+Aunt Louise, there it is, the smile, and there are the tears."
+
+Marceline interrupted her talk, affectionately threw herself on her Aunt
+Louise's neck, and kissed her with all her heart. She wiped away the
+tears with kisses, and only the smile remained. Yes, Aunt Louise
+remembered that she had had hard work to get as husband a certain
+handsome officer of the Royal Guard, who was there present at the scene,
+in an old decorated frame, standing up with his helmet on his head in a
+martial attitude, leaning on the hilt of his cavalry sabre.
+
+He, too, had been modern, that conqueror of the Trocadero, when he
+entered Madrid in 1822 on the staff of the Duke of Angouleme. And she,
+too, old Aunt Louise, had been modern, very modern, the day when, from
+a window of the Palace of the Tuileries, during a military parade, she
+had murmured this phrase in her mother's ear: "Mamma, there is the one I
+love."
+
+"Ah, how cowardly we are!" exclaimed Marceline, abruptly, changing her
+tone. "Yes, how cowardly we are to love them--those, those dreadful men,
+who know so little how to care for us. I say that for Gontran. What was
+he doing while I was telling you my sorrows, Aunt Louise? Quite calmly
+taking a trip around the world. But let him speak now, let him speak,
+especially as I cannot any more. In all my life I have never made so
+long a speech. Speak, sir; why were you going round the world?"
+
+"Because your mother, on the morning of the day before you departed for
+Aix-les-Bains, had had a very long conversation with me."
+
+"And she had said to you?"
+
+"She had said to me, 'Put a stop to this; marry her or go away, and let
+her not hear of you again till her marriage.' And as I had for some time
+been debating whether to take a little trip to Japan, I started for
+Japan."
+
+"He started for Japan! That goes without saying. You hear him, Aunt
+Louise; he admits that this time last year he preferred to expatriate
+himself rather than marry me. So there he was in America, in China, and
+in Japan. This lasted ten months; from time to time, humbly and timidly,
+I asked for news of him. He was very well; his last letter was from
+Shanghai, or Sidney, or Java. For me, not a word, not a
+remembrance--nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing!"
+
+"I had promised your mother. One day at Yokohama I had bought you a lot
+of fascinating little things. The box was done up and addressed to you
+when I remembered my promise. I sent all those Japaneseries to your
+mother, thinking that you would have your share of the spoil."
+
+"I had nothing at all. The arrival of the box was kept a secret. It
+would have been necessary to have pronounced your name before me, and
+mamma didn't wish that. On the other hand, there was always one name on
+her lips--Courtalin. Still Courtalin, and always Courtalin. He had all
+qualities, all virtues. Then he had just lost his aunt in Brittany, and
+he had inherited something. It was thought that he would only have a
+quarter of the property, and he had had three-quarters. Besides, it was
+a country-seat, and all around this seat, an admirable domain, sixteen
+or seventeen hundred hectares. I say it to my shame, Aunt Louise, to my
+great shame, the thought of giving in came to me; and then, to be
+absolutely frank, it rather pleased me to become a duchess; so mamma
+made me out a list of all possible husbands for me, and there was no
+other duke in the list but M. de Courtalin. There was, of course, the
+little Count of Limiers, who would be duke some day. But when? His
+father is forty-five and an athlete, and has an iron constitution. So I
+was obliged to admit it when I talked it over with mamma in the evening.
+To be duchess it was necessary to agree on M. de Courtalin. Mamma,
+however, was perfect, and delightfully gentle. She did not press me, nor
+treat me harshly, nor torment me; she waited. Only I knew she had said
+to Mme. de Nelly: 'It will be accomplished, my dear, before the 20th of
+June. It must be.' Papa was obliged to return to Aix for his complaint.
+The 20th of June was the date for his departure. I no longer said, 'No,
+no, no!' with that savage energy of the year before. You see, Gontran, I
+open my whole heart to you; you will have, I hope, soon the same courage
+and sincerity."
+
+"You may be sure of it."
+
+"I was waiting, however--I was waiting for his return. I wished to have
+with him a very serious conversation. It is quite true that I felt like
+fainting with fear at the mere thought of that explanation; but I was
+none the less resolved to speak, and I would speak. It seemed to me
+impossible that he had not thought of me sometimes out there in China
+and Cochin China. We had always loved each other (till the unhappy day
+on which I had become marriageable) with a tender and faithful
+affection! I knew that he would arrive in Paris during the night of the
+2d or 3d of April. Very certainly the day after he would come and see
+us. And so, in fact, towards two o'clock he came. Mamma hadn't finished
+dressing; I was alone. I ran to him. 'Ah, how glad I am to see you!' and
+I kissed him with effusion. Then he, very much moved, yes, very much
+moved, kissed me, and began to say to me such nice and pretty things
+that I felt my heart melting. Ah, if mamma hadn't come for five
+minutes--I would only have asked for five minutes!--and how quickly it
+would have turned into love-making our little explanation!"
+
+"Yes, that is true. The impulse that threw you into my arms was so
+sincere. Ah, very certainly it was that day, at that moment, that I
+began to love you. And then I looked at you. You were no longer the
+same. There was such great and happy change."
+
+"He does not dare say it, Aunt Louise, but I will say it: I had become
+fatter. Ah, when I think that I might be Duchess of Courtalin if I had
+remained thin. Those men! Those men! What wretches! But mamma came in,
+then papa, and then my brother George. No explanation possible! There
+they all were engaged in an odious conversation on the comparative
+merits of the English and French boats--the English ones are faster, the
+food on the French ones is better, etc. It was charming! At the end of
+an hour Gontran went away, but not without giving me a very tender and
+eloquent hand-shake. I could wish nothing more speaking than that
+hand-shake. But mamma, who was observing us attentively, had clearly
+seen our two hands, after having found a way to say very pleasant
+things, had had a great deal of trouble in separating. I expected, of
+course, to see him the next day. Did you come?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And the day after that?"
+
+"No, nor then."
+
+"At last, after three days, mamma took me to the races at the Bois de
+Boulogne. We arrived, and there at once, two steps from me, I saw him.
+But no, it was no longer he; frigid greeting, frigid good-day, frigid
+hand-shake, frigid words, and very few of them--scarcely a few
+sentences, awkward and embarrassed. Then he was lost in the crowd, and
+that was all. He did not appear again. I was dumfounded, overcome,
+crushed."
+
+"But it was your mother who--"
+
+"Yes, I know now; but I did not know that day. Yes, it was mamma. Oh,
+must I not love mamma to have forgiven her that?"
+
+"She had come to me very early in the morning the day after the very
+eloquent hand-shake and there, in tears--yes, literally in tears (she
+was sobbing)--she had appealed to my sense of honor, of delicacy, of
+integrity. 'You both had,' she said to me, 'yesterday, on seeing each
+other again after a long absence, a little spasm of emotion. That is all
+right; but you must stop there, and not prolong this foolishness,' And,
+just as I was going to protest: 'Oh yes; foolishness!' 'Remember,
+Marceline's happiness is at stake. You have no right to compromise her.
+You come back from China all at once, and your abrupt return will break
+off more sensible, more studied arrangements. M. de Courtalin is
+thirty-four; he is a man of great knowledge and wisdom. However, I know
+that that is only a secondary consideration; but love passes away, and
+money remains, and M. de Courtalin is richer, very much richer, than
+you. With him Marceline will have quite a grand position. Whereas you,
+you know how I love you, and I know how worthy you are of being loved.
+You are charming, charming, charming.' It was your mother who spoke
+thus."
+
+"I know; I know."
+
+"'Yes, charming; but when I have said that, I have said all. So I will
+ask you this question, and I expect from you a faithful answer: Have you
+those solid qualities which alone can make a husband, a true husband?
+Marceline is a little light-headed, a little frivolous, a little
+coquettish.' It is always your mother who is speaking."
+
+"I know; I know."
+
+"I was embarrassed, Aunt Louise; it seemed to me that that speech was
+not without reason. I hadn't a very high idea of myself as a husband,
+and even now I ask myself--"
+
+"Don't ask yourself anything. Be an affectionate husband, and you will
+have all the virtues. Nothing simpler, as you see. You can go on."
+
+"Well, your mother was so skilfully persuasive that the day after, at
+the races, I gave that cold greeting."
+
+"And so I, that same day, on entering the house, threw myself into
+mamma's arms, exclaiming, 'Yes, I am willing to marry M. de Courtalin!'
+Ah, how many times between that day and the 16th of May I threw myself
+into mamma's arms! I did nothing else. Mamma got used to it, and never
+saw me appear without mechanically opening her arms. 'Yes, I am
+willing,' and sometimes, 'No, I am not.' But the 'No, I am nots' became
+fewer and fewer. M. de Courtalin, besides, was perfect; a model of tact,
+of gentleness, and of resignation. He waited, always in his black
+frock-coat, always buttoned, with an inexhaustible patience. Mamma was,
+in short, pledged to Mme. de Courtalin, and I felt the circle tighten
+round me. The papers announced, in a covert but transparent way, that
+there was question of an alliance between two families of the Faubourg
+Saint-Germain, and they made it pretty clear that it concerned two
+important families. I already received vague congratulations, and I
+dared respond only by vague denials. The morning of the famous 17th of
+May mamma had said to me, 'Come, my child, don't make a martyr of that
+poor boy. Since it is to be "yes," for it will be "yes," you know
+yourself, say "yes" at once.' I had obtained only a miserable respite of
+twenty-four hours; and things were thus when, still on the 17th of May,
+mamma and I arrived, a little late (after eleven), at Mme. de
+Vernieux's, who was giving a ball, a very large ball. I went in, and I
+had at once the feeling that I must be looking extremely well that
+evening. They formed into a little hedge along my way, and I heard a
+little 'oh!' of surprise, and a big 'ah!' of admiration which went
+straight to my heart. I had had already in society certain successes,
+but never any as marked as that one. M. de Courtalin came towards me. He
+wished to engage me for all the waltzes, for all the quadrilles, for the
+entire evening, for the night, for life. I answered him: 'Later,
+presently, we will see. I feel a little tired.' The fact was I hadn't
+the heart to dance. Mamma and I took our seats. A waltz began. Mamma
+scolded softly: 'Dance with him, my child, I beg.' I didn't listen to
+her. I was abstractedly looking around the room when suddenly I saw in a
+corner two eyes fixed, fastened, pinioned on me--two eyes that I well
+knew, but that I had some difficulty in recognizing, for they were
+tremendously enlarged by a sort of stupor."
+
+"Say by overwhelming admiration."
+
+"As you please But it is here, Aunt Louise, that my interrogation will
+begin. Why and how were you there? Where had you dined, Gontran?"
+
+"At the club."
+
+"And what did you intend to do after dinner? Come to Mme. de
+Vernieux's?"
+
+"No; Robert d'Aigremont and I had meant to go to the Bouffes-Parisiens."
+
+"You did not go? Why?"
+
+"We had telephoned from the club to have a box; all were sold--"
+
+"So you said to Robert--"
+
+"I said to Robert, 'Let's play bezique;' and I was beaten by one of
+those streaks of bad luck--34,000 points in a dozen games--so thoroughly
+that towards half-past ten I thought that bezique had lasted long
+enough--"
+
+"And so--"
+
+"And so--"
+
+"So Robert wished to bring you to Mme. de Vernieux's. And you didn't
+want to go! If you hadn't come, however, and if there had been a box at
+the Bouffes-Parisiens, or if you had won at bezique, my marriage with M.
+de Courtalin would have been publicly announced the next day."
+
+"Yes, but I came; and there I was in the corner looking at you, looking
+at you, looking at you. It was you, and yet not you--"
+
+"I, immediately on seeing the way you were looking at me, understood
+that something extraordinary was going to happen. Your eyes shone,
+burned, blazed!"
+
+"Because I had discovered that you were simply the prettiest woman of
+the ball, where all the prettiest women of Paris were. Yes, the
+prettiest, and such shoulders, such shoulders!"
+
+"Ripe! in fact, I was ripe!"
+
+"My head was turned at once. I saw Courtalin manoeuvring and trying to
+get near you. I understood that there was not a moment to be lost. To
+reach there ahead of Courtalin I threw myself intrepidly into the midst
+of the room, among the waltzers, pushing and being pushed. I forged a
+passage and tore into rags one of the lace flounces of Mme. de
+Lornans--she hasn't yet forgiven me. But I got there--I got there before
+Courtalin, and threw myself on you, and took you round your waist (I can
+still hear your little cry), and I dragged you off."
+
+"Mamma had scarcely time to scream 'Marceline, Marceline!' when I was
+there no more. He had lifted me off, and carried me away; and we were
+waltzing wildly, furiously!--oh, what a waltz!--and he was saying to me:
+'I love you! I adore you! You are grace and beauty itself! There is only
+one pretty woman here--you; and it is I who will be your husband. I, do
+you hear? I, and not another!' And I, quite suffocated with surprise,
+pleasure, and emotion, allowed myself to be nearly carried by him, but I
+kept begging him to speak lower. 'Anything you wish; yes, I will be your
+wife; but take care--you will be heard--you will be heard.'"
+
+"That is what I wished; and I continued, 'I love you! I adore you!'"
+
+"Then I, absolutely breathless: 'Not so fast. I pray, not so fast; I
+shall fall. I assure you everything is going round, everything is going
+round. Let us stop.' 'No, no; don't let's stop. Keep on still. If we
+stop your mother will separate us, and I have still so many things to
+say to you--so many things, so many things. Swear to me that you will be
+my wife.' 'Yes, I swear it; but enough, enough--' I was smothering. He
+heard nothing. He was going, going like a madman. We had become a
+hurricane, a whirlwind, a cyclone. We caused surprise and fright. No one
+danced any more, but looked at us. And he held me so close, and his face
+was so near my face, his lips so near my lips, that all at once I felt
+myself giving way. I slipped, and let myself into his arms. A cloud
+passed before my eyes; I could not speak nor think; then blankness.
+Everything had disappeared before me in a vertigo not too disagreeable,
+I must say. I had fainted, absolutely fainted."
+
+"The next day our marriage was decided, perfectly decided. Our waltz had
+caused scandal. That was just what I wanted."
+
+"There, Aunt Louise, is the history of our marriage, and I want to-day
+to draw this conclusion: it is that I was the first to begin to love,
+and I shall have, consequently, one day, when it pleases me, the right
+to stop the first."
+
+"Ah, no, indeed; tell her, Aunt Louise, that she will never have that
+right--"
+
+A new quarrel threatened to break out.
+
+"This, my children," said the old aunt, "is all I have to say: she did,
+in truth, start the first to love; but it seems to me, Gontran, that you
+started all at once at such a great pace that you must have caught up
+with her."
+
+"Passed her, Aunt Louise."
+
+"Oh no!" exclaimed Marceline.
+
+"Oh yes--"
+
+"Oh no--"
+
+"Well," continued Aunt Louise, "try never to have any other quarrels
+than that one. Try to walk always in life step by step, side by side,
+and heart to heart. I have seen many inventions since I was born, and
+the world is no longer what it was then. But there is one thing to which
+inventions have made no difference, and never will. That thing you have;
+keep it. It is love! Love each other, children, as strongly and as long
+as possible."
+
+And Aunt Louise wept another tear, and smiled on looking at the portrait
+of the officer of the Royal Guard.
+
+
+
+
+THE DANCING-MASTER
+
+
+
+I was dining at the house of some friends, and in the course of the
+evening the hostess said to me:
+
+"Do you often go to the opera?"
+
+"Yes, very often."
+
+"And do you go behind the scenes?"
+
+"Yes, I go behind."
+
+"Then you can do me a favor. In the ballet department there's an old man
+called Morin, who is perfectly respectable, it seems. He is the little
+B----'s dancing-master. He gives excellent lessons. I should like to
+have him for my little girls, so ask him if he could come twice a week."
+
+I willingly undertook the delicate mission.
+
+The next day, February 17, 1881, about ten in the evening, I arrived at
+the opera, and went behind the scenes to search for Monsieur Morin. "The
+Prophet" was being played, and the third act had just begun. On the
+stage the Anabaptists were singing forcibly:
+
+    "Du sang! que Judas succombe!
+    Du sang! Dansons sur leur tombe!
+    Du sang! Voila l'hecatombe
+    Que Dieu nous demande encor!"
+
+Axes were raised over the heads of a crowd of hapless prisoners, who
+were barons, bishops, monks, and grand ladies. In the wings, balanced on
+their skates, all the ballet-girls were waiting the right moment to
+
+    "Effleurer la glace
+    Sans laisser de trace."
+
+I respectfully begged one of the young Westphalian peasant-girls to
+point out to me the man named Morin.
+
+"Morin," she replied, "is not one of the skaters. Look, he is on the
+stage. That's he over there, the one who is doing the bishop; that
+bishop, you see, who is being pushed and pulled. Wait, he will be off
+directly."
+
+One of the Anabaptist leaders intervened, however, declaring that the
+nobles and priests who could pay ransom should be spared. Morin escaped
+with his life, and I had the honor of being presented to him by the
+little Westphalian peasant-girl.
+
+He had quite a venerable air, with his long gray beard and his fine
+purple robe with his large pastoral cross. While he was arranging
+somewhat his costume, which had been so roughly pulled by those violent
+Anabaptists, I asked him if he would be willing to give lessons to two
+young girls of good family.
+
+The pious bishop accepted with alacrity. His price was ten francs an
+hour.
+
+The little skaters had gone on the stage, and were performing wonderful
+feats. The wings had suddenly become calm and silent. We gave ourselves
+up, his Reverence and myself, to a little friendly chat.
+
+"Yes, sir," his Highness said to me, "I give dancing lessons. I have
+many patrons among the aristocracy and the bankers. I have no reason to
+complain; and yet one must admit things were better once, much better.
+Dancing is going out, sir, dancing is going out."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"It is as I have the honor of telling you. Women still learn to dance;
+but no longer the young men, sir, no longer. Baccarat, races, and the
+minor theatres--that's what they enjoy. It's a little the fault of the
+Government."
+
+"How can that be?"
+
+"M. Jules Ferry has recently rearranged the curriculum of the
+University. He has made certain studies obligatory--modern languages,
+for instance. I don't blame him for that; the study of modern languages
+has great advantages. But dancing, sir; nothing has been done for
+dancing, and it is dancing which ought, after all, to have been made
+obligatory. There ought to be a dancing-master in every high-school, and
+a normal-school for dancing with examinations and competitions in
+dancing. Dancing ought to be studied the same as Latin or Greek.
+Dancing, too, is a language, and a language that every well-bred man
+ought to be able to speak. Well, do you know what happens nowadays?
+Sometimes it happens, sir, that diplomatic posts are given to people who
+get confused in the figures of a quadrille, and who are incapable of
+waltzing for two minutes. They know very well that their education is
+incomplete. Quite lately a young man came to me--a young man of great
+merit, it seems, except in regard to dancing. He had just been attached
+to a great embassy. He had never danced in his life--never. Do you
+understand? Never! It is scarcely to be credited, and yet it is true.
+That's the way M. Barthelemy-Saint-Hilaire picks them out. Oh, this
+beard smothers me! Will you permit me?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+He took off his gray beard, and thus looked much less venerable. He then
+continued:
+
+"I said to this young man: 'We will try, but it will be hard work. One
+oughtn't to begin dancing at twenty-eight.' I limbered him up as best I
+could. I had only two weeks to do it in. I begged him to put off his
+departure, to obtain a reprieve of three or four months--I could have
+made something of him. He would not. He went without knowing anything. I
+often think of him. He will represent us out there; he will represent us
+very badly; he will not be an honor to his country. Please to remember
+that he may be called upon to take part in some official quadrille--to
+dance, for instance, with an archduchess. Well, if he slips up in it,
+with his archduchess, it will be charming! All this is very sad indeed.
+I am a Republican, sir, an old Republican, and it is painful to think
+that the republic is represented by diplomats who cannot distinguish
+between a change of foot and a simple step. Do you know what is said in
+foreign courts? 'Why, who are those savages that France sends us?' Yes,
+that's what they say. The diplomatic corps in the time of the Empire was
+not brilliant. Oh no; those gentlemen did many foolish things. Oh yes;
+but still they knew how to dance!"
+
+And the good old bishop, seeing that I listened with much interest, went
+on with his brilliant improvisation.
+
+"Dancing, sir, is not merely a pleasure, an amusement; no, it is of
+great social interest. Why, the question of marriage is closely
+connected with dancing. At present, in France, marriage is languishing.
+That is proved by statistics. Well, I am convinced that if there are
+fewer marriages it is because there is less dancing. Consider this first
+of all, that to know how to dance well, very well, is, for an agreeable
+young man who is without fortune, a great advantage in society. One of
+my pupils, sir, has recently married extremely well. He was a very
+ordinary kind of youth, who had tried everything and had succeeded in
+nothing; but he was a first-rate waltzer, and he danced away with two
+millions."
+
+"Two millions!"
+
+"Yes, two millions, and they were two cash millions; she was an orphan,
+no father nor mother--all that can be dreamed of. He clasped that young
+lady (she was very plump). Well, in his arms, she felt herself light as
+a feather. She thought of but one thing--waltzing with him. She was as
+one wild. He gave her a new sensation, and what is it women desire above
+all things? To have new sensations, in short, she refused marquises,
+counts, and millionaires. She wanted him only. She got him, and he was
+penniless, and his name is Durand. Ah, do not repeat his name; I
+oughtn't to have told you."
+
+"Don't be afraid."
+
+"After all, you can repeat it; it doesn't matter, it's such a common
+name. There is public policy in love-matches which cause a rich girl to
+marry a poor man, or a poor girl to marry a rich man. It sets money
+circulating, it prevents its remaining in the same place, it keeps
+capital moving. Well, three-fourths of the love-matches were formerly
+made by the dance. Now there are short interviews in parlors, in
+galleries, and at the Opera Comique. They chat; that's all right, but
+chatting is not sufficient. Wit is something, but not everything. A
+waltz furnishes much knowledge that conversation cannot. Dress-makers
+nowadays are so wily. They know how to bring out this point and hide
+that; they remodel bad figures. They give plumpness and roundness to the
+thin; they make hips, shoulders--everything, in fact. One doesn't know
+what to expect, science has made such advances. The eye may be deceived,
+but the hand of an experienced dancer never! A waltzer with tact knows
+how to find out the exact truth about things."
+
+"Oh! oh!"
+
+"Remaining all the time, sir, perfectly respectful and perfectly
+reserved. Good heavens! look at myself, for instance. It is to waltzing
+that I owe my happiness. Mme. Morin was not then Mme. Morin. I kept my
+eye on her, but I hesitated. She appeared thin, and--well, I'll admit
+that to marry a thin woman didn't suit my ideas. You know every one has
+his ideals. So, sir, I was still hesitating, when one evening, at the
+wedding of one of my friends, a very capable young man, a deputy manager
+of a department at the Ministry of Religion, they started a little
+dance. For the first waltz I asked the one who was to be my companion
+through life. Immediately I felt in my hand a delightful figure--one of
+those full but supple figures; and while waltzing, quite enchanted, I
+was saying to myself, 'She isn't really thin! she isn't really thin!' I
+took her back to her place after the waltz, and went at once to her
+mother to ask for her hand, which was granted me. For fourteen years I
+have been the happiest of men, and perhaps I shouldn't have made that
+marriage if I hadn't known how to waltz. You see, sir, the results of a
+waltz?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"That is not all, sir. Thanks to dancing, one discovers not only the
+agreeable points of a person, the fulness of her figure, the
+lithesomeness of her waist, but also, in a briskly led waltz, a little
+examination of the health and constitution of a woman can be had. I
+remember one evening twelve or so years ago--in the Rue Le Peletier, in
+the old Opera-house, which has burned down--I was on the stage awaiting
+my cue for the dance in 'William Tell,' you know, in the third act. Two
+subscribers were talking quite close to me, in the wings. One of the
+gentlemen was an old pupil of mine. I have had so many pupils! Without
+wishing to, I heard scraps of the conversation, and these two sentences
+struck my ear: 'Well, have you decided?' 'Oh,' replied my pupil, 'I find
+her very charming, but I have heard that she is weak in the lungs.'
+Then, sir, I did a very unusual thing for me. I begged pardon for having
+heard unintentionally, and I said to my old pupil: 'I think I have
+guessed that a marriage is in question. Will you authorize me to give
+you a piece of advice--advice drawn from the practice of my profession?
+Do they allow this young lady to waltz?' You know there are mothers who
+do not permit--"
+
+"I know, I know."
+
+
+
+We had arrived at this point in that interesting conversation when the
+ballet ended. The bishop and myself were assailed by an actual whirlwind
+of skaters, and my little Westphalian peasant-girl found me where she
+had left me.
+
+"I declare!" she said to me, "so you come to confess at the opera? Give
+him absolution, Morin, and give it to me, too. Now then, come along to
+the greenroom."
+
+She took my arm, and we went off together, while the excellent Morin,
+with gravity and dignity beneath his sacred ornaments, withstood the
+shock of this avalanche of dancers.
+
+
+
+
+THE CIRCUS CHARGER
+
+
+After George had related how he had been married off at twenty-two by
+his aunt, the Baroness de Stilb, Paul said: "_I_ was married off by a
+circus charger. I was very nearly forty years of age, and I felt so
+peacefully settled in my little bachelor habits that, in the best faith
+in the world, on all occasions, I swore by the gods never to run the
+great risk of marriage; but I reckoned without the circus charger.
+
+"It was in the last days of September, 1864. I had just arrived from
+Baden-Baden, and my intention was to spend only twenty-four hours in
+Paris. I had invited four or five of my friends--Callieres, Bernheim,
+Frondeville, and Valreas--to my place in Poitou for the shooting season.
+They were to come in the first part of October, and it needed a week to
+put all in order at Roche-Targe. A letter from my overseer awaited me in
+Paris, and the letter brought disastrous news; the dogs were well, but
+out of the dozen hunting horses that I had there, five, during my
+sojourn at Baden, had fallen sick or lame, and I found myself
+absolutely forced to get new horses.
+
+"I made a tour of the Champs-Elysees sellers, who showed me as hunters a
+fine collection of broken--down skeletons. Average price, three thousand
+francs. Roulette had treated me badly of late, and I was neither in the
+humor, nor had I the funds, to spend in that way seven or eight hundred
+louis in a morning.
+
+"It was a Wednesday, and Cheri was holding his first autumn sale. I went
+to the Rue de Ponthieu during the day; and there out of the lot, on
+chance, without inquiry, blindly, by good-luck, and from the mere
+declarations of the catalogue--'_Excellent hunter, good jumper, has
+hunted with lady rider_,' etc.--I bought eight horses, which only cost
+me five thousand francs. Out of eight, I said to myself, there will
+always be four or five who will go, and who will be good enough to serve
+as remounts.
+
+"Among the horses there was one that I had bought, I must confess,
+particularly on account of his coat, which was beautiful. The catalogue
+did not attribute to him any special qualifications for hunting, but
+limited itself to '_Brutus, riding horse_.' He was a large dapple-gray
+horse, but never, I think, have I seen gray better dappled; the white
+coat was strewn almost regularly with beautiful black spots, which were
+well distributed and well marked.
+
+"I left town the next day for Roche-Targe, and the following day, early,
+they announced to me that the horses had arrived. I at once went down to
+see them, and my first glance was at Brutus. He had been trotting in my
+head for forty-eight hours, that devil of a gray horse, and I had a
+singular desire to know what he was and of what he was capable.
+
+"I had him taken out of the stable first. A groom led him to me with a
+strap. The horse had long teeth, hollows in the chest, lumpy
+fetlocks--in short, all the signs of respectable age; but he had
+powerful shoulders, a large breast, a neck which was both strong and
+supple, head well held, tail well placed, and an irreproachable back. It
+wasn't, however, all this that attracted most my attention. What I
+admired above all was the air with which Brutus looked at me, and with
+what an attentive, intelligent, and curious eye he followed my movements
+and gestures. Even my words seemed to interest him singularly; he
+inclined his head to my side as if to hear me, and, as soon as I had
+finished speaking, he neighed joyously in answer.
+
+"They showed me successively the seven other horses; I examined them
+rapidly and absent-mindedly. They were horses like all other horses.
+Brutus certainly had something in particular, and I was anxious to make
+in his company a short jaunt in the country. He allowed himself to be
+saddled, bridled, and mounted like a horse who knows his business, and
+so we both started in the quietest way in the world.
+
+"I had at first ridden him with the snaffle, and Brutus had gone off at
+a long easy gait, with rather a stiff neck and projected head; but as
+soon as I let him feel the curb, he changed with extraordinary rapidity
+and suppleness, drawing his head back to his breast, and champing his
+bit noisily; then at the same time he took a short gait, which was light
+and even, lifting well his feet and striking the sod with the regularity
+of a pendulum.
+
+"Cheri's catalogue had not lied; the horse was a good rider--too good a
+rider, in fact. I made him trot, then gallop; the horse at the first
+suggestion gave me an excellent little trot and an excellent little
+gallop, but always plunging to the ground and pulling my arms when I
+tried to lift his head. When I wished to quicken his gait, the horse
+broke at once. He began to rack in great style, trotting with the
+fore-feet and galloping with the hind ones. 'Well,' I said to myself, 'I
+see now; I've bought some old horse of the Saumur or Saint-Cyr school,
+and it's not on this beast that I'll hunt in eight days.'
+
+"I was about to turn and go home, quite edified as to Brutus's
+qualities, when the report of a gun was heard twenty yards away in the
+woods. It was one of my keepers who was shooting a rabbit, and who
+received some time after a handsome present from my wife for that shot.
+
+"I was then in the centre of the cross-roads, which formed a perfect
+circle of five or six yards in radius; six long green alleys came to an
+end at this spot. On hearing the report, Brutus had stopped short,
+planted himself on his four legs, with ears erect and head raised. I was
+surprised to find the horse so impressionable. I should have thought
+that after the brilliant education that very certainly he had received
+in his youth, Brutus must be an artillery horse, used to gun and cannon.
+I drew in my legs to urge the horse on, but Brutus didn't move; I
+spurred him sharply twice, but Brutus didn't move; I whipped him
+soundly, but Brutus didn't move. I tried to back the horse, to push him
+to the right, to the left, but I couldn't move him in the slightest
+degree. Brutus seemed glued to the ground, and yet--don't you dare to
+laugh, and be assured that my tale is absolutely true--each time that I
+attempted to put the horse in motion he turned his head and looked at
+me with an expression which could clearly be read as impatience and
+surprise; then he would again become as immovable as a statue. There was
+evidently some misunderstanding between the horse and myself. I saw that
+in his eyes, and Brutus said to me, with all the clearness he could put
+in his expression, 'I, as a horse, am doing my duty, and it's you, as a
+rider, who are not doing yours!'
+
+"I was more puzzled than embarrassed. 'What extraordinary kind of a
+horse have I bought at Cheri's,' I said to myself, 'and why does he look
+at me so queerly?' I was, however, going to take strong measures--that
+is to say, I was preparing to whip him smartly--when another report was
+heard.
+
+"Then the horse gave a jump. I thought I had the best of it, and,
+profiting by his bound, I tried to carry him forward with hand and knee.
+But no; he stopped short after his bound, and again planted himself on
+the ground more energetically and more resolutely than the first time.
+Ah, then I grew angry, and my whip came into play; I grasped it firmly
+and began to strike the horse with all my strength to the right and
+left. But Brutus, he too lost patience, and, instead of the cold and
+immovable opposition that at first he had shown, I met with furious
+retaliations, strange springs, bucking, extraordinary rearing,
+fantastic whirling; and in the midst of this battle, while the
+infatuated horse bounded and reared, while I, exasperated, struck with
+vigor the leather pommel with my broken whip, Brutus still found time to
+give me glances not only of surprise and impatience, but also of anger
+and indignation. While I was asking the horse for the obedience which he
+refused me, it is certain that he expected from me something that I was
+not doing.
+
+"How did it end? To my shame, to my great shame, I was pitifully
+unhorsed by an incomparable feat! Brutus understood, I think, that he
+would not get the better of me by violence, and judged it necessary to
+try cunning; after a pause which was most certainly a moment of
+reflection, the horse rose up, head down, upright on his fore-feet, with
+the skill, the calm, and the perfect equilibrium of a clown who walks on
+his hands. Thus I tumbled into the sand, which, by good-luck, was thick
+in that spot.
+
+"I tried to get up. I screamed and fell back ridiculously, flat on my
+stomach, on my nose. At the slightest movement I felt as though a knife
+ran through my left leg. It's a slight matter, however--the rupture of a
+slender sinew; but though slight, the injury was none the less painful.
+I succeeded, nevertheless, in turning over and sitting up; but just
+when, while rubbing my eyes, filled with sand, I was beginning to ask
+myself what in the midst of this tumult had become of my miserable
+dapple-gray, I saw over my head a large horse's hoof descending. Then
+this large hoof pressed, with a certain gentleness, however, on my
+chest, and pushed me delicately back on the ground, on my back this
+time.
+
+"I was greatly discouraged; and feeling incapable of another effort, I
+remained in that position, continuing to ask myself what sort of a horse
+I had bought at Cheri's, closing my eyes, and awaiting death.
+
+"Suddenly I heard a curious trampling around me; a quantity of little
+hard things struck me on the face. I opened my eyes, and perceived
+Brutus, who, with his fore-feet and hind-legs, was trying with
+incredible activity and prodigious skill to bury me in the sand. He was
+doing his best, poor beast, and from time to time he stopped to gaze at
+his work; then, raising his head, he neighed and began his work again.
+That lasted for a good three or four minutes, after which Brutus,
+judging me doubtless sufficiently interred, placed himself very
+respectfully on his knees before my tomb--on his knees, literally on his
+knees! He was saying, I suppose, a little prayer. I looked at him. It
+interested me extremely.
+
+"His prayer finished, Brutus made a slight bow, went off a few steps,
+stopped, then, beginning to gallop, made at least twenty times the
+circuit of the open space in the middle of which he had buried me.
+Brutus galloped very well, with even stride, head well held, on the
+right foot, making around me a perfect circle. I followed him with my
+eyes, but it made me uneasy to see him go round and round and round. I
+had the strength to cry 'Stop! stop!' The horse stopped and seemed
+embarrassed, without doubt asking himself what there was still to be
+done; but he perceived my hat, which in my fall had got separated from
+me, and at once made a new resolution: he walked straight to the hat,
+seized it in his teeth, and galloped off, this time by one of the six
+alleys that led from my tomb.
+
+"Brutus got farther and farther away, and disappeared; I remained alone.
+I was puzzled, positively puzzled. I shook off the little coating of
+dust which covered me, and without getting up, by the help of my two
+arms and right leg--to move my left leg was not to be thought of--I
+succeeded in dragging myself to a little grassy slope on the edge of one
+of the alleys. Once there, I could sit down, after a fashion, and I
+began to shout with all the strength of my lungs, 'Hi, there! hi! hi,
+there!' No answer. The woods were absolutely deserted and still. The
+only thing to be done was to wait till some one passed by to aid me.
+
+"For half an hour I had been in that hateful position when I perceived
+in the distance, at the very end of the same alley by which he had gone
+off, Brutus coming back, with the same long gallop he had used in going.
+A great cloud of dust accompanied the horse. Little by little, in that
+cloud, I perceived a tiny carriage--a pony-carriage; then in that little
+pony-carriage a woman, who drove herself, and behind the woman a small
+groom.
+
+"A few moments later Brutus, covered with foam, stopped before me, let
+my hat drop at my feet and neighed, as though to say, 'I've done my
+duty; here is help.' But I no longer bothered myself about Brutus and
+the explanations that he made me. My only thoughts were for the fairy
+who was to relieve me, and who, after lightly jumping from her little
+carriage, was coming quickly towards me. Besides, she, too, was
+examining me curiously, and all at once we both exclaimed, at the same
+time:
+
+"'Mme. de Noriolis!'
+
+"'M. de La Roche-Targe!'
+
+"A little while ago George spoke to us of his aunt, and mentioned how
+she had married him quite young, at one stroke, without giving him time
+to reflect or breathe. I, too, have an aunt, and between us for a number
+of years there has been a perpetual battle. 'Marry.' 'I don't want to
+marry.' 'Do you want young girls? There is Mademoiselle A, Mademoiselle
+B, Mademoiselle C.' 'I don't want to marry.' 'Do you want widows? There
+is Madame D, Madame E, Madame F.' 'I don't want to marry.'
+
+"Mme. de Noriolis figured always in the first rank in the series of
+widows, and I noticed that my aunt put stress, with evident favoritism,
+on all the good points and advantages that I should find in that
+marriage. She didn't have to tell me that Mme. de Noriolis was very
+pretty--any one could see that; or that she was very rich--I knew it
+already. But she explained to me that M. de Noriolis was an idiot, who
+had had the merit of making his wife perfectly miserable, and that thus
+it would be very easy for the second husband to make himself very much
+loved.
+
+"Then, when she had discoursed at length on the virtues, graces, and
+merits of Mme. de Noriolis, my aunt, who is clever and knows my
+weakness, pulled out of her desk a topographical map, and spread it out
+with care on the table.
+
+"It was the map of the district of Chatellerault, a very correct and
+minute map, that my aunt had gone herself to the military station to
+buy, with the view of convincing me that I ought to marry Mme. de
+Noriolis. The places of Noriolis and of La Roche-Targe were scarcely
+three kilometers apart in that map. My aunt, with her own hands, had
+drawn a line of red ink, and slily united the two places, and she forced
+me to look at her little red line, saying to me, 'Two thousand acres
+without a break, when the places of Noriolis and La Roche-Targe are
+united; what a chance for a hunter!'
+
+"I closed my eyes, so strong was the temptation, and repeated my
+refrain, 'I don't want to marry.' But I was afraid, seriously afraid;
+and when I met Mme. de Noriolis I always saw her surrounded, as by a
+halo, by the little red line of my aunt, and I said to myself: 'A
+charming, and clever, and sensible woman, whose first husband was an
+idiot, and this and that, and two thousand acres without a break. Run
+away, wretch, run away, since you don't wish to marry.'
+
+"And I ran away! But this time by what means could I run away? I was
+there, miserable, in the grass, covered with sand, with my hair in
+disorder, my clothes in rags, and my unfortunate leg stiff. And Mme. de
+Noriolis came nearer, looking spick and span--always in the halo of the
+little red line--and said to me:
+
+"'You, M. de La Roche-Targe, is it you? What are you doing there? What
+has happened to you?'
+
+"I frankly confessed my fall.
+
+"'At least you are not wounded?'
+
+"'No, no, I'm not wounded. I've something the matter with that leg; but
+it's nothing serious, I know.'
+
+"'And what horse played you that trick?'
+
+"'Why, this one.'
+
+"And I pointed out Brutus to Mme. de Noriolis. Brutus was there, quite
+near us, untied, peacefully crunching little tufts of broom.
+
+"'What, that one, that brave horse? Oh, he has well made up for his
+faults, I assure you. I will tell you about it, but later on. You must
+first get home, and at once.'
+
+"'I can't walk a step.'
+
+"'But I am going to take you back myself, at the risk of compromising
+you.'
+
+"And she called Bob, her little groom, and taking me gently by the arm,
+while Bob took me by the other, she made me get into her carriage; five
+minutes later we were bowling off, both of us, in the direction of La
+Roche-Targe: she, holding the reins and driving the pony with a light
+hand; I, looking at her, feeling troubled, confused, embarrassed,
+ridiculous, and stupid. We were alone in the carriage. Bob was
+commissioned to bring Brutus, who, very docile, had allowed himself to
+be taken.
+
+"'Lie down,' Mme. de Noriolis said to me; 'keep your leg straight; I am
+going to drive you slowly so as to avoid bumps.'
+
+"In short, she made a lot of little amiable and pleasant remarks; then,
+when she saw me well settled, she said:
+
+"'Tell me how you came to fall, and then I will tell you how I happened
+to come to your aid. It seems to me this horse story must be queer.'
+
+"I began my tale; but as soon as I spoke of Brutus's efforts to unhorse
+me, and the two reports of the gun, she exclaimed:
+
+"'I understand, I understand. You have bought a circus charger.'
+
+"'A circus charger!'
+
+"'Why, yes; that's it, and that explains everything. You have seen
+twenty times at the Circus of the Empress the performance of the circus
+charger--the light-cavalryman who enters the arena on a gray horse, then
+the Arabs come and shoot at the cavalryman, who is wounded and falls;
+and as you didn't fall, the horse, indignant and not understanding how
+you could so far forget your part, threw you on the ground. And when
+you were on the ground, what did the horse do?'
+
+"I related Brutus's little work in burying me suitably.
+
+"'The circus charger,' she continued; 'still the circus charger. He sees
+his master wounded, the Arabs could come back and finish him, and so
+what does the horse do? He buries the cavalryman. Then goes off
+galloping, didn't he?'
+
+"'Yes, on a hard gallop,'
+
+"'Carrying the flag, which is not to fall into the hands of the Arabs.'
+
+"'It's my hat that he took.'
+
+"'He took what he could. And where does the circus charger gallop to?'
+
+"'Ah! I know, I know,' I exclaimed, in my turn, 'he goes to get the
+sutler.'
+
+"'Precisely. He goes to get the sutler; and the sutler to-day, if you
+please, is I, Countess of Noriolis. Your big gray horse galloped into my
+grounds. I was standing on the porch, putting on my gloves and ready to
+step into my carriage, when the stablemen came running, upon seeing that
+horse arrive saddled and bridled, without a rider, and a hat in his
+mouth. They tried to catch him, but he shunned them and escaped, and
+came straight to the porch, falling on his knees before me. The men
+approached, and once more tried to catch him; but he got up, galloped
+away, stopped by the gate of the grounds, turned around, and looked at
+me. He called to me--I assure you, he called to me. I told the men not
+to bother about the horse any more. Then I jumped into my carriage and
+started; the horse rushed into the woods; post-haste I followed him by
+paths that were not always intended for carriages; but still I followed
+him, and I arrived and found you.'
+
+"At the moment Mme. de Noriolis was speaking those last words the
+carriage received a tremendous shock from behind; then we saw in the air
+Brutus's head, which was held there upright as though by a miracle. For
+it was again Brutus. Mounted by Bob, he had followed the carriage for
+several minutes, and seeing that the back seat of the little
+pony-carriage was unoccupied, he had, like a true artist, cleverly
+seized the moment to give us a new proof of his talent in executing the
+most brilliant of his former performances. In one jump he had placed his
+fore-feet on the carriage, then, that done, he quietly continued
+trotting on his two hind-legs. Bob, distracted, with his body thrown
+over and his head thrown back, was making vain attempts to put the horse
+back on his four legs.
+
+"As to Mme. de Noriolis, she was so well frightened, that, letting the
+reins drop from her hands, she had simply thrown herself in my arms. Her
+adorable little head had rolled hap-hazard on my shoulder, and my lips
+just touched her hair. With my left hand I tried to recover the reins,
+with my right I supported Mme. de Noriolis; my leg hurt me frightfully,
+and I was seized with a queer feeling of confusion.
+
+"It was thus that Mme. de Noriolis made her first entry into La
+Roche-Targe.
+
+"When she returned there, one evening at midnight, six weeks later,
+having during the day become Mme. de La Roche-Targe, she said:
+
+"'What is life, after all? Nothing like this would have happened if you
+hadn't bought the circus charger.'"
+
+
+
+
+BLACKY
+
+
+"Don't be alarmed, sir; you won't miss the train. For the last fifteen
+years I've been carrying travellers to the station, and I've never yet
+missed a train! Think of that, sir; never!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Oh, don't look at your watch. There is one thing you don't know and
+that you must learn, and that your watch will never be able to tell
+you--that is, that the train is always a quarter of an hour late. Such a
+thing as the train's being on time has never happened."
+
+Such a thing happened that day, however, for the train was on time, and
+so I missed it. My driver was furious.
+
+"You should warn us," he said to the station-master, "if your trains are
+suddenly going to start at the right hour. Who ever saw the like!"
+
+And he turned to one or two of the porters for witnesses.
+
+"Did you ever see such a thing? I don't wish to appear blamable before
+the gentleman. A train on time--on time! You know it's the first time
+it has ever happened."
+
+There was a general cry of "Yes, indeed; usually there's some delay."
+But, for all that, I had none the less three long hours to pass in a
+very desolate village (in the Canton of Vaud) shut in by two sad-looking
+mountains, which had their little topknots covered with snow.
+
+But how kill three hours? In my turn I now asked advice, and again there
+was a chorus of "Go see the Caldron; that's the only sight to be seen in
+this part of the country." "And where is this Caldron?" On the mountain,
+to the right, half way up; but the path was a little complicated, and I
+was advised to take a guide; and there, over there in that white cottage
+with green blinds, I would find the best guide there was about here, an
+honest man--Old Simon.
+
+So I went and knocked at the door of the little house.
+
+An old woman opened it.
+
+"Simon, the guide?"
+
+"Yes, right here; but--if it's to go to the Caldron--"
+
+"It is to go to the Caldron."
+
+"Well, Simon hasn't been very well since morning; he hasn't much
+strength, and he can't go out. But don't worry yourself; there is some
+one who can replace him--there is Blacky."
+
+"All right, let it be Blacky, then."
+
+"Only I must tell you that Blacky isn't a person."
+
+"Not a person?"
+
+"No, he's our dog."
+
+"A dog? What do you mean?"
+
+"Yes, Blacky; and he will guide you very well--quite as well as my
+husband. He is in the habit of--"
+
+"In the habit?"
+
+"Certainly; for years and years Simon took him along, so he learned the
+different places, and now he does very well all by himself. He has often
+taken travellers, and we have always been complimented about him. As for
+intelligence, don't be afraid--he has as much as you or I. He needs only
+speech, but speech isn't required. If it was to show a monument,
+now--why, yes, for then it would be necessary to give some account and
+know the historical dates; but here there are only the beauties of
+nature. Take Blacky, and it will be cheaper also; my husband would cost
+three francs, whereas Blacky is only thirty sous, and he will show you
+as much for thirty sous as my husband would for three francs."
+
+"Very well; and where is Blacky?"
+
+"He is resting in the sun, in the garden. Already this morning he has
+taken some English people to the Caldron. Shall I call him?"
+
+"Yes, call him."
+
+"Blacky! Blacky!"
+
+He came with a leap through the window. He was a rather ugly-looking
+little dog, with long frizzy hair, all mussed; he wasn't much to look
+at, but he had, however, about him a certain air of gravity, resolution,
+and importance. His first glance was at me--a clear, searching,
+confident look that took me in from head to toe, and that seemed to say,
+"It's a traveller, and he wants to see the Caldron."
+
+One train missed sufficed me for that day, and I was particularly
+anxious not to lay myself open to another such experience, so I
+explained to the good woman that I had only three hours for my visit to
+the Caldron.
+
+"Oh, I know," she said; "you wish to take the four-o'clock train. Don't
+be alarmed; Blacky will bring you back in time. Now then, Blacky, off
+with you; hurry up!"
+
+But Blacky didn't seem at all disposed to mind. He stayed there
+motionless, looking at his mistress with a certain uneasiness.
+
+"Ah, how stupid of me!" said the old woman. "I forgot the sugar;" and
+she went to get four pieces of sugar from a drawer, and gave them to me,
+saying: "That's why he wouldn't start; you had no sugar. You see,
+Blacky, the gentleman has the sugar. Now then, run along with you, sir,
+to the Caldron! to the Caldron! to the Caldron!"
+
+She repeated these last words three times, slowly and distinctly, and
+during that time I was closely examining Blacky. He acknowledged the
+words of his mistress with little movements of the head, which rapidly
+became more emphatic, and towards the end he evinced some temper and
+impatience. They could be interpreted thus: "Yes, yes, to the Caldron--I
+understand. The gentleman has the pieces of sugar, and we are going to
+the Caldron--it's settled. Do you take me for a fool?"
+
+And, without waiting for Mme. Simon's third "To the Caldron!" Blacky,
+evidently hurt, turned tail, came and placed himself in front of me, and
+by his look showed me the door, which told me as plainly as a dog can
+tell, "Now then, come along, you!"
+
+I meekly followed him. We two started, he in front, I behind. In this
+manner we went through the entire village. The children who were playing
+in the street recognized my guide.
+
+"Hello, Blacky! good-morning, Blacky!" They wanted to play with the
+dog, but he turned his head with a disdainful air--the air of a dog who
+hasn't the time to answer himself, and who is doing his duty and earning
+thirty sous. One of the children exclaimed:
+
+"Leave him alone; don't you see he is taking the gentleman to the
+Caldron? Good-day, sir!"
+
+And all repeated, laughing, "Good-day, sir!"
+
+I smiled rather awkwardly; I am sure I felt embarrassed, even a little
+humiliated. I was, in fact, under the lead of that animal. He, for the
+present, was my master. He knew where he was going; I did not. I was in
+a hurry to get out of the village and find myself alone with Blacky and
+face to face with the beauties of nature that he had been commissioned
+to show me.
+
+These beauties of nature were, at the beginning, a fearfully hot and
+dusty road, on which the sun fell with full force. The dog walked with a
+brisk step, and I was getting tired following him. I tried to slacken
+his gait. "Come, I say, Blacky, my friend, not so quickly." But Blacky
+turned a deaf ear, and continued, without listening to me, his little
+trot. He was taken suddenly with a real fit of anger when I wished to
+sit down in the corner of a field, under a tree that gave a meagre
+shade. He barked furiously, and cast on me outraged looks; evidently
+what I was doing was against the rule. He was not in the habit of
+stopping there, and his barks were so piercing and annoying that I rose
+to continue on my way. Blacky became calm at once, and walked placidly
+in front of me--I had understood him, and he was satisfied.
+
+Shortly afterwards we entered a delightful path, in full blossom, shady,
+sweet-smelling, and filled with freshness and the murmur of springs.
+Blacky immediately entered the wood, took to his heels, and disappeared
+in the little footway. I followed, slightly out of breath, and had not
+gone a hundred steps when I found Blacky waiting for me, with head erect
+and bright eyes, in a clearing enlivened by the tinkle of a tiny
+cascade. There was there an old rustic bench, and Blacky looked
+impatiently from me to the seat and from the seat to me. I was beginning
+to understand Blacky's language.
+
+"There now," he said to me, "here is indeed a place to rest in. It's
+nice and cool here; but you were so stupid, you wanted to stop in the
+sun. Come on, now; sit down; you really can sit down. I will allow you."
+
+I stopped, sat down, and lit a cigar, and came near offering one to
+Blacky; perhaps he smoked. But I thought he would prefer a piece of
+sugar. He caught it on the fly very cleverly, and crunched it with
+enjoyment. Then he lay down and took a nap at my feet. He was evidently
+accustomed to a little siesta at this place.
+
+He slept barely ten minutes I was, however, perfectly easy, for Blacky
+began to inspire me with absolute confidence, and I was determined to
+obey him blindly. He got up, stretched himself, and threw me a glance
+that meant, "Come along, my friend, come along." And, like two old
+friends, we set off slowly. Blacky was enjoying the silence and the
+sweetness of the place. On the road, previously, being in a hurry, he
+had walked with an abrupt, sturdy, hurried step--he was walking to get
+there; but now, refreshed and revived, Blacky was walking for the
+pleasure of a promenade in one of the prettiest paths in the Canton of
+Vaud.
+
+Presently a side path appeared, leading off to the left; there was a
+short hesitation on the part of Blacky, who reflected, and then passed
+it, continuing on his way straight ahead, but not without some doubt and
+uncertainty in his manner. Then he stopped; he must have made some
+mistake. Yes; for he retraced his steps, and we took the turning to the
+left, which, at the end of a hundred feet, led into an open circular
+space, and Blacky, with his nose in the air, invited me to contemplate
+the highly respectable height of the lofty rocks which formed this
+circle. When Blacky thought I had seen sufficient, he turned around, and
+we went on again in the path through the woods. Blacky had forgotten to
+show me the circle of rocks--a slight error quickly repaired.
+
+The road soon became very mountainous, broken, and difficult, and I
+advanced slowly and with many precautions. As to Blacky, he sprang
+lightly from rock to rock, but did not forsake me. He waited and fixed
+his eyes on me with the most touching solicitude. At last I began to
+hear a rushing of water; Blacky commenced barking joyously.
+
+"Courage!" he said to me; "courage! We are nearly there; you will soon
+see the Caldron."
+
+It was in truth the Caldron. From a short height a modest stream fell,
+splashing and rebounding on a large rock slightly hollowed. I should
+never have been consoled for such a steep climb to see such a small
+sight if I had not had brave little Blacky for a companion. He, at
+least, was much more interesting and marvellous than the Caldron. On
+either side of the fall, in little Swiss chalets, were two dairy-maids;
+one was a blonde and the other a brunette; both were in their national
+dress, and were eagerly on the lookout for my coming, standing on the
+door-steps of their tiny houses--little wooden boxes, seemingly cut out
+by machine.
+
+It seemed to me that the blonde had very pretty eyes, and I had already
+taken several steps towards her when Blacky began to bark emphatically,
+and resolutely barred the way. Could he have a preference for the dark
+one? I walked in the other direction. That was it; Blacky calmed down as
+though by enchantment when he saw me seated at a table in front of the
+house of his young protegee. I asked for a cup of milk; Blacky's friend
+entered her little toy house, and Blacky slipped in at her feet. Through
+a half-open window I followed him with my eyes. The wretch! He was
+waited upon before I was. He it was who first had his large bowl of
+milk. He had sold himself! After which, with white drops on his
+mustache, Blacky came to keep me company and look at me drink my milk. I
+gave him a piece of sugar, and both of us, absolutely satisfied with
+each other, filled our lungs with the sharp air of the mountain. We were
+at a height of about three or four hundred yards. It was a delightful
+half-hour.
+
+Blacky began to show signs of impatience and agitation. I could read him
+then like a book. It was time to go. I paid, got up, and while I went
+off to the right towards the path by which we came to the mountain, I
+saw Blacky go and plant himself on the left, at the opening of another
+path. He gave me a serious and severe look. What progress I had made
+during the last two hours, and how familiar Blacky's eloquent silence
+had become!
+
+"What must you think of me?" said Blacky to me. "Do you imagine I am
+going to take the same path twice? No, indeed. I am a good guide, and I
+know my business. We shall make the descent another way."
+
+We went back by another road, which was much prettier than the first.
+Blacky, quite sprightly, often turned around to me with an air of
+triumphant joy. We traversed the village, and at the station Blacky was
+assailed by three or four dogs of his acquaintance, who seemed desirous
+of a talk or game with their comrade. They attempted to block his way,
+but Blacky, grumbling and growling, repulsed their advances.
+
+"Can't you see what I am doing? I am taking this gentleman to the
+station."
+
+It was only in the waiting-room that he consented to leave me, after
+having eaten with relish the two last pieces of sugar. And this is how I
+interpreted the farewell look of Blacky:
+
+"We are twenty minutes ahead of time. It isn't I who would have let you
+lose the train. Well, good-bye--pleasant journey!"
+
+
+
+
+THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN PARIS
+
+
+On Friday, April 19th, Prince Agenor was really distracted at the opera
+during the second act of "Sigurd." The prince kept going from box to
+box, and his enthusiasm increased as he went.
+
+"That blonde! Oh, that blonde! She is ideal! Look at that blonde! Do you
+know that blonde?"
+
+It was from the front part of Mme. de Marizy's large first tier box that
+all these exclamations were coming at that moment.
+
+"Which blonde?" asked Mme. de Marizy.
+
+"Which blonde! Why, there is but one this evening in the house. Opposite
+to you, over there, in the first box, the Sainte Mesme's box. Look,
+baroness, look straight over there--"
+
+"Yes I am looking at her. She is atrociously got up, but pretty--"
+
+"Pretty! She is a wonder! Simply a wonder! Got up? Yes, agreed--some
+country relative. The Sainte Mesmes have cousins in Perigord. But what a
+smile! How well her neck is set on! And the slope of the shoulders! Ah,
+especially the shoulders!"
+
+"Come, either keep still or go away. Let me listen to Mme. Caron--"
+
+The prince went away, as no one knew that incomparable blonde. Yet she
+had often been to the opera, but in an unpretentious way--in the second
+tier of boxes. And to Prince Agenor above the first tier of boxes there
+was nothing, absolutely nothing. There was emptiness--space. The prince
+had never been in a second-tier box, so the second-tier boxes did not
+exist.
+
+While Mme. Caron was marvellously singing the marvellous phrase of
+Reyer, "_O mon sauveur silencieux la Valkyrie est ta conquete_," the
+prince strolled along the passages of the opera. Who was that blonde? He
+wanted to know, and he would know.
+
+And suddenly he remembered that good Mme. Picard was the box-opener of
+the Sainte Mesmes, and that he, Prince of Nerins, had had the honor of
+being for a long time a friend of that good Mme. Picard. It was she who
+in the last years of the Second Empire had taught him bezique in all its
+varieties--Japanese, Chinese, etc. He was then twenty, Mme. Picard was
+forty. She was not then box-opener of the National Academy of Music; she
+had in those times as office--and it was not a sinecure--the position of
+aunt to a nice young person who showed a very pretty face and a very
+pretty pair of legs in the chorus of the _revues_ of the Varietee. And
+the prince, while quite young, at the beginning of his life, had, for
+three or four years, led a peaceful, almost domestic life, with the aunt
+and niece. Then they went off one way and he another.
+
+One evening at the opera, ten years later, in handing his overcoat to a
+venerable-looking old dame, Agenor heard himself saluted by the
+following little speech:
+
+"Ah, how happy I am to see you again, prince! And not changed--not at
+all changed. Still the same, absolutely the same--still twenty."
+
+It was Mme. Picard, who had been raised to the dignity of box-opener.
+They chatted, talked of old times, and after that evening the prince
+never passed Mme. Picard without greeting her. She responded with a
+little deferential courtesy. She was one of those people, becoming rarer
+and rarer nowadays, who have the exact feeling for distances and
+conventions. There was, however, a little remnant of familiarity, almost
+of affection, in the way in which she said "prince." This did not
+displease Agenor; he had a very good recollection of Mme. Picard.
+
+"Ah, prince," said Mme. Picard on seeing Agenor, "there is no one for
+you to-night in _my_ boxes. Mme. de Simiane is not here, and Mme. de
+Sainte Mesme has rented her box."
+
+"That's precisely it. Don't you know the people in Mme. de Sainte
+Mesme's box?"
+
+"Not at all, prince. It's the first time I have seen them in the
+marquise's box--"
+
+"Then you have no idea--"
+
+"None, prince. Only to me they don't appear to be people of--"
+
+She was going to say of _our_ set. A box-opener of the first tier of
+boxes at the opera, having generally only to do with absolutely
+high-born people, considers herself as being a little of their set, and
+shows extreme disdain for unimportant people; it displeases her to
+receive these unimportant people in _her_ boxes. Mme. Picard, however,
+had tact which rarely forsook her, and so stopped herself in time to
+say:
+
+"People of _your_ set. They belong to the middle class, to the wealthy
+middle class; but still the middle class. That doesn't satisfy you; you
+wish to know more on account of the blonde. Is it not so, prince?"
+
+Those last words were spoken with rare delicacy; they were murmured more
+than spoken--box-opener to a prince! It would have been unacceptable
+without that perfect reserve in accent and tone; yes, it was a
+box-opener who spoke, but a box-opener who was a little bit the aunt of
+former times, the aunt _a la mode de Cythere_. Mme. Picard continued:
+
+"Ah, she is a beauty! She came with a little dark man--her husband, I'm
+sure; for while she was taking off her cloak--it always takes some
+time--he didn't say a word to her. No eagerness, no little attentions.
+Yes, he could only be a husband. I examined the cloak. People one
+doesn't know puzzle me and _my_ colleague. Mme. Flachet and I always
+amuse ourselves by trying to guess from appearances. Well, the cloak
+comes from a good dress-maker, but not from a great one. It is fine and
+well-made, but it has no style. I think they are middle-class people,
+prince. But how stupid I am! You know M. Palmer--well, a little while
+ago he came to see the beautiful blonde!"
+
+"M. Palmer?"
+
+"Yes, and he can tell you."
+
+"Thanks, Mme. Picard, thanks--"
+
+"Good-bye, prince, good-bye," and Mme. Picard went back to her stool,
+near her colleague, Mme. Flachet, and said to her:
+
+"Ah, my dear, what a charming man the prince is! True gentlefolks, there
+is nothing like them! But they are dying out, they are dying out; there
+are many less than formerly."
+
+Prince Agenor was willing to do Palmer--big Palmer, rich Palmer, vain
+Palmer--the honor of being one of his friends; he deigned, and very
+frequently, to confide to Palmer his financial difficulties, and the
+banker was delighted to come to his aid. The prince had been obliged to
+resign himself to becoming a member of two boards of directors presided
+over by Palmer, who was much pleased at having under obligations to him
+the representative of one of the noblest families in France. Besides,
+the prince proved himself to be a _good prince_, and publicly
+acknowledged Palmer, showing himself in his box, taking charge of his
+entertainments, and occupying himself with his racing-stable. He had
+even pushed his gratitude to the point of compromising Mme. Palmer in
+the most showy way.
+
+"I am removing her from the middle class," he said; "I owe it to Palmer,
+who is one of the best fellows in the world."
+
+The prince found the banker alone in a lower box.
+
+"What is the name--the name of that blonde in the Sainte Mesme's box?"
+
+"Mme. Derline."
+
+"Is there a M. Derline?"
+
+"Certainly, a lawyer--my lawyer; the Sainte Mesme's lawyer. And if you
+want to see Mme. Derline close to, come to my ball next Thursday. She
+will be there--"
+
+The wife of a lawyer!. She was only the wife of a lawyer! The prince sat
+down in the front of the box, opposite Mme. Derline, and while looking
+at that lawyeress he was thinking. "Have I," he said to himself,
+"sufficient credit, sufficient power, to make of Mme. Derline the most
+beautiful woman in Paris?"
+
+For there was always a _most beautiful woman in Paris_, and it was he,
+Prince Agenor, who flattered himself that he could discover, proclaim,
+crown, and consecrate that most beautiful woman in Paris. Launch Mme.
+Derline in society! Why not? He had never launched any one from the
+middle class. The enterprise would be new, amusing, and bold. He looked
+at Mme. Derline through his opera-glass, and discovered thousands of
+beauties and perfections in her delightful face.
+
+After the opera, the prince, during the exit, placed himself at the
+bottom of the great staircase. He had enlisted two of his friends.
+"Come," he had said to them, "I will show you the most beautiful woman
+in Paris." While he was speaking, two steps away from the prince was an
+alert young man who was attached to a morning paper, a very widely-read
+paper. The young man had sharp ears, he caught on the fly the phrase of
+the Prince Agenor, whose high social position he knew; he succeeded in
+keeping close to the prince, and when Mme. Derline passed, the young
+reporter had the gift of hearing the conversation, without losing a
+word, of the three brilliant noblemen. A quarter of an hour later he
+arrived at the office of the paper.
+
+"Is there time," he asked, "to write a dozen lines in the _Society
+Note-book_?"
+
+"Yes, but hurry."
+
+The young man was a quick writer; the fifteen lines were done in the
+twinkling of an eye. They brought seven francs fifty to the reporter,
+but cost M. Derline a little more than that.
+
+During this time Prince Agenor, seated in the club at the whist-table,
+was saying, while shuffling the cards:
+
+"This evening at the opera there was a marvellous woman, a certain Mme.
+Derline. She is the most beautiful woman in Paris!"
+
+The following morning, in the gossip-corner of the Bois, in the spring
+sunshine, the prince, surrounded by a little group of respectful
+disciples, was solemnly delivering from the back of his roan mare the
+following opinion:
+
+"Listen well to what I say. The most beautiful woman in Paris is a
+certain Mme. Derline. This star will be visible Thursday evening at the
+Palmer's. Go, and don't forget the name--Mme. Derline."
+
+The disciples dispersed, and went abroad spreading the great news.
+
+Mme. Derline had been admirably brought up by an irreproachable mother;
+she had been taught that she ought to get up in the morning, keep a
+strict account of her expenses, not go to a great dress-maker, believe
+in God, love her husband, visit the poor, and never spend but half her
+income in order to prepare dowries for her daughters. Mme. Derline
+performed all these duties. She led a peaceful and serene life in the
+old house (in the Rue Dragon) which had sheltered, since 1825, three
+generations of Derlines; the husbands had all three been lawyers, the
+wives had all three been virtuous. The three generations had passed
+there a happy and moderate life, never having any great pleasures, but,
+also, never being very bored.
+
+The next day at eight o'clock in the morning Mme. Derline awoke with an
+uneasy feeling. She had passed a troubled night--she, who usually slept
+like a child. The evening before at the opera, in the box, Mme. Derline
+had vaguely felt that something was going on around her. And during the
+entire last act an opera-glass, obstinately fixed on her--the prince's
+opera-glass--had thrown her into a certain agitation, not disagreeable,
+however. She wore a low dress--too much so, in her mother's opinion--and
+two or three times, under the fixity of that opera-glass, she had raised
+the shoulder-straps of her dress.
+
+So, after opening her eyes, Mme. Derline reclosed them lazily,
+indolently, with thoughts floating between dreamland and reality. She
+again saw the opera-house, and a hundred, two hundred, five hundred
+opera-glasses obstinately fixed on her--on her alone.
+
+The maid entered, placed a tray on a little table, made up a big fire in
+the fire-place, and went away. There was a cup of chocolate and the
+morning paper on the tray, the same as every morning. Then Mme. Derline
+courageously got up, slipped her little bare feet into fur slippers,
+wrapped herself in a white cashmere dressing-gown, and crouched
+shivering in an arm-chair by the fire. She sipped the chocolate, and
+slightly burned herself; she must wait a little while. She put down the
+cup, took up the paper, unfolded it, and rapidly ran her eye over the
+six columns of the front page. At the bottom, quite at the bottom of the
+sixth column, were the following lines:
+
+    _Last evening at the opera there was a very brilliant performance of
+    "Sigurd." Society was well represented there; the beautiful Duchess
+    of Montaiglon, the pretty Countess Verdiniere of Lardac, the
+    marvellous Marquise of Muriel, the lively Baroness  of_--
+
+To read the name of the baroness it was necessary to turn the page. Mme.
+Derline did not turn it; she was thinking, reflecting. The evening
+before she had amused herself by having Palmer point out to her the
+social leaders in the house, and it so happened that the banker had
+pointed out to her the marvellous marquise. And Mme. Derline--who was
+twenty-two--raised herself a little to look in the glass. She exchanged
+a slight smile with a young blonde, who was very pink and white.
+
+"Ah," she said to herself, "if I were a marquise the man who wrote this
+would perhaps have paid some attention to me, and my name would perhaps
+be there. I wonder if it's fun to see one's name printed in a paper?"
+
+And while addressing this question to herself, she turned the page, and
+continued reading:
+
+    --_the lively Baroness of Myrvoix, etc. We have to announce the
+    appearance of a new star which has abruptly burst forth in the
+    Parisian constellation. The house was in ecstasy over a strange and
+    disturbing blonde, whose dark steel eyes, and whose shoulders--ah,
+    what shoulders! The shoulders were the event of the evening. From
+    all quarters one heard asked, "Who is she?" "Who is she?" "To whom
+    do those divine shoulders belong?" "To whom?" We know, and our
+    readers will doubtless thank us for telling them the name of this
+    ideal wonder. It is Mme. Derline._
+
+Her name! She had read her name! She was dazzled. Her eyes clouded. All
+the letters in the alphabet began to dance wildly on the paper. Then
+they calmed down, stopped, and regained their places. She was able to
+find her name, and continue reading;
+
+    _It is Mme. Derline, the wife of one of the most agreeable and
+    richest lawyers in Paris. The Prince of Nerins, whose word has so
+    much weight in such matters, said yesterday evening to every one who
+    would listen, "She is the most beautiful woman in Paris." We are
+    absolutely of that opinion._
+
+A single paragraph, and that was all. It was enough, it was too much!
+Mme Derline was seized with a feeling of undefinable confusion. It was
+a combination of fear and pleasure, of joy and trouble, of satisfied
+vanity and wounded modesty. Her dressing-gown was a little open; she
+folded it over with a sort of violence, and crossed it upon, her feet,
+abruptly drawn back towards the arm-chair. She had a feeling of nudity.
+It seemed to her that all Paris was there, in her room, and that the
+Prince de Nerins was in front saying to all Paris, "Look, look! She is
+the most beautiful woman in Paris."
+
+The Prince of Nerins! She knew the name well, for she read with keen
+interest in the papers all the articles entitled "_Parisian Life_,"
+"_High Life_," "_Society Echoes_," etc.; and all the society columns
+signed "_Mousseline_," "_Fanfreluche_," "_Brimborion_," "_Veloutine_";
+all the accounts of great marriages, great balls, of great comings out,
+and of great charity sales. The name of the prince often figured in
+these articles, and he was always quoted as supreme arbiter of Parisian
+elegances.
+
+And it was he who had declared--ah!--decidedly pleasure got the better
+of fear. Still trembling with emotion, Mme. Derline went and placed
+herself before a long looking-glass, an old cheval-glass from Jacob's,
+which never till now had reflected other than good middle-class women
+married to good lawyers. In that glass she looked at herself, examined
+herself, studied herself, long, curiously, and eagerly. Of course she
+knew she was pretty, but oh, the power of print! She found herself
+absolutely delightful. She was no longer Mme. Derline--she was the most
+beautiful woman in Paris! Her feet, her little feet--their bareness no
+longer troubled her--left the ground. She raised herself gently towards
+the heavens, towards the clouds, and felt herself become a goddess.
+
+But suddenly an anxiety seized her. "Edward! What would Edward say?"
+Edward was her husband. There had been but one man's surname in her
+life--her husband's. The lawyer was well loved! And almost at the same
+moment when she was asking herself what Edward would say, Edward
+abruptly opened the door.
+
+He was a little out of breath. He had run up-stairs two at a time. He
+was peacefully rummaging among old papers in his study on the
+ground-floor when one of his brother-lawyers, with forced
+congratulations, however, had made him read the famous article. He had
+soon got rid of his brother-lawyer, and he had come, much irritated, to
+his room. At first there was simply a torrent of words.
+
+"Why do these journalists meddle? It's an outrage! Your name--look,
+there is your name in this paper!"
+
+"Yes, I know, I've seen--"
+
+"Ah, you know, you have seen--and you think it quite natural!"
+
+"But, dear--"
+
+"What times do we live in? It's your fault, too."
+
+"My fault!"
+
+"Yes, your fault!"
+
+"And how?"
+
+"Your dress last night was too low, much too low. Besides, your mother
+told you so--"
+
+"Oh, mamma--"
+
+"You needn't say 'Oh, mamma!' Your mother was right. There, read: 'And
+whose shoulders--ah, what shoulders!' And it is of your shoulders they
+are speaking. And that prince who dares to award you a prize for
+beauty!"
+
+The good man had plebeian, Gothical ideas--the ideas of a lawyer of old
+times, of a lawyer of the Rue Dragon; the lawyers of the Boulevard
+Malesherbes are no longer like that.
+
+Mme. Derline very gently, very quietly, brought the rebel back to
+reason. Of course there was charm and eloquence in her speech, but how
+much more charm and eloquence in the tenderness of her glance and smile.
+
+Why this great rage and despair? He was accused of being the husband of
+the most beautiful woman in Paris. Was that such a horrible thing, such
+a terrible misfortune? And who was the brother-lawyer, the good
+brother-lawyer, who had taken pleasure in coming to show him the hateful
+article?
+
+"M. Renaud."
+
+"Oh, it was M. Renaud--dear M. Renaud!"
+
+Thereupon Mme. Derline was seized with a hearty fit of laughter; so much
+so that the blond hair, which had been loosely done up, came down and
+framed the pretty face from which gleamed the dark eyes which could
+also, when they gave themselves the trouble, look very gentle, very
+caressing, very loving.
+
+"Oh, it was M. Renaud, the husband of that delightful Mme. Renaud! Well,
+do you know what you will do immediately, without losing a minute? Go to
+the president of the Tribunal and ask for a divorce. You will say to
+him: 'M. Aubepin, deliver me from my wife. Her crime is being pretty,
+very pretty, too pretty. I wish another one who is ugly, very ugly, who
+has Mme. Renaud's large nose, colossal foot, pointed chin, skinny
+shoulders, and eternal pimples.' That's what you want, isn't it? Come,
+you big stupid, kiss your poor wife, and forgive her for not being a
+monster."
+
+As rather lively gestures had illustrated this little speech, the white
+cashmere dressing-gown had slipped--slipped a good deal, and had opened,
+very much opened; the criminal shoulders were within reach of M.
+Derline's lips--he succumbed. Besides, he too felt the abominable
+influence of the press. His wife had never seemed so pretty to him, and,
+brought back to subjection, M. Derline returned to his study in order to
+make money for the most beautiful woman in Paris.
+
+A very wise and opportune occupation; for scarcely was Mme. Derline left
+alone when an idea flashed through her head which was to call forth a
+very pretty collection of bank-notes from the cash-box of the lawyer of
+the Rue Dragon. Mme. Derline had intended wearing to the Palmer's ball a
+dress which had already been much seen. Mme. Derline had kept the
+dress-maker of her wedding-dress, her mother's dress-maker, a
+dress-maker of the Left Bank. It seemed to her that her new position
+imposed new duties on her. She could not appear at the Palmer's without
+a dress which had not been seen, and stamped with a well-known name. She
+ordered the carriage in the afternoon, and resolutely gave her coachman
+the address of one of the most illustrious dress-makers in Paris. She
+arrived a little agitated, and to reach the great artist was obliged to
+pass through a veritable crowd of footmen, who were in the antechamber
+chatting and laughing, used to meeting there and making long stops.
+Nearly all the footmen were those of society, the highest society; they
+had spent the previous evening together at the English Embassy, and were
+to be that evening at the Duchess of Gremoille.
+
+Mme. Derline entered a sumptuous parlor; it was very sumptuous, too
+sumptuous. Twenty great customers were there--society women and
+actresses, all agitated, anxious, feverish--looking at the beautiful
+tall saleswomen come and go before them, wearing the last creations of
+the master of the house. The great artist had a diplomatic bearing:
+buttoned-up black frock-coat, long cravat with pin (a present from a
+royal highness who paid her bills slowly), and a many-colored rosette in
+his button-hole (the gift of a small reigning prince who paid slower yet
+the bills of an opera-dancer). He came and went--precise, calm, and
+cool--in the midst of the solicitations and supplications of his
+customers. "M. Arthur! M. Arthur!" One heard nothing but that phrase. He
+was M. Arthur. He went from one to the other--respectful, without too
+much humility, to the duchesses, and easy, without too much familiarity,
+to the actresses. There was an extraordinary liveliness, and a
+confusion of marvellous velvets, satins, and embroidered, brocaded, and
+gold or silver threaded stuffs, all thrown here and there, as though by
+accident--but what science in that accident--on arm-chairs, tables, and
+divans.
+
+In the first place Mme. Derline ran against a shop-girl who was bearing
+with outstretched arms a white dress, and was almost hidden beneath a
+light mountain of muslins and laces. The only thing visible was the
+shop-girl's mussed black hair and sly suburban expression. Mme. Derline
+backed away, wishing to place herself against the, wall; but a tryer-on
+was there, a large energetic brunette, who spoke authoritatively in a
+high staccato. "At once," she was saying--"bring me at once the
+princess's dress!"
+
+Frightened and dazed, Mme. Derline stood in a corner and watched an
+opportunity to seize a saleswoman on the fly. She even thought of giving
+up the game. Never, certainly, should she dare to address directly that
+terrible M. Arthur, who had just given her a rapid glance in which she
+believed to have read, "Who is she? She isn't properly dressed! She
+doesn't go to a fashionable dress-maker!" At last Mme. Derline succeeded
+in getting hold of a disengaged saleswoman, and there was the same
+slightly disdainful glance--a glance which was accompanied by the
+phrase:
+
+"Madame is not a regular customer of the house?"
+
+"No, I am not a customer--"
+
+"And you wish?"
+
+"A dress, a ball-dress--and I want the dress for next Thursday
+evening--"
+
+"Thursday next!"
+
+"Yes, Thursday next."
+
+"Oh! madame, it is not to be thought of. Even for a customer of the
+house it would be impossible."
+
+"But I wished it so much--"
+
+"Go and see M. Arthur. He alone can--"
+
+"And where is M. Arthur?"
+
+"In his office. He has just gone into his office. Over there, madame,
+opposite."
+
+Mme. Derline, through a half-open door, saw a sombre and severe but
+luxurious room--an ambassador's office. On the walls the great European
+powers were represented by photographs--the Empress Eugenie, the
+Princess of Wales, a grand-duchess of Russia, and an archduchess of
+Austria. M. Arthur was there taking a few moments' rest, seated in a
+large arm-chair, with an air of lassitude and exhaustion, and with a
+newspaper spread out over his knees. He arose on seeing Mme. Derline
+enter. In a trembling voice she repeated her wish.
+
+"Oh, madame, a ball-dress--a beautiful ball-dress--for Thursday! I
+couldn't make such a promise--I couldn't keep it. There are
+responsibilities to which I never expose myself."
+
+He spoke slowly, gravely, as a man conscious of his high position.
+
+"Oh, I am so disappointed. It was a particular occasion and I was told
+that you alone could--"
+
+Two tears, two little tears, glittered on her eye-lashes. M. Arthur was
+moved. A woman, a pretty woman, crying there, before him! Never had such
+homage been paid to his genius.
+
+"Well, madame, I am willing to make an attempt. A very simple dress--"
+
+"Oh no, not simple. Very brilliant, on the contrary--everything that is
+most brilliant. Two of my friends are customers of yours (she named
+them), and I am Mme. Derline--"
+
+"Mme. Derline! You are Mme. Derline?"
+
+The two _Mme. Derlines_ were followed by a glance and a smile--the
+glance was at the newspaper and the smile was at Mme. Derline; but it
+was a discreet, self-contained smile--the smile of a perfectly gallant
+man. This is what the glance and smile said with admirable clearness:
+
+"Ah I you are Mme. Derline--that already celebrated Mme. Derline--who
+yesterday at the opera--I understand, I understand--I was reading just
+now in this paper--words are no longer necessary--you should have told
+your name at once--yes, you need me; yes, you shall have your dress;
+yes, I want to divide your success with you."
+
+M. Arthur called:
+
+"Mademoiselle Blanche, come here at once! Mademoiselle Blanche!"
+
+And turning towards Mme. Derline, he said:
+
+"She has great talent, but I shall myself superintend it; so be
+easy--yes, I myself."
+
+Mme. Derline was a little confused, a little embarrassed by her glory,
+but happy nevertheless. Mademoiselle Blanche came forward.
+
+"Conduct madame," said M. Arthur, "and take the necessary measures for a
+ball-dress, very low, and with absolutely bare arms. During that time,
+madame, I am going to think seriously of what I can do for you. It must
+be something entirely new--ah! before going, permit me--"
+
+He walked very slowly around Mme. Derline, and examined her with
+profound attention; then he walked away, and considered her from a
+little distance. His face was serious, thoughtful, and anxious. A great
+thinker wrestling with a great problem. He passed his hand over his
+forehead, raised his eyes to the sky, getting inspiration by a painful
+delivery; but suddenly his face lit up--the spirit from above had
+answered.
+
+"Go, madame," he said, "go. Your dress is thought out. When you come
+back, mademoiselle, bring me that piece of pink satin; you know, the one
+that I was keeping for some great occasion."
+
+Thus Mme. Derline found herself with Mademoiselle Blanche in a trying-on
+room, which was a sort of little cabin lined with mirrors. A quarter of
+an hour later, when the measures had been taken, Mme. Derline came back
+and discovered M. Arthur in the midst of pieces of satin of all colors,
+of crepes, of tulles, of laces, and of brocaded stuffs.
+
+"No, no, not the pink satin," he said to Mademoiselle Blanche, who was
+bringing the asked-for piece; "no, I have found something better. Listen
+to me. This is what I wish: I have given up the pink, and I have decided
+on this, this peach-colored satin. A classic robe, outlining all the
+fine lines and showing the suppleness of the body. This robe must be
+very clinging--hardly any underskirts. It must be of surah. Madame must
+be melted into it--do you thoroughly understand?--absolutely melted
+into the robe. We will drop over the dress this crepe--yes, that one,
+but in small, light pleats. The crepe will be as a cloud thrown over the
+dress--a transparent, vapory, impalpable cloud. The arms are to be
+absolutely bare, as I already told you. On each shoulder there must be a
+simple knot, showing the upper part of the arm. Of what is the knot to
+be? I'm still undecided--I need to think it over--till to-morrow,
+madame, till to-morrow."
+
+Mme. Derline came back the next day, and the next, and every day till
+the day before the famous Thursday; and each time that she came back,
+while awaiting her turn to try on, she ordered dresses, very simple
+ones, but yet costing from seven to eight hundred francs each.
+
+And that was not all. On the day of her first visit to M. Arthur, when
+Mme. Derline came out of the great house, she was
+broken-hearted--positively broken-hearted--at the sight of her brougham;
+it really did make a pitiful appearance among all the stylish carriages
+which were waiting in three rows and taking up half the street. It was
+the brougham of her late mother-in-law, and it still rolled through the
+streets of Paris after fifteen years' service. Mme. Derline got into the
+woe-begone brougham to drive straight to a very well-known
+carriage-maker, and that evening, cleverly seizing the psychological
+moment, she explained to M. Derline that she had seen a certain little
+black coupe lined with blue satin that would frame delightfully her new
+dresses.
+
+The coupe was bought the next day by M. Derline, who also was beginning
+fully to realize the extent of his new duties. But the next day it was
+discovered that it was impossible to harness to that jewel of a coupe
+the old horse who had pulled the old carriage, and no less impossible to
+put on the box the old coachman who drove the old horse.
+
+This is how on Thursday, April 25th, at half-past ten in the evening, a
+very pretty chestnut mare, driven by a very correct English coachman,
+took M. and Mme. Derline to the Palmer's. They still lacked something--a
+little groom to sit beside the English coachman. But a certain amount of
+discretion had to be employed. The most beautiful woman in Paris
+intended to wait ten days before asking for the little groom.
+
+While she was going up-stairs at the Palmer's, she distinctly felt her
+heart beat like the strokes of a hammer. She was going to play a
+decisive game. She knew that the Palmers had been going everywhere,
+saying, "Come on Thursday; we will show you Mme. Derline, the most
+beautiful woman in Paris." Curiosity as well as jealousy had been well
+awakened.
+
+She entered, and from the first minute she had the delicious sensation
+of her success. Throughout the long gallery of the Palmer's house it was
+a true triumphal march. She advanced with firm and precise step, erect,
+and head well held. She appeared to see nothing, to hear nothing, but
+how well she saw! how well she felt, the fire of all those eyes on her
+shoulders! Around her arose a little murmur of admiration, and never had
+music been sweeter to her.
+
+Yes, decidedly, all went well. She was on a fair way to conquer Paris.
+And, sure of herself, at each step she became more confident, lighter,
+and bolder, as she advanced on Palmer's arm, who, in passing, pointed
+out the counts, the marquises, and the dukes. And then Palmer suddenly
+said to her:
+
+"I want to present to you one of your greatest admirers, who, the other
+night at the opera, spoke of nothing but your beauty; he is the Prince
+of Nerins."
+
+She became as red as a cherry. Palmer looked at her and began to laugh.
+
+"Ah, you read the other day in that paper?"
+
+"I read--yes, I read--"
+
+"But where is the prince, where is he? I saw him during the day, and he
+was to be here early."
+
+Mme. Derline was not to see the Prince of Nerins that evening. And yet
+he had intended to go to the Palmers and preside at the deification of
+his lawyeress. He had dined at the club, and had allowed himself to be
+dragged off to a first performance at a minor theatre. An operetta of
+the regulation type was being played. The principal personage was a
+young queen, who was always escorted by the customary four
+maids-of-honor.
+
+Three of these young ladies were very well known to first-nighters, as
+having already figured in the tableaux of operettas and in groups of
+fairies, but the fourth--Oh, the fourth! She was a new one, a tall
+brunette of the most striking beauty. The prince made himself remarked
+more than all others by his enthusiasm. He completely forgot that he was
+to leave after the first act. The play was over very late, and the
+prince was still there, having paid no attention to the piece or the
+music, having seen nothing but the wonderful brunette, having heard
+nothing but the stanza which she had unworthily massacred in the middle
+of the second act. And while they were leaving the theatre, the prince
+was saying to whoever would listen:
+
+"That brunette! oh, that brunette! She hasn't an equal in any theatre!
+She is the most beautiful woman in Paris! The most beautiful!"
+
+It was one o'clock in the morning. The prince asked himself if he should
+go to the Palmers. Poor Mme. Derline; she was of very slight importance
+beside this new wonder! And then, too, the prince was a methodical man.
+The hour for whist had arrived; so he departed to play whist.
+
+The following morning Mme. Derline found ten lines on the Palmer's ball
+in the "society column." There was mention of the marquises, the
+countesses, and the duchesses who were there, but about Mme. Derline
+there was not a word--not a word.
+
+On the other hand, the writer of theatrical gossip celebrated in
+enthusiastic terms the beauty of that ideal maid-of-honor, and said,
+"_Besides, the Prince of Nerins declared that Mademoiselle Miranda was
+indisputedly the most beautiful woman in Paris!_"
+
+Mme. Derline threw the paper in the fire. She did not wish her husband
+to know that she was already not the most beautiful woman in Paris.
+
+She has, however, kept the great dress-maker and the English coachman,
+but she never dared to ask for the little groom.
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF A BALL-DRESS
+
+
+When the women of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries write their
+memoirs they boldly present themselves to the reader thus: "I have a
+well-shaped mouth," said the Marquise of Courcelles, "beautiful lips,
+pearly teeth, good forehead, cheeks, and expression, finely chiselled
+throat, divine hands, passable arms (that is to say, they are a little
+thin); but I find consolation for that misfortune in the fact that I
+have the prettiest legs in the world."
+
+And I will follow the marquise's example. Here is my portrait: Overskirt
+of white illusion trimmed with fringe, and three flounces of blond
+alternating with the fringe; court mantle of cherry silk girt by a high
+flounce of white blond which falls over the fringe and is caught up by
+Marie Antoinette satin; two other flounces of blond are placed behind at
+intervals above; on each side from the waist up are facings composed of
+little alternating flounces of blond, looped up with satin; the big puff
+behind is bound by a flounce of white blond. A little white waist, the
+front and shoulder-straps of which are of satin trimmed with blond. Belt
+of red satin with large red butterfly.
+
+The world was made in six days, I in three. And yet I too am in the
+world--a little complicated world of silk, satin, blond, loops, and
+fringes. Did God rest while he was making the world? I do not know; but
+I do know that the scissors that cut me out and the needle that sewed me
+rested neither day nor night from Monday evening, January 24, 1870, to
+Thursday morning, January 27th. The slashes of the scissors and the
+pricks of the needle caused me great pain at first, but I soon paid no
+attention to them at all. I began to observe what was going on, to
+understand that I was becoming a dress, and to discover that the dress
+would be a marvel. From time to time M. Worth came himself to pay me
+little visits. "Take in the waist," he would say, "add more fringe,
+spread out the train, enlarge the butterfly," etc.
+
+One thing worried me: For whom was I intended? I knew the name, nothing
+more--the Baroness Z----. Princess would have been better; but still,
+baroness did very well. I was ambitious. I dreaded the theatre. It
+remained to be seen whether this baroness was young, pretty, and equal
+to wearing me boldly, and whether she had a figure to show me off to
+advantage. I was horribly afraid of falling into the hands of an ugly
+woman, a provincial, or an old coquette.
+
+How perfectly reassured I was as soon as I saw the baroness! Small,
+delicate, supple, stylish, a fairy waist, the shoulders of a goddess,
+and, besides all this, a certain little air of audacity, of raillery,
+but in exquisite moderation.
+
+I was spread out on a large pearl-gray lounge, and I was received with
+marks of frank admiration. M. Worth had been good enough to bring me
+_himself_, and he didn't trouble himself about all dresses.
+
+"How original!" exclaimed the little baroness; "how new! But very dear,
+isn't it?"
+
+"One thousand and fifty francs."
+
+"One thousand and fifty francs! And I furnished the lace! Ah, how
+quickly I should leave you if I didn't owe you so much! For I owe you a
+lot of money."
+
+"Oh, very little, baroness--very little."
+
+"No, no; a great deal. But we will discuss that another day."
+
+That evening I made my first appearance in society, and I came out at
+the Tuileries. We both of us, the baroness and myself, had an undeniable
+success. When the Empress crossed the Salon of Diana, making pleasant
+remarks to the right and left, she had the graciousness to stop before
+us and make the following remark, which seemed to me extremely witty,
+"Ah, baroness, what a dress--what a dress! It's a dream!" On that
+occasion the Empress wore a dress of white tulle dotted with silver, on
+a design of cloudy green, with epaulettes of sable. It was queer, not
+ineffective, but in doubtful taste.
+
+We received much attention, the baroness and I. The new Minister, M.
+Emile Ollivier, was presented to us; we received him coldly, as the
+little baroness did not approve, I believe, of liberal reforms, and
+looked for nothing good from them. We had a long chat on the window-seat
+with the Marshal Leboeuf. The only topic during that interesting
+conversation was the execution of Troppmann. It was the great event of
+the week.
+
+At two o'clock we left--the baroness, I, and the baron. For there was a
+husband, who for the time being was crowded in the corner of the
+carriage, and hidden under the mass of my skirts and of my train, which
+was thrown back on him all in a heap.
+
+"Confess, Edward," said the little baroness--confess that I was pretty
+to-night."
+
+"Very."
+
+"And my dress?"
+
+"Oh, charming!"
+
+"You say that indolently, without spirit or enthusiasm. I know you
+well. You think I've been extravagant. Well, indeed I haven't. Do you
+know how much this dress cost me? Four hundred francs--not a centime
+more."
+
+We arrived home, which was a step from the Tuileries, in the Place
+Vendome. The baron went to his rooms, the baroness to hers; and while
+Hermance, the maid, cleverly and swiftly untied all my rosettes and took
+out the pins, the little baroness kept repeating: "How becoming this
+dress is to me! And I seem to become it, too. I shall wear it on
+Thursday, Hermance, to go to the Austrian Embassy. Wait a minute, till I
+see the effect of the butterfly in the back. Bring the lamp nearer;
+nearer yet. Yes, that's it. Ah, how pretty it is! I am enchanted with
+this dress, Hermance--really enchanted!"
+
+If the little baroness was enchanted with me, I was equally enchanted
+with the baroness. We two made the most tender, the most intimate, and
+the most united of families. We comprehended, understood, and completed
+each other so well. I had not to do with one of those mechanical
+dolls--stupidly and brutally laced into a padded corset. Between the
+little baroness and myself there was absolutely nothing but lace and
+fine linen. We could confidentially and surely depend on one another.
+The beauty of the little baroness was a real beauty, without garniture,
+conjuring, or trickery.
+
+So the following Thursday I went to the Austrian Embassy, and a week
+later to the Princess Mathilde's. But, alas! the next morning the little
+baroness said to her maid: "Hermance, take that dress to the reserve. I
+love it, and I'd wear it every evening; but it has been seen
+sufficiently for this winter. Yesterday several people said to me, 'Ah,
+that's your dress of the Tuileries; it's your dress of the Austrian
+Embassy.' It must be given up till next year. Good-bye, dear little
+dress."
+
+And, having said that, she placed her charming lips at hap-hazard among
+my laces and kissed me in the dearest way in the world. Ah, how pleased
+and proud I was of that childish and sweet fellowship! I remembered that
+the evening before, on our return, the little baroness had kissed her
+husband; but the kiss she had given him was a quick, dry kiss--one of
+those hurried kisses with which one wishes to get through; whereas my
+kiss had been prolonged and passionate. She had cordiality for the
+baron, and love for me. The little baroness wasn't twenty, and she was a
+coquette to the core. I say this, in the first place, to excuse her,
+and, in the second place, to give an exact impression of her character.
+
+So at noon, in the arms of Hermance, I made my entry to the reserve. It
+was a dormitory of dresses, an immense room on the third story, very
+large, and lined with wardrobes of white oak, carefully locked. In the
+middle of the room was an ottoman, on which Hermance deposited me; after
+which she slid back ten or twelve wardrobe doors, one after the other.
+Dresses upon dresses! I should never be able to tell how many. All were
+hung in the air by silk tape on big triangles. Hermance, however, seemed
+much embarrassed.
+
+"In the reserve," she murmured, "in the reserve; that is easy to say.
+But where is there any room? And this one needs a lot." At last
+Hermance, after having given a number of little taps to the right and
+left, succeeded in making a sort of slit, into which I had great
+difficulty in sliding. Hermance gave me and my neighbors some more
+little taps to lump us together, and then shut the door. Darkness
+reigned. I was placed between a blue velvet dress and a mauve satin one.
+
+Towards the end of April we received a visit from the little baroness,
+and in consequence of that visit there was great disturbance. Winter
+dresses were hung up; spring dresses were got down. At the beginning of
+July another visit, another disturbance--entry of the costumes from the
+races; departure of others for the watering-places. I lost my neighbor
+to the right, the mauve dress, and kept my neighbor on the left, the
+blue dress, a cross and crabbed person who was forever groaning,
+complaining, and saying to me, "Oh, my dear, you do take up so much
+room; do get out of the way a little." I must admit that the poor blue
+velvet dress was much to be pitied. It was three years old, having been
+a part of the little baroness's trousseau, and had never been worn. "A
+high-neck blue velvet dress, at my age, with my shoulders and arms!" had
+exclaimed the little baroness; "I should look like a grandmother!" Thus
+it was decreed, and the unfortunate blue dress had gone from the
+trousseau straight to the reserve.
+
+A week or ten days after the departure of the dresses for Baden-Baden we
+heard a noise, the voices of women, and all the doors were opened. It
+was the little baroness, who had brought her friend the Countess N----.
+
+"Sit there, my dear, on that ottoman," said the little baroness. "I have
+come to look over my dresses. I am very hurried; I arrived but just now
+from Baden, and I start again to-night for Anjou. We can chatter while
+Hermance shows me the dresses. Oh, those Prussians, my dear, the
+monsters! We had to run away, Blanche and myself, like thieves. (Very
+simple dresses, Hermance, every-day dresses, and walking and boating
+dresses.) Yes, my dear, like thieves! They threw stones at us, real
+stones, in the Avenue of Lichtental, and called us 'Rascally
+Frenchwomen! French rabble!' The Emperor did well to declare war against
+such people. (Dresses for horseback, Hermance--my brown riding-habit.)
+At any rate, there's no need to worry. My husband dined yesterday with
+Guy; you know, the tall Guy, who is an aide of Leboeuf. Well, we are
+ready, admirably ready, and the Prussians not at all. (Very simple, I
+said, Hermance. You are showing me ball-dresses. I don't intend to dance
+during the war.) And then, my dear, it seems that this war was
+absolutely necessary from a dynastic point of view. I don't quite know
+why, but I tell it to you as I heard it. (These dozen dresses, Hermance,
+will be sufficient. But there are thirteen. I never could have thirteen.
+Take away the green one; or, no, add another--that blue one; that's
+all.) Now let's go down, my dear."
+
+Whereupon she departed. So war was declared, and with Prussia. I was
+much moved. I was a French dress and a Bonapartist dress. I was afraid
+for France and afraid for the dynasty, but the words of the tall Guy
+were so perfectly reassuring.
+
+For two months there was no news; but about the 10th of September the
+little baroness arrived with Hermance. She was very pale, poor little
+baroness--very pale and agitated.
+
+"Dark dresses, Hermance," she said, "black dresses. I know! What remains
+of Aunt Pauline's mourning? There must remain quite a lot of things. You
+see, I am too sad--"
+
+"But if madame expects to remain long in England?"
+
+"Ah! as long as the Republic lasts."
+
+"Then it may be a long time."
+
+"What do you mean--a long time? What _do_ you mean, Hermance? Who can
+tell you such things?"
+
+"It seems to me that if I were madame I'd take for precaution's sake a
+few winter dresses, a few evening-dresses--"
+
+"Evening-dresses! Why, what are you thinking of? I shall go nowhere,
+Hermance, alone in England, without my husband, who stays in Paris in
+the National Guard."
+
+"But if madame should go to see their Majesties in England?"
+
+"Yes, of course I shall, Hermance."
+
+"Well, it's because I know madame's feelings and views that--"
+
+"You are right; put in some evening-dresses."
+
+"Will madame take her last white satin dress?"
+
+"Oh no, not that one; it would be too sad a memory for the Empress, who
+noticed it at the last ball at the Tuileries. And then the dress
+wouldn't stand the voyage. My poor white satin dress! Shall I ever wear
+it again?"
+
+That is why I did not emigrate, and how I found myself blockaded in
+Paris during the siege. From the few words that we had heard of the
+conversation of the little baroness and Hermance we had a pretty clear
+idea of the situation. The Empire was overthrown and the Republic
+proclaimed. The Republic! There were among us several old family laces
+who had seen the first Republic--that of '93. The Reign of Terror! Ah,
+what tales they told us! The fall of the Empire, however, did not
+displease these old laces, who were all Legitimists or Orleanists. In my
+neighborhood, on a gooseberry satin skirt, there were four flounces of
+lace who had had the honor of attending the coronation of Charles X.,
+and who were delighted, and kept saying to us: "The Bonapartes brought
+about invasion; invasion brings back the Bourbons. Long live Henry V.!"
+
+We all had, however, a common preoccupation. Should we remain in style?
+We were nearly all startling, risky, and loud--so much so that we were
+quite anxious, except three or four quiet dresses, velvet and dark cloth
+dresses, who joined in the chorus with the old laces, and said to us:
+"Ah, here's an end to the carnival, to this masquerade of an empire!
+Republic or monarchy, little we care; we are sensible and in good
+taste." We felt they were somewhat in the right in talking thus. From
+September to February we remained shut up in the wardrobes, wrangling
+with each other, listening to the cannon, and knowing nothing of what
+was going on.
+
+Towards the middle of February all the doors were opened. It was the
+little baroness--the little baroness!
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, "my dresses, my beloved dresses, there they are;
+how happy I am to see them!"
+
+We could say nothing; but we, too, were very happy to see the little
+baroness.
+
+"Now, then, Hermance," continued the little baroness, "let us hunt
+around a little. What can I take to Bordeaux? After such disasters I
+must have quiet and sombre dresses."
+
+"Madame hasn't very many."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Hermance, I have dark dresses--this one and that
+one. The blue velvet dress! The blue velvet dress is just the thing, and
+I've never worn it."
+
+And so my neighbor the blue dress was taken down, and was at last going
+to make her first appearance in the world. However, the little baroness
+herself, with great activity, rummaged round in the wardrobes.
+
+"Nothing, nothing," she said; "four or five dresses only. All the rest
+are impossible, and would not accord with the Government we shall have
+in Bordeaux. Well, I shall be obliged to have some republican dresses
+made--very moderate republican, but still republican."
+
+The little baroness went away, to come back a month later, always with
+Hermance, who was an excellent maid, and much thought of by her
+mistress. New deliberation.
+
+"Hermance," said the little baroness, "what can I take to Versailles? I
+think we shall be able to have a little more freedom. There will be
+receptions and dinners with M. Thiers; then the princes are coming. I
+might risk transition dresses. Do you know what I mean by that,
+Hermance--transition dresses?"
+
+"Perfectly, madame--pearl grays, mauves, violets, lilacs."
+
+"Yes, that's it, Hermance; light but quiet colors. You are an
+invaluable maid. You understand me perfectly."
+
+The little baroness started for Versailles with a collection of
+transition dresses. There must have been twenty. It was a good
+beginning, and filled us with hope. She had begun at Bordeaux with
+sombre colors, and continued on at Versailles with light ones,
+Versailles was evidently only a stepping-stone between Bordeaux and
+Paris. The little baroness was soon coming back to Paris, and once the
+little baroness was in Paris we could feel assured that we should not
+stay long in the wardrobes.
+
+But it happened that a few days after the departure of the little
+baroness for Versailles we heard loud firing beneath the windows of the
+house (we lived in the Place Vendome). Was it another revolt, another
+revolution? For a week nothing more was heard; there was silence. Then
+at the end of that week the cannonade began around Paris worse than
+ever. Was the war recommencing with the Prussians? Was it a new siege?
+
+The days passed, and the boom of the cannon continued. Finally, one
+morning there was a great racket in the court-yard of our house. Cries,
+threats, oaths! The noise came up and up. Great blows with the butt ends
+of muskets were struck on the wardrobe doors. They were smashed in and
+we perceived eight or ten slovenly looking, dirty, and bearded men.
+Among these men was a woman, a little brunette; fairly pretty, I must
+say, but queerly gotten up. A black dress with a short skirt, little
+boots with red bows, a round gray felt hat with a large red plume, and a
+sort of red scarf worn crosswise. It was a peculiar style, but it was
+style all the same.
+
+"Oh, oh!" exclaimed the little woman, "here's luck! What a lot of
+dresses! Well, clear away all this, sergeant, and take those duds to
+headquarters."
+
+Then all those men threw themselves upon us with a sort of fury. We felt
+ourselves gripped and dishonored by coarse, dirty hands.
+
+"Don't soil them too much, citizens," the little woman would cry. "Do
+them up in packages, and take the packages down to the
+ammunition-wagon."
+
+The headquarters was the apartment of the young lady of the red plume.
+Our new mistress was the wife of a general of the Commune. We were
+destined to remain official dresses. Official during the Empire, and
+official during the Commune. The first thought of Mme. General was to
+hold a review of us, and I had the honor of being the object of her
+special attention and admiration.
+
+"Ah, look, Emile!" (Emile was the General.) "Look! this is the toniest
+of the whole concern. I'll keep it for the Tuileries."
+
+I was to be kept for the Tuileries! What tales of woe and what
+lamentations there were in the sort of alcove where we were thrown like
+rags! Mme. General went into society every evening, and never put on the
+same dress twice. My poor companions the day after told me their
+adventures of the day before. This one had dined at Citizen Raoul
+Rigault's, the Prefecture of Police; that one attended a performance of
+"Andromaque" at the Theatre Francais, in the Empress's box, etc. At last
+it was my turn. The 17th of May was the day of the grand concert at the
+Tuileries.
+
+Oh, my dear little baroness, what had become of you? Where were your
+long soft muslin petticoats and your fine white satin corsets? Where
+were your transparent linen chemisettes? Mme. General had coarse
+petticoats of starched calico. Mme. General wore such a corset! Mme.
+General had such a crinoline! My poor skirts of lace and satin were
+abominably stiffened and tossed about by the hard crinoline hoops. As to
+the basque, the strange thing happened that the basque of the little
+baroness was much too tight for Mme. General at the waist, and, on the
+contrary, above the waist it was--I really do not know how to explain
+such things. At any rate, it was just the opposite of small, so much so
+that it had to be padded. Horrible! Most horrible!
+
+At ten that evening I was climbing for the second time the grand
+staircase of the Tuileries, in the midst of a dense and ignoble mob. One
+of the General's aides-de-camp tried in vain to open a passage.
+
+"Room, room, for the wife of the General!" he cried.
+
+Much they cared for the wife of the General! Great big boots trampled on
+my train, sharp spurs tore my laces, and the bones of the corsets of
+Mme. General hurt me terribly.
+
+At midnight I returned to Mme. General's den. I returned in rags,
+shreds, soiled, dishonored, and stained with wine, tobacco, and mud. A
+hateful little maid brutally tore me from the shoulders of Mme. General,
+and said to her mistress:
+
+"Well, madame, was it beautiful?"
+
+"No, Victoria," replied Mme. General, "it was too mixed. But do hurry
+up! tear it off if it won't come. I know where to find others at the
+same price."
+
+And I was thrown like a rag on a heap of pieces. The heap of pieces was
+composed of ball-dresses of the little baroness.
+
+One morning, three or four days later, the aide-de-camp rushed in,
+crying, "The Versaillists! The Versaillists are in Paris!"
+
+Thereupon Mme. General put on a sort of military costume, took two
+revolvers, filled them with cartridges, and hung them on a black leather
+belt which she wore around her waist. "Where is the General?" she said
+to the aide-de-camp.
+
+"At the Tuileries."
+
+"Very well, I shall go there with you." And on that she departed, with
+her little gray felt hat jauntily tilted over her ear.
+
+The cannonade and firing redoubled and came nearer. Evidently there was
+fighting very near us, quite close to us. The next day towards noon we
+saw them both come back, the General and Mme. General. And in what a
+condition! Panting, frightened, forbidding, with clothes white with
+dust, and hands and faces black with powder. The General was wounded in
+the left hand, he had twisted around his wrist a handkerchief bathed in
+blood.
+
+"Does your arm hurt you?" Mme. General said to him.
+
+"It stings a little, that's all."
+
+"Are they following us?"
+
+"Yes, I think so."
+
+"Listen! There are noises, shouts."
+
+"Look out of the window without showing yourself."
+
+"The red trousers! They are here!"
+
+"Lock and bolt the door. Get the revolvers and load them. I can't on
+account of my arm. This wound is a bore."
+
+"You are so pale!"
+
+"Yes; I am losing blood--a good deal of blood."
+
+"They are coming up the stairs!"
+
+"Into the alcove--let us go into the alcove, on the dresses."
+
+"Here they are!"
+
+"Give me the revolver."
+
+The door gave way violently under the hammering of the butts of the
+guns. A shower of bullets fell on us and around us. The General, with a
+single movement, fell heavily at full length on the bed of silk, muslin,
+and laces that we made for him. Three or four men with red trousers
+threw themselves on Mme. General, who fought, bit, and screamed,
+"Assassins! assassins!"
+
+A soldier tore away the bell-cord, firmly tied her hands, and carried
+her away like a bundle. She continued to repeat, in a strangled voice,
+"Assassins! assassins!" The soldiers approached the alcove and looked at
+the General. "As to him," they said, "he's done for; he doesn't need
+anything more. Let's be off."
+
+They left us, and we remained there for two days, crushed beneath that
+corpse and covered with blood. Finally, at the end of those two days, a
+man arrived who was called a Commissioner, and who wore a tricolored
+scarf around his waist. "This corpse has been forgotten," he said. "Take
+it away."
+
+They tried to lift the body, but with fingers stiffened by death the
+General held my big cherry satin butterfly. They had nearly to break his
+fingers to get it out.
+
+Meantime the Commissioner examined and searched curiously among that
+brilliant heap of rags on which the General had died. My waist appeared
+to catch his eye. "Here is a mark," he said to one of his men--"a mark
+inside the waist, with the name and number of the maker. We can learn
+where these dresses came from. Wrap this waist in a newspaper and I'll
+take it."
+
+They wrapped me in an old number of the _Official Journal of the
+Commune_. The following day we went to M. Worth, the Commissioner and I.
+The conversation was not long.
+
+"Was this dress made by you?" the Commissioner asked.
+
+"Yes; here's the mark."
+
+"And for whom was it made?"
+
+"Number 18,223. Wait a moment; I'll consult my books." The dress-maker
+came back in five minutes, and said to the Commissioner, "It was for the
+Baroness Z---- that I made this dress, eighteen months ago, and it isn't
+paid for."
+
+
+
+
+THE INSURGENT
+
+
+"Prisoner," said the President of the Council of War, "have you anything
+to add in your defence?"
+
+"Yes, colonel," replied the prisoner. "The little lawyer you assigned me
+defended me according to his idea; I want to defend myself according to
+mine.
+
+"My name is Martin (Lewis Joseph). I am fifty-five years old. My father
+was a locksmith. He had a little shop in the upper part of the
+Saint-Martin Quarter, and had a fair business. We just existed. I
+learned to read in the _National_, which was, I believe, the paper of M.
+Thiers.
+
+"On the 27th of July, 1830, my father went out very early. That evening,
+at ten o'clock, he was brought back to us on a litter, dying. He had
+received a bullet in the chest. Beside him on the litter was his musket.
+
+"'Take it,' he said to me. 'I give it to you; and every time there is a
+riot, be against the Government--always, always, always!'
+
+"An hour later he was dead. I went out in the night. At the first
+barricade I stopped and offered myself; a man examined me by the light
+of a lantern. 'A child!' he exclaimed. I was not fifteen. I was very
+slight and undersized. I answered: 'A child, maybe, but my father was
+killed two hours ago. He gave me his musket. Teach me how to use it.'
+
+"From that moment I became what I have always been for forty years, an
+insurgent! If I fought during the Commune, it was not because I was
+forced, nor for the thirty sous; it was from taste, from pleasure, from
+habit, from routine.
+
+"In 1830 I behaved rather bravely at the attack on the Louvre. The
+urchin who first scaled the gate beneath the bullets of the Swiss was I.
+I received the Medal of July. But the shopkeepers gave us a king. It had
+all to be done over. I joined a secret society; I learned to melt
+bullets, to make powder--in short, I completed my education, and I
+waited.
+
+"I had to wait nearly two years. On June 5, 1832, at noon, in front of
+the Madeleine, I was the first to unharness one of the horses of the
+hearse of General Lamarque. I passed the day in shouting, 'Long live
+Lafayette!' and I passed the night in making barricades. The next
+morning we were attacked by the regulars. In the evening, towards four
+o'clock, we were blocked, cannonaded, swept with grape-shot, and crushed
+back into the Church of Saint-Mery. I had a bullet and three
+bayonet-stabs in my body when I was picked up by the soldiers from the
+stone floor of a little chapel to the left--the Chapel of St. John. I
+have often gone back to that little chapel--not to pray, I wasn't
+brought up with such ideas--but to see the stains of my blood which
+still remain on the stones.
+
+"On account of my youth I received a ten-year sentence. I was sent to
+Mont Saint-Michel. That was why I didn't take part in the riots of 1834.
+If I had been free I should have fought in Rue Transnonian as I had
+fought in Rue Saint-Mery--'against the Government--always, always,
+always!' It was my father's last word; it was my gospel, my religion. I
+call that my catechism in six words. I came out of prison in 1842, and I
+again began to wait.
+
+"The revolution of '48 was made without effort. The shopkeepers were
+stupid and cowardly. They were neither for nor against us. The municipal
+guards alone defended themselves. We had a little trouble in taking the
+guard-house of the Chateau d'Eau. On the evening of February 24th I
+remained three or four hours on the square before the Hotel de Ville.
+The members of the Provisional Government, one after another, made
+speeches to us--said that we were heroes, great citizens, the foremost
+nation in the world, that we had broken the bonds of tyranny. After
+having fed us on these fine speeches, they gave us a republic which
+wasn't any better than the monarchy we had overthrown.
+
+"In June I took up my musket again, but on that occasion we were not
+successful. I was arrested, sentenced, and sent to Cayenne. It seems
+that I behaved well there. One day I saved a captain of marines from
+drowning. Observe that I should most certainly have shot at that captain
+if he had been on one side of a barricade and I on the other; but a man
+who is drowning, dying--in short, I received my pardon, I came back to
+France in 1852, after the Coup d'Etat; I had missed the insurrection of
+1851.
+
+"At Cayenne I had made friends with a tailor named Barnard. Six months
+after my departure for France, Barnard died. I went to see his widow.
+She was in want. I married her. We had a son in 1854--you will
+understand presently why I speak to you of my wife and my son. But you
+must already suspect that an insurgent who marries the widow of an
+insurgent does not have royalist children.
+
+"Under the Empire there was nothing to do. The police were very strict.
+We were dispersed, disarmed. I worked, I brought up my son with the
+ideas that my father had given me. The wait was long. Rochefort,
+Gambetta, public reunions--all that put us in motion again.
+
+"On the first important occasion I showed myself. I was one of that
+little band who assaulted the barracks of the firemen of Villette. Only
+there we made a mistake. We killed a fireman, unnecessarily, I was
+caught and thrown into prison, but the Government of the Fourth of
+September liberated us, from which I concluded that we did right to
+attack those barracks and kill the fireman, even unnecessarily.
+
+"The siege began. I immediately opposed the Government, on the side of
+the Commune. I marched against the Hotel de Ville on the 31st of October
+and on the 22d of January. I liked revolt for revolt's sake. An
+insurgent--I told you in the beginning I am an insurgent. I cannot hear
+a discussion without taking part, nor see a riot without running to it,
+nor a barricade without bringing my paving-stone. It's in the blood.
+
+"And then, besides, I wasn't quite ignorant, and I said to myself, It is
+only necessary to succeed thoroughly some day, and then, in our turn, we
+shall be the Government, and it will be better than with all these
+lawyers, who place themselves behind us during the battle, and pass
+ahead after the victory.'
+
+"The 18th of March came, and naturally I was in it. I shouted 'Hurrah
+for the regulars!' I fraternized with the army. I went to the Hotel de
+Ville. I found a government already at work. It was absolutely the same
+as on the 24th of February.
+
+"Now you tell me that that insurrection was not lawful. That is
+possible, but I don't quite see why not. I begin to get muddled--about
+these insurrections which are a duty and those which are a crime! I do
+not clearly see the difference.
+
+"I shot at the Versailles troops in 1871, as I had shot at the royal
+guard in 1830 and on the municipals in 1848. After 1830 I received the
+Medal of July; after 1848 the compliments of M. de Lamartine. This time
+I am going to get transportation or death.
+
+"There are insurrections which please you. You raise columns to them,
+you give their names to streets, you give yourselves the offices, the
+promotions, and the big salaries, and we folks, who made the revolution,
+you call us great citizens, heroes, a nation of brave men, etc. That's
+the coin we are paid with.
+
+"And then there are other insurrections which displease you. As a
+result, transportation, death. Well, you see, if you hadn't complimented
+us so after the first ones, perhaps we wouldn't have made the last. If
+you hadn't raised the Column of July at the entrance of our
+neighborhood, we wouldn't perhaps have gone and demolished the Vendome
+Column in your neighborhood. Those two penny trumpets didn't agree. One
+had to upset the other, and that is what happened.
+
+"Now, why I threw away my captain's uniform on the 26th of May, why I
+was in a blouse when I was arrested, I will tell you. When I learned
+that the gentlemen of the Commune, instead of coming to shoot with us
+behind the barricades, were at the Hotel de Ville distributing among
+themselves thousand-franc notes, were shaving their beards, dyeing their
+hair, and hiding themselves in caves, I did not wish to keep the
+shoulder-straps they had given me.
+
+"Besides, shoulder-straps embarrassed me. 'Captain Martin' sounded
+idiotic. 'Insurgent Martin'--why, that's well and good. I wanted to end
+as I had begun, die as my father had died, as a rioter in a riot, as a
+barricader behind a barricade.
+
+"I could not get killed. I got caught. I belong to you. But I wish to
+beg a favor of you. I have a son, a child of seventeen; he is at
+Cherbourg, on the hulks. He fought, it is true, and he does not deny it;
+but it is I who put a musket in his hand, it is I who told him that his
+duty was there. He listened to me. He obeyed me. That is all his crime.
+Do not sentence him too harshly.
+
+"As for me, you have got me; do not let me go, that's the advice I give
+you. I am too old to mend; and then, what can you expect? Nothing can
+change it. I was born on the wrong side of the barricade."
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CHINESE AMBASSADOR
+
+
+In the beginning of the year 1870 some English and French residents had
+been massacred in China. Reparation was demanded. His Excellency
+Tchong-Keon, Tutor of the Heir-apparent and Vice-President of the War
+Department, was sent to Europe as Ambassador Extraordinary to the
+English and French governments.
+
+Tchong-Keon has recently published at Pekin a very curious account of
+his voyage. One of my friends who lives in Shanghai, and who possesses
+the rare talent of being able to read Chinese easily, sent me this
+faithful translation of a part of Tchong-Keon's book:
+
+
+HAVRE, _September 12, 1870_.
+
+I land, and I make myself known. I am the Ambassador of the Emperor of
+China. I bear apologies to the Emperor of the French, and presents to
+the Empress. There is no Emperor and no Empress. A Republic has been
+proclaimed. I am much embarrassed. Shall I offer the apologies and
+presents that were intended for the Empire to the Republic?
+
+
+HAVRE, _September 14, 1870_.
+
+After much reflection, I shall offer the apologies and keep the
+presents.
+
+
+HAVRE, _September 26, 1870_.
+
+Yes; but to whom shall I carry the apologies, and to whom shall I
+present them? The Government of the French Republic is divided in two:
+there is one part in Paris and one part in Tours. To go to Paris is not
+to be thought of. Paris is besieged and blockaded by the Prussians. I
+shall go to Tours.
+
+
+HAVRE, _October 2, 1870_.
+
+I did not go, and I shall not go, to Tours. I received yesterday a visit
+from the correspondent of the _Times_, a most agreeable and sensible
+man. I told him that I intended going to Tours.
+
+"To Tours! What do you want in Tours?"
+
+"To present the apologies of my master to the Minister of Foreign
+Affairs of the French Republic."
+
+"But that minister isn't in Tours."
+
+"And where is he?"
+
+"Blockaded in Paris."
+
+A Minister of Foreign Affairs who is blockaded in a besieged town seemed
+to me most extraordinary.
+
+"And why," the correspondent of the _Times_ asked me, "do you bring
+apologies to the French Government?"
+
+"Because we massacred some French residents."
+
+"French residents! That's of no importance nowadays. France no longer
+exists. You can, if it amuses you, throw all the French residents into
+the sea."
+
+"We also thoughtlessly massacred some English residents."
+
+"You massacred some English residents! Oh, that's very different!
+England is still a great nation. And you have brought apologies to Queen
+Victoria?"
+
+"Yes, apologies and presents."
+
+"Go to London, go straight to London, and don't bother about France;
+there is no France."
+
+The correspondent of the _Times_ looked quite happy when he spoke those
+words: "there is no France."
+
+
+LONDON, _October 10, 1870_.
+
+I've seen the Queen of England. She received me very cordially. She has
+accepted the apologies; she has accepted the presents.
+
+
+LONDON, _October 12, 1870_.
+
+Had a long conversation with Lord Granville, Minister of Foreign Affairs
+of the Queen of England. I explained to his Excellency that I meant to
+go home at once, and that I feel I need not pay further attention to my
+French embassy, as France no longer exists. Lord Granville answered me:
+
+"Don't go away so soon; you will perhaps be obliged to come back, and
+sooner than you imagine. France is an extraordinary country, which picks
+up very quickly. Await the end of the war, and then you can take your
+apologies to the Government that France will have decided on giving
+itself. Till then remain in England. We shall be most happy to offer you
+our hospitality."
+
+
+LONDON, _November 3, 1870_.
+
+I did not return to China. I am waiting in London till the Minister of
+Foreign Affairs is not besieged, and till there is some way of laying
+one's hands on the French Government. There are many Parisians here who
+escaped from their country on account of the war. I dined yesterday with
+his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. Three Parisian women, all three
+young, and all three pretty, took possession of me after dinner. We had
+a very interesting conversation in English.
+
+"You are looking for the French Government, the legitimate Government?"
+said the first of these Parisians. "Why, it is here in England, half an
+hour from London. To-morrow go to the Waterloo station and buy a ticket
+for Chiselhurst, and there you will find Napoleon III., who is, and has
+never ceased to be, the Emperor of the French."
+
+"Don't listen to her, Mr. Ambassador," laughingly said the second
+Parisian, "don't listen to her; she is a terrible Bonapartist. Yes, the
+true sovereign of France is in England, quite near London, but not at
+Chiselhurst; and it is not the Waterloo station you must go to, but the
+Victoria station. You mustn't take a ticket for Chiselhurst, but for
+Twickenham, and there you will find at Orleans House his Royal Highness
+the Count of Paris."
+
+"Don't listen to her, Mr. Ambassador," exclaimed in turn, and also
+laughing, the third Parisian, "don't listen to her; she is a terrible
+revolutionist! The Count of Paris is not the heir to the throne of
+France. To find the legitimate King you must go a little farther than
+Chiselhurst or Twickenham; you must go to Austria, to the Frohsdorf
+Palace. The King of France--he is the descendant of Henry IV.--is the
+Count of Chambord."
+
+If I count aright, that makes three legitimate sovereigns, and all three
+deposed. Never in China have we had anything of that sort. Our old
+dynasty has had to fight against the invasions of the Mongols and
+against the insurrections of the Taipings. But three legitimate
+sovereigns for the same country, for a single throne! One has to come
+to Europe to see such things.
+
+However, the three Parisians gayly discussed the matter, and seemed to
+be the best friends in the world.
+
+
+LONDON, _November 15, 1870_.
+
+As a sequel to the three Frenchwomen, representing three different
+monarchs, I met, this evening, at Lord Granville's, three Frenchmen
+representing three different republics.
+
+The first asked me why I didn't go to Tours.
+
+"You will find there," he said to me, "the authorized representatives of
+the French Republic, and in addressing yourself to M. Gambetta you are
+addressing France--"
+
+"Don't do that, Mr. Ambassador!" exclaimed the second Frenchman; "the
+real Government of the real French Republic is shut up in Paris. M.
+Jules Favre alone can officially receive your visit and your apologies."
+
+"The Republic of Paris isn't worth more than the Republic of Tours," the
+third Frenchman then told me. "If we have a Republic in France, it will
+be neither the Republic of M. Gambetta nor the Republic of M. Jules
+Favre."
+
+"And whose Republic then?"
+
+"The Republic of M. Thiers--"
+
+Whereupon the three Frenchmen began to dispute in earnest. They were
+very red, shouted loudly, and made violent gestures. The discussion
+about the three monarchies had been much gentler and much more agreeable
+than the discussion about the three republics.
+
+During the evening these Frenchmen managed to slip into my ear, in turn,
+two or three little phrases of this kind:
+
+"Don't listen," the first one said to me, "to that partisan of the
+Government of Paris; he is a lawyer who has come here with a commission
+from M. Jules Favre. So you see he has a big salary, and as he wishes to
+keep it--"
+
+"Don't listen," the second one said to me, "to that partisan of the
+alleged Republic of M. Thiers; he is only a monarchist, a disguised
+Orleanist--"
+
+"Don't listen," the third one said to me, "to that partisan of the
+Republic of Tours; he is a gentleman who has come to England to get a
+loan for the benefit of the Government of Tours; so, as he expects to
+get a lot of money--"
+
+Thus I am, if I reckon correctly, face to face with six
+governments--three monarchies and three republics.
+
+
+LONDON, _December 6, 1870_.
+
+I think that his Excellency, M. de Bernstoff, Prussian Ambassador to
+England, takes pleasure in making fun of me. I never meet him but that
+he announces to me that Paris will capitulate the next day. The next day
+arrives and Paris does not capitulate. However, this evening his
+Excellency looked so perfectly sure of what he was saying that I think I
+can prepare to start for Paris.
+
+
+PARIS, _February 20, 1871_.
+
+I only left on the 10th of February. At last I am in Paris. I travelled
+slowly, by short stages. What a lot of burned villages! What a lot of
+sacked houses! What a lot of devastated forests, dug-up woods, and
+bridges and railroads destroyed! And these Europeans treat us as
+barbarians!
+
+However, among all these ruins there is one the sight of which filled me
+with the keenest joy. The palace of Saint-Cloud was the summer palace of
+the Emperor Napoleon, and not a stone upon a stone remains. I
+contemplated curiously, eagerly, and for a long time the blackened ruins
+of this palace. Pieces of old Chinese vases were hidden in the heaps of
+rubbish among the wreck of marble and fragments of shell.
+
+Where did those old Chinese vases come from? Perhaps from the summer
+palace of our Emperor, from that palace which was devastated, burned,
+and destroyed by those English and French soldiers who came to bring us
+civilization.
+
+I was extremely well received by the English, who overwhelmed me with
+invitations and kindnesses; but none the less I hope that the palaces of
+Buckingham and Windsor will also have their turn.
+
+
+PARIS, _February 25, 1871_.
+
+I have written to M. Jules Favre to let him know that I have been
+waiting six months for the opportunity of presenting to him the
+compliments and apologies of the Emperor of China. M. Jules Favre
+answered me that he is obliged to start for Bordeaux. I shall have an
+audience in the beginning of March.
+
+
+PARIS, _March 7, 1871_.
+
+Another letter from M. Jules Favre. He is expected at Frankfort by M. de
+Bismarck. My audience is again put off.
+
+
+PARIS, _March 17, 1871_.
+
+At last, to-morrow, March 18th, at four o'clock, I am to be received by
+M. Jules Favre at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
+
+
+PARIS, _March 18, 1871_.
+
+We dressed ourselves, I and my two secretaries, in our official
+costumes, and departed at three o'clock, accompanied by an interpreter.
+We arrived. The court of the house was filled with people who appeared
+busy and hurried, and who came and went, carrying cases and packages.
+The interpreter, after having exchanged several words with an employee
+of the ministry, said to me:
+
+"Something serious has happened--an insurrection. The Government is
+again obliged to change its capital!"
+
+At that moment a door opened, and M. Jules Favre himself appeared with a
+large portfolio under his arm. He explained to the interpreter that I
+should have my audience at Versailles in several days, and having made
+me a profound bow, which I returned him, he ran away with his large
+portfolio.
+
+
+VERSAILLES, _March 19, 1871_.
+
+I had to leave Paris at twelve o'clock in a great hurry. There really is
+a new Government at Paris. This Government is not one of the three
+monarchies, nor one of the three republics. It is a seventh arrangement,
+which is called the _Commune_. This morning an armed troop of men
+surrounded the house where I live. It seems that the new Ministry of
+Foreign Affairs of Paris of the Commune would have been charmed to
+receive a Chinese ambassador. They had come to carry me off. I had time
+to escape. It is not the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris that I
+ought to see, it is the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Versailles.
+
+Good heavens, how complicated it all is! And when shall I be able to put
+my hand on this intangible person, who is now blockaded in Paris and now
+chased out of Paris?
+
+
+VERSAILLES, _April 6, 1871_.
+
+At last, yesterday, I had the honor of being received by his Excellency,
+and we discussed the events that had occurred in Paris.
+
+"This insurrection," M. Jules Favre said to me, "is the most formidable
+and the most extraordinary that has ever broken out."
+
+I could not allow such a great historical error to pass. I answered M.
+Jules Favre that we had had in China for millions of years socialists
+and socialistic uprisings; that the French Communists were but rough
+imitators of our Chinese Taipings; that we had had in 1230 a siege at
+Nankin which had lasted seven years, etc. In short, these Europeans are
+only beginning again our history with less grandeur and more barbarity.
+
+
+VERSAILLES, _May 15, 1871_.
+
+My mission is ended; I could return to China; but all that I see here
+interests me extremely. This civil war immediately succeeding a foreign
+war is a very curious occurrence. There is here, for a Chinaman, an
+excellent opportunity of study, on the spot and from life, of European
+civilization.
+
+
+VERSAILLES, _May 24, 1871_.
+
+Paris is burning, and on the terrace of the palace of Saint-Cloud, in
+the midst of the ruins of that palace, I passed my day looking at Paris
+burn. It is a dead, destroyed, and annihilated city.
+
+
+PARIS, _June 10, 1871_.
+
+Not at all. It is still the most beautiful city in Europe, and the most
+brilliant, and the most gay. I shall spend some time in Paris.
+
+
+PARIS, _June 29, 1871_.
+
+Yesterday M. Thiers, in the Bois de Boulogne, held a review of a hundred
+thousand men. Will there always be a France?
+
+
+
+
+IN THE EXPRESS
+
+
+"When one bears the name of Luynes or La Tremoille, I can readily
+understand the desire to continue the Luynes or the La Tremoilles; but
+really when one is named Chamblard, what possible object can there be
+in--Eh? Answer."
+
+In this fashion young Raoul Chamblard talked while comfortably settled
+back in a large red velvet arm-chair. This happened on the 26th of
+March, 1892, in one of the parlor-cars of the express to Marseilles,
+which had left Paris at 8.50 that morning. It was now five minutes past
+nine. The train with much racket was crossing the bridge of Charentin.
+Young Chamblard was talking to his friend, Maurice Revoille, who, after
+a six weeks' leave, was going to join his regiment in Algeria.
+
+The lieutenant of light cavalry responded to his friend's question with
+a vague gesture. Raoul Chamblard continued:
+
+"However, it's my father's fixed idea. There must be Chamblards after
+me. And as papa has but one son, it's to me he looks to do what is
+necessary."
+
+"Well, do what is necessary."
+
+"But I am only twenty-four, my dear fellow, and to marry at twenty-four
+is hard. It seems to me that I'm still entitled to a little more fun,
+and even a good deal."
+
+"Well, have your fun."
+
+"That's just what I've done up to now. I have had a first-rate time! But
+I've taste only for expensive amusements. I don't know how to enjoy
+myself without money, and I haven't a cent. Do you understand? Not a
+cent!"
+
+"You? You are very rich."
+
+"A great mistake! Upon coming of age, three years ago, I spent what was
+left me by my mother. Mother wasn't very rich; she was worth six hundred
+thousand francs, not more. Papa made almost a love-match. The six
+hundred thousand francs vanished in three years, and could I decently do
+anything else as the son of my father? He is powerfully rich!"
+
+"That's what's said."
+
+"And it's very true. He has a dozen millions which are quite his own,
+and can't be hurt by an accident; and his bank still goes on, and brings
+him in, one year with another, besides the interest on his dozen
+millions, three or four hundred thousand francs more. Nothing is more
+solid than the Chamblard bank; it's honest, it's venerable. Papa isn't
+fair to me, but I'm fair to him. When you have a father in business,
+it's a good thing when you go out not to be exposed to meet eyes which
+seem to say to you, 'My dear fellow, your father has swindled me.' Papa
+has but one passion: from five to seven every day he plays piquet at his
+club, at ten sous a point, and as he is an excellent player, he wins
+seven times out of ten. He keeps an account of his games with the same
+scrupulous exactitude he has in all things, and he was telling the day
+before yesterday that piquet this year had brought him in six thousand
+five hundred francs over and above the cost of the cards. He has a seat
+in the orchestra at the opera, not for the ballet, but for the music
+only; he never goes on the stage--neither do I, for that matter. Dancers
+don't attract me at all; they live in Batignolles, in Montmartre; they
+always walk with their mothers; they completely lack charm. In short, my
+father is what one calls a good man. You see I continue to be fair to
+him. Besides, I'm always right. Yes, it's a very good thing to have an
+honorable father, and Papa Chamblard is a model of all virtues, and he
+accumulates for me with a zeal! but I think, just at present, he
+accumulates a little too much. He has cut off my income. No marriage,
+no money. That's brief and decisive. That's his programme. And he has
+hunted up a wife for me--when I say one, I should say three."
+
+"Three wives!"
+
+"Yes. One morning he came to me and said: 'This must end. Look, here's a
+list--three splendid matches.' There were the names, the relations, the
+dowries--it was even arranged in the order of the dowries. I had to
+yield and consent to an interview with Number One. That took place at
+the Salon in the Champs Elysees. Ah, my boy, Number One--dry, flat,
+bony, sallow!"
+
+"Then why did your father--"
+
+"Why? Because she was the daughter, and only daughter, of a wealthy
+manufacturer from Roubaix. It was splendid! We each started with a
+hundred thousand francs income, and that was to be, in the course of
+time, after realized expectations, a shower of millions! It made papa
+supremely happy--the thought that all his millions in Paris would one
+day make an enormous heap with all those Roubaix millions. Millions
+don't frighten me, but on the condition that they surround a pretty, a
+very pretty and stylish woman--a great deal of style! That's _my_
+programme. I want to be able to take my wife to the theatres without
+having to blush before the box-openers."
+
+"What do you mean? Before the box-openers?"
+
+"Why, certainly. I am known, and I've a reputation to keep up. You see,
+the openers are always the same--always; and of course they know me.
+They've been in the habit of seeing me, during the last three or four
+years, come with the best-known and best-dressed women in Paris. Which
+is to say, that I should never dare present myself before them with that
+creature from Roubaix. They would think I had married for money. I tried
+to explain that delicately to papa, but one can't make him hear reason.
+There are things which he doesn't understand, which he can't understand.
+I have no grudge against him; he's of his time, I'm of mine. In short, I
+declared resolutely that I would never marry Number One. Notice that I
+discoursed most sensibly with papa. I said to him: 'You want me to have
+a home' (home is his word), 'but when I should have placed in that home
+a fright such as to scare the sparrows, my home would be a horror to me,
+and I should be forced, absolutely forced, to arrange a home outside.
+Thus I should have a household at home and a household outside, and it's
+then that the money would fly!' But papa won't listen to anything! He
+doesn't understand that I must have a little wife who is pretty,
+Parisian pretty--that is to say, original, gay, jolly, who is looked at
+on the street, and stared at through opera-glasses at the theatre, who
+will do me honor, and who will set me off well. I must be able to
+continue my bachelor life with her, and as long as possible. And then
+there's another thing that I can't tell papa. His name is Chamblard--it
+isn't his fault; only, in consequence, I too am named Chamblard, and
+it's not very agreeable, with a name like that, to try to get on in
+society. And a pretty, a very pretty, woman is the best passport. There,
+look at Robineau. He has just been received into the little club of the
+Rue Royale. And why? It's not the Union or the Jockey; but never mind,
+one doesn't get in there as into a hotel. And why was Robineau
+received?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"It's because he has married a charming woman, and this charming woman
+is a skater of the first rank. She had a tremendous success on the ice
+at the Bois de Boulogne. In the society columns of all the papers there
+was mention of the exquisite, delightful, and ideal Mme. Robineau. She
+was in the swim at one stroke. And Robineau, he too was in the swim. He
+was a member of the little club six weeks later! Papa, he doesn't
+understand the importance of these things; one can't reason with him
+about it; it's all Greek to him. However, as he had absolutely cut off
+my supplies, I had to submit, and consent to an interview with Number
+Two."
+
+"And what was Number Two like?"
+
+"Ah, my dear fellow, what was she like! She was the daughter of a rich
+merchant of Antwerp. A Belgian article! First a provincial, and then a
+foreigner! Papa doesn't like Parisians. Mamma was from Chatellerault,
+and she was indeed a saint. Number Two happened to be in Paris; so last
+night, at the Opera Comique, they showed me a Fleming, who was very
+blond, very insipid, very masculine--a Rubens, a true Rubens; a
+giantess, a colossal woman, a head taller than I, which is to say that
+materially one could not take her in a lower stage-box, and those are
+the only boxes I like. On leaving the theatre I told papa that I
+wouldn't have Number Two any more than Number One, and that I had had
+enough, and that I wouldn't see Number Three. The discussion was heated.
+Papa went off banging doors and repeating, 'No more money!' I saw that
+it was serious. I went to bed, but I couldn't sleep--I thought; but I
+could think of nothing to save me from the fat hands of the Antwerp
+girl. Suddenly, towards three in the morning, I had an inspiration--I
+had an idea that I can call, if you'll permit it, a stroke of genius."
+
+"I'll permit it."
+
+"Yes, genius. I knew that you left to-day for Marseilles, and this
+morning I departed, English fashion, without explanation, and in a
+little while, at the first stop, at Laroche--I have looked at the
+time-table, I have thought of everything--I shall send the following
+despatch to my father," and Raoul triumphantly pulled a paper out of his
+pocket. "It's all ready. Listen. 'M. Chamblard, 8 Rue Rougemont, Paris,
+Laroche station. I left on the express for Marseilles with Maurice. I am
+going to make a voyage around the world. I sha'n't be more than six
+months. I have engaged by telegraph a state-room on the _Traonaddy_
+which leaves to-morrow for Singapore. Anything rather than a Flemish
+alliance! Farewell. With regrets for leaving you, your affectionate son,
+Raoul Chamblard.' My telegram's all right, isn't it?"
+
+"It isn't bad, but do you seriously mean--"
+
+"Yes, I shall go if, before I reach Marseilles, I haven't an answer from
+papa; but I shall have one, for two reasons. In the first place, Papa
+Chamblard knows how to reason, and he will say to himself: 'What shall I
+gain by it? Instead of fooling round with little white women in Paris,
+he will fool round with little yellow ones at Singapore.' And then
+another reason, the best one, is that Papa Chamblard adores me, and he
+can't do without me, and the little sentimental phrase at the end of my
+despatch will appeal to his heart. You'll see how it will turn out. At
+11.20 my telegram will leave Laroche; papa will receive it at half-past
+twelve. And I'll bet you ten louis that at Dijon or Macon I'll find in
+the wire screen of the station a telegram addressed to me, and worded
+thus: 'Return; no longer question of Antwerp marriage.' Papa's telegram
+will be brief, because he is saving and suppresses unnecessary words.
+Will you take the bet?"
+
+"No, I should lose."
+
+"I think so. Have you the papers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+They read three or four papers, Parisian papers, and read them like true
+Parisians. It took a short fifteen minutes. While reading they exchanged
+short remarks about the new ministry, the races at Auteuil, and Yvette
+Guilbert--particularly about Yvette Guilbert. Young Chamblard had been
+to hear her the day before, and he hummed the refrain:
+
+    "Un fiacre allait trottinant
+          Cahin-caha
+        Hu dia! Hop la!
+    Un fiacre allait trottinant
+    Jaune avec un cocher blanc."
+
+And as the light cavalryman had never heard Yvette Guilbert sing the
+"Fiacre," young Chamblard threw up his arms and exclaimed: "You never
+heard the 'Fiacre,' and you had three months' leave! What did you do in
+Paris? _I_ know the 'Fiacre' by heart."
+
+Upon which Raoul began to hum again, and while humming in a voice which
+became more and more slow, and more and more feeble, he settled back
+into his arm-chair, and soon fell into a peaceful slumber, like the big
+baby that he was.
+
+All at once he was waked up with a start by the stepping of the train,
+and by the voice of the conductor, who cried, "Ouah! Ouah! Ouah!" The
+cry is the same for all stations. This time it was meant for Laroche.
+And now for the telegram. Young Chamblard ran to the telegraph-office.
+The immovable operator counted the sixty-seven words of that queer
+despatch. "All aboard, all aboard!"
+
+Young Chamblard had scarcely time to jump on the step of his car.
+
+"Ouf! that's done," he said to the cavalryman. "Suppose we lunch."
+
+So they both started on their way to the dining-car. It was quite a
+journey, for two parlor-cars separated them from the restaurant-car, and
+those two cars were crowded. It was the season for the great pilgrimage
+of a few Parisians and a good many English towards Nice, Cannes, and
+Monte Carlo. The express was running very fast, and was pitching
+violently. One needed sea-legs. Then a furious wind beat against the
+train, and wrapped it in clouds of dust, making the crossing of the
+platforms particularly disagreeable.
+
+They advanced, walking with difficulty through the first car, over the
+first crossing, and encountering the first squall, then through the
+second car; but Chamblard, who went ahead, had difficulty in opening the
+door to the second platform. It resisted on account of the force of the
+wind; finally it yielded, and Raoul received at the same time in his
+eyes a cloud of dust, and in his arms a young blonde, who exclaimed,
+"Oh, excuse me!" while he, too, exclaimed, "Oh, excuse me!" and at the
+same time he received the cavalryman on his back, who, also blinded by
+the dust, was saying, "Go on, Raoul, go on."
+
+The two doors of the cars had shut, and they were all three crowded in
+the little passage in the wind--young Raoul, young Maurice, and the
+young blonde.
+
+The "Oh, excuse me" was immediately followed by a "M. Maurice!" which
+was replied to by a "Mlle. Martha!" The little blonde knew the
+cavalryman, and perceiving that she was almost in the arms of a
+stranger, Mlle. Martha disengaged herself, and backed cleverly towards
+the platform of the car, saying to Maurice, "You're on the train, and
+you're going?"
+
+"To Algeria."
+
+"We to Marseilles. I am getting a shawl for mamma, who is cold. Mamma
+will be delighted to see you. You will find her in the dining-car. I'll
+see you later."
+
+"But I will accompany you?"
+
+"If you like."
+
+She walked on, but not without first having slightly bowed to young
+Chamblard, who had remained there astounded, contemplating Mlle. Martha
+with eyes filled with admiration.
+
+She had time before going to notice that he was a good-looking young
+fellow, that he wore a neat little suit, and that he looked at her with
+staring eyes; but in those staring eyes a thought could be clearly read
+that could not displease her: "Oh, how pretty you are!"
+
+Raoul was, in fact, saying to himself: "My type, exactly my type! And
+what style--what style in the simplicity of that costume! And the little
+toque, a little on one side over the ear--it's a masterpiece! How well
+she knows how to dress! What an effect she would make in an audience!
+And that little English accent!"
+
+For she had a little English accent; she had even taken a good deal of
+trouble for several years to acquire that little accent. She used to say
+to her governess, Miss Butler:
+
+"Yes, of course I want to know English, but I wish especially to speak
+French with an English accent." She had worked for nothing else. She had
+been, fortunately, rewarded for her perseverance; her little
+Anglo-Parisian gibberish was at times quite original.
+
+While Maurice was retracing his steps with Mlle. Martha, Raoul placed
+himself at a table in the dining-car. He soon saw them come back with
+mamma's shawl. Maurice lingered for a few minutes at the table where the
+mother and the young brother of the little blonde were lunching. Then he
+came back to Raoul, who said as soon as he approached:
+
+"Who is she--quick, tell me, who is she? Whenever one pleases I will
+marry her--now, on getting down from the train. In my arms! I held her
+in my arms! Such a waist! A dream! There are, as you must know, slim
+waists and slim waists. There are waists which are slim, hard, harsh,
+stiff, bony, or mechanically made by odious artifices in the corsets. I
+have thoroughly studied the corset question. It's so important! And then
+there's the true slim waist, which is easy, natural, supple. Supple
+isn't sufficient for what just slid through my hands a short time ago.
+Slippery--yes, that's the word. Slippery just expresses my thought--a
+slippery waist!"
+
+Raoul was quite charmed with what he said.
+
+"Yes," he continued, "slippery; and that little pug-nose! and her little
+eyes have quite a--a Chinese air! But who is she, who is she?"
+
+"The daughter of one of my mother's friends."
+
+"Is she rich?"
+
+"Very rich."
+
+"It's on account of papa that I asked you that, because I would marry
+her without a dowry. It's the first time I've ever said such a thing on
+meeting a young girl. And now the name."
+
+"Mlle. Martha Derame."
+
+"Derame, did you say?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Isn't the father a wealthy merchant who has business in Japan and
+China?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"Ah, my dear fellow--no; one only sees such things in the comic plays
+of the minor theatres, at Cluny or Dejazet."
+
+"What's the matter with you?"
+
+"What's the matter with me? She's papa's Number Three--yes, Number
+Three. The father of that little marvel is one of papa's piquet players
+at the club. And I wouldn't see Number Three, and she falls into my arms
+on the platform between Paris and Lyons. You will present me after
+lunch, and I shall speak to the mother and tell her all."
+
+"How, all?"
+
+"Yes, all; that her daughter is papa's Number Three, and that I didn't
+want Number One or Two, but that I should like Number Three. Ah, dear
+boy, how pretty she is--especially her nose, so charmingly turned up.
+She has just looked at me, and in a certain way; I am sure I don't
+displease her. Did you mention me, did you tell my name?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You were wrong. At any rate, right after lunch--Do you know what I
+think? That this affair will go through on wheels. I shall first
+telegraph papa, and then to-morrow--Oh, heavens! I hope there's a
+telephone between Paris and Marseilles--"
+
+He interrupted himself and called:
+
+"Porter! Porter!"
+
+"Sir."
+
+"Is there a telephone between Paris and Marseilles?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Ah! That's all Thanks. The telephone, Maurice, there's the telephone!
+Papa can speak for me to-morrow by telephone. It will be charming!
+Marriage by express. Express, electric, telephonic, and romantic
+marriage, all at the same time. You understand that between a little
+phiz like that and a voyage around the world I don't hesitate. But why
+haven't you thought of marrying her?"
+
+"Oh, too wealthy--too wealthy a match for me; and then she is not the
+kind of little person to go and bury in a garrison town in Algeria. She
+is a Parisian, a true Parisian, who wants to amuse herself, and who will
+amuse herself."
+
+"Just what I want, absolutely just what I want. I too wish to amuse
+myself. She will amuse herself, I shall amuse myself, we will amuse
+ourselves."
+
+Young Raoul was in a frenzy, and as soon as he had finished his luncheon
+he scrawled a new despatch on the restaurant table to his father, and,
+while writing, talked very excitedly.
+
+"I'll send my despatch from Dijon, and I'll address it to the club; papa
+will be there about five o'clock, and also the father of this little
+marvel. They can immediately discuss the affair. Shall I ask for an
+answer at Lyons? The time-table, pass me the time-table. Lyons, 5.25.
+No, that would be too short. Answer at Marseilles. They stop at
+Marseilles? Yes? For twenty-four hours? All right, so do I. At what
+hotel? Hotel de Noailles? All right, so do I. So answer Hotel de
+Noailles. My despatch is very good. You will see. As good as the
+other--better, even. I've the knack of telegrams to-day. Yes, it's very
+good."
+
+He wrote and wrote; he was inspired, he was animated; he made a few more
+mistakes than usual in spelling, that was all--it was emotion. He reread
+his despatch with complaisance, he made Maurice read it, who could not
+help thinking the incident funny. Raoul counted the words of his
+despatch--there were about a hundred and fifty--and calling the waiter
+of the dining-car, he said, "Send this telegram off for me at Dijon.
+Here are ten francs; there will be two or three over for you."
+
+Then turning at once to Maurice he asked, "Is that enough?"
+
+"Why certainly."
+
+"Well, for such a marriage--ah, my dear fellow, you sail to-morrow at
+what time?"
+
+"At two o'clock."
+
+"Oh, we have plenty of time, then; all will be settled by two o'clock."
+
+"Oh, settled; you're crazy!"
+
+"Not at all; it's already very far advanced, since it's papa's Number
+Three. I only ask one thing of you: present me to the mother shortly.
+After that let me alone. I'll manage everything; only, at any cost, we
+must leave our car and find two arm-chairs in the same car, and near my
+mother-in-law."
+
+"Your mother-in-law!"
+
+"That's what I said; my mother-in-law. Once the two arm-chairs are
+procured, I am master of the situation. You don't know me. I already
+know what I shall say to the mother, what I shall say to my young
+brother-in-law (he is very nice), and what I shall say to my future
+bride. I shall have made a conquest of all of them before we reach
+Lyons. Lyons? No; that's going a little fast--say Valence or Montelimar.
+Pass me the time-table again. Let us settle everything, and leave
+nothing to chance. Oh, look at her! She has nibbled nuts for the last
+fifteen minutes, and how she cracks them--crack! one little bite--and
+what pretty little teeth! She is very pretty even while eating--an
+important thing. It's very rare to find women who remain pretty while
+eating and sleeping, very rare. Little Adelaide, the red-headed one, you
+remember, ate stupidly. And this one over there eats brightly; she
+eats--crack! another nut--and she looks at me on the sly. I can see that
+she looks at me. All goes well, all goes well!"
+
+In truth, all did go well. At Montbard, 12.32, Raoul was presented to
+Mme. Derame, who, on hearing the name of Chamblard, had a little
+shiver--the shiver of a mother who has a young daughter to marry, and
+who says to herself, "Oh, what a splendid match!" Her husband had often
+spoken to her of young Chamblard.
+
+"Ah," he used to say to her, "what a marriage for Martha! We speak of it
+sometimes before and after our piquet, Chamblard and I; but the young
+man is restive--doesn't yet wish to settle down. It would be such a good
+thing--he is richer than we. Chamblard is once, twice, three times
+richer! And Martha isn't easy to marry; she has already refused five or
+six desirable matches on all sorts of pretexts. They didn't please her:
+they were too old, they had no style, they didn't live in fashionable
+neighborhoods, she didn't wish to go into sugar, or cotton, or wine--or
+anything, in short. She would accept none other than a young husband,
+and not too serious. She must have a very rich man who did nothing and
+loved pleasure."
+
+How well young Chamblard answered to that description! When there was
+question of doing nothing, Raoul showed real talent. As soon as one
+talked horses, dogs, carriages, hats, dresses, jewelry, races, fencing,
+skating, cooking, etc., he showed signs of the rarest and highest
+competence.
+
+So, as there was general conversation, Raoul was very brilliant. In the
+neighborhood of Chalons-sur-Saone (3.10), while relating how he,
+Chamblard, had invented a marvellous little coupe, he did not say that:
+that coupe had been offered by him to Mlle. Juliette Lorphelin, of the
+ballet corps at the Folies-Bergere. This coupe was a marvel; besides, it
+was very well known; it was called the Chamblard coupe.
+
+"Small," he said, "very small. A coupe ought always to be small." But
+what a lot of things in such a small space: a drawer for toilet
+necessaries, a secret box for money and jewelry, a clock, a thermometer,
+a barometer, a writing-shelf--and that was not all!
+
+He became animated, and grew excited in speaking of his invention.
+Martha listened to him eagerly.
+
+"When you pull up the four wooden shutters you naturally find yourself
+in the dark; but the four shutters are mirrors, and as soon as one has
+placed a finger on a little button hidden under the right-hand cushion,
+six little crystal balls, ingeniously scattered in the tufting of the
+blue satin of the coupe, become electric lights. The coupe is turned
+into a little lighted boudoir; and not only for five minutes--no, but
+for an hour, two hours, if one wishes it; there is a storage-battery
+under the seat. When I submitted this idea to my carriage-maker he was
+smitten with envy and admiration."
+
+Martha, too, was smitten.
+
+"What a charming man!" she said to herself. "Oh, to have such a coupe!
+But pearl-gray--I should want it pearl-gray."
+
+Then they discussed jewelry, dresses, hats, stuffs. And Raoul proved on
+all those questions, if possible, more remarkable than ever. He had paid
+so many bills to great dress-makers, great milliners, and great
+jewellers! He had been present at so many conferences on the cut of such
+a dress or the arrangement of such a costume, at so many scenes of
+trying on and draping! And as he drew easily, he willingly threw his
+ideas on paper, as he said, neatly. He had even designed the costumes of
+a little piece--played in I do not know what little theatre--which was
+revolutionary, anarchistic, symbolistic, decadent, end of the century,
+end of the world.
+
+He took his little note-book and began to outline with a light hand, in
+spite of the movement of the train, several of his creations. He had
+tact, and thought of everything. "It was," he said, "for charades played
+in society at my friend's, the baron so and so." He invented the baron,
+and gave him a resonant name.
+
+Martha was delighted. Never had a man, since she had been allowed to
+chat a little with young men, seemed to her to have such an original and
+interesting conversation.
+
+"Lately," said Raoul, "one of my cousins--she often applies to
+me--consulted me about a dress for a ball at Nice, during the carnival.
+This is what I advised her. See, I draw at the same time--look."
+
+Oh, how she did look!
+
+"I am going to try to make myself well understood. A foundation of
+smooth white satin, clinging, very clinging--blue, I adore blue."
+
+That pained her; she disliked blue.
+
+"Yes, very clinging; my cousin has a delightful figure, and can stand
+it."
+
+He took Martha's figure in with a hasty glance, and the glance seemed to
+say, "You could, too." She understood and blushed, charmed with that
+delicate flattery. Raoul continued:
+
+"Pale, very pale blue satin. Then on my foundation I threw an
+over-dress of pompadour lace of very soft tones: greens, pinks, mauves,
+cream, and azure. Very large sleeves with a double puff of blue velvet,
+wristlets of Venetian point. Am I clear?"
+
+"Oh, very clear, very clear."
+
+And in an excited voice she repeated:
+
+"A double puff of blue velvet, with wristlets of Venetian point."
+
+All of a sudden the brakes scraped, and the train came sharply to a
+stop. One heard the cry of "Macon! Macon!"
+
+"Macon already!" said Martha.
+
+That "_already_" rang delightfully in Raoul's ears. There was much in
+that _already_. Raoul profited by the five minutes' stop to complete and
+fix his little sketch, which was slightly jolted; and he did not notice
+that his young brother-in-law had been sent out with a despatch to the
+telegraph-office. The despatch had been secretly written by Mme. Derame,
+and had, too, been directed to the Old Club.
+
+The train started--4.11. Raoul had not thought to get down to see if
+under the railing there was not a despatch addressed to him. There was
+one, which was to remain eternally at Macon. The telegram contained
+these words: "Return; no longer question of Antwerp marriage."
+
+The train ran on and on, and now there was question of another dress--a
+silk dress, light pink, with a large jabot of lace down the front. Raoul
+literally dazzled Martha by his inexhaustible fertility of wise
+expressions and technical terms.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While the express passed the Romaneche station (4.32) father Chamblard
+came into the Old Club, went into the card-room, and met father Derame.
+Piquet? With pleasure. So there they sat, face to face. There were there
+eight or ten card-tables--piquet, bezique, whist, etc. The works were in
+full blast. First game, and papa Derame is rubiconed; the second game
+was going to begin when a footman arrives with a despatch for M.
+Chamblard.
+
+"Will you excuse me?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+He reads, he becomes red; he rereads, and he gets scarlet.
+
+It was Raoul's brilliant telegram from Dijon:
+
+"Dear father, I shall not go. Most extraordinary meeting. Your Number
+Three--yes, your Number Three--in the train with her mother, and I
+wouldn't see her. Ah! if I had known. Strike while the iron's hot; I'm
+striking it, strike it too. M. D. must be at the club, speak to him at
+once; tell him that I left to avoid marrying an ugly woman; that I only
+wish to make a love-match; that I am head-over-heels in love with his
+daughter. We shall all be to-night at Marseilles, Hotel de Noailles. Get
+M. D. to back me up by telegraph to Mme. D. I will talk with you
+to-morrow over the telephone. I am writing my telegram in the
+dining-car. At this moment she is nibbling nuts--charming, she is
+charming! She fell into my arms on the platform. Till to-morrow at the
+telephone, nine o'clock."
+
+M. Chamblard's agitation did not escape M. Derame.
+
+"Is it a serious matter?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"We can stop if you wish."
+
+"Yes; but first of all, did Mme. and Mlle. Derame leave here this
+morning on the express for Marseilles?"
+
+"Yes, at 9.55. Why do you ask that? Has there been any accident?"
+
+"No, no accident; it can't be called that; on the contrary. Come, come
+into the little parlor."
+
+He told him everything, showed him the despatch, gave him certain
+necessary explanations about the words, such as Number Three. And there
+they were, choking, delighted--both the father of the young man and the
+father of the young girl. What luck, what a providential meeting!
+
+"But you told me that your son didn't wish to marry."
+
+"He didn't wish to, but he has seen your daughter, and now he wishes to.
+Come, hurry up and send a telegram to Marseilles to Mme. Derame."
+
+"But she will be thunderstruck when I present to her a son-in-law by
+telegraph."
+
+Return of the footman. It was a despatch for M. Derame. He opens it.
+
+"It's from my wife, from Macon, 2.15."
+
+"Good," says M. Chamblard; "all goes well, very well."
+
+"Very disturbed. Met in the train the son of M. C., of Rue Rougemont,
+your club friend. He was presented by Maurice. You often spoke to me of
+a possible alliance there. Evidently he thinks her charming. Just at
+present he is talking to her, and looks at her, looks at her. What shall
+I do? Shall I put a stop to it or allow it to continue? Large fortune,
+isn't there?"
+
+M. Derame in his turn showed his despatch to M. Chamblard. They
+continued to talk, in high good-humor and in excellent accord, and went
+on with their game of piquet only after having sent the following two
+telegrams to the Hotel de Noailles:
+
+First despatch to Mme. Derame: "If it pleases you, if it pleases her,
+yes. Enormous fortune."
+
+Second despatch to Raoul: "Have spoken to D. He is telegraphing to Mme.
+D. He approves, so do I."
+
+A footman carried the two despatches at the same time to the
+telegraph-office in the Place de la Bourse, and during the time that,
+running over the wires along the railroad, they passed the express
+towards half-past six in the neighborhood of Saint-Rambert, the Derames,
+Raoul, and Maurice, in the best possible spirits and in most perfect
+harmony, dined at the same table, and Martha looked at Raoul, and Raoul
+looked at Martha, and Mme. Derame said to herself: "Martha's falling in
+love; I know her, she is falling in love. She fell in love just so last
+year at a ball with a little youth who was very dandified, but without
+fortune. This time, luckily, yes--Edward told me so--there is plenty of
+money; so, naturally, if Martha is willing we are."
+
+The train ran on, and on, and on; and Raoul talked, and talked, and
+talked. He even let slip practical thoughts, raised himself up to
+general ideas, and developed with force the theory that the first duty
+of a woman was to be, in all things, refined elegance. He explained,
+with endless detail, what the life of an absolutely correct fashionable
+woman was, what it was to be an absolutely fashionable woman. He
+triumphantly took _his fashionable woman_ from Paris to Trouville, from
+Trouville to Lake Como, from Lake Como to Monte-Carlo. He drew the
+trunks of the fashionable woman, marvellous trunks, which were heaped up
+in the vestibules of first-class hotels. Besides, he had also invented a
+trunk.
+
+Then, very tactfully, he put Martha through a little examination, which
+had nothing in common with the examinations of the Sorbonne or the Hotel
+de Ville.
+
+"Did she skate?" That's what he wanted to know first! He was himself a
+very distinguished skater. He needed a sport-loving wife. He had but
+just pronounced the word skating when suddenly the young brother (how
+precious little brothers sometimes are) exclaimed: "Ah, it's sister who
+skates well! She makes figures-of-eight. And who swims well, too--like a
+fish!"
+
+She skated, she swam, she was sport-loving. Raoul said to the young
+girl, with deep enthusiasm: "I congratulate you. A woman who can't swim
+isn't a woman."
+
+And he added, with increasing energy:
+
+"A woman who can't skate isn't a woman."
+
+When he had a strong thought, he willingly used it again in a brief but
+striking form.
+
+Martha's face beamed with joy. She was really a woman. Never had a
+sweeter word been said to her.
+
+Night had come; it was necessary, therefore, to tear one's self away
+from that exquisite conversation, and return to the parlor-car. Young
+Derame was going to sleep; so they began to prepare for the trip through
+the train.
+
+Here is the platform, the platform of the morning, the platform of the
+first meeting. She walks ahead of him, and in a whisper he says to her,
+"It's here that this morning--"
+
+She turns round, and smiling repeats, "Yes, it's here that this
+morning--"
+
+Always with that little English accent which never leaves her, even when
+she is most agitated.
+
+_It is here that this morning_--That was all, and it said all. A
+delightful evening. No more rain, no more dust. Already there was the
+soft, balmy air of the South. The moon lit that idyl at full speed.
+Spring-time everywhere, in the sky and in the hearts.
+
+"She loves me," he said to himself.
+
+"He adores me," she said to herself.
+
+How right they were to give themselves up thus, without a struggle,
+without resistance, to the inclination which carried them, quite
+naturally, towards each other. There had been between them, from the
+first word, so perfect, so complete a community of tastes, ideas, and
+sentiments. They were so well made, this little puppet and this little
+doll, to roll off, both together, gloriously in the "Chamblard coupe,"
+so well matched to walk in the world, accomplishing mechanically,
+automatically, at the right hour, in the prescribed costume, everywhere
+where it was correct to take pleasure, all the functions of fashionable
+life, and all the rituals of worldly worship.
+
+They arrive in the parlor-car. The shades are drawn over the lamps;
+travellers are stiff, drowsy, and asleep in the big red arm-chairs.
+
+"Change places," Raoul whispers to Maurice; "sit beside her. I am going
+to sit by the mother; I must speak to her."
+
+Maurice lent himself to this manoeuvre with perfect docility, Martha
+did not understand it. Why did he abandon her? Why was he talking to her
+mother, and so low, so low that she couldn't hear? What was he saying?
+What was he saying?
+
+This is what he said between Montelimar, 8.35, and Pierrelatte, 8.55:
+
+"Listen to me, madam, listen to me. I am an honest man; I wish, I
+ought, to let you know the situation, the entire situation. Let us first
+settle an important point. My father knows M. Derame."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know."
+
+"Another more important point. Let us mention the essential things
+first. My father is very rich."
+
+"I know, I know that too."
+
+"Good, then, very good. I continue. I left Paris this morning, and I
+have here in my pocket a ticket for cabin No. 27 on the _Traonaddy_,
+which leaves to-morrow at four o'clock from the Bay of Joliette for
+Suez, Aden, Colombo, and Singapore, and I shall go on board to-morrow at
+four o'clock if you don't let me hope to become your son-in-law."
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"Don't move, madam, don't move. Mlle. Martha is pretending to sleep, but
+she isn't sleeping; she is watching us, and I haven't said all yet. I am
+but just beginning. You are going to answer me--oh, I know it--that you
+don't know me, that Mlle. Martha doesn't know me. Allow me to tell you
+that Mlle. Martha and myself know each other better than three-fourths
+of engaged couples on the day of their marriage. You know how it is
+usually done. A rapid glance from afar in a theatre--one brings good
+lorgnettes, one examines. 'How do you like him?' 'Fairly, fairly.'
+Then, several days later, at a ball, in the midst of the figures of the
+quadrille, several gasping, breathless phrases are exchanged. Then a
+meeting in a picture-gallery. There, there is more intimacy, because it
+takes place in a small room. It happened to me with a young provincial.
+I had pegged away that morning at the Joanne guide, so as to be able to
+find something to say about the Raphaels and the Murillos. And at the
+end of several interviews of that sort it is over, one has made
+acquaintance, one suits the other, and the marriage is decided. Mlle.
+Martha and I are already old comrades. In the first place, to begin
+with, this morning at half-past eleven she fell into my arms."
+
+"My daughter in your arms!"
+
+"Don't jump, madam; Mlle. Martha will see you jump."
+
+Martha had, in fact, closely followed the scene with half-shut eyes, and
+said to herself, "Good gracious! what is he telling mamma? She is
+obliged to hold on to the arms of her seat to keep herself from jumping
+up."
+
+"Yes, madam, in my arms; by the greatest, by the most fortunate of
+accidents, we stumbled over each other on one of the platforms of the
+train. And since I have seen her, not in the false light of a theatre
+or a gallery, but in the full glare of sunlight. I have seen her at
+lunch, munching nuts with the prettiest teeth there are in the world; I
+have seen her, just now, in the moonlight; and I know that she skates,
+and I know that she swims, and I know she would like to have a
+pearl-gray coupe, and she ought to have it. And now I admire her in the
+semi-obscurity. Ravishing! isn't she ravishing?"
+
+"Sir, never has a mother found herself--"
+
+"In such a situation? I acknowledge it, madam, and for that very reason
+you must get out of the situation quickly; it's evident that it can't be
+prolonged."
+
+"That's true--"
+
+"Here is what I propose to you. You go to the Hotel de Noailles; I, too,
+naturally. You have all the morning to-morrow to talk to Mlle. Martha,
+and the telephone to talk through to M. Derame. You know who I am. You
+have seen me, too, in the daylight. I have talked--talked a great deal.
+You could, you and Mlle. Martha, find out what I am, what I think. Well,
+to-morrow--what time do you expect to breakfast to-morrow?"
+
+"But I don't know. I assure you that I am choking, upset, overcome."
+
+"Let us settle on an hour all the same; eleven o'clock--will you, at
+eleven?"
+
+"If you wish."
+
+"Well, to-morrow at eleven o'clock I shall be in the dining-room of the
+hotel. If you say 'Go' I shall go; if you say 'Stay' I shall stay. Don't
+answer me; take time to reflect; it's worth while. Till to-morrow,
+madam, till to-morrow at eleven."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the morning very interesting communications passed between Paris and
+Marseilles.
+
+When Mme. Derame entered the dining-room of the hotel at eleven o'clock,
+Raoul went straight to her, and the cavalryman, always adroit in his
+manoeuvres, had taken possession of Mlle. Martha. A short dialogue
+ensued between Raoul and Mme. Derame, who was much agitated.
+
+"They tell me there are boats every fortnight between Indo-China and
+Marseilles--you could put off your departure--merely taking another
+boat--"
+
+"Ah, thanks, madam, thanks!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At two o'clock the Derames and young Chamblard accompanied Maurice to
+the boat for Africa. On the deck of the steamer Raoul said to his
+friend:
+
+"It's understood that you are to be best man. On arriving, ask your
+colonel for leave at once. It will take place, I think, in six weeks."
+
+Raoul was mistaken. It was decidedly an express marriage; five weeks
+were sufficient.
+
+When they were mounting the steps of the Madeleine, Raoul said to
+Martha:
+
+"Twelve o'clock."
+
+"What are you thinking of?"
+
+"Ah, you too."
+
+"Twelve, the hour of the platform, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, that's it."
+
+They began to laugh, but quickly became serious, and made an
+irreproachable entry into church.
+
+They were looked at eagerly, and on all sides the following remarks were
+exchanged:
+
+"You know it's a love-match." "Yes, it appears it was a meeting on the
+train." "A lightning-stroke!" "What a charming affair!" "And so rare!"
+"Oh yes, so rare! A love-match! A true love-match!"
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Parisian Points of View, by Ludovic Halevy
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARISIAN POINTS OF VIEW ***
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