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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/1704-0.txt b/1704-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d717f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/1704-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5907 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pierrette, 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: Pierrette + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: April, 1999 [Etext #1704] +Posting Date: February 28, 2010 +Last Updated: November 23, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRETTE *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +PIERRETTE + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Anna Hanska: + + Dear Child,--You, the joy of the household, you, whose pink or + white pelerine flutters in summer among the groves of + Wierzschovnia like a will-o’-the-wisp, followed by the tender eyes + of your father and your mother,--how can I dedicate to _you_ a + story full of melancholy? And yet, ought not sorrows to be spoken + of to a young girl idolized as you are, since the day may come + when your sweet hands will be called to minister to them? It is so + difficult, Anna, to find in the history of our manners and morals + a subject that is worthy of your eyes, that no choice has been + left me; but perhaps you will be made to feel how fortunate your + fate is when you read the story sent to you by + Your old friend, + De Balzac. + + + + + +PIERRETTE + + + + +I. THE LORRAINS + +At the dawn of an October day in 1827 a young fellow about sixteen years +of age, whose clothing proclaimed what modern phraseology so insolently +calls a proletary, was standing in a small square of Lower Provins. +At that early hour he could examine without being observed the various +houses surrounding the open space, which was oblong in form. The +mills along the river were already working; the whirr of their wheels, +repeated by the echoes of the Upper Town in the keen air and sparkling +clearness of the early morning, only intensified the general silence so +that the wheels of a diligence could be heard a league away along the +highroad. The two longest sides of the square, separated by an avenue +of lindens, were built in the simple style which expresses so well +the peaceful and matter-of-fact life of the bourgeoisie. No signs +of commerce were to be seen; on the other hand, the luxurious +porte-cocheres of the rich were few, and those few turned seldom on +their hinges, excepting that of Monsieur Martener, a physician, whose +profession obliged him to keep a cabriolet, and to use it. A few of the +house-fronts were covered by grape vines, others by roses climbing to +the second-story windows, through which they wafted the fragrance of +their scattered bunches. One end of the square enters the main street of +the Lower Town, the gardens of which reach to the bank of one of the two +rivers which water the valley of Provins. The other end of the square +enters a street which runs parallel to the main street. + +At the latter, which was also the quietest end of the square, the young +workman recognized the house of which he was in search, which showed a +front of white stone grooved in lines to represent courses, windows with +closed gray blinds, and slender iron balconies decorated with rosettes +painted yellow. Above the ground floor and the first floor were three +dormer windows projecting from a slate roof; on the peak of the central +one was a new weather-vane. This modern innovation represented a hunter +in the attitude of shooting a hare. The front door was reached by three +stone steps. On one side of this door a leaden pipe discharged the +sink-water into a small street-gutter, showing the whereabouts of the +kitchen. On the other side were two windows, carefully closed by gray +shutters in which were heart-shaped openings cut to admit the light; +these windows seemed to be those of the dining-room. In the elevation +gained by the three steps were vent-holes to the cellar, closed by +painted iron shutters fantastically cut in open-work. Everything was +new. In this repaired and restored house, the fresh-colored look of +which contrasted with the time-worn exteriors of all the other houses, +an observer would instantly perceive the paltry taste and perfect +self-satisfaction of the retired petty shopkeeper. + +The young man looked at these details with an expression of pleasure +that seemed to have something rather sad in it; his eyes roved from the +kitchen to the roof, with a motion that showed a deliberate purpose. +The rosy glow of the rising sun fell on a calico curtain at one of the +garret windows, the others being without that luxury. As he caught sight +of it the young fellow’s face brightened gaily. He stepped back a little +way, leaned against a linden, and sang, in the drawling tone peculiar to +the west of France, the following Breton ditty, published by Bruguiere, +a composer to whom we are indebted for many charming melodies. In +Brittany, the young villagers sing this song to all newly-married +couples on their wedding-day:-- + + “We’ve come to wish you happiness in marriage, + To m’sieur your husband + As well as to you: + + “You have just been bound, madam’ la mariee, + With bonds of gold + That only death unbinds: + + “You will go no more to balls or gay assemblies; + You must stay at home + While we shall go. + + “Have you thought well how you are pledged to be + True to your spouse, + And love him like yourself? + + “Receive these flowers our hands do now present you; + Alas! your fleeting honors + Will fade as they.” + +This native air (as sweet as that adapted by Chateaubriand to _Ma soeur, +te souvient-il encore_), sung in this little town of the Brie district, +must have been to the ears of a Breton maiden the touchstone of +imperious memories, so faithfully does it picture the manners and +customs, the surroundings and the heartiness of her noble old land, +where a sort of melancholy reigns, hardly to be defined; caused, +perhaps, by the aspect of life in Brittany, which is deeply touching. +This power of awakening a world of grave and sweet and tender memories +by a familiar and sometimes lively ditty, is the privilege of those +popular songs which are the superstitions of music,--if we may use the +word “superstition” as signifying all that remains after the ruin of a +people, all that survives their revolutions. + +As he finished the first couple, the singer, who never took his eyes +from the attic curtain, saw no signs of life. While he sang the second, +the curtain stirred. When the words “Receive these flowers” were sung, a +youthful face appeared; a white hand cautiously opened the casement, +and a girl made a sign with her head to the singer as he ended with the +melancholy thought of the simple verses,--“Alas! your fleeting honors +will fade as they.” + +To her the young workman suddenly showed, drawing it from within his +jacket, a yellow flower, very common in Brittany, and sometimes to be +found in La Brie (where, however, it is rare),--the furze, or broom. + +“Is it really you, Brigaut?” said the girl, in a low voice. + +“Yes, Pierrette, yes. I am in Paris. I have started to make my way; but +I’m ready to settle here, near you.” + +Just then the fastening of a window creaked in a room on the first +floor, directly below Pierrette’s attic. The girl showed the utmost +terror, and said to Brigaut, quickly:-- + +“Run away!” + +The lad jumped like a frightened frog to a bend in the street caused +by the projection of a mill just where the square opens into the main +thoroughfare; but in spite of his agility his hob-nailed shoes echoed on +the stones with a sound easily distinguished from the music of the mill, +and no doubt heard by the person who opened the window. + +That person was a woman. No man would have torn himself from the comfort +of a morning nap to listen to a minstrel in a jacket; none but a maid +awakes to songs of love. Not only was this woman a maid, but she was an +old maid. When she had opened her blinds with the furtive motion of +the bat, she looked in all directions, but saw nothing, and only heard, +faintly, the flying footfalls of the lad. Can there be anything more +dreadful than the matutinal apparition of an ugly old maid at her +window? Of all the grotesque sights which amuse the eyes of travellers +in country towns, that is the most unpleasant. It is too repulsive to +laugh at. This particular old maid, whose ear was so keen, was denuded +of all the adventitious aids, of whatever kind, which she employed as +embellishments; her false front and her collarette were lacking; she +wore that horrible little bag of black silk on which old women insist +on covering their skulls, and it was now revealed beneath the night-cap +which had been pushed aside in sleep. This rumpled condition gave a +menacing expression to the head, such as painters bestow on witches. +The temples, ears, and nape of the neck, were disclosed in all their +withered horror,--the wrinkles being marked in scarlet lines that +contrasted with the would-be white of the bed-gown which was tied round +her neck by a narrow tape. The gaping of this garment revealed a breast +to be likened only to that of an old peasant woman who cares nothing +about her personal ugliness. The fleshless arm was like a stick on which +a bit of stuff was hung. Seen at her window, this spinster seemed +tall from the length and angularity of her face, which recalled the +exaggerated proportions of certain Swiss heads. The character of their +countenance--the features being marked by a total want of harmony--was +that of hardness in the lines, sharpness in the tones; while an +unfeeling spirit, pervading all, would have filled a physiognomist +with disgust. These characteristics, fully visible at this moment, were +usually modified in public by a sort of commercial smile,--a bourgeois +smirk which mimicked good-humor; so that persons meeting with this old +maid might very well take her for a kindly woman. She owned the house +on shares with her brother. The brother, by-the-bye, was sleeping so +tranquilly in his own chamber that the orchestra of the Opera-house +could not have awakened him, wonderful as its diapason is said to be. + +The old maid stretched her neck out of the window, twisted it, and +raised her cold, pale-blue little eyes, with their short lashes set in +lids that were always rather swollen, to the attic window, endeavoring +to see Pierrette. Perceiving the uselessness of that attempt, she +retreated into her room with a movement like that of a tortoise which +draws in its head after protruding it from its carapace. The blinds +were then closed, and the silence of the street was unbroken except by +peasants coming in from the country, or very early persons moving about. + +When there is an old maid in a house, watch-dogs are unnecessary; not +the slightest event can occur that she does not see and comment upon and +pursue to its utmost consequences. The foregoing trifling circumstance +was therefore destined to give rise to grave suppositions, and to open +the way for one of those obscure dramas which take place in families, +and are none the less terrible because they are secret,--if, indeed, we +may apply the word “drama” to such domestic occurrences. + +Pierrette did not go back to bed. To her, Brigaut’s arrival was an +immense event. During the night--that Eden of the wretched--she escaped +the vexations and fault-findings she bore during the day. Like the hero +of a ballad, German or Russian, I forget which, her sleep seemed to her +the happy life; her waking hours a bad dream. She had just had her only +pleasurable waking in three years. The memories of her childhood had +sung their melodious ditties in her soul. The first couplet was heard +in a dream; the second made her spring out of bed; at the third, she +doubted her ears,--the sorrowful are all disciples of Saint Thomas; but +when the fourth was sung, standing in her night-gown with bare feet by +the window, she recognized Brigaut, the companion of her childhood. Ah, +yes! it was truly the well-known square jacket with the bobtails, the +pockets of which stuck out at the hips,--the jacket of blue cloth +which is classic in Brittany; there, too, were the waistcoat of printed +cotton, the linen shirt fastened by a gold heart, the large rolling +collar, the earrings, the stout shoes, the trousers of blue-gray +drilling unevenly colored by the various lengths of the warp,--in short, +all those humble, strong, and durable things which make the apparel of +the Breton peasantry. The big buttons of white horn which fastened the +jacket made the girl’s heart beat. When she saw the bunch of broom her +eyes filled with tears; then a dreadful fear drove back into her heart +the happy memories that were budding there. She thought her cousin +sleeping in the room beneath her might have heard the noise she made in +jumping out of bed and running to the window. The fear was just; the old +maid was coming, and she made Brigaut the terrified sign which the lad +obeyed without the least understanding it. Such instinctive submission +to a girl’s bidding shows one of those innocent and absolute affections +which appear from century to century on this earth, where they blossom, +like the aloes of Isola Bella, twice or thrice in a hundred years. +Whoever had seen the lad as he ran away would have loved the ingenuous +chivalry of his most ingenuous feeling. + +Jacques Brigaut was worthy of Pierrette Lorrain, who was just fifteen. +Two children! Pierrette could not keep from crying as she watched his +flight in the terror her gesture had conveyed to him. Then she sat down +in a shabby armchair placed before a little table above which hung a +mirror. She rested her elbows on the table, put her head in her hands, +and sat thinking for an hour, calling to memory the Marais, the village +of Pen-Hoel, the perilous voyages on a pond in a boat untied for +her from an old willow by little Jacques; then the old faces of her +grandfather and grandmother, the sufferings of her mother, and the +handsome face of Major Brigaut,--in short, the whole of her careless +childhood. It was all a dream, a luminous joy on the gloomy background +of the present. + +Her beautiful chestnut hair escaped in disorder from her cap, rumpled in +sleep,--a cambric cap with ruffles, which she had made herself. On +each side of her forehead were little ringlets escaping from gray +curl-papers. From the back of her head hung a heavy braid of hair that +was half unplaited. The excessive whiteness of her face betrayed +that terrible malady of girlhood which goes by the name of chlorosis, +deprives the body of its natural colors, destroys the appetite, and +shows a disordered state of the organism. The waxy tones were in all the +visible parts of her flesh. The neck and shoulders explained by their +blanched paleness the wasted arms, flung forward and crossed upon the +table. Her feet seemed enervated, shrunken from illness. Her night-gown +came only to her knees and showed the flaccid muscles, the blue veins, +the impoverished flesh of the legs. The cold, to which she paid no heed, +turned her lips violet, and a sad smile, drawing up the corners of +a sensitive mouth, showed teeth that were white as ivory and quite +small,--pretty, transparent teeth, in keeping with the delicate ears, +the rather sharp but dainty nose, and the general outline of her face, +which, in spite of its roundness, was lovely. All the animation of this +charming face was in the eyes, the iris of which, brown like Spanish +tobacco and flecked with black, shone with golden reflections round +pupils that were brilliant and intense. Pierrette was made to be gay, +but she was sad. Her lost gaiety was still to be seen in the vivacious +forms of the eye, in the ingenuous grace of her brow, in the smooth +curve of her chin. The long eyelashes lay upon the cheek-bones, made +prominent by suffering. The paleness of her face, which was unnaturally +white, made the lines and all the details infinitely pure. The ear +alone was a little masterpiece of modelling,--in marble, you might say. +Pierrette suffered in many ways. Perhaps you would like to know her +history, and this is it. + +Pierrette’s mother was a Demoiselle Auffray of Provins, half-sister by +the father’s side of Madame Rogron, mother of the present owners of the +house. + +Monsieur Auffray, her husband, had married at the age of eighteen; his +second marriage took place when he was nearly sixty-nine. By the first, +he had an only daughter, very plain, who was married at sixteen to an +innkeeper of Provins named Rogron. + +By his second marriage the worthy Auffray had another daughter; but this +one was charming. There was, of course, an enormous difference in the +ages of these daughters; the one by the first marriage was fifty years +old when the second child was born. By this time the eldest, Madame +Rogron, had two grown-up children. + +The youngest daughter of the old man was married at eighteen to a man +of her choice, a Breton officer named Lorrain, captain in the Imperial +Guard. Love often makes a man ambitious. The captain, anxious to rise to +a colonelcy, exchanged into a line regiment. While he, then a major, and +his wife enjoyed themselves in Paris on the allowance made to them by +Monsieur and Madame Auffray, or scoured Germany at the beck and call +of the Emperor’s battles and truces, old Auffray himself (formerly a +grocer) died, at the age of eighty-eight, without having found time +to make a will. His property was administered by his daughter, Madame +Rogron, and her husband so completely in their own interests that +nothing remained for the old man’s widow beyond the house she lived in +on the little square, and a few acres of land. This widow, the mother +of Madame Lorrain, was only thirty-eight at the time of her husband’s +death. Like many widows, she came to the unwise decision of remarrying. +She sold the house and land to her step-daughter, Madame Rogron, and +married a young physician named Neraud, who wasted her whole fortune. +She died of grief and misery two years later. + +Thus the share of her father’s property which ought to have come to +Madame Lorrain disappeared almost entirely, being reduced to the small +sum of eight thousand francs. Major Lorrain was killed at the battle of +Montereau, leaving his wife, then twenty-one years of age, with a little +daughter of fourteen months, and no other means than the pension +to which she was entitled and an eventual inheritance from her late +husband’s parents, Monsieur and Madame Lorrain, retail shopkeepers at +Pen-Hoel, a village in the Vendee, situated in that part of it which +is called the Marais. These Lorrains, grandfather and grandmother of +Pierrette Lorrain, sold wood for building purposes, slates, tiles, +pantiles, pipes, etc. Their business, either from their own incapacity +or through ill-luck, did badly, and gave them scarcely enough to live +on. The failure of the well-known firm of Collinet at Nantes, caused +by the events of 1814 which led to a sudden fall in colonial products, +deprived them of twenty-four thousand francs which they had just +deposited with that house. + +The arrival of their daughter-in-law was therefore welcome to them. Her +pension of eight hundred francs was a handsome income at Pen-Hoel. The +eight thousand francs which the widow’s half-brother and sister Rogron +sent to her from her father’s estate (after a multitude of legal +formalities) were placed by her in the Lorrains’ business, they giving +her a mortgage on a little house which they owned at Nantes, let for +three hundred francs, and barely worth ten thousand. + +Madame Lorrain the younger, Pierrette’s mother, died in 1819. The child +of old Auffray and his young wife was small, delicate, and weakly; the +damp climate of the Marais did not agree with her. But her husband’s +family persuaded her, in order to keep her with them, that in no other +quarter of the world could she find a more healthy region. She was so +petted and tenderly cared for that her death, when it came, brought +nothing but honor to the old Lorrains. + +Some persons declared that Brigaut, an old Vendeen, one of those men +of iron who served under Charette, under Mercier, under the Marquis de +Montauran, and the Baron du Guenic, in the wars against the Republic, +counted for a good deal in the willingness of the younger Madame Lorrain +to remain in the Marais. If it were so, his soul must have been a truly +loving and devoted one. All Pen-Hoel saw him--he was called respectfully +Major Brigaut, the grade he had held in the Catholic army--spending his +days and his evenings in the Lorrains’ parlor, beside the window of the +imperial major. Toward the last, the curate of Pen-Hoel made certain +representations to old Madame Lorrain, begging her to persuade her +daughter-in-law to marry Brigaut, and promising to have the major +appointed justice of peace for the canton of Pen-Hoel, through the +influence of the Vicomte de Kergarouet. The death of the poor young +woman put an end to the matter. + +Pierrette was left in charge of her grandparents who owed her four +hundred francs a year, interest on the little property placed in their +hands. This small sum was now applied to her maintenance. The old +people, who were growing less and less fit for business, soon found +themselves confronted by an active and capable competitor, against whom +they said hard things, all the while doing nothing to defeat him. Major +Brigaut, their friend and adviser, died six months after his friend, +the younger Madame Lorrain,--perhaps of grief, perhaps of his wounds, of +which he had received twenty-seven. + +Like a sound merchant, the competitor set about ruining his adversaries +in order to get rid of all rivalry. With his connivance, the Lorrains +borrowed money on notes, which they were unable to meet, and which drove +them in their old days into bankruptcy. Pierrette’s claim upon the house +in Nantes was superseded by the legal rights of her grandmother, who +enforced them to secure the daily bread of her poor husband. The house +was sold for nine thousand five hundred francs, of which one thousand +five hundred went for costs. The remaining eight thousand came to Madame +Lorain, who lived upon the income of them in a sort of almshouse at +Nantes, like that of Sainte-Perine in Paris, called Saint-Jacques, where +the two old people had bed and board for a humble payment. + +As it was impossible to keep Pierrette, their ruined little +granddaughter, with them, the old Lorrains bethought themselves of her +uncle and aunt Rogron, in Provins, to whom they wrote. These Rogrons +were dead. The letter might, therefore, have easily been lost; but if +anything here below can take the place of Providence, it is the post. +Postal spirit, incomparably above public spirit, exceeds in brilliancy +of resource and invention the ablest romance-writers. When the post gets +hold of a letter, worth, to it, from three to ten sous, and does +not immediately know where to find the person to whom that letter is +addressed, it displays a financial anxiety only to be met with in very +pertinacious creditors. The post goes and comes and ferrets through all +the eighty-six departments. Difficulties only arouse the genius of the +clerks, who may really be called men-of-letters, and who set about +to search for that unknown human being with as much ardor as the +mathematicians of the Bureau give to longitudes. They literally ransack +the whole kingdom. At the first ray of hope all the post-offices in +Paris are alert. Sometimes the receiver of a missing letter is amazed at +the network of scrawled directions which covers both back and front of +the missive,--glorious vouchers for the administrative persistency +with which the post has been at work. If a man undertook what the post +accomplishes, he would lose ten thousand francs in travel, time, and +money, to recover ten sous. The letter of the old Lorrains, addressed to +Monsieur Rogron of Provins (who had then been dead a year) was conveyed +by the post in due time to Monsieur Rogron, son of the deceased, a +mercer in the rue Saint-Denis in Paris. And this is where the postal +spirit obtains its greatest triumph. An heir is always more or less +anxious to know if he has picked up every scrap of his inheritance, if +he has not overlooked a credit, or a trunk of old clothes. The Treasury +knows that. A letter addressed to the late Rogron at Provins was certain +to pique the curiosity of Rogron, Jr., or Mademoiselle Rogron, the heirs +in Paris. Out of that human interest the Treasury was able to earn sixty +centimes. + +These Rogrons, toward whom the old Lorrains, though dreading to part +with their dear little granddaughter, stretched their supplicating +hands, became, in this way, and most unexpectedly, the masters of +Pierrette’s destiny. It is therefore indispensable to explain both their +antecedents and their character. + + + + +II. THE ROGRONS + +Pere Rogron, that innkeeper of Provins to whom old Auffray had married +his daughter by his first wife, was an individual with an inflamed face, +a veiny nose, and cheeks on which Bacchus had drawn his scarlet and +bulbous vine-marks. Though short, fat, and pot-bellied, with stout +legs and thick hands, he was gifted with the shrewdness of the Swiss +innkeepers, whom he resembled. Certainly he was not handsome, and his +wife looked like him. Never was a couple better matched. Rogron liked +good living and to be waited upon by pretty girls. He belonged to the +class of egoists whose behavior is brutal; he gave way to his vices and +did their will openly in the face of Israel. Grasping, selfish, without +decency, and always gratifying his own fancies, he devoured his earnings +until the day when his teeth failed him. Selfishness stayed by him. In +his old days he sold his inn, collected (as we have seen) all he could +of his late father-in-law’s property, and went to live in the little +house in the square of Provins, bought for a trifle from the widow of +old Auffray, Pierrette’s grandmother. + +Rogron and his wife had about two thousand francs a year from +twenty-seven lots of land in the neighborhood of Provins, and from the +sale of their inn for twenty thousand. Old Auffray’s house, though out +of repair, was inhabited just as it was by the Rogrons,--old rats +like wrack and ruin. Rogron himself took to horticulture and spent +his savings in enlarging the garden; he carried it to the river’s edge +between two walls and built a sort of stone embankment across the end, +where aquatic nature, left to herself, displayed the charms of her +flora. + +In the early years of their marriage the Rogrons had a son and a +daughter, both hideous; for such human beings degenerate. Put out to +nurse at a low price, these luckless children came home in due time, +after the worst of village training,--allowed to cry for hours after +their wet-nurse, who worked in the fields, leaving them shut up to +scream for her in one of those damp, dark, low rooms which serve as +homes for the French peasantry. Treated thus, the features of the +children coarsened; their voices grew harsh; they mortified their +mother’s vanity, and that made her strive to correct their bad habits +by a sternness which the severity of their father converted through +comparison to kindness. As a general thing, they were left to run loose +about the stables and courtyards of the inn, or the streets of the town; +sometimes they were whipped; sometimes they were sent, to get rid of +them, to their grandfather Auffray, who did not like them. The injustice +the Rogrons declared the old man did to their children, justified them +to their own minds in taking the greater part of “the old scoundrel’s” + property. However, Rogron did send his son to school, and did buy him a +man, one of his own cartmen, to save him from the conscription. As soon +as his daughter, Sylvie, was thirteen, he sent her to Paris, to make +her way as apprentice in a shop. Two years later he despatched his son, +Jerome-Denis, to the same career. When his friends the carriers and +those who frequented the inn, asked him what he meant to do with his +children, Pere Rogron explained his system with a conciseness which, in +view of that of most fathers, had the merit of frankness. + +“When they are old enough to understand me I shall give ‘em a kick and +say: ‘Go and make your own way in the world!’” he replied, emptying his +glass and wiping his lips with the back of his hand. Then he winked at +his questioner with a knowing look. “Hey! hey! they are no greater fools +than I was,” he added. “My father gave me three kicks; I shall only +give them one; he put one louis into my hand; I shall put ten in theirs, +therefore they’ll be better off than I was. That’s the way to do. After +I’m gone, what’s left will be theirs. The notaries can find them and +give it to them. What nonsense to bother one’s self about children. Mine +owe me their life. I’ve fed them, and I don’t ask anything from them,--I +call that quits, hey, neighbor? I began as a cartman, but that didn’t +prevent me marrying the daughter of that old scoundrel Auffray.” + +Sylvie Rogron was sent (with six hundred francs for her board) as +apprentice to certain shopkeepers originally from Provins and now +settled in Paris in the rue Saint-Denis. Two years later she was “at +par,” as they say; she earned her own living; at any rate her parents +paid nothing for her. That is what is called being “at par” in the rue +Saint-Denis. Sylvie had a salary of four hundred francs. At nineteen +years of age she was independent. At twenty, she was the second +demoiselle in the Maison Julliard, wholesale silk dealers at the +“Chinese Worm” rue Saint-Denis. The history of the sister was that of +the brother. Young Jerome-Denis Rogron entered the establishment of one +of the largest wholesale mercers in the same street, the Maison Guepin, +at the “Three Distaffs.” When Sylvie Rogron, aged twenty-one, had risen +to be forewoman at a thousand francs a year Jerome-Denis, with even +better luck, was head-clerk at eighteen, with a salary of twelve hundred +francs. + +Brother and sister met on Sundays and fete-days, which they passed in +economical amusements; they dined out of Paris, and went to Saint-Cloud, +Meudon, Belleville, or Vincennes. Towards the close of the year 1815 +they clubbed their savings, amounting to about twenty thousand francs, +earned by the sweat of their brows, and bought of Madame Guenee the +property and good-will of her celebrated shop, the “Family Sister,” one +of the largest retail establishments in the quarter. Sylvie kept the +books and did the writing. Jerome-Denis was master and head-clerk both. +In 1821, after five years’ experience, competition became so fierce that +it was all the brother and sister could do to carry on the business and +maintain its reputation. + +Though Sylvie was at this time scarcely forty, her natural ugliness, +combined with hard work and a certain crabbed look (caused as much by +the conformation of her features as by her cares), made her seem like a +woman of fifty. At thirty-eight Jerome Rogron presented to the eyes of +his customers the silliest face that ever looked over a counter. His +retreating forehead, flattened by fatigue, was marked by three long +wrinkles. His grizzled hair, cut close, expressed in some indefinable +way the stupidity of a cold-blooded animal. The glance of his bluish +eyes had neither flame nor thought in it. His round, flat face excited +no sympathy, nor even a laugh on the lips of those who might be +examining the varieties of the Parisian species; on the contrary, it +saddened them. He was, like his father, short and fat, but his figure +lacked the latter’s brutal obesity, and showed, instead, an almost +ridiculous debility. His father’s high color was changed in him to the +livid flabbiness peculiar to persons who live in close back-shops, or +in those railed cages called counting-rooms, forever tying up bundles, +receiving and making change, snarling at the clerks, and repeating the +same old speeches to customers. + +The small amount of brains possessed by the brother and sister had been +wholly absorbed in maintaining their business, in getting and keeping +money, and in learning the special laws and usages of the Parisian +market. Thread, needles, ribbons, pins, buttons, tailors’ furnishings, +in short, the enormous quantity of things which go to make up a mercer’s +stock, had taken all their capacity. Outside of their business they knew +absolutely nothing; they were even ignorant of Paris. To them the great +city was merely a region spreading around the Rue Saint-Denis. Their +narrow natures could see no field except the shop. They were clever +enough in nagging their clerks and their young women and in proving them +to blame. Their happiness lay in seeing all hands busy at the counters, +exhibiting the merchandise, and folding it up again. When they heard +the six or eight voices of the young men and women glibly gabbling the +consecrated phrases by which clerks reply to the remarks of customers, +the day was fine to them, the weather beautiful! But on the really +fine days, when the blue of the heavens brightened all Paris, and the +Parisians walked about to enjoy themselves and cared for no “goods” but +those they carried on their back, the day was overcast to the Rogrons. +“Bad weather for sales,” said that pair of imbeciles. + +The skill with which Rogron could tie up a parcel made him an object +of admiration to all his apprentices. He could fold and tie and see all +that happened in the street and in the farthest recesses of the shop +by the time he handed the parcel to his customer with a “Here it is, +madame; _nothing else_ to-day?” But the poor fool would have been ruined +without his sister. Sylvie had common-sense and a genius for trade. She +advised her brother in their purchases and would pitilessly send him to +remote parts of France to save a trifle of cost. The shrewdness which +all women more or less possess, not being employed in the service of +her heart, had drifted into that of speculation. A business to pay +for,--that thought was the mainspring which kept the machine going and +gave it an infernal activity. + +Rogron was really only head-clerk; he understood nothing of his business +as a whole; self-interest, that great motor of the mind, had failed in +his case to instruct him. He was often aghast when his sister ordered +some article to be sold below cost, foreseeing the end of its fashion; +later he admired her idiotically for her cleverness. He reasoned neither +ill nor well; he was simply incapable of reasoning at all; but he had +the sense to subordinate himself to his sister, and he did so from a +consideration that was outside of the business. “She is my elder,” he +said. Perhaps an existence like his, always solitary, reduced to the +satisfaction of mere needs, deprived of money and all pleasures in +youth, may explain to physiologists and thinkers the clownish expression +of the face, the feebleness of mind, the vacant silliness of the man. +His sister had steadily prevented him from marrying, afraid perhaps to +lose her power over him, and seeing only a source of expense and injury +in some woman who would certainly be younger and undoubtedly less ugly +than herself. + +Silliness has two ways of comporting itself; it talks, or is silent. +Silent silliness can be borne; but Rogron’s silliness was loquacious. +The man had a habit of chattering to his clerks, explaining the minutiae +of the business, and ornamenting his talk with those flat jokes which +may be called the “chaff” of shopkeeping. Rogron, listened to, of +course, by his subordinates and perfectly satisfied with himself, had +come at last into possession of a phraseology of his own. This chatterer +believed himself an orator. The necessity of explaining to customers +what they want, of guessing at their desires, and giving them +desires for what they do not want, exercises the tongue of all retail +shopkeepers. The petty dealer acquires the faculty of uttering words +and sentences in which there is absolutely no meaning, but which have a +marked success. He explains to his customers matters of manufacture that +they know nothing of; that alone gives him a passing superiority over +them; but take him away from his thousand and one explanations about his +thousand and one articles, and he is, relatively to thought, like a fish +out of water in the sun. + +Rogron and Sylvie, two mechanisms baptized by mistake, did not possess, +latent or active, the feelings which give life to the heart. Their +natures were shrivelled and harsh, hardened by toil, by privation, +by the remembrance of their sufferings during a long and cruel +apprenticeship to life. Neither of them complained of their trials. +They were not so much implacable as impracticable in their dealings +with others in misfortune. To them, virtue, honor, loyalty, all human +sentiments consisted solely in the payment of their bills. Irritable and +irritating, without feelings, and sordid in their economy, the brother +and sister bore a dreadful reputation among the other merchants of the +rue Saint-Denis. Had it not been for their connection with Provins, +where they went three or four times a year, when they could close the +shop for a day or two, they would have had no clerks or young women. But +old Rogron, their father, sent them all the unfortunate young people +of his neighborhood, whose parents wished to start them in business in +Paris. He obtained these apprentices by boasting, out of vanity, of +his son’s success. Parents, attracted by the prospect of their children +being well-trained and closely watched, and also, by the hope of their +succeeding, eventually, to the business, sent whichever child was most +in the way at home to the care of the brother and sister. But no sooner +had the clerks or the young women found a way of escape from that +dreadful establishment than they fled, with rejoicings that increased +the already bad name of the Rogrons. New victims were supplied yearly by +the indefatigable old father. + +From the time she was fifteen, Sylvie Rogron, trained to the simpering +of a saleswoman, had two faces,--the amiable face of the seller, +the natural face of a sour spinster. Her acquired countenance was a +marvellous bit of mimicry. She was all smiles. Her voice, soft and +wheedling, gave a commercial charm to business. Her real face was that +we have already seen projecting from the half-opened blinds; the mere +sight of her would have put to flight the most resolute Cossack of 1815, +much as that horde were said to like all kinds of Frenchwomen. + +When the letter from the Lorrains reached the brother and sister, they +were in mourning for their father, from whom they inherited the house +which had been as good as stolen from Pierrette’s grandmother, also +certain lands bought by their father, and certain moneys acquired by +usurious loans and mortgages to the peasantry, whose bits of ground the +old drunkard expected to possess. The yearly taking of stock was just +over. The price of the “Family Sister” had, at last, been paid in full. +The Rogrons owned about sixty thousand francs’ worth of merchandise, +forty thousand in a bank or in their cash-box, and the value of their +business. Sitting on a bench covered with striped-green Utrecht velvet +placed in a square recess just behind their private counter (the counter +of their forewoman being similar and directly opposite) the brother +and sister consulted as to what they should do. All retail shopkeepers +aspire to become members of the bourgeoisie. By selling the good-will +of their business, the pair would have over a hundred and fifty thousand +francs, not counting the inheritance from their father. By placing their +present available property in the public Funds, they would each obtain +about four thousand francs a year, and by taking the proceeds of their +business, when sold, they could repair and improve the house they +inherited from their father, which would thus be a good investment. +They could then go and live in a house of their own in Provins. Their +forewoman was the daughter of a rich farmer at Donnemarie, burdened with +nine children, to whom he had endeavored to give a good start in life, +being aware that at his death his property, divided into nine parts, +would be but little for any one of them. In five years, however, the man +had lost seven children,--a fact which made the forewoman so interesting +that Rogron had tried, unsuccessfully, to get her to marry him; but she +showed an aversion for her master which baffled his manoeuvres. Besides, +Mademoiselle Sylvie was not in favor of the match; in fact, she steadily +opposed her brother’s marriage, and sought, instead, to make the shrewd +young woman their successor. + +No passing observer can form the least idea of the cryptogramic +existence of a certain class of shopkeepers; he looks at them and asks +himself, “On what, and why, do they live? whence have they come? where +do they go?” He is lost in such questions, but finds no answer to +them. To discover the false seed of poesy which lies in those heads and +fructifies in those lives, it is necessary to dig into them; and when we +do that we soon come to a thin subsoil beneath the surface. The Parisian +shopkeeper nurtures his soul on some hope or other, more or less +attainable, without which he would doubtless perish. One dreams +of building or managing a theatre; another longs for the honors of +mayoralty; this one desires a country-house, ten miles from Paris with a +so-called “park,” which he will adorn with statues of tinted plaster and +fountains which squirt mere threads of water, but on which he will spend +a mint of money; others, again, dream of distinction and a high grade +in the National Guard. Provins, that terrestrial paradise, filled the +brother and sister with the fanatical longings which all the lovely +towns of France inspire in their inhabitants. Let us say it to the +glory of La Champagne, this love is warranted. Provins, one of the +most charming towns in all France, rivals Frangistan and the valley +of Cashmere; not only does it contain the poesy of Saadi, the Persian +Homer, but it offers many pharmaceutical treasures to medical science. +The crusades brought roses from Jericho to this enchanting valley, where +by chance they gained new charms while losing none of their colors. +The Provins roses are known the world over. But Provins is not only the +French Persia, it is also Baden, Aix, Cheltenham,--for it has medicinal +springs. This was the spot which appeared from time to time before the +eyes of the two shopkeepers in the muddy regions of Saint-Denis. + +After crossing the gray plains which lie between La Ferte-Gaucher and +Provins, a desert and yet productive, a desert of wheat, you reach a +hill. Suddenly you behold at your feet a town watered by two rivers; at +the feet of the rock on which you stand stretches a verdant valley, full +of enchanting lines and fugitive horizons. If you come from Paris +you will pass through the whole length of Provins on the everlasting +highroad of France, which here skirts the hillside and is encumbered +with beggars and blind men, who will follow you with their pitiful +voices while you try to examine the unexpected picturesqueness of the +region. If you come from Troyes you will approach the town on the valley +side. The chateau, the old town, and its former ramparts are terraced on +the hillside, the new town is below. They go by the names of Upper and +Lower Provins. The upper is an airy town with steep streets commanding +fine views, surrounded by sunken road-ways and ravines filled with +chestnut trees which gash the sides of the hill with their deep gulleys. +The upper town is silent, clean, solemn, surmounted by the imposing +ruins of the old chateau. The lower is a town of mills, watered by the +Voulzie and the Durtain, two rivers of Brie, narrow, sluggish, and +deep; a town of inns, shops, retired merchants; filled with diligences, +travelling-carriages, and waggons. The two towns, or rather this town +with its historical memories, its melancholy ruins, the gaiety of its +valley, the romantic charm of its ravines filled with tangled shrubbery +and wildflowers, its rivers banked with gardens, excites the love of +all its children, who do as the Auvergnats, the Savoyards, in fact, +all French folks do, namely, leave Provins to make their fortunes, +and always return. “Die in one’s form,” the proverb made for hares and +faithful souls, seems also the motto of a Provins native. + +Thus the two Rogrons thought constantly of their dear Provins. While +Jerome sold his thread he saw the Upper town; as he piled up the cards +on which were buttons he contemplated the valley; when he rolled and +unrolled his ribbons he followed the shining rivers. Looking up at his +shelves he saw the ravines where he had often escaped his father’s anger +and gone a-nutting or gathering blackberries. But the little square in +the Lower town was the chief object of his thoughts; he imagined how +he could improve his house: he dreamed of a new front, new bedrooms, +a salon, a billiard-room, a dining-room, and the kitchen garden out of +which he would make an English pleasure-ground, with lawns, grottos, +fountains, and statuary. The bedrooms at present occupied by the brother +and sister, on the second floor of a house with three windows front and +six storeys high in the rue Saint-Denis, were furnished with the merest +necessaries, yet no one in Paris had finer furniture than they--in +fancy. When Jerome walked the streets he stopped short, struck with +admiration at the handsome things in the upholsterers’ windows, and at +the draperies he coveted for his house. When he came home he would +say to his sister: “I found in such a shop, such and such a piece of +furniture that will just do for the salon.” The next day he would buy +another piece, and another, and so on. He rejected, the following month, +the articles of the months before. The Budget itself, could not have +paid for his architectural schemes. He wanted everything he saw, but +abandoned each thing for the last thing. When he saw the balconies of +new houses, when he studied external ornamentation, he thought all such +things, mouldings, carvings, etc., out of place in Paris. “Ah!” he would +say, “those fine things would look much better at Provins.” When he +stood on his doorstep leaning against the lintel, digesting his morning +meal, with a vacant eye, the mercer was gazing at the house of his fancy +gilded by the sun of his dream; he walked in his garden; he heard the +jet from his fountain falling in pearly drops upon a slab of limestone; +he played on his own billiard-table; he gathered his own flowers. + +Sylvie, on the other hand, was thinking so deeply, pen in hand, that +she forgot to scold the clerks; she was receiving the bourgeoisie of +Provins, she was looking at herself in the mirrors of her salon, and +admiring the beauties of a marvellous cap. The brother and sister began +to think the atmosphere of the rue Saint-Denis unhealthy, and the +smell of the mud in the markets made them long for the fragrance of the +Provins roses. They were the victims of a genuine nostalgia, and also +of a monomania, frustrated at present by the necessity of selling their +tapes and bobbins before they could leave Paris. The promised land of +the valley of Provins attracted these Hebrews all the more because they +had really suffered, and for a long time, as they crossed breathlessly +the sandy wastes of a mercer’s business. + +The Lorrains’ letter reached them in the midst of meditations inspired +by this glorious future. They knew scarcely anything about their cousin, +Pierrette Lorrain. Their father got possession of the Auffray property +after they left home, and the old man said little to any one of his +business affairs. They hardly remembered their aunt Lorrain. It took +an hour of genealogical discussion before they made her out to be the +younger sister of their own mother by the second marriage of their +grandfather Auffray. It immediately struck them that this second +marriage had been fatally injurious to their interests by dividing the +Auffray property between two daughters. In times past they had heard +their father, who was given to sneering, complain of it. + +The brother and sister considered the application of the Lorrains from +the point of view of such reminiscences, which were not at all favorable +for Pierrette. To take charge of an orphan, a girl, a cousin, who might +become their legal heir in case neither of them married,--this was a +matter that needed discussion. The question was considered and +debated under all its aspects. In the first place, they had never seen +Pierrette. Then, what a trouble it would be to have a young girl to look +after. Wouldn’t it commit them to some obligations towards her? Could +they send the girl away if they did not like her? Besides, wouldn’t they +have to marry her? and if Jerome found a yoke-mate among the heiresses +of Provins they ought to keep all their property for his children. A +yokemate for Jerome, according to Sylvie, meant a stupid, rich and +ugly girl who would let herself be governed. They decided to refuse +the Lorrain request. Sylvie agreed to write the answer. Business being +rather urgent just then she delayed writing, and the forewoman coming +forward with an offer for the stock and good-will of the “Family +Sister,” which the brother and sister accepted, the matter went entirely +out of the old maid’s mind. + +Sylvie Rogron and her brother departed for Provins four years before the +time when the coming of Brigaut threw such excitement into Pierrette’s +life. But the doings of the pair after their arrival at Provins are as +necessary to relate as their life in Paris; for Provins was destined to +be not less fatal to Pierrette than the commercial antecedents of her +cousins! + + + + +III. PATHOLOGY OF RETIRED MERCERS + +When the petty shopkeeper who has come to Paris from the provinces +returns to the provinces from Paris he brings with him a few ideas; then +he loses them in the habits and ways of provincial life into which he +plunges, and his reforming notions leave him. From this there do result, +however, certain trifling, slow, successive changes by which Paris +scratches the surface of the provincial towns. This process marks the +transition of the ex-shopkeeper into the substantial bourgeois, but +it acts like an illness upon him. No retail shopkeeper can pass with +impunity from his perpetual chatter into dead silence, from his Parisian +activity to the stillness of provincial life. When these worthy persons +have laid by property they spend a portion of it on some desire +over which they have long brooded and into which they now turn their +remaining impulses, no longer restrained by force of will. Those who +have not been nursing a fixed idea either travel or rush into the +political interests of their municipality. Others take to hunting +or fishing and torment their farmers or tenants; others again become +usurers or stock-jobbers. As for the scheme of the Rogrons, brother and +sister, we know what that was; they had to satisfy an imperious desire +to handle the trowel and remodel their old house into a charming new +one. + +This fixed idea produced upon the square of Lower Provins the front +of the building which Brigaut had been examining; also the interior +arrangements of the house and its handsome furniture. The contractor did +not drive a nail without consulting the owners, without requiring them +to sign the plans and specifications, without explaining to them at full +length and in every detail the nature of each article under discussion, +where it was manufactured, and what were its various prices. As to +the choicer things, each, they were told, had been used by Monsieur +Tiphaine, or Madame Julliard, or Monsieur the mayor, the notables of the +place. The idea of having things done as the rich bourgeois of Provins +did them carried the day for the contractor. + +“Oh, if Monsieur Garceland has it in his house, put it in,” said +Mademoiselle Rogron. “It must be all right; his taste is good.” + +“Sylvie, see, he wants us to have ovolos in the cornice of the +corridor.” + +“Do you call those ovolos?” + +“Yes, mademoiselle.” + +“What an odd name! I never heard it before.” + +“But you have seen the thing?” + +“Yes.” + +“Do you understand Latin?” + +“No.” + +“Well, it means eggs--from the Latin _ovum_.” + +“What queer fellows you are, you architects!” cried Rogron. “It is +stepping on egg-shells to deal with you.” + +“Shall we paint the corridor?” asked the builder. + +“Good heavens, no!” cried Sylvie. “That would be five hundred francs +more!” + +“Oh, but the salon and the staircase are too pretty not to have the +corridor decorated too,” said the man. “That little Madame Lesourd had +hers painted last year.” + +“And now, her husband, as king’s attorney, is obliged to leave Provins.” + +“Ah, he’ll be chief justice some of these days,” said the builder. + +“How about Monsieur Tiphaine?” + +“Monsieur Tiphaine? he’s got a pretty wife and is sure to get on. He’ll +go to Paris. Shall we paint the corridor?” + +“Yes, yes,” said Rogron. “The Lesourds must be made to see that we are +as good as they.” + +The first year after the Rogrons returned to Provins was entirely taken +up by such discussions, by the pleasure of watching the workmen, by the +surprise occasioned to the townspeople and the replies to questions of +all kinds which resulted therefrom, and also by the attempts made +by Sylvie and her brother to be socially intimate with the principal +families of Provins. + +The Rogrons had never gone into any society; they had never left their +shop, knowing absolutely no one in Paris, and now they were athirst for +the pleasures of social life. On their arrival in Provins they found +their former masters in Paris (long since returned to the provinces), +Monsieur and Madame Julliard, lately of the “Chinese Worm,” their +children and grandchildren; the Guepin family, or rather the Guepin +clan, the youngest scion of which now kept the “Three Distaffs”; and +thirdly, Madame Guenee from whom they had purchased the “Family Sister,” + and whose three daughters were married and settled in Provins. These +three races, Julliard, Guepin, and Guenee, had spread through the town +like dog-grass through a lawn. The mayor, Monsieur Garceland, was the +son-in-law of Monsieur Guepin; the curate, Abbe Peroux, was own brother +to Madame Julliard; the judge, Monsieur Tiphaine junior, was brother to +Madame Guenee, who signed herself “_nee_ Tiphaine.” + +The queen of the town was the beautiful Madame Tiphaine junior, only +daughter of Madame Roguin, the rich wife of a former notary in Paris, +whose name was never mentioned. Clever, delicate, and pretty, married in +the provinces to please her mother, who for special reasons did not want +her with her, and took her from a convent only a few days before the +wedding, Melanie Tiphaine considered herself an exile in Provins, where +she behaved to admiration. Handsomely dowered, she still had hopes. As +for Monsieur Tiphaine, his old father had made to his eldest daughter +Madame Guenee such advances on her inheritance that an estate worth +eight thousand francs a year, situated within fifteen miles of Provins, +was to come wholly to him. Consequently the Tiphaines would possess, +sooner or later, some forty thousand francs a year, and were not “badly +off,” as they say. The one overwhelming desire of the beautiful Madame +Tiphaine was to get Monsieur Tiphaine elected deputy. As deputy he would +become a judge in Paris; and she was firmly resolved to push him up into +the Royal courts. For these reasons she tickled all vanities and strove +to please all parties; and--what is far more difficult--she succeeded. +Twice a week she received the bourgeoisie of Provins at her house in the +Upper town. This intelligent young woman of twenty had not as yet made +a single blunder or misstep on the slippery path she had taken. She +gratified everybody’s self-love, and petted their hobbies; serious with +the serious, a girl with girls, instinctively a mother with mothers, gay +with young wives and disposed to help them, gracious to all,--in short, +a pearl, a treasure, the pride of Provins. She had never yet said a +word of her intentions and wishes, but all the electors of Provins were +awaiting the time when their dear Monsieur Tiphaine had reached the +required age for nomination. Every man in the place, certain of his +own talents, regarded the future deputy as his particular friend, his +protector. Of course, Monsieur Tiphaine would attain to honors; he would +be Keeper of the Seals, and then, what wouldn’t he do for Provins! + +Such were the pleasant means by which Madame Tiphaine had come to rule +over the little town. Madame Guenee, Monsieur Tiphaine’s sister, after +having married her eldest daughter to Monsieur Lesourd, prosecuting +attorney, her second to Monsieur Martener, the doctor, and the third to +Monsieur Auffray, the notary, had herself married Monsieur Galardon, the +collector. Mother and daughters all considered Monsieur Tiphaine as the +richest and ablest man in the family. The prosecuting attorney had the +strongest interest in sending his uncle to Paris, expecting to step into +his shoes as judge of the local court of Provins. The four ladies formed +a sort of court round Madame Tiphaine, whose ideas and advice they +followed on all occasions. Monsieur Julliard, the eldest son of the old +merchant, who had married the only daughter of a rich farmer, set up +a sudden, secret, and disinterested passion for Madame Tiphaine, that +angel descended from the Parisian skies. The clever Melanie, too clever +to involve herself with Julliard, but quite capable of keeping him in +the condition of Amadis and making the most of his folly, advised him to +start a journal, intending herself to play the part of Egeria. For the +last two years, therefore, Julliard, possessed by his romantic passion, +had published the said newspaper, called the “Bee-hive,” which contained +articles literary, archaeological, and medical, written in the family. +The advertisements paid expenses. The subscriptions, two hundred in +all, made the profits. Every now and then melancholy verses, totally +incomprehensible in La Brie, appeared, addressed, “TO HER!!!” with three +exclamation marks. The clan Julliard was thus united to the other clans, +and the salon of Madame Tiphaine became, naturally, the first in the +town. The few aristocrats who lived in Provins were, of course, apart, +and formed a single salon in the Upper town, at the house of the old +Comtesse de Breautey. + +During the first six months of their transplantation, the Rogrons, +favored by their former acquaintance with several of these people, were +received, first by Madame Julliard the elder, and by the former Madame +Guenee, now Madame Galardon (from whom they had bought their business), +and next, after a good deal of difficulty, by Madame Tiphaine. All +parties wished to study the Rogrons before admitting them. It was +difficult, of course, to keep out merchants of the rue Saint-Denis, +originally from Provins, who had returned to the town to spend their +fortunes. Still, the object of all society is to amalgamate persons +of equal wealth, education, manners, customs, accomplishments, and +character. Now the Guepins, Guenees, and Julliards had a better position +among the bourgeoisie than the Rogrons, whose father had been held in +contempt on account of his private life, and his conduct in the matter +of the Auffray property,--the facts of which were known to the notary +Auffray, Madame Galardon’s son-in-law. + +In the social life of these people, to which Madame Tiphaine had given +a certain tone of elegance, all was homogeneous; the component parts +understood each other, knew each other’s characters, and behaved and +conversed in a manner that was agreeable to all. The Rogrons flattered +themselves that being received by Monsieur Garceland, the mayor, they +would soon be on good terms with all the best families in the town. +Sylvie applied herself to learn boston. Rogron, incapable of playing a +game, twirled his thumbs and had nothing to say except to discourse on +his new house. Words seemed to choke him; he would get up, try to speak, +become frightened, and sit down again, with comical distortion of +the lips. Sylvie naively betrayed her natural self at cards. Sharp, +irritable, whining when she lost, insolent when she won, nagging and +quarrelsome, she annoyed her partners as much as her adversaries, +and became the scourge of society. And yet, possessed by a silly, +unconcealed ambition, Rogron and his sister were bent on playing a +part in the society of a little town already in possession of a close +corporation of twelve allied families. Allowing that the restoration of +their house had cost them thirty thousand francs, the brother and sister +possessed between them at least ten thousand francs a year. This they +considered wealth, and with it they endeavored to impress society, which +immediately took the measure of their vulgarity, crass ignorance, and +foolish envy. On the evening when they were presented to the beautiful +Madame Tiphaine, who had already eyed them at Madame Garceland’s and at +Madame Julliard the elder’s, the queen of the town remarked to Julliard +junior, who stayed a few moments after the rest of the company to talk +with her and her husband:-- + +“You all seem to be taken with those Rogrons.” + +“No, no,” said Amadis, “they bore my mother and annoy my wife. When +Mademoiselle Sylvie was apprenticed, thirty years ago, to my father, +none of them could endure her.” + +“I have a great mind,” said Madame Tiphaine, putting her pretty foot on +the bar of the fender, “to make it understood that my salon is not an +inn.” + +Julliard raised his eyes to the ceiling, as if to say, “Good heavens? +what wit, what intellect!” + +“I wish my society to be select; and it certainly will not be if I admit +those Rogrons.” + +“They have neither heart, nor mind, nor manners”; said Monsieur +Tiphaine. “If, after selling thread for twenty years, as my sister did +for example--” + +“Your sister, my dear,” said his wife in a parenthesis, “cannot be out +of place in any salon.” + +“--if,” he continued, “people are stupid enough not to throw off the +shop and polish their manners, if they don’t know any better than to +mistake the Counts of Champagne for the _accounts_ of a wine-shop, as +Rogron did this evening, they had better, in my opinion, stay at home.” + +“They are simply impudent,” said Julliard. “To hear them talk you would +suppose there was no other handsome house in Provins but theirs. They +want to crush us; and after all, they have hardly enough to live on.” + +“If it was only the brother,” said Madame Tiphaine, “one might put up +with him; he is not so aggressive. Give him a Chinese puzzle and he will +stay in a corner quietly enough; it would take him a whole winter to +find it out. But Mademoiselle Sylvie, with that voice like a hoarse +hyena and those lobster-claws of hands! Don’t repeat all this, +Julliard.” + +When Julliard had departed the little woman said to her husband:-- + +“I have aborigines enough whom I am forced to receive; these two will +fairly kill me. With your permission, I shall deprive myself of their +society.” + +“You are mistress in your own house,” replied he; “but that will make +enemies. The Rogrons will fling themselves into the opposition, which +hitherto has had no real strength in Provins. That Rogron is already +intimate with Baron Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet.” + +“Then,” said Melanie, laughing, “they will do you some service. Where +there are no opponents, there is no triumph. A liberal conspiracy, +an illegal cabal, a struggle of any kind, will bring you into the +foreground.” + +The justice looked at his young wife with a sort of alarmed admiration. + +The next day it was whispered about that the Rogrons had not altogether +succeeded in Madame Tiphaine’s salon. That lady’s speech about an +inn was immensely admired. It was a whole month before she returned +Mademoiselle Sylvie’s visit. Insolence of this kind is very much noticed +in the provinces. + +During the evening which Sylvie had spent at Madame Tiphaine’s a +disagreeable scene occurred between herself and old Madame Julliard +while playing boston, apropos of a trick which Sylvie declared the old +lady had made her lose on purpose; for the old maid, who liked to trip +others, could never endure the same game on herself. The next time she +was invited out the mistress took care to make up the card-tables before +she arrived; so that Sylvie was reduced to wandering from table to +table as an onlooker, the players glancing at her with scornful eyes. At +Madame Julliard senior’s house, they played whist, a game Sylvie did not +know. + +The old maid at last understood that she was under a ban; but she had +no conception of the reason of it. She fancied herself an object of +jealousy to all these persons. After a time she and her brother received +no invitations, but they still persisted in paying evening visits. +Satirical persons made fun of them,--not spitefully, but amusingly; +inveigling them to talk absurdly about the eggs in their cornice, and +their wonderful cellar of wine, the like of which was not in Provins. + +Before long the Rogron house was completely finished, and the brother +and sister then resolved to give several sumptuous dinners, as much to +return the civilities they had received as to exhibit their luxury. The +invited guests accepted from curiosity only. The first dinner was given +to the leading personages of the town; to Monsieur and Madame Tiphaine, +with whom, however the Rogrons had never dined; to Monsieur and Madame +Julliard, senior and junior; to Monsieur Lesourd, Monsieur le cure, +and Monsieur and Madame Galardon. It was one of those interminable +provincial dinners, where you sit at table from five to nine o’clock. +Madame Tiphaine had introduced into Provins the Parisian custom of +taking leave as soon as coffee had been served. On this occasion she had +company at home and was anxious to get away. The Rogrons accompanied her +husband and herself to the street door, and when they returned to the +salon, disconcerted at not being able to keep their chief guests, the +rest of the party were preparing to imitate Madame Tiphaine’s fashion +with cruel provincial promptness. + +“They won’t see our salon lighted up,” said Sylvie, “and that’s the show +of the house.” + +The Rogrons had counted on surprising their guests. It was the first +time any one had been admitted to the now celebrated house, and the +company assembled at Madame Tiphaine’s was eagerly awaiting her opinion +of the marvels of the “Rogron palace.” + +“Well!” cried little Madame Martener, “you’ve seen the Louvre; tell us +all about it.” + +“All? Well, it would be like the dinner,--not much.” + +“But do describe it.” + +“Well, to begin with, that front door, the gilded grating of which we +have all admired,” said Madame Tiphaine, “opens upon a long corridor +which divides the house unequally; on the right side there is one +window, on the other, two. At the garden end, the corridor opens with +a glass door upon a portico with steps to the lawn, where there’s a +sun dial and a plaster statue of Spartacus, painted to imitate bronze. +Behind the kitchen, the builder has put the staircase, and a sort of +larder which we are spared the sight of. The staircase, painted to +imitate black marble with yellow veins, turns upon itself like those +you see in cafes leading from the ground-floor to the entresol. The +balustrade, of walnut with brass ornaments and dangerously slight, was +pointed out to us as one of the seven wonders of the world. The +cellar stairs run under it. On the other side of the corridor is the +dining-room, which communicates by folding-doors with a salon of equal +size, the windows of which look on the garden.” + +“Dear me, is there no ante-chamber?” asked Madame Auffray. + +“The corridor, full of draughts, answers for an ante-chamber,” replied +Madame Tiphaine. “Our friends have had, they assured us, the eminently +national, liberal, constitutional, and patriotic feeling to use none but +French woods in the house; so the floor in the dining-room is +chestnut, the sideboards, tables, and chairs, of the same. White calico +window-curtains, with red borders, are held back by vulgar red straps; +these magnificent draperies run on wooden curtain rods ending in brass +lion’s-paws. Above one of the sideboards hangs a dial suspended by a +sort of napkin in gilded bronze,--an idea that seemed to please the +Rogrons hugely. They tried to make me admire the invention; all I could +manage to say was that if it was ever proper to wrap a napkin round a +dial it was certainly in a dining-room. On the sideboard were two +huge lamps like those on the counter of a restaurant. Above the other +sideboard hung a barometer, excessively ornate, which seems to play a +great part in their existence; Rogron gazed at it as he might at his +future wife. Between the two windows is a white porcelain stove in a +niche overloaded with ornament. The walls glow with a magnificent paper, +crimson and gold, such as you see in the same restaurants, where, no +doubt, the Rogrons chose it. Dinner was served on white and gold china, +with a dessert service of light blue with green flowers, but they showed +us another service in earthenware for everyday use. Opposite to each +sideboard was a large cupboard containing linen. All was clean, new, and +horribly sharp in tone. However, I admit the dining-room; it has some +character, though disagreeable; it represents that of the masters of +the house. But there is no enduring the five engravings that hang on the +walls; the Minister of the Interior ought really to frame a law against +them. One was Poniatowski jumping into the Elster; the others, Napoleon +pointing a cannon, the defence at Clichy, and the two Mazepas, all in +gilt frames of the vulgarest description,--fit to carry off the prize of +disgust. Oh! how much I prefer Madame Julliard’s pastels of fruit, +those excellent Louis XV. pastels, which are in keeping with the old +dining-room and its gray panels,--defaced by age, it is true, but they +possess the true provincial characteristics that go well with old +family silver, precious china, and our simple habits. The provinces are +provinces; they are only ridiculous when they mimic Paris. I prefer this +old salon of my husband’s forefathers, with its heavy curtains of green +and white damask, the Louis XV. mantelpiece, the twisted pier-glasses, +the old mirrors with their beaded mouldings, and the venerable card +tables. Yes, I prefer my old Sevres vases in royal blue, mounted on +copper, my clock with those impossible flowers, that rococco chandelier, +and the tapestried furniture, to all the finery of the Rogron salon.” + +“What is the salon like?” said Monsieur Martener, delighted with the +praise the handsome Parisian bestowed so adroitly on the provinces. + +“As for the salon, it is all red,--the red Mademoiselle Sylvie turns +when she loses at cards.” + +“Sylvan-red,” said Monsieur Tiphaine, whose sparkling saying long +remained in the vocabulary of Provins. + +“Window-curtains, red; furniture, red; mantelpiece, red, veined yellow, +candelabra and clock ditto mounted on bronze, common and heavy in +design,--Roman standards with Greek foliage! Above the clock is that +inevitable good-natured lion which looks at you with a simper, the +lion of ornamentation, with a big ball under his feet, symbol of the +decorative lion, who passes his life holding a black ball,--exactly like +a deputy of the Left. Perhaps it is meant as a constitutional myth. The +face of the clock is curious. The glass over the chimney is framed in +that new fashion of applied mouldings which is so trumpery and vulgar. +From the ceiling hangs a chandelier carefully wrapped in green muslin, +and rightly too, for it is in the worst taste, the sharpest tint of +bronze with hideous ornaments. The walls are covered with a red flock +paper to imitate velvet enclosed in panels, each panel decorated with a +chromo-lithograph in one of those frames festooned with stucco flowers +to represent wood-carving. The furniture, in cashmere and elm-wood, +consists, with classic uniformity, of two sofas, two easy-chairs, two +armchairs, and six common chairs. A vase in alabaster, called a la +Medicis, kept under glass stands on a table between the windows; before +the windows, which are draped with magnificent red silk curtains and +lace curtains under them, are card-tables. The carpet is Aubusson, +and you may be sure the Rogrons did not fail to lay hands on that most +vulgar of patterns, large flowers on a red ground. The room looks as +if no one ever lived there; there are no books, no engravings, none +of those little knick-knacks we all have lying about,” added Madame +Tiphaine, glancing at her own table covered with fashionable trifles, +albums, and little presents given to her by friends; “and there are no +flowers,--it is all cold and barren, like Mademoiselle Sylvie herself. +Buffon says the style is the man, and certainly salons have styles of +their own.” + +From this sketch everybody can see the sort of house the brother and +sister lived in, though they can never imagine the absurdities into +which a clever builder dragged the ignorant pair,--new inventions, +fantastic ornaments, a system for preventing smoky chimneys, another +for preventing damp walls; painted marquetry panels on the staircase, +colored glass, superfine locks,--in short, all those vulgarities which +make a house expensive and gratify the bourgeois taste. + +No one chose to visit the Rogrons, whose social plans thus came to +nothing. Their invitations were refused under various excuses,--the +evenings were already engaged to Madame Garceland and the other ladies +of the Provins world. The Rogrons had supposed that all that was +required to gain a position in society was to give a few dinners. But +no one any longer accepted them, except a few young men who went to +make fun of their host and hostess, and certain diners-out who went +everywhere. + +Frightened at the loss of forty thousand francs swallowed up without +profit in what she called her “dear house,” Sylvie now set to work to +recover it by economy. She gave no more dinners, which had cost her +forty or fifty francs without the wines, and did not fulfil her social +hopes, hopes that are as hard to realize in the provinces as in Paris. +She sent away her cook, took a country-girl to do the menial work, and +did her own cooking, as she said, “for pleasure.” + +Fourteen months after their return to Provins, the brother and sister +had fallen into a solitary and wholly unoccupied condition. Their +banishment from society roused in Sylvie’s heart a dreadful hatred +against the Tiphaines, Julliards and all the other members of the social +world of Provins, which she called “the clique,” and with whom her +personal relations became extremely cold. She would gladly have set up +a rival clique, but the lesser bourgeoisie was made up of either small +shopkeepers who were only free on Sundays and fete-days, or smirched +individuals like the lawyer Vinet and Doctor Neraud, and wholly +inadmissible Bonapartists like Baron Gouraud, with whom, however, Rogron +thoughtlessly allied himself, though the upper bourgeoisie had warned +him against them. + +The brother and sister were, therefore, forced to sit by the fire of the +stove in the dining-room, talking over their former business, trying to +recall the faces of their customers and other matters they had intended +to forget. By the end of the second winter ennui weighed heavily on +them. They did not know how to get through each day; sometimes as they +went to bed the words escaped them, “There’s another over!” They dragged +out the morning by staying in bed, and dressing slowly. Rogron shaved +himself every day, examined his face, consulted his sister on any +changes he thought he saw there, argued with the servant about the +temperature of his hot water, wandered into the garden, looked to see if +the shrubs were budding, sat at the edge of the water where he had built +himself a kiosk, examined the joinery of his house,--had it sprung? +had the walls settled, the panels cracked? or he would come in fretting +about a sick hen, and complaining to his sister, who was nagging the +servant as she set the table, of the dampness which was coming out in +spots upon the plaster. The barometer was Rogron’s most useful bit of +property. He consulted it at all hours, tapped it familiarly like a +friend, saying: “Vile weather!” to which his sister would reply, “Pooh! +it is only seasonable.” If any one called to see him the excellence of +that instrument was his chief topic of conversation. + +Breakfast took up some little time; with what deliberation those two +human beings masticated their food! Their digestions were perfect; +cancer of the stomach was not to be dreaded by them. They managed to +get along till twelve o’clock by reading the “Bee-hive” and the +“Constitutionnel.” The cost of subscribing to the Parisian paper was +shared by Vinet the lawyer, and Baron Gouraud. Rogron himself carried +the paper to Gouraud, who had been a colonel and lived on the square, +and whose long yarns were Rogron’s delight; the latter sometimes puzzled +over the warnings he had received, and asked himself how such a lively +companion could be dangerous. He was fool enough to tell the colonel he +had been warned against him, and to repeat all the “clique” had said. +God knows how the colonel, who feared no one, and was equally to be +dreaded with pistols or a sword, gave tongue about Madame Tiphaine and +her Amadis, and the ministerialists of the Upper town, persons capable +of any villany to get places, and who counted the votes at elections to +suit themselves, etc. + +About two o’clock Rogron started for a little walk. He was quite happy +if some shopkeeper standing on the threshold of his door would stop +him and say, “Well, pere Rogron, how goes it with _you_?” Then he +would talk, and ask for news, and gather all the gossip of the town. +He usually went as far as the Upper town, sometimes to the ravines, +according to the weather. Occasionally he would meet old men taking +their walks abroad like himself. Such meetings were joyful events to +him. There happened to be in Provins a few men weary of Parisian life, +quiet scholars who lived with their books. Fancy the bewilderment of the +ignorant Rogron when he heard a deputy-judge named Desfondrilles, more +of an archaeologist than a magistrate, saying to old Monsieur Martener, +a really learned man, as he pointed to the valley:-- + +“Explain to me why the idlers of Europe go to Spa instead of coming to +Provins, when the springs here have a superior curative value recognized +by the French faculty,--a potential worthy of the medicinal properties +of our roses.” + +“That is one of the caprices of caprice,” said the old gentleman. +“Bordeaux wine was unknown a hundred years ago. Marechal de Richelieu, +one of the noted men of the last century, the French Alcibiades, was +appointed governor of Guyenne. His lungs were diseased, and, heaven +knows why! the wine of the country did him good and he recovered. +Bordeaux instantly made a hundred millions; the marshal widened its +territory to Angouleme, to Cahors,--in short, to over a hundred miles of +circumference! it is hard to tell where the Bordeaux vineyards end. +And yet they haven’t erected an equestrian statue to the marshal in +Bordeaux!” + +“Ah! if anything of that kind happens to Provins,” said Monsieur +Desfondrilles, “let us hope that somewhere in the Upper or Lower +town they will set up a bas-relief of the head of Monsieur Opoix, the +re-discoverer of the mineral waters of Provins.” + +“My dear friend, the revival of Provins is impossible,” replied Monsieur +Martener; “the town was made bankrupt long ago.” + +“What!” cried Rogron, opening his eyes very wide. + +“It was once a capital, holding its own against Paris in the twelfth +century, when the Comtes de Champagne held their court here, just as +King Rene held his in Provence,” replied the man of learning; “for in +those days civilization, gaiety, poesy, elegance, and women, in short +all social splendors, were not found exclusively in Paris. It is as +difficult for towns and cities as it is for commercial houses to recover +from ruin. Nothing is left to us of the old Provins but the fragrance of +our historical glory and that of our roses,--and a sub-prefecture!” + +“Ah! what mightn’t France be if she had only preserved her feudal +capitals!” said Desfondrilles. “Can sub-prefects replace the poetic, +gallant, warlike race of the Thibaults who made Provins what Ferrara was +to Italy, Weimar to Germany,--what Munich is trying to be to-day.” + +“Was Provins ever a capital?” asked Rogron. + +“Why! where do you come from?” exclaimed the archaeologist. “Don’t you +know,” he added, striking the ground of the Upper town where they stood +with his cane, “don’t you know that the whole of this part of Provins is +built on catacombs?” + +“Catacombs?” + +“Yes, catacombs, the extent and height of which are yet undiscovered. +They are like the naves of cathedrals, and there are pillars in them.” + +“Monsieur is writing a great archaeological work to explain these +strange constructions,” interposed Monsieur Martener, seeing that the +deputy-judge was about to mount his hobby. + +Rogron came home much comforted to know that his house was in +the valley. The crypts of Provins kept him occupied for a week in +explorations, and gave a topic of conversation to the unhappy celibates +for many evenings. + +In the course of these ramblings Rogron picked up various bits of +information about Provins, its inhabitants, their marriages, together +with stale political news; all of which he narrated to his sister. +Scores of times in his walks he would stop and say,--often to the same +person on the same day,--“Well, what’s the news?” When he reached home +he would fling himself on the sofa like a man exhausted with labor, +whereas he was only worn out with the burden of his own dulness. Dinner +came at last, after he had gone twenty times to the kitchen and back, +compared the clocks, and opened and shut all the doors of the house. +So long as the brother and sister could spend their evenings in paying +visits they managed to get along till bedtime; but after they were +compelled to stay at home those evenings became like a parching desert. +Sometimes persons passing through the quiet little square would hear +unearthly noises as though the brother were throttling the sister; a +moment’s listening would show that they were only yawning. These two +human mechanisms, having nothing to grind between their rusty wheels, +were creaking and grating at each other. The brother talked of marrying, +but only in despair. He felt old and weary; the thought of a woman +frightened him. Sylvie, who began to see the necessity of having a third +person in the home, suddenly remembered the little cousin, about whom no +one in Provins had yet inquired, the friends of Madame Lorrain probably +supposing that mother and child were both dead. + +Sylvie Rogron never lost anything; she was too thoroughly an old maid +even to mislay the smallest article; but she pretended to have suddenly +found the Lorrains’ letter, so as to mention Pierrette naturally to her +brother, who was greatly pleased at the possibility of having a little +girl in the house. Sylvie replied to Madame Lorrain’s letter half +affectionately, half commercially, as one may say, explaining the delay +by their change of abode and the settlement of their affairs. She seemed +desirous of receiving her little cousin, and hinted that Pierrette would +perhaps inherit twelve thousand francs a year if her brother Jerome did +not marry. + +Perhaps it is necessary to have been, like Nebuchadnezzar, something of +a wild beast, and shut up in a cage at the Jardin des Plantes without +other prey than the butcher’s meat doled out by the keeper, or a retired +merchant deprived of the joys of tormenting his clerks, to understand +the impatience with which the brother and sister awaited the arrival +of their cousin Lorrain. Three days after the letter had gone, the pair +were already asking themselves when she would get there. + +Sylvie perceived in her spurious benevolence towards her poor cousin +a means of recovering her position in the social world of Provins. She +accordingly went to call on Madame Tiphaine, of whose reprobation she +was conscious, in order to impart the fact of Pierrette’s approaching +arrival,--deploring the girl’s unfortunate position, and posing herself +as being only too happy to succor her and give her a position as +daughter and future heiress. + +“You have been rather long in discovering her,” said Madame Tiphaine, +with a touch of sarcasm. + +A few words said in a low voice by Madame Garceland, while the cards +were being dealt, recalled to the minds of those who heard her the +shameful conduct of old Rogron about the Auffray property; the notary +explained the iniquity. + +“Where is the little girl now?” asked Monsieur Tiphaine, politely. + +“In Brittany,” said Rogron. + +“Brittany is a large place,” remarked Monsieur Lesourd. + +“Her grandfather and grandmother Lorrain wrote to us--when was that, my +dear?” said Rogron addressing his sister. + +Sylvie, who was just then asking Madame Garceland where she had bought +the stuff for her gown, answered hastily, without thinking of the effect +of her words:-- + +“Before we sold the business.” + +“And have you only just answered the letter, mademoiselle?” asked the +notary. + +Sylvie turned as red as a live coal. + +“We wrote to the Institution of Saint-Jacques,” remarked Rogron. + +“That is a sort of hospital or almshouse for old people,” said Monsieur +Desfondrilles, who knew Nantes. “She can’t be there; they receive no one +under sixty.” + +“She is there, with her grandmother Lorrain,” said Rogron. + +“Her mother had a little fortune, the eight thousand francs which your +father--no, I mean of course your grandfather--left to her,” said the +notary, making the blunder intentionally. + +“Ah!” said Rogron, stupidly, not understanding the notary’s sarcasm. + +“Then you know nothing about your cousin’s position or means?” asked +Monsieur Tiphaine. + +“If Monsieur Rogron had known it,” said the deputy-judge, “he would +never have left her all this time in an establishment of that kind. I +remember now that a house in Nantes belonging to Monsieur and Madame +Lorrain was sold under an order of the court, and that Mademoiselle +Lorrain’s claim was swallowed up. I know this, for I was commissioner at +the time.” + +The notary spoke of Colonel Lorrain, who, had he lived, would have been +much amazed to know that his daughter was in such an institution. The +Rogrons beat a retreat, saying to each other that the world was very +malicious. Sylvie perceived that the news of her benevolence had missed +its effect,--in fact, she had lost ground in all minds; and she felt +that henceforth she was forbidden to attempt an intimacy with the upper +class of Provins. After this evening the Rogrons no longer concealed +their hatred of that class and all its adherents. The brother told the +sister the scandals that Colonel Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet had put +into his head about the Tiphaines, the Guenees, the Garcelands, the +Julliards, and others:-- + +“I declare, Sylvie, I don’t see why Madame Tiphaine should turn up her +nose at shopkeeping in the rue Saint-Denis; it is more honest than what +she comes from. Madame Roguin, her mother, is cousin to those Guillaumes +of the ‘Cat-playing-ball’ who gave up the business to Joseph Lebas, +their son-in-law. Her father is that Roguin who failed in 1819, and +ruined the house of Cesar Birotteau. Madame Tiphaine’s fortune was +stolen,--for what else are you to call it when a notary’s wife who is +very rich lets her husband make a fraudulent bankruptcy? Fine doings! +and she marries her daughter in Provins to get her out of the way,--all +on account of her own relations with du Tillet. And such people set up +to be proud! Well, well, that’s the world!” + +On the day when Jerome Rogron and his sister began to declaim against +“the clique” they were, without being aware of it, on the road to having +a society of their own; their house was to become a rendezvous for other +interests seeking a centre,--those of the hitherto floating elements of +the liberal party in Provins. And this is how it came about: The launch +of the Rogrons in society had been watched with great curiosity by +Colonel Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet, two men drawn together, first by +their ostracism, next by their opinions. They both professed patriotism +and for the same reason,--they wished to become of consequence. The +Liberals in Provins were, so far, confined to one old soldier who kept a +cafe, an innkeeper, Monsieur Cournant a notary, Doctor Neraud, and a +few stray persons, mostly farmers or those who had bought lands of the +public domain. + +The colonel and the lawyer, delighted to lay hands on a fool whose money +would be useful to their schemes, and who might himself, in certain +cases, be made to bell the cat, while his house would serve as a +meeting-ground for the scattered elements of the party, made the most of +the Rogrons’ ill-will against the upper classes of the place. The +three had already a slight tie in their united subscription to the +“Constitutionnel”; it would certainly not be difficult for the colonel +to make a Liberal of the ex-mercer, though Rogron knew so little of +politics that he was capable of regarding the exploits of Sergeant +Mercier as those of a brother shopkeeper. + +The expected arrival of Pierrette brought to sudden fruition the selfish +ideas of the two men, inspired as they were by the folly and ignorance +of the celibates. Seeing that Sylvie had lost all chance of establishing +herself in the good society of the place, an afterthought came to the +colonel. Old soldiers have seen so many horrors in all lands, so many +grinning corpses on battle-fields, that no physiognomies repel them; and +Gouraud began to cast his eyes on the old maid’s fortune. This imperial +colonel, a short, fat man, wore enormous rings in ears that were bushy +with tufts of hair. His sparse and grizzled whiskers were called in 1799 +“fins.” His jolly red face was rather discolored, like those of all who +had lived to tell of the Beresina. The lower half of his big, pointed +stomach marked the straight line which characterizes a cavalry officer. +Gouraud had commanded the Second Hussars. His gray moustache hid a huge +blustering mouth,--if we may use a term which alone describes that gulf. +He did not eat his food, he engulfed it. A sabre cut had slit his nose, +by which his speech was made thick and very nasal, like that attributed +to Capuchins. His hands, which were short and broad, were of the kind +that make women say: “You have the hands of a rascal.” His legs seemed +slender for his torso. In that fat and active body an absolutely lawless +spirit disported itself, and a thorough experience of the things of +life, together with a profound contempt for social convention, lay +hidden beneath the apparent indifference of a soldier. Colonel Gouraud +wore the cross of an officer of the Legion of honor, and his emoluments +from that, together with his salary as a retired officer, gave him in +all about three thousand francs a year. + +The lawyer, tall and thin, had liberal opinions in place of talent, +and his only revenue was the meagre profits of his office. In Provins +lawyers plead their own cases. The court was unfavorable to Vinet +on account of his opinions; consequently, even the farmers who were +Liberals, when it came to lawsuits preferred to employ some lawyer who +was more congenial to the judges. Vinet was regarded with disfavor in +other ways. He was said to have seduced a rich girl in the neighborhood +of Coulommiers, and thus have forced her parents to marry her to him. +Madame Vinet was a Chargeboeuf, an old and noble family of La Brie, +whose name comes from the exploit of a squire during the expedition of +Saint Louis to Egypt. She incurred the displeasure of her father and +mother, who arranged, unknown to Vinet, to leave their entire fortune to +their son, doubtless charging him privately, to pay over a portion of it +to his sister’s children. + +Thus the first bold effort of the ambitious man was a failure. Pursued +by poverty, and ashamed not to give his wife the means of making a +suitable appearance, he had made desperate efforts to enter public life, +but the Chargeboeuf family refused him their influence. These Royalists +disapproved, on moral grounds, of his forced marriage; besides, he was +named Vinet, and how could they be expected to protect a plebian? Thus +he was driven from branch to branch when he tried to get some good +out of his marriage. Repulsed by every one, filled with hatred for the +family of his wife, for the government which denied him a place, for the +social world of Provins, which refused to admit him, Vinet submitted to +his fate; but his gall increased. He became a Liberal in the belief that +his fortune might yet be made by the triumph of the opposition, and he +lived in a miserable little house in the Upper town from which his wife +seldom issued. Madame Vinet had found no one to defend her since her +marriage except an old Madame de Chargeboeuf, a widow with one daughter, +who lived at Troyes. The unfortunate young woman, destined for better +things, was absolutely alone in her home with a single child. + +There are some kinds of poverty which may be nobly accepted and gaily +borne; but Vinet, devoured by ambition, and feeling himself guilty +towards his wife, was full of darkling rage; his conscience grew +elastic; and he finally came to think any means of success permissible. +His young face changed. Persons about the courts were sometimes +frightened as they looked at his viperish, flat head, his slit mouth, +his eyes gleaming through glasses, and heard his sharp, persistent voice +which rasped their nerves. His muddy skin, with its sickly tones of +green and yellow, expressed the jaundice of his balked ambition, his +perpetual disappointments and his hidden wretchedness. He could talk and +argue; he was well-informed and shrewd, and was not without smartness +and metaphor. Accustomed to look at everything from the standpoint of +his own success, he was well fitted for a politician. A man who shrinks +from nothing so long as it is legal, is strong; and Vinet’s strength lay +there. + +This future athlete of parliamentary debate, who was destined to share +in proclaiming the dynasty of the house of Orleans had a terrible +influence on Pierrette’s fate. At the present moment he was bent on +making for himself a weapon by founding a newspaper at Provins. After +studying the Rogrons at a distance (the colonel aiding him) he had come +to the conclusion that the brother might be made useful. This time he +was not mistaken; his days of poverty were over, after seven wretched +years, when even his daily bread was sometimes lacking. The day when +Gouraud told him in the little square that the Rogrons had finally +quarrelled with the bourgeois aristocracy of the Upper town, he nudged +the colonel in the ribs significantly, and said, with a knowing look:-- + +“One woman or another--handsome or ugly--_you_ don’t care; marry +Mademoiselle Rogron and we can organize something at once.” + +“I have been thinking of it,” replied Gouraud, “but the fact is they +have sent for the daughter of Colonel Lorrain, and she’s their next of +kin.” + +“You can get them to make a will in your favor. Ha! you would get a very +comfortable house.” + +“As for the little girl--well, well, let’s see her,” said the colonel, +with a leering and thoroughly wicked look, which proved to a man of +Vinet’s quality how little respect the old trooper could feel for any +girl. + + + + +IV. PIERRETTE + + +After her grandfather and grandmother entered the sort of hospital in +which they sadly expected to end their days, Pierrette, being young +and proud, suffered so terribly at living there on charity that she was +thankful when she heard she had rich relations. When Brigaut, the son of +her mother’s friend the major, and the companion of her childhood, +who was learning his trade as a cabinet-maker at Nantes, heard of +her departure he offered her the money to pay her way to Paris in +the diligence,--sixty francs, the total of his _pour-boires_ as an +apprentice, slowly amassed, and accepted by Pierrette with the sublime +indifference of true affection, showing that in a like case she herself +would be affronted by thanks. + +Brigaut was in the habit of going every Sunday to Saint-Jacques to play +with Pierrette and try to console her. The vigorous young workman knew +the dear delight of bestowing a complete and devoted protection on +an object involuntarily chosen by his heart. More than once he and +Pierrette, sitting on Sundays in a corner of the garden, had embroidered +the veil of the future with their youthful projects; the apprentice, +armed with his plane, scoured the world to make their fortune, while +Pierrette waited. + +In October, 1824, when the child had completed her eleventh year, +she was entrusted by the two old people and by Brigaut, all three +sorrowfully sad, to the conductor of the diligence from Nantes to +Paris, with an entreaty to put her safely on the diligence from Paris +to Provins and to take good care of her. Poor Brigaut! he ran like a dog +after the coach looking at his dear Pierrette as long as he was able. +In spite of her signs he ran over three miles, and when at last he was +exhausted his eyes, wet with tears, still followed her. She, too, was +crying when she saw him no longer running by her, and putting her head +out of the window she watched him, standing stock-still and looking +after her, as the lumbering vehicle disappeared. + +The Lorrains and Brigaut knew so little of life that the girl had not +a penny when she arrived in Paris. The conductor, to whom she had +mentioned her rich friends, paid her expenses at the hotel, and made +the conductor of the Provins diligence pay him, telling him to take good +care of the girl and to see that the charges were paid by the family, +exactly as though she were a case of goods. Four days after her +departure from Nantes, about nine o’clock of a Monday night, a kind old +conductor of the Messageries-royales, took Pierrette by the hand, and +while the porters were discharging in the Grand’Rue the packages and +passengers for Provins, he led the little girl, whose only baggage was a +bundle containing two dresses, two chemises, and two pairs of stockings, +to Mademoiselle Rogron’s house, which was pointed out to him by the +director at the coach office. + +“Good-evening, mademoiselle and the rest of the company. I’ve brought +you a cousin, and here she is; and a nice little girl too, upon my word. +You have forty-seven francs to pay me, and sign my book.” + +Mademoiselle Sylvie and her brother were dumb with pleasure and +amazement. + +“Excuse me,” said the conductor, “the coach is waiting. Sign my book and +pay me forty-seven francs, sixty centimes, and whatever you please for +myself and the conductor from Nantes; we’ve taken care of the little +girl as if she were our own; and paid for her beds and her food, also +her fare to Provins, and other little things.” + +“Forty-seven francs, twelve sous!” said Sylvie. + +“You are not going to dispute it?” cried the man. + +“Where’s the bill?” said Rogron. + +“Bill! look at the book.” + +“Stop talking, and pay him,” said Sylvie, “You see there’s nothing else +to be done.” + +Rogron went to get the money, and gave the man forty-seven francs, +twelve sous. + +“And nothing for my comrade and me?” said the conductor. + +Sylvie took two francs from the depths of the old velvet bag which held +her keys. + +“Thank you, no,” said the man; “keep ‘em yourself. We would rather +care for the little one for her own sake.” He picked up his book and +departed, saying to the servant-girl: “What a pair! it seems there are +crocodiles out of Egypt!” + +“Such men are always brutal,” said Sylvie, who overhead the words. + +“They took good care of the little girl, anyhow,” said Adele with her +hands on her hips. + +“We don’t have to live with him,” remarked Rogron. + +“Where’s the little one to sleep?” asked Adele. + +Such was the arrival of Pierrette Lorrain in the home of her cousins, +who gazed at her with stolid eyes; she was tossed to them like a +package, with no intermediate state between the wretched chamber at +Saint-Jacques and the dining-room of her cousins, which seemed to her a +palace. She was shy and speechless. To all other eyes than those of the +Rogrons the little Breton girl would have seemed enchanting as she +stood there in her petticoat of coarse blue flannel, with a pink cambric +apron, thick shoes, blue stockings, and a white kerchief, her hands +being covered by red worsted mittens edged with white, bought for her +by the conductor. Her dainty Breton cap (which had been washed in Paris, +for the journey from Nantes had rumpled it) was like a halo round her +happy little face. This national cap, of the finest lawn, trimmed with +stiffened lace pleated in flat folds, deserves description, it was so +dainty and simple. The light coming through the texture and the lace +produced a partial shadow, the soft shadow of a light upon the skin, +which gave her the virginal grace that all painters seek and Leopold +Robert found for the Raffaelesque face of the woman who holds a child +in his picture of “The Gleaners.” Beneath this fluted frame of light +sparkled a white and rosy and artless face, glowing with vigorous +health. The warmth of the room brought the blood to the cheeks, to the +tips of the pretty ears, to the lips and the end of the delicate nose, +making the natural white of the complexion whiter still. + +“Well, are you not going to say anything? I am your cousin Sylvie, and +that is your cousin Rogron.” + +“Do you want something to eat?” asked Rogron. + +“When did you leave Nantes?” asked Sylvie. + +“Is she dumb?” said Rogron. + +“Poor little dear, she has hardly any clothes,” cried Adele, who +had opened the child’s bundle, tied up in a handkerchief of the old +Lorrains. + +“Kiss your cousin,” said Sylvie. + +Pierrette kissed Rogron. + +“Kiss your cousin,” said Rogron. + +Pierrette kissed Sylvie. + +“She is tired out with her journey, poor little thing; she wants to go +to sleep,” said Adele. + +Pierrette was overcome with a sudden and invincible aversion for her two +relatives,--a feeling that no one had ever before excited in her. Sylvie +and the maid took her up to bed in the room where Brigaut afterwards +noticed the white cotton curtain. In it was a little bed with a pole +painted blue, from which hung a calico curtain; a walnut bureau without +a marble top, a small table, a looking-glass, a very common night-table +without a door, and three chairs completed the furniture of the room. +The walls, which sloped in front, were hung with a shabby paper, blue +with black flowers. The tiled floor, stained red and polished, was icy +to the feet. There was no carpet except for a strip at the bedside. The +mantelpiece of common marble was adorned by a mirror, two candelabra in +copper-gilt, and a vulgar alabaster cup in which two pigeons, forming +handles, were drinking. + +“You will be comfortable here, my little girl?” said Sylvie. + +“Oh, it’s beautiful!” said the child, in her silvery voice. + +“She’s not difficult to please,” muttered the stout servant. “Sha’n’t I +warm her bed?” she asked. + +“Yes,” said Sylvie, “the sheets may be damp.” + +Adele brought one of her own night-caps when she returned with the +warming-pan, and Pierrette, who had never slept in anything but the +coarsest linen sheets, was amazed at the fineness and softness of the +cotton ones. When she was fairly in bed and tucked up, Adele, going +downstairs with Sylvie, could not refrain from saying, “All she has +isn’t worth three francs, mademoiselle.” + +Ever since her economical regime began, Sylvie had compelled the maid to +sit in the dining-room so that one fire and one lamp could do for all; +except when Colonel Gouraud and Vinet came, on which occasions Adele was +sent to the kitchen. + +Pierrette’s arrival enlivened the rest of the evening. + +“We must get her some clothes to-morrow,” said Sylvie; “she has +absolutely nothing.” + +“No shoes but those she had on, which weigh a pound,” said Adele. + +“That’s always so, in their part of the country,” remarked Rogron. + +“How she looked at her room! though it really isn’t handsome enough for +a cousin of yours, mademoiselle.” + +“It is good enough; hold your tongue,” said Sylvie. + +“Gracious, what chemises! coarse enough to scratch her skin off; not a +thing can she use here,” said Adele, emptying the bundle. + +Master, mistress, and servant were busy till past ten o’clock, deciding +what cambric they should buy for the new chemises, how many pairs +of stockings, how many under-petticoats, and what material, and in +reckoning up the whole cost of Pierrette’s outfit. + +“You won’t get off under three hundred francs,” said Rogron, who +could remember the different prices, and add them up from his former +shop-keeping habit. + +“Three hundred francs!” cried Sylvie. + +“Yes, three hundred. Add it up.” + +The brother and sister went over the calculation once more, and found +the cost would be fully three hundred francs, not counting the making. + +“Three hundred francs at one stroke!” said Sylvie to herself as she got +into bed. + + * * * * * + +Pierrette was one of those children of love whom love endows with +its tenderness, its vivacity, its gaiety, its nobility, its devotion. +Nothing had so far disturbed or wounded a heart that was delicate +as that of a fawn, but which was now painfully repressed by the cold +greeting of her cousins. If Brittany had been full of outward misery, at +least it was full of love. The old Lorrains were the most incapable +of merchants, but they were also the most loving, frank, caressing, of +friends, like all who are incautious and free from calculation. Their +little granddaughter had received no other education at Pen-Hoel than +that of nature. Pierrette went where she liked, in a boat on the pond, +or roaming the village and the fields with Jacques Brigaut, her comrade, +exactly as Paul and Virginia might have done. Petted by everybody, free +as air, they gaily chased the joys of childhood. In summer they ran to +watch the fishing, they caught the many-colored insects, they gathered +flowers, they gardened; in winter they made slides, they built snow-men +or huts, or pelted each other with snowballs. Welcomed by all, they met +with smiles wherever they went. + +When the time came to begin their education, disasters came, too. +Jacques, left without means at the death of his father, was apprenticed +by his relatives to a cabinet-maker, and fed by charity, as Pierrette +was soon to be at Saint-Jacques. Until the little girl was taken with +her grandparents to that asylum, she had known nothing but fond caresses +and protection from every one. Accustomed to confide in so much love, +the little darling missed in these rich relatives, so eagerly desired, +the kindly looks and ways which all the world, even strangers and the +conductors of the coaches, had bestowed upon her. Her bewilderment, +already great, was increased by the moral atmosphere she had entered. +The heart turns suddenly cold or hot like the body. The poor child +wanted to cry, without knowing why; but being very tired she went to +sleep. + +The next morning, Pierrette being, like all country children, accustomed +to get up early, was awake two hours before the cook. She dressed +herself, stepping on tiptoe about her room, looked out at the little +square, started to go downstairs and was struck with amazement by the +beauties of the staircase. She stopped to examine all its details: +the painted walls, the brasses, the various ornamentations, the window +fixtures. Then she went down to the garden-door, but was unable to open +it, and returned to her room to wait until Adele should be stirring. As +soon as the woman went to the kitchen Pierrette flew to the garden and +took possession of it, ran to the river, was amazed at the kiosk, and +sat down in it; truly, she had enough to see and to wonder at until her +cousins were up. At breakfast Sylvie said to her:-- + +“Was it you, little one, who was trotting over my head by daybreak, and +making that racket on the stairs? You woke me so that I couldn’t go to +sleep again. You must be very good and quiet, and amuse yourself without +noise. Your cousin doesn’t like noise.” + +“And you must wipe your feet,” said Rogron. “You went into the kiosk +with your dirty shoes, and they’ve tracked all over the floor. Your +cousin likes cleanliness. A great girl like you ought to be clean. +Weren’t you clean in Brittany? But I recollect when I went down there to +buy thread it was pitiable to see the folks,--they were like savages. At +any rate she has a good appetite,” added Rogron, looking at his sister; +“one would think she hadn’t eaten anything for days.” + +Thus, from the very start Pierrette was hurt by the remarks of her two +cousins,--hurt, she knew not why. Her straightforward, open nature, +hitherto left to itself, was not given to reflection. Incapable of +thinking that her cousins were hard, she was fated to find it out slowly +through suffering. After breakfast the brother and sister, pleased with +Pierrette’s astonishment at the house and anxious to enjoy it, took her +to the salon to show her its splendors and teach her not to touch them. +Many celibates, driven by loneliness and the moral necessity of caring +for something, substitute factitious affections for natural ones; they +love dogs, cats, canaries, servants, or their confessor. Rogron and +Sylvie had come to the pass of loving immoderately their house and +furniture, which had cost them so dear. Sylvie began by helping Adele in +the mornings to dust and arrange the furniture, under pretence that she +did not know how to keep it looking as good as new. This dusting was +soon a desired occupation to her, and the furniture, instead of losing +its value in her eyes, became ever more precious. To use things without +hurting them or soiling them or scratching the woodwork or clouding the +varnish, that was the problem which soon became the mania of the old +maid’s life. Sylvie had a closet full of bits of wool, wax, varnish, +and brushes, which she had learned to use with the dexterity of a +cabinet-maker; she had her feather dusters and her dusting-cloths; and +she rubbed away without fear of hurting herself,--she was so strong. The +glance of her cold blue eyes, hard as steel, was forever roving over the +furniture and under it, and you could as soon have found a tender spot +in her heart as a bit of fluff under the sofa. + +After the remarks made at Madame Tiphaine’s, Sylvie dared not flinch +from the three hundred francs for Pierrette’s clothes. During the first +week her time was wholly taken up, and Pierrette’s too, by frocks to +order and try on, chemises and petticoats to cut out and have made by a +seamstress who went out by the day. Pierrette did not know how to sew. + +“That’s pretty bringing up!” said Rogron. “Don’t you know how to do +anything, little girl?” + +Pierrette, who knew nothing but how to love, made a pretty, childish +gesture. + +“What did you do in Brittany?” asked Rogron. + +“I played,” she answered, naively. “Everybody played with me. Grandmamma +and grandpapa they told me stories. Ah! they all loved me!” + +“Hey!” said Rogron; “didn’t you take it easy!” + +Pierrette opened her eyes wide, not comprehending. + +“She is as stupid as an owl,” said Sylvie to Mademoiselle Borain, the +best seamstress in Provins. + +“She’s so young,” said the workwoman, looking kindly at Pierrette, whose +delicate little muzzle was turned up to her with a coaxing look. + +Pierrette preferred the sewing-women to her relations. She was endearing +in her ways with them, she watched their work, and made them those +pretty speeches that seem like the flowers of childhood, and which her +cousin had already silenced, for that gaunt woman loved to impress +those under her with salutary awe. The sewing-women were delighted with +Pierrette. Their work, however, was not carried on without many and loud +grumblings. + +“That child will make us pay through the nose!” cried Sylvie to her +brother. + +“Stand still, my dear, and don’t plague us; it is all for you and not +for me,” she would say to Pierrette when the child was being measured. +Sometimes it was, when Pierrette would ask the seamstress some question, +“Let Mademoiselle Borain do her work, and don’t talk to her; it is not +you who are paying for her time.” + +“Mademoiselle,” said Mademoiselle Borain, “am I to back-stitch this?” + +“Yes, do it firmly; I don’t want to be making such an outfit as this +every day.” + +Sylvie put the same spirit of emulation into Pierrette’s outfit that +she had formerly put into the house. She was determined that her cousin +should be as well dressed as Madame Garceland’s little girl. She +bought the child fashionable boots of bronzed kid like those the little +Tiphaines wore, very fine cotton stockings, a corset by the best maker, +a dress of blue reps, a pretty cape lined with white silk,--all this +that she, Sylvie, might hold her own against the children of the women +who had rejected her. The underclothes were quite in keeping with the +visible articles of dress, for Sylvie feared the examining eyes of the +various mothers. Pierrette’s chemises were of fine Madapolam calico. +Mademoiselle Borain had mentioned that the sub-prefect’s little girls +wore cambric drawers, embroidered and trimmed in the latest style. +Pierrette had the same. Sylvie ordered for her a charming little drawn +bonnet of blue velvet lined with white satin, precisely like the one +worn by Dr. Martener’s little daughter. + +Thus attired, Pierrette was the most enchanting little girl in all +Provins. On Sunday, after church, all the ladies kissed her; Mesdames +Tiphaine, Garceland, Galardon, Julliard, and the rest fell in love with +the sweet little Breton girl. This enthusiasm was deeply flattering to +old Sylvie’s self-love; she regarded it as less due to Pierrette than +to her own benevolence. She ended, however, in being affronted by her +cousin’s success. Pierrette was constantly invited out, and Sylvie +allowed her to go, always for the purpose of triumphing over “those +ladies.” Pierrette was much in demand for games or little parties and +dinners with their own little girls. She had succeeded where the Rogrons +had failed; and Mademoiselle Sylvie soon grew indignant that Pierrette +was asked to other children’s houses when those children never came to +hers. The artless little thing did not conceal the pleasure she found +in her visits to these ladies, whose affectionate manners contrasted +strangely with the harshness of her two cousins. A mother would have +rejoiced in the happiness of her little one, but the Rogrons had taken +Pierrette for their own sakes, not for hers; their feelings, far from +being parental, were dyed in selfishness and a sort of commercial +calculation. + +The handsome outfit, the fine Sunday dresses, and the every-day frocks +were the beginning of Pierrette’s troubles. Like all children free to +amuse themselves, who are accustomed to follow the dictates of their own +lively fancies, she was very hard on her clothes, her shoes, and above +all on those embroidered drawers. A mother when she reproves her child +thinks only of the child; her voice is gentle; she does not raise it +unless driven to extremities, or when the child is much in fault. But +here, in this great matter of Pierrette’s clothes, the cousins’ money +was the first consideration; their interests were to be thought of, not +the child’s. Children have the perceptions of the canine race for the +sentiments of those who rule them; they know instinctively whether +they are loved or only tolerated. Pure and innocent hearts are more +distressed by shades of difference than by contrasts; a child does not +understand evil, but it knows when the instinct of the good and the +beautiful which nature has implanted in it is shocked. The lectures +which Pierrette now drew upon herself on propriety of behavior, modesty, +and economy were merely the corollary of the one theme, “Pierrette will +ruin us.” + +These perpetual fault-findings, which were destined to have a fatal +result for the poor child, brought the two celibates back to the old +beaten track of their shop-keeping habits, from which their removal to +Provins had parted them, and in which their natures were now to +expand and flourish. Accustomed in the old days to rule and to make +inquisitions, to order about and reprove their clerks sharply, Rogron +and his sister had actually suffered for want of victims. Little minds +need to practise despotism to relieve their nerves, just as great souls +thirst for equality in friendship to exercise their hearts. Narrow +natures expand by persecuting as much as others through beneficence; +they prove their power over their fellows by cruel tyranny as others +do by loving kindness; they simply go the way their temperaments drive +them. Add to this the propulsion of self-interest and you may read the +enigma of most social matters. + +Thenceforth Pierrette became a necessity to the lives of her cousins. +From the day of her coming their minds were occupied,--first, with her +outfit, and then with the novelty of a third presence. But every new +thing, a sentiment and even a tyranny, is moulded as time goes on into +fresh shapes. Sylvie began by calling Pierrette “my dear,” or “little +one.” Then she abandoned the gentler terms for “Pierrette” only. Her +reprimands, at first only cross, became sharp and angry; and no sooner +were their feet on the path of fault-finding than the brother and sister +made rapid strides. They were no longer bored to death! It was not their +deliberate intention to be wicked and cruel; it was simply the blind +instinct of an imbecile tyranny. The pair believed they were doing +Pierrette a service, just as they had thought their harshness a benefit +to their apprentices. + +Pierrette, whose true and noble and extreme sensibility was the +antipodes of the Rogrons’ hardness, had a dread of being scolded; it +wounded her so sharply that the tears would instantly start in her +beautiful, pure eyes. She had a great struggle with herself before she +could repress the enchanting sprightliness which made her so great a +favorite elsewhere. After a time she displayed it only in the homes of +her little friends. By the end of the first month she had learned to be +passive in her cousins’ house,--so much so that Rogron one day asked +her if she was ill. At that sudden question, she ran to the end of the +garden, and stood crying beside the river, into which her tears may have +fallen as she herself was about to fall into the social torrent. + +One day, in spite of all her care, she tore her best reps frock at +Madame Tiphaine’s, where she was spending a happy day. The poor child +burst into tears, foreseeing the cruel things which would be said to her +at home. Questioned by her friends, she let fall a few words about her +terrible cousin. Madame Tiphaine happened to have some reps exactly like +that of the frock, and she put in a new breadth herself. Mademoiselle +Rogron found out the trick, as she expressed it, which the little devil +had played her. From that day forth she refused to let Pierrette go to +any of “those women’s” houses. + +The life the poor girl led in Provins was divided into three distinct +phases. The first, already shown, in which she had some joy mingled +with the cold kindness of her cousins and their sharp reproaches, lasted +three months. Sylvie’s refusal to let her go to her little friends, +backed by the necessity of beginning her education, ended the first +phase of her life at Provins, the only period when that life was +bearable to her. + +These events, produced at the Rogrons by Pierrette’s presence, were +studied by Vinet and the colonel with the caution of foxes preparing to +enter a poultry-yard and disturbed by seeing a strange fowl. They both +called from time to time,--but seldom, so as not to alarm the old maid; +they talked with Rogron under various pretexts, and made themselves +masters of his mind with an affectation of reserve and modesty which the +great Tartuffe himself would have respected. The colonel and the lawyer +were spending the evening with Rogron on the very day when Sylvie +had refused in bitter language to let Pierrette go again to Madame +Tiphaine’s, or elsewhere. Being told of this refusal the colonel and the +lawyer looked at each other with an air which seemed to say that they at +least knew Provins well. + +“Madame Tiphaine intended to insult you,” said the lawyer. “We have long +been warning Rogron of what would happen. There’s no good to be got from +those people.” + +“What can you expect from the anti-national party!” cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache and interrupting the lawyer. “But, mademoiselle, +if we had tried to warn you from those people you might have supposed we +had some malicious motive in what we said. If you like a game of cards +in the evening, why don’t you have it at home; why not play your boston +here, in your own house? Is it impossible to fill the places of those +idiots, the Julliards and all the rest of them? Vinet and I know how to +play boston, and we can easily find a fourth. Vinet might present his +wife to you; she is charming, and, what is more, a Chargeboeuf. You will +not be so exacting as those apes of the Upper town; _you_ won’t require +a good little housewife, who is compelled by the meanness of her family +to do her own work, to dress like a duchess. Poor woman, she has the +courage of a lion and the meekness of a lamb.” + +Sylvie Rogron showed her long yellow teeth as she smiled on the colonel, +who bore the sight heroically and assumed a flattered air. + +“If we are only four we can’t play boston every night,” said Sylvie. + +“Why not? What do you suppose an old soldier of the Empire like me does +with himself? And as for Vinet, his evenings are always free. Besides, +you’ll have plenty of other visitors; I warrant you that,” he added, +with a rather mysterious air. + +“What you ought to do,” said Vinet, “is to take an open stand against +the ministerialists of Provins and form an opposition to them. You would +soon see how popular that would make you; you would have a society about +you at once. The Tiphaines would be furious at an opposition salon. +Well, well, why not laugh at others, if others laugh at you?--and they +do; the clique doesn’t mince matters in talking about you.” + +“How’s that?” demanded Sylvie. + +In the provinces there is always a valve or a faucet through which +gossip leaks from one social set to another. Vinet knew all the slurs +cast upon the Rogrons in the salons from which they were now excluded. +The deputy-judge and archaeologist Desfondrilles belonged to neither +party. With other independents like him, he repeated what he heard on +both sides and Vinet made the most of it. The lawyer’s spiteful tongue +put venom into Madame Tiphaine’s speeches, and by showing Rogron and +Sylvie the ridicule they had brought upon themselves he roused an +undying spirit of hatred in those bitter natures, which needed an object +for their petty passions. + +A few days later Vinet brought his wife, a well-bred woman, neither +pretty nor plain, timid, very gentle, and deeply conscious of her false +position. Madame Vinet was fair-complexioned, faded by the cares of her +poor household, and very simply dressed. No woman could have pleased +Sylvie more. Madame Vinet endured her airs, and bent before them like +one accustomed to subjection. On the poor woman’s rounded brow and +delicately timid cheek and in her slow and gentle glance, were the +traces of deep reflection, of those perceptive thoughts which women who +are accustomed to suffer bury in total silence. + +The influence of the colonel (who now displayed to Sylvie the graces of +a courtier, in marked contradiction to his usual military brusqueness), +together with that of the astute Vinet, was soon to harm the Breton +child. Shut up in the house, no longer allowed to go out except in +company with her old cousin, Pierrette, that pretty little squirrel, was +at the mercy of the incessant cry, “Don’t touch that, child, let that +alone!” She was perpetually being lectured on her carriage and behavior; +if she stooped or rounded her shoulders her cousin would call to her to +be as erect as herself (Sylvie was rigid as a soldier presenting arms +to his colonel); sometimes indeed the ill-natured old maid enforced the +order by slaps on the back to make the girl straighten up. + +Thus the free and joyous little child of the Marais learned by degrees +to repress all liveliness and to make herself, as best she could, an +automaton. + + + + +V. HISTORY OF POOR COUSINS IN THE HOME OF RICH ONES + + +One evening, which marked the beginning of Pierrette’s second phase of +life in her cousin’s house, the child, whom the three guests had not +seen during the evening, came into the room to kiss her relatives and +say good-night to the company. Sylvie turned her cheek coldly to the +pretty creature, as if to avoid kissing her. The motion was so cruelly +significant that the tears sprang to Pierrette’s eyes. + +“Did you prick yourself, little girl?” said the atrocious Vinet. + +“What is the matter?” asked Sylvie, severely. + +“Nothing,” said the poor child, going up to Rogron. + +“Nothing?” said Sylvie, “that’s nonsense; nobody cries for nothing.” + +“What is it, my little darling?” said Madame Vinet. + +“My rich cousin isn’t as kind to me as my poor grandmother was,” sobbed +Pierrette. + +“Your grandmother took your money,” said Sylvie, “and your cousin will +leave you hers.” + +The colonel and the lawyer glanced at each other. + +“I would rather be robbed and loved,” said Pierrette. + +“Then you shall be sent back whence you came.” + +“But what has the dear little thing done?” asked Madame Vinet. + +Vinet gave his wife the terrible, fixed, cold look with which men +enforce their absolute dominion. The hapless helot, punished incessantly +for not having the one thing that was wanted of her, a fortune, took up +her cards. + +“What has she done?” said Sylvie, throwing up her head with such +violence that the yellow wall-flowers in her cap nodded. “She is always +looking about to annoy us. She opened my watch to see the inside, and +meddled with the wheel and broke the mainspring. Mademoiselle pays no +heed to what is said to her. I am all day long telling her to take care +of things, and I might just as well talk to that lamp.” + +Pierrette, ashamed at being reproved before strangers, crept softly out +of the room. + +“I am thinking all the time how to subdue that child,” said Rogron. + +“Isn’t she old enough to go to school?” asked Madame Vinet. + +Again she was silenced by a look from her husband, who had been careful +to tell her nothing of his own or the colonel’s schemes. + +“This is what comes of taking charge of other people’s children!” cried +the colonel. “You may still have some of your own, you or your brother. +Why don’t you both marry?” + +Sylvie smiled agreeably on the colonel. For the first time in her life +she met a man to whom the idea that she could marry did not seem absurd. + +“Madame Vinet is right,” cried Rogron; “perhaps teaching would keep +Pierrette quiet. A master wouldn’t cost much.” + +The colonel’s remark so preoccupied Sylvie that she made no answer to +her brother. + +“If you are willing to be security for that opposition journal I was +talking to you about,” said Vinet, “you will find an excellent master +for the little cousin in the managing editor; we intend to engage that +poor schoolmaster who lost his employment through the encroachments of +the clergy. My wife is right; Pierrette is a rough diamond that wants +polishing.” + +“I thought you were a baron,” said Sylvie to the colonel, while the +cards were being dealt, and after a long pause in which they had all +been rather thoughtful. + +“Yes; but when I was made baron, in 1814, after the battle of Nangis, +where my regiment performed miracles, I had money and influence enough +to secure the rank. But now my barony is like the grade of general which +I held in 1815,--it needs a revolution to give it back to me.” + +“If you will secure my endorsement by a mortgage,” said Rogron, +answering Vinet after long consideration, “I will give it.” + +“That can easily be arranged,” said Vinet. “The new paper will soon +restore the colonel’s rights, and make your salon more powerful in +Provins than those of Tiphaine and company.” + +“How so?” asked Sylvie. + +While his wife was dealing and Vinet himself explaining the importance +they would all gain by the publication of an independent newspaper, +Pierrette was dissolved in tears; her heart and her mind were one in +this matter; she felt and knew that her cousin was more to blame than +she was. The little country girl instinctively understood that charity +and benevolence ought to be a complete offering. She hated her handsome +frocks and all the things that were made for her; she was forced to pay +too dearly for such benefits. She wept with vexation at having given +cause for complaint against her, and resolved to behave in future in +such a way as to compel her cousins to find no further fault with her. +The thought then came into her mind how grand Brigaut had been in giving +her all his savings without a word. Poor child! she fancied her troubles +were now at their worst; she little knew that other misfortunes were +even now being planned for her in the salon. + +A few days later Pierrette had a writing-master. She was taught to read, +write, and cipher. Enormous injury was thus supposed to be done to the +Rogrons’ house. Ink-spots were found on the tables, on the furniture, +on Pierrette’s clothes; copy-books and pens were left about; sand was +scattered everywhere, books were torn and dog’s-eared as the result of +these lessons. She was told in harsh terms that she would have to earn +her own living, and not be a burden to others. As she listened to these +cruel remarks Pierrette’s throat contracted violently with acute pain, +her heart throbbed. She was forced to restrain her tears, or she was +scolded for weeping and told it was an insult to the kindness of her +magnanimous cousins. Rogron had found the life that suited him. He +scolded Pierrette as he used to scold his clerks; he would call her when +at play, and compel her to study; he made her repeat her lessons, and +became himself the almost savage master of the poor child. Sylvie, on +her side, considered it a duty to teach Pierrette the little that she +knew herself about women’s work. Neither Rogron nor his sister had the +slightest softness in their natures. Their narrow minds, which found +real pleasure in worrying the poor child, passed insensibly from outward +kindness to extreme severity. This severity was necessitated, they +believed, by what they called the self-will of the child, which had not +been broken when young and was very obstinate. Her masters were ignorant +how to give to their instructions a form suited to the intelligence +of the pupil,--a thing, by the bye, which marks the difference between +public and private education. The fault was far less with Pierrette than +with her cousins. It took her an infinite length of time to learn the +rudiments. She was called stupid and dull, clumsy and awkward for mere +nothings. Incessantly abused in words, the child suffered still more +from the harsh looks of her cousins. She acquired the doltish ways of a +sheep; she dared not do anything of her own impulse, for all she did was +misinterpreted, misjudged, and ill-received. In all things she awaited +silently the good pleasure and the orders of her cousins, keeping her +thoughts within her own mind and sheltering herself behind a passive +obedience. Her brilliant colors began to fade. Sometimes she complained +of feeling ill. When her cousin asked, “Where?” the poor little thing, +who had pains all over her, answered, “Everywhere.” + +“Nonsense! who ever heard of any one suffering everywhere?” cried +Sylvie. “If you suffered everywhere you’d be dead.” + +“People suffer in their chests,” said Rogron, who liked to hear himself +harangue, “or they have toothache, headache, pains in their feet +or stomach, but no one has pains everywhere. What do you mean by +everywhere? I can tell you; ‘everywhere’ means _nowhere_. Don’t you know +what you are doing?--you are complaining for complaining’s sake.” + +Pierrette ended by total silence, seeing how all her girlish remarks, +the flowers of her dawning intelligence, were replied to with ignorant +commonplaces which her natural good sense told her were ridiculous. + +“You complain,” said Rogron, “but you’ve got the appetite of a monk.” + +The only person who did not bruise the delicate little flower was the +fat servant woman, Adele. Adele would go up and warm her bed,--doing +it on the sly after a certain evening when Sylvie had scolded her for +giving that comfort to the child. + +“Children should be hardened, to give them strong constitutions. Am I +and my brother the worse for it?” said Sylvie. “You’ll make Pierrette a +_peakling_”; this was a word in the Rogron vocabulary which meant a puny +and suffering little being. + +The naturally endearing ways of the angelic child were treated as +dissimulation. The fresh, pure blossoms of affection which bloomed +instinctively in that young soul were pitilessly crushed. Pierrette +suffered many a cruel blow on the tender flesh of her heart. If she +tried to soften those ferocious natures by innocent, coaxing wiles they +accused her of doing it with an object. “Tell me at once what you want?” + Rogron would say, brutally; “you are not coaxing me for nothing.” + +Neither brother nor sister believed in affection, and Pierrette’s whole +being was affection. Colonel Gouraud, anxious to please Mademoiselle +Rogron, approved of all she did about Pierrette. Vinet also encouraged +them in what they said against her. He attributed all her so-called +misdeeds to the obstinacy of the Breton character, and declared that +no power, no will, could ever conquer it. Rogron and his sister were so +shrewdly flattered by the two manoeuvrers that the former agreed to go +security for the “Courrier de Provins,” and the latter invested five +thousand francs in the enterprise. + +On this, the colonel and lawyer took the field. They got a hundred +shares, of five hundred francs each, taken among the farmers and others +called independents, and also among those who had bought lands of the +national domains,--whose fears they worked upon. They even extended +their operations throughout the department and along its borders. +Each shareholder of course subscribed to the paper. The judicial +advertisements were divided between the “Bee-hive” and the “Courrier.” + The first issue of the latter contained a pompous eulogy on Rogron. He +was presented to the community as the Laffitte of Provins. The public +mind having thus received an impetus in this new direction, it was +manifest, of course, that the coming elections would be contested. +Madame Tiphaine, whose highest hope was to take her husband to Paris as +deputy, was in despair. After reading an article in the new paper aimed +at her and at Julliard junior, she remarked: “Unfortunately for me, I +forgot that there is always a scoundrel close to a dupe, and that fools +are magnets to clever men of the fox breed.” + +As soon as the “Courrier” was fairly launched on a radius of fifty +miles, Vinet bought a new coat and decent boots, waistcoats, and +trousers. He set up the gray slouch hat sacred to liberals, and showed +his linen. His wife took a servant, and appeared in public dressed +as the wife of a prominent man should be; her caps were pretty. Vinet +proved grateful--out of policy. He and his friend Cournant, the liberal +notary and the rival of the ministerial notary Auffray, became the close +advisers of the Rogrons, to whom they were able to do a couple of signal +services. The leases granted by old Rogron to their father in 1815, +when matters were at a low ebb, were about to expire. Horticulture and +vegetable gardening had developed enormously in the neighborhood of +Provins. The lawyer and notary set to work to enable the Rogrons to +increase their rentals. Vinet won two lawsuits against two districts on +a question of planting trees, which involved five hundred poplars. The +proceeds of the poplars, added to the savings of the brother and sister, +who for the last three years had laid by six thousand a year at high +interest, was wisely invested in the purchase of improved lands. Vinet +also undertook and carried out the ejectment of certain peasants to whom +the elder Rogron had lent money on their farms, and who had strained +every nerve to pay off the debt, but in vain. The cost of the Rogrons’ +fine house was thus in a measure recouped. Their landed property, lying +around Provins and chosen by their father with the sagacious eye of an +innkeeper, was divided into small holdings, the largest of which did +not exceed five acres, and rented to safe tenants, men who owned other +parcels of land, that were ample security for their leases. These +investments brought in, by 1826, five thousand francs a year. Taxes were +charged to the tenants, and there were no buildings needing insurance or +repairs. + +By the end of the second period of Pierrette’s stay in Provins life had +become so hard for her, the cold indifference of all who came to the +house, the silly fault-finding, and the total absence of affection on +the part of her cousins grew so bitter, she was conscious of a chill +dampness like that of a grave creeping round her, that the bold idea of +escaping, on foot and without money, to Brittany and to her grandparents +took possession of her mind. Two events hindered her from attempting +it. Old Lorrain died, and Rogron was appointed guardian of his little +cousin. If the grandmother had died first, we may believe that Rogron, +advised by Vinet, would have claimed Pierrette’s eight thousand francs +and reduced the old man to penury. + +“You may, perhaps, inherit from Pierrette,” said Vinet, with a horrid +smile. “Who knows who may live and who may die?” + +Enlightened by that remark, Rogron gave old Madame Lorrain no peace +until she had secured to Pierrette the reversion of the eight thousand +francs at her death. + +Pierrette was deeply shocked by these events. She was on the point of +making her first communion,--another reason for resigning the hope of +escape from Provins. This ceremony, simple and customary as it was, led +to great changes in the Rogron household. Sylvie learned that Monsieur +le cure Peroux was instructing the little Julliards, Lesourds, +Garcelands, and the rest. She therefore made it a point of honor that +Pierrette should be instructed by the vicar himself, Monsieur Habert, a +priest who was thought to belong to the _Congregation_, very zealous for +the interests of the Church, and much feared in Provins,--a man who hid +a vast ambition beneath the austerity of stern principles. The sister of +this priest, an unmarried woman about thirty years of age, kept a school +for young ladies. Brother and sister looked alike; both were thin, +yellow, black-haired, and bilious. + +Like a true Breton girl, cradled in the practices and poetry of +Catholicism, Pierrette opened her heart and ears to the words of this +imposing priest. Sufferings predispose the mind to devotion, and nearly +all young girls, impelled by instinctive tenderness, are inclined to +mysticism, the deepest aspect of religion. The priest found good soil +in which to sow the seed of the Gospel and the dogmas of the Church. He +completely changed the current of the girl’s thoughts. Pierrette loved +Jesus Christ in the light in which he is presented to young girls at the +time of their first communion, as a celestial bridegroom; her physical +and moral sufferings gained a meaning for her; she saw the finger of God +in all things. Her soul, so cruelly hurt although she could not accuse +her cousins of actual wrong, took refuge in that sphere to which all +sufferers fly on the wings of the cardinal virtues,--Faith, Hope, +Charity. She abandoned her thoughts of escape. Sylvie, surprised by the +transformation Monsieur Habert had effected in Pierrette, was curious +to know how it had been done. And it thus came about that the austere +priest, while preparing Pierrette for her first communion, also won +to God the hitherto erring soul of Mademoiselle Sylvie. Sylvie became +pious. Jerome Rogron, on whom the so-called Jesuit could get no grip +(for just then the influence of His Majesty the late _Constitutionnel_ +the First was more powerful over weaklings than the influence of the +Church), Jerome Rogron remained faithful to Colonel Gouraud, Vinet, and +Liberalism. + +Mademoiselle Rogron naturally made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle +Habert, with whom she sympathized deeply. The two spinsters loved each +other as sisters. Mademoiselle Habert offered to take Pierrette into her +school to spare Sylvie the annoyance of her education; but the brother +and sister both declared that Pierrette’s absence would make the house +too lonely; their attachment to their little cousin seemed excessive. + +When Gouraud and Vinet became aware of the advent of Mademoiselle Habert +on the scene they concluded that the ambitious priest her brother had +the same matrimonial plan for his sister that the colonel was forming +for himself and Sylvie. + +“Your sister wants to get you married,” said Vinet to Rogron. + +“With whom?” asked Rogron. + +“With that old sorceress of a schoolmistress,” cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache. + +“She hasn’t said anything to me about it,” said Rogron, naively. + +So thorough an old maid as Sylvie was certain to make good progress in +the way of salvation. The influence of the priest would as certainly +increase, and in the end affect Rogron, over whom Sylvie had great +power. The two Liberals, who were naturally alarmed, saw plainly that +if the priest were resolved to marry his sister to Rogron (a far more +suitable marriage than that of Sylvie to the colonel) he could then +drive Sylvie in extreme devotion to the Church, and put Pierrette in a +convent. They might therefore lose eighteen months’ labor in flattery +and meannesses of all sorts. Their minds were suddenly filled with a +bitter, silent hatred to the priest and his sister, though they felt +the necessity of living on good terms with them in order to track their +manoeuvres. Monsieur and Mademoiselle Habert, who could play both whist +and boston, now came every evening to the Rogrons. The assiduity of the +one pair induced the assiduity of the other. The colonel and lawyer felt +that they were pitted against adversaries who were fully as strong as +they,--a presentiment that was shared by the priest and his sister. The +situation soon became that of a battle-field. Precisely as the colonel +was enabling Sylvie to taste the unhoped-for joys of being sought in +marriage, so Mademoiselle Habert was enveloping the timid Rogron in the +cotton-wool of her attentions, words, and glances. Neither side could +utter that grand word of statesmanship, “Let us divide!” for each wanted +the whole prey. + +The two clever foxes of the Opposition made the mistake of pulling the +first trigger. Vinet, under the spur of self-interest, bethought himself +of his wife’s only friends, and looked up Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf +and her mother. The two women were living in poverty at Troyes on two +thousand francs a year. Mademoiselle Bathilde de Chargeboeuf was one +of those fine creatures who believe in marriage for love up to their +twenty-fifth year, and change their opinion when they find themselves +still unmarried. Vinet managed to persuade Madame de Chargeboeuf to join +her means to his and live with his family in Provins, where Bathilde, +he assured her, could marry a fool named Rogron, and, clever as she was, +take her place in the best society of the place. + +The arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf in the lawyer’s +household was a great reinforcement for the liberal party; and it +created consternation among the aristocrats of Provins and also in the +Tiphaine clique. Madame de Breautey, horrified to see two women of +rank so misled, begged them to come to her. She was shocked that the +royalists of Troyes had so neglected the mother and daughter, whose +situation she now learned for the first time. + +“How is it that no old country gentleman has married that dear girl, who +is cut out for a lady of the manor?” she said. “They have let her run to +seed, and now she is to be flung at the head of a Rogron!” + +She ransacked the whole department but did not succeed in finding any +gentleman willing to marry a girl whose mother had only two thousand +francs a year. The “clique” and the subprefect also looked about them +with the same object, but they were all too late. Madame de Breautey +made terrible charges against the selfishness which degraded +France,--the consequence, she said, of materialism, and of the +importance now given by the laws to money: nobility was no longer of +value! nor beauty either! Such creatures as the Rogrons, the Vinets, +could stand up and fight with the King of France! + +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf had not only the incontestable superiority of +beauty over her rival, but that of dress as well. She was dazzlingly +fair. At twenty-five her shoulders were fully developed, and the curves +of her beautiful figure were exquisite. The roundness of her throat, the +purity of its lines, the wealth of her golden hair, the charming grace +of her smile, the distinguished carriage of her head, the character of +her features, the fine eyes finely placed beneath a well-formed brow, +her every motion, noble and high-bred, and her light and graceful +figure,--all were in harmony. Her hands were beautiful, and her feet +slender. Health gave her, perhaps, too much the look of a handsome +barmaid. “But that can’t be a defect in the eyes of a Rogron,” sighed +Madame Tiphaine. Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf’s dress when she made her +first appearance in Provins at the Rogrons’ house was very simple. Her +brown merino gown edged with green embroidery was worn low-necked; but +a tulle fichu, carefully drawn down by hidden strings, covered her neck +and shoulders, though it opened a little in front, where its folds +were caught together with a _sevigne_. Beneath this delicate fabric +Bathilde’s beauties seemed all the more enticing and coquettish. She +took off her velvet bonnet and her shawl on arriving, and showed her +pretty ears adorned with what were then called “ear-drops” in gold. +She wore a little _jeannette_--a black velvet ribbon with a heart +attached--round her throat, where it shone like the jet ring which +fantastic nature had fastened round the tail of a white angora cat. She +knew all the little tricks of a girl who seeks to marry; her fingers +arranged her curls which were not in the least out of order; she +entreated Rogron to fasten a cuff-button, thus showing him her wrist, +a request which that dazzled fool rudely refused, hiding his emotions +under the mask of indifference. The timidity of the only love he was +ever to feel in the whole course of his life took an external appearance +of dislike. Sylvie and her friend Celeste Habert were deceived by it; +not so Vinet, the wise head of this doltish circle, among whom no one +really coped with him but the priest,--the colonel being for a long time +his ally. + +On the other hand the colonel was behaving to Sylvie very much as +Bathilde behaved to Rogron. He put on a clean shirt every evening and +wore velvet stocks, which set off his martial features and the spotless +white of his collar. He adopted the fashion of white pique waistcoats, +and caused to be made for him a new surtout of blue cloth, on which his +red rosette glowed finely; all this under pretext of doing honor to the +new guests Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. He even refrained +from smoking for two hours previous to his appearance in the Rogrons’ +salon. His grizzled hair was brushed in a waving line across a cranium +which was ochre in tone. He assumed the air and manner of a party +leader, of a man who was preparing to drive out the enemies of France, +the Bourbons, on short, to beat of drum. + +The satanic lawyer and the wily colonel played the priest and his sister +a more cruel trick than even the importation of the beautiful Madame de +Chargeboeuf, who was considered by all the Liberal party and by Madame +de Breautey and her aristocratic circle to be far handsomer than Madame +Tiphaine. These two great statesmen of the little provincial town made +everybody believe that the priest was in sympathy with their ideas; so +that before long Provins began to talk of him as a liberal ecclesiastic. +As soon as this news reached the bishop Monsieur Habert was sent for and +admonished to cease his visits to the Rogrons; but his sister continued +to go there. Thus the salon Rogron became a fixed fact and a constituted +power. + +Before the year was out political intrigues were not less lively than +the matrimonial schemes of the Rogron salon. While the selfish interests +hidden in these hearts were struggling in deadly combat the events +which resulted from them had a fatal celebrity. Everybody knows that +the Villele ministry was overthrown by the elections of 1826. Vinet, the +Liberal candidate at Provins, who had borrowed money of his notary +to buy a domain which made him eligible for election, came very near +defeating Monsieur Tiphaine, who saved his election by only two votes. +The headquarters of the Liberals was the Rogron salon; among the +_habitues_ were the notary Cournant and his wife, and Doctor Neraud, +whose youth was said to have been stormy, but who now took a serious +view of life; he gave himself up to study and was, according to +all Liberals, a far more capable man than Monsieur Martener, the +aristocratic physician. As for the Rogrons, they no more understood +their present triumph than they had formerly understood their ostracism. + +The beautiful Bathilde, to whom Vinet had explained Pierrette as +an enemy, was extremely disdainful to the girl. It seemed as though +everybody’s selfish schemes demanded the humiliation of that poor +victim. Madame Vinet could do nothing for her, ground as she herself was +beneath those implacable self-interests which the lawyer’s wife had come +at last to see and comprehend. Her husband’s imperious will had alone +taken her to the Rogron’s house, where she had suffered much at the +harsh treatment of the pretty little creature, who would often press +up against her as if divining her secret thoughts, sometimes asking +the poor lady to show her a stitch in knitting or to teach her a bit of +embroidery. The child proved in return that if she were treated gently +she would understand what was taught her, and succeed in what she tried +to do quite marvellously. But Madame Vinet was soon no longer necessary +to her husband’s plans, and after the arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle +de Chargeboeuf she ceased to visit the Rogrons. + +Sylvie, who now indulged in the idea of marrying, began to consider +Pierrette as an obstacle. The girl was nearly fourteen; the pallid +whiteness of her skin, a symptom of illness entirely overlooked by the +ignorant old maid, made her exquisitely lovely. Sylvie took it into her +head to balance the cost which Pierrette had been to them by making a +servant of her. All the _habitues_ of the house to whom she spoke of the +matter advised that she should send away Adele. Why shouldn’t Pierrette +take care of the house and cook? If there was too much work at any time +Mademoiselle Rogron could easily employ the colonel’s woman-of-all-work, +an excellent cook and a most respectable person. Pierrette ought to +learn how to cook, and rub floors, and sweep, said the lawyer; every +girl should be taught to keep house properly and go to market and know +the price of things. The poor little soul, whose self-devotion was equal +to her generosity, offered herself willingly, pleased to think that she +could earn the bitter bread which she ate in that house. Adele was sent +away, and Pierrette thus lost the only person who might have protected +her. + +In spite of the poor child’s strength of heart she was henceforth +crushed down physically as well as mentally. Her cousins had less +consideration for her than for a servant; she belonged to them! She was +scolded for mere nothings, for an atom of dust left on a glass globe or +a marble mantelpiece. The handsome ornaments she had once admired +now became odious to her. No matter how she strove to do right, her +inexorable cousins always found something to reprove in whatever she +did. In the course of two years Pierrette never received the slightest +praise, or heard a kindly word. Happiness for her lay in not being +scolded. She bore with angelic patience the morose ill-humor of the two +celibates, to whom all tender feelings were absolutely unknown, and who +daily made her feel her dependence on them. + +Such a life for a young girl, pressed as it were between the two chops +of a vise, increased her illness. She began to feel violent internal +distresses, secret pangs so sudden in their attacks that her strength +was undermined and her natural development arrested. By slow degrees and +through dreadful, though hidden sufferings, the poor child came to the +state in which the companion of her childhood found her when he sang to +her his Breton ditty at the dawn of the October day. + + + + +VI. AN OLD MAID’S JEALOUSY + + +Before we relate the domestic drama which the coming of Jacques Brigaut +was destined to bring about in the Rogron family it is best to explain +how the lad came to be in Provins; for he is, as it were, a somewhat +mute personage on the scene. + +When he ran from the house Brigaut was not only frightened by +Pierrette’s gesture, he was horrified by the change he saw in his little +friend. He could scarcely recognize the voice, the eyes, the gestures +that were once so lively, gay, and withal so tender. When he had gained +some distance from the house his legs began to tremble under him; hot +flushes ran down his back. He had seen the shadow of Pierrette, but not +Pierrette herself! The lad climbed to the Upper town till he found a +spot from which he could see the square and the house where Pierrette +lived. He gazed at it mournfully, lost in many thoughts, as though he +were entering some grief of which he could not see the end. Pierrette +was ill; she was not happy; she pined for Brittany--what was the matter +with her? All these questions passed and repassed through his heart and +rent it, revealing to his own soul the extent of his love for his little +adopted sister. + +It is extremely rare to find a passion existing between two children of +opposite sexes. The charming story of Paul and Virginia does not, any +more than this of Pierrette and Brigaut, answer the question put by that +strange moral fact. Modern history offers only the illustrious instance +of the Marchesa di Pescara and her husband. Destined to marry by their +parents from their earliest years, they adored each other and were +married, and their union gave to the sixteenth century the noble +spectacle of a perfect conjugal love without a flaw. When the marchesa +became a widow at the age of thirty-four, beautiful, intellectually +brilliant, universally adored, she refused to marry sovereigns and +buried herself in a convent, seeing and knowing thenceforth only nuns. +Such was the perfect love that suddenly developed itself in the heart +of the Breton workman. Pierrette and he had often protected each other; +with what bliss had he given her the money for her journey; he had +almost killed himself by running after the diligence when she left him. +Pierrette had known nothing of all that; but for him the recollection +had warmed and comforted the cold, hard life he had led for the last +three years. For Pierrette’s sake he had struggled to improve himself; +he had learned his trade for Pierrette; he had come to Paris for +Pierrette, intending to make his fortune for _her_. After spending a +fortnight in the city, he had not been able to hold out against the +desire to see her, and he had walked from Saturday night to Monday +morning. He intended to return to Paris; but the moving sight of his +little friend nailed him to Provins. A wonderful magnetism (still denied +in spite of many proofs) acted upon him without his knowledge. Tears +rolled from his eyes when they rose in hers. If to her he was Brittany +and her happy childhood, to him she was life itself. + +At sixteen years of age Brigaut did not yet know how to draw or to model +a cornice; he was ignorant of much, but he had earned, by piece-work +done in the leisure of his apprenticeship, some four or five francs a +day. On this he could live in Provins and be near Pierrette; he would +choose the best cabinet-maker in the town, and learn the rest of his +trade in working for him, and thus keep watch over his darling. + +Brigaut’s mind was made up as he sat there thinking. He went back to +Paris and fetched his certificate, tools, and baggage, and three days +later he was a journeyman in the establishment of Monsieur Frappier, +the best cabinet-maker in Provins. Active, steady workmen, not given to +junketing and taverns, are so rare that masters hold to young men like +Brigaut when they find them. To end Brigaut’s history on this point, we +will say here that by the end of the month he was made foreman, and was +fed and lodged by Frappier, who taught him arithmetic and line drawing. +The house and shop were in the Grand’Rue, not a hundred feet from the +little square where Pierrette lived. + +Brigaut buried his love in his heart and committed no imprudence. He +made Madame Frappier tell him all she knew about the Rogrons. Among +other things, she related to him the way in which their father had laid +hands on the property of old Auffray, Pierrette’s grandfather. Brigaut +obtained other information as to the character of the brother and +sister. He met Pierrette sometimes in the market with her cousin, +and shuddered to see the heavy basket she was carrying on her arm. On +Sundays he went to church to look for her, dressed in her best +clothes. There, for the first time, he became aware that Pierrette was +Mademoiselle Lorrain. Pierrette saw him and made him a hasty sign to +keep out of sight. To him, there was a world of things in that little +gesture, as there had been, a fortnight earlier, in the sign by which +she told him from her window to run away. Ah! what a fortune he must +make in the coming ten years in order to marry his little friend, to +whom, he was told, the Rogrons were to leave their house, a hundred +acres of land, and twelve thousand francs a year, not counting their +savings! + +The persevering Breton was determined to be thoroughly educated for his +trade, and he set about acquiring all the knowledge that he lacked. As +long as only the principles of his work were concerned he could learn +those in Provins as well as in Paris, and thus remain near Pierrette, +to whom he now became anxious to explain his projects and the sort of +protection she could rely on from him. He was determined to know the +reason of her pallor, and of the debility which was beginning to appear +in the organ which is always the last to show the signs of failing life, +namely the eyes; he would know, too, the cause of the sufferings which +gave her that look as though death were near and she might drop at any +moment beneath its scythe. The two signs, the two gestures--not denying +their friendship but imploring caution--alarmed the young Breton. +Evidently Pierrette wished him to wait and not attempt to see her; +otherwise there was danger, there was peril for her. As she left the +church she was able to give him one look, and Brigaut saw that her eyes +were full of tears. But he could have sooner squared the circle +than have guessed what had happened in the Rogrons’ house during the +fortnight which had elapsed since his arrival. + +It was not without keen apprehension that Pierrette came downstairs on +the morning after Brigaut had invaded her morning dreams like another +dream. She was certain that her cousin Sylvie must have heard the song, +or she would not have risen and opened her window; but Pierrette was +ignorant of the powerful reasons that made the old maid so alert. For +the last eight days, strange events and bitter feelings agitated the +minds of the chief personages who frequented the Rogron salon. These +hidden matters, carefully concealed by all concerned, were destined to +fall in their results like an avalanche on Pierrette. Such mysterious +things, which we ought perhaps to call the putrescence of the human +heart, lie at the base of the greatest revolutions, political, social or +domestic; but in telling of them it is desirable to explain that their +subtle significance cannot be given in a matter-of-fact narrative. These +secret schemes and calculations do not show themselves as brutally and +undisguisedly while taking place as they must when the history of them +is related. To set down in writing the circumlocutions, oratorical +precautions, protracted conversations, and honeyed words glossed over +the venom of intentions, would make as long a book as that magnificent +poem called “Clarissa Harlowe.” + +Mademoiselle Habert and Mademoiselle Sylvie were equally desirous +of marrying, but one was ten years older than the other, and the +probabilities of life allowed Celeste Habert to expect that her children +would inherit all the Rogron property. Sylvie was forty-two, an age +at which marriage is beset by perils. In confiding to each other +their ideas, Celeste, instigated by her vindictive brother the priest, +enlightened Sylvie as to the dangers she would incur. Sylvie trembled; +she was terribly afraid of death, an idea which shakes all celibates +to their centre. But just at this time the Martignac ministry came into +power,--a Liberal victory which overthrew the Villele administration. +The Vinet party now carried their heads high in Provins. Vinet himself +became a personage. The Liberals prophesied his advancement; he would +certainly be deputy and attorney-general. As for the colonel, he would +be made mayor of Provins. Ah, to reign as Madame Garceland, the wife of +the present mayor, now reigned! Sylvie could not hold out against that +hope; she determined to consult a doctor, though the proceeding would +only cover her with ridicule. To consult Monsieur Neraud, the Liberal +physician and the rival of Monsieur Martener, would be a blunder. +Celeste Habert offered to hide Sylvie in her dressing-room while she +herself consulted Monsieur Martener, the physician of her establishment, +on this difficult matter. Whether Martener was, or was not, Celeste’s +accomplice need not be discovered; at any rate, he told his client that +even at thirty the danger, though slight, did exist. “But,” he added, +“with your constitution, you need fear nothing.” + +“But how about a woman over forty?” asked Mademoiselle Celeste. + +“A married woman who has had children has nothing to fear.” + +“But I mean an unmarried woman, like Mademoiselle Rogron, for instance?” + +“Oh, that’s another thing,” said Monsieur Martener. “Successful +childbirth is then one of those miracles which God sometimes allows +himself, but rarely.” + +“Why?” asked Celeste. + +The doctor answered with a terrifying pathological description; he +explained that the elasticity given by nature to youthful muscles and +bones did not exist at a later age, especially in women whose lives were +sedentary. + +“So you think that an unmarried woman ought not to marry after forty?” + +“Not unless she waits some years,” replied the doctor. “But then, of +course, it is not marriage, it is only an association of interests.” + +The result of the interview, clearly, seriously, scientifically and +sensibly stated, was that an unmarried woman would make a great mistake +in marrying after forty. When the doctor had departed Mademoiselle +Celeste found Sylvie in a frightful state, green and yellow, and with +the pupils of her eyes dilated. + +“Then you really love the colonel?” asked Celeste. + +“I still hoped,” replied Sylvie. + +“Well, then, wait!” cried Mademoiselle Habert, Jesuitically, aware that +time would rid her of the colonel. + +Sylvie’s new devotion to the church warned her that the morality of such +a marriage might be doubtful. She accordingly sounded her conscience in +the confessional. The stern priest explained the opinions of the Church, +which sees in marriage only the propagation of humanity, and rebukes +second marriages and all passions but those with a social purpose. +Sylvie’s perplexities were great. These internal struggles gave +extraordinary force to her passion, investing it with that inexplicable +attraction which, from the days of Eve, the thing forbidden possesses +for women. Mademoiselle Rogron’s perturbation did not escape the +lynx-eyed lawyer. + +One evening, after the game had ended, Vinet approached his dear friend +Sylvie, took her hand, and led her to a sofa. + +“Something troubles you,” he said. + +She nodded sadly. The lawyer let the others depart; Rogron walked home +with the Chargeboeufs, and when Vinet was alone with the old maid he +wormed the truth out of her. + +“Cleverly played, abbe!” thought he. “But you’ve played into my hands.” + +The foxy lawyer was more decided in his opinion than even the doctor. +He advised marriage in ten years. Inwardly he was vowing that the whole +Rogron fortune should go to Bathilde. He rubbed his hands, his pinched +lips closed more tightly as he hurried home. The influence exercised +by Monsieur Habert, physician of the soul, and by Vinet, doctor of the +purse, balanced each other perfectly. Rogron had no piety in him; so the +churchman and the man of law, the black-robed pair, were fairly matched. + +On discovering the victory obtained by Celeste, in her anxiety to marry +Rogron herself, over Sylvie, torn between the fear of death and the joy +of being baronness and mayoress, the lawyer saw his chance of driving +the colonel from the battlefield. He knew Rogron well enough to be +certain he could marry him to Bathilde; Jerome had already succumbed +inwardly to her charms, and Vinet knew that the first time the pair were +alone together the marriage would be settled. Rogron had reached the +point of keeping his eyes fixed on Celeste, so much did he fear to look +at Bathilde. Vinet had now possessed himself of Sylvie’s secrets, and +saw the force with which she loved the colonel. He fully understood the +struggle of such a passion in the heart of an old maid who was also in +the grasp of religious emotion, and he saw his way to rid himself of +Pierrette and the colonel both by making each the cause of the other’s +overthrow. + +The next day, after the court had risen, Vinet met the colonel and +Rogron talking a walk together, according to their daily custom. + +Whenever the three men were seen in company the whole town talked of it. +This triumvirate, held in horror by the sub-prefect, the magistracy, +and the Tiphaine clique, was, on the other hand, a source of pride +and vanity to the Liberals of Provins. Vinet was sole editor of the +“Courrier” and the head of the party; the colonel, the working manager, +was its arm; Rogron, by means of his purse, its nerves. The Tiphaines +declared that the three men were always plotting evil to the government; +the Liberals admired them as the defenders of the people. When Rogron +turned to go home, recalled by a sense of his dinner-hour, Vinet stopped +the colonel from following him by taking Gouraud’s arm. + +“Well, colonel,” he said, “I am going to take a fearful load off your +shoulders; you can do better than marry Sylvie; if you play your cards +properly you can marry that little Pierrette in two years’ time.” + +He thereupon related the Jesuit’s manoeuvre and its effect on Sylvie. + +“What a skulking trick!” cried the colonel; “and spreading over years, +too!” + +“Colonel,” said Vinet, gravely, “Pierrette is a charming creature; with +her you can be happy for the rest of your life; your health is so sound +that the difference in your ages won’t seem disproportionate. But, all +the same, you mustn’t think it an easy thing to change a dreadful fate +to a pleasant one. To turn a woman who loves you into a friend and +confidant is as perilous a business as crossing a river under fire of +the enemy. Cavalry colonel as you are, and daring too, you must study +the position and manoeuvre your forces with the same wisdom you have +displayed hitherto, and which has won us our present position. If I get +to be attorney-general you shall command the department. Oh! if you had +been an elector we should be further advanced than we are now; I should +have bought the votes of those two clerks by threatening them with the +loss of their places, and we should have had a majority.” + +The colonel had long been thinking about Pierrette, but he concealed his +thoughts with the utmost dissimulation. His roughness to the child was +only a mask; but she could not understand why the man who claimed to +be her father’s old comrade should usually treat her so ill, when +sometimes, if he met her alone, he would chuck her under the chin and +give her a friendly kiss. But after the conversation with Vinet relating +to Sylvie’s fears of marriage Gouraud began to seek opportunities to +find Pierrette alone; the rough colonel made himself as soft as a cat; +he told her how brave her father was and what a misfortune it had been +for her that she lost him. + +A few days before Brigaut’s arrival Sylvie had come suddenly upon +Gouraud and Pierrette talking together. Instantly, jealousy rushed into +her heart with monastic violence. Jealousy, eminently credulous and +suspicious, is the passion in which fancy has most freedom, but for all +that it does not give a person intelligence; on the contrary, it hinders +them from having any; and in Sylvie’s case jealousy only filled her with +fantastic ideas. When (a few mornings later) she heard Brigaut’s ditty, +she jumped to the conclusion that the man who had used the words “Madam’ +le mariee,” addressing them to Pierrette, must be the colonel. She was +certain she was right, for she had noticed for a week past a change in +his manners. He was the only man who, in her solitary life, had ever +paid her any attention. Consequently she watched him with all her eyes, +all her mind; and by giving herself up to hopes that were sometimes +flourishing, sometimes blighted, she had brought the matter to such +enormous proportions that she saw all things in a mental mirage. To use +a common but excellent expression, by dint of looking intently she +saw nothing. Alternately she repelled, admitted, and conquered the +supposition of this rivalry. She compared herself with Pierrette; she +was forty-two years old, with gray hair; Pierrette was delicately fair, +with eyes soft enough to warm a withered heart. She had heard it said +that men of fifty were apt to love young girls of just that kind. Before +the colonel had come regularly to the house Sylvie had heard in the +Tiphaines’ salon strange stories of his life and morals. Old maids +preserve in their love-affairs the exaggerated Platonic sentiments which +young girls of twenty are wont to profess; they hold to these fixed +doctrines like all who have little experience of life and no personal +knowledge of how great social forces modify, impair, and bring to nought +such grand and noble ideas. The mere thought of being jilted by the +colonel was torture to Sylvie’s brain. She lay in her bed going over +and over her own desires, Pierrette’s conduct, and the song which had +awakened her with the word “marriage.” Like the fool she was, instead +of looking through the blinds to see the lover, she opened her window +without reflecting that Pierrette would hear her. If she had had the +common instinct of a spy she would have seen Brigaut, and the fatal +drama then begun would never have taken place. + +It was Pierrette’s duty, weak as she was, to take down the bars that +closed the wooden shutters of the kitchen, which she opened and fastened +back; then she opened in like manner the glass door leading from the +corridor to the garden. She took the various brooms that were used for +sweeping the carpets, the dining-room, the passages and stairs, together +with the other utensils, with a care and particularity which no servant, +not even a Dutchwoman, gives to her work. She hated reproof. Happiness +for her was in seeing the cold blue pallid eyes of her cousin, not +satisfied (that they never were), but calm, after glancing about her +with the look of an owner,--that wonderful glance which sees what +escapes even the most vigilant eyes of others. Pierrette’s skin was +moist with her labor when she returned to the kitchen to put it in +order, and light the stove that she might carry up hot water to her two +cousins (a luxury she never had for herself) and the means of lighting +fires in their rooms. After this she laid the table for breakfast and +lit the stove in the dining-room. For all these various fires she had +to fetch wood and kindling from the cellar, leaving the warm rooms for +a damp and chilly atmosphere. Such sudden transitions, made with the +quickness of youth, often to escape a harsh word or obey an order, +aggravated the condition of her health. She did not know she was ill, +and yet she suffered. She began to have strange cravings; she liked raw +vegetables and salads, and ate them secretly. The innocent child was +quite unaware that her condition was that of serious illness which +needed the utmost care. If Neraud, the Rogrons’ doctor, had told this to +Pierrette before Brigaut’s arrival she would only have smiled; life was +so bitter she could smile at death. But now her feelings changed; the +child, to whose physical sufferings was added the anguish of Breton +homesickness (a moral malady so well-known that colonels in the army +allow for it among their men), was suddenly content to be in Provins. +The sight of that yellow flower, the song, the presence of her +friend, revived her as a plant long without water revives under rain. +Unconsciously she wanted to live, and even thought she did not suffer. + +Pierrette slipped timidly into her cousin’s bedroom, made the fire, left +the hot water, said a few words, and went to wake Rogron and do the same +offices for him. Then she went down to take in the milk, the bread, and +the other provisions left by the dealers. She stood some time on the +sill of the door hoping that Brigaut would have the sense to come to +her; but by that time he was already on his way to Paris. + +She had finished the arrangement of the dining-room and was busy in +the kitchen when she heard her cousin Sylvie coming down. Mademoiselle +Rogron appeared in a brown silk dressing-gown and a cap with bows; her +false front was awry, her night-gown showed above the silk wrapper, her +slippers were down at heel. She gave an eye to everything and then +came straight to Pierrette, who was awaiting her orders to know what to +prepare for breakfast. + +“Ha! here you are, lovesick young lady!” said Sylvie, in a mocking tone. + +“What is it, cousin?” + +“You came into my room like a sly cat, and you crept out the same way, +though you knew very well I had something to say to you.” + +“To me?” + +“You had a serenade this morning, as if you were a princess.” + +“A serenade!” exclaimed Pierrette. + +“A serenade!” said Sylvie, mimicking her; “and you’ve a lover, too.” + +“What is a lover, cousin?” + +Sylvie avoided answering, and said:-- + +“Do you dare to tell me, mademoiselle, that a man did not come under +your window and talk to you of marriage?” + +Persecution had taught Pierrette the wariness of slaves; so she answered +bravely:-- + +“I don’t know what you mean,--” + +“Who means?--your dog?” said Sylvie, sharply. + +“I should have said ‘cousin,’” replied the girl, humbly. + +“And didn’t you get up and go in your bare feet to the window?--which +will give you an illness; and serve you right, too. And perhaps you +didn’t talk to your lover, either?” + +“No, cousin.” + +“I know you have many faults, but I did not think you told lies. You +had better think this over, mademoiselle; you will have to explain this +affair to your cousin and to me, or your cousin will be obliged to take +severe measures.” + +The old maid, exasperated by jealousy and curiosity, meant to frighten +the girl. Pierrette, like all those who suffer more than they have +strength to bear, kept silence. Silence is the only weapon by which such +victims can conquer; it baffles the Cossack charges of envy, the savage +skirmishings of suspicion; it does at times give victory, crushing and +complete,--for what is more complete than silence? it is absolute; it +is one of the attributes of infinity. Sylvie watched Pierrette narrowly. +The girl colored; but the color, instead of rising evenly, came out in +patches on her cheekbones, in burning and significant spots. A mother, +seeing that symptom of illness, would have changed her tone at once; she +would have taken the child on her lap and questioned her; in fact, she +would long ago have tenderly understood the signs of Pierrette’s pure +and perfect innocence; she would have seen her weakness and known that +the disturbance of the digestive organs and the other functions of the +body was about to affect the lungs. Those eloquent patches would have +warned her of an imminent danger. But an old maid, one in whom the +family instincts have never been awakened, to whom the needs of +childhood and the precautions required for adolescence were unknown, had +neither the indulgence nor the compassionate intelligence of a mother; +such sufferings as those of Pierrette, instead of softening her heart +only made it more callous. + +“She blushes, she is guilty!” thought Sylvie. + +Pierrette’s silence was thus interpreted to her injury. + +“Pierrette,” continued Sylvie, “before your cousin comes down we must +have some talk together. Come,” she said, in a rather softer tone, +“shut the street door; if any one comes they will rung and we shall hear +them.” + +In spite of the damp mist which was rising from the river, Sylvie took +Pierrette along the winding gravel path which led across the lawn to the +edge of the rock terrace,--a picturesque little quay, covered with iris +and aquatic plants. She now changed her tactics, thinking she might +catch Pierrette tripping by softness; the hyena became a cat. + +“Pierrette,” she said, “you are no longer a child; you are nearly +fifteen, and it is not at all surprising that you should have a lover.” + +“But, cousin,” said Pierrette, raising her eyes with angelic sweetness +to the cold, sour face of her cousin, “What is a lover?” + +It would have been impossible for Sylvie to define a lover with truth +and decency to the girl’s mind. Instead of seeing in that question the +proof of adorable innocence, she considered it a piece of insincerity. + +“A lover, Pierrette, is a man who loves us and wishes to marry us.” + +“Ah,” said Pierrette, “when that happens in Brittany we call the young +man a suitor.” + +“Well, remember that in owning your feelings for a man you do no wrong, +my dear. The wrong is in hiding them. Have you pleased some of the men +who visit here?” + +“I don’t think so, cousin.” + +“Do you love any of them?” + +“No.” + +“Certain?” + +“Quite certain.” + +“Look at me, Pierrette.” + +Pierrette looked at Sylvie. + +“A man called to you this morning in the square.” + +Pierrette lowered her eyes. + +“You went to your window, you opened it, and you spoke to him.” + +“No cousin, I went to look out and I saw a peasant.” + +“Pierrette, you have much improved since you made your first communion; +you have become pious and obedient, you love God and your relations; I +am satisfied with you. I don’t say this to puff you up with pride.” + +The horrible creature had mistaken despondency, submission, the silence +of wretchedness, for virtues! + +The sweetest of all consolations to suffering souls, to martyrs, to +artists, in the worst of that divine agony which hatred and envy force +upon them, is to meet with praise where they have hitherto found censure +and injustice. Pierrette raised her grateful eyes to her cousin, feeling +that she could almost forgive her for the sufferings she had caused. + +“But if it is all hypocrisy, if I find you a serpent that I have warmed +in my bosom, you will be a wicked girl, an infamous creature!” + +“I think I have nothing to reproach myself with,” said Pierrette, with +a painful revulsion of her heart at the sudden change from unexpected +praise to the tones of the hyena. + +“You know that to lie is a mortal sin?” + +“Yes, cousin.” + +“Well, you are now under the eye of God,” said the old maid, with a +solemn gesture towards the sky; “swear to me that you did not know that +peasant.” + +“I will not swear,” said Pierrette. + +“Ha! he was no peasant, you little viper.” + +Pierrette rushed away like a frightened fawn terrified at her tone. +Sylvie called her in a dreadful voice. + +“The bell is ringing,” she answered. + +“Artful wretch!” thought Sylvie. “She is depraved in mind; and now I am +certain the little adder has wound herself round the colonel. She has +heard us say he was a baron. To be a baroness! little fool! Ah! I’ll get +rid of her, I’ll apprentice her out, and soon too!” + +Sylvie was so lost in thought that she did not notice her brother +coming down the path and bemoaning the injury the frost had done to his +dahlias. + +“Sylvie! what are you thinking about? I thought you were looking at the +fish; sometimes they jump out of the water.” + +“No,” said Sylvie. + +“How did you sleep?” and he began to tell her about his own dreams. +“Don’t you think my skin is getting _tabid_?”--a word in the Rogron +vocabulary. + +Ever since Rogron had been in love,--but let us not profane the +word,--ever since he had desired to marry Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, +he was very uneasy about himself and his health. At this moment +Pierrette came down the garden steps and called to them from a distance +that breakfast was ready. At sight of her cousin, Sylvie’s skin turned +green and yellow, her bile was in commotion. She looked at the floor of +the corridor and declared that Pierrette ought to rub it. + +“I will rub it now if you wish,” said the little angel, not aware of the +injury such work may do to a young girl. + +The dining-room was irreproachably in order. Sylvie sat down and +pretended all through breakfast to want this, that, and the other thing +which she would never have thought of in a quieter moment, and which she +now asked for only to make Pierrette rise again and again just as the +child was beginning to eat her food. But such mere teasing was not +enough; she wanted a subject on which to find fault, and was angry with +herself for not finding one. She scarcely answered her brother’s +silly remarks, yet she looked at him only; her eyes avoided Pierrette. +Pierrette was deeply conscious of all this. She brought the milk mixed +with cream for each cousin in a large silver goblet, after heating it +carefully in the _bain-marie_. The brother and sister poured in the +coffee made by Sylvie herself on the table. When Sylvie had carefully +prepared hers, she saw an atom of coffee-grounds floating on the +surface. On this the storm broke forth. + +“What is the matter?” asked Rogron. + +“The matter is that mademoiselle has put dust in my milk. Do you suppose +I am going to drink coffee with ashes in it? Well, I am not surprised; +no one can do two things at once. She wasn’t thinking of the milk! a +blackbird might have flown through the kitchen to-day and she wouldn’t +have seen it! how should she see the dust flying! and then it was my +coffee, ha! that didn’t signify!” + +As she spoke she was laying on the side of her plate the coffee-grounds +that had run through the filter. + +“But, cousin, that is coffee,” said Pierrette. + +“Oh! then it is I who tell lies, is it?” cried Sylvie, looking at +Pierrette and blasting her with a fearful flash of anger from her eyes. + +Organizations which have not been exhausted by powerful emotions often +have a vast amount of the vital fluid at their service. This phenomenon +of the extreme clearness of the eye in moments of anger was the more +marked in Mademoiselle Rogron because she had often exercised the power +of her eyes in her shop by opening them to their full extent for the +purpose of inspiring her dependents with salutary fear. + +“You had better dare to give me the lie!” continued Sylvie; “you deserve +to be sent from the table to go and eat by yourself in the kitchen.” + +“What’s the matter with you two?” cried Rogron, “you are as cross as +bears this morning.” + +“Mademoiselle knows what I have against her,” said Sylvie. “I leave her +to make up her mind before speaking to you; for I mean to show her more +kindness than she deserves.” + +Pierrette was looking out of the window to avoid her cousin’s eyes, +which frightened her. + +“Look at her! she pays no more attention to what I am saying than if +I were that sugar-basin! And yet mademoiselle has a sharp ear; she can +hear and answer from the top of the house when some one talks to her +from below. She is perversity itself,--perversity, I say; and you +needn’t expect any good of her; do you hear me, Jerome?” + +“What has she done wrong?” asked Rogron. + +“At her age, too! to begin so young!” screamed the angry old maid. + +Pierrette rose to clear the table and give herself something to do, for +she could hardly bear the scene any longer. Though such language was not +new to her, she had never been able to get used to it. Her cousin’s rage +seemed to accuse her of some crime. She imagined what her fury would +be if she came to know about Brigaut. Perhaps her cousin would have him +sent away, and she should lose him! All the many thoughts, the deep and +rapid thoughts of a slave came to her, and she resolved to keep absolute +silence about a circumstance in which her conscience told her there was +nothing wrong. But the cruel, bitter words she had been made to hear and +the wounding suspicion so shocked her that as she reached the kitchen +she was taken with a convulsion of the stomach and turned deadly sick. +She dared not complain; she was not sure that any one would help her. +When she returned to the dining-room she was white as a sheet, and, +saying she was not well, she started to go to bed, dragging herself up +step by step by the baluster and thinking that she was going to die. +“Poor Brigaut!” she thought. + +“The girl is ill,” said Rogron. + +“She ill! That’s only _shamming_,” replied Sylvie, in a loud voice that +Pierrette might hear. “She was well enough this morning, I can tell +you.” + +This last blow struck Pierrette to the earth; she went to bed weeping +and praying to God to take her out of this world. + + + + +VII. DOMESTIC TYRANNY + + +For a month past Rogron had ceased to carry the “Constitutionnel” to +Gouraud; the colonel came obsequiously to fetch his paper, gossip a +little, and take Rogron off to walk if the weather was fine. Sure +of seeing the colonel and being able to question him, Sylvie dressed +herself as coquettishly as she knew how. The old maid thought she was +attractive in a green gown, a yellow shawl with a red border, and a +white bonnet with straggling gray feathers. About the hour when the +colonel usually came Sylvie stationed herself in the salon with +her brother, whom she had compelled to stay in the house in his +dressing-gown and slippers. + +“It is a fine day, colonel,” said Rogron, when Gouraud with his heavy +step entered the room. “But I’m not dressed; my sister wanted to go out, +and I was going to keep the house. Wait for me; I’ll be ready soon.” + +So saying, Rogron left Sylvie alone with the colonel. + +“Where were you going? you are dressed divinely,” said Gouraud, who +noticed a certain solemnity on the pock-marked face of the old maid. + +“I wanted very much to go out, but my little cousin is ill, and I cannot +leave her.” + +“What is the matter with her?” + +“I don’t know; she had to go to bed.” + +Gouraud’s caution, not to say his distrust, was constantly excited by +the results of his alliance with Vinet. It certainly appeared that the +lawyer had got the lion’s share in their enterprise. Vinet controlled +the paper, he reigned as sole master over it, he took the revenues; +whereas the colonel, the responsible editor, earned little. Vinet and +Cournant had done the Rogrons great services; whereas Gouraud, a colonel +on half-pay, could do nothing. Who was to be deputy? Vinet. Who was the +chief authority in the party? Vinet. Whom did the liberals all consult? +Vinet. Moreover, the colonel knew fully as well as Vinet himself the +extent and depth of the passion suddenly aroused in Rogron by the +beautiful Bathilde de Chargeboeuf. This passion had now become intense, +like all the last passions of men. Bathilde’s voice made him tremble. +Absorbed in his desires Rogron hid them; he dared not hope for such +a marriage. To sound him, the colonel mentioned that he was thinking +himself of asking for Bathilde’s hand. Rogron turned pale at the thought +of such a formidable rival, and had since then shown coldness and even +hatred to Gouraud. + +Thus Vinet reigned supreme in the Rogron household while he, the +colonel, had no hold there except by the extremely hypothetical tie of +his mendacious affection for Sylvie, which it was not yet clear that +Sylvie reciprocated. When the lawyer told him of the priest’s manoeuvre, +and advised him to break with Sylvie and marry Pierrette, he certainly +flattered Gouraud’s foible; but after analyzing the inner purpose of +that advice and examining the ground all about him, the colonel thought +he perceived in his ally the intention of separating him from Sylvie, +and profiting by her fears to throw the whole Rogron property into the +hands of Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. + +Therefore, when the colonel was left alone with Sylvie his perspicacity +possessed itself immediately of certain signs which betrayed her +uneasiness. He saw at once that she was under arms and had made this +plan for seeing him alone. As he already suspected Vinet of playing +him some trick, he attributed the conference to the instigation of the +lawyer, and was instantly on his guard, as he would have been in an +enemy’s country,--with an eye all about him, an ear to the faintest +sound, his mind on the qui vive, and his hand on a weapon. The colonel +had the defect of never believing a single word said to him by a woman; +so that when the old maid brought Pierrette on the scene, and told him +she had gone to bed before midday, he concluded that Sylvie had locked +her up by way of punishment and out of jealousy. + +“She is getting to be quite pretty, that little thing,” he said with an +easy air. + +“She will be pretty,” replied Mademoiselle Rogron. + +“You ought to send her to Paris and put her in a shop,” continued the +colonel. “She would make her fortune. The milliners all want pretty +girls.” + +“Is that really your advice?” asked Sylvie, in a troubled voice. + +“Good!” thought the colonel, “I was right. Vinet advised me to marry +Pierrette just to spoil my chance with the old harridan. But,” he said +aloud, “what else can you do with her? There’s that beautiful +girl Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, noble and well-connected, reduced to +single-blessedness,--nobody will have her. Pierrette has nothing, and +she’ll never marry. As for beauty, what is it? To me, for example, youth +and beauty are nothing; for haven’t I been a captain of cavalry in the +imperial guard, and carried my spurs into all the capitals of Europe, +and known all the handsomest women of these capitals? Don’t talk to +me; I tell you youth and beauty are devilishly common and silly. At +forty-eight,” he went on, adding a few years to his age, to match +Sylvie’s, “after surviving the retreat from Moscow and going through +that terrible campaign of France, a man is broken down; I’m nothing but +an old fellow now. A woman like you would pet me and care for me, and +her money, joined to my poor pension, would give me ease in my old days; +of course I should prefer such a woman to a little minx who would worry +the life out of me, and be thirty years old, with passions, when +I should be sixty, with rheumatism. At my age, a man considers and +calculates. To tell you the truth between ourselves, I should not wish +to have children.” + +Sylvie’s face was an open book to the colonel during this tirade, and +her next question proved to him Vinet’s perfidy. + +“Then you don’t love Pierrette?” she said. + +“Heavens! are you out of your mind, my dear Sylvie?” he cried. “Can +those who have no teeth crack nuts? Thank God I’ve got some common-sense +and know what I’m about.” + +Sylvie thus reassured resolved not to show her own hand, and thought +herself very shrewd in putting her own ideas into her brother’s mouth. + +“Jerome,” she said, “thought of the match.” + +“How could your brother take up such an incongruous idea? Why, it is +only a few days ago that, in order to find out his secrets, I told him I +loved Bathilde. He turned as white as your collar.” + +“My brother! does he love Bathilde?” asked Sylvie. + +“Madly,--and yet Bathilde is only after his money.” (“One for you, +Vinet!” thought the colonel.) “I can’t understand why he should have +told you that about Pierrette. No, Sylvie,” he said, taking her hand and +pressing it in a certain way, “since you have opened this matter” (he +drew nearer to her), “well” (he kissed her hand; as a cavalry captain he +had already proved his courage), “let me tell you that I desire no wife +but you. Though such a marriage may look like one of convenience, I +feel, on my side, a sincere affection for you.” + +“But if I _wish_ you to marry Pierrette? if I leave her my fortune--eh, +colonel?” + +“But I don’t want to be miserable in my home, and in less than ten +years see a popinjay like Julliard hovering round my wife and addressing +verses to her in the newspapers. I’m too much of a man to stand that. +No, I will never make a marriage that is disproportionate in age.” + +“Well, colonel, we will talk seriously of this another time,” said +Sylvie, casting a glance upon him which she supposed to be full of love, +though, in point of fact, it was a good deal like that of an ogress. Her +cold, blue lips of a violet tinge drew back from the yellow teeth, and +she thought she smiled. + +“I’m ready,” said Rogron, coming in and carrying off the colonel, who +bowed in a lover-like way to the old maid. + +Gouraud determined to press on his marriage with Sylvie, and make +himself master of the house; resolving to rid himself, through his +influence over Sylvie during the honeymoon, of Bathilde and Celeste +Habert. So, during their walk, he told Rogron he had been joking the +other day; that he had no real intention of aspiring to Bathilde; that +he was not rich enough to marry a woman without fortune; and then he +confided to him his real wishes, declaring that he had long chosen +Sylvie for her good qualities,--in short, he aspired to the honor of +being Rogron’s brother-in-law. + +“Ah, colonel, my dear baron! if nothing is wanting but my consent you +have it with no further delay than the law requires,” cried Rogron, +delighted to be rid of his formidable rival. + +Sylvie spent the morning in her own room considering how the new +household could be arranged. She determined to build a second storey for +her brother and to furnish the rest for herself and her husband; but she +also resolved, in the true old-maidish spirit, to subject the colonel to +certain proofs by which to judge of his heart and his morals before she +finally committed herself. She was still suspicious, and wanted to make +sure that Pierrette had no private intercourse with the colonel. + +Pierrette came down before the dinner-hour to lay the table. Sylvie had +been forced to cook the dinner, and had sworn at that “cursed Pierrette” + for a spot she had made on her gown,--wasn’t it plain that if Pierrette +had done her own work Sylvie wouldn’t have got that grease-spot on her +silk dress? + +“Oh, here you are, _peakling_? You are like the dog of the marshal who +woke up as soon as the saucepans rattled. Ha! you want us to think you +are ill, you little liar!” + +That idea: “You did not tell the truth about what happened in the square +this morning, therefore you lie in everything,” was a hammer with +which Sylvie battered the head and also the heart of the poor girl +incessantly. + +To Pierrette’s great astonishment Sylvie sent her to dress in her best +clothes after dinner. The liveliest imagination is never up to the level +of the activity which suspicion excites in the mind of an old maid. In +this particular case, this particular old maid carried the day against +politicians, lawyers, notaries, and all other self-interests. Sylvie +determined to consult Vinet, after examining herself into all the +suspicious circumstances. She kept Pierrette close to her, so as to find +out from the girl’s face whether the colonel had told her the truth. + +On this particular evening the Chargeboeuf ladies were the first to +arrive. Bathilde, by Vinet’s advice, had become more elaborate in her +dress. She now wore a charming gown of blue velveteen, with the same +transparent fichu, garnet pendants in her ears, her hair in ringlets, +the wily _jeannette_ round her throat, black satin slippers, gray silk +stockings, and _gants de Suede_; add to these things the manners of a +queen and the coquetry of a young girl determined to capture Rogron. +Her mother, calm and dignified, retained, as did her daughter, a certain +aristocratic insolence, with which the two women hedged themselves +and preserved the spirit of their caste. Bathilde was a woman of +intelligence, a fact which Vinet alone had discovered during the +two months’ stay the ladies had made at his house. When he had fully +fathomed the mind of the girl, wounded and disappointed as it was by +the fruitlessness of her beauty and her youth, and enlightened by the +contempt she felt for the men of a period in which money was the only +idol, Vinet, himself surprised, exclaimed,-- + +“If I could only have married you, Bathilde, I should to-day be Keeper +of the Seals. I should call myself Vinet de Chargeboeuf, and take my +seat as deputy of the Right.” + +Bathilde had no vulgar idea in her marriage intentions. She did not +marry to be a mother, nor to possess a husband; she married for freedom, +to gain a responsible position, to be called “madame,” and to act as +men act. Rogron was nothing but a name to her; she expected to make +something of the fool,--a voting deputy, for instance, whose instigator +she would be; moreover, she longed to avenge herself on her family, who +had taken no notice of a girl without money. Vinet had much enlarged and +strengthened her ideas by admiring and approving them. + +“My dear Bathilde,” he said, while explaining to her the influence of +women, and showing her the sphere of action in which she ought to work, +“do you suppose that Tiphaine, a man of the most ordinary capacity, +could ever get to be a judge of the Royal court in Paris by himself? No, +it is Madame Tiphaine who has got him elected deputy, and it is she who +will push him when they get to Paris. Her mother, Madame Roguin, is a +shrewd woman, who does what she likes with the famous banker du Tillet, +a crony of Nucingen, and both of them allies of the Kellers. The +administration is on the best of terms with those lynxes of the bank. +There is no reason why Tiphaine should not be judge, through his wife, +of a Royal court. Marry Rogron; we’ll have him elected deputy from +Provins as soon as I gain another precinct in the Seine-et-Marne. You +can then get him a place as receiver-general, where he’ll have nothing +to do but sign his name. We shall belong to the opposition _if_ the +Liberals triumph, but if the Bourbons remain--ah! then we shall lean +gently, gently towards the centre. Besides, you must remember Rogron +can’t live forever, and then you can marry a titled man. In short, put +yourself in a good position, and the Chargeboeufs will be ready enough +to serve us. Your poverty has no doubt taught you, as mine did me, +to know what men are worth. We must make use of them as we do of +post-horses. A man, or a woman, will take us along to such or such a +distance.” + +Vinet ended by making Bathilde a small edition of Catherine de Medicis. +He left his wife at home, rejoiced to be alone with her two children, +while he went every night to the Rogrons’ with Madame and Mademoiselle +de Chargeboeuf. He arrived there in all the glory of better +circumstances. His spectacles were of gold, his waistcoat silk; a white +cravat, black trousers, thin boots, a black coat made in Paris, and a +gold watch and chain, made up his apparel. In place of the former Vinet, +pale and thin, snarling and gloomy, the present Vinet bore himself with +the air and manner of a man of importance; he marched boldly forward, +certain of success, with that peculiar show of security which belongs to +lawyers who know the hidden places of the law. His sly little head was +well-brushed, his chin well-shaved, which gave him a mincing though +frigid look, that made him seem agreeable in the style of Robespierre. +Certainly he would make a fine attorney-general, endowed with elastic, +mischievous, and even murderous eloquence, or an orator of the shrewd +type of Benjamin Constant. The bitterness and the hatred which formerly +actuated him had now turned into soft-spoken perfidy; the poison was +transformed into anodyne. + +“Good-evening, my dear; how are you?” said Madame de Chargeboeuf, +greeting Sylvie. + +Bathilde went straight to the fireplace, took off her bonnet, looked +at herself in the glass, and placed her pretty foot on the fender that +Rogron might admire it. + +“What is the matter with you?” she said to him, looking directly in +his face. “You have not bowed to me. Pray why should we put on our best +velvet gowns to please you?” + +She pushed past Pierrette to lay down her hat, which the latter took +from her hand, and which she let her take exactly as though she were a +servant. Men are supposed to be ferocious, and tigers too; but neither +tigers, vipers, diplomatists, lawyers, executioners or kings ever +approach, in their greatest atrocities, the gentle cruelty, the poisoned +sweetness, the savage disdain of one young woman for another, when +she thinks herself superior in birth, or fortune, or grace, and some +question of marriage, or precedence, or any of the feminine rivalries, +is raised. The “Thank you, mademoiselle,” which Bathilde said to +Pierrette was a poem in many strophes. She was named Bathilde, and the +other Pierrette. She was a Chargeboeuf, the other a Lorrain. Pierrette +was small and weak, Bathilde was tall and full of life. Pierrette +was living on charity, Bathilde and her mother lived on their means. +Pierrette wore a stuff gown with a chemisette, Bathilde made the velvet +of hers undulate. Bathilde had the finest shoulders in the department, +and the arm of a queen; Pierrette’s shoulder-blades were skin and bone. +Pierrette was Cinderella, Bathilde was the fairy. Bathilde was about to +marry, Pierrette was to die a maid. Bathilde was adored, Pierrette was +loved by none. Bathilde’s hair was ravishingly dressed, she had so +much taste; Pierrette’s was hidden beneath her Breton cap, and she +knew nothing of the fashions. Moral, Bathilde was everything, Pierrette +nothing. The proud little Breton girl understood this tragic poem. + +“Good-evening, little girl,” said Madame de Chargeboeuf, from the +height of her condescending grandeur, and in the tone of voice which her +pinched nose gave her. + +Vinet put the last touch to this sort of insult by looking fixedly +at Pierrette and saying, in three keys, “Oh! oh! oh! how fine we are +to-night, Pierrette!” + +“Fine!” said the poor child; “you should say that to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf, not to me.” + +“Oh! she is always beautifully dressed,” replied the lawyer. “Isn’t she, +Rogron?” he added, turning to the master of the house, and grasping his +hand. + +“Yes,” said Rogron. + +“Why do you force him to say what he does not think?” said Bathilde; +“nothing about me pleases him. Isn’t that true?” she added, going up to +Rogron and standing before him. “Look at me, and say if it isn’t true.” + +Rogron looked at her from head to foot, and gently closed his eyes like +a cat whose head is being scratched. + +“You are too beautiful,” he said; “too dangerous.” + +“Why?” + +Rogron looked at the fire and was silent. Just then Mademoiselle Habert +entered the room, followed by the colonel. + +Celeste Habert, who had now become the common enemy, could only reckon +Sylvie on her side; nevertheless, everybody present showed her the more +civility and amiable attention because each was undermining her. Her +brother, though no longer able to be on the scene of action, was +well aware of what was going on, and as soon as he perceived that +his sister’s hopes were killed he became an implacable and terrible +antagonist to the Rogrons. + +Every one will immediately picture to themselves Mademoiselle Habert +when they know that if she had not kept an institution for young ladies +she would still have had the air of a school-mistress. School-mistresses +have a way of their own in putting on their caps. Just as old +Englishwomen have acquired a monopoly in turbans, school-mistresses have +a monopoly of these caps. Flowers nod above the frame-work, flowers that +are more than artificial; lying by in closets for years the cap is both +new and old, even on the day it is first worn. These spinsters make it +a point of honor to resemble the lay figures of a painter; they sit on +their hips, never on their chairs. When any one speaks to them they turn +their whole busts instead of simply turning their heads; and when their +gowns creak one is tempted to believe that the mechanism of these beings +is out of order. Mademoiselle Habert, an ideal of her species, had a +stern eye, a grim mouth, and beneath her wrinkled chin the strings of +her cap, always limp and faded, floated as she moved. Two moles, rather +large and brown, adorned that chin, and from them sprouted hairs which +she allowed to grow rampant like clematis. And finally, to complete her +portrait, she took snuff, and took it ungracefully. + +The company went to work at their boston. Mademoiselle Habert sat +opposite to Sylvie, with the colonel at her side opposite to Madame +de Chargeboeuf. Bathilde was near her mother and Rogron. Sylvie placed +Pierrette between herself and the colonel; Rogron had set out a second +card-table, in case other company arrived. Two lamps were on the +chimney-piece between the candelabra and the clock, and the tables were +lighted by candles at forty sous a pound, paid for by the price of the +cards. + +“Come, Pierrette, take your work, my dear,” said Sylvie, with +treacherous softness, noticing that the girl was watching the colonel’s +game. + +She usually affected to treat Pierrette well before company. This +deception irritated the honest Breton girl, and made her despise her +cousin. She took her embroidery, but as she drew her stitches she still +watched Gouraud’s play. Gouraud behaved as if he did not know the girl +was near him. Sylvie noticed this apparent indifference and thought +it extremely suspicious. Presently she undertook a _grande misere_ in +hearts, the pool being full of counters, besides containing twenty-seven +sous. The rest of the company had now arrived; among them the +deputy-judge Desfondrilles, who for the last two months had abandoned +the Tiphaine party and connected himself more or less with the Vinets. +He was standing before the chimney-piece, with his back to the fire and +the tails of his coat over his arms, looking round the fine salon of +which Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf was the shining ornament; for it +really seemed as if all the reds of its decoration had been made +expressly to enhance her style of beauty. Silence reigned; Pierrette +was watching the game, Sylvie’s attention was distracted from her by the +interest of the _grande misere_. + +“Play that,” said Pierrette to the colonel, pointing to a heart in his +hand. + +The colonel began a sequence in hearts; the hearts all lay between +himself and Sylvie; the colonel won her ace, though it was protected by +five small hearts. + +“That’s not fair!” she cried. “Pierrette saw my hand, and the colonel +took her advice.” + +“But, mademoiselle,” said Celeste, “it was the colonel’s game to play +hearts after you began them.” + +The scene made Monsieur Desfondrilles smile; his was a keen mind, which +found much amusement in watching the play of all the self-interests in +Provins. + +“Yes, it was certainly the colonel’s game,” said Cournant the notary, +not knowing what the question was. + +Sylvie threw a look at Mademoiselle Habert,--one of those glances which +pass from old maid to old maid, feline and cruel. + +“Pierrette, you did see my hand,” said Sylvie fixing her eyes on the +girl. + +“No, cousin.” + +“I was looking at you all,” said the deputy-judge, “and I can swear that +Pierrette saw no one’s hand but the colonel’s.” + +“Pooh!” said Gouraud, alarmed, “little girls know how to slide their +eyes into everything.” + +“Ah!” exclaimed Sylvie. + +“Yes,” continued Gouraud. “I dare say she looked into your hand to play +you a trick. Didn’t you, little one?” + +“No,” said the truthful Breton, “I wouldn’t do such a thing; if I had, +it would have been in my cousin’s interests.” + +“You know you are a story-teller and a little fool,” cried Sylvie. +“After what happened this morning do you suppose I can believe a word +you say? You are a--” + +Pierrette did not wait for Sylvie to finish her sentence; foreseeing a +torrent of insults, she rushed away without a light and ran to her room. +Sylvie turned white with anger and muttered between her teeth, “She +shall pay for this!” + +“Shall you pay for the _misere_?” said Madame de Chargeboeuf. + +As she spoke Pierrette struck her head against the door of the passage +which some one had left open. + +“Good! I’m glad of it,” cried Sylvie, as they heard the blow. + +“She must be hurt,” said Desfondrilles. + +“She deserves it,” replied Sylvie. + +“It was a bad blow,” said Mademoiselle Habert. + +Sylvie thought she might escape paying her _misere_ if she went to see +after Pierrette, but Madame de Chargeboeuf stopped her. + +“Pay us first,” she said, laughing; “you will forget it when you come +back.” + +The remark, based on the old maid’s trickery and her bad faith in paying +her debts at cards was approved by the others. Sylvie sat down and +thought no more of Pierrette,--an indifference which surprised no one. +When the game was over, about half past nine o’clock, she flung herself +into an easy chair at the corner of the fireplace and did not even rise +as her guests departed. The colonel was torturing her; she did not know +what to think of him. + +“Men are so false!” she cried, as she went to bed. + +Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow on the head, just above the +ear, at the spot where young girls part their hair when they put their +“front hair” in curlpapers. The next day there was a large swelling. + +“God has punished you,” said Sylvie at the breakfast table. “You +disobeyed me; you treated me with disrespect in leaving the room before +I had finished my sentence; you got what you deserved.” + +“Nevertheless,” said Rogron, “she ought to put on a compress of salt and +water.” + +“Oh, it is nothing at all, cousin,” said Pierrette. + +The poor child had reached a point where even such a remark seemed to +her a proof of kindness. + + + + +VIII. THE LOVES OF JACQUES AND PIERRETTE + + +The week ended as it had begun, in continual torture. Sylvie grew +ingenious, and found refinements of tyranny with almost savage cruelty; +the red Indians might have taken a lesson from her. Pierrette dared not +complain of her vague sufferings, nor of the actual pains she now +felt in her head. The origin of her cousin’s present anger was the +non-revelation of Brigaut’s arrival. With Breton obstinacy Pierrette was +determined to keep silence,--a resolution that is perfectly explicable. +It is easy to see how her thoughts turned to Brigaut, fearing some +danger for him if he were discovered, yet instinctively longing to have +him near her, and happy in knowing he was in Provins. What joy to have +seen him! That single glimpse was like the look an exile casts upon +his country, or the martyr lifts to heaven, where his eyes, gifted with +second-sight, can enter while flames consume his body. + +Pierrette’s glance had been so thoroughly understood by the major’s son +that, as he planed his planks or took his measures or joined his wood, +he was working his brains to find out some way of communicating with +her. He ended by choosing the simplest of all schemes. At a certain hour +of the night Pierrette must lower a letter by a string from her window. +In the midst of the girl’s own sufferings, she too was sustained by the +hope of being able to communicate with Brigaut. The same desire was in +both hearts; parted, they understood each other! At every shock to +her heart, every throb of pain in her head, Pierrette said to herself, +“Brigaut is here!” and that thought enabled her to live without +complaint. + +One morning in the market, Brigaut, lying in wait, was able to get near +her. Though he saw her tremble and turn pale, like an autumn leaf about +to flutter down, he did not lose his head, but quietly bought fruit of +the market-woman with whom Sylvie was bargaining. He found his chance +of slipping a note to Pierrette, all the while joking the woman with the +ease of a man accustomed to such manoeuvres; so cool was he in action, +though the blood hummed in his ears and rushed boiling through his veins +and arteries. He had the firmness of a galley-slave without, and the +shrinkings of innocence within him,--like certain mothers in +their moments of mortal trial, when held between two dangers, two +catastrophes. + +Pierrette’s inward commotion was like Brigaut’s. She slipped the note +into the pocket of her apron. The hectic spots upon her cheekbones +turned to a cherry-scarlet. These two children went through, all unknown +to themselves, many more emotions than go to the make-up of a dozen +ordinary loves. This moment in the market-place left in their souls a +well-spring of passionate feeling. Sylvie, who did not recognize the +Breton accent, took no notice of Brigaut, and Pierrette went home safely +with her treasure. + +The letters of these two poor children were fated to serve as +documents in a terrible judicial inquiry; otherwise, without the fatal +circumstances that occasioned that inquiry, they would never have +been heard of. Here is the one which Pierrette read that night in her +chamber:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--At midnight, when everybody is asleep but me, + who am watching you, I will come every night under your window. + Let down a string long enough to reach me; it will not make any + noise; you must fasten to the end of it whatever you write to me. + I will tie my letter in the same way. I hear _they_ have taught + you to read and write,--those wicked relations who were to do you + good, and have done you so much harm. You, Pierrette, the daughter + of a colonel who died for France, reduced by those monsters to be + their servant! That is where all your pretty color and health have + gone. My Pierrette, what has become of her? what have they done + with her. I see plainly you are not the same, not happy. Oh! + Pierrette, let us go back to Brittany. I can earn enough now to + give you what you need; for you yourself can earn three francs a + day and I can earn four or five; and thirty sous is all I want to + live on. Ah! Pierrette, how I have prayed the good God for you + ever since I came here! I have asked him to give me all your + sufferings, and you all pleasures. Why do you stay with them? why + do they keep you? Your grandmother is more to you than they. They + are vipers; they have taken your gaiety away from you. You do not + even walk as you once did in Brittany. Let us go back. I am here + to serve you, to do your will; tell me what you wish. If you need + money I have a hundred and fifty francs; I can send them up by the + string, though I would like to kiss your dear hands and lay the + money in them. Ah, dear Pierrette, it is a long time now that the + blue sky has been overcast for me. I have not had two hours’ + happiness since I put you into that diligence of evil. And when I + saw you the other morning, looking like a shadow, I could not + reach you; that hag of a cousin came between us. But at least we + can have the consolation of praying to God together every Sunday + in church; perhaps he will hear us all the more when we pray + together. + + Not good-by, my dear, Pierrette, but _to-night_. + +This letter so affected Pierrette that she sat for more than an hour +reading and re-reading and gazing at it. Then she remembered with +anguish that she had nothing to write with. She summoned courage to +make the difficult journey from her garret to the dining-room, where +she obtained pen, paper, and ink, and returned safely without waking +her terrible cousin. A few minutes before midnight she had finished the +following letter:-- + + My Friend,--Oh! yes, my friend; for there is no one but you, + Jacques, and my grandmother to love me. God forgive me, but you + are the only two persons whom I love, both alike, neither more nor + less. I was too little to know my dear mamma; but you, Jacques, + and my grandmother, and my grandfather,--God grant him heaven, for + he suffered much from his ruin, which was mine,--but you two who + are left, I love you both, unhappy as I am. Indeed, to know how + much I love you, you will have to know how much I suffer; but I + don’t wish that, it would grieve you too much. _They_ speak to me + as we would not speak to a dog; _they_ treat me like the worst of + girls; and yet I do examine myself before God, and I cannot find + that I do wrong by them. Before you sang to me the marriage song I + saw the mercy of God in my sufferings; for I had prayed to him to + take me from the world, and I felt so ill I said to myself, “God + hears me!” But, Jacques, now you are here, I want to live and go + back to Brittany, to my grandmamma who loves me, though _they_ say + she stole eight thousand francs of mine. Jacques, is that so? If + they are mine could you get them! But it is not true, for if my + grandmother had eight thousand francs she would not live at + Saint-Jacques. + + I don’t want to trouble her last days, my kind, good grandmamma, + with the knowledge of my troubles; she might die of it. Ah! if she + knew they made her grandchild scrub the pots and pans,--she who + used to say to me, when I wanted to help her after her troubles, + “Don’t touch that, my darling; leave it--leave it--you will spoil + your pretty fingers.” Ah! my hands are never clean now. Sometimes + I can hardly carry the basket home from market, it cuts my arm. + Still I don’t think my cousins mean to be cruel; but it is their + way always to scold, and it seems that I have no right to leave + them. My cousin Rogron is my guardian. One day when I wanted to + run away because I could not bear it, and told them so, my cousin + Sylvie said the gendarmes would go after me, for the law was my + master. Oh! I know now that cousins cannot take the place of + father or mother, any more than the saints can take the place of + God. + + My poor Jacques, what do you suppose I could do with your money? + Keep it for our journey. Oh! how I think of you and Pen-Hoel, and + the big pong,--that’s where we had our only happy days. I shall + have no more, for I feel I am going from bad to worse. I am very + ill, Jacques. I have dreadful pains in my head, and in my bones, + and back, which kill me, and I have no appetite except for horrid + things,--roots and leaves and such things. Sometimes I cry, when I + am all alone, for they won’t let me do anything I like if they + know it, not even cry. I have to hide to offer my tears to Him to + whom we owe the mercies which we call afflictions. It must have + been He who gave you the blessed thought to come and sing the + marriage song beneath my window. Ah! Jacques, my cousin heard you, + and she said I had a lover. If you wish to be my lover, love me + well. I promise to love you always, as I did in the past, and to + be + Your faithful servant, + Pierrette Lorrain. + + You will love me always, won’t you? + + +She had brought a crust of bread from the kitchen, in which she now made +a hole for the letter, and fastened it like a weight to her string. At +midnight, having opened her window with extreme caution, she lowered the +letter with the crust, which made no noise against either the wall +of the house or the blinds. Presently she felt the string pulled by +Brigaut, who broke it and then crept softly away. When he reached the +middle of the square she could see him indistinctly by the starlight; +but he saw her quite clearly in the zone of light thrown by the candle. +The two children stood thus for over an hour, Pierrette making him +signs to go, he starting, she remaining, he coming back to his post, and +Pierrette again signing that he must leave her. This was repeated till +the child closed her window, went to bed, and blew out the candle. Once +in bed she fell asleep, happy in heart though suffering in body,--she +had Brigaut’s letter under her pillow. She slept as the persecuted +sleep,--a slumber bright with angels; that slumber full of heavenly +arabesques, in atmospheres of gold and lapis-lazuli, perceived and given +to us by Raffaelle. + +The moral nature had such empire over that frail physical nature that on +the morrow Pierrette rose light and joyous as a lark, as radiant and +as gay. Such a change could not escape the vigilant eye of her cousin +Sylvie, who, this time, instead of scolding her, set about watching +her with the scrutiny of a magpie. “What reason is there for such +happiness?” was a thought of jealousy, not of tyranny. If the colonel +had not been in Sylvie’s mind she would have said to Pierrette as +formerly, “Pierrette, you are very noise, and very regardless of what +you have often been told.” But now the old maid resolved to spy upon +her as only old maids can spy. The day was still and gloomy, like the +weather that precedes a storm. + +“You don’t appear to be ill now, mademoiselle,” said Sylvie at dinner. +“Didn’t I tell you she put it all on to annoy us?” she cried, addressing +her brother, and not waiting for Pierrette’s answer. + +“On the contrary, cousin, I have a sort of fever--” + +“Fever! what fever? You are as gay as a lark. Perhaps you have seen some +one again?” + +Pierrette trembled and dropped her eyes on her plate. + +“Tartufe!” cried Sylvie; “and only fourteen years old! what a nature! Do +you mean to come to a bad end?” + +“I don’t know what you mean,” said Pierrette, raising her sweet and +luminous brown eyes to her cousin. + +“This evening,” said Sylvie, “you are to stay in the dining-room with a +candle, and do your sewing. You are not wanted in the salon; I sha’n’t +have you looking into my hand to help your favorites.” + +Pierrette made no sign. + +“Artful creature!” cried Sylvie, leaving the room. + +Rogron, who did not understand his sister’s anger, said to Pierrette: +“What is all this about? Try to please your cousin, Pierrette; she is +very indulgent to you, very gentle, and if you put her out of temper the +fault is certainly yours. Why do you squabble so? For my part I like to +live in peace. Look at Mademoiselle Bathilde and take pattern by her.” + +Pierrette felt able to bear everything. Brigaut would come at midnight +and bring her an answer, and that hope was the viaticum of her day. But +she was using up her last strength. She did not go to bed, and stood +waiting for the hour to strike. At last midnight sounded; softly she +opened the window; this time she used a string made by tying bits of +twine together. She heard Brigaut’s step, and on drawing up the cord she +found the following letter, which filled her with joy:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--As you are so ill you must not tire yourself + by waiting for me. You will hear me if I cry like an owl. Happily + my father taught me to imitate their note. So when you hear the + cry three times you will know I am there, and then you must let + down the cord. But I shall not come again for some days. I hope + then to bring you good news. + + Oh! Pierrette, don’t talk of dying! Pierrette, don’t think such + things! All my heart shook, I felt as though I were dead myself at + the mere idea. No, my Pierrette, you must not die; you will live + happy, and soon you shall be delivered from your persecutors. If I + do not succeed in what I am undertaking for your rescue, I shall + appeal to the law, and I shall speak out before heaven and earth + and tell how your wicked relations are treating you. I am certain + that you have not many more days to suffer; have patience, my + Pierrette! Jacques is watching over you as in the old days when we + slid on the pond and I pulled you out of the hole in which we were + nearly drowned together. + + Adieu, my dear Pierrette; in a few days, if God wills, we shall be + happy. Alas, I dare not tell you the only thing that may hinder + our meeting. But God loves us! In a few days I shall see my dear + Pierrette at liberty, without troubles, without any one to hinder + my looking at you--for, ah! Pierrette, I hunger to see you + --Pierrette, Pierrette, who deigns to love me and to tell me so. + Yes, Pierrette, I will be your lover when I have earned the + fortune you deserve; till then I will be to you only a devoted + servant whose life is yours to do what you please with it. Adieu. + + Jacques Brigaut. + + +Here is a letter of which the major’s son said nothing to Pierrette. He +wrote it to Madame Lorrain at Nantes:-- + + Madame Lorrain,--Your granddaughter will die, worn-out with + ill-treatment, if you do not come to fetch her. I could scarcely + recognize her; and to show you the state of things I enclose a + letter I have received from Pierrette. You are thought here to + have taken the money of your granddaughter, and you ought to + justify yourself. If you can, come at once. We may still be happy; + but if delay Pierrette will be dead. + + I am, with respect, your devoted servant, + Jacques Brigaut. + + At Monsieur Frappier’s, Cabinet-maker, Grand’Rue, Provins. + + +Brigaut’s fear was that the grandmother was dead. + +Though this letter of the youth whom in her innocence she called her +lover was almost enigmatical to Pierrette, she believed in it with +all her virgin faith. Her heart was filled with that sensation which +travellers in the desert feel when they see from afar the palm-trees +round a well. In a few days her misery would end--Jacques said so. She +relied on this promise of her childhood’s friend; and yet, as she +laid the letter beside the other, a dreadful thought came to her in +foreboding words. + +“Poor Jacques,” she said to herself, “he does not know the hole into +which I have now fallen!” + +Sylvie had heard Pierrette, and she had also heard Brigaut under her +window. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the window to look through +the blinds into the square and there she saw, in the moonlight, a man +hurrying in the direction of the colonel’s house, in front of which +Brigaut happened to stop. The old maid gently opened her door, went +upstairs, was amazed to find a light in Pierrette’s room, looked through +the keyhole, and could see nothing. + +“Pierrette,” she said, “are you ill?” + +“No, cousin,” said Pierrette, surprised. + +“Why is your candle burning at this time of night? Open the door; I must +know what this means.” + +Pierrette went to the door bare-footed, and as soon as Sylvie entered +the room she saw the cord, which Pierrette had forgotten to put away, +not dreaming of a surprise. Sylvie jumped upon it. + +“What is that for?” she asked. + +“Nothing, cousin.” + +“Nothing!” she cried. “Always lying; you’ll never get to heaven that +way. Go to bed; you’ll take cold.” + +She asked no more questions and went away, leaving Pierrette terrified +by her unusual clemency. Instead of exploding with rage, Sylvie had +suddenly determined to surprise Pierrette and the colonel together, to +seize their letters and confound the two lovers who were deceiving her. +Pierrette, inspired by a sense of danger, sewed the letters into her +corset and covered them with calico. + +Here end the loves of Pierrette and Brigaut. + +Pierrette rejoiced in the thought that Jacques had determined to hold +no communication with her for some days, because her cousin’s suspicions +would be quieted by finding nothing to feed them. Sylvie did in fact +spend the next three nights on her legs, and each evening in watching +the innocent colonel, without discovering either in him or in +Pierrette, or in the house or out of it, anything that betrayed their +understanding. She sent Pierrette to confession, and seized that moment +to search the child’s room, with the method and penetration of a spy or +a custom-house officer. She found nothing. Her fury reached the apogee +of human sentiments. If Pierrette had been there she would certainly +have struck her remorselessly. To a woman of her temper, jealousy was +less a sentiment than an occupation; she existed in it, it made her +heart beat, she felt emotions hitherto completely unknown to her; +the slightest sound or movement kept her on the qui vive; she watched +Pierrette with gloomy intentness. + +“That miserable little wretch will kill me,” she said. + +Sylvie’s severity to her cousin reached the point of refined cruelty, +and made the deplorable condition of the poor girl worse daily. She had +fever regularly, and the pains in her head became intolerable. By the +end of the week even the visitors at the house noticed her suffering +face, which would have touched to pity all selfishness less cruel than +theirs. It happened that Doctor Neraud, possibly by Vinet’s advice, did +not come to the house during that week. The colonel, knowing himself +suspected by Sylvie, was afraid to risk his marriage by showing any +solicitude for Pierrette. Bathilde explained the visible change in +the girl by her natural growth. But at last, one Sunday evening, when +Pierrette was in the salon, her sufferings overcame her and she fainted +away. The colonel, who first saw her going, caught her in his arms and +carried her to a sofa. + +“She did it on purpose,” said Sylvie, looking at Mademoiselle Habert and +the rest who were playing boston with her. + +“I assure you that your cousin is very ill,” said the colonel. + +“She seemed well enough in your arms,” Sylvie said to him in a low +voice, with a savage smile. + +“The colonel is right,” said Madame de Chargeboeuf. “You ought to send +for a doctor. This morning at church every one was speaking, as they +came out, of Mademoiselle Lorrain’s appearance.” + +“I am dying,” said Pierrette. + +Desfondrilles called to Sylvie and told her to unfasten her cousin’s +gown. Sylvie went up to the girl, saying, “It is only a tantrum.” + +She unfastened the gown and was about to touch the corset, when +Pierrette, roused by the danger, sat up with superhuman strength, +exclaiming, “No, no, I will go to bed.” + +Sylvie had, however, touched the corset and felt the papers. She let +Pierrette go, saying to the company: + +“What do you think now of her illness? I tell you it is all a pretence. +You have no idea of the perversity of that child.” + +After the card-playing was over she kept Vinet from following the other +guests; she was furious and wanted vengeance, and was grossly rude to +the colonel when he bade her good-night. Gouraud threw a look at the +lawyer which threatened him to the depths of his being and seemed to +put a ball in his entrails. Sylvie told Vinet to remain. When they were +alone, she said,-- + +“Never in my life, never in my born days, will I marry the colonel.” + +“Now that you have come to that decision I may speak,” said the lawyer. +“The colonel is my friend, but I am more yours than his. Rogron has done +me services which I can never forget. I am as strong a friend as I am an +enemy. Once in the Chamber I shall rise to power, and I will make your +brother a receiver-general. Now swear to me, before I say more, that you +will never repeat what I tell you.” (Sylvie made an affirmative sign.) +“In the first place, the brave colonel is a gambler--” + +“Ah!” exclaimed Sylvie. + +“If it had not been for the embarrassments this vice has brought upon +him, he might have been a marshal of France,” continued Vinet. “He is +capable of running through your property; but he is very astute; you +cannot be sure of not having children, and you told me yourself the +risks you feared. No, if you want to marry, wait till I am in the +Chamber and then take that old Desfondrilles, who shall be made chief +justice. If you want revenge on the colonel make your brother marry +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf,--I can get her consent; she has two +thousand francs a year, and you will be connected with the de +Chargeboeufs as I am. Recollect what I tell you, the Chargeboeufs will +be glad to claim us for cousins some day.” + +“Gouraud loves Pierrette,” was Sylvie’s only answer. + +“He is quite capable of it,” said Vinet, “and capable of marrying her +after your death.” + +“A fine calculation!” she said. + +“I tell you that man has the shrewdness of the devil. Marry your brother +and announce that you mean to remain unmarried and will leave your +property to your nephews and nieces. That will strike a blow at Gouraud +and Pierrette both! and you’ll see the faces they’ll make.” + +“Ah! that’s true,” cried the old maid, “I can serve them both right. She +shall go to a shop, and get nothing from me. She hasn’t a sou; let her +do as we did,--work.” + +Vinet departed, having put his plan into Sylvie’s head, her dogged +obstinacy being well-known to him. The old maid, he was certain, would +think the scheme her own, and carry it out. + +The lawyer found the colonel in the square, smoking a cigar while he +waited for him. + +“Halt!” said Gouraud; “you have pulled me down, but stones enough came +with me to bury you--” + +“Colonel!--” + +“Colonel or not, I shall give you your deserts. In the first place, you +shall not be deputy--” + +“Colonel!--” + +“I control ten votes and the election depends on--” + +“Colonel, listen to me. Is there no one to marry but that old Sylvie? +I have just been defending you to her; you are accused and convicted of +writing to Pierrette; she saw you leave your house at midnight and come +to the girl’s window--” + +“Stuff and nonsense!” + +“She means to marry her brother to Bathilde and leave her fortune to +their children.” + +“Rogron won’t have any.” + +“Yes he will,” replied Vinet. “But I promise to find you some young and +agreeable woman with a hundred and fifty thousand francs? Don’t be a +fool; how can you and I afford to quarrel? Things have gone against you +in spite of all my care; but you don’t understand me.” + +“Then we must understand each other,” said the colonel. “Get me a +wife with a hundred and fifty thousand francs before the elections; if +not--look out for yourself! I don’t like unpleasant bed-fellows, and +you’ve pulled the blankets all over to your side. Good-evening.” + +“You shall see,” said Vinet, grasping the colonel’s hand affectionately. + + * * * * * + +About one o’clock that night three clear, sharp cries of an owl, +wonderfully well imitated, echoed through the square. Pierrette heard +them in her feverish sleep; she jumped up, moist with perspiration, +opened her window, saw Brigaut, and flung down a ball of silk, to which +he fastened a letter. Sylvie, agitated by the events of the day and her +own indecision of mind, was not asleep; she heard the owl. + +“Ah, bird of ill-omen!” she thought. “Why, Pierrette is getting up! What +is she after?” + +Hearing the attic window open softly, Sylvie rushed to her own window +and heard the rustle of paper against her blinds. She fastened the +strings of her bed-gown and went quickly upstairs to Pierrette’s room, +where she found the poor girl unwinding the silk and freeing the letter. + +“Ha! I’ve caught you!” cried the old woman, rushing to the window, from +which she saw Jacques running at full speed. “Give me that letter.” + +“No, cousin,” said Pierrette, who, by one of those strong inspirations +of youth sustained by her own soul, rose to a grandeur of resistance +such as we admire in the history of certain peoples reduced to despair. + +“Ha! you will not?” cried Sylvie, advancing upon the girl with a face +full of hatred and fury. + +Pierrette fell back to get time to put her letter in her hand, which she +clenched with unnatural force. Seeing this manoeuvre Sylvie grasped the +delicate white hand of the girl in her lobster claws and tried to open +it. It was a frightful struggle, an infamous struggle; it was more than +a physical struggle; it assailed the mind, the sole treasure of the +human being, the thought, which God has placed beyond all earthly power +and guards as the secret way between the sufferer and Himself. The two +women, one dying, the other in the vigor of health, looked at each other +fixedly. Pierrette’s eyes darted on her executioner the look the famous +Templar on the rack cast upon Philippe le Bel, who could not bear it and +fled thunderstricken. Sylvie, a woman and a jealous woman, answered that +magnetic look with malignant flashes. A dreadful silence reigned. The +clenched hand of the Breton girl resisted her cousin’s efforts like a +block of steel. Sylvie twisted Pierrette’s arm, she tried to force the +fingers open; unable to do so she stuck her nails into the flesh. +At last, in her madness, she set her teeth into the wrist, trying to +conquer the girl by pain. Pierrette defied her still, with that same +terrible glance of innocence. The anger of the old maid grew to such a +pitch that it became blind fury. She seized Pierrette’s arm and struck +the closed fist upon the window-sill, and then upon the marble of the +mantelpiece, as we crack a nut to get the kernel. + +“Help! help!” cried Pierrette, “they are murdering me!” + +“Ha! you may well scream, when I catch you with a lover in the dead of +night.” + +And she beat the hand pitilessly. + +“Help! help!” cried Pierrette, the blood flowing. + +At that instant, loud knocks were heard at the front door. Exhausted, +the two women paused a moment. + +Rogron, awakened and uneasy, not knowing what was happening, had got up, +gone to his sister’s room, and not finding her was frightened. Hearing +the knocks he went down, unfastened the front door, and was nearly +knocked over by Brigaut, followed by a sort of phantom. + +At this moment Sylvie’s eyes chanced to fall on Pierrette’s corset, and +she remembered the papers. Releasing the girl’s wrist she sprang upon +the corset like a tiger on its prey, and showed it to Pierrette with a +smile,--the smile of an Iroquois over his victim before he scalps him. + +“I am dying,” said Pierrette, falling on her knees, “oh, who will save +me?” + +“I!” said a woman with white hair and an aged parchment face, in which +two gray eyes glittered. + +“Ah! grandmother, you have come too late,” cried the poor child, +bursting into tears. + +Pierrette fell upon her bed, her strength all gone, half-dead with the +exhaustion which, in her feeble state, followed so violent a struggle. +The tall gray woman took her in her arms, as a nurse lifts a child, and +went out, followed by Brigaut, without a word to Sylvie, on whom she +cast one glance of majestic accusation. + +The apparition of that august old woman, in her Breton costume, shrouded +in her coif (a sort of hooded mantle of black cloth), accompanied by +Brigaut, appalled Sylvie; she fancied she saw death. She slowly went +down the stairs, listened to the front door closing behind them, and +came face to face with her brother, who exclaimed: “Then they haven’t +killed you?” + +“Go to bed,” said Sylvie. “To-morrow we will see what we must do.” + +She went back to her own bed, ripped open the corset, and read Brigaut’s +two letters, which confounded her. She went to sleep in the greatest +perplexity,--not imagining the terrible results to which her conduct was +to lead. + + * * * * * + +The letters sent by Brigaut to old Madame Lorrain reached her in a +moment of ineffable joy, which the perusal of them troubled. The poor +old woman had grieved deeply in living without her Pierrette beside her, +but she had consoled her loneliness with the thought that the sacrifice +of herself was in the interests of her grandchild. She was blessed with +one of those ever-young hearts which are upheld and invigorated by +the idea of sacrifice. Her old husband, whose only joy was his little +granddaughter, had grieved for Pierrette; every day he had seemed to +look for her. It was an old man’s grief,--on which such old men live, of +which they die. + +Every one can now imagine the happiness which this poor old woman, +living in a sort of almshouse, felt when she learned of a generous +action, rare indeed but not impossible in France. The head of the house +of Collinet, whose failure in 1814 had caused the Lorrains a loss of +twenty-four thousand francs, had gone to America with his children after +his disasters. He had too high a courage to remain a ruined man. After +eleven years of untold effort crowned by success he returned to Nantes +to recover his position, leaving his eldest son in charge of his +transatlantic house. He found Madame Lorrain of Pen-Hoel in the +institution of Saint-Jacques, and was witness of the resignation with +which this most unfortunate of his creditors bore her misery. + +“God forgive you!” said the old woman, “since you give me on the +borders of my grave the means of securing the happiness of my dear +granddaughter; but alas! it will not clear the debts of my poor +husband!” + +Monsieur Collinet made over to the widow both the capital and the +accrued interest, amounting to about forty-two thousand francs. His +other creditors, prosperous, rich, and intelligent merchants, had easily +born their losses, whereas the misfortunes of the Lorrains seemed so +irremediable to old Monsieur Collinet that he promised the widow to pay +off her husband’s debts, to the amount of forty thousand francs more. +When the Bourse of Nantes heard of this generous reparation they wished +to receive Collinet to their board before his certificates were granted +by the Royal court at Rennes; but the merchant refused the honor, +preferring to submit to the ordinary commercial rule. + +Madame Lorrain had received the money only the day before the post +brought her Brigaut’s letter, enclosing that of Pierrette. Her first +thought had been, as she signed the receipt: “Now I can live with my +Pierrette and marry her to that good Brigaut, who will make a fortune +with my money.” + +Therefore the moment she had read the fatal letters she made instant +preparations to start for Provins. She left Nantes that night by the +mail; for some one had explained to her its celerity. In Paris she took +the diligence for Troyes, which passes through Provins, and by half-past +eleven at night she reached Frappier’s, where Brigaut, shocked at her +despairing looks, told her of Pierrette’s state and promised to bring +the poor girl to her instantly. His words so terrified the grandmother +that she could not control her impatience and followed him to the +square. When Pierrette screamed, the horror of that cry went to her +heart as sharply as it did to Brigaut’s. Together they would have roused +the neighborhood if Rogron, in his terror, had not opened the door. The +scream of the young girl at bay gave her grandmother the sudden strength +of anger with which she carried her dear Pierrette in her arms to +Frappier’s house, where Madame Frappier hastily arranged Brigaut’s own +room for the old woman and her treasure. In that poor room, on a bed +half-made, the sufferer was deposited; and there she fainted away, +holding her hand still clenched, wounded, bleeding, with the nails deep +bedded in the flesh. Brigaut, Frappier, his wife, and the old woman +stood looking at Pierrette in silence, all four of them in a state of +indescribable amazement. + +“Why is her hand bloody?” said the grandmother at last. + +Pierrette, overcome by the sleep which follows all abnormal displays of +strength, and dimly conscious that she was safe from violence, gradually +unbent her fingers. Brigaut’s letter fell from them like an answer. + +“They tried to take my letter from her,” said Brigaut, falling on his +knees and picking up the lines in which he had told his little friend to +come instantly and softly away from the house. He kissed with pious love +the martyr’s hand. + +It was a sight that made those present tremble when they saw the old +gray woman, a sublime spectre, standing beside her grandchild’s pillow. +Terror and vengeance wrote their fierce expressions in the wrinkles +that lined her skin of yellow ivory; her forehead, half hidden by the +straggling meshes of her gray hair, expressed a solemn anger. She read, +with a power of intuition given to the aged when near their grave, +Pierrette’s whole life, on which her mind had dwelt throughout her +journey. She divined the illness of her darling, and knew that she was +threatened with death. Two big tears painfully rose in her wan gray +eyes, from which her troubles had worn both lashes and eyebrows, two +pearls of anguish, forming within them and giving them a dreadful +brightness; then each tear swelled and rolled down the withered cheek, +but did not wet it. + +“They have killed her!” she said at last, clasping her hands. + +She fell on her knees which struck sharp blows on the brick-laid floor, +making a vow no doubt to Saint Anne d’Auray, the most powerful of the +madonnas of Brittany. + +“A doctor from Paris,” she said to Brigaut. “Go and fetch one, Brigaut, +go!” + +She took him by the shoulder and gave him a despotic push to send him +from the room. + +“I was coming, my lad, when you wrote me; I am rich,--here, take this,” + she cried, recalling him, and unfastening as she spoke the strings that +tied her short-gown. Then she drew a paper from her bosom in which were +forty-two bank-bills, saying, “Take what is necessary, and bring back +the greatest doctor in Paris.” + +“Keep those,” said Frappier; “he can’t change thousand franc notes +now. I have money, and the diligence will be passing presently; he can +certainly find a place on it. But before he goes we had better consult +Doctor Martener; he will tell us the best physician in Paris. The +diligence won’t pass for over an hour,--we have time enough.” + +Brigaut woke up Monsieur Martener, and brought him at once. The doctor +was not a little surprised to find Mademoiselle Lorrain at Frappier’s. +Brigaut told him of the scene that had just taken place at the Rogrons’; +but even so the doctor did not at first suspect the horror of it, +nor the extent of the injury done. Martener gave the address of the +celebrated Horace Bianchon, and Brigaut started for Paris by the +diligence. Monsieur Martener then sat down and examined first the +bruised and bloody hand which lay outside the bed. + +“She could not have given these wounds herself,” he said. + +“No; the horrible woman to whom I had the misfortune to trust her was +murdering her,” said the grandmother. “My poor Pierrette was screaming +‘Help! help! I’m dying,’--enough to touch the heart of an executioner.” + +“But why was it?” said the doctor, feeling Pierrette’s pulse. “She is +very ill,” he added, examining her with a light. “She must have suffered +terribly; I don’t understand why she has not been properly cared for.” + +“I shall complain to the authorities,” said the grandmother. “Those +Rogrons asked me for my child in a letter, saying they had twelve +thousand francs a year and would take care of her; had they the right +to make her their servant and force her to do work for which she had not +the strength?” + +“They did not choose to see the most visible of all maladies to which +young girls are liable. She needed the utmost care,” cried Monsieur +Martener. + +Pierrette was awakened by the light which Madame Frappier was holding +near her face, and by the horrible sufferings in her head caused by the +reaction of her struggle. + +“Ah! Monsieur Martener, I am very ill,” she said in her pretty voice. + +“Where is the pain, my little friend?” asked the doctor. + +“Here,” she said, touching her head above the left ear. + +“There’s an abscess,” said the doctor, after feeling the head for a long +time and questioning Pierrette on her sufferings. “You must tell us all, +my child, so that we may know how to cure you. Why is your hand like +this? You could not have given yourself that wound.” + +Pierrette related the struggle between herself and her cousin Sylvie. + +“Make her talk,” said the doctor to the grandmother, “and find out the +whole truth. I will await the arrival of the doctor from Paris; and we +will send for the surgeon in charge of the hospital here, and have a +consultation. The case seems to me a very serious one. Meantime I will +send you a quieting draught so that mademoiselle may sleep; she needs +sleep.” + +Left alone with her granddaughter the old Breton woman exerted her +influence over the child and made her tell all; she let her know that +she had money enough now for all three, and promised that Brigaut should +live with them. The poor girl admitted her martyrdom, not imagining the +events to which her admissions would give rise. The monstrosity of two +beings without affection and without conception of family life opened to +the old woman a world of woe as far from her knowledge as the morals +of savages may have seemed to the first discoverers who set foot in +America. + +The arrival of her grandmother, the certainty of living with her in +comfort soothed Pierrette’s mind as the sleeping draught soothed her +body. The old woman watched her darling, kissing her forehead, hair, and +hands, as the holy women of old kissed the hands of Jesus when they laid +him in the tomb. + + + + +IX. THE FAMILY COUNCIL + + +At nine o’clock that morning Monsieur Martener went to see Monsieur +Tiphaine, and related to him the scene between Pierrette and Sylvie, and +the tortures of all kinds, moral and physical, to which the Rogrons +had subjected their cousin, and the two alarming forms of illness which +their cruelty had developed. Monsieur Tiphaine sent for Auffray the +notary, one of Pierrette’s own relations on the maternal side. + +At this particular time the war between the Vinet party and the Tiphaine +party was at its height. The scandals which the Rogrons and their +adherents were disseminating through the town about the liaison of +Madame Tiphaine’s mother with the banker du Tillet, and the bankruptcy +of her father (a forger, they said), were all the more exasperating to +the Tiphaines because these things were malicious truths, not libels. +Such wounds cut deep; they go to the quick of feelings and of interests. +These speeches, repeated to the partisans of the Tiphaines by the same +mouths which told the Rogrons of the sneers of “those women” of the +Tiphaine clique, fed the hatreds of both sides, now increased by the +political element. The animosities caused at this time in France by the +spirit of party, the violences of which were excessive, were everywhere +mixed up, as in Provins, with selfish schemes and wounded or vindictive +individual interests. Each party eagerly seized on whatever might injure +the rival party. Personal hatreds and self-love mingled as much as +political animosity in even the smallest matters, and were carried to +hitherto unheard-of lengths. A whole town would be roused to excitement +over some private struggle, until it took the character of a political +debate. + +Monsieur Tiphaine at once perceived in the case of Pierrette against the +Rogrons a means of humbling, mortifying, and dishonoring the masters of +that salon where plans against the monarchy were made and an opposition +journal born. The public prosecutor was called in; and together +with Monsieur Auffray the notary, Pierrette’s relation, and Monsieur +Martener, a cautious consultation was held in the utmost secrecy as +to the proper course to follow. Monsieur Martener agreed to advise +Pierrette’s grandmother to apply to the courts to have Auffray appointed +guardian to his young relation. The guardian could then convene a +“Family Council,” and, backed by the testimony of three doctors, demand +the girl’s release from the authority of the Rogrons. The affair thus +managed would have to go before the courts, and the public prosecutor, +Monsieur Lesourd, would see that it was taken to a criminal court by +demanding an inquiry. + +Towards midday all Provins was roused by the strange news of what had +happened during the night at the Rogrons’. Pierrette’s cries had been +faintly heard, though they were soon over. No one had risen to inquire +what they meant, but every one said the next day, “Did you hear those +screams about one in the morning?” Gossip and comments soon magnified +the horrible drama, and a crowd collected in front of Frappier’s shop, +asking the worthy cabinet-maker for information, and hearing from him +how Pierrette was brought to his house with her fingers broken and the +hand bloody. + +Towards one in the afternoon the post-chaise of Doctor Bianchon, who was +accompanied by Brigaut, stopped before the house, and Madame Frappier +went at once to summon Monsieur Martener and the surgeon in charge of +the hospital. Thus the gossip of the town received confirmation. The +Rogrons were declared to have ill-used their cousin deliberately, and to +have come near killing her. Vinet heard the news while attending to +his business in the law courts; he left everything and hurried to the +Rogrons. Rogron and his sister had just finished breakfast. Sylvie was +reluctant to tell her brother of her discomfiture of the night before; +but he pressed her with questions, to which she would make no answer +than, “That’s not your business.” She went and came from the kitchen to +the dining-room on pretence of preparing the breakfast, but chiefly to +avoid discussion. She was alone when Vinet entered. + +“You know what’s happened?” said the lawyer. + +“No,” said Sylvie. + +“You will be arrested on a criminal charge,” replied Vinet, “from the +way things are now going about Pierrette.” + +“A criminal charge!” cried Rogron, who had come into the room. “Why? +What for?” + +“First of all,” said the lawyer, looking at Sylvie, “explain to me +without concealment and as if you stood before God, what happened in +this house last night--they talk of amputating Pierrette’s hand.” + +Sylvie turned livid and shuddered. + +“Then there is some truth in it?” said Vinet. + +Mademoiselle Rogron related the scene, trying to excuse herself; but, +prodded with questions, she acknowledged the facts of the horrible +struggle. + +“If you have only injured her fingers you will be taken before the +police court for a misdemeanor; but if they cut off her hand you may be +tried at the Assizes for a worse offence. The Tiphaines will do their +best to get you there.” + +Sylvie, more dead than alive, confessed her jealousy, and, what was +harder to do, confessed also that her suspicions were unfounded. + +“Heavens, what a case this will make!” cried the lawyer. “You and +your brother may be ruined by it; you will be abandoned by most people +whether you win or lose. If you lose, you will have to leave Provins.” + +“Oh, my dear Monsieur Vinet, you who are such a great lawyer,” said +Rogron, terrified, “advise us! save us!” + +The crafty Vinet worked the terror of the two imbeciles to its utmost, +declaring that Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf might be unwilling +to enter their house again. To be abandoned by women of their rank +would be a terrible condemnation. At length, after an hour of adroit +manoeuvring, it was agreed that Vinet must have some powerful motive in +taking the case, that would impress the minds of all Provins and explain +his efforts on behalf of the Rogrons. This motive they determined +should be Rogron’s marriage to Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf; it should be +announced that very day and the banns published on Sunday. The contract +could be drawn immediately. Mademoiselle Rogron agreed, in consideration +of the marriage, to appear in the contract as settling her capital on +her brother, retaining only the income of it. Vinet made Rogron and his +sister comprehend the necessity of antedating the document by two or +three days, so as to commit the mother and daughter in the eyes of the +public and give them a reason for continuing their visits. + +“Sign that contract and I’ll take upon myself to get you safely out of +this affair,” said the lawyer. “There will be a terrible fight; but +I will put my whole soul into it--you’ll have to make me a votive +offering.” + +“Oh, yes, yes,” said Rogron. + +By half-past eleven the lawyer had plenary powers to draw the contract +and conduct the defence of the Rogrons. At twelve o’clock application +was made to Monsieur Tiphaine, as a judge sitting in chambers, against +Brigaut and the widow Lorrain for having abducted Pierrette Lorrain, a +minor, from the house of her legal guardian. In this way the bold lawyer +became the aggressor and made Rogron the injured party. He spoke of the +matter from this point of view in the court-house. + +The judge postponed the hearing till four o’clock. Needless to describe +the excitement in the town. Monsieur Tiphaine knew that by three o’clock +the consultation of doctors would be over and their report drawn up; he +wished Auffray, as surrogate-guardian, to be at the hearing armed with +that report. + +The announcement of Rogron’s marriage and the sacrifices made to it +by Sylvie in the contract alienated two important supporters from the +brother and sister, namely,--Mademoiselle Habert and the colonel, whose +hopes were thus annihilated. They remained, however, ostensibly on the +Rogron side for the purpose of injuring it. Consequently, as soon as +Monsieur Martener mentioned the alarming condition of Pierrette’s head, +Celeste and the colonel told of the blow she had given herself during +the evening when Sylvie had forced her to leave the salon; and they +related the old maid’s barbarous and unfeeling comments, with other +statements proving her cruelty to her suffering cousin. Vinet had +foreseen this storm; but he had secured the entire fortune of the +Rogrons for Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, and he promised himself that in +a few weeks she should be mistress of the Rogron house, and reign with +him over Provins, and even bring about a fusion with the Breauteys and +the aristocrats in the interests of his ambition. + +From midday to four o’clock all the ladies of the Tiphaine clique +sent to inquire after Mademoiselle Lorrain. She, poor girl, was wholly +ignorant of the commotion she was causing in the little town. In the +midst of her sufferings she was ineffably happy in recovering her +grandmother and Brigaut, the two objects of her affection. Brigaut’s +eyes were constantly full of tears. The old grandmother sat by the bed +and caressed her darling. To the three doctors she told every detail she +had obtained from Pierrette as to her life in the Rogron house. Horace +Bianchon expressed his indignation in vehement language. Shocked at such +barbarity he insisted on all the physicians in the town being called in +to see the case; the consequence was that Dr. Neraud, the friend of the +Rogrons, was present. The report was unanimously signed. It is useless +to give a text of it here. If Moliere’s medical terms were barbarous, +those of modern science have the advantage of being so clear that the +explanation of Pierrette’s malady, though natural and unfortunately +common, horrified all ears. + +At four o’clock, after the usual rising of the court, president Tiphaine +again took his seat, when Madame Lorrain, accompanied by Monsieur +Auffray and Brigaut and a crowd of interested persons, entered the +court-room. Vinet was alone. This contrast struck the minds of those +present. The lawyer, who still wore his robe, turned his cold face to +the judge, settled his spectacles on his pallid green eyes, and then +in a shrill, persistent voice he stated that two strangers had forced +themselves at night into the Rogron domicile and had abducted therefrom +the minor Lorrain. The legal rights were with the guardian, who now +demanded the restoration of his ward. + +Monsieur Auffray rose, as surrogate-guardian, and requested to be heard. + +“If the judge,” he said, “will admit the report, which I hold in my +hand, signed by one of the most famous physicians in Paris, and by all +the physicians in Provins, he will understand not only that the demand +of the Sieur Rogron is senseless, but also that the grandmother of the +minor had grave cause to instantly remove her from her persecutors. Here +are the facts. The report of these physicians attribute the almost dying +condition of the said minor to the ill-treatment she has received from +the Sieur Rogron and his sister. We shall, as the law directs, convoke +a Family Council with the least possible delay, and discuss the question +as to whether or not the guardian should be deposed. And we now ask that +the minor be not returned to the domicile of the said guardian but that +she be confided to some member of her family who shall be designated by +the judge.” + +Vinet replied, declaring that the physicians’ report ought to have been +submitted to him in order that he might have disproved it. + +“Not submitted to your side,” said the judge, severely, “but possibly to +the _procureur du roi_. The case is heard.” + +The judge then wrote at the bottom of the petition the following +order:-- + + “Whereas it appears, from a deliberate and unanimous report of all + the physicians of this town, together with Doctor Bianchon of the + medical faculty of Paris, that the minor Lorrain, claimed by + Jerome-Denis Rogron, her guardian, is extremely ill in consequence + of ill-treatment and personal assault in the house of the said + guardian and his sister: + + “We, president of the court of Provins, passing upon the said + petition, order that until the Family Council is held the minor + Lorrain is not to be returned to the household of her said + guardian, but shall be kept in that of her surrogate-guardian. + + “And further, considering the state in which the said minor now + is, and the traces of violence which, according to the report of + the physicians, are now upon her person, we commission the + attending physician and the surgeon in charge of the hospital of + Provins to visit her, and in case the injuries from the said + assault become alarming, the matter will be held to await the + action of the criminal courts; and this without prejudice to the + civil suit undertaken by Auffray the surrogate-guardian.” + +This severe judgment was read out by President Tiphaine in a loud and +distinct voice. + +“Why not send them to the galleys at once?” said Vinet. “And all this +fuss about a girl who was carrying on an intrigue with an apprentice to +a cabinet-maker! If the case goes on in this way,” he cried, insolently, +“we shall demand other judges on the ground of legitimate suspicion.” + +Vinet left the court-room, and went among the chief men of his party to +explain Rogron’s position, declaring that he had never so much as given +a flip to his cousin, and that the judge had viewed him much less as +Pierrette’s guardian than as a leading elector in Provins. + +To hear Vinet, people might have supposed that the Tiphaines were making +a great fuss about nothing; the mounting was bringing forth a mouse. +Sylvie, an eminently virtuous and pious woman, had discovered an +intrigue between her brother’s ward and a workman, a Breton named +Brigaut. The scoundrel knew very well that the girl would have her +grandmother’s money, and he wished to seduce her (Vinet to talk of +that!). Mademoiselle Rogron, who had discovered letters proving the +depravity of the girl, was not as much to blame as the Tiphaines were +trying to make out. If she did use some violence to get possession +of those letters (which was no wonder, when we consider what Breton +obstinacy is), how could Rogron be considered responsible for all that? + +The lawyer went on to make the matter a partisan affair, and to give it +a political color. + +“They who listen to only one bell hear only one sound,” said the wise +men. “Have you heard what Vinet says? Vinet explains things clearly.” + +Frappier’s house being thought injurious to Pierrette, owing to the +noise in the street which increased the sufferings in her head, she was +taken to that of her surrogate guardian, the change being as necessary +medically as it was judicially. The removal was made with the utmost +caution, and was calculated to produce a great public effect. Pierrette +was laid on a mattress and carried on a stretcher by two men; a Gray +Sister walked beside her with a bottle of sal volatile in her hand, +while the grandmother, Brigaut, Madame Auffray, and her maid followed. +People were at their windows and doors to see the procession pass. +Certainly the state in which they saw Pierrette, pale as death, gave +immense advantage to the party against the Rogrons. The Auffrays were +determined to prove to the whole town that the judge was right in the +decision he had given. Pierrette and her grandmother were installed on +the second floor of Monsieur Auffray’s house. The notary and his wife +gave her every care with the greatest hospitality, which was not without +a little ostentation in it. Pierrette had her grandmother to nurse her; +and Monsieur Martener and the head-surgeon of the hospital attended her. + +On the evening of this day exaggerations began on both sides. The Rogron +salon was crowded. Vinet had stirred up the whole Liberal party on the +subject. The Chargeboeuf ladies dined with the Rogrons, for the contract +was to be signed that evening. Vinet had had the banns posted at the +mayor’s office in the afternoon. He made light of the Pierrette affair. +If the Provins court was prejudiced, the Royal courts would appreciate +the facts, he said, and the Auffrays would think twice before they +flung themselves into such a suit. The alliance of the Rogrons with +the Chargeboeufs was an immense consideration in the minds of a certain +class of people. To them it made the Rogrons as white as snow and +Pierrette an evilly disposed little girl, a serpent warmed in their +bosom. + +In Madame Tiphaine’s salon vengeance was had for all the mischievous +scandals that the Vinet party had disseminated for the past two years. +The Rogrons were monsters, and the guardian should undergo a criminal +trial. In the Lower town, Pierrette was quite well; in the Upper town +she was dying; at the Rogrons’ she scratched her wrist; at Madame +Tiphaine’s her fingers were fractured and one was to be cut off. The +next day the “Courrier de Provins,” had a plausible article, extremely +well-written, a masterpiece of insinuations mixed with legal points, +which showed that there was no case whatever against Rogron. The +“Bee-hive,” which did not appear till two days later, could not answer +without becoming defamatory; it replied, however, that in an affair like +this it was best to wait until the law took its course. + +The Family Council was selected by the _juge de paix_ of the canton +of Provins, and consisted of Rogron and the two Messieurs Auffray, the +nearest relatives, and Monsieur Ciprey, nephew of Pierrette’s maternal +grandmother. To these were joined Monsieur Habert, Pierrette’s +confessor, and Colonel Gouraud, who had always professed himself a +comrade and friend of her father, Colonel Lorrain. The impartiality of +the judge in these selections was much applauded,--Monsieur Habert and +Colonel Gouraud being considered the firm friends of the Rogrons. + +The serious situation in which Rogron found himself made him ask for the +assistance of a lawyer (and he named Vinet) at the Family Council. By +this manoeuvre, evidently advised by Vinet himself, Rogron succeeded in +postponing the meeting of the council till the end of December. At that +time Monsieur Tiphaine and his wife would be settled in Paris for the +opening of the Chambers; and the ministerial party would be left without +its head. Vinet had already worked upon Desfondrilles, the deputy-judge, +in case the matter should go, after the hearing before the council, to +the criminal courts. + +Vinet spoke for three hours before the Family Council; he proved the +existence of an intrigue between Pierrette and Brigaut, which justified +all Mademoiselle Rogron’s severity. He showed how natural it was that +the guardian should have left the management of his ward to a woman; +he dwelt on the fact that Rogron had not interfered with Pierrette’s +education as planned by his sister Sylvie. But in spite of Vinet’s +efforts the Council were unanimous in removing Rogron from the +guardianship. Monsieur Auffray was appointed in his place, and Monsieur +Ciprey was made surrogate. The Council summoned before it and examined +Adele, the servant-woman, who testified against her late masters; also +Mademoiselle Habert, who related the cruel remarks made by Mademoiselle +Rogron on the evening when Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow, +heard by all the company, and the speech of Madame de Chargeboeuf about +the girl’s health. Brigaut produced the letter he had received from +Pierrette, which proved their innocence and stated her ill-treatment. +Proof was given that the condition of the minor was the result of +neglect on the part of the guardian, who was responsible for all that +concerned his ward. Pierrette’s illness had been apparent to every one, +even to persons in the town who were strangers to the family, yet the +guardian had done nothing for her. The charge of ill-treatment was +therefore sustained against Rogron; and the case would now go before the +public. + +Rogron, advised by Vinet, opposed the acceptance of the report of the +Council by the court. The authorities then intervened in consequence of +Pierrette’s state, which was daily growing worse. The trial of the case, +though placed at once upon the docket, was postponed until the month of +March, 1828, to wait events. + + + + +X. VERDICTS--LEGAL AND OTHER + + +Meantime Rogron’s marriage with Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf took place. +Sylvie moved to the second floor of the house, which she shared with +Madame de Chargeboeuf, for the first floor was entirely taken up by the +new wife. The beautiful Madame Rogron succeeded to the social place +of the beautiful Madame Tiphaine. The influence of the marriage was +immense. No one now came to visit Sylvie, but Madame Rogron’s salon was +always full. + +Sustained by the influence of his mother-in-law and the bankers du +Tillet and Nucingen, Monsieur Tiphaine was fortunate enough to do some +service to the administration; he became one of its chief orators, was +made judge in the civil courts, and obtained the appointment of his +nephew Lesourd to his own vacant place as president of the court of +Provins. This appointment greatly annoyed Desfondrilles. The Keeper of +the Seals sent down one of his own proteges to fill Lesourd’s place. +The promotion of Monsieur Tiphaine and his translation to Paris +were therefore of no benefit at all to the Vinet party; but Vinet +nevertheless made a clever use of the result. He had always told the +Provins people that they were being used as a stepping-stone to raise +the crafty Madame Tiphaine into grandeur; Tiphaine himself had tricked +them; Madame Tiphaine despised both Provins and its people in her +heart, and would never return there again. Just at this crisis Monsieur +Tiphaine’s father died; his son inherited a fine estate and sold his +house in Provins to Monsieur Julliard. The sale proved to the minds of +all how little the Tiphaines thought of Provins. Vinet was right; +Vinet had been a true prophet. These things had great influence on the +question of Pierrette’s guardianship. + +Thus the dreadful martyrdom brutally inflicted on the poor child by two +imbecile tyrants (which led, through its consequences, to the terrible +operation of trepanning, performed by Monsieur Martener under the advice +of Doctor Bianchon),--all this horrible drama reduced to judicial +form was left to float in the vile mess called in legal parlance +the calendar. The case was made to drag through the delays and the +interminable labyrinths of the law, by the shufflings of an unprincipled +lawyer; and during all this time the calumniated girl languished in the +agony of the worst pain known to science. + +Monsieur Martener, together with the Auffray family, were soon charmed +by the beauty of Pierrette’s nature and the character of her old +grandmother, whose feelings, ideas, and ways bore the stamp of Roman +antiquity,--this matron of the Marais was like a woman in Plutarch. + +Doctor Martener struggled bravely with death, which already grasped its +prey. From the first, Bianchon and the hospital surgeon had considered +Pierrette doomed; and there now took place between the doctor and the +disease, the former relying on Pierrette’s youth, one of those struggles +which physicians alone comprehend,--the reward of which, in case of +success, is never found in the venal pay nor in the patients themselves, +but in the gentle satisfaction of conscience, in the invisible ideal +palm gathered by true artists from the contentment which fills their +soul after accomplishing a noble work. The physician strains towards +good as an artist towards beauty, each impelled by that grand sentiment +which we call virtue. This daily contest wiped out of Doctor Martener’s +mind the petty irritations of that other contest of the Tiphaines and +the Vinets,--as always happens to men when they find themselves face to +face with a great and real misery to conquer. + +Monsieur Martener had begun his career in Paris; but the cruel activity +of the city and its insensibility to its masses of suffering had shocked +his gentle soul, fitted only for the quiet life of the provinces. +Moreover, he was under the yoke of his beautiful native land. He +returned to Provins, where he married and settled, and cared almost +lovingly for the people, who were to him like a large family. During +the whole of Pierrette’s illness he was careful not to speak of her. His +reluctance to answer the questions of those who asked about her was so +evident that persons soon ceased to put them. Pierrette was to him, what +indeed she truly was, a poem, mysterious, profound, vast in suffering, +such as doctors find at times in their terrible experience. He felt an +admiration for this delicate young creature which he would not share +with any one. + +This feeling of the physician for his patient was, however, +unconsciously communicated (like all true feelings) to Monsieur and +Madame Auffray, whose house became, so long as Pierrette was in it, +quiet and silent. The children, who had formerly played so joyously with +her, agreed among themselves with the loving grace of childhood to be +neither noisy nor troublesome. They made it a point of honor to be good +because Pierrette was ill. Monsieur Auffray’s house was in the Upper +town, beneath the ruins of the Chateau, and it was built upon a sort of +terrace formed by the overthrow of the old ramparts. The occupants could +have a view of the valley from the little fruit-garden enclosed by walls +which overlooked the town. The roofs of the other houses came to about +the level of the lower wall of this garden. Along the terrace ran a +path, by which Monsieur Auffray’s study could be entered through a glass +door; at the other end of the path was an arbor of grape vines and a +fig-tree, beneath which stood a round table, a bench and some chairs, +painted green. Pierrette’s bedroom was above the study of her new +guardian. Madame Lorrain slept in a cot beside her grandchild. From her +window Pierrette could see the whole of the glorious valley of Provins, +which she hardly knew, so seldom had she left that dreadful house of the +Rogrons. When the weather was fine she loved to drag herself, resting on +her grandmother’s arm, to the vine-clad arbor. Brigaut, unable to work, +came three times a day to see his little friend; he was gnawed by a +grief which made him indifferent to life. He lay in wait like a dog +for Monsieur Martener, and followed him when he left the house. The old +grandmother, drunk with grief, had the courage to conceal her despair; +she showed her darling the smiling face she formerly wore at Pen-Hoel. +In her desire to produce that illusion in the girl’s mind, she made her +a little Breton cap like the one Pierrette had worn on her first arrival +in Provins; it made the darling seem more like her childlike self; in it +she was delightful to look upon, her sweet face circled with a halo of +cambric and fluted lace. Her skin, white with the whiteness of unglazed +porcelain, her forehead, where suffering had printed the semblance of +deep thought, the purity of the lines refined by illness, the slowness +of the glances, and the occasional fixity of the eyes, made Pierrette +an almost perfect embodiment of melancholy. She was served by all with a +sort of fanaticism; she was felt to be so gentle, so tender, so loving. +Madame Martener sent her piano to her sister Madame Auffray, thinking +to amuse Pierrette who was passionately fond of music. It was a poem to +watch her listening to a theme of Weber, or Beethoven, or Herold,--her +eyes raised, her lips silent, regretting no doubt the life escaping +her. The cure Peroux and Monsieur Habert, her two religious comforters, +admired her saintly resignation. Surely the seraphic perfection of young +girls and young men marked with the hectic of death, is a wonderful fact +worthy of the attention alike of philosophers and of heedless minds. +He who has ever seen one of these sublime departures from this life can +never remain, or become, an unbeliever. Such beings exhale, as it +were, a celestial fragrance; their glances speak of God; the voices +are eloquent in the simplest words; often they ring like some seraphic +instrument revealing the secrets of the future. When Monsieur Martener +praised her for having faithfully followed a harsh prescription the +little angel replied, and with what a glance--! + +“I want to live, dear Monsieur Martener; but less for myself than for +my grandmother, for my Brigaut, for all of you who will grieve at my +death.” + +The first time she went into the garden on a beautiful sunny day in +November attended by all the household, Madame Auffray asked her if she +was tired. + +“No, now that I have no sufferings but those God sends I can bear all,” + she said. “The joy of being loved gives me strength to suffer.” + +That was the only time (and then vaguely) that she ever alluded to her +horrible martyrdom at the Rogrons, whom she never mentioned, and of whom +no one reminded her, knowing well how painful the memory must be. + +“Dear Madame Auffray,” she said one day at noon on the terrace, as +she gazed at the valley, warmed by a glorious sun and colored with the +glowing tints of autumn, “my death in your house gives me more happiness +than I have had since I left Brittany.” + +Madame Auffray whispered in her sister Martener’s ear:-- + +“How she would have loved!” + +In truth, her tones, her looks gave to her words a priceless value. + +Monsieur Martener corresponded with Doctor Bianchon, and did nothing of +importance without his advice. He hoped in the first place to regular +the functions of nature and to draw away the abscess in the head through +the ear. The more Pierrette suffered, the more he hoped. He gained some +slight success at times, and that was a great triumph. For several days +Pierrette’s appetite returned and enabled her to take nourishing food +for which her illness had given her a repugnance; the color of her skin +changed; but the condition of her head was terrible. Monsieur Martener +entreated the great physician his adviser to come down. Bianchon came, +stayed two days, and resolved to undertake an operation. To spare the +feelings of poor Martener he went to Paris and brought back with him the +celebrated Desplein. Thus the operation was performed by the greatest +surgeon of ancient or modern times; but that terrible diviner said to +Martener as he departed with Bianchon, his best-loved pupil:-- + +“Nothing but a miracle can save her. As Horace told you, caries of the +bone has begun. At her age the bones are so tender.” + +The operation was performed at the beginning of March, 1828. During +all that month, distressed by Pierrette’s horrible sufferings, Monsieur +Martener made several journeys to Paris; there he consulted Desplein and +Bianchon, and even went so far as to propose to them an operation of the +nature of lithotrity, which consists in passing into the head a hollow +instrument by the help of which an heroic remedy can be applied to +the diseased bone, to arrest the progress of the caries. Even the bold +Desplein dared not attempt that high-handed surgical measure, which +despair alone had suggested to Martener. When he returned home from +Paris he seemed to his friends morose and gloomy. He was forced to +announce on that fatal evening to the Auffrays and Madame Lorrain and to +the two priests and Brigaut that science could do no more for Pierrette, +whose recovery was now in God’s hands only. The consternation among them +was terrible. The grandmother made a vow, and requested the priests to +say a mass every morning at daybreak before Pierrette rose,--a mass at +which she and Brigaut might be present. + +The trial came on. While the victim lay dying, Vinet was calumniating +her in court. The judge approved and accepted the report of the Family +Council, and Vinet instantly appealed. The newly appointed _procureur +du roi_ made a requisition which necessitated fresh evidence. Rogron and +his sister were forced to give bail to avoid going to prison. The order +for fresh evidence included that of Pierrette herself. When Monsieur +Desfondrilles came to the Auffrays’ to receive it, Pierrette was dying, +her confessor was at her bedside about to administer extreme unction. +At that moment she entreated all present to forgive her cousins as +she herself forgave them, saying with her simple good sense that the +judgment of these things belonged to God alone. + +“Grandmother,” she said, “leave all you have to Brigaut” (Brigaut burst +into tears); “and,” continued Pierrette, “give a thousand francs to that +kind Adele who warmed my bed. If Adele had remained with my cousins I +should not now be dying.” + +It was at three o’clock on the Tuesday of Easter week, on a beautiful, +bright day, that the angel ceased to suffer. Her heroic grandmother +wished to watch all that night with the priests, and to sew with her +stiff old fingers her darling’s shroud. Towards evening Brigaut left the +Auffray’s house and went to Frappier’s. + +“I need not ask you, my poor boy, for news,” said the cabinet-maker. + +“Pere Frappier, yes, it is ended for her--but not for me.” + +He cast a look upon the different woods piled up around the shop,--a +look of painful meaning. + +“I understand you, Brigaut,” said his worthy master. “Take all you +want.” And he showed him the oaken planks of two-inch thickness. + +“Don’t help me, Monsieur Frappier,” said the Breton, “I wish to do it +alone.” + +He passed the night in planing and fitting Pierrette’s coffin, and more +than once his plane took off at a single pass a ribbon of wood which was +wet with tears. The good man Frappier smoked his pipe and watched him +silently, saying only, when the four pieces were joined together,-- + +“Make the cover to slide; her poor grandmother will not hear the nails.” + +At daybreak Brigaut went out to fetch the lead to line the coffin. By +a strange chance, the sheets of lead cost just the sum he had given +Pierrette for her journey from Nantes to Provins. The brave Breton, who +was able to resist the awful pain of himself making the coffin of his +dear one and lining with his memories those burial planks, could not +bear up against this strange reminder. His strength gave way; he was not +able to lift the lead, and the plumber, seeing this, came with him, and +offered to accompany him to the house and solder the last sheet when the +body had been laid in the coffin. + +The Breton burned the plane and all the tools he had used. Then he +settled his accounts with Frappier and bade him farewell. The heroism +with which the poor lad personally performed, like the grandmother, the +last offices for Pierrette made him a sharer in the awful scene which +crowned the tyranny of the Rogrons. + +Brigaut and the plumber reached the house of Monsieur Auffray just in +time to decide by their own main force an infamous and shocking judicial +question. The room where the dead girl lay was full of people, and +presented to the eyes of the two men a singular sight. The Rogron +emissaries were standing beside the body of their victim, to torture her +even after death. The corpse of the child, solemn in its beauty, lay on +the cot-bed of her grandmother. Pierrette’s eyes were closed, the brown +hair smoothed upon her brow, the body swathed in a coarse cotton sheet. + +Before the bed, on her knees, her hair in disorder, her hands stretched +out, her face on fire, the old Lorrain was crying out, “No, no, it shall +not be done!” + +At the foot of the bed stood Monsieur Auffray and the two priests. The +tapers were still burning. + +Opposite to the grandmother was the surgeon of the hospital, with an +assistant, and near him stood Doctor Neraud and Vinet. The surgeon wore +his dissecting apron; the assistant had opened a case of instruments and +was handing him a knife. + +This scene was interrupted by the noise of the coffin which Brigaut +and the plumber set down upon the floor. Then Brigaut, advancing, was +horrified at the sight of Madame Lorrain, who was now weeping. + +“What is the matter?” he asked, standing beside her and grasping the +chisel convulsively in his hand. + +“This,” said the old woman, “_this_, Brigaut: they want to open the body +of my child and cut into her head, and stab her heart after her death as +they did when she was living.” + +“Who?” said Brigaut, in a voice that might have deafened the men of law. + +“The Rogrons.” + +“In the sacred name of God!--” + +“Stop, Brigaut,” said Monsieur Auffray, seeing the lad brandish his +chisel. + +“Monsieur Auffray,” said Brigaut, as white as his dead companion, “I +hear you because you are Monsieur Auffray, but at this moment I will not +listen to--” + +“The law!” said Auffray. + +“Is there law? is there justice?” cried the Breton. “Justice, this is +it!” and he advanced to the lawyer and the doctors, threatening them +with his chisel. + +“My friend,” said the curate, “the law has been invoked by the lawyer of +Monsieur Rogron, who is under the weight of a serious accusation; and +it is impossible for us to refuse him the means of justification. The +lawyer of Monsieur Rogron claims that if the poor child died of an +abscess in her head her former guardian cannot be blamed, for it is +proved that Pierrette concealed the effects of the blow which she gave +to herself--” + +“Enough!” said Brigaut. + +“My client--” began Vinet. + +“Your client,” cried the Breton, “shall go to hell and I to the +scaffold; for if one of you dares to touch her whom your client has +killed, I will kill him if my weapon does its duty.” + +“This is interference with the law,” said Vinet. “I shall instantly +inform the court.” + +The five men left the room. + +“Oh, my son!” cried the old woman, rising from her knees and falling on +Brigaut’s neck, “let us bury her quick,--they will come back.” + +“If we solder the lead,” said the plumber, “they may not dare to open +it.” + +Monsieur Auffray hastened to his brother-in-law, Monsieur Lesourd, to +try and settle the matter. Vinet was not unwilling. Pierrette being dead +the suit about the guardianship fell, of course, to the ground. All the +astute lawyer wanted was the effect produced by his request. + +At midday Monsieur Desfondrilles made his report on the case, and the +court rendered a decision that there was no ground for further action. + +Rogron dared not go to Pierrette’s funeral, at which the whole town +was present. Vinet wished to force him there, but the miserable man was +afraid of exciting universal horror. + +Brigaut left Provins after watching the filling up of the grave where +Pierrette lay, and went on foot to Paris. He wrote a petition to the +Dauphiness asking, in the name of his father, that he might enter the +Royal guard, to which he was at once admitted. When the expedition to +Algiers was undertaken he wrote to her again, to obtain employment in +it. He was then a sergeant; Marshal Bourmont gave him an appointment as +sub-lieutenant in a line regiment. The major’s son behaved like a man +who wished to die. Death has, however, respected Jacques Brigaut up +to the present time; although he has distinguished himself in all the +recent expeditions he has never yet been wounded. He is now major in a +regiment of infantry. No officer is more taciturn or more trustworthy. +Outside of his duty he is almost mute; he walks alone and lives +mechanically. Every one divines and respects a hidden sorrow. He +possesses forty-six thousand francs, which old Madame Lorrain, who died +in Paris in 1829, bequeathed to him. + +At the elections of 1830 Vinet was made a deputy. The services he +rendered the new government have now earned him the position of +_procureur-general_. His influence is such that he will always remain a +deputy. Rogron is receiver-general in the same town where Vinet fulfils +his legal functions; and by one of those curious tricks of chance which +do so often occur, Monsieur Tiphaine is president of the Royal court in +the same town,--for the worthy man gave in his adhesion to the dynasty +of July without the slightest hesitation. The ex-beautiful Madame +Tiphaine lives on excellent terms with the beautiful Madame Rogron. +Vinet is hand in glove with Madame Tiphaine. + +As to the imbecile Rogron, he makes such remarks as, “Louis-Philippe +will never be really king till he is able to make nobles.” + +The speech is evidently not his own. His health is failing, which +allows Madame Rogron to hope she may soon marry the General Marquis de +Montriveau, peer of France, who commands the department, and is paying +her attentions. Vinet is in his element, seeking victims; he never +believes in the innocence of an accused person. This thoroughbred +prosecutor is held to be one of the most amiable men on the circuit; +and he is no less liked in Paris and in the Chamber; at court he is a +charming courtier. + +According to a certain promise made by Vinet, General Baron Gouraud, +that noble relic of our glorious armies, married a Mademoiselle Matifat, +twenty-five years old, daughter of a druggist in the rue des Lombards, +whose dowry was a hundred thousand francs. He commands (as Vinet +prophesied) a department in the neighborhood of Paris. He was named +peer of France for his conduct in the riots which occurred during the +ministry of Casimir Perier. Baron Gouraud was one of the generals +who took the church of Saint-Merry, delighted to rap those rascally +civilians who had vexed him for years over the knuckles; for which +service he was rewarded with the grand cordon of the Legion of honor. + +None of the personages connected with Pierrette’s death ever felt +the slightest remorse about it. Monsieur Desfondrilles is still +archaeological, but, in order to compass his own election, the +_procureur general_ Vinet took pains to have him appointed president of +the Provins court. Sylvie has a little circle, and manages her brother’s +property; she lends her own money at high interest, and does not spend +more than twelve hundred francs a year. + +From time to time, when some former son or daughter of Provins returns +from Paris to settle down, you may hear them ask, as they leave +Mademoiselle Rogron’s house, “Wasn’t there a painful story against the +Rogrons,--something about a ward?” + +“Mere prejudice,” replies Monsieur Desfondrilles. “Certain persons tried +to make us believe falsehoods. Out of kindness of heart the Rogrons took +in a girl named Pierrette, quite pretty but with no money. Just as she +was growing up she had an intrigue with a young man, and stood at her +window barefooted talking to him. The lovers passed notes to each other +by a string. She took cold in this way and died, having no constitution. +The Rogrons behaved admirably. They made no claim on certain property +which was to come to her,--they gave it all up to the grandmother. The +moral of it was, my good friend, that the devil punishes those who try +to benefit others.” + +“Ah! that is quite another story from the one old Frappier told me.” + +“Frappier consults his wine-cellar more than he does his memory,” + remarked another of Mademoiselle Rogron’s visitors. + +“But that old priest, Monsieur Habert says--” + +“Oh, he! don’t you know why?” + +“No.” + +“He wanted to marry his sister to Monsieur Rogron, the +receiver-general.” + + * * * * * + +Two men think of Pierrette daily: Doctor Martener and Major Brigaut; +they alone know the hideous truth. + +To give that truth its true proportions we must transport the scene to +the Rome of the middle ages, where a sublime young girl, Beatrice Cenci, +was brought to the scaffold by motives and intrigues that were almost +identical with those which laid our Pierrette in her grave. Beatrice +Cenci had but one defender,--an artist, a painter. In our day history, +and living men, on the faith of Guido Reni’s portrait, condemn the Pope, +and know that Beatrice was a most tender victim of infamous passions and +base feuds. + +We must all agree that legality would be a fine thing for social +scoundrelism IF THERE WERE NO GOD. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist’s Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson + In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + + Brigaut, Major + The Chouans + + Desplein + The Atheist’s Mass + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor’s Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Honorine + + Gouraud, General, Baron + Cousin Pons + + Keller, Adolphe + The Middle Classes + Cesar Birotteau + + Matifat, Mademoiselle + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + + Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + + Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + + Roguin + Cesar Birotteau + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor’s Establishment + The Vendetta + + Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + Tiphaine, Madame + The Vendetta + + Vinet + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pierrette, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRETTE *** + +***** This file should be named 1704-0.txt or 1704-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/1704/ + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/1704-0.zip b/1704-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..90be8bc --- /dev/null +++ b/1704-0.zip diff --git a/1704-h.zip b/1704-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bf6734 --- /dev/null +++ b/1704-h.zip diff --git a/1704-h/1704-h.htm b/1704-h/1704-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d7229e --- /dev/null +++ b/1704-h/1704-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6787 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Pierrette, by Honore de Balzac + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pierrette, 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: Pierrette + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: February 28, 2010 [EBook #1704] +Last Updated: November 23, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRETTE *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + PIERRETTE + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Anna Hanska: + + Dear Child,—You, the joy of the household, you, whose pink or + white pelerine flutters in summer among the groves of + Wierzschovnia like a will-o’-the-wisp, followed by the tender eyes + of your father and your mother,—how can I dedicate to <i>you</i> a + story full of melancholy? And yet, ought not sorrows to be spoken + of to a young girl idolized as you are, since the day may come + when your sweet hands will be called to minister to them? It is so + difficult, Anna, to find in the history of our manners and morals + a subject that is worthy of your eyes, that no choice has been + left me; but perhaps you will be made to feel how fortunate your + fate is when you read the story sent to you by + Your old friend, + De Balzac. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>PIERRETTE</b> </a> + </h3> + <h3> + </h3> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> I. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE LORRAINS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> II. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE ROGRONS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> III. </a> + </td> + <td> + PATHOLOGY OF RETIRED MERCERS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> IV. </a> + </td> + <td> + PIERRETTE + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> V. </a> + </td> + <td> + HISTORY OF POOR COUSINS IN THE HOME OF RICH ONES + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VI. </a> + </td> + <td> + AN OLD MAID’S JEALOUSY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VII. </a> + </td> + <td> + DOMESTIC TYRANNY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> VIII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE LOVES OF JACQUES AND PIERRETTE + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> IX. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE FAMILY COUNCIL + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> X. </a> + </td> + <td> + VERDICTS—LEGAL AND OTHER + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> ADDENDUM </a> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + PIERRETTE + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE LORRAINS + </h2> + <p> + At the dawn of an October day in 1827 a young fellow about sixteen years + of age, whose clothing proclaimed what modern phraseology so insolently + calls a proletary, was standing in a small square of Lower Provins. At + that early hour he could examine without being observed the various houses + surrounding the open space, which was oblong in form. The mills along the + river were already working; the whirr of their wheels, repeated by the + echoes of the Upper Town in the keen air and sparkling clearness of the + early morning, only intensified the general silence so that the wheels of + a diligence could be heard a league away along the highroad. The two + longest sides of the square, separated by an avenue of lindens, were built + in the simple style which expresses so well the peaceful and + matter-of-fact life of the bourgeoisie. No signs of commerce were to be + seen; on the other hand, the luxurious porte-cocheres of the rich were + few, and those few turned seldom on their hinges, excepting that of + Monsieur Martener, a physician, whose profession obliged him to keep a + cabriolet, and to use it. A few of the house-fronts were covered by grape + vines, others by roses climbing to the second-story windows, through which + they wafted the fragrance of their scattered bunches. One end of the + square enters the main street of the Lower Town, the gardens of which + reach to the bank of one of the two rivers which water the valley of + Provins. The other end of the square enters a street which runs parallel + to the main street. + </p> + <p> + At the latter, which was also the quietest end of the square, the young + workman recognized the house of which he was in search, which showed a + front of white stone grooved in lines to represent courses, windows with + closed gray blinds, and slender iron balconies decorated with rosettes + painted yellow. Above the ground floor and the first floor were three + dormer windows projecting from a slate roof; on the peak of the central + one was a new weather-vane. This modern innovation represented a hunter in + the attitude of shooting a hare. The front door was reached by three stone + steps. On one side of this door a leaden pipe discharged the sink-water + into a small street-gutter, showing the whereabouts of the kitchen. On the + other side were two windows, carefully closed by gray shutters in which + were heart-shaped openings cut to admit the light; these windows seemed to + be those of the dining-room. In the elevation gained by the three steps + were vent-holes to the cellar, closed by painted iron shutters + fantastically cut in open-work. Everything was new. In this repaired and + restored house, the fresh-colored look of which contrasted with the + time-worn exteriors of all the other houses, an observer would instantly + perceive the paltry taste and perfect self-satisfaction of the retired + petty shopkeeper. + </p> + <p> + The young man looked at these details with an expression of pleasure that + seemed to have something rather sad in it; his eyes roved from the kitchen + to the roof, with a motion that showed a deliberate purpose. The rosy glow + of the rising sun fell on a calico curtain at one of the garret windows, + the others being without that luxury. As he caught sight of it the young + fellow’s face brightened gaily. He stepped back a little way, leaned + against a linden, and sang, in the drawling tone peculiar to the west of + France, the following Breton ditty, published by Bruguiere, a composer to + whom we are indebted for many charming melodies. In Brittany, the young + villagers sing this song to all newly-married couples on their + wedding-day:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “We’ve come to wish you happiness in marriage, + To m’sieur your husband + As well as to you: + + “You have just been bound, madam’ la mariee, + With bonds of gold + That only death unbinds: + + “You will go no more to balls or gay assemblies; + You must stay at home + While we shall go. + + “Have you thought well how you are pledged to be + True to your spouse, + And love him like yourself? + + “Receive these flowers our hands do now present you; + Alas! your fleeting honors + Will fade as they.” + </pre> + <p> + This native air (as sweet as that adapted by Chateaubriand to <i>Ma soeur, + te souvient-il encore</i>), sung in this little town of the Brie district, + must have been to the ears of a Breton maiden the touchstone of imperious + memories, so faithfully does it picture the manners and customs, the + surroundings and the heartiness of her noble old land, where a sort of + melancholy reigns, hardly to be defined; caused, perhaps, by the aspect of + life in Brittany, which is deeply touching. This power of awakening a + world of grave and sweet and tender memories by a familiar and sometimes + lively ditty, is the privilege of those popular songs which are the + superstitions of music,—if we may use the word “superstition” as + signifying all that remains after the ruin of a people, all that survives + their revolutions. + </p> + <p> + As he finished the first couple, the singer, who never took his eyes from + the attic curtain, saw no signs of life. While he sang the second, the + curtain stirred. When the words “Receive these flowers” were sung, a + youthful face appeared; a white hand cautiously opened the casement, and a + girl made a sign with her head to the singer as he ended with the + melancholy thought of the simple verses,—“Alas! your fleeting honors + will fade as they.” + </p> + <p> + To her the young workman suddenly showed, drawing it from within his + jacket, a yellow flower, very common in Brittany, and sometimes to be + found in La Brie (where, however, it is rare),—the furze, or broom. + </p> + <p> + “Is it really you, Brigaut?” said the girl, in a low voice. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Pierrette, yes. I am in Paris. I have started to make my way; but + I’m ready to settle here, near you.” + </p> + <p> + Just then the fastening of a window creaked in a room on the first floor, + directly below Pierrette’s attic. The girl showed the utmost terror, and + said to Brigaut, quickly:— + </p> + <p> + “Run away!” + </p> + <p> + The lad jumped like a frightened frog to a bend in the street caused by + the projection of a mill just where the square opens into the main + thoroughfare; but in spite of his agility his hob-nailed shoes echoed on + the stones with a sound easily distinguished from the music of the mill, + and no doubt heard by the person who opened the window. + </p> + <p> + That person was a woman. No man would have torn himself from the comfort + of a morning nap to listen to a minstrel in a jacket; none but a maid + awakes to songs of love. Not only was this woman a maid, but she was an + old maid. When she had opened her blinds with the furtive motion of the + bat, she looked in all directions, but saw nothing, and only heard, + faintly, the flying footfalls of the lad. Can there be anything more + dreadful than the matutinal apparition of an ugly old maid at her window? + Of all the grotesque sights which amuse the eyes of travellers in country + towns, that is the most unpleasant. It is too repulsive to laugh at. This + particular old maid, whose ear was so keen, was denuded of all the + adventitious aids, of whatever kind, which she employed as embellishments; + her false front and her collarette were lacking; she wore that horrible + little bag of black silk on which old women insist on covering their + skulls, and it was now revealed beneath the night-cap which had been + pushed aside in sleep. This rumpled condition gave a menacing expression + to the head, such as painters bestow on witches. The temples, ears, and + nape of the neck, were disclosed in all their withered horror,—the + wrinkles being marked in scarlet lines that contrasted with the would-be + white of the bed-gown which was tied round her neck by a narrow tape. The + gaping of this garment revealed a breast to be likened only to that of an + old peasant woman who cares nothing about her personal ugliness. The + fleshless arm was like a stick on which a bit of stuff was hung. Seen at + her window, this spinster seemed tall from the length and angularity of + her face, which recalled the exaggerated proportions of certain Swiss + heads. The character of their countenance—the features being marked + by a total want of harmony—was that of hardness in the lines, + sharpness in the tones; while an unfeeling spirit, pervading all, would + have filled a physiognomist with disgust. These characteristics, fully + visible at this moment, were usually modified in public by a sort of + commercial smile,—a bourgeois smirk which mimicked good-humor; so + that persons meeting with this old maid might very well take her for a + kindly woman. She owned the house on shares with her brother. The brother, + by-the-bye, was sleeping so tranquilly in his own chamber that the + orchestra of the Opera-house could not have awakened him, wonderful as its + diapason is said to be. + </p> + <p> + The old maid stretched her neck out of the window, twisted it, and raised + her cold, pale-blue little eyes, with their short lashes set in lids that + were always rather swollen, to the attic window, endeavoring to see + Pierrette. Perceiving the uselessness of that attempt, she retreated into + her room with a movement like that of a tortoise which draws in its head + after protruding it from its carapace. The blinds were then closed, and + the silence of the street was unbroken except by peasants coming in from + the country, or very early persons moving about. + </p> + <p> + When there is an old maid in a house, watch-dogs are unnecessary; not the + slightest event can occur that she does not see and comment upon and + pursue to its utmost consequences. The foregoing trifling circumstance was + therefore destined to give rise to grave suppositions, and to open the way + for one of those obscure dramas which take place in families, and are none + the less terrible because they are secret,—if, indeed, we may apply + the word “drama” to such domestic occurrences. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette did not go back to bed. To her, Brigaut’s arrival was an immense + event. During the night—that Eden of the wretched—she escaped + the vexations and fault-findings she bore during the day. Like the hero of + a ballad, German or Russian, I forget which, her sleep seemed to her the + happy life; her waking hours a bad dream. She had just had her only + pleasurable waking in three years. The memories of her childhood had sung + their melodious ditties in her soul. The first couplet was heard in a + dream; the second made her spring out of bed; at the third, she doubted + her ears,—the sorrowful are all disciples of Saint Thomas; but when + the fourth was sung, standing in her night-gown with bare feet by the + window, she recognized Brigaut, the companion of her childhood. Ah, yes! + it was truly the well-known square jacket with the bobtails, the pockets + of which stuck out at the hips,—the jacket of blue cloth which is + classic in Brittany; there, too, were the waistcoat of printed cotton, the + linen shirt fastened by a gold heart, the large rolling collar, the + earrings, the stout shoes, the trousers of blue-gray drilling unevenly + colored by the various lengths of the warp,—in short, all those + humble, strong, and durable things which make the apparel of the Breton + peasantry. The big buttons of white horn which fastened the jacket made + the girl’s heart beat. When she saw the bunch of broom her eyes filled + with tears; then a dreadful fear drove back into her heart the happy + memories that were budding there. She thought her cousin sleeping in the + room beneath her might have heard the noise she made in jumping out of bed + and running to the window. The fear was just; the old maid was coming, and + she made Brigaut the terrified sign which the lad obeyed without the least + understanding it. Such instinctive submission to a girl’s bidding shows + one of those innocent and absolute affections which appear from century to + century on this earth, where they blossom, like the aloes of Isola Bella, + twice or thrice in a hundred years. Whoever had seen the lad as he ran + away would have loved the ingenuous chivalry of his most ingenuous + feeling. + </p> + <p> + Jacques Brigaut was worthy of Pierrette Lorrain, who was just fifteen. Two + children! Pierrette could not keep from crying as she watched his flight + in the terror her gesture had conveyed to him. Then she sat down in a + shabby armchair placed before a little table above which hung a mirror. + She rested her elbows on the table, put her head in her hands, and sat + thinking for an hour, calling to memory the Marais, the village of + Pen-Hoel, the perilous voyages on a pond in a boat untied for her from an + old willow by little Jacques; then the old faces of her grandfather and + grandmother, the sufferings of her mother, and the handsome face of Major + Brigaut,—in short, the whole of her careless childhood. It was all a + dream, a luminous joy on the gloomy background of the present. + </p> + <p> + Her beautiful chestnut hair escaped in disorder from her cap, rumpled in + sleep,—a cambric cap with ruffles, which she had made herself. On + each side of her forehead were little ringlets escaping from gray + curl-papers. From the back of her head hung a heavy braid of hair that was + half unplaited. The excessive whiteness of her face betrayed that terrible + malady of girlhood which goes by the name of chlorosis, deprives the body + of its natural colors, destroys the appetite, and shows a disordered state + of the organism. The waxy tones were in all the visible parts of her + flesh. The neck and shoulders explained by their blanched paleness the + wasted arms, flung forward and crossed upon the table. Her feet seemed + enervated, shrunken from illness. Her night-gown came only to her knees + and showed the flaccid muscles, the blue veins, the impoverished flesh of + the legs. The cold, to which she paid no heed, turned her lips violet, and + a sad smile, drawing up the corners of a sensitive mouth, showed teeth + that were white as ivory and quite small,—pretty, transparent teeth, + in keeping with the delicate ears, the rather sharp but dainty nose, and + the general outline of her face, which, in spite of its roundness, was + lovely. All the animation of this charming face was in the eyes, the iris + of which, brown like Spanish tobacco and flecked with black, shone with + golden reflections round pupils that were brilliant and intense. Pierrette + was made to be gay, but she was sad. Her lost gaiety was still to be seen + in the vivacious forms of the eye, in the ingenuous grace of her brow, in + the smooth curve of her chin. The long eyelashes lay upon the cheek-bones, + made prominent by suffering. The paleness of her face, which was + unnaturally white, made the lines and all the details infinitely pure. The + ear alone was a little masterpiece of modelling,—in marble, you + might say. Pierrette suffered in many ways. Perhaps you would like to know + her history, and this is it. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette’s mother was a Demoiselle Auffray of Provins, half-sister by the + father’s side of Madame Rogron, mother of the present owners of the house. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Auffray, her husband, had married at the age of eighteen; his + second marriage took place when he was nearly sixty-nine. By the first, he + had an only daughter, very plain, who was married at sixteen to an + innkeeper of Provins named Rogron. + </p> + <p> + By his second marriage the worthy Auffray had another daughter; but this + one was charming. There was, of course, an enormous difference in the ages + of these daughters; the one by the first marriage was fifty years old when + the second child was born. By this time the eldest, Madame Rogron, had two + grown-up children. + </p> + <p> + The youngest daughter of the old man was married at eighteen to a man of + her choice, a Breton officer named Lorrain, captain in the Imperial Guard. + Love often makes a man ambitious. The captain, anxious to rise to a + colonelcy, exchanged into a line regiment. While he, then a major, and his + wife enjoyed themselves in Paris on the allowance made to them by Monsieur + and Madame Auffray, or scoured Germany at the beck and call of the + Emperor’s battles and truces, old Auffray himself (formerly a grocer) + died, at the age of eighty-eight, without having found time to make a + will. His property was administered by his daughter, Madame Rogron, and + her husband so completely in their own interests that nothing remained for + the old man’s widow beyond the house she lived in on the little square, + and a few acres of land. This widow, the mother of Madame Lorrain, was + only thirty-eight at the time of her husband’s death. Like many widows, + she came to the unwise decision of remarrying. She sold the house and land + to her step-daughter, Madame Rogron, and married a young physician named + Neraud, who wasted her whole fortune. She died of grief and misery two + years later. + </p> + <p> + Thus the share of her father’s property which ought to have come to Madame + Lorrain disappeared almost entirely, being reduced to the small sum of + eight thousand francs. Major Lorrain was killed at the battle of + Montereau, leaving his wife, then twenty-one years of age, with a little + daughter of fourteen months, and no other means than the pension to which + she was entitled and an eventual inheritance from her late husband’s + parents, Monsieur and Madame Lorrain, retail shopkeepers at Pen-Hoel, a + village in the Vendee, situated in that part of it which is called the + Marais. These Lorrains, grandfather and grandmother of Pierrette Lorrain, + sold wood for building purposes, slates, tiles, pantiles, pipes, etc. + Their business, either from their own incapacity or through ill-luck, did + badly, and gave them scarcely enough to live on. The failure of the + well-known firm of Collinet at Nantes, caused by the events of 1814 which + led to a sudden fall in colonial products, deprived them of twenty-four + thousand francs which they had just deposited with that house. + </p> + <p> + The arrival of their daughter-in-law was therefore welcome to them. Her + pension of eight hundred francs was a handsome income at Pen-Hoel. The + eight thousand francs which the widow’s half-brother and sister Rogron + sent to her from her father’s estate (after a multitude of legal + formalities) were placed by her in the Lorrains’ business, they giving her + a mortgage on a little house which they owned at Nantes, let for three + hundred francs, and barely worth ten thousand. + </p> + <p> + Madame Lorrain the younger, Pierrette’s mother, died in 1819. The child of + old Auffray and his young wife was small, delicate, and weakly; the damp + climate of the Marais did not agree with her. But her husband’s family + persuaded her, in order to keep her with them, that in no other quarter of + the world could she find a more healthy region. She was so petted and + tenderly cared for that her death, when it came, brought nothing but honor + to the old Lorrains. + </p> + <p> + Some persons declared that Brigaut, an old Vendeen, one of those men of + iron who served under Charette, under Mercier, under the Marquis de + Montauran, and the Baron du Guenic, in the wars against the Republic, + counted for a good deal in the willingness of the younger Madame Lorrain + to remain in the Marais. If it were so, his soul must have been a truly + loving and devoted one. All Pen-Hoel saw him—he was called + respectfully Major Brigaut, the grade he had held in the Catholic army—spending + his days and his evenings in the Lorrains’ parlor, beside the window of + the imperial major. Toward the last, the curate of Pen-Hoel made certain + representations to old Madame Lorrain, begging her to persuade her + daughter-in-law to marry Brigaut, and promising to have the major + appointed justice of peace for the canton of Pen-Hoel, through the + influence of the Vicomte de Kergarouet. The death of the poor young woman + put an end to the matter. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette was left in charge of her grandparents who owed her four hundred + francs a year, interest on the little property placed in their hands. This + small sum was now applied to her maintenance. The old people, who were + growing less and less fit for business, soon found themselves confronted + by an active and capable competitor, against whom they said hard things, + all the while doing nothing to defeat him. Major Brigaut, their friend and + adviser, died six months after his friend, the younger Madame Lorrain,—perhaps + of grief, perhaps of his wounds, of which he had received twenty-seven. + </p> + <p> + Like a sound merchant, the competitor set about ruining his adversaries in + order to get rid of all rivalry. With his connivance, the Lorrains + borrowed money on notes, which they were unable to meet, and which drove + them in their old days into bankruptcy. Pierrette’s claim upon the house + in Nantes was superseded by the legal rights of her grandmother, who + enforced them to secure the daily bread of her poor husband. The house was + sold for nine thousand five hundred francs, of which one thousand five + hundred went for costs. The remaining eight thousand came to Madame + Lorain, who lived upon the income of them in a sort of almshouse at + Nantes, like that of Sainte-Perine in Paris, called Saint-Jacques, where + the two old people had bed and board for a humble payment. + </p> + <p> + As it was impossible to keep Pierrette, their ruined little granddaughter, + with them, the old Lorrains bethought themselves of her uncle and aunt + Rogron, in Provins, to whom they wrote. These Rogrons were dead. The + letter might, therefore, have easily been lost; but if anything here below + can take the place of Providence, it is the post. Postal spirit, + incomparably above public spirit, exceeds in brilliancy of resource and + invention the ablest romance-writers. When the post gets hold of a letter, + worth, to it, from three to ten sous, and does not immediately know where + to find the person to whom that letter is addressed, it displays a + financial anxiety only to be met with in very pertinacious creditors. The + post goes and comes and ferrets through all the eighty-six departments. + Difficulties only arouse the genius of the clerks, who may really be + called men-of-letters, and who set about to search for that unknown human + being with as much ardor as the mathematicians of the Bureau give to + longitudes. They literally ransack the whole kingdom. At the first ray of + hope all the post-offices in Paris are alert. Sometimes the receiver of a + missing letter is amazed at the network of scrawled directions which + covers both back and front of the missive,—glorious vouchers for the + administrative persistency with which the post has been at work. If a man + undertook what the post accomplishes, he would lose ten thousand francs in + travel, time, and money, to recover ten sous. The letter of the old + Lorrains, addressed to Monsieur Rogron of Provins (who had then been dead + a year) was conveyed by the post in due time to Monsieur Rogron, son of + the deceased, a mercer in the rue Saint-Denis in Paris. And this is where + the postal spirit obtains its greatest triumph. An heir is always more or + less anxious to know if he has picked up every scrap of his inheritance, + if he has not overlooked a credit, or a trunk of old clothes. The Treasury + knows that. A letter addressed to the late Rogron at Provins was certain + to pique the curiosity of Rogron, Jr., or Mademoiselle Rogron, the heirs + in Paris. Out of that human interest the Treasury was able to earn sixty + centimes. + </p> + <p> + These Rogrons, toward whom the old Lorrains, though dreading to part with + their dear little granddaughter, stretched their supplicating hands, + became, in this way, and most unexpectedly, the masters of Pierrette’s + destiny. It is therefore indispensable to explain both their antecedents + and their character. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. THE ROGRONS + </h2> + <p> + Pere Rogron, that innkeeper of Provins to whom old Auffray had married his + daughter by his first wife, was an individual with an inflamed face, a + veiny nose, and cheeks on which Bacchus had drawn his scarlet and bulbous + vine-marks. Though short, fat, and pot-bellied, with stout legs and thick + hands, he was gifted with the shrewdness of the Swiss innkeepers, whom he + resembled. Certainly he was not handsome, and his wife looked like him. + Never was a couple better matched. Rogron liked good living and to be + waited upon by pretty girls. He belonged to the class of egoists whose + behavior is brutal; he gave way to his vices and did their will openly in + the face of Israel. Grasping, selfish, without decency, and always + gratifying his own fancies, he devoured his earnings until the day when + his teeth failed him. Selfishness stayed by him. In his old days he sold + his inn, collected (as we have seen) all he could of his late + father-in-law’s property, and went to live in the little house in the + square of Provins, bought for a trifle from the widow of old Auffray, + Pierrette’s grandmother. + </p> + <p> + Rogron and his wife had about two thousand francs a year from twenty-seven + lots of land in the neighborhood of Provins, and from the sale of their + inn for twenty thousand. Old Auffray’s house, though out of repair, was + inhabited just as it was by the Rogrons,—old rats like wrack and + ruin. Rogron himself took to horticulture and spent his savings in + enlarging the garden; he carried it to the river’s edge between two walls + and built a sort of stone embankment across the end, where aquatic nature, + left to herself, displayed the charms of her flora. + </p> + <p> + In the early years of their marriage the Rogrons had a son and a daughter, + both hideous; for such human beings degenerate. Put out to nurse at a low + price, these luckless children came home in due time, after the worst of + village training,—allowed to cry for hours after their wet-nurse, + who worked in the fields, leaving them shut up to scream for her in one of + those damp, dark, low rooms which serve as homes for the French peasantry. + Treated thus, the features of the children coarsened; their voices grew + harsh; they mortified their mother’s vanity, and that made her strive to + correct their bad habits by a sternness which the severity of their father + converted through comparison to kindness. As a general thing, they were + left to run loose about the stables and courtyards of the inn, or the + streets of the town; sometimes they were whipped; sometimes they were + sent, to get rid of them, to their grandfather Auffray, who did not like + them. The injustice the Rogrons declared the old man did to their + children, justified them to their own minds in taking the greater part of + “the old scoundrel’s” property. However, Rogron did send his son to + school, and did buy him a man, one of his own cartmen, to save him from + the conscription. As soon as his daughter, Sylvie, was thirteen, he sent + her to Paris, to make her way as apprentice in a shop. Two years later he + despatched his son, Jerome-Denis, to the same career. When his friends the + carriers and those who frequented the inn, asked him what he meant to do + with his children, Pere Rogron explained his system with a conciseness + which, in view of that of most fathers, had the merit of frankness. + </p> + <p> + “When they are old enough to understand me I shall give ‘em a kick and + say: ‘Go and make your own way in the world!’” he replied, emptying his + glass and wiping his lips with the back of his hand. Then he winked at his + questioner with a knowing look. “Hey! hey! they are no greater fools than + I was,” he added. “My father gave me three kicks; I shall only give them + one; he put one louis into my hand; I shall put ten in theirs, therefore + they’ll be better off than I was. That’s the way to do. After I’m gone, + what’s left will be theirs. The notaries can find them and give it to + them. What nonsense to bother one’s self about children. Mine owe me their + life. I’ve fed them, and I don’t ask anything from them,—I call that + quits, hey, neighbor? I began as a cartman, but that didn’t prevent me + marrying the daughter of that old scoundrel Auffray.” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie Rogron was sent (with six hundred francs for her board) as + apprentice to certain shopkeepers originally from Provins and now settled + in Paris in the rue Saint-Denis. Two years later she was “at par,” as they + say; she earned her own living; at any rate her parents paid nothing for + her. That is what is called being “at par” in the rue Saint-Denis. Sylvie + had a salary of four hundred francs. At nineteen years of age she was + independent. At twenty, she was the second demoiselle in the Maison + Julliard, wholesale silk dealers at the “Chinese Worm” rue Saint-Denis. + The history of the sister was that of the brother. Young Jerome-Denis + Rogron entered the establishment of one of the largest wholesale mercers + in the same street, the Maison Guepin, at the “Three Distaffs.” When + Sylvie Rogron, aged twenty-one, had risen to be forewoman at a thousand + francs a year Jerome-Denis, with even better luck, was head-clerk at + eighteen, with a salary of twelve hundred francs. + </p> + <p> + Brother and sister met on Sundays and fete-days, which they passed in + economical amusements; they dined out of Paris, and went to Saint-Cloud, + Meudon, Belleville, or Vincennes. Towards the close of the year 1815 they + clubbed their savings, amounting to about twenty thousand francs, earned + by the sweat of their brows, and bought of Madame Guenee the property and + good-will of her celebrated shop, the “Family Sister,” one of the largest + retail establishments in the quarter. Sylvie kept the books and did the + writing. Jerome-Denis was master and head-clerk both. In 1821, after five + years’ experience, competition became so fierce that it was all the + brother and sister could do to carry on the business and maintain its + reputation. + </p> + <p> + Though Sylvie was at this time scarcely forty, her natural ugliness, + combined with hard work and a certain crabbed look (caused as much by the + conformation of her features as by her cares), made her seem like a woman + of fifty. At thirty-eight Jerome Rogron presented to the eyes of his + customers the silliest face that ever looked over a counter. His + retreating forehead, flattened by fatigue, was marked by three long + wrinkles. His grizzled hair, cut close, expressed in some indefinable way + the stupidity of a cold-blooded animal. The glance of his bluish eyes had + neither flame nor thought in it. His round, flat face excited no sympathy, + nor even a laugh on the lips of those who might be examining the varieties + of the Parisian species; on the contrary, it saddened them. He was, like + his father, short and fat, but his figure lacked the latter’s brutal + obesity, and showed, instead, an almost ridiculous debility. His father’s + high color was changed in him to the livid flabbiness peculiar to persons + who live in close back-shops, or in those railed cages called + counting-rooms, forever tying up bundles, receiving and making change, + snarling at the clerks, and repeating the same old speeches to customers. + </p> + <p> + The small amount of brains possessed by the brother and sister had been + wholly absorbed in maintaining their business, in getting and keeping + money, and in learning the special laws and usages of the Parisian market. + Thread, needles, ribbons, pins, buttons, tailors’ furnishings, in short, + the enormous quantity of things which go to make up a mercer’s stock, had + taken all their capacity. Outside of their business they knew absolutely + nothing; they were even ignorant of Paris. To them the great city was + merely a region spreading around the Rue Saint-Denis. Their narrow natures + could see no field except the shop. They were clever enough in nagging + their clerks and their young women and in proving them to blame. Their + happiness lay in seeing all hands busy at the counters, exhibiting the + merchandise, and folding it up again. When they heard the six or eight + voices of the young men and women glibly gabbling the consecrated phrases + by which clerks reply to the remarks of customers, the day was fine to + them, the weather beautiful! But on the really fine days, when the blue of + the heavens brightened all Paris, and the Parisians walked about to enjoy + themselves and cared for no “goods” but those they carried on their back, + the day was overcast to the Rogrons. “Bad weather for sales,” said that + pair of imbeciles. + </p> + <p> + The skill with which Rogron could tie up a parcel made him an object of + admiration to all his apprentices. He could fold and tie and see all that + happened in the street and in the farthest recesses of the shop by the + time he handed the parcel to his customer with a “Here it is, madame; <i>nothing + else</i> to-day?” But the poor fool would have been ruined without his + sister. Sylvie had common-sense and a genius for trade. She advised her + brother in their purchases and would pitilessly send him to remote parts + of France to save a trifle of cost. The shrewdness which all women more or + less possess, not being employed in the service of her heart, had drifted + into that of speculation. A business to pay for,—that thought was + the mainspring which kept the machine going and gave it an infernal + activity. + </p> + <p> + Rogron was really only head-clerk; he understood nothing of his business + as a whole; self-interest, that great motor of the mind, had failed in his + case to instruct him. He was often aghast when his sister ordered some + article to be sold below cost, foreseeing the end of its fashion; later he + admired her idiotically for her cleverness. He reasoned neither ill nor + well; he was simply incapable of reasoning at all; but he had the sense to + subordinate himself to his sister, and he did so from a consideration that + was outside of the business. “She is my elder,” he said. Perhaps an + existence like his, always solitary, reduced to the satisfaction of mere + needs, deprived of money and all pleasures in youth, may explain to + physiologists and thinkers the clownish expression of the face, the + feebleness of mind, the vacant silliness of the man. His sister had + steadily prevented him from marrying, afraid perhaps to lose her power + over him, and seeing only a source of expense and injury in some woman who + would certainly be younger and undoubtedly less ugly than herself. + </p> + <p> + Silliness has two ways of comporting itself; it talks, or is silent. + Silent silliness can be borne; but Rogron’s silliness was loquacious. The + man had a habit of chattering to his clerks, explaining the minutiae of + the business, and ornamenting his talk with those flat jokes which may be + called the “chaff” of shopkeeping. Rogron, listened to, of course, by his + subordinates and perfectly satisfied with himself, had come at last into + possession of a phraseology of his own. This chatterer believed himself an + orator. The necessity of explaining to customers what they want, of + guessing at their desires, and giving them desires for what they do not + want, exercises the tongue of all retail shopkeepers. The petty dealer + acquires the faculty of uttering words and sentences in which there is + absolutely no meaning, but which have a marked success. He explains to his + customers matters of manufacture that they know nothing of; that alone + gives him a passing superiority over them; but take him away from his + thousand and one explanations about his thousand and one articles, and he + is, relatively to thought, like a fish out of water in the sun. + </p> + <p> + Rogron and Sylvie, two mechanisms baptized by mistake, did not possess, + latent or active, the feelings which give life to the heart. Their natures + were shrivelled and harsh, hardened by toil, by privation, by the + remembrance of their sufferings during a long and cruel apprenticeship to + life. Neither of them complained of their trials. They were not so much + implacable as impracticable in their dealings with others in misfortune. + To them, virtue, honor, loyalty, all human sentiments consisted solely in + the payment of their bills. Irritable and irritating, without feelings, + and sordid in their economy, the brother and sister bore a dreadful + reputation among the other merchants of the rue Saint-Denis. Had it not + been for their connection with Provins, where they went three or four + times a year, when they could close the shop for a day or two, they would + have had no clerks or young women. But old Rogron, their father, sent them + all the unfortunate young people of his neighborhood, whose parents wished + to start them in business in Paris. He obtained these apprentices by + boasting, out of vanity, of his son’s success. Parents, attracted by the + prospect of their children being well-trained and closely watched, and + also, by the hope of their succeeding, eventually, to the business, sent + whichever child was most in the way at home to the care of the brother and + sister. But no sooner had the clerks or the young women found a way of + escape from that dreadful establishment than they fled, with rejoicings + that increased the already bad name of the Rogrons. New victims were + supplied yearly by the indefatigable old father. + </p> + <p> + From the time she was fifteen, Sylvie Rogron, trained to the simpering of + a saleswoman, had two faces,—the amiable face of the seller, the + natural face of a sour spinster. Her acquired countenance was a marvellous + bit of mimicry. She was all smiles. Her voice, soft and wheedling, gave a + commercial charm to business. Her real face was that we have already seen + projecting from the half-opened blinds; the mere sight of her would have + put to flight the most resolute Cossack of 1815, much as that horde were + said to like all kinds of Frenchwomen. + </p> + <p> + When the letter from the Lorrains reached the brother and sister, they + were in mourning for their father, from whom they inherited the house + which had been as good as stolen from Pierrette’s grandmother, also + certain lands bought by their father, and certain moneys acquired by + usurious loans and mortgages to the peasantry, whose bits of ground the + old drunkard expected to possess. The yearly taking of stock was just + over. The price of the “Family Sister” had, at last, been paid in full. + The Rogrons owned about sixty thousand francs’ worth of merchandise, forty + thousand in a bank or in their cash-box, and the value of their business. + Sitting on a bench covered with striped-green Utrecht velvet placed in a + square recess just behind their private counter (the counter of their + forewoman being similar and directly opposite) the brother and sister + consulted as to what they should do. All retail shopkeepers aspire to + become members of the bourgeoisie. By selling the good-will of their + business, the pair would have over a hundred and fifty thousand francs, + not counting the inheritance from their father. By placing their present + available property in the public Funds, they would each obtain about four + thousand francs a year, and by taking the proceeds of their business, when + sold, they could repair and improve the house they inherited from their + father, which would thus be a good investment. They could then go and live + in a house of their own in Provins. Their forewoman was the daughter of a + rich farmer at Donnemarie, burdened with nine children, to whom he had + endeavored to give a good start in life, being aware that at his death his + property, divided into nine parts, would be but little for any one of + them. In five years, however, the man had lost seven children,—a + fact which made the forewoman so interesting that Rogron had tried, + unsuccessfully, to get her to marry him; but she showed an aversion for + her master which baffled his manoeuvres. Besides, Mademoiselle Sylvie was + not in favor of the match; in fact, she steadily opposed her brother’s + marriage, and sought, instead, to make the shrewd young woman their + successor. + </p> + <p> + No passing observer can form the least idea of the cryptogramic existence + of a certain class of shopkeepers; he looks at them and asks himself, “On + what, and why, do they live? whence have they come? where do they go?” He + is lost in such questions, but finds no answer to them. To discover the + false seed of poesy which lies in those heads and fructifies in those + lives, it is necessary to dig into them; and when we do that we soon come + to a thin subsoil beneath the surface. The Parisian shopkeeper nurtures + his soul on some hope or other, more or less attainable, without which he + would doubtless perish. One dreams of building or managing a theatre; + another longs for the honors of mayoralty; this one desires a + country-house, ten miles from Paris with a so-called “park,” which he will + adorn with statues of tinted plaster and fountains which squirt mere + threads of water, but on which he will spend a mint of money; others, + again, dream of distinction and a high grade in the National Guard. + Provins, that terrestrial paradise, filled the brother and sister with the + fanatical longings which all the lovely towns of France inspire in their + inhabitants. Let us say it to the glory of La Champagne, this love is + warranted. Provins, one of the most charming towns in all France, rivals + Frangistan and the valley of Cashmere; not only does it contain the poesy + of Saadi, the Persian Homer, but it offers many pharmaceutical treasures + to medical science. The crusades brought roses from Jericho to this + enchanting valley, where by chance they gained new charms while losing + none of their colors. The Provins roses are known the world over. But + Provins is not only the French Persia, it is also Baden, Aix, Cheltenham,—for + it has medicinal springs. This was the spot which appeared from time to + time before the eyes of the two shopkeepers in the muddy regions of + Saint-Denis. + </p> + <p> + After crossing the gray plains which lie between La Ferte-Gaucher and + Provins, a desert and yet productive, a desert of wheat, you reach a hill. + Suddenly you behold at your feet a town watered by two rivers; at the feet + of the rock on which you stand stretches a verdant valley, full of + enchanting lines and fugitive horizons. If you come from Paris you will + pass through the whole length of Provins on the everlasting highroad of + France, which here skirts the hillside and is encumbered with beggars and + blind men, who will follow you with their pitiful voices while you try to + examine the unexpected picturesqueness of the region. If you come from + Troyes you will approach the town on the valley side. The chateau, the old + town, and its former ramparts are terraced on the hillside, the new town + is below. They go by the names of Upper and Lower Provins. The upper is an + airy town with steep streets commanding fine views, surrounded by sunken + road-ways and ravines filled with chestnut trees which gash the sides of + the hill with their deep gulleys. The upper town is silent, clean, solemn, + surmounted by the imposing ruins of the old chateau. The lower is a town + of mills, watered by the Voulzie and the Durtain, two rivers of Brie, + narrow, sluggish, and deep; a town of inns, shops, retired merchants; + filled with diligences, travelling-carriages, and waggons. The two towns, + or rather this town with its historical memories, its melancholy ruins, + the gaiety of its valley, the romantic charm of its ravines filled with + tangled shrubbery and wildflowers, its rivers banked with gardens, excites + the love of all its children, who do as the Auvergnats, the Savoyards, in + fact, all French folks do, namely, leave Provins to make their fortunes, + and always return. “Die in one’s form,” the proverb made for hares and + faithful souls, seems also the motto of a Provins native. + </p> + <p> + Thus the two Rogrons thought constantly of their dear Provins. While + Jerome sold his thread he saw the Upper town; as he piled up the cards on + which were buttons he contemplated the valley; when he rolled and unrolled + his ribbons he followed the shining rivers. Looking up at his shelves he + saw the ravines where he had often escaped his father’s anger and gone + a-nutting or gathering blackberries. But the little square in the Lower + town was the chief object of his thoughts; he imagined how he could + improve his house: he dreamed of a new front, new bedrooms, a salon, a + billiard-room, a dining-room, and the kitchen garden out of which he would + make an English pleasure-ground, with lawns, grottos, fountains, and + statuary. The bedrooms at present occupied by the brother and sister, on + the second floor of a house with three windows front and six storeys high + in the rue Saint-Denis, were furnished with the merest necessaries, yet no + one in Paris had finer furniture than they—in fancy. When Jerome + walked the streets he stopped short, struck with admiration at the + handsome things in the upholsterers’ windows, and at the draperies he + coveted for his house. When he came home he would say to his sister: “I + found in such a shop, such and such a piece of furniture that will just do + for the salon.” The next day he would buy another piece, and another, and + so on. He rejected, the following month, the articles of the months + before. The Budget itself, could not have paid for his architectural + schemes. He wanted everything he saw, but abandoned each thing for the + last thing. When he saw the balconies of new houses, when he studied + external ornamentation, he thought all such things, mouldings, carvings, + etc., out of place in Paris. “Ah!” he would say, “those fine things would + look much better at Provins.” When he stood on his doorstep leaning + against the lintel, digesting his morning meal, with a vacant eye, the + mercer was gazing at the house of his fancy gilded by the sun of his + dream; he walked in his garden; he heard the jet from his fountain falling + in pearly drops upon a slab of limestone; he played on his own + billiard-table; he gathered his own flowers. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie, on the other hand, was thinking so deeply, pen in hand, that she + forgot to scold the clerks; she was receiving the bourgeoisie of Provins, + she was looking at herself in the mirrors of her salon, and admiring the + beauties of a marvellous cap. The brother and sister began to think the + atmosphere of the rue Saint-Denis unhealthy, and the smell of the mud in + the markets made them long for the fragrance of the Provins roses. They + were the victims of a genuine nostalgia, and also of a monomania, + frustrated at present by the necessity of selling their tapes and bobbins + before they could leave Paris. The promised land of the valley of Provins + attracted these Hebrews all the more because they had really suffered, and + for a long time, as they crossed breathlessly the sandy wastes of a + mercer’s business. + </p> + <p> + The Lorrains’ letter reached them in the midst of meditations inspired by + this glorious future. They knew scarcely anything about their cousin, + Pierrette Lorrain. Their father got possession of the Auffray property + after they left home, and the old man said little to any one of his + business affairs. They hardly remembered their aunt Lorrain. It took an + hour of genealogical discussion before they made her out to be the younger + sister of their own mother by the second marriage of their grandfather + Auffray. It immediately struck them that this second marriage had been + fatally injurious to their interests by dividing the Auffray property + between two daughters. In times past they had heard their father, who was + given to sneering, complain of it. + </p> + <p> + The brother and sister considered the application of the Lorrains from the + point of view of such reminiscences, which were not at all favorable for + Pierrette. To take charge of an orphan, a girl, a cousin, who might become + their legal heir in case neither of them married,—this was a matter + that needed discussion. The question was considered and debated under all + its aspects. In the first place, they had never seen Pierrette. Then, what + a trouble it would be to have a young girl to look after. Wouldn’t it + commit them to some obligations towards her? Could they send the girl away + if they did not like her? Besides, wouldn’t they have to marry her? and if + Jerome found a yoke-mate among the heiresses of Provins they ought to keep + all their property for his children. A yokemate for Jerome, according to + Sylvie, meant a stupid, rich and ugly girl who would let herself be + governed. They decided to refuse the Lorrain request. Sylvie agreed to + write the answer. Business being rather urgent just then she delayed + writing, and the forewoman coming forward with an offer for the stock and + good-will of the “Family Sister,” which the brother and sister accepted, + the matter went entirely out of the old maid’s mind. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie Rogron and her brother departed for Provins four years before the + time when the coming of Brigaut threw such excitement into Pierrette’s + life. But the doings of the pair after their arrival at Provins are as + necessary to relate as their life in Paris; for Provins was destined to be + not less fatal to Pierrette than the commercial antecedents of her + cousins! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. PATHOLOGY OF RETIRED MERCERS + </h2> + <p> + When the petty shopkeeper who has come to Paris from the provinces returns + to the provinces from Paris he brings with him a few ideas; then he loses + them in the habits and ways of provincial life into which he plunges, and + his reforming notions leave him. From this there do result, however, + certain trifling, slow, successive changes by which Paris scratches the + surface of the provincial towns. This process marks the transition of the + ex-shopkeeper into the substantial bourgeois, but it acts like an illness + upon him. No retail shopkeeper can pass with impunity from his perpetual + chatter into dead silence, from his Parisian activity to the stillness of + provincial life. When these worthy persons have laid by property they + spend a portion of it on some desire over which they have long brooded and + into which they now turn their remaining impulses, no longer restrained by + force of will. Those who have not been nursing a fixed idea either travel + or rush into the political interests of their municipality. Others take to + hunting or fishing and torment their farmers or tenants; others again + become usurers or stock-jobbers. As for the scheme of the Rogrons, brother + and sister, we know what that was; they had to satisfy an imperious desire + to handle the trowel and remodel their old house into a charming new one. + </p> + <p> + This fixed idea produced upon the square of Lower Provins the front of the + building which Brigaut had been examining; also the interior arrangements + of the house and its handsome furniture. The contractor did not drive a + nail without consulting the owners, without requiring them to sign the + plans and specifications, without explaining to them at full length and in + every detail the nature of each article under discussion, where it was + manufactured, and what were its various prices. As to the choicer things, + each, they were told, had been used by Monsieur Tiphaine, or Madame + Julliard, or Monsieur the mayor, the notables of the place. The idea of + having things done as the rich bourgeois of Provins did them carried the + day for the contractor. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, if Monsieur Garceland has it in his house, put it in,” said + Mademoiselle Rogron. “It must be all right; his taste is good.” + </p> + <p> + “Sylvie, see, he wants us to have ovolos in the cornice of the corridor.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you call those ovolos?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, mademoiselle.” + </p> + <p> + “What an odd name! I never heard it before.” + </p> + <p> + “But you have seen the thing?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you understand Latin?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it means eggs—from the Latin <i>ovum</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “What queer fellows you are, you architects!” cried Rogron. “It is + stepping on egg-shells to deal with you.” + </p> + <p> + “Shall we paint the corridor?” asked the builder. + </p> + <p> + “Good heavens, no!” cried Sylvie. “That would be five hundred francs + more!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, but the salon and the staircase are too pretty not to have the + corridor decorated too,” said the man. “That little Madame Lesourd had + hers painted last year.” + </p> + <p> + “And now, her husband, as king’s attorney, is obliged to leave Provins.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, he’ll be chief justice some of these days,” said the builder. + </p> + <p> + “How about Monsieur Tiphaine?” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur Tiphaine? he’s got a pretty wife and is sure to get on. He’ll go + to Paris. Shall we paint the corridor?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes,” said Rogron. “The Lesourds must be made to see that we are as + good as they.” + </p> + <p> + The first year after the Rogrons returned to Provins was entirely taken up + by such discussions, by the pleasure of watching the workmen, by the + surprise occasioned to the townspeople and the replies to questions of all + kinds which resulted therefrom, and also by the attempts made by Sylvie + and her brother to be socially intimate with the principal families of + Provins. + </p> + <p> + The Rogrons had never gone into any society; they had never left their + shop, knowing absolutely no one in Paris, and now they were athirst for + the pleasures of social life. On their arrival in Provins they found their + former masters in Paris (long since returned to the provinces), Monsieur + and Madame Julliard, lately of the “Chinese Worm,” their children and + grandchildren; the Guepin family, or rather the Guepin clan, the youngest + scion of which now kept the “Three Distaffs”; and thirdly, Madame Guenee + from whom they had purchased the “Family Sister,” and whose three + daughters were married and settled in Provins. These three races, + Julliard, Guepin, and Guenee, had spread through the town like dog-grass + through a lawn. The mayor, Monsieur Garceland, was the son-in-law of + Monsieur Guepin; the curate, Abbe Peroux, was own brother to Madame + Julliard; the judge, Monsieur Tiphaine junior, was brother to Madame + Guenee, who signed herself “<i>nee</i> Tiphaine.” + </p> + <p> + The queen of the town was the beautiful Madame Tiphaine junior, only + daughter of Madame Roguin, the rich wife of a former notary in Paris, + whose name was never mentioned. Clever, delicate, and pretty, married in + the provinces to please her mother, who for special reasons did not want + her with her, and took her from a convent only a few days before the + wedding, Melanie Tiphaine considered herself an exile in Provins, where + she behaved to admiration. Handsomely dowered, she still had hopes. As for + Monsieur Tiphaine, his old father had made to his eldest daughter Madame + Guenee such advances on her inheritance that an estate worth eight + thousand francs a year, situated within fifteen miles of Provins, was to + come wholly to him. Consequently the Tiphaines would possess, sooner or + later, some forty thousand francs a year, and were not “badly off,” as + they say. The one overwhelming desire of the beautiful Madame Tiphaine was + to get Monsieur Tiphaine elected deputy. As deputy he would become a judge + in Paris; and she was firmly resolved to push him up into the Royal + courts. For these reasons she tickled all vanities and strove to please + all parties; and—what is far more difficult—she succeeded. + Twice a week she received the bourgeoisie of Provins at her house in the + Upper town. This intelligent young woman of twenty had not as yet made a + single blunder or misstep on the slippery path she had taken. She + gratified everybody’s self-love, and petted their hobbies; serious with + the serious, a girl with girls, instinctively a mother with mothers, gay + with young wives and disposed to help them, gracious to all,—in + short, a pearl, a treasure, the pride of Provins. She had never yet said a + word of her intentions and wishes, but all the electors of Provins were + awaiting the time when their dear Monsieur Tiphaine had reached the + required age for nomination. Every man in the place, certain of his own + talents, regarded the future deputy as his particular friend, his + protector. Of course, Monsieur Tiphaine would attain to honors; he would + be Keeper of the Seals, and then, what wouldn’t he do for Provins! + </p> + <p> + Such were the pleasant means by which Madame Tiphaine had come to rule + over the little town. Madame Guenee, Monsieur Tiphaine’s sister, after + having married her eldest daughter to Monsieur Lesourd, prosecuting + attorney, her second to Monsieur Martener, the doctor, and the third to + Monsieur Auffray, the notary, had herself married Monsieur Galardon, the + collector. Mother and daughters all considered Monsieur Tiphaine as the + richest and ablest man in the family. The prosecuting attorney had the + strongest interest in sending his uncle to Paris, expecting to step into + his shoes as judge of the local court of Provins. The four ladies formed a + sort of court round Madame Tiphaine, whose ideas and advice they followed + on all occasions. Monsieur Julliard, the eldest son of the old merchant, + who had married the only daughter of a rich farmer, set up a sudden, + secret, and disinterested passion for Madame Tiphaine, that angel + descended from the Parisian skies. The clever Melanie, too clever to + involve herself with Julliard, but quite capable of keeping him in the + condition of Amadis and making the most of his folly, advised him to start + a journal, intending herself to play the part of Egeria. For the last two + years, therefore, Julliard, possessed by his romantic passion, had + published the said newspaper, called the “Bee-hive,” which contained + articles literary, archaeological, and medical, written in the family. The + advertisements paid expenses. The subscriptions, two hundred in all, made + the profits. Every now and then melancholy verses, totally + incomprehensible in La Brie, appeared, addressed, “TO HER!!!” with three + exclamation marks. The clan Julliard was thus united to the other clans, + and the salon of Madame Tiphaine became, naturally, the first in the town. + The few aristocrats who lived in Provins were, of course, apart, and + formed a single salon in the Upper town, at the house of the old Comtesse + de Breautey. + </p> + <p> + During the first six months of their transplantation, the Rogrons, favored + by their former acquaintance with several of these people, were received, + first by Madame Julliard the elder, and by the former Madame Guenee, now + Madame Galardon (from whom they had bought their business), and next, + after a good deal of difficulty, by Madame Tiphaine. All parties wished to + study the Rogrons before admitting them. It was difficult, of course, to + keep out merchants of the rue Saint-Denis, originally from Provins, who + had returned to the town to spend their fortunes. Still, the object of all + society is to amalgamate persons of equal wealth, education, manners, + customs, accomplishments, and character. Now the Guepins, Guenees, and + Julliards had a better position among the bourgeoisie than the Rogrons, + whose father had been held in contempt on account of his private life, and + his conduct in the matter of the Auffray property,—the facts of + which were known to the notary Auffray, Madame Galardon’s son-in-law. + </p> + <p> + In the social life of these people, to which Madame Tiphaine had given a + certain tone of elegance, all was homogeneous; the component parts + understood each other, knew each other’s characters, and behaved and + conversed in a manner that was agreeable to all. The Rogrons flattered + themselves that being received by Monsieur Garceland, the mayor, they + would soon be on good terms with all the best families in the town. Sylvie + applied herself to learn boston. Rogron, incapable of playing a game, + twirled his thumbs and had nothing to say except to discourse on his new + house. Words seemed to choke him; he would get up, try to speak, become + frightened, and sit down again, with comical distortion of the lips. + Sylvie naively betrayed her natural self at cards. Sharp, irritable, + whining when she lost, insolent when she won, nagging and quarrelsome, she + annoyed her partners as much as her adversaries, and became the scourge of + society. And yet, possessed by a silly, unconcealed ambition, Rogron and + his sister were bent on playing a part in the society of a little town + already in possession of a close corporation of twelve allied families. + Allowing that the restoration of their house had cost them thirty thousand + francs, the brother and sister possessed between them at least ten + thousand francs a year. This they considered wealth, and with it they + endeavored to impress society, which immediately took the measure of their + vulgarity, crass ignorance, and foolish envy. On the evening when they + were presented to the beautiful Madame Tiphaine, who had already eyed them + at Madame Garceland’s and at Madame Julliard the elder’s, the queen of the + town remarked to Julliard junior, who stayed a few moments after the rest + of the company to talk with her and her husband:— + </p> + <p> + “You all seem to be taken with those Rogrons.” + </p> + <p> + “No, no,” said Amadis, “they bore my mother and annoy my wife. When + Mademoiselle Sylvie was apprenticed, thirty years ago, to my father, none + of them could endure her.” + </p> + <p> + “I have a great mind,” said Madame Tiphaine, putting her pretty foot on + the bar of the fender, “to make it understood that my salon is not an + inn.” + </p> + <p> + Julliard raised his eyes to the ceiling, as if to say, “Good heavens? what + wit, what intellect!” + </p> + <p> + “I wish my society to be select; and it certainly will not be if I admit + those Rogrons.” + </p> + <p> + “They have neither heart, nor mind, nor manners”; said Monsieur Tiphaine. + “If, after selling thread for twenty years, as my sister did for example—” + </p> + <p> + “Your sister, my dear,” said his wife in a parenthesis, “cannot be out of + place in any salon.” + </p> + <p> + “—if,” he continued, “people are stupid enough not to throw off the + shop and polish their manners, if they don’t know any better than to + mistake the Counts of Champagne for the <i>accounts</i> of a wine-shop, as + Rogron did this evening, they had better, in my opinion, stay at home.” + </p> + <p> + “They are simply impudent,” said Julliard. “To hear them talk you would + suppose there was no other handsome house in Provins but theirs. They want + to crush us; and after all, they have hardly enough to live on.” + </p> + <p> + “If it was only the brother,” said Madame Tiphaine, “one might put up with + him; he is not so aggressive. Give him a Chinese puzzle and he will stay + in a corner quietly enough; it would take him a whole winter to find it + out. But Mademoiselle Sylvie, with that voice like a hoarse hyena and + those lobster-claws of hands! Don’t repeat all this, Julliard.” + </p> + <p> + When Julliard had departed the little woman said to her husband:— + </p> + <p> + “I have aborigines enough whom I am forced to receive; these two will + fairly kill me. With your permission, I shall deprive myself of their + society.” + </p> + <p> + “You are mistress in your own house,” replied he; “but that will make + enemies. The Rogrons will fling themselves into the opposition, which + hitherto has had no real strength in Provins. That Rogron is already + intimate with Baron Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet.” + </p> + <p> + “Then,” said Melanie, laughing, “they will do you some service. Where + there are no opponents, there is no triumph. A liberal conspiracy, an + illegal cabal, a struggle of any kind, will bring you into the + foreground.” + </p> + <p> + The justice looked at his young wife with a sort of alarmed admiration. + </p> + <p> + The next day it was whispered about that the Rogrons had not altogether + succeeded in Madame Tiphaine’s salon. That lady’s speech about an inn was + immensely admired. It was a whole month before she returned Mademoiselle + Sylvie’s visit. Insolence of this kind is very much noticed in the + provinces. + </p> + <p> + During the evening which Sylvie had spent at Madame Tiphaine’s a + disagreeable scene occurred between herself and old Madame Julliard while + playing boston, apropos of a trick which Sylvie declared the old lady had + made her lose on purpose; for the old maid, who liked to trip others, + could never endure the same game on herself. The next time she was invited + out the mistress took care to make up the card-tables before she arrived; + so that Sylvie was reduced to wandering from table to table as an + onlooker, the players glancing at her with scornful eyes. At Madame + Julliard senior’s house, they played whist, a game Sylvie did not know. + </p> + <p> + The old maid at last understood that she was under a ban; but she had no + conception of the reason of it. She fancied herself an object of jealousy + to all these persons. After a time she and her brother received no + invitations, but they still persisted in paying evening visits. Satirical + persons made fun of them,—not spitefully, but amusingly; inveigling + them to talk absurdly about the eggs in their cornice, and their wonderful + cellar of wine, the like of which was not in Provins. + </p> + <p> + Before long the Rogron house was completely finished, and the brother and + sister then resolved to give several sumptuous dinners, as much to return + the civilities they had received as to exhibit their luxury. The invited + guests accepted from curiosity only. The first dinner was given to the + leading personages of the town; to Monsieur and Madame Tiphaine, with + whom, however the Rogrons had never dined; to Monsieur and Madame + Julliard, senior and junior; to Monsieur Lesourd, Monsieur le cure, and + Monsieur and Madame Galardon. It was one of those interminable provincial + dinners, where you sit at table from five to nine o’clock. Madame Tiphaine + had introduced into Provins the Parisian custom of taking leave as soon as + coffee had been served. On this occasion she had company at home and was + anxious to get away. The Rogrons accompanied her husband and herself to + the street door, and when they returned to the salon, disconcerted at not + being able to keep their chief guests, the rest of the party were + preparing to imitate Madame Tiphaine’s fashion with cruel provincial + promptness. + </p> + <p> + “They won’t see our salon lighted up,” said Sylvie, “and that’s the show + of the house.” + </p> + <p> + The Rogrons had counted on surprising their guests. It was the first time + any one had been admitted to the now celebrated house, and the company + assembled at Madame Tiphaine’s was eagerly awaiting her opinion of the + marvels of the “Rogron palace.” + </p> + <p> + “Well!” cried little Madame Martener, “you’ve seen the Louvre; tell us all + about it.” + </p> + <p> + “All? Well, it would be like the dinner,—not much.” + </p> + <p> + “But do describe it.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, to begin with, that front door, the gilded grating of which we have + all admired,” said Madame Tiphaine, “opens upon a long corridor which + divides the house unequally; on the right side there is one window, on the + other, two. At the garden end, the corridor opens with a glass door upon a + portico with steps to the lawn, where there’s a sun dial and a plaster + statue of Spartacus, painted to imitate bronze. Behind the kitchen, the + builder has put the staircase, and a sort of larder which we are spared + the sight of. The staircase, painted to imitate black marble with yellow + veins, turns upon itself like those you see in cafes leading from the + ground-floor to the entresol. The balustrade, of walnut with brass + ornaments and dangerously slight, was pointed out to us as one of the + seven wonders of the world. The cellar stairs run under it. On the other + side of the corridor is the dining-room, which communicates by + folding-doors with a salon of equal size, the windows of which look on the + garden.” + </p> + <p> + “Dear me, is there no ante-chamber?” asked Madame Auffray. + </p> + <p> + “The corridor, full of draughts, answers for an ante-chamber,” replied + Madame Tiphaine. “Our friends have had, they assured us, the eminently + national, liberal, constitutional, and patriotic feeling to use none but + French woods in the house; so the floor in the dining-room is chestnut, + the sideboards, tables, and chairs, of the same. White calico + window-curtains, with red borders, are held back by vulgar red straps; + these magnificent draperies run on wooden curtain rods ending in brass + lion’s-paws. Above one of the sideboards hangs a dial suspended by a sort + of napkin in gilded bronze,—an idea that seemed to please the + Rogrons hugely. They tried to make me admire the invention; all I could + manage to say was that if it was ever proper to wrap a napkin round a dial + it was certainly in a dining-room. On the sideboard were two huge lamps + like those on the counter of a restaurant. Above the other sideboard hung + a barometer, excessively ornate, which seems to play a great part in their + existence; Rogron gazed at it as he might at his future wife. Between the + two windows is a white porcelain stove in a niche overloaded with + ornament. The walls glow with a magnificent paper, crimson and gold, such + as you see in the same restaurants, where, no doubt, the Rogrons chose it. + Dinner was served on white and gold china, with a dessert service of light + blue with green flowers, but they showed us another service in earthenware + for everyday use. Opposite to each sideboard was a large cupboard + containing linen. All was clean, new, and horribly sharp in tone. However, + I admit the dining-room; it has some character, though disagreeable; it + represents that of the masters of the house. But there is no enduring the + five engravings that hang on the walls; the Minister of the Interior ought + really to frame a law against them. One was Poniatowski jumping into the + Elster; the others, Napoleon pointing a cannon, the defence at Clichy, and + the two Mazepas, all in gilt frames of the vulgarest description,—fit + to carry off the prize of disgust. Oh! how much I prefer Madame Julliard’s + pastels of fruit, those excellent Louis XV. pastels, which are in keeping + with the old dining-room and its gray panels,—defaced by age, it is + true, but they possess the true provincial characteristics that go well + with old family silver, precious china, and our simple habits. The + provinces are provinces; they are only ridiculous when they mimic Paris. I + prefer this old salon of my husband’s forefathers, with its heavy curtains + of green and white damask, the Louis XV. mantelpiece, the twisted + pier-glasses, the old mirrors with their beaded mouldings, and the + venerable card tables. Yes, I prefer my old Sevres vases in royal blue, + mounted on copper, my clock with those impossible flowers, that rococco + chandelier, and the tapestried furniture, to all the finery of the Rogron + salon.” + </p> + <p> + “What is the salon like?” said Monsieur Martener, delighted with the + praise the handsome Parisian bestowed so adroitly on the provinces. + </p> + <p> + “As for the salon, it is all red,—the red Mademoiselle Sylvie turns + when she loses at cards.” + </p> + <p> + “Sylvan-red,” said Monsieur Tiphaine, whose sparkling saying long remained + in the vocabulary of Provins. + </p> + <p> + “Window-curtains, red; furniture, red; mantelpiece, red, veined yellow, + candelabra and clock ditto mounted on bronze, common and heavy in design,—Roman + standards with Greek foliage! Above the clock is that inevitable + good-natured lion which looks at you with a simper, the lion of + ornamentation, with a big ball under his feet, symbol of the decorative + lion, who passes his life holding a black ball,—exactly like a + deputy of the Left. Perhaps it is meant as a constitutional myth. The face + of the clock is curious. The glass over the chimney is framed in that new + fashion of applied mouldings which is so trumpery and vulgar. From the + ceiling hangs a chandelier carefully wrapped in green muslin, and rightly + too, for it is in the worst taste, the sharpest tint of bronze with + hideous ornaments. The walls are covered with a red flock paper to imitate + velvet enclosed in panels, each panel decorated with a chromo-lithograph + in one of those frames festooned with stucco flowers to represent + wood-carving. The furniture, in cashmere and elm-wood, consists, with + classic uniformity, of two sofas, two easy-chairs, two armchairs, and six + common chairs. A vase in alabaster, called a la Medicis, kept under glass + stands on a table between the windows; before the windows, which are + draped with magnificent red silk curtains and lace curtains under them, + are card-tables. The carpet is Aubusson, and you may be sure the Rogrons + did not fail to lay hands on that most vulgar of patterns, large flowers + on a red ground. The room looks as if no one ever lived there; there are + no books, no engravings, none of those little knick-knacks we all have + lying about,” added Madame Tiphaine, glancing at her own table covered + with fashionable trifles, albums, and little presents given to her by + friends; “and there are no flowers,—it is all cold and barren, like + Mademoiselle Sylvie herself. Buffon says the style is the man, and + certainly salons have styles of their own.” + </p> + <p> + From this sketch everybody can see the sort of house the brother and + sister lived in, though they can never imagine the absurdities into which + a clever builder dragged the ignorant pair,—new inventions, + fantastic ornaments, a system for preventing smoky chimneys, another for + preventing damp walls; painted marquetry panels on the staircase, colored + glass, superfine locks,—in short, all those vulgarities which make a + house expensive and gratify the bourgeois taste. + </p> + <p> + No one chose to visit the Rogrons, whose social plans thus came to + nothing. Their invitations were refused under various excuses,—the + evenings were already engaged to Madame Garceland and the other ladies of + the Provins world. The Rogrons had supposed that all that was required to + gain a position in society was to give a few dinners. But no one any + longer accepted them, except a few young men who went to make fun of their + host and hostess, and certain diners-out who went everywhere. + </p> + <p> + Frightened at the loss of forty thousand francs swallowed up without + profit in what she called her “dear house,” Sylvie now set to work to + recover it by economy. She gave no more dinners, which had cost her forty + or fifty francs without the wines, and did not fulfil her social hopes, + hopes that are as hard to realize in the provinces as in Paris. She sent + away her cook, took a country-girl to do the menial work, and did her own + cooking, as she said, “for pleasure.” + </p> + <p> + Fourteen months after their return to Provins, the brother and sister had + fallen into a solitary and wholly unoccupied condition. Their banishment + from society roused in Sylvie’s heart a dreadful hatred against the + Tiphaines, Julliards and all the other members of the social world of + Provins, which she called “the clique,” and with whom her personal + relations became extremely cold. She would gladly have set up a rival + clique, but the lesser bourgeoisie was made up of either small shopkeepers + who were only free on Sundays and fete-days, or smirched individuals like + the lawyer Vinet and Doctor Neraud, and wholly inadmissible Bonapartists + like Baron Gouraud, with whom, however, Rogron thoughtlessly allied + himself, though the upper bourgeoisie had warned him against them. + </p> + <p> + The brother and sister were, therefore, forced to sit by the fire of the + stove in the dining-room, talking over their former business, trying to + recall the faces of their customers and other matters they had intended to + forget. By the end of the second winter ennui weighed heavily on them. + They did not know how to get through each day; sometimes as they went to + bed the words escaped them, “There’s another over!” They dragged out the + morning by staying in bed, and dressing slowly. Rogron shaved himself + every day, examined his face, consulted his sister on any changes he + thought he saw there, argued with the servant about the temperature of his + hot water, wandered into the garden, looked to see if the shrubs were + budding, sat at the edge of the water where he had built himself a kiosk, + examined the joinery of his house,—had it sprung? had the walls + settled, the panels cracked? or he would come in fretting about a sick + hen, and complaining to his sister, who was nagging the servant as she set + the table, of the dampness which was coming out in spots upon the plaster. + The barometer was Rogron’s most useful bit of property. He consulted it at + all hours, tapped it familiarly like a friend, saying: “Vile weather!” to + which his sister would reply, “Pooh! it is only seasonable.” If any one + called to see him the excellence of that instrument was his chief topic of + conversation. + </p> + <p> + Breakfast took up some little time; with what deliberation those two human + beings masticated their food! Their digestions were perfect; cancer of the + stomach was not to be dreaded by them. They managed to get along till + twelve o’clock by reading the “Bee-hive” and the “Constitutionnel.” The + cost of subscribing to the Parisian paper was shared by Vinet the lawyer, + and Baron Gouraud. Rogron himself carried the paper to Gouraud, who had + been a colonel and lived on the square, and whose long yarns were Rogron’s + delight; the latter sometimes puzzled over the warnings he had received, + and asked himself how such a lively companion could be dangerous. He was + fool enough to tell the colonel he had been warned against him, and to + repeat all the “clique” had said. God knows how the colonel, who feared no + one, and was equally to be dreaded with pistols or a sword, gave tongue + about Madame Tiphaine and her Amadis, and the ministerialists of the Upper + town, persons capable of any villany to get places, and who counted the + votes at elections to suit themselves, etc. + </p> + <p> + About two o’clock Rogron started for a little walk. He was quite happy if + some shopkeeper standing on the threshold of his door would stop him and + say, “Well, pere Rogron, how goes it with <i>you</i>?” Then he would talk, + and ask for news, and gather all the gossip of the town. He usually went + as far as the Upper town, sometimes to the ravines, according to the + weather. Occasionally he would meet old men taking their walks abroad like + himself. Such meetings were joyful events to him. There happened to be in + Provins a few men weary of Parisian life, quiet scholars who lived with + their books. Fancy the bewilderment of the ignorant Rogron when he heard a + deputy-judge named Desfondrilles, more of an archaeologist than a + magistrate, saying to old Monsieur Martener, a really learned man, as he + pointed to the valley:— + </p> + <p> + “Explain to me why the idlers of Europe go to Spa instead of coming to + Provins, when the springs here have a superior curative value recognized + by the French faculty,—a potential worthy of the medicinal + properties of our roses.” + </p> + <p> + “That is one of the caprices of caprice,” said the old gentleman. + “Bordeaux wine was unknown a hundred years ago. Marechal de Richelieu, one + of the noted men of the last century, the French Alcibiades, was appointed + governor of Guyenne. His lungs were diseased, and, heaven knows why! the + wine of the country did him good and he recovered. Bordeaux instantly made + a hundred millions; the marshal widened its territory to Angouleme, to + Cahors,—in short, to over a hundred miles of circumference! it is + hard to tell where the Bordeaux vineyards end. And yet they haven’t + erected an equestrian statue to the marshal in Bordeaux!” + </p> + <p> + “Ah! if anything of that kind happens to Provins,” said Monsieur + Desfondrilles, “let us hope that somewhere in the Upper or Lower town they + will set up a bas-relief of the head of Monsieur Opoix, the re-discoverer + of the mineral waters of Provins.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear friend, the revival of Provins is impossible,” replied Monsieur + Martener; “the town was made bankrupt long ago.” + </p> + <p> + “What!” cried Rogron, opening his eyes very wide. + </p> + <p> + “It was once a capital, holding its own against Paris in the twelfth + century, when the Comtes de Champagne held their court here, just as King + Rene held his in Provence,” replied the man of learning; “for in those + days civilization, gaiety, poesy, elegance, and women, in short all social + splendors, were not found exclusively in Paris. It is as difficult for + towns and cities as it is for commercial houses to recover from ruin. + Nothing is left to us of the old Provins but the fragrance of our + historical glory and that of our roses,—and a sub-prefecture!” + </p> + <p> + “Ah! what mightn’t France be if she had only preserved her feudal + capitals!” said Desfondrilles. “Can sub-prefects replace the poetic, + gallant, warlike race of the Thibaults who made Provins what Ferrara was + to Italy, Weimar to Germany,—what Munich is trying to be to-day.” + </p> + <p> + “Was Provins ever a capital?” asked Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Why! where do you come from?” exclaimed the archaeologist. “Don’t you + know,” he added, striking the ground of the Upper town where they stood + with his cane, “don’t you know that the whole of this part of Provins is + built on catacombs?” + </p> + <p> + “Catacombs?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, catacombs, the extent and height of which are yet undiscovered. They + are like the naves of cathedrals, and there are pillars in them.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur is writing a great archaeological work to explain these strange + constructions,” interposed Monsieur Martener, seeing that the deputy-judge + was about to mount his hobby. + </p> + <p> + Rogron came home much comforted to know that his house was in the valley. + The crypts of Provins kept him occupied for a week in explorations, and + gave a topic of conversation to the unhappy celibates for many evenings. + </p> + <p> + In the course of these ramblings Rogron picked up various bits of + information about Provins, its inhabitants, their marriages, together with + stale political news; all of which he narrated to his sister. Scores of + times in his walks he would stop and say,—often to the same person + on the same day,—“Well, what’s the news?” When he reached home he + would fling himself on the sofa like a man exhausted with labor, whereas + he was only worn out with the burden of his own dulness. Dinner came at + last, after he had gone twenty times to the kitchen and back, compared the + clocks, and opened and shut all the doors of the house. So long as the + brother and sister could spend their evenings in paying visits they + managed to get along till bedtime; but after they were compelled to stay + at home those evenings became like a parching desert. Sometimes persons + passing through the quiet little square would hear unearthly noises as + though the brother were throttling the sister; a moment’s listening would + show that they were only yawning. These two human mechanisms, having + nothing to grind between their rusty wheels, were creaking and grating at + each other. The brother talked of marrying, but only in despair. He felt + old and weary; the thought of a woman frightened him. Sylvie, who began to + see the necessity of having a third person in the home, suddenly + remembered the little cousin, about whom no one in Provins had yet + inquired, the friends of Madame Lorrain probably supposing that mother and + child were both dead. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie Rogron never lost anything; she was too thoroughly an old maid even + to mislay the smallest article; but she pretended to have suddenly found + the Lorrains’ letter, so as to mention Pierrette naturally to her brother, + who was greatly pleased at the possibility of having a little girl in the + house. Sylvie replied to Madame Lorrain’s letter half affectionately, half + commercially, as one may say, explaining the delay by their change of + abode and the settlement of their affairs. She seemed desirous of + receiving her little cousin, and hinted that Pierrette would perhaps + inherit twelve thousand francs a year if her brother Jerome did not marry. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps it is necessary to have been, like Nebuchadnezzar, something of a + wild beast, and shut up in a cage at the Jardin des Plantes without other + prey than the butcher’s meat doled out by the keeper, or a retired + merchant deprived of the joys of tormenting his clerks, to understand the + impatience with which the brother and sister awaited the arrival of their + cousin Lorrain. Three days after the letter had gone, the pair were + already asking themselves when she would get there. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie perceived in her spurious benevolence towards her poor cousin a + means of recovering her position in the social world of Provins. She + accordingly went to call on Madame Tiphaine, of whose reprobation she was + conscious, in order to impart the fact of Pierrette’s approaching arrival,—deploring + the girl’s unfortunate position, and posing herself as being only too + happy to succor her and give her a position as daughter and future + heiress. + </p> + <p> + “You have been rather long in discovering her,” said Madame Tiphaine, with + a touch of sarcasm. + </p> + <p> + A few words said in a low voice by Madame Garceland, while the cards were + being dealt, recalled to the minds of those who heard her the shameful + conduct of old Rogron about the Auffray property; the notary explained the + iniquity. + </p> + <p> + “Where is the little girl now?” asked Monsieur Tiphaine, politely. + </p> + <p> + “In Brittany,” said Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Brittany is a large place,” remarked Monsieur Lesourd. + </p> + <p> + “Her grandfather and grandmother Lorrain wrote to us—when was that, + my dear?” said Rogron addressing his sister. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie, who was just then asking Madame Garceland where she had bought the + stuff for her gown, answered hastily, without thinking of the effect of + her words:— + </p> + <p> + “Before we sold the business.” + </p> + <p> + “And have you only just answered the letter, mademoiselle?” asked the + notary. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie turned as red as a live coal. + </p> + <p> + “We wrote to the Institution of Saint-Jacques,” remarked Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “That is a sort of hospital or almshouse for old people,” said Monsieur + Desfondrilles, who knew Nantes. “She can’t be there; they receive no one + under sixty.” + </p> + <p> + “She is there, with her grandmother Lorrain,” said Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Her mother had a little fortune, the eight thousand francs which your + father—no, I mean of course your grandfather—left to her,” + said the notary, making the blunder intentionally. + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” said Rogron, stupidly, not understanding the notary’s sarcasm. + </p> + <p> + “Then you know nothing about your cousin’s position or means?” asked + Monsieur Tiphaine. + </p> + <p> + “If Monsieur Rogron had known it,” said the deputy-judge, “he would never + have left her all this time in an establishment of that kind. I remember + now that a house in Nantes belonging to Monsieur and Madame Lorrain was + sold under an order of the court, and that Mademoiselle Lorrain’s claim + was swallowed up. I know this, for I was commissioner at the time.” + </p> + <p> + The notary spoke of Colonel Lorrain, who, had he lived, would have been + much amazed to know that his daughter was in such an institution. The + Rogrons beat a retreat, saying to each other that the world was very + malicious. Sylvie perceived that the news of her benevolence had missed + its effect,—in fact, she had lost ground in all minds; and she felt + that henceforth she was forbidden to attempt an intimacy with the upper + class of Provins. After this evening the Rogrons no longer concealed their + hatred of that class and all its adherents. The brother told the sister + the scandals that Colonel Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet had put into his + head about the Tiphaines, the Guenees, the Garcelands, the Julliards, and + others:— + </p> + <p> + “I declare, Sylvie, I don’t see why Madame Tiphaine should turn up her + nose at shopkeeping in the rue Saint-Denis; it is more honest than what + she comes from. Madame Roguin, her mother, is cousin to those Guillaumes + of the ‘Cat-playing-ball’ who gave up the business to Joseph Lebas, their + son-in-law. Her father is that Roguin who failed in 1819, and ruined the + house of Cesar Birotteau. Madame Tiphaine’s fortune was stolen,—for + what else are you to call it when a notary’s wife who is very rich lets + her husband make a fraudulent bankruptcy? Fine doings! and she marries her + daughter in Provins to get her out of the way,—all on account of her + own relations with du Tillet. And such people set up to be proud! Well, + well, that’s the world!” + </p> + <p> + On the day when Jerome Rogron and his sister began to declaim against “the + clique” they were, without being aware of it, on the road to having a + society of their own; their house was to become a rendezvous for other + interests seeking a centre,—those of the hitherto floating elements + of the liberal party in Provins. And this is how it came about: The launch + of the Rogrons in society had been watched with great curiosity by Colonel + Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet, two men drawn together, first by their + ostracism, next by their opinions. They both professed patriotism and for + the same reason,—they wished to become of consequence. The Liberals + in Provins were, so far, confined to one old soldier who kept a cafe, an + innkeeper, Monsieur Cournant a notary, Doctor Neraud, and a few stray + persons, mostly farmers or those who had bought lands of the public + domain. + </p> + <p> + The colonel and the lawyer, delighted to lay hands on a fool whose money + would be useful to their schemes, and who might himself, in certain cases, + be made to bell the cat, while his house would serve as a meeting-ground + for the scattered elements of the party, made the most of the Rogrons’ + ill-will against the upper classes of the place. The three had already a + slight tie in their united subscription to the “Constitutionnel”; it would + certainly not be difficult for the colonel to make a Liberal of the + ex-mercer, though Rogron knew so little of politics that he was capable of + regarding the exploits of Sergeant Mercier as those of a brother + shopkeeper. + </p> + <p> + The expected arrival of Pierrette brought to sudden fruition the selfish + ideas of the two men, inspired as they were by the folly and ignorance of + the celibates. Seeing that Sylvie had lost all chance of establishing + herself in the good society of the place, an afterthought came to the + colonel. Old soldiers have seen so many horrors in all lands, so many + grinning corpses on battle-fields, that no physiognomies repel them; and + Gouraud began to cast his eyes on the old maid’s fortune. This imperial + colonel, a short, fat man, wore enormous rings in ears that were bushy + with tufts of hair. His sparse and grizzled whiskers were called in 1799 + “fins.” His jolly red face was rather discolored, like those of all who + had lived to tell of the Beresina. The lower half of his big, pointed + stomach marked the straight line which characterizes a cavalry officer. + Gouraud had commanded the Second Hussars. His gray moustache hid a huge + blustering mouth,—if we may use a term which alone describes that + gulf. He did not eat his food, he engulfed it. A sabre cut had slit his + nose, by which his speech was made thick and very nasal, like that + attributed to Capuchins. His hands, which were short and broad, were of + the kind that make women say: “You have the hands of a rascal.” His legs + seemed slender for his torso. In that fat and active body an absolutely + lawless spirit disported itself, and a thorough experience of the things + of life, together with a profound contempt for social convention, lay + hidden beneath the apparent indifference of a soldier. Colonel Gouraud + wore the cross of an officer of the Legion of honor, and his emoluments + from that, together with his salary as a retired officer, gave him in all + about three thousand francs a year. + </p> + <p> + The lawyer, tall and thin, had liberal opinions in place of talent, and + his only revenue was the meagre profits of his office. In Provins lawyers + plead their own cases. The court was unfavorable to Vinet on account of + his opinions; consequently, even the farmers who were Liberals, when it + came to lawsuits preferred to employ some lawyer who was more congenial to + the judges. Vinet was regarded with disfavor in other ways. He was said to + have seduced a rich girl in the neighborhood of Coulommiers, and thus have + forced her parents to marry her to him. Madame Vinet was a Chargeboeuf, an + old and noble family of La Brie, whose name comes from the exploit of a + squire during the expedition of Saint Louis to Egypt. She incurred the + displeasure of her father and mother, who arranged, unknown to Vinet, to + leave their entire fortune to their son, doubtless charging him privately, + to pay over a portion of it to his sister’s children. + </p> + <p> + Thus the first bold effort of the ambitious man was a failure. Pursued by + poverty, and ashamed not to give his wife the means of making a suitable + appearance, he had made desperate efforts to enter public life, but the + Chargeboeuf family refused him their influence. These Royalists + disapproved, on moral grounds, of his forced marriage; besides, he was + named Vinet, and how could they be expected to protect a plebian? Thus he + was driven from branch to branch when he tried to get some good out of his + marriage. Repulsed by every one, filled with hatred for the family of his + wife, for the government which denied him a place, for the social world of + Provins, which refused to admit him, Vinet submitted to his fate; but his + gall increased. He became a Liberal in the belief that his fortune might + yet be made by the triumph of the opposition, and he lived in a miserable + little house in the Upper town from which his wife seldom issued. Madame + Vinet had found no one to defend her since her marriage except an old + Madame de Chargeboeuf, a widow with one daughter, who lived at Troyes. The + unfortunate young woman, destined for better things, was absolutely alone + in her home with a single child. + </p> + <p> + There are some kinds of poverty which may be nobly accepted and gaily + borne; but Vinet, devoured by ambition, and feeling himself guilty towards + his wife, was full of darkling rage; his conscience grew elastic; and he + finally came to think any means of success permissible. His young face + changed. Persons about the courts were sometimes frightened as they looked + at his viperish, flat head, his slit mouth, his eyes gleaming through + glasses, and heard his sharp, persistent voice which rasped their nerves. + His muddy skin, with its sickly tones of green and yellow, expressed the + jaundice of his balked ambition, his perpetual disappointments and his + hidden wretchedness. He could talk and argue; he was well-informed and + shrewd, and was not without smartness and metaphor. Accustomed to look at + everything from the standpoint of his own success, he was well fitted for + a politician. A man who shrinks from nothing so long as it is legal, is + strong; and Vinet’s strength lay there. + </p> + <p> + This future athlete of parliamentary debate, who was destined to share in + proclaiming the dynasty of the house of Orleans had a terrible influence + on Pierrette’s fate. At the present moment he was bent on making for + himself a weapon by founding a newspaper at Provins. After studying the + Rogrons at a distance (the colonel aiding him) he had come to the + conclusion that the brother might be made useful. This time he was not + mistaken; his days of poverty were over, after seven wretched years, when + even his daily bread was sometimes lacking. The day when Gouraud told him + in the little square that the Rogrons had finally quarrelled with the + bourgeois aristocracy of the Upper town, he nudged the colonel in the ribs + significantly, and said, with a knowing look:— + </p> + <p> + “One woman or another—handsome or ugly—<i>you</i> don’t care; + marry Mademoiselle Rogron and we can organize something at once.” + </p> + <p> + “I have been thinking of it,” replied Gouraud, “but the fact is they have + sent for the daughter of Colonel Lorrain, and she’s their next of kin.” + </p> + <p> + “You can get them to make a will in your favor. Ha! you would get a very + comfortable house.” + </p> + <p> + “As for the little girl—well, well, let’s see her,” said the + colonel, with a leering and thoroughly wicked look, which proved to a man + of Vinet’s quality how little respect the old trooper could feel for any + girl. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. PIERRETTE + </h2> + <p> + After her grandfather and grandmother entered the sort of hospital in + which they sadly expected to end their days, Pierrette, being young and + proud, suffered so terribly at living there on charity that she was + thankful when she heard she had rich relations. When Brigaut, the son of + her mother’s friend the major, and the companion of her childhood, who was + learning his trade as a cabinet-maker at Nantes, heard of her departure he + offered her the money to pay her way to Paris in the diligence,—sixty + francs, the total of his <i>pour-boires</i> as an apprentice, slowly + amassed, and accepted by Pierrette with the sublime indifference of true + affection, showing that in a like case she herself would be affronted by + thanks. + </p> + <p> + Brigaut was in the habit of going every Sunday to Saint-Jacques to play + with Pierrette and try to console her. The vigorous young workman knew the + dear delight of bestowing a complete and devoted protection on an object + involuntarily chosen by his heart. More than once he and Pierrette, + sitting on Sundays in a corner of the garden, had embroidered the veil of + the future with their youthful projects; the apprentice, armed with his + plane, scoured the world to make their fortune, while Pierrette waited. + </p> + <p> + In October, 1824, when the child had completed her eleventh year, she was + entrusted by the two old people and by Brigaut, all three sorrowfully sad, + to the conductor of the diligence from Nantes to Paris, with an entreaty + to put her safely on the diligence from Paris to Provins and to take good + care of her. Poor Brigaut! he ran like a dog after the coach looking at + his dear Pierrette as long as he was able. In spite of her signs he ran + over three miles, and when at last he was exhausted his eyes, wet with + tears, still followed her. She, too, was crying when she saw him no longer + running by her, and putting her head out of the window she watched him, + standing stock-still and looking after her, as the lumbering vehicle + disappeared. + </p> + <p> + The Lorrains and Brigaut knew so little of life that the girl had not a + penny when she arrived in Paris. The conductor, to whom she had mentioned + her rich friends, paid her expenses at the hotel, and made the conductor + of the Provins diligence pay him, telling him to take good care of the + girl and to see that the charges were paid by the family, exactly as + though she were a case of goods. Four days after her departure from + Nantes, about nine o’clock of a Monday night, a kind old conductor of the + Messageries-royales, took Pierrette by the hand, and while the porters + were discharging in the Grand’Rue the packages and passengers for Provins, + he led the little girl, whose only baggage was a bundle containing two + dresses, two chemises, and two pairs of stockings, to Mademoiselle + Rogron’s house, which was pointed out to him by the director at the coach + office. + </p> + <p> + “Good-evening, mademoiselle and the rest of the company. I’ve brought you + a cousin, and here she is; and a nice little girl too, upon my word. You + have forty-seven francs to pay me, and sign my book.” + </p> + <p> + Mademoiselle Sylvie and her brother were dumb with pleasure and amazement. + </p> + <p> + “Excuse me,” said the conductor, “the coach is waiting. Sign my book and + pay me forty-seven francs, sixty centimes, and whatever you please for + myself and the conductor from Nantes; we’ve taken care of the little girl + as if she were our own; and paid for her beds and her food, also her fare + to Provins, and other little things.” + </p> + <p> + “Forty-seven francs, twelve sous!” said Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “You are not going to dispute it?” cried the man. + </p> + <p> + “Where’s the bill?” said Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Bill! look at the book.” + </p> + <p> + “Stop talking, and pay him,” said Sylvie, “You see there’s nothing else to + be done.” + </p> + <p> + Rogron went to get the money, and gave the man forty-seven francs, twelve + sous. + </p> + <p> + “And nothing for my comrade and me?” said the conductor. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie took two francs from the depths of the old velvet bag which held + her keys. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, no,” said the man; “keep ‘em yourself. We would rather care + for the little one for her own sake.” He picked up his book and departed, + saying to the servant-girl: “What a pair! it seems there are crocodiles + out of Egypt!” + </p> + <p> + “Such men are always brutal,” said Sylvie, who overhead the words. + </p> + <p> + “They took good care of the little girl, anyhow,” said Adele with her + hands on her hips. + </p> + <p> + “We don’t have to live with him,” remarked Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Where’s the little one to sleep?” asked Adele. + </p> + <p> + Such was the arrival of Pierrette Lorrain in the home of her cousins, who + gazed at her with stolid eyes; she was tossed to them like a package, with + no intermediate state between the wretched chamber at Saint-Jacques and + the dining-room of her cousins, which seemed to her a palace. She was shy + and speechless. To all other eyes than those of the Rogrons the little + Breton girl would have seemed enchanting as she stood there in her + petticoat of coarse blue flannel, with a pink cambric apron, thick shoes, + blue stockings, and a white kerchief, her hands being covered by red + worsted mittens edged with white, bought for her by the conductor. Her + dainty Breton cap (which had been washed in Paris, for the journey from + Nantes had rumpled it) was like a halo round her happy little face. This + national cap, of the finest lawn, trimmed with stiffened lace pleated in + flat folds, deserves description, it was so dainty and simple. The light + coming through the texture and the lace produced a partial shadow, the + soft shadow of a light upon the skin, which gave her the virginal grace + that all painters seek and Leopold Robert found for the Raffaelesque face + of the woman who holds a child in his picture of “The Gleaners.” Beneath + this fluted frame of light sparkled a white and rosy and artless face, + glowing with vigorous health. The warmth of the room brought the blood to + the cheeks, to the tips of the pretty ears, to the lips and the end of the + delicate nose, making the natural white of the complexion whiter still. + </p> + <p> + “Well, are you not going to say anything? I am your cousin Sylvie, and + that is your cousin Rogron.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you want something to eat?” asked Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “When did you leave Nantes?” asked Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Is she dumb?” said Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Poor little dear, she has hardly any clothes,” cried Adele, who had + opened the child’s bundle, tied up in a handkerchief of the old Lorrains. + </p> + <p> + “Kiss your cousin,” said Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette kissed Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Kiss your cousin,” said Rogron. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette kissed Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “She is tired out with her journey, poor little thing; she wants to go to + sleep,” said Adele. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette was overcome with a sudden and invincible aversion for her two + relatives,—a feeling that no one had ever before excited in her. + Sylvie and the maid took her up to bed in the room where Brigaut + afterwards noticed the white cotton curtain. In it was a little bed with a + pole painted blue, from which hung a calico curtain; a walnut bureau + without a marble top, a small table, a looking-glass, a very common + night-table without a door, and three chairs completed the furniture of + the room. The walls, which sloped in front, were hung with a shabby paper, + blue with black flowers. The tiled floor, stained red and polished, was + icy to the feet. There was no carpet except for a strip at the bedside. + The mantelpiece of common marble was adorned by a mirror, two candelabra + in copper-gilt, and a vulgar alabaster cup in which two pigeons, forming + handles, were drinking. + </p> + <p> + “You will be comfortable here, my little girl?” said Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it’s beautiful!” said the child, in her silvery voice. + </p> + <p> + “She’s not difficult to please,” muttered the stout servant. “Sha’n’t I + warm her bed?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Sylvie, “the sheets may be damp.” + </p> + <p> + Adele brought one of her own night-caps when she returned with the + warming-pan, and Pierrette, who had never slept in anything but the + coarsest linen sheets, was amazed at the fineness and softness of the + cotton ones. When she was fairly in bed and tucked up, Adele, going + downstairs with Sylvie, could not refrain from saying, “All she has isn’t + worth three francs, mademoiselle.” + </p> + <p> + Ever since her economical regime began, Sylvie had compelled the maid to + sit in the dining-room so that one fire and one lamp could do for all; + except when Colonel Gouraud and Vinet came, on which occasions Adele was + sent to the kitchen. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette’s arrival enlivened the rest of the evening. + </p> + <p> + “We must get her some clothes to-morrow,” said Sylvie; “she has absolutely + nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “No shoes but those she had on, which weigh a pound,” said Adele. + </p> + <p> + “That’s always so, in their part of the country,” remarked Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “How she looked at her room! though it really isn’t handsome enough for a + cousin of yours, mademoiselle.” + </p> + <p> + “It is good enough; hold your tongue,” said Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Gracious, what chemises! coarse enough to scratch her skin off; not a + thing can she use here,” said Adele, emptying the bundle. + </p> + <p> + Master, mistress, and servant were busy till past ten o’clock, deciding + what cambric they should buy for the new chemises, how many pairs of + stockings, how many under-petticoats, and what material, and in reckoning + up the whole cost of Pierrette’s outfit. + </p> + <p> + “You won’t get off under three hundred francs,” said Rogron, who could + remember the different prices, and add them up from his former + shop-keeping habit. + </p> + <p> + “Three hundred francs!” cried Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, three hundred. Add it up.” + </p> + <p> + The brother and sister went over the calculation once more, and found the + cost would be fully three hundred francs, not counting the making. + </p> + <p> + “Three hundred francs at one stroke!” said Sylvie to herself as she got + into bed. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + Pierrette was one of those children of love whom love endows with its + tenderness, its vivacity, its gaiety, its nobility, its devotion. Nothing + had so far disturbed or wounded a heart that was delicate as that of a + fawn, but which was now painfully repressed by the cold greeting of her + cousins. If Brittany had been full of outward misery, at least it was full + of love. The old Lorrains were the most incapable of merchants, but they + were also the most loving, frank, caressing, of friends, like all who are + incautious and free from calculation. Their little granddaughter had + received no other education at Pen-Hoel than that of nature. Pierrette + went where she liked, in a boat on the pond, or roaming the village and + the fields with Jacques Brigaut, her comrade, exactly as Paul and Virginia + might have done. Petted by everybody, free as air, they gaily chased the + joys of childhood. In summer they ran to watch the fishing, they caught + the many-colored insects, they gathered flowers, they gardened; in winter + they made slides, they built snow-men or huts, or pelted each other with + snowballs. Welcomed by all, they met with smiles wherever they went. + </p> + <p> + When the time came to begin their education, disasters came, too. Jacques, + left without means at the death of his father, was apprenticed by his + relatives to a cabinet-maker, and fed by charity, as Pierrette was soon to + be at Saint-Jacques. Until the little girl was taken with her grandparents + to that asylum, she had known nothing but fond caresses and protection + from every one. Accustomed to confide in so much love, the little darling + missed in these rich relatives, so eagerly desired, the kindly looks and + ways which all the world, even strangers and the conductors of the + coaches, had bestowed upon her. Her bewilderment, already great, was + increased by the moral atmosphere she had entered. The heart turns + suddenly cold or hot like the body. The poor child wanted to cry, without + knowing why; but being very tired she went to sleep. + </p> + <p> + The next morning, Pierrette being, like all country children, accustomed + to get up early, was awake two hours before the cook. She dressed herself, + stepping on tiptoe about her room, looked out at the little square, + started to go downstairs and was struck with amazement by the beauties of + the staircase. She stopped to examine all its details: the painted walls, + the brasses, the various ornamentations, the window fixtures. Then she + went down to the garden-door, but was unable to open it, and returned to + her room to wait until Adele should be stirring. As soon as the woman went + to the kitchen Pierrette flew to the garden and took possession of it, ran + to the river, was amazed at the kiosk, and sat down in it; truly, she had + enough to see and to wonder at until her cousins were up. At breakfast + Sylvie said to her:— + </p> + <p> + “Was it you, little one, who was trotting over my head by daybreak, and + making that racket on the stairs? You woke me so that I couldn’t go to + sleep again. You must be very good and quiet, and amuse yourself without + noise. Your cousin doesn’t like noise.” + </p> + <p> + “And you must wipe your feet,” said Rogron. “You went into the kiosk with + your dirty shoes, and they’ve tracked all over the floor. Your cousin + likes cleanliness. A great girl like you ought to be clean. Weren’t you + clean in Brittany? But I recollect when I went down there to buy thread it + was pitiable to see the folks,—they were like savages. At any rate + she has a good appetite,” added Rogron, looking at his sister; “one would + think she hadn’t eaten anything for days.” + </p> + <p> + Thus, from the very start Pierrette was hurt by the remarks of her two + cousins,—hurt, she knew not why. Her straightforward, open nature, + hitherto left to itself, was not given to reflection. Incapable of + thinking that her cousins were hard, she was fated to find it out slowly + through suffering. After breakfast the brother and sister, pleased with + Pierrette’s astonishment at the house and anxious to enjoy it, took her to + the salon to show her its splendors and teach her not to touch them. Many + celibates, driven by loneliness and the moral necessity of caring for + something, substitute factitious affections for natural ones; they love + dogs, cats, canaries, servants, or their confessor. Rogron and Sylvie had + come to the pass of loving immoderately their house and furniture, which + had cost them so dear. Sylvie began by helping Adele in the mornings to + dust and arrange the furniture, under pretence that she did not know how + to keep it looking as good as new. This dusting was soon a desired + occupation to her, and the furniture, instead of losing its value in her + eyes, became ever more precious. To use things without hurting them or + soiling them or scratching the woodwork or clouding the varnish, that was + the problem which soon became the mania of the old maid’s life. Sylvie had + a closet full of bits of wool, wax, varnish, and brushes, which she had + learned to use with the dexterity of a cabinet-maker; she had her feather + dusters and her dusting-cloths; and she rubbed away without fear of + hurting herself,—she was so strong. The glance of her cold blue + eyes, hard as steel, was forever roving over the furniture and under it, + and you could as soon have found a tender spot in her heart as a bit of + fluff under the sofa. + </p> + <p> + After the remarks made at Madame Tiphaine’s, Sylvie dared not flinch from + the three hundred francs for Pierrette’s clothes. During the first week + her time was wholly taken up, and Pierrette’s too, by frocks to order and + try on, chemises and petticoats to cut out and have made by a seamstress + who went out by the day. Pierrette did not know how to sew. + </p> + <p> + “That’s pretty bringing up!” said Rogron. “Don’t you know how to do + anything, little girl?” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette, who knew nothing but how to love, made a pretty, childish + gesture. + </p> + <p> + “What did you do in Brittany?” asked Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “I played,” she answered, naively. “Everybody played with me. Grandmamma + and grandpapa they told me stories. Ah! they all loved me!” + </p> + <p> + “Hey!” said Rogron; “didn’t you take it easy!” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette opened her eyes wide, not comprehending. + </p> + <p> + “She is as stupid as an owl,” said Sylvie to Mademoiselle Borain, the best + seamstress in Provins. + </p> + <p> + “She’s so young,” said the workwoman, looking kindly at Pierrette, whose + delicate little muzzle was turned up to her with a coaxing look. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette preferred the sewing-women to her relations. She was endearing + in her ways with them, she watched their work, and made them those pretty + speeches that seem like the flowers of childhood, and which her cousin had + already silenced, for that gaunt woman loved to impress those under her + with salutary awe. The sewing-women were delighted with Pierrette. Their + work, however, was not carried on without many and loud grumblings. + </p> + <p> + “That child will make us pay through the nose!” cried Sylvie to her + brother. + </p> + <p> + “Stand still, my dear, and don’t plague us; it is all for you and not for + me,” she would say to Pierrette when the child was being measured. + Sometimes it was, when Pierrette would ask the seamstress some question, + “Let Mademoiselle Borain do her work, and don’t talk to her; it is not you + who are paying for her time.” + </p> + <p> + “Mademoiselle,” said Mademoiselle Borain, “am I to back-stitch this?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, do it firmly; I don’t want to be making such an outfit as this every + day.” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie put the same spirit of emulation into Pierrette’s outfit that she + had formerly put into the house. She was determined that her cousin should + be as well dressed as Madame Garceland’s little girl. She bought the child + fashionable boots of bronzed kid like those the little Tiphaines wore, + very fine cotton stockings, a corset by the best maker, a dress of blue + reps, a pretty cape lined with white silk,—all this that she, + Sylvie, might hold her own against the children of the women who had + rejected her. The underclothes were quite in keeping with the visible + articles of dress, for Sylvie feared the examining eyes of the various + mothers. Pierrette’s chemises were of fine Madapolam calico. Mademoiselle + Borain had mentioned that the sub-prefect’s little girls wore cambric + drawers, embroidered and trimmed in the latest style. Pierrette had the + same. Sylvie ordered for her a charming little drawn bonnet of blue velvet + lined with white satin, precisely like the one worn by Dr. Martener’s + little daughter. + </p> + <p> + Thus attired, Pierrette was the most enchanting little girl in all + Provins. On Sunday, after church, all the ladies kissed her; Mesdames + Tiphaine, Garceland, Galardon, Julliard, and the rest fell in love with + the sweet little Breton girl. This enthusiasm was deeply flattering to old + Sylvie’s self-love; she regarded it as less due to Pierrette than to her + own benevolence. She ended, however, in being affronted by her cousin’s + success. Pierrette was constantly invited out, and Sylvie allowed her to + go, always for the purpose of triumphing over “those ladies.” Pierrette + was much in demand for games or little parties and dinners with their own + little girls. She had succeeded where the Rogrons had failed; and + Mademoiselle Sylvie soon grew indignant that Pierrette was asked to other + children’s houses when those children never came to hers. The artless + little thing did not conceal the pleasure she found in her visits to these + ladies, whose affectionate manners contrasted strangely with the harshness + of her two cousins. A mother would have rejoiced in the happiness of her + little one, but the Rogrons had taken Pierrette for their own sakes, not + for hers; their feelings, far from being parental, were dyed in + selfishness and a sort of commercial calculation. + </p> + <p> + The handsome outfit, the fine Sunday dresses, and the every-day frocks + were the beginning of Pierrette’s troubles. Like all children free to + amuse themselves, who are accustomed to follow the dictates of their own + lively fancies, she was very hard on her clothes, her shoes, and above all + on those embroidered drawers. A mother when she reproves her child thinks + only of the child; her voice is gentle; she does not raise it unless + driven to extremities, or when the child is much in fault. But here, in + this great matter of Pierrette’s clothes, the cousins’ money was the first + consideration; their interests were to be thought of, not the child’s. + Children have the perceptions of the canine race for the sentiments of + those who rule them; they know instinctively whether they are loved or + only tolerated. Pure and innocent hearts are more distressed by shades of + difference than by contrasts; a child does not understand evil, but it + knows when the instinct of the good and the beautiful which nature has + implanted in it is shocked. The lectures which Pierrette now drew upon + herself on propriety of behavior, modesty, and economy were merely the + corollary of the one theme, “Pierrette will ruin us.” + </p> + <p> + These perpetual fault-findings, which were destined to have a fatal result + for the poor child, brought the two celibates back to the old beaten track + of their shop-keeping habits, from which their removal to Provins had + parted them, and in which their natures were now to expand and flourish. + Accustomed in the old days to rule and to make inquisitions, to order + about and reprove their clerks sharply, Rogron and his sister had actually + suffered for want of victims. Little minds need to practise despotism to + relieve their nerves, just as great souls thirst for equality in + friendship to exercise their hearts. Narrow natures expand by persecuting + as much as others through beneficence; they prove their power over their + fellows by cruel tyranny as others do by loving kindness; they simply go + the way their temperaments drive them. Add to this the propulsion of + self-interest and you may read the enigma of most social matters. + </p> + <p> + Thenceforth Pierrette became a necessity to the lives of her cousins. From + the day of her coming their minds were occupied,—first, with her + outfit, and then with the novelty of a third presence. But every new + thing, a sentiment and even a tyranny, is moulded as time goes on into + fresh shapes. Sylvie began by calling Pierrette “my dear,” or “little + one.” Then she abandoned the gentler terms for “Pierrette” only. Her + reprimands, at first only cross, became sharp and angry; and no sooner + were their feet on the path of fault-finding than the brother and sister + made rapid strides. They were no longer bored to death! It was not their + deliberate intention to be wicked and cruel; it was simply the blind + instinct of an imbecile tyranny. The pair believed they were doing + Pierrette a service, just as they had thought their harshness a benefit to + their apprentices. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette, whose true and noble and extreme sensibility was the antipodes + of the Rogrons’ hardness, had a dread of being scolded; it wounded her so + sharply that the tears would instantly start in her beautiful, pure eyes. + She had a great struggle with herself before she could repress the + enchanting sprightliness which made her so great a favorite elsewhere. + After a time she displayed it only in the homes of her little friends. By + the end of the first month she had learned to be passive in her cousins’ + house,—so much so that Rogron one day asked her if she was ill. At + that sudden question, she ran to the end of the garden, and stood crying + beside the river, into which her tears may have fallen as she herself was + about to fall into the social torrent. + </p> + <p> + One day, in spite of all her care, she tore her best reps frock at Madame + Tiphaine’s, where she was spending a happy day. The poor child burst into + tears, foreseeing the cruel things which would be said to her at home. + Questioned by her friends, she let fall a few words about her terrible + cousin. Madame Tiphaine happened to have some reps exactly like that of + the frock, and she put in a new breadth herself. Mademoiselle Rogron found + out the trick, as she expressed it, which the little devil had played her. + From that day forth she refused to let Pierrette go to any of “those + women’s” houses. + </p> + <p> + The life the poor girl led in Provins was divided into three distinct + phases. The first, already shown, in which she had some joy mingled with + the cold kindness of her cousins and their sharp reproaches, lasted three + months. Sylvie’s refusal to let her go to her little friends, backed by + the necessity of beginning her education, ended the first phase of her + life at Provins, the only period when that life was bearable to her. + </p> + <p> + These events, produced at the Rogrons by Pierrette’s presence, were + studied by Vinet and the colonel with the caution of foxes preparing to + enter a poultry-yard and disturbed by seeing a strange fowl. They both + called from time to time,—but seldom, so as not to alarm the old + maid; they talked with Rogron under various pretexts, and made themselves + masters of his mind with an affectation of reserve and modesty which the + great Tartuffe himself would have respected. The colonel and the lawyer + were spending the evening with Rogron on the very day when Sylvie had + refused in bitter language to let Pierrette go again to Madame Tiphaine’s, + or elsewhere. Being told of this refusal the colonel and the lawyer looked + at each other with an air which seemed to say that they at least knew + Provins well. + </p> + <p> + “Madame Tiphaine intended to insult you,” said the lawyer. “We have long + been warning Rogron of what would happen. There’s no good to be got from + those people.” + </p> + <p> + “What can you expect from the anti-national party!” cried the colonel, + twirling his moustache and interrupting the lawyer. “But, mademoiselle, if + we had tried to warn you from those people you might have supposed we had + some malicious motive in what we said. If you like a game of cards in the + evening, why don’t you have it at home; why not play your boston here, in + your own house? Is it impossible to fill the places of those idiots, the + Julliards and all the rest of them? Vinet and I know how to play boston, + and we can easily find a fourth. Vinet might present his wife to you; she + is charming, and, what is more, a Chargeboeuf. You will not be so exacting + as those apes of the Upper town; <i>you</i> won’t require a good little + housewife, who is compelled by the meanness of her family to do her own + work, to dress like a duchess. Poor woman, she has the courage of a lion + and the meekness of a lamb.” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie Rogron showed her long yellow teeth as she smiled on the colonel, + who bore the sight heroically and assumed a flattered air. + </p> + <p> + “If we are only four we can’t play boston every night,” said Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Why not? What do you suppose an old soldier of the Empire like me does + with himself? And as for Vinet, his evenings are always free. Besides, + you’ll have plenty of other visitors; I warrant you that,” he added, with + a rather mysterious air. + </p> + <p> + “What you ought to do,” said Vinet, “is to take an open stand against the + ministerialists of Provins and form an opposition to them. You would soon + see how popular that would make you; you would have a society about you at + once. The Tiphaines would be furious at an opposition salon. Well, well, + why not laugh at others, if others laugh at you?—and they do; the + clique doesn’t mince matters in talking about you.” + </p> + <p> + “How’s that?” demanded Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + In the provinces there is always a valve or a faucet through which gossip + leaks from one social set to another. Vinet knew all the slurs cast upon + the Rogrons in the salons from which they were now excluded. The + deputy-judge and archaeologist Desfondrilles belonged to neither party. + With other independents like him, he repeated what he heard on both sides + and Vinet made the most of it. The lawyer’s spiteful tongue put venom into + Madame Tiphaine’s speeches, and by showing Rogron and Sylvie the ridicule + they had brought upon themselves he roused an undying spirit of hatred in + those bitter natures, which needed an object for their petty passions. + </p> + <p> + A few days later Vinet brought his wife, a well-bred woman, neither pretty + nor plain, timid, very gentle, and deeply conscious of her false position. + Madame Vinet was fair-complexioned, faded by the cares of her poor + household, and very simply dressed. No woman could have pleased Sylvie + more. Madame Vinet endured her airs, and bent before them like one + accustomed to subjection. On the poor woman’s rounded brow and delicately + timid cheek and in her slow and gentle glance, were the traces of deep + reflection, of those perceptive thoughts which women who are accustomed to + suffer bury in total silence. + </p> + <p> + The influence of the colonel (who now displayed to Sylvie the graces of a + courtier, in marked contradiction to his usual military brusqueness), + together with that of the astute Vinet, was soon to harm the Breton child. + Shut up in the house, no longer allowed to go out except in company with + her old cousin, Pierrette, that pretty little squirrel, was at the mercy + of the incessant cry, “Don’t touch that, child, let that alone!” She was + perpetually being lectured on her carriage and behavior; if she stooped or + rounded her shoulders her cousin would call to her to be as erect as + herself (Sylvie was rigid as a soldier presenting arms to his colonel); + sometimes indeed the ill-natured old maid enforced the order by slaps on + the back to make the girl straighten up. + </p> + <p> + Thus the free and joyous little child of the Marais learned by degrees to + repress all liveliness and to make herself, as best she could, an + automaton. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. HISTORY OF POOR COUSINS IN THE HOME OF RICH ONES + </h2> + <p> + One evening, which marked the beginning of Pierrette’s second phase of + life in her cousin’s house, the child, whom the three guests had not seen + during the evening, came into the room to kiss her relatives and say + good-night to the company. Sylvie turned her cheek coldly to the pretty + creature, as if to avoid kissing her. The motion was so cruelly + significant that the tears sprang to Pierrette’s eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Did you prick yourself, little girl?” said the atrocious Vinet. + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter?” asked Sylvie, severely. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing,” said the poor child, going up to Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing?” said Sylvie, “that’s nonsense; nobody cries for nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “What is it, my little darling?” said Madame Vinet. + </p> + <p> + “My rich cousin isn’t as kind to me as my poor grandmother was,” sobbed + Pierrette. + </p> + <p> + “Your grandmother took your money,” said Sylvie, “and your cousin will + leave you hers.” + </p> + <p> + The colonel and the lawyer glanced at each other. + </p> + <p> + “I would rather be robbed and loved,” said Pierrette. + </p> + <p> + “Then you shall be sent back whence you came.” + </p> + <p> + “But what has the dear little thing done?” asked Madame Vinet. + </p> + <p> + Vinet gave his wife the terrible, fixed, cold look with which men enforce + their absolute dominion. The hapless helot, punished incessantly for not + having the one thing that was wanted of her, a fortune, took up her cards. + </p> + <p> + “What has she done?” said Sylvie, throwing up her head with such violence + that the yellow wall-flowers in her cap nodded. “She is always looking + about to annoy us. She opened my watch to see the inside, and meddled with + the wheel and broke the mainspring. Mademoiselle pays no heed to what is + said to her. I am all day long telling her to take care of things, and I + might just as well talk to that lamp.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette, ashamed at being reproved before strangers, crept softly out of + the room. + </p> + <p> + “I am thinking all the time how to subdue that child,” said Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Isn’t she old enough to go to school?” asked Madame Vinet. + </p> + <p> + Again she was silenced by a look from her husband, who had been careful to + tell her nothing of his own or the colonel’s schemes. + </p> + <p> + “This is what comes of taking charge of other people’s children!” cried + the colonel. “You may still have some of your own, you or your brother. + Why don’t you both marry?” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie smiled agreeably on the colonel. For the first time in her life she + met a man to whom the idea that she could marry did not seem absurd. + </p> + <p> + “Madame Vinet is right,” cried Rogron; “perhaps teaching would keep + Pierrette quiet. A master wouldn’t cost much.” + </p> + <p> + The colonel’s remark so preoccupied Sylvie that she made no answer to her + brother. + </p> + <p> + “If you are willing to be security for that opposition journal I was + talking to you about,” said Vinet, “you will find an excellent master for + the little cousin in the managing editor; we intend to engage that poor + schoolmaster who lost his employment through the encroachments of the + clergy. My wife is right; Pierrette is a rough diamond that wants + polishing.” + </p> + <p> + “I thought you were a baron,” said Sylvie to the colonel, while the cards + were being dealt, and after a long pause in which they had all been rather + thoughtful. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; but when I was made baron, in 1814, after the battle of Nangis, + where my regiment performed miracles, I had money and influence enough to + secure the rank. But now my barony is like the grade of general which I + held in 1815,—it needs a revolution to give it back to me.” + </p> + <p> + “If you will secure my endorsement by a mortgage,” said Rogron, answering + Vinet after long consideration, “I will give it.” + </p> + <p> + “That can easily be arranged,” said Vinet. “The new paper will soon + restore the colonel’s rights, and make your salon more powerful in Provins + than those of Tiphaine and company.” + </p> + <p> + “How so?” asked Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + While his wife was dealing and Vinet himself explaining the importance + they would all gain by the publication of an independent newspaper, + Pierrette was dissolved in tears; her heart and her mind were one in this + matter; she felt and knew that her cousin was more to blame than she was. + The little country girl instinctively understood that charity and + benevolence ought to be a complete offering. She hated her handsome frocks + and all the things that were made for her; she was forced to pay too + dearly for such benefits. She wept with vexation at having given cause for + complaint against her, and resolved to behave in future in such a way as + to compel her cousins to find no further fault with her. The thought then + came into her mind how grand Brigaut had been in giving her all his + savings without a word. Poor child! she fancied her troubles were now at + their worst; she little knew that other misfortunes were even now being + planned for her in the salon. + </p> + <p> + A few days later Pierrette had a writing-master. She was taught to read, + write, and cipher. Enormous injury was thus supposed to be done to the + Rogrons’ house. Ink-spots were found on the tables, on the furniture, on + Pierrette’s clothes; copy-books and pens were left about; sand was + scattered everywhere, books were torn and dog’s-eared as the result of + these lessons. She was told in harsh terms that she would have to earn her + own living, and not be a burden to others. As she listened to these cruel + remarks Pierrette’s throat contracted violently with acute pain, her heart + throbbed. She was forced to restrain her tears, or she was scolded for + weeping and told it was an insult to the kindness of her magnanimous + cousins. Rogron had found the life that suited him. He scolded Pierrette + as he used to scold his clerks; he would call her when at play, and compel + her to study; he made her repeat her lessons, and became himself the + almost savage master of the poor child. Sylvie, on her side, considered it + a duty to teach Pierrette the little that she knew herself about women’s + work. Neither Rogron nor his sister had the slightest softness in their + natures. Their narrow minds, which found real pleasure in worrying the + poor child, passed insensibly from outward kindness to extreme severity. + This severity was necessitated, they believed, by what they called the + self-will of the child, which had not been broken when young and was very + obstinate. Her masters were ignorant how to give to their instructions a + form suited to the intelligence of the pupil,—a thing, by the bye, + which marks the difference between public and private education. The fault + was far less with Pierrette than with her cousins. It took her an infinite + length of time to learn the rudiments. She was called stupid and dull, + clumsy and awkward for mere nothings. Incessantly abused in words, the + child suffered still more from the harsh looks of her cousins. She + acquired the doltish ways of a sheep; she dared not do anything of her own + impulse, for all she did was misinterpreted, misjudged, and ill-received. + In all things she awaited silently the good pleasure and the orders of her + cousins, keeping her thoughts within her own mind and sheltering herself + behind a passive obedience. Her brilliant colors began to fade. Sometimes + she complained of feeling ill. When her cousin asked, “Where?” the poor + little thing, who had pains all over her, answered, “Everywhere.” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense! who ever heard of any one suffering everywhere?” cried Sylvie. + “If you suffered everywhere you’d be dead.” + </p> + <p> + “People suffer in their chests,” said Rogron, who liked to hear himself + harangue, “or they have toothache, headache, pains in their feet or + stomach, but no one has pains everywhere. What do you mean by everywhere? + I can tell you; ‘everywhere’ means <i>nowhere</i>. Don’t you know what you + are doing?—you are complaining for complaining’s sake.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette ended by total silence, seeing how all her girlish remarks, the + flowers of her dawning intelligence, were replied to with ignorant + commonplaces which her natural good sense told her were ridiculous. + </p> + <p> + “You complain,” said Rogron, “but you’ve got the appetite of a monk.” + </p> + <p> + The only person who did not bruise the delicate little flower was the fat + servant woman, Adele. Adele would go up and warm her bed,—doing it + on the sly after a certain evening when Sylvie had scolded her for giving + that comfort to the child. + </p> + <p> + “Children should be hardened, to give them strong constitutions. Am I and + my brother the worse for it?” said Sylvie. “You’ll make Pierrette a <i>peakling</i>”; + this was a word in the Rogron vocabulary which meant a puny and suffering + little being. + </p> + <p> + The naturally endearing ways of the angelic child were treated as + dissimulation. The fresh, pure blossoms of affection which bloomed + instinctively in that young soul were pitilessly crushed. Pierrette + suffered many a cruel blow on the tender flesh of her heart. If she tried + to soften those ferocious natures by innocent, coaxing wiles they accused + her of doing it with an object. “Tell me at once what you want?” Rogron + would say, brutally; “you are not coaxing me for nothing.” + </p> + <p> + Neither brother nor sister believed in affection, and Pierrette’s whole + being was affection. Colonel Gouraud, anxious to please Mademoiselle + Rogron, approved of all she did about Pierrette. Vinet also encouraged + them in what they said against her. He attributed all her so-called + misdeeds to the obstinacy of the Breton character, and declared that no + power, no will, could ever conquer it. Rogron and his sister were so + shrewdly flattered by the two manoeuvrers that the former agreed to go + security for the “Courrier de Provins,” and the latter invested five + thousand francs in the enterprise. + </p> + <p> + On this, the colonel and lawyer took the field. They got a hundred shares, + of five hundred francs each, taken among the farmers and others called + independents, and also among those who had bought lands of the national + domains,—whose fears they worked upon. They even extended their + operations throughout the department and along its borders. Each + shareholder of course subscribed to the paper. The judicial advertisements + were divided between the “Bee-hive” and the “Courrier.” The first issue of + the latter contained a pompous eulogy on Rogron. He was presented to the + community as the Laffitte of Provins. The public mind having thus received + an impetus in this new direction, it was manifest, of course, that the + coming elections would be contested. Madame Tiphaine, whose highest hope + was to take her husband to Paris as deputy, was in despair. After reading + an article in the new paper aimed at her and at Julliard junior, she + remarked: “Unfortunately for me, I forgot that there is always a scoundrel + close to a dupe, and that fools are magnets to clever men of the fox + breed.” + </p> + <p> + As soon as the “Courrier” was fairly launched on a radius of fifty miles, + Vinet bought a new coat and decent boots, waistcoats, and trousers. He set + up the gray slouch hat sacred to liberals, and showed his linen. His wife + took a servant, and appeared in public dressed as the wife of a prominent + man should be; her caps were pretty. Vinet proved grateful—out of + policy. He and his friend Cournant, the liberal notary and the rival of + the ministerial notary Auffray, became the close advisers of the Rogrons, + to whom they were able to do a couple of signal services. The leases + granted by old Rogron to their father in 1815, when matters were at a low + ebb, were about to expire. Horticulture and vegetable gardening had + developed enormously in the neighborhood of Provins. The lawyer and notary + set to work to enable the Rogrons to increase their rentals. Vinet won two + lawsuits against two districts on a question of planting trees, which + involved five hundred poplars. The proceeds of the poplars, added to the + savings of the brother and sister, who for the last three years had laid + by six thousand a year at high interest, was wisely invested in the + purchase of improved lands. Vinet also undertook and carried out the + ejectment of certain peasants to whom the elder Rogron had lent money on + their farms, and who had strained every nerve to pay off the debt, but in + vain. The cost of the Rogrons’ fine house was thus in a measure recouped. + Their landed property, lying around Provins and chosen by their father + with the sagacious eye of an innkeeper, was divided into small holdings, + the largest of which did not exceed five acres, and rented to safe + tenants, men who owned other parcels of land, that were ample security for + their leases. These investments brought in, by 1826, five thousand francs + a year. Taxes were charged to the tenants, and there were no buildings + needing insurance or repairs. + </p> + <p> + By the end of the second period of Pierrette’s stay in Provins life had + become so hard for her, the cold indifference of all who came to the + house, the silly fault-finding, and the total absence of affection on the + part of her cousins grew so bitter, she was conscious of a chill dampness + like that of a grave creeping round her, that the bold idea of escaping, + on foot and without money, to Brittany and to her grandparents took + possession of her mind. Two events hindered her from attempting it. Old + Lorrain died, and Rogron was appointed guardian of his little cousin. If + the grandmother had died first, we may believe that Rogron, advised by + Vinet, would have claimed Pierrette’s eight thousand francs and reduced + the old man to penury. + </p> + <p> + “You may, perhaps, inherit from Pierrette,” said Vinet, with a horrid + smile. “Who knows who may live and who may die?” + </p> + <p> + Enlightened by that remark, Rogron gave old Madame Lorrain no peace until + she had secured to Pierrette the reversion of the eight thousand francs at + her death. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette was deeply shocked by these events. She was on the point of + making her first communion,—another reason for resigning the hope of + escape from Provins. This ceremony, simple and customary as it was, led to + great changes in the Rogron household. Sylvie learned that Monsieur le + cure Peroux was instructing the little Julliards, Lesourds, Garcelands, + and the rest. She therefore made it a point of honor that Pierrette should + be instructed by the vicar himself, Monsieur Habert, a priest who was + thought to belong to the <i>Congregation</i>, very zealous for the + interests of the Church, and much feared in Provins,—a man who hid a + vast ambition beneath the austerity of stern principles. The sister of + this priest, an unmarried woman about thirty years of age, kept a school + for young ladies. Brother and sister looked alike; both were thin, yellow, + black-haired, and bilious. + </p> + <p> + Like a true Breton girl, cradled in the practices and poetry of + Catholicism, Pierrette opened her heart and ears to the words of this + imposing priest. Sufferings predispose the mind to devotion, and nearly + all young girls, impelled by instinctive tenderness, are inclined to + mysticism, the deepest aspect of religion. The priest found good soil in + which to sow the seed of the Gospel and the dogmas of the Church. He + completely changed the current of the girl’s thoughts. Pierrette loved + Jesus Christ in the light in which he is presented to young girls at the + time of their first communion, as a celestial bridegroom; her physical and + moral sufferings gained a meaning for her; she saw the finger of God in + all things. Her soul, so cruelly hurt although she could not accuse her + cousins of actual wrong, took refuge in that sphere to which all sufferers + fly on the wings of the cardinal virtues,—Faith, Hope, Charity. She + abandoned her thoughts of escape. Sylvie, surprised by the transformation + Monsieur Habert had effected in Pierrette, was curious to know how it had + been done. And it thus came about that the austere priest, while preparing + Pierrette for her first communion, also won to God the hitherto erring + soul of Mademoiselle Sylvie. Sylvie became pious. Jerome Rogron, on whom + the so-called Jesuit could get no grip (for just then the influence of His + Majesty the late <i>Constitutionnel</i> the First was more powerful over + weaklings than the influence of the Church), Jerome Rogron remained + faithful to Colonel Gouraud, Vinet, and Liberalism. + </p> + <p> + Mademoiselle Rogron naturally made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle + Habert, with whom she sympathized deeply. The two spinsters loved each + other as sisters. Mademoiselle Habert offered to take Pierrette into her + school to spare Sylvie the annoyance of her education; but the brother and + sister both declared that Pierrette’s absence would make the house too + lonely; their attachment to their little cousin seemed excessive. + </p> + <p> + When Gouraud and Vinet became aware of the advent of Mademoiselle Habert + on the scene they concluded that the ambitious priest her brother had the + same matrimonial plan for his sister that the colonel was forming for + himself and Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Your sister wants to get you married,” said Vinet to Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “With whom?” asked Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “With that old sorceress of a schoolmistress,” cried the colonel, twirling + his moustache. + </p> + <p> + “She hasn’t said anything to me about it,” said Rogron, naively. + </p> + <p> + So thorough an old maid as Sylvie was certain to make good progress in the + way of salvation. The influence of the priest would as certainly increase, + and in the end affect Rogron, over whom Sylvie had great power. The two + Liberals, who were naturally alarmed, saw plainly that if the priest were + resolved to marry his sister to Rogron (a far more suitable marriage than + that of Sylvie to the colonel) he could then drive Sylvie in extreme + devotion to the Church, and put Pierrette in a convent. They might + therefore lose eighteen months’ labor in flattery and meannesses of all + sorts. Their minds were suddenly filled with a bitter, silent hatred to + the priest and his sister, though they felt the necessity of living on + good terms with them in order to track their manoeuvres. Monsieur and + Mademoiselle Habert, who could play both whist and boston, now came every + evening to the Rogrons. The assiduity of the one pair induced the + assiduity of the other. The colonel and lawyer felt that they were pitted + against adversaries who were fully as strong as they,—a presentiment + that was shared by the priest and his sister. The situation soon became + that of a battle-field. Precisely as the colonel was enabling Sylvie to + taste the unhoped-for joys of being sought in marriage, so Mademoiselle + Habert was enveloping the timid Rogron in the cotton-wool of her + attentions, words, and glances. Neither side could utter that grand word + of statesmanship, “Let us divide!” for each wanted the whole prey. + </p> + <p> + The two clever foxes of the Opposition made the mistake of pulling the + first trigger. Vinet, under the spur of self-interest, bethought himself + of his wife’s only friends, and looked up Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf and + her mother. The two women were living in poverty at Troyes on two thousand + francs a year. Mademoiselle Bathilde de Chargeboeuf was one of those fine + creatures who believe in marriage for love up to their twenty-fifth year, + and change their opinion when they find themselves still unmarried. Vinet + managed to persuade Madame de Chargeboeuf to join her means to his and + live with his family in Provins, where Bathilde, he assured her, could + marry a fool named Rogron, and, clever as she was, take her place in the + best society of the place. + </p> + <p> + The arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf in the lawyer’s + household was a great reinforcement for the liberal party; and it created + consternation among the aristocrats of Provins and also in the Tiphaine + clique. Madame de Breautey, horrified to see two women of rank so misled, + begged them to come to her. She was shocked that the royalists of Troyes + had so neglected the mother and daughter, whose situation she now learned + for the first time. + </p> + <p> + “How is it that no old country gentleman has married that dear girl, who + is cut out for a lady of the manor?” she said. “They have let her run to + seed, and now she is to be flung at the head of a Rogron!” + </p> + <p> + She ransacked the whole department but did not succeed in finding any + gentleman willing to marry a girl whose mother had only two thousand + francs a year. The “clique” and the subprefect also looked about them with + the same object, but they were all too late. Madame de Breautey made + terrible charges against the selfishness which degraded France,—the + consequence, she said, of materialism, and of the importance now given by + the laws to money: nobility was no longer of value! nor beauty either! + Such creatures as the Rogrons, the Vinets, could stand up and fight with + the King of France! + </p> + <p> + Bathilde de Chargeboeuf had not only the incontestable superiority of + beauty over her rival, but that of dress as well. She was dazzlingly fair. + At twenty-five her shoulders were fully developed, and the curves of her + beautiful figure were exquisite. The roundness of her throat, the purity + of its lines, the wealth of her golden hair, the charming grace of her + smile, the distinguished carriage of her head, the character of her + features, the fine eyes finely placed beneath a well-formed brow, her + every motion, noble and high-bred, and her light and graceful figure,—all + were in harmony. Her hands were beautiful, and her feet slender. Health + gave her, perhaps, too much the look of a handsome barmaid. “But that + can’t be a defect in the eyes of a Rogron,” sighed Madame Tiphaine. + Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf’s dress when she made her first appearance in + Provins at the Rogrons’ house was very simple. Her brown merino gown edged + with green embroidery was worn low-necked; but a tulle fichu, carefully + drawn down by hidden strings, covered her neck and shoulders, though it + opened a little in front, where its folds were caught together with a <i>sevigne</i>. + Beneath this delicate fabric Bathilde’s beauties seemed all the more + enticing and coquettish. She took off her velvet bonnet and her shawl on + arriving, and showed her pretty ears adorned with what were then called + “ear-drops” in gold. She wore a little <i>jeannette</i>—a black + velvet ribbon with a heart attached—round her throat, where it shone + like the jet ring which fantastic nature had fastened round the tail of a + white angora cat. She knew all the little tricks of a girl who seeks to + marry; her fingers arranged her curls which were not in the least out of + order; she entreated Rogron to fasten a cuff-button, thus showing him her + wrist, a request which that dazzled fool rudely refused, hiding his + emotions under the mask of indifference. The timidity of the only love he + was ever to feel in the whole course of his life took an external + appearance of dislike. Sylvie and her friend Celeste Habert were deceived + by it; not so Vinet, the wise head of this doltish circle, among whom no + one really coped with him but the priest,—the colonel being for a + long time his ally. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand the colonel was behaving to Sylvie very much as Bathilde + behaved to Rogron. He put on a clean shirt every evening and wore velvet + stocks, which set off his martial features and the spotless white of his + collar. He adopted the fashion of white pique waistcoats, and caused to be + made for him a new surtout of blue cloth, on which his red rosette glowed + finely; all this under pretext of doing honor to the new guests Madame and + Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. He even refrained from smoking for two hours + previous to his appearance in the Rogrons’ salon. His grizzled hair was + brushed in a waving line across a cranium which was ochre in tone. He + assumed the air and manner of a party leader, of a man who was preparing + to drive out the enemies of France, the Bourbons, on short, to beat of + drum. + </p> + <p> + The satanic lawyer and the wily colonel played the priest and his sister a + more cruel trick than even the importation of the beautiful Madame de + Chargeboeuf, who was considered by all the Liberal party and by Madame de + Breautey and her aristocratic circle to be far handsomer than Madame + Tiphaine. These two great statesmen of the little provincial town made + everybody believe that the priest was in sympathy with their ideas; so + that before long Provins began to talk of him as a liberal ecclesiastic. + As soon as this news reached the bishop Monsieur Habert was sent for and + admonished to cease his visits to the Rogrons; but his sister continued to + go there. Thus the salon Rogron became a fixed fact and a constituted + power. + </p> + <p> + Before the year was out political intrigues were not less lively than the + matrimonial schemes of the Rogron salon. While the selfish interests + hidden in these hearts were struggling in deadly combat the events which + resulted from them had a fatal celebrity. Everybody knows that the Villele + ministry was overthrown by the elections of 1826. Vinet, the Liberal + candidate at Provins, who had borrowed money of his notary to buy a domain + which made him eligible for election, came very near defeating Monsieur + Tiphaine, who saved his election by only two votes. The headquarters of + the Liberals was the Rogron salon; among the <i>habitues</i> were the + notary Cournant and his wife, and Doctor Neraud, whose youth was said to + have been stormy, but who now took a serious view of life; he gave himself + up to study and was, according to all Liberals, a far more capable man + than Monsieur Martener, the aristocratic physician. As for the Rogrons, + they no more understood their present triumph than they had formerly + understood their ostracism. + </p> + <p> + The beautiful Bathilde, to whom Vinet had explained Pierrette as an enemy, + was extremely disdainful to the girl. It seemed as though everybody’s + selfish schemes demanded the humiliation of that poor victim. Madame Vinet + could do nothing for her, ground as she herself was beneath those + implacable self-interests which the lawyer’s wife had come at last to see + and comprehend. Her husband’s imperious will had alone taken her to the + Rogron’s house, where she had suffered much at the harsh treatment of the + pretty little creature, who would often press up against her as if + divining her secret thoughts, sometimes asking the poor lady to show her a + stitch in knitting or to teach her a bit of embroidery. The child proved + in return that if she were treated gently she would understand what was + taught her, and succeed in what she tried to do quite marvellously. But + Madame Vinet was soon no longer necessary to her husband’s plans, and + after the arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf she ceased to + visit the Rogrons. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie, who now indulged in the idea of marrying, began to consider + Pierrette as an obstacle. The girl was nearly fourteen; the pallid + whiteness of her skin, a symptom of illness entirely overlooked by the + ignorant old maid, made her exquisitely lovely. Sylvie took it into her + head to balance the cost which Pierrette had been to them by making a + servant of her. All the <i>habitues</i> of the house to whom she spoke of + the matter advised that she should send away Adele. Why shouldn’t + Pierrette take care of the house and cook? If there was too much work at + any time Mademoiselle Rogron could easily employ the colonel’s + woman-of-all-work, an excellent cook and a most respectable person. + Pierrette ought to learn how to cook, and rub floors, and sweep, said the + lawyer; every girl should be taught to keep house properly and go to + market and know the price of things. The poor little soul, whose + self-devotion was equal to her generosity, offered herself willingly, + pleased to think that she could earn the bitter bread which she ate in + that house. Adele was sent away, and Pierrette thus lost the only person + who might have protected her. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the poor child’s strength of heart she was henceforth crushed + down physically as well as mentally. Her cousins had less consideration + for her than for a servant; she belonged to them! She was scolded for mere + nothings, for an atom of dust left on a glass globe or a marble + mantelpiece. The handsome ornaments she had once admired now became odious + to her. No matter how she strove to do right, her inexorable cousins + always found something to reprove in whatever she did. In the course of + two years Pierrette never received the slightest praise, or heard a kindly + word. Happiness for her lay in not being scolded. She bore with angelic + patience the morose ill-humor of the two celibates, to whom all tender + feelings were absolutely unknown, and who daily made her feel her + dependence on them. + </p> + <p> + Such a life for a young girl, pressed as it were between the two chops of + a vise, increased her illness. She began to feel violent internal + distresses, secret pangs so sudden in their attacks that her strength was + undermined and her natural development arrested. By slow degrees and + through dreadful, though hidden sufferings, the poor child came to the + state in which the companion of her childhood found her when he sang to + her his Breton ditty at the dawn of the October day. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. AN OLD MAID’S JEALOUSY + </h2> + <p> + Before we relate the domestic drama which the coming of Jacques Brigaut + was destined to bring about in the Rogron family it is best to explain how + the lad came to be in Provins; for he is, as it were, a somewhat mute + personage on the scene. + </p> + <p> + When he ran from the house Brigaut was not only frightened by Pierrette’s + gesture, he was horrified by the change he saw in his little friend. He + could scarcely recognize the voice, the eyes, the gestures that were once + so lively, gay, and withal so tender. When he had gained some distance + from the house his legs began to tremble under him; hot flushes ran down + his back. He had seen the shadow of Pierrette, but not Pierrette herself! + The lad climbed to the Upper town till he found a spot from which he could + see the square and the house where Pierrette lived. He gazed at it + mournfully, lost in many thoughts, as though he were entering some grief + of which he could not see the end. Pierrette was ill; she was not happy; + she pined for Brittany—what was the matter with her? All these + questions passed and repassed through his heart and rent it, revealing to + his own soul the extent of his love for his little adopted sister. + </p> + <p> + It is extremely rare to find a passion existing between two children of + opposite sexes. The charming story of Paul and Virginia does not, any more + than this of Pierrette and Brigaut, answer the question put by that + strange moral fact. Modern history offers only the illustrious instance of + the Marchesa di Pescara and her husband. Destined to marry by their + parents from their earliest years, they adored each other and were + married, and their union gave to the sixteenth century the noble spectacle + of a perfect conjugal love without a flaw. When the marchesa became a + widow at the age of thirty-four, beautiful, intellectually brilliant, + universally adored, she refused to marry sovereigns and buried herself in + a convent, seeing and knowing thenceforth only nuns. Such was the perfect + love that suddenly developed itself in the heart of the Breton workman. + Pierrette and he had often protected each other; with what bliss had he + given her the money for her journey; he had almost killed himself by + running after the diligence when she left him. Pierrette had known nothing + of all that; but for him the recollection had warmed and comforted the + cold, hard life he had led for the last three years. For Pierrette’s sake + he had struggled to improve himself; he had learned his trade for + Pierrette; he had come to Paris for Pierrette, intending to make his + fortune for <i>her</i>. After spending a fortnight in the city, he had not + been able to hold out against the desire to see her, and he had walked + from Saturday night to Monday morning. He intended to return to Paris; but + the moving sight of his little friend nailed him to Provins. A wonderful + magnetism (still denied in spite of many proofs) acted upon him without + his knowledge. Tears rolled from his eyes when they rose in hers. If to + her he was Brittany and her happy childhood, to him she was life itself. + </p> + <p> + At sixteen years of age Brigaut did not yet know how to draw or to model a + cornice; he was ignorant of much, but he had earned, by piece-work done in + the leisure of his apprenticeship, some four or five francs a day. On this + he could live in Provins and be near Pierrette; he would choose the best + cabinet-maker in the town, and learn the rest of his trade in working for + him, and thus keep watch over his darling. + </p> + <p> + Brigaut’s mind was made up as he sat there thinking. He went back to Paris + and fetched his certificate, tools, and baggage, and three days later he + was a journeyman in the establishment of Monsieur Frappier, the best + cabinet-maker in Provins. Active, steady workmen, not given to junketing + and taverns, are so rare that masters hold to young men like Brigaut when + they find them. To end Brigaut’s history on this point, we will say here + that by the end of the month he was made foreman, and was fed and lodged + by Frappier, who taught him arithmetic and line drawing. The house and + shop were in the Grand’Rue, not a hundred feet from the little square + where Pierrette lived. + </p> + <p> + Brigaut buried his love in his heart and committed no imprudence. He made + Madame Frappier tell him all she knew about the Rogrons. Among other + things, she related to him the way in which their father had laid hands on + the property of old Auffray, Pierrette’s grandfather. Brigaut obtained + other information as to the character of the brother and sister. He met + Pierrette sometimes in the market with her cousin, and shuddered to see + the heavy basket she was carrying on her arm. On Sundays he went to church + to look for her, dressed in her best clothes. There, for the first time, + he became aware that Pierrette was Mademoiselle Lorrain. Pierrette saw him + and made him a hasty sign to keep out of sight. To him, there was a world + of things in that little gesture, as there had been, a fortnight earlier, + in the sign by which she told him from her window to run away. Ah! what a + fortune he must make in the coming ten years in order to marry his little + friend, to whom, he was told, the Rogrons were to leave their house, a + hundred acres of land, and twelve thousand francs a year, not counting + their savings! + </p> + <p> + The persevering Breton was determined to be thoroughly educated for his + trade, and he set about acquiring all the knowledge that he lacked. As + long as only the principles of his work were concerned he could learn + those in Provins as well as in Paris, and thus remain near Pierrette, to + whom he now became anxious to explain his projects and the sort of + protection she could rely on from him. He was determined to know the + reason of her pallor, and of the debility which was beginning to appear in + the organ which is always the last to show the signs of failing life, + namely the eyes; he would know, too, the cause of the sufferings which + gave her that look as though death were near and she might drop at any + moment beneath its scythe. The two signs, the two gestures—not + denying their friendship but imploring caution—alarmed the young + Breton. Evidently Pierrette wished him to wait and not attempt to see her; + otherwise there was danger, there was peril for her. As she left the + church she was able to give him one look, and Brigaut saw that her eyes + were full of tears. But he could have sooner squared the circle than have + guessed what had happened in the Rogrons’ house during the fortnight which + had elapsed since his arrival. + </p> + <p> + It was not without keen apprehension that Pierrette came downstairs on the + morning after Brigaut had invaded her morning dreams like another dream. + She was certain that her cousin Sylvie must have heard the song, or she + would not have risen and opened her window; but Pierrette was ignorant of + the powerful reasons that made the old maid so alert. For the last eight + days, strange events and bitter feelings agitated the minds of the chief + personages who frequented the Rogron salon. These hidden matters, + carefully concealed by all concerned, were destined to fall in their + results like an avalanche on Pierrette. Such mysterious things, which we + ought perhaps to call the putrescence of the human heart, lie at the base + of the greatest revolutions, political, social or domestic; but in telling + of them it is desirable to explain that their subtle significance cannot + be given in a matter-of-fact narrative. These secret schemes and + calculations do not show themselves as brutally and undisguisedly while + taking place as they must when the history of them is related. To set down + in writing the circumlocutions, oratorical precautions, protracted + conversations, and honeyed words glossed over the venom of intentions, + would make as long a book as that magnificent poem called “Clarissa + Harlowe.” + </p> + <p> + Mademoiselle Habert and Mademoiselle Sylvie were equally desirous of + marrying, but one was ten years older than the other, and the + probabilities of life allowed Celeste Habert to expect that her children + would inherit all the Rogron property. Sylvie was forty-two, an age at + which marriage is beset by perils. In confiding to each other their ideas, + Celeste, instigated by her vindictive brother the priest, enlightened + Sylvie as to the dangers she would incur. Sylvie trembled; she was + terribly afraid of death, an idea which shakes all celibates to their + centre. But just at this time the Martignac ministry came into power,—a + Liberal victory which overthrew the Villele administration. The Vinet + party now carried their heads high in Provins. Vinet himself became a + personage. The Liberals prophesied his advancement; he would certainly be + deputy and attorney-general. As for the colonel, he would be made mayor of + Provins. Ah, to reign as Madame Garceland, the wife of the present mayor, + now reigned! Sylvie could not hold out against that hope; she determined + to consult a doctor, though the proceeding would only cover her with + ridicule. To consult Monsieur Neraud, the Liberal physician and the rival + of Monsieur Martener, would be a blunder. Celeste Habert offered to hide + Sylvie in her dressing-room while she herself consulted Monsieur Martener, + the physician of her establishment, on this difficult matter. Whether + Martener was, or was not, Celeste’s accomplice need not be discovered; at + any rate, he told his client that even at thirty the danger, though + slight, did exist. “But,” he added, “with your constitution, you need fear + nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “But how about a woman over forty?” asked Mademoiselle Celeste. + </p> + <p> + “A married woman who has had children has nothing to fear.” + </p> + <p> + “But I mean an unmarried woman, like Mademoiselle Rogron, for instance?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, that’s another thing,” said Monsieur Martener. “Successful childbirth + is then one of those miracles which God sometimes allows himself, but + rarely.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” asked Celeste. + </p> + <p> + The doctor answered with a terrifying pathological description; he + explained that the elasticity given by nature to youthful muscles and + bones did not exist at a later age, especially in women whose lives were + sedentary. + </p> + <p> + “So you think that an unmarried woman ought not to marry after forty?” + </p> + <p> + “Not unless she waits some years,” replied the doctor. “But then, of + course, it is not marriage, it is only an association of interests.” + </p> + <p> + The result of the interview, clearly, seriously, scientifically and + sensibly stated, was that an unmarried woman would make a great mistake in + marrying after forty. When the doctor had departed Mademoiselle Celeste + found Sylvie in a frightful state, green and yellow, and with the pupils + of her eyes dilated. + </p> + <p> + “Then you really love the colonel?” asked Celeste. + </p> + <p> + “I still hoped,” replied Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, wait!” cried Mademoiselle Habert, Jesuitically, aware that + time would rid her of the colonel. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie’s new devotion to the church warned her that the morality of such a + marriage might be doubtful. She accordingly sounded her conscience in the + confessional. The stern priest explained the opinions of the Church, which + sees in marriage only the propagation of humanity, and rebukes second + marriages and all passions but those with a social purpose. Sylvie’s + perplexities were great. These internal struggles gave extraordinary force + to her passion, investing it with that inexplicable attraction which, from + the days of Eve, the thing forbidden possesses for women. Mademoiselle + Rogron’s perturbation did not escape the lynx-eyed lawyer. + </p> + <p> + One evening, after the game had ended, Vinet approached his dear friend + Sylvie, took her hand, and led her to a sofa. + </p> + <p> + “Something troubles you,” he said. + </p> + <p> + She nodded sadly. The lawyer let the others depart; Rogron walked home + with the Chargeboeufs, and when Vinet was alone with the old maid he + wormed the truth out of her. + </p> + <p> + “Cleverly played, abbe!” thought he. “But you’ve played into my hands.” + </p> + <p> + The foxy lawyer was more decided in his opinion than even the doctor. He + advised marriage in ten years. Inwardly he was vowing that the whole + Rogron fortune should go to Bathilde. He rubbed his hands, his pinched + lips closed more tightly as he hurried home. The influence exercised by + Monsieur Habert, physician of the soul, and by Vinet, doctor of the purse, + balanced each other perfectly. Rogron had no piety in him; so the + churchman and the man of law, the black-robed pair, were fairly matched. + </p> + <p> + On discovering the victory obtained by Celeste, in her anxiety to marry + Rogron herself, over Sylvie, torn between the fear of death and the joy of + being baronness and mayoress, the lawyer saw his chance of driving the + colonel from the battlefield. He knew Rogron well enough to be certain he + could marry him to Bathilde; Jerome had already succumbed inwardly to her + charms, and Vinet knew that the first time the pair were alone together + the marriage would be settled. Rogron had reached the point of keeping his + eyes fixed on Celeste, so much did he fear to look at Bathilde. Vinet had + now possessed himself of Sylvie’s secrets, and saw the force with which + she loved the colonel. He fully understood the struggle of such a passion + in the heart of an old maid who was also in the grasp of religious + emotion, and he saw his way to rid himself of Pierrette and the colonel + both by making each the cause of the other’s overthrow. + </p> + <p> + The next day, after the court had risen, Vinet met the colonel and Rogron + talking a walk together, according to their daily custom. + </p> + <p> + Whenever the three men were seen in company the whole town talked of it. + This triumvirate, held in horror by the sub-prefect, the magistracy, and + the Tiphaine clique, was, on the other hand, a source of pride and vanity + to the Liberals of Provins. Vinet was sole editor of the “Courrier” and + the head of the party; the colonel, the working manager, was its arm; + Rogron, by means of his purse, its nerves. The Tiphaines declared that the + three men were always plotting evil to the government; the Liberals + admired them as the defenders of the people. When Rogron turned to go + home, recalled by a sense of his dinner-hour, Vinet stopped the colonel + from following him by taking Gouraud’s arm. + </p> + <p> + “Well, colonel,” he said, “I am going to take a fearful load off your + shoulders; you can do better than marry Sylvie; if you play your cards + properly you can marry that little Pierrette in two years’ time.” + </p> + <p> + He thereupon related the Jesuit’s manoeuvre and its effect on Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “What a skulking trick!” cried the colonel; “and spreading over years, + too!” + </p> + <p> + “Colonel,” said Vinet, gravely, “Pierrette is a charming creature; with + her you can be happy for the rest of your life; your health is so sound + that the difference in your ages won’t seem disproportionate. But, all the + same, you mustn’t think it an easy thing to change a dreadful fate to a + pleasant one. To turn a woman who loves you into a friend and confidant is + as perilous a business as crossing a river under fire of the enemy. + Cavalry colonel as you are, and daring too, you must study the position + and manoeuvre your forces with the same wisdom you have displayed + hitherto, and which has won us our present position. If I get to be + attorney-general you shall command the department. Oh! if you had been an + elector we should be further advanced than we are now; I should have + bought the votes of those two clerks by threatening them with the loss of + their places, and we should have had a majority.” + </p> + <p> + The colonel had long been thinking about Pierrette, but he concealed his + thoughts with the utmost dissimulation. His roughness to the child was + only a mask; but she could not understand why the man who claimed to be + her father’s old comrade should usually treat her so ill, when sometimes, + if he met her alone, he would chuck her under the chin and give her a + friendly kiss. But after the conversation with Vinet relating to Sylvie’s + fears of marriage Gouraud began to seek opportunities to find Pierrette + alone; the rough colonel made himself as soft as a cat; he told her how + brave her father was and what a misfortune it had been for her that she + lost him. + </p> + <p> + A few days before Brigaut’s arrival Sylvie had come suddenly upon Gouraud + and Pierrette talking together. Instantly, jealousy rushed into her heart + with monastic violence. Jealousy, eminently credulous and suspicious, is + the passion in which fancy has most freedom, but for all that it does not + give a person intelligence; on the contrary, it hinders them from having + any; and in Sylvie’s case jealousy only filled her with fantastic ideas. + When (a few mornings later) she heard Brigaut’s ditty, she jumped to the + conclusion that the man who had used the words “Madam’ le mariee,” + addressing them to Pierrette, must be the colonel. She was certain she was + right, for she had noticed for a week past a change in his manners. He was + the only man who, in her solitary life, had ever paid her any attention. + Consequently she watched him with all her eyes, all her mind; and by + giving herself up to hopes that were sometimes flourishing, sometimes + blighted, she had brought the matter to such enormous proportions that she + saw all things in a mental mirage. To use a common but excellent + expression, by dint of looking intently she saw nothing. Alternately she + repelled, admitted, and conquered the supposition of this rivalry. She + compared herself with Pierrette; she was forty-two years old, with gray + hair; Pierrette was delicately fair, with eyes soft enough to warm a + withered heart. She had heard it said that men of fifty were apt to love + young girls of just that kind. Before the colonel had come regularly to + the house Sylvie had heard in the Tiphaines’ salon strange stories of his + life and morals. Old maids preserve in their love-affairs the exaggerated + Platonic sentiments which young girls of twenty are wont to profess; they + hold to these fixed doctrines like all who have little experience of life + and no personal knowledge of how great social forces modify, impair, and + bring to nought such grand and noble ideas. The mere thought of being + jilted by the colonel was torture to Sylvie’s brain. She lay in her bed + going over and over her own desires, Pierrette’s conduct, and the song + which had awakened her with the word “marriage.” Like the fool she was, + instead of looking through the blinds to see the lover, she opened her + window without reflecting that Pierrette would hear her. If she had had + the common instinct of a spy she would have seen Brigaut, and the fatal + drama then begun would never have taken place. + </p> + <p> + It was Pierrette’s duty, weak as she was, to take down the bars that + closed the wooden shutters of the kitchen, which she opened and fastened + back; then she opened in like manner the glass door leading from the + corridor to the garden. She took the various brooms that were used for + sweeping the carpets, the dining-room, the passages and stairs, together + with the other utensils, with a care and particularity which no servant, + not even a Dutchwoman, gives to her work. She hated reproof. Happiness for + her was in seeing the cold blue pallid eyes of her cousin, not satisfied + (that they never were), but calm, after glancing about her with the look + of an owner,—that wonderful glance which sees what escapes even the + most vigilant eyes of others. Pierrette’s skin was moist with her labor + when she returned to the kitchen to put it in order, and light the stove + that she might carry up hot water to her two cousins (a luxury she never + had for herself) and the means of lighting fires in their rooms. After + this she laid the table for breakfast and lit the stove in the + dining-room. For all these various fires she had to fetch wood and + kindling from the cellar, leaving the warm rooms for a damp and chilly + atmosphere. Such sudden transitions, made with the quickness of youth, + often to escape a harsh word or obey an order, aggravated the condition of + her health. She did not know she was ill, and yet she suffered. She began + to have strange cravings; she liked raw vegetables and salads, and ate + them secretly. The innocent child was quite unaware that her condition was + that of serious illness which needed the utmost care. If Neraud, the + Rogrons’ doctor, had told this to Pierrette before Brigaut’s arrival she + would only have smiled; life was so bitter she could smile at death. But + now her feelings changed; the child, to whose physical sufferings was + added the anguish of Breton homesickness (a moral malady so well-known + that colonels in the army allow for it among their men), was suddenly + content to be in Provins. The sight of that yellow flower, the song, the + presence of her friend, revived her as a plant long without water revives + under rain. Unconsciously she wanted to live, and even thought she did not + suffer. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette slipped timidly into her cousin’s bedroom, made the fire, left + the hot water, said a few words, and went to wake Rogron and do the same + offices for him. Then she went down to take in the milk, the bread, and + the other provisions left by the dealers. She stood some time on the sill + of the door hoping that Brigaut would have the sense to come to her; but + by that time he was already on his way to Paris. + </p> + <p> + She had finished the arrangement of the dining-room and was busy in the + kitchen when she heard her cousin Sylvie coming down. Mademoiselle Rogron + appeared in a brown silk dressing-gown and a cap with bows; her false + front was awry, her night-gown showed above the silk wrapper, her slippers + were down at heel. She gave an eye to everything and then came straight to + Pierrette, who was awaiting her orders to know what to prepare for + breakfast. + </p> + <p> + “Ha! here you are, lovesick young lady!” said Sylvie, in a mocking tone. + </p> + <p> + “What is it, cousin?” + </p> + <p> + “You came into my room like a sly cat, and you crept out the same way, + though you knew very well I had something to say to you.” + </p> + <p> + “To me?” + </p> + <p> + “You had a serenade this morning, as if you were a princess.” + </p> + <p> + “A serenade!” exclaimed Pierrette. + </p> + <p> + “A serenade!” said Sylvie, mimicking her; “and you’ve a lover, too.” + </p> + <p> + “What is a lover, cousin?” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie avoided answering, and said:— + </p> + <p> + “Do you dare to tell me, mademoiselle, that a man did not come under your + window and talk to you of marriage?” + </p> + <p> + Persecution had taught Pierrette the wariness of slaves; so she answered + bravely:— + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know what you mean,—” + </p> + <p> + “Who means?—your dog?” said Sylvie, sharply. + </p> + <p> + “I should have said ‘cousin,’” replied the girl, humbly. + </p> + <p> + “And didn’t you get up and go in your bare feet to the window?—which + will give you an illness; and serve you right, too. And perhaps you didn’t + talk to your lover, either?” + </p> + <p> + “No, cousin.” + </p> + <p> + “I know you have many faults, but I did not think you told lies. You had + better think this over, mademoiselle; you will have to explain this affair + to your cousin and to me, or your cousin will be obliged to take severe + measures.” + </p> + <p> + The old maid, exasperated by jealousy and curiosity, meant to frighten the + girl. Pierrette, like all those who suffer more than they have strength to + bear, kept silence. Silence is the only weapon by which such victims can + conquer; it baffles the Cossack charges of envy, the savage skirmishings + of suspicion; it does at times give victory, crushing and complete,—for + what is more complete than silence? it is absolute; it is one of the + attributes of infinity. Sylvie watched Pierrette narrowly. The girl + colored; but the color, instead of rising evenly, came out in patches on + her cheekbones, in burning and significant spots. A mother, seeing that + symptom of illness, would have changed her tone at once; she would have + taken the child on her lap and questioned her; in fact, she would long ago + have tenderly understood the signs of Pierrette’s pure and perfect + innocence; she would have seen her weakness and known that the disturbance + of the digestive organs and the other functions of the body was about to + affect the lungs. Those eloquent patches would have warned her of an + imminent danger. But an old maid, one in whom the family instincts have + never been awakened, to whom the needs of childhood and the precautions + required for adolescence were unknown, had neither the indulgence nor the + compassionate intelligence of a mother; such sufferings as those of + Pierrette, instead of softening her heart only made it more callous. + </p> + <p> + “She blushes, she is guilty!” thought Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette’s silence was thus interpreted to her injury. + </p> + <p> + “Pierrette,” continued Sylvie, “before your cousin comes down we must have + some talk together. Come,” she said, in a rather softer tone, “shut the + street door; if any one comes they will rung and we shall hear them.” + </p> + <p> + In spite of the damp mist which was rising from the river, Sylvie took + Pierrette along the winding gravel path which led across the lawn to the + edge of the rock terrace,—a picturesque little quay, covered with + iris and aquatic plants. She now changed her tactics, thinking she might + catch Pierrette tripping by softness; the hyena became a cat. + </p> + <p> + “Pierrette,” she said, “you are no longer a child; you are nearly fifteen, + and it is not at all surprising that you should have a lover.” + </p> + <p> + “But, cousin,” said Pierrette, raising her eyes with angelic sweetness to + the cold, sour face of her cousin, “What is a lover?” + </p> + <p> + It would have been impossible for Sylvie to define a lover with truth and + decency to the girl’s mind. Instead of seeing in that question the proof + of adorable innocence, she considered it a piece of insincerity. + </p> + <p> + “A lover, Pierrette, is a man who loves us and wishes to marry us.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah,” said Pierrette, “when that happens in Brittany we call the young man + a suitor.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, remember that in owning your feelings for a man you do no wrong, my + dear. The wrong is in hiding them. Have you pleased some of the men who + visit here?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t think so, cousin.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you love any of them?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “Certain?” + </p> + <p> + “Quite certain.” + </p> + <p> + “Look at me, Pierrette.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette looked at Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “A man called to you this morning in the square.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette lowered her eyes. + </p> + <p> + “You went to your window, you opened it, and you spoke to him.” + </p> + <p> + “No cousin, I went to look out and I saw a peasant.” + </p> + <p> + “Pierrette, you have much improved since you made your first communion; + you have become pious and obedient, you love God and your relations; I am + satisfied with you. I don’t say this to puff you up with pride.” + </p> + <p> + The horrible creature had mistaken despondency, submission, the silence of + wretchedness, for virtues! + </p> + <p> + The sweetest of all consolations to suffering souls, to martyrs, to + artists, in the worst of that divine agony which hatred and envy force + upon them, is to meet with praise where they have hitherto found censure + and injustice. Pierrette raised her grateful eyes to her cousin, feeling + that she could almost forgive her for the sufferings she had caused. + </p> + <p> + “But if it is all hypocrisy, if I find you a serpent that I have warmed in + my bosom, you will be a wicked girl, an infamous creature!” + </p> + <p> + “I think I have nothing to reproach myself with,” said Pierrette, with a + painful revulsion of her heart at the sudden change from unexpected praise + to the tones of the hyena. + </p> + <p> + “You know that to lie is a mortal sin?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, cousin.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you are now under the eye of God,” said the old maid, with a solemn + gesture towards the sky; “swear to me that you did not know that peasant.” + </p> + <p> + “I will not swear,” said Pierrette. + </p> + <p> + “Ha! he was no peasant, you little viper.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette rushed away like a frightened fawn terrified at her tone. Sylvie + called her in a dreadful voice. + </p> + <p> + “The bell is ringing,” she answered. + </p> + <p> + “Artful wretch!” thought Sylvie. “She is depraved in mind; and now I am + certain the little adder has wound herself round the colonel. She has + heard us say he was a baron. To be a baroness! little fool! Ah! I’ll get + rid of her, I’ll apprentice her out, and soon too!” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie was so lost in thought that she did not notice her brother coming + down the path and bemoaning the injury the frost had done to his dahlias. + </p> + <p> + “Sylvie! what are you thinking about? I thought you were looking at the + fish; sometimes they jump out of the water.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “How did you sleep?” and he began to tell her about his own dreams. “Don’t + you think my skin is getting <i>tabid</i>?”—a word in the Rogron + vocabulary. + </p> + <p> + Ever since Rogron had been in love,—but let us not profane the word,—ever + since he had desired to marry Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, he was very + uneasy about himself and his health. At this moment Pierrette came down + the garden steps and called to them from a distance that breakfast was + ready. At sight of her cousin, Sylvie’s skin turned green and yellow, her + bile was in commotion. She looked at the floor of the corridor and + declared that Pierrette ought to rub it. + </p> + <p> + “I will rub it now if you wish,” said the little angel, not aware of the + injury such work may do to a young girl. + </p> + <p> + The dining-room was irreproachably in order. Sylvie sat down and pretended + all through breakfast to want this, that, and the other thing which she + would never have thought of in a quieter moment, and which she now asked + for only to make Pierrette rise again and again just as the child was + beginning to eat her food. But such mere teasing was not enough; she + wanted a subject on which to find fault, and was angry with herself for + not finding one. She scarcely answered her brother’s silly remarks, yet + she looked at him only; her eyes avoided Pierrette. Pierrette was deeply + conscious of all this. She brought the milk mixed with cream for each + cousin in a large silver goblet, after heating it carefully in the <i>bain-marie</i>. + The brother and sister poured in the coffee made by Sylvie herself on the + table. When Sylvie had carefully prepared hers, she saw an atom of + coffee-grounds floating on the surface. On this the storm broke forth. + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter?” asked Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “The matter is that mademoiselle has put dust in my milk. Do you suppose I + am going to drink coffee with ashes in it? Well, I am not surprised; no + one can do two things at once. She wasn’t thinking of the milk! a + blackbird might have flown through the kitchen to-day and she wouldn’t + have seen it! how should she see the dust flying! and then it was my + coffee, ha! that didn’t signify!” + </p> + <p> + As she spoke she was laying on the side of her plate the coffee-grounds + that had run through the filter. + </p> + <p> + “But, cousin, that is coffee,” said Pierrette. + </p> + <p> + “Oh! then it is I who tell lies, is it?” cried Sylvie, looking at + Pierrette and blasting her with a fearful flash of anger from her eyes. + </p> + <p> + Organizations which have not been exhausted by powerful emotions often + have a vast amount of the vital fluid at their service. This phenomenon of + the extreme clearness of the eye in moments of anger was the more marked + in Mademoiselle Rogron because she had often exercised the power of her + eyes in her shop by opening them to their full extent for the purpose of + inspiring her dependents with salutary fear. + </p> + <p> + “You had better dare to give me the lie!” continued Sylvie; “you deserve + to be sent from the table to go and eat by yourself in the kitchen.” + </p> + <p> + “What’s the matter with you two?” cried Rogron, “you are as cross as bears + this morning.” + </p> + <p> + “Mademoiselle knows what I have against her,” said Sylvie. “I leave her to + make up her mind before speaking to you; for I mean to show her more + kindness than she deserves.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette was looking out of the window to avoid her cousin’s eyes, which + frightened her. + </p> + <p> + “Look at her! she pays no more attention to what I am saying than if I + were that sugar-basin! And yet mademoiselle has a sharp ear; she can hear + and answer from the top of the house when some one talks to her from + below. She is perversity itself,—perversity, I say; and you needn’t + expect any good of her; do you hear me, Jerome?” + </p> + <p> + “What has she done wrong?” asked Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “At her age, too! to begin so young!” screamed the angry old maid. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette rose to clear the table and give herself something to do, for + she could hardly bear the scene any longer. Though such language was not + new to her, she had never been able to get used to it. Her cousin’s rage + seemed to accuse her of some crime. She imagined what her fury would be if + she came to know about Brigaut. Perhaps her cousin would have him sent + away, and she should lose him! All the many thoughts, the deep and rapid + thoughts of a slave came to her, and she resolved to keep absolute silence + about a circumstance in which her conscience told her there was nothing + wrong. But the cruel, bitter words she had been made to hear and the + wounding suspicion so shocked her that as she reached the kitchen she was + taken with a convulsion of the stomach and turned deadly sick. She dared + not complain; she was not sure that any one would help her. When she + returned to the dining-room she was white as a sheet, and, saying she was + not well, she started to go to bed, dragging herself up step by step by + the baluster and thinking that she was going to die. “Poor Brigaut!” she + thought. + </p> + <p> + “The girl is ill,” said Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “She ill! That’s only <i>shamming</i>,” replied Sylvie, in a loud voice + that Pierrette might hear. “She was well enough this morning, I can tell + you.” + </p> + <p> + This last blow struck Pierrette to the earth; she went to bed weeping and + praying to God to take her out of this world. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. DOMESTIC TYRANNY + </h2> + <p> + For a month past Rogron had ceased to carry the “Constitutionnel” to + Gouraud; the colonel came obsequiously to fetch his paper, gossip a + little, and take Rogron off to walk if the weather was fine. Sure of + seeing the colonel and being able to question him, Sylvie dressed herself + as coquettishly as she knew how. The old maid thought she was attractive + in a green gown, a yellow shawl with a red border, and a white bonnet with + straggling gray feathers. About the hour when the colonel usually came + Sylvie stationed herself in the salon with her brother, whom she had + compelled to stay in the house in his dressing-gown and slippers. + </p> + <p> + “It is a fine day, colonel,” said Rogron, when Gouraud with his heavy step + entered the room. “But I’m not dressed; my sister wanted to go out, and I + was going to keep the house. Wait for me; I’ll be ready soon.” + </p> + <p> + So saying, Rogron left Sylvie alone with the colonel. + </p> + <p> + “Where were you going? you are dressed divinely,” said Gouraud, who + noticed a certain solemnity on the pock-marked face of the old maid. + </p> + <p> + “I wanted very much to go out, but my little cousin is ill, and I cannot + leave her.” + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter with her?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know; she had to go to bed.” + </p> + <p> + Gouraud’s caution, not to say his distrust, was constantly excited by the + results of his alliance with Vinet. It certainly appeared that the lawyer + had got the lion’s share in their enterprise. Vinet controlled the paper, + he reigned as sole master over it, he took the revenues; whereas the + colonel, the responsible editor, earned little. Vinet and Cournant had + done the Rogrons great services; whereas Gouraud, a colonel on half-pay, + could do nothing. Who was to be deputy? Vinet. Who was the chief authority + in the party? Vinet. Whom did the liberals all consult? Vinet. Moreover, + the colonel knew fully as well as Vinet himself the extent and depth of + the passion suddenly aroused in Rogron by the beautiful Bathilde de + Chargeboeuf. This passion had now become intense, like all the last + passions of men. Bathilde’s voice made him tremble. Absorbed in his + desires Rogron hid them; he dared not hope for such a marriage. To sound + him, the colonel mentioned that he was thinking himself of asking for + Bathilde’s hand. Rogron turned pale at the thought of such a formidable + rival, and had since then shown coldness and even hatred to Gouraud. + </p> + <p> + Thus Vinet reigned supreme in the Rogron household while he, the colonel, + had no hold there except by the extremely hypothetical tie of his + mendacious affection for Sylvie, which it was not yet clear that Sylvie + reciprocated. When the lawyer told him of the priest’s manoeuvre, and + advised him to break with Sylvie and marry Pierrette, he certainly + flattered Gouraud’s foible; but after analyzing the inner purpose of that + advice and examining the ground all about him, the colonel thought he + perceived in his ally the intention of separating him from Sylvie, and + profiting by her fears to throw the whole Rogron property into the hands + of Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. + </p> + <p> + Therefore, when the colonel was left alone with Sylvie his perspicacity + possessed itself immediately of certain signs which betrayed her + uneasiness. He saw at once that she was under arms and had made this plan + for seeing him alone. As he already suspected Vinet of playing him some + trick, he attributed the conference to the instigation of the lawyer, and + was instantly on his guard, as he would have been in an enemy’s country,—with + an eye all about him, an ear to the faintest sound, his mind on the qui + vive, and his hand on a weapon. The colonel had the defect of never + believing a single word said to him by a woman; so that when the old maid + brought Pierrette on the scene, and told him she had gone to bed before + midday, he concluded that Sylvie had locked her up by way of punishment + and out of jealousy. + </p> + <p> + “She is getting to be quite pretty, that little thing,” he said with an + easy air. + </p> + <p> + “She will be pretty,” replied Mademoiselle Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “You ought to send her to Paris and put her in a shop,” continued the + colonel. “She would make her fortune. The milliners all want pretty + girls.” + </p> + <p> + “Is that really your advice?” asked Sylvie, in a troubled voice. + </p> + <p> + “Good!” thought the colonel, “I was right. Vinet advised me to marry + Pierrette just to spoil my chance with the old harridan. But,” he said + aloud, “what else can you do with her? There’s that beautiful girl + Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, noble and well-connected, reduced to + single-blessedness,—nobody will have her. Pierrette has nothing, and + she’ll never marry. As for beauty, what is it? To me, for example, youth + and beauty are nothing; for haven’t I been a captain of cavalry in the + imperial guard, and carried my spurs into all the capitals of Europe, and + known all the handsomest women of these capitals? Don’t talk to me; I tell + you youth and beauty are devilishly common and silly. At forty-eight,” he + went on, adding a few years to his age, to match Sylvie’s, “after + surviving the retreat from Moscow and going through that terrible campaign + of France, a man is broken down; I’m nothing but an old fellow now. A + woman like you would pet me and care for me, and her money, joined to my + poor pension, would give me ease in my old days; of course I should prefer + such a woman to a little minx who would worry the life out of me, and be + thirty years old, with passions, when I should be sixty, with rheumatism. + At my age, a man considers and calculates. To tell you the truth between + ourselves, I should not wish to have children.” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie’s face was an open book to the colonel during this tirade, and her + next question proved to him Vinet’s perfidy. + </p> + <p> + “Then you don’t love Pierrette?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Heavens! are you out of your mind, my dear Sylvie?” he cried. “Can those + who have no teeth crack nuts? Thank God I’ve got some common-sense and + know what I’m about.” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie thus reassured resolved not to show her own hand, and thought + herself very shrewd in putting her own ideas into her brother’s mouth. + </p> + <p> + “Jerome,” she said, “thought of the match.” + </p> + <p> + “How could your brother take up such an incongruous idea? Why, it is only + a few days ago that, in order to find out his secrets, I told him I loved + Bathilde. He turned as white as your collar.” + </p> + <p> + “My brother! does he love Bathilde?” asked Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Madly,—and yet Bathilde is only after his money.” (“One for you, + Vinet!” thought the colonel.) “I can’t understand why he should have told + you that about Pierrette. No, Sylvie,” he said, taking her hand and + pressing it in a certain way, “since you have opened this matter” (he drew + nearer to her), “well” (he kissed her hand; as a cavalry captain he had + already proved his courage), “let me tell you that I desire no wife but + you. Though such a marriage may look like one of convenience, I feel, on + my side, a sincere affection for you.” + </p> + <p> + “But if I <i>wish</i> you to marry Pierrette? if I leave her my fortune—eh, + colonel?” + </p> + <p> + “But I don’t want to be miserable in my home, and in less than ten years + see a popinjay like Julliard hovering round my wife and addressing verses + to her in the newspapers. I’m too much of a man to stand that. No, I will + never make a marriage that is disproportionate in age.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, colonel, we will talk seriously of this another time,” said Sylvie, + casting a glance upon him which she supposed to be full of love, though, + in point of fact, it was a good deal like that of an ogress. Her cold, + blue lips of a violet tinge drew back from the yellow teeth, and she + thought she smiled. + </p> + <p> + “I’m ready,” said Rogron, coming in and carrying off the colonel, who + bowed in a lover-like way to the old maid. + </p> + <p> + Gouraud determined to press on his marriage with Sylvie, and make himself + master of the house; resolving to rid himself, through his influence over + Sylvie during the honeymoon, of Bathilde and Celeste Habert. So, during + their walk, he told Rogron he had been joking the other day; that he had + no real intention of aspiring to Bathilde; that he was not rich enough to + marry a woman without fortune; and then he confided to him his real + wishes, declaring that he had long chosen Sylvie for her good qualities,—in + short, he aspired to the honor of being Rogron’s brother-in-law. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, colonel, my dear baron! if nothing is wanting but my consent you have + it with no further delay than the law requires,” cried Rogron, delighted + to be rid of his formidable rival. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie spent the morning in her own room considering how the new household + could be arranged. She determined to build a second storey for her brother + and to furnish the rest for herself and her husband; but she also + resolved, in the true old-maidish spirit, to subject the colonel to + certain proofs by which to judge of his heart and his morals before she + finally committed herself. She was still suspicious, and wanted to make + sure that Pierrette had no private intercourse with the colonel. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette came down before the dinner-hour to lay the table. Sylvie had + been forced to cook the dinner, and had sworn at that “cursed Pierrette” + for a spot she had made on her gown,—wasn’t it plain that if + Pierrette had done her own work Sylvie wouldn’t have got that grease-spot + on her silk dress? + </p> + <p> + “Oh, here you are, <i>peakling</i>? You are like the dog of the marshal + who woke up as soon as the saucepans rattled. Ha! you want us to think you + are ill, you little liar!” + </p> + <p> + That idea: “You did not tell the truth about what happened in the square + this morning, therefore you lie in everything,” was a hammer with which + Sylvie battered the head and also the heart of the poor girl incessantly. + </p> + <p> + To Pierrette’s great astonishment Sylvie sent her to dress in her best + clothes after dinner. The liveliest imagination is never up to the level + of the activity which suspicion excites in the mind of an old maid. In + this particular case, this particular old maid carried the day against + politicians, lawyers, notaries, and all other self-interests. Sylvie + determined to consult Vinet, after examining herself into all the + suspicious circumstances. She kept Pierrette close to her, so as to find + out from the girl’s face whether the colonel had told her the truth. + </p> + <p> + On this particular evening the Chargeboeuf ladies were the first to + arrive. Bathilde, by Vinet’s advice, had become more elaborate in her + dress. She now wore a charming gown of blue velveteen, with the same + transparent fichu, garnet pendants in her ears, her hair in ringlets, the + wily <i>jeannette</i> round her throat, black satin slippers, gray silk + stockings, and <i>gants de Suede</i>; add to these things the manners of a + queen and the coquetry of a young girl determined to capture Rogron. Her + mother, calm and dignified, retained, as did her daughter, a certain + aristocratic insolence, with which the two women hedged themselves and + preserved the spirit of their caste. Bathilde was a woman of intelligence, + a fact which Vinet alone had discovered during the two months’ stay the + ladies had made at his house. When he had fully fathomed the mind of the + girl, wounded and disappointed as it was by the fruitlessness of her + beauty and her youth, and enlightened by the contempt she felt for the men + of a period in which money was the only idol, Vinet, himself surprised, + exclaimed,— + </p> + <p> + “If I could only have married you, Bathilde, I should to-day be Keeper of + the Seals. I should call myself Vinet de Chargeboeuf, and take my seat as + deputy of the Right.” + </p> + <p> + Bathilde had no vulgar idea in her marriage intentions. She did not marry + to be a mother, nor to possess a husband; she married for freedom, to gain + a responsible position, to be called “madame,” and to act as men act. + Rogron was nothing but a name to her; she expected to make something of + the fool,—a voting deputy, for instance, whose instigator she would + be; moreover, she longed to avenge herself on her family, who had taken no + notice of a girl without money. Vinet had much enlarged and strengthened + her ideas by admiring and approving them. + </p> + <p> + “My dear Bathilde,” he said, while explaining to her the influence of + women, and showing her the sphere of action in which she ought to work, + “do you suppose that Tiphaine, a man of the most ordinary capacity, could + ever get to be a judge of the Royal court in Paris by himself? No, it is + Madame Tiphaine who has got him elected deputy, and it is she who will + push him when they get to Paris. Her mother, Madame Roguin, is a shrewd + woman, who does what she likes with the famous banker du Tillet, a crony + of Nucingen, and both of them allies of the Kellers. The administration is + on the best of terms with those lynxes of the bank. There is no reason why + Tiphaine should not be judge, through his wife, of a Royal court. Marry + Rogron; we’ll have him elected deputy from Provins as soon as I gain + another precinct in the Seine-et-Marne. You can then get him a place as + receiver-general, where he’ll have nothing to do but sign his name. We + shall belong to the opposition <i>if</i> the Liberals triumph, but if the + Bourbons remain—ah! then we shall lean gently, gently towards the + centre. Besides, you must remember Rogron can’t live forever, and then you + can marry a titled man. In short, put yourself in a good position, and the + Chargeboeufs will be ready enough to serve us. Your poverty has no doubt + taught you, as mine did me, to know what men are worth. We must make use + of them as we do of post-horses. A man, or a woman, will take us along to + such or such a distance.” + </p> + <p> + Vinet ended by making Bathilde a small edition of Catherine de Medicis. He + left his wife at home, rejoiced to be alone with her two children, while + he went every night to the Rogrons’ with Madame and Mademoiselle de + Chargeboeuf. He arrived there in all the glory of better circumstances. + His spectacles were of gold, his waistcoat silk; a white cravat, black + trousers, thin boots, a black coat made in Paris, and a gold watch and + chain, made up his apparel. In place of the former Vinet, pale and thin, + snarling and gloomy, the present Vinet bore himself with the air and + manner of a man of importance; he marched boldly forward, certain of + success, with that peculiar show of security which belongs to lawyers who + know the hidden places of the law. His sly little head was well-brushed, + his chin well-shaved, which gave him a mincing though frigid look, that + made him seem agreeable in the style of Robespierre. Certainly he would + make a fine attorney-general, endowed with elastic, mischievous, and even + murderous eloquence, or an orator of the shrewd type of Benjamin Constant. + The bitterness and the hatred which formerly actuated him had now turned + into soft-spoken perfidy; the poison was transformed into anodyne. + </p> + <p> + “Good-evening, my dear; how are you?” said Madame de Chargeboeuf, greeting + Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + Bathilde went straight to the fireplace, took off her bonnet, looked at + herself in the glass, and placed her pretty foot on the fender that Rogron + might admire it. + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter with you?” she said to him, looking directly in his + face. “You have not bowed to me. Pray why should we put on our best velvet + gowns to please you?” + </p> + <p> + She pushed past Pierrette to lay down her hat, which the latter took from + her hand, and which she let her take exactly as though she were a servant. + Men are supposed to be ferocious, and tigers too; but neither tigers, + vipers, diplomatists, lawyers, executioners or kings ever approach, in + their greatest atrocities, the gentle cruelty, the poisoned sweetness, the + savage disdain of one young woman for another, when she thinks herself + superior in birth, or fortune, or grace, and some question of marriage, or + precedence, or any of the feminine rivalries, is raised. The “Thank you, + mademoiselle,” which Bathilde said to Pierrette was a poem in many + strophes. She was named Bathilde, and the other Pierrette. She was a + Chargeboeuf, the other a Lorrain. Pierrette was small and weak, Bathilde + was tall and full of life. Pierrette was living on charity, Bathilde and + her mother lived on their means. Pierrette wore a stuff gown with a + chemisette, Bathilde made the velvet of hers undulate. Bathilde had the + finest shoulders in the department, and the arm of a queen; Pierrette’s + shoulder-blades were skin and bone. Pierrette was Cinderella, Bathilde was + the fairy. Bathilde was about to marry, Pierrette was to die a maid. + Bathilde was adored, Pierrette was loved by none. Bathilde’s hair was + ravishingly dressed, she had so much taste; Pierrette’s was hidden beneath + her Breton cap, and she knew nothing of the fashions. Moral, Bathilde was + everything, Pierrette nothing. The proud little Breton girl understood + this tragic poem. + </p> + <p> + “Good-evening, little girl,” said Madame de Chargeboeuf, from the height + of her condescending grandeur, and in the tone of voice which her pinched + nose gave her. + </p> + <p> + Vinet put the last touch to this sort of insult by looking fixedly at + Pierrette and saying, in three keys, “Oh! oh! oh! how fine we are + to-night, Pierrette!” + </p> + <p> + “Fine!” said the poor child; “you should say that to Mademoiselle de + Chargeboeuf, not to me.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh! she is always beautifully dressed,” replied the lawyer. “Isn’t she, + Rogron?” he added, turning to the master of the house, and grasping his + hand. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Rogron. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you force him to say what he does not think?” said Bathilde; + “nothing about me pleases him. Isn’t that true?” she added, going up to + Rogron and standing before him. “Look at me, and say if it isn’t true.” + </p> + <p> + Rogron looked at her from head to foot, and gently closed his eyes like a + cat whose head is being scratched. + </p> + <p> + “You are too beautiful,” he said; “too dangerous.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + Rogron looked at the fire and was silent. Just then Mademoiselle Habert + entered the room, followed by the colonel. + </p> + <p> + Celeste Habert, who had now become the common enemy, could only reckon + Sylvie on her side; nevertheless, everybody present showed her the more + civility and amiable attention because each was undermining her. Her + brother, though no longer able to be on the scene of action, was well + aware of what was going on, and as soon as he perceived that his sister’s + hopes were killed he became an implacable and terrible antagonist to the + Rogrons. + </p> + <p> + Every one will immediately picture to themselves Mademoiselle Habert when + they know that if she had not kept an institution for young ladies she + would still have had the air of a school-mistress. School-mistresses have + a way of their own in putting on their caps. Just as old Englishwomen have + acquired a monopoly in turbans, school-mistresses have a monopoly of these + caps. Flowers nod above the frame-work, flowers that are more than + artificial; lying by in closets for years the cap is both new and old, + even on the day it is first worn. These spinsters make it a point of honor + to resemble the lay figures of a painter; they sit on their hips, never on + their chairs. When any one speaks to them they turn their whole busts + instead of simply turning their heads; and when their gowns creak one is + tempted to believe that the mechanism of these beings is out of order. + Mademoiselle Habert, an ideal of her species, had a stern eye, a grim + mouth, and beneath her wrinkled chin the strings of her cap, always limp + and faded, floated as she moved. Two moles, rather large and brown, + adorned that chin, and from them sprouted hairs which she allowed to grow + rampant like clematis. And finally, to complete her portrait, she took + snuff, and took it ungracefully. + </p> + <p> + The company went to work at their boston. Mademoiselle Habert sat opposite + to Sylvie, with the colonel at her side opposite to Madame de Chargeboeuf. + Bathilde was near her mother and Rogron. Sylvie placed Pierrette between + herself and the colonel; Rogron had set out a second card-table, in case + other company arrived. Two lamps were on the chimney-piece between the + candelabra and the clock, and the tables were lighted by candles at forty + sous a pound, paid for by the price of the cards. + </p> + <p> + “Come, Pierrette, take your work, my dear,” said Sylvie, with treacherous + softness, noticing that the girl was watching the colonel’s game. + </p> + <p> + She usually affected to treat Pierrette well before company. This + deception irritated the honest Breton girl, and made her despise her + cousin. She took her embroidery, but as she drew her stitches she still + watched Gouraud’s play. Gouraud behaved as if he did not know the girl was + near him. Sylvie noticed this apparent indifference and thought it + extremely suspicious. Presently she undertook a <i>grande misere</i> in + hearts, the pool being full of counters, besides containing twenty-seven + sous. The rest of the company had now arrived; among them the deputy-judge + Desfondrilles, who for the last two months had abandoned the Tiphaine + party and connected himself more or less with the Vinets. He was standing + before the chimney-piece, with his back to the fire and the tails of his + coat over his arms, looking round the fine salon of which Mademoiselle de + Chargeboeuf was the shining ornament; for it really seemed as if all the + reds of its decoration had been made expressly to enhance her style of + beauty. Silence reigned; Pierrette was watching the game, Sylvie’s + attention was distracted from her by the interest of the <i>grande misere</i>. + </p> + <p> + “Play that,” said Pierrette to the colonel, pointing to a heart in his + hand. + </p> + <p> + The colonel began a sequence in hearts; the hearts all lay between himself + and Sylvie; the colonel won her ace, though it was protected by five small + hearts. + </p> + <p> + “That’s not fair!” she cried. “Pierrette saw my hand, and the colonel took + her advice.” + </p> + <p> + “But, mademoiselle,” said Celeste, “it was the colonel’s game to play + hearts after you began them.” + </p> + <p> + The scene made Monsieur Desfondrilles smile; his was a keen mind, which + found much amusement in watching the play of all the self-interests in + Provins. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, it was certainly the colonel’s game,” said Cournant the notary, not + knowing what the question was. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie threw a look at Mademoiselle Habert,—one of those glances + which pass from old maid to old maid, feline and cruel. + </p> + <p> + “Pierrette, you did see my hand,” said Sylvie fixing her eyes on the girl. + </p> + <p> + “No, cousin.” + </p> + <p> + “I was looking at you all,” said the deputy-judge, “and I can swear that + Pierrette saw no one’s hand but the colonel’s.” + </p> + <p> + “Pooh!” said Gouraud, alarmed, “little girls know how to slide their eyes + into everything.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” exclaimed Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” continued Gouraud. “I dare say she looked into your hand to play + you a trick. Didn’t you, little one?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said the truthful Breton, “I wouldn’t do such a thing; if I had, it + would have been in my cousin’s interests.” + </p> + <p> + “You know you are a story-teller and a little fool,” cried Sylvie. “After + what happened this morning do you suppose I can believe a word you say? + You are a—” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette did not wait for Sylvie to finish her sentence; foreseeing a + torrent of insults, she rushed away without a light and ran to her room. + Sylvie turned white with anger and muttered between her teeth, “She shall + pay for this!” + </p> + <p> + “Shall you pay for the <i>misere</i>?” said Madame de Chargeboeuf. + </p> + <p> + As she spoke Pierrette struck her head against the door of the passage + which some one had left open. + </p> + <p> + “Good! I’m glad of it,” cried Sylvie, as they heard the blow. + </p> + <p> + “She must be hurt,” said Desfondrilles. + </p> + <p> + “She deserves it,” replied Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “It was a bad blow,” said Mademoiselle Habert. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie thought she might escape paying her <i>misere</i> if she went to + see after Pierrette, but Madame de Chargeboeuf stopped her. + </p> + <p> + “Pay us first,” she said, laughing; “you will forget it when you come + back.” + </p> + <p> + The remark, based on the old maid’s trickery and her bad faith in paying + her debts at cards was approved by the others. Sylvie sat down and thought + no more of Pierrette,—an indifference which surprised no one. When + the game was over, about half past nine o’clock, she flung herself into an + easy chair at the corner of the fireplace and did not even rise as her + guests departed. The colonel was torturing her; she did not know what to + think of him. + </p> + <p> + “Men are so false!” she cried, as she went to bed. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow on the head, just above the + ear, at the spot where young girls part their hair when they put their + “front hair” in curlpapers. The next day there was a large swelling. + </p> + <p> + “God has punished you,” said Sylvie at the breakfast table. “You disobeyed + me; you treated me with disrespect in leaving the room before I had + finished my sentence; you got what you deserved.” + </p> + <p> + “Nevertheless,” said Rogron, “she ought to put on a compress of salt and + water.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it is nothing at all, cousin,” said Pierrette. + </p> + <p> + The poor child had reached a point where even such a remark seemed to her + a proof of kindness. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII. THE LOVES OF JACQUES AND PIERRETTE + </h2> + <p> + The week ended as it had begun, in continual torture. Sylvie grew + ingenious, and found refinements of tyranny with almost savage cruelty; + the red Indians might have taken a lesson from her. Pierrette dared not + complain of her vague sufferings, nor of the actual pains she now felt in + her head. The origin of her cousin’s present anger was the non-revelation + of Brigaut’s arrival. With Breton obstinacy Pierrette was determined to + keep silence,—a resolution that is perfectly explicable. It is easy + to see how her thoughts turned to Brigaut, fearing some danger for him if + he were discovered, yet instinctively longing to have him near her, and + happy in knowing he was in Provins. What joy to have seen him! That single + glimpse was like the look an exile casts upon his country, or the martyr + lifts to heaven, where his eyes, gifted with second-sight, can enter while + flames consume his body. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette’s glance had been so thoroughly understood by the major’s son + that, as he planed his planks or took his measures or joined his wood, he + was working his brains to find out some way of communicating with her. He + ended by choosing the simplest of all schemes. At a certain hour of the + night Pierrette must lower a letter by a string from her window. In the + midst of the girl’s own sufferings, she too was sustained by the hope of + being able to communicate with Brigaut. The same desire was in both + hearts; parted, they understood each other! At every shock to her heart, + every throb of pain in her head, Pierrette said to herself, “Brigaut is + here!” and that thought enabled her to live without complaint. + </p> + <p> + One morning in the market, Brigaut, lying in wait, was able to get near + her. Though he saw her tremble and turn pale, like an autumn leaf about to + flutter down, he did not lose his head, but quietly bought fruit of the + market-woman with whom Sylvie was bargaining. He found his chance of + slipping a note to Pierrette, all the while joking the woman with the ease + of a man accustomed to such manoeuvres; so cool was he in action, though + the blood hummed in his ears and rushed boiling through his veins and + arteries. He had the firmness of a galley-slave without, and the + shrinkings of innocence within him,—like certain mothers in their + moments of mortal trial, when held between two dangers, two catastrophes. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette’s inward commotion was like Brigaut’s. She slipped the note into + the pocket of her apron. The hectic spots upon her cheekbones turned to a + cherry-scarlet. These two children went through, all unknown to + themselves, many more emotions than go to the make-up of a dozen ordinary + loves. This moment in the market-place left in their souls a well-spring + of passionate feeling. Sylvie, who did not recognize the Breton accent, + took no notice of Brigaut, and Pierrette went home safely with her + treasure. + </p> + <p> + The letters of these two poor children were fated to serve as documents in + a terrible judicial inquiry; otherwise, without the fatal circumstances + that occasioned that inquiry, they would never have been heard of. Here is + the one which Pierrette read that night in her chamber:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + My dear Pierrette,—At midnight, when everybody is asleep but me, + who am watching you, I will come every night under your window. + Let down a string long enough to reach me; it will not make any + noise; you must fasten to the end of it whatever you write to me. + I will tie my letter in the same way. I hear <i>they</i> have taught + you to read and write,—those wicked relations who were to do you + good, and have done you so much harm. You, Pierrette, the daughter + of a colonel who died for France, reduced by those monsters to be + their servant! That is where all your pretty color and health have + gone. My Pierrette, what has become of her? what have they done + with her. I see plainly you are not the same, not happy. Oh! + Pierrette, let us go back to Brittany. I can earn enough now to + give you what you need; for you yourself can earn three francs a + day and I can earn four or five; and thirty sous is all I want to + live on. Ah! Pierrette, how I have prayed the good God for you + ever since I came here! I have asked him to give me all your + sufferings, and you all pleasures. Why do you stay with them? why + do they keep you? Your grandmother is more to you than they. They + are vipers; they have taken your gaiety away from you. You do not + even walk as you once did in Brittany. Let us go back. I am here + to serve you, to do your will; tell me what you wish. If you need + money I have a hundred and fifty francs; I can send them up by the + string, though I would like to kiss your dear hands and lay the + money in them. Ah, dear Pierrette, it is a long time now that the + blue sky has been overcast for me. I have not had two hours’ + happiness since I put you into that diligence of evil. And when I + saw you the other morning, looking like a shadow, I could not + reach you; that hag of a cousin came between us. But at least we + can have the consolation of praying to God together every Sunday + in church; perhaps he will hear us all the more when we pray + together. + + Not good-by, my dear, Pierrette, but <i>to-night</i>. +</pre> + <p> + This letter so affected Pierrette that she sat for more than an hour + reading and re-reading and gazing at it. Then she remembered with anguish + that she had nothing to write with. She summoned courage to make the + difficult journey from her garret to the dining-room, where she obtained + pen, paper, and ink, and returned safely without waking her terrible + cousin. A few minutes before midnight she had finished the following + letter:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + My Friend,—Oh! yes, my friend; for there is no one but you, + Jacques, and my grandmother to love me. God forgive me, but you + are the only two persons whom I love, both alike, neither more nor + less. I was too little to know my dear mamma; but you, Jacques, + and my grandmother, and my grandfather,—God grant him heaven, for + he suffered much from his ruin, which was mine,—but you two who + are left, I love you both, unhappy as I am. Indeed, to know how + much I love you, you will have to know how much I suffer; but I + don’t wish that, it would grieve you too much. <i>They</i> speak to me + as we would not speak to a dog; <i>they</i> treat me like the worst of + girls; and yet I do examine myself before God, and I cannot find + that I do wrong by them. Before you sang to me the marriage song I + saw the mercy of God in my sufferings; for I had prayed to him to + take me from the world, and I felt so ill I said to myself, “God + hears me!” But, Jacques, now you are here, I want to live and go + back to Brittany, to my grandmamma who loves me, though <i>they</i> say + she stole eight thousand francs of mine. Jacques, is that so? If + they are mine could you get them! But it is not true, for if my + grandmother had eight thousand francs she would not live at + Saint-Jacques. + + I don’t want to trouble her last days, my kind, good grandmamma, + with the knowledge of my troubles; she might die of it. Ah! if she + knew they made her grandchild scrub the pots and pans,—she who + used to say to me, when I wanted to help her after her troubles, + “Don’t touch that, my darling; leave it—leave it—you will spoil + your pretty fingers.” Ah! my hands are never clean now. Sometimes + I can hardly carry the basket home from market, it cuts my arm. + Still I don’t think my cousins mean to be cruel; but it is their + way always to scold, and it seems that I have no right to leave + them. My cousin Rogron is my guardian. One day when I wanted to + run away because I could not bear it, and told them so, my cousin + Sylvie said the gendarmes would go after me, for the law was my + master. Oh! I know now that cousins cannot take the place of + father or mother, any more than the saints can take the place of + God. + + My poor Jacques, what do you suppose I could do with your money? + Keep it for our journey. Oh! how I think of you and Pen-Hoel, and + the big pong,—that’s where we had our only happy days. I shall + have no more, for I feel I am going from bad to worse. I am very + ill, Jacques. I have dreadful pains in my head, and in my bones, + and back, which kill me, and I have no appetite except for horrid + things,—roots and leaves and such things. Sometimes I cry, when I + am all alone, for they won’t let me do anything I like if they + know it, not even cry. I have to hide to offer my tears to Him to + whom we owe the mercies which we call afflictions. It must have + been He who gave you the blessed thought to come and sing the + marriage song beneath my window. Ah! Jacques, my cousin heard you, + and she said I had a lover. If you wish to be my lover, love me + well. I promise to love you always, as I did in the past, and to + be + Your faithful servant, + Pierrette Lorrain. + + You will love me always, won’t you? +</pre> + <p> + She had brought a crust of bread from the kitchen, in which she now made a + hole for the letter, and fastened it like a weight to her string. At + midnight, having opened her window with extreme caution, she lowered the + letter with the crust, which made no noise against either the wall of the + house or the blinds. Presently she felt the string pulled by Brigaut, who + broke it and then crept softly away. When he reached the middle of the + square she could see him indistinctly by the starlight; but he saw her + quite clearly in the zone of light thrown by the candle. The two children + stood thus for over an hour, Pierrette making him signs to go, he + starting, she remaining, he coming back to his post, and Pierrette again + signing that he must leave her. This was repeated till the child closed + her window, went to bed, and blew out the candle. Once in bed she fell + asleep, happy in heart though suffering in body,—she had Brigaut’s + letter under her pillow. She slept as the persecuted sleep,—a + slumber bright with angels; that slumber full of heavenly arabesques, in + atmospheres of gold and lapis-lazuli, perceived and given to us by + Raffaelle. + </p> + <p> + The moral nature had such empire over that frail physical nature that on + the morrow Pierrette rose light and joyous as a lark, as radiant and as + gay. Such a change could not escape the vigilant eye of her cousin Sylvie, + who, this time, instead of scolding her, set about watching her with the + scrutiny of a magpie. “What reason is there for such happiness?” was a + thought of jealousy, not of tyranny. If the colonel had not been in + Sylvie’s mind she would have said to Pierrette as formerly, “Pierrette, + you are very noise, and very regardless of what you have often been told.” + But now the old maid resolved to spy upon her as only old maids can spy. + The day was still and gloomy, like the weather that precedes a storm. + </p> + <p> + “You don’t appear to be ill now, mademoiselle,” said Sylvie at dinner. + “Didn’t I tell you she put it all on to annoy us?” she cried, addressing + her brother, and not waiting for Pierrette’s answer. + </p> + <p> + “On the contrary, cousin, I have a sort of fever—” + </p> + <p> + “Fever! what fever? You are as gay as a lark. Perhaps you have seen some + one again?” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette trembled and dropped her eyes on her plate. + </p> + <p> + “Tartufe!” cried Sylvie; “and only fourteen years old! what a nature! Do + you mean to come to a bad end?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know what you mean,” said Pierrette, raising her sweet and + luminous brown eyes to her cousin. + </p> + <p> + “This evening,” said Sylvie, “you are to stay in the dining-room with a + candle, and do your sewing. You are not wanted in the salon; I sha’n’t + have you looking into my hand to help your favorites.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette made no sign. + </p> + <p> + “Artful creature!” cried Sylvie, leaving the room. + </p> + <p> + Rogron, who did not understand his sister’s anger, said to Pierrette: + “What is all this about? Try to please your cousin, Pierrette; she is very + indulgent to you, very gentle, and if you put her out of temper the fault + is certainly yours. Why do you squabble so? For my part I like to live in + peace. Look at Mademoiselle Bathilde and take pattern by her.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette felt able to bear everything. Brigaut would come at midnight and + bring her an answer, and that hope was the viaticum of her day. But she + was using up her last strength. She did not go to bed, and stood waiting + for the hour to strike. At last midnight sounded; softly she opened the + window; this time she used a string made by tying bits of twine together. + She heard Brigaut’s step, and on drawing up the cord she found the + following letter, which filled her with joy:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + My dear Pierrette,—As you are so ill you must not tire yourself + by waiting for me. You will hear me if I cry like an owl. Happily + my father taught me to imitate their note. So when you hear the + cry three times you will know I am there, and then you must let + down the cord. But I shall not come again for some days. I hope + then to bring you good news. + + Oh! Pierrette, don’t talk of dying! Pierrette, don’t think such + things! All my heart shook, I felt as though I were dead myself at + the mere idea. No, my Pierrette, you must not die; you will live + happy, and soon you shall be delivered from your persecutors. If I + do not succeed in what I am undertaking for your rescue, I shall + appeal to the law, and I shall speak out before heaven and earth + and tell how your wicked relations are treating you. I am certain + that you have not many more days to suffer; have patience, my + Pierrette! Jacques is watching over you as in the old days when we + slid on the pond and I pulled you out of the hole in which we were + nearly drowned together. + + Adieu, my dear Pierrette; in a few days, if God wills, we shall be + happy. Alas, I dare not tell you the only thing that may hinder + our meeting. But God loves us! In a few days I shall see my dear + Pierrette at liberty, without troubles, without any one to hinder + my looking at you—for, ah! Pierrette, I hunger to see you + —Pierrette, Pierrette, who deigns to love me and to tell me so. + Yes, Pierrette, I will be your lover when I have earned the + fortune you deserve; till then I will be to you only a devoted + servant whose life is yours to do what you please with it. Adieu. + + Jacques Brigaut. +</pre> + <p> + Here is a letter of which the major’s son said nothing to Pierrette. He + wrote it to Madame Lorrain at Nantes:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Madame Lorrain,—Your granddaughter will die, worn-out with + ill-treatment, if you do not come to fetch her. I could scarcely + recognize her; and to show you the state of things I enclose a + letter I have received from Pierrette. You are thought here to + have taken the money of your granddaughter, and you ought to + justify yourself. If you can, come at once. We may still be happy; + but if delay Pierrette will be dead. + + I am, with respect, your devoted servant, + Jacques Brigaut. + + At Monsieur Frappier’s, Cabinet-maker, Grand’Rue, Provins. +</pre> + <p> + Brigaut’s fear was that the grandmother was dead. + </p> + <p> + Though this letter of the youth whom in her innocence she called her lover + was almost enigmatical to Pierrette, she believed in it with all her + virgin faith. Her heart was filled with that sensation which travellers in + the desert feel when they see from afar the palm-trees round a well. In a + few days her misery would end—Jacques said so. She relied on this + promise of her childhood’s friend; and yet, as she laid the letter beside + the other, a dreadful thought came to her in foreboding words. + </p> + <p> + “Poor Jacques,” she said to herself, “he does not know the hole into which + I have now fallen!” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie had heard Pierrette, and she had also heard Brigaut under her + window. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the window to look through the + blinds into the square and there she saw, in the moonlight, a man hurrying + in the direction of the colonel’s house, in front of which Brigaut + happened to stop. The old maid gently opened her door, went upstairs, was + amazed to find a light in Pierrette’s room, looked through the keyhole, + and could see nothing. + </p> + <p> + “Pierrette,” she said, “are you ill?” + </p> + <p> + “No, cousin,” said Pierrette, surprised. + </p> + <p> + “Why is your candle burning at this time of night? Open the door; I must + know what this means.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette went to the door bare-footed, and as soon as Sylvie entered the + room she saw the cord, which Pierrette had forgotten to put away, not + dreaming of a surprise. Sylvie jumped upon it. + </p> + <p> + “What is that for?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing, cousin.” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing!” she cried. “Always lying; you’ll never get to heaven that way. + Go to bed; you’ll take cold.” + </p> + <p> + She asked no more questions and went away, leaving Pierrette terrified by + her unusual clemency. Instead of exploding with rage, Sylvie had suddenly + determined to surprise Pierrette and the colonel together, to seize their + letters and confound the two lovers who were deceiving her. Pierrette, + inspired by a sense of danger, sewed the letters into her corset and + covered them with calico. + </p> + <p> + Here end the loves of Pierrette and Brigaut. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette rejoiced in the thought that Jacques had determined to hold no + communication with her for some days, because her cousin’s suspicions + would be quieted by finding nothing to feed them. Sylvie did in fact spend + the next three nights on her legs, and each evening in watching the + innocent colonel, without discovering either in him or in Pierrette, or in + the house or out of it, anything that betrayed their understanding. She + sent Pierrette to confession, and seized that moment to search the child’s + room, with the method and penetration of a spy or a custom-house officer. + She found nothing. Her fury reached the apogee of human sentiments. If + Pierrette had been there she would certainly have struck her + remorselessly. To a woman of her temper, jealousy was less a sentiment + than an occupation; she existed in it, it made her heart beat, she felt + emotions hitherto completely unknown to her; the slightest sound or + movement kept her on the qui vive; she watched Pierrette with gloomy + intentness. + </p> + <p> + “That miserable little wretch will kill me,” she said. + </p> + <p> + Sylvie’s severity to her cousin reached the point of refined cruelty, and + made the deplorable condition of the poor girl worse daily. She had fever + regularly, and the pains in her head became intolerable. By the end of the + week even the visitors at the house noticed her suffering face, which + would have touched to pity all selfishness less cruel than theirs. It + happened that Doctor Neraud, possibly by Vinet’s advice, did not come to + the house during that week. The colonel, knowing himself suspected by + Sylvie, was afraid to risk his marriage by showing any solicitude for + Pierrette. Bathilde explained the visible change in the girl by her + natural growth. But at last, one Sunday evening, when Pierrette was in the + salon, her sufferings overcame her and she fainted away. The colonel, who + first saw her going, caught her in his arms and carried her to a sofa. + </p> + <p> + “She did it on purpose,” said Sylvie, looking at Mademoiselle Habert and + the rest who were playing boston with her. + </p> + <p> + “I assure you that your cousin is very ill,” said the colonel. + </p> + <p> + “She seemed well enough in your arms,” Sylvie said to him in a low voice, + with a savage smile. + </p> + <p> + “The colonel is right,” said Madame de Chargeboeuf. “You ought to send for + a doctor. This morning at church every one was speaking, as they came out, + of Mademoiselle Lorrain’s appearance.” + </p> + <p> + “I am dying,” said Pierrette. + </p> + <p> + Desfondrilles called to Sylvie and told her to unfasten her cousin’s gown. + Sylvie went up to the girl, saying, “It is only a tantrum.” + </p> + <p> + She unfastened the gown and was about to touch the corset, when Pierrette, + roused by the danger, sat up with superhuman strength, exclaiming, “No, + no, I will go to bed.” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie had, however, touched the corset and felt the papers. She let + Pierrette go, saying to the company: + </p> + <p> + “What do you think now of her illness? I tell you it is all a pretence. + You have no idea of the perversity of that child.” + </p> + <p> + After the card-playing was over she kept Vinet from following the other + guests; she was furious and wanted vengeance, and was grossly rude to the + colonel when he bade her good-night. Gouraud threw a look at the lawyer + which threatened him to the depths of his being and seemed to put a ball + in his entrails. Sylvie told Vinet to remain. When they were alone, she + said,— + </p> + <p> + “Never in my life, never in my born days, will I marry the colonel.” + </p> + <p> + “Now that you have come to that decision I may speak,” said the lawyer. + “The colonel is my friend, but I am more yours than his. Rogron has done + me services which I can never forget. I am as strong a friend as I am an + enemy. Once in the Chamber I shall rise to power, and I will make your + brother a receiver-general. Now swear to me, before I say more, that you + will never repeat what I tell you.” (Sylvie made an affirmative sign.) “In + the first place, the brave colonel is a gambler—” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” exclaimed Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “If it had not been for the embarrassments this vice has brought upon him, + he might have been a marshal of France,” continued Vinet. “He is capable + of running through your property; but he is very astute; you cannot be + sure of not having children, and you told me yourself the risks you + feared. No, if you want to marry, wait till I am in the Chamber and then + take that old Desfondrilles, who shall be made chief justice. If you want + revenge on the colonel make your brother marry Mademoiselle de + Chargeboeuf,—I can get her consent; she has two thousand francs a + year, and you will be connected with the de Chargeboeufs as I am. + Recollect what I tell you, the Chargeboeufs will be glad to claim us for + cousins some day.” + </p> + <p> + “Gouraud loves Pierrette,” was Sylvie’s only answer. + </p> + <p> + “He is quite capable of it,” said Vinet, “and capable of marrying her + after your death.” + </p> + <p> + “A fine calculation!” she said. + </p> + <p> + “I tell you that man has the shrewdness of the devil. Marry your brother + and announce that you mean to remain unmarried and will leave your + property to your nephews and nieces. That will strike a blow at Gouraud + and Pierrette both! and you’ll see the faces they’ll make.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah! that’s true,” cried the old maid, “I can serve them both right. She + shall go to a shop, and get nothing from me. She hasn’t a sou; let her do + as we did,—work.” + </p> + <p> + Vinet departed, having put his plan into Sylvie’s head, her dogged + obstinacy being well-known to him. The old maid, he was certain, would + think the scheme her own, and carry it out. + </p> + <p> + The lawyer found the colonel in the square, smoking a cigar while he + waited for him. + </p> + <p> + “Halt!” said Gouraud; “you have pulled me down, but stones enough came + with me to bury you—” + </p> + <p> + “Colonel!—” + </p> + <p> + “Colonel or not, I shall give you your deserts. In the first place, you + shall not be deputy—” + </p> + <p> + “Colonel!—” + </p> + <p> + “I control ten votes and the election depends on—” + </p> + <p> + “Colonel, listen to me. Is there no one to marry but that old Sylvie? I + have just been defending you to her; you are accused and convicted of + writing to Pierrette; she saw you leave your house at midnight and come to + the girl’s window—” + </p> + <p> + “Stuff and nonsense!” + </p> + <p> + “She means to marry her brother to Bathilde and leave her fortune to their + children.” + </p> + <p> + “Rogron won’t have any.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes he will,” replied Vinet. “But I promise to find you some young and + agreeable woman with a hundred and fifty thousand francs? Don’t be a fool; + how can you and I afford to quarrel? Things have gone against you in spite + of all my care; but you don’t understand me.” + </p> + <p> + “Then we must understand each other,” said the colonel. “Get me a wife + with a hundred and fifty thousand francs before the elections; if not—look + out for yourself! I don’t like unpleasant bed-fellows, and you’ve pulled + the blankets all over to your side. Good-evening.” + </p> + <p> + “You shall see,” said Vinet, grasping the colonel’s hand affectionately. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + About one o’clock that night three clear, sharp cries of an owl, + wonderfully well imitated, echoed through the square. Pierrette heard them + in her feverish sleep; she jumped up, moist with perspiration, opened her + window, saw Brigaut, and flung down a ball of silk, to which he fastened a + letter. Sylvie, agitated by the events of the day and her own indecision + of mind, was not asleep; she heard the owl. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, bird of ill-omen!” she thought. “Why, Pierrette is getting up! What + is she after?” + </p> + <p> + Hearing the attic window open softly, Sylvie rushed to her own window and + heard the rustle of paper against her blinds. She fastened the strings of + her bed-gown and went quickly upstairs to Pierrette’s room, where she + found the poor girl unwinding the silk and freeing the letter. + </p> + <p> + “Ha! I’ve caught you!” cried the old woman, rushing to the window, from + which she saw Jacques running at full speed. “Give me that letter.” + </p> + <p> + “No, cousin,” said Pierrette, who, by one of those strong inspirations of + youth sustained by her own soul, rose to a grandeur of resistance such as + we admire in the history of certain peoples reduced to despair. + </p> + <p> + “Ha! you will not?” cried Sylvie, advancing upon the girl with a face full + of hatred and fury. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette fell back to get time to put her letter in her hand, which she + clenched with unnatural force. Seeing this manoeuvre Sylvie grasped the + delicate white hand of the girl in her lobster claws and tried to open it. + It was a frightful struggle, an infamous struggle; it was more than a + physical struggle; it assailed the mind, the sole treasure of the human + being, the thought, which God has placed beyond all earthly power and + guards as the secret way between the sufferer and Himself. The two women, + one dying, the other in the vigor of health, looked at each other fixedly. + Pierrette’s eyes darted on her executioner the look the famous Templar on + the rack cast upon Philippe le Bel, who could not bear it and fled + thunderstricken. Sylvie, a woman and a jealous woman, answered that + magnetic look with malignant flashes. A dreadful silence reigned. The + clenched hand of the Breton girl resisted her cousin’s efforts like a + block of steel. Sylvie twisted Pierrette’s arm, she tried to force the + fingers open; unable to do so she stuck her nails into the flesh. At last, + in her madness, she set her teeth into the wrist, trying to conquer the + girl by pain. Pierrette defied her still, with that same terrible glance + of innocence. The anger of the old maid grew to such a pitch that it + became blind fury. She seized Pierrette’s arm and struck the closed fist + upon the window-sill, and then upon the marble of the mantelpiece, as we + crack a nut to get the kernel. + </p> + <p> + “Help! help!” cried Pierrette, “they are murdering me!” + </p> + <p> + “Ha! you may well scream, when I catch you with a lover in the dead of + night.” + </p> + <p> + And she beat the hand pitilessly. + </p> + <p> + “Help! help!” cried Pierrette, the blood flowing. + </p> + <p> + At that instant, loud knocks were heard at the front door. Exhausted, the + two women paused a moment. + </p> + <p> + Rogron, awakened and uneasy, not knowing what was happening, had got up, + gone to his sister’s room, and not finding her was frightened. Hearing the + knocks he went down, unfastened the front door, and was nearly knocked + over by Brigaut, followed by a sort of phantom. + </p> + <p> + At this moment Sylvie’s eyes chanced to fall on Pierrette’s corset, and + she remembered the papers. Releasing the girl’s wrist she sprang upon the + corset like a tiger on its prey, and showed it to Pierrette with a smile,—the + smile of an Iroquois over his victim before he scalps him. + </p> + <p> + “I am dying,” said Pierrette, falling on her knees, “oh, who will save + me?” + </p> + <p> + “I!” said a woman with white hair and an aged parchment face, in which two + gray eyes glittered. + </p> + <p> + “Ah! grandmother, you have come too late,” cried the poor child, bursting + into tears. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette fell upon her bed, her strength all gone, half-dead with the + exhaustion which, in her feeble state, followed so violent a struggle. The + tall gray woman took her in her arms, as a nurse lifts a child, and went + out, followed by Brigaut, without a word to Sylvie, on whom she cast one + glance of majestic accusation. + </p> + <p> + The apparition of that august old woman, in her Breton costume, shrouded + in her coif (a sort of hooded mantle of black cloth), accompanied by + Brigaut, appalled Sylvie; she fancied she saw death. She slowly went down + the stairs, listened to the front door closing behind them, and came face + to face with her brother, who exclaimed: “Then they haven’t killed you?” + </p> + <p> + “Go to bed,” said Sylvie. “To-morrow we will see what we must do.” + </p> + <p> + She went back to her own bed, ripped open the corset, and read Brigaut’s + two letters, which confounded her. She went to sleep in the greatest + perplexity,—not imagining the terrible results to which her conduct + was to lead. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + The letters sent by Brigaut to old Madame Lorrain reached her in a moment + of ineffable joy, which the perusal of them troubled. The poor old woman + had grieved deeply in living without her Pierrette beside her, but she had + consoled her loneliness with the thought that the sacrifice of herself was + in the interests of her grandchild. She was blessed with one of those + ever-young hearts which are upheld and invigorated by the idea of + sacrifice. Her old husband, whose only joy was his little granddaughter, + had grieved for Pierrette; every day he had seemed to look for her. It was + an old man’s grief,—on which such old men live, of which they die. + </p> + <p> + Every one can now imagine the happiness which this poor old woman, living + in a sort of almshouse, felt when she learned of a generous action, rare + indeed but not impossible in France. The head of the house of Collinet, + whose failure in 1814 had caused the Lorrains a loss of twenty-four + thousand francs, had gone to America with his children after his + disasters. He had too high a courage to remain a ruined man. After eleven + years of untold effort crowned by success he returned to Nantes to recover + his position, leaving his eldest son in charge of his transatlantic house. + He found Madame Lorrain of Pen-Hoel in the institution of Saint-Jacques, + and was witness of the resignation with which this most unfortunate of his + creditors bore her misery. + </p> + <p> + “God forgive you!” said the old woman, “since you give me on the borders + of my grave the means of securing the happiness of my dear granddaughter; + but alas! it will not clear the debts of my poor husband!” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Collinet made over to the widow both the capital and the accrued + interest, amounting to about forty-two thousand francs. His other + creditors, prosperous, rich, and intelligent merchants, had easily born + their losses, whereas the misfortunes of the Lorrains seemed so + irremediable to old Monsieur Collinet that he promised the widow to pay + off her husband’s debts, to the amount of forty thousand francs more. When + the Bourse of Nantes heard of this generous reparation they wished to + receive Collinet to their board before his certificates were granted by + the Royal court at Rennes; but the merchant refused the honor, preferring + to submit to the ordinary commercial rule. + </p> + <p> + Madame Lorrain had received the money only the day before the post brought + her Brigaut’s letter, enclosing that of Pierrette. Her first thought had + been, as she signed the receipt: “Now I can live with my Pierrette and + marry her to that good Brigaut, who will make a fortune with my money.” + </p> + <p> + Therefore the moment she had read the fatal letters she made instant + preparations to start for Provins. She left Nantes that night by the mail; + for some one had explained to her its celerity. In Paris she took the + diligence for Troyes, which passes through Provins, and by half-past + eleven at night she reached Frappier’s, where Brigaut, shocked at her + despairing looks, told her of Pierrette’s state and promised to bring the + poor girl to her instantly. His words so terrified the grandmother that + she could not control her impatience and followed him to the square. When + Pierrette screamed, the horror of that cry went to her heart as sharply as + it did to Brigaut’s. Together they would have roused the neighborhood if + Rogron, in his terror, had not opened the door. The scream of the young + girl at bay gave her grandmother the sudden strength of anger with which + she carried her dear Pierrette in her arms to Frappier’s house, where + Madame Frappier hastily arranged Brigaut’s own room for the old woman and + her treasure. In that poor room, on a bed half-made, the sufferer was + deposited; and there she fainted away, holding her hand still clenched, + wounded, bleeding, with the nails deep bedded in the flesh. Brigaut, + Frappier, his wife, and the old woman stood looking at Pierrette in + silence, all four of them in a state of indescribable amazement. + </p> + <p> + “Why is her hand bloody?” said the grandmother at last. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette, overcome by the sleep which follows all abnormal displays of + strength, and dimly conscious that she was safe from violence, gradually + unbent her fingers. Brigaut’s letter fell from them like an answer. + </p> + <p> + “They tried to take my letter from her,” said Brigaut, falling on his + knees and picking up the lines in which he had told his little friend to + come instantly and softly away from the house. He kissed with pious love + the martyr’s hand. + </p> + <p> + It was a sight that made those present tremble when they saw the old gray + woman, a sublime spectre, standing beside her grandchild’s pillow. Terror + and vengeance wrote their fierce expressions in the wrinkles that lined + her skin of yellow ivory; her forehead, half hidden by the straggling + meshes of her gray hair, expressed a solemn anger. She read, with a power + of intuition given to the aged when near their grave, Pierrette’s whole + life, on which her mind had dwelt throughout her journey. She divined the + illness of her darling, and knew that she was threatened with death. Two + big tears painfully rose in her wan gray eyes, from which her troubles had + worn both lashes and eyebrows, two pearls of anguish, forming within them + and giving them a dreadful brightness; then each tear swelled and rolled + down the withered cheek, but did not wet it. + </p> + <p> + “They have killed her!” she said at last, clasping her hands. + </p> + <p> + She fell on her knees which struck sharp blows on the brick-laid floor, + making a vow no doubt to Saint Anne d’Auray, the most powerful of the + madonnas of Brittany. + </p> + <p> + “A doctor from Paris,” she said to Brigaut. “Go and fetch one, Brigaut, + go!” + </p> + <p> + She took him by the shoulder and gave him a despotic push to send him from + the room. + </p> + <p> + “I was coming, my lad, when you wrote me; I am rich,—here, take + this,” she cried, recalling him, and unfastening as she spoke the strings + that tied her short-gown. Then she drew a paper from her bosom in which + were forty-two bank-bills, saying, “Take what is necessary, and bring back + the greatest doctor in Paris.” + </p> + <p> + “Keep those,” said Frappier; “he can’t change thousand franc notes now. I + have money, and the diligence will be passing presently; he can certainly + find a place on it. But before he goes we had better consult Doctor + Martener; he will tell us the best physician in Paris. The diligence won’t + pass for over an hour,—we have time enough.” + </p> + <p> + Brigaut woke up Monsieur Martener, and brought him at once. The doctor was + not a little surprised to find Mademoiselle Lorrain at Frappier’s. Brigaut + told him of the scene that had just taken place at the Rogrons’; but even + so the doctor did not at first suspect the horror of it, nor the extent of + the injury done. Martener gave the address of the celebrated Horace + Bianchon, and Brigaut started for Paris by the diligence. Monsieur + Martener then sat down and examined first the bruised and bloody hand + which lay outside the bed. + </p> + <p> + “She could not have given these wounds herself,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “No; the horrible woman to whom I had the misfortune to trust her was + murdering her,” said the grandmother. “My poor Pierrette was screaming + ‘Help! help! I’m dying,’—enough to touch the heart of an + executioner.” + </p> + <p> + “But why was it?” said the doctor, feeling Pierrette’s pulse. “She is very + ill,” he added, examining her with a light. “She must have suffered + terribly; I don’t understand why she has not been properly cared for.” + </p> + <p> + “I shall complain to the authorities,” said the grandmother. “Those + Rogrons asked me for my child in a letter, saying they had twelve thousand + francs a year and would take care of her; had they the right to make her + their servant and force her to do work for which she had not the + strength?” + </p> + <p> + “They did not choose to see the most visible of all maladies to which + young girls are liable. She needed the utmost care,” cried Monsieur + Martener. + </p> + <p> + Pierrette was awakened by the light which Madame Frappier was holding near + her face, and by the horrible sufferings in her head caused by the + reaction of her struggle. + </p> + <p> + “Ah! Monsieur Martener, I am very ill,” she said in her pretty voice. + </p> + <p> + “Where is the pain, my little friend?” asked the doctor. + </p> + <p> + “Here,” she said, touching her head above the left ear. + </p> + <p> + “There’s an abscess,” said the doctor, after feeling the head for a long + time and questioning Pierrette on her sufferings. “You must tell us all, + my child, so that we may know how to cure you. Why is your hand like this? + You could not have given yourself that wound.” + </p> + <p> + Pierrette related the struggle between herself and her cousin Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “Make her talk,” said the doctor to the grandmother, “and find out the + whole truth. I will await the arrival of the doctor from Paris; and we + will send for the surgeon in charge of the hospital here, and have a + consultation. The case seems to me a very serious one. Meantime I will + send you a quieting draught so that mademoiselle may sleep; she needs + sleep.” + </p> + <p> + Left alone with her granddaughter the old Breton woman exerted her + influence over the child and made her tell all; she let her know that she + had money enough now for all three, and promised that Brigaut should live + with them. The poor girl admitted her martyrdom, not imagining the events + to which her admissions would give rise. The monstrosity of two beings + without affection and without conception of family life opened to the old + woman a world of woe as far from her knowledge as the morals of savages + may have seemed to the first discoverers who set foot in America. + </p> + <p> + The arrival of her grandmother, the certainty of living with her in + comfort soothed Pierrette’s mind as the sleeping draught soothed her body. + The old woman watched her darling, kissing her forehead, hair, and hands, + as the holy women of old kissed the hands of Jesus when they laid him in + the tomb. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX. THE FAMILY COUNCIL + </h2> + <p> + At nine o’clock that morning Monsieur Martener went to see Monsieur + Tiphaine, and related to him the scene between Pierrette and Sylvie, and + the tortures of all kinds, moral and physical, to which the Rogrons had + subjected their cousin, and the two alarming forms of illness which their + cruelty had developed. Monsieur Tiphaine sent for Auffray the notary, one + of Pierrette’s own relations on the maternal side. + </p> + <p> + At this particular time the war between the Vinet party and the Tiphaine + party was at its height. The scandals which the Rogrons and their + adherents were disseminating through the town about the liaison of Madame + Tiphaine’s mother with the banker du Tillet, and the bankruptcy of her + father (a forger, they said), were all the more exasperating to the + Tiphaines because these things were malicious truths, not libels. Such + wounds cut deep; they go to the quick of feelings and of interests. These + speeches, repeated to the partisans of the Tiphaines by the same mouths + which told the Rogrons of the sneers of “those women” of the Tiphaine + clique, fed the hatreds of both sides, now increased by the political + element. The animosities caused at this time in France by the spirit of + party, the violences of which were excessive, were everywhere mixed up, as + in Provins, with selfish schemes and wounded or vindictive individual + interests. Each party eagerly seized on whatever might injure the rival + party. Personal hatreds and self-love mingled as much as political + animosity in even the smallest matters, and were carried to hitherto + unheard-of lengths. A whole town would be roused to excitement over some + private struggle, until it took the character of a political debate. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Tiphaine at once perceived in the case of Pierrette against the + Rogrons a means of humbling, mortifying, and dishonoring the masters of + that salon where plans against the monarchy were made and an opposition + journal born. The public prosecutor was called in; and together with + Monsieur Auffray the notary, Pierrette’s relation, and Monsieur Martener, + a cautious consultation was held in the utmost secrecy as to the proper + course to follow. Monsieur Martener agreed to advise Pierrette’s + grandmother to apply to the courts to have Auffray appointed guardian to + his young relation. The guardian could then convene a “Family Council,” + and, backed by the testimony of three doctors, demand the girl’s release + from the authority of the Rogrons. The affair thus managed would have to + go before the courts, and the public prosecutor, Monsieur Lesourd, would + see that it was taken to a criminal court by demanding an inquiry. + </p> + <p> + Towards midday all Provins was roused by the strange news of what had + happened during the night at the Rogrons’. Pierrette’s cries had been + faintly heard, though they were soon over. No one had risen to inquire + what they meant, but every one said the next day, “Did you hear those + screams about one in the morning?” Gossip and comments soon magnified the + horrible drama, and a crowd collected in front of Frappier’s shop, asking + the worthy cabinet-maker for information, and hearing from him how + Pierrette was brought to his house with her fingers broken and the hand + bloody. + </p> + <p> + Towards one in the afternoon the post-chaise of Doctor Bianchon, who was + accompanied by Brigaut, stopped before the house, and Madame Frappier went + at once to summon Monsieur Martener and the surgeon in charge of the + hospital. Thus the gossip of the town received confirmation. The Rogrons + were declared to have ill-used their cousin deliberately, and to have come + near killing her. Vinet heard the news while attending to his business in + the law courts; he left everything and hurried to the Rogrons. Rogron and + his sister had just finished breakfast. Sylvie was reluctant to tell her + brother of her discomfiture of the night before; but he pressed her with + questions, to which she would make no answer than, “That’s not your + business.” She went and came from the kitchen to the dining-room on + pretence of preparing the breakfast, but chiefly to avoid discussion. She + was alone when Vinet entered. + </p> + <p> + “You know what’s happened?” said the lawyer. + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Sylvie. + </p> + <p> + “You will be arrested on a criminal charge,” replied Vinet, “from the way + things are now going about Pierrette.” + </p> + <p> + “A criminal charge!” cried Rogron, who had come into the room. “Why? What + for?” + </p> + <p> + “First of all,” said the lawyer, looking at Sylvie, “explain to me without + concealment and as if you stood before God, what happened in this house + last night—they talk of amputating Pierrette’s hand.” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie turned livid and shuddered. + </p> + <p> + “Then there is some truth in it?” said Vinet. + </p> + <p> + Mademoiselle Rogron related the scene, trying to excuse herself; but, + prodded with questions, she acknowledged the facts of the horrible + struggle. + </p> + <p> + “If you have only injured her fingers you will be taken before the police + court for a misdemeanor; but if they cut off her hand you may be tried at + the Assizes for a worse offence. The Tiphaines will do their best to get + you there.” + </p> + <p> + Sylvie, more dead than alive, confessed her jealousy, and, what was harder + to do, confessed also that her suspicions were unfounded. + </p> + <p> + “Heavens, what a case this will make!” cried the lawyer. “You and your + brother may be ruined by it; you will be abandoned by most people whether + you win or lose. If you lose, you will have to leave Provins.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my dear Monsieur Vinet, you who are such a great lawyer,” said + Rogron, terrified, “advise us! save us!” + </p> + <p> + The crafty Vinet worked the terror of the two imbeciles to its utmost, + declaring that Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf might be unwilling + to enter their house again. To be abandoned by women of their rank would + be a terrible condemnation. At length, after an hour of adroit + manoeuvring, it was agreed that Vinet must have some powerful motive in + taking the case, that would impress the minds of all Provins and explain + his efforts on behalf of the Rogrons. This motive they determined should + be Rogron’s marriage to Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf; it should be + announced that very day and the banns published on Sunday. The contract + could be drawn immediately. Mademoiselle Rogron agreed, in consideration + of the marriage, to appear in the contract as settling her capital on her + brother, retaining only the income of it. Vinet made Rogron and his sister + comprehend the necessity of antedating the document by two or three days, + so as to commit the mother and daughter in the eyes of the public and give + them a reason for continuing their visits. + </p> + <p> + “Sign that contract and I’ll take upon myself to get you safely out of + this affair,” said the lawyer. “There will be a terrible fight; but I will + put my whole soul into it—you’ll have to make me a votive offering.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes, yes,” said Rogron. + </p> + <p> + By half-past eleven the lawyer had plenary powers to draw the contract and + conduct the defence of the Rogrons. At twelve o’clock application was made + to Monsieur Tiphaine, as a judge sitting in chambers, against Brigaut and + the widow Lorrain for having abducted Pierrette Lorrain, a minor, from the + house of her legal guardian. In this way the bold lawyer became the + aggressor and made Rogron the injured party. He spoke of the matter from + this point of view in the court-house. + </p> + <p> + The judge postponed the hearing till four o’clock. Needless to describe + the excitement in the town. Monsieur Tiphaine knew that by three o’clock + the consultation of doctors would be over and their report drawn up; he + wished Auffray, as surrogate-guardian, to be at the hearing armed with + that report. + </p> + <p> + The announcement of Rogron’s marriage and the sacrifices made to it by + Sylvie in the contract alienated two important supporters from the brother + and sister, namely,—Mademoiselle Habert and the colonel, whose hopes + were thus annihilated. They remained, however, ostensibly on the Rogron + side for the purpose of injuring it. Consequently, as soon as Monsieur + Martener mentioned the alarming condition of Pierrette’s head, Celeste and + the colonel told of the blow she had given herself during the evening when + Sylvie had forced her to leave the salon; and they related the old maid’s + barbarous and unfeeling comments, with other statements proving her + cruelty to her suffering cousin. Vinet had foreseen this storm; but he had + secured the entire fortune of the Rogrons for Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, + and he promised himself that in a few weeks she should be mistress of the + Rogron house, and reign with him over Provins, and even bring about a + fusion with the Breauteys and the aristocrats in the interests of his + ambition. + </p> + <p> + From midday to four o’clock all the ladies of the Tiphaine clique sent to + inquire after Mademoiselle Lorrain. She, poor girl, was wholly ignorant of + the commotion she was causing in the little town. In the midst of her + sufferings she was ineffably happy in recovering her grandmother and + Brigaut, the two objects of her affection. Brigaut’s eyes were constantly + full of tears. The old grandmother sat by the bed and caressed her + darling. To the three doctors she told every detail she had obtained from + Pierrette as to her life in the Rogron house. Horace Bianchon expressed + his indignation in vehement language. Shocked at such barbarity he + insisted on all the physicians in the town being called in to see the + case; the consequence was that Dr. Neraud, the friend of the Rogrons, was + present. The report was unanimously signed. It is useless to give a text + of it here. If Moliere’s medical terms were barbarous, those of modern + science have the advantage of being so clear that the explanation of + Pierrette’s malady, though natural and unfortunately common, horrified all + ears. + </p> + <p> + At four o’clock, after the usual rising of the court, president Tiphaine + again took his seat, when Madame Lorrain, accompanied by Monsieur Auffray + and Brigaut and a crowd of interested persons, entered the court-room. + Vinet was alone. This contrast struck the minds of those present. The + lawyer, who still wore his robe, turned his cold face to the judge, + settled his spectacles on his pallid green eyes, and then in a shrill, + persistent voice he stated that two strangers had forced themselves at + night into the Rogron domicile and had abducted therefrom the minor + Lorrain. The legal rights were with the guardian, who now demanded the + restoration of his ward. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Auffray rose, as surrogate-guardian, and requested to be heard. + </p> + <p> + “If the judge,” he said, “will admit the report, which I hold in my hand, + signed by one of the most famous physicians in Paris, and by all the + physicians in Provins, he will understand not only that the demand of the + Sieur Rogron is senseless, but also that the grandmother of the minor had + grave cause to instantly remove her from her persecutors. Here are the + facts. The report of these physicians attribute the almost dying condition + of the said minor to the ill-treatment she has received from the Sieur + Rogron and his sister. We shall, as the law directs, convoke a Family + Council with the least possible delay, and discuss the question as to + whether or not the guardian should be deposed. And we now ask that the + minor be not returned to the domicile of the said guardian but that she be + confided to some member of her family who shall be designated by the + judge.” + </p> + <p> + Vinet replied, declaring that the physicians’ report ought to have been + submitted to him in order that he might have disproved it. + </p> + <p> + “Not submitted to your side,” said the judge, severely, “but possibly to + the <i>procureur du roi</i>. The case is heard.” + </p> + <p> + The judge then wrote at the bottom of the petition the following order:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Whereas it appears, from a deliberate and unanimous report of all + the physicians of this town, together with Doctor Bianchon of the + medical faculty of Paris, that the minor Lorrain, claimed by + Jerome-Denis Rogron, her guardian, is extremely ill in consequence + of ill-treatment and personal assault in the house of the said + guardian and his sister: + + “We, president of the court of Provins, passing upon the said + petition, order that until the Family Council is held the minor + Lorrain is not to be returned to the household of her said + guardian, but shall be kept in that of her surrogate-guardian. + + “And further, considering the state in which the said minor now + is, and the traces of violence which, according to the report of + the physicians, are now upon her person, we commission the + attending physician and the surgeon in charge of the hospital of + Provins to visit her, and in case the injuries from the said + assault become alarming, the matter will be held to await the + action of the criminal courts; and this without prejudice to the + civil suit undertaken by Auffray the surrogate-guardian.” + </pre> + <p> + This severe judgment was read out by President Tiphaine in a loud and + distinct voice. + </p> + <p> + “Why not send them to the galleys at once?” said Vinet. “And all this fuss + about a girl who was carrying on an intrigue with an apprentice to a + cabinet-maker! If the case goes on in this way,” he cried, insolently, “we + shall demand other judges on the ground of legitimate suspicion.” + </p> + <p> + Vinet left the court-room, and went among the chief men of his party to + explain Rogron’s position, declaring that he had never so much as given a + flip to his cousin, and that the judge had viewed him much less as + Pierrette’s guardian than as a leading elector in Provins. + </p> + <p> + To hear Vinet, people might have supposed that the Tiphaines were making a + great fuss about nothing; the mounting was bringing forth a mouse. Sylvie, + an eminently virtuous and pious woman, had discovered an intrigue between + her brother’s ward and a workman, a Breton named Brigaut. The scoundrel + knew very well that the girl would have her grandmother’s money, and he + wished to seduce her (Vinet to talk of that!). Mademoiselle Rogron, who + had discovered letters proving the depravity of the girl, was not as much + to blame as the Tiphaines were trying to make out. If she did use some + violence to get possession of those letters (which was no wonder, when we + consider what Breton obstinacy is), how could Rogron be considered + responsible for all that? + </p> + <p> + The lawyer went on to make the matter a partisan affair, and to give it a + political color. + </p> + <p> + “They who listen to only one bell hear only one sound,” said the wise men. + “Have you heard what Vinet says? Vinet explains things clearly.” + </p> + <p> + Frappier’s house being thought injurious to Pierrette, owing to the noise + in the street which increased the sufferings in her head, she was taken to + that of her surrogate guardian, the change being as necessary medically as + it was judicially. The removal was made with the utmost caution, and was + calculated to produce a great public effect. Pierrette was laid on a + mattress and carried on a stretcher by two men; a Gray Sister walked + beside her with a bottle of sal volatile in her hand, while the + grandmother, Brigaut, Madame Auffray, and her maid followed. People were + at their windows and doors to see the procession pass. Certainly the state + in which they saw Pierrette, pale as death, gave immense advantage to the + party against the Rogrons. The Auffrays were determined to prove to the + whole town that the judge was right in the decision he had given. + Pierrette and her grandmother were installed on the second floor of + Monsieur Auffray’s house. The notary and his wife gave her every care with + the greatest hospitality, which was not without a little ostentation in + it. Pierrette had her grandmother to nurse her; and Monsieur Martener and + the head-surgeon of the hospital attended her. + </p> + <p> + On the evening of this day exaggerations began on both sides. The Rogron + salon was crowded. Vinet had stirred up the whole Liberal party on the + subject. The Chargeboeuf ladies dined with the Rogrons, for the contract + was to be signed that evening. Vinet had had the banns posted at the + mayor’s office in the afternoon. He made light of the Pierrette affair. If + the Provins court was prejudiced, the Royal courts would appreciate the + facts, he said, and the Auffrays would think twice before they flung + themselves into such a suit. The alliance of the Rogrons with the + Chargeboeufs was an immense consideration in the minds of a certain class + of people. To them it made the Rogrons as white as snow and Pierrette an + evilly disposed little girl, a serpent warmed in their bosom. + </p> + <p> + In Madame Tiphaine’s salon vengeance was had for all the mischievous + scandals that the Vinet party had disseminated for the past two years. The + Rogrons were monsters, and the guardian should undergo a criminal trial. + In the Lower town, Pierrette was quite well; in the Upper town she was + dying; at the Rogrons’ she scratched her wrist; at Madame Tiphaine’s her + fingers were fractured and one was to be cut off. The next day the + “Courrier de Provins,” had a plausible article, extremely well-written, a + masterpiece of insinuations mixed with legal points, which showed that + there was no case whatever against Rogron. The “Bee-hive,” which did not + appear till two days later, could not answer without becoming defamatory; + it replied, however, that in an affair like this it was best to wait until + the law took its course. + </p> + <p> + The Family Council was selected by the <i>juge de paix</i> of the canton + of Provins, and consisted of Rogron and the two Messieurs Auffray, the + nearest relatives, and Monsieur Ciprey, nephew of Pierrette’s maternal + grandmother. To these were joined Monsieur Habert, Pierrette’s confessor, + and Colonel Gouraud, who had always professed himself a comrade and friend + of her father, Colonel Lorrain. The impartiality of the judge in these + selections was much applauded,—Monsieur Habert and Colonel Gouraud + being considered the firm friends of the Rogrons. + </p> + <p> + The serious situation in which Rogron found himself made him ask for the + assistance of a lawyer (and he named Vinet) at the Family Council. By this + manoeuvre, evidently advised by Vinet himself, Rogron succeeded in + postponing the meeting of the council till the end of December. At that + time Monsieur Tiphaine and his wife would be settled in Paris for the + opening of the Chambers; and the ministerial party would be left without + its head. Vinet had already worked upon Desfondrilles, the deputy-judge, + in case the matter should go, after the hearing before the council, to the + criminal courts. + </p> + <p> + Vinet spoke for three hours before the Family Council; he proved the + existence of an intrigue between Pierrette and Brigaut, which justified + all Mademoiselle Rogron’s severity. He showed how natural it was that the + guardian should have left the management of his ward to a woman; he dwelt + on the fact that Rogron had not interfered with Pierrette’s education as + planned by his sister Sylvie. But in spite of Vinet’s efforts the Council + were unanimous in removing Rogron from the guardianship. Monsieur Auffray + was appointed in his place, and Monsieur Ciprey was made surrogate. The + Council summoned before it and examined Adele, the servant-woman, who + testified against her late masters; also Mademoiselle Habert, who related + the cruel remarks made by Mademoiselle Rogron on the evening when + Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow, heard by all the company, + and the speech of Madame de Chargeboeuf about the girl’s health. Brigaut + produced the letter he had received from Pierrette, which proved their + innocence and stated her ill-treatment. Proof was given that the condition + of the minor was the result of neglect on the part of the guardian, who + was responsible for all that concerned his ward. Pierrette’s illness had + been apparent to every one, even to persons in the town who were strangers + to the family, yet the guardian had done nothing for her. The charge of + ill-treatment was therefore sustained against Rogron; and the case would + now go before the public. + </p> + <p> + Rogron, advised by Vinet, opposed the acceptance of the report of the + Council by the court. The authorities then intervened in consequence of + Pierrette’s state, which was daily growing worse. The trial of the case, + though placed at once upon the docket, was postponed until the month of + March, 1828, to wait events. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X. VERDICTS—LEGAL AND OTHER + </h2> + <p> + Meantime Rogron’s marriage with Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf took place. + Sylvie moved to the second floor of the house, which she shared with + Madame de Chargeboeuf, for the first floor was entirely taken up by the + new wife. The beautiful Madame Rogron succeeded to the social place of the + beautiful Madame Tiphaine. The influence of the marriage was immense. No + one now came to visit Sylvie, but Madame Rogron’s salon was always full. + </p> + <p> + Sustained by the influence of his mother-in-law and the bankers du Tillet + and Nucingen, Monsieur Tiphaine was fortunate enough to do some service to + the administration; he became one of its chief orators, was made judge in + the civil courts, and obtained the appointment of his nephew Lesourd to + his own vacant place as president of the court of Provins. This + appointment greatly annoyed Desfondrilles. The Keeper of the Seals sent + down one of his own proteges to fill Lesourd’s place. The promotion of + Monsieur Tiphaine and his translation to Paris were therefore of no + benefit at all to the Vinet party; but Vinet nevertheless made a clever + use of the result. He had always told the Provins people that they were + being used as a stepping-stone to raise the crafty Madame Tiphaine into + grandeur; Tiphaine himself had tricked them; Madame Tiphaine despised both + Provins and its people in her heart, and would never return there again. + Just at this crisis Monsieur Tiphaine’s father died; his son inherited a + fine estate and sold his house in Provins to Monsieur Julliard. The sale + proved to the minds of all how little the Tiphaines thought of Provins. + Vinet was right; Vinet had been a true prophet. These things had great + influence on the question of Pierrette’s guardianship. + </p> + <p> + Thus the dreadful martyrdom brutally inflicted on the poor child by two + imbecile tyrants (which led, through its consequences, to the terrible + operation of trepanning, performed by Monsieur Martener under the advice + of Doctor Bianchon),—all this horrible drama reduced to judicial + form was left to float in the vile mess called in legal parlance the + calendar. The case was made to drag through the delays and the + interminable labyrinths of the law, by the shufflings of an unprincipled + lawyer; and during all this time the calumniated girl languished in the + agony of the worst pain known to science. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Martener, together with the Auffray family, were soon charmed by + the beauty of Pierrette’s nature and the character of her old grandmother, + whose feelings, ideas, and ways bore the stamp of Roman antiquity,—this + matron of the Marais was like a woman in Plutarch. + </p> + <p> + Doctor Martener struggled bravely with death, which already grasped its + prey. From the first, Bianchon and the hospital surgeon had considered + Pierrette doomed; and there now took place between the doctor and the + disease, the former relying on Pierrette’s youth, one of those struggles + which physicians alone comprehend,—the reward of which, in case of + success, is never found in the venal pay nor in the patients themselves, + but in the gentle satisfaction of conscience, in the invisible ideal palm + gathered by true artists from the contentment which fills their soul after + accomplishing a noble work. The physician strains towards good as an + artist towards beauty, each impelled by that grand sentiment which we call + virtue. This daily contest wiped out of Doctor Martener’s mind the petty + irritations of that other contest of the Tiphaines and the Vinets,—as + always happens to men when they find themselves face to face with a great + and real misery to conquer. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Martener had begun his career in Paris; but the cruel activity of + the city and its insensibility to its masses of suffering had shocked his + gentle soul, fitted only for the quiet life of the provinces. Moreover, he + was under the yoke of his beautiful native land. He returned to Provins, + where he married and settled, and cared almost lovingly for the people, + who were to him like a large family. During the whole of Pierrette’s + illness he was careful not to speak of her. His reluctance to answer the + questions of those who asked about her was so evident that persons soon + ceased to put them. Pierrette was to him, what indeed she truly was, a + poem, mysterious, profound, vast in suffering, such as doctors find at + times in their terrible experience. He felt an admiration for this + delicate young creature which he would not share with any one. + </p> + <p> + This feeling of the physician for his patient was, however, unconsciously + communicated (like all true feelings) to Monsieur and Madame Auffray, + whose house became, so long as Pierrette was in it, quiet and silent. The + children, who had formerly played so joyously with her, agreed among + themselves with the loving grace of childhood to be neither noisy nor + troublesome. They made it a point of honor to be good because Pierrette + was ill. Monsieur Auffray’s house was in the Upper town, beneath the ruins + of the Chateau, and it was built upon a sort of terrace formed by the + overthrow of the old ramparts. The occupants could have a view of the + valley from the little fruit-garden enclosed by walls which overlooked the + town. The roofs of the other houses came to about the level of the lower + wall of this garden. Along the terrace ran a path, by which Monsieur + Auffray’s study could be entered through a glass door; at the other end of + the path was an arbor of grape vines and a fig-tree, beneath which stood a + round table, a bench and some chairs, painted green. Pierrette’s bedroom + was above the study of her new guardian. Madame Lorrain slept in a cot + beside her grandchild. From her window Pierrette could see the whole of + the glorious valley of Provins, which she hardly knew, so seldom had she + left that dreadful house of the Rogrons. When the weather was fine she + loved to drag herself, resting on her grandmother’s arm, to the vine-clad + arbor. Brigaut, unable to work, came three times a day to see his little + friend; he was gnawed by a grief which made him indifferent to life. He + lay in wait like a dog for Monsieur Martener, and followed him when he + left the house. The old grandmother, drunk with grief, had the courage to + conceal her despair; she showed her darling the smiling face she formerly + wore at Pen-Hoel. In her desire to produce that illusion in the girl’s + mind, she made her a little Breton cap like the one Pierrette had worn on + her first arrival in Provins; it made the darling seem more like her + childlike self; in it she was delightful to look upon, her sweet face + circled with a halo of cambric and fluted lace. Her skin, white with the + whiteness of unglazed porcelain, her forehead, where suffering had printed + the semblance of deep thought, the purity of the lines refined by illness, + the slowness of the glances, and the occasional fixity of the eyes, made + Pierrette an almost perfect embodiment of melancholy. She was served by + all with a sort of fanaticism; she was felt to be so gentle, so tender, so + loving. Madame Martener sent her piano to her sister Madame Auffray, + thinking to amuse Pierrette who was passionately fond of music. It was a + poem to watch her listening to a theme of Weber, or Beethoven, or Herold,—her + eyes raised, her lips silent, regretting no doubt the life escaping her. + The cure Peroux and Monsieur Habert, her two religious comforters, admired + her saintly resignation. Surely the seraphic perfection of young girls and + young men marked with the hectic of death, is a wonderful fact worthy of + the attention alike of philosophers and of heedless minds. He who has ever + seen one of these sublime departures from this life can never remain, or + become, an unbeliever. Such beings exhale, as it were, a celestial + fragrance; their glances speak of God; the voices are eloquent in the + simplest words; often they ring like some seraphic instrument revealing + the secrets of the future. When Monsieur Martener praised her for having + faithfully followed a harsh prescription the little angel replied, and + with what a glance—! + </p> + <p> + “I want to live, dear Monsieur Martener; but less for myself than for my + grandmother, for my Brigaut, for all of you who will grieve at my death.” + </p> + <p> + The first time she went into the garden on a beautiful sunny day in + November attended by all the household, Madame Auffray asked her if she + was tired. + </p> + <p> + “No, now that I have no sufferings but those God sends I can bear all,” + she said. “The joy of being loved gives me strength to suffer.” + </p> + <p> + That was the only time (and then vaguely) that she ever alluded to her + horrible martyrdom at the Rogrons, whom she never mentioned, and of whom + no one reminded her, knowing well how painful the memory must be. + </p> + <p> + “Dear Madame Auffray,” she said one day at noon on the terrace, as she + gazed at the valley, warmed by a glorious sun and colored with the glowing + tints of autumn, “my death in your house gives me more happiness than I + have had since I left Brittany.” + </p> + <p> + Madame Auffray whispered in her sister Martener’s ear:— + </p> + <p> + “How she would have loved!” + </p> + <p> + In truth, her tones, her looks gave to her words a priceless value. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Martener corresponded with Doctor Bianchon, and did nothing of + importance without his advice. He hoped in the first place to regular the + functions of nature and to draw away the abscess in the head through the + ear. The more Pierrette suffered, the more he hoped. He gained some slight + success at times, and that was a great triumph. For several days + Pierrette’s appetite returned and enabled her to take nourishing food for + which her illness had given her a repugnance; the color of her skin + changed; but the condition of her head was terrible. Monsieur Martener + entreated the great physician his adviser to come down. Bianchon came, + stayed two days, and resolved to undertake an operation. To spare the + feelings of poor Martener he went to Paris and brought back with him the + celebrated Desplein. Thus the operation was performed by the greatest + surgeon of ancient or modern times; but that terrible diviner said to + Martener as he departed with Bianchon, his best-loved pupil:— + </p> + <p> + “Nothing but a miracle can save her. As Horace told you, caries of the + bone has begun. At her age the bones are so tender.” + </p> + <p> + The operation was performed at the beginning of March, 1828. During all + that month, distressed by Pierrette’s horrible sufferings, Monsieur + Martener made several journeys to Paris; there he consulted Desplein and + Bianchon, and even went so far as to propose to them an operation of the + nature of lithotrity, which consists in passing into the head a hollow + instrument by the help of which an heroic remedy can be applied to the + diseased bone, to arrest the progress of the caries. Even the bold + Desplein dared not attempt that high-handed surgical measure, which + despair alone had suggested to Martener. When he returned home from Paris + he seemed to his friends morose and gloomy. He was forced to announce on + that fatal evening to the Auffrays and Madame Lorrain and to the two + priests and Brigaut that science could do no more for Pierrette, whose + recovery was now in God’s hands only. The consternation among them was + terrible. The grandmother made a vow, and requested the priests to say a + mass every morning at daybreak before Pierrette rose,—a mass at + which she and Brigaut might be present. + </p> + <p> + The trial came on. While the victim lay dying, Vinet was calumniating her + in court. The judge approved and accepted the report of the Family + Council, and Vinet instantly appealed. The newly appointed <i>procureur du + roi</i> made a requisition which necessitated fresh evidence. Rogron and + his sister were forced to give bail to avoid going to prison. The order + for fresh evidence included that of Pierrette herself. When Monsieur + Desfondrilles came to the Auffrays’ to receive it, Pierrette was dying, + her confessor was at her bedside about to administer extreme unction. At + that moment she entreated all present to forgive her cousins as she + herself forgave them, saying with her simple good sense that the judgment + of these things belonged to God alone. + </p> + <p> + “Grandmother,” she said, “leave all you have to Brigaut” (Brigaut burst + into tears); “and,” continued Pierrette, “give a thousand francs to that + kind Adele who warmed my bed. If Adele had remained with my cousins I + should not now be dying.” + </p> + <p> + It was at three o’clock on the Tuesday of Easter week, on a beautiful, + bright day, that the angel ceased to suffer. Her heroic grandmother wished + to watch all that night with the priests, and to sew with her stiff old + fingers her darling’s shroud. Towards evening Brigaut left the Auffray’s + house and went to Frappier’s. + </p> + <p> + “I need not ask you, my poor boy, for news,” said the cabinet-maker. + </p> + <p> + “Pere Frappier, yes, it is ended for her—but not for me.” + </p> + <p> + He cast a look upon the different woods piled up around the shop,—a + look of painful meaning. + </p> + <p> + “I understand you, Brigaut,” said his worthy master. “Take all you want.” + And he showed him the oaken planks of two-inch thickness. + </p> + <p> + “Don’t help me, Monsieur Frappier,” said the Breton, “I wish to do it + alone.” + </p> + <p> + He passed the night in planing and fitting Pierrette’s coffin, and more + than once his plane took off at a single pass a ribbon of wood which was + wet with tears. The good man Frappier smoked his pipe and watched him + silently, saying only, when the four pieces were joined together,— + </p> + <p> + “Make the cover to slide; her poor grandmother will not hear the nails.” + </p> + <p> + At daybreak Brigaut went out to fetch the lead to line the coffin. By a + strange chance, the sheets of lead cost just the sum he had given + Pierrette for her journey from Nantes to Provins. The brave Breton, who + was able to resist the awful pain of himself making the coffin of his dear + one and lining with his memories those burial planks, could not bear up + against this strange reminder. His strength gave way; he was not able to + lift the lead, and the plumber, seeing this, came with him, and offered to + accompany him to the house and solder the last sheet when the body had + been laid in the coffin. + </p> + <p> + The Breton burned the plane and all the tools he had used. Then he settled + his accounts with Frappier and bade him farewell. The heroism with which + the poor lad personally performed, like the grandmother, the last offices + for Pierrette made him a sharer in the awful scene which crowned the + tyranny of the Rogrons. + </p> + <p> + Brigaut and the plumber reached the house of Monsieur Auffray just in time + to decide by their own main force an infamous and shocking judicial + question. The room where the dead girl lay was full of people, and + presented to the eyes of the two men a singular sight. The Rogron + emissaries were standing beside the body of their victim, to torture her + even after death. The corpse of the child, solemn in its beauty, lay on + the cot-bed of her grandmother. Pierrette’s eyes were closed, the brown + hair smoothed upon her brow, the body swathed in a coarse cotton sheet. + </p> + <p> + Before the bed, on her knees, her hair in disorder, her hands stretched + out, her face on fire, the old Lorrain was crying out, “No, no, it shall + not be done!” + </p> + <p> + At the foot of the bed stood Monsieur Auffray and the two priests. The + tapers were still burning. + </p> + <p> + Opposite to the grandmother was the surgeon of the hospital, with an + assistant, and near him stood Doctor Neraud and Vinet. The surgeon wore + his dissecting apron; the assistant had opened a case of instruments and + was handing him a knife. + </p> + <p> + This scene was interrupted by the noise of the coffin which Brigaut and + the plumber set down upon the floor. Then Brigaut, advancing, was + horrified at the sight of Madame Lorrain, who was now weeping. + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter?” he asked, standing beside her and grasping the + chisel convulsively in his hand. + </p> + <p> + “This,” said the old woman, “<i>this</i>, Brigaut: they want to open the + body of my child and cut into her head, and stab her heart after her death + as they did when she was living.” + </p> + <p> + “Who?” said Brigaut, in a voice that might have deafened the men of law. + </p> + <p> + “The Rogrons.” + </p> + <p> + “In the sacred name of God!—” + </p> + <p> + “Stop, Brigaut,” said Monsieur Auffray, seeing the lad brandish his + chisel. + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur Auffray,” said Brigaut, as white as his dead companion, “I hear + you because you are Monsieur Auffray, but at this moment I will not listen + to—” + </p> + <p> + “The law!” said Auffray. + </p> + <p> + “Is there law? is there justice?” cried the Breton. “Justice, this is it!” + and he advanced to the lawyer and the doctors, threatening them with his + chisel. + </p> + <p> + “My friend,” said the curate, “the law has been invoked by the lawyer of + Monsieur Rogron, who is under the weight of a serious accusation; and it + is impossible for us to refuse him the means of justification. The lawyer + of Monsieur Rogron claims that if the poor child died of an abscess in her + head her former guardian cannot be blamed, for it is proved that Pierrette + concealed the effects of the blow which she gave to herself—” + </p> + <p> + “Enough!” said Brigaut. + </p> + <p> + “My client—” began Vinet. + </p> + <p> + “Your client,” cried the Breton, “shall go to hell and I to the scaffold; + for if one of you dares to touch her whom your client has killed, I will + kill him if my weapon does its duty.” + </p> + <p> + “This is interference with the law,” said Vinet. “I shall instantly inform + the court.” + </p> + <p> + The five men left the room. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my son!” cried the old woman, rising from her knees and falling on + Brigaut’s neck, “let us bury her quick,—they will come back.” + </p> + <p> + “If we solder the lead,” said the plumber, “they may not dare to open it.” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Auffray hastened to his brother-in-law, Monsieur Lesourd, to try + and settle the matter. Vinet was not unwilling. Pierrette being dead the + suit about the guardianship fell, of course, to the ground. All the astute + lawyer wanted was the effect produced by his request. + </p> + <p> + At midday Monsieur Desfondrilles made his report on the case, and the + court rendered a decision that there was no ground for further action. + </p> + <p> + Rogron dared not go to Pierrette’s funeral, at which the whole town was + present. Vinet wished to force him there, but the miserable man was afraid + of exciting universal horror. + </p> + <p> + Brigaut left Provins after watching the filling up of the grave where + Pierrette lay, and went on foot to Paris. He wrote a petition to the + Dauphiness asking, in the name of his father, that he might enter the + Royal guard, to which he was at once admitted. When the expedition to + Algiers was undertaken he wrote to her again, to obtain employment in it. + He was then a sergeant; Marshal Bourmont gave him an appointment as + sub-lieutenant in a line regiment. The major’s son behaved like a man who + wished to die. Death has, however, respected Jacques Brigaut up to the + present time; although he has distinguished himself in all the recent + expeditions he has never yet been wounded. He is now major in a regiment + of infantry. No officer is more taciturn or more trustworthy. Outside of + his duty he is almost mute; he walks alone and lives mechanically. Every + one divines and respects a hidden sorrow. He possesses forty-six thousand + francs, which old Madame Lorrain, who died in Paris in 1829, bequeathed to + him. + </p> + <p> + At the elections of 1830 Vinet was made a deputy. The services he rendered + the new government have now earned him the position of <i>procureur-general</i>. + His influence is such that he will always remain a deputy. Rogron is + receiver-general in the same town where Vinet fulfils his legal functions; + and by one of those curious tricks of chance which do so often occur, + Monsieur Tiphaine is president of the Royal court in the same town,—for + the worthy man gave in his adhesion to the dynasty of July without the + slightest hesitation. The ex-beautiful Madame Tiphaine lives on excellent + terms with the beautiful Madame Rogron. Vinet is hand in glove with Madame + Tiphaine. + </p> + <p> + As to the imbecile Rogron, he makes such remarks as, “Louis-Philippe will + never be really king till he is able to make nobles.” + </p> + <p> + The speech is evidently not his own. His health is failing, which allows + Madame Rogron to hope she may soon marry the General Marquis de + Montriveau, peer of France, who commands the department, and is paying her + attentions. Vinet is in his element, seeking victims; he never believes in + the innocence of an accused person. This thoroughbred prosecutor is held + to be one of the most amiable men on the circuit; and he is no less liked + in Paris and in the Chamber; at court he is a charming courtier. + </p> + <p> + According to a certain promise made by Vinet, General Baron Gouraud, that + noble relic of our glorious armies, married a Mademoiselle Matifat, + twenty-five years old, daughter of a druggist in the rue des Lombards, + whose dowry was a hundred thousand francs. He commands (as Vinet + prophesied) a department in the neighborhood of Paris. He was named peer + of France for his conduct in the riots which occurred during the ministry + of Casimir Perier. Baron Gouraud was one of the generals who took the + church of Saint-Merry, delighted to rap those rascally civilians who had + vexed him for years over the knuckles; for which service he was rewarded + with the grand cordon of the Legion of honor. + </p> + <p> + None of the personages connected with Pierrette’s death ever felt the + slightest remorse about it. Monsieur Desfondrilles is still + archaeological, but, in order to compass his own election, the <i>procureur + general</i> Vinet took pains to have him appointed president of the + Provins court. Sylvie has a little circle, and manages her brother’s + property; she lends her own money at high interest, and does not spend + more than twelve hundred francs a year. + </p> + <p> + From time to time, when some former son or daughter of Provins returns + from Paris to settle down, you may hear them ask, as they leave + Mademoiselle Rogron’s house, “Wasn’t there a painful story against the + Rogrons,—something about a ward?” + </p> + <p> + “Mere prejudice,” replies Monsieur Desfondrilles. “Certain persons tried + to make us believe falsehoods. Out of kindness of heart the Rogrons took + in a girl named Pierrette, quite pretty but with no money. Just as she was + growing up she had an intrigue with a young man, and stood at her window + barefooted talking to him. The lovers passed notes to each other by a + string. She took cold in this way and died, having no constitution. The + Rogrons behaved admirably. They made no claim on certain property which + was to come to her,—they gave it all up to the grandmother. The + moral of it was, my good friend, that the devil punishes those who try to + benefit others.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah! that is quite another story from the one old Frappier told me.” + </p> + <p> + “Frappier consults his wine-cellar more than he does his memory,” remarked + another of Mademoiselle Rogron’s visitors. + </p> + <p> + “But that old priest, Monsieur Habert says—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, he! don’t you know why?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “He wanted to marry his sister to Monsieur Rogron, the receiver-general.” + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + Two men think of Pierrette daily: Doctor Martener and Major Brigaut; they + alone know the hideous truth. + </p> + <p> + To give that truth its true proportions we must transport the scene to the + Rome of the middle ages, where a sublime young girl, Beatrice Cenci, was + brought to the scaffold by motives and intrigues that were almost + identical with those which laid our Pierrette in her grave. Beatrice Cenci + had but one defender,—an artist, a painter. In our day history, and + living men, on the faith of Guido Reni’s portrait, condemn the Pope, and + know that Beatrice was a most tender victim of infamous passions and base + feuds. + </p> + <p> + We must all agree that legality would be a fine thing for social + scoundrelism IF THERE WERE NO GOD. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + ADDENDUM + </h2> + <h3> + The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist’s Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson + In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + + Brigaut, Major + The Chouans + + Desplein + The Atheist’s Mass + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor’s Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Honorine + + Gouraud, General, Baron + Cousin Pons + + Keller, Adolphe + The Middle Classes + Cesar Birotteau + + Matifat, Mademoiselle + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + + Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + + Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + + Roguin + Cesar Birotteau + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor’s Establishment + The Vendetta + + Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + Tiphaine, Madame + The Vendetta + + Vinet + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pierrette, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRETTE *** + +***** This file should be named 1704-h.htm or 1704-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/1704/ + +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: Pierrette + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: April, 1999 [Etext #1704] +Posting Date: February 28, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRETTE *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +PIERRETTE + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Anna Hanska: + + Dear Child,--You, the joy of the household, you, whose pink or + white pelerine flutters in summer among the groves of + Wierzschovnia like a will-o'-the-wisp, followed by the tender eyes + of your father and your mother,--how can I dedicate to _you_ a + story full of melancholy? And yet, ought not sorrows to be spoken + of to a young girl idolized as you are, since the day may come + when your sweet hands will be called to minister to them? It is so + difficult, Anna, to find in the history of our manners and morals + a subject that is worthy of your eyes, that no choice has been + left me; but perhaps you will be made to feel how fortunate your + fate is when you read the story sent to you by + Your old friend, + De Balzac. + + + + + +PIERRETTE + + + + +I. THE LORRAINS + +At the dawn of an October day in 1827 a young fellow about sixteen years +of age, whose clothing proclaimed what modern phraseology so insolently +calls a proletary, was standing in a small square of Lower Provins. +At that early hour he could examine without being observed the various +houses surrounding the open space, which was oblong in form. The +mills along the river were already working; the whirr of their wheels, +repeated by the echoes of the Upper Town in the keen air and sparkling +clearness of the early morning, only intensified the general silence so +that the wheels of a diligence could be heard a league away along the +highroad. The two longest sides of the square, separated by an avenue +of lindens, were built in the simple style which expresses so well +the peaceful and matter-of-fact life of the bourgeoisie. No signs +of commerce were to be seen; on the other hand, the luxurious +porte-cocheres of the rich were few, and those few turned seldom on +their hinges, excepting that of Monsieur Martener, a physician, whose +profession obliged him to keep a cabriolet, and to use it. A few of the +house-fronts were covered by grape vines, others by roses climbing to +the second-story windows, through which they wafted the fragrance of +their scattered bunches. One end of the square enters the main street of +the Lower Town, the gardens of which reach to the bank of one of the two +rivers which water the valley of Provins. The other end of the square +enters a street which runs parallel to the main street. + +At the latter, which was also the quietest end of the square, the young +workman recognized the house of which he was in search, which showed a +front of white stone grooved in lines to represent courses, windows with +closed gray blinds, and slender iron balconies decorated with rosettes +painted yellow. Above the ground floor and the first floor were three +dormer windows projecting from a slate roof; on the peak of the central +one was a new weather-vane. This modern innovation represented a hunter +in the attitude of shooting a hare. The front door was reached by three +stone steps. On one side of this door a leaden pipe discharged the +sink-water into a small street-gutter, showing the whereabouts of the +kitchen. On the other side were two windows, carefully closed by gray +shutters in which were heart-shaped openings cut to admit the light; +these windows seemed to be those of the dining-room. In the elevation +gained by the three steps were vent-holes to the cellar, closed by +painted iron shutters fantastically cut in open-work. Everything was +new. In this repaired and restored house, the fresh-colored look of +which contrasted with the time-worn exteriors of all the other houses, +an observer would instantly perceive the paltry taste and perfect +self-satisfaction of the retired petty shopkeeper. + +The young man looked at these details with an expression of pleasure +that seemed to have something rather sad in it; his eyes roved from the +kitchen to the roof, with a motion that showed a deliberate purpose. +The rosy glow of the rising sun fell on a calico curtain at one of the +garret windows, the others being without that luxury. As he caught sight +of it the young fellow's face brightened gaily. He stepped back a little +way, leaned against a linden, and sang, in the drawling tone peculiar to +the west of France, the following Breton ditty, published by Bruguiere, +a composer to whom we are indebted for many charming melodies. In +Brittany, the young villagers sing this song to all newly-married +couples on their wedding-day:-- + + "We've come to wish you happiness in marriage, + To m'sieur your husband + As well as to you: + + "You have just been bound, madam' la mariee, + With bonds of gold + That only death unbinds: + + "You will go no more to balls or gay assemblies; + You must stay at home + While we shall go. + + "Have you thought well how you are pledged to be + True to your spouse, + And love him like yourself? + + "Receive these flowers our hands do now present you; + Alas! your fleeting honors + Will fade as they." + +This native air (as sweet as that adapted by Chateaubriand to _Ma soeur, +te souvient-il encore_), sung in this little town of the Brie district, +must have been to the ears of a Breton maiden the touchstone of +imperious memories, so faithfully does it picture the manners and +customs, the surroundings and the heartiness of her noble old land, +where a sort of melancholy reigns, hardly to be defined; caused, +perhaps, by the aspect of life in Brittany, which is deeply touching. +This power of awakening a world of grave and sweet and tender memories +by a familiar and sometimes lively ditty, is the privilege of those +popular songs which are the superstitions of music,--if we may use the +word "superstition" as signifying all that remains after the ruin of a +people, all that survives their revolutions. + +As he finished the first couple, the singer, who never took his eyes +from the attic curtain, saw no signs of life. While he sang the second, +the curtain stirred. When the words "Receive these flowers" were sung, a +youthful face appeared; a white hand cautiously opened the casement, +and a girl made a sign with her head to the singer as he ended with the +melancholy thought of the simple verses,--"Alas! your fleeting honors +will fade as they." + +To her the young workman suddenly showed, drawing it from within his +jacket, a yellow flower, very common in Brittany, and sometimes to be +found in La Brie (where, however, it is rare),--the furze, or broom. + +"Is it really you, Brigaut?" said the girl, in a low voice. + +"Yes, Pierrette, yes. I am in Paris. I have started to make my way; but +I'm ready to settle here, near you." + +Just then the fastening of a window creaked in a room on the first +floor, directly below Pierrette's attic. The girl showed the utmost +terror, and said to Brigaut, quickly:-- + +"Run away!" + +The lad jumped like a frightened frog to a bend in the street caused +by the projection of a mill just where the square opens into the main +thoroughfare; but in spite of his agility his hob-nailed shoes echoed on +the stones with a sound easily distinguished from the music of the mill, +and no doubt heard by the person who opened the window. + +That person was a woman. No man would have torn himself from the comfort +of a morning nap to listen to a minstrel in a jacket; none but a maid +awakes to songs of love. Not only was this woman a maid, but she was an +old maid. When she had opened her blinds with the furtive motion of +the bat, she looked in all directions, but saw nothing, and only heard, +faintly, the flying footfalls of the lad. Can there be anything more +dreadful than the matutinal apparition of an ugly old maid at her +window? Of all the grotesque sights which amuse the eyes of travellers +in country towns, that is the most unpleasant. It is too repulsive to +laugh at. This particular old maid, whose ear was so keen, was denuded +of all the adventitious aids, of whatever kind, which she employed as +embellishments; her false front and her collarette were lacking; she +wore that horrible little bag of black silk on which old women insist +on covering their skulls, and it was now revealed beneath the night-cap +which had been pushed aside in sleep. This rumpled condition gave a +menacing expression to the head, such as painters bestow on witches. +The temples, ears, and nape of the neck, were disclosed in all their +withered horror,--the wrinkles being marked in scarlet lines that +contrasted with the would-be white of the bed-gown which was tied round +her neck by a narrow tape. The gaping of this garment revealed a breast +to be likened only to that of an old peasant woman who cares nothing +about her personal ugliness. The fleshless arm was like a stick on which +a bit of stuff was hung. Seen at her window, this spinster seemed +tall from the length and angularity of her face, which recalled the +exaggerated proportions of certain Swiss heads. The character of their +countenance--the features being marked by a total want of harmony--was +that of hardness in the lines, sharpness in the tones; while an +unfeeling spirit, pervading all, would have filled a physiognomist +with disgust. These characteristics, fully visible at this moment, were +usually modified in public by a sort of commercial smile,--a bourgeois +smirk which mimicked good-humor; so that persons meeting with this old +maid might very well take her for a kindly woman. She owned the house +on shares with her brother. The brother, by-the-bye, was sleeping so +tranquilly in his own chamber that the orchestra of the Opera-house +could not have awakened him, wonderful as its diapason is said to be. + +The old maid stretched her neck out of the window, twisted it, and +raised her cold, pale-blue little eyes, with their short lashes set in +lids that were always rather swollen, to the attic window, endeavoring +to see Pierrette. Perceiving the uselessness of that attempt, she +retreated into her room with a movement like that of a tortoise which +draws in its head after protruding it from its carapace. The blinds +were then closed, and the silence of the street was unbroken except by +peasants coming in from the country, or very early persons moving about. + +When there is an old maid in a house, watch-dogs are unnecessary; not +the slightest event can occur that she does not see and comment upon and +pursue to its utmost consequences. The foregoing trifling circumstance +was therefore destined to give rise to grave suppositions, and to open +the way for one of those obscure dramas which take place in families, +and are none the less terrible because they are secret,--if, indeed, we +may apply the word "drama" to such domestic occurrences. + +Pierrette did not go back to bed. To her, Brigaut's arrival was an +immense event. During the night--that Eden of the wretched--she escaped +the vexations and fault-findings she bore during the day. Like the hero +of a ballad, German or Russian, I forget which, her sleep seemed to her +the happy life; her waking hours a bad dream. She had just had her only +pleasurable waking in three years. The memories of her childhood had +sung their melodious ditties in her soul. The first couplet was heard +in a dream; the second made her spring out of bed; at the third, she +doubted her ears,--the sorrowful are all disciples of Saint Thomas; but +when the fourth was sung, standing in her night-gown with bare feet by +the window, she recognized Brigaut, the companion of her childhood. Ah, +yes! it was truly the well-known square jacket with the bobtails, the +pockets of which stuck out at the hips,--the jacket of blue cloth +which is classic in Brittany; there, too, were the waistcoat of printed +cotton, the linen shirt fastened by a gold heart, the large rolling +collar, the earrings, the stout shoes, the trousers of blue-gray +drilling unevenly colored by the various lengths of the warp,--in short, +all those humble, strong, and durable things which make the apparel of +the Breton peasantry. The big buttons of white horn which fastened the +jacket made the girl's heart beat. When she saw the bunch of broom her +eyes filled with tears; then a dreadful fear drove back into her heart +the happy memories that were budding there. She thought her cousin +sleeping in the room beneath her might have heard the noise she made in +jumping out of bed and running to the window. The fear was just; the old +maid was coming, and she made Brigaut the terrified sign which the lad +obeyed without the least understanding it. Such instinctive submission +to a girl's bidding shows one of those innocent and absolute affections +which appear from century to century on this earth, where they blossom, +like the aloes of Isola Bella, twice or thrice in a hundred years. +Whoever had seen the lad as he ran away would have loved the ingenuous +chivalry of his most ingenuous feeling. + +Jacques Brigaut was worthy of Pierrette Lorrain, who was just fifteen. +Two children! Pierrette could not keep from crying as she watched his +flight in the terror her gesture had conveyed to him. Then she sat down +in a shabby armchair placed before a little table above which hung a +mirror. She rested her elbows on the table, put her head in her hands, +and sat thinking for an hour, calling to memory the Marais, the village +of Pen-Hoel, the perilous voyages on a pond in a boat untied for +her from an old willow by little Jacques; then the old faces of her +grandfather and grandmother, the sufferings of her mother, and the +handsome face of Major Brigaut,--in short, the whole of her careless +childhood. It was all a dream, a luminous joy on the gloomy background +of the present. + +Her beautiful chestnut hair escaped in disorder from her cap, rumpled in +sleep,--a cambric cap with ruffles, which she had made herself. On +each side of her forehead were little ringlets escaping from gray +curl-papers. From the back of her head hung a heavy braid of hair that +was half unplaited. The excessive whiteness of her face betrayed +that terrible malady of girlhood which goes by the name of chlorosis, +deprives the body of its natural colors, destroys the appetite, and +shows a disordered state of the organism. The waxy tones were in all the +visible parts of her flesh. The neck and shoulders explained by their +blanched paleness the wasted arms, flung forward and crossed upon the +table. Her feet seemed enervated, shrunken from illness. Her night-gown +came only to her knees and showed the flaccid muscles, the blue veins, +the impoverished flesh of the legs. The cold, to which she paid no heed, +turned her lips violet, and a sad smile, drawing up the corners of +a sensitive mouth, showed teeth that were white as ivory and quite +small,--pretty, transparent teeth, in keeping with the delicate ears, +the rather sharp but dainty nose, and the general outline of her face, +which, in spite of its roundness, was lovely. All the animation of this +charming face was in the eyes, the iris of which, brown like Spanish +tobacco and flecked with black, shone with golden reflections round +pupils that were brilliant and intense. Pierrette was made to be gay, +but she was sad. Her lost gaiety was still to be seen in the vivacious +forms of the eye, in the ingenuous grace of her brow, in the smooth +curve of her chin. The long eyelashes lay upon the cheek-bones, made +prominent by suffering. The paleness of her face, which was unnaturally +white, made the lines and all the details infinitely pure. The ear +alone was a little masterpiece of modelling,--in marble, you might say. +Pierrette suffered in many ways. Perhaps you would like to know her +history, and this is it. + +Pierrette's mother was a Demoiselle Auffray of Provins, half-sister by +the father's side of Madame Rogron, mother of the present owners of the +house. + +Monsieur Auffray, her husband, had married at the age of eighteen; his +second marriage took place when he was nearly sixty-nine. By the first, +he had an only daughter, very plain, who was married at sixteen to an +innkeeper of Provins named Rogron. + +By his second marriage the worthy Auffray had another daughter; but this +one was charming. There was, of course, an enormous difference in the +ages of these daughters; the one by the first marriage was fifty years +old when the second child was born. By this time the eldest, Madame +Rogron, had two grown-up children. + +The youngest daughter of the old man was married at eighteen to a man +of her choice, a Breton officer named Lorrain, captain in the Imperial +Guard. Love often makes a man ambitious. The captain, anxious to rise to +a colonelcy, exchanged into a line regiment. While he, then a major, and +his wife enjoyed themselves in Paris on the allowance made to them by +Monsieur and Madame Auffray, or scoured Germany at the beck and call +of the Emperor's battles and truces, old Auffray himself (formerly a +grocer) died, at the age of eighty-eight, without having found time +to make a will. His property was administered by his daughter, Madame +Rogron, and her husband so completely in their own interests that +nothing remained for the old man's widow beyond the house she lived in +on the little square, and a few acres of land. This widow, the mother +of Madame Lorrain, was only thirty-eight at the time of her husband's +death. Like many widows, she came to the unwise decision of remarrying. +She sold the house and land to her step-daughter, Madame Rogron, and +married a young physician named Neraud, who wasted her whole fortune. +She died of grief and misery two years later. + +Thus the share of her father's property which ought to have come to +Madame Lorrain disappeared almost entirely, being reduced to the small +sum of eight thousand francs. Major Lorrain was killed at the battle of +Montereau, leaving his wife, then twenty-one years of age, with a little +daughter of fourteen months, and no other means than the pension +to which she was entitled and an eventual inheritance from her late +husband's parents, Monsieur and Madame Lorrain, retail shopkeepers at +Pen-Hoel, a village in the Vendee, situated in that part of it which +is called the Marais. These Lorrains, grandfather and grandmother of +Pierrette Lorrain, sold wood for building purposes, slates, tiles, +pantiles, pipes, etc. Their business, either from their own incapacity +or through ill-luck, did badly, and gave them scarcely enough to live +on. The failure of the well-known firm of Collinet at Nantes, caused +by the events of 1814 which led to a sudden fall in colonial products, +deprived them of twenty-four thousand francs which they had just +deposited with that house. + +The arrival of their daughter-in-law was therefore welcome to them. Her +pension of eight hundred francs was a handsome income at Pen-Hoel. The +eight thousand francs which the widow's half-brother and sister Rogron +sent to her from her father's estate (after a multitude of legal +formalities) were placed by her in the Lorrains' business, they giving +her a mortgage on a little house which they owned at Nantes, let for +three hundred francs, and barely worth ten thousand. + +Madame Lorrain the younger, Pierrette's mother, died in 1819. The child +of old Auffray and his young wife was small, delicate, and weakly; the +damp climate of the Marais did not agree with her. But her husband's +family persuaded her, in order to keep her with them, that in no other +quarter of the world could she find a more healthy region. She was so +petted and tenderly cared for that her death, when it came, brought +nothing but honor to the old Lorrains. + +Some persons declared that Brigaut, an old Vendeen, one of those men +of iron who served under Charette, under Mercier, under the Marquis de +Montauran, and the Baron du Guenic, in the wars against the Republic, +counted for a good deal in the willingness of the younger Madame Lorrain +to remain in the Marais. If it were so, his soul must have been a truly +loving and devoted one. All Pen-Hoel saw him--he was called respectfully +Major Brigaut, the grade he had held in the Catholic army--spending his +days and his evenings in the Lorrains' parlor, beside the window of the +imperial major. Toward the last, the curate of Pen-Hoel made certain +representations to old Madame Lorrain, begging her to persuade her +daughter-in-law to marry Brigaut, and promising to have the major +appointed justice of peace for the canton of Pen-Hoel, through the +influence of the Vicomte de Kergarouet. The death of the poor young +woman put an end to the matter. + +Pierrette was left in charge of her grandparents who owed her four +hundred francs a year, interest on the little property placed in their +hands. This small sum was now applied to her maintenance. The old +people, who were growing less and less fit for business, soon found +themselves confronted by an active and capable competitor, against whom +they said hard things, all the while doing nothing to defeat him. Major +Brigaut, their friend and adviser, died six months after his friend, +the younger Madame Lorrain,--perhaps of grief, perhaps of his wounds, of +which he had received twenty-seven. + +Like a sound merchant, the competitor set about ruining his adversaries +in order to get rid of all rivalry. With his connivance, the Lorrains +borrowed money on notes, which they were unable to meet, and which drove +them in their old days into bankruptcy. Pierrette's claim upon the house +in Nantes was superseded by the legal rights of her grandmother, who +enforced them to secure the daily bread of her poor husband. The house +was sold for nine thousand five hundred francs, of which one thousand +five hundred went for costs. The remaining eight thousand came to Madame +Lorain, who lived upon the income of them in a sort of almshouse at +Nantes, like that of Sainte-Perine in Paris, called Saint-Jacques, where +the two old people had bed and board for a humble payment. + +As it was impossible to keep Pierrette, their ruined little +granddaughter, with them, the old Lorrains bethought themselves of her +uncle and aunt Rogron, in Provins, to whom they wrote. These Rogrons +were dead. The letter might, therefore, have easily been lost; but if +anything here below can take the place of Providence, it is the post. +Postal spirit, incomparably above public spirit, exceeds in brilliancy +of resource and invention the ablest romance-writers. When the post gets +hold of a letter, worth, to it, from three to ten sous, and does +not immediately know where to find the person to whom that letter is +addressed, it displays a financial anxiety only to be met with in very +pertinacious creditors. The post goes and comes and ferrets through all +the eighty-six departments. Difficulties only arouse the genius of the +clerks, who may really be called men-of-letters, and who set about +to search for that unknown human being with as much ardor as the +mathematicians of the Bureau give to longitudes. They literally ransack +the whole kingdom. At the first ray of hope all the post-offices in +Paris are alert. Sometimes the receiver of a missing letter is amazed at +the network of scrawled directions which covers both back and front of +the missive,--glorious vouchers for the administrative persistency +with which the post has been at work. If a man undertook what the post +accomplishes, he would lose ten thousand francs in travel, time, and +money, to recover ten sous. The letter of the old Lorrains, addressed to +Monsieur Rogron of Provins (who had then been dead a year) was conveyed +by the post in due time to Monsieur Rogron, son of the deceased, a +mercer in the rue Saint-Denis in Paris. And this is where the postal +spirit obtains its greatest triumph. An heir is always more or less +anxious to know if he has picked up every scrap of his inheritance, if +he has not overlooked a credit, or a trunk of old clothes. The Treasury +knows that. A letter addressed to the late Rogron at Provins was certain +to pique the curiosity of Rogron, Jr., or Mademoiselle Rogron, the heirs +in Paris. Out of that human interest the Treasury was able to earn sixty +centimes. + +These Rogrons, toward whom the old Lorrains, though dreading to part +with their dear little granddaughter, stretched their supplicating +hands, became, in this way, and most unexpectedly, the masters of +Pierrette's destiny. It is therefore indispensable to explain both their +antecedents and their character. + + + + +II. THE ROGRONS + +Pere Rogron, that innkeeper of Provins to whom old Auffray had married +his daughter by his first wife, was an individual with an inflamed face, +a veiny nose, and cheeks on which Bacchus had drawn his scarlet and +bulbous vine-marks. Though short, fat, and pot-bellied, with stout +legs and thick hands, he was gifted with the shrewdness of the Swiss +innkeepers, whom he resembled. Certainly he was not handsome, and his +wife looked like him. Never was a couple better matched. Rogron liked +good living and to be waited upon by pretty girls. He belonged to the +class of egoists whose behavior is brutal; he gave way to his vices and +did their will openly in the face of Israel. Grasping, selfish, without +decency, and always gratifying his own fancies, he devoured his earnings +until the day when his teeth failed him. Selfishness stayed by him. In +his old days he sold his inn, collected (as we have seen) all he could +of his late father-in-law's property, and went to live in the little +house in the square of Provins, bought for a trifle from the widow of +old Auffray, Pierrette's grandmother. + +Rogron and his wife had about two thousand francs a year from +twenty-seven lots of land in the neighborhood of Provins, and from the +sale of their inn for twenty thousand. Old Auffray's house, though out +of repair, was inhabited just as it was by the Rogrons,--old rats +like wrack and ruin. Rogron himself took to horticulture and spent +his savings in enlarging the garden; he carried it to the river's edge +between two walls and built a sort of stone embankment across the end, +where aquatic nature, left to herself, displayed the charms of her +flora. + +In the early years of their marriage the Rogrons had a son and a +daughter, both hideous; for such human beings degenerate. Put out to +nurse at a low price, these luckless children came home in due time, +after the worst of village training,--allowed to cry for hours after +their wet-nurse, who worked in the fields, leaving them shut up to +scream for her in one of those damp, dark, low rooms which serve as +homes for the French peasantry. Treated thus, the features of the +children coarsened; their voices grew harsh; they mortified their +mother's vanity, and that made her strive to correct their bad habits +by a sternness which the severity of their father converted through +comparison to kindness. As a general thing, they were left to run loose +about the stables and courtyards of the inn, or the streets of the town; +sometimes they were whipped; sometimes they were sent, to get rid of +them, to their grandfather Auffray, who did not like them. The injustice +the Rogrons declared the old man did to their children, justified them +to their own minds in taking the greater part of "the old scoundrel's" +property. However, Rogron did send his son to school, and did buy him a +man, one of his own cartmen, to save him from the conscription. As soon +as his daughter, Sylvie, was thirteen, he sent her to Paris, to make +her way as apprentice in a shop. Two years later he despatched his son, +Jerome-Denis, to the same career. When his friends the carriers and +those who frequented the inn, asked him what he meant to do with his +children, Pere Rogron explained his system with a conciseness which, in +view of that of most fathers, had the merit of frankness. + +"When they are old enough to understand me I shall give 'em a kick and +say: 'Go and make your own way in the world!'" he replied, emptying his +glass and wiping his lips with the back of his hand. Then he winked at +his questioner with a knowing look. "Hey! hey! they are no greater fools +than I was," he added. "My father gave me three kicks; I shall only +give them one; he put one louis into my hand; I shall put ten in theirs, +therefore they'll be better off than I was. That's the way to do. After +I'm gone, what's left will be theirs. The notaries can find them and +give it to them. What nonsense to bother one's self about children. Mine +owe me their life. I've fed them, and I don't ask anything from them,--I +call that quits, hey, neighbor? I began as a cartman, but that didn't +prevent me marrying the daughter of that old scoundrel Auffray." + +Sylvie Rogron was sent (with six hundred francs for her board) as +apprentice to certain shopkeepers originally from Provins and now +settled in Paris in the rue Saint-Denis. Two years later she was "at +par," as they say; she earned her own living; at any rate her parents +paid nothing for her. That is what is called being "at par" in the rue +Saint-Denis. Sylvie had a salary of four hundred francs. At nineteen +years of age she was independent. At twenty, she was the second +demoiselle in the Maison Julliard, wholesale silk dealers at the +"Chinese Worm" rue Saint-Denis. The history of the sister was that of +the brother. Young Jerome-Denis Rogron entered the establishment of one +of the largest wholesale mercers in the same street, the Maison Guepin, +at the "Three Distaffs." When Sylvie Rogron, aged twenty-one, had risen +to be forewoman at a thousand francs a year Jerome-Denis, with even +better luck, was head-clerk at eighteen, with a salary of twelve hundred +francs. + +Brother and sister met on Sundays and fete-days, which they passed in +economical amusements; they dined out of Paris, and went to Saint-Cloud, +Meudon, Belleville, or Vincennes. Towards the close of the year 1815 +they clubbed their savings, amounting to about twenty thousand francs, +earned by the sweat of their brows, and bought of Madame Guenee the +property and good-will of her celebrated shop, the "Family Sister," one +of the largest retail establishments in the quarter. Sylvie kept the +books and did the writing. Jerome-Denis was master and head-clerk both. +In 1821, after five years' experience, competition became so fierce that +it was all the brother and sister could do to carry on the business and +maintain its reputation. + +Though Sylvie was at this time scarcely forty, her natural ugliness, +combined with hard work and a certain crabbed look (caused as much by +the conformation of her features as by her cares), made her seem like a +woman of fifty. At thirty-eight Jerome Rogron presented to the eyes of +his customers the silliest face that ever looked over a counter. His +retreating forehead, flattened by fatigue, was marked by three long +wrinkles. His grizzled hair, cut close, expressed in some indefinable +way the stupidity of a cold-blooded animal. The glance of his bluish +eyes had neither flame nor thought in it. His round, flat face excited +no sympathy, nor even a laugh on the lips of those who might be +examining the varieties of the Parisian species; on the contrary, it +saddened them. He was, like his father, short and fat, but his figure +lacked the latter's brutal obesity, and showed, instead, an almost +ridiculous debility. His father's high color was changed in him to the +livid flabbiness peculiar to persons who live in close back-shops, or +in those railed cages called counting-rooms, forever tying up bundles, +receiving and making change, snarling at the clerks, and repeating the +same old speeches to customers. + +The small amount of brains possessed by the brother and sister had been +wholly absorbed in maintaining their business, in getting and keeping +money, and in learning the special laws and usages of the Parisian +market. Thread, needles, ribbons, pins, buttons, tailors' furnishings, +in short, the enormous quantity of things which go to make up a mercer's +stock, had taken all their capacity. Outside of their business they knew +absolutely nothing; they were even ignorant of Paris. To them the great +city was merely a region spreading around the Rue Saint-Denis. Their +narrow natures could see no field except the shop. They were clever +enough in nagging their clerks and their young women and in proving them +to blame. Their happiness lay in seeing all hands busy at the counters, +exhibiting the merchandise, and folding it up again. When they heard +the six or eight voices of the young men and women glibly gabbling the +consecrated phrases by which clerks reply to the remarks of customers, +the day was fine to them, the weather beautiful! But on the really +fine days, when the blue of the heavens brightened all Paris, and the +Parisians walked about to enjoy themselves and cared for no "goods" but +those they carried on their back, the day was overcast to the Rogrons. +"Bad weather for sales," said that pair of imbeciles. + +The skill with which Rogron could tie up a parcel made him an object +of admiration to all his apprentices. He could fold and tie and see all +that happened in the street and in the farthest recesses of the shop +by the time he handed the parcel to his customer with a "Here it is, +madame; _nothing else_ to-day?" But the poor fool would have been ruined +without his sister. Sylvie had common-sense and a genius for trade. She +advised her brother in their purchases and would pitilessly send him to +remote parts of France to save a trifle of cost. The shrewdness which +all women more or less possess, not being employed in the service of +her heart, had drifted into that of speculation. A business to pay +for,--that thought was the mainspring which kept the machine going and +gave it an infernal activity. + +Rogron was really only head-clerk; he understood nothing of his business +as a whole; self-interest, that great motor of the mind, had failed in +his case to instruct him. He was often aghast when his sister ordered +some article to be sold below cost, foreseeing the end of its fashion; +later he admired her idiotically for her cleverness. He reasoned neither +ill nor well; he was simply incapable of reasoning at all; but he had +the sense to subordinate himself to his sister, and he did so from a +consideration that was outside of the business. "She is my elder," he +said. Perhaps an existence like his, always solitary, reduced to the +satisfaction of mere needs, deprived of money and all pleasures in +youth, may explain to physiologists and thinkers the clownish expression +of the face, the feebleness of mind, the vacant silliness of the man. +His sister had steadily prevented him from marrying, afraid perhaps to +lose her power over him, and seeing only a source of expense and injury +in some woman who would certainly be younger and undoubtedly less ugly +than herself. + +Silliness has two ways of comporting itself; it talks, or is silent. +Silent silliness can be borne; but Rogron's silliness was loquacious. +The man had a habit of chattering to his clerks, explaining the minutiae +of the business, and ornamenting his talk with those flat jokes which +may be called the "chaff" of shopkeeping. Rogron, listened to, of +course, by his subordinates and perfectly satisfied with himself, had +come at last into possession of a phraseology of his own. This chatterer +believed himself an orator. The necessity of explaining to customers +what they want, of guessing at their desires, and giving them +desires for what they do not want, exercises the tongue of all retail +shopkeepers. The petty dealer acquires the faculty of uttering words +and sentences in which there is absolutely no meaning, but which have a +marked success. He explains to his customers matters of manufacture that +they know nothing of; that alone gives him a passing superiority over +them; but take him away from his thousand and one explanations about his +thousand and one articles, and he is, relatively to thought, like a fish +out of water in the sun. + +Rogron and Sylvie, two mechanisms baptized by mistake, did not possess, +latent or active, the feelings which give life to the heart. Their +natures were shrivelled and harsh, hardened by toil, by privation, +by the remembrance of their sufferings during a long and cruel +apprenticeship to life. Neither of them complained of their trials. +They were not so much implacable as impracticable in their dealings +with others in misfortune. To them, virtue, honor, loyalty, all human +sentiments consisted solely in the payment of their bills. Irritable and +irritating, without feelings, and sordid in their economy, the brother +and sister bore a dreadful reputation among the other merchants of the +rue Saint-Denis. Had it not been for their connection with Provins, +where they went three or four times a year, when they could close the +shop for a day or two, they would have had no clerks or young women. But +old Rogron, their father, sent them all the unfortunate young people +of his neighborhood, whose parents wished to start them in business in +Paris. He obtained these apprentices by boasting, out of vanity, of +his son's success. Parents, attracted by the prospect of their children +being well-trained and closely watched, and also, by the hope of their +succeeding, eventually, to the business, sent whichever child was most +in the way at home to the care of the brother and sister. But no sooner +had the clerks or the young women found a way of escape from that +dreadful establishment than they fled, with rejoicings that increased +the already bad name of the Rogrons. New victims were supplied yearly by +the indefatigable old father. + +From the time she was fifteen, Sylvie Rogron, trained to the simpering +of a saleswoman, had two faces,--the amiable face of the seller, +the natural face of a sour spinster. Her acquired countenance was a +marvellous bit of mimicry. She was all smiles. Her voice, soft and +wheedling, gave a commercial charm to business. Her real face was that +we have already seen projecting from the half-opened blinds; the mere +sight of her would have put to flight the most resolute Cossack of 1815, +much as that horde were said to like all kinds of Frenchwomen. + +When the letter from the Lorrains reached the brother and sister, they +were in mourning for their father, from whom they inherited the house +which had been as good as stolen from Pierrette's grandmother, also +certain lands bought by their father, and certain moneys acquired by +usurious loans and mortgages to the peasantry, whose bits of ground the +old drunkard expected to possess. The yearly taking of stock was just +over. The price of the "Family Sister" had, at last, been paid in full. +The Rogrons owned about sixty thousand francs' worth of merchandise, +forty thousand in a bank or in their cash-box, and the value of their +business. Sitting on a bench covered with striped-green Utrecht velvet +placed in a square recess just behind their private counter (the counter +of their forewoman being similar and directly opposite) the brother +and sister consulted as to what they should do. All retail shopkeepers +aspire to become members of the bourgeoisie. By selling the good-will +of their business, the pair would have over a hundred and fifty thousand +francs, not counting the inheritance from their father. By placing their +present available property in the public Funds, they would each obtain +about four thousand francs a year, and by taking the proceeds of their +business, when sold, they could repair and improve the house they +inherited from their father, which would thus be a good investment. +They could then go and live in a house of their own in Provins. Their +forewoman was the daughter of a rich farmer at Donnemarie, burdened with +nine children, to whom he had endeavored to give a good start in life, +being aware that at his death his property, divided into nine parts, +would be but little for any one of them. In five years, however, the man +had lost seven children,--a fact which made the forewoman so interesting +that Rogron had tried, unsuccessfully, to get her to marry him; but she +showed an aversion for her master which baffled his manoeuvres. Besides, +Mademoiselle Sylvie was not in favor of the match; in fact, she steadily +opposed her brother's marriage, and sought, instead, to make the shrewd +young woman their successor. + +No passing observer can form the least idea of the cryptogramic +existence of a certain class of shopkeepers; he looks at them and asks +himself, "On what, and why, do they live? whence have they come? where +do they go?" He is lost in such questions, but finds no answer to +them. To discover the false seed of poesy which lies in those heads and +fructifies in those lives, it is necessary to dig into them; and when we +do that we soon come to a thin subsoil beneath the surface. The Parisian +shopkeeper nurtures his soul on some hope or other, more or less +attainable, without which he would doubtless perish. One dreams +of building or managing a theatre; another longs for the honors of +mayoralty; this one desires a country-house, ten miles from Paris with a +so-called "park," which he will adorn with statues of tinted plaster and +fountains which squirt mere threads of water, but on which he will spend +a mint of money; others, again, dream of distinction and a high grade +in the National Guard. Provins, that terrestrial paradise, filled the +brother and sister with the fanatical longings which all the lovely +towns of France inspire in their inhabitants. Let us say it to the +glory of La Champagne, this love is warranted. Provins, one of the +most charming towns in all France, rivals Frangistan and the valley +of Cashmere; not only does it contain the poesy of Saadi, the Persian +Homer, but it offers many pharmaceutical treasures to medical science. +The crusades brought roses from Jericho to this enchanting valley, where +by chance they gained new charms while losing none of their colors. +The Provins roses are known the world over. But Provins is not only the +French Persia, it is also Baden, Aix, Cheltenham,--for it has medicinal +springs. This was the spot which appeared from time to time before the +eyes of the two shopkeepers in the muddy regions of Saint-Denis. + +After crossing the gray plains which lie between La Ferte-Gaucher and +Provins, a desert and yet productive, a desert of wheat, you reach a +hill. Suddenly you behold at your feet a town watered by two rivers; at +the feet of the rock on which you stand stretches a verdant valley, full +of enchanting lines and fugitive horizons. If you come from Paris +you will pass through the whole length of Provins on the everlasting +highroad of France, which here skirts the hillside and is encumbered +with beggars and blind men, who will follow you with their pitiful +voices while you try to examine the unexpected picturesqueness of the +region. If you come from Troyes you will approach the town on the valley +side. The chateau, the old town, and its former ramparts are terraced on +the hillside, the new town is below. They go by the names of Upper and +Lower Provins. The upper is an airy town with steep streets commanding +fine views, surrounded by sunken road-ways and ravines filled with +chestnut trees which gash the sides of the hill with their deep gulleys. +The upper town is silent, clean, solemn, surmounted by the imposing +ruins of the old chateau. The lower is a town of mills, watered by the +Voulzie and the Durtain, two rivers of Brie, narrow, sluggish, and +deep; a town of inns, shops, retired merchants; filled with diligences, +travelling-carriages, and waggons. The two towns, or rather this town +with its historical memories, its melancholy ruins, the gaiety of its +valley, the romantic charm of its ravines filled with tangled shrubbery +and wildflowers, its rivers banked with gardens, excites the love of +all its children, who do as the Auvergnats, the Savoyards, in fact, +all French folks do, namely, leave Provins to make their fortunes, +and always return. "Die in one's form," the proverb made for hares and +faithful souls, seems also the motto of a Provins native. + +Thus the two Rogrons thought constantly of their dear Provins. While +Jerome sold his thread he saw the Upper town; as he piled up the cards +on which were buttons he contemplated the valley; when he rolled and +unrolled his ribbons he followed the shining rivers. Looking up at his +shelves he saw the ravines where he had often escaped his father's anger +and gone a-nutting or gathering blackberries. But the little square in +the Lower town was the chief object of his thoughts; he imagined how +he could improve his house: he dreamed of a new front, new bedrooms, +a salon, a billiard-room, a dining-room, and the kitchen garden out of +which he would make an English pleasure-ground, with lawns, grottos, +fountains, and statuary. The bedrooms at present occupied by the brother +and sister, on the second floor of a house with three windows front and +six storeys high in the rue Saint-Denis, were furnished with the merest +necessaries, yet no one in Paris had finer furniture than they--in +fancy. When Jerome walked the streets he stopped short, struck with +admiration at the handsome things in the upholsterers' windows, and at +the draperies he coveted for his house. When he came home he would +say to his sister: "I found in such a shop, such and such a piece of +furniture that will just do for the salon." The next day he would buy +another piece, and another, and so on. He rejected, the following month, +the articles of the months before. The Budget itself, could not have +paid for his architectural schemes. He wanted everything he saw, but +abandoned each thing for the last thing. When he saw the balconies of +new houses, when he studied external ornamentation, he thought all such +things, mouldings, carvings, etc., out of place in Paris. "Ah!" he would +say, "those fine things would look much better at Provins." When he +stood on his doorstep leaning against the lintel, digesting his morning +meal, with a vacant eye, the mercer was gazing at the house of his fancy +gilded by the sun of his dream; he walked in his garden; he heard the +jet from his fountain falling in pearly drops upon a slab of limestone; +he played on his own billiard-table; he gathered his own flowers. + +Sylvie, on the other hand, was thinking so deeply, pen in hand, that +she forgot to scold the clerks; she was receiving the bourgeoisie of +Provins, she was looking at herself in the mirrors of her salon, and +admiring the beauties of a marvellous cap. The brother and sister began +to think the atmosphere of the rue Saint-Denis unhealthy, and the +smell of the mud in the markets made them long for the fragrance of the +Provins roses. They were the victims of a genuine nostalgia, and also +of a monomania, frustrated at present by the necessity of selling their +tapes and bobbins before they could leave Paris. The promised land of +the valley of Provins attracted these Hebrews all the more because they +had really suffered, and for a long time, as they crossed breathlessly +the sandy wastes of a mercer's business. + +The Lorrains' letter reached them in the midst of meditations inspired +by this glorious future. They knew scarcely anything about their cousin, +Pierrette Lorrain. Their father got possession of the Auffray property +after they left home, and the old man said little to any one of his +business affairs. They hardly remembered their aunt Lorrain. It took +an hour of genealogical discussion before they made her out to be the +younger sister of their own mother by the second marriage of their +grandfather Auffray. It immediately struck them that this second +marriage had been fatally injurious to their interests by dividing the +Auffray property between two daughters. In times past they had heard +their father, who was given to sneering, complain of it. + +The brother and sister considered the application of the Lorrains from +the point of view of such reminiscences, which were not at all favorable +for Pierrette. To take charge of an orphan, a girl, a cousin, who might +become their legal heir in case neither of them married,--this was a +matter that needed discussion. The question was considered and +debated under all its aspects. In the first place, they had never seen +Pierrette. Then, what a trouble it would be to have a young girl to look +after. Wouldn't it commit them to some obligations towards her? Could +they send the girl away if they did not like her? Besides, wouldn't they +have to marry her? and if Jerome found a yoke-mate among the heiresses +of Provins they ought to keep all their property for his children. A +yokemate for Jerome, according to Sylvie, meant a stupid, rich and +ugly girl who would let herself be governed. They decided to refuse +the Lorrain request. Sylvie agreed to write the answer. Business being +rather urgent just then she delayed writing, and the forewoman coming +forward with an offer for the stock and good-will of the "Family +Sister," which the brother and sister accepted, the matter went entirely +out of the old maid's mind. + +Sylvie Rogron and her brother departed for Provins four years before the +time when the coming of Brigaut threw such excitement into Pierrette's +life. But the doings of the pair after their arrival at Provins are as +necessary to relate as their life in Paris; for Provins was destined to +be not less fatal to Pierrette than the commercial antecedents of her +cousins! + + + + +III. PATHOLOGY OF RETIRED MERCERS + +When the petty shopkeeper who has come to Paris from the provinces +returns to the provinces from Paris he brings with him a few ideas; then +he loses them in the habits and ways of provincial life into which he +plunges, and his reforming notions leave him. From this there do result, +however, certain trifling, slow, successive changes by which Paris +scratches the surface of the provincial towns. This process marks the +transition of the ex-shopkeeper into the substantial bourgeois, but +it acts like an illness upon him. No retail shopkeeper can pass with +impunity from his perpetual chatter into dead silence, from his Parisian +activity to the stillness of provincial life. When these worthy persons +have laid by property they spend a portion of it on some desire +over which they have long brooded and into which they now turn their +remaining impulses, no longer restrained by force of will. Those who +have not been nursing a fixed idea either travel or rush into the +political interests of their municipality. Others take to hunting +or fishing and torment their farmers or tenants; others again become +usurers or stock-jobbers. As for the scheme of the Rogrons, brother and +sister, we know what that was; they had to satisfy an imperious desire +to handle the trowel and remodel their old house into a charming new +one. + +This fixed idea produced upon the square of Lower Provins the front +of the building which Brigaut had been examining; also the interior +arrangements of the house and its handsome furniture. The contractor did +not drive a nail without consulting the owners, without requiring them +to sign the plans and specifications, without explaining to them at full +length and in every detail the nature of each article under discussion, +where it was manufactured, and what were its various prices. As to +the choicer things, each, they were told, had been used by Monsieur +Tiphaine, or Madame Julliard, or Monsieur the mayor, the notables of the +place. The idea of having things done as the rich bourgeois of Provins +did them carried the day for the contractor. + +"Oh, if Monsieur Garceland has it in his house, put it in," said +Mademoiselle Rogron. "It must be all right; his taste is good." + +"Sylvie, see, he wants us to have ovolos in the cornice of the +corridor." + +"Do you call those ovolos?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle." + +"What an odd name! I never heard it before." + +"But you have seen the thing?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you understand Latin?" + +"No." + +"Well, it means eggs--from the Latin _ovum_." + +"What queer fellows you are, you architects!" cried Rogron. "It is +stepping on egg-shells to deal with you." + +"Shall we paint the corridor?" asked the builder. + +"Good heavens, no!" cried Sylvie. "That would be five hundred francs +more!" + +"Oh, but the salon and the staircase are too pretty not to have the +corridor decorated too," said the man. "That little Madame Lesourd had +hers painted last year." + +"And now, her husband, as king's attorney, is obliged to leave Provins." + +"Ah, he'll be chief justice some of these days," said the builder. + +"How about Monsieur Tiphaine?" + +"Monsieur Tiphaine? he's got a pretty wife and is sure to get on. He'll +go to Paris. Shall we paint the corridor?" + +"Yes, yes," said Rogron. "The Lesourds must be made to see that we are +as good as they." + +The first year after the Rogrons returned to Provins was entirely taken +up by such discussions, by the pleasure of watching the workmen, by the +surprise occasioned to the townspeople and the replies to questions of +all kinds which resulted therefrom, and also by the attempts made +by Sylvie and her brother to be socially intimate with the principal +families of Provins. + +The Rogrons had never gone into any society; they had never left their +shop, knowing absolutely no one in Paris, and now they were athirst for +the pleasures of social life. On their arrival in Provins they found +their former masters in Paris (long since returned to the provinces), +Monsieur and Madame Julliard, lately of the "Chinese Worm," their +children and grandchildren; the Guepin family, or rather the Guepin +clan, the youngest scion of which now kept the "Three Distaffs"; and +thirdly, Madame Guenee from whom they had purchased the "Family Sister," +and whose three daughters were married and settled in Provins. These +three races, Julliard, Guepin, and Guenee, had spread through the town +like dog-grass through a lawn. The mayor, Monsieur Garceland, was the +son-in-law of Monsieur Guepin; the curate, Abbe Peroux, was own brother +to Madame Julliard; the judge, Monsieur Tiphaine junior, was brother to +Madame Guenee, who signed herself "_nee_ Tiphaine." + +The queen of the town was the beautiful Madame Tiphaine junior, only +daughter of Madame Roguin, the rich wife of a former notary in Paris, +whose name was never mentioned. Clever, delicate, and pretty, married in +the provinces to please her mother, who for special reasons did not want +her with her, and took her from a convent only a few days before the +wedding, Melanie Tiphaine considered herself an exile in Provins, where +she behaved to admiration. Handsomely dowered, she still had hopes. As +for Monsieur Tiphaine, his old father had made to his eldest daughter +Madame Guenee such advances on her inheritance that an estate worth +eight thousand francs a year, situated within fifteen miles of Provins, +was to come wholly to him. Consequently the Tiphaines would possess, +sooner or later, some forty thousand francs a year, and were not "badly +off," as they say. The one overwhelming desire of the beautiful Madame +Tiphaine was to get Monsieur Tiphaine elected deputy. As deputy he would +become a judge in Paris; and she was firmly resolved to push him up into +the Royal courts. For these reasons she tickled all vanities and strove +to please all parties; and--what is far more difficult--she succeeded. +Twice a week she received the bourgeoisie of Provins at her house in the +Upper town. This intelligent young woman of twenty had not as yet made +a single blunder or misstep on the slippery path she had taken. She +gratified everybody's self-love, and petted their hobbies; serious with +the serious, a girl with girls, instinctively a mother with mothers, gay +with young wives and disposed to help them, gracious to all,--in short, +a pearl, a treasure, the pride of Provins. She had never yet said a +word of her intentions and wishes, but all the electors of Provins were +awaiting the time when their dear Monsieur Tiphaine had reached the +required age for nomination. Every man in the place, certain of his +own talents, regarded the future deputy as his particular friend, his +protector. Of course, Monsieur Tiphaine would attain to honors; he would +be Keeper of the Seals, and then, what wouldn't he do for Provins! + +Such were the pleasant means by which Madame Tiphaine had come to rule +over the little town. Madame Guenee, Monsieur Tiphaine's sister, after +having married her eldest daughter to Monsieur Lesourd, prosecuting +attorney, her second to Monsieur Martener, the doctor, and the third to +Monsieur Auffray, the notary, had herself married Monsieur Galardon, the +collector. Mother and daughters all considered Monsieur Tiphaine as the +richest and ablest man in the family. The prosecuting attorney had the +strongest interest in sending his uncle to Paris, expecting to step into +his shoes as judge of the local court of Provins. The four ladies formed +a sort of court round Madame Tiphaine, whose ideas and advice they +followed on all occasions. Monsieur Julliard, the eldest son of the old +merchant, who had married the only daughter of a rich farmer, set up +a sudden, secret, and disinterested passion for Madame Tiphaine, that +angel descended from the Parisian skies. The clever Melanie, too clever +to involve herself with Julliard, but quite capable of keeping him in +the condition of Amadis and making the most of his folly, advised him to +start a journal, intending herself to play the part of Egeria. For the +last two years, therefore, Julliard, possessed by his romantic passion, +had published the said newspaper, called the "Bee-hive," which contained +articles literary, archaeological, and medical, written in the family. +The advertisements paid expenses. The subscriptions, two hundred in +all, made the profits. Every now and then melancholy verses, totally +incomprehensible in La Brie, appeared, addressed, "TO HER!!!" with three +exclamation marks. The clan Julliard was thus united to the other clans, +and the salon of Madame Tiphaine became, naturally, the first in the +town. The few aristocrats who lived in Provins were, of course, apart, +and formed a single salon in the Upper town, at the house of the old +Comtesse de Breautey. + +During the first six months of their transplantation, the Rogrons, +favored by their former acquaintance with several of these people, were +received, first by Madame Julliard the elder, and by the former Madame +Guenee, now Madame Galardon (from whom they had bought their business), +and next, after a good deal of difficulty, by Madame Tiphaine. All +parties wished to study the Rogrons before admitting them. It was +difficult, of course, to keep out merchants of the rue Saint-Denis, +originally from Provins, who had returned to the town to spend their +fortunes. Still, the object of all society is to amalgamate persons +of equal wealth, education, manners, customs, accomplishments, and +character. Now the Guepins, Guenees, and Julliards had a better position +among the bourgeoisie than the Rogrons, whose father had been held in +contempt on account of his private life, and his conduct in the matter +of the Auffray property,--the facts of which were known to the notary +Auffray, Madame Galardon's son-in-law. + +In the social life of these people, to which Madame Tiphaine had given +a certain tone of elegance, all was homogeneous; the component parts +understood each other, knew each other's characters, and behaved and +conversed in a manner that was agreeable to all. The Rogrons flattered +themselves that being received by Monsieur Garceland, the mayor, they +would soon be on good terms with all the best families in the town. +Sylvie applied herself to learn boston. Rogron, incapable of playing a +game, twirled his thumbs and had nothing to say except to discourse on +his new house. Words seemed to choke him; he would get up, try to speak, +become frightened, and sit down again, with comical distortion of +the lips. Sylvie naively betrayed her natural self at cards. Sharp, +irritable, whining when she lost, insolent when she won, nagging and +quarrelsome, she annoyed her partners as much as her adversaries, +and became the scourge of society. And yet, possessed by a silly, +unconcealed ambition, Rogron and his sister were bent on playing a +part in the society of a little town already in possession of a close +corporation of twelve allied families. Allowing that the restoration of +their house had cost them thirty thousand francs, the brother and sister +possessed between them at least ten thousand francs a year. This they +considered wealth, and with it they endeavored to impress society, which +immediately took the measure of their vulgarity, crass ignorance, and +foolish envy. On the evening when they were presented to the beautiful +Madame Tiphaine, who had already eyed them at Madame Garceland's and at +Madame Julliard the elder's, the queen of the town remarked to Julliard +junior, who stayed a few moments after the rest of the company to talk +with her and her husband:-- + +"You all seem to be taken with those Rogrons." + +"No, no," said Amadis, "they bore my mother and annoy my wife. When +Mademoiselle Sylvie was apprenticed, thirty years ago, to my father, +none of them could endure her." + +"I have a great mind," said Madame Tiphaine, putting her pretty foot on +the bar of the fender, "to make it understood that my salon is not an +inn." + +Julliard raised his eyes to the ceiling, as if to say, "Good heavens? +what wit, what intellect!" + +"I wish my society to be select; and it certainly will not be if I admit +those Rogrons." + +"They have neither heart, nor mind, nor manners"; said Monsieur +Tiphaine. "If, after selling thread for twenty years, as my sister did +for example--" + +"Your sister, my dear," said his wife in a parenthesis, "cannot be out +of place in any salon." + +"--if," he continued, "people are stupid enough not to throw off the +shop and polish their manners, if they don't know any better than to +mistake the Counts of Champagne for the _accounts_ of a wine-shop, as +Rogron did this evening, they had better, in my opinion, stay at home." + +"They are simply impudent," said Julliard. "To hear them talk you would +suppose there was no other handsome house in Provins but theirs. They +want to crush us; and after all, they have hardly enough to live on." + +"If it was only the brother," said Madame Tiphaine, "one might put up +with him; he is not so aggressive. Give him a Chinese puzzle and he will +stay in a corner quietly enough; it would take him a whole winter to +find it out. But Mademoiselle Sylvie, with that voice like a hoarse +hyena and those lobster-claws of hands! Don't repeat all this, +Julliard." + +When Julliard had departed the little woman said to her husband:-- + +"I have aborigines enough whom I am forced to receive; these two will +fairly kill me. With your permission, I shall deprive myself of their +society." + +"You are mistress in your own house," replied he; "but that will make +enemies. The Rogrons will fling themselves into the opposition, which +hitherto has had no real strength in Provins. That Rogron is already +intimate with Baron Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet." + +"Then," said Melanie, laughing, "they will do you some service. Where +there are no opponents, there is no triumph. A liberal conspiracy, +an illegal cabal, a struggle of any kind, will bring you into the +foreground." + +The justice looked at his young wife with a sort of alarmed admiration. + +The next day it was whispered about that the Rogrons had not altogether +succeeded in Madame Tiphaine's salon. That lady's speech about an +inn was immensely admired. It was a whole month before she returned +Mademoiselle Sylvie's visit. Insolence of this kind is very much noticed +in the provinces. + +During the evening which Sylvie had spent at Madame Tiphaine's a +disagreeable scene occurred between herself and old Madame Julliard +while playing boston, apropos of a trick which Sylvie declared the old +lady had made her lose on purpose; for the old maid, who liked to trip +others, could never endure the same game on herself. The next time she +was invited out the mistress took care to make up the card-tables before +she arrived; so that Sylvie was reduced to wandering from table to +table as an onlooker, the players glancing at her with scornful eyes. At +Madame Julliard senior's house, they played whist, a game Sylvie did not +know. + +The old maid at last understood that she was under a ban; but she had +no conception of the reason of it. She fancied herself an object of +jealousy to all these persons. After a time she and her brother received +no invitations, but they still persisted in paying evening visits. +Satirical persons made fun of them,--not spitefully, but amusingly; +inveigling them to talk absurdly about the eggs in their cornice, and +their wonderful cellar of wine, the like of which was not in Provins. + +Before long the Rogron house was completely finished, and the brother +and sister then resolved to give several sumptuous dinners, as much to +return the civilities they had received as to exhibit their luxury. The +invited guests accepted from curiosity only. The first dinner was given +to the leading personages of the town; to Monsieur and Madame Tiphaine, +with whom, however the Rogrons had never dined; to Monsieur and Madame +Julliard, senior and junior; to Monsieur Lesourd, Monsieur le cure, +and Monsieur and Madame Galardon. It was one of those interminable +provincial dinners, where you sit at table from five to nine o'clock. +Madame Tiphaine had introduced into Provins the Parisian custom of +taking leave as soon as coffee had been served. On this occasion she had +company at home and was anxious to get away. The Rogrons accompanied her +husband and herself to the street door, and when they returned to the +salon, disconcerted at not being able to keep their chief guests, the +rest of the party were preparing to imitate Madame Tiphaine's fashion +with cruel provincial promptness. + +"They won't see our salon lighted up," said Sylvie, "and that's the show +of the house." + +The Rogrons had counted on surprising their guests. It was the first +time any one had been admitted to the now celebrated house, and the +company assembled at Madame Tiphaine's was eagerly awaiting her opinion +of the marvels of the "Rogron palace." + +"Well!" cried little Madame Martener, "you've seen the Louvre; tell us +all about it." + +"All? Well, it would be like the dinner,--not much." + +"But do describe it." + +"Well, to begin with, that front door, the gilded grating of which we +have all admired," said Madame Tiphaine, "opens upon a long corridor +which divides the house unequally; on the right side there is one +window, on the other, two. At the garden end, the corridor opens with +a glass door upon a portico with steps to the lawn, where there's a +sun dial and a plaster statue of Spartacus, painted to imitate bronze. +Behind the kitchen, the builder has put the staircase, and a sort of +larder which we are spared the sight of. The staircase, painted to +imitate black marble with yellow veins, turns upon itself like those +you see in cafes leading from the ground-floor to the entresol. The +balustrade, of walnut with brass ornaments and dangerously slight, was +pointed out to us as one of the seven wonders of the world. The +cellar stairs run under it. On the other side of the corridor is the +dining-room, which communicates by folding-doors with a salon of equal +size, the windows of which look on the garden." + +"Dear me, is there no ante-chamber?" asked Madame Auffray. + +"The corridor, full of draughts, answers for an ante-chamber," replied +Madame Tiphaine. "Our friends have had, they assured us, the eminently +national, liberal, constitutional, and patriotic feeling to use none but +French woods in the house; so the floor in the dining-room is +chestnut, the sideboards, tables, and chairs, of the same. White calico +window-curtains, with red borders, are held back by vulgar red straps; +these magnificent draperies run on wooden curtain rods ending in brass +lion's-paws. Above one of the sideboards hangs a dial suspended by a +sort of napkin in gilded bronze,--an idea that seemed to please the +Rogrons hugely. They tried to make me admire the invention; all I could +manage to say was that if it was ever proper to wrap a napkin round a +dial it was certainly in a dining-room. On the sideboard were two +huge lamps like those on the counter of a restaurant. Above the other +sideboard hung a barometer, excessively ornate, which seems to play a +great part in their existence; Rogron gazed at it as he might at his +future wife. Between the two windows is a white porcelain stove in a +niche overloaded with ornament. The walls glow with a magnificent paper, +crimson and gold, such as you see in the same restaurants, where, no +doubt, the Rogrons chose it. Dinner was served on white and gold china, +with a dessert service of light blue with green flowers, but they showed +us another service in earthenware for everyday use. Opposite to each +sideboard was a large cupboard containing linen. All was clean, new, and +horribly sharp in tone. However, I admit the dining-room; it has some +character, though disagreeable; it represents that of the masters of +the house. But there is no enduring the five engravings that hang on the +walls; the Minister of the Interior ought really to frame a law against +them. One was Poniatowski jumping into the Elster; the others, Napoleon +pointing a cannon, the defence at Clichy, and the two Mazepas, all in +gilt frames of the vulgarest description,--fit to carry off the prize of +disgust. Oh! how much I prefer Madame Julliard's pastels of fruit, +those excellent Louis XV. pastels, which are in keeping with the old +dining-room and its gray panels,--defaced by age, it is true, but they +possess the true provincial characteristics that go well with old +family silver, precious china, and our simple habits. The provinces are +provinces; they are only ridiculous when they mimic Paris. I prefer this +old salon of my husband's forefathers, with its heavy curtains of green +and white damask, the Louis XV. mantelpiece, the twisted pier-glasses, +the old mirrors with their beaded mouldings, and the venerable card +tables. Yes, I prefer my old Sevres vases in royal blue, mounted on +copper, my clock with those impossible flowers, that rococco chandelier, +and the tapestried furniture, to all the finery of the Rogron salon." + +"What is the salon like?" said Monsieur Martener, delighted with the +praise the handsome Parisian bestowed so adroitly on the provinces. + +"As for the salon, it is all red,--the red Mademoiselle Sylvie turns +when she loses at cards." + +"Sylvan-red," said Monsieur Tiphaine, whose sparkling saying long +remained in the vocabulary of Provins. + +"Window-curtains, red; furniture, red; mantelpiece, red, veined yellow, +candelabra and clock ditto mounted on bronze, common and heavy in +design,--Roman standards with Greek foliage! Above the clock is that +inevitable good-natured lion which looks at you with a simper, the +lion of ornamentation, with a big ball under his feet, symbol of the +decorative lion, who passes his life holding a black ball,--exactly like +a deputy of the Left. Perhaps it is meant as a constitutional myth. The +face of the clock is curious. The glass over the chimney is framed in +that new fashion of applied mouldings which is so trumpery and vulgar. +From the ceiling hangs a chandelier carefully wrapped in green muslin, +and rightly too, for it is in the worst taste, the sharpest tint of +bronze with hideous ornaments. The walls are covered with a red flock +paper to imitate velvet enclosed in panels, each panel decorated with a +chromo-lithograph in one of those frames festooned with stucco flowers +to represent wood-carving. The furniture, in cashmere and elm-wood, +consists, with classic uniformity, of two sofas, two easy-chairs, two +armchairs, and six common chairs. A vase in alabaster, called a la +Medicis, kept under glass stands on a table between the windows; before +the windows, which are draped with magnificent red silk curtains and +lace curtains under them, are card-tables. The carpet is Aubusson, +and you may be sure the Rogrons did not fail to lay hands on that most +vulgar of patterns, large flowers on a red ground. The room looks as +if no one ever lived there; there are no books, no engravings, none +of those little knick-knacks we all have lying about," added Madame +Tiphaine, glancing at her own table covered with fashionable trifles, +albums, and little presents given to her by friends; "and there are no +flowers,--it is all cold and barren, like Mademoiselle Sylvie herself. +Buffon says the style is the man, and certainly salons have styles of +their own." + +From this sketch everybody can see the sort of house the brother and +sister lived in, though they can never imagine the absurdities into +which a clever builder dragged the ignorant pair,--new inventions, +fantastic ornaments, a system for preventing smoky chimneys, another +for preventing damp walls; painted marquetry panels on the staircase, +colored glass, superfine locks,--in short, all those vulgarities which +make a house expensive and gratify the bourgeois taste. + +No one chose to visit the Rogrons, whose social plans thus came to +nothing. Their invitations were refused under various excuses,--the +evenings were already engaged to Madame Garceland and the other ladies +of the Provins world. The Rogrons had supposed that all that was +required to gain a position in society was to give a few dinners. But +no one any longer accepted them, except a few young men who went to +make fun of their host and hostess, and certain diners-out who went +everywhere. + +Frightened at the loss of forty thousand francs swallowed up without +profit in what she called her "dear house," Sylvie now set to work to +recover it by economy. She gave no more dinners, which had cost her +forty or fifty francs without the wines, and did not fulfil her social +hopes, hopes that are as hard to realize in the provinces as in Paris. +She sent away her cook, took a country-girl to do the menial work, and +did her own cooking, as she said, "for pleasure." + +Fourteen months after their return to Provins, the brother and sister +had fallen into a solitary and wholly unoccupied condition. Their +banishment from society roused in Sylvie's heart a dreadful hatred +against the Tiphaines, Julliards and all the other members of the social +world of Provins, which she called "the clique," and with whom her +personal relations became extremely cold. She would gladly have set up +a rival clique, but the lesser bourgeoisie was made up of either small +shopkeepers who were only free on Sundays and fete-days, or smirched +individuals like the lawyer Vinet and Doctor Neraud, and wholly +inadmissible Bonapartists like Baron Gouraud, with whom, however, Rogron +thoughtlessly allied himself, though the upper bourgeoisie had warned +him against them. + +The brother and sister were, therefore, forced to sit by the fire of the +stove in the dining-room, talking over their former business, trying to +recall the faces of their customers and other matters they had intended +to forget. By the end of the second winter ennui weighed heavily on +them. They did not know how to get through each day; sometimes as they +went to bed the words escaped them, "There's another over!" They dragged +out the morning by staying in bed, and dressing slowly. Rogron shaved +himself every day, examined his face, consulted his sister on any +changes he thought he saw there, argued with the servant about the +temperature of his hot water, wandered into the garden, looked to see if +the shrubs were budding, sat at the edge of the water where he had built +himself a kiosk, examined the joinery of his house,--had it sprung? +had the walls settled, the panels cracked? or he would come in fretting +about a sick hen, and complaining to his sister, who was nagging the +servant as she set the table, of the dampness which was coming out in +spots upon the plaster. The barometer was Rogron's most useful bit of +property. He consulted it at all hours, tapped it familiarly like a +friend, saying: "Vile weather!" to which his sister would reply, "Pooh! +it is only seasonable." If any one called to see him the excellence of +that instrument was his chief topic of conversation. + +Breakfast took up some little time; with what deliberation those two +human beings masticated their food! Their digestions were perfect; +cancer of the stomach was not to be dreaded by them. They managed to +get along till twelve o'clock by reading the "Bee-hive" and the +"Constitutionnel." The cost of subscribing to the Parisian paper was +shared by Vinet the lawyer, and Baron Gouraud. Rogron himself carried +the paper to Gouraud, who had been a colonel and lived on the square, +and whose long yarns were Rogron's delight; the latter sometimes puzzled +over the warnings he had received, and asked himself how such a lively +companion could be dangerous. He was fool enough to tell the colonel he +had been warned against him, and to repeat all the "clique" had said. +God knows how the colonel, who feared no one, and was equally to be +dreaded with pistols or a sword, gave tongue about Madame Tiphaine and +her Amadis, and the ministerialists of the Upper town, persons capable +of any villany to get places, and who counted the votes at elections to +suit themselves, etc. + +About two o'clock Rogron started for a little walk. He was quite happy +if some shopkeeper standing on the threshold of his door would stop +him and say, "Well, pere Rogron, how goes it with _you_?" Then he +would talk, and ask for news, and gather all the gossip of the town. +He usually went as far as the Upper town, sometimes to the ravines, +according to the weather. Occasionally he would meet old men taking +their walks abroad like himself. Such meetings were joyful events to +him. There happened to be in Provins a few men weary of Parisian life, +quiet scholars who lived with their books. Fancy the bewilderment of the +ignorant Rogron when he heard a deputy-judge named Desfondrilles, more +of an archaeologist than a magistrate, saying to old Monsieur Martener, +a really learned man, as he pointed to the valley:-- + +"Explain to me why the idlers of Europe go to Spa instead of coming to +Provins, when the springs here have a superior curative value recognized +by the French faculty,--a potential worthy of the medicinal properties +of our roses." + +"That is one of the caprices of caprice," said the old gentleman. +"Bordeaux wine was unknown a hundred years ago. Marechal de Richelieu, +one of the noted men of the last century, the French Alcibiades, was +appointed governor of Guyenne. His lungs were diseased, and, heaven +knows why! the wine of the country did him good and he recovered. +Bordeaux instantly made a hundred millions; the marshal widened its +territory to Angouleme, to Cahors,--in short, to over a hundred miles of +circumference! it is hard to tell where the Bordeaux vineyards end. +And yet they haven't erected an equestrian statue to the marshal in +Bordeaux!" + +"Ah! if anything of that kind happens to Provins," said Monsieur +Desfondrilles, "let us hope that somewhere in the Upper or Lower +town they will set up a bas-relief of the head of Monsieur Opoix, the +re-discoverer of the mineral waters of Provins." + +"My dear friend, the revival of Provins is impossible," replied Monsieur +Martener; "the town was made bankrupt long ago." + +"What!" cried Rogron, opening his eyes very wide. + +"It was once a capital, holding its own against Paris in the twelfth +century, when the Comtes de Champagne held their court here, just as +King Rene held his in Provence," replied the man of learning; "for in +those days civilization, gaiety, poesy, elegance, and women, in short +all social splendors, were not found exclusively in Paris. It is as +difficult for towns and cities as it is for commercial houses to recover +from ruin. Nothing is left to us of the old Provins but the fragrance of +our historical glory and that of our roses,--and a sub-prefecture!" + +"Ah! what mightn't France be if she had only preserved her feudal +capitals!" said Desfondrilles. "Can sub-prefects replace the poetic, +gallant, warlike race of the Thibaults who made Provins what Ferrara was +to Italy, Weimar to Germany,--what Munich is trying to be to-day." + +"Was Provins ever a capital?" asked Rogron. + +"Why! where do you come from?" exclaimed the archaeologist. "Don't you +know," he added, striking the ground of the Upper town where they stood +with his cane, "don't you know that the whole of this part of Provins is +built on catacombs?" + +"Catacombs?" + +"Yes, catacombs, the extent and height of which are yet undiscovered. +They are like the naves of cathedrals, and there are pillars in them." + +"Monsieur is writing a great archaeological work to explain these +strange constructions," interposed Monsieur Martener, seeing that the +deputy-judge was about to mount his hobby. + +Rogron came home much comforted to know that his house was in +the valley. The crypts of Provins kept him occupied for a week in +explorations, and gave a topic of conversation to the unhappy celibates +for many evenings. + +In the course of these ramblings Rogron picked up various bits of +information about Provins, its inhabitants, their marriages, together +with stale political news; all of which he narrated to his sister. +Scores of times in his walks he would stop and say,--often to the same +person on the same day,--"Well, what's the news?" When he reached home +he would fling himself on the sofa like a man exhausted with labor, +whereas he was only worn out with the burden of his own dulness. Dinner +came at last, after he had gone twenty times to the kitchen and back, +compared the clocks, and opened and shut all the doors of the house. +So long as the brother and sister could spend their evenings in paying +visits they managed to get along till bedtime; but after they were +compelled to stay at home those evenings became like a parching desert. +Sometimes persons passing through the quiet little square would hear +unearthly noises as though the brother were throttling the sister; a +moment's listening would show that they were only yawning. These two +human mechanisms, having nothing to grind between their rusty wheels, +were creaking and grating at each other. The brother talked of marrying, +but only in despair. He felt old and weary; the thought of a woman +frightened him. Sylvie, who began to see the necessity of having a third +person in the home, suddenly remembered the little cousin, about whom no +one in Provins had yet inquired, the friends of Madame Lorrain probably +supposing that mother and child were both dead. + +Sylvie Rogron never lost anything; she was too thoroughly an old maid +even to mislay the smallest article; but she pretended to have suddenly +found the Lorrains' letter, so as to mention Pierrette naturally to her +brother, who was greatly pleased at the possibility of having a little +girl in the house. Sylvie replied to Madame Lorrain's letter half +affectionately, half commercially, as one may say, explaining the delay +by their change of abode and the settlement of their affairs. She seemed +desirous of receiving her little cousin, and hinted that Pierrette would +perhaps inherit twelve thousand francs a year if her brother Jerome did +not marry. + +Perhaps it is necessary to have been, like Nebuchadnezzar, something of +a wild beast, and shut up in a cage at the Jardin des Plantes without +other prey than the butcher's meat doled out by the keeper, or a retired +merchant deprived of the joys of tormenting his clerks, to understand +the impatience with which the brother and sister awaited the arrival +of their cousin Lorrain. Three days after the letter had gone, the pair +were already asking themselves when she would get there. + +Sylvie perceived in her spurious benevolence towards her poor cousin +a means of recovering her position in the social world of Provins. She +accordingly went to call on Madame Tiphaine, of whose reprobation she +was conscious, in order to impart the fact of Pierrette's approaching +arrival,--deploring the girl's unfortunate position, and posing herself +as being only too happy to succor her and give her a position as +daughter and future heiress. + +"You have been rather long in discovering her," said Madame Tiphaine, +with a touch of sarcasm. + +A few words said in a low voice by Madame Garceland, while the cards +were being dealt, recalled to the minds of those who heard her the +shameful conduct of old Rogron about the Auffray property; the notary +explained the iniquity. + +"Where is the little girl now?" asked Monsieur Tiphaine, politely. + +"In Brittany," said Rogron. + +"Brittany is a large place," remarked Monsieur Lesourd. + +"Her grandfather and grandmother Lorrain wrote to us--when was that, my +dear?" said Rogron addressing his sister. + +Sylvie, who was just then asking Madame Garceland where she had bought +the stuff for her gown, answered hastily, without thinking of the effect +of her words:-- + +"Before we sold the business." + +"And have you only just answered the letter, mademoiselle?" asked the +notary. + +Sylvie turned as red as a live coal. + +"We wrote to the Institution of Saint-Jacques," remarked Rogron. + +"That is a sort of hospital or almshouse for old people," said Monsieur +Desfondrilles, who knew Nantes. "She can't be there; they receive no one +under sixty." + +"She is there, with her grandmother Lorrain," said Rogron. + +"Her mother had a little fortune, the eight thousand francs which your +father--no, I mean of course your grandfather--left to her," said the +notary, making the blunder intentionally. + +"Ah!" said Rogron, stupidly, not understanding the notary's sarcasm. + +"Then you know nothing about your cousin's position or means?" asked +Monsieur Tiphaine. + +"If Monsieur Rogron had known it," said the deputy-judge, "he would +never have left her all this time in an establishment of that kind. I +remember now that a house in Nantes belonging to Monsieur and Madame +Lorrain was sold under an order of the court, and that Mademoiselle +Lorrain's claim was swallowed up. I know this, for I was commissioner at +the time." + +The notary spoke of Colonel Lorrain, who, had he lived, would have been +much amazed to know that his daughter was in such an institution. The +Rogrons beat a retreat, saying to each other that the world was very +malicious. Sylvie perceived that the news of her benevolence had missed +its effect,--in fact, she had lost ground in all minds; and she felt +that henceforth she was forbidden to attempt an intimacy with the upper +class of Provins. After this evening the Rogrons no longer concealed +their hatred of that class and all its adherents. The brother told the +sister the scandals that Colonel Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet had put +into his head about the Tiphaines, the Guenees, the Garcelands, the +Julliards, and others:-- + +"I declare, Sylvie, I don't see why Madame Tiphaine should turn up her +nose at shopkeeping in the rue Saint-Denis; it is more honest than what +she comes from. Madame Roguin, her mother, is cousin to those Guillaumes +of the 'Cat-playing-ball' who gave up the business to Joseph Lebas, +their son-in-law. Her father is that Roguin who failed in 1819, and +ruined the house of Cesar Birotteau. Madame Tiphaine's fortune was +stolen,--for what else are you to call it when a notary's wife who is +very rich lets her husband make a fraudulent bankruptcy? Fine doings! +and she marries her daughter in Provins to get her out of the way,--all +on account of her own relations with du Tillet. And such people set up +to be proud! Well, well, that's the world!" + +On the day when Jerome Rogron and his sister began to declaim against +"the clique" they were, without being aware of it, on the road to having +a society of their own; their house was to become a rendezvous for other +interests seeking a centre,--those of the hitherto floating elements of +the liberal party in Provins. And this is how it came about: The launch +of the Rogrons in society had been watched with great curiosity by +Colonel Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet, two men drawn together, first by +their ostracism, next by their opinions. They both professed patriotism +and for the same reason,--they wished to become of consequence. The +Liberals in Provins were, so far, confined to one old soldier who kept a +cafe, an innkeeper, Monsieur Cournant a notary, Doctor Neraud, and a +few stray persons, mostly farmers or those who had bought lands of the +public domain. + +The colonel and the lawyer, delighted to lay hands on a fool whose money +would be useful to their schemes, and who might himself, in certain +cases, be made to bell the cat, while his house would serve as a +meeting-ground for the scattered elements of the party, made the most of +the Rogrons' ill-will against the upper classes of the place. The +three had already a slight tie in their united subscription to the +"Constitutionnel"; it would certainly not be difficult for the colonel +to make a Liberal of the ex-mercer, though Rogron knew so little of +politics that he was capable of regarding the exploits of Sergeant +Mercier as those of a brother shopkeeper. + +The expected arrival of Pierrette brought to sudden fruition the selfish +ideas of the two men, inspired as they were by the folly and ignorance +of the celibates. Seeing that Sylvie had lost all chance of establishing +herself in the good society of the place, an afterthought came to the +colonel. Old soldiers have seen so many horrors in all lands, so many +grinning corpses on battle-fields, that no physiognomies repel them; and +Gouraud began to cast his eyes on the old maid's fortune. This imperial +colonel, a short, fat man, wore enormous rings in ears that were bushy +with tufts of hair. His sparse and grizzled whiskers were called in 1799 +"fins." His jolly red face was rather discolored, like those of all who +had lived to tell of the Beresina. The lower half of his big, pointed +stomach marked the straight line which characterizes a cavalry officer. +Gouraud had commanded the Second Hussars. His gray moustache hid a huge +blustering mouth,--if we may use a term which alone describes that gulf. +He did not eat his food, he engulfed it. A sabre cut had slit his nose, +by which his speech was made thick and very nasal, like that attributed +to Capuchins. His hands, which were short and broad, were of the kind +that make women say: "You have the hands of a rascal." His legs seemed +slender for his torso. In that fat and active body an absolutely lawless +spirit disported itself, and a thorough experience of the things of +life, together with a profound contempt for social convention, lay +hidden beneath the apparent indifference of a soldier. Colonel Gouraud +wore the cross of an officer of the Legion of honor, and his emoluments +from that, together with his salary as a retired officer, gave him in +all about three thousand francs a year. + +The lawyer, tall and thin, had liberal opinions in place of talent, +and his only revenue was the meagre profits of his office. In Provins +lawyers plead their own cases. The court was unfavorable to Vinet +on account of his opinions; consequently, even the farmers who were +Liberals, when it came to lawsuits preferred to employ some lawyer who +was more congenial to the judges. Vinet was regarded with disfavor in +other ways. He was said to have seduced a rich girl in the neighborhood +of Coulommiers, and thus have forced her parents to marry her to him. +Madame Vinet was a Chargeboeuf, an old and noble family of La Brie, +whose name comes from the exploit of a squire during the expedition of +Saint Louis to Egypt. She incurred the displeasure of her father and +mother, who arranged, unknown to Vinet, to leave their entire fortune to +their son, doubtless charging him privately, to pay over a portion of it +to his sister's children. + +Thus the first bold effort of the ambitious man was a failure. Pursued +by poverty, and ashamed not to give his wife the means of making a +suitable appearance, he had made desperate efforts to enter public life, +but the Chargeboeuf family refused him their influence. These Royalists +disapproved, on moral grounds, of his forced marriage; besides, he was +named Vinet, and how could they be expected to protect a plebian? Thus +he was driven from branch to branch when he tried to get some good +out of his marriage. Repulsed by every one, filled with hatred for the +family of his wife, for the government which denied him a place, for the +social world of Provins, which refused to admit him, Vinet submitted to +his fate; but his gall increased. He became a Liberal in the belief that +his fortune might yet be made by the triumph of the opposition, and he +lived in a miserable little house in the Upper town from which his wife +seldom issued. Madame Vinet had found no one to defend her since her +marriage except an old Madame de Chargeboeuf, a widow with one daughter, +who lived at Troyes. The unfortunate young woman, destined for better +things, was absolutely alone in her home with a single child. + +There are some kinds of poverty which may be nobly accepted and gaily +borne; but Vinet, devoured by ambition, and feeling himself guilty +towards his wife, was full of darkling rage; his conscience grew +elastic; and he finally came to think any means of success permissible. +His young face changed. Persons about the courts were sometimes +frightened as they looked at his viperish, flat head, his slit mouth, +his eyes gleaming through glasses, and heard his sharp, persistent voice +which rasped their nerves. His muddy skin, with its sickly tones of +green and yellow, expressed the jaundice of his balked ambition, his +perpetual disappointments and his hidden wretchedness. He could talk and +argue; he was well-informed and shrewd, and was not without smartness +and metaphor. Accustomed to look at everything from the standpoint of +his own success, he was well fitted for a politician. A man who shrinks +from nothing so long as it is legal, is strong; and Vinet's strength lay +there. + +This future athlete of parliamentary debate, who was destined to share +in proclaiming the dynasty of the house of Orleans had a terrible +influence on Pierrette's fate. At the present moment he was bent on +making for himself a weapon by founding a newspaper at Provins. After +studying the Rogrons at a distance (the colonel aiding him) he had come +to the conclusion that the brother might be made useful. This time he +was not mistaken; his days of poverty were over, after seven wretched +years, when even his daily bread was sometimes lacking. The day when +Gouraud told him in the little square that the Rogrons had finally +quarrelled with the bourgeois aristocracy of the Upper town, he nudged +the colonel in the ribs significantly, and said, with a knowing look:-- + +"One woman or another--handsome or ugly--_you_ don't care; marry +Mademoiselle Rogron and we can organize something at once." + +"I have been thinking of it," replied Gouraud, "but the fact is they +have sent for the daughter of Colonel Lorrain, and she's their next of +kin." + +"You can get them to make a will in your favor. Ha! you would get a very +comfortable house." + +"As for the little girl--well, well, let's see her," said the colonel, +with a leering and thoroughly wicked look, which proved to a man of +Vinet's quality how little respect the old trooper could feel for any +girl. + + + + +IV. PIERRETTE + + +After her grandfather and grandmother entered the sort of hospital in +which they sadly expected to end their days, Pierrette, being young +and proud, suffered so terribly at living there on charity that she was +thankful when she heard she had rich relations. When Brigaut, the son of +her mother's friend the major, and the companion of her childhood, +who was learning his trade as a cabinet-maker at Nantes, heard of +her departure he offered her the money to pay her way to Paris in +the diligence,--sixty francs, the total of his _pour-boires_ as an +apprentice, slowly amassed, and accepted by Pierrette with the sublime +indifference of true affection, showing that in a like case she herself +would be affronted by thanks. + +Brigaut was in the habit of going every Sunday to Saint-Jacques to play +with Pierrette and try to console her. The vigorous young workman knew +the dear delight of bestowing a complete and devoted protection on +an object involuntarily chosen by his heart. More than once he and +Pierrette, sitting on Sundays in a corner of the garden, had embroidered +the veil of the future with their youthful projects; the apprentice, +armed with his plane, scoured the world to make their fortune, while +Pierrette waited. + +In October, 1824, when the child had completed her eleventh year, +she was entrusted by the two old people and by Brigaut, all three +sorrowfully sad, to the conductor of the diligence from Nantes to +Paris, with an entreaty to put her safely on the diligence from Paris +to Provins and to take good care of her. Poor Brigaut! he ran like a dog +after the coach looking at his dear Pierrette as long as he was able. +In spite of her signs he ran over three miles, and when at last he was +exhausted his eyes, wet with tears, still followed her. She, too, was +crying when she saw him no longer running by her, and putting her head +out of the window she watched him, standing stock-still and looking +after her, as the lumbering vehicle disappeared. + +The Lorrains and Brigaut knew so little of life that the girl had not +a penny when she arrived in Paris. The conductor, to whom she had +mentioned her rich friends, paid her expenses at the hotel, and made +the conductor of the Provins diligence pay him, telling him to take good +care of the girl and to see that the charges were paid by the family, +exactly as though she were a case of goods. Four days after her +departure from Nantes, about nine o'clock of a Monday night, a kind old +conductor of the Messageries-royales, took Pierrette by the hand, and +while the porters were discharging in the Grand'Rue the packages and +passengers for Provins, he led the little girl, whose only baggage was a +bundle containing two dresses, two chemises, and two pairs of stockings, +to Mademoiselle Rogron's house, which was pointed out to him by the +director at the coach office. + +"Good-evening, mademoiselle and the rest of the company. I've brought +you a cousin, and here she is; and a nice little girl too, upon my word. +You have forty-seven francs to pay me, and sign my book." + +Mademoiselle Sylvie and her brother were dumb with pleasure and +amazement. + +"Excuse me," said the conductor, "the coach is waiting. Sign my book and +pay me forty-seven francs, sixty centimes, and whatever you please for +myself and the conductor from Nantes; we've taken care of the little +girl as if she were our own; and paid for her beds and her food, also +her fare to Provins, and other little things." + +"Forty-seven francs, twelve sous!" said Sylvie. + +"You are not going to dispute it?" cried the man. + +"Where's the bill?" said Rogron. + +"Bill! look at the book." + +"Stop talking, and pay him," said Sylvie, "You see there's nothing else +to be done." + +Rogron went to get the money, and gave the man forty-seven francs, +twelve sous. + +"And nothing for my comrade and me?" said the conductor. + +Sylvie took two francs from the depths of the old velvet bag which held +her keys. + +"Thank you, no," said the man; "keep 'em yourself. We would rather +care for the little one for her own sake." He picked up his book and +departed, saying to the servant-girl: "What a pair! it seems there are +crocodiles out of Egypt!" + +"Such men are always brutal," said Sylvie, who overhead the words. + +"They took good care of the little girl, anyhow," said Adele with her +hands on her hips. + +"We don't have to live with him," remarked Rogron. + +"Where's the little one to sleep?" asked Adele. + +Such was the arrival of Pierrette Lorrain in the home of her cousins, +who gazed at her with stolid eyes; she was tossed to them like a +package, with no intermediate state between the wretched chamber at +Saint-Jacques and the dining-room of her cousins, which seemed to her a +palace. She was shy and speechless. To all other eyes than those of the +Rogrons the little Breton girl would have seemed enchanting as she +stood there in her petticoat of coarse blue flannel, with a pink cambric +apron, thick shoes, blue stockings, and a white kerchief, her hands +being covered by red worsted mittens edged with white, bought for her +by the conductor. Her dainty Breton cap (which had been washed in Paris, +for the journey from Nantes had rumpled it) was like a halo round her +happy little face. This national cap, of the finest lawn, trimmed with +stiffened lace pleated in flat folds, deserves description, it was so +dainty and simple. The light coming through the texture and the lace +produced a partial shadow, the soft shadow of a light upon the skin, +which gave her the virginal grace that all painters seek and Leopold +Robert found for the Raffaelesque face of the woman who holds a child +in his picture of "The Gleaners." Beneath this fluted frame of light +sparkled a white and rosy and artless face, glowing with vigorous +health. The warmth of the room brought the blood to the cheeks, to the +tips of the pretty ears, to the lips and the end of the delicate nose, +making the natural white of the complexion whiter still. + +"Well, are you not going to say anything? I am your cousin Sylvie, and +that is your cousin Rogron." + +"Do you want something to eat?" asked Rogron. + +"When did you leave Nantes?" asked Sylvie. + +"Is she dumb?" said Rogron. + +"Poor little dear, she has hardly any clothes," cried Adele, who +had opened the child's bundle, tied up in a handkerchief of the old +Lorrains. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Sylvie. + +Pierrette kissed Rogron. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Rogron. + +Pierrette kissed Sylvie. + +"She is tired out with her journey, poor little thing; she wants to go +to sleep," said Adele. + +Pierrette was overcome with a sudden and invincible aversion for her two +relatives,--a feeling that no one had ever before excited in her. Sylvie +and the maid took her up to bed in the room where Brigaut afterwards +noticed the white cotton curtain. In it was a little bed with a pole +painted blue, from which hung a calico curtain; a walnut bureau without +a marble top, a small table, a looking-glass, a very common night-table +without a door, and three chairs completed the furniture of the room. +The walls, which sloped in front, were hung with a shabby paper, blue +with black flowers. The tiled floor, stained red and polished, was icy +to the feet. There was no carpet except for a strip at the bedside. The +mantelpiece of common marble was adorned by a mirror, two candelabra in +copper-gilt, and a vulgar alabaster cup in which two pigeons, forming +handles, were drinking. + +"You will be comfortable here, my little girl?" said Sylvie. + +"Oh, it's beautiful!" said the child, in her silvery voice. + +"She's not difficult to please," muttered the stout servant. "Sha'n't I +warm her bed?" she asked. + +"Yes," said Sylvie, "the sheets may be damp." + +Adele brought one of her own night-caps when she returned with the +warming-pan, and Pierrette, who had never slept in anything but the +coarsest linen sheets, was amazed at the fineness and softness of the +cotton ones. When she was fairly in bed and tucked up, Adele, going +downstairs with Sylvie, could not refrain from saying, "All she has +isn't worth three francs, mademoiselle." + +Ever since her economical regime began, Sylvie had compelled the maid to +sit in the dining-room so that one fire and one lamp could do for all; +except when Colonel Gouraud and Vinet came, on which occasions Adele was +sent to the kitchen. + +Pierrette's arrival enlivened the rest of the evening. + +"We must get her some clothes to-morrow," said Sylvie; "she has +absolutely nothing." + +"No shoes but those she had on, which weigh a pound," said Adele. + +"That's always so, in their part of the country," remarked Rogron. + +"How she looked at her room! though it really isn't handsome enough for +a cousin of yours, mademoiselle." + +"It is good enough; hold your tongue," said Sylvie. + +"Gracious, what chemises! coarse enough to scratch her skin off; not a +thing can she use here," said Adele, emptying the bundle. + +Master, mistress, and servant were busy till past ten o'clock, deciding +what cambric they should buy for the new chemises, how many pairs +of stockings, how many under-petticoats, and what material, and in +reckoning up the whole cost of Pierrette's outfit. + +"You won't get off under three hundred francs," said Rogron, who +could remember the different prices, and add them up from his former +shop-keeping habit. + +"Three hundred francs!" cried Sylvie. + +"Yes, three hundred. Add it up." + +The brother and sister went over the calculation once more, and found +the cost would be fully three hundred francs, not counting the making. + +"Three hundred francs at one stroke!" said Sylvie to herself as she got +into bed. + + * * * * * + +Pierrette was one of those children of love whom love endows with +its tenderness, its vivacity, its gaiety, its nobility, its devotion. +Nothing had so far disturbed or wounded a heart that was delicate +as that of a fawn, but which was now painfully repressed by the cold +greeting of her cousins. If Brittany had been full of outward misery, at +least it was full of love. The old Lorrains were the most incapable +of merchants, but they were also the most loving, frank, caressing, of +friends, like all who are incautious and free from calculation. Their +little granddaughter had received no other education at Pen-Hoel than +that of nature. Pierrette went where she liked, in a boat on the pond, +or roaming the village and the fields with Jacques Brigaut, her comrade, +exactly as Paul and Virginia might have done. Petted by everybody, free +as air, they gaily chased the joys of childhood. In summer they ran to +watch the fishing, they caught the many-colored insects, they gathered +flowers, they gardened; in winter they made slides, they built snow-men +or huts, or pelted each other with snowballs. Welcomed by all, they met +with smiles wherever they went. + +When the time came to begin their education, disasters came, too. +Jacques, left without means at the death of his father, was apprenticed +by his relatives to a cabinet-maker, and fed by charity, as Pierrette +was soon to be at Saint-Jacques. Until the little girl was taken with +her grandparents to that asylum, she had known nothing but fond caresses +and protection from every one. Accustomed to confide in so much love, +the little darling missed in these rich relatives, so eagerly desired, +the kindly looks and ways which all the world, even strangers and the +conductors of the coaches, had bestowed upon her. Her bewilderment, +already great, was increased by the moral atmosphere she had entered. +The heart turns suddenly cold or hot like the body. The poor child +wanted to cry, without knowing why; but being very tired she went to +sleep. + +The next morning, Pierrette being, like all country children, accustomed +to get up early, was awake two hours before the cook. She dressed +herself, stepping on tiptoe about her room, looked out at the little +square, started to go downstairs and was struck with amazement by the +beauties of the staircase. She stopped to examine all its details: +the painted walls, the brasses, the various ornamentations, the window +fixtures. Then she went down to the garden-door, but was unable to open +it, and returned to her room to wait until Adele should be stirring. As +soon as the woman went to the kitchen Pierrette flew to the garden and +took possession of it, ran to the river, was amazed at the kiosk, and +sat down in it; truly, she had enough to see and to wonder at until her +cousins were up. At breakfast Sylvie said to her:-- + +"Was it you, little one, who was trotting over my head by daybreak, and +making that racket on the stairs? You woke me so that I couldn't go to +sleep again. You must be very good and quiet, and amuse yourself without +noise. Your cousin doesn't like noise." + +"And you must wipe your feet," said Rogron. "You went into the kiosk +with your dirty shoes, and they've tracked all over the floor. Your +cousin likes cleanliness. A great girl like you ought to be clean. +Weren't you clean in Brittany? But I recollect when I went down there to +buy thread it was pitiable to see the folks,--they were like savages. At +any rate she has a good appetite," added Rogron, looking at his sister; +"one would think she hadn't eaten anything for days." + +Thus, from the very start Pierrette was hurt by the remarks of her two +cousins,--hurt, she knew not why. Her straightforward, open nature, +hitherto left to itself, was not given to reflection. Incapable of +thinking that her cousins were hard, she was fated to find it out slowly +through suffering. After breakfast the brother and sister, pleased with +Pierrette's astonishment at the house and anxious to enjoy it, took her +to the salon to show her its splendors and teach her not to touch them. +Many celibates, driven by loneliness and the moral necessity of caring +for something, substitute factitious affections for natural ones; they +love dogs, cats, canaries, servants, or their confessor. Rogron and +Sylvie had come to the pass of loving immoderately their house and +furniture, which had cost them so dear. Sylvie began by helping Adele in +the mornings to dust and arrange the furniture, under pretence that she +did not know how to keep it looking as good as new. This dusting was +soon a desired occupation to her, and the furniture, instead of losing +its value in her eyes, became ever more precious. To use things without +hurting them or soiling them or scratching the woodwork or clouding the +varnish, that was the problem which soon became the mania of the old +maid's life. Sylvie had a closet full of bits of wool, wax, varnish, +and brushes, which she had learned to use with the dexterity of a +cabinet-maker; she had her feather dusters and her dusting-cloths; and +she rubbed away without fear of hurting herself,--she was so strong. The +glance of her cold blue eyes, hard as steel, was forever roving over the +furniture and under it, and you could as soon have found a tender spot +in her heart as a bit of fluff under the sofa. + +After the remarks made at Madame Tiphaine's, Sylvie dared not flinch +from the three hundred francs for Pierrette's clothes. During the first +week her time was wholly taken up, and Pierrette's too, by frocks to +order and try on, chemises and petticoats to cut out and have made by a +seamstress who went out by the day. Pierrette did not know how to sew. + +"That's pretty bringing up!" said Rogron. "Don't you know how to do +anything, little girl?" + +Pierrette, who knew nothing but how to love, made a pretty, childish +gesture. + +"What did you do in Brittany?" asked Rogron. + +"I played," she answered, naively. "Everybody played with me. Grandmamma +and grandpapa they told me stories. Ah! they all loved me!" + +"Hey!" said Rogron; "didn't you take it easy!" + +Pierrette opened her eyes wide, not comprehending. + +"She is as stupid as an owl," said Sylvie to Mademoiselle Borain, the +best seamstress in Provins. + +"She's so young," said the workwoman, looking kindly at Pierrette, whose +delicate little muzzle was turned up to her with a coaxing look. + +Pierrette preferred the sewing-women to her relations. She was endearing +in her ways with them, she watched their work, and made them those +pretty speeches that seem like the flowers of childhood, and which her +cousin had already silenced, for that gaunt woman loved to impress +those under her with salutary awe. The sewing-women were delighted with +Pierrette. Their work, however, was not carried on without many and loud +grumblings. + +"That child will make us pay through the nose!" cried Sylvie to her +brother. + +"Stand still, my dear, and don't plague us; it is all for you and not +for me," she would say to Pierrette when the child was being measured. +Sometimes it was, when Pierrette would ask the seamstress some question, +"Let Mademoiselle Borain do her work, and don't talk to her; it is not +you who are paying for her time." + +"Mademoiselle," said Mademoiselle Borain, "am I to back-stitch this?" + +"Yes, do it firmly; I don't want to be making such an outfit as this +every day." + +Sylvie put the same spirit of emulation into Pierrette's outfit that +she had formerly put into the house. She was determined that her cousin +should be as well dressed as Madame Garceland's little girl. She +bought the child fashionable boots of bronzed kid like those the little +Tiphaines wore, very fine cotton stockings, a corset by the best maker, +a dress of blue reps, a pretty cape lined with white silk,--all this +that she, Sylvie, might hold her own against the children of the women +who had rejected her. The underclothes were quite in keeping with the +visible articles of dress, for Sylvie feared the examining eyes of the +various mothers. Pierrette's chemises were of fine Madapolam calico. +Mademoiselle Borain had mentioned that the sub-prefect's little girls +wore cambric drawers, embroidered and trimmed in the latest style. +Pierrette had the same. Sylvie ordered for her a charming little drawn +bonnet of blue velvet lined with white satin, precisely like the one +worn by Dr. Martener's little daughter. + +Thus attired, Pierrette was the most enchanting little girl in all +Provins. On Sunday, after church, all the ladies kissed her; Mesdames +Tiphaine, Garceland, Galardon, Julliard, and the rest fell in love with +the sweet little Breton girl. This enthusiasm was deeply flattering to +old Sylvie's self-love; she regarded it as less due to Pierrette than +to her own benevolence. She ended, however, in being affronted by her +cousin's success. Pierrette was constantly invited out, and Sylvie +allowed her to go, always for the purpose of triumphing over "those +ladies." Pierrette was much in demand for games or little parties and +dinners with their own little girls. She had succeeded where the Rogrons +had failed; and Mademoiselle Sylvie soon grew indignant that Pierrette +was asked to other children's houses when those children never came to +hers. The artless little thing did not conceal the pleasure she found +in her visits to these ladies, whose affectionate manners contrasted +strangely with the harshness of her two cousins. A mother would have +rejoiced in the happiness of her little one, but the Rogrons had taken +Pierrette for their own sakes, not for hers; their feelings, far from +being parental, were dyed in selfishness and a sort of commercial +calculation. + +The handsome outfit, the fine Sunday dresses, and the every-day frocks +were the beginning of Pierrette's troubles. Like all children free to +amuse themselves, who are accustomed to follow the dictates of their own +lively fancies, she was very hard on her clothes, her shoes, and above +all on those embroidered drawers. A mother when she reproves her child +thinks only of the child; her voice is gentle; she does not raise it +unless driven to extremities, or when the child is much in fault. But +here, in this great matter of Pierrette's clothes, the cousins' money +was the first consideration; their interests were to be thought of, not +the child's. Children have the perceptions of the canine race for the +sentiments of those who rule them; they know instinctively whether +they are loved or only tolerated. Pure and innocent hearts are more +distressed by shades of difference than by contrasts; a child does not +understand evil, but it knows when the instinct of the good and the +beautiful which nature has implanted in it is shocked. The lectures +which Pierrette now drew upon herself on propriety of behavior, modesty, +and economy were merely the corollary of the one theme, "Pierrette will +ruin us." + +These perpetual fault-findings, which were destined to have a fatal +result for the poor child, brought the two celibates back to the old +beaten track of their shop-keeping habits, from which their removal to +Provins had parted them, and in which their natures were now to +expand and flourish. Accustomed in the old days to rule and to make +inquisitions, to order about and reprove their clerks sharply, Rogron +and his sister had actually suffered for want of victims. Little minds +need to practise despotism to relieve their nerves, just as great souls +thirst for equality in friendship to exercise their hearts. Narrow +natures expand by persecuting as much as others through beneficence; +they prove their power over their fellows by cruel tyranny as others +do by loving kindness; they simply go the way their temperaments drive +them. Add to this the propulsion of self-interest and you may read the +enigma of most social matters. + +Thenceforth Pierrette became a necessity to the lives of her cousins. +From the day of her coming their minds were occupied,--first, with her +outfit, and then with the novelty of a third presence. But every new +thing, a sentiment and even a tyranny, is moulded as time goes on into +fresh shapes. Sylvie began by calling Pierrette "my dear," or "little +one." Then she abandoned the gentler terms for "Pierrette" only. Her +reprimands, at first only cross, became sharp and angry; and no sooner +were their feet on the path of fault-finding than the brother and sister +made rapid strides. They were no longer bored to death! It was not their +deliberate intention to be wicked and cruel; it was simply the blind +instinct of an imbecile tyranny. The pair believed they were doing +Pierrette a service, just as they had thought their harshness a benefit +to their apprentices. + +Pierrette, whose true and noble and extreme sensibility was the +antipodes of the Rogrons' hardness, had a dread of being scolded; it +wounded her so sharply that the tears would instantly start in her +beautiful, pure eyes. She had a great struggle with herself before she +could repress the enchanting sprightliness which made her so great a +favorite elsewhere. After a time she displayed it only in the homes of +her little friends. By the end of the first month she had learned to be +passive in her cousins' house,--so much so that Rogron one day asked +her if she was ill. At that sudden question, she ran to the end of the +garden, and stood crying beside the river, into which her tears may have +fallen as she herself was about to fall into the social torrent. + +One day, in spite of all her care, she tore her best reps frock at +Madame Tiphaine's, where she was spending a happy day. The poor child +burst into tears, foreseeing the cruel things which would be said to her +at home. Questioned by her friends, she let fall a few words about her +terrible cousin. Madame Tiphaine happened to have some reps exactly like +that of the frock, and she put in a new breadth herself. Mademoiselle +Rogron found out the trick, as she expressed it, which the little devil +had played her. From that day forth she refused to let Pierrette go to +any of "those women's" houses. + +The life the poor girl led in Provins was divided into three distinct +phases. The first, already shown, in which she had some joy mingled +with the cold kindness of her cousins and their sharp reproaches, lasted +three months. Sylvie's refusal to let her go to her little friends, +backed by the necessity of beginning her education, ended the first +phase of her life at Provins, the only period when that life was +bearable to her. + +These events, produced at the Rogrons by Pierrette's presence, were +studied by Vinet and the colonel with the caution of foxes preparing to +enter a poultry-yard and disturbed by seeing a strange fowl. They both +called from time to time,--but seldom, so as not to alarm the old maid; +they talked with Rogron under various pretexts, and made themselves +masters of his mind with an affectation of reserve and modesty which the +great Tartuffe himself would have respected. The colonel and the lawyer +were spending the evening with Rogron on the very day when Sylvie +had refused in bitter language to let Pierrette go again to Madame +Tiphaine's, or elsewhere. Being told of this refusal the colonel and the +lawyer looked at each other with an air which seemed to say that they at +least knew Provins well. + +"Madame Tiphaine intended to insult you," said the lawyer. "We have long +been warning Rogron of what would happen. There's no good to be got from +those people." + +"What can you expect from the anti-national party!" cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache and interrupting the lawyer. "But, mademoiselle, +if we had tried to warn you from those people you might have supposed we +had some malicious motive in what we said. If you like a game of cards +in the evening, why don't you have it at home; why not play your boston +here, in your own house? Is it impossible to fill the places of those +idiots, the Julliards and all the rest of them? Vinet and I know how to +play boston, and we can easily find a fourth. Vinet might present his +wife to you; she is charming, and, what is more, a Chargeboeuf. You will +not be so exacting as those apes of the Upper town; _you_ won't require +a good little housewife, who is compelled by the meanness of her family +to do her own work, to dress like a duchess. Poor woman, she has the +courage of a lion and the meekness of a lamb." + +Sylvie Rogron showed her long yellow teeth as she smiled on the colonel, +who bore the sight heroically and assumed a flattered air. + +"If we are only four we can't play boston every night," said Sylvie. + +"Why not? What do you suppose an old soldier of the Empire like me does +with himself? And as for Vinet, his evenings are always free. Besides, +you'll have plenty of other visitors; I warrant you that," he added, +with a rather mysterious air. + +"What you ought to do," said Vinet, "is to take an open stand against +the ministerialists of Provins and form an opposition to them. You would +soon see how popular that would make you; you would have a society about +you at once. The Tiphaines would be furious at an opposition salon. +Well, well, why not laugh at others, if others laugh at you?--and they +do; the clique doesn't mince matters in talking about you." + +"How's that?" demanded Sylvie. + +In the provinces there is always a valve or a faucet through which +gossip leaks from one social set to another. Vinet knew all the slurs +cast upon the Rogrons in the salons from which they were now excluded. +The deputy-judge and archaeologist Desfondrilles belonged to neither +party. With other independents like him, he repeated what he heard on +both sides and Vinet made the most of it. The lawyer's spiteful tongue +put venom into Madame Tiphaine's speeches, and by showing Rogron and +Sylvie the ridicule they had brought upon themselves he roused an +undying spirit of hatred in those bitter natures, which needed an object +for their petty passions. + +A few days later Vinet brought his wife, a well-bred woman, neither +pretty nor plain, timid, very gentle, and deeply conscious of her false +position. Madame Vinet was fair-complexioned, faded by the cares of her +poor household, and very simply dressed. No woman could have pleased +Sylvie more. Madame Vinet endured her airs, and bent before them like +one accustomed to subjection. On the poor woman's rounded brow and +delicately timid cheek and in her slow and gentle glance, were the +traces of deep reflection, of those perceptive thoughts which women who +are accustomed to suffer bury in total silence. + +The influence of the colonel (who now displayed to Sylvie the graces of +a courtier, in marked contradiction to his usual military brusqueness), +together with that of the astute Vinet, was soon to harm the Breton +child. Shut up in the house, no longer allowed to go out except in +company with her old cousin, Pierrette, that pretty little squirrel, was +at the mercy of the incessant cry, "Don't touch that, child, let that +alone!" She was perpetually being lectured on her carriage and behavior; +if she stooped or rounded her shoulders her cousin would call to her to +be as erect as herself (Sylvie was rigid as a soldier presenting arms +to his colonel); sometimes indeed the ill-natured old maid enforced the +order by slaps on the back to make the girl straighten up. + +Thus the free and joyous little child of the Marais learned by degrees +to repress all liveliness and to make herself, as best she could, an +automaton. + + + + +V. HISTORY OF POOR COUSINS IN THE HOME OF RICH ONES + + +One evening, which marked the beginning of Pierrette's second phase of +life in her cousin's house, the child, whom the three guests had not +seen during the evening, came into the room to kiss her relatives and +say good-night to the company. Sylvie turned her cheek coldly to the +pretty creature, as if to avoid kissing her. The motion was so cruelly +significant that the tears sprang to Pierrette's eyes. + +"Did you prick yourself, little girl?" said the atrocious Vinet. + +"What is the matter?" asked Sylvie, severely. + +"Nothing," said the poor child, going up to Rogron. + +"Nothing?" said Sylvie, "that's nonsense; nobody cries for nothing." + +"What is it, my little darling?" said Madame Vinet. + +"My rich cousin isn't as kind to me as my poor grandmother was," sobbed +Pierrette. + +"Your grandmother took your money," said Sylvie, "and your cousin will +leave you hers." + +The colonel and the lawyer glanced at each other. + +"I would rather be robbed and loved," said Pierrette. + +"Then you shall be sent back whence you came." + +"But what has the dear little thing done?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Vinet gave his wife the terrible, fixed, cold look with which men +enforce their absolute dominion. The hapless helot, punished incessantly +for not having the one thing that was wanted of her, a fortune, took up +her cards. + +"What has she done?" said Sylvie, throwing up her head with such +violence that the yellow wall-flowers in her cap nodded. "She is always +looking about to annoy us. She opened my watch to see the inside, and +meddled with the wheel and broke the mainspring. Mademoiselle pays no +heed to what is said to her. I am all day long telling her to take care +of things, and I might just as well talk to that lamp." + +Pierrette, ashamed at being reproved before strangers, crept softly out +of the room. + +"I am thinking all the time how to subdue that child," said Rogron. + +"Isn't she old enough to go to school?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Again she was silenced by a look from her husband, who had been careful +to tell her nothing of his own or the colonel's schemes. + +"This is what comes of taking charge of other people's children!" cried +the colonel. "You may still have some of your own, you or your brother. +Why don't you both marry?" + +Sylvie smiled agreeably on the colonel. For the first time in her life +she met a man to whom the idea that she could marry did not seem absurd. + +"Madame Vinet is right," cried Rogron; "perhaps teaching would keep +Pierrette quiet. A master wouldn't cost much." + +The colonel's remark so preoccupied Sylvie that she made no answer to +her brother. + +"If you are willing to be security for that opposition journal I was +talking to you about," said Vinet, "you will find an excellent master +for the little cousin in the managing editor; we intend to engage that +poor schoolmaster who lost his employment through the encroachments of +the clergy. My wife is right; Pierrette is a rough diamond that wants +polishing." + +"I thought you were a baron," said Sylvie to the colonel, while the +cards were being dealt, and after a long pause in which they had all +been rather thoughtful. + +"Yes; but when I was made baron, in 1814, after the battle of Nangis, +where my regiment performed miracles, I had money and influence enough +to secure the rank. But now my barony is like the grade of general which +I held in 1815,--it needs a revolution to give it back to me." + +"If you will secure my endorsement by a mortgage," said Rogron, +answering Vinet after long consideration, "I will give it." + +"That can easily be arranged," said Vinet. "The new paper will soon +restore the colonel's rights, and make your salon more powerful in +Provins than those of Tiphaine and company." + +"How so?" asked Sylvie. + +While his wife was dealing and Vinet himself explaining the importance +they would all gain by the publication of an independent newspaper, +Pierrette was dissolved in tears; her heart and her mind were one in +this matter; she felt and knew that her cousin was more to blame than +she was. The little country girl instinctively understood that charity +and benevolence ought to be a complete offering. She hated her handsome +frocks and all the things that were made for her; she was forced to pay +too dearly for such benefits. She wept with vexation at having given +cause for complaint against her, and resolved to behave in future in +such a way as to compel her cousins to find no further fault with her. +The thought then came into her mind how grand Brigaut had been in giving +her all his savings without a word. Poor child! she fancied her troubles +were now at their worst; she little knew that other misfortunes were +even now being planned for her in the salon. + +A few days later Pierrette had a writing-master. She was taught to read, +write, and cipher. Enormous injury was thus supposed to be done to the +Rogrons' house. Ink-spots were found on the tables, on the furniture, +on Pierrette's clothes; copy-books and pens were left about; sand was +scattered everywhere, books were torn and dog's-eared as the result of +these lessons. She was told in harsh terms that she would have to earn +her own living, and not be a burden to others. As she listened to these +cruel remarks Pierrette's throat contracted violently with acute pain, +her heart throbbed. She was forced to restrain her tears, or she was +scolded for weeping and told it was an insult to the kindness of her +magnanimous cousins. Rogron had found the life that suited him. He +scolded Pierrette as he used to scold his clerks; he would call her when +at play, and compel her to study; he made her repeat her lessons, and +became himself the almost savage master of the poor child. Sylvie, on +her side, considered it a duty to teach Pierrette the little that she +knew herself about women's work. Neither Rogron nor his sister had the +slightest softness in their natures. Their narrow minds, which found +real pleasure in worrying the poor child, passed insensibly from outward +kindness to extreme severity. This severity was necessitated, they +believed, by what they called the self-will of the child, which had not +been broken when young and was very obstinate. Her masters were ignorant +how to give to their instructions a form suited to the intelligence +of the pupil,--a thing, by the bye, which marks the difference between +public and private education. The fault was far less with Pierrette than +with her cousins. It took her an infinite length of time to learn the +rudiments. She was called stupid and dull, clumsy and awkward for mere +nothings. Incessantly abused in words, the child suffered still more +from the harsh looks of her cousins. She acquired the doltish ways of a +sheep; she dared not do anything of her own impulse, for all she did was +misinterpreted, misjudged, and ill-received. In all things she awaited +silently the good pleasure and the orders of her cousins, keeping her +thoughts within her own mind and sheltering herself behind a passive +obedience. Her brilliant colors began to fade. Sometimes she complained +of feeling ill. When her cousin asked, "Where?" the poor little thing, +who had pains all over her, answered, "Everywhere." + +"Nonsense! who ever heard of any one suffering everywhere?" cried +Sylvie. "If you suffered everywhere you'd be dead." + +"People suffer in their chests," said Rogron, who liked to hear himself +harangue, "or they have toothache, headache, pains in their feet +or stomach, but no one has pains everywhere. What do you mean by +everywhere? I can tell you; 'everywhere' means _nowhere_. Don't you know +what you are doing?--you are complaining for complaining's sake." + +Pierrette ended by total silence, seeing how all her girlish remarks, +the flowers of her dawning intelligence, were replied to with ignorant +commonplaces which her natural good sense told her were ridiculous. + +"You complain," said Rogron, "but you've got the appetite of a monk." + +The only person who did not bruise the delicate little flower was the +fat servant woman, Adele. Adele would go up and warm her bed,--doing +it on the sly after a certain evening when Sylvie had scolded her for +giving that comfort to the child. + +"Children should be hardened, to give them strong constitutions. Am I +and my brother the worse for it?" said Sylvie. "You'll make Pierrette a +_peakling_"; this was a word in the Rogron vocabulary which meant a puny +and suffering little being. + +The naturally endearing ways of the angelic child were treated as +dissimulation. The fresh, pure blossoms of affection which bloomed +instinctively in that young soul were pitilessly crushed. Pierrette +suffered many a cruel blow on the tender flesh of her heart. If she +tried to soften those ferocious natures by innocent, coaxing wiles they +accused her of doing it with an object. "Tell me at once what you want?" +Rogron would say, brutally; "you are not coaxing me for nothing." + +Neither brother nor sister believed in affection, and Pierrette's whole +being was affection. Colonel Gouraud, anxious to please Mademoiselle +Rogron, approved of all she did about Pierrette. Vinet also encouraged +them in what they said against her. He attributed all her so-called +misdeeds to the obstinacy of the Breton character, and declared that +no power, no will, could ever conquer it. Rogron and his sister were so +shrewdly flattered by the two manoeuvrers that the former agreed to go +security for the "Courrier de Provins," and the latter invested five +thousand francs in the enterprise. + +On this, the colonel and lawyer took the field. They got a hundred +shares, of five hundred francs each, taken among the farmers and others +called independents, and also among those who had bought lands of the +national domains,--whose fears they worked upon. They even extended +their operations throughout the department and along its borders. +Each shareholder of course subscribed to the paper. The judicial +advertisements were divided between the "Bee-hive" and the "Courrier." +The first issue of the latter contained a pompous eulogy on Rogron. He +was presented to the community as the Laffitte of Provins. The public +mind having thus received an impetus in this new direction, it was +manifest, of course, that the coming elections would be contested. +Madame Tiphaine, whose highest hope was to take her husband to Paris as +deputy, was in despair. After reading an article in the new paper aimed +at her and at Julliard junior, she remarked: "Unfortunately for me, I +forgot that there is always a scoundrel close to a dupe, and that fools +are magnets to clever men of the fox breed." + +As soon as the "Courrier" was fairly launched on a radius of fifty +miles, Vinet bought a new coat and decent boots, waistcoats, and +trousers. He set up the gray slouch hat sacred to liberals, and showed +his linen. His wife took a servant, and appeared in public dressed +as the wife of a prominent man should be; her caps were pretty. Vinet +proved grateful--out of policy. He and his friend Cournant, the liberal +notary and the rival of the ministerial notary Auffray, became the close +advisers of the Rogrons, to whom they were able to do a couple of signal +services. The leases granted by old Rogron to their father in 1815, +when matters were at a low ebb, were about to expire. Horticulture and +vegetable gardening had developed enormously in the neighborhood of +Provins. The lawyer and notary set to work to enable the Rogrons to +increase their rentals. Vinet won two lawsuits against two districts on +a question of planting trees, which involved five hundred poplars. The +proceeds of the poplars, added to the savings of the brother and sister, +who for the last three years had laid by six thousand a year at high +interest, was wisely invested in the purchase of improved lands. Vinet +also undertook and carried out the ejectment of certain peasants to whom +the elder Rogron had lent money on their farms, and who had strained +every nerve to pay off the debt, but in vain. The cost of the Rogrons' +fine house was thus in a measure recouped. Their landed property, lying +around Provins and chosen by their father with the sagacious eye of an +innkeeper, was divided into small holdings, the largest of which did +not exceed five acres, and rented to safe tenants, men who owned other +parcels of land, that were ample security for their leases. These +investments brought in, by 1826, five thousand francs a year. Taxes were +charged to the tenants, and there were no buildings needing insurance or +repairs. + +By the end of the second period of Pierrette's stay in Provins life had +become so hard for her, the cold indifference of all who came to the +house, the silly fault-finding, and the total absence of affection on +the part of her cousins grew so bitter, she was conscious of a chill +dampness like that of a grave creeping round her, that the bold idea of +escaping, on foot and without money, to Brittany and to her grandparents +took possession of her mind. Two events hindered her from attempting +it. Old Lorrain died, and Rogron was appointed guardian of his little +cousin. If the grandmother had died first, we may believe that Rogron, +advised by Vinet, would have claimed Pierrette's eight thousand francs +and reduced the old man to penury. + +"You may, perhaps, inherit from Pierrette," said Vinet, with a horrid +smile. "Who knows who may live and who may die?" + +Enlightened by that remark, Rogron gave old Madame Lorrain no peace +until she had secured to Pierrette the reversion of the eight thousand +francs at her death. + +Pierrette was deeply shocked by these events. She was on the point of +making her first communion,--another reason for resigning the hope of +escape from Provins. This ceremony, simple and customary as it was, led +to great changes in the Rogron household. Sylvie learned that Monsieur +le cure Peroux was instructing the little Julliards, Lesourds, +Garcelands, and the rest. She therefore made it a point of honor that +Pierrette should be instructed by the vicar himself, Monsieur Habert, a +priest who was thought to belong to the _Congregation_, very zealous for +the interests of the Church, and much feared in Provins,--a man who hid +a vast ambition beneath the austerity of stern principles. The sister of +this priest, an unmarried woman about thirty years of age, kept a school +for young ladies. Brother and sister looked alike; both were thin, +yellow, black-haired, and bilious. + +Like a true Breton girl, cradled in the practices and poetry of +Catholicism, Pierrette opened her heart and ears to the words of this +imposing priest. Sufferings predispose the mind to devotion, and nearly +all young girls, impelled by instinctive tenderness, are inclined to +mysticism, the deepest aspect of religion. The priest found good soil +in which to sow the seed of the Gospel and the dogmas of the Church. He +completely changed the current of the girl's thoughts. Pierrette loved +Jesus Christ in the light in which he is presented to young girls at the +time of their first communion, as a celestial bridegroom; her physical +and moral sufferings gained a meaning for her; she saw the finger of God +in all things. Her soul, so cruelly hurt although she could not accuse +her cousins of actual wrong, took refuge in that sphere to which all +sufferers fly on the wings of the cardinal virtues,--Faith, Hope, +Charity. She abandoned her thoughts of escape. Sylvie, surprised by the +transformation Monsieur Habert had effected in Pierrette, was curious +to know how it had been done. And it thus came about that the austere +priest, while preparing Pierrette for her first communion, also won +to God the hitherto erring soul of Mademoiselle Sylvie. Sylvie became +pious. Jerome Rogron, on whom the so-called Jesuit could get no grip +(for just then the influence of His Majesty the late _Constitutionnel_ +the First was more powerful over weaklings than the influence of the +Church), Jerome Rogron remained faithful to Colonel Gouraud, Vinet, and +Liberalism. + +Mademoiselle Rogron naturally made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle +Habert, with whom she sympathized deeply. The two spinsters loved each +other as sisters. Mademoiselle Habert offered to take Pierrette into her +school to spare Sylvie the annoyance of her education; but the brother +and sister both declared that Pierrette's absence would make the house +too lonely; their attachment to their little cousin seemed excessive. + +When Gouraud and Vinet became aware of the advent of Mademoiselle Habert +on the scene they concluded that the ambitious priest her brother had +the same matrimonial plan for his sister that the colonel was forming +for himself and Sylvie. + +"Your sister wants to get you married," said Vinet to Rogron. + +"With whom?" asked Rogron. + +"With that old sorceress of a schoolmistress," cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache. + +"She hasn't said anything to me about it," said Rogron, naively. + +So thorough an old maid as Sylvie was certain to make good progress in +the way of salvation. The influence of the priest would as certainly +increase, and in the end affect Rogron, over whom Sylvie had great +power. The two Liberals, who were naturally alarmed, saw plainly that +if the priest were resolved to marry his sister to Rogron (a far more +suitable marriage than that of Sylvie to the colonel) he could then +drive Sylvie in extreme devotion to the Church, and put Pierrette in a +convent. They might therefore lose eighteen months' labor in flattery +and meannesses of all sorts. Their minds were suddenly filled with a +bitter, silent hatred to the priest and his sister, though they felt +the necessity of living on good terms with them in order to track their +manoeuvres. Monsieur and Mademoiselle Habert, who could play both whist +and boston, now came every evening to the Rogrons. The assiduity of the +one pair induced the assiduity of the other. The colonel and lawyer felt +that they were pitted against adversaries who were fully as strong as +they,--a presentiment that was shared by the priest and his sister. The +situation soon became that of a battle-field. Precisely as the colonel +was enabling Sylvie to taste the unhoped-for joys of being sought in +marriage, so Mademoiselle Habert was enveloping the timid Rogron in the +cotton-wool of her attentions, words, and glances. Neither side could +utter that grand word of statesmanship, "Let us divide!" for each wanted +the whole prey. + +The two clever foxes of the Opposition made the mistake of pulling the +first trigger. Vinet, under the spur of self-interest, bethought himself +of his wife's only friends, and looked up Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf +and her mother. The two women were living in poverty at Troyes on two +thousand francs a year. Mademoiselle Bathilde de Chargeboeuf was one +of those fine creatures who believe in marriage for love up to their +twenty-fifth year, and change their opinion when they find themselves +still unmarried. Vinet managed to persuade Madame de Chargeboeuf to join +her means to his and live with his family in Provins, where Bathilde, +he assured her, could marry a fool named Rogron, and, clever as she was, +take her place in the best society of the place. + +The arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf in the lawyer's +household was a great reinforcement for the liberal party; and it +created consternation among the aristocrats of Provins and also in the +Tiphaine clique. Madame de Breautey, horrified to see two women of +rank so misled, begged them to come to her. She was shocked that the +royalists of Troyes had so neglected the mother and daughter, whose +situation she now learned for the first time. + +"How is it that no old country gentleman has married that dear girl, who +is cut out for a lady of the manor?" she said. "They have let her run to +seed, and now she is to be flung at the head of a Rogron!" + +She ransacked the whole department but did not succeed in finding any +gentleman willing to marry a girl whose mother had only two thousand +francs a year. The "clique" and the subprefect also looked about them +with the same object, but they were all too late. Madame de Breautey +made terrible charges against the selfishness which degraded +France,--the consequence, she said, of materialism, and of the +importance now given by the laws to money: nobility was no longer of +value! nor beauty either! Such creatures as the Rogrons, the Vinets, +could stand up and fight with the King of France! + +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf had not only the incontestable superiority of +beauty over her rival, but that of dress as well. She was dazzlingly +fair. At twenty-five her shoulders were fully developed, and the curves +of her beautiful figure were exquisite. The roundness of her throat, the +purity of its lines, the wealth of her golden hair, the charming grace +of her smile, the distinguished carriage of her head, the character of +her features, the fine eyes finely placed beneath a well-formed brow, +her every motion, noble and high-bred, and her light and graceful +figure,--all were in harmony. Her hands were beautiful, and her feet +slender. Health gave her, perhaps, too much the look of a handsome +barmaid. "But that can't be a defect in the eyes of a Rogron," sighed +Madame Tiphaine. Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf's dress when she made her +first appearance in Provins at the Rogrons' house was very simple. Her +brown merino gown edged with green embroidery was worn low-necked; but +a tulle fichu, carefully drawn down by hidden strings, covered her neck +and shoulders, though it opened a little in front, where its folds +were caught together with a _sevigne_. Beneath this delicate fabric +Bathilde's beauties seemed all the more enticing and coquettish. She +took off her velvet bonnet and her shawl on arriving, and showed her +pretty ears adorned with what were then called "ear-drops" in gold. +She wore a little _jeannette_--a black velvet ribbon with a heart +attached--round her throat, where it shone like the jet ring which +fantastic nature had fastened round the tail of a white angora cat. She +knew all the little tricks of a girl who seeks to marry; her fingers +arranged her curls which were not in the least out of order; she +entreated Rogron to fasten a cuff-button, thus showing him her wrist, +a request which that dazzled fool rudely refused, hiding his emotions +under the mask of indifference. The timidity of the only love he was +ever to feel in the whole course of his life took an external appearance +of dislike. Sylvie and her friend Celeste Habert were deceived by it; +not so Vinet, the wise head of this doltish circle, among whom no one +really coped with him but the priest,--the colonel being for a long time +his ally. + +On the other hand the colonel was behaving to Sylvie very much as +Bathilde behaved to Rogron. He put on a clean shirt every evening and +wore velvet stocks, which set off his martial features and the spotless +white of his collar. He adopted the fashion of white pique waistcoats, +and caused to be made for him a new surtout of blue cloth, on which his +red rosette glowed finely; all this under pretext of doing honor to the +new guests Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. He even refrained +from smoking for two hours previous to his appearance in the Rogrons' +salon. His grizzled hair was brushed in a waving line across a cranium +which was ochre in tone. He assumed the air and manner of a party +leader, of a man who was preparing to drive out the enemies of France, +the Bourbons, on short, to beat of drum. + +The satanic lawyer and the wily colonel played the priest and his sister +a more cruel trick than even the importation of the beautiful Madame de +Chargeboeuf, who was considered by all the Liberal party and by Madame +de Breautey and her aristocratic circle to be far handsomer than Madame +Tiphaine. These two great statesmen of the little provincial town made +everybody believe that the priest was in sympathy with their ideas; so +that before long Provins began to talk of him as a liberal ecclesiastic. +As soon as this news reached the bishop Monsieur Habert was sent for and +admonished to cease his visits to the Rogrons; but his sister continued +to go there. Thus the salon Rogron became a fixed fact and a constituted +power. + +Before the year was out political intrigues were not less lively than +the matrimonial schemes of the Rogron salon. While the selfish interests +hidden in these hearts were struggling in deadly combat the events +which resulted from them had a fatal celebrity. Everybody knows that +the Villele ministry was overthrown by the elections of 1826. Vinet, the +Liberal candidate at Provins, who had borrowed money of his notary +to buy a domain which made him eligible for election, came very near +defeating Monsieur Tiphaine, who saved his election by only two votes. +The headquarters of the Liberals was the Rogron salon; among the +_habitues_ were the notary Cournant and his wife, and Doctor Neraud, +whose youth was said to have been stormy, but who now took a serious +view of life; he gave himself up to study and was, according to +all Liberals, a far more capable man than Monsieur Martener, the +aristocratic physician. As for the Rogrons, they no more understood +their present triumph than they had formerly understood their ostracism. + +The beautiful Bathilde, to whom Vinet had explained Pierrette as +an enemy, was extremely disdainful to the girl. It seemed as though +everybody's selfish schemes demanded the humiliation of that poor +victim. Madame Vinet could do nothing for her, ground as she herself was +beneath those implacable self-interests which the lawyer's wife had come +at last to see and comprehend. Her husband's imperious will had alone +taken her to the Rogron's house, where she had suffered much at the +harsh treatment of the pretty little creature, who would often press +up against her as if divining her secret thoughts, sometimes asking +the poor lady to show her a stitch in knitting or to teach her a bit of +embroidery. The child proved in return that if she were treated gently +she would understand what was taught her, and succeed in what she tried +to do quite marvellously. But Madame Vinet was soon no longer necessary +to her husband's plans, and after the arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle +de Chargeboeuf she ceased to visit the Rogrons. + +Sylvie, who now indulged in the idea of marrying, began to consider +Pierrette as an obstacle. The girl was nearly fourteen; the pallid +whiteness of her skin, a symptom of illness entirely overlooked by the +ignorant old maid, made her exquisitely lovely. Sylvie took it into her +head to balance the cost which Pierrette had been to them by making a +servant of her. All the _habitues_ of the house to whom she spoke of the +matter advised that she should send away Adele. Why shouldn't Pierrette +take care of the house and cook? If there was too much work at any time +Mademoiselle Rogron could easily employ the colonel's woman-of-all-work, +an excellent cook and a most respectable person. Pierrette ought to +learn how to cook, and rub floors, and sweep, said the lawyer; every +girl should be taught to keep house properly and go to market and know +the price of things. The poor little soul, whose self-devotion was equal +to her generosity, offered herself willingly, pleased to think that she +could earn the bitter bread which she ate in that house. Adele was sent +away, and Pierrette thus lost the only person who might have protected +her. + +In spite of the poor child's strength of heart she was henceforth +crushed down physically as well as mentally. Her cousins had less +consideration for her than for a servant; she belonged to them! She was +scolded for mere nothings, for an atom of dust left on a glass globe or +a marble mantelpiece. The handsome ornaments she had once admired +now became odious to her. No matter how she strove to do right, her +inexorable cousins always found something to reprove in whatever she +did. In the course of two years Pierrette never received the slightest +praise, or heard a kindly word. Happiness for her lay in not being +scolded. She bore with angelic patience the morose ill-humor of the two +celibates, to whom all tender feelings were absolutely unknown, and who +daily made her feel her dependence on them. + +Such a life for a young girl, pressed as it were between the two chops +of a vise, increased her illness. She began to feel violent internal +distresses, secret pangs so sudden in their attacks that her strength +was undermined and her natural development arrested. By slow degrees and +through dreadful, though hidden sufferings, the poor child came to the +state in which the companion of her childhood found her when he sang to +her his Breton ditty at the dawn of the October day. + + + + +VI. AN OLD MAID'S JEALOUSY + + +Before we relate the domestic drama which the coming of Jacques Brigaut +was destined to bring about in the Rogron family it is best to explain +how the lad came to be in Provins; for he is, as it were, a somewhat +mute personage on the scene. + +When he ran from the house Brigaut was not only frightened by +Pierrette's gesture, he was horrified by the change he saw in his little +friend. He could scarcely recognize the voice, the eyes, the gestures +that were once so lively, gay, and withal so tender. When he had gained +some distance from the house his legs began to tremble under him; hot +flushes ran down his back. He had seen the shadow of Pierrette, but not +Pierrette herself! The lad climbed to the Upper town till he found a +spot from which he could see the square and the house where Pierrette +lived. He gazed at it mournfully, lost in many thoughts, as though he +were entering some grief of which he could not see the end. Pierrette +was ill; she was not happy; she pined for Brittany--what was the matter +with her? All these questions passed and repassed through his heart and +rent it, revealing to his own soul the extent of his love for his little +adopted sister. + +It is extremely rare to find a passion existing between two children of +opposite sexes. The charming story of Paul and Virginia does not, any +more than this of Pierrette and Brigaut, answer the question put by that +strange moral fact. Modern history offers only the illustrious instance +of the Marchesa di Pescara and her husband. Destined to marry by their +parents from their earliest years, they adored each other and were +married, and their union gave to the sixteenth century the noble +spectacle of a perfect conjugal love without a flaw. When the marchesa +became a widow at the age of thirty-four, beautiful, intellectually +brilliant, universally adored, she refused to marry sovereigns and +buried herself in a convent, seeing and knowing thenceforth only nuns. +Such was the perfect love that suddenly developed itself in the heart +of the Breton workman. Pierrette and he had often protected each other; +with what bliss had he given her the money for her journey; he had +almost killed himself by running after the diligence when she left him. +Pierrette had known nothing of all that; but for him the recollection +had warmed and comforted the cold, hard life he had led for the last +three years. For Pierrette's sake he had struggled to improve himself; +he had learned his trade for Pierrette; he had come to Paris for +Pierrette, intending to make his fortune for _her_. After spending a +fortnight in the city, he had not been able to hold out against the +desire to see her, and he had walked from Saturday night to Monday +morning. He intended to return to Paris; but the moving sight of his +little friend nailed him to Provins. A wonderful magnetism (still denied +in spite of many proofs) acted upon him without his knowledge. Tears +rolled from his eyes when they rose in hers. If to her he was Brittany +and her happy childhood, to him she was life itself. + +At sixteen years of age Brigaut did not yet know how to draw or to model +a cornice; he was ignorant of much, but he had earned, by piece-work +done in the leisure of his apprenticeship, some four or five francs a +day. On this he could live in Provins and be near Pierrette; he would +choose the best cabinet-maker in the town, and learn the rest of his +trade in working for him, and thus keep watch over his darling. + +Brigaut's mind was made up as he sat there thinking. He went back to +Paris and fetched his certificate, tools, and baggage, and three days +later he was a journeyman in the establishment of Monsieur Frappier, +the best cabinet-maker in Provins. Active, steady workmen, not given to +junketing and taverns, are so rare that masters hold to young men like +Brigaut when they find them. To end Brigaut's history on this point, we +will say here that by the end of the month he was made foreman, and was +fed and lodged by Frappier, who taught him arithmetic and line drawing. +The house and shop were in the Grand'Rue, not a hundred feet from the +little square where Pierrette lived. + +Brigaut buried his love in his heart and committed no imprudence. He +made Madame Frappier tell him all she knew about the Rogrons. Among +other things, she related to him the way in which their father had laid +hands on the property of old Auffray, Pierrette's grandfather. Brigaut +obtained other information as to the character of the brother and +sister. He met Pierrette sometimes in the market with her cousin, +and shuddered to see the heavy basket she was carrying on her arm. On +Sundays he went to church to look for her, dressed in her best +clothes. There, for the first time, he became aware that Pierrette was +Mademoiselle Lorrain. Pierrette saw him and made him a hasty sign to +keep out of sight. To him, there was a world of things in that little +gesture, as there had been, a fortnight earlier, in the sign by which +she told him from her window to run away. Ah! what a fortune he must +make in the coming ten years in order to marry his little friend, to +whom, he was told, the Rogrons were to leave their house, a hundred +acres of land, and twelve thousand francs a year, not counting their +savings! + +The persevering Breton was determined to be thoroughly educated for his +trade, and he set about acquiring all the knowledge that he lacked. As +long as only the principles of his work were concerned he could learn +those in Provins as well as in Paris, and thus remain near Pierrette, +to whom he now became anxious to explain his projects and the sort of +protection she could rely on from him. He was determined to know the +reason of her pallor, and of the debility which was beginning to appear +in the organ which is always the last to show the signs of failing life, +namely the eyes; he would know, too, the cause of the sufferings which +gave her that look as though death were near and she might drop at any +moment beneath its scythe. The two signs, the two gestures--not denying +their friendship but imploring caution--alarmed the young Breton. +Evidently Pierrette wished him to wait and not attempt to see her; +otherwise there was danger, there was peril for her. As she left the +church she was able to give him one look, and Brigaut saw that her eyes +were full of tears. But he could have sooner squared the circle +than have guessed what had happened in the Rogrons' house during the +fortnight which had elapsed since his arrival. + +It was not without keen apprehension that Pierrette came downstairs on +the morning after Brigaut had invaded her morning dreams like another +dream. She was certain that her cousin Sylvie must have heard the song, +or she would not have risen and opened her window; but Pierrette was +ignorant of the powerful reasons that made the old maid so alert. For +the last eight days, strange events and bitter feelings agitated the +minds of the chief personages who frequented the Rogron salon. These +hidden matters, carefully concealed by all concerned, were destined to +fall in their results like an avalanche on Pierrette. Such mysterious +things, which we ought perhaps to call the putrescence of the human +heart, lie at the base of the greatest revolutions, political, social or +domestic; but in telling of them it is desirable to explain that their +subtle significance cannot be given in a matter-of-fact narrative. These +secret schemes and calculations do not show themselves as brutally and +undisguisedly while taking place as they must when the history of them +is related. To set down in writing the circumlocutions, oratorical +precautions, protracted conversations, and honeyed words glossed over +the venom of intentions, would make as long a book as that magnificent +poem called "Clarissa Harlowe." + +Mademoiselle Habert and Mademoiselle Sylvie were equally desirous +of marrying, but one was ten years older than the other, and the +probabilities of life allowed Celeste Habert to expect that her children +would inherit all the Rogron property. Sylvie was forty-two, an age +at which marriage is beset by perils. In confiding to each other +their ideas, Celeste, instigated by her vindictive brother the priest, +enlightened Sylvie as to the dangers she would incur. Sylvie trembled; +she was terribly afraid of death, an idea which shakes all celibates +to their centre. But just at this time the Martignac ministry came into +power,--a Liberal victory which overthrew the Villele administration. +The Vinet party now carried their heads high in Provins. Vinet himself +became a personage. The Liberals prophesied his advancement; he would +certainly be deputy and attorney-general. As for the colonel, he would +be made mayor of Provins. Ah, to reign as Madame Garceland, the wife of +the present mayor, now reigned! Sylvie could not hold out against that +hope; she determined to consult a doctor, though the proceeding would +only cover her with ridicule. To consult Monsieur Neraud, the Liberal +physician and the rival of Monsieur Martener, would be a blunder. +Celeste Habert offered to hide Sylvie in her dressing-room while she +herself consulted Monsieur Martener, the physician of her establishment, +on this difficult matter. Whether Martener was, or was not, Celeste's +accomplice need not be discovered; at any rate, he told his client that +even at thirty the danger, though slight, did exist. "But," he added, +"with your constitution, you need fear nothing." + +"But how about a woman over forty?" asked Mademoiselle Celeste. + +"A married woman who has had children has nothing to fear." + +"But I mean an unmarried woman, like Mademoiselle Rogron, for instance?" + +"Oh, that's another thing," said Monsieur Martener. "Successful +childbirth is then one of those miracles which God sometimes allows +himself, but rarely." + +"Why?" asked Celeste. + +The doctor answered with a terrifying pathological description; he +explained that the elasticity given by nature to youthful muscles and +bones did not exist at a later age, especially in women whose lives were +sedentary. + +"So you think that an unmarried woman ought not to marry after forty?" + +"Not unless she waits some years," replied the doctor. "But then, of +course, it is not marriage, it is only an association of interests." + +The result of the interview, clearly, seriously, scientifically and +sensibly stated, was that an unmarried woman would make a great mistake +in marrying after forty. When the doctor had departed Mademoiselle +Celeste found Sylvie in a frightful state, green and yellow, and with +the pupils of her eyes dilated. + +"Then you really love the colonel?" asked Celeste. + +"I still hoped," replied Sylvie. + +"Well, then, wait!" cried Mademoiselle Habert, Jesuitically, aware that +time would rid her of the colonel. + +Sylvie's new devotion to the church warned her that the morality of such +a marriage might be doubtful. She accordingly sounded her conscience in +the confessional. The stern priest explained the opinions of the Church, +which sees in marriage only the propagation of humanity, and rebukes +second marriages and all passions but those with a social purpose. +Sylvie's perplexities were great. These internal struggles gave +extraordinary force to her passion, investing it with that inexplicable +attraction which, from the days of Eve, the thing forbidden possesses +for women. Mademoiselle Rogron's perturbation did not escape the +lynx-eyed lawyer. + +One evening, after the game had ended, Vinet approached his dear friend +Sylvie, took her hand, and led her to a sofa. + +"Something troubles you," he said. + +She nodded sadly. The lawyer let the others depart; Rogron walked home +with the Chargeboeufs, and when Vinet was alone with the old maid he +wormed the truth out of her. + +"Cleverly played, abbe!" thought he. "But you've played into my hands." + +The foxy lawyer was more decided in his opinion than even the doctor. +He advised marriage in ten years. Inwardly he was vowing that the whole +Rogron fortune should go to Bathilde. He rubbed his hands, his pinched +lips closed more tightly as he hurried home. The influence exercised +by Monsieur Habert, physician of the soul, and by Vinet, doctor of the +purse, balanced each other perfectly. Rogron had no piety in him; so the +churchman and the man of law, the black-robed pair, were fairly matched. + +On discovering the victory obtained by Celeste, in her anxiety to marry +Rogron herself, over Sylvie, torn between the fear of death and the joy +of being baronness and mayoress, the lawyer saw his chance of driving +the colonel from the battlefield. He knew Rogron well enough to be +certain he could marry him to Bathilde; Jerome had already succumbed +inwardly to her charms, and Vinet knew that the first time the pair were +alone together the marriage would be settled. Rogron had reached the +point of keeping his eyes fixed on Celeste, so much did he fear to look +at Bathilde. Vinet had now possessed himself of Sylvie's secrets, and +saw the force with which she loved the colonel. He fully understood the +struggle of such a passion in the heart of an old maid who was also in +the grasp of religious emotion, and he saw his way to rid himself of +Pierrette and the colonel both by making each the cause of the other's +overthrow. + +The next day, after the court had risen, Vinet met the colonel and +Rogron talking a walk together, according to their daily custom. + +Whenever the three men were seen in company the whole town talked of it. +This triumvirate, held in horror by the sub-prefect, the magistracy, +and the Tiphaine clique, was, on the other hand, a source of pride +and vanity to the Liberals of Provins. Vinet was sole editor of the +"Courrier" and the head of the party; the colonel, the working manager, +was its arm; Rogron, by means of his purse, its nerves. The Tiphaines +declared that the three men were always plotting evil to the government; +the Liberals admired them as the defenders of the people. When Rogron +turned to go home, recalled by a sense of his dinner-hour, Vinet stopped +the colonel from following him by taking Gouraud's arm. + +"Well, colonel," he said, "I am going to take a fearful load off your +shoulders; you can do better than marry Sylvie; if you play your cards +properly you can marry that little Pierrette in two years' time." + +He thereupon related the Jesuit's manoeuvre and its effect on Sylvie. + +"What a skulking trick!" cried the colonel; "and spreading over years, +too!" + +"Colonel," said Vinet, gravely, "Pierrette is a charming creature; with +her you can be happy for the rest of your life; your health is so sound +that the difference in your ages won't seem disproportionate. But, all +the same, you mustn't think it an easy thing to change a dreadful fate +to a pleasant one. To turn a woman who loves you into a friend and +confidant is as perilous a business as crossing a river under fire of +the enemy. Cavalry colonel as you are, and daring too, you must study +the position and manoeuvre your forces with the same wisdom you have +displayed hitherto, and which has won us our present position. If I get +to be attorney-general you shall command the department. Oh! if you had +been an elector we should be further advanced than we are now; I should +have bought the votes of those two clerks by threatening them with the +loss of their places, and we should have had a majority." + +The colonel had long been thinking about Pierrette, but he concealed his +thoughts with the utmost dissimulation. His roughness to the child was +only a mask; but she could not understand why the man who claimed to +be her father's old comrade should usually treat her so ill, when +sometimes, if he met her alone, he would chuck her under the chin and +give her a friendly kiss. But after the conversation with Vinet relating +to Sylvie's fears of marriage Gouraud began to seek opportunities to +find Pierrette alone; the rough colonel made himself as soft as a cat; +he told her how brave her father was and what a misfortune it had been +for her that she lost him. + +A few days before Brigaut's arrival Sylvie had come suddenly upon +Gouraud and Pierrette talking together. Instantly, jealousy rushed into +her heart with monastic violence. Jealousy, eminently credulous and +suspicious, is the passion in which fancy has most freedom, but for all +that it does not give a person intelligence; on the contrary, it hinders +them from having any; and in Sylvie's case jealousy only filled her with +fantastic ideas. When (a few mornings later) she heard Brigaut's ditty, +she jumped to the conclusion that the man who had used the words "Madam' +le mariee," addressing them to Pierrette, must be the colonel. She was +certain she was right, for she had noticed for a week past a change in +his manners. He was the only man who, in her solitary life, had ever +paid her any attention. Consequently she watched him with all her eyes, +all her mind; and by giving herself up to hopes that were sometimes +flourishing, sometimes blighted, she had brought the matter to such +enormous proportions that she saw all things in a mental mirage. To use +a common but excellent expression, by dint of looking intently she +saw nothing. Alternately she repelled, admitted, and conquered the +supposition of this rivalry. She compared herself with Pierrette; she +was forty-two years old, with gray hair; Pierrette was delicately fair, +with eyes soft enough to warm a withered heart. She had heard it said +that men of fifty were apt to love young girls of just that kind. Before +the colonel had come regularly to the house Sylvie had heard in the +Tiphaines' salon strange stories of his life and morals. Old maids +preserve in their love-affairs the exaggerated Platonic sentiments which +young girls of twenty are wont to profess; they hold to these fixed +doctrines like all who have little experience of life and no personal +knowledge of how great social forces modify, impair, and bring to nought +such grand and noble ideas. The mere thought of being jilted by the +colonel was torture to Sylvie's brain. She lay in her bed going over +and over her own desires, Pierrette's conduct, and the song which had +awakened her with the word "marriage." Like the fool she was, instead +of looking through the blinds to see the lover, she opened her window +without reflecting that Pierrette would hear her. If she had had the +common instinct of a spy she would have seen Brigaut, and the fatal +drama then begun would never have taken place. + +It was Pierrette's duty, weak as she was, to take down the bars that +closed the wooden shutters of the kitchen, which she opened and fastened +back; then she opened in like manner the glass door leading from the +corridor to the garden. She took the various brooms that were used for +sweeping the carpets, the dining-room, the passages and stairs, together +with the other utensils, with a care and particularity which no servant, +not even a Dutchwoman, gives to her work. She hated reproof. Happiness +for her was in seeing the cold blue pallid eyes of her cousin, not +satisfied (that they never were), but calm, after glancing about her +with the look of an owner,--that wonderful glance which sees what +escapes even the most vigilant eyes of others. Pierrette's skin was +moist with her labor when she returned to the kitchen to put it in +order, and light the stove that she might carry up hot water to her two +cousins (a luxury she never had for herself) and the means of lighting +fires in their rooms. After this she laid the table for breakfast and +lit the stove in the dining-room. For all these various fires she had +to fetch wood and kindling from the cellar, leaving the warm rooms for +a damp and chilly atmosphere. Such sudden transitions, made with the +quickness of youth, often to escape a harsh word or obey an order, +aggravated the condition of her health. She did not know she was ill, +and yet she suffered. She began to have strange cravings; she liked raw +vegetables and salads, and ate them secretly. The innocent child was +quite unaware that her condition was that of serious illness which +needed the utmost care. If Neraud, the Rogrons' doctor, had told this to +Pierrette before Brigaut's arrival she would only have smiled; life was +so bitter she could smile at death. But now her feelings changed; the +child, to whose physical sufferings was added the anguish of Breton +homesickness (a moral malady so well-known that colonels in the army +allow for it among their men), was suddenly content to be in Provins. +The sight of that yellow flower, the song, the presence of her +friend, revived her as a plant long without water revives under rain. +Unconsciously she wanted to live, and even thought she did not suffer. + +Pierrette slipped timidly into her cousin's bedroom, made the fire, left +the hot water, said a few words, and went to wake Rogron and do the same +offices for him. Then she went down to take in the milk, the bread, and +the other provisions left by the dealers. She stood some time on the +sill of the door hoping that Brigaut would have the sense to come to +her; but by that time he was already on his way to Paris. + +She had finished the arrangement of the dining-room and was busy in +the kitchen when she heard her cousin Sylvie coming down. Mademoiselle +Rogron appeared in a brown silk dressing-gown and a cap with bows; her +false front was awry, her night-gown showed above the silk wrapper, her +slippers were down at heel. She gave an eye to everything and then +came straight to Pierrette, who was awaiting her orders to know what to +prepare for breakfast. + +"Ha! here you are, lovesick young lady!" said Sylvie, in a mocking tone. + +"What is it, cousin?" + +"You came into my room like a sly cat, and you crept out the same way, +though you knew very well I had something to say to you." + +"To me?" + +"You had a serenade this morning, as if you were a princess." + +"A serenade!" exclaimed Pierrette. + +"A serenade!" said Sylvie, mimicking her; "and you've a lover, too." + +"What is a lover, cousin?" + +Sylvie avoided answering, and said:-- + +"Do you dare to tell me, mademoiselle, that a man did not come under +your window and talk to you of marriage?" + +Persecution had taught Pierrette the wariness of slaves; so she answered +bravely:-- + +"I don't know what you mean,--" + +"Who means?--your dog?" said Sylvie, sharply. + +"I should have said 'cousin,'" replied the girl, humbly. + +"And didn't you get up and go in your bare feet to the window?--which +will give you an illness; and serve you right, too. And perhaps you +didn't talk to your lover, either?" + +"No, cousin." + +"I know you have many faults, but I did not think you told lies. You +had better think this over, mademoiselle; you will have to explain this +affair to your cousin and to me, or your cousin will be obliged to take +severe measures." + +The old maid, exasperated by jealousy and curiosity, meant to frighten +the girl. Pierrette, like all those who suffer more than they have +strength to bear, kept silence. Silence is the only weapon by which such +victims can conquer; it baffles the Cossack charges of envy, the savage +skirmishings of suspicion; it does at times give victory, crushing and +complete,--for what is more complete than silence? it is absolute; it +is one of the attributes of infinity. Sylvie watched Pierrette narrowly. +The girl colored; but the color, instead of rising evenly, came out in +patches on her cheekbones, in burning and significant spots. A mother, +seeing that symptom of illness, would have changed her tone at once; she +would have taken the child on her lap and questioned her; in fact, she +would long ago have tenderly understood the signs of Pierrette's pure +and perfect innocence; she would have seen her weakness and known that +the disturbance of the digestive organs and the other functions of the +body was about to affect the lungs. Those eloquent patches would have +warned her of an imminent danger. But an old maid, one in whom the +family instincts have never been awakened, to whom the needs of +childhood and the precautions required for adolescence were unknown, had +neither the indulgence nor the compassionate intelligence of a mother; +such sufferings as those of Pierrette, instead of softening her heart +only made it more callous. + +"She blushes, she is guilty!" thought Sylvie. + +Pierrette's silence was thus interpreted to her injury. + +"Pierrette," continued Sylvie, "before your cousin comes down we must +have some talk together. Come," she said, in a rather softer tone, +"shut the street door; if any one comes they will rung and we shall hear +them." + +In spite of the damp mist which was rising from the river, Sylvie took +Pierrette along the winding gravel path which led across the lawn to the +edge of the rock terrace,--a picturesque little quay, covered with iris +and aquatic plants. She now changed her tactics, thinking she might +catch Pierrette tripping by softness; the hyena became a cat. + +"Pierrette," she said, "you are no longer a child; you are nearly +fifteen, and it is not at all surprising that you should have a lover." + +"But, cousin," said Pierrette, raising her eyes with angelic sweetness +to the cold, sour face of her cousin, "What is a lover?" + +It would have been impossible for Sylvie to define a lover with truth +and decency to the girl's mind. Instead of seeing in that question the +proof of adorable innocence, she considered it a piece of insincerity. + +"A lover, Pierrette, is a man who loves us and wishes to marry us." + +"Ah," said Pierrette, "when that happens in Brittany we call the young +man a suitor." + +"Well, remember that in owning your feelings for a man you do no wrong, +my dear. The wrong is in hiding them. Have you pleased some of the men +who visit here?" + +"I don't think so, cousin." + +"Do you love any of them?" + +"No." + +"Certain?" + +"Quite certain." + +"Look at me, Pierrette." + +Pierrette looked at Sylvie. + +"A man called to you this morning in the square." + +Pierrette lowered her eyes. + +"You went to your window, you opened it, and you spoke to him." + +"No cousin, I went to look out and I saw a peasant." + +"Pierrette, you have much improved since you made your first communion; +you have become pious and obedient, you love God and your relations; I +am satisfied with you. I don't say this to puff you up with pride." + +The horrible creature had mistaken despondency, submission, the silence +of wretchedness, for virtues! + +The sweetest of all consolations to suffering souls, to martyrs, to +artists, in the worst of that divine agony which hatred and envy force +upon them, is to meet with praise where they have hitherto found censure +and injustice. Pierrette raised her grateful eyes to her cousin, feeling +that she could almost forgive her for the sufferings she had caused. + +"But if it is all hypocrisy, if I find you a serpent that I have warmed +in my bosom, you will be a wicked girl, an infamous creature!" + +"I think I have nothing to reproach myself with," said Pierrette, with +a painful revulsion of her heart at the sudden change from unexpected +praise to the tones of the hyena. + +"You know that to lie is a mortal sin?" + +"Yes, cousin." + +"Well, you are now under the eye of God," said the old maid, with a +solemn gesture towards the sky; "swear to me that you did not know that +peasant." + +"I will not swear," said Pierrette. + +"Ha! he was no peasant, you little viper." + +Pierrette rushed away like a frightened fawn terrified at her tone. +Sylvie called her in a dreadful voice. + +"The bell is ringing," she answered. + +"Artful wretch!" thought Sylvie. "She is depraved in mind; and now I am +certain the little adder has wound herself round the colonel. She has +heard us say he was a baron. To be a baroness! little fool! Ah! I'll get +rid of her, I'll apprentice her out, and soon too!" + +Sylvie was so lost in thought that she did not notice her brother +coming down the path and bemoaning the injury the frost had done to his +dahlias. + +"Sylvie! what are you thinking about? I thought you were looking at the +fish; sometimes they jump out of the water." + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"How did you sleep?" and he began to tell her about his own dreams. +"Don't you think my skin is getting _tabid_?"--a word in the Rogron +vocabulary. + +Ever since Rogron had been in love,--but let us not profane the +word,--ever since he had desired to marry Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, +he was very uneasy about himself and his health. At this moment +Pierrette came down the garden steps and called to them from a distance +that breakfast was ready. At sight of her cousin, Sylvie's skin turned +green and yellow, her bile was in commotion. She looked at the floor of +the corridor and declared that Pierrette ought to rub it. + +"I will rub it now if you wish," said the little angel, not aware of the +injury such work may do to a young girl. + +The dining-room was irreproachably in order. Sylvie sat down and +pretended all through breakfast to want this, that, and the other thing +which she would never have thought of in a quieter moment, and which she +now asked for only to make Pierrette rise again and again just as the +child was beginning to eat her food. But such mere teasing was not +enough; she wanted a subject on which to find fault, and was angry with +herself for not finding one. She scarcely answered her brother's +silly remarks, yet she looked at him only; her eyes avoided Pierrette. +Pierrette was deeply conscious of all this. She brought the milk mixed +with cream for each cousin in a large silver goblet, after heating it +carefully in the _bain-marie_. The brother and sister poured in the +coffee made by Sylvie herself on the table. When Sylvie had carefully +prepared hers, she saw an atom of coffee-grounds floating on the +surface. On this the storm broke forth. + +"What is the matter?" asked Rogron. + +"The matter is that mademoiselle has put dust in my milk. Do you suppose +I am going to drink coffee with ashes in it? Well, I am not surprised; +no one can do two things at once. She wasn't thinking of the milk! a +blackbird might have flown through the kitchen to-day and she wouldn't +have seen it! how should she see the dust flying! and then it was my +coffee, ha! that didn't signify!" + +As she spoke she was laying on the side of her plate the coffee-grounds +that had run through the filter. + +"But, cousin, that is coffee," said Pierrette. + +"Oh! then it is I who tell lies, is it?" cried Sylvie, looking at +Pierrette and blasting her with a fearful flash of anger from her eyes. + +Organizations which have not been exhausted by powerful emotions often +have a vast amount of the vital fluid at their service. This phenomenon +of the extreme clearness of the eye in moments of anger was the more +marked in Mademoiselle Rogron because she had often exercised the power +of her eyes in her shop by opening them to their full extent for the +purpose of inspiring her dependents with salutary fear. + +"You had better dare to give me the lie!" continued Sylvie; "you deserve +to be sent from the table to go and eat by yourself in the kitchen." + +"What's the matter with you two?" cried Rogron, "you are as cross as +bears this morning." + +"Mademoiselle knows what I have against her," said Sylvie. "I leave her +to make up her mind before speaking to you; for I mean to show her more +kindness than she deserves." + +Pierrette was looking out of the window to avoid her cousin's eyes, +which frightened her. + +"Look at her! she pays no more attention to what I am saying than if +I were that sugar-basin! And yet mademoiselle has a sharp ear; she can +hear and answer from the top of the house when some one talks to her +from below. She is perversity itself,--perversity, I say; and you +needn't expect any good of her; do you hear me, Jerome?" + +"What has she done wrong?" asked Rogron. + +"At her age, too! to begin so young!" screamed the angry old maid. + +Pierrette rose to clear the table and give herself something to do, for +she could hardly bear the scene any longer. Though such language was not +new to her, she had never been able to get used to it. Her cousin's rage +seemed to accuse her of some crime. She imagined what her fury would +be if she came to know about Brigaut. Perhaps her cousin would have him +sent away, and she should lose him! All the many thoughts, the deep and +rapid thoughts of a slave came to her, and she resolved to keep absolute +silence about a circumstance in which her conscience told her there was +nothing wrong. But the cruel, bitter words she had been made to hear and +the wounding suspicion so shocked her that as she reached the kitchen +she was taken with a convulsion of the stomach and turned deadly sick. +She dared not complain; she was not sure that any one would help her. +When she returned to the dining-room she was white as a sheet, and, +saying she was not well, she started to go to bed, dragging herself up +step by step by the baluster and thinking that she was going to die. +"Poor Brigaut!" she thought. + +"The girl is ill," said Rogron. + +"She ill! That's only _shamming_," replied Sylvie, in a loud voice that +Pierrette might hear. "She was well enough this morning, I can tell +you." + +This last blow struck Pierrette to the earth; she went to bed weeping +and praying to God to take her out of this world. + + + + +VII. DOMESTIC TYRANNY + + +For a month past Rogron had ceased to carry the "Constitutionnel" to +Gouraud; the colonel came obsequiously to fetch his paper, gossip a +little, and take Rogron off to walk if the weather was fine. Sure +of seeing the colonel and being able to question him, Sylvie dressed +herself as coquettishly as she knew how. The old maid thought she was +attractive in a green gown, a yellow shawl with a red border, and a +white bonnet with straggling gray feathers. About the hour when the +colonel usually came Sylvie stationed herself in the salon with +her brother, whom she had compelled to stay in the house in his +dressing-gown and slippers. + +"It is a fine day, colonel," said Rogron, when Gouraud with his heavy +step entered the room. "But I'm not dressed; my sister wanted to go out, +and I was going to keep the house. Wait for me; I'll be ready soon." + +So saying, Rogron left Sylvie alone with the colonel. + +"Where were you going? you are dressed divinely," said Gouraud, who +noticed a certain solemnity on the pock-marked face of the old maid. + +"I wanted very much to go out, but my little cousin is ill, and I cannot +leave her." + +"What is the matter with her?" + +"I don't know; she had to go to bed." + +Gouraud's caution, not to say his distrust, was constantly excited by +the results of his alliance with Vinet. It certainly appeared that the +lawyer had got the lion's share in their enterprise. Vinet controlled +the paper, he reigned as sole master over it, he took the revenues; +whereas the colonel, the responsible editor, earned little. Vinet and +Cournant had done the Rogrons great services; whereas Gouraud, a colonel +on half-pay, could do nothing. Who was to be deputy? Vinet. Who was the +chief authority in the party? Vinet. Whom did the liberals all consult? +Vinet. Moreover, the colonel knew fully as well as Vinet himself the +extent and depth of the passion suddenly aroused in Rogron by the +beautiful Bathilde de Chargeboeuf. This passion had now become intense, +like all the last passions of men. Bathilde's voice made him tremble. +Absorbed in his desires Rogron hid them; he dared not hope for such +a marriage. To sound him, the colonel mentioned that he was thinking +himself of asking for Bathilde's hand. Rogron turned pale at the thought +of such a formidable rival, and had since then shown coldness and even +hatred to Gouraud. + +Thus Vinet reigned supreme in the Rogron household while he, the +colonel, had no hold there except by the extremely hypothetical tie of +his mendacious affection for Sylvie, which it was not yet clear that +Sylvie reciprocated. When the lawyer told him of the priest's manoeuvre, +and advised him to break with Sylvie and marry Pierrette, he certainly +flattered Gouraud's foible; but after analyzing the inner purpose of +that advice and examining the ground all about him, the colonel thought +he perceived in his ally the intention of separating him from Sylvie, +and profiting by her fears to throw the whole Rogron property into the +hands of Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. + +Therefore, when the colonel was left alone with Sylvie his perspicacity +possessed itself immediately of certain signs which betrayed her +uneasiness. He saw at once that she was under arms and had made this +plan for seeing him alone. As he already suspected Vinet of playing +him some trick, he attributed the conference to the instigation of the +lawyer, and was instantly on his guard, as he would have been in an +enemy's country,--with an eye all about him, an ear to the faintest +sound, his mind on the qui vive, and his hand on a weapon. The colonel +had the defect of never believing a single word said to him by a woman; +so that when the old maid brought Pierrette on the scene, and told him +she had gone to bed before midday, he concluded that Sylvie had locked +her up by way of punishment and out of jealousy. + +"She is getting to be quite pretty, that little thing," he said with an +easy air. + +"She will be pretty," replied Mademoiselle Rogron. + +"You ought to send her to Paris and put her in a shop," continued the +colonel. "She would make her fortune. The milliners all want pretty +girls." + +"Is that really your advice?" asked Sylvie, in a troubled voice. + +"Good!" thought the colonel, "I was right. Vinet advised me to marry +Pierrette just to spoil my chance with the old harridan. But," he said +aloud, "what else can you do with her? There's that beautiful +girl Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, noble and well-connected, reduced to +single-blessedness,--nobody will have her. Pierrette has nothing, and +she'll never marry. As for beauty, what is it? To me, for example, youth +and beauty are nothing; for haven't I been a captain of cavalry in the +imperial guard, and carried my spurs into all the capitals of Europe, +and known all the handsomest women of these capitals? Don't talk to +me; I tell you youth and beauty are devilishly common and silly. At +forty-eight," he went on, adding a few years to his age, to match +Sylvie's, "after surviving the retreat from Moscow and going through +that terrible campaign of France, a man is broken down; I'm nothing but +an old fellow now. A woman like you would pet me and care for me, and +her money, joined to my poor pension, would give me ease in my old days; +of course I should prefer such a woman to a little minx who would worry +the life out of me, and be thirty years old, with passions, when +I should be sixty, with rheumatism. At my age, a man considers and +calculates. To tell you the truth between ourselves, I should not wish +to have children." + +Sylvie's face was an open book to the colonel during this tirade, and +her next question proved to him Vinet's perfidy. + +"Then you don't love Pierrette?" she said. + +"Heavens! are you out of your mind, my dear Sylvie?" he cried. "Can +those who have no teeth crack nuts? Thank God I've got some common-sense +and know what I'm about." + +Sylvie thus reassured resolved not to show her own hand, and thought +herself very shrewd in putting her own ideas into her brother's mouth. + +"Jerome," she said, "thought of the match." + +"How could your brother take up such an incongruous idea? Why, it is +only a few days ago that, in order to find out his secrets, I told him I +loved Bathilde. He turned as white as your collar." + +"My brother! does he love Bathilde?" asked Sylvie. + +"Madly,--and yet Bathilde is only after his money." ("One for you, +Vinet!" thought the colonel.) "I can't understand why he should have +told you that about Pierrette. No, Sylvie," he said, taking her hand and +pressing it in a certain way, "since you have opened this matter" (he +drew nearer to her), "well" (he kissed her hand; as a cavalry captain he +had already proved his courage), "let me tell you that I desire no wife +but you. Though such a marriage may look like one of convenience, I +feel, on my side, a sincere affection for you." + +"But if I _wish_ you to marry Pierrette? if I leave her my fortune--eh, +colonel?" + +"But I don't want to be miserable in my home, and in less than ten +years see a popinjay like Julliard hovering round my wife and addressing +verses to her in the newspapers. I'm too much of a man to stand that. +No, I will never make a marriage that is disproportionate in age." + +"Well, colonel, we will talk seriously of this another time," said +Sylvie, casting a glance upon him which she supposed to be full of love, +though, in point of fact, it was a good deal like that of an ogress. Her +cold, blue lips of a violet tinge drew back from the yellow teeth, and +she thought she smiled. + +"I'm ready," said Rogron, coming in and carrying off the colonel, who +bowed in a lover-like way to the old maid. + +Gouraud determined to press on his marriage with Sylvie, and make +himself master of the house; resolving to rid himself, through his +influence over Sylvie during the honeymoon, of Bathilde and Celeste +Habert. So, during their walk, he told Rogron he had been joking the +other day; that he had no real intention of aspiring to Bathilde; that +he was not rich enough to marry a woman without fortune; and then he +confided to him his real wishes, declaring that he had long chosen +Sylvie for her good qualities,--in short, he aspired to the honor of +being Rogron's brother-in-law. + +"Ah, colonel, my dear baron! if nothing is wanting but my consent you +have it with no further delay than the law requires," cried Rogron, +delighted to be rid of his formidable rival. + +Sylvie spent the morning in her own room considering how the new +household could be arranged. She determined to build a second storey for +her brother and to furnish the rest for herself and her husband; but she +also resolved, in the true old-maidish spirit, to subject the colonel to +certain proofs by which to judge of his heart and his morals before she +finally committed herself. She was still suspicious, and wanted to make +sure that Pierrette had no private intercourse with the colonel. + +Pierrette came down before the dinner-hour to lay the table. Sylvie had +been forced to cook the dinner, and had sworn at that "cursed Pierrette" +for a spot she had made on her gown,--wasn't it plain that if Pierrette +had done her own work Sylvie wouldn't have got that grease-spot on her +silk dress? + +"Oh, here you are, _peakling_? You are like the dog of the marshal who +woke up as soon as the saucepans rattled. Ha! you want us to think you +are ill, you little liar!" + +That idea: "You did not tell the truth about what happened in the square +this morning, therefore you lie in everything," was a hammer with +which Sylvie battered the head and also the heart of the poor girl +incessantly. + +To Pierrette's great astonishment Sylvie sent her to dress in her best +clothes after dinner. The liveliest imagination is never up to the level +of the activity which suspicion excites in the mind of an old maid. In +this particular case, this particular old maid carried the day against +politicians, lawyers, notaries, and all other self-interests. Sylvie +determined to consult Vinet, after examining herself into all the +suspicious circumstances. She kept Pierrette close to her, so as to find +out from the girl's face whether the colonel had told her the truth. + +On this particular evening the Chargeboeuf ladies were the first to +arrive. Bathilde, by Vinet's advice, had become more elaborate in her +dress. She now wore a charming gown of blue velveteen, with the same +transparent fichu, garnet pendants in her ears, her hair in ringlets, +the wily _jeannette_ round her throat, black satin slippers, gray silk +stockings, and _gants de Suede_; add to these things the manners of a +queen and the coquetry of a young girl determined to capture Rogron. +Her mother, calm and dignified, retained, as did her daughter, a certain +aristocratic insolence, with which the two women hedged themselves +and preserved the spirit of their caste. Bathilde was a woman of +intelligence, a fact which Vinet alone had discovered during the +two months' stay the ladies had made at his house. When he had fully +fathomed the mind of the girl, wounded and disappointed as it was by +the fruitlessness of her beauty and her youth, and enlightened by the +contempt she felt for the men of a period in which money was the only +idol, Vinet, himself surprised, exclaimed,-- + +"If I could only have married you, Bathilde, I should to-day be Keeper +of the Seals. I should call myself Vinet de Chargeboeuf, and take my +seat as deputy of the Right." + +Bathilde had no vulgar idea in her marriage intentions. She did not +marry to be a mother, nor to possess a husband; she married for freedom, +to gain a responsible position, to be called "madame," and to act as +men act. Rogron was nothing but a name to her; she expected to make +something of the fool,--a voting deputy, for instance, whose instigator +she would be; moreover, she longed to avenge herself on her family, who +had taken no notice of a girl without money. Vinet had much enlarged and +strengthened her ideas by admiring and approving them. + +"My dear Bathilde," he said, while explaining to her the influence of +women, and showing her the sphere of action in which she ought to work, +"do you suppose that Tiphaine, a man of the most ordinary capacity, +could ever get to be a judge of the Royal court in Paris by himself? No, +it is Madame Tiphaine who has got him elected deputy, and it is she who +will push him when they get to Paris. Her mother, Madame Roguin, is a +shrewd woman, who does what she likes with the famous banker du Tillet, +a crony of Nucingen, and both of them allies of the Kellers. The +administration is on the best of terms with those lynxes of the bank. +There is no reason why Tiphaine should not be judge, through his wife, +of a Royal court. Marry Rogron; we'll have him elected deputy from +Provins as soon as I gain another precinct in the Seine-et-Marne. You +can then get him a place as receiver-general, where he'll have nothing +to do but sign his name. We shall belong to the opposition _if_ the +Liberals triumph, but if the Bourbons remain--ah! then we shall lean +gently, gently towards the centre. Besides, you must remember Rogron +can't live forever, and then you can marry a titled man. In short, put +yourself in a good position, and the Chargeboeufs will be ready enough +to serve us. Your poverty has no doubt taught you, as mine did me, +to know what men are worth. We must make use of them as we do of +post-horses. A man, or a woman, will take us along to such or such a +distance." + +Vinet ended by making Bathilde a small edition of Catherine de Medicis. +He left his wife at home, rejoiced to be alone with her two children, +while he went every night to the Rogrons' with Madame and Mademoiselle +de Chargeboeuf. He arrived there in all the glory of better +circumstances. His spectacles were of gold, his waistcoat silk; a white +cravat, black trousers, thin boots, a black coat made in Paris, and a +gold watch and chain, made up his apparel. In place of the former Vinet, +pale and thin, snarling and gloomy, the present Vinet bore himself with +the air and manner of a man of importance; he marched boldly forward, +certain of success, with that peculiar show of security which belongs to +lawyers who know the hidden places of the law. His sly little head was +well-brushed, his chin well-shaved, which gave him a mincing though +frigid look, that made him seem agreeable in the style of Robespierre. +Certainly he would make a fine attorney-general, endowed with elastic, +mischievous, and even murderous eloquence, or an orator of the shrewd +type of Benjamin Constant. The bitterness and the hatred which formerly +actuated him had now turned into soft-spoken perfidy; the poison was +transformed into anodyne. + +"Good-evening, my dear; how are you?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf, +greeting Sylvie. + +Bathilde went straight to the fireplace, took off her bonnet, looked +at herself in the glass, and placed her pretty foot on the fender that +Rogron might admire it. + +"What is the matter with you?" she said to him, looking directly in +his face. "You have not bowed to me. Pray why should we put on our best +velvet gowns to please you?" + +She pushed past Pierrette to lay down her hat, which the latter took +from her hand, and which she let her take exactly as though she were a +servant. Men are supposed to be ferocious, and tigers too; but neither +tigers, vipers, diplomatists, lawyers, executioners or kings ever +approach, in their greatest atrocities, the gentle cruelty, the poisoned +sweetness, the savage disdain of one young woman for another, when +she thinks herself superior in birth, or fortune, or grace, and some +question of marriage, or precedence, or any of the feminine rivalries, +is raised. The "Thank you, mademoiselle," which Bathilde said to +Pierrette was a poem in many strophes. She was named Bathilde, and the +other Pierrette. She was a Chargeboeuf, the other a Lorrain. Pierrette +was small and weak, Bathilde was tall and full of life. Pierrette +was living on charity, Bathilde and her mother lived on their means. +Pierrette wore a stuff gown with a chemisette, Bathilde made the velvet +of hers undulate. Bathilde had the finest shoulders in the department, +and the arm of a queen; Pierrette's shoulder-blades were skin and bone. +Pierrette was Cinderella, Bathilde was the fairy. Bathilde was about to +marry, Pierrette was to die a maid. Bathilde was adored, Pierrette was +loved by none. Bathilde's hair was ravishingly dressed, she had so +much taste; Pierrette's was hidden beneath her Breton cap, and she +knew nothing of the fashions. Moral, Bathilde was everything, Pierrette +nothing. The proud little Breton girl understood this tragic poem. + +"Good-evening, little girl," said Madame de Chargeboeuf, from the +height of her condescending grandeur, and in the tone of voice which her +pinched nose gave her. + +Vinet put the last touch to this sort of insult by looking fixedly +at Pierrette and saying, in three keys, "Oh! oh! oh! how fine we are +to-night, Pierrette!" + +"Fine!" said the poor child; "you should say that to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf, not to me." + +"Oh! she is always beautifully dressed," replied the lawyer. "Isn't she, +Rogron?" he added, turning to the master of the house, and grasping his +hand. + +"Yes," said Rogron. + +"Why do you force him to say what he does not think?" said Bathilde; +"nothing about me pleases him. Isn't that true?" she added, going up to +Rogron and standing before him. "Look at me, and say if it isn't true." + +Rogron looked at her from head to foot, and gently closed his eyes like +a cat whose head is being scratched. + +"You are too beautiful," he said; "too dangerous." + +"Why?" + +Rogron looked at the fire and was silent. Just then Mademoiselle Habert +entered the room, followed by the colonel. + +Celeste Habert, who had now become the common enemy, could only reckon +Sylvie on her side; nevertheless, everybody present showed her the more +civility and amiable attention because each was undermining her. Her +brother, though no longer able to be on the scene of action, was +well aware of what was going on, and as soon as he perceived that +his sister's hopes were killed he became an implacable and terrible +antagonist to the Rogrons. + +Every one will immediately picture to themselves Mademoiselle Habert +when they know that if she had not kept an institution for young ladies +she would still have had the air of a school-mistress. School-mistresses +have a way of their own in putting on their caps. Just as old +Englishwomen have acquired a monopoly in turbans, school-mistresses have +a monopoly of these caps. Flowers nod above the frame-work, flowers that +are more than artificial; lying by in closets for years the cap is both +new and old, even on the day it is first worn. These spinsters make it +a point of honor to resemble the lay figures of a painter; they sit on +their hips, never on their chairs. When any one speaks to them they turn +their whole busts instead of simply turning their heads; and when their +gowns creak one is tempted to believe that the mechanism of these beings +is out of order. Mademoiselle Habert, an ideal of her species, had a +stern eye, a grim mouth, and beneath her wrinkled chin the strings of +her cap, always limp and faded, floated as she moved. Two moles, rather +large and brown, adorned that chin, and from them sprouted hairs which +she allowed to grow rampant like clematis. And finally, to complete her +portrait, she took snuff, and took it ungracefully. + +The company went to work at their boston. Mademoiselle Habert sat +opposite to Sylvie, with the colonel at her side opposite to Madame +de Chargeboeuf. Bathilde was near her mother and Rogron. Sylvie placed +Pierrette between herself and the colonel; Rogron had set out a second +card-table, in case other company arrived. Two lamps were on the +chimney-piece between the candelabra and the clock, and the tables were +lighted by candles at forty sous a pound, paid for by the price of the +cards. + +"Come, Pierrette, take your work, my dear," said Sylvie, with +treacherous softness, noticing that the girl was watching the colonel's +game. + +She usually affected to treat Pierrette well before company. This +deception irritated the honest Breton girl, and made her despise her +cousin. She took her embroidery, but as she drew her stitches she still +watched Gouraud's play. Gouraud behaved as if he did not know the girl +was near him. Sylvie noticed this apparent indifference and thought +it extremely suspicious. Presently she undertook a _grande misere_ in +hearts, the pool being full of counters, besides containing twenty-seven +sous. The rest of the company had now arrived; among them the +deputy-judge Desfondrilles, who for the last two months had abandoned +the Tiphaine party and connected himself more or less with the Vinets. +He was standing before the chimney-piece, with his back to the fire and +the tails of his coat over his arms, looking round the fine salon of +which Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf was the shining ornament; for it +really seemed as if all the reds of its decoration had been made +expressly to enhance her style of beauty. Silence reigned; Pierrette +was watching the game, Sylvie's attention was distracted from her by the +interest of the _grande misere_. + +"Play that," said Pierrette to the colonel, pointing to a heart in his +hand. + +The colonel began a sequence in hearts; the hearts all lay between +himself and Sylvie; the colonel won her ace, though it was protected by +five small hearts. + +"That's not fair!" she cried. "Pierrette saw my hand, and the colonel +took her advice." + +"But, mademoiselle," said Celeste, "it was the colonel's game to play +hearts after you began them." + +The scene made Monsieur Desfondrilles smile; his was a keen mind, which +found much amusement in watching the play of all the self-interests in +Provins. + +"Yes, it was certainly the colonel's game," said Cournant the notary, +not knowing what the question was. + +Sylvie threw a look at Mademoiselle Habert,--one of those glances which +pass from old maid to old maid, feline and cruel. + +"Pierrette, you did see my hand," said Sylvie fixing her eyes on the +girl. + +"No, cousin." + +"I was looking at you all," said the deputy-judge, "and I can swear that +Pierrette saw no one's hand but the colonel's." + +"Pooh!" said Gouraud, alarmed, "little girls know how to slide their +eyes into everything." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"Yes," continued Gouraud. "I dare say she looked into your hand to play +you a trick. Didn't you, little one?" + +"No," said the truthful Breton, "I wouldn't do such a thing; if I had, +it would have been in my cousin's interests." + +"You know you are a story-teller and a little fool," cried Sylvie. +"After what happened this morning do you suppose I can believe a word +you say? You are a--" + +Pierrette did not wait for Sylvie to finish her sentence; foreseeing a +torrent of insults, she rushed away without a light and ran to her room. +Sylvie turned white with anger and muttered between her teeth, "She +shall pay for this!" + +"Shall you pay for the _misere_?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf. + +As she spoke Pierrette struck her head against the door of the passage +which some one had left open. + +"Good! I'm glad of it," cried Sylvie, as they heard the blow. + +"She must be hurt," said Desfondrilles. + +"She deserves it," replied Sylvie. + +"It was a bad blow," said Mademoiselle Habert. + +Sylvie thought she might escape paying her _misere_ if she went to see +after Pierrette, but Madame de Chargeboeuf stopped her. + +"Pay us first," she said, laughing; "you will forget it when you come +back." + +The remark, based on the old maid's trickery and her bad faith in paying +her debts at cards was approved by the others. Sylvie sat down and +thought no more of Pierrette,--an indifference which surprised no one. +When the game was over, about half past nine o'clock, she flung herself +into an easy chair at the corner of the fireplace and did not even rise +as her guests departed. The colonel was torturing her; she did not know +what to think of him. + +"Men are so false!" she cried, as she went to bed. + +Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow on the head, just above the +ear, at the spot where young girls part their hair when they put their +"front hair" in curlpapers. The next day there was a large swelling. + +"God has punished you," said Sylvie at the breakfast table. "You +disobeyed me; you treated me with disrespect in leaving the room before +I had finished my sentence; you got what you deserved." + +"Nevertheless," said Rogron, "she ought to put on a compress of salt and +water." + +"Oh, it is nothing at all, cousin," said Pierrette. + +The poor child had reached a point where even such a remark seemed to +her a proof of kindness. + + + + +VIII. THE LOVES OF JACQUES AND PIERRETTE + + +The week ended as it had begun, in continual torture. Sylvie grew +ingenious, and found refinements of tyranny with almost savage cruelty; +the red Indians might have taken a lesson from her. Pierrette dared not +complain of her vague sufferings, nor of the actual pains she now +felt in her head. The origin of her cousin's present anger was the +non-revelation of Brigaut's arrival. With Breton obstinacy Pierrette was +determined to keep silence,--a resolution that is perfectly explicable. +It is easy to see how her thoughts turned to Brigaut, fearing some +danger for him if he were discovered, yet instinctively longing to have +him near her, and happy in knowing he was in Provins. What joy to have +seen him! That single glimpse was like the look an exile casts upon +his country, or the martyr lifts to heaven, where his eyes, gifted with +second-sight, can enter while flames consume his body. + +Pierrette's glance had been so thoroughly understood by the major's son +that, as he planed his planks or took his measures or joined his wood, +he was working his brains to find out some way of communicating with +her. He ended by choosing the simplest of all schemes. At a certain hour +of the night Pierrette must lower a letter by a string from her window. +In the midst of the girl's own sufferings, she too was sustained by the +hope of being able to communicate with Brigaut. The same desire was in +both hearts; parted, they understood each other! At every shock to +her heart, every throb of pain in her head, Pierrette said to herself, +"Brigaut is here!" and that thought enabled her to live without +complaint. + +One morning in the market, Brigaut, lying in wait, was able to get near +her. Though he saw her tremble and turn pale, like an autumn leaf about +to flutter down, he did not lose his head, but quietly bought fruit of +the market-woman with whom Sylvie was bargaining. He found his chance +of slipping a note to Pierrette, all the while joking the woman with the +ease of a man accustomed to such manoeuvres; so cool was he in action, +though the blood hummed in his ears and rushed boiling through his veins +and arteries. He had the firmness of a galley-slave without, and the +shrinkings of innocence within him,--like certain mothers in +their moments of mortal trial, when held between two dangers, two +catastrophes. + +Pierrette's inward commotion was like Brigaut's. She slipped the note +into the pocket of her apron. The hectic spots upon her cheekbones +turned to a cherry-scarlet. These two children went through, all unknown +to themselves, many more emotions than go to the make-up of a dozen +ordinary loves. This moment in the market-place left in their souls a +well-spring of passionate feeling. Sylvie, who did not recognize the +Breton accent, took no notice of Brigaut, and Pierrette went home safely +with her treasure. + +The letters of these two poor children were fated to serve as +documents in a terrible judicial inquiry; otherwise, without the fatal +circumstances that occasioned that inquiry, they would never have +been heard of. Here is the one which Pierrette read that night in her +chamber:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--At midnight, when everybody is asleep but me, + who am watching you, I will come every night under your window. + Let down a string long enough to reach me; it will not make any + noise; you must fasten to the end of it whatever you write to me. + I will tie my letter in the same way. I hear _they_ have taught + you to read and write,--those wicked relations who were to do you + good, and have done you so much harm. You, Pierrette, the daughter + of a colonel who died for France, reduced by those monsters to be + their servant! That is where all your pretty color and health have + gone. My Pierrette, what has become of her? what have they done + with her. I see plainly you are not the same, not happy. Oh! + Pierrette, let us go back to Brittany. I can earn enough now to + give you what you need; for you yourself can earn three francs a + day and I can earn four or five; and thirty sous is all I want to + live on. Ah! Pierrette, how I have prayed the good God for you + ever since I came here! I have asked him to give me all your + sufferings, and you all pleasures. Why do you stay with them? why + do they keep you? Your grandmother is more to you than they. They + are vipers; they have taken your gaiety away from you. You do not + even walk as you once did in Brittany. Let us go back. I am here + to serve you, to do your will; tell me what you wish. If you need + money I have a hundred and fifty francs; I can send them up by the + string, though I would like to kiss your dear hands and lay the + money in them. Ah, dear Pierrette, it is a long time now that the + blue sky has been overcast for me. I have not had two hours' + happiness since I put you into that diligence of evil. And when I + saw you the other morning, looking like a shadow, I could not + reach you; that hag of a cousin came between us. But at least we + can have the consolation of praying to God together every Sunday + in church; perhaps he will hear us all the more when we pray + together. + + Not good-by, my dear, Pierrette, but _to-night_. + +This letter so affected Pierrette that she sat for more than an hour +reading and re-reading and gazing at it. Then she remembered with +anguish that she had nothing to write with. She summoned courage to +make the difficult journey from her garret to the dining-room, where +she obtained pen, paper, and ink, and returned safely without waking +her terrible cousin. A few minutes before midnight she had finished the +following letter:-- + + My Friend,--Oh! yes, my friend; for there is no one but you, + Jacques, and my grandmother to love me. God forgive me, but you + are the only two persons whom I love, both alike, neither more nor + less. I was too little to know my dear mamma; but you, Jacques, + and my grandmother, and my grandfather,--God grant him heaven, for + he suffered much from his ruin, which was mine,--but you two who + are left, I love you both, unhappy as I am. Indeed, to know how + much I love you, you will have to know how much I suffer; but I + don't wish that, it would grieve you too much. _They_ speak to me + as we would not speak to a dog; _they_ treat me like the worst of + girls; and yet I do examine myself before God, and I cannot find + that I do wrong by them. Before you sang to me the marriage song I + saw the mercy of God in my sufferings; for I had prayed to him to + take me from the world, and I felt so ill I said to myself, "God + hears me!" But, Jacques, now you are here, I want to live and go + back to Brittany, to my grandmamma who loves me, though _they_ say + she stole eight thousand francs of mine. Jacques, is that so? If + they are mine could you get them! But it is not true, for if my + grandmother had eight thousand francs she would not live at + Saint-Jacques. + + I don't want to trouble her last days, my kind, good grandmamma, + with the knowledge of my troubles; she might die of it. Ah! if she + knew they made her grandchild scrub the pots and pans,--she who + used to say to me, when I wanted to help her after her troubles, + "Don't touch that, my darling; leave it--leave it--you will spoil + your pretty fingers." Ah! my hands are never clean now. Sometimes + I can hardly carry the basket home from market, it cuts my arm. + Still I don't think my cousins mean to be cruel; but it is their + way always to scold, and it seems that I have no right to leave + them. My cousin Rogron is my guardian. One day when I wanted to + run away because I could not bear it, and told them so, my cousin + Sylvie said the gendarmes would go after me, for the law was my + master. Oh! I know now that cousins cannot take the place of + father or mother, any more than the saints can take the place of + God. + + My poor Jacques, what do you suppose I could do with your money? + Keep it for our journey. Oh! how I think of you and Pen-Hoel, and + the big pong,--that's where we had our only happy days. I shall + have no more, for I feel I am going from bad to worse. I am very + ill, Jacques. I have dreadful pains in my head, and in my bones, + and back, which kill me, and I have no appetite except for horrid + things,--roots and leaves and such things. Sometimes I cry, when I + am all alone, for they won't let me do anything I like if they + know it, not even cry. I have to hide to offer my tears to Him to + whom we owe the mercies which we call afflictions. It must have + been He who gave you the blessed thought to come and sing the + marriage song beneath my window. Ah! Jacques, my cousin heard you, + and she said I had a lover. If you wish to be my lover, love me + well. I promise to love you always, as I did in the past, and to + be + Your faithful servant, + Pierrette Lorrain. + + You will love me always, won't you? + + +She had brought a crust of bread from the kitchen, in which she now made +a hole for the letter, and fastened it like a weight to her string. At +midnight, having opened her window with extreme caution, she lowered the +letter with the crust, which made no noise against either the wall +of the house or the blinds. Presently she felt the string pulled by +Brigaut, who broke it and then crept softly away. When he reached the +middle of the square she could see him indistinctly by the starlight; +but he saw her quite clearly in the zone of light thrown by the candle. +The two children stood thus for over an hour, Pierrette making him +signs to go, he starting, she remaining, he coming back to his post, and +Pierrette again signing that he must leave her. This was repeated till +the child closed her window, went to bed, and blew out the candle. Once +in bed she fell asleep, happy in heart though suffering in body,--she +had Brigaut's letter under her pillow. She slept as the persecuted +sleep,--a slumber bright with angels; that slumber full of heavenly +arabesques, in atmospheres of gold and lapis-lazuli, perceived and given +to us by Raffaelle. + +The moral nature had such empire over that frail physical nature that on +the morrow Pierrette rose light and joyous as a lark, as radiant and +as gay. Such a change could not escape the vigilant eye of her cousin +Sylvie, who, this time, instead of scolding her, set about watching +her with the scrutiny of a magpie. "What reason is there for such +happiness?" was a thought of jealousy, not of tyranny. If the colonel +had not been in Sylvie's mind she would have said to Pierrette as +formerly, "Pierrette, you are very noise, and very regardless of what +you have often been told." But now the old maid resolved to spy upon +her as only old maids can spy. The day was still and gloomy, like the +weather that precedes a storm. + +"You don't appear to be ill now, mademoiselle," said Sylvie at dinner. +"Didn't I tell you she put it all on to annoy us?" she cried, addressing +her brother, and not waiting for Pierrette's answer. + +"On the contrary, cousin, I have a sort of fever--" + +"Fever! what fever? You are as gay as a lark. Perhaps you have seen some +one again?" + +Pierrette trembled and dropped her eyes on her plate. + +"Tartufe!" cried Sylvie; "and only fourteen years old! what a nature! Do +you mean to come to a bad end?" + +"I don't know what you mean," said Pierrette, raising her sweet and +luminous brown eyes to her cousin. + +"This evening," said Sylvie, "you are to stay in the dining-room with a +candle, and do your sewing. You are not wanted in the salon; I sha'n't +have you looking into my hand to help your favorites." + +Pierrette made no sign. + +"Artful creature!" cried Sylvie, leaving the room. + +Rogron, who did not understand his sister's anger, said to Pierrette: +"What is all this about? Try to please your cousin, Pierrette; she is +very indulgent to you, very gentle, and if you put her out of temper the +fault is certainly yours. Why do you squabble so? For my part I like to +live in peace. Look at Mademoiselle Bathilde and take pattern by her." + +Pierrette felt able to bear everything. Brigaut would come at midnight +and bring her an answer, and that hope was the viaticum of her day. But +she was using up her last strength. She did not go to bed, and stood +waiting for the hour to strike. At last midnight sounded; softly she +opened the window; this time she used a string made by tying bits of +twine together. She heard Brigaut's step, and on drawing up the cord she +found the following letter, which filled her with joy:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--As you are so ill you must not tire yourself + by waiting for me. You will hear me if I cry like an owl. Happily + my father taught me to imitate their note. So when you hear the + cry three times you will know I am there, and then you must let + down the cord. But I shall not come again for some days. I hope + then to bring you good news. + + Oh! Pierrette, don't talk of dying! Pierrette, don't think such + things! All my heart shook, I felt as though I were dead myself at + the mere idea. No, my Pierrette, you must not die; you will live + happy, and soon you shall be delivered from your persecutors. If I + do not succeed in what I am undertaking for your rescue, I shall + appeal to the law, and I shall speak out before heaven and earth + and tell how your wicked relations are treating you. I am certain + that you have not many more days to suffer; have patience, my + Pierrette! Jacques is watching over you as in the old days when we + slid on the pond and I pulled you out of the hole in which we were + nearly drowned together. + + Adieu, my dear Pierrette; in a few days, if God wills, we shall be + happy. Alas, I dare not tell you the only thing that may hinder + our meeting. But God loves us! In a few days I shall see my dear + Pierrette at liberty, without troubles, without any one to hinder + my looking at you--for, ah! Pierrette, I hunger to see you + --Pierrette, Pierrette, who deigns to love me and to tell me so. + Yes, Pierrette, I will be your lover when I have earned the + fortune you deserve; till then I will be to you only a devoted + servant whose life is yours to do what you please with it. Adieu. + + Jacques Brigaut. + + +Here is a letter of which the major's son said nothing to Pierrette. He +wrote it to Madame Lorrain at Nantes:-- + + Madame Lorrain,--Your granddaughter will die, worn-out with + ill-treatment, if you do not come to fetch her. I could scarcely + recognize her; and to show you the state of things I enclose a + letter I have received from Pierrette. You are thought here to + have taken the money of your granddaughter, and you ought to + justify yourself. If you can, come at once. We may still be happy; + but if delay Pierrette will be dead. + + I am, with respect, your devoted servant, + Jacques Brigaut. + + At Monsieur Frappier's, Cabinet-maker, Grand'Rue, Provins. + + +Brigaut's fear was that the grandmother was dead. + +Though this letter of the youth whom in her innocence she called her +lover was almost enigmatical to Pierrette, she believed in it with +all her virgin faith. Her heart was filled with that sensation which +travellers in the desert feel when they see from afar the palm-trees +round a well. In a few days her misery would end--Jacques said so. She +relied on this promise of her childhood's friend; and yet, as she +laid the letter beside the other, a dreadful thought came to her in +foreboding words. + +"Poor Jacques," she said to herself, "he does not know the hole into +which I have now fallen!" + +Sylvie had heard Pierrette, and she had also heard Brigaut under her +window. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the window to look through +the blinds into the square and there she saw, in the moonlight, a man +hurrying in the direction of the colonel's house, in front of which +Brigaut happened to stop. The old maid gently opened her door, went +upstairs, was amazed to find a light in Pierrette's room, looked through +the keyhole, and could see nothing. + +"Pierrette," she said, "are you ill?" + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, surprised. + +"Why is your candle burning at this time of night? Open the door; I must +know what this means." + +Pierrette went to the door bare-footed, and as soon as Sylvie entered +the room she saw the cord, which Pierrette had forgotten to put away, +not dreaming of a surprise. Sylvie jumped upon it. + +"What is that for?" she asked. + +"Nothing, cousin." + +"Nothing!" she cried. "Always lying; you'll never get to heaven that +way. Go to bed; you'll take cold." + +She asked no more questions and went away, leaving Pierrette terrified +by her unusual clemency. Instead of exploding with rage, Sylvie had +suddenly determined to surprise Pierrette and the colonel together, to +seize their letters and confound the two lovers who were deceiving her. +Pierrette, inspired by a sense of danger, sewed the letters into her +corset and covered them with calico. + +Here end the loves of Pierrette and Brigaut. + +Pierrette rejoiced in the thought that Jacques had determined to hold +no communication with her for some days, because her cousin's suspicions +would be quieted by finding nothing to feed them. Sylvie did in fact +spend the next three nights on her legs, and each evening in watching +the innocent colonel, without discovering either in him or in +Pierrette, or in the house or out of it, anything that betrayed their +understanding. She sent Pierrette to confession, and seized that moment +to search the child's room, with the method and penetration of a spy or +a custom-house officer. She found nothing. Her fury reached the apogee +of human sentiments. If Pierrette had been there she would certainly +have struck her remorselessly. To a woman of her temper, jealousy was +less a sentiment than an occupation; she existed in it, it made her +heart beat, she felt emotions hitherto completely unknown to her; +the slightest sound or movement kept her on the qui vive; she watched +Pierrette with gloomy intentness. + +"That miserable little wretch will kill me," she said. + +Sylvie's severity to her cousin reached the point of refined cruelty, +and made the deplorable condition of the poor girl worse daily. She had +fever regularly, and the pains in her head became intolerable. By the +end of the week even the visitors at the house noticed her suffering +face, which would have touched to pity all selfishness less cruel than +theirs. It happened that Doctor Neraud, possibly by Vinet's advice, did +not come to the house during that week. The colonel, knowing himself +suspected by Sylvie, was afraid to risk his marriage by showing any +solicitude for Pierrette. Bathilde explained the visible change in +the girl by her natural growth. But at last, one Sunday evening, when +Pierrette was in the salon, her sufferings overcame her and she fainted +away. The colonel, who first saw her going, caught her in his arms and +carried her to a sofa. + +"She did it on purpose," said Sylvie, looking at Mademoiselle Habert and +the rest who were playing boston with her. + +"I assure you that your cousin is very ill," said the colonel. + +"She seemed well enough in your arms," Sylvie said to him in a low +voice, with a savage smile. + +"The colonel is right," said Madame de Chargeboeuf. "You ought to send +for a doctor. This morning at church every one was speaking, as they +came out, of Mademoiselle Lorrain's appearance." + +"I am dying," said Pierrette. + +Desfondrilles called to Sylvie and told her to unfasten her cousin's +gown. Sylvie went up to the girl, saying, "It is only a tantrum." + +She unfastened the gown and was about to touch the corset, when +Pierrette, roused by the danger, sat up with superhuman strength, +exclaiming, "No, no, I will go to bed." + +Sylvie had, however, touched the corset and felt the papers. She let +Pierrette go, saying to the company: + +"What do you think now of her illness? I tell you it is all a pretence. +You have no idea of the perversity of that child." + +After the card-playing was over she kept Vinet from following the other +guests; she was furious and wanted vengeance, and was grossly rude to +the colonel when he bade her good-night. Gouraud threw a look at the +lawyer which threatened him to the depths of his being and seemed to +put a ball in his entrails. Sylvie told Vinet to remain. When they were +alone, she said,-- + +"Never in my life, never in my born days, will I marry the colonel." + +"Now that you have come to that decision I may speak," said the lawyer. +"The colonel is my friend, but I am more yours than his. Rogron has done +me services which I can never forget. I am as strong a friend as I am an +enemy. Once in the Chamber I shall rise to power, and I will make your +brother a receiver-general. Now swear to me, before I say more, that you +will never repeat what I tell you." (Sylvie made an affirmative sign.) +"In the first place, the brave colonel is a gambler--" + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"If it had not been for the embarrassments this vice has brought upon +him, he might have been a marshal of France," continued Vinet. "He is +capable of running through your property; but he is very astute; you +cannot be sure of not having children, and you told me yourself the +risks you feared. No, if you want to marry, wait till I am in the +Chamber and then take that old Desfondrilles, who shall be made chief +justice. If you want revenge on the colonel make your brother marry +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf,--I can get her consent; she has two +thousand francs a year, and you will be connected with the de +Chargeboeufs as I am. Recollect what I tell you, the Chargeboeufs will +be glad to claim us for cousins some day." + +"Gouraud loves Pierrette," was Sylvie's only answer. + +"He is quite capable of it," said Vinet, "and capable of marrying her +after your death." + +"A fine calculation!" she said. + +"I tell you that man has the shrewdness of the devil. Marry your brother +and announce that you mean to remain unmarried and will leave your +property to your nephews and nieces. That will strike a blow at Gouraud +and Pierrette both! and you'll see the faces they'll make." + +"Ah! that's true," cried the old maid, "I can serve them both right. She +shall go to a shop, and get nothing from me. She hasn't a sou; let her +do as we did,--work." + +Vinet departed, having put his plan into Sylvie's head, her dogged +obstinacy being well-known to him. The old maid, he was certain, would +think the scheme her own, and carry it out. + +The lawyer found the colonel in the square, smoking a cigar while he +waited for him. + +"Halt!" said Gouraud; "you have pulled me down, but stones enough came +with me to bury you--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"Colonel or not, I shall give you your deserts. In the first place, you +shall not be deputy--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"I control ten votes and the election depends on--" + +"Colonel, listen to me. Is there no one to marry but that old Sylvie? +I have just been defending you to her; you are accused and convicted of +writing to Pierrette; she saw you leave your house at midnight and come +to the girl's window--" + +"Stuff and nonsense!" + +"She means to marry her brother to Bathilde and leave her fortune to +their children." + +"Rogron won't have any." + +"Yes he will," replied Vinet. "But I promise to find you some young and +agreeable woman with a hundred and fifty thousand francs? Don't be a +fool; how can you and I afford to quarrel? Things have gone against you +in spite of all my care; but you don't understand me." + +"Then we must understand each other," said the colonel. "Get me a +wife with a hundred and fifty thousand francs before the elections; if +not--look out for yourself! I don't like unpleasant bed-fellows, and +you've pulled the blankets all over to your side. Good-evening." + +"You shall see," said Vinet, grasping the colonel's hand affectionately. + + * * * * * + +About one o'clock that night three clear, sharp cries of an owl, +wonderfully well imitated, echoed through the square. Pierrette heard +them in her feverish sleep; she jumped up, moist with perspiration, +opened her window, saw Brigaut, and flung down a ball of silk, to which +he fastened a letter. Sylvie, agitated by the events of the day and her +own indecision of mind, was not asleep; she heard the owl. + +"Ah, bird of ill-omen!" she thought. "Why, Pierrette is getting up! What +is she after?" + +Hearing the attic window open softly, Sylvie rushed to her own window +and heard the rustle of paper against her blinds. She fastened the +strings of her bed-gown and went quickly upstairs to Pierrette's room, +where she found the poor girl unwinding the silk and freeing the letter. + +"Ha! I've caught you!" cried the old woman, rushing to the window, from +which she saw Jacques running at full speed. "Give me that letter." + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, who, by one of those strong inspirations +of youth sustained by her own soul, rose to a grandeur of resistance +such as we admire in the history of certain peoples reduced to despair. + +"Ha! you will not?" cried Sylvie, advancing upon the girl with a face +full of hatred and fury. + +Pierrette fell back to get time to put her letter in her hand, which she +clenched with unnatural force. Seeing this manoeuvre Sylvie grasped the +delicate white hand of the girl in her lobster claws and tried to open +it. It was a frightful struggle, an infamous struggle; it was more than +a physical struggle; it assailed the mind, the sole treasure of the +human being, the thought, which God has placed beyond all earthly power +and guards as the secret way between the sufferer and Himself. The two +women, one dying, the other in the vigor of health, looked at each other +fixedly. Pierrette's eyes darted on her executioner the look the famous +Templar on the rack cast upon Philippe le Bel, who could not bear it and +fled thunderstricken. Sylvie, a woman and a jealous woman, answered that +magnetic look with malignant flashes. A dreadful silence reigned. The +clenched hand of the Breton girl resisted her cousin's efforts like a +block of steel. Sylvie twisted Pierrette's arm, she tried to force the +fingers open; unable to do so she stuck her nails into the flesh. +At last, in her madness, she set her teeth into the wrist, trying to +conquer the girl by pain. Pierrette defied her still, with that same +terrible glance of innocence. The anger of the old maid grew to such a +pitch that it became blind fury. She seized Pierrette's arm and struck +the closed fist upon the window-sill, and then upon the marble of the +mantelpiece, as we crack a nut to get the kernel. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, "they are murdering me!" + +"Ha! you may well scream, when I catch you with a lover in the dead of +night." + +And she beat the hand pitilessly. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, the blood flowing. + +At that instant, loud knocks were heard at the front door. Exhausted, +the two women paused a moment. + +Rogron, awakened and uneasy, not knowing what was happening, had got up, +gone to his sister's room, and not finding her was frightened. Hearing +the knocks he went down, unfastened the front door, and was nearly +knocked over by Brigaut, followed by a sort of phantom. + +At this moment Sylvie's eyes chanced to fall on Pierrette's corset, and +she remembered the papers. Releasing the girl's wrist she sprang upon +the corset like a tiger on its prey, and showed it to Pierrette with a +smile,--the smile of an Iroquois over his victim before he scalps him. + +"I am dying," said Pierrette, falling on her knees, "oh, who will save +me?" + +"I!" said a woman with white hair and an aged parchment face, in which +two gray eyes glittered. + +"Ah! grandmother, you have come too late," cried the poor child, +bursting into tears. + +Pierrette fell upon her bed, her strength all gone, half-dead with the +exhaustion which, in her feeble state, followed so violent a struggle. +The tall gray woman took her in her arms, as a nurse lifts a child, and +went out, followed by Brigaut, without a word to Sylvie, on whom she +cast one glance of majestic accusation. + +The apparition of that august old woman, in her Breton costume, shrouded +in her coif (a sort of hooded mantle of black cloth), accompanied by +Brigaut, appalled Sylvie; she fancied she saw death. She slowly went +down the stairs, listened to the front door closing behind them, and +came face to face with her brother, who exclaimed: "Then they haven't +killed you?" + +"Go to bed," said Sylvie. "To-morrow we will see what we must do." + +She went back to her own bed, ripped open the corset, and read Brigaut's +two letters, which confounded her. She went to sleep in the greatest +perplexity,--not imagining the terrible results to which her conduct was +to lead. + + * * * * * + +The letters sent by Brigaut to old Madame Lorrain reached her in a +moment of ineffable joy, which the perusal of them troubled. The poor +old woman had grieved deeply in living without her Pierrette beside her, +but she had consoled her loneliness with the thought that the sacrifice +of herself was in the interests of her grandchild. She was blessed with +one of those ever-young hearts which are upheld and invigorated by +the idea of sacrifice. Her old husband, whose only joy was his little +granddaughter, had grieved for Pierrette; every day he had seemed to +look for her. It was an old man's grief,--on which such old men live, of +which they die. + +Every one can now imagine the happiness which this poor old woman, +living in a sort of almshouse, felt when she learned of a generous +action, rare indeed but not impossible in France. The head of the house +of Collinet, whose failure in 1814 had caused the Lorrains a loss of +twenty-four thousand francs, had gone to America with his children after +his disasters. He had too high a courage to remain a ruined man. After +eleven years of untold effort crowned by success he returned to Nantes +to recover his position, leaving his eldest son in charge of his +transatlantic house. He found Madame Lorrain of Pen-Hoel in the +institution of Saint-Jacques, and was witness of the resignation with +which this most unfortunate of his creditors bore her misery. + +"God forgive you!" said the old woman, "since you give me on the +borders of my grave the means of securing the happiness of my dear +granddaughter; but alas! it will not clear the debts of my poor +husband!" + +Monsieur Collinet made over to the widow both the capital and the +accrued interest, amounting to about forty-two thousand francs. His +other creditors, prosperous, rich, and intelligent merchants, had easily +born their losses, whereas the misfortunes of the Lorrains seemed so +irremediable to old Monsieur Collinet that he promised the widow to pay +off her husband's debts, to the amount of forty thousand francs more. +When the Bourse of Nantes heard of this generous reparation they wished +to receive Collinet to their board before his certificates were granted +by the Royal court at Rennes; but the merchant refused the honor, +preferring to submit to the ordinary commercial rule. + +Madame Lorrain had received the money only the day before the post +brought her Brigaut's letter, enclosing that of Pierrette. Her first +thought had been, as she signed the receipt: "Now I can live with my +Pierrette and marry her to that good Brigaut, who will make a fortune +with my money." + +Therefore the moment she had read the fatal letters she made instant +preparations to start for Provins. She left Nantes that night by the +mail; for some one had explained to her its celerity. In Paris she took +the diligence for Troyes, which passes through Provins, and by half-past +eleven at night she reached Frappier's, where Brigaut, shocked at her +despairing looks, told her of Pierrette's state and promised to bring +the poor girl to her instantly. His words so terrified the grandmother +that she could not control her impatience and followed him to the +square. When Pierrette screamed, the horror of that cry went to her +heart as sharply as it did to Brigaut's. Together they would have roused +the neighborhood if Rogron, in his terror, had not opened the door. The +scream of the young girl at bay gave her grandmother the sudden strength +of anger with which she carried her dear Pierrette in her arms to +Frappier's house, where Madame Frappier hastily arranged Brigaut's own +room for the old woman and her treasure. In that poor room, on a bed +half-made, the sufferer was deposited; and there she fainted away, +holding her hand still clenched, wounded, bleeding, with the nails deep +bedded in the flesh. Brigaut, Frappier, his wife, and the old woman +stood looking at Pierrette in silence, all four of them in a state of +indescribable amazement. + +"Why is her hand bloody?" said the grandmother at last. + +Pierrette, overcome by the sleep which follows all abnormal displays of +strength, and dimly conscious that she was safe from violence, gradually +unbent her fingers. Brigaut's letter fell from them like an answer. + +"They tried to take my letter from her," said Brigaut, falling on his +knees and picking up the lines in which he had told his little friend to +come instantly and softly away from the house. He kissed with pious love +the martyr's hand. + +It was a sight that made those present tremble when they saw the old +gray woman, a sublime spectre, standing beside her grandchild's pillow. +Terror and vengeance wrote their fierce expressions in the wrinkles +that lined her skin of yellow ivory; her forehead, half hidden by the +straggling meshes of her gray hair, expressed a solemn anger. She read, +with a power of intuition given to the aged when near their grave, +Pierrette's whole life, on which her mind had dwelt throughout her +journey. She divined the illness of her darling, and knew that she was +threatened with death. Two big tears painfully rose in her wan gray +eyes, from which her troubles had worn both lashes and eyebrows, two +pearls of anguish, forming within them and giving them a dreadful +brightness; then each tear swelled and rolled down the withered cheek, +but did not wet it. + +"They have killed her!" she said at last, clasping her hands. + +She fell on her knees which struck sharp blows on the brick-laid floor, +making a vow no doubt to Saint Anne d'Auray, the most powerful of the +madonnas of Brittany. + +"A doctor from Paris," she said to Brigaut. "Go and fetch one, Brigaut, +go!" + +She took him by the shoulder and gave him a despotic push to send him +from the room. + +"I was coming, my lad, when you wrote me; I am rich,--here, take this," +she cried, recalling him, and unfastening as she spoke the strings that +tied her short-gown. Then she drew a paper from her bosom in which were +forty-two bank-bills, saying, "Take what is necessary, and bring back +the greatest doctor in Paris." + +"Keep those," said Frappier; "he can't change thousand franc notes +now. I have money, and the diligence will be passing presently; he can +certainly find a place on it. But before he goes we had better consult +Doctor Martener; he will tell us the best physician in Paris. The +diligence won't pass for over an hour,--we have time enough." + +Brigaut woke up Monsieur Martener, and brought him at once. The doctor +was not a little surprised to find Mademoiselle Lorrain at Frappier's. +Brigaut told him of the scene that had just taken place at the Rogrons'; +but even so the doctor did not at first suspect the horror of it, +nor the extent of the injury done. Martener gave the address of the +celebrated Horace Bianchon, and Brigaut started for Paris by the +diligence. Monsieur Martener then sat down and examined first the +bruised and bloody hand which lay outside the bed. + +"She could not have given these wounds herself," he said. + +"No; the horrible woman to whom I had the misfortune to trust her was +murdering her," said the grandmother. "My poor Pierrette was screaming +'Help! help! I'm dying,'--enough to touch the heart of an executioner." + +"But why was it?" said the doctor, feeling Pierrette's pulse. "She is +very ill," he added, examining her with a light. "She must have suffered +terribly; I don't understand why she has not been properly cared for." + +"I shall complain to the authorities," said the grandmother. "Those +Rogrons asked me for my child in a letter, saying they had twelve +thousand francs a year and would take care of her; had they the right +to make her their servant and force her to do work for which she had not +the strength?" + +"They did not choose to see the most visible of all maladies to which +young girls are liable. She needed the utmost care," cried Monsieur +Martener. + +Pierrette was awakened by the light which Madame Frappier was holding +near her face, and by the horrible sufferings in her head caused by the +reaction of her struggle. + +"Ah! Monsieur Martener, I am very ill," she said in her pretty voice. + +"Where is the pain, my little friend?" asked the doctor. + +"Here," she said, touching her head above the left ear. + +"There's an abscess," said the doctor, after feeling the head for a long +time and questioning Pierrette on her sufferings. "You must tell us all, +my child, so that we may know how to cure you. Why is your hand like +this? You could not have given yourself that wound." + +Pierrette related the struggle between herself and her cousin Sylvie. + +"Make her talk," said the doctor to the grandmother, "and find out the +whole truth. I will await the arrival of the doctor from Paris; and we +will send for the surgeon in charge of the hospital here, and have a +consultation. The case seems to me a very serious one. Meantime I will +send you a quieting draught so that mademoiselle may sleep; she needs +sleep." + +Left alone with her granddaughter the old Breton woman exerted her +influence over the child and made her tell all; she let her know that +she had money enough now for all three, and promised that Brigaut should +live with them. The poor girl admitted her martyrdom, not imagining the +events to which her admissions would give rise. The monstrosity of two +beings without affection and without conception of family life opened to +the old woman a world of woe as far from her knowledge as the morals +of savages may have seemed to the first discoverers who set foot in +America. + +The arrival of her grandmother, the certainty of living with her in +comfort soothed Pierrette's mind as the sleeping draught soothed her +body. The old woman watched her darling, kissing her forehead, hair, and +hands, as the holy women of old kissed the hands of Jesus when they laid +him in the tomb. + + + + +IX. THE FAMILY COUNCIL + + +At nine o'clock that morning Monsieur Martener went to see Monsieur +Tiphaine, and related to him the scene between Pierrette and Sylvie, and +the tortures of all kinds, moral and physical, to which the Rogrons +had subjected their cousin, and the two alarming forms of illness which +their cruelty had developed. Monsieur Tiphaine sent for Auffray the +notary, one of Pierrette's own relations on the maternal side. + +At this particular time the war between the Vinet party and the Tiphaine +party was at its height. The scandals which the Rogrons and their +adherents were disseminating through the town about the liaison of +Madame Tiphaine's mother with the banker du Tillet, and the bankruptcy +of her father (a forger, they said), were all the more exasperating to +the Tiphaines because these things were malicious truths, not libels. +Such wounds cut deep; they go to the quick of feelings and of interests. +These speeches, repeated to the partisans of the Tiphaines by the same +mouths which told the Rogrons of the sneers of "those women" of the +Tiphaine clique, fed the hatreds of both sides, now increased by the +political element. The animosities caused at this time in France by the +spirit of party, the violences of which were excessive, were everywhere +mixed up, as in Provins, with selfish schemes and wounded or vindictive +individual interests. Each party eagerly seized on whatever might injure +the rival party. Personal hatreds and self-love mingled as much as +political animosity in even the smallest matters, and were carried to +hitherto unheard-of lengths. A whole town would be roused to excitement +over some private struggle, until it took the character of a political +debate. + +Monsieur Tiphaine at once perceived in the case of Pierrette against the +Rogrons a means of humbling, mortifying, and dishonoring the masters of +that salon where plans against the monarchy were made and an opposition +journal born. The public prosecutor was called in; and together +with Monsieur Auffray the notary, Pierrette's relation, and Monsieur +Martener, a cautious consultation was held in the utmost secrecy as +to the proper course to follow. Monsieur Martener agreed to advise +Pierrette's grandmother to apply to the courts to have Auffray appointed +guardian to his young relation. The guardian could then convene a +"Family Council," and, backed by the testimony of three doctors, demand +the girl's release from the authority of the Rogrons. The affair thus +managed would have to go before the courts, and the public prosecutor, +Monsieur Lesourd, would see that it was taken to a criminal court by +demanding an inquiry. + +Towards midday all Provins was roused by the strange news of what had +happened during the night at the Rogrons'. Pierrette's cries had been +faintly heard, though they were soon over. No one had risen to inquire +what they meant, but every one said the next day, "Did you hear those +screams about one in the morning?" Gossip and comments soon magnified +the horrible drama, and a crowd collected in front of Frappier's shop, +asking the worthy cabinet-maker for information, and hearing from him +how Pierrette was brought to his house with her fingers broken and the +hand bloody. + +Towards one in the afternoon the post-chaise of Doctor Bianchon, who was +accompanied by Brigaut, stopped before the house, and Madame Frappier +went at once to summon Monsieur Martener and the surgeon in charge of +the hospital. Thus the gossip of the town received confirmation. The +Rogrons were declared to have ill-used their cousin deliberately, and to +have come near killing her. Vinet heard the news while attending to +his business in the law courts; he left everything and hurried to the +Rogrons. Rogron and his sister had just finished breakfast. Sylvie was +reluctant to tell her brother of her discomfiture of the night before; +but he pressed her with questions, to which she would make no answer +than, "That's not your business." She went and came from the kitchen to +the dining-room on pretence of preparing the breakfast, but chiefly to +avoid discussion. She was alone when Vinet entered. + +"You know what's happened?" said the lawyer. + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"You will be arrested on a criminal charge," replied Vinet, "from the +way things are now going about Pierrette." + +"A criminal charge!" cried Rogron, who had come into the room. "Why? +What for?" + +"First of all," said the lawyer, looking at Sylvie, "explain to me +without concealment and as if you stood before God, what happened in +this house last night--they talk of amputating Pierrette's hand." + +Sylvie turned livid and shuddered. + +"Then there is some truth in it?" said Vinet. + +Mademoiselle Rogron related the scene, trying to excuse herself; but, +prodded with questions, she acknowledged the facts of the horrible +struggle. + +"If you have only injured her fingers you will be taken before the +police court for a misdemeanor; but if they cut off her hand you may be +tried at the Assizes for a worse offence. The Tiphaines will do their +best to get you there." + +Sylvie, more dead than alive, confessed her jealousy, and, what was +harder to do, confessed also that her suspicions were unfounded. + +"Heavens, what a case this will make!" cried the lawyer. "You and +your brother may be ruined by it; you will be abandoned by most people +whether you win or lose. If you lose, you will have to leave Provins." + +"Oh, my dear Monsieur Vinet, you who are such a great lawyer," said +Rogron, terrified, "advise us! save us!" + +The crafty Vinet worked the terror of the two imbeciles to its utmost, +declaring that Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf might be unwilling +to enter their house again. To be abandoned by women of their rank +would be a terrible condemnation. At length, after an hour of adroit +manoeuvring, it was agreed that Vinet must have some powerful motive in +taking the case, that would impress the minds of all Provins and explain +his efforts on behalf of the Rogrons. This motive they determined +should be Rogron's marriage to Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf; it should be +announced that very day and the banns published on Sunday. The contract +could be drawn immediately. Mademoiselle Rogron agreed, in consideration +of the marriage, to appear in the contract as settling her capital on +her brother, retaining only the income of it. Vinet made Rogron and his +sister comprehend the necessity of antedating the document by two or +three days, so as to commit the mother and daughter in the eyes of the +public and give them a reason for continuing their visits. + +"Sign that contract and I'll take upon myself to get you safely out of +this affair," said the lawyer. "There will be a terrible fight; but +I will put my whole soul into it--you'll have to make me a votive +offering." + +"Oh, yes, yes," said Rogron. + +By half-past eleven the lawyer had plenary powers to draw the contract +and conduct the defence of the Rogrons. At twelve o'clock application +was made to Monsieur Tiphaine, as a judge sitting in chambers, against +Brigaut and the widow Lorrain for having abducted Pierrette Lorrain, a +minor, from the house of her legal guardian. In this way the bold lawyer +became the aggressor and made Rogron the injured party. He spoke of the +matter from this point of view in the court-house. + +The judge postponed the hearing till four o'clock. Needless to describe +the excitement in the town. Monsieur Tiphaine knew that by three o'clock +the consultation of doctors would be over and their report drawn up; he +wished Auffray, as surrogate-guardian, to be at the hearing armed with +that report. + +The announcement of Rogron's marriage and the sacrifices made to it +by Sylvie in the contract alienated two important supporters from the +brother and sister, namely,--Mademoiselle Habert and the colonel, whose +hopes were thus annihilated. They remained, however, ostensibly on the +Rogron side for the purpose of injuring it. Consequently, as soon as +Monsieur Martener mentioned the alarming condition of Pierrette's head, +Celeste and the colonel told of the blow she had given herself during +the evening when Sylvie had forced her to leave the salon; and they +related the old maid's barbarous and unfeeling comments, with other +statements proving her cruelty to her suffering cousin. Vinet had +foreseen this storm; but he had secured the entire fortune of the +Rogrons for Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, and he promised himself that in +a few weeks she should be mistress of the Rogron house, and reign with +him over Provins, and even bring about a fusion with the Breauteys and +the aristocrats in the interests of his ambition. + +From midday to four o'clock all the ladies of the Tiphaine clique +sent to inquire after Mademoiselle Lorrain. She, poor girl, was wholly +ignorant of the commotion she was causing in the little town. In the +midst of her sufferings she was ineffably happy in recovering her +grandmother and Brigaut, the two objects of her affection. Brigaut's +eyes were constantly full of tears. The old grandmother sat by the bed +and caressed her darling. To the three doctors she told every detail she +had obtained from Pierrette as to her life in the Rogron house. Horace +Bianchon expressed his indignation in vehement language. Shocked at such +barbarity he insisted on all the physicians in the town being called in +to see the case; the consequence was that Dr. Neraud, the friend of the +Rogrons, was present. The report was unanimously signed. It is useless +to give a text of it here. If Moliere's medical terms were barbarous, +those of modern science have the advantage of being so clear that the +explanation of Pierrette's malady, though natural and unfortunately +common, horrified all ears. + +At four o'clock, after the usual rising of the court, president Tiphaine +again took his seat, when Madame Lorrain, accompanied by Monsieur +Auffray and Brigaut and a crowd of interested persons, entered the +court-room. Vinet was alone. This contrast struck the minds of those +present. The lawyer, who still wore his robe, turned his cold face to +the judge, settled his spectacles on his pallid green eyes, and then +in a shrill, persistent voice he stated that two strangers had forced +themselves at night into the Rogron domicile and had abducted therefrom +the minor Lorrain. The legal rights were with the guardian, who now +demanded the restoration of his ward. + +Monsieur Auffray rose, as surrogate-guardian, and requested to be heard. + +"If the judge," he said, "will admit the report, which I hold in my +hand, signed by one of the most famous physicians in Paris, and by all +the physicians in Provins, he will understand not only that the demand +of the Sieur Rogron is senseless, but also that the grandmother of the +minor had grave cause to instantly remove her from her persecutors. Here +are the facts. The report of these physicians attribute the almost dying +condition of the said minor to the ill-treatment she has received from +the Sieur Rogron and his sister. We shall, as the law directs, convoke +a Family Council with the least possible delay, and discuss the question +as to whether or not the guardian should be deposed. And we now ask that +the minor be not returned to the domicile of the said guardian but that +she be confided to some member of her family who shall be designated by +the judge." + +Vinet replied, declaring that the physicians' report ought to have been +submitted to him in order that he might have disproved it. + +"Not submitted to your side," said the judge, severely, "but possibly to +the _procureur du roi_. The case is heard." + +The judge then wrote at the bottom of the petition the following +order:-- + + "Whereas it appears, from a deliberate and unanimous report of all + the physicians of this town, together with Doctor Bianchon of the + medical faculty of Paris, that the minor Lorrain, claimed by + Jerome-Denis Rogron, her guardian, is extremely ill in consequence + of ill-treatment and personal assault in the house of the said + guardian and his sister: + + "We, president of the court of Provins, passing upon the said + petition, order that until the Family Council is held the minor + Lorrain is not to be returned to the household of her said + guardian, but shall be kept in that of her surrogate-guardian. + + "And further, considering the state in which the said minor now + is, and the traces of violence which, according to the report of + the physicians, are now upon her person, we commission the + attending physician and the surgeon in charge of the hospital of + Provins to visit her, and in case the injuries from the said + assault become alarming, the matter will be held to await the + action of the criminal courts; and this without prejudice to the + civil suit undertaken by Auffray the surrogate-guardian." + +This severe judgment was read out by President Tiphaine in a loud and +distinct voice. + +"Why not send them to the galleys at once?" said Vinet. "And all this +fuss about a girl who was carrying on an intrigue with an apprentice to +a cabinet-maker! If the case goes on in this way," he cried, insolently, +"we shall demand other judges on the ground of legitimate suspicion." + +Vinet left the court-room, and went among the chief men of his party to +explain Rogron's position, declaring that he had never so much as given +a flip to his cousin, and that the judge had viewed him much less as +Pierrette's guardian than as a leading elector in Provins. + +To hear Vinet, people might have supposed that the Tiphaines were making +a great fuss about nothing; the mounting was bringing forth a mouse. +Sylvie, an eminently virtuous and pious woman, had discovered an +intrigue between her brother's ward and a workman, a Breton named +Brigaut. The scoundrel knew very well that the girl would have her +grandmother's money, and he wished to seduce her (Vinet to talk of +that!). Mademoiselle Rogron, who had discovered letters proving the +depravity of the girl, was not as much to blame as the Tiphaines were +trying to make out. If she did use some violence to get possession +of those letters (which was no wonder, when we consider what Breton +obstinacy is), how could Rogron be considered responsible for all that? + +The lawyer went on to make the matter a partisan affair, and to give it +a political color. + +"They who listen to only one bell hear only one sound," said the wise +men. "Have you heard what Vinet says? Vinet explains things clearly." + +Frappier's house being thought injurious to Pierrette, owing to the +noise in the street which increased the sufferings in her head, she was +taken to that of her surrogate guardian, the change being as necessary +medically as it was judicially. The removal was made with the utmost +caution, and was calculated to produce a great public effect. Pierrette +was laid on a mattress and carried on a stretcher by two men; a Gray +Sister walked beside her with a bottle of sal volatile in her hand, +while the grandmother, Brigaut, Madame Auffray, and her maid followed. +People were at their windows and doors to see the procession pass. +Certainly the state in which they saw Pierrette, pale as death, gave +immense advantage to the party against the Rogrons. The Auffrays were +determined to prove to the whole town that the judge was right in the +decision he had given. Pierrette and her grandmother were installed on +the second floor of Monsieur Auffray's house. The notary and his wife +gave her every care with the greatest hospitality, which was not without +a little ostentation in it. Pierrette had her grandmother to nurse her; +and Monsieur Martener and the head-surgeon of the hospital attended her. + +On the evening of this day exaggerations began on both sides. The Rogron +salon was crowded. Vinet had stirred up the whole Liberal party on the +subject. The Chargeboeuf ladies dined with the Rogrons, for the contract +was to be signed that evening. Vinet had had the banns posted at the +mayor's office in the afternoon. He made light of the Pierrette affair. +If the Provins court was prejudiced, the Royal courts would appreciate +the facts, he said, and the Auffrays would think twice before they +flung themselves into such a suit. The alliance of the Rogrons with +the Chargeboeufs was an immense consideration in the minds of a certain +class of people. To them it made the Rogrons as white as snow and +Pierrette an evilly disposed little girl, a serpent warmed in their +bosom. + +In Madame Tiphaine's salon vengeance was had for all the mischievous +scandals that the Vinet party had disseminated for the past two years. +The Rogrons were monsters, and the guardian should undergo a criminal +trial. In the Lower town, Pierrette was quite well; in the Upper town +she was dying; at the Rogrons' she scratched her wrist; at Madame +Tiphaine's her fingers were fractured and one was to be cut off. The +next day the "Courrier de Provins," had a plausible article, extremely +well-written, a masterpiece of insinuations mixed with legal points, +which showed that there was no case whatever against Rogron. The +"Bee-hive," which did not appear till two days later, could not answer +without becoming defamatory; it replied, however, that in an affair like +this it was best to wait until the law took its course. + +The Family Council was selected by the _juge de paix_ of the canton +of Provins, and consisted of Rogron and the two Messieurs Auffray, the +nearest relatives, and Monsieur Ciprey, nephew of Pierrette's maternal +grandmother. To these were joined Monsieur Habert, Pierrette's +confessor, and Colonel Gouraud, who had always professed himself a +comrade and friend of her father, Colonel Lorrain. The impartiality of +the judge in these selections was much applauded,--Monsieur Habert and +Colonel Gouraud being considered the firm friends of the Rogrons. + +The serious situation in which Rogron found himself made him ask for the +assistance of a lawyer (and he named Vinet) at the Family Council. By +this manoeuvre, evidently advised by Vinet himself, Rogron succeeded in +postponing the meeting of the council till the end of December. At that +time Monsieur Tiphaine and his wife would be settled in Paris for the +opening of the Chambers; and the ministerial party would be left without +its head. Vinet had already worked upon Desfondrilles, the deputy-judge, +in case the matter should go, after the hearing before the council, to +the criminal courts. + +Vinet spoke for three hours before the Family Council; he proved the +existence of an intrigue between Pierrette and Brigaut, which justified +all Mademoiselle Rogron's severity. He showed how natural it was that +the guardian should have left the management of his ward to a woman; +he dwelt on the fact that Rogron had not interfered with Pierrette's +education as planned by his sister Sylvie. But in spite of Vinet's +efforts the Council were unanimous in removing Rogron from the +guardianship. Monsieur Auffray was appointed in his place, and Monsieur +Ciprey was made surrogate. The Council summoned before it and examined +Adele, the servant-woman, who testified against her late masters; also +Mademoiselle Habert, who related the cruel remarks made by Mademoiselle +Rogron on the evening when Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow, +heard by all the company, and the speech of Madame de Chargeboeuf about +the girl's health. Brigaut produced the letter he had received from +Pierrette, which proved their innocence and stated her ill-treatment. +Proof was given that the condition of the minor was the result of +neglect on the part of the guardian, who was responsible for all that +concerned his ward. Pierrette's illness had been apparent to every one, +even to persons in the town who were strangers to the family, yet the +guardian had done nothing for her. The charge of ill-treatment was +therefore sustained against Rogron; and the case would now go before the +public. + +Rogron, advised by Vinet, opposed the acceptance of the report of the +Council by the court. The authorities then intervened in consequence of +Pierrette's state, which was daily growing worse. The trial of the case, +though placed at once upon the docket, was postponed until the month of +March, 1828, to wait events. + + + + +X. VERDICTS--LEGAL AND OTHER + + +Meantime Rogron's marriage with Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf took place. +Sylvie moved to the second floor of the house, which she shared with +Madame de Chargeboeuf, for the first floor was entirely taken up by the +new wife. The beautiful Madame Rogron succeeded to the social place +of the beautiful Madame Tiphaine. The influence of the marriage was +immense. No one now came to visit Sylvie, but Madame Rogron's salon was +always full. + +Sustained by the influence of his mother-in-law and the bankers du +Tillet and Nucingen, Monsieur Tiphaine was fortunate enough to do some +service to the administration; he became one of its chief orators, was +made judge in the civil courts, and obtained the appointment of his +nephew Lesourd to his own vacant place as president of the court of +Provins. This appointment greatly annoyed Desfondrilles. The Keeper of +the Seals sent down one of his own proteges to fill Lesourd's place. +The promotion of Monsieur Tiphaine and his translation to Paris +were therefore of no benefit at all to the Vinet party; but Vinet +nevertheless made a clever use of the result. He had always told the +Provins people that they were being used as a stepping-stone to raise +the crafty Madame Tiphaine into grandeur; Tiphaine himself had tricked +them; Madame Tiphaine despised both Provins and its people in her +heart, and would never return there again. Just at this crisis Monsieur +Tiphaine's father died; his son inherited a fine estate and sold his +house in Provins to Monsieur Julliard. The sale proved to the minds of +all how little the Tiphaines thought of Provins. Vinet was right; +Vinet had been a true prophet. These things had great influence on the +question of Pierrette's guardianship. + +Thus the dreadful martyrdom brutally inflicted on the poor child by two +imbecile tyrants (which led, through its consequences, to the terrible +operation of trepanning, performed by Monsieur Martener under the advice +of Doctor Bianchon),--all this horrible drama reduced to judicial +form was left to float in the vile mess called in legal parlance +the calendar. The case was made to drag through the delays and the +interminable labyrinths of the law, by the shufflings of an unprincipled +lawyer; and during all this time the calumniated girl languished in the +agony of the worst pain known to science. + +Monsieur Martener, together with the Auffray family, were soon charmed +by the beauty of Pierrette's nature and the character of her old +grandmother, whose feelings, ideas, and ways bore the stamp of Roman +antiquity,--this matron of the Marais was like a woman in Plutarch. + +Doctor Martener struggled bravely with death, which already grasped its +prey. From the first, Bianchon and the hospital surgeon had considered +Pierrette doomed; and there now took place between the doctor and the +disease, the former relying on Pierrette's youth, one of those struggles +which physicians alone comprehend,--the reward of which, in case of +success, is never found in the venal pay nor in the patients themselves, +but in the gentle satisfaction of conscience, in the invisible ideal +palm gathered by true artists from the contentment which fills their +soul after accomplishing a noble work. The physician strains towards +good as an artist towards beauty, each impelled by that grand sentiment +which we call virtue. This daily contest wiped out of Doctor Martener's +mind the petty irritations of that other contest of the Tiphaines and +the Vinets,--as always happens to men when they find themselves face to +face with a great and real misery to conquer. + +Monsieur Martener had begun his career in Paris; but the cruel activity +of the city and its insensibility to its masses of suffering had shocked +his gentle soul, fitted only for the quiet life of the provinces. +Moreover, he was under the yoke of his beautiful native land. He +returned to Provins, where he married and settled, and cared almost +lovingly for the people, who were to him like a large family. During +the whole of Pierrette's illness he was careful not to speak of her. His +reluctance to answer the questions of those who asked about her was so +evident that persons soon ceased to put them. Pierrette was to him, what +indeed she truly was, a poem, mysterious, profound, vast in suffering, +such as doctors find at times in their terrible experience. He felt an +admiration for this delicate young creature which he would not share +with any one. + +This feeling of the physician for his patient was, however, +unconsciously communicated (like all true feelings) to Monsieur and +Madame Auffray, whose house became, so long as Pierrette was in it, +quiet and silent. The children, who had formerly played so joyously with +her, agreed among themselves with the loving grace of childhood to be +neither noisy nor troublesome. They made it a point of honor to be good +because Pierrette was ill. Monsieur Auffray's house was in the Upper +town, beneath the ruins of the Chateau, and it was built upon a sort of +terrace formed by the overthrow of the old ramparts. The occupants could +have a view of the valley from the little fruit-garden enclosed by walls +which overlooked the town. The roofs of the other houses came to about +the level of the lower wall of this garden. Along the terrace ran a +path, by which Monsieur Auffray's study could be entered through a glass +door; at the other end of the path was an arbor of grape vines and a +fig-tree, beneath which stood a round table, a bench and some chairs, +painted green. Pierrette's bedroom was above the study of her new +guardian. Madame Lorrain slept in a cot beside her grandchild. From her +window Pierrette could see the whole of the glorious valley of Provins, +which she hardly knew, so seldom had she left that dreadful house of the +Rogrons. When the weather was fine she loved to drag herself, resting on +her grandmother's arm, to the vine-clad arbor. Brigaut, unable to work, +came three times a day to see his little friend; he was gnawed by a +grief which made him indifferent to life. He lay in wait like a dog +for Monsieur Martener, and followed him when he left the house. The old +grandmother, drunk with grief, had the courage to conceal her despair; +she showed her darling the smiling face she formerly wore at Pen-Hoel. +In her desire to produce that illusion in the girl's mind, she made her +a little Breton cap like the one Pierrette had worn on her first arrival +in Provins; it made the darling seem more like her childlike self; in it +she was delightful to look upon, her sweet face circled with a halo of +cambric and fluted lace. Her skin, white with the whiteness of unglazed +porcelain, her forehead, where suffering had printed the semblance of +deep thought, the purity of the lines refined by illness, the slowness +of the glances, and the occasional fixity of the eyes, made Pierrette +an almost perfect embodiment of melancholy. She was served by all with a +sort of fanaticism; she was felt to be so gentle, so tender, so loving. +Madame Martener sent her piano to her sister Madame Auffray, thinking +to amuse Pierrette who was passionately fond of music. It was a poem to +watch her listening to a theme of Weber, or Beethoven, or Herold,--her +eyes raised, her lips silent, regretting no doubt the life escaping +her. The cure Peroux and Monsieur Habert, her two religious comforters, +admired her saintly resignation. Surely the seraphic perfection of young +girls and young men marked with the hectic of death, is a wonderful fact +worthy of the attention alike of philosophers and of heedless minds. +He who has ever seen one of these sublime departures from this life can +never remain, or become, an unbeliever. Such beings exhale, as it +were, a celestial fragrance; their glances speak of God; the voices +are eloquent in the simplest words; often they ring like some seraphic +instrument revealing the secrets of the future. When Monsieur Martener +praised her for having faithfully followed a harsh prescription the +little angel replied, and with what a glance--! + +"I want to live, dear Monsieur Martener; but less for myself than for +my grandmother, for my Brigaut, for all of you who will grieve at my +death." + +The first time she went into the garden on a beautiful sunny day in +November attended by all the household, Madame Auffray asked her if she +was tired. + +"No, now that I have no sufferings but those God sends I can bear all," +she said. "The joy of being loved gives me strength to suffer." + +That was the only time (and then vaguely) that she ever alluded to her +horrible martyrdom at the Rogrons, whom she never mentioned, and of whom +no one reminded her, knowing well how painful the memory must be. + +"Dear Madame Auffray," she said one day at noon on the terrace, as +she gazed at the valley, warmed by a glorious sun and colored with the +glowing tints of autumn, "my death in your house gives me more happiness +than I have had since I left Brittany." + +Madame Auffray whispered in her sister Martener's ear:-- + +"How she would have loved!" + +In truth, her tones, her looks gave to her words a priceless value. + +Monsieur Martener corresponded with Doctor Bianchon, and did nothing of +importance without his advice. He hoped in the first place to regular +the functions of nature and to draw away the abscess in the head through +the ear. The more Pierrette suffered, the more he hoped. He gained some +slight success at times, and that was a great triumph. For several days +Pierrette's appetite returned and enabled her to take nourishing food +for which her illness had given her a repugnance; the color of her skin +changed; but the condition of her head was terrible. Monsieur Martener +entreated the great physician his adviser to come down. Bianchon came, +stayed two days, and resolved to undertake an operation. To spare the +feelings of poor Martener he went to Paris and brought back with him the +celebrated Desplein. Thus the operation was performed by the greatest +surgeon of ancient or modern times; but that terrible diviner said to +Martener as he departed with Bianchon, his best-loved pupil:-- + +"Nothing but a miracle can save her. As Horace told you, caries of the +bone has begun. At her age the bones are so tender." + +The operation was performed at the beginning of March, 1828. During +all that month, distressed by Pierrette's horrible sufferings, Monsieur +Martener made several journeys to Paris; there he consulted Desplein and +Bianchon, and even went so far as to propose to them an operation of the +nature of lithotrity, which consists in passing into the head a hollow +instrument by the help of which an heroic remedy can be applied to +the diseased bone, to arrest the progress of the caries. Even the bold +Desplein dared not attempt that high-handed surgical measure, which +despair alone had suggested to Martener. When he returned home from +Paris he seemed to his friends morose and gloomy. He was forced to +announce on that fatal evening to the Auffrays and Madame Lorrain and to +the two priests and Brigaut that science could do no more for Pierrette, +whose recovery was now in God's hands only. The consternation among them +was terrible. The grandmother made a vow, and requested the priests to +say a mass every morning at daybreak before Pierrette rose,--a mass at +which she and Brigaut might be present. + +The trial came on. While the victim lay dying, Vinet was calumniating +her in court. The judge approved and accepted the report of the Family +Council, and Vinet instantly appealed. The newly appointed _procureur +du roi_ made a requisition which necessitated fresh evidence. Rogron and +his sister were forced to give bail to avoid going to prison. The order +for fresh evidence included that of Pierrette herself. When Monsieur +Desfondrilles came to the Auffrays' to receive it, Pierrette was dying, +her confessor was at her bedside about to administer extreme unction. +At that moment she entreated all present to forgive her cousins as +she herself forgave them, saying with her simple good sense that the +judgment of these things belonged to God alone. + +"Grandmother," she said, "leave all you have to Brigaut" (Brigaut burst +into tears); "and," continued Pierrette, "give a thousand francs to that +kind Adele who warmed my bed. If Adele had remained with my cousins I +should not now be dying." + +It was at three o'clock on the Tuesday of Easter week, on a beautiful, +bright day, that the angel ceased to suffer. Her heroic grandmother +wished to watch all that night with the priests, and to sew with her +stiff old fingers her darling's shroud. Towards evening Brigaut left the +Auffray's house and went to Frappier's. + +"I need not ask you, my poor boy, for news," said the cabinet-maker. + +"Pere Frappier, yes, it is ended for her--but not for me." + +He cast a look upon the different woods piled up around the shop,--a +look of painful meaning. + +"I understand you, Brigaut," said his worthy master. "Take all you +want." And he showed him the oaken planks of two-inch thickness. + +"Don't help me, Monsieur Frappier," said the Breton, "I wish to do it +alone." + +He passed the night in planing and fitting Pierrette's coffin, and more +than once his plane took off at a single pass a ribbon of wood which was +wet with tears. The good man Frappier smoked his pipe and watched him +silently, saying only, when the four pieces were joined together,-- + +"Make the cover to slide; her poor grandmother will not hear the nails." + +At daybreak Brigaut went out to fetch the lead to line the coffin. By +a strange chance, the sheets of lead cost just the sum he had given +Pierrette for her journey from Nantes to Provins. The brave Breton, who +was able to resist the awful pain of himself making the coffin of his +dear one and lining with his memories those burial planks, could not +bear up against this strange reminder. His strength gave way; he was not +able to lift the lead, and the plumber, seeing this, came with him, and +offered to accompany him to the house and solder the last sheet when the +body had been laid in the coffin. + +The Breton burned the plane and all the tools he had used. Then he +settled his accounts with Frappier and bade him farewell. The heroism +with which the poor lad personally performed, like the grandmother, the +last offices for Pierrette made him a sharer in the awful scene which +crowned the tyranny of the Rogrons. + +Brigaut and the plumber reached the house of Monsieur Auffray just in +time to decide by their own main force an infamous and shocking judicial +question. The room where the dead girl lay was full of people, and +presented to the eyes of the two men a singular sight. The Rogron +emissaries were standing beside the body of their victim, to torture her +even after death. The corpse of the child, solemn in its beauty, lay on +the cot-bed of her grandmother. Pierrette's eyes were closed, the brown +hair smoothed upon her brow, the body swathed in a coarse cotton sheet. + +Before the bed, on her knees, her hair in disorder, her hands stretched +out, her face on fire, the old Lorrain was crying out, "No, no, it shall +not be done!" + +At the foot of the bed stood Monsieur Auffray and the two priests. The +tapers were still burning. + +Opposite to the grandmother was the surgeon of the hospital, with an +assistant, and near him stood Doctor Neraud and Vinet. The surgeon wore +his dissecting apron; the assistant had opened a case of instruments and +was handing him a knife. + +This scene was interrupted by the noise of the coffin which Brigaut +and the plumber set down upon the floor. Then Brigaut, advancing, was +horrified at the sight of Madame Lorrain, who was now weeping. + +"What is the matter?" he asked, standing beside her and grasping the +chisel convulsively in his hand. + +"This," said the old woman, "_this_, Brigaut: they want to open the body +of my child and cut into her head, and stab her heart after her death as +they did when she was living." + +"Who?" said Brigaut, in a voice that might have deafened the men of law. + +"The Rogrons." + +"In the sacred name of God!--" + +"Stop, Brigaut," said Monsieur Auffray, seeing the lad brandish his +chisel. + +"Monsieur Auffray," said Brigaut, as white as his dead companion, "I +hear you because you are Monsieur Auffray, but at this moment I will not +listen to--" + +"The law!" said Auffray. + +"Is there law? is there justice?" cried the Breton. "Justice, this is +it!" and he advanced to the lawyer and the doctors, threatening them +with his chisel. + +"My friend," said the curate, "the law has been invoked by the lawyer of +Monsieur Rogron, who is under the weight of a serious accusation; and +it is impossible for us to refuse him the means of justification. The +lawyer of Monsieur Rogron claims that if the poor child died of an +abscess in her head her former guardian cannot be blamed, for it is +proved that Pierrette concealed the effects of the blow which she gave +to herself--" + +"Enough!" said Brigaut. + +"My client--" began Vinet. + +"Your client," cried the Breton, "shall go to hell and I to the +scaffold; for if one of you dares to touch her whom your client has +killed, I will kill him if my weapon does its duty." + +"This is interference with the law," said Vinet. "I shall instantly +inform the court." + +The five men left the room. + +"Oh, my son!" cried the old woman, rising from her knees and falling on +Brigaut's neck, "let us bury her quick,--they will come back." + +"If we solder the lead," said the plumber, "they may not dare to open +it." + +Monsieur Auffray hastened to his brother-in-law, Monsieur Lesourd, to +try and settle the matter. Vinet was not unwilling. Pierrette being dead +the suit about the guardianship fell, of course, to the ground. All the +astute lawyer wanted was the effect produced by his request. + +At midday Monsieur Desfondrilles made his report on the case, and the +court rendered a decision that there was no ground for further action. + +Rogron dared not go to Pierrette's funeral, at which the whole town +was present. Vinet wished to force him there, but the miserable man was +afraid of exciting universal horror. + +Brigaut left Provins after watching the filling up of the grave where +Pierrette lay, and went on foot to Paris. He wrote a petition to the +Dauphiness asking, in the name of his father, that he might enter the +Royal guard, to which he was at once admitted. When the expedition to +Algiers was undertaken he wrote to her again, to obtain employment in +it. He was then a sergeant; Marshal Bourmont gave him an appointment as +sub-lieutenant in a line regiment. The major's son behaved like a man +who wished to die. Death has, however, respected Jacques Brigaut up +to the present time; although he has distinguished himself in all the +recent expeditions he has never yet been wounded. He is now major in a +regiment of infantry. No officer is more taciturn or more trustworthy. +Outside of his duty he is almost mute; he walks alone and lives +mechanically. Every one divines and respects a hidden sorrow. He +possesses forty-six thousand francs, which old Madame Lorrain, who died +in Paris in 1829, bequeathed to him. + +At the elections of 1830 Vinet was made a deputy. The services he +rendered the new government have now earned him the position of +_procureur-general_. His influence is such that he will always remain a +deputy. Rogron is receiver-general in the same town where Vinet fulfils +his legal functions; and by one of those curious tricks of chance which +do so often occur, Monsieur Tiphaine is president of the Royal court in +the same town,--for the worthy man gave in his adhesion to the dynasty +of July without the slightest hesitation. The ex-beautiful Madame +Tiphaine lives on excellent terms with the beautiful Madame Rogron. +Vinet is hand in glove with Madame Tiphaine. + +As to the imbecile Rogron, he makes such remarks as, "Louis-Philippe +will never be really king till he is able to make nobles." + +The speech is evidently not his own. His health is failing, which +allows Madame Rogron to hope she may soon marry the General Marquis de +Montriveau, peer of France, who commands the department, and is paying +her attentions. Vinet is in his element, seeking victims; he never +believes in the innocence of an accused person. This thoroughbred +prosecutor is held to be one of the most amiable men on the circuit; +and he is no less liked in Paris and in the Chamber; at court he is a +charming courtier. + +According to a certain promise made by Vinet, General Baron Gouraud, +that noble relic of our glorious armies, married a Mademoiselle Matifat, +twenty-five years old, daughter of a druggist in the rue des Lombards, +whose dowry was a hundred thousand francs. He commands (as Vinet +prophesied) a department in the neighborhood of Paris. He was named +peer of France for his conduct in the riots which occurred during the +ministry of Casimir Perier. Baron Gouraud was one of the generals +who took the church of Saint-Merry, delighted to rap those rascally +civilians who had vexed him for years over the knuckles; for which +service he was rewarded with the grand cordon of the Legion of honor. + +None of the personages connected with Pierrette's death ever felt +the slightest remorse about it. Monsieur Desfondrilles is still +archaeological, but, in order to compass his own election, the +_procureur general_ Vinet took pains to have him appointed president of +the Provins court. Sylvie has a little circle, and manages her brother's +property; she lends her own money at high interest, and does not spend +more than twelve hundred francs a year. + +From time to time, when some former son or daughter of Provins returns +from Paris to settle down, you may hear them ask, as they leave +Mademoiselle Rogron's house, "Wasn't there a painful story against the +Rogrons,--something about a ward?" + +"Mere prejudice," replies Monsieur Desfondrilles. "Certain persons tried +to make us believe falsehoods. Out of kindness of heart the Rogrons took +in a girl named Pierrette, quite pretty but with no money. Just as she +was growing up she had an intrigue with a young man, and stood at her +window barefooted talking to him. The lovers passed notes to each other +by a string. She took cold in this way and died, having no constitution. +The Rogrons behaved admirably. They made no claim on certain property +which was to come to her,--they gave it all up to the grandmother. The +moral of it was, my good friend, that the devil punishes those who try +to benefit others." + +"Ah! that is quite another story from the one old Frappier told me." + +"Frappier consults his wine-cellar more than he does his memory," +remarked another of Mademoiselle Rogron's visitors. + +"But that old priest, Monsieur Habert says--" + +"Oh, he! don't you know why?" + +"No." + +"He wanted to marry his sister to Monsieur Rogron, the +receiver-general." + + * * * * * + +Two men think of Pierrette daily: Doctor Martener and Major Brigaut; +they alone know the hideous truth. + +To give that truth its true proportions we must transport the scene to +the Rome of the middle ages, where a sublime young girl, Beatrice Cenci, +was brought to the scaffold by motives and intrigues that were almost +identical with those which laid our Pierrette in her grave. Beatrice +Cenci had but one defender,--an artist, a painter. In our day history, +and living men, on the faith of Guido Reni's portrait, condemn the Pope, +and know that Beatrice was a most tender victim of infamous passions and +base feuds. + +We must all agree that legality would be a fine thing for social +scoundrelism IF THERE WERE NO GOD. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson + In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + + Brigaut, Major + The Chouans + + Desplein + The Atheist's Mass + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + + Gouraud, General, Baron + Cousin Pons + + Keller, Adolphe + The Middle Classes + Cesar Birotteau + + Matifat, Mademoiselle + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + + Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + + Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + + Roguin + Cesar Birotteau + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Vendetta + + Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor's Establishment + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + Tiphaine, Madame + The Vendetta + + Vinet + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pierrette, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRETTE *** + +***** This file should be named 1704.txt or 1704.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/1704/ + +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..31dad92 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1704 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1704) diff --git a/old/20050809-1704.txt b/old/20050809-1704.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bca042f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20050809-1704.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6021 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pierrette, 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: Pierrette + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: August 9, 2005 [EBook #1704] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRETTE *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers; and Dagny + + + + + + PIERRETTE + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated by + + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Anna Hanska: + + Dear Child,--You, the joy of the household, you, whose pink or + white pelerine flutters in summer among the groves of + Wierzschovnia like a will-o'-the-wisp, followed by the tender eyes + of your father and your mother,--how can I dedicate to _you_ a + story full of melancholy? And yet, ought not sorrows to be spoken + of to a young girl idolized as you are, since the day may come + when your sweet hands will be called to minister to them? It is so + difficult, Anna, to find in the history of our manners and morals + a subject that is worthy of your eyes, that no choice has been + left me; but perhaps you will be made to feel how fortunate your + fate is when you read the story sent to you by + Your old friend, + De Balzac. + + + + + PIERRETTE + + + + I + + THE LORRAINS + +At the dawn of an October day in 1827 a young fellow about sixteen +years of age, whose clothing proclaimed what modern phraseology so +insolently calls a proletary, was standing in a small square of Lower +Provins. At that early hour he could examine without being observed +the various houses surrounding the open space, which was oblong in +form. The mills along the river were already working; the whirr of +their wheels, repeated by the echoes of the Upper Town in the keen air +and sparkling clearness of the early morning, only intensified the +general silence so that the wheels of a diligence could be heard a +league away along the highroad. The two longest sides of the square, +separated by an avenue of lindens, were built in the simple style +which expresses so well the peaceful and matter-of-fact life of the +bourgeoisie. No signs of commerce were to be seen; on the other hand, +the luxurious porte-cocheres of the rich were few, and those few +turned seldom on their hinges, excepting that of Monsieur Martener, a +physician, whose profession obliged him to keep a cabriolet, and to +use it. A few of the house-fronts were covered by grape vines, others +by roses climbing to the second-story windows, through which they +wafted the fragrance of their scattered bunches. One end of the square +enters the main street of the Lower Town, the gardens of which reach +to the bank of one of the two rivers which water the valley of +Provins. The other end of the square enters a street which runs +parallel to the main street. + +At the latter, which was also the quietest end of the square, the +young workman recognized the house of which he was in search, which +showed a front of white stone grooved in lines to represent courses, +windows with closed gray blinds, and slender iron balconies decorated +with rosettes painted yellow. Above the ground floor and the first +floor were three dormer windows projecting from a slate roof; on the +peak of the central one was a new weather-vane. This modern innovation +represented a hunter in the attitude of shooting a hare. The front +door was reached by three stone steps. On one side of this door a +leaden pipe discharged the sink-water into a small street-gutter, +showing the whereabouts of the kitchen. On the other side were two +windows, carefully closed by gray shutters in which were heart-shaped +openings cut to admit the light; these windows seemed to be those of +the dining-room. In the elevation gained by the three steps were +vent-holes to the cellar, closed by painted iron shutters fantastically +cut in open-work. Everything was new. In this repaired and restored +house, the fresh-colored look of which contrasted with the time-worn +exteriors of all the other houses, an observer would instantly +perceive the paltry taste and perfect self-satisfaction of the retired +petty shopkeeper. + +The young man looked at these details with an expression of pleasure +that seemed to have something rather sad in it; his eyes roved from +the kitchen to the roof, with a motion that showed a deliberate +purpose. The rosy glow of the rising sun fell on a calico curtain at +one of the garret windows, the others being without that luxury. As he +caught sight of it the young fellow's face brightened gaily. He +stepped back a little way, leaned against a linden, and sang, in the +drawling tone peculiar to the west of France, the following Breton +ditty, published by Bruguiere, a composer to whom we are indebted for +many charming melodies. In Brittany, the young villagers sing this +song to all newly-married couples on their wedding-day:-- + + "We've come to wish you happiness in marriage, + To m'sieur your husband + As well as to you: + + "You have just been bound, madam' la mariee, + With bonds of gold + That only death unbinds: + + "You will go no more to balls or gay assemblies; + You must stay at home + While we shall go. + + "Have you thought well how you are pledged to be + True to your spouse, + And love him like yourself? + + "Receive these flowers our hands do now present you; + Alas! your fleeting honors + Will fade as they." + +This native air (as sweet as that adapted by Chateaubriand to _Ma +soeur, te souvient-il encore_), sung in this little town of the Brie +district, must have been to the ears of a Breton maiden the touchstone +of imperious memories, so faithfully does it picture the manners and +customs, the surroundings and the heartiness of her noble old land, +where a sort of melancholy reigns, hardly to be defined; caused, +perhaps, by the aspect of life in Brittany, which is deeply touching. +This power of awakening a world of grave and sweet and tender memories +by a familiar and sometimes lively ditty, is the privilege of those +popular songs which are the superstitions of music,--if we may use the +word "superstition" as signifying all that remains after the ruin of a +people, all that survives their revolutions. + +As he finished the first couple, the singer, who never took his eyes +from the attic curtain, saw no signs of life. While he sang the +second, the curtain stirred. When the words "Receive these flowers" +were sung, a youthful face appeared; a white hand cautiously opened +the casement, and a girl made a sign with her head to the singer as he +ended with the melancholy thought of the simple verses,--"Alas! your +fleeting honors will fade as they." + +To her the young workman suddenly showed, drawing it from within his +jacket, a yellow flower, very common in Brittany, and sometimes to be +found in La Brie (where, however, it is rare),--the furze, or broom. + +"Is it really you, Brigaut?" said the girl, in a low voice. + +"Yes, Pierrette, yes. I am in Paris. I have started to make my way; +but I'm ready to settle here, near you." + +Just then the fastening of a window creaked in a room on the first +floor, directly below Pierrette's attic. The girl showed the utmost +terror, and said to Brigaut, quickly:-- + +"Run away!" + +The lad jumped like a frightened frog to a bend in the street caused +by the projection of a mill just where the square opens into the main +thoroughfare; but in spite of his agility his hob-nailed shoes echoed +on the stones with a sound easily distinguished from the music of the +mill, and no doubt heard by the person who opened the window. + +That person was a woman. No man would have torn himself from the +comfort of a morning nap to listen to a minstrel in a jacket; none but +a maid awakes to songs of love. Not only was this woman a maid, but +she was an old maid. When she had opened her blinds with the furtive +motion of the bat, she looked in all directions, but saw nothing, and +only heard, faintly, the flying footfalls of the lad. Can there be +anything more dreadful than the matutinal apparition of an ugly old +maid at her window? Of all the grotesque sights which amuse the eyes +of travellers in country towns, that is the most unpleasant. It is too +repulsive to laugh at. This particular old maid, whose ear was so +keen, was denuded of all the adventitious aids, of whatever kind, +which she employed as embellishments; her false front and her +collarette were lacking; she wore that horrible little bag of black +silk on which old women insist on covering their skulls, and it was +now revealed beneath the night-cap which had been pushed aside in +sleep. This rumpled condition gave a menacing expression to the head, +such as painters bestow on witches. The temples, ears, and nape of the +neck, were disclosed in all their withered horror,--the wrinkles being +marked in scarlet lines that contrasted with the would-be white of the +bed-gown which was tied round her neck by a narrow tape. The gaping of +this garment revealed a breast to be likened only to that of an old +peasant woman who cares nothing about her personal ugliness. The +fleshless arm was like a stick on which a bit of stuff was hung. Seen +at her window, this spinster seemed tall from the length and +angularity of her face, which recalled the exaggerated proportions of +certain Swiss heads. The character of their countenance--the features +being marked by a total want of harmony--was that of hardness in the +lines, sharpness in the tones; while an unfeeling spirit, pervading +all, would have filled a physiognomist with disgust. These +characteristics, fully visible at this moment, were usually modified +in public by a sort of commercial smile,--a bourgeois smirk which +mimicked good-humor; so that persons meeting with this old maid might +very well take her for a kindly woman. She owned the house on shares +with her brother. The brother, by-the-bye, was sleeping so tranquilly +in his own chamber that the orchestra of the Opera-house could not +have awakened him, wonderful as its diapason is said to be. + +The old maid stretched her neck out of the window, twisted it, and +raised her cold, pale-blue little eyes, with their short lashes set in +lids that were always rather swollen, to the attic window, endeavoring +to see Pierrette. Perceiving the uselessness of that attempt, she +retreated into her room with a movement like that of a tortoise which +draws in its head after protruding it from its carapace. The blinds +were then closed, and the silence of the street was unbroken except by +peasants coming in from the country, or very early persons moving +about. + +When there is an old maid in a house, watch-dogs are unnecessary; not +the slightest event can occur that she does not see and comment upon +and pursue to its utmost consequences. The foregoing trifling +circumstance was therefore destined to give rise to grave +suppositions, and to open the way for one of those obscure dramas +which take place in families, and are none the less terrible because +they are secret,--if, indeed, we may apply the word "drama" to such +domestic occurrences. + +Pierrette did not go back to bed. To her, Brigaut's arrival was an +immense event. During the night--that Eden of the wretched--she +escaped the vexations and fault-findings she bore during the day. Like +the hero of a ballad, German or Russian, I forget which, her sleep +seemed to her the happy life; her waking hours a bad dream. She had +just had her only pleasurable waking in three years. The memories of +her childhood had sung their melodious ditties in her soul. The first +couplet was heard in a dream; the second made her spring out of bed; +at the third, she doubted her ears,--the sorrowful are all disciples +of Saint Thomas; but when the fourth was sung, standing in her +night-gown with bare feet by the window, she recognized Brigaut, the +companion of her childhood. Ah, yes! it was truly the well-known +square jacket with the bobtails, the pockets of which stuck out at the +hips,--the jacket of blue cloth which is classic in Brittany; there, +too, were the waistcoat of printed cotton, the linen shirt fastened by +a gold heart, the large rolling collar, the earrings, the stout shoes, +the trousers of blue-gray drilling unevenly colored by the various +lengths of the warp,--in short, all those humble, strong, and durable +things which make the apparel of the Breton peasantry. The big buttons +of white horn which fastened the jacket made the girl's heart beat. +When she saw the bunch of broom her eyes filled with tears; then a +dreadful fear drove back into her heart the happy memories that were +budding there. She thought her cousin sleeping in the room beneath her +might have heard the noise she made in jumping out of bed and running +to the window. The fear was just; the old maid was coming, and she +made Brigaut the terrified sign which the lad obeyed without the least +understanding it. Such instinctive submission to a girl's bidding +shows one of those innocent and absolute affections which appear from +century to century on this earth, where they blossom, like the aloes +of Isola Bella, twice or thrice in a hundred years. Whoever had seen +the lad as he ran away would have loved the ingenuous chivalry of his +most ingenuous feeling. + +Jacques Brigaut was worthy of Pierrette Lorrain, who was just fifteen. +Two children! Pierrette could not keep from crying as she watched his +flight in the terror her gesture had conveyed to him. Then she sat +down in a shabby armchair placed before a little table above which +hung a mirror. She rested her elbows on the table, put her head in her +hands, and sat thinking for an hour, calling to memory the Marais, the +village of Pen-Hoel, the perilous voyages on a pond in a boat untied +for her from an old willow by little Jacques; then the old faces of +her grandfather and grandmother, the sufferings of her mother, and the +handsome face of Major Brigaut,--in short, the whole of her careless +childhood. It was all a dream, a luminous joy on the gloomy background +of the present. + +Her beautiful chestnut hair escaped in disorder from her cap, rumpled +in sleep,--a cambric cap with ruffles, which she had made herself. On +each side of her forehead were little ringlets escaping from gray +curl-papers. From the back of her head hung a heavy braid of hair that +was half unplaited. The excessive whiteness of her face betrayed that +terrible malady of girlhood which goes by the name of chlorosis, +deprives the body of its natural colors, destroys the appetite, and +shows a disordered state of the organism. The waxy tones were in all +the visible parts of her flesh. The neck and shoulders explained by +their blanched paleness the wasted arms, flung forward and crossed +upon the table. Her feet seemed enervated, shrunken from illness. Her +night-gown came only to her knees and showed the flaccid muscles, the +blue veins, the impoverished flesh of the legs. The cold, to which she +paid no heed, turned her lips violet, and a sad smile, drawing up the +corners of a sensitive mouth, showed teeth that were white as ivory +and quite small,--pretty, transparent teeth, in keeping with the +delicate ears, the rather sharp but dainty nose, and the general +outline of her face, which, in spite of its roundness, was lovely. All +the animation of this charming face was in the eyes, the iris of +which, brown like Spanish tobacco and flecked with black, shone with +golden reflections round pupils that were brilliant and intense. +Pierrette was made to be gay, but she was sad. Her lost gaiety was +still to be seen in the vivacious forms of the eye, in the ingenuous +grace of her brow, in the smooth curve of her chin. The long eyelashes +lay upon the cheek-bones, made prominent by suffering. The paleness of +her face, which was unnaturally white, made the lines and all the +details infinitely pure. The ear alone was a little masterpiece of +modelling,--in marble, you might say. Pierrette suffered in many ways. +Perhaps you would like to know her history, and this is it. + +Pierrette's mother was a Demoiselle Auffray of Provins, half-sister by +the father's side of Madame Rogron, mother of the present owners of +the house. + +Monsieur Auffray, her husband, had married at the age of eighteen; his +second marriage took place when he was nearly sixty-nine. By the +first, he had an only daughter, very plain, who was married at sixteen +to an innkeeper of Provins named Rogron. + +By his second marriage the worthy Auffray had another daughter; but +this one was charming. There was, of course, an enormous difference in +the ages of these daughters; the one by the first marriage was fifty +years old when the second child was born. By this time the eldest, +Madame Rogron, had two grown-up children. + +The youngest daughter of the old man was married at eighteen to a man +of her choice, a Breton officer named Lorrain, captain in the Imperial +Guard. Love often makes a man ambitious. The captain, anxious to rise +to a colonelcy, exchanged into a line regiment. While he, then a +major, and his wife enjoyed themselves in Paris on the allowance made +to them by Monsieur and Madame Auffray, or scoured Germany at the beck +and call of the Emperor's battles and truces, old Auffray himself +(formerly a grocer) died, at the age of eighty-eight, without having +found time to make a will. His property was administered by his +daughter, Madame Rogron, and her husband so completely in their own +interests that nothing remained for the old man's widow beyond the +house she lived in on the little square, and a few acres of land. This +widow, the mother of Madame Lorrain, was only thirty-eight at the time +of her husband's death. Like many widows, she came to the unwise +decision of remarrying. She sold the house and land to her +step-daughter, Madame Rogron, and married a young physician named +Neraud, who wasted her whole fortune. She died of grief and misery two +years later. + +Thus the share of her father's property which ought to have come to +Madame Lorrain disappeared almost entirely, being reduced to the small +sum of eight thousand francs. Major Lorrain was killed at the battle +of Montereau, leaving his wife, then twenty-one years of age, with a +little daughter of fourteen months, and no other means than the +pension to which she was entitled and an eventual inheritance from her +late husband's parents, Monsieur and Madame Lorrain, retail +shopkeepers at Pen-Hoel, a village in the Vendee, situated in that +part of it which is called the Marais. These Lorrains, grandfather and +grandmother of Pierrette Lorrain, sold wood for building purposes, +slates, tiles, pantiles, pipes, etc. Their business, either from their +own incapacity or through ill-luck, did badly, and gave them scarcely +enough to live on. The failure of the well-known firm of Collinet at +Nantes, caused by the events of 1814 which led to a sudden fall in +colonial products, deprived them of twenty-four thousand francs which +they had just deposited with that house. + +The arrival of their daughter-in-law was therefore welcome to them. +Her pension of eight hundred francs was a handsome income at Pen-Hoel. +The eight thousand francs which the widow's half-brother and sister +Rogron sent to her from her father's estate (after a multitude of +legal formalities) were placed by her in the Lorrains' business, they +giving her a mortgage on a little house which they owned at Nantes, +let for three hundred francs, and barely worth ten thousand. + +Madame Lorrain the younger, Pierrette's mother, died in 1819. The +child of old Auffray and his young wife was small, delicate, and +weakly; the damp climate of the Marais did not agree with her. But her +husband's family persuaded her, in order to keep her with them, that +in no other quarter of the world could she find a more healthy region. +She was so petted and tenderly cared for that her death, when it came, +brought nothing but honor to the old Lorrains. + +Some persons declared that Brigaut, an old Vendeen, one of those men +of iron who served under Charette, under Mercier, under the Marquis de +Montauran, and the Baron du Guenic, in the wars against the Republic, +counted for a good deal in the willingness of the younger Madame +Lorrain to remain in the Marais. If it were so, his soul must have +been a truly loving and devoted one. All Pen-Hoel saw him--he was +called respectfully Major Brigaut, the grade he had held in the +Catholic army--spending his days and his evenings in the Lorrains' +parlor, beside the window of the imperial major. Toward the last, the +curate of Pen-Hoel made certain representations to old Madame Lorrain, +begging her to persuade her daughter-in-law to marry Brigaut, and +promising to have the major appointed justice of peace for the canton +of Pen-Hoel, through the influence of the Vicomte de Kergarouet. The +death of the poor young woman put an end to the matter. + +Pierrette was left in charge of her grandparents who owed her four +hundred francs a year, interest on the little property placed in their +hands. This small sum was now applied to her maintenance. The old +people, who were growing less and less fit for business, soon found +themselves confronted by an active and capable competitor, against +whom they said hard things, all the while doing nothing to defeat him. +Major Brigaut, their friend and adviser, died six months after his +friend, the younger Madame Lorrain,--perhaps of grief, perhaps of his +wounds, of which he had received twenty-seven. + +Like a sound merchant, the competitor set about ruining his +adversaries in order to get rid of all rivalry. With his connivance, +the Lorrains borrowed money on notes, which they were unable to meet, +and which drove them in their old days into bankruptcy. Pierrette's +claim upon the house in Nantes was superseded by the legal rights of +her grandmother, who enforced them to secure the daily bread of her +poor husband. The house was sold for nine thousand five hundred +francs, of which one thousand five hundred went for costs. The +remaining eight thousand came to Madame Lorain, who lived upon the +income of them in a sort of almshouse at Nantes, like that of +Sainte-Perine in Paris, called Saint-Jacques, where the two old people +had bed and board for a humble payment. + +As it was impossible to keep Pierrette, their ruined little +granddaughter, with them, the old Lorrains bethought themselves of her +uncle and aunt Rogron, in Provins, to whom they wrote. These Rogrons +were dead. The letter might, therefore, have easily been lost; but if +anything here below can take the place of Providence, it is the post. +Postal spirit, incomparably above public spirit, exceeds in brilliancy +of resource and invention the ablest romance-writers. When the post +gets hold of a letter, worth, to it, from three to ten sous, and does +not immediately know where to find the person to whom that letter is +addressed, it displays a financial anxiety only to be met with in very +pertinacious creditors. The post goes and comes and ferrets through +all the eighty-six departments. Difficulties only arouse the genius of +the clerks, who may really be called men-of-letters, and who set about +to search for that unknown human being with as much ardor as the +mathematicians of the Bureau give to longitudes. They literally +ransack the whole kingdom. At the first ray of hope all the +post-offices in Paris are alert. Sometimes the receiver of a missing +letter is amazed at the network of scrawled directions which covers both +back and front of the missive,--glorious vouchers for the administrative +persistency with which the post has been at work. If a man undertook +what the post accomplishes, he would lose ten thousand francs in +travel, time, and money, to recover ten sous. The letter of the old +Lorrains, addressed to Monsieur Rogron of Provins (who had then been +dead a year) was conveyed by the post in due time to Monsieur Rogron, +son of the deceased, a mercer in the rue Saint-Denis in Paris. And +this is where the postal spirit obtains its greatest triumph. An heir +is always more or less anxious to know if he has picked up every scrap +of his inheritance, if he has not overlooked a credit, or a trunk of +old clothes. The Treasury knows that. A letter addressed to the late +Rogron at Provins was certain to pique the curiosity of Rogron, Jr., +or Mademoiselle Rogron, the heirs in Paris. Out of that human interest +the Treasury was able to earn sixty centimes. + +These Rogrons, toward whom the old Lorrains, though dreading to part +with their dear little granddaughter, stretched their supplicating +hands, became, in this way, and most unexpectedly, the masters of +Pierrette's destiny. It is therefore indispensable to explain both +their antecedents and their character. + + + + II + + THE ROGRONS + +Pere Rogron, that innkeeper of Provins to whom old Auffray had married +his daughter by his first wife, was an individual with an inflamed +face, a veiny nose, and cheeks on which Bacchus had drawn his scarlet +and bulbous vine-marks. Though short, fat, and pot-bellied, with stout +legs and thick hands, he was gifted with the shrewdness of the Swiss +innkeepers, whom he resembled. Certainly he was not handsome, and his +wife looked like him. Never was a couple better matched. Rogron liked +good living and to be waited upon by pretty girls. He belonged to the +class of egoists whose behavior is brutal; he gave way to his vices +and did their will openly in the face of Israel. Grasping, selfish, +without decency, and always gratifying his own fancies, he devoured +his earnings until the day when his teeth failed him. Selfishness +stayed by him. In his old days he sold his inn, collected (as we have +seen) all he could of his late father-in-law's property, and went to +live in the little house in the square of Provins, bought for a trifle +from the widow of old Auffray, Pierrette's grandmother. + +Rogron and his wife had about two thousand francs a year from +twenty-seven lots of land in the neighborhood of Provins, and from the +sale of their inn for twenty thousand. Old Auffray's house, though out +of repair, was inhabited just as it was by the Rogrons,--old rats like +wrack and ruin. Rogron himself took to horticulture and spent his +savings in enlarging the garden; he carried it to the river's edge +between two walls and built a sort of stone embankment across the end, +where aquatic nature, left to herself, displayed the charms of her +flora. + +In the early years of their marriage the Rogrons had a son and a +daughter, both hideous; for such human beings degenerate. Put out to +nurse at a low price, these luckless children came home in due time, +after the worst of village training,--allowed to cry for hours after +their wet-nurse, who worked in the fields, leaving them shut up to +scream for her in one of those damp, dark, low rooms which serve as +homes for the French peasantry. Treated thus, the features of the +children coarsened; their voices grew harsh; they mortified their +mother's vanity, and that made her strive to correct their bad habits +by a sternness which the severity of their father converted through +comparison to kindness. As a general thing, they were left to run +loose about the stables and courtyards of the inn, or the streets of +the town; sometimes they were whipped; sometimes they were sent, to +get rid of them, to their grandfather Auffray, who did not like them. +The injustice the Rogrons declared the old man did to their children, +justified them to their own minds in taking the greater part of "the +old scoundrel's" property. However, Rogron did send his son to school, +and did buy him a man, one of his own cartmen, to save him from the +conscription. As soon as his daughter, Sylvie, was thirteen, he sent +her to Paris, to make her way as apprentice in a shop. Two years later +he despatched his son, Jerome-Denis, to the same career. When his +friends the carriers and those who frequented the inn, asked him what +he meant to do with his children, Pere Rogron explained his system +with a conciseness which, in view of that of most fathers, had the +merit of frankness. + +"When they are old enough to understand me I shall give 'em a kick and +say: 'Go and make your own way in the world!'" he replied, emptying +his glass and wiping his lips with the back of his hand. Then he +winked at his questioner with a knowing look. "Hey! hey! they are no +greater fools than I was," he added. "My father gave me three kicks; I +shall only give them one; he put one louis into my hand; I shall put +ten in theirs, therefore they'll be better off than I was. That's the +way to do. After I'm gone, what's left will be theirs. The notaries +can find them and give it to them. What nonsense to bother one's self +about children. Mine owe me their life. I've fed them, and I don't ask +anything from them,--I call that quits, hey, neighbor? I began as a +cartman, but that didn't prevent me marrying the daughter of that old +scoundrel Auffray." + +Sylvie Rogron was sent (with six hundred francs for her board) as +apprentice to certain shopkeepers originally from Provins and now +settled in Paris in the rue Saint-Denis. Two years later she was "at +par," as they say; she earned her own living; at any rate her parents +paid nothing for her. That is what is called being "at par" in the rue +Saint-Denis. Sylvie had a salary of four hundred francs. At nineteen +years of age she was independent. At twenty, she was the second +demoiselle in the Maison Julliard, wholesale silk dealers at the +"Chinese Worm" rue Saint-Denis. The history of the sister was that of +the brother. Young Jerome-Denis Rogron entered the establishment of +one of the largest wholesale mercers in the same street, the Maison +Guepin, at the "Three Distaffs." When Sylvie Rogron, aged twenty-one, +had risen to be forewoman at a thousand francs a year Jerome-Denis, +with even better luck, was head-clerk at eighteen, with a salary of +twelve hundred francs. + +Brother and sister met on Sundays and fete-days, which they passed +in economical amusements; they dined out of Paris, and went to +Saint-Cloud, Meudon, Belleville, or Vincennes. Towards the close of the +year 1815 they clubbed their savings, amounting to about twenty thousand +francs, earned by the sweat of their brows, and bought of Madame +Guenee the property and good-will of her celebrated shop, the "Family +Sister," one of the largest retail establishments in the quarter. +Sylvie kept the books and did the writing. Jerome-Denis was master and +head-clerk both. In 1821, after five years' experience, competition +became so fierce that it was all the brother and sister could do to +carry on the business and maintain its reputation. + +Though Sylvie was at this time scarcely forty, her natural ugliness, +combined with hard work and a certain crabbed look (caused as much by +the conformation of her features as by her cares), made her seem like +a woman of fifty. At thirty-eight Jerome Rogron presented to the eyes +of his customers the silliest face that ever looked over a counter. +His retreating forehead, flattened by fatigue, was marked by three +long wrinkles. His grizzled hair, cut close, expressed in some +indefinable way the stupidity of a cold-blooded animal. The glance of +his bluish eyes had neither flame nor thought in it. His round, flat +face excited no sympathy, nor even a laugh on the lips of those who +might be examining the varieties of the Parisian species; on the +contrary, it saddened them. He was, like his father, short and fat, +but his figure lacked the latter's brutal obesity, and showed, +instead, an almost ridiculous debility. His father's high color was +changed in him to the livid flabbiness peculiar to persons who live in +close back-shops, or in those railed cages called counting-rooms, +forever tying up bundles, receiving and making change, snarling at the +clerks, and repeating the same old speeches to customers. + +The small amount of brains possessed by the brother and sister had +been wholly absorbed in maintaining their business, in getting and +keeping money, and in learning the special laws and usages of the +Parisian market. Thread, needles, ribbons, pins, buttons, tailors' +furnishings, in short, the enormous quantity of things which go to +make up a mercer's stock, had taken all their capacity. Outside of +their business they knew absolutely nothing; they were even ignorant +of Paris. To them the great city was merely a region spreading around +the Rue Saint-Denis. Their narrow natures could see no field except +the shop. They were clever enough in nagging their clerks and their +young women and in proving them to blame. Their happiness lay in +seeing all hands busy at the counters, exhibiting the merchandise, and +folding it up again. When they heard the six or eight voices of the +young men and women glibly gabbling the consecrated phrases by which +clerks reply to the remarks of customers, the day was fine to them, +the weather beautiful! But on the really fine days, when the blue of +the heavens brightened all Paris, and the Parisians walked about to +enjoy themselves and cared for no "goods" but those they carried on +their back, the day was overcast to the Rogrons. "Bad weather for +sales," said that pair of imbeciles. + +The skill with which Rogron could tie up a parcel made him an object +of admiration to all his apprentices. He could fold and tie and see +all that happened in the street and in the farthest recesses of the +shop by the time he handed the parcel to his customer with a "Here it +is, madame; _nothing else_ to-day?" But the poor fool would have been +ruined without his sister. Sylvie had common-sense and a genius for +trade. She advised her brother in their purchases and would pitilessly +send him to remote parts of France to save a trifle of cost. The +shrewdness which all women more or less possess, not being employed in +the service of her heart, had drifted into that of speculation. A +business to pay for,--that thought was the mainspring which kept the +machine going and gave it an infernal activity. + +Rogron was really only head-clerk; he understood nothing of his +business as a whole; self-interest, that great motor of the mind, had +failed in his case to instruct him. He was often aghast when his +sister ordered some article to be sold below cost, foreseeing the end +of its fashion; later he admired her idiotically for her cleverness. +He reasoned neither ill nor well; he was simply incapable of reasoning +at all; but he had the sense to subordinate himself to his sister, and +he did so from a consideration that was outside of the business. "She +is my elder," he said. Perhaps an existence like his, always solitary, +reduced to the satisfaction of mere needs, deprived of money and all +pleasures in youth, may explain to physiologists and thinkers the +clownish expression of the face, the feebleness of mind, the vacant +silliness of the man. His sister had steadily prevented him from +marrying, afraid perhaps to lose her power over him, and seeing only a +source of expense and injury in some woman who would certainly be +younger and undoubtedly less ugly than herself. + +Silliness has two ways of comporting itself; it talks, or is silent. +Silent silliness can be borne; but Rogron's silliness was loquacious. +The man had a habit of chattering to his clerks, explaining the +minutiae of the business, and ornamenting his talk with those flat +jokes which may be called the "chaff" of shopkeeping. Rogron, listened +to, of course, by his subordinates and perfectly satisfied with +himself, had come at last into possession of a phraseology of his own. +This chatterer believed himself an orator. The necessity of explaining +to customers what they want, of guessing at their desires, and giving +them desires for what they do not want, exercises the tongue of all +retail shopkeepers. The petty dealer acquires the faculty of uttering +words and sentences in which there is absolutely no meaning, but which +have a marked success. He explains to his customers matters of +manufacture that they know nothing of; that alone gives him a passing +superiority over them; but take him away from his thousand and one +explanations about his thousand and one articles, and he is, +relatively to thought, like a fish out of water in the sun. + +Rogron and Sylvie, two mechanisms baptized by mistake, did not +possess, latent or active, the feelings which give life to the heart. +Their natures were shrivelled and harsh, hardened by toil, by +privation, by the remembrance of their sufferings during a long and +cruel apprenticeship to life. Neither of them complained of their +trials. They were not so much implacable as impracticable in their +dealings with others in misfortune. To them, virtue, honor, loyalty, +all human sentiments consisted solely in the payment of their bills. +Irritable and irritating, without feelings, and sordid in their +economy, the brother and sister bore a dreadful reputation among the +other merchants of the rue Saint-Denis. Had it not been for their +connection with Provins, where they went three or four times a year, +when they could close the shop for a day or two, they would have had +no clerks or young women. But old Rogron, their father, sent them all +the unfortunate young people of his neighborhood, whose parents wished +to start them in business in Paris. He obtained these apprentices by +boasting, out of vanity, of his son's success. Parents, attracted by +the prospect of their children being well-trained and closely watched, +and also, by the hope of their succeeding, eventually, to the +business, sent whichever child was most in the way at home to the care +of the brother and sister. But no sooner had the clerks or the young +women found a way of escape from that dreadful establishment than they +fled, with rejoicings that increased the already bad name of the +Rogrons. New victims were supplied yearly by the indefatigable old +father. + +From the time she was fifteen, Sylvie Rogron, trained to the simpering +of a saleswoman, had two faces,--the amiable face of the seller, the +natural face of a sour spinster. Her acquired countenance was a +marvellous bit of mimicry. She was all smiles. Her voice, soft and +wheedling, gave a commercial charm to business. Her real face was that +we have already seen projecting from the half-opened blinds; the mere +sight of her would have put to flight the most resolute Cossack of +1815, much as that horde were said to like all kinds of Frenchwomen. + +When the letter from the Lorrains reached the brother and sister, they +were in mourning for their father, from whom they inherited the house +which had been as good as stolen from Pierrette's grandmother, also +certain lands bought by their father, and certain moneys acquired by +usurious loans and mortgages to the peasantry, whose bits of ground +the old drunkard expected to possess. The yearly taking of stock was +just over. The price of the "Family Sister" had, at last, been paid in +full. The Rogrons owned about sixty thousand francs' worth of +merchandise, forty thousand in a bank or in their cash-box, and the +value of their business. Sitting on a bench covered with striped-green +Utrecht velvet placed in a square recess just behind their private +counter (the counter of their forewoman being similar and directly +opposite) the brother and sister consulted as to what they should do. +All retail shopkeepers aspire to become members of the bourgeoisie. By +selling the good-will of their business, the pair would have over a +hundred and fifty thousand francs, not counting the inheritance from +their father. By placing their present available property in the +public Funds, they would each obtain about four thousand francs a +year, and by taking the proceeds of their business, when sold, they +could repair and improve the house they inherited from their father, +which would thus be a good investment. They could then go and live in +a house of their own in Provins. Their forewoman was the daughter of a +rich farmer at Donnemarie, burdened with nine children, to whom he had +endeavored to give a good start in life, being aware that at his death +his property, divided into nine parts, would be but little for any one +of them. In five years, however, the man had lost seven children,--a +fact which made the forewoman so interesting that Rogron had tried, +unsuccessfully, to get her to marry him; but she showed an aversion +for her master which baffled his manoeuvres. Besides, Mademoiselle +Sylvie was not in favor of the match; in fact, she steadily opposed +her brother's marriage, and sought, instead, to make the shrewd young +woman their successor. + +No passing observer can form the least idea of the cryptogramic +existence of a certain class of shopkeepers; he looks at them and asks +himself, "On what, and why, do they live? whence have they come? where +do they go?" He is lost in such questions, but finds no answer to +them. To discover the false seed of poesy which lies in those heads +and fructifies in those lives, it is necessary to dig into them; and +when we do that we soon come to a thin subsoil beneath the surface. +The Parisian shopkeeper nurtures his soul on some hope or other, more +or less attainable, without which he would doubtless perish. One +dreams of building or managing a theatre; another longs for the honors +of mayoralty; this one desires a country-house, ten miles from Paris +with a so-called "park," which he will adorn with statues of tinted +plaster and fountains which squirt mere threads of water, but on which +he will spend a mint of money; others, again, dream of distinction and +a high grade in the National Guard. Provins, that terrestrial +paradise, filled the brother and sister with the fanatical longings +which all the lovely towns of France inspire in their inhabitants. Let +us say it to the glory of La Champagne, this love is warranted. +Provins, one of the most charming towns in all France, rivals +Frangistan and the valley of Cashmere; not only does it contain the +poesy of Saadi, the Persian Homer, but it offers many pharmaceutical +treasures to medical science. The crusades brought roses from Jericho +to this enchanting valley, where by chance they gained new charms +while losing none of their colors. The Provins roses are known the +world over. But Provins is not only the French Persia, it is also +Baden, Aix, Cheltenham,--for it has medicinal springs. This was the +spot which appeared from time to time before the eyes of the two +shopkeepers in the muddy regions of Saint-Denis. + +After crossing the gray plains which lie between La Ferte-Gaucher and +Provins, a desert and yet productive, a desert of wheat, you reach a +hill. Suddenly you behold at your feet a town watered by two rivers; +at the feet of the rock on which you stand stretches a verdant valley, +full of enchanting lines and fugitive horizons. If you come from Paris +you will pass through the whole length of Provins on the everlasting +highroad of France, which here skirts the hillside and is encumbered +with beggars and blind men, who will follow you with their pitiful +voices while you try to examine the unexpected picturesqueness of the +region. If you come from Troyes you will approach the town on the +valley side. The chateau, the old town, and its former ramparts are +terraced on the hillside, the new town is below. They go by the names +of Upper and Lower Provins. The upper is an airy town with steep +streets commanding fine views, surrounded by sunken road-ways and +ravines filled with chestnut trees which gash the sides of the hill +with their deep gulleys. The upper town is silent, clean, solemn, +surmounted by the imposing ruins of the old chateau. The lower is a +town of mills, watered by the Voulzie and the Durtain, two rivers of +Brie, narrow, sluggish, and deep; a town of inns, shops, retired +merchants; filled with diligences, travelling-carriages, and waggons. +The two towns, or rather this town with its historical memories, its +melancholy ruins, the gaiety of its valley, the romantic charm of its +ravines filled with tangled shrubbery and wildflowers, its rivers +banked with gardens, excites the love of all its children, who do as +the Auvergnats, the Savoyards, in fact, all French folks do, namely, +leave Provins to make their fortunes, and always return. "Die in one's +form," the proverb made for hares and faithful souls, seems also the +motto of a Provins native. + +Thus the two Rogrons thought constantly of their dear Provins. While +Jerome sold his thread he saw the Upper town; as he piled up the cards +on which were buttons he contemplated the valley; when he rolled and +unrolled his ribbons he followed the shining rivers. Looking up at his +shelves he saw the ravines where he had often escaped his father's +anger and gone a-nutting or gathering blackberries. But the little +square in the Lower town was the chief object of his thoughts; he +imagined how he could improve his house: he dreamed of a new front, +new bedrooms, a salon, a billiard-room, a dining-room, and the kitchen +garden out of which he would make an English pleasure-ground, with +lawns, grottos, fountains, and statuary. The bedrooms at present +occupied by the brother and sister, on the second floor of a house +with three windows front and six storeys high in the rue Saint-Denis, +were furnished with the merest necessaries, yet no one in Paris had +finer furniture than they--in fancy. When Jerome walked the streets he +stopped short, struck with admiration at the handsome things in the +upholsterers' windows, and at the draperies he coveted for his house. +When he came home he would say to his sister: "I found in such a shop, +such and such a piece of furniture that will just do for the salon." +The next day he would buy another piece, and another, and so on. He +rejected, the following month, the articles of the months before. The +Budget itself, could not have paid for his architectural schemes. He +wanted everything he saw, but abandoned each thing for the last thing. +When he saw the balconies of new houses, when he studied external +ornamentation, he thought all such things, mouldings, carvings, etc., +out of place in Paris. "Ah!" he would say, "those fine things would +look much better at Provins." When he stood on his doorstep leaning +against the lintel, digesting his morning meal, with a vacant eye, the +mercer was gazing at the house of his fancy gilded by the sun of his +dream; he walked in his garden; he heard the jet from his fountain +falling in pearly drops upon a slab of limestone; he played on his own +billiard-table; he gathered his own flowers. + +Sylvie, on the other hand, was thinking so deeply, pen in hand, that +she forgot to scold the clerks; she was receiving the bourgeoisie of +Provins, she was looking at herself in the mirrors of her salon, and +admiring the beauties of a marvellous cap. The brother and sister +began to think the atmosphere of the rue Saint-Denis unhealthy, and +the smell of the mud in the markets made them long for the fragrance +of the Provins roses. They were the victims of a genuine nostalgia, +and also of a monomania, frustrated at present by the necessity of +selling their tapes and bobbins before they could leave Paris. The +promised land of the valley of Provins attracted these Hebrews all the +more because they had really suffered, and for a long time, as they +crossed breathlessly the sandy wastes of a mercer's business. + +The Lorrains' letter reached them in the midst of meditations inspired +by this glorious future. They knew scarcely anything about their +cousin, Pierrette Lorrain. Their father got possession of the Auffray +property after they left home, and the old man said little to any one +of his business affairs. They hardly remembered their aunt Lorrain. It +took an hour of genealogical discussion before they made her out to be +the younger sister of their own mother by the second marriage of their +grandfather Auffray. It immediately struck them that this second +marriage had been fatally injurious to their interests by dividing the +Auffray property between two daughters. In times past they had heard +their father, who was given to sneering, complain of it. + +The brother and sister considered the application of the Lorrains from +the point of view of such reminiscences, which were not at all +favorable for Pierrette. To take charge of an orphan, a girl, a +cousin, who might become their legal heir in case neither of them +married,--this was a matter that needed discussion. The question was +considered and debated under all its aspects. In the first place, they +had never seen Pierrette. Then, what a trouble it would be to have a +young girl to look after. Wouldn't it commit them to some obligations +towards her? Could they send the girl away if they did not like her? +Besides, wouldn't they have to marry her? and if Jerome found a +yoke-mate among the heiresses of Provins they ought to keep all their +property for his children. A yokemate for Jerome, according to Sylvie, +meant a stupid, rich and ugly girl who would let herself be governed. +They decided to refuse the Lorrain request. Sylvie agreed to write the +answer. Business being rather urgent just then she delayed writing, +and the forewoman coming forward with an offer for the stock and +good-will of the "Family Sister," which the brother and sister +accepted, the matter went entirely out of the old maid's mind. + +Sylvie Rogron and her brother departed for Provins four years before +the time when the coming of Brigaut threw such excitement into +Pierrette's life. But the doings of the pair after their arrival at +Provins are as necessary to relate as their life in Paris; for Provins +was destined to be not less fatal to Pierrette than the commercial +antecedents of her cousins! + + + + III + + PATHOLOGY OF RETIRED MERCERS + +When the petty shopkeeper who has come to Paris from the provinces +returns to the provinces from Paris he brings with him a few ideas; +then he loses them in the habits and ways of provincial life into +which he plunges, and his reforming notions leave him. From this there +do result, however, certain trifling, slow, successive changes by +which Paris scratches the surface of the provincial towns. This +process marks the transition of the ex-shopkeeper into the substantial +bourgeois, but it acts like an illness upon him. No retail shopkeeper +can pass with impunity from his perpetual chatter into dead silence, +from his Parisian activity to the stillness of provincial life. When +these worthy persons have laid by property they spend a portion of it +on some desire over which they have long brooded and into which they +now turn their remaining impulses, no longer restrained by force of +will. Those who have not been nursing a fixed idea either travel or +rush into the political interests of their municipality. Others take +to hunting or fishing and torment their farmers or tenants; others +again become usurers or stock-jobbers. As for the scheme of the +Rogrons, brother and sister, we know what that was; they had to +satisfy an imperious desire to handle the trowel and remodel their old +house into a charming new one. + +This fixed idea produced upon the square of Lower Provins the front of +the building which Brigaut had been examining; also the interior +arrangements of the house and its handsome furniture. The contractor +did not drive a nail without consulting the owners, without requiring +them to sign the plans and specifications, without explaining to them +at full length and in every detail the nature of each article under +discussion, where it was manufactured, and what were its various +prices. As to the choicer things, each, they were told, had been used +by Monsieur Tiphaine, or Madame Julliard, or Monsieur the mayor, the +notables of the place. The idea of having things done as the rich +bourgeois of Provins did them carried the day for the contractor. + +"Oh, if Monsieur Garceland has it in his house, put it in," said +Mademoiselle Rogron. "It must be all right; his taste is good." + +"Sylvie, see, he wants us to have ovolos in the cornice of the +corridor." + +"Do you call those ovolos?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle." + +"What an odd name! I never heard it before." + +"But you have seen the thing?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you understand Latin?" + +"No." + +"Well, it means eggs--from the Latin _ovum_." + +"What queer fellows you are, you architects!" cried Rogron. "It is +stepping on egg-shells to deal with you." + +"Shall we paint the corridor?" asked the builder. + +"Good heavens, no!" cried Sylvie. "That would be five hundred francs +more!" + +"Oh, but the salon and the staircase are too pretty not to have the +corridor decorated too," said the man. "That little Madame Lesourd had +hers painted last year." + +"And now, her husband, as king's attorney, is obliged to leave +Provins." + +"Ah, he'll be chief justice some of these days," said the builder. + +"How about Monsieur Tiphaine?" + +"Monsieur Tiphaine? he's got a pretty wife and is sure to get on. +He'll go to Paris. Shall we paint the corridor?" + +"Yes, yes," said Rogron. "The Lesourds must be made to see that we are +as good as they." + +The first year after the Rogrons returned to Provins was entirely +taken up by such discussions, by the pleasure of watching the workmen, +by the surprise occasioned to the townspeople and the replies to +questions of all kinds which resulted therefrom, and also by the +attempts made by Sylvie and her brother to be socially intimate with +the principal families of Provins. + +The Rogrons had never gone into any society; they had never left their +shop, knowing absolutely no one in Paris, and now they were athirst +for the pleasures of social life. On their arrival in Provins they +found their former masters in Paris (long since returned to the +provinces), Monsieur and Madame Julliard, lately of the "Chinese +Worm," their children and grandchildren; the Guepin family, or rather +the Guepin clan, the youngest scion of which now kept the "Three +Distaffs"; and thirdly, Madame Guenee from whom they had purchased the +"Family Sister," and whose three daughters were married and settled in +Provins. These three races, Julliard, Guepin, and Guenee, had spread +through the town like dog-grass through a lawn. The mayor, Monsieur +Garceland, was the son-in-law of Monsieur Guepin; the curate, Abbe +Peroux, was own brother to Madame Julliard; the judge, Monsieur +Tiphaine junior, was brother to Madame Guenee, who signed herself +"_nee_ Tiphaine." + +The queen of the town was the beautiful Madame Tiphaine junior, only +daughter of Madame Roguin, the rich wife of a former notary in Paris, +whose name was never mentioned. Clever, delicate, and pretty, married +in the provinces to please her mother, who for special reasons did not +want her with her, and took her from a convent only a few days before +the wedding, Melanie Tiphaine considered herself an exile in Provins, +where she behaved to admiration. Handsomely dowered, she still had +hopes. As for Monsieur Tiphaine, his old father had made to his eldest +daughter Madame Guenee such advances on her inheritance that an estate +worth eight thousand francs a year, situated within fifteen miles of +Provins, was to come wholly to him. Consequently the Tiphaines would +possess, sooner or later, some forty thousand francs a year, and were +not "badly off," as they say. The one overwhelming desire of the +beautiful Madame Tiphaine was to get Monsieur Tiphaine elected deputy. +As deputy he would become a judge in Paris; and she was firmly +resolved to push him up into the Royal courts. For these reasons she +tickled all vanities and strove to please all parties; and--what is +far more difficult--she succeeded. Twice a week she received the +bourgeoisie of Provins at her house in the Upper town. This +intelligent young woman of twenty had not as yet made a single blunder +or misstep on the slippery path she had taken. She gratified +everybody's self-love, and petted their hobbies; serious with the +serious, a girl with girls, instinctively a mother with mothers, gay +with young wives and disposed to help them, gracious to all,--in +short, a pearl, a treasure, the pride of Provins. She had never yet +said a word of her intentions and wishes, but all the electors of +Provins were awaiting the time when their dear Monsieur Tiphaine had +reached the required age for nomination. Every man in the place, +certain of his own talents, regarded the future deputy as his +particular friend, his protector. Of course, Monsieur Tiphaine would +attain to honors; he would be Keeper of the Seals, and then, what +wouldn't he do for Provins! + +Such were the pleasant means by which Madame Tiphaine had come to rule +over the little town. Madame Guenee, Monsieur Tiphaine's sister, after +having married her eldest daughter to Monsieur Lesourd, prosecuting +attorney, her second to Monsieur Martener, the doctor, and the third +to Monsieur Auffray, the notary, had herself married Monsieur +Galardon, the collector. Mother and daughters all considered Monsieur +Tiphaine as the richest and ablest man in the family. The prosecuting +attorney had the strongest interest in sending his uncle to Paris, +expecting to step into his shoes as judge of the local court of +Provins. The four ladies formed a sort of court round Madame Tiphaine, +whose ideas and advice they followed on all occasions. Monsieur +Julliard, the eldest son of the old merchant, who had married the only +daughter of a rich farmer, set up a sudden, secret, and disinterested +passion for Madame Tiphaine, that angel descended from the Parisian +skies. The clever Melanie, too clever to involve herself with +Julliard, but quite capable of keeping him in the condition of Amadis +and making the most of his folly, advised him to start a journal, +intending herself to play the part of Egeria. For the last two years, +therefore, Julliard, possessed by his romantic passion, had published +the said newspaper, called the "Bee-hive," which contained articles +literary, archaeological, and medical, written in the family. The +advertisements paid expenses. The subscriptions, two hundred in all, +made the profits. Every now and then melancholy verses, totally +incomprehensible in La Brie, appeared, addressed, "TO HER!!!" with +three exclamation marks. The clan Julliard was thus united to the +other clans, and the salon of Madame Tiphaine became, naturally, the +first in the town. The few aristocrats who lived in Provins were, of +course, apart, and formed a single salon in the Upper town, at the +house of the old Comtesse de Breautey. + +During the first six months of their transplantation, the Rogrons, +favored by their former acquaintance with several of these people, +were received, first by Madame Julliard the elder, and by the former +Madame Guenee, now Madame Galardon (from whom they had bought their +business), and next, after a good deal of difficulty, by Madame +Tiphaine. All parties wished to study the Rogrons before admitting +them. It was difficult, of course, to keep out merchants of the rue +Saint-Denis, originally from Provins, who had returned to the town to +spend their fortunes. Still, the object of all society is to +amalgamate persons of equal wealth, education, manners, customs, +accomplishments, and character. Now the Guepins, Guenees, and +Julliards had a better position among the bourgeoisie than the +Rogrons, whose father had been held in contempt on account of his +private life, and his conduct in the matter of the Auffray property, +--the facts of which were known to the notary Auffray, Madame +Galardon's son-in-law. + +In the social life of these people, to which Madame Tiphaine had given +a certain tone of elegance, all was homogeneous; the component parts +understood each other, knew each other's characters, and behaved and +conversed in a manner that was agreeable to all. The Rogrons flattered +themselves that being received by Monsieur Garceland, the mayor, they +would soon be on good terms with all the best families in the town. +Sylvie applied herself to learn boston. Rogron, incapable of playing a +game, twirled his thumbs and had nothing to say except to discourse on +his new house. Words seemed to choke him; he would get up, try to +speak, become frightened, and sit down again, with comical distortion +of the lips. Sylvie naively betrayed her natural self at cards. Sharp, +irritable, whining when she lost, insolent when she won, nagging and +quarrelsome, she annoyed her partners as much as her adversaries, and +became the scourge of society. And yet, possessed by a silly, +unconcealed ambition, Rogron and his sister were bent on playing a +part in the society of a little town already in possession of a close +corporation of twelve allied families. Allowing that the restoration +of their house had cost them thirty thousand francs, the brother and +sister possessed between them at least ten thousand francs a year. +This they considered wealth, and with it they endeavored to impress +society, which immediately took the measure of their vulgarity, crass +ignorance, and foolish envy. On the evening when they were presented +to the beautiful Madame Tiphaine, who had already eyed them at Madame +Garceland's and at Madame Julliard the elder's, the queen of the town +remarked to Julliard junior, who stayed a few moments after the rest +of the company to talk with her and her husband:-- + +"You all seem to be taken with those Rogrons." + +"No, no," said Amadis, "they bore my mother and annoy my wife. When +Mademoiselle Sylvie was apprenticed, thirty years ago, to my father, +none of them could endure her." + +"I have a great mind," said Madame Tiphaine, putting her pretty foot +on the bar of the fender, "to make it understood that my salon is not +an inn." + +Julliard raised his eyes to the ceiling, as if to say, "Good heavens? +what wit, what intellect!" + +"I wish my society to be select; and it certainly will not be if I +admit those Rogrons." + +"They have neither heart, nor mind, nor manners"; said Monsieur +Tiphaine. "If, after selling thread for twenty years, as my sister did +for example--" + +"Your sister, my dear," said his wife in a parenthesis, "cannot be out +of place in any salon." + +"--if," he continued, "people are stupid enough not to throw off the +shop and polish their manners, if they don't know any better than to +mistake the Counts of Champagne for the _accounts_ of a wine-shop, as +Rogron did this evening, they had better, in my opinion, stay at +home." + +"They are simply impudent," said Julliard. "To hear them talk you +would suppose there was no other handsome house in Provins but theirs. +They want to crush us; and after all, they have hardly enough to live +on." + +"If it was only the brother," said Madame Tiphaine, "one might put up +with him; he is not so aggressive. Give him a Chinese puzzle and he +will stay in a corner quietly enough; it would take him a whole winter +to find it out. But Mademoiselle Sylvie, with that voice like a hoarse +hyena and those lobster-claws of hands! Don't repeat all this, +Julliard." + +When Julliard had departed the little woman said to her husband:-- + +"I have aborigines enough whom I am forced to receive; these two will +fairly kill me. With your permission, I shall deprive myself of their +society." + +"You are mistress in your own house," replied he; "but that will make +enemies. The Rogrons will fling themselves into the opposition, which +hitherto has had no real strength in Provins. That Rogron is already +intimate with Baron Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet." + +"Then," said Melanie, laughing, "they will do you some service. Where +there are no opponents, there is no triumph. A liberal conspiracy, an +illegal cabal, a struggle of any kind, will bring you into the +foreground." + +The justice looked at his young wife with a sort of alarmed +admiration. + +The next day it was whispered about that the Rogrons had not +altogether succeeded in Madame Tiphaine's salon. That lady's speech +about an inn was immensely admired. It was a whole month before she +returned Mademoiselle Sylvie's visit. Insolence of this kind is very +much noticed in the provinces. + +During the evening which Sylvie had spent at Madame Tiphaine's a +disagreeable scene occurred between herself and old Madame Julliard +while playing boston, apropos of a trick which Sylvie declared the old +lady had made her lose on purpose; for the old maid, who liked to trip +others, could never endure the same game on herself. The next time she +was invited out the mistress took care to make up the card-tables +before she arrived; so that Sylvie was reduced to wandering from table +to table as an onlooker, the players glancing at her with scornful +eyes. At Madame Julliard senior's house, they played whist, a game +Sylvie did not know. + +The old maid at last understood that she was under a ban; but she had +no conception of the reason of it. She fancied herself an object of +jealousy to all these persons. After a time she and her brother +received no invitations, but they still persisted in paying evening +visits. Satirical persons made fun of them,--not spitefully, but +amusingly; inveigling them to talk absurdly about the eggs in their +cornice, and their wonderful cellar of wine, the like of which was not +in Provins. + +Before long the Rogron house was completely finished, and the brother +and sister then resolved to give several sumptuous dinners, as much to +return the civilities they had received as to exhibit their luxury. +The invited guests accepted from curiosity only. The first dinner was +given to the leading personages of the town; to Monsieur and Madame +Tiphaine, with whom, however the Rogrons had never dined; to Monsieur +and Madame Julliard, senior and junior; to Monsieur Lesourd, Monsieur +le cure, and Monsieur and Madame Galardon. It was one of those +interminable provincial dinners, where you sit at table from five to +nine o'clock. Madame Tiphaine had introduced into Provins the Parisian +custom of taking leave as soon as coffee had been served. On this +occasion she had company at home and was anxious to get away. The +Rogrons accompanied her husband and herself to the street door, and +when they returned to the salon, disconcerted at not being able to +keep their chief guests, the rest of the party were preparing to +imitate Madame Tiphaine's fashion with cruel provincial promptness. + +"They won't see our salon lighted up," said Sylvie, "and that's the +show of the house." + +The Rogrons had counted on surprising their guests. It was the first +time any one had been admitted to the now celebrated house, and the +company assembled at Madame Tiphaine's was eagerly awaiting her +opinion of the marvels of the "Rogron palace." + +"Well!" cried little Madame Martener, "you've seen the Louvre; tell us +all about it." + +"All? Well, it would be like the dinner,--not much." + +"But do describe it." + +"Well, to begin with, that front door, the gilded grating of which we +have all admired," said Madame Tiphaine, "opens upon a long corridor +which divides the house unequally; on the right side there is one +window, on the other, two. At the garden end, the corridor opens with +a glass door upon a portico with steps to the lawn, where there's a +sun dial and a plaster statue of Spartacus, painted to imitate bronze. +Behind the kitchen, the builder has put the staircase, and a sort of +larder which we are spared the sight of. The staircase, painted to +imitate black marble with yellow veins, turns upon itself like those +you see in cafes leading from the ground-floor to the entresol. The +balustrade, of walnut with brass ornaments and dangerously slight, was +pointed out to us as one of the seven wonders of the world. The cellar +stairs run under it. On the other side of the corridor is the +dining-room, which communicates by folding-doors with a salon of equal +size, the windows of which look on the garden." + +"Dear me, is there no ante-chamber?" asked Madame Auffray. + +"The corridor, full of draughts, answers for an ante-chamber," replied +Madame Tiphaine. "Our friends have had, they assured us, the eminently +national, liberal, constitutional, and patriotic feeling to use none +but French woods in the house; so the floor in the dining-room is +chestnut, the sideboards, tables, and chairs, of the same. White +calico window-curtains, with red borders, are held back by vulgar red +straps; these magnificent draperies run on wooden curtain rods ending +in brass lion's-paws. Above one of the sideboards hangs a dial +suspended by a sort of napkin in gilded bronze,--an idea that seemed +to please the Rogrons hugely. They tried to make me admire the +invention; all I could manage to say was that if it was ever proper to +wrap a napkin round a dial it was certainly in a dining-room. On the +sideboard were two huge lamps like those on the counter of a +restaurant. Above the other sideboard hung a barometer, excessively +ornate, which seems to play a great part in their existence; Rogron +gazed at it as he might at his future wife. Between the two windows is +a white porcelain stove in a niche overloaded with ornament. The walls +glow with a magnificent paper, crimson and gold, such as you see in +the same restaurants, where, no doubt, the Rogrons chose it. Dinner +was served on white and gold china, with a dessert service of light +blue with green flowers, but they showed us another service in +earthenware for everyday use. Opposite to each sideboard was a large +cupboard containing linen. All was clean, new, and horribly sharp in +tone. However, I admit the dining-room; it has some character, though +disagreeable; it represents that of the masters of the house. But +there is no enduring the five engravings that hang on the walls; the +Minister of the Interior ought really to frame a law against them. One +was Poniatowski jumping into the Elster; the others, Napoleon pointing +a cannon, the defence at Clichy, and the two Mazepas, all in gilt +frames of the vulgarest description,--fit to carry off the prize of +disgust. Oh! how much I prefer Madame Julliard's pastels of fruit, +those excellent Louis XV. pastels, which are in keeping with the old +dining-room and its gray panels,--defaced by age, it is true, but they +possess the true provincial characteristics that go well with old +family silver, precious china, and our simple habits. The provinces +are provinces; they are only ridiculous when they mimic Paris. I +prefer this old salon of my husband's forefathers, with its heavy +curtains of green and white damask, the Louis XV. mantelpiece, the +twisted pier-glasses, the old mirrors with their beaded mouldings, and +the venerable card tables. Yes, I prefer my old Sevres vases in royal +blue, mounted on copper, my clock with those impossible flowers, that +rococco chandelier, and the tapestried furniture, to all the finery of +the Rogron salon." + +"What is the salon like?" said Monsieur Martener, delighted with the +praise the handsome Parisian bestowed so adroitly on the provinces. + +"As for the salon, it is all red,--the red Mademoiselle Sylvie turns +when she loses at cards." + +"Sylvan-red," said Monsieur Tiphaine, whose sparkling saying long +remained in the vocabulary of Provins. + +"Window-curtains, red; furniture, red; mantelpiece, red, veined +yellow, candelabra and clock ditto mounted on bronze, common and heavy +in design,--Roman standards with Greek foliage! Above the clock is +that inevitable good-natured lion which looks at you with a simper, +the lion of ornamentation, with a big ball under his feet, symbol of +the decorative lion, who passes his life holding a black ball, +--exactly like a deputy of the Left. Perhaps it is meant as a +constitutional myth. The face of the clock is curious. The glass over +the chimney is framed in that new fashion of applied mouldings which +is so trumpery and vulgar. From the ceiling hangs a chandelier +carefully wrapped in green muslin, and rightly too, for it is in the +worst taste, the sharpest tint of bronze with hideous ornaments. The +walls are covered with a red flock paper to imitate velvet enclosed in +panels, each panel decorated with a chromo-lithograph in one of those +frames festooned with stucco flowers to represent wood-carving. The +furniture, in cashmere and elm-wood, consists, with classic +uniformity, of two sofas, two easy-chairs, two armchairs, and six +common chairs. A vase in alabaster, called a la Medicis, kept under +glass stands on a table between the windows; before the windows, which +are draped with magnificent red silk curtains and lace curtains under +them, are card-tables. The carpet is Aubusson, and you may be sure the +Rogrons did not fail to lay hands on that most vulgar of patterns, +large flowers on a red ground. The room looks as if no one ever lived +there; there are no books, no engravings, none of those little +knick-knacks we all have lying about," added Madame Tiphaine, glancing +at her own table covered with fashionable trifles, albums, and little +presents given to her by friends; "and there are no flowers,--it is +all cold and barren, like Mademoiselle Sylvie herself. Buffon says the +style is the man, and certainly salons have styles of their own." + +From this sketch everybody can see the sort of house the brother and +sister lived in, though they can never imagine the absurdities into +which a clever builder dragged the ignorant pair,--new inventions, +fantastic ornaments, a system for preventing smoky chimneys, another +for preventing damp walls; painted marquetry panels on the staircase, +colored glass, superfine locks,--in short, all those vulgarities which +make a house expensive and gratify the bourgeois taste. + +No one chose to visit the Rogrons, whose social plans thus came to +nothing. Their invitations were refused under various excuses,--the +evenings were already engaged to Madame Garceland and the other ladies +of the Provins world. The Rogrons had supposed that all that was +required to gain a position in society was to give a few dinners. But +no one any longer accepted them, except a few young men who went to +make fun of their host and hostess, and certain diners-out who went +everywhere. + +Frightened at the loss of forty thousand francs swallowed up without +profit in what she called her "dear house," Sylvie now set to work to +recover it by economy. She gave no more dinners, which had cost her +forty or fifty francs without the wines, and did not fulfil her social +hopes, hopes that are as hard to realize in the provinces as in Paris. +She sent away her cook, took a country-girl to do the menial work, and +did her own cooking, as she said, "for pleasure." + +Fourteen months after their return to Provins, the brother and sister +had fallen into a solitary and wholly unoccupied condition. Their +banishment from society roused in Sylvie's heart a dreadful hatred +against the Tiphaines, Julliards and all the other members of the +social world of Provins, which she called "the clique," and with whom +her personal relations became extremely cold. She would gladly have +set up a rival clique, but the lesser bourgeoisie was made up of +either small shopkeepers who were only free on Sundays and fete-days, +or smirched individuals like the lawyer Vinet and Doctor Neraud, and +wholly inadmissible Bonapartists like Baron Gouraud, with whom, +however, Rogron thoughtlessly allied himself, though the upper +bourgeoisie had warned him against them. + +The brother and sister were, therefore, forced to sit by the fire of +the stove in the dining-room, talking over their former business, +trying to recall the faces of their customers and other matters they +had intended to forget. By the end of the second winter ennui weighed +heavily on them. They did not know how to get through each day; +sometimes as they went to bed the words escaped them, "There's another +over!" They dragged out the morning by staying in bed, and dressing +slowly. Rogron shaved himself every day, examined his face, consulted +his sister on any changes he thought he saw there, argued with the +servant about the temperature of his hot water, wandered into the +garden, looked to see if the shrubs were budding, sat at the edge of +the water where he had built himself a kiosk, examined the joinery of +his house,--had it sprung? had the walls settled, the panels cracked? +or he would come in fretting about a sick hen, and complaining to his +sister, who was nagging the servant as she set the table, of the +dampness which was coming out in spots upon the plaster. The barometer +was Rogron's most useful bit of property. He consulted it at all +hours, tapped it familiarly like a friend, saying: "Vile weather!" to +which his sister would reply, "Pooh! it is only seasonable." If any +one called to see him the excellence of that instrument was his chief +topic of conversation. + +Breakfast took up some little time; with what deliberation those two +human beings masticated their food! Their digestions were perfect; +cancer of the stomach was not to be dreaded by them. They managed to +get along till twelve o'clock by reading the "Bee-hive" and the +"Constitutionnel." The cost of subscribing to the Parisian paper was +shared by Vinet the lawyer, and Baron Gouraud. Rogron himself carried +the paper to Gouraud, who had been a colonel and lived on the square, +and whose long yarns were Rogron's delight; the latter sometimes +puzzled over the warnings he had received, and asked himself how such +a lively companion could be dangerous. He was fool enough to tell the +colonel he had been warned against him, and to repeat all the "clique" +had said. God knows how the colonel, who feared no one, and was +equally to be dreaded with pistols or a sword, gave tongue about +Madame Tiphaine and her Amadis, and the ministerialists of the Upper +town, persons capable of any villany to get places, and who counted +the votes at elections to suit themselves, etc. + +About two o'clock Rogron started for a little walk. He was quite happy +if some shopkeeper standing on the threshold of his door would stop +him and say, "Well, pere Rogron, how goes it with _you_?" Then he +would talk, and ask for news, and gather all the gossip of the town. +He usually went as far as the Upper town, sometimes to the ravines, +according to the weather. Occasionally he would meet old men taking +their walks abroad like himself. Such meetings were joyful events to +him. There happened to be in Provins a few men weary of Parisian life, +quiet scholars who lived with their books. Fancy the bewilderment of +the ignorant Rogron when he heard a deputy-judge named Desfondrilles, +more of an archaeologist than a magistrate, saying to old Monsieur +Martener, a really learned man, as he pointed to the valley:-- + +"Explain to me why the idlers of Europe go to Spa instead of coming to +Provins, when the springs here have a superior curative value +recognized by the French faculty,--a potential worthy of the medicinal +properties of our roses." + +"That is one of the caprices of caprice," said the old gentleman. +"Bordeaux wine was unknown a hundred years ago. Marechal de Richelieu, +one of the noted men of the last century, the French Alcibiades, was +appointed governor of Guyenne. His lungs were diseased, and, heaven +knows why! the wine of the country did him good and he recovered. +Bordeaux instantly made a hundred millions; the marshal widened its +territory to Angouleme, to Cahors,--in short, to over a hundred miles +of circumference! it is hard to tell where the Bordeaux vineyards end. +And yet they haven't erected an equestrian statue to the marshal in +Bordeaux!" + +"Ah! if anything of that kind happens to Provins," said Monsieur +Desfondrilles, "let us hope that somewhere in the Upper or Lower town +they will set up a bas-relief of the head of Monsieur Opoix, the +re-discoverer of the mineral waters of Provins." + +"My dear friend, the revival of Provins is impossible," replied +Monsieur Martener; "the town was made bankrupt long ago." + +"What!" cried Rogron, opening his eyes very wide. + +"It was once a capital, holding its own against Paris in the twelfth +century, when the Comtes de Champagne held their court here, just as +King Rene held his in Provence," replied the man of learning; "for in +those days civilization, gaiety, poesy, elegance, and women, in short +all social splendors, were not found exclusively in Paris. It is as +difficult for towns and cities as it is for commercial houses to +recover from ruin. Nothing is left to us of the old Provins but the +fragrance of our historical glory and that of our roses,--and a +sub-prefecture!" + +"Ah! what mightn't France be if she had only preserved her feudal +capitals!" said Desfondrilles. "Can sub-prefects replace the poetic, +gallant, warlike race of the Thibaults who made Provins what Ferrara +was to Italy, Weimar to Germany,--what Munich is trying to be to-day." + +"Was Provins ever a capital?" asked Rogron. + +"Why! where do you come from?" exclaimed the archaeologist. "Don't you +know," he added, striking the ground of the Upper town where they +stood with his cane, "don't you know that the whole of this part of +Provins is built on catacombs?" + +"Catacombs?" + +"Yes, catacombs, the extent and height of which are yet undiscovered. +They are like the naves of cathedrals, and there are pillars in them." + +"Monsieur is writing a great archaeological work to explain these +strange constructions," interposed Monsieur Martener, seeing that the +deputy-judge was about to mount his hobby. + +Rogron came home much comforted to know that his house was in the +valley. The crypts of Provins kept him occupied for a week in +explorations, and gave a topic of conversation to the unhappy +celibates for many evenings. + +In the course of these ramblings Rogron picked up various bits of +information about Provins, its inhabitants, their marriages, together +with stale political news; all of which he narrated to his sister. +Scores of times in his walks he would stop and say,--often to the same +person on the same day,--"Well, what's the news?" When he reached home +he would fling himself on the sofa like a man exhausted with labor, +whereas he was only worn out with the burden of his own dulness. +Dinner came at last, after he had gone twenty times to the kitchen and +back, compared the clocks, and opened and shut all the doors of the +house. So long as the brother and sister could spend their evenings in +paying visits they managed to get along till bedtime; but after they +were compelled to stay at home those evenings became like a parching +desert. Sometimes persons passing through the quiet little square +would hear unearthly noises as though the brother were throttling the +sister; a moment's listening would show that they were only yawning. +These two human mechanisms, having nothing to grind between their +rusty wheels, were creaking and grating at each other. The brother +talked of marrying, but only in despair. He felt old and weary; the +thought of a woman frightened him. Sylvie, who began to see the +necessity of having a third person in the home, suddenly remembered +the little cousin, about whom no one in Provins had yet inquired, the +friends of Madame Lorrain probably supposing that mother and child +were both dead. + +Sylvie Rogron never lost anything; she was too thoroughly an old maid +even to mislay the smallest article; but she pretended to have +suddenly found the Lorrains' letter, so as to mention Pierrette +naturally to her brother, who was greatly pleased at the possibility +of having a little girl in the house. Sylvie replied to Madame +Lorrain's letter half affectionately, half commercially, as one may +say, explaining the delay by their change of abode and the settlement +of their affairs. She seemed desirous of receiving her little cousin, +and hinted that Pierrette would perhaps inherit twelve thousand francs +a year if her brother Jerome did not marry. + +Perhaps it is necessary to have been, like Nebuchadnezzar, something +of a wild beast, and shut up in a cage at the Jardin des Plantes +without other prey than the butcher's meat doled out by the keeper, or +a retired merchant deprived of the joys of tormenting his clerks, to +understand the impatience with which the brother and sister awaited +the arrival of their cousin Lorrain. Three days after the letter had +gone, the pair were already asking themselves when she would get +there. + +Sylvie perceived in her spurious benevolence towards her poor cousin a +means of recovering her position in the social world of Provins. She +accordingly went to call on Madame Tiphaine, of whose reprobation she +was conscious, in order to impart the fact of Pierrette's approaching +arrival,--deploring the girl's unfortunate position, and posing +herself as being only too happy to succor her and give her a position +as daughter and future heiress. + +"You have been rather long in discovering her," said Madame Tiphaine, +with a touch of sarcasm. + +A few words said in a low voice by Madame Garceland, while the cards +were being dealt, recalled to the minds of those who heard her the +shameful conduct of old Rogron about the Auffray property; the notary +explained the iniquity. + +"Where is the little girl now?" asked Monsieur Tiphaine, politely. + +"In Brittany," said Rogron. + +"Brittany is a large place," remarked Monsieur Lesourd. + +"Her grandfather and grandmother Lorrain wrote to us--when was that, +my dear?" said Rogron addressing his sister. + +Sylvie, who was just then asking Madame Garceland where she had bought +the stuff for her gown, answered hastily, without thinking of the +effect of her words:-- + +"Before we sold the business." + +"And have you only just answered the letter, mademoiselle?" asked the +notary. + +Sylvie turned as red as a live coal. + +"We wrote to the Institution of Saint-Jacques," remarked Rogron. + +"That is a sort of hospital or almshouse for old people," said +Monsieur Desfondrilles, who knew Nantes. "She can't be there; they +receive no one under sixty." + +"She is there, with her grandmother Lorrain," said Rogron. + +"Her mother had a little fortune, the eight thousand francs which your +father--no, I mean of course your grandfather--left to her," said the +notary, making the blunder intentionally. + +"Ah!" said Rogron, stupidly, not understanding the notary's sarcasm. + +"Then you know nothing about your cousin's position or means?" asked +Monsieur Tiphaine. + +"If Monsieur Rogron had known it," said the deputy-judge, "he would +never have left her all this time in an establishment of that kind. I +remember now that a house in Nantes belonging to Monsieur and Madame +Lorrain was sold under an order of the court, and that Mademoiselle +Lorrain's claim was swallowed up. I know this, for I was commissioner +at the time." + +The notary spoke of Colonel Lorrain, who, had he lived, would have +been much amazed to know that his daughter was in such an institution. +The Rogrons beat a retreat, saying to each other that the world was +very malicious. Sylvie perceived that the news of her benevolence had +missed its effect,--in fact, she had lost ground in all minds; and she +felt that henceforth she was forbidden to attempt an intimacy with the +upper class of Provins. After this evening the Rogrons no longer +concealed their hatred of that class and all its adherents. The +brother told the sister the scandals that Colonel Gouraud and the +lawyer Vinet had put into his head about the Tiphaines, the Guenees, +the Garcelands, the Julliards, and others:-- + +"I declare, Sylvie, I don't see why Madame Tiphaine should turn up her +nose at shopkeeping in the rue Saint-Denis; it is more honest than +what she comes from. Madame Roguin, her mother, is cousin to those +Guillaumes of the 'Cat-playing-ball' who gave up the business to +Joseph Lebas, their son-in-law. Her father is that Roguin who failed +in 1819, and ruined the house of Cesar Birotteau. Madame Tiphaine's +fortune was stolen,--for what else are you to call it when a notary's +wife who is very rich lets her husband make a fraudulent bankruptcy? +Fine doings! and she marries her daughter in Provins to get her out of +the way,--all on account of her own relations with du Tillet. And such +people set up to be proud! Well, well, that's the world!" + +On the day when Jerome Rogron and his sister began to declaim against +"the clique" they were, without being aware of it, on the road to +having a society of their own; their house was to become a rendezvous +for other interests seeking a centre,--those of the hitherto floating +elements of the liberal party in Provins. And this is how it came +about: The launch of the Rogrons in society had been watched with +great curiosity by Colonel Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet, two men drawn +together, first by their ostracism, next by their opinions. They both +professed patriotism and for the same reason,--they wished to become +of consequence. The Liberals in Provins were, so far, confined to one +old soldier who kept a cafe, an innkeeper, Monsieur Cournant a notary, +Doctor Neraud, and a few stray persons, mostly farmers or those who +had bought lands of the public domain. + +The colonel and the lawyer, delighted to lay hands on a fool whose +money would be useful to their schemes, and who might himself, in +certain cases, be made to bell the cat, while his house would serve as +a meeting-ground for the scattered elements of the party, made the +most of the Rogrons' ill-will against the upper classes of the place. +The three had already a slight tie in their united subscription to the +"Constitutionnel"; it would certainly not be difficult for the colonel +to make a Liberal of the ex-mercer, though Rogron knew so little of +politics that he was capable of regarding the exploits of Sergeant +Mercier as those of a brother shopkeeper. + +The expected arrival of Pierrette brought to sudden fruition the +selfish ideas of the two men, inspired as they were by the folly and +ignorance of the celibates. Seeing that Sylvie had lost all chance of +establishing herself in the good society of the place, an afterthought +came to the colonel. Old soldiers have seen so many horrors in all +lands, so many grinning corpses on battle-fields, that no +physiognomies repel them; and Gouraud began to cast his eyes on the +old maid's fortune. This imperial colonel, a short, fat man, wore +enormous rings in ears that were bushy with tufts of hair. His sparse +and grizzled whiskers were called in 1799 "fins." His jolly red face +was rather discolored, like those of all who had lived to tell of the +Beresina. The lower half of his big, pointed stomach marked the +straight line which characterizes a cavalry officer. Gouraud had +commanded the Second Hussars. His gray moustache hid a huge blustering +mouth,--if we may use a term which alone describes that gulf. He did +not eat his food, he engulfed it. A sabre cut had slit his nose, by +which his speech was made thick and very nasal, like that attributed +to Capuchins. His hands, which were short and broad, were of the kind +that make women say: "You have the hands of a rascal." His legs seemed +slender for his torso. In that fat and active body an absolutely +lawless spirit disported itself, and a thorough experience of the +things of life, together with a profound contempt for social +convention, lay hidden beneath the apparent indifference of a soldier. +Colonel Gouraud wore the cross of an officer of the Legion of honor, +and his emoluments from that, together with his salary as a retired +officer, gave him in all about three thousand francs a year. + +The lawyer, tall and thin, had liberal opinions in place of talent, +and his only revenue was the meagre profits of his office. In Provins +lawyers plead their own cases. The court was unfavorable to Vinet on +account of his opinions; consequently, even the farmers who were +Liberals, when it came to lawsuits preferred to employ some lawyer who +was more congenial to the judges. Vinet was regarded with disfavor in +other ways. He was said to have seduced a rich girl in the +neighborhood of Coulommiers, and thus have forced her parents to marry +her to him. Madame Vinet was a Chargeboeuf, an old and noble family of +La Brie, whose name comes from the exploit of a squire during the +expedition of Saint Louis to Egypt. She incurred the displeasure of +her father and mother, who arranged, unknown to Vinet, to leave their +entire fortune to their son, doubtless charging him privately, to pay +over a portion of it to his sister's children. + +Thus the first bold effort of the ambitious man was a failure. Pursued +by poverty, and ashamed not to give his wife the means of making a +suitable appearance, he had made desperate efforts to enter public +life, but the Chargeboeuf family refused him their influence. These +Royalists disapproved, on moral grounds, of his forced marriage; +besides, he was named Vinet, and how could they be expected to protect +a plebian? Thus he was driven from branch to branch when he tried to +get some good out of his marriage. Repulsed by every one, filled with +hatred for the family of his wife, for the government which denied him +a place, for the social world of Provins, which refused to admit him, +Vinet submitted to his fate; but his gall increased. He became a +Liberal in the belief that his fortune might yet be made by the +triumph of the opposition, and he lived in a miserable little house in +the Upper town from which his wife seldom issued. Madame Vinet had +found no one to defend her since her marriage except an old Madame de +Chargeboeuf, a widow with one daughter, who lived at Troyes. The +unfortunate young woman, destined for better things, was absolutely +alone in her home with a single child. + +There are some kinds of poverty which may be nobly accepted and gaily +borne; but Vinet, devoured by ambition, and feeling himself guilty +towards his wife, was full of darkling rage; his conscience grew +elastic; and he finally came to think any means of success +permissible. His young face changed. Persons about the courts were +sometimes frightened as they looked at his viperish, flat head, his +slit mouth, his eyes gleaming through glasses, and heard his sharp, +persistent voice which rasped their nerves. His muddy skin, with its +sickly tones of green and yellow, expressed the jaundice of his balked +ambition, his perpetual disappointments and his hidden wretchedness. +He could talk and argue; he was well-informed and shrewd, and was not +without smartness and metaphor. Accustomed to look at everything from +the standpoint of his own success, he was well fitted for a +politician. A man who shrinks from nothing so long as it is legal, is +strong; and Vinet's strength lay there. + +This future athlete of parliamentary debate, who was destined to share +in proclaiming the dynasty of the house of Orleans had a terrible +influence on Pierrette's fate. At the present moment he was bent on +making for himself a weapon by founding a newspaper at Provins. After +studying the Rogrons at a distance (the colonel aiding him) he had +come to the conclusion that the brother might be made useful. This +time he was not mistaken; his days of poverty were over, after seven +wretched years, when even his daily bread was sometimes lacking. The +day when Gouraud told him in the little square that the Rogrons had +finally quarrelled with the bourgeois aristocracy of the Upper town, +he nudged the colonel in the ribs significantly, and said, with a +knowing look:-- + +"One woman or another--handsome or ugly--_you_ don't care; marry +Mademoiselle Rogron and we can organize something at once." + +"I have been thinking of it," replied Gouraud, "but the fact is they +have sent for the daughter of Colonel Lorrain, and she's their next of +kin." + +"You can get them to make a will in your favor. Ha! you would get a +very comfortable house." + +"As for the little girl--well, well, let's see her," said the colonel, +with a leering and thoroughly wicked look, which proved to a man of +Vinet's quality how little respect the old trooper could feel for any +girl. + + + + IV + + PIERRETTE + +After her grandfather and grandmother entered the sort of hospital in +which they sadly expected to end their days, Pierrette, being young +and proud, suffered so terribly at living there on charity that she +was thankful when she heard she had rich relations. When Brigaut, the +son of her mother's friend the major, and the companion of her +childhood, who was learning his trade as a cabinet-maker at Nantes, +heard of her departure he offered her the money to pay her way to +Paris in the diligence,--sixty francs, the total of his _pour-boires_ +as an apprentice, slowly amassed, and accepted by Pierrette with the +sublime indifference of true affection, showing that in a like case +she herself would be affronted by thanks. + +Brigaut was in the habit of going every Sunday to Saint-Jacques to +play with Pierrette and try to console her. The vigorous young workman +knew the dear delight of bestowing a complete and devoted protection +on an object involuntarily chosen by his heart. More than once he and +Pierrette, sitting on Sundays in a corner of the garden, had +embroidered the veil of the future with their youthful projects; the +apprentice, armed with his plane, scoured the world to make their +fortune, while Pierrette waited. + +In October, 1824, when the child had completed her eleventh year, she +was entrusted by the two old people and by Brigaut, all three +sorrowfully sad, to the conductor of the diligence from Nantes to +Paris, with an entreaty to put her safely on the diligence from Paris +to Provins and to take good care of her. Poor Brigaut! he ran like a +dog after the coach looking at his dear Pierrette as long as he was +able. In spite of her signs he ran over three miles, and when at last +he was exhausted his eyes, wet with tears, still followed her. She, +too, was crying when she saw him no longer running by her, and putting +her head out of the window she watched him, standing stock-still and +looking after her, as the lumbering vehicle disappeared. + +The Lorrains and Brigaut knew so little of life that the girl had not +a penny when she arrived in Paris. The conductor, to whom she had +mentioned her rich friends, paid her expenses at the hotel, and made +the conductor of the Provins diligence pay him, telling him to take +good care of the girl and to see that the charges were paid by the +family, exactly as though she were a case of goods. Four days after +her departure from Nantes, about nine o'clock of a Monday night, a +kind old conductor of the Messageries-royales, took Pierrette by the +hand, and while the porters were discharging in the Grand'Rue the +packages and passengers for Provins, he led the little girl, whose +only baggage was a bundle containing two dresses, two chemises, and +two pairs of stockings, to Mademoiselle Rogron's house, which was +pointed out to him by the director at the coach office. + +"Good-evening, mademoiselle and the rest of the company. I've brought +you a cousin, and here she is; and a nice little girl too, upon my +word. You have forty-seven francs to pay me, and sign my book." + +Mademoiselle Sylvie and her brother were dumb with pleasure and +amazement. + +"Excuse me," said the conductor, "the coach is waiting. Sign my book +and pay me forty-seven francs, sixty centimes, and whatever you please +for myself and the conductor from Nantes; we've taken care of the +little girl as if she were our own; and paid for her beds and her +food, also her fare to Provins, and other little things." + +"Forty-seven francs, twelve sous!" said Sylvie. + +"You are not going to dispute it?" cried the man. + +"Where's the bill?" said Rogron. + +"Bill! look at the book." + +"Stop talking, and pay him," said Sylvie, "You see there's nothing +else to be done." + +Rogron went to get the money, and gave the man forty-seven francs, +twelve sous. + +"And nothing for my comrade and me?" said the conductor. + +Sylvie took two francs from the depths of the old velvet bag which +held her keys. + +"Thank you, no," said the man; "keep 'em yourself. We would rather +care for the little one for her own sake." He picked up his book and +departed, saying to the servant-girl: "What a pair! it seems there are +crocodiles out of Egypt!" + +"Such men are always brutal," said Sylvie, who overhead the words. + +"They took good care of the little girl, anyhow," said Adele with her +hands on her hips. + +"We don't have to live with him," remarked Rogron. + +"Where's the little one to sleep?" asked Adele. + +Such was the arrival of Pierrette Lorrain in the home of her cousins, +who gazed at her with stolid eyes; she was tossed to them like a +package, with no intermediate state between the wretched chamber at +Saint-Jacques and the dining-room of her cousins, which seemed to her +a palace. She was shy and speechless. To all other eyes than those of +the Rogrons the little Breton girl would have seemed enchanting as she +stood there in her petticoat of coarse blue flannel, with a pink +cambric apron, thick shoes, blue stockings, and a white kerchief, her +hands being covered by red worsted mittens edged with white, bought +for her by the conductor. Her dainty Breton cap (which had been washed +in Paris, for the journey from Nantes had rumpled it) was like a halo +round her happy little face. This national cap, of the finest lawn, +trimmed with stiffened lace pleated in flat folds, deserves +description, it was so dainty and simple. The light coming through the +texture and the lace produced a partial shadow, the soft shadow of a +light upon the skin, which gave her the virginal grace that all +painters seek and Leopold Robert found for the Raffaelesque face of +the woman who holds a child in his picture of "The Gleaners." Beneath +this fluted frame of light sparkled a white and rosy and artless face, +glowing with vigorous health. The warmth of the room brought the blood +to the cheeks, to the tips of the pretty ears, to the lips and the end +of the delicate nose, making the natural white of the complexion +whiter still. + +"Well, are you not going to say anything? I am your cousin Sylvie, and +that is your cousin Rogron." + +"Do you want something to eat?" asked Rogron. + +"When did you leave Nantes?" asked Sylvie. + +"Is she dumb?" said Rogron. + +"Poor little dear, she has hardly any clothes," cried Adele, who had +opened the child's bundle, tied up in a handkerchief of the old +Lorrains. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Sylvie. + +Pierrette kissed Rogron. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Rogron. + +Pierrette kissed Sylvie. + +"She is tired out with her journey, poor little thing; she wants to go +to sleep," said Adele. + +Pierrette was overcome with a sudden and invincible aversion for her +two relatives,--a feeling that no one had ever before excited in her. +Sylvie and the maid took her up to bed in the room where Brigaut +afterwards noticed the white cotton curtain. In it was a little bed +with a pole painted blue, from which hung a calico curtain; a walnut +bureau without a marble top, a small table, a looking-glass, a very +common night-table without a door, and three chairs completed the +furniture of the room. The walls, which sloped in front, were hung +with a shabby paper, blue with black flowers. The tiled floor, stained +red and polished, was icy to the feet. There was no carpet except for +a strip at the bedside. The mantelpiece of common marble was adorned +by a mirror, two candelabra in copper-gilt, and a vulgar alabaster cup +in which two pigeons, forming handles, were drinking. + +"You will be comfortable here, my little girl?" said Sylvie. + +"Oh, it's beautiful!" said the child, in her silvery voice. + +"She's not difficult to please," muttered the stout servant. "Sha'n't +I warm her bed?" she asked. + +"Yes," said Sylvie, "the sheets may be damp." + +Adele brought one of her own night-caps when she returned with the +warming-pan, and Pierrette, who had never slept in anything but the +coarsest linen sheets, was amazed at the fineness and softness of the +cotton ones. When she was fairly in bed and tucked up, Adele, going +downstairs with Sylvie, could not refrain from saying, "All she has +isn't worth three francs, mademoiselle." + +Ever since her economical regime began, Sylvie had compelled the maid +to sit in the dining-room so that one fire and one lamp could do for +all; except when Colonel Gouraud and Vinet came, on which occasions +Adele was sent to the kitchen. + +Pierrette's arrival enlivened the rest of the evening. + +"We must get her some clothes to-morrow," said Sylvie; "she has +absolutely nothing." + +"No shoes but those she had on, which weigh a pound," said Adele. + +"That's always so, in their part of the country," remarked Rogron. + +"How she looked at her room! though it really isn't handsome enough +for a cousin of yours, mademoiselle." + +"It is good enough; hold your tongue," said Sylvie. + +"Gracious, what chemises! coarse enough to scratch her skin off; not a +thing can she use here," said Adele, emptying the bundle. + +Master, mistress, and servant were busy till past ten o'clock, +deciding what cambric they should buy for the new chemises, how many +pairs of stockings, how many under-petticoats, and what material, and +in reckoning up the whole cost of Pierrette's outfit. + +"You won't get off under three hundred francs," said Rogron, who +could remember the different prices, and add them up from his former +shop-keeping habit. + +"Three hundred francs!" cried Sylvie. + +"Yes, three hundred. Add it up." + +The brother and sister went over the calculation once more, and found +the cost would be fully three hundred francs, not counting the making. + +"Three hundred francs at one stroke!" said Sylvie to herself as she +got into bed. + + * * * * * + +Pierrette was one of those children of love whom love endows with its +tenderness, its vivacity, its gaiety, its nobility, its devotion. +Nothing had so far disturbed or wounded a heart that was delicate as +that of a fawn, but which was now painfully repressed by the cold +greeting of her cousins. If Brittany had been full of outward misery, +at least it was full of love. The old Lorrains were the most incapable +of merchants, but they were also the most loving, frank, caressing, of +friends, like all who are incautious and free from calculation. Their +little granddaughter had received no other education at Pen-Hoel than +that of nature. Pierrette went where she liked, in a boat on the pond, +or roaming the village and the fields with Jacques Brigaut, her +comrade, exactly as Paul and Virginia might have done. Petted by +everybody, free as air, they gaily chased the joys of childhood. In +summer they ran to watch the fishing, they caught the many-colored +insects, they gathered flowers, they gardened; in winter they made +slides, they built snow-men or huts, or pelted each other with +snowballs. Welcomed by all, they met with smiles wherever they went. + +When the time came to begin their education, disasters came, too. +Jacques, left without means at the death of his father, was +apprenticed by his relatives to a cabinet-maker, and fed by charity, +as Pierrette was soon to be at Saint-Jacques. Until the little girl +was taken with her grandparents to that asylum, she had known nothing +but fond caresses and protection from every one. Accustomed to confide +in so much love, the little darling missed in these rich relatives, so +eagerly desired, the kindly looks and ways which all the world, even +strangers and the conductors of the coaches, had bestowed upon her. +Her bewilderment, already great, was increased by the moral atmosphere +she had entered. The heart turns suddenly cold or hot like the body. +The poor child wanted to cry, without knowing why; but being very +tired she went to sleep. + +The next morning, Pierrette being, like all country children, +accustomed to get up early, was awake two hours before the cook. She +dressed herself, stepping on tiptoe about her room, looked out at the +little square, started to go downstairs and was struck with amazement +by the beauties of the staircase. She stopped to examine all its +details: the painted walls, the brasses, the various ornamentations, +the window fixtures. Then she went down to the garden-door, but was +unable to open it, and returned to her room to wait until Adele should +be stirring. As soon as the woman went to the kitchen Pierrette flew +to the garden and took possession of it, ran to the river, was amazed +at the kiosk, and sat down in it; truly, she had enough to see and to +wonder at until her cousins were up. At breakfast Sylvie said to +her:-- + +"Was it you, little one, who was trotting over my head by daybreak, +and making that racket on the stairs? You woke me so that I couldn't +go to sleep again. You must be very good and quiet, and amuse yourself +without noise. Your cousin doesn't like noise." + +"And you must wipe your feet," said Rogron. "You went into the kiosk +with your dirty shoes, and they've tracked all over the floor. Your +cousin likes cleanliness. A great girl like you ought to be clean. +Weren't you clean in Brittany? But I recollect when I went down there +to buy thread it was pitiable to see the folks,--they were like +savages. At any rate she has a good appetite," added Rogron, looking +at his sister; "one would think she hadn't eaten anything for days." + +Thus, from the very start Pierrette was hurt by the remarks of her two +cousins,--hurt, she knew not why. Her straightforward, open nature, +hitherto left to itself, was not given to reflection. Incapable of +thinking that her cousins were hard, she was fated to find it out +slowly through suffering. After breakfast the brother and sister, +pleased with Pierrette's astonishment at the house and anxious to +enjoy it, took her to the salon to show her its splendors and teach +her not to touch them. Many celibates, driven by loneliness and the +moral necessity of caring for something, substitute factitious +affections for natural ones; they love dogs, cats, canaries, servants, +or their confessor. Rogron and Sylvie had come to the pass of loving +immoderately their house and furniture, which had cost them so dear. +Sylvie began by helping Adele in the mornings to dust and arrange the +furniture, under pretence that she did not know how to keep it looking +as good as new. This dusting was soon a desired occupation to her, and +the furniture, instead of losing its value in her eyes, became ever +more precious. To use things without hurting them or soiling them or +scratching the woodwork or clouding the varnish, that was the problem +which soon became the mania of the old maid's life. Sylvie had a +closet full of bits of wool, wax, varnish, and brushes, which she had +learned to use with the dexterity of a cabinet-maker; she had her +feather dusters and her dusting-cloths; and she rubbed away without +fear of hurting herself,--she was so strong. The glance of her cold +blue eyes, hard as steel, was forever roving over the furniture and +under it, and you could as soon have found a tender spot in her heart +as a bit of fluff under the sofa. + +After the remarks made at Madame Tiphaine's, Sylvie dared not flinch +from the three hundred francs for Pierrette's clothes. During the +first week her time was wholly taken up, and Pierrette's too, by +frocks to order and try on, chemises and petticoats to cut out and +have made by a seamstress who went out by the day. Pierrette did not +know how to sew. + +"That's pretty bringing up!" said Rogron. "Don't you know how to do +anything, little girl?" + +Pierrette, who knew nothing but how to love, made a pretty, childish +gesture. + +"What did you do in Brittany?" asked Rogron. + +"I played," she answered, naively. "Everybody played with me. +Grandmamma and grandpapa they told me stories. Ah! they all loved me!" + +"Hey!" said Rogron; "didn't you take it easy!" + +Pierrette opened her eyes wide, not comprehending. + +"She is as stupid as an owl," said Sylvie to Mademoiselle Borain, the +best seamstress in Provins. + +"She's so young," said the workwoman, looking kindly at Pierrette, +whose delicate little muzzle was turned up to her with a coaxing look. + +Pierrette preferred the sewing-women to her relations. She was +endearing in her ways with them, she watched their work, and made them +those pretty speeches that seem like the flowers of childhood, and +which her cousin had already silenced, for that gaunt woman loved to +impress those under her with salutary awe. The sewing-women were +delighted with Pierrette. Their work, however, was not carried on +without many and loud grumblings. + +"That child will make us pay through the nose!" cried Sylvie to her +brother. + +"Stand still, my dear, and don't plague us; it is all for you and not +for me," she would say to Pierrette when the child was being measured. +Sometimes it was, when Pierrette would ask the seamstress some +question, "Let Mademoiselle Borain do her work, and don't talk to her; +it is not you who are paying for her time." + +"Mademoiselle," said Mademoiselle Borain, "am I to back-stitch this?" + +"Yes, do it firmly; I don't want to be making such an outfit as this +every day." + +Sylvie put the same spirit of emulation into Pierrette's outfit that +she had formerly put into the house. She was determined that her +cousin should be as well dressed as Madame Garceland's little girl. +She bought the child fashionable boots of bronzed kid like those the +little Tiphaines wore, very fine cotton stockings, a corset by the +best maker, a dress of blue reps, a pretty cape lined with white silk, +--all this that she, Sylvie, might hold her own against the children +of the women who had rejected her. The underclothes were quite in +keeping with the visible articles of dress, for Sylvie feared the +examining eyes of the various mothers. Pierrette's chemises were of +fine Madapolam calico. Mademoiselle Borain had mentioned that the +sub-prefect's little girls wore cambric drawers, embroidered and +trimmed in the latest style. Pierrette had the same. Sylvie ordered +for her a charming little drawn bonnet of blue velvet lined with white +satin, precisely like the one worn by Dr. Martener's little daughter. + +Thus attired, Pierrette was the most enchanting little girl in all +Provins. On Sunday, after church, all the ladies kissed her; Mesdames +Tiphaine, Garceland, Galardon, Julliard, and the rest fell in love +with the sweet little Breton girl. This enthusiasm was deeply +flattering to old Sylvie's self-love; she regarded it as less due to +Pierrette than to her own benevolence. She ended, however, in being +affronted by her cousin's success. Pierrette was constantly invited +out, and Sylvie allowed her to go, always for the purpose of +triumphing over "those ladies." Pierrette was much in demand for games +or little parties and dinners with their own little girls. She had +succeeded where the Rogrons had failed; and Mademoiselle Sylvie soon +grew indignant that Pierrette was asked to other children's houses +when those children never came to hers. The artless little thing did +not conceal the pleasure she found in her visits to these ladies, +whose affectionate manners contrasted strangely with the harshness of +her two cousins. A mother would have rejoiced in the happiness of her +little one, but the Rogrons had taken Pierrette for their own sakes, +not for hers; their feelings, far from being parental, were dyed in +selfishness and a sort of commercial calculation. + +The handsome outfit, the fine Sunday dresses, and the every-day frocks +were the beginning of Pierrette's troubles. Like all children free to +amuse themselves, who are accustomed to follow the dictates of their +own lively fancies, she was very hard on her clothes, her shoes, and +above all on those embroidered drawers. A mother when she reproves her +child thinks only of the child; her voice is gentle; she does not +raise it unless driven to extremities, or when the child is much in +fault. But here, in this great matter of Pierrette's clothes, the +cousins' money was the first consideration; their interests were to be +thought of, not the child's. Children have the perceptions of the +canine race for the sentiments of those who rule them; they know +instinctively whether they are loved or only tolerated. Pure and +innocent hearts are more distressed by shades of difference than by +contrasts; a child does not understand evil, but it knows when the +instinct of the good and the beautiful which nature has implanted in +it is shocked. The lectures which Pierrette now drew upon herself on +propriety of behavior, modesty, and economy were merely the corollary +of the one theme, "Pierrette will ruin us." + +These perpetual fault-findings, which were destined to have a fatal +result for the poor child, brought the two celibates back to the old +beaten track of their shop-keeping habits, from which their removal to +Provins had parted them, and in which their natures were now to expand +and flourish. Accustomed in the old days to rule and to make +inquisitions, to order about and reprove their clerks sharply, Rogron +and his sister had actually suffered for want of victims. Little minds +need to practise despotism to relieve their nerves, just as great +souls thirst for equality in friendship to exercise their hearts. +Narrow natures expand by persecuting as much as others through +beneficence; they prove their power over their fellows by cruel +tyranny as others do by loving kindness; they simply go the way their +temperaments drive them. Add to this the propulsion of self-interest +and you may read the enigma of most social matters. + +Thenceforth Pierrette became a necessity to the lives of her cousins. +From the day of her coming their minds were occupied,--first, with her +outfit, and then with the novelty of a third presence. But every new +thing, a sentiment and even a tyranny, is moulded as time goes on into +fresh shapes. Sylvie began by calling Pierrette "my dear," or "little +one." Then she abandoned the gentler terms for "Pierrette" only. Her +reprimands, at first only cross, became sharp and angry; and no sooner +were their feet on the path of fault-finding than the brother and +sister made rapid strides. They were no longer bored to death! It was +not their deliberate intention to be wicked and cruel; it was simply +the blind instinct of an imbecile tyranny. The pair believed they were +doing Pierrette a service, just as they had thought their harshness a +benefit to their apprentices. + +Pierrette, whose true and noble and extreme sensibility was the +antipodes of the Rogrons' hardness, had a dread of being scolded; it +wounded her so sharply that the tears would instantly start in her +beautiful, pure eyes. She had a great struggle with herself before she +could repress the enchanting sprightliness which made her so great a +favorite elsewhere. After a time she displayed it only in the homes of +her little friends. By the end of the first month she had learned to +be passive in her cousins' house,--so much so that Rogron one day +asked her if she was ill. At that sudden question, she ran to the end +of the garden, and stood crying beside the river, into which her tears +may have fallen as she herself was about to fall into the social +torrent. + +One day, in spite of all her care, she tore her best reps frock at +Madame Tiphaine's, where she was spending a happy day. The poor child +burst into tears, foreseeing the cruel things which would be said to +her at home. Questioned by her friends, she let fall a few words about +her terrible cousin. Madame Tiphaine happened to have some reps +exactly like that of the frock, and she put in a new breadth herself. +Mademoiselle Rogron found out the trick, as she expressed it, which +the little devil had played her. From that day forth she refused to +let Pierrette go to any of "those women's" houses. + +The life the poor girl led in Provins was divided into three distinct +phases. The first, already shown, in which she had some joy mingled +with the cold kindness of her cousins and their sharp reproaches, +lasted three months. Sylvie's refusal to let her go to her little +friends, backed by the necessity of beginning her education, ended the +first phase of her life at Provins, the only period when that life was +bearable to her. + +These events, produced at the Rogrons by Pierrette's presence, were +studied by Vinet and the colonel with the caution of foxes preparing +to enter a poultry-yard and disturbed by seeing a strange fowl. They +both called from time to time,--but seldom, so as not to alarm the old +maid; they talked with Rogron under various pretexts, and made +themselves masters of his mind with an affectation of reserve and +modesty which the great Tartuffe himself would have respected. The +colonel and the lawyer were spending the evening with Rogron on the +very day when Sylvie had refused in bitter language to let Pierrette +go again to Madame Tiphaine's, or elsewhere. Being told of this +refusal the colonel and the lawyer looked at each other with an air +which seemed to say that they at least knew Provins well. + +"Madame Tiphaine intended to insult you," said the lawyer. "We have +long been warning Rogron of what would happen. There's no good to be +got from those people." + +"What can you expect from the anti-national party!" cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache and interrupting the lawyer. "But, +mademoiselle, if we had tried to warn you from those people you might +have supposed we had some malicious motive in what we said. If you +like a game of cards in the evening, why don't you have it at home; +why not play your boston here, in your own house? Is it impossible to +fill the places of those idiots, the Julliards and all the rest of +them? Vinet and I know how to play boston, and we can easily find a +fourth. Vinet might present his wife to you; she is charming, and, +what is more, a Chargeboeuf. You will not be so exacting as those apes +of the Upper town; _you_ won't require a good little housewife, who is +compelled by the meanness of her family to do her own work, to dress +like a duchess. Poor woman, she has the courage of a lion and the +meekness of a lamb." + +Sylvie Rogron showed her long yellow teeth as she smiled on the +colonel, who bore the sight heroically and assumed a flattered air. + +"If we are only four we can't play boston every night," said Sylvie. + +"Why not? What do you suppose an old soldier of the Empire like me +does with himself? And as for Vinet, his evenings are always free. +Besides, you'll have plenty of other visitors; I warrant you that," he +added, with a rather mysterious air. + +"What you ought to do," said Vinet, "is to take an open stand against +the ministerialists of Provins and form an opposition to them. You +would soon see how popular that would make you; you would have a +society about you at once. The Tiphaines would be furious at an +opposition salon. Well, well, why not laugh at others, if others laugh +at you?--and they do; the clique doesn't mince matters in talking +about you." + +"How's that?" demanded Sylvie. + +In the provinces there is always a valve or a faucet through which +gossip leaks from one social set to another. Vinet knew all the slurs +cast upon the Rogrons in the salons from which they were now excluded. +The deputy-judge and archaeologist Desfondrilles belonged to neither +party. With other independents like him, he repeated what he heard on +both sides and Vinet made the most of it. The lawyer's spiteful tongue +put venom into Madame Tiphaine's speeches, and by showing Rogron and +Sylvie the ridicule they had brought upon themselves he roused an +undying spirit of hatred in those bitter natures, which needed an +object for their petty passions. + +A few days later Vinet brought his wife, a well-bred woman, neither +pretty nor plain, timid, very gentle, and deeply conscious of her +false position. Madame Vinet was fair-complexioned, faded by the cares +of her poor household, and very simply dressed. No woman could have +pleased Sylvie more. Madame Vinet endured her airs, and bent before +them like one accustomed to subjection. On the poor woman's rounded +brow and delicately timid cheek and in her slow and gentle glance, +were the traces of deep reflection, of those perceptive thoughts which +women who are accustomed to suffer bury in total silence. + +The influence of the colonel (who now displayed to Sylvie the graces +of a courtier, in marked contradiction to his usual military +brusqueness), together with that of the astute Vinet, was soon to harm +the Breton child. Shut up in the house, no longer allowed to go out +except in company with her old cousin, Pierrette, that pretty little +squirrel, was at the mercy of the incessant cry, "Don't touch that, +child, let that alone!" She was perpetually being lectured on her +carriage and behavior; if she stooped or rounded her shoulders her +cousin would call to her to be as erect as herself (Sylvie was rigid +as a soldier presenting arms to his colonel); sometimes indeed the +ill-natured old maid enforced the order by slaps on the back to make +the girl straighten up. + +Thus the free and joyous little child of the Marais learned by degrees +to repress all liveliness and to make herself, as best she could, an +automaton. + + + + V + + HISTORY OF POOR COUSINS IN THE HOME OF RICH ONES + +One evening, which marked the beginning of Pierrette's second phase of +life in her cousin's house, the child, whom the three guests had not +seen during the evening, came into the room to kiss her relatives and +say good-night to the company. Sylvie turned her cheek coldly to the +pretty creature, as if to avoid kissing her. The motion was so cruelly +significant that the tears sprang to Pierrette's eyes. + +"Did you prick yourself, little girl?" said the atrocious Vinet. + +"What is the matter?" asked Sylvie, severely. + +"Nothing," said the poor child, going up to Rogron. + +"Nothing?" said Sylvie, "that's nonsense; nobody cries for nothing." + +"What is it, my little darling?" said Madame Vinet. + +"My rich cousin isn't as kind to me as my poor grandmother was," +sobbed Pierrette. + +"Your grandmother took your money," said Sylvie, "and your cousin will +leave you hers." + +The colonel and the lawyer glanced at each other. + +"I would rather be robbed and loved," said Pierrette. + +"Then you shall be sent back whence you came." + +"But what has the dear little thing done?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Vinet gave his wife the terrible, fixed, cold look with which men +enforce their absolute dominion. The hapless helot, punished +incessantly for not having the one thing that was wanted of her, a +fortune, took up her cards. + +"What has she done?" said Sylvie, throwing up her head with such +violence that the yellow wall-flowers in her cap nodded. "She is +always looking about to annoy us. She opened my watch to see the +inside, and meddled with the wheel and broke the mainspring. +Mademoiselle pays no heed to what is said to her. I am all day long +telling her to take care of things, and I might just as well talk to +that lamp." + +Pierrette, ashamed at being reproved before strangers, crept softly +out of the room. + +"I am thinking all the time how to subdue that child," said Rogron. + +"Isn't she old enough to go to school?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Again she was silenced by a look from her husband, who had been +careful to tell her nothing of his own or the colonel's schemes. + +"This is what comes of taking charge of other people's children!" +cried the colonel. "You may still have some of your own, you or your +brother. Why don't you both marry?" + +Sylvie smiled agreeably on the colonel. For the first time in her life +she met a man to whom the idea that she could marry did not seem +absurd. + +"Madame Vinet is right," cried Rogron; "perhaps teaching would keep +Pierrette quiet. A master wouldn't cost much." + +The colonel's remark so preoccupied Sylvie that she made no answer to +her brother. + +"If you are willing to be security for that opposition journal I was +talking to you about," said Vinet, "you will find an excellent master +for the little cousin in the managing editor; we intend to engage that +poor schoolmaster who lost his employment through the encroachments of +the clergy. My wife is right; Pierrette is a rough diamond that wants +polishing." + +"I thought you were a baron," said Sylvie to the colonel, while the +cards were being dealt, and after a long pause in which they had all +been rather thoughtful. + +"Yes; but when I was made baron, in 1814, after the battle of Nangis, +where my regiment performed miracles, I had money and influence enough +to secure the rank. But now my barony is like the grade of general +which I held in 1815,--it needs a revolution to give it back to me." + +"If you will secure my endorsement by a mortgage," said Rogron, +answering Vinet after long consideration, "I will give it." + +"That can easily be arranged," said Vinet. "The new paper will soon +restore the colonel's rights, and make your salon more powerful in +Provins than those of Tiphaine and company." + +"How so?" asked Sylvie. + +While his wife was dealing and Vinet himself explaining the importance +they would all gain by the publication of an independent newspaper, +Pierrette was dissolved in tears; her heart and her mind were one in +this matter; she felt and knew that her cousin was more to blame than +she was. The little country girl instinctively understood that charity +and benevolence ought to be a complete offering. She hated her +handsome frocks and all the things that were made for her; she was +forced to pay too dearly for such benefits. She wept with vexation at +having given cause for complaint against her, and resolved to behave +in future in such a way as to compel her cousins to find no further +fault with her. The thought then came into her mind how grand Brigaut +had been in giving her all his savings without a word. Poor child! she +fancied her troubles were now at their worst; she little knew that +other misfortunes were even now being planned for her in the salon. + +A few days later Pierrette had a writing-master. She was taught to +read, write, and cipher. Enormous injury was thus supposed to be done +to the Rogrons' house. Ink-spots were found on the tables, on the +furniture, on Pierrette's clothes; copy-books and pens were left +about; sand was scattered everywhere, books were torn and dog's-eared +as the result of these lessons. She was told in harsh terms that she +would have to earn her own living, and not be a burden to others. As +she listened to these cruel remarks Pierrette's throat contracted +violently with acute pain, her heart throbbed. She was forced to +restrain her tears, or she was scolded for weeping and told it was an +insult to the kindness of her magnanimous cousins. Rogron had found +the life that suited him. He scolded Pierrette as he used to scold his +clerks; he would call her when at play, and compel her to study; he +made her repeat her lessons, and became himself the almost savage +master of the poor child. Sylvie, on her side, considered it a duty to +teach Pierrette the little that she knew herself about women's work. +Neither Rogron nor his sister had the slightest softness in their +natures. Their narrow minds, which found real pleasure in worrying the +poor child, passed insensibly from outward kindness to extreme +severity. This severity was necessitated, they believed, by what they +called the self-will of the child, which had not been broken when +young and was very obstinate. Her masters were ignorant how to give to +their instructions a form suited to the intelligence of the pupil,--a +thing, by the bye, which marks the difference between public and +private education. The fault was far less with Pierrette than with her +cousins. It took her an infinite length of time to learn the +rudiments. She was called stupid and dull, clumsy and awkward for mere +nothings. Incessantly abused in words, the child suffered still more +from the harsh looks of her cousins. She acquired the doltish ways of +a sheep; she dared not do anything of her own impulse, for all she did +was misinterpreted, misjudged, and ill-received. In all things she +awaited silently the good pleasure and the orders of her cousins, +keeping her thoughts within her own mind and sheltering herself behind +a passive obedience. Her brilliant colors began to fade. Sometimes she +complained of feeling ill. When her cousin asked, "Where?" the poor +little thing, who had pains all over her, answered, "Everywhere." + +"Nonsense! who ever heard of any one suffering everywhere?" cried +Sylvie. "If you suffered everywhere you'd be dead." + +"People suffer in their chests," said Rogron, who liked to hear +himself harangue, "or they have toothache, headache, pains in their +feet or stomach, but no one has pains everywhere. What do you mean by +everywhere? I can tell you; 'everywhere' means _nowhere_. Don't you +know what you are doing?--you are complaining for complaining's sake." + +Pierrette ended by total silence, seeing how all her girlish remarks, +the flowers of her dawning intelligence, were replied to with ignorant +commonplaces which her natural good sense told her were ridiculous. + +"You complain," said Rogron, "but you've got the appetite of a monk." + +The only person who did not bruise the delicate little flower was the +fat servant woman, Adele. Adele would go up and warm her bed,--doing +it on the sly after a certain evening when Sylvie had scolded her for +giving that comfort to the child. + +"Children should be hardened, to give them strong constitutions. Am I +and my brother the worse for it?" said Sylvie. "You'll make Pierrette +a _peakling_"; this was a word in the Rogron vocabulary which meant a +puny and suffering little being. + +The naturally endearing ways of the angelic child were treated as +dissimulation. The fresh, pure blossoms of affection which bloomed +instinctively in that young soul were pitilessly crushed. Pierrette +suffered many a cruel blow on the tender flesh of her heart. If she +tried to soften those ferocious natures by innocent, coaxing wiles +they accused her of doing it with an object. "Tell me at once what you +want?" Rogron would say, brutally; "you are not coaxing me for +nothing." + +Neither brother nor sister believed in affection, and Pierrette's +whole being was affection. Colonel Gouraud, anxious to please +Mademoiselle Rogron, approved of all she did about Pierrette. Vinet +also encouraged them in what they said against her. He attributed all +her so-called misdeeds to the obstinacy of the Breton character, and +declared that no power, no will, could ever conquer it. Rogron and his +sister were so shrewdly flattered by the two manoeuvrers that the +former agreed to go security for the "Courrier de Provins," and the +latter invested five thousand francs in the enterprise. + +On this, the colonel and lawyer took the field. They got a hundred +shares, of five hundred francs each, taken among the farmers and +others called independents, and also among those who had bought lands +of the national domains,--whose fears they worked upon. They even +extended their operations throughout the department and along its +borders. Each shareholder of course subscribed to the paper. The +judicial advertisements were divided between the "Bee-hive" and the +"Courrier." The first issue of the latter contained a pompous eulogy +on Rogron. He was presented to the community as the Laffitte of +Provins. The public mind having thus received an impetus in this new +direction, it was manifest, of course, that the coming elections would +be contested. Madame Tiphaine, whose highest hope was to take her +husband to Paris as deputy, was in despair. After reading an article +in the new paper aimed at her and at Julliard junior, she remarked: +"Unfortunately for me, I forgot that there is always a scoundrel close +to a dupe, and that fools are magnets to clever men of the fox breed." + +As soon as the "Courrier" was fairly launched on a radius of fifty +miles, Vinet bought a new coat and decent boots, waistcoats, and +trousers. He set up the gray slouch hat sacred to liberals, and showed +his linen. His wife took a servant, and appeared in public dressed as +the wife of a prominent man should be; her caps were pretty. Vinet +proved grateful--out of policy. He and his friend Cournant, the +liberal notary and the rival of the ministerial notary Auffray, became +the close advisers of the Rogrons, to whom they were able to do a +couple of signal services. The leases granted by old Rogron to their +father in 1815, when matters were at a low ebb, were about to expire. +Horticulture and vegetable gardening had developed enormously in the +neighborhood of Provins. The lawyer and notary set to work to enable +the Rogrons to increase their rentals. Vinet won two lawsuits against +two districts on a question of planting trees, which involved five +hundred poplars. The proceeds of the poplars, added to the savings of +the brother and sister, who for the last three years had laid by six +thousand a year at high interest, was wisely invested in the purchase +of improved lands. Vinet also undertook and carried out the ejectment +of certain peasants to whom the elder Rogron had lent money on their +farms, and who had strained every nerve to pay off the debt, but in +vain. The cost of the Rogrons' fine house was thus in a measure +recouped. Their landed property, lying around Provins and chosen by +their father with the sagacious eye of an innkeeper, was divided into +small holdings, the largest of which did not exceed five acres, and +rented to safe tenants, men who owned other parcels of land, that were +ample security for their leases. These investments brought in, by +1826, five thousand francs a year. Taxes were charged to the tenants, +and there were no buildings needing insurance or repairs. + +By the end of the second period of Pierrette's stay in Provins life +had become so hard for her, the cold indifference of all who came to +the house, the silly fault-finding, and the total absence of affection +on the part of her cousins grew so bitter, she was conscious of a +chill dampness like that of a grave creeping round her, that the bold +idea of escaping, on foot and without money, to Brittany and to her +grandparents took possession of her mind. Two events hindered her from +attempting it. Old Lorrain died, and Rogron was appointed guardian of +his little cousin. If the grandmother had died first, we may believe +that Rogron, advised by Vinet, would have claimed Pierrette's eight +thousand francs and reduced the old man to penury. + +"You may, perhaps, inherit from Pierrette," said Vinet, with a horrid +smile. "Who knows who may live and who may die?" + +Enlightened by that remark, Rogron gave old Madame Lorrain no peace +until she had secured to Pierrette the reversion of the eight thousand +francs at her death. + +Pierrette was deeply shocked by these events. She was on the point of +making her first communion,--another reason for resigning the hope of +escape from Provins. This ceremony, simple and customary as it was, +led to great changes in the Rogron household. Sylvie learned that +Monsieur le cure Peroux was instructing the little Julliards, +Lesourds, Garcelands, and the rest. She therefore made it a point of +honor that Pierrette should be instructed by the vicar himself, +Monsieur Habert, a priest who was thought to belong to the +_Congregation_, very zealous for the interests of the Church, and much +feared in Provins,--a man who hid a vast ambition beneath the +austerity of stern principles. The sister of this priest, an unmarried +woman about thirty years of age, kept a school for young ladies. +Brother and sister looked alike; both were thin, yellow, black-haired, +and bilious. + +Like a true Breton girl, cradled in the practices and poetry of +Catholicism, Pierrette opened her heart and ears to the words of this +imposing priest. Sufferings predispose the mind to devotion, and +nearly all young girls, impelled by instinctive tenderness, are +inclined to mysticism, the deepest aspect of religion. The priest +found good soil in which to sow the seed of the Gospel and the dogmas +of the Church. He completely changed the current of the girl's +thoughts. Pierrette loved Jesus Christ in the light in which he is +presented to young girls at the time of their first communion, as a +celestial bridegroom; her physical and moral sufferings gained a +meaning for her; she saw the finger of God in all things. Her soul, so +cruelly hurt although she could not accuse her cousins of actual +wrong, took refuge in that sphere to which all sufferers fly on the +wings of the cardinal virtues,--Faith, Hope, Charity. She abandoned +her thoughts of escape. Sylvie, surprised by the transformation +Monsieur Habert had effected in Pierrette, was curious to know how it +had been done. And it thus came about that the austere priest, while +preparing Pierrette for her first communion, also won to God the +hitherto erring soul of Mademoiselle Sylvie. Sylvie became pious. +Jerome Rogron, on whom the so-called Jesuit could get no grip (for +just then the influence of His Majesty the late _Constitutionnel_ the +First was more powerful over weaklings than the influence of the +Church), Jerome Rogron remained faithful to Colonel Gouraud, Vinet, +and Liberalism. + +Mademoiselle Rogron naturally made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle +Habert, with whom she sympathized deeply. The two spinsters loved each +other as sisters. Mademoiselle Habert offered to take Pierrette into +her school to spare Sylvie the annoyance of her education; but the +brother and sister both declared that Pierrette's absence would make +the house too lonely; their attachment to their little cousin seemed +excessive. + +When Gouraud and Vinet became aware of the advent of Mademoiselle +Habert on the scene they concluded that the ambitious priest her +brother had the same matrimonial plan for his sister that the colonel +was forming for himself and Sylvie. + +"Your sister wants to get you married," said Vinet to Rogron. + +"With whom?" asked Rogron. + +"With that old sorceress of a schoolmistress," cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache. + +"She hasn't said anything to me about it," said Rogron, naively. + +So thorough an old maid as Sylvie was certain to make good progress in +the way of salvation. The influence of the priest would as certainly +increase, and in the end affect Rogron, over whom Sylvie had great +power. The two Liberals, who were naturally alarmed, saw plainly that +if the priest were resolved to marry his sister to Rogron (a far more +suitable marriage than that of Sylvie to the colonel) he could then +drive Sylvie in extreme devotion to the Church, and put Pierrette in a +convent. They might therefore lose eighteen months' labor in flattery +and meannesses of all sorts. Their minds were suddenly filled with a +bitter, silent hatred to the priest and his sister, though they felt +the necessity of living on good terms with them in order to track +their manoeuvres. Monsieur and Mademoiselle Habert, who could play +both whist and boston, now came every evening to the Rogrons. The +assiduity of the one pair induced the assiduity of the other. The +colonel and lawyer felt that they were pitted against adversaries who +were fully as strong as they,--a presentiment that was shared by the +priest and his sister. The situation soon became that of a +battle-field. Precisely as the colonel was enabling Sylvie to taste +the unhoped-for joys of being sought in marriage, so Mademoiselle +Habert was enveloping the timid Rogron in the cotton-wool of her +attentions, words, and glances. Neither side could utter that grand +word of statesmanship, "Let us divide!" for each wanted the whole prey. + +The two clever foxes of the Opposition made the mistake of pulling the +first trigger. Vinet, under the spur of self-interest, bethought +himself of his wife's only friends, and looked up Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf and her mother. The two women were living in poverty at +Troyes on two thousand francs a year. Mademoiselle Bathilde de +Chargeboeuf was one of those fine creatures who believe in marriage +for love up to their twenty-fifth year, and change their opinion when +they find themselves still unmarried. Vinet managed to persuade Madame +de Chargeboeuf to join her means to his and live with his family in +Provins, where Bathilde, he assured her, could marry a fool named +Rogron, and, clever as she was, take her place in the best society of +the place. + +The arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf in the lawyer's +household was a great reinforcement for the liberal party; and it +created consternation among the aristocrats of Provins and also in the +Tiphaine clique. Madame de Breautey, horrified to see two women of +rank so misled, begged them to come to her. She was shocked that the +royalists of Troyes had so neglected the mother and daughter, whose +situation she now learned for the first time. + +"How is it that no old country gentleman has married that dear girl, +who is cut out for a lady of the manor?" she said. "They have let her +run to seed, and now she is to be flung at the head of a Rogron!" + +She ransacked the whole department but did not succeed in finding any +gentleman willing to marry a girl whose mother had only two thousand +francs a year. The "clique" and the subprefect also looked about them +with the same object, but they were all too late. Madame de Breautey +made terrible charges against the selfishness which degraded France, +--the consequence, she said, of materialism, and of the importance +now given by the laws to money: nobility was no longer of value! nor +beauty either! Such creatures as the Rogrons, the Vinets, could stand +up and fight with the King of France! + +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf had not only the incontestable superiority of +beauty over her rival, but that of dress as well. She was dazzlingly +fair. At twenty-five her shoulders were fully developed, and the +curves of her beautiful figure were exquisite. The roundness of her +throat, the purity of its lines, the wealth of her golden hair, the +charming grace of her smile, the distinguished carriage of her head, +the character of her features, the fine eyes finely placed beneath a +well-formed brow, her every motion, noble and high-bred, and her light +and graceful figure,--all were in harmony. Her hands were beautiful, +and her feet slender. Health gave her, perhaps, too much the look of a +handsome barmaid. "But that can't be a defect in the eyes of a +Rogron," sighed Madame Tiphaine. Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf's dress +when she made her first appearance in Provins at the Rogrons' house +was very simple. Her brown merino gown edged with green embroidery was +worn low-necked; but a tulle fichu, carefully drawn down by hidden +strings, covered her neck and shoulders, though it opened a little in +front, where its folds were caught together with a _sevigne_. Beneath +this delicate fabric Bathilde's beauties seemed all the more enticing +and coquettish. She took off her velvet bonnet and her shawl on +arriving, and showed her pretty ears adorned with what were then +called "ear-drops" in gold. She wore a little _jeannette_--a black +velvet ribbon with a heart attached--round her throat, where it shone +like the jet ring which fantastic nature had fastened round the tail +of a white angora cat. She knew all the little tricks of a girl who +seeks to marry; her fingers arranged her curls which were not in the +least out of order; she entreated Rogron to fasten a cuff-button, thus +showing him her wrist, a request which that dazzled fool rudely +refused, hiding his emotions under the mask of indifference. The +timidity of the only love he was ever to feel in the whole course of +his life took an external appearance of dislike. Sylvie and her friend +Celeste Habert were deceived by it; not so Vinet, the wise head of +this doltish circle, among whom no one really coped with him but the +priest,--the colonel being for a long time his ally. + +On the other hand the colonel was behaving to Sylvie very much as +Bathilde behaved to Rogron. He put on a clean shirt every evening and +wore velvet stocks, which set off his martial features and the +spotless white of his collar. He adopted the fashion of white pique +waistcoats, and caused to be made for him a new surtout of blue cloth, +on which his red rosette glowed finely; all this under pretext of +doing honor to the new guests Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. +He even refrained from smoking for two hours previous to his +appearance in the Rogrons' salon. His grizzled hair was brushed in a +waving line across a cranium which was ochre in tone. He assumed the +air and manner of a party leader, of a man who was preparing to drive +out the enemies of France, the Bourbons, on short, to beat of drum. + +The satanic lawyer and the wily colonel played the priest and his +sister a more cruel trick than even the importation of the beautiful +Madame de Chargeboeuf, who was considered by all the Liberal party and +by Madame de Breautey and her aristocratic circle to be far handsomer +than Madame Tiphaine. These two great statesmen of the little +provincial town made everybody believe that the priest was in sympathy +with their ideas; so that before long Provins began to talk of him as +a liberal ecclesiastic. As soon as this news reached the bishop +Monsieur Habert was sent for and admonished to cease his visits to the +Rogrons; but his sister continued to go there. Thus the salon Rogron +became a fixed fact and a constituted power. + +Before the year was out political intrigues were not less lively than +the matrimonial schemes of the Rogron salon. While the selfish +interests hidden in these hearts were struggling in deadly combat the +events which resulted from them had a fatal celebrity. Everybody knows +that the Villele ministry was overthrown by the elections of 1826. +Vinet, the Liberal candidate at Provins, who had borrowed money of his +notary to buy a domain which made him eligible for election, came very +near defeating Monsieur Tiphaine, who saved his election by only two +votes. The headquarters of the Liberals was the Rogron salon; among +the _habitues_ were the notary Cournant and his wife, and Doctor +Neraud, whose youth was said to have been stormy, but who now took a +serious view of life; he gave himself up to study and was, according +to all Liberals, a far more capable man than Monsieur Martener, the +aristocratic physician. As for the Rogrons, they no more understood +their present triumph than they had formerly understood their +ostracism. + +The beautiful Bathilde, to whom Vinet had explained Pierrette as an +enemy, was extremely disdainful to the girl. It seemed as though +everybody's selfish schemes demanded the humiliation of that poor +victim. Madame Vinet could do nothing for her, ground as she herself +was beneath those implacable self-interests which the lawyer's wife +had come at last to see and comprehend. Her husband's imperious will +had alone taken her to the Rogron's house, where she had suffered much +at the harsh treatment of the pretty little creature, who would often +press up against her as if divining her secret thoughts, sometimes +asking the poor lady to show her a stitch in knitting or to teach her +a bit of embroidery. The child proved in return that if she were +treated gently she would understand what was taught her, and succeed +in what she tried to do quite marvellously. But Madame Vinet was soon +no longer necessary to her husband's plans, and after the arrival of +Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf she ceased to visit the +Rogrons. + +Sylvie, who now indulged in the idea of marrying, began to consider +Pierrette as an obstacle. The girl was nearly fourteen; the pallid +whiteness of her skin, a symptom of illness entirely overlooked by the +ignorant old maid, made her exquisitely lovely. Sylvie took it into +her head to balance the cost which Pierrette had been to them by +making a servant of her. All the _habitues_ of the house to whom she +spoke of the matter advised that she should send away Adele. Why +shouldn't Pierrette take care of the house and cook? If there was too +much work at any time Mademoiselle Rogron could easily employ the +colonel's woman-of-all-work, an excellent cook and a most respectable +person. Pierrette ought to learn how to cook, and rub floors, and +sweep, said the lawyer; every girl should be taught to keep house +properly and go to market and know the price of things. The poor +little soul, whose self-devotion was equal to her generosity, offered +herself willingly, pleased to think that she could earn the bitter +bread which she ate in that house. Adele was sent away, and Pierrette +thus lost the only person who might have protected her. + +In spite of the poor child's strength of heart she was henceforth +crushed down physically as well as mentally. Her cousins had less +consideration for her than for a servant; she belonged to them! She +was scolded for mere nothings, for an atom of dust left on a glass +globe or a marble mantelpiece. The handsome ornaments she had once +admired now became odious to her. No matter how she strove to do +right, her inexorable cousins always found something to reprove in +whatever she did. In the course of two years Pierrette never received +the slightest praise, or heard a kindly word. Happiness for her lay in +not being scolded. She bore with angelic patience the morose ill-humor +of the two celibates, to whom all tender feelings were absolutely +unknown, and who daily made her feel her dependence on them. + +Such a life for a young girl, pressed as it were between the two chops +of a vise, increased her illness. She began to feel violent internal +distresses, secret pangs so sudden in their attacks that her strength +was undermined and her natural development arrested. By slow degrees +and through dreadful, though hidden sufferings, the poor child came to +the state in which the companion of her childhood found her when he +sang to her his Breton ditty at the dawn of the October day. + + + + VI + + AN OLD MAID'S JEALOUSY + +Before we relate the domestic drama which the coming of Jacques +Brigaut was destined to bring about in the Rogron family it is best to +explain how the lad came to be in Provins; for he is, as it were, a +somewhat mute personage on the scene. + +When he ran from the house Brigaut was not only frightened by +Pierrette's gesture, he was horrified by the change he saw in his +little friend. He could scarcely recognize the voice, the eyes, the +gestures that were once so lively, gay, and withal so tender. When he +had gained some distance from the house his legs began to tremble +under him; hot flushes ran down his back. He had seen the shadow of +Pierrette, but not Pierrette herself! The lad climbed to the Upper +town till he found a spot from which he could see the square and the +house where Pierrette lived. He gazed at it mournfully, lost in many +thoughts, as though he were entering some grief of which he could not +see the end. Pierrette was ill; she was not happy; she pined for +Brittany--what was the matter with her? All these questions passed and +repassed through his heart and rent it, revealing to his own soul the +extent of his love for his little adopted sister. + +It is extremely rare to find a passion existing between two children +of opposite sexes. The charming story of Paul and Virginia does not, +any more than this of Pierrette and Brigaut, answer the question put +by that strange moral fact. Modern history offers only the illustrious +instance of the Marchesa di Pescara and her husband. Destined to marry +by their parents from their earliest years, they adored each other and +were married, and their union gave to the sixteenth century the noble +spectacle of a perfect conjugal love without a flaw. When the marchesa +became a widow at the age of thirty-four, beautiful, intellectually +brilliant, universally adored, she refused to marry sovereigns and +buried herself in a convent, seeing and knowing thenceforth only nuns. +Such was the perfect love that suddenly developed itself in the heart +of the Breton workman. Pierrette and he had often protected each +other; with what bliss had he given her the money for her journey; he +had almost killed himself by running after the diligence when she left +him. Pierrette had known nothing of all that; but for him the +recollection had warmed and comforted the cold, hard life he had led +for the last three years. For Pierrette's sake he had struggled to +improve himself; he had learned his trade for Pierrette; he had come +to Paris for Pierrette, intending to make his fortune for _her_. After +spending a fortnight in the city, he had not been able to hold out +against the desire to see her, and he had walked from Saturday night +to Monday morning. He intended to return to Paris; but the moving +sight of his little friend nailed him to Provins. A wonderful +magnetism (still denied in spite of many proofs) acted upon him +without his knowledge. Tears rolled from his eyes when they rose in +hers. If to her he was Brittany and her happy childhood, to him she +was life itself. + +At sixteen years of age Brigaut did not yet know how to draw or to +model a cornice; he was ignorant of much, but he had earned, by +piece-work done in the leisure of his apprenticeship, some four or five +francs a day. On this he could live in Provins and be near Pierrette; +he would choose the best cabinet-maker in the town, and learn the rest +of his trade in working for him, and thus keep watch over his darling. + +Brigaut's mind was made up as he sat there thinking. He went back to +Paris and fetched his certificate, tools, and baggage, and three days +later he was a journeyman in the establishment of Monsieur Frappier, +the best cabinet-maker in Provins. Active, steady workmen, not given +to junketing and taverns, are so rare that masters hold to young men +like Brigaut when they find them. To end Brigaut's history on this +point, we will say here that by the end of the month he was made +foreman, and was fed and lodged by Frappier, who taught him arithmetic +and line drawing. The house and shop were in the Grand'Rue, not a +hundred feet from the little square where Pierrette lived. + +Brigaut buried his love in his heart and committed no imprudence. He +made Madame Frappier tell him all she knew about the Rogrons. Among +other things, she related to him the way in which their father had +laid hands on the property of old Auffray, Pierrette's grandfather. +Brigaut obtained other information as to the character of the brother +and sister. He met Pierrette sometimes in the market with her cousin, +and shuddered to see the heavy basket she was carrying on her arm. On +Sundays he went to church to look for her, dressed in her best +clothes. There, for the first time, he became aware that Pierrette was +Mademoiselle Lorrain. Pierrette saw him and made him a hasty sign to +keep out of sight. To him, there was a world of things in that little +gesture, as there had been, a fortnight earlier, in the sign by which +she told him from her window to run away. Ah! what a fortune he must +make in the coming ten years in order to marry his little friend, to +whom, he was told, the Rogrons were to leave their house, a hundred +acres of land, and twelve thousand francs a year, not counting their +savings! + +The persevering Breton was determined to be thoroughly educated for +his trade, and he set about acquiring all the knowledge that he +lacked. As long as only the principles of his work were concerned he +could learn those in Provins as well as in Paris, and thus remain near +Pierrette, to whom he now became anxious to explain his projects and +the sort of protection she could rely on from him. He was determined +to know the reason of her pallor, and of the debility which was +beginning to appear in the organ which is always the last to show the +signs of failing life, namely the eyes; he would know, too, the cause +of the sufferings which gave her that look as though death were near +and she might drop at any moment beneath its scythe. The two signs, +the two gestures--not denying their friendship but imploring caution +--alarmed the young Breton. Evidently Pierrette wished him to wait and +not attempt to see her; otherwise there was danger, there was peril +for her. As she left the church she was able to give him one look, and +Brigaut saw that her eyes were full of tears. But he could have sooner +squared the circle than have guessed what had happened in the Rogrons' +house during the fortnight which had elapsed since his arrival. + +It was not without keen apprehension that Pierrette came downstairs on +the morning after Brigaut had invaded her morning dreams like another +dream. She was certain that her cousin Sylvie must have heard the +song, or she would not have risen and opened her window; but Pierrette +was ignorant of the powerful reasons that made the old maid so alert. +For the last eight days, strange events and bitter feelings agitated +the minds of the chief personages who frequented the Rogron salon. +These hidden matters, carefully concealed by all concerned, were +destined to fall in their results like an avalanche on Pierrette. Such +mysterious things, which we ought perhaps to call the putrescence of +the human heart, lie at the base of the greatest revolutions, +political, social or domestic; but in telling of them it is desirable +to explain that their subtle significance cannot be given in a +matter-of-fact narrative. These secret schemes and calculations do not +show themselves as brutally and undisguisedly while taking place as +they must when the history of them is related. To set down in writing +the circumlocutions, oratorical precautions, protracted conversations, +and honeyed words glossed over the venom of intentions, would make as +long a book as that magnificent poem called "Clarissa Harlowe." + +Mademoiselle Habert and Mademoiselle Sylvie were equally desirous of +marrying, but one was ten years older than the other, and the +probabilities of life allowed Celeste Habert to expect that her +children would inherit all the Rogron property. Sylvie was forty-two, +an age at which marriage is beset by perils. In confiding to each +other their ideas, Celeste, instigated by her vindictive brother the +priest, enlightened Sylvie as to the dangers she would incur. Sylvie +trembled; she was terribly afraid of death, an idea which shakes all +celibates to their centre. But just at this time the Martignac +ministry came into power,--a Liberal victory which overthrew the +Villele administration. The Vinet party now carried their heads high +in Provins. Vinet himself became a personage. The Liberals prophesied +his advancement; he would certainly be deputy and attorney-general. As +for the colonel, he would be made mayor of Provins. Ah, to reign as +Madame Garceland, the wife of the present mayor, now reigned! Sylvie +could not hold out against that hope; she determined to consult a +doctor, though the proceeding would only cover her with ridicule. To +consult Monsieur Neraud, the Liberal physician and the rival of +Monsieur Martener, would be a blunder. Celeste Habert offered to hide +Sylvie in her dressing-room while she herself consulted Monsieur +Martener, the physician of her establishment, on this difficult +matter. Whether Martener was, or was not, Celeste's accomplice need +not be discovered; at any rate, he told his client that even at thirty +the danger, though slight, did exist. "But," he added, "with your +constitution, you need fear nothing." + +"But how about a woman over forty?" asked Mademoiselle Celeste. + +"A married woman who has had children has nothing to fear." + +"But I mean an unmarried woman, like Mademoiselle Rogron, for +instance?" + +"Oh, that's another thing," said Monsieur Martener. "Successful +childbirth is then one of those miracles which God sometimes allows +himself, but rarely." + +"Why?" asked Celeste. + +The doctor answered with a terrifying pathological description; he +explained that the elasticity given by nature to youthful muscles and +bones did not exist at a later age, especially in women whose lives +were sedentary. + +"So you think that an unmarried woman ought not to marry after forty?" + +"Not unless she waits some years," replied the doctor. "But then, of +course, it is not marriage, it is only an association of interests." + +The result of the interview, clearly, seriously, scientifically and +sensibly stated, was that an unmarried woman would make a great +mistake in marrying after forty. When the doctor had departed +Mademoiselle Celeste found Sylvie in a frightful state, green and +yellow, and with the pupils of her eyes dilated. + +"Then you really love the colonel?" asked Celeste. + +"I still hoped," replied Sylvie. + +"Well, then, wait!" cried Mademoiselle Habert, Jesuitically, aware +that time would rid her of the colonel. + +Sylvie's new devotion to the church warned her that the morality of +such a marriage might be doubtful. She accordingly sounded her +conscience in the confessional. The stern priest explained the +opinions of the Church, which sees in marriage only the propagation of +humanity, and rebukes second marriages and all passions but those with +a social purpose. Sylvie's perplexities were great. These internal +struggles gave extraordinary force to her passion, investing it with +that inexplicable attraction which, from the days of Eve, the thing +forbidden possesses for women. Mademoiselle Rogron's perturbation did +not escape the lynx-eyed lawyer. + +One evening, after the game had ended, Vinet approached his dear +friend Sylvie, took her hand, and led her to a sofa. + +"Something troubles you," he said. + +She nodded sadly. The lawyer let the others depart; Rogron walked home +with the Chargeboeufs, and when Vinet was alone with the old maid he +wormed the truth out of her. + +"Cleverly played, abbe!" thought he. "But you've played into my +hands." + +The foxy lawyer was more decided in his opinion than even the doctor. +He advised marriage in ten years. Inwardly he was vowing that the +whole Rogron fortune should go to Bathilde. He rubbed his hands, his +pinched lips closed more tightly as he hurried home. The influence +exercised by Monsieur Habert, physician of the soul, and by Vinet, +doctor of the purse, balanced each other perfectly. Rogron had no +piety in him; so the churchman and the man of law, the black-robed +pair, were fairly matched. + +On discovering the victory obtained by Celeste, in her anxiety to +marry Rogron herself, over Sylvie, torn between the fear of death and +the joy of being baronness and mayoress, the lawyer saw his chance of +driving the colonel from the battlefield. He knew Rogron well enough +to be certain he could marry him to Bathilde; Jerome had already +succumbed inwardly to her charms, and Vinet knew that the first time +the pair were alone together the marriage would be settled. Rogron had +reached the point of keeping his eyes fixed on Celeste, so much did he +fear to look at Bathilde. Vinet had now possessed himself of Sylvie's +secrets, and saw the force with which she loved the colonel. He fully +understood the struggle of such a passion in the heart of an old maid +who was also in the grasp of religious emotion, and he saw his way to +rid himself of Pierrette and the colonel both by making each the cause +of the other's overthrow. + +The next day, after the court had risen, Vinet met the colonel and +Rogron talking a walk together, according to their daily custom. + +Whenever the three men were seen in company the whole town talked of +it. This triumvirate, held in horror by the sub-prefect, the +magistracy, and the Tiphaine clique, was, on the other hand, a source +of pride and vanity to the Liberals of Provins. Vinet was sole editor +of the "Courrier" and the head of the party; the colonel, the working +manager, was its arm; Rogron, by means of his purse, its nerves. The +Tiphaines declared that the three men were always plotting evil to the +government; the Liberals admired them as the defenders of the people. +When Rogron turned to go home, recalled by a sense of his dinner-hour, +Vinet stopped the colonel from following him by taking Gouraud's arm. + +"Well, colonel," he said, "I am going to take a fearful load off your +shoulders; you can do better than marry Sylvie; if you play your cards +properly you can marry that little Pierrette in two years' time." + +He thereupon related the Jesuit's manoeuvre and its effect on Sylvie. + +"What a skulking trick!" cried the colonel; "and spreading over years, +too!" + +"Colonel," said Vinet, gravely, "Pierrette is a charming creature; +with her you can be happy for the rest of your life; your health is so +sound that the difference in your ages won't seem disproportionate. +But, all the same, you mustn't think it an easy thing to change a +dreadful fate to a pleasant one. To turn a woman who loves you into a +friend and confidant is as perilous a business as crossing a river +under fire of the enemy. Cavalry colonel as you are, and daring too, +you must study the position and manoeuvre your forces with the same +wisdom you have displayed hitherto, and which has won us our present +position. If I get to be attorney-general you shall command the +department. Oh! if you had been an elector we should be further +advanced than we are now; I should have bought the votes of those two +clerks by threatening them with the loss of their places, and we +should have had a majority." + +The colonel had long been thinking about Pierrette, but he concealed +his thoughts with the utmost dissimulation. His roughness to the child +was only a mask; but she could not understand why the man who claimed +to be her father's old comrade should usually treat her so ill, when +sometimes, if he met her alone, he would chuck her under the chin and +give her a friendly kiss. But after the conversation with Vinet +relating to Sylvie's fears of marriage Gouraud began to seek +opportunities to find Pierrette alone; the rough colonel made himself +as soft as a cat; he told her how brave her father was and what a +misfortune it had been for her that she lost him. + +A few days before Brigaut's arrival Sylvie had come suddenly upon +Gouraud and Pierrette talking together. Instantly, jealousy rushed +into her heart with monastic violence. Jealousy, eminently credulous +and suspicious, is the passion in which fancy has most freedom, but +for all that it does not give a person intelligence; on the contrary, +it hinders them from having any; and in Sylvie's case jealousy only +filled her with fantastic ideas. When (a few mornings later) she heard +Brigaut's ditty, she jumped to the conclusion that the man who had +used the words "Madam' le mariee," addressing them to Pierrette, must +be the colonel. She was certain she was right, for she had noticed for +a week past a change in his manners. He was the only man who, in her +solitary life, had ever paid her any attention. Consequently she +watched him with all her eyes, all her mind; and by giving herself up +to hopes that were sometimes flourishing, sometimes blighted, she had +brought the matter to such enormous proportions that she saw all +things in a mental mirage. To use a common but excellent expression, +by dint of looking intently she saw nothing. Alternately she repelled, +admitted, and conquered the supposition of this rivalry. She compared +herself with Pierrette; she was forty-two years old, with gray hair; +Pierrette was delicately fair, with eyes soft enough to warm a +withered heart. She had heard it said that men of fifty were apt to +love young girls of just that kind. Before the colonel had come +regularly to the house Sylvie had heard in the Tiphaines' salon +strange stories of his life and morals. Old maids preserve in their +love-affairs the exaggerated Platonic sentiments which young girls of +twenty are wont to profess; they hold to these fixed doctrines like +all who have little experience of life and no personal knowledge of +how great social forces modify, impair, and bring to nought such grand +and noble ideas. The mere thought of being jilted by the colonel was +torture to Sylvie's brain. She lay in her bed going over and over her +own desires, Pierrette's conduct, and the song which had awakened her +with the word "marriage." Like the fool she was, instead of looking +through the blinds to see the lover, she opened her window without +reflecting that Pierrette would hear her. If she had had the common +instinct of a spy she would have seen Brigaut, and the fatal drama +then begun would never have taken place. + +It was Pierrette's duty, weak as she was, to take down the bars that +closed the wooden shutters of the kitchen, which she opened and +fastened back; then she opened in like manner the glass door leading +from the corridor to the garden. She took the various brooms that were +used for sweeping the carpets, the dining-room, the passages and +stairs, together with the other utensils, with a care and +particularity which no servant, not even a Dutchwoman, gives to her +work. She hated reproof. Happiness for her was in seeing the cold blue +pallid eyes of her cousin, not satisfied (that they never were), but +calm, after glancing about her with the look of an owner,--that +wonderful glance which sees what escapes even the most vigilant eyes +of others. Pierrette's skin was moist with her labor when she returned +to the kitchen to put it in order, and light the stove that she might +carry up hot water to her two cousins (a luxury she never had for +herself) and the means of lighting fires in their rooms. After this +she laid the table for breakfast and lit the stove in the dining-room. +For all these various fires she had to fetch wood and kindling from +the cellar, leaving the warm rooms for a damp and chilly atmosphere. +Such sudden transitions, made with the quickness of youth, often to +escape a harsh word or obey an order, aggravated the condition of her +health. She did not know she was ill, and yet she suffered. She began +to have strange cravings; she liked raw vegetables and salads, and ate +them secretly. The innocent child was quite unaware that her condition +was that of serious illness which needed the utmost care. If Neraud, +the Rogrons' doctor, had told this to Pierrette before Brigaut's +arrival she would only have smiled; life was so bitter she could smile +at death. But now her feelings changed; the child, to whose physical +sufferings was added the anguish of Breton homesickness (a moral +malady so well-known that colonels in the army allow for it among +their men), was suddenly content to be in Provins. The sight of that +yellow flower, the song, the presence of her friend, revived her as a +plant long without water revives under rain. Unconsciously she wanted +to live, and even thought she did not suffer. + +Pierrette slipped timidly into her cousin's bedroom, made the fire, +left the hot water, said a few words, and went to wake Rogron and do +the same offices for him. Then she went down to take in the milk, the +bread, and the other provisions left by the dealers. She stood some +time on the sill of the door hoping that Brigaut would have the sense +to come to her; but by that time he was already on his way to Paris. + +She had finished the arrangement of the dining-room and was busy in +the kitchen when she heard her cousin Sylvie coming down. Mademoiselle +Rogron appeared in a brown silk dressing-gown and a cap with bows; her +false front was awry, her night-gown showed above the silk wrapper, +her slippers were down at heel. She gave an eye to everything and then +came straight to Pierrette, who was awaiting her orders to know what +to prepare for breakfast. + +"Ha! here you are, lovesick young lady!" said Sylvie, in a mocking +tone. + +"What is it, cousin?" + +"You came into my room like a sly cat, and you crept out the same way, +though you knew very well I had something to say to you." + +"To me?" + +"You had a serenade this morning, as if you were a princess." + +"A serenade!" exclaimed Pierrette. + +"A serenade!" said Sylvie, mimicking her; "and you've a lover, too." + +"What is a lover, cousin?" + +Sylvie avoided answering, and said:-- + +"Do you dare to tell me, mademoiselle, that a man did not come under +your window and talk to you of marriage?" + +Persecution had taught Pierrette the wariness of slaves; so she +answered bravely:-- + +"I don't know what you mean,--" + +"Who means?--your dog?" said Sylvie, sharply. + +"I should have said 'cousin,'" replied the girl, humbly. + +"And didn't you get up and go in your bare feet to the window?--which +will give you an illness; and serve you right, too. And perhaps you +didn't talk to your lover, either?" + +"No, cousin." + +"I know you have many faults, but I did not think you told lies. You +had better think this over, mademoiselle; you will have to explain +this affair to your cousin and to me, or your cousin will be obliged +to take severe measures." + +The old maid, exasperated by jealousy and curiosity, meant to frighten +the girl. Pierrette, like all those who suffer more than they have +strength to bear, kept silence. Silence is the only weapon by which +such victims can conquer; it baffles the Cossack charges of envy, the +savage skirmishings of suspicion; it does at times give victory, +crushing and complete,--for what is more complete than silence? it is +absolute; it is one of the attributes of infinity. Sylvie watched +Pierrette narrowly. The girl colored; but the color, instead of rising +evenly, came out in patches on her cheekbones, in burning and +significant spots. A mother, seeing that symptom of illness, would +have changed her tone at once; she would have taken the child on her +lap and questioned her; in fact, she would long ago have tenderly +understood the signs of Pierrette's pure and perfect innocence; she +would have seen her weakness and known that the disturbance of the +digestive organs and the other functions of the body was about to +affect the lungs. Those eloquent patches would have warned her of an +imminent danger. But an old maid, one in whom the family instincts +have never been awakened, to whom the needs of childhood and the +precautions required for adolescence were unknown, had neither the +indulgence nor the compassionate intelligence of a mother; such +sufferings as those of Pierrette, instead of softening her heart only +made it more callous. + +"She blushes, she is guilty!" thought Sylvie. + +Pierrette's silence was thus interpreted to her injury. + +"Pierrette," continued Sylvie, "before your cousin comes down we must +have some talk together. Come," she said, in a rather softer tone, +"shut the street door; if any one comes they will rung and we shall +hear them." + +In spite of the damp mist which was rising from the river, Sylvie took +Pierrette along the winding gravel path which led across the lawn to +the edge of the rock terrace,--a picturesque little quay, covered with +iris and aquatic plants. She now changed her tactics, thinking she +might catch Pierrette tripping by softness; the hyena became a cat. + +"Pierrette," she said, "you are no longer a child; you are nearly +fifteen, and it is not at all surprising that you should have a +lover." + +"But, cousin," said Pierrette, raising her eyes with angelic sweetness +to the cold, sour face of her cousin, "What is a lover?" + +It would have been impossible for Sylvie to define a lover with truth +and decency to the girl's mind. Instead of seeing in that question the +proof of adorable innocence, she considered it a piece of insincerity. + +"A lover, Pierrette, is a man who loves us and wishes to marry us." + +"Ah," said Pierrette, "when that happens in Brittany we call the young +man a suitor." + +"Well, remember that in owning your feelings for a man you do no +wrong, my dear. The wrong is in hiding them. Have you pleased some of +the men who visit here?" + +"I don't think so, cousin." + +"Do you love any of them?" + +"No." + +"Certain?" + +"Quite certain." + +"Look at me, Pierrette." + +Pierrette looked at Sylvie. + +"A man called to you this morning in the square." + +Pierrette lowered her eyes. + +"You went to your window, you opened it, and you spoke to him." + +"No cousin, I went to look out and I saw a peasant." + +"Pierrette, you have much improved since you made your first +communion; you have become pious and obedient, you love God and your +relations; I am satisfied with you. I don't say this to puff you up +with pride." + +The horrible creature had mistaken despondency, submission, the +silence of wretchedness, for virtues! + +The sweetest of all consolations to suffering souls, to martyrs, to +artists, in the worst of that divine agony which hatred and envy force +upon them, is to meet with praise where they have hitherto found +censure and injustice. Pierrette raised her grateful eyes to her +cousin, feeling that she could almost forgive her for the sufferings +she had caused. + +"But if it is all hypocrisy, if I find you a serpent that I have +warmed in my bosom, you will be a wicked girl, an infamous creature!" + +"I think I have nothing to reproach myself with," said Pierrette, with +a painful revulsion of her heart at the sudden change from unexpected +praise to the tones of the hyena. + +"You know that to lie is a mortal sin?" + +"Yes, cousin." + +"Well, you are now under the eye of God," said the old maid, with a +solemn gesture towards the sky; "swear to me that you did not know +that peasant." + +"I will not swear," said Pierrette. + +"Ha! he was no peasant, you little viper." + +Pierrette rushed away like a frightened fawn terrified at her tone. +Sylvie called her in a dreadful voice. + +"The bell is ringing," she answered. + +"Artful wretch!" thought Sylvie. "She is depraved in mind; and now I +am certain the little adder has wound herself round the colonel. She +has heard us say he was a baron. To be a baroness! little fool! Ah! +I'll get rid of her, I'll apprentice her out, and soon too!" + +Sylvie was so lost in thought that she did not notice her brother +coming down the path and bemoaning the injury the frost had done to +his dahlias. + +"Sylvie! what are you thinking about? I thought you were looking at +the fish; sometimes they jump out of the water." + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"How did you sleep?" and he began to tell her about his own dreams. +"Don't you think my skin is getting _tabid_?"--a word in the Rogron +vocabulary. + +Ever since Rogron had been in love,--but let us not profane the word, +--ever since he had desired to marry Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, he +was very uneasy about himself and his health. At this moment Pierrette +came down the garden steps and called to them from a distance that +breakfast was ready. At sight of her cousin, Sylvie's skin turned +green and yellow, her bile was in commotion. She looked at the floor +of the corridor and declared that Pierrette ought to rub it. + +"I will rub it now if you wish," said the little angel, not aware of +the injury such work may do to a young girl. + +The dining-room was irreproachably in order. Sylvie sat down and +pretended all through breakfast to want this, that, and the other +thing which she would never have thought of in a quieter moment, and +which she now asked for only to make Pierrette rise again and again +just as the child was beginning to eat her food. But such mere teasing +was not enough; she wanted a subject on which to find fault, and was +angry with herself for not finding one. She scarcely answered her +brother's silly remarks, yet she looked at him only; her eyes avoided +Pierrette. Pierrette was deeply conscious of all this. She brought the +milk mixed with cream for each cousin in a large silver goblet, after +heating it carefully in the _bain-marie_. The brother and sister +poured in the coffee made by Sylvie herself on the table. When Sylvie +had carefully prepared hers, she saw an atom of coffee-grounds +floating on the surface. On this the storm broke forth. + +"What is the matter?" asked Rogron. + +"The matter is that mademoiselle has put dust in my milk. Do you +suppose I am going to drink coffee with ashes in it? Well, I am not +surprised; no one can do two things at once. She wasn't thinking of +the milk! a blackbird might have flown through the kitchen to-day and +she wouldn't have seen it! how should she see the dust flying! and +then it was my coffee, ha! that didn't signify!" + +As she spoke she was laying on the side of her plate the +coffee-grounds that had run through the filter. + +"But, cousin, that is coffee," said Pierrette. + +"Oh! then it is I who tell lies, is it?" cried Sylvie, looking at +Pierrette and blasting her with a fearful flash of anger from her +eyes. + +Organizations which have not been exhausted by powerful emotions often +have a vast amount of the vital fluid at their service. This +phenomenon of the extreme clearness of the eye in moments of anger was +the more marked in Mademoiselle Rogron because she had often exercised +the power of her eyes in her shop by opening them to their full extent +for the purpose of inspiring her dependents with salutary fear. + +"You had better dare to give me the lie!" continued Sylvie; "you +deserve to be sent from the table to go and eat by yourself in the +kitchen." + +"What's the matter with you two?" cried Rogron, "you are as cross as +bears this morning." + +"Mademoiselle knows what I have against her," said Sylvie. "I leave +her to make up her mind before speaking to you; for I mean to show her +more kindness than she deserves." + +Pierrette was looking out of the window to avoid her cousin's eyes, +which frightened her. + +"Look at her! she pays no more attention to what I am saying than if I +were that sugar-basin! And yet mademoiselle has a sharp ear; she can +hear and answer from the top of the house when some one talks to her +from below. She is perversity itself,--perversity, I say; and you +needn't expect any good of her; do you hear me, Jerome?" + +"What has she done wrong?" asked Rogron. + +"At her age, too! to begin so young!" screamed the angry old maid. + +Pierrette rose to clear the table and give herself something to do, +for she could hardly bear the scene any longer. Though such language +was not new to her, she had never been able to get used to it. Her +cousin's rage seemed to accuse her of some crime. She imagined what +her fury would be if she came to know about Brigaut. Perhaps her +cousin would have him sent away, and she should lose him! All the many +thoughts, the deep and rapid thoughts of a slave came to her, and she +resolved to keep absolute silence about a circumstance in which her +conscience told her there was nothing wrong. But the cruel, bitter +words she had been made to hear and the wounding suspicion so shocked +her that as she reached the kitchen she was taken with a convulsion of +the stomach and turned deadly sick. She dared not complain; she was +not sure that any one would help her. When she returned to the +dining-room she was white as a sheet, and, saying she was not well, she +started to go to bed, dragging herself up step by step by the baluster +and thinking that she was going to die. "Poor Brigaut!" she thought. + +"The girl is ill," said Rogron. + +"She ill! That's only _shamming_," replied Sylvie, in a loud voice +that Pierrette might hear. "She was well enough this morning, I can +tell you." + +This last blow struck Pierrette to the earth; she went to bed weeping +and praying to God to take her out of this world. + + + + VII + + DOMESTIC TYRANNY + +For a month past Rogron had ceased to carry the "Constitutionnel" to +Gouraud; the colonel came obsequiously to fetch his paper, gossip a +little, and take Rogron off to walk if the weather was fine. Sure of +seeing the colonel and being able to question him, Sylvie dressed +herself as coquettishly as she knew how. The old maid thought she was +attractive in a green gown, a yellow shawl with a red border, and a +white bonnet with straggling gray feathers. About the hour when the +colonel usually came Sylvie stationed herself in the salon with her +brother, whom she had compelled to stay in the house in his +dressing-gown and slippers. + +"It is a fine day, colonel," said Rogron, when Gouraud with his heavy +step entered the room. "But I'm not dressed; my sister wanted to go +out, and I was going to keep the house. Wait for me; I'll be ready +soon." + +So saying, Rogron left Sylvie alone with the colonel. + +"Where were you going? you are dressed divinely," said Gouraud, who +noticed a certain solemnity on the pock-marked face of the old maid. + +"I wanted very much to go out, but my little cousin is ill, and I +cannot leave her." + +"What is the matter with her?" + +"I don't know; she had to go to bed." + +Gouraud's caution, not to say his distrust, was constantly excited by +the results of his alliance with Vinet. It certainly appeared that the +lawyer had got the lion's share in their enterprise. Vinet controlled +the paper, he reigned as sole master over it, he took the revenues; +whereas the colonel, the responsible editor, earned little. Vinet and +Cournant had done the Rogrons great services; whereas Gouraud, a +colonel on half-pay, could do nothing. Who was to be deputy? Vinet. +Who was the chief authority in the party? Vinet. Whom did the liberals +all consult? Vinet. Moreover, the colonel knew fully as well as Vinet +himself the extent and depth of the passion suddenly aroused in Rogron +by the beautiful Bathilde de Chargeboeuf. This passion had now become +intense, like all the last passions of men. Bathilde's voice made him +tremble. Absorbed in his desires Rogron hid them; he dared not hope +for such a marriage. To sound him, the colonel mentioned that he was +thinking himself of asking for Bathilde's hand. Rogron turned pale at +the thought of such a formidable rival, and had since then shown +coldness and even hatred to Gouraud. + +Thus Vinet reigned supreme in the Rogron household while he, the +colonel, had no hold there except by the extremely hypothetical tie of +his mendacious affection for Sylvie, which it was not yet clear that +Sylvie reciprocated. When the lawyer told him of the priest's +manoeuvre, and advised him to break with Sylvie and marry Pierrette, +he certainly flattered Gouraud's foible; but after analyzing the inner +purpose of that advice and examining the ground all about him, the +colonel thought he perceived in his ally the intention of separating +him from Sylvie, and profiting by her fears to throw the whole Rogron +property into the hands of Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. + +Therefore, when the colonel was left alone with Sylvie his +perspicacity possessed itself immediately of certain signs which +betrayed her uneasiness. He saw at once that she was under arms and +had made this plan for seeing him alone. As he already suspected Vinet +of playing him some trick, he attributed the conference to the +instigation of the lawyer, and was instantly on his guard, as he would +have been in an enemy's country,--with an eye all about him, an ear to +the faintest sound, his mind on the qui vive, and his hand on a +weapon. The colonel had the defect of never believing a single word +said to him by a woman; so that when the old maid brought Pierrette on +the scene, and told him she had gone to bed before midday, he +concluded that Sylvie had locked her up by way of punishment and out +of jealousy. + +"She is getting to be quite pretty, that little thing," he said with +an easy air. + +"She will be pretty," replied Mademoiselle Rogron. + +"You ought to send her to Paris and put her in a shop," continued the +colonel. "She would make her fortune. The milliners all want pretty +girls." + +"Is that really your advice?" asked Sylvie, in a troubled voice. + +"Good!" thought the colonel, "I was right. Vinet advised me to marry +Pierrette just to spoil my chance with the old harridan. But," he said +aloud, "what else can you do with her? There's that beautiful girl +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, noble and well-connected, reduced to +single-blessedness,--nobody will have her. Pierrette has nothing, and +she'll never marry. As for beauty, what is it? To me, for example, +youth and beauty are nothing; for haven't I been a captain of cavalry +in the imperial guard, and carried my spurs into all the capitals of +Europe, and known all the handsomest women of these capitals? Don't +talk to me; I tell you youth and beauty are devilishly common and +silly. At forty-eight," he went on, adding a few years to his age, to +match Sylvie's, "after surviving the retreat from Moscow and going +through that terrible campaign of France, a man is broken down; I'm +nothing but an old fellow now. A woman like you would pet me and care +for me, and her money, joined to my poor pension, would give me ease +in my old days; of course I should prefer such a woman to a little +minx who would worry the life out of me, and be thirty years old, with +passions, when I should be sixty, with rheumatism. At my age, a man +considers and calculates. To tell you the truth between ourselves, I +should not wish to have children." + +Sylvie's face was an open book to the colonel during this tirade, and +her next question proved to him Vinet's perfidy. + +"Then you don't love Pierrette?" she said. + +"Heavens! are you out of your mind, my dear Sylvie?" he cried. "Can +those who have no teeth crack nuts? Thank God I've got some +common-sense and know what I'm about." + +Sylvie thus reassured resolved not to show her own hand, and thought +herself very shrewd in putting her own ideas into her brother's mouth. + +"Jerome," she said, "thought of the match." + +"How could your brother take up such an incongruous idea? Why, it is +only a few days ago that, in order to find out his secrets, I told him +I loved Bathilde. He turned as white as your collar." + +"My brother! does he love Bathilde?" asked Sylvie. + +"Madly,--and yet Bathilde is only after his money." ("One for you, +Vinet!" thought the colonel.) "I can't understand why he should have +told you that about Pierrette. No, Sylvie," he said, taking her hand +and pressing it in a certain way, "since you have opened this matter" +(he drew nearer to her), "well" (he kissed her hand; as a cavalry +captain he had already proved his courage), "let me tell you that I +desire no wife but you. Though such a marriage may look like one of +convenience, I feel, on my side, a sincere affection for you." + +"But if I _wish_ you to marry Pierrette? if I leave her my fortune +--eh, colonel?" + +"But I don't want to be miserable in my home, and in less than ten +years see a popinjay like Julliard hovering round my wife and +addressing verses to her in the newspapers. I'm too much of a man to +stand that. No, I will never make a marriage that is disproportionate +in age." + +"Well, colonel, we will talk seriously of this another time," said +Sylvie, casting a glance upon him which she supposed to be full of +love, though, in point of fact, it was a good deal like that of an +ogress. Her cold, blue lips of a violet tinge drew back from the +yellow teeth, and she thought she smiled. + +"I'm ready," said Rogron, coming in and carrying off the colonel, who +bowed in a lover-like way to the old maid. + +Gouraud determined to press on his marriage with Sylvie, and make +himself master of the house; resolving to rid himself, through his +influence over Sylvie during the honeymoon, of Bathilde and Celeste +Habert. So, during their walk, he told Rogron he had been joking the +other day; that he had no real intention of aspiring to Bathilde; that +he was not rich enough to marry a woman without fortune; and then he +confided to him his real wishes, declaring that he had long chosen +Sylvie for her good qualities,--in short, he aspired to the honor of +being Rogron's brother-in-law. + +"Ah, colonel, my dear baron! if nothing is wanting but my consent you +have it with no further delay than the law requires," cried Rogron, +delighted to be rid of his formidable rival. + +Sylvie spent the morning in her own room considering how the new +household could be arranged. She determined to build a second storey +for her brother and to furnish the rest for herself and her husband; +but she also resolved, in the true old-maidish spirit, to subject the +colonel to certain proofs by which to judge of his heart and his +morals before she finally committed herself. She was still suspicious, +and wanted to make sure that Pierrette had no private intercourse with +the colonel. + +Pierrette came down before the dinner-hour to lay the table. Sylvie +had been forced to cook the dinner, and had sworn at that "cursed +Pierrette" for a spot she had made on her gown,--wasn't it plain that +if Pierrette had done her own work Sylvie wouldn't have got that +grease-spot on her silk dress? + +"Oh, here you are, _peakling_? You are like the dog of the marshal who +woke up as soon as the saucepans rattled. Ha! you want us to think you +are ill, you little liar!" + +That idea: "You did not tell the truth about what happened in the +square this morning, therefore you lie in everything," was a hammer +with which Sylvie battered the head and also the heart of the poor +girl incessantly. + +To Pierrette's great astonishment Sylvie sent her to dress in her best +clothes after dinner. The liveliest imagination is never up to the +level of the activity which suspicion excites in the mind of an old +maid. In this particular case, this particular old maid carried the +day against politicians, lawyers, notaries, and all other +self-interests. Sylvie determined to consult Vinet, after examining +herself into all the suspicious circumstances. She kept Pierrette +close to her, so as to find out from the girl's face whether the +colonel had told her the truth. + +On this particular evening the Chargeboeuf ladies were the first to +arrive. Bathilde, by Vinet's advice, had become more elaborate in her +dress. She now wore a charming gown of blue velveteen, with the same +transparent fichu, garnet pendants in her ears, her hair in ringlets, +the wily _jeannette_ round her throat, black satin slippers, gray silk +stockings, and _gants de Suede_; add to these things the manners of a +queen and the coquetry of a young girl determined to capture Rogron. +Her mother, calm and dignified, retained, as did her daughter, a +certain aristocratic insolence, with which the two women hedged +themselves and preserved the spirit of their caste. Bathilde was a +woman of intelligence, a fact which Vinet alone had discovered during +the two months' stay the ladies had made at his house. When he had +fully fathomed the mind of the girl, wounded and disappointed as it +was by the fruitlessness of her beauty and her youth, and enlightened +by the contempt she felt for the men of a period in which money was +the only idol, Vinet, himself surprised, exclaimed,-- + +"If I could only have married you, Bathilde, I should to-day be Keeper +of the Seals. I should call myself Vinet de Chargeboeuf, and take my +seat as deputy of the Right." + +Bathilde had no vulgar idea in her marriage intentions. She did not +marry to be a mother, nor to possess a husband; she married for +freedom, to gain a responsible position, to be called "madame," and to +act as men act. Rogron was nothing but a name to her; she expected to +make something of the fool,--a voting deputy, for instance, whose +instigator she would be; moreover, she longed to avenge herself on her +family, who had taken no notice of a girl without money. Vinet had +much enlarged and strengthened her ideas by admiring and approving +them. + +"My dear Bathilde," he said, while explaining to her the influence of +women, and showing her the sphere of action in which she ought to +work, "do you suppose that Tiphaine, a man of the most ordinary +capacity, could ever get to be a judge of the Royal court in Paris by +himself? No, it is Madame Tiphaine who has got him elected deputy, and +it is she who will push him when they get to Paris. Her mother, Madame +Roguin, is a shrewd woman, who does what she likes with the famous +banker du Tillet, a crony of Nucingen, and both of them allies of the +Kellers. The administration is on the best of terms with those lynxes +of the bank. There is no reason why Tiphaine should not be judge, +through his wife, of a Royal court. Marry Rogron; we'll have him +elected deputy from Provins as soon as I gain another precinct in the +Seine-et-Marne. You can then get him a place as receiver-general, +where he'll have nothing to do but sign his name. We shall belong to +the opposition _if_ the Liberals triumph, but if the Bourbons remain +--ah! then we shall lean gently, gently towards the centre. Besides, +you must remember Rogron can't live forever, and then you can marry a +titled man. In short, put yourself in a good position, and the +Chargeboeufs will be ready enough to serve us. Your poverty has no +doubt taught you, as mine did me, to know what men are worth. We must +make use of them as we do of post-horses. A man, or a woman, will take +us along to such or such a distance." + +Vinet ended by making Bathilde a small edition of Catherine de +Medicis. He left his wife at home, rejoiced to be alone with her two +children, while he went every night to the Rogrons' with Madame and +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. He arrived there in all the glory of +better circumstances. His spectacles were of gold, his waistcoat silk; +a white cravat, black trousers, thin boots, a black coat made in +Paris, and a gold watch and chain, made up his apparel. In place of +the former Vinet, pale and thin, snarling and gloomy, the present +Vinet bore himself with the air and manner of a man of importance; he +marched boldly forward, certain of success, with that peculiar show of +security which belongs to lawyers who know the hidden places of the +law. His sly little head was well-brushed, his chin well-shaved, which +gave him a mincing though frigid look, that made him seem agreeable +in the style of Robespierre. Certainly he would make a fine +attorney-general, endowed with elastic, mischievous, and even murderous +eloquence, or an orator of the shrewd type of Benjamin Constant. The +bitterness and the hatred which formerly actuated him had now turned +into soft-spoken perfidy; the poison was transformed into anodyne. + +"Good-evening, my dear; how are you?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf, +greeting Sylvie. + +Bathilde went straight to the fireplace, took off her bonnet, looked +at herself in the glass, and placed her pretty foot on the fender that +Rogron might admire it. + +"What is the matter with you?" she said to him, looking directly in +his face. "You have not bowed to me. Pray why should we put on our +best velvet gowns to please you?" + +She pushed past Pierrette to lay down her hat, which the latter took +from her hand, and which she let her take exactly as though she were a +servant. Men are supposed to be ferocious, and tigers too; but neither +tigers, vipers, diplomatists, lawyers, executioners or kings ever +approach, in their greatest atrocities, the gentle cruelty, the +poisoned sweetness, the savage disdain of one young woman for another, +when she thinks herself superior in birth, or fortune, or grace, and +some question of marriage, or precedence, or any of the feminine +rivalries, is raised. The "Thank you, mademoiselle," which Bathilde +said to Pierrette was a poem in many strophes. She was named Bathilde, +and the other Pierrette. She was a Chargeboeuf, the other a Lorrain. +Pierrette was small and weak, Bathilde was tall and full of life. +Pierrette was living on charity, Bathilde and her mother lived on +their means. Pierrette wore a stuff gown with a chemisette, Bathilde +made the velvet of hers undulate. Bathilde had the finest shoulders in +the department, and the arm of a queen; Pierrette's shoulder-blades +were skin and bone. Pierrette was Cinderella, Bathilde was the fairy. +Bathilde was about to marry, Pierrette was to die a maid. Bathilde was +adored, Pierrette was loved by none. Bathilde's hair was ravishingly +dressed, she had so much taste; Pierrette's was hidden beneath her +Breton cap, and she knew nothing of the fashions. Moral, Bathilde was +everything, Pierrette nothing. The proud little Breton girl understood +this tragic poem. + +"Good-evening, little girl," said Madame de Chargeboeuf, from the +height of her condescending grandeur, and in the tone of voice which +her pinched nose gave her. + +Vinet put the last touch to this sort of insult by looking fixedly at +Pierrette and saying, in three keys, "Oh! oh! oh! how fine we are +to-night, Pierrette!" + +"Fine!" said the poor child; "you should say that to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf, not to me." + +"Oh! she is always beautifully dressed," replied the lawyer. "Isn't +she, Rogron?" he added, turning to the master of the house, and +grasping his hand. + +"Yes," said Rogron. + +"Why do you force him to say what he does not think?" said Bathilde; +"nothing about me pleases him. Isn't that true?" she added, going up +to Rogron and standing before him. "Look at me, and say if it isn't +true." + +Rogron looked at her from head to foot, and gently closed his eyes +like a cat whose head is being scratched. + +"You are too beautiful," he said; "too dangerous." + +"Why?" + +Rogron looked at the fire and was silent. Just then Mademoiselle +Habert entered the room, followed by the colonel. + +Celeste Habert, who had now become the common enemy, could only reckon +Sylvie on her side; nevertheless, everybody present showed her the +more civility and amiable attention because each was undermining her. +Her brother, though no longer able to be on the scene of action, was +well aware of what was going on, and as soon as he perceived that his +sister's hopes were killed he became an implacable and terrible +antagonist to the Rogrons. + +Every one will immediately picture to themselves Mademoiselle Habert +when they know that if she had not kept an institution for young +ladies she would still have had the air of a school-mistress. +School-mistresses have a way of their own in putting on their caps. +Just as old Englishwomen have acquired a monopoly in turbans, +school-mistresses have a monopoly of these caps. Flowers nod above +the frame-work, flowers that are more than artificial; lying by in +closets for years the cap is both new and old, even on the day it is +first worn. These spinsters make it a point of honor to resemble the +lay figures of a painter; they sit on their hips, never on their +chairs. When any one speaks to them they turn their whole busts +instead of simply turning their heads; and when their gowns creak one +is tempted to believe that the mechanism of these beings is out of +order. Mademoiselle Habert, an ideal of her species, had a stern eye, +a grim mouth, and beneath her wrinkled chin the strings of her cap, +always limp and faded, floated as she moved. Two moles, rather large +and brown, adorned that chin, and from them sprouted hairs which she +allowed to grow rampant like clematis. And finally, to complete her +portrait, she took snuff, and took it ungracefully. + +The company went to work at their boston. Mademoiselle Habert sat +opposite to Sylvie, with the colonel at her side opposite to Madame de +Chargeboeuf. Bathilde was near her mother and Rogron. Sylvie placed +Pierrette between herself and the colonel; Rogron had set out a second +card-table, in case other company arrived. Two lamps were on the +chimney-piece between the candelabra and the clock, and the tables +were lighted by candles at forty sous a pound, paid for by the price +of the cards. + +"Come, Pierrette, take your work, my dear," said Sylvie, with +treacherous softness, noticing that the girl was watching the +colonel's game. + +She usually affected to treat Pierrette well before company. This +deception irritated the honest Breton girl, and made her despise her +cousin. She took her embroidery, but as she drew her stitches she +still watched Gouraud's play. Gouraud behaved as if he did not know +the girl was near him. Sylvie noticed this apparent indifference and +thought it extremely suspicious. Presently she undertook a _grande +misere_ in hearts, the pool being full of counters, besides containing +twenty-seven sous. The rest of the company had now arrived; among them +the deputy-judge Desfondrilles, who for the last two months had +abandoned the Tiphaine party and connected himself more or less with +the Vinets. He was standing before the chimney-piece, with his back to +the fire and the tails of his coat over his arms, looking round the +fine salon of which Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf was the shining +ornament; for it really seemed as if all the reds of its decoration +had been made expressly to enhance her style of beauty. Silence +reigned; Pierrette was watching the game, Sylvie's attention was +distracted from her by the interest of the _grande misere_. + +"Play that," said Pierrette to the colonel, pointing to a heart in his +hand. + +The colonel began a sequence in hearts; the hearts all lay between +himself and Sylvie; the colonel won her ace, though it was protected +by five small hearts. + +"That's not fair!" she cried. "Pierrette saw my hand, and the colonel +took her advice." + +"But, mademoiselle," said Celeste, "it was the colonel's game to play +hearts after you began them." + +The scene made Monsieur Desfondrilles smile; his was a keen mind, +which found much amusement in watching the play of all the +self-interests in Provins. + +"Yes, it was certainly the colonel's game," said Cournant the notary, +not knowing what the question was. + +Sylvie threw a look at Mademoiselle Habert,--one of those glances +which pass from old maid to old maid, feline and cruel. + +"Pierrette, you did see my hand," said Sylvie fixing her eyes on the +girl. + +"No, cousin." + +"I was looking at you all," said the deputy-judge, "and I can swear +that Pierrette saw no one's hand but the colonel's." + +"Pooh!" said Gouraud, alarmed, "little girls know how to slide their +eyes into everything." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"Yes," continued Gouraud. "I dare say she looked into your hand to +play you a trick. Didn't you, little one?" + +"No," said the truthful Breton, "I wouldn't do such a thing; if I had, +it would have been in my cousin's interests." + +"You know you are a story-teller and a little fool," cried Sylvie. +"After what happened this morning do you suppose I can believe a word +you say? You are a--" + +Pierrette did not wait for Sylvie to finish her sentence; foreseeing a +torrent of insults, she rushed away without a light and ran to her +room. Sylvie turned white with anger and muttered between her teeth, +"She shall pay for this!" + +"Shall you pay for the _misere_?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf. + +As she spoke Pierrette struck her head against the door of the passage +which some one had left open. + +"Good! I'm glad of it," cried Sylvie, as they heard the blow. + +"She must be hurt," said Desfondrilles. + +"She deserves it," replied Sylvie. + +"It was a bad blow," said Mademoiselle Habert. + +Sylvie thought she might escape paying her _misere_ if she went to see +after Pierrette, but Madame de Chargeboeuf stopped her. + +"Pay us first," she said, laughing; "you will forget it when you come +back." + +The remark, based on the old maid's trickery and her bad faith in +paying her debts at cards was approved by the others. Sylvie sat down +and thought no more of Pierrette,--an indifference which surprised no +one. When the game was over, about half past nine o'clock, she flung +herself into an easy chair at the corner of the fireplace and did not +even rise as her guests departed. The colonel was torturing her; she +did not know what to think of him. + +"Men are so false!" she cried, as she went to bed. + +Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow on the head, just above +the ear, at the spot where young girls part their hair when they put +their "front hair" in curlpapers. The next day there was a large +swelling. + +"God has punished you," said Sylvie at the breakfast table. "You +disobeyed me; you treated me with disrespect in leaving the room +before I had finished my sentence; you got what you deserved." + +"Nevertheless," said Rogron, "she ought to put on a compress of salt +and water." + +"Oh, it is nothing at all, cousin," said Pierrette. + +The poor child had reached a point where even such a remark seemed to +her a proof of kindness. + + + + VIII + + THE LOVES OF JACQUES AND PIERRETTE + +The week ended as it had begun, in continual torture. Sylvie grew +ingenious, and found refinements of tyranny with almost savage +cruelty; the red Indians might have taken a lesson from her. Pierrette +dared not complain of her vague sufferings, nor of the actual pains +she now felt in her head. The origin of her cousin's present anger was +the non-revelation of Brigaut's arrival. With Breton obstinacy +Pierrette was determined to keep silence,--a resolution that is +perfectly explicable. It is easy to see how her thoughts turned to +Brigaut, fearing some danger for him if he were discovered, yet +instinctively longing to have him near her, and happy in knowing he +was in Provins. What joy to have seen him! That single glimpse was +like the look an exile casts upon his country, or the martyr lifts to +heaven, where his eyes, gifted with second-sight, can enter while +flames consume his body. + +Pierrette's glance had been so thoroughly understood by the major's +son that, as he planed his planks or took his measures or joined his +wood, he was working his brains to find out some way of communicating +with her. He ended by choosing the simplest of all schemes. At a +certain hour of the night Pierrette must lower a letter by a string +from her window. In the midst of the girl's own sufferings, she too +was sustained by the hope of being able to communicate with Brigaut. +The same desire was in both hearts; parted, they understood each +other! At every shock to her heart, every throb of pain in her head, +Pierrette said to herself, "Brigaut is here!" and that thought enabled +her to live without complaint. + +One morning in the market, Brigaut, lying in wait, was able to get +near her. Though he saw her tremble and turn pale, like an autumn leaf +about to flutter down, he did not lose his head, but quietly bought +fruit of the market-woman with whom Sylvie was bargaining. He found +his chance of slipping a note to Pierrette, all the while joking the +woman with the ease of a man accustomed to such manoeuvres; so cool +was he in action, though the blood hummed in his ears and rushed +boiling through his veins and arteries. He had the firmness of a +galley-slave without, and the shrinkings of innocence within him, +--like certain mothers in their moments of mortal trial, when held +between two dangers, two catastrophes. + +Pierrette's inward commotion was like Brigaut's. She slipped the note +into the pocket of her apron. The hectic spots upon her cheekbones +turned to a cherry-scarlet. These two children went through, all +unknown to themselves, many more emotions than go to the make-up of a +dozen ordinary loves. This moment in the market-place left in their +souls a well-spring of passionate feeling. Sylvie, who did not +recognize the Breton accent, took no notice of Brigaut, and Pierrette +went home safely with her treasure. + +The letters of these two poor children were fated to serve as +documents in a terrible judicial inquiry; otherwise, without the fatal +circumstances that occasioned that inquiry, they would never have been +heard of. Here is the one which Pierrette read that night in her +chamber:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--At midnight, when everybody is asleep but me, + who am watching you, I will come every night under your window. + Let down a string long enough to reach me; it will not make any + noise; you must fasten to the end of it whatever you write to me. + I will tie my letter in the same way. I hear _they_ have taught + you to read and write,--those wicked relations who were to do you + good, and have done you so much harm. You, Pierrette, the daughter + of a colonel who died for France, reduced by those monsters to be + their servant! That is where all your pretty color and health have + gone. My Pierrette, what has become of her? what have they done + with her. I see plainly you are not the same, not happy. Oh! + Pierrette, let us go back to Brittany. I can earn enough now to + give you what you need; for you yourself can earn three francs a + day and I can earn four or five; and thirty sous is all I want to + live on. Ah! Pierrette, how I have prayed the good God for you + ever since I came here! I have asked him to give me all your + sufferings, and you all pleasures. Why do you stay with them? why + do they keep you? Your grandmother is more to you than they. They + are vipers; they have taken your gaiety away from you. You do not + even walk as you once did in Brittany. Let us go back. I am here + to serve you, to do your will; tell me what you wish. If you need + money I have a hundred and fifty francs; I can send them up by the + string, though I would like to kiss your dear hands and lay the + money in them. Ah, dear Pierrette, it is a long time now that the + blue sky has been overcast for me. I have not had two hours' + happiness since I put you into that diligence of evil. And when I + saw you the other morning, looking like a shadow, I could not + reach you; that hag of a cousin came between us. But at least we + can have the consolation of praying to God together every Sunday + in church; perhaps he will hear us all the more when we pray + together. + + Not good-by, my dear, Pierrette, but _to-night_. + +This letter so affected Pierrette that she sat for more than an hour +reading and re-reading and gazing at it. Then she remembered with +anguish that she had nothing to write with. She summoned courage to +make the difficult journey from her garret to the dining-room, where +she obtained pen, paper, and ink, and returned safely without waking +her terrible cousin. A few minutes before midnight she had finished +the following letter:-- + + My Friend,--Oh! yes, my friend; for there is no one but you, + Jacques, and my grandmother to love me. God forgive me, but you + are the only two persons whom I love, both alike, neither more nor + less. I was too little to know my dear mamma; but you, Jacques, + and my grandmother, and my grandfather,--God grant him heaven, for + he suffered much from his ruin, which was mine,--but you two who + are left, I love you both, unhappy as I am. Indeed, to know how + much I love you, you will have to know how much I suffer; but I + don't wish that, it would grieve you too much. _They_ speak to me + as we would not speak to a dog; _they_ treat me like the worst of + girls; and yet I do examine myself before God, and I cannot find + that I do wrong by them. Before you sang to me the marriage song I + saw the mercy of God in my sufferings; for I had prayed to him to + take me from the world, and I felt so ill I said to myself, "God + hears me!" But, Jacques, now you are here, I want to live and go + back to Brittany, to my grandmamma who loves me, though _they_ say + she stole eight thousand francs of mine. Jacques, is that so? If + they are mine could you get them! But it is not true, for if my + grandmother had eight thousand francs she would not live at + Saint-Jacques. + + I don't want to trouble her last days, my kind, good grandmamma, + with the knowledge of my troubles; she might die of it. Ah! if she + knew they made her grandchild scrub the pots and pans,--she who + used to say to me, when I wanted to help her after her troubles, + "Don't touch that, my darling; leave it--leave it--you will spoil + your pretty fingers." Ah! my hands are never clean now. Sometimes + I can hardly carry the basket home from market, it cuts my arm. + Still I don't think my cousins mean to be cruel; but it is their + way always to scold, and it seems that I have no right to leave + them. My cousin Rogron is my guardian. One day when I wanted to + run away because I could not bear it, and told them so, my cousin + Sylvie said the gendarmes would go after me, for the law was my + master. Oh! I know now that cousins cannot take the place of + father or mother, any more than the saints can take the place of + God. + + My poor Jacques, what do you suppose I could do with your money? + Keep it for our journey. Oh! how I think of you and Pen-Hoel, and + the big pong,--that's where we had our only happy days. I shall + have no more, for I feel I am going from bad to worse. I am very + ill, Jacques. I have dreadful pains in my head, and in my bones, + and back, which kill me, and I have no appetite except for horrid + things,--roots and leaves and such things. Sometimes I cry, when I + am all alone, for they won't let me do anything I like if they + know it, not even cry. I have to hide to offer my tears to Him to + whom we owe the mercies which we call afflictions. It must have + been He who gave you the blessed thought to come and sing the + marriage song beneath my window. Ah! Jacques, my cousin heard you, + and she said I had a lover. If you wish to be my lover, love me + well. I promise to love you always, as I did in the past, and to + be + Your faithful servant, + Pierrette Lorrain. + + You will love me always, won't you? + + +She had brought a crust of bread from the kitchen, in which she now +made a hole for the letter, and fastened it like a weight to her +string. At midnight, having opened her window with extreme caution, +she lowered the letter with the crust, which made no noise against +either the wall of the house or the blinds. Presently she felt the +string pulled by Brigaut, who broke it and then crept softly away. +When he reached the middle of the square she could see him +indistinctly by the starlight; but he saw her quite clearly in the +zone of light thrown by the candle. The two children stood thus for +over an hour, Pierrette making him signs to go, he starting, she +remaining, he coming back to his post, and Pierrette again signing +that he must leave her. This was repeated till the child closed her +window, went to bed, and blew out the candle. Once in bed she fell +asleep, happy in heart though suffering in body,--she had Brigaut's +letter under her pillow. She slept as the persecuted sleep,--a slumber +bright with angels; that slumber full of heavenly arabesques, in +atmospheres of gold and lapis-lazuli, perceived and given to us by +Raffaelle. + +The moral nature had such empire over that frail physical nature that +on the morrow Pierrette rose light and joyous as a lark, as radiant +and as gay. Such a change could not escape the vigilant eye of her +cousin Sylvie, who, this time, instead of scolding her, set about +watching her with the scrutiny of a magpie. "What reason is there for +such happiness?" was a thought of jealousy, not of tyranny. If the +colonel had not been in Sylvie's mind she would have said to Pierrette +as formerly, "Pierrette, you are very noise, and very regardless of +what you have often been told." But now the old maid resolved to spy +upon her as only old maids can spy. The day was still and gloomy, like +the weather that precedes a storm. + +"You don't appear to be ill now, mademoiselle," said Sylvie at dinner. +"Didn't I tell you she put it all on to annoy us?" she cried, +addressing her brother, and not waiting for Pierrette's answer. + +"On the contrary, cousin, I have a sort of fever--" + +"Fever! what fever? You are as gay as a lark. Perhaps you have seen +some one again?" + +Pierrette trembled and dropped her eyes on her plate. + +"Tartufe!" cried Sylvie; "and only fourteen years old! what a nature! +Do you mean to come to a bad end?" + +"I don't know what you mean," said Pierrette, raising her sweet and +luminous brown eyes to her cousin. + +"This evening," said Sylvie, "you are to stay in the dining-room with +a candle, and do your sewing. You are not wanted in the salon; I +sha'n't have you looking into my hand to help your favorites." + +Pierrette made no sign. + +"Artful creature!" cried Sylvie, leaving the room. + +Rogron, who did not understand his sister's anger, said to Pierrette: +"What is all this about? Try to please your cousin, Pierrette; she is +very indulgent to you, very gentle, and if you put her out of temper +the fault is certainly yours. Why do you squabble so? For my part I +like to live in peace. Look at Mademoiselle Bathilde and take pattern +by her." + +Pierrette felt able to bear everything. Brigaut would come at midnight +and bring her an answer, and that hope was the viaticum of her day. +But she was using up her last strength. She did not go to bed, and +stood waiting for the hour to strike. At last midnight sounded; softly +she opened the window; this time she used a string made by tying bits +of twine together. She heard Brigaut's step, and on drawing up the +cord she found the following letter, which filled her with joy:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--As you are so ill you must not tire yourself + by waiting for me. You will hear me if I cry like an owl. Happily + my father taught me to imitate their note. So when you hear the + cry three times you will know I am there, and then you must let + down the cord. But I shall not come again for some days. I hope + then to bring you good news. + + Oh! Pierrette, don't talk of dying! Pierrette, don't think such + things! All my heart shook, I felt as though I were dead myself at + the mere idea. No, my Pierrette, you must not die; you will live + happy, and soon you shall be delivered from your persecutors. If I + do not succeed in what I am undertaking for your rescue, I shall + appeal to the law, and I shall speak out before heaven and earth + and tell how your wicked relations are treating you. I am certain + that you have not many more days to suffer; have patience, my + Pierrette! Jacques is watching over you as in the old days when we + slid on the pond and I pulled you out of the hole in which we were + nearly drowned together. + + Adieu, my dear Pierrette; in a few days, if God wills, we shall be + happy. Alas, I dare not tell you the only thing that may hinder + our meeting. But God loves us! In a few days I shall see my dear + Pierrette at liberty, without troubles, without any one to hinder + my looking at you--for, ah! Pierrette, I hunger to see you + --Pierrette, Pierrette, who deigns to love me and to tell me so. + Yes, Pierrette, I will be your lover when I have earned the + fortune you deserve; till then I will be to you only a devoted + servant whose life is yours to do what you please with it. Adieu. + + Jacques Brigaut. + + +Here is a letter of which the major's son said nothing to Pierrette. +He wrote it to Madame Lorrain at Nantes:-- + + Madame Lorrain,--Your granddaughter will die, worn-out with + ill-treatment, if you do not come to fetch her. I could scarcely + recognize her; and to show you the state of things I enclose a + letter I have received from Pierrette. You are thought here to + have taken the money of your granddaughter, and you ought to + justify yourself. If you can, come at once. We may still be happy; + but if delay Pierrette will be dead. + + I am, with respect, your devoted servant, + Jacques Brigaut. + + At Monsieur Frappier's, Cabinet-maker, Grand'Rue, Provins. + + +Brigaut's fear was that the grandmother was dead. + +Though this letter of the youth whom in her innocence she called her +lover was almost enigmatical to Pierrette, she believed in it with all +her virgin faith. Her heart was filled with that sensation which +travellers in the desert feel when they see from afar the palm-trees +round a well. In a few days her misery would end--Jacques said so. She +relied on this promise of her childhood's friend; and yet, as she laid +the letter beside the other, a dreadful thought came to her in +foreboding words. + +"Poor Jacques," she said to herself, "he does not know the hole into +which I have now fallen!" + +Sylvie had heard Pierrette, and she had also heard Brigaut under her +window. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the window to look through +the blinds into the square and there she saw, in the moonlight, a man +hurrying in the direction of the colonel's house, in front of which +Brigaut happened to stop. The old maid gently opened her door, went +upstairs, was amazed to find a light in Pierrette's room, looked +through the keyhole, and could see nothing. + +"Pierrette," she said, "are you ill?" + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, surprised. + +"Why is your candle burning at this time of night? Open the door; I +must know what this means." + +Pierrette went to the door bare-footed, and as soon as Sylvie entered +the room she saw the cord, which Pierrette had forgotten to put away, +not dreaming of a surprise. Sylvie jumped upon it. + +"What is that for?" she asked. + +"Nothing, cousin." + +"Nothing!" she cried. "Always lying; you'll never get to heaven that +way. Go to bed; you'll take cold." + +She asked no more questions and went away, leaving Pierrette terrified +by her unusual clemency. Instead of exploding with rage, Sylvie had +suddenly determined to surprise Pierrette and the colonel together, to +seize their letters and confound the two lovers who were deceiving +her. Pierrette, inspired by a sense of danger, sewed the letters into +her corset and covered them with calico. + +Here end the loves of Pierrette and Brigaut. + +Pierrette rejoiced in the thought that Jacques had determined to hold +no communication with her for some days, because her cousin's +suspicions would be quieted by finding nothing to feed them. Sylvie +did in fact spend the next three nights on her legs, and each evening +in watching the innocent colonel, without discovering either in him or +in Pierrette, or in the house or out of it, anything that betrayed +their understanding. She sent Pierrette to confession, and seized that +moment to search the child's room, with the method and penetration of +a spy or a custom-house officer. She found nothing. Her fury reached +the apogee of human sentiments. If Pierrette had been there she would +certainly have struck her remorselessly. To a woman of her temper, +jealousy was less a sentiment than an occupation; she existed in it, +it made her heart beat, she felt emotions hitherto completely unknown +to her; the slightest sound or movement kept her on the qui vive; she +watched Pierrette with gloomy intentness. + +"That miserable little wretch will kill me," she said. + +Sylvie's severity to her cousin reached the point of refined cruelty, +and made the deplorable condition of the poor girl worse daily. She +had fever regularly, and the pains in her head became intolerable. By +the end of the week even the visitors at the house noticed her +suffering face, which would have touched to pity all selfishness less +cruel than theirs. It happened that Doctor Neraud, possibly by Vinet's +advice, did not come to the house during that week. The colonel, +knowing himself suspected by Sylvie, was afraid to risk his marriage +by showing any solicitude for Pierrette. Bathilde explained the +visible change in the girl by her natural growth. But at last, one +Sunday evening, when Pierrette was in the salon, her sufferings +overcame her and she fainted away. The colonel, who first saw her +going, caught her in his arms and carried her to a sofa. + +"She did it on purpose," said Sylvie, looking at Mademoiselle Habert +and the rest who were playing boston with her. + +"I assure you that your cousin is very ill," said the colonel. + +"She seemed well enough in your arms," Sylvie said to him in a low +voice, with a savage smile. + +"The colonel is right," said Madame de Chargeboeuf. "You ought to send +for a doctor. This morning at church every one was speaking, as they +came out, of Mademoiselle Lorrain's appearance." + +"I am dying," said Pierrette. + +Desfondrilles called to Sylvie and told her to unfasten her cousin's +gown. Sylvie went up to the girl, saying, "It is only a tantrum." + +She unfastened the gown and was about to touch the corset, when +Pierrette, roused by the danger, sat up with superhuman strength, +exclaiming, "No, no, I will go to bed." + +Sylvie had, however, touched the corset and felt the papers. She let +Pierrette go, saying to the company: + +"What do you think now of her illness? I tell you it is all a +pretence. You have no idea of the perversity of that child." + +After the card-playing was over she kept Vinet from following the +other guests; she was furious and wanted vengeance, and was grossly +rude to the colonel when he bade her good-night. Gouraud threw a look +at the lawyer which threatened him to the depths of his being and +seemed to put a ball in his entrails. Sylvie told Vinet to remain. +When they were alone, she said,-- + +"Never in my life, never in my born days, will I marry the colonel." + +"Now that you have come to that decision I may speak," said the +lawyer. "The colonel is my friend, but I am more yours than his. +Rogron has done me services which I can never forget. I am as strong a +friend as I am an enemy. Once in the Chamber I shall rise to power, +and I will make your brother a receiver-general. Now swear to me, +before I say more, that you will never repeat what I tell you." +(Sylvie made an affirmative sign.) "In the first place, the brave +colonel is a gambler--" + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"If it had not been for the embarrassments this vice has brought upon +him, he might have been a marshal of France," continued Vinet. "He is +capable of running through your property; but he is very astute; you +cannot be sure of not having children, and you told me yourself the +risks you feared. No, if you want to marry, wait till I am in the +Chamber and then take that old Desfondrilles, who shall be made chief +justice. If you want revenge on the colonel make your brother marry +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf,--I can get her consent; she has two +thousand francs a year, and you will be connected with the de +Chargeboeufs as I am. Recollect what I tell you, the Chargeboeufs will +be glad to claim us for cousins some day." + +"Gouraud loves Pierrette," was Sylvie's only answer. + +"He is quite capable of it," said Vinet, "and capable of marrying her +after your death." + +"A fine calculation!" she said. + +"I tell you that man has the shrewdness of the devil. Marry your +brother and announce that you mean to remain unmarried and will leave +your property to your nephews and nieces. That will strike a blow at +Gouraud and Pierrette both! and you'll see the faces they'll make." + +"Ah! that's true," cried the old maid, "I can serve them both right. +She shall go to a shop, and get nothing from me. She hasn't a sou; let +her do as we did,--work." + +Vinet departed, having put his plan into Sylvie's head, her dogged +obstinacy being well-known to him. The old maid, he was certain, would +think the scheme her own, and carry it out. + +The lawyer found the colonel in the square, smoking a cigar while he +waited for him. + +"Halt!" said Gouraud; "you have pulled me down, but stones enough came +with me to bury you--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"Colonel or not, I shall give you your deserts. In the first place, +you shall not be deputy--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"I control ten votes and the election depends on--" + +"Colonel, listen to me. Is there no one to marry but that old Sylvie? +I have just been defending you to her; you are accused and convicted +of writing to Pierrette; she saw you leave your house at midnight and +come to the girl's window--" + +"Stuff and nonsense!" + +"She means to marry her brother to Bathilde and leave her fortune to +their children." + +"Rogron won't have any." + +"Yes he will," replied Vinet. "But I promise to find you some young +and agreeable woman with a hundred and fifty thousand francs? Don't be +a fool; how can you and I afford to quarrel? Things have gone against +you in spite of all my care; but you don't understand me." + +"Then we must understand each other," said the colonel. "Get me a wife +with a hundred and fifty thousand francs before the elections; if not +--look out for yourself! I don't like unpleasant bed-fellows, and +you've pulled the blankets all over to your side. Good-evening." + +"You shall see," said Vinet, grasping the colonel's hand +affectionately. + + * * * * * + +About one o'clock that night three clear, sharp cries of an owl, +wonderfully well imitated, echoed through the square. Pierrette heard +them in her feverish sleep; she jumped up, moist with perspiration, +opened her window, saw Brigaut, and flung down a ball of silk, to +which he fastened a letter. Sylvie, agitated by the events of the day +and her own indecision of mind, was not asleep; she heard the owl. + +"Ah, bird of ill-omen!" she thought. "Why, Pierrette is getting up! +What is she after?" + +Hearing the attic window open softly, Sylvie rushed to her own window +and heard the rustle of paper against her blinds. She fastened the +strings of her bed-gown and went quickly upstairs to Pierrette's room, +where she found the poor girl unwinding the silk and freeing the +letter. + +"Ha! I've caught you!" cried the old woman, rushing to the window, +from which she saw Jacques running at full speed. "Give me that +letter." + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, who, by one of those strong inspirations +of youth sustained by her own soul, rose to a grandeur of resistance +such as we admire in the history of certain peoples reduced to +despair. + +"Ha! you will not?" cried Sylvie, advancing upon the girl with a face +full of hatred and fury. + +Pierrette fell back to get time to put her letter in her hand, which +she clenched with unnatural force. Seeing this manoeuvre Sylvie +grasped the delicate white hand of the girl in her lobster claws and +tried to open it. It was a frightful struggle, an infamous struggle; +it was more than a physical struggle; it assailed the mind, the sole +treasure of the human being, the thought, which God has placed beyond +all earthly power and guards as the secret way between the sufferer +and Himself. The two women, one dying, the other in the vigor of +health, looked at each other fixedly. Pierrette's eyes darted on her +executioner the look the famous Templar on the rack cast upon Philippe +le Bel, who could not bear it and fled thunderstricken. Sylvie, a +woman and a jealous woman, answered that magnetic look with malignant +flashes. A dreadful silence reigned. The clenched hand of the Breton +girl resisted her cousin's efforts like a block of steel. Sylvie +twisted Pierrette's arm, she tried to force the fingers open; unable +to do so she stuck her nails into the flesh. At last, in her madness, +she set her teeth into the wrist, trying to conquer the girl by pain. +Pierrette defied her still, with that same terrible glance of +innocence. The anger of the old maid grew to such a pitch that it +became blind fury. She seized Pierrette's arm and struck the closed +fist upon the window-sill, and then upon the marble of the +mantelpiece, as we crack a nut to get the kernel. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, "they are murdering me!" + +"Ha! you may well scream, when I catch you with a lover in the dead of +night." + +And she beat the hand pitilessly. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, the blood flowing. + +At that instant, loud knocks were heard at the front door. Exhausted, +the two women paused a moment. + +Rogron, awakened and uneasy, not knowing what was happening, had got +up, gone to his sister's room, and not finding her was frightened. +Hearing the knocks he went down, unfastened the front door, and was +nearly knocked over by Brigaut, followed by a sort of phantom. + +At this moment Sylvie's eyes chanced to fall on Pierrette's corset, +and she remembered the papers. Releasing the girl's wrist she sprang +upon the corset like a tiger on its prey, and showed it to Pierrette +with a smile,--the smile of an Iroquois over his victim before he +scalps him. + +"I am dying," said Pierrette, falling on her knees, "oh, who will save +me?" + +"I!" said a woman with white hair and an aged parchment face, in which +two gray eyes glittered. + +"Ah! grandmother, you have come too late," cried the poor child, +bursting into tears. + +Pierrette fell upon her bed, her strength all gone, half-dead with the +exhaustion which, in her feeble state, followed so violent a struggle. +The tall gray woman took her in her arms, as a nurse lifts a child, +and went out, followed by Brigaut, without a word to Sylvie, on whom +she cast one glance of majestic accusation. + +The apparition of that august old woman, in her Breton costume, +shrouded in her coif (a sort of hooded mantle of black cloth), +accompanied by Brigaut, appalled Sylvie; she fancied she saw death. +She slowly went down the stairs, listened to the front door closing +behind them, and came face to face with her brother, who exclaimed: +"Then they haven't killed you?" + +"Go to bed," said Sylvie. "To-morrow we will see what we must do." + +She went back to her own bed, ripped open the corset, and read +Brigaut's two letters, which confounded her. She went to sleep in the +greatest perplexity,--not imagining the terrible results to which her +conduct was to lead. + + * * * * * + +The letters sent by Brigaut to old Madame Lorrain reached her in a +moment of ineffable joy, which the perusal of them troubled. The poor +old woman had grieved deeply in living without her Pierrette beside +her, but she had consoled her loneliness with the thought that the +sacrifice of herself was in the interests of her grandchild. She was +blessed with one of those ever-young hearts which are upheld and +invigorated by the idea of sacrifice. Her old husband, whose only joy +was his little granddaughter, had grieved for Pierrette; every day he +had seemed to look for her. It was an old man's grief,--on which such +old men live, of which they die. + +Every one can now imagine the happiness which this poor old woman, +living in a sort of almshouse, felt when she learned of a generous +action, rare indeed but not impossible in France. The head of the +house of Collinet, whose failure in 1814 had caused the Lorrains a +loss of twenty-four thousand francs, had gone to America with his +children after his disasters. He had too high a courage to remain a +ruined man. After eleven years of untold effort crowned by success he +returned to Nantes to recover his position, leaving his eldest son in +charge of his transatlantic house. He found Madame Lorrain of Pen-Hoel +in the institution of Saint-Jacques, and was witness of the +resignation with which this most unfortunate of his creditors bore her +misery. + +"God forgive you!" said the old woman, "since you give me on the +borders of my grave the means of securing the happiness of my dear +granddaughter; but alas! it will not clear the debts of my poor +husband!" + +Monsieur Collinet made over to the widow both the capital and the +accrued interest, amounting to about forty-two thousand francs. His +other creditors, prosperous, rich, and intelligent merchants, had +easily born their losses, whereas the misfortunes of the Lorrains +seemed so irremediable to old Monsieur Collinet that he promised the +widow to pay off her husband's debts, to the amount of forty thousand +francs more. When the Bourse of Nantes heard of this generous +reparation they wished to receive Collinet to their board before his +certificates were granted by the Royal court at Rennes; but the +merchant refused the honor, preferring to submit to the ordinary +commercial rule. + +Madame Lorrain had received the money only the day before the post +brought her Brigaut's letter, enclosing that of Pierrette. Her first +thought had been, as she signed the receipt: "Now I can live with my +Pierrette and marry her to that good Brigaut, who will make a fortune +with my money." + +Therefore the moment she had read the fatal letters she made instant +preparations to start for Provins. She left Nantes that night by the +mail; for some one had explained to her its celerity. In Paris she +took the diligence for Troyes, which passes through Provins, and by +half-past eleven at night she reached Frappier's, where Brigaut, +shocked at her despairing looks, told her of Pierrette's state and +promised to bring the poor girl to her instantly. His words so +terrified the grandmother that she could not control her impatience +and followed him to the square. When Pierrette screamed, the horror of +that cry went to her heart as sharply as it did to Brigaut's. Together +they would have roused the neighborhood if Rogron, in his terror, had +not opened the door. The scream of the young girl at bay gave her +grandmother the sudden strength of anger with which she carried her +dear Pierrette in her arms to Frappier's house, where Madame Frappier +hastily arranged Brigaut's own room for the old woman and her +treasure. In that poor room, on a bed half-made, the sufferer was +deposited; and there she fainted away, holding her hand still +clenched, wounded, bleeding, with the nails deep bedded in the flesh. +Brigaut, Frappier, his wife, and the old woman stood looking at +Pierrette in silence, all four of them in a state of indescribable +amazement. + +"Why is her hand bloody?" said the grandmother at last. + +Pierrette, overcome by the sleep which follows all abnormal displays +of strength, and dimly conscious that she was safe from violence, +gradually unbent her fingers. Brigaut's letter fell from them like an +answer. + +"They tried to take my letter from her," said Brigaut, falling on his +knees and picking up the lines in which he had told his little friend +to come instantly and softly away from the house. He kissed with pious +love the martyr's hand. + +It was a sight that made those present tremble when they saw the old +gray woman, a sublime spectre, standing beside her grandchild's +pillow. Terror and vengeance wrote their fierce expressions in the +wrinkles that lined her skin of yellow ivory; her forehead, half +hidden by the straggling meshes of her gray hair, expressed a solemn +anger. She read, with a power of intuition given to the aged when near +their grave, Pierrette's whole life, on which her mind had dwelt +throughout her journey. She divined the illness of her darling, and +knew that she was threatened with death. Two big tears painfully rose +in her wan gray eyes, from which her troubles had worn both lashes and +eyebrows, two pearls of anguish, forming within them and giving them a +dreadful brightness; then each tear swelled and rolled down the +withered cheek, but did not wet it. + +"They have killed her!" she said at last, clasping her hands. + +She fell on her knees which struck sharp blows on the brick-laid +floor, making a vow no doubt to Saint Anne d'Auray, the most powerful +of the madonnas of Brittany. + +"A doctor from Paris," she said to Brigaut. "Go and fetch one, +Brigaut, go!" + +She took him by the shoulder and gave him a despotic push to send him +from the room. + +"I was coming, my lad, when you wrote me; I am rich,--here, take +this," she cried, recalling him, and unfastening as she spoke the +strings that tied her short-gown. Then she drew a paper from her bosom +in which were forty-two bank-bills, saying, "Take what is necessary, +and bring back the greatest doctor in Paris." + +"Keep those," said Frappier; "he can't change thousand franc notes +now. I have money, and the diligence will be passing presently; he can +certainly find a place on it. But before he goes we had better consult +Doctor Martener; he will tell us the best physician in Paris. The +diligence won't pass for over an hour,--we have time enough." + +Brigaut woke up Monsieur Martener, and brought him at once. The doctor +was not a little surprised to find Mademoiselle Lorrain at Frappier's. +Brigaut told him of the scene that had just taken place at the +Rogrons'; but even so the doctor did not at first suspect the horror +of it, nor the extent of the injury done. Martener gave the address of +the celebrated Horace Bianchon, and Brigaut started for Paris by the +diligence. Monsieur Martener then sat down and examined first the +bruised and bloody hand which lay outside the bed. + +"She could not have given these wounds herself," he said. + +"No; the horrible woman to whom I had the misfortune to trust her was +murdering her," said the grandmother. "My poor Pierrette was screaming +'Help! help! I'm dying,'--enough to touch the heart of an +executioner." + +"But why was it?" said the doctor, feeling Pierrette's pulse. "She is +very ill," he added, examining her with a light. "She must have +suffered terribly; I don't understand why she has not been properly +cared for." + +"I shall complain to the authorities," said the grandmother. "Those +Rogrons asked me for my child in a letter, saying they had twelve +thousand francs a year and would take care of her; had they the right +to make her their servant and force her to do work for which she had +not the strength?" + +"They did not choose to see the most visible of all maladies to which +young girls are liable. She needed the utmost care," cried Monsieur +Martener. + +Pierrette was awakened by the light which Madame Frappier was holding +near her face, and by the horrible sufferings in her head caused by +the reaction of her struggle. + +"Ah! Monsieur Martener, I am very ill," she said in her pretty voice. + +"Where is the pain, my little friend?" asked the doctor. + +"Here," she said, touching her head above the left ear. + +"There's an abscess," said the doctor, after feeling the head for a +long time and questioning Pierrette on her sufferings. "You must tell +us all, my child, so that we may know how to cure you. Why is your +hand like this? You could not have given yourself that wound." + +Pierrette related the struggle between herself and her cousin Sylvie. + +"Make her talk," said the doctor to the grandmother, "and find out the +whole truth. I will await the arrival of the doctor from Paris; and we +will send for the surgeon in charge of the hospital here, and have a +consultation. The case seems to me a very serious one. Meantime I will +send you a quieting draught so that mademoiselle may sleep; she needs +sleep." + +Left alone with her granddaughter the old Breton woman exerted her +influence over the child and made her tell all; she let her know that +she had money enough now for all three, and promised that Brigaut +should live with them. The poor girl admitted her martyrdom, not +imagining the events to which her admissions would give rise. The +monstrosity of two beings without affection and without conception of +family life opened to the old woman a world of woe as far from her +knowledge as the morals of savages may have seemed to the first +discoverers who set foot in America. + +The arrival of her grandmother, the certainty of living with her in +comfort soothed Pierrette's mind as the sleeping draught soothed her +body. The old woman watched her darling, kissing her forehead, hair, +and hands, as the holy women of old kissed the hands of Jesus when +they laid him in the tomb. + + + + IX + + THE FAMILY COUNCIL + +At nine o'clock that morning Monsieur Martener went to see Monsieur +Tiphaine, and related to him the scene between Pierrette and Sylvie, +and the tortures of all kinds, moral and physical, to which the +Rogrons had subjected their cousin, and the two alarming forms of +illness which their cruelty had developed. Monsieur Tiphaine sent for +Auffray the notary, one of Pierrette's own relations on the maternal +side. + +At this particular time the war between the Vinet party and the +Tiphaine party was at its height. The scandals which the Rogrons and +their adherents were disseminating through the town about the liaison +of Madame Tiphaine's mother with the banker du Tillet, and the +bankruptcy of her father (a forger, they said), were all the more +exasperating to the Tiphaines because these things were malicious +truths, not libels. Such wounds cut deep; they go to the quick of +feelings and of interests. These speeches, repeated to the partisans +of the Tiphaines by the same mouths which told the Rogrons of the +sneers of "those women" of the Tiphaine clique, fed the hatreds of +both sides, now increased by the political element. The animosities +caused at this time in France by the spirit of party, the violences of +which were excessive, were everywhere mixed up, as in Provins, with +selfish schemes and wounded or vindictive individual interests. Each +party eagerly seized on whatever might injure the rival party. +Personal hatreds and self-love mingled as much as political animosity +in even the smallest matters, and were carried to hitherto unheard-of +lengths. A whole town would be roused to excitement over some private +struggle, until it took the character of a political debate. + +Monsieur Tiphaine at once perceived in the case of Pierrette against +the Rogrons a means of humbling, mortifying, and dishonoring the +masters of that salon where plans against the monarchy were made and +an opposition journal born. The public prosecutor was called in; and +together with Monsieur Auffray the notary, Pierrette's relation, and +Monsieur Martener, a cautious consultation was held in the utmost +secrecy as to the proper course to follow. Monsieur Martener agreed to +advise Pierrette's grandmother to apply to the courts to have Auffray +appointed guardian to his young relation. The guardian could then +convene a "Family Council," and, backed by the testimony of three +doctors, demand the girl's release from the authority of the Rogrons. +The affair thus managed would have to go before the courts, and the +public prosecutor, Monsieur Lesourd, would see that it was taken to a +criminal court by demanding an inquiry. + +Towards midday all Provins was roused by the strange news of what had +happened during the night at the Rogrons'. Pierrette's cries had been +faintly heard, though they were soon over. No one had risen to inquire +what they meant, but every one said the next day, "Did you hear those +screams about one in the morning?" Gossip and comments soon magnified +the horrible drama, and a crowd collected in front of Frappier's shop, +asking the worthy cabinet-maker for information, and hearing from him +how Pierrette was brought to his house with her fingers broken and the +hand bloody. + +Towards one in the afternoon the post-chaise of Doctor Bianchon, who +was accompanied by Brigaut, stopped before the house, and Madame +Frappier went at once to summon Monsieur Martener and the surgeon in +charge of the hospital. Thus the gossip of the town received +confirmation. The Rogrons were declared to have ill-used their cousin +deliberately, and to have come near killing her. Vinet heard the news +while attending to his business in the law courts; he left everything +and hurried to the Rogrons. Rogron and his sister had just finished +breakfast. Sylvie was reluctant to tell her brother of her +discomfiture of the night before; but he pressed her with questions, +to which she would make no answer than, "That's not your business." +She went and came from the kitchen to the dining-room on pretence of +preparing the breakfast, but chiefly to avoid discussion. She was +alone when Vinet entered. + +"You know what's happened?" said the lawyer. + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"You will be arrested on a criminal charge," replied Vinet, "from the +way things are now going about Pierrette." + +"A criminal charge!" cried Rogron, who had come into the room. "Why? +What for?" + +"First of all," said the lawyer, looking at Sylvie, "explain to me +without concealment and as if you stood before God, what happened in +this house last night--they talk of amputating Pierrette's hand." + +Sylvie turned livid and shuddered. + +"Then there is some truth in it?" said Vinet. + +Mademoiselle Rogron related the scene, trying to excuse herself; but, +prodded with questions, she acknowledged the facts of the horrible +struggle. + +"If you have only injured her fingers you will be taken before the +police court for a misdemeanor; but if they cut off her hand you may +be tried at the Assizes for a worse offence. The Tiphaines will do +their best to get you there." + +Sylvie, more dead than alive, confessed her jealousy, and, what was +harder to do, confessed also that her suspicions were unfounded. + +"Heavens, what a case this will make!" cried the lawyer. "You and your +brother may be ruined by it; you will be abandoned by most people +whether you win or lose. If you lose, you will have to leave Provins." + +"Oh, my dear Monsieur Vinet, you who are such a great lawyer," said +Rogron, terrified, "advise us! save us!" + +The crafty Vinet worked the terror of the two imbeciles to its utmost, +declaring that Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf might be +unwilling to enter their house again. To be abandoned by women of +their rank would be a terrible condemnation. At length, after an hour +of adroit manoeuvring, it was agreed that Vinet must have some +powerful motive in taking the case, that would impress the minds of +all Provins and explain his efforts on behalf of the Rogrons. This +motive they determined should be Rogron's marriage to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf; it should be announced that very day and the banns +published on Sunday. The contract could be drawn immediately. +Mademoiselle Rogron agreed, in consideration of the marriage, to +appear in the contract as settling her capital on her brother, +retaining only the income of it. Vinet made Rogron and his sister +comprehend the necessity of antedating the document by two or three +days, so as to commit the mother and daughter in the eyes of the +public and give them a reason for continuing their visits. + +"Sign that contract and I'll take upon myself to get you safely out of +this affair," said the lawyer. "There will be a terrible fight; but I +will put my whole soul into it--you'll have to make me a votive +offering." + +"Oh, yes, yes," said Rogron. + +By half-past eleven the lawyer had plenary powers to draw the contract +and conduct the defence of the Rogrons. At twelve o'clock application +was made to Monsieur Tiphaine, as a judge sitting in chambers, against +Brigaut and the widow Lorrain for having abducted Pierrette Lorrain, a +minor, from the house of her legal guardian. In this way the bold +lawyer became the aggressor and made Rogron the injured party. He +spoke of the matter from this point of view in the court-house. + +The judge postponed the hearing till four o'clock. Needless to +describe the excitement in the town. Monsieur Tiphaine knew that by +three o'clock the consultation of doctors would be over and their +report drawn up; he wished Auffray, as surrogate-guardian, to be at +the hearing armed with that report. + +The announcement of Rogron's marriage and the sacrifices made to it by +Sylvie in the contract alienated two important supporters from the +brother and sister, namely,--Mademoiselle Habert and the colonel, +whose hopes were thus annihilated. They remained, however, ostensibly +on the Rogron side for the purpose of injuring it. Consequently, as +soon as Monsieur Martener mentioned the alarming condition of +Pierrette's head, Celeste and the colonel told of the blow she had +given herself during the evening when Sylvie had forced her to leave +the salon; and they related the old maid's barbarous and unfeeling +comments, with other statements proving her cruelty to her suffering +cousin. Vinet had foreseen this storm; but he had secured the entire +fortune of the Rogrons for Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, and he +promised himself that in a few weeks she should be mistress of the +Rogron house, and reign with him over Provins, and even bring about a +fusion with the Breauteys and the aristocrats in the interests of his +ambition. + +From midday to four o'clock all the ladies of the Tiphaine clique sent +to inquire after Mademoiselle Lorrain. She, poor girl, was wholly +ignorant of the commotion she was causing in the little town. In the +midst of her sufferings she was ineffably happy in recovering her +grandmother and Brigaut, the two objects of her affection. Brigaut's +eyes were constantly full of tears. The old grandmother sat by the bed +and caressed her darling. To the three doctors she told every detail +she had obtained from Pierrette as to her life in the Rogron house. +Horace Bianchon expressed his indignation in vehement language. +Shocked at such barbarity he insisted on all the physicians in the +town being called in to see the case; the consequence was that Dr. +Neraud, the friend of the Rogrons, was present. The report was +unanimously signed. It is useless to give a text of it here. If +Moliere's medical terms were barbarous, those of modern science have +the advantage of being so clear that the explanation of Pierrette's +malady, though natural and unfortunately common, horrified all ears. + +At four o'clock, after the usual rising of the court, president +Tiphaine again took his seat, when Madame Lorrain, accompanied by +Monsieur Auffray and Brigaut and a crowd of interested persons, +entered the court-room. Vinet was alone. This contrast struck the +minds of those present. The lawyer, who still wore his robe, turned +his cold face to the judge, settled his spectacles on his pallid green +eyes, and then in a shrill, persistent voice he stated that two +strangers had forced themselves at night into the Rogron domicile and +had abducted therefrom the minor Lorrain. The legal rights were with +the guardian, who now demanded the restoration of his ward. + +Monsieur Auffray rose, as surrogate-guardian, and requested to be +heard. + +"If the judge," he said, "will admit the report, which I hold in my +hand, signed by one of the most famous physicians in Paris, and by all +the physicians in Provins, he will understand not only that the demand +of the Sieur Rogron is senseless, but also that the grandmother of the +minor had grave cause to instantly remove her from her persecutors. +Here are the facts. The report of these physicians attribute the +almost dying condition of the said minor to the ill-treatment she has +received from the Sieur Rogron and his sister. We shall, as the law +directs, convoke a Family Council with the least possible delay, and +discuss the question as to whether or not the guardian should be +deposed. And we now ask that the minor be not returned to the domicile +of the said guardian but that she be confided to some member of her +family who shall be designated by the judge." + +Vinet replied, declaring that the physicians' report ought to have +been submitted to him in order that he might have disproved it. + +"Not submitted to your side," said the judge, severely, "but possibly +to the _procureur du roi_. The case is heard." + +The judge then wrote at the bottom of the petition the following +order:-- + + "Whereas it appears, from a deliberate and unanimous report of all + the physicians of this town, together with Doctor Bianchon of the + medical faculty of Paris, that the minor Lorrain, claimed by + Jerome-Denis Rogron, her guardian, is extremely ill in consequence + of ill-treatment and personal assault in the house of the said + guardian and his sister: + + "We, president of the court of Provins, passing upon the said + petition, order that until the Family Council is held the minor + Lorrain is not to be returned to the household of her said + guardian, but shall be kept in that of her surrogate-guardian. + + "And further, considering the state in which the said minor now + is, and the traces of violence which, according to the report of + the physicians, are now upon her person, we commission the + attending physician and the surgeon in charge of the hospital of + Provins to visit her, and in case the injuries from the said + assault become alarming, the matter will be held to await the + action of the criminal courts; and this without prejudice to the + civil suit undertaken by Auffray the surrogate-guardian." + +This severe judgment was read out by President Tiphaine in a loud and +distinct voice. + +"Why not send them to the galleys at once?" said Vinet. "And all this +fuss about a girl who was carrying on an intrigue with an apprentice +to a cabinet-maker! If the case goes on in this way," he cried, +insolently, "we shall demand other judges on the ground of legitimate +suspicion." + +Vinet left the court-room, and went among the chief men of his party +to explain Rogron's position, declaring that he had never so much as +given a flip to his cousin, and that the judge had viewed him much +less as Pierrette's guardian than as a leading elector in Provins. + +To hear Vinet, people might have supposed that the Tiphaines were +making a great fuss about nothing; the mounting was bringing forth a +mouse. Sylvie, an eminently virtuous and pious woman, had discovered +an intrigue between her brother's ward and a workman, a Breton named +Brigaut. The scoundrel knew very well that the girl would have her +grandmother's money, and he wished to seduce her (Vinet to talk of +that!). Mademoiselle Rogron, who had discovered letters proving the +depravity of the girl, was not as much to blame as the Tiphaines were +trying to make out. If she did use some violence to get possession of +those letters (which was no wonder, when we consider what Breton +obstinacy is), how could Rogron be considered responsible for all +that? + +The lawyer went on to make the matter a partisan affair, and to give +it a political color. + +"They who listen to only one bell hear only one sound," said the wise +men. "Have you heard what Vinet says? Vinet explains things clearly." + +Frappier's house being thought injurious to Pierrette, owing to the +noise in the street which increased the sufferings in her head, she +was taken to that of her surrogate guardian, the change being as +necessary medically as it was judicially. The removal was made with +the utmost caution, and was calculated to produce a great public +effect. Pierrette was laid on a mattress and carried on a stretcher by +two men; a Gray Sister walked beside her with a bottle of sal volatile +in her hand, while the grandmother, Brigaut, Madame Auffray, and her +maid followed. People were at their windows and doors to see the +procession pass. Certainly the state in which they saw Pierrette, pale +as death, gave immense advantage to the party against the Rogrons. The +Auffrays were determined to prove to the whole town that the judge was +right in the decision he had given. Pierrette and her grandmother were +installed on the second floor of Monsieur Auffray's house. The notary +and his wife gave her every care with the greatest hospitality, which +was not without a little ostentation in it. Pierrette had her +grandmother to nurse her; and Monsieur Martener and the head-surgeon +of the hospital attended her. + +On the evening of this day exaggerations began on both sides. The +Rogron salon was crowded. Vinet had stirred up the whole Liberal party +on the subject. The Chargeboeuf ladies dined with the Rogrons, for the +contract was to be signed that evening. Vinet had had the banns posted +at the mayor's office in the afternoon. He made light of the Pierrette +affair. If the Provins court was prejudiced, the Royal courts would +appreciate the facts, he said, and the Auffrays would think twice +before they flung themselves into such a suit. The alliance of the +Rogrons with the Chargeboeufs was an immense consideration in the +minds of a certain class of people. To them it made the Rogrons as +white as snow and Pierrette an evilly disposed little girl, a serpent +warmed in their bosom. + +In Madame Tiphaine's salon vengeance was had for all the mischievous +scandals that the Vinet party had disseminated for the past two years. +The Rogrons were monsters, and the guardian should undergo a criminal +trial. In the Lower town, Pierrette was quite well; in the Upper town +she was dying; at the Rogrons' she scratched her wrist; at Madame +Tiphaine's her fingers were fractured and one was to be cut off. The +next day the "Courrier de Provins," had a plausible article, extremely +well-written, a masterpiece of insinuations mixed with legal points, +which showed that there was no case whatever against Rogron. The +"Bee-hive," which did not appear till two days later, could not answer +without becoming defamatory; it replied, however, that in an affair +like this it was best to wait until the law took its course. + +The Family Council was selected by the _juge de paix_ of the canton of +Provins, and consisted of Rogron and the two Messieurs Auffray, the +nearest relatives, and Monsieur Ciprey, nephew of Pierrette's maternal +grandmother. To these were joined Monsieur Habert, Pierrette's +confessor, and Colonel Gouraud, who had always professed himself a +comrade and friend of her father, Colonel Lorrain. The impartiality of +the judge in these selections was much applauded,--Monsieur Habert and +Colonel Gouraud being considered the firm friends of the Rogrons. + +The serious situation in which Rogron found himself made him ask for +the assistance of a lawyer (and he named Vinet) at the Family Council. +By this manoeuvre, evidently advised by Vinet himself, Rogron +succeeded in postponing the meeting of the council till the end of +December. At that time Monsieur Tiphaine and his wife would be settled +in Paris for the opening of the Chambers; and the ministerial party +would be left without its head. Vinet had already worked upon +Desfondrilles, the deputy-judge, in case the matter should go, after +the hearing before the council, to the criminal courts. + +Vinet spoke for three hours before the Family Council; he proved the +existence of an intrigue between Pierrette and Brigaut, which +justified all Mademoiselle Rogron's severity. He showed how natural it +was that the guardian should have left the management of his ward to a +woman; he dwelt on the fact that Rogron had not interfered with +Pierrette's education as planned by his sister Sylvie. But in spite of +Vinet's efforts the Council were unanimous in removing Rogron from the +guardianship. Monsieur Auffray was appointed in his place, and +Monsieur Ciprey was made surrogate. The Council summoned before it and +examined Adele, the servant-woman, who testified against her late +masters; also Mademoiselle Habert, who related the cruel remarks made +by Mademoiselle Rogron on the evening when Pierrette had given herself +a frightful blow, heard by all the company, and the speech of Madame +de Chargeboeuf about the girl's health. Brigaut produced the letter he +had received from Pierrette, which proved their innocence and stated +her ill-treatment. Proof was given that the condition of the minor was +the result of neglect on the part of the guardian, who was responsible +for all that concerned his ward. Pierrette's illness had been apparent +to every one, even to persons in the town who were strangers to the +family, yet the guardian had done nothing for her. The charge of +ill-treatment was therefore sustained against Rogron; and the case +would now go before the public. + +Rogron, advised by Vinet, opposed the acceptance of the report of the +Council by the court. The authorities then intervened in consequence +of Pierrette's state, which was daily growing worse. The trial of the +case, though placed at once upon the docket, was postponed until the +month of March, 1828, to wait events. + + + + X + + VERDICTS--LEGAL AND OTHER + +Meantime Rogron's marriage with Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf took +place. Sylvie moved to the second floor of the house, which she shared +with Madame de Chargeboeuf, for the first floor was entirely taken up +by the new wife. The beautiful Madame Rogron succeeded to the social +place of the beautiful Madame Tiphaine. The influence of the marriage +was immense. No one now came to visit Sylvie, but Madame Rogron's +salon was always full. + +Sustained by the influence of his mother-in-law and the bankers du +Tillet and Nucingen, Monsieur Tiphaine was fortunate enough to do some +service to the administration; he became one of its chief orators, was +made judge in the civil courts, and obtained the appointment of his +nephew Lesourd to his own vacant place as president of the court of +Provins. This appointment greatly annoyed Desfondrilles. The Keeper of +the Seals sent down one of his own proteges to fill Lesourd's place. +The promotion of Monsieur Tiphaine and his translation to Paris were +therefore of no benefit at all to the Vinet party; but Vinet +nevertheless made a clever use of the result. He had always told the +Provins people that they were being used as a stepping-stone to raise +the crafty Madame Tiphaine into grandeur; Tiphaine himself had tricked +them; Madame Tiphaine despised both Provins and its people in her +heart, and would never return there again. Just at this crisis +Monsieur Tiphaine's father died; his son inherited a fine estate and +sold his house in Provins to Monsieur Julliard. The sale proved to the +minds of all how little the Tiphaines thought of Provins. Vinet was +right; Vinet had been a true prophet. These things had great influence +on the question of Pierrette's guardianship. + +Thus the dreadful martyrdom brutally inflicted on the poor child by +two imbecile tyrants (which led, through its consequences, to the +terrible operation of trepanning, performed by Monsieur Martener under +the advice of Doctor Bianchon),--all this horrible drama reduced to +judicial form was left to float in the vile mess called in legal +parlance the calendar. The case was made to drag through the delays +and the interminable labyrinths of the law, by the shufflings of an +unprincipled lawyer; and during all this time the calumniated girl +languished in the agony of the worst pain known to science. + +Monsieur Martener, together with the Auffray family, were soon charmed +by the beauty of Pierrette's nature and the character of her old +grandmother, whose feelings, ideas, and ways bore the stamp of Roman +antiquity,--this matron of the Marais was like a woman in Plutarch. + +Doctor Martener struggled bravely with death, which already grasped +its prey. From the first, Bianchon and the hospital surgeon had +considered Pierrette doomed; and there now took place between the +doctor and the disease, the former relying on Pierrette's youth, one +of those struggles which physicians alone comprehend,--the reward of +which, in case of success, is never found in the venal pay nor in the +patients themselves, but in the gentle satisfaction of conscience, in +the invisible ideal palm gathered by true artists from the contentment +which fills their soul after accomplishing a noble work. The physician +strains towards good as an artist towards beauty, each impelled by +that grand sentiment which we call virtue. This daily contest wiped +out of Doctor Martener's mind the petty irritations of that other +contest of the Tiphaines and the Vinets,--as always happens to men +when they find themselves face to face with a great and real misery to +conquer. + +Monsieur Martener had begun his career in Paris; but the cruel +activity of the city and its insensibility to its masses of suffering +had shocked his gentle soul, fitted only for the quiet life of the +provinces. Moreover, he was under the yoke of his beautiful native +land. He returned to Provins, where he married and settled, and cared +almost lovingly for the people, who were to him like a large family. +During the whole of Pierrette's illness he was careful not to speak of +her. His reluctance to answer the questions of those who asked about +her was so evident that persons soon ceased to put them. Pierrette was +to him, what indeed she truly was, a poem, mysterious, profound, vast +in suffering, such as doctors find at times in their terrible +experience. He felt an admiration for this delicate young creature +which he would not share with any one. + +This feeling of the physician for his patient was, however, +unconsciously communicated (like all true feelings) to Monsieur and +Madame Auffray, whose house became, so long as Pierrette was in it, +quiet and silent. The children, who had formerly played so joyously +with her, agreed among themselves with the loving grace of childhood +to be neither noisy nor troublesome. They made it a point of honor to +be good because Pierrette was ill. Monsieur Auffray's house was in the +Upper town, beneath the ruins of the Chateau, and it was built upon a +sort of terrace formed by the overthrow of the old ramparts. The +occupants could have a view of the valley from the little fruit-garden +enclosed by walls which overlooked the town. The roofs of the other +houses came to about the level of the lower wall of this garden. Along +the terrace ran a path, by which Monsieur Auffray's study could be +entered through a glass door; at the other end of the path was an +arbor of grape vines and a fig-tree, beneath which stood a round +table, a bench and some chairs, painted green. Pierrette's bedroom was +above the study of her new guardian. Madame Lorrain slept in a cot +beside her grandchild. From her window Pierrette could see the whole +of the glorious valley of Provins, which she hardly knew, so seldom +had she left that dreadful house of the Rogrons. When the weather was +fine she loved to drag herself, resting on her grandmother's arm, to +the vine-clad arbor. Brigaut, unable to work, came three times a day +to see his little friend; he was gnawed by a grief which made him +indifferent to life. He lay in wait like a dog for Monsieur Martener, +and followed him when he left the house. The old grandmother, drunk +with grief, had the courage to conceal her despair; she showed her +darling the smiling face she formerly wore at Pen-Hoel. In her desire +to produce that illusion in the girl's mind, she made her a little +Breton cap like the one Pierrette had worn on her first arrival in +Provins; it made the darling seem more like her childlike self; in it +she was delightful to look upon, her sweet face circled with a halo of +cambric and fluted lace. Her skin, white with the whiteness of +unglazed porcelain, her forehead, where suffering had printed the +semblance of deep thought, the purity of the lines refined by illness, +the slowness of the glances, and the occasional fixity of the eyes, +made Pierrette an almost perfect embodiment of melancholy. She was +served by all with a sort of fanaticism; she was felt to be so gentle, +so tender, so loving. Madame Martener sent her piano to her sister +Madame Auffray, thinking to amuse Pierrette who was passionately fond +of music. It was a poem to watch her listening to a theme of Weber, or +Beethoven, or Herold,--her eyes raised, her lips silent, regretting no +doubt the life escaping her. The cure Peroux and Monsieur Habert, her +two religious comforters, admired her saintly resignation. Surely the +seraphic perfection of young girls and young men marked with the +hectic of death, is a wonderful fact worthy of the attention alike of +philosophers and of heedless minds. He who has ever seen one of these +sublime departures from this life can never remain, or become, an +unbeliever. Such beings exhale, as it were, a celestial fragrance; +their glances speak of God; the voices are eloquent in the simplest +words; often they ring like some seraphic instrument revealing the +secrets of the future. When Monsieur Martener praised her for having +faithfully followed a harsh prescription the little angel replied, and +with what a glance!-- + +"I want to live, dear Monsieur Martener; but less for myself than for +my grandmother, for my Brigaut, for all of you who will grieve at my +death." + +The first time she went into the garden on a beautiful sunny day in +November attended by all the household, Madame Auffray asked her if +she was tired. + +"No, now that I have no sufferings but those God sends I can bear +all," she said. "The joy of being loved gives me strength to suffer." + +That was the only time (and then vaguely) that she ever alluded to her +horrible martyrdom at the Rogrons, whom she never mentioned, and of +whom no one reminded her, knowing well how painful the memory must be. + +"Dear Madame Auffray," she said one day at noon on the terrace, as she +gazed at the valley, warmed by a glorious sun and colored with the +glowing tints of autumn, "my death in your house gives me more +happiness than I have had since I left Brittany." + +Madame Auffray whispered in her sister Martener's ear:-- + +"How she would have loved!" + +In truth, her tones, her looks gave to her words a priceless value. + +Monsieur Martener corresponded with Doctor Bianchon, and did nothing +of importance without his advice. He hoped in the first place to +regular the functions of nature and to draw away the abscess in the +head through the ear. The more Pierrette suffered, the more he hoped. +He gained some slight success at times, and that was a great triumph. +For several days Pierrette's appetite returned and enabled her to take +nourishing food for which her illness had given her a repugnance; the +color of her skin changed; but the condition of her head was terrible. +Monsieur Martener entreated the great physician his adviser to come +down. Bianchon came, stayed two days, and resolved to undertake an +operation. To spare the feelings of poor Martener he went to Paris and +brought back with him the celebrated Desplein. Thus the operation was +performed by the greatest surgeon of ancient or modern times; but that +terrible diviner said to Martener as he departed with Bianchon, his +best-loved pupil:-- + +"Nothing but a miracle can save her. As Horace told you, caries of the +bone has begun. At her age the bones are so tender." + +The operation was performed at the beginning of March, 1828. During +all that month, distressed by Pierrette's horrible sufferings, +Monsieur Martener made several journeys to Paris; there he consulted +Desplein and Bianchon, and even went so far as to propose to them an +operation of the nature of lithotrity, which consists in passing into +the head a hollow instrument by the help of which an heroic remedy can +be applied to the diseased bone, to arrest the progress of the caries. +Even the bold Desplein dared not attempt that high-handed surgical +measure, which despair alone had suggested to Martener. When he +returned home from Paris he seemed to his friends morose and gloomy. +He was forced to announce on that fatal evening to the Auffrays and +Madame Lorrain and to the two priests and Brigaut that science could +do no more for Pierrette, whose recovery was now in God's hands only. +The consternation among them was terrible. The grandmother made a vow, +and requested the priests to say a mass every morning at daybreak +before Pierrette rose,--a mass at which she and Brigaut might be +present. + +The trial came on. While the victim lay dying, Vinet was calumniating +her in court. The judge approved and accepted the report of the Family +Council, and Vinet instantly appealed. The newly appointed _procureur +du roi_ made a requisition which necessitated fresh evidence. Rogron +and his sister were forced to give bail to avoid going to prison. The +order for fresh evidence included that of Pierrette herself. When +Monsieur Desfondrilles came to the Auffrays' to receive it, Pierrette +was dying, her confessor was at her bedside about to administer +extreme unction. At that moment she entreated all present to forgive +her cousins as she herself forgave them, saying with her simple good +sense that the judgment of these things belonged to God alone. + +"Grandmother," she said, "leave all you have to Brigaut" (Brigaut +burst into tears); "and," continued Pierrette, "give a thousand francs +to that kind Adele who warmed my bed. If Adele had remained with my +cousins I should not now be dying." + +It was at three o'clock on the Tuesday of Easter week, on a beautiful, +bright day, that the angel ceased to suffer. Her heroic grandmother +wished to watch all that night with the priests, and to sew with her +stiff old fingers her darling's shroud. Towards evening Brigaut left +the Auffray's house and went to Frappier's. + +"I need not ask you, my poor boy, for news," said the cabinet-maker. + +"Pere Frappier, yes, it is ended for her--but not for me." + +He cast a look upon the different woods piled up around the shop,--a +look of painful meaning. + +"I understand you, Brigaut," said his worthy master. "Take all you +want." And he showed him the oaken planks of two-inch thickness. + +"Don't help me, Monsieur Frappier," said the Breton, "I wish to do it +alone." + +He passed the night in planing and fitting Pierrette's coffin, and +more than once his plane took off at a single pass a ribbon of wood +which was wet with tears. The good man Frappier smoked his pipe and +watched him silently, saying only, when the four pieces were joined +together,-- + +"Make the cover to slide; her poor grandmother will not hear the +nails." + +At daybreak Brigaut went out to fetch the lead to line the coffin. By +a strange chance, the sheets of lead cost just the sum he had given +Pierrette for her journey from Nantes to Provins. The brave Breton, +who was able to resist the awful pain of himself making the coffin of +his dear one and lining with his memories those burial planks, could +not bear up against this strange reminder. His strength gave way; he +was not able to lift the lead, and the plumber, seeing this, came with +him, and offered to accompany him to the house and solder the last +sheet when the body had been laid in the coffin. + +The Breton burned the plane and all the tools he had used. Then he +settled his accounts with Frappier and bade him farewell. The heroism +with which the poor lad personally performed, like the grandmother, +the last offices for Pierrette made him a sharer in the awful scene +which crowned the tyranny of the Rogrons. + +Brigaut and the plumber reached the house of Monsieur Auffray just in +time to decide by their own main force an infamous and shocking +judicial question. The room where the dead girl lay was full of +people, and presented to the eyes of the two men a singular sight. The +Rogron emissaries were standing beside the body of their victim, to +torture her even after death. The corpse of the child, solemn in its +beauty, lay on the cot-bed of her grandmother. Pierrette's eyes were +closed, the brown hair smoothed upon her brow, the body swathed in a +coarse cotton sheet. + +Before the bed, on her knees, her hair in disorder, her hands +stretched out, her face on fire, the old Lorrain was crying out, "No, +no, it shall not be done!" + +At the foot of the bed stood Monsieur Auffray and the two priests. The +tapers were still burning. + +Opposite to the grandmother was the surgeon of the hospital, with an +assistant, and near him stood Doctor Neraud and Vinet. The surgeon +wore his dissecting apron; the assistant had opened a case of +instruments and was handing him a knife. + +This scene was interrupted by the noise of the coffin which Brigaut +and the plumber set down upon the floor. Then Brigaut, advancing, was +horrified at the sight of Madame Lorrain, who was now weeping. + +"What is the matter?" he asked, standing beside her and grasping the +chisel convulsively in his hand. + +"This," said the old woman, "_this_, Brigaut: they want to open the +body of my child and cut into her head, and stab her heart after her +death as they did when she was living." + +"Who?" said Brigaut, in a voice that might have deafened the men of +law. + +"The Rogrons." + +"In the sacred name of God!--" + +"Stop, Brigaut," said Monsieur Auffray, seeing the lad brandish his +chisel. + +"Monsieur Auffray," said Brigaut, as white as his dead companion, "I +hear you because you are Monsieur Auffray, but at this moment I will +not listen to--" + +"The law!" said Auffray. + +"Is there law? is there justice?" cried the Breton. "Justice, this is +it!" and he advanced to the lawyer and the doctors, threatening them +with his chisel. + +"My friend," said the curate, "the law has been invoked by the lawyer +of Monsieur Rogron, who is under the weight of a serious accusation; +and it is impossible for us to refuse him the means of justification. +The lawyer of Monsieur Rogron claims that if the poor child died of an +abscess in her head her former guardian cannot be blamed, for it is +proved that Pierrette concealed the effects of the blow which she gave +to herself--" + +"Enough!" said Brigaut. + +"My client--" began Vinet. + +"Your client," cried the Breton, "shall go to hell and I to the +scaffold; for if one of you dares to touch her whom your client has +killed, I will kill him if my weapon does its duty." + +"This is interference with the law," said Vinet. "I shall instantly +inform the court." + +The five men left the room. + +"Oh, my son!" cried the old woman, rising from her knees and falling +on Brigaut's neck, "let us bury her quick,--they will come back." + +"If we solder the lead," said the plumber, "they may not dare to open +it." + +Monsieur Auffray hastened to his brother-in-law, Monsieur Lesourd, to +try and settle the matter. Vinet was not unwilling. Pierrette being +dead the suit about the guardianship fell, of course, to the ground. +All the astute lawyer wanted was the effect produced by his request. + +At midday Monsieur Desfondrilles made his report on the case, and the +court rendered a decision that there was no ground for further action. + +Rogron dared not go to Pierrette's funeral, at which the whole town +was present. Vinet wished to force him there, but the miserable man +was afraid of exciting universal horror. + +Brigaut left Provins after watching the filling up of the grave where +Pierrette lay, and went on foot to Paris. He wrote a petition to the +Dauphiness asking, in the name of his father, that he might enter the +Royal guard, to which he was at once admitted. When the expedition to +Algiers was undertaken he wrote to her again, to obtain employment in +it. He was then a sergeant; Marshal Bourmont gave him an appointment +as sub-lieutenant in a line regiment. The major's son behaved like a +man who wished to die. Death has, however, respected Jacques Brigaut +up to the present time; although he has distinguished himself in all +the recent expeditions he has never yet been wounded. He is now major +in a regiment of infantry. No officer is more taciturn or more +trustworthy. Outside of his duty he is almost mute; he walks alone and +lives mechanically. Every one divines and respects a hidden sorrow. He +possesses forty-six thousand francs, which old Madame Lorrain, who +died in Paris in 1829, bequeathed to him. + +At the elections of 1830 Vinet was made a deputy. The services he +rendered the new government have now earned him the position of +_procureur-general_. His influence is such that he will always remain +a deputy. Rogron is receiver-general in the same town where Vinet +fulfils his legal functions; and by one of those curious tricks of +chance which do so often occur, Monsieur Tiphaine is president of the +Royal court in the same town,--for the worthy man gave in his adhesion +to the dynasty of July without the slightest hesitation. The +ex-beautiful Madame Tiphaine lives on excellent terms with the +beautiful Madame Rogron. Vinet is hand in glove with Madame Tiphaine. + +As to the imbecile Rogron, he makes such remarks as, "Louis-Philippe +will never be really king till he is able to make nobles." + +The speech is evidently not his own. His health is failing, which +allows Madame Rogron to hope she may soon marry the General Marquis de +Montriveau, peer of France, who commands the department, and is paying +her attentions. Vinet is in his element, seeking victims; he never +believes in the innocence of an accused person. This thoroughbred +prosecutor is held to be one of the most amiable men on the circuit; +and he is no less liked in Paris and in the Chamber; at court he is a +charming courtier. + +According to a certain promise made by Vinet, General Baron Gouraud, +that noble relic of our glorious armies, married a Mademoiselle +Matifat, twenty-five years old, daughter of a druggist in the rue des +Lombards, whose dowry was a hundred thousand francs. He commands (as +Vinet prophesied) a department in the neighborhood of Paris. He was +named peer of France for his conduct in the riots which occurred +during the ministry of Casimir Perier. Baron Gouraud was one of the +generals who took the church of Saint-Merry, delighted to rap those +rascally civilians who had vexed him for years over the knuckles; for +which service he was rewarded with the grand cordon of the Legion of +honor. + +None of the personages connected with Pierrette's death ever felt the +slightest remorse about it. Monsieur Desfondrilles is still +archaeological, but, in order to compass his own election, the +_procureur general_ Vinet took pains to have him appointed president +of the Provins court. Sylvie has a little circle, and manages her +brother's property; she lends her own money at high interest, and does +not spend more than twelve hundred francs a year. + +From time to time, when some former son or daughter of Provins returns +from Paris to settle down, you may hear them ask, as they leave +Mademoiselle Rogron's house, "Wasn't there a painful story against the +Rogrons,--something about a ward?" + +"Mere prejudice," replies Monsieur Desfondrilles. "Certain persons +tried to make us believe falsehoods. Out of kindness of heart the +Rogrons took in a girl named Pierrette, quite pretty but with no +money. Just as she was growing up she had an intrigue with a young +man, and stood at her window barefooted talking to him. The lovers +passed notes to each other by a string. She took cold in this way and +died, having no constitution. The Rogrons behaved admirably. They made +no claim on certain property which was to come to her,--they gave it +all up to the grandmother. The moral of it was, my good friend, that +the devil punishes those who try to benefit others." + +"Ah! that is quite another story from the one old Frappier told me." + +"Frappier consults his wine-cellar more than he does his memory," +remarked another of Mademoiselle Rogron's visitors. + +"But that old priest, Monsieur Habert says--" + +"Oh, he! don't you know why?" + +"No." + +"He wanted to marry his sister to Monsieur Rogron, the +receiver-general." + + * * * * * + +Two men think of Pierrette daily: Doctor Martener and Major Brigaut; +they alone know the hideous truth. + +To give that truth its true proportions we must transport the scene to +the Rome of the middle ages, where a sublime young girl, Beatrice +Cenci, was brought to the scaffold by motives and intrigues that were +almost identical with those which laid our Pierrette in her grave. +Beatrice Cenci had but one defender,--an artist, a painter. In our day +history, and living men, on the faith of Guido Reni's portrait, +condemn the Pope, and know that Beatrice was a most tender victim of +infamous passions and base feuds. + +We must all agree that legality would be a fine thing for social +scoundrelism IF THERE WERE NO GOD. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Brigaut, Major + The Chouans + +Desplein + The Atheist's Mass + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + +Gouraud, General, Baron + Cousin Pons + +Keller, Adolphe + The Middle Classes + Cesar Birotteau + +Matifat, Mademoiselle + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + +Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + +Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + +Roguin + Cesar Birotteau + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Vendetta + +Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + +Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor's Establishment + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Tiphaine, Madame + The Vendetta + +Vinet + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pierrette, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRETTE *** + +***** This file should be named 1704.txt or 1704.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/1704/ + +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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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz +and Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com + + + +PIERRETTE + +by HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + +DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Anna Hanska: + + Dear Child,--You, the joy of the household, you, whose pink or + white pelerine flutters in summer among the groves of + Wierzschovnia like a will-o'-the-wisp, followed by the tender eyes + of your father and your mother,--how can I dedicate to /you/ a + story full of melancholy? And yet, ought not sorrows to be spoken + of to a young girl idolized as you are, since the day may come + when your sweet hands will be called to minister to them? It is so + difficult, Anna, to find in the history of our manners and morals + a subject that is worthy of your eyes, that no choice has been + left me; but perhaps you will be made to feel how fortunate your + fate is when you read the story sent to you by +Your old friend, +De Balzac. + + + + +PIERRETTE + + + +I + +THE LORRAINS + +At the dawn of an October day in 1827 a young fellow about sixteen +years of age, whose clothing proclaimed what modern phraseology so +insolently calls a proletary, was standing in a small square of Lower +Provins. At that early hour he could examine without being observed +the various houses surrounding the open space, which was oblong in +form. The mills along the river were already working; the whirr of +their wheels, repeated by the echoes of the Upper Town in the keen air +and sparkling clearness of the early morning, only intensified the +general silence so that the wheels of a diligence could be heard a +league away along the highroad. The two longest sides of the square, +separated by an avenue of lindens, were built in the simple style +which expresses so well the peaceful and matter-of-fact life of the +bourgeoisie. No signs of commerce were to be seen; on the other hand, +the luxurious porte-cocheres of the rich were few, and those few +turned seldom on their hinges, excepting that of Monsieur Martener, a +physician, whose profession obliged him to keep a cabriolet, and to +use it. A few of the house-fronts were covered by grape vines, others +by roses climbing to the second-story windows, through which they +wafted the fragrance of their scattered bunches. One end of the square +enters the main street of the Lower Town, the gardens of which reach +to the bank of one of the two rivers which water the valley of +Provins. The other end of the square enters a street which runs +parallel to the main street. + +At the latter, which was also the quietest end of the square, the +young workman recognized the house of which he was in search, which +showed a front of white stone grooved in lines to represent courses, +windows with closed gray blinds, and slender iron balconies decorated +with rosettes painted yellow. Above the ground floor and the first +floor were three dormer windows projecting from a slate roof; on the +peak of the central one was a new weather-vane. This modern innovation +represented a hunter in the attitude of shooting a hare. The front +door was reached by three stone steps. On one side of this door a +leaden pipe discharged the sink-water into a small street-gutter, +showing the whereabouts of the kitchen. On the other side were two +windows, carefully closed by gray shutters in which were heart-shaped +openings cut to admit the light; these windows seemed to be those of +the dining-room. In the elevation gained by the three steps were vent- +holes to the cellar, closed by painted iron shutters fantastically cut +in open-work. Everything was new. In this repaired and restored house, +the fresh-colored look of which contrasted with the time-worn +exteriors of all the other houses, an observer would instantly +perceive the paltry taste and perfect self-satisfaction of the retired +petty shopkeeper. + +The young man looked at these details with an expression of pleasure +that seemed to have something rather sad in it; his eyes roved from +the kitchen to the roof, with a motion that showed a deliberate +purpose. The rosy glow of the rising sun fell on a calico curtain at +one of the garret windows, the others being without that luxury. As he +caught sight of it the young fellow's face brightened gaily. He +stepped back a little way, leaned against a linden, and sang, in the +drawling tone peculiar to the west of France, the following Breton +ditty, published by Bruguiere, a composer to whom we are indebted for +many charming melodies. In Brittany, the young villagers sing this +song to all newly-married couples on their wedding-day:-- + + "We've come to wish you happiness in marriage, + To m'sieur your husband + As well as to you: + + "You have just been bound, madam' la mariee, + With bonds of gold + That only death unbinds: + + "You will go no more to balls or gay assemblies; + You must stay at home + While we shall go. + + "Have you thought well how you are pledged to be + True to your spouse, + And love him like yourself? + + "Receive these flowers our hands do now present you; + Alas! your fleeting honors + Will fade as they." + +This native air (as sweet as that adapted by Chateaubriand to /Ma +soeur, te souvient-il encore/), sung in this little town of the Brie +district, must have been to the ears of a Breton maiden the touchstone +of imperious memories, so faithfully does it picture the manners and +customs, the surroundings and the heartiness of her noble old land, +where a sort of melancholy reigns, hardly to be defined; caused, +perhaps, by the aspect of life in Brittany, which is deeply touching. +This power of awakening a world of grave and sweet and tender memories +by a familiar and sometimes lively ditty, is the privilege of those +popular songs which are the superstitions of music,--if we may use the +word "superstition" as signifying all that remains after the ruin of a +people, all that survives their revolutions. + +As he finished the first couple, the singer, who never took his eyes +from the attic curtain, saw no signs of life. While he sang the +second, the curtain stirred. When the words "Receive these flowers" +were sung, a youthful face appeared; a white hand cautiously opened +the casement, and a girl made a sign with her head to the singer as he +ended with the melancholy thought of the simple verses,--"Alas! your +fleeting honors will fade as they." + +To her the young workman suddenly showed, drawing it from within his +jacket, a yellow flower, very common in Brittany, and sometimes to be +found in La Brie (where, however, it is rare),--the furze, or broom. + +"Is it really you, Brigaut?" said the girl, in a low voice. + +"Yes, Pierrette, yes. I am in Paris. I have started to make my way; +but I'm ready to settle here, near you." + +Just then the fastening of a window creaked in a room on the first +floor, directly below Pierrette's attic. The girl showed the utmost +terror, and said to Brigaut, quickly:-- + +"Run away!" + +The lad jumped like a frightened frog to a bend in the street caused +by the projection of a mill just where the square opens into the main +thoroughfare; but in spite of his agility his hob-nailed shoes echoed +on the stones with a sound easily distinguished from the music of the +mill, and no doubt heard by the person who opened the window. + +That person was a woman. No man would have torn himself from the +comfort of a morning nap to listen to a minstrel in a jacket; none but +a maid awakes to songs of love. Not only was this woman a maid, but +she was an old maid. When she had opened her blinds with the furtive +motion of the bat, she looked in all directions, but saw nothing, and +only heard, faintly, the flying footfalls of the lad. Can there be +anything more dreadful than the matutinal apparition of an ugly old +maid at her window? Of all the grotesque sights which amuse the eyes +of travellers in country towns, that is the most unpleasant. It is too +repulsive to laugh at. This particular old maid, whose ear was so +keen, was denuded of all the adventitious aids, of whatever kind, +which she employed as embellishments; her false front and her +collarette were lacking; she wore that horrible little bag of black +silk on which old women insist on covering their skulls, and it was +now revealed beneath the night-cap which had been pushed aside in +sleep. This rumpled condition gave a menacing expression to the head, +such as painters bestow on witches. The temples, ears, and nape of the +neck, were disclosed in all their withered horror,--the wrinkles being +marked in scarlet lines that contrasted with the would-be white of the +bed-gown which was tied round her neck by a narrow tape. The gaping of +this garment revealed a breast to be likened only to that of an old +peasant woman who cares nothing about her personal ugliness. The +fleshless arm was like a stick on which a bit of stuff was hung. Seen +at her window, this spinster seemed tall from the length and +angularity of her face, which recalled the exaggerated proportions of +certain Swiss heads. The character of their countenance--the features +being marked by a total want of harmony--was that of hardness in the +lines, sharpness in the tones; while an unfeeling spirit, pervading +all, would have filled a physiognomist with disgust. These +characteristics, fully visible at this moment, were usually modified +in public by a sort of commercial smile,--a bourgeois smirk which +mimicked good-humor; so that persons meeting with this old maid might +very well take her for a kindly woman. She owned the house on shares +with her brother. The brother, by-the-bye, was sleeping so tranquilly +in his own chamber that the orchestra of the Opera-house could not +have awakened him, wonderful as its diapason is said to be. + +The old maid stretched her neck out of the window, twisted it, and +raised her cold, pale-blue little eyes, with their short lashes set in +lids that were always rather swollen, to the attic window, endeavoring +to see Pierrette. Perceiving the uselessness of that attempt, she +retreated into her room with a movement like that of a tortoise which +draws in its head after protruding it from its carapace. The blinds +were then closed, and the silence of the street was unbroken except by +peasants coming in from the country, or very early persons moving +about. + +When there is an old maid in a house, watch-dogs are unnecessary; not +the slightest event can occur that she does not see and comment upon +and pursue to its utmost consequences. The foregoing trifling +circumstance was therefore destined to give rise to grave +suppositions, and to open the way for one of those obscure dramas +which take place in families, and are none the less terrible because +they are secret,--if, indeed, we may apply the word "drama" to such +domestic occurrences. + +Pierrette did not go back to bed. To her, Brigaut's arrival was an +immense event. During the night--that Eden of the wretched--she +escaped the vexations and fault-findings she bore during the day. Like +the hero of a ballad, German or Russian, I forget which, her sleep +seemed to her the happy life; her waking hours a bad dream. She had +just had her only pleasurable waking in three years. The memories of +her childhood had sung their melodious ditties in her soul. The first +couplet was heard in a dream; the second made her spring out of bed; +at the third, she doubted her ears,--the sorrowful are all disciples +of Saint Thomas; but when the fourth was sung, standing in her night- +gown with bare feet by the window, she recognized Brigaut, the +companion of her childhood. Ah, yes! it was truly the well-known +square jacket with the bobtails, the pockets of which stuck out at the +hips,--the jacket of blue cloth which is classic in Brittany; there, +too, were the waistcoat of printed cotton, the linen shirt fastened by +a gold heart, the large rolling collar, the earrings, the stout shoes, +the trousers of blue-gray drilling unevenly colored by the various +lengths of the warp,--in short, all those humble, strong, and durable +things which make the apparel of the Breton peasantry. The big buttons +of white horn which fastened the jacket made the girl's heart beat. +When she saw the bunch of broom her eyes filled with tears; then a +dreadful fear drove back into her heart the happy memories that were +budding there. She thought her cousin sleeping in the room beneath her +might have heard the noise she made in jumping out of bed and running +to the window. The fear was just; the old maid was coming, and she +made Brigaut the terrified sign which the lad obeyed without the least +understanding it. Such instinctive submission to a girl's bidding +shows one of those innocent and absolute affections which appear from +century to century on this earth, where they blossom, like the aloes +of Isola Bella, twice or thrice in a hundred years. Whoever had seen +the lad as he ran away would have loved the ingenuous chivalry of his +most ingenuous feeling. + +Jacques Brigaut was worthy of Pierrette Lorrain, who was just fifteen. +Two children! Pierrette could not keep from crying as she watched his +flight in the terror her gesture had conveyed to him. Then she sat +down in a shabby armchair placed before a little table above which +hung a mirror. She rested her elbows on the table, put her head in her +hands, and sat thinking for an hour, calling to memory the Marais, the +village of Pen-Hoel, the perilous voyages on a pond in a boat untied +for her from an old willow by little Jacques; then the old faces of +her grandfather and grandmother, the sufferings of her mother, and the +handsome face of Major Brigaut,--in short, the whole of her careless +childhood. It was all a dream, a luminous joy on the gloomy background +of the present. + +Her beautiful chestnut hair escaped in disorder from her cap, rumpled +in sleep,--a cambric cap with ruffles, which she had made herself. On +each side of her forehead were little ringlets escaping from gray +curl-papers. From the back of her head hung a heavy braid of hair that +was half unplaited. The excessive whiteness of her face betrayed that +terrible malady of girlhood which goes by the name of chlorosis, +deprives the body of its natural colors, destroys the appetite, and +shows a disordered state of the organism. The waxy tones were in all +the visible parts of her flesh. The neck and shoulders explained by +their blanched paleness the wasted arms, flung forward and crossed +upon the table. Her feet seemed enervated, shrunken from illness. Her +night-gown came only to her knees and showed the flaccid muscles, the +blue veins, the impoverished flesh of the legs. The cold, to which she +paid no heed, turned her lips violet, and a sad smile, drawing up the +corners of a sensitive mouth, showed teeth that were white as ivory +and quite small,--pretty, transparent teeth, in keeping with the +delicate ears, the rather sharp but dainty nose, and the general +outline of her face, which, in spite of its roundness, was lovely. All +the animation of this charming face was in the eyes, the iris of +which, brown like Spanish tobacco and flecked with black, shone with +golden reflections round pupils that were brilliant and intense. +Pierrette was made to be gay, but she was sad. Her lost gaiety was +still to be seen in the vivacious forms of the eye, in the ingenuous +grace of her brow, in the smooth curve of her chin. The long eyelashes +lay upon the cheek-bones, made prominent by suffering. The paleness of +her face, which was unnaturally white, made the lines and all the +details infinitely pure. The ear alone was a little masterpiece of +modelling,--in marble, you might say. Pierrette suffered in many ways. +Perhaps you would like to know her history, and this is it. + +Pierrette's mother was a Demoiselle Auffray of Provins, half-sister by +the father's side of Madame Rogron, mother of the present owners of +the house. + +Monsieur Auffray, her husband, had married at the age of eighteen; his +second marriage took place when he was nearly sixty-nine. By the +first, he had an only daughter, very plain, who was married at sixteen +to an innkeeper of Provins named Rogron. + +By his second marriage the worthy Auffray had another daughter; but +this one was charming. There was, of course, an enormous difference in +the ages of these daughters; the one by the first marriage was fifty +years old when the second child was born. By this time the eldest, +Madame Rogron, had two grown-up children. + +The youngest daughter of the old man was married at eighteen to a man +of her choice, a Breton officer named Lorrain, captain in the Imperial +Guard. Love often makes a man ambitious. The captain, anxious to rise +to a colonelcy, exchanged into a line regiment. While he, then a +major, and his wife enjoyed themselves in Paris on the allowance made +to them by Monsieur and Madame Auffray, or scoured Germany at the beck +and call of the Emperor's battles and truces, old Auffray himself +(formerly a grocer) died, at the age of eighty-eight, without having +found time to make a will. His property was administered by his +daughter, Madame Rogron, and her husband so completely in their own +interests that nothing remained for the old man's widow beyond the +house she lived in on the little square, and a few acres of land. This +widow, the mother of Madame Lorrain, was only thirty-eight at the time +of her husband's death. Like many widows, she came to the unwise +decision of remarrying. She sold the house and land to her step- +daughter, Madame Rogron, and married a young physician named Neraud, +who wasted her whole fortune. She died of grief and misery two years +later. + +Thus the share of her father's property which ought to have come to +Madame Lorrain disappeared almost entirely, being reduced to the small +sum of eight thousand francs. Major Lorrain was killed at the battle +of Montereau, leaving his wife, then twenty-one years of age, with a +little daughter of fourteen months, and no other means than the +pension to which she was entitled and an eventual inheritance from her +late husband's parents, Monsieur and Madame Lorrain, retail +shopkeepers at Pen-Hoel, a village in the Vendee, situated in that +part of it which is called the Marais. These Lorrains, grandfather and +grandmother of Pierrette Lorrain, sold wood for building purposes, +slates, tiles, pantiles, pipes, etc. Their business, either from their +own incapacity or through ill-luck, did badly, and gave them scarcely +enough to live on. The failure of the well-known firm of Collinet at +Nantes, caused by the events of 1814 which led to a sudden fall in +colonial products, deprived them of twenty-four thousand francs which +they had just deposited with that house. + +The arrival of their daughter-in-law was therefore welcome to them. +Her pension of eight hundred francs was a handsome income at Pen-Hoel. +The eight thousand francs which the widow's half-brother and sister +Rogron sent to her from her father's estate (after a multitude of +legal formalities) were placed by her in the Lorrains' business, they +giving her a mortgage on a little house which they owned at Nantes, +let for three hundred francs, and barely worth ten thousand. + +Madame Lorrain the younger, Pierrette's mother, died in 1819. The +child of old Auffray and his young wife was small, delicate, and +weakly; the damp climate of the Marais did not agree with her. But her +husband's family persuaded her, in order to keep her with them, that +in no other quarter of the world could she find a more healthy region. +She was so petted and tenderly cared for that her death, when it came, +brought nothing but honor to the old Lorrains. + +Some persons declared that Brigaut, an old Vendeen, one of those men +of iron who served under Charette, under Mercier, under the Marquis de +Montauran, and the Baron du Guenic, in the wars against the Republic, +counted for a good deal in the willingness of the younger Madame +Lorrain to remain in the Marais. If it were so, his soul must have +been a truly loving and devoted one. All Pen-Hoel saw him--he was +called respectfully Major Brigaut, the grade he had held in the +Catholic army--spending his days and his evenings in the Lorrains' +parlor, beside the window of the imperial major. Toward the last, the +curate of Pen-Hoel made certain representations to old Madame Lorrain, +begging her to persuade her daughter-in-law to marry Brigaut, and +promising to have the major appointed justice of peace for the canton +of Pen-Hoel, through the influence of the Vicomte de Kergarouet. The +death of the poor young woman put an end to the matter. + +Pierrette was left in charge of her grandparents who owed her four +hundred francs a year, interest on the little property placed in their +hands. This small sum was now applied to her maintenance. The old +people, who were growing less and less fit for business, soon found +themselves confronted by an active and capable competitor, against +whom they said hard things, all the while doing nothing to defeat him. +Major Brigaut, their friend and adviser, died six months after his +friend, the younger Madame Lorrain,--perhaps of grief, perhaps of his +wounds, of which he had received twenty-seven. + +Like a sound merchant, the competitor set about ruining his +adversaries in order to get rid of all rivalry. With his connivance, +the Lorrains borrowed money on notes, which they were unable to meet, +and which drove them in their old days into bankruptcy. Pierrette's +claim upon the house in Nantes was superseded by the legal rights of +her grandmother, who enforced them to secure the daily bread of her +poor husband. The house was sold for nine thousand five hundred +francs, of which one thousand five hundred went for costs. The +remaining eight thousand came to Madame Lorain, who lived upon the +income of them in a sort of almshouse at Nantes, like that of Sainte- +Perine in Paris, called Saint-Jacques, where the two old people had +bed and board for a humble payment. + +As it was impossible to keep Pierrette, their ruined little +granddaughter, with them, the old Lorrains bethought themselves of her +uncle and aunt Rogron, in Provins, to whom they wrote. These Rogrons +were dead. The letter might, therefore, have easily been lost; but if +anything here below can take the place of Providence, it is the post. +Postal spirit, incomparably above public spirit, exceeds in brilliancy +of resource and invention the ablest romance-writers. When the post +gets hold of a letter, worth, to it, from three to ten sous, and does +not immediately know where to find the person to whom that letter is +addressed, it displays a financial anxiety only to be met with in very +pertinacious creditors. The post goes and comes and ferrets through +all the eighty-six departments. Difficulties only arouse the genius of +the clerks, who may really be called men-of-letters, and who set about +to search for that unknown human being with as much ardor as the +mathematicians of the Bureau give to longitudes. They literally +ransack the whole kingdom. At the first ray of hope all the post- +offices in Paris are alert. Sometimes the receiver of a missing letter +is amazed at the network of scrawled directions which covers both back +and front of the missive,--glorious vouchers for the administrative +persistency with which the post has been at work. If a man undertook +what the post accomplishes, he would lose ten thousand francs in +travel, time, and money, to recover ten sous. The letter of the old +Lorrains, addressed to Monsieur Rogron of Provins (who had then been +dead a year) was conveyed by the post in due time to Monsieur Rogron, +son of the deceased, a mercer in the rue Saint-Denis in Paris. And +this is where the postal spirit obtains its greatest triumph. An heir +is always more or less anxious to know if he has picked up every scrap +of his inheritance, if he has not overlooked a credit, or a trunk of +old clothes. The Treasury knows that. A letter addressed to the late +Rogron at Provins was certain to pique the curiosity of Rogron, Jr., +or Mademoiselle Rogron, the heirs in Paris. Out of that human interest +the Treasury was able to earn sixty centimes. + +These Rogrons, toward whom the old Lorrains, though dreading to part +with their dear little granddaughter, stretched their supplicating +hands, became, in this way, and most unexpectedly, the masters of +Pierrette's destiny. It is therefore indispensable to explain both +their antecedents and their character. + + + +II + +THE ROGRONS + +Pere Rogron, that innkeeper of Provins to whom old Auffray had married +his daughter by his first wife, was an individual with an inflamed +face, a veiny nose, and cheeks on which Bacchus had drawn his scarlet +and bulbous vine-marks. Though short, fat, and pot-bellied, with stout +legs and thick hands, he was gifted with the shrewdness of the Swiss +innkeepers, whom he resembled. Certainly he was not handsome, and his +wife looked like him. Never was a couple better matched. Rogron liked +good living and to be waited upon by pretty girls. He belonged to the +class of egoists whose behavior is brutal; he gave way to his vices +and did their will openly in the face of Israel. Grasping, selfish, +without decency, and always gratifying his own fancies, he devoured +his earnings until the day when his teeth failed him. Selfishness +stayed by him. In his old days he sold his inn, collected (as we have +seen) all he could of his late father-in-law's property, and went to +live in the little house in the square of Provins, bought for a trifle +from the widow of old Auffray, Pierrette's grandmother. + +Rogron and his wife had about two thousand francs a year from twenty- +seven lots of land in the neighborhood of Provins, and from the sale +of their inn for twenty thousand. Old Auffray's house, though out of +repair, was inhabited just as it was by the Rogrons,--old rats like +wrack and ruin. Rogron himself took to horticulture and spent his +savings in enlarging the garden; he carried it to the river's edge +between two walls and built a sort of stone embankment across the end, +where aquatic nature, left to herself, displayed the charms of her +flora. + +In the early years of their marriage the Rogrons had a son and a +daughter, both hideous; for such human beings degenerate. Put out to +nurse at a low price, these luckless children came home in due time, +after the worst of village training,--allowed to cry for hours after +their wet-nurse, who worked in the fields, leaving them shut up to +scream for her in one of those damp, dark, low rooms which serve as +homes for the French peasantry. Treated thus, the features of the +children coarsened; their voices grew harsh; they mortified their +mother's vanity, and that made her strive to correct their bad habits +by a sternness which the severity of their father converted through +comparison to kindness. As a general thing, they were left to run +loose about the stables and courtyards of the inn, or the streets of +the town; sometimes they were whipped; sometimes they were sent, to +get rid of them, to their grandfather Auffray, who did not like them. +The injustice the Rogrons declared the old man did to their children, +justified them to their own minds in taking the greater part of "the +old scoundrel's" property. However, Rogron did send his son to school, +and did buy him a man, one of his own cartmen, to save him from the +conscription. As soon as his daughter, Sylvie, was thirteen, he sent +her to Paris, to make her way as apprentice in a shop. Two years later +he despatched his son, Jerome-Denis, to the same career. When his +friends the carriers and those who frequented the inn, asked him what +he meant to do with his children, Pere Rogron explained his system +with a conciseness which, in view of that of most fathers, had the +merit of frankness. + +"When they are old enough to understand me I shall give 'em a kick and +say: 'Go and make your own way in the world!'" he replied, emptying +his glass and wiping his lips with the back of his hand. Then he +winked at his questioner with a knowing look. "Hey! hey! they are no +greater fools than I was," he added. "My father gave me three kicks; I +shall only give them one; he put one louis into my hand; I shall put +ten in theirs, therefore they'll be better off than I was. That's the +way to do. After I'm gone, what's left will be theirs. The notaries +can find them and give it to them. What nonsense to bother one's self +about children. Mine owe me their life. I've fed them, and I don't ask +anything from them,--I call that quits, hey, neighbor? I began as a +cartman, but that didn't prevent me marrying the daughter of that old +scoundrel Auffray." + +Sylvie Rogron was sent (with six hundred francs for her board) as +apprentice to certain shopkeepers originally from Provins and now +settled in Paris in the rue Saint-Denis. Two years later she was "at +par," as they say; she earned her own living; at any rate her parents +paid nothing for her. That is what is called being "at par" in the rue +Saint-Denis. Sylvie had a salary of four hundred francs. At nineteen +years of age she was independent. At twenty, she was the second +demoiselle in the Maison Julliard, wholesale silk dealers at the +"Chinese Worm" rue Saint-Denis. The history of the sister was that of +the brother. Young Jerome-Denis Rogron entered the establishment of +one of the largest wholesale mercers in the same street, the Maison +Guepin, at the "Three Distaffs." When Sylvie Rogron, aged twenty-one, +had risen to be forewoman at a thousand francs a year Jerome-Denis, +with even better luck, was head-clerk at eighteen, with a salary of +twelve hundred francs. + +Brother and sister met on Sundays and fete-days, which they passed in +economical amusements; they dined out of Paris, and went to Saint- +Cloud, Meudon, Belleville, or Vincennes. Towards the close of the year +1815 they clubbed their savings, amounting to about twenty thousand +francs, earned by the sweat of their brows, and bought of Madame +Guenee the property and good-will of her celebrated shop, the "Family +Sister," one of the largest retail establishments in the quarter. +Sylvie kept the books and did the writing. Jerome-Denis was master and +head-clerk both. In 1821, after five years' experience, competition +became so fierce that it was all the brother and sister could do to +carry on the business and maintain its reputation. + +Though Sylvie was at this time scarcely forty, her natural ugliness, +combined with hard work and a certain crabbed look (caused as much by +the conformation of her features as by her cares), made her seem like +a woman of fifty. At thirty-eight Jerome Rogron presented to the eyes +of his customers the silliest face that ever looked over a counter. +His retreating forehead, flattened by fatigue, was marked by three +long wrinkles. His grizzled hair, cut close, expressed in some +indefinable way the stupidity of a cold-blooded animal. The glance of +his bluish eyes had neither flame nor thought in it. His round, flat +face excited no sympathy, nor even a laugh on the lips of those who +might be examining the varieties of the Parisian species; on the +contrary, it saddened them. He was, like his father, short and fat, +but his figure lacked the latter's brutal obesity, and showed, +instead, an almost ridiculous debility. His father's high color was +changed in him to the livid flabbiness peculiar to persons who live in +close back-shops, or in those railed cages called counting-rooms, +forever tying up bundles, receiving and making change, snarling at the +clerks, and repeating the same old speeches to customers. + +The small amount of brains possessed by the brother and sister had +been wholly absorbed in maintaining their business, in getting and +keeping money, and in learning the special laws and usages of the +Parisian market. Thread, needles, ribbons, pins, buttons, tailors' +furnishings, in short, the enormous quantity of things which go to +make up a mercer's stock, had taken all their capacity. Outside of +their business they knew absolutely nothing; they were even ignorant +of Paris. To them the great city was merely a region spreading around +the Rue Saint-Denis. Their narrow natures could see no field except +the shop. They were clever enough in nagging their clerks and their +young women and in proving them to blame. Their happiness lay in +seeing all hands busy at the counters, exhibiting the merchandise, and +folding it up again. When they heard the six or eight voices of the +young men and women glibly gabbling the consecrated phrases by which +clerks reply to the remarks of customers, the day was fine to them, +the weather beautiful! But on the really fine days, when the blue of +the heavens brightened all Paris, and the Parisians walked about to +enjoy themselves and cared for no "goods" but those they carried on +their back, the day was overcast to the Rogrons. "Bad weather for +sales," said that pair of imbeciles. + +The skill with which Rogron could tie up a parcel made him an object +of admiration to all his apprentices. He could fold and tie and see +all that happened in the street and in the farthest recesses of the +shop by the time he handed the parcel to his customer with a "Here it +is, madame; /nothing else/ to-day?" But the poor fool would have been +ruined without his sister. Sylvie had common-sense and a genius for +trade. She advised her brother in their purchases and would pitilessly +send him to remote parts of France to save a trifle of cost. The +shrewdness which all women more or less possess, not being employed in +the service of her heart, had drifted into that of speculation. A +business to pay for,--that thought was the mainspring which kept the +machine going and gave it an infernal activity. + +Rogron was really only head-clerk; he understood nothing of his +business as a whole; self-interest, that great motor of the mind, had +failed in his case to instruct him. He was often aghast when his +sister ordered some article to be sold below cost, foreseeing the end +of its fashion; later he admired her idiotically for her cleverness. +He reasoned neither ill nor well; he was simply incapable of reasoning +at all; but he had the sense to subordinate himself to his sister, and +he did so from a consideration that was outside of the business. "She +is my elder," he said. Perhaps an existence like his, always solitary, +reduced to the satisfaction of mere needs, deprived of money and all +pleasures in youth, may explain to physiologists and thinkers the +clownish expression of the face, the feebleness of mind, the vacant +silliness of the man. His sister had steadily prevented him from +marrying, afraid perhaps to lose her power over him, and seeing only a +source of expense and injury in some woman who would certainly be +younger and undoubtedly less ugly than herself. + +Silliness has two ways of comporting itself; it talks, or is silent. +Silent silliness can be borne; but Rogron's silliness was loquacious. +The man had a habit of chattering to his clerks, explaining the +minutiae of the business, and ornamenting his talk with those flat +jokes which may be called the "chaff" of shopkeeping. Rogron, listened +to, of course, by his subordinates and perfectly satisfied with +himself, had come at last into possession of a phraseology of his own. +This chatterer believed himself an orator. The necessity of explaining +to customers what they want, of guessing at their desires, and giving +them desires for what they do not want, exercises the tongue of all +retail shopkeepers. The petty dealer acquires the faculty of uttering +words and sentences in which there is absolutely no meaning, but which +have a marked success. He explains to his customers matters of +manufacture that they know nothing of; that alone gives him a passing +superiority over them; but take him away from his thousand and one +explanations about his thousand and one articles, and he is, +relatively to thought, like a fish out of water in the sun. + +Rogron and Sylvie, two mechanisms baptized by mistake, did not +possess, latent or active, the feelings which give life to the heart. +Their natures were shrivelled and harsh, hardened by toil, by +privation, by the remembrance of their sufferings during a long and +cruel apprenticeship to life. Neither of them complained of their +trials. They were not so much implacable as impracticable in their +dealings with others in misfortune. To them, virtue, honor, loyalty, +all human sentiments consisted solely in the payment of their bills. +Irritable and irritating, without feelings, and sordid in their +economy, the brother and sister bore a dreadful reputation among the +other merchants of the rue Saint-Denis. Had it not been for their +connection with Provins, where they went three or four times a year, +when they could close the shop for a day or two, they would have had +no clerks or young women. But old Rogron, their father, sent them all +the unfortunate young people of his neighborhood, whose parents wished +to start them in business in Paris. He obtained these apprentices by +boasting, out of vanity, of his son's success. Parents, attracted by +the prospect of their children being well-trained and closely watched, +and also, by the hope of their succeeding, eventually, to the +business, sent whichever child was most in the way at home to the care +of the brother and sister. But no sooner had the clerks or the young +women found a way of escape from that dreadful establishment than they +fled, with rejoicings that increased the already bad name of the +Rogrons. New victims were supplied yearly by the indefatigable old +father. + +From the time she was fifteen, Sylvie Rogron, trained to the simpering +of a saleswoman, had two faces,--the amiable face of the seller, the +natural face of a sour spinster. Her acquired countenance was a +marvellous bit of mimicry. She was all smiles. Her voice, soft and +wheedling, gave a commercial charm to business. Her real face was that +we have already seen projecting from the half-opened blinds; the mere +sight of her would have put to flight the most resolute Cossack of +1815, much as that horde were said to like all kinds of Frenchwomen. + +When the letter from the Lorrains reached the brother and sister, they +were in mourning for their father, from whom they inherited the house +which had been as good as stolen from Pierrette's grandmother, also +certain lands bought by their father, and certain moneys acquired by +usurious loans and mortgages to the peasantry, whose bits of ground +the old drunkard expected to possess. The yearly taking of stock was +just over. The price of the "Family Sister" had, at last, been paid in +full. The Rogrons owned about sixty thousand francs' worth of +merchandise, forty thousand in a bank or in their cash-box, and the +value of their business. Sitting on a bench covered with striped-green +Utrecht velvet placed in a square recess just behind their private +counter (the counter of their forewoman being similar and directly +opposite) the brother and sister consulted as to what they should do. +All retail shopkeepers aspire to become members of the bourgeoisie. By +selling the good-will of their business, the pair would have over a +hundred and fifty thousand francs, not counting the inheritance from +their father. By placing their present available property in the +public Funds, they would each obtain about four thousand francs a +year, and by taking the proceeds of their business, when sold, they +could repair and improve the house they inherited from their father, +which would thus be a good investment. They could then go and live in +a house of their own in Provins. Their forewoman was the daughter of a +rich farmer at Donnemarie, burdened with nine children, to whom he had +endeavored to give a good start in life, being aware that at his death +his property, divided into nine parts, would be but little for any one +of them. In five years, however, the man had lost seven children,--a +fact which made the forewoman so interesting that Rogron had tried, +unsuccessfully, to get her to marry him; but she showed an aversion +for her master which baffled his manoeuvres. Besides, Mademoiselle +Sylvie was not in favor of the match; in fact, she steadily opposed +her brother's marriage, and sought, instead, to make the shrewd young +woman their successor. + +No passing observer can form the least idea of the cryptogramic +existence of a certain class of shopkeepers; he looks at them and asks +himself, "On what, and why, do they live? whence have they come? where +do they go?" He is lost in such questions, but finds no answer to +them. To discover the false seed of poesy which lies in those heads +and fructifies in those lives, it is necessary to dig into them; and +when we do that we soon come to a thin subsoil beneath the surface. +The Parisian shopkeeper nurtures his soul on some hope or other, more +or less attainable, without which he would doubtless perish. One +dreams of building or managing a theatre; another longs for the honors +of mayoralty; this one desires a country-house, ten miles from Paris +with a so-called "park," which he will adorn with statues of tinted +plaster and fountains which squirt mere threads of water, but on which +he will spend a mint of money; others, again, dream of distinction and +a high grade in the National Guard. Provins, that terrestrial +paradise, filled the brother and sister with the fanatical longings +which all the lovely towns of France inspire in their inhabitants. Let +us say it to the glory of La Champagne, this love is warranted. +Provins, one of the most charming towns in all France, rivals +Frangistan and the valley of Cashmere; not only does it contain the +poesy of Saadi, the Persian Homer, but it offers many pharmaceutical +treasures to medical science. The crusades brought roses from Jericho +to this enchanting valley, where by chance they gained new charms +while losing none of their colors. The Provins roses are known the +world over. But Provins is not only the French Persia, it is also +Baden, Aix, Cheltenham,--for it has medicinal springs. This was the +spot which appeared from time to time before the eyes of the two +shopkeepers in the muddy regions of Saint-Denis. + +After crossing the gray plains which lie between La Ferte-Gaucher and +Provins, a desert and yet productive, a desert of wheat, you reach a +hill. Suddenly you behold at your feet a town watered by two rivers; +at the feet of the rock on which you stand stretches a verdant valley, +full of enchanting lines and fugitive horizons. If you come from Paris +you will pass through the whole length of Provins on the everlasting +highroad of France, which here skirts the hillside and is encumbered +with beggars and blind men, who will follow you with their pitiful +voices while you try to examine the unexpected picturesqueness of the +region. If you come from Troyes you will approach the town on the +valley side. The chateau, the old town, and its former ramparts are +terraced on the hillside, the new town is below. They go by the names +of Upper and Lower Provins. The upper is an airy town with steep +streets commanding fine views, surrounded by sunken road-ways and +ravines filled with chestnut trees which gash the sides of the hill +with their deep gulleys. The upper town is silent, clean, solemn, +surmounted by the imposing ruins of the old chateau. The lower is a +town of mills, watered by the Voulzie and the Durtain, two rivers of +Brie, narrow, sluggish, and deep; a town of inns, shops, retired +merchants; filled with diligences, travelling-carriages, and waggons. +The two towns, or rather this town with its historical memories, its +melancholy ruins, the gaiety of its valley, the romantic charm of its +ravines filled with tangled shrubbery and wildflowers, its rivers +banked with gardens, excites the love of all its children, who do as +the Auvergnats, the Savoyards, in fact, all French folks do, namely, +leave Provins to make their fortunes, and always return. "Die in one's +form," the proverb made for hares and faithful souls, seems also the +motto of a Provins native. + +Thus the two Rogrons thought constantly of their dear Provins. While +Jerome sold his thread he saw the Upper town; as he piled up the cards +on which were buttons he contemplated the valley; when he rolled and +unrolled his ribbons he followed the shining rivers. Looking up at his +shelves he saw the ravines where he had often escaped his father's +anger and gone a-nutting or gathering blackberries. But the little +square in the Lower town was the chief object of his thoughts; he +imagined how he could improve his house: he dreamed of a new front, +new bedrooms, a salon, a billiard-room, a dining-room, and the kitchen +garden out of which he would make an English pleasure-ground, with +lawns, grottos, fountains, and statuary. The bedrooms at present +occupied by the brother and sister, on the second floor of a house +with three windows front and six storeys high in the rue Saint-Denis, +were furnished with the merest necessaries, yet no one in Paris had +finer furniture than they--in fancy. When Jerome walked the streets he +stopped short, struck with admiration at the handsome things in the +upholsterers' windows, and at the draperies he coveted for his house. +When he came home he would say to his sister: "I found in such a shop, +such and such a piece of furniture that will just do for the salon." +The next day he would buy another piece, and another, and so on. He +rejected, the following month, the articles of the months before. The +Budget itself, could not have paid for his architectural schemes. He +wanted everything he saw, but abandoned each thing for the last thing. +When he saw the balconies of new houses, when he studied external +ornamentation, he thought all such things, mouldings, carvings, etc., +out of place in Paris. "Ah!" he would say, "those fine things would +look much better at Provins." When he stood on his doorstep leaning +against the lintel, digesting his morning meal, with a vacant eye, the +mercer was gazing at the house of his fancy gilded by the sun of his +dream; he walked in his garden; he heard the jet from his fountain +falling in pearly drops upon a slab of limestone; he played on his own +billiard-table; he gathered his own flowers. + +Sylvie, on the other hand, was thinking so deeply, pen in hand, that +she forgot to scold the clerks; she was receiving the bourgeoisie of +Provins, she was looking at herself in the mirrors of her salon, and +admiring the beauties of a marvellous cap. The brother and sister +began to think the atmosphere of the rue Saint-Denis unhealthy, and +the smell of the mud in the markets made them long for the fragrance +of the Provins roses. They were the victims of a genuine nostalgia, +and also of a monomania, frustrated at present by the necessity of +selling their tapes and bobbins before they could leave Paris. The +promised land of the valley of Provins attracted these Hebrews all the +more because they had really suffered, and for a long time, as they +crossed breathlessly the sandy wastes of a mercer's business. + +The Lorrains' letter reached them in the midst of meditations inspired +by this glorious future. They knew scarcely anything about their +cousin, Pierrette Lorrain. Their father got possession of the Auffray +property after they left home, and the old man said little to any one +of his business affairs. They hardly remembered their aunt Lorrain. It +took an hour of genealogical discussion before they made her out to be +the younger sister of their own mother by the second marriage of their +grandfather Auffray. It immediately struck them that this second +marriage had been fatally injurious to their interests by dividing the +Auffray property between two daughters. In times past they had heard +their father, who was given to sneering, complain of it. + +The brother and sister considered the application of the Lorrains from +the point of view of such reminiscences, which were not at all +favorable for Pierrette. To take charge of an orphan, a girl, a +cousin, who might become their legal heir in case neither of them +married,--this was a matter that needed discussion. The question was +considered and debated under all its aspects. In the first place, they +had never seen Pierrette. Then, what a trouble it would be to have a +young girl to look after. Wouldn't it commit them to some obligations +towards her? Could they send the girl away if they did not like her? +Besides, wouldn't they have to marry her? and if Jerome found a yoke- +mate among the heiresses of Provins they ought to keep all their +property for his children. A yokemate for Jerome, according to Sylvie, +meant a stupid, rich and ugly girl who would let herself be governed. +They decided to refuse the Lorrain request. Sylvie agreed to write the +answer. Business being rather urgent just then she delayed writing, +and the forewoman coming forward with an offer for the stock and good- +will of the "Family Sister," which the brother and sister accepted, +the matter went entirely out of the old maid's mind. + +Sylvie Rogron and her brother departed for Provins four years before +the time when the coming of Brigaut threw such excitement into +Pierrette's life. But the doings of the pair after their arrival at +Provins are as necessary to relate as their life in Paris; for Provins +was destined to be not less fatal to Pierrette than the commercial +antecedents of her cousins! + + + +III + +PATHOLOGY OF RETIRED MERCERS + +When the petty shopkeeper who has come to Paris from the provinces +returns to the provinces from Paris he brings with him a few ideas; +then he loses them in the habits and ways of provincial life into +which he plunges, and his reforming notions leave him. From this there +do result, however, certain trifling, slow, successive changes by +which Paris scratches the surface of the provincial towns. This +process marks the transition of the ex-shopkeeper into the substantial +bourgeois, but it acts like an illness upon him. No retail shopkeeper +can pass with impunity from his perpetual chatter into dead silence, +from his Parisian activity to the stillness of provincial life. When +these worthy persons have laid by property they spend a portion of it +on some desire over which they have long brooded and into which they +now turn their remaining impulses, no longer restrained by force of +will. Those who have not been nursing a fixed idea either travel or +rush into the political interests of their municipality. Others take +to hunting or fishing and torment their farmers or tenants; others +again become usurers or stock-jobbers. As for the scheme of the +Rogrons, brother and sister, we know what that was; they had to +satisfy an imperious desire to handle the trowel and remodel their old +house into a charming new one. + +This fixed idea produced upon the square of Lower Provins the front of +the building which Brigaut had been examining; also the interior +arrangements of the house and its handsome furniture. The contractor +did not drive a nail without consulting the owners, without requiring +them to sign the plans and specifications, without explaining to them +at full length and in every detail the nature of each article under +discussion, where it was manufactured, and what were its various +prices. As to the choicer things, each, they were told, had been used +by Monsieur Tiphaine, or Madame Julliard, or Monsieur the mayor, the +notables of the place. The idea of having things done as the rich +bourgeois of Provins did them carried the day for the contractor. + +"Oh, if Monsieur Garceland has it in his house, put it in," said +Mademoiselle Rogron. "It must be all right; his taste is good." + +"Sylvie, see, he wants us to have ovolos in the cornice of the +corridor." + +"Do you call those ovolos?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle." + +"What an odd name! I never heard it before." + +"But you have seen the thing?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you understand Latin?" + +"No." + +"Well, it means eggs--from the Latin /ovum/." + +"What queer fellows you are, you architects!" cried Rogron. "It is +stepping on egg-shells to deal with you." + +"Shall we paint the corridor?" asked the builder. + +"Good heavens, no!" cried Sylvie. "That would be five hundred francs +more!" + +"Oh, but the salon and the staircase are too pretty not to have the +corridor decorated too," said the man. "That little Madame Lesourd had +hers painted last year." + +"And now, her husband, as king's attorney, is obliged to leave +Provins." + +"Ah, he'll be chief justice some of these days," said the builder. + +"How about Monsieur Tiphaine?" + +"Monsieur Tiphaine? he's got a pretty wife and is sure to get on. +He'll go to Paris. Shall we paint the corridor?" + +"Yes, yes," said Rogron. "The Lesourds must be made to see that we are +as good as they." + +The first year after the Rogrons returned to Provins was entirely +taken up by such discussions, by the pleasure of watching the workmen, +by the surprise occasioned to the townspeople and the replies to +questions of all kinds which resulted therefrom, and also by the +attempts made by Sylvie and her brother to be socially intimate with +the principal families of Provins. + +The Rogrons had never gone into any society; they had never left their +shop, knowing absolutely no one in Paris, and now they were athirst +for the pleasures of social life. On their arrival in Provins they +found their former masters in Paris (long since returned to the +provinces), Monsieur and Madame Julliard, lately of the "Chinese +Worm," their children and grandchildren; the Guepin family, or rather +the Guepin clan, the youngest scion of which now kept the "Three +Distaffs"; and thirdly, Madame Guenee from whom they had purchased the +"Family Sister," and whose three daughters were married and settled in +Provins. These three races, Julliard, Guepin, and Guenee, had spread +through the town like dog-grass through a lawn. The mayor, Monsieur +Garceland, was the son-in-law of Monsieur Guepin; the curate, Abbe +Peroux, was own brother to Madame Julliard; the judge, Monsieur +Tiphaine junior, was brother to Madame Guenee, who signed herself +"/nee/ Tiphaine." + +The queen of the town was the beautiful Madame Tiphaine junior, only +daughter of Madame Roguin, the rich wife of a former notary in Paris, +whose name was never mentioned. Clever, delicate, and pretty, married +in the provinces to please her mother, who for special reasons did not +want her with her, and took her from a convent only a few days before +the wedding, Melanie Tiphaine considered herself an exile in Provins, +where she behaved to admiration. Handsomely dowered, she still had +hopes. As for Monsieur Tiphaine, his old father had made to his eldest +daughter Madame Guenee such advances on her inheritance that an estate +worth eight thousand francs a year, situated within fifteen miles of +Provins, was to come wholly to him. Consequently the Tiphaines would +possess, sooner or later, some forty thousand francs a year, and were +not "badly off," as they say. The one overwhelming desire of the +beautiful Madame Tiphaine was to get Monsieur Tiphaine elected deputy. +As deputy he would become a judge in Paris; and she was firmly +resolved to push him up into the Royal courts. For these reasons she +tickled all vanities and strove to please all parties; and--what is +far more difficult--she succeeded. Twice a week she received the +bourgeoisie of Provins at her house in the Upper town. This +intelligent young woman of twenty had not as yet made a single blunder +or misstep on the slippery path she had taken. She gratified +everybody's self-love, and petted their hobbies; serious with the +serious, a girl with girls, instinctively a mother with mothers, gay +with young wives and disposed to help them, gracious to all,--in +short, a pearl, a treasure, the pride of Provins. She had never yet +said a word of her intentions and wishes, but all the electors of +Provins were awaiting the time when their dear Monsieur Tiphaine had +reached the required age for nomination. Every man in the place, +certain of his own talents, regarded the future deputy as his +particular friend, his protector. Of course, Monsieur Tiphaine would +attain to honors; he would be Keeper of the Seals, and then, what +wouldn't he do for Provins! + +Such were the pleasant means by which Madame Tiphaine had come to rule +over the little town. Madame Guenee, Monsieur Tiphaine's sister, after +having married her eldest daughter to Monsieur Lesourd, prosecuting +attorney, her second to Monsieur Martener, the doctor, and the third +to Monsieur Auffray, the notary, had herself married Monsieur +Galardon, the collector. Mother and daughters all considered Monsieur +Tiphaine as the richest and ablest man in the family. The prosecuting +attorney had the strongest interest in sending his uncle to Paris, +expecting to step into his shoes as judge of the local court of +Provins. The four ladies formed a sort of court round Madame Tiphaine, +whose ideas and advice they followed on all occasions. Monsieur +Julliard, the eldest son of the old merchant, who had married the only +daughter of a rich farmer, set up a sudden, secret, and disinterested +passion for Madame Tiphaine, that angel descended from the Parisian +skies. The clever Melanie, too clever to involve herself with +Julliard, but quite capable of keeping him in the condition of Amadis +and making the most of his folly, advised him to start a journal, +intending herself to play the part of Egeria. For the last two years, +therefore, Julliard, possessed by his romantic passion, had published +the said newspaper, called the "Bee-hive," which contained articles +literary, archaeological, and medical, written in the family. The +advertisements paid expenses. The subscriptions, two hundred in all, +made the profits. Every now and then melancholy verses, totally +incomprehensible in La Brie, appeared, addressed, "TO HER!!!" with +three exclamation marks. The clan Julliard was thus united to the +other clans, and the salon of Madame Tiphaine became, naturally, the +first in the town. The few aristocrats who lived in Provins were, of +course, apart, and formed a single salon in the Upper town, at the +house of the old Comtesse de Breautey. + +During the first six months of their transplantation, the Rogrons, +favored by their former acquaintance with several of these people, +were received, first by Madame Julliard the elder, and by the former +Madame Guenee, now Madame Galardon (from whom they had bought their +business), and next, after a good deal of difficulty, by Madame +Tiphaine. All parties wished to study the Rogrons before admitting +them. It was difficult, of course, to keep out merchants of the rue +Saint-Denis, originally from Provins, who had returned to the town to +spend their fortunes. Still, the object of all society is to +amalgamate persons of equal wealth, education, manners, customs, +accomplishments, and character. Now the Guepins, Guenees, and +Julliards had a better position among the bourgeoisie than the +Rogrons, whose father had been held in contempt on account of his +private life, and his conduct in the matter of the Auffray property,-- +the facts of which were known to the notary Auffray, Madame Galardon's +son-in-law. + +In the social life of these people, to which Madame Tiphaine had given +a certain tone of elegance, all was homogeneous; the component parts +understood each other, knew each other's characters, and behaved and +conversed in a manner that was agreeable to all. The Rogrons flattered +themselves that being received by Monsieur Garceland, the mayor, they +would soon be on good terms with all the best families in the town. +Sylvie applied herself to learn boston. Rogron, incapable of playing a +game, twirled his thumbs and had nothing to say except to discourse on +his new house. Words seemed to choke him; he would get up, try to +speak, become frightened, and sit down again, with comical distortion +of the lips. Sylvie naively betrayed her natural self at cards. Sharp, +irritable, whining when she lost, insolent when she won, nagging and +quarrelsome, she annoyed her partners as much as her adversaries, and +became the scourge of society. And yet, possessed by a silly, +unconcealed ambition, Rogron and his sister were bent on playing a +part in the society of a little town already in possession of a close +corporation of twelve allied families. Allowing that the restoration +of their house had cost them thirty thousand francs, the brother and +sister possessed between them at least ten thousand francs a year. +This they considered wealth, and with it they endeavored to impress +society, which immediately took the measure of their vulgarity, crass +ignorance, and foolish envy. On the evening when they were presented +to the beautiful Madame Tiphaine, who had already eyed them at Madame +Garceland's and at Madame Julliard the elder's, the queen of the town +remarked to Julliard junior, who stayed a few moments after the rest +of the company to talk with her and her husband:-- + +"You all seem to be taken with those Rogrons." + +"No, no," said Amadis, "they bore my mother and annoy my wife. When +Mademoiselle Sylvie was apprenticed, thirty years ago, to my father, +none of them could endure her." + +"I have a great mind," said Madame Tiphaine, putting her pretty foot +on the bar of the fender, "to make it understood that my salon is not +an inn." + +Julliard raised his eyes to the ceiling, as if to say, "Good heavens? +what wit, what intellect!" + +"I wish my society to be select; and it certainly will not be if I +admit those Rogrons." + +"They have neither heart, nor mind, nor manners"; said Monsieur +Tiphaine. "If, after selling thread for twenty years, as my sister did +for example--" + +"Your sister, my dear," said his wife in a parenthesis, "cannot be out +of place in any salon." + +"--if," he continued, "people are stupid enough not to throw off the +shop and polish their manners, if they don't know any better than to +mistake the Counts of Champagne for the /accounts/ of a wine-shop, as +Rogron did this evening, they had better, in my opinion, stay at +home." + +"They are simply impudent," said Julliard. "To hear them talk you +would suppose there was no other handsome house in Provins but theirs. +They want to crush us; and after all, they have hardly enough to live +on." + +"If it was only the brother," said Madame Tiphaine, "one might put up +with him; he is not so aggressive. Give him a Chinese puzzle and he +will stay in a corner quietly enough; it would take him a whole winter +to find it out. But Mademoiselle Sylvie, with that voice like a hoarse +hyena and those lobster-claws of hands! Don't repeat all this, +Julliard." + +When Julliard had departed the little woman said to her husband:-- + +"I have aborigines enough whom I am forced to receive; these two will +fairly kill me. With your permission, I shall deprive myself of their +society." + +"You are mistress in your own house," replied he; "but that will make +enemies. The Rogrons will fling themselves into the opposition, which +hitherto has had no real strength in Provins. That Rogron is already +intimate with Baron Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet." + +"Then," said Melanie, laughing, "they will do you some service. Where +there are no opponents, there is no triumph. A liberal conspiracy, an +illegal cabal, a struggle of any kind, will bring you into the +foreground." + +The justice looked at his young wife with a sort of alarmed +admiration. + +The next day it was whispered about that the Rogrons had not +altogether succeeded in Madame Tiphaine's salon. That lady's speech +about an inn was immensely admired. It was a whole month before she +returned Mademoiselle Sylvie's visit. Insolence of this kind is very +much noticed in the provinces. + +During the evening which Sylvie had spent at Madame Tiphaine's a +disagreeable scene occurred between herself and old Madame Julliard +while playing boston, apropos of a trick which Sylvie declared the old +lady had made her lose on purpose; for the old maid, who liked to trip +others, could never endure the same game on herself. The next time she +was invited out the mistress took care to make up the card-tables +before she arrived; so that Sylvie was reduced to wandering from table +to table as an onlooker, the players glancing at her with scornful +eyes. At Madame Julliard senior's house, they played whist, a game +Sylvie did not know. + +The old maid at last understood that she was under a ban; but she had +no conception of the reason of it. She fancied herself an object of +jealousy to all these persons. After a time she and her brother +received no invitations, but they still persisted in paying evening +visits. Satirical persons made fun of them,--not spitefully, but +amusingly; inveigling them to talk absurdly about the eggs in their +cornice, and their wonderful cellar of wine, the like of which was not +in Provins. + +Before long the Rogron house was completely finished, and the brother +and sister then resolved to give several sumptuous dinners, as much to +return the civilities they had received as to exhibit their luxury. +The invited guests accepted from curiosity only. The first dinner was +given to the leading personages of the town; to Monsieur and Madame +Tiphaine, with whom, however the Rogrons had never dined; to Monsieur +and Madame Julliard, senior and junior; to Monsieur Lesourd, Monsieur +le cure, and Monsieur and Madame Galardon. It was one of those +interminable provincial dinners, where you sit at table from five to +nine o'clock. Madame Tiphaine had introduced into Provins the Parisian +custom of taking leave as soon as coffee had been served. On this +occasion she had company at home and was anxious to get away. The +Rogrons accompanied her husband and herself to the street door, and +when they returned to the salon, disconcerted at not being able to +keep their chief guests, the rest of the party were preparing to +imitate Madame Tiphaine's fashion with cruel provincial promptness. + +"They won't see our salon lighted up," said Sylvie, "and that's the +show of the house." + +The Rogrons had counted on surprising their guests. It was the first +time any one had been admitted to the now celebrated house, and the +company assembled at Madame Tiphaine's was eagerly awaiting her +opinion of the marvels of the "Rogron palace." + +"Well!" cried little Madame Martener, "you've seen the Louvre; tell us +all about it." + +"All? Well, it would be like the dinner,--not much." + +"But do describe it." + +"Well, to begin with, that front door, the gilded grating of which we +have all admired," said Madame Tiphaine, "opens upon a long corridor +which divides the house unequally; on the right side there is one +window, on the other, two. At the garden end, the corridor opens with +a glass door upon a portico with steps to the lawn, where there's a +sun dial and a plaster statue of Spartacus, painted to imitate bronze. +Behind the kitchen, the builder has put the staircase, and a sort of +larder which we are spared the sight of. The staircase, painted to +imitate black marble with yellow veins, turns upon itself like those +you see in cafes leading from the ground-floor to the entresol. The +balustrade, of walnut with brass ornaments and dangerously slight, was +pointed out to us as one of the seven wonders of the world. The cellar +stairs run under it. On the other side of the corridor is the dining- +room, which communicates by folding-doors with a salon of equal size, +the windows of which look on the garden." + +"Dear me, is there no ante-chamber?" asked Madame Auffray. + +"The corridor, full of draughts, answers for an ante-chamber," replied +Madame Tiphaine. "Our friends have had, they assured us, the eminently +national, liberal, constitutional, and patriotic feeling to use none +but French woods in the house; so the floor in the dining-room is +chestnut, the sideboards, tables, and chairs, of the same. White +calico window-curtains, with red borders, are held back by vulgar red +straps; these magnificent draperies run on wooden curtain rods ending +in brass lion's-paws. Above one of the sideboards hangs a dial +suspended by a sort of napkin in gilded bronze,--an idea that seemed +to please the Rogrons hugely. They tried to make me admire the +invention; all I could manage to say was that if it was ever proper to +wrap a napkin round a dial it was certainly in a dining-room. On the +sideboard were two huge lamps like those on the counter of a +restaurant. Above the other sideboard hung a barometer, excessively +ornate, which seems to play a great part in their existence; Rogron +gazed at it as he might at his future wife. Between the two windows is +a white porcelain stove in a niche overloaded with ornament. The walls +glow with a magnificent paper, crimson and gold, such as you see in +the same restaurants, where, no doubt, the Rogrons chose it. Dinner +was served on white and gold china, with a dessert service of light +blue with green flowers, but they showed us another service in +earthenware for everyday use. Opposite to each sideboard was a large +cupboard containing linen. All was clean, new, and horribly sharp in +tone. However, I admit the dining-room; it has some character, though +disagreeable; it represents that of the masters of the house. But +there is no enduring the five engravings that hang on the walls; the +Minister of the Interior ought really to frame a law against them. One +was Poniatowski jumping into the Elster; the others, Napoleon pointing +a cannon, the defence at Clichy, and the two Mazepas, all in gilt +frames of the vulgarest description,--fit to carry off the prize of +disgust. Oh! how much I prefer Madame Julliard's pastels of fruit, +those excellent Louis XV. pastels, which are in keeping with the old +dining-room and its gray panels,--defaced by age, it is true, but they +possess the true provincial characteristics that go well with old +family silver, precious china, and our simple habits. The provinces +are provinces; they are only ridiculous when they mimic Paris. I +prefer this old salon of my husband's forefathers, with its heavy +curtains of green and white damask, the Louis XV. mantelpiece, the +twisted pier-glasses, the old mirrors with their beaded mouldings, and +the venerable card tables. Yes, I prefer my old Sevres vases in royal +blue, mounted on copper, my clock with those impossible flowers, that +rococco chandelier, and the tapestried furniture, to all the finery of +the Rogron salon." + +"What is the salon like?" said Monsieur Martener, delighted with the +praise the handsome Parisian bestowed so adroitly on the provinces. + +"As for the salon, it is all red,--the red Mademoiselle Sylvie turns +when she loses at cards." + +"Sylvan-red," said Monsieur Tiphaine, whose sparkling saying long +remained in the vocabulary of Provins. + +"Window-curtains, red; furniture, red; mantelpiece, red, veined +yellow, candelabra and clock ditto mounted on bronze, common and heavy +in design,--Roman standards with Greek foliage! Above the clock is +that inevitable good-natured lion which looks at you with a simper, +the lion of ornamentation, with a big ball under his feet, symbol of +the decorative lion, who passes his life holding a black ball,-- +exactly like a deputy of the Left. Perhaps it is meant as a +constitutional myth. The face of the clock is curious. The glass over +the chimney is framed in that new fashion of applied mouldings which +is so trumpery and vulgar. From the ceiling hangs a chandelier +carefully wrapped in green muslin, and rightly too, for it is in the +worst taste, the sharpest tint of bronze with hideous ornaments. The +walls are covered with a red flock paper to imitate velvet enclosed in +panels, each panel decorated with a chromo-lithograph in one of those +frames festooned with stucco flowers to represent wood-carving. The +furniture, in cashmere and elm-wood, consists, with classic +uniformity, of two sofas, two easy-chairs, two armchairs, and six +common chairs. A vase in alabaster, called a la Medicis, kept under +glass stands on a table between the windows; before the windows, which +are draped with magnificent red silk curtains and lace curtains under +them, are card-tables. The carpet is Aubusson, and you may be sure the +Rogrons did not fail to lay hands on that most vulgar of patterns, +large flowers on a red ground. The room looks as if no one ever lived +there; there are no books, no engravings, none of those little knick- +knacks we all have lying about," added Madame Tiphaine, glancing at +her own table covered with fashionable trifles, albums, and little +presents given to her by friends; "and there are no flowers,--it is +all cold and barren, like Mademoiselle Sylvie herself. Buffon says the +style is the man, and certainly salons have styles of their own." + +From this sketch everybody can see the sort of house the brother and +sister lived in, though they can never imagine the absurdities into +which a clever builder dragged the ignorant pair,--new inventions, +fantastic ornaments, a system for preventing smoky chimneys, another +for preventing damp walls; painted marquetry panels on the staircase, +colored glass, superfine locks,--in short, all those vulgarities which +make a house expensive and gratify the bourgeois taste. + +No one chose to visit the Rogrons, whose social plans thus came to +nothing. Their invitations were refused under various excuses,--the +evenings were already engaged to Madame Garceland and the other ladies +of the Provins world. The Rogrons had supposed that all that was +required to gain a position in society was to give a few dinners. But +no one any longer accepted them, except a few young men who went to +make fun of their host and hostess, and certain diners-out who went +everywhere. + +Frightened at the loss of forty thousand francs swallowed up without +profit in what she called her "dear house," Sylvie now set to work to +recover it by economy. She gave no more dinners, which had cost her +forty or fifty francs without the wines, and did not fulfil her social +hopes, hopes that are as hard to realize in the provinces as in Paris. +She sent away her cook, took a country-girl to do the menial work, and +did her own cooking, as she said, "for pleasure." + +Fourteen months after their return to Provins, the brother and sister +had fallen into a solitary and wholly unoccupied condition. Their +banishment from society roused in Sylvie's heart a dreadful hatred +against the Tiphaines, Julliards and all the other members of the +social world of Provins, which she called "the clique," and with whom +her personal relations became extremely cold. She would gladly have +set up a rival clique, but the lesser bourgeoisie was made up of +either small shopkeepers who were only free on Sundays and fete-days, +or smirched individuals like the lawyer Vinet and Doctor Neraud, and +wholly inadmissible Bonapartists like Baron Gouraud, with whom, +however, Rogron thoughtlessly allied himself, though the upper +bourgeoisie had warned him against them. + +The brother and sister were, therefore, forced to sit by the fire of +the stove in the dining-room, talking over their former business, +trying to recall the faces of their customers and other matters they +had intended to forget. By the end of the second winter ennui weighed +heavily on them. They did not know how to get through each day; +sometimes as they went to bed the words escaped them, "There's another +over!" They dragged out the morning by staying in bed, and dressing +slowly. Rogron shaved himself every day, examined his face, consulted +his sister on any changes he thought he saw there, argued with the +servant about the temperature of his hot water, wandered into the +garden, looked to see if the shrubs were budding, sat at the edge of +the water where he had built himself a kiosk, examined the joinery of +his house,--had it sprung? had the walls settled, the panels cracked? +or he would come in fretting about a sick hen, and complaining to his +sister, who was nagging the servant as she set the table, of the +dampness which was coming out in spots upon the plaster. The barometer +was Rogron's most useful bit of property. He consulted it at all +hours, tapped it familiarly like a friend, saying: "Vile weather!" to +which his sister would reply, "Pooh! it is only seasonable." If any +one called to see him the excellence of that instrument was his chief +topic of conversation. + +Breakfast took up some little time; with what deliberation those two +human beings masticated their food! Their digestions were perfect; +cancer of the stomach was not to be dreaded by them. They managed to +get along till twelve o'clock by reading the "Bee-hive" and the +"Constitutionnel." The cost of subscribing to the Parisian paper was +shared by Vinet the lawyer, and Baron Gouraud. Rogron himself carried +the paper to Gouraud, who had been a colonel and lived on the square, +and whose long yarns were Rogron's delight; the latter sometimes +puzzled over the warnings he had received, and asked himself how such +a lively companion could be dangerous. He was fool enough to tell the +colonel he had been warned against him, and to repeat all the "clique" +had said. God knows how the colonel, who feared no one, and was +equally to be dreaded with pistols or a sword, gave tongue about +Madame Tiphaine and her Amadis, and the ministerialists of the Upper +town, persons capable of any villany to get places, and who counted +the votes at elections to suit themselves, etc. + +About two o'clock Rogron started for a little walk. He was quite happy +if some shopkeeper standing on the threshold of his door would stop +him and say, "Well, pere Rogron, how goes it with /you/?" Then he +would talk, and ask for news, and gather all the gossip of the town. +He usually went as far as the Upper town, sometimes to the ravines, +according to the weather. Occasionally he would meet old men taking +their walks abroad like himself. Such meetings were joyful events to +him. There happened to be in Provins a few men weary of Parisian life, +quiet scholars who lived with their books. Fancy the bewilderment of +the ignorant Rogron when he heard a deputy-judge named Desfondrilles, +more of an archaeologist than a magistrate, saying to old Monsieur +Martener, a really learned man, as he pointed to the valley:-- + +"Explain to me why the idlers of Europe go to Spa instead of coming to +Provins, when the springs here have a superior curative value +recognized by the French faculty,--a potential worthy of the medicinal +properties of our roses." + +"That is one of the caprices of caprice," said the old gentleman. +"Bordeaux wine was unknown a hundred years ago. Marechal de Richelieu, +one of the noted men of the last century, the French Alcibiades, was +appointed governor of Guyenne. His lungs were diseased, and, heaven +knows why! the wine of the country did him good and he recovered. +Bordeaux instantly made a hundred millions; the marshal widened its +territory to Angouleme, to Cahors,--in short, to over a hundred miles +of circumference! it is hard to tell where the Bordeaux vineyards end. +And yet they haven't erected an equestrian statue to the marshal in +Bordeaux!" + +"Ah! if anything of that kind happens to Provins," said Monsieur +Desfondrilles, "let us hope that somewhere in the Upper or Lower town +they will set up a bas-relief of the head of Monsieur Opoix, the +re-discoverer of the mineral waters of Provins." + +"My dear friend, the revival of Provins is impossible," replied +Monsieur Martener; "the town was made bankrupt long ago." + +"What!" cried Rogron, opening his eyes very wide. + +"It was once a capital, holding its own against Paris in the twelfth +century, when the Comtes de Champagne held their court here, just as +King Rene held his in Provence," replied the man of learning; "for in +those days civilization, gaiety, poesy, elegance, and women, in short +all social splendors, were not found exclusively in Paris. It is as +difficult for towns and cities as it is for commercial houses to +recover from ruin. Nothing is left to us of the old Provins but the +fragrance of our historical glory and that of our roses,--and a sub- +prefecture!" + +"Ah! what mightn't France be if she had only preserved her feudal +capitals!" said Desfondrilles. "Can sub-prefects replace the poetic, +gallant, warlike race of the Thibaults who made Provins what Ferrara +was to Italy, Weimar to Germany,--what Munich is trying to be to-day." + +"Was Provins ever a capital?" asked Rogron. + +"Why! where do you come from?" exclaimed the archaeologist. "Don't you +know," he added, striking the ground of the Upper town where they +stood with his cane, "don't you know that the whole of this part of +Provins is built on catacombs?" + +"Catacombs?" + +"Yes, catacombs, the extent and height of which are yet undiscovered. +They are like the naves of cathedrals, and there are pillars in them." + +"Monsieur is writing a great archaeological work to explain these +strange constructions," interposed Monsieur Martener, seeing that the +deputy-judge was about to mount his hobby. + +Rogron came home much comforted to know that his house was in the +valley. The crypts of Provins kept him occupied for a week in +explorations, and gave a topic of conversation to the unhappy +celibates for many evenings. + +In the course of these ramblings Rogron picked up various bits of +information about Provins, its inhabitants, their marriages, together +with stale political news; all of which he narrated to his sister. +Scores of times in his walks he would stop and say,--often to the same +person on the same day,--"Well, what's the news?" When he reached home +he would fling himself on the sofa like a man exhausted with labor, +whereas he was only worn out with the burden of his own dulness. +Dinner came at last, after he had gone twenty times to the kitchen and +back, compared the clocks, and opened and shut all the doors of the +house. So long as the brother and sister could spend their evenings in +paying visits they managed to get along till bedtime; but after they +were compelled to stay at home those evenings became like a parching +desert. Sometimes persons passing through the quiet little square +would hear unearthly noises as though the brother were throttling the +sister; a moment's listening would show that they were only yawning. +These two human mechanisms, having nothing to grind between their +rusty wheels, were creaking and grating at each other. The brother +talked of marrying, but only in despair. He felt old and weary; the +thought of a woman frightened him. Sylvie, who began to see the +necessity of having a third person in the home, suddenly remembered +the little cousin, about whom no one in Provins had yet inquired, the +friends of Madame Lorrain probably supposing that mother and child +were both dead. + +Sylvie Rogron never lost anything; she was too thoroughly an old maid +even to mislay the smallest article; but she pretended to have +suddenly found the Lorrains' letter, so as to mention Pierrette +naturally to her brother, who was greatly pleased at the possibility +of having a little girl in the house. Sylvie replied to Madame +Lorrain's letter half affectionately, half commercially, as one may +say, explaining the delay by their change of abode and the settlement +of their affairs. She seemed desirous of receiving her little cousin, +and hinted that Pierrette would perhaps inherit twelve thousand francs +a year if her brother Jerome did not marry. + +Perhaps it is necessary to have been, like Nebuchadnezzar, something +of a wild beast, and shut up in a cage at the Jardin des Plantes +without other prey than the butcher's meat doled out by the keeper, or +a retired merchant deprived of the joys of tormenting his clerks, to +understand the impatience with which the brother and sister awaited +the arrival of their cousin Lorrain. Three days after the letter had +gone, the pair were already asking themselves when she would get +there. + +Sylvie perceived in her spurious benevolence towards her poor cousin a +means of recovering her position in the social world of Provins. She +accordingly went to call on Madame Tiphaine, of whose reprobation she +was conscious, in order to impart the fact of Pierrette's approaching +arrival,--deploring the girl's unfortunate position, and posing +herself as being only too happy to succor her and give her a position +as daughter and future heiress. + +"You have been rather long in discovering her," said Madame Tiphaine, +with a touch of sarcasm. + +A few words said in a low voice by Madame Garceland, while the cards +were being dealt, recalled to the minds of those who heard her the +shameful conduct of old Rogron about the Auffray property; the notary +explained the iniquity. + +"Where is the little girl now?" asked Monsieur Tiphaine, politely. + +"In Brittany," said Rogron. + +"Brittany is a large place," remarked Monsieur Lesourd. + +"Her grandfather and grandmother Lorrain wrote to us--when was that, +my dear?" said Rogron addressing his sister. + +Sylvie, who was just then asking Madame Garceland where she had bought +the stuff for her gown, answered hastily, without thinking of the +effect of her words:-- + +"Before we sold the business." + +"And have you only just answered the letter, mademoiselle?" asked the +notary. + +Sylvie turned as red as a live coal. + +"We wrote to the Institution of Saint-Jacques," remarked Rogron. + +"That is a sort of hospital or almshouse for old people," said +Monsieur Desfondrilles, who knew Nantes. "She can't be there; they +receive no one under sixty." + +"She is there, with her grandmother Lorrain," said Rogron. + +"Her mother had a little fortune, the eight thousand francs which your +father--no, I mean of course your grandfather--left to her," said the +notary, making the blunder intentionally. + +"Ah!" said Rogron, stupidly, not understanding the notary's sarcasm. + +"Then you know nothing about your cousin's position or means?" asked +Monsieur Tiphaine. + +"If Monsieur Rogron had known it," said the deputy-judge, "he would +never have left her all this time in an establishment of that kind. I +remember now that a house in Nantes belonging to Monsieur and Madame +Lorrain was sold under an order of the court, and that Mademoiselle +Lorrain's claim was swallowed up. I know this, for I was commissioner +at the time." + +The notary spoke of Colonel Lorrain, who, had he lived, would have +been much amazed to know that his daughter was in such an institution. +The Rogrons beat a retreat, saying to each other that the world was +very malicious. Sylvie perceived that the news of her benevolence had +missed its effect,--in fact, she had lost ground in all minds; and she +felt that henceforth she was forbidden to attempt an intimacy with the +upper class of Provins. After this evening the Rogrons no longer +concealed their hatred of that class and all its adherents. The +brother told the sister the scandals that Colonel Gouraud and the +lawyer Vinet had put into his head about the Tiphaines, the Guenees, +the Garcelands, the Julliards, and others:-- + +"I declare, Sylvie, I don't see why Madame Tiphaine should turn up her +nose at shopkeeping in the rue Saint-Denis; it is more honest than +what she comes from. Madame Roguin, her mother, is cousin to those +Guillaumes of the 'Cat-playing-ball' who gave up the business to +Joseph Lebas, their son-in-law. Her father is that Roguin who failed +in 1819, and ruined the house of Cesar Birotteau. Madame Tiphaine's +fortune was stolen,--for what else are you to call it when a notary's +wife who is very rich lets her husband make a fraudulent bankruptcy? +Fine doings! and she marries her daughter in Provins to get her out of +the way,--all on account of her own relations with du Tillet. And such +people set up to be proud! Well, well, that's the world!" + +On the day when Jerome Rogron and his sister began to declaim against +"the clique" they were, without being aware of it, on the road to +having a society of their own; their house was to become a rendezvous +for other interests seeking a centre,--those of the hitherto floating +elements of the liberal party in Provins. And this is how it came +about: The launch of the Rogrons in society had been watched with +great curiosity by Colonel Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet, two men drawn +together, first by their ostracism, next by their opinions. They both +professed patriotism and for the same reason,--they wished to become +of consequence. The Liberals in Provins were, so far, confined to one +old soldier who kept a cafe, an innkeeper, Monsieur Cournant a notary, +Doctor Neraud, and a few stray persons, mostly farmers or those who +had bought lands of the public domain. + +The colonel and the lawyer, delighted to lay hands on a fool whose +money would be useful to their schemes, and who might himself, in +certain cases, be made to bell the cat, while his house would serve as +a meeting-ground for the scattered elements of the party, made the +most of the Rogrons' ill-will against the upper classes of the place. +The three had already a slight tie in their united subscription to the +"Constitutionnel"; it would certainly not be difficult for the colonel +to make a Liberal of the ex-mercer, though Rogron knew so little of +politics that he was capable of regarding the exploits of Sergeant +Mercier as those of a brother shopkeeper. + +The expected arrival of Pierrette brought to sudden fruition the +selfish ideas of the two men, inspired as they were by the folly and +ignorance of the celibates. Seeing that Sylvie had lost all chance of +establishing herself in the good society of the place, an afterthought +came to the colonel. Old soldiers have seen so many horrors in all +lands, so many grinning corpses on battle-fields, that no +physiognomies repel them; and Gouraud began to cast his eyes on the +old maid's fortune. This imperial colonel, a short, fat man, wore +enormous rings in ears that were bushy with tufts of hair. His sparse +and grizzled whiskers were called in 1799 "fins." His jolly red face +was rather discolored, like those of all who had lived to tell of the +Beresina. The lower half of his big, pointed stomach marked the +straight line which characterizes a cavalry officer. Gouraud had +commanded the Second Hussars. His gray moustache hid a huge blustering +mouth,--if we may use a term which alone describes that gulf. He did +not eat his food, he engulfed it. A sabre cut had slit his nose, by +which his speech was made thick and very nasal, like that attributed +to Capuchins. His hands, which were short and broad, were of the kind +that make women say: "You have the hands of a rascal." His legs seemed +slender for his torso. In that fat and active body an absolutely +lawless spirit disported itself, and a thorough experience of the +things of life, together with a profound contempt for social +convention, lay hidden beneath the apparent indifference of a soldier. +Colonel Gouraud wore the cross of an officer of the Legion of honor, +and his emoluments from that, together with his salary as a retired +officer, gave him in all about three thousand francs a year. + +The lawyer, tall and thin, had liberal opinions in place of talent, +and his only revenue was the meagre profits of his office. In Provins +lawyers plead their own cases. The court was unfavorable to Vinet on +account of his opinions; consequently, even the farmers who were +Liberals, when it came to lawsuits preferred to employ some lawyer who +was more congenial to the judges. Vinet was regarded with disfavor in +other ways. He was said to have seduced a rich girl in the +neighborhood of Coulommiers, and thus have forced her parents to marry +her to him. Madame Vinet was a Chargeboeuf, an old and noble family of +La Brie, whose name comes from the exploit of a squire during the +expedition of Saint Louis to Egypt. She incurred the displeasure of +her father and mother, who arranged, unknown to Vinet, to leave their +entire fortune to their son, doubtless charging him privately, to pay +over a portion of it to his sister's children. + +Thus the first bold effort of the ambitious man was a failure. Pursued +by poverty, and ashamed not to give his wife the means of making a +suitable appearance, he had made desperate efforts to enter public +life, but the Chargeboeuf family refused him their influence. These +Royalists disapproved, on moral grounds, of his forced marriage; +besides, he was named Vinet, and how could they be expected to protect +a plebian? Thus he was driven from branch to branch when he tried to +get some good out of his marriage. Repulsed by every one, filled with +hatred for the family of his wife, for the government which denied him +a place, for the social world of Provins, which refused to admit him, +Vinet submitted to his fate; but his gall increased. He became a +Liberal in the belief that his fortune might yet be made by the +triumph of the opposition, and he lived in a miserable little house in +the Upper town from which his wife seldom issued. Madame Vinet had +found no one to defend her since her marriage except an old Madame de +Chargeboeuf, a widow with one daughter, who lived at Troyes. The +unfortunate young woman, destined for better things, was absolutely +alone in her home with a single child. + +There are some kinds of poverty which may be nobly accepted and gaily +borne; but Vinet, devoured by ambition, and feeling himself guilty +towards his wife, was full of darkling rage; his conscience grew +elastic; and he finally came to think any means of success +permissible. His young face changed. Persons about the courts were +sometimes frightened as they looked at his viperish, flat head, his +slit mouth, his eyes gleaming through glasses, and heard his sharp, +persistent voice which rasped their nerves. His muddy skin, with its +sickly tones of green and yellow, expressed the jaundice of his balked +ambition, his perpetual disappointments and his hidden wretchedness. +He could talk and argue; he was well-informed and shrewd, and was not +without smartness and metaphor. Accustomed to look at everything from +the standpoint of his own success, he was well fitted for a +politician. A man who shrinks from nothing so long as it is legal, is +strong; and Vinet's strength lay there. + +This future athlete of parliamentary debate, who was destined to share +in proclaiming the dynasty of the house of Orleans had a terrible +influence on Pierrette's fate. At the present moment he was bent on +making for himself a weapon by founding a newspaper at Provins. After +studying the Rogrons at a distance (the colonel aiding him) he had +come to the conclusion that the brother might be made useful. This +time he was not mistaken; his days of poverty were over, after seven +wretched years, when even his daily bread was sometimes lacking. The +day when Gouraud told him in the little square that the Rogrons had +finally quarrelled with the bourgeois aristocracy of the Upper town, +he nudged the colonel in the ribs significantly, and said, with a +knowing look:-- + +"One woman or another--handsome or ugly--/you/ don't care; marry +Mademoiselle Rogron and we can organize something at once." + +"I have been thinking of it," replied Gouraud, "but the fact is they +have sent for the daughter of Colonel Lorrain, and she's their next of +kin." + +"You can get them to make a will in your favor. Ha! you would get a +very comfortable house." + +"As for the little girl--well, well, let's see her," said the colonel, +with a leering and thoroughly wicked look, which proved to a man of +Vinet's quality how little respect the old trooper could feel for any +girl. + + + +IV + +PIERRETTE + +After her grandfather and grandmother entered the sort of hospital in +which they sadly expected to end their days, Pierrette, being young +and proud, suffered so terribly at living there on charity that she +was thankful when she heard she had rich relations. When Brigaut, the +son of her mother's friend the major, and the companion of her +childhood, who was learning his trade as a cabinet-maker at Nantes, +heard of her departure he offered her the money to pay her way to +Paris in the diligence,--sixty francs, the total of his /pour-boires/ +as an apprentice, slowly amassed, and accepted by Pierrette with the +sublime indifference of true affection, showing that in a like case +she herself would be affronted by thanks. + +Brigaut was in the habit of going every Sunday to Saint-Jacques to +play with Pierrette and try to console her. The vigorous young workman +knew the dear delight of bestowing a complete and devoted protection +on an object involuntarily chosen by his heart. More than once he and +Pierrette, sitting on Sundays in a corner of the garden, had +embroidered the veil of the future with their youthful projects; the +apprentice, armed with his plane, scoured the world to make their +fortune, while Pierrette waited. + +In October, 1824, when the child had completed her eleventh year, she +was entrusted by the two old people and by Brigaut, all three +sorrowfully sad, to the conductor of the diligence from Nantes to +Paris, with an entreaty to put her safely on the diligence from Paris +to Provins and to take good care of her. Poor Brigaut! he ran like a +dog after the coach looking at his dear Pierrette as long as he was +able. In spite of her signs he ran over three miles, and when at last +he was exhausted his eyes, wet with tears, still followed her. She, +too, was crying when she saw him no longer running by her, and putting +her head out of the window she watched him, standing stock-still and +looking after her, as the lumbering vehicle disappeared. + +The Lorrains and Brigaut knew so little of life that the girl had not +a penny when she arrived in Paris. The conductor, to whom she had +mentioned her rich friends, paid her expenses at the hotel, and made +the conductor of the Provins diligence pay him, telling him to take +good care of the girl and to see that the charges were paid by the +family, exactly as though she were a case of goods. Four days after +her departure from Nantes, about nine o'clock of a Monday night, a +kind old conductor of the Messageries-royales, took Pierrette by the +hand, and while the porters were discharging in the Grand'Rue the +packages and passengers for Provins, he led the little girl, whose +only baggage was a bundle containing two dresses, two chemises, and +two pairs of stockings, to Mademoiselle Rogron's house, which was +pointed out to him by the director at the coach office. + +"Good-evening, mademoiselle and the rest of the company. I've brought +you a cousin, and here she is; and a nice little girl too, upon my +word. You have forty-seven francs to pay me, and sign my book." + +Mademoiselle Sylvie and her brother were dumb with pleasure and +amazement. + +"Excuse me," said the conductor, "the coach is waiting. Sign my book +and pay me forty-seven francs, sixty centimes, and whatever you please +for myself and the conductor from Nantes; we've taken care of the +little girl as if she were our own; and paid for her beds and her +food, also her fare to Provins, and other little things." + +"Forty-seven francs, twelve sous!" said Sylvie. + +"You are not going to dispute it?" cried the man. + +"Where's the bill?" said Rogron. + +"Bill! look at the book." + +"Stop talking, and pay him," said Sylvie, "You see there's nothing +else to be done." + +Rogron went to get the money, and gave the man forty-seven francs, +twelve sous. + +"And nothing for my comrade and me?" said the conductor. + +Sylvie took two francs from the depths of the old velvet bag which +held her keys. + +"Thank you, no," said the man; "keep 'em yourself. We would rather +care for the little one for her own sake." He picked up his book and +departed, saying to the servant-girl: "What a pair! it seems there are +crocodiles out of Egypt!" + +"Such men are always brutal," said Sylvie, who overhead the words. + +"They took good care of the little girl, anyhow," said Adele with her +hands on her hips. + +"We don't have to live with him," remarked Rogron. + +"Where's the little one to sleep?" asked Adele. + +Such was the arrival of Pierrette Lorrain in the home of her cousins, +who gazed at her with stolid eyes; she was tossed to them like a +package, with no intermediate state between the wretched chamber at +Saint-Jacques and the dining-room of her cousins, which seemed to her +a palace. She was shy and speechless. To all other eyes than those of +the Rogrons the little Breton girl would have seemed enchanting as she +stood there in her petticoat of coarse blue flannel, with a pink +cambric apron, thick shoes, blue stockings, and a white kerchief, her +hands being covered by red worsted mittens edged with white, bought +for her by the conductor. Her dainty Breton cap (which had been washed +in Paris, for the journey from Nantes had rumpled it) was like a halo +round her happy little face. This national cap, of the finest lawn, +trimmed with stiffened lace pleated in flat folds, deserves +description, it was so dainty and simple. The light coming through the +texture and the lace produced a partial shadow, the soft shadow of a +light upon the skin, which gave her the virginal grace that all +painters seek and Leopold Robert found for the Raffaelesque face of +the woman who holds a child in his picture of "The Gleaners." Beneath +this fluted frame of light sparkled a white and rosy and artless face, +glowing with vigorous health. The warmth of the room brought the blood +to the cheeks, to the tips of the pretty ears, to the lips and the end +of the delicate nose, making the natural white of the complexion +whiter still. + +"Well, are you not going to say anything? I am your cousin Sylvie, and +that is your cousin Rogron." + +"Do you want something to eat?" asked Rogron. + +"When did you leave Nantes?" asked Sylvie. + +"Is she dumb?" said Rogron. + +"Poor little dear, she has hardly any clothes," cried Adele, who had +opened the child's bundle, tied up in a handkerchief of the old +Lorrains. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Sylvie. + +Pierrette kissed Rogron. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Rogron. + +Pierrette kissed Sylvie. + +"She is tired out with her journey, poor little thing; she wants to go +to sleep," said Adele. + +Pierrette was overcome with a sudden and invincible aversion for her +two relatives,--a feeling that no one had ever before excited in her. +Sylvie and the maid took her up to bed in the room where Brigaut +afterwards noticed the white cotton curtain. In it was a little bed +with a pole painted blue, from which hung a calico curtain; a walnut +bureau without a marble top, a small table, a looking-glass, a very +common night-table without a door, and three chairs completed the +furniture of the room. The walls, which sloped in front, were hung +with a shabby paper, blue with black flowers. The tiled floor, stained +red and polished, was icy to the feet. There was no carpet except for +a strip at the bedside. The mantelpiece of common marble was adorned +by a mirror, two candelabra in copper-gilt, and a vulgar alabaster cup +in which two pigeons, forming handles, were drinking. + +"You will be comfortable here, my little girl?" said Sylvie. + +"Oh, it's beautiful!" said the child, in her silvery voice. + +"She's not difficult to please," muttered the stout servant. "Sha'n't +I warm her bed?" she asked. + +"Yes," said Sylvie, "the sheets may be damp." + +Adele brought one of her own night-caps when she returned with the +warming-pan, and Pierrette, who had never slept in anything but the +coarsest linen sheets, was amazed at the fineness and softness of the +cotton ones. When she was fairly in bed and tucked up, Adele, going +downstairs with Sylvie, could not refrain from saying, "All she has +isn't worth three francs, mademoiselle." + +Ever since her economical regime began, Sylvie had compelled the maid +to sit in the dining-room so that one fire and one lamp could do for +all; except when Colonel Gouraud and Vinet came, on which occasions +Adele was sent to the kitchen. + +Pierrette's arrival enlivened the rest of the evening. + +"We must get her some clothes to-morrow," said Sylvie; "she has +absolutely nothing." + +"No shoes but those she had on, which weigh a pound," said Adele. + +"That's always so, in their part of the country," remarked Rogron. + +"How she looked at her room! though it really isn't handsome enough +for a cousin of yours, mademoiselle." + +"It is good enough; hold your tongue," said Sylvie. + +"Gracious, what chemises! coarse enough to scratch her skin off; not a +thing can she use here," said Adele, emptying the bundle. + +Master, mistress, and servant were busy till past ten o'clock, +deciding what cambric they should buy for the new chemises, how many +pairs of stockings, how many under-petticoats, and what material, and +in reckoning up the whole cost of Pierrette's outfit. + +"You won't get off under three hundred francs," said Rogron, who could +remember the different prices, and add them up from his former shop- +keeping habit. + +"Three hundred francs!" cried Sylvie. + +"Yes, three hundred. Add it up." + +The brother and sister went over the calculation once more, and found +the cost would be fully three hundred francs, not counting the making. + +"Three hundred francs at one stroke!" said Sylvie to herself as she +got into bed. + +***** + +Pierrette was one of those children of love whom love endows with its +tenderness, its vivacity, its gaiety, its nobility, its devotion. +Nothing had so far disturbed or wounded a heart that was delicate as +that of a fawn, but which was now painfully repressed by the cold +greeting of her cousins. If Brittany had been full of outward misery, +at least it was full of love. The old Lorrains were the most incapable +of merchants, but they were also the most loving, frank, caressing, of +friends, like all who are incautious and free from calculation. Their +little granddaughter had received no other education at Pen-Hoel than +that of nature. Pierrette went where she liked, in a boat on the pond, +or roaming the village and the fields with Jacques Brigaut, her +comrade, exactly as Paul and Virginia might have done. Petted by +everybody, free as air, they gaily chased the joys of childhood. In +summer they ran to watch the fishing, they caught the many-colored +insects, they gathered flowers, they gardened; in winter they made +slides, they built snow-men or huts, or pelted each other with +snowballs. Welcomed by all, they met with smiles wherever they went. + +When the time came to begin their education, disasters came, too. +Jacques, left without means at the death of his father, was +apprenticed by his relatives to a cabinet-maker, and fed by charity, +as Pierrette was soon to be at Saint-Jacques. Until the little girl +was taken with her grandparents to that asylum, she had known nothing +but fond caresses and protection from every one. Accustomed to confide +in so much love, the little darling missed in these rich relatives, so +eagerly desired, the kindly looks and ways which all the world, even +strangers and the conductors of the coaches, had bestowed upon her. +Her bewilderment, already great, was increased by the moral atmosphere +she had entered. The heart turns suddenly cold or hot like the body. +The poor child wanted to cry, without knowing why; but being very +tired she went to sleep. + +The next morning, Pierrette being, like all country children, +accustomed to get up early, was awake two hours before the cook. She +dressed herself, stepping on tiptoe about her room, looked out at the +little square, started to go downstairs and was struck with amazement +by the beauties of the staircase. She stopped to examine all its +details: the painted walls, the brasses, the various ornamentations, +the window fixtures. Then she went down to the garden-door, but was +unable to open it, and returned to her room to wait until Adele should +be stirring. As soon as the woman went to the kitchen Pierrette flew +to the garden and took possession of it, ran to the river, was amazed +at the kiosk, and sat down in it; truly, she had enough to see and to +wonder at until her cousins were up. At breakfast Sylvie said to +her:-- + +"Was it you, little one, who was trotting over my head by daybreak, +and making that racket on the stairs? You woke me so that I couldn't +go to sleep again. You must be very good and quiet, and amuse yourself +without noise. Your cousin doesn't like noise." + +"And you must wipe your feet," said Rogron. "You went into the kiosk +with your dirty shoes, and they've tracked all over the floor. Your +cousin likes cleanliness. A great girl like you ought to be clean. +Weren't you clean in Brittany? But I recollect when I went down there +to buy thread it was pitiable to see the folks,--they were like +savages. At any rate she has a good appetite," added Rogron, looking +at his sister; "one would think she hadn't eaten anything for days." + +Thus, from the very start Pierrette was hurt by the remarks of her two +cousins,--hurt, she knew not why. Her straightforward, open nature, +hitherto left to itself, was not given to reflection. Incapable of +thinking that her cousins were hard, she was fated to find it out +slowly through suffering. After breakfast the brother and sister, +pleased with Pierrette's astonishment at the house and anxious to +enjoy it, took her to the salon to show her its splendors and teach +her not to touch them. Many celibates, driven by loneliness and the +moral necessity of caring for something, substitute factitious +affections for natural ones; they love dogs, cats, canaries, servants, +or their confessor. Rogron and Sylvie had come to the pass of loving +immoderately their house and furniture, which had cost them so dear. +Sylvie began by helping Adele in the mornings to dust and arrange the +furniture, under pretence that she did not know how to keep it looking +as good as new. This dusting was soon a desired occupation to her, and +the furniture, instead of losing its value in her eyes, became ever +more precious. To use things without hurting them or soiling them or +scratching the woodwork or clouding the varnish, that was the problem +which soon became the mania of the old maid's life. Sylvie had a +closet full of bits of wool, wax, varnish, and brushes, which she had +learned to use with the dexterity of a cabinet-maker; she had her +feather dusters and her dusting-cloths; and she rubbed away without +fear of hurting herself,--she was so strong. The glance of her cold +blue eyes, hard as steel, was forever roving over the furniture and +under it, and you could as soon have found a tender spot in her heart +as a bit of fluff under the sofa. + +After the remarks made at Madame Tiphaine's, Sylvie dared not flinch +from the three hundred francs for Pierrette's clothes. During the +first week her time was wholly taken up, and Pierrette's too, by +frocks to order and try on, chemises and petticoats to cut out and +have made by a seamstress who went out by the day. Pierrette did not +know how to sew. + +"That's pretty bringing up!" said Rogron. "Don't you know how to do +anything, little girl?" + +Pierrette, who knew nothing but how to love, made a pretty, childish +gesture. + +"What did you do in Brittany?" asked Rogron. + +"I played," she answered, naively. "Everybody played with me. +Grandmamma and grandpapa they told me stories. Ah! they all loved me!" + +"Hey!" said Rogron; "didn't you take it easy!" + +Pierrette opened her eyes wide, not comprehending. + +"She is as stupid as an owl," said Sylvie to Mademoiselle Borain, the +best seamstress in Provins. + +"She's so young," said the workwoman, looking kindly at Pierrette, +whose delicate little muzzle was turned up to her with a coaxing look. + +Pierrette preferred the sewing-women to her relations. She was +endearing in her ways with them, she watched their work, and made them +those pretty speeches that seem like the flowers of childhood, and +which her cousin had already silenced, for that gaunt woman loved to +impress those under her with salutary awe. The sewing-women were +delighted with Pierrette. Their work, however, was not carried on +without many and loud grumblings. + +"That child will make us pay through the nose!" cried Sylvie to her +brother. + +"Stand still, my dear, and don't plague us; it is all for you and not +for me," she would say to Pierrette when the child was being measured. +Sometimes it was, when Pierrette would ask the seamstress some +question, "Let Mademoiselle Borain do her work, and don't talk to her; +it is not you who are paying for her time." + +"Mademoiselle," said Mademoiselle Borain, "am I to back-stitch this?" + +"Yes, do it firmly; I don't want to be making such an outfit as this +every day." + +Sylvie put the same spirit of emulation into Pierrette's outfit that +she had formerly put into the house. She was determined that her +cousin should be as well dressed as Madame Garceland's little girl. +She bought the child fashionable boots of bronzed kid like those the +little Tiphaines wore, very fine cotton stockings, a corset by the +best maker, a dress of blue reps, a pretty cape lined with white silk, +--all this that she, Sylvie, might hold her own against the children +of the women who had rejected her. The underclothes were quite in +keeping with the visible articles of dress, for Sylvie feared the +examining eyes of the various mothers. Pierrette's chemises were of +fine Madapolam calico. Mademoiselle Borain had mentioned that the sub- +prefect's little girls wore cambric drawers, embroidered and trimmed +in the latest style. Pierrette had the same. Sylvie ordered for her a +charming little drawn bonnet of blue velvet lined with white satin, +precisely like the one worn by Dr. Martener's little daughter. + +Thus attired, Pierrette was the most enchanting little girl in all +Provins. On Sunday, after church, all the ladies kissed her; Mesdames +Tiphaine, Garceland, Galardon, Julliard, and the rest fell in love +with the sweet little Breton girl. This enthusiasm was deeply +flattering to old Sylvie's self-love; she regarded it as less due to +Pierrette than to her own benevolence. She ended, however, in being +affronted by her cousin's success. Pierrette was constantly invited +out, and Sylvie allowed her to go, always for the purpose of +triumphing over "those ladies." Pierrette was much in demand for games +or little parties and dinners with their own little girls. She had +succeeded where the Rogrons had failed; and Mademoiselle Sylvie soon +grew indignant that Pierrette was asked to other children's houses +when those children never came to hers. The artless little thing did +not conceal the pleasure she found in her visits to these ladies, +whose affectionate manners contrasted strangely with the harshness of +her two cousins. A mother would have rejoiced in the happiness of her +little one, but the Rogrons had taken Pierrette for their own sakes, +not for hers; their feelings, far from being parental, were dyed in +selfishness and a sort of commercial calculation. + +The handsome outfit, the fine Sunday dresses, and the every-day frocks +were the beginning of Pierrette's troubles. Like all children free to +amuse themselves, who are accustomed to follow the dictates of their +own lively fancies, she was very hard on her clothes, her shoes, and +above all on those embroidered drawers. A mother when she reproves her +child thinks only of the child; her voice is gentle; she does not +raise it unless driven to extremities, or when the child is much in +fault. But here, in this great matter of Pierrette's clothes, the +cousins' money was the first consideration; their interests were to be +thought of, not the child's. Children have the perceptions of the +canine race for the sentiments of those who rule them; they know +instinctively whether they are loved or only tolerated. Pure and +innocent hearts are more distressed by shades of difference than by +contrasts; a child does not understand evil, but it knows when the +instinct of the good and the beautiful which nature has implanted in +it is shocked. The lectures which Pierrette now drew upon herself on +propriety of behavior, modesty, and economy were merely the corollary +of the one theme, "Pierrette will ruin us." + +These perpetual fault-findings, which were destined to have a fatal +result for the poor child, brought the two celibates back to the old +beaten track of their shop-keeping habits, from which their removal to +Provins had parted them, and in which their natures were now to expand +and flourish. Accustomed in the old days to rule and to make +inquisitions, to order about and reprove their clerks sharply, Rogron +and his sister had actually suffered for want of victims. Little minds +need to practise despotism to relieve their nerves, just as great +souls thirst for equality in friendship to exercise their hearts. +Narrow natures expand by persecuting as much as others through +beneficence; they prove their power over their fellows by cruel +tyranny as others do by loving kindness; they simply go the way their +temperaments drive them. Add to this the propulsion of self-interest +and you may read the enigma of most social matters. + +Thenceforth Pierrette became a necessity to the lives of her cousins. +From the day of her coming their minds were occupied,--first, with her +outfit, and then with the novelty of a third presence. But every new +thing, a sentiment and even a tyranny, is moulded as time goes on into +fresh shapes. Sylvie began by calling Pierrette "my dear," or "little +one." Then she abandoned the gentler terms for "Pierrette" only. Her +reprimands, at first only cross, became sharp and angry; and no sooner +were their feet on the path of fault-finding than the brother and +sister made rapid strides. They were no longer bored to death! It was +not their deliberate intention to be wicked and cruel; it was simply +the blind instinct of an imbecile tyranny. The pair believed they were +doing Pierrette a service, just as they had thought their harshness a +benefit to their apprentices. + +Pierrette, whose true and noble and extreme sensibility was the +antipodes of the Rogrons' hardness, had a dread of being scolded; it +wounded her so sharply that the tears would instantly start in her +beautiful, pure eyes. She had a great struggle with herself before she +could repress the enchanting sprightliness which made her so great a +favorite elsewhere. After a time she displayed it only in the homes of +her little friends. By the end of the first month she had learned to +be passive in her cousins' house,--so much so that Rogron one day +asked her if she was ill. At that sudden question, she ran to the end +of the garden, and stood crying beside the river, into which her tears +may have fallen as she herself was about to fall into the social +torrent. + +One day, in spite of all her care, she tore her best reps frock at +Madame Tiphaine's, where she was spending a happy day. The poor child +burst into tears, foreseeing the cruel things which would be said to +her at home. Questioned by her friends, she let fall a few words about +her terrible cousin. Madame Tiphaine happened to have some reps +exactly like that of the frock, and she put in a new breadth herself. +Mademoiselle Rogron found out the trick, as she expressed it, which +the little devil had played her. From that day forth she refused to +let Pierrette go to any of "those women's" houses. + +The life the poor girl led in Provins was divided into three distinct +phases. The first, already shown, in which she had some joy mingled +with the cold kindness of her cousins and their sharp reproaches, +lasted three months. Sylvie's refusal to let her go to her little +friends, backed by the necessity of beginning her education, ended the +first phase of her life at Provins, the only period when that life was +bearable to her. + +These events, produced at the Rogrons by Pierrette's presence, were +studied by Vinet and the colonel with the caution of foxes preparing +to enter a poultry-yard and disturbed by seeing a strange fowl. They +both called from time to time,--but seldom, so as not to alarm the old +maid; they talked with Rogron under various pretexts, and made +themselves masters of his mind with an affectation of reserve and +modesty which the great Tartuffe himself would have respected. The +colonel and the lawyer were spending the evening with Rogron on the +very day when Sylvie had refused in bitter language to let Pierrette +go again to Madame Tiphaine's, or elsewhere. Being told of this +refusal the colonel and the lawyer looked at each other with an air +which seemed to say that they at least knew Provins well. + +"Madame Tiphaine intended to insult you," said the lawyer. "We have +long been warning Rogron of what would happen. There's no good to be +got from those people." + +"What can you expect from the anti-national party!" cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache and interrupting the lawyer. "But, +mademoiselle, if we had tried to warn you from those people you might +have supposed we had some malicious motive in what we said. If you +like a game of cards in the evening, why don't you have it at home; +why not play your boston here, in your own house? Is it impossible to +fill the places of those idiots, the Julliards and all the rest of +them? Vinet and I know how to play boston, and we can easily find a +fourth. Vinet might present his wife to you; she is charming, and, +what is more, a Chargeboeuf. You will not be so exacting as those apes +of the Upper town; /you/ won't require a good little housewife, who is +compelled by the meanness of her family to do her own work, to dress +like a duchess. Poor woman, she has the courage of a lion and the +meekness of a lamb." + +Sylvie Rogron showed her long yellow teeth as she smiled on the +colonel, who bore the sight heroically and assumed a flattered air. + +"If we are only four we can't play boston every night," said Sylvie. + +"Why not? What do you suppose an old soldier of the Empire like me +does with himself? And as for Vinet, his evenings are always free. +Besides, you'll have plenty of other visitors; I warrant you that," he +added, with a rather mysterious air. + +"What you ought to do," said Vinet, "is to take an open stand against +the ministerialists of Provins and form an opposition to them. You +would soon see how popular that would make you; you would have a +society about you at once. The Tiphaines would be furious at an +opposition salon. Well, well, why not laugh at others, if others laugh +at you?--and they do; the clique doesn't mince matters in talking +about you." + +"How's that?" demanded Sylvie. + +In the provinces there is always a valve or a faucet through which +gossip leaks from one social set to another. Vinet knew all the slurs +cast upon the Rogrons in the salons from which they were now excluded. +The deputy-judge and archaeologist Desfondrilles belonged to neither +party. With other independents like him, he repeated what he heard on +both sides and Vinet made the most of it. The lawyer's spiteful tongue +put venom into Madame Tiphaine's speeches, and by showing Rogron and +Sylvie the ridicule they had brought upon themselves he roused an +undying spirit of hatred in those bitter natures, which needed an +object for their petty passions. + +A few days later Vinet brought his wife, a well-bred woman, neither +pretty nor plain, timid, very gentle, and deeply conscious of her +false position. Madame Vinet was fair-complexioned, faded by the cares +of her poor household, and very simply dressed. No woman could have +pleased Sylvie more. Madame Vinet endured her airs, and bent before +them like one accustomed to subjection. On the poor woman's rounded +brow and delicately timid cheek and in her slow and gentle glance, +were the traces of deep reflection, of those perceptive thoughts which +women who are accustomed to suffer bury in total silence. + +The influence of the colonel (who now displayed to Sylvie the graces +of a courtier, in marked contradiction to his usual military +brusqueness), together with that of the astute Vinet, was soon to harm +the Breton child. Shut up in the house, no longer allowed to go out +except in company with her old cousin, Pierrette, that pretty little +squirrel, was at the mercy of the incessant cry, "Don't touch that, +child, let that alone!" She was perpetually being lectured on her +carriage and behavior; if she stooped or rounded her shoulders her +cousin would call to her to be as erect as herself (Sylvie was rigid +as a soldier presenting arms to his colonel); sometimes indeed the +ill-natured old maid enforced the order by slaps on the back to make +the girl straighten up. + +Thus the free and joyous little child of the Marais learned by degrees +to repress all liveliness and to make herself, as best she could, an +automaton. + + + +V + +HISTORY OF POOR COUSINS IN THE HOME OF RICH ONES + +One evening, which marked the beginning of Pierrette's second phase of +life in her cousin's house, the child, whom the three guests had not +seen during the evening, came into the room to kiss her relatives and +say good-night to the company. Sylvie turned her cheek coldly to the +pretty creature, as if to avoid kissing her. The motion was so cruelly +significant that the tears sprang to Pierrette's eyes. + +"Did you prick yourself, little girl?" said the atrocious Vinet. + +"What is the matter?" asked Sylvie, severely. + +"Nothing," said the poor child, going up to Rogron. + +"Nothing?" said Sylvie, "that's nonsense; nobody cries for nothing." + +"What is it, my little darling?" said Madame Vinet. + +"My rich cousin isn't as kind to me as my poor grandmother was," +sobbed Pierrette. + +"Your grandmother took your money," said Sylvie, "and your cousin will +leave you hers." + +The colonel and the lawyer glanced at each other. + +"I would rather be robbed and loved," said Pierrette. + +"Then you shall be sent back whence you came." + +"But what has the dear little thing done?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Vinet gave his wife the terrible, fixed, cold look with which men +enforce their absolute dominion. The hapless helot, punished +incessantly for not having the one thing that was wanted of her, a +fortune, took up her cards. + +"What has she done?" said Sylvie, throwing up her head with such +violence that the yellow wall-flowers in her cap nodded. "She is +always looking about to annoy us. She opened my watch to see the +inside, and meddled with the wheel and broke the mainspring. +Mademoiselle pays no heed to what is said to her. I am all day long +telling her to take care of things, and I might just as well talk to +that lamp." + +Pierrette, ashamed at being reproved before strangers, crept softly +out of the room. + +"I am thinking all the time how to subdue that child," said Rogron. + +"Isn't she old enough to go to school?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Again she was silenced by a look from her husband, who had been +careful to tell her nothing of his own or the colonel's schemes. + +"This is what comes of taking charge of other people's children!" +cried the colonel. "You may still have some of your own, you or your +brother. Why don't you both marry?" + +Sylvie smiled agreeably on the colonel. For the first time in her life +she met a man to whom the idea that she could marry did not seem +absurd. + +"Madame Vinet is right," cried Rogron; "perhaps teaching would keep +Pierrette quiet. A master wouldn't cost much." + +The colonel's remark so preoccupied Sylvie that she made no answer to +her brother. + +"If you are willing to be security for that opposition journal I was +talking to you about," said Vinet, "you will find an excellent master +for the little cousin in the managing editor; we intend to engage that +poor schoolmaster who lost his employment through the encroachments of +the clergy. My wife is right; Pierrette is a rough diamond that wants +polishing." + +"I thought you were a baron," said Sylvie to the colonel, while the +cards were being dealt, and after a long pause in which they had all +been rather thoughtful. + +"Yes; but when I was made baron, in 1814, after the battle of Nangis, +where my regiment performed miracles, I had money and influence enough +to secure the rank. But now my barony is like the grade of general +which I held in 1815,--it needs a revolution to give it back to me." + +"If you will secure my endorsement by a mortgage," said Rogron, +answering Vinet after long consideration, "I will give it." + +"That can easily be arranged," said Vinet. "The new paper will soon +restore the colonel's rights, and make your salon more powerful in +Provins than those of Tiphaine and company." + +"How so?" asked Sylvie. + +While his wife was dealing and Vinet himself explaining the importance +they would all gain by the publication of an independent newspaper, +Pierrette was dissolved in tears; her heart and her mind were one in +this matter; she felt and knew that her cousin was more to blame than +she was. The little country girl instinctively understood that charity +and benevolence ought to be a complete offering. She hated her +handsome frocks and all the things that were made for her; she was +forced to pay too dearly for such benefits. She wept with vexation at +having given cause for complaint against her, and resolved to behave +in future in such a way as to compel her cousins to find no further +fault with her. The thought then came into her mind how grand Brigaut +had been in giving her all his savings without a word. Poor child! she +fancied her troubles were now at their worst; she little knew that +other misfortunes were even now being planned for her in the salon. + +A few days later Pierrette had a writing-master. She was taught to +read, write, and cipher. Enormous injury was thus supposed to be done +to the Rogrons' house. Ink-spots were found on the tables, on the +furniture, on Pierrette's clothes; copy-books and pens were left +about; sand was scattered everywhere, books were torn and dog's-eared +as the result of these lessons. She was told in harsh terms that she +would have to earn her own living, and not be a burden to others. As +she listened to these cruel remarks Pierrette's throat contracted +violently with acute pain, her heart throbbed. She was forced to +restrain her tears, or she was scolded for weeping and told it was an +insult to the kindness of her magnanimous cousins. Rogron had found +the life that suited him. He scolded Pierrette as he used to scold his +clerks; he would call her when at play, and compel her to study; he +made her repeat her lessons, and became himself the almost savage +master of the poor child. Sylvie, on her side, considered it a duty to +teach Pierrette the little that she knew herself about women's work. +Neither Rogron nor his sister had the slightest softness in their +natures. Their narrow minds, which found real pleasure in worrying the +poor child, passed insensibly from outward kindness to extreme +severity. This severity was necessitated, they believed, by what they +called the self-will of the child, which had not been broken when +young and was very obstinate. Her masters were ignorant how to give to +their instructions a form suited to the intelligence of the pupil,--a +thing, by the bye, which marks the difference between public and +private education. The fault was far less with Pierrette than with her +cousins. It took her an infinite length of time to learn the +rudiments. She was called stupid and dull, clumsy and awkward for mere +nothings. Incessantly abused in words, the child suffered still more +from the harsh looks of her cousins. She acquired the doltish ways of +a sheep; she dared not do anything of her own impulse, for all she did +was misinterpreted, misjudged, and ill-received. In all things she +awaited silently the good pleasure and the orders of her cousins, +keeping her thoughts within her own mind and sheltering herself behind +a passive obedience. Her brilliant colors began to fade. Sometimes she +complained of feeling ill. When her cousin asked, "Where?" the poor +little thing, who had pains all over her, answered, "Everywhere." + +"Nonsense! who ever heard of any one suffering everywhere?" cried +Sylvie. "If you suffered everywhere you'd be dead." + +"People suffer in their chests," said Rogron, who liked to hear +himself harangue, "or they have toothache, headache, pains in their +feet or stomach, but no one has pains everywhere. What do you mean by +everywhere? I can tell you; 'everywhere' means /nowhere/. Don't you +know what you are doing?--you are complaining for complaining's sake." + +Pierrette ended by total silence, seeing how all her girlish remarks, +the flowers of her dawning intelligence, were replied to with ignorant +commonplaces which her natural good sense told her were ridiculous. + +"You complain," said Rogron, "but you've got the appetite of a monk." + +The only person who did not bruise the delicate little flower was the +fat servant woman, Adele. Adele would go up and warm her bed,--doing +it on the sly after a certain evening when Sylvie had scolded her for +giving that comfort to the child. + +"Children should be hardened, to give them strong constitutions. Am I +and my brother the worse for it?" said Sylvie. "You'll make Pierrette +a /peakling/"; this was a word in the Rogron vocabulary which meant a +puny and suffering little being. + +The naturally endearing ways of the angelic child were treated as +dissimulation. The fresh, pure blossoms of affection which bloomed +instinctively in that young soul were pitilessly crushed. Pierrette +suffered many a cruel blow on the tender flesh of her heart. If she +tried to soften those ferocious natures by innocent, coaxing wiles +they accused her of doing it with an object. "Tell me at once what you +want?" Rogron would say, brutally; "you are not coaxing me for +nothing." + +Neither brother nor sister believed in affection, and Pierrette's +whole being was affection. Colonel Gouraud, anxious to please +Mademoiselle Rogron, approved of all she did about Pierrette. Vinet +also encouraged them in what they said against her. He attributed all +her so-called misdeeds to the obstinacy of the Breton character, and +declared that no power, no will, could ever conquer it. Rogron and his +sister were so shrewdly flattered by the two manoeuvrers that the +former agreed to go security for the "Courrier de Provins," and the +latter invested five thousand francs in the enterprise. + +On this, the colonel and lawyer took the field. They got a hundred +shares, of five hundred francs each, taken among the farmers and +others called independents, and also among those who had bought lands +of the national domains,--whose fears they worked upon. They even +extended their operations throughout the department and along its +borders. Each shareholder of course subscribed to the paper. The +judicial advertisements were divided between the "Bee-hive" and the +"Courrier." The first issue of the latter contained a pompous eulogy +on Rogron. He was presented to the community as the Laffitte of +Provins. The public mind having thus received an impetus in this new +direction, it was manifest, of course, that the coming elections would +be contested. Madame Tiphaine, whose highest hope was to take her +husband to Paris as deputy, was in despair. After reading an article +in the new paper aimed at her and at Julliard junior, she remarked: +"Unfortunately for me, I forgot that there is always a scoundrel close +to a dupe, and that fools are magnets to clever men of the fox breed." + +As soon as the "Courrier" was fairly launched on a radius of fifty +miles, Vinet bought a new coat and decent boots, waistcoats, and +trousers. He set up the gray slouch hat sacred to liberals, and showed +his linen. His wife took a servant, and appeared in public dressed as +the wife of a prominent man should be; her caps were pretty. Vinet +proved grateful--out of policy. He and his friend Cournant, the +liberal notary and the rival of the ministerial notary Auffray, became +the close advisers of the Rogrons, to whom they were able to do a +couple of signal services. The leases granted by old Rogron to their +father in 1815, when matters were at a low ebb, were about to expire. +Horticulture and vegetable gardening had developed enormously in the +neighborhood of Provins. The lawyer and notary set to work to enable +the Rogrons to increase their rentals. Vinet won two lawsuits against +two districts on a question of planting trees, which involved five +hundred poplars. The proceeds of the poplars, added to the savings of +the brother and sister, who for the last three years had laid by six +thousand a year at high interest, was wisely invested in the purchase +of improved lands. Vinet also undertook and carried out the ejectment +of certain peasants to whom the elder Rogron had lent money on their +farms, and who had strained every nerve to pay off the debt, but in +vain. The cost of the Rogrons' fine house was thus in a measure +recouped. Their landed property, lying around Provins and chosen by +their father with the sagacious eye of an innkeeper, was divided into +small holdings, the largest of which did not exceed five acres, and +rented to safe tenants, men who owned other parcels of land, that were +ample security for their leases. These investments brought in, by +1826, five thousand francs a year. Taxes were charged to the tenants, +and there were no buildings needing insurance or repairs. + +By the end of the second period of Pierrette's stay in Provins life +had become so hard for her, the cold indifference of all who came to +the house, the silly fault-finding, and the total absence of affection +on the part of her cousins grew so bitter, she was conscious of a +chill dampness like that of a grave creeping round her, that the bold +idea of escaping, on foot and without money, to Brittany and to her +grandparents took possession of her mind. Two events hindered her from +attempting it. Old Lorrain died, and Rogron was appointed guardian of +his little cousin. If the grandmother had died first, we may believe +that Rogron, advised by Vinet, would have claimed Pierrette's eight +thousand francs and reduced the old man to penury. + +"You may, perhaps, inherit from Pierrette," said Vinet, with a horrid +smile. "Who knows who may live and who may die?" + +Enlightened by that remark, Rogron gave old Madame Lorrain no peace +until she had secured to Pierrette the reversion of the eight thousand +francs at her death. + +Pierrette was deeply shocked by these events. She was on the point of +making her first communion,--another reason for resigning the hope of +escape from Provins. This ceremony, simple and customary as it was, +led to great changes in the Rogron household. Sylvie learned that +Monsieur le cure Peroux was instructing the little Julliards, +Lesourds, Garcelands, and the rest. She therefore made it a point of +honor that Pierrette should be instructed by the vicar himself, +Monsieur Habert, a priest who was thought to belong to the +/Congregation/, very zealous for the interests of the Church, and much +feared in Provins,--a man who hid a vast ambition beneath the +austerity of stern principles. The sister of this priest, an unmarried +woman about thirty years of age, kept a school for young ladies. +Brother and sister looked alike; both were thin, yellow, black-haired, +and bilious. + +Like a true Breton girl, cradled in the practices and poetry of +Catholicism, Pierrette opened her heart and ears to the words of this +imposing priest. Sufferings predispose the mind to devotion, and +nearly all young girls, impelled by instinctive tenderness, are +inclined to mysticism, the deepest aspect of religion. The priest +found good soil in which to sow the seed of the Gospel and the dogmas +of the Church. He completely changed the current of the girl's +thoughts. Pierrette loved Jesus Christ in the light in which he is +presented to young girls at the time of their first communion, as a +celestial bridegroom; her physical and moral sufferings gained a +meaning for her; she saw the finger of God in all things. Her soul, so +cruelly hurt although she could not accuse her cousins of actual +wrong, took refuge in that sphere to which all sufferers fly on the +wings of the cardinal virtues,--Faith, Hope, Charity. She abandoned +her thoughts of escape. Sylvie, surprised by the transformation +Monsieur Habert had effected in Pierrette, was curious to know how it +had been done. And it thus came about that the austere priest, while +preparing Pierrette for her first communion, also won to God the +hitherto erring soul of Mademoiselle Sylvie. Sylvie became pious. +Jerome Rogron, on whom the so-called Jesuit could get no grip (for +just then the influence of His Majesty the late /Constitutionnel/ the +First was more powerful over weaklings than the influence of the +Church), Jerome Rogron remained faithful to Colonel Gouraud, Vinet, +and Liberalism. + +Mademoiselle Rogron naturally made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle +Habert, with whom she sympathized deeply. The two spinsters loved each +other as sisters. Mademoiselle Habert offered to take Pierrette into +her school to spare Sylvie the annoyance of her education; but the +brother and sister both declared that Pierrette's absence would make +the house too lonely; their attachment to their little cousin seemed +excessive. + +When Gouraud and Vinet became aware of the advent of Mademoiselle +Habert on the scene they concluded that the ambitious priest her +brother had the same matrimonial plan for his sister that the colonel +was forming for himself and Sylvie. + +"Your sister wants to get you married," said Vinet to Rogron. + +"With whom?" asked Rogron. + +"With that old sorceress of a schoolmistress," cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache. + +"She hasn't said anything to me about it," said Rogron, naively. + +So thorough an old maid as Sylvie was certain to make good progress in +the way of salvation. The influence of the priest would as certainly +increase, and in the end affect Rogron, over whom Sylvie had great +power. The two Liberals, who were naturally alarmed, saw plainly that +if the priest were resolved to marry his sister to Rogron (a far more +suitable marriage than that of Sylvie to the colonel) he could then +drive Sylvie in extreme devotion to the Church, and put Pierrette in a +convent. They might therefore lose eighteen months' labor in flattery +and meannesses of all sorts. Their minds were suddenly filled with a +bitter, silent hatred to the priest and his sister, though they felt +the necessity of living on good terms with them in order to track +their manoeuvres. Monsieur and Mademoiselle Habert, who could play +both whist and boston, now came every evening to the Rogrons. The +assiduity of the one pair induced the assiduity of the other. The +colonel and lawyer felt that they were pitted against adversaries who +were fully as strong as they,--a presentiment that was shared by the +priest and his sister. The situation soon became that of a battle- +field. Precisely as the colonel was enabling Sylvie to taste the +unhoped-for joys of being sought in marriage, so Mademoiselle Habert +was enveloping the timid Rogron in the cotton-wool of her attentions, +words, and glances. Neither side could utter that grand word of +statesmanship, "Let us divide!" for each wanted the whole prey. + +The two clever foxes of the Opposition made the mistake of pulling the +first trigger. Vinet, under the spur of self-interest, bethought +himself of his wife's only friends, and looked up Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf and her mother. The two women were living in poverty at +Troyes on two thousand francs a year. Mademoiselle Bathilde de +Chargeboeuf was one of those fine creatures who believe in marriage +for love up to their twenty-fifth year, and change their opinion when +they find themselves still unmarried. Vinet managed to persuade Madame +de Chargeboeuf to join her means to his and live with his family in +Provins, where Bathilde, he assured her, could marry a fool named +Rogron, and, clever as she was, take her place in the best society of +the place. + +The arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf in the lawyer's +household was a great reinforcement for the liberal party; and it +created consternation among the aristocrats of Provins and also in the +Tiphaine clique. Madame de Breautey, horrified to see two women of +rank so misled, begged them to come to her. She was shocked that the +royalists of Troyes had so neglected the mother and daughter, whose +situation she now learned for the first time. + +"How is it that no old country gentleman has married that dear girl, +who is cut out for a lady of the manor?" she said. "They have let her +run to seed, and now she is to be flung at the head of a Rogron!" + +She ransacked the whole department but did not succeed in finding any +gentleman willing to marry a girl whose mother had only two thousand +francs a year. The "clique" and the subprefect also looked about them +with the same object, but they were all too late. Madame de Breautey +made terrible charges against the selfishness which degraded France,-- +the consequence, she said, of materialism, and of the importance now +given by the laws to money: nobility was no longer of value! nor +beauty either! Such creatures as the Rogrons, the Vinets, could stand +up and fight with the King of France! + +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf had not only the incontestable superiority of +beauty over her rival, but that of dress as well. She was dazzlingly +fair. At twenty-five her shoulders were fully developed, and the +curves of her beautiful figure were exquisite. The roundness of her +throat, the purity of its lines, the wealth of her golden hair, the +charming grace of her smile, the distinguished carriage of her head, +the character of her features, the fine eyes finely placed beneath a +well-formed brow, her every motion, noble and high-bred, and her light +and graceful figure,--all were in harmony. Her hands were beautiful, +and her feet slender. Health gave her, perhaps, too much the look of a +handsome barmaid. "But that can't be a defect in the eyes of a +Rogron," sighed Madame Tiphaine. Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf's dress +when she made her first appearance in Provins at the Rogrons' house +was very simple. Her brown merino gown edged with green embroidery was +worn low-necked; but a tulle fichu, carefully drawn down by hidden +strings, covered her neck and shoulders, though it opened a little in +front, where its folds were caught together with a /sevigne/. Beneath +this delicate fabric Bathilde's beauties seemed all the more enticing +and coquettish. She took off her velvet bonnet and her shawl on +arriving, and showed her pretty ears adorned with what were then +called "ear-drops" in gold. She wore a little /jeannette/--a black +velvet ribbon with a heart attached--round her throat, where it shone +like the jet ring which fantastic nature had fastened round the tail +of a white angora cat. She knew all the little tricks of a girl who +seeks to marry; her fingers arranged her curls which were not in the +least out of order; she entreated Rogron to fasten a cuff-button, thus +showing him her wrist, a request which that dazzled fool rudely +refused, hiding his emotions under the mask of indifference. The +timidity of the only love he was ever to feel in the whole course of +his life took an external appearance of dislike. Sylvie and her friend +Celeste Habert were deceived by it; not so Vinet, the wise head of +this doltish circle, among whom no one really coped with him but the +priest,--the colonel being for a long time his ally. + +On the other hand the colonel was behaving to Sylvie very much as +Bathilde behaved to Rogron. He put on a clean shirt every evening and +wore velvet stocks, which set off his martial features and the +spotless white of his collar. He adopted the fashion of white pique +waistcoats, and caused to be made for him a new surtout of blue cloth, +on which his red rosette glowed finely; all this under pretext of +doing honor to the new guests Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. +He even refrained from smoking for two hours previous to his +appearance in the Rogrons' salon. His grizzled hair was brushed in a +waving line across a cranium which was ochre in tone. He assumed the +air and manner of a party leader, of a man who was preparing to drive +out the enemies of France, the Bourbons, on short, to beat of drum. + +The satanic lawyer and the wily colonel played the priest and his +sister a more cruel trick than even the importation of the beautiful +Madame de Chargeboeuf, who was considered by all the Liberal party and +by Madame de Breautey and her aristocratic circle to be far handsomer +than Madame Tiphaine. These two great statesmen of the little +provincial town made everybody believe that the priest was in sympathy +with their ideas; so that before long Provins began to talk of him as +a liberal ecclesiastic. As soon as this news reached the bishop +Monsieur Habert was sent for and admonished to cease his visits to the +Rogrons; but his sister continued to go there. Thus the salon Rogron +became a fixed fact and a constituted power. + +Before the year was out political intrigues were not less lively than +the matrimonial schemes of the Rogron salon. While the selfish +interests hidden in these hearts were struggling in deadly combat the +events which resulted from them had a fatal celebrity. Everybody knows +that the Villele ministry was overthrown by the elections of 1826. +Vinet, the Liberal candidate at Provins, who had borrowed money of his +notary to buy a domain which made him eligible for election, came very +near defeating Monsieur Tiphaine, who saved his election by only two +votes. The headquarters of the Liberals was the Rogron salon; among +the /habitues/ were the notary Cournant and his wife, and Doctor +Neraud, whose youth was said to have been stormy, but who now took a +serious view of life; he gave himself up to study and was, according +to all Liberals, a far more capable man than Monsieur Martener, the +aristocratic physician. As for the Rogrons, they no more understood +their present triumph than they had formerly understood their +ostracism. + +The beautiful Bathilde, to whom Vinet had explained Pierrette as an +enemy, was extremely disdainful to the girl. It seemed as though +everybody's selfish schemes demanded the humiliation of that poor +victim. Madame Vinet could do nothing for her, ground as she herself +was beneath those implacable self-interests which the lawyer's wife +had come at last to see and comprehend. Her husband's imperious will +had alone taken her to the Rogron's house, where she had suffered much +at the harsh treatment of the pretty little creature, who would often +press up against her as if divining her secret thoughts, sometimes +asking the poor lady to show her a stitch in knitting or to teach her +a bit of embroidery. The child proved in return that if she were +treated gently she would understand what was taught her, and succeed +in what she tried to do quite marvellously. But Madame Vinet was soon +no longer necessary to her husband's plans, and after the arrival of +Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf she ceased to visit the +Rogrons. + +Sylvie, who now indulged in the idea of marrying, began to consider +Pierrette as an obstacle. The girl was nearly fourteen; the pallid +whiteness of her skin, a symptom of illness entirely overlooked by the +ignorant old maid, made her exquisitely lovely. Sylvie took it into +her head to balance the cost which Pierrette had been to them by +making a servant of her. All the /habitues/ of the house to whom she +spoke of the matter advised that she should send away Adele. Why +shouldn't Pierrette take care of the house and cook? If there was too +much work at any time Mademoiselle Rogron could easily employ the +colonel's woman-of-all-work, an excellent cook and a most respectable +person. Pierrette ought to learn how to cook, and rub floors, and +sweep, said the lawyer; every girl should be taught to keep house +properly and go to market and know the price of things. The poor +little soul, whose self-devotion was equal to her generosity, offered +herself willingly, pleased to think that she could earn the bitter +bread which she ate in that house. Adele was sent away, and Pierrette +thus lost the only person who might have protected her. + +In spite of the poor child's strength of heart she was henceforth +crushed down physically as well as mentally. Her cousins had less +consideration for her than for a servant; she belonged to them! She +was scolded for mere nothings, for an atom of dust left on a glass +globe or a marble mantelpiece. The handsome ornaments she had once +admired now became odious to her. No matter how she strove to do +right, her inexorable cousins always found something to reprove in +whatever she did. In the course of two years Pierrette never received +the slightest praise, or heard a kindly word. Happiness for her lay in +not being scolded. She bore with angelic patience the morose ill-humor +of the two celibates, to whom all tender feelings were absolutely +unknown, and who daily made her feel her dependence on them. + +Such a life for a young girl, pressed as it were between the two chops +of a vise, increased her illness. She began to feel violent internal +distresses, secret pangs so sudden in their attacks that her strength +was undermined and her natural development arrested. By slow degrees +and through dreadful, though hidden sufferings, the poor child came to +the state in which the companion of her childhood found her when he +sang to her his Breton ditty at the dawn of the October day. + + + +VI + +AN OLD MAID'S JEALOUSY + +Before we relate the domestic drama which the coming of Jacques +Brigaut was destined to bring about in the Rogron family it is best to +explain how the lad came to be in Provins; for he is, as it were, a +somewhat mute personage on the scene. + +When he ran from the house Brigaut was not only frightened by +Pierrette's gesture, he was horrified by the change he saw in his +little friend. He could scarcely recognize the voice, the eyes, the +gestures that were once so lively, gay, and withal so tender. When he +had gained some distance from the house his legs began to tremble +under him; hot flushes ran down his back. He had seen the shadow of +Pierrette, but not Pierrette herself! The lad climbed to the Upper +town till he found a spot from which he could see the square and the +house where Pierrette lived. He gazed at it mournfully, lost in many +thoughts, as though he were entering some grief of which he could not +see the end. Pierrette was ill; she was not happy; she pined for +Brittany--what was the matter with her? All these questions passed and +repassed through his heart and rent it, revealing to his own soul the +extent of his love for his little adopted sister. + +It is extremely rare to find a passion existing between two children +of opposite sexes. The charming story of Paul and Virginia does not, +any more than this of Pierrette and Brigaut, answer the question put +by that strange moral fact. Modern history offers only the illustrious +instance of the Marchesa di Pescara and her husband. Destined to marry +by their parents from their earliest years, they adored each other and +were married, and their union gave to the sixteenth century the noble +spectacle of a perfect conjugal love without a flaw. When the marchesa +became a widow at the age of thirty-four, beautiful, intellectually +brilliant, universally adored, she refused to marry sovereigns and +buried herself in a convent, seeing and knowing thenceforth only nuns. +Such was the perfect love that suddenly developed itself in the heart +of the Breton workman. Pierrette and he had often protected each +other; with what bliss had he given her the money for her journey; he +had almost killed himself by running after the diligence when she left +him. Pierrette had known nothing of all that; but for him the +recollection had warmed and comforted the cold, hard life he had led +for the last three years. For Pierrette's sake he had struggled to +improve himself; he had learned his trade for Pierrette; he had come +to Paris for Pierrette, intending to make his fortune for /her/. After +spending a fortnight in the city, he had not been able to hold out +against the desire to see her, and he had walked from Saturday night +to Monday morning. He intended to return to Paris; but the moving +sight of his little friend nailed him to Provins. A wonderful +magnetism (still denied in spite of many proofs) acted upon him +without his knowledge. Tears rolled from his eyes when they rose in +hers. If to her he was Brittany and her happy childhood, to him she +was life itself. + +At sixteen years of age Brigaut did not yet know how to draw or to +model a cornice; he was ignorant of much, but he had earned, by piece- +work done in the leisure of his apprenticeship, some four or five +francs a day. On this he could live in Provins and be near Pierrette; +he would choose the best cabinet-maker in the town, and learn the rest +of his trade in working for him, and thus keep watch over his darling. + +Brigaut's mind was made up as he sat there thinking. He went back to +Paris and fetched his certificate, tools, and baggage, and three days +later he was a journeyman in the establishment of Monsieur Frappier, +the best cabinet-maker in Provins. Active, steady workmen, not given +to junketing and taverns, are so rare that masters hold to young men +like Brigaut when they find them. To end Brigaut's history on this +point, we will say here that by the end of the month he was made +foreman, and was fed and lodged by Frappier, who taught him arithmetic +and line drawing. The house and shop were in the Grand'Rue, not a +hundred feet from the little square where Pierrette lived. + +Brigaut buried his love in his heart and committed no imprudence. He +made Madame Frappier tell him all she knew about the Rogrons. Among +other things, she related to him the way in which their father had +laid hands on the property of old Auffray, Pierrette's grandfather. +Brigaut obtained other information as to the character of the brother +and sister. He met Pierrette sometimes in the market with her cousin, +and shuddered to see the heavy basket she was carrying on her arm. On +Sundays he went to church to look for her, dressed in her best +clothes. There, for the first time, he became aware that Pierrette was +Mademoiselle Lorrain. Pierrette saw him and made him a hasty sign to +keep out of sight. To him, there was a world of things in that little +gesture, as there had been, a fortnight earlier, in the sign by which +she told him from her window to run away. Ah! what a fortune he must +make in the coming ten years in order to marry his little friend, to +whom, he was told, the Rogrons were to leave their house, a hundred +acres of land, and twelve thousand francs a year, not counting their +savings! + +The persevering Breton was determined to be thoroughly educated for +his trade, and he set about acquiring all the knowledge that he +lacked. As long as only the principles of his work were concerned he +could learn those in Provins as well as in Paris, and thus remain near +Pierrette, to whom he now became anxious to explain his projects and +the sort of protection she could rely on from him. He was determined +to know the reason of her pallor, and of the debility which was +beginning to appear in the organ which is always the last to show the +signs of failing life, namely the eyes; he would know, too, the cause +of the sufferings which gave her that look as though death were near +and she might drop at any moment beneath its scythe. The two signs, +the two gestures--not denying their friendship but imploring caution-- +alarmed the young Breton. Evidently Pierrette wished him to wait and +not attempt to see her; otherwise there was danger, there was peril +for her. As she left the church she was able to give him one look, and +Brigaut saw that her eyes were full of tears. But he could have sooner +squared the circle than have guessed what had happened in the Rogrons' +house during the fortnight which had elapsed since his arrival. + +It was not without keen apprehension that Pierrette came downstairs on +the morning after Brigaut had invaded her morning dreams like another +dream. She was certain that her cousin Sylvie must have heard the +song, or she would not have risen and opened her window; but Pierrette +was ignorant of the powerful reasons that made the old maid so alert. +For the last eight days, strange events and bitter feelings agitated +the minds of the chief personages who frequented the Rogron salon. +These hidden matters, carefully concealed by all concerned, were +destined to fall in their results like an avalanche on Pierrette. Such +mysterious things, which we ought perhaps to call the putrescence of +the human heart, lie at the base of the greatest revolutions, +political, social or domestic; but in telling of them it is desirable +to explain that their subtle significance cannot be given in a matter- +of-fact narrative. These secret schemes and calculations do not show +themselves as brutally and undisguisedly while taking place as they +must when the history of them is related. To set down in writing the +circumlocutions, oratorical precautions, protracted conversations, and +honeyed words glossed over the venom of intentions, would make as long +a book as that magnificent poem called "Clarissa Harlowe." + +Mademoiselle Habert and Mademoiselle Sylvie were equally desirous of +marrying, but one was ten years older than the other, and the +probabilities of life allowed Celeste Habert to expect that her +children would inherit all the Rogron property. Sylvie was forty-two, +an age at which marriage is beset by perils. In confiding to each +other their ideas, Celeste, instigated by her vindictive brother the +priest, enlightened Sylvie as to the dangers she would incur. Sylvie +trembled; she was terribly afraid of death, an idea which shakes all +celibates to their centre. But just at this time the Martignac +ministry came into power,--a Liberal victory which overthrew the +Villele administration. The Vinet party now carried their heads high +in Provins. Vinet himself became a personage. The Liberals prophesied +his advancement; he would certainly be deputy and attorney-general. As +for the colonel, he would be made mayor of Provins. Ah, to reign as +Madame Garceland, the wife of the present mayor, now reigned! Sylvie +could not hold out against that hope; she determined to consult a +doctor, though the proceeding would only cover her with ridicule. To +consult Monsieur Neraud, the Liberal physician and the rival of +Monsieur Martener, would be a blunder. Celeste Habert offered to hide +Sylvie in her dressing-room while she herself consulted Monsieur +Martener, the physician of her establishment, on this difficult +matter. Whether Martener was, or was not, Celeste's accomplice need +not be discovered; at any rate, he told his client that even at thirty +the danger, though slight, did exist. "But," he added, "with your +constitution, you need fear nothing." + +"But how about a woman over forty?" asked Mademoiselle Celeste. + +"A married woman who has had children has nothing to fear." + +"But I mean an unmarried woman, like Mademoiselle Rogron, for +instance?" + +"Oh, that's another thing," said Monsieur Martener. "Successful +childbirth is then one of those miracles which God sometimes allows +himself, but rarely." + +"Why?" asked Celeste. + +The doctor answered with a terrifying pathological description; he +explained that the elasticity given by nature to youthful muscles and +bones did not exist at a later age, especially in women whose lives +were sedentary. + +"So you think that an unmarried woman ought not to marry after forty?" + +"Not unless she waits some years," replied the doctor. "But then, of +course, it is not marriage, it is only an association of interests." + +The result of the interview, clearly, seriously, scientifically and +sensibly stated, was that an unmarried woman would make a great +mistake in marrying after forty. When the doctor had departed +Mademoiselle Celeste found Sylvie in a frightful state, green and +yellow, and with the pupils of her eyes dilated. + +"Then you really love the colonel?" asked Celeste. + +"I still hoped," replied Sylvie. + +"Well, then, wait!" cried Mademoiselle Habert, Jesuitically, aware +that time would rid her of the colonel. + +Sylvie's new devotion to the church warned her that the morality of +such a marriage might be doubtful. She accordingly sounded her +conscience in the confessional. The stern priest explained the +opinions of the Church, which sees in marriage only the propagation of +humanity, and rebukes second marriages and all passions but those with +a social purpose. Sylvie's perplexities were great. These internal +struggles gave extraordinary force to her passion, investing it with +that inexplicable attraction which, from the days of Eve, the thing +forbidden possesses for women. Mademoiselle Rogron's perturbation did +not escape the lynx-eyed lawyer. + +One evening, after the game had ended, Vinet approached his dear +friend Sylvie, took her hand, and led her to a sofa. + +"Something troubles you," he said. + +She nodded sadly. The lawyer let the others depart; Rogron walked home +with the Chargeboeufs, and when Vinet was alone with the old maid he +wormed the truth out of her. + +"Cleverly played, abbe!" thought he. "But you've played into my +hands." + +The foxy lawyer was more decided in his opinion than even the doctor. +He advised marriage in ten years. Inwardly he was vowing that the +whole Rogron fortune should go to Bathilde. He rubbed his hands, his +pinched lips closed more tightly as he hurried home. The influence +exercised by Monsieur Habert, physician of the soul, and by Vinet, +doctor of the purse, balanced each other perfectly. Rogron had no +piety in him; so the churchman and the man of law, the black-robed +pair, were fairly matched. + +On discovering the victory obtained by Celeste, in her anxiety to +marry Rogron herself, over Sylvie, torn between the fear of death and +the joy of being baronness and mayoress, the lawyer saw his chance of +driving the colonel from the battlefield. He knew Rogron well enough +to be certain he could marry him to Bathilde; Jerome had already +succumbed inwardly to her charms, and Vinet knew that the first time +the pair were alone together the marriage would be settled. Rogron had +reached the point of keeping his eyes fixed on Celeste, so much did he +fear to look at Bathilde. Vinet had now possessed himself of Sylvie's +secrets, and saw the force with which she loved the colonel. He fully +understood the struggle of such a passion in the heart of an old maid +who was also in the grasp of religious emotion, and he saw his way to +rid himself of Pierrette and the colonel both by making each the cause +of the other's overthrow. + +The next day, after the court had risen, Vinet met the colonel and +Rogron talking a walk together, according to their daily custom. + +Whenever the three men were seen in company the whole town talked of +it. This triumvirate, held in horror by the sub-prefect, the +magistracy, and the Tiphaine clique, was, on the other hand, a source +of pride and vanity to the Liberals of Provins. Vinet was sole editor +of the "Courrier" and the head of the party; the colonel, the working +manager, was its arm; Rogron, by means of his purse, its nerves. The +Tiphaines declared that the three men were always plotting evil to the +government; the Liberals admired them as the defenders of the people. +When Rogron turned to go home, recalled by a sense of his dinner-hour, +Vinet stopped the colonel from following him by taking Gouraud's arm. + +"Well, colonel," he said, "I am going to take a fearful load off your +shoulders; you can do better than marry Sylvie; if you play your cards +properly you can marry that little Pierrette in two years' time." + +He thereupon related the Jesuit's manoeuvre and its effect on Sylvie. + +"What a skulking trick!" cried the colonel; "and spreading over years, +too!" + +"Colonel," said Vinet, gravely, "Pierrette is a charming creature; +with her you can be happy for the rest of your life; your health is so +sound that the difference in your ages won't seem disproportionate. +But, all the same, you mustn't think it an easy thing to change a +dreadful fate to a pleasant one. To turn a woman who loves you into a +friend and confidant is as perilous a business as crossing a river +under fire of the enemy. Cavalry colonel as you are, and daring too, +you must study the position and manoeuvre your forces with the same +wisdom you have displayed hitherto, and which has won us our present +position. If I get to be attorney-general you shall command the +department. Oh! if you had been an elector we should be further +advanced than we are now; I should have bought the votes of those two +clerks by threatening them with the loss of their places, and we +should have had a majority." + +The colonel had long been thinking about Pierrette, but he concealed +his thoughts with the utmost dissimulation. His roughness to the child +was only a mask; but she could not understand why the man who claimed +to be her father's old comrade should usually treat her so ill, when +sometimes, if he met her alone, he would chuck her under the chin and +give her a friendly kiss. But after the conversation with Vinet +relating to Sylvie's fears of marriage Gouraud began to seek +opportunities to find Pierrette alone; the rough colonel made himself +as soft as a cat; he told her how brave her father was and what a +misfortune it had been for her that she lost him. + +A few days before Brigaut's arrival Sylvie had come suddenly upon +Gouraud and Pierrette talking together. Instantly, jealousy rushed +into her heart with monastic violence. Jealousy, eminently credulous +and suspicious, is the passion in which fancy has most freedom, but +for all that it does not give a person intelligence; on the contrary, +it hinders them from having any; and in Sylvie's case jealousy only +filled her with fantastic ideas. When (a few mornings later) she heard +Brigaut's ditty, she jumped to the conclusion that the man who had +used the words "Madam' le mariee," addressing them to Pierrette, must +be the colonel. She was certain she was right, for she had noticed for +a week past a change in his manners. He was the only man who, in her +solitary life, had ever paid her any attention. Consequently she +watched him with all her eyes, all her mind; and by giving herself up +to hopes that were sometimes flourishing, sometimes blighted, she had +brought the matter to such enormous proportions that she saw all +things in a mental mirage. To use a common but excellent expression, +by dint of looking intently she saw nothing. Alternately she repelled, +admitted, and conquered the supposition of this rivalry. She compared +herself with Pierrette; she was forty-two years old, with gray hair; +Pierrette was delicately fair, with eyes soft enough to warm a +withered heart. She had heard it said that men of fifty were apt to +love young girls of just that kind. Before the colonel had come +regularly to the house Sylvie had heard in the Tiphaines' salon +strange stories of his life and morals. Old maids preserve in their +love-affairs the exaggerated Platonic sentiments which young girls of +twenty are wont to profess; they hold to these fixed doctrines like +all who have little experience of life and no personal knowledge of +how great social forces modify, impair, and bring to nought such grand +and noble ideas. The mere thought of being jilted by the colonel was +torture to Sylvie's brain. She lay in her bed going over and over her +own desires, Pierrette's conduct, and the song which had awakened her +with the word "marriage." Like the fool she was, instead of looking +through the blinds to see the lover, she opened her window without +reflecting that Pierrette would hear her. If she had had the common +instinct of a spy she would have seen Brigaut, and the fatal drama +then begun would never have taken place. + +It was Pierrette's duty, weak as she was, to take down the bars that +closed the wooden shutters of the kitchen, which she opened and +fastened back; then she opened in like manner the glass door leading +from the corridor to the garden. She took the various brooms that were +used for sweeping the carpets, the dining-room, the passages and +stairs, together with the other utensils, with a care and +particularity which no servant, not even a Dutchwoman, gives to her +work. She hated reproof. Happiness for her was in seeing the cold blue +pallid eyes of her cousin, not satisfied (that they never were), but +calm, after glancing about her with the look of an owner,--that +wonderful glance which sees what escapes even the most vigilant eyes +of others. Pierrette's skin was moist with her labor when she returned +to the kitchen to put it in order, and light the stove that she might +carry up hot water to her two cousins (a luxury she never had for +herself) and the means of lighting fires in their rooms. After this +she laid the table for breakfast and lit the stove in the dining-room. +For all these various fires she had to fetch wood and kindling from +the cellar, leaving the warm rooms for a damp and chilly atmosphere. +Such sudden transitions, made with the quickness of youth, often to +escape a harsh word or obey an order, aggravated the condition of her +health. She did not know she was ill, and yet she suffered. She began +to have strange cravings; she liked raw vegetables and salads, and ate +them secretly. The innocent child was quite unaware that her condition +was that of serious illness which needed the utmost care. If Neraud, +the Rogrons' doctor, had told this to Pierrette before Brigaut's +arrival she would only have smiled; life was so bitter she could smile +at death. But now her feelings changed; the child, to whose physical +sufferings was added the anguish of Breton homesickness (a moral +malady so well-known that colonels in the army allow for it among +their men), was suddenly content to be in Provins. The sight of that +yellow flower, the song, the presence of her friend, revived her as a +plant long without water revives under rain. Unconsciously she wanted +to live, and even thought she did not suffer. + +Pierrette slipped timidly into her cousin's bedroom, made the fire, +left the hot water, said a few words, and went to wake Rogron and do +the same offices for him. Then she went down to take in the milk, the +bread, and the other provisions left by the dealers. She stood some +time on the sill of the door hoping that Brigaut would have the sense +to come to her; but by that time he was already on his way to Paris. + +She had finished the arrangement of the dining-room and was busy in +the kitchen when she heard her cousin Sylvie coming down. Mademoiselle +Rogron appeared in a brown silk dressing-gown and a cap with bows; her +false front was awry, her night-gown showed above the silk wrapper, +her slippers were down at heel. She gave an eye to everything and then +came straight to Pierrette, who was awaiting her orders to know what +to prepare for breakfast. + +"Ha! here you are, lovesick young lady!" said Sylvie, in a mocking +tone. + +"What is it, cousin?" + +"You came into my room like a sly cat, and you crept out the same way, +though you knew very well I had something to say to you." + +"To me?" + +"You had a serenade this morning, as if you were a princess." + +"A serenade!" exclaimed Pierrette. + +"A serenade!" said Sylvie, mimicking her; "and you've a lover, too." + +"What is a lover, cousin?" + +Sylvie avoided answering, and said:-- + +"Do you dare to tell me, mademoiselle, that a man did not come under +your window and talk to you of marriage?" + +Persecution had taught Pierrette the wariness of slaves; so she +answered bravely:-- + +"I don't know what you mean,--" + +"Who means?--your dog?" said Sylvie, sharply. + +"I should have said 'cousin,'" replied the girl, humbly. + +"And didn't you get up and go in your bare feet to the window?--which +will give you an illness; and serve you right, too. And perhaps you +didn't talk to your lover, either?" + +"No, cousin." + +"I know you have many faults, but I did not think you told lies. You +had better think this over, mademoiselle; you will have to explain +this affair to your cousin and to me, or your cousin will be obliged +to take severe measures." + +The old maid, exasperated by jealousy and curiosity, meant to frighten +the girl. Pierrette, like all those who suffer more than they have +strength to bear, kept silence. Silence is the only weapon by which +such victims can conquer; it baffles the Cossack charges of envy, the +savage skirmishings of suspicion; it does at times give victory, +crushing and complete,--for what is more complete than silence? it is +absolute; it is one of the attributes of infinity. Sylvie watched +Pierrette narrowly. The girl colored; but the color, instead of rising +evenly, came out in patches on her cheekbones, in burning and +significant spots. A mother, seeing that symptom of illness, would +have changed her tone at once; she would have taken the child on her +lap and questioned her; in fact, she would long ago have tenderly +understood the signs of Pierrette's pure and perfect innocence; she +would have seen her weakness and known that the disturbance of the +digestive organs and the other functions of the body was about to +affect the lungs. Those eloquent patches would have warned her of an +imminent danger. But an old maid, one in whom the family instincts +have never been awakened, to whom the needs of childhood and the +precautions required for adolescence were unknown, had neither the +indulgence nor the compassionate intelligence of a mother; such +sufferings as those of Pierrette, instead of softening her heart only +made it more callous. + +"She blushes, she is guilty!" thought Sylvie. + +Pierrette's silence was thus interpreted to her injury. + +"Pierrette," continued Sylvie, "before your cousin comes down we must +have some talk together. Come," she said, in a rather softer tone, +"shut the street door; if any one comes they will rung and we shall +hear them." + +In spite of the damp mist which was rising from the river, Sylvie took +Pierrette along the winding gravel path which led across the lawn to +the edge of the rock terrace,--a picturesque little quay, covered with +iris and aquatic plants. She now changed her tactics, thinking she +might catch Pierrette tripping by softness; the hyena became a cat. + +"Pierrette," she said, "you are no longer a child; you are nearly +fifteen, and it is not at all surprising that you should have a +lover." + +"But, cousin," said Pierrette, raising her eyes with angelic sweetness +to the cold, sour face of her cousin, "What is a lover?" + +It would have been impossible for Sylvie to define a lover with truth +and decency to the girl's mind. Instead of seeing in that question the +proof of adorable innocence, she considered it a piece of insincerity. + +"A lover, Pierrette, is a man who loves us and wishes to marry us." + +"Ah," said Pierrette, "when that happens in Brittany we call the young +man a suitor." + +"Well, remember that in owning your feelings for a man you do no +wrong, my dear. The wrong is in hiding them. Have you pleased some of +the men who visit here?" + +"I don't think so, cousin." + +"Do you love any of them?" + +"No." + +"Certain?" + +"Quite certain." + +"Look at me, Pierrette." + +Pierrette looked at Sylvie. + +"A man called to you this morning in the square." + +Pierrette lowered her eyes. + +"You went to your window, you opened it, and you spoke to him." + +"No cousin, I went to look out and I saw a peasant." + +"Pierrette, you have much improved since you made your first +communion; you have become pious and obedient, you love God and your +relations; I am satisfied with you. I don't say this to puff you up +with pride." + +The horrible creature had mistaken despondency, submission, the +silence of wretchedness, for virtues! + +The sweetest of all consolations to suffering souls, to martyrs, to +artists, in the worst of that divine agony which hatred and envy force +upon them, is to meet with praise where they have hitherto found +censure and injustice. Pierrette raised her grateful eyes to her +cousin, feeling that she could almost forgive her for the sufferings +she had caused. + +"But if it is all hypocrisy, if I find you a serpent that I have +warmed in my bosom, you will be a wicked girl, an infamous creature!" + +"I think I have nothing to reproach myself with," said Pierrette, with +a painful revulsion of her heart at the sudden change from unexpected +praise to the tones of the hyena. + +"You know that to lie is a mortal sin?" + +"Yes, cousin." + +"Well, you are now under the eye of God," said the old maid, with a +solemn gesture towards the sky; "swear to me that you did not know +that peasant." + +"I will not swear," said Pierrette. + +"Ha! he was no peasant, you little viper." + +Pierrette rushed away like a frightened fawn terrified at her tone. +Sylvie called her in a dreadful voice. + +"The bell is ringing," she answered. + +"Artful wretch!" thought Sylvie. "She is depraved in mind; and now I +am certain the little adder has wound herself round the colonel. She +has heard us say he was a baron. To be a baroness! little fool! Ah! +I'll get rid of her, I'll apprentice her out, and soon too!" + +Sylvie was so lost in thought that she did not notice her brother +coming down the path and bemoaning the injury the frost had done to +his dahlias. + +"Sylvie! what are you thinking about? I thought you were looking at +the fish; sometimes they jump out of the water." + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"How did you sleep?" and he began to tell her about his own dreams. +"Don't you think my skin is getting /tabid/?"--a word in the Rogron +vocabulary. + +Ever since Rogron had been in love,--but let us not profane the word, +--ever since he had desired to marry Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, he +was very uneasy about himself and his health. At this moment Pierrette +came down the garden steps and called to them from a distance that +breakfast was ready. At sight of her cousin, Sylvie's skin turned +green and yellow, her bile was in commotion. She looked at the floor +of the corridor and declared that Pierrette ought to rub it. + +"I will rub it now if you wish," said the little angel, not aware of +the injury such work may do to a young girl. + +The dining-room was irreproachably in order. Sylvie sat down and +pretended all through breakfast to want this, that, and the other +thing which she would never have thought of in a quieter moment, and +which she now asked for only to make Pierrette rise again and again +just as the child was beginning to eat her food. But such mere teasing +was not enough; she wanted a subject on which to find fault, and was +angry with herself for not finding one. She scarcely answered her +brother's silly remarks, yet she looked at him only; her eyes avoided +Pierrette. Pierrette was deeply conscious of all this. She brought the +milk mixed with cream for each cousin in a large silver goblet, after +heating it carefully in the /bain-marie/. The brother and sister +poured in the coffee made by Sylvie herself on the table. When Sylvie +had carefully prepared hers, she saw an atom of coffee-grounds +floating on the surface. On this the storm broke forth. + +"What is the matter?" asked Rogron. + +"The matter is that mademoiselle has put dust in my milk. Do you +suppose I am going to drink coffee with ashes in it? Well, I am not +surprised; no one can do two things at once. She wasn't thinking of +the milk! a blackbird might have flown through the kitchen to-day and +she wouldn't have seen it! how should she see the dust flying! and +then it was my coffee, ha! that didn't signify!" + +As she spoke she was laying on the side of her plate the coffee- +grounds that had run through the filter. + +"But, cousin, that is coffee," said Pierrette. + +"Oh! then it is I who tell lies, is it?" cried Sylvie, looking at +Pierrette and blasting her with a fearful flash of anger from her +eyes. + +Organizations which have not been exhausted by powerful emotions often +have a vast amount of the vital fluid at their service. This +phenomenon of the extreme clearness of the eye in moments of anger was +the more marked in Mademoiselle Rogron because she had often exercised +the power of her eyes in her shop by opening them to their full extent +for the purpose of inspiring her dependents with salutary fear. + +"You had better dare to give me the lie!" continued Sylvie; "you +deserve to be sent from the table to go and eat by yourself in the +kitchen." + +"What's the matter with you two?" cried Rogron, "you are as cross as +bears this morning." + +"Mademoiselle knows what I have against her," said Sylvie. "I leave +her to make up her mind before speaking to you; for I mean to show her +more kindness than she deserves." + +Pierrette was looking out of the window to avoid her cousin's eyes, +which frightened her. + +"Look at her! she pays no more attention to what I am saying than if I +were that sugar-basin! And yet mademoiselle has a sharp ear; she can +hear and answer from the top of the house when some one talks to her +from below. She is perversity itself,--perversity, I say; and you +needn't expect any good of her; do you hear me, Jerome?" + +"What has she done wrong?" asked Rogron. + +"At her age, too! to begin so young!" screamed the angry old maid. + +Pierrette rose to clear the table and give herself something to do, +for she could hardly bear the scene any longer. Though such language +was not new to her, she had never been able to get used to it. Her +cousin's rage seemed to accuse her of some crime. She imagined what +her fury would be if she came to know about Brigaut. Perhaps her +cousin would have him sent away, and she should lose him! All the many +thoughts, the deep and rapid thoughts of a slave came to her, and she +resolved to keep absolute silence about a circumstance in which her +conscience told her there was nothing wrong. But the cruel, bitter +words she had been made to hear and the wounding suspicion so shocked +her that as she reached the kitchen she was taken with a convulsion of +the stomach and turned deadly sick. She dared not complain; she was +not sure that any one would help her. When she returned to the dining- +room she was white as a sheet, and, saying she was not well, she +started to go to bed, dragging herself up step by step by the baluster +and thinking that she was going to die. "Poor Brigaut!" she thought. + +"The girl is ill," said Rogron. + +"She ill! That's only /shamming/," replied Sylvie, in a loud voice +that Pierrette might hear. "She was well enough this morning, I can +tell you." + +This last blow struck Pierrette to the earth; she went to bed weeping +and praying to God to take her out of this world. + + + +VII + +DOMESTIC TYRANNY + +For a month past Rogron had ceased to carry the "Constitutionnel" to +Gouraud; the colonel came obsequiously to fetch his paper, gossip a +little, and take Rogron off to walk if the weather was fine. Sure of +seeing the colonel and being able to question him, Sylvie dressed +herself as coquettishly as she knew how. The old maid thought she was +attractive in a green gown, a yellow shawl with a red border, and a +white bonnet with straggling gray feathers. About the hour when the +colonel usually came Sylvie stationed herself in the salon with her +brother, whom she had compelled to stay in the house in his dressing- +gown and slippers. + +"It is a fine day, colonel," said Rogron, when Gouraud with his heavy +step entered the room. "But I'm not dressed; my sister wanted to go +out, and I was going to keep the house. Wait for me; I'll be ready +soon." + +So saying, Rogron left Sylvie alone with the colonel. + +"Where were you going? you are dressed divinely," said Gouraud, who +noticed a certain solemnity on the pock-marked face of the old maid. + +"I wanted very much to go out, but my little cousin is ill, and I +cannot leave her." + +"What is the matter with her?" + +"I don't know; she had to go to bed." + +Gouraud's caution, not to say his distrust, was constantly excited by +the results of his alliance with Vinet. It certainly appeared that the +lawyer had got the lion's share in their enterprise. Vinet controlled +the paper, he reigned as sole master over it, he took the revenues; +whereas the colonel, the responsible editor, earned little. Vinet and +Cournant had done the Rogrons great services; whereas Gouraud, a +colonel on half-pay, could do nothing. Who was to be deputy? Vinet. +Who was the chief authority in the party? Vinet. Whom did the liberals +all consult? Vinet. Moreover, the colonel knew fully as well as Vinet +himself the extent and depth of the passion suddenly aroused in Rogron +by the beautiful Bathilde de Chargeboeuf. This passion had now become +intense, like all the last passions of men. Bathilde's voice made him +tremble. Absorbed in his desires Rogron hid them; he dared not hope +for such a marriage. To sound him, the colonel mentioned that he was +thinking himself of asking for Bathilde's hand. Rogron turned pale at +the thought of such a formidable rival, and had since then shown +coldness and even hatred to Gouraud. + +Thus Vinet reigned supreme in the Rogron household while he, the +colonel, had no hold there except by the extremely hypothetical tie of +his mendacious affection for Sylvie, which it was not yet clear that +Sylvie reciprocated. When the lawyer told him of the priest's +manoeuvre, and advised him to break with Sylvie and marry Pierrette, +he certainly flattered Gouraud's foible; but after analyzing the inner +purpose of that advice and examining the ground all about him, the +colonel thought he perceived in his ally the intention of separating +him from Sylvie, and profiting by her fears to throw the whole Rogron +property into the hands of Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. + +Therefore, when the colonel was left alone with Sylvie his +perspicacity possessed itself immediately of certain signs which +betrayed her uneasiness. He saw at once that she was under arms and +had made this plan for seeing him alone. As he already suspected Vinet +of playing him some trick, he attributed the conference to the +instigation of the lawyer, and was instantly on his guard, as he would +have been in an enemy's country,--with an eye all about him, an ear to +the faintest sound, his mind on the qui vive, and his hand on a +weapon. The colonel had the defect of never believing a single word +said to him by a woman; so that when the old maid brought Pierrette on +the scene, and told him she had gone to bed before midday, he +concluded that Sylvie had locked her up by way of punishment and out +of jealousy. + +"She is getting to be quite pretty, that little thing," he said with +an easy air. + +"She will be pretty," replied Mademoiselle Rogron. + +"You ought to send her to Paris and put her in a shop," continued the +colonel. "She would make her fortune. The milliners all want pretty +girls." + +"Is that really your advice?" asked Sylvie, in a troubled voice. + +"Good!" thought the colonel, "I was right. Vinet advised me to marry +Pierrette just to spoil my chance with the old harridan. But," he said +aloud, "what else can you do with her? There's that beautiful girl +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, noble and well-connected, reduced to single- +blessedness,--nobody will have her. Pierrette has nothing, and she'll +never marry. As for beauty, what is it? To me, for example, youth and +beauty are nothing; for haven't I been a captain of cavalry in the +imperial guard, and carried my spurs into all the capitals of Europe, +and known all the handsomest women of these capitals? Don't talk to +me; I tell you youth and beauty are devilishly common and silly. At +forty-eight," he went on, adding a few years to his age, to match +Sylvie's, "after surviving the retreat from Moscow and going through +that terrible campaign of France, a man is broken down; I'm nothing +but an old fellow now. A woman like you would pet me and care for me, +and her money, joined to my poor pension, would give me ease in my old +days; of course I should prefer such a woman to a little minx who +would worry the life out of me, and be thirty years old, with +passions, when I should be sixty, with rheumatism. At my age, a man +considers and calculates. To tell you the truth between ourselves, I +should not wish to have children." + +Sylvie's face was an open book to the colonel during this tirade, and +her next question proved to him Vinet's perfidy. + +"Then you don't love Pierrette?" she said. + +"Heavens! are you out of your mind, my dear Sylvie?" he cried. "Can +those who have no teeth crack nuts? Thank God I've got some common- +sense and know what I'm about." + +Sylvie thus reassured resolved not to show her own hand, and thought +herself very shrewd in putting her own ideas into her brother's mouth. + +"Jerome," she said, "thought of the match." + +"How could your brother take up such an incongruous idea? Why, it is +only a few days ago that, in order to find out his secrets, I told him +I loved Bathilde. He turned as white as your collar." + +"My brother! does he love Bathilde?" asked Sylvie. + +"Madly,--and yet Bathilde is only after his money." ("One for you, +Vinet!" thought the colonel.) "I can't understand why he should have +told you that about Pierrette. No, Sylvie," he said, taking her hand +and pressing it in a certain way, "since you have opened this matter" +(he drew nearer to her), "well" (he kissed her hand; as a cavalry +captain he had already proved his courage), "let me tell you that I +desire no wife but you. Though such a marriage may look like one of +convenience, I feel, on my side, a sincere affection for you." + +"But if I /wish/ you to marry Pierrette? if I leave her my fortune-- +eh, colonel?" + +"But I don't want to be miserable in my home, and in less than ten +years see a popinjay like Julliard hovering round my wife and +addressing verses to her in the newspapers. I'm too much of a man to +stand that. No, I will never make a marriage that is disproportionate +in age." + +"Well, colonel, we will talk seriously of this another time," said +Sylvie, casting a glance upon him which she supposed to be full of +love, though, in point of fact, it was a good deal like that of an +ogress. Her cold, blue lips of a violet tinge drew back from the +yellow teeth, and she thought she smiled. + +"I'm ready," said Rogron, coming in and carrying off the colonel, who +bowed in a lover-like way to the old maid. + +Gouraud determined to press on his marriage with Sylvie, and make +himself master of the house; resolving to rid himself, through his +influence over Sylvie during the honeymoon, of Bathilde and Celeste +Habert. So, during their walk, he told Rogron he had been joking the +other day; that he had no real intention of aspiring to Bathilde; that +he was not rich enough to marry a woman without fortune; and then he +confided to him his real wishes, declaring that he had long chosen +Sylvie for her good qualities,--in short, he aspired to the honor of +being Rogron's brother-in-law. + +"Ah, colonel, my dear baron! if nothing is wanting but my consent you +have it with no further delay than the law requires," cried Rogron, +delighted to be rid of his formidable rival. + +Sylvie spent the morning in her own room considering how the new +household could be arranged. She determined to build a second storey +for her brother and to furnish the rest for herself and her husband; +but she also resolved, in the true old-maidish spirit, to subject the +colonel to certain proofs by which to judge of his heart and his +morals before she finally committed herself. She was still suspicious, +and wanted to make sure that Pierrette had no private intercourse with +the colonel. + +Pierrette came down before the dinner-hour to lay the table. Sylvie +had been forced to cook the dinner, and had sworn at that "cursed +Pierrette" for a spot she had made on her gown,--wasn't it plain that +if Pierrette had done her own work Sylvie wouldn't have got that +grease-spot on her silk dress? + +"Oh, here you are, /peakling/? You are like the dog of the marshal who +woke up as soon as the saucepans rattled. Ha! you want us to think you +are ill, you little liar!" + +That idea: "You did not tell the truth about what happened in the +square this morning, therefore you lie in everything," was a hammer +with which Sylvie battered the head and also the heart of the poor +girl incessantly. + +To Pierrette's great astonishment Sylvie sent her to dress in her best +clothes after dinner. The liveliest imagination is never up to the +level of the activity which suspicion excites in the mind of an old +maid. In this particular case, this particular old maid carried the +day against politicians, lawyers, notaries, and all other self- +interests. Sylvie determined to consult Vinet, after examining herself +into all the suspicious circumstances. She kept Pierrette close to +her, so as to find out from the girl's face whether the colonel had +told her the truth. + +On this particular evening the Chargeboeuf ladies were the first to +arrive. Bathilde, by Vinet's advice, had become more elaborate in her +dress. She now wore a charming gown of blue velveteen, with the same +transparent fichu, garnet pendants in her ears, her hair in ringlets, +the wily /jeannette/ round her throat, black satin slippers, gray silk +stockings, and /gants de Suede/; add to these things the manners of a +queen and the coquetry of a young girl determined to capture Rogron. +Her mother, calm and dignified, retained, as did her daughter, a +certain aristocratic insolence, with which the two women hedged +themselves and preserved the spirit of their caste. Bathilde was a +woman of intelligence, a fact which Vinet alone had discovered during +the two months' stay the ladies had made at his house. When he had +fully fathomed the mind of the girl, wounded and disappointed as it +was by the fruitlessness of her beauty and her youth, and enlightened +by the contempt she felt for the men of a period in which money was +the only idol, Vinet, himself surprised, exclaimed,-- + +"If I could only have married you, Bathilde, I should to-day be Keeper +of the Seals. I should call myself Vinet de Chargeboeuf, and take my +seat as deputy of the Right." + +Bathilde had no vulgar idea in her marriage intentions. She did not +marry to be a mother, nor to possess a husband; she married for +freedom, to gain a responsible position, to be called "madame," and to +act as men act. Rogron was nothing but a name to her; she expected to +make something of the fool,--a voting deputy, for instance, whose +instigator she would be; moreover, she longed to avenge herself on her +family, who had taken no notice of a girl without money. Vinet had +much enlarged and strengthened her ideas by admiring and approving +them. + +"My dear Bathilde," he said, while explaining to her the influence of +women, and showing her the sphere of action in which she ought to +work, "do you suppose that Tiphaine, a man of the most ordinary +capacity, could ever get to be a judge of the Royal court in Paris by +himself? No, it is Madame Tiphaine who has got him elected deputy, and +it is she who will push him when they get to Paris. Her mother, Madame +Roguin, is a shrewd woman, who does what she likes with the famous +banker du Tillet, a crony of Nucingen, and both of them allies of the +Kellers. The administration is on the best of terms with those lynxes +of the bank. There is no reason why Tiphaine should not be judge, +through his wife, of a Royal court. Marry Rogron; we'll have him +elected deputy from Provins as soon as I gain another precinct in the +Seine-et-Marne. You can then get him a place as receiver-general, +where he'll have nothing to do but sign his name. We shall belong to +the opposition /if/ the Liberals triumph, but if the Bourbons remain-- +ah! then we shall lean gently, gently towards the centre. Besides, you +must remember Rogron can't live forever, and then you can marry a +titled man. In short, put yourself in a good position, and the +Chargeboeufs will be ready enough to serve us. Your poverty has no +doubt taught you, as mine did me, to know what men are worth. We must +make use of them as we do of post-horses. A man, or a woman, will take +us along to such or such a distance." + +Vinet ended by making Bathilde a small edition of Catherine de +Medicis. He left his wife at home, rejoiced to be alone with her two +children, while he went every night to the Rogrons' with Madame and +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. He arrived there in all the glory of +better circumstances. His spectacles were of gold, his waistcoat silk; +a white cravat, black trousers, thin boots, a black coat made in +Paris, and a gold watch and chain, made up his apparel. In place of +the former Vinet, pale and thin, snarling and gloomy, the present +Vinet bore himself with the air and manner of a man of importance; he +marched boldly forward, certain of success, with that peculiar show of +security which belongs to lawyers who know the hidden places of the +law. His sly little head was well-brushed, his chin well-shaved, which +gave him a mincing though frigid look, that made him seem agreeable in +the style of Robespierre. Certainly he would make a fine attorney- +general, endowed with elastic, mischievous, and even murderous +eloquence, or an orator of the shrewd type of Benjamin Constant. The +bitterness and the hatred which formerly actuated him had now turned +into soft-spoken perfidy; the poison was transformed into anodyne. + +"Good-evening, my dear; how are you?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf, +greeting Sylvie. + +Bathilde went straight to the fireplace, took off her bonnet, looked +at herself in the glass, and placed her pretty foot on the fender that +Rogron might admire it. + +"What is the matter with you?" she said to him, looking directly in +his face. "You have not bowed to me. Pray why should we put on our +best velvet gowns to please you?" + +She pushed past Pierrette to lay down her hat, which the latter took +from her hand, and which she let her take exactly as though she were a +servant. Men are supposed to be ferocious, and tigers too; but neither +tigers, vipers, diplomatists, lawyers, executioners or kings ever +approach, in their greatest atrocities, the gentle cruelty, the +poisoned sweetness, the savage disdain of one young woman for another, +when she thinks herself superior in birth, or fortune, or grace, and +some question of marriage, or precedence, or any of the feminine +rivalries, is raised. The "Thank you, mademoiselle," which Bathilde +said to Pierrette was a poem in many strophes. She was named Bathilde, +and the other Pierrette. She was a Chargeboeuf, the other a Lorrain. +Pierrette was small and weak, Bathilde was tall and full of life. +Pierrette was living on charity, Bathilde and her mother lived on +their means. Pierrette wore a stuff gown with a chemisette, Bathilde +made the velvet of hers undulate. Bathilde had the finest shoulders in +the department, and the arm of a queen; Pierrette's shoulder-blades +were skin and bone. Pierrette was Cinderella, Bathilde was the fairy. +Bathilde was about to marry, Pierrette was to die a maid. Bathilde was +adored, Pierrette was loved by none. Bathilde's hair was ravishingly +dressed, she had so much taste; Pierrette's was hidden beneath her +Breton cap, and she knew nothing of the fashions. Moral, Bathilde was +everything, Pierrette nothing. The proud little Breton girl understood +this tragic poem. + +"Good-evening, little girl," said Madame de Chargeboeuf, from the +height of her condescending grandeur, and in the tone of voice which +her pinched nose gave her. + +Vinet put the last touch to this sort of insult by looking fixedly at +Pierrette and saying, in three keys, "Oh! oh! oh! how fine we are +to-night, Pierrette!" + +"Fine!" said the poor child; "you should say that to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf, not to me." + +"Oh! she is always beautifully dressed," replied the lawyer. "Isn't +she, Rogron?" he added, turning to the master of the house, and +grasping his hand. + +"Yes," said Rogron. + +"Why do you force him to say what he does not think?" said Bathilde; +"nothing about me pleases him. Isn't that true?" she added, going up +to Rogron and standing before him. "Look at me, and say if it isn't +true." + +Rogron looked at her from head to foot, and gently closed his eyes +like a cat whose head is being scratched. + +"You are too beautiful," he said; "too dangerous." + +"Why?" + +Rogron looked at the fire and was silent. Just then Mademoiselle +Habert entered the room, followed by the colonel. + +Celeste Habert, who had now become the common enemy, could only reckon +Sylvie on her side; nevertheless, everybody present showed her the +more civility and amiable attention because each was undermining her. +Her brother, though no longer able to be on the scene of action, was +well aware of what was going on, and as soon as he perceived that his +sister's hopes were killed he became an implacable and terrible +antagonist to the Rogrons. + +Every one will immediately picture to themselves Mademoiselle Habert +when they know that if she had not kept an institution for young +ladies she would still have had the air of a school-mistress. School- +mistresses have a way of their own in putting on their caps. Just as +old Englishwomen have acquired a monopoly in turbans, school- +mistresses have a monopoly of these caps. Flowers nod above the frame- +work, flowers that are more than artificial; lying by in closets for +years the cap is both new and old, even on the day it is first worn. +These spinsters make it a point of honor to resemble the lay figures +of a painter; they sit on their hips, never on their chairs. When any +one speaks to them they turn their whole busts instead of simply +turning their heads; and when their gowns creak one is tempted to +believe that the mechanism of these beings is out of order. +Mademoiselle Habert, an ideal of her species, had a stern eye, a grim +mouth, and beneath her wrinkled chin the strings of her cap, always +limp and faded, floated as she moved. Two moles, rather large and +brown, adorned that chin, and from them sprouted hairs which she +allowed to grow rampant like clematis. And finally, to complete her +portrait, she took snuff, and took it ungracefully. + +The company went to work at their boston. Mademoiselle Habert sat +opposite to Sylvie, with the colonel at her side opposite to Madame de +Chargeboeuf. Bathilde was near her mother and Rogron. Sylvie placed +Pierrette between herself and the colonel; Rogron had set out a second +card-table, in case other company arrived. Two lamps were on the +chimney-piece between the candelabra and the clock, and the tables +were lighted by candles at forty sous a pound, paid for by the price +of the cards. + +"Come, Pierrette, take your work, my dear," said Sylvie, with +treacherous softness, noticing that the girl was watching the +colonel's game. + +She usually affected to treat Pierrette well before company. This +deception irritated the honest Breton girl, and made her despise her +cousin. She took her embroidery, but as she drew her stitches she +still watched Gouraud's play. Gouraud behaved as if he did not know +the girl was near him. Sylvie noticed this apparent indifference and +thought it extremely suspicious. Presently she undertook a /grande +misere/ in hearts, the pool being full of counters, besides containing +twenty-seven sous. The rest of the company had now arrived; among them +the deputy-judge Desfondrilles, who for the last two months had +abandoned the Tiphaine party and connected himself more or less with +the Vinets. He was standing before the chimney-piece, with his back to +the fire and the tails of his coat over his arms, looking round the +fine salon of which Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf was the shining +ornament; for it really seemed as if all the reds of its decoration +had been made expressly to enhance her style of beauty. Silence +reigned; Pierrette was watching the game, Sylvie's attention was +distracted from her by the interest of the /grande misere/. + +"Play that," said Pierrette to the colonel, pointing to a heart in his +hand. + +The colonel began a sequence in hearts; the hearts all lay between +himself and Sylvie; the colonel won her ace, though it was protected +by five small hearts. + +"That's not fair!" she cried. "Pierrette saw my hand, and the colonel +took her advice." + +"But, mademoiselle," said Celeste, "it was the colonel's game to play +hearts after you began them." + +The scene made Monsieur Desfondrilles smile; his was a keen mind, +which found much amusement in watching the play of all the self- +interests in Provins. + +"Yes, it was certainly the colonel's game," said Cournant the notary, +not knowing what the question was. + +Sylvie threw a look at Mademoiselle Habert,--one of those glances +which pass from old maid to old maid, feline and cruel. + +"Pierrette, you did see my hand," said Sylvie fixing her eyes on the +girl. + +"No, cousin." + +"I was looking at you all," said the deputy-judge, "and I can swear +that Pierrette saw no one's hand but the colonel's." + +"Pooh!" said Gouraud, alarmed, "little girls know how to slide their +eyes into everything." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"Yes," continued Gouraud. "I dare say she looked into your hand to +play you a trick. Didn't you, little one?" + +"No," said the truthful Breton, "I wouldn't do such a thing; if I had, +it would have been in my cousin's interests." + +"You know you are a story-teller and a little fool," cried Sylvie. +"After what happened this morning do you suppose I can believe a word +you say? You are a--" + +Pierrette did not wait for Sylvie to finish her sentence; foreseeing a +torrent of insults, she rushed away without a light and ran to her +room. Sylvie turned white with anger and muttered between her teeth, +"She shall pay for this!" + +"Shall you pay for the /misere/?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf. + +As she spoke Pierrette struck her head against the door of the passage +which some one had left open. + +"Good! I'm glad of it," cried Sylvie, as they heard the blow. + +"She must be hurt," said Desfondrilles. + +"She deserves it," replied Sylvie. + +"It was a bad blow," said Mademoiselle Habert. + +Sylvie thought she might escape paying her /misere/ if she went to see +after Pierrette, but Madame de Chargeboeuf stopped her. + +"Pay us first," she said, laughing; "you will forget it when you come +back." + +The remark, based on the old maid's trickery and her bad faith in +paying her debts at cards was approved by the others. Sylvie sat down +and thought no more of Pierrette,--an indifference which surprised no +one. When the game was over, about half past nine o'clock, she flung +herself into an easy chair at the corner of the fireplace and did not +even rise as her guests departed. The colonel was torturing her; she +did not know what to think of him. + +"Men are so false!" she cried, as she went to bed. + +Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow on the head, just above +the ear, at the spot where young girls part their hair when they put +their "front hair" in curlpapers. The next day there was a large +swelling. + +"God has punished you," said Sylvie at the breakfast table. "You +disobeyed me; you treated me with disrespect in leaving the room +before I had finished my sentence; you got what you deserved." + +"Nevertheless," said Rogron, "she ought to put on a compress of salt +and water." + +"Oh, it is nothing at all, cousin," said Pierrette. + +The poor child had reached a point where even such a remark seemed to +her a proof of kindness. + + + +VIII + +THE LOVES OF JACQUES AND PIERRETTE + +The week ended as it had begun, in continual torture. Sylvie grew +ingenious, and found refinements of tyranny with almost savage +cruelty; the red Indians might have taken a lesson from her. Pierrette +dared not complain of her vague sufferings, nor of the actual pains +she now felt in her head. The origin of her cousin's present anger was +the non-revelation of Brigaut's arrival. With Breton obstinacy +Pierrette was determined to keep silence,--a resolution that is +perfectly explicable. It is easy to see how her thoughts turned to +Brigaut, fearing some danger for him if he were discovered, yet +instinctively longing to have him near her, and happy in knowing he +was in Provins. What joy to have seen him! That single glimpse was +like the look an exile casts upon his country, or the martyr lifts to +heaven, where his eyes, gifted with second-sight, can enter while +flames consume his body. + +Pierrette's glance had been so thoroughly understood by the major's +son that, as he planed his planks or took his measures or joined his +wood, he was working his brains to find out some way of communicating +with her. He ended by choosing the simplest of all schemes. At a +certain hour of the night Pierrette must lower a letter by a string +from her window. In the midst of the girl's own sufferings, she too +was sustained by the hope of being able to communicate with Brigaut. +The same desire was in both hearts; parted, they understood each +other! At every shock to her heart, every throb of pain in her head, +Pierrette said to herself, "Brigaut is here!" and that thought enabled +her to live without complaint. + +One morning in the market, Brigaut, lying in wait, was able to get +near her. Though he saw her tremble and turn pale, like an autumn leaf +about to flutter down, he did not lose his head, but quietly bought +fruit of the market-woman with whom Sylvie was bargaining. He found +his chance of slipping a note to Pierrette, all the while joking the +woman with the ease of a man accustomed to such manoeuvres; so cool +was he in action, though the blood hummed in his ears and rushed +boiling through his veins and arteries. He had the firmness of a +galley-slave without, and the shrinkings of innocence within him,-- +like certain mothers in their moments of mortal trial, when held +between two dangers, two catastrophes. + +Pierrette's inward commotion was like Brigaut's. She slipped the note +into the pocket of her apron. The hectic spots upon her cheekbones +turned to a cherry-scarlet. These two children went through, all +unknown to themselves, many more emotions than go to the make-up of a +dozen ordinary loves. This moment in the market-place left in their +souls a well-spring of passionate feeling. Sylvie, who did not +recognize the Breton accent, took no notice of Brigaut, and Pierrette +went home safely with her treasure. + +The letters of these two poor children were fated to serve as +documents in a terrible judicial inquiry; otherwise, without the fatal +circumstances that occasioned that inquiry, they would never have been +heard of. Here is the one which Pierrette read that night in her +chamber:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--At midnight, when everybody is asleep but me, + who am watching you, I will come every night under your window. + Let down a string long enough to reach me; it will not make any + noise; you must fasten to the end of it whatever you write to me. + I will tie my letter in the same way. I hear /they/ have taught + you to read and write,--those wicked relations who were to do you + good, and have done you so much harm. You, Pierrette, the daughter + of a colonel who died for France, reduced by those monsters to be + their servant! That is where all your pretty color and health have + gone. My Pierrette, what has become of her? what have they done + with her. I see plainly you are not the same, not happy. Oh! + Pierrette, let us go back to Brittany. I can earn enough now to + give you what you need; for you yourself can earn three francs a + day and I can earn four or five; and thirty sous is all I want to + live on. Ah! Pierrette, how I have prayed the good God for you + ever since I came here! I have asked him to give me all your + sufferings, and you all pleasures. Why do you stay with them? why + do they keep you? Your grandmother is more to you than they. They + are vipers; they have taken your gaiety away from you. You do not + even walk as you once did in Brittany. Let us go back. I am here + to serve you, to do your will; tell me what you wish. If you need + money I have a hundred and fifty francs; I can send them up by the + string, though I would like to kiss your dear hands and lay the + money in them. Ah, dear Pierrette, it is a long time now that the + blue sky has been overcast for me. I have not had two hours' + happiness since I put you into that diligence of evil. And when I + saw you the other morning, looking like a shadow, I could not + reach you; that hag of a cousin came between us. But at least we + can have the consolation of praying to God together every Sunday + in church; perhaps he will hear us all the more when we pray + together. + + Not good-by, my dear, Pierrette, but /to-night/. + +This letter so affected Pierrette that she sat for more than an hour +reading and re-reading and gazing at it. Then she remembered with +anguish that she had nothing to write with. She summoned courage to +make the difficult journey from her garret to the dining-room, where +she obtained pen, paper, and ink, and returned safely without waking +her terrible cousin. A few minutes before midnight she had finished +the following letter:-- + + My Friend,--Oh! yes, my friend; for there is no one but you, + Jacques, and my grandmother to love me. God forgive me, but you + are the only two persons whom I love, both alike, neither more nor + less. I was too little to know my dear mamma; but you, Jacques, + and my grandmother, and my grandfather,--God grant him heaven, for + he suffered much from his ruin, which was mine,--but you two who + are left, I love you both, unhappy as I am. Indeed, to know how + much I love you, you will have to know how much I suffer; but I + don't wish that, it would grieve you too much. /They/ speak to me + as we would not speak to a dog; /they/ treat me like the worst of + girls; and yet I do examine myself before God, and I cannot find + that I do wrong by them. Before you sang to me the marriage song I + saw the mercy of God in my sufferings; for I had prayed to him to + take me from the world, and I felt so ill I said to myself, "God + hears me!" But, Jacques, now you are here, I want to live and go + back to Brittany, to my grandmamma who loves me, though /they/ say + she stole eight thousand francs of mine. Jacques, is that so? If + they are mine could you get them! But it is not true, for if my + grandmother had eight thousand francs she would not live at Saint- + Jacques. + + I don't want to trouble her last days, my kind, good grandmamma, + with the knowledge of my troubles; she might die of it. Ah! if she + knew they made her grandchild scrub the pots and pans,--she who + used to say to me, when I wanted to help her after her troubles, + "Don't touch that, my darling; leave it--leave it--you will spoil + your pretty fingers." Ah! my hands are never clean now. Sometimes + I can hardly carry the basket home from market, it cuts my arm. + Still I don't think my cousins mean to be cruel; but it is their + way always to scold, and it seems that I have no right to leave + them. My cousin Rogron is my guardian. One day when I wanted to + run away because I could not bear it, and told them so, my cousin + Sylvie said the gendarmes would go after me, for the law was my + master. Oh! I know now that cousins cannot take the place of + father or mother, any more than the saints can take the place of + God. + + My poor Jacques, what do you suppose I could do with your money? + Keep it for our journey. Oh! how I think of you and Pen-Hoel, and + the big pong,--that's where we had our only happy days. I shall + have no more, for I feel I am going from bad to worse. I am very + ill, Jacques. I have dreadful pains in my head, and in my bones, + and back, which kill me, and I have no appetite except for horrid + things,--roots and leaves and such things. Sometimes I cry, when I + am all alone, for they won't let me do anything I like if they + know it, not even cry. I have to hide to offer my tears to Him to + whom we owe the mercies which we call afflictions. It must have + been He who gave you the blessed thought to come and sing the + marriage song beneath my window. Ah! Jacques, my cousin heard you, + and she said I had a lover. If you wish to be my lover, love me + well. I promise to love you always, as I did in the past, and to + be +Your faithful servant, +Pierrette Lorrain. + + You will love me always, won't you? + + +She had brought a crust of bread from the kitchen, in which she now +made a hole for the letter, and fastened it like a weight to her +string. At midnight, having opened her window with extreme caution, +she lowered the letter with the crust, which made no noise against +either the wall of the house or the blinds. Presently she felt the +string pulled by Brigaut, who broke it and then crept softly away. +When he reached the middle of the square she could see him +indistinctly by the starlight; but he saw her quite clearly in the +zone of light thrown by the candle. The two children stood thus for +over an hour, Pierrette making him signs to go, he starting, she +remaining, he coming back to his post, and Pierrette again signing +that he must leave her. This was repeated till the child closed her +window, went to bed, and blew out the candle. Once in bed she fell +asleep, happy in heart though suffering in body,--she had Brigaut's +letter under her pillow. She slept as the persecuted sleep,--a slumber +bright with angels; that slumber full of heavenly arabesques, in +atmospheres of gold and lapis-lazuli, perceived and given to us by +Raffaelle. + +The moral nature had such empire over that frail physical nature that +on the morrow Pierrette rose light and joyous as a lark, as radiant +and as gay. Such a change could not escape the vigilant eye of her +cousin Sylvie, who, this time, instead of scolding her, set about +watching her with the scrutiny of a magpie. "What reason is there for +such happiness?" was a thought of jealousy, not of tyranny. If the +colonel had not been in Sylvie's mind she would have said to Pierrette +as formerly, "Pierrette, you are very noise, and very regardless of +what you have often been told." But now the old maid resolved to spy +upon her as only old maids can spy. The day was still and gloomy, like +the weather that precedes a storm. + +"You don't appear to be ill now, mademoiselle," said Sylvie at dinner. +"Didn't I tell you she put it all on to annoy us?" she cried, +addressing her brother, and not waiting for Pierrette's answer. + +"On the contrary, cousin, I have a sort of fever--" + +"Fever! what fever? You are as gay as a lark. Perhaps you have seen +some one again?" + +Pierrette trembled and dropped her eyes on her plate. + +"Tartufe!" cried Sylvie; "and only fourteen years old! what a nature! +Do you mean to come to a bad end?" + +"I don't know what you mean," said Pierrette, raising her sweet and +luminous brown eyes to her cousin. + +"This evening," said Sylvie, "you are to stay in the dining-room with +a candle, and do your sewing. You are not wanted in the salon; I +sha'n't have you looking into my hand to help your favorites." + +Pierrette made no sign. + +"Artful creature!" cried Sylvie, leaving the room. + +Rogron, who did not understand his sister's anger, said to Pierrette: +"What is all this about? Try to please your cousin, Pierrette; she is +very indulgent to you, very gentle, and if you put her out of temper +the fault is certainly yours. Why do you squabble so? For my part I +like to live in peace. Look at Mademoiselle Bathilde and take pattern +by her." + +Pierrette felt able to bear everything. Brigaut would come at midnight +and bring her an answer, and that hope was the viaticum of her day. +But she was using up her last strength. She did not go to bed, and +stood waiting for the hour to strike. At last midnight sounded; softly +she opened the window; this time she used a string made by tying bits +of twine together. She heard Brigaut's step, and on drawing up the +cord she found the following letter, which filled her with joy:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--As you are so ill you must not tire yourself + by waiting for me. You will hear me if I cry like an owl. Happily + my father taught me to imitate their note. So when you hear the + cry three times you will know I am there, and then you must let + down the cord. But I shall not come again for some days. I hope + then to bring you good news. + + Oh! Pierrette, don't talk of dying! Pierrette, don't think such + things! All my heart shook, I felt as though I were dead myself at + the mere idea. No, my Pierrette, you must not die; you will live + happy, and soon you shall be delivered from your persecutors. If I + do not succeed in what I am undertaking for your rescue, I shall + appeal to the law, and I shall speak out before heaven and earth + and tell how your wicked relations are treating you. I am certain + that you have not many more days to suffer; have patience, my + Pierrette! Jacques is watching over you as in the old days when we + slid on the pond and I pulled you out of the hole in which we were + nearly drowned together. + + Adieu, my dear Pierrette; in a few days, if God wills, we shall be + happy. Alas, I dare not tell you the only thing that may hinder + our meeting. But God loves us! In a few days I shall see my dear + Pierrette at liberty, without troubles, without any one to hinder + my looking at you--for, ah! Pierrette, I hunger to see you-- + Pierrette, Pierrette, who deigns to love me and to tell me so. + Yes, Pierrette, I will be your lover when I have earned the + fortune you deserve; till then I will be to you only a devoted + servant whose life is yours to do what you please with it. Adieu. + +Jacques Brigaut. + + +Here is a letter of which the major's son said nothing to Pierrette. +He wrote it to Madame Lorrain at Nantes:-- + + Madame Lorrain,--Your granddaughter will die, worn-out with ill- + treatment, if you do not come to fetch her. I could scarcely + recognize her; and to show you the state of things I enclose a + letter I have received from Pierrette. You are thought here to + have taken the money of your granddaughter, and you ought to + justify yourself. If you can, come at once. We may still be happy; + but if delay Pierrette will be dead. + + I am, with respect, your devoted servant, +Jacques Brigaut. + + At Monsieur Frappier's, Cabinet-maker, Grand'Rue, Provins. + + +Brigaut's fear was that the grandmother was dead. + +Though this letter of the youth whom in her innocence she called her +lover was almost enigmatical to Pierrette, she believed in it with all +her virgin faith. Her heart was filled with that sensation which +travellers in the desert feel when they see from afar the palm-trees +round a well. In a few days her misery would end--Jacques said so. She +relied on this promise of her childhood's friend; and yet, as she laid +the letter beside the other, a dreadful thought came to her in +foreboding words. + +"Poor Jacques," she said to herself, "he does not know the hole into +which I have now fallen!" + +Sylvie had heard Pierrette, and she had also heard Brigaut under her +window. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the window to look through +the blinds into the square and there she saw, in the moonlight, a man +hurrying in the direction of the colonel's house, in front of which +Brigaut happened to stop. The old maid gently opened her door, went +upstairs, was amazed to find a light in Pierrette's room, looked +through the keyhole, and could see nothing. + +"Pierrette," she said, "are you ill?" + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, surprised. + +"Why is your candle burning at this time of night? Open the door; I +must know what this means." + +Pierrette went to the door bare-footed, and as soon as Sylvie entered +the room she saw the cord, which Pierrette had forgotten to put away, +not dreaming of a surprise. Sylvie jumped upon it. + +"What is that for?" she asked. + +"Nothing, cousin." + +"Nothing!" she cried. "Always lying; you'll never get to heaven that +way. Go to bed; you'll take cold." + +She asked no more questions and went away, leaving Pierrette terrified +by her unusual clemency. Instead of exploding with rage, Sylvie had +suddenly determined to surprise Pierrette and the colonel together, to +seize their letters and confound the two lovers who were deceiving +her. Pierrette, inspired by a sense of danger, sewed the letters into +her corset and covered them with calico. + +Here end the loves of Pierrette and Brigaut. + +Pierrette rejoiced in the thought that Jacques had determined to hold +no communication with her for some days, because her cousin's +suspicions would be quieted by finding nothing to feed them. Sylvie +did in fact spend the next three nights on her legs, and each evening +in watching the innocent colonel, without discovering either in him or +in Pierrette, or in the house or out of it, anything that betrayed +their understanding. She sent Pierrette to confession, and seized that +moment to search the child's room, with the method and penetration of +a spy or a custom-house officer. She found nothing. Her fury reached +the apogee of human sentiments. If Pierrette had been there she would +certainly have struck her remorselessly. To a woman of her temper, +jealousy was less a sentiment than an occupation; she existed in it, +it made her heart beat, she felt emotions hitherto completely unknown +to her; the slightest sound or movement kept her on the qui vive; she +watched Pierrette with gloomy intentness. + +"That miserable little wretch will kill me," she said. + +Sylvie's severity to her cousin reached the point of refined cruelty, +and made the deplorable condition of the poor girl worse daily. She +had fever regularly, and the pains in her head became intolerable. By +the end of the week even the visitors at the house noticed her +suffering face, which would have touched to pity all selfishness less +cruel than theirs. It happened that Doctor Neraud, possibly by Vinet's +advice, did not come to the house during that week. The colonel, +knowing himself suspected by Sylvie, was afraid to risk his marriage +by showing any solicitude for Pierrette. Bathilde explained the +visible change in the girl by her natural growth. But at last, one +Sunday evening, when Pierrette was in the salon, her sufferings +overcame her and she fainted away. The colonel, who first saw her +going, caught her in his arms and carried her to a sofa. + +"She did it on purpose," said Sylvie, looking at Mademoiselle Habert +and the rest who were playing boston with her. + +"I assure you that your cousin is very ill," said the colonel. + +"She seemed well enough in your arms," Sylvie said to him in a low +voice, with a savage smile. + +"The colonel is right," said Madame de Chargeboeuf. "You ought to send +for a doctor. This morning at church every one was speaking, as they +came out, of Mademoiselle Lorrain's appearance." + +"I am dying," said Pierrette. + +Desfondrilles called to Sylvie and told her to unfasten her cousin's +gown. Sylvie went up to the girl, saying, "It is only a tantrum." + +She unfastened the gown and was about to touch the corset, when +Pierrette, roused by the danger, sat up with superhuman strength, +exclaiming, "No, no, I will go to bed." + +Sylvie had, however, touched the corset and felt the papers. She let +Pierrette go, saying to the company: + +"What do you think now of her illness? I tell you it is all a +pretence. You have no idea of the perversity of that child." + +After the card-playing was over she kept Vinet from following the +other guests; she was furious and wanted vengeance, and was grossly +rude to the colonel when he bade her good-night. Gouraud threw a look +at the lawyer which threatened him to the depths of his being and +seemed to put a ball in his entrails. Sylvie told Vinet to remain. +When they were alone, she said,-- + +"Never in my life, never in my born days, will I marry the colonel." + +"Now that you have come to that decision I may speak," said the +lawyer. "The colonel is my friend, but I am more yours than his. +Rogron has done me services which I can never forget. I am as strong a +friend as I am an enemy. Once in the Chamber I shall rise to power, +and I will make your brother a receiver-general. Now swear to me, +before I say more, that you will never repeat what I tell you." +(Sylvie made an affirmative sign.) "In the first place, the brave +colonel is a gambler--" + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"If it had not been for the embarrassments this vice has brought upon +him, he might have been a marshal of France," continued Vinet. "He is +capable of running through your property; but he is very astute; you +cannot be sure of not having children, and you told me yourself the +risks you feared. No, if you want to marry, wait till I am in the +Chamber and then take that old Desfondrilles, who shall be made chief +justice. If you want revenge on the colonel make your brother marry +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf,--I can get her consent; she has two +thousand francs a year, and you will be connected with the de +Chargeboeufs as I am. Recollect what I tell you, the Chargeboeufs will +be glad to claim us for cousins some day." + +"Gouraud loves Pierrette," was Sylvie's only answer. + +"He is quite capable of it," said Vinet, "and capable of marrying her +after your death." + +"A fine calculation!" she said. + +"I tell you that man has the shrewdness of the devil. Marry your +brother and announce that you mean to remain unmarried and will leave +your property to your nephews and nieces. That will strike a blow at +Gouraud and Pierrette both! and you'll see the faces they'll make." + +"Ah! that's true," cried the old maid, "I can serve them both right. +She shall go to a shop, and get nothing from me. She hasn't a sou; let +her do as we did,--work." + +Vinet departed, having put his plan into Sylvie's head, her dogged +obstinacy being well-known to him. The old maid, he was certain, would +think the scheme her own, and carry it out. + +The lawyer found the colonel in the square, smoking a cigar while he +waited for him. + +"Halt!" said Gouraud; "you have pulled me down, but stones enough came +with me to bury you--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"Colonel or not, I shall give you your deserts. In the first place, +you shall not be deputy--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"I control ten votes and the election depends on--" + +"Colonel, listen to me. Is there no one to marry but that old Sylvie? +I have just been defending you to her; you are accused and convicted +of writing to Pierrette; she saw you leave your house at midnight and +come to the girl's window--" + +"Stuff and nonsense!" + +"She means to marry her brother to Bathilde and leave her fortune to +their children." + +"Rogron won't have any." + +"Yes he will," replied Vinet. "But I promise to find you some young +and agreeable woman with a hundred and fifty thousand francs? Don't be +a fool; how can you and I afford to quarrel? Things have gone against +you in spite of all my care; but you don't understand me." + +"Then we must understand each other," said the colonel. "Get me a wife +with a hundred and fifty thousand francs before the elections; if not +--look out for yourself! I don't like unpleasant bed-fellows, and +you've pulled the blankets all over to your side. Good-evening." + +"You shall see," said Vinet, grasping the colonel's hand +affectionately. + +***** + +About one o'clock that night three clear, sharp cries of an owl, +wonderfully well imitated, echoed through the square. Pierrette heard +them in her feverish sleep; she jumped up, moist with perspiration, +opened her window, saw Brigaut, and flung down a ball of silk, to +which he fastened a letter. Sylvie, agitated by the events of the day +and her own indecision of mind, was not asleep; she heard the owl. + +"Ah, bird of ill-omen!" she thought. "Why, Pierrette is getting up! +What is she after?" + +Hearing the attic window open softly, Sylvie rushed to her own window +and heard the rustle of paper against her blinds. She fastened the +strings of her bed-gown and went quickly upstairs to Pierrette's room, +where she found the poor girl unwinding the silk and freeing the +letter. + +"Ha! I've caught you!" cried the old woman, rushing to the window, +from which she saw Jacques running at full speed. "Give me that +letter." + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, who, by one of those strong inspirations +of youth sustained by her own soul, rose to a grandeur of resistance +such as we admire in the history of certain peoples reduced to +despair. + +"Ha! you will not?" cried Sylvie, advancing upon the girl with a face +full of hatred and fury. + +Pierrette fell back to get time to put her letter in her hand, which +she clenched with unnatural force. Seeing this manoeuvre Sylvie +grasped the delicate white hand of the girl in her lobster claws and +tried to open it. It was a frightful struggle, an infamous struggle; +it was more than a physical struggle; it assailed the mind, the sole +treasure of the human being, the thought, which God has placed beyond +all earthly power and guards as the secret way between the sufferer +and Himself. The two women, one dying, the other in the vigor of +health, looked at each other fixedly. Pierrette's eyes darted on her +executioner the look the famous Templar on the rack cast upon Philippe +le Bel, who could not bear it and fled thunderstricken. Sylvie, a +woman and a jealous woman, answered that magnetic look with malignant +flashes. A dreadful silence reigned. The clenched hand of the Breton +girl resisted her cousin's efforts like a block of steel. Sylvie +twisted Pierrette's arm, she tried to force the fingers open; unable +to do so she stuck her nails into the flesh. At last, in her madness, +she set her teeth into the wrist, trying to conquer the girl by pain. +Pierrette defied her still, with that same terrible glance of +innocence. The anger of the old maid grew to such a pitch that it +became blind fury. She seized Pierrette's arm and struck the closed +fist upon the window-sill, and then upon the marble of the +mantelpiece, as we crack a nut to get the kernel. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, "they are murdering me!" + +"Ha! you may well scream, when I catch you with a lover in the dead of +night." + +And she beat the hand pitilessly. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, the blood flowing. + +At that instant, loud knocks were heard at the front door. Exhausted, +the two women paused a moment. + +Rogron, awakened and uneasy, not knowing what was happening, had got +up, gone to his sister's room, and not finding her was frightened. +Hearing the knocks he went down, unfastened the front door, and was +nearly knocked over by Brigaut, followed by a sort of phantom. + +At this moment Sylvie's eyes chanced to fall on Pierrette's corset, +and she remembered the papers. Releasing the girl's wrist she sprang +upon the corset like a tiger on its prey, and showed it to Pierrette +with a smile,--the smile of an Iroquois over his victim before he +scalps him. + +"I am dying," said Pierrette, falling on her knees, "oh, who will save +me?" + +"I!" said a woman with white hair and an aged parchment face, in which +two gray eyes glittered. + +"Ah! grandmother, you have come too late," cried the poor child, +bursting into tears. + +Pierrette fell upon her bed, her strength all gone, half-dead with the +exhaustion which, in her feeble state, followed so violent a struggle. +The tall gray woman took her in her arms, as a nurse lifts a child, +and went out, followed by Brigaut, without a word to Sylvie, on whom +she cast one glance of majestic accusation. + +The apparition of that august old woman, in her Breton costume, +shrouded in her coif (a sort of hooded mantle of black cloth), +accompanied by Brigaut, appalled Sylvie; she fancied she saw death. +She slowly went down the stairs, listened to the front door closing +behind them, and came face to face with her brother, who exclaimed: +"Then they haven't killed you?" + +"Go to bed," said Sylvie. "To-morrow we will see what we must do." + +She went back to her own bed, ripped open the corset, and read +Brigaut's two letters, which confounded her. She went to sleep in the +greatest perplexity,--not imagining the terrible results to which her +conduct was to lead. + +***** + +The letters sent by Brigaut to old Madame Lorrain reached her in a +moment of ineffable joy, which the perusal of them troubled. The poor +old woman had grieved deeply in living without her Pierrette beside +her, but she had consoled her loneliness with the thought that the +sacrifice of herself was in the interests of her grandchild. She was +blessed with one of those ever-young hearts which are upheld and +invigorated by the idea of sacrifice. Her old husband, whose only joy +was his little granddaughter, had grieved for Pierrette; every day he +had seemed to look for her. It was an old man's grief,--on which such +old men live, of which they die. + +Every one can now imagine the happiness which this poor old woman, +living in a sort of almshouse, felt when she learned of a generous +action, rare indeed but not impossible in France. The head of the +house of Collinet, whose failure in 1814 had caused the Lorrains a +loss of twenty-four thousand francs, had gone to America with his +children after his disasters. He had too high a courage to remain a +ruined man. After eleven years of untold effort crowned by success he +returned to Nantes to recover his position, leaving his eldest son in +charge of his transatlantic house. He found Madame Lorrain of Pen-Hoel +in the institution of Saint-Jacques, and was witness of the +resignation with which this most unfortunate of his creditors bore her +misery. + +"God forgive you!" said the old woman, "since you give me on the +borders of my grave the means of securing the happiness of my dear +granddaughter; but alas! it will not clear the debts of my poor +husband!" + +Monsieur Collinet made over to the widow both the capital and the +accrued interest, amounting to about forty-two thousand francs. His +other creditors, prosperous, rich, and intelligent merchants, had +easily born their losses, whereas the misfortunes of the Lorrains +seemed so irremediable to old Monsieur Collinet that he promised the +widow to pay off her husband's debts, to the amount of forty thousand +francs more. When the Bourse of Nantes heard of this generous +reparation they wished to receive Collinet to their board before his +certificates were granted by the Royal court at Rennes; but the +merchant refused the honor, preferring to submit to the ordinary +commercial rule. + +Madame Lorrain had received the money only the day before the post +brought her Brigaut's letter, enclosing that of Pierrette. Her first +thought had been, as she signed the receipt: "Now I can live with my +Pierrette and marry her to that good Brigaut, who will make a fortune +with my money." + +Therefore the moment she had read the fatal letters she made instant +preparations to start for Provins. She left Nantes that night by the +mail; for some one had explained to her its celerity. In Paris she +took the diligence for Troyes, which passes through Provins, and by +half-past eleven at night she reached Frappier's, where Brigaut, +shocked at her despairing looks, told her of Pierrette's state and +promised to bring the poor girl to her instantly. His words so +terrified the grandmother that she could not control her impatience +and followed him to the square. When Pierrette screamed, the horror of +that cry went to her heart as sharply as it did to Brigaut's. Together +they would have roused the neighborhood if Rogron, in his terror, had +not opened the door. The scream of the young girl at bay gave her +grandmother the sudden strength of anger with which she carried her +dear Pierrette in her arms to Frappier's house, where Madame Frappier +hastily arranged Brigaut's own room for the old woman and her +treasure. In that poor room, on a bed half-made, the sufferer was +deposited; and there she fainted away, holding her hand still +clenched, wounded, bleeding, with the nails deep bedded in the flesh. +Brigaut, Frappier, his wife, and the old woman stood looking at +Pierrette in silence, all four of them in a state of indescribable +amazement. + +"Why is her hand bloody?" said the grandmother at last. + +Pierrette, overcome by the sleep which follows all abnormal displays +of strength, and dimly conscious that she was safe from violence, +gradually unbent her fingers. Brigaut's letter fell from them like an +answer. + +"They tried to take my letter from her," said Brigaut, falling on his +knees and picking up the lines in which he had told his little friend +to come instantly and softly away from the house. He kissed with pious +love the martyr's hand. + +It was a sight that made those present tremble when they saw the old +gray woman, a sublime spectre, standing beside her grandchild's +pillow. Terror and vengeance wrote their fierce expressions in the +wrinkles that lined her skin of yellow ivory; her forehead, half +hidden by the straggling meshes of her gray hair, expressed a solemn +anger. She read, with a power of intuition given to the aged when near +their grave, Pierrette's whole life, on which her mind had dwelt +throughout her journey. She divined the illness of her darling, and +knew that she was threatened with death. Two big tears painfully rose +in her wan gray eyes, from which her troubles had worn both lashes and +eyebrows, two pearls of anguish, forming within them and giving them a +dreadful brightness; then each tear swelled and rolled down the +withered cheek, but did not wet it. + +"They have killed her!" she said at last, clasping her hands. + +She fell on her knees which struck sharp blows on the brick-laid +floor, making a vow no doubt to Saint Anne d'Auray, the most powerful +of the madonnas of Brittany. + +"A doctor from Paris," she said to Brigaut. "Go and fetch one, +Brigaut, go!" + +She took him by the shoulder and gave him a despotic push to send him +from the room. + +"I was coming, my lad, when you wrote me; I am rich,--here, take +this," she cried, recalling him, and unfastening as she spoke the +strings that tied her short-gown. Then she drew a paper from her bosom +in which were forty-two bank-bills, saying, "Take what is necessary, +and bring back the greatest doctor in Paris." + +"Keep those," said Frappier; "he can't change thousand franc notes +now. I have money, and the diligence will be passing presently; he can +certainly find a place on it. But before he goes we had better consult +Doctor Martener; he will tell us the best physician in Paris. The +diligence won't pass for over an hour,--we have time enough." + +Brigaut woke up Monsieur Martener, and brought him at once. The doctor +was not a little surprised to find Mademoiselle Lorrain at Frappier's. +Brigaut told him of the scene that had just taken place at the +Rogrons'; but even so the doctor did not at first suspect the horror +of it, nor the extent of the injury done. Martener gave the address of +the celebrated Horace Bianchon, and Brigaut started for Paris by the +diligence. Monsieur Martener then sat down and examined first the +bruised and bloody hand which lay outside the bed. + +"She could not have given these wounds herself," he said. + +"No; the horrible woman to whom I had the misfortune to trust her was +murdering her," said the grandmother. "My poor Pierrette was screaming +'Help! help! I'm dying,'--enough to touch the heart of an +executioner." + +"But why was it?" said the doctor, feeling Pierrette's pulse. "She is +very ill," he added, examining her with a light. "She must have +suffered terribly; I don't understand why she has not been properly +cared for." + +"I shall complain to the authorities," said the grandmother. "Those +Rogrons asked me for my child in a letter, saying they had twelve +thousand francs a year and would take care of her; had they the right +to make her their servant and force her to do work for which she had +not the strength?" + +"They did not choose to see the most visible of all maladies to which +young girls are liable. She needed the utmost care," cried Monsieur +Martener. + +Pierrette was awakened by the light which Madame Frappier was holding +near her face, and by the horrible sufferings in her head caused by +the reaction of her struggle. + +"Ah! Monsieur Martener, I am very ill," she said in her pretty voice. + +"Where is the pain, my little friend?" asked the doctor. + +"Here," she said, touching her head above the left ear. + +"There's an abscess," said the doctor, after feeling the head for a +long time and questioning Pierrette on her sufferings. "You must tell +us all, my child, so that we may know how to cure you. Why is your +hand like this? You could not have given yourself that wound." + +Pierrette related the struggle between herself and her cousin Sylvie. + +"Make her talk," said the doctor to the grandmother, "and find out the +whole truth. I will await the arrival of the doctor from Paris; and we +will send for the surgeon in charge of the hospital here, and have a +consultation. The case seems to me a very serious one. Meantime I will +send you a quieting draught so that mademoiselle may sleep; she needs +sleep." + +Left alone with her granddaughter the old Breton woman exerted her +influence over the child and made her tell all; she let her know that +she had money enough now for all three, and promised that Brigaut +should live with them. The poor girl admitted her martyrdom, not +imagining the events to which her admissions would give rise. The +monstrosity of two beings without affection and without conception of +family life opened to the old woman a world of woe as far from her +knowledge as the morals of savages may have seemed to the first +discoverers who set foot in America. + +The arrival of her grandmother, the certainty of living with her in +comfort soothed Pierrette's mind as the sleeping draught soothed her +body. The old woman watched her darling, kissing her forehead, hair, +and hands, as the holy women of old kissed the hands of Jesus when +they laid him in the tomb. + + + +IX + +THE FAMILY COUNCIL + +At nine o'clock that morning Monsieur Martener went to see Monsieur +Tiphaine, and related to him the scene between Pierrette and Sylvie, +and the tortures of all kinds, moral and physical, to which the +Rogrons had subjected their cousin, and the two alarming forms of +illness which their cruelty had developed. Monsieur Tiphaine sent for +Auffray the notary, one of Pierrette's own relations on the maternal +side. + +At this particular time the war between the Vinet party and the +Tiphaine party was at its height. The scandals which the Rogrons and +their adherents were disseminating through the town about the liaison +of Madame Tiphaine's mother with the banker du Tillet, and the +bankruptcy of her father (a forger, they said), were all the more +exasperating to the Tiphaines because these things were malicious +truths, not libels. Such wounds cut deep; they go to the quick of +feelings and of interests. These speeches, repeated to the partisans +of the Tiphaines by the same mouths which told the Rogrons of the +sneers of "those women" of the Tiphaine clique, fed the hatreds of +both sides, now increased by the political element. The animosities +caused at this time in France by the spirit of party, the violences of +which were excessive, were everywhere mixed up, as in Provins, with +selfish schemes and wounded or vindictive individual interests. Each +party eagerly seized on whatever might injure the rival party. +Personal hatreds and self-love mingled as much as political animosity +in even the smallest matters, and were carried to hitherto unheard-of +lengths. A whole town would be roused to excitement over some private +struggle, until it took the character of a political debate. + +Monsieur Tiphaine at once perceived in the case of Pierrette against +the Rogrons a means of humbling, mortifying, and dishonoring the +masters of that salon where plans against the monarchy were made and +an opposition journal born. The public prosecutor was called in; and +together with Monsieur Auffray the notary, Pierrette's relation, and +Monsieur Martener, a cautious consultation was held in the utmost +secrecy as to the proper course to follow. Monsieur Martener agreed to +advise Pierrette's grandmother to apply to the courts to have Auffray +appointed guardian to his young relation. The guardian could then +convene a "Family Council," and, backed by the testimony of three +doctors, demand the girl's release from the authority of the Rogrons. +The affair thus managed would have to go before the courts, and the +public prosecutor, Monsieur Lesourd, would see that it was taken to a +criminal court by demanding an inquiry. + +Towards midday all Provins was roused by the strange news of what had +happened during the night at the Rogrons'. Pierrette's cries had been +faintly heard, though they were soon over. No one had risen to inquire +what they meant, but every one said the next day, "Did you hear those +screams about one in the morning?" Gossip and comments soon magnified +the horrible drama, and a crowd collected in front of Frappier's shop, +asking the worthy cabinet-maker for information, and hearing from him +how Pierrette was brought to his house with her fingers broken and the +hand bloody. + +Towards one in the afternoon the post-chaise of Doctor Bianchon, who +was accompanied by Brigaut, stopped before the house, and Madame +Frappier went at once to summon Monsieur Martener and the surgeon in +charge of the hospital. Thus the gossip of the town received +confirmation. The Rogrons were declared to have ill-used their cousin +deliberately, and to have come near killing her. Vinet heard the news +while attending to his business in the law courts; he left everything +and hurried to the Rogrons. Rogron and his sister had just finished +breakfast. Sylvie was reluctant to tell her brother of her +discomfiture of the night before; but he pressed her with questions, +to which she would make no answer than, "That's not your business." +She went and came from the kitchen to the dining-room on pretence of +preparing the breakfast, but chiefly to avoid discussion. She was +alone when Vinet entered. + +"You know what's happened?" said the lawyer. + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"You will be arrested on a criminal charge," replied Vinet, "from the +way things are now going about Pierrette." + +"A criminal charge!" cried Rogron, who had come into the room. "Why? +What for?" + +"First of all," said the lawyer, looking at Sylvie, "explain to me +without concealment and as if you stood before God, what happened in +this house last night--they talk of amputating Pierrette's hand." + +Sylvie turned livid and shuddered. + +"Then there is some truth in it?" said Vinet. + +Mademoiselle Rogron related the scene, trying to excuse herself; but, +prodded with questions, she acknowledged the facts of the horrible +struggle. + +"If you have only injured her fingers you will be taken before the +police court for a misdemeanor; but if they cut off her hand you may +be tried at the Assizes for a worse offence. The Tiphaines will do +their best to get you there." + +Sylvie, more dead than alive, confessed her jealousy, and, what was +harder to do, confessed also that her suspicions were unfounded. + +"Heavens, what a case this will make!" cried the lawyer. "You and your +brother may be ruined by it; you will be abandoned by most people +whether you win or lose. If you lose, you will have to leave Provins." + +"Oh, my dear Monsieur Vinet, you who are such a great lawyer," said +Rogron, terrified, "advise us! save us!" + +The crafty Vinet worked the terror of the two imbeciles to its utmost, +declaring that Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf might be +unwilling to enter their house again. To be abandoned by women of +their rank would be a terrible condemnation. At length, after an hour +of adroit manoeuvring, it was agreed that Vinet must have some +powerful motive in taking the case, that would impress the minds of +all Provins and explain his efforts on behalf of the Rogrons. This +motive they determined should be Rogron's marriage to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf; it should be announced that very day and the banns +published on Sunday. The contract could be drawn immediately. +Mademoiselle Rogron agreed, in consideration of the marriage, to +appear in the contract as settling her capital on her brother, +retaining only the income of it. Vinet made Rogron and his sister +comprehend the necessity of antedating the document by two or three +days, so as to commit the mother and daughter in the eyes of the +public and give them a reason for continuing their visits. + +"Sign that contract and I'll take upon myself to get you safely out of +this affair," said the lawyer. "There will be a terrible fight; but I +will put my whole soul into it--you'll have to make me a votive +offering." + +"Oh, yes, yes," said Rogron. + +By half-past eleven the lawyer had plenary powers to draw the contract +and conduct the defence of the Rogrons. At twelve o'clock application +was made to Monsieur Tiphaine, as a judge sitting in chambers, against +Brigaut and the widow Lorrain for having abducted Pierrette Lorrain, a +minor, from the house of her legal guardian. In this way the bold +lawyer became the aggressor and made Rogron the injured party. He +spoke of the matter from this point of view in the court-house. + +The judge postponed the hearing till four o'clock. Needless to +describe the excitement in the town. Monsieur Tiphaine knew that by +three o'clock the consultation of doctors would be over and their +report drawn up; he wished Auffray, as surrogate-guardian, to be at +the hearing armed with that report. + +The announcement of Rogron's marriage and the sacrifices made to it by +Sylvie in the contract alienated two important supporters from the +brother and sister, namely,--Mademoiselle Habert and the colonel, +whose hopes were thus annihilated. They remained, however, ostensibly +on the Rogron side for the purpose of injuring it. Consequently, as +soon as Monsieur Martener mentioned the alarming condition of +Pierrette's head, Celeste and the colonel told of the blow she had +given herself during the evening when Sylvie had forced her to leave +the salon; and they related the old maid's barbarous and unfeeling +comments, with other statements proving her cruelty to her suffering +cousin. Vinet had foreseen this storm; but he had secured the entire +fortune of the Rogrons for Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, and he +promised himself that in a few weeks she should be mistress of the +Rogron house, and reign with him over Provins, and even bring about a +fusion with the Breauteys and the aristocrats in the interests of his +ambition. + +From midday to four o'clock all the ladies of the Tiphaine clique sent +to inquire after Mademoiselle Lorrain. She, poor girl, was wholly +ignorant of the commotion she was causing in the little town. In the +midst of her sufferings she was ineffably happy in recovering her +grandmother and Brigaut, the two objects of her affection. Brigaut's +eyes were constantly full of tears. The old grandmother sat by the bed +and caressed her darling. To the three doctors she told every detail +she had obtained from Pierrette as to her life in the Rogron house. +Horace Bianchon expressed his indignation in vehement language. +Shocked at such barbarity he insisted on all the physicians in the +town being called in to see the case; the consequence was that Dr. +Neraud, the friend of the Rogrons, was present. The report was +unanimously signed. It is useless to give a text of it here. If +Moliere's medical terms were barbarous, those of modern science have +the advantage of being so clear that the explanation of Pierrette's +malady, though natural and unfortunately common, horrified all ears. + +At four o'clock, after the usual rising of the court, president +Tiphaine again took his seat, when Madame Lorrain, accompanied by +Monsieur Auffray and Brigaut and a crowd of interested persons, +entered the court-room. Vinet was alone. This contrast struck the +minds of those present. The lawyer, who still wore his robe, turned +his cold face to the judge, settled his spectacles on his pallid green +eyes, and then in a shrill, persistent voice he stated that two +strangers had forced themselves at night into the Rogron domicile and +had abducted therefrom the minor Lorrain. The legal rights were with +the guardian, who now demanded the restoration of his ward. + +Monsieur Auffray rose, as surrogate-guardian, and requested to be +heard. + +"If the judge," he said, "will admit the report, which I hold in my +hand, signed by one of the most famous physicians in Paris, and by all +the physicians in Provins, he will understand not only that the demand +of the Sieur Rogron is senseless, but also that the grandmother of the +minor had grave cause to instantly remove her from her persecutors. +Here are the facts. The report of these physicians attribute the +almost dying condition of the said minor to the ill-treatment she has +received from the Sieur Rogron and his sister. We shall, as the law +directs, convoke a Family Council with the least possible delay, and +discuss the question as to whether or not the guardian should be +deposed. And we now ask that the minor be not returned to the domicile +of the said guardian but that she be confided to some member of her +family who shall be designated by the judge." + +Vinet replied, declaring that the physicians' report ought to have +been submitted to him in order that he might have disproved it. + +"Not submitted to your side," said the judge, severely, "but possibly +to the /procureur du roi/. The case is heard." + +The judge then wrote at the bottom of the petition the following +order:-- + + "Whereas it appears, from a deliberate and unanimous report of all + the physicians of this town, together with Doctor Bianchon of the + medical faculty of Paris, that the minor Lorrain, claimed by + Jerome-Denis Rogron, her guardian, is extremely ill in consequence + of ill-treatment and personal assault in the house of the said + guardian and his sister: + + "We, president of the court of Provins, passing upon the said + petition, order that until the Family Council is held the minor + Lorrain is not to be returned to the household of her said + guardian, but shall be kept in that of her surrogate-guardian. + + "And further, considering the state in which the said minor now + is, and the traces of violence which, according to the report of + the physicians, are now upon her person, we commission the + attending physician and the surgeon in charge of the hospital of + Provins to visit her, and in case the injuries from the said + assault become alarming, the matter will be held to await the + action of the criminal courts; and this without prejudice to the + civil suit undertaken by Auffray the surrogate-guardian." + +This severe judgment was read out by President Tiphaine in a loud and +distinct voice. + +"Why not send them to the galleys at once?" said Vinet. "And all this +fuss about a girl who was carrying on an intrigue with an apprentice +to a cabinet-maker! If the case goes on in this way," he cried, +insolently, "we shall demand other judges on the ground of legitimate +suspicion." + +Vinet left the court-room, and went among the chief men of his party +to explain Rogron's position, declaring that he had never so much as +given a flip to his cousin, and that the judge had viewed him much +less as Pierrette's guardian than as a leading elector in Provins. + +To hear Vinet, people might have supposed that the Tiphaines were +making a great fuss about nothing; the mounting was bringing forth a +mouse. Sylvie, an eminently virtuous and pious woman, had discovered +an intrigue between her brother's ward and a workman, a Breton named +Brigaut. The scoundrel knew very well that the girl would have her +grandmother's money, and he wished to seduce her (Vinet to talk of +that!). Mademoiselle Rogron, who had discovered letters proving the +depravity of the girl, was not as much to blame as the Tiphaines were +trying to make out. If she did use some violence to get possession of +those letters (which was no wonder, when we consider what Breton +obstinacy is), how could Rogron be considered responsible for all +that? + +The lawyer went on to make the matter a partisan affair, and to give +it a political color. + +"They who listen to only one bell hear only one sound," said the wise +men. "Have you heard what Vinet says? Vinet explains things clearly." + +Frappier's house being thought injurious to Pierrette, owing to the +noise in the street which increased the sufferings in her head, she +was taken to that of her surrogate guardian, the change being as +necessary medically as it was judicially. The removal was made with +the utmost caution, and was calculated to produce a great public +effect. Pierrette was laid on a mattress and carried on a stretcher by +two men; a Gray Sister walked beside her with a bottle of sal volatile +in her hand, while the grandmother, Brigaut, Madame Auffray, and her +maid followed. People were at their windows and doors to see the +procession pass. Certainly the state in which they saw Pierrette, pale +as death, gave immense advantage to the party against the Rogrons. The +Auffrays were determined to prove to the whole town that the judge was +right in the decision he had given. Pierrette and her grandmother were +installed on the second floor of Monsieur Auffray's house. The notary +and his wife gave her every care with the greatest hospitality, which +was not without a little ostentation in it. Pierrette had her +grandmother to nurse her; and Monsieur Martener and the head-surgeon +of the hospital attended her. + +On the evening of this day exaggerations began on both sides. The +Rogron salon was crowded. Vinet had stirred up the whole Liberal party +on the subject. The Chargeboeuf ladies dined with the Rogrons, for the +contract was to be signed that evening. Vinet had had the banns posted +at the mayor's office in the afternoon. He made light of the Pierrette +affair. If the Provins court was prejudiced, the Royal courts would +appreciate the facts, he said, and the Auffrays would think twice +before they flung themselves into such a suit. The alliance of the +Rogrons with the Chargeboeufs was an immense consideration in the +minds of a certain class of people. To them it made the Rogrons as +white as snow and Pierrette an evilly disposed little girl, a serpent +warmed in their bosom. + +In Madame Tiphaine's salon vengeance was had for all the mischievous +scandals that the Vinet party had disseminated for the past two years. +The Rogrons were monsters, and the guardian should undergo a criminal +trial. In the Lower town, Pierrette was quite well; in the Upper town +she was dying; at the Rogrons' she scratched her wrist; at Madame +Tiphaine's her fingers were fractured and one was to be cut off. The +next day the "Courrier de Provins," had a plausible article, extremely +well-written, a masterpiece of insinuations mixed with legal points, +which showed that there was no case whatever against Rogron. The "Bee- +hive," which did not appear till two days later, could not answer +without becoming defamatory; it replied, however, that in an affair +like this it was best to wait until the law took its course. + +The Family Council was selected by the /juge de paix/ of the canton of +Provins, and consisted of Rogron and the two Messieurs Auffray, the +nearest relatives, and Monsieur Ciprey, nephew of Pierrette's maternal +grandmother. To these were joined Monsieur Habert, Pierrette's +confessor, and Colonel Gouraud, who had always professed himself a +comrade and friend of her father, Colonel Lorrain. The impartiality of +the judge in these selections was much applauded,--Monsieur Habert and +Colonel Gouraud being considered the firm friends of the Rogrons. + +The serious situation in which Rogron found himself made him ask for +the assistance of a lawyer (and he named Vinet) at the Family Council. +By this manoeuvre, evidently advised by Vinet himself, Rogron +succeeded in postponing the meeting of the council till the end of +December. At that time Monsieur Tiphaine and his wife would be settled +in Paris for the opening of the Chambers; and the ministerial party +would be left without its head. Vinet had already worked upon +Desfondrilles, the deputy-judge, in case the matter should go, after +the hearing before the council, to the criminal courts. + +Vinet spoke for three hours before the Family Council; he proved the +existence of an intrigue between Pierrette and Brigaut, which +justified all Mademoiselle Rogron's severity. He showed how natural it +was that the guardian should have left the management of his ward to a +woman; he dwelt on the fact that Rogron had not interfered with +Pierrette's education as planned by his sister Sylvie. But in spite of +Vinet's efforts the Council were unanimous in removing Rogron from the +guardianship. Monsieur Auffray was appointed in his place, and +Monsieur Ciprey was made surrogate. The Council summoned before it and +examined Adele, the servant-woman, who testified against her late +masters; also Mademoiselle Habert, who related the cruel remarks made +by Mademoiselle Rogron on the evening when Pierrette had given herself +a frightful blow, heard by all the company, and the speech of Madame +de Chargeboeuf about the girl's health. Brigaut produced the letter he +had received from Pierrette, which proved their innocence and stated +her ill-treatment. Proof was given that the condition of the minor was +the result of neglect on the part of the guardian, who was responsible +for all that concerned his ward. Pierrette's illness had been apparent +to every one, even to persons in the town who were strangers to the +family, yet the guardian had done nothing for her. The charge of ill- +treatment was therefore sustained against Rogron; and the case would +now go before the public. + +Rogron, advised by Vinet, opposed the acceptance of the report of the +Council by the court. The authorities then intervened in consequence +of Pierrette's state, which was daily growing worse. The trial of the +case, though placed at once upon the docket, was postponed until the +month of March, 1828, to wait events. + + + +X + +VERDICTS--LEGAL AND OTHER + +Meantime Rogron's marriage with Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf took +place. Sylvie moved to the second floor of the house, which she shared +with Madame de Chargeboeuf, for the first floor was entirely taken up +by the new wife. The beautiful Madame Rogron succeeded to the social +place of the beautiful Madame Tiphaine. The influence of the marriage +was immense. No one now came to visit Sylvie, but Madame Rogron's +salon was always full. + +Sustained by the influence of his mother-in-law and the bankers du +Tillet and Nucingen, Monsieur Tiphaine was fortunate enough to do some +service to the administration; he became one of its chief orators, was +made judge in the civil courts, and obtained the appointment of his +nephew Lesourd to his own vacant place as president of the court of +Provins. This appointment greatly annoyed Desfondrilles. The Keeper of +the Seals sent down one of his own proteges to fill Lesourd's place. +The promotion of Monsieur Tiphaine and his translation to Paris were +therefore of no benefit at all to the Vinet party; but Vinet +nevertheless made a clever use of the result. He had always told the +Provins people that they were being used as a stepping-stone to raise +the crafty Madame Tiphaine into grandeur; Tiphaine himself had tricked +them; Madame Tiphaine despised both Provins and its people in her +heart, and would never return there again. Just at this crisis +Monsieur Tiphaine's father died; his son inherited a fine estate and +sold his house in Provins to Monsieur Julliard. The sale proved to the +minds of all how little the Tiphaines thought of Provins. Vinet was +right; Vinet had been a true prophet. These things had great influence +on the question of Pierrette's guardianship. + +Thus the dreadful martyrdom brutally inflicted on the poor child by +two imbecile tyrants (which led, through its consequences, to the +terrible operation of trepanning, performed by Monsieur Martener under +the advice of Doctor Bianchon),--all this horrible drama reduced to +judicial form was left to float in the vile mess called in legal +parlance the calendar. The case was made to drag through the delays +and the interminable labyrinths of the law, by the shufflings of an +unprincipled lawyer; and during all this time the calumniated girl +languished in the agony of the worst pain known to science. + +Monsieur Martener, together with the Auffray family, were soon charmed +by the beauty of Pierrette's nature and the character of her old +grandmother, whose feelings, ideas, and ways bore the stamp of Roman +antiquity,--this matron of the Marais was like a woman in Plutarch. + +Doctor Martener struggled bravely with death, which already grasped +its prey. From the first, Bianchon and the hospital surgeon had +considered Pierrette doomed; and there now took place between the +doctor and the disease, the former relying on Pierrette's youth, one +of those struggles which physicians alone comprehend,--the reward of +which, in case of success, is never found in the venal pay nor in the +patients themselves, but in the gentle satisfaction of conscience, in +the invisible ideal palm gathered by true artists from the contentment +which fills their soul after accomplishing a noble work. The physician +strains towards good as an artist towards beauty, each impelled by +that grand sentiment which we call virtue. This daily contest wiped +out of Doctor Martener's mind the petty irritations of that other +contest of the Tiphaines and the Vinets,--as always happens to men +when they find themselves face to face with a great and real misery to +conquer. + +Monsieur Martener had begun his career in Paris; but the cruel +activity of the city and its insensibility to its masses of suffering +had shocked his gentle soul, fitted only for the quiet life of the +provinces. Moreover, he was under the yoke of his beautiful native +land. He returned to Provins, where he married and settled, and cared +almost lovingly for the people, who were to him like a large family. +During the whole of Pierrette's illness he was careful not to speak of +her. His reluctance to answer the questions of those who asked about +her was so evident that persons soon ceased to put them. Pierrette was +to him, what indeed she truly was, a poem, mysterious, profound, vast +in suffering, such as doctors find at times in their terrible +experience. He felt an admiration for this delicate young creature +which he would not share with any one. + +This feeling of the physician for his patient was, however, +unconsciously communicated (like all true feelings) to Monsieur and +Madame Auffray, whose house became, so long as Pierrette was in it, +quiet and silent. The children, who had formerly played so joyously +with her, agreed among themselves with the loving grace of childhood +to be neither noisy nor troublesome. They made it a point of honor to +be good because Pierrette was ill. Monsieur Auffray's house was in the +Upper town, beneath the ruins of the Chateau, and it was built upon a +sort of terrace formed by the overthrow of the old ramparts. The +occupants could have a view of the valley from the little fruit-garden +enclosed by walls which overlooked the town. The roofs of the other +houses came to about the level of the lower wall of this garden. Along +the terrace ran a path, by which Monsieur Auffray's study could be +entered through a glass door; at the other end of the path was an +arbor of grape vines and a fig-tree, beneath which stood a round +table, a bench and some chairs, painted green. Pierrette's bedroom was +above the study of her new guardian. Madame Lorrain slept in a cot +beside her grandchild. From her window Pierrette could see the whole +of the glorious valley of Provins, which she hardly knew, so seldom +had she left that dreadful house of the Rogrons. When the weather was +fine she loved to drag herself, resting on her grandmother's arm, to +the vine-clad arbor. Brigaut, unable to work, came three times a day +to see his little friend; he was gnawed by a grief which made him +indifferent to life. He lay in wait like a dog for Monsieur Martener, +and followed him when he left the house. The old grandmother, drunk +with grief, had the courage to conceal her despair; she showed her +darling the smiling face she formerly wore at Pen-Hoel. In her desire +to produce that illusion in the girl's mind, she made her a little +Breton cap like the one Pierrette had worn on her first arrival in +Provins; it made the darling seem more like her childlike self; in it +she was delightful to look upon, her sweet face circled with a halo of +cambric and fluted lace. Her skin, white with the whiteness of +unglazed porcelain, her forehead, where suffering had printed the +semblance of deep thought, the purity of the lines refined by illness, +the slowness of the glances, and the occasional fixity of the eyes, +made Pierrette an almost perfect embodiment of melancholy. She was +served by all with a sort of fanaticism; she was felt to be so gentle, +so tender, so loving. Madame Martener sent her piano to her sister +Madame Auffray, thinking to amuse Pierrette who was passionately fond +of music. It was a poem to watch her listening to a theme of Weber, or +Beethoven, or Herold,--her eyes raised, her lips silent, regretting no +doubt the life escaping her. The cure Peroux and Monsieur Habert, her +two religious comforters, admired her saintly resignation. Surely the +seraphic perfection of young girls and young men marked with the +hectic of death, is a wonderful fact worthy of the attention alike of +philosophers and of heedless minds. He who has ever seen one of these +sublime departures from this life can never remain, or become, an +unbeliever. Such beings exhale, as it were, a celestial fragrance; +their glances speak of God; the voices are eloquent in the simplest +words; often they ring like some seraphic instrument revealing the +secrets of the future. When Monsieur Martener praised her for having +faithfully followed a harsh prescription the little angel replied, and +with what a glance!-- + +"I want to live, dear Monsieur Martener; but less for myself than for +my grandmother, for my Brigaut, for all of you who will grieve at my +death." + +The first time she went into the garden on a beautiful sunny day in +November attended by all the household, Madame Auffray asked her if +she was tired. + +"No, now that I have no sufferings but those God sends I can bear +all," she said. "The joy of being loved gives me strength to suffer." + +That was the only time (and then vaguely) that she ever alluded to her +horrible martyrdom at the Rogrons, whom she never mentioned, and of +whom no one reminded her, knowing well how painful the memory must be. + +"Dear Madame Auffray," she said one day at noon on the terrace, as she +gazed at the valley, warmed by a glorious sun and colored with the +glowing tints of autumn, "my death in your house gives me more +happiness than I have had since I left Brittany." + +Madame Auffray whispered in her sister Martener's ear:-- + +"How she would have loved!" + +In truth, her tones, her looks gave to her words a priceless value. + +Monsieur Martener corresponded with Doctor Bianchon, and did nothing +of importance without his advice. He hoped in the first place to +regular the functions of nature and to draw away the abscess in the +head through the ear. The more Pierrette suffered, the more he hoped. +He gained some slight success at times, and that was a great triumph. +For several days Pierrette's appetite returned and enabled her to take +nourishing food for which her illness had given her a repugnance; the +color of her skin changed; but the condition of her head was terrible. +Monsieur Martener entreated the great physician his adviser to come +down. Bianchon came, stayed two days, and resolved to undertake an +operation. To spare the feelings of poor Martener he went to Paris and +brought back with him the celebrated Desplein. Thus the operation was +performed by the greatest surgeon of ancient or modern times; but that +terrible diviner said to Martener as he departed with Bianchon, his +best-loved pupil:-- + +"Nothing but a miracle can save her. As Horace told you, caries of the +bone has begun. At her age the bones are so tender." + +The operation was performed at the beginning of March, 1828. During +all that month, distressed by Pierrette's horrible sufferings, +Monsieur Martener made several journeys to Paris; there he consulted +Desplein and Bianchon, and even went so far as to propose to them an +operation of the nature of lithotrity, which consists in passing into +the head a hollow instrument by the help of which an heroic remedy can +be applied to the diseased bone, to arrest the progress of the caries. +Even the bold Desplein dared not attempt that high-handed surgical +measure, which despair alone had suggested to Martener. When he +returned home from Paris he seemed to his friends morose and gloomy. +He was forced to announce on that fatal evening to the Auffrays and +Madame Lorrain and to the two priests and Brigaut that science could +do no more for Pierrette, whose recovery was now in God's hands only. +The consternation among them was terrible. The grandmother made a vow, +and requested the priests to say a mass every morning at daybreak +before Pierrette rose,--a mass at which she and Brigaut might be +present. + +The trial came on. While the victim lay dying, Vinet was calumniating +her in court. The judge approved and accepted the report of the Family +Council, and Vinet instantly appealed. The newly appointed /procureur +du roi/ made a requisition which necessitated fresh evidence. Rogron +and his sister were forced to give bail to avoid going to prison. The +order for fresh evidence included that of Pierrette herself. When +Monsieur Desfondrilles came to the Auffrays' to receive it, Pierrette +was dying, her confessor was at her bedside about to administer +extreme unction. At that moment she entreated all present to forgive +her cousins as she herself forgave them, saying with her simple good +sense that the judgment of these things belonged to God alone. + +"Grandmother," she said, "leave all you have to Brigaut" (Brigaut +burst into tears); "and," continued Pierrette, "give a thousand francs +to that kind Adele who warmed my bed. If Adele had remained with my +cousins I should not now be dying." + +It was at three o'clock on the Tuesday of Easter week, on a beautiful, +bright day, that the angel ceased to suffer. Her heroic grandmother +wished to watch all that night with the priests, and to sew with her +stiff old fingers her darling's shroud. Towards evening Brigaut left +the Auffray's house and went to Frappier's. + +"I need not ask you, my poor boy, for news," said the cabinet-maker. + +"Pere Frappier, yes, it is ended for her--but not for me." + +He cast a look upon the different woods piled up around the shop,--a +look of painful meaning. + +"I understand you, Brigaut," said his worthy master. "Take all you +want." And he showed him the oaken planks of two-inch thickness. + +"Don't help me, Monsieur Frappier," said the Breton, "I wish to do it +alone." + +He passed the night in planing and fitting Pierrette's coffin, and +more than once his plane took off at a single pass a ribbon of wood +which was wet with tears. The good man Frappier smoked his pipe and +watched him silently, saying only, when the four pieces were joined +together,-- + +"Make the cover to slide; her poor grandmother will not hear the +nails." + +At daybreak Brigaut went out to fetch the lead to line the coffin. By +a strange chance, the sheets of lead cost just the sum he had given +Pierrette for her journey from Nantes to Provins. The brave Breton, +who was able to resist the awful pain of himself making the coffin of +his dear one and lining with his memories those burial planks, could +not bear up against this strange reminder. His strength gave way; he +was not able to lift the lead, and the plumber, seeing this, came with +him, and offered to accompany him to the house and solder the last +sheet when the body had been laid in the coffin. + +The Breton burned the plane and all the tools he had used. Then he +settled his accounts with Frappier and bade him farewell. The heroism +with which the poor lad personally performed, like the grandmother, +the last offices for Pierrette made him a sharer in the awful scene +which crowned the tyranny of the Rogrons. + +Brigaut and the plumber reached the house of Monsieur Auffray just in +time to decide by their own main force an infamous and shocking +judicial question. The room where the dead girl lay was full of +people, and presented to the eyes of the two men a singular sight. The +Rogron emissaries were standing beside the body of their victim, to +torture her even after death. The corpse of the child, solemn in its +beauty, lay on the cot-bed of her grandmother. Pierrette's eyes were +closed, the brown hair smoothed upon her brow, the body swathed in a +coarse cotton sheet. + +Before the bed, on her knees, her hair in disorder, her hands +stretched out, her face on fire, the old Lorrain was crying out, "No, +no, it shall not be done!" + +At the foot of the bed stood Monsieur Auffray and the two priests. The +tapers were still burning. + +Opposite to the grandmother was the surgeon of the hospital, with an +assistant, and near him stood Doctor Neraud and Vinet. The surgeon +wore his dissecting apron; the assistant had opened a case of +instruments and was handing him a knife. + +This scene was interrupted by the noise of the coffin which Brigaut +and the plumber set down upon the floor. Then Brigaut, advancing, was +horrified at the sight of Madame Lorrain, who was now weeping. + +"What is the matter?" he asked, standing beside her and grasping the +chisel convulsively in his hand. + +"This," said the old woman, "/this/, Brigaut: they want to open the +body of my child and cut into her head, and stab her heart after her +death as they did when she was living." + +"Who?" said Brigaut, in a voice that might have deafened the men of +law. + +"The Rogrons." + +"In the sacred name of God!--" + +"Stop, Brigaut," said Monsieur Auffray, seeing the lad brandish his +chisel. + +"Monsieur Auffray," said Brigaut, as white as his dead companion, "I +hear you because you are Monsieur Auffray, but at this moment I will +not listen to--" + +"The law!" said Auffray. + +"Is there law? is there justice?" cried the Breton. "Justice, this is +it!" and he advanced to the lawyer and the doctors, threatening them +with his chisel. + +"My friend," said the curate, "the law has been invoked by the lawyer +of Monsieur Rogron, who is under the weight of a serious accusation; +and it is impossible for us to refuse him the means of justification. +The lawyer of Monsieur Rogron claims that if the poor child died of an +abscess in her head her former guardian cannot be blamed, for it is +proved that Pierrette concealed the effects of the blow which she gave +to herself--" + +"Enough!" said Brigaut. + +"My client--" began Vinet. + +"Your client," cried the Breton, "shall go to hell and I to the +scaffold; for if one of you dares to touch her whom your client has +killed, I will kill him if my weapon does its duty." + +"This is interference with the law," said Vinet. "I shall instantly +inform the court." + +The five men left the room. + +"Oh, my son!" cried the old woman, rising from her knees and falling +on Brigaut's neck, "let us bury her quick,--they will come back." + +"If we solder the lead," said the plumber, "they may not dare to open +it." + +Monsieur Auffray hastened to his brother-in-law, Monsieur Lesourd, to +try and settle the matter. Vinet was not unwilling. Pierrette being +dead the suit about the guardianship fell, of course, to the ground. +All the astute lawyer wanted was the effect produced by his request. + +At midday Monsieur Desfondrilles made his report on the case, and the +court rendered a decision that there was no ground for further action. + +Rogron dared not go to Pierrette's funeral, at which the whole town +was present. Vinet wished to force him there, but the miserable man +was afraid of exciting universal horror. + +Brigaut left Provins after watching the filling up of the grave where +Pierrette lay, and went on foot to Paris. He wrote a petition to the +Dauphiness asking, in the name of his father, that he might enter the +Royal guard, to which he was at once admitted. When the expedition to +Algiers was undertaken he wrote to her again, to obtain employment in +it. He was then a sergeant; Marshal Bourmont gave him an appointment +as sub-lieutenant in a line regiment. The major's son behaved like a +man who wished to die. Death has, however, respected Jacques Brigaut +up to the present time; although he has distinguished himself in all +the recent expeditions he has never yet been wounded. He is now major +in a regiment of infantry. No officer is more taciturn or more +trustworthy. Outside of his duty he is almost mute; he walks alone and +lives mechanically. Every one divines and respects a hidden sorrow. He +possesses forty-six thousand francs, which old Madame Lorrain, who +died in Paris in 1829, bequeathed to him. + +At the elections of 1830 Vinet was made a deputy. The services he +rendered the new government have now earned him the position of +/procureur-general/. His influence is such that he will always remain +a deputy. Rogron is receiver-general in the same town where Vinet +fulfils his legal functions; and by one of those curious tricks of +chance which do so often occur, Monsieur Tiphaine is president of the +Royal court in the same town,--for the worthy man gave in his adhesion +to the dynasty of July without the slightest hesitation. The +ex-beautiful Madame Tiphaine lives on excellent terms with the +beautiful Madame Rogron. Vinet is hand in glove with Madame Tiphaine. + +As to the imbecile Rogron, he makes such remarks as, "Louis-Philippe +will never be really king till he is able to make nobles." + +The speech is evidently not his own. His health is failing, which +allows Madame Rogron to hope she may soon marry the General Marquis de +Montriveau, peer of France, who commands the department, and is paying +her attentions. Vinet is in his element, seeking victims; he never +believes in the innocence of an accused person. This thoroughbred +prosecutor is held to be one of the most amiable men on the circuit; +and he is no less liked in Paris and in the Chamber; at court he is a +charming courtier. + +According to a certain promise made by Vinet, General Baron Gouraud, +that noble relic of our glorious armies, married a Mademoiselle +Matifat, twenty-five years old, daughter of a druggist in the rue des +Lombards, whose dowry was a hundred thousand francs. He commands (as +Vinet prophesied) a department in the neighborhood of Paris. He was +named peer of France for his conduct in the riots which occurred +during the ministry of Casimir Perier. Baron Gouraud was one of the +generals who took the church of Saint-Merry, delighted to rap those +rascally civilians who had vexed him for years over the knuckles; for +which service he was rewarded with the grand cordon of the Legion of +honor. + +None of the personages connected with Pierrette's death ever felt the +slightest remorse about it. Monsieur Desfondrilles is still +archaeological, but, in order to compass his own election, the +/procureur general/ Vinet took pains to have him appointed president +of the Provins court. Sylvie has a little circle, and manages her +brother's property; she lends her own money at high interest, and does +not spend more than twelve hundred francs a year. + +From time to time, when some former son or daughter of Provins returns +from Paris to settle down, you may hear them ask, as they leave +Mademoiselle Rogron's house, "Wasn't there a painful story against the +Rogrons,--something about a ward?" + +"Mere prejudice," replies Monsieur Desfondrilles. "Certain persons +tried to make us believe falsehoods. Out of kindness of heart the +Rogrons took in a girl named Pierrette, quite pretty but with no +money. Just as she was growing up she had an intrigue with a young +man, and stood at her window barefooted talking to him. The lovers +passed notes to each other by a string. She took cold in this way and +died, having no constitution. The Rogrons behaved admirably. They made +no claim on certain property which was to come to her,--they gave it +all up to the grandmother. The moral of it was, my good friend, that +the devil punishes those who try to benefit others." + +"Ah! that is quite another story from the one old Frappier told me." + +"Frappier consults his wine-cellar more than he does his memory," +remarked another of Mademoiselle Rogron's visitors. + +"But that old priest, Monsieur Habert says--" + +"Oh, he! don't you know why?" + +"No." + +"He wanted to marry his sister to Monsieur Rogron, the receiver- +general." + +***** + +Two men think of Pierrette daily: Doctor Martener and Major Brigaut; +they alone know the hideous truth. + +To give that truth its true proportions we must transport the scene to +the Rome of the middle ages, where a sublime young girl, Beatrice +Cenci, was brought to the scaffold by motives and intrigues that were +almost identical with those which laid our Pierrette in her grave. +Beatrice Cenci had but one defender,--an artist, a painter. In our day +history, and living men, on the faith of Guido Reni's portrait, +condemn the Pope, and know that Beatrice was a most tender victim of +infamous passions and base feuds. + +We must all agree that legality would be a fine thing for social +scoundrelism IF THERE WERE NO GOD. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Brigaut, Major + The Chouans + +Desplein + The Atheist's Mass + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + +Gouraud, General, Baron + Cousin Pons + +Keller, Adolphe + The Middle Classes + Cesar Birotteau + +Matifat, Mademoiselle + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + +Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + +Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + +Roguin + Cesar Birotteau + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Vendetta + +Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + +Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor's Establishment + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Tiphaine, Madame + The Vendetta + +Vinet + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Pierrette, by Honore de Balzac + diff --git a/old/prrtt10.zip b/old/prrtt10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d1f155 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/prrtt10.zip |