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diff --git a/15465.txt b/15465.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3857a8d --- /dev/null +++ b/15465.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4844 @@ +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 *** + +***** This file should be named 15465.txt or 15465.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/4/6/15465/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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