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diff --git a/old/mrgct10.txt b/old/mrgct10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d27dd15 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mrgct10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5641 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of The Marriage Contract, by de Balzac +#49 in our series by Honore de Balzac + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz +and Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com + + + + + +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 the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Marriage Contract + |