diff options
Diffstat (limited to '1556-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 1556-0.txt | 5685 |
1 files changed, 5685 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/1556-0.txt b/1556-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfbdd7b --- /dev/null +++ b/1556-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5685 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Marriage Contract, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Marriage Contract + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: December, 1998 [Etext #1556] +Posting Date: February 26, 2010 +Last Updated: November 22, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Rossini. + + + + + + +THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT + + + + +CHAPTER I. PRO AND CON + + +Monsieur de Manerville, the father, was a worthy Norman gentleman, +well known to the Marechael de Richelieu, who married him to one of the +richest heiresses of Bordeaux in the days when the old duke reigned in +Guienne as governor. The Norman then sold the estate he owned in Bessin, +and became a Gascon, allured by the beauty of the chateau de Lanstrac, +a delightful residence owned by his wife. During the last days of the +reign of Louis XV., he bought the post of major of the Gate Guards, and +lived till 1813, having by great good luck escaped the dangers of the +Revolution in the following manner. + +Toward the close of the year, 1790, he went to Martinque, where his wife +had interests, leaving the management of his property in Gascogne to an +honest man, a notary’s clerk, named Mathias, who was inclined to--or +at any rate did--give into the new ideas. On his return the Comte de +Manerville found his possessions intact and well-managed. This sound +result was the fruit produced by grafting the Gascon on the Norman. + +Madame de Manerville died in 1810. Having learned the importance of +worldly goods through the dissipations of his youth, and, giving them, +like many another old man, a higher place than they really hold in life, +Monsieur de Manerville became increasingly economical, miserly, and +sordid. Without reflecting that the avarice of parents prepares the way +for the prodigalities of children, he allowed almost nothing to his son, +although that son was an only child. + +Paul de Manerville, coming home from the college of Vendome in 1810, +lived under close paternal discipline for three years. The tyranny by +which the old man of seventy oppressed his heir influenced, necessarily, +a heart and a character which were not yet formed. Paul, the son, +without lacking the physical courage which is vital in the air of +Gascony, dared not struggle against his father, and consequently lost +that faculty of resistance which begets moral courage. His thwarted +feelings were driven to the depths of his heart, where they remained +without expression; later, when he felt them to be out of harmony with +the maxims of the world, he could only think rightly and act mistakenly. +He was capable of fighting for a mere word or look, yet he trembled at +the thought of dismissing a servant,--his timidity showing itself in +those contests only which required a persistent will. Capable of doing +great things to fly from persecution, he would never have prevented it +by systematic opposition, nor have faced it with the steady employment +of force of will. Timid in thought, bold in actions, he long preserved +that inward simplicity which makes a man the dupe and the voluntary +victim of things against which certain souls hesitate to revolt, +preferring to endure them rather than complain. He was, in point of +fact, imprisoned by his father’s old mansion, for he had not enough +money to consort with young men; he envied their pleasures while unable +to share them. + +The old gentleman took him every evening, in an old carriage drawn +by ill-harnessed old horses, attended by ill-dressed old servants, to +royalist houses, where he met a society composed of the relics of the +parliamentary nobility and the martial nobility. These two nobilities +coalescing after the Revolution, had now transformed themselves into +a landed aristocracy. Crushed by the vast and swelling fortunes of the +maritime cities, this Faubourg Saint-Germain of Bordeaux responded +by lofty disdain to the sumptuous displays of commerce, government +administrations, and the military. Too young to understand social +distinctions and the necessities underlying the apparent assumption +which they create, Paul was bored to death among these ancients, unaware +that the connections of his youth would eventually secure to him that +aristocratic pre-eminence which Frenchmen will forever desire. + +He found some slight compensations for the dulness of these evenings in +certain manual exercises which always delight young men, and which his +father enjoined upon him. The old gentleman considered that to know the +art of fencing and the use of arms, to ride well on horseback, to play +tennis, to acquire good manners,--in short, to possess all the frivolous +accomplishments of the old nobility,--made a young man of the present +day a finished gentleman. Accordingly, Paul took a fencing-lesson every +morning, went to the riding-school, and practised in a pistol-gallery. +The rest of his time was spent in reading novels, for his father would +never have allowed the more abstruse studies now considered necessary to +finish an education. + +So monotonous a life would soon have killed the poor youth if the death +of the old man had not delivered him from this tyranny at the moment +when it was becoming intolerable. Paul found himself in possession of +considerable capital, accumulated by his father’s avarice, together with +landed estates in the best possible condition. But he now held Bordeaux +in horror; neither did he like Lanstrac, where his father had taken him +to spend the summers, employing his whole time from morning till night +in hunting. + +As soon as the estate was fairly settled, the young heir, eager for +enjoyment, bought consols with his capital, left the management of the +landed property to old Mathias, his father’s notary, and spent the next +six years away from Bordeaux. At first he was attached to the French +embassy at Naples; after that he was secretary of legation at Madrid, +and then in London,--making in this way the tour of Europe. + +After seeing the world and life, after losing several illusions, after +dissipating all the loose capital which his father had amassed, there +came a time when, in order to continue his way of life, Paul was forced +to draw upon the territorial revenues which his notary was laying by. At +this critical moment, seized by one of the so-called virtuous impulses, +he determined to leave Paris, return to Bordeaux, regulate his affairs, +lead the life of a country gentleman at Lanstrac, improve his property, +marry, and become, in the end, a deputy. + +Paul was a count; nobility was once more of matrimonial value; he could, +and he ought to make a good marriage. While many women desire a title, +many others like to marry a man to whom a knowledge of life is familiar. +Now Paul had acquired, in exchange for the sum of seven hundred thousand +francs squandered in six years, that possession, which cannot be bought +and is practically of more value than gold and silver; a knowledge +which exacts long study, probation, examinations, friends, enemies, +acquaintances, certain manners, elegance of form and demeanor, a +graceful and euphonious name,--a knowledge, moreover, which means +many love-affairs, duels, bets lost on a race-course, disillusions, +deceptions, annoyances, toils, and a vast variety of undigested +pleasures. In short, he had become what is called elegant. But in spite +of his mad extravagance he had never made himself a mere fashionable +man. In the burlesque army of men of the world, the man of fashion holds +the place of a marshal of France, the man of elegance is the equivalent +of a lieutenant-general. Paul enjoyed his lesser reputation, +of elegance, and knew well how to sustain it. His servants were +well-dressed, his equipages were cited, his suppers had a certain vogue; +in short, his bachelor establishment was counted among the seven or +eight whose splendor equalled that of the finest houses in Paris. + +But--he had not caused the wretchedness of any woman; he gambled without +losing; his luck was not notorious; he was far too upright to deceive +or mislead any one, no matter who, even a wanton; never did he leave +his billets-doux lying about, and he possessed no coffer or desk for +love-letters which his friends were at liberty to read while he tied +his cravat or trimmed his beard. Moreover, not willing to dip into his +Guienne property, he had not that bold extravagance which leads to great +strokes and calls attention at any cost to the proceedings of a young +man. Neither did he borrow money, but he had the folly to lend to +friends, who then deserted him and spoke of him no more either for good +or evil. He seemed to have regulated his dissipations methodically. The +secret of his character lay in his father’s tyranny, which had made him, +as it were, a social mongrel. + +So, one morning, he said to a friend named de Marsay, who afterwards +became celebrated:-- + +“My dear fellow, life has a meaning.” + +“You must be twenty-seven years of age before you can find it out,” + replied de Marsay, laughing. + +“Well, I am twenty-seven; and precisely because I am twenty-seven I mean +to live the life of a country gentleman at Lanstrac. I’ll transport +my belongings to Bordeaux into my father’s old mansion, and I’ll spend +three months of the year in Paris in this house, which I shall keep.” + +“Will you marry?” + +“I will marry.” + +“I’m your friend, as you know, my old Paul,” said de Marsay, after a +moment’s silence, “and I say to you: settle down into a worthy father +and husband and you’ll be ridiculous for the rest of your days. If you +could be happy and ridiculous, the thing might be thought of; but +you will not be happy. You haven’t a strong enough wrist to drive a +household. I’ll do you justice and say you are a perfect horseman; no +one knows as well as you how to pick up or thrown down the reins, and +make a horse prance, and sit firm to the saddle. But, my dear fellow, +marriage is another thing. I see you now, led along at a slapping +pace by Madame la Comtesse de Manerville, going whither you would not, +oftener at a gallop than a trot, and presently unhorsed!--yes, unhorsed +into a ditch and your legs broken. Listen to me. You still have some +forty-odd thousand francs a year from your property in the Gironde. +Good. Take your horses and servants and furnish your house in Bordeaux; +you can be king of Bordeaux, you can promulgate there the edicts that +we put forth in Paris; you can be the correspondent of our stupidities. +Very good. Play the rake in the provinces; better still, commit follies; +follies may win you celebrity. But--don’t marry. Who marries now-a-days? +Only merchants, for the sake of their capital, or to be two to drag the +cart; only peasants who want to produce children to work for them; only +brokers and notaries who want a wife’s ‘dot’ to pay for their practice; +only miserable kings who are forced to continue their miserable +dynasties. But we are exempt from the pack, and you want to shoulder it! +And why DO you want to marry? You ought to give your best friend +your reasons. In the first place, if you marry an heiress as rich as +yourself, eighty thousand francs a year for two is not the same thing as +forty thousand francs a year for one, because the two are soon three or +four when the children come. You haven’t surely any love for that silly +race of Manerville which would only hamper you? Are you ignorant of what +a father and mother have to be? Marriage, my old Paul, is the silliest +of all the social immolations; our children alone profit by it, and +don’t know its price until their horses are nibbling the flowers on our +grave. Do you regret your father, that old tyrant who made your first +years wretched? How can you be sure that your children will love you? +The very care you take of their education, your precautions for their +happiness, your necessary sternness will lessen their affection. +Children love a weak or a prodigal father, whom they will despise in +after years. You’ll live betwixt fear and contempt. No man is a good +head of a family merely because he wants to be. Look round on all our +friends and name to me one whom you would like to have for a son. We +have known a good many who dishonor their names. Children, my dear Paul, +are the most difficult kind of merchandise to take care of. Yours, you +think, will be angels; well, so be it! Have you ever sounded the gulf +which lies between the lives of a bachelor and a married man? Listen. As +a bachelor you can say to yourself: ‘I shall never exhibit more than +a certain amount of the ridiculous; the public will think of me what +I choose it to think.’ Married, you’ll drop into the infinitude of the +ridiculous! Bachelor, you can make your own happiness; you enjoy some +to-day, you do without it to-morrow; married, you must take it as it +comes; and the day you want it you will have to go without it. Marry, +and you’ll grow a blockhead; you’ll calculate dowries; you’ll talk +morality, public and religious; you’ll think young men immoral and +dangerous; in short, you’ll become a social academician. It’s pitiable! +The old bachelor whose property the heirs are waiting for, who fights +to his last breath with his nurse for a spoonful of drink, is blest in +comparison with a married man. I’m not speaking of all that will +happen to annoy, bore, irritate, coerce, oppose, tyrannize, narcotize, +paralyze, and idiotize a man in marriage, in that struggle of two beings +always in one another’s presence, bound forever, who have coupled each +other under the strange impression that they were suited. No, to tell +you those things would be merely a repetition of Boileau, and we know +him by heart. Still, I’ll forgive your absurd idea if you will promise +me to marry “en grand seigneur”; to entail your property; to have two +legitimate children, to give your wife a house and household absolutely +distinct from yours; to meet her only in society, and never to return +from a journey without sending her a courier to announce it. Two hundred +thousand francs a year will suffice for such a life and your antecedents +will enable you to marry some rich English woman hungry for a title. +That’s an aristocratic life which seems to me thoroughly French; the +only life in which we can retain the respect and friendship of a woman; +the only life which distinguishes a man from the present crowd,--in +short, the only life for which a young man should even think of +resigning his bachelor blessings. Thus established, the Comte de +Manerville may advise his epoch, place himself above the world, and be +nothing less than a minister or an ambassador. Ridicule can never touch +him; he has gained the social advantages of marriage while keeping all +the privileges of a bachelor.” + +“But, my good friend, I am not de Marsay; I am plainly, as you yourself +do me the honor to say, Paul de Manerville, worthy father and husband, +deputy of the Centre, possibly peer of France,--a destiny extremely +commonplace; but I am modest and I resign myself.” + +“Yes, but your wife,” said the pitiless de Marsay, “will she resign +herself?” + +“My wife, my dear fellow, will do as I wish.” + +“Ah! my poor friend, is that where you are? Adieu, Paul. Henceforth, I +refuse to respect you. One word more, however, for I cannot agree coldly +to your abdication. Look and see in what the strength of our position +lies. A bachelor with only six thousand francs a year remaining to him +has at least his reputation for elegance and the memory of success. +Well, even that fantastic shadow has enormous value in it. Life still +offers many chances to the unmarried man. Yes, he can aim at anything. +But marriage, Paul, is the social ‘Thus far shalt thou go and no +farther.’ Once married you can never be anything but what you then +are--unless your wife should deign to care for you.” + +“But,” said Paul, “you are crushing me down with exceptional theories. I +am tired of living for others; of having horses merely to exhibit them; +of doing all things for the sake of what may be said of them; of wasting +my substance to keep fools from crying out: ‘Dear, dear! Paul is still +driving the same carriage. What has he done with his fortune? Does +he squander it? Does he gamble at the Bourse? No, he’s a millionaire. +Madame such a one is mad about him. He sent to England for a harness +which is certainly the handsomest in all Paris. The four-horse +equipages of Messieurs de Marsay and de Manerville were much noticed +at Longchamps; the harness was perfect’--in short, the thousand silly +things with which a crowd of idiots lead us by the nose. Believe me, my +dear Henri, I admire your power, but I don’t envy it. You know how to +judge of life; you think and act as a statesman; you are able to place +yourself above all ordinary laws, received ideas, adopted conventions, +and acknowledged prejudices; in short, you can grasp the profits of +a situation in which I should find nothing but ill-luck. Your cool, +systematic, possibly true deductions are, to the eyes of the masses, +shockingly immoral. I belong to the masses. I must play my game of life +according to the rules of the society in which I am forced to live. +While putting yourself above all human things on peaks of ice, you still +have feelings; but as for me, I should freeze to death. The life of that +great majority, to which I belong in my commonplace way, is made up +of emotions of which I now have need. Often a man coquets with a dozen +women and obtains none. Then, whatever be his strength, his cleverness, +his knowledge of the world, he undergoes convulsions, in which he is +crushed as between two gates. For my part, I like the peaceful chances +and changes of life; I want that wholesome existence in which we find a +woman always at our side.” + +“A trifle indecorous, your marriage!” exclaimed de Marsay. + +Paul was not to be put out of countenance, and continued: “Laugh if you +like; I shall feel myself a happy man when my valet enters my room +in the morning and says: ‘Madame is awaiting monsieur for breakfast’; +happier still at night, when I return to find a heart--” + +“Altogether indecorous, my dear Paul. You are not yet moral enough to +marry.” + +“--a heart in which to confide my interests and my secrets. I wish +to live in such close union with a woman that our affection shall not +depend upon a yes or a no, or be open to the disillusions of love. In +short, I have the necessary courage to become, as you say, a worthy +husband and father. I feel myself fitted for family joys; I wish to put +myself under the conditions prescribed by society; I desire to have a +wife and children.” + +“You remind me of a hive of honey-bees! But go your way, you’ll be a +dupe all your life. Ha, ha! you wish to marry to have a wife! In other +words, you wish to solve satisfactorily to your own profit the most +difficult problem invented by those bourgeois morals which were created +by the French Revolution; and, what is more, you mean to begin your +attempt by a life of retirement. Do you think your wife won’t crave the +life you say you despise? Will _she_ be disgusted with it, as you are? +If you won’t accept the noble conjugality just formulated for your +benefit by your friend de Marsay, listen, at any rate, to his final +advice. Remain a bachelor for the next thirteen years; amuse yourself +like a lost soul; then, at forty, on your first attack of gout, marry a +widow of thirty-six. Then you may possibly be happy. If you now take a +young girl to wife, you’ll die a madman.” + +“Ah ca! tell me why!” cried Paul, somewhat piqued. + +“My dear fellow,” replied de Marsay, “Boileau’s satire against women is +a tissue of poetical commonplaces. Why shouldn’t women have defects? Why +condemn them for having the most obvious thing in human nature? To my +mind, the problem of marriage is not at all at the point where Boileau +puts it. Do you suppose that marriage is the same thing as love, and +that being a man suffices to make a wife love you? Have you gathered +nothing in your boudoir experience but pleasant memories? I tell you +that everything in our bachelor life leads to fatal errors in the +married man unless he is a profound observer of the human heart. In the +happy days of his youth a man, by the caprice of our customs, is always +lucky; he triumphs over women who are all ready to be triumphed over +and who obey their own desires. One thing after another--the obstacles +created by the laws, the sentiments and natural defences of women--all +engender a mutuality of sensations which deceives superficial persons as +to their future relations in marriage, where obstacles no longer exist, +where the wife submits to love instead of permitting it, and frequently +repulses pleasure instead of desiring it. Then, the whole aspect of a +man’s life changes. The bachelor, who is free and without a care, need +never fear repulsion; in marriage, repulsion is almost certain and +irreparable. It may be possible for a lover to make a woman reverse an +unfavorable decision, but such a change, my dear Paul, is the Waterloo +of husbands. Like Napoleon, the husband is thenceforth condemned to +victories which, in spite of their number, do not prevent the first +defeat from crushing him. The woman, so flattered by the perseverance, +so delighted with the ardor of a lover, calls the same things brutality +in a husband. You, who talk of marrying, and who will marry, have you +ever meditated on the Civil Code? I myself have never muddied my feet +in that hovel of commentators, that garret of gossip, called the +Law-school. I have never so much as opened the Code; but I see its +application on the vitals of society. The Code, my dear Paul, makes +woman a ward; it considers her a child, a minor. Now how must we govern +children? By fear. In that one word, Paul, is the curb of the +beast. Now, feel your own pulse! Have you the strength to play the +tyrant,--you, so gentle, so kind a friend, so confiding; you, at whom +I have laughed, but whom I love, and love enough to reveal to you my +science? For this is science. Yes, it proceeds from a science which +the Germans are already calling Anthropology. Ah! if I had not already +solved the mystery of life by pleasure, if I had not a profound +antipathy for those who think instead of act, if I did not despise the +ninnies who are silly enough to believe in the truth of a book, when +the sands of the African deserts are made of the ashes of I know not +how many unknown and pulverized Londons, Romes, Venices, and Parises, I +would write a book on modern marriages made under the influence of the +Christian system, and I’d stick a lantern on that heap of sharp stones +among which lie the votaries of the social ‘multiplicamini.’ But the +question is, Does humanity require even an hour of my time? And besides, +isn’t the more reasonable use of ink that of snaring hearts by writing +love-letters?--Well, shall you bring the Comtesse de Manerville here, +and let us see her?” + +“Perhaps,” said Paul. + +“We shall still be friends,” said de Marsay. + +“If--” replied Paul. + +“Don’t be uneasy; we will treat you politely, as Maison-Rouge treated +the English at Fontenoy.” + + + + +CHAPTER II. THE PINK OF FASHION + + +Though the foregoing conversation affected the Comte de Manerville +somewhat, he made it a point of duty to carry out his intentions, and he +returned to Bordeaux during the winter of the year 1821. + +The expenses he incurred in restoring and furnishing his family mansion +sustained the reputation for elegance which had preceded him. Introduced +through his former connections to the royalist society of Bordeaux, to +which he belonged as much by his personal opinions as by his name and +fortune, he soon obtained a fashionable pre-eminence. His knowledge +of life, his manners, his Parisian acquirements enchanted the Faubourg +Saint-Germain of Bordeaux. An old marquise made use of a term formerly +in vogue at court to express the flowery beauty of the fops and beaux of +the olden time, whose language and demeanor were social laws: she called +him “the pink of fashion.” The liberal clique caught up the word and +used it satirically as a nickname, while the royalist party continued to +employ it in good faith. + +Paul de Manerville acquitted himself gloriously of the obligations +imposed by his flowery title. It happened to him, as to many a mediocre +actor, that the day when the public granted him their full attention he +became, one may almost say, superior. Feeling at his ease, he displayed +the fine qualities which accompanied his defects. His wit had +nothing sharp or bitter in it; his manners were not supercilious; his +intercourse with women expressed the respect they like,--it was neither +too deferential, nor too familiar; his foppery went no farther than a +care for his personal appearance which made him agreeable; he showed +consideration for rank; he allowed young men a certain freedom, to which +his Parisian experience assigned due limits; though skilful with sword +and pistol, he was noted for a feminine gentleness for which others were +grateful. His medium height and plumpness (which had not yet increased +into obesity, an obstacle to personal elegance) did not prevent his +outer man from playing the part of a Bordelais Brummell. A white skin +tinged with the hues of health, handsome hands and feet, blue eyes with +long lashes, black hair, graceful motions, a chest voice which kept to +its middle tones and vibrated in the listener’s heart, harmonized well +with his sobriquet. Paul was indeed that delicate flower which needs +such careful culture, the qualities of which display themselves only in +a moist and suitable soil,--a flower which rough treatment dwarfs, which +the hot sun burns, and a frost lays low. He was one of those men made +to receive happiness, rather than to give it; who have something of the +woman in their nature, wishing to be divined, understood, encouraged; in +short, a man to whom conjugal love ought to come as a providence. + +If such a character creates difficulties in private life, it is gracious +and full of attraction for the world. Consequently, Paul had great +success in the narrow social circle of the provinces, where his mind, +always, so to speak, in half-tints, was better appreciated than in +Paris. + +The arrangement of his house and the restoration of the chateau de +Lanstrac, where he introduced the comfort and luxury of an English +country-house, absorbed the capital saved by the notary during the +preceding six years. Reduced now to his strict income of forty-odd +thousand a year, he thought himself wise and prudent in so regulating +his household as not to exceed it. + +After publicly exhibiting his equipages, entertaining the most +distinguished young men of the place, and giving various hunting parties +on the estate at Lanstrac, Paul saw very plainly that provincial life +would never do without marriage. Too young to employ his time in +miserly occupations, or in trying to interest himself in the speculative +improvements in which provincials sooner or later engage (compelled +thereto by the necessity of establishing their children), he soon felt +the need of that variety of distractions a habit of which becomes +at last the very life of a Parisian. A name to preserve, property to +transmit to heirs, social relations to be created by a household +where the principal families of the neighborhood could assemble, and +a weariness of all irregular connections, were not, however, the +determining reasons of his matrimonial desires. From the time he first +returned to the provinces he had been secretly in love with the queen of +Bordeaux, the great beauty, Mademoiselle Evangelista. + +About the beginning of the century, a rich Spaniard, named Evangelista, +established himself in Bordeaux, where his letters of recommendation, +as well as his large fortune, gave him an entrance to the salons of +the nobility. His wife contributed greatly to maintain him in the good +graces of an aristocracy which may perhaps have adopted him in the first +instance merely to pique the society of the class below them. Madame +Evangelista, who belonged to the Casa-Reale, an illustrious family of +Spain, was a Creole, and, like all women served by slaves, she lived as +a great lady, knew nothing of the value of money, repressed no whims, +even the most expensive, finding them ever satisfied by an adoring +husband who generously concealed from her knowledge the running-gear of +the financial machine. Happy in finding her pleased with Bordeaux, where +his interests obliged him to live, the Spaniard bought a house, set up a +household, received in much style, and gave many proofs of possessing a +fine taste in all things. Thus, from 1800 to 1812, Monsieur and Madame +Evangelista were objects of great interest to the community of Bordeaux. + +The Spaniard died in 1813, leaving his wife a widow at thirty-two years +of age, with an immense fortune and the prettiest little girl in the +world, a child of eleven, who promised to be, and did actually become, +a most accomplished young woman. Clever as Madame Evangelista was, the +Restoration altered her position; the royalist party cleared its ranks +and several of the old families left Bordeaux. Though the head and hand +of her husband were lacking in the direction of her affairs, for which +she had hitherto shown the indifference of a Creole and the inaptitude +of a lackadaisical woman, she was determined to make no change in her +manner of living. At the period when Paul resolved to return to his +native town, Mademoiselle Natalie Evangelista was a remarkably beautiful +young girl, and, apparently, the richest match in Bordeaux, where the +steady diminution of her mother’s capital was unknown. In order to +prolong her reign, Madame Evangelista had squandered enormous sums. +Brilliant fetes and the continuation of an almost regal style of living +kept the public in its past belief as to the wealth of the Spanish +family. + +Natalie was now in her nineteenth year, but no proposal of marriage +had as yet reached her mother’s ear. Accustomed to gratify her fancies, +Mademoiselle Evangelista wore cashmeres and jewels, and lived in a style +of luxury which alarmed all speculative suitors in a region and at a +period when sons were as calculating as their parents. The fatal remark, +“None but a prince can afford to marry Mademoiselle Evangelista,” + circulated among the salons and the cliques. Mothers of families, +dowagers who had granddaughters to establish, young girls jealous of +Natalie, whose elegance and tyrannical beauty annoyed them, took pains +to envenom this opinion with treacherous remarks. When they heard a +possible suitor say with ecstatic admiration, as Natalie entered a +ball-room, “Heavens, how beautiful she is!” “Yes,” the mammas would +answer, “but expensive.” If some new-comer thought Mademoiselle +Evangelista bewitching and said to a marriageable man that he couldn’t +do it better, “Who would be bold enough,” some woman would reply, “to +marry a girl whose mother gives her a thousand francs a month for her +toilet,--a girl who has horses and a maid of her own, and wears laces? +Yes, her ‘peignoirs’ are trimmed with mechlin. The price of her washing +would support the household of a clerk. She wears pelerines in the +morning which actually cost six francs to get up.” + +These, and other speeches said occasionally in the form of praise +extinguished the desires that some men might have had to marry the +beautiful Spanish girl. Queen of every ball, accustomed to flattery, +“blasee” with the smiles and the admiration which followed her every +step, Natalie, nevertheless, knew nothing of life. She lived as the +bird which flies, as the flower that blooms, finding every one about her +eager to do her will. She was ignorant of the price of things; she +knew neither the value of money, nor whence it came, how it should be +managed, and how spent. Possibly she thought that every household had +cooks and coachmen, lady’s-maids and footmen, as the fields have hay and +the trees their fruits. To her, beggars and paupers, fallen trees and +waste lands seemed in the same category. Pampered and petted as her +mother’s hope, no fatigue was allowed to spoil her pleasure. Thus she +bounded through life as a courser on his steppe, unbridled and unshod. + +Six month’s after Paul’s arrival the Pink of Fashion and the Queen of +Balls met in presence of the highest society of the town of Bordeaux. +The two flowers looked at each other with apparent coldness, and +mutually thought each other charming. Interested in watching the effects +of the meeting, Madame Evangelista divined in the expression of Paul’s +eyes the feelings within him, and she muttered to herself, “He will be +my son-in-law.” Paul, on the other hand, said to himself, as he looked +at Natalie, “She will be my wife.” + +The wealth of the Evangelistas, proverbial in Bordeaux, had remained in +Paul’s mind as a memory of his childhood. Thus the pecuniary conditions +were known to him from the start, without necessitating those +discussions and inquiries which are as repugnant to a timid mind as to a +proud one. When some persons attempting to say to Paul a few flattering +phrases as to Natalie’s manner, language, and beauty, ending by remarks, +cruelly calculated to deter him, on the lavish extravagance of the +Evangelistas, the Pink of Fashion replied with a disdain that was +well-deserved by such provincial pettiness. This method of receiving +such speeches soon silenced them; for he now set the tone to the ideas +and language as well as to the manners of those about him. He had +imported from his travels a certain development of the Britannic +personality with its icy barriers, also a tone of Byronic pessimism +as to life, together with English plate, boot-polish, ponies, yellow +gloves, cigars, and the habit of galloping. + +It thus happened that Paul escaped the discouragements hitherto +presented to marriageable men by dowagers and young girls. Madame +Evangelista began by asking him to formal dinners on various occasions. +The Pink of Fashion would not, of course, miss festivities to which none +but the most distinguished young men of the town were bidden. In spite +of the coldness that Paul assumed, which deceived neither mother +nor daughter, he was drawn, step by step, into the path of marriage. +Sometimes as he passed in his tilbury, or rode by on his fine English +horse, he heard the young men of his acquaintance say to one another:-- + +“There’s a lucky man. He is rich and handsome, and is to marry, so they +say, Mademoiselle Evangelista. There are some men for whom the world +seems made.” + +When he met the Evangelistas he felt proud of the particular distinction +which mother and daughter imparted to their bows. If Paul had not +secretly, within his heart, fallen in love with Mademoiselle Natalie, +society would certainly have married him to her in spite of himself. +Society, which never causes good, is the accomplice of much evil; then +when it beholds the evil it has hatched maternally, it rejects and +revenges it. Society in Bordeaux, attributing a “dot” of a million to +Mademoiselle Evangelista, bestowed it upon Paul without awaiting the +consent of either party. Their fortunes, so it was said, agreed as well +as their persons. Paul had the same habits of luxury and elegance in +the midst of which Natalie had been brought up. He had just arranged for +himself a house such as no other man in Bordeaux could have offered her. +Accustomed to Parisian expenses and the caprices of Parisian women, he +alone was fitted to meet the pecuniary difficulties which were likely to +follow this marriage with a girl who was as much of a Creole and a great +lady as her mother. Where they themselves, remarked the marriageable +men, would have been ruined, the Comte de Manerville, rich as he was, +could evade disaster. In short, the marriage was made. Persons in +the highest royalist circles said a few engaging words to Paul which +flattered his vanity:-- + +“Every one gives you Mademoiselle Evangelista. If you marry her you will +do well. You could not find, even in Paris, a more delightful girl. She +is beautiful, graceful, elegant, and takes after the Casa-Reales through +her mother. You will make a charming couple; you have the same tastes, +the same desires in life, and you will certainly have the most agreeable +house in Bordeaux. Your wife need only bring her night-cap; all is ready +for her. You are fortunate indeed in such a mother-in-law. A woman of +intelligence, and very adroit, she will be a great help to you in +public life, to which you ought to aspire. Besides, she has sacrificed +everything to her daughter, whom she adores, and Natalie will, no doubt, +prove a good wife, for she loves her mother. You must soon bring the +matter to a conclusion.” + +“That is all very well,” replied Paul, who, in spite of his love, was +desirous of keeping his freedom of action, “but I must be sure that the +conclusion shall be a happy one.” + +He now went frequently to Madame Evangelista’s, partly to occupy his +vacant hours, which were harder for him to employ than for most men. +There alone he breathed the atmosphere of grandeur and luxury to which +he was accustomed. + +At forty years of age, Madame Evangelista was beautiful, with the +beauty of those glorious summer sunsets which crown a cloudless day. Her +spotless reputation had given an endless topic of conversation to the +Bordeaux cliques; the curiosity of the women was all the more lively +because the widow gave signs of the temperament which makes a Spanish +woman and a Creole particularly noted. She had black eyes and hair, the +feet and form of a Spanish woman,--that swaying form the movements of +which have a name in Spain. Her face, still beautiful, was particularly +seductive for its Creole complexion, the vividness of which can be +described only by comparing it to muslin overlying crimson, so equally +is the whiteness suffused with color. Her figure, which was full and +rounded, attracted the eye by a grace which united nonchalance with +vivacity, strength with ease. She attracted and she imposed, she +seduced, but promised nothing. She was tall, which gave her at times +the air and carriage of a queen. Men were taken by her conversation +like birds in a snare; for she had by nature that genius which necessity +bestows on schemes; she advanced from concession to concession, +strengthening herself with what she gained to ask for more, knowing +well how to retreat with rapid steps when concessions were demanded in +return. Though ignorant of facts, she had known the courts of Spain +and Naples, the celebrated men of the two Americas, many illustrious +families of England and the continent, all of which gave her so +extensive an education superficially that it seemed immense. She +received her society with the grace and dignity which are never learned, +but which come to certain naturally fine spirits like a second nature; +assimilating choice things wherever they are met. If her reputation +for virtue was unexplained, it gave at any rate much authority to her +actions, her conversation, and her character. + +Mother and daughter had a true friendship for each other, beyond the +filial and maternal sentiment. They suited one another, and their +perpetual contact had never produced the slightest jar. Consequently +many persons explained Madame Evangelista’s actions by maternal love. +But although Natalie consoled her mother’s persistent widowhood, she may +not have been the only motive for it. Madame Evangelista had been, it +was said, in love with a man who recovered his titles and property +under the Restoration. This man, desirous of marrying her in 1814 had +discreetly severed the connection in 1816. Madame Evangelista, to all +appearance the best-hearted woman in the world, had, in the depths of +her nature, a fearful quality, explainable only by Catherine de Medici’s +device: “Odiate e aspettate”--“Hate and wait.” Accustomed to rule, +having always been obeyed, she was like other royalties, amiable, +gentle, easy and pleasant in ordinary life, but terrible, implacable, +if the pride of the woman, the Spaniard, and the Casa-Reale was touched. +She never forgave. This woman believed in the power of her hatred; she +made an evil fate of it and bade it hover above her enemy. This fatal +power she employed against the man who had jilted her. Events which +seemed to prove the influence of her “jettatura”--the casting of an evil +eye--confirmed her superstitious faith in herself. Though a minister and +peer of France, this man began to ruin himself, and soon came to total +ruin. His property, his personal and public honor were doomed to perish. +At this crisis Madame Evangelista in her brilliant equipage passed her +faithless lover walking on foot in the Champes Elysees, and crushed him +with a look which flamed with triumph. This misadventure, which occupied +her mind for two years, was the original cause of her not remarrying. +Later, her pride had drawn comparisons between the suitors who presented +themselves and the husband who had loved her so sincerely and so well. + +She had thus reached, through mistaken calculations and disappointed +hopes, that period of life when women have no other part to take in life +than that of mother; a part which involves the sacrifice of themselves +to their children, the placing of their interests outside of self upon +another household,--the last refuge of human affections. + +Madame Evangelista divined Paul’s nature intuitively, and hid her own +from his perception. Paul was the very man she desired for a son-in-law, +for the responsible editor of her future power. He belonged, through his +mother, to the family of Maulincour, and the old Baronne de Maulincour, +the friend of the Vidame de Pamiers, was then living in the centre of +the faubourg Saint-Germain. The grandson of the baroness, Auguste de +Maulincour, held a fine position in the army. Paul would therefore be +an excellent introducer for the Evangelistas into Parisian society. The +widow had known something of the Paris of the Empire, she now desired to +shine in the Paris of the Restoration. There alone were the elements of +political fortune, the only business in which women of the world could +decently co-operate. Madame Evangelista, compelled by her husband’s +affairs to reside in Bordeaux, disliked the place. She desired a wider +field, as gamblers rush to higher stakes. For her own personal ends, +therefore, she looked to Paul as a means of destiny, she proposed to +employ the resources of her own talent and knowledge of life to advance +her son-in-law, in order to enjoy through him the delights of power. +Many men are thus made the screens of secret feminine ambitions. Madame +Evangelista had, however, more than one interest, as we shall see, in +laying hold of her daughter’s husband. + +Paul was naturally captivated by this woman, who charmed him all the +more because she seemed to seek no influence over him. In reality she +was using her ascendancy to magnify herself, her daughter, and all her +surroundings in his eyes, for the purpose of ruling from the start the +man in whom she saw a means of gratifying her social longings. Paul, on +the other hand, began to value himself more highly when he felt himself +appreciated by the mother and daughter. He thought himself much cleverer +than he really was when he found his reflections and sayings accepted +and understood by Mademoiselle Natalie--who raised her head and smiled +in response to them--and by the mother, whose flattery always seemed +involuntary. The two women were so kind and friendly to him, he was so +sure of pleasing them, they ruled him so delightfully by holding the +thread of his self-love, that he soon passed all his time at the hotel +Evangelista. + +A year after his return to Bordeaux, Comte Paul, without having declared +himself, was so attentive to Natalie that the world considered him as +courting her. Neither mother nor daughter appeared to be thinking of +marriage. Mademoiselle Evangelista preserved towards Paul the reserve +of a great lady who can make herself charming and converse agreeably +without permitting a single step into intimacy. This reserve, so little +customary among provincials, pleased Paul immensely. Timid men are shy; +sudden proposals alarm them. They retreat from happiness when it comes +with a rush, and accept misfortune if it presents itself mildly with +gentle shadows. Paul therefore committed himself in his own mind all the +more because he saw no effort on Madame Evangelista’s part to bind him. +She fairly seduced him one evening by remarking that to superior women +as well as men there came a period of life when ambition superseded all +the earlier emotions of life. + +“That woman is fitted,” thought Paul, as he left her, “to advance me in +diplomacy before I am even made a deputy.” + +If, in all the circumstances of life a man does not turn over and over +both things and ideas in order to examine them thoroughly under their +different aspects before taking action, that man is weak and incomplete +and in danger of fatal failure. At this moment Paul was an optimist; he +saw everything to advantage, and did not tell himself than an ambitious +mother-in-law might prove a tyrant. So, every evening as he left the +house, he fancied himself a married man, allured his mind with its own +thought, and slipped on the slippers of wedlock cheerfully. In the first +place, he had enjoyed his freedom too long to regret the loss of it; he +was tired of a bachelor’s life, which offered him nothing new; he +now saw only its annoyances; whereas if he thought at times of the +difficulties of marriage, its pleasures, in which lay novelty, came far +more prominently before his mind. + +“Marriage,” he said to himself, “is disagreeable for people without +means, but half its troubles disappear before wealth.” + +Every day some favorable consideration swelled the advantages which he +now saw in this particular alliance. + +“No matter to what position I attain, Natalie will always be on the +level of her part,” thought he, “and that is no small merit in a woman. +How many of the Empire men I’ve seen who suffered horribly through their +wives! It is a great condition of happiness not to feel one’s pride or +one’s vanity wounded by the companion we have chosen. A man can never +be really unhappy with a well-bred wife; she will never make him +ridiculous; such a woman is certain to be useful to him. Natalie will +receive in her own house admirably.” + +So thinking, he taxed his memory as to the most distinguished women of +the faubourg Saint-Germain, in order to convince himself that Natalie +could, if not eclipse them, at any rate stand among them on a footing of +perfect equality. All comparisons were to her advantage, for they rested +on his own imagination, which followed his desires. Paris would have +shown him daily other natures, young girls of other styles of beauty and +charm, and the multiplicity of impressions would have balanced his mind; +whereas in Bordeaux Natalie had no rivals, she was the solitary flower; +moreover, she appeared to him at a moment when Paul was under the +tyranny of an idea to which most men succumb at his age. + +Thus these reasons of propinquity, joined to reasons of self-love and a +real passion which had no means of satisfaction except by marriage, led +Paul on to an irrational love, which he had, however, the good sense to +keep to himself. He even endeavored to study Mademoiselle Evangelista +as a man should who desires not to compromise his future life; for the +words of his friend de Marsay did sometimes rumble in his ears like a +warning. But, in the first place, persons accustomed to luxury have a +certain indifference to it which misleads them. They despise it, they +use it; it is an instrument, and not the object of their existence. Paul +never imagined, as he observed the habits of life of the two ladies, +that they covered a gulf of ruin. Then, though there may exist some +general rules to soften the asperities of marriage, there are none by +which they can be accurately foreseen and evaded. When trouble arises +between two persons who have undertaken to render life agreeable and +easy to each other, it comes from the contact of continual intimacy, +which, of course, does not exist between young people before they marry, +and will never exist so long as our present social laws and customs +prevail in France. All is more or less deception between the two young +persons about to take each other for life,--an innocent and involuntary +deception, it is true. Each endeavors to appear in a favorable light; +both take a tone and attitude conveying a more favorable idea of their +nature than they are able to maintain in after years. Real life, like +the weather, is made up of gray and cloudy days alternating with those +when the sun shines and the fields are gay. Young people, however, +exhibit fine weather and no clouds. Later they attribute to marriage the +evils inherent in life itself; for there is in man a disposition to lay +the blame of his own misery on the persons and things that surround him. + +To discover in the demeanor, or the countenance, or the words, or the +gestures of Mademoiselle Evangelista any indication that revealed the +imperfections of her character, Paul must have possessed not only the +knowledge of Lavater and Gall, but also a science in which there exists +no formula of doctrine,--the individual and personal science of an +observer, which, for its perfection, requires an almost universal +knowledge. Natalie’s face, like that of most young girls, was +impenetrable. The deep, serene peace given by sculptors to the virgin +faces of Justice and Innocence, divinities aloof from all earthly +agitations, is the greatest charm of a young girl, the sign of her +purity. Nothing, as yet, has stirred her; no shattered passion, no hope +betrayed has clouded the placid expression of that pure face. Is that +expression assumed? If so, there is no young girl behind it. + +Natalie, closely held to the heart of her mother, had received, like +other Spanish women, an education that was solely religious, together +with a few instructions from her mother as to the part in life she was +called upon to play. Consequently, the calm, untroubled expression of +her face was natural. And yet it formed a casing in which the woman +was wrapped as the moth in its cocoon. Nevertheless, any man clever at +handling the scalpel of analysis might have detected in Natalie certain +indications of the difficulties her character would present when brought +into contact with conjugal or social life. Her beauty, which was really +marvellous, came from extreme regularity of feature harmonizing with the +proportions of the head and the body. This species of perfection augurs +ill for the mind; and there are few exceptions to the rule. All superior +nature is found to have certain slight imperfections of form which +become irresistible attractions, luminous points from which shine vivid +sentiments, and on which the eye rests gladly. Perfect harmony expresses +usually the coldness of a mixed organization. + +Natalie’s waist was round,--a sign of strength, but also the infallible +indication of a will which becomes obstinacy in persons whose mind +is neither keen nor broad. Her hands, like those of a Greek statue, +confirmed the predictions of face and figure by revealing an inclination +for illogical domination, of willing for will’s sake only. Her eyebrows +met,--a sign, according to some observers, which indicates jealousy. The +jealousy of superior minds becomes emulation and leads to great things; +that of small minds turns to hatred. The “hate and wait” of her mother +was in her nature, without disguise. Her eyes were black apparently, +though really brown with orange streaks, contrasting with her hair, +of the ruddy tint so prized by the Romans, called auburn in England, a +color which often appears in the offspring of persons of jet black hair, +like that of Monsieur and Madame Evangelista. The whiteness and delicacy +of Natalie’s complexion gave to the contrast of color in her eyes and +hair an inexpressible charm; and yet it was a charm that was purely +external; for whenever the lines of a face are lacking in a certain +soft roundness, whatever may be the finish and grace of the details, the +beauty therein expressed is not of the soul. These roses of deceptive +youth will drop their leaves, and you will be surprised in a few years +to see hardness and dryness where you once admired what seemed to be the +beauty of noble qualities. + +Though the outlines of Natalie’s face had something august about them, +her chin was slightly “empate,”--a painter’s expression which will serve +to show the existence of sentiments the violence of which would only +become manifest in after life. Her mouth, a trifle drawn in, expressed +a haughty pride in keeping with her hand, her chin, her brows, and her +beautiful figure. And--as a last diagnostic to guide the judgment of a +connoisseur--Natalie’s pure voice, a most seductive voice, had certain +metallic tones. Softly as that brassy ring was managed, and in spite of +the grace with which its sounds ran through the compass of the voice, +that organ revealed the character of the Duke of Alba, from whom the +Casa-Reales were collaterally descended. These indications were those +of violent passions without tenderness, sudden devotions, irreconcilable +dislikes, a mind without intelligence, and the desire to rule natural to +persons who feel themselves inferior to their pretensions. + +These defects, born of temperament and constitution, were buried in +Natalie like ore in a mine, and would only appear under the shocks and +harsh treatment to which all characters are subjected in this world. +Meantime the grace and freshness of her youth, the distinction of her +manners, her sacred ignorance, and the sweetness of a young girl, gave +a delicate glamour to her features which could not fail to mislead an +unthinking or superficial mind. Her mother had early taught her the +trick of agreeable talk which appears to imply superiority, replying +to arguments by clever jests, and attracting by the graceful volubility +beneath which a woman hides the subsoil of her mind, as Nature disguises +her barren strata beneath a wealth of ephemeral vegetation. Natalie had +the charm of children who have never known what it is to suffer. She +charmed by her frankness, and had none of that solemn air which mothers +impose on their daughters by laying down a programme of behavior and +language until the time comes when they marry and are emancipated. She +was gay and natural, like any young girl who knows nothing of marriage, +expects only pleasure from it, replies to all objections with a jest, +foresees no troubles, and thinks she is acquiring the right to have her +own way. + +How could Paul, who loved as men love when desire increases love, +perceive in a girl of this nature whose beauty dazzled him, the woman, +such as she would probably be at thirty, when observers themselves have +been misled by these appearances? Besides, if happiness might prove +difficult to find in a marriage with such a girl, it was not impossible. +Through these embryo defects shone several fine qualities. There is no +good quality which, if properly developed by the hand of an able master, +will not stifle defects, especially in a young girl who loves him. But +to render ductile so intractable a woman, the iron wrist, about which de +Marsay had preached to Paul, was needful. The Parisian dandy was right. +Fear, inspired by love is an infallible instrument by which to manage +the minds of women. Whoso loves, fears; whoso fears is nearer to +affection than to hatred. + +Had Paul the coolness, firmness, and judgment required for this +struggle, which an able husband ought not to let the wife suspect? Did +Natalie love Paul? Like most young girls, Natalie mistook for love the +first emotions of instinct and the pleasure she felt in Paul’s external +appearance; but she knew nothing of the things of marriage nor +the demands of a home. To her, the Comte de Manerville, a rising +diplomatist, to whom the courts of Europe were known, and one of the +most elegant young men in Paris, could not seem, what perhaps he was, +an ordinary man, without moral force, timid, though brave in some ways, +energetic perhaps in adversity, but helpless against the vexations +and annoyances that hinder happiness. Would she, in after years, have +sufficient tact and insight to distinguish Paul’s noble qualities in the +midst of his minor defects? Would she not magnify the latter and forget +the former, after the manner of young wives who know nothing of life? +There comes a time when wives will pardon defects in the husband who +spares her annoyances, considering annoyances in the same category as +misfortunes. What conciliating power, what wise experience would uphold +and enlighten the home of this young pair? Paul and his wife would +doubtless think they loved when they had really not advanced beyond the +endearments and compliments of the honeymoon. Would Paul in that early +period yield to the tyranny of his wife, instead of establishing his +empire? Could Paul say, “No?” All was peril to a man so weak where even +a strong man ran some risks. + +The subject of this Study is not the transition of a bachelor into a +married man,--a picture which, if broadly composed, would not lack the +attraction which the inner struggles of our nature and feelings give to +the commonest situations in life. The events and the ideas which led to +the marriage of Paul with Natalie Evangelista are an introduction to +our real subject, which is to sketch the great comedy that precedes, in +France, all conjugal pairing. This Scene, until now singularly neglected +by our dramatic authors, although it offers novel resources to their +wit, controlled Paul’s future life and was now awaited by Madame +Evangelista with feelings of terror. We mean the discussion which takes +place on the subject of the marriage contract in all families, whether +noble or bourgeois, for human passions are as keenly excited by small +interests as by large ones. These comedies, played before a notary, all +resemble, more or less, the one we shall now relate, the interest of +which will be far less in the pages of this book than in the memories of +married persons. + + + + +CHAPTER III. THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT--FIRST DAY + + +At the beginning of the winter of 1822, Paul de Manerville made a formal +request, through his great-aunt, the Baronne de Maulincour, for the hand +of Mademoiselle Natalie Evangelista. Though the baroness never stayed +more than two months in Medoc, she remained on this occasion till the +last of October, in order to assist her nephew through the affair and +play the part of a mother to him. After conveying the first suggestions +to Madame Evangelista the experienced old woman returned to inform Paul +of the results of the overture. + +“My child,” she said, “the affair is won. In talking of property, I +found that Madame Evangelista gives nothing of her own to her daughter. +Mademoiselle Natalie’s dowry is her patrimony. Marry her, my dear boy. +Men who have a name and an estate to transmit, a family to continue, +must, sooner or later, end in marriage. I wish I could see my dear +Auguste taking that course. You can now carry on the marriage without +me; I have nothing to give you but my blessing, and women as old as I +are out of place at a wedding. I leave for Paris to-morrow. When you +present your wife in society I shall be able to see her and assist her +far more to the purpose than now. If you had had no house in Paris I +would gladly have arranged the second floor of mine for you.” + +“Dear aunt,” said Paul, “I thank you heartily. But what do you mean +when you say that the mother gives nothing of her own, and that the +daughter’s dowry is her patrimony?” + +“The mother, my dear boy, is a sly cat, who takes advantage of her +daughter’s beauty to impose conditions and allow you only that which she +cannot prevent you from having; namely, the daughter’s fortune from her +father. We old people know the importance of inquiring closely, What has +he? What has she? I advise you therefore to give particular instructions +to your notary. The marriage contract, my dear child, is the most sacred +of all duties. If your father and your mother had not made their +bed properly you might now be sleeping without sheets. You will have +children, they are the commonest result of marriage, and you must think +of them. Consult Maitre Mathias our old notary.” + +Madame de Maulincour departed, having plunged Paul into a state of +extreme perplexity. His mother-in-law a sly cat! Must he struggle for +his interests in the marriage contract? Was it necessary to defend them? +Who was likely to attack them? + +He followed the advice of his aunt and confided the drawing-up of the +marriage contract to Maitre Mathias. But these threatened discussions +oppressed him, and he went to see Madame Evangelista and announce his +intentions in a state of rather lively agitation. Like all timid men, he +shrank from allowing the distrust his aunt had put into his mind to be +seen; in fact, he considered it insulting. To avoid even a slight jar +with a person so imposing to his mind as his future mother-in-law, he +proceeded to state his intentions with the circumlocution natural to +persons who dare not face a difficulty. + +“Madame,” he said, choosing a moment when Natalie was absent from the +room, “you know, of course, what a family notary is. Mine is a worthy +old man, to whom it would be a sincere grief if he were not entrusted +with the drawing of my marriage contract.” + +“Why, of course!” said Madame Evangelista, interrupting him, “but are +not marriage contracts always made by agreement of the notaries of both +families?” + +The time that Paul took to reply to this question was occupied by Madame +Evangelista in asking herself, “What is he thinking of?” for women +possess in an eminent degree the art of reading thoughts from the play +of countenance. She divined the instigations of the great-aunt in the +embarrassed glance and the agitated tone of voice which betrayed an +inward struggle in Paul’s mind. + +“At last,” she thought to herself, “the fatal day has come; the crisis +begins--how will it end? My notary is Monsieur Solonet,” she said, after +a pause. “Yours, I think you said, is Monsieur Mathias; I will invite +them to dinner to-morrow, and they can come to an understanding then. It +is their business to conciliate our interests without our interference; +just as good cooks are expected to furnish good food without +instructions.” + +“Yes, you are right,” said Paul, letting a faint sigh of relief escape +from him. + +By a singular transposition of parts, Paul, innocent of all wrong-doing, +trembled, while Madame Evangelista, though a prey to the utmost anxiety, +was outwardly calm. + +The widow owed her daughter one-third of the fortune left by Monsieur +Evangelista,--namely, nearly twelve hundred thousand francs,--and she +knew herself unable to pay it, even by taking the whole of her property +to do so. She would therefore be placed at the mercy of a son-in-law. +Though she might be able to control Paul if left to himself, would he, +when enlightened by his notary, agree to release her from rendering her +account as guardian of her daughter’s patrimony? If Paul withdrew +his proposals all Bordeaux would know the reason and Natalie’s future +marriage would be made impossible. This mother, who desired the +happiness of her daughter, this woman, who from infancy had lived +honorably, was aware that on the morrow she must become dishonest. Like +those great warriors who fain would blot from their lives the moment +when they had felt a secret cowardice, she ardently desired to cut this +inevitable day from the record of hers. Most assuredly some hairs on her +head must have whitened during the night, when, face to face with facts, +she bitterly regretted her extravagance as she felt the hard necessities +of the situation. + +Among these necessities was that of confiding the truth to her notary, +for whom she sent in the morning as soon as she rose. She was forced to +reveal to him a secret defaulting she had never been willing to admit +to herself, for she had steadily advanced to the abyss, relying on some +chance accident, which never happened, to relieve her. There rose in her +soul a feeling against Paul, that was neither dislike, nor aversion, +nor anything, as yet, unkind; but HE was the cause of this crisis; the +opposing party in this secret suit; he became, without knowing it, an +innocent enemy she was forced to conquer. What human being did ever yet +love his or her dupe? Compelled to deceive and trick him if she could, +the Spanish woman resolved, like other women, to put her whole force of +character into the struggle, the dishonor of which could be absolved by +victory only. + +In the stillness of the night she excused her conduct to her own mind +by a tissue of arguments in which her pride predominated. Natalie had +shared the benefit of her extravagance. There was not a single base or +ignoble motive in what she had done. She was no accountant, but was that +a crime, a delinquency? A man was only too lucky to obtain a wife like +Natalie without a penny. Such a treasure bestowed upon him might surely +release her from a guardianship account. How many men had bought the +women they loved by greater sacrifices? Why should a man do less for +a wife than for a mistress? Besides, Paul was a nullity, a man of no +force, incapable; she would spend the best resources of her mind upon +him and open to him a fine career; he should owe his future power and +position to her influence; in that way she could pay her debt. He would +indeed be a fool to refuse such a future; and for what? a few paltry +thousands, more or less. He would be infamous if he withdrew for such a +reason. + +“But,” she added, to herself, “if the negotiation does not succeed +at once, I shall leave Bordeaux. I can still find a good marriage for +Natalie by investing the proceeds of what is left, house and diamonds +and furniture,--keeping only a small income for myself.” + +When a strong soul constructs a way of ultimate escape,--as Richelieu +did at Brouage,--and holds in reserve a vigorous end, the resolution +becomes a lever which strengthens its immediate way. The thought of this +finale in case of failure comforted Madame Evangelista, who fell asleep +with all the more confidence as she remembered her assistance in the +coming duel. + +This was a young man named Solonet, considered the ablest notary in +Bordeaux; now twenty-seven years of age and decorated with the Legion +of honor for having actively contributed to the second return of +the Bourbons. Proud and happy to be received in the home of Madame +Evangelista, less as a notary than as belonging to the royalist society +of Bordeaux, Solonet had conceived for that fine setting sun one of +those passions which women like Madame Evangelista repulse, although +flattered and graciously allowing them to exist upon the surface. +Solonet remained therefore in a self-satisfied condition of hope and +becoming respect. Being sent for, he arrived the next morning with the +promptitude of a slave and was received by the coquettish widow in +her bedroom, where she allowed him to find her in a very becoming +dishabille. + +“Can I,” she said, “count upon your discretion and your entire devotion +in a discussion which will take place in my house this evening? You will +readily understand that it relates to the marriage of my daughter.” + +The young man expended himself in gallant protestations. + +“Now to the point,” she said. + +“I am listening,” he replied, checking his ardor. + +Madame Evangelista then stated her position baldly. + +“My dear lady, that is nothing to be troubled about,” said Maitre +Solonet, assuming a confident air as soon as his client had given him +the exact figures. “The question is how have you conducted yourself +toward Monsieur de Manerville? In this matter questions of manner and +deportment are of greater importance than those of law and finance.” + +Madame Evangelista wrapped herself in dignity. The notary learned to +his satisfaction that until the present moment his client’s relations +to Paul had been distant and reserved, and that partly from native pride +and partly from involuntary shrewdness she had treated the Comte de +Manerville as in some sense her inferior and as though it were an honor +for him to be allowed to marry Mademoiselle Evangelista. She assured +Solonet that neither she nor her daughter could be suspected of any +mercenary interests in the marriage; that they had the right, should +Paul make any financial difficulties, to retreat from the affair to an +illimitable distance; and finally, that she had already acquired over +her future son-in-law a very remarkable ascendancy. + +“If that is so,” said Solonet, “tell me what are the utmost concessions +you are willing to make.” + +“I wish to make as few as possible,” she answered, laughing. + +“A woman’s answer,” cried Solonet. “Madame, are you anxious to marry +Mademoiselle Natalie?” + +“Yes.” + +“And you want a receipt for the eleven hundred and fifty-six thousand +francs, for which you are responsible on the guardianship account which +the law obliges you to render to your son-in-law?” + +“Yes.” + +“How much do you want to keep back?” + +“Thirty thousand a year, at least.” + +“It is a question of conquer or die, is it?” + +“It is.” + +“Well, then, I must reflect on the necessary means to that end; it +will need all our cleverness to manage our forces. I will give you some +instructions on my arrival this evening; follow them carefully, and I +think I may promise you a successful issue. Is the Comte de Manerville +in love with Mademoiselle Natalie?” he asked as he rose to take leave. + +“He adores her.” + +“That is not enough. Does he desire her to the point of disregarding all +pecuniary difficulties?” + +“Yes.” + +“That’s what I call having a lien upon a daughter’s property,” cried the +notary. “Make her look her best to-night,” he added with a sly glance. + +“She has a most charming dress for the occasion.” + +“The marriage-contract dress is, in my opinion, half the battle,” said +Solonet. + +This last argument seemed so cogent to Madame Evangelista that she +superintended Natalie’s toilet herself, as much perhaps to watch +her daughter as to make her the innocent accomplice of her financial +conspiracy. + +With her hair dressed a la Sevigne and wearing a gown of white tulle +adorned with pink ribbons, Natalie seemed to her mother so beautiful +as to guarantee victory. When the lady’s-maid left the room and Madame +Evangelista was certain that no one could overhear her, she arranged a +few curls on her daughter’s head by way of exordium. + +“Dear child,” she said, in a voice that was firm apparently, “do you +sincerely love the Comte de Manerville?” + +Mother and daughter cast strange looks at each other. + +“Why do you ask that question, little mother? and to-day more than +yesterday. Why have you thrown me with him?” + +“If you and I had to part forever would you still persist in the +marriage?” + +“I should give it up--and I should not die of grief.” + +“You do not love him, my dear,” said the mother, kissing her daughter’s +forehead. + +“But why, my dear mother, are you playing the Grand Inquisitor?” + +“I wished to know if you desired the marriage without being madly in +love with the husband.” + +“I love him.” + +“And you are right. He is a count; we will make him a peer of France +between us; nevertheless, there are certain difficulties.” + +“Difficulties between persons who love each other? Oh, no. The heart of +the Pink of Fashion is too firmly planted here,” she said, with a pretty +gesture, “to make the very slightest objection. I am sure of that.” + +“But suppose it were otherwise?” persisted Madame Evangelista. + +“He would be profoundly and forever forgotten,” replied Natalie. + +“Good! You are a Casa-Reale. But suppose, though he madly loves you, +suppose certain discussions and difficulties should arise, not of his +own making, but which he must decide in your interests as well as in +mine--hey, Natalie, what then? Without lowering your dignity, perhaps a +little softness in your manner might decide him--a word, a tone, a mere +nothing. Men are so made; they resist a serious argument, but they yield +to a tender look.” + +“I understand! a little touch to make my Favori leap the barrier,” said +Natalie, making the gesture of striking a horse with her whip. + +“My darling! I ask nothing that resembles seduction. You and I have +sentiments of the old Castilian honor which will never permit us to pass +certain limits. Count Paul shall know our situation.” + +“What situation?” + +“You would not understand it. But I tell you now that if after seeing +you in all your glory his look betrays the slightest hesitation,--and I +shall watch him,--on that instant I shall break off the marriage; I will +liquidate my property, leave Bordeaux, and go to Douai, to be near the +Claes. Madame Claes is our relation through the Temnincks. Then I’ll +marry you to a peer of France, and take refuge in a convent myself, that +I may give up to you my whole fortune.” + +“Mother, what am I to do to prevent such misfortunes?” cried Natalie. + +“I have never seen you so beautiful as you are now,” replied her mother. +“Be a little coquettish, and all is well.” + +Madame Evangelista left Natalie to her thoughts, and went to arrange +her own toilet in such a way that would bear comparison with that of her +daughter. If Natalie ought to make herself attractive to Paul she ought, +none the less, to inflame the ardor of her champion Solonet. The mother +and daughter were therefore under arms when Paul arrived, bearing the +bouquet which for the last few months he had daily offered to his +love. All three conversed pleasantly while awaiting the arrival of the +notaries. + +This day brought to Paul the first skirmish of that long and wearisome +warfare called marriage. It is therefore necessary to state the forces +on both sides, the position of the belligerent bodies, and the ground on +which they are about to manoeuvre. + +To maintain a struggle, the importance of which had wholly escaped him, +Paul’s only auxiliary was the old notary, Mathias. Both were about to be +confronted, unaware and defenceless, by a most unexpected circumstance; +to be pressed by an enemy whose strategy was planned, and driven to +decide on a course without having time to reflect upon it. Where is +the man who would not have succumbed, even though assisted by Cujas and +Barthole? How should he look for deceit and treachery where all seemed +compliant and natural? What could old Mathias do alone against Madame +Evangelista, against Solonet, against Natalie, especially when a client +in love goes over to the enemy as soon as the rising conflict threatens +his happiness? Already Paul was damaging his cause by making the +customary lover’s speeches, to which his passion gave excessive value +in the ears of Madame Evangelista, whose object it was to drive him to +commit himself. + +The matrimonial condottieri now about to fight for their clients, +whose personal powers were to be so vitally important in this solemn +encounter, the two notaries, on short, represent individually the old +and the new systems,--old fashioned notarial usage, and the new-fangled +modern procedure. + +Maitre Mathias was a worthy old gentleman sixty-nine years of age, who +took great pride in his forty years’ exercise of the profession. His +huge gouty feet were encased in shoes with silver buckles, making a +ridiculous termination to legs so spindling, with knees so bony, that +when he crossed them they made you think of the emblems on a tombstone. +His puny little thighs, lost in a pair of wide black breeches fastened +with buckles, seemed to bend beneath the weight of a round stomach and +a torso developed, like that of most sedentary persons, into a stout +barrel, always buttoned into a green coat with square tails, which no +man could remember to have ever seen new. His hair, well brushed and +powdered, was tied in a rat’s tail that lay between the collar of his +coat and that of his waistcoat, which was white, with a pattern of +flowers. With his round head, his face the color of a vine-leaf, his +blue eyes, a trumpet nose, a thick-lipped mouth, and a double-chin, the +dear old fellow excited, whenever he appeared among strangers who did +not know him, that satirical laugh which Frenchmen so generously bestow +on the ludicrous creations Dame Nature occasionally allows herself, +which Art delights in exaggerating under the name of caricatures. + +But in Maitre Mathias, mind had triumphed over form; the qualities of +his soul had vanquished the oddities of his body. The inhabitants of +Bordeaux, as a rule, testified a friendly respect and a deference that +was full of esteem for him. The old man’s voice went to their hearts and +sounded there with the eloquence of uprightness. His craft consisted in +going straight to the fact, overturning all subterfuge and evil devices +by plain questionings. His quick perception, his long training in his +profession gave him that divining sense which goes to the depths of +conscience and reads its secret thoughts. Though grave and deliberate in +business, the patriarch could be gay with the gaiety of our ancestors. +He could risk a song after dinner, enjoy all family festivities, +celebrate the birthdays of grandmothers and children, and bury with due +solemnity the Christmas log. He loved to send presents at New Year, +and eggs at Easter; he believed in the duties of a godfather, and never +deserted the customs which colored the life of the olden time. Maitre +Mathias was a noble and venerable relic of the notaries, obscure +great men, who gave no receipt for the millions entrusted to them, but +returned those millions in the sacks they were delivered in, tied with +the same twine; men who fulfilled their trusts to the letter, drew +honest inventories, took fatherly interest in their clients, often +barring the way to extravagance and dissipation,--men to whom families +confided their secrets, and who felt so responsible for any error in +their deeds that they meditated long and carefully over them. Never +during his whole notarial life, had any client found reason to complain +of a bad investment or an ill-placed mortgage. His own fortune, slowly +but honorably acquired, had come to him as the result of a thirty years’ +practice and careful economy. He had established in life fourteen of his +clerks. Religious, and generous in secret, Mathias was found whenever +good was to be done without remuneration. An active member on hospital +and other benevolent committees, he subscribed the largest sums to +relieve all sudden misfortunes and emergencies, as well as to create +certain useful permanent institutions; consequently, neither he nor +his wife kept a carriage. Also his word was felt to be sacred, and his +coffers held as much of the money of others as a bank; and also, we may +add, he went by the name of “Our good Monsieur Mathias,” and when he +died, three thousand persons followed him to his grave. + +Solonet was the style of young notary who comes in humming a tune, +affects light-heartedness, declares that business is better done with +a laugh than seriously. He is the notary captain of the national guard, +who dislikes to be taken for a notary, solicits the cross of the Legion +of honor, keeps his cabriolet, and leaves the verification of his deeds +to his clerks; he is the notary who goes to balls and theatres, buys +pictures and plays at ecarte; he has coffers in which gold is received +on deposit and is later returned in bank-bills,--a notary who follows +his epoch, risks capital in doubtful investments, speculates with all +he can lay his hands on, and expects to retire with an income of thirty +thousand francs after ten years’ practice; in short, the notary whose +cleverness comes of his duplicity, whom many men fear as an accomplice +possessing their secrets, and who sees in his practice a means of +ultimately marrying some blue-stockinged heiress. + +When the slender, fair-haired Solonet, curled, perfumed, and booted like +the leading gentleman at the Vaudeville, and dressed like a dandy whose +most important business is a duel, entered Madame Evangelista’s salon, +preceding his brother notary, whose advance was delayed by a twinge +of the gout, the two men presented to the life one of those famous +caricatures entitled “Former Times and the Present Day,” which had such +eminent success under the Empire. If Madame and Mademoiselle Evangelista +to whom the “good Monsieur Mathias,” was personally unknown, felt, on +first seeing him, a slight inclination to laugh, they were soon touched +by the old-fashioned grace with which he greeted them. The words he used +were full of that amenity which amiable old men convey as much by the +ideas they suggest as by the manner in which they express them. The +younger notary, with his flippant tone, seemed on a lower plane. Mathias +showed his superior knowledge of life by the reserved manner with which +he accosted Paul. Without compromising his white hairs, he showed that +he respected the young man’s nobility, while at the same time he claimed +the honor due to old age, and made it felt that social rights are +natural. Solonet’s bow and greeting, on the contrary, expressed a sense +of perfect equality, which would naturally affront the pretensions of +a man of society and make the notary ridiculous in the eyes of a +real noble. Solonet made a motion, somewhat too familiar, to Madame +Evangelista, inviting her to a private conference in the recess of +a window. For some minutes they talked to each other in a low voice, +giving way now and then to laughter,--no doubt to lessen in the minds of +others the importance of the conversation, in which Solonet was really +communicating to his sovereign lady the plan of battle. + +“But,” he said, as he ended, “will you have the courage to sell your +house?” + +“Undoubtedly,” she replied. + +Madame Evangelista did not choose to tell her notary the motive of this +heroism, which struck him greatly. Solonet’s zeal might have cooled had +he known that his client was really intending to leave Bordeaux. She had +not as yet said anything about that intention to Paul, in order not to +alarm him with the preliminary steps and circumlocutions which must be +taken before he entered on the political life she planned for him. + +After dinner the two plenipotentiaries left the loving pair with +the mother, and betook themselves to an adjoining salon where their +conference was arranged to take place. A dual scene then followed on +this domestic stage: in the chimney-corner of the great salon a scene of +love, in which to all appearances life was smiles and joy; in the other +room, a scene of gravity and gloom, where selfish interests, baldly +proclaimed, openly took the part they play in life under flowery +disguises. + +“My dear master,” said Solonet, “the document can remain under your lock +and key; I know very well what I owe to my old preceptor.” Mathias bowed +gravely. “But,” continued Solonet, unfolding the rough copy of a deed he +had made his clerk draw up, “as we are the oppressed party, I mean the +daughter, I have written the contract--which will save you trouble. We +marry with our rights under the rule of community of interests; with +general donation of our property to each other in case of death without +heirs; if not, donation of one-fourth as life interest, and one-fourth +in fee; the sum placed in community of interests to be one-fourth of the +respective property of each party; the survivor to possess the furniture +without appraisal. It’s all as simple as how d’ye do.” + +“Ta, ta, ta, ta,” said Mathias, “I don’t do business as one sings a +tune. What are your claims?” + +“What are yours?” said Solonet. + +“Our property,” replied Mathias, “is: the estate of Lanstrac, which +brings in a rental of twenty-three thousand francs a year, not counting +the natural products. Item: the farms of Grassol and Guadet, each +worth three thousand six hundred francs a year. Item: the vineyard of +Belle-Rose, yielding in ordinary years sixteen thousand francs; total, +forty-six thousand two hundred francs a year. Item: the patrimonial +mansion at Bordeaux taxed for nine hundred francs. Item: a handsome +house, between court and garden in Paris, rue de la Pepiniere, taxed +for fifteen hundred francs. These pieces of property, the title-deeds of +which I hold, are derived from our father and mother, except the +house in Paris, which we bought ourselves. We must also reckon in +the furniture of the two houses, and that of the chateau of Lanstrac, +estimated at four hundred and fifty thousand francs. There’s the table, +the cloth, and the first course. What do you bring for the second course +and the dessert?” + +“Our rights,” replied Solonet. + +“Specify them, my friend,” said Mathias. “What do you bring us? Where is +the inventory of the property left by Monsieur Evangelista? Show me the +liquidation, the investment of the amount. Where is your capital?--if +there is any capital. Where is your landed property?--if you have any. +In short, let us see your guardianship account, and tell us what you +bring and what your mother will secure to us.” + +“Does Monsieur le Comte de Manerville love Mademoiselle Evangelista?” + +“He wishes to make her his wife if the marriage can be suitably +arranged,” said the old notary. “I am not a child; this matter concerns +our business, and not our feelings.” + +“The marriage will be off unless you show generous feeling; and for this +reason,” continued Solonet. “No inventory was made at the death of our +husband; we are Spaniards, Creoles, and know nothing of French laws. +Besides, we were too deeply grieved at our loss to think at such a time +of the miserable formalities which occupy cold hearts. It is publicly +well known that our late husband adored us, and that we mourned for +him sincerely. If we did have a settlement of accounts with a short +inventory attached, made, as one may say, by common report, you can +thank our surrogate guardian, who obliged us to establish a status and +assign to our daughter a fortune, such as it is, at a time when we were +forced to withdraw from London our English securities, the capital of +which was immense, and re-invest the proceeds in Paris, where interests +were doubled.” + +“Don’t talk nonsense to me. There are various ways of verifying the +property. What was the amount of your legacy tax? Those figures will +enable us to get at the total. Come to the point. Tell us frankly what +you received from the father’s estate and how much remains of it. If we +are very much in love we’ll see then what we can do.” + +“If you are marrying us for our money you can go about your business. We +have claims to more than a million; but all that remains to our mother +is this house and furniture and four hundred odd thousand francs +invested about 1817 in the Five-per-cents, which yield about +forty-thousand francs a year.” + +“Then why do you live in a style that requires one hundred thousand a +year at the least?” cried Mathias, horror-stricken. + +“Our daughter has cost us the eyes out of our head,” replied Solonet. +“Besides, we like to spend money. Your jeremiads, let me tell you, won’t +recover two farthings of the money.” + +“With the fifty thousand francs a year which belong to Mademoiselle +Natalie you could have brought her up handsomely without coming to ruin. +But if you have squandered everything while you were a girl what will it +be when you are a married woman?” + +“Then drop us altogether,” said Solonet. “The handsomest girl in +Bordeaux has a right to spend more than she has, if she likes.” + +“I’ll talk to my client about that,” said the old notary. + +“Very good, old father Cassandra, go and tell your client that we +haven’t a penny,” thought Solonet, who, in the solitude of his study, +had strategically massed his forces, drawn up his propositions, manned +the drawbridge of discussion, and prepared the point at which the +opposing party, thinking the affair a failure, could suddenly be led +into a compromise which would end in the triumph of his client. + +The white dress with its rose-colored ribbons, the Sevigne curls, +Natalie’s tiny foot, her winning glance, her pretty fingers constantly +employed in adjusting curls that needed no adjustment, these girlish +manoeuvres like those of a peacock spreading his tail, had brought Paul +to the point at which his future mother-in-law desired to see him. He +was intoxicated with love, and his eyes, the sure thermometer of the +soul, indicated the degree of passion at which a man commits a thousand +follies. + +“Natalie is so beautiful,” he whispered to the mother, “that I can +conceive the frenzy which leads a man to pay for his happiness by +death.” + +Madame Evangelista replied with a shake of her head:-- + +“Lover’s talk, my dear count. My husband never said such charming things +to me; but he married me without a fortune and for thirteen years he +never caused me one moment’s pain.” + +“Is that a lesson you are giving me?” said Paul, laughing. + +“You know how I love you, my dear son,” she answered, pressing his hand. +“I must indeed love you well to give you my Natalie.” + +“Give me, give me?” said the young girl, waving a screen of Indian +feathers, “what are you whispering about me?” + +“I was telling her,” replied Paul, “how much I love you, since etiquette +forbids me to tell it to you.” + +“Why?” + +“I fear to say too much.” + +“Ah! you know too well how to offer the jewels of flattery. Shall I tell +you my private opinion about you? Well, I think you have more mind than +a lover ought to have. To be the Pink of Fashion and a wit as well,” she +added, dropping her eyes, “is to have too many advantages: a man should +choose between them. I fear too, myself.” + +“And why?” + +“We must not talk in this way. Mamma, do you not think that this +conversation is dangerous inasmuch as the contract is not yet signed?” + +“It soon will be,” said Paul. + +“I should like to know what Achilles and Nestor are saying to each other +in the next room,” said Natalie, nodding toward the door of the little +salon with a childlike expression of curiosity. + +“They are talking of our children and our death and a lot of other such +trifles; they are counting our gold to see if we can keep five horses in +the stables. They are talking also of deeds of gift; but there, I have +forestalled them.” + +“How so?” + +“Have I not given myself wholly to you?” he said, looking straight at +the girl, whose beauty was enhanced by the blush which the pleasure of +this answer brought to her face. + +“Mamma, how can I acknowledge so much generosity.” + +“My dear child, you have a lifetime before you in which to return it. +To make the daily happiness of a home, is to bring a treasure into it. I +had no other fortune when I married.” + +“Do you like Lanstrac?” asked Paul, addressing Natalie. + +“How could I fail to like the place where you were born?” she answered. +“I wish I could see your house.” + +“_Our_ house,” said Paul. “Do you not want to know if I shall understand +your tastes and arrange the house to suit you? Your mother had made a +husband’s task most difficult; you have always been so happy! But where +love is infinite, nothing is impossible.” + +“My dear children,” said Madame Evangelista, “do you feel willing to +stay in Bordeaux after your marriage? If you have the courage to face +the people here who know you and will watch and hamper you, so be it! +But if you feel that desire for a solitude together which can hardly be +expressed, let us go to Paris were the life of a young couple can pass +unnoticed in the stream. There alone you can behave as lovers without +fearing to seem ridiculous.” + +“You are quite right,” said Paul, “but I shall hardly have time to get +my house ready. However, I will write to-night to de Marsay, the friend +on whom I can always count to get things done for me.” + +At the moment when Paul, like all young men accustomed to satisfy +their desires without previous calculation, was inconsiderately binding +himself to the expenses of a stay in Paris, Maitre Mathias entered the +salon and made a sign to his client that he wished to speak to him. + +“What is it, my friend?” asked Paul, following the old man to the recess +of a window. + +“Monsieur le comte,” said the honest lawyer, “there is not a penny of +dowry. My advice is: put off the conference to another day, so that you +may gain time to consider your proper course.” + +“Monsieur Paul,” said Natalie, “I have a word to say in private to you.” + +Though Madame Evangelista’s face was calm, no Jew of the middle ages +ever suffered greater torture in his caldron of boiling oil than she was +enduring in her violet velvet gown. Solonet had pledged the marriage to +her, but she was ignorant of the means and conditions of success. The +anguish of this uncertainty was intolerable. Possibly she owed her +safety to her daughter’s disobedience. Natalie had considered the advice +of her mother and noted her anxiety. When she saw the success of her +own coquetry she was struck to the heart with a variety of contradictory +thoughts. Without blaming her mother, she was half-ashamed of manoeuvres +the object of which was, undoubtedly, some personal game. She was also +seized with a jealous curiosity which is easily conceived. She wanted to +find out if Paul loved her well enough to rise above the obstacles that +her mother foresaw and which she now saw clouding the face of the old +lawyer. These ideas and sentiments prompted her to an action of loyalty +which became her well. But, for all that, the blackest perfidy could not +have been as dangerous as her present innocence. + +“Paul,” she said in a low voice, and she so called him for the first +time, “if any difficulties as to property arise to separate us, remember +that I free you from all engagements, and will allow you to let the +blame of such a rupture rest on me.” + +She put such dignity into this expression of her generosity that Paul +believed in her disinterestedness and in her ignorance of the strange +fact that his notary had just told to him. He pressed the young girl’s +hand and kissed it like a man to whom love is more precious than wealth. +Natalie left the room. + +“Sac-a-papier! Monsieur le comte, you are committing a great folly,” + said the old notary, rejoining his client. + +Paul grew thoughtful. He had expected to unite Natalie’s fortune with +his own and thus obtain for his married life an income of one hundred +thousand francs a year; and however much a man may be in love he cannot +pass without emotion and anxiety from the prospect of a hundred thousand +to the certainty of forty-six thousand a year and the duty of providing +for a woman accustomed to every luxury. + +“My daughter is no longer here,” said Madame Evangelista, advancing +almost regally toward her son-in-law and his notary. “May I be told what +is happening?” + +“Madame,” replied Mathias, alarmed at Paul’s silence, “an obstacle which +I fear will delay us has arisen--” + +At these words, Maitre Solonet issued from the little salon and cut +short the old man’s speech by a remark which restored Paul’s composure. +Overcome by the remembrance of his gallant speeches and his lover-like +behavior, he felt unable to disown them or to change his course. He +longed, for the moment, to fling himself into a gulf; Solonet’s words +relieved him. + +“There is a way,” said the younger notary, with an easy air, “by +which madame can meet the payment which is due to her daughter. Madame +Evangelista possesses forty thousand francs a year from an investment +in the Five-per-cents, the capital of which will soon be at par, if not +above it. We may therefore reckon it at eight hundred thousand francs. +This house and garden are fully worth two hundred thousand. On that +estimate, Madame can convey by the marriage contract the titles of that +property to her daughter, reserving only a life interest in it--for +I conclude that Monsieur le comte could hardly wish to leave his +mother-in-law without means? Though Madame has certainly run through her +fortune, she is still able to make good that of her daughter, or very +nearly so.” + +“Women are most unfortunate in having no knowledge of business,” + said Madame Evangelista. “Have I titles to property? and what are +life-interests?” + +Paul was in a sort of ecstasy as he listened to this proposed +arrangement. The old notary, seeing the trap, and his client with one +foot caught in it, was petrified for a moment, as he said to himself:-- + +“I am certain they are tricking us.” + +“If madame will follow my advice,” said Solonet, “she will secure her +own tranquillity. By sacrificing herself in this way she may be sure +that no minors will ultimately harass her--for we never know who +may live and who may die! Monsieur le comte will then give due +acknowledgment in the marriage contract of having received the sum total +of Mademoiselle Evangelista’s patrimonial inheritance.” + +Mathias could not restrain the indignation which shone in his eyes and +flushed his face. + +“And that sum,” he said, shaking, “is--” + +“One million, one hundred and fifty-six thousand francs according to the +document--” + +“Why don’t you ask Monsieur le comte to make over ‘hic et nunc’ his +whole fortune to his future wife?” said Mathias. “It would be more +honest than what you now propose. I will not allow the ruin of the Comte +de Manerville to take place under my very eyes--” + +He made a step as if to address his client, who was silent throughout +this scene as if dazed by it; but he turned and said, addressing Madame +Evangelista:-- + +“Do not suppose, madame, that I think you a party to these ideas of +my brother notary. I consider you an honest woman and a lady who knows +nothing of business.” + +“Thank you, brother notary,” said Solonet. + +“You know that there can be no offence between you and me,” replied +Mathias. “Madame,” he added, “you ought to know the result of this +proposed arrangement. You are still young and beautiful enough to marry +again--Ah! madame,” said the old man, noting her gesture, “who can +answer for themselves on that point?” + +“I did not suppose, monsieur,” said Madame Evangelista, “that, after +remaining a widow for the seven best years of my life, and refusing the +most brilliant offers for my daughter’s sake, I should be suspected of +such a piece of folly as marrying again at thirty-nine years of age. +If we were not talking business I should regard your suggestion as an +impertinence.” + +“Would it not be more impertinent if I suggested that you could not +marry again?” + +“Can and will are separate terms,” remarked Solonet, gallantly. + +“Well,” resumed Maitre Mathias, “we will say nothing of your marriage. +You may, and we all desire it, live for forty-five years to come. Now, +if you keep for yourself the life-interest in your daughter’s patrimony, +your children are laid on the shelf for the best years of their lives.” + +“What does that mean?” said the widow. “I don’t understand being laid on +a shelf.” + +Solonet, the man of elegance and good taste, began to laugh. + +“I’ll translate it for you,” said Mathias. “If your children are wise +they will think of the future. To think of the future means laying by +half our income, provided we have only two children, to whom we are +bound to give a fine education and a handsome dowry. Your daughter and +son-in-law will, therefore, be reduced to live on twenty thousand francs +a year, though each has spent fifty thousand while still unmarried. But +that is nothing. The law obliges my client to account, hereafter, to his +children for the eleven hundred and fifty-six thousand francs of their +mother’s patrimony; yet he may not have received them if his wife should +die and madame should survive her, which may very well happen. To sign +such a contract is to fling one’s self into the river, bound hand and +foot. You wish to make your daughter happy, do you not? If she loves her +husband, a fact which notaries never doubt, she will share his troubles. +Madame, I see enough in this scheme to make her die of grief and +anxiety; you are consigning her to poverty. Yes, madame, poverty; to +persons accustomed to the use of one hundred thousand francs a year, +twenty thousand is poverty. Moreover, if Monsieur le comte, out of +love for his wife, were guilty of extravagance, she could ruin him by +exercising her rights when misfortunes overtook him. I plead now for +you, for them, for their children, for every one.” + +“The old fellow makes a lot of smoke with his cannon,” thought Maitre +Solonet, giving his client a look, which meant, “Keep on!” + +“There is one way of combining all interests,” replied Madame +Evangelista, calmly. “I can reserve to myself only the necessary cost of +living in a convent, and my children can have my property at once. I can +renounce the world, if such anticipated death conduces to the welfare of +my daughter.” + +“Madame,” said the old notary, “let us take time to consider and +weigh, deliberately, the course we had best pursue to conciliate all +interests.” + +“Good heavens! monsieur,” cried Madame Evangelista, who saw defeat +in delay, “everything has already been considered and weighed. I was +ignorant of what the process of marriage is in France; I am a Spaniard +and a Creole. I did not know that in order to marry my daughter it was +necessary to reckon up the days which God may still grant me; that my +child would suffer because I live; that I do harm by living, and by +having lived! When my husband married me I had nothing but my name and +my person. My name alone was a fortune to him, which dwarfed his own. +What wealth can equal that of a great name? My dowry was beauty, +virtue, happiness, birth, education. Can money give those treasures? +If Natalie’s father could overhear this conversation, his generous soul +would be wounded forever, and his happiness in paradise destroyed. I +dissipated, foolishly, perhaps, a few of his millions without a quiver +ever coming to his eyelids. Since his death, I have grown economical and +orderly in comparison with the life he encouraged me to lead--Come, let +us break this thing off! Monsieur de Manerville is so disappointed that +I--” + +No descriptive language can express the confusion and shock which the +words, “break off,” introduced into the conversation. It is enough to +say that these four apparently well-bred persons all talked at once. + +“In Spain people marry in the Spanish fashion, or as they please; but +in France they marry according to French law, sensibly, and as best they +can,” said Mathias. + +“Ah, madame,” cried Paul, coming out of his stupefaction, “you mistake +my feelings.” + +“This is not a matter of feeling,” said the old notary, trying to stop +his client from concessions. “We are concerned now with the interests +and welfare of three generations. Have _we_ wasted the missing millions? +We are simply endeavoring to solve difficulties of which we are wholly +guiltless.” + +“Marry us, and don’t haggle,” said Solonet. + +“Haggle! do you call it haggling to defend the interests of father and +mother and children?” said Mathias. + +“Yes,” said Paul, continuing his remarks to Madame Evangelista, “I +deplore the extravagance of my youth, which does not permit me to stop +this discussion, as you deplore your ignorance of business and your +involuntary wastefulness. God is my witness that I am not thinking, at +this moment, of myself. A simple life at Lanstrac does not alarm me; but +how can I ask Mademoiselle Natalie to renounce her tastes, her habits? +Her very existence would be changed.” + +“Where did Evangelista get his millions?” said the widow. + +“Monsieur Evangelista was in business,” replied the old notary; “he +played in the great game of commerce; he despatched ships and made +enormous sums; we are simply a landowner, whose capital is invested, +whose income is fixed.” + +“There is still a way to harmonize all interests,” said Solonet, +uttering this sentence in a high falsetto tone, which silenced the other +three and drew their eyes and their attention upon himself. + +This young man was not unlike a skilful coachman who holds the reins of +four horses, and amuses himself by first exciting his animals and then +subduing them. He had let loose these passions, and then, in turn, he +calmed them, making Paul, whose life and happiness were in the balance, +sweat in his harness, as well as his own client, who could not clearly +see her way through this involved discussion. + +“Madame Evangelista,” he continued, after a slight pause, “can resign +her investment in the Five-per-cents at once, and she can sell this +house. I can get three hundred thousand francs for it by cutting the +land into small lots. Out of that sum she can give you one hundred and +fifty thousand francs. In this way she pays down nine hundred thousand +of her daughter’s patrimony, immediately. That, to be sure, is not all +that she owes her daughter, but where will you find, in France, a better +dowry?” + +“Very good,” said Maitre Mathias; “but what, then, becomes of madame?” + +At this question, which appeared to imply consent, Solonet said, softly, +to himself, “Well done, old fox! I’ve caught you!” + +“Madame,” he replied, aloud, “will keep the hundred and fifty thousand +francs remaining from the sale of the house. This sum, added to the +value of her furniture, can be invested in an annuity which will give +her twenty thousand francs a year. Monsieur le comte can arrange to +provide a residence for her under his roof. Lanstrac is a large house. +You have also a house in Paris,” he went on, addressing himself to Paul. +“Madame can, therefore, live with you wherever you are. A widow with +twenty thousand francs a year, and no household to maintain, is richer +than madame was when she possessed her whole fortune. Madame Evangelista +has only this one daughter; Monsieur le comte is without relations; it +will be many years before your heirs attain their majority; no conflict +of interests is, therefore, to be feared. A mother-in-law and a +son-in-law placed in such relations will form a household of united +interests. Madame Evangelista can make up for the remaining deficit by +paying a certain sum for her support from her annuity, which will ease +your way. We know that madame is too generous and too large-minded to +be willing to be a burden on her children. In this way you can make one +household, united and happy, and be able to spend, in your own right, +one hundred thousand francs a year. Is not that sum sufficient, Monsieur +le comte, to enjoy, in all countries, the luxuries of life, and to +satisfy all your wants and caprices? Believe me, a young couple often +feel the need of a third member of the household; and, I ask you, what +third member could be so desirable as a good mother?” + +“A little paradise!” exclaimed the old notary. + +Shocked to see his client’s joy at this proposal, Mathias sat down on +an ottoman, his head in his hands, plunged in reflections that were +evidently painful. He knew well the involved phraseology in which +notaries and lawyers wrap up, intentionally, malicious schemes, and he +was not the man to be taken in by it. He now began, furtively, to watch +his brother notary and Madame Evangelista as they conversed with +Paul, endeavoring to detect some clew to the deep-laid plot which was +beginning to appear upon the surface. + +“Monsieur,” said Paul to Solonet, “I thank you for the pains you take to +conciliate our interests. This arrangement will solve all difficulties +far more happily than I expected--if,” he added, turning to Madame +Evangelista, “it is agreeable to you, madame; for I could not desire +anything that did not equally please you.” + +“I?” she said; “all that makes the happiness of my children is joy to +me. Do not consider me in any way.” + +“That would not be right,” said Paul, eagerly. “If your future is not +honorably provided for, Natalie and I would suffer more than you would +suffer for yourself.” + +“Don’t be uneasy, Monsieur le comte,” interposed Solonet. + +“Ah!” thought old Mathias, “they’ll make him kiss the rod before they +scourge him.” + +“You may feel quite satisfied,” continued Solonet. “There are so many +enterprises going on in Bordeaux at this moment that investments for +annuities can be negotiated on very advantageous terms. After deducting +from the proceeds of the house and furniture the hundred and fifty +thousand francs we owe you, I think I can guarantee to madame that two +hundred and fifty thousand will remain to her. I take upon myself to +invest that sum in a first mortgage on property worth a million, and +to obtain ten per cent for it,--twenty-five thousand francs a year. +Consequently, we are marrying on nearly equal fortunes. In fact, against +your forty-six thousand francs a year, Mademoiselle Natalie brings you +forty thousand a year in the Five-per-cents, and one hundred and fifty +thousand in a round sum, which gives, in all, forty-seven thousand +francs a year.” + +“That is evident,” said Paul. + +As he ended his speech, Solonet had cast a sidelong glance at his +client, intercepted by Mathias, which meant: “Bring up your reserves.” + +“But,” exclaimed Madame Evangelista, in tones of joy that did not seem +to be feigned, “I can give Natalie my diamonds; they are worth, at +least, a hundred thousand francs.” + +“We can have them appraised,” said the notary. “This will change the +whole face of things. Madame can then keep the proceeds of her house, +all but fifty thousand francs. Nothing will prevent Monsieur le comte +from giving us a receipt in due form, as having received, in full, +Mademoiselle Natalie’s inheritance from her father; this will close, of +course, the guardianship account. If madame, with Spanish generosity, +robs herself in this way to fulfil her obligations, the least that her +children can do is to give her a full receipt.” + +“Nothing could be more just than that,” said Paul. “I am simply +overwhelmed by these generous proposals.” + +“My daughter is another myself,” said Madame Evangelista, softly. + +Maitre Mathias detected a look of joy on her face when she saw that +the difficulties were being removed: that joy, and the previous +forgetfulness of the diamonds, which were now brought forward like fresh +troops, confirmed his suspicions. + +“The scene has been prepared between them as gamblers prepare the cards +to ruin a pigeon,” thought the old notary. “Is this poor boy, whom I +saw born, doomed to be plucked alive by that woman, roasted by his very +love, and devoured by his wife? I, who have nursed these fine estates +for years with such care, am I to see them ruined in a single night? +Three million and a half to be hypothecated for eleven hundred thousand +francs these women will force him to squander!” + +Discovering thus in the soul of the elder woman intentions which, +without involving crime, theft, swindling, or any actually evil or +blameworthy action, nevertheless belonged to all those criminalities in +embryo, Maitre Mathias felt neither sorrow nor generous indignation. +He was not the Misanthrope; he was an old notary, accustomed in his +business to the shrewd calculations of worldly people, to those clever +bits of treachery which do more fatal injury than open murder on +the high-road committed by some poor devil, who is guillotined in +consequence. To the upper classes of society these passages in life, +these diplomatic meetings and discussions are like the necessary +cesspools where the filth of life is thrown. Full of pity for his +client, Mathias cast a foreseeing eye into the future and saw nothing +good. + +“We’ll take the field with the same weapons,” thought he, “and beat +them.” + +At this moment, Paul, Solonet and Madame Evangelista, becoming +embarrassed by the old man’s silence, felt that the approval of that +censor was necessary to carry out the transaction, and all three turned +to him simultaneously. + +“Well, my dear Monsieur Mathias, what do you think of it?” said Paul. + +“This is what I think,” said the conscientious and uncompromising +notary. “You are not rich enough to commit such regal folly. The estate +of Lanstrac, if estimated at three per cent on its rentals, represents, +with its furniture, one million; the farms of Grassol and Guadet and +your vineyard of Belle-Rose are worth another million; your two houses +in Bordeaux and Paris, with their furniture, a third million. Against +those three millions, yielding forty-seven thousand francs a year, +Mademoiselle Natalie brings eight hundred thousand francs in the +Five-per-cents, the diamonds (supposing them to be worth a hundred +thousand francs, which is still problematical) and fifty thousand francs +in money; in all, one million and fifty thousand francs. In presence of +such facts my brother notary tells you boastfully that we are marrying +equal fortunes! He expects us to encumber ourselves with a debt +of eleven hundred and fifty-six thousand francs to our children by +acknowledging the receipt of our wife’s patrimony, when we have actually +received but little more than a doubtful million. You are listening to +such stuff with the rapture of a lover, and you think that old Mathias, +who is not in love, can forget arithmetic, and will not point out the +difference between landed estate, the actual value of which is enormous +and constantly increasing, and the revenues of personal property, the +capital of which is subject to fluctuations and diminishment of income. +I am old enough to have learned that money dwindles and land augments. +You have called me in, Monsieur le comte, to stipulate for your +interests; either let me defend those interests, or dismiss me.” + +“If monsieur is seeking a fortune equal in capital to his own,” said +Solonet, “we certainly cannot give it to him. We do not possess three +millions and a half; nothing can be more evident. While you can boast +of your three overwhelming millions, we can only produce our poor one +million,--a mere nothing in your eyes, though three times the dowry of +an archduchess of Austria. Bonaparte received only two hundred and fifty +thousand francs with Maria-Louisa.” + +“Maria-Louisa was the ruin of Bonaparte,” muttered Mathias. + +Natalie’s mother caught the words. + +“If my sacrifices are worth nothing,” she cried, “I do not choose to +continue such a discussion; I trust to the discretion of Monsieur le +comte, and I renounce the honor of his hand for my daughter.” + +According to the strategy marked out by the younger notary, this battle +of contending interests had now reached the point where victory was +certain for Madame Evangelista. The mother-in-law had opened her heart, +delivered up her property, and was therefore practically released as her +daughter’s guardian. The future husband, under pain of ignoring the laws +of generous propriety and being false to love, ought now to accept these +conditions previously planned, and cleverly led up to by Solonet and +Madame Evangelista. Like the hands of a clock turned by mechanism, Paul +came faithfully up to time. + +“Madame!” he exclaimed, “is it possible you can think of breaking off +the marriage?” + +“Monsieur,” she replied, “to whom am I accountable? To my daughter. When +she is twenty-one years of age she will receive my guardianship account +and release me. She will then possess a million, and can, if she likes, +choose her husband among the sons of the peers of France. She is a +daughter of the Casa-Reale.” + +“Madame is right,” remarked Solonet. “Why should she be more hardly +pushed to-day than she will be fourteen months hence? You ought not to +deprive her of the benefits of her maternity.” + +“Mathias,” cried Paul, in deep distress, “there are two sorts of ruin, +and you are bringing one upon me at this moment.” + +He made a step towards the old notary, no doubt intending to tell +him that the contract must be drawn at once. But Mathias stopped that +disaster with a glance which said, distinctly, “Wait!” He saw the tears +in Paul’s eyes,--tears drawn from an honorable man by the shame of this +discussion as much as by the peremptory speech of Madame Evangelista, +threatening rupture,--and the old man stanched them with a gesture like +that of Archimedes when he cried, “Eureka!” The words “peer of France” + had been to him like a torch in a dark crypt. + +Natalie appeared at this moment, dazzling as the dawn, saying, with +infantine look and manner, “Am I in the way?” + +“Singularly so, my child,” answered her mother, in a bitter tone. + +“Come in, dear Natalie,” said Paul, taking her hand and leading her to a +chair near the fireplace. “All is settled.” + +He felt it impossible to endure the overthrow of their mutual hopes. + +“Yes, all can be settled,” said Mathias, hastily interposing. + +Like a general who, in a moment, upsets the plans skilfully laid and +prepared by the enemy, the old notary, enlightened by that genius which +presides over notaries, saw an idea, capable of saving the future of +Paul and his children, unfolding itself in legal form before his eyes. + +Maitre Solonet, who perceived no other way out of these irreconcilable +difficulties than the resolution with which Paul’s love inspired him, +and to which this conflict of feelings and thwarted interests had +brought him, was extremely surprised at the sudden exclamation of his +brother notary. Curious to know the remedy that Mathias had found in +a state of things which had seemed to him beyond all other relief, he +said, addressing the old man:-- + +“What is it you propose?” + +“Natalie, my dear child, leave us,” said Madame Evangelista. + +“Mademoiselle is not in the way,” replied Mathias, smiling. “I am going +to speak in her interests as well as in those of Monsieur le comte.” + +Silence reigned for a moment, during which time everybody present, +oppressed with anxiety, awaited the allocution of the venerable notary +with unspeakable curiosity. + +“In these days,” continued Maitre Mathias, after a pause, “the +profession of notary has changed from what it was. Political revolutions +now exert an influence over the prospects of families, which never +happened in former times. In those days existences were clearly defined; +so were rank and position--” + +“We are not here for a lecture on political ceremony, but to draw up a +marriage contract,” said Solonet, interrupting the old man, impatiently. + +“I beg you to allow me to speak in my turn as I see fit,” replied the +other. + +Solonet turned away and sat down on the ottoman, saying, in a low voice, +to Madame Evangelista:-- + +“You will now hear what we call in the profession ‘balderdash.’” + +“Notaries are therefore compelled to follow the course of political +events, which are now intimately connected with private interests. Here +is an example: formerly noble families owned fortunes that were never +shaken, but which the laws, promulgated by the Revolution, destroyed, +and the present system tends to reconstruct,” resumed the old notary, +yielding to the loquacity of the “tabellionaris boa-constrictor” + (boa-notary). “Monsieur le comte by his name, his talents, and his +fortune is called upon to sit some day in the elective Chamber. Perhaps +his destiny will take him to the hereditary Chamber, for we know that he +has talent and means enough to fulfil that expectation. Do you not agree +with me, madame?” he added, turning to the widow. + +“You anticipate my dearest hope,” she replied. “Monsieur de Manerville +must be a peer of France, or I shall die of mortification.” + +“Therefore all that leads to that end--” continued Mathias with a +cordial gesture to the astute mother-in-law. + +“--will promote my eager desire,” she replied. + +“Well, then,” said Mathias, “is not this marriage the proper occasion on +which to entail the estate and create the family? Such a course would, +undoubtedly, militate in the mind of the present government in favor of +the nomination of my client whenever a batch of appointments is sent in. +Monsieur le comte can very well afford to devote the estate of +Lanstrac (which is worth a million) to this purpose. I do not ask that +mademoiselle should contribute an equal sum; that would not be just. +But we can surely apply eight hundred thousand of her patrimony to this +object. There are two domains adjoining Lanstrac now to be sold, which +can be purchased for that sum, which will return in rentals four and a +half per cent. The house in Paris should be included in the entail. The +surplus of the two fortunes, if judiciously managed, will amply suffice +for the fortunes of the younger children. If the contracting parties +will agree to this arrangement, Monsieur ought certainly to accept your +guardianship account with its deficiency. I consent to that.” + +“Questa coda non e di questo gatto (That tail doesn’t belong to that +cat),” murmured Madame Evangelista, appealing to Solonet. + +“There’s a snake in the grass somewhere,” answered Solonet, in a low +voice, replying to the Italian proverb with a French one. + +“Why do you make this fuss?” asked Paul, leading Mathias into the +adjoining salon. + +“To save you from being ruined,” replied the old notary, in a whisper. +“You are determined to marry a girl and her mother who have already +squandered two millions in seven years; you are pledging yourself to +a debt of eleven hundred thousand francs to your children, to whom +you will have to account for the fortune you are acknowledging to have +received with their mother. You risk having your own fortune squandered +in five years, and to be left as naked as Saint-John himself, besides +being a debtor to your wife and children for enormous sums. If you are +determined to put your life in that boat, Monsieur le comte, of course +you can do as you choose; but at least let me, your old friend, try to +save the house of Manerville.” + +“How is this scheme going to save it?” asked Paul. + +“Monsieur le comte, you are in love--” + +“Yes.” + +“A lover is about as discreet as a cannon-ball; therefore, I shall not +explain. If you repeated what I should say, your marriage would probably +be broken off. I protect your love by my silence. Have you confidence in +my devotion?” + +“A fine question!” + +“Well, then, believe me when I tell you that Madame Evangelista, her +notary, and her daughter, are tricking us through thick and thin; they +are more than clever. Tudieu! what a sly game!” + +“Not Natalie,” cried Paul. + +“I sha’n’t put my fingers between the bark and the tree,” said the +old man. “You want her, take her! But I wish you were well out of this +marriage, if it could be done without the least wrong-doing on your +part.” + +“Why do you wish it?” + +“Because that girl will spend the mines of Peru. Besides, see how she +rides a horse,--like the groom of a circus; she is half emancipated +already. Such girls make bad wives.” + +Paul pressed the old man’s hand, saying, with a confident air of +self-conceit:-- + +“Don’t be uneasy as to that! But now, at this moment, what am I to do?” + +“Hold firm to my conditions. They will consent, for no one’s apparent +interest is injured. Madame Evangelista is very anxious to marry her +daughter; I see that in her little game--Beware of her!” + +Paul returned to the salon, where he found his future mother-in-law +conversing in a low tone with Solonet. Natalie, kept outside of these +mysterious conferences, was playing with a screen. Embarrassed by her +position, she was thinking to herself: “How odd it is that they tell me +nothing of my own affairs.” + +The younger notary had seized, in the main, the future effect of the new +proposal, based, as it was, on the self-love of both parties, into which +his client had fallen headlong. Now, while Mathias was more than a mere +notary, Solonet was still a young man, and brought into his business +the vanity of youth. It often happens that personal conceit makes a man +forgetful of the interests of his client. In this case, Maitre Solonet, +who would not suffer the widow to think that Nestor had vanquished +Achilles, advised her to conclude the marriage on the terms proposed. +Little he cared for the future working of the marriage contract; to him, +the conditions of victory were: Madame Evangelista released from her +obligations as guardian, her future secured, and Natalie married. + +“Bordeaux shall know that you have ceded eleven hundred thousand francs +to your daughter, and that you still have twenty-five thousand francs +a year left,” whispered Solonet to his client. “For my part, I did not +expect to obtain such a fine result.” + +“But,” she said, “explain to me why the creation of this entail should +have calmed the storm at once.” + +“It relieves their distrust of you and your daughter. An entail is +unchangeable; neither husband nor wife can touch that capital.” + +“Then this arrangement is positively insulting!” + +“No; we call it simply precaution. The old fellow has caught you in a +net. If you refuse to consent to the entail, he can reply: ‘Then your +object is to squander the fortune of my client, who, by the creation +of this entail, is protected from all such injury as securely as if the +marriage took place under the “regime dotal.”’” + +Solonet quieted his own scruples by reflecting: “After all, these +stipulations will take effect only in the future, by which time Madame +Evangelista will be dead and buried.” + +Madame Evangelista contented herself, for the present, with these +explanations, having full confidence in Solonet. She was wholly ignorant +of law; considering her daughter as good as married, she thought she had +gained her end, and was filled with the joy of success. Thus, as +Mathias had shrewdly calculated, neither Solonet nor Madame Evangelista +understood as yet, to its full extent, this scheme which he had based on +reasons that were undeniable. + +“Well, Monsieur Mathias,” said the widow, “all is for the best, is it +not?” + +“Madame, if you and Monsieur le comte consent to this arrangement +you ought to exchange pledges. It is fully understood, I suppose,” he +continued, looking from one to the other, “that the marriage will +only take place on condition of creating an entail upon the estate of +Lanstrac and the house in the rue de la Pepiniere, together with eight +hundred thousand francs in money brought by the future wife, the said +sum to be invested in landed property? Pardon me the repetition, madame; +but a positive and solemn engagement becomes absolutely necessary. +The creation of an entail requires formalities, application to the +chancellor, a royal ordinance, and we ought at once to conclude the +purchase of the new estate in order that the property be included in +the royal ordinance by virtue of which it becomes inalienable. In many +families this would be reduced to writing, but on this occasion I think +a simple consent would suffice. Do you consent?” + +“Yes,” replied Madame Evangelista. + +“Yes,” said Paul. + +“And I?” asked Natalie, laughing. + +“You are a minor, mademoiselle,” replied Solonet; “don’t complain of +that.” + +It was then agreed that Maitre Mathias should draw up the contract, +Maitre Solonet the guardianship account and release, and that both +documents should be signed, as the law requires some days before the +celebration of the marriage. After a few polite salutations the notaries +withdrew. + +“It rains, Mathias; shall I take you home?” said Solonet. “My cabriolet +is here.” + +“My carriage is here too,” said Paul, manifesting an intention to +accompany the old man. + +“I won’t rob you of a moment’s pleasure,” said Mathias. “I accept my +friend Solonet’s offer.” + +“Well,” said Achilles to Nestor, as the cabriolet rolled away, “you have +been truly patriarchal to-night. The fact is, those young people would +certainly have ruined themselves.” + +“I felt anxious about their future,” replied Mathias, keeping silent as +to the real motives of his proposition. + +At this moment the two notaries were like a pair of actors arm in +arm behind the stage on which they have played a scene of hatred and +provocation. + +“But,” said Solonet, thinking of his rights as notary, “isn’t it my +place to buy that land you mentioned? The money is part of our dowry.” + +“How can you put property bought in the name of Mademoiselle Evangelista +into the creation of an entail by the Comte de Manerville?” replied +Mathias. + +“We shall have to ask the chancellor about that,” said Solonet. + +“But I am the notary of the seller as well as of the buyer of that +land,” said Mathias. “Besides, Monsieur de Manerville can buy in his own +name. At the time of payment we can make mention of the fact that the +dowry funds are put into it.” + +“You’ve an answer for everything, old man,” said Solonet, laughing. “You +were really surpassing to-night; you beat us squarely.” + +“For an old fellow who didn’t expect your batteries of grape-shot, I did +pretty well, didn’t I?” + +“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed Solonet. + +The odious struggle in which the material welfare of a family had been +so perilously near destruction was to the two notaries nothing more than +a matter of professional polemics. + +“I haven’t been forty years in harness for nothing,” remarked Mathias. +“Look here, Solonet,” he added, “I’m a good fellow; you shall help in +drawing the deeds for the sale of those lands.” + +“Thanks, my dear Mathias. I’ll serve you in return on the very first +occasion.” + +While the two notaries were peacefully returning homeward, with no other +sensations than a little throaty warmth, Paul and Madame Evangelista +were left a prey to the nervous trepidation, the quivering of the flesh +and brain which excitable natures pass through after a scene in which +their interests and their feelings have been violently shaken. In Madame +Evangelista these last mutterings of the storm were overshadowed by a +terrible reflection, a lurid gleam which she wanted, at any cost, to +dispel. + +“Has Maitre Mathias destroyed in a few minutes the work I have been +doing for six months?” she asked herself. “Was he withdrawing Paul from +my influence by filling his mind with suspicion during their secret +conference in the next room?” + +She was standing absorbed in these thoughts before the fireplace, her +elbow resting on the marble mantel-shelf. When the porte-cochere closed +behind the carriage of the two notaries, she turned to her future +son-in-law, impatient to solve her doubts. + +“This has been the most terrible day of my life,” cried Paul, overjoyed +to see all difficulties vanish. “I know no one so downright in speech +as that old Mathias. May God hear him, and make me peer of France! Dear +Natalie, I desire this for your sake more than for my own. You are my +ambition; I live only in you.” + +Hearing this speech uttered in the accents of the heart, and noting, +more especially, the limpid azure of Paul’s eyes, whose glance betrayed +no thought of double meaning, Madame Evangelista’s satisfaction was +complete. She regretted the sharp language with which she had spurred +him, and in the joy of success she resolved to reassure him as to the +future. Calming her countenance, and giving to her eyes that expression +of tender friendship which made her so attractive, she smiled and +answered:-- + +“I can say as much to you. Perhaps, dear Paul, my Spanish nature has +led me farther than my heart desired. Be what you are,--kind as God +himself,--and do not be angry with me for a few hasty words. Shake +hands.” + +Paul was abashed; he fancied himself to blame, and he kissed Madame +Evangelista. + +“Dear Paul,” she said with much emotion, “why could not those two sharks +have settled this matter without dragging us into it, since it was so +easy to settle?” + +“In that case I should not have known how grand and generous you can +be,” replied Paul. + +“Indeed she is, Paul,” cried Natalie, pressing his hand. + +“We have still a few little matters to settle, my dear son,” said Madame +Evangelista. “My daughter and I are above the foolish vanities to which +so many persons cling. Natalie does not need my diamonds, but I am glad +to give them to her.” + +“Ah! my dear mother, do you suppose that I will accept them?” + +“Yes, my child; they are one of the conditions of the contract.” + +“I will not allow it; I will not marry at all,” cried Natalie, +vehemently. “Keep those jewels which my father took such pride in +collecting for you. How could Monsieur Paul exact--” + +“Hush, my dear,” said her mother, whose eyes now filled with tears. “My +ignorance of business compels me to a greater sacrifice than that.” + +“What sacrifice?” + +“I must sell my house in order to pay the money that I owe to you.” + +“What money can you possibly owe to me?” she said; “to me, who owe +you life! If my marriage costs you the slightest sacrifice, I will not +marry.” + +“Child!” + +“Dear Natalie, try to understand that neither I, nor your mother, nor +you yourself, require these sacrifices, but our children.” + +“Suppose I do not marry at all?” + +“Do you not love me?” said Paul, tenderly. + +“Come, come, my silly child; do you imagine that a contract is like a +house of cards which you can blow down at will? Dear little ignoramus, +you don’t know what trouble we have had to found an entail for the +benefit of your eldest son. Don’t cast us back into the discussions from +which we have just escaped.” + +“Why do you wish to ruin my mother?” said Natalie, looking at Paul. + +“Why are you so rich?” he replied, smiling. + +“Don’t quarrel, my children, you are not yet married,” said Madame +Evangelista. “Paul,” she continued, “you are not to give either +corbeille, or jewels, or trousseau. Natalie has everything in profusion. +Lay by the money you would otherwise put into wedding presents. I know +nothing more stupidly bourgeois and commonplace than to spend a hundred +thousand francs on a corbeille, when five thousand a year given to a +young woman saves her much anxiety and lasts her lifetime. Besides, the +money for a corbeille is needed to decorate your house in Paris. We +will return to Lanstrac in the spring; for Solonet is to settle my debts +during the winter.” + +“All is for the best,” cried Paul, at the summit of happiness. + +“So I shall see Paris!” cried Natalie, in a tone that would justly have +alarmed de Marsay. + +“If we decide upon this plan,” said Paul, “I’ll write to de Marsay and +get him to take a box for me at the Bouffons and also at the Italian +opera.” + +“You are very kind; I should never have dared to ask for it,” said +Natalie. “Marriage is a very agreeable institution if it gives husbands +a talent for divining the wishes of their wives.” + +“It is nothing else,” replied Paul. “But see how late it is; I ought to +go.” + +“Why leave so soon to-night?” said Madame Evangelista, employing those +coaxing ways to which men are so sensitive. + +Though all this passed on the best of terms, and according to the laws +of the most exquisite politeness, the effect of the discussion of +these contending interests had, nevertheless, cast between son and +mother-in-law a seed of distrust and enmity which was liable to sprout +under the first heat of anger, or the warmth of a feeling too harshly +bruised. In most families the settlement of “dots” and the deeds of +gift required by a marriage contract give rise to primitive emotions of +hostility, caused by self-love, by the lesion of certain sentiments, by +regret for the sacrifices made, and by the desire to diminish them. When +difficulties arise there is always a victorious side and a vanquished +one. The parents of the future pair try to conclude the matter, which is +purely commercial in their eyes, to their own advantage; and this +leads to the trickery, shrewdness, and deception of such negotiations. +Generally the husband alone is initiated into the secret of these +discussions, and the wife is kept, like Natalie, in ignorance of the +stipulations which make her rich or poor. + +As he left the house, Paul reflected that, thanks to the cleverness +of his notary, his fortune was almost entirely secured from injury. If +Madame Evangelista did not live apart from her daughter their united +household would have an income of more than a hundred thousand francs +to spend. All his expectations of a happy and comfortable life would be +realized. + +“My mother-in-law seems to me an excellent woman,” he thought, still +under the influence of the cajoling manner by which she had endeavored +to disperse the clouds raised by the discussion. “Mathias is mistaken. +These notaries are strange fellows; they envenom everything. The harm +started from that little cock-sparrow Solonet, who wanted to play a +clever game.” + +While Paul went to bed recapitulating the advantages he had won during +the evening, Madame Evangelista was congratulating herself equally on +her victory. + +“Well, darling mother, are you satisfied?” said Natalie, following +Madame Evangelista into her bedroom. + +“Yes, love,” replied the mother, “everything went well, according to my +wishes; I feel a weight lifted from my shoulders which was crushing me. +Paul is a most easy-going man. Dear fellow! yes, certainly, we must make +his life prosperous. You will make him happy, and I will be responsible +for his political success. The Spanish ambassador used to be a friend +of mine, and I’ll renew the relation--as I will with the rest of my +old acquaintance. Oh! you’ll see! we shall soon be in the very heart +of Parisian life; all will be enjoyment for us. You shall have the +pleasures, my dearest, and I the last occupation of existence,--the game +of ambition! Don’t be alarmed when you see me selling this house. Do you +suppose we shall ever come back to live in Bordeaux? no. Lanstrac? yes. +But we shall spend all our winters in Paris, where our real interests +lie. Well, Natalie, tell me, was it very difficult to do what I asked of +you?” + +“My little mamma! every now and then I felt ashamed.” + +“Solonet advises me to put the proceeds of this house into an annuity,” + said Madame Evangelista, “but I shall do otherwise; I won’t take a penny +of my fortune from you.” + +“I saw you were all very angry,” said Natalie. “How did the tempest calm +down?” + +“By an offer of my diamonds,” replied Madame Evangelista. “Solonet was +right. How ably he conducted the whole affair. Get out my jewel-case, +Natalie. I have never seriously considered what my diamonds are worth. +When I said a hundred thousand francs I talked nonsense. Madame de Gyas +always declared that the necklace and ear-rings your father gave me on +our marriage day were worth at least that sum. My poor husband was so +lavish! Then my family diamond, the one Philip the Second gave to the +Duke of Alba, and which my aunt bequeathed to me, the ‘Discreto,’ was, +I think, appraised in former times at four thousand quadruples,--one of +our Spanish gold coins.” + +Natalie laid out upon her mother’s toilet-table the pearl necklace, +the sets of jewels, the gold bracelets and precious stones of all +description, with that inexpressible sensation enjoyed by certain women +at the sight of such treasures, by which--so commentators on the Talmud +say--the fallen angels seduce the daughters of men, having sought these +flowers of celestial fire in the bowels of the earth. + +“Certainly,” said Madame Evangelista, “though I know nothing about +jewels except how to accept and wear them, I think there must be a great +deal of money in these. Then, if we make but one household, I can +sell my plate, the weight of which, as mere silver, would bring +thirty thousand francs. I remember when we brought it from Lima, the +custom-house officers weighed and appraised it. Solonet is right, I’ll +send to-morrow to Elie Magus. The Jew shall estimate the value of these +things. Perhaps I can avoid sinking any of my fortune in an annuity.” + +“What a beautiful pearl necklace!” said Natalie. + +“He ought to give it to you, if he loves you,” replied her mother; “and +I think he might have all my other jewels reset and let you keep them. +The diamonds are a part of your property in the contract. And now, +good-night, my darling. After the fatigues of this day we both need +rest.” + +The woman of luxury, the Creole, the great lady, incapable of analyzing +the results of a contract which was not yet in force, went to sleep in +the joy of seeing her daughter married to a man who was easy to manage, +who would let them both be mistresses of his home, and whose fortune, +united to theirs, would require no change in their way of living. +Thus having settled her account with her daughter, whose patrimony was +acknowledged in the contract, Madame Evangelista could feel at her ease. + +“How foolish of me to worry as I did,” she thought. “But I wish the +marriage were well over.” + +So Madame Evangelista, Paul, Natalie, and the two notaries were equally +satisfied with the first day’s result. The Te Deum was sung in both +camps,--a dangerous situation; for there comes a moment when the +vanquished side is aware of its mistake. To Madame Evangelista’s mind, +her son-in-law was the vanquished side. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT--SECOND DAY + + +The next day Elie Magus (who happened at that time to be in Bordeaux) +obeyed Madame Evangelista’s summons, believing, from general rumor as to +the marriage of Comte Paul with Mademoiselle Natalie, that it concerned +a purchase of jewels for the bride. The Jew was, therefore, astonished +when he learned that, on the contrary, he was sent for to estimate the +value of the mother-in-law’s property. The instinct of his race, as well +as certain insidious questions, made him aware that the value of the +diamonds was included in the marriage-contract. The stones were not to +be sold, and yet he was to estimate them as if some private person +were buying them from a dealer. Jewellers alone know how to distinguish +between the diamonds of Asia and those of Brazil. The stones of Golconda +and Visapur are known by a whiteness and glittering brilliancy which +others have not,--the water of the Brazilian diamonds having a yellow +tinge which reduces their selling value. Madame Evangelista’s necklace +and ear-rings, being composed entirely of Asiatic diamonds, were valued +by Elie Magus at two hundred and fifty thousand francs. As for +the “Discreto,” he pronounced it one of the finest diamonds in the +possession of private persons; it was known to the trade and valued at +one hundred thousand francs. On hearing this estimate, which proved to +her the lavishness of her husband, Madame Evangelista asked the old Jew +whether she should be able to obtain that money immediately. + +“Madame,” replied the Jew, “if you wish to sell I can give you only +seventy-five thousand for the brilliant, and one hundred and sixty +thousand for the necklace and earrings.” + +“Why such reduction?” + +“Madame,” replied Magus, “the finer the diamond, the longer we keep it +unsold. The rarity of such investments is one reason for the high value +set upon precious stones. As the merchant cannot lose the interest of +his money, this additional sum, joined to the rise and fall to which +such merchandise is subject, explains the difference between the price +of purchase and the price of sale. By owning these diamonds you have +lost the interest on three hundred thousand francs for twenty years. +If you wear your jewels ten times a year, it costs you three thousand +francs each evening to put them on. How many beautiful gowns you could +buy with that sum. Those who own diamonds are, therefore, very +foolish; but, luckily for us, women are never willing to understand the +calculation.” + +“I thank you for explaining it to me, and I shall profit by it.” + +“Do you wish to sell?” asked Magus, eagerly. + +“What are the other jewels worth?” + +The Jew examined the gold of the settings, held the pearls to the light, +scrutinized the rubies, the diadems, clasps, bracelets, and chains, and +said, in a mumbling tone:-- + +“A good many Portuguese diamonds from Brazil are among them. They are +not worth more than a hundred thousand to me. But,” he added, “a dealer +would sell them to a customer for one hundred and fifty thousand, at +least.” + +“I shall keep them,” said Madame Evangelista. + +“You are wrong,” replied Elie Magus. “With the income from the sum they +represent you could buy just as fine diamonds in five years, and have +the capital to boot.” + +This singular conference became known, and corroborated certain rumors +excited by the discussion of the contract. The servants of the house, +overhearing high voices, supposed the difficulties greater than they +really were. Their gossip with other valets spread the information, +which from the lower regions rose to the ears of the masters. The +attention of society, and of the town in general, became so fixed on +the marriage of two persons equally rich and well-born, that every one, +great and small, busied themselves about the matter, and in less than a +week the strangest rumors were bruited about. + +“Madame Evangelista sells her house; she must be ruined. She offered her +diamonds to Elie Magus. Nothing is really settled between herself and +the Comte de Manerville. Is it probable that the marriage will ever take +place?” + +To this question some answered yes, and others said no. The two +notaries, when questioned, denied these calumnies, and declared that +the difficulties arose only from the official delay in constituting the +entail. But when public opinion has taken a trend in one direction it +is very difficult to turn it back. Though Paul went every day to Madame +Evangelista’s house, and though the notaries denied these assertions +continually, the whispered calumny went on. Young girls, and their +mothers and aunts, vexed at a marriage they had dreamed of for +themselves or for their families, could not forgive the Spanish ladies +for their happiness, as authors cannot forgive each other for their +success. A few persons revenged themselves for the twenty-years luxury +and grandeur of the family of Evangelista, which had lain heavily on +their self-love. A leading personage at the prefecture declared that +the notaries could have chosen no other language and followed no other +conduct in the case of a rupture. The time actually required for the +establishment of the entail confirmed the suspicions of the Bordeaux +provincials. + +“They will keep the ball going through the winter; then, in the spring, +they will go to some watering-place, and we shall learn before the year +is out that the marriage is off.” + +“And, of course, we shall be given to understand,” said others, “for +the sake of the honor of the two families, that the difficulties did not +come from either side, but the chancellor refused to consent; you may +be sure it will be some quibble about that entail which will cause the +rupture.” + +“Madame Evangelista,” some said, “lived in a style that the mines of +Valencia couldn’t meet. When the time came to melt the bell, and pay the +daughter’s patrimony, nothing would be found to pay it with.” + +The occasion was excellent to add up the spendings of the handsome widow +and prove, categorically, her ruin. Rumors were so rife that bets were +made for and against the marriage. By the laws of worldly jurisprudence +this gossip was not allowed to reach the ears of the parties concerned. +No one was enemy or friend enough to Paul or to Madame Evangelista +to inform either of what was being said. Paul had some business at +Lanstrac, and used the occasion to make a hunting-party for several +of the young men of Bordeaux,--a sort of farewell, as it were, to his +bachelor life. This hunting party was accepted by society as a signal +confirmation of public suspicion. + +When this event occurred, Madame de Gyas, who had a daughter to marry, +thought it high time to sound the matter, and to condole, with joyful +heart, the blow received by the Evangelistas. Natalie and her mother +were somewhat surprised to see the lengthened face of the marquise, and +they asked at once if anything distressing had happened to her. + +“Can it be,” she replied, “that you are ignorant of the rumors that are +circulating? Though I think them false myself, I have come to learn the +truth in order to stop this gossip, at any rate among the circle of my +own friends. To be the dupes or the accomplices of such an error is too +false a position for true friends to occupy.” + +“But what is it? what has happened?” asked mother and daughter. + +Madame de Gyas thereupon allowed herself the happiness of repeating all +the current gossip, not sparing her two friends a single stab. Natalie +and Madame Evangelista looked at each other and laughed, but they fully +understood the meaning of the tale and the motives of their friend. +The Spanish lady took her revenge very much as Celimene took hers on +Arsinoe. + +“My dear, are you ignorant--you who know the provinces so well--can +you be ignorant of what a mother is capable when she has on her hands +a daughter whom she cannot marry for want of ‘dot’ and lovers, want of +beauty, want of mind, and, sometimes, want of everything? Why, a mother +in that position would rob a diligence or commit a murder, or wait for a +man at the corner of a street--she would sacrifice herself twenty times +over, if she was a mother at all. Now, as you and I both know, there are +many such in that situation in Bordeaux, and no doubt they attribute to +us their own thoughts and actions. Naturalists have depicted the habits +and customs of many ferocious animals, but they have forgotten the +mother and daughter in quest of a husband. Such women are hyenas, going +about, as the Psalmist says, seeking whom they may devour, and adding to +the instinct of the brute the intellect of man, and the genius of woman. +I can understand that those little spiders, Mademoiselle de Belor, +Mademoiselle de Trans, and others, after working so long at their webs +without catching a fly, without so much as hearing a buzz, should be +furious; I can even forgive their spiteful speeches. But that you, who +can marry your daughter when you please, you, who are rich and titled, +you who have nothing of the provincial about you, whose daughter is +clever and possesses fine qualities, with beauty and the power to +choose--that you, so distinguished from the rest by your Parisian grace, +should have paid the least heed to this talk does really surprise me. Am +I bound to account to the public for the marriage stipulations which +our notaries think necessary under the political circumstances of my +son-in-law’s future life? Has the mania for public discussion made its +way into families? Ought I to convoke in writing the fathers and mothers +of the province to come here and give their vote on the clauses of our +marriage contract?” + +A torrent of epigram flowed over Bordeaux. Madame Evangelista was +about to leave the city, and could safely scan her friends and enemies, +caricature them and lash them as she pleased, with nothing to fear in +return. Accordingly, she now gave vent to her secret observations and +her latent dislikes as she sought for the reason why this or that person +denied the shining of the sun at mid-day. + +“But, my dear,” said the Marquise de Gyas, “this stay of the count at +Lanstrac, these parties given to young men under such circumstances--” + +“Ah! my dear,” said the great lady, interrupting the marquise, “do you +suppose that we adopt the pettiness of bourgeois customs? Is Count Paul +held in bonds like a man who might seek to get away? Think you we ought +to watch him with a squad of gendarmes lest some provincial conspiracy +should get him away from us?” + +“Be assured, my dearest friend, that it gives me the greatest pleasure +to--” + +Here her words were interrupted by a footman who entered the room to +announce Paul. Like many lovers, Paul thought it charming to ride twelve +miles to spend an hour with Natalie. He had left his friends while +hunting, and came in booted and spurred, and whip in hand. + +“Dear Paul,” said Natalie, “you don’t know what an answer you are giving +to madame.” + +When Paul heard of the gossip that was current in Bordeaux, he laughed +instead of being angry. + +“These worthy people have found out, perhaps, that there will be no +wedding festivities, according to provincial usages, no marriage at +mid-day in the church, and they are furious. Well, my dear mother,” he +added, kissing her hand, “let us pacify them with a ball on the day when +we sign the contract, just as the government flings a fete to the people +in the great square of the Champs-Elysees, and we will give our dear +friends the dolorous pleasure of signing a marriage-contract such as +they have seldom heard of in the provinces.” + +This little incident proved of great importance. Madame Evangelista +invited all Bordeaux to witness the signature of the contract, and +showed her intention of displaying in this last fete a luxury which +should refute the foolish lies of the community. + +The preparations for this event required over a month, and it was called +the fete of the camellias. Immense quantities of that beautiful flower +were massed on the staircase, and in the antechamber and supper-room. +During this month the formalities for constituting the entail were +concluded in Paris; the estates adjoining Lanstrac were purchased, the +banns were published, and all doubts finally dissipated. Friends and +enemies thought only of preparing their toilets for the coming fete. + +The time occupied by these events obscured the difficulties raised by +the first discussion, and swept into oblivion the words and arguments of +that stormy conference. Neither Paul nor his mother-in-law continued to +think of them. Were they not, after all, as Madame Evangelista had said, +the affair of the two notaries? + +But--to whom has it never happened, when life is in its fullest flow, to +be suddenly changed by the voice of memory, raised, perhaps, too late, +reminding us of some important new fact, some threatened danger? On +the morning of the day when the contract was to be signed and the fete +given, one of these flashes of the soul illuminated the mind of Madame +Evangelista during the semi-somnolence of her waking hour. The words +that she herself had uttered at the moment when Mathias acceded to +Solonet’s conditions, “Questa coda non e di questo gatto,” were cried +aloud in her mind by that voice of memory. In spite of her incapacity +for business, Madame Evangelista’s shrewdness told her:-- + +“If so clever a notary as Mathias was pacified, it must have been that +he saw compensation at the cost of _some one_.” + +That some one could not be Paul, as she had blindly hoped. Could it be +that her daughter’s fortune was to pay the costs of war? She resolved to +demand explanations on the tenor of the contract, not reflecting on the +course she would have to take in case she found her interests +seriously compromised. This day had so powerful an influence on Paul de +Manerville’s conjugal life that it is necessary to explain certain of +the external circumstances which accompanied it. + +Madame Evangelista had shrunk from no expense for this dazzling fete. +The court-yard was gravelled and converted into a tent, and filled with +shrubs, although it was winter. The camellias, of which so much had +been said from Angouleme to Dax, were banked on the staircase and in the +vestibules. Wall partitions had disappeared to enlarge the supper-room +and the ball-room where the dancing was to be. Bordeaux, a city famous +for the luxury of colonial fortunes, was on a tiptoe of expectation for +this scene of fairyland. About eight o’clock, as the last discussion +of the contract was taking place within the house, the inquisitive +populace, anxious to see the ladies in full dress getting out of their +carriages, formed in two hedges on either side of the porte-cochere. +Thus the sumptuous atmosphere of a fete acted upon all minds at the +moment when the contract was being signed, illuminating colored lamps +lighted up the shrubs, and the wheels of the arriving guests echoed +from the court-yard. The two notaries had dined with the bridal pair and +their mother. Mathias’s head-clerk, whose business it was to receive the +signatures of the guests during the evening (taking due care that the +contract was not surreptitiously read by the signers), was also present +at the dinner. + +No bridal toilet was ever comparable with that of Natalie, whose beauty, +decked with laces and satin, her hair coquettishly falling in a myriad +of curls about her throat, resembled that of a flower encased in its +foliage. Madame Evangelista, robed in a gown of cherry velvet, a color +judiciously chosen to heighten the brilliancy of her skin and her black +hair and eyes, glowed with the beauty of a woman at forty, and wore her +pearl necklace, clasped with the “Discreto,” a visible contradiction to +the late calumnies. + +To fully explain this scene, it is necessary to say that Paul and +Natalie sat together on a sofa beside the fireplace and paid no +attention to the reading of the documents. Equally childish and equally +happy, regarding life as a cloudless sky, rich, young, and loving, they +chattered to each other in a low voice, sinking into whispers. Arming +his love with the presence of legality, Paul took delight in kissing the +tips of Natalie’s fingers, in lightly touching her snowy shoulders and +the waving curls of her hair, hiding from the eyes of others these +joys of illegal emancipation. Natalie played with a screen of peacock’s +feathers given to her by Paul,--a gift which is to love, according to +superstitious belief in certain countries, as dangerous an omen as the +gift of scissors or other cutting instruments, which recall, no doubt, +the Parces of antiquity. + +Seated beside the two notaries, Madame Evangelista gave her closest +attention to the reading of the documents. After listening to the +guardianship account, most ably written out by Solonet, in which +Natalie’s share of the three million and more francs left by Monsieur +Evangelista was shown to be the much-debated eleven hundred and +fifty-six thousand, Madame Evangelista said to the heedless young +couple:-- + +“Come, listen, listen, my children; this is your marriage contract.” + +The clerk drank a glass of iced-water, Solonet and Mathias blew their +noses, Paul and Natalie looked at the four personages before them, +listened to the preamble, and returned to their chatter. The statement +of the property brought by each party; the general deed of gift in +the event of death without issue; the deed of gift of one-fourth in +life-interest and one-fourth in capital without interest, allowed by +the Code, whatever be the number of the children; the constitution of a +common fund for husband and wife; the settlement of the diamonds on the +wife, the library and horses on the husband, were duly read and passed +without observations. Then followed the constitution of the entail. +When all was read and nothing remained but to sign the contract, Madame +Evangelista demanded to know what would be the ultimate effect of the +entail. + +“An entail, madam,” replied Solonet, “means an inalienable right to +the inheritance of certain property belonging to both husband and wife, +which is settled from generation to generation on the eldest son of +the house, without, however, depriving him of his right to share in the +division of the rest of the property.” + +“What will be the effect of this on my daughter’s rights?” + +Maitre Mathias, incapable of disguising the truth, replied:-- + +“Madame, an entail being an appanage, or portion of property set aside +for this purpose from the fortunes of husband and wife, it follows that +if the wife dies first, leaving several children, one of them a son, +Monsieur de Manerville will owe those children three hundred and +sixty thousand francs only, from which he will deduct his fourth in +life-interest and his fourth in capital. Thus his debt to those +children will be reduced to one hundred and sixty thousand francs, or +thereabouts, exclusive of his savings and profits from the common fund +constituted for husband and wife. If, on the contrary, he dies first, +leaving a male heir, Madame de Manerville has a right to three hundred +and sixty thousand francs only, and to her deeds of gift of such of her +husband’s property as is not included in the entail, to the diamonds now +settled upon her, and to her profits and savings from the common fund.” + +The effect of Maitre Mathias’s astute and far-sighted policy were now +plainly seen. + +“My daughter is ruined,” said Madame Evangelista in a low voice. + +The old and the young notary both overheard the words. + +“Is it ruin,” replied Mathias, speaking gently, “to constitute for her +family an indestructible fortune?” + +The younger notary, seeing the expression of his client’s face, thought +it judicious in him to state the disaster in plain terms. + +“We tried to trick them out of three hundred thousand francs,” he +whispered to the angry woman. “They have actually laid hold of eight +hundred thousand; it is a loss of four hundred thousand from our +interests for the benefit of the children. You must now either break the +marriage off at once, or carry it through,” concluded Solonet. + +It is impossible to describe the moment of silence that followed. Maitre +Mathias waited in triumph the signature of the two persons who had +expected to rob his client. Natalie, not competent to understand that +she had lost half her fortune, and Paul, ignorant that the house of +Manerville had gained it, were laughing and chattering still. Solonet +and Madame Evangelista gazed at each other; the one endeavoring to +conceal his indifference, the other repressing the rush of a crowd of +bitter feelings. + +After suffering in her own mind the struggles of remorse, after blaming +Paul as the cause of her dishonesty, Madame Evangelista had decided to +employ those shameful manoeuvres to cast on him the burden of her own +unfaithful guardianship, considering him her victim. But now, in a +moment, she perceived that where she thought she triumphed she was about +to perish, and her victim was her own daughter. Guilty without profit, +she saw herself the dupe of an honorable old man, whose respect she had +doubtless lost. Her secret conduct must have inspired the stipulation +of old Mathias; and Mathias must have enlightened Paul. Horrible +reflection! Even if he had not yet done so, as soon as that contract was +signed the old wolf would surely warn his client of the dangers he +had run and had now escaped, were it only to receive the praise of his +sagacity. He would put him on his guard against the wily woman who had +lowered herself to this conspiracy; he would destroy the empire she +had conquered over her son-in-law! Feeble natures, once warned, turn +obstinate, and are never won again. At the first discussion of the +contract she had reckoned on Paul’s weakness, and on the impossibility +he would feel of breaking off a marriage so far advanced. But now, she +herself was far more tightly bound. Three months earlier Paul had no +real obstacles to prevent the rupture; now, all Bordeaux knew that the +notaries had smoothed the difficulties; the banns were published; the +wedding was to take place immediately; the friends of both families were +at that moment arriving for the fete, and to witness the contract. How +could she postpone the marriage at this late hour? The cause of the +rupture would surely be made known; Maitre Mathias’s stern honor was +too well known in Bordeaux; his word would be believed in preference to +hers. The scoffers would turn against her and against her daughter. No, +she could not break it off; she must yield! + +These reflections, so cruelly sound, fell upon Madame Evangelista’s +brain like a water-spout and split it. Though she still maintained +the dignity and reserve of a diplomatist, her chin was shaken by that +apoplectic movement which showed the anger of Catherine the Second on +the famous day when, seated on her throne and in presence of her court +(very much in the present circumstances of Madame Evangelista), she was +braved by the King of Sweden. Solonet observed that play of the muscles, +which revealed the birth of a mortal hatred, a lurid storm to which +there was no lightning. At this moment Madame Evangelista vowed to her +son-in-law one of those unquenchable hatreds the seeds of which were +left by the Moors in the atmosphere of Spain. + +“Monsieur,” she said, bending to the ear of her notary, “you called that +stipulation balderdash; it seems to me that nothing could have been more +clear.” + +“Madame, allow me--” + +“Monsieur,” she continued, paying no heed to his interruption, “if you +did not perceive the effect of that entail at the time of our first +conference, it is very extraordinary that it did not occur to you in the +silence of your study. This can hardly be incapacity.” + +The young notary drew his client into the next room, saying to himself, +as he did so:-- + +“I get a three-thousand franc fee for the guardianship account, three +thousand for the contract, six thousand on the sale of the house, +fifteen thousand in all--better not be angry.” + +He closed the door, cast on Madame Evangelista the cool look of a +business man, and said:-- + +“Madame, having, for your sake, passed--as I did--the proper limits +of legal craft, do you seriously intend to reward my devotion by such +language?” + +“But, monsieur--” + +“Madame, I did not, it is true, calculate the effect of the deeds of +gift. But if you do not wish Comte Paul for your son-in-law you are not +obliged to accept him. The contract is not signed. Give your fete, and +postpone the signing. It is far better to brave Bordeaux than sacrifice +yourself.” + +“How can I justify such a course to society, which is already prejudiced +against us by the slow conclusion of the marriage?” + +“By some error committed in Paris; some missing document not sent with +the rest,” replied Solonet. + +“But those purchases of land near Lanstrac?” + +“Monsieur de Manerville will be at no loss to find another bride and +another dowry.” + +“Yes, he’ll lose nothing; but we lose all, all!” + +“You?” replied Solonet; “why, you can easily find another count who will +cost you less money, if a title is the chief object of this marriage.” + +“No, no! we can’t stake our honor in that way. I am caught in a trap, +monsieur. All Bordeaux will ring with this to-morrow. Our solemn words +are pledged--” + +“You wish the happiness of Mademoiselle Natalie.” + +“Above all things.” + +“To be happy in France,” said the notary, “means being mistress of the +home. She can lead that fool of a Manerville by the nose if she chooses; +he is so dull he has actually seen nothing of all this. Even if he now +distrusts you, he will always trust his wife; and his wife is YOU, is +she not? The count’s fate is still within your power if you choose to +play the cards in your hand.” + +“If that were true, monsieur, I know not what I would not do to show my +gratitude,” she said, in a transport of feeling that colored her cheeks. + +“Let us now return to the others, madame,” said Solonet. “Listen +carefully to what I shall say; and then--you shall think me incapable if +you choose.” + +“My dear friend,” said the young notary to Maitre Mathias, “in spite of +your great ability, you have not foreseen either the case of Monsieur +de Manerville dying without children, nor that in which he leaves only +female issue. In either of those cases the entail would pass to the +Manervilles, or, at any rate, give rise to suits on their part. I think, +therefore, it is necessary to stipulate that in the first case the +entailed property shall pass under the general deed of gift between +husband and wife; and in the second case that the entail shall be +declared void. This agreement concerns the wife’s interest.” + +“Both clauses seem to me perfectly just,” said Maitre Mathias. “As +to their ratification, Monsieur le comte can, doubtless, come to an +understanding with the chancellor, if necessary.” + +Solonet took a pen and added this momentous clause on the margin of the +contract. Paul and Natalie paid no attention to the matter; but Madame +Evangelista dropped her eyes while Maitre Mathias read the added +sentence aloud. + +“We will now sign,” said the mother. + +The volume of voice which Madame Evangelista repressed as she uttered +those words betrayed her violent emotion. She was thinking to herself: +“No, my daughter shall not be ruined--but he! My daughter shall have the +name, the title, and the fortune. If she should some day discover that +she does not love him, that she loves another, irresistibly, Paul shall +be driven out of France! My daughter shall be free, and happy, and +rich.” + +If Maitre Mathias understood how to analyze business interests, he +knew little of the analysis of human passions. He accepted Madame +Evangelista’s words as an honorable “amende,” instead of judging them +for what they were, a declaration of war. While Solonet and his clerk +superintended Natalie as she signed the documents,--an operation which +took time,--Mathias took Paul aside and told him the meaning of the +stipulation by which he had saved him from ultimate pain. + +“The whole affair is now ‘en regle.’ I hold the documents. But the +contract contains a rescript for the diamonds; you must ask for them. +Business is business. Diamonds are going up just now, but may go down. +The purchase of those new domains justifies you in turning everything +into money that you can. Therefore, Monsieur le comte, have no false +modesty in this matter. The first payment is due after the formalities +are over. The sum is two hundred thousand francs; put the diamonds into +that. You have the lien on this house, which will be sold at once, and +will pay the rest. If you have the courage to spend only fifty thousand +francs for the next three years, you can save the two hundred thousand +francs you are now obliged to pay. If you plant vineyards on your new +estates, you can get an income of over twenty-five thousand francs upon +them. You may be said, in short, to have made a good marriage.” + +Paul pressed the hand of his old friend very affectionately, a gesture +which did not escape Madame Evangelista, who now came forward to offer +him the pen. Suspicion became certainty to her mind. She was confident +that Paul and Mathias had come to an understanding about her. Rage and +hatred sent the blood surging through her veins to her heart. The worst +had come. + +After verifying that all the documents were duly signed and the initials +of the parties affixed to the bottom of the leaves, Maitre Mathias +looked from Paul to his mother-in-law, and seeing that his client did +not intend to speak of the diamonds, he said:-- + +“I do not suppose there can be any doubt about the transfer of the +diamonds, as you are now one family.” + +“It would be more regular if Madame Evangelista made them over now, +as Monsieur de Manerville has become responsible for the guardianship +funds, and we never know who may live or die,” said Solonet, who thought +he saw in this circumstance fresh cause of anger in the mother-in-law +against the son-in-law. + +“Ah! mother,” cried Paul, “it would be insulting to us all to do +that,--‘Summum jus, summum injuria,’ monsieur,” he said to Solonet. + +“And I,” said Madame Evangelista, led by the hatred now surging in her +heart to see a direct insult to her in the indirect appeal of Maitre +Mathias, “I will tear that contract up if you do not take them.” + +She left the room in one of those furious passions which long for the +power to destroy everything, and which the sense of impotence drives +almost to madness. + +“For Heaven’s sake, take them, Paul,” whispered Natalie in his ear. “My +mother is angry; I shall know why to-night, and I will tell you. We must +pacify her.” + +Calmed by this first outburst, madame kept the necklace and ear-rings, +which she was wearing, and brought the other jewels, valued at one +hundred and fifty thousand francs by Elie Magus. Accustomed to the sight +of family diamonds in all valuations of inheritance, Maitre Mathias and +Solonet examined these jewels in their cases and exclaimed upon their +duty. + +“You will lose nothing, after all, upon the ‘dot,’ Monsieur le comte,” + said Solonet, bringing the color to Paul’s face. + +“Yes,” said Mathias, “these jewels will meet the first payment on the +purchase of the new estate.” + +“And the costs of the contract,” added Solonet. + +Hatred feeds, like love, on little things; the least thing strengthens +it; as one beloved can do no evil, so the person hated can do no good. +Madame Evangelista assigned to hypocrisy the natural embarrassment of +Paul, who was unwilling to take the jewels, and not knowing where to +put the cases, longed to fling them from the window. Madame Evangelista +spurred him with a glance which seemed to say, “Take your property from +here.” + +“Dear Natalie,” said Paul, “put away these jewels; they are yours; I +give them to you.” + +Natalie locked them into the drawer of a console. At this instant the +noise of the carriages in the court-yard and the murmur of voices in the +receptions-rooms became so loud that Natalie and her mother were forced +to appear. The salons were filled in a few moments, and the fete began. + +“Profit by the honeymoon to sell those diamonds,” said the old notary to +Paul as he went away. + +While waiting for the dancing to begin, whispers went round about the +marriage, and doubts were expressed as to the future of the promised +couple. + +“Is it finally arranged?” said one of the leading personages of the town +to Madame Evangelista. + +“We had so many documents to read and sign that I fear we are rather +late,” she replied; “but perhaps we are excusable.” + +“As for me, I heard nothing,” said Natalie, giving her hand to her lover +to open the ball. + +“Both of those young persons are extravagant, and the mother is not of a +kind to check them,” said a dowager. + +“But they have founded an entail, I am told, worth fifty thousand francs +a year.” + +“Pooh!” + +“In that I see the hand of our worthy Monsieur Mathias,” said a +magistrate. “If it is really true, he has done it to save the future of +the family.” + +“Natalie is too handsome not to be horribly coquettish. After a couple +of years of marriage,” said one young woman, “I wouldn’t answer for +Monsieur de Manerville’s happiness in his home.” + +“The Pink of Fashion will then need staking,” said Solonet, laughing. + +“Don’t you think Madame Evangelista looks annoyed?” asked another. + +“But, my dear, I have just been told that all she is able to keep is +twenty-five thousand francs a year, and what is that to her?” + +“Penury!” + +“Yes, she has robbed herself for Natalie. Monsieur de Manerville has +been so exacting--” + +“Extremely exacting,” put in Maitre Solonet. “But before long he will be +peer of France. The Maulincours and the Vidame de Pamiers will use their +influence. He belongs to the faubourg Saint-Germain.” + +“Oh! he is received there, and that is all,” said a lady, who had +tried to obtain him as a son-in-law. “Mademoiselle Evangelista, as +the daughter of a merchant, will certainly not open the doors of the +chapter-house of Cologne to him!” + +“She is grand-niece to the Duke of Casa-Reale.” + +“Through the female line!” + +The topic was presently exhausted. The card-players went to the tables, +the young people danced, the supper was served, and the ball was not +over till morning, when the first gleams of the coming day whitened the +windows. + +Having said adieu to Paul, who was the last to go away, Madame +Evangelista went to her daughter’s room; for her own had been taken by +the architect to enlarge the scene of the fete. Though Natalie and her +mother were overcome with sleep, they said a few words to each other as +soon as they were alone. + +“Tell me, mother dear, what was the matter with you?” + +“My darling, I learned this evening to what lengths a mother’s +tenderness can go. You know nothing of business, and you are ignorant of +the suspicions to which my integrity has been exposed. I have trampled +my pride under foot, for your happiness and my reputation were at +stake.” + +“Are you talking of the diamonds? Poor boy, he wept; he did not want +them; I have them.” + +“Sleep now, my child. We will talk business when we wake--for,” she +added, sighing, “you and I have business now; another person has come +between us.” + +“Ah! my dear mother, Paul will never be an obstacle to our happiness, +yours and mine,” murmured Natalie, as she went to sleep. + +“Poor darling! she little knows that the man has ruined her.” + +Madame Evangelista’s soul was seized at that moment with the first idea +of avarice, a vice to which many become a prey as they grow aged. It +came into her mind to recover in her daughter’s interest the whole +of the property left by her husband. She told herself that her honor +demanded it. Her devotion to Natalie made her, in a moment, as shrewd +and calculating as she had hitherto been careless and wasteful. She +resolved to turn her capital to account, after investing a part of it +in the Funds, which were then selling at eighty francs. A passion often +changes the whole character in a moment; an indiscreet person becomes a +diplomatist, a coward is suddenly brave. Hate made this prodigal woman +a miser. Chance and luck might serve the project of vengeance, still +undefined and confused, which she would now mature in her mind. She fell +asleep, muttering to herself, “To-morrow!” By an unexplained phenomenon, +the effects of which are familiar to all thinkers, her mind, during +sleep, marshalled its ideas, enlightened them, classed them, prepared a +means by which she was to rule Paul’s life, and showed her a plan which +she began to carry out on that very to-morrow. + + + + +CHAPTER V. THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT--THIRD DAY + + +Though the excitement of the fete had driven from Paul’s mind the +anxious thoughts that now and then assailed it, when he was alone with +himself and in his bed they returned to torment him. + +“It seems to me,” he said to himself, “that without that good Mathias my +mother-in-law would have tricked me. And yet, is that believable? What +interest could lead her to deceive me? Are we not to join fortunes and +live together? Well, well, why should I worry about it? In two days +Natalie will be my wife, our money relations are plainly defined, +nothing can come between us. Vogue la galere--Nevertheless, I’ll be upon +my guard. Suppose Mathias was right? Well, if he was, I’m not obliged to +marry my mother-in-law.” + +In this second battle of the contract Paul’s future had completely +changed in aspect, though he was not aware of it. Of the two persons +whom he was marrying, one, the cleverest, was now his mortal enemy, +and meditated already withdrawing her interests from the common fund. +Incapable of observing the difference that a Creole nature placed +between his mother-in-law and other women, Paul was far from suspecting +her craftiness. The Creole nature is apart from all others; it derives +from Europe by its intellect, from the tropics by the illogical violence +of its passions, from the East by the apathetic indifference with which +it does, or suffers, either good or evil, equally,--a graceful nature +withal, but dangerous, as a child is dangerous if not watched. Like a +child, the Creole woman must have her way immediately; like a child, she +would burn a house to boil an egg. In her soft and easy life she takes +no care upon her mind; but when impassioned, she thinks of all things. +She has something of the perfidy of the Negroes by whom she has been +surrounded from her cradle, but she is also as naive and even, at times, +as artless as they. Like them and like the children, she wishes doggedly +for one thing with a growing intensity of desire, and will brood upon +that idea until she hatches it. A strange assemblage of virtues +and defects! which her Spanish nature had strengthened in Madame +Evangelista, and over which her French experience had cast the glaze of +its politeness. + +This character, slumbering in married happiness for sixteen years, +occupied since then with the trivialities of social life, this nature +to which a first hatred had revealed its strength, awoke now like a +conflagration; at the moment of the woman’s life when she was losing +the dearest object of her affections and needed another element for the +energy that possessed her, this flame burst forth. Natalie could be but +three days more beneath her influence! Madame Evangelista, vanquished +at other points, had one clear day before her, the last of those that +a daughter spends beside her mother. A few words, and the Creole nature +could influence the lives of the two beings about to walk together +through the brambled paths and the dusty high-roads of Parisian society, +for Natalie believed in her mother blindly. What far-reaching power +would the counsel of that Creole nature have on a mind so subservient! +The whole future of these lives might be determined by one single +speech. No code, no human institution can prevent the crime that +kills by words. There lies the weakness of social law; in that is the +difference between the morals of the great world and the morals of the +people: one is frank, the other hypocritical; one employs the knife, +the other the venom of ideas and language; to one death, to the other +impunity. + +The next morning, about mid-day, Madame Evangelista was half seated, +half lying on the edge of her daughter’s bed. During that waking hour +they caressed and played together in happy memory of their loving life; +a life in which no discord had ever troubled either the harmony of +their feelings, the agreement of their ideas, or the mutual choice and +enjoyment of their pleasures. + +“Poor little darling!” said the mother, shedding true tears, “how can I +help being sorrowful when I think that after I have fulfilled your every +wish during your whole life you will belong, to-morrow night, to a man +you must obey?” + +“Oh, my dear mother, as for obeying!--” and Natalie made a little motion +of her head which expressed a graceful rebellion. “You are joking,” she +continued. “My father always gratified your caprices; and why not? he +loved you. And I am loved, too.” + +“Yes, Paul has a certain love for you. But if a married woman is +not careful nothing more rapidly evaporates than conjugal love. The +influence a wife ought to have over her husband depends entirely on how +she begins with him. You need the best advice.” + +“But you will be with us.” + +“Possibly, my child. Last night, while the ball was going on, I +reflected on the dangers of our being together. If my presence were to +do you harm, if the little acts by which you ought slowly, but surely, +to establish your authority as a wife should be attributed to my +influence, your home would become a hell. At the first frown I saw upon +your husband’s brow I, proud as I am, should instantly leave his house. +If I were driven to leave it, better, I think, not to enter it. I should +never forgive your husband if he caused trouble between us. Whereas, +when you have once become the mistress, when your husband is to you what +your father was to me, that danger is no longer to be feared. Though +this wise policy will cost your young and tender heart a pang, your +happiness demands that you become the absolute sovereign of your home.” + +“Then why, mamma, did you say just now I must obey him?” + +“My dear little daughter, in order that a wife may rule, she must always +seem to do what her husband wishes. If you were not told this you might +by some impulsive opposition destroy your future. Paul is a weak young +man; he might allow a friend to rule him; he might even fall under the +dominion of some woman who would make you feel her influence. Prevent +such disasters by making yourself from the very start his ruler. Is it +not better that he be governed by you than by others?” + + +“Yes, certainly,” said Natalie. “I should think only of his happiness.” + +“And it is my privilege, darling, to think only of yours, and to wish +not to leave you at so crucial a moment without a compass in the midst +of the reefs through which you must steer.” + +“But, dearest mother, are we not strong enough, you and I, to stay +together beside him, without having to fear those frowns you seem to +dread. Paul loves you, mamma.” + +“Oh! oh! He fears me more than he loves me. Observe him carefully to-day +when I tell him that I shall let you go to Paris without me, and you +will see on his face, no matter what pains he takes to conceal it, his +inward joy.” + +“Why should he feel so?” + +“Why? Dear child! I am like Saint-Jean Bouche-d’Or. I will tell that to +himself, and before you.” + +“But suppose I marry on condition that you do not leave me?” urged +Natalie. + +“Our separation is necessary,” replied her mother. “Several +considerations have greatly changed my future. I am now poor. You will +lead a brilliant life in Paris, and I could not live with you suitably +without spending the little that remains to me. Whereas, if I go to +Lanstrac, I can take care of your property there and restore my fortune +by economy.” + +“You, mamma! _You_ practise economy!” cried Natalie, laughing. “Don’t +begin to be a grandmother yet. What! do you mean to leave me for such +reasons as those? Dear mother, Paul may seem to you a trifle stupid, but +he is not one atom selfish or grasping.” + +“Ah!” replied Madame Evangelista, in a tone of voice big with +suggestions which made the girl’s heart throb, “those discussions about +the contract have made me distrustful. I have my doubts about him--But +don’t be troubled, dear child,” she added, taking her daughter by the +neck and kissing her. “I will not leave you long alone. Whenever my +return can take place without making difficulty between you, whenever +Paul can rightly judge me, we will begin once more our happy little +life, our evening confidences--” + +“Oh! mother, how can you think of living without your Natalie?” + +“Because, dear angel, I shall live for her. My mother’s heart will be +satisfied in the thought that I contribute, as I ought, to your future +happiness.” + +“But, my dear, adorable mother, must I be alone with Paul, here, now, +all at once? What will become of me? what will happen? what must I do? +what must I not do?” + +“Poor child! do you think that I would utterly abandon you to your first +battle? We will write to each other three times a week like lovers. +We shall thus be close to each other’s hearts incessantly. Nothing +can happen to you that I shall not know, and I can save you from all +misfortune. Besides, it would be too ridiculous if I never went to see +you; it would seem to show dislike or disrespect to your husband; I will +always spend a month or two every year with you in Paris.” + +“Alone, already alone, and with him!” cried Natalie in terror, +interrupting her mother. + +“But you wish to be his wife?” + +“Yes, I wish it. But tell me how I should behave,--you, who did what you +pleased with my father. You know the way; I’ll obey you blindly.” + +Madame Evangelista kissed her daughter’s forehead. She had willed and +awaited this request. + +“Child, my counsels must adept themselves to circumstances. All men +are not alike. The lion and the frog are not more unlike than one man +compared with another,--morally, I mean. Do I know to-day what will +happen to you to-morrow? No; therefore I can only give you general +advice upon the whole tenor of your conduct.” + +“Dear mother, tell me, quick, all that you know yourself.” + +“In the first place, my dear child, the cause of the failure of married +women who desire to keep their husbands’ hearts--and,” she said, making +a parenthesis, “to keep their hearts and rule them is one and the same +thing--Well, the principle cause of conjugal disunion is to be found in +perpetual intercourse, which never existed in the olden time, but which +has been introduced into this country of late years with the mania for +family. Since the Revolution the manners and customs of the bourgeois +have invaded the homes of the aristocracy. This misfortune is due to one +of their writers, Rousseau, an infamous heretic, whose ideas were all +anti-social and who pretended, I don’t know how, to justify the most +senseless things. He declared that all women had the same rights and +the same faculties; that living in a state of society we ought, +nevertheless, to obey nature--as if the wife of a Spanish grandee, as +if you or I had anything in common with the women of the people! Since +then, well-bred women have suckled their children, have educated their +daughters, and stayed in their own homes. Life has become so involved +that happiness is almost impossible,--for a perfect harmony between +natures such as that which has made you and me live as two friends is an +exception. Perpetual contact is as dangerous for parents and children as +it is for husband and wife. There are few souls in which love survives +this fatal omnipresence. Therefore, I say, erect between yourself and +Paul the barriers of society; go to balls and operas; go out in the +morning, dine out in the evenings, pay visits constantly, and grant but +little of your time to your husband. By this means you will always keep +your value to him. When two beings bound together for life have +nothing to live upon but sentiment, its resources are soon exhausted, +indifference, satiety, and disgust succeed. When sentiment has withered +what will become of you? Remember, affection once extinguished can lead +to nothing but indifference or contempt. Be ever young and ever new to +him. He may weary you,--that often happens,--but you must never weary +him. The faculty of being bored without showing it is a condition of +all species of power. You cannot diversify happiness by the cares of +property or the occupations of a family. If you do not make your husband +share your social interests, if you do not keep him amused you will fall +into a dismal apathy. Then begins the SPLEEN of love. But a man will +always love the woman who amuses him and keeps him happy. To give +happiness and to receive it are two lines of feminine conduct which are +separated by a gulf.” + +“Dear mother, I am listening to you, but I don’t understand one word you +say.” + +“If you love Paul to the extent of doing all he asks of you, if you make +your happiness depend on him, all is over with your future life; you +will never be mistress of your home, and the best precepts in the world +will do you no good.” + +“That is plainer; but I see the rule without knowing how to apply it,” + said Natalie, laughing. “I have the theory; the practice will come.” + +“My poor Ninie,” replied the mother, who dropped an honest tear at the +thought of her daughter’s marriage, “things will happen to teach it to +you--And,” she continued, after a pause, during which the mother and +daughter held each other closely embraced in the truest sympathy, +“remember this, my Natalie: we all have our destiny as women, just as +men have their vocation as men. A woman is born to be a woman of the +world and a charming hostess, as a man is born to be a general or a +poet. Your vocation is to please. Your education has formed you for +society. In these days women should be educated for the salon as they +once were for the gynoecium. You were not born to be the mother of a +family or the steward of a household. If you have children, I hope +they will not come to spoil your figure on the morrow of your marriage; +nothing is so bourgeois as to have a child at once. If you have them +two or three years after your marriage, well and good; governesses and +tutors will bring them up. YOU are to be the lady, the great lady, who +represents the luxury and the pleasure of the house. But remember +one thing--let your superiority be visible in those things only which +flatter a man’s self-love; hide the superiority you must also acquire +over him in great things.” + +“But you frighten me, mamma,” cried Natalie. “How can I remember +all these precepts? How shall I ever manage, I, such a child, and so +heedless, to reflect and calculate before I act?” + +“But, my dear little girl, I am telling you to-day that which you must +surely learn later, buying your experience by fatal faults and errors +of conduct which will cause you bitter regrets and embarrass your whole +life.” + +“But how must I begin?” asked Natalie, artlessly. + +“Instinct will guide you,” replied her mother. “At this moment Paul +desires you more than he loves you; for love born of desires is a hope; +the love that succeeds their satisfaction is the reality. There, my +dear, is the question; there lies your power. What woman is not loved +before marriage? Be so on the morrow and you shall remain so always. +Paul is a weak man who is easily trained to habit. If he yields to you +once he will yield always. A woman ardently desired can ask all things; +do not commit the folly of many women who do not see the importance of +the first hours of their sway,--that of wasting your power on trifles, +on silly things with no result. Use the empire your husband’s first +emotions give you to accustom him to obedience. And when you make him +yield, choose that it be on some unreasonable point, so as to test the +measure of your power by the measure of his concession. What victory +would there be in making him agree to a reasonable thing? Would that +be obeying you? We must always, as the Castilian proverb says, take +the bull by the horns; when a bull has once seen the inutility of his +defence and of his strength he is beaten. When your husband does a +foolish thing for you, you can govern him.” + +“Why so?” + +“Because, my child, marriage lasts a lifetime, and a husband is not a +man like other men. Therefore, never commit the folly of giving yourself +into his power in everything. Keep up a constant reserve in your speech +and in your actions. You may even be cold to him without danger, for you +can modify coldness at will. Besides, nothing is more easy to maintain +than our dignity. The words, ‘It is not becoming in your wife to do thus +and so,’ is a great talisman. The life of a woman lies in the words, ‘I +will not.’ They are the final argument. Feminine power is in them, +and therefore they should only be used on real occasions. But they +constitute a means of governing far beyond that of argument or +discussion. I, my dear child, reigned over your father by his faith in +me. If your husband believes in you, you can do all things with him. To +inspire that belief you must make him think that you understand him. Do +not suppose that that is an easy thing to do. A woman can always make a +man think that he is loved, but to make him admit that he is understood +is far more difficult. I am bound to tell you all now, my child, for +to-morrow life with its complications, life with two wills which +_must_ be made one, begins for you. Bear in mind, at all moments, that +difficulty. The only means of harmonizing your two wills is to arrange +from the first that there shall be but one; and that will must be yours. +Many persons declare that a wife creates her own unhappiness by changing +sides in this way; but, my dear, she can only become the mistress +by controlling events instead of bearing them; and that advantage +compensates for any difficulty.” + +Natalie kissed her mother’s hands with tears of gratitude. Like all +women in whom mental emotion is never warmed by physical emotion, she +suddenly comprehended the bearings of this feminine policy; but, like +a spoiled child that never admits the force of reason and returns +obstinately to its one desire, she came back to the charge with one of +those personal arguments which the logic of a child suggests:-- + +“Dear mamma,” she said, “it is only a few days since you were talking +of Paul’s advancement, and saying that you alone could promote it; why, +then, do you suddenly turn round and abandon us to ourselves?” + +“I did not then know the extent of my obligations nor the amount of my +debts,” replied the mother, who would not suffer her real motive to be +seen. “Besides, a year or two hence I can take up that matter again. +Come, let us dress; Paul will be here soon. Be as sweet and caressing +as you were,--you know?--that night when we first discussed this fatal +contract; for to-day we must save the last fragments of our fortune, and +I must win for you a thing to which I am superstitiously attached.” + +“What is it?” + +“The ‘Discreto.’” + +Paul arrived about four o’clock. Though he endeavored to meet his +mother-in-law with a gracious look upon his face, Madame Evangelista saw +traces of the clouds which the counsels of the night and the reflections +of the morning had brought there. + +“Mathias has told him!” she thought, resolving to defeat the old +notary’s action. “My dear son,” she said, “you left your diamonds in the +drawer of the console, and I frankly confess that I would rather not see +again the things that threatened to bring a cloud between us. Besides, +as Monsieur Mathias said, they ought to be sold at once to meet the +first payment on the estates you have purchased.” + +“They are not mine,” he said. “I have given them to Natalie, and when +you see them upon her you will forget the pain they caused you.” + +Madame Evangelista took his hand and pressed it cordially, with a tear +of emotion. + +“Listen to me, my dear children,” she said, looking from Paul to +Natalie; “since you really feel thus, I have a proposition to make to +both of you. I find myself obliged to sell my pearl necklace and my +earrings. Yes, Paul, it is necessary; I do not choose to put a penny of +my fortune into an annuity; I know what I owe to you. Well, I admit +a weakness; to sell the ‘Discreto’ seems to me a disaster. To sell a +diamond which bears the name of Philip the Second and once adorned his +royal hand, an historic stone which the Duke of Alba touched for ten +years in the hilt of his sword--no, no, I cannot! Elie Magus estimates +my necklace and ear-rings at a hundred and some odd thousand francs +without the clasps. Will you exchange the other jewels I made over to +you for these? you will gain by the transaction, but what of that? I am +not selfish. Instead of those mere fancy jewels, Paul, your wife will +have fine diamonds which she can really enjoy. Isn’t it better that I +should sell those ornaments which will surely go out of fashion, and +that you should keep in the family these priceless stones?” + +“But, my dear mother, consider yourself,” said Paul. + +“I,” replied Madame Evangelista, “I want such things no longer. Yes, +Paul, I am going to be your bailiff at Lanstrac. It would be folly in +me to go to Paris at the moment when I ought to be here to liquidate +my property and settle my affairs. I shall grow miserly for my +grandchildren.” + +“Dear mother,” said Paul, much moved, “ought I to accept this exchange +without paying you the difference?” + +“Good heavens! are you not, both of you, my dearest interests? Do +you suppose I shall not find happiness in thinking, as I sit in my +chimney-corner, ‘Natalie is dazzling to-night at the Duchesse de Berry’s +ball’? When she sees my diamond at her throat and my ear-rings in +her ears she will have one of those little enjoyments of vanity which +contribute so much to a woman’s happiness and make her so gay and +fascinating. Nothing saddens a woman more than to have her vanity +repressed; I have never seen an ill-dressed woman who was amiable or +good-humored.” + +“Heavens! what was Mathias thinking about?” thought Paul. “Well, then, +mamma,” he said, in a low voice, “I accept.” + +“But I am confounded!” said Natalie. + +At this moment Solonet arrived to announce the good news that he had +found among the speculators of Bordeaux two contractors who were much +attracted by the house, the gardens of which could be covered with +dwellings. + +“They offer two hundred and fifty thousand francs,” he said; “but if you +consent to the sale, I can make them give you three hundred thousand. +There are three acres of land in the garden.” + +“My husband paid two hundred thousand for the place, therefore I +consent,” she replied. “But you must reserve the furniture and the +mirrors.” + +“Ah!” said Solonet, “you are beginning to understand business.” + +“Alas! I must,” she said, sighing. + +“I am told that a great many persons are coming to your midnight +service,” said Solonet, perceiving that his presence was inopportune, +and preparing to go. + +Madame Evangelista accompanied him to the door of the last salon, and +there she said, in a low voice:-- + +“I now have personal property to the amount of two hundred and fifty +thousand francs; if I can get two hundred thousand for my share of the +house it will make a handsome capital, which I shall want to invest to +the very best advantage. I count on you for that. I shall probably live +at Lanstrac.” + +The young notary kissed his client’s hand with a gesture of gratitude; +for the widow’s tone of voice made Solonet fancy that this alliance, +really made from self-interest only, might extend a little farther. + +“You can count on me,” he replied. “I can find you investments in +merchandise on which you will risk nothing and make very considerable +profits.” + +“Adieu until to-morrow,” she said; “you are to be our witness, you know, +with Monsieur le Marquis de Gyas.” + +“My dear mother,” said Paul, when she returned to them, “why do you +refuse to come to Paris? Natalie is provoked with me, as if I were the +cause of your decision.” + +“I have thought it all over, my children, and I am sure that I should +hamper you. You would feel obliged to make me a third in all you did, +and young people have ideas of their own which I might, unintentionally, +thwart. Go to Paris. I do not wish to exercise over the Comtesse de +Manerville the gentle authority I have held over Natalie. I desire to +leave her wholly to you. Don’t you see, Paul, that there are habits and +ways between us which must be broken up? My influence ought to yield to +yours. I want you to love me, and to believe that I have your interests +more at heart than you think for. Young husbands are, sooner or later, +jealous for the love of a wife for her mother. Perhaps they are right. +When you are thoroughly united, when love has blended your two souls +into one, then, my dear son, you will not fear an opposing influence if +I live in your house. I know the world, and men, and things; I have seen +the peace of many a home destroyed by the blind love of mothers who +made themselves in the end as intolerable to their daughters as to +their sons-in-law. The affection of old people is often exacting and +querulous. Perhaps I could not efface myself as I should. I have the +weakness to think myself still handsome; I have flatterers who declare +that I am still agreeable; I should have, I fear, certain pretensions +which might interfere with your lives. Let me, therefore, make one more +sacrifice for your happiness. I have given you my fortune, and now I +desire to resign to you my last vanities as a woman. Your notary Mathias +is getting old. He cannot look after your estates as I will. I will be +your bailiff; I will create for myself those natural occupations which +are the pleasures of old age. Later, if necessary, I will come to you +in Paris, and second you in your projects of ambition. Come, Paul, be +frank; my proposal suits you, does it not?” + +Paul would not admit it, but he was at heart delighted to get his +liberty. The suspicions which Mathias had put into his mind respecting +his mother-in-law were, however, dissipated by this conversation, which +Madame Evangelista carried on still longer in the same tone. + +“My mother was right,” thought Natalie, who had watched Paul’s +countenance. “He _is_ glad to know that I am separated from her--why?” + +That “why” was the first note of a rising distrust; did it prove the +power of those maternal instructions? + +There are certain characters which on the faith of a single proof +believe in friendship. To persons thus constituted the north wind drives +away the clouds as rapidly as the south wind brings them; they stop at +effects and never hark back to causes. Paul had one of those essentially +confiding natures, without ill-feelings, but also without foresight. His +weakness proceeded far more from his kindness, his belief in goodness, +than from actual debility of soul. + +Natalie was sad and thoughtful, for she knew not what to do without +her mother. Paul, with that self-confident conceit which comes of love, +smiled to himself at her sadness, thinking how soon the pleasures +of marriage and the excitements of Paris would drive it away. Madame +Evangelista saw this confidence with much satisfaction. She had already +taken two great steps. Her daughter possessed the diamonds which had +cost Paul two hundred thousand francs; and she had gained her point of +leaving these two children to themselves with no other guide than their +illogical love. Her revenge was thus preparing, unknown to her daughter, +who would, sooner or later, become its accomplice. Did Natalie love +Paul? That was a question still undecided, the answer to which might +modify her projects, for she loved her daughter too sincerely not to +respect her happiness. Paul’s future, therefore, still depended on +himself. If he could make his wife love him, he was saved. + +The next day, at midnight, after an evening spent together, with the +addition of the four witnesses, to whom Madame Evangelista gave the +formal dinner which follows the legal marriage, the bridal pair, +accompanied by their friends, heard mass by torchlight, in presence of +a crowd of inquisitive persons. A marriage celebrated at night always +suggests to the mind an unpleasant omen. Light is the symbol of life and +pleasure, the forecasts of which are lacking to a midnight wedding. Ask +the intrepid soul why it shivers; why the chill of those black arches +enervates it; why the sound of steps startles it; why it notices the cry +of bats and the hoot of owls. Though there is absolutely no reason to +tremble, all present do tremble, and the darkness, emblem of death, +saddens them. Natalie, parted from her mother, wept. The girl was now a +prey to those doubts which grasp the heart as it enters a new career in +which, despite all assurances of happiness, a thousand pitfalls await +the steps of a young wife. She was cold and wanted a mantle. The air and +manner of Madame Evangelista and that of the bridal pair excited some +comment among the elegant crowd which surrounded the altar. + +“Solonet tells me that the bride and bridegroom leave for Paris +to-morrow morning, all alone.” + +“Madame Evangelista was to live with them, I thought.” + +“Count Paul has got rid of her already.” + +“What a mistake!” said the Marquise de Gyas. “To shut the door on the +mother of his wife is to open it to a lover. Doesn’t he know what a +mother is?” + +“He has been very hard on Madame Evangelista; the poor woman has had to +sell her house and her diamonds, and is going to live at Lanstrac.” + +“Natalie looks very sad.” + +“Would you like to be made to take a journey the day after your +marriage?” + +“It is very awkward.” + +“I am glad I came here to-night,” said a lady. “I am now convinced of +the necessity of the pomps of marriage and of wedding fetes; a scene +like this is very bare and sad. If I may say what I think,” she added, +in a whisper to her neighbor, “this marriage seems to me indecent.” + +Madame Evangelista took Natalie in her carriage and accompanied her, +alone, to Paul’s house. + +“Well, mother, it is done!” + +“Remember, my dear child, my last advice, and you will be a happy woman. +Be his wife, and not his mistress.” + +When Natalie had retired, the mother played the little comedy of +flinging herself with tears into the arms of her son-in-law. It was the +only provincial thing that Madame Evangelista allowed herself, but she +had her reasons for it. Amid tears and speeches, apparently half +wild and despairing, she obtained of Paul those concessions which all +husbands make. + +The next day she put the married pair into their carriage, and +accompanied them to the ferry, by which the road to Paris crosses the +Gironde. With a look and a word Natalie enabled her mother to see that +if Paul had won the trick in the game of the contract, her revenge +was beginning. Natalie was already reducing her husband to perfect +obedience. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. CONCLUSION + + +Five years later, on an afternoon in the month of November, Comte Paul +de Manerville, wrapped in a cloak, was entering, with a bowed head and +a mysterious manner, the house of his old friend Monsieur Mathias at +Bordeaux. + +Too old to continue in business, the worthy notary had sold his practice +and was ending his days peacefully in a quiet house to which he had +retired. An urgent affair had obliged him to be absent at the moment of +his guest’s arrival, but his housekeeper, warned of Paul’s coming, took +him to the room of the late Madame Mathias, who had been dead a year. +Fatigued by a rapid journey, Paul slept till evening. When the old man +reached home he went up to his client’s room, and watched him sleeping, +as a mother watches her child. Josette, the old housekeeper, followed +her master and stood before the bed, her hands on her hips. + +“It is a year to-day, Josette, since I received my dear wife’s last +sigh; I little knew then that I should stand here again to see the count +half dead.” + +“Poor man! he moans in his sleep,” said Josette. + +“Sac a papier!” cried the old notary, an innocent oath which was a +sign with him of the despair on a man of business before insurmountable +difficulties. “At any rate,” he thought, “I have saved the title to the +Lanstrac estate for him, and that of Ausac, Saint-Froult, and his house, +though the usufruct has gone.” Mathias counted his fingers. “Five years! +Just five years this month, since his old aunt, now dead, that excellent +Madame de Maulincour, asked for the hand of that little crocodile of a +woman, who has finally ruined him--as I expected.” + +And the gouty old gentleman, leaning on his cane, went to walk in the +little garden till his guest should awake. At nine o’clock supper +was served, for Mathias took supper. The old man was not a little +astonished, when Paul joined him, to see that his old client’s brow was +calm and his face serene, though noticeably changed. If at the age of +thirty-three the Comte de Manerville seemed to be a man of forty, that +change in his appearance was due solely to mental shocks; physically, he +was well. He clasped the old man’s hand affectionately, and forced him +not to rise, saying:-- + +“Dear, kind Maitre Mathias, you, too, have had your troubles.” + +“Mine were natural troubles, Monsieur le comte; but yours--” + +“We will talk of that presently, while we sup.” + +“If I had not a son in the magistracy, and a daughter married,” said the +good old man, “you would have found in old Mathias, believe me, Monsieur +le comte, something better than mere hospitality. Why have you come to +Bordeaux at the very moment when posters are on all the walls of the +seizure of your farms at Grassol and Guadet, the vineyard of Belle-Rose +and the family mansion? I cannot tell you the grief I feel at the sight +of those placards,--I, who for forty years nursed that property as if it +belonged to me; I, who bought it for your mother when I was only third +clerk to Monsieur Chesnau, my predecessor, and wrote the deeds myself +in my best round hand; I, who have those titles now in my successor’s +office; I, who have known you since you were so high”; and the old man +stopped to put his hand near the ground. “Ah! a man must have been a +notary for forty-one years and a half to know the sort of grief I feel +to see my name exposed before the face of Israel in those announcements +of the seizure and sale of the property. When I pass through the streets +and see men reading these horrible yellow posters, I am ashamed, as if +my own honor and ruin were concerned. Some fools will stand there and +read them aloud expressly to draw other fools about them--and what +imbecile remarks they make! As if a man were not master of his own +property! Your father ran through two fortunes before he made the one +he left you; and you wouldn’t be a Manerville if you didn’t do likewise. +Besides, seizures of real estate have a whole section of the Code to +themselves; they are expected and provided for; you are in a position +recognized by the law.--If I were not an old man with white hair, I +would thrash those fools I hear reading aloud in the streets such an +abomination as this,” added the worthy notary, taking up a paper; “‘At +the request of Dame Natalie Evangelista, wife of Paul-Francois-Joseph, +Comte de Manerville, separated from him as to worldly goods and chattels +by the Lower court of the department of the Seine--’” + +“Yes, and now separated in body,” said Paul. + +“Ah!” exclaimed the old man. + +“Oh! against my wife’s will,” added the count, hastily. “I was forced to +deceive her; she did not know that I was leaving her.” + +“You have left her?” + +“My passage is taken; I sail for Calcutta on the ‘Belle-Amelie.’” + +“Two day’s hence!” cried the notary. “Then, Monsieur le comte, we shall +never meet again.” + +“You are only seventy-three, my dear Mathias, and you have the gout, the +brevet of old age. When I return I shall find you still afoot. Your +good head and heart will be as sound as ever, and you will help me +to reconstruct what is now a shaken edifice. I intend to make a noble +fortune in seven years. I shall be only forty on my return. All is still +possible at that age.” + +“You?” said Mathias, with a gesture of amazement,--you, Monsieur le +comte, to undertake commerce! How can you even think of it?” + +“I am no longer Monsieur le comte, dear Mathias. My passage is taken +under the name of Camille, one of my mother’s baptismal names. I have +acquirements which will enable me to make my fortune otherwise than in +business. Commerce, at any rate, will be only my final chance. I start +with a sum in hand sufficient for the redemption of my future on a large +scale.” + +“Where is that money?” + +“A friend is to send it to me.” + +The old man dropped his fork as he heard the word “friend,” not in +surprise, not scoffingly, but in grief; his look and manner expressed +the pain he felt in finding Paul under the influence of a deceitful +illusion; his practised eye fathomed a gulf where the count saw nothing +but solid ground. + +“I have been fifty years in the notariat,” he said, “and I never yet +knew a ruined man whose friend would lend him money.” + +“You don’t know de Marsay. I am certain that he has sold out some of his +investments already, and to-morrow you will receive from him a bill of +exchange for one hundred and fifty thousand francs.” + +“I hope I may. If that be so, cannot your friend settle your +difficulties here? You could live quietly at Lanstrac for five or six +years on your wife’s income, and so recover yourself.” + +“No assignment or economy on my part could pay off fifteen hundred +thousand francs of debt, in which my wife is involved to the amount of +five hundred and fifty thousand.” + +“You cannot mean to say that in four years you have incurred a million +and a half of debt?” + +“Nothing is more certain, Mathias. Did I not give those diamonds to my +wife? Did I not spend the hundred and fifty thousand I received from the +sale of Madame Evangelista’s house, in the arrangement of my house in +Paris? Was I not forced to use other money for the first payments on +that property demanded by the marriage contract? I was even forced to +sell out Natalie’s forty thousand a year in the Funds to complete the +purchase of Auzac and Saint-Froult. We sold at eighty-seven, therefore I +became in debt for over two hundred thousand francs within a month after +my marriage. That left us only sixty-seven thousand francs a year; but +we spent fully three times as much every year. Add all that up, together +with rates of interest to usurers, and you will soon find a million.” + +“Br-r-r!” exclaimed the old notary. “Go on. What next?” + +“Well, I wanted, in the first place, to complete for my wife that set +of jewels of which she had the pearl necklace clasped by the family +diamond, the ‘Discreto,’ and her mother’s ear-rings. I paid a hundred +thousand francs for a coronet of diamond wheat-ears. There’s eleven +hundred thousand. And now I find I owe the fortune of my wife, which +amounts to three hundred and sixty-six thousand francs of her ‘dot.’” + +“But,” said Mathias, “if Madame la comtesse had given up her diamonds +and you had pledged your income you could have pacified your creditors +and have paid them off in time.” + +“When a man is down, Mathias, when his property is covered with +mortgages, when his wife’s claims take precedence of his creditors’, and +when that man has notes out for a hundred thousand francs which he must +pay (and I hope I can do so out of the increased value of my property +here), what you propose is not possible.” + +“This is dreadful!” cried Mathias; “would you sell Belle-Rose with the +vintage of 1825 still in the cellars?” + +“I cannot help myself.” + +“Belle-Rose is worth six hundred thousand francs.” + +“Natalie will buy it in; I have advised her to do so.” + +“I might push the price to seven hundred thousand, and the farms are +worth a hundred thousand each.” + +“Then if the house in Bordeaux can be sold for two hundred thousand--” + +“Solonet will give more than that; he wants it. He is retiring with +a handsome property made by gambling on the Funds. He has sold his +practice for three hundred thousand francs, and marries a mulatto woman. +God knows how she got her money, but they say it amounts to millions. A +notary gambling in stocks! a notary marrying a black woman! What an age! +It is said that he speculates for your mother-in-law with her funds.” + +“She has greatly improved Lanstrac and taken great pains with its +cultivation. She has amply repaid me for the use of it.” + +“I shouldn’t have thought her capable of that.” + +“She is so kind and so devoted; she has always paid Natalie’s debts +during the three months she spent with us every year in Paris.” + +“She could well afford to do so, for she gets her living out of +Lanstrac,” said Mathias. “She! grown economical! what a miracle! I am +told she has just bought the domain of Grainrouge between Lanstrac and +Grassol; so that if the Lanstrac avenue were extended to the high-road, +you would drive four and a half miles through your own property to reach +the house. She paid one hundred thousand francs down for Grainrouge.” + +“She is as handsome as ever,” said Paul; “country life preserves her +freshness; I don’t mean to go to Lanstrac and bid her good-bye; her +heart would bleed for me too much.” + +“You would go in vain; she is now in Paris. She probably arrived there +as you left.” + +“No doubt she had heard of the sale of my property and came to help me. +I have no complaint to make of life, Mathias. I am truly loved,--as much +as any man ever could be here below; beloved by two women who outdo each +other in devotion; they are even jealous of each other; the daughter +blames the mother for loving me too much, and the mother reproaches the +daughter for what she calls her dissipations. I may say that this +great affection has been my ruin. How could I fail to satisfy even +the slightest caprice of a loving wife? Impossible to restrain myself! +Neither could I accept any sacrifice on her part. We might certainly, as +you say, live at Lanstrac, save my income, and part with her diamonds, +but I would rather go to India and work for a fortune than tear +my Natalie from the life she enjoys. So it was I who proposed the +separation as to property. Women are angels who ought not to be mixed up +in the sordid interests of life.” + +Old Mathias listened in doubt and amazement. + +“You have no children, I think,” he said. + +“Fortunately, none,” replied Paul. + +“That is not my idea of marriage,” remarked the old notary, naively. “A +wife ought, in my opinion, to share the good and evil fortunes of her +husband. I have heard that young married people who love like lovers, do +not want children? Is pleasure the only object of marriage? I say that +object should be the joys of family. Moreover, in this case--I am afraid +you will think me too much of notary--your marriage contract made it +incumbent upon you to have a son. Yes, monsieur le comte, you ought to +have had at once a male heir to consolidate that entail. Why not? +Madame Evangelista was strong and healthy; she had nothing to fear in +maternity. You will tell me, perhaps, that these are the old-fashioned +notions of our ancestors. But in those noble families, Monsieur le +comte, the legitimate wife thought it her duty to bear children and +bring them up nobly; as the Duchesse de Sully, the wife of the great +Sully, said, a wife is not an instrument of pleasure, but the honor and +virtue of her household.” + +“You don’t know women, my good Mathias,” said Paul. “In order to be +happy we must love them as they want to be loved. Isn’t there something +brutal in at once depriving a wife of her charms, and spoiling her +beauty before she has begun to enjoy it?” + +“If you had had children your wife would not have dissipated your +fortune; she would have stayed at home and looked after them.” + +“If you were right, dear friend,” said Paul, frowning, “I should +be still more unhappy than I am. Do not aggravate my sufferings by +preaching to me after my fall. Let me go, without the pang of looking +backward to my mistakes.” + +The next day Mathias received a bill of exchange for one hundred and +fifty thousand francs from de Marsay. + +“You see,” said Paul, “he does not write a word to me. He begins by +obliging me. Henri’s nature is the most imperfectly perfect, the most +illegally beautiful that I know. If you knew with what superiority that +man, still young, can rise above sentiments, above self-interests, and +judge them, you would be astonished, as I am, to find how much heart he +has.” + +Mathias tried to battle with Paul’s determination, but he found it +irrevocable, and it was justified by so many cogent reasons that the old +man finally ceased his endeavors to retain his client. + +It is seldom that vessels sail promptly at the time appointed, but on +this occasion, by a fateful circumstance for Paul, the wind was fair and +the “Belle-Amelie” sailed on the morrow, as expected. The quay was lined +with relations, and friends, and idle persons. Among them were several +who had formerly known Manerville. His disaster, posted on the walls of +the town, made him as celebrated as he was in the days of his wealth and +fashion. Curiosity was aroused; every one had their word to say about +him. Old Mathias accompanied his client to the quay, and his sufferings +were sore as he caught a few words of those remarks:-- + +“Who could recognize in that man you see over there, near old Mathias, +the dandy who was called the Pink of Fashion five years ago, and made, +as they say, ‘fair weather and foul’ in Bordeaux.” + +“What! that stout, short man in the alpaca overcoat, who looks like a +groom,--is that Comte Paul de Manerville?” + +“Yes, my dear, the same who married Mademoiselle Evangelista. Here he +is, ruined, without a penny to his name, going out to India to look for +luck.” + +“But how did he ruin himself? he was very rich.” + +“Oh! Paris, women, play, luxury, gambling at the Bourse--” + +“Besides,” said another, “Manerville always was a poor creature; no +mind, soft as papier-mache, he’d let anybody shear the wool from his +back; incapable of anything, no matter what. He was born to be ruined.” + +Paul wrung the hand of the old man and went on board. Mathias stood upon +the pier, looking at his client, who leaned against the shrouds, defying +the crowed before him with a glance of contempt. At the moment when +the sailors began to weigh anchor, Paul noticed that Mathias was making +signals to him with his handkerchief. The old housekeeper had hurried +to her master, who seemed to be excited by some sudden event. Paul asked +the captain to wait a moment, and send a boat to the pier, which was +done. Too feeble himself to go aboard, Mathias gave two letters to a +sailor in the boat. + +“My friend,” he said, “this packet” (showing one of the two letters) “is +important; it has just arrived by a courier from Paris in thirty-five +hours. State this to Monsieur le comte; don’t neglect to do so; it may +change his plans.” + +“Would he come ashore?” + +“Possibly, my friend,” said the notary, imprudently. + +The sailor is, in all lands, a being of a race apart, holding all +land-folk in contempt. This one happened to be a bas-Breton, who saw but +one thing in Maitre Mathias’s request. + +“Come ashore, indeed!” he thought, as he rowed. “Make the captain lose a +passenger! If one listened to those walruses we’d have nothing to do but +embark and disembark ‘em. He’s afraid that son of his will catch cold.” + +The sailor gave Paul the letter and said not a word of the message. +Recognizing the handwriting of his wife and de Marsay, Paul supposed +that he knew what they both would urge upon him. Anxious not to be +influenced by offers which he believed their devotion to his welfare +would inspire, he put the letters in his pocket unread, with apparent +indifference. + +Absorbed in the sad thoughts which assail the strongest man under such +circumstances, Paul gave way to his grief as he waved his hand to +his old friend, and bade farewell to France, watching the steeples of +Bordeaux as they fled out of sight. He seated himself on a coil of rope. +Night overtook him still lost in thought. With the semi-darkness of the +dying day came doubts; he cast an anxious eye into the future. Sounding +it, and finding there uncertainty and danger, he asked his soul if +courage would fail him. A vague dread seized his mind as he thought of +Natalie left wholly to herself; he repented the step he had taken; he +regretted Paris and his life there. Suddenly sea-sickness overcame him. +Every one knows the effect of that disorder. The most horrible of its +sufferings devoid of danger is a complete dissolution of the will. +An inexplicable distress relaxes to their very centre the cords of +vitality; the soul no longer performs its functions; the sufferer +becomes indifferent to everything; the mother forgets her child, the +lover his mistress, the strongest man lies prone, like an inert mass. +Paul was carried to his cabin, where he stayed three days, lying on his +back, gorged with grog by the sailors, or vomiting; thinking of nothing, +and sleeping much. Then he revived into a species of convalescence, and +returned by degrees to his ordinary condition. The first morning after +he felt better he went on deck and passed the poop, breathing in the +salt breezes of another atmosphere. Putting his hands into his pockets +he felt the letters. At once he opened them, beginning with that of his +wife. + +In order that the letter of the Comtesse de Manerville be fully +understood, it is necessary to give the one which Paul had written to +her on the day that he left Paris. + + From Paul de Manerville to his wife: + + My beloved,--When you read this letter I shall be far away from + you; perhaps already on the vessel which is to take me to India, + where I am going to repair my shattered fortune. + + I have not found courage to tell you of my departure. I have + deceived you; but it was best to do so. You would only have been + uselessly distressed; you would have wished to sacrifice your + fortune, and that I could not have suffered. Dear Natalie, feel no + remorse; I have no regrets. When I return with millions I shall + imitate your father and lay them at your feet, as he laid his at + the feet of your mother, saying to you: “All I have is yours.” + + I love you madly, Natalie; I say this without fear that the + avowal will lead you to strain a power which none but weak men + fear; yours has been boundless from the day I knew you first. My + love is the only accomplice in my disaster. I have felt, as my + ruin progressed, the delirious joys of a gambler; as the money + diminished, so my enjoyment grew. Each fragment of my fortune + turned into some little pleasure for you gave me untold happiness. + I could have wished that you had more caprices that I might + gratify them all. I knew I was marching to a precipice, but I went + on crowned with joys of which a common heart knows nothing. I have + acted like those lovers who take refuge in a cottage on the shores + of some lake for a year or two, resolved to kill themselves at + last; dying thus in all the glory of their illusions and their + love. I have always thought such persons infinitely sensible. + + You have known nothing of my pleasures or my sacrifices. The + greatest joy of all was to hide from the one beloved the cost of + her desires. I can reveal these secrets to you now, for when you + hold this paper, heavy with love, I shall be far away. Though I + lose the treasures of your gratitude, I do not suffer that + contraction of the heart which would disable me if I spoke to you + of these matters. Besides, my own beloved, is there not a tender + calculation in thus revealing to you the history of the past? Does + it not extend our love into the future?--But we need no such + supports! We love each other with a love to which proof is + needless,--a love which takes no note of time or distance, but + lives of itself alone. + + Ah! Natalie, I have just looked at you asleep, trustful, restful + as a little child, your hand stretched toward me. I left a tear + upon the pillow which has known our precious joys. I leave you + without fear, on the faith of that attitude; I go to win the + future of our love by bringing home to you a fortune large enough + to gratify your every taste, and let no shadow of anxiety disturb + our joys. Neither you nor I can do without enjoyments in the life + we live. To me belongs the task of providing the necessary + fortune. I am a man; and I have courage. + + Perhaps you might seek to follow me. For that reason I conceal + from you the name of the vessel, the port from which I sail, and + the day of sailing. After I am gone, when too late to follow me, a + friend will tell you all. + + Natalie! my affection is boundless. I love you as a mother loves + her child, as a lover loves his mistress, with absolute + unselfishness. To me the toil, to you the pleasures; to me all + sufferings, to you all happiness. Amuse yourself; continue your + habits of luxury; go to theatres and operas, enjoy society and + balls; I leave you free for all things. Dear angel, when you + return to this nest where for five years we have tasted the fruits + which love has ripened think of your friend; think for a moment of + me, and rest upon my heart. + + That is all I ask of you. For myself, dear eternal thought of + mine! whether under burning skies, toiling for both of us, I face + obstacles to vanquish, or whether, weary with the struggle, I rest + my mind on hopes of a return, I shall think of you alone; of you + who are my life,--my blessed life! Yes, I shall live in you. I + shall tell myself daily that you have no troubles, no cares; that + you are happy. As in our natural lives of day and night, of + sleeping and waking, I shall have sunny days in Paris, and nights + of toil in India,--a painful dream, a joyful reality; and I shall + live so utterly in that reality that my actual life will pass as a + dream. I shall have memories! I shall recall, line by line, + strophe by strophe, our glorious five years’ poem. I shall + remember the days of your pleasure in some new dress or some + adornment which made you to my eyes a fresh delight. Yes, dear + angel, I go like a man vowed to some great emprize, the guerdon of + which, if success attend him, is the recovery of his beautiful + mistress. Oh! my precious love, my Natalie, keep me as a religion + in your heart. Be the child that I have just seen asleep! If you + betray my confidence, my blind confidence, you need not fear my + anger--be sure of that; I should die silently. But a wife does not + deceive the man who leaves her free--for woman is never base. She + tricks a tyrant; but an easy treachery, which would kill its + victim, she will not commit--No, no! I will not think of it. + Forgive this cry, this single cry, so natural to the heart of man! + + Dear love, you will see de Marsay; he is now the lessee of our + house, and he will leave you in possession of it. This nominal + lease was necessary to avoid a useless loss. Our creditors, + ignorant that their payment is a question of time only, would + otherwise have seized the furniture and the temporary possession + of the house. Be kind to de Marsay; I have the most entire + confidence in his capacity and his loyalty. Take him as your + defender and adviser, make him your slave. However occupied, he + will always find time to be devoted to you. I have placed the + liquidation of my affairs and the payment of the debts in his + hands. If he should advance some sum of which he should later feel + in need I rely on you to pay it back. Remember, however, that I do + not leave you to de Marsay, but _to yourself_; I do not seek to + impose him upon you. + + Alas! I have but an hour more to stay beside you; I cannot spend + that hour in writing business--I count your breaths; I try to + guess your thoughts in the slight motions of your sleep. I would I + could infuse my blood into your veins that you might be a part of + me, my thought your thought, and your heart mine--A murmur has + just escaped your lips as though it were a soft reply. Be calm and + beautiful forever as you are now! Ah! would that I possessed that + fabulous fairy power which, with a wand, could make you sleep + while I am absent, until, returning, I should wake you with a + kiss. + + How much I must love you, how much energy of soul I must possess, + to leave you as I see you now! Adieu, my cherished one. Your poor + Pink of Fashion is blown away by stormy winds, but--the wings of + his good luck shall waft him back to you. No, my Ninie, I am not + bidding you farewell, for I shall never leave you. Are you not the + soul of my actions? Is not the hope of returning with happiness + indestructible for YOU the end and aim of my endeavor? Does it not + lead my every step? You will be with me everywhere. Ah! it will + not be the sun of India, but the fire of your eyes that lights my + way. Therefore be happy--as happy as a woman can be without her + lover. I would the last kiss that I take from those dear lips were + not a passive one; but, my Ninie, my adored one, I will not wake + you. When you wake, you will find a tear upon your forehead--make + it a talisman! Think, think of him who may, perhaps, die for you, + far from you; think less of the husband than of the lover who + confides you to God. + + + From the Comtesse de Manerville to her husband: + + Dear, beloved one,--Your letter has plunged me into affliction. + Had you the right to take this course, which must affect us + equally, without consulting me? Are you free? Do you not belong to + me? If you must go, why should I not follow you? You show me, + Paul, that I am not indispensable to you. What have I done, to be + deprived of my rights? Surely I count for something in this ruin. + My luxuries have weighed somewhat in the scale. You make me curse + the happy, careless life we have led for the last five years. To + know that you are banished from France for years is enough to kill + me. How soon can a fortune be made in India? Will you ever return? + + I was right when I refused, with instinctive obstinacy, that + separation as to property which my mother and you were so + determined to carry out. What did I tell you then? Did I not warn + you that it was casting a reflection upon you, and would ruin your + credit? It was not until you were really angry that I gave way. + + My dear Paul, never have you been so noble in my eyes as you are + at this moment. To despair of nothing, to start courageously to + seek a fortune! Only your character, your strength of mind could + do it. I sit at your feet. A man who avows his weakness with your + good faith, who rebuilds his fortune from the same motive that + made him wreck it, for love’s sake, for the sake of an + irresistible passion, oh, Paul, that man is sublime! Therefore, + fear nothing; go on, through all obstacles, not doubting your + Natalie--for that would be doubting yourself. Poor darling, you + mean to live in me? And I shall ever be in you. I shall not be + here; I shall be wherever you are, wherever you go. + + Though your letter has caused me the keenest pain, it has also + filled me with joy--you have made me know those two extremes! + Seeing how you love me, I have been proud to learn that my love is + truly felt. Sometimes I have thought that I loved you more than + you loved me. Now, I admit myself vanquished, you have added the + delightful superiority--of loving--to all the others with which + you are blest. That precious letter in which your soul reveals + itself will lie upon my heart during all your absence; for my + soul, too, is in it; that letter is my glory. + + I shall go to live at Lanstrac with my mother. I die to the world; + I will economize my income and pay your debts to their last + farthing. From this day forth, Paul, I am another woman. I bid + farewell forever to society; I will have no pleasures that you + cannot share. Besides, Paul, I ought to leave Paris and live in + retirement. Dear friend, you will soon have a noble reason to make + your fortune. If your courage needed a spur you would find it in + this. Cannot you guess? We shall have a child. Your cherished + desires are granted. I feared to give you one of those false hopes + which hurt so much--have we not had grief enough already on that + score? I was determined not to be mistaken in this good news. + To-day I feel certain, and it makes me happy to shed this joy upon + your sorrows. + + This morning, fearing nothing and thinking you still at home, I + went to the Assumption; all things smiled upon me; how could I + foresee misfortune? As I left the church I met my mother; she had + heard of your distress, and came, by post, with all her savings, + thirty thousand francs, hoping to help you. Ah! what a heart is + hers, Paul! I felt joyful, and hurried home to tell you this good + news, and to breakfast with you in the greenhouse, where I ordered + just the dainties that you like. Well, Augustine brought me your + letter,--a letter from you, when we had slept together! A cold + fear seized me; it was like a dream! I read your letter! I read it + weeping, and my mother shared my tears. I was half-dead. Such + love, such courage, such happiness, such misery! The richest + fortunes of the heart, and the momentary ruin of all interests! To + lose you at a moment when my admiration of your greatness thrilled + me! what woman could have resisted such a tempest of emotion? To + know you far away when your hand upon my heart would have stilled + its throbbings; to feel that YOU were not here to give me that + look so precious to me, to rejoice in our new hopes; that I was + not with you to soften your sorrows by those caresses which made + your Natalie so dear to you! I wished to start, to follow you, to + fly to you. But my mother told me you had taken passage in a ship + which leaves Bordeaux to-morrow, that I could not reach you except + by post, and, moreover, that it was madness in my present state to + risk our future by attempting to follow you. I could not bear such + violent emotions; I was taken ill, and am writing to you now in + bed. + + My mother is doing all she can to stop certain calumnies which + seem to have got about on your disaster. The Vandenesses, Charles + and Felix, have earnestly defended you; but your friend de Marsay + treats the affair satirically. He laughs at your accusers instead + of replying to them. I do not like his way of lightly brushing + aside such serious attacks. Are you not deceived in him? However, + I will obey you; I will make him my friend. Do not be anxious, my + adored one, on the points that concern your honor; is it not mine + as well? My diamonds shall be pledged; we intend, mamma and I, to + employ our utmost resources in the payment of your debts; and we + shall try to buy back your vineyard at Belle-Rose. My mother, who + understands business like a lawyer, blames you very much for not + having told her of your embarrassments. She would not have bought + --thinking to please you--the Grainrouge domain, and then she + could have lent you that money as well as the thirty thousand + francs she brought with her. She is in despair at your decision; + she fears the climate of India for your health. She entreats you + to be sober, and not to let yourself be trapped by women--That + made me laugh; I am as sure of you as I am of myself. You will + return to me rich and faithful. I alone know your feminine + delicacy, and the secret sentiments which make you a human flower + worthy of the gardens of heaven. The Bordeaux people were right + when they gave you your floral nickname. + + But alas! who will take care of my delicate flower? My heart is + rent with dreadful ideas. I, his wife, Natalie, I am here, and + perhaps he suffers far away from me! And not to share your pains, + your vexations, your dangers! In whom will you confide? how will + you live without that ear into which you have hitherto poured all? + Dear, sensitive plant, swept away by this storm, will you be able + to survive in another soil than your native land? + + It seems to me that I have been alone for centuries. I have wept + sorely. To be the cause of your ruin! What a text for the thoughts + of a loving woman! You treated me like a child to whom we give all + it asks, or like a courtesan, allowed by some thoughtless youth to + squander his fortune. Ah! such indulgence was, in truth, an + insult. Did you think I could not live without fine dresses, balls + and operas and social triumphs? Am I so frivolous a woman? Do you + think me incapable of serious thought, of ministering to your + fortune as I have to your pleasures? If you were not so far away, + and so unhappy, I would blame you for that impertinence. Why lower + your wife in that way? Good heavens! what induced me to go into + society at all?--to flatter your vanity; I adorned myself for you, + as you well know. If I did wrong, I am punished, cruelly; your + absence is a harsh expiation of our mutual life. + + Perhaps my happiness was too complete; it had to be paid by some + great trial--and here it is. There is nothing now for me but + solitude. Yes, I shall live at Lanstrac, the place your father + laid out, the house you yourself refurnished so luxuriously. There + I shall live, with my mother and my child, and await you,--sending + you daily, night and morning, the prayers of all. Remember that + our love is a talisman against all evil. I have no more doubt of + you than you can have of me. What comfort can I put into this + letter,--I so desolate, so broken, with the lonely years before + me, like a desert to cross. But no! I am not utterly unhappy; the + desert will be brightened by our son,--yes, it must be a _son_, + must it not? + + And now, adieu, my own beloved; our love and prayers will follow + you. The tears you see upon this paper will tell you much that I + cannot write. I kiss you on this little square of paper, see! + below. Take those kisses from + + Your Natalie. + + +--------+ + | | + | | + | | + +--------+ + + +This letter threw Paul into a reverie caused as much by memories of the +past as by these fresh assurances of love. The happier a man is, the +more he trembles. In souls which are exclusively tender--and exclusive +tenderness carries with it a certain amount of weakness--jealousy and +uneasiness exist in direct proportion to the amount of the happiness and +its extent. Strong souls are neither jealous nor fearful; jealousy is +doubt, fear is meanness. Unlimited belief is the principal attribute +of a great man. If he is deceived (for strength as well as weakness may +make a man a dupe) his contempt will serve him as an axe with which to +cut through all. This greatness, however, is the exception. Which of us +has not known what it is to be abandoned by the spirit which sustains +our frail machine, and to hearken to that mysterious Voice denying +all? Paul, his mind going over the past, and caught here and there by +irrefutable facts, believed and doubted all. Lost in thought, a prey +to an awful and involuntary incredulity, which was combated by the +instincts of his own pure love and his faith in Natalie, he read and +re-read that wordy letter, unable to decide the question which it raised +either for or against his wife. Love is sometimes as great and true when +smothered in words as it is in brief, strong sentences. + +To understand the situation into which Paul de Manerville was about to +enter we must think of him as he was at this moment, floating upon the +ocean as he floated upon his past, looking back upon the years of his +life as he looked at the limitless water and cloudless sky about him, +and ending his reverie by returning, through tumults of doubt, to faith, +the pure, unalloyed and perfect faith of the Christian and the lover, +which enforced the voice of his faithful heart. + +It is necessary to give here his own letter to de Marsay written on +leaving Paris, to which his friend replied in the letter he received +through old Mathias from the dock:-- + + From Comte Paul de Manerville to Monsieur le Marquis Henri de + Marsay: + + Henri,--I have to say to you one of the most vital words a man can + say to his friend:--I am ruined. When you read this I shall be on + the point of sailing from Bordeaux to Calcutta on the brig + “Belle-Amelie.” + + You will find in the hands of your notary a deed which only needs + your signature to be legal. In it, I lease my house to you for six + years at a nominal rent. Send a duplicate of that deed to my wife. + I am forced to take this precaution that Natalie may continue to + live in her own home without fear of being driven out by + creditors. + + I also convey to you by deed the income of my share of the + entailed property for four years; the whole amounting to one + hundred and fifty thousand francs, which sum I beg you to lend me + and to send in a bill of exchange on some house in Bordeaux to my + notary, Maitre Mathias. My wife will give you her signature to + this paper as an endorsement of your claim to my income. If the + revenues of the entail do not pay this loan as quickly as I now + expect, you and I will settle on my return. The sum I ask for is + absolutely necessary to enable me to seek my fortune in India; and + if I know you, I shall receive it in Bordeaux the night before I + sail. + + I have acted as you would have acted in my place. I held firm to + the last moment, letting no one suspect my ruin. Before the news + of the seizure of my property at Bordeaux reached Paris, I had + attempted, with one hundred thousand francs which I obtained on + notes, to recover myself by play. Some lucky stroke might still + have saved me. I lost. + + How have I ruined myself? By my own will, Henri. From the first + month of my married life I saw that I could not keep up the style + in which I started. I knew the result; but I chose to shut my + eyes; I could not say to my wife, “We must leave Paris and live at + Lanstrac.” I have ruined myself for her as men ruin themselves for + a mistress, but I knew it all along. Between ourselves, I am + neither a fool nor a weak man. A fool does not let himself be + ruled with his eyes open by a passion; and a man who starts for + India to reconstruct his fortune, instead of blowing out his + brains, is not weak. + + I shall return rich, or I shall never return at all. Only, my dear + friend, as I want wealth solely for _her_, as I must be absent six + years at least, and as I will not risk being duped in any way, I + confide to you my wife. I know no better guardian. Being + childless, a lover might be dangerous to her. Henri! I love her + madly, basely, without proper pride. I would forgive her, I think, + an infidelity, not because I am certain of avenging it, but + because I would kill myself to leave her free and happy--since I + could not make her happiness myself. But what have I to fear? + Natalie feels for me that friendship which is independent of love, + but which preserves love. I have treated her like a petted child. + I took such delight in my sacrifices, one led so naturally to + another, that she can never be false; she would be a monster if + she were. Love begets love. + + Alas! shall I tell you all, my dear Henri? I have just written her + a letter in which I let her think that I go with heart of hope and + brow serene; that neither jealousy, nor doubt, nor fear is in my + soul,--a letter, in short, such as a son might write to his + mother, aware that he is going to his death. Good God! de Marsay, + as I wrote it hell was in my soul! I am the most wretched man on + earth. Yes, yes, to you the cries, to you the grinding of my + teeth! I avow myself to you a despairing lover; I would rather + live these six years sweeping the streets beneath her windows than + return a millionaire at the end of them--if I could choose. I + suffer agony; I shall pass from pain to pain until I hear from you + that you will take the trust which you alone can fulfil or + accomplish. + + Oh! my dear de Marsay, this woman is indispensable to my life; she + is my sun, my atmosphere. Take her under your shield and buckler, + keep her faithful to me, even if she wills it not. Yes, I could be + satisfied with a half-happiness. Be her guardian, her chaperon, + for I could have no distrust of you. Prove to her that in + betraying me she would do a low and vulgar thing, and be no better + than the common run of women; tell her that faithfulness will + prove her lofty spirit. + + She probably has fortune enough to continue her life of luxury and + ease. But if she lacks a pleasure, if she has caprices which she + cannot satisfy, be her banker, and do not fear, I _will_ return with + wealth. + + But, after all, these fears are in vain! Natalie is an angel of + purity and virtue. When Felix de Vandenesse fell deeply in love + with her and began to show her certain attentions, I had only to + let her see the danger, and she instantly thanked me so + affectionately that I was moved to tears. She said that her + dignity and reputation demanded that she should not close her + doors abruptly to any man, but that she knew well how to dismiss + him. She did, in fact, receive him so coldly that the affair all + ended for the best. We have never had any other subject of dispute + --if, indeed, a friendly talk could be called a dispute--in all + our married life. + + And now, my dear Henri, I bid you farewell in the spirit of a man. + Misfortune has come. No matter what the cause, it is here. I strip + to meet it. Poverty and Natalie are two irreconcilable terms. The + balance may be close between my assets and my liabilities, but no + one shall have cause to complain of me. But, should any unforeseen + event occur to imperil my honor, I count on you. + + Send letters under cover to the Governor of India at Calcutta. I + have friendly relations with his family, and some one there will + care for all letters that come to me from Europe. Dear friend, I + hope to find you the same de Marsay on my return,--the man who + scoffs at everything and yet is receptive of the feelings of + others when they accord with the grandeur he is conscious of in + himself. You stay in Paris, friend; but when you read these words, + I shall be crying out, “To Carthage!” + + + The Marquis Henri de Marsay to Comte Paul de Manerville: + + So, so, Monsieur le comte, you have made a wreck of it! Monsieur + l’ambassadeur has gone to the bottom! Are these the fine things + that you were doing? + + Why, Paul, why have you kept away from me? If you had said a + single word, my poor old fellow, I would have made your position + plain to you. Your wife has refused me her endorsement. May that + one word unseal your eyes! But, if that does not suffice, learn + that your notes have been protested at the instigation of a Sieur + Lecuyer, formerly head-clerk to Maitre Solonet, a notary in + Bordeaux. That usurer in embryo (who came from Gascony for + jobbery) is the proxy of your very honorable mother-in-law, who is + the actual holder of your notes for one hundred thousand francs, + on which I am told that worthy woman doled out to you only seventy + thousand. Compared with Madame Evangelista, papa Gobseck is + flannel, velvet, vanilla cream, a sleeping draught. Your vineyard + of Belle-Rose is to fall into the clutches of your wife, to whom + her mother pays the difference between the price it goes for at + the auction sale and the amount of her dower claim upon it. Madame + Evangelista will also have the farms at Guadet and Grassol, and + the mortgages on your house in Bordeaux already belong to her, in + the names of straw men provided by Solonet. + + Thus these two excellent women will make for themselves a united + income of one hundred and twenty thousand francs a year out of + your misfortunes and forced sale of property, added to the revenue + of some thirty-odd thousand on the Grand-livre which these cats + already possess. + + The endorsement of your wife was not needed; for this morning the + said Sieur Lecuyer came to offer me a return of the sum I had lent + you in exchange for a legal transfer of my rights. The vintage of + 1825 which your mother-in-law keeps in the cellars at Lanstrac + will suffice to pay me. + + These two women have calculated, evidently, that you are now upon + the ocean; but I send this letter by courier, so that you may have + time to follow the advice I now give you. + + I made Lecuyer talk. I disentangled from his lies, his language, + and his reticence, the threads I lacked to bring to light the + whole plot of the domestic conspiracy hatched against you. This + evening, at the Spanish embassy, I shall offer my admiring + compliments to your mother-in-law and your wife. I shall pay + court to Madame Evangelista; I intend to desert you basely, and + say sly things to your discredit,--nothing openly, or that + Mascarille in petticoats would detect my purpose. How did you make + her such an enemy? That is what I want to know. If you had had the + wit to be in love with that woman before you married her daughter, + you would to-day be peer of France, Duc de Manerville, and, + possibly, ambassador to Madrid. + + If you had come to me at the time of your marriage, I would have + helped you to analyze and know the women to whom you were binding + yourself; out of our mutual observations safety might have been + yours. But, instead of that, these women judged me, became afraid + of me, and separated us. If you had not stupidly given in to them + and turned me the cold shoulder, they would never have been able + to ruin you. Your wife brought on the coldness between us, + instigated by her mother, to whom she wrote two letters a week,--a + fact to which you paid no attention. I recognized my Paul when I + heard that detail. + + Within a month I shall be so intimate with your mother-in-law that + I shall hear from her the reasons of the hispano-italiano hatred + which she feels for you,--for you, one of the best and kindest men + on earth! Did she hate you before her daughter fell in love with + Felix de Vandenesse; that’s a question in my mind. If I had not + taken a fancy to go to the East with Montriveau, Ronquerolles, and + a few other good fellows of your acquaintance, I should have been + in a position to tell you something about that affair, which was + beginning just as I left Paris. I saw the first gleams even then + of your misfortune. But what gentleman is base enough to open such + a subject unless appealed to? Who shall dare to injure a woman, or + break that illusive mirror in which his friend delights in gazing + at the fairy scenes of a happy marriage? Illusions are the riches + of the heart. + + Your wife, dear friend, is, I believe I may say, in the fullest + application of the word, a fashionable woman. She thinks of + nothing but her social success, her dress, her pleasures; she goes + to opera and theatre and balls; she rises late and drives to the + Bois, dines out, or gives a dinner-party. Such a life seems to me + for women very much what war is for men; the public sees only the + victors; it forgets the dead. Many delicate women perish in this + conflict; those who come out of it have iron constitutions, + consequently no heart, but good stomachs. There lies the reason of + the cold insensibility of social life. Fine souls keep themselves + reserved, weak and tender natures succumb; the rest are + cobblestones which hold the social organ in its place, water-worn + and rounded by the tide, but never worn-out. Your wife has + maintained that life with ease; she looks made for it; she is + always fresh and beautiful. To my mind the deduction is plain, + --she has never loved you; and you have loved her like a madman. + + To strike out love from that siliceous nature a man of iron was + needed. After standing, but without enduring, the shock of Lady + Dudley, Felix was the fitting mate to Natalie. There is no great + merit in divining that to you she was indifferent. In love with + her yourself, you have been incapable of perceiving the cold + nature of a young woman whom you have fashioned and trained for a + man like Vandenesse. The coldness of your wife, if you perceived + it, you set down, with the stupid jurisprudence of married people, + to the honor of her reserve and her innocence. Like all husbands, + you thought you could keep her virtuous in a society where women + whisper from ear to ear that which men are afraid to say. + + No, your wife has liked the social benefits she derived from + marriage, but the private burdens of it she found rather heavy. + Those burdens, that tax was--you! Seeing nothing of all this, you + have gone on digging your abysses (to use the hackneyed words of + rhetoric) and covering them with flowers. You have mildly obeyed + the law which rules the ruck of men; from which I desired to + protect you. Dear fellow! only one thing was wanting to make you + as dull as the bourgeois deceived by his wife, who is all + astonishment or wrath, and that is that you should talk to me of + your sacrifices, your love for Natalie, and chant that psalm: + “Ungrateful would she be if she betrayed me; I have done this, I + have done that, and more will I do; I will go to the ends of the + earth, to the Indies for her sake. I--I--” etc. My dear Paul, have + you never lived in Paris, have you never had the honor of + belonging by ties of friendship to Henri de Marsay, that you + should be so ignorant of the commonest things, the primitive + principles that move the feminine mechanism, the a-b-c of their + hearts? Then hear me:-- + + Suppose you exterminate yourself, suppose you go to Saint-Pelagie + for a woman’s debts, suppose you kill a score of men, desert a + dozen women, serve like Laban, cross the deserts, skirt the + galleys, cover yourself with glory, cover yourself with shame, + refuse, like Nelson, to fight a battle until you have kissed the + shoulder of Lady Hamilton, dash yourself, like Bonaparte, upon the + bridge at Arcola, go mad like Roland, risk your life to dance five + minutes with a woman--my dear fellow, what have all those things + to do with _love_? If love were won by samples such as those + mankind would be too happy. A spurt of prowess at the moment of + desire would give a man the woman that he wanted. But love, _love_, + my good Paul, is a faith like that in the Immaculate conception of + the Holy Virgin; it comes, or it does not come. Will the mines of + Potosi, or the shedding of our blood, or the making of our fame + serve to waken an involuntary, an inexplicable sentiment? Young + men like you, who expect to be loved as the balance of your + account, are nothing else than usurers. Our legitimate wives owe + us virtue and children, but they don’t owe us love. + + Love, my dear Paul, is the sense of pleasure given and received, + and the certainty of giving and receiving it; love is a desire + incessantly moving and growing, incessantly satisfied and + insatiable. The day when Vandenesse stirred the cord of a desire + in your wife’s heart which you had left untouched, all your + self-satisfied affection, your gifts, your deeds, your money, ceased + to be even memories; one emotion of love in your wife’s heart has + cast out the treasures of your own passion, which are now nothing + better than old iron. Felix has the virtues and the beauties in + her eyes, and the simple moral is that blinded by your own love + you never made her love you. + + Your mother-in-law is on the side of the lover against the + husband,--secretly or not; she may have closed her eyes, or she + may have opened them; I know not what she has done--but one thing + is certain, she is for her daughter, and against you. During the + fifteen years that I have observed society, I have never yet seen + a mother who, under such circumstances, abandons her daughter. + This indulgence seems to be an inheritance transmitted in the + female line. What man can blame it? Some copyist of the Civil + code, perhaps, who sees formulas only in the place of feelings. + + As for your present position, the dissipation into which the life + of a fashionable woman cast you, and your own easy nature, + possibly your vanity, have opened the way for your wife and her + mother to get rid of you by this ruin so skilfully contrived. From + all of which you will conclude, my good friend, that the mission + you entrusted to me, and which I would all the more faithfully + fulfil because it amused me, is, necessarily, null and void. The + evil you wish me to prevent is accomplished,--“consummatum est.” + + Forgive me, dear friend, if I write to you, as you say, a la de + Marsay on subjects which must seem to you very serious. Far be it + from me to dance upon the grave of a friend, like heirs upon that + of a progenitor. But you have written to me that you mean to act + the part of a man, and I believe you; I therefore treat you as a + man of the world, and not as a lover. For you, this blow ought to + be like the brand on the shoulder of a galley-slave, which flings + him forever into a life of systematic opposition to society. You + are now freed of one evil; marriage possessed you; it now behooves + you to turn round and possess marriage. + + Paul, I am your friend in the fullest acceptation of the word. If + you had a brain in an iron skull, if you had the energy which has + come to you too late, I would have proved my friendship by telling + you things that would have made you walk upon humanity as upon a + carpet. But when I did talk to you guardedly of Parisian + civilization, when I told you in the disguise of fiction some of + the actual adventures of my youth, you regarded them as mere + romance and would not see their bearing. When I told you that + history of a lawyer at the galleys branded for forgery, who + committed the crime to give his wife, adored like yours, an income + of thirty thousand francs, and whom his wife denounced that she + might be rid of him and free to love another man, you exclaimed, + and other fools who were supping with us exclaimed against me. + Well, my dear Paul, you were that lawyer, less the galleys. + + Your friends here are not sparing you. The sister of the two + Vandenesses, the Marquise de Listomere and all her set, in which, + by the bye, that little Rastignac has enrolled himself,--the scamp + will make his way!--Madame d’Aiglemont and her salon, the + Lenoncourts, the Comtesse Ferraud, Madame d’Espard, the Nucingens, + the Spanish ambassador, in short, all the cliques in society are + flinging mud upon you. You are a bad man, a gambler, a dissipated + fellow who has squandered his property. After paying your debts a + great many times, your wife, an angel of virtue, has just redeemed + your notes for one hundred thousand francs, although her property + was separate from yours. Luckily, you had done the best you could + do by disappearing. If you had stayed here you would have made her + bed in the straw; the poor woman would have been the victim of her + conjugal devotion! + + When a man attains to power, my dear Paul, he has all the virtues + of an epitaph; let him fall into poverty, and he has more sins + than the Prodigal Son; society at the present moment gives you the + vices of a Don Juan. You gambled at the Bourse, you had licentious + tastes which cost you fabulous sums of money to gratify; you paid + enormous interests to money-lenders. The two Vandenesses have told + everywhere how Gigonnet gave you for six thousand francs an ivory + frigate, and made your valet buy it back for three hundred in + order to sell it to you again. The incident did really happen to + Maxime de Trailles about nine years ago; but it fits your present + circumstances so well that Maxime has forever lost the command of + his frigate. + + In short, I can’t tell you one-half that is said; you have + supplied a whole encyclopaedia of gossip which the women have an + interest in swelling. Your wife is having an immense success. Last + evening at the opera Madame Firmiani began to repeat to me some of + the things that are being said. “Don’t talk of that,” I replied. + “You know nothing of the real truth, you people. Paul has robbed + the Bank, cheated the Treasury, murdered Ezzelin and three Medoras + in the rue Saint-Denis, and I think, between ourselves, that he is + a member of the Dix-Mille. His associate is the famous Jacques + Collin, on whom the police have been unable to lay a hand since he + escaped from the galleys. Paul gave him a room in his house; you + see he is capable of anything; in fact, the two have gone off to + India together to rob the Great Mogul.” Madame Firmiani, like the + distinguished woman that she is, saw that she ought not to convert + her beautiful lips into a mouthpiece for false denunciation. + + Many persons, when they hear of these tragi-comedies of life, + refuse to believe them. They take the side of human nature and + fine sentiments; they declare that these things do not exist. But + Talleyrand said a fine thing, my dear fellow: “All things happen.” + Truly, things happen under our very noses which are more amazing + than this domestic plot of yours; but society has an interest in + denying them, and in declaring itself calumniated. Often these + dramas are played so naturally and with such a varnish of good + taste that even I have to rub the lens of my opera-glass to see to + the bottom of them. But, I repeat to you, when a man is a friend + of mine, when we have received together the baptism of champagne + and have knelt together before the altar of the Venus Commodus, + when the crooked fingers of play have given us their benediction, + if that man finds himself in a false position I’d ruin a score of + families to do him justice. + + You must be aware from all this that I love you. Have I ever in my + life written a letter as long as this? No. Therefore, read with + attention what I still have to say. + + Alas! Paul, I shall be forced to take to writing, for I am taking + to politics. I am going into public life. I intend to have, within + five years, the portfolio of a ministry or some embassy. There + comes an age when the only mistress a man can serve is his + country. I enter the ranks of those who intend to upset not only + the ministry, but the whole present system of government. In + short, I swim in the waters of a certain prince who is lame of the + foot only,--a man whom I regard as a statesman of genius whose + name will go down to posterity; a prince as complete in his way as + a great artist may be in his. + + Several of us, Ronquerolles, Montriveau, the Grandlieus, La + Roche-Hugon, Serisy, Feraud, and Granville, have allied ourselves + against the “parti-pretre,” as the party-ninny represented by the + “Constitutionnel” has ingeniously said. We intend to overturn the + Navarreins, Lenoncourts, Vandenesses, and the Grand Almonry. In + order to succeed we shall even ally ourselves with Lafayette, the + Orleanists, and the Left,--people whom we can throttle on the + morrow of victory, for no government in the world is possible with + their principles. We are capable of anything for the good of the + country--and our own. + + Personal questions as to the King’s person are mere sentimental + folly in these days; they must be cleared away. From that point of + view, the English with their sort of Doge, are more advanced than + we are. Politics have nothing to do with that, my dear fellow. + Politics consist in giving the nation an impetus by creating an + oligarchy embodying a fixed theory of government, and able to + direct public affairs along a straight path, instead of allowing + the country to be pulled in a thousand different directions, which + is what has been happening for the last forty years in our + beautiful France--at once so intelligent and so sottish, so wise + and so foolish; it needs a system, indeed, much more than men. + What are individuals in this great question? If the end is a great + one, if the country may live happy and free from trouble, what do + the masses care for the profits of our stewardship, our fortune, + privileges, and pleasures? + + I am now standing firm on my feet. I have at the present moment a + hundred and fifty thousand francs a year in the Three per Cents, + and a reserve of two hundred thousand francs to repair damages. + Even this does not seem to me very much ballast in the pocket of a + man starting left foot foremost to scale the heights of power. + + A fortunate accident settled the question of my setting out on + this career, which did not particularly smile on me, for you know + my predilection for the life of the East. After thirty-five years + of slumber, my highly-respected mother woke up to the recollection + that she had a son who might do her honor. Often when a vine-stock + is eradicated, some years after shoots come up to the surface of + the ground; well, my dear boy, my mother had almost torn me up by + the roots from her heart, and I sprouted again in her head. At the + age of fifty-eight, she thinks herself old enough to think no more + of any men but her son. At this juncture she has met in some + hot-water cauldron, at I know not what baths, a delightful old maid + --English, with two hundred and forty thousand francs a year; and, + like a good mother, she has inspired her with an audacious + ambition to become my wife. A maid of six-and-thirty, my word! + Brought up in the strictest puritanical principles, a steady + sitting hen, who maintains that unfaithful wives should be + publicly burnt. ‘Where will you find wood enough?’ I asked her. I + could have sent her to the devil, for two hundred and forty + thousand francs a year are no equivalent for liberty, nor a fair + price for my physical and moral worth and my prospects. But she is + the sole heiress of a gouty old fellow, some London brewer, who + within a calculable time will leave her a fortune equal at least + to what the sweet creature has already. Added to these advantages, + she has a red nose, the eyes of a dead goat, a waist that makes + one fear lest she should break into three pieces if she falls + down, and the coloring of a badly painted doll. But--she is + delightfully economical; but--she will adore her husband, do what + he will; but--she has the English gift; she will manage my house, + my stables, my servants, my estates better than any steward. She + has all the dignity of virtue; she holds herself as erect as a + confidante on the stage of the Francais; nothing will persuade me + that she has not been impaled and the shaft broken off in her + body. Miss Stevens is, however, fair enough to be not too + unpleasing if I must positively marry her. But--and this to me is + truly pathetic--she has the hands of a woman as immaculate as the + sacred ark; they are so red that I have not yet hit on any way to + whiten them that will not be too costly, and I have no idea how to + fine down her fingers, which are like sausages. Yes; she evidently + belongs to the brew-house by her hands, and to the aristocracy by + her money; but she is apt to affect the great lady a little too + much, as rich English women do who want to be mistaken for them, + and she displays her lobster’s claws too freely. + + She has, however, as little intelligence as I could wish in a + woman. If there were a stupider one to be found, I would set out + to seek her. This girl, whose name is Dinah, will never criticise + me; she will never contradict me; I shall be her Upper Chamber, + her Lords and Commons. In short, Paul, she is indefeasible + evidence of the English genius; she is a product of English + mechanics brought to their highest pitch of perfection; she was + undoubtedly made at Manchester, between the manufactory of Perry’s + pens and the workshops for steam-engines. It eats, it drinks, it + walks, it may have children, take good care of them, and bring + them up admirably, and it apes a woman so well that you would + believe it real. + + When my mother introduced us, she had set up the machine so + cleverly, had so carefully fitted the pegs, and oiled the wheels + so thoroughly, that nothing jarred; then, when she saw I did not + make a very wry face, she set the springs in motion, and the woman + spoke. Finally, my mother uttered the decisive words, “Miss Dinah + Stevens spends no more than thirty thousand francs a year, and has + been traveling for seven years in order to economize.”--So there + is another image, and that one is silver. + + Matters are so far advanced that the banns are to be published. We + have got as far as “My dear love.” Miss makes eyes at me that + might floor a porter. The settlements are prepared. My fortune is + not inquired into; Miss Stevens devotes a portion of hers to + creating an entail in landed estate, bearing an income of two + hundred and forty thousand francs, and to the purchase of a house, + likewise entailed. The settlement credited to me is of a million + francs. She has nothing to complain of. I leave her uncle’s money + untouched. + + The worthy brewer, who has helped to found the entail, was near + bursting with joy when he heard that his niece was to be a + marquise. He would be capable of doing something handsome for my + eldest boy. + + I shall sell out of the funds as soon as they are up to eighty, + and invest in land. Thus, in two years I may look to get six + hundred thousand francs a year out of real estate. So, you see, + Paul, I do not give my friends advice that I am not ready to act + upon. + + If you had but listened to me, you would have an English wife, + some Nabob’s daughter, who would leave you the freedom of a + bachelor and the independence necessary for playing the whist of + ambition. I would concede my future wife to you if you were not + married already. But that cannot be helped, and I am not the man + to bid you chew the cud of the past. + + All this preamble was needful to explain to you that for the + future my position in life will be such as a man needs if he wants + to play the great game of pitch-and-toss. I cannot do without you, + my friend. Now, then, my dear Paul, instead of setting sail for + India you would do a much wiser thing to navigate with me the + waters of the Seine. Believe me, Paris is still the place where + fortune, abundant fortune, can be won. Potosi is in the rue + Vivienne, the rue de la Paix, the Place Vendome, the rue de + Rivoli. In all other places and countries material works and + labors, marches and counter-marches, and sweatings of the brow are + necessary to the building up of fortune; but in Paris _thought_ + suffices. Here, every man even mentally mediocre, can see a mine + of wealth as he puts on his slippers, or picks his teeth after + dinner, in his down-sitting and his up-rising. Find me another + place on the globe where a good round stupid idea brings in more + money, or is sooner understood than it is here. + + If I reach the top of the ladder, as I shall, am I the man to + refuse you a helping hand, an influence, a signature? We shall + want, we young roues, a faithful friend on whom to count, if only + to compromise him and make him a scape-goat, or send him to die + like a common soldier to save his general. Government is + impossible without a man of honor at one’s side, in whom to + confide and with whom we can do and say everything. + + Here is what I propose. Let the “Belle-Amelie” sail without you; + come back here like a thunderbolt; I’ll arrange a duel for you + with Vandenesse in which you shall have the first shot, and you + can wing him like a pigeon. In France the husband who shoots his + rival becomes at once respectable and respected. No one ever + cavils at him again. Fear, my dear fellow, is a valuable social + element, a means of success for those who lower their eyes before + the gaze of no man living. I who care as little to live as to + drink a glass of milk, and who have never felt the emotion of + fear, I have remarked the strange effects produced by that + sentiment upon our modern manners. Some men tremble to lose the + enjoyments to which they are attached, others dread to leave a + woman. The old adventurous habits of other days when life was + flung away like a garment exist no longer. The bravery of a great + many men is nothing more than a clever calculation on the fear of + their adversary. The Poles are the only men in Europe who fight + for the pleasure of fighting; they cultivate the art for the art’s + sake, and not for speculation. + + Now hear me: kill Vandenesse, and your wife trembles, your + mother-in-law trembles, the public trembles, and you recover your + position, you prove your grand passion for your wife, you subdue + society, you subdue your wife, you become a hero. Such is France. + As for your embarrassments, I hold a hundred thousand francs for + you; you can pay your principal debts, and sell what property you + have left with a power of redemption, for you will soon obtain an + office which will enable you by degrees to pay off your creditors. + Then, as for your wife, once enlightened as to her character you + can rule her. When you loved her you had no power to manage her; + not loving her, you will have an unconquerable force. I will + undertake, myself, to make your mother-in-law as supple as a + glove; for you must recover the use of the hundred and fifty + thousand francs a year those two women have squeezed out of you. + + Therefore, I say, renounce this expatriation which seems to me no + better than a pan of charcoal or a pistol to your head. To go away + is to justify all calumnies. The gambler who leaves the table to + get his money loses it when he returns; we must have our gold in + our pockets. Let us now, you and I, be two gamblers on the green + baize of politics; between us loans are in order. Therefore take + post-horses, come back instantly, and renew the game. You’ll win + it with Henri de Marsay for your partner, for Henri de Marsay + knows how to will, and how to strike. + + See how we stand politically. My father is in the British + ministry; we shall have close relations with Spain through the + Evangelistas, for, as soon as your mother-in-law and I have + measured claws she will find there is nothing to gain by fighting + the devil. Montriveau is our lieutenant-general; he will certainly + be minister of war before long, and his eloquence will give him + great ascendancy in the Chamber. Ronquerolles will be minister of + State and privy-councillor; Martial de la Roche-Hugon is minister + to Germany and peer of France; Serisy leads the Council of State, + to which he is indispensable; Granville holds the magistracy, to + which his sons belong; the Grandlieus stand well at court; Ferraud + is the soul of the Gondreville coterie,--low intriguers who are + always on the surface of things, I’m sure I don’t know why. Thus + supported, what have we to fear? The money question is a mere + nothing when this great wheel of fortune rolls for us. What is a + woman?--you are not a schoolboy. What is life, my dear fellow, if + you let a woman be the whole of it? A boat you can’t command, + without a rudder, but not without a magnet, and tossed by every + wind that blows. Pah! + + The great secret of social alchemy, my dear Paul, is to get the + most we can out of each age of life through which we pass; to have + and to hold the buds of our spring, the flowers of our summer, the + fruits of our autumn. We amused ourselves once, a few good fellows + and I, for a dozen or more years, like mousquetaires, black, red, + and gray; we denied ourselves nothing, not even an occasional + filibustering here and there. Now we are going to shake down the + plums which age and experience have ripened. Be one of us; you + shall have your share in the _pudding_ we are going to cook. + + Come; you will find a friend all yours in the skin of + + H. de Marsay. + + +As Paul de Manerville ended the reading of this letter, which fell like +the blows of a pickaxe on the edifice of his hopes, his illusions, and +his love, the vessel which bore him from France was beyond the Azores. +In the midst of this utter devastation a cold and impotent anger laid +hold of him. + +“What had I done to them?” he said to himself. + +That is the question of fools, of feeble beings, who, seeing nothing, +can nothing foresee. Then he cried aloud: “Henri! Henri!” to his loyal +friend. Many a man would have gone mad; Paul went to bed and slept that +heavy sleep which follows immense disasters,--the sleep that seized +Napoleon after Waterloo. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Casa-Real, Duc de + The Quest of the Absolute + + Claes, Josephine de Temninck, Madame + The Quest of the Absolute + + Magus, Elie + The Vendetta + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Pierre Grassou + Cousin Pons + + Manerville, Paul Francois-Joseph, Comte de + The Thirteen + The Ball at Sceaux + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + + Manerville, Comtesse Paul de + The Lily of the Valley + A Daughter of Eve + + Marsay, Henri de + The Thirteen + The Unconscious Humorists + Another Study of Woman + The Lily of the Valley + Father Goriot + Jealousies of a Country Town + Ursule Mirouet + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Ball at Sceaux + Modeste Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + + Maulincour, Baronne de + The Thirteen + + Stevens, Dinah + Cousin Pons + + Vandenesse, Comte Felix de + The Lily of the Valley + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Cesar Birotteau + Letters of Two Brides + A Start in Life + The Secrets of a Princess + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s The Marriage Contract, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT *** + +***** This file should be named 1556-0.txt or 1556-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/1556/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’ WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. + +The Foundation’s principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation’s web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |