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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1680-0.txt b/1680-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2faa73 --- /dev/null +++ b/1680-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2508 @@ +Project Gutenberg’s At the Sign of the Cat and Racket, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell + +Release Date: March, 1998 [Etext #1680] +Posting Date: February 28, 2010 +Last Updated: November 23, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Clara Bell + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Marie de Montheau + + + + + +AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET + + +Half-way down the Rue Saint-Denis, almost at the corner of the Rue du +Petit-Lion, there stood formerly one of those delightful houses which +enable historians to reconstruct old Paris by analogy. The threatening +walls of this tumbledown abode seemed to have been decorated with +hieroglyphics. For what other name could the passer-by give to the Xs +and Vs which the horizontal or diagonal timbers traced on the front, +outlined by little parallel cracks in the plaster? It was evident that +every beam quivered in its mortices at the passing of the lightest +vehicle. This venerable structure was crowned by a triangular roof of +which no example will, ere long, be seen in Paris. This covering, warped +by the extremes of the Paris climate, projected three feet over the +roadway, as much to protect the threshold from the rainfall as to +shelter the wall of a loft and its sill-less dormer-window. This upper +story was built of planks, overlapping each other like slates, in order, +no doubt, not to overweight the frail house. + +One rainy morning in the month of March, a young man, carefully wrapped +in his cloak, stood under the awning of a shop opposite this old house, +which he was studying with the enthusiasm of an antiquary. In point of +fact, this relic of the civic life of the sixteenth century offered +more than one problem to the consideration of an observer. Each story +presented some singularity; on the first floor four tall, narrow +windows, close together, were filled as to the lower panes with boards, +so as to produce the doubtful light by which a clever salesman can +ascribe to his goods the color his customers inquire for. The young man +seemed very scornful of this part of the house; his eyes had not yet +rested on it. The windows of the second floor, where the Venetian blinds +were drawn up, revealing little dingy muslin curtains behind the large +Bohemian glass panes, did not interest him either. His attention was +attracted to the third floor, to the modest sash-frames of wood, so +clumsily wrought that they might have found a place in the Museum of +Arts and Crafts to illustrate the early efforts of French carpentry. +These windows were glazed with small squares of glass so green that, but +for his good eyes, the young man could not have seen the blue-checked +cotton curtains which screened the mysteries of the room from profane +eyes. Now and then the watcher, weary of his fruitless contemplation, +or of the silence in which the house was buried, like the whole +neighborhood, dropped his eyes towards the lower regions. An involuntary +smile parted his lips each time he looked at the shop, where, in fact, +there were some laughable details. + +A formidable wooden beam, resting on four pillars, which appeared to +have bent under the weight of the decrepit house, had been encrusted +with as many coats of different paint as there are of rouge on an old +duchess’ cheek. In the middle of this broad and fantastically carved +joist there was an old painting representing a cat playing rackets. This +picture was what moved the young man to mirth. But it must be said +that the wittiest of modern painters could not invent so comical a +caricature. The animal held in one of its forepaws a racket as big as +itself, and stood on its hind legs to aim at hitting an enormous ball, +returned by a man in a fine embroidered coat. Drawing, color, and +accessories, all were treated in such a way as to suggest that the +artist had meant to make game of the shop-owner and of the passing +observer. Time, while impairing this artless painting, had made it yet +more grotesque by introducing some uncertain features which must have +puzzled the conscientious idler. For instance, the cat’s tail had been +eaten into in such a way that it might now have been taken for the +figure of a spectator--so long, and thick, and furry were the tails of +our forefathers’ cats. To the right of the picture, on an azure field +which ill-disguised the decay of the wood, might be read the name +“Guillaume,” and to the left, “Successor to Master Chevrel.” Sun and +rain had worn away most of the gilding parsimoniously applied to the +letters of this superscription, in which the Us and Vs had changed +places in obedience to the laws of old-world orthography. + +To quench the pride of those who believe that the world is growing +cleverer day by day, and that modern humbug surpasses everything, it may +be observed that these signs, of which the origin seems so whimsical to +many Paris merchants, are the dead pictures of once living pictures +by which our roguish ancestors contrived to tempt customers into their +houses. Thus the Spinning Sow, the Green Monkey, and others, were +animals in cages whose skills astonished the passer-by, and whose +accomplishments prove the patience of the fifteenth-century artisan. +Such curiosities did more to enrich their fortunate owners than the +signs of “Providence,” “Good-faith,” “Grace of God,” and “Decapitation +of John the Baptist,” which may still be seen in the Rue Saint-Denis. + +However, our stranger was certainly not standing there to admire the +cat, which a minute’s attention sufficed to stamp on his memory. The +young man himself had his peculiarities. His cloak, folded after the +manner of an antique drapery, showed a smart pair of shoes, all the more +remarkable in the midst of the Paris mud, because he wore white silk +stockings, on which the splashes betrayed his impatience. He had just +come, no doubt, from a wedding or a ball; for at this early hour he had +in his hand a pair of white gloves, and his black hair, now out of curl, +and flowing over his shoulders, showed that it had been dressed _a la +Caracalla_, a fashion introduced as much by David’s school of painting +as by the mania for Greek and Roman styles which characterized the early +years of this century. + +In spite of the noise made by a few market gardeners, who, being late, +rattled past towards the great market-place at a gallop, the busy street +lay in a stillness of which the magic charm is known only to those who +have wandered through deserted Paris at the hours when its roar, hushed +for a moment, rises and spreads in the distance like the great voice +of the sea. This strange young man must have seemed as curious to the +shopkeeping folk of the “Cat and Racket” as the “Cat and Racket” was +to him. A dazzlingly white cravat made his anxious face look even paler +than it really was. The fire that flashed in his black eyes, gloomy +and sparkling by turns, was in harmony with the singular outline of +his features, with his wide, flexible mouth, hardened into a smile. His +forehead, knit with violent annoyance, had a stamp of doom. Is not the +forehead the most prophetic feature of a man? When the stranger’s +brow expressed passion the furrows formed in it were terrible in their +strength and energy; but when he recovered his calmness, so easily +upset, it beamed with a luminous grace which gave great attractiveness +to a countenance in which joy, grief, love, anger, or scorn blazed out +so contagiously that the coldest man could not fail to be impressed. + +He was so thoroughly vexed by the time when the dormer-window of the +loft was suddenly flung open, that he did not observe the apparition of +three laughing faces, pink and white and chubby, but as vulgar as the +face of Commerce as it is seen in sculpture on certain monuments. These +three faces, framed by the window, recalled the puffy cherubs floating +among the clouds that surround God the Father. The apprentices snuffed +up the exhalations of the street with an eagerness that showed how hot +and poisonous the atmosphere of their garret must be. After pointing to +the singular sentinel, the most jovial, as he seemed, of the apprentices +retired and came back holding an instrument whose hard metal pipe is now +superseded by a leather tube; and they all grinned with mischief as they +looked down on the loiterer, and sprinkled him with a fine white +shower of which the scent proved that three chins had just been shaved. +Standing on tiptoe, in the farthest corner of their loft, to enjoy +their victim’s rage, the lads ceased laughing on seeing the haughty +indifference with which the young man shook his cloak, and the +intense contempt expressed by his face as he glanced up at the empty +window-frame. + +At this moment a slender white hand threw up the lower half of one of +the clumsy windows on the third floor by the aid of the sash runners, +of which the pulley so often suddenly gives way and releases the heavy +panes it ought to hold up. The watcher was then rewarded for his long +waiting. The face of a young girl appeared, as fresh as one of the +white cups that bloom on the bosom of the waters, crowned by a frill +of tumbled muslin, which gave her head a look of exquisite innocence. +Though wrapped in brown stuff, her neck and shoulders gleamed here +and there through little openings left by her movements in sleep. No +expression of embarrassment detracted from the candor of her face, or +the calm look of eyes immortalized long since in the sublime works of +Raphael; here were the same grace, the same repose as in those Virgins, +and now proverbial. There was a delightful contrast between the cheeks +of that face on which sleep had, as it were, given high relief to a +superabundance of life, and the antiquity of the heavy window with its +clumsy shape and black sill. Like those day-blowing flowers, which +in the early morning have not yet unfurled their cups, twisted by the +chills of night, the girl, as yet hardly awake, let her blue eyes wander +beyond the neighboring roofs to look at the sky; then, from habit, +she cast them down on the gloomy depths of the street, where they +immediately met those of her adorer. Vanity, no doubt, distressed her at +being seen in undress; she started back, the worn pulley gave way, and +the sash fell with the rapid run, which in our day has earned for this +artless invention of our forefathers an odious name, _Fenetre a la +Guillotine_. The vision had disappeared. To the young man the most +radiant star of morning seemed to be hidden by a cloud. + +During these little incidents the heavy inside shutters that protected +the slight windows of the shop of the “Cat and Racket” had been removed +as if by magic. The old door with its knocker was opened back against +the wall of the entry by a man-servant, apparently coeval with the sign, +who, with a shaking hand, hung upon it a square of cloth, on which were +embroidered in yellow silk the words: “Guillaume, successor to Chevrel.” + Many a passer-by would have found it difficult to guess the class of +trade carried on by Monsieur Guillaume. Between the strong iron bars +which protected his shop windows on the outside, certain packages, +wrapped in brown linen, were hardly visible, though as numerous as +herrings swimming in a shoal. Notwithstanding the primitive aspect of +the Gothic front, Monsieur Guillaume, of all the merchant clothiers in +Paris, was the one whose stores were always the best provided, whose +connections were the most extensive, and whose commercial honesty never +lay under the slightest suspicion. If some of his brethren in business +made a contract with the Government, and had not the required quantity +of cloth, he was always ready to deliver it, however large the number of +pieces tendered for. The wily dealer knew a thousand ways of extracting +the largest profits without being obliged, like them, to court +patrons, cringing to them, or making them costly presents. When his +fellow-tradesmen could only pay in good bills of long date, he would +mention his notary as an accommodating man, and managed to get a second +profit out of the bargain, thanks to this arrangement, which had made it +a proverb among the traders of the Rue Saint-Denis: “Heaven preserve you +from Monsieur Guillaume’s notary!” to signify a heavy discount. + +The old merchant was to be seen standing on the threshold of his shop, +as if by a miracle, the instant the servant withdrew. Monsieur Guillaume +looked at the Rue Saint-Denis, at the neighboring shops, and at the +weather, like a man disembarking at Havre, and seeing France once more +after a long voyage. Having convinced himself that nothing had changed +while he was asleep, he presently perceived the stranger on guard, and +he, on his part, gazed at the patriarchal draper as Humboldt may have +scrutinized the first electric eel he saw in America. Monsieur Guillaume +wore loose black velvet breeches, pepper-and-salt stockings, and square +toed shoes with silver buckles. His coat, with square-cut fronts, +square-cut tails, and square-cut collar clothed his slightly bent figure +in greenish cloth, finished with white metal buttons, tawny from wear. +His gray hair was so accurately combed and flattened over his yellow +pate that it made it look like a furrowed field. His little green eyes, +that might have been pierced with a gimlet, flashed beneath arches +faintly tinged with red in the place of eyebrows. Anxieties had wrinkled +his forehead with as many horizontal lines as there were creases in his +coat. This colorless face expressed patience, commercial shrewdness, +and the sort of wily cupidity which is needful in business. At that +time these old families were less rare than they are now, in which the +characteristic habits and costume of their calling, surviving in +the midst of more recent civilization, were preserved as cherished +traditions, like the antediluvian remains found by Cuvier in the +quarries. + +The head of the Guillaume family was a notable upholder of ancient +practices; he might be heard to regret the Provost of Merchants, and +never did he mention a decision of the Tribunal of Commerce without +calling it the _Sentence of the Consuls_. Up and dressed the first of +the household, in obedience, no doubt, to these old customs, he stood +sternly awaiting the appearance of his three assistants, ready to scold +them in case they were late. These young disciples of Mercury knew +nothing more terrible than the wordless assiduity with which the master +scrutinized their faces and their movements on Monday in search of +evidence or traces of their pranks. But at this moment the old clothier +paid no heed to his apprentices; he was absorbed in trying to divine the +motive of the anxious looks which the young man in silk stockings and a +cloak cast alternately at his signboard and into the depths of his shop. +The daylight was now brighter, and enabled the stranger to discern the +cashier’s corner enclosed by a railing and screened by old green silk +curtains, where were kept the immense ledgers, the silent oracles of the +house. The too inquisitive gazer seemed to covet this little nook, +and to be taking the plan of a dining-room at one side, lighted by +a skylight, whence the family at meals could easily see the smallest +incident that might occur at the shop-door. So much affection for his +dwelling seemed suspicious to a trader who had lived long enough to +remember the law of maximum prices; Monsieur Guillaume naturally thought +that this sinister personage had an eye to the till of the Cat and +Racket. After quietly observing the mute duel which was going on between +his master and the stranger, the eldest of the apprentices, having seen +that the young man was stealthily watching the windows of the third +floor, ventured to place himself on the stone flag where Monsieur +Guillaume was standing. He took two steps out into the street, raised +his head, and fancied that he caught sight of Mademoiselle Augustine +Guillaume in hasty retreat. The draper, annoyed by his assistant’s +perspicacity, shot a side glance at him; but the draper and his amorous +apprentice were suddenly relieved from the fears which the young man’s +presence had excited in their minds. He hailed a hackney cab on its +way to a neighboring stand, and jumped into it with an air of affected +indifference. This departure was a balm to the hearts of the other two +lads, who had been somewhat uneasy as to meeting the victim of their +practical joke. + +“Well, gentlemen, what ails you that you are standing there with your +arms folded?” said Monsieur Guillaume to his three neophytes. “In former +days, bless you, when I was in Master Chevrel’s service, I should have +overhauled more than two pieces of cloth by this time.” + +“Then it was daylight earlier,” said the second assistant, whose duty +this was. + +The old shopkeeper could not help smiling. Though two of these +young fellows, who were confided to his care by their fathers, rich +manufacturers at Louviers and at Sedan, had only to ask and to have a +hundred thousand francs the day when they were old enough to settle in +life, Guillaume regarded it as his duty to keep them under the rod of an +old-world despotism, unknown nowadays in the showy modern shops, where +the apprentices expect to be rich men at thirty. He made them work like +Negroes. These three assistants were equal to a business which would +harry ten such clerks as those whose sybaritical tastes now swell the +columns of the budget. Not a sound disturbed the peace of this solemn +house, where the hinges were always oiled, and where the meanest article +of furniture showed the respectable cleanliness which reveals strict +order and economy. The most waggish of the three youths often amused +himself by writing the date of its first appearance on the Gruyere +cheese which was left to their tender mercies at breakfast, and which it +was their pleasure to leave untouched. This bit of mischief, and a few +others of the same stamp, would sometimes bring a smile on the face of +the younger of Guillaume’s daughters, the pretty maiden who has just now +appeared to the bewitched man in the street. + +Though each of these apprentices, even the eldest, paid a round sum for +his board, not one of them would have been bold enough to remain at the +master’s table when dessert was served. When Madame Guillaume talked of +dressing the salad, the hapless youths trembled as they thought of the +thrift with which her prudent hand dispensed the oil. They could never +think of spending a night away from the house without having given, long +before, a plausible reason for such an irregularity. Every Sunday, each +in his turn, two of them accompanied the Guillaume family to Mass at +Saint-Leu, and to vespers. Mesdemoiselles Virginie and Augustine, simply +attired in cotton print, each took the arm of an apprentice and walked +in front, under the piercing eye of their mother, who closed the little +family procession with her husband, accustomed by her to carry two large +prayer-books, bound in black morocco. The second apprentice received +no salary. As for the eldest, whose twelve years of perseverance and +discretion had initiated him into the secrets of the house, he was paid +eight hundred francs a year as the reward of his labors. On certain +family festivals he received as a gratuity some little gift, to which +Madame Guillaume’s dry and wrinkled hand alone gave value--netted +purses, which she took care to stuff with cotton wool, to show off the +fancy stitches, braces of the strongest make, or heavy silk stockings. +Sometimes, but rarely, this prime minister was admitted to share the +pleasures of the family when they went into the country, or when, after +waiting for months, they made up their mind to exert the right acquired +by taking a box at the theatre to command a piece which Paris had +already forgotten. + +As to the other assistants, the barrier of respect which formerly +divided a master draper from his apprentices was that they would +have been more likely to steal a piece of cloth than to infringe this +time-honored etiquette. Such reserve may now appear ridiculous; but +these old houses were a school of honesty and sound morals. The masters +adopted their apprentices. The young man’s linen was cared for, mended, +and often replaced by the mistress of the house. If an apprentice fell +ill, he was the object of truly maternal attention. In a case of +danger the master lavished his money in calling in the most celebrated +physicians, for he was not answerable to their parents merely for the +good conduct and training of the lads. If one of them, whose character +was unimpeachable, suffered misfortune, these old tradesmen knew how to +value the intelligence he had displayed, and they did not hesitate +to entrust the happiness of their daughters to men whom they had long +trusted with their fortunes. Guillaume was one of these men of the +old school, and if he had their ridiculous side, he had all their good +qualities; and Joseph Lebas, the chief assistant, an orphan without any +fortune, was in his mind destined to be the husband of Virginie, his +elder daughter. But Joseph did not share the symmetrical ideas of his +master, who would not for an empire have given his second daughter in +marriage before the elder. The unhappy assistant felt that his heart was +wholly given to Mademoiselle Augustine, the younger. In order to justify +this passion, which had grown up in secret, it is necessary to inquire +a little further into the springs of the absolute government which ruled +the old cloth-merchant’s household. + +Guillaume had two daughters. The elder, Mademoiselle Virginie, was +the very image of her mother. Madame Guillaume, daughter of the Sieur +Chevrel, sat so upright in the stool behind her desk, that more than +once she had heard some wag bet that she was a stuffed figure. Her +long, thin face betrayed exaggerated piety. Devoid of attractions or of +amiable manners, Madame Guillaume commonly decorated her head--that of +a woman near on sixty--with a cap of a particular and unvarying shape, +with long lappets, like that of a widow. In all the neighborhood she was +known as the “portress nun.” Her speech was curt, and her movements had +the stiff precision of a semaphore. Her eye, with a gleam in it like a +cat’s, seemed to spite the world because she was so ugly. Mademoiselle +Virginie, brought up, like her younger sister, under the domestic rule +of her mother, had reached the age of eight-and-twenty. Youth mitigated +the graceless effect which her likeness to her mother sometimes gave +to her features, but maternal austerity had endowed her with two great +qualities which made up for everything. She was patient and gentle. +Mademoiselle Augustine, who was but just eighteen, was not like either +her father or her mother. She was one of those daughters whose total +absence of any physical affinity with their parents makes one believe in +the adage: “God gives children.” Augustine was little, or, to describe +her more truly, delicately made. Full of gracious candor, a man of the +world could have found no fault in the charming girl beyond a certain +meanness of gesture or vulgarity of attitude, and sometimes a want of +ease. Her silent and placid face was full of the transient melancholy +which comes over all young girls who are too weak to dare to resist +their mother’s will. + +The two sisters, always plainly dressed, could not gratify the innate +vanity of womanhood but by a luxury of cleanliness which became them +wonderfully, and made them harmonize with the polished counters and +the shining shelves, on which the old man-servant never left a speck of +dust, and with the old-world simplicity of all they saw about them. As +their style of living compelled them to find the elements of happiness +in persistent work, Augustine and Virginie had hitherto always satisfied +their mother, who secretly prided herself on the perfect characters of +her two daughters. It is easy to imagine the results of the training +they had received. Brought up to a commercial life, accustomed to +hear nothing but dreary arguments and calculations about trade, having +studied nothing but grammar, book-keeping, a little Bible-history, and +the history of France in Le Ragois, and never reading any book but what +their mother would sanction, their ideas had not acquired much scope. +They knew perfectly how to keep house; they were familiar with the +prices of things; they understood the difficulty of amassing money; they +were economical, and had a great respect for the qualities that make a +man of business. Although their father was rich, they were as skilled +in darning as in embroidery; their mother often talked of having them +taught to cook, so that they might know how to order a dinner and scold +a cook with due knowledge. They knew nothing of the pleasures of the +world; and, seeing how their parents spent their exemplary lives, they +very rarely suffered their eyes to wander beyond the walls of their +hereditary home, which to their mother was the whole universe. The +meetings to which family anniversaries gave rise filled in the future of +earthly joy to them. + +When the great drawing-room on the second floor was to be prepared to +receive company--Madame Roguin, a Demoiselle Chevrel, fifteen months +younger than her cousin, and bedecked with diamonds; young Rabourdin, +employed in the Finance Office; Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, the rich +perfumer, and his wife, known as Madame Cesar; Monsieur Camusot, the +richest silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, with his father-in-law, +Monsieur Cardot, two or three old bankers, and some immaculate +ladies--the arrangements, made necessary by the way in which everything +was packed away--the plate, the Dresden china, the candlesticks, and the +glass--made a variety in the monotonous lives of the three women, who +came and went and exerted themselves as nuns would to receive their +bishop. Then, in the evening, when all three were tired out with having +wiped, rubbed, unpacked, and arranged all the gauds of the festival, as +the girls helped their mother to undress, Madame Guillaume would say to +them, “Children, we have done nothing today.” + +When, on very great occasions, “the portress nun” allowed dancing, +restricting the games of boston, whist, and backgammon within the limits +of her bedroom, such a concession was accounted as the most unhoped +felicity, and made them happier than going to the great balls, to two +or three of which Guillaume would take the girls at the time of the +Carnival. + +And once a year the worthy draper gave an entertainment, when he spared +no expense. However rich and fashionable the persons invited might be, +they were careful not to be absent; for the most important houses on +the exchange had recourse to the immense credit, the fortune, or the +time-honored experience of Monsieur Guillaume. Still, the excellent +merchant’s daughters did not benefit as much as might be supposed by the +lessons the world has to offer to young spirits. At these parties, which +were indeed set down in the ledger to the credit of the house, they wore +dresses the shabbiness of which made them blush. Their style of dancing +was not in any way remarkable, and their mother’s surveillance did not +allow of their holding any conversation with their partners beyond Yes +and No. Also, the law of the old sign of the Cat and Racket commanded +that they should be home by eleven o’clock, the hour when balls and +fetes begin to be lively. Thus their pleasures, which seemed to conform +very fairly to their father’s position, were often made insipid by +circumstances which were part of the family habits and principles. + +As to their usual life, one remark will sufficiently paint it. Madame +Guillaume required her daughters to be dressed very early in the +morning, to come down every day at the same hour, and she ordered their +employments with monastic regularity. Augustine, however, had been +gifted by chance with a spirit lofty enough to feel the emptiness of +such a life. Her blue eyes would sometimes be raised as if to pierce +the depths of that gloomy staircase and those damp store-rooms. After +sounding the profound cloistral silence, she seemed to be listening to +remote, inarticulate revelations of the life of passion, which accounts +feelings as of higher value than things. And at such moments her cheek +would flush, her idle hands would lay the muslin sewing on the polished +oak counter, and presently her mother would say in a voice, of which +even the softest tones were sour, “Augustine, my treasure, what are +you thinking about?” It is possible that two romances discovered +by Augustine in the cupboard of a cook Madame Guillaume had +lately discharged--_Hippolyte Comte de Douglas_ and _Le Comte de +Comminges_--may have contributed to develop the ideas of the young girl, +who had devoured them in secret, during the long nights of the past +winter. + +And so Augustine’s expression of vague longing, her gentle voice, her +jasmine skin, and her blue eyes had lighted in poor Lebas’ soul a +flame as ardent as it was reverent. From an easily understood caprice, +Augustine felt no affection for the orphan; perhaps she did not know +that he loved her. On the other hand, the senior apprentice, with his +long legs, his chestnut hair, his big hands and powerful frame, had +found a secret admirer in Mademoiselle Virginie, who, in spite of her +dower of fifty thousand crowns, had as yet no suitor. Nothing could +be more natural than these two passions at cross-purposes, born in the +silence of the dingy shop, as violets bloom in the depths of a wood. The +mute and constant looks which made the young people’s eyes meet by sheer +need of change in the midst of persistent work and cloistered peace, was +sure, sooner or later, to give rise to feelings of love. The habit of +seeing always the same face leads insensibly to our reading there the +qualities of the soul, and at last effaces all its defects. + +“At the pace at which that man goes, our girls will soon have to go on +their knees to a suitor!” said Monsieur Guillaume to himself, as he +read the first decree by which Napoleon drew in advance on the conscript +classes. + +From that day the old merchant, grieved at seeing his eldest daughter +fade, remembered how he had married Mademoiselle Chevrel under much the +same circumstances as those of Joseph Lebas and Virginie. A good bit +of business, to marry off his daughter, and discharge a sacred debt +by repaying to an orphan the benefit he had formerly received from +his predecessor under similar conditions! Joseph Lebas, who was now +three-and-thirty, was aware of the obstacle which a difference of +fifteen years placed between Augustine and himself. Being also too +clear-sighted not to understand Monsieur Guillaume’s purpose, he knew +his inexorable principles well enough to feel sure that the second would +never marry before the elder. So the hapless assistant, whose heart was +as warm as his legs were long and his chest deep, suffered in silence. + +This was the state of the affairs in the tiny republic which, in the +heart of the Rue Saint-Denis, was not unlike a dependency of La Trappe. +But to give a full account of events as well as of feelings, it is +needful to go back to some months before the scene with which this story +opens. At dusk one evening, a young man passing the darkened shop of the +Cat and Racket, had paused for a moment to gaze at a picture which might +have arrested every painter in the world. The shop was not yet lighted, +and was as a dark cave beyond which the dining-room was visible. A +hanging lamp shed the yellow light which lends such charm to pictures +of the Dutch school. The white linen, the silver, the cut glass, were +brilliant accessories, and made more picturesque by strong contrasts of +light and shade. The figures of the head of the family and his wife, the +faces of the apprentices, and the pure form of Augustine, near whom a +fat chubby-cheeked maid was standing, composed so strange a group; the +heads were so singular, and every face had so candid an expression; it +was so easy to read the peace, the silence, the modest way of life in +this family, that to an artist accustomed to render nature, there was +something hopeless in any attempt to depict this scene, come upon by +chance. The stranger was a young painter, who, seven years before, had +gained the first prize for painting. He had now just come back from +Rome. His soul, full-fed with poetry; his eyes, satiated with Raphael +and Michael Angelo, thirsted for real nature after long dwelling in the +pompous land where art has everywhere left something grandiose. Right or +wrong, this was his personal feeling. His heart, which had long been +a prey to the fire of Italian passion, craved one of those modest +and meditative maidens whom in Rome he had unfortunately seen only +in painting. From the enthusiasm produced in his excited fancy by the +living picture before him, he naturally passed to a profound admiration +for the principal figure; Augustine seemed to be pensive, and did not +eat; by the arrangement of the lamp the light fell full on her face, and +her bust seemed to move in a circle of fire, which threw up the shape of +her head and illuminated it with almost supernatural effect. The artist +involuntarily compared her to an exiled angel dreaming of heaven. An +almost unknown emotion, a limpid, seething love flooded his heart. After +remaining a minute, overwhelmed by the weight of his ideas, he tore +himself from his bliss, went home, ate nothing, and could not sleep. + +The next day he went to his studio, and did not come out of it till he +had placed on canvas the magic of the scene of which the memory had, in +a sense, made him a devotee; his happiness was incomplete till he should +possess a faithful portrait of his idol. He went many times past the +house of the Cat and Racket; he even ventured in once or twice, under +a disguise, to get a closer view of the bewitching creature that Madame +Guillaume covered with her wing. For eight whole months, devoted to his +love and to his brush, he was lost to the sight of his most intimate +friends forgetting the world, the theatre, poetry, music, and all his +dearest habits. One morning Girodet broke through all the barriers with +which artists are familiar, and which they know how to evade, went into +his room, and woke him by asking, “What are you going to send to the +Salon?” The artist grasped his friend’s hand, dragged him off to the +studio, uncovered a small easel picture and a portrait. After a long +and eager study of the two masterpieces, Girodet threw himself on his +comrade’s neck and hugged him, without speaking a word. His feelings +could only be expressed as he felt them--soul to soul. + +“You are in love?” said Girodet. + +They both knew that the finest portraits by Titian, Raphael, and +Leonardo da Vinci, were the outcome of the enthusiastic sentiments +by which, indeed, under various conditions, every masterpiece is +engendered. The artist only bent his head in reply. + +“How happy are you to be able to be in love, here, after coming back +from Italy! But I do not advise you to send such works as these to the +Salon,” the great painter went on. “You see, these two works will not +be appreciated. Such true coloring, such prodigious work, cannot yet be +understood; the public is not accustomed to such depths. The pictures +we paint, my dear fellow, are mere screens. We should do better to +turn rhymes, and translate the antique poets! There is more glory to be +looked for there than from our luckless canvases!” + +Notwithstanding this charitable advice, the two pictures were exhibited. +The _Interior_ made a revolution in painting. It gave birth to the +pictures of genre which pour into all our exhibitions in such prodigious +quantity that they might be supposed to be produced by machinery. As +to the portrait, few artists have forgotten that lifelike work; and the +public, which as a body is sometimes discerning, awarded it the crown +which Girodet himself had hung over it. The two pictures were surrounded +by a vast throng. They fought for places, as women say. Speculators and +moneyed men would have covered the canvas with double napoleons, but the +artist obstinately refused to sell or to make replicas. An enormous sum +was offered him for the right of engraving them, and the print-sellers +were not more favored than the amateurs. + +Though these incidents occupied the world, they were not of a nature to +penetrate the recesses of the monastic solitude in the Rue Saint-Denis. +However, when paying a visit to Madame Guillaume, the notary’s wife +spoke of the exhibition before Augustine, of whom she was very fond, +and explained its purpose. Madame Roguin’s gossip naturally inspired +Augustine with a wish to see the pictures, and with courage enough to +ask her cousin secretly to take her to the Louvre. Her cousin succeeded +in the negotiations she opened with Madame Guillaume for permission to +release the young girl for two hours from her dull labors. Augustine was +thus able to make her way through the crowd to see the crowned work. A +fit of trembling shook her like an aspen leaf as she recognized herself. +She was terrified, and looked about her to find Madame Roguin, from +whom she had been separated by a tide of people. At that moment her +frightened eyes fell on the impassioned face of the young painter. She +at once recalled the figure of a loiterer whom, being curious, she had +frequently observed, believing him to be a new neighbor. + +“You see how love has inspired me,” said the artist in the timid +creature’s ear, and she stood in dismay at the words. + +She found supernatural courage to enable her to push through the crowd +and join her cousin, who was still struggling with the mass of people +that hindered her from getting to the picture. + +“You will be stifled!” cried Augustine. “Let us go.” + +But there are moments, at the Salon, when two women are not always free +to direct their steps through the galleries. By the irregular course to +which they were compelled by the press, Mademoiselle Guillaume and her +cousin were pushed to within a few steps of the second picture. Chance +thus brought them, both together, to where they could easily see the +canvas made famous by fashion, for once in agreement with talent. Madame +Roguin’s exclamation of surprise was lost in the hubbub and buzz of the +crowd; Augustine involuntarily shed tears at the sight of this wonderful +study. Then, by an almost unaccountable impulse, she laid her finger on +her lips, as she perceived quite near her the ecstatic face of the young +painter. The stranger replied by a nod, and pointed to Madame Roguin, as +a spoil-sport, to show Augustine that he had understood. This pantomime +struck the young girl like hot coals on her flesh; she felt quite +guilty as she perceived that there was a compact between herself and the +artist. The suffocating heat, the dazzling sight of beautiful dresses, +the bewilderment produced in Augustine’s brain by the truth of coloring, +the multitude of living or painted figures, the profusion of gilt +frames, gave her a sense of intoxication which doubled her alarms. She +would perhaps have fainted if an unknown rapture had not surged up +in her heart to vivify her whole being, in spite of this chaos of +sensations. She nevertheless believed herself to be under the power +of the Devil, of whose awful snares she had been warned of by the +thundering words of preachers. This moment was to her like a moment of +madness. She found herself accompanied to her cousin’s carriage by the +young man, radiant with joy and love. Augustine, a prey to an agitation +new to her experience, an intoxication which seemed to abandon her to +nature, listened to the eloquent voice of her heart, and looked again +and again at the young painter, betraying the emotion that came over +her. Never had the bright rose of her cheeks shown in stronger contrast +with the whiteness of her skin. The artist saw her beauty in all its +bloom, her maiden modesty in all its glory. She herself felt a sort of +rapture mingled with terror at thinking that her presence had brought +happiness to him whose name was on every lip, and whose talent lent +immortality to transient scenes. She was loved! It was impossible to +doubt it. When she no longer saw the artist, these simple words still +echoed in her ear, “You see how love has inspired me!” And the throbs of +her heart, as they grew deeper, seemed a pain, her heated blood revealed +so many unknown forces in her being. She affected a severe headache to +avoid replying to her cousin’s questions concerning the pictures; but +on their return Madame Roguin could not forbear from speaking to Madame +Guillaume of the fame that had fallen on the house of the Cat and +Racket, and Augustine quaked in every limb as she heard her mother say +that she should go to the Salon to see her house there. The young girl +again declared herself suffering, and obtained leave to go to bed. + +“That is what comes of sight-seeing,” exclaimed Monsieur Guillaume--“a +headache. And is it so very amusing to see in a picture what you can +see any day in your own street? Don’t talk to me of your artists! Like +writers, they are a starveling crew. Why the devil need they choose my +house to flout it in their pictures?” + +“It may help to sell a few ells more of cloth,” said Joseph Lebas. + +This remark did not protect art and thought from being condemned once +again before the judgment-seat of trade. As may be supposed, these +speeches did not infuse much hope into Augustine, who, during the night, +gave herself up to the first meditations of love. The events of the day +were like a dream, which it was a joy to recall to her mind. She was +initiated into the fears, the hopes, the remorse, all the ebb and flow +of feeling which could not fail to toss a heart so simple and timid as +hers. What a void she perceived in this gloomy house! What a treasure +she found in her soul! To be the wife of a genius, to share his glory! +What ravages must such a vision make in the heart of a girl brought up +among such a family! What hopes must it raise in a young creature who, +in the midst of sordid elements, had pined for a life of elegance! A +sunbeam had fallen into the prison. Augustine was suddenly in love. So +many of her feelings were soothed that she succumbed without reflection. +At eighteen does not love hold a prism between the world and the eyes +of a young girl? She was incapable of suspecting the hard facts which +result from the union of a loving woman with a man of imagination, and +she believed herself called to make him happy, not seeing any disparity +between herself and him. To her the future would be as the present. +When, next day, her father and mother returned from the Salon, their +dejected faces proclaimed some disappointment. In the first place, the +painter had removed the two pictures; and then Madame Guillaume had lost +her cashmere shawl. But the news that the pictures had disappeared from +the walls since her visit revealed to Augustine a delicacy of sentiment +which a woman can always appreciate, even by instinct. + +On the morning when, on his way home from a ball, Theodore de +Sommervieux--for this was the name which fame had stamped on Augustine’s +heart--had been squirted on by the apprentices while awaiting the +appearance of his artless little friend, who certainly did not know that +he was there, the lovers had seen each other for the fourth time only +since their meeting at the Salon. The difficulties which the rule of +the house placed in the way of the painter’s ardent nature gave added +violence to his passion for Augustine. + +How could he get near to a young girl seated in a counting-house between +two such women as Mademoiselle Virginie and Madame Guillaume? How could +he correspond with her when her mother never left her side? Ingenious, +as lovers are, to imagine woes, Theodore saw a rival in one of the +assistants, to whose interests he supposed the others to be devoted. If +he should evade these sons of Argus, he would yet be wrecked under the +stern eye of the old draper or of Madame Guillaume. The very vehemence +of his passion hindered the young painter from hitting on the ingenious +expedients which, in prisoners and in lovers, seem to be the last effort +of intelligence spurred by a wild craving for liberty, or by the fire of +love. Theodore wandered about the neighborhood with the restlessness of +a madman, as though movement might inspire him with some device. +After racking his imagination, it occurred to him to bribe the blowsy +waiting-maid with gold. Thus a few notes were exchanged at long +intervals during the fortnight following the ill-starred morning when +Monsieur Guillaume and Theodore had so scrutinized one another. At +the present moment the young couple had agreed to see each other at a +certain hour of the day, and on Sunday, at Saint-Leu, during Mass and +vespers. Augustine had sent her dear Theodore a list of the relations +and friends of the family, to whom the young painter tried to get +access, in the hope of interesting, if it were possible, in his love +affairs, one of these souls absorbed in money and trade, to whom a +genuine passion must appear a quite monstrous speculation, a thing +unheard-of. Nothing meanwhile, was altered at the sign of the Cat and +Racket. If Augustine was absent-minded, if, against all obedience to the +domestic code, she stole up to her room to make signals by means of +a jar of flowers, if she sighed, if she were lost in thought, no one +observed it, not even her mother. This will cause some surprise to those +who have entered into the spirit of the household, where an idea tainted +with poetry would be in startling contrast to persons and things, where +no one could venture on a gesture or a look which would not be seen and +analyzed. Nothing, however, could be more natural: the quiet barque that +navigated the stormy waters of the Paris Exchange, under the flag of +the Cat and Racket, was just now in the toils of one of these tempests +which, returning periodically, might be termed equinoctial. For the +last fortnight the five men forming the crew, with Madame Guillaume and +Mademoiselle Virginie, had been devoting themselves to the hard labor, +known as stock-taking. + +Every bale was turned over, and the length verified to ascertain the +exact value of the remnant. The ticket attached to each parcel was +carefully examined to see at what time the piece had been bought. The +retail price was fixed. Monsieur Guillaume, always on his feet, his pen +behind his ear, was like a captain commanding the working of the ship. +His sharp tones, spoken through a trap-door, to inquire into the +depths of the hold in the cellar-store, gave utterance to the barbarous +formulas of trade-jargon, which find expression only in cipher. “How +much H. N. Z.?”--“All sold.”--“What is left of Q. X.?”--“Two ells.”--“At +what price?”--“Fifty-five three.”--“Set down A. at three, with all of +J. J., all of M. P., and what is left of V. D. O.”--A hundred other +injunctions equally intelligible were spouted over the counters like +verses of modern poetry, quoted by romantic spirits, to excite each +other’s enthusiasm for one of their poets. In the evening Guillaume, +shut up with his assistant and his wife, balanced his accounts, carried +on the balance, wrote to debtors in arrears, and made out bills. All +three were busy over this enormous labor, of which the result could be +stated on a sheet of foolscap, proving to the head of the house that +there was so much to the good in hard cash, so much in goods, so much +in bills and notes; that he did not owe a sou; that a hundred or two +hundred thousand francs were owing to him; that the capital had been +increased; that the farmlands, the houses, or the investments were +extended, or repaired, or doubled. Whence it became necessary to begin +again with increased ardor, to accumulate more crown-pieces, without its +ever entering the brain of these laborious ants to ask--“To what end?” + +Favored by this annual turmoil, the happy Augustine escaped the +investigations of her Argus-eyed relations. At last, one Saturday +evening, the stock-taking was finished. The figures of the sum-total +showed a row of 0’s long enough to allow Guillaume for once to relax the +stern rule as to dessert which reigned throughout the year. The shrewd +old draper rubbed his hands, and allowed his assistants to remain at +table. The members of the crew had hardly swallowed their thimbleful +of some home-made liqueur, when the rumble of a carriage was heard. The +family party were going to see _Cendrillon_ at the Varietes, while +the two younger apprentices each received a crown of six francs, with +permission to go wherever they chose, provided they were in by midnight. + +Notwithstanding this debauch, the old cloth-merchant was shaving himself +at six next morning, put on his maroon-colored coat, of which the +glowing lights afforded him perennial enjoyment, fastened a pair of gold +buckles on the knee-straps of his ample satin breeches; and then, at +about seven o’clock, while all were still sleeping in the house, he +made his way to the little office adjoining the shop on the first floor. +Daylight came in through a window, fortified by iron bars, and looking +out on a small yard surrounded by such black walls that it was very like +a well. The old merchant opened the iron-lined shutters, which were so +familiar to him, and threw up the lower half of the sash window. The icy +air of the courtyard came in to cool the hot atmosphere of the little +room, full of the odor peculiar to offices. + +The merchant remained standing, his hand resting on the greasy arm of +a large cane chair lined with morocco, of which the original hue had +disappeared; he seemed to hesitate as to seating himself. He looked with +affection at the double desk, where his wife’s seat, opposite his own, +was fitted into a little niche in the wall. He contemplated the +numbered boxes, the files, the implements, the cash box--objects all +of immemorial origin, and fancied himself in the room with the shade of +Master Chevrel. He even pulled out the high stool on which he had once +sat in the presence of his departed master. This stool, covered with +black leather, the horse-hair showing at every corner--as it had long +done, without, however, coming out--he placed with a shaking hand on the +very spot where his predecessor had put it, and then, with an emotion +difficult to describe, he pulled a bell, which rang at the head of +Joseph Lebas’ bed. When this decisive blow had been struck, the old man, +for whom, no doubt, these reminiscences were too much, took up three or +four bills of exchange, and looked at them without seeing them. + +Suddenly Joseph Lebas stood before him. + +“Sit down there,” said Guillaume, pointing to the stool. + +As the old master draper had never yet bid his assistant be seated in +his presence, Joseph Lebas was startled. + +“What do you think of these notes?” asked Guillaume. + +“They will never be paid.” + +“Why?” + +“Well, I heard the day before yesterday Etienne and Co. had made their +payments in gold.” + +“Oh, oh!” said the draper. “Well, one must be very ill to show one’s +bile. Let us speak of something else.--Joseph, the stock-taking is +done.” + +“Yes, monsieur, and the dividend is one of the best you have ever made.” + +“Do not use new-fangled words. Say the profits, Joseph. Do you know, my +boy, that this result is partly owing to you? And I do not intend to pay +you a salary any longer. Madame Guillaume has suggested to me to take +you into partnership.--‘Guillaume and Lebas;’ will not that make a +good business name? We might add, ‘and Co.’ to round off the firm’s +signature.” + +Tears rose to the eyes of Joseph Lebas, who tried to hide them. + +“Oh, Monsieur Guillaume, how have I deserved such kindness? I only do my +duty. It was so much already that you should take an interest in a poor +orph----” + +He was brushing the cuff of his left sleeve with his right hand, and +dared not look at the old man, who smiled as he thought that this modest +young fellow no doubt needed, as he had needed once on a time, some +encouragement to complete his explanation. + +“To be sure,” said Virginie’s father, “you do not altogether deserve +this favor, Joseph. You have not so much confidence in me as I have in +you.” (The young man looked up quickly.) “You know all the secrets +of the cash-box. For the last two years I have told you almost all +my concerns. I have sent you to travel in our goods. In short, I have +nothing on my conscience as regards you. But you--you have a soft place, +and you have never breathed a word of it.” Joseph Lebas blushed. “Ah, +ha!” cried Guillaume, “so you thought you could deceive an old fox like +me? When you knew that I had scented the Lecocq bankruptcy?” + +“What, monsieur?” replied Joseph Lebas, looking at his master as keenly +as his master looked at him, “you knew that I was in love?” + +“I know everything, you rascal,” said the worthy and cunning old +merchant, pulling the assistant’s ear. “And I forgive you--I did the +same myself.” + +“And you will give her to me?” + +“Yes--with fifty thousand crowns; and I will leave you as much by will, +and we will start on our new career under the name of a new firm. We +will do good business yet, my boy!” added the old man, getting up and +flourishing his arms. “I tell you, son-in-law, there is nothing like +trade. Those who ask what pleasure is to be found in it are simpletons. +To be on the scent of a good bargain, to hold your own on ‘Change, to +watch as anxiously as at the gaming-table whether Etienne and Co. will +fail or no, to see a regiment of Guards march past all dressed in your +cloth, to trip your neighbor up--honestly of course!--to make the goods +cheaper than others can; then to carry out an undertaking which you +have planned, which begins, grows, totters, and succeeds! to know the +workings of every house of business as well as a minister of police, so +as never to make a mistake; to hold up your head in the midst of wrecks, +to have friends by correspondence in every manufacturing town; is not +that a perpetual game, Joseph? That is life, that is! I shall die in +that harness, like old Chevrel, but taking it easy now, all the same.” + +In the heat of his eager rhetoric, old Guillaume had scarcely looked +at his assistant, who was weeping copiously. “Why, Joseph, my poor boy, +what is the matter?” + +“Oh, I love her so! Monsieur Guillaume, that my heart fails me; I +believe----” + +“Well, well, boy,” said the old man, touched, “you are happier than you +know, by God! For she loves you. I know it.” + +And he blinked his little green eyes as he looked at the young man. + +“Mademoiselle Augustine! Mademoiselle Augustine!” exclaimed Joseph Lebas +in his rapture. + +He was about to rush out of the room when he felt himself clutched by a +hand of iron, and his astonished master spun him round in front of him +once more. + +“What has Augustine to do with this matter?” he asked, in a voice which +instantly froze the luckless Joseph. + +“Is it not she that--that--I love?” stammered the assistant. + +Much put out by his own want of perspicacity, Guillaume sat down +again, and rested his long head in his hands to consider the perplexing +situation in which he found himself. Joseph Lebas, shamefaced and in +despair, remained standing. + +“Joseph,” the draper said with frigid dignity, “I was speaking of +Virginie. Love cannot be made to order, I know. I know, too, that you +can be trusted. We will forget all this. I will not let Augustine marry +before Virginie.--Your interest will be ten per cent.” + +The young man, to whom love gave I know not what power of courage and +eloquence, clasped his hand, and spoke in his turn--spoke for a quarter +of an hour, with so much warmth and feeling, that he altered the +situation. If the question had been a matter of business the old +tradesman would have had fixed principles to guide his decision; but, +tossed a thousand miles from commerce, on the ocean of sentiment, +without a compass, he floated, as he told himself, undecided in the face +of such an unexpected event. Carried away by his fatherly kindness, he +began to beat about the bush. + +“Deuce take it, Joseph, you must know that there are ten years between +my two children. Mademoiselle Chevrel was no beauty, still she has had +nothing to complain of in me. Do as I did. Come, come, don’t cry. Can +you be so silly? What is to be done? It can be managed perhaps. There +is always some way out of a scrape. And we men are not always devoted +Celadons to our wives--you understand? Madame Guillaume is very pious. +... Come. By Gad, boy, give your arm to Augustine this morning as we go +to Mass.” + +These were the phrases spoken at random by the old draper, and their +conclusion made the lover happy. He was already thinking of a friend of +his as a match for Mademoiselle Virginie, as he went out of the smoky +office, pressing his future father-in-law’s hand, after saying with a +knowing look that all would turn out for the best. + +“What will Madame Guillaume say to it?” was the idea that greatly +troubled the worthy merchant when he found himself alone. + +At breakfast Madame Guillaume and Virginie, to whom the draper had not +yet confided his disappointment, cast meaning glances at Joseph Lebas, +who was extremely embarrassed. The young assistant’s bashfulness +commended him to his mother-in-law’s good graces. The matron became +so cheerful that she smiled as she looked at her husband, and allowed +herself some little pleasantries of time-honored acceptance in such +simple families. She wondered whether Joseph or Virginie were the +taller, to ask them to compare their height. This preliminary fooling +brought a cloud to the master’s brow, and he even made such a point of +decorum that he desired Augustine to take the assistant’s arm on their +way to Saint-Leu. Madame Guillaume, surprised at this manly delicacy, +honored her husband with a nod of approval. So the procession left +the house in such order as to suggest no suspicious meaning to the +neighbors. + +“Does it not seem to you, Mademoiselle Augustine,” said the assistant, +and he trembled, “that the wife of a merchant whose credit is as good +as Monsieur Guillaume’s, for instance, might enjoy herself a little more +than Madame your mother does? Might wear diamonds--or keep a carriage? +For my part, if I were to marry, I should be glad to take all the work, +and see my wife happy. I would not put her into the counting-house. +In the drapery business, you see, a woman is not so necessary now as +formerly. Monsieur Guillaume was quite right to act as he did--and +besides, his wife liked it. But so long as a woman knows how to turn her +hand to the book-keeping, the correspondence, the retail business, the +orders, and her housekeeping, so as not to sit idle, that is enough. At +seven o’clock, when the shop is shut, I shall take my pleasures, go to +the play, and into company.--But you are not listening to me.” + +“Yes, indeed, Monsieur Joseph. What do you think of painting? That is a +fine calling.” + +“Yes. I know a master house-painter, Monsieur Lourdois. He is +well-to-do.” + +Thus conversing, the family reached the Church of Saint-Leu. There +Madame Guillaume reasserted her rights, and, for the first time, placed +Augustine next herself, Virginie taking her place on the fourth chair, +next to Lebas. During the sermon all went well between Augustine and +Theodore, who, standing behind a pillar, worshiped his Madonna with +fervent devotion; but at the elevation of the Host, Madame Guillaume +discovered, rather late, that her daughter Augustine was holding her +prayer-book upside down. She was about to speak to her strongly, when, +lowering her veil, she interrupted her own devotions to look in the +direction where her daughter’s eyes found attraction. By the help of her +spectacles she saw the young artist, whose fashionable elegance seemed +to proclaim him a cavalry officer on leave rather than a tradesman of +the neighborhood. It is difficult to conceive of the state of violent +agitation in which Madame Guillaume found herself--she, who flattered +herself on having brought up her daughters to perfection--on discovering +in Augustine a clandestine passion of which her prudery and ignorance +exaggerated the perils. She believed her daughter to be cankered to the +core. + +“Hold your book right way up, miss,” she muttered in a low voice, +tremulous with wrath. She snatched away the tell-tale prayer-book and +returned it with the letter-press right way up. “Do not allow your +eyes to look anywhere but at your prayers,” she added, “or I shall +have something to say to you. Your father and I will talk to you after +church.” + +These words came like a thunderbolt on poor Augustine. She felt faint; +but, torn between the distress she felt and the dread of causing a +commotion in church she bravely concealed her anguish. It was, however, +easy to discern the stormy state of her soul from the trembling of her +prayer-book, and the tears which dropped on every page she turned. From +the furious glare shot at him by Madame Guillaume the artist saw the +peril into which his love affair had fallen; he went out, with a raging +soul, determined to venture all. + +“Go to your room, miss!” said Madame Guillaume, on their return home; +“we will send for you, but take care not to quit it.” + +The conference between the husband and wife was conducted so secretly +that at first nothing was heard of it. Virginie, however, who had tried +to give her sister courage by a variety of gentle remonstrances, carried +her good nature so far as to listen at the door of her mother’s bedroom +where the discussion was held, to catch a word or two. The first time +she went down to the lower floor she heard her father exclaim, “Then, +madame, do you wish to kill your daughter?” + +“My poor dear!” said Virginie, in tears, “papa takes your part.” + +“And what do they want to do to Theodore?” asked the innocent girl. + +Virginie, inquisitive, went down again; but this time she stayed longer; +she learned that Joseph Lebas loved Augustine. It was written that on +this memorable day, this house, generally so peaceful, should be a hell. +Monsieur Guillaume brought Joseph Lebas to despair by telling him of +Augustine’s love for a stranger. Lebas, who had advised his friend to +become a suitor for Mademoiselle Virginie, saw all his hopes wrecked. +Mademoiselle Virginie, overcome by hearing that Joseph had, in a way, +refused her, had a sick headache. The dispute that had arisen from the +discussion between Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, when, for the third +time in their lives, they had been of antagonistic opinions, had shown +itself in a terrible form. Finally, at half-past four in the afternoon, +Augustine, pale, trembling, and with red eyes, was haled before her +father and mother. The poor child artlessly related the too brief tale +of her love. Reassured by a speech from her father, who promised to +listen to her in silence, she gathered courage as she pronounced to her +parents the name of Theodore de Sommervieux, with a mischievous little +emphasis on the aristocratic _de_. And yielding to the unknown charm of +talking of her feelings, she was brave enough to declare with innocent +decision that she loved Monsieur de Sommervieux, that she had written to +him, and she added, with tears in her eyes: “To sacrifice me to another +man would make me wretched.” + +“But, Augustine, you cannot surely know what a painter is?” cried her +mother with horror. + +“Madame Guillaume!” said the old man, compelling her to +silence.--“Augustine,” he went on, “artists are generally little better +than beggars. They are too extravagant not to be always a bad sort. I +served the late Monsieur Joseph Vernet, the late Monsieur Lekain, and +the late Monsieur Noverre. Oh, if you could only know the tricks played +on poor Father Chevrel by that Monsieur Noverre, by the Chevalier de +Saint-Georges, and especially by Monsieur Philidor! They are a set of +rascals; I know them well! They all have a gab and nice manners. Ah, +your Monsieur Sumer--, Somm----” + +“De Sommervieux, papa.” + +“Well, well, de Sommervieux, well and good. He can never have been half +so sweet to you as Monsieur le Chevalier de Saint-Georges was to me the +day I got a verdict of the consuls against him. And in those days they +were gentlemen of quality.” + +“But, father, Monsieur Theodore is of good family, and he wrote me that +he is rich; his father was called Chevalier de Sommervieux before the +Revolution.” + +At these words Monsieur Guillaume looked at his terrible better half, +who, like an angry woman, sat tapping the floor with her foot while +keeping sullen silence; she avoided even casting wrathful looks +at Augustine, appearing to leave to Monsieur Guillaume the whole +responsibility in so grave a matter, since her opinion was not listened +to. Nevertheless, in spite of her apparent self-control, when she +saw her husband giving way so mildly under a catastrophe which had no +concern with business, she exclaimed: + +“Really, monsieur, you are so weak with your daughters! However----” + +The sound of a carriage, which stopped at the door, interrupted the +rating which the old draper already quaked at. In a minute Madame Roguin +was standing in the middle of the room, and looking at the actors in +this domestic scene: “I know all, my dear cousin,” said she, with a +patronizing air. + +Madame Roguin made the great mistake of supposing that a Paris notary’s +wife could play the part of a favorite of fashion. + +“I know all,” she repeated, “and I have come into Noah’s Ark, like +the dove, with the olive-branch. I read that allegory in the _Genie du +Christianisme_,” she added, turning to Madame Guillaume; “the allusion +ought to please you, cousin. Do you know,” she went on, smiling at +Augustine, “that Monsieur de Sommervieux is a charming man? He gave me +my portrait this morning, painted by a master’s hand. It is worth at +least six thousand francs.” And at these words she patted Monsieur +Guillaume on the arm. The old draper could not help making a grimace +with his lips, which was peculiar to him. + +“I know Monsieur de Sommervieux very well,” the Dove ran on. “He has +come to my evenings this fortnight past, and made them delightful. He +has told me all his woes, and commissioned me to plead for him. I know +since this morning that he adores Augustine, and he shall have her. Ah, +cousin, do not shake your head in refusal. He will be created Baron, I +can tell you, and has just been made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, +by the Emperor himself, at the Salon. Roguin is now his lawyer, and +knows all his affairs. Well! Monsieur de Sommervieux has twelve thousand +francs a year in good landed estate. Do you know that the father-in-law +of such a man may get a rise in life--be mayor of his _arrondissement_, +for instance. Have we not seen Monsieur Dupont become a Count of the +Empire, and a senator, all because he went as mayor to congratulate the +Emperor on his entry into Vienna? Oh, this marriage must take place! For +my part, I adore the dear young man. His behavior to Augustine is only +met with in romances. Be easy, little one, you shall be happy, and every +girl will wish she were in your place. Madame la Duchesse de Carigliano, +who comes to my ‘At Homes,’ raves about Monsieur de Sommervieux. Some +spiteful people say she only comes to me to meet him; as if a duchesse +of yesterday was doing too much honor to a Chevrel, whose family have +been respected citizens these hundred years! + +“Augustine,” Madame Roguin went on, after a short pause, “I have seen +the portrait. Heavens! How lovely it is! Do you know that the Emperor +wanted to have it? He laughed, and said to the Deputy High Constable +that if there were many women like that in his court while all the kings +visited it, he should have no difficulty about preserving the peace of +Europe. Is not that a compliment?” + +The tempests with which the day had begun were to resemble those of +nature, by ending in clear and serene weather. Madame Roguin displayed +so much address in her harangue, she was able to touch so many strings +in the dry hearts of Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, that at last she hit +on one which she could work upon. At this strange period commerce and +finance were more than ever possessed by the crazy mania for seeking +alliance with rank; and the generals of the Empire took full advantage +of this desire. Monsieur Guillaume, as a singular exception, opposed +this deplorable craving. His favorite axioms were that, to secure +happiness, a woman must marry a man of her own class; that every one was +punished sooner or later for having climbed too high; that love could +so little endure under the worries of a household, that both husband and +wife needed sound good qualities to be happy, that it would not do for +one to be far in advance of the other, because, above everything, they +must understand each other; if a man spoke Greek and his wife Latin, +they might come to die of hunger. He had himself invented this sort +of adage. And he compared such marriages to old-fashioned materials of +mixed silk and wool. Still, there is so much vanity at the bottom of +man’s heart that the prudence of the pilot who steered the Cat and +Racket so wisely gave way before Madame Roguin’s aggressive volubility. +Austere Madame Guillaume was the first to see in her daughter’s +affection a reason for abdicating her principles and for consenting to +receive Monsieur de Sommervieux, whom she promised herself she would put +under severe inquisition. + +The old draper went to look for Joseph Lebas, and inform him of the +state of affairs. At half-past six, the dining-room immortalized by the +artist saw, united under its skylight, Monsieur and Madame Roguin, the +young painter and his charming Augustine, Joseph Lebas, who found his +happiness in patience, and Mademoiselle Virginie, convalescent from her +headache. Monsieur and Madame Guillaume saw in perspective both their +children married, and the fortunes of the Cat and Racket once more in +skilful hands. Their satisfaction was at its height when, at dessert, +Theodore made them a present of the wonderful picture which they had +failed to see, representing the interior of the old shop, and to which +they all owed so much happiness. + +“Isn’t it pretty!” cried Guillaume. “And to think that any one would pay +thirty thousand francs for that!” + +“Because you can see my lappets in it,” said Madame Guillaume. + +“And the cloth unrolled!” added Lebas; “you might take it up in your +hand.” + +“Drapery always comes out well,” replied the painter. “We should be +only too happy, we modern artists, if we could touch the perfection of +antique drapery.” + +“So you like drapery!” cried old Guillaume. “Well, then, by Gad! shake +hands on that, my young friend. Since you can respect trade, we shall +understand each other. And why should it be despised? The world began +with trade, since Adam sold Paradise for an apple. He did not strike +a good bargain though!” And the old man roared with honest laughter, +encouraged by the champagne, which he sent round with a liberal hand. +The band that covered the young artist’s eyes was so thick that he +thought his future parents amiable. He was not above enlivening them +by a few jests in the best taste. So he too pleased every one. In the +evening, when the drawing-room, furnished with what Madame Guillaume +called “everything handsome,” was deserted, and while she flitted +from the table to the chimney-piece, from the candelabra to the tall +candlesticks, hastily blowing out the wax-lights, the worthy draper, who +was always clear-sighted when money was in question, called Augustine to +him, and seating her on his knee, spoke as follows:-- + +“My dear child, you shall marry your Sommervieux since you insist; you +may, if you like, risk your capital in happiness. But I am not going to +be hoodwinked by the thirty thousand francs to be made by spoiling good +canvas. Money that is lightly earned is lightly spent. Did I not hear +that hare-brained youngster declare this evening that money was made +round that it might roll. If it is round for spendthrifts, it is flat +for saving folks who pile it up. Now, my child, that fine gentleman +talks of giving you carriages and diamonds! He has money, let him spend +it on you; so be it. It is no concern of mine. But as to what I can give +you, I will not have the crown-pieces I have picked up with so much toil +wasted in carriages and frippery. Those who spend too fast never grow +rich. A hundred thousand crowns, which is your fortune, will not buy +up Paris. It is all very well to look forward to a few hundred thousand +francs to be yours some day; I shall keep you waiting for them as long +as possible, by Gad! So I took your lover aside, and a man who managed +the Lecocq bankruptcy had not much difficulty in persuading the artist +to marry under a settlement of his wife’s money on herself. I will keep +an eye on the marriage contract to see that what he is to settle on you +is safely tied up. So now, my child, I hope to be a grandfather, by Gad! +I will begin at once to lay up for my grandchildren; but swear to me, +here and now, never to sign any papers relating to money without my +advice; and if I go soon to join old Father Chevrel, promise to consult +young Lebas, your brother-in-law.” + +“Yes, father, I swear it.” + +At these words, spoken in a gentle voice, the old man kissed his +daughter on both cheeks. That night the lovers slept as soundly as +Monsieur and Madame Guillaume. + + + +Some few months after this memorable Sunday the high altar of Saint-Leu +was the scene of two very different weddings. Augustine and Theodore +appeared in all the radiance of happiness, their eyes beaming with love, +dressed with elegance, while a fine carriage waited for them. Virginie, +who had come in a good hired fly with the rest of the family, humbly +followed her younger sister, dressed in the simplest fashion like a +shadow necessary to the harmony of the picture. Monsieur Guillaume had +exerted himself to the utmost in the church to get Virginie married +before Augustine, but the priests, high and low, persisted in addressing +the more elegant of the two brides. He heard some of his neighbors +highly approving the good sense of Mademoiselle Virginie, who was +making, as they said, the more substantial match, and remaining faithful +to the neighborhood; while they fired a few taunts, prompted by envy of +Augustine, who was marrying an artist and a man of rank; adding, with a +sort of dismay, that if the Guillaumes were ambitious, there was an end +to the business. An old fan-maker having remarked that such a prodigal +would soon bring his wife to beggary, father Guillaume prided himself +_in petto_ for his prudence in the matter of marriage settlements. In +the evening, after a splendid ball, followed by one of those substantial +suppers of which the memory is dying out in the present generation, +Monsieur and Madame Guillaume remained in a fine house belonging to them +in the Rue du Colombier, where the wedding had been held; Monsieur +and Madame Lebas returned in their fly to the old home in the Rue +Saint-Denis, to steer the good ship Cat and Racket. The artist, +intoxicated with happiness, carried off his beloved Augustine, and +eagerly lifting her out of their carriage when it reached the Rue des +Trois-Freres, led her to an apartment embellished by all the arts. + +The fever of passion which possessed Theodore made a year fly over the +young couple without a single cloud to dim the blue sky under which they +lived. Life did not hang heavy on the lovers’ hands. Theodore lavished +on every day inexhaustible _fioriture_ of enjoyment, and he delighted +to vary the transports of passion by the soft languor of those hours +of repose when souls soar so high that they seem to have forgotten all +bodily union. Augustine was too happy for reflection; she floated on +an undulating tide of rapture; she thought she could not do enough by +abandoning herself to sanctioned and sacred married love; simple and +artless, she had no coquetry, no reserves, none of the dominion which a +worldly-minded girl acquires over her husband by ingenious caprice; she +loved too well to calculate for the future, and never imagined that so +exquisite a life could come to an end. Happy in being her husband’s sole +delight, she believed that her inextinguishable love would always be +her greatest grace in his eyes, as her devotion and obedience would be +a perennial charm. And, indeed, the ecstasy of love had made her so +brilliantly lovely that her beauty filled her with pride, and gave her +confidence that she could always reign over a man so easy to kindle +as Monsieur de Sommervieux. Thus her position as a wife brought her no +knowledge but the lessons of love. + +In the midst of her happiness, she was still the simple child who had +lived in obscurity in the Rue Saint-Denis, and who never thought of +acquiring the manners, the information, the tone of the world she had +to live in. Her words being the words of love, she revealed in them, no +doubt, a certain pliancy of mind and a certain refinement of speech; +but she used the language common to all women when they find themselves +plunged in passion, which seems to be their element. When, by chance, +Augustine expressed an idea that did not harmonize with Theodore’s, the +young artist laughed, as we laugh at the first mistakes of a foreigner, +though they end by annoying us if they are not corrected. + +In spite of all this love-making, by the end of this year, as delightful +as it was swift, Sommervieux felt one morning the need for resuming his +work and his old habits. His wife was expecting their first child. He +saw some friends again. During the tedious discomforts of the year when +a young wife is nursing an infant for the first time, he worked, +no doubt, with zeal, but he occasionally sought diversion in the +fashionable world. The house which he was best pleased to frequent +was that of the Duchesse de Carigliano, who had at last attracted the +celebrated artist to her parties. When Augustine was quite well again, +and her boy no longer required the assiduous care which debars a mother +from social pleasures, Theodore had come to the stage of wishing to know +the joys of satisfied vanity to be found in society by a man who shows +himself with a handsome woman, the object of envy and admiration. + +To figure in drawing-rooms with the reflected lustre of her husband’s +fame, and to find other women envious of her, was to Augustine a new +harvest of pleasures; but it was the last gleam of conjugal happiness. +She first wounded her husband’s vanity when, in spite of vain efforts, +she betrayed her ignorance, the inelegance of her language, and the +narrowness of her ideas. Sommervieux’s nature, subjugated for nearly two +years and a half by the first transports of love, now, in the calm of +less new possession, recovered its bent and habits, for a while diverted +from their channel. Poetry, painting, and the subtle joys of imagination +have inalienable rights over a lofty spirit. These cravings of a +powerful soul had not been starved in Theodore during these two years; +they had only found fresh pasture. As soon as the meadows of love had +been ransacked, and the artist had gathered roses and cornflowers as the +children do, so greedily that he did not see that his hands could +hold no more, the scene changed. When the painter showed his wife the +sketches for his finest compositions he heard her exclaim, as her father +had done, “How pretty!” This tepid admiration was not the outcome of +conscientious feeling, but of her faith on the strength of love. + +Augustine cared more for a look than for the finest picture. The only +sublime she knew was that of the heart. At last Theodore could not +resist the evidence of the cruel fact--his wife was insensible to +poetry, she did not dwell in his sphere, she could not follow him in +all his vagaries, his inventions, his joys and his sorrows; she walked +groveling in the world of reality, while his head was in the skies. +Common minds cannot appreciate the perennial sufferings of a being +who, while bound to another by the most intimate affections, is obliged +constantly to suppress the dearest flights of his soul, and to thrust +down into the void those images which a magic power compels him to +create. To him the torture is all the more intolerable because his +feeling towards his companion enjoins, as its first law, that they +should have no concealments, but mingle the aspirations of their thought +as perfectly as the effusions of their soul. The demands of nature are +not to be cheated. She is as inexorable as necessity, which is, indeed, +a sort of social nature. Sommervieux took refuge in the peace and +silence of his studio, hoping that the habit of living with artists +might mould his wife and develop in her the dormant germs of lofty +intelligence which some superior minds suppose must exist in every +being. But Augustine was too sincerely religious not to take fright +at the tone of artists. At the first dinner Theodore gave, she heard +a young painter say, with the childlike lightness, which to her was +unintelligible, and which redeems a jest from the taint of profanity, +“But, madame, your Paradise cannot be more beautiful than Raphael’s +Transfiguration!--Well, and I got tired of looking at that.” + +Thus Augustine came among this sparkling set in a spirit of distrust +which no one could fail to see. She was a restraint on their freedom. +Now an artist who feels restraint is pitiless; he stays away, or laughs +it to scorn. Madame Guillaume, among other absurdities, had an excessive +notion of the dignity she considered the prerogative of a married woman; +and Augustine, though she had often made fun of it, could not help a +slight imitation of her mother’s primness. This extreme propriety, which +virtuous wives do not always avoid, suggested a few epigrams in the +form of sketches, in which the harmless jest was in such good taste +that Sommervieux could not take offence; and even if they had been +more severe, these pleasantries were after all only reprisals from +his friends. Still, nothing could seem a trifle to a spirit so open as +Theodore’s to impressions from without. A coldness insensibly crept over +him, and inevitably spread. To attain conjugal happiness we must climb +a hill whose summit is a narrow ridge, close to a steep and slippery +descent: the painter’s love was falling down it. He regarded his wife as +incapable of appreciating the moral considerations which justified him +in his own eyes for his singular behavior to her, and believed himself +quite innocent in hiding from her thoughts she could not enter into, +and peccadilloes outside the jurisdiction of a _bourgeois_ conscience. +Augustine wrapped herself in sullen and silent grief. These unconfessed +feelings placed a shroud between the husband and wife which could not +fail to grow thicker day by day. Though her husband never failed in +consideration for her, Augustine could not help trembling as she saw +that he kept for the outer world those treasures of wit and grace that +he formerly would lay at her feet. She soon began to find sinister +meaning in the jocular speeches that are current in the world as to the +inconstancy of men. She made no complaints, but her demeanor conveyed +reproach. + +Three years after her marriage this pretty young woman, who dashed past +in her handsome carriage, and lived in a sphere of glory and riches +to the envy of heedless folk incapable of taking a just view of the +situations of life, was a prey to intense grief. She lost her color; she +reflected; she made comparisons; then sorrow unfolded to her the first +lessons of experience. She determined to restrict herself bravely within +the round of duty, hoping that by this generous conduct she might +sooner or later win back her husband’s love. But it was not so. When +Sommervieux, fired with work, came in from his studio, Augustine did not +put away her work so quickly but that the painter might find his wife +mending the household linen, and his own, with all the care of a good +housewife. She supplied generously and without a murmur the money needed +for his lavishness; but in her anxiety to husband her dear Theodore’s +fortune, she was strictly economical for herself and in certain details +of domestic management. Such conduct is incompatible with the easy-going +habits of artists, who, at the end of their life, have enjoyed it so +keenly that they never inquire into the causes of their ruin. + +It is useless to note every tint of shadow by which the brilliant hues +of their honeymoon were overcast till they were lost in utter blackness. +One evening poor Augustine, who had for some time heard her husband +speak with enthusiasm of the Duchesse de Carigliano, received from a +friend certain malignantly charitable warnings as to the nature of the +attachment which Sommervieux had formed for this celebrated flirt of +the Imperial Court. At one-and-twenty, in all the splendor of youth and +beauty, Augustine saw herself deserted for a woman of six-and-thirty. +Feeling herself so wretched in the midst of a world of festivity which +to her was a blank, the poor little thing could no longer understand +the admiration she excited, or the envy of which she was the object. +Her face assumed a different expression. Melancholy, tinged her features +with the sweetness of resignation and the pallor of scorned love. Ere +long she too was courted by the most fascinating men; but she remained +lonely and virtuous. Some contemptuous words which escaped her husband +filled her with incredible despair. A sinister flash showed her the +breaches which, as a result of her sordid education, hindered the +perfect union of her soul with Theodore’s; she loved him well enough to +absolve him and condemn herself. She shed tears of blood, and perceived, +too late, that there are _mesalliances_ of the spirit as well as of +rank and habits. As she recalled the early raptures of their union, +she understood the full extent of that lost happiness, and accepted the +conclusion that so rich a harvest of love was in itself a whole life, +which only sorrow could pay for. At the same time, she loved too truly +to lose all hope. At one-and-twenty she dared undertake to educate +herself, and make her imagination, at least, worthy of that she admired. +“If I am not a poet,” thought she, “at any rate, I will understand +poetry.” + +Then, with all the strength of will, all the energy which every woman +can display when she loves, Madame de Sommervieux tried to alter her +character, her manners, and her habits; but by dint of devouring books +and learning undauntedly, she only succeeded in becoming less ignorant. +Lightness of wit and the graces of conversation are a gift of nature, or +the fruit of education begun in the cradle. She could appreciate +music and enjoy it, but she could not sing with taste. She understood +literature and the beauties of poetry, but it was too late to +cultivate her refractory memory. She listened with pleasure to social +conversation, but she could contribute nothing brilliant. Her religious +notions and home-grown prejudices were antagonistic to the complete +emancipation of her intelligence. Finally, a foregone conclusion against +her had stolen into Theodore’s mind, and this she could not conquer. The +artist would laugh, at those who flattered him about his wife, and his +irony had some foundation; he so overawed the pathetic young creature +that, in his presence, or alone with him, she trembled. Hampered by her +too eager desire to please, her wits and her knowledge vanished in one +absorbing feeling. Even her fidelity vexed the unfaithful husband, who +seemed to bid her do wrong by stigmatizing her virtue as insensibility. +Augustine tried in vain to abdicate her reason, to yield to her +husband’s caprices and whims, to devote herself to the selfishness of +his vanity. Her sacrifices bore no fruit. Perhaps they had both let +the moment slip when souls may meet in comprehension. One day the young +wife’s too sensitive heart received one of those blows which so strain +the bonds of feeling that they seem to be broken. She withdrew into +solitude. But before long a fatal idea suggested to her to seek counsel +and comfort in the bosom of her family. + +So one morning she made her way towards the grotesque facade of the +humble, silent home where she had spent her childhood. She sighed as she +looked up at the sash-window, whence one day she had sent her first kiss +to him who now shed as much sorrow as glory on her life. Nothing was +changed in the cavern, where the drapery business had, however, started +on a new life. Augustine’s sister filled her mother’s old place at the +desk. The unhappy young woman met her brother-in-law with his pen behind +his ear; he hardly listened to her, he was so full of business. The +formidable symptoms of stock-taking were visible all round him; he +begged her to excuse him. She was received coldly enough by her sister, +who owed her a grudge. In fact, Augustine, in her finery, and stepping +out of a handsome carriage, had never been to see her but when passing +by. The wife of the prudent Lebas, imagining that want of money was the +prime cause of this early call, tried to keep up a tone of reserve which +more than once made Augustine smile. The painter’s wife perceived that, +apart from the cap and lappets, her mother had found in Virginie a +successor who could uphold the ancient honor of the Cat and Racket. At +breakfast she observed certain changes in the management of the house +which did honor to Lebas’ good sense; the assistants did not rise before +dessert; they were allowed to talk, and the abundant meal spoke of ease +without luxury. The fashionable woman found some tickets for a box at +the Francais, where she remembered having seen her sister from time to +time. Madame Lebas had a cashmere shawl over her shoulders, of which +the value bore witness to her husband’s generosity to her. In short, the +couple were keeping pace with the times. During the two-thirds of the +day she spent there, Augustine was touched to the heart by the equable +happiness, devoid, to be sure, of all emotion, but equally free from +storms, enjoyed by this well-matched couple. They had accepted life as +a commercial enterprise, in which, above all, they must do credit to the +business. Not finding any great love in her husband, Virginie had set to +work to create it. Having by degrees learned to esteem and care for his +wife, the time that his happiness had taken to germinate was to Joseph +Lebas a guarantee of its durability. Hence, when Augustine plaintively +set forth her painful position, she had to face the deluge of +commonplace morality which the traditions of the Rue Saint-Denis +furnished to her sister. + +“The mischief is done, wife,” said Joseph Lebas; “we must try to give +our sister good advice.” Then the clever tradesman ponderously analyzed +the resources which law and custom might offer Augustine as a means +of escape at this crisis; he ticketed every argument, so to speak, and +arranged them in their degrees of weight under various categories, as +though they were articles of merchandise of different qualities; then he +put them in the scale, weighed them, and ended by showing the necessity +for his sister-in-law’s taking violent steps which could not satisfy the +love she still had for her husband; and, indeed, the feeling had +revived in all its strength when she heard Joseph Lebas speak of +legal proceedings. Augustine thanked them, and returned home even more +undecided than she had been before consulting them. She now ventured +to go to the house in the Rue du Colombier, intending to confide her +troubles to her father and mother; for she was like a sick man who, in +his desperate plight, tries every prescription, and even puts faith in +old wives’ remedies. + +The old people received their daughter with an effusiveness that touched +her deeply. Her visit brought them some little change, and that to them +was worth a fortune. For the last four years they had gone their way +like navigators without a goal or a compass. Sitting by the chimney +corner, they would talk over their disasters under the old law of +_maximum_, of their great investments in cloth, of the way they had +weathered bankruptcies, and, above all, the famous failure of Lecocq, +Monsieur Guillaume’s battle of Marengo. Then, when they had exhausted +the tale of lawsuits, they recapitulated the sum total of their most +profitable stock-takings, and told each other old stories of the +Saint-Denis quarter. At two o’clock old Guillaume went to cast an eye on +the business at the Cat and Racket; on his way back he called at all the +shops, formerly the rivals of his own, where the young proprietors hoped +to inveigle the old draper into some risky discount, which, as was his +wont, he never refused point-blank. Two good Normandy horses were dying +of their own fat in the stables of the big house; Madame Guillaume never +used them but to drag her on Sundays to high Mass at the parish church. +Three times a week the worthy couple kept open house. By the influence +of his son-in-law Sommervieux, Monsieur Guillaume had been named a +member of the consulting board for the clothing of the Army. Since her +husband had stood so high in office, Madame Guillaume had decided +that she must receive; her rooms were so crammed with gold and silver +ornaments, and furniture, tasteless but of undoubted value, that the +simplest room in the house looked like a chapel. Economy and expense +seemed to be struggling for the upper hand in every accessory. It was as +though Monsieur Guillaume had looked to a good investment, even in the +purchase of a candlestick. In the midst of this bazaar, where splendor +revealed the owner’s want of occupation, Sommervieux’s famous picture +filled the place of honor, and in it Monsieur and Madame Guillaume found +their chief consolation, turning their eyes, harnessed with eye-glasses, +twenty times a day on this presentment of their past life, to them so +active and amusing. The appearance of this mansion and these rooms, +where everything had an aroma of staleness and mediocrity, the spectacle +offered by these two beings, cast away, as it were, on a rock far from +the world and the ideas which are life, startled Augustine; she could +here contemplate the sequel of the scene of which the first part had +struck her at the house of Lebas--a life of stir without movement, a +mechanical and instinctive existence like that of the beaver; and then +she felt an indefinable pride in her troubles, as she reflected that +they had their source in eighteen months of such happiness as, in her +eyes, was worth a thousand lives like this; its vacuity seemed to her +horrible. However, she concealed this not very charitable feeling, and +displayed for her parents her newly-acquired accomplishments of mind, +and the ingratiating tenderness that love had revealed to her, disposing +them to listen to her matrimonial grievances. Old people have a weakness +for this kind of confidence. Madame Guillaume wanted to know the most +trivial details of that alien life, which to her seemed almost fabulous. +The travels of Baron da la Houtan, which she began again and again and +never finished, told her nothing more unheard-of concerning the Canadian +savages. + +“What, child, your husband shuts himself into a room with naked women! +And you are so simple as to believe that he draws them?” + +As she uttered this exclamation, the grandmother laid her spectacles +on a little work-table, shook her skirts, and clasped her hands on her +knees, raised by a foot-warmer, her favorite pedestal. + +“But, mother, all artists are obliged to have models.” + +“He took good care not to tell us that when he asked leave to marry +you. If I had known it, I would never had given my daughter to a man who +followed such a trade. Religion forbids such horrors; they are immoral. +And at what time of night do you say he comes home?” + +“At one o’clock--two----” + +The old folks looked at each other in utter amazement. + +“Then he gambles?” said Monsieur Guillaume. “In my day only gamblers +stayed out so late.” + +Augustine made a face that scorned the accusation. + +“He must keep you up through dreadful nights waiting for him,” said +Madame Guillaume. “But you go to bed, don’t you? And when he has lost, +the wretch wakes you.” + +“No, mamma, on the contrary, he is sometimes in very good spirits. Not +unfrequently, indeed, when it is fine, he suggests that I should get up +and go into the woods.” + +“The woods! At that hour? Then have you such a small set of rooms that +his bedroom and his sitting-room are not enough, and that he must run +about? But it is just to give you cold that the wretch proposes such +expeditions. He wants to get rid of you. Did one ever hear of a man +settled in life, a well-behaved, quiet man galloping about like a +warlock?” + +“But, my dear mother, you do not understand that he must have excitement +to fire his genius. He is fond of scenes which----” + +“I would make scenes for him, fine scenes!” cried Madame Guillaume, +interrupting her daughter. “How can you show any consideration to such a +man? In the first place, I don’t like his drinking water only; it is not +wholesome. Why does he object to see a woman eating? What queer notion +is that! But he is mad. All you tell us about him is impossible. A man +cannot leave his home without a word, and never come back for ten days. +And then he tells you he has been to Dieppe to paint the sea. As if +any one painted the sea! He crams you with a pack of tales that are too +absurd.” + +Augustine opened her lips to defend her husband; but Madame Guillaume +enjoined silence with a wave of her hand, which she obeyed by a survival +of habit, and her mother went on in harsh tones: “Don’t talk to me about +the man! He never set foot in church excepting to see you and to be +married. People without religion are capable of anything. Did Guillaume +ever dream of hiding anything from me, of spending three days without +saying a word to me, and of chattering afterwards like a blind magpie?” + +“My dear mother, you judge superior people too severely. If their ideas +were the same as other folks’, they would not be men of genius.” + +“Very well, then let men of genius stop at home and not get married. +What! A man of genius is to make his wife miserable? And because he is a +genius it is all right! Genius, genius! It is not so very clever to +say black one minute and white the next, as he does, to interrupt other +people, to dance such rigs at home, never to let you know which foot you +are to stand on, to compel his wife never to be amused unless my lord is +in gay spirits, and to be dull when he is dull.” + +“But, mother, the very nature of such imaginations----” + +“What are such ‘imaginations’?” Madame Guillaume went on, interrupting +her daughter again. “Fine ones his are, my word! What possesses a man +that all on a sudden, without consulting a doctor, he takes it into his +head to eat nothing but vegetables? If indeed it were from religious +motives, it might do him some good--but he has no more religion than a +Huguenot. Was there ever a man known who, like him, loved horses better +than his fellow-creatures, had his hair curled like a heathen, laid +statues under muslin coverlets, shut his shutters in broad day to work +by lamp-light? There, get along; if he were not so grossly immoral, he +would be fit to shut up in a lunatic asylum. Consult Monsieur Loraux, +the priest at Saint Sulpice, ask his opinion about it all, and he will +tell you that your husband, does not behave like a Christian.” + +“Oh, mother, can you believe----?” + +“Yes, I do believe. You loved him, and you can see none of these things. +But I can remember in the early days after your marriage. I met him +in the Champs-Elysees. He was on horseback. Well, at one minute he was +galloping as hard as he could tear, and then pulled up to a walk. I said +to myself at that moment, ‘There is a man devoid of judgement.’” + +“Ah, ha!” cried Monsieur Guillaume, “how wise I was to have your money +settled on yourself with such a queer fellow for a husband!” + +When Augustine was so imprudent as to set forth her serious grievances +against her husband, the two old people were speechless with +indignation. But the word “divorce” was ere long spoken by Madame +Guillaume. At the sound of the word divorce the apathetic old draper +seemed to wake up. Prompted by his love for his daughter, and also by +the excitement which the proceedings would bring into his uneventful +life, father Guillaume took up the matter. He made himself the leader of +the application for a divorce, laid down the lines of it, almost argued +the case; he offered to be at all the charges, to see the lawyers, the +pleaders, the judges, to move heaven and earth. Madame de Sommervieux +was frightened, she refused her father’s services, said she would not +be separated from her husband even if she were ten times as unhappy, and +talked no more about her sorrows. After being overwhelmed by her parents +with all the little wordless and consoling kindnesses by which the +old couple tried in vain to make up to her for her distress of heart, +Augustine went away, feeling the impossibility of making a superior mind +intelligible to weak intellects. She had learned that a wife must hide +from every one, even from her parents, woes for which it is so difficult +to find sympathy. The storms and sufferings of the upper spheres +are appreciated only by the lofty spirits who inhabit there. In any +circumstance we can only be judged by our equals. + +Thus poor Augustine found herself thrown back on the horror of her +meditations, in the cold atmosphere of her home. Study was indifferent +to her, since study had not brought her back her husband’s heart. +Initiated into the secret of these souls of fire, but bereft of their +resources, she was compelled to share their sorrows without sharing +their pleasures. She was disgusted with the world, which to her seemed +mean and small as compared with the incidents of passion. In short, her +life was a failure. + +One evening an idea flashed upon her that lighted up her dark grief like +a beam from heaven. Such an idea could never have smiled on a heart less +pure, less virtuous than hers. She determined to go to the Duchesse de +Carigliano, not to ask her to give her back her husband’s heart, but to +learn the arts by which it had been captured; to engage the interest of +this haughty fine lady for the mother of her lover’s children; to appeal +to her and make her the instrument of her future happiness, since she +was the cause of her present wretchedness. + +So one day Augustine, timid as she was, but armed with supernatural +courage, got into her carriage at two in the afternoon to try for +admittance to the boudoir of the famous coquette, who was never visible +till that hour. Madame de Sommervieux had not yet seen any of the +ancient and magnificent mansions of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. As she +made her way through the stately corridors, the handsome staircases, +the vast drawing-rooms--full of flowers, though it was in the depth of +winter, and decorated with the taste peculiar to women born to opulence +or to the elegant habits of the aristocracy, Augustine felt a terrible +clutch at her heart; she coveted the secrets of an elegance of which +she had never had an idea; she breathed in an air of grandeur which +explained the attraction of the house for her husband. When she reached +the private rooms of the Duchess she was filled with jealousy and a sort +of despair, as she admired the luxurious arrangement of the furniture, +the draperies and the hangings. Here disorder was a grace, here luxury +affected a certain contempt of splendor. The fragrance that floated +in the warm air flattered the sense of smell without offending it. +The accessories of the rooms were in harmony with a view, through +plate-glass windows, of the lawns in a garden planted with evergreen +trees. It was all bewitching, and the art of it was not perceptible. The +whole spirit of the mistress of these rooms pervaded the drawing-room +where Augustine awaited her. She tried to divine her rival’s character +from the aspect of the scattered objects; but there was here something +as impenetrable in the disorder as in the symmetry, and to the +simple-minded young wife all was a sealed letter. All that she could +discern was that, as a woman, the Duchess was a superior person. Then a +painful thought came over her. + +“Alas! And is it true,” she wondered, “that a simple and loving heart +is not all-sufficient to an artist; that to balance the weight of these +powerful souls they need a union with feminine souls of a strength equal +to their own? If I had been brought up like this siren, our weapons at +least might have been equal in the hour of struggle.” + +“But I am not at home!” The sharp, harsh words, though spoken in an +undertone in the adjoining boudoir, were heard by Augustine, and her +heart beat violently. + +“The lady is in there,” replied the maid. + +“You are an idiot! Show her in,” replied the Duchess, whose voice was +sweeter, and had assumed the dulcet tones of politeness. She evidently +now meant to be heard. + +Augustine shyly entered the room. At the end of the dainty boudoir she +saw the Duchess lounging luxuriously on an ottoman covered with brown +velvet and placed in the centre of a sort of apse outlined by soft folds +of white muslin over a yellow lining. Ornaments of gilt bronze, arranged +with exquisite taste, enhanced this sort of dais, under which the +Duchess reclined like a Greek statue. The dark hue of the velvet gave +relief to every fascinating charm. A subdued light, friendly to her +beauty, fell like a reflection rather than a direct illumination. A few +rare flowers raised their perfumed heads from costly Sevres vases. At +the moment when this picture was presented to Augustine’s astonished +eyes, she was approaching so noiselessly that she caught a glance from +those of the enchantress. This look seemed to say to some one whom +Augustine did not at first perceive, “Stay; you will see a pretty woman, +and make her visit seem less of a bore.” + +On seeing Augustine, the Duchess rose and made her sit down by her. + +“And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, madame?” she said with +a most gracious smile. + +“Why all the falseness?” thought Augustine, replying only with a bow. + +Her silence was compulsory. The young woman saw before her a superfluous +witness of the scene. This personage was, of all the Colonels in the +army, the youngest, the most fashionable, and the finest man. His face, +full of life and youth, but already expressive, was further enhanced by +a small moustache twirled up into points, and as black as jet, by a full +imperial, by whiskers carefully combed, and a forest of black hair in +some disorder. He was whisking a riding whip with an air of ease and +freedom which suited his self-satisfied expression and the elegance of +his dress; the ribbons attached to his button-hole were carelessly tied, +and he seemed to pride himself much more on his smart appearance than +on his courage. Augustine looked at the Duchesse de Carigliano, and +indicated the Colonel by a sidelong glance. All its mute appeal was +understood. + +“Good-bye, then, Monsieur d’Aiglemont, we shall meet in the Bois de +Boulogne.” + +These words were spoken by the siren as though they were the result of +an agreement made before Augustine’s arrival, and she winged them with a +threatening look that the officer deserved perhaps for the admiration he +showed in gazing at the modest flower, which contrasted so well with the +haughty Duchess. The young fop bowed in silence, turned on the heels +of his boots, and gracefully quitted the boudoir. At this instant, +Augustine, watching her rival, whose eyes seemed to follow the brilliant +officer, detected in that glance a sentiment of which the transient +expression is known to every woman. She perceived with the deepest +anguish that her visit would be useless; this lady, full of artifice, +was too greedy of homage not to have a ruthless heart. + +“Madame,” said Augustine in a broken voice, “the step I am about to take +will seem to you very strange; but there is a madness of despair which +ought to excuse anything. I understand only too well why Theodore +prefers your house to any other, and why your mind has so much power +over his. Alas! I have only to look into myself to find more than ample +reasons. But I am devoted to my husband, madame. Two years of tears have +not effaced his image from my heart, though I have lost his. In my folly +I dared to dream of a contest with you; and I have come to you to ask +you by what means I may triumph over yourself. Oh, madame,” cried the +young wife, ardently seizing the hand which her rival allowed her to +hold, “I will never pray to God for my own happiness with so much +fervor as I will beseech Him for yours, if you will help me to win back +Sommervieux’s regard--I will not say his love. I have no hope but in +you. Ah! tell me how you could please him, and make him forget the first +days----” At these words Augustine broke down, suffocated with sobs she +could not suppress. Ashamed of her weakness, she hid her face in her +handkerchief, which she bathed with tears. + +“What a child you are, my dear little beauty!” said the Duchess, carried +away by the novelty of such a scene, and touched, in spite of herself, +at receiving such homage from the most perfect virtue perhaps in Paris. +She took the young wife’s handkerchief, and herself wiped the tears from +her eyes, soothing her by a few monosyllables murmured with gracious +compassion. After a moment’s silence the Duchess, grasping poor +Augustine’s hands in both her own--hands that had a rare character of +dignity and powerful beauty--said in a gentle and friendly voice: +“My first warning is to advise you not to weep so bitterly; tears are +disfiguring. We must learn to deal firmly with the sorrows that make us +ill, for love does not linger long by a sick-bed. Melancholy, at first, +no doubt, lends a certain attractive grace, but it ends by dragging the +features and blighting the loveliest face. And besides, our tyrants are +so vain as to insist that their slaves should be always cheerful.” + +“But, madame, it is not in my power not to feel. How is it possible, +without suffering a thousand deaths, to see the face which once beamed +with love and gladness turn chill, colorless, and indifferent? I cannot +control my heart!” + +“So much the worse, sweet child. But I fancy I know all your story. +In the first place, if your husband is unfaithful to you, understand +clearly that I am not his accomplice. If I was anxious to have him in my +drawing-room, it was, I own, out of vanity; he was famous, and he went +nowhere. I like you too much already to tell you all the mad things he +has done for my sake. I will only reveal one, because it may perhaps +help us to bring him back to you, and to punish him for the audacity of +his behavior to me. He will end by compromising me. I know the world +too well, my dear, to abandon myself to the discretion of a too superior +man. You should know that one may allow them to court one, but marry +them--that is a mistake! We women ought to admire men of genius, and +delight in them as a spectacle, but as to living with them? Never.--No, +no. It is like wanting to find pleasure in inspecting the machinery of +the opera instead of sitting in a box to enjoy its brilliant illusions. +But this misfortune has fallen on you, my poor child, has it not? Well, +then, you must try to arm yourself against tyranny.” + +“Ah, madame, before coming in here, only seeing you as I came in, I +already detected some arts of which I had no suspicion.” + +“Well, come and see me sometimes, and it will not be long before you +have mastered the knowledge of these trifles, important, too, in their +way. Outward things are, to fools, half of life; and in that matter more +than one clever man is a fool, in spite of all his talent. But I dare +wager you never could refuse your Theodore anything!” + +“How refuse anything, madame, if one loves a man?” + +“Poor innocent, I could adore you for your simplicity. You should know +that the more we love the less we should allow a man, above all, a +husband, to see the whole extent of our passion. The one who loves most +is tyrannized over, and, which is worse, is sooner or later neglected. +The one who wishes to rule should----” + +“What, madame, must I then dissimulate, calculate, become false, form an +artificial character, and live in it? How is it possible to live in such +a way? Can you----” she hesitated; the Duchess smiled. + +“My dear child,” the great lady went on in a serious tone, “conjugal +happiness has in all times been a speculation, a business demanding +particular attention. If you persist in talking passion while I am +talking marriage, we shall soon cease to understand each other. Listen +to me,” she went on, assuming a confidential tone. “I have been in +the way of seeing some of the superior men of our day. Those who have +married have for the most part chosen quite insignificant wives. Well, +those wives governed them, as the Emperor governs us; and if they were +not loved, they were at least respected. I like secrets--especially +those which concern women--well enough to have amused myself by seeking +the clue to the riddle. Well, my sweet child, those worthy women had the +gift of analyzing their husbands’ nature; instead of taking fright, like +you, at their superiority, they very acutely noted the qualities they +lacked, and either by possessing those qualities, or by feigning to +possess them, they found means of making such a handsome display of them +in their husbands’ eyes that in the end they impressed them. Also, I +must tell you, all these souls which appear so lofty have just a speck +of madness in them, which we ought to know how to take advantage of. By +firmly resolving to have the upper hand and never deviating from that +aim, by bringing all our actions to bear on it, all our ideas, our +cajolery, we subjugate these eminently capricious natures, which, by +the very mutability of their thoughts, lend us the means of influencing +them.” + +“Good heavens!” cried the young wife in dismay. “And this is life. It is +a warfare----” + +“In which we must always threaten,” said the Duchess, laughing. “Our +power is wholly factitious. And we must never allow a man to despise +us; it is impossible to recover from such a descent but by odious +manoeuvring. Come,” she added, “I will give you a means of bringing your +husband to his senses.” + +She rose with a smile to guide the young and guileless apprentice +to conjugal arts through the labyrinth of her palace. They came to +a back-staircase, which led up to the reception rooms. As Madame de +Carigliano pressed the secret springlock of the door she stopped, +looking at Augustine with an inimitable gleam of shrewdness and grace. +“The Duc de Carigliano adores me,” said she. “Well, he dare not enter by +this door without my leave. And he is a man in the habit of commanding +thousands of soldiers. He knows how to face a battery, but before +me,--he is afraid!” + +Augustine sighed. They entered a sumptuous gallery, where the painter’s +wife was led by the Duchess up to the portrait painted by Theodore of +Mademoiselle Guillaume. On seeing it, Augustine uttered a cry. + +“I knew it was no longer in my house,” she said, “but--here!----” + +“My dear child, I asked for it merely to see what pitch of idiocy a man +of genius may attain to. Sooner or later I should have returned it to +you, for I never expected the pleasure of seeing the original here face +to face with the copy. While we finish our conversation I will have it +carried down to your carriage. And if, armed with such a talisman, +you are not your husband’s mistress for a hundred years, you are not a +woman, and you deserve your fate.” + +Augustine kissed the Duchess’ hand, and the lady clasped her to her +heart, with all the more tenderness because she would forget her by the +morrow. This scene might perhaps have destroyed for ever the candor and +purity of a less virtuous woman than Augustine, for the astute politics +of the higher social spheres were no more consonant to Augustine than +the narrow reasoning of Joseph Lebas, or Madame Guillaume’s vapid +morality. Strange are the results of the false positions into which +we may be brought by the slightest mistake in the conduct of life! +Augustine was like an Alpine cowherd surprised by an avalanche; if he +hesitates, if he listens to the shouts of his comrades, he is almost +certainly lost. In such a crisis the heart steels itself or breaks. + +Madame de Sommervieux returned home a prey to such agitation as it is +difficult to describe. Her conversation with the Duchesse de Carigliano +had roused in her mind a crowd of contradictory thoughts. Like the sheep +in the fable, full of courage in the wolf’s absence, she preached +to herself, and laid down admirable plans of conduct; she devised a +thousand coquettish stratagems; she even talked to her husband, finding, +away from him, all the springs of true eloquence which never desert a +woman; then, as she pictured to herself Theodore’s clear and steadfast +gaze, she began to quake. When she asked whether monsieur were at home +her voice shook. On learning that he would not be in to dinner, she felt +an unaccountable thrill of joy. Like a criminal who has appealed against +sentence of death, a respite, however short, seemed to her a lifetime. +She placed the portrait in her room, and waited for her husband in all +the agonies of hope. That this venture must decide her future life, she +felt too keenly not to shiver at every sound, even the low ticking of +the clock, which seemed to aggravate her terrors by doling them out to +her. She tried to cheat time by various devices. The idea struck her of +dressing in a way which would make her exactly like the portrait. Then, +knowing her husband’s restless temper, she had her room lighted up with +unusual brightness, feeling sure that when he came in curiosity would +bring him there at once. Midnight had struck when, at the call of the +groom, the street gate was opened, and the artist’s carriage rumbled in +over the stones of the silent courtyard. + +“What is the meaning of this illumination?” asked Theodore in glad +tones, as he came into her room. + +Augustine skilfully seized the auspicious moment; she threw herself into +her husband’s arms, and pointed to the portrait. The artist stood rigid +as a rock, and his eyes turned alternately on Augustine, on the accusing +dress. The frightened wife, half-dead, as she watched her husband’s +changeful brow--that terrible brow--saw the expressive furrows gathering +like clouds; then she felt her blood curdling in her veins when, with a +glaring look, and in a deep hollow voice, he began to question her: + +“Where did you find that picture?” + +“The Duchess de Carigliano returned it to me.” + +“You asked her for it?” + +“I did not know that she had it.” + +The gentleness, or rather the exquisite sweetness of this angel’s voice, +might have touched a cannibal, but not an artist in the clutches of +wounded vanity. + +“It is worthy of her!” exclaimed the painter in a voice of thunder. “I +will be avenged!” he cried, striding up and down the room. “She shall +die of shame; I will paint her! Yes, I will paint her as Messalina +stealing out at night from the palace of Claudius.” + +“Theodore!” said a faint voice. + +“I will kill her!” + +“My dear----” + +“She is in love with that little cavalry colonel, because he rides +well----” + +“Theodore!” + +“Let me be!” said the painter in a tone almost like a roar. + +It would be odious to describe the whole scene. In the end the frenzy +of passion prompted the artist to acts and words which any woman not so +young as Augustine would have ascribed to madness. + +At eight o’clock next morning Madame Guillaume, surprising her +daughter, found her pale, with red eyes, her hair in disorder, holding a +handkerchief soaked with tears, while she gazed at the floor strewn with +the torn fragments of a dress and the broken fragments of a large gilt +picture-frame. Augustine, almost senseless with grief, pointed to the +wreck with a gesture of deep despair. + +“I don’t know that the loss is very great!” cried the old mistress of +the Cat and Racket. “It was like you, no doubt; but I am told that there +is a man on the boulevard who paints lovely portraits for fifty crowns.” + +“Oh, mother!” + +“Poor child, you are quite right,” replied Madame Guillaume, who +misinterpreted the expression of her daughter’s glance at her. “True, +my child, no one ever can love you as fondly as a mother. My darling, +I guess it all; but confide your sorrows to me, and I will comfort you. +Did I not tell you long ago that the man was mad! Your maid has told me +pretty stories. Why, he must be a perfect monster!” + +Augustine laid a finger on her white lips, as if to implore a moment’s +silence. During this dreadful night misery had led her to that patient +resignation which in mothers and loving wives transcends in its +effects all human energy, and perhaps reveals in the heart of women the +existence of certain chords which God has withheld from men. + + + +An inscription engraved on a broken column in the cemetery at Montmartre +states that Madame de Sommervieux died at the age of twenty-seven. In +the simple words of this epitaph one of the timid creature’s friends can +read the last scene of a tragedy. Every year, on the second of November, +the solemn day of the dead, he never passes this youthful monument +without wondering whether it does not need a stronger woman than +Augustine to endure the violent embrace of genius? + +“The humble and modest flowers that bloom in the valley,” he reflects, +“perish perhaps when they are transplanted too near the skies, to the +region where storms gather and the sun is scorching.” + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Aiglemont, General, Marquis Victor d’ + The Firm of Nucingen + A Woman of Thirty + + Birotteau, Cesar + Cesar Birotteau + A Bachelor’s Establishment + + Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Cousin Pons + The Muse of the Department + Cesar Birotteau + + Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Cesar Birotteau + + Carigliano, Marechal, Duc de + Father Goriot + Sarrasine + + Carigliano, Duchesse de + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Peasantry + The Member for Arcis + + Guillaume + Cesar Birotteau + + Lebas, Joseph + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + + Lebas, Madame Joseph (Virginie) + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + + Lourdois + Cesar Birotteau + + Rabourdin, Xavier + The Government Clerks + Cesar Birotteau + The Middle Classes + + Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + Pierrette + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + Sommervieux, Theodore de + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + + Sommervieux, Madame Theodore de (Augustine) + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At the Sign of the Cat and Racket, by +Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET *** + +***** This file should be named 1680-0.txt or 1680-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/8/1680/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell + +Release Date: February 28, 2010 [EBook #1680] +Last Updated: November 23, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Clara Bell + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + DEDICATION<br /><br /> To Mademoiselle Marie de Montheau<br /> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET</b> </a><br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADDENDUM </a><br /> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p> + Half-way down the Rue Saint-Denis, almost at the corner of the Rue du + Petit-Lion, there stood formerly one of those delightful houses which + enable historians to reconstruct old Paris by analogy. The threatening + walls of this tumbledown abode seemed to have been decorated with + hieroglyphics. For what other name could the passer-by give to the Xs and + Vs which the horizontal or diagonal timbers traced on the front, outlined + by little parallel cracks in the plaster? It was evident that every beam + quivered in its mortices at the passing of the lightest vehicle. This + venerable structure was crowned by a triangular roof of which no example + will, ere long, be seen in Paris. This covering, warped by the extremes of + the Paris climate, projected three feet over the roadway, as much to + protect the threshold from the rainfall as to shelter the wall of a loft + and its sill-less dormer-window. This upper story was built of planks, + overlapping each other like slates, in order, no doubt, not to overweight + the frail house. + </p> + <p> + One rainy morning in the month of March, a young man, carefully wrapped in + his cloak, stood under the awning of a shop opposite this old house, which + he was studying with the enthusiasm of an antiquary. In point of fact, + this relic of the civic life of the sixteenth century offered more than + one problem to the consideration of an observer. Each story presented some + singularity; on the first floor four tall, narrow windows, close together, + were filled as to the lower panes with boards, so as to produce the + doubtful light by which a clever salesman can ascribe to his goods the + color his customers inquire for. The young man seemed very scornful of + this part of the house; his eyes had not yet rested on it. The windows of + the second floor, where the Venetian blinds were drawn up, revealing + little dingy muslin curtains behind the large Bohemian glass panes, did + not interest him either. His attention was attracted to the third floor, + to the modest sash-frames of wood, so clumsily wrought that they might + have found a place in the Museum of Arts and Crafts to illustrate the + early efforts of French carpentry. These windows were glazed with small + squares of glass so green that, but for his good eyes, the young man could + not have seen the blue-checked cotton curtains which screened the + mysteries of the room from profane eyes. Now and then the watcher, weary + of his fruitless contemplation, or of the silence in which the house was + buried, like the whole neighborhood, dropped his eyes towards the lower + regions. An involuntary smile parted his lips each time he looked at the + shop, where, in fact, there were some laughable details. + </p> + <p> + A formidable wooden beam, resting on four pillars, which appeared to have + bent under the weight of the decrepit house, had been encrusted with as + many coats of different paint as there are of rouge on an old duchess’ + cheek. In the middle of this broad and fantastically carved joist there + was an old painting representing a cat playing rackets. This picture was + what moved the young man to mirth. But it must be said that the wittiest + of modern painters could not invent so comical a caricature. The animal + held in one of its forepaws a racket as big as itself, and stood on its + hind legs to aim at hitting an enormous ball, returned by a man in a fine + embroidered coat. Drawing, color, and accessories, all were treated in + such a way as to suggest that the artist had meant to make game of the + shop-owner and of the passing observer. Time, while impairing this artless + painting, had made it yet more grotesque by introducing some uncertain + features which must have puzzled the conscientious idler. For instance, + the cat’s tail had been eaten into in such a way that it might now have + been taken for the figure of a spectator—so long, and thick, and + furry were the tails of our forefathers’ cats. To the right of the + picture, on an azure field which ill-disguised the decay of the wood, + might be read the name “Guillaume,” and to the left, “Successor to Master + Chevrel.” Sun and rain had worn away most of the gilding parsimoniously + applied to the letters of this superscription, in which the Us and Vs had + changed places in obedience to the laws of old-world orthography. + </p> + <p> + To quench the pride of those who believe that the world is growing + cleverer day by day, and that modern humbug surpasses everything, it may + be observed that these signs, of which the origin seems so whimsical to + many Paris merchants, are the dead pictures of once living pictures by + which our roguish ancestors contrived to tempt customers into their + houses. Thus the Spinning Sow, the Green Monkey, and others, were animals + in cages whose skills astonished the passer-by, and whose accomplishments + prove the patience of the fifteenth-century artisan. Such curiosities did + more to enrich their fortunate owners than the signs of “Providence,” + “Good-faith,” “Grace of God,” and “Decapitation of John the Baptist,” + which may still be seen in the Rue Saint-Denis. + </p> + <p> + However, our stranger was certainly not standing there to admire the cat, + which a minute’s attention sufficed to stamp on his memory. The young man + himself had his peculiarities. His cloak, folded after the manner of an + antique drapery, showed a smart pair of shoes, all the more remarkable in + the midst of the Paris mud, because he wore white silk stockings, on which + the splashes betrayed his impatience. He had just come, no doubt, from a + wedding or a ball; for at this early hour he had in his hand a pair of + white gloves, and his black hair, now out of curl, and flowing over his + shoulders, showed that it had been dressed <i>a la Caracalla</i>, a + fashion introduced as much by David’s school of painting as by the mania + for Greek and Roman styles which characterized the early years of this + century. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the noise made by a few market gardeners, who, being late, + rattled past towards the great market-place at a gallop, the busy street + lay in a stillness of which the magic charm is known only to those who + have wandered through deserted Paris at the hours when its roar, hushed + for a moment, rises and spreads in the distance like the great voice of + the sea. This strange young man must have seemed as curious to the + shopkeeping folk of the “Cat and Racket” as the “Cat and Racket” was to + him. A dazzlingly white cravat made his anxious face look even paler than + it really was. The fire that flashed in his black eyes, gloomy and + sparkling by turns, was in harmony with the singular outline of his + features, with his wide, flexible mouth, hardened into a smile. His + forehead, knit with violent annoyance, had a stamp of doom. Is not the + forehead the most prophetic feature of a man? When the stranger’s brow + expressed passion the furrows formed in it were terrible in their strength + and energy; but when he recovered his calmness, so easily upset, it beamed + with a luminous grace which gave great attractiveness to a countenance in + which joy, grief, love, anger, or scorn blazed out so contagiously that + the coldest man could not fail to be impressed. + </p> + <p> + He was so thoroughly vexed by the time when the dormer-window of the loft + was suddenly flung open, that he did not observe the apparition of three + laughing faces, pink and white and chubby, but as vulgar as the face of + Commerce as it is seen in sculpture on certain monuments. These three + faces, framed by the window, recalled the puffy cherubs floating among the + clouds that surround God the Father. The apprentices snuffed up the + exhalations of the street with an eagerness that showed how hot and + poisonous the atmosphere of their garret must be. After pointing to the + singular sentinel, the most jovial, as he seemed, of the apprentices + retired and came back holding an instrument whose hard metal pipe is now + superseded by a leather tube; and they all grinned with mischief as they + looked down on the loiterer, and sprinkled him with a fine white shower of + which the scent proved that three chins had just been shaved. Standing on + tiptoe, in the farthest corner of their loft, to enjoy their victim’s + rage, the lads ceased laughing on seeing the haughty indifference with + which the young man shook his cloak, and the intense contempt expressed by + his face as he glanced up at the empty window-frame. + </p> + <p> + At this moment a slender white hand threw up the lower half of one of the + clumsy windows on the third floor by the aid of the sash runners, of which + the pulley so often suddenly gives way and releases the heavy panes it + ought to hold up. The watcher was then rewarded for his long waiting. The + face of a young girl appeared, as fresh as one of the white cups that + bloom on the bosom of the waters, crowned by a frill of tumbled muslin, + which gave her head a look of exquisite innocence. Though wrapped in brown + stuff, her neck and shoulders gleamed here and there through little + openings left by her movements in sleep. No expression of embarrassment + detracted from the candor of her face, or the calm look of eyes + immortalized long since in the sublime works of Raphael; here were the + same grace, the same repose as in those Virgins, and now proverbial. There + was a delightful contrast between the cheeks of that face on which sleep + had, as it were, given high relief to a superabundance of life, and the + antiquity of the heavy window with its clumsy shape and black sill. Like + those day-blowing flowers, which in the early morning have not yet + unfurled their cups, twisted by the chills of night, the girl, as yet + hardly awake, let her blue eyes wander beyond the neighboring roofs to + look at the sky; then, from habit, she cast them down on the gloomy depths + of the street, where they immediately met those of her adorer. Vanity, no + doubt, distressed her at being seen in undress; she started back, the worn + pulley gave way, and the sash fell with the rapid run, which in our day + has earned for this artless invention of our forefathers an odious name, + <i>Fenetre a la Guillotine</i>. The vision had disappeared. To the young + man the most radiant star of morning seemed to be hidden by a cloud. + </p> + <p> + During these little incidents the heavy inside shutters that protected the + slight windows of the shop of the “Cat and Racket” had been removed as if + by magic. The old door with its knocker was opened back against the wall + of the entry by a man-servant, apparently coeval with the sign, who, with + a shaking hand, hung upon it a square of cloth, on which were embroidered + in yellow silk the words: “Guillaume, successor to Chevrel.” Many a + passer-by would have found it difficult to guess the class of trade + carried on by Monsieur Guillaume. Between the strong iron bars which + protected his shop windows on the outside, certain packages, wrapped in + brown linen, were hardly visible, though as numerous as herrings swimming + in a shoal. Notwithstanding the primitive aspect of the Gothic front, + Monsieur Guillaume, of all the merchant clothiers in Paris, was the one + whose stores were always the best provided, whose connections were the + most extensive, and whose commercial honesty never lay under the slightest + suspicion. If some of his brethren in business made a contract with the + Government, and had not the required quantity of cloth, he was always + ready to deliver it, however large the number of pieces tendered for. The + wily dealer knew a thousand ways of extracting the largest profits without + being obliged, like them, to court patrons, cringing to them, or making + them costly presents. When his fellow-tradesmen could only pay in good + bills of long date, he would mention his notary as an accommodating man, + and managed to get a second profit out of the bargain, thanks to this + arrangement, which had made it a proverb among the traders of the Rue + Saint-Denis: “Heaven preserve you from Monsieur Guillaume’s notary!” to + signify a heavy discount. + </p> + <p> + The old merchant was to be seen standing on the threshold of his shop, as + if by a miracle, the instant the servant withdrew. Monsieur Guillaume + looked at the Rue Saint-Denis, at the neighboring shops, and at the + weather, like a man disembarking at Havre, and seeing France once more + after a long voyage. Having convinced himself that nothing had changed + while he was asleep, he presently perceived the stranger on guard, and he, + on his part, gazed at the patriarchal draper as Humboldt may have + scrutinized the first electric eel he saw in America. Monsieur Guillaume + wore loose black velvet breeches, pepper-and-salt stockings, and square + toed shoes with silver buckles. His coat, with square-cut fronts, + square-cut tails, and square-cut collar clothed his slightly bent figure + in greenish cloth, finished with white metal buttons, tawny from wear. His + gray hair was so accurately combed and flattened over his yellow pate that + it made it look like a furrowed field. His little green eyes, that might + have been pierced with a gimlet, flashed beneath arches faintly tinged + with red in the place of eyebrows. Anxieties had wrinkled his forehead + with as many horizontal lines as there were creases in his coat. This + colorless face expressed patience, commercial shrewdness, and the sort of + wily cupidity which is needful in business. At that time these old + families were less rare than they are now, in which the characteristic + habits and costume of their calling, surviving in the midst of more recent + civilization, were preserved as cherished traditions, like the + antediluvian remains found by Cuvier in the quarries. + </p> + <p> + The head of the Guillaume family was a notable upholder of ancient + practices; he might be heard to regret the Provost of Merchants, and never + did he mention a decision of the Tribunal of Commerce without calling it + the <i>Sentence of the Consuls</i>. Up and dressed the first of the + household, in obedience, no doubt, to these old customs, he stood sternly + awaiting the appearance of his three assistants, ready to scold them in + case they were late. These young disciples of Mercury knew nothing more + terrible than the wordless assiduity with which the master scrutinized + their faces and their movements on Monday in search of evidence or traces + of their pranks. But at this moment the old clothier paid no heed to his + apprentices; he was absorbed in trying to divine the motive of the anxious + looks which the young man in silk stockings and a cloak cast alternately + at his signboard and into the depths of his shop. The daylight was now + brighter, and enabled the stranger to discern the cashier’s corner + enclosed by a railing and screened by old green silk curtains, where were + kept the immense ledgers, the silent oracles of the house. The too + inquisitive gazer seemed to covet this little nook, and to be taking the + plan of a dining-room at one side, lighted by a skylight, whence the + family at meals could easily see the smallest incident that might occur at + the shop-door. So much affection for his dwelling seemed suspicious to a + trader who had lived long enough to remember the law of maximum prices; + Monsieur Guillaume naturally thought that this sinister personage had an + eye to the till of the Cat and Racket. After quietly observing the mute + duel which was going on between his master and the stranger, the eldest of + the apprentices, having seen that the young man was stealthily watching + the windows of the third floor, ventured to place himself on the stone + flag where Monsieur Guillaume was standing. He took two steps out into the + street, raised his head, and fancied that he caught sight of Mademoiselle + Augustine Guillaume in hasty retreat. The draper, annoyed by his + assistant’s perspicacity, shot a side glance at him; but the draper and + his amorous apprentice were suddenly relieved from the fears which the + young man’s presence had excited in their minds. He hailed a hackney cab + on its way to a neighboring stand, and jumped into it with an air of + affected indifference. This departure was a balm to the hearts of the + other two lads, who had been somewhat uneasy as to meeting the victim of + their practical joke. + </p> + <p> + “Well, gentlemen, what ails you that you are standing there with your arms + folded?” said Monsieur Guillaume to his three neophytes. “In former days, + bless you, when I was in Master Chevrel’s service, I should have + overhauled more than two pieces of cloth by this time.” + </p> + <p> + “Then it was daylight earlier,” said the second assistant, whose duty this + was. + </p> + <p> + The old shopkeeper could not help smiling. Though two of these young + fellows, who were confided to his care by their fathers, rich + manufacturers at Louviers and at Sedan, had only to ask and to have a + hundred thousand francs the day when they were old enough to settle in + life, Guillaume regarded it as his duty to keep them under the rod of an + old-world despotism, unknown nowadays in the showy modern shops, where the + apprentices expect to be rich men at thirty. He made them work like + Negroes. These three assistants were equal to a business which would harry + ten such clerks as those whose sybaritical tastes now swell the columns of + the budget. Not a sound disturbed the peace of this solemn house, where + the hinges were always oiled, and where the meanest article of furniture + showed the respectable cleanliness which reveals strict order and economy. + The most waggish of the three youths often amused himself by writing the + date of its first appearance on the Gruyere cheese which was left to their + tender mercies at breakfast, and which it was their pleasure to leave + untouched. This bit of mischief, and a few others of the same stamp, would + sometimes bring a smile on the face of the younger of Guillaume’s + daughters, the pretty maiden who has just now appeared to the bewitched + man in the street. + </p> + <p> + Though each of these apprentices, even the eldest, paid a round sum for + his board, not one of them would have been bold enough to remain at the + master’s table when dessert was served. When Madame Guillaume talked of + dressing the salad, the hapless youths trembled as they thought of the + thrift with which her prudent hand dispensed the oil. They could never + think of spending a night away from the house without having given, long + before, a plausible reason for such an irregularity. Every Sunday, each in + his turn, two of them accompanied the Guillaume family to Mass at + Saint-Leu, and to vespers. Mesdemoiselles Virginie and Augustine, simply + attired in cotton print, each took the arm of an apprentice and walked in + front, under the piercing eye of their mother, who closed the little + family procession with her husband, accustomed by her to carry two large + prayer-books, bound in black morocco. The second apprentice received no + salary. As for the eldest, whose twelve years of perseverance and + discretion had initiated him into the secrets of the house, he was paid + eight hundred francs a year as the reward of his labors. On certain family + festivals he received as a gratuity some little gift, to which Madame + Guillaume’s dry and wrinkled hand alone gave value—netted purses, + which she took care to stuff with cotton wool, to show off the fancy + stitches, braces of the strongest make, or heavy silk stockings. + Sometimes, but rarely, this prime minister was admitted to share the + pleasures of the family when they went into the country, or when, after + waiting for months, they made up their mind to exert the right acquired by + taking a box at the theatre to command a piece which Paris had already + forgotten. + </p> + <p> + As to the other assistants, the barrier of respect which formerly divided + a master draper from his apprentices was that they would have been more + likely to steal a piece of cloth than to infringe this time-honored + etiquette. Such reserve may now appear ridiculous; but these old houses + were a school of honesty and sound morals. The masters adopted their + apprentices. The young man’s linen was cared for, mended, and often + replaced by the mistress of the house. If an apprentice fell ill, he was + the object of truly maternal attention. In a case of danger the master + lavished his money in calling in the most celebrated physicians, for he + was not answerable to their parents merely for the good conduct and + training of the lads. If one of them, whose character was unimpeachable, + suffered misfortune, these old tradesmen knew how to value the + intelligence he had displayed, and they did not hesitate to entrust the + happiness of their daughters to men whom they had long trusted with their + fortunes. Guillaume was one of these men of the old school, and if he had + their ridiculous side, he had all their good qualities; and Joseph Lebas, + the chief assistant, an orphan without any fortune, was in his mind + destined to be the husband of Virginie, his elder daughter. But Joseph did + not share the symmetrical ideas of his master, who would not for an empire + have given his second daughter in marriage before the elder. The unhappy + assistant felt that his heart was wholly given to Mademoiselle Augustine, + the younger. In order to justify this passion, which had grown up in + secret, it is necessary to inquire a little further into the springs of + the absolute government which ruled the old cloth-merchant’s household. + </p> + <p> + Guillaume had two daughters. The elder, Mademoiselle Virginie, was the + very image of her mother. Madame Guillaume, daughter of the Sieur Chevrel, + sat so upright in the stool behind her desk, that more than once she had + heard some wag bet that she was a stuffed figure. Her long, thin face + betrayed exaggerated piety. Devoid of attractions or of amiable manners, + Madame Guillaume commonly decorated her head—that of a woman near on + sixty—with a cap of a particular and unvarying shape, with long + lappets, like that of a widow. In all the neighborhood she was known as + the “portress nun.” Her speech was curt, and her movements had the stiff + precision of a semaphore. Her eye, with a gleam in it like a cat’s, seemed + to spite the world because she was so ugly. Mademoiselle Virginie, brought + up, like her younger sister, under the domestic rule of her mother, had + reached the age of eight-and-twenty. Youth mitigated the graceless effect + which her likeness to her mother sometimes gave to her features, but + maternal austerity had endowed her with two great qualities which made up + for everything. She was patient and gentle. Mademoiselle Augustine, who + was but just eighteen, was not like either her father or her mother. She + was one of those daughters whose total absence of any physical affinity + with their parents makes one believe in the adage: “God gives children.” + Augustine was little, or, to describe her more truly, delicately made. + Full of gracious candor, a man of the world could have found no fault in + the charming girl beyond a certain meanness of gesture or vulgarity of + attitude, and sometimes a want of ease. Her silent and placid face was + full of the transient melancholy which comes over all young girls who are + too weak to dare to resist their mother’s will. + </p> + <p> + The two sisters, always plainly dressed, could not gratify the innate + vanity of womanhood but by a luxury of cleanliness which became them + wonderfully, and made them harmonize with the polished counters and the + shining shelves, on which the old man-servant never left a speck of dust, + and with the old-world simplicity of all they saw about them. As their + style of living compelled them to find the elements of happiness in + persistent work, Augustine and Virginie had hitherto always satisfied + their mother, who secretly prided herself on the perfect characters of her + two daughters. It is easy to imagine the results of the training they had + received. Brought up to a commercial life, accustomed to hear nothing but + dreary arguments and calculations about trade, having studied nothing but + grammar, book-keeping, a little Bible-history, and the history of France + in Le Ragois, and never reading any book but what their mother would + sanction, their ideas had not acquired much scope. They knew perfectly how + to keep house; they were familiar with the prices of things; they + understood the difficulty of amassing money; they were economical, and had + a great respect for the qualities that make a man of business. Although + their father was rich, they were as skilled in darning as in embroidery; + their mother often talked of having them taught to cook, so that they + might know how to order a dinner and scold a cook with due knowledge. They + knew nothing of the pleasures of the world; and, seeing how their parents + spent their exemplary lives, they very rarely suffered their eyes to + wander beyond the walls of their hereditary home, which to their mother + was the whole universe. The meetings to which family anniversaries gave + rise filled in the future of earthly joy to them. + </p> + <p> + When the great drawing-room on the second floor was to be prepared to + receive company—Madame Roguin, a Demoiselle Chevrel, fifteen months + younger than her cousin, and bedecked with diamonds; young Rabourdin, + employed in the Finance Office; Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, the rich + perfumer, and his wife, known as Madame Cesar; Monsieur Camusot, the + richest silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, with his father-in-law, + Monsieur Cardot, two or three old bankers, and some immaculate ladies—the + arrangements, made necessary by the way in which everything was packed + away—the plate, the Dresden china, the candlesticks, and the glass—made + a variety in the monotonous lives of the three women, who came and went + and exerted themselves as nuns would to receive their bishop. Then, in the + evening, when all three were tired out with having wiped, rubbed, + unpacked, and arranged all the gauds of the festival, as the girls helped + their mother to undress, Madame Guillaume would say to them, “Children, we + have done nothing today.” + </p> + <p> + When, on very great occasions, “the portress nun” allowed dancing, + restricting the games of boston, whist, and backgammon within the limits + of her bedroom, such a concession was accounted as the most unhoped + felicity, and made them happier than going to the great balls, to two or + three of which Guillaume would take the girls at the time of the Carnival. + </p> + <p> + And once a year the worthy draper gave an entertainment, when he spared no + expense. However rich and fashionable the persons invited might be, they + were careful not to be absent; for the most important houses on the + exchange had recourse to the immense credit, the fortune, or the + time-honored experience of Monsieur Guillaume. Still, the excellent + merchant’s daughters did not benefit as much as might be supposed by the + lessons the world has to offer to young spirits. At these parties, which + were indeed set down in the ledger to the credit of the house, they wore + dresses the shabbiness of which made them blush. Their style of dancing + was not in any way remarkable, and their mother’s surveillance did not + allow of their holding any conversation with their partners beyond Yes and + No. Also, the law of the old sign of the Cat and Racket commanded that + they should be home by eleven o’clock, the hour when balls and fetes begin + to be lively. Thus their pleasures, which seemed to conform very fairly to + their father’s position, were often made insipid by circumstances which + were part of the family habits and principles. + </p> + <p> + As to their usual life, one remark will sufficiently paint it. Madame + Guillaume required her daughters to be dressed very early in the morning, + to come down every day at the same hour, and she ordered their employments + with monastic regularity. Augustine, however, had been gifted by chance + with a spirit lofty enough to feel the emptiness of such a life. Her blue + eyes would sometimes be raised as if to pierce the depths of that gloomy + staircase and those damp store-rooms. After sounding the profound + cloistral silence, she seemed to be listening to remote, inarticulate + revelations of the life of passion, which accounts feelings as of higher + value than things. And at such moments her cheek would flush, her idle + hands would lay the muslin sewing on the polished oak counter, and + presently her mother would say in a voice, of which even the softest tones + were sour, “Augustine, my treasure, what are you thinking about?” It is + possible that two romances discovered by Augustine in the cupboard of a + cook Madame Guillaume had lately discharged—<i>Hippolyte Comte de + Douglas</i> and <i>Le Comte de Comminges</i>—may have contributed to + develop the ideas of the young girl, who had devoured them in secret, + during the long nights of the past winter. + </p> + <p> + And so Augustine’s expression of vague longing, her gentle voice, her + jasmine skin, and her blue eyes had lighted in poor Lebas’ soul a flame as + ardent as it was reverent. From an easily understood caprice, Augustine + felt no affection for the orphan; perhaps she did not know that he loved + her. On the other hand, the senior apprentice, with his long legs, his + chestnut hair, his big hands and powerful frame, had found a secret + admirer in Mademoiselle Virginie, who, in spite of her dower of fifty + thousand crowns, had as yet no suitor. Nothing could be more natural than + these two passions at cross-purposes, born in the silence of the dingy + shop, as violets bloom in the depths of a wood. The mute and constant + looks which made the young people’s eyes meet by sheer need of change in + the midst of persistent work and cloistered peace, was sure, sooner or + later, to give rise to feelings of love. The habit of seeing always the + same face leads insensibly to our reading there the qualities of the soul, + and at last effaces all its defects. + </p> + <p> + “At the pace at which that man goes, our girls will soon have to go on + their knees to a suitor!” said Monsieur Guillaume to himself, as he read + the first decree by which Napoleon drew in advance on the conscript + classes. + </p> + <p> + From that day the old merchant, grieved at seeing his eldest daughter + fade, remembered how he had married Mademoiselle Chevrel under much the + same circumstances as those of Joseph Lebas and Virginie. A good bit of + business, to marry off his daughter, and discharge a sacred debt by + repaying to an orphan the benefit he had formerly received from his + predecessor under similar conditions! Joseph Lebas, who was now + three-and-thirty, was aware of the obstacle which a difference of fifteen + years placed between Augustine and himself. Being also too clear-sighted + not to understand Monsieur Guillaume’s purpose, he knew his inexorable + principles well enough to feel sure that the second would never marry + before the elder. So the hapless assistant, whose heart was as warm as his + legs were long and his chest deep, suffered in silence. + </p> + <p> + This was the state of the affairs in the tiny republic which, in the heart + of the Rue Saint-Denis, was not unlike a dependency of La Trappe. But to + give a full account of events as well as of feelings, it is needful to go + back to some months before the scene with which this story opens. At dusk + one evening, a young man passing the darkened shop of the Cat and Racket, + had paused for a moment to gaze at a picture which might have arrested + every painter in the world. The shop was not yet lighted, and was as a + dark cave beyond which the dining-room was visible. A hanging lamp shed + the yellow light which lends such charm to pictures of the Dutch school. + The white linen, the silver, the cut glass, were brilliant accessories, + and made more picturesque by strong contrasts of light and shade. The + figures of the head of the family and his wife, the faces of the + apprentices, and the pure form of Augustine, near whom a fat + chubby-cheeked maid was standing, composed so strange a group; the heads + were so singular, and every face had so candid an expression; it was so + easy to read the peace, the silence, the modest way of life in this + family, that to an artist accustomed to render nature, there was something + hopeless in any attempt to depict this scene, come upon by chance. The + stranger was a young painter, who, seven years before, had gained the + first prize for painting. He had now just come back from Rome. His soul, + full-fed with poetry; his eyes, satiated with Raphael and Michael Angelo, + thirsted for real nature after long dwelling in the pompous land where art + has everywhere left something grandiose. Right or wrong, this was his + personal feeling. His heart, which had long been a prey to the fire of + Italian passion, craved one of those modest and meditative maidens whom in + Rome he had unfortunately seen only in painting. From the enthusiasm + produced in his excited fancy by the living picture before him, he + naturally passed to a profound admiration for the principal figure; + Augustine seemed to be pensive, and did not eat; by the arrangement of the + lamp the light fell full on her face, and her bust seemed to move in a + circle of fire, which threw up the shape of her head and illuminated it + with almost supernatural effect. The artist involuntarily compared her to + an exiled angel dreaming of heaven. An almost unknown emotion, a limpid, + seething love flooded his heart. After remaining a minute, overwhelmed by + the weight of his ideas, he tore himself from his bliss, went home, ate + nothing, and could not sleep. + </p> + <p> + The next day he went to his studio, and did not come out of it till he had + placed on canvas the magic of the scene of which the memory had, in a + sense, made him a devotee; his happiness was incomplete till he should + possess a faithful portrait of his idol. He went many times past the house + of the Cat and Racket; he even ventured in once or twice, under a + disguise, to get a closer view of the bewitching creature that Madame + Guillaume covered with her wing. For eight whole months, devoted to his + love and to his brush, he was lost to the sight of his most intimate + friends forgetting the world, the theatre, poetry, music, and all his + dearest habits. One morning Girodet broke through all the barriers with + which artists are familiar, and which they know how to evade, went into + his room, and woke him by asking, “What are you going to send to the + Salon?” The artist grasped his friend’s hand, dragged him off to the + studio, uncovered a small easel picture and a portrait. After a long and + eager study of the two masterpieces, Girodet threw himself on his + comrade’s neck and hugged him, without speaking a word. His feelings could + only be expressed as he felt them—soul to soul. + </p> + <p> + “You are in love?” said Girodet. + </p> + <p> + They both knew that the finest portraits by Titian, Raphael, and Leonardo + da Vinci, were the outcome of the enthusiastic sentiments by which, + indeed, under various conditions, every masterpiece is engendered. The + artist only bent his head in reply. + </p> + <p> + “How happy are you to be able to be in love, here, after coming back from + Italy! But I do not advise you to send such works as these to the Salon,” + the great painter went on. “You see, these two works will not be + appreciated. Such true coloring, such prodigious work, cannot yet be + understood; the public is not accustomed to such depths. The pictures we + paint, my dear fellow, are mere screens. We should do better to turn + rhymes, and translate the antique poets! There is more glory to be looked + for there than from our luckless canvases!” + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding this charitable advice, the two pictures were exhibited. + The <i>Interior</i> made a revolution in painting. It gave birth to the + pictures of genre which pour into all our exhibitions in such prodigious + quantity that they might be supposed to be produced by machinery. As to + the portrait, few artists have forgotten that lifelike work; and the + public, which as a body is sometimes discerning, awarded it the crown + which Girodet himself had hung over it. The two pictures were surrounded + by a vast throng. They fought for places, as women say. Speculators and + moneyed men would have covered the canvas with double napoleons, but the + artist obstinately refused to sell or to make replicas. An enormous sum + was offered him for the right of engraving them, and the print-sellers + were not more favored than the amateurs. + </p> + <p> + Though these incidents occupied the world, they were not of a nature to + penetrate the recesses of the monastic solitude in the Rue Saint-Denis. + However, when paying a visit to Madame Guillaume, the notary’s wife spoke + of the exhibition before Augustine, of whom she was very fond, and + explained its purpose. Madame Roguin’s gossip naturally inspired Augustine + with a wish to see the pictures, and with courage enough to ask her cousin + secretly to take her to the Louvre. Her cousin succeeded in the + negotiations she opened with Madame Guillaume for permission to release + the young girl for two hours from her dull labors. Augustine was thus able + to make her way through the crowd to see the crowned work. A fit of + trembling shook her like an aspen leaf as she recognized herself. She was + terrified, and looked about her to find Madame Roguin, from whom she had + been separated by a tide of people. At that moment her frightened eyes + fell on the impassioned face of the young painter. She at once recalled + the figure of a loiterer whom, being curious, she had frequently observed, + believing him to be a new neighbor. + </p> + <p> + “You see how love has inspired me,” said the artist in the timid + creature’s ear, and she stood in dismay at the words. + </p> + <p> + She found supernatural courage to enable her to push through the crowd and + join her cousin, who was still struggling with the mass of people that + hindered her from getting to the picture. + </p> + <p> + “You will be stifled!” cried Augustine. “Let us go.” + </p> + <p> + But there are moments, at the Salon, when two women are not always free to + direct their steps through the galleries. By the irregular course to which + they were compelled by the press, Mademoiselle Guillaume and her cousin + were pushed to within a few steps of the second picture. Chance thus + brought them, both together, to where they could easily see the canvas + made famous by fashion, for once in agreement with talent. Madame Roguin’s + exclamation of surprise was lost in the hubbub and buzz of the crowd; + Augustine involuntarily shed tears at the sight of this wonderful study. + Then, by an almost unaccountable impulse, she laid her finger on her lips, + as she perceived quite near her the ecstatic face of the young painter. + The stranger replied by a nod, and pointed to Madame Roguin, as a + spoil-sport, to show Augustine that he had understood. This pantomime + struck the young girl like hot coals on her flesh; she felt quite guilty + as she perceived that there was a compact between herself and the artist. + The suffocating heat, the dazzling sight of beautiful dresses, the + bewilderment produced in Augustine’s brain by the truth of coloring, the + multitude of living or painted figures, the profusion of gilt frames, gave + her a sense of intoxication which doubled her alarms. She would perhaps + have fainted if an unknown rapture had not surged up in her heart to + vivify her whole being, in spite of this chaos of sensations. She + nevertheless believed herself to be under the power of the Devil, of whose + awful snares she had been warned of by the thundering words of preachers. + This moment was to her like a moment of madness. She found herself + accompanied to her cousin’s carriage by the young man, radiant with joy + and love. Augustine, a prey to an agitation new to her experience, an + intoxication which seemed to abandon her to nature, listened to the + eloquent voice of her heart, and looked again and again at the young + painter, betraying the emotion that came over her. Never had the bright + rose of her cheeks shown in stronger contrast with the whiteness of her + skin. The artist saw her beauty in all its bloom, her maiden modesty in + all its glory. She herself felt a sort of rapture mingled with terror at + thinking that her presence had brought happiness to him whose name was on + every lip, and whose talent lent immortality to transient scenes. She was + loved! It was impossible to doubt it. When she no longer saw the artist, + these simple words still echoed in her ear, “You see how love has inspired + me!” And the throbs of her heart, as they grew deeper, seemed a pain, her + heated blood revealed so many unknown forces in her being. She affected a + severe headache to avoid replying to her cousin’s questions concerning the + pictures; but on their return Madame Roguin could not forbear from + speaking to Madame Guillaume of the fame that had fallen on the house of + the Cat and Racket, and Augustine quaked in every limb as she heard her + mother say that she should go to the Salon to see her house there. The + young girl again declared herself suffering, and obtained leave to go to + bed. + </p> + <p> + “That is what comes of sight-seeing,” exclaimed Monsieur Guillaume—“a + headache. And is it so very amusing to see in a picture what you can see + any day in your own street? Don’t talk to me of your artists! Like + writers, they are a starveling crew. Why the devil need they choose my + house to flout it in their pictures?” + </p> + <p> + “It may help to sell a few ells more of cloth,” said Joseph Lebas. + </p> + <p> + This remark did not protect art and thought from being condemned once + again before the judgment-seat of trade. As may be supposed, these + speeches did not infuse much hope into Augustine, who, during the night, + gave herself up to the first meditations of love. The events of the day + were like a dream, which it was a joy to recall to her mind. She was + initiated into the fears, the hopes, the remorse, all the ebb and flow of + feeling which could not fail to toss a heart so simple and timid as hers. + What a void she perceived in this gloomy house! What a treasure she found + in her soul! To be the wife of a genius, to share his glory! What ravages + must such a vision make in the heart of a girl brought up among such a + family! What hopes must it raise in a young creature who, in the midst of + sordid elements, had pined for a life of elegance! A sunbeam had fallen + into the prison. Augustine was suddenly in love. So many of her feelings + were soothed that she succumbed without reflection. At eighteen does not + love hold a prism between the world and the eyes of a young girl? She was + incapable of suspecting the hard facts which result from the union of a + loving woman with a man of imagination, and she believed herself called to + make him happy, not seeing any disparity between herself and him. To her + the future would be as the present. When, next day, her father and mother + returned from the Salon, their dejected faces proclaimed some + disappointment. In the first place, the painter had removed the two + pictures; and then Madame Guillaume had lost her cashmere shawl. But the + news that the pictures had disappeared from the walls since her visit + revealed to Augustine a delicacy of sentiment which a woman can always + appreciate, even by instinct. + </p> + <p> + On the morning when, on his way home from a ball, Theodore de Sommervieux—for + this was the name which fame had stamped on Augustine’s heart—had + been squirted on by the apprentices while awaiting the appearance of his + artless little friend, who certainly did not know that he was there, the + lovers had seen each other for the fourth time only since their meeting at + the Salon. The difficulties which the rule of the house placed in the way + of the painter’s ardent nature gave added violence to his passion for + Augustine. + </p> + <p> + How could he get near to a young girl seated in a counting-house between + two such women as Mademoiselle Virginie and Madame Guillaume? How could he + correspond with her when her mother never left her side? Ingenious, as + lovers are, to imagine woes, Theodore saw a rival in one of the + assistants, to whose interests he supposed the others to be devoted. If he + should evade these sons of Argus, he would yet be wrecked under the stern + eye of the old draper or of Madame Guillaume. The very vehemence of his + passion hindered the young painter from hitting on the ingenious + expedients which, in prisoners and in lovers, seem to be the last effort + of intelligence spurred by a wild craving for liberty, or by the fire of + love. Theodore wandered about the neighborhood with the restlessness of a + madman, as though movement might inspire him with some device. After + racking his imagination, it occurred to him to bribe the blowsy + waiting-maid with gold. Thus a few notes were exchanged at long intervals + during the fortnight following the ill-starred morning when Monsieur + Guillaume and Theodore had so scrutinized one another. At the present + moment the young couple had agreed to see each other at a certain hour of + the day, and on Sunday, at Saint-Leu, during Mass and vespers. Augustine + had sent her dear Theodore a list of the relations and friends of the + family, to whom the young painter tried to get access, in the hope of + interesting, if it were possible, in his love affairs, one of these souls + absorbed in money and trade, to whom a genuine passion must appear a quite + monstrous speculation, a thing unheard-of. Nothing meanwhile, was altered + at the sign of the Cat and Racket. If Augustine was absent-minded, if, + against all obedience to the domestic code, she stole up to her room to + make signals by means of a jar of flowers, if she sighed, if she were lost + in thought, no one observed it, not even her mother. This will cause some + surprise to those who have entered into the spirit of the household, where + an idea tainted with poetry would be in startling contrast to persons and + things, where no one could venture on a gesture or a look which would not + be seen and analyzed. Nothing, however, could be more natural: the quiet + barque that navigated the stormy waters of the Paris Exchange, under the + flag of the Cat and Racket, was just now in the toils of one of these + tempests which, returning periodically, might be termed equinoctial. For + the last fortnight the five men forming the crew, with Madame Guillaume + and Mademoiselle Virginie, had been devoting themselves to the hard labor, + known as stock-taking. + </p> + <p> + Every bale was turned over, and the length verified to ascertain the exact + value of the remnant. The ticket attached to each parcel was carefully + examined to see at what time the piece had been bought. The retail price + was fixed. Monsieur Guillaume, always on his feet, his pen behind his ear, + was like a captain commanding the working of the ship. His sharp tones, + spoken through a trap-door, to inquire into the depths of the hold in the + cellar-store, gave utterance to the barbarous formulas of trade-jargon, + which find expression only in cipher. “How much H. N. Z.?”—“All + sold.”—“What is left of Q. X.?”—“Two ells.”—“At what + price?”—“Fifty-five three.”—“Set down A. at three, with all of + J. J., all of M. P., and what is left of V. D. O.”—A hundred other + injunctions equally intelligible were spouted over the counters like + verses of modern poetry, quoted by romantic spirits, to excite each + other’s enthusiasm for one of their poets. In the evening Guillaume, shut + up with his assistant and his wife, balanced his accounts, carried on the + balance, wrote to debtors in arrears, and made out bills. All three were + busy over this enormous labor, of which the result could be stated on a + sheet of foolscap, proving to the head of the house that there was so much + to the good in hard cash, so much in goods, so much in bills and notes; + that he did not owe a sou; that a hundred or two hundred thousand francs + were owing to him; that the capital had been increased; that the + farmlands, the houses, or the investments were extended, or repaired, or + doubled. Whence it became necessary to begin again with increased ardor, + to accumulate more crown-pieces, without its ever entering the brain of + these laborious ants to ask—“To what end?” + </p> + <p> + Favored by this annual turmoil, the happy Augustine escaped the + investigations of her Argus-eyed relations. At last, one Saturday evening, + the stock-taking was finished. The figures of the sum-total showed a row + of 0”s long enough to allow Guillaume for once to relax the stern rule as + to dessert which reigned throughout the year. The shrewd old draper rubbed + his hands, and allowed his assistants to remain at table. The members of + the crew had hardly swallowed their thimbleful of some home-made liqueur, + when the rumble of a carriage was heard. The family party were going to + see <i>Cendrillon</i> at the Varietes, while the two younger apprentices + each received a crown of six francs, with permission to go wherever they + chose, provided they were in by midnight. + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding this debauch, the old cloth-merchant was shaving himself + at six next morning, put on his maroon-colored coat, of which the glowing + lights afforded him perennial enjoyment, fastened a pair of gold buckles + on the knee-straps of his ample satin breeches; and then, at about seven + o’clock, while all were still sleeping in the house, he made his way to + the little office adjoining the shop on the first floor. Daylight came in + through a window, fortified by iron bars, and looking out on a small yard + surrounded by such black walls that it was very like a well. The old + merchant opened the iron-lined shutters, which were so familiar to him, + and threw up the lower half of the sash window. The icy air of the + courtyard came in to cool the hot atmosphere of the little room, full of + the odor peculiar to offices. + </p> + <p> + The merchant remained standing, his hand resting on the greasy arm of a + large cane chair lined with morocco, of which the original hue had + disappeared; he seemed to hesitate as to seating himself. He looked with + affection at the double desk, where his wife’s seat, opposite his own, was + fitted into a little niche in the wall. He contemplated the numbered + boxes, the files, the implements, the cash box—objects all of + immemorial origin, and fancied himself in the room with the shade of + Master Chevrel. He even pulled out the high stool on which he had once sat + in the presence of his departed master. This stool, covered with black + leather, the horse-hair showing at every corner—as it had long done, + without, however, coming out—he placed with a shaking hand on the + very spot where his predecessor had put it, and then, with an emotion + difficult to describe, he pulled a bell, which rang at the head of Joseph + Lebas’ bed. When this decisive blow had been struck, the old man, for + whom, no doubt, these reminiscences were too much, took up three or four + bills of exchange, and looked at them without seeing them. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly Joseph Lebas stood before him. + </p> + <p> + “Sit down there,” said Guillaume, pointing to the stool. + </p> + <p> + As the old master draper had never yet bid his assistant be seated in his + presence, Joseph Lebas was startled. + </p> + <p> + “What do you think of these notes?” asked Guillaume. + </p> + <p> + “They will never be paid.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I heard the day before yesterday Etienne and Co. had made their + payments in gold.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, oh!” said the draper. “Well, one must be very ill to show one’s bile. + Let us speak of something else.—Joseph, the stock-taking is done.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, monsieur, and the dividend is one of the best you have ever made.” + </p> + <p> + “Do not use new-fangled words. Say the profits, Joseph. Do you know, my + boy, that this result is partly owing to you? And I do not intend to pay + you a salary any longer. Madame Guillaume has suggested to me to take you + into partnership.—‘Guillaume and Lebas;’ will not that make a good + business name? We might add, ‘and Co.’ to round off the firm’s signature.” + </p> + <p> + Tears rose to the eyes of Joseph Lebas, who tried to hide them. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Monsieur Guillaume, how have I deserved such kindness? I only do my + duty. It was so much already that you should take an interest in a poor + orph——” + </p> + <p> + He was brushing the cuff of his left sleeve with his right hand, and dared + not look at the old man, who smiled as he thought that this modest young + fellow no doubt needed, as he had needed once on a time, some + encouragement to complete his explanation. + </p> + <p> + “To be sure,” said Virginie’s father, “you do not altogether deserve this + favor, Joseph. You have not so much confidence in me as I have in you.” + (The young man looked up quickly.) “You know all the secrets of the + cash-box. For the last two years I have told you almost all my concerns. I + have sent you to travel in our goods. In short, I have nothing on my + conscience as regards you. But you—you have a soft place, and you + have never breathed a word of it.” Joseph Lebas blushed. “Ah, ha!” cried + Guillaume, “so you thought you could deceive an old fox like me? When you + knew that I had scented the Lecocq bankruptcy?” + </p> + <p> + “What, monsieur?” replied Joseph Lebas, looking at his master as keenly as + his master looked at him, “you knew that I was in love?” + </p> + <p> + “I know everything, you rascal,” said the worthy and cunning old merchant, + pulling the assistant’s ear. “And I forgive you—I did the same + myself.” + </p> + <p> + “And you will give her to me?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—with fifty thousand crowns; and I will leave you as much by + will, and we will start on our new career under the name of a new firm. We + will do good business yet, my boy!” added the old man, getting up and + flourishing his arms. “I tell you, son-in-law, there is nothing like + trade. Those who ask what pleasure is to be found in it are simpletons. To + be on the scent of a good bargain, to hold your own on ‘Change, to watch + as anxiously as at the gaming-table whether Etienne and Co. will fail or + no, to see a regiment of Guards march past all dressed in your cloth, to + trip your neighbor up—honestly of course!—to make the goods + cheaper than others can; then to carry out an undertaking which you have + planned, which begins, grows, totters, and succeeds! to know the workings + of every house of business as well as a minister of police, so as never to + make a mistake; to hold up your head in the midst of wrecks, to have + friends by correspondence in every manufacturing town; is not that a + perpetual game, Joseph? That is life, that is! I shall die in that + harness, like old Chevrel, but taking it easy now, all the same.” + </p> + <p> + In the heat of his eager rhetoric, old Guillaume had scarcely looked at + his assistant, who was weeping copiously. “Why, Joseph, my poor boy, what + is the matter?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I love her so! Monsieur Guillaume, that my heart fails me; I believe——” + </p> + <p> + “Well, well, boy,” said the old man, touched, “you are happier than you + know, by God! For she loves you. I know it.” + </p> + <p> + And he blinked his little green eyes as he looked at the young man. + </p> + <p> + “Mademoiselle Augustine! Mademoiselle Augustine!” exclaimed Joseph Lebas + in his rapture. + </p> + <p> + He was about to rush out of the room when he felt himself clutched by a + hand of iron, and his astonished master spun him round in front of him + once more. + </p> + <p> + “What has Augustine to do with this matter?” he asked, in a voice which + instantly froze the luckless Joseph. + </p> + <p> + “Is it not she that—that—I love?” stammered the assistant. + </p> + <p> + Much put out by his own want of perspicacity, Guillaume sat down again, + and rested his long head in his hands to consider the perplexing situation + in which he found himself. Joseph Lebas, shamefaced and in despair, + remained standing. + </p> + <p> + “Joseph,” the draper said with frigid dignity, “I was speaking of + Virginie. Love cannot be made to order, I know. I know, too, that you can + be trusted. We will forget all this. I will not let Augustine marry before + Virginie.—Your interest will be ten per cent.” + </p> + <p> + The young man, to whom love gave I know not what power of courage and + eloquence, clasped his hand, and spoke in his turn—spoke for a + quarter of an hour, with so much warmth and feeling, that he altered the + situation. If the question had been a matter of business the old tradesman + would have had fixed principles to guide his decision; but, tossed a + thousand miles from commerce, on the ocean of sentiment, without a + compass, he floated, as he told himself, undecided in the face of such an + unexpected event. Carried away by his fatherly kindness, he began to beat + about the bush. + </p> + <p> + “Deuce take it, Joseph, you must know that there are ten years between my + two children. Mademoiselle Chevrel was no beauty, still she has had + nothing to complain of in me. Do as I did. Come, come, don’t cry. Can you + be so silly? What is to be done? It can be managed perhaps. There is + always some way out of a scrape. And we men are not always devoted + Celadons to our wives—you understand? Madame Guillaume is very + pious. ... Come. By Gad, boy, give your arm to Augustine this morning as + we go to Mass.” + </p> + <p> + These were the phrases spoken at random by the old draper, and their + conclusion made the lover happy. He was already thinking of a friend of + his as a match for Mademoiselle Virginie, as he went out of the smoky + office, pressing his future father-in-law’s hand, after saying with a + knowing look that all would turn out for the best. + </p> + <p> + “What will Madame Guillaume say to it?” was the idea that greatly troubled + the worthy merchant when he found himself alone. + </p> + <p> + At breakfast Madame Guillaume and Virginie, to whom the draper had not yet + confided his disappointment, cast meaning glances at Joseph Lebas, who was + extremely embarrassed. The young assistant’s bashfulness commended him to + his mother-in-law’s good graces. The matron became so cheerful that she + smiled as she looked at her husband, and allowed herself some little + pleasantries of time-honored acceptance in such simple families. She + wondered whether Joseph or Virginie were the taller, to ask them to + compare their height. This preliminary fooling brought a cloud to the + master’s brow, and he even made such a point of decorum that he desired + Augustine to take the assistant’s arm on their way to Saint-Leu. Madame + Guillaume, surprised at this manly delicacy, honored her husband with a + nod of approval. So the procession left the house in such order as to + suggest no suspicious meaning to the neighbors. + </p> + <p> + “Does it not seem to you, Mademoiselle Augustine,” said the assistant, and + he trembled, “that the wife of a merchant whose credit is as good as + Monsieur Guillaume’s, for instance, might enjoy herself a little more than + Madame your mother does? Might wear diamonds—or keep a carriage? For + my part, if I were to marry, I should be glad to take all the work, and + see my wife happy. I would not put her into the counting-house. In the + drapery business, you see, a woman is not so necessary now as formerly. + Monsieur Guillaume was quite right to act as he did—and besides, his + wife liked it. But so long as a woman knows how to turn her hand to the + book-keeping, the correspondence, the retail business, the orders, and her + housekeeping, so as not to sit idle, that is enough. At seven o’clock, + when the shop is shut, I shall take my pleasures, go to the play, and into + company.—But you are not listening to me.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, indeed, Monsieur Joseph. What do you think of painting? That is a + fine calling.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. I know a master house-painter, Monsieur Lourdois. He is well-to-do.” + </p> + <p> + Thus conversing, the family reached the Church of Saint-Leu. There Madame + Guillaume reasserted her rights, and, for the first time, placed Augustine + next herself, Virginie taking her place on the fourth chair, next to + Lebas. During the sermon all went well between Augustine and Theodore, + who, standing behind a pillar, worshiped his Madonna with fervent + devotion; but at the elevation of the Host, Madame Guillaume discovered, + rather late, that her daughter Augustine was holding her prayer-book + upside down. She was about to speak to her strongly, when, lowering her + veil, she interrupted her own devotions to look in the direction where her + daughter’s eyes found attraction. By the help of her spectacles she saw + the young artist, whose fashionable elegance seemed to proclaim him a + cavalry officer on leave rather than a tradesman of the neighborhood. It + is difficult to conceive of the state of violent agitation in which Madame + Guillaume found herself—she, who flattered herself on having brought + up her daughters to perfection—on discovering in Augustine a + clandestine passion of which her prudery and ignorance exaggerated the + perils. She believed her daughter to be cankered to the core. + </p> + <p> + “Hold your book right way up, miss,” she muttered in a low voice, + tremulous with wrath. She snatched away the tell-tale prayer-book and + returned it with the letter-press right way up. “Do not allow your eyes to + look anywhere but at your prayers,” she added, “or I shall have something + to say to you. Your father and I will talk to you after church.” + </p> + <p> + These words came like a thunderbolt on poor Augustine. She felt faint; + but, torn between the distress she felt and the dread of causing a + commotion in church she bravely concealed her anguish. It was, however, + easy to discern the stormy state of her soul from the trembling of her + prayer-book, and the tears which dropped on every page she turned. From + the furious glare shot at him by Madame Guillaume the artist saw the peril + into which his love affair had fallen; he went out, with a raging soul, + determined to venture all. + </p> + <p> + “Go to your room, miss!” said Madame Guillaume, on their return home; “we + will send for you, but take care not to quit it.” + </p> + <p> + The conference between the husband and wife was conducted so secretly that + at first nothing was heard of it. Virginie, however, who had tried to give + her sister courage by a variety of gentle remonstrances, carried her good + nature so far as to listen at the door of her mother’s bedroom where the + discussion was held, to catch a word or two. The first time she went down + to the lower floor she heard her father exclaim, “Then, madame, do you + wish to kill your daughter?” + </p> + <p> + “My poor dear!” said Virginie, in tears, “papa takes your part.” + </p> + <p> + “And what do they want to do to Theodore?” asked the innocent girl. + </p> + <p> + Virginie, inquisitive, went down again; but this time she stayed longer; + she learned that Joseph Lebas loved Augustine. It was written that on this + memorable day, this house, generally so peaceful, should be a hell. + Monsieur Guillaume brought Joseph Lebas to despair by telling him of + Augustine’s love for a stranger. Lebas, who had advised his friend to + become a suitor for Mademoiselle Virginie, saw all his hopes wrecked. + Mademoiselle Virginie, overcome by hearing that Joseph had, in a way, + refused her, had a sick headache. The dispute that had arisen from the + discussion between Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, when, for the third time + in their lives, they had been of antagonistic opinions, had shown itself + in a terrible form. Finally, at half-past four in the afternoon, + Augustine, pale, trembling, and with red eyes, was haled before her father + and mother. The poor child artlessly related the too brief tale of her + love. Reassured by a speech from her father, who promised to listen to her + in silence, she gathered courage as she pronounced to her parents the name + of Theodore de Sommervieux, with a mischievous little emphasis on the + aristocratic <i>de</i>. And yielding to the unknown charm of talking of + her feelings, she was brave enough to declare with innocent decision that + she loved Monsieur de Sommervieux, that she had written to him, and she + added, with tears in her eyes: “To sacrifice me to another man would make + me wretched.” + </p> + <p> + “But, Augustine, you cannot surely know what a painter is?” cried her + mother with horror. + </p> + <p> + “Madame Guillaume!” said the old man, compelling her to silence.—“Augustine,” + he went on, “artists are generally little better than beggars. They are + too extravagant not to be always a bad sort. I served the late Monsieur + Joseph Vernet, the late Monsieur Lekain, and the late Monsieur Noverre. + Oh, if you could only know the tricks played on poor Father Chevrel by + that Monsieur Noverre, by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and especially + by Monsieur Philidor! They are a set of rascals; I know them well! They + all have a gab and nice manners. Ah, your Monsieur Sumer—, Somm——” + </p> + <p> + “De Sommervieux, papa.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, well, de Sommervieux, well and good. He can never have been half so + sweet to you as Monsieur le Chevalier de Saint-Georges was to me the day I + got a verdict of the consuls against him. And in those days they were + gentlemen of quality.” + </p> + <p> + “But, father, Monsieur Theodore is of good family, and he wrote me that he + is rich; his father was called Chevalier de Sommervieux before the + Revolution.” + </p> + <p> + At these words Monsieur Guillaume looked at his terrible better half, who, + like an angry woman, sat tapping the floor with her foot while keeping + sullen silence; she avoided even casting wrathful looks at Augustine, + appearing to leave to Monsieur Guillaume the whole responsibility in so + grave a matter, since her opinion was not listened to. Nevertheless, in + spite of her apparent self-control, when she saw her husband giving way so + mildly under a catastrophe which had no concern with business, she + exclaimed: + </p> + <p> + “Really, monsieur, you are so weak with your daughters! However——” + </p> + <p> + The sound of a carriage, which stopped at the door, interrupted the rating + which the old draper already quaked at. In a minute Madame Roguin was + standing in the middle of the room, and looking at the actors in this + domestic scene: “I know all, my dear cousin,” said she, with a patronizing + air. + </p> + <p> + Madame Roguin made the great mistake of supposing that a Paris notary’s + wife could play the part of a favorite of fashion. + </p> + <p> + “I know all,” she repeated, “and I have come into Noah’s Ark, like the + dove, with the olive-branch. I read that allegory in the <i>Genie du + Christianisme</i>,” she added, turning to Madame Guillaume; “the allusion + ought to please you, cousin. Do you know,” she went on, smiling at + Augustine, “that Monsieur de Sommervieux is a charming man? He gave me my + portrait this morning, painted by a master’s hand. It is worth at least + six thousand francs.” And at these words she patted Monsieur Guillaume on + the arm. The old draper could not help making a grimace with his lips, + which was peculiar to him. + </p> + <p> + “I know Monsieur de Sommervieux very well,” the Dove ran on. “He has come + to my evenings this fortnight past, and made them delightful. He has told + me all his woes, and commissioned me to plead for him. I know since this + morning that he adores Augustine, and he shall have her. Ah, cousin, do + not shake your head in refusal. He will be created Baron, I can tell you, + and has just been made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, by the Emperor + himself, at the Salon. Roguin is now his lawyer, and knows all his + affairs. Well! Monsieur de Sommervieux has twelve thousand francs a year + in good landed estate. Do you know that the father-in-law of such a man + may get a rise in life—be mayor of his <i>arrondissement</i>, for + instance. Have we not seen Monsieur Dupont become a Count of the Empire, + and a senator, all because he went as mayor to congratulate the Emperor on + his entry into Vienna? Oh, this marriage must take place! For my part, I + adore the dear young man. His behavior to Augustine is only met with in + romances. Be easy, little one, you shall be happy, and every girl will + wish she were in your place. Madame la Duchesse de Carigliano, who comes + to my ‘At Homes,’ raves about Monsieur de Sommervieux. Some spiteful + people say she only comes to me to meet him; as if a duchesse of yesterday + was doing too much honor to a Chevrel, whose family have been respected + citizens these hundred years! + </p> + <p> + “Augustine,” Madame Roguin went on, after a short pause, “I have seen the + portrait. Heavens! How lovely it is! Do you know that the Emperor wanted + to have it? He laughed, and said to the Deputy High Constable that if + there were many women like that in his court while all the kings visited + it, he should have no difficulty about preserving the peace of Europe. Is + not that a compliment?” + </p> + <p> + The tempests with which the day had begun were to resemble those of + nature, by ending in clear and serene weather. Madame Roguin displayed so + much address in her harangue, she was able to touch so many strings in the + dry hearts of Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, that at last she hit on one + which she could work upon. At this strange period commerce and finance + were more than ever possessed by the crazy mania for seeking alliance with + rank; and the generals of the Empire took full advantage of this desire. + Monsieur Guillaume, as a singular exception, opposed this deplorable + craving. His favorite axioms were that, to secure happiness, a woman must + marry a man of her own class; that every one was punished sooner or later + for having climbed too high; that love could so little endure under the + worries of a household, that both husband and wife needed sound good + qualities to be happy, that it would not do for one to be far in advance + of the other, because, above everything, they must understand each other; + if a man spoke Greek and his wife Latin, they might come to die of hunger. + He had himself invented this sort of adage. And he compared such marriages + to old-fashioned materials of mixed silk and wool. Still, there is so much + vanity at the bottom of man’s heart that the prudence of the pilot who + steered the Cat and Racket so wisely gave way before Madame Roguin’s + aggressive volubility. Austere Madame Guillaume was the first to see in + her daughter’s affection a reason for abdicating her principles and for + consenting to receive Monsieur de Sommervieux, whom she promised herself + she would put under severe inquisition. + </p> + <p> + The old draper went to look for Joseph Lebas, and inform him of the state + of affairs. At half-past six, the dining-room immortalized by the artist + saw, united under its skylight, Monsieur and Madame Roguin, the young + painter and his charming Augustine, Joseph Lebas, who found his happiness + in patience, and Mademoiselle Virginie, convalescent from her headache. + Monsieur and Madame Guillaume saw in perspective both their children + married, and the fortunes of the Cat and Racket once more in skilful + hands. Their satisfaction was at its height when, at dessert, Theodore + made them a present of the wonderful picture which they had failed to see, + representing the interior of the old shop, and to which they all owed so + much happiness. + </p> + <p> + “Isn’t it pretty!” cried Guillaume. “And to think that any one would pay + thirty thousand francs for that!” + </p> + <p> + “Because you can see my lappets in it,” said Madame Guillaume. + </p> + <p> + “And the cloth unrolled!” added Lebas; “you might take it up in your + hand.” + </p> + <p> + “Drapery always comes out well,” replied the painter. “We should be only + too happy, we modern artists, if we could touch the perfection of antique + drapery.” + </p> + <p> + “So you like drapery!” cried old Guillaume. “Well, then, by Gad! shake + hands on that, my young friend. Since you can respect trade, we shall + understand each other. And why should it be despised? The world began with + trade, since Adam sold Paradise for an apple. He did not strike a good + bargain though!” And the old man roared with honest laughter, encouraged + by the champagne, which he sent round with a liberal hand. The band that + covered the young artist’s eyes was so thick that he thought his future + parents amiable. He was not above enlivening them by a few jests in the + best taste. So he too pleased every one. In the evening, when the + drawing-room, furnished with what Madame Guillaume called “everything + handsome,” was deserted, and while she flitted from the table to the + chimney-piece, from the candelabra to the tall candlesticks, hastily + blowing out the wax-lights, the worthy draper, who was always + clear-sighted when money was in question, called Augustine to him, and + seating her on his knee, spoke as follows:— + </p> + <p> + “My dear child, you shall marry your Sommervieux since you insist; you + may, if you like, risk your capital in happiness. But I am not going to be + hoodwinked by the thirty thousand francs to be made by spoiling good + canvas. Money that is lightly earned is lightly spent. Did I not hear that + hare-brained youngster declare this evening that money was made round that + it might roll. If it is round for spendthrifts, it is flat for saving + folks who pile it up. Now, my child, that fine gentleman talks of giving + you carriages and diamonds! He has money, let him spend it on you; so be + it. It is no concern of mine. But as to what I can give you, I will not + have the crown-pieces I have picked up with so much toil wasted in + carriages and frippery. Those who spend too fast never grow rich. A + hundred thousand crowns, which is your fortune, will not buy up Paris. It + is all very well to look forward to a few hundred thousand francs to be + yours some day; I shall keep you waiting for them as long as possible, by + Gad! So I took your lover aside, and a man who managed the Lecocq + bankruptcy had not much difficulty in persuading the artist to marry under + a settlement of his wife’s money on herself. I will keep an eye on the + marriage contract to see that what he is to settle on you is safely tied + up. So now, my child, I hope to be a grandfather, by Gad! I will begin at + once to lay up for my grandchildren; but swear to me, here and now, never + to sign any papers relating to money without my advice; and if I go soon + to join old Father Chevrel, promise to consult young Lebas, your + brother-in-law.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, father, I swear it.” + </p> + <p> + At these words, spoken in a gentle voice, the old man kissed his daughter + on both cheeks. That night the lovers slept as soundly as Monsieur and + Madame Guillaume. + </p> + <p> + Some few months after this memorable Sunday the high altar of Saint-Leu + was the scene of two very different weddings. Augustine and Theodore + appeared in all the radiance of happiness, their eyes beaming with love, + dressed with elegance, while a fine carriage waited for them. Virginie, + who had come in a good hired fly with the rest of the family, humbly + followed her younger sister, dressed in the simplest fashion like a shadow + necessary to the harmony of the picture. Monsieur Guillaume had exerted + himself to the utmost in the church to get Virginie married before + Augustine, but the priests, high and low, persisted in addressing the more + elegant of the two brides. He heard some of his neighbors highly approving + the good sense of Mademoiselle Virginie, who was making, as they said, the + more substantial match, and remaining faithful to the neighborhood; while + they fired a few taunts, prompted by envy of Augustine, who was marrying + an artist and a man of rank; adding, with a sort of dismay, that if the + Guillaumes were ambitious, there was an end to the business. An old + fan-maker having remarked that such a prodigal would soon bring his wife + to beggary, father Guillaume prided himself <i>in petto</i> for his + prudence in the matter of marriage settlements. In the evening, after a + splendid ball, followed by one of those substantial suppers of which the + memory is dying out in the present generation, Monsieur and Madame + Guillaume remained in a fine house belonging to them in the Rue du + Colombier, where the wedding had been held; Monsieur and Madame Lebas + returned in their fly to the old home in the Rue Saint-Denis, to steer the + good ship Cat and Racket. The artist, intoxicated with happiness, carried + off his beloved Augustine, and eagerly lifting her out of their carriage + when it reached the Rue des Trois-Freres, led her to an apartment + embellished by all the arts. + </p> + <p> + The fever of passion which possessed Theodore made a year fly over the + young couple without a single cloud to dim the blue sky under which they + lived. Life did not hang heavy on the lovers’ hands. Theodore lavished on + every day inexhaustible <i>fioriture</i> of enjoyment, and he delighted to + vary the transports of passion by the soft languor of those hours of + repose when souls soar so high that they seem to have forgotten all bodily + union. Augustine was too happy for reflection; she floated on an + undulating tide of rapture; she thought she could not do enough by + abandoning herself to sanctioned and sacred married love; simple and + artless, she had no coquetry, no reserves, none of the dominion which a + worldly-minded girl acquires over her husband by ingenious caprice; she + loved too well to calculate for the future, and never imagined that so + exquisite a life could come to an end. Happy in being her husband’s sole + delight, she believed that her inextinguishable love would always be her + greatest grace in his eyes, as her devotion and obedience would be a + perennial charm. And, indeed, the ecstasy of love had made her so + brilliantly lovely that her beauty filled her with pride, and gave her + confidence that she could always reign over a man so easy to kindle as + Monsieur de Sommervieux. Thus her position as a wife brought her no + knowledge but the lessons of love. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of her happiness, she was still the simple child who had + lived in obscurity in the Rue Saint-Denis, and who never thought of + acquiring the manners, the information, the tone of the world she had to + live in. Her words being the words of love, she revealed in them, no + doubt, a certain pliancy of mind and a certain refinement of speech; but + she used the language common to all women when they find themselves + plunged in passion, which seems to be their element. When, by chance, + Augustine expressed an idea that did not harmonize with Theodore’s, the + young artist laughed, as we laugh at the first mistakes of a foreigner, + though they end by annoying us if they are not corrected. + </p> + <p> + In spite of all this love-making, by the end of this year, as delightful + as it was swift, Sommervieux felt one morning the need for resuming his + work and his old habits. His wife was expecting their first child. He saw + some friends again. During the tedious discomforts of the year when a + young wife is nursing an infant for the first time, he worked, no doubt, + with zeal, but he occasionally sought diversion in the fashionable world. + The house which he was best pleased to frequent was that of the Duchesse + de Carigliano, who had at last attracted the celebrated artist to her + parties. When Augustine was quite well again, and her boy no longer + required the assiduous care which debars a mother from social pleasures, + Theodore had come to the stage of wishing to know the joys of satisfied + vanity to be found in society by a man who shows himself with a handsome + woman, the object of envy and admiration. + </p> + <p> + To figure in drawing-rooms with the reflected lustre of her husband’s + fame, and to find other women envious of her, was to Augustine a new + harvest of pleasures; but it was the last gleam of conjugal happiness. She + first wounded her husband’s vanity when, in spite of vain efforts, she + betrayed her ignorance, the inelegance of her language, and the narrowness + of her ideas. Sommervieux’s nature, subjugated for nearly two years and a + half by the first transports of love, now, in the calm of less new + possession, recovered its bent and habits, for a while diverted from their + channel. Poetry, painting, and the subtle joys of imagination have + inalienable rights over a lofty spirit. These cravings of a powerful soul + had not been starved in Theodore during these two years; they had only + found fresh pasture. As soon as the meadows of love had been ransacked, + and the artist had gathered roses and cornflowers as the children do, so + greedily that he did not see that his hands could hold no more, the scene + changed. When the painter showed his wife the sketches for his finest + compositions he heard her exclaim, as her father had done, “How pretty!” + This tepid admiration was not the outcome of conscientious feeling, but of + her faith on the strength of love. + </p> + <p> + Augustine cared more for a look than for the finest picture. The only + sublime she knew was that of the heart. At last Theodore could not resist + the evidence of the cruel fact—his wife was insensible to poetry, + she did not dwell in his sphere, she could not follow him in all his + vagaries, his inventions, his joys and his sorrows; she walked groveling + in the world of reality, while his head was in the skies. Common minds + cannot appreciate the perennial sufferings of a being who, while bound to + another by the most intimate affections, is obliged constantly to suppress + the dearest flights of his soul, and to thrust down into the void those + images which a magic power compels him to create. To him the torture is + all the more intolerable because his feeling towards his companion + enjoins, as its first law, that they should have no concealments, but + mingle the aspirations of their thought as perfectly as the effusions of + their soul. The demands of nature are not to be cheated. She is as + inexorable as necessity, which is, indeed, a sort of social nature. + Sommervieux took refuge in the peace and silence of his studio, hoping + that the habit of living with artists might mould his wife and develop in + her the dormant germs of lofty intelligence which some superior minds + suppose must exist in every being. But Augustine was too sincerely + religious not to take fright at the tone of artists. At the first dinner + Theodore gave, she heard a young painter say, with the childlike + lightness, which to her was unintelligible, and which redeems a jest from + the taint of profanity, “But, madame, your Paradise cannot be more + beautiful than Raphael’s Transfiguration!—Well, and I got tired of + looking at that.” + </p> + <p> + Thus Augustine came among this sparkling set in a spirit of distrust which + no one could fail to see. She was a restraint on their freedom. Now an + artist who feels restraint is pitiless; he stays away, or laughs it to + scorn. Madame Guillaume, among other absurdities, had an excessive notion + of the dignity she considered the prerogative of a married woman; and + Augustine, though she had often made fun of it, could not help a slight + imitation of her mother’s primness. This extreme propriety, which virtuous + wives do not always avoid, suggested a few epigrams in the form of + sketches, in which the harmless jest was in such good taste that + Sommervieux could not take offence; and even if they had been more severe, + these pleasantries were after all only reprisals from his friends. Still, + nothing could seem a trifle to a spirit so open as Theodore’s to + impressions from without. A coldness insensibly crept over him, and + inevitably spread. To attain conjugal happiness we must climb a hill whose + summit is a narrow ridge, close to a steep and slippery descent: the + painter’s love was falling down it. He regarded his wife as incapable of + appreciating the moral considerations which justified him in his own eyes + for his singular behavior to her, and believed himself quite innocent in + hiding from her thoughts she could not enter into, and peccadilloes + outside the jurisdiction of a <i>bourgeois</i> conscience. Augustine + wrapped herself in sullen and silent grief. These unconfessed feelings + placed a shroud between the husband and wife which could not fail to grow + thicker day by day. Though her husband never failed in consideration for + her, Augustine could not help trembling as she saw that he kept for the + outer world those treasures of wit and grace that he formerly would lay at + her feet. She soon began to find sinister meaning in the jocular speeches + that are current in the world as to the inconstancy of men. She made no + complaints, but her demeanor conveyed reproach. + </p> + <p> + Three years after her marriage this pretty young woman, who dashed past in + her handsome carriage, and lived in a sphere of glory and riches to the + envy of heedless folk incapable of taking a just view of the situations of + life, was a prey to intense grief. She lost her color; she reflected; she + made comparisons; then sorrow unfolded to her the first lessons of + experience. She determined to restrict herself bravely within the round of + duty, hoping that by this generous conduct she might sooner or later win + back her husband’s love. But it was not so. When Sommervieux, fired with + work, came in from his studio, Augustine did not put away her work so + quickly but that the painter might find his wife mending the household + linen, and his own, with all the care of a good housewife. She supplied + generously and without a murmur the money needed for his lavishness; but + in her anxiety to husband her dear Theodore’s fortune, she was strictly + economical for herself and in certain details of domestic management. Such + conduct is incompatible with the easy-going habits of artists, who, at the + end of their life, have enjoyed it so keenly that they never inquire into + the causes of their ruin. + </p> + <p> + It is useless to note every tint of shadow by which the brilliant hues of + their honeymoon were overcast till they were lost in utter blackness. One + evening poor Augustine, who had for some time heard her husband speak with + enthusiasm of the Duchesse de Carigliano, received from a friend certain + malignantly charitable warnings as to the nature of the attachment which + Sommervieux had formed for this celebrated flirt of the Imperial Court. At + one-and-twenty, in all the splendor of youth and beauty, Augustine saw + herself deserted for a woman of six-and-thirty. Feeling herself so + wretched in the midst of a world of festivity which to her was a blank, + the poor little thing could no longer understand the admiration she + excited, or the envy of which she was the object. Her face assumed a + different expression. Melancholy, tinged her features with the sweetness + of resignation and the pallor of scorned love. Ere long she too was + courted by the most fascinating men; but she remained lonely and virtuous. + Some contemptuous words which escaped her husband filled her with + incredible despair. A sinister flash showed her the breaches which, as a + result of her sordid education, hindered the perfect union of her soul + with Theodore’s; she loved him well enough to absolve him and condemn + herself. She shed tears of blood, and perceived, too late, that there are + <i>mesalliances</i> of the spirit as well as of rank and habits. As she + recalled the early raptures of their union, she understood the full extent + of that lost happiness, and accepted the conclusion that so rich a harvest + of love was in itself a whole life, which only sorrow could pay for. At + the same time, she loved too truly to lose all hope. At one-and-twenty she + dared undertake to educate herself, and make her imagination, at least, + worthy of that she admired. “If I am not a poet,” thought she, “at any + rate, I will understand poetry.” + </p> + <p> + Then, with all the strength of will, all the energy which every woman can + display when she loves, Madame de Sommervieux tried to alter her + character, her manners, and her habits; but by dint of devouring books and + learning undauntedly, she only succeeded in becoming less ignorant. + Lightness of wit and the graces of conversation are a gift of nature, or + the fruit of education begun in the cradle. She could appreciate music and + enjoy it, but she could not sing with taste. She understood literature and + the beauties of poetry, but it was too late to cultivate her refractory + memory. She listened with pleasure to social conversation, but she could + contribute nothing brilliant. Her religious notions and home-grown + prejudices were antagonistic to the complete emancipation of her + intelligence. Finally, a foregone conclusion against her had stolen into + Theodore’s mind, and this she could not conquer. The artist would laugh, + at those who flattered him about his wife, and his irony had some + foundation; he so overawed the pathetic young creature that, in his + presence, or alone with him, she trembled. Hampered by her too eager + desire to please, her wits and her knowledge vanished in one absorbing + feeling. Even her fidelity vexed the unfaithful husband, who seemed to bid + her do wrong by stigmatizing her virtue as insensibility. Augustine tried + in vain to abdicate her reason, to yield to her husband’s caprices and + whims, to devote herself to the selfishness of his vanity. Her sacrifices + bore no fruit. Perhaps they had both let the moment slip when souls may + meet in comprehension. One day the young wife’s too sensitive heart + received one of those blows which so strain the bonds of feeling that they + seem to be broken. She withdrew into solitude. But before long a fatal + idea suggested to her to seek counsel and comfort in the bosom of her + family. + </p> + <p> + So one morning she made her way towards the grotesque facade of the + humble, silent home where she had spent her childhood. She sighed as she + looked up at the sash-window, whence one day she had sent her first kiss + to him who now shed as much sorrow as glory on her life. Nothing was + changed in the cavern, where the drapery business had, however, started on + a new life. Augustine’s sister filled her mother’s old place at the desk. + The unhappy young woman met her brother-in-law with his pen behind his + ear; he hardly listened to her, he was so full of business. The formidable + symptoms of stock-taking were visible all round him; he begged her to + excuse him. She was received coldly enough by her sister, who owed her a + grudge. In fact, Augustine, in her finery, and stepping out of a handsome + carriage, had never been to see her but when passing by. The wife of the + prudent Lebas, imagining that want of money was the prime cause of this + early call, tried to keep up a tone of reserve which more than once made + Augustine smile. The painter’s wife perceived that, apart from the cap and + lappets, her mother had found in Virginie a successor who could uphold the + ancient honor of the Cat and Racket. At breakfast she observed certain + changes in the management of the house which did honor to Lebas’ good + sense; the assistants did not rise before dessert; they were allowed to + talk, and the abundant meal spoke of ease without luxury. The fashionable + woman found some tickets for a box at the Francais, where she remembered + having seen her sister from time to time. Madame Lebas had a cashmere + shawl over her shoulders, of which the value bore witness to her husband’s + generosity to her. In short, the couple were keeping pace with the times. + During the two-thirds of the day she spent there, Augustine was touched to + the heart by the equable happiness, devoid, to be sure, of all emotion, + but equally free from storms, enjoyed by this well-matched couple. They + had accepted life as a commercial enterprise, in which, above all, they + must do credit to the business. Not finding any great love in her husband, + Virginie had set to work to create it. Having by degrees learned to esteem + and care for his wife, the time that his happiness had taken to germinate + was to Joseph Lebas a guarantee of its durability. Hence, when Augustine + plaintively set forth her painful position, she had to face the deluge of + commonplace morality which the traditions of the Rue Saint-Denis furnished + to her sister. + </p> + <p> + “The mischief is done, wife,” said Joseph Lebas; “we must try to give our + sister good advice.” Then the clever tradesman ponderously analyzed the + resources which law and custom might offer Augustine as a means of escape + at this crisis; he ticketed every argument, so to speak, and arranged them + in their degrees of weight under various categories, as though they were + articles of merchandise of different qualities; then he put them in the + scale, weighed them, and ended by showing the necessity for his + sister-in-law’s taking violent steps which could not satisfy the love she + still had for her husband; and, indeed, the feeling had revived in all its + strength when she heard Joseph Lebas speak of legal proceedings. Augustine + thanked them, and returned home even more undecided than she had been + before consulting them. She now ventured to go to the house in the Rue du + Colombier, intending to confide her troubles to her father and mother; for + she was like a sick man who, in his desperate plight, tries every + prescription, and even puts faith in old wives’ remedies. + </p> + <p> + The old people received their daughter with an effusiveness that touched + her deeply. Her visit brought them some little change, and that to them + was worth a fortune. For the last four years they had gone their way like + navigators without a goal or a compass. Sitting by the chimney corner, + they would talk over their disasters under the old law of <i>maximum</i>, + of their great investments in cloth, of the way they had weathered + bankruptcies, and, above all, the famous failure of Lecocq, Monsieur + Guillaume’s battle of Marengo. Then, when they had exhausted the tale of + lawsuits, they recapitulated the sum total of their most profitable + stock-takings, and told each other old stories of the Saint-Denis quarter. + At two o’clock old Guillaume went to cast an eye on the business at the + Cat and Racket; on his way back he called at all the shops, formerly the + rivals of his own, where the young proprietors hoped to inveigle the old + draper into some risky discount, which, as was his wont, he never refused + point-blank. Two good Normandy horses were dying of their own fat in the + stables of the big house; Madame Guillaume never used them but to drag her + on Sundays to high Mass at the parish church. Three times a week the + worthy couple kept open house. By the influence of his son-in-law + Sommervieux, Monsieur Guillaume had been named a member of the consulting + board for the clothing of the Army. Since her husband had stood so high in + office, Madame Guillaume had decided that she must receive; her rooms were + so crammed with gold and silver ornaments, and furniture, tasteless but of + undoubted value, that the simplest room in the house looked like a chapel. + Economy and expense seemed to be struggling for the upper hand in every + accessory. It was as though Monsieur Guillaume had looked to a good + investment, even in the purchase of a candlestick. In the midst of this + bazaar, where splendor revealed the owner’s want of occupation, + Sommervieux’s famous picture filled the place of honor, and in it Monsieur + and Madame Guillaume found their chief consolation, turning their eyes, + harnessed with eye-glasses, twenty times a day on this presentment of + their past life, to them so active and amusing. The appearance of this + mansion and these rooms, where everything had an aroma of staleness and + mediocrity, the spectacle offered by these two beings, cast away, as it + were, on a rock far from the world and the ideas which are life, startled + Augustine; she could here contemplate the sequel of the scene of which the + first part had struck her at the house of Lebas—a life of stir + without movement, a mechanical and instinctive existence like that of the + beaver; and then she felt an indefinable pride in her troubles, as she + reflected that they had their source in eighteen months of such happiness + as, in her eyes, was worth a thousand lives like this; its vacuity seemed + to her horrible. However, she concealed this not very charitable feeling, + and displayed for her parents her newly-acquired accomplishments of mind, + and the ingratiating tenderness that love had revealed to her, disposing + them to listen to her matrimonial grievances. Old people have a weakness + for this kind of confidence. Madame Guillaume wanted to know the most + trivial details of that alien life, which to her seemed almost fabulous. + The travels of Baron da la Houtan, which she began again and again and + never finished, told her nothing more unheard-of concerning the Canadian + savages. + </p> + <p> + “What, child, your husband shuts himself into a room with naked women! And + you are so simple as to believe that he draws them?” + </p> + <p> + As she uttered this exclamation, the grandmother laid her spectacles on a + little work-table, shook her skirts, and clasped her hands on her knees, + raised by a foot-warmer, her favorite pedestal. + </p> + <p> + “But, mother, all artists are obliged to have models.” + </p> + <p> + “He took good care not to tell us that when he asked leave to marry you. + If I had known it, I would never had given my daughter to a man who + followed such a trade. Religion forbids such horrors; they are immoral. + And at what time of night do you say he comes home?” + </p> + <p> + “At one o’clock—two——” + </p> + <p> + The old folks looked at each other in utter amazement. + </p> + <p> + “Then he gambles?” said Monsieur Guillaume. “In my day only gamblers + stayed out so late.” + </p> + <p> + Augustine made a face that scorned the accusation. + </p> + <p> + “He must keep you up through dreadful nights waiting for him,” said Madame + Guillaume. “But you go to bed, don’t you? And when he has lost, the wretch + wakes you.” + </p> + <p> + “No, mamma, on the contrary, he is sometimes in very good spirits. Not + unfrequently, indeed, when it is fine, he suggests that I should get up + and go into the woods.” + </p> + <p> + “The woods! At that hour? Then have you such a small set of rooms that his + bedroom and his sitting-room are not enough, and that he must run about? + But it is just to give you cold that the wretch proposes such expeditions. + He wants to get rid of you. Did one ever hear of a man settled in life, a + well-behaved, quiet man galloping about like a warlock?” + </p> + <p> + “But, my dear mother, you do not understand that he must have excitement + to fire his genius. He is fond of scenes which——” + </p> + <p> + “I would make scenes for him, fine scenes!” cried Madame Guillaume, + interrupting her daughter. “How can you show any consideration to such a + man? In the first place, I don’t like his drinking water only; it is not + wholesome. Why does he object to see a woman eating? What queer notion is + that! But he is mad. All you tell us about him is impossible. A man cannot + leave his home without a word, and never come back for ten days. And then + he tells you he has been to Dieppe to paint the sea. As if any one painted + the sea! He crams you with a pack of tales that are too absurd.” + </p> + <p> + Augustine opened her lips to defend her husband; but Madame Guillaume + enjoined silence with a wave of her hand, which she obeyed by a survival + of habit, and her mother went on in harsh tones: “Don’t talk to me about + the man! He never set foot in church excepting to see you and to be + married. People without religion are capable of anything. Did Guillaume + ever dream of hiding anything from me, of spending three days without + saying a word to me, and of chattering afterwards like a blind magpie?” + </p> + <p> + “My dear mother, you judge superior people too severely. If their ideas + were the same as other folks’, they would not be men of genius.” + </p> + <p> + “Very well, then let men of genius stop at home and not get married. What! + A man of genius is to make his wife miserable? And because he is a genius + it is all right! Genius, genius! It is not so very clever to say black one + minute and white the next, as he does, to interrupt other people, to dance + such rigs at home, never to let you know which foot you are to stand on, + to compel his wife never to be amused unless my lord is in gay spirits, + and to be dull when he is dull.” + </p> + <p> + “But, mother, the very nature of such imaginations——” + </p> + <p> + “What are such ‘imaginations’?” Madame Guillaume went on, interrupting her + daughter again. “Fine ones his are, my word! What possesses a man that all + on a sudden, without consulting a doctor, he takes it into his head to eat + nothing but vegetables? If indeed it were from religious motives, it might + do him some good—but he has no more religion than a Huguenot. Was + there ever a man known who, like him, loved horses better than his + fellow-creatures, had his hair curled like a heathen, laid statues under + muslin coverlets, shut his shutters in broad day to work by lamp-light? + There, get along; if he were not so grossly immoral, he would be fit to + shut up in a lunatic asylum. Consult Monsieur Loraux, the priest at Saint + Sulpice, ask his opinion about it all, and he will tell you that your + husband, does not behave like a Christian.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, mother, can you believe——?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I do believe. You loved him, and you can see none of these things. + But I can remember in the early days after your marriage. I met him in the + Champs-Elysees. He was on horseback. Well, at one minute he was galloping + as hard as he could tear, and then pulled up to a walk. I said to myself + at that moment, ‘There is a man devoid of judgement.’” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, ha!” cried Monsieur Guillaume, “how wise I was to have your money + settled on yourself with such a queer fellow for a husband!” + </p> + <p> + When Augustine was so imprudent as to set forth her serious grievances + against her husband, the two old people were speechless with indignation. + But the word “divorce” was ere long spoken by Madame Guillaume. At the + sound of the word divorce the apathetic old draper seemed to wake up. + Prompted by his love for his daughter, and also by the excitement which + the proceedings would bring into his uneventful life, father Guillaume + took up the matter. He made himself the leader of the application for a + divorce, laid down the lines of it, almost argued the case; he offered to + be at all the charges, to see the lawyers, the pleaders, the judges, to + move heaven and earth. Madame de Sommervieux was frightened, she refused + her father’s services, said she would not be separated from her husband + even if she were ten times as unhappy, and talked no more about her + sorrows. After being overwhelmed by her parents with all the little + wordless and consoling kindnesses by which the old couple tried in vain to + make up to her for her distress of heart, Augustine went away, feeling the + impossibility of making a superior mind intelligible to weak intellects. + She had learned that a wife must hide from every one, even from her + parents, woes for which it is so difficult to find sympathy. The storms + and sufferings of the upper spheres are appreciated only by the lofty + spirits who inhabit there. In any circumstance we can only be judged by + our equals. + </p> + <p> + Thus poor Augustine found herself thrown back on the horror of her + meditations, in the cold atmosphere of her home. Study was indifferent to + her, since study had not brought her back her husband’s heart. Initiated + into the secret of these souls of fire, but bereft of their resources, she + was compelled to share their sorrows without sharing their pleasures. She + was disgusted with the world, which to her seemed mean and small as + compared with the incidents of passion. In short, her life was a failure. + </p> + <p> + One evening an idea flashed upon her that lighted up her dark grief like a + beam from heaven. Such an idea could never have smiled on a heart less + pure, less virtuous than hers. She determined to go to the Duchesse de + Carigliano, not to ask her to give her back her husband’s heart, but to + learn the arts by which it had been captured; to engage the interest of + this haughty fine lady for the mother of her lover’s children; to appeal + to her and make her the instrument of her future happiness, since she was + the cause of her present wretchedness. + </p> + <p> + So one day Augustine, timid as she was, but armed with supernatural + courage, got into her carriage at two in the afternoon to try for + admittance to the boudoir of the famous coquette, who was never visible + till that hour. Madame de Sommervieux had not yet seen any of the ancient + and magnificent mansions of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. As she made her + way through the stately corridors, the handsome staircases, the vast + drawing-rooms—full of flowers, though it was in the depth of winter, + and decorated with the taste peculiar to women born to opulence or to the + elegant habits of the aristocracy, Augustine felt a terrible clutch at her + heart; she coveted the secrets of an elegance of which she had never had + an idea; she breathed in an air of grandeur which explained the attraction + of the house for her husband. When she reached the private rooms of the + Duchess she was filled with jealousy and a sort of despair, as she admired + the luxurious arrangement of the furniture, the draperies and the + hangings. Here disorder was a grace, here luxury affected a certain + contempt of splendor. The fragrance that floated in the warm air flattered + the sense of smell without offending it. The accessories of the rooms were + in harmony with a view, through plate-glass windows, of the lawns in a + garden planted with evergreen trees. It was all bewitching, and the art of + it was not perceptible. The whole spirit of the mistress of these rooms + pervaded the drawing-room where Augustine awaited her. She tried to divine + her rival’s character from the aspect of the scattered objects; but there + was here something as impenetrable in the disorder as in the symmetry, and + to the simple-minded young wife all was a sealed letter. All that she + could discern was that, as a woman, the Duchess was a superior person. + Then a painful thought came over her. + </p> + <p> + “Alas! And is it true,” she wondered, “that a simple and loving heart is + not all-sufficient to an artist; that to balance the weight of these + powerful souls they need a union with feminine souls of a strength equal + to their own? If I had been brought up like this siren, our weapons at + least might have been equal in the hour of struggle.” + </p> + <p> + “But I am not at home!” The sharp, harsh words, though spoken in an + undertone in the adjoining boudoir, were heard by Augustine, and her heart + beat violently. + </p> + <p> + “The lady is in there,” replied the maid. + </p> + <p> + “You are an idiot! Show her in,” replied the Duchess, whose voice was + sweeter, and had assumed the dulcet tones of politeness. She evidently now + meant to be heard. + </p> + <p> + Augustine shyly entered the room. At the end of the dainty boudoir she saw + the Duchess lounging luxuriously on an ottoman covered with brown velvet + and placed in the centre of a sort of apse outlined by soft folds of white + muslin over a yellow lining. Ornaments of gilt bronze, arranged with + exquisite taste, enhanced this sort of dais, under which the Duchess + reclined like a Greek statue. The dark hue of the velvet gave relief to + every fascinating charm. A subdued light, friendly to her beauty, fell + like a reflection rather than a direct illumination. A few rare flowers + raised their perfumed heads from costly Sevres vases. At the moment when + this picture was presented to Augustine’s astonished eyes, she was + approaching so noiselessly that she caught a glance from those of the + enchantress. This look seemed to say to some one whom Augustine did not at + first perceive, “Stay; you will see a pretty woman, and make her visit + seem less of a bore.” + </p> + <p> + On seeing Augustine, the Duchess rose and made her sit down by her. + </p> + <p> + “And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, madame?” she said with a + most gracious smile. + </p> + <p> + “Why all the falseness?” thought Augustine, replying only with a bow. + </p> + <p> + Her silence was compulsory. The young woman saw before her a superfluous + witness of the scene. This personage was, of all the Colonels in the army, + the youngest, the most fashionable, and the finest man. His face, full of + life and youth, but already expressive, was further enhanced by a small + moustache twirled up into points, and as black as jet, by a full imperial, + by whiskers carefully combed, and a forest of black hair in some disorder. + He was whisking a riding whip with an air of ease and freedom which suited + his self-satisfied expression and the elegance of his dress; the ribbons + attached to his button-hole were carelessly tied, and he seemed to pride + himself much more on his smart appearance than on his courage. Augustine + looked at the Duchesse de Carigliano, and indicated the Colonel by a + sidelong glance. All its mute appeal was understood. + </p> + <p> + “Good-bye, then, Monsieur d’Aiglemont, we shall meet in the Bois de + Boulogne.” + </p> + <p> + These words were spoken by the siren as though they were the result of an + agreement made before Augustine’s arrival, and she winged them with a + threatening look that the officer deserved perhaps for the admiration he + showed in gazing at the modest flower, which contrasted so well with the + haughty Duchess. The young fop bowed in silence, turned on the heels of + his boots, and gracefully quitted the boudoir. At this instant, Augustine, + watching her rival, whose eyes seemed to follow the brilliant officer, + detected in that glance a sentiment of which the transient expression is + known to every woman. She perceived with the deepest anguish that her + visit would be useless; this lady, full of artifice, was too greedy of + homage not to have a ruthless heart. + </p> + <p> + “Madame,” said Augustine in a broken voice, “the step I am about to take + will seem to you very strange; but there is a madness of despair which + ought to excuse anything. I understand only too well why Theodore prefers + your house to any other, and why your mind has so much power over his. + Alas! I have only to look into myself to find more than ample reasons. But + I am devoted to my husband, madame. Two years of tears have not effaced + his image from my heart, though I have lost his. In my folly I dared to + dream of a contest with you; and I have come to you to ask you by what + means I may triumph over yourself. Oh, madame,” cried the young wife, + ardently seizing the hand which her rival allowed her to hold, “I will + never pray to God for my own happiness with so much fervor as I will + beseech Him for yours, if you will help me to win back Sommervieux’s + regard—I will not say his love. I have no hope but in you. Ah! tell + me how you could please him, and make him forget the first days——” + At these words Augustine broke down, suffocated with sobs she could not + suppress. Ashamed of her weakness, she hid her face in her handkerchief, + which she bathed with tears. + </p> + <p> + “What a child you are, my dear little beauty!” said the Duchess, carried + away by the novelty of such a scene, and touched, in spite of herself, at + receiving such homage from the most perfect virtue perhaps in Paris. She + took the young wife’s handkerchief, and herself wiped the tears from her + eyes, soothing her by a few monosyllables murmured with gracious + compassion. After a moment’s silence the Duchess, grasping poor + Augustine’s hands in both her own—hands that had a rare character of + dignity and powerful beauty—said in a gentle and friendly voice: “My + first warning is to advise you not to weep so bitterly; tears are + disfiguring. We must learn to deal firmly with the sorrows that make us + ill, for love does not linger long by a sick-bed. Melancholy, at first, no + doubt, lends a certain attractive grace, but it ends by dragging the + features and blighting the loveliest face. And besides, our tyrants are so + vain as to insist that their slaves should be always cheerful.” + </p> + <p> + “But, madame, it is not in my power not to feel. How is it possible, + without suffering a thousand deaths, to see the face which once beamed + with love and gladness turn chill, colorless, and indifferent? I cannot + control my heart!” + </p> + <p> + “So much the worse, sweet child. But I fancy I know all your story. In the + first place, if your husband is unfaithful to you, understand clearly that + I am not his accomplice. If I was anxious to have him in my drawing-room, + it was, I own, out of vanity; he was famous, and he went nowhere. I like + you too much already to tell you all the mad things he has done for my + sake. I will only reveal one, because it may perhaps help us to bring him + back to you, and to punish him for the audacity of his behavior to me. He + will end by compromising me. I know the world too well, my dear, to + abandon myself to the discretion of a too superior man. You should know + that one may allow them to court one, but marry them—that is a + mistake! We women ought to admire men of genius, and delight in them as a + spectacle, but as to living with them? Never.—No, no. It is like + wanting to find pleasure in inspecting the machinery of the opera instead + of sitting in a box to enjoy its brilliant illusions. But this misfortune + has fallen on you, my poor child, has it not? Well, then, you must try to + arm yourself against tyranny.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, madame, before coming in here, only seeing you as I came in, I + already detected some arts of which I had no suspicion.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, come and see me sometimes, and it will not be long before you have + mastered the knowledge of these trifles, important, too, in their way. + Outward things are, to fools, half of life; and in that matter more than + one clever man is a fool, in spite of all his talent. But I dare wager you + never could refuse your Theodore anything!” + </p> + <p> + “How refuse anything, madame, if one loves a man?” + </p> + <p> + “Poor innocent, I could adore you for your simplicity. You should know + that the more we love the less we should allow a man, above all, a + husband, to see the whole extent of our passion. The one who loves most is + tyrannized over, and, which is worse, is sooner or later neglected. The + one who wishes to rule should——” + </p> + <p> + “What, madame, must I then dissimulate, calculate, become false, form an + artificial character, and live in it? How is it possible to live in such a + way? Can you——” she hesitated; the Duchess smiled. + </p> + <p> + “My dear child,” the great lady went on in a serious tone, “conjugal + happiness has in all times been a speculation, a business demanding + particular attention. If you persist in talking passion while I am talking + marriage, we shall soon cease to understand each other. Listen to me,” she + went on, assuming a confidential tone. “I have been in the way of seeing + some of the superior men of our day. Those who have married have for the + most part chosen quite insignificant wives. Well, those wives governed + them, as the Emperor governs us; and if they were not loved, they were at + least respected. I like secrets—especially those which concern women—well + enough to have amused myself by seeking the clue to the riddle. Well, my + sweet child, those worthy women had the gift of analyzing their husbands’ + nature; instead of taking fright, like you, at their superiority, they + very acutely noted the qualities they lacked, and either by possessing + those qualities, or by feigning to possess them, they found means of + making such a handsome display of them in their husbands’ eyes that in the + end they impressed them. Also, I must tell you, all these souls which + appear so lofty have just a speck of madness in them, which we ought to + know how to take advantage of. By firmly resolving to have the upper hand + and never deviating from that aim, by bringing all our actions to bear on + it, all our ideas, our cajolery, we subjugate these eminently capricious + natures, which, by the very mutability of their thoughts, lend us the + means of influencing them.” + </p> + <p> + “Good heavens!” cried the young wife in dismay. “And this is life. It is a + warfare——” + </p> + <p> + “In which we must always threaten,” said the Duchess, laughing. “Our power + is wholly factitious. And we must never allow a man to despise us; it is + impossible to recover from such a descent but by odious manoeuvring. + Come,” she added, “I will give you a means of bringing your husband to his + senses.” + </p> + <p> + She rose with a smile to guide the young and guileless apprentice to + conjugal arts through the labyrinth of her palace. They came to a + back-staircase, which led up to the reception rooms. As Madame de + Carigliano pressed the secret springlock of the door she stopped, looking + at Augustine with an inimitable gleam of shrewdness and grace. “The Duc de + Carigliano adores me,” said she. “Well, he dare not enter by this door + without my leave. And he is a man in the habit of commanding thousands of + soldiers. He knows how to face a battery, but before me,—he is + afraid!” + </p> + <p> + Augustine sighed. They entered a sumptuous gallery, where the painter’s + wife was led by the Duchess up to the portrait painted by Theodore of + Mademoiselle Guillaume. On seeing it, Augustine uttered a cry. + </p> + <p> + “I knew it was no longer in my house,” she said, “but—here!——” + </p> + <p> + “My dear child, I asked for it merely to see what pitch of idiocy a man of + genius may attain to. Sooner or later I should have returned it to you, + for I never expected the pleasure of seeing the original here face to face + with the copy. While we finish our conversation I will have it carried + down to your carriage. And if, armed with such a talisman, you are not + your husband’s mistress for a hundred years, you are not a woman, and you + deserve your fate.” + </p> + <p> + Augustine kissed the Duchess’ hand, and the lady clasped her to her heart, + with all the more tenderness because she would forget her by the morrow. + This scene might perhaps have destroyed for ever the candor and purity of + a less virtuous woman than Augustine, for the astute politics of the + higher social spheres were no more consonant to Augustine than the narrow + reasoning of Joseph Lebas, or Madame Guillaume’s vapid morality. Strange + are the results of the false positions into which we may be brought by the + slightest mistake in the conduct of life! Augustine was like an Alpine + cowherd surprised by an avalanche; if he hesitates, if he listens to the + shouts of his comrades, he is almost certainly lost. In such a crisis the + heart steels itself or breaks. + </p> + <p> + Madame de Sommervieux returned home a prey to such agitation as it is + difficult to describe. Her conversation with the Duchesse de Carigliano + had roused in her mind a crowd of contradictory thoughts. Like the sheep + in the fable, full of courage in the wolf’s absence, she preached to + herself, and laid down admirable plans of conduct; she devised a thousand + coquettish stratagems; she even talked to her husband, finding, away from + him, all the springs of true eloquence which never desert a woman; then, + as she pictured to herself Theodore’s clear and steadfast gaze, she began + to quake. When she asked whether monsieur were at home her voice shook. On + learning that he would not be in to dinner, she felt an unaccountable + thrill of joy. Like a criminal who has appealed against sentence of death, + a respite, however short, seemed to her a lifetime. She placed the + portrait in her room, and waited for her husband in all the agonies of + hope. That this venture must decide her future life, she felt too keenly + not to shiver at every sound, even the low ticking of the clock, which + seemed to aggravate her terrors by doling them out to her. She tried to + cheat time by various devices. The idea struck her of dressing in a way + which would make her exactly like the portrait. Then, knowing her + husband’s restless temper, she had her room lighted up with unusual + brightness, feeling sure that when he came in curiosity would bring him + there at once. Midnight had struck when, at the call of the groom, the + street gate was opened, and the artist’s carriage rumbled in over the + stones of the silent courtyard. + </p> + <p> + “What is the meaning of this illumination?” asked Theodore in glad tones, + as he came into her room. + </p> + <p> + Augustine skilfully seized the auspicious moment; she threw herself into + her husband’s arms, and pointed to the portrait. The artist stood rigid as + a rock, and his eyes turned alternately on Augustine, on the accusing + dress. The frightened wife, half-dead, as she watched her husband’s + changeful brow—that terrible brow—saw the expressive furrows + gathering like clouds; then she felt her blood curdling in her veins when, + with a glaring look, and in a deep hollow voice, he began to question her: + </p> + <p> + “Where did you find that picture?” + </p> + <p> + “The Duchess de Carigliano returned it to me.” + </p> + <p> + “You asked her for it?” + </p> + <p> + “I did not know that she had it.” + </p> + <p> + The gentleness, or rather the exquisite sweetness of this angel’s voice, + might have touched a cannibal, but not an artist in the clutches of + wounded vanity. + </p> + <p> + “It is worthy of her!” exclaimed the painter in a voice of thunder. “I + will be avenged!” he cried, striding up and down the room. “She shall die + of shame; I will paint her! Yes, I will paint her as Messalina stealing + out at night from the palace of Claudius.” + </p> + <p> + “Theodore!” said a faint voice. + </p> + <p> + “I will kill her!” + </p> + <p> + “My dear——” + </p> + <p> + “She is in love with that little cavalry colonel, because he rides well——” + </p> + <p> + “Theodore!” + </p> + <p> + “Let me be!” said the painter in a tone almost like a roar. + </p> + <p> + It would be odious to describe the whole scene. In the end the frenzy of + passion prompted the artist to acts and words which any woman not so young + as Augustine would have ascribed to madness. + </p> + <p> + At eight o’clock next morning Madame Guillaume, surprising her daughter, + found her pale, with red eyes, her hair in disorder, holding a + handkerchief soaked with tears, while she gazed at the floor strewn with + the torn fragments of a dress and the broken fragments of a large gilt + picture-frame. Augustine, almost senseless with grief, pointed to the + wreck with a gesture of deep despair. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know that the loss is very great!” cried the old mistress of the + Cat and Racket. “It was like you, no doubt; but I am told that there is a + man on the boulevard who paints lovely portraits for fifty crowns.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, mother!” + </p> + <p> + “Poor child, you are quite right,” replied Madame Guillaume, who + misinterpreted the expression of her daughter’s glance at her. “True, my + child, no one ever can love you as fondly as a mother. My darling, I guess + it all; but confide your sorrows to me, and I will comfort you. Did I not + tell you long ago that the man was mad! Your maid has told me pretty + stories. Why, he must be a perfect monster!” + </p> + <p> + Augustine laid a finger on her white lips, as if to implore a moment’s + silence. During this dreadful night misery had led her to that patient + resignation which in mothers and loving wives transcends in its effects + all human energy, and perhaps reveals in the heart of women the existence + of certain chords which God has withheld from men. + </p> + <p> + An inscription engraved on a broken column in the cemetery at Montmartre + states that Madame de Sommervieux died at the age of twenty-seven. In the + simple words of this epitaph one of the timid creature’s friends can read + the last scene of a tragedy. Every year, on the second of November, the + solemn day of the dead, he never passes this youthful monument without + wondering whether it does not need a stronger woman than Augustine to + endure the violent embrace of genius? + </p> + <p> + “The humble and modest flowers that bloom in the valley,” he reflects, + “perish perhaps when they are transplanted too near the skies, to the + region where storms gather and the sun is scorching.” + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + ADDENDUM + </h2> + <h3> + The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Aiglemont, General, Marquis Victor d’ + The Firm of Nucingen + A Woman of Thirty + + Birotteau, Cesar + Cesar Birotteau + A Bachelor’s Establishment + + Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Cousin Pons + The Muse of the Department + Cesar Birotteau + + Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Cesar Birotteau + + Carigliano, Marechal, Duc de + Father Goriot + Sarrasine + + Carigliano, Duchesse de + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Peasantry + The Member for Arcis + + Guillaume + Cesar Birotteau + + Lebas, Joseph + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + + Lebas, Madame Joseph (Virginie) + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + + Lourdois + Cesar Birotteau + + Rabourdin, Xavier + The Government Clerks + Cesar Birotteau + The Middle Classes + + Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + Pierrette + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + Sommervieux, Theodore de + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + + Sommervieux, Madame Theodore de (Augustine) + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At the Sign of the Cat and Racket, by +Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET *** + +***** This file should be named 1680-h.htm or 1680-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/8/1680/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell + +Release Date: March, 1998 [Etext #1680] +Posting Date: February 28, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Clara Bell + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Marie de Montheau + + + + + +AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET + + +Half-way down the Rue Saint-Denis, almost at the corner of the Rue du +Petit-Lion, there stood formerly one of those delightful houses which +enable historians to reconstruct old Paris by analogy. The threatening +walls of this tumbledown abode seemed to have been decorated with +hieroglyphics. For what other name could the passer-by give to the Xs +and Vs which the horizontal or diagonal timbers traced on the front, +outlined by little parallel cracks in the plaster? It was evident that +every beam quivered in its mortices at the passing of the lightest +vehicle. This venerable structure was crowned by a triangular roof of +which no example will, ere long, be seen in Paris. This covering, warped +by the extremes of the Paris climate, projected three feet over the +roadway, as much to protect the threshold from the rainfall as to +shelter the wall of a loft and its sill-less dormer-window. This upper +story was built of planks, overlapping each other like slates, in order, +no doubt, not to overweight the frail house. + +One rainy morning in the month of March, a young man, carefully wrapped +in his cloak, stood under the awning of a shop opposite this old house, +which he was studying with the enthusiasm of an antiquary. In point of +fact, this relic of the civic life of the sixteenth century offered +more than one problem to the consideration of an observer. Each story +presented some singularity; on the first floor four tall, narrow +windows, close together, were filled as to the lower panes with boards, +so as to produce the doubtful light by which a clever salesman can +ascribe to his goods the color his customers inquire for. The young man +seemed very scornful of this part of the house; his eyes had not yet +rested on it. The windows of the second floor, where the Venetian blinds +were drawn up, revealing little dingy muslin curtains behind the large +Bohemian glass panes, did not interest him either. His attention was +attracted to the third floor, to the modest sash-frames of wood, so +clumsily wrought that they might have found a place in the Museum of +Arts and Crafts to illustrate the early efforts of French carpentry. +These windows were glazed with small squares of glass so green that, but +for his good eyes, the young man could not have seen the blue-checked +cotton curtains which screened the mysteries of the room from profane +eyes. Now and then the watcher, weary of his fruitless contemplation, +or of the silence in which the house was buried, like the whole +neighborhood, dropped his eyes towards the lower regions. An involuntary +smile parted his lips each time he looked at the shop, where, in fact, +there were some laughable details. + +A formidable wooden beam, resting on four pillars, which appeared to +have bent under the weight of the decrepit house, had been encrusted +with as many coats of different paint as there are of rouge on an old +duchess' cheek. In the middle of this broad and fantastically carved +joist there was an old painting representing a cat playing rackets. This +picture was what moved the young man to mirth. But it must be said +that the wittiest of modern painters could not invent so comical a +caricature. The animal held in one of its forepaws a racket as big as +itself, and stood on its hind legs to aim at hitting an enormous ball, +returned by a man in a fine embroidered coat. Drawing, color, and +accessories, all were treated in such a way as to suggest that the +artist had meant to make game of the shop-owner and of the passing +observer. Time, while impairing this artless painting, had made it yet +more grotesque by introducing some uncertain features which must have +puzzled the conscientious idler. For instance, the cat's tail had been +eaten into in such a way that it might now have been taken for the +figure of a spectator--so long, and thick, and furry were the tails of +our forefathers' cats. To the right of the picture, on an azure field +which ill-disguised the decay of the wood, might be read the name +"Guillaume," and to the left, "Successor to Master Chevrel." Sun and +rain had worn away most of the gilding parsimoniously applied to the +letters of this superscription, in which the Us and Vs had changed +places in obedience to the laws of old-world orthography. + +To quench the pride of those who believe that the world is growing +cleverer day by day, and that modern humbug surpasses everything, it may +be observed that these signs, of which the origin seems so whimsical to +many Paris merchants, are the dead pictures of once living pictures +by which our roguish ancestors contrived to tempt customers into their +houses. Thus the Spinning Sow, the Green Monkey, and others, were +animals in cages whose skills astonished the passer-by, and whose +accomplishments prove the patience of the fifteenth-century artisan. +Such curiosities did more to enrich their fortunate owners than the +signs of "Providence," "Good-faith," "Grace of God," and "Decapitation +of John the Baptist," which may still be seen in the Rue Saint-Denis. + +However, our stranger was certainly not standing there to admire the +cat, which a minute's attention sufficed to stamp on his memory. The +young man himself had his peculiarities. His cloak, folded after the +manner of an antique drapery, showed a smart pair of shoes, all the more +remarkable in the midst of the Paris mud, because he wore white silk +stockings, on which the splashes betrayed his impatience. He had just +come, no doubt, from a wedding or a ball; for at this early hour he had +in his hand a pair of white gloves, and his black hair, now out of curl, +and flowing over his shoulders, showed that it had been dressed _a la +Caracalla_, a fashion introduced as much by David's school of painting +as by the mania for Greek and Roman styles which characterized the early +years of this century. + +In spite of the noise made by a few market gardeners, who, being late, +rattled past towards the great market-place at a gallop, the busy street +lay in a stillness of which the magic charm is known only to those who +have wandered through deserted Paris at the hours when its roar, hushed +for a moment, rises and spreads in the distance like the great voice +of the sea. This strange young man must have seemed as curious to the +shopkeeping folk of the "Cat and Racket" as the "Cat and Racket" was +to him. A dazzlingly white cravat made his anxious face look even paler +than it really was. The fire that flashed in his black eyes, gloomy +and sparkling by turns, was in harmony with the singular outline of +his features, with his wide, flexible mouth, hardened into a smile. His +forehead, knit with violent annoyance, had a stamp of doom. Is not the +forehead the most prophetic feature of a man? When the stranger's +brow expressed passion the furrows formed in it were terrible in their +strength and energy; but when he recovered his calmness, so easily +upset, it beamed with a luminous grace which gave great attractiveness +to a countenance in which joy, grief, love, anger, or scorn blazed out +so contagiously that the coldest man could not fail to be impressed. + +He was so thoroughly vexed by the time when the dormer-window of the +loft was suddenly flung open, that he did not observe the apparition of +three laughing faces, pink and white and chubby, but as vulgar as the +face of Commerce as it is seen in sculpture on certain monuments. These +three faces, framed by the window, recalled the puffy cherubs floating +among the clouds that surround God the Father. The apprentices snuffed +up the exhalations of the street with an eagerness that showed how hot +and poisonous the atmosphere of their garret must be. After pointing to +the singular sentinel, the most jovial, as he seemed, of the apprentices +retired and came back holding an instrument whose hard metal pipe is now +superseded by a leather tube; and they all grinned with mischief as they +looked down on the loiterer, and sprinkled him with a fine white +shower of which the scent proved that three chins had just been shaved. +Standing on tiptoe, in the farthest corner of their loft, to enjoy +their victim's rage, the lads ceased laughing on seeing the haughty +indifference with which the young man shook his cloak, and the +intense contempt expressed by his face as he glanced up at the empty +window-frame. + +At this moment a slender white hand threw up the lower half of one of +the clumsy windows on the third floor by the aid of the sash runners, +of which the pulley so often suddenly gives way and releases the heavy +panes it ought to hold up. The watcher was then rewarded for his long +waiting. The face of a young girl appeared, as fresh as one of the +white cups that bloom on the bosom of the waters, crowned by a frill +of tumbled muslin, which gave her head a look of exquisite innocence. +Though wrapped in brown stuff, her neck and shoulders gleamed here +and there through little openings left by her movements in sleep. No +expression of embarrassment detracted from the candor of her face, or +the calm look of eyes immortalized long since in the sublime works of +Raphael; here were the same grace, the same repose as in those Virgins, +and now proverbial. There was a delightful contrast between the cheeks +of that face on which sleep had, as it were, given high relief to a +superabundance of life, and the antiquity of the heavy window with its +clumsy shape and black sill. Like those day-blowing flowers, which +in the early morning have not yet unfurled their cups, twisted by the +chills of night, the girl, as yet hardly awake, let her blue eyes wander +beyond the neighboring roofs to look at the sky; then, from habit, +she cast them down on the gloomy depths of the street, where they +immediately met those of her adorer. Vanity, no doubt, distressed her at +being seen in undress; she started back, the worn pulley gave way, and +the sash fell with the rapid run, which in our day has earned for this +artless invention of our forefathers an odious name, _Fenetre a la +Guillotine_. The vision had disappeared. To the young man the most +radiant star of morning seemed to be hidden by a cloud. + +During these little incidents the heavy inside shutters that protected +the slight windows of the shop of the "Cat and Racket" had been removed +as if by magic. The old door with its knocker was opened back against +the wall of the entry by a man-servant, apparently coeval with the sign, +who, with a shaking hand, hung upon it a square of cloth, on which were +embroidered in yellow silk the words: "Guillaume, successor to Chevrel." +Many a passer-by would have found it difficult to guess the class of +trade carried on by Monsieur Guillaume. Between the strong iron bars +which protected his shop windows on the outside, certain packages, +wrapped in brown linen, were hardly visible, though as numerous as +herrings swimming in a shoal. Notwithstanding the primitive aspect of +the Gothic front, Monsieur Guillaume, of all the merchant clothiers in +Paris, was the one whose stores were always the best provided, whose +connections were the most extensive, and whose commercial honesty never +lay under the slightest suspicion. If some of his brethren in business +made a contract with the Government, and had not the required quantity +of cloth, he was always ready to deliver it, however large the number of +pieces tendered for. The wily dealer knew a thousand ways of extracting +the largest profits without being obliged, like them, to court +patrons, cringing to them, or making them costly presents. When his +fellow-tradesmen could only pay in good bills of long date, he would +mention his notary as an accommodating man, and managed to get a second +profit out of the bargain, thanks to this arrangement, which had made it +a proverb among the traders of the Rue Saint-Denis: "Heaven preserve you +from Monsieur Guillaume's notary!" to signify a heavy discount. + +The old merchant was to be seen standing on the threshold of his shop, +as if by a miracle, the instant the servant withdrew. Monsieur Guillaume +looked at the Rue Saint-Denis, at the neighboring shops, and at the +weather, like a man disembarking at Havre, and seeing France once more +after a long voyage. Having convinced himself that nothing had changed +while he was asleep, he presently perceived the stranger on guard, and +he, on his part, gazed at the patriarchal draper as Humboldt may have +scrutinized the first electric eel he saw in America. Monsieur Guillaume +wore loose black velvet breeches, pepper-and-salt stockings, and square +toed shoes with silver buckles. His coat, with square-cut fronts, +square-cut tails, and square-cut collar clothed his slightly bent figure +in greenish cloth, finished with white metal buttons, tawny from wear. +His gray hair was so accurately combed and flattened over his yellow +pate that it made it look like a furrowed field. His little green eyes, +that might have been pierced with a gimlet, flashed beneath arches +faintly tinged with red in the place of eyebrows. Anxieties had wrinkled +his forehead with as many horizontal lines as there were creases in his +coat. This colorless face expressed patience, commercial shrewdness, +and the sort of wily cupidity which is needful in business. At that +time these old families were less rare than they are now, in which the +characteristic habits and costume of their calling, surviving in +the midst of more recent civilization, were preserved as cherished +traditions, like the antediluvian remains found by Cuvier in the +quarries. + +The head of the Guillaume family was a notable upholder of ancient +practices; he might be heard to regret the Provost of Merchants, and +never did he mention a decision of the Tribunal of Commerce without +calling it the _Sentence of the Consuls_. Up and dressed the first of +the household, in obedience, no doubt, to these old customs, he stood +sternly awaiting the appearance of his three assistants, ready to scold +them in case they were late. These young disciples of Mercury knew +nothing more terrible than the wordless assiduity with which the master +scrutinized their faces and their movements on Monday in search of +evidence or traces of their pranks. But at this moment the old clothier +paid no heed to his apprentices; he was absorbed in trying to divine the +motive of the anxious looks which the young man in silk stockings and a +cloak cast alternately at his signboard and into the depths of his shop. +The daylight was now brighter, and enabled the stranger to discern the +cashier's corner enclosed by a railing and screened by old green silk +curtains, where were kept the immense ledgers, the silent oracles of the +house. The too inquisitive gazer seemed to covet this little nook, +and to be taking the plan of a dining-room at one side, lighted by +a skylight, whence the family at meals could easily see the smallest +incident that might occur at the shop-door. So much affection for his +dwelling seemed suspicious to a trader who had lived long enough to +remember the law of maximum prices; Monsieur Guillaume naturally thought +that this sinister personage had an eye to the till of the Cat and +Racket. After quietly observing the mute duel which was going on between +his master and the stranger, the eldest of the apprentices, having seen +that the young man was stealthily watching the windows of the third +floor, ventured to place himself on the stone flag where Monsieur +Guillaume was standing. He took two steps out into the street, raised +his head, and fancied that he caught sight of Mademoiselle Augustine +Guillaume in hasty retreat. The draper, annoyed by his assistant's +perspicacity, shot a side glance at him; but the draper and his amorous +apprentice were suddenly relieved from the fears which the young man's +presence had excited in their minds. He hailed a hackney cab on its +way to a neighboring stand, and jumped into it with an air of affected +indifference. This departure was a balm to the hearts of the other two +lads, who had been somewhat uneasy as to meeting the victim of their +practical joke. + +"Well, gentlemen, what ails you that you are standing there with your +arms folded?" said Monsieur Guillaume to his three neophytes. "In former +days, bless you, when I was in Master Chevrel's service, I should have +overhauled more than two pieces of cloth by this time." + +"Then it was daylight earlier," said the second assistant, whose duty +this was. + +The old shopkeeper could not help smiling. Though two of these +young fellows, who were confided to his care by their fathers, rich +manufacturers at Louviers and at Sedan, had only to ask and to have a +hundred thousand francs the day when they were old enough to settle in +life, Guillaume regarded it as his duty to keep them under the rod of an +old-world despotism, unknown nowadays in the showy modern shops, where +the apprentices expect to be rich men at thirty. He made them work like +Negroes. These three assistants were equal to a business which would +harry ten such clerks as those whose sybaritical tastes now swell the +columns of the budget. Not a sound disturbed the peace of this solemn +house, where the hinges were always oiled, and where the meanest article +of furniture showed the respectable cleanliness which reveals strict +order and economy. The most waggish of the three youths often amused +himself by writing the date of its first appearance on the Gruyere +cheese which was left to their tender mercies at breakfast, and which it +was their pleasure to leave untouched. This bit of mischief, and a few +others of the same stamp, would sometimes bring a smile on the face of +the younger of Guillaume's daughters, the pretty maiden who has just now +appeared to the bewitched man in the street. + +Though each of these apprentices, even the eldest, paid a round sum for +his board, not one of them would have been bold enough to remain at the +master's table when dessert was served. When Madame Guillaume talked of +dressing the salad, the hapless youths trembled as they thought of the +thrift with which her prudent hand dispensed the oil. They could never +think of spending a night away from the house without having given, long +before, a plausible reason for such an irregularity. Every Sunday, each +in his turn, two of them accompanied the Guillaume family to Mass at +Saint-Leu, and to vespers. Mesdemoiselles Virginie and Augustine, simply +attired in cotton print, each took the arm of an apprentice and walked +in front, under the piercing eye of their mother, who closed the little +family procession with her husband, accustomed by her to carry two large +prayer-books, bound in black morocco. The second apprentice received +no salary. As for the eldest, whose twelve years of perseverance and +discretion had initiated him into the secrets of the house, he was paid +eight hundred francs a year as the reward of his labors. On certain +family festivals he received as a gratuity some little gift, to which +Madame Guillaume's dry and wrinkled hand alone gave value--netted +purses, which she took care to stuff with cotton wool, to show off the +fancy stitches, braces of the strongest make, or heavy silk stockings. +Sometimes, but rarely, this prime minister was admitted to share the +pleasures of the family when they went into the country, or when, after +waiting for months, they made up their mind to exert the right acquired +by taking a box at the theatre to command a piece which Paris had +already forgotten. + +As to the other assistants, the barrier of respect which formerly +divided a master draper from his apprentices was that they would +have been more likely to steal a piece of cloth than to infringe this +time-honored etiquette. Such reserve may now appear ridiculous; but +these old houses were a school of honesty and sound morals. The masters +adopted their apprentices. The young man's linen was cared for, mended, +and often replaced by the mistress of the house. If an apprentice fell +ill, he was the object of truly maternal attention. In a case of +danger the master lavished his money in calling in the most celebrated +physicians, for he was not answerable to their parents merely for the +good conduct and training of the lads. If one of them, whose character +was unimpeachable, suffered misfortune, these old tradesmen knew how to +value the intelligence he had displayed, and they did not hesitate +to entrust the happiness of their daughters to men whom they had long +trusted with their fortunes. Guillaume was one of these men of the +old school, and if he had their ridiculous side, he had all their good +qualities; and Joseph Lebas, the chief assistant, an orphan without any +fortune, was in his mind destined to be the husband of Virginie, his +elder daughter. But Joseph did not share the symmetrical ideas of his +master, who would not for an empire have given his second daughter in +marriage before the elder. The unhappy assistant felt that his heart was +wholly given to Mademoiselle Augustine, the younger. In order to justify +this passion, which had grown up in secret, it is necessary to inquire +a little further into the springs of the absolute government which ruled +the old cloth-merchant's household. + +Guillaume had two daughters. The elder, Mademoiselle Virginie, was +the very image of her mother. Madame Guillaume, daughter of the Sieur +Chevrel, sat so upright in the stool behind her desk, that more than +once she had heard some wag bet that she was a stuffed figure. Her +long, thin face betrayed exaggerated piety. Devoid of attractions or of +amiable manners, Madame Guillaume commonly decorated her head--that of +a woman near on sixty--with a cap of a particular and unvarying shape, +with long lappets, like that of a widow. In all the neighborhood she was +known as the "portress nun." Her speech was curt, and her movements had +the stiff precision of a semaphore. Her eye, with a gleam in it like a +cat's, seemed to spite the world because she was so ugly. Mademoiselle +Virginie, brought up, like her younger sister, under the domestic rule +of her mother, had reached the age of eight-and-twenty. Youth mitigated +the graceless effect which her likeness to her mother sometimes gave +to her features, but maternal austerity had endowed her with two great +qualities which made up for everything. She was patient and gentle. +Mademoiselle Augustine, who was but just eighteen, was not like either +her father or her mother. She was one of those daughters whose total +absence of any physical affinity with their parents makes one believe in +the adage: "God gives children." Augustine was little, or, to describe +her more truly, delicately made. Full of gracious candor, a man of the +world could have found no fault in the charming girl beyond a certain +meanness of gesture or vulgarity of attitude, and sometimes a want of +ease. Her silent and placid face was full of the transient melancholy +which comes over all young girls who are too weak to dare to resist +their mother's will. + +The two sisters, always plainly dressed, could not gratify the innate +vanity of womanhood but by a luxury of cleanliness which became them +wonderfully, and made them harmonize with the polished counters and +the shining shelves, on which the old man-servant never left a speck of +dust, and with the old-world simplicity of all they saw about them. As +their style of living compelled them to find the elements of happiness +in persistent work, Augustine and Virginie had hitherto always satisfied +their mother, who secretly prided herself on the perfect characters of +her two daughters. It is easy to imagine the results of the training +they had received. Brought up to a commercial life, accustomed to +hear nothing but dreary arguments and calculations about trade, having +studied nothing but grammar, book-keeping, a little Bible-history, and +the history of France in Le Ragois, and never reading any book but what +their mother would sanction, their ideas had not acquired much scope. +They knew perfectly how to keep house; they were familiar with the +prices of things; they understood the difficulty of amassing money; they +were economical, and had a great respect for the qualities that make a +man of business. Although their father was rich, they were as skilled +in darning as in embroidery; their mother often talked of having them +taught to cook, so that they might know how to order a dinner and scold +a cook with due knowledge. They knew nothing of the pleasures of the +world; and, seeing how their parents spent their exemplary lives, they +very rarely suffered their eyes to wander beyond the walls of their +hereditary home, which to their mother was the whole universe. The +meetings to which family anniversaries gave rise filled in the future of +earthly joy to them. + +When the great drawing-room on the second floor was to be prepared to +receive company--Madame Roguin, a Demoiselle Chevrel, fifteen months +younger than her cousin, and bedecked with diamonds; young Rabourdin, +employed in the Finance Office; Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, the rich +perfumer, and his wife, known as Madame Cesar; Monsieur Camusot, the +richest silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, with his father-in-law, +Monsieur Cardot, two or three old bankers, and some immaculate +ladies--the arrangements, made necessary by the way in which everything +was packed away--the plate, the Dresden china, the candlesticks, and the +glass--made a variety in the monotonous lives of the three women, who +came and went and exerted themselves as nuns would to receive their +bishop. Then, in the evening, when all three were tired out with having +wiped, rubbed, unpacked, and arranged all the gauds of the festival, as +the girls helped their mother to undress, Madame Guillaume would say to +them, "Children, we have done nothing today." + +When, on very great occasions, "the portress nun" allowed dancing, +restricting the games of boston, whist, and backgammon within the limits +of her bedroom, such a concession was accounted as the most unhoped +felicity, and made them happier than going to the great balls, to two +or three of which Guillaume would take the girls at the time of the +Carnival. + +And once a year the worthy draper gave an entertainment, when he spared +no expense. However rich and fashionable the persons invited might be, +they were careful not to be absent; for the most important houses on +the exchange had recourse to the immense credit, the fortune, or the +time-honored experience of Monsieur Guillaume. Still, the excellent +merchant's daughters did not benefit as much as might be supposed by the +lessons the world has to offer to young spirits. At these parties, which +were indeed set down in the ledger to the credit of the house, they wore +dresses the shabbiness of which made them blush. Their style of dancing +was not in any way remarkable, and their mother's surveillance did not +allow of their holding any conversation with their partners beyond Yes +and No. Also, the law of the old sign of the Cat and Racket commanded +that they should be home by eleven o'clock, the hour when balls and +fetes begin to be lively. Thus their pleasures, which seemed to conform +very fairly to their father's position, were often made insipid by +circumstances which were part of the family habits and principles. + +As to their usual life, one remark will sufficiently paint it. Madame +Guillaume required her daughters to be dressed very early in the +morning, to come down every day at the same hour, and she ordered their +employments with monastic regularity. Augustine, however, had been +gifted by chance with a spirit lofty enough to feel the emptiness of +such a life. Her blue eyes would sometimes be raised as if to pierce +the depths of that gloomy staircase and those damp store-rooms. After +sounding the profound cloistral silence, she seemed to be listening to +remote, inarticulate revelations of the life of passion, which accounts +feelings as of higher value than things. And at such moments her cheek +would flush, her idle hands would lay the muslin sewing on the polished +oak counter, and presently her mother would say in a voice, of which +even the softest tones were sour, "Augustine, my treasure, what are +you thinking about?" It is possible that two romances discovered +by Augustine in the cupboard of a cook Madame Guillaume had +lately discharged--_Hippolyte Comte de Douglas_ and _Le Comte de +Comminges_--may have contributed to develop the ideas of the young girl, +who had devoured them in secret, during the long nights of the past +winter. + +And so Augustine's expression of vague longing, her gentle voice, her +jasmine skin, and her blue eyes had lighted in poor Lebas' soul a +flame as ardent as it was reverent. From an easily understood caprice, +Augustine felt no affection for the orphan; perhaps she did not know +that he loved her. On the other hand, the senior apprentice, with his +long legs, his chestnut hair, his big hands and powerful frame, had +found a secret admirer in Mademoiselle Virginie, who, in spite of her +dower of fifty thousand crowns, had as yet no suitor. Nothing could +be more natural than these two passions at cross-purposes, born in the +silence of the dingy shop, as violets bloom in the depths of a wood. The +mute and constant looks which made the young people's eyes meet by sheer +need of change in the midst of persistent work and cloistered peace, was +sure, sooner or later, to give rise to feelings of love. The habit of +seeing always the same face leads insensibly to our reading there the +qualities of the soul, and at last effaces all its defects. + +"At the pace at which that man goes, our girls will soon have to go on +their knees to a suitor!" said Monsieur Guillaume to himself, as he +read the first decree by which Napoleon drew in advance on the conscript +classes. + +From that day the old merchant, grieved at seeing his eldest daughter +fade, remembered how he had married Mademoiselle Chevrel under much the +same circumstances as those of Joseph Lebas and Virginie. A good bit +of business, to marry off his daughter, and discharge a sacred debt +by repaying to an orphan the benefit he had formerly received from +his predecessor under similar conditions! Joseph Lebas, who was now +three-and-thirty, was aware of the obstacle which a difference of +fifteen years placed between Augustine and himself. Being also too +clear-sighted not to understand Monsieur Guillaume's purpose, he knew +his inexorable principles well enough to feel sure that the second would +never marry before the elder. So the hapless assistant, whose heart was +as warm as his legs were long and his chest deep, suffered in silence. + +This was the state of the affairs in the tiny republic which, in the +heart of the Rue Saint-Denis, was not unlike a dependency of La Trappe. +But to give a full account of events as well as of feelings, it is +needful to go back to some months before the scene with which this story +opens. At dusk one evening, a young man passing the darkened shop of the +Cat and Racket, had paused for a moment to gaze at a picture which might +have arrested every painter in the world. The shop was not yet lighted, +and was as a dark cave beyond which the dining-room was visible. A +hanging lamp shed the yellow light which lends such charm to pictures +of the Dutch school. The white linen, the silver, the cut glass, were +brilliant accessories, and made more picturesque by strong contrasts of +light and shade. The figures of the head of the family and his wife, the +faces of the apprentices, and the pure form of Augustine, near whom a +fat chubby-cheeked maid was standing, composed so strange a group; the +heads were so singular, and every face had so candid an expression; it +was so easy to read the peace, the silence, the modest way of life in +this family, that to an artist accustomed to render nature, there was +something hopeless in any attempt to depict this scene, come upon by +chance. The stranger was a young painter, who, seven years before, had +gained the first prize for painting. He had now just come back from +Rome. His soul, full-fed with poetry; his eyes, satiated with Raphael +and Michael Angelo, thirsted for real nature after long dwelling in the +pompous land where art has everywhere left something grandiose. Right or +wrong, this was his personal feeling. His heart, which had long been +a prey to the fire of Italian passion, craved one of those modest +and meditative maidens whom in Rome he had unfortunately seen only +in painting. From the enthusiasm produced in his excited fancy by the +living picture before him, he naturally passed to a profound admiration +for the principal figure; Augustine seemed to be pensive, and did not +eat; by the arrangement of the lamp the light fell full on her face, and +her bust seemed to move in a circle of fire, which threw up the shape of +her head and illuminated it with almost supernatural effect. The artist +involuntarily compared her to an exiled angel dreaming of heaven. An +almost unknown emotion, a limpid, seething love flooded his heart. After +remaining a minute, overwhelmed by the weight of his ideas, he tore +himself from his bliss, went home, ate nothing, and could not sleep. + +The next day he went to his studio, and did not come out of it till he +had placed on canvas the magic of the scene of which the memory had, in +a sense, made him a devotee; his happiness was incomplete till he should +possess a faithful portrait of his idol. He went many times past the +house of the Cat and Racket; he even ventured in once or twice, under +a disguise, to get a closer view of the bewitching creature that Madame +Guillaume covered with her wing. For eight whole months, devoted to his +love and to his brush, he was lost to the sight of his most intimate +friends forgetting the world, the theatre, poetry, music, and all his +dearest habits. One morning Girodet broke through all the barriers with +which artists are familiar, and which they know how to evade, went into +his room, and woke him by asking, "What are you going to send to the +Salon?" The artist grasped his friend's hand, dragged him off to the +studio, uncovered a small easel picture and a portrait. After a long +and eager study of the two masterpieces, Girodet threw himself on his +comrade's neck and hugged him, without speaking a word. His feelings +could only be expressed as he felt them--soul to soul. + +"You are in love?" said Girodet. + +They both knew that the finest portraits by Titian, Raphael, and +Leonardo da Vinci, were the outcome of the enthusiastic sentiments +by which, indeed, under various conditions, every masterpiece is +engendered. The artist only bent his head in reply. + +"How happy are you to be able to be in love, here, after coming back +from Italy! But I do not advise you to send such works as these to the +Salon," the great painter went on. "You see, these two works will not +be appreciated. Such true coloring, such prodigious work, cannot yet be +understood; the public is not accustomed to such depths. The pictures +we paint, my dear fellow, are mere screens. We should do better to +turn rhymes, and translate the antique poets! There is more glory to be +looked for there than from our luckless canvases!" + +Notwithstanding this charitable advice, the two pictures were exhibited. +The _Interior_ made a revolution in painting. It gave birth to the +pictures of genre which pour into all our exhibitions in such prodigious +quantity that they might be supposed to be produced by machinery. As +to the portrait, few artists have forgotten that lifelike work; and the +public, which as a body is sometimes discerning, awarded it the crown +which Girodet himself had hung over it. The two pictures were surrounded +by a vast throng. They fought for places, as women say. Speculators and +moneyed men would have covered the canvas with double napoleons, but the +artist obstinately refused to sell or to make replicas. An enormous sum +was offered him for the right of engraving them, and the print-sellers +were not more favored than the amateurs. + +Though these incidents occupied the world, they were not of a nature to +penetrate the recesses of the monastic solitude in the Rue Saint-Denis. +However, when paying a visit to Madame Guillaume, the notary's wife +spoke of the exhibition before Augustine, of whom she was very fond, +and explained its purpose. Madame Roguin's gossip naturally inspired +Augustine with a wish to see the pictures, and with courage enough to +ask her cousin secretly to take her to the Louvre. Her cousin succeeded +in the negotiations she opened with Madame Guillaume for permission to +release the young girl for two hours from her dull labors. Augustine was +thus able to make her way through the crowd to see the crowned work. A +fit of trembling shook her like an aspen leaf as she recognized herself. +She was terrified, and looked about her to find Madame Roguin, from +whom she had been separated by a tide of people. At that moment her +frightened eyes fell on the impassioned face of the young painter. She +at once recalled the figure of a loiterer whom, being curious, she had +frequently observed, believing him to be a new neighbor. + +"You see how love has inspired me," said the artist in the timid +creature's ear, and she stood in dismay at the words. + +She found supernatural courage to enable her to push through the crowd +and join her cousin, who was still struggling with the mass of people +that hindered her from getting to the picture. + +"You will be stifled!" cried Augustine. "Let us go." + +But there are moments, at the Salon, when two women are not always free +to direct their steps through the galleries. By the irregular course to +which they were compelled by the press, Mademoiselle Guillaume and her +cousin were pushed to within a few steps of the second picture. Chance +thus brought them, both together, to where they could easily see the +canvas made famous by fashion, for once in agreement with talent. Madame +Roguin's exclamation of surprise was lost in the hubbub and buzz of the +crowd; Augustine involuntarily shed tears at the sight of this wonderful +study. Then, by an almost unaccountable impulse, she laid her finger on +her lips, as she perceived quite near her the ecstatic face of the young +painter. The stranger replied by a nod, and pointed to Madame Roguin, as +a spoil-sport, to show Augustine that he had understood. This pantomime +struck the young girl like hot coals on her flesh; she felt quite +guilty as she perceived that there was a compact between herself and the +artist. The suffocating heat, the dazzling sight of beautiful dresses, +the bewilderment produced in Augustine's brain by the truth of coloring, +the multitude of living or painted figures, the profusion of gilt +frames, gave her a sense of intoxication which doubled her alarms. She +would perhaps have fainted if an unknown rapture had not surged up +in her heart to vivify her whole being, in spite of this chaos of +sensations. She nevertheless believed herself to be under the power +of the Devil, of whose awful snares she had been warned of by the +thundering words of preachers. This moment was to her like a moment of +madness. She found herself accompanied to her cousin's carriage by the +young man, radiant with joy and love. Augustine, a prey to an agitation +new to her experience, an intoxication which seemed to abandon her to +nature, listened to the eloquent voice of her heart, and looked again +and again at the young painter, betraying the emotion that came over +her. Never had the bright rose of her cheeks shown in stronger contrast +with the whiteness of her skin. The artist saw her beauty in all its +bloom, her maiden modesty in all its glory. She herself felt a sort of +rapture mingled with terror at thinking that her presence had brought +happiness to him whose name was on every lip, and whose talent lent +immortality to transient scenes. She was loved! It was impossible to +doubt it. When she no longer saw the artist, these simple words still +echoed in her ear, "You see how love has inspired me!" And the throbs of +her heart, as they grew deeper, seemed a pain, her heated blood revealed +so many unknown forces in her being. She affected a severe headache to +avoid replying to her cousin's questions concerning the pictures; but +on their return Madame Roguin could not forbear from speaking to Madame +Guillaume of the fame that had fallen on the house of the Cat and +Racket, and Augustine quaked in every limb as she heard her mother say +that she should go to the Salon to see her house there. The young girl +again declared herself suffering, and obtained leave to go to bed. + +"That is what comes of sight-seeing," exclaimed Monsieur Guillaume--"a +headache. And is it so very amusing to see in a picture what you can +see any day in your own street? Don't talk to me of your artists! Like +writers, they are a starveling crew. Why the devil need they choose my +house to flout it in their pictures?" + +"It may help to sell a few ells more of cloth," said Joseph Lebas. + +This remark did not protect art and thought from being condemned once +again before the judgment-seat of trade. As may be supposed, these +speeches did not infuse much hope into Augustine, who, during the night, +gave herself up to the first meditations of love. The events of the day +were like a dream, which it was a joy to recall to her mind. She was +initiated into the fears, the hopes, the remorse, all the ebb and flow +of feeling which could not fail to toss a heart so simple and timid as +hers. What a void she perceived in this gloomy house! What a treasure +she found in her soul! To be the wife of a genius, to share his glory! +What ravages must such a vision make in the heart of a girl brought up +among such a family! What hopes must it raise in a young creature who, +in the midst of sordid elements, had pined for a life of elegance! A +sunbeam had fallen into the prison. Augustine was suddenly in love. So +many of her feelings were soothed that she succumbed without reflection. +At eighteen does not love hold a prism between the world and the eyes +of a young girl? She was incapable of suspecting the hard facts which +result from the union of a loving woman with a man of imagination, and +she believed herself called to make him happy, not seeing any disparity +between herself and him. To her the future would be as the present. +When, next day, her father and mother returned from the Salon, their +dejected faces proclaimed some disappointment. In the first place, the +painter had removed the two pictures; and then Madame Guillaume had lost +her cashmere shawl. But the news that the pictures had disappeared from +the walls since her visit revealed to Augustine a delicacy of sentiment +which a woman can always appreciate, even by instinct. + +On the morning when, on his way home from a ball, Theodore de +Sommervieux--for this was the name which fame had stamped on Augustine's +heart--had been squirted on by the apprentices while awaiting the +appearance of his artless little friend, who certainly did not know that +he was there, the lovers had seen each other for the fourth time only +since their meeting at the Salon. The difficulties which the rule of +the house placed in the way of the painter's ardent nature gave added +violence to his passion for Augustine. + +How could he get near to a young girl seated in a counting-house between +two such women as Mademoiselle Virginie and Madame Guillaume? How could +he correspond with her when her mother never left her side? Ingenious, +as lovers are, to imagine woes, Theodore saw a rival in one of the +assistants, to whose interests he supposed the others to be devoted. If +he should evade these sons of Argus, he would yet be wrecked under the +stern eye of the old draper or of Madame Guillaume. The very vehemence +of his passion hindered the young painter from hitting on the ingenious +expedients which, in prisoners and in lovers, seem to be the last effort +of intelligence spurred by a wild craving for liberty, or by the fire of +love. Theodore wandered about the neighborhood with the restlessness of +a madman, as though movement might inspire him with some device. +After racking his imagination, it occurred to him to bribe the blowsy +waiting-maid with gold. Thus a few notes were exchanged at long +intervals during the fortnight following the ill-starred morning when +Monsieur Guillaume and Theodore had so scrutinized one another. At +the present moment the young couple had agreed to see each other at a +certain hour of the day, and on Sunday, at Saint-Leu, during Mass and +vespers. Augustine had sent her dear Theodore a list of the relations +and friends of the family, to whom the young painter tried to get +access, in the hope of interesting, if it were possible, in his love +affairs, one of these souls absorbed in money and trade, to whom a +genuine passion must appear a quite monstrous speculation, a thing +unheard-of. Nothing meanwhile, was altered at the sign of the Cat and +Racket. If Augustine was absent-minded, if, against all obedience to the +domestic code, she stole up to her room to make signals by means of +a jar of flowers, if she sighed, if she were lost in thought, no one +observed it, not even her mother. This will cause some surprise to those +who have entered into the spirit of the household, where an idea tainted +with poetry would be in startling contrast to persons and things, where +no one could venture on a gesture or a look which would not be seen and +analyzed. Nothing, however, could be more natural: the quiet barque that +navigated the stormy waters of the Paris Exchange, under the flag of +the Cat and Racket, was just now in the toils of one of these tempests +which, returning periodically, might be termed equinoctial. For the +last fortnight the five men forming the crew, with Madame Guillaume and +Mademoiselle Virginie, had been devoting themselves to the hard labor, +known as stock-taking. + +Every bale was turned over, and the length verified to ascertain the +exact value of the remnant. The ticket attached to each parcel was +carefully examined to see at what time the piece had been bought. The +retail price was fixed. Monsieur Guillaume, always on his feet, his pen +behind his ear, was like a captain commanding the working of the ship. +His sharp tones, spoken through a trap-door, to inquire into the +depths of the hold in the cellar-store, gave utterance to the barbarous +formulas of trade-jargon, which find expression only in cipher. "How +much H. N. Z.?"--"All sold."--"What is left of Q. X.?"--"Two ells."--"At +what price?"--"Fifty-five three."--"Set down A. at three, with all of +J. J., all of M. P., and what is left of V. D. O."--A hundred other +injunctions equally intelligible were spouted over the counters like +verses of modern poetry, quoted by romantic spirits, to excite each +other's enthusiasm for one of their poets. In the evening Guillaume, +shut up with his assistant and his wife, balanced his accounts, carried +on the balance, wrote to debtors in arrears, and made out bills. All +three were busy over this enormous labor, of which the result could be +stated on a sheet of foolscap, proving to the head of the house that +there was so much to the good in hard cash, so much in goods, so much +in bills and notes; that he did not owe a sou; that a hundred or two +hundred thousand francs were owing to him; that the capital had been +increased; that the farmlands, the houses, or the investments were +extended, or repaired, or doubled. Whence it became necessary to begin +again with increased ardor, to accumulate more crown-pieces, without its +ever entering the brain of these laborious ants to ask--"To what end?" + +Favored by this annual turmoil, the happy Augustine escaped the +investigations of her Argus-eyed relations. At last, one Saturday +evening, the stock-taking was finished. The figures of the sum-total +showed a row of 0's long enough to allow Guillaume for once to relax the +stern rule as to dessert which reigned throughout the year. The shrewd +old draper rubbed his hands, and allowed his assistants to remain at +table. The members of the crew had hardly swallowed their thimbleful +of some home-made liqueur, when the rumble of a carriage was heard. The +family party were going to see _Cendrillon_ at the Varietes, while +the two younger apprentices each received a crown of six francs, with +permission to go wherever they chose, provided they were in by midnight. + +Notwithstanding this debauch, the old cloth-merchant was shaving himself +at six next morning, put on his maroon-colored coat, of which the +glowing lights afforded him perennial enjoyment, fastened a pair of gold +buckles on the knee-straps of his ample satin breeches; and then, at +about seven o'clock, while all were still sleeping in the house, he +made his way to the little office adjoining the shop on the first floor. +Daylight came in through a window, fortified by iron bars, and looking +out on a small yard surrounded by such black walls that it was very like +a well. The old merchant opened the iron-lined shutters, which were so +familiar to him, and threw up the lower half of the sash window. The icy +air of the courtyard came in to cool the hot atmosphere of the little +room, full of the odor peculiar to offices. + +The merchant remained standing, his hand resting on the greasy arm of +a large cane chair lined with morocco, of which the original hue had +disappeared; he seemed to hesitate as to seating himself. He looked with +affection at the double desk, where his wife's seat, opposite his own, +was fitted into a little niche in the wall. He contemplated the +numbered boxes, the files, the implements, the cash box--objects all +of immemorial origin, and fancied himself in the room with the shade of +Master Chevrel. He even pulled out the high stool on which he had once +sat in the presence of his departed master. This stool, covered with +black leather, the horse-hair showing at every corner--as it had long +done, without, however, coming out--he placed with a shaking hand on the +very spot where his predecessor had put it, and then, with an emotion +difficult to describe, he pulled a bell, which rang at the head of +Joseph Lebas' bed. When this decisive blow had been struck, the old man, +for whom, no doubt, these reminiscences were too much, took up three or +four bills of exchange, and looked at them without seeing them. + +Suddenly Joseph Lebas stood before him. + +"Sit down there," said Guillaume, pointing to the stool. + +As the old master draper had never yet bid his assistant be seated in +his presence, Joseph Lebas was startled. + +"What do you think of these notes?" asked Guillaume. + +"They will never be paid." + +"Why?" + +"Well, I heard the day before yesterday Etienne and Co. had made their +payments in gold." + +"Oh, oh!" said the draper. "Well, one must be very ill to show one's +bile. Let us speak of something else.--Joseph, the stock-taking is +done." + +"Yes, monsieur, and the dividend is one of the best you have ever made." + +"Do not use new-fangled words. Say the profits, Joseph. Do you know, my +boy, that this result is partly owing to you? And I do not intend to pay +you a salary any longer. Madame Guillaume has suggested to me to take +you into partnership.--'Guillaume and Lebas;' will not that make a +good business name? We might add, 'and Co.' to round off the firm's +signature." + +Tears rose to the eyes of Joseph Lebas, who tried to hide them. + +"Oh, Monsieur Guillaume, how have I deserved such kindness? I only do my +duty. It was so much already that you should take an interest in a poor +orph----" + +He was brushing the cuff of his left sleeve with his right hand, and +dared not look at the old man, who smiled as he thought that this modest +young fellow no doubt needed, as he had needed once on a time, some +encouragement to complete his explanation. + +"To be sure," said Virginie's father, "you do not altogether deserve +this favor, Joseph. You have not so much confidence in me as I have in +you." (The young man looked up quickly.) "You know all the secrets +of the cash-box. For the last two years I have told you almost all +my concerns. I have sent you to travel in our goods. In short, I have +nothing on my conscience as regards you. But you--you have a soft place, +and you have never breathed a word of it." Joseph Lebas blushed. "Ah, +ha!" cried Guillaume, "so you thought you could deceive an old fox like +me? When you knew that I had scented the Lecocq bankruptcy?" + +"What, monsieur?" replied Joseph Lebas, looking at his master as keenly +as his master looked at him, "you knew that I was in love?" + +"I know everything, you rascal," said the worthy and cunning old +merchant, pulling the assistant's ear. "And I forgive you--I did the +same myself." + +"And you will give her to me?" + +"Yes--with fifty thousand crowns; and I will leave you as much by will, +and we will start on our new career under the name of a new firm. We +will do good business yet, my boy!" added the old man, getting up and +flourishing his arms. "I tell you, son-in-law, there is nothing like +trade. Those who ask what pleasure is to be found in it are simpletons. +To be on the scent of a good bargain, to hold your own on 'Change, to +watch as anxiously as at the gaming-table whether Etienne and Co. will +fail or no, to see a regiment of Guards march past all dressed in your +cloth, to trip your neighbor up--honestly of course!--to make the goods +cheaper than others can; then to carry out an undertaking which you +have planned, which begins, grows, totters, and succeeds! to know the +workings of every house of business as well as a minister of police, so +as never to make a mistake; to hold up your head in the midst of wrecks, +to have friends by correspondence in every manufacturing town; is not +that a perpetual game, Joseph? That is life, that is! I shall die in +that harness, like old Chevrel, but taking it easy now, all the same." + +In the heat of his eager rhetoric, old Guillaume had scarcely looked +at his assistant, who was weeping copiously. "Why, Joseph, my poor boy, +what is the matter?" + +"Oh, I love her so! Monsieur Guillaume, that my heart fails me; I +believe----" + +"Well, well, boy," said the old man, touched, "you are happier than you +know, by God! For she loves you. I know it." + +And he blinked his little green eyes as he looked at the young man. + +"Mademoiselle Augustine! Mademoiselle Augustine!" exclaimed Joseph Lebas +in his rapture. + +He was about to rush out of the room when he felt himself clutched by a +hand of iron, and his astonished master spun him round in front of him +once more. + +"What has Augustine to do with this matter?" he asked, in a voice which +instantly froze the luckless Joseph. + +"Is it not she that--that--I love?" stammered the assistant. + +Much put out by his own want of perspicacity, Guillaume sat down +again, and rested his long head in his hands to consider the perplexing +situation in which he found himself. Joseph Lebas, shamefaced and in +despair, remained standing. + +"Joseph," the draper said with frigid dignity, "I was speaking of +Virginie. Love cannot be made to order, I know. I know, too, that you +can be trusted. We will forget all this. I will not let Augustine marry +before Virginie.--Your interest will be ten per cent." + +The young man, to whom love gave I know not what power of courage and +eloquence, clasped his hand, and spoke in his turn--spoke for a quarter +of an hour, with so much warmth and feeling, that he altered the +situation. If the question had been a matter of business the old +tradesman would have had fixed principles to guide his decision; but, +tossed a thousand miles from commerce, on the ocean of sentiment, +without a compass, he floated, as he told himself, undecided in the face +of such an unexpected event. Carried away by his fatherly kindness, he +began to beat about the bush. + +"Deuce take it, Joseph, you must know that there are ten years between +my two children. Mademoiselle Chevrel was no beauty, still she has had +nothing to complain of in me. Do as I did. Come, come, don't cry. Can +you be so silly? What is to be done? It can be managed perhaps. There +is always some way out of a scrape. And we men are not always devoted +Celadons to our wives--you understand? Madame Guillaume is very pious. +... Come. By Gad, boy, give your arm to Augustine this morning as we go +to Mass." + +These were the phrases spoken at random by the old draper, and their +conclusion made the lover happy. He was already thinking of a friend of +his as a match for Mademoiselle Virginie, as he went out of the smoky +office, pressing his future father-in-law's hand, after saying with a +knowing look that all would turn out for the best. + +"What will Madame Guillaume say to it?" was the idea that greatly +troubled the worthy merchant when he found himself alone. + +At breakfast Madame Guillaume and Virginie, to whom the draper had not +yet confided his disappointment, cast meaning glances at Joseph Lebas, +who was extremely embarrassed. The young assistant's bashfulness +commended him to his mother-in-law's good graces. The matron became +so cheerful that she smiled as she looked at her husband, and allowed +herself some little pleasantries of time-honored acceptance in such +simple families. She wondered whether Joseph or Virginie were the +taller, to ask them to compare their height. This preliminary fooling +brought a cloud to the master's brow, and he even made such a point of +decorum that he desired Augustine to take the assistant's arm on their +way to Saint-Leu. Madame Guillaume, surprised at this manly delicacy, +honored her husband with a nod of approval. So the procession left +the house in such order as to suggest no suspicious meaning to the +neighbors. + +"Does it not seem to you, Mademoiselle Augustine," said the assistant, +and he trembled, "that the wife of a merchant whose credit is as good +as Monsieur Guillaume's, for instance, might enjoy herself a little more +than Madame your mother does? Might wear diamonds--or keep a carriage? +For my part, if I were to marry, I should be glad to take all the work, +and see my wife happy. I would not put her into the counting-house. +In the drapery business, you see, a woman is not so necessary now as +formerly. Monsieur Guillaume was quite right to act as he did--and +besides, his wife liked it. But so long as a woman knows how to turn her +hand to the book-keeping, the correspondence, the retail business, the +orders, and her housekeeping, so as not to sit idle, that is enough. At +seven o'clock, when the shop is shut, I shall take my pleasures, go to +the play, and into company.--But you are not listening to me." + +"Yes, indeed, Monsieur Joseph. What do you think of painting? That is a +fine calling." + +"Yes. I know a master house-painter, Monsieur Lourdois. He is +well-to-do." + +Thus conversing, the family reached the Church of Saint-Leu. There +Madame Guillaume reasserted her rights, and, for the first time, placed +Augustine next herself, Virginie taking her place on the fourth chair, +next to Lebas. During the sermon all went well between Augustine and +Theodore, who, standing behind a pillar, worshiped his Madonna with +fervent devotion; but at the elevation of the Host, Madame Guillaume +discovered, rather late, that her daughter Augustine was holding her +prayer-book upside down. She was about to speak to her strongly, when, +lowering her veil, she interrupted her own devotions to look in the +direction where her daughter's eyes found attraction. By the help of her +spectacles she saw the young artist, whose fashionable elegance seemed +to proclaim him a cavalry officer on leave rather than a tradesman of +the neighborhood. It is difficult to conceive of the state of violent +agitation in which Madame Guillaume found herself--she, who flattered +herself on having brought up her daughters to perfection--on discovering +in Augustine a clandestine passion of which her prudery and ignorance +exaggerated the perils. She believed her daughter to be cankered to the +core. + +"Hold your book right way up, miss," she muttered in a low voice, +tremulous with wrath. She snatched away the tell-tale prayer-book and +returned it with the letter-press right way up. "Do not allow your +eyes to look anywhere but at your prayers," she added, "or I shall +have something to say to you. Your father and I will talk to you after +church." + +These words came like a thunderbolt on poor Augustine. She felt faint; +but, torn between the distress she felt and the dread of causing a +commotion in church she bravely concealed her anguish. It was, however, +easy to discern the stormy state of her soul from the trembling of her +prayer-book, and the tears which dropped on every page she turned. From +the furious glare shot at him by Madame Guillaume the artist saw the +peril into which his love affair had fallen; he went out, with a raging +soul, determined to venture all. + +"Go to your room, miss!" said Madame Guillaume, on their return home; +"we will send for you, but take care not to quit it." + +The conference between the husband and wife was conducted so secretly +that at first nothing was heard of it. Virginie, however, who had tried +to give her sister courage by a variety of gentle remonstrances, carried +her good nature so far as to listen at the door of her mother's bedroom +where the discussion was held, to catch a word or two. The first time +she went down to the lower floor she heard her father exclaim, "Then, +madame, do you wish to kill your daughter?" + +"My poor dear!" said Virginie, in tears, "papa takes your part." + +"And what do they want to do to Theodore?" asked the innocent girl. + +Virginie, inquisitive, went down again; but this time she stayed longer; +she learned that Joseph Lebas loved Augustine. It was written that on +this memorable day, this house, generally so peaceful, should be a hell. +Monsieur Guillaume brought Joseph Lebas to despair by telling him of +Augustine's love for a stranger. Lebas, who had advised his friend to +become a suitor for Mademoiselle Virginie, saw all his hopes wrecked. +Mademoiselle Virginie, overcome by hearing that Joseph had, in a way, +refused her, had a sick headache. The dispute that had arisen from the +discussion between Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, when, for the third +time in their lives, they had been of antagonistic opinions, had shown +itself in a terrible form. Finally, at half-past four in the afternoon, +Augustine, pale, trembling, and with red eyes, was haled before her +father and mother. The poor child artlessly related the too brief tale +of her love. Reassured by a speech from her father, who promised to +listen to her in silence, she gathered courage as she pronounced to her +parents the name of Theodore de Sommervieux, with a mischievous little +emphasis on the aristocratic _de_. And yielding to the unknown charm of +talking of her feelings, she was brave enough to declare with innocent +decision that she loved Monsieur de Sommervieux, that she had written to +him, and she added, with tears in her eyes: "To sacrifice me to another +man would make me wretched." + +"But, Augustine, you cannot surely know what a painter is?" cried her +mother with horror. + +"Madame Guillaume!" said the old man, compelling her to +silence.--"Augustine," he went on, "artists are generally little better +than beggars. They are too extravagant not to be always a bad sort. I +served the late Monsieur Joseph Vernet, the late Monsieur Lekain, and +the late Monsieur Noverre. Oh, if you could only know the tricks played +on poor Father Chevrel by that Monsieur Noverre, by the Chevalier de +Saint-Georges, and especially by Monsieur Philidor! They are a set of +rascals; I know them well! They all have a gab and nice manners. Ah, +your Monsieur Sumer--, Somm----" + +"De Sommervieux, papa." + +"Well, well, de Sommervieux, well and good. He can never have been half +so sweet to you as Monsieur le Chevalier de Saint-Georges was to me the +day I got a verdict of the consuls against him. And in those days they +were gentlemen of quality." + +"But, father, Monsieur Theodore is of good family, and he wrote me that +he is rich; his father was called Chevalier de Sommervieux before the +Revolution." + +At these words Monsieur Guillaume looked at his terrible better half, +who, like an angry woman, sat tapping the floor with her foot while +keeping sullen silence; she avoided even casting wrathful looks +at Augustine, appearing to leave to Monsieur Guillaume the whole +responsibility in so grave a matter, since her opinion was not listened +to. Nevertheless, in spite of her apparent self-control, when she +saw her husband giving way so mildly under a catastrophe which had no +concern with business, she exclaimed: + +"Really, monsieur, you are so weak with your daughters! However----" + +The sound of a carriage, which stopped at the door, interrupted the +rating which the old draper already quaked at. In a minute Madame Roguin +was standing in the middle of the room, and looking at the actors in +this domestic scene: "I know all, my dear cousin," said she, with a +patronizing air. + +Madame Roguin made the great mistake of supposing that a Paris notary's +wife could play the part of a favorite of fashion. + +"I know all," she repeated, "and I have come into Noah's Ark, like +the dove, with the olive-branch. I read that allegory in the _Genie du +Christianisme_," she added, turning to Madame Guillaume; "the allusion +ought to please you, cousin. Do you know," she went on, smiling at +Augustine, "that Monsieur de Sommervieux is a charming man? He gave me +my portrait this morning, painted by a master's hand. It is worth at +least six thousand francs." And at these words she patted Monsieur +Guillaume on the arm. The old draper could not help making a grimace +with his lips, which was peculiar to him. + +"I know Monsieur de Sommervieux very well," the Dove ran on. "He has +come to my evenings this fortnight past, and made them delightful. He +has told me all his woes, and commissioned me to plead for him. I know +since this morning that he adores Augustine, and he shall have her. Ah, +cousin, do not shake your head in refusal. He will be created Baron, I +can tell you, and has just been made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, +by the Emperor himself, at the Salon. Roguin is now his lawyer, and +knows all his affairs. Well! Monsieur de Sommervieux has twelve thousand +francs a year in good landed estate. Do you know that the father-in-law +of such a man may get a rise in life--be mayor of his _arrondissement_, +for instance. Have we not seen Monsieur Dupont become a Count of the +Empire, and a senator, all because he went as mayor to congratulate the +Emperor on his entry into Vienna? Oh, this marriage must take place! For +my part, I adore the dear young man. His behavior to Augustine is only +met with in romances. Be easy, little one, you shall be happy, and every +girl will wish she were in your place. Madame la Duchesse de Carigliano, +who comes to my 'At Homes,' raves about Monsieur de Sommervieux. Some +spiteful people say she only comes to me to meet him; as if a duchesse +of yesterday was doing too much honor to a Chevrel, whose family have +been respected citizens these hundred years! + +"Augustine," Madame Roguin went on, after a short pause, "I have seen +the portrait. Heavens! How lovely it is! Do you know that the Emperor +wanted to have it? He laughed, and said to the Deputy High Constable +that if there were many women like that in his court while all the kings +visited it, he should have no difficulty about preserving the peace of +Europe. Is not that a compliment?" + +The tempests with which the day had begun were to resemble those of +nature, by ending in clear and serene weather. Madame Roguin displayed +so much address in her harangue, she was able to touch so many strings +in the dry hearts of Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, that at last she hit +on one which she could work upon. At this strange period commerce and +finance were more than ever possessed by the crazy mania for seeking +alliance with rank; and the generals of the Empire took full advantage +of this desire. Monsieur Guillaume, as a singular exception, opposed +this deplorable craving. His favorite axioms were that, to secure +happiness, a woman must marry a man of her own class; that every one was +punished sooner or later for having climbed too high; that love could +so little endure under the worries of a household, that both husband and +wife needed sound good qualities to be happy, that it would not do for +one to be far in advance of the other, because, above everything, they +must understand each other; if a man spoke Greek and his wife Latin, +they might come to die of hunger. He had himself invented this sort +of adage. And he compared such marriages to old-fashioned materials of +mixed silk and wool. Still, there is so much vanity at the bottom of +man's heart that the prudence of the pilot who steered the Cat and +Racket so wisely gave way before Madame Roguin's aggressive volubility. +Austere Madame Guillaume was the first to see in her daughter's +affection a reason for abdicating her principles and for consenting to +receive Monsieur de Sommervieux, whom she promised herself she would put +under severe inquisition. + +The old draper went to look for Joseph Lebas, and inform him of the +state of affairs. At half-past six, the dining-room immortalized by the +artist saw, united under its skylight, Monsieur and Madame Roguin, the +young painter and his charming Augustine, Joseph Lebas, who found his +happiness in patience, and Mademoiselle Virginie, convalescent from her +headache. Monsieur and Madame Guillaume saw in perspective both their +children married, and the fortunes of the Cat and Racket once more in +skilful hands. Their satisfaction was at its height when, at dessert, +Theodore made them a present of the wonderful picture which they had +failed to see, representing the interior of the old shop, and to which +they all owed so much happiness. + +"Isn't it pretty!" cried Guillaume. "And to think that any one would pay +thirty thousand francs for that!" + +"Because you can see my lappets in it," said Madame Guillaume. + +"And the cloth unrolled!" added Lebas; "you might take it up in your +hand." + +"Drapery always comes out well," replied the painter. "We should be +only too happy, we modern artists, if we could touch the perfection of +antique drapery." + +"So you like drapery!" cried old Guillaume. "Well, then, by Gad! shake +hands on that, my young friend. Since you can respect trade, we shall +understand each other. And why should it be despised? The world began +with trade, since Adam sold Paradise for an apple. He did not strike +a good bargain though!" And the old man roared with honest laughter, +encouraged by the champagne, which he sent round with a liberal hand. +The band that covered the young artist's eyes was so thick that he +thought his future parents amiable. He was not above enlivening them +by a few jests in the best taste. So he too pleased every one. In the +evening, when the drawing-room, furnished with what Madame Guillaume +called "everything handsome," was deserted, and while she flitted +from the table to the chimney-piece, from the candelabra to the tall +candlesticks, hastily blowing out the wax-lights, the worthy draper, who +was always clear-sighted when money was in question, called Augustine to +him, and seating her on his knee, spoke as follows:-- + +"My dear child, you shall marry your Sommervieux since you insist; you +may, if you like, risk your capital in happiness. But I am not going to +be hoodwinked by the thirty thousand francs to be made by spoiling good +canvas. Money that is lightly earned is lightly spent. Did I not hear +that hare-brained youngster declare this evening that money was made +round that it might roll. If it is round for spendthrifts, it is flat +for saving folks who pile it up. Now, my child, that fine gentleman +talks of giving you carriages and diamonds! He has money, let him spend +it on you; so be it. It is no concern of mine. But as to what I can give +you, I will not have the crown-pieces I have picked up with so much toil +wasted in carriages and frippery. Those who spend too fast never grow +rich. A hundred thousand crowns, which is your fortune, will not buy +up Paris. It is all very well to look forward to a few hundred thousand +francs to be yours some day; I shall keep you waiting for them as long +as possible, by Gad! So I took your lover aside, and a man who managed +the Lecocq bankruptcy had not much difficulty in persuading the artist +to marry under a settlement of his wife's money on herself. I will keep +an eye on the marriage contract to see that what he is to settle on you +is safely tied up. So now, my child, I hope to be a grandfather, by Gad! +I will begin at once to lay up for my grandchildren; but swear to me, +here and now, never to sign any papers relating to money without my +advice; and if I go soon to join old Father Chevrel, promise to consult +young Lebas, your brother-in-law." + +"Yes, father, I swear it." + +At these words, spoken in a gentle voice, the old man kissed his +daughter on both cheeks. That night the lovers slept as soundly as +Monsieur and Madame Guillaume. + + + +Some few months after this memorable Sunday the high altar of Saint-Leu +was the scene of two very different weddings. Augustine and Theodore +appeared in all the radiance of happiness, their eyes beaming with love, +dressed with elegance, while a fine carriage waited for them. Virginie, +who had come in a good hired fly with the rest of the family, humbly +followed her younger sister, dressed in the simplest fashion like a +shadow necessary to the harmony of the picture. Monsieur Guillaume had +exerted himself to the utmost in the church to get Virginie married +before Augustine, but the priests, high and low, persisted in addressing +the more elegant of the two brides. He heard some of his neighbors +highly approving the good sense of Mademoiselle Virginie, who was +making, as they said, the more substantial match, and remaining faithful +to the neighborhood; while they fired a few taunts, prompted by envy of +Augustine, who was marrying an artist and a man of rank; adding, with a +sort of dismay, that if the Guillaumes were ambitious, there was an end +to the business. An old fan-maker having remarked that such a prodigal +would soon bring his wife to beggary, father Guillaume prided himself +_in petto_ for his prudence in the matter of marriage settlements. In +the evening, after a splendid ball, followed by one of those substantial +suppers of which the memory is dying out in the present generation, +Monsieur and Madame Guillaume remained in a fine house belonging to them +in the Rue du Colombier, where the wedding had been held; Monsieur +and Madame Lebas returned in their fly to the old home in the Rue +Saint-Denis, to steer the good ship Cat and Racket. The artist, +intoxicated with happiness, carried off his beloved Augustine, and +eagerly lifting her out of their carriage when it reached the Rue des +Trois-Freres, led her to an apartment embellished by all the arts. + +The fever of passion which possessed Theodore made a year fly over the +young couple without a single cloud to dim the blue sky under which they +lived. Life did not hang heavy on the lovers' hands. Theodore lavished +on every day inexhaustible _fioriture_ of enjoyment, and he delighted +to vary the transports of passion by the soft languor of those hours +of repose when souls soar so high that they seem to have forgotten all +bodily union. Augustine was too happy for reflection; she floated on +an undulating tide of rapture; she thought she could not do enough by +abandoning herself to sanctioned and sacred married love; simple and +artless, she had no coquetry, no reserves, none of the dominion which a +worldly-minded girl acquires over her husband by ingenious caprice; she +loved too well to calculate for the future, and never imagined that so +exquisite a life could come to an end. Happy in being her husband's sole +delight, she believed that her inextinguishable love would always be +her greatest grace in his eyes, as her devotion and obedience would be +a perennial charm. And, indeed, the ecstasy of love had made her so +brilliantly lovely that her beauty filled her with pride, and gave her +confidence that she could always reign over a man so easy to kindle +as Monsieur de Sommervieux. Thus her position as a wife brought her no +knowledge but the lessons of love. + +In the midst of her happiness, she was still the simple child who had +lived in obscurity in the Rue Saint-Denis, and who never thought of +acquiring the manners, the information, the tone of the world she had +to live in. Her words being the words of love, she revealed in them, no +doubt, a certain pliancy of mind and a certain refinement of speech; +but she used the language common to all women when they find themselves +plunged in passion, which seems to be their element. When, by chance, +Augustine expressed an idea that did not harmonize with Theodore's, the +young artist laughed, as we laugh at the first mistakes of a foreigner, +though they end by annoying us if they are not corrected. + +In spite of all this love-making, by the end of this year, as delightful +as it was swift, Sommervieux felt one morning the need for resuming his +work and his old habits. His wife was expecting their first child. He +saw some friends again. During the tedious discomforts of the year when +a young wife is nursing an infant for the first time, he worked, +no doubt, with zeal, but he occasionally sought diversion in the +fashionable world. The house which he was best pleased to frequent +was that of the Duchesse de Carigliano, who had at last attracted the +celebrated artist to her parties. When Augustine was quite well again, +and her boy no longer required the assiduous care which debars a mother +from social pleasures, Theodore had come to the stage of wishing to know +the joys of satisfied vanity to be found in society by a man who shows +himself with a handsome woman, the object of envy and admiration. + +To figure in drawing-rooms with the reflected lustre of her husband's +fame, and to find other women envious of her, was to Augustine a new +harvest of pleasures; but it was the last gleam of conjugal happiness. +She first wounded her husband's vanity when, in spite of vain efforts, +she betrayed her ignorance, the inelegance of her language, and the +narrowness of her ideas. Sommervieux's nature, subjugated for nearly two +years and a half by the first transports of love, now, in the calm of +less new possession, recovered its bent and habits, for a while diverted +from their channel. Poetry, painting, and the subtle joys of imagination +have inalienable rights over a lofty spirit. These cravings of a +powerful soul had not been starved in Theodore during these two years; +they had only found fresh pasture. As soon as the meadows of love had +been ransacked, and the artist had gathered roses and cornflowers as the +children do, so greedily that he did not see that his hands could +hold no more, the scene changed. When the painter showed his wife the +sketches for his finest compositions he heard her exclaim, as her father +had done, "How pretty!" This tepid admiration was not the outcome of +conscientious feeling, but of her faith on the strength of love. + +Augustine cared more for a look than for the finest picture. The only +sublime she knew was that of the heart. At last Theodore could not +resist the evidence of the cruel fact--his wife was insensible to +poetry, she did not dwell in his sphere, she could not follow him in +all his vagaries, his inventions, his joys and his sorrows; she walked +groveling in the world of reality, while his head was in the skies. +Common minds cannot appreciate the perennial sufferings of a being +who, while bound to another by the most intimate affections, is obliged +constantly to suppress the dearest flights of his soul, and to thrust +down into the void those images which a magic power compels him to +create. To him the torture is all the more intolerable because his +feeling towards his companion enjoins, as its first law, that they +should have no concealments, but mingle the aspirations of their thought +as perfectly as the effusions of their soul. The demands of nature are +not to be cheated. She is as inexorable as necessity, which is, indeed, +a sort of social nature. Sommervieux took refuge in the peace and +silence of his studio, hoping that the habit of living with artists +might mould his wife and develop in her the dormant germs of lofty +intelligence which some superior minds suppose must exist in every +being. But Augustine was too sincerely religious not to take fright +at the tone of artists. At the first dinner Theodore gave, she heard +a young painter say, with the childlike lightness, which to her was +unintelligible, and which redeems a jest from the taint of profanity, +"But, madame, your Paradise cannot be more beautiful than Raphael's +Transfiguration!--Well, and I got tired of looking at that." + +Thus Augustine came among this sparkling set in a spirit of distrust +which no one could fail to see. She was a restraint on their freedom. +Now an artist who feels restraint is pitiless; he stays away, or laughs +it to scorn. Madame Guillaume, among other absurdities, had an excessive +notion of the dignity she considered the prerogative of a married woman; +and Augustine, though she had often made fun of it, could not help a +slight imitation of her mother's primness. This extreme propriety, which +virtuous wives do not always avoid, suggested a few epigrams in the +form of sketches, in which the harmless jest was in such good taste +that Sommervieux could not take offence; and even if they had been +more severe, these pleasantries were after all only reprisals from +his friends. Still, nothing could seem a trifle to a spirit so open as +Theodore's to impressions from without. A coldness insensibly crept over +him, and inevitably spread. To attain conjugal happiness we must climb +a hill whose summit is a narrow ridge, close to a steep and slippery +descent: the painter's love was falling down it. He regarded his wife as +incapable of appreciating the moral considerations which justified him +in his own eyes for his singular behavior to her, and believed himself +quite innocent in hiding from her thoughts she could not enter into, +and peccadilloes outside the jurisdiction of a _bourgeois_ conscience. +Augustine wrapped herself in sullen and silent grief. These unconfessed +feelings placed a shroud between the husband and wife which could not +fail to grow thicker day by day. Though her husband never failed in +consideration for her, Augustine could not help trembling as she saw +that he kept for the outer world those treasures of wit and grace that +he formerly would lay at her feet. She soon began to find sinister +meaning in the jocular speeches that are current in the world as to the +inconstancy of men. She made no complaints, but her demeanor conveyed +reproach. + +Three years after her marriage this pretty young woman, who dashed past +in her handsome carriage, and lived in a sphere of glory and riches +to the envy of heedless folk incapable of taking a just view of the +situations of life, was a prey to intense grief. She lost her color; she +reflected; she made comparisons; then sorrow unfolded to her the first +lessons of experience. She determined to restrict herself bravely within +the round of duty, hoping that by this generous conduct she might +sooner or later win back her husband's love. But it was not so. When +Sommervieux, fired with work, came in from his studio, Augustine did not +put away her work so quickly but that the painter might find his wife +mending the household linen, and his own, with all the care of a good +housewife. She supplied generously and without a murmur the money needed +for his lavishness; but in her anxiety to husband her dear Theodore's +fortune, she was strictly economical for herself and in certain details +of domestic management. Such conduct is incompatible with the easy-going +habits of artists, who, at the end of their life, have enjoyed it so +keenly that they never inquire into the causes of their ruin. + +It is useless to note every tint of shadow by which the brilliant hues +of their honeymoon were overcast till they were lost in utter blackness. +One evening poor Augustine, who had for some time heard her husband +speak with enthusiasm of the Duchesse de Carigliano, received from a +friend certain malignantly charitable warnings as to the nature of the +attachment which Sommervieux had formed for this celebrated flirt of +the Imperial Court. At one-and-twenty, in all the splendor of youth and +beauty, Augustine saw herself deserted for a woman of six-and-thirty. +Feeling herself so wretched in the midst of a world of festivity which +to her was a blank, the poor little thing could no longer understand +the admiration she excited, or the envy of which she was the object. +Her face assumed a different expression. Melancholy, tinged her features +with the sweetness of resignation and the pallor of scorned love. Ere +long she too was courted by the most fascinating men; but she remained +lonely and virtuous. Some contemptuous words which escaped her husband +filled her with incredible despair. A sinister flash showed her the +breaches which, as a result of her sordid education, hindered the +perfect union of her soul with Theodore's; she loved him well enough to +absolve him and condemn herself. She shed tears of blood, and perceived, +too late, that there are _mesalliances_ of the spirit as well as of +rank and habits. As she recalled the early raptures of their union, +she understood the full extent of that lost happiness, and accepted the +conclusion that so rich a harvest of love was in itself a whole life, +which only sorrow could pay for. At the same time, she loved too truly +to lose all hope. At one-and-twenty she dared undertake to educate +herself, and make her imagination, at least, worthy of that she admired. +"If I am not a poet," thought she, "at any rate, I will understand +poetry." + +Then, with all the strength of will, all the energy which every woman +can display when she loves, Madame de Sommervieux tried to alter her +character, her manners, and her habits; but by dint of devouring books +and learning undauntedly, she only succeeded in becoming less ignorant. +Lightness of wit and the graces of conversation are a gift of nature, or +the fruit of education begun in the cradle. She could appreciate +music and enjoy it, but she could not sing with taste. She understood +literature and the beauties of poetry, but it was too late to +cultivate her refractory memory. She listened with pleasure to social +conversation, but she could contribute nothing brilliant. Her religious +notions and home-grown prejudices were antagonistic to the complete +emancipation of her intelligence. Finally, a foregone conclusion against +her had stolen into Theodore's mind, and this she could not conquer. The +artist would laugh, at those who flattered him about his wife, and his +irony had some foundation; he so overawed the pathetic young creature +that, in his presence, or alone with him, she trembled. Hampered by her +too eager desire to please, her wits and her knowledge vanished in one +absorbing feeling. Even her fidelity vexed the unfaithful husband, who +seemed to bid her do wrong by stigmatizing her virtue as insensibility. +Augustine tried in vain to abdicate her reason, to yield to her +husband's caprices and whims, to devote herself to the selfishness of +his vanity. Her sacrifices bore no fruit. Perhaps they had both let +the moment slip when souls may meet in comprehension. One day the young +wife's too sensitive heart received one of those blows which so strain +the bonds of feeling that they seem to be broken. She withdrew into +solitude. But before long a fatal idea suggested to her to seek counsel +and comfort in the bosom of her family. + +So one morning she made her way towards the grotesque facade of the +humble, silent home where she had spent her childhood. She sighed as she +looked up at the sash-window, whence one day she had sent her first kiss +to him who now shed as much sorrow as glory on her life. Nothing was +changed in the cavern, where the drapery business had, however, started +on a new life. Augustine's sister filled her mother's old place at the +desk. The unhappy young woman met her brother-in-law with his pen behind +his ear; he hardly listened to her, he was so full of business. The +formidable symptoms of stock-taking were visible all round him; he +begged her to excuse him. She was received coldly enough by her sister, +who owed her a grudge. In fact, Augustine, in her finery, and stepping +out of a handsome carriage, had never been to see her but when passing +by. The wife of the prudent Lebas, imagining that want of money was the +prime cause of this early call, tried to keep up a tone of reserve which +more than once made Augustine smile. The painter's wife perceived that, +apart from the cap and lappets, her mother had found in Virginie a +successor who could uphold the ancient honor of the Cat and Racket. At +breakfast she observed certain changes in the management of the house +which did honor to Lebas' good sense; the assistants did not rise before +dessert; they were allowed to talk, and the abundant meal spoke of ease +without luxury. The fashionable woman found some tickets for a box at +the Francais, where she remembered having seen her sister from time to +time. Madame Lebas had a cashmere shawl over her shoulders, of which +the value bore witness to her husband's generosity to her. In short, the +couple were keeping pace with the times. During the two-thirds of the +day she spent there, Augustine was touched to the heart by the equable +happiness, devoid, to be sure, of all emotion, but equally free from +storms, enjoyed by this well-matched couple. They had accepted life as +a commercial enterprise, in which, above all, they must do credit to the +business. Not finding any great love in her husband, Virginie had set to +work to create it. Having by degrees learned to esteem and care for his +wife, the time that his happiness had taken to germinate was to Joseph +Lebas a guarantee of its durability. Hence, when Augustine plaintively +set forth her painful position, she had to face the deluge of +commonplace morality which the traditions of the Rue Saint-Denis +furnished to her sister. + +"The mischief is done, wife," said Joseph Lebas; "we must try to give +our sister good advice." Then the clever tradesman ponderously analyzed +the resources which law and custom might offer Augustine as a means +of escape at this crisis; he ticketed every argument, so to speak, and +arranged them in their degrees of weight under various categories, as +though they were articles of merchandise of different qualities; then he +put them in the scale, weighed them, and ended by showing the necessity +for his sister-in-law's taking violent steps which could not satisfy the +love she still had for her husband; and, indeed, the feeling had +revived in all its strength when she heard Joseph Lebas speak of +legal proceedings. Augustine thanked them, and returned home even more +undecided than she had been before consulting them. She now ventured +to go to the house in the Rue du Colombier, intending to confide her +troubles to her father and mother; for she was like a sick man who, in +his desperate plight, tries every prescription, and even puts faith in +old wives' remedies. + +The old people received their daughter with an effusiveness that touched +her deeply. Her visit brought them some little change, and that to them +was worth a fortune. For the last four years they had gone their way +like navigators without a goal or a compass. Sitting by the chimney +corner, they would talk over their disasters under the old law of +_maximum_, of their great investments in cloth, of the way they had +weathered bankruptcies, and, above all, the famous failure of Lecocq, +Monsieur Guillaume's battle of Marengo. Then, when they had exhausted +the tale of lawsuits, they recapitulated the sum total of their most +profitable stock-takings, and told each other old stories of the +Saint-Denis quarter. At two o'clock old Guillaume went to cast an eye on +the business at the Cat and Racket; on his way back he called at all the +shops, formerly the rivals of his own, where the young proprietors hoped +to inveigle the old draper into some risky discount, which, as was his +wont, he never refused point-blank. Two good Normandy horses were dying +of their own fat in the stables of the big house; Madame Guillaume never +used them but to drag her on Sundays to high Mass at the parish church. +Three times a week the worthy couple kept open house. By the influence +of his son-in-law Sommervieux, Monsieur Guillaume had been named a +member of the consulting board for the clothing of the Army. Since her +husband had stood so high in office, Madame Guillaume had decided +that she must receive; her rooms were so crammed with gold and silver +ornaments, and furniture, tasteless but of undoubted value, that the +simplest room in the house looked like a chapel. Economy and expense +seemed to be struggling for the upper hand in every accessory. It was as +though Monsieur Guillaume had looked to a good investment, even in the +purchase of a candlestick. In the midst of this bazaar, where splendor +revealed the owner's want of occupation, Sommervieux's famous picture +filled the place of honor, and in it Monsieur and Madame Guillaume found +their chief consolation, turning their eyes, harnessed with eye-glasses, +twenty times a day on this presentment of their past life, to them so +active and amusing. The appearance of this mansion and these rooms, +where everything had an aroma of staleness and mediocrity, the spectacle +offered by these two beings, cast away, as it were, on a rock far from +the world and the ideas which are life, startled Augustine; she could +here contemplate the sequel of the scene of which the first part had +struck her at the house of Lebas--a life of stir without movement, a +mechanical and instinctive existence like that of the beaver; and then +she felt an indefinable pride in her troubles, as she reflected that +they had their source in eighteen months of such happiness as, in her +eyes, was worth a thousand lives like this; its vacuity seemed to her +horrible. However, she concealed this not very charitable feeling, and +displayed for her parents her newly-acquired accomplishments of mind, +and the ingratiating tenderness that love had revealed to her, disposing +them to listen to her matrimonial grievances. Old people have a weakness +for this kind of confidence. Madame Guillaume wanted to know the most +trivial details of that alien life, which to her seemed almost fabulous. +The travels of Baron da la Houtan, which she began again and again and +never finished, told her nothing more unheard-of concerning the Canadian +savages. + +"What, child, your husband shuts himself into a room with naked women! +And you are so simple as to believe that he draws them?" + +As she uttered this exclamation, the grandmother laid her spectacles +on a little work-table, shook her skirts, and clasped her hands on her +knees, raised by a foot-warmer, her favorite pedestal. + +"But, mother, all artists are obliged to have models." + +"He took good care not to tell us that when he asked leave to marry +you. If I had known it, I would never had given my daughter to a man who +followed such a trade. Religion forbids such horrors; they are immoral. +And at what time of night do you say he comes home?" + +"At one o'clock--two----" + +The old folks looked at each other in utter amazement. + +"Then he gambles?" said Monsieur Guillaume. "In my day only gamblers +stayed out so late." + +Augustine made a face that scorned the accusation. + +"He must keep you up through dreadful nights waiting for him," said +Madame Guillaume. "But you go to bed, don't you? And when he has lost, +the wretch wakes you." + +"No, mamma, on the contrary, he is sometimes in very good spirits. Not +unfrequently, indeed, when it is fine, he suggests that I should get up +and go into the woods." + +"The woods! At that hour? Then have you such a small set of rooms that +his bedroom and his sitting-room are not enough, and that he must run +about? But it is just to give you cold that the wretch proposes such +expeditions. He wants to get rid of you. Did one ever hear of a man +settled in life, a well-behaved, quiet man galloping about like a +warlock?" + +"But, my dear mother, you do not understand that he must have excitement +to fire his genius. He is fond of scenes which----" + +"I would make scenes for him, fine scenes!" cried Madame Guillaume, +interrupting her daughter. "How can you show any consideration to such a +man? In the first place, I don't like his drinking water only; it is not +wholesome. Why does he object to see a woman eating? What queer notion +is that! But he is mad. All you tell us about him is impossible. A man +cannot leave his home without a word, and never come back for ten days. +And then he tells you he has been to Dieppe to paint the sea. As if +any one painted the sea! He crams you with a pack of tales that are too +absurd." + +Augustine opened her lips to defend her husband; but Madame Guillaume +enjoined silence with a wave of her hand, which she obeyed by a survival +of habit, and her mother went on in harsh tones: "Don't talk to me about +the man! He never set foot in church excepting to see you and to be +married. People without religion are capable of anything. Did Guillaume +ever dream of hiding anything from me, of spending three days without +saying a word to me, and of chattering afterwards like a blind magpie?" + +"My dear mother, you judge superior people too severely. If their ideas +were the same as other folks', they would not be men of genius." + +"Very well, then let men of genius stop at home and not get married. +What! A man of genius is to make his wife miserable? And because he is a +genius it is all right! Genius, genius! It is not so very clever to +say black one minute and white the next, as he does, to interrupt other +people, to dance such rigs at home, never to let you know which foot you +are to stand on, to compel his wife never to be amused unless my lord is +in gay spirits, and to be dull when he is dull." + +"But, mother, the very nature of such imaginations----" + +"What are such 'imaginations'?" Madame Guillaume went on, interrupting +her daughter again. "Fine ones his are, my word! What possesses a man +that all on a sudden, without consulting a doctor, he takes it into his +head to eat nothing but vegetables? If indeed it were from religious +motives, it might do him some good--but he has no more religion than a +Huguenot. Was there ever a man known who, like him, loved horses better +than his fellow-creatures, had his hair curled like a heathen, laid +statues under muslin coverlets, shut his shutters in broad day to work +by lamp-light? There, get along; if he were not so grossly immoral, he +would be fit to shut up in a lunatic asylum. Consult Monsieur Loraux, +the priest at Saint Sulpice, ask his opinion about it all, and he will +tell you that your husband, does not behave like a Christian." + +"Oh, mother, can you believe----?" + +"Yes, I do believe. You loved him, and you can see none of these things. +But I can remember in the early days after your marriage. I met him +in the Champs-Elysees. He was on horseback. Well, at one minute he was +galloping as hard as he could tear, and then pulled up to a walk. I said +to myself at that moment, 'There is a man devoid of judgement.'" + +"Ah, ha!" cried Monsieur Guillaume, "how wise I was to have your money +settled on yourself with such a queer fellow for a husband!" + +When Augustine was so imprudent as to set forth her serious grievances +against her husband, the two old people were speechless with +indignation. But the word "divorce" was ere long spoken by Madame +Guillaume. At the sound of the word divorce the apathetic old draper +seemed to wake up. Prompted by his love for his daughter, and also by +the excitement which the proceedings would bring into his uneventful +life, father Guillaume took up the matter. He made himself the leader of +the application for a divorce, laid down the lines of it, almost argued +the case; he offered to be at all the charges, to see the lawyers, the +pleaders, the judges, to move heaven and earth. Madame de Sommervieux +was frightened, she refused her father's services, said she would not +be separated from her husband even if she were ten times as unhappy, and +talked no more about her sorrows. After being overwhelmed by her parents +with all the little wordless and consoling kindnesses by which the +old couple tried in vain to make up to her for her distress of heart, +Augustine went away, feeling the impossibility of making a superior mind +intelligible to weak intellects. She had learned that a wife must hide +from every one, even from her parents, woes for which it is so difficult +to find sympathy. The storms and sufferings of the upper spheres +are appreciated only by the lofty spirits who inhabit there. In any +circumstance we can only be judged by our equals. + +Thus poor Augustine found herself thrown back on the horror of her +meditations, in the cold atmosphere of her home. Study was indifferent +to her, since study had not brought her back her husband's heart. +Initiated into the secret of these souls of fire, but bereft of their +resources, she was compelled to share their sorrows without sharing +their pleasures. She was disgusted with the world, which to her seemed +mean and small as compared with the incidents of passion. In short, her +life was a failure. + +One evening an idea flashed upon her that lighted up her dark grief like +a beam from heaven. Such an idea could never have smiled on a heart less +pure, less virtuous than hers. She determined to go to the Duchesse de +Carigliano, not to ask her to give her back her husband's heart, but to +learn the arts by which it had been captured; to engage the interest of +this haughty fine lady for the mother of her lover's children; to appeal +to her and make her the instrument of her future happiness, since she +was the cause of her present wretchedness. + +So one day Augustine, timid as she was, but armed with supernatural +courage, got into her carriage at two in the afternoon to try for +admittance to the boudoir of the famous coquette, who was never visible +till that hour. Madame de Sommervieux had not yet seen any of the +ancient and magnificent mansions of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. As she +made her way through the stately corridors, the handsome staircases, +the vast drawing-rooms--full of flowers, though it was in the depth of +winter, and decorated with the taste peculiar to women born to opulence +or to the elegant habits of the aristocracy, Augustine felt a terrible +clutch at her heart; she coveted the secrets of an elegance of which +she had never had an idea; she breathed in an air of grandeur which +explained the attraction of the house for her husband. When she reached +the private rooms of the Duchess she was filled with jealousy and a sort +of despair, as she admired the luxurious arrangement of the furniture, +the draperies and the hangings. Here disorder was a grace, here luxury +affected a certain contempt of splendor. The fragrance that floated +in the warm air flattered the sense of smell without offending it. +The accessories of the rooms were in harmony with a view, through +plate-glass windows, of the lawns in a garden planted with evergreen +trees. It was all bewitching, and the art of it was not perceptible. The +whole spirit of the mistress of these rooms pervaded the drawing-room +where Augustine awaited her. She tried to divine her rival's character +from the aspect of the scattered objects; but there was here something +as impenetrable in the disorder as in the symmetry, and to the +simple-minded young wife all was a sealed letter. All that she could +discern was that, as a woman, the Duchess was a superior person. Then a +painful thought came over her. + +"Alas! And is it true," she wondered, "that a simple and loving heart +is not all-sufficient to an artist; that to balance the weight of these +powerful souls they need a union with feminine souls of a strength equal +to their own? If I had been brought up like this siren, our weapons at +least might have been equal in the hour of struggle." + +"But I am not at home!" The sharp, harsh words, though spoken in an +undertone in the adjoining boudoir, were heard by Augustine, and her +heart beat violently. + +"The lady is in there," replied the maid. + +"You are an idiot! Show her in," replied the Duchess, whose voice was +sweeter, and had assumed the dulcet tones of politeness. She evidently +now meant to be heard. + +Augustine shyly entered the room. At the end of the dainty boudoir she +saw the Duchess lounging luxuriously on an ottoman covered with brown +velvet and placed in the centre of a sort of apse outlined by soft folds +of white muslin over a yellow lining. Ornaments of gilt bronze, arranged +with exquisite taste, enhanced this sort of dais, under which the +Duchess reclined like a Greek statue. The dark hue of the velvet gave +relief to every fascinating charm. A subdued light, friendly to her +beauty, fell like a reflection rather than a direct illumination. A few +rare flowers raised their perfumed heads from costly Sevres vases. At +the moment when this picture was presented to Augustine's astonished +eyes, she was approaching so noiselessly that she caught a glance from +those of the enchantress. This look seemed to say to some one whom +Augustine did not at first perceive, "Stay; you will see a pretty woman, +and make her visit seem less of a bore." + +On seeing Augustine, the Duchess rose and made her sit down by her. + +"And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, madame?" she said with +a most gracious smile. + +"Why all the falseness?" thought Augustine, replying only with a bow. + +Her silence was compulsory. The young woman saw before her a superfluous +witness of the scene. This personage was, of all the Colonels in the +army, the youngest, the most fashionable, and the finest man. His face, +full of life and youth, but already expressive, was further enhanced by +a small moustache twirled up into points, and as black as jet, by a full +imperial, by whiskers carefully combed, and a forest of black hair in +some disorder. He was whisking a riding whip with an air of ease and +freedom which suited his self-satisfied expression and the elegance of +his dress; the ribbons attached to his button-hole were carelessly tied, +and he seemed to pride himself much more on his smart appearance than +on his courage. Augustine looked at the Duchesse de Carigliano, and +indicated the Colonel by a sidelong glance. All its mute appeal was +understood. + +"Good-bye, then, Monsieur d'Aiglemont, we shall meet in the Bois de +Boulogne." + +These words were spoken by the siren as though they were the result of +an agreement made before Augustine's arrival, and she winged them with a +threatening look that the officer deserved perhaps for the admiration he +showed in gazing at the modest flower, which contrasted so well with the +haughty Duchess. The young fop bowed in silence, turned on the heels +of his boots, and gracefully quitted the boudoir. At this instant, +Augustine, watching her rival, whose eyes seemed to follow the brilliant +officer, detected in that glance a sentiment of which the transient +expression is known to every woman. She perceived with the deepest +anguish that her visit would be useless; this lady, full of artifice, +was too greedy of homage not to have a ruthless heart. + +"Madame," said Augustine in a broken voice, "the step I am about to take +will seem to you very strange; but there is a madness of despair which +ought to excuse anything. I understand only too well why Theodore +prefers your house to any other, and why your mind has so much power +over his. Alas! I have only to look into myself to find more than ample +reasons. But I am devoted to my husband, madame. Two years of tears have +not effaced his image from my heart, though I have lost his. In my folly +I dared to dream of a contest with you; and I have come to you to ask +you by what means I may triumph over yourself. Oh, madame," cried the +young wife, ardently seizing the hand which her rival allowed her to +hold, "I will never pray to God for my own happiness with so much +fervor as I will beseech Him for yours, if you will help me to win back +Sommervieux's regard--I will not say his love. I have no hope but in +you. Ah! tell me how you could please him, and make him forget the first +days----" At these words Augustine broke down, suffocated with sobs she +could not suppress. Ashamed of her weakness, she hid her face in her +handkerchief, which she bathed with tears. + +"What a child you are, my dear little beauty!" said the Duchess, carried +away by the novelty of such a scene, and touched, in spite of herself, +at receiving such homage from the most perfect virtue perhaps in Paris. +She took the young wife's handkerchief, and herself wiped the tears from +her eyes, soothing her by a few monosyllables murmured with gracious +compassion. After a moment's silence the Duchess, grasping poor +Augustine's hands in both her own--hands that had a rare character of +dignity and powerful beauty--said in a gentle and friendly voice: +"My first warning is to advise you not to weep so bitterly; tears are +disfiguring. We must learn to deal firmly with the sorrows that make us +ill, for love does not linger long by a sick-bed. Melancholy, at first, +no doubt, lends a certain attractive grace, but it ends by dragging the +features and blighting the loveliest face. And besides, our tyrants are +so vain as to insist that their slaves should be always cheerful." + +"But, madame, it is not in my power not to feel. How is it possible, +without suffering a thousand deaths, to see the face which once beamed +with love and gladness turn chill, colorless, and indifferent? I cannot +control my heart!" + +"So much the worse, sweet child. But I fancy I know all your story. +In the first place, if your husband is unfaithful to you, understand +clearly that I am not his accomplice. If I was anxious to have him in my +drawing-room, it was, I own, out of vanity; he was famous, and he went +nowhere. I like you too much already to tell you all the mad things he +has done for my sake. I will only reveal one, because it may perhaps +help us to bring him back to you, and to punish him for the audacity of +his behavior to me. He will end by compromising me. I know the world +too well, my dear, to abandon myself to the discretion of a too superior +man. You should know that one may allow them to court one, but marry +them--that is a mistake! We women ought to admire men of genius, and +delight in them as a spectacle, but as to living with them? Never.--No, +no. It is like wanting to find pleasure in inspecting the machinery of +the opera instead of sitting in a box to enjoy its brilliant illusions. +But this misfortune has fallen on you, my poor child, has it not? Well, +then, you must try to arm yourself against tyranny." + +"Ah, madame, before coming in here, only seeing you as I came in, I +already detected some arts of which I had no suspicion." + +"Well, come and see me sometimes, and it will not be long before you +have mastered the knowledge of these trifles, important, too, in their +way. Outward things are, to fools, half of life; and in that matter more +than one clever man is a fool, in spite of all his talent. But I dare +wager you never could refuse your Theodore anything!" + +"How refuse anything, madame, if one loves a man?" + +"Poor innocent, I could adore you for your simplicity. You should know +that the more we love the less we should allow a man, above all, a +husband, to see the whole extent of our passion. The one who loves most +is tyrannized over, and, which is worse, is sooner or later neglected. +The one who wishes to rule should----" + +"What, madame, must I then dissimulate, calculate, become false, form an +artificial character, and live in it? How is it possible to live in such +a way? Can you----" she hesitated; the Duchess smiled. + +"My dear child," the great lady went on in a serious tone, "conjugal +happiness has in all times been a speculation, a business demanding +particular attention. If you persist in talking passion while I am +talking marriage, we shall soon cease to understand each other. Listen +to me," she went on, assuming a confidential tone. "I have been in +the way of seeing some of the superior men of our day. Those who have +married have for the most part chosen quite insignificant wives. Well, +those wives governed them, as the Emperor governs us; and if they were +not loved, they were at least respected. I like secrets--especially +those which concern women--well enough to have amused myself by seeking +the clue to the riddle. Well, my sweet child, those worthy women had the +gift of analyzing their husbands' nature; instead of taking fright, like +you, at their superiority, they very acutely noted the qualities they +lacked, and either by possessing those qualities, or by feigning to +possess them, they found means of making such a handsome display of them +in their husbands' eyes that in the end they impressed them. Also, I +must tell you, all these souls which appear so lofty have just a speck +of madness in them, which we ought to know how to take advantage of. By +firmly resolving to have the upper hand and never deviating from that +aim, by bringing all our actions to bear on it, all our ideas, our +cajolery, we subjugate these eminently capricious natures, which, by +the very mutability of their thoughts, lend us the means of influencing +them." + +"Good heavens!" cried the young wife in dismay. "And this is life. It is +a warfare----" + +"In which we must always threaten," said the Duchess, laughing. "Our +power is wholly factitious. And we must never allow a man to despise +us; it is impossible to recover from such a descent but by odious +manoeuvring. Come," she added, "I will give you a means of bringing your +husband to his senses." + +She rose with a smile to guide the young and guileless apprentice +to conjugal arts through the labyrinth of her palace. They came to +a back-staircase, which led up to the reception rooms. As Madame de +Carigliano pressed the secret springlock of the door she stopped, +looking at Augustine with an inimitable gleam of shrewdness and grace. +"The Duc de Carigliano adores me," said she. "Well, he dare not enter by +this door without my leave. And he is a man in the habit of commanding +thousands of soldiers. He knows how to face a battery, but before +me,--he is afraid!" + +Augustine sighed. They entered a sumptuous gallery, where the painter's +wife was led by the Duchess up to the portrait painted by Theodore of +Mademoiselle Guillaume. On seeing it, Augustine uttered a cry. + +"I knew it was no longer in my house," she said, "but--here!----" + +"My dear child, I asked for it merely to see what pitch of idiocy a man +of genius may attain to. Sooner or later I should have returned it to +you, for I never expected the pleasure of seeing the original here face +to face with the copy. While we finish our conversation I will have it +carried down to your carriage. And if, armed with such a talisman, +you are not your husband's mistress for a hundred years, you are not a +woman, and you deserve your fate." + +Augustine kissed the Duchess' hand, and the lady clasped her to her +heart, with all the more tenderness because she would forget her by the +morrow. This scene might perhaps have destroyed for ever the candor and +purity of a less virtuous woman than Augustine, for the astute politics +of the higher social spheres were no more consonant to Augustine than +the narrow reasoning of Joseph Lebas, or Madame Guillaume's vapid +morality. Strange are the results of the false positions into which +we may be brought by the slightest mistake in the conduct of life! +Augustine was like an Alpine cowherd surprised by an avalanche; if he +hesitates, if he listens to the shouts of his comrades, he is almost +certainly lost. In such a crisis the heart steels itself or breaks. + +Madame de Sommervieux returned home a prey to such agitation as it is +difficult to describe. Her conversation with the Duchesse de Carigliano +had roused in her mind a crowd of contradictory thoughts. Like the sheep +in the fable, full of courage in the wolf's absence, she preached +to herself, and laid down admirable plans of conduct; she devised a +thousand coquettish stratagems; she even talked to her husband, finding, +away from him, all the springs of true eloquence which never desert a +woman; then, as she pictured to herself Theodore's clear and steadfast +gaze, she began to quake. When she asked whether monsieur were at home +her voice shook. On learning that he would not be in to dinner, she felt +an unaccountable thrill of joy. Like a criminal who has appealed against +sentence of death, a respite, however short, seemed to her a lifetime. +She placed the portrait in her room, and waited for her husband in all +the agonies of hope. That this venture must decide her future life, she +felt too keenly not to shiver at every sound, even the low ticking of +the clock, which seemed to aggravate her terrors by doling them out to +her. She tried to cheat time by various devices. The idea struck her of +dressing in a way which would make her exactly like the portrait. Then, +knowing her husband's restless temper, she had her room lighted up with +unusual brightness, feeling sure that when he came in curiosity would +bring him there at once. Midnight had struck when, at the call of the +groom, the street gate was opened, and the artist's carriage rumbled in +over the stones of the silent courtyard. + +"What is the meaning of this illumination?" asked Theodore in glad +tones, as he came into her room. + +Augustine skilfully seized the auspicious moment; she threw herself into +her husband's arms, and pointed to the portrait. The artist stood rigid +as a rock, and his eyes turned alternately on Augustine, on the accusing +dress. The frightened wife, half-dead, as she watched her husband's +changeful brow--that terrible brow--saw the expressive furrows gathering +like clouds; then she felt her blood curdling in her veins when, with a +glaring look, and in a deep hollow voice, he began to question her: + +"Where did you find that picture?" + +"The Duchess de Carigliano returned it to me." + +"You asked her for it?" + +"I did not know that she had it." + +The gentleness, or rather the exquisite sweetness of this angel's voice, +might have touched a cannibal, but not an artist in the clutches of +wounded vanity. + +"It is worthy of her!" exclaimed the painter in a voice of thunder. "I +will be avenged!" he cried, striding up and down the room. "She shall +die of shame; I will paint her! Yes, I will paint her as Messalina +stealing out at night from the palace of Claudius." + +"Theodore!" said a faint voice. + +"I will kill her!" + +"My dear----" + +"She is in love with that little cavalry colonel, because he rides +well----" + +"Theodore!" + +"Let me be!" said the painter in a tone almost like a roar. + +It would be odious to describe the whole scene. In the end the frenzy +of passion prompted the artist to acts and words which any woman not so +young as Augustine would have ascribed to madness. + +At eight o'clock next morning Madame Guillaume, surprising her +daughter, found her pale, with red eyes, her hair in disorder, holding a +handkerchief soaked with tears, while she gazed at the floor strewn with +the torn fragments of a dress and the broken fragments of a large gilt +picture-frame. Augustine, almost senseless with grief, pointed to the +wreck with a gesture of deep despair. + +"I don't know that the loss is very great!" cried the old mistress of +the Cat and Racket. "It was like you, no doubt; but I am told that there +is a man on the boulevard who paints lovely portraits for fifty crowns." + +"Oh, mother!" + +"Poor child, you are quite right," replied Madame Guillaume, who +misinterpreted the expression of her daughter's glance at her. "True, +my child, no one ever can love you as fondly as a mother. My darling, +I guess it all; but confide your sorrows to me, and I will comfort you. +Did I not tell you long ago that the man was mad! Your maid has told me +pretty stories. Why, he must be a perfect monster!" + +Augustine laid a finger on her white lips, as if to implore a moment's +silence. During this dreadful night misery had led her to that patient +resignation which in mothers and loving wives transcends in its +effects all human energy, and perhaps reveals in the heart of women the +existence of certain chords which God has withheld from men. + + + +An inscription engraved on a broken column in the cemetery at Montmartre +states that Madame de Sommervieux died at the age of twenty-seven. In +the simple words of this epitaph one of the timid creature's friends can +read the last scene of a tragedy. Every year, on the second of November, +the solemn day of the dead, he never passes this youthful monument +without wondering whether it does not need a stronger woman than +Augustine to endure the violent embrace of genius? + +"The humble and modest flowers that bloom in the valley," he reflects, +"perish perhaps when they are transplanted too near the skies, to the +region where storms gather and the sun is scorching." + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Aiglemont, General, Marquis Victor d' + The Firm of Nucingen + A Woman of Thirty + + Birotteau, Cesar + Cesar Birotteau + A Bachelor's Establishment + + Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Pons + The Muse of the Department + Cesar Birotteau + + Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cesar Birotteau + + Carigliano, Marechal, Duc de + Father Goriot + Sarrasine + + Carigliano, Duchesse de + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Peasantry + The Member for Arcis + + Guillaume + Cesar Birotteau + + Lebas, Joseph + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + + Lebas, Madame Joseph (Virginie) + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + + Lourdois + Cesar Birotteau + + Rabourdin, Xavier + The Government Clerks + Cesar Birotteau + The Middle Classes + + Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + Pierrette + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + Sommervieux, Theodore de + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + + Sommervieux, Madame Theodore de (Augustine) + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At the Sign of the Cat and Racket, by +Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET *** + +***** This file should be named 1680.txt or 1680.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/8/1680/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b448d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1680 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1680) diff --git a/old/20040611-1680-h.zip b/old/20040611-1680-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cde5b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20040611-1680-h.zip diff --git a/old/20040611-1680.txt b/old/20040611-1680.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4d587d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20040611-1680.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2596 @@ +Project Gutenberg's At the Sign of the Cat and Racket, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: June 11, 2004 [EBook #1680] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers + + + + + AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + + Translated by Clara Bell + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Marie de Montheau + + + + + AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET + + + +Half-way down the Rue Saint-Denis, almost at the corner of the Rue du +Petit-Lion, there stood formerly one of those delightful houses which +enable historians to reconstruct old Paris by analogy. The threatening +walls of this tumbledown abode seemed to have been decorated with +hieroglyphics. For what other name could the passer-by give to the Xs +and Vs which the horizontal or diagonal timbers traced on the front, +outlined by little parallel cracks in the plaster? It was evident that +every beam quivered in its mortices at the passing of the lightest +vehicle. This venerable structure was crowned by a triangular roof of +which no example will, ere long, be seen in Paris. This covering, +warped by the extremes of the Paris climate, projected three feet over +the roadway, as much to protect the threshold from the rainfall as to +shelter the wall of a loft and its sill-less dormer-window. This upper +story was built of planks, overlapping each other like slates, in +order, no doubt, not to overweight the frail house. + +One rainy morning in the month of March, a young man, carefully +wrapped in his cloak, stood under the awning of a shop opposite this +old house, which he was studying with the enthusiasm of an antiquary. +In point of fact, this relic of the civic life of the sixteenth +century offered more than one problem to the consideration of an +observer. Each story presented some singularity; on the first floor +four tall, narrow windows, close together, were filled as to the lower +panes with boards, so as to produce the doubtful light by which a +clever salesman can ascribe to his goods the color his customers +inquire for. The young man seemed very scornful of this part of the +house; his eyes had not yet rested on it. The windows of the second +floor, where the Venetian blinds were drawn up, revealing little dingy +muslin curtains behind the large Bohemian glass panes, did not +interest him either. His attention was attracted to the third floor, +to the modest sash-frames of wood, so clumsily wrought that they might +have found a place in the Museum of Arts and Crafts to illustrate the +early efforts of French carpentry. These windows were glazed with +small squares of glass so green that, but for his good eyes, the young +man could not have seen the blue-checked cotton curtains which +screened the mysteries of the room from profane eyes. Now and then the +watcher, weary of his fruitless contemplation, or of the silence in +which the house was buried, like the whole neighborhood, dropped his +eyes towards the lower regions. An involuntary smile parted his lips +each time he looked at the shop, where, in fact, there were some +laughable details. + +A formidable wooden beam, resting on four pillars, which appeared to +have bent under the weight of the decrepit house, had been encrusted +with as many coats of different paint as there are of rouge on an old +duchess' cheek. In the middle of this broad and fantastically carved +joist there was an old painting representing a cat playing rackets. +This picture was what moved the young man to mirth. But it must be +said that the wittiest of modern painters could not invent so comical +a caricature. The animal held in one of its forepaws a racket as big +as itself, and stood on its hind legs to aim at hitting an enormous +ball, returned by a man in a fine embroidered coat. Drawing, color, +and accessories, all were treated in such a way as to suggest that the +artist had meant to make game of the shop-owner and of the passing +observer. Time, while impairing this artless painting, had made it yet +more grotesque by introducing some uncertain features which must have +puzzled the conscientious idler. For instance, the cat's tail had been +eaten into in such a way that it might now have been taken for the +figure of a spectator--so long, and thick, and furry were the tails of +our forefathers' cats. To the right of the picture, on an azure field +which ill-disguised the decay of the wood, might be read the name +"Guillaume," and to the left, "Successor to Master Chevrel." Sun and +rain had worn away most of the gilding parsimoniously applied to the +letters of this superscription, in which the Us and Vs had changed +places in obedience to the laws of old-world orthography. + +To quench the pride of those who believe that the world is growing +cleverer day by day, and that modern humbug surpasses everything, it +may be observed that these signs, of which the origin seems so +whimsical to many Paris merchants, are the dead pictures of once +living pictures by which our roguish ancestors contrived to tempt +customers into their houses. Thus the Spinning Sow, the Green Monkey, +and others, were animals in cages whose skills astonished the +passer-by, and whose accomplishments prove the patience of the +fifteenth-century artisan. Such curiosities did more to enrich their +fortunate owners than the signs of "Providence," "Good-faith," "Grace +of God," and "Decapitation of John the Baptist," which may still be +seen in the Rue Saint-Denis. + +However, our stranger was certainly not standing there to admire the +cat, which a minute's attention sufficed to stamp on his memory. The +young man himself had his peculiarities. His cloak, folded after the +manner of an antique drapery, showed a smart pair of shoes, all the +more remarkable in the midst of the Paris mud, because he wore white +silk stockings, on which the splashes betrayed his impatience. He had +just come, no doubt, from a wedding or a ball; for at this early hour +he had in his hand a pair of white gloves, and his black hair, now out +of curl, and flowing over his shoulders, showed that it had been +dressed _a la Caracalla_, a fashion introduced as much by David's +school of painting as by the mania for Greek and Roman styles which +characterized the early years of this century. + +In spite of the noise made by a few market gardeners, who, being late, +rattled past towards the great market-place at a gallop, the busy +street lay in a stillness of which the magic charm is known only to +those who have wandered through deserted Paris at the hours when its +roar, hushed for a moment, rises and spreads in the distance like the +great voice of the sea. This strange young man must have seemed as +curious to the shopkeeping folk of the "Cat and Racket" as the "Cat +and Racket" was to him. A dazzlingly white cravat made his anxious +face look even paler than it really was. The fire that flashed in his +black eyes, gloomy and sparkling by turns, was in harmony with the +singular outline of his features, with his wide, flexible mouth, +hardened into a smile. His forehead, knit with violent annoyance, had +a stamp of doom. Is not the forehead the most prophetic feature of a +man? When the stranger's brow expressed passion the furrows formed in +it were terrible in their strength and energy; but when he recovered +his calmness, so easily upset, it beamed with a luminous grace which +gave great attractiveness to a countenance in which joy, grief, love, +anger, or scorn blazed out so contagiously that the coldest man could +not fail to be impressed. + +He was so thoroughly vexed by the time when the dormer-window of the +loft was suddenly flung open, that he did not observe the apparition +of three laughing faces, pink and white and chubby, but as vulgar as +the face of Commerce as it is seen in sculpture on certain monuments. +These three faces, framed by the window, recalled the puffy cherubs +floating among the clouds that surround God the Father. The +apprentices snuffed up the exhalations of the street with an eagerness +that showed how hot and poisonous the atmosphere of their garret must +be. After pointing to the singular sentinel, the most jovial, as he +seemed, of the apprentices retired and came back holding an instrument +whose hard metal pipe is now superseded by a leather tube; and they +all grinned with mischief as they looked down on the loiterer, and +sprinkled him with a fine white shower of which the scent proved that +three chins had just been shaved. Standing on tiptoe, in the farthest +corner of their loft, to enjoy their victim's rage, the lads ceased +laughing on seeing the haughty indifference with which the young man +shook his cloak, and the intense contempt expressed by his face as he +glanced up at the empty window-frame. + +At this moment a slender white hand threw up the lower half of one of +the clumsy windows on the third floor by the aid of the sash runners, +of which the pulley so often suddenly gives way and releases the heavy +panes it ought to hold up. The watcher was then rewarded for his long +waiting. The face of a young girl appeared, as fresh as one of the +white cups that bloom on the bosom of the waters, crowned by a frill +of tumbled muslin, which gave her head a look of exquisite innocence. +Though wrapped in brown stuff, her neck and shoulders gleamed here and +there through little openings left by her movements in sleep. No +expression of embarrassment detracted from the candor of her face, or +the calm look of eyes immortalized long since in the sublime works of +Raphael; here were the same grace, the same repose as in those +Virgins, and now proverbial. There was a delightful contrast between +the cheeks of that face on which sleep had, as it were, given high +relief to a superabundance of life, and the antiquity of the heavy +window with its clumsy shape and black sill. Like those day-blowing +flowers, which in the early morning have not yet unfurled their cups, +twisted by the chills of night, the girl, as yet hardly awake, let her +blue eyes wander beyond the neighboring roofs to look at the sky; +then, from habit, she cast them down on the gloomy depths of the +street, where they immediately met those of her adorer. Vanity, no +doubt, distressed her at being seen in undress; she started back, the +worn pulley gave way, and the sash fell with the rapid run, which in +our day has earned for this artless invention of our forefathers an +odious name, _Fenetre a la Guillotine_. The vision had disappeared. To +the young man the most radiant star of morning seemed to be hidden by +a cloud. + +During these little incidents the heavy inside shutters that protected +the slight windows of the shop of the "Cat and Racket" had been +removed as if by magic. The old door with its knocker was opened back +against the wall of the entry by a man-servant, apparently coeval with +the sign, who, with a shaking hand, hung upon it a square of cloth, on +which were embroidered in yellow silk the words: "Guillaume, successor +to Chevrel." Many a passer-by would have found it difficult to guess +the class of trade carried on by Monsieur Guillaume. Between the +strong iron bars which protected his shop windows on the outside, +certain packages, wrapped in brown linen, were hardly visible, though +as numerous as herrings swimming in a shoal. Notwithstanding the +primitive aspect of the Gothic front, Monsieur Guillaume, of all the +merchant clothiers in Paris, was the one whose stores were always the +best provided, whose connections were the most extensive, and whose +commercial honesty never lay under the slightest suspicion. If some of +his brethren in business made a contract with the Government, and had +not the required quantity of cloth, he was always ready to deliver it, +however large the number of pieces tendered for. The wily dealer knew +a thousand ways of extracting the largest profits without being +obliged, like them, to court patrons, cringing to them, or making them +costly presents. When his fellow-tradesmen could only pay in good +bills of long date, he would mention his notary as an accommodating +man, and managed to get a second profit out of the bargain, thanks to +this arrangement, which had made it a proverb among the traders of the +Rue Saint-Denis: "Heaven preserve you from Monsieur Guillaume's +notary!" to signify a heavy discount. + +The old merchant was to be seen standing on the threshold of his shop, +as if by a miracle, the instant the servant withdrew. Monsieur +Guillaume looked at the Rue Saint-Denis, at the neighboring shops, and +at the weather, like a man disembarking at Havre, and seeing France +once more after a long voyage. Having convinced himself that nothing +had changed while he was asleep, he presently perceived the stranger +on guard, and he, on his part, gazed at the patriarchal draper as +Humboldt may have scrutinized the first electric eel he saw in +America. Monsieur Guillaume wore loose black velvet breeches, +pepper-and-salt stockings, and square toed shoes with silver buckles. +His coat, with square-cut fronts, square-cut tails, and square-cut +collar clothed his slightly bent figure in greenish cloth, finished with +white metal buttons, tawny from wear. His gray hair was so accurately +combed and flattened over his yellow pate that it made it look like a +furrowed field. His little green eyes, that might have been pierced +with a gimlet, flashed beneath arches faintly tinged with red in the +place of eyebrows. Anxieties had wrinkled his forehead with as many +horizontal lines as there were creases in his coat. This colorless +face expressed patience, commercial shrewdness, and the sort of wily +cupidity which is needful in business. At that time these old families +were less rare than they are now, in which the characteristic habits +and costume of their calling, surviving in the midst of more recent +civilization, were preserved as cherished traditions, like the +antediluvian remains found by Cuvier in the quarries. + +The head of the Guillaume family was a notable upholder of ancient +practices; he might be heard to regret the Provost of Merchants, and +never did he mention a decision of the Tribunal of Commerce without +calling it the _Sentence of the Consuls_. Up and dressed the first of +the household, in obedience, no doubt, to these old customs, he stood +sternly awaiting the appearance of his three assistants, ready to +scold them in case they were late. These young disciples of Mercury +knew nothing more terrible than the wordless assiduity with which the +master scrutinized their faces and their movements on Monday in search +of evidence or traces of their pranks. But at this moment the old +clothier paid no heed to his apprentices; he was absorbed in trying to +divine the motive of the anxious looks which the young man in silk +stockings and a cloak cast alternately at his signboard and into the +depths of his shop. The daylight was now brighter, and enabled the +stranger to discern the cashier's corner enclosed by a railing and +screened by old green silk curtains, where were kept the immense +ledgers, the silent oracles of the house. The too inquisitive gazer +seemed to covet this little nook, and to be taking the plan of a +dining-room at one side, lighted by a skylight, whence the family at +meals could easily see the smallest incident that might occur at the +shop-door. So much affection for his dwelling seemed suspicious to a +trader who had lived long enough to remember the law of maximum +prices; Monsieur Guillaume naturally thought that this sinister +personage had an eye to the till of the Cat and Racket. After quietly +observing the mute duel which was going on between his master and the +stranger, the eldest of the apprentices, having seen that the young +man was stealthily watching the windows of the third floor, ventured +to place himself on the stone flag where Monsieur Guillaume was +standing. He took two steps out into the street, raised his head, and +fancied that he caught sight of Mademoiselle Augustine Guillaume in +hasty retreat. The draper, annoyed by his assistant's perspicacity, +shot a side glance at him; but the draper and his amorous apprentice +were suddenly relieved from the fears which the young man's presence +had excited in their minds. He hailed a hackney cab on its way to a +neighboring stand, and jumped into it with an air of affected +indifference. This departure was a balm to the hearts of the other two +lads, who had been somewhat uneasy as to meeting the victim of their +practical joke. + +"Well, gentlemen, what ails you that you are standing there with your +arms folded?" said Monsieur Guillaume to his three neophytes. "In +former days, bless you, when I was in Master Chevrel's service, I +should have overhauled more than two pieces of cloth by this time." + +"Then it was daylight earlier," said the second assistant, whose duty +this was. + +The old shopkeeper could not help smiling. Though two of these young +fellows, who were confided to his care by their fathers, rich +manufacturers at Louviers and at Sedan, had only to ask and to have a +hundred thousand francs the day when they were old enough to settle in +life, Guillaume regarded it as his duty to keep them under the rod of +an old-world despotism, unknown nowadays in the showy modern shops, +where the apprentices expect to be rich men at thirty. He made them +work like Negroes. These three assistants were equal to a business +which would harry ten such clerks as those whose sybaritical tastes +now swell the columns of the budget. Not a sound disturbed the peace +of this solemn house, where the hinges were always oiled, and where +the meanest article of furniture showed the respectable cleanliness +which reveals strict order and economy. The most waggish of the three +youths often amused himself by writing the date of its first +appearance on the Gruyere cheese which was left to their tender +mercies at breakfast, and which it was their pleasure to leave +untouched. This bit of mischief, and a few others of the same stamp, +would sometimes bring a smile on the face of the younger of +Guillaume's daughters, the pretty maiden who has just now appeared to +the bewitched man in the street. + +Though each of these apprentices, even the eldest, paid a round sum +for his board, not one of them would have been bold enough to remain +at the master's table when dessert was served. When Madame Guillaume +talked of dressing the salad, the hapless youths trembled as they +thought of the thrift with which her prudent hand dispensed the oil. +They could never think of spending a night away from the house without +having given, long before, a plausible reason for such an +irregularity. Every Sunday, each in his turn, two of them accompanied +the Guillaume family to Mass at Saint-Leu, and to vespers. +Mesdemoiselles Virginie and Augustine, simply attired in cotton print, +each took the arm of an apprentice and walked in front, under the +piercing eye of their mother, who closed the little family procession +with her husband, accustomed by her to carry two large prayer-books, +bound in black morocco. The second apprentice received no salary. As +for the eldest, whose twelve years of perseverance and discretion had +initiated him into the secrets of the house, he was paid eight hundred +francs a year as the reward of his labors. On certain family festivals +he received as a gratuity some little gift, to which Madame +Guillaume's dry and wrinkled hand alone gave value--netted purses, +which she took care to stuff with cotton wool, to show off the fancy +stitches, braces of the strongest make, or heavy silk stockings. +Sometimes, but rarely, this prime minister was admitted to share the +pleasures of the family when they went into the country, or when, +after waiting for months, they made up their mind to exert the right +acquired by taking a box at the theatre to command a piece which Paris +had already forgotten. + +As to the other assistants, the barrier of respect which formerly +divided a master draper from his apprentices was that they would have +been more likely to steal a piece of cloth than to infringe this +time-honored etiquette. Such reserve may now appear ridiculous; but +these old houses were a school of honesty and sound morals. The +masters adopted their apprentices. The young man's linen was cared +for, mended, and often replaced by the mistress of the house. If an +apprentice fell ill, he was the object of truly maternal attention. In +a case of danger the master lavished his money in calling in the most +celebrated physicians, for he was not answerable to their parents +merely for the good conduct and training of the lads. If one of them, +whose character was unimpeachable, suffered misfortune, these old +tradesmen knew how to value the intelligence he had displayed, and +they did not hesitate to entrust the happiness of their daughters to +men whom they had long trusted with their fortunes. Guillaume was one +of these men of the old school, and if he had their ridiculous side, +he had all their good qualities; and Joseph Lebas, the chief +assistant, an orphan without any fortune, was in his mind destined to +be the husband of Virginie, his elder daughter. But Joseph did not +share the symmetrical ideas of his master, who would not for an empire +have given his second daughter in marriage before the elder. The +unhappy assistant felt that his heart was wholly given to Mademoiselle +Augustine, the younger. In order to justify this passion, which had +grown up in secret, it is necessary to inquire a little further into +the springs of the absolute government which ruled the old +cloth-merchant's household. + +Guillaume had two daughters. The elder, Mademoiselle Virginie, was the +very image of her mother. Madame Guillaume, daughter of the Sieur +Chevrel, sat so upright in the stool behind her desk, that more than +once she had heard some wag bet that she was a stuffed figure. Her +long, thin face betrayed exaggerated piety. Devoid of attractions or +of amiable manners, Madame Guillaume commonly decorated her head--that +of a woman near on sixty--with a cap of a particular and unvarying +shape, with long lappets, like that of a widow. In all the +neighborhood she was known as the "portress nun." Her speech was curt, +and her movements had the stiff precision of a semaphore. Her eye, +with a gleam in it like a cat's, seemed to spite the world because she +was so ugly. Mademoiselle Virginie, brought up, like her younger +sister, under the domestic rule of her mother, had reached the age of +eight-and-twenty. Youth mitigated the graceless effect which her +likeness to her mother sometimes gave to her features, but maternal +austerity had endowed her with two great qualities which made up for +everything. She was patient and gentle. Mademoiselle Augustine, who +was but just eighteen, was not like either her father or her mother. +She was one of those daughters whose total absence of any physical +affinity with their parents makes one believe in the adage: "God gives +children." Augustine was little, or, to describe her more truly, +delicately made. Full of gracious candor, a man of the world could +have found no fault in the charming girl beyond a certain meanness of +gesture or vulgarity of attitude, and sometimes a want of ease. Her +silent and placid face was full of the transient melancholy which +comes over all young girls who are too weak to dare to resist their +mother's will. + +The two sisters, always plainly dressed, could not gratify the innate +vanity of womanhood but by a luxury of cleanliness which became them +wonderfully, and made them harmonize with the polished counters and +the shining shelves, on which the old man-servant never left a speck +of dust, and with the old-world simplicity of all they saw about them. +As their style of living compelled them to find the elements of +happiness in persistent work, Augustine and Virginie had hitherto +always satisfied their mother, who secretly prided herself on the +perfect characters of her two daughters. It is easy to imagine the +results of the training they had received. Brought up to a commercial +life, accustomed to hear nothing but dreary arguments and calculations +about trade, having studied nothing but grammar, book-keeping, a +little Bible-history, and the history of France in Le Ragois, and +never reading any book but what their mother would sanction, their +ideas had not acquired much scope. They knew perfectly how to keep +house; they were familiar with the prices of things; they understood +the difficulty of amassing money; they were economical, and had a +great respect for the qualities that make a man of business. Although +their father was rich, they were as skilled in darning as in +embroidery; their mother often talked of having them taught to cook, +so that they might know how to order a dinner and scold a cook with +due knowledge. They knew nothing of the pleasures of the world; and, +seeing how their parents spent their exemplary lives, they very rarely +suffered their eyes to wander beyond the walls of their hereditary +home, which to their mother was the whole universe. The meetings to +which family anniversaries gave rise filled in the future of earthly +joy to them. + +When the great drawing-room on the second floor was to be prepared to +receive company--Madame Roguin, a Demoiselle Chevrel, fifteen months +younger than her cousin, and bedecked with diamonds; young Rabourdin, +employed in the Finance Office; Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, the rich +perfumer, and his wife, known as Madame Cesar; Monsieur Camusot, the +richest silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, with his +father-in-law, Monsieur Cardot, two or three old bankers, and some +immaculate ladies--the arrangements, made necessary by the way in +which everything was packed away--the plate, the Dresden china, the +candlesticks, and the glass--made a variety in the monotonous lives of +the three women, who came and went and exerted themselves as nuns +would to receive their bishop. Then, in the evening, when all three +were tired out with having wiped, rubbed, unpacked, and arranged all +the gauds of the festival, as the girls helped their mother to +undress, Madame Guillaume would say to them, "Children, we have done +nothing today." + +When, on very great occasions, "the portress nun" allowed dancing, +restricting the games of boston, whist, and backgammon within the +limits of her bedroom, such a concession was accounted as the most +unhoped felicity, and made them happier than going to the great balls, +to two or three of which Guillaume would take the girls at the time of +the Carnival. + +And once a year the worthy draper gave an entertainment, when he +spared no expense. However rich and fashionable the persons invited +might be, they were careful not to be absent; for the most important +houses on the exchange had recourse to the immense credit, the +fortune, or the time-honored experience of Monsieur Guillaume. Still, +the excellent merchant's daughters did not benefit as much as might be +supposed by the lessons the world has to offer to young spirits. At +these parties, which were indeed set down in the ledger to the credit +of the house, they wore dresses the shabbiness of which made them +blush. Their style of dancing was not in any way remarkable, and their +mother's surveillance did not allow of their holding any conversation +with their partners beyond Yes and No. Also, the law of the old sign +of the Cat and Racket commanded that they should be home by eleven +o'clock, the hour when balls and fetes begin to be lively. Thus their +pleasures, which seemed to conform very fairly to their father's +position, were often made insipid by circumstances which were part of +the family habits and principles. + +As to their usual life, one remark will sufficiently paint it. Madame +Guillaume required her daughters to be dressed very early in the +morning, to come down every day at the same hour, and she ordered +their employments with monastic regularity. Augustine, however, had +been gifted by chance with a spirit lofty enough to feel the emptiness +of such a life. Her blue eyes would sometimes be raised as if to +pierce the depths of that gloomy staircase and those damp store-rooms. +After sounding the profound cloistral silence, she seemed to be +listening to remote, inarticulate revelations of the life of passion, +which accounts feelings as of higher value than things. And at such +moments her cheek would flush, her idle hands would lay the muslin +sewing on the polished oak counter, and presently her mother would say +in a voice, of which even the softest tones were sour, "Augustine, my +treasure, what are you thinking about?" It is possible that two +romances discovered by Augustine in the cupboard of a cook Madame +Guillaume had lately discharged--_Hippolyte Comte de Douglas_ and _Le +Comte de Comminges_--may have contributed to develop the ideas of the +young girl, who had devoured them in secret, during the long nights of +the past winter. + +And so Augustine's expression of vague longing, her gentle voice, her +jasmine skin, and her blue eyes had lighted in poor Lebas' soul a +flame as ardent as it was reverent. From an easily understood caprice, +Augustine felt no affection for the orphan; perhaps she did not know +that he loved her. On the other hand, the senior apprentice, with his +long legs, his chestnut hair, his big hands and powerful frame, had +found a secret admirer in Mademoiselle Virginie, who, in spite of her +dower of fifty thousand crowns, had as yet no suitor. Nothing could be +more natural than these two passions at cross-purposes, born in the +silence of the dingy shop, as violets bloom in the depths of a wood. +The mute and constant looks which made the young people's eyes meet by +sheer need of change in the midst of persistent work and cloistered +peace, was sure, sooner or later, to give rise to feelings of love. +The habit of seeing always the same face leads insensibly to our +reading there the qualities of the soul, and at last effaces all its +defects. + +"At the pace at which that man goes, our girls will soon have to go on +their knees to a suitor!" said Monsieur Guillaume to himself, as he +read the first decree by which Napoleon drew in advance on the +conscript classes. + +From that day the old merchant, grieved at seeing his eldest daughter +fade, remembered how he had married Mademoiselle Chevrel under much +the same circumstances as those of Joseph Lebas and Virginie. A good +bit of business, to marry off his daughter, and discharge a sacred +debt by repaying to an orphan the benefit he had formerly received +from his predecessor under similar conditions! Joseph Lebas, who was +now three-and-thirty, was aware of the obstacle which a difference of +fifteen years placed between Augustine and himself. Being also too +clear-sighted not to understand Monsieur Guillaume's purpose, he knew +his inexorable principles well enough to feel sure that the second +would never marry before the elder. So the hapless assistant, whose +heart was as warm as his legs were long and his chest deep, suffered +in silence. + +This was the state of the affairs in the tiny republic which, in the +heart of the Rue Saint-Denis, was not unlike a dependency of La +Trappe. But to give a full account of events as well as of feelings, +it is needful to go back to some months before the scene with which +this story opens. At dusk one evening, a young man passing the +darkened shop of the Cat and Racket, had paused for a moment to gaze +at a picture which might have arrested every painter in the world. The +shop was not yet lighted, and was as a dark cave beyond which the +dining-room was visible. A hanging lamp shed the yellow light which +lends such charm to pictures of the Dutch school. The white linen, the +silver, the cut glass, were brilliant accessories, and made more +picturesque by strong contrasts of light and shade. The figures of the +head of the family and his wife, the faces of the apprentices, and the +pure form of Augustine, near whom a fat chubby-cheeked maid was +standing, composed so strange a group; the heads were so singular, and +every face had so candid an expression; it was so easy to read the +peace, the silence, the modest way of life in this family, that to an +artist accustomed to render nature, there was something hopeless in +any attempt to depict this scene, come upon by chance. The stranger +was a young painter, who, seven years before, had gained the first +prize for painting. He had now just come back from Rome. His soul, +full-fed with poetry; his eyes, satiated with Raphael and Michael +Angelo, thirsted for real nature after long dwelling in the pompous +land where art has everywhere left something grandiose. Right or +wrong, this was his personal feeling. His heart, which had long been a +prey to the fire of Italian passion, craved one of those modest and +meditative maidens whom in Rome he had unfortunately seen only in +painting. From the enthusiasm produced in his excited fancy by the +living picture before him, he naturally passed to a profound +admiration for the principal figure; Augustine seemed to be pensive, +and did not eat; by the arrangement of the lamp the light fell full on +her face, and her bust seemed to move in a circle of fire, which threw +up the shape of her head and illuminated it with almost supernatural +effect. The artist involuntarily compared her to an exiled angel +dreaming of heaven. An almost unknown emotion, a limpid, seething love +flooded his heart. After remaining a minute, overwhelmed by the weight +of his ideas, he tore himself from his bliss, went home, ate nothing, +and could not sleep. + +The next day he went to his studio, and did not come out of it till he +had placed on canvas the magic of the scene of which the memory had, +in a sense, made him a devotee; his happiness was incomplete till he +should possess a faithful portrait of his idol. He went many times +past the house of the Cat and Racket; he even ventured in once or +twice, under a disguise, to get a closer view of the bewitching +creature that Madame Guillaume covered with her wing. For eight whole +months, devoted to his love and to his brush, he was lost to the sight +of his most intimate friends forgetting the world, the theatre, +poetry, music, and all his dearest habits. One morning Girodet broke +through all the barriers with which artists are familiar, and which +they know how to evade, went into his room, and woke him by asking, +"What are you going to send to the Salon?" The artist grasped his +friend's hand, dragged him off to the studio, uncovered a small easel +picture and a portrait. After a long and eager study of the two +masterpieces, Girodet threw himself on his comrade's neck and hugged +him, without speaking a word. His feelings could only be expressed as +he felt them--soul to soul. + +"You are in love?" said Girodet. + +They both knew that the finest portraits by Titian, Raphael, and +Leonardo da Vinci, were the outcome of the enthusiastic sentiments by +which, indeed, under various conditions, every masterpiece is +engendered. The artist only bent his head in reply. + +"How happy are you to be able to be in love, here, after coming back +from Italy! But I do not advise you to send such works as these to the +Salon," the great painter went on. "You see, these two works will not +be appreciated. Such true coloring, such prodigious work, cannot yet +be understood; the public is not accustomed to such depths. The +pictures we paint, my dear fellow, are mere screens. We should do +better to turn rhymes, and translate the antique poets! There is more +glory to be looked for there than from our luckless canvases!" + +Notwithstanding this charitable advice, the two pictures were +exhibited. The _Interior_ made a revolution in painting. It gave birth +to the pictures of genre which pour into all our exhibitions in such +prodigious quantity that they might be supposed to be produced by +machinery. As to the portrait, few artists have forgotten that +lifelike work; and the public, which as a body is sometimes +discerning, awarded it the crown which Girodet himself had hung over +it. The two pictures were surrounded by a vast throng. They fought for +places, as women say. Speculators and moneyed men would have covered +the canvas with double napoleons, but the artist obstinately refused +to sell or to make replicas. An enormous sum was offered him for the +right of engraving them, and the print-sellers were not more favored +than the amateurs. + +Though these incidents occupied the world, they were not of a nature +to penetrate the recesses of the monastic solitude in the Rue +Saint-Denis. However, when paying a visit to Madame Guillaume, the +notary's wife spoke of the exhibition before Augustine, of whom she was +very fond, and explained its purpose. Madame Roguin's gossip naturally +inspired Augustine with a wish to see the pictures, and with courage +enough to ask her cousin secretly to take her to the Louvre. Her +cousin succeeded in the negotiations she opened with Madame Guillaume +for permission to release the young girl for two hours from her dull +labors. Augustine was thus able to make her way through the crowd to +see the crowned work. A fit of trembling shook her like an aspen leaf +as she recognized herself. She was terrified, and looked about her to +find Madame Roguin, from whom she had been separated by a tide of +people. At that moment her frightened eyes fell on the impassioned +face of the young painter. She at once recalled the figure of a +loiterer whom, being curious, she had frequently observed, believing +him to be a new neighbor. + +"You see how love has inspired me," said the artist in the timid +creature's ear, and she stood in dismay at the words. + +She found supernatural courage to enable her to push through the crowd +and join her cousin, who was still struggling with the mass of people +that hindered her from getting to the picture. + +"You will be stifled!" cried Augustine. "Let us go." + +But there are moments, at the Salon, when two women are not always +free to direct their steps through the galleries. By the irregular +course to which they were compelled by the press, Mademoiselle +Guillaume and her cousin were pushed to within a few steps of the +second picture. Chance thus brought them, both together, to where they +could easily see the canvas made famous by fashion, for once in +agreement with talent. Madame Roguin's exclamation of surprise was +lost in the hubbub and buzz of the crowd; Augustine involuntarily shed +tears at the sight of this wonderful study. Then, by an almost +unaccountable impulse, she laid her finger on her lips, as she +perceived quite near her the ecstatic face of the young painter. The +stranger replied by a nod, and pointed to Madame Roguin, as a +spoil-sport, to show Augustine that he had understood. This pantomime +struck the young girl like hot coals on her flesh; she felt quite guilty +as she perceived that there was a compact between herself and the artist. +The suffocating heat, the dazzling sight of beautiful dresses, the +bewilderment produced in Augustine's brain by the truth of coloring, +the multitude of living or painted figures, the profusion of gilt +frames, gave her a sense of intoxication which doubled her alarms. She +would perhaps have fainted if an unknown rapture had not surged up in +her heart to vivify her whole being, in spite of this chaos of +sensations. She nevertheless believed herself to be under the power of +the Devil, of whose awful snares she had been warned of by the +thundering words of preachers. This moment was to her like a moment of +madness. She found herself accompanied to her cousin's carriage by the +young man, radiant with joy and love. Augustine, a prey to an +agitation new to her experience, an intoxication which seemed to +abandon her to nature, listened to the eloquent voice of her heart, +and looked again and again at the young painter, betraying the emotion +that came over her. Never had the bright rose of her cheeks shown in +stronger contrast with the whiteness of her skin. The artist saw her +beauty in all its bloom, her maiden modesty in all its glory. She +herself felt a sort of rapture mingled with terror at thinking that +her presence had brought happiness to him whose name was on every lip, +and whose talent lent immortality to transient scenes. She was loved! +It was impossible to doubt it. When she no longer saw the artist, +these simple words still echoed in her ear, "You see how love has +inspired me!" And the throbs of her heart, as they grew deeper, seemed +a pain, her heated blood revealed so many unknown forces in her being. +She affected a severe headache to avoid replying to her cousin's +questions concerning the pictures; but on their return Madame Roguin +could not forbear from speaking to Madame Guillaume of the fame that +had fallen on the house of the Cat and Racket, and Augustine quaked in +every limb as she heard her mother say that she should go to the Salon +to see her house there. The young girl again declared herself +suffering, and obtained leave to go to bed. + +"That is what comes of sight-seeing," exclaimed Monsieur Guillaume--"a +headache. And is it so very amusing to see in a picture what you can +see any day in your own street? Don't talk to me of your artists! Like +writers, they are a starveling crew. Why the devil need they choose my +house to flout it in their pictures?" + +"It may help to sell a few ells more of cloth," said Joseph Lebas. + +This remark did not protect art and thought from being condemned once +again before the judgment-seat of trade. As may be supposed, these +speeches did not infuse much hope into Augustine, who, during the +night, gave herself up to the first meditations of love. The events of +the day were like a dream, which it was a joy to recall to her mind. +She was initiated into the fears, the hopes, the remorse, all the ebb +and flow of feeling which could not fail to toss a heart so simple and +timid as hers. What a void she perceived in this gloomy house! What a +treasure she found in her soul! To be the wife of a genius, to share +his glory! What ravages must such a vision make in the heart of a girl +brought up among such a family! What hopes must it raise in a young +creature who, in the midst of sordid elements, had pined for a life of +elegance! A sunbeam had fallen into the prison. Augustine was suddenly +in love. So many of her feelings were soothed that she succumbed +without reflection. At eighteen does not love hold a prism between the +world and the eyes of a young girl? She was incapable of suspecting +the hard facts which result from the union of a loving woman with a +man of imagination, and she believed herself called to make him happy, +not seeing any disparity between herself and him. To her the future +would be as the present. When, next day, her father and mother +returned from the Salon, their dejected faces proclaimed some +disappointment. In the first place, the painter had removed the two +pictures; and then Madame Guillaume had lost her cashmere shawl. But +the news that the pictures had disappeared from the walls since her +visit revealed to Augustine a delicacy of sentiment which a woman can +always appreciate, even by instinct. + +On the morning when, on his way home from a ball, Theodore de +Sommervieux--for this was the name which fame had stamped on +Augustine's heart--had been squirted on by the apprentices while +awaiting the appearance of his artless little friend, who certainly +did not know that he was there, the lovers had seen each other for the +fourth time only since their meeting at the Salon. The difficulties +which the rule of the house placed in the way of the painter's ardent +nature gave added violence to his passion for Augustine. + +How could he get near to a young girl seated in a counting-house +between two such women as Mademoiselle Virginie and Madame Guillaume? +How could he correspond with her when her mother never left her side? +Ingenious, as lovers are, to imagine woes, Theodore saw a rival in one +of the assistants, to whose interests he supposed the others to be +devoted. If he should evade these sons of Argus, he would yet be +wrecked under the stern eye of the old draper or of Madame Guillaume. +The very vehemence of his passion hindered the young painter from +hitting on the ingenious expedients which, in prisoners and in lovers, +seem to be the last effort of intelligence spurred by a wild craving +for liberty, or by the fire of love. Theodore wandered about the +neighborhood with the restlessness of a madman, as though movement +might inspire him with some device. After racking his imagination, it +occurred to him to bribe the blowsy waiting-maid with gold. Thus a few +notes were exchanged at long intervals during the fortnight following +the ill-starred morning when Monsieur Guillaume and Theodore had so +scrutinized one another. At the present moment the young couple had +agreed to see each other at a certain hour of the day, and on Sunday, +at Saint-Leu, during Mass and vespers. Augustine had sent her dear +Theodore a list of the relations and friends of the family, to whom +the young painter tried to get access, in the hope of interesting, if +it were possible, in his love affairs, one of these souls absorbed in +money and trade, to whom a genuine passion must appear a quite +monstrous speculation, a thing unheard-of. Nothing meanwhile, was +altered at the sign of the Cat and Racket. If Augustine was +absent-minded, if, against all obedience to the domestic code, she stole +up to her room to make signals by means of a jar of flowers, if she +sighed, if she were lost in thought, no one observed it, not even her +mother. This will cause some surprise to those who have entered into +the spirit of the household, where an idea tainted with poetry would +be in startling contrast to persons and things, where no one could +venture on a gesture or a look which would not be seen and analyzed. +Nothing, however, could be more natural: the quiet barque that +navigated the stormy waters of the Paris Exchange, under the flag of +the Cat and Racket, was just now in the toils of one of these tempests +which, returning periodically, might be termed equinoctial. For the +last fortnight the five men forming the crew, with Madame Guillaume +and Mademoiselle Virginie, had been devoting themselves to the hard +labor, known as stock-taking. + +Every bale was turned over, and the length verified to ascertain the +exact value of the remnant. The ticket attached to each parcel was +carefully examined to see at what time the piece had been bought. The +retail price was fixed. Monsieur Guillaume, always on his feet, his +pen behind his ear, was like a captain commanding the working of the +ship. His sharp tones, spoken through a trap-door, to inquire into the +depths of the hold in the cellar-store, gave utterance to the +barbarous formulas of trade-jargon, which find expression only in +cipher. "How much H. N. Z.?"--"All sold."--"What is left of Q. X.?" +--"Two ells."--"At what price?"--"Fifty-five three."--"Set down A. at +three, with all of J. J., all of M. P., and what is left of V. D. O." +--A hundred other injunctions equally intelligible were spouted over +the counters like verses of modern poetry, quoted by romantic spirits, +to excite each other's enthusiasm for one of their poets. In the +evening Guillaume, shut up with his assistant and his wife, balanced +his accounts, carried on the balance, wrote to debtors in arrears, and +made out bills. All three were busy over this enormous labor, of which +the result could be stated on a sheet of foolscap, proving to the head +of the house that there was so much to the good in hard cash, so much +in goods, so much in bills and notes; that he did not owe a sou; that +a hundred or two hundred thousand francs were owing to him; that the +capital had been increased; that the farmlands, the houses, or the +investments were extended, or repaired, or doubled. Whence it became +necessary to begin again with increased ardor, to accumulate more +crown-pieces, without its ever entering the brain of these laborious +ants to ask--"To what end?" + +Favored by this annual turmoil, the happy Augustine escaped the +investigations of her Argus-eyed relations. At last, one Saturday +evening, the stock-taking was finished. The figures of the sum-total +showed a row of 0's long enough to allow Guillaume for once to relax +the stern rule as to dessert which reigned throughout the year. The +shrewd old draper rubbed his hands, and allowed his assistants to +remain at table. The members of the crew had hardly swallowed their +thimbleful of some home-made liqueur, when the rumble of a carriage +was heard. The family party were going to see _Cendrillon_ at the +Varietes, while the two younger apprentices each received a crown of +six francs, with permission to go wherever they chose, provided they +were in by midnight. + +Notwithstanding this debauch, the old cloth-merchant was shaving +himself at six next morning, put on his maroon-colored coat, of which +the glowing lights afforded him perennial enjoyment, fastened a pair +of gold buckles on the knee-straps of his ample satin breeches; and +then, at about seven o'clock, while all were still sleeping in the +house, he made his way to the little office adjoining the shop on the +first floor. Daylight came in through a window, fortified by iron +bars, and looking out on a small yard surrounded by such black walls +that it was very like a well. The old merchant opened the iron-lined +shutters, which were so familiar to him, and threw up the lower half +of the sash window. The icy air of the courtyard came in to cool the +hot atmosphere of the little room, full of the odor peculiar to +offices. + +The merchant remained standing, his hand resting on the greasy arm of +a large cane chair lined with morocco, of which the original hue had +disappeared; he seemed to hesitate as to seating himself. He looked +with affection at the double desk, where his wife's seat, opposite his +own, was fitted into a little niche in the wall. He contemplated the +numbered boxes, the files, the implements, the cash box--objects all +of immemorial origin, and fancied himself in the room with the shade +of Master Chevrel. He even pulled out the high stool on which he had +once sat in the presence of his departed master. This stool, covered +with black leather, the horse-hair showing at every corner--as it had +long done, without, however, coming out--he placed with a shaking hand +on the very spot where his predecessor had put it, and then, with an +emotion difficult to describe, he pulled a bell, which rang at the +head of Joseph Lebas' bed. When this decisive blow had been struck, +the old man, for whom, no doubt, these reminiscences were too much, +took up three or four bills of exchange, and looked at them without +seeing them. + +Suddenly Joseph Lebas stood before him. + +"Sit down there," said Guillaume, pointing to the stool. + +As the old master draper had never yet bid his assistant be seated in +his presence, Joseph Lebas was startled. + +"What do you think of these notes?" asked Guillaume. + +"They will never be paid." + +"Why?" + +"Well, I heard the day before yesterday Etienne and Co. had made their +payments in gold." + +"Oh, oh!" said the draper. "Well, one must be very ill to show one's +bile. Let us speak of something else.--Joseph, the stock-taking is +done." + +"Yes, monsieur, and the dividend is one of the best you have ever +made." + +"Do not use new-fangled words. Say the profits, Joseph. Do you know, +my boy, that this result is partly owing to you? And I do not intend +to pay you a salary any longer. Madame Guillaume has suggested to me +to take you into partnership.--'Guillaume and Lebas;' will not that +make a good business name? We might add, 'and Co.' to round off the +firm's signature." + +Tears rose to the eyes of Joseph Lebas, who tried to hide them. + +"Oh, Monsieur Guillaume, how have I deserved such kindness? I only do +my duty. It was so much already that you should take an interest in a +poor orph----" + +He was brushing the cuff of his left sleeve with his right hand, and +dared not look at the old man, who smiled as he thought that this +modest young fellow no doubt needed, as he had needed once on a time, +some encouragement to complete his explanation. + +"To be sure," said Virginie's father, "you do not altogether deserve +this favor, Joseph. You have not so much confidence in me as I have in +you." (The young man looked up quickly.) "You know all the secrets of +the cash-box. For the last two years I have told you almost all my +concerns. I have sent you to travel in our goods. In short, I have +nothing on my conscience as regards you. But you--you have a soft +place, and you have never breathed a word of it." Joseph Lebas +blushed. "Ah, ha!" cried Guillaume, "so you thought you could deceive +an old fox like me? When you knew that I had scented the Lecocq +bankruptcy?" + +"What, monsieur?" replied Joseph Lebas, looking at his master as +keenly as his master looked at him, "you knew that I was in love?" + +"I know everything, you rascal," said the worthy and cunning old +merchant, pulling the assistant's ear. "And I forgive you--I did the +same myself." + +"And you will give her to me?" + +"Yes--with fifty thousand crowns; and I will leave you as much by +will, and we will start on our new career under the name of a new +firm. We will do good business yet, my boy!" added the old man, +getting up and flourishing his arms. "I tell you, son-in-law, there is +nothing like trade. Those who ask what pleasure is to be found in it +are simpletons. To be on the scent of a good bargain, to hold your own +on 'Change, to watch as anxiously as at the gaming-table whether +Etienne and Co. will fail or no, to see a regiment of Guards march +past all dressed in your cloth, to trip your neighbor up--honestly of +course!--to make the goods cheaper than others can; then to carry out +an undertaking which you have planned, which begins, grows, totters, +and succeeds! to know the workings of every house of business as well +as a minister of police, so as never to make a mistake; to hold up +your head in the midst of wrecks, to have friends by correspondence in +every manufacturing town; is not that a perpetual game, Joseph? That +is life, that is! I shall die in that harness, like old Chevrel, but +taking it easy now, all the same." + +In the heat of his eager rhetoric, old Guillaume had scarcely looked +at his assistant, who was weeping copiously. "Why, Joseph, my poor +boy, what is the matter?" + +"Oh, I love her so! Monsieur Guillaume, that my heart fails me; I +believe----" + +"Well, well, boy," said the old man, touched, "you are happier than +you know, by God! For she loves you. I know it." + +And he blinked his little green eyes as he looked at the young man. + +"Mademoiselle Augustine! Mademoiselle Augustine!" exclaimed Joseph +Lebas in his rapture. + +He was about to rush out of the room when he felt himself clutched by +a hand of iron, and his astonished master spun him round in front of +him once more. + +"What has Augustine to do with this matter?" he asked, in a voice +which instantly froze the luckless Joseph. + +"Is it not she that--that--I love?" stammered the assistant. + +Much put out by his own want of perspicacity, Guillaume sat down +again, and rested his long head in his hands to consider the +perplexing situation in which he found himself. Joseph Lebas, +shamefaced and in despair, remained standing. + +"Joseph," the draper said with frigid dignity, "I was speaking of +Virginie. Love cannot be made to order, I know. I know, too, that you +can be trusted. We will forget all this. I will not let Augustine +marry before Virginie.--Your interest will be ten per cent." + +The young man, to whom love gave I know not what power of courage and +eloquence, clasped his hand, and spoke in his turn--spoke for a +quarter of an hour, with so much warmth and feeling, that he altered +the situation. If the question had been a matter of business the old +tradesman would have had fixed principles to guide his decision; but, +tossed a thousand miles from commerce, on the ocean of sentiment, +without a compass, he floated, as he told himself, undecided in the +face of such an unexpected event. Carried away by his fatherly +kindness, he began to beat about the bush. + +"Deuce take it, Joseph, you must know that there are ten years between +my two children. Mademoiselle Chevrel was no beauty, still she has had +nothing to complain of in me. Do as I did. Come, come, don't cry. Can +you be so silly? What is to be done? It can be managed perhaps. There +is always some way out of a scrape. And we men are not always devoted +Celadons to our wives--you understand? Madame Guillaume is very pious. +. . . Come. By Gad, boy, give your arm to Augustine this morning as we +go to Mass." + +These were the phrases spoken at random by the old draper, and their +conclusion made the lover happy. He was already thinking of a friend +of his as a match for Mademoiselle Virginie, as he went out of the +smoky office, pressing his future father-in-law's hand, after saying +with a knowing look that all would turn out for the best. + +"What will Madame Guillaume say to it?" was the idea that greatly +troubled the worthy merchant when he found himself alone. + +At breakfast Madame Guillaume and Virginie, to whom the draper had not +yet confided his disappointment, cast meaning glances at Joseph Lebas, +who was extremely embarrassed. The young assistant's bashfulness +commended him to his mother-in-law's good graces. The matron became so +cheerful that she smiled as she looked at her husband, and allowed +herself some little pleasantries of time-honored acceptance in such +simple families. She wondered whether Joseph or Virginie were the +taller, to ask them to compare their height. This preliminary fooling +brought a cloud to the master's brow, and he even made such a point of +decorum that he desired Augustine to take the assistant's arm on their +way to Saint-Leu. Madame Guillaume, surprised at this manly delicacy, +honored her husband with a nod of approval. So the procession left the +house in such order as to suggest no suspicious meaning to the +neighbors. + +"Does it not seem to you, Mademoiselle Augustine," said the assistant, +and he trembled, "that the wife of a merchant whose credit is as good +as Monsieur Guillaume's, for instance, might enjoy herself a little +more than Madame your mother does? Might wear diamonds--or keep a +carriage? For my part, if I were to marry, I should be glad to take +all the work, and see my wife happy. I would not put her into the +counting-house. In the drapery business, you see, a woman is not so +necessary now as formerly. Monsieur Guillaume was quite right to act +as he did--and besides, his wife liked it. But so long as a woman +knows how to turn her hand to the book-keeping, the correspondence, +the retail business, the orders, and her housekeeping, so as not to +sit idle, that is enough. At seven o'clock, when the shop is shut, I +shall take my pleasures, go to the play, and into company.--But you +are not listening to me." + +"Yes, indeed, Monsieur Joseph. What do you think of painting? That is +a fine calling." + +"Yes. I know a master house-painter, Monsieur Lourdois. He is +well-to-do." + +Thus conversing, the family reached the Church of Saint-Leu. There +Madame Guillaume reasserted her rights, and, for the first time, +placed Augustine next herself, Virginie taking her place on the fourth +chair, next to Lebas. During the sermon all went well between +Augustine and Theodore, who, standing behind a pillar, worshiped his +Madonna with fervent devotion; but at the elevation of the Host, +Madame Guillaume discovered, rather late, that her daughter Augustine +was holding her prayer-book upside down. She was about to speak to her +strongly, when, lowering her veil, she interrupted her own devotions +to look in the direction where her daughter's eyes found attraction. +By the help of her spectacles she saw the young artist, whose +fashionable elegance seemed to proclaim him a cavalry officer on leave +rather than a tradesman of the neighborhood. It is difficult to +conceive of the state of violent agitation in which Madame Guillaume +found herself--she, who flattered herself on having brought up her +daughters to perfection--on discovering in Augustine a clandestine +passion of which her prudery and ignorance exaggerated the perils. She +believed her daughter to be cankered to the core. + +"Hold your book right way up, miss," she muttered in a low voice, +tremulous with wrath. She snatched away the tell-tale prayer-book and +returned it with the letter-press right way up. "Do not allow your +eyes to look anywhere but at your prayers," she added, "or I shall +have something to say to you. Your father and I will talk to you after +church." + +These words came like a thunderbolt on poor Augustine. She felt faint; +but, torn between the distress she felt and the dread of causing a +commotion in church she bravely concealed her anguish. It was, +however, easy to discern the stormy state of her soul from the +trembling of her prayer-book, and the tears which dropped on every +page she turned. From the furious glare shot at him by Madame +Guillaume the artist saw the peril into which his love affair had +fallen; he went out, with a raging soul, determined to venture all. + +"Go to your room, miss!" said Madame Guillaume, on their return home; +"we will send for you, but take care not to quit it." + +The conference between the husband and wife was conducted so secretly +that at first nothing was heard of it. Virginie, however, who had +tried to give her sister courage by a variety of gentle remonstrances, +carried her good nature so far as to listen at the door of her +mother's bedroom where the discussion was held, to catch a word or +two. The first time she went down to the lower floor she heard her +father exclaim, "Then, madame, do you wish to kill your daughter?" + +"My poor dear!" said Virginie, in tears, "papa takes your part." + +"And what do they want to do to Theodore?" asked the innocent girl. + +Virginie, inquisitive, went down again; but this time she stayed +longer; she learned that Joseph Lebas loved Augustine. It was written +that on this memorable day, this house, generally so peaceful, should +be a hell. Monsieur Guillaume brought Joseph Lebas to despair by +telling him of Augustine's love for a stranger. Lebas, who had advised +his friend to become a suitor for Mademoiselle Virginie, saw all his +hopes wrecked. Mademoiselle Virginie, overcome by hearing that Joseph +had, in a way, refused her, had a sick headache. The dispute that had +arisen from the discussion between Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, +when, for the third time in their lives, they had been of antagonistic +opinions, had shown itself in a terrible form. Finally, at half-past +four in the afternoon, Augustine, pale, trembling, and with red eyes, +was haled before her father and mother. The poor child artlessly +related the too brief tale of her love. Reassured by a speech from her +father, who promised to listen to her in silence, she gathered courage +as she pronounced to her parents the name of Theodore de Sommervieux, +with a mischievous little emphasis on the aristocratic _de_. And +yielding to the unknown charm of talking of her feelings, she was +brave enough to declare with innocent decision that she loved Monsieur +de Sommervieux, that she had written to him, and she added, with tears +in her eyes: "To sacrifice me to another man would make me wretched." + +"But, Augustine, you cannot surely know what a painter is?" cried her +mother with horror. + +"Madame Guillaume!" said the old man, compelling her to silence. +--"Augustine," he went on, "artists are generally little better than +beggars. They are too extravagant not to be always a bad sort. I +served the late Monsieur Joseph Vernet, the late Monsieur Lekain, and +the late Monsieur Noverre. Oh, if you could only know the tricks +played on poor Father Chevrel by that Monsieur Noverre, by the +Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and especially by Monsieur Philidor! They +are a set of rascals; I know them well! They all have a gab and nice +manners. Ah, your Monsieur Sumer--, Somm----" + +"De Sommervieux, papa." + +"Well, well, de Sommervieux, well and good. He can never have been +half so sweet to you as Monsieur le Chevalier de Saint-Georges was to +me the day I got a verdict of the consuls against him. And in those +days they were gentlemen of quality." + +"But, father, Monsieur Theodore is of good family, and he wrote me +that he is rich; his father was called Chevalier de Sommervieux before +the Revolution." + +At these words Monsieur Guillaume looked at his terrible better half, +who, like an angry woman, sat tapping the floor with her foot while +keeping sullen silence; she avoided even casting wrathful looks at +Augustine, appearing to leave to Monsieur Guillaume the whole +responsibility in so grave a matter, since her opinion was not +listened to. Nevertheless, in spite of her apparent self-control, when +she saw her husband giving way so mildly under a catastrophe which had +no concern with business, she exclaimed: + +"Really, monsieur, you are so weak with your daughters! However----" + +The sound of a carriage, which stopped at the door, interrupted the +rating which the old draper already quaked at. In a minute Madame +Roguin was standing in the middle of the room, and looking at the +actors in this domestic scene: "I know all, my dear cousin," said she, +with a patronizing air. + +Madame Roguin made the great mistake of supposing that a Paris +notary's wife could play the part of a favorite of fashion. + +"I know all," she repeated, "and I have come into Noah's Ark, like the +dove, with the olive-branch. I read that allegory in the _Genie du +Christianisme_," she added, turning to Madame Guillaume; "the allusion +ought to please you, cousin. Do you know," she went on, smiling at +Augustine, "that Monsieur de Sommervieux is a charming man? He gave me +my portrait this morning, painted by a master's hand. It is worth at +least six thousand francs." And at these words she patted Monsieur +Guillaume on the arm. The old draper could not help making a grimace +with his lips, which was peculiar to him. + +"I know Monsieur de Sommervieux very well," the Dove ran on. "He has +come to my evenings this fortnight past, and made them delightful. He +has told me all his woes, and commissioned me to plead for him. I know +since this morning that he adores Augustine, and he shall have her. +Ah, cousin, do not shake your head in refusal. He will be created +Baron, I can tell you, and has just been made Chevalier of the Legion +of Honor, by the Emperor himself, at the Salon. Roguin is now his +lawyer, and knows all his affairs. Well! Monsieur de Sommervieux has +twelve thousand francs a year in good landed estate. Do you know that +the father-in-law of such a man may get a rise in life--be mayor of +his _arrondissement_, for instance. Have we not seen Monsieur Dupont +become a Count of the Empire, and a senator, all because he went as +mayor to congratulate the Emperor on his entry into Vienna? Oh, this +marriage must take place! For my part, I adore the dear young man. His +behavior to Augustine is only met with in romances. Be easy, little +one, you shall be happy, and every girl will wish she were in your +place. Madame la Duchesse de Carigliano, who comes to my 'At Homes,' +raves about Monsieur de Sommervieux. Some spiteful people say she only +comes to me to meet him; as if a duchesse of yesterday was doing too +much honor to a Chevrel, whose family have been respected citizens +these hundred years! + +"Augustine," Madame Roguin went on, after a short pause, "I have seen +the portrait. Heavens! How lovely it is! Do you know that the Emperor +wanted to have it? He laughed, and said to the Deputy High Constable +that if there were many women like that in his court while all the +kings visited it, he should have no difficulty about preserving the +peace of Europe. Is not that a compliment?" + +The tempests with which the day had begun were to resemble those of +nature, by ending in clear and serene weather. Madame Roguin displayed +so much address in her harangue, she was able to touch so many strings +in the dry hearts of Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, that at last she +hit on one which she could work upon. At this strange period commerce +and finance were more than ever possessed by the crazy mania for +seeking alliance with rank; and the generals of the Empire took full +advantage of this desire. Monsieur Guillaume, as a singular exception, +opposed this deplorable craving. His favorite axioms were that, to +secure happiness, a woman must marry a man of her own class; that +every one was punished sooner or later for having climbed too high; +that love could so little endure under the worries of a household, +that both husband and wife needed sound good qualities to be happy, +that it would not do for one to be far in advance of the other, +because, above everything, they must understand each other; if a man +spoke Greek and his wife Latin, they might come to die of hunger. He +had himself invented this sort of adage. And he compared such +marriages to old-fashioned materials of mixed silk and wool. Still, +there is so much vanity at the bottom of man's heart that the prudence +of the pilot who steered the Cat and Racket so wisely gave way before +Madame Roguin's aggressive volubility. Austere Madame Guillaume was +the first to see in her daughter's affection a reason for abdicating +her principles and for consenting to receive Monsieur de Sommervieux, +whom she promised herself she would put under severe inquisition. + +The old draper went to look for Joseph Lebas, and inform him of the +state of affairs. At half-past six, the dining-room immortalized by +the artist saw, united under its skylight, Monsieur and Madame Roguin, +the young painter and his charming Augustine, Joseph Lebas, who found +his happiness in patience, and Mademoiselle Virginie, convalescent +from her headache. Monsieur and Madame Guillaume saw in perspective +both their children married, and the fortunes of the Cat and Racket +once more in skilful hands. Their satisfaction was at its height when, +at dessert, Theodore made them a present of the wonderful picture +which they had failed to see, representing the interior of the old +shop, and to which they all owed so much happiness. + +"Isn't it pretty!" cried Guillaume. "And to think that any one would +pay thirty thousand francs for that!" + +"Because you can see my lappets in it," said Madame Guillaume. + +"And the cloth unrolled!" added Lebas; "you might take it up in your +hand." + +"Drapery always comes out well," replied the painter. "We should be +only too happy, we modern artists, if we could touch the perfection of +antique drapery." + +"So you like drapery!" cried old Guillaume. "Well, then, by Gad! shake +hands on that, my young friend. Since you can respect trade, we shall +understand each other. And why should it be despised? The world began +with trade, since Adam sold Paradise for an apple. He did not strike a +good bargain though!" And the old man roared with honest laughter, +encouraged by the champagne, which he sent round with a liberal hand. +The band that covered the young artist's eyes was so thick that he +thought his future parents amiable. He was not above enlivening them +by a few jests in the best taste. So he too pleased every one. In the +evening, when the drawing-room, furnished with what Madame Guillaume +called "everything handsome," was deserted, and while she flitted from +the table to the chimney-piece, from the candelabra to the tall +candlesticks, hastily blowing out the wax-lights, the worthy draper, +who was always clear-sighted when money was in question, called +Augustine to him, and seating her on his knee, spoke as follows:-- + +"My dear child, you shall marry your Sommervieux since you insist; you +may, if you like, risk your capital in happiness. But I am not going +to be hoodwinked by the thirty thousand francs to be made by spoiling +good canvas. Money that is lightly earned is lightly spent. Did I not +hear that hare-brained youngster declare this evening that money was +made round that it might roll. If it is round for spendthrifts, it is +flat for saving folks who pile it up. Now, my child, that fine +gentleman talks of giving you carriages and diamonds! He has money, +let him spend it on you; so be it. It is no concern of mine. But as to +what I can give you, I will not have the crown-pieces I have picked up +with so much toil wasted in carriages and frippery. Those who spend +too fast never grow rich. A hundred thousand crowns, which is your +fortune, will not buy up Paris. It is all very well to look forward to +a few hundred thousand francs to be yours some day; I shall keep you +waiting for them as long as possible, by Gad! So I took your lover +aside, and a man who managed the Lecocq bankruptcy had not much +difficulty in persuading the artist to marry under a settlement of his +wife's money on herself. I will keep an eye on the marriage contract +to see that what he is to settle on you is safely tied up. So now, my +child, I hope to be a grandfather, by Gad! I will begin at once to lay +up for my grandchildren; but swear to me, here and now, never to sign +any papers relating to money without my advice; and if I go soon to +join old Father Chevrel, promise to consult young Lebas, your +brother-in-law." + +"Yes, father, I swear it." + +At these words, spoken in a gentle voice, the old man kissed his +daughter on both cheeks. That night the lovers slept as soundly as +Monsieur and Madame Guillaume. + + + +Some few months after this memorable Sunday the high altar of +Saint-Leu was the scene of two very different weddings. Augustine and +Theodore appeared in all the radiance of happiness, their eyes beaming +with love, dressed with elegance, while a fine carriage waited for +them. Virginie, who had come in a good hired fly with the rest of the +family, humbly followed her younger sister, dressed in the simplest +fashion like a shadow necessary to the harmony of the picture. +Monsieur Guillaume had exerted himself to the utmost in the church to +get Virginie married before Augustine, but the priests, high and low, +persisted in addressing the more elegant of the two brides. He heard +some of his neighbors highly approving the good sense of Mademoiselle +Virginie, who was making, as they said, the more substantial match, +and remaining faithful to the neighborhood; while they fired a few +taunts, prompted by envy of Augustine, who was marrying an artist and +a man of rank; adding, with a sort of dismay, that if the Guillaumes +were ambitious, there was an end to the business. An old fan-maker +having remarked that such a prodigal would soon bring his wife to +beggary, father Guillaume prided himself _in petto_ for his prudence +in the matter of marriage settlements. In the evening, after a +splendid ball, followed by one of those substantial suppers of which +the memory is dying out in the present generation, Monsieur and Madame +Guillaume remained in a fine house belonging to them in the Rue du +Colombier, where the wedding had been held; Monsieur and Madame Lebas +returned in their fly to the old home in the Rue Saint-Denis, to steer +the good ship Cat and Racket. The artist, intoxicated with happiness, +carried off his beloved Augustine, and eagerly lifting her out of +their carriage when it reached the Rue des Trois-Freres, led her to an +apartment embellished by all the arts. + +The fever of passion which possessed Theodore made a year fly over the +young couple without a single cloud to dim the blue sky under which +they lived. Life did not hang heavy on the lovers' hands. Theodore +lavished on every day inexhaustible _fioriture_ of enjoyment, and he +delighted to vary the transports of passion by the soft languor of +those hours of repose when souls soar so high that they seem to have +forgotten all bodily union. Augustine was too happy for reflection; +she floated on an undulating tide of rapture; she thought she could +not do enough by abandoning herself to sanctioned and sacred married +love; simple and artless, she had no coquetry, no reserves, none of +the dominion which a worldly-minded girl acquires over her husband by +ingenious caprice; she loved too well to calculate for the future, and +never imagined that so exquisite a life could come to an end. Happy in +being her husband's sole delight, she believed that her +inextinguishable love would always be her greatest grace in his eyes, +as her devotion and obedience would be a perennial charm. And, indeed, +the ecstasy of love had made her so brilliantly lovely that her beauty +filled her with pride, and gave her confidence that she could always +reign over a man so easy to kindle as Monsieur de Sommervieux. Thus +her position as a wife brought her no knowledge but the lessons of +love. + +In the midst of her happiness, she was still the simple child who had +lived in obscurity in the Rue Saint-Denis, and who never thought of +acquiring the manners, the information, the tone of the world she had +to live in. Her words being the words of love, she revealed in them, +no doubt, a certain pliancy of mind and a certain refinement of +speech; but she used the language common to all women when they find +themselves plunged in passion, which seems to be their element. When, +by chance, Augustine expressed an idea that did not harmonize with +Theodore's, the young artist laughed, as we laugh at the first +mistakes of a foreigner, though they end by annoying us if they are +not corrected. + +In spite of all this love-making, by the end of this year, as +delightful as it was swift, Sommervieux felt one morning the need for +resuming his work and his old habits. His wife was expecting their +first child. He saw some friends again. During the tedious discomforts +of the year when a young wife is nursing an infant for the first time, +he worked, no doubt, with zeal, but he occasionally sought diversion +in the fashionable world. The house which he was best pleased to +frequent was that of the Duchesse de Carigliano, who had at last +attracted the celebrated artist to her parties. When Augustine was +quite well again, and her boy no longer required the assiduous care +which debars a mother from social pleasures, Theodore had come to the +stage of wishing to know the joys of satisfied vanity to be found in +society by a man who shows himself with a handsome woman, the object +of envy and admiration. + +To figure in drawing-rooms with the reflected lustre of her husband's +fame, and to find other women envious of her, was to Augustine a new +harvest of pleasures; but it was the last gleam of conjugal happiness. +She first wounded her husband's vanity when, in spite of vain efforts, +she betrayed her ignorance, the inelegance of her language, and the +narrowness of her ideas. Sommervieux's nature, subjugated for nearly +two years and a half by the first transports of love, now, in the calm +of less new possession, recovered its bent and habits, for a while +diverted from their channel. Poetry, painting, and the subtle joys of +imagination have inalienable rights over a lofty spirit. These +cravings of a powerful soul had not been starved in Theodore during +these two years; they had only found fresh pasture. As soon as the +meadows of love had been ransacked, and the artist had gathered roses +and cornflowers as the children do, so greedily that he did not see +that his hands could hold no more, the scene changed. When the painter +showed his wife the sketches for his finest compositions he heard her +exclaim, as her father had done, "How pretty!" This tepid admiration +was not the outcome of conscientious feeling, but of her faith on the +strength of love. + +Augustine cared more for a look than for the finest picture. The only +sublime she knew was that of the heart. At last Theodore could not +resist the evidence of the cruel fact--his wife was insensible to +poetry, she did not dwell in his sphere, she could not follow him in +all his vagaries, his inventions, his joys and his sorrows; she walked +groveling in the world of reality, while his head was in the skies. +Common minds cannot appreciate the perennial sufferings of a being +who, while bound to another by the most intimate affections, is +obliged constantly to suppress the dearest flights of his soul, and to +thrust down into the void those images which a magic power compels him +to create. To him the torture is all the more intolerable because his +feeling towards his companion enjoins, as its first law, that they +should have no concealments, but mingle the aspirations of their +thought as perfectly as the effusions of their soul. The demands of +nature are not to be cheated. She is as inexorable as necessity, which +is, indeed, a sort of social nature. Sommervieux took refuge in the +peace and silence of his studio, hoping that the habit of living with +artists might mould his wife and develop in her the dormant germs of +lofty intelligence which some superior minds suppose must exist in +every being. But Augustine was too sincerely religious not to take +fright at the tone of artists. At the first dinner Theodore gave, she +heard a young painter say, with the childlike lightness, which to her +was unintelligible, and which redeems a jest from the taint of +profanity, "But, madame, your Paradise cannot be more beautiful than +Raphael's Transfiguration!--Well, and I got tired of looking at that." + +Thus Augustine came among this sparkling set in a spirit of distrust +which no one could fail to see. She was a restraint on their freedom. +Now an artist who feels restraint is pitiless; he stays away, or +laughs it to scorn. Madame Guillaume, among other absurdities, had an +excessive notion of the dignity she considered the prerogative of a +married woman; and Augustine, though she had often made fun of it, +could not help a slight imitation of her mother's primness. This +extreme propriety, which virtuous wives do not always avoid, suggested +a few epigrams in the form of sketches, in which the harmless jest was +in such good taste that Sommervieux could not take offence; and even +if they had been more severe, these pleasantries were after all only +reprisals from his friends. Still, nothing could seem a trifle to a +spirit so open as Theodore's to impressions from without. A coldness +insensibly crept over him, and inevitably spread. To attain conjugal +happiness we must climb a hill whose summit is a narrow ridge, close +to a steep and slippery descent: the painter's love was falling down +it. He regarded his wife as incapable of appreciating the moral +considerations which justified him in his own eyes for his singular +behavior to her, and believed himself quite innocent in hiding from +her thoughts she could not enter into, and peccadilloes outside the +jurisdiction of a _bourgeois_ conscience. Augustine wrapped herself in +sullen and silent grief. These unconfessed feelings placed a shroud +between the husband and wife which could not fail to grow thicker day +by day. Though her husband never failed in consideration for her, +Augustine could not help trembling as she saw that he kept for the +outer world those treasures of wit and grace that he formerly would +lay at her feet. She soon began to find sinister meaning in the +jocular speeches that are current in the world as to the inconstancy +of men. She made no complaints, but her demeanor conveyed reproach. + +Three years after her marriage this pretty young woman, who dashed +past in her handsome carriage, and lived in a sphere of glory and +riches to the envy of heedless folk incapable of taking a just view of +the situations of life, was a prey to intense grief. She lost her +color; she reflected; she made comparisons; then sorrow unfolded to +her the first lessons of experience. She determined to restrict +herself bravely within the round of duty, hoping that by this generous +conduct she might sooner or later win back her husband's love. But it +was not so. When Sommervieux, fired with work, came in from his +studio, Augustine did not put away her work so quickly but that the +painter might find his wife mending the household linen, and his own, +with all the care of a good housewife. She supplied generously and +without a murmur the money needed for his lavishness; but in her +anxiety to husband her dear Theodore's fortune, she was strictly +economical for herself and in certain details of domestic management. +Such conduct is incompatible with the easy-going habits of artists, +who, at the end of their life, have enjoyed it so keenly that they +never inquire into the causes of their ruin. + +It is useless to note every tint of shadow by which the brilliant hues +of their honeymoon were overcast till they were lost in utter +blackness. One evening poor Augustine, who had for some time heard her +husband speak with enthusiasm of the Duchesse de Carigliano, received +from a friend certain malignantly charitable warnings as to the nature +of the attachment which Sommervieux had formed for this celebrated +flirt of the Imperial Court. At one-and-twenty, in all the splendor of +youth and beauty, Augustine saw herself deserted for a woman of +six-and-thirty. Feeling herself so wretched in the midst of a world of +festivity which to her was a blank, the poor little thing could no +longer understand the admiration she excited, or the envy of which she +was the object. Her face assumed a different expression. Melancholy, +tinged her features with the sweetness of resignation and the pallor +of scorned love. Ere long she too was courted by the most fascinating +men; but she remained lonely and virtuous. Some contemptuous words +which escaped her husband filled her with incredible despair. A +sinister flash showed her the breaches which, as a result of her +sordid education, hindered the perfect union of her soul with +Theodore's; she loved him well enough to absolve him and condemn +herself. She shed tears of blood, and perceived, too late, that there +are _mesalliances_ of the spirit as well as of rank and habits. As she +recalled the early raptures of their union, she understood the full +extent of that lost happiness, and accepted the conclusion that so +rich a harvest of love was in itself a whole life, which only sorrow +could pay for. At the same time, she loved too truly to lose all hope. +At one-and-twenty she dared undertake to educate herself, and make her +imagination, at least, worthy of that she admired. "If I am not a +poet," thought she, "at any rate, I will understand poetry." + +Then, with all the strength of will, all the energy which every woman +can display when she loves, Madame de Sommervieux tried to alter her +character, her manners, and her habits; but by dint of devouring books +and learning undauntedly, she only succeeded in becoming less +ignorant. Lightness of wit and the graces of conversation are a gift +of nature, or the fruit of education begun in the cradle. She could +appreciate music and enjoy it, but she could not sing with taste. She +understood literature and the beauties of poetry, but it was too late +to cultivate her refractory memory. She listened with pleasure to +social conversation, but she could contribute nothing brilliant. Her +religious notions and home-grown prejudices were antagonistic to the +complete emancipation of her intelligence. Finally, a foregone +conclusion against her had stolen into Theodore's mind, and this she +could not conquer. The artist would laugh, at those who flattered him +about his wife, and his irony had some foundation; he so overawed the +pathetic young creature that, in his presence, or alone with him, she +trembled. Hampered by her too eager desire to please, her wits and her +knowledge vanished in one absorbing feeling. Even her fidelity vexed +the unfaithful husband, who seemed to bid her do wrong by stigmatizing +her virtue as insensibility. Augustine tried in vain to abdicate her +reason, to yield to her husband's caprices and whims, to devote +herself to the selfishness of his vanity. Her sacrifices bore no +fruit. Perhaps they had both let the moment slip when souls may meet +in comprehension. One day the young wife's too sensitive heart +received one of those blows which so strain the bonds of feeling that +they seem to be broken. She withdrew into solitude. But before long a +fatal idea suggested to her to seek counsel and comfort in the bosom +of her family. + +So one morning she made her way towards the grotesque facade of the +humble, silent home where she had spent her childhood. She sighed as +she looked up at the sash-window, whence one day she had sent her +first kiss to him who now shed as much sorrow as glory on her life. +Nothing was changed in the cavern, where the drapery business had, +however, started on a new life. Augustine's sister filled her mother's +old place at the desk. The unhappy young woman met her brother-in-law +with his pen behind his ear; he hardly listened to her, he was so full +of business. The formidable symptoms of stock-taking were visible all +round him; he begged her to excuse him. She was received coldly enough +by her sister, who owed her a grudge. In fact, Augustine, in her +finery, and stepping out of a handsome carriage, had never been to see +her but when passing by. The wife of the prudent Lebas, imagining that +want of money was the prime cause of this early call, tried to keep up +a tone of reserve which more than once made Augustine smile. The +painter's wife perceived that, apart from the cap and lappets, her +mother had found in Virginie a successor who could uphold the ancient +honor of the Cat and Racket. At breakfast she observed certain changes +in the management of the house which did honor to Lebas' good sense; +the assistants did not rise before dessert; they were allowed to talk, +and the abundant meal spoke of ease without luxury. The fashionable +woman found some tickets for a box at the Francais, where she +remembered having seen her sister from time to time. Madame Lebas had +a cashmere shawl over her shoulders, of which the value bore witness +to her husband's generosity to her. In short, the couple were keeping +pace with the times. During the two-thirds of the day she spent there, +Augustine was touched to the heart by the equable happiness, devoid, +to be sure, of all emotion, but equally free from storms, enjoyed by +this well-matched couple. They had accepted life as a commercial +enterprise, in which, above all, they must do credit to the business. +Not finding any great love in her husband, Virginie had set to work to +create it. Having by degrees learned to esteem and care for his wife, +the time that his happiness had taken to germinate was to Joseph Lebas +a guarantee of its durability. Hence, when Augustine plaintively set +forth her painful position, she had to face the deluge of commonplace +morality which the traditions of the Rue Saint-Denis furnished to her +sister. + +"The mischief is done, wife," said Joseph Lebas; "we must try to give +our sister good advice." Then the clever tradesman ponderously +analyzed the resources which law and custom might offer Augustine as a +means of escape at this crisis; he ticketed every argument, so to +speak, and arranged them in their degrees of weight under various +categories, as though they were articles of merchandise of different +qualities; then he put them in the scale, weighed them, and ended by +showing the necessity for his sister-in-law's taking violent steps +which could not satisfy the love she still had for her husband; and, +indeed, the feeling had revived in all its strength when she heard +Joseph Lebas speak of legal proceedings. Augustine thanked them, and +returned home even more undecided than she had been before consulting +them. She now ventured to go to the house in the Rue du Colombier, +intending to confide her troubles to her father and mother; for she +was like a sick man who, in his desperate plight, tries every +prescription, and even puts faith in old wives' remedies. + +The old people received their daughter with an effusiveness that +touched her deeply. Her visit brought them some little change, and +that to them was worth a fortune. For the last four years they had +gone their way like navigators without a goal or a compass. Sitting by +the chimney corner, they would talk over their disasters under the old +law of _maximum_, of their great investments in cloth, of the way they +had weathered bankruptcies, and, above all, the famous failure of +Lecocq, Monsieur Guillaume's battle of Marengo. Then, when they had +exhausted the tale of lawsuits, they recapitulated the sum total of +their most profitable stock-takings, and told each other old stories +of the Saint-Denis quarter. At two o'clock old Guillaume went to cast +an eye on the business at the Cat and Racket; on his way back he +called at all the shops, formerly the rivals of his own, where the +young proprietors hoped to inveigle the old draper into some risky +discount, which, as was his wont, he never refused point-blank. Two +good Normandy horses were dying of their own fat in the stables of the +big house; Madame Guillaume never used them but to drag her on Sundays +to high Mass at the parish church. Three times a week the worthy +couple kept open house. By the influence of his son-in-law +Sommervieux, Monsieur Guillaume had been named a member of the +consulting board for the clothing of the Army. Since her husband had +stood so high in office, Madame Guillaume had decided that she must +receive; her rooms were so crammed with gold and silver ornaments, and +furniture, tasteless but of undoubted value, that the simplest room in +the house looked like a chapel. Economy and expense seemed to be +struggling for the upper hand in every accessory. It was as though +Monsieur Guillaume had looked to a good investment, even in the +purchase of a candlestick. In the midst of this bazaar, where splendor +revealed the owner's want of occupation, Sommervieux's famous picture +filled the place of honor, and in it Monsieur and Madame Guillaume +found their chief consolation, turning their eyes, harnessed with +eye-glasses, twenty times a day on this presentment of their past life, +to them so active and amusing. The appearance of this mansion and these +rooms, where everything had an aroma of staleness and mediocrity, the +spectacle offered by these two beings, cast away, as it were, on a +rock far from the world and the ideas which are life, startled +Augustine; she could here contemplate the sequel of the scene of which +the first part had struck her at the house of Lebas--a life of stir +without movement, a mechanical and instinctive existence like that of +the beaver; and then she felt an indefinable pride in her troubles, as +she reflected that they had their source in eighteen months of such +happiness as, in her eyes, was worth a thousand lives like this; its +vacuity seemed to her horrible. However, she concealed this not very +charitable feeling, and displayed for her parents her newly-acquired +accomplishments of mind, and the ingratiating tenderness that love had +revealed to her, disposing them to listen to her matrimonial +grievances. Old people have a weakness for this kind of confidence. +Madame Guillaume wanted to know the most trivial details of that alien +life, which to her seemed almost fabulous. The travels of Baron da la +Houtan, which she began again and again and never finished, told her +nothing more unheard-of concerning the Canadian savages. + +"What, child, your husband shuts himself into a room with naked women! +And you are so simple as to believe that he draws them?" + +As she uttered this exclamation, the grandmother laid her spectacles +on a little work-table, shook her skirts, and clasped her hands on her +knees, raised by a foot-warmer, her favorite pedestal. + +"But, mother, all artists are obliged to have models." + +"He took good care not to tell us that when he asked leave to marry +you. If I had known it, I would never had given my daughter to a man +who followed such a trade. Religion forbids such horrors; they are +immoral. And at what time of night do you say he comes home?" + +"At one o'clock--two----" + +The old folks looked at each other in utter amazement. + +"Then he gambles?" said Monsieur Guillaume. "In my day only gamblers +stayed out so late." + +Augustine made a face that scorned the accusation. + +"He must keep you up through dreadful nights waiting for him," said +Madame Guillaume. "But you go to bed, don't you? And when he has lost, +the wretch wakes you." + +"No, mamma, on the contrary, he is sometimes in very good spirits. Not +unfrequently, indeed, when it is fine, he suggests that I should get +up and go into the woods." + +"The woods! At that hour? Then have you such a small set of rooms that +his bedroom and his sitting-room are not enough, and that he must run +about? But it is just to give you cold that the wretch proposes such +expeditions. He wants to get rid of you. Did one ever hear of a man +settled in life, a well-behaved, quiet man galloping about like a +warlock?" + +"But, my dear mother, you do not understand that he must have +excitement to fire his genius. He is fond of scenes which----" + +"I would make scenes for him, fine scenes!" cried Madame Guillaume, +interrupting her daughter. "How can you show any consideration to such +a man? In the first place, I don't like his drinking water only; it is +not wholesome. Why does he object to see a woman eating? What queer +notion is that! But he is mad. All you tell us about him is +impossible. A man cannot leave his home without a word, and never come +back for ten days. And then he tells you he has been to Dieppe to +paint the sea. As if any one painted the sea! He crams you with a pack +of tales that are too absurd." + +Augustine opened her lips to defend her husband; but Madame Guillaume +enjoined silence with a wave of her hand, which she obeyed by a +survival of habit, and her mother went on in harsh tones: "Don't talk +to me about the man! He never set foot in church excepting to see you +and to be married. People without religion are capable of anything. +Did Guillaume ever dream of hiding anything from me, of spending three +days without saying a word to me, and of chattering afterwards like a +blind magpie?" + +"My dear mother, you judge superior people too severely. If their +ideas were the same as other folks', they would not be men of genius." + +"Very well, then let men of genius stop at home and not get married. +What! A man of genius is to make his wife miserable? And because he is +a genius it is all right! Genius, genius! It is not so very clever to +say black one minute and white the next, as he does, to interrupt +other people, to dance such rigs at home, never to let you know which +foot you are to stand on, to compel his wife never to be amused unless +my lord is in gay spirits, and to be dull when he is dull." + +"But, mother, the very nature of such imaginations----" + +"What are such 'imaginations'?" Madame Guillaume went on, interrupting +her daughter again. "Fine ones his are, my word! What possesses a man +that all on a sudden, without consulting a doctor, he takes it into +his head to eat nothing but vegetables? If indeed it were from +religious motives, it might do him some good--but he has no more +religion than a Huguenot. Was there ever a man known who, like him, +loved horses better than his fellow-creatures, had his hair curled +like a heathen, laid statues under muslin coverlets, shut his shutters +in broad day to work by lamp-light? There, get along; if he were not +so grossly immoral, he would be fit to shut up in a lunatic asylum. +Consult Monsieur Loraux, the priest at Saint Sulpice, ask his opinion +about it all, and he will tell you that your husband, does not behave +like a Christian." + +"Oh, mother, can you believe----?" + +"Yes, I do believe. You loved him, and you can see none of these +things. But I can remember in the early days after your marriage. I +met him in the Champs-Elysees. He was on horseback. Well, at one +minute he was galloping as hard as he could tear, and then pulled up +to a walk. I said to myself at that moment, 'There is a man devoid of +judgement.'" + +"Ah, ha!" cried Monsieur Guillaume, "how wise I was to have your money +settled on yourself with such a queer fellow for a husband!" + +When Augustine was so imprudent as to set forth her serious grievances +against her husband, the two old people were speechless with +indignation. But the word "divorce" was ere long spoken by Madame +Guillaume. At the sound of the word divorce the apathetic old draper +seemed to wake up. Prompted by his love for his daughter, and also by +the excitement which the proceedings would bring into his uneventful +life, father Guillaume took up the matter. He made himself the leader +of the application for a divorce, laid down the lines of it, almost +argued the case; he offered to be at all the charges, to see the +lawyers, the pleaders, the judges, to move heaven and earth. Madame de +Sommervieux was frightened, she refused her father's services, said +she would not be separated from her husband even if she were ten times +as unhappy, and talked no more about her sorrows. After being +overwhelmed by her parents with all the little wordless and consoling +kindnesses by which the old couple tried in vain to make up to her for +her distress of heart, Augustine went away, feeling the impossibility +of making a superior mind intelligible to weak intellects. She had +learned that a wife must hide from every one, even from her parents, +woes for which it is so difficult to find sympathy. The storms and +sufferings of the upper spheres are appreciated only by the lofty +spirits who inhabit there. In any circumstance we can only be judged +by our equals. + +Thus poor Augustine found herself thrown back on the horror of her +meditations, in the cold atmosphere of her home. Study was indifferent +to her, since study had not brought her back her husband's heart. +Initiated into the secret of these souls of fire, but bereft of their +resources, she was compelled to share their sorrows without sharing +their pleasures. She was disgusted with the world, which to her seemed +mean and small as compared with the incidents of passion. In short, +her life was a failure. + +One evening an idea flashed upon her that lighted up her dark grief +like a beam from heaven. Such an idea could never have smiled on a +heart less pure, less virtuous than hers. She determined to go to the +Duchesse de Carigliano, not to ask her to give her back her husband's +heart, but to learn the arts by which it had been captured; to engage +the interest of this haughty fine lady for the mother of her lover's +children; to appeal to her and make her the instrument of her future +happiness, since she was the cause of her present wretchedness. + +So one day Augustine, timid as she was, but armed with supernatural +courage, got into her carriage at two in the afternoon to try for +admittance to the boudoir of the famous coquette, who was never +visible till that hour. Madame de Sommervieux had not yet seen any of +the ancient and magnificent mansions of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. As +she made her way through the stately corridors, the handsome +staircases, the vast drawing-rooms--full of flowers, though it was in +the depth of winter, and decorated with the taste peculiar to women +born to opulence or to the elegant habits of the aristocracy, +Augustine felt a terrible clutch at her heart; she coveted the secrets +of an elegance of which she had never had an idea; she breathed in an +air of grandeur which explained the attraction of the house for her +husband. When she reached the private rooms of the Duchess she was +filled with jealousy and a sort of despair, as she admired the +luxurious arrangement of the furniture, the draperies and the +hangings. Here disorder was a grace, here luxury affected a certain +contempt of splendor. The fragrance that floated in the warm air +flattered the sense of smell without offending it. The accessories of +the rooms were in harmony with a view, through plate-glass windows, of +the lawns in a garden planted with evergreen trees. It was all +bewitching, and the art of it was not perceptible. The whole spirit of +the mistress of these rooms pervaded the drawing-room where Augustine +awaited her. She tried to divine her rival's character from the aspect +of the scattered objects; but there was here something as impenetrable +in the disorder as in the symmetry, and to the simple-minded young +wife all was a sealed letter. All that she could discern was that, as +a woman, the Duchess was a superior person. Then a painful thought +came over her. + +"Alas! And is it true," she wondered, "that a simple and loving heart +is not all-sufficient to an artist; that to balance the weight of +these powerful souls they need a union with feminine souls of a +strength equal to their own? If I had been brought up like this siren, +our weapons at least might have been equal in the hour of struggle." + +"But I am not at home!" The sharp, harsh words, though spoken in an +undertone in the adjoining boudoir, were heard by Augustine, and her +heart beat violently. + +"The lady is in there," replied the maid. + +"You are an idiot! Show her in," replied the Duchess, whose voice was +sweeter, and had assumed the dulcet tones of politeness. She evidently +now meant to be heard. + +Augustine shyly entered the room. At the end of the dainty boudoir she +saw the Duchess lounging luxuriously on an ottoman covered with brown +velvet and placed in the centre of a sort of apse outlined by soft +folds of white muslin over a yellow lining. Ornaments of gilt bronze, +arranged with exquisite taste, enhanced this sort of dais, under which +the Duchess reclined like a Greek statue. The dark hue of the velvet +gave relief to every fascinating charm. A subdued light, friendly to +her beauty, fell like a reflection rather than a direct illumination. +A few rare flowers raised their perfumed heads from costly Sevres +vases. At the moment when this picture was presented to Augustine's +astonished eyes, she was approaching so noiselessly that she caught a +glance from those of the enchantress. This look seemed to say to some +one whom Augustine did not at first perceive, "Stay; you will see a +pretty woman, and make her visit seem less of a bore." + +On seeing Augustine, the Duchess rose and made her sit down by her. + +"And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, madame?" she said +with a most gracious smile. + +"Why all the falseness?" thought Augustine, replying only with a bow. + +Her silence was compulsory. The young woman saw before her a +superfluous witness of the scene. This personage was, of all the +Colonels in the army, the youngest, the most fashionable, and the +finest man. His face, full of life and youth, but already expressive, +was further enhanced by a small moustache twirled up into points, and +as black as jet, by a full imperial, by whiskers carefully combed, and +a forest of black hair in some disorder. He was whisking a riding whip +with an air of ease and freedom which suited his self-satisfied +expression and the elegance of his dress; the ribbons attached to his +button-hole were carelessly tied, and he seemed to pride himself much +more on his smart appearance than on his courage. Augustine looked at +the Duchesse de Carigliano, and indicated the Colonel by a sidelong +glance. All its mute appeal was understood. + +"Good-bye, then, Monsieur d'Aiglemont, we shall meet in the Bois de +Boulogne." + +These words were spoken by the siren as though they were the result of +an agreement made before Augustine's arrival, and she winged them with +a threatening look that the officer deserved perhaps for the +admiration he showed in gazing at the modest flower, which contrasted +so well with the haughty Duchess. The young fop bowed in silence, +turned on the heels of his boots, and gracefully quitted the boudoir. +At this instant, Augustine, watching her rival, whose eyes seemed to +follow the brilliant officer, detected in that glance a sentiment of +which the transient expression is known to every woman. She perceived +with the deepest anguish that her visit would be useless; this lady, +full of artifice, was too greedy of homage not to have a ruthless +heart. + +"Madame," said Augustine in a broken voice, "the step I am about to +take will seem to you very strange; but there is a madness of despair +which ought to excuse anything. I understand only too well why +Theodore prefers your house to any other, and why your mind has so +much power over his. Alas! I have only to look into myself to find +more than ample reasons. But I am devoted to my husband, madame. Two +years of tears have not effaced his image from my heart, though I have +lost his. In my folly I dared to dream of a contest with you; and I +have come to you to ask you by what means I may triumph over yourself. +Oh, madame," cried the young wife, ardently seizing the hand which her +rival allowed her to hold, "I will never pray to God for my own +happiness with so much fervor as I will beseech Him for yours, if you +will help me to win back Sommervieux's regard--I will not say his +love. I have no hope but in you. Ah! tell me how you could please him, +and make him forget the first days----" At these words Augustine broke +down, suffocated with sobs she could not suppress. Ashamed of her +weakness, she hid her face in her handkerchief, which she bathed with +tears. + +"What a child you are, my dear little beauty!" said the Duchess, +carried away by the novelty of such a scene, and touched, in spite of +herself, at receiving such homage from the most perfect virtue perhaps +in Paris. She took the young wife's handkerchief, and herself wiped +the tears from her eyes, soothing her by a few monosyllables murmured +with gracious compassion. After a moment's silence the Duchess, +grasping poor Augustine's hands in both her own--hands that had a rare +character of dignity and powerful beauty--said in a gentle and +friendly voice: "My first warning is to advise you not to weep so +bitterly; tears are disfiguring. We must learn to deal firmly with the +sorrows that make us ill, for love does not linger long by a sick-bed. +Melancholy, at first, no doubt, lends a certain attractive grace, but +it ends by dragging the features and blighting the loveliest face. And +besides, our tyrants are so vain as to insist that their slaves should +be always cheerful." + +"But, madame, it is not in my power not to feel. How is it possible, +without suffering a thousand deaths, to see the face which once beamed +with love and gladness turn chill, colorless, and indifferent? I +cannot control my heart!" + +"So much the worse, sweet child. But I fancy I know all your story. In +the first place, if your husband is unfaithful to you, understand +clearly that I am not his accomplice. If I was anxious to have him in +my drawing-room, it was, I own, out of vanity; he was famous, and he +went nowhere. I like you too much already to tell you all the mad +things he has done for my sake. I will only reveal one, because it may +perhaps help us to bring him back to you, and to punish him for the +audacity of his behavior to me. He will end by compromising me. I know +the world too well, my dear, to abandon myself to the discretion of a +too superior man. You should know that one may allow them to court +one, but marry them--that is a mistake! We women ought to admire men +of genius, and delight in them as a spectacle, but as to living with +them? Never.--No, no. It is like wanting to find pleasure in +inspecting the machinery of the opera instead of sitting in a box to +enjoy its brilliant illusions. But this misfortune has fallen on you, +my poor child, has it not? Well, then, you must try to arm yourself +against tyranny." + +"Ah, madame, before coming in here, only seeing you as I came in, I +already detected some arts of which I had no suspicion." + +"Well, come and see me sometimes, and it will not be long before you +have mastered the knowledge of these trifles, important, too, in their +way. Outward things are, to fools, half of life; and in that matter +more than one clever man is a fool, in spite of all his talent. But I +dare wager you never could refuse your Theodore anything!" + +"How refuse anything, madame, if one loves a man?" + +"Poor innocent, I could adore you for your simplicity. You should know +that the more we love the less we should allow a man, above all, a +husband, to see the whole extent of our passion. The one who loves +most is tyrannized over, and, which is worse, is sooner or later +neglected. The one who wishes to rule should----" + +"What, madame, must I then dissimulate, calculate, become false, form +an artificial character, and live in it? How is it possible to live in +such a way? Can you----" she hesitated; the Duchess smiled. + +"My dear child," the great lady went on in a serious tone, "conjugal +happiness has in all times been a speculation, a business demanding +particular attention. If you persist in talking passion while I am +talking marriage, we shall soon cease to understand each other. Listen +to me," she went on, assuming a confidential tone. "I have been in the +way of seeing some of the superior men of our day. Those who have +married have for the most part chosen quite insignificant wives. Well, +those wives governed them, as the Emperor governs us; and if they were +not loved, they were at least respected. I like secrets--especially +those which concern women--well enough to have amused myself by +seeking the clue to the riddle. Well, my sweet child, those worthy +women had the gift of analyzing their husbands' nature; instead of +taking fright, like you, at their superiority, they very acutely noted +the qualities they lacked, and either by possessing those qualities, +or by feigning to possess them, they found means of making such a +handsome display of them in their husbands' eyes that in the end they +impressed them. Also, I must tell you, all these souls which appear so +lofty have just a speck of madness in them, which we ought to know how +to take advantage of. By firmly resolving to have the upper hand and +never deviating from that aim, by bringing all our actions to bear on +it, all our ideas, our cajolery, we subjugate these eminently +capricious natures, which, by the very mutability of their thoughts, +lend us the means of influencing them." + +"Good heavens!" cried the young wife in dismay. "And this is life. It +is a warfare----" + +"In which we must always threaten," said the Duchess, laughing. "Our +power is wholly factitious. And we must never allow a man to despise +us; it is impossible to recover from such a descent but by odious +manoeuvring. Come," she added, "I will give you a means of bringing +your husband to his senses." + +She rose with a smile to guide the young and guileless apprentice to +conjugal arts through the labyrinth of her palace. They came to a +back-staircase, which led up to the reception rooms. As Madame de +Carigliano pressed the secret springlock of the door she stopped, +looking at Augustine with an inimitable gleam of shrewdness and grace. +"The Duc de Carigliano adores me," said she. "Well, he dare not enter +by this door without my leave. And he is a man in the habit of +commanding thousands of soldiers. He knows how to face a battery, but +before me,--he is afraid!" + +Augustine sighed. They entered a sumptuous gallery, where the +painter's wife was led by the Duchess up to the portrait painted by +Theodore of Mademoiselle Guillaume. On seeing it, Augustine uttered a +cry. + +"I knew it was no longer in my house," she said, "but--here!----" + +"My dear child, I asked for it merely to see what pitch of idiocy a +man of genius may attain to. Sooner or later I should have returned it +to you, for I never expected the pleasure of seeing the original here +face to face with the copy. While we finish our conversation I will +have it carried down to your carriage. And if, armed with such a +talisman, you are not your husband's mistress for a hundred years, you +are not a woman, and you deserve your fate." + +Augustine kissed the Duchess' hand, and the lady clasped her to her +heart, with all the more tenderness because she would forget her by +the morrow. This scene might perhaps have destroyed for ever the +candor and purity of a less virtuous woman than Augustine, for the +astute politics of the higher social spheres were no more consonant to +Augustine than the narrow reasoning of Joseph Lebas, or Madame +Guillaume's vapid morality. Strange are the results of the false +positions into which we may be brought by the slightest mistake in the +conduct of life! Augustine was like an Alpine cowherd surprised by an +avalanche; if he hesitates, if he listens to the shouts of his +comrades, he is almost certainly lost. In such a crisis the heart +steels itself or breaks. + +Madame de Sommervieux returned home a prey to such agitation as it is +difficult to describe. Her conversation with the Duchesse de +Carigliano had roused in her mind a crowd of contradictory thoughts. +Like the sheep in the fable, full of courage in the wolf's absence, +she preached to herself, and laid down admirable plans of conduct; she +devised a thousand coquettish stratagems; she even talked to her +husband, finding, away from him, all the springs of true eloquence +which never desert a woman; then, as she pictured to herself +Theodore's clear and steadfast gaze, she began to quake. When she +asked whether monsieur were at home her voice shook. On learning that +he would not be in to dinner, she felt an unaccountable thrill of joy. +Like a criminal who has appealed against sentence of death, a respite, +however short, seemed to her a lifetime. She placed the portrait in +her room, and waited for her husband in all the agonies of hope. That +this venture must decide her future life, she felt too keenly not to +shiver at every sound, even the low ticking of the clock, which seemed +to aggravate her terrors by doling them out to her. She tried to cheat +time by various devices. The idea struck her of dressing in a way +which would make her exactly like the portrait. Then, knowing her +husband's restless temper, she had her room lighted up with unusual +brightness, feeling sure that when he came in curiosity would bring +him there at once. Midnight had struck when, at the call of the groom, +the street gate was opened, and the artist's carriage rumbled in over +the stones of the silent courtyard. + +"What is the meaning of this illumination?" asked Theodore in glad +tones, as he came into her room. + +Augustine skilfully seized the auspicious moment; she threw herself +into her husband's arms, and pointed to the portrait. The artist stood +rigid as a rock, and his eyes turned alternately on Augustine, on the +accusing dress. The frightened wife, half-dead, as she watched her +husband's changeful brow--that terrible brow--saw the expressive +furrows gathering like clouds; then she felt her blood curdling in her +veins when, with a glaring look, and in a deep hollow voice, he began +to question her: + +"Where did you find that picture?" + +"The Duchess de Carigliano returned it to me." + +"You asked her for it?" + +"I did not know that she had it." + +The gentleness, or rather the exquisite sweetness of this angel's +voice, might have touched a cannibal, but not an artist in the +clutches of wounded vanity. + +"It is worthy of her!" exclaimed the painter in a voice of thunder. "I +will be avenged!" he cried, striding up and down the room. "She shall +die of shame; I will paint her! Yes, I will paint her as Messalina +stealing out at night from the palace of Claudius." + +"Theodore!" said a faint voice. + +"I will kill her!" + +"My dear----" + +"She is in love with that little cavalry colonel, because he rides +well----" + +"Theodore!" + +"Let me be!" said the painter in a tone almost like a roar. + +It would be odious to describe the whole scene. In the end the frenzy +of passion prompted the artist to acts and words which any woman not +so young as Augustine would have ascribed to madness. + +At eight o'clock next morning Madame Guillaume, surprising her +daughter, found her pale, with red eyes, her hair in disorder, holding +a handkerchief soaked with tears, while she gazed at the floor strewn +with the torn fragments of a dress and the broken fragments of a large +gilt picture-frame. Augustine, almost senseless with grief, pointed to +the wreck with a gesture of deep despair. + +"I don't know that the loss is very great!" cried the old mistress of +the Cat and Racket. "It was like you, no doubt; but I am told that +there is a man on the boulevard who paints lovely portraits for fifty +crowns." + +"Oh, mother!" + +"Poor child, you are quite right," replied Madame Guillaume, who +misinterpreted the expression of her daughter's glance at her. "True, +my child, no one ever can love you as fondly as a mother. My darling, +I guess it all; but confide your sorrows to me, and I will comfort +you. Did I not tell you long ago that the man was mad! Your maid has +told me pretty stories. Why, he must be a perfect monster!" + +Augustine laid a finger on her white lips, as if to implore a moment's +silence. During this dreadful night misery had led her to that patient +resignation which in mothers and loving wives transcends in its +effects all human energy, and perhaps reveals in the heart of women +the existence of certain chords which God has withheld from men. + + + +An inscription engraved on a broken column in the cemetery at +Montmartre states that Madame de Sommervieux died at the age of +twenty-seven. In the simple words of this epitaph one of the timid +creature's friends can read the last scene of a tragedy. Every year, +on the second of November, the solemn day of the dead, he never passes +this youthful monument without wondering whether it does not need a +stronger woman than Augustine to endure the violent embrace of genius? + +"The humble and modest flowers that bloom in the valley," he reflects, +"perish perhaps when they are transplanted too near the skies, to the +region where storms gather and the sun is scorching." + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Aiglemont, General, Marquis Victor d' + The Firm of Nucingen + A Woman of Thirty + +Birotteau, Cesar + Cesar Birotteau + A Bachelor's Establishment + +Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Pons + The Muse of the Department + Cesar Birotteau + +Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cesar Birotteau + +Carigliano, Marechal, Duc de + Father Goriot + Sarrasine + +Carigliano, Duchesse de + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Peasantry + The Member for Arcis + +Guillaume + Cesar Birotteau + +Lebas, Joseph + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + +Lebas, Madame Joseph (Virginie) + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + +Lourdois + Cesar Birotteau + +Rabourdin, Xavier + The Government Clerks + Cesar Birotteau + The Middle Classes + +Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + Pierrette + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + +Sommervieux, Theodore de + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + +Sommervieux, Madame Theodore de (Augustine) + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At the Sign of the Cat and Racket +by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET *** + +***** This file should be named 1680.txt or 1680.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/1/6/8/1680/ + +Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz + + + + + +At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +by Honore de Balzac + + + + +Translated by Clara Bell + + + + +DEDICATION + +To Mademoiselle Marie de Montheau + + + + +AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET + + + +Half-way down the Rue Saint-Denis, almost at the corner of the Rue du +Petit-Lion, there stood formerly one of those delightful houses which +enable historians to reconstruct old Paris by analogy. The threatening +walls of this tumbledown abode seemed to have been decorated with +hieroglyphics. For what other name could the passer-by give to the Xs +and Vs which the horizontal or diagonal timbers traced on the front, +outlined by little parallel cracks in the plaster? It was evident that +every beam quivered in its mortices at the passing of the lightest +vehicle. This venerable structure was crowned by a triangular roof of +which no example will, ere long, be seen in Paris. This covering, +warped by the extremes of the Paris climate, projected three feet over +the roadway, as much to protect the threshold from the rainfall as to +shelter the wall of a loft and its sill-less dormer-window. This upper +story was built of planks, overlapping each other like slates, in +order, no doubt, not to overweight the frail house. + +One rainy morning in the month of March, a young man, carefully +wrapped in his cloak, stood under the awning of a shop opposite this +old house, which he was studying with the enthusiasm of an antiquary. +In point of fact, this relic of the civic life of the sixteenth +century offered more than one problem to the consideration of an +observer. Each story presented some singularity; on the first floor +four tall, narrow windows, close together, were filled as to the lower +panes with boards, so as to produce the doubtful light by which a +clever salesman can ascribe to his goods the color his customers +inquire for. The young man seemed very scornful of this part of the +house; his eyes had not yet rested on it. The windows of the second +floor, where the Venetian blinds were drawn up, revealing little dingy +muslin curtains behind the large Bohemian glass panes, did not +interest him either. His attention was attracted to the third floor, +to the modest sash-frames of wood, so clumsily wrought that they might +have found a place in the Museum of Arts and Crafts to illustrate the +early efforts of French carpentry. These windows were glazed with +small squares of glass so green that, but for his good eyes, the young +man could not have seen the blue-checked cotton curtains which +screened the mysteries of the room from profane eyes. Now and then the +watcher, weary of his fruitless contemplation, or of the silence in +which the house was buried, like the whole neighborhood, dropped his +eyes towards the lower regions. An involuntary smile parted his lips +each time he looked at the shop, where, in fact, there were some +laughable details. + +A formidable wooden beam, resting on four pillars, which appeared to +have bent under the weight of the decrepit house, had been encrusted +with as many coats of different paint as there are of rouge on an old +duchess' cheek. In the middle of this broad and fantastically carved +joist there was an old painting representing a cat playing rackets. +This picture was what moved the young man to mirth. But it must be +said that the wittiest of modern painters could not invent so comical +a caricature. The animal held in one of its forepaws a racket as big +as itself, and stood on its hind legs to aim at hitting an enormous +ball, returned by a man in a fine embroidered coat. Drawing, color, +and accessories, all were treated in such a way as to suggest that the +artist had meant to make game of the shop-owner and of the passing +observer. Time, while impairing this artless painting, had made it yet +more grotesque by introducing some uncertain features which must have +puzzled the conscientious idler. For instance, the cat's tail had been +eaten into in such a way that it might now have been taken for the +figure of a spectator--so long, and thick, and furry were the tails of +our forefathers' cats. To the right of the picture, on an azure field +which ill-disguised the decay of the wood, might be read the name +"Guillaume," and to the left, "Successor to Master Chevrel." Sun and +rain had worn away most of the gilding parsimoniously applied to the +letters of this superscription, in which the Us and Vs had changed +places in obedience to the laws of old-world orthography. + +To quench the pride of those who believe that the world is growing +cleverer day by day, and that modern humbug surpasses everything, it +may be observed that these signs, of which the origin seems so +whimsical to many Paris merchants, are the dead pictures of once +living pictures by which our roguish ancestors contrived to tempt +customers into their houses. Thus the Spinning Sow, the Green Monkey, +and others, were animals in cages whose skills astonished the passer- +by, and whose accomplishments prove the patience of the fifteenth- +century artisan. Such curiosities did more to enrich their fortunate +owners than the signs of "Providence," "Good-faith," Grace of God," +and "Decapitation of John the Baptist," which may still be seen in the +Rue Saint-Denis. + +However, our stranger was certainly not standing there to admire the +cat, which a minute's attention sufficed to stamp on his memory. The +young man himself had his peculiarities. His cloak, folded after the +manner of an antique drapery, showed a smart pair of shoes, all the +more remarkable in the midst of the Paris mud, because he wore white +silk stockings, on which the splashes betrayed his impatience. He had +just come, no doubt, from a wedding or a ball; for at this early hour +he had in his hand a pair of white gloves, and his black hair, now out +of curl, and flowing over his shoulders, showed that it had been +dressed /a la Caracalla/, a fashion introduced as much by David's +school of painting as by the mania for Greek and Roman styles which +characterized the early years of this century. + +In spite of the noise made by a few market gardeners, who, being late, +rattled past towards the great market-place at a gallop, the busy +street lay in a stillness of which the magic charm is known only to +those who have wandered through deserted Paris at the hours when its +roar, hushed for a moment, rises and spreads in the distance like the +great voice of the sea. This strange young man must have seemed as +curious to the shopkeeping folk of the "Cat and Racket" as the "Cat +and Racket" was to him. A dazzlingly white cravat made his anxious +face look even paler than it really was. The fire that flashed in his +black eyes, gloomy and sparkling by turns, was in harmony with the +singular outline of his features, with his wide, flexible mouth, +hardened into a smile. His forehead, knit with violent annoyance, had +a stamp of doom. Is not the forehead the most prophetic feature of a +man? When the stranger's brow expressed passion the furrows formed in +it were terrible in their strength and energy; but when he recovered +his calmness, so easily upset, it beamed with a luminous grace which +gave great attractiveness to a countenance in which joy, grief, love, +anger, or scorn blazed out so contagiously that the coldest man could +not fail to be impressed. + +He was so thoroughly vexed by the time when the dormer-window of the +loft was suddenly flung open, that he did not observe the apparition +of three laughing faces, pink and white and chubby, but as vulgar as +the face of Commerce as it is seen in sculpture on certain monuments. +These three faces, framed by the window, recalled the puffy cherubs +floating among the clouds that surround God the Father. The +apprentices snuffed up the exhalations of the street with an eagerness +that showed how hot and poisonous the atmosphere of their garret must +be. After pointing to the singular sentinel, the most jovial, as he +seemed, of the apprentices retired and came back holding an instrument +whose hard metal pipe is now superseded by a leather tube; and they +all grinned with mischief as they looked down on the loiterer, and +sprinkled him with a fine white shower of which the scent proved that +three chins had just been shaved. Standing on tiptoe, in the farthest +corner of their loft, to enjoy their victim's rage, the lads ceased +laughing on seeing the haughty indifference with which the young man +shook his cloak, and the intense contempt expressed by his face as he +glanced up at the empty window-frame. + +At this moment a slender white hand threw up the lower half of one of +the clumsy windows on the third floor by the aid of the sash runners, +of which the pulley so often suddenly gives way and releases the heavy +panes it ought to hold up. The watcher was then rewarded for his long +waiting. The face of a young girl appeared, as fresh as one of the +white cups that bloom on the bosom of the waters, crowned by a frill +of tumbled muslin, which gave her head a look of exquisite innocence. +Though wrapped in brown stuff, her neck and shoulders gleamed here and +there through little openings left by her movements in sleep. No +expression of embarrassment detracted from the candor of her face, or +the calm look of eyes immortalized long since in the sublime works of +Raphael; here were the same grace, the same repose as in those +Virgins, and now proverbial. There was a delightful contrast between +the cheeks of that face on which sleep had, as it were, given high +relief to a superabundance of life, and the antiquity of the heavy +window with its clumsy shape and black sill. Like those day-blowing +flowers, which in the early morning have not yet unfurled their cups, +twisted by the chills of night, the girl, as yet hardly awake, let her +blue eyes wander beyond the neighboring roofs to look at the sky; +then, from habit, she cast them down on the gloomy depths of the +street, where they immediately met those of her adorer. Vanity, no +doubt, distressed her at being seen in undress; she started back, the +worn pulley gave way, and the sash fell with the rapid run, which in +our day has earned for this artless invention of our forefathers an +odious name, /Fenetre a la Guillotine/. The vision had disappeared. To +the young man the most radiant star of morning seemed to be hidden by +a cloud. + +During these little incidents the heavy inside shutters that protected +the slight windows of the shop of the "Cat and Racket" had been +removed as if by magic. The old door with its knocker was opened back +against the wall of the entry by a man-servant, apparently coeval with +the sign, who, with a shaking hand, hung upon it a square of cloth, on +which were embroidered in yellow silk the words: "Guillaume, successor +to Chevrel." Many a passer-by would have found it difficult to guess +the class of trade carried on by Monsieur Guillaume. Between the +strong iron bars which protected his shop windows on the outside, +certain packages, wrapped in brown linen, were hardly visible, though +as numerous as herrings swimming in a shoal. Notwithstanding the +primitive aspect of the Gothic front, Monsieur Guillaume, of all the +merchant clothiers in Paris, was the one whose stores were always the +best provided, whose connections were the most extensive, and whose +commercial honesty never lay under the slightest suspicion. If some of +his brethren in business made a contract with the Government, and had +not the required quantity of cloth, he was always ready to deliver it, +however large the number of pieces tendered for. The wily dealer knew +a thousand ways of extracting the largest profits without being +obliged, like them, to court patrons, cringing to them, or making them +costly presents. When his fellow-tradesmen could only pay in good +bills of long date, he would mention his notary as an accommodating +man, and managed to get a second profit out of the bargain, thanks to +this arrangement, which had made it a proverb among the traders of the +Rue Saint-Denis: "Heaven preserve you from Monsieur Guillaume's +notary!" to signify a heavy discount. + +The old merchant was to be seen standing on the threshold of his shop, +as if by a miracle, the instant the servant withdrew. Monsieur +Guillaume looked at the Rue Saint-Denis, at the neighboring shops, and +at the weather, like a man disembarking at Havre, and seeing France +once more after a long voyage. Having convinced himself that nothing +had changed while he was asleep, he presently perceived the stranger +on guard, and he, on his part, gazed at the patriarchal draper as +Humboldt may have scrutinized the first electric eel he saw in +America. Monsieur Guillaume wore loose black velvet breeches, pepper- +and-salt stockings, and square toed shoes with silver buckles. His +coat, with square-cut fronts, square-cut tails, and square-cut collar +clothed his slightly bent figure in greenish cloth, finished with +white metal buttons, tawny from wear. His gray hair was so accurately +combed and flattened over his yellow pate that it made it look like a +furrowed field. His little green eyes, that might have been pierced +with a gimlet, flashed beneath arches faintly tinged with red in the +place of eyebrows. Anxieties had wrinkled his forehead with as many +horizontal lines as there were creases in his coat. This colorless +face expressed patience, commercial shrewdness, and the sort of wily +cupidity which is needful in business. At that time these old families +were less rare than they are now, in which the characteristic habits +and costume of their calling, surviving in the midst of more recent +civilization, were preserved as cherished traditions, like the +antediluvian remains found by Cuvier in the quarries. + +The head of the Guillaume family was a notable upholder of ancient +practices; he might be heard to regret the Provost of Merchants, and +never did he mention a decision of the Tribunal of Commerce without +calling it the /Sentence of the Consuls/. Up and dressed the first of +the household, in obedience, no doubt, to these old customs, he stood +sternly awaiting the appearance of his three assistants, ready to +scold them in case they were late. These young disciples of Mercury +knew nothing more terrible than the wordless assiduity with which the +master scrutinized their faces and their movements on Monday in search +of evidence or traces of their pranks. But at this moment the old +clothier paid no heed to his apprentices; he was absorbed in trying to +divine the motive of the anxious looks which the young man in silk +stockings and a cloak cast alternately at his signboard and into the +depths of his shop. The daylight was now brighter, and enabled the +stranger to discern the cashier's corner enclosed by a railing and +screened by old green silk curtains, where were kept the immense +ledgers, the silent oracles of the house. The too inquisitive gazer +seemed to covet this little nook, and to be taking the plan of a +dining-room at one side, lighted by a skylight, whence the family at +meals could easily see the smallest incident that might occur at the +shop-door. So much affection for his dwelling seemed suspicious to a +trader who had lived long enough to remember the law of maximum +prices; Monsieur Guillaume naturally thought that this sinister +personage had an eye to the till of the Cat and Racket. After quietly +observing the mute duel which was going on between his master and the +stranger, the eldest of the apprentices, having seen that the young +man was stealthily watching the windows of the third floor, ventured +to place himself on the stone flag where Monsieur Guillaume was +standing. He took two steps out into the street, raised his head, and +fancied that he caught sight of Mademoiselle Augustine Guillaume in +hasty retreat. The draper, annoyed by his assistant's perspicacity, +shot a side glance at him; but the draper and his amorous apprentice +were suddenly relieved from the fears which the young man's presence +had excited in their minds. He hailed a hackney cab on its way to a +neighboring stand, and jumped into it with an air of affected +indifference. This departure was a balm to the hearts of the other two +lads, who had been somewhat uneasy as to meeting the victim of their +practical joke. + +"Well, gentlemen, what ails you that you are standing there with your +arms folded?" said Monsieur Guillaume to his three neophytes. "In +former days, bless you, when I was in Master Chevrel's service, I +should have overhauled more than two pieces of cloth by this time." + +"Then it was daylight earlier," said the second assistant, whose duty +this was. + +The old shopkeeper could not help smiling. Though two of these young +fellows, who were confided to his care by their fathers, rich +manufacturers at Louviers and at Sedan, had only to ask and to have a +hundred thousand francs the day when they were old enough to settle in +life, Guillaume regarded it as his duty to keep them under the rod of +an old-world despotism, unknown nowadays in the showy modern shops, +where the apprentices expect to be rich men at thirty. He made them +work like Negroes. These three assistants were equal to a business +which would harry ten such clerks as those whose sybaritical tastes +now swell the columns of the budget. Not a sound disturbed the peace +of this solemn house, where the hinges were always oiled, and where +the meanest article of furniture showed the respectable cleanliness +which reveals strict order and economy. The most waggish of the three +youths often amused himself by writing the date of its first +appearance on the Gruyere cheese which was left to their tender +mercies at breakfast, and which it was their pleasure to leave +untouched. This bit of mischief, and a few others of the same stamp, +would sometimes bring a smile on the face of the younger of +Guillaume's daughters, the pretty maiden who has just now appeared to +the bewitched man in the street. + +Though each of these apprentices, even the eldest, paid a round sum +for his board, not one of them would have been bold enough to remain +at the master's table when dessert was served. When Madame Guillaume +talked of dressing the salad, the hapless youths trembled as they +thought of the thrift with which her prudent hand dispensed the oil. +They could never think of spending a night away from the house without +having given, long before, a plausible reason for such an +irregularity. Every Sunday, each in his turn, two of them accompanied +the Guillaume family to Mass at Saint-Leu, and to vespers. +Mesdemoiselles Virginie and Augustine, simply attired in cotton print, +each took the arm of an apprentice and walked in front, under the +piercing eye of their mother, who closed the little family procession +with her husband, accustomed by her to carry two large prayer-books, +bound in black morocco. The second apprentice received no salary. As +for the eldest, whose twelve years of perseverance and discretion had +initiated him into the secrets of the house, he was paid eight hundred +francs a year as the reward of his labors. On certain family festivals +he received as a gratuity some little gift, to which Madame +Guillaume's dry and wrinkled hand alone gave value--netted purses, +which she took care to stuff with cotton wool, to show off the fancy +stitches, braces of the strongest make, or heavy silk stockings. +Sometimes, but rarely, this prime minister was admitted to share the +pleasures of the family when they went into the country, or when, +after waiting for months, they made up their mind to exert the right +acquired by taking a box at the theatre to command a piece which Paris +had already forgotten. + +As to the other assistants, the barrier of respect which formerly +divided a master draper from his apprentices was that they would have +been more likely to steal a piece of cloth than to infringe this +time-honored etiquette. Such reserve may now appear ridiculous; but +these old houses were a school of honesty and sound morals. The +masters adopted their apprentices. The young man's linen was cared +for, mended, and often replaced by the mistress of the house. If an +apprentice fell ill, he was the object of truly maternal attention. In +a case of danger the master lavished his money in calling in the most +celebrated physicians, for he was not answerable to their parents +merely for the good conduct and training of the lads. If one of them, +whose character was unimpeachable, suffered misfortune, these old +tradesmen knew how to value the intelligence he had displayed, and +they did not hesitate to entrust the happiness of their daughters to +men whom they had long trusted with their fortunes. Guillaume was one +of these men of the old school, and if he had their ridiculous side, +he had all their good qualities; and Joseph Lebas, the chief +assistant, an orphan without any fortune, was in his mind destined to +be the husband of Virginie, his elder daughter. But Joseph did not +share the symmetrical ideas of his master, who would not for an empire +have given his second daughter in marriage before the elder. The +unhappy assistant felt that his heart was wholly given to Mademoiselle +Augustine, the younger. In order to justify this passion, which had +grown up in secret, it is necessary to inquire a little further into +the springs of the absolute government which ruled the old cloth- +merchant's household. + +Guillaume had two daughters. The elder, Mademoiselle Virginie, was the +very image of her mother. Madame Guillaume, daughter of the Sieur +Chevrel, sat so upright in the stool behind her desk, that more than +once she had heard some wag bet that she was a stuffed figure. Her +long, thin face betrayed exaggerated piety. Devoid of attractions or +of amiable manners, Madame Guillaume commonly decorated her head--that +of a woman near on sixty--with a cap of a particular and unvarying +shape, with long lappets, like that of a widow. In all the +neighborhood she was known as the "portress nun." Her speech was curt, +and her movements had the stiff precision of a semaphore. Her eye, +with a gleam in it like a cat's, seemed to spite the world because she +was so ugly. Mademoiselle Virginie, brought up, like her younger +sister, under the domestic rule of her mother, had reached the age of +eight-and-twenty. Youth mitigated the graceless effect which her +likeness to her mother sometimes gave to her features, but maternal +austerity had endowed her with two great qualities which made up for +everything. She was patient and gentle. Mademoiselle Augustine, who +was but just eighteen, was not like either her father or her mother. +She was one of those daughters whose total absence of any physical +affinity with their parents makes one believe in the adage: "God gives +children." Augustine was little, or, to describe her more truly, +delicately made. Full of gracious candor, a man of the world could +have found no fault in the charming girl beyond a certain meanness of +gesture or vulgarity of attitude, and sometimes a want of ease. Her +silent and placid face was full of the transient melancholy which +comes over all young girls who are too weak to dare to resist their +mother's will. + +The two sisters, always plainly dressed, could not gratify the innate +vanity of womanhood but by a luxury of cleanliness which became them +wonderfully, and made them harmonize with the polished counters and +the shining shelves, on which the old man-servant never left a speck +of dust, and with the old-world simplicity of all they saw about them. +As their style of living compelled them to find the elements of +happiness in persistent work, Augustine and Virginie had hitherto +always satisfied their mother, who secretly prided herself on the +perfect characters of her two daughters. It is easy to imagine the +results of the training they had received. Brought up to a commercial +life, accustomed to hear nothing but dreary arguments and calculations +about trade, having studied nothing but grammar, book-keeping, a +little Bible-history, and the history of France in Le Ragois, and +never reading any book but what their mother would sanction, their +ideas had not acquired much scope. They knew perfectly how to keep +house; they were familiar with the prices of things; they understood +the difficulty of amassing money; they were economical, and had a +great respect for the qualities that make a man of business. Although +their father was rich, they were as skilled in darning as in +embroidery; their mother often talked of having them taught to cook, +so that they might know how to order a dinner and scold a cook with +due knowledge. They knew nothing of the pleasures of the world; and, +seeing how their parents spent their exemplary lives, they very rarely +suffered their eyes to wander beyond the walls of their hereditary +home, which to their mother was the whole universe. The meetings to +which family anniversaries gave rise filled in the future of earthly +joy to them. + +When the great drawing-room on the second floor was to be prepared to +receive company--Madame Roguin, a Demoiselle Chevrel, fifteen months +younger than her cousin, and bedecked with diamonds; young Rabourdin, +employed in the Finance Office; Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, the rich +perfumer, and his wife, known as Madame Cesar; Monsieur Camusot, the +richest silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, with his father-in- +law, Monsieur Cardot, two or three old bankers, and some immaculate +ladies--the arrangements, made necessary by the way in which +everything was packed away--the plate, the Dresden china, the +candlesticks, and the glass--made a variety in the monotonous lives of +the three women, who came and went and exerted themselves as nuns +would to receive their bishop. Then, in the evening, when all three +were tired out with having wiped, rubbed, unpacked, and arranged all +the gauds of the festival, as the girls helped their mother to +undress, Madame Guillaume would say to them, "Children, we have done +nothing today." + +When, on very great occasions, "the portress nun" allowed dancing, +restricting the games of boston, whist, and backgammon within the +limits of her bedroom, such a concession was accounted as the most +unhoped felicity, and made them happier than going to the great balls, +to two or three of which Guillaume would take the girls at the time of +the Carnival. + +And once a year the worthy draper gave an entertainment, when he +spared no expense. However rich and fashionable the persons invited +might be, they were careful not to be absent; for the most important +houses on the exchange had recourse to the immense credit, the +fortune, or the time-honored experience of Monsieur Guillaume. Still, +the excellent merchant's daughters did not benefit as much as might be +supposed by the lessons the world has to offer to young spirits. At +these parties, which were indeed set down in the ledger to the credit +of the house, they wore dresses the shabbiness of which made them +blush. Their style of dancing was not in any way remarkable, and their +mother's surveillance did not allow of their holding any conversation +with their partners beyond Yes and No. Also, the law of the old sign +of the Cat and Racket commanded that they should be home by eleven +o'clock, the hour when balls and fetes begin to be lively. Thus their +pleasures, which seemed to conform very fairly to their father's +position, were often made insipid by circumstances which were part of +the family habits and principles. + +As to their usual life, one remark will sufficiently paint it. Madame +Guillaume required her daughters to be dressed very early in the +morning, to come down every day at the same hour, and she ordered +their employments with monastic regularity. Augustine, however, had +been gifted by chance with a spirit lofty enough to feel the emptiness +of such a life. Her blue eyes would sometimes be raised as if to +pierce the depths of that gloomy staircase and those damp store-rooms. +After sounding the profound cloistral silence, she seemed to be +listening to remote, inarticulate revelations of the life of passion, +which accounts feelings as of higher value than things. And at such +moments her cheek would flush, her idle hands would lay the muslin +sewing on the polished oak counter, and presently her mother would say +in a voice, of which even the softest tones were sour, "Augustine, my +treasure, what are you thinking about?" It is possible that two +romances discovered by Augustine in the cupboard of a cook Madame +Guillaume had lately discharged--/Hippolyte Comte de Douglas/ and /Le +Comte de Comminges/--may have contributed to develop the ideas of the +young girl, who had devoured them in secret, during the long nights of +the past winter. + +And so Augustine's expression of vague longing, her gentle voice, her +jasmine skin, and her blue eyes had lighted in poor Lebas' soul a +flame as ardent as it was reverent. From an easily understood caprice, +Augustine felt no affection for the orphan; perhaps she did not know +that he loved her. On the other hand, the senior apprentice, with his +long legs, his chestnut hair, his big hands and powerful frame, had +found a secret admirer in Mademoiselle Virginie, who, in spite of her +dower of fifty thousand crowns, had as yet no suitor. Nothing could be +more natural than these two passions at cross-purposes, born in the +silence of the dingy shop, as violets bloom in the depths of a wood. +The mute and constant looks which made the young people's eyes meet by +sheer need of change in the midst of persistent work and cloistered +peace, was sure, sooner or later, to give rise to feelings of love. +The habit of seeing always the same face leads insensibly to our +reading there the qualities of the soul, and at last effaces all its +defects. + +"At the pace at which that man goes, our girls will soon have to go on +their knees to a suitor!" said Monsieur Guillaume to himself, as he +read the first decree by which Napoleon drew in advance on the +conscript classes. + +From that day the old merchant, grieved at seeing his eldest daughter +fade, remembered how he had married Mademoiselle Chevrel under much +the same circumstances as those of Joseph Lebas and Virginie. A good +bit of business, to marry off his daughter, and discharge a sacred +debt by repaying to an orphan the benefit he had formerly received +from his predecessor under similar conditions! Joseph Lebas, who was +now three-and-thirty, was aware of the obstacle which a difference of +fifteen years placed between Augustine and himself. Being also too +clear-sighted not to understand Monsieur Guillaume's purpose, he knew +his inexorable principles well enough to feel sure that the second +would never marry before the elder. So the hapless assistant, whose +heart was as warm as his legs were long and his chest deep, suffered +in silence. + +This was the state of the affairs in the tiny republic which, in the +heart of the Rue Saint-Denis, was not unlike a dependency of La +Trappe. But to give a full account of events as well as of feelings, +it is needful to go back to some months before the scene with which +this story opens. At dusk one evening, a young man passing the +darkened shop of the Cat and Racket, had paused for a moment to gaze +at a picture which might have arrested every painter in the world. The +shop was not yet lighted, and was as a dark cave beyond which the +dining-room was visible. A hanging lamp shed the yellow light which +lends such charm to pictures of the Dutch school. The white linen, the +silver, the cut glass, were brilliant accessories, and made more +picturesque by strong contrasts of light and shade. The figures of the +head of the family and his wife, the faces of the apprentices, and the +pure form of Augustine, near whom a fat chubby-cheeked maid was +standing, composed so strange a group; the heads were so singular, and +every face had so candid an expression; it was so easy to read the +peace, the silence, the modest way of life in this family, that to an +artist accustomed to render nature, there was something hopeless in +any attempt to depict this scene, come upon by chance. The stranger +was a young painter, who, seven years before, had gained the first +prize for painting. He had now just come back from Rome. His soul, +full-fed with poetry; his eyes, satiated with Raphael and Michael +Angelo, thirsted for real nature after long dwelling in the pompous +land where art has everywhere left something grandiose. Right or +wrong, this was his personal feeling. His heart, which had long been a +prey to the fire of Italian passion, craved one of those modest and +meditative maidens whom in Rome he had unfortunately seen only in +painting. From the enthusiasm produced in his excited fancy by the +living picture before him, he naturally passed to a profound +admiration for the principal figure; Augustine seemed to be pensive, +and did not eat; by the arrangement of the lamp the light fell full on +her face, and her bust seemed to move in a circle of fire, which threw +up the shape of her head and illuminated it with almost supernatural +effect. The artist involuntarily compared her to an exiled angel +dreaming of heaven. An almost unknown emotion, a limpid, seething love +flooded his heart. After remaining a minute, overwhelmed by the weight +of his ideas, he tore himself from his bliss, went home, ate nothing, +and could not sleep. + +The next day he went to his studio, and did not come out of it till he +had placed on canvas the magic of the scene of which the memory had, +in a sense, made him a devotee; his happiness was incomplete till he +should possess a faithful portrait of his idol. He went many times +past the house of the Cat and Racket; he even ventured in once or +twice, under a disguise, to get a closer view of the bewitching +creature that Madame Guillaume covered with her wing. For eight whole +months, devoted to his love and to his brush, he was lost to the sight +of his most intimate friends forgetting the world, the theatre, +poetry, music, and all his dearest habits. One morning Girodet broke +through all the barriers with which artists are familiar, and which +they know how to evade, went into his room, and woke him by asking, +"What are you going to send to the Salon?" The artist grasped his +friend's hand, dragged him off to the studio, uncovered a small easel +picture and a portrait. After a long and eager study of the two +masterpieces, Girodet threw himself on his comrade's neck and hugged +him, without speaking a word. His feelings could only be expressed as +he felt them--soul to soul. + +"You are in love?" said Girodet. + +They both knew that the finest portraits by Titian, Raphael, and +Leonardo da Vinci, were the outcome of the enthusiastic sentiments by +which, indeed, under various conditions, every masterpiece is +engendered. The artist only bent his head in reply. + +"How happy are you to be able to be in love, here, after coming back +from Italy! But I do not advise you to send such works as these to the +Salon," the great painter went on. "You see, these two works will not +be appreciated. Such true coloring, such prodigious work, cannot yet +be understood; the public is not accustomed to such depths. The +pictures we paint, my dear fellow, are mere screens. We should do +better to turn rhymes, and translate the antique poets! There is more +glory to be looked for there than from our luckless canvases!" + +Notwithstanding this charitable advice, the two pictures were +exhibited. The /Interior/ made a revolution in painting. It gave birth +to the pictures of genre which pour into all our exhibitions in such +prodigious quantity that they might be supposed to be produced by +machinery. As to the portrait, few artists have forgotten that +lifelike work; and the public, which as a body is sometimes +discerning, awarded it the crown which Girodet himself had hung over +it. The two pictures were surrounded by a vast throng. They fought for +places, as women say. Speculators and moneyed men would have covered +the canvas with double napoleons, but the artist obstinately refused +to sell or to make replicas. An enormous sum was offered him for the +right of engraving them, and the print-sellers were not more favored +than the amateurs. + +Though these incidents occupied the world, they were not of a nature +to penetrate the recesses of the monastic solitude in the Rue Saint- +Denis. However, when paying a visit to Madame Guillaume, the notary's +wife spoke of the exhibition before Augustine, of whom she was very +fond, and explained its purpose. Madame Roguin's gossip naturally +inspired Augustine with a wish to see the pictures, and with courage +enough to ask her cousin secretly to take her to the Louvre. Her +cousin succeeded in the negotiations she opened with Madame Guillaume +for permission to release the young girl for two hours from her dull +labors. Augustine was thus able to make her way through the crowd to +see the crowned work. A fit of trembling shook her like an aspen leaf +as she recognized herself. She was terrified, and looked about her to +find Madame Roguin, from whom she had been separated by a tide of +people. At that moment her frightened eyes fell on the impassioned +face of the young painter. She at once recalled the figure of a +loiterer whom, being curious, she had frequently observed, believing +him to be a new neighbor. + +"You see how love has inspired me," said the artist in the timid +creature's ear, and she stood in dismay at the words. + +She found supernatural courage to enable her to push through the crowd +and join her cousin, who was still struggling with the mass of people +that hindered her from getting to the picture. + +"You will be stifled!" cried Augustine. "Let us go." + +But there are moments, at the Salon, when two women are not always +free to direct their steps through the galleries. By the irregular +course to which they were compelled by the press, Mademoiselle +Guillaume and her cousin were pushed to within a few steps of the +second picture. Chance thus brought them, both together, to where they +could easily see the canvas made famous by fashion, for once in +agreement with talent. Madame Roguin's exclamation of surprise was +lost in the hubbub and buzz of the crowd; Augustine involuntarily shed +tears at the sight of this wonderful study. Then, by an almost +unaccountable impulse, she laid her finger on her lips, as she +perceived quite near her the ecstatic face of the young painter. The +stranger replied by a nod, and pointed to Madame Roguin, as a spoil- +sport, to show Augustine that he had understood. This pantomime struck +the young girl like hot coals on her flesh; she felt quite guilty as +she perceived that there was a compact between herself and the artist. +The suffocating heat, the dazzling sight of beautiful dresses, the +bewilderment produced in Augustine's brain by the truth of coloring, +the multitude of living or painted figures, the profusion of gilt +frames, gave her a sense of intoxication which doubled her alarms. She +would perhaps have fainted if an unknown rapture had not surged up in +her heart to vivify her whole being, in spite of this chaos of +sensations. She nevertheless believed herself to be under the power of +the Devil, of whose awful snares she had been warned of by the +thundering words of preachers. This moment was to her like a moment of +madness. She found herself accompanied to her cousin's carriage by the +young man, radiant with joy and love. Augustine, a prey to an +agitation new to her experience, an intoxication which seemed to +abandon her to nature, listened to the eloquent voice of her heart, +and looked again and again at the young painter, betraying the emotion +that came over her. Never had the bright rose of her cheeks shown in +stronger contrast with the whiteness of her skin. The artist saw her +beauty in all its bloom, her maiden modesty in all its glory. She +herself felt a sort of rapture mingled with terror at thinking that +her presence had brought happiness to him whose name was on every lip, +and whose talent lent immortality to transient scenes. She was loved! +It was impossible to doubt it. When she no longer saw the artist, +these simple words still echoed in her ear, "You see how love has +inspired me!" And the throbs of her heart, as they grew deeper, seemed +a pain, her heated blood revealed so many unknown forces in her being. +She affected a severe headache to avoid replying to her cousin's +questions concerning the pictures; but on their return Madame Roguin +could not forbear from speaking to Madame Guillaume of the fame that +had fallen on the house of the Cat and Racket, and Augustine quaked in +every limb as she heard her mother say that she should go to the Salon +to see her house there. The young girl again declared herself +suffering, and obtained leave to go to bed. + +"That is what comes of sight-seeing," exclaimed Monsieur Guillaume--"a +headache. And is it so very amusing to see in a picture what you can +see any day in your own street? Don't talk to me of your artists! Like +writers, they are a starveling crew. Why the devil need they choose my +house to flout it in their pictures?" + +"It may help to sell a few ells more of cloth," said Joseph Lebas. + +This remark did not protect art and thought from being condemned once +again before the judgment-seat of trade. As may be supposed, these +speeches did not infuse much hope into Augustine, who, during the +night, gave herself up to the first meditations of love. The events of +the day were like a dream, which it was a joy to recall to her mind. +She was initiated into the fears, the hopes, the remorse, all the ebb +and flow of feeling which could not fail to toss a heart so simple and +timid as hers. What a void she perceived in this gloomy house! What a +treasure she found in her soul! To be the wife of a genius, to share +his glory! What ravages must such a vision make in the heart of a girl +brought up among such a family! What hopes must it raise in a young +creature who, in the midst of sordid elements, had pined for a life of +elegance! A sunbeam had fallen into the prison. Augustine was suddenly +in love. So many of her feelings were soothed that she succumbed +without reflection. At eighteen does not love hold a prism between the +world and the eyes of a young girl? She was incapable of suspecting +the hard facts which result from the union of a loving woman with a +man of imagination, and she believed herself called to make him happy, +not seeing any disparity between herself and him. To her the future +would be as the present. When, next day, her father and mother +returned from the Salon, their dejected faces proclaimed some +disappointment. In the first place, the painter had removed the two +pictures; and then Madame Guillaume had lost her cashmere shawl. But +the news that the pictures had disappeared from the walls since her +visit revealed to Augustine a delicacy of sentiment which a woman can +always appreciate, even by instinct. + +On the morning when, on his way home from a ball, Theodore de +Sommervieux--for this was the name which fame had stamped on +Augustine's heart--had been squirted on by the apprentices while +awaiting the appearance of his artless little friend, who certainly +did not know that he was there, the lovers had seen each other for the +fourth time only since their meeting at the Salon. The difficulties +which the rule of the house placed in the way of the painter's ardent +nature gave added violence to his passion for Augustine. + +How could he get near to a young girl seated in a counting-house +between two such women as Mademoiselle Virginie and Madame Guillaume? +How could he correspond with her when her mother never left her side? +Ingenious, as lovers are, to imagine woes, Theodore saw a rival in one +of the assistants, to whose interests he supposed the others to be +devoted. If he should evade these sons of Argus, he would yet be +wrecked under the stern eye of the old draper or of Madame Guillaume. +The very vehemence of his passion hindered the young painter from +hitting on the ingenious expedients which, in prisoners and in lovers, +seem to be the last effort of intelligence spurred by a wild craving +for liberty, or by the fire of love. Theodore wandered about the +neighborhood with the restlessness of a madman, as though movement +might inspire him with some device. After racking his imagination, it +occurred to him to bribe the blowsy waiting-maid with gold. Thus a few +notes were exchanged at long intervals during the fortnight following +the ill-starred morning when Monsieur Guillaume and Theodore had so +scrutinized one another. At the present moment the young couple had +agreed to see each other at a certain hour of the day, and on Sunday, +at Saint-Leu, during Mass and vespers. Augustine had sent her dear +Theodore a list of the relations and friends of the family, to whom +the young painter tried to get access, in the hope of interesting, if +it were possible, in his love affairs, one of these souls absorbed in +money and trade, to whom a genuine passion must appear a quite +monstrous speculation, a thing unheard-of. Nothing meanwhile, was +altered at the sign of the Cat and Racket. If Augustine was absent- +minded, if, against all obedience to the domestic code, she stole up +to her room to make signals by means of a jar of flowers, if she +sighed, if she were lost in thought, no one observed it, not even her +mother. This will cause some surprise to those who have entered into +the spirit of the household, where an idea tainted with poetry would +be in startling contrast to persons and things, where no one could +venture on a gesture or a look which would not be seen and analyzed. +Nothing, however, could be more natural: the quiet barque that +navigated the stormy waters of the Paris Exchange, under the flag of +the Cat and Racket, was just now in the toils of one of these tempests +which, returning periodically, might be termed equinoctial. For the +last fortnight the five men forming the crew, with Madame Guillaume +and Mademoiselle Virginie, had been devoting themselves to the hard +labor, known as stock-taking. + +Every bale was turned over, and the length verified to ascertain the +exact value of the remnant. The ticket attached to each parcel was +carefully examined to see at what time the piece had been bought. The +retail price was fixed. Monsieur Guillaume, always on his feet, his +pen behind his ear, was like a captain commanding the working of the +ship. His sharp tones, spoken through a trap-door, to inquire into the +depths of the hold in the cellar-store, gave utterance to the +barbarous formulas of trade-jargon, which find expression only in +cipher. "How much H. N. Z.?"--"All sold."--"What is left of Q. X.?"-- +Two ells."--"At what price?"--"Fifty-five three."--"Set down A. at +three, with all of J. J., all of M. P., and what is left of V. D. O." +--A hundred other injunctions equally intelligible were spouted over +the counters like verses of modern poetry, quoted by romantic spirits, +to excite each other's enthusiasm for one of their poets. In the +evening Guillaume, shut up with his assistant and his wife, balanced +his accounts, carried on the balance, wrote to debtors in arrears, and +made out bills. All three were busy over this enormous labor, of which +the result could be stated on a sheet of foolscap, proving to the head +of the house that there was so much to the good in hard cash, so much +in goods, so much in bills and notes; that he did not owe a sou; that +a hundred or two hundred thousand francs were owing to him; that the +capital had been increased; that the farmlands, the houses, or the +investments were extended, or repaired, or doubled. Whence it became +necessary to begin again with increased ardor, to accumulate more +crown-pieces, without its ever entering the brain of these laborious +ants to ask--"To what end?" + +Favored by this annual turmoil, the happy Augustine escaped the +investigations of her Argus-eyed relations. At last, one Saturday +evening, the stock-taking was finished. The figures of the sum-total +showed a row of 0's long enough to allow Guillaume for once to relax +the stern rule as to dessert which reigned throughout the year. The +shrewd old draper rubbed his hands, and allowed his assistants to +remain at table. The members of the crew had hardly swallowed their +thimbleful of some home-made liqueur, when the rumble of a carriage +was heard. The family party were going to see /Cendrillon/ at the +Varietes, while the two younger apprentices each received a crown of +six francs, with permission to go wherever they chose, provided they +were in by midnight. + +Notwithstanding this debauch, the old cloth-merchant was shaving +himself at six next morning, put on his maroon-colored coat, of which +the glowing lights afforded him perennial enjoyment, fastened a pair +of gold buckles on the knee-straps of his ample satin breeches; and +then, at about seven o'clock, while all were still sleeping in the +house, he made his way to the little office adjoining the shop on the +first floor. Daylight came in through a window, fortified by iron +bars, and looking out on a small yard surrounded by such black walls +that it was very like a well. The old merchant opened the iron-lined +shutters, which were so familiar to him, and threw up the lower half +of the sash window. The icy air of the courtyard came in to cool the +hot atmosphere of the little room, full of the odor peculiar to +offices. + +The merchant remained standing, his hand resting on the greasy arm of +a large cane chair lined with morocco, of which the original hue had +disappeared; he seemed to hesitate as to seating himself. He looked +with affection at the double desk, where his wife's seat, opposite his +own, was fitted into a little niche in the wall. He contemplated the +numbered boxes, the files, the implements, the cash box--objects all +of immemorial origin, and fancied himself in the room with the shade +of Master Chevrel. He even pulled out the high stool on which he had +once sat in the presence of his departed master. This stool, covered +with black leather, the horse-hair showing at every corner--as it had +long done, without, however, coming out--he placed with a shaking hand +on the very spot where his predecessor had put it, and then, with an +emotion difficult to describe, he pulled a bell, which rang at the +head of Joseph Lebas' bed. When this decisive blow had been struck, +the old man, for whom, no doubt, these reminiscences were too much, +took up three or four bills of exchange, and looked at them without +seeing them. + +Suddenly Joseph Lebas stood before him. + +"Sit down there," said Guillaume, pointing to the stool. + +As the old master draper had never yet bid his assistant be seated in +his presence, Joseph Lebas was startled. + +"What do you think of these notes?" asked Guillaume. + +"They will never be paid." + +"Why?" + +"Well, I heard the day before yesterday Etienne and Co. had made their +payments in gold." + +"Oh, oh!" said the draper. "Well, one must be very ill to show one's +bile. Let us speak of something else.--Joseph, the stock-taking is +done." + +"Yes, monsieur, and the dividend is one of the best you have ever +made." + +"Do not use new-fangled words. Say the profits, Joseph. Do you know, +my boy, that this result is partly owing to you? And I do not intend +to pay you a salary any longer. Madame Guillaume has suggested to me +to take you into partnership.--'Guillaume and Lebas;' will not that +make a good business name? We might add, 'and Co.' to round off the +firm's signature." + +Tears rose to the eyes of Joseph Lebas, who tried to hide them. + +"Oh, Monsieur Guillaume, how have I deserved such kindness? I only do +my duty. It was so much already that you should take an interest in a +poor orph----" + +He was brushing the cuff of his left sleeve with his right hand, and +dared not look at the old man, who smiled as he thought that this +modest young fellow no doubt needed, as he had needed once on a time, +some encouragement to complete his explanation. + +"To be sure," said Virginie's father, "you do not altogether deserve +this favor, Joseph. You have not so much confidence in me as I have in +you." (The young man looked up quickly.) "You know all the secrets of +the cash-box. For the last two years I have told you almost all my +concerns. I have sent you to travel in our goods. In short, I have +nothing on my conscience as regards you. But you--you have a soft +place, and you have never breathed a word of it." Joseph Lebas +blushed. "Ah, ha!" cried Guillaume, "so you thought you could deceive +an old fox like me? When you knew that I had scented the Lecocq +bankruptcy?" + +"What, monsieur?" replied Joseph Lebas, looking at his master as +keenly as his master looked at him, "you knew that I was in love?" + +"I know everything, you rascal," said the worthy and cunning old +merchant, pulling the assistant's ear. "And I forgive you--I did the +same myself." + +"And you will give her to me?" + +"Yes--with fifty thousand crowns; and I will leave you as much by +will, and we will start on our new career under the name of a new +firm. We will do good business yet, my boy!" added the old man, +getting up and flourishing his arms. "I tell you, son-in-law, there is +nothing like trade. Those who ask what pleasure is to be found in it +are simpletons. To be on the scent of a good bargain, to hold your own +on 'Change, to watch as anxiously as at the gaming-table whether +Etienne and Co. will fail or no, to see a regiment of Guards march +past all dressed in your cloth, to trip your neighbor up--honestly of +course!--to make the goods cheaper than others can; then to carry out +an undertaking which you have planned, which begins, grows, totters, +and succeeds! to know the workings of every house of business as well +as a minister of police, so as never to make a mistake; to hold up +your head in the midst of wrecks, to have friends by correspondence in +every manufacturing town; is not that a perpetual game, Joseph? That +is life, that is! I shall die in that harness, like old Chevrel, but +taking it easy now, all the same." + +In the heat of his eager rhetoric, old Guillaume had scarcely looked +at his assistant, who was weeping copiously. "Why, Joseph, my poor +boy, what is the matter?" + +"Oh, I love her so! Monsieur Guillaume, that my heart fails me; I +believe----" + +"Well, well, boy," said the old man, touched, "you are happier than +you know, by God! For she loves you. I know it." + +And he blinked his little green eyes as he looked at the young man. + +"Mademoiselle Augustine! Mademoiselle Augustine!" exclaimed Joseph +Lebas in his rapture. + +He was about to rush out of the room when he felt himself clutched by +a hand of iron, and his astonished master spun him round in front of +him once more. + +"What has Augustine to do with this matter?" he asked, in a voice +which instantly froze the luckless Joseph. + +"Is it not she that--that--I love?" stammered the assistant. + +Much put out by his own want of perspicacity, Guillaume sat down +again, and rested his long head in his hands to consider the +perplexing situation in which he found himself. Joseph Lebas, +shamefaced and in despair, remained standing. + +"Joseph," the draper said with frigid dignity, "I was speaking of +Virginie. Love cannot be made to order, I know. I know, too, that you +can be trusted. We will forget all this. I will not let Augustine +marry before Virginie.--Your interest will be ten per cent." + +The young man, to whom love gave I know not what power of courage and +eloquence, clasped his hand, and spoke in his turn--spoke for a +quarter of an hour, with so much warmth and feeling, that he altered +the situation. If the question had been a matter of business the old +tradesman would have had fixed principles to guide his decision; but, +tossed a thousand miles from commerce, on the ocean of sentiment, +without a compass, he floated, as he told himself, undecided in the +face of such an unexpected event. Carried away by his fatherly +kindness, he began to beat about the bush. + +"Deuce take it, Joseph, you must know that there are ten years between +my two children. Mademoiselle Chevrel was no beauty, still she has had +nothing to complain of in me. Do as I did. Come, come, don't cry. Can +you be so silly? What is to be done? It can be managed perhaps. There +is always some way out of a scrape. And we men are not always devoted +Celadons to our wives--you understand? Madame Guillaume is very pious. +. . . Come. By Gad, boy, give your arm to Augustine this morning as we +go to Mass." + +These were the phrases spoken at random by the old draper, and their +conclusion made the lover happy. He was already thinking of a friend +of his as a match for Mademoiselle Virginie, as he went out of the +smoky office, pressing his future father-in-law's hand, after saying +with a knowing look that all would turn out for the best. + +"What will Madame Guillaume say to it?" was the idea that greatly +troubled the worthy merchant when he found himself alone. + +At breakfast Madame Guillaume and Virginie, to whom the draper had not +yet confided his disappointment, cast meaning glances at Joseph Lebas, +who was extremely embarrassed. The young assistant's bashfulness +commended him to his mother-in-law's good graces. The matron became so +cheerful that she smiled as she looked at her husband, and allowed +herself some little pleasantries of time-honored acceptance in such +simple families. She wondered whether Joseph or Virginie were the +taller, to ask them to compare their height. This preliminary fooling +brought a cloud to the master's brow, and he even made such a point of +decorum that he desired Augustine to take the assistant's arm on their +way to Saint-Leu. Madame Guillaume, surprised at this manly delicacy, +honored her husband with a nod of approval. So the procession left the +house in such order as to suggest no suspicious meaning to the +neighbors. + +"Does it not seem to you, Mademoiselle Augustine," said the assistant, +and he trembled, "that the wife of a merchant whose credit is as good +as Monsieur Guillaume's, for instance, might enjoy herself a little +more than Madame your mother does? Might wear diamonds--or keep a +carriage? For my part, if I were to marry, I should be glad to take +all the work, and see my wife happy. I would not put her into the +counting-house. In the drapery business, you see, a woman is not so +necessary now as formerly. Monsieur Guillaume was quite right to act +as he did--and besides, his wife liked it. But so long as a woman +knows how to turn her hand to the book-keeping, the correspondence, +the retail business, the orders, and her housekeeping, so as not to +sit idle, that is enough. At seven o'clock, when the shop is shut, I +shall take my pleasures, go to the play, and into company.--But you +are not listening to me." + +"Yes, indeed, Monsieur Joseph. What do you think of painting? That is +a fine calling." + +"Yes. I know a master house-painter, Monsieur Lourdois. He is well-to- +do." + +Thus conversing, the family reached the Church of Saint-Leu. There +Madame Guillaume reasserted her rights, and, for the first time, +placed Augustine next herself, Virginie taking her place on the fourth +chair, next to Lebas. During the sermon all went well between +Augustine and Theodore, who, standing behind a pillar, worshiped his +Madonna with fervent devotion; but at the elevation of the Host, +Madame Guillaume discovered, rather late, that her daughter Augustine +was holding her prayer-book upside down. She was about to speak to her +strongly, when, lowering her veil, she interrupted her own devotions +to look in the direction where her daughter's eyes found attraction. +By the help of her spectacles she saw the young artist, whose +fashionable elegance seemed to proclaim him a cavalry officer on leave +rather than a tradesman of the neighborhood. It is difficult to +conceive of the state of violent agitation in which Madame Guillaume +found herself--she, who flattered herself on having brought up her +daughters to perfection--on discovering in Augustine a clandestine +passion of which her prudery and ignorance exaggerated the perils. She +believed her daughter to be cankered to the core. + +"Hold your book right way up, miss," she muttered in a low voice, +tremulous with wrath. She snatched away the tell-tale prayer-book and +returned it with the letter-press right way up. "Do not allow your +eyes to look anywhere but at your prayers," she added, "or I shall +have something to say to you. Your father and I will talk to you after +church." + +These words came like a thunderbolt on poor Augustine. She felt faint; +but, torn between the distress she felt and the dread of causing a +commotion in church she bravely concealed her anguish. It was, +however, easy to discern the stormy state of her soul from the +trembling of her prayer-book, and the tears which dropped on every +page she turned. From the furious glare shot at him by Madame +Guillaume the artist saw the peril into which his love affair had +fallen; he went out, with a raging soul, determined to venture all. + +"Go to your room, miss!" said Madame Guillaume, on their return home; +"we will send for you, but take care not to quit it." + +The conference between the husband and wife was conducted so secretly +that at first nothing was heard of it. Virginie, however, who had +tried to give her sister courage by a variety of gentle remonstrances, +carried her good nature so far as to listen at the door of her +mother's bedroom where the discussion was held, to catch a word or +two. The first time she went down to the lower floor she heard her +father exclaim, "Then, madame, do you wish to kill your daughter?" + +"My poor dear!" said Virginie, in tears, "papa takes your part." + +"And what do they want to do to Theodore?" asked the innocent girl. + +Virginie, inquisitive, went down again; but this time she stayed +longer; she learned that Joseph Lebas loved Augustine. It was written +that on this memorable day, this house, generally so peaceful, should +be a hell. Monsieur Guillaume brought Joseph Lebas to despair by +telling him of Augustine's love for a stranger. Lebas, who had advised +his friend to become a suitor for Mademoiselle Virginie, saw all his +hopes wrecked. Mademoiselle Virginie, overcome by hearing that Joseph +had, in a way, refused her, had a sick headache. The dispute that had +arisen from the discussion between Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, +when, for the third time in their lives, they had been of antagonistic +opinions, had shown itself in a terrible form. Finally, at half-past +four in the afternoon, Augustine, pale, trembling, and with red eyes, +was haled before her father and mother. The poor child artlessly +related the too brief tale of her love. Reassured by a speech from her +father, who promised to listen to her in silence, she gathered courage +as she pronounced to her parents the name of Theodore de Sommervieux, +with a mischievous little emphasis on the aristocratic /de/. And +yielding to the unknown charm of talking of her feelings, she was +brave enough to declare with innocent decision that she loved Monsieur +de Sommervieux, that she had written to him, and she added, with tears +in her eyes: "To sacrifice me to another man would make me wretched." + +"But, Augustine, you cannot surely know what a painter is?" cried her +mother with horror. + +"Madame Guillaume!" said the old man, compelling her to silence.-- +"Augustine," he went on, "artists are generally little better than +beggars. They are too extravagant not to be always a bad sort. I +served the late Monsieur Joseph Vernet, the late Monsieur Lekain, and +the late Monsieur Noverre. Oh, if you could only know the tricks +played on poor Father Chevrel by that Monsieur Noverre, by the +Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and especially by Monsieur Philidor! They +are a set of rascals; I know them well! They all have a gab and nice +manners. Ah, your Monsieur Sumer--, Somm----" + +"De Sommervieux, papa." + +"Well, well, de Sommervieux, well and good. He can never have been +half so sweet to you as Monsieur le Chevalier de Saint-Georges was to +me the day I got a verdict of the consuls against him. And in those +days they were gentlemen of quality." + +"But, father, Monsieur Theodore is of good family, and he wrote me +that he is rich; his father was called Chevalier de Sommervieux before +the Revolution." + +At these words Monsieur Guillaume looked at his terrible better half, +who, like an angry woman, sat tapping the floor with her foot while +keeping sullen silence; she avoided even casting wrathful looks at +Augustine, appearing to leave to Monsieur Guillaume the whole +responsibility in so grave a matter, since her opinion was not +listened to. Nevertheless, in spite of her apparent self-control, when +she saw her husband giving way so mildly under a catastrophe which had +no concern with business, she exclaimed: + +"Really, monsieur, you are so weak with your daughters! However----" + +The sound of a carriage, which stopped at the door, interrupted the +rating which the old draper already quaked at. In a minute Madame +Roguin was standing in the middle of the room, and looking at the +actors in this domestic scene: "I know all, my dear cousin," said she, +with a patronizing air. + +Madame Roguin made the great mistake of supposing that a Paris +notary's wife could play the part of a favorite of fashion. + +"I know all," she repeated, "and I have come into Noah's Ark, like the +dove, with the olive-branch. I read that allegory in the /Genie du +Christianisme/," she added, turning to Madame Guillaume; "the allusion +ought to please you, cousin. Do you know," she went on, smiling at +Augustine, "that Monsieur de Sommervieux is a charming man? He gave me +my portrait this morning, painted by a master's hand. It is worth at +least six thousand francs." And at these words she patted Monsieur +Guillaume on the arm. The old draper could not help making a grimace +with his lips, which was peculiar to him. + +"I know Monsieur de Sommervieux very well," the Dove ran on. "He has +come to my evenings this fortnight past, and made them delightful. He +has told me all his woes, and commissioned me to plead for him. I know +since this morning that he adores Augustine, and he shall have her. +Ah, cousin, do not shake your head in refusal. He will be created +Baron, I can tell you, and has just been made Chevalier of the Legion +of Honor, by the Emperor himself, at the Salon. Roguin is now his +lawyer, and knows all his affairs. Well! Monsieur de Sommervieux has +twelve thousand francs a year in good landed estate. Do you know that +the father-in-law of such a man may get a rise in life--be mayor of +his /arrondissement/, for instance. Have we not seen Monsieur Dupont +become a Count of the Empire, and a senator, all because he went as +mayor to congratulate the Emperor on his entry into Vienna? Oh, this +marriage must take place! For my part, I adore the dear young man. His +behavior to Augustine is only met with in romances. Be easy, little +one, you shall be happy, and every girl will wish she were in your +place. Madame la Duchesse de Carigliano, who comes to my 'At Homes,' +raves about Monsieur de Sommervieux. Some spiteful people say she only +comes to me to meet him; as if a duchesse of yesterday was doing too +much honor to a Chevrel, whose family have been respected citizens +these hundred years! + +"Augustine," Madame Roguin went on, after a short pause, "I have seen +the portrait. Heavens! How lovely it is! Do you know that the Emperor +wanted to have it? He laughed, and said to the Deputy High Constable +that if there were many women like that in his court while all the +kings visited it, he should have no difficulty about preserving the +peace of Europe. Is not that a compliment?" + +The tempests with which the day had begun were to resemble those of +nature, by ending in clear and serene weather. Madame Roguin displayed +so much address in her harangue, she was able to touch so many strings +in the dry hearts of Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, that at last she +hit on one which she could work upon. At this strange period commerce +and finance were more than ever possessed by the crazy mania for +seeking alliance with rank; and the generals of the Empire took full +advantage of this desire. Monsieur Guillaume, as a singular exception, +opposed this deplorable craving. His favorite axioms were that, to +secure happiness, a woman must marry a man of her own class; that +every one was punished sooner or later for having climbed too high; +that love could so little endure under the worries of a household, +that both husband and wife needed sound good qualities to be happy, +that it would not do for one to be far in advance of the other, +because, above everything, they must understand each other; if a man +spoke Greek and his wife Latin, they might come to die of hunger. He +had himself invented this sort of adage. And he compared such +marriages to old-fashioned materials of mixed silk and wool. Still, +there is so much vanity at the bottom of man's heart that the prudence +of the pilot who steered the Cat and Racket so wisely gave way before +Madame Roguin's aggressive volubility. Austere Madame Guillaume was +the first to see in her daughter's affection a reason for abdicating +her principles and for consenting to receive Monsieur de Sommervieux, +whom she promised herself she would put under severe inquisition. + +The old draper went to look for Joseph Lebas, and inform him of the +state of affairs. At half-past six, the dining-room immortalized by +the artist saw, united under its skylight, Monsieur and Madame Roguin, +the young painter and his charming Augustine, Joseph Lebas, who found +his happiness in patience, and Mademoiselle Virginie, convalescent +from her headache. Monsieur and Madame Guillaume saw in perspective +both their children married, and the fortunes of the Cat and Racket +once more in skilful hands. Their satisfaction was at its height when, +at dessert, Theodore made them a present of the wonderful picture +which they had failed to see, representing the interior of the old +shop, and to which they all owed so much happiness. + +"Isn't it pretty!" cried Guillaume. "And to think that any one would +pay thirty thousand francs for that!" + +"Because you can see my lappets in it," said Madame Guillaume. + +"And the cloth unrolled!" added Lebas; "you might take it up in your +hand." + +"Drapery always comes out well," replied the painter. "We should be +only too happy, we modern artists, if we could touch the perfection of +antique drapery." + +"So you like drapery!" cried old Guillaume. "Well, then, by Gad! shake +hands on that, my young friend. Since you can respect trade, we shall +understand each other. And why should it be despised? The world began +with trade, since Adam sold Paradise for an apple. He did not strike a +good bargain though!" And the old man roared with honest laughter, +encouraged by the champagne, which he sent round with a liberal hand. +The band that covered the young artist's eyes was so thick that he +thought his future parents amiable. He was not above enlivening them +by a few jests in the best taste. So he too pleased every one. In the +evening, when the drawing-room, furnished with what Madame Guillaume +called "everything handsome," was deserted, and while she flitted from +the table to the chimney-piece, from the candelabra to the tall +candlesticks, hastily blowing out the wax-lights, the worthy draper, +who was always clear-sighted when money was in question, called +Augustine to him, and seating her on his knee, spoke as follows:-- + +"My dear child, you shall marry your Sommervieux since you insist; you +may, if you like, risk your capital in happiness. But I am not going +to be hoodwinked by the thirty thousand francs to be made by spoiling +good canvas. Money that is lightly earned is lightly spent. Did I not +hear that hare-brained youngster declare this evening that money was +made round that it might roll. If it is round for spendthrifts, it is +flat for saving folks who pile it up. Now, my child, that fine +gentleman talks of giving you carriages and diamonds! He has money, +let him spend it on you; so be it. It is no concern of mine. But as to +what I can give you, I will not have the crown-pieces I have picked up +with so much toil wasted in carriages and frippery. Those who spend +too fast never grow rich. A hundred thousand crowns, which is your +fortune, will not buy up Paris. It is all very well to look forward to +a few hundred thousand francs to be yours some day; I shall keep you +waiting for them as long as possible, by Gad! So I took your lover +aside, and a man who managed the Lecocq bankruptcy had not much +difficulty in persuading the artist to marry under a settlement of his +wife's money on herself. I will keep an eye on the marriage contract +to see that what he is to settle on you is safely tied up. So now, my +child, I hope to be a grandfather, by Gad! I will begin at once to lay +up for my grandchildren; but swear to me, here and now, never to sign +any papers relating to money without my advice; and if I go soon to +join old Father Chevrel, promise to consult young Lebas, your brother- +in-law." + +"Yes, father, I swear it." + +At these words, spoken in a gentle voice, the old man kissed his +daughter on both cheeks. That night the lovers slept as soundly as +Monsieur and Madame Guillaume. + + + +Some few months after this memorable Sunday the high altar of Saint- +Leu was the scene of two very different weddings. Augustine and +Theodore appeared in all the radiance of happiness, their eyes beaming +with love, dressed with elegance, while a fine carriage waited for +them. Virginie, who had come in a good hired fly with the rest of the +family, humbly followed her younger sister, dressed in the simplest +fashion like a shadow necessary to the harmony of the picture. +Monsieur Guillaume had exerted himself to the utmost in the church to +get Virginie married before Augustine, but the priests, high and low, +persisted in addressing the more elegant of the two brides. He heard +some of his neighbors highly approving the good sense of Mademoiselle +Virginie, who was making, as they said, the more substantial match, +and remaining faithful to the neighborhood; while they fired a few +taunts, prompted by envy of Augustine, who was marrying an artist and +a man of rank; adding, with a sort of dismay, that if the Guillaumes +were ambitious, there was an end to the business. An old fan-maker +having remarked that such a prodigal would soon bring his wife to +beggary, father Guillaume prided himself /in petto/ for his prudence +in the matter of marriage settlements. In the evening, after a +splendid ball, followed by one of those substantial suppers of which +the memory is dying out in the present generation, Monsieur and Madame +Guillaume remained in a fine house belonging to them in the Rue du +Colombier, where the wedding had been held; Monsieur and Madame Lebas +returned in their fly to the old home in the Rue Saint-Denis, to steer +the good ship Cat and Racket. The artist, intoxicated with happiness, +carried off his beloved Augustine, and eagerly lifting her out of +their carriage when it reached the Rue des Trois-Freres, led her to an +apartment embellished by all the arts. + +The fever of passion which possessed Theodore made a year fly over the +young couple without a single cloud to dim the blue sky under which +they lived. Life did not hang heavy on the lovers' hands. Theodore +lavished on every day inexhaustible /fioriture/ of enjoyment, and he +delighted to vary the transports of passion by the soft languor of +those hours of repose when souls soar so high that they seem to have +forgotten all bodily union. Augustine was too happy for reflection; +she floated on an undulating tide of rapture; she thought she could +not do enough by abandoning herself to sanctioned and sacred married +love; simple and artless, she had no coquetry, no reserves, none of +the dominion which a worldly-minded girl acquires over her husband by +ingenious caprice; she loved too well to calculate for the future, and +never imagined that so exquisite a life could come to an end. Happy in +being her husband's sole delight, she believed that her +inextinguishable love would always be her greatest grace in his eyes, +as her devotion and obedience would be a perennial charm. And, indeed, +the ecstasy of love had made her so brilliantly lovely that her beauty +filled her with pride, and gave her confidence that she could always +reign over a man so easy to kindle as Monsieur de Sommervieux. Thus +her position as a wife brought her no knowledge but the lessons of +love. + +In the midst of her happiness, she was still the simple child who had +lived in obscurity in the Rue Saint-Denis, and who never thought of +acquiring the manners, the information, the tone of the world she had +to live in. Her words being the words of love, she revealed in them, +no doubt, a certain pliancy of mind and a certain refinement of +speech; but she used the language common to all women when they find +themselves plunged in passion, which seems to be their element. When, +by chance, Augustine expressed an idea that did not harmonize with +Theodore's, the young artist laughed, as we laugh at the first +mistakes of a foreigner, though they end by annoying us if they are +not corrected. + +In spite of all this love-making, by the end of this year, as +delightful as it was swift, Sommervieux felt one morning the need for +resuming his work and his old habits. His wife was expecting their +first child. He saw some friends again. During the tedious discomforts +of the year when a young wife is nursing an infant for the first time, +he worked, no doubt, with zeal, but he occasionally sought diversion +in the fashionable world. The house which he was best pleased to +frequent was that of the Duchesse de Carigliano, who had at last +attracted the celebrated artist to her parties. When Augustine was +quite well again, and her boy no longer required the assiduous care +which debars a mother from social pleasures, Theodore had come to the +stage of wishing to know the joys of satisfied vanity to be found in +society by a man who shows himself with a handsome woman, the object +of envy and admiration. + +To figure in drawing-rooms with the reflected lustre of her husband's +fame, and to find other women envious of her, was to Augustine a new +harvest of pleasures; but it was the last gleam of conjugal happiness. +She first wounded her husband's vanity when, in spite of vain efforts, +she betrayed her ignorance, the inelegance of her language, and the +narrowness of her ideas. Sommervieux's nature, subjugated for nearly +two years and a half by the first transports of love, now, in the calm +of less new possession, recovered its bent and habits, for a while +diverted from their channel. Poetry, painting, and the subtle joys of +imagination have inalienable rights over a lofty spirit. These +cravings of a powerful soul had not been starved in Theodore during +these two years; they had only found fresh pasture. As soon as the +meadows of love had been ransacked, and the artist had gathered roses +and cornflowers as the children do, so greedily that he did not see +that his hands could hold no more, the scene changed. When the painter +showed his wife the sketches for his finest compositions he heard her +exclaim, as her father had done, "How pretty!" This tepid admiration +was not the outcome of conscientious feeling, but of her faith on the +strength of love. + +Augustine cared more for a look than for the finest picture. The only +sublime she knew was that of the heart. At last Theodore could not +resist the evidence of the cruel fact--his wife was insensible to +poetry, she did not dwell in his sphere, she could not follow him in +all his vagaries, his inventions, his joys and his sorrows; she walked +groveling in the world of reality, while his head was in the skies. +Common minds cannot appreciate the perennial sufferings of a being +who, while bound to another by the most intimate affections, is +obliged constantly to suppress the dearest flights of his soul, and to +thrust down into the void those images which a magic power compels him +to create. To him the torture is all the more intolerable because his +feeling towards his companion enjoins, as its first law, that they +should have no concealments, but mingle the aspirations of their +thought as perfectly as the effusions of their soul. The demands of +nature are not to be cheated. She is as inexorable as necessity, which +is, indeed, a sort of social nature. Sommervieux took refuge in the +peace and silence of his studio, hoping that the habit of living with +artists might mould his wife and develop in her the dormant germs of +lofty intelligence which some superior minds suppose must exist in +every being. But Augustine was too sincerely religious not to take +fright at the tone of artists. At the first dinner Theodore gave, she +heard a young painter say, with the childlike lightness, which to her +was unintelligible, and which redeems a jest from the taint of +profanity, "But, madame, your Paradise cannot be more beautiful than +Raphael's Transfiguration!--Well, and I got tired of looking at that." + +Thus Augustine came among this sparkling set in a spirit of distrust +which no one could fail to see. She was a restraint on their freedom. +Now an artist who feels restraint is pitiless; he stays away, or +laughs it to scorn. Madame Guillaume, among other absurdities, had an +excessive notion of the dignity she considered the prerogative of a +married woman; and Augustine, though she had often made fun of it, +could not help a slight imitation of her mother's primness. This +extreme propriety, which virtuous wives do not always avoid, suggested +a few epigrams in the form of sketches, in which the harmless jest was +in such good taste that Sommervieux could not take offence; and even +if they had been more severe, these pleasantries were after all only +reprisals from his friends. Still, nothing could seem a trifle to a +spirit so open as Theodore's to impressions from without. A coldness +insensibly crept over him, and inevitably spread. To attain conjugal +happiness we must climb a hill whose summit is a narrow ridge, close +to a steep and slippery descent: the painter's love was falling down +it. He regarded his wife as incapable of appreciating the moral +considerations which justified him in his own eyes for his singular +behavior to her, and believed himself quite innocent in hiding from +her thoughts she could not enter into, and peccadilloes outside the +jurisdiction of a /bourgeois/ conscience. Augustine wrapped herself in +sullen and silent grief. These unconfessed feelings placed a shroud +between the husband and wife which could not fail to grow thicker day +by day. Though her husband never failed in consideration for her, +Augustine could not help trembling as she saw that he kept for the +outer world those treasures of wit and grace that he formerly would +lay at her feet. She soon began to find sinister meaning in the +jocular speeches that are current in the world as to the inconstancy +of men. She made no complaints, but her demeanor conveyed reproach. + +Three years after her marriage this pretty young woman, who dashed +past in her handsome carriage, and lived in a sphere of glory and +riches to the envy of heedless folk incapable of taking a just view of +the situations of life, was a prey to intense grief. She lost her +color; she reflected; she made comparisons; then sorrow unfolded to +her the first lessons of experience. She determined to restrict +herself bravely within the round of duty, hoping that by this generous +conduct she might sooner or later win back her husband's love. But it +was not so. When Sommervieux, fired with work, came in from his +studio, Augustine did not put away her work so quickly but that the +painter might find his wife mending the household linen, and his own, +with all the care of a good housewife. She supplied generously and +without a murmur the money needed for his lavishness; but in her +anxiety to husband her dear Theodore's fortune, she was strictly +economical for herself and in certain details of domestic management. +Such conduct is incompatible with the easy-going habits of artists, +who, at the end of their life, have enjoyed it so keenly that they +never inquire into the causes of their ruin. + +It is useless to note every tint of shadow by which the brilliant hues +of their honeymoon were overcast till they were lost in utter +blackness. One evening poor Augustine, who had for some time heard her +husband speak with enthusiasm of the Duchesse de Carigliano, received +from a friend certain malignantly charitable warnings as to the nature +of the attachment which Sommervieux had formed for this celebrated +flirt of the Imperial Court. At one-and-twenty, in all the splendor of +youth and beauty, Augustine saw herself deserted for a woman of +six-and-thirty. Feeling herself so wretched in the midst of a world of +festivity which to her was a blank, the poor little thing could no +longer understand the admiration she excited, or the envy of which she +was the object. Her face assumed a different expression. Melancholy, +tinged her features with the sweetness of resignation and the pallor +of scorned love. Ere long she too was courted by the most fascinating +men; but she remained lonely and virtuous. Some contemptuous words +which escaped her husband filled her with incredible despair. A +sinister flash showed her the breaches which, as a result of her +sordid education, hindered the perfect union of her soul with +Theodore's; she loved him well enough to absolve him and condemn +herself. She shed tears of blood, and perceived, too late, that there +are /mesalliances/ of the spirit as well as of rank and habits. As she +recalled the early raptures of their union, she understood the full +extent of that lost happiness, and accepted the conclusion that so +rich a harvest of love was in itself a whole life, which only sorrow +could pay for. At the same time, she loved too truly to lose all hope. +At one-and-twenty she dared undertake to educate herself, and make her +imagination, at least, worthy of that she admired. "If I am not a +poet," thought she, "at any rate, I will understand poetry." + +Then, with all the strength of will, all the energy which every woman +can display when she loves, Madame de Sommervieux tried to alter her +character, her manners, and her habits; but by dint of devouring books +and learning undauntedly, she only succeeded in becoming less +ignorant. Lightness of wit and the graces of conversation are a gift +of nature, or the fruit of education begun in the cradle. She could +appreciate music and enjoy it, but she could not sing with taste. She +understood literature and the beauties of poetry, but it was too late +to cultivate her refractory memory. She listened with pleasure to +social conversation, but she could contribute nothing brilliant. Her +religious notions and home-grown prejudices were antagonistic to the +complete emancipation of her intelligence. Finally, a foregone +conclusion against her had stolen into Theodore's mind, and this she +could not conquer. The artist would laugh, at those who flattered him +about his wife, and his irony had some foundation; he so overawed the +pathetic young creature that, in his presence, or alone with him, she +trembled. Hampered by her too eager desire to please, her wits and her +knowledge vanished in one absorbing feeling. Even her fidelity vexed +the unfaithful husband, who seemed to bid her do wrong by stigmatizing +her virtue as insensibility. Augustine tried in vain to abdicate her +reason, to yield to her husband's caprices and whims, to devote +herself to the selfishness of his vanity. Her sacrifices bore no +fruit. Perhaps they had both let the moment slip when souls may meet +in comprehension. One day the young wife's too sensitive heart +received one of those blows which so strain the bonds of feeling that +they seem to be broken. She withdrew into solitude. But before long a +fatal idea suggested to her to seek counsel and comfort in the bosom +of her family. + +So one morning she made her way towards the grotesque facade of the +humble, silent home where she had spent her childhood. She sighed as +she looked up at the sash-window, whence one day she had sent her +first kiss to him who now shed as much sorrow as glory on her life. +Nothing was changed in the cavern, where the drapery business had, +however, started on a new life. Augustine's sister filled her mother's +old place at the desk. The unhappy young woman met her brother-in-law +with his pen behind his ear; he hardly listened to her, he was so full +of business. The formidable symptoms of stock-taking were visible all +round him; he begged her to excuse him. She was received coldly enough +by her sister, who owed her a grudge. In fact, Augustine, in her +finery, and stepping out of a handsome carriage, had never been to see +her but when passing by. The wife of the prudent Lebas, imagining that +want of money was the prime cause of this early call, tried to keep up +a tone of reserve which more than once made Augustine smile. The +painter's wife perceived that, apart from the cap and lappets, her +mother had found in Virginie a successor who could uphold the ancient +honor of the Cat and Racket. At breakfast she observed certain changes +in the management of the house which did honor to Lebas' good sense; +the assistants did not rise before dessert; they were allowed to talk, +and the abundant meal spoke of ease without luxury. The fashionable +woman found some tickets for a box at the Francais, where she +remembered having seen her sister from time to time. Madame Lebas had +a cashmere shawl over her shoulders, of which the value bore witness +to her husband's generosity to her. In short, the couple were keeping +pace with the times. During the two-thirds of the day she spent there, +Augustine was touched to the heart by the equable happiness, devoid, +to be sure, of all emotion, but equally free from storms, enjoyed by +this well-matched couple. They had accepted life as a commercial +enterprise, in which, above all, they must do credit to the business. +Not finding any great love in her husband, Virginie had set to work to +create it. Having by degrees learned to esteem and care for his wife, +the time that his happiness had taken to germinate was to Joseph Lebas +a guarantee of its durability. Hence, when Augustine plaintively set +forth her painful position, she had to face the deluge of commonplace +morality which the traditions of the Rue Saint-Denis furnished to her +sister. + +"The mischief is done, wife," said Joseph Lebas; "we must try to give +our sister good advice." Then the clever tradesman ponderously +analyzed the resources which law and custom might offer Augustine as a +means of escape at this crisis; he ticketed every argument, so to +speak, and arranged them in their degrees of weight under various +categories, as though they were articles of merchandise of different +qualities; then he put them in the scale, weighed them, and ended by +showing the necessity for his sister-in-law's taking violent steps +which could not satisfy the love she still had for her husband; and, +indeed, the feeling had revived in all its strength when she heard +Joseph Lebas speak of legal proceedings. Augustine thanked them, and +returned home even more undecided than she had been before consulting +them. She now ventured to go to the house in the Rue du Colombier, +intending to confide her troubles to her father and mother; for she +was like a sick man who, in his desperate plight, tries every +prescription, and even puts faith in old wives' remedies. + +The old people received their daughter with an effusiveness that +touched her deeply. Her visit brought them some little change, and +that to them was worth a fortune. For the last four years they had +gone their way like navigators without a goal or a compass. Sitting by +the chimney corner, they would talk over their disasters under the old +law of /maximum/, of their great investments in cloth, of the way they +had weathered bankruptcies, and, above all, the famous failure of +Lecocq, Monsieur Guillaume's battle of Marengo. Then, when they had +exhausted the tale of lawsuits, they recapitulated the sum total of +their most profitable stock-takings, and told each other old stories +of the Saint-Denis quarter. At two o'clock old Guillaume went to cast +an eye on the business at the Cat and Racket; on his way back he +called at all the shops, formerly the rivals of his own, where the +young proprietors hoped to inveigle the old draper into some risky +discount, which, as was his wont, he never refused point-blank. Two +good Normandy horses were dying of their own fat in the stables of the +big house; Madame Guillaume never used them but to drag her on Sundays +to high Mass at the parish church. Three times a week the worthy +couple kept open house. By the influence of his son-in-law +Sommervieux, Monsieur Guillaume had been named a member of the +consulting board for the clothing of the Army. Since her husband had +stood so high in office, Madame Guillaume had decided that she must +receive; her rooms were so crammed with gold and silver ornaments, and +furniture, tasteless but of undoubted value, that the simplest room in +the house looked like a chapel. Economy and expense seemed to be +struggling for the upper hand in every accessory. It was as though +Monsieur Guillaume had looked to a good investment, even in the +purchase of a candlestick. In the midst of this bazaar, where splendor +revealed the owner's want of occupation, Sommervieux's famous picture +filled the place of honor, and in it Monsieur and Madame Guillaume +found their chief consolation, turning their eyes, harnessed with eye- +glasses, twenty times a day on this presentment of their past life, to +them so active and amusing. The appearance of this mansion and these +rooms, where everything had an aroma of staleness and mediocrity, the +spectacle offered by these two beings, cast away, as it were, on a +rock far from the world and the ideas which are life, startled +Augustine; she could here contemplate the sequel of the scene of which +the first part had struck her at the house of Lebas--a life of stir +without movement, a mechanical and instinctive existence like that of +the beaver; and then she felt an indefinable pride in her troubles, as +she reflected that they had their source in eighteen months of such +happiness as, in her eyes, was worth a thousand lives like this; its +vacuity seemed to her horrible. However, she concealed this not very +charitable feeling, and displayed for her parents her newly-acquired +accomplishments of mind, and the ingratiating tenderness that love had +revealed to her, disposing them to listen to her matrimonial +grievances. Old people have a weakness for this kind of confidence. +Madame Guillaume wanted to know the most trivial details of that alien +life, which to her seemed almost fabulous. The travels of Baron da la +Houtan, which she began again and again and never finished, told her +nothing more unheard-of concerning the Canadian savages. + +"What, child, your husband shuts himself into a room with naked women! +And you are so simple as to believe that he draws them?" + +As she uttered this exclamation, the grandmother laid her spectacles +on a little work-table, shook her skirts, and clasped her hands on her +knees, raised by a foot-warmer, her favorite pedestal. + +"But, mother, all artists are obliged to have models." + +"He took good care not to tell us that when he asked leave to marry +you. If I had known it, I would never had given my daughter to a man +who followed such a trade. Religion forbids such horrors; they are +immoral. And at what time of night do you say he comes home?" + +"At one o'clock--two----" + +The old folks looked at each other in utter amazement. + +"Then he gambles?" said Monsieur Guillaume. "In my day only gamblers +stayed out so late." + +Augustine made a face that scorned the accusation. + +"He must keep you up through dreadful nights waiting for him," said +Madame Guillaume. "But you go to bed, don't you? And when he has lost, +the wretch wakes you." + +"No, mamma, on the contrary, he is sometimes in very good spirits. Not +unfrequently, indeed, when it is fine, he suggests that I should get +up and go into the woods." + +"The woods! At that hour? Then have you such a small set of rooms that +his bedroom and his sitting-room are not enough, and that he must run +about? But it is just to give you cold that the wretch proposes such +expeditions. He wants to get rid of you. Did one ever hear of a man +settled in life, a well-behaved, quiet man galloping about like a +warlock?" + +"But, my dear mother, you do not understand that he must have +excitement to fire his genius. He is fond of scenes which----" + +"I would make scenes for him, fine scenes!" cried Madame Guillaume, +interrupting her daughter. "How can you show any consideration to such +a man? In the first place, I don't like his drinking water only; it is +not wholesome. Why does he object to see a woman eating? What queer +notion is that! But he is mad. All you tell us about him is +impossible. A man cannot leave his home without a word, and never come +back for ten days. And then he tells you he has been to Dieppe to +paint the sea. As if any one painted the sea! He crams you with a pack +of tales that are too absurd." + +Augustine opened her lips to defend her husband; but Madame Guillaume +enjoined silence with a wave of her hand, which she obeyed by a +survival of habit, and her mother went on in harsh tones: "Don't talk +to me about the man! He never set foot in church excepting to see you +and to be married. People without religion are capable of anything. +Did Guillaume ever dream of hiding anything from me, of spending three +days without saying a word to me, and of chattering afterwards like a +blind magpie?" + +"My dear mother, you judge superior people too severely. If their +ideas were the same as other folks', they would not be men of genius." + +"Very well, then let men of genius stop at home and not get married. +What! A man of genius is to make his wife miserable? And because he is +a genius it is all right! Genius, genius! It is not so very clever to +say black one minute and white the next, as he does, to interrupt +other people, to dance such rigs at home, never to let you know which +foot you are to stand on, to compel his wife never to be amused unless +my lord is in gay spirits, and to be dull when he is dull." + +"But, mother, the very nature of such imaginations----" + +"What are such 'imaginations'?" Madame Guillaume went on, interrupting +her daughter again. "Fine ones his are, my word! What possesses a man +that all on a sudden, without consulting a doctor, he takes it into +his head to eat nothing but vegetables? If indeed it were from +religious motives, it might do him some good--but he has no more +religion than a Huguenot. Was there ever a man known who, like him, +loved horses better than his fellow-creatures, had his hair curled +like a heathen, laid statues under muslin coverlets, shut his shutters +in broad day to work by lamp-light? There, get along; if he were not +so grossly immoral, he would be fit to shut up in a lunatic asylum. +Consult Monsieur Loraux, the priest at Saint Sulpice, ask his opinion +about it all, and he will tell you that your husband, does not behave +like a Christian." + +"Oh, mother, can you believe----?" + +"Yes, I do believe. You loved him, and you can see none of these +things. But I can remember in the early days after your marriage. I +met him in the Champs-Elysees. He was on horseback. Well, at one +minute he was galloping as hard as he could tear, and then pulled up +to a walk. I said to myself at that moment, 'There is a man devoid of +judgement.' " + +"Ah, ha!" cried Monsieur Guillaume, "how wise I was to have your money +settled on yourself with such a queer fellow for a husband!" + +When Augustine was so imprudent as to set forth her serious grievances +against her husband, the two old people were speechless with +indignation. But the word "divorce" was ere long spoken by Madame +Guillaume. At the sound of the word divorce the apathetic old draper +seemed to wake up. Prompted by his love for his daughter, and also by +the excitement which the proceedings would bring into his uneventful +life, father Guillaume took up the matter. He made himself the leader +of the application for a divorce, laid down the lines of it, almost +argued the case; he offered to be at all the charges, to see the +lawyers, the pleaders, the judges, to move heaven and earth. Madame de +Sommervieux was frightened, she refused her father's services, said +she would not be separated from her husband even if she were ten times +as unhappy, and talked no more about her sorrows. After being +overwhelmed by her parents with all the little wordless and consoling +kindnesses by which the old couple tried in vain to make up to her for +her distress of heart, Augustine went away, feeling the impossibility +of making a superior mind intelligible to weak intellects. She had +learned that a wife must hide from every one, even from her parents, +woes for which it is so difficult to find sympathy. The storms and +sufferings of the upper spheres are appreciated only by the lofty +spirits who inhabit there. In any circumstance we can only be judged +by our equals. + +Thus poor Augustine found herself thrown back on the horror of her +meditations, in the cold atmosphere of her home. Study was indifferent +to her, since study had not brought her back her husband's heart. +Initiated into the secret of these souls of fire, but bereft of their +resources, she was compelled to share their sorrows without sharing +their pleasures. She was disgusted with the world, which to her seemed +mean and small as compared with the incidents of passion. In short, +her life was a failure. + +One evening an idea flashed upon her that lighted up her dark grief +like a beam from heaven. Such an idea could never have smiled on a +heart less pure, less virtuous than hers. She determined to go to the +Duchesse de Carigliano, not to ask her to give her back her husband's +heart, but to learn the arts by which it had been captured; to engage +the interest of this haughty fine lady for the mother of her lover's +children; to appeal to her and make her the instrument of her future +happiness, since she was the cause of her present wretchedness. + +So one day Augustine, timid as she was, but armed with supernatural +courage, got into her carriage at two in the afternoon to try for +admittance to the boudoir of the famous coquette, who was never +visible till that hour. Madame de Sommervieux had not yet seen any of +the ancient and magnificent mansions of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. As +she made her way through the stately corridors, the handsome +staircases, the vast drawing-rooms--full of flowers, though it was in +the depth of winter, and decorated with the taste peculiar to women +born to opulence or to the elegant habits of the aristocracy, +Augustine felt a terrible clutch at her heart; she coveted the secrets +of an elegance of which she had never had an idea; she breathed in an +air of grandeur which explained the attraction of the house for her +husband. When she reached the private rooms of the Duchess she was +filled with jealousy and a sort of despair, as she admired the +luxurious arrangement of the furniture, the draperies and the +hangings. Here disorder was a grace, here luxury affected a certain +contempt of splendor. The fragrance that floated in the warm air +flattered the sense of smell without offending it. The accessories of +the rooms were in harmony with a view, through plate-glass windows, of +the lawns in a garden planted with evergreen trees. It was all +bewitching, and the art of it was not perceptible. The whole spirit of +the mistress of these rooms pervaded the drawing-room where Augustine +awaited her. She tried to divine her rival's character from the aspect +of the scattered objects; but there was here something as impenetrable +in the disorder as in the symmetry, and to the simple-minded young +wife all was a sealed letter. All that she could discern was that, as +a woman, the Duchess was a superior person. Then a painful thought +came over her. + +"Alas! And is it true," she wondered, "that a simple and loving heart +is not all-sufficient to an artist; that to balance the weight of +these powerful souls they need a union with feminine souls of a +strength equal to their own? If I had been brought up like this siren, +our weapons at least might have been equal in the hour of struggle." + +"But I am not at home!" The sharp, harsh words, though spoken in an +undertone in the adjoining boudoir, were heard by Augustine, and her +heart beat violently. + +"The lady is in there," replied the maid. + +"You are an idiot! Show her in," replied the Duchess, whose voice was +sweeter, and had assumed the dulcet tones of politeness. She evidently +now meant to be heard. + +Augustine shyly entered the room. At the end of the dainty boudoir she +saw the Duchess lounging luxuriously on an ottoman covered with brown +velvet and placed in the centre of a sort of apse outlined by soft +folds of white muslin over a yellow lining. Ornaments of gilt bronze, +arranged with exquisite taste, enhanced this sort of dais, under which +the Duchess reclined like a Greek statue. The dark hue of the velvet +gave relief to every fascinating charm. A subdued light, friendly to +her beauty, fell like a reflection rather than a direct illumination. +A few rare flowers raised their perfumed heads from costly Sevres +vases. At the moment when this picture was presented to Augustine's +astonished eyes, she was approaching so noiselessly that she caught a +glance from those of the enchantress. This look seemed to say to some +one whom Augustine did not at first perceive, "Stay; you will see a +pretty woman, and make her visit seem less of a bore." + +On seeing Augustine, the Duchess rose and made her sit down by her. + +"And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, madame?" she said +with a most gracious smile. + +"Why all the falseness?" thought Augustine, replying only with a bow. + +Her silence was compulsory. The young woman saw before her a +superfluous witness of the scene. This personage was, of all the +Colonels in the army, the youngest, the most fashionable, and the +finest man. His face, full of life and youth, but already expressive, +was further enhanced by a small moustache twirled up into points, and +as black as jet, by a full imperial, by whiskers carefully combed, and +a forest of black hair in some disorder. He was whisking a riding whip +with an air of ease and freedom which suited his self-satisfied +expression and the elegance of his dress; the ribbons attached to his +button-hole were carelessly tied, and he seemed to pride himself much +more on his smart appearance than on his courage. Augustine looked at +the Duchesse de Carigliano, and indicated the Colonel by a sidelong +glance. All its mute appeal was understood. + +"Good-bye, then, Monsieur d'Aiglemont, we shall meet in the Bois de +Boulogne." + +These words were spoken by the siren as though they were the result of +an agreement made before Augustine's arrival, and she winged them with +a threatening look that the officer deserved perhaps for the +admiration he showed in gazing at the modest flower, which contrasted +so well with the haughty Duchess. The young fop bowed in silence, +turned on the heels of his boots, and gracefully quitted the boudoir. +At this instant, Augustine, watching her rival, whose eyes seemed to +follow the brilliant officer, detected in that glance a sentiment of +which the transient expression is known to every woman. She perceived +with the deepest anguish that her visit would be useless; this lady, +full of artifice, was too greedy of homage not to have a ruthless +heart. + +"Madame," said Augustine in a broken voice, "the step I am about to +take will seem to you very strange; but there is a madness of despair +which ought to excuse anything. I understand only too well why +Theodore prefers your house to any other, and why your mind has so +much power over his. Alas! I have only to look into myself to find +more than ample reasons. But I am devoted to my husband, madame. Two +years of tears have not effaced his image from my heart, though I have +lost his. In my folly I dared to dream of a contest with you; and I +have come to you to ask you by what means I may triumph over yourself. +Oh, madame," cried the young wife, ardently seizing the hand which her +rival allowed her to hold, "I will never pray to God for my own +happiness with so much fervor as I will beseech Him for yours, if you +will help me to win back Sommervieux's regard--I will not say his +love. I have no hope but in you. Ah! tell me how you could please him, +and make him forget the first days----" At these words Augustine broke +down, suffocated with sobs she could not suppress. Ashamed of her +weakness, she hid her face in her handkerchief, which she bathed with +tears. + +"What a child you are, my dear little beauty!" said the Duchess, +carried away by the novelty of such a scene, and touched, in spite of +herself, at receiving such homage from the most perfect virtue perhaps +in Paris. She took the young wife's handkerchief, and herself wiped +the tears from her eyes, soothing her by a few monosyllables murmured +with gracious compassion. After a moment's silence the Duchess, +grasping poor Augustine's hands in both her own--hands that had a rare +character of dignity and powerful beauty--said in a gentle and +friendly voice: "My first warning is to advise you not to weep so +bitterly; tears are disfiguring. We must learn to deal firmly with the +sorrows that make us ill, for love does not linger long by a sick-bed. +Melancholy, at first, no doubt, lends a certain attractive grace, but +it ends by dragging the features and blighting the loveliest face. And +besides, our tyrants are so vain as to insist that their slaves should +be always cheerful." + +"But, madame, it is not in my power not to feel. How is it possible, +without suffering a thousand deaths, to see the face which once beamed +with love and gladness turn chill, colorless, and indifferent? I +cannot control my heart!" + +"So much the worse, sweet child. But I fancy I know all your story. In +the first place, if your husband is unfaithful to you, understand +clearly that I am not his accomplice. If I was anxious to have him in +my drawing-room, it was, I own, out of vanity; he was famous, and he +went nowhere. I like you too much already to tell you all the mad +things he has done for my sake. I will only reveal one, because it may +perhaps help us to bring him back to you, and to punish him for the +audacity of his behavior to me. He will end by compromising me. I know +the world too well, my dear, to abandon myself to the discretion of a +too superior man. You should know that one may allow them to court +one, but marry them--that is a mistake! We women ought to admire men +of genius, and delight in them as a spectacle, but as to living with +them? Never.--No, no. It is like wanting to find pleasure in +inspecting the machinery of the opera instead of sitting in a box to +enjoy its brilliant illusions. But this misfortune has fallen on you, +my poor child, has it not? Well, then, you must try to arm yourself +against tyranny." + +"Ah, madame, before coming in here, only seeing you as I came in, I +already detected some arts of which I had no suspicion." + +"Well, come and see me sometimes, and it will not be long before you +have mastered the knowledge of these trifles, important, too, in their +way. Outward things are, to fools, half of life; and in that matter +more than one clever man is a fool, in spite of all his talent. But I +dare wager you never could refuse your Theodore anything!" + +"How refuse anything, madame, if one loves a man?" + +"Poor innocent, I could adore you for your simplicity. You should know +that the more we love the less we should allow a man, above all, a +husband, to see the whole extent of our passion. The one who loves +most is tyrannized over, and, which is worse, is sooner or later +neglected. The one who wishes to rule should----" + +"What, madame, must I then dissimulate, calculate, become false, form +an artificial character, and live in it? How is it possible to live in +such a way? Can you----" she hesitated; the Duchess smiled. + +"My dear child," the great lady went on in a serious tone, "conjugal +happiness has in all times been a speculation, a business demanding +particular attention. If you persist in talking passion while I am +talking marriage, we shall soon cease to understand each other. Listen +to me," she went on, assuming a confidential tone. "I have been in the +way of seeing some of the superior men of our day. Those who have +married have for the most part chosen quite insignificant wives. Well, +those wives governed them, as the Emperor governs us; and if they were +not loved, they were at least respected. I like secrets--especially +those which concern women--well enough to have amused myself by +seeking the clue to the riddle. Well, my sweet child, those worthy +women had the gift of analyzing their husbands' nature; instead of +taking fright, like you, at their superiority, they very acutely noted +the qualities they lacked, and either by possessing those qualities, +or by feigning to possess them, they found means of making such a +handsome display of them in their husbands' eyes that in the end they +impressed them. Also, I must tell you, all these souls which appear so +lofty have just a speck of madness in them, which we ought to know how +to take advantage of. By firmly resolving to have the upper hand and +never deviating from that aim, by bringing all our actions to bear on +it, all our ideas, our cajolery, we subjugate these eminently +capricious natures, which, by the very mutability of their thoughts, +lend us the means of influencing them." + +"Good heavens!" cried the young wife in dismay. "And this is life. It +is a warfare----" + +"In which we must always threaten," said the Duchess, laughing. "Our +power is wholly factitious. And we must never allow a man to despise +us; it is impossible to recover from such a descent but by odious +manoeuvring. Come," she added, "I will give you a means of bringing +your husband to his senses." + +She rose with a smile to guide the young and guileless apprentice to +conjugal arts through the labyrinth of her palace. They came to a +back-staircase, which led up to the reception rooms. As Madame de +Carigliano pressed the secret springlock of the door she stopped, +looking at Augustine with an inimitable gleam of shrewdness and grace. +"The Duc de Carigliano adores me," said she. "Well, he dare not enter +by this door without my leave. And he is a man in the habit of +commanding thousands of soldiers. He knows how to face a battery, but +before me,--he is afraid!" + +Augustine sighed. They entered a sumptuous gallery, where the +painter's wife was led by the Duchess up to the portrait painted by +Theodore of Mademoiselle Guillaume. On seeing it, Augustine uttered a +cry. + +"I knew it was no longer in my house," she said, "but--here!----" + +"My dear child, I asked for it merely to see what pitch of idiocy a +man of genius may attain to. Sooner or later I should have returned it +to you, for I never expected the pleasure of seeing the original here +face to face with the copy. While we finish our conversation I will +have it carried down to your carriage. And if, armed with such a +talisman, you are not your husband's mistress for a hundred years, you +are not a woman, and you deserve your fate." + +Augustine kissed the Duchess' hand, and the lady clasped her to her +heart, with all the more tenderness because she would forget her by +the morrow. This scene might perhaps have destroyed for ever the +candor and purity of a less virtuous woman than Augustine, for the +astute politics of the higher social spheres were no more consonant to +Augustine than the narrow reasoning of Joseph Lebas, or Madame +Guillaume's vapid morality. Strange are the results of the false +positions into which we may be brought by the slightest mistake in the +conduct of life! Augustine was like an Alpine cowherd surprised by an +avalanche; if he hesitates, if he listens to the shouts of his +comrades, he is almost certainly lost. In such a crisis the heart +steels itself or breaks. + +Madame de Sommervieux returned home a prey to such agitation as it is +difficult to describe. Her conversation with the Duchesse de +Carigliano had roused in her mind a crowd of contradictory thoughts. +Like the sheep in the fable, full of courage in the wolf's absence, +she preached to herself, and laid down admirable plans of conduct; she +devised a thousand coquettish stratagems; she even talked to her +husband, finding, away from him, all the springs of true eloquence +which never desert a woman; then, as she pictured to herself +Theodore's clear and steadfast gaze, she began to quake. When she +asked whether monsieur were at home her voice shook. On learning that +he would not be in to dinner, she felt an unaccountable thrill of joy. +Like a criminal who has appealed against sentence of death, a respite, +however short, seemed to her a lifetime. She placed the portrait in +her room, and waited for her husband in all the agonies of hope. That +this venture must decide her future life, she felt too keenly not to +shiver at every sound, even the low ticking of the clock, which seemed +to aggravate her terrors by doling them out to her. She tried to cheat +time by various devices. The idea struck her of dressing in a way +which would make her exactly like the portrait. Then, knowing her +husband's restless temper, she had her room lighted up with unusual +brightness, feeling sure that when he came in curiosity would bring +him there at once. Midnight had struck when, at the call of the groom, +the street gate was opened, and the artist's carriage rumbled in over +the stones of the silent courtyard. + +"What is the meaning of this illumination?" asked Theodore in glad +tones, as he came into her room. + +Augustine skilfully seized the auspicious moment; she threw herself +into her husband's arms, and pointed to the portrait. The artist stood +rigid as a rock, and his eyes turned alternately on Augustine, on the +accusing dress. The frightened wife, half-dead, as she watched her +husband's changeful brow--that terrible brow--saw the expressive +furrows gathering like clouds; then she felt her blood curdling in her +veins when, with a glaring look, and in a deep hollow voice, he began +to question her: + +"Where did you find that picture?" + +"The Duchess de Carigliano returned it to me." + +"You asked her for it?" + +"I did not know that she had it." + +The gentleness, or rather the exquisite sweetness of this angel's +voice, might have touched a cannibal, but not an artist in the +clutches of wounded vanity. + +"It is worthy of her!" exclaimed the painter in a voice of thunder. "I +will be avenged!" he cried, striding up and down the room. "She shall +die of shame; I will paint her! Yes, I will paint her as Messalina +stealing out at night from the palace of Claudius." + +"Theodore!" said a faint voice. + +"I will kill her!" + +"My dear----" + +"She is in love with that little cavalry colonel, because he rides +well----" + +"Theodore!" + +"Let me be!" said the painter in a tone almost like a roar. + +It would be odious to describe the whole scene. In the end the frenzy +of passion prompted the artist to acts and words which any woman not +so young as Augustine would have ascribed to madness. + +At eight o'clock next morning Madame Guillaume, surprising her +daughter, found her pale, with red eyes, her hair in disorder, holding +a handkerchief soaked with tears, while she gazed at the floor strewn +with the torn fragments of a dress and the broken fragments of a large +gilt picture-frame. Augustine, almost senseless with grief, pointed to +the wreck with a gesture of deep despair. + +"I don't know that the loss is very great!" cried the old mistress of +the Cat and Racket. "It was like you, no doubt; but I am told that +there is a man on the boulevard who paints lovely portraits for fifty +crowns." + +"Oh, mother!" + +"Poor child, you are quite right," replied Madame Guillaume, who +misinterpreted the expression of her daughter's glance at her. "True, +my child, no one ever can love you as fondly as a mother. My darling, +I guess it all; but confide your sorrows to me, and I will comfort +you. Did I not tell you long ago that the man was mad! Your maid has +told me pretty stories. Why, he must be a perfect monster!" + +Augustine laid a finger on her white lips, as if to implore a moment's +silence. During this dreadful night misery had led her to that patient +resignation which in mothers and loving wives transcends in its +effects all human energy, and perhaps reveals in the heart of women +the existence of certain chords which God has withheld from men. + + + +An inscription engraved on a broken column in the cemetery at +Montmartre states that Madame de Sommervieux died at the age of +twenty-seven. In the simple words of this epitaph one of the timid +creature's friends can read the last scene of a tragedy. Every year, +on the second of November, the solemn day of the dead, he never passes +this youthful monument without wondering whether it does not need a +stronger woman than Augustine to endure the violent embrace of genius? + +"The humble and modest flowers that bloom in the valley," he reflects, +"perish perhaps when they are transplanted too near the skies, to the +region where storms gather and the sun is scorching." + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Aiglemont, General, Marquis Victor d' + The Firm of Nucingen + A Woman of Thirty + +Birotteau, Cesar + Cesar Birotteau + A Bachelor's Establishment + +Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Pons + The Muse of the Department + Cesar Birotteau + +Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cesar Birotteau + +Carigliano, Marechal, Duc de + Father Goriot + Sarrasine + +Carigliano, Duchesse de + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Peasantry + The Member for Arcis + +Guillaume + Cesar Birotteau + +Lebas, Joseph + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + +Lebas, Madame Joseph (Virginie) + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + +Lourdois + Cesar Birotteau + +Rabourdin, Xavier + The Government Clerks + Cesar Birotteau + The Middle Classes + +Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + Pierrette + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + +Sommervieux, Theodore de + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + +Sommervieux, Madame Theodore de (Augustine) + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Balzac + diff --git a/old/ctrkt10.zip b/old/ctrkt10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d4cf7e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ctrkt10.zip diff --git a/old/ctrkt10h.zip b/old/ctrkt10h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c15b72 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ctrkt10h.zip |