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diff --git a/1704.txt b/1704.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..317830c --- /dev/null +++ b/1704.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5906 @@ +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 + +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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