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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Led Astray and The Sphinx, by Octave Feuillet
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Led Astray and The Sphinx
+       Two Novellas In One Volume
+
+Author: Octave Feuillet
+
+Release Date: July 31, 2005 [EBook #16403]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LED ASTRAY AND THE SPHINX ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Kylie and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+LED ASTRAY
+
+_By_ OCTAVE FEUILLET, _author of "Romance of a
+Poor Young Man," etc._
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS
+
+Copyright, 1891
+
+By STREET & SMITH
+
+
+
+
+LED ASTRAY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION.
+
+GEORGE L---- to PAUL B., PARIS.
+
+ROZEL, _15th September_.
+
+
+It's nine o'clock in the evening, my dear friend, and you have just
+arrived from Germany. They hand you my letter, the post-mark of which
+informs you at once that I am absent from Paris. You indulge in a gesture
+of annoyance, and call me a vagabond. Nevertheless, you settle down in
+your best arm-chair, you open my letter, and you hear that I have been for
+the past five days domesticated in a flour-mill in Lower Normandy. In a
+flour-mill! What the duse can he be doing in a mill? A wrinkle appears on
+your forehead, your eyebrows are drawn together; you lay down my letter
+for a moment; you attempt to penetrate this mystery by the unaided power
+of your imagination. Suddenly a playful expression beams upon your
+countenance; your mouth expresses the irony of a wise man tempered by the
+indulgence of a friend; you have caught a glimpse, through an
+opera-comique cloud, of a miller's pretty wife with powdered hair, a waist
+all trimmed with gay ribbons, a light and short skirt, and stockings with
+gilded clocks; in short, one of those fair young millers' wives whose
+heart goes pit-a-pat with hautboy accompaniment. But the graces who are
+ever sporting in your mind sometimes lead it astray; my fair miller is as
+much like the creature of your imagination as I am like a youthful Colin;
+her head is adorned with a towering cotton night-cap to which the thickest
+possible coating of flour fails to restore its primitive color; she wears
+a coarse woolen petticoat which would abrade the hide of an elephant; in
+short, it frequently happens to me to confound the miller's wife with the
+miller himself, after which it is sufficient to add that I am not the
+least curious to know whether or not her heart goes pit-a-pat. The truth
+is, that, not knowing how to kill time in your absence, and having no
+reason to expect you to return before another month; (it's your own
+fault!), I solicited a mission. The council-general of the department of
+---- had lately, and quite opportunely, expressed officially the wish that
+a certain ruined abbey, called Rozel Abbey, should be classed among
+historical monuments. I have been commissioned to investigate closely the
+candidate's titles. I hastened with all possible speed to the chief town
+of this artistic department, where I effected my entrance with the
+important gravity of a man who holds within his hands the life or the
+death of a monument dear to the country. I made some inquiries at the
+hotel; great was my mortification when I discovered that no one seemed to
+suspect that such a thing as Rozel Abbey existed within a circuit of a
+hundred leagues. I called at the prefecture while still laboring under the
+effect of this disappointment; the prefect, Valton, whom you know very
+well, received me with his usual affability; but to the questions I
+addressed him on the subject of the condition of the ruins which the
+council seemed so desirous of preserving for the admiration of its
+constituents, he replied with an absent smile, that his wife, who had
+visited these ruins on the occasion of an excursion into the country,
+while she was sojourning on the sea shore, could tell me a great deal more
+about the ruins than he possibly could himself.
+
+He invited me to dinner, and in the evening, Madame Valton, after the
+usual struggles of expiring modesty, showed me, in her album, some
+views of the famous ruins sketched with considerable taste. She became
+mildly excited while speaking to me of these venerable remains, situated,
+if she is to be believed, in the midst of an enchanting site, and, above
+all, particularly well suited for picnics and country excursions. A
+beseeching and corrupting look terminated her harangue. It seems
+evident to me that this worthy lady is the only person in the department
+who takes any real interest in that poor old abbey, and that the
+conscript fathers of the general council have passed their resolution
+authorizing an investigation out of pure gallantry. It is impossible for
+me, however, not to concur in their opinion; the abbey has beautiful
+eyes; she deserves to be classed--she shall be classed.
+
+My decision was therefore settled, from that moment, but it was still
+necessary to write it down and back it with some documentary evidence.
+Unfortunately, the local archives and libraries do not abound in
+traditions relative to my subject; after two days of conscientious
+rummaging, I had collected but a few rare and insignificant documents,
+which may be summed up in these two lines; "Rozel Abbey, in Rozel
+township, was inhabited from time immemorial by monks, who left it when it
+fell in ruins."
+
+That is why I resolved to go, without further delay, and ask their secret
+of these mysterious ruins, and to multiply, if need be, the artifices of
+my pencil, to make up for the compulsory conciseness of my pen. I left
+on Wednesday morning for the town of Vitry, which is only two or three
+leagues distant from the abbey. A Norman coach, complemented with
+a Norman coachman, jogged me about all day, like an indolent monarch,
+along the Norman hedges. When night came, I had traveled twelve miles
+and my coachman had taken twelve meals.
+
+The country is fine, though of a character somewhat uniformly rustic.
+Under everlasting groves is displayed an opulent and monotonous verdure,
+in the thickness of which contented-looking oxen ruminate. I can
+understand my coachman's twelve meals; the idea of eating must occur
+frequently and almost exclusively to the imagination of any man who spends
+his life in the midst of this rich nature, the very grass of which gives
+an appetite.
+
+Toward evening, however, the aspect of the landscape changed; we entered a
+rolling prairie, quite low, marshy, bare as a Russian steppe, and
+extending on both sides of the road; the sound of the wheels on the
+causeway assumed a hollow and vibrating sonority; dark-colored reeds and
+tall, unhealthy-looking grass covered, as far as the eye could reach, the
+blackish surface of the marsh. I noticed in the distance, through the
+deepening twilight, and behind a cloud of rain, two or three horsemen
+running at full speed, and as if demented, through these boundless spaces;
+they disappeared at intervals in the depressions of the meadows, and
+suddenly came to sight again, still galloping with the same frenzy. I
+could not imagine toward what imaginary goal these equestrian phantoms
+were thus madly rushing. I took good care not to inquire; mystery is a
+sweet and sacred thing.
+
+The next morning, I started for the abbey, taking with me in my cabriolet
+a tall young peasant who had yellow hair, like Ceres. He was a farm-boy
+who had lived since his birth within a rod of my monument; he had heard me
+in the morning asking for information in the court-yard of the inn, and
+had obligingly volunteered to show me the way to the ruins, which were the
+first thing he had seen on coming into the world. I had no need whatever
+of a guide; I accepted, nevertheless, the fellow's offer, his officious
+chattering seeming to promise a well-sustained conversation, in the course
+of which I hoped to detect some interesting legend; but as soon as he had
+taken his seat by my side, the rascal became dumb; my questions seemed
+even, I know not why, to inspire him with a deep mistrust, almost akin to
+anger. I had to deal with the genius of the ruins, the faithful guardian
+of their treasures. On the other hand, I had the gratification of taking
+him home in my carriage; it was apparently all he wished, and he had every
+reason to be satisfied with my accommodating spirit.
+
+After landing this agreeable companion at his own door, it became
+necessary for me to alight also; a rocky path, or rather a rude flight of
+stone steps, winding down the side of a steep declivity, led me to the
+bottom of a narrow valley which spreads and stretches between a double
+chain of high wooded hills. A small river flows lazily through it under
+the shade of alder-bushes, dividing two strips of meadows as fine and
+velvety as the lawns of a park; it is crossed over by an old bridge with a
+single arch, which reflects in the placid water the outlines of its
+graceful ogive. On the right, the hills stand close together in the form
+of a circus, and seemed to join their verdure-clad curves; on the left,
+they spread out until they become merged in the deep and somber masses of
+a vast forest. The valley is thus closed on all sides, and offers a
+picture of which the calm, the freshness, and the isolation penetrate the
+soul.
+
+The ruins of the abbey stand with their back against the forest. What
+remains of the abbey proper is not a great deal. At the entrance of the
+court-yard, a monumental gateway; a wing of the building, dating from the
+twelfth century, in which dwell the family of the miller of whom I am the
+guest; the chapter-hall, remarkable for some elegant arches and a few
+remnants of mural painting; finally, two or three cells, one of which
+seems to have been used for the purposes of correction, if I may judge
+from the solidity of the door and the strength of the bolts. The rest has
+been torn down, and may be found in fragments among the cottages of the
+neighborhood. The church, which has almost the proportions of a cathedral,
+is finely preserved, and produces a marvelous effect. The portal and the
+apse have alone disappeared; the whole interior architecture, the copings,
+the tall columns, are intact and as if built yesterday. There, it seems,
+that an artist must have presided over the work of destruction; a masterly
+stroke of the pick-ax has opened at the two extremities of the church,
+where stood the portal and where stood the altar, two gigantic bays, so
+that, from the threshold of the edifice, the eye plunges into the forest
+beyond as through a deep triumphal arch. In this solitary spot the effect
+is unexpected and solemn. I was delighted with it. "Monsieur," I said to
+the miller, who, since my arrival, had been watching my every step from a
+distance with that fierce mistrust which is a peculiarity of this part of
+the country, "I have been requested to examine and to sketch these ruins.
+That work will require several days; could you not spare me a daily trip
+from the town to the abbey and back, by furnishing me with such
+accommodations as you can, for a week or two?"
+
+The miller, a thorough Norman, examined me from head to foot without
+answering, like a man who knows that silence is of gold; he measured me,
+he gauged me, he weighed me, and finally, opening his flour-coated lips,
+he called his wife. The latter appeared at once upon the threshold of the
+chapter-hall, converted into a cow-pen, and I had to repeat my request to
+her. She examined me in her turn, but not at such great length as her
+husband, and, with the superior scent of her sex, her conclusion was, as I
+had the right to expect, that of the _praeses_ in the _Malade Imaginaire_:
+"_Dignus es intrare_." The miller, who saw what turn things were taking,
+lifted his cap and treated me to a smile. I must add that these excellent
+people, once the ice was broken, tried in every way to compensate me, by a
+thousand eager attentions, for the excessive caution of their reception.
+They wished to give up to me their own room, adorned with the Adventures
+of Telemachus, but I preferred--as Mentor would have done--a cell of
+austere nudity, of which the window, with small, lozenge-shaped panes,
+opens on the ruined portal of the church and the horizon of the forest.
+
+Had I been a few years younger, I would have enjoyed keenly this poetic
+installation; but I am turning gray, friend Paul, or at least I fear so,
+though I try still to attribute to a mere effect of light the doubtful
+shades that dot my beard under the rays of the noon-day sun. Nevertheless,
+if my reverie has changed its object, it still lasts, and still has its
+charms for me. My poetic feeling has become modified and, I think, more
+elevated. The image of a woman is no longer the indispensable element of
+my dreams; my heart, peaceful now, and striving to become still more so,
+is gradually withdrawing from the field of my mind's labors. I cannot, I
+confess, find enough pleasure in the pure and dry meditations of the
+intellect; my imagination must speak first and set my brain in motion, for
+I was born romantic, and romantic I shall die; and all that can be asked
+of me, all I can obtain of myself, at an age when propriety already
+commands gravity, is to build romances without love.
+
+Up to this time, ennui has spared me in my solitude. Shall I confess to
+you that I even experience in it a singular feeling of contentment? It
+seems as though I were a thousand leagues away from the things of the
+world, and that there is a sort of truce and respite in the miserable
+routine of my existence, at once so agitated and so commonplace. I relish
+my complete independence with the naive joy of a twelve-year-old Robinson
+Crusoe. I sketch when I feel like it; the rest of the time, I walk here
+and there at random, being careful only never to go beyond the bounds of
+the sacred valley. I sit down upon the parapet of the bridge, and I watch
+the running water; I go on voyages of discovery among the ruins; I dive
+into the underground vaults; I scale the shattered steps of the belfry,
+and being unable to come down again the same way, I remain astride a
+gargoyle, cutting a rather sorry figure, until the miller brings me a
+ladder. I wander at night through the forest, and I see deer running by in
+the moonlight. All these things have a soothing effect on my mind, and
+produce the effect of child's dream in middle age.
+
+Your letter dated from Cologne, and which was forwarded to me here
+according to my instructions, has alone disturbed my beatitude. I console
+myself with some difficulty for having left Paris almost on the eve of
+your return. May Heaven confound your whims and your want of decision! All
+I can do now, is to hurry my work; but where shall I find the historical
+documents I still need? I am seriously anxious to save these ruins. There
+is here a rare landscape, a valuable picture, which it would be sheer
+vandalism to allow to perish.
+
+And then, I admire the old monks! I wish to offer up to their departed
+shades this homage of my sympathy. Yes, had I lived some thousand years
+ago, I would certainly have sought among them the repose of the cloister
+while waiting for the peace of heaven. What existence could have suited me
+better? Free from the cares of this world, and assured of the other, free
+from any agitations of the heart or the mind, I would have placidly
+written simple legends which I would have been credulous enough to
+believe; I would have unraveled with intense curiosity some unknown
+manuscripts, and discovered with tears of joy the Iliad or the AEneid; I
+would have sketched imaginary cathedrals; I would have heated
+alembics--and perhaps have invented gunpowder; which is by no means the
+best thing I might have done.
+
+Come! 'tis midnight; brother, we must sleep!
+
+_Postscriptum._--There are ghosts! I was closing this letter, my dear
+friend, in the midst of a solemn silence, when suddenly my ears were
+filled with mysterious and confused sounds that seemed to come from
+the outside, and among which I thought I could distinguish the buzzing
+murmur of a large crowd. I approached, quite surprised, the window of my
+cell, and I could not exactly tell you the nature of the emotion I felt on
+discovering the ruins of the church illuminated with a resplendent blaze;
+the vast portal and the yawning ogives cast floods of light far as the
+distant woods. It was not, it could not be, an accidental conflagration.
+Besides, I could see, through the stone trefoils, shadows of superhuman
+size flitting through the nave, apparently performing, with a sort of
+rhythm, some mysterious ceremony. I threw my window abruptly open;
+at the same instant, a loud blast broke forth in the ruins, and rang again
+through all the echoes of the valley; after which, I saw issuing from the
+church a double file of horsemen bearing torches and blowing horns, some
+dressed in red, others draped in black, with plumes waving over their
+heads. This strange procession followed, still in the same order, amid the
+same dazzling light and the same clangor of trumpets, the shaded path that
+skirts the edge of the meadows. Having reached the little bridge, it
+stopped; I saw the torches rise, wave, and cast showers of sparks; the
+horns sounded a weird and prolonged blast; then suddenly every light
+disappeared, every noise ceased, and the valley was again wrapped in the
+darkness and the deep silence of the night. That is what I saw and heard.
+You who have just arrived from Germany, did you meet the Black Huntsman?
+No? Hang yourself, then!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+HUNTING A WILD MAN.
+
+_16th September._
+
+
+The forest which once formed part of the demesnes of the abbey, now
+belongs to a wealthy landed proprietor of the district, the Marquis de
+Malouet, a lineal descendant of Nimrod, whose chateau seems to be the
+social center of the district. There are almost daily at this season grand
+hunts in the forest; yesterday, the party ended with a supper on the
+grass, and afterward a ride home by torch-light. I felt very much disposed
+to strangle the honest miller, who gave me this morning, in vulgar
+language, this explanation of my midnight ballad.
+
+There is the world, then, invading with all its pomp my beloved solitude.
+I curse it, Paul, with all the bitterness of my heart. I became indebted
+to it, last night, it is true, for a fantastic apparition that both
+charmed and delighted me; but I am also indebted to it to-day for a
+ridiculous adventure which I am the only one not to laugh at, for I was
+its unlucky hero.
+
+I was but little disposed to work this morning; I went on sketching,
+however, until noon, but had to give it up then; my head was heavy, I felt
+dull and disagreeable, I had a vague presentiment of something fatal in
+the air. I returned for a moment to the mill to get rid of my traps; I
+quarreled, to her surprise and grief, with the miller's wife, on the
+subject of I know not what cruelly indigenous mess she had served me for
+breakfast; I scolded the good woman's two children because they were
+touching my pencils; finally, I administered a vigorous kick to the
+house-dog, accompanied with the celebrated formula: "Judge whether you had
+done anything to me!"
+
+Rather dissatisfied with myself, as you may imagine, after these three
+mean little tricks, I directed my steps toward the forest, in order to
+hide as much as possible from the light of the day. I walked about for
+nearly an hour without being able to shake off the prophetic melancholy
+that oppressed me. Perceiving at last, on the edge of one of the avenues
+that traverse the forest, and under the dense shade of some beech-trees, a
+thick bed of moss, I stretched myself upon it, together with my remorse,
+and it was not long before I fell into a sound sleep. Mon Dieu! why was it
+not the sleep of death?
+
+I have no idea how long I had been asleep, when I was suddenly awakened by
+a certain concussion of the soil in my immediate vicinity; I jumped
+abruptly to my feet, and I saw, within five steps of me, on the road, a
+young lady on horseback. My unexpected apparition had somewhat frightened
+the horse, who had shied with some violence. The fair equestrian, who had
+not yet noticed me, was talking to him and trying to quiet him. She
+appeared to be pretty, slender, elegant. I caught a rapid glimpse of blond
+hair, eyebrows of a darker shade, keen eyes, a bold expression of
+countenance, and a felt hat with blue feathers, set over one ear in rather
+too rakish a style. For the better understanding of what is about to
+follow, you should know that I was attired in a tourist's blouse stained
+with red ochre; besides, I must have had that haggard look and startled
+expression which impart to one rudely snatched from sleep a countenance at
+once comical and alarming. Add to all this, my hair in utter disorder, my
+beard strewn with dead leaves, and you will have no difficulty in
+understanding the terror that suddenly overpowered the young huntress at
+the first glance she cast upon me; she uttered a feeble cry, and wheeling
+her horse around, she fled at full gallop.
+
+It was impossible for me to mistake the nature of the impression I had
+just produced; there was nothing flattering about it. However, I am
+thirty-five years of age, and the more or less kindly glance of a woman is
+no longer sufficient to disturb the serenity of my soul. I followed with a
+smiling look the flying Amazon. At the extremity of the avenue in which I
+had just failed to make her conquest, she turned abruptly to the left, to
+go and take a parallel road. I only had to cross the adjoining thicket to
+see her overtake a cavalcade composed of ten or twelve persons, who seemed
+to be waiting for her, and to whom she shouted from a distance, in a
+broken voice:
+
+"Gentlemen! gentlemen! a wild man! there is a wild man in the forest!"
+
+My interest being highly excited by this beginning, I settle myself
+comfortably behind a thick bush, with eye and ear equally attentive. They
+crowd around the lady; it is supposed at first that she is jesting, but
+her emotion is too serious to have been causeless. She saw, distinctly
+saw, not exactly a savage, perhaps, but a man in rags, whose tattered
+blouse seemed covered with blood, whose face, hands, and whole person were
+repulsively filthy, whose beard was frightful, and whose eyes half
+protruded from their sockets; in short, an individual, by the side of whom
+the most atrocious of Salvator Rosa's brigands would be as one of
+Watteau's shepherds. Never did a man's vanity enjoy such a treat! This
+charming person added that I had threatened her, and that I had jumped at
+her horse's bridle like the specter of the forest of Mans.[A]
+
+The response to this marvelous story is a general and enthusiastic shout:
+
+"Let us chase him! let us surround him! let us track him! hip, hip,
+hurrah!"--whereupon the whole cavalry force starts off at a gallop in the
+direction given by the amiable story teller.
+
+I had, to all appearances, but to remain quietly ensconced in my
+hiding-place in order to completely foil the hunters who were going in
+search of me in the avenue where I had met the beautiful Amazon.
+Unfortunately, I had the unlucky idea, for greater safety, of making my
+way into the opposite thicket. As I was cautiously crossing the open
+space, a wild shout of joy informs me that I have been discovered; at the
+same time, I see the whole squadron wheeling about and coming down upon me
+like a torrent. There remained but one reasonable course for me to pursue;
+it was to stop, to affect the surprise of a quiet stroller disturbed in
+his walk, and to disconcert my assailants by an attitude at once simple
+and dignified; but, seized with a foolish shame which it is easier to
+conceive than to explain--convinced, moreover, that a vigorous effort
+would be sufficient to rid me of this importunate pursuit and to spare me
+the annoyance of an explanation--I commit the error--the ever deplorable
+error--of hurrying on faster, or rather, to be frank with you, of running
+away as fast as my legs would carry me. I cross the road like a hare, I
+penetrate into the thicket, greeted on my passage with a volley of joyous
+clamors. From that moment my fate was sealed; all honorable explanation
+became impossible for me; I had ostensibly accepted the struggle with its
+most extreme chances.
+
+However, I still possessed a certain presence of mind, and while tearing
+furiously through the brambles, I soothed myself with comforting
+reflections. Once separated from my persecutors by the whole depth of a
+thicket inaccessible to cavalry, it would be an easy matter to gain a
+sufficient advance upon them to be able to laugh at their fruitless
+search. This last illusion vanished when, on reaching the limit of the
+covered space, I discovered that the cursed troop had divided into two
+squads, who were both waiting for me at the outlet. At the sight of me, a
+fresh storm of shouts and laughter broke forth, and the hunting-horns
+sounded in all directions. I became dizzy; I felt the forest whirling
+around me; I rushed into the first path that offered itself to me, and my
+flight assumed the character of a hopeless rout.
+
+The implacable legion of hunters and huntresses did not fail to start on
+my heels with renewed ardor and stupid mirth. I still recognized at their
+head the lady with the waving blue plume, who distinguished herself by her
+peculiar animosity, and upon whom I invoked with all my heart the most
+serious accidents to which equestrianism may be subject. It was she who
+encouraged her odious accomplices, when I had succeeded for a moment in
+eluding the pursuit; she discovered me with infernal keen-sightedness,
+pointed me out with the tip of her whip, and broke into a barbarous laugh
+whenever she saw me resume my race through the bushes, blowing, panting,
+desperate, absurd. I ran thus during a space of time of which I am unable
+to form any estimate, accomplishing unprecedented feats of gymnastics,
+tearing through the thorny brambles, sinking into the miry spots, leaping
+over the ditches, bounding upon my feet with the elasticity of a panther,
+galloping to the devil, without reason, without object, and without any
+other hope but that of seeing the earth open beneath my feet.
+
+At last, and surely by chance--for I had long since lost all topographical
+notions--I discovered the ruins just ahead of me; with a last effort, I
+cleared the open space that separates them from the forest; I ran through
+the church as if I had been excommunicated, and I arrived panting before
+the door of the mill. The miller and his wife were standing on the
+threshold, attracted, doubtless, by the noise of the cavalcade that was
+following close on my heels; they looked at me with an expression of
+stupor; I tried in vain to find a few words of explanation to cast to them
+as I ran by, and after incredible efforts of intelligence, I was only able
+to murmur in a silly tone: "If any one asks for me, say I am not in!" Then
+I cleared in three jumps the stairs leading to my cell, and I sank upon my
+bed in a state of complete prostration.
+
+In the meantime, Paul, the hunting-party were crowding tumultuously into
+the court-yard of the abbey; I could hear the stamping of the horses'
+feet, the voices of the riders, and even the sound of their boots on the
+flagging, which proved that some of them had alighted and were threatening
+me with a last assault. I started up with a gesture of rage, and I glanced
+at my pistols. Fortunately, after a few minutes' conversation with the
+miller, the hunters withdrew, not without giving me to understand that, if
+they had formed a better opinion of my character, they went away with a
+most amusing idea of the eccentricity of my disposition.
+
+Such is, my dear friend, a faithful historical account of that unlucky
+day, during which I covered myself frankly, and from head to foot, with a
+species of humiliation to which any Frenchman would prefer that of crime.
+I have, at this moment, the satisfaction of knowing that I am in a
+neighboring chateau, in the midst of a gathering of brilliant men and
+lovely young women, an inexhaustible subject for jokes. I feel, moreover,
+since my flank movement (as it is customary in war to call precipitate
+retreats), that I have lost something of my dignity in my own eyes, and I
+cannot conceal to myself, besides, that I am far from enjoying the same
+consideration on the part of my rustic hosts.
+
+In presence of a situation so seriously compromised, it became necessary
+to hold council; after a brief deliberation, I rejected far, far from me,
+as puerile and pusillanimous, the project suggested to me by my vanity at
+bay, that of giving up my lodgings, and even of leaving the district
+entirely. I made up my mind to pursue philosophically the course of my
+labors and my pleasures, to show a soul superior to circumstances, and in
+short, to give to the Amazons, the centaurs, and the millers the fine
+spectacle of the wise man in adversity.
+
+
+[A] Charles VI., King of France, became demented in consequence
+of his horse being stopped, during a hunt in the forest of Mans, by what
+seemed to him a supernatural being.--(TRANS.)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE MARQUIS DE MALOUET.
+
+MALOUET, _20th September_.
+
+
+I have just received your letter. You belong to the true breed of
+Monomotapa friends, Paul. But what puerility! And such is the case of your
+sudden return! A trifle, a silly nightmare which for two successive nights
+caused you to hear the sound of my voice calling on you for help! Ah!
+bitter fruits of the wretched German cuisine! Really, Paul, you are
+foolish! And yet, you tell me things that move me to tears. I cannot
+answer you as I would like to. My heart is tender, but my speech is dry.
+I have never been able to tell any one, "I love you!" There is a jealous
+fiend who checks on my lips every word of affection, and imparts to it a
+tone of irony. But, thank God, you know me!
+
+It seems that I make you laugh while you make me weep! Well, I am glad of
+it. Yes, my noble adventure in the forest has had a sequel, and a sequel
+with which I might very well have dispensed. All the misfortunes which
+you felt were threatening me have actually happened to me; rest easy,
+therefore.
+
+The day following this fatal day, I began by re-conquering the esteem
+of my hosts at the mill, by relating to them good-naturedly the most
+piquant episodes of my famous race. I saw them beaming as they heard the
+narrative; the woman in particular was writhing in atrocious convulsions,
+and with formidable stretches of her jaws. I have never seen anything so
+hideous, in all my life, as this coarse, cowherd's joy!
+
+As a testimonial of the complete restoration of his sympathy, the miller
+asked me if I was fond of hunting, took down from a hook over his
+mantelpiece a long, rusty tube, that made me think of Leather Stocking's
+rifle, and laid it into my hands, while boasting of the murderous
+qualities of that instrument. I acknowledged his kindness with an outward
+appearance of lively satisfaction, never having had the heart to undeceive
+people who think they are doing something to please me, and I started for
+the woods that cover the hill-sides, carrying like a lance that venerable
+weapon, which seemed indeed to me of the most dangerous kind. I went to
+take a seat on the heather, and I carefully laid down the long gun by me;
+then I amused myself driving away, by throwing stones at them, the young
+rabbits that ventured imprudently in the vicinity of an engine of war for
+the effects of which I could not be responsible. Thanks to these
+precautions, for over an hour that this hunt lasted, no accident happened
+either to the game or to myself.
+
+To speak candidly, I was rather glad to allow the hour to pass when the
+hunting-party from the chateau are in the habit of taking the field, not
+caring very much, through a remnant of vain glory, to find myself on their
+passage that day. Toward two o'clock in the afternoon, I left my seat of
+mint and wild thyme, satisfied that I had henceforth no unpleasant
+encounter to apprehend. I handed the blunderbuss to the miller, who seemed
+somewhat surprised to see me empty-handed, and more so, probably, to see
+me alive still. I went to take a stand opposite the portal, and I
+undertook to finish a general view of the ruin, a water-color, which, I
+feel, is certain to secure the approbation of the minister.
+
+I was deeply absorbed in my work, when I suddenly fancied I could hear
+more distinctly than usual that sound of running horses which, since my
+misadventure, was forever haunting my ears. I turned around sharply, and I
+discovered the enemy within two hundred paces of me. This time, he was
+attired in plain clothes, being apparently equipped for an ordinary ride;
+he had obtained, since the previous day, several recruits of both sexes,
+and now really formed an imposing body. Though long prepared for such an
+occurrence, I could not help feeling a certain discomfort, and I secretly
+cursed those indefatigable idlers. Nevertheless, the thought of retreating
+never occurred to me; I had lost all taste for flight for the rest of my
+days.
+
+As the cavalcade drew nearer, I could hear smothered laughter and
+whisperings, the subject of which was but too evident to me. I must
+confess that a spark of anger was beginning to burn in my heart, and while
+going on with my work with an appearance of unabated interest, and
+indulging in admiring motions of the head before my water-color, I was
+lending to the scene going on behind me a somber and vigilant attention.
+However, the first intention of the party seemed to be to spare my
+misfortune; instead of following the path by the side of which I was
+established, and which was the shortest way to the ruins, they turned
+aside toward the right, and filed by in silence. One alone among them,
+falling out of the main group, came rapidly in my direction, and stopped
+within ten steps of my studio; though my face was bent over my drawing, I
+felt, by that strange intuition which every one knows, a human look fixed
+upon me. I raised my eyes with an air of indifference, dropping them again
+almost immediately; that rapid gesture had been sufficient to enable me to
+recognize in that indiscreet observer the young lady with the blue
+feathers, the original cause of all my mishaps. She was there, boldly
+seated on her horse, her chin raised, her eyes half closed, examining me
+from head to foot with admirable insolence. I had thought it best at
+first, out of respect for her sex, to abandon myself without resistance to
+her impertinent curiosity; but after a few seconds, as she manifested no
+intention of putting an end to her proceedings, I lost patience, and
+raising my head more openly, I fixed my eyes upon her with polite gravity,
+but persistent steadiness. She blushed; seeing which, I bowed. She
+returned me a slight inclination of the head, and moving off at a canter,
+she disappeared under the vault of the old church. I thus remained master
+of the field, keenly relishing the triumph of fascination I had just
+obtained over that little person, whom there certainly was considerable
+merit in putting out of countenance.
+
+The ride through the forest lasted some twenty minutes, and I soon beheld
+the brilliant fantasia debouching pell-mell from the portal. I feigned
+again a profound abstraction; but this time again, one of the riders left
+the company and advanced toward me; he was a man of tall stature, who wore
+a blue frock-coat, buttoned up to his chin, in military style. He was
+marching so straight upon my little establishment, that I could not help
+supposing he intended passing right over it for the amusement of the
+ladies. I was therefore watching him with a furtive but wide-awake glance,
+when I had the satisfaction of seeing him stop within three steps of my
+camp-stool, and removing his hat.
+
+"Monsieur," he said, in a full and frank tone of voice, "will you permit
+me to look at your drawing?"
+
+I returned his salutation, nodded in token of acquiescence, and went on
+with my work. After a moment of silent contemplation, the unknown
+equestrian, apparently yielding to the violence of his impressions,
+allowed a few laudatory epithets to escape him; then, resuming his direct
+allocution:
+
+"Monsieur," he said, "allow me to return thanks to your talent; we shall
+be indebted to it, I feel quite sure, for the preservation of these ruins,
+which are the ornament of our district."
+
+I abandoned at once my reserve, which could no longer be anything but
+childish sulkiness, and I replied, as I thought I should, that he was
+appreciating with too much indulgence a mere amateur's sketch; that I
+certainly had the greatest desire of saving these beautiful ruins, but
+that the most important part of my work threatened to remain quite
+insignificant, for want of historical information which I had vainly tried
+to find in the archives of the county-seat.
+
+"Parbleu, monsieur," rejoined the horseman, "you please me greatly. I have
+in my library a large proportion of the archives of the abbey. Come and
+consult them at your leisure. I shall feel grateful to you for doing so."
+
+I thanked him with some embarrassment. I regretted not to have known it
+sooner. I feared being recalled to Paris by a letter which I was expecting
+this very day. Nevertheless, I had risen to make this answer, the ill
+grace of which I strove to attenuate by the courteousness of my attitude.
+At the same time, I formed a clearer idea of my interlocutor; he was a
+handsome old man, with broad shoulders, who seemed to carry with ease the
+weight of some sixty winters, and whose bright blue eyes expressed the
+kindliest good feeling.
+
+"Come! come!" he exclaimed, "let us speak frankly. You feel some
+repugnance at mingling with that band of hare-brained scamps you see
+yonder, and whom I tried in vain yesterday to keep out of a silly affair,
+for which I now beg to tender you my sincere apologies. My name is the
+Marquis de Malouet, sir. After all, you went off with the honors of the
+day. They wished to see you; you did not wish to be seen. You carried your
+point. What else can you ask?"
+
+I could not help laughing on hearing such a favorable interpretation of my
+unlucky scrape.
+
+"You laugh!" rejoined the old marquis; "bravo! we'll soon come to an
+understanding, then. Now, what's to prevent your coming to spend a few
+days at my house? My wife has requested me to invite you; she has heard in
+detail all your annoyances of yesterday. She has an angel's disposition,
+my wife. She is no longer young, always ill; a mere breath; but she is an
+angel. I'll locate you in the library--you'll live like a hermit, if you
+like. Mon Dieu! I see it all, I tell you; these madcaps of mine frighten
+you; you are a serious man; I know all about that sort of disposition!
+Well! you'll find congenial company--my wife is full of sense; I am no
+fool myself. I am fond of exercise; in fact, it is indispensable to my
+health--but you must not take me for a brute! The devil! not at all! I'll
+astonish you. You must be fond of whist; we'll have a game together; you
+must like to live well--delicately, I mean, as it is proper and suitable
+for a man of taste and intelligence. Well! since you appreciate good
+living, I am your man; I have an excellent cook. I may even say that I
+have two for the present; one coming in and the other going out; it is a
+conjunction; the result is, a contest of skill, an academic tourney, of
+which you will assist me in adjudging the prize! Come! sir," he added,
+laughing ingenuously at his own chattering, "it's settled, isn't it? I'm
+going to carry you off."
+
+Happy Paul, thrice happy is the man who can say No! Alone, he is really
+master of his time, of his fortune, and of his honor. One should be able
+to say No! even to a beggar, even to a woman, even to an amiable old man,
+under penalty of surrendering at hazard his charity, his dignity, and his
+independence. For want of a manly No, how much misery, how many downfalls,
+how many crimes since Adam!
+
+While I was considering in my own mind the invitation which had just been
+extended to me, these thoughts crowded in my brain; I recognized their
+profound wisdom, and I said Yes! Fatal word, through which I lost my
+paradise, exchanging a retreat wholly to my taste--peaceful, laborious,
+romantic, and free--for the stiffness of a residence where society
+displays all the fury of its insipid dissipations.
+
+I demanded the necessary time for effecting my removal, and Monsieur de
+Malouet left me, after grasping my hand cordially, declaring that he was
+extremely pleased with me, and that he was going to stimulate his two
+cooks to give me a triumphant reception. "I am going," he said in
+conclusion, "to announce to them an artist, a poet: that'll work up their
+imagination."
+
+Toward five o'clock, two valets from the chateau came to take charge of my
+light baggage, and to advise me that a carriage was waiting for me on top
+of the hills. I bade farewell to my cell; I thanked my hosts; and I kissed
+their little urchins, all besmeared and ill-kempt as they were. These kind
+people seemed to see me going with regret. I felt, myself, an
+extraordinary and unaccountable sadness. I know not what strange sentiment
+attached me to that valley, but I left it with an aching heart, as one
+leaves his native country.
+
+More to-morrow, Paul, for I am exhausted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE LITTLE COUNTESS.
+
+_26th September._
+
+
+The chateau of Malouet is a massive and rather vulgar construction, which
+dates some one hundred years back. Fine avenues, a court of honor of a
+handsome style, and an ancient park impart to it, however, an aspect truly
+seigneurial.
+
+The old marquis came to receive me at the foot of the stoop, passed his
+arm under mine, and after leading me through a long maze of corridors,
+introduced me into a vast drawing-room, where almost complete obscurity
+prevailed; I could only vaguely distinguish, by the intermittent blaze of
+the hearth, some twenty persons of both sexes, scattered here and there in
+small groups. Thanks to this blessed twilight, I effected safely my
+entrance, which had at a distance offered itself to my imagination, under
+a solemn and somewhat alarming light. I had barely time to receive the
+compliment of welcome which Madame de Malouet addressed me in a feeble but
+penetrating voice. She took my arm almost at once to pass into the
+dining-room, having resolved, it appears, to refuse no mark of
+consideration to a pedestrian of such surprising agility.
+
+Once at the table and in the bright light, I was not long in discovering
+that my feats of the previous day had by no means been forgotten, and that
+I was the center of general attention; but I stood bravely this cross-fire
+of curious and ironical glances, intrenched on the one hand behind a
+mountain of flowers that ornamented the center of the table, and on the
+other assisted in my defensive position by the ingenious kindness of my
+neighbor. Madame de Malouet is one of those rare old women whom superior
+strength of mind or great purity of soul has preserved against despair at
+the fatal hour of the fortieth year, and who have saved from the wreck of
+their youth a single waif, itself a supreme charm, grace. Small, frail,
+her face pale and withered from the effects of habitual suffering, she
+justifies exactly her husband's expression: "She is a breath, a breath
+that exhales intelligence and good-nature!" Not a shadow of any pretension
+unbecoming her age, an exquisite care of her person without the faintest
+trace of coquetry, a complete oblivion of her departed youth, a sort of
+bashfulness at being old, and a touching desire, not to please, but to be
+forgiven; such is my adorable marquise. She has traveled much, read much,
+and knows Paris well. I roamed with her through one of those rapid
+conversations in which two minds whirl and for the first time seek to
+become acquainted, rambling from one pole to the other, touching lightly
+upon all things, disputing gayly, and happy to agree.
+
+Monsieur de Malouet seized the opportunity of the removal of the colossal
+dish that separated us, to ascertain the condition of my relations with
+his wife. He seemed satisfied at our evident good intelligence, and
+raising his sonorous and cordial voice:
+
+"Monsieur," he said to me, "I have spoken to you of my two rival cooks;
+now is the time to justify the reputation of high discernment which I have
+attributed to you in the minds of these artists.
+
+"Alas! I am about to lose the oldest, and without doubt the most skillful,
+of these masters--the illustrious Jean Rostain. It was he, sir, who, on
+his arrival from Paris, two years ago, made this remarkable speech to me:
+'A man of taste, Monsieur le Marquis, can no longer live in Paris; they
+practice there now, a certain romantic style of cooking which will lead us
+Heaven knows where!' In short, sir, Rostain is a classic; this singular
+man has an opinion of his own! Well! you have just tasted in succession
+two _entremets_ dishes of which cream forms the essential foundation;
+according to my idea, these dishes are both a success; but Rostain's work
+has struck me as greatly superior. Ah, ah! sir, I am curious to know if
+you can of your own accord and upon that simple indication, assign to each
+tree its fruit, and render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Ah, ah, let
+us see if you can!"
+
+I cast a furtive glance at the remnants of the two dishes to which the
+marquis had just called my attention, and I had no hesitation in
+designating as "classic" the one that was surmounted with a temple of
+cupid, and a figure of that god in polychromatic pastry.
+
+"A hit!" exclaimed the marquis. "Bravo! Rostain shall hear of it, and his
+heart will rejoice. Ah! monsieur, why has it not been my good fortune to
+receive you in my house a few days sooner? I might perhaps have kept
+Rostain, or, to speak more truly, Rostain might perhaps have kept me; for
+I cannot conceal the fact, gentlemen hunters, that you are not in the good
+graces of the old _chef_, and I am not far from attributing his departure
+with whatever pretexts he may choose to color it, to the annoyance he
+feels at your complete indifference. Thinking it might be agreeable to
+him, I informed him, a few weeks ago, that our hunting-meetings were about
+to secure him a concourse of connoisseurs worthy of his talents."
+
+"Monsiuer le Marquis will excuse me," replied Rostain with a melancholy
+smile, "if I do not share his illusions; in the first place, the hunter
+devours and does not eat; he brings to the table the stomach of a man just
+saved from shipwreck, _iratum ventrem_, as Horace says, and swallows up
+without choice and without reflection, _gulae parens_, the most serious
+productions of an artist; in the second place, the violent exercise of the
+chase has developed in such guests an inordinate thirst, which they
+generally slake without moderation. Now, Monsieur le Marquis is not
+ignorant of the opinion of the ancients on the excessive use of wine
+during meals; it blunts the taste--_ersurdant vina palatum_! Nevertheless,
+Monsieur le Marquis may rest assured that I shall labor to please his
+guests with my usual conscientiousness, though with the painful certainty
+of not being understood."
+
+After uttering these words, Rostain draped himself in his toga, cast to
+heaven the look of an unappreciated genius, and left my study.
+
+"I would have thought," I said to the marquis, "that you would have spared
+no sacrifice to retain that great man."
+
+"You judge me correctly, sir," replied Monsieur de Malouet; "but you'll
+see that he carried me to the very limits of impossibility. Precisely a
+week ago, Monsieur Rostain, having solicited a private audience, announced
+to me that he found himself under the painful necessity of leaving my
+service. 'Heavens! Monsieur Rostain to leave my service! And where do you
+expect to go?' 'To Paris.' 'What! to Paris! But you had shaken upon the
+great Babylon the dust of your sandals! The decadence of taste, the
+increasing development of the romantic cuisine! Such are your own words,
+Rostain!' He replied: 'Doubtless, Monsieur le Marquis; but provincial life
+has bitter trials which I had not foreseen!' I offered him fabulous wages;
+he refused. 'Come, my good fellow, what is the matter? Ah! I see, you
+don't like the scullery-maid; she disturbs your meditations by her vulgar
+songs; very well, consider her dismissed! That is not enough? Is it
+Antoine, then, who is objectionable? I'll discharge him! Is it the
+coachman? I'll send him away!' In short, I offered him, gentlemen, the
+whole household as a holocaust. But, at all these prodigious concessions,
+the old _chef_ shook his head with indifference. But finally, I exclaimed,
+'in the name of Heaven, Monsieur Rostain, do explain!' 'Mon Dieu! Monsieur
+le Marquis,' then said Jean Rostain, 'I must confess to you that it is
+impossible for me to live in a place where I find no one to play a game of
+billiards with me!' _Ma foi!_ it was a little too much!" added the
+marquis, with a cheerful good-nature.
+
+"I could not really offer to play billiards with him myself! I had to
+submit. I wrote at once to Paris, and last evening a young cook arrived,
+who wears a mustache and gave his name as Jacquemart (of Bordeaux). The
+classic Rostain, in a sublime impulse of artistic pride, volunteered to
+assist Monsieur Jacquemart (of Bordeaux) in his first effort, and that's
+how, gentlemen, I was able to-day to serve this great eclectic dinner, of
+which, I fear, we will alone, monsieur and myself, have appreciated the
+mysterious beauties."
+
+Monsieur de Malouet rose from the table as he was concluding the story of
+Rostain's epic. After coffee, I followed the smokers into the garden. The
+evening was magnificent. The marquis led me away along the main avenue,
+the fine sand of which sparkled in the moonlight between the dense shadows
+of the tall chestnuts. While talking with apparent carelessness, he
+submitted me to a sort of examination upon a variety of subjects, as if to
+make sure that I was worthy of the interest he had so gratuitously
+manifested toward me up to this time. We were far from agreeing on all
+points; but, gifted both with sincerity and good-nature, we found almost
+as much pleasure in arguing as we did in agreeing. That epicurean is a
+thinker; his thought, always generously inclined, has assumed, in the
+solitude where it has developed itself, a peculiar and paradoxical turn. I
+wish I could give you an idea of it.
+
+As we were returning to the chateau, we heard a great noise of voices and
+laughter, and we saw at the foot of the stoop some ten or twelve young men
+who were jumping and bounding, as if trying to reach, without the help of
+the steps, the platform that crowns the double staircase. We were enabled
+to understand the explanation of these passionate gymnastics as soon as
+the light of the moon enabled us to distinguish a white dress on the
+platform. It was evidently a tournament of which the white dress was to
+crown the victor. The young lady (had she not been young, they would not
+have jumped so high) was leaning over the balustrade, exposing boldly to
+the dew of an autumn night, and to the kisses of Diana, her
+flower-wreathed head and her bare shoulders; she was slightly stooping
+down, and held out to the competitors an object somewhat difficult to
+discern at a distance; it was a slender cigarette, the delicate handiwork
+of her white fingers and her rosy nails. Although there was nothing in the
+sight that was not charming, Monsieur de Malouet probably found in it
+something he did not like, for his tone of cheerful good-humor became
+suddenly shaded with a perceptible tint of annoyance, when he murmured:
+
+"There it is again! I was sure of it! It is the Little Countess!"
+
+It is hardly necessary for me to add that I had recognized, in the Little
+Countess, my Amazon with the blue plume, who, with or without plume, seems
+to have always the same disposition. She recognized me perfectly also, on
+her side, as you'll see directly. At the moment when we were reaching,
+Monsieur Malouet and myself, the top of the stoop, leaving the rival
+pretenders to vie and struggle with increasing ardor, the little countess,
+intimidated perhaps by the presence of the marquis, resolved to put an end
+to the scene, and thrust abruptly her cigarette into my hand, saying:
+
+"Here! it's for you! After all, you jump better than any of them."
+
+And she disappeared after this parting shaft, which possessed the double
+advantage of hitting at once both the victor and the vanquished.
+
+This was, so far as I am concerned, the last noticeable episode of the
+evening. After a game or two of whist, I pretended a little fatigue, and
+Monsieur de Malouet had the kindness to escort me in person to a pretty
+little room, hung with chintz and contiguous to the library. I was
+disturbed during part of the night by the monotonous sound of the piano
+and the rumbling noise of the carriages, indications of civilization which
+made me regret more bitterly than ever my poor Thebais.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A DENUNCIATION OVERHEARD.
+
+_28th September._
+
+
+I had the satisfaction of discovering in the library of the marquis the
+historical documents I needed. They form, indeed, a part of the ancient
+archives of the abbey, and have a special interest for the family of
+Malouet. It was one William Malouet, a very noble man and a knight, who,
+about the middle of the twelfth century, with the consent of messieurs his
+sons, Hughes, Foulgues, John, and Thomas, restored the church and founded
+the abbey in favor of the order of the Benedictine monks, and for the
+salvation of his soul and of the souls of his ancestors, granting unto the
+congregation, among other dues and privileges, the fee-simple of the
+lands of the abbey, the tithe of all its revenues, half the wool of its
+flocks, three loads of wax to be received every year at Mount
+Saint-Michel-on-the-sea; then the river, the moors, the woods, and the
+mill, _et molendinum in eodem situ_. I took pleasure in following through
+the wretched latin of the time the description of this familiar landscape.
+It has not changed.
+
+The foundation charter bears date 1145. Subsequent charters show that the
+abbey of Rozel was in possession, in the thirteenth century, of a sort of
+patriarchate over all the institutions of the order of Saint Benedict that
+were then in existence in the province of Normandy. A general chapter of
+the order was held there every year, presided over by the Abbot of Rozel,
+and at which some ten or a dozen other convents were represented by
+their highest dignitaries. The discipline, the labors, the temporal and
+spiritual management of all the Benedictines of the province were here
+controlled and reformed with a severity which the minutes of these little
+councils attest in the noblest terms. These scenes replete with dignity,
+took place in that Capitulary Hall now so shamefully defiled.
+
+Aside from the archives, this library is very rich, and this is apt to
+divert attention. Moreover, the vortex of worldly dissipation that rages
+in the chateau is not without occasionally doing some prejudice to my
+independence. Finally, my worthy hosts frequently take away with one hand
+the liberty they have granted me with the other; like many persons of the
+world, they have not a very clear idea of the degree of connected
+occupation which deserves the name of work, and an hour or two of
+reading appears to them the utmost extent of labor that a man can bear
+in a day.
+
+"Consider yourself wholly free," Monsieur le Malouet tells me every
+morning; "go up to your hermitage; work at your ease."
+
+An hour later he is knocking at my door:
+
+"Well! are we hard at work?"
+
+"Why, yes, I am beginning to get into it."
+
+"What! the duse! You have been at it more than two hours! You are killing
+yourself, my friend. However, you are free. By the way, my wife is in the
+parlor; when you have done you'll go and keep her company, won't you?"
+
+"Most undoubtdedly I will."
+
+"But only when you have entirely done, of course."
+
+And, he goes off for a hunt or a ride by the seaside. As to myself,
+preoccupied with the idea than I am expected, and satisfied that I shall
+be unable to do any further work of value, I soon resolve to go and join
+Madame de Malouet, whom I find deeply engaged in conversation with the
+parish priest, or with Jacquemart (of Bordeaux). She has disturbed me, I
+am in her way, and we smile pleasantly to each other.
+
+Such is the manner in which the middle of the day usually passes off.
+
+In the morning, I ride on horseback with the marquis, who is kind enough
+to spare me the crowd and tumult of the general riding-parties. In the
+evening, I take a hand at whist, then I chat a while with the ladies, and
+I try my best to cast off at their feet my bear's skin and reputation; for
+I dislike to display any eccentricity of my own, this one rather more so
+than any other. There is in a grave disposition, when carried to the point
+of stiffness and ill-grace toward women, something coarsely pedantic, that
+is unbecoming in great talents and ridiculous in lesser ones. I retire
+afterward, and I work rather late in the library. That's the best of my
+day.
+
+The society at the chateau is usually made up of the marquis' guests, who
+are always numerous at this season, and of a few persons of the
+neighborhood. The object of these entertainments on a grand scale is,
+above all, to celebrate the visit of Monsieur de Malouet's only daughter,
+who comes every year to spend the autumn with her family. She is a person
+of statuesque beauty, who amuses herself with queenly dignity, and who
+communicates with ordinary mortals by means of contemptuous mono-syllables
+uttered in a deep bass voice. She married, some twelve years ago, an
+Englishman, a member of the diplomatic corps, Lord A----, a personage
+equally handsome and impassive as herself. He addresses at intervals to
+his wife an English monosyllable, to which the latter replies
+imperturbably with a French monosyllable. Nevertheless, three little
+lords, worthy the pencil of Lawrence, who strut majestically around this
+Olympian couple, attest between the two nations a secret intelligence
+which escapes the vulgar observer.
+
+A scarcely less remarkable couple comes over to us daily from a
+neighboring chateau. The husband is one Monsiuer de Breuilly, formerly an
+officer in King Charles X's body-guards, and a bosom friend of the
+marquis. He is a very lively old man, still quite fine-looking, and
+wearing over close-cropped gray hair a hat too small for his head. He has
+an odd, though perhaps natural, way of scanning his words, and of speaking
+with a degree of deliberation that seems affected. He would be quite
+pleasant, however, were it not that his mind is constantly tortured by an
+ardent jealousy, and by a no less ardent apprehension of betraying his
+weakness, which, nevertheless, is a glaring and obvious fact to every one.
+It is difficult to understand how, with such a disposition and a great
+deal of common sense, he has committed the signal error of marrying, at
+the age of fifty-five, a young and pretty woman, and a creole, I believe,
+in the bargain.
+
+"Monsieur de Breuilly!" said the marquis, as he presented me to the
+punctilious gentleman, "my best friend, who will infallibly become yours
+also, and who, quite as infallibly, will cut your throat if you attempt to
+show any attention to his wife."
+
+"Mon Dieu! my dear friend," replied Monsieur de Breuilly, with a laugh
+that was anything but joyful, and accentuating each word in his peculiar
+style, "why represent me to this gentleman as a Norman Othello? Monsieur
+may surely--monsieur is perfectly free to--besides, he knows and can
+observe the proper limits of things. At any rate, sir, here is Madame de
+Breuilly; suffer me to recommend her myself to your kind attentions."
+
+Somewhat surprised at this language, I had the simplicity, or perhaps the
+innocent malice, of interpreting it literally. I sat down squarely by the
+side of Madame de Breuilly, and I began paying her marked attention,
+while, however, "observing the proper limits of things." In the meantime,
+Monsieur de Breuilly was watching us from a distance, with an
+extraordinary countenance. I could see his little gray eyes sparkling like
+glowing ashes; he was laughing loud, grinning, stamping, and fairly
+disjointing his fingers with sinister cracks. Monsieur de Malouet came
+suddenly to me, handed me a whist card, and taking me aside:
+
+"What the duse has got into you?" he said.
+
+"Into me? why, nothing!"
+
+"Have I not warned you? It's quite a serious matter. Look at Breuilly! It
+is the only weakness of that gallant man; every one respects it here. Do
+likewise, I beg of you."
+
+From the weakness of that gallant man, it results that his wife is
+condemned in society to perpetual quarantine. The fighting propensities of
+a husband are often but an additional attraction for the lightning; but
+men hesitate to risk their lives without any prospect of possible
+compensation, and we have here a man who threatens you at least with a
+public scandal, not only before harvest, as they say, but even before the
+seed has been fairly sown. Such a state of affairs manifestly discourages
+the most enterprising, and it is quite rare that Madame de Breuilly has
+not two vacant seats on her right and on her left, despite her nonchalant
+grace, despite her great creole eyes, and despite her plaintive and
+beseeching looks, that seem to be ever saying: "Mon Dieu! will no one lead
+me into temptation?"
+
+You would doubtless think that the evident neglect in which the poor wife
+lives ought to be, for her husband, a motive of security. Not at all! His
+ingenious mania manages to discover in that fact a fresh motive of
+perplexity.
+
+"My friend," he was saying yesterday to Monsieur de Malouet, "you know
+that I am no more jealous than any one else; but without being Orosmane, I
+do not pretend to be George Dandin. Well! one thing troubles me, my
+friend; have you noticed that apparently no one pays any attention to my
+wife?"
+
+"Parbleu! if that's what troubles you--"
+
+"Of course it is; you must admit that it is not natural. My wife is
+pretty; why don't they pay attention to her as well as to other ladies?
+There is something suspicious there!"
+
+Fortunately, and to the great advantage of the social question, all the
+young women who reside in turn at the chateau are not guarded by dragons
+of that caliber. A few even, and among them two or three Parisians out for
+a holiday, display a freedom of manner, a love of pleasure, and an
+exaggerated elegance that certainly pass the bounds of discretion. You are
+aware that I have not the highest opinion of that sort of behavior, which
+does not answer my idea of the duties of a woman, and even of a woman of
+the world; nevertheless, I take side without hesitation with these giddy
+ones; and their conduct even appears to me the very ideal of truth and
+sincerity, when I hear nightly certain pious matrons distilling against
+them, amid low and vulgar gossip, the venom of the basest envy that can
+swell a rural heart. Moreover, it is not always necessary to leave Paris
+in order to have the ugly spectacle of these provincials let loose against
+what they call vice, namely, youth, elegance, distinction, charm--in a
+word, all the qualities which the worthy ladies possess no more, or have
+perhaps never possessed.
+
+Nevertheless, with whatever disgust, these chaste vixens inspire me for
+the virtue they pretend to uphold (Oh, virtue! how many crimes are
+committed in thy name!), I am compelled, to my great regret to agree with
+them on one point, and to admit that one of their victims at least gives
+an appearance of justice to their reprobation and to their calumnies. The
+angel of kindness himself would hide his face in presence of this complete
+specimen of dissipation, of turbulence, of futility, and finally of
+worldly extravagance that bears the name of Countess de Palme, and the
+nickname of the Little Countess; a rather ill-fitting nickname, by the
+way, for the lady is not small, but simply slender and lithe. Madame de
+Palme is twenty-five years of age; she is a widow; she spends the winter
+in Paris with her sister, and the summer in an old Norman manor-house,
+with her aunt, Madame de Pontbrian. Let me get rid of the aunt first.
+
+This aunt, who is of very ancient nobility, is particularly noted for the
+fervor of her hereditary opinions, and for her strict devotion. Those are
+both claims to consideration which I admit fully, so far as I am
+concerned. Every solid principle and every sincere sentiment command in
+these days a peculiar respect. Unfortunately Madame de Pontbrian seems to
+be one of those intensely devout persons who are but very indifferent
+Christians. She is one of those who, reducing to a few minor observances,
+of which they are ridiculously proud, all the duties of their religious or
+political faith, impart to both a harsh and hateful appearance, the effect
+of which is not exactly to attract proselytes. The outer forms, in all
+things, are sufficient for her conscience; otherwise, no trace of charity
+or kindness; above all, no trace of humility. Her genealogy, her assiduity
+to church, and her annual pilgrimages to the shrine of an illustrious
+exile (who would probably be glad to dispense with the sight of her
+countenance), inspire in this fairy such a lofty idea of herself and such
+a profound contempt for her neighbor, that they make her positively
+unsociable. She remains forever absorbed in the latrian worship which she
+believes due to herself. She deigns to speak but to God, and He must
+indeed be a kind and merciful God if He listens to her.
+
+Under the nominal patronage of this mystic duenna, the Little Countess
+enjoys an absolute independence, which she uses to excess. After spending
+the winter in Paris, where she kills off regularly two horses and a
+coachman every month for the sole gratification of waltzing ten minutes
+every night in half a dozen different balls, Madame de Palme feels the
+necessity of seeking rest in the peace of rural life. She arrives at her
+aunt's, she jumps upon a horse, and she starts at full gallop. It matters
+not which way she goes, provided she keeps going. Most generally she comes
+to the Chateau de Malouet, where the kind-hearted mistress of the house
+manifests for her an amount of predilection which I can hardly understand.
+Familiar with men, impertinent with women, the Little Countess offers a
+broad mark to the most indiscreet homage of the former, and to the jealous
+hostility of the latter. Indifferent to the outrages of public opinion,
+she seems ready to aspire to the coarsest incense of gallantry; but what
+she requires above all things is noise, movement, a whirl, worldly
+pleasure carried to its most extreme and most extravagant fury; what she
+requires every morning, every evening, and every night, is a break-neck
+chase, which she conducts with frenzy; a reckless game, in which she may
+break the bank; an uninterrupted German, which she leads until dawn. A
+stoppage of a single minute, a moment of rest, of meditation and
+reflection, would kill her. Never was an existence at once so busy and so
+idle; never a more unceasing and more sterile activity.
+
+Thus she goes through life hurriedly and without a halt, graceful,
+careless, busy, and ignorant as the horse she rides. When she reaches the
+fatal goal, that woman will fall from the nothingness of her agitation
+into the nothingness of eternal rest, without the shadow of a serious
+idea, the faintest notion of duty, the lightest cloud of a thought worthy
+a human being, having ever grazed, even in a dream, the narrow brain that
+is sheltered behind her pure, smiling, and stupid brow. It might be said
+that death, at whatever age it may overtake her, will find the Little
+Countess just as she left the cradle, if it were possible to suppose that
+she has preserved its innocence as well as she has retained its profound
+puerility. Has that madcap a soul? The word nothingness has escaped me. It
+is indeed difficult for me to conceive what might survive that body when
+it has once lost the vain fever and the frivolous breath that seem alone
+to animate it.
+
+I know too well the miserable ways of the world, to take to the letter the
+accusations of immorality of which Madame de Palme is here the object on
+the part of the witches, as also on the part of some of her rivals who are
+silly enough to envy her social success. It is not in that respect, as you
+may understand, that I treat her with so much severity. Men, when they
+show themselves unmerciful for certain errors, are too apt to forget that
+they have all, more or less, spent part of their lives seeking to bring
+them about for their own benefit. But there is in the feminine type which
+I have just sketched something more shocking than immorality itself,
+which, however, it is rather difficult to separate from it. And so,
+notwithstanding my desire of not making myself conspicuous in anything, I
+have been unable to take upon myself to join the throng of admirers whom
+Madame de Palme drags after her triumphal car. I know not whether
+
+"Le tyran dans sa cour remarqua mon absence:"
+
+I am sometimes tempted to believe it, from the glances of astonishment and
+scorn with which I am overwhelmed when we meet; but it is more simple to
+attribute these hostile symptoms to the natural antipathy that separates
+two creatures as dissimilar as we are. I look at her at times, myself,
+with the gaping surprise which must be excited in the mind of any thinking
+being by the monstrosity of such a psychological phenomenon. In that way
+we are even. I ought rather to say we were even, for we are really no
+longer so, since a rather cruel little adventure that happened to me last
+night, and which constitutes in my account-current with Madame de Palme a
+considerable advance, which she will find it difficult to make up. I have
+told you that Madame de Malouet, through I know not what refinement of
+Christian charity, manifested a genuine predilection for the Little
+Countess. I was talking with the marquise last evening in a corner of the
+drawing-room. I took the liberty of telling her that this predilection,
+coming from a woman like her, was a bad example; that I had never very
+well understood, for my part, that passage of the Holy Scriptures in which
+the return of a single sinner is celebrated above the constant merit of a
+thousand just, and that this had always appeared to me very discouraging
+for the just.
+
+"In the first place," answered Madame de Malouet, "the just do not get
+discouraged; and in the next place, there are none. Do you fancy yourself
+one, by chance?"
+
+"Certainly not; I am perfectly well aware of the contrary."
+
+"Well, then, where do you get the right of judging your neighbor so
+severely?"
+
+"I do not acknowledge Madame de Palme as my neighbor."
+
+"That's convenient! Madame de Palme, sir, has been badly brought up, badly
+married, and always spoilt; but, believe me, she is a genuine rough
+diamond."
+
+"I only see the roughness."
+
+"And rest assured that it only requires a skillful workman--I mean a good
+husband--to cut and polish it."
+
+"Allow me to pity that future lapidary."
+
+Madame de Malouet tapped the carpet with her foot, and manifested other
+signs of impatience, which I knew not at first how to interpret, for she
+is never out of humor; but suddenly a thought, which I took for a luminous
+one, occurred in my mind; I had no doubt that I had at last discovered the
+weak side and the only failing in that charming old woman. She was
+possessed with the mania of match making, and, in her Christian anxiety to
+snatch the Little Countess from the abyss of perdition, she was secretly
+meditating to hurl me into it with her, unworthy though I be. Penetrated
+with this modest conviction, I kept upon a defensive that seems to me, at
+the present moment, perfectly ridiculous.
+
+"Mon Dieu!" said Madame de Malouet, "because you doubt her learning!"
+
+"I do not doubt her learning," I said; "I doubt whether she knows how to
+read."
+
+"But, in short, what fault do you find with her?" rejoined Madame de
+Malouet in a singularly agitated tone of voice.
+
+I determined to demolish, at a single stroke, the matrimonial dream with
+which I supposed the marchioness to be deluding herself.
+
+"I find fault with her," I replied, "for giving to the world the
+spectacle, supremely irritating even for a profane being like me, of
+triumphant nullity and haughty vice. I am not worth much, it's true, and I
+have no right to judge, but there is in me, as well as in any theatrical
+audience, a certain sentiment of reason and morality that rises in
+indignation in presence of personages wholly devoid of common-sense or
+virtue, and that protests against their triumph."
+
+The old lady's indignation seemed to increase.
+
+"Do you think I would receive her, if she deserved all the stones which
+slander casts at her?"
+
+"I think it is impossible for you to believe any evil."
+
+"Bah! I assure you that you do not show in this case any evidence of
+penetration. These love-stories which are attributed to her are so little
+like her! She is a child who does not even know what it is to love!"
+
+"I am convinced of that, madame. Her commonplace coquetry is sufficient
+evidence of that. I am even ready to swear that the allurements of the
+imagination or the impulses of passion are wholly foreign to her errors,
+which thus remain without excuse."
+
+"Oh! mon Dieu!" exclaimed Madame de Malouet, clasping her hands, "do hush!
+she is a poor, forsaken child! I know her better than you do. I assure you
+that beneath her appearance--much too frivolous, I admit--she possesses in
+fact as much heart as she does sense."
+
+"That is precisely what I think, madam; as much one of as of the other."
+
+"Ah! that is really intolerable," murmured Madame de Malouet, dropping her
+arms in a disconsolate manner.
+
+At the same moment, I saw the curtain that half covered the door by the
+side of which we sat shake violently, and the Little Countess, leaving the
+hiding-place where she had been confined by the exigencies of I know not
+what game, showed herself to us for a moment in the aperture of the door,
+and returned to join the group of players that stood in the adjoining
+parlor. I looked at Madame de Malouet:
+
+"What! she was there!"
+
+"Of course she was. She heard us, and, what's more, she could see us. I
+made all the signs I could, but you were off!"
+
+I remained somewhat embarrassed. I regretted the harshness of my words;
+for, in attacking so violently this young person, I had yielded to the
+excitement of controversy much more than to a sentiment of serious
+animadversion. In point of fact, she is indifferent to me, but it's a
+little too much to hear her praised.
+
+"And now what am I to do?" I said to Madame de Malouet.
+
+She reflected for a moment, and replied with a slight shrug of her
+shoulders:
+
+"_Ma foi!_ nothing; that's the best thing you can do."
+
+The least breath causes a full cup to overflow; thus the little
+unpleasantness of this scene seems to have intensified this feeling of
+ennui which has scarce left me since my advent into this abode of joy.
+This continuous gayety, this restless agitation, this racing and dancing
+and dining, this ceaseless merry-making, and this eternal round of
+festivity importune me to the point of disgust. I regret bitterly the time
+I have wasted in reading and investigations which in no wise concern my
+official mission and have but little advanced its termination; I regret
+the engagements which the kind entreaties of my hosts have extorted from
+my weakness; I regret my vale of Tempe; above all, Paul, I regret you.
+There are certainly in this little social center a sufficient number of
+superior and kindly disposed minds to form the elements of the pleasantest
+and even the most elevated relations; but these elements are fairly
+submerged in the worldly and vulgar throng, and can only be eliminated
+from it with much trouble and difficulty, and never without admixture.
+Monsieur and Madame de Malouet, Monsieur de Breuilly even, when his insane
+jealously does not deprive him of the use of his faculties, certainly
+possess choice minds and hearts; but the mere difference of age opens an
+abyss between us. As to the young men and the men of my own age whom I
+meet here, they all march with more or less eager step in Madame de
+Palme's wake. It is enough that I should decline to follow them in that
+path, to cause them to manifest toward me a coolness akin to antipathy. My
+pride does not attempt to break that ice, though two or three among them
+appear well gifted, and reveal instincts superior to the life they have
+adopted.
+
+There is one question I sometimes ask of myself on that subject; are we
+any better, you and I, youthful Paul, than this crowd of joyous companions
+and pleasant _viveurs_, or are we simply different from them? Like
+ourselves, they possess honesty and honor; like ourselves, they have
+neither virtue nor religion properly so-called. So far, we are equal. Our
+tastes alone and our pleasures differ; all their preoccupations turn to
+the lighter ways of the world, to the cares of gallantry and material
+activity; ours are almost exclusively given up to the exercise of thought,
+to the talents of the mind, to the works, good or evil, of the intellect.
+In the light of human truth, and according to common estimation, it is
+doubtful whether the difference in this particular is wholly in our favor;
+but in a more elevated order, in the moral order, and, so to speak, in the
+presence of God, does that superiority hold good? Are we merely yielding,
+as they do, to an inclination that leads us rather more to one side than
+to another, or are we obeying an imperative duty? What is in the eyes of
+God the merit of intellectual life? It seems to me sometimes that we
+possess for thought a species of pagan worship to which He attaches no
+value, and which perhaps even offends Him. More frequently, however, I
+think that He wishes us to make use of thought, were it even to be turned
+against Him, and that He accepts as a homage all the quiverings of that
+noble instrument of joy and torture which He has placed within us.
+
+Is not sadness, in periods of doubt and anxiety, a species of religion? I
+trust so. We are, you and I, somewhat like those poor dreaming sphinxes
+who have been asking in vain for so many centuries, from the solitudes of
+the desert, the solution of the eternal riddle. Would it be a greater and
+more guilty folly than the happy carelessness of the Little Countess? We
+shall see. In the meantime, retain, for my sake, that ground-work of
+melancholy upon which you weave your own gentle mirth; for, thank God! you
+are not a pedant; you can live, you can laugh, and even laugh aloud; but
+thy soul is sad unto death, and that is only why I love unto death thy
+fraternal soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE MARQUISE INTERCEDES.
+
+_1st October._
+
+
+Paul, there is something going on here that does not please me. I would
+like to have your advice; send it as soon as possible.
+
+On Thursday morning, after finishing my letter, I went down to give it to
+the messenger, who leaves quite early; then, as it only wanted a few
+minutes of the breakfast-hour, I walked into the drawing-room, which was
+still empty. I was quietly looking over a review by the fireside, when the
+door was suddenly flung open; I heard the crushing and rustling of a silk
+dress too broad to get easily through an aperture three feet wide, and I
+saw the Little Countess appear: she had spent the night at the chateau.
+
+If you remember the unfortunate conversation in which I had become
+entangled, the previous evening, and which Madame de Palme had overheard
+from beginning to end, you will readily understand that this lady was the
+last person in the world with whom it might prove pleasant to find myself
+alone that morning.
+
+I rose and I addressed to her a deep courtsey; she replied with a nod,
+which, though slight, was still more than I deserved from her. The first
+steps she took in the parlor after she had seen me were stamped with
+hesitation and a sort of wavering; it was like the action of a partridge
+lightly hit on the wing and somewhat stunned by the shot. Would she go to
+the piano, to the window, to the right or to the left, or opposite? It was
+clear that she did not know herself; but indecision is not the weak point
+of her disposition; she soon made up her mind, and crossing the immense
+drawing room with very firm step, she came in the direction of the
+chimney, that is, toward my immediate domain.
+
+Standing in front of my arm-chair with my review in my hand, I was
+awaiting the event with an apparent gravity that concealed but
+imperfectly, I fear, a rather powerful inward anxiety. I had indeed every
+reason to apprehend an explanation and a scene. In every circumstance of
+this kind, the natural feelings of our heart and the refinement which
+education and the habits of society add to them, the absolute freedom of
+the attack and the narrow limits allowed to the defense, give to women an
+overwhelming superiority over any man who is not a boor or a lover. In the
+particular crisis that was threatening me, the stinging consciousness of
+my wrongs, the recollection of the almost insulting form under which my
+offense had manifested itself, united to deprive me of all thought of
+resistance; I found myself delivered over, bound hand and foot, to the
+frightful wrath of a young and imperious woman thirsting for vengeance. My
+attitude was, therefore, not very brilliant.
+
+Madame de Palme stopped within two steps of me, spread her right hand on
+the marble of the mantel, and extended toward the blazing hearth the
+bronzed slipper within which her left foot was held captive. Having
+accomplished these preliminary dispositions, she turned toward me, and
+without addressing me a single word, she seemed to enjoy my countenance,
+which, I repeat, was not worth much. I resolved to sit down again and
+resume my reading; but previously, and by way of transition, I thought
+best to say politely:
+
+"Wouldn't you like to have this review, madam?"
+
+"Thank you, sir, I cannot read."
+
+Such was the answer that was promptly shot off at me in a brief tone of
+voice. I made with my head and my hand a courteous gesture, by which I
+seemed to sympathize gently with the infirmity that was thus revealed to
+me, after which I sat down, feeling more easy. I had drawn my adversary's
+fire. Honor seemed to me satisfied.
+
+Nevertheless, after a few moments of silence, I began again to feel the
+awkwardness of my situation; I strove in vain to become absorbed in my
+reading; I kept seeing a multitude of little bronzed slippers dancing all
+over the paper. An open scene would have appeared to me decidedly
+preferable to this unpleasant and persistent proximity, to the mute
+hostility betrayed to my furtive glance by Madame de Palme's restless
+foot, the jingle of her rings on the marble mantel, and the quivering
+mobility of her nostrils. I therefore unconsciously uttered a sigh of
+relief when the door, opening suddenly, introduced upon the stage a new
+personage, whom I felt justified in considering as an ally.
+
+It was a lady--a school-friend of Lady A----, whose name is Madame
+Durmaitre. She is a widow, and extremely handsome; she is noted for a
+lesser degree of folly amid the wild and worldly ladies of the chateau.
+For this reason, and somewhat also on account of her superior charms, she
+has long since conquered the ill-will of Madame de Palme, who, in allusion
+to her rival's somber style of dress, to the languid character of her
+beauty, and to the somewhat elegiac turn of her conversation, is pleased
+to designate her, among the young people, as the Malabar Widow. Madame
+Durmaitre is positively lacking in wit; but she is intelligent, tolerably
+well read, and much inclined to reverie. She prides herself upon a certain
+talent for conversation. Seeing that I am myself destitute of any other
+social accomplishment, she has got it into her head that I must possess
+that particular one, and she has undertaken to make sure of it. The result
+has been, between us, a rather assiduous and almost cordial intercourse;
+for, if I have been unable to fully respond to all her hopes, I listen, at
+least with religious attention, to the little melancholy pathos which is
+habitual with her. I appear to understand her, and she seems grateful for
+it. The truth is that I never tire hearing her voice, which is musical,
+gazing at her features, which are exquisitely regular, and admiring her
+large black eyes, over which a fringe of heavy eyelashes casts a mystic
+shadow. However, do not feel uneasy; I have decided that the time for
+being loved, and consequently for loving, is over for me; now, love is a
+malady which no one need fear, if he sincerely strive to repress its first
+symptoms.
+
+Madame de Palme had turned around at the sound of the opening door; when
+she recognized Madame Durmaitre, a fierce light gleamed in her blue eyes;
+chance had sent her a victim. She allowed the beautiful widow to advance a
+few paces toward us, with the slow and mournful step which is
+characteristic of her manner, and bursting out laughing:
+
+"Bravo!" she exclaimed, with emphasis, "the march to the scaffold! the
+victim dragged to the altar! Iphigenia; or, rather, Hermione:
+
+"'Pleurante apres son char vous voulez qu'on me voie!'
+
+"Who is it that has written this verse? I am so ignorant! Ah! it's your
+friend, M. de Lamartine, I believe. He was thinking of you, my dear!"
+
+"Ah! you quote poetry now, dear madam," said Madame Durmaitre, who is not
+very skilled at retort.
+
+"Why not, dear madam? Have you a monopoly of it?--'Pleurante apres son
+char?' I have heard Rachel say that. By the way, it is not by Lamartine,
+it's by Boileau. I must tell you, dear Nathalie, that I intend to ask you
+to give me lessons in serious and virtuous conversation. It's so amusing!
+And to begin at once, come! tell me whom you prefer, Lamartine or
+Boileau?"
+
+"But, Bathilde, there is no connection," replied Madame Durmaitre, rather
+sensibly and much too candidly.
+
+"Ah!" rejoined Madame de Palme. And suddenly pointing me out with her
+finger: "You perhaps prefer this gentleman, who also writes poetry?"
+
+"No, madam," I said, "it is a mistake; I write none."
+
+"Ah! I thought you did. I beg your pardon."
+
+Madame Durmaitre, who doubtless owes the unalterable serenity of her soul
+to the consciousness of her supreme beauty, had been content with smiling
+with disdainful nonchalance. She dropped into the arm-chair, which I had
+given up to her.
+
+"What gloomy weather!" she said to me; "really, this autumnal sky weighs
+upon the soul. I was looking out of the window; all the trees look like
+cypress-trees, and the whole country looks like a graveyard. It would
+really seem that----"
+
+"No, ah! no. I beg of you, Nathalie," interrupted Madame de Palme, "say no
+more. That's enough fun before breakfast. You'll make yourself sick."
+
+"Well, now! my dear Bathilde, you must really have slept very badly last
+night," said the beautiful widow.
+
+"I, my dear? ah! do not say that. I had celestial, ecstatic dreams;
+ecstasies, you know. My soul held converse with other souls--like your own
+soul. Angels smiled at me through the foliage of the cypress-trees--and so
+forth, and so forth!"
+
+Madame Durmaitre blushed slightly, shrugged her shoulders, and took up the
+review I had laid upon the mantel-piece.
+
+"By the bye, Nathalie," resumed Madame de Palme, "do you know who we are
+going to have at dinner to-day, in the way of men?" The good-natured
+Nathalie mentioned Monsieur de Breuilly, two or three other married
+gentlemen, and the parish priest.
+
+"Then I am going away after breakfast," said the Little Countess, looking
+at me.
+
+"That's very polite to us," murmured Madame Durmaitre.
+
+"You know," replied the other with imperturbable assurance, "that I only
+like men's society, and there are three classes of individuals whom I do
+not consider as belonging to that sex, or to any other; those are married
+men, priests, and savants."
+
+As she concluded this sentence, Madame de Palme cast another glance at me,
+by which however, I had no need to understand that she included me in her
+classification of neutral species; it could only be among the individuals
+of the third category, though I have no claim to it whatever; but it does
+not require much to be considered a savant by the ladies.
+
+Almost at this very moment, the breakfast-bell rang in the court-yard of
+the chateau, and she added:
+
+"Ah! there's breakfast, thank Heaven! for I am develish hungry, with all
+respect for pure spirits and troubled souls."
+
+She then ran and skipped to the other end of the parlor to greet Monsieur
+de Malouet, who was coming in followed by his guests. As to myself, I
+promptly offered my arm to Madame Durmaitre, and I endeavored by earnest
+attentions, to make her forget the storm which the mere shade of sympathy
+she manifests toward me had just attracted upon her.
+
+As you may have remarked, the Little Countess had exhibited in the course
+of this scene, as always, an unmeasured and unseemly freedom of language;
+but she displayed greater resources of mind than I supposed her capable of
+doing, and though they had been directed against me, I could not help
+feeling thankful to her--to such an extent do I hate fools, whom I have
+ever found in this world more pernicious than wicked people. The result
+was, that with the feeling of repulsion and contempt with which the
+extravagantly worldly woman inspired me, there was henceforth mingled a
+shade of gentle pity for the badly brought-up child and the misdirected
+woman.
+
+Women are prompt in catching delicate shades of feeling, and the latter
+did not escape Madame de Palme. She became vaguely conscious of a slightly
+favorable change in my opinion of her, and it was not long before she even
+began to exaggerate its extent and to attempt abusing it. For two days she
+pursued me with her keenest shafts, which I bore good-naturedly, and to
+which I even responded with some little attentions, for I had still at
+heart the rude expressions of my dialogue with Madame de Malouet, and I
+did not think I had sufficiently expiated them by the feeble martyrdom I
+had undergone the following day in common with the beautiful Malabar
+Widow.
+
+This was enough to cause Madame Bathilde de Palme to imagine that she
+could treat me as a conquered province, and add Ulysses to his companions.
+Day before yesterday she had tested several times during the day the
+extent of her growing power over my heart and my will, by asking two or
+three little services of me; services to the honor of which every one here
+eagerly aspires, and which for my part, I discharged politely but with
+evident coolness.
+
+In spite of the extreme reserve with which I had lent myself to these
+trials during the day, Madame de Palme believed in her complete success;
+she hastily judged that she now had but to rivet my chains and bind me to
+her triumph, a feeble addition of glory assuredly, but which had, after
+all, the merit, in her eyes, of having been contested. During the evening,
+as I was leaving the whist-table, she advanced toward me deliberately, and
+requested me to do her the honor of figuring with her in the character
+dance called the cotillon.[B] I excused myself laughingly on my complete
+inexperience; she insisted, declaring that I had evident dispositions for
+dancing, and reminding me of the agility I had displayed in the forest.
+Finally, and to close the debate, she led me away familiarly by the arm,
+adding that she was not in the habit of being refused.
+
+"Nor I, madam," I said, "in that of making a show of myself."
+
+"What! not even to gratify me?"
+
+"Not even for that, madam, and were it the only means of succeeding in
+doing so."
+
+I bowed to her smilingly after these words, which I had emphasized in such
+a positive manner that she insisted no more. She dropped my arm abruptly
+and returned to join a group of dancers who were observing us at a
+distance with manifest interest. She was received by them with whispers
+and smiles, to which she replied with a few rapid sentences, among which I
+only caught the word _revanche_. I paid no further attention to the matter
+for the time being, and my soul went to converse amid the clouds with the
+soul of Madame Durmaitre.
+
+The next day a grand hunt was to take place in the forest. I had arranged
+to take no share in it, wishing to make the best of a whole day of
+solitude to push forward my hopeless undertaking. Toward noon, the hunters
+met in the court-yard of the chateau, which rang again for some fifteen
+minutes with the loud blast of the trumpets, the stamping of horses, and
+the yelping of the pack. Then the tumultuous crowd disappeared down the
+avenue, the noise gradually died away, and I remained master of myself and
+of my mind, in the midst of a silence the more grateful that it is the
+more rare on this meridian.
+
+I had been enjoying my solitude for a few minutes, and I was turning over
+the folio pages of the _Neustra pia_, while smiling at my own happiness,
+when I fancied I heard the gallop of a horse in the avenue, and soon after
+on the pavement of the court. Some hunter behind time, I thought, and,
+taking up my pen, I began extracting from the enormous volume the passage
+relating to the General Chapters of the Benedictines; but a new and more
+serious interruption came to afflict me; some one was knocking at the
+library-door. I shook my head with ill-humor, and I said "Come in!" in the
+same tone in which I might have said "Go away!" Some one did come in. I
+had seen, a few moments before, Madame de Palme taking her flight,
+feathers and all, at the head of the cavalcade, and I was not a little
+surprised to find her again within two steps of me as soon as the door was
+open. Her head was bare, and her hair was tucked up behind in an odd
+manner; she held her whip in one hand, and with the other lifted up the
+long train of her riding-habit. The excitement of the rapid ride she had
+just had seemed further to intensify the expression of audacity which is
+habitual to her look and to her features. And yet her voice was less
+assured than usual when she exclaimed as she came in:
+
+"Ah! I beg your pardon! I thought Madame de Malouet was here?"
+
+I had risen at once to my full height.
+
+"No, madam, she is not here."
+
+"Ah! excuse me. Do you know where she is?"
+
+"I do not, madam; but I can go and ascertain, if you wish."
+
+"Thanks, thanks! I'll find her easily enough. The fact is, I met with a
+little accident."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Oh, not much! a trailing limb tore the band off my hat, and my feathers
+dropped off."
+
+"Your blue feathers, madam?"
+
+"Yes, my blue feathers. In short, I have returned to the chateau to have
+my hat-band sewed on again. You are comfortable there to work?"
+
+"Perfectly so, madam, I could not be better."
+
+"Are you very busy just now?"
+
+"Well, yes, madam, rather busy."
+
+"Ah! I am sorry."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because, I had an idea. I thought of asking you to accompany me to the
+forest. The gentlemen will be nearly there when I am ready to start
+again--and I cannot very well go on alone so far."
+
+While lisping this somewhat confused explanation, the Little Countess had
+an expression at once sly and embarrassed, which greatly fortified the
+sentiment of distrust which the awkwardness of her entrance had excited in
+my mind.
+
+"Madam," I said, "you really distress me. I shall regret all my life to
+have missed the delightful occasion you are kind enough to offer me; but
+it is indispensable that to-morrow's mail shall carry off this report,
+which the minister is expecting with extreme impatience."
+
+"You are afraid to lose your situation?"
+
+"I have none to lose, madam."
+
+"Well, then, let the minister wait, for my sake; it will flatter me."
+
+"That is impossible, madam."
+
+She assumed a very dry tone:
+
+"But, that is really strange! What! you are not more anxious to be
+agreeable to me?"
+
+"Madam," I replied rather dryly in my turn, "I should be extremely anxious
+to be agreeable to you, but I am not at all anxious to help you win your
+wager."
+
+I threw out that insinuation somewhat at random, resting it upon some
+recollections and some slight indications which you may have been able to
+collect here and there in the course of my narrative. Nevertheless, I had
+hit it exactly. Madame de Palme blushed up to her ear, stammered out two
+or three words which I failed to catch, and left the room, having lost all
+countenance.
+
+This precipitate retreat left me quite confused myself. I cannot admit
+that we should carry out our respect for the weaker sex so far as to lend
+ourselves to every caprice and every enterprise it may please a woman to
+direct against our peace or our dignity; but our right of legitimate
+self-defense in such encounters is circumscribed within narrow and
+delicate limits, which I feared I had over-stepped. It was enough that
+Madame de Palme should be alone in the world, and without any other
+protection than her sex, to make it seem extremely painful to me to have
+thoughtlessly yielded to the irritation, just though it might be, which
+her impertinent insistence had aroused. As I was endeavoring to establish
+between our respective wrongs a balance that might serve to quiet my
+scruples, there was another knock at the library-door. This time, it was
+Madame de Malouet who came in. She was much moved.
+
+"Do tell me what has taken place," she said.
+
+I gave her full and minute particulars of my interview with Madame de
+Palme, and, while expressing much regret at my vivacity, I added that the
+lady's conduct toward me was inexplicable; that she had taken me twice
+within twenty-four hours for the subject of her wagers, and that it was a
+great deal too much attention, on her part, for a man who asked her, as a
+sole favor, not to trouble herself about him any more than he troubled
+himself about her.
+
+"Mon Dieu!" said the kind marquise, "I have no fault to find with you. I
+have been able to appreciate with my own eyes, during the past few days,
+your conduct and her own. But all this is very disagreeable. That child
+has just thrown herself in my arms weeping terribly. She says you have
+treated her like a creature--"
+
+I protested: "I have repeated to you, word for word, madam, what passed
+between us."
+
+"It was not your words, it was your expression, your tone. Monsieur
+George, let me speak frankly with you: are you afraid of falling in love
+with Madame de Palme?"
+
+"Not in the least, madam."
+
+"Are you anxious that she should fall in love with you?"
+
+"Neither, I assure you."
+
+"Well, then, do me a favor; lay aside your pride for one day, and escort
+Madame de Palme to the hunt."
+
+"Madam!"
+
+"The advice may seem singular to you. But rest assured that I do not offer
+it without mature reflection. The repulsion which you manifest for Madame
+de Palme is precisely what attracts toward you that imperious and spoilt
+child. She becomes irritated and obstinate in presence of a resistance to
+which she has not been accustomed. Be meek enough to yield to her fancy.
+Do that for me."
+
+"Seriously madam, you think?--"
+
+"I think," interrupted the old lady laughingly, "with due respect to you,
+that you will lose your principal merit in her eyes as soon as she sees
+you submit to her yoke like all the rest."
+
+"Really, madam, you present things to me under an entirely novel aspect.
+It never occurred to me to attribute Madame de Palme's mischievous pranks
+to a sentiment of which I might have reason to be proud."
+
+"And you have been quite right," she resumed sharply; "there is, thank
+heaven! nothing of the kind as yet; but it might have come and you are too
+fair a man to desire it, with the views which I know you to entertain."
+
+"I trust myself wholly to your direction, madam; I am going too fetch my
+hat and gloves. The question is now, how Madame de Palme will receive my
+somewhat tardy civility."
+
+"She will receive it very well, if you offer it with good grace."
+
+"As to that, madam, I shall offer it with all the good grace I can
+command."
+
+On this assurance, Madame de Malouet held out her hand, which I kissed
+with profound respect but rather slim gratitude.
+
+When I entered the parlor, booted and spurred, Madame de Palme was alone
+there; deeply seated in an arm-chair, buried under her skirts, she was
+putting the finishing touches to her hat. She raised and dropped rapidly
+again her eyes, which were fiery red.
+
+"Madam," I said, "I am sincerely so sorry to have offended you, that I
+venture to ask your pardon for an unpardonable piece of rudeness. I have
+come to hold myself at your disposition; if you decline my escort, you
+will not only be inflicting upon me an amply deserved mortification, but
+you will leave me still more unhappy than I have been guilty, and that is
+saying a great deal." Madame de Palme, taking into consideration the
+emotion of my voice rather more than my diplomatic pathos, lifted her eyes
+upon me again, opened her lips slightly, said nothing, and finally
+advanced a somewhat tremulous hand, which I hastened to receive within my
+own. She availed herself at once of this _point d'appui_ to get on her
+feet, and bounded lightly to the floor. A few minutes later, we were both
+on horseback and leaving the court-yard of the chateau.
+
+We reached the extremity of the avenue without having exchanged a single
+word. I felt deeply, as you may believe, how much this silence, on my part
+at least, was awkward, stiff, and ridiculous; but, as it often happens in
+circumstances which demand most imperatively the resources of eloquence, I
+was stricken with an invincible sterility of mind. I tried in vain to find
+some plausible subject of conversation, and the more annoyed I felt at
+finding none, the less capable I became of doing so.
+
+"Suppose we have a run?" said Madame de Palme suddenly.
+
+"Let us have a run!" I said; and we started at a gallop, to my infinite
+relief.
+
+Nevertheless, it became absolutely necessary to check our speed at the
+entrance of the tortuous path that leads down into the valley of the
+ruins. The care required to guide our horses during that difficult descent
+served for a few minutes longer as a pretext for my silence; but, on
+reaching the level ground of the valley, I saw that I must speak at any
+cost, and I was about to begin with some commonplace remark, when Madame
+de Palme was kind enough to anticipate me:
+
+"They say, sir, that you are very witty?"
+
+"You may judge for yourself, madam," I replied laughingly.
+
+"Rather difficult so far, even if I were able, which you are very far from
+conceding. Oh! you need not deny it! Its perfectly useless, after the
+conversation which chance made me overhear the other night."
+
+"I have made so many mistakes concerning you, madam, you must realize the
+pitiful confusion I feel toward you."
+
+"And in what respect have you been mistaken?"
+
+"In all respects, I believe."
+
+"You are not quite sure? Admit at least that I am a good-natured woman."
+
+"Oh! with all my heart, madam!"
+
+"You said that well. I believe you think it. You are not bad either, I
+believe, and yet you have been cruelly so to me."
+
+"That is true."
+
+"What sort of man are you, then, pray?" resumed the Little Countess in her
+brief and abrupt tone; "I cannot understand it very well. By what right,
+on what ground, do you despise me? Suppose I am really guilty of all the
+intrigues which are attributed to me; what is that to you? Are you a saint
+yourself? a reformer? Have you never gone astray? Are you any more
+virtuous than other men of your age and condition? What right have you to
+despise me? Explain!"
+
+"Were I guilty of the sentiments which you attribute to me, madam, I
+should answer, that never has any one, either in your sex or mine, taken
+his own morality as the rule of his opinion and his judgment upon others;
+we live as we can, and we judge as we should; it is more particularly a
+very frequent inconsistency among men, to frown down unmercifully the very
+weaknesses which they encourage and of which they derive the benefit. For
+my part, I hold severely aloof from a degree of austerity as ridiculous in
+a man as uncharitable in a Christian. And as to that unfortunate
+conversation which a deplorable chance caused you to hear, and in which my
+expressions, as it always happens, went far beyond the measure of my
+thought, it is an offense which I can never obliterate, I know; but I
+shall at least explain frankly. Every one has his own tastes and his own
+way of understanding life in this world; we differ so much, you and I, and
+you conceived for me, at first sight, an extreme antipathy. This
+disposition, which, on one side at least, madam, was to be singularly
+modified on better acquaintance, prompted me to some thoughtless
+manifestations of ill-humor and vivacity of controversy. You have
+doubtless suffered, madam, from the violence of my language, but much
+less, I beg you to believe, than I was to suffer from it myself, after I
+had recognized its profound and irreparable injustice."
+
+This apology, more sincere than lucid, drew forth no answer. We were at
+this moment just coming out of the old abbey church, and we found
+ourselves unexpectedly mingled in the last ranks of the cavalcade. Our
+appearance caused a suppressed murmur to run through the dense crowd of
+hunters. Madame de Palme was at once surrounded by a merry throng that
+seemed to address congratulations to her on the winning of her wager. She
+received them with an indifferent and pouting look, whipped up her horse,
+and made her way to the front before entering the forest.
+
+In the meantime, Monsieur de Malouet had received me with still more
+cordial affability than usual, and without making any direct allusion to
+the accident which had brought me against my will to this cynegetic feast,
+he omitted no attention that could make me forget its trifling annoyance.
+Soon after the hounds started a deer, and I followed them with keen
+relish, being by no means indifferent to that manly pastime, though it is
+not sufficient for my happiness in this world.
+
+The pack was thrown off the scent two or three times, and the deer had the
+best of the day. At about four o'clock we started on our way back to the
+chateau. When we crossed the valley on our return, the twilight was
+already marking out more clearly upon the sky the outline of the trees and
+the crest of the hills; a melancholy shade was falling upon the woods, and
+a whitish fog chilled the grass on the meadows, while a thicker mist
+indicated the sinuous course of the little river. As I remained absorbed
+in the contemplation of the scene which reminded me of better days, I
+discovered suddenly Madame de Palme at my side.
+
+"I believe, after due reflection," she said with her usual brusqueness,
+"that you scorn my ignorance and my lack of wit much more than my supposed
+want of morality. You think less of virtue than you do of intelligence. Is
+that it?"
+
+"Certainly not," I said, laughingly; "that isn't it; that isn't it at all.
+In the first place, the word scorn must be suppressed, having nothing to
+do here; then, I don't much believe in your ignorance, and not at all in
+your lack of wit. Finally, I see nothing above virtue, when I see it at
+all, which is not often. Furthermore, madam, I feel confused at the
+importance you attach to my opinion. The secret of my likes and dislikes
+is quite simple; I have, as I was telling you, the most religious respect
+for virtue, but all mine is limited to a deep-seated sentiment of a few
+essential duties which I practice as best I can; I could not therefore ask
+any more of others. As to the intellect, I confess that I value it
+greatly, and life seems too serious a matter to me to be treated on the
+footing of a perpetual ball, from the cradle to the grave. Moreover, the
+productions of the mind, works of art in particular, are the object of my
+most passionate preoccupations, and it is natural that I should like being
+able to speak of what interests me. That's all."
+
+"Is it absolutely necessary to be forever talking of the ecstasies of the
+soul, of cemeteries, and the Venus of Milo, in order to obtain in your
+opinion the rank of a serious woman and a woman of taste? But, after all,
+you are right; I never think; if I did for one single minute, it seems to
+me that I should go mad, that my head would split. And what were you
+thinking about yourself, in that old convent cell?"
+
+"I thought a great deal about you," I replied gayly, "on the evening of
+that day when you hunted me down so unmercifully, and I abused you most
+heartily."
+
+"I can understand that." She began laughing, looking all around her, and
+added: "What a lovely valley! what a delightful evening! And now, are you
+still disposed to abuse me?"
+
+"Now, I wish from the bottom of my soul I were able to do something for
+your happiness."
+
+"And I for yours," she said, quietly.
+
+I bowed for all answer, and a brief pause followed:
+
+"If I were a man," suddenly said Madame de Palme, "I believe I would like
+to be a hermit."
+
+"Oh! what a pity!"
+
+"That idea does not surprise you?"
+
+"No, madam."
+
+"Nothing from me would surprise you, I suppose. You believe me capable of
+anything--of anything, perhaps even of being fond of you?"
+
+"Why not? Greater wonders have been seen! Am I not fond of you myself at
+the present moment? That's a fine example to follow!"
+
+"You must give me time to think about it?"
+
+"Not long!"
+
+"As long as it may be necessary. We are friends in the meantime?"
+
+"If we are friends, there is nothing further to expect," I said, holding
+out my hand frankly to the Little Countess. I felt that she was pressing
+it lightly, and the conversation ended there. We had reached the top of
+the hills; it was now quite dark, and we galloped all the rest of the way
+to the chateau.
+
+As I was coming down from my room for dinner, I met Madame de Malouet in
+the vestibule.
+
+"Well!" she said, laughingly, "did you conform to the prescription?"
+
+"Rigidly, madam."
+
+"You showed yourself subjugated?
+
+"I did, madam."
+
+"Excellent! She is satisfied now, and so are you."
+
+"Amen!" I said.
+
+The evening passed off without further incident.
+
+I took pleasure in doing for Madame de Palme some trifling services which
+she was no longer asking. She left the dance two or three times to come
+and address me some good-natured jests that passed through her brain, and
+when I withdrew, she followed me to the door with a smiling and cordial
+look.
+
+I ask you now, friend Paul, to sift the precise meaning and the moral of
+this tale. You may perhaps judge, and I hope you will, that a chimerical
+imagination can alone magnify into an event this vulgar episode of society
+life; but if you see in the facts I have just told you the least germ of
+danger, the slightest element of a serious complication, tell me so; I'll
+break the engagements that were to detain me here some ten or twelve days
+longer, and I'll leave at once.
+
+I do not love Madame de Palme; I cannot and will not love her. My opinion
+of her has evidently changed greatly; I look upon her henceforth as a good
+little woman. Her head is light and will always be so; her behavior is
+better than she gets credit for, though perhaps not as good as she
+represents it herself; finally, her heart has both weight and value. I
+feel some friendship for her, an affection that has something fraternal in
+it; but between her and me, nothing further is at all likely; the expanse
+of the heavens divides us. The idea of being her husband makes me burst
+out laughing, and though a sentiment which you will readily appreciate,
+the thought of being her lover inspires me with horror. As to her, I
+believe she may feel the shadow of a caprice, but not even the dawn of a
+passion. Here I am now upon her etagere with the rest of the figure-heads,
+and I think, as does Madame de Malouet, that may be enough to satisfy her.
+However, what do you think of it yourself?
+
+
+[B] The German.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A MISDIRECTED PASSION.
+
+_7th October._
+
+
+Dear Paul, I take part in your grief from the bottom of my heart. Allow
+me, however, to assure you, from the very details of your own letter that
+your dear mother's illness offers no alarming symptoms whatever. It is
+one of those painful but harmless crises which the approach of winter
+brings back upon her almost invariably every year, as you know. Patience
+therefore, and courage, I beseech you.
+
+It requires, my friend, the formal expression of your wishes to induce me
+to venture upon mingling my petty troubles with your grave solicitude. As
+you anticipated in your wisdom and in your kind friendship, it was
+consolation and not advice that I stood in need of when I received your
+letter. My heart is not at peace, and, what is worse for me, neither is my
+conscience; and yet, I think I have done my duty. Have I understood it
+right or not? Judge for yourself.
+
+I take up my situation toward Madame de Palme where I had left it in my
+last letter. The day after our mutual explanation, I took every care to
+maintain our relations upon the footing of good-fellowship on which they
+seemed established, and which constituted, in my idea, the only sort of
+intelligence desirable and even possible between us. It seemed to me, on
+that day, that she manifested the same vivacity and the same spirit as
+usual; yet I fancied that her voice and her look, when she addressed me,
+assumed a meek gravity which is not part of her usual disposition; but on
+the following days, though I had not deviated from the line of conduct I
+had marked out for myself, it became impossible for me not to notice that
+Madame de Palme had lost something of her gayety, and that a vague
+preoccupation clouded the serenity of her brow. I could see her
+dancing-partners surprised at her frequent absence of mind; she still
+followed the whirl, but she no longer led it. Under pretext of fatigue,
+she would leave suddenly and abruptly her partner's arm, in the midst of a
+waltz, to go and sit in some corner with a pensive and even a pouting
+look. If there happened to be a vacant seat next to mine, she threw
+herself into it, and began from behind her fan some whimsical and
+disjointed conversation like the following:
+
+"If I cannot be a hermit, I am going to become a nun. What would you say,
+if you saw me enter a convent to-morrow?"
+
+"I should say that you would leave it the day after to-morrow."
+
+"You have no confidence in my resolutions?"
+
+"When they are unwise, no."
+
+"I can only form unwise ones, according to you?"
+
+"According to me, you waltz admirably. When a person waltzes as you do,
+it's an art, almost a virtue."
+
+"Is it customary to flatter one's friends?"
+
+"I am not flattering you. I never speak a single word to you that I have
+not carefully weighed, and that is not the most earnest expression of my
+thought. I am a serious man, madam."
+
+"It does not seem so when you are with me. I verily believe, however, you
+have undertaken to make me hate laughter as much as I used to like it."
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"How do you think I look to-night?"
+
+"Dazzling!"
+
+"That's too much! I know that I am not handsome."
+
+"I don't say you are handsome, but you are extremely graceful."
+
+"That's better; and it must be true, for I feel it. The Malabar Widow is
+really handsome."
+
+"Yes, I should like to see her at the funeral pile."
+
+"To jump into it with her?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Do you expect to leave soon?"
+
+"Next week, I believe."
+
+"Will you come and see me in Paris?"
+
+"If you will allow me."
+
+"No, I don't allow you."
+
+"And why not? great heavens!"
+
+"In the first place, I don't think I am going back to Paris myself."
+
+"That's a good reason. And where do you expect to go, madam?"
+
+"I don't know. Let us make a pedestrian tour somewhere, you and I
+together; will you?"
+
+"I should like nothing better. When shall we start?"
+
+_Et cetera_. I shall not tire you, my friend, with the particulars of some
+dozen similar conversations, every occasion of which for four days Madame
+de Palme evidently sought. There was on her part a constantly growing
+effort to leave aside all commonplace topics, and impart to our interviews
+a character of greater intimacy; there was on mine an equal amount of
+obstinacy in confining them within the strictest limits of social jargon,
+and remaining resolutely on the ground of worldly futility.
+
+I now come to the scene that was to bring this painful struggle to a
+close, and unfortunately prove all its vanity to me.
+
+Monsieur and Madame de Malouet were giving last night a grand farewell
+ball to their daughter, whose husband has been recalled to his post of
+duty, and the whole neighborhood within a circuit of ten leagues had been
+summoned to the feast. Toward ten o'clock an immense crowd was overflowing
+the vast ground floor of the chateau, in which the elegant dresses, the
+lights, and the flowers were mingled in dazzling confusion. As I was
+trying to make my way into the main drawing-room, I found myself face to
+face with Madame de Malouet, who drew me slightly aside.
+
+"Well! my dear sir," she said, "I do not like the looks of things."
+
+"Mon Dieu! what is there new?"
+
+"I don't know exactly, but be on your guard. Ah! mon Dieu! I have
+remarkable confidence in you, sir; you will not take advantage of her,
+will you?"
+
+Her voice was tender and her eyes moist.
+
+"You may rely upon me, madam; but I sincerely wish I had gone a week ago."
+
+"Eh! mon Dieu! who could have foreseen such a thing? Hush! there she
+comes!"
+
+I turned round and saw Madame de Palme coming out of the parlor; before
+her the throng opened with that timorous eagerness and that species of
+terror which the supreme elegance of one of society's queens generally
+inspires in our sex. For the first time, Madame de Palme appeared handsome
+to me; the expression of her countenance was wholly novel to me, and a
+weird animation gleamed in her eyes and transfigured her features.
+
+"Am I to your taste?" she said.
+
+I manifested by I know not what movement an assent, which was moreover but
+too evident to the keen eye of a woman.
+
+"I was looking for you," she added, "to show you the conservatory; it's
+fairy-like. Come!"
+
+She took my arm, and we started in the direction of the conservatory door
+which opened at the other end of the parlor, extending as far as the park,
+through the vines and the perfumes of hundreds of exotic plants, all the
+splendors of the feast. While we were admiring the effect of the
+girandoles that sparkled amid the luxuriant tropical flora like the bright
+constellations of another hemisphere, several gentlemen came to claim
+Madame de Palme's hand for a waltz; she refused them all, though I was
+sufficiently disinterested to join my entreaties to theirs.
+
+"Our respective roles seem to me somewhat inverted," she said: "it is I
+who am detaining you, and you wish to get rid of me!"
+
+"Heaven preserve me from such an idea! but I am afraid lest you may
+deprive yourself, out of kindness to me, of a pleasure you are so fond
+of."
+
+"No! I know very well that I seek you and you avoid me. It is rather
+absurd in the eyes of the world, but I care nothing for that. For this one
+evening at least, I mean to amuse myself as I like. I forbid you to
+disturb my happiness. I am really very happy. I have everything I
+require--beautiful flowers, excellent music around me, and a friend at my
+side. Only--and that's a dark spot on my blue sky--I am much more certain
+of the music and the flowers than I am of the friend."
+
+"You are entirely wrong."
+
+"Explain your conduct, then, once for all. Why will you never talk
+seriously with me? Why do you obstinately refuse to tell me one single
+word that savors of confidence, of intimacy--of friendship, in a word?"
+
+"Please reflect for a minute, madam; where would that lead us to?"
+
+"What is that to you? That would lead us where it would. It is singular
+that you should be more anxious about it than I am."
+
+"Come, what would you think of me if I ventured to speak of love to you?"
+
+"I don't ask you to make love to me!" she said, sharply.
+
+"I know it, madam; and yet it is the inevitable turn my language would
+take if it ceased for a moment to be frivolous and commonplace. Now, admit
+that there is one man in the world who could not speak of love to you
+without incurring your contempt, and that I am that very man. I cannot say
+that I am very much pleased with having placed myself in such a position;
+but, after all, it is so, and I cannot forget it."
+
+"That is showing a great deal of judgment."
+
+"That is showing a great deal of courage."
+
+She shook her head with an air of doubt, and resumed after a moment of
+silence:
+
+"Do you know that you have just spoken to me as if I were what is called a
+'fast' woman?"
+
+"Oh! madam!"
+
+"Of course, you think that I can never attribute to a man who pays his
+addresses to me any but improper intentions. If it were so, I would
+deserve being called a 'fast' woman, and I do not. I know you don't
+believe it, but it is the pure truth, as there is a God--yes, as there is
+a God! God knows me, and I pray to Him much oftener than is thought. He
+has kept me from doing harm thus far, and I hope He will keep me from it
+forever; but it is a thing of which He has not the sole control--" She
+stopped for a moment, and then added in a firm tone:
+
+"You can do much toward it."
+
+"I, madam?"
+
+"I have allowed you to take, I know not how--I really do not know how!--a
+great influence over my destiny. Will you be willing to use it? That is
+the question."
+
+"And in what capacity could I do so, pray, madam?" I said slowly and in a
+tone of cold reserve.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, in a hoarse and energetic accent, "how can you ask me
+that? It is too hard! you humiliate me too much!"
+
+She left my arm and returned abruptly into the parlor. I remained for some
+time uncertain as to what course to pursue. I thought first of following
+Madame de Palme and explaining to her that she was mistaken--which was
+true--as to the interrogative answer which had offended her. She had
+applied that answer to some thought that pervaded her mind, which I did
+not understand, or at least which her words had revealed to me much less
+clearly than she had imagined; but after thinking over it, I shrank from
+the new and formidable explanation which such a course must inevitably
+bring about.
+
+I left the conservatory, and walked into the garden to escape the hum of
+the ball-room, which importuned my ears. The night was cold but beautiful.
+With my heart still filled with the bitterness of this scene, I wandered
+instinctively beyond the luminous zone projected around the chateau
+through the apertures of the resplendent windows. I walked rapidly toward
+a double row of spruce trees, crossed by a rustic bridge thrown over a
+small brook which divided the garden from the park, and where the shade
+was more dense. I had just reached this somber spot, when a hand was laid
+on my arm and stopped me; at the same time a short and troubled voice,
+which I could not mistake, said:
+
+"I must speak to you!"
+
+"Madam! for mercy's sake! in the name of Heaven! what are you doing? you
+will ruin your reputation! Do return to the house! Come, come, let me
+escort you back!"
+
+I attempted to seize her arm, but she eluded my grasp.
+
+"I want to speak to you--I have decided to do so. Oh, mon Dieu! how
+awkwardly I do go about it, don't I? You must believe me more than ever a
+miserable creature! and yet there is nothing in it, not a thing; it's the
+truth, the pure truth, mon ami! You are the first man for whose sake I
+have forgotten--all that I am now forgetting! Yes, the first! Never has
+any other man heard from my lips a single word of tenderness, never! And
+you do not believe!"
+
+I took both her hands in mine:
+
+"I believe you, I swear it--I swear that I esteem you--that I respect you
+as a beloved daughter--but listen to me; pray, listen! do not brave openly
+this pitiless world--return to the ball-room--I'll join you there soon, I
+promise you--but in the name of Heaven, do not compromise your fair fame!"
+
+The poor child melted into tears, and I felt that she was staggering; I
+supported her and helped her to a seat on a bench close by. I remained
+standing before her, holding one of her hands. The darkness was intense
+around us; I gazed into space, and I listened, in a state of vague stupor,
+to the clear and regular murmur of the brook flowing under the spruce
+trees, to the convulsive sobs that swelled the unhappy woman's bosom, and
+to the odious sounds of revelry which the orchestra sent us at intervals
+from afar. It was one of those moments that can never be forgotten.
+
+She succeeded in mastering her grief at last, and seemed, after this
+explosion, to recover all her firmness.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, rising and withdrawing her hand, "have no fears
+about my reputation. The world is accustomed to my follies. However, I
+have taken care that the present one shall not be noticed. Besides, I
+would not care if it was. You are the only man whose esteem I have ever
+desired, and, unfortunately the only one also whose contempt I have
+incurred--that is most cruel!--and yet something must tell you that I do
+not deserve it."
+
+"Madam!"
+
+"Listen to me! and may God convince you. This is a solemn hour in my
+existence. Since the first glance you ever cast upon me, sir--on that day
+when I went up to you while you were sketching the old church--since that
+first glance, I belonged to you. I have never loved, I shall never love
+any man but you. Will you take me for your wife? I am worthy of it--I
+swear it to you in the presence of that Heaven which is looking down upon
+us!"
+
+"Dear madam--dear child--your kindness, your affection move me to the
+depths of my soul; in mercy, be more calm; let me retain a gleam of
+reason!"
+
+"Ah! if your heart speaks, listen to it, sir! It is not with reason that I
+can be judged! Alas! I feel it! you still doubt me, you still doubt my
+past life. Oh, Heavens! that opinion of the world which I have always
+scorned, how it is killing me now!"
+
+"No, madam, you are mistaken; but what could I offer you in exchange for
+all you wish to sacrifice for my sake--for the habits, the tastes, the
+pleasures of your whole life?"
+
+"But that life inspires me with horror! You think that I would regret it?
+You think that some day I may again become the woman I have been, the
+madcap you have known?--you think so! And how can I help your believing
+it? And yet I know very well that I would never cause you that sorrow, nor
+any other--never! I have discovered in your eyes a new world I did not
+know--a more dignified, more lofty world, of which I had never conceived
+the idea--and outside of which I can no longer live. Ah! you must
+certainly feel that I am telling you the truth!"
+
+"Yes, madam, you are telling me the truth--the truth of the hour--of a
+moment of fever and excitement; but this new world, which appears dimly to
+you now--this ideal world in which you desire to seek an eternal refuge
+against mere transient evils--would never keep all it seems to promise.
+Disappointment, regret, misery await you within it--and do not await you
+alone. I know not if there be a man gifted with a sufficiently noble mind,
+with a sufficiently lofty soul to make you love the new existence of which
+you are dreaming to preserve in the reality the almost divine character
+which your imagination imparts to it; but I do know that such a task,
+sweet as it might be, is beyond my strength; I would be insane, I would be
+a wretch, if I were to accept it."
+
+"Is that your final decision? Cannot reflection alter it in any way?"
+
+"In no way."
+
+"Farewell then, sir--ah! unhappy woman that I am!--farewell!"
+
+She grasped my hand, which she wrung convulsively, and then left me.
+
+After she had disappeared, I sat down on the bench, upon which she had
+been seated. There, my dear Paul, my whole strength gave way. I hid my
+head in my hands and I wept like a child. Thank God, she did not return!
+
+I had at last to gather all my courage in order to appear once more and
+for a moment in the ball-room. There was nothing to indicate that my
+absence had been noticed, or unfavorably commented upon. Madame de Palme
+was dancing and displaying a degree of gayety amounting almost to
+delirium. Soon after, supper was announced, and I availed myself of the
+general commotion attending that incident, to retire to my room.
+
+Early this morning, I requested a private interview with Madame de
+Malouet. It appeared to me that my entire confidence was due to her. She
+heard me with profound sadness, but without manifesting any surprise.
+
+"I had guessed," she told me, "something of the kind--I did not sleep all
+night. I believe that you have done your duty as a wise man and as an
+honest man. Yes, you have. Still, it seems very hard. Society life is
+detestable in this, that it creates fictitious characters and passions,
+unexpected situations, subtle shades, which complicate strangely the
+practice of duty, and obscure the straight path which ought to be always
+simple and easy to discover. And now you wish to leave, I suppose?"
+
+"Certainly, madam."
+
+"Very well; but you had better stay two or three days longer. You will
+thus remove from your departure the semblance of flight which, after what
+may have been observed, might prove somewhat ridiculous and perhaps
+damaging. It is a sacrifice I ask of you. To-day, we are all to dine at
+Madame de Breuilly's; I'll undertake to excuse you. In this manner, this
+day at least will rest lightly upon you. To-morrow, we'll act for the
+best. Day after to-morrow, you can leave."
+
+I accepted these terms. I shall soon see you again, then, Paul. But in the
+meantime, how lonely and forsaken I feel! How I long to grasp your firm
+and loyal hand; to hear your voice tell me: "You have done right!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+"I AM A DISGRACED WOMAN."
+
+ROZEL, _October 10_.
+
+
+Here I am back in my cell, my friend. Why did I ever leave it? Never has
+a man felt a more troubled heart beat between these cold walls, than
+my own wretched heart! Ah! I will not curse our poor human reason, our
+philosophy; are they not, after all, the noblest and best conquests of our
+nature? But, great Heaven! how little they amount to! What unreliable
+guides, and what feeble supports! Listen to a sad story: Yesterday,
+thanks to Madame de Malouet, I remained alone at the chateau the
+whole day and the whole evening. I was therefore as much at peace as
+it was possible for me to be. Toward midnight I heard the carriages
+returning, and soon after all noise ceased. It was, I think, about three
+o'clock in the morning when I was aroused from the species of torpor that
+has stood me in lieu of sleep for the past few nights, by the sound quite
+close to me, of a door cautiously opened or closed in the yard. I know
+not by what strange and sudden connection of ideas so simple an
+incident attracted my attention and disturbed my mind. I left abruptly
+the arm-chair in which I had been slumbering, and I went up to a
+window. I distinctly saw a man moving off with discreet steps in the
+direction of the avenue. I had no difficulty in satisfying myself that the
+door through which he had just passed, was that which gives access to
+the wing of the chateau contiguous to the library. This part of the house
+contains several rooms devoted to transient guests; I knew that all were
+vacant at this moment, unless Madame de Palme, as it often happened,
+had occupied for the night the lodging that was always set apart for her
+in that wing.
+
+You may guess what strange thought floated across my brain. I repelled it
+at first as sheer madness; but remembering, within the field of my
+somewhat extended experience, certain facts that lent probability to that
+thought, I entertained it with a sort of cynical irony, and I was almost
+ready to admit it, as an odious but decisive denouement. The early dawn
+found me struggling still in this mental anguish, calling up my
+recollections, examining in a childish way the most minute circumstances
+that might tend to confirm or to banish my suspicions. Excess of fatigue,
+brought on at last two hours of prostration, from which I emerged with a
+better command of my reason. It was impossible for me to doubt the reality
+of the apparition that had struck my eyes during the night; but it
+appeared to me that I had put upon it a hasty and senseless construction,
+and that my ailing spirit had attributed to it the least likely
+explanation.
+
+I went down at half past ten o'clock as usual. Madame de Palme was in the
+parlor; she must therefore have spent the night at the chateau.
+Nevertheless, a mere glance at her was enough to remove from my mind the
+very shadow of suspicion. She was talking quietly in the center of a
+group. She greeted me with her usual gentle smile. I felt relieved of an
+immense weight. I was escaping a torment of such a painful and bitter
+nature, that the positive impression of my previous grief, freed from the
+disgraceful complications with which I had for a moment thought it
+aggravated, appeared almost pleasant. Never had my heart rendered to this
+woman a more tender and more sincere homage. I was grateful to her from
+the bottom of my soul, for having restored purity to my wound and to my
+memory.
+
+The afternoon was to be devoted to a horseback ride along the sea-shore.
+In the effusion of heart that succeeded the anxieties of the night, I
+yielded quite readily to the entreaties of Monsieur de Malouet, who,
+arguing on my approaching departure, was urging me to accompany him on
+this excursion. It was about two o'clock when our cavalcade, recruited as
+usual by a few young men of the neighborhood, marched out of the chateau's
+gate. We had been traveling merrily for a few minutes, and I was not the
+least merry of the band, when Madame de Palme suddenly came to take her
+place by my side.
+
+"I am about to be guilty of a base deed," she said; "and yet, I had so
+strongly resolved--but I am choking!"
+
+I looked at her; the haggard expression of her eyes and of her features
+suddenly struck me with terror.
+
+"Well!" she went on, in a voice of which I shall never forget the tone,
+"you have willed it so! I am a disgraced woman!"
+
+She urged at once her horse forward, leaving me crushed by this blow, the
+more terrible that I had wholly ceased to fear it, and that it struck me
+with a keen cruelty I had not even foreseen. There had indeed been in the
+unhappy woman's voice no trace whatever of insolent swaggering; it was the
+very voice of despair, a cry of heart-rending grief and timid reproach;
+everything that might add in my soul to the torture of a stained and
+shattered love, the disorder of a profound pity and an uneasy conscience.
+
+When I had found strength enough to look around me I was surprised at my
+own blindness. Among Madame de Palme's most assiduous courtiers, figures
+one Monsieur de Mauterne, whose antipathy for me, though confined within
+the limits of good-breeding, often seemed to me to assume an almost
+hostile tinge. Monsieur de Mauterne is a man of my age, tall, blonde, with
+a figure more robust than elegant, and features regularly handsome, but
+stiff and without expression. He possesses social accomplishments, much
+audacity, and no wit. His bearing and his conduct during the course of
+that fatal ride would have informed me from the start, if I had only
+thought of observing them, that he believed he had the right of fearing
+henceforth no rivalry near Madame de Palme. He assumed frankly the leading
+part in all the scenes in which she participated; he overwhelmed her with
+attentions, affected to speak to her in a whisper, and neglected nothing,
+in a word, to initiate the public into the secret of his success. In that
+respect, he lost his trouble; the world, after exhausting its wickedness
+upon imaginary errors, seems thus far to refuse the evidence which vainly
+stares it in the face.
+
+As to myself, my friend, it would be difficult to depict the chaos of
+emotions and thoughts that tossed and tumbled in my brain. The feeling
+that swayed me perhaps with the greatest violence, was that of hatred
+against that man--a feeling of implacable hatred, of eternal hatred. I
+was, however, more shocked and more distressed than surprised at the
+choice that had been made of him; he had happened in the way, and he had
+been taken up with a sort of indifference and of scorn, as one picks up
+any weapon to commit suicide with, when once the suicide has been resolved
+upon. As to my feelings toward her, you may guess them; not a shadow of
+anger, frightful sadness, tender compassion, vague remorse, and above all,
+passionate, furious regret. I realized at last how much I had loved her! I
+could scarcely understand the motives which, two days before, had appeared
+to me so powerful, so imperative, and which had seemed to raise between
+her and me an insurmountable barrier. All these obstacles of the past
+disappeared before the abyss of the present which seemed the only real
+one, the only one that was impossible to overcome, the only one that ever
+existed. Strange fact! I could see clearly, as clearly as I saw the sun,
+that the impossible, the irreparable was there, and I could not accept it,
+I could not submit to it. I could see that woman lost to me as irrevocably
+as if the grave had closed over her coffin, and I could not give her up!
+My mind wandered through insane projects and resolutions; I thought of
+picking a quarrel with Monsieur de Mauterne, and compelling him to fight
+on the spot. I felt that I would have crushed him! Then I thought of
+fleeing with her, of marrying her, of taking her with her shame, after
+having refused her pure! Yes, this madness tempted me! To remove it from
+my thoughts, I had to repeat a hundred times to myself that mutual disgust
+and dispair were the only fruits that could ever be expected of that union
+of a dishonored hand with a bloody hand. Ah; Paul, how much I did suffer!
+
+Madame de Palme manifested during the entire course of our ride a feverish
+excitement which betrayed itself more particularly in reckless feats of
+horsemanship. I heard at intervals her loud bursts of merriment, that
+sounded to my ears like heart-rending wails. Once again she spoke to me as
+she was going by.
+
+"I inspire you with horror, don't I?" she said.
+
+I shook my head and dropped my eyes without replying.
+
+We returned to the chateau at about four o'clock. I was making my way to
+my room when a confused tumult of voices, shrieks, and hurried steps in
+the vestibule chilled my heart. I went down again in all haste, and I was
+informed that Madame de Palme had just been taken with a nervous fit. She
+had been carried into the parlor. I recognized through the door the grave
+and gentle voice of Madame de Malouet, to which was mingled I know not
+what moan, like that of a sick child. I ran away. I was resolved to leave
+this fatal spot without further delay. Nothing could have induced me to
+remain a moment longer. Your letter, which had been handed to me on our
+return, served me as a likely pretext for my sudden departure. The
+friendship that binds us is well-known here. I said you needed me within
+twenty-four hours. I had taken care, at all hazards, to send three days
+before to the nearest town for a carriage and horses. In a few minutes my
+preparations were made; I gave orders to the driver to start ahead and
+wait for me at the extremity of the avenue while I was taking my leave.
+Monsieur de Malouet seemed to have no suspicion of the truth; the worthy
+old gentleman appeared quite moved as he received my thanks, and really
+manifested for me a singular affection out of all proportion to the brief
+duration of our acquaintance. I had to be scarcely less thankful to M. de
+Breuilly. I regret now the caricature I once gave you as the portrait of
+that noble heart.
+
+Madame de Malouet insisted upon accompanying me down the avenue a few
+steps farther than her husband. I felt her arm trembling under mine while
+she was intrusting me with a few trifling errands for Paris. At the moment
+of parting, and as I was pressing her hand with effusion, she detained me
+gently:
+
+"Well! sir," she said in a feeble voice, "God did not bless our wisdom."
+
+"Our hearts are open to Him, madam; He must have read our sincerity; He
+sees how much I am suffering, and I humbly hope He may forgive me!"
+
+"Do not doubt it--do not doubt it," she replied in a broken voice; "but
+she? she!--ah! poor child!"
+
+"Have pity on her, madam. Do not forsake her. Farewell!"
+
+I left her hastily, and I started, but instead of going direct to the
+town, I had myself driven along the abbey road as far as the top of the
+hills; I requested the coachman to go alone to the town, and to return for
+me to-morrow morning early at the same place. I cannot explain to you, my
+dear friend, the singular and irresistible fancy that I took to spend one
+last night in that solitude where I spent such quick and happy days, and
+so recently, mon Dieu!
+
+Here I am, then, back in my cell. How cold, dark, and gloomy it seems! The
+sky also has gone into mourning. Since my arrival in this neighborhood,
+and in spite of the season, I had seen none but summer days and nights.
+To-night a cold autumnal storm has burst over the valley; the wind howls
+among the ruins, blowing off fragments that fall heavily upon the ground.
+A driving rain is pattering against my window-panes. It seems to me as if
+it were raining tears!
+
+Tears! my heart is overflowing with them--and not a single one will rise
+to my eyes. And yet, I have prayed, I have long prayed to God--not, my
+friend to that untangible God whom we pursue in vain beyond the stars and
+the worlds, but the only true God, truly kind and helpful to suffering
+humanity, the God of my childhood, the God of that poor woman!
+
+Ah! I wish to think now only of my approaching meeting with you, the day
+after to-morrow, dear friend, and perhaps before this letter--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Come, Paul! If you can leave your mother, come, I beseech you, come to
+uphold me. God's hand is upon me!
+
+I was writing that interrupted line when, in the midst of the confused
+noises of the tempest, I fancied I heard the sound of a voice, of a human
+groan. I rushed to my window; I leaned outside to pierce the darkness,
+and I discovered lying upon the drenched soil a vague form, something like
+a white bundle. At the same time, a more distinct moan rose up to me. A
+gleam of the terrible truth flashed through my brain like a keen blade. I
+groped through the darkness as far as the door of the mill; near the
+threshold, stood a horse bearing a side-saddle. I ran madly around to the
+other side of the ruins, and within the inclosure situated beneath the
+window of my cell, and which still retains some traces of the former
+cemetery of the monks, I found the unhappy creature. She was there,
+sitting on an old tomb-stone, as if overwhelmed, shivering in all her
+limbs under the chilling torrent of rain which a pitiless sky was pouring
+without interruption over her light party-dress. I seized her two hands,
+trying to raise her up.
+
+"Ah! unhappy child! what have you done!"
+
+"Yes, most unhappy!" she murmured, in a voice as faint as a breath.
+
+"But you are killing yourself."
+
+"So much the better--so much the better!"
+
+"You cannot remain there! Come!--"
+
+I saw that she was unable to stand up alone.
+
+"Ah! _Dieu bon! Dieu puissant!_ what shall I do? What's to become of you
+now? What do you wish with me?"
+
+She made no reply. She was trembling, and her teeth were chattering. I
+lifted her up in my arms and I carried her in. The mind works fast in such
+moments. No conceivable means of removing her from this valley where
+carriages cannot penetrate; nothing was henceforth possible to save her
+honor; I must only think of her life. I scaled rapidly the steps leading
+to my cell, and I seated her on a chair in front of the chimney in which I
+hastily kindled a fire; then I woke up my hosts. I gave to the miller's
+wife a vague and confused explanation. I know not how much of it she
+understood; but she is a woman, she took pity and went on bestowing upon
+Madame de Palme such care as was in her power. Her husband started at once
+on horseback, carrying to Madame de Malouet the following note from me:
+
+"MADAM:--She is here, dying. In the name of the God of mercy, I beseech
+you, I implore you--come to console, come to bless her who can no
+longer expect words of kindness and forgiveness from any one but you
+in this world.
+
+"Pray tell Madame de Pontbrian whatever you think proper."
+
+She was calling me. I returned to her side. I found her still seated
+before the fire. She had refused to be put into the bed that had been
+prepared for her. When she saw me--singular womanly preoccupation!--her
+first thought was for the coarse peasant's dress she had just exchanged
+for her own water-soaked and mud-stained garments. She laughed as she
+called my attention to it; but her laughter soon turned into convulsions
+which I had much difficulty in quieting.
+
+I had placed myself close to her; she had a consuming fever, her eyes
+glistened. I begged her to consent to take the absolute rest which was
+alone suitable to her condition.
+
+"What is the use?" she replied. "I am not ill. It is not the fever that is
+killing me, nor the cold, it is the thought that is burning me
+there;"--she touched her forehead--"it is shame--it is your scorn and your
+hatred; now, alas! but too well deserved!"
+
+My heart overflowed then, Paul; I told her everything; my passion, my
+regrets, my remorse! I covered with kisses her trembling hands, her cold
+forehead, her damp hair. I poured into her poor shattered soul all the
+tenderness, all the pity, all the adoration a man's soul can contain! She
+knew now that I loved her; she could not doubt it!
+
+She listened to me with rapture. "Now," she said, "now, I am no longer to
+be pitied. I have never been so happy in all my life. I did not deserve
+it--I have nothing further to wish--nothing further to hope--I shall not
+regret anything."
+
+She fell into a slumber. Her parted lips are smiling a pure and placid
+smile; but she is taken at intervals with terrible spasms, and her
+features are becoming terribly altered. I am watching her while writing
+these lines.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Madame de Malouet has just arrived with her husband. I had judged her
+rightly! Her voice and her words were those of a mother. She had taken
+care to bring her physician. The patient is lying in a comfortable bed,
+surrounded by loving and attentive friends. I feel more easy, although she
+has just awakened with a fearful delirium.
+
+Madame de Pontbrian has positively refused to come to her niece. I had
+judged her rightly too, the excellent Christian!
+
+I have deemed it my duty not to set foot again in the cell which Madame
+de Malouet no longer leaves. The expression of M. de Malouet's countenance
+terrifies me, and yet he assures me that the physician has not yet
+pronounced.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The doctor has just come out; I have spoken to him.
+
+"It is pneumonia," he told me, "complicated with brain fever."
+
+"It is very serious, is it not?"
+
+"Very serious."
+
+"But is there any immediate danger?"
+
+"I'll tell you that to-night. Her condition is so acute that it cannot
+last long. Either the crisis must abate or nature must yield."
+
+He looked up to heaven and went off.
+
+I know not what is going on within me, my friend--all these blows are
+striking me in such rapid succession. It is the lightning!
+
+FIVE O'CLOCK P.M.
+
+The old priest whom I have often met at the chateau has been sent for in
+haste. He is a friend of Madame de Malouet, a simple old man, full of
+charity; I dared not question him. I know not what is going on. I fear to
+hear, and yet my ear catches eagerly the least noises, the most
+insignificant sounds; a closing door, a rapid step on the stairs strikes
+me dumb with terror. And yet--so quick! it seems impossible!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Paul, my friend--my brother! where are you?--all is over!
+
+An hour ago I saw the doctor and the priest coming down. Monsieur de
+Malouet was following them.
+
+"Go up," he told me. "Come, courage, sir. Be a man!" I walked into the
+cell; Madame de Malouet had remained alone there; she was kneeling by the
+bedside and beckoned me to approach. I gazed upon her who was about to
+cease suffering. A few hours had been enough to stamp upon that lovely
+face all the ravages of death; but life and thought still lingered in her
+eyes; she recognized me at once.
+
+"Monsieur," she began; then, after a pause: "George, I have loved you
+much. Forgive my having embittered your life with the memory of this
+sad incident!"
+
+I fell on my knees; I tried to speak, I could not; my tears flowed hot and
+fast upon her hand already cold and inert as a piece of marble.
+
+"And you, too, madam," she added; "forgive me the trouble I have given
+you--the grief I am causing you now."
+
+"My child!" said the old lady, "I bless you from the bottom of my heart."
+
+Then there was a pause, in the midst of which I suddenly heard a deep and
+broken breath--ah! that supreme breath, that last sob of a deadly sorrow;
+God also has heard it, has received it!
+
+He has heard it--He hears also my ardent, my weeping prayer. I must
+believe that He does, my friend. Yes, that I may not yield at this moment
+to some temptation of despair, I must firmly believe in a God who loves
+us, who looks with compassionate eyes upon the anguish of our feeble
+hearts--who will deign some day to tie again with His paternal hand the
+knots broken by cruel death!--ah! in presence of the lifeless remains of a
+beloved being, what heart so withered, what brain so blighted by doubt, as
+not to repel forever the odious thought that these sacred words: God,
+Justice, Love, Immortality--are but vain syllables devoid of meaning!
+
+Farewell, Paul. You know what there still remains for me to do. If you can
+come, I expect you; if not, my friend, expect me. Farewell!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A CHALLENGE AND DUEL.
+
+THE MARQUIS DE MALOUET TO PAUL B----, PARIS.
+
+CHATEAU DE MALOUET. _October 20_.
+
+
+Monsieur:--It has become my imperative though painful duty to relate to
+you the facts which have brought about the crowning disaster of which you
+have already been advised, by more rapid means and with such precautions
+as we were able to take; a disaster that completely overwhelms our souls
+already so cruelly tried. As you are aware, sir, a few weeks, a few days
+had been sufficient to enable Madame de Malouet and myself to know and
+appreciate your friend, to conceive for him an eternal affection soon,
+alas! to be changed into eternal regret. You are also aware, I know, of
+all the sad circumstances that preceded and led to this sad catastrophe.
+
+Monsieur George's conduct during the melancholy days that followed the
+death of Madame de Palme, the depth of feeling as well as the elevation of
+soul which he constantly manifested had completely won our hearts over to
+him. I desired to send him back to you at once, sir; I wished to get him
+away from this sorrowful spot, I wished to take him to you myself, since a
+painful preoccupation detained you in Paris; but he had imposed upon
+himself the duty of not forsaking so soon what was left of the unhappy
+woman.
+
+We had removed him to our house; we were surrounding him with attentions.
+He never left the chateau, except to go each day on a pious pilgrimage
+within a few steps. Still, his health was perceptibly failing. Day before
+yesterday morning, Madame de Malouet pressed him to join Monsieur de
+Breuilly and myself in a horseback ride. He consented, though somewhat
+reluctantly. We started. On the way, he strove manfully to respond to the
+efforts we were making to draw him into conversation and rouse him from
+his prostration. I saw him smile for the first time in many hours, and I
+began to hope that time, the strength of his soul, the attentions of
+friendship, might restore some calm to his memory, when, at a turn in the
+road, a deplorable chance brought us face to face with Monsieur de
+Mauterne.
+
+This gentleman was on horseback; two friends and two ladies made up his
+party. We were following the same direction, but his gait was much more
+rapid than ours; he passed us, saluting as he did so, and I noticed, so
+far as I am concerned, nothing in his manner that could attract attention.
+I was therefore much surprised to hear M. de Breuilly the next moment
+murmur between his teeth: "That is an infamous trick!" Monsieur George,
+who, at the moment of meeting, had become pale and turned his head
+slightly away, looked sharply at Monsieur de Breuilly:
+
+"What do you mean, sir? What do you refer to?"
+
+"I refer to the impertinence of that brainless fool!"
+
+I appealed energetically to Monsieur de Breuilly, reproaching him with his
+quarrelsome disposition, and affirming that there had been no trace of
+defiance either in the attitude or the features of Monsieur de Mauterne
+when he had passed by us.
+
+"Come, my friend," said Monsieur de Breuilly, "your eyes must have been
+closed--or else you must have seen, as I saw myself, that the wretch
+giggled as he looked at our friend. I don't know why you should wish the
+gentleman to suffer an insult which neither you nor I would suffer!"
+
+These unlucky words had been scarcely uttered, when Monsieur George
+started his horse at a gallop.
+
+"Are you mad?" I said to De Breuilly, who was trying to detain me; "and
+what means such an invention?"
+
+"My friend," he replied, "it was necessary to divert that boy's mind at
+any cost."
+
+I shrugged my shoulders. I freed myself from him and dashed after Monsieur
+George; but, being better mounted than myself, he had already gained
+considerable advance. I was still a hundred paces behind him when he
+overtook Monsieur de Mauterne, who had stopped on hearing him coming. It
+seemed to me that they were exchanging a few words, and almost at once I
+saw Monsieur George's whip lashing several times, and with a sort of fury,
+Monsieur de Mauterne's face. We barely arrived in time, Monsieur de
+Breuilly and myself, to prevent that scene from assuming an odious
+character of brutality.
+
+A meeting having unfortunately become inevitable between the parties, we
+took with us the two friends who accompanied Mauterne, Messieurs de
+Quiroy and Astley, the latter an Englishman. Monsieur George had preceded
+us to the chateau. The choice of weapons belonged without any possible
+doubt to our adversary. Nevertheless, having noticed that his seconds
+seemed to hesitate with a sort of indifference, or perhaps of
+circumspection between swords and pistols, I thought that we might, with a
+little good management, influence their decisions in the direction least
+unfavorable to us. We went, therefore, Monsieur de Breuilly and I, to
+consult Monsieur George on the subject. He pronounced at once in favor of
+swords.
+
+"But," remarked Monsieur de Breuilly, "you are a very good pistol-shot. I
+have seen you at work. Are you certain to be a better swordsman? Do not
+deceive yourself; this will be a mortal combat."
+
+"I am satisfied of that," he replied, with a smile; "but I am particularly
+anxious for swords, if at all possible."
+
+After the expression of so formal a wish, we could but esteem ourselves
+fortunate in obtaining the choice of arms, and the meeting was settled for
+the next morning at nine o'clock.
+
+During the remainder of the day, Monsieur George manifested an ease of
+mind, and even at intervals a certain gayety, at which we were quite
+surprised, and which Madame de Malouet, in particular, was at a loss to
+understand. My poor wife of course had been left in ignorance of these
+recent events.
+
+At ten o'clock he retired, and I could still see a light through his
+window two hours later. Impelled by my earnest affection and I know not
+what vague anxiety was haunting me, I entered his room at about midnight;
+I found him very calm; he had been writing and was just sealing up a few
+envelopes.
+
+"There!" he said, handing me the papers. "Now the worst is over, and I am
+going to sleep the sleep of the just."
+
+I thought it best to offer him a few more technical suggestions on the
+handling of the weapon he was soon to use. He listened to me without much
+attention, and suddenly extending his arm:
+
+"Feel my pulse," he said.
+
+I did so, and ascertained that his calm and his cheerfulness were neither
+affected nor feverish.
+
+"In such a condition," he added, "if a man is killed it is because he is
+willing to be. Good-night, my dear sir!" Whereupon I left him.
+
+Yesterday morning, at half-past eight, we repaired, Monsieur George,
+Monsieur de Breuilly, and myself, to an unfrequented path situated about
+half way between Mauterne and Malouet, and which had been selected for the
+dueling-ground. Our adversary arrived almost immediately after,
+accompanied by Messieurs de Quiroy and Astley. The nature of the insult
+admitted of no attempt at conciliation. We had therefore to proceed at
+once to the fight.
+
+Scarcely had Monsieur George placed himself in position, when we became
+convinced of his complete inexperience in the use of the sword. Monsieur
+de Breuilly cast upon me a look of stupor. However, after the blades had
+been crossed, there was a semblance of fight and of defense; but at the
+third pass, Monsieur George fell pierced through the chest.
+
+I threw myself upon him; he was already in the grasp of death.
+Nevertheless he pressed my hand feebly, smiled once more, then gave vent,
+with his last breath, to his last thought, which was for you, sir:
+
+"Tell Paul that I love him, that I forbid him seeking to avenge me, and
+that I die--happy." He expired.
+
+I shall not attempt, sir, to add anything to this narrative. It has
+already been too long and too painful to me; but I deemed this faithful
+and minute account due to you. I had reason to believe, besides, that your
+friendship would like to follow to the last instant that existence which
+was so justly dear to you. Now you know all, you have understood all, even
+what I have left unsaid.
+
+He lies in peace by her side. You will doubtless come, dear sir. We expect
+you. We shall mingle our tears over those two beloved beings, both kind
+and charming, both crushed by passion and seized by death with relentless
+rapidity in the midst of the pleasantest scenes of life.
+
+
+[THE END.]
+
+
+
+
+THE SPHINX;
+
+OR,
+
+"JULIA DE TRECOEUR."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+"A BALEFUL AFFECTION."
+
+
+All those who, like ourselves, knew Raoul de Trecoeur during his early
+youth, believed that he was destined to great fame. He had received quite
+remarkable gifts from nature; there are left from him two or three
+sketches and a few hundred verses that promised a master; but he was very
+rich, and had been very badly brought up; he soon gave himself up to
+dilettanteism. A perfect stranger, like most men of his generation, to the
+sentiment of duty, he permitted himself to be recklessly carried away by
+his instincts, which, fortunately for others, were more ardent than
+hurtful. Therefore was he generally pitied when he died, in the flower of
+his age, for having loved and enjoyed immoderately everything that he
+thought pleasant.
+
+The poor fellow, they said, never did any harm but to himself; which, in
+point of fact, was not the exact truth. Trecoeur had married, at the age
+of twenty-five, his cousin, Clotilde Andree de Pers, a modest and graceful
+person who had of the world nothing but its elegance. Madame de Trecoeur
+had lived with her husband in an atmosphere of unhealthy storms, where she
+felt out of place, and, as it were, degraded. He tormented her with his
+remorse almost as much as he did with his faults. He looked upon her, and
+justly, as an angel, and wept at her feet when he had betrayed her,
+lamenting that he was unworthy of her; that he was the victim of his
+temperament, and that he had been born in a faithless age. He threatened
+once to kill himself in his wife's boudoir if she did not forgive him; she
+forgave him, of course. All this dramatic action disturbed Clotilde in her
+resigned existence. She would have preferred that her misery should have
+been more quiet and less declamatory.
+
+All the friends of her husband had been in love with her, and had built
+great hopes upon her forlorn condition, but unfaithful husbands do not
+always make guilty wives. The reverse is rather more frequently the case,
+so little is this poor world submitted to the rules of logic. In short,
+Madame de Trecoeur, after her husband's death was left forlorn, exhausted,
+and broken down, but spotless.
+
+From this melancholy union, a daughter had been born, named Julia, and
+whom her father, notwithstanding all Clotilde's efforts of resistance, had
+spoilt to excess. Monsieur de Trecoeur's idolatry for his daughter was
+well-known, and the world, with its habitual weakness of judgment, forgave
+him readily his scandalous existence in consideration of that merit, which
+is not always a great one. It is not, indeed, a very difficult matter to
+love one's children; it is sufficient for that not to be a monster. The
+love that one has for them is not in itself a virtue; it is a passion
+which, like all others, may be good or bad, as one is its master or its
+slave. It may even be thought that there is no passion which may be more
+than this one, pregnant with good or with evil.
+
+Julia seemed splendidly gifted; but her ardent and precocious disposition
+had been developed, thanks to the paternal education, as in the primeval
+forest, wholly at random. She was small in person, dark and pale, lithe
+and slender, with large blue eyes full of fire, unruly black hair, and
+superbly arched eyebrows. Her habitual air was reserved and haughty;
+nevertheless she laid aside, at home, these majestic appearances to frolic
+on the carpet. She played games of her own invention. She translated her
+history lessons into little dramas interspersed with speeches to the
+people, dialogues, music, and particularly chariot-races. In spite of her
+serious countenance, she could be very funny at times, and made cruel fun
+of those she did not like.
+
+She manifested for her father a passionate predilection, singularly
+mitigated by the sentiments of tender pity which her mother's unhappiness
+inspired in her youthful heart. She saw her weep often; she would then
+throw herself upon the floor, curled up at her feet, and there remain for
+hours, motionless and dumb, looking at her with moist eyes, and drinking
+from time to time a tear from her cheek.
+
+She had apparently caught, as many children do, some echoes of the
+domestic woes. Doubtless her quick intellect appreciated her father's
+wrong-doings; but her father--that handsome gentleman, so witty, generous,
+and wild--she worshiped him; she was proud to be his daughter; she
+palpitated with joy when he clasped her to his heart. She could neither
+judge him nor blame him; he was a superior being. She contented herself
+with pitying and consoling, as best she could, that gentle and charming
+creature who was her mother, and who suffered.
+
+Within the circle of Madame de Trecoeur's acquaintances, Julia simply
+passed for a little plague. The dear madames, as she called them, who
+formed the ornament of her mother's Thursdays, related with bitterness to
+each other the scenes of comical imitation with which the child followed
+their entrance and their departure. The men considered themselves
+fortunate when they did not carry off a bit of paper or silk on the back
+of their coats. All this amused Monsieur de Trecoeur extremely. When his
+daughter performed with half a dozen chairs some of those Olympian races
+that knocked every piano in the neighborhood out of tune--
+
+"Julia!" he would exclaim, "you don't make noise enough. Smash a vase."
+
+And a vase she did smash; whereupon her father kissed her with enthusiasm.
+
+This method of education assumed a graver character as the child grew
+older. Her father's affection became shaded with a species of gallantry.
+He took her with him to the Bois, to the races, to the theater. She had
+not a fancy that he did not anticipate and gratify. At thirteen years of
+age, she had her horse, her groom, and a carriage bearing her monogram.
+Already ill, and having perhaps a presentiment of his death, the
+unfortunate man overwhelmed that beloved daughter with the tokens of his
+baleful affection. He was thus blunting all her tastes by too precocious
+satiety, as if he had intended to leave her no taste save for the
+forbidden fruit.
+
+Julia wept over him with furious transports, and preserved for his memory
+a fervid worship. She had a private room which she filled with the
+portraits of her father and with a thousand personal souvenirs, around
+which she kept up flowers.
+
+Madame de Trecoeur, like the greater number of young girls who marry their
+cousins, had married very young. She was left a widow at twenty-eight, and
+her mother, the Baroness de Pers, who was still living, and who was even
+of the liveliest, was not long in suggesting discreetly to her the
+propriety of a second marriage. After having exhausted the practical and,
+in fact, quite sensible reasons that seemed to urge that course, the
+baroness then came down to the sentimental reasons:
+
+"In good faith, my poor child," she said, "you have not had, up too this
+time, your just share of happiness in this world. I would not speak ill of
+your husband, since he is dead; but, _entre nous_, he was a horrid brute.
+Mon Dieu! charming at times, I grant you,--since I have been caught
+myself--like all worthless scamps! but in fact, beastly, beastly! Well,
+certainly, I shall not undertake to say that marriage is ever a state of
+perfect bliss; nevertheless it is the best thing that has been imagined up
+to this time, to enjoy life decently among respectable people. You are in
+the flower of your age--you are quite good-looking, quite--and, by the
+way, it will do you no harm to wear your skirts a little higher up behind,
+with a proper sort of bustle; for you don't even know what they wear now,
+my poor pet. Here, look! It's horrible, I know; but what can we do? we
+must not attract attention. In short, what I meant to tell you is that you
+still have all that is necessary, and even more than is necessary, to fix
+a husband--if indeed there are any that can be fixed, which I hope is the
+case--otherwise, we should have to despair wholly of Providence, if it did
+not have some compensation in store for us after all our trials. It is
+already a manifest sign of its kindness that you should have recovered
+your _embonpoint_, my darling! Kiss your mother. Come, now, when is our
+pretty little woman going to be married?"
+
+There was no maternal exaggeration whatever in the compliments which the
+baroness was addressing to Clotilde. All Paris looked upon her with the
+same eyes as her mother. She had never been so attractive as now, and she
+had always been infinitely so. Her person, reposed in the peace of her
+mourning, had then the bright lustre of a fine fruit, ripe and fresh. Her
+black eyes full of timid tenderness, her pure brow crowned with splendid
+and life-like braids, her shoulders of rosy marble, her particular grace
+of a young matron, at once handsome, loving, and chaste--all that, joined
+to a spotless reputation and to sixty thousand francs a year, could not
+fail to bring forward more than one pretender. And indeed they sprang up
+in legions. Reason, and public opinion itself, which had done full justice
+to her husband and to herself, were both urging her to a second wedding.
+Her own private feelings, whatever might be their natural delicacy, did
+not seem likely to prove an obstacle, for there was nothing in her heart
+that was not true. She had been faithful to her husband, she had shed
+sincere and bitter tears over that wretched companion of her youth; but he
+had exhausted and worn out her affection, and without ever joining her
+mother in her posthumous recriminations against Monsieur de Trecoeur, she
+felt that she had no further duty to fulfill toward him but that of
+prayer.
+
+She had, however, been for many months a widow, and she still continued to
+oppose to the solicitations of the baroness, a resistance of which the
+latter sought in vain to ascertain the mysterious cause. One day she
+fancied she had discovered it.
+
+"Confess the truth," she said to her; "you are afraid to cause some
+annoyance to Julia. Now, if that is so, my dear daughter, it is pure
+folly. You cannot have any serious scruple on that score. Julia will be
+very rich in her own right, and will have no need of your fortune. She
+will herself marry in three or four years (much pleasure do I wish her
+husband, by the way!); and see a little in what a nice situation you will
+find yourself then! But, mon Dieu! are we never going to be done with
+them? After the father, here is the daughter now! Eh! mon Dieu! let her
+erect chapels with her father's portraits and spurs as much as she
+likes--that's her business; I am certainly not the one to enter into
+competition with her. But she must at least allow us to live in peace!
+What! You could not dispose of your person without her leave! Then if you
+are her slave, my dear child, show me the door at once! You could not do
+anything more agreeable to her for she cannot bear the sight of me, your
+daughter! And then, after all, in all candor, what possible objection can
+she have to your getting married again? A step-father is not a
+step-mother; it's quite another thing. Eh! mon Dieu! her step-father will
+be charming to her--all men will be charming to her; I predict her that;
+she may feel easy about it! Now, will you admit that it is the true cause
+of your hesitation?"
+
+"I assure you that it is not, mother," said Clotilde.
+
+"I assure you that it is, my daughter. Well, come; would you like me to
+speak to Julia, to try and reason with her? I would prefer giving her a
+good whipping; however--!"
+
+"Poor, dear mother," rejoined Clotilde, "must I then tell you everything?"
+
+She came to kneel down in front of the baroness.
+
+"By all means, daughter; tell me everything, but don't make me cry, I beg
+of you! Is what you have to tell very sad?"
+
+"Not very gay."
+
+"Mon Dieu! But no matter; go on."
+
+"In the first place, mother, I must confess that I would personally feel
+no scruple in marrying again--"
+
+"I should think not! That would be carrying it just a little too far!"
+
+"As to Julia--whom I adore, who loves me sincerely, and who loves you very
+much too, whatever you may say--"
+
+"Satisfied of the contrary," said the baroness. "But no matter; proceed."
+
+"As to Julia, I have more confidence than you have in her good sense and
+in her good heart; notwithstanding the exalted affection she has preserved
+for her father, I am sure that she would understand, that she would
+respect my determination, and that she would not love me one whit the
+less, especially if her step-father did not happen to be personally
+objectionable to her; for you are aware of the extreme violence of her
+sympathies and of her antipathies--"
+
+"I am aware of it!" said the baroness, bitterly. "Well, you must give her
+a list of your gentlemen friends, the dear little thing, and she will pick
+out her own choice for you."
+
+"There is no need of that, good mother," said Clotilde. "The choice has
+already been made by the mainly interested party, and I am certain that it
+would not be disagreeable to Julia."
+
+"Well, then, my darling, everything is for the best."
+
+"Alas! no. I am going to tell you something that covers me with confusion.
+Among all the men we know, the only one who--the only one I like, in fact,
+is also the only one who has never been in love with me."
+
+"He must be a savage, then! he cannot but be a savage. But who is he?"
+
+"I have told you, dear mother, the only one of our friends who is not in
+love with me--"
+
+"Bah! who is that? Your cousin Pierre?"
+
+"No, but you are not--"
+
+"Monsieur de Lucan!" exclaimed the baroness. "It could not fail to be so!
+The very flower of the flock! Mon Dieu, my darling, how very similar our
+tastes are, both of us! He is charming, your Lucan, he is charming. Kiss
+me, dear--don't look any farther, don't look any farther; he is positively
+just the man for us."
+
+"But, mother, since he does not want me!"
+
+"Good! he does not want you now! What nonsense! what do you know about it?
+Did you ask him? Besides, it is impossible, my darling; you were made for
+each other in all eternity. He is charming, _distingue_, well-bred, rich,
+intelligent, everything, in a word--everything."
+
+"Everything, mother, except in love with me."
+
+The baroness exclaiming anew against such a very unlikely thing, Clotilde
+exposed to her eyes a series of facts and particulars which left no room
+for illusions. The dismayed mother was compelled to resign herself to the
+painful conviction that there really was in the world a man of
+sufficiently bad taste not to be in love with her daughter, and that this
+man unfortunately was Monsieur de Lucan.
+
+She returned slowly to her residence, meditating on the way upon that
+strange mystery the explanation of which, however, she was not long to
+wait.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+TWO FAST FRIENDS.
+
+
+George-Rene de Lucan was an intimate friend of the Count Pierre de
+Moras, Clotilde's cousin. They had been companions in boyhood, in youth,
+in travels, and even in battle; for, chance having led them to the United
+States at the outbreak of the war of the rebellion, they had deemed it a
+favorable opportunity to receive the baptism of fire. Their friendship had
+become still more sternly tempered in the midst of these dangers of
+warfare sustained fraternally far from their own country. That friendship
+had had, moreover, for a long time, a character of rare confidence,
+delicacy, and strength. They entertained the highest esteem for each
+other, and their mutual confidence was not misplaced. They, however, bore
+no resemblance whatever to each other. Pierre de Moras was of tall
+stature, blonde as a Scandinavian, handsome and strong as a lion, but as a
+good-natured lion. Lucan was dark, slender, elegant and grave. There was
+in his cold and gentle accent, in his very bearing, a certain grace
+mingled with authority, that was both imposing and charming.
+
+They were not less dissimilar in a moral point of view; the former a jolly
+companion, an absolute and settled skeptic, the careless possessor of a
+danseuse; the latter always agitated despite his outer calm, romantic,
+passionate, tormented with love and theology. Pierre de Moras, on their
+return from America, had presented Lucan to his cousin Clotilde, and from
+that moment there were at least two points upon which they agreed
+perfectly; profound esteem for Clotilde, and deep-seated antipathy for her
+husband.
+
+They appreciated, however, each in his own way, Monsieur de Trecoeur's
+character and conduct. For the Count Pierre, Trecoeur was simply a
+mischievous being; in Monsieur de Lucan's eyes, he was a criminal.
+
+"Why criminal?" Pierre said. "Is it his fault if he was born with the
+eternal flames on the marrow of his bones? I admit that I feel quite
+disposed to break his head when I see Clotilde's eyes red; but I would
+not feel any more angry about it, than if I were crushing a serpent under
+my heel. Since it is his nature, the poor man can't help it."
+
+"That little system of yours would simply suppress all merit, all will,
+all liberty; in a word, the whole moral world. If we are not the masters
+of our own passions, at least to a great extent, and if, on the contrary,
+it is our passions that fatally control us; if a man is necessarily good
+or bad, honest or a knave, loyal or a traitor, at the mercy of his
+instincts, tell me, if you please, why you honor me with your esteem and
+your friendship? I have no right to them any more than any one else, any
+more than Trecoeur himself."
+
+"I beg your pardon, my friend," said Pierre gravely; "in the vegetable
+world I prefer a rose to a thistle; in the moral world, I prefer you to
+Trecoeur. You were born a gallant fellow; I rejoice at it, and I make the
+best of it."
+
+"Well, _mon cher_, you are laboring under a complete mistake," rejoined
+Lucan. "I was born, on the contrary, with the most detestable instincts,
+with the germ of all vices."
+
+"Like Socrates?"
+
+"Like Socrates, exactly. And if my father had not chastised me in time, if
+my mother had not been a saint, finally, if I had not myself placed, with
+the utmost energy, my will at the service of my conscience, I would be
+to-day, a faithless and lawless scoundrel."
+
+"But nothing proves that you will not turn out a scoundrel one of these
+days, my dear friend. There is no one but may become a scoundrel at the
+proper time. Everything depends upon the extent and strength of the
+temptation. Whatever may be your instinct of honor and dignity, are you
+yourself quite sure never to meet with a temptation sufficiently powerful
+to overcome your principles? Can you not conceive, for instance, some
+circumstance in which you might love a woman enough to commit a crime?"
+
+"No," said Lucan; "do you?"
+
+"I!--I deserve no credit. I have no passions. It is extremely mortifying,
+but I have none. I was born to be an exemplary man. You remember my
+childhood; I was a little model. Now I am a big model, that's all the
+difference--and it does not cost me any effort whatever. Shall we go and
+see Clotilde?"
+
+"Let us go!"
+
+And they went to Clotilde's, very worthy herself of the friendship of
+these two excellent fellows.
+
+There they were received with marked consideration, even by Mademoiselle
+Julia, who seemed to feel, to a certain degree, the prestige of these
+superior natures. Both had, moreover, in their manners and language an
+elegant correctness that apparently satisfied the child's delicate taste
+and her artistic instincts.
+
+During the early period of her mourning, Julia's disposition had assumed a
+somewhat shy and somber cast; when her mother received visitors, she left
+the parlor abruptly, and went to lock herself up in her own room, not,
+however, without manifesting toward the indiscreet guests a haughty
+displeasure. Cousin Pierre and his friend had alone the privilege of a
+kindly greeting; she even deigned to leave her apartment and come and join
+them at her mother's side when she knew that they were there.
+
+Clotilde had therefore good reasons to believe that her preference for
+Monsieur de Lucan would obtain her daughter's approbation; she
+unfortunately had better ones still to doubt that Monsieur de Lucan's
+disposition corresponded with her own. Not only, indeed, had he always
+maintained toward her the terms of the most reserved friendship, but,
+since she had been a widow, that reserve had become perceptibly
+aggravated. Lucan's visits became fewer and briefer; he even seemed to
+take particular care in avoiding all occasions of finding himself alone
+with Clotilde, as if he had penetrated her secret feelings, and had
+affected to discourage them. Such were the sadly significant symptoms
+which Clotilde had communicated in confidence to her mother.
+
+On the very day when the baroness was receiving this unpleasant
+information at the residence of her daughter, a conversation was taking
+place upon the same subject between the Count de Moras and George de
+Lucan, in the latter's apartment. They had taken together, during the
+forenoon a ride through the Bois, and Lucan had shown himself even more
+silent than usual. At the moment of parting:
+
+"_Apropos_, Pierre," he said, "I am tired of Paris; I am going to travel."
+
+"Going to travel! Where on earth?"
+
+"I am going to Sweden. I have always wished to see Sweden."
+
+"What a singular thing! Will you be gone long?"
+
+"Two or three months."
+
+"When do you expect to leave?"
+
+"To-morrow."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Entirely so. I'll see you again at the club, to-night, won't I?"
+
+The strange reserve of this dialogue left upon the mind of Monsieur de
+Moras an impression of surprise and uneasiness. He was unable to withstand
+the feeling, and two hours later he returned to Lucan's. As he went in,
+preparations for traveling greeted his eyes on all sides. Lucan was
+engaged writing in his study.
+
+"Now, my dear fellow!" said the count to him, "if I am impertinent, say so
+frankly and at once; but this sudden and hurried voyage doesn't look like
+anything. Seriously, what is the matter? Are you going to fight a duel
+outside the frontier?":
+
+"Bah! In that case I should take you with me; you know that very well."
+
+"A woman, then?"
+
+"Yes," said Lucan dryly.
+
+"Excuse my importunity, and good-by."
+
+"I have wounded your feelings, dear friend?" said Lucan, detaining him.
+
+"Yes," said the count, "I certainly do not pretend to enter into your
+secrets; but I do not absolutely understand the tone of restraint, and
+almost of hostility, in which you are answering me on the subject of this
+journey. It is not, moreover, the first symptoms of that nature that
+strike and grieve me; for some time past, I find you visibly embarrassed
+in your intercourse with me; it seems as though I were in your way and my
+friendship were a burden to you, and the cruel idea has occurred to my
+mind that this journey is merely a way of putting an end to it."
+
+"Mon Dieu!" murmured Lucan. "Well, then," he went on with evident
+agitation in his voice, "I must tell you the whole truth; I hoped that you
+would have guessed it--it is so simple. Your cousin, Clotilde, has now
+been a widow for nearly two years; that, I believe, is the term
+consecrated by custom to the mourning of a husband. I am aware of your
+feelings toward her; you may now marry her, and you will be perfectly
+right in doing so. Nothing seems to me more just, more natural, more
+worthy of her and of yourself. I beg to assure you that my friendship for
+you shall remain faithful and entire, but I trust you will not object to
+my keeping away for a short time. That's all."
+
+Monsieur de Moras seemed to have infinite difficulty in comprehending the
+meaning of this speech; he remained for several seconds after Lucan had
+ceased to speak, with wondering countenance and fixed gaze, as if trying
+to find the solution of a riddle; then rising abruptly and grasping both
+Lucan's hands:
+
+"Ah! that's kind of you, that is!" he said with grave emotion.
+
+And after another cordial grasp, he added gayly:
+
+"But if you expect to stay in Sweden until I have married Clotilde, you
+may begin building and even planting there, for I swear to you that you
+shall stay long enough for either purpose."
+
+"Is it possible that you do not love her?" said Lucan in a half whisper.
+
+"I love her very much, on the contrary; I appreciate her, I admire her;
+but she is a sister to me, purely a sister. The most delightful thing
+about it, _mon cher_, is that it has always been my dream to have you and
+Clotilde marry; only you seemed to be so cold, so little attentive, so
+rebellious, particularly lately. Mon Dieu! how pale you are, George!"
+
+The final result of this conversation was that Monsieur de Lucan, instead
+of starting for Sweden, called a little later to see the Baroness de Pers,
+to whom he exposed his aspirations, and who thought herself, as she
+listened to him, in the midst of an enchanting dream. She had, however,
+beneath her frivolous manners too profound a sentiment of her own dignity
+and that of her daughter, to manifest in the presence of Monsieur de Lucan
+the joy that overwhelmed her. Whatever desire she might have felt of
+clasping immediately upon her heart this ideal son-in-law, she deferred
+that satisfaction and contented herself with expressing to him her
+personal sympathy. Appreciating, however, Monsieur de Lucan's just
+impatience, she advised him to call that very evening upon Madame de
+Trecoeur, of whose personal sentiments she was herself ignorant, but who
+could not fail to meet his advances with the esteem and the consideration
+due to a man of his merit and standing. Being left alone, the baroness
+gave way to her feelings in a soliloquy mingled with tears; she, however,
+purposely omitted to notify Clotilde, preferring with her maternal taste
+to leave her the whole enjoyment of that surprise.
+
+The heart of woman is an organ infinitely more delicate than ours. The
+constant exercise which they give it develops within it finer and subtler
+faculties than the dry masculine intellect can ever hope to possess; that
+accounts for their presentiments, less rare and more certain than ours. It
+seems as though their sensibility, always strained and vibrating, might be
+warned by mysterious currents of divine instinct, and that it guesses even
+before it can understand. Clotilde, when Monsieur de Lucan was announced,
+was, as it were, struck by one of these secret electric thrills, and in
+spite of all the objections to the contrary that beset her mind, she felt
+that she was loved, and that she was on the point of being told so. She
+sat down in her great arm-chair, drawing up with both hands the silk of
+her dress, with the gesture of a bird that flaps its wings. Lucan's
+visible agitation further enlightened and delighted her. In such men,
+armed with powerful but sternly restrained passions, accustomed to control
+their own feelings, intrepid and calm, agitation is either frightful or
+charming.
+
+After informing her--which was entirely useless--that his visit to her was
+one of unusual importance:
+
+"Madam," he added, "the request I am about to address you demands, I know,
+a well-matured answer. I will therefore beg of you not to give that answer
+to-day, the more so that it would indeed be painful to me to hear it from
+your own lips if it where not a favorable one."
+
+"Mon Dieu! monsieur!" said Clotilde faintly.
+
+"The baroness, your mother, madam, whom I had the pleasure of seeing
+during the day, was kind enough to hold out some encouragement to me--in a
+measure--and to permit me to hope that you might entertain some esteem for
+me, or at least that you had no prejudice against me. As to myself madam,
+I--mon Dieu! I love you, in a word, and I cannot imagine a greater
+happiness in the world than that which I would hold at your hands. You
+have known me for a long time; I have nothing to tell you concerning
+myself. And now, I shall wait."
+
+She detained him with a sign of her hand, and tried to speak; but her eyes
+filled with tears. She hid her face in her hands, and she murmured:
+
+"Excuse me! I have been so rarely happy! I don't know what it is!"
+
+Lucan got gently down upon his knees before her, and when their eyes met,
+their two hearts suddenly filled like two cups.
+
+"Speak, my friend!" she resumed. "Tell me again that you love me. I was so
+far from thinking it! And why is it? And since when?"
+
+He explained to her his mistake, his painful struggle between his love for
+her and his friendship for Pierre.
+
+"Poor Pierre!" said Clotilde, "what an excellent fellow. But no, really!"
+
+Then he made her smile by telling her what mortal terror and apprehension
+had taken possession of his soul at the moment when he was asking her to
+decide upon his fate; she had seemed too him, more than ever, at that
+moment, a lovely and sainted creature, and so much above him, that his
+pretension of being loved by her, of becoming her husband, had suddenly
+appeared to him as a pretension almost sacrilegious.
+
+"Oh, mon Dieu!" she said, "what an opinion have you formed of me, then?
+It's frightful! On the contrary, I thought myself too simple, too
+commonplace for you; I thought that you must be fond of romantic passions,
+of great adventures; you have somewhat the appearance of it, and even the
+reputation; and I am so far from being a woman of that kind!"
+
+Upon that slight invitation, he told her two events of his past life which
+had been full of trite excitement, and had afforded him nothing but
+disappointment and disgust. Never, however, before having met her, had the
+thought of marrying occurred to him; in the matter of love as in the
+matter of friendship, he had always had the imagination taken up with a
+certain ideal, somewhat romantic indeed, and he had feared never to find
+it in marriage. He might have looked for it elsewhere, in great
+adventures, as she said; but he loved order and dignity in life, and he
+had the misfortune of being unable to live at war with his own conscience.
+Such had been his agitated youth.
+
+"You ask me," he went on with effusion, "why I love you. I love you
+because you alone have succeeded in harmonizing within my heart two
+sentiments which had hitherto struggled for its mastery at the cost of
+fearful anguish; honor and passion. Never before knowing you had I yielded
+to one of these sentiments without being made wretched by the other. They
+always seemed, irreconcilable to me. Never had I yielded to passion
+without remorse; never had I resisted it without regret. Whether weak or
+strong, I have always been unhappy and tortured. You alone made me
+understand that I could love at once with all the ardor and all the
+dignity of my soul; and I selected you because you are affectionate and
+you are sincere; because you are handsome and you are pure; because there
+are embodied in you both duty and rapture, love and respect, intoxication
+and peace. Such is the woman, such is the angel you are to me, Clotilde."
+
+She listened to him half reclining, drinking in his words and manifesting
+in her eyes a sort of celestial surprise.
+
+But it seems--who has not experienced it?--that human happiness cannot
+touch certain heights without drawing the lightning upon itself. Clotilde
+in the midst of her ecstasy shuddered suddenly and started to her feet.
+She had just heard a smothered cry, followed by the dull sound of a
+falling body. She ran, opened the door, and in the center of the adjoining
+room saw Julia stretched upon the floor.
+
+She supposed that the child at the moment of entering the parlor had
+overheard some of their words, and then the thought of seeing her father's
+place occupied by another, striking her thus without warning, had stirred
+to its very depths that passionate young soul. Clotilde followed her into
+her room, where she had her carried, and expressed the wish of remaining
+alone with her. While lavishing upon her cares, caresses, and kisses, it
+was not without fearful anguish that she awaited her daughter's first
+glance. That glance fell upon her at first with vague uncertainty, then
+with a sort of wild stupor. The child pushed her away, gently; she was
+trying to collect her ideas, and as the expression of her thought grew
+firmer in her eyes, her mother could plainly read in them a violent strife
+of opposing feelings.
+
+"I beg of you, I beseech you, my darling daughter," murmured Clotilde,
+whose tears fell drop by drop upon the pale visage of the child.
+
+Suddenly Julia seized her by the neck, drew her down upon herself, and
+kissing her passionately:
+
+"You have hurt me much," she said, "oh! very much more than you can
+imagine; but I love you. I love you a great deal; I shall, I must always,
+I assure you."
+
+She burst into sobs, and both wept long, closely clasped to each other.
+
+In the meantime Monsieur de Lucan had deemed it advisable to send for the
+Baroness de Pers, whom he was entertaining in the parlor. The baroness on
+hearing what was going on had manifested more agitation than surprise.
+
+"Mon Dieu!" she exclaimed, "I expected it fully, my dear sir. I did not
+tell you anything about it, because we hadn't got so far yet; but I
+expected it fully. That child will kill my daughter. She will finish what
+her father has so well begun; for it is purely a miracle if my daughter,
+after all she has suffered, has been able to recover as far as you see. I
+must leave them together. I am not going in there. Oh, mon Dieu! I am not
+going in there! In the first place, I would be afraid of annoying my
+daughter, and besides, that would be entirely out of my character."
+
+"How old is Mademoiselle Julia?" inquired Lucan, who retained under these
+painful circumstances his quiet courtesy.
+
+"Why, she is almost fifteen, and I'm not sorry for it, by the way, for,
+_entre nous_, we may reasonably hope to get honestly rid of her within a
+year or two. Oh! she will have no trouble in getting married, no trouble
+whatever, you may be sure. In the first place she is rich, and then, after
+all, she is a pretty monster, there is no gainsaying that, and there is no
+lack of men who admire that style."
+
+Clotilde joined them at last. Whatever might have been her inward emotion,
+she appeared calm, having nothing theatrical in her ways. She replied
+simply, in a low and gentle voice, to her mother's feverish questions; she
+remained convinced that this misfortune would not have happened, if she
+could have herself informed Julia, with some precautions, of the event
+which chance had abruptly revealed to her. Addressing then a sad smile to
+Monsieur de Lucan:
+
+"These family difficulties, sir," she said to him, "could not have formed
+a part of your anticipations, and I should deem it quite natural were they
+to lead to some modification of your plans.":
+
+An expressive anxiety became depicted upon Lucan's features. "If you ask
+me to restore to you your freedom," he said, "I cannot but comply; if it
+is your delicacy alone that has spoken, I beg to assure you that you are
+still dearer to me since I have seen you suffer on my account, and suffer
+with so much dignity."
+
+She held out her hand, which he seized, bowing low at the same time.
+
+"I shall love your daughter so much," he said, "that she will forgive me."
+
+"Yes, I hope so," said Clotilde; "nevertheless, she wishes to enter a
+convent for a few months, and I have consented."
+
+Her voice trembled and her eyes became moist.
+
+"Excuse me, sir," she added; "I have no right as yet to make you
+participate to such an extent in my sorrows. May I beg of you to leave me
+alone with my mother?"
+
+Lucan murmured a few words of respect, and withdrew. It was quite true, as
+he had said, that Clotilde was dearer to him than ever. Nothing had
+inspired him with such a lofty idea of the moral worth of that woman as
+her attitude during that trying evening. Stricken in the midst of her
+flight of happiness, she had fallen without a cry, without a groan,
+striving to hide her wound; she had manifested in his presence that
+exquisite modesty in suffering so rare among her sex. He was the more
+grateful to her for it, that he was deeply averse to those pathetic and
+turbulent demonstrations which most women never fail to eagerly exhibit on
+every occasion, when they are indeed kind enough not to bring them about.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+JULIA'S CHAMPION.
+
+
+Monsieur de Lucan had been Clotilde's husband for several months when the
+rumor spread among society that Mademoiselle de Trecoeur, formerly known
+as such an incarnate little devil, was about taking the vail in the
+convent of the Faubourg Saint Germain, to which she had withdrawn before
+her mother's marriage. That rumor was well founded. Julia had endured at
+first with some difficulty the discipline and the observances to which the
+simple boarders of the establishment were themselves bound to submit; then
+she had been gradually taken with a pious fervor, the excesses of which
+they had been compelled to moderate. She had begged her mother not to put
+an obstacle to the irresistible inclination which she felt for a religious
+life, and Clotilde had with difficulty obtained permission that she should
+adjourn her resolution until the accomplishment of her sixteenth year.
+
+Madame de Lucan's relations with her daughter since her marriage had been
+of a singular character. She came almost daily to visit her, and always
+received the liveliest manifestations of affection at her hands; but on
+two points, and those the most sensitive, the young girl had remained
+inflexible; she had never consented either to return to the maternal roof,
+nor to see her mother's husband.
+
+She had even remained for a long time without making the slightest
+allusion to Clotilde's altered situation, which she affected to ignore.
+One day, at last, feeling the intolerable torture of such a reserve, she
+made up her mind, and fixing her flashing eyes upon her mother:
+
+"Well, are you happy at last?" she said.
+
+"How can I be," said Clotilde, "since you hate the man I love?"
+
+"I hate no one," replied Julia, dryly. "How is your husband?"
+
+From that moment she inquired regularly after Monsieur de Lucan in a tone
+of polite indifference; but she never uttered without hesitation and
+evident discomfort the name of the man who had taken her father's place.
+
+In the meantime she had reached her sixteenth year. Her mother's promise
+had been formal. Julia was henceforth free to follow her vocation, and she
+was preparing for it with an impatient ardor that edified the good ladies
+of the convent. Madame de Lucan expressing, one morning, in the presence
+of her mother and her husband the anxiety that oppressed her heart during
+these last days of respite:
+
+"As to me, my daughter," said the baroness, "I must confess that I am
+urging with all my wishes and prayers the moment which you seem to dread.
+The life you have been leading since your marriage has nothing human about
+it; but what forms its principal torment, is the constant struggle which
+you have to sustain against that child's obstinacy. Well, when she has
+become a nun, there will no longer be any struggle; the situation will be
+clearer; and note that you will not be in reality any more separated than
+you are now, since the house is not a cloister; I would just as lief it
+were, myself; but it is not. And then, why oppose a vocation which I
+really look upon as providential? In the interest of the child herself,
+you should congratulate yourself upon the resolution she has taken; I
+appeal to your husband to say if that is not so. Come, let me ask you, my
+dear sir, what could be expected of such an organization, if she were once
+let loose upon the world? Why! she would be a dangerous character for
+society! You know what a head she has! a volcano! And pray observe, my
+friend, that at this present moment she is a perfect odalisk. You have not
+seen her for some time; you cannot imagine how she has developed. I, who
+enjoy the treat of seeing her twice a week, can positively assure you that
+she is a perfect odalisk, and besides, divinely dressed. In fact, she is
+so well made! you might throw a window-curtain over her with a pitch-fork,
+and she would look as if she were just coming out of Worth's! There, ask
+Pierre what he thinks about it, he who has the honor of being admitted to
+her good graces!"
+
+Monsieur de Moras, who was coming in at that very moment, shared, indeed,
+with a very limited number of friends of the family, the privilege of
+accompanying Clotilde occasionally on her visits to Julia's convent.
+
+"Well, my good Pierre," resumed the baroness, "we were speaking of Julia,
+and I was telling my son-in-law that it was really quite fortunate that
+she was willing to become a saint, because otherwise she would certainly
+set Paris on fire!"
+
+"Because?" asked the count.
+
+"Because she is beautiful as Sin!"
+
+"Undoubtedly she is quite good-looking," said the count somewhat coldly.
+
+The baroness having gone out on some errands with Clotilde, Monsieur de
+Moras remained alone with Lucan.
+
+"It really seems to me," he said to the latter, "that our poor Julia is
+being very harshly treated."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Her grandmother speaks of her as of a perverse creature! And what fault
+do they find with her after all? Her worship of her father's memory! It is
+excessive, I grant; but filial piety, even when exaggerated, is not a
+vice, that I know of. Her sentiments are exalted; what does it matter if
+they are generous? Is that a reason why she should be devoted to the
+infernal divinities and thrust out of the way to be forgotten?"
+
+"But you are very strange, my friend, I assure you," said Lucan. "What is
+the matter with you? whom do you mean to blame? You are certainly aware
+that Julia proposes taking the vail wholly of her own accord; that her
+mother is distressed about it, and that she has spared no effort to
+dissuade her from that step. As to myself, I have no reason whatever to be
+fond of her; she has caused and is still causing me much grief; but you
+know well enough that I have ever been ready to greet her as my daughter,
+if she had deigned to return to us."
+
+"Oh! I accuse neither her mother nor yourself, of course; it is the
+baroness who irritates me; she is unnatural! Julia is her grandchild after
+all, and she rejoices--she positively rejoices--at the prospect of seeing
+her a nun!"
+
+"_Ma foi_, I declare to you that I am not far from rejoicing too. The
+situation is too painful for Clotilde; it must be brought to an end; and
+as I see no other possible solution--"
+
+"But I beg your pardon; there might be another."
+
+"And which?"
+
+"She might marry."
+
+"How likely! and marry--whom, pray?"
+
+The count approached nearer to Lucan, looked him straight in the face, and
+smiling with some embarrassment:
+
+"Me!" he said.
+
+"Repeat that!" said Lucan.
+
+"_Mon cher_," rejoined the count, "you see that I am as red as a peony;
+spare me. I have wished for a long time to broach that delicate question
+to you, but my courage has failed me; since I have found it, at last,
+don't deprive me of it."
+
+"My dear friend," said Lucan, "allow me to recover a little first, for I
+am falling from the clouds. What! you are in love with Julia?"
+
+"To an extraordinary degree, my friend."
+
+"No! there is something under that; you have discovered this means of
+drawing us together, and you wish to sacrifice yourself for the peace of
+the family."
+
+"I swear to you that I am not thinking in the least of the peace of the
+family; I am thinking wholly of my own, which is very much disturbed, for
+I love that child with an energy of feeling that I never knew before. If I
+don't marry her, I shall never console myself for the rest of my life."
+
+"To that extent?" said Lucan, dumfounded.
+
+"It is a terrible thing, _mon cher_," rejoined Monsieur de Moras. "I am
+absolutely in love; when she looks at me, when I touch her hand, when her
+dress rustles against me, I feel, as it were, a philter running through my
+veins. I had heard of emotions of that kind, but I had never felt them. I
+must confess that they delight me; but at the same time they distress me,
+for I cannot conceal the fact to myself that there are a thousand chances
+against one that my passion will not be reciprocated, and it really seems
+as though my heart should wear mourning for it as long as it shall beat."
+
+"What an adventure!" said Lucan, who had recovered all his gravity. "That
+is a very serious matter; very annoying."
+
+He walked a few steps about the parlor, absorbed in thoughts that seemed
+of a rather somber character.
+
+"Is Julia aware of your sentiments?" he said, suddenly.
+
+"Most certainly not; I would not have taken the liberty of informing her
+of them without first speaking to you. Will you be kind enough to act as
+my ambassador to her mother?"
+
+"Why, yes, with pleasure," said Lucan, with a shade of hesitation that did
+not escape his friend.
+
+"You think that is useless, don't you?" said the count with a forced
+smile.
+
+"Useless--why so?"
+
+"In the first place, it is very late."
+
+"It is somewhat late, no doubt. Things have gone very far; but I have
+never had much confidence in the stability of Julia's ideas of her
+vocation. Besides, in these restless imaginations, the sincerest
+resolutions of to-day become readily the dislikes of the morrow."
+
+"But you doubt that--that I should succeed in pleasing her?"
+
+"Why should you not please her? You are more than good-looking. You are
+thirty-two years old; she is sixteen. You are a little richer than she is.
+All that does very well."
+
+"Well, then, why do you hesitate to serve me?"
+
+"I do not hesitate to serve you; only I see you very much in love; you are
+not accustomed to it, and I fear that a condition of things so novel for
+you might be urging you somewhat hastily to such a grave determination as
+marriage. A wife is not a mistress. In short, before taking an irrevocable
+step I would beg of you to think well and further over it."
+
+"My good friend," said the count, "I do not wish, and I believe quite
+sincerely that I cannot, do so. You know my ideas. Genuine passions always
+have the best of it, and I am not quite sure that honor itself is a very
+effective argument against them. As to setting up reason against them, it
+is worse than folly. Besides, come, Lucan, what is there so unreasonable
+in the simple fact of marrying a person I love? I don't see that it is
+absolutely necessary for a man not to love his wife--Well! can I rely upon
+you?"
+
+"Completely so," said Lucan, taking his hand. "I raised my objections; now
+I am wholly at your service. I shall speak to Clotilde in a moment. She is
+going to see her daughter this afternoon. Come and dine with us to-night;
+but summon up all your courage, for, after all, success is very
+uncertain."
+
+Monsieur de Lucan found it no difficult task to gain the cause of Monsieur
+de Moras with Clotilde. After hearing him, not, however, without
+interrupting him more than once with exclamations of surprise:
+
+"Mon Dieu!" she replied, "that would be an ideal! Not only would that
+marriage put an end to projects that break my heart, but it offers all the
+conditions of happiness that I can possibly think of for my daughter; and
+furthermore, the friendship that binds you to Pierre would naturally, some
+day, bring about a _rapprochement_ between his wife and yourself. All that
+would be too fortunate; but how could we hope for such a complete and
+sudden revolution in Julia's ideas? She will not even allow me to deliver
+my message to the end."
+
+She left, palpitating with anxiety. She found Julia alone in her room,
+trying on before a mirror her novice's dress; the vail that was to conceal
+her luxuriant hair was laid upon the bed; she was simply dressed in a
+long, white woolen tunic, whose folds she was engaged in adjusting.
+
+She blushed when she saw her mother come in; then with an insipient laugh:
+
+"Cymodocea in the circus, isn't it, mother?"
+
+Clotilde made no answer; she had joined her hands in a supplicating
+attitude, and wept as she looked at her. Julia was moved by that mute
+sorrow; two tears rolled from her eyes, and she threw her arms around her
+mother's neck; then, taking a seat by her side:
+
+"What can I do?" she said; "I, too, feel some regret at heart, for, after
+all, I was fond of life; but aside from my vocation, which I believe quite
+real, I am yielding to a positive necessity. There is no other existence
+possible for me but that one. I know very well--it's my own fault; I have
+been somewhat foolish--I should not have left you in the first place, or
+at least, I should have returned to your house immediately after your
+marriage. Now, after months, and even years, is it possible, I ask you? In
+the first place, I would die with shame. Can you imagine me in the
+presence of your husband? What sort of countenance could I put on? And
+then, he must fairly detest me, the bent must be firmly taken in his mind.
+Finally, I should be in all respects terribly in your way!"
+
+"But, my dear child, no one hates you; you would be received with
+transports of joy, like the prodigal child. If you deem it too painful to
+return to my home--if you fear to find or to bring trouble there with
+you--God knows how mistaken you are on this point! but still, if you do
+fear it, is that a reason why you should bury yourself alive and break my
+heart? Could you not return into the world without returning to my own
+house, and without having to face all those difficulties that frighten
+you? There would be a very simple way of doing that, you know!"
+
+"What is it?" said Julia quietly; "to marry?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," said Clotilde, shaking her head gently and lowering her
+voice.
+
+"But, mon Dieu! mother, what possible chance is there of such a thing?
+Suppose I were willing--and I am far from it--I know no one, no one knows
+me."
+
+"There is some one," rejoined Clotilde, with increasing timidity; "some
+one whom you know perfectly well, and who--who adores you."
+
+Julia opened her eyes wide with a pensive and surprised expression, and
+after a brief pause of reflection:
+
+"Pierre?" she said.
+
+"Yes," murmured Clotilde, pale with anxiety.
+
+Julia's eyebrows became slightly contracted; she raised her head and
+remained for a few seconds with her eyes fixed upon the ceiling; then,
+with a slight shrug of her shoulders:
+
+"Why not?" she said gravely. "I would as soon have him as any one else!"
+
+Clotilde uttered a feeble cry, and grasping both her daughter's hands:
+
+"You consent?" she said; "you really consent? And may I take your answer
+to him?"
+
+"Yes, but you had better change the text of it," said Julia, laughing.
+
+"Oh! my darling, darling dear!" exclaimed Clotilde, covering Julia's hands
+with kisses; "but repeat again that it is all true--that by to-morrow you
+will not have changed your mind."
+
+"I will not change my mind," said Julia, firmly, in her grave and musical
+voice.
+
+She meditated for a moment and then resumed:
+
+"Really, he loves me, that big fellow!"
+
+"Like a madman."
+
+"Poor man! And he is waiting for an answer?"
+
+"With the utmost anxiety."
+
+"Well, go and quiet his fears. We will take up the subject again
+to-morrow. I require to put a little order in my thoughts after all this
+confusion and excitement, you understand; but you may rest easy. I have
+decided."
+
+When Madame de Lucan returned home, Pierre de Moras was waiting for her in
+the parlor. He turned very pale when he saw her.
+
+"Pierre!" she said, all panting still, "come and kiss me, you are my son!
+Respectfully, if you please, respectfully!" she added laughingly as he
+lifted her up and clasped her to his heart.
+
+A little later, he had the gratification of treating in the same manner
+the Baroness de Pers, who had been sent for in haste.
+
+"My dear friend," said the baroness, "I am delighted, really delighted,
+but you are choking me--yes, yes, it is all for the best, my dear
+fellow--but you are literally choking me, I tell you! Reserve yourself, my
+friend, reserve yourself!--The dear child! that's quite nice of her, quite
+nice! In point of fact, she has a heart of gold! And then she has good
+taste, too, for you are very handsome yourself, very handsome, _mon cher_,
+very handsome! To be perfectly candid, I always had an idea that, at the
+moment of cutting off her hair, she would think the matter over. And she
+has such beautiful hair, the poor child!"
+
+And the baroness melted into tears; then addressing the count in the midst
+of her sobs:
+
+"You'll not be very unhappy either, by the way; she is a goddess!"
+
+Monsieur de Lucan, though deeply moved by this family tableau, and above
+all, by Clotilde's joy, took more coolly that unexpected event. Besides
+that he did not generally show himself very demonstrative in public, he
+was sad and anxious at heart. The future prospects of this marriage seemed
+extremely uncertain to him, and in his profound friendship for the count
+he felt alarmed. He had not ventured, through a sentiment of delicate
+reserve toward Julia, upon telling him all he thought of her character and
+disposition. He strove to banish from his mind as partial and unjust the
+opinion he had formed of her; but still he could not help remembering the
+terrible child he had known once, at times wild as a hurricane, at others
+pensive and wrapped in gloomy reserve; he tried to imagine her such as she
+had been described to him since; tall, handsome, ascetic; then he fancied
+her suddenly casting her vail to the winds, like one of the fantastic nuns
+in "Robert le Diable," and returning swift-footed into the world; of all
+these various impressions he composed, in spite of himself, a figure of
+Chimera and Sphinx, which he found very difficult to connect with the idea
+of domestic happiness.
+
+They discussed in the family circle, during the whole evening, the
+complications which might arise from that marriage project, and the means
+of avoiding them. Monsieur de Lucan entered into all these details with
+the utmost good grace, and declared that he would lend himself heartily,
+for his own part, to all the arrangements which his daughter-in-law might
+wish. That precaution was not destined to be useless.
+
+Early the next morning, Clotilde returned to the convent. Julia, after
+listening with slightly ironical nonchalance to the account which her
+mother gave her of the transports and the joy of her intended, assumed a
+more serious air.
+
+"And your husband," she said, "what does he think of it?"
+
+"He is delighted, as we all are."
+
+"I am going to ask you a single question: does he expect to be present at
+our wedding?"
+
+"That will be just as you like."
+
+"Listen, good little mother, and don't grieve in advance. I know very well
+that sooner or later, this marriage must be the means of bringing us all
+together; but let me have a little time to become accustomed to the idea.
+Grant me a few months so that the old Julia may be forgotten, and I may
+forget her myself--you will; say, won't you?"
+
+"Anything you please," said Clotilde, with a sigh.
+
+"I beg of you. Tell him that I beg of him, too."
+
+"I'll tell him; but do you know that Pierre is here?"
+
+"Ah! _mon Dieu!_ and where did you leave him?"
+
+"I left him in the garden."
+
+"In the garden! how imprudent, mother! why, the ladies are going to tear
+him to pieces--like Orpheus, for you may well believe that he is not in
+the odor of sanctity here."
+
+Monsieur de Moras was sent for at once, and he came up in all haste. Julia
+began laughing as he appeared at the door, which facilitated his entree.
+She had several times, during their interview, fits of that nervous
+laughter which is so useful to women in trying circumstances. Deprived of
+that resource, Monsieur de Moras contented himself with kissing the
+beautiful hands of his cousin, and was otherwise generally wanting in
+eloquence; but his handsome and manly features were resplendent, and his
+large blue eyes were moist with gratified affection. He appeared to leave
+a favorable impression.
+
+"I had never considered him in that light," said Julia to her mother; "he
+is very handsome--he will make a splendid-looking husband."
+
+The marriage took place three months later, privately and without any
+display. The Count de Moras and his youthful bride left for Italy the same
+evening.
+
+Monsieur de Lucan had left Paris two or three weeks before, and had taken
+up his quarters in an old family residence at the very extremity of
+Normandy, where Clotilde hastened to join him immediately after Julia's
+departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A GREWSOME ABODE.
+
+
+Vastville, the patrimonial domain of the Lucan family, is situated a short
+distance from the sea, on the west coast of the Norman Finisterre. It is a
+manor with high roof and wrought-iron balconies, which dates from the time
+of Louis XIII., and which has taken the place of the old castle, a few
+ruins of which still serve to ornament the park. It is concealed in a
+thickly shaded depression of the soil, and a long avenue of antique elms
+precedes it. The aspect of it is singularly retired and melancholy, owing
+to the dense woods that surround it on all sides. This wooded thicket
+marks, on this point of the peninsula, the last effort of the vigorous
+vegetation of Normandy. As soon as its edge has been crossed, the view
+extends suddenly and without obstacle over the vast moors which form the
+triangular plateau of the Cape La Hague; fields of furze and heather,
+stone fences without cement, here and there a cross of granite, on the
+right and on the left the distant undulations of the ocean--such is the
+severe but grand landscape that is suddenly unfolded to the eyes beneath
+the unobstructed light of the heavens.
+
+Monsieur de Lucan was born in Vastville. The poetic reminiscences of
+childhood mingled in his imagination with the natural poetry of that site,
+and made it dear to him. Under pretext of hunting, he came on a pilgrimage
+to it every year. Since his marriage only, he had given up that habit of
+the heart, in order not to leave Clotilde, who was detained in Paris by
+her daughter; but it had been agreed upon that they would go and bury
+themselves in that retreat for a season as soon as they had recovered
+their liberty. Clotilde only knew Vastville from her husband's
+enthusiastic descriptions; she loved it on his representations, and it was
+for her, in advance, an enchanted spot. Nevertheless, when the carriage
+that brought her from the station entered, at nightfall, among the wooded
+hills, in the gloomy avenue that led up to the chateau, she felt an
+impression as of cold.
+
+"Mon Dieu! my dear," she said, laughingly, "your chateau is a perfect
+castle of Udolpho!"
+
+Lucan excused his chateau as best he could, and protested, moreover, that
+he was ready to leave it the very next day, if she were not better pleased
+with its appearance after sunrise.
+
+It was not long before she became passionately fond of it. Her happiness,
+hitherto so constrained, blossomed freely for the first time in that
+solitude, and shed upon it a charming light. She even expressed the wish
+of spending the winter and waiting there for Julia, who was to return to
+France in the course of the following year. Lucan offered some slight
+opposition to that project, which appeared to him rather over-heroic for a
+Parisian, but ended by adopting it, too happy himself to harbor the
+romance of his love in that romantic spot. He began, however, taxing his
+ingenuity to attenuate what there might be too austere in that abode, by
+opening relations with some of the neighbors for Clotilde's benefit, and
+by procuring her, at intervals, her mother's society. Madame de Pers was
+kind enough to lend herself to that combination, although the country was
+generally repulsive to her, and Vastville in particular had in her eyes a
+sinister character. She pretended that she heard at night noises in the
+walls and moans in the woods. She slept with one eye open and two candles
+burning. The magnificent cliffs that bordered the coast a short distance
+off, and which they tried to make her admire, caused her a painful
+sensation.
+
+"Very fine!" she said, "very wild! quite wild! But it makes me sick; I
+feel as though I were on top of the towers of Notre Dame! Besides, my
+children, love beautifies everything, and I understand your transports
+perfectly. As to myself, you must excuse me if I do not share them. I can
+never go into ecstasies over such a country as this. I am as fond of the
+country as any one, but this is not the country--it is the desert, Arabia
+Petroea, I know not what. And as to your chateau, my dear friend--I am
+sorry to tell you so: it has a savor of crime. Look well, and you'll see
+that a murder has been committed in it."
+
+"Why, no, my dear madam," replied Lucan laughingly, "I know perfectly the
+history of my family, and I can guarantee you--"
+
+"Rest assured, my friend, that some one has been killed in it--in old
+times. You know how little they troubled themselves about those things
+formerly!"
+
+Julia's letters to her mother were frequent. It was a regular journal of
+travels written helter-skelter, with a striking originality of style, in
+which the vivacity of the impressions was corrected by that shade of
+haughty irony which was a peculiarity of the writer. Julia spoke rather
+briefly of her husband, but always in pleasant terms. There was generally
+a rapid and kindly postscript addressed to Monsieur de Lucan.
+
+Monsieur de Moras was more chary of descriptions. He seemed to see no one
+but his wife in Italy. He extolled her beauty, still further enhanced, he
+said, by the contact of all those marvels of art with which she was
+becoming impregnated; he praised her extraordinary taste, her
+intelligence, and even her good disposition. In this latter respect, she
+was extremely matured, and he found her almost too staid and too grave for
+her age. These particulars delighted Clotilde, and finished instilling
+into her heart a peace she had never yet enjoyed.
+
+The count's letters were not less reassuring for the future than the
+present. He did not think it necessary, he said, to urge Julia on the
+subject of her reconciliation with her step-father; but he felt that she
+was quite ready for it. He was, besides, preparing her more and more for
+it by conversing habitually with her of the old friendship that united him
+to Monsieur de Lucan, of their past life, of their travels, of the perils
+they had braved together. Not only did Julia hear these narratives without
+revolt, but she often solicited them, as if she had regretted her
+prejudices, and had sought good reasons to forget them.
+
+"Come, Pylades, speak to me of Orestes!" she would say.
+
+After having spent the whole winter season and part of the spring in
+Italy, Monsieur and Madame de Moras visited Switzerland, announcing their
+intention of sojourning there until the middle of summer. The thought
+occurred to Monsieur and Madame de Lucan to go and join them there, and
+thus abruptly bring about a reconciliation that seemed henceforth to be
+but a mere matter of form. Clotilde was preparing to submit that project
+to her daughter when she received, one beautiful May morning, the
+following letter dated from Paris:
+
+"BELOVED MOTHER:--'No more Switzerland!' too much Switzerland! Here I am;
+don't disturb yourself. I know how much you are enjoying yourself at
+Vastville. We'll go and join you there one of these fine mornings, and
+we'll all come home together in the autumn. I only ask of you a few days
+to look after our future establishment here.
+
+"We are at the Grand Hotel. I did not choose to stop at your house, for
+all sorts of reasons, nor at my grandmother's, who, however, insisted very
+kindly upon our doing so:
+
+"'Oh! mon Dieu! my dear children--that must not be--in a hotel! why, that
+is not proper. You cannot remain in a hotel! come and stay with me. mon
+Dieu! you'll be very uncomfortable. You'll be camping out, as it were. I
+don't even know how I'll manage to give you anything to eat, for my cook
+is sick abed, and that stupid coachman of mine, by the way, has a stye on
+his eye! But why not let people know you were coming? You fall upon me
+like two flower-pots from a window! It's incredible! You are in good
+health, my friend? I need not ask you. It shows plainly enough. And you,
+my beautiful pet? Why! it is the sun; the sun itself. Hide yourself--you
+are dazzling my eyes! Have you any luggage? Well, we'll just put it in the
+parlor; it can't be helped. And as to yourselves, I'll give you my own
+room. I'll engage a housekeeper and hire a driver from some livery stable.
+You'll not be in my way at all, not at all, not at all!'
+
+"In short, we did not accept.
+
+"But the explanation of this sudden return! Here it is:
+
+"'Are you not tired of Switzerland, my dear?' I asked of my husband.
+
+"'I am tired of Switzerland,' replied that faithful echo.
+
+"'Suppose we go away, then?'
+
+"And away we went.
+
+"Glad and moved to the bottom of my soul at the thought of soon kissing
+you,
+
+JULIA.
+
+"P.S.--I beg Monsieur de Lucan not to intimidate me."
+
+The days that followed were delightfully busy for Clotilde. She herself
+unpacked the parcels that constantly kept coming, and put the contents
+away with her own maternal hands. She unfolded and folded again, she
+caressed those skirts, those waists of fine and perfumed linen, which were
+already to her like a part of her daughter's person. Lucan, a little
+jealous, surprised her meditating lovingly over these pretty things. She
+went to the stables to see Julia's horse, which had followed soon after
+the boxes; she gave him lumps of sugar and chatted with him. She filled
+with flowers and verdant foliage the apartments set apart for the young
+couple.
+
+This fever of happiness soon came to its happy termination. About a week
+after her arrival in Paris, Julia wrote to her mother that they expected,
+her husband and herself, to leave that evening, and that they would be in
+Cherbourg the next morning. Clotilde prepared, of course, to go and meet
+them with her carriage. Monsieur de Lucan, after duly conferring with her
+on the subject, thought best not to accompany her. He feared that he might
+interfere with the first emotions of the return, and yet, not wishing that
+Julia should attribute his absence to a lack of attention, he resolved to
+go and meet the travelers on horseback.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+FATHER AND STEP-DAUGHTER.
+
+
+It was on one of the first days of June. Clotilde had left early in the
+morning, fresh and radiant as the dawn. Two hours later, Lucan mounted his
+horse and started at a walk. The roads are lovely in Normandy at this
+season. The hawthorn hedges perfume the country, and sprinkle here and
+there the edges of the road with their rosy snow. A profusion of fresh
+verdure, dotted with wild flowers, covers the face of the ditches. All
+that, under the gay morning sun, is a feast for the eyes. M. de Lucan,
+however, greatly contrary to his custom, bestowed but very slight
+attention upon the spectacle of that smiling nature. He was preoccupied,
+to a degree that surprised himself, with his coming meeting with his
+step-daughter. Julia had been such a besetting thought in his mind that he
+had retained of her an exaggerated impression. He strove in vain to
+restore her to her natural proportions, which were, after all, only those
+of a child, formerly a naughty child, now a prodigal child. He had become
+accustomed to invest her, in his imagination, with a mysterious importance
+and a sort of fatal power, of which he found it difficult to strip her. He
+laughed and felt irritated at his own weakness; but he experienced an
+agitation mingled with curiosity and vague uneasiness, at the moment of
+beholding face to face that sphinx whose shadow had so long disturbed his
+life, and who now came in person to sit at his fireside.
+
+An open barouche, decked with parasols, appeared at the summit of a hill;
+Lucan saw a head leaning and a handkerchief waving outside the carriage;
+he urged at once his horse to a gallop. Almost at the same instant the
+carriage stopped, and a young woman jumped lightly upon the road; she
+turned around to address a few words to her traveling-companions, and
+advanced alone toward Lucan. Not wishing to be outdone in politeness, he
+alighted also, handed his horse to the groom who followed him, and started
+with cheerful alacrity in the direction of the young woman, whom he did
+not recognize, but who was evidently Julia. She was coming toward him
+without haste, with a sliding walk, rocking gently her flexible figure. As
+she drew near, she threw off her vail with a rapid motion of her hand, and
+Lucan was enabled to find again upon that youthful face, in those large
+and slightly clouded eyes, and the pure and stretching arch of the
+eyebrows, some features of the child he had known.
+
+When Julia's glance met that of Lucan, her pale complexion became suffused
+with a purple blush.
+
+He bowed very low to her, and with a smile full of affectionate grace:
+
+"Welcome!" he said.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Julia, in a voice whose grave and melodious suavity
+struck Lucan; "friends, are we not?" And she held out both her hands to
+him with charming resolution.
+
+He drew her gently to himself to kiss her; but thinking that he felt a
+slight resistance in the suddenly stiffening arms of his step-daughter, he
+contented himself with kissing her wrist just above her glove. Then
+affecting to look at her with a polite admiration, which, however, was
+perfectly sincere:
+
+"I really feel," he said, laughingly, "like asking you to whom I have the
+honor of speaking."
+
+"You find me grown?" she said, showing her dazzling teeth.
+
+"Surprisingly so," said Lucan; "most surprisingly. I understand Pierre
+perfectly now."
+
+"Poor Pierre!" said Julia; "he is so fond of you. Don't let us keep him
+waiting any longer, if you please."
+
+They started in the direction of the carriage, in front of which Monsieur
+de Moras was awaiting them, and while walking side by side:
+
+"What a lovely country!" resumed Julia. "And the sea quite near?"
+
+"Quite near."
+
+"We'll take a ride on horseback after breakfast, will we not?"
+
+"Quite willingly; but you must be horribly fatigued, my dear child. Excuse
+me! my dear--? By the way, how do you wish me to call you?"
+
+"Call me madam. I was such a bad child!"
+
+And she broke forth into a roll of that sudden, graceful, but somewhat
+equivocal laughter that was habitual with her. Then raising her voice:
+
+"You may come, Pierre; your friend is my friend now!"
+
+She left the two men shaking hands cordially, and exchanging the usual
+greetings, jumped into the carriage, and resuming her seat at her mother's
+side:
+
+"Mother," she said, kissing her at the same time, "the meeting came off
+very well--didn't it, Monsieur de Lucan?"
+
+"Very well, indeed," said Lucan, laughingly, "except some minor details."
+
+"Oh! you are too hard to please, sir!" said Julia, drawing her wrappings
+around her.
+
+The next moment Monsieur de Lucan was cantering by the carriage door,
+while the three travelers inside were indulging in one of those expansive
+talks that usually follow the happy solution of a dreaded crisis.
+Clotilde, henceforth in the full possession of all her affections, was
+fairly soaring in the ethereal blue.
+
+"You are too handsome, mother," said Julia. "With such a big girl as I am,
+it is a positive crime!"
+
+And she kissed her again.
+
+Lucan, while participating in the conversation and doing to Julia the
+honors of the landscape, was trying to sum up within himself his
+impressions of the ceremony which had just taken place. Upon the whole he
+thought, as did his step-daughter, that it had come off very well,
+although it was not quite perfection. Perfection would have been to find
+in Julia a plain and unaffected woman, who would have simply thrown
+herself in her step-father's arms and laughed with him at her spoilt
+child's escapade; but he had never expected Julia's manners to be quite as
+frank and open as that. She had done in the present circumstances all that
+could be expected of a nature like hers; she had shown herself graciously
+friendly; she had, it is true, imparted to this first interview a certain
+solemn and dramatic turn. She was romantic, and as Lucan was tolerably so
+himself, this whim of hers had not proved unpleasant to him.
+
+He had been, moreover, agreeably surprised at the beauty of Madame de
+Moras, which was indeed striking. The severe regularity of her features,
+the deep luster of her blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, the
+exquisite harmony of her form were not her only, nor indeed her principal
+attractions; she owed her rare and personal charm to a sort of strange
+grace mingled with flexibility and strength, that lent enchantment to her
+every motion. She had in the play of her countenance, in her step, in her
+gestures, the sovereign ease of a woman who does not feel a single weak
+point in her beauty, and who moves, grows, and blossoms with all the
+freedom of a child in his cradle or a fallow deer in the forest. Made as
+she was, she had no difficulty in dressing well; the simplest costumes
+fitted her person with an elegant precision that caused the Baroness de
+Pers to say in her inaccurate though expressive language:
+
+"A pair of kid gloves would be enough to dress her with."
+
+During that same day and those that followed, Julia conquered new titles
+to Monsieur de Lucan's good graces, by manifesting a strong liking for the
+chateau of Vastville and the surrounding sites. The chateau pleased her
+for its romantic style, its old-fashioned garden ornamented with yews and
+evergreens, the lonely avenues of the park, and its melancholy woods
+scattered with ruins. She went into ecstasies at the sight of the vast
+heather plains lashed by the ocean winds, the trees with twisted and
+convulsive tops, the tall granite cliffs worn by the everlasting waves.
+
+"All that," she said, laughingly, "has a great deal of character;" and as
+she had a great deal of it herself, she felt in her element. She had found
+the home of her dreams, she was happy.
+
+Her mother, to whom she paid up in passionate effusions all arrearages of
+tenderness, was still more so.
+
+The greater part of the day was spent riding about on horseback. After
+dinner, Julia, with that joyous and somewhat feverish spirit that animated
+her, related her travels, parodying in a good-natured manner her own
+enthusiasm and her husband's relative indifference in presence of the
+masterpieces of antique art. She illustrated these recollections with
+scenes of mimicry in which she displayed the skill of a fairy, the
+imagination of an artist, and sometimes the broad humor of a low comedian.
+In a turn of the hand, with a flower, a bit of silk, a sheet of paper, she
+composed a Neapolitan, Roman, or Sicilian head-dress. She performed scenes
+from ballets or operas, pushing back the train of her dress with a tragic
+sweep of her foot, and accentuating strongly the commonplace exclamations
+of Italian lyricism:
+
+"Oh, Ciel! Crudel! Perfido! Oh, dio! Perdona!"
+
+Or else, kneeling on an arm-chair, she imitated the voice and manner of a
+preacher she had heard in Rome, and who did not seem to have sufficiently
+edified her.
+
+Through all these various performances she never lost a particle of her
+grace, and her most comical attitudes retained a certain elegance.
+
+After all these frolics she would resume her expression of a listless
+queen. Beneath the charm of the life and prestige of this brilliant
+nature, Monsieur de Lucan readily forgave Julia the caprices and
+peculiarities of which she was lavishly prodigal, especially toward her
+step-father. She showed herself generally with him what she had been at
+the start; friendly and polite, with a shade of haughty irony; but she had
+strong inequalities of temper. Lucan surprised sometimes her gaze riveted
+upon him with a painful and almost fierce expression. One day she repelled
+with sullen rudeness the hand he offered to assist her in alighting from
+her horse or in climbing over a fence. She seemed to avoid every occasion
+of finding herself alone with him, and when she could not escape a
+tete-a-tete of a few moments, she manifested either restless irritation or
+mocking impertinence. Lucan fancied she reproached herself sometimes with
+belying too much her former sentiments, and that she thought she owed it
+to herself to give them from time to time a token of fidelity. He was
+grateful to her, however, for reserving for himself alone these equivocal
+manifestations, and for not troubling her mother with them. Upon the whole
+he attached but a slight importance to these symptoms. If there still was
+in the affectionate manifestations of his step-daughter something of a
+struggle and an effort, it was on the part of that haughty nature an
+excusable feature, a last resistance, which he flattered himself soon to
+remove by multiplying his delicate attentions toward her.
+
+Some two weeks after Julia's arrival, there was a ball given by the
+Marchioness de Boisfresnay, in her chateau of Boisfresnay, which is
+situated two or three miles from Vastville. Monsieur and Madame de Lucan
+were on pleasant visiting-terms with the marchioness. They went to that
+ball with Julia and her husband, the gentlemen in the coupe, the ladies,
+on account of their dresses, occupying the carriage alone. Toward
+midnight, Clotilde took her husband aside, and pointing to her daughter,
+who was waltzing in the adjoining parlor with a naval officer:
+
+"Hush! my dear," she said; "I have a frightful headache, and Pierre is
+fairly bored to death; but we have not the courage to take Julia away so
+early. Do you wish to make yourself very agreeable? You'll bring her home,
+and we will start now, Pierre and myself; we'll leave you the carriage."
+
+"Very well, dear," said Lucan, "run off, then."
+
+Clotilde and Monsieur de Moras slipped away at once.
+
+A moment later Julia, cleaving her way scornfully through the throng that
+parted before her as before an angel of light, raised her superb brow and
+made a sign to Lucan.
+
+"I don't see mother," she said.
+
+Lucan informed her in a few words of the arrangement which had just been
+settled upon. A sudden flash darted across Julia's eyes; her brows became
+contracted; she shrugged her shoulders slightly without replying, and
+returned into the ball-room, waltzing through the crowd with the same
+tranquil insolence. She betook herself again to the arm of a naval
+officer, and seemed to enjoy whirling in all her splendor. And indeed her
+ball-dress added a strange luster to her beauty. Her shoulders and throat,
+emerging from her dress with a sort of chaste indifference, retained even
+in the animation of the dance the cold and lustrous purity of marble.
+
+Lucan asked her to waltz with him; she hesitated, but having consulted her
+memory, she discovered that she had not yet exhausted the list of naval
+officers who had swooped down in squadrons upon that rich prey. At the end
+of an hour she got tired of being admired and called for the carriage. As
+she was draping herself in her wrappings in the vestibule, her step-father
+volunteered his services.
+
+"No! I beg of you," she said, impatiently; "men don't know--don't know at
+all!"
+
+Then she threw herself in the carriage with a wearied look. However, as
+the horses were starting:
+
+"Smoke, sir," she said with a better grace.
+
+Lucan thanked her for the permission, but without availing himself of it;
+then, while making all his little arrangements of neighborly comfort:
+
+"You were remarkably handsome to-night, my dear child!" he said.
+
+"Monsieur," said Julia, in a nonchalant but affirmative tone, "I forbid
+you to think me handsome, and I forbid you to call me 'my dear child!'"
+
+"As you please," said Lucan. "Well, then, you are not handsome, you are
+not dear to me, and you are not a child."
+
+"As for being a child, no!" she said, energetically.
+
+She wound her vail around her head, crossed her arms over her bosom, and
+settled herself in her corner, where a stray moonbeam came occasionally to
+play over her whiteness.
+
+"May I sleep?" she asked.
+
+"Why, most certainly! Shall I close the window?"
+
+"If you please. My flowers will not incommode you?"
+
+"Not in the least."
+
+After a pause:
+
+"Monsieur de Lucan?" resumed Julia.
+
+"Dear madam?"
+
+"Do explain to me in what consist the usages of society; for there are
+things which I do not understand. Is it admissible--is it proper to allow
+a woman of my age and a gentleman of yours to return from a ball,
+tete-a-tete, at two o'clock in the morning?"
+
+"But," said Lucan, not without a certain gravity, "I am not a gentleman; I
+am your mother's husband."
+
+"Ah! that is true; of course, you are my mother's husband!" she said,
+emphasizing these words in a ringing voice, which caused Lucan to fear
+some explosion.
+
+But, appearing to overcome a violent emotion, she went on in an almost
+cheerful tone:
+
+"Yes, you are my mother's husband; and what is more, you are, according to
+my notion, a very bad husband for my mother."
+
+"According to your notion!" said Lucan, quietly. "And why so?"
+
+"Because you are not at all suited to her."
+
+"Have you consulted your mother on that subject, my dear madam? It seems
+to me that she must be a better judge of it than yourself."
+
+"I need not consult her. It is enough to see you both together. My mother
+is an angelic creature, whereas you;--no!"
+
+"What am I, then?"
+
+"A romantic, restless man--the very reverse, in fact. Sooner or later,
+you'll betray her."
+
+"Never!" said Lucan, somewhat sternly.
+
+"Are you quite sure of that, sir?" said Julia, riveting her gaze upon him
+from the depths of her hood.
+
+"Dear madam," replied Monsieur de Lucan, "you were asking me, a moment
+since, to explain to you what was proper and what was improper; well, it
+is improper that we should take, you your mother, and I my wife, as the
+text for a jest of that kind, and consequently, it is proper that we
+should drop the subject."
+
+She hushed, remained motionless and closed her eyes. In the course of a
+minute or two, Lucan saw a tear fall down her long eyelashes and roll over
+her cheek.
+
+"Mon Dieu! my child," he said, "I have wounded your feelings! Allow me to
+tender you my sincere apologies."
+
+"Keep your apologies to yourself!" she said, in a hoarse voice, opening
+her eyes wide at the same time. "I have no need of your apologies any
+more than of your lessons! Your lessons! What have I done to deserve such
+a humiliation? I cannot understand. What is there more innocent than my
+words, and what do you expect me to tell you? Is it my fault if I am here
+alone with you! if I am compelled to speak to you?--if I know not what to
+say? Why am I exposed to such things? Why ask me more than I can do? It
+is presuming too much on my strength! It is enough--it is a thousand
+times too much already--to be compelled to act such a comedy as I am
+compelled to act every day. God knows I am tired of it!"
+
+Lucan found it difficult to overcome the painful surprise that had seized
+him.
+
+"Julia," he said at last, "you were kind enough to tell me that we were
+friends; I believed you. Is it not true, then?"
+
+"No!"
+
+After launching that word with somber energy, she wrapped up her head
+and face in her hood and vail, and remained during the rest of the way
+plunged into a silence which Monsieur de Lucan did not attempt to disturb.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A DISILLUSION.
+
+
+After a few hours of painful sleep, Monsieur de Lucan rose the next day,
+his brain laden with cares.
+
+The resumption of hostilities, which had been clearly signified to him
+foreboded surely fresh troubles for his peace and fresh anguish for
+Clotilde's happiness. Was he, then, about returning to those odious
+agitations which had so long harassed his existence, and this time without
+any hopes of escape? How, indeed, was it possible not to despair of that
+untamable nature which age and reason, which so much attention and
+affection had left unmoved in her prejudices and her hatred? How was it
+possible to understand, and, above all, ever to overcome the quixotic
+sentiment, or rather the mania which had taken possession of that
+concentrated soul, and which was smoldering in it, ever ready to break
+forth in furious outbursts?
+
+Clotilde and Julia had not yet made their appearance. Lucan went to take
+a walk in the garden, to breathe once more the peace of his beloved
+solitude, pending the anticipated storms. At the extremity of an alley of
+evergreens, he discovered the Count de Moras, his arm resting on the
+pedestal of an old statue, and his eyes fixed on the ground.
+
+Monsieur de Moras had never been a dreamer, but since his arrival at the
+chateau, he had, on more than one occasion, manifested to Lucan a
+melancholy state of mind quite foreign to his natural disposition. Lucan
+had felt alarmed; nevertheless, as he did not himself like any one to
+intrude upon his confidence, he had abstained from questioning him.
+
+They shook hands as they met.
+
+"You came home late last night?" inquired the count.
+
+"At about three o'clock."
+
+"Oh! _povero! Apropos_, thanks for your kindness to Julia. How did she
+behave to you?"
+
+"Why--well enough," said Lucan--"a little peculiar, as usual."
+
+"Oh! peculiar of course!"
+
+He smiled rather sadly, took Monsieur de Lucan's arm, and leading him
+through the meandering paths of the garden:
+
+"_Voyons, mon cher_," he said in a suppressed voice, "between you and me,
+what is Julia?"
+
+"How, my friend?"
+
+"Yes, what sort of a woman is my wife? If you know, do tell me, I beg of
+you."
+
+"Excuse me, but it is the very question I would like to ask of you
+myself."
+
+"Of me?" said the count. "But I have not the slightest idea. She is a
+Sphinx, a riddle, the solution of which escapes me completely. She both
+charms and frightens me. She is peculiar, you said? She is more than that;
+she is fantastic. She is not of this world. I know not whom or what I have
+married. You remember that cold and beautiful creature in the Arabian
+tales who rose at night to go and feast in the graveyard. It's absurd, but
+she reminds me of that."
+
+The count's troubled look, the constrained laugh with which he accompanied
+his words, moved Lucan deeply.
+
+"So, then," said the latter, "you are unhappy?"
+
+"It is impossible to be more so," replied the count, pressing his hand
+hard. "I adore her, and I am jealous--without knowing of whom and of what!
+She does not love me--and yet she loves some one--she must love some one!
+How can I doubt it? Look at her; she is the very embodiment of passion;
+the fire of passion overflows in her words, in her looks, in the blood of
+her veins! And near me, she is as cold as the statue upon a tomb!"
+
+"Frankly, _mon cher_," said Lucan, "you seem to exaggerate your disasters
+greatly. In reality they seem to amount to very little. In the first
+place, you are seriously in love for the first time in your life, I think;
+you had heard a great deal said about love, about passion, and perhaps you
+were expecting of them excessive wonders. In the second place, I must beg
+you to observe that very young women are rarely very passionate. The sort
+of coolness of which you complain is therefore quite easy to explain
+without the intervention of anything supernatural. Young women, I repeat,
+are generally idealists; their love has no substance. You ask of whom or
+of what you should be jealous? Be jealous, then, of all those vague and
+romantic aspirations that torment youthful imaginations; be jealous of the
+wind, of the tempest, of the barren moors, of the rugged cliffs, of my old
+manor, of my words and of my ruins--for Julia adores all that. Be jealous,
+above all, of that ardent worship she has avowed to her father's memory,
+and which still absorbs her--I have lately had a proof of the fact--the
+keenest of her passion."
+
+"You do me good," rejoined Pierre de Moras, breathing more freely, "and
+yet I had already thought of all these things. But if she does not love
+now, she will some day--and suppose it should not be me! Were she to
+bestow upon another all that she refuses me! my friend," added the count,
+whose handsome features turned pale, "I would kill her with my own hand!"
+
+"So much for being in love," said Lucan; "and I, am I nothing more to you,
+then?"
+
+"You, my friend," said Moras with emotion, "you see my confidence in you!
+I have revealed to you weaknesses of which I am ashamed. Ah! why have I
+ever known any other feeling than that of friendship! Friendship alone
+returns as much as it receives; it fortifies instead of enervating; it is
+the only passion worthy of a man. Never forsake me, my friend; you will
+console me, whatever may happen."
+
+The bell that was ringing for breakfast called them back to the chateau.
+Julia pretended being tired and ailing. Under shelter of this pretext, her
+silent humor, her more than dry answers to Lucan's polite questions,
+passed at first without awakening either her mother's or her husband's
+attention; but during the remainder of the day, and amid the various
+incidents of family life, Julia's aggressive tone and disagreeable manners
+toward Lucan became too strongly marked not to be noticed. However, as
+Lucan had the patience and good taste not to seem to notice them, each one
+kept his own impressions to himself. The dinner was, that day, more quiet
+than usual. The conversation fell, toward the end of the meal, upon
+extremely delicate ground, and it was Julia who brought it there, though,
+however, without the least thought of evil. She was exhausting her mocking
+_verve_ upon a little boy of eight or ten--the son of the Marchioness de
+Boisfresnay--who had annoyed her extremely the night before, by parading
+through the ball his own pretentious little person, and by throwing
+himself pleasantly like a top between the legs of the gentlemen and
+through the dresses of the ladies. The marchioness went into ecstasies at
+these charming pranks. Clotilde defended her mildly, alleging that this
+child was her only son.
+
+"That is no reason for bestowing upon society one scoundrel the more,"
+said Lucan.
+
+"However," rejoined Julia, who hastened to be no longer of her own opinion
+as soon as her step-father seemed to have rallied to it, "it is a well
+acknowledged fact that spoiled children are those who turn out the best."
+
+"There are at least some exceptions," said Lucan, coldly.
+
+"I know of none," said Julia.
+
+"Mon Dieu!" said the Count de Moras in a tone of conciliation, "right or
+wrong, it is quite the fashion, nowadays, to spoil children."
+
+"It is a criminal fashion," said Lucan. "Formerly their parents whipped
+them, and thus made men of them."
+
+"When a man has such a disposition as that," said Julia, "he does not
+deserve to have any children--and he has none!" she added with a direct
+look that further aggravated the unkind and even cruel intention of her
+words.
+
+Monsieur de Lucan turned very pale. Clotilde's eyes filled with tears.
+Julia, embarrassed at her triumph, left the room. Her mother, after
+remaining for a few moments, her face covered with her hands, rose from
+the table and went to join her.
+
+"Now, _mon cher_," said Monsieur de Moras as soon as he found himself
+alone with Lucan, "what the mischief took place between you two last
+night? You did tell me something about it this morning, but I was so much
+absorbed in my own selfish preoccupations, that I paid no attention to it.
+But tell me, what did take place between you?"
+
+"Nothing serious. Only I was able to satisfy myself that she had not yet
+forgiven my occupying a place which, according to her ideas, should never
+have been filled."
+
+"What would you advise me to do, George?" rejoined Monsieur de Moras. "I
+am ready to do whatever you say.
+
+"My dear friend," said Lucan, laying gently his hands upon Pierre's
+shoulders, "don't be offended, but life in common, under such conditions,
+becomes a very difficult matter. It is best not to wait until some
+irreparable scene. In Paris we will be able to see each other without
+difficulty. I advise you to take her away."
+
+"Suppose she is not willing."
+
+"I should speak firmly," said Lucan, looking him straight in the eyes; "I
+have some work to do this evening; it happens well and will give you a
+good opportunity. In the meantime, _au revoir_."
+
+Monsieur de Lucan locked himself up in his library. An hour later,
+Clotilde came to join him.
+
+He could see that she had wept a great deal; but she held out her forehead
+to him with her sweetest smile. While he was kissing her, she murmured
+simply and in a whisper:
+
+"Forgive her for my sake!"
+
+And the charming creature withdrew in haste to hide her emotions.
+
+The next morning, Monsieur de Lucan, who, as usual, had risen quite early,
+had been writing for some time near the library window, which opened at
+quite a moderate height on the garden. He was not a little surprised to
+see his step-daughter's face appear among the honeysuckle vines that crept
+over the iron trellis of the balcony:
+
+"Monsieur," she said in her most melodious tone, "are you very busy?"
+
+"Oh, not at all!" he replied, rising at the same time.
+
+"It's because, you see, the weather is perfectly delightful," she said.
+"Will you come and take a walk with me?"
+
+"Of course I will."
+
+"Well, come then. Good Heavens! how sweet this honeysuckle does smell!"
+
+And she snatched off a few flowers, which she threw to Lucan through the
+window, with a burst of laughter. He fastened them in his button-hole,
+making the gesture of a man who understands nothing of what is going on,
+but who has no reason to be angry.
+
+He found her in fresh morning costume, stamping upon the sand with her
+light and impatient foot.
+
+"Monsieur de Lucan," she cries, gayly, "my mother wishes me to be amiable
+with you, my husband wishes it, Heaven wills it, too, I suppose; that's
+why I am willing also, and I assure you that I can be very amiable when I
+try. You'll see!"
+
+"Is it possible?" said Lucan.
+
+"You'll see, sir!" she replied, dropping him with all possible grace, a
+regular stage curtsey.
+
+"And where are we going, pray, madam?"
+
+"Wherever you like--through the woods, at random, if you please."
+
+The wooded hills came so close to the chateau, that they bordered with a
+fringe of shade one side of the yard. Monsieur de Lucan and Julia took the
+first path that came in their way; but it was not long before Julia left
+the beaten road-way, to walk at hazard from tree to tree, wandering at
+random, beating the thickets with her cane, picking flowers or leaves,
+stopping in ecstasy before the luminous bands that striped here and there
+the mossy carpets, frankly intoxicated with movement, open air, sunshine,
+and youth. While walking, she cast to her companion words of pleasant
+fellowship, playful interpellation, childish jests, and caused the woods
+to ring again with the melody of her laughter.
+
+In her admiration for the wild flowers, she had gradually collected a
+regular bundle, of which Monsieur de Lucan accepted the burden with
+cheerful resignation. Noticing that he was almost bending under the
+weight, she sat down upon the gnarled roots of an old oak, in order, she
+said, to make a selection among all this pell-mell. She then took upon her
+lap the bundles of grass and flowers, and began throwing out everything
+that appeared to her of inferior quality. She handed over to Lucan, seated
+a step or two from her, whatever she thought fit to retain for the final
+bouquet, justifying gravely her decision upon each plant that she
+examined:
+
+"You, my dear, you are too thin! you're pretty, but too short! you, you
+smell bad! you, you look stupid."
+
+Then, turning abruptly into another train of thought, which was not at
+first without causing some uneasiness to Monsieur de Lucan:
+
+"It was you, wasn't it, who advised Pierre to speak to me with firmness?"
+
+"I?" said Lucan, "what an idea!"
+
+"It must have been you. You," she went on again, speaking to her flowers,
+"you look sickly, good-night! Yes, it must have been you. One might think
+you quite meek, to look at you, whereas, on the contrary, you are very
+harsh, very tyrannical."
+
+"Ferocious!" said Lucan.
+
+"At any rate, I have no fault to find with you for that. You were right;
+poor Pierre is too weak with me. I like a man to be a man. And yet he is
+very brave, is he not?"
+
+"Extremely so," said Lucan; "he is capable of the most energetic actions."
+
+"He looks like it, and yet with me--he is an angel."
+
+"It is because he loves you."
+
+"Quite probable!--some of those flowers are so curious. Look at this one;
+it looks like a little lady!"
+
+"I hope that you love him too, my good Pierre?"
+
+"Quite probable, too!"
+
+After a pause, she shook her head:
+
+"And why should I love him?"
+
+"What a question!" said Lucan. "Why, because he is perfectly worthy of
+being loved; because he has every quality; intelligence, heart, and even
+beauty--finally, because you have married him."
+
+"Monsieur de Lucan, will you allow me to tell you something
+confidentially?"
+
+"I beg you to do so."
+
+"That trip to Italy has been very injurious to me."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Before my marriage, I did not think myself positively ugly, but I fancied
+myself at least quite plain."
+
+"Yes! Well?"
+
+"Well! while traveling about Italy, among all those souvenirs and those
+marbles, so much admired, I made strange reflections. I said to myself
+that, after all, these princesses and goddesses of the ancient world, who
+drove shepherds and kings mad, for whose sake wars broke out and
+sacrileges were committed, were persons pretty much after my own style.
+Then occurred to me the fatal idea of my own beauty! I felt that I
+disposed of an exceptional power; that I was a sacred object that could
+not be given away for a vulgar trifle, and which could only be the
+reward--how can I say?--of a great deed or of a crime!"
+
+Lucan remained for a moment astonished at the audacious naivete of that
+language. He thought best, however, to laugh at it.
+
+"But, my dear Julia," he said, "take care; you mistake the age. We are no
+longer in the days when nations went to war for the sake of a woman's
+pretty eyes. However, speak about it to Pierre; he has everything required
+to furnish the great action you want. As to the crime, I think you had
+better give it up."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Julia. "What a pity!" she added, bursting out into
+a hearty laugh. "You see, I tell you all the nonsense that comes in my
+head. That's amiable enough, I hope, is it not?"
+
+"It is certainly extremely amiable," said Lucan. "Keep on."
+
+"With such precious encouragement, sir!" she said, rising and finishing
+her sentence with a courtesy; "but for the present, let us go to
+breakfast. I recommend my bouquet to your attention. Hold the head down.
+Walk ahead, sir, and by the shortest road, if you please, for I have an
+appetite that is bringing tears to my eyes."
+
+Lucan took the path that led most directly to the chateau. She followed
+him with nimble step, at times humming a cavatina, at others addressing
+him fresh instructions as to the manner of holding her bouquet, or
+touching him lightly with the end of her cane, to make him admire some
+birds perched upon a branch.
+
+Clotilde and Monsieur de Moras were waiting for them, seated upon a bench
+outside the gate of the chateau. The anxiety depicted upon their
+countenances vanished at the sound of Julia's laughing voice.
+
+As soon as she saw them, she snatched the bouquet from Lucan's hands, ran
+toward Clotilde, and throwing on her lap her fragrant harvest:
+
+"Mother," she said, "we have had a delightful walk--I had a great deal of
+fun; Monsieur de Lucan also, and what's more, he has improved very much by
+my conversation, I opened up new horizons to him!"
+
+She described with her hand a great curve in the air, to indicate the
+immensity of the horizons she had opened up to Monsieur de Lucan. Then,
+drawing her mother toward the dining-room, and snuffing the air with
+apparent relish:
+
+"Oh! that kitchen of my mother's!" she said. "What an aroma!"
+
+This charming humor, which was a source of great rejoicing to all the
+guests of the chateau, never flagged during that entire day, and, most
+unexpected of all, it continued during the next and the following days
+without perceptible change. If Julia did still nurture any remnants of her
+moody cares, she had at least the kindness of keeping them to herself, and
+to suffer alone. More than once, still, she was seen returning from her
+solitary excursions with gloomy eye and clouded brow; but she shook off
+these equivocal dispositions as soon as she found herself again in the
+family circle, and was all amiability.
+
+Toward Monsieur de Lucan particularly she showed herself most agreeable;
+feeling, probably, that she had many amends to make in that direction. She
+went so far as to take up a great deal of his time without much
+discretion, and to call him a little too often in requisition for walks or
+rides, for tapestry drawings, for playing duets with her, sometimes for
+nothing, simply to disturb him, standing in front of his windows, and
+asking him, in the midst of his reading, all sorts of burlesque questions.
+All this was charming; Monsieur de Lucan lent himself to it with the
+utmost good nature, and did not surely deserve great credit for doing so.
+
+About this time, the Baroness de Pers came to spend three days with her
+daughter. She was at once advised, with full particulars, of the
+miraculous change that had taken place in Julia's character, and of her
+behavior toward her step-father. On witnessing the gracious attentions
+which she lavished upon Monsieur de Lucan, Madame de Pers manifested the
+liveliest satisfaction, in the midst of which, however, could be seen at
+times some slight traces of her former prejudices against her
+grand-daughter.
+
+The day before the expected departure of the baroness, some of the
+neighbors were invited to dinner for her gratification, for she had but
+very little taste for the intimacy of family life, and was passionately
+fond of strangers. For want of time to do any better, they gave her for
+company, the cure of Vastville, the local physician, the receiver of
+taxes, and recorder of deeds, all of whom were tolerably frequent guests
+at the chateau, and great admirers of Julia. It was doubtless not a great
+deal; it was enough, however, to furnish to the baroness an occasion for
+wearing one of her handsome dinner-dresses.
+
+Julia, during the dinner, seemed to make it a point to effect the conquest
+of the cure, a simple old man, who yielded to his fair neighbor's
+fascinations with a sort of joyous stupor. She made him eat, she made him
+drink, she made him laugh.
+
+"What a little serpent she is, isn't she, Monsieur le Cure?" said the
+baroness.
+
+"She is very lovely," said the cure.
+
+"Enough to make one shudder," rejoined the baroness.
+
+In the evening, after waltzing for a little while around the room, Julia,
+accompanied by her husband, sang in her beautiful, grave voice, some
+unpublished melodies and national songs she had brought back from Italy.
+One of these tunes having reminded her of a sort of tarentella she had
+seen danced by some women at Procida, she requested her husband to play
+it. She was explaining at the same time, with much animation, how this
+tarentella was danced, giving a rapid outline of the steps, the gestures
+and the attitudes; then, suddenly carried away by the ardor of her
+narrative:
+
+"Wait a moment, Pierre," she said, "I am going to dance it. That will be
+much more simple."
+
+She lifted the long train of her dress, which impeded her movements, and
+requested her mother to loop it up with pins. In the meantime she was
+right busy herself; there were on the mantel-piece, and on the consoles,
+vases filled with flowers and verdure; she drew freely from them with her
+nimble fingers, and, standing before a mirror, she fastened and twined
+pell-mell, in her magnificent hair, flowers, leaves, bunches, ears,
+anything that happened to fall under her hands. With her head loaded with
+that heavy and quivering wreath, she came to place herself in the center
+of the parlor.
+
+"Go on now, dear!" she said to Monsieur de Moras. He played the
+tarentella, that began with a sort of slow and measured ballet-step, which
+Julia performed in her own masterly style, folding and unfolding in turn,
+like two garlands, her peri's arms; then the rhythm becoming more and more
+animated, she struck the floor with her rapid and repeated steps, with the
+wild suppleness and the wanton smile of a young bacchante. Suddenly she
+brought the performance to a close with a long slide that carried her, all
+panting, before Monsieur de Lucan, seated opposite to her. There, she bent
+one knee, lay with rapid gesture both her hands upon her hair, and tossing
+about at the same time her inclined head, she shook off her crown in a
+shower of flowers at the feet of Lucan, saying in her sweetest voice, and
+in a tone of gracious homage:
+
+"There! sir!"
+
+After which, she rose, and, still sliding, made her way to an arm-chair,
+into which she threw herself, and taking up the cure's three-cornered hat,
+she began to fan herself vigorously with it.
+
+In the midst of the applause and the laughter that filled the parlor, the
+Baroness de Pers drew gently nearer to Lucan on the sofa which they were
+jointly occupying, and said to him in a whisper:
+
+"Tell me, my dear sir, what in the world is the meaning of this new
+system? Do you know that I still preferred the old style myself?"
+
+"How, dear madam? And why so?" said Lucan simply.
+
+But before the baroness had time to explain, admitting that such was her
+intention, Julia was taken with another fancy.
+
+"Really," she said, "I am smothering here. Monsieur de Lucan, do offer me
+your arm."
+
+She went out, and Lucan followed her. She stopped in the vestibule to
+cover her head with her great white vail, seemed to hesitate between the
+door that led into the garden and that which led into the yard, and then
+deciding:
+
+"To the Ladies' Walk," she said; "it's coolest there."
+
+"The Ladies' Walk," which was Julia's favorite strolling resort, opened
+opposite the avenue, on the other side of the court-yard. It was a gently
+sloping path contrived between the rocky base of the wooded hill and the
+banks of a ravine that seemed to have been one of the moats of the old
+castle. A brook flowed at the bottom of this ravine with a melancholy
+murmur; it became merged, a little farther off, into a small lake shaded
+by willows, and guarded by two old marble nymphs, to which the Ladies'
+Walk was indebted for its name, consecrated by the local tradition.
+Half-way between the yard and the pond, fragments of wall and broken
+arches, the evident remnants of some outer fortification, rose against the
+hill-side; for the space of a few paces, these ruins bordered the path
+with their heavy buttresses, and projected into it, together with festoons
+of ivy and briar, a mass of shade which night changed into densest
+darkness. It looked then as if the passage was broken by an abyss. The
+gloomy character of this site was not, however, without some mitigating
+features; the path was strewn with fine, dry sand; rustic benches stood
+against the bluff; finally, the grassy banks that sloped down into the
+ravine were dotted with hyacinths, violets, and dwarf roses whose perfume
+rose and lingered in that shaded alley like the odor of incense in a
+church.
+
+It was then about the end of July, and the heat had been overpowering
+during the day. After leaving the atmosphere of the court-yard, still
+aglow with the fires of the setting sun, Julia breathed eagerly the cool
+air of the woods and of the brook.
+
+"Dieu! how delightful this is!" she said.
+
+"But I am afraid this may be a little too delightful," said Lucan; "allow
+me."
+
+And he wound up in a double fold round her neck the floating ends of her
+vail.
+
+"What! do you value my life, then?" she said.
+
+"Most undoubtedly."
+
+"That's magnanimous!"
+
+She walked a few steps in silence, resting lightly upon the arm of her
+companion, and rocking, in her peculiar way, her graceful figure.
+
+"Your good cure must take me for a species of demon," she added.
+
+"He is not the only one," said Lucan, with ironical coldness.
+
+She laughed a short and constrained laugh; then, after another pause, and
+while continuing to walk with downcast eyes:
+
+"You must certainly hate me a little less now; say, don't you?"
+
+"A little less."
+
+"Be serious, will you? I know that I have made you suffer a great deal.
+Are you beginning to forgive me now?"
+
+Her voice had assumed an accent of tenderness quite unusual to it, and
+which touched Monsieur de Lucan.
+
+"I forgive you with all my heart, my child," he replied.
+
+She stopped, and grasping his two hands:
+
+"True? We will not hate each other any more?" she said, in a low and
+apparently timid tone. "You love me a little?"
+
+"Thank you," said Lucan, with grave emotion; "thank you; I love you very
+much."
+
+As she was drawing him gently toward her he clasped her in a frank and
+affectionate embrace, and pressed his lips upon the forehead she was
+holding up to him; but at the same instant he felt her supple figure
+stiffen; her head rolled back; then she sank bodily, and slipped in his
+arms like a flower whose stem has suddenly been mowed down.
+
+There was a bench within two steps; he carried her there, but after laying
+her upon it, instead of affording her the required assistance, he remained
+in an attitude of strange immobility before that lovely and helpless form.
+A long silence followed, broken only by the gentle and monotonous ripple
+of the brook. Shaking off his stupor at last, Monsieur de Lucan called out
+several times in a loud and almost harsh voice:
+
+"Julia! Julia!"
+
+As she remained motionless still, he ran down into the ravine, took some
+water in the hollow of his hand, and bathed her temples with it. In the
+course of a minute or two, he saw her eyes opening in the darkness, and he
+helped her raise her head.
+
+"What is it?" she said, looking at him with a wild expression; "what has
+happened, sir?"
+
+"Why, you fainted," said Lucan, laughing.
+
+"Fainted?" repeated Julia.
+
+"Of course; that's just what I feared; you must have been benumbed by the
+cold. Can you walk? Come, try."
+
+"Perfectly well," she said, rising and taking his arm.
+
+Like all those who experience sudden prostration, Julia remembered, but in
+a very indistinct manner, the circumstance that had brought about her
+fainting.
+
+In the meantime they had resumed their walk slowly in the direction of the
+chateau.
+
+"Fainted!" she repeated, gayly; "mon Dieu! how perfectly ridiculous!"
+
+Then, with sudden animation:
+
+"But what did I say? Did I speak at all?"
+
+"You said, 'I am cold!' and away you went!"
+
+"Just like that?"
+
+"Just like that."
+
+"Did you think I was dead?"
+
+"I did hope for a moment that you were," said Lucan, coldly.
+
+"How horrid of you! But we were talking before that. What were we saying?"
+
+"We were making a pact of amity and friendship."
+
+"Well! it doesn't look much like it now, Monsieur de Lucan!"
+
+"Madam?"
+
+"You seem positively angry with me because I fainted."
+
+"Of course I am. In the first place, I don't like that sort of adventures,
+and then, it is wholly your own fault; you are so imprudent, so
+unreasonable!"
+
+"Oh! mon Dieu! Don't you want a switch?"
+
+And as the lights of the chateau were coming into sight:
+
+"_Apropos_, don't trouble mother with any of that nonsense, will you?"
+
+"Certainly not; you may rest easy on that score."
+
+"You are just as cross as you can be, you know?"
+
+"Probably I am; but I have just spent there a few minutes so very
+painful."
+
+"I pity you with all my heart," said Julia, dryly.
+
+She threw off her vail in the vestibule, and returned to the parlor.
+
+The Baroness de Pers, who was to leave early the next day, had already
+retired. Julia performed some four-handed pieces on the piano with her
+mother. Monsieur de Lucan took the place of the "dummy" at the whist
+table, and the evening ended quietly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+VICTORY AND DEFEAT.
+
+
+The next morning, Clotilde was preparing to accompany her mother to the
+station in the carriage; Monsieur de Lucan, detained at the chateau by a
+business appointment, was present to take leave of his mother-in-law. He
+remarked the thoughtful countenance of the baroness; she was silent, much
+against her habit, and she cast embarrassed looks upon him; she approached
+him several times with a constrained smile and confidential manner, but
+confined herself to addressing to him a few commonplace words. Availing
+herself at last of a moment when Clotilde was giving some orders, she
+leaned out of the carriage-window, and, pressing significantly Monsieur de
+Lucan's hand:
+
+"Be true and faithful to her, sir!" she said.
+
+The carriage started almost immediately, but not before he had had time to
+notice that her eyes were filled with tears.
+
+The matter that was engrossing Monsieur de Lucan's attention at the time,
+and on the subject of which he had had a long conversation that very
+morning with his lawyer and his advocate, who had come over from Caen
+during the night, was an old family law-suit which the mayor of Vastville,
+an ambitious personage and restless busy-body, had taken pride in bringing
+to light again. The question at issue was a claim for some public property
+the effect of which would have been to strip Monsieur de Lucan of a
+portion of his timbered lands and to curtail materially his patrimonial
+estate. He had gained his suit in the lower court, but an appeal was soon
+to be heard, and he was not without fears as to the final result. He had
+no difficulty in using that pretext, to account during the next few days,
+to the eyes of the inhabitants of the chateau, for a severity of
+physiognomy, a briefness of language, and a fondness for solitude, which
+concealed perhaps graver cares. That pretext, however, soon failed him. A
+telegram informed him, early the following week, that the suit had been
+finally decided in his favor, and he was compelled to manifest on this
+occasion an apparent joy that was far indeed from his heart.
+
+He resumed from that moment the usual routine of family life to which
+Julia continued to impart the movement of her active imagination. However,
+he ceased to lend himself with the same affectionate familiarity to the
+caprices of his step-daughter. She noticed it; but she was not the only
+one who did. Lucan detected surprise in the eyes of Monsieur de Moras,
+reproaches in those of Clotilde. A new danger appeared before him; he was
+acting in a manner which it was equally impossible, equally perilous to
+explain or to allow being interpreted.
+
+With time, however, the frightful light that had flashed across his brain
+in a recent circumstance was growing gradually fainter; it had ceased to
+fill his mind with the same convincing force. He conceived doubts; he
+accused himself at times on a veritable aberration; he charged the
+baroness with cruel and guilty prejudices; he thought, in a word, that, at
+all events, the wisest course was to avoid believing in the drama, and
+giving it life by taking a serious part in it. Unfortunately Julia's
+disposition, full of surprises and unforeseen whims, scarcely admitted of
+any regular plan of conduct toward her.
+
+One beautiful afternoon, the guests of the chateau accompanied by a few of
+the neighbors, had gone on a horseback excursion to the extremity of Cape
+La Hague. On the return home, and when they had come about half-way,
+Julia, who had been remarkably quiet all day, left the principal group of
+riders, and, casting aside to Monsieur de Lucan an expressive glance, she
+urged her horse slightly forward. He overtook her almost immediately. She
+cast upon him again an oblique glance, and abruptly, with her bitterest
+and most incisive accent:
+
+"Is my presence dangerous to you, sir?"
+
+"How, dangerous?" he said, laughingly. "I do not understand you, my dear
+madam."
+
+"Why do you avoid me? What have I done to you? What means this new and
+disagreeable manner which you affect toward me? It is really a very
+strange thing that you should become less polite to me, as I am more so to
+you. They persecute one for years to induce me to show you a pleasant
+countenance, and when I try my best to do so, you pout. What does it mean?
+What has got into your head? I should be infinitely curious to know."
+
+"It is quite simple, and I am going to enlighten you in two words. It has
+got into my head that after being not very amiable to me, you are now
+almost too much so. I am sincerely touched and charmed at it; but I really
+fear, sometimes, to turn too much to my own profit attentions to which I
+am far from having the sole right. You know how fond I am of your husband.
+There can be no question of jealousy in this case, of course; but a man's
+love is proud and prompt to take umbrage. Without stooping to low and
+otherwise impossible sentiments, Pierre, seeing himself somewhat
+neglected, might feel offended and afflicted, at which we would both be
+greatly grieved, would we not?"
+
+"I do not know how to do anything half-way," she said with a gesture of
+impatience. "How can I change my nature? It is with my own heart, and not
+with that of another, that I love and that I hate; and then, why should it
+not enter into my plans to excite Pierre's jealousy? My old traditional
+hatred for you has perhaps made this deep calculation; he would kill
+either you or me, and that would be as good a denouement as any other."
+
+"You must allow me to prefer another," said Lucan, still trying, but
+without much success, to give a cheerful turn to this wildly passionate
+conversation.
+
+"However," she went on, "you may rest easy, my dear sir. Pierre is not
+jealous. He suspects nothing, as they say in plays!"
+
+She laughed one of her wicked laughs, and added at once in a graver tone:
+
+"And what could he suspect? In being amiable toward you, I am merely
+acting under order, and no one can tell how much of it is genuine and how
+much put on."
+
+"I feel quite certain that you don't know yourself," he said, laughingly.
+"You are a person of naturally restless disposition; you require
+agitation, and when there is none you try to imitate it as best as you
+can. Whether you like, or whether you don't like your step-father, is not
+a very dramatic affair. There is no room here for any but very simple and
+very ordinary sentiments. It is well enough to complicate them a
+little--is it not, my dear?"
+
+"Yes, my dear!" she said, emphasizing ironically the last word.
+
+Whereupon she started her horse at a gallop.
+
+They were then just reaching the edge of the woods. He soon saw her leave
+the direct road that led across them, and take a path over the heath as if
+intending to dash through the thickest of the timber. At the same instant
+Clotilde ran up to him, and touching his shoulder with the tip of her
+whip:
+
+"Where in the world is Julia going?" she said.
+
+Lucan replied with a vague gesture and a smile.
+
+"I am sure," rejoined Clotilde, "that she is going to drink at that
+fountain, yonder. She was complaining a little while since of being
+thirsty. Do follow her, dear, will you, and prevent her doing so. She is
+so warm! It might be fatal to her. Run, I beg of you."
+
+Monsieur de Lucan gave the reins to his horse, and he started like the
+wind. Julia had already disappeared under cover of the woods. He followed
+her track; but among the timber, the roots and the roughness of the ground
+somewhat checked his speed. At a short distance, in the center of a narrow
+clearing, the labor of ages and the filtrations of the soil had hollowed
+out one of those mysterious fountains whose limpid water, moss-grown
+banks, and aspect of deep solitude delight the imagination, and give rise
+to so many poetic legends. When Monsieur de Lucan was able once more to
+see Julia, she had alighted from her horse. The admirably trained animal
+stood quietly two or three steps away, browsing the young foliage, while
+his mistress, down on her knees and stooping over the edge of the spring,
+was drinking from her hands.
+
+"Julia, I beg of you!" exclaimed Monsieur de Lucan in an imploring tone.
+
+She started to her feet with a sort of elastic spring, and greeted him
+gayly.
+
+"Too late, sir!" she said; "but I only drank a few drops, just a few
+little wee drops, I assure you!"
+
+"You must really be out of your mind!" said Lucan who was by this time
+quite close to her.
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+She was shaking her beautiful white hands, which had served her for a
+drinking-cup, and which seemed to throw off a shower of diamonds.
+
+"Give me your handkerchief!"
+
+Lucan handed her his handkerchief. She wiped her hands gravely; then, as
+she returned the handkerchief with her right hand, she raised herself on
+tiptoe and held her left hand up to the level of his face:
+
+"There! now; don't scold any more!"
+
+Lucan kissed the hand.
+
+"The other now," she said again. "Please don't turn so pale, sir!"
+
+Monsieur Lucan affected not to have heard these last words, and came down
+abruptly from his horse.
+
+"I must help you to mount," he said, in a dry and harsh voice.
+
+She was putting on her gloves with downcast look. Suddenly raising her
+head and looking at him with fixed gaze:
+
+"What a miserable wretch I am, am I not?" she said.
+
+"No," said Lucan; "but what an unhappy being!"
+
+She leaned against one of the trees that shaded the spring, her head
+partially thrown back and one hand over her eyes.
+
+"Come!" said Lucan.
+
+She obeyed, and he assisted her to get on her horse. They rode out of the
+wood without uttering another word, made their way to the road, and soon
+overtook the cavalcade.
+
+As soon as he had recovered from the anguish of that scene, Monsieur de
+Lucan did not hesitate to think that the departure of Julia and of her
+husband must be the immediate and inevitable consequence of it; but when
+he came to seek some means of bringing about their sudden departure, his
+mind became lost in difficulties that he could not solve. What motive
+could he indeed offer to justify, in the eyes of Clotilde and of Monsieur
+de Moras, a determination so novel and so unexpected? It was now the
+middle of August, and it had been agreed for a long time that the entire
+family should return to Paris on the first of September. The very
+proximity of the time fixed upon for the general departure would only
+serve to make the pretext invoked to explain this sudden separation appear
+more unlikely. It was almost impossible that it should not awaken in the
+mind of Clotilde, and in that of the count, irreparable suspicions and a
+light fatal to the happiness of both. The remedy seemed indeed more to be
+dreaded than the evil itself; for, if the evil was great, it was at least
+unknown to those whose lives and whose hearts it would have shattered, and
+it could still be hoped that it might remain so forever. Monsieur de Lucan
+thought for a moment of going away himself; but it was still more
+impossible to justify his departure than it was that of Julia's.
+
+All these reflections being made, he resolved to arm himself with patience
+and courage. Once in Paris, separate dwellings, less frequent intercourse,
+the obligations of the world, and the activity of life, would doubtless
+afford relief and then a peaceful solution to a painful and formidable
+situation which it was henceforth impossible for him not to view in its
+true light. He relied upon himself, and also upon Julia's natural
+generosity, for reaching without outburst and without rupture the
+approaching term that was to put an end to their life in common and to its
+incessant perils. It ought not to be impossible to endure, for the short
+period of two weeks more, the threatenings of a storm that had been
+brewing for months without revealing its lightning. He was forgetting with
+what frightful rapidity the maladies of the soul, as well as those of the
+body, after reaching slowly and gradually certain stages, suddenly
+precipitate their progress and their ravages.
+
+Monsieur de Lucan asked himself whether he should not inform Julia of the
+conduct he had resolved to follow, and of the reasons that had dictated
+it; but every shadow of an explanation between them appeared to him
+eminently improper and dangerous. Their confidential understanding upon
+such a subject would have assumed an air of complicity which was repugnant
+to all his sentiments of honor. Despite the terrible light that had
+flashed forth, there still remained between them something obscure,
+undecided, and unconfessed that he thought best to preserve at any cost.
+Far, therefore, from seeking opportunities for some private interview, he
+avoided them all from that moment with scrupulous care. Julia seemed
+penetrated with the same feeling of reserve, and anxious to the same
+degree as himself to avoid any tete-a-tete, while striving to save
+appearances; but in that respect she did not dispose of that power of
+dissimulation which Lucan owed to his natural and acquired firmness. He
+was able, without visible effort, to hide under his habitual air of
+gravity the anxieties that consumed him. Julia did not succeed, without an
+almost convulsive restraint, in carrying with bold and smiling countenance
+the burden of her thought. To the only witness who knew the secret of her
+struggles, it was a poignant spectacle to behold the gracious and feverish
+animation of which the unhappy child sustained the appearance with so much
+difficulty. He saw her sometimes at a distance, like an exhausted
+comedienne, retiring to some isolated bench in the garden, and fairly
+panting with her hand pressing upon her bosom, as if to keep down her
+rebellious heart. He felt then, in spite of all, overcome with immense
+pity in presence of so much beauty and so much misery.
+
+Was it only pity?
+
+The attitude, the words, the looks of Clotilde and of Julia's husband were
+at the same time, for Monsieur de Lucan, the objects of constant and
+uneasy observation. Clotilde had evidently not conceived the slightest
+alarm. The gentle serenity of her features remained unaltered. A few
+oddities, more or less, in Julia's ways did not constitute a sufficient
+novelty to attract her particular attention. Her mind, moreover, was too
+far away from the monstrous abysses yawning at her side; she might have
+stepped into them and been swallowed up, before she had suspected their
+existence.
+
+The blonde, placid, and handsome countenance of the Count de Moras
+retained at all times, like Lucan's dark face, a sort of sculptural
+firmness. It was, therefore, rather difficult to read upon it the
+impressions of a soul which was naturally strong and self-controlling. On
+one point, however, that soul had become weak. Monsieur de Lucan was not
+ignorant of the fact; he was aware of the count's ardent love for Julia,
+and of the sickly susceptibility of his passion.
+
+It seemed unlikely that such a sentiment, if it were seriously set at
+defiance, should not betray itself in some violent or at least perceptible
+exterior sign. Monsieur de Lucan, in reality, was unable to observe any of
+these dreaded symptoms. If he did occasionally surprise a fugitive wrinkle
+on his brow, a doubtful intonation, a fugitive or absent glance, he might
+believe at most in some return of that vague and chimerical jealousy with
+which he knew the count to have been long tormented. Besides, he saw him
+carrying into their family circle the same impassive and smiling face, and
+he continued to receive from him the same tokens of cordiality. Oppressed,
+nevertheless by his legitimate scruples of loyalty and friendship, he had
+for one moment the mad temptation of revealing to the count the trial that
+was imposed upon them; but while revealing his own heart, would not such a
+delicate and cruel confession break the heart of his friend? And,
+moreover, would not such a pretended act of loyalty, involving the
+betrayal of a woman's secret, be tainted with cowardice and treason?
+
+It was necessary, therefore, amid so many dangers and so much anxiety, to
+sustain alone, and to the end, the weight of that trial, more complicated
+and more perilous still, perhaps, than Monsieur de Lucan was willing to
+admit to himself.
+
+It was to come to an end much sooner than he could possibly have
+anticipated.
+
+Clotilde and her husband, accompanied by Monsieur and Madame de Moras,
+went one day, in the carriage, to visit the ruins of a covered gallery
+which is one of the rarest of druidical antiquities in the country. These
+ruins lay at the back of a picturesque little bay, scooped out in the
+rocky wall that borders the eastern shore of the peninsula. Their
+shapeless masses are strewn over one of those grass-clad spurs that extend
+here and there to the foot of the cliff like giant buttresses. They are
+reached, despite the steepness of the hill, by an easy winding road that
+leads, with long, meandering turns, down to the yellow, sandy beach of the
+little bay. Clotilde and Julia made a sketch of the old Celtic temple
+while the gentlemen were smoking; then they amused themselves for some
+time watching the rising waves spreading upon the sand its fringes of
+foam. It was agreed to return to the top of the hill on foot in order to
+relieve the horses.
+
+The carriage, on a sign from Lucan, started ahead. Clotilde took the arm
+of Monsieur de Moras, and they began ascending slowly the sinuous road.
+Lucan was waiting Julia's good pleasure before following them; she had
+remained a few steps aside, engaged in animated conversation with an old
+fisherman who was busy setting his bait in the hollow of the rocks. She
+turned toward Lucan, and slightly raising her voice:
+
+"He says there is another path, much shorter and quite easy, close by
+here, along the face of the cliff. I am strongly inclined to take it and
+avoid that tiresome road."
+
+"Believe me, do nothing of the kind," said Lucan; "what is a very easy
+path for the country people may prove a very arduous one for you and even
+for me."
+
+After further conference with the fisherman:
+
+"He says," rejoined Julia, "that there is really no danger, and that
+children go up and down that way every day. He is going to guide me to the
+foot of the path, and then I'll only have to go straight up. Tell mother
+I'll be up there as soon as you all are."
+
+"Your mother will be dreadfully anxious."
+
+"Tell her there is no danger."
+
+Lucan, giving up the attempt to resist any longer a fancy that was growing
+impatient, went up to the footman who carried Julia's album and shawl; he
+requested him to reassure Clotilde and Monsieur de Moras, who had already
+disappeared behind one of the angles of the road; then returned to Julia.
+
+"Whenever you are ready," he said.
+
+"You are coming with me?"
+
+"As a matter of course."
+
+The old fisherman preceded them, following close to the foot of the
+cliffs. After leaving the sandy beach of the bay, the shore was covered
+with angular rocks and gigantic fragments of granite that made walking
+extremely painful. Although the distance was very short, they were already
+breaking down with fatigue when they reached the entrance to the path,
+which appeared to Lucan, and perhaps to Julia herself, much less safe and
+commodious than the fisherman had pretended. Neither one nor the other,
+however, attempted to make any objection. After a few last recommendations
+and directions, their old guide withdrew, quite pleased with Lucan's
+generosity. Both began then resolutely to scale the cliff which, at this
+point of the coast, is known as the cliff of Jobourg, and rises some three
+hundred feet above the level of the ocean.
+
+At the beginning of this ascension, they broke the silence they had
+hitherto maintained, in order to exchange some jesting remarks upon the
+charms and comforts of this goat's-path; but the real and even alarming
+difficulties of the road soon proved sufficient to absorb their entire
+attention. The faintly beaten path disappeared at times on the barren
+rock, or under some recent land-slide. They had much trouble finding the
+broken thread again. Their feet hesitated upon the polished surface of the
+stone, or the short and slippery grass. There were moments when they felt
+as if they stood upon an almost vertical slope, and if they attempted to
+stop and take breath, the vast spaces stretching before them, the
+boundless extent, the dazzling and metallic brilliancy of the sea, caused
+them a sensation of dizziness and as of a floating motion. Though the sky
+was low and cloudy, a heavy and storm-laden heat weighed upon them and
+stimulated the action of their blood. Lucan walked first, with a sort of
+feverish excitement, turning around from time to time to cast a glance at
+Julia, who followed him closely, then looking up to see some
+resting-point, some platform upon which they might breathe for a moment in
+safety. But above him, as below, there was naught save the perpendicular
+and sometimes overhanging cliff. Suddenly Julia called out to him in a
+tone of anguish:
+
+"Monsieur! monsieur! please, oh! please--my head is whirling!"
+
+He walked rapidly back a few steps at the risk of tumbling down, and,
+grasping her hand energetically:
+
+"Come! come!" he said, with a smile, "what is the matter?--a brave person
+like you!"
+
+"It would require wings!" she said, faintly.
+
+Lucan began at once to climb the path again, supporting and almost
+dragging Julia, who had nearly fainted.
+
+He had at last the gratification of setting his foot upon a projection of
+the ground, a sort of narrow esplanade jutting from the rock. He succeeded
+in drawing Julia upon it. But she sank at once in his arms, and her head
+rested upon his chest. He could hear her arteries and her heart throbbing
+with frightful force. Then, gradually, her agitation subsided. She lifted
+her head gently, opened her long eyelashes, and looking at him with
+rapturous eyes:
+
+"I am so happy!" she murmured; "I wish I could die so!"
+
+Lucan pushed her off from him the length of his arm, then, suddenly
+seizing her again and clasping her tightly to his heart, he cast upon her
+a troubled glance, and then another upon the abyss. She certainly thought
+they were about to die. A slight tremor passed across her lips; she
+smiled; her head half rolled back:
+
+"With you?" she said--"what happiness!"
+
+At the same moment, the sound of voices was heard a short distance above
+them. Lucan recognized Clotilde's and the count's voices. His arm suddenly
+relaxed and dropped from Julia's waist. He pointed out to her, without
+speaking, but with an imperious gesture, the path that wound around the
+rock.
+
+"Without you, then!" she said, in a gentle and proud tone. And she began
+ascending.
+
+Two minutes later, they reached the plateau above the cliff, and related
+to Clotilde the perils of their ascension, which explained sufficiently
+their evident agitation. At least they thought so.
+
+During the evening of this same day, Julia, Monsieur de Moras, and
+Clotilde were walking after dinner under the evergreens of the garden.
+Monsieur de Lucan, after keeping them company for a short time, had just
+retired, under pretense of writing some letters. He remained, however, but
+a few minutes in the library, where the sound of the others' voices
+reached his ears and disturbed his attention. A desire for absolute
+solitude, for meditation, perhaps also some whimsical and unaccountable
+feeling, led him to that very ladies' walk stamped for him with such an
+indelible recollection.
+
+He walked slowly through it for some time, in the deepening shades with
+which the falling night was rapidly filling it. He wished to consult his
+soul, as it were, face to face, to probe like a man his mind to its utmost
+depths. What he discovered there terrified him. It was a mad intoxication,
+which the savor of crime further heightened. Duty, loyalty, honor, all
+that rose before his passion to oppose it only exasperated its fury. The
+pagan Venus was gnawing at his heart, and instilling her most subtle
+poisons into it. The image of the fatal beauty was there without truce,
+present in his burning brain, before his dazzled eyes; he inhaled with
+avidity and in spite of himself, its languor, its perfume, its breath.
+
+The sound of light footsteps upon the sand caused him to suspend his
+march. He caught through the darkness a glimpse of a white form
+approaching him.
+
+It was she!
+
+Without giving scarce a thought to the act, he threw himself behind the
+obscure angle formed by one of those massive pillars that supported the
+ruins against the side of the hill. A mass of verdure made the darkness
+there more dense still. She went by, her eyes fixed upon the ground, with
+her supple and rhythmical step. She walked as far as the little pond that
+received the waters of the brook, stood dreaming for a few moments upon
+its edge, and then returned. A second tune she went by the ruins, without
+raising her eyes, and as if deeply absorbed. Lucan remained convinced that
+she had not suspected his presence, when suddenly she turned her head
+slightly around, without interrupting her march, and she cast behind her
+that single word, "Farewell," in a tone so gentle, so musical, so
+sorrowful, that it was somewhat like the sound of a tear falling upon a
+sonorous crystal.
+
+That minute was a supreme one. It was one of those moments during which a
+man's life is decided for eternal good or for eternal evil. Monsieur de
+Lucan felt it so. Had he yielded to the attraction of passion, of
+intoxication, of pity, that was urging him with almost irresistible force
+on the footsteps of that beautiful and unhappy woman--that was on the
+point of casting him at her feet, upon her heart--he felt that he became
+at once and forever a lost and desperate soul. Such a crime, were it even
+to remain wholly ignored, separated him forever from all he had ever
+respected, all he had ever held sacred and inviolate; there was nothing
+left for him either upon earth or in heaven; there was no longer any
+faith, probity, honor, friend, or God! The whole moral world vanished for
+him in that single instant.
+
+He accepted her farewell, and made no reply. The white form moved away and
+soon disappeared in the darkness.
+
+The evening was spent in the home circle as usual. Julia, pale, moody, and
+haughty, worked silently at her tapestry. Lucan observed that on taking
+leave of her mother she was kissing her with unusual effusion.
+
+He soon retired also. Assailed by the most formidable apprehensions, he
+did not undress. Toward morning only, he threw himself all dressed upon
+the bed. It was about five o'clock, and scarcely daylight as yet, when he
+fancied he heard muffled steps on the carpet, in the hall and on the
+stairs. He rose again at once. The windows of his room opened upon the
+court. He saw Julia cross it, dressed in riding costume. She went into the
+stable and came out again after a few moments. A groom brought her her
+horse, and assisted her in mounting. The man, accustomed to Julia's
+somewhat eccentric manners, saw apparently nothing alarming in that fancy
+for an early ride. Monsieur de Lucan, after a few minutes of excited
+thought, took his resolution. He directed his steps toward the room of the
+Count de Moras. To his extreme surprise, he found him up and dressed. The
+count, seeing Lucan coming in, seemed struck with astonishment. He
+fastened upon him a penetrating and visibly agitated look.
+
+"What is the matter?" he said, at last, in a low and tremulous voice.
+
+"Nothing serious, I hope," replied Lucan. "Nevertheless, I am uneasy.
+Julia has just gone out on horseback. You have, doubtless, seen and heard
+her as I have myself, since you are up."
+
+"Yes," said Moras, who had continued to gaze upon Lucan with an expression
+of indescribable stupor; "yes," he repeated, recovering himself, not
+without difficulty, "and I am glad, really very glad to see you, my dear
+friend."
+
+While uttering these simple words, the voice of Moras became hesitating; a
+damp cloud obscured his eyes.
+
+"Where can she be going at this hour?" he resumed with his usual firmness
+of speech.
+
+"I do not know; merely some new fancy, I suppose. At any rate, she has
+seemed to me lately more strange, more moody, and I feel uneasy. Let us
+try and follow her, if you like."
+
+"Let us go, my friend," said the count after a pause of singular
+hesitation.
+
+They both left the chateau together, taking their fowling-pieces with
+them, in order to induce the belief that they were going, according to a
+quite frequent habit, to shoot sea-birds. At the moment of selecting a
+direction, Monsieur de Moras turned to Lucan with an inquiring glance.
+
+"I see no danger," said Lucan, "save in the direction of the cliffs. A few
+words that escaped her yesterday lead me to fear that the peril may be
+there; but with her horse, she is compelled to make a long detour. By
+cutting across the woods, we'll be there ahead of her."
+
+They entered the timber to the west of the chateau, and walked in silence
+and with rapid steps.
+
+The path they had taken led them directly to the plateau overlooking the
+cliffs they had visited the previous day. The woods extended in that
+direction in an irregular triangle, the last trees of which almost touched
+the very brink of the cliff.
+
+As they were approaching with feverish steps that extreme point, Lucan
+suddenly stopped.
+
+"Listen!" he said.
+
+The sound of a horse's gallop upon the hard soil could be distinctly
+heard. They ran.
+
+A sloping bank of moderate elevation divided the wood from the plateau.
+This they climbed half way with the help of trailing branches; screened
+then by the bushes and the foliage, they beheld before them a most
+impressive spectacle. At a short distance to the left, Julia was coming on
+at break-neck speed; she was following the oblique line of the woods,
+apparently shaping her course straight toward the edge of the cliff. They
+thought at first that her horse had run away, but they saw that she was
+lashing him with her whip to further accelerate his speed.
+
+She was still some hundred paces from the two men, and she was about
+passing before them. Lucan was preparing to leap to the other side of the
+bank, when the hand of Monsieur de Moras fell violently upon his arm and
+held him back--firmly.
+
+They looked at each other. Lucan was amazed at the profound alteration
+that had suddenly contracted the count's features and sunken his eyes; he
+read at the same time in his fixed gaze an immense sorrow, but also an
+immovable resolve. He understood that there was no longer any secret
+between them. He yielded to that glance, which, so far as he was
+concerned--he felt sure of that--conveyed nothing but an expression of
+confidence and friendly supplication. He grasped his friend's hand within
+his own and remained motionless. The horse shot by within a few steps of
+them, his flanks white with foam, while Julia, beautiful, graceful, and
+charming still in that terrible moment, sat lightly upon the saddle.
+
+Within a few feet of the edge of the cliff, the horse, scenting the
+danger, shied violently and wheeled around in a semi-circle. She led him
+back upon the plateau, and, urging him both with whip and voice, she
+started him again toward the yawning chasm.
+
+Lucan felt Monsieur de Moras' nails cutting into his flesh. At last the
+horse was conquered; the ground gave way under his hind feet, which only
+met the vacant space. He fell backward; his fore legs pawed the air
+convulsively.
+
+The next moment the plateau was empty. No sound had been heard. In that
+deep chasm the fall had been noiseless and death instantaneous.
+
+
+[THE END.]
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF A FIGHT FOR A THRONE
+
+D'Artagnan, the King Maker
+
+By ALEXANDRE DUMAS.
+
+
+Written originally by Dumas as a play, and now for the
+first time novelized and translated into English.
+
+_The Philadelphia Enquirer says_:
+
+"A pretty love story in which the debonair
+cavalier falls victim to Cupid's wiles is one
+of the interesting threads running through
+the book."
+
+_The Chicago Record-Herald says_:
+
+"It is singular that this bit of romance
+has been suffered to remain hidden away
+for so long a time. D'Artagnan's manner
+of winning the hermit kingdom contains
+enough thrills to repay a careful reading.
+The story oozes adventure at every chapter."
+
+_The Brooklyn Eagle says_:
+
+"It is a strong tale brimful of incident
+from the moment when Cardinal Richelieu
+dispatches the redoubtable D'Artagnan on
+his king-making mission to Portugal."
+
+12mo., Illustrated.
+
+Price, $1.00.
+
+STREET AND SMITH, _New York and London_
+
+
+
+
+A HERO OF THE SWORD.
+
+The King's Gallant
+
+By ALEXANDRE DUMAS.
+
+
+"The King's Gallant" is deserving of
+recognition, in that it is not only a
+novelization of the earliest of Dumas' plays,
+but it marks a distinct triumph in his career.
+
+If this production is full of the rushing
+vigor of youth, it is because its celebrated
+author was but a youth when he penned it,
+yet it was the stepping stone which led to
+that upward flight wherein he was speedily
+hailed as the "Wizard of Fiction."
+
+It is a volume full of action with a strong
+plot and a truly masterful deliniation of
+character.
+
+12mo. Cloth.
+
+Price, $1.00.
+
+STREET AND SMITH, _New York and London_
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF A HOPELESS LOVE.
+
+Tons of Treasure
+
+By WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP.
+
+_Author of_ "DETMOLD."
+
+
+When two women love one man there is
+usually trouble brewing. Nor is the story
+which Mr. Bishop has to tell an exception.
+His hero is a manly New Yorker, who is fired
+with a zeal to "make good" a defalcation
+accredited to his dead father.
+
+In quest of gold he visits Mexico and
+there meets a dreamy-eyed maid who
+straightway gives him first place in her
+heart. But an American girl has already
+won his love. It is a pathetic situation and
+if one true woman's heart breaks before the
+man's mission is ended who is to blame?
+
+There are many touching incidents in the
+book, but none more full of pathos than
+when the woman who loves bares her soul
+to the woman who is loved.
+
+12mo., Cloth.
+
+Price, $1.00.
+
+STREET AND SMITH, _New York and London_
+
+
+
+
+A BOOK FULL OF 'HUMAN' INTEREST
+
+QUEER PEOPLE
+
+By WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP.
+
+_Author of_ "DETMOLD."
+
+
+Not one story, but a number of charming
+storyettes, terse, snappy and absorbingly
+interesting.
+
+There is a delightful pen sketch of a
+woman of small means who aspires to
+a connection with the smart set. Her attempts
+to disguise the true state of affairs from
+her out-of-town friends are laughable; but
+the fun becomes tinged with pathos when she
+borrows a furnished mansion for an evening,
+and a rich relative, invited to dine with
+her, uncloaks the pitiable fraud.
+
+The promising boy and the fond patroness
+are the chief characters in another brilliant
+character study in "Queer People."
+
+12mo., Cloth.
+
+Price, $1.00.
+
+STREET AND SMITH, _New York and London_
+
+
+
+
+A PEEP BEHIND THE SCENES.
+
+Among the Freaks
+
+By W.L. ALDEN.
+
+
+Here is a volume of unique interest,
+dealing as it does with the fortunes and
+misfortunes of the various "freaks" to be
+found in a Dime Museum. It relates the
+woes of the original Wild Man of Borneo,
+tells how the Fat Woman tried to elope, of
+the marvelous mechanical tail the dwarf
+invented, of how the Mermaid boiled her
+tail, and of a thrilling plot hatched out by
+the Giant and others. Full of telling
+illustrations. Easily one of the best works
+this gifted writer has ever produced.
+
+18mo., Cloth.
+
+Price, 75 cents.
+
+STREET AND SMITH, _New York and London_
+
+
+
+
+A BOOK OF HEARTY LAUGHTER.
+
+Things Generally
+
+By MAX ADELER.
+
+
+Here is a volume which is simply bubbling
+over with dry wit and good-natured humor,
+told as only this Prince of American
+Humorists can tell it. Here are tales of
+country newspaper life, political life,
+trials of would-be inventors, hardships
+of a book-agent, domestic fits and misfits,
+perils of a ship-wrecked man, and a hundred
+others, warranted to make even the most
+sedate laugh. Full of illustrations just
+as funny as the text.
+
+18mo. Cloth.
+
+Price, 75 cents.
+
+STREET AND SMITH, _New York and London_
+
+
+
+
+"LAUGH OFT, AND DEFY THE DOCTOR."
+
+Toothsome Tales Told in Slang
+
+By BILLY BURGUNDY.
+
+
+A book of fascinating stories about
+fascinating folks.
+
+Pretty women before and behind the foot-lights,
+artists and their models, literary men
+of Bohemian tendencies, these are the
+people whom Billy Burgundy has selected for
+characterization. True, they speak their
+lines in slang, but it is the slang of the
+educated, and is always artistic while
+delightfully amusing.
+
+Pronounced by press and public one of the
+funniest books ever published.
+
+The illustrations are by Outcault,
+Swinnerton, Marriner, Rigby, Pal, McAuley,
+Lemon, Cobb and Bryans.
+
+Copiously Illustrated.
+
+Price, 75 cents.
+
+STREET AND SMITH, _New York and London_
+
+
+
+
+EERIE TALES OF "CHINATOWN."
+
+Bits of Broken China
+
+By WILLIAM E.S. FALES
+
+
+A collection of captivating novelettes dealing
+with life in New York's "Chinatown."
+
+The struggles and ambitions of the Chinaman
+in America, his loves and jealousies,
+his hopes and fears, his sorrows, his joys,
+these are the materials on which Mr. Fales
+has built his book.
+
+It is a _new field_, and all the more
+interesting on that account. The author has
+made a life study of his subject; and no one
+is better qualified than he to present a picture
+of this romantic corner of New York where
+lives the exiled Chinaman.
+
+"Bits of Broken China" is undoubtedly
+one of the most delightful volumes for
+lighter reading published this season.
+
+Bound in cloth.
+
+Gold top.
+
+Fully Illustrated
+
+Price, 75 Cents.
+
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