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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17377-8.txt b/17377-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9185b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/17377-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12359 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume IV (of +8), by Guy de Maupassant + + +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: The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume IV (of 8) + The Old Maid -- The Awakening -- In the Spring -- The Jennet -- Rust -- The Substitute -- The Relic -- The Man with the Blue Eyes -- Allouma -- A Family Affair -- The Odalisque of Senichou -- A Good Match -- A Fashionable Woman -- The Carnival of Love -- A Deer Park in the Provinces -- The White Lady -- Caught -- Christmas Eve -- Words of Love -- A Divorce Case -- Who Knows? -- Simon's Papa -- Paul's Mistress -- The Rabbit -- The Twenty-Five Francs of the Mother Superior -- The Venus of Braniza -- La Morillonne -- Waiter, A "Bock" -- Regret -- The Port -- The Hermit -- The Orderly -- Duchoux -- Old Amable -- Magnetism + + +Author: Guy de Maupassant + + + +Release Date: December 22, 2005 [eBook #17377] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT, +VOLUME IV (OF 8)*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT + +VOLUME IV + +The Old Maid and Other Stories + + + + + + + +National Library Company +New York +Copyright, 1909, by +Bigelow, Smith & Co. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + THE OLD MAID + + THE AWAKENING + + IN THE SPRING + + THE JENNET + + RUST + + THE SUBSTITUTE + + THE RELIC + + THE MAN WITH THE BLUE EYES + + ALLOUMA + + A FAMILY AFFAIR + + THE ODALISQUE OF SENICHOU + + A GOOD MATCH + + A FASHIONABLE WOMAN + + THE CARNIVAL OF LOVE + + A DEER PARK IN THE PROVINCES + + THE WHITE LADY + + CAUGHT + + CHRISTMAS EVE + + WORDS OF LOVE + + A DIVORCE CASE + + WHO KNOWS? + + SIMON'S PAPA + + PAUL'S MISTRESS + + THE RABBIT + + THE TWENTY-FIVE FRANCS OF THE MOTHER SUPERIOR + + THE VENUS OF BRANIZA + + LA MORILLONNE + + WAITER, A "BOCK" + + REGRET + + THE PORT + + THE HERMIT + + THE ORDERLY + + DUCHOUX + + OLD AMABLE + + MAGNETISM + + + + +THE OLD MAID + + +Count Eustache d'Etchegorry's solitary country house had the appearance +of a poor man's home, where people do not have enough to eat every day in +the week, where the bottles are more frequently filled at the pump than +in the cellar, and where they wait until it is dark before lighting the +candles. + +It was an old and sordid building; the walls were crumbling to pieces, +the grated, iron gates were eaten away by rust, the holes in the broken +windows had been mended with old newspapers, and the ancestral portraits +which hung against the walls, showed that it was no tiller of the soil, +nor miserable laborer whose strength had gradually worn out and bent his +back, who lived there. Great, knotty elm trees sheltered it, as if they +had been a tall, green screen, and a large garden, full of wild +rose-trees and of straggling plants, as well as of sickly-looking +vegetables, which sprang up half-withered from the sandy soil, went +down as far as the bank of the river. + +From the house, one could hear the monotonous sound of the water, which +at one time rushed yellow and impetuous towards the sea, and then again +flowed back, as if driven by some invisible force towards the town which +could be seen in the distance, with its pointed spires, its ramparts, and +its ships at anchor by the side of the quay, and its citadel built on the +top of a hill. + +A strong smell of the sea came from the offing, mingled with the resinous +smell of pine logs, and of the large nets with great pieces of sea-weed +clinging to them, which were drying in the sun. + +Why had Monsieur d'Etchegorry, who did not like the country, who was of a +sociable rather than of a solitary nature, for he never walked alone, but +kept step with the retired officers who lived there, and frequently +played game after game at _piquet_ at the _café_, when he was in town, +buried himself in such a solitary place, by the side of a dusty road at +Boucau, a village close to the town, where on Sundays the soldiers took +off their tunics, and sat in their shirt sleeves in the public-houses, +drank the thin wine of the country, and teased the girls. + +What secret reasons had he for selling the mansion which he had possessed +at Bayonne, close to the bishop's palace, and condemning his daughter, a +girl of nineteen, to such a dull, listless, solitary life; counting the +minutes far from everybody, as if she had been a nun, no one knew, but +most people said that he had lost immense sums in gambling, and had +wasted his fortune and ruined his credit in doubtful speculations. They +wondered whether he still regretted the tender, sweet woman whom he had +lost, who died one evening, after years of suffering, like a church lamp +whose oil has been consumed to the last drop. Was he seeking for perfect +oblivion, for that soothing repose in nature, in which a man becomes +enervated, and which envelopes him like a moist, warm cloth? How could he +be satisfied with such an existence? With the bad cooking, and the +careless, untidy ways of a char-woman, and with the shabby clothes, that +were discolored by use! + +His numerous relations had been anxious about it at first, and had tried +to cure him of his apparent hypochondria, and to persuade him to employ +himself with something, but as he was obstinate, avoided them, rejected +their friendly offers with arrogance and self-sufficiency, even his +brothers had abandoned him, and almost renounced him. All their affection +had been transferred to the poor child who shared his solitude, and who +endured all that wretchedness with the resignation of a saint. Thanks to +them, she had a few gleams of pleasure in their exile, and was not +dressed like a beggar girl, but received invitations, and appeared here +and there at some ball, concert or tennis party, and the girl was +extremely grateful to them for it all, although she would much have +preferred that nobody should have held out a helping hand to her, but +have left her to her dull life, without any day dreams or homesickness, +so that she might grow used to her lot, and day by day lose all that +remained to her of her pride of race and of her youth. + +With her sensitive and proud mind, she felt that she was treated exactly +like others were in society, that people showed her either too much pity +or too much indifference, that they knew all about her side life of +undeserved poverty, and that in the folds of her muslin dress they could +smell the mustiness of her home. If she was animated, or buoyed up with +secret hopes in her heart, if there was a smile on her lips, and her eyes +were bright when she went out at the gate, and the horses carried her off +to town at a rapid trot, she was all the more low-spirited and tearful +when she returned home, and she used to shut herself up in her room and +find fault with her destiny, declared to herself that she would imitate +her father, show relations and friends politely out, with a passive and +resigned gesture, and make herself so unpleasant and embarrassing that +they would grow tired of it in the end, leave long intervals between +their visits, and finally would not come to see her at all, but would +turn away from her, as if from a hospital where incurable patients were +dying. + +Nevertheless, the older the count grew, the more the supplies in the +small country house diminished, and the more painful and harder existence +became. If a morsel of bread was left uneaten on the table, if an +unexpected dish was served up at table, if she put a piece of ribbon into +her hair, he used to heap violent, spiteful reproaches on her, torrents +of rage which defile the mouth, and violent threats like those of a +madman, who is tormented by some fixed idea. Monsieur d'Etchegorry had +dismissed the servant and engaged a char-woman, whom he intended to pay, +merely by small sums on account, and he used to go to market with a +basket on his arm. + +He locked up every morsel of food, used to count the lumps of sugar and +charcoal, and bolted himself in all day long in a room that was larger +than the rest, and which for a long time had served as a drawing-room. +At times he would be rather more gentle, as if he were troubled by vague +thoughts, and used to say to his daughter, in an agonized voice, and +trembling all over: "You will never ask me for any accounts, I +say?... You will never demand your mother's fortune?" + +She always gave him the required promise, did not worry him with any +questions, nor give vent to any complaints, and thinking of her cousins, +who would have good dowries, who were growing up happily and peacefully, +amidst careful and affectionate surroundings and beautiful old furniture, +who were certain to be loved, and to get married some day, and she asked +herself why fate was so cruel to some, and so kind to others, and what +she had done to deserve such disfavor. + +Marie-des-Anges d'Etchegorry, without being absolutely pretty, possessed +all the charm of her age, and everybody liked her. She was as tall and +slim as a lily, with beautiful, fine, soft fair hair, eyes of a dark, +undecided color, which reminded one of those springs in the depths of the +forests, in which a ray of the sun is but rarely reflected--mirrors which +changed now to violet, then to the color of leaves, but most frequently +of a velvety blackness--and her whole being exhaled a freshness of +childhood, and something that could not be described, but which was +pleasant, wholesome and frank. + +She lived on through a long course of years, growing old, faithful to +the man who might have given her his name, honorable, having resisted +temptations and snares, worthy of the motto which used to be engraved +on the tombs of Roman matrons before the Cæsars: "_She spun wool, and +kept at home_." + +When she was just twenty-one, Marie-des-Anges fell in love, and her +beautiful, dark, restless eyes for the first time became illuminated with +a look of dreamy happiness. For someone seemed to have noticed her; he +waltzed with her more frequently than he did with the other girls, spoke +to her in a low voice, dangled at her petticoats, and discomposed her so +much, that she flushed deeply as soon as she heard the sound of his +voice. + +His name was André de Gèdrè; he had just returned from Sénégal, where +after several months of daily fighting in the desert, he had won his +sub-lieutenant's epaulets. + +With his thin, surnburnt, yellow face, looking awkward in his tight coat, +in which his broad shoulders could not distend themselves comfortably, +and in which his arms, which had formerly been used to cut right and +left, were cramped in their tight sleeves, he looked like one of those +pirates of old, who used to scour the seas, pillaging, killing, hanging +their prisoners to the yard-arms, who were ready to engage a whole fleet, +and who returned to the port laden with booty, and occasionally with +waifs and strays picked up at sea. + +He belonged to a race of buccaneers or of heroes, according to the breeze +which swelled his sails and carried him North or South. Over head and +ears in debt, reduced to discounting doubtful legacies, to gambling at +Casinos, and to mortgaging the few acres of land that he had remaining at +much below their value, he nevertheless managed to make a pretty good +figure in his hand to mouth existence; he never gave in, never showed the +blows that he had received, and waited for the last struggle in a state +of blissful inactivity, while he sought for renewed strength and +philosophy from the caressing lips of women. + +Marie-des-Anges seemed to him to be a toy which he could do with as +he liked. She had the flavor of unripe fruit; left to herself, and +sentimental as she was, she would only offer a very brief resistance to +his attacks, and would soon yield to his will, and when he was tired of +her and threw her off, she would bow to the inevitable, and would not +worry him with violent scenes, nor stand in his way, with threats on her +lips. And so he was kind, and used to wheedle her, and by degrees +enveloped her in the meshes of a net, which continually hemmed her in +closer and closer. He gained entire possession of her heart and +confidence, and without expressing any wish or making any promises, +managed so to establish his influence over her, that she did nothing +but what he wished. + +Long before Monsieur de Gèdrè had addressed any passionate words to her, +or any avowal which immediately introduces warmth and danger into a +flirtation, Marie-des-Anges had betrayed herself with the candor of a +little girl, who does not think she is doing any wrong, and cannot hide +what she thinks, what she is dreaming about, and the tenderness which +lies hidden at the bottom of her heart, and she no longer felt that +horror of life which had formerly tortured her. She no longer felt +herself alone, as she had done formerly--so alone, so lost, even among +her own people, that everything had become indifferent to her. + +It was very pleasant and soothing to love and to think that she was +loved, to have a furtive and secret understanding with another heart, +to imagine that he was thinking of her at the same time that she was +thinking of him, to shelter herself timidly under his protection, to +feel more unhappy each time she left him, and to experience greater +happiness every time they met. + +She wrote him long letters, which she did not venture to send him when +they were written, for she was timid and feared that he would make fun of +them, and she sang the whole day through, like a lark that is intoxicated +with the sun, so that Monsieur d'Etchegorry scarcely recognized her any +longer. + +Soon they made appointments together in some secluded spot, meeting for a +few minutes in the aisles of the cathedral and behind the ramparts, or on +the promenade of the _Alleés-Marinès_, which was always dark, on account +of the dense foliage. + +And at last, one evening in June, when the sky was so studded with stars +that it might have been taken for a triumphal route of some sovereign, +strewn with precious stones and rare flowers, Monsieur de Gèdrè went into +the large, neglected garden. + +Marie-des-Anges was waiting for him in a somber walk with witch elms on +either side and listening for the least noise, looking at the closed +windows of the house, and nearly fainting, as much from fear as from +happiness. They spoke in a low voice. She was close to him and he must +have heard the beating of her heart, into which he had cast the first +seeds of love, and he put his arms around her and clasped her gently, as +if she had been some little bird that he was afraid of hurting, but which +he did not wish to allow to escape. + +She no longer knew what she was doing, but was in a state of entire +intense, supreme happiness. She shivered, and yet something burning +seemed to permeate her whole being under her skin, from the nape of her +neck to her feet, like a stream of burning spirit, and she would not have +had the strength to disengage herself or to take a step forward, so she +leant her head instinctively and very tenderly against André's shoulder. +He kissed her hair, touched her forehead with his lips, and at last put +them against hers. The girl felt as if she were going to die, and +remained inert and motionless, with her eyes full of tears. + +He came nearly every evening for two months. She had not the courage to +repel him and to speak to him seriously of the future, and could not +understand why he had not yet asked her father for her hand and had not +fulfilled his former promises, until, one Sunday, as she was coming from +High Mass, walking on before her cousins, Marie-des-Anges heard the +following words, from a group in which André was standing, and he was +the speaker: "Oh! no," he said, "you are altogether mistaken; I should +never do anything so foolish.... One does not marry a girl without a +halfpenny; one takes her for one's mistress." + +The unhappy girl mastered her feelings, went down the steps of the porch +quite steadily, but feeling utterly crushed, as if by the news of some +terrible disaster, and joined the servant, who was waiting for her, to +accompany her back to Boucau. The effects of what she had heard were to +give her a serious illness and for some time she hovered between life +and death, consumed and wasted by a violent fever; and when after a +fortnight's suffering, she grew convalescent, and looked at herself +in the glass, she recoiled, as if she had been face to face with an +apparition, for there was nothing left of her former self. + +Her eyes were dull, her cheeks pale and hollow, and there were white +streaks in her silky, light hair. Why had she not succumbed to her +illness? Why had destiny reserved her for such a trial, and increased her +unhappy lot, that of disappointed hopes, thus? But when that rebellious +feeling was over, she accepted her cross, fell into a state of ardent +devotion and became crystallized in the torpor of an old woman, tried +with all her might to rid her memory of any recollections that had become +incrusted in it, and to put a thick black veil between herself and the +past. + +She never walked in the garden now, and never went to Bayonne, and she +would have liked to have choked herself, and to have beaten herself, +when, in spite of her efforts and of her will, she remembered her lost +happiness, and when some sensual feeling and a longing for past pleasures +agitated her body afresh. + +That lasted for four years, which finished her and altogether destroyed +her good looks and she had the figure and the appearance of an old maid, +when her father suddenly died, just as he was going to sit down to +dinner; and when the lawyer, who was summoned immediately, had ransacked +the cupboards and drawers, discovered a mass of securities, of +bank-notes, and of gold, which Count d'Etchegorry, who was eaten up +with avarice, had amassed eagerly, and hidden away, it was found that +Mademoiselle Marie-des-Anges, who was his sole heiress, possessed an +income of fifty thousand francs. + +She received the news without any emotion, for of what use was such a +fortune to her now, and what should she do with it? Her eyes, alas! had +been too much opened by all the tears that had fallen from them for her +to delude herself with visionary hopes, and her heart had been too +cruelly wounded to warm itself by lying illusions, and she was seized by +melancholy when she thought that in future she would be coveted, she who +had been kept at arm's length, as if she had been a leper; that men would +come after her money with odious impatience, that now that she was worn +out and ugly, tired of everything and everybody, she would most certainly +have plenty of suitors to refuse, and that perhaps he would come back to +her, attracted by that amount of money, like a hawk hovering over its +prey, that he would try to re-kindle the dead cinders, to revive some +spark in them and to obtain pardon for his cowardice. + +Oh! With what bitter pleasure she could have thrown those millions into +the road to the ragged beggars, or scattered them about like manna to all +who were suffering and dying of hunger, and who had neither roof nor +hearth! She naturally soon became the target at which everyone aimed, the +goal for which all those who had formerly disdained her most, now eagerly +tried. + +Monsieur de Gèdrè was not long before he was in the ranks of her suitors, +as she had foreseen, and caused her that last heart-burning of seeing him +humble, kneeling at her feet, acting a comedy, trying every means of +overcoming her resistance, and to regain possession of that heart, which +was closed against him, after having been entirely his, in all its +adorable virginity. + +And Marie-des-Anges had loved him so deeply that his letters in which he +recalled the past, and stirred up all the recollections of their love, +their kisses, and their dreams, softened her in spite of herself, and +came across her profound, incurable sadness, like a factitious light, the +reflection of a bonfire, which, from a distance, illuminates a prison +cell for a moment. + +He was poor himself and had not wished, so he said, to drag her into his +life of privation and shifts, and she thought to herself that perhaps he +had been right; and thus sensibly, like a mother or an elder sister, who +has become indulgent and wishes to close her eyes and her ears against +everything, to forgive again, to forgive always, she excused him, and +tried to remember nothing but those months of tenderness and of ecstacy, +those months of happiness, and that he had been the first, the only man +who, in the course of her unhappy, wasted life, had given her a moment's +peace, had caused her to dream, and had made her happy, and youthful and +loving. + +He had been charitable towards her and she would be so a hundred fold +towards him; and so she grew happy again, when she said to herself that +she would be his benefactress, that even with his hard heart, he could +not accept the sacrifice from a woman, who, like so many others, might +have returned him evil for evil, but who preferred to be kind and +maternal, after having been in love with him, without some feelings +of gratitude and emotion. + +And that resolution transfigured her, restored to her temporarily, +something of her youth, which had so soon fled away, and a poor, heroic +saint amongst all the saints, she took refuge in a Carmelite convent, so +as to escape from this returning temptation, and to bequeath everything +of which she could lawfully dispose, to Monsieur de Gèdrè. + + + + +THE AWAKENING + + +During the three years that she had been married, she had not left the +_Val de Ciré_, where her husband possessed two cotton-mills. She led a +quiet life, and although she had no children, she was quite happy in her +house among the trees, which the work-people called the _château_. + +Although Monsieur Vasseur was considerably older than she was, he was +very kind. She loved him, and no guilty thought had ever entered her +mind. + +Her mother came and spent every summer at Ciré, and then returned to +Paris for the winter, as soon as the leaves began to fall. + +Jeanne coughed a little every autumn, for the narrow valley through which +the river wound, grew foggy for five months. First of all, slight mists +hung over the meadows, making all the low-lying ground look like a large +pond, out of which the roof of the houses rose. + +Then that white vapor, which rose like a tide, enveloped everything, and +turned the valley into a land of phantoms, through which men moved about +like ghosts, without recognizing each other ten yards off, and the trees, +wreathed in mist, and dripping with moisture, rose up through it. + +But the people who went along the neighboring hills, and who looked down +upon the deep, white depression of the valley, saw the two huge chimneys +of Monsieur Vasseur's factories, rising above the mist below. Day and +night they vomited forth two long trails of black smoke, and that alone +indicated that people were living in that hollow, which looked as if it +were filled with a cloud of cotton. + +That year, when October came, the medical men advised the young woman +to go and spend the winter in Paris with her mother, as the air of the +valley was dangerous for her weak chest, and she went. For a month or so, +she thought continually of the house which she had left, to which she +seemed rooted, and whose well-known furniture and quiet ways she loved +so much, but by degrees she grew accustomed to her new life, and got to +liking entertainments, dinners and evening parties, and balls. + +Till then, she had retained her girlish manners, she had been undecided +and rather sluggish; she walked languidly, and had a tired smile, but now +she became animated and merry, and was always ready for pleasure. Men +paid her marked attentions, and she was amused at their talk, and made +fun of their gallantries, as she felt sure that she could resist them, +for she was rather disgusted with love, from what she had learned of it +in marriage. + +The idea of giving up her body to the coarse caresses of such bearded +creatures, made her laugh with pity, and shudder a little with ignorance. + +She asked herself how women could consent to those degrading contacts +with strangers, as they were already obliged to endure them with their +legitimate husbands. She would have loved her husband much more if they +had lived together like two friends, and had restricted themselves to +chaste kisses, which are the caresses of the soul. + +But she was much amused by their compliments, by the desire which showed +itself in their eyes, and which she did not share, by their declarations +of love, which they whispered into her ear as they were returning to the +drawing-room after some grand dinner, by their words, which were murmured +so low that she almost had to guess them, and which left her blood quite +cool, and her heart untouched, while they gratified her unconscious +coquetry, while they kindled a flame of pleasure within her, and while +they made her lips open, her eyes glow bright, and her woman's heart, +to which homage was due, quiver with delight. + +She was fond of those _tête-à-têtes_ when it was getting dusk, when a man +grows pressing, stammers, trembles and falls on his knees. It was a +delicious and new pleasure to her to know that they felt that passion +which left her quite unmoved, to say _no_, by a shake of the head, and +with her lips, to withdraw her hands, to get up and calmly ring for +lights, and to see the man who had been trembling at her feet, get up, +confused and furious when he heard the footman coming. + +She often had a hard laugh, which froze the most burning words, and said +harsh things, which fell like a jet of icy water on the most ardent +protestations, while the intonations of her voice were enough to make any +man who really loved her, kill himself, and there were two especially who +made obstinate love to her, although they did not at all resemble one +another. + +One of them, Paul Péronel, was a tall man of the world, gallant and +enterprising, a man who was accustomed to successful love affairs, and +who knew how to wait, and when to seize his opportunity. + +The other, Monsieur d'Avancelle, quivered when he came near her, scarcely +ventured to express his love, but followed her like a shadow, and gave +utterance to his hopeless desire by distracted looks, and the assiduity +of his attentions to her, and she made him a kind of slave who followed +her steps, and whom she treated as if he had been her servant. + +She would have been much amused if anybody had told her that she would +love him, and yet she did love him, after a singular fashion. As she saw +him continually, she had grown accustomed to his voice, to his gestures, +and to his manner, as one grows accustomed to those with whom one meets +continually. Often his face haunted her in her dreams, and she saw him +as he really was; gentle, delicate in all his actions, humble, but +passionately in love, and she awoke full of those dreams, fancying that +she still heard him, and felt him near her, until one night (most likely +she was feverish), she saw herself alone with him in a small wood, where +they were both of them sitting on the grass. He was saying charming +things to her, while he pressed and kissed her hands. + +She could feel the warmth of his skin and of his breath, and she was +stroking his hair, in a very natural manner. + +We are quite different in our dreams to what we are in real life. She +felt full of love for him, full of calm and deep love, and was happy in +stroking his forehead and in holding him against her. Gradually he put +his arms round her, kissed her eyes and her cheeks without her attempting +to get away from him; their lips met, and she yielded. + +When she saw him again, unconscious of the agitation that he had caused +her, she felt that she grew red, and while he was telling her of his +love, she was continually recalling to mind their previous meeting, +without being able to get rid of the recollection. + +She loved him, loved him with refined tenderness, which arose chiefly +from the remembrance of her dream, although she dreaded the +accomplishment of the desires which had arisen in her mind. + +At last, he perceived it, and then she told him everything, even to the +dread of his kisses, and she made him swear that he would respect her, +and he did so. They spent long hours of transcendental love together, +during which their souls alone embraced, and when they separated, they +were enervated, weak and feverish. + +Sometimes their lips met, and with closed eyes they reveled in that long, +yet chaste caress; she felt, however, that she could not resist much +longer, and as she did not wish to yield, she wrote and told her husband +that she wanted to come to him, and to return to her tranquil, solitary +life. But in reply, he wrote her a very kind letter, and strongly advised +her not to return in the middle of the winter, and so expose herself to a +sudden change of climate, and to the icy mists of the valley, and she was +thunderstruck, and angry with that confiding man, who did not guess, who +did not understand, the struggles of her heart. + +February was a warm, bright month, and although she now avoided being +alone with Monsieur Avancelle, she sometimes accepted his invitation to +drive round the lake in the _Bois de Boulogne_ with him, when it was +dusk. + +On one of those evenings, it was so warm that it seemed as if the sap in +every tree and plant were rising. Their cab was going at a walk; it was +growing dusk, and they were sitting close together, holding each others' +hands, and she said to herself: + +"It is all over, I am lost!" for she felt her desires rising in her +again, the imperious want for that supreme embrace, which she had +undergone in her dream. Every moment their lips sought each other, clung +together and separated, only to meet again immediately. + +He did not venture to go into the house with her, but left her at her +door, more in love with him than ever, and half fainting. + +Monsieur Paul Péronel was waiting for her in the little drawing-room, +without a light, and when he shook hands with her, he felt how feverish +she was. He began to talk in a low, tender voice, lulling her worn-out +mind with the charm of amorous words. + +She listened to him without replying, for she was thinking of the other; +she thought she was listening to the other, and thought she felt him +leaning against her, in a kind of hallucination. She saw only him, and +did not remember that any other man existed on earth, and when her ears +trembled at those three syllables: "I love you," it was he, the other +man, who uttered them, who kissed her hands, who strained her to his +breast, like the other had done shortly before in the cab. It was he +who pressed victorious kisses on her lips, it was his lips, it was he +whom she held in her arms and embraced, whom she was calling to, with all +the longings of her heart, with all the over-wrought ardor of her body. + +When she awoke from her dream, she uttered a terrible cry. Captain +Fracasse was kneeling by her, and thanking her, passionately, while he +covered her disheveled hair with kisses, and she almost screamed out: +"Go away! go away! go away!" + +And as he did not understand what she meant, and tried to put his arm +round her waist again, she writhed, as she stammered out: + +"You are a wretch, and I hate you! Go away! go away!" And he got up in +great surprise, took up his hat, and went. + +The next day she returned to _Val de Ciré_, and her husband, who had not +expected her for some time, blamed her for a freak. + +"I could not live away from you any longer," she said. + +He found her altered in character, and sadder than formerly, but when he +said to her: + +"What is the matter with you? You seem unhappy. What do you want?" she +replied: + +"Nothing. Happiness exists only in our dreams, in this world." + +Avancelle came to see her the next summer, and she received him without +any emotion, and without regret, for she suddenly perceived that she had +never loved him, except in a dream, from which Paul Péronel had brutally +roused her. + +But the young man, who still adored her, thought as he returned to Paris: + +"Women are really very strange, complicated and inexplicable beings." + + + + +IN THE SPRING + + +When the first fine spring days come, and the earth awakes and assumes +its garment of verdure, when the perfumed warmth of the air blows on our +faces and fills our lungs, and even appears to penetrate to our heart, we +feel vague longings for undefined happiness, a wish to run, to walk at +random, to inhale the spring. As the winter had been very severe the year +before, this longing assumed an intoxicating feeling in May; it was like +a superabundance of sap. + +Well, one morning on waking, I saw from my window the blue sky glowing in +the sun above the neighboring houses. The canaries hanging in the windows +were singing loudly, and so were the servants on every floor; a cheerful +noise rose up from the streets, and I went out, with my spirits as bright +as the day was, to go--I did not exactly know where. Everybody I met +seemed to be smiling; an air of happiness appeared to pervade everything, +in the warm light of returning spring. One might almost have said that a +breeze of love was blowing through the city, and the young women whom I +saw in the streets in their morning toilettes, in the depths of whose +eyes there lurked a hidden tenderness, and who walked with languid grace, +filled my heart with agitation. + +Without knowing how or why, I found myself on the banks of the Seine. +Steamboats were starting for Suresnes, and suddenly I was seized by an +unconquerable wish to have a walk through the woods. The deck of the +_mouche_[1] was crowded with passengers, for the sun in early spring +draws you out of the house, in spite of yourself, and everybody moves +about, goes and comes, and talks to his neighbor. + +[Footnote 1: Fly.] + +I had a female neighbor; a little work-girl, no doubt, who possessed +the true Parisian charm; a little head, with light curly hair, which +looked like frizzed light, came down to her ears and descended to the +nape of her neck, danced in the wind, and then became such fine, such +light-colored down, that one could scarcely see it, but on which one +felt an irresistible desire to impress a shower of kisses. + +Under the magnetism of my looks, she turned her head towards me, and then +immediately looked down, while a slight fold, which looked as if she were +ready to break out into a smile, also showed that fine, silky, pale down +which the sun was gilding a little. + +The calm river grew wider; the atmosphere was warm and perfectly still, +but a murmur of life seemed to fill all space. + +My neighbor raised her eyes again, and, this time, as I was still looking +at her, she smiled, decidedly. She was charming like that, and in her +passing glance, I saw a thousand things, which I had hitherto been +ignorant of, for I saw unknown depths, all the charm of tenderness, all +the poetry which we dream of, all the happiness which we are continually +in search of, in it. I felt an insane longing to open my arms and to +carry her off somewhere, so as to whisper the sweet music of words of +love into her ears. + +I was just going to speak to her, when somebody touched me on the +shoulder, and when I turned round in some surprise, I saw an ordinary +looking man, who was neither young nor old, and who gazed at me sadly: + +"I should like to speak to you," he said. + +I made a grimace, which he no doubt saw, for he added: + +"It is a matter of importance." + +I got up, therefore, and followed him to the other end of the boat, and +then he said: + +"Monsieur, when winter comes, with its cold, wet and snowy weather, +your doctor says to you constantly: 'Keep your feet warm, guard against +chills, colds, bronchitis, rheumatism and pleurisy.' + +"Then you are very careful, you wear flannel, a heavy great coat and +thick shoes, but all this does not prevent you from passing two months in +bed. But when spring returns, with its leaves and flowers, its warm, soft +breezes, and its smell of the fields, which cause you vague disquiet and +causeless emotion, nobody says to you: + +"Monsieur, beware of love! It is lying in ambush everywhere; it is +watching for you at every corner; all its snares are laid, all its +weapons are sharpened, all its guiles are prepared! Beware of +love.... Beware of love. It is more dangerous than brandy, bronchitis, +or pleurisy! It never forgives, and makes everybody commit irreparable +follies." + +"Yes, Monsieur, I say that the French Government ought to put large +public notices on the walls, with these words: '_Return of Spring. French +citizens, beware of love!_' just as they put: '_Beware of paint._' + +"However, as the government will not do this, I must supply its place, +and I say to you: 'Beware of love,' for it is just going to seize you, +and it is my duty to inform you of it, just as in Russia they inform +anyone that his nose is frozen." + +I was much astonished at this individual, and assuming a dignified +manner, I said: + +"Really, Monsieur, you appear to me to be interfering in a matter which +is no business of yours." + +He made an abrupt movement, and replied: + +"Ah! Monsieur! Monsieur! If I see that a man is in danger of being +drowned at a dangerous spot, ought I to let him perish? So just listen to +my story, and you will see why I ventured to speak to you like this. + +"It was about this time last year that it occurred. But, first of all, I +must tell you that I am a clerk in the Admirality, where our chiefs, the +commissioners, take their gold lace and quill-driving officers seriously, +and treat us like fore-top men on board a ship. Well, from my office I +could see a small bit of blue sky and the swallows, and I felt inclined +to dance among my portfolios. + +"My yearning for freedom grew so intense, that, in spite of my +repugnance, I went to see my chief, who was a short, bad-tempered man, +who was always in a rage. When I told him that I was not well, he looked +at me, and said: 'I do not believe it, Monsieur, but be off with you! Do +you think that any office can go on, with clerks like you?' I started at +once, and went down the Seine. It was a day like this, and I took the +_mouche_, to go as far as Saint Cloud. Ah! What a good thing it would +have been if my chief had refused me permission to leave the office for +the day! + +"I seemed to myself to expand in the sun. I loved it all; the steamer, +the river, the trees, the houses, my fellow-passengers, everything. I +felt inclined to kiss something, no matter what; it was love, laying its +snare. Presently, at the Trocadéro, a girl, with a small parcel in her +hand, came on board and sat down opposite to me. She was certainly +pretty; but it is surprising, Monsieur, how much prettier women seem to +us when it is fine, at the beginning of the spring. Then they have an +intoxicating charm, something quite peculiar about them. It is just like +drinking wine after the cheese. + +"I looked at her, and she also looked at me, but only occasionally, like +that girl did at you, just now; but at last, by dint of looking at each +other constantly, it seemed to me that we knew each other well enough to +enter into conversation, and I spoke to her, and she replied. She was +decidedly pretty and nice, and she intoxicated me, Monsieur! + +"She got out at Saint-Cloud, and I followed her. She went and delivered +her parcel, and when she returned, the boat had just started. I walked by +her side, and the warmth of the air made us both sigh. 'It would be very +nice in the woods,' I said. 'Indeed, it would!' she replied. 'Shall we go +there for a walk, Mademoiselle?' + +"She gave me a quick, upward look, as if to see exactly what I was like, +and then, after a little hesitation, she accepted my proposal, and soon +we were there, walking side by side. Under the foliage, which was still +rather thin, the tall, thick, bright, green grass, was inundated by the +sun, and full of small insects that also made love to one another, and +birds were singing in all directions. My companion began to jump and to +run, intoxicated by the air, and the smell of the country, and I ran and +jumped behind her. How stupid we are at times, Monsieur! + +"Then she wildly sang a thousand things; opera airs, and the song of +_Musette_! The song of _Musette_! How poetical it seemed to me, then! I +almost cried over it. Ah! Those silly songs make us lose our heads; and, +believe me, never marry a woman who sings in the country, especially if +she sings the song of _Musette_! + +"She soon grew tired, and sat down on a grassy slope, and I sat down at +her feet, and took her hands, her little hands, that were so marked with +the needle, and that moved me. I said to myself: 'These are the sacred +marks of toil.' Oh! Monsieur, do you know what those sacred marks of +labor mean? They mean all the gossip of the workroom, the whispered +blackguardism, the mind soiled by all the filth that is talked; they mean +lost chastity, foolish chatter, all the wretchedness of daily bad habits, +all the narrowness of ideas which belongs to women of the lower orders, +united in the girl whose sacred fingers bear _the sacred marks of toil_. + +"Then we looked into each other's eyes for a long while. Oh! What power a +woman's eye has! How it agitates us, how it invades our very being, takes +possession of us, and dominates us. How profound it seems, how full of +infinite promises! People call that looking into each other's souls! Oh! +Monsieur, what humbug! If we could see into each other's souls, we should +be more careful of what we did. However, I was caught, and crazy after +her, and tried to take her into my arms, but she said: 'Paws off!' Then I +knelt down, and opened my heart to her, and poured out all the affection +that was suffocating me, on her knees. She seemed surprised at my change +of manner, and gave me a sidelong glance, as if to say: 'Ah! So that is +the way women make a fool of you, old fellow! Very well, we will see. +In love, Monsieur, we are all artists, and women are the dealers.' + +"No doubt I could have had her, and I saw my own stupidity later, but +what I wanted was not a woman's person; it was love, it was the ideal. +I was sentimental, when I ought to have been using my time to a better +purpose. + +"As soon as she had had enough of my declarations of affection, she got +up, and we returned to Saint-Cloud, and I did not leave her until we got +to Paris; but she had looked so sad as we were returning, that at last I +asked her what was the matter. 'I am thinking,' she replied, 'that this +has been one of those days of which we have but few in life.' And my +heart beat so that it felt as if it would break my ribs. + +"I saw her on the following Sunday, and the next Sunday, and every +Sunday. I took her to Bougival, Saint-Germain, Maisons-Lafitte, Poissy; +to every suburban resort of lovers. + +"The little jade, in turn, pretended to love me, until, at last, I +altogether lost my head, and three months later I married her. + +"What can you expect, Monsieur, when a man is a clerk, living alone, +without any relations, or anyone to advise him? One says to oneself: 'How +sweet life would be with a wife!' + +"And so one gets married, and she calls you names from morning till +night, understands nothing, knows nothing, chatters continually, sings +the song of _Musette_ at the top of her voice (oh! that song of +_Musette_, how tired one gets of it!); quarrels with the charcoal dealer, +tells the porter of all her domestic details, confides all the secrets of +her bedroom to the neighbor's servant, discusses her husband with the +trades-people, and has her head so stuffed with such stupid stories, with +such idiotic superstitions, with such extraordinary ideas and such +monstrous prejudices, that I--for what I have said, applies more +particularly to myself--shed tears of discouragement every time I +talked to her." + +He stopped, as he was rather out of breath, and very much moved, and I +looked at him, for I felt pity for this poor, artless devil, and I was +just going to give him some sort of answer, when the boat stopped. We +were at Saint-Cloud. + +The little woman who had so taken my fancy, got up in order to land. She +passed close to me, and gave me a side glance and a furtive smile; one of +those smiles that drive you mad; then she jumped on the landing-stage. +I sprang forward to follow her, but my neighbor laid hold of my arm, I +shook myself loose, however, whereupon he seized the skirt of my coat, +and pulled me back, exclaiming: + +"You shall not go! You shall not go!" in such a loud voice, that +everybody turned round and laughed, and I remained standing motionless +and furious, but without venturing to face scandal and ridicule, and the +steamboat started. + +The little woman on the landing-stage looked at me as I went off with +an air of disappointment, while my persecutor rubbed his hands, and +whispered to me: + +"I have done you a great service, you must acknowledge." + + + + +THE JENNET + + +Every time he held an inspection on the review ground, General Daumont de +Croisailles was sure of a small success, and of receiving a whole packet +of letters from women the next day. + +Some were almost illegible, scribbled on paper with a love emblem at the +top, by some sentimental milliner; the others ardent, as if saturated +with curry, letters which excited him, and suggested the delights of +kisses to him. + +Among them, also, there were some which evidently came from a woman of +the world, who was tired of her monotonous life, had lost her head, and +let her pen run on, without exactly knowing what she was writing, with +those mistakes in spelling here and there which seemed to be in unison +with the disordered beating of her heart. + +He certainly looked magnificent on horseback; there was something of the +fighter, something bold and mettlesome about him, _a valiant look_, as +our grandmothers used to say, when they threw themselves into the arms +of the conquerors, between two campaigns, though the same conquerors had +loud, rough voices, even when they were making love, as they had to +dominate the noise of the firing, and violent gestures, as if they were +using their swords and issuing orders, who did not waste time over +useless refinements, and in squandering the precious hours which were +counted so avariciously, in minor caresses, but sounded the charge +immediately, and made the assault, without meeting with any more +resistance than they did from a redoubt. + +As soon as he appeared, preceded by dragoons, with his sword in his hand, +amidst the clatter of hoofs and jingle of scabbards and bridles, while +plumes waved and uniforms glistened in the sun, a little in front of his +staff, sitting perfectly upright in the saddle, and with his cocked hat +with its black plumes, slightly on one side, the surging crowd, which was +kept in check by the police officers, cheered him as if he had been some +popular minister, whose journey had been given notice of beforehand by +posters and proclamations. + +That tumult of strident voices that went from one end of the great square +to the other, which was prolonged like the sound of the rising tide, +which beats against the shore with ceaseless noise, that rattle of +rifles, and the sound of the music that alternated with blasts of the +trumpets all along the line, made the General's heart swell with +unspeakable pride. + +He attudinized in spite of himself, and thought of nothing but +ostentation, and of being noticed. He continually touched his horse with +his spurs, and worried it, so as to make it appear restive, and to prance +and rear, to champ its bit, and to cover it with foam, and then he would +continue his inspection, galloping from regiment to regiment with a +satisfied smile, while the good old infantry captains, sitting on their +thin Arab horses, with their toes well stuck out, said to one another: + +"I should not like to have to ride a confounded, restive brute like that, +I know!" + +But the General's aide-de-camp, little Jacques de Montboron, could easily +have reassured them, for he knew those famous thoroughbreds, as he had +had to break them in, and had received a thousand trifling instructions +about them. + +They were generally more or less spavined brutes, which he had bought at +Tattersall's auctions for a ridiculous price, and so quiet and well in +hand that they might have been held with a silk thread, but with a good +shape, bright eyes, and coats that glistened like silk. They seemed to +know their part, and stepped out, pranced and reared, and made way for +themselves, as if they had just come out of the riding-school at Saumur. + +That was his daily task, his obligatory service. + +He broke them in, one after another, and transformed them into veritable +mechanical horses, accustomed them to bear the noise of trumpets and +drums, and of firing, without starting, tired them out by long rides the +evening before every review, and bit his lips to prevent himself from +laughing when people declared that General Daumont de Croisailles was +a first-rate rider, who was really fond of danger. + +A rider! That was almost like writing history! But the aide-de-camp +discreetly kept up the illusion, outdid the others in flattery, and +related unheard-of feats of the General's horsemanship. + +And, after all, breaking in horses was not more irksome than carrying on +a monotonous and dull correspondence about the buttons on the gaiters, or +than thinking over projects of mobilization, or than going through +accounts in which he lost himself like in a labyrinth. He had not, from +the very first day that he entered the military academy at Saint-Cyr, +learned that sentence which begins the rules of the _Interior Service_, +in vain: + +"As discipline constitutes the principal strength of an army, it is very +important for every superior to obtain absolute respect, and instant +obedience from his inferiors." + +He did not resist, but accustomed himself thus to become a sort of +Monsieur Loyal, spoke to his chief in the most flattering manner, and +reckoned on being promoted over the heads of his fellow officers. + +General Daumont de Croisailles was not married and did not intend to +disturb the tranquillity of his bachelor life as long as he lived, for +he loved all women, whether they were dark, fair or red-haired, too +passionately to love only one, who would grow old, and worry him with +useless complaints. + +Gallant, as they used to be called in the good old days, he kissed the +hands of those women who refused him their lips, and as he did not wish +to compromise his dignity, and be the talk of the town, he had rented a +small house just outside it. + +It was close to the canal, in a quiet street with courtyards and shady +gardens, and as nothing is less amusing than the racket of jealous +husbands, or the brawling of excited women who are disputing or raising +their voices in lamentation, and as it is always necessary to foresee +some unfortunate incident or other in the amorous life, some unlucky +mishap, some absurdly imprudent action, some forgotten love appointment, +the house had five different doors. + +So discreet, that he reassured even the most timid, and certainly not +given to melancholy, he understood extremely well how to vary his kisses +and his ways of proceeding; how to work on women's feelings, and to +overcome their scruples, to obtain a hold over them through their +curiosity to learn something new, by the temptation of a comfortable, +well-furnished, warm room, that was fragrant with flowers, and where +a little supper was already served as a prologue to the entertainment. +His female pupils would certainly have deserved the first prize in a +love competition. + +So men mistrusted that ancient Lovelace as if he had been the plague, +when they had plucked some rare and delicious fruit, and had sketched out +some charming adventure, for he always managed to discover the weak spot, +and to penetrate into the place. + +To some, he held out the lure of debauch without any danger attached +to it, the desire of finishing their amorous education, of reveling in +perverted enjoyment, and to others he held out the irresistible argument +that seduced Danae, that of gold. + +Others, again, were attracted by his cocked hat and feathers, and by the +conceited hope of seeing him at their knees, of throwing their arms round +him as if he had been an ordinary lover, although he was a general who +rode so imposingly, who was covered with decorations, and to whom all the +regiments presented arms simultaneously, the chief whose orders could not +be commented on or disputed, and who had such a martial +and haughty look. + +His pay, allowances and his private income of fifteen thousand francs,[2] +all went in this way, like water that runs out drop by drop, from a +cracked bottle. + +[Footnote 2: £600.] + +He was continually on the alert, and looked out for intrigues with the +acuteness of a policeman, followed women about, had all the impudence and +all the cleverness of the fast man who has made love for forty years, +without ever meaning anything serious, who knows all its lies, tricks and +illusions, and who can still do a march without halting on the road, or +requiring too much music to put him in proper trim. And in spite of his +age and gray hairs, he could have given a sub-lieutenant points, and was +very often loved for himself, which is the dream of men who have passed +forty, and do not intend to give up the game just yet. + +And there were not a dozen in the town who could, without lying, have +declared to a jealous husband or a suspicious lover, that they had not, +at any rate, once staid late in the little house in the Eglisottes +quarter, who could have denied that they had not returned more +thoughtful. Not a dozen, certainly, and, perhaps, not six! + +Among that dozen or six, however, was Jacques de Montboron's mistress. +She was a little marvel, that Madame Courtade, whom the Captain had +unearthed in an ecclesiastical warehouse in the Faubourg Saint-Exupère, +and not yet twenty. They had begun by smiling at each other, and by +exchanging those long looks when they met, which seemed to ask for +charity. + +Montboron used to pass in front of the shop at the same hours, stopped +for a moment with the appearance of a lounger who was loitering about the +streets, but immediately her supple figure appeared, pink and fair, +shedding the brightness of youth and almost childhood round her, while +her looks showed that she was delighted at little gallant incidents which +dispelled the monotony and weariness of her life for a time, and gave +rise to vague but delightful hopes. + +Was love, that love which she had so constantly invoked, really knocking +at her door at last, and taking pity on her unhappy isolation? Did that +officer, whom she met whenever she went out, as if he had been faithfully +watching her, when coming out of church, or when out for a walk in the +evening, who said so many delightful things to her with his wheedling +eyes, really love her as she wished to be loved, or was he merely amusing +himself at that game, because he had nothing better to do in their quiet +little town? + +But in a short time he wrote to her, and she replied to him, and at last +they managed to meet in secret, to make appointments, and talk together. + +She knew all the cunning tricks of a simple girl, who has tasted the most +delicious of sweets with the tip of her tongue, and acting in concert, +and giving each other the word, so that there might be no awkward +mistake, they managed to make the husband their unwitting accomplice, +without his having the least idea of what was going on. + +Courtade was an excellent fellow, who saw no further than the tip of his +nose, incapable of rebelling, flabby, fat, steeped in devotion, and +thinking too much about heaven to see what a plot was being hatched +against him, in our unhappy vale of tears, as the psalters say. + +In the good old days of confederacies, he would have made an excellent +chief of a corporation; he loved his wife more like a father than a +husband, considering that at his age a man ought no longer to think of +such trifles, and that, after all, the only real happiness in life was +to keep a good table and to have a good digestion, and so he ate like +four canons, and drank in proportion. + +Only once during his whole life had he shown anything like energy--but +he used to relate that occurrence with all the pride of a conqueror, +recalling his most heroic battle--and that was on the evening when +he refused to allow the bishop to take his cook away, quite regardless +of any of the consequences of such a daring deed. + +In a few weeks, the Captain became his regular table companion, and his +best friend. He had begun by telling him in a boastful manner that, in +order to keep a vow that he had made to St. George, during the charge +up the slope at Yron, during the battle of Gravelotte, he wished to send +two censers and a sanctuary lamp to his village church. + +Courtade did his utmost, and all the more readily as this unexpected +customer did not appear to pay any regard to money. He sent for several +goldsmiths, and showed Montboron models of all kinds; he hesitated, +however, and did not seem able to make up his mind, and discussed the +subject, designed ornaments himself, gained time, and thus managed to +spend several hours every day in the shop. + +In fact, he was quite at home in the place, shook hands with Courtade, +called him "my dear fellow," and did not wince when he took his arm +familiarly before other people, and introduced him to his customers +as, "My excellent friend, the Marquis de Montboron." He could go in and +out of the house as he pleased, whether the husband was at home or not. + +The censers and the lamp were sent in due course to Montboron's château +at Pacy-sur-Romanche (in Normandy), and when the package was undone, it +caused the greatest surprise to Jacques' mother, who was more accustomed +to receiving requests for money from her son, than ecclesiastical +objects. + +Suddenly, however, without rhyme or reason, little Madame Courtade became +insupportable and enigmatical. Her husband could not understand it at +all, and grew uneasy, and continually consulted his friend the Captain. + +Etiennette's character seemed to have completely changed; she found +fifty pretexts for deserting the shop, for coming late, for avoiding +_tête-à-têtes_, in which people come to explanations, and mutually become +irritated, though such matters usually end in a reconciliation, amidst a +torrent of kisses. + +She disappeared for days at a time, and soon, Montboron, who was not +fitted to play the part of a Sganarelle, either by age or temperament, +became convinced that his mistress was making him wear the horns, that +she was hobnobbing with the General, and that she was in possession of +one of the five keys of the house in the Eglisottes quarter; and as he +was as jealous as an Andalusian, and felt a horror for that kind of +pleasantry, he swore that he would make his rival pay a hundred fold +for the trick which he had played him. + +The Fourteenth of July was approaching, when there was to be a grand +parade of the whole garrison on the large review ground, and all along +the paling, which divided the spectators from the soldiers, itinerant +dealers had put up their stalls, and there were mountebanks' and +somnambulists' booths, menageries, and a large circus, which had gone +through the town in caravans, with a great noise of trumpets and of +drums. + +He had given his aide-de-camp his instructions beforehand, for he was +more anxious than ever to surprise people, and to have a horse like an +equestrian statue, an animal which should outdo that famous black horse +of General Boulanger's, about which the Parisian loungers had talked so +much, and told Montboron not to mind what the price was, as long as he +found him a suitable charger. + +When the Captain, a few days before the review, brought him a chestnut +jennet, with a long tail and flowing mane, which would not keep quiet for +five seconds, but kept on shaking its head, had extraordinary action, +answered the slightest touch of the leg, and stepped out as if it knew no +other motion, General Daumont de Croisailles showered compliments upon +him, and assured him that he knew few officers who possessed his +intelligence and his value, and that he should not forget him when the +proper time came for recommending him for promotion. + +Not a muscle of the Marquis de Montboron's face moved, and when the day +of the review arrived, he was at his post on the staff that followed the +General, who sat as upright as a dart in the saddle, and looked at the +crowd to see whether he could not recognize some old or new female friend +there, while his horse pranced and plunged. + +He rode onto the review ground, amidst the increasing noise of applause, +with a smile upon his lips, when, suddenly, at the moment that he +galloped up into the large square, formed by the troops drawn up in a +line, the band of the fifty-third regiment struck up a quick march, and, +as if obeying a preconcerted signal, the jennet began to turn round, and +to accelerate its speed, in spite of the furious tugs at the bridle which +the rider gave. + +The horse performed beautifully, followed the rhythm of the music, and +appeared to be acting under some invisible impulse, and the General had +such a comical look on his face, he looked so disconcerted, rolled his +eyes, and seemed to be the prey to such terrible exasperation, that he +might have been taken for some character in a pantomime, while his staff +followed him, without being able to comprehend this fresh fancy of his. + +The soldiers presented arms, the music did not stop, though the +instrumentalists were much astonished at this interminable ride. + +The General at last became out of breath, and could scarcely keep in the +saddle, and the women, in the crowded ranks of the spectators, gave +prolonged, nervous laughs, which made the old _roué's_ ears tingle with +excitement. + +The horse did not stop until the music ceased, and then it knelt down +with bent head, and put its nostrils into the dust. + +It nearly gave General de Croisailles an attack of the jaundice, +especially when he found out that it was his aide-de-camp's _tit for +tat_, and that the horse came from a circus which was giving performances +in the town. And what irritated him all the more was, that he could not +even set it down against Montboron and have him sent to some terrible +out-of-the-way hole, for the Captain sent in his resignation, wisely +considering that sooner or later he should have to pay the costs of +that little trick, and that the chances were that he should not get any +further promotion, but remain stationary, like a cab which some bilker +has left standing for hours at one end of an arcade, while he has made +his escape at the other. + + + + +RUST + + +During nearly his whole life, he had had an insatiable love for sport. He +went out every day, from morning till night, with the greatest ardor, in +summer and winter, spring and autumn, on the marshes, when it was close +time on the plains and in the woods. He shot, he hunted, he coursed, he +ferreted; he spoke of nothing but shooting and hunting, he dreamt of it, +and continually repeated: + +"How miserable any man must be who does not care for sport!" + +And now that he was past fifty, he was well, robust, stout and vigorous, +though rather bald, and he kept his moustache cut quite short, so that it +might not cover his lips, and interfere with his blowing the horn. + +He was never called by anything but his first Christian name, Monsieur +Hector, but his full name was Baron Hector Gontran de Coutelier, and he +lived in a small manor house which he had inherited, in the middle of the +woods; and though he knew all the nobility of the department, and met its +male representatives out shooting and hunting, he only regularly visited +one family, the Courvilles, who were very pleasant neighbors, and had +been allied to his race for centuries, and in their house he was liked, +and taken the greatest care of, and he used to say: "If I were not a +sportsman, I should like to be here always." + +Monsieur de Courville had been his friend and comrade from childhood, +and lived quietly as a gentleman farmer with his wife, daughter and +son-in-law, Monsieur de Darnetot, who did nothing, under the pretext of +being devoted to historical studies. + +Baron de Coutelier often went and dined with his friends, as much with +the object of telling them of the shots he had made, as of anything else. +He had long stories about dogs and ferrets, of which he spoke as if they +were persons of note, whom he knew very well. He analyzed them, and +explained their thoughts and intentions: + +"When Medor saw that the corn-crake was leading him such a dance, he said +to himself: 'Wait a bit, my friend, we will have a joke.' And then, with +a jerk of the head to me, to make me go into the corner of the clover +field, he began to quarter the sloping ground, noisily brushing through +the clover to drive the bird into a corner from which it could not +escape. + +"Everything happened as he had foreseen. Suddenly, the corn-crake found +itself on the borders of the clover, and it could not go any further +without showing itself; Medor stood and pointed, half-looking round at +me, but at a sign from me, he drew up to it, flushed the corn-crake; +_bang_! down it came, and Medor, as he brought it to me, wagged his tail, +as much as to say: 'How about that, Monsieur Hector?'" + +Courville, Darnetot, and the two ladies laughed very heartily at those +picturesque descriptions into which the Baron threw his whole heart. He +grew animated, moved his arms about, and gesticulated with his whole +body; and when he described the death of anything he had killed, he gave +a formidable laugh, and said: + +"Was not that a good shot?" + +As soon as they began to speak about anything else, he left off +listening, and hummed a hunting song, or a few notes to imitate a hunting +horn, to himself. + +He had only lived for field sports, and was growing old, without thinking +about it, or guessing it, when he had a severe attack of rheumatism, and +was confined to his bed for two months, and nearly died of grief and +weariness. + +As he kept no female servant, for an old footman did all the cooking, he +could not get any hot poultices, nor could he have any of those little +attentions, nor anything that an invalid requires. His gamekeeper was his +sick nurse, and as the servant found the time hang just as heavily on his +hands as it did on his master's, he slept nearly all day and all night in +any easy chair, while the Baron was swearing and flying into a rage +between the sheets. + +The ladies of the De Courville family came to see him occasionally, and +those were hours of calm and comfort for him. They prepared his herb tea, +attended to the fire, served him his breakfast up daintily, by the side +of his bed, and when they were going again, he used to say: + +"By Jove! You ought to come here altogether," which made them laugh +heartily. + +When he was getting better, and was beginning to go out shooting again, +he went to dine with his friends one evening; but he was not at all in +his usual spirits. He was tormented by one continual fear--that he might +have another attack before shooting began, and when he was taking his +leave at night, when the women were wrapping him up in a shawl, and tying +a silk handkerchief round his neck, which he allowed to be done for the +first time in his life, he said in a disconsolated voice: + +"If it goes on like this, I shall be done for." + +As soon as he had gone, Madame Darnetot said to her mother: + +"We ought to try and get the Baron married." + +They all raised their hands at the proposal. How was it that they had +never thought of it before? And during all the rest of the evening they +discussed the widows whom they knew, and their choice fell on a woman of +forty, who was still pretty, fairly rich, very good-tempered and in +excellent health, whose name was Madame Berthe Vilers, and, accordingly, +she was invited to spend a month at the château. She was very dull at +home, and was very glad to come; she was lively and active, and Monsieur +de Coutelier took her fancy immediately. She amused herself with him as +if he had been a living toy, and spent hours in asking him slyly about +the sentiments of rabbits and the machinations of foxes, and he gravely +distinguished between the various ways of looking at things which +different animals had, and ascribed plans and subtle arguments to them, +just as he did to men of his acquaintance. + +The attention she paid him, delighted him, and one evening, to show his +esteem for her, he asked her to go out shooting with him, which he had +never done to any woman before, and the invitation appeared so funny to +her that she accepted it. + +It was quite an amusement for them to fit her out; everybody offered her +something, and she came out in a sort of short riding habit, with boots +and men's breeches, a short petticoat, a velvet jacket, which was too +tight for her across the chest, and a huntsman's black velvet cap. + +The Baron seemed as excited as if he were going to fire his first shot. +He minutely explained to her the direction of the wind, and how different +dogs worked. Then he took her into a field, and followed her as anxiously +as a nurse does when her charge is trying to walk for the first time. + +Medor soon made a point, and stopped with his tail out stiff and one paw +up, and the Baron, standing behind his pupil, was trembling like a leaf, +and whispered: + +"Look out, they are par ... par ... partridges." And almost before he had +finished, there was a loud _whirr_--_whirr_, and a covey of large birds +flew up in the air, with a tremendous noise. + +Madame Vilers was startled, shut her eyes, fired off both barrels and +staggered at the recoil of the gun; but when she had recovered her +self-possession, she saw that the Baron was dancing about like a madman, +and that Medor was bringing back the first of the two partridges which +she had killed. + +From that day, Monsieur de Coutelier was in love with her, and used to +say, raising his eyes: "What a woman!" And he used to go and see them +every evening now, and talked about shooting. + +One day, Monsieur de Courville, who was walking part of the way with him, +asked him, suddenly: + +"Why don't you marry her?" + +The Baron was altogether taken by surprise, and said: + +"What? I? Marry her? ... Well ... really...." + +And he said no more for a while, but then, suddenly shaking hands with +his companion, he said: + +"Good-bye, my friend," and quickly disappeared in the darkness. + +He did not go again for three days, but when he reappeared, he was pale +from thinking the matter over, and graver than usual. Taking Monsieur de +Courville aside, he said: + +"That was a capital idea of yours; try and persuade her to accept me, for +one might say that a woman like she is, was made for me, and you and I +shall be able to have some sort of sport together, all the year round." + +As Monsieur de Courville felt certain that his friend would not meet with +a refusal, he replied: + +"Propose to her immediately, my dear fellow, or would you rather that I +did it for you?" + +But the Baron grew suddenly nervous, and said, with some hesitation: + +"No, ... no.... I must go to Paris for ... for a few days. As soon as I +come back, I will give you a definite answer." No other explanation was +forthcoming, and he started the next morning. + +He made a long stay. One, two, three weeks passed, but Monsieur de +Coutelier did not return, and the Courvilles, who were surprised and +uneasy, did not know what to say to their friend, whom they had informed +of the Baron's wishes. Every other day they sent to his house for news of +him, but none of his servants had a line. + +But one evening, while Madame Vilers was singing, and accompanying +herself on the piano, a servant came with a mysterious air, and told +Monsieur de Courville that a gentleman wanted to see him. It was the +Baron, in a traveling suit, who looked much altered and older, and as +soon as he saw his old friend, he seized both his hands, and said, in a +somewhat tired voice: "I have just returned, my dear friend, and I have +come to you immediately; I am thoroughly knocked up." + +Then he hesitated in visible embarrassment, and presently said: + +"I wished to tell you ... immediately ... that ... that business ... you +know what I mean ... must come to nothing." + +Monsieur de Courville looked at him in stupefaction. "Must come to +nothing?... Why?" + +"Oh! Do not ask me, please; it would be too painful for me to tell +you; but you may rest assured that I am acting like an honorable man. +I cannot ... I have no right ... no right, you understand, to marry this +lady, and I will wait until she has gone, to come here again; it would be +too painful for me to see her. Good-bye." And he absolutely ran away. + +The whole family deliberated and discussed the matter, surmising a +thousand things. The conclusion they came to was, that the Baron's past +life concealed some great mystery, that, perhaps, he had natural +children, or some connection of long standing. At any rate, the matter +seemed serious, and so as to avoid any difficult complications, they +adroitly informed Madame Vilers of the state of affairs, who returned +home just as much of a widow as she had come. + +Three months more passed, when one evening, when he had dined rather too +well, and was rather unsteady on his legs, Monsieur de Coutelier, while +he was smoking his pipe with Monsieur de Courville, said to him: + +"You would really pity me, if you only knew how continually I am thinking +about your friend." + +But the other, who had been rather vexed at the Baron's behavior in the +circumstances, told him exactly what he thought of him: + +"By Jove, my good friend, when a man has any secrets in his existence, +like you have, he does not make advances to a woman, immediately, as you +did, for you must surely have foreseen the reason why you had to draw +back." + +The Baron left off smoking in some confusion. + +"Yes, and no; at any rate, I could not have believed what actually +happened." + +Whereupon, Monsieur de Courville lost his patience, and replied: + +"One ought to foresee everything." + +But Monsieur de Coutelier replied in a low voice, in case anybody should +be listening: "I see that I have hurt your feelings, and will tell you +everything, so that you may forgive me. You know that for twenty years +I have lived only for sport; I care for nothing else, and think about +nothing else. Consequently, when I was on the point of undertaking +certain obligations with regard to this lady, I felt some scruples of +conscience. Since I have given up the habit of ... of love, there! I +have not known whether I was still capable of ... you know what I +mean ... Just think! It is exactly sixteen years since ... I for the last +time ... you understand what I mean. In this neighborhood, it is not easy +to ... you know. And then, I had other things to do. I prefer to use my +gun, and so before entering into an engagement before the Mayor[3] and +the Priest to ... well, I was frightened. I said to myself: 'Confound it; +suppose I missed fire!' An honorable man always keeps his engagements, +and in this case, I was undertaking sacred duties with regard to this +lady, and so, to feel sure, I made up my mind to go and spend a week in +Paris. + +[Footnote 3: Civil marriage is obligatory in France, whether a religious +ceremony takes place or not.--TRANSLATOR.] + +"At the end of that time, nothing, absolutely nothing occurred. I always +lost the game.... I waited for a fortnight, three weeks, continually +hoping. In the restaurants, I ate a number of highly seasoned dishes, +which upset my stomach, and ... and it was still the same thing ... or +rather, nothing. You will, therefore, understand, that, in such +circumstances, and having assured myself of the fact, the only thing +I could do was ... was ... to withdraw; and I did so." + +Monsieur de Courville had to struggle very hard not to laugh, and he +shook hands with the Baron, saying: + +"I am very sorry for you," and accompanied him half-way home. + +When he got back, and was alone with his wife, he told her everything, +nearly choking with laughter; she, however, did not laugh, but listened +very attentively, and when her husband had finished, she said, very +seriously: + +"The Baron is a fool, my dear; he was frightened, that is all. I will +write and ask Berthe to come back here as soon as possible." + +And when Monsieur de Courville observed that their friend had made such +long and useless attempts, she merely said: + +"Nonsense! When a man loves his wife, you know ... that sort of thing +adjusts itself to the situation." + +And Monsieur de Courville made no reply, as he felt rather confused +himself. + + + + +THE SUBSTITUTE + + +"Madame Bonderoi?" + +"Yes, Madame Bonderoi." + +"Impossible." + +"I tell you it is." + +Madame Bonderoi, the old lady in a lace cap, the devout, the holy, the +honorable Madame Bonderoi, whose little false curls looked as if they +were glued round her head. + +"That is the very woman." + +"Oh! Come, you must be mad." + +"I swear to you that it is Madame Bonderoi." + +"Then please give me the details." + +"Here they are. During the life of Monsieur Bonderoi, the lawyer, people +said that she utilized his clerks for her own particular service. She is +one of those respectable middle-class women, with secret vices, and +inflexible principles, of whom there are so many. She liked good-looking +young fellows, and I should like to know what is more natural than that? +Do not we all like pretty girls?" + +"As soon as old Bonderoi was dead, his widow began to live the peaceful +and irreproachable life of a woman with a fair, fixed income. She went to +church assiduously, and spoke evil of her neighbors, but gave no handle +to anyone for speaking ill of her, and when she grew old she became the +little wizened, sour-faced, mischievous woman whom you know. Well, this +adventure, which you would scarcely believe, happened last Friday. + +"My friend, Jean d'Anglemare, is, as you know, a captain in a dragoon +regiment, who is quartered in the barracks in the _Rue de la Rivette_, +and when he got to his quarters the other morning, he found that two men +of his squadron had had a terrible quarrel. The rules about military +honor are very severe, and so a duel took place between them. After the +duel they became reconciled, and when their officer questioned them, they +told him what their quarrel had been about. They had fought on Madame +Bonderoi's account." + +"Oh!" + +"Yes, my dear fellow, about Madame Bonderoi." + +"But I will let Trooper Siballe speak." + +"This is how it was, Captain. About a year and a half ago, I was lounging +about the barrack-yard, between six and seven o'clock in the evening, +when a woman came up and spoke to me, and said, just as if she had been +asking her way: 'Soldier, would you like to earn ten francs a week, +honestly?' Of course, I told her that I decidedly should, and so she +said: 'Come and see me at twelve o'clock to-morrow morning. I am Madame +Bonderoi, and my address is No. 6, _Rue de la Tranchée_.' 'You may rely +upon my being there, Madame.' And then she went away, looking very +pleased, and she added: 'I am very much obliged to you, soldier.' 'I am +obliged to you, Madame,' I replied. But I plagued my head about the +matter, until the time came, all the same. + +"At twelve o'clock, exactly, I rang the bell, and she let me in herself. +She had a lot of ribbons on her head. + +"'We must make haste,' she said; 'as my servant might come in.' + +"'I am quite willing to make haste,' I replied, 'but what am I to do?' + +"But she only laughed, and replied: 'Don't you understand, you great +knowing fellow?' + +"I was no nearer her meaning, I give you my word of honor, Captain, but +she came and sat down by me, and said: + +"'If you mention this to anyone, I will have you put in prison, so swear +that you will never open your lips about it.' + +"I swore whatever she liked, though I did not at all understand what she +meant, and my forehead was covered with perspiration, so I took my +pocket-handkerchief out of my helmet, and she took it and wiped my brow +with it; then she kissed me, and whispered: 'Then you will?' 'I will do +anything you like, Madame,' I replied, 'as that is what I came for.' + +"Then she made herself clearly understood by her actions, and when I saw +what it was, I put my helmet onto a chair, and showed her that in the +dragoons a man never retires, Captain. + +"Not that I cared much about it, for she was certainly not in her prime, +but it is no good being too particular in such a matter, as ten francs +are scarce, and then I have relations whom I like to help, and I said to +myself: 'There will be five francs for my father, out of that.' + +"When I had done my allotted task, Captain, I got ready to go, though she +wanted me to stop longer, but I said to her: + +"'To everyone their due, Madame. A small glass of brandy costs two sous, +and two glasses cost four.' + +"She understood my meaning, and put a gold ten-franc piece into my hand. +I do not like that coin, because it is so small that if your pockets are +not very well made, and come at all unsewn, one is apt to find it in +one's boots, or not to find it at all, and so, while I was looking at it, +she was looking at me. She got red in the face, as she had misunderstood +my looks, and she said: 'Is not that enough?' + +"'I did not mean that, Madame,' I replied; 'but if it is all the same to +you, I would rather have two five-franc pieces.' And she gave them to me, +and I took my leave. This has been going on for a year and a half, +Captain. I go every Tuesday evening, when you give me leave to go out of +barracks; she prefers that, as her servant has gone to bed then, but last +week I was not well, and I had to go into the infirmary. When Tuesday +came, I could not get out, and I was very vexed, because of the ten +francs which I had been receiving every week, and I said to myself: + +"'If anybody goes there, I shall be done; and she will be sure to take +an artilleryman, and that made me very angry. So I sent for Paumelle, who +comes from my part of the country, and I told him how matters stood: + +"'There will be five francs for you, and five for me,' I said. He agreed, +and went, as I had given him full instructions. She opened the door as +soon as he knocked, and let him in, and as she did not look at his face, +she did not perceive that it was not I, for, you know, Captain, one +dragoon is very like another, with their helmets on. + +"Suddenly, however, she noticed the change, and she asked, angrily: 'Who +are you? What do you want? I do not know you.' + +"Then Paumelle explained matters; he told her that I was not well, and +that I had sent him as my substitute; so she looked at him, made him also +swear to keep the matter secret, and then she accepted him, as you may +suppose, for Paumelle is not a bad-looking fellow, either. But when he +came back, Captain, he would not give me my five francs. If they had been +for myself, I should not have said a word, but they were for my father, +and on that score, I would stand no nonsense, and I said to him: + +"'You are not particular in what you do, for a dragoon; you are a +discredit to your uniform.' + +"He raised his fist, Captain, saying that fatigue duty like that was +worth double. Of course, everybody has his own ideas, and he ought not to +have accepted it. You know the rest." + +"Captain d'Anglemare laughed until he cried as he told me the story, but +he also made me promise to keep the matter a secret, just as he had +promised the two soldiers. So, above all, do not betray me, but promise +me to keep it to yourself." + +"Oh! You may be quite easy about that. But how was it all arranged, in +the end?" + +"How? It is a joke in a thousand!... Mother Bonderoi keeps her two +dragoons, and reserves his own particular day for each of them, and in +that way everybody is satisfied." + +"Oh! That is capital! Really capital!" + +"And he can send his old father and mother the money as usual, and thus +morality is satisfied." + + + + +THE RELIC + + +_To the Abbé Louis d'Ennemare, at Soissons._ + +"My Dear Abbé: + +"My marriage with your cousin is broken off in the stupidest manner, +on account of a stupid trick which I almost involuntarily played my +intended, in my embarrassment, and I turn to you, my old schoolfellow, +for you may be able to help me out of the difficulty. If you can, I shall +be grateful to you until I die. + +"You know Gilberte, or rather you think you know her, for do we ever +understand women? All their opinions, their ideas, their creeds, are a +surprise to us. They are all full of twists and turns, of the unforeseen, +of unintelligible arguments, or defective logic and of obstinate ideas, +which seem final, but which they alter because a little bird came and +perched on the window ledge. + +"I need not tell you that your cousin is very religious, as she was +brought up by the _White_ (or was it the _Black_?) _Ladies_ at Nancy. You +know that better than I do, but what you perhaps do not know, is, that +she is just as excitable about other matters as she is about religion. +Her head flies away, just like a leaf being whirled away by the wind; and +she is a woman, or rather a girl, more so than many are, for she is +moved, or made angry in a moment, starting off at a gallop after +affection, just as she does after hatred, and returning in the same +manner; and she is as pretty ... as you know, and more charming than +I can say ... as you will never know. + +"Well, we became engaged, and I adored her, as I adore her still, and she +appeared to love me. + +"One evening, I received a telegram summoning me to Cologne for a +consultation, which might be followed by a serious and difficult +operation, and as I had to start the next morning, I went to wish +Gilberte goodbye, and tell her why I could not dine with them on +Wednesday, but on Friday, the day of my return. Ah! Take care of Fridays, +for I assure you they are unlucky! + +"When I told her that I had to go to Germany, I saw that her eyes filled +with tears, but when I said I should be back very soon, she clapped her +hands, and said: + +"'I am very glad you are going, then! You must bring me back something; a +mere trifle, just a souvenir, but a souvenir that you have chosen for me. +You must find out what I should like best, do you hear? And then I shall +see whether you have any imagination.' + +"She thought for a few moments, and then added: + +"'I forbid you to spend more than twenty francs on it. I want it for the +intention, and for the remembrance of your penetration, and not for its +intrinsic value.' + +"And then, after another moment's silence, she said, in a low voice, and +with downcast eyes. + +"'If it costs you nothing in money, and if it is something very ingenious +and pretty, I will ... I will kiss you.' + +"The next day, I was in Cologne. It was the case of a terrible accident, +which had thrown a whole family into despair, and a difficult amputation +was necessary. They put me up; I might say, they almost locked me up, and +I saw nobody but people in tears, who almost deafened me with their +lamentations; I operated on a man who appeared to be in a moribund state, +and who nearly died under my hands, and with whom I remained two nights, +and then, when I saw that there was a chance for his recovery, I drove to +the station. I had, however, made a mistake in the trains, and I had an +hour to wait, and so I wandered about the streets, still thinking of my +poor patient, when a man accosted me. I do not know German, and he was +totally ignorant of French, but at last I made out that he was offering +me some relics. I thought of Gilberte, for I knew her fanatical devotion, +and here was my present ready to hand, so I followed the man into a shop +where religious objects were for sale, and I bought _a small piece of a +bone of one of the Eleven Thousand Virgins_. + +"The pretended relic was enclosed in a charming, old silver box, and that +determined my choice, and putting my purchase into my pocket, I went to +the railway station, and so to Paris. + +"As soon as I got home, I wished to examine my purchase again, and on +taking hold of it, I found that the box was open, and the relic lost! It +was no good to hunt in my pocket, and to turn it inside out; the small +bit of bone, which was no bigger than half a pin, had disappeared. + +"You know, my dear little Abbé, that my faith is not very great, but, as +my friend, you are magnanimous enough to put up with my coldness, and to +leave me alone, and to wait for the future, so you say. But I absolutely +disbelieve in the relics of second-hand dealers in piety, and you share +my doubts in that respect. Therefore, the loss of that bit of sheep's +carcass did not grieve me, and I easily procured a similar fragment, +which I carefully fastened inside my jewel, and then I went to see my +intended. + +"As soon as she saw me, she ran up to me, smiling and anxious, and said +to me: + +"'What have you brought me?' + +"I pretended to have forgotten, but she did not believe me, and I made +her beg me, and beseech me, even. But when I saw that she was devoured by +curiosity, I gave her the sacred silver box. She appeared over-joyed. + +"'A relic! Oh! A relic!' + +"And she kissed the box passionately, so that I was ashamed of my +deception. She was not quite satisfied, however, and her uneasiness soon +turned to terrible fear, and looking straight into my eyes, she said: + +"'Are you sure that it is authentic?' + +"'Absolutely certain.' + +"'How can you be so certain?' + +"I was caught, for to say that I had bought it through a man in the +streets, would be my destruction. What was I to say? A wild idea struck +me, and I said, in a low, mysterious voice: + +"'I stole it for you.' + +"She looked at me with astonishment and delight in her large eyes. + +"'Oh! You stole it? Where?' + +"'In the cathedral; in the very shrine of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.' + +"Her heart beat with pleasure, and she murmured: + +"'Oh! Did you really do that ... for me? Tell me ... all about it!' + +"There was an end of it, and I could not go back. I made up a fanciful +story, with precise details. I had given the custodian of the building a +hundred francs to be allowed to go about the building by myself; the +shrine was being repaired, but I happened to be there at the breakfast +time of the workmen and clergy; by removing a small panel, I had been +enabled to seize a small piece of bone (oh! so small), among a quantity +of others, (I said a quantity, as I thought of the amount that the +remains of the skeletons of eleven thousand virgins must produce). Then I +went to a goldsmith's and bought a casket worthy of the relic; and I was +not sorry to let her know that the silver box cost me five hundred +francs. + +"But she did not think of that; she listened to me, trembling; in an +ecstasy, and whispering: + +"'How I love you!' she threw herself into my arms. + +"Just note this: I had committed sacrilege for her sake. I had committed +a theft; I had violated a shrine; violated and stolen holy relics, and +for that she adored me, thought me loving, tender, divine. Such is woman, +my dear Abbé. + +"For two months I was the best of lovers. In her room, she had made a +kind of magnificent chapel in which to keep this bit of mutton chop, +which, as she thought, had made me commit that love-crime, and she worked +up her religious enthusiasm in front of it every morning and evening. I +had asked her to keep the matter secret, for fear, as I said, that I +might be arrested, condemned and given over to Germany, and she kept her +promise. + +"Well, at the beginning of the summer, she was seized with an +irresistible wish to see the scene of my exploit, and she begged her +father so persistently (without telling him her secret reason), that he +took her to Cologne, but without telling me of their trip, according to +his daughter's wish. + +"I need not tell you that I had not seen the interior of the cathedral. I +do not know where the tomb (if there be a tomb), of the Eleven Thousand +Virgins is, and then, it appears that it is unapproachable, alas! + +"A week afterwards, I received ten lines, breaking off our engagement, +and then an explanatory letter from her father, whom she had, somewhat +late, taken into her confidence. + +"At the sight of the shrine, she had suddenly seen through my trickery +and my lie, and had also found out that I was innocent of any other +crime. Having asked the keeper of the relics whether any robbery had +been committed, the man began to laugh, and pointed out to them how +impossible such a crime was, but from the moment I had plunged my profane +hand into venerable relics, I was no longer worthy of my fair-haired +and delicate betrothed. + +"I was forbidden the house; I begged and prayed in vain, nothing could +move the fair devotee, and I grew ill from grief. Well, last week, her +cousin, Madame d'Arville, who is yours also, sent word to me that she +should like to see me, and when I called, she told me on what conditions +I might obtain my pardon, and here they are. I must bring her a relic, a +real, authentic relic, certified to be such by Our Holy Father, the Pope, +of some virgin and martyr, and I am going mad from embarrassment and +anxiety. + +"I will go to Rome, if needful, but I cannot call on the Pope +unexpectedly, and tell him my stupid adventure; and, besides, I doubt +whether they let private individuals have relics. Could not you give me +an introduction to some cardinal, or only to some French prelate, who +possesses some remains of a female saint? Or perhaps you may have the +precious object she wants in your collection? + +"Help me out of my difficulty, my dear Abbé, and I promise you that I +will be converted ten years sooner than I otherwise should be! + +"Madame d'Arville, who takes the matter seriously, said to me the other +day: + +"'Poor Gilberte will never marry.' + +"My dear old schoolfellow, will you allow your cousin to die the victim +of a stupid piece of business on my part? Pray prevent her from being the +eleventh thousand and one virgin. + +"Pardon me, I am unworthy, but I embrace you, and love you with all my +heart. + +"Your old friend, + +"Henri Fontal." + + + + +THE MAN WITH THE BLUE EYES + + +Monsieur Pierre Agénor de Vargnes, the Examining Magistrate, was the +exact opposite of a practical joker. He was dignity, staidness, +correctness personified. As a sedate man, he was quite incapable of being +guilty, even in his dreams, of anything resembling a practical joke, +however remotely. I know nobody to whom he could be compared, unless it +be the present president of the French Republic. I think it is useless to +carry the analogy any further, and having said thus much, it will be +easily understood that a cold shiver passed through me when Monsieur +Pierre Agénor de Vargnes did me the honor of sending a lady to wait on +me. + +At about eight o'clock, one morning last winter, as he was leaving the +house to go to the _Palais de Justice_, his footman handed him a card, +on which was printed: + + + DOCTOR JAMES FERDINAND, + _Member of the Academy of Medicine, + Port-au-Prince, + Chevalier of the Legion of Honor._ + +At the bottom of the card, there was written in pencil: + + _From Lady Frogère_ + +Monsieur de Vargnes knew the lady very well, who was a very agreeable +Creole from Haiti, and whom he had met in many drawing-rooms, and, on the +other hand, though the doctor's name did not awaken any recollections in +him, his quality and titles alone required that he should grant him an +interview, however short it might be. Therefore, although he was in a +hurry to get out, Monsieur de Vargnes told the footman to show in his +early visitor, but to tell him beforehand that his master was much +pressed for time, as he had to go to the Law Courts. + +When the doctor came in, in spite of his usual imperturbability, he could +not restrain a movement of surprise, for the doctor presented that +strange anomaly of being a negro of the purest, blackest type, with the +eyes of a white man, of a man from the North, pale, cold, clear, blue +eyes, and his surprise increased when, after a few words of excuse for +his untimely visit, he added, with an enigmatical smile: + +"My eyes surprise you, do they not? I was sure that they would, and, to +tell you the truth, I came here in order that you might look at them +well, and never forget them." + +His smile, and his words, even more than his smile, seemed to be those of +a madman. He spoke very softly, with that childish, lisping voice, which +is peculiar to negroes, and his mysterious, almost menacing words, +consequently, sounded all the more as if they were uttered at random by +a man bereft of his reason. But his looks, the looks of those pale, cold, +clear, blue eyes, were certainly not those of a madman. They clearly +expressed menace, yes, menace, as well as irony, and, above all, +implacable ferocity, and their glance was like a flash of lightning, +which one could never forget. + +"I have seen," Monsieur de Vargnes used to say, when speaking about it, +"the looks of many murderers, but in none of them have I ever observed +such a depth of crime, and of impudent security in crime." + +And this impression was so strong, that Monsieur de Vargnes thought that +he was the sport of some hallucination, especially as when he spoke about +his eyes, the doctor continued with a smile, and in his most childish +accents: "Of course, Monsieur, you cannot understand what I am saying to +you, and I must beg your pardon for it. To-morrow, you will receive a +letter which will explain it at all to you, but, first all, it was +necessary that I should let you have a good, a careful look at my eyes, +my eyes which are myself, my only and true self, as you will see." + +With these words, and with a polite bow, the doctor went out, leaving +Monsieur de Vargnes extremely surprised, and a prey to this doubt, as he +said to himself: + +"Is he merely a madman? The fierce expression, and the criminal depths of +his looks are perhaps caused merely by the extraordinary contrast between +his fierce looks and his pale eyes." + +And absorbed in these thoughts, Monsieur de Vargnes unfortunately allowed +several minutes to elapse, and then he thought to himself suddenly: + +"No, I am not the sport of any hallucination, and this is no case of an +optical phenomenon. This man is evidently some terrible criminal, and I +have altogether failed in my duty in not arresting him myself at once, +illegally, even at the risk of my life." + +The judge ran downstairs in pursuit of the doctor, but it was too late; +he had disappeared. In the afternoon, he called on Madame Frogère, to ask +her whether she could tell him anything about the matter. She, however, +did not know the negro doctor in the least, and was even able to assure +him that he was a fictitious personage, for, as she was well acquainted +with the upper classes in Haiti, she knew that the Academy of Medicine at +Port-au-Prince had no doctor of that name among its members. As Monsieur +de Vargnes persisted, and gave descriptions of the doctor, especially +mentioning his extraordinary eyes, Madame Frogère began to laugh, and +said: + +"You have certainly had to do with a hoaxer, my dear Monsieur. The eyes +which you have described, are certainly those of a white man, and the +individual must have been painted." + +On thinking it over, Monsieur de Vargnes remembered that the doctor had +nothing of the negro about him, but his black skin, his woolly hair and +beard, and his way of speaking, which was easily imitated, but nothing of +the negro, not even the characteristic, undulating walk. Perhaps, after +all, he was only a practical joker, and during the whole day, Monsieur de +Vargnes took refuge in that view, which rather wounded his dignity as a +man of consequence, but which appeased his scruples as a magistrate. + +The next day, he received the promised letter, which was written, as well +as addressed, in letters cut out of the newspapers. It was as follows: + + * * * * * + +"MONSIEUR,-- + +"Doctor James Ferdinand does not exist, but the man whose eyes you saw +does, and you will certainly recognize his eyes. This man has committed +two crimes, for which he does not feel any remorse, but, as he is a +psychologist, he is afraid of some day yielding to the irresistible +temptation of confessing his crimes. You know better than anyone (and +that is your most powerful aid), with what imperious force criminals, +especially intellectual ones, feel this temptation. That great Poet, +Edgar Poe, has written masterpieces on this subject, which express the +truth exactly, but he has omitted to mention the last phenomenon, which +_I_ will tell you. Yes, I, a criminal, feel a terrible wish for somebody +to know of my crimes, and, when this requirement is satisfied, my secret +has been revealed to a confidant, I shall be tranquil for the future, and +be freed from this demon of perversity, which only tempts us once. Well! +Now that is accomplished. You shall have _my_ secret; from the day that +you recognize me by my eyes, you will try and find out what I am guilty +of, and how I was guilty, and you will discover it, being a master of +your profession, which, by-the-bye, has procured you the honor of having +been chosen by me to bear the weight of this secret, which now is shared +by us, and by us two alone. I say, advisedly, _by us two alone_. You +could not, as a matter of fact, prove the reality of this secret to +anyone, unless I were to confess it, and I defy you to obtain my public +confession, as I have confessed it to you, _and without danger to +myself_." + + * * * * * + +Three months later, Monsieur de Vargnes met Monsieur X---- at an evening +party and at first sight, and without the slightest hesitation, he +recognized in him those very pale, very cold, and very clear blue eyes, +eyes which it was impossible to forget. + +The man himself remained perfect impassive, so that Monsieur de Vargnes +was forced to say to himself: + +"Probably I am the sport of a hallucination at this moment, or else there +are two pairs of eyes that are perfectly similar, in the world. And what +eyes! Can it be possible?" + +The magistrate instituted inquiries into his life, and he discovered +this, which removed all his doubts. + +Five years previously, Monsieur X---- had been a very poor, but very +brilliant medical student, who, although he never took his doctor's +degree, had already made himself remarkable by his microbiological +researches. + +A young and very rich widow had fallen in love with him and married him. +She had one child by her first marriage, and in the space of six months, +first the child and then the mother died of typhoid fever, and thus +Monsieur X---- had inherited a large fortune, in due form, and without +any possible dispute. Everybody said that he had attended to the two +patients with the utmost devotion. Now, were these two deaths the two +crimes mentioned in his letter? + +But then, Monsieur X---- must have poisoned his two victims with the +microbes of typhoid fever, which he had skillfully cultivated in them, +so as to make the disease incurable, even by the most devoted care and +attention. Why not? + +"Do you believe it?" I asked Monsieur de Vargnes. "Absolutely," he +replied. "And the most terrible thing about it is, that the villain is +right when he defies me to force him to confess his crime publicly for I +see no means of obtaining a confession, none whatever. For a moment, I +thought of magnetism, but who could magnetize that man with those pale, +cold, bright eyes? With such eyes, he would force the magnetizer to +denounce himself as the culprit." + +And then he said, with a deep sigh: + +"Ah! Formerly there was something good about justice!" + +And when he saw my inquiring looks, he added in a firm and perfectly +convinced voice: + +"Formerly, justice had torture at its command." + +"Upon my word," I replied, with all an author's unconscious and simple +egotism, "it is quite certain that without the torture, this strange tale +would have no conclusion, and that is very unfortunate, as far as regards +the story I intended to make of it." + + + + +ALLOUMA + + +I + +One of my friends had said to me:-- + +"If you happen to be near Bordj-Ebbaba while you are in Algeria, be sure +and go to see my old friend Auballe, who has settled there." + +I had forgotten the name of Auballe and of Ebbaba, and I was not thinking +of this planter, when I arrived at his house by pure accident. For a +month, I had been wandering on foot through that magnificent district +which extends from Algiers to Cherchell, Orléansville, and Tiaret. It is +at the same time wooded and bare, grand and charming. Between two hills, +one comes across large pine forests in narrow valleys, through which +torrents rush in the winter. Enormous trees, which have fallen across +the ravine, serve as a bridge for the Arabs, and also for the tropical +creepers, which twine round the dead stems, and adorn them with new life. +There are hollows, in little known recesses of the mountains, of a +terribly beautiful character, and the sides of the brooks, which are +covered with oleanders, are indescribably lovely. + +But what has left behind it the most pleasant recollections of that +excursion, is the long after-dinner walks along the slightly wooded roads +on those undulating hills, from which one can see an immense tract of +country from the blue sea as far as the chain of the Quarsenis, on whose +summit there is the cedar forest of Teniet-el-Haad. + +On that day I lost my way. I had just climbed to the top of a hill, +whence, beyond a long extent of rising ground, I had seen the extensive +plain of Metidja, and then, on the summit of another chain, almost +invisible in the distances that strange monument which is called _The +Tomb of the Christian Woman_, and which was said to be the burial-place +of the kings of Mauritana. I went down again, going southward, with a +yellow landscape before me, extending as far as the fringe of the desert, +as yellow as if all those hills were covered with lions' skins sewn +together, sometimes a pointed yellow peak would rise out of the midst of +them, like the bristly back of a camel. + +I walked quickly and lightly, like as one does when following tortuous +paths on a mountain slope. Nothing seems to weigh on one in those short, +quick walks through the invigorating air of those heights, neither the +body, nor the heart, nor the thoughts, nor even cares. On that day I +felt nothing of all that crushes and tortures our life; I only felt the +pleasure of that descent. In the distance I saw an Arab encampment, brown +pointed tents, which seemed fixed to the earth, like limpets are to a +rock, or else _gourbis_, huts made of branches, from which a gray smoke +rose. White figures, men and women, were walking slowly about, and the +bells of the flocks sounded vaguely through the evening air. + +The arbutus trees on my road hung down under the weight of their purple +fruit, which was falling on the ground. They looked like martyred trees, +from which blood-colored sweat was falling, for at the top of every tier +there was a red spot, like a drop of blood. + +The earth all round them was covered with it, and as my feet crushed the +fruit, they left blood-colored traces behind them, and sometimes, as I +went along, I would jump and pick one, and eat it. + +All the valleys were by this time filled with a white vapor, which rose +slowly, like the steam from the flanks of an ox, and on the chain of +mountains that bordered the horizon, on the outskirts of the desert of +Sahara, the sky was in flames. Long streaks of gold alternated with +streaks of blood--blood again! Blood and gold, the whole of human +history--and sometimes between the two there was a small opening in +the greenish azure, far away like a dream. + +How far away I was from all those persons and things with which one +occupies oneself on the boulevards, far from myself also, for I had +become a kind of wandering being, without thought or consciousness, +far from any road, of which I was not even thinking, for as night came +on, I found that I had lost my way. + +The shades of night were falling onto the earth like a shower of +darkness, and I saw nothing before me but the mountains, in the far +distance. Presently, I saw some tents in the valley, into which I +descended, and tried to make the first Arab I met understand in which +direction I wanted to go. I do not know whether he understood me, but +he gave me a long answer, which I did not in the least understand. In +despair, I was about to make up my mind to pass the night wrapped up in +a rug near the encampment, when among the strange words he uttered, I +fancied that I heard the name, _Bordj-Ebbaba_, and so I repeated: + +"_Bordj-Ebbaba._" + +"Yes, yes." + +I showed him two francs that were a fortune to him, and he started off, +while I followed him. Ah! I followed that pale phantom which strode on +before me bare-footed along stony paths, on which I stumbled continually, +for a long time, and then suddenly I saw a light, and we soon reached the +door of a white house, a kind of fortress with straight walls, and +without any outside windows. When I knocked, dogs began to bark inside, +and a voice asked in French: + +"Who is there?" + +"Does Monsieur Auballe live here?" I asked. + +"Yes." + +The door was opened for me, and I found myself face to face with Monsieur +Auballe himself, a tall man in slippers, with a pipe in his mouth and the +looks of a jolly Hercules. + +As soon as I mentioned my name, he put out both his hands and said: + +"Consider yourself at home here, Monsieur." + +A quarter of an hour later I was dining ravenously, opposite to my host, +who went on smoking. + +I knew his history. After having wasted a great amount of money on women, +he had invested the remnants of his fortune in Algerian landed property +and taken to money-making. It turned out prosperously; he was happy, and +had the calm look of a happy and contented man. I could not understand +how this fast Parisian could have grown accustomed to that monstrous life +in such a lonely spot, and I asked him about it. + +"How long have you been here?" I asked him. + +"For nine years." + +"And have you not been intolerably dull and miserable?" + +"No, one gets used to this country, and ends by liking it. You cannot +imagine how it lays hold on people by those small, animal instincts that +we are ignorant of ourselves. We first become attached to it by our +organs, to which it affords secret gratifications which we do not inquire +into. The air and the climate overcome our flesh, in spite of ourselves, +and the bright light with which it is inundated keeps the mind clear and +fresh, at but little cost. It penetrates us continually by our eyes, and +one might really say that it cleanses the somber nooks of the soul." + +"But what about women?" + +"Ah...! There is rather a dearth of them!" + +"Only _rather_?" + +"Well, yes ... rather. For one can always, even among the Arabs, find +some complaisant, native women, who think of the nights of Roumi." + +He turned to the Arab, who was waiting on me, who was a tall, dark +fellow, with bright, black eyes, that flashed beneath his turban, and +said to him: + +"I will call you when I want you, Mohammed." And then, turning to me, he +said: + +"He understands French, and I am going to tell you a story in which he +plays a leading part." + +As soon as the man had left the room, he began: + +"I had been here about four years, and scarcely felt quite settled yet +in this country, whose language I was beginning to speak, and forced, in +order not to break altogether with those passions that had been fatal to +me in other places, to go to Algiers for a few days, from time to time. + +"I had bought this farm, this _bordj_, which had been a fortified post, +and was within a few hundred yards from the native encampment, whose man +I employ to cultivate my land. Among the tribe that had settled here, and +which formed a portion of the Oulad-Taadja, I chose, as soon as I arrived +here, that tall fellow whom you have just seen, Mohammed ben Lam'har, who +soon became greatly attached to me. As he would not sleep in a house, not +being accustomed to it, he pitched his tent a few yards from my house, so +that I might be able to call him from my window. + +"You can guess what my life was, I dare say? Every day I was busy with +cleanings and plantations; I hunted a little, I used to go and dine with +the officers of the neighboring fortified posts, or else they came and +dined with me. As for pleasures ... I have told you what they consisted +in. Algiers offered me some which were rather more refined, and from time +to time a complaisant and compassionate Arab would stop me when I was out +for a walk, and offer to bring one of the women of his tribe to my house +at night. Sometimes I accepted, but more frequently I refused, from fear +of the disagreeable consequences and troubles it might entail upon me. + +"One evening, at the beginning of summer, as I was going home, after +going over the farm, as I wanted Mohammed, I went into his tent without +calling him, as I frequently did, and there I saw a woman, a girl, +sleeping almost naked, with her arms crossed under her head, on one of +those thick, red carpets, made of the fine wool of Djebel-Amour, and +which are as soft and as thick as a feather bed. Her body, which was +beautifully white under the ray of light that came in through the raised +covering of the tent, appeared to me to be one of the most perfect +specimens of the human race that I had ever seen, and most of the women +about here are beautiful and tall, and are a rare combination of features +and shape. I let the edge of the tent fall in some confusion, and +returned home. + +"I love women! The sudden flash of this vision had penetrated and +scorched me, and had rekindled in my veins that old, formidable ardor to +which I owe my being here. It was very hot for it was July, and I spent +nearly the whole night at my window, with my eyes fixed on the black +Mohammed's tent made on the ground. + +"When he came into my room the next morning, I looked him closely in the +face, and he hung his head, like a man who was guilty and in confusion. +Did he guess that I knew? I, however, asked him, suddenly: + +"'So you are married, Mohammed?' and I saw that he got red, and he +stammered out: 'No, _mo'ssieuia_!' + +"I used to make him speak French to me, and to give me Arabic lessons, +which was often productive of a most incoherent mixture of languages; +however, I went on: + +"'Then why is there a woman in your tent?' + +"'She comes from the South,' he said, in a low, apologetic voice. + +"'Oh! So she comes from the South? But that does not explain to me how +she comes to be in your tent.' + +"Without answering my question, he continued: + +"'She is very pretty.' + +"'Oh! Indeed. Another time, please, when you happen to receive a pretty +woman from the South, you will take care that she comes to my _gourbi_, +and not to yours. You understand me, Mohammed?' + +"'Yes, _mo'ssieuia_,' he repeated, seriously. + +"I must acknowledge that during the whole day I was in a state of +aggressive excitement at the recollection of that Arab girl lying on the +red carpet, and when I went in at dinner time, I felt very strongly +inclined to go to Mohammed's tent again. During the evening, he waited +on me just as usual, and hovered round me with his impassive face, and +several times I was very nearly asking him whether he intended to keep +that girl from the South, who was very pretty, in his camel skin tent for +a long time. + +"Towards nine o'clock, still troubled with that longing for female +society which is as tenacious as the hunting instinct in dogs, I went out +to get some fresh air, and to stroll about a little round that cone of +brown skin through which I could see a brilliant speck of light. I did +not remain long, however, for fear of being surprised by Mohammed in the +neighborhood of his dwelling. When I went in an hour later, I clearly saw +his outline in the tent, and then, taking the key out of my pocket, I +went into the _bordj_, where besides myself, there slept my steward, two +French laborers, and an old cook whom I had picked up in the Algiers. As +I went up stairs, I was surprised to see a streak of light under my door, +and when I opened it, I saw a girl with the face of a statue sitting on a +straw chair by the side of the table, on which a wax candle was burning; +she was bedizened with all those silver gew-gaws which women in the South +wear on their legs, arms, breast, and even on their stomach. Her eyes, +which were tinged with kohl, to make them look larger, regarded me +earnestly, and four little blue spots, finely tatooed on her skin, marked +her forehead, her cheeks, and her chin. Her arms, which were loaded with +bracelets, were resting on her thighs, which were covered by the long, +red silk skirt that she wore. + +"When she saw me come in, she got up and remained standing in front of +me, covered with her barbaric jewels, in an attitude of proud submission. + +"'What are you doing here?' I said to her in Arabic. + +"'I am here because Mohammed told me to come.' + +"'Very well, sit down.' + +"So she sat down and lowered her eyes, while I examined her attentively. + +"She had a strange, regular, delicate, and rather bestial face, but +mysterious as that of a Buddha. Her lips, which were rather thick and +covered with a reddish efflorescence, which I discovered on the rest of +her body as well, indicated a slight admixture of negro blood, although +her hands and arms were of an irreproachable whiteness. + +"I hesitated what to do with her, and felt excited, tempted and rather +confused, so in order to gain time and to give myself an opportunity for +reflection, I put other questions to her, about her birth, how she came +into this part of the country, and what her connection with Mohammed was. +But she only replied to those that interested me the least, and it was +impossible for me to find out why she had come, with what intention, +by whose orders, nor what had taken place between her and my servant. +However, just as I was about to say to her: 'Go back to Mohammed's tent,' +she seemed to guess my intention, for getting up suddenly, and raising +her two bare arms, on which the jingling bracelets slipped down to her +shoulders, she crossed her hands behind my neck and drew me towards her +with an irresistible air of suppliant longing. + +"Her eyes, which were bright from emotion, from that necessity of +conquering man, which makes the looks of an impure woman as seductive as +those of the feline tribe, allured me, enchained me, deprived me of all +the power of resistance, and filled me with impetuous ardor. It was a +short, sharp struggle of the eyes only, that eternal struggle between +those two human brutes, the male and the female, in which the male is +always beaten. + +"Her hands, which had clasped behind my head, drew me irresistibly, with +a gentle, increasing pressure, as if by mechanical force towards her red +lips, on which I suddenly laid mine while, at the same moment, I clasped +her body, that was covered with jingling silver rings, in an ardent +embrace. + +"She was as strong, as healthy, and as supple as a wild animal, with all +the motions, the ways, the grace, and even something of the odor of a +gazelle, which made me find a rare, unknown zest in her kisses, which +was as strange to my senses as the taste of tropical fruits. + +"Soon--I say soon, although it may have been towards morning--I wished to +send her away, as I thought that she would go in the same way that she +had come; I did not, even, at the moment, ask myself what I should do +with her, or what she would do with me, but as soon as she guessed my +intention, she whispered: + +"'What do you expect me to do if you get rid of me now? I shall have to +sleep on the ground in the open air at night. Let me sleep on the carpet, +at the foot of your bed.' + +"What answer could I give her, or what could I do? I thought that no +doubt Mohammed also would be watching the window of my room, in which a +light was burning, and questions of various natures, that I had not put +to myself during the first minutes, formulated themselves clearly in my +brain. + +"'Stop here,' I replied, 'and we will talk.' + +"My resolution was taken in a moment. As this girl had been thrown into +my arms, in this manner, I would keep her; I would make her a kind of +slave-mistress, hidden in my house, like women in a harem are. When the +time should come that I no longer cared for her, it would be easy for me +to get rid of her in some way or another, for on African soil those sort +of creatures almost belong to us, body and soul, and so I said to her: + +"'I wish to be kind to you, and I will treat you so that you shall not be +unhappy, but I want to know who you are and where you come from?' + +"She saw clearly that she must say something, and she told me her story, +or rather a story, for no doubt she was lying from beginning to end, like +all Arabs always do, with or without any motive. + +"That is one of the most surprising and incomprehensible signs of the +native character--the Arabs always lie. Those people in whom Islam has +become so incarnate that it has become part of themselves, to such an +extent as to model their instincts and modifies the entire race, and to +differentiate it from others in morals just as much as the color of the +skin differentiates a negro from a white man, are liars to the backbone, +so that one can never trust a word that they say. I do not know whether +they owe that to their religion, but one must have lived among them in +order to know the extent to which lying forms part of their being, of +their heart and soul, until it has become a kind of second nature, a very +necessity of life, with them. + +"Well, she told me that she was the daughter of a _Caidi_ of the _Ouled +Sidi Cheik_, and of a woman whom he had carried off in a raid against the +Touaregs. The woman must have been a black slave, or, at any rate, have +sprung from a first cross of Arab and negro blood. It is well known that +negro women are in great request for harems, where they act as +aphrodisiacs. Nothing of such an origin was to be noticed, however, +except the purple color of her lips, and the dark nipples of her +elongated breasts, which were as supple as if they were on springs. +Nobody who knew anything about the matter, could be mistaken in that. But +all the rest of her belonged to the beautiful race from the South, fair, +supple and with a delicate face which was formed on straight and simple +lines like those of a Hindoo figure. Her eyes, which were very far apart, +still further heightened the somewhat god-like looks of this desert +marauder. + +"I knew nothing exactly about her real life. She related it to me in +incoherent fragments, that seemed to rise up at random from a disordered +memory, and she mixed up deliciously childish observations with them; +a whole vision of a Nomad world, born of a squirrel's brain that had +leapt from tent to tent, from encampment to encampment, from tribe to +tribe. And all this was done with the severe looks that this reserved +people always preserve, with the appearance of a brass idol, and rather +comic gravity. + +"When she had finished, I perceived that I had not remembered anything of +that long story, full of insignificant events, that she had stored up in +her flighty brain, and I asked myself whether she had not simply been +making fun of me by her empty and would-be serious chatter, which told me +nothing about her, nor about any real facts connected with her life. + +"And I thought of that conquered race, among whom we have encamped, or, +rather, who are encamping among us, whose language we are beginning to +speak, whom we see every day, living under the transparent linen of their +tents, on whom we have imposed our laws, our regulations, and our +customs, and about whom we know nothing, nothing more whatever, I assure +you, than if we were not here, and solely occupied in looking at them, +for nearly sixty years. We know no more about what is going on in those +huts made of branches, and under those small canvas cones that are +fastened to the ground by stakes, which are within twenty yards of our +doors, than we know what the so-called civilized Arabs of the Moorish +houses in Algiers do, think, and are. Behind the white-washed walls of +their town houses, behind the partition of their _gourbi_, which is made +of branches, or behind that thin, brown, camel-haired curtain which the +wind moves, they live close to us, unknown, mysterious, cunning, +submissive, smiling, impenetrable. What if I were to tell you, that when +I look at the neighboring encampment through my field glasses, I guess +that there are superstitions, customs, ceremonies, a thousand practices +of which we know nothing, and which we do not even suspect! Never +previously, in all probability, did a conquered race know so well how +to escape so completely from the real domination, the moral influence +and the inveterate, but useless, investigations of the conquerors. + +"Now I suddenly felt the insurmountable, secret barrier which +incomprehensible nature had set up between the two races, more than I had +ever felt it before, between this girl and myself, between this woman who +had just given herself to me, who had yielded herself to my caresses and +to me, who had possessed her, and, thinking of it for the first time, I +said to her: 'What is your name?' + +"She did not speak for some moments, and I saw her start, as if she had +forgotten that I was there, and then, in her eyes that were raised to +mine, I saw that that moment had sufficed for her to be overcome by +sleep, by irresistible, sudden, almost overwhelming sleep, like +everything that lays hold of the mobile senses of women, and she +answered, carelessly, suppressing a yawn: + +"'Allouma.' + +"'Do you want to go sleep?' + +"'Yes,' she replied. + +"'Very well then, go to sleep!' + +"She stretched herself out tranquilly by my side, lying on her stomach, +with her forehead resting on her folded arms, and I felt almost +immediately that fleeting, untutored thoughts were lulled in repose, +while I began to ponder, as I lay by her side, and tried to understand it +all. Why had Mohammed given her to me? Had he acted the part of a +magnanimous servant, who sacrifices himself for his master, even to the +extent of giving up the woman whom he had brought into his own tent, to +him? Or had he, on the other hand, obeyed a more complex and more +practical, though less generous impulse, in handing over this girl who +had taken my fancy, to my embrace? An Arab, when it is a question of +women, is rigorously modest and unspeakably complaisant, and one can no +more understand his rigorous and easy morality, than one can all the rest +of his sentiments. Perhaps, when I accidentally went to his tent, I had +merely forestalled the benevolent intentions of this thoughtful servant, +who had intended this woman, who was his friend and accomplice, or +perhaps even his mistress, for me. + +"All these suppositions assailed me, and fatigued me so much, that, at +last, in my turn, I fell into a profound sleep, from which I was roused +by the creaking of my door, and Mohammed came in, to call me as usual. He +opened the window, through which a flood of light streamed in, and fell +onto Allouma who was still asleep; then he picked up my trousers, coat +and waistcoat from the floor in order to brush them. He did not look at +the woman who was lying by my side, did not seem to know or remark that +she was there, and preserved his ordinary gravity, demeanor and looks. +But the light, the movement, the slight noise which his bare feet made, +the feeling of the fresh air on her skin and in her lungs, roused Allouma +from her lethargy. She stretched out her arms, turned over, opened her +eyes, and looked at me and then Mohammed with the same indifference; then +she sat up in bed and said: 'I am hungry.' + +"'What would you like?' + +"'Kahoua.' + +"'Coffee and bread and butter.' + +"'Yes.' + +"Mohammed remained standing close to our bed, with my clothes under his +arm, waiting for my orders. + +"'Bring breakfast for Allouma and me,' I said to him. + +"He went out, without his face betraying the slightest astonishment or +anger, and as soon as he had left the room, I said to the girl: + +"'Will you live in my house?' + +"'I should like to, very much.' + +"'I will give you a room to yourself, and a woman to wait on you.' + +"'You are very generous, and I am grateful to you.' + +"'But if you behave badly, I shall send you away immediately.' + +"'I will do everything that you wish me to.' + +"She took my hand, and kissed it as a token of submission, and just then +Mohammed came in, carrying a tray with our breakfast on it, and I said to +him:-- + +"'Allouma is going to live here. You must spread a carpet on the floor of +the room at the end of the passage, and get Abd-El-Kader-El-Hadara's wife +to come and wait on her.' + +"'Yes, _mo'ssieuia_.' + +"That was all. + +"An hour later, my beautiful Arab was installed in a large, airy, light +room, and when I went in to see that everything was in order, she asked +me in a supplicating voice, to give her a wardrobe with a looking-glass +in the doors. I promised her one, and then I left her squatting on the +carpet from Djebel-Amour, with a cigarette in her mouth, and gossiping +with the old Arab woman I had sent for, as if they had known each other +for years." + + +II + +"For a month I was very happy with her, and I got strangely attached to +this creature belonging to another race, who seemed to me almost to +belong to some other species, and to have been born on a neighboring +planet. + +"I did not love her; no, one does not love the women of that primitive +continent. This small, pale blue flower of Northern countries never +unfolds between them and us, or even between them and their natural +males, the Arabs. They are too near to human animalism, their hearts are +too rudimentary, their feelings are not refined enough to rouse that +sentimental exaltation in us, which is the poetry of love. Nothing +intellectual, no intoxication of thought or feeling is mingled with that +sensual intoxication which those charming nonentities excite in us. +Nevertheless, they captivate us like the others do, but in a different +fashion, which is less tenacious, and, at the same time, less cruel and +painful. + +"I cannot even now explain precisely what I felt for her. I said to you +just now that this country, this bare Africa, without any arts, void of +all intellectual pleasures, gradually captivates us by its climate, by +the continual mildness of the dawn and sunset, by its delightful light, +and by the feeling of well-being with which it fills all our organs. +Well, then! Allouma captivated me in the same manner, by a thousand +hidden, physical, alluring charms, and by the procreative seductiveness, +not of her embraces, for she was of thoroughly oriental supineness in +that respect, but of her sweet self-surrender. + +"I left her absolutely free to come and go as she liked, and she +certainly spent one afternoon out of two with the wives of my native +agricultural laborers. Often also, she would remain for nearly a whole +day admiring herself in front of a mahogany wardrobe with a large +looking-glass in the doors that I had got from Miliana. + +"She admired herself conscientiously, standing before the glass doors, in +which she followed her own movements with profound and serious attention. +She walked with her head somewhat thrown back, in order to be able to see +whether her hips and loins swayed properly; went away, came back again, +and then, tired with her own movements, she sat down on a cushion and +remained opposite to her own reflection, with her eyes fixed on her face +in the glass, and her whole soul absorbed in that picture. + +"Soon, I began to notice that she went out nearly every morning after +breakfast, and that she disappeared altogether until evening, and as I +felt rather anxious about this, I asked Mohammed whether he knew what +she could be doing during all these long hours of absence, but he replied +very calmly: + +"'Do not be uneasy. It will be the Feast of Ramadan soon, and so she goes +to say her prayers.' + +"He also seemed delighted at having Allouma in the house, but I never +once saw anything suspicious between them, and so I accepted the +situation as it was, and let time, accident, and life act for themselves. + +"Often, after I had inspected my farm, my vineyards, and my clearings, I +used to take long walks. You know the magnificent forests in this part of +Algeria, those almost impenetrable ravines, where fallen pine trees hem +the mountain torrents, and those little valleys filled with oleanders, +which look like oriental carpets stretching along the banks of the +streams. You know that at every moment, in these woods and on these +hills, where one would think that nobody had ever penetrated, one +suddenly sees the white dome of a shrine that contains the bones of a +humble, solitary marabout, which was scarcely visited from time to time, +even by the most confirmed believers, who had come from the neighboring +villages with a wax candle in their pocket, to set up before the tomb of +the saint. + +"Now one evening as I was going home, I was passing one of these +Mohammedan chapels, and, looking in through the door, which was always +open, I saw a woman praying before the altar. That Arab woman, sitting on +the ground in that dilapidated building, into which the wind entered as +it pleased, and heaped up the fine, dry pine needles in yellow heaps in +the corners. I went near to see better, and recognized Allouma. She +neither saw nor heard me, so absorbed was she with the saint, to whom she +was speaking in a low voice, as she thought that she was alone with him, +and telling this servant of God all her troubles. Sometimes she stopped +for a short time to think, to try and recollect what more she had to say, +so that she might not forget anything that she wished to confide to him; +then, again, she would grow animated, as if he had replied to her, as if +he had advised her to do something that she did not want to do, and the +reasons for which she was impugning, and I went away as I had come, +without making any noise, and returned home to dinner. + +"That evening, when I sent for her, I saw that she had a thoughtful look, +which was not usual with her. + +"'Sit down there,' I said, pointing to her place on the couch by my side. +As soon as she had sat down, I stooped to kiss her, but she drew her head +away quickly, and, in great astonishment, I said to her: + +"'Well, what is the matter?' + +"'It is the Ramadan,' she said. + +"I began to laugh, and said: 'And the Marabout has forbidden you to allow +yourself to be kissed during the Ramadan?' + +"Oh, yes; I am an Arab woman, and you are a Roumi!' + +"'And it would be a great sin?' + +"'Oh, yes!' + +"'So you ate nothing all day, until sunset?' + +"'No, nothing.' + +"'But you had something to eat after sundown?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'Well, then, as it is quite dark now, you ought not to be more strict +about the rest than you are about your mouth.' + +"She seemed irritated, wounded, and offended, and replied with an amount +of pride that I had never noticed in her before:-- + +"'If an Arab girl were to allow herself to be touched by a Roumi during +the Ramadan, she would be cursed for ever.' + +"'And that is to continue for a whole month?' + +"'Yes, for the whole of the month of Ramadan,' she replied, with great +determination. + +"I assumed an irritated manner and said:--'Very well, then, you can go +and spend the Ramadan with your family.' + +"She seized my hands, and, laying them on my heart, she said:-- + +"'Oh! Please do not be unkind, and you shall see how nice I will be. We +will keep Ramadan together, if you like. I will look after you, and spoil +you, but don't be unkind.' + +"I could not help smiling at her funny manner and her unhappiness, and +I sent her to go to sleep at home, but, an hour later, just as I was +thinking about going to bed, there came two little taps at my door, +which were so slight, however, that I scarcely heard them; but when I +said:--'Come in,' Allouma appeared carrying a large tray covered with +Arab dainties; fried balls of rice, covered with sugar, and a variety of +other strange, Nomad pastry. + +"She laughed, showing her white teeth, and repeated:--'Come, we will keep +Ramadan together.' + +"You know that the fast, which begins at dawn and ends at twilight, at +the moment when the eye can no longer distinguish a black from a white +thread, is followed every evening by small, friendly entertainments, at +which eating is kept up until the morning, and the result is that for +such of the natives as are not very scrupulous, Ramadan consists of +turning day into night, and night into day. But Allouma carried her +delicacy of conscience further than this. She placed her tray between us +on the divan, and taking a small, sugared ball between her long, slender +fingers, she put it into my mouth, and whispered:--'Eat it, it is very +good.' + +"I munched the light cake, which was really excellent, and asked +her:--'Did you make that?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'For me?' + +"'Yes, for you.' + +"'To enable me to support Ramadan?' + +"'Oh! Don't be so unkind! I will bring you some every day.' + +"Oh! the terrible month that I spent! A sugared, insipidly sweet month; a +month that nearly drove me mad; a month of spoiling and of temptation, of +anger and of vain efforts against an invincible resistance, but at last +the three days of Beiram came, which I celebrated in my own fashion, and +Ramadan was forgotten. + +"The summer went on, and it was very hot, and in the first days of +autumn, Allouma appeared to me to be pre-occupied and absent-minded, and, +seemingly, taking no interest in anything, and, at last, when I sent for +her one evening, she was not to be found in her room. I thought that she +was roaming about the house, and I gave orders to look for her. She had +not come in, however, and so I opened my window, and called out:-- + +"'Mohammed,' and the voice of the man, who was lying in his tent, +replied:-- + +"'Yes, _mo'ssieuia_.' + +"'Do you know where Allouma is?' + +"'No, _mo'ssieuia_ ... it is not possible ... is Allouma lost?' + +"A few moments later, my Arab came into my room, so agitated that he +could not master his feelings, and I said: + +"'Is Allouma lost?' + +"'Yes, she is lost.' + +"'It is impossible.' + +"'Go and look for her,' I said. + +"He remained standing where he was, thinking, seeking for her motives, +and unable to understand anything about it. Then he went into the empty +room, where Allouma's clothes were lying about, in oriental disorder. He +examined everything, as if he had been a police officer, or, rather, he +smelt like a dog, and then, incapable of a lengthened effort, he +murmured, resignedly:-- + +"'She has gone, she has gone!' + +"I was afraid that some accident had happened to her; that she had fallen +into some ravine and sprained herself, and I immediately sent all the men +about the place off with orders to look for her until they should find +her, and they hunted for her all that night, all the next day, and all +the week long, but nothing was discovered that could put us upon her +track. I suffered, for I missed her very much; my house seemed empty, +and my existence a void. And then, disgusting thoughts entered my mind. I +feared that she might have been carried off, or even murdered, but when I +spoke about it to Mohammed, and tried to make him share my fears, he +invariably replied: + +"'No; gone away.' + +"Then he added the Arab word _r'ezale_, which means _gazelle_, as if he +meant to say that she could run quickly, and that she was far away. + +"Three weeks passed, and I had given up all hopes of seeing my Arab +mistress again, when one morning Mohammed came into my room, with every +sign of joy in his face, and said to me: + +"'_Mo'ssieuia_, Allouma has come back.' + +"I jumped out of bed and said: + +"'Where is she?' + +"'She does not dare to come in! There she is, under the tree.' + +"And stretching out his arm, he pointed out to me, through the window, a +whitish spot at the foot of an olive tree. + +"I got up immediately, and went out to where she was. As I approached +what looked like a mere bundle of linen thrown against the gnarled trunk +of the tree, I recognized the large, dark eyes, the tattooed stars, and +the long, regular features of that semi-wild girl who had so captivated +my senses. As I advanced towards her, I felt inclined to strike her, to +make her suffer pain, and to have my revenge, and so I called out to her +from a little distance: + +"'Where have you been?' + +"She did not reply, but remained motionless and inert, as if she were +scarcely alive, resigned to my violence, and ready to receive my blows. +I was standing up, close to her, looking in stupefaction at the rags with +which she was covered, at those bits of silk and muslin, covered with +dust, torn and dirty, and I repeated, raising my hand, as if she had been +a dog: + +"'Where have you come from?' + +"'From yonder,' she said, in a whisper. + +"'Where is that?' + +"'From the tribe.' + +"'What tribe?' + +"'Mine.' + +"'Why did you go away?' + +"When she saw that I was not going to beat her, she grew rather bolder, +and said in a low voice: "'I was obliged to do it.... I was forced to go, +I could not stop in the house any longer.' + +"I saw tears in her eyes, and immediately felt softened. I leaned over +her, and when I turned round to sit down, I noticed Mohammed, who was +watching us at a distance, and I went on, very gently: + +"'Come, tell me why you ran away?' + +"Then she told me, that for a long time in her Nomad's heart she had felt +the irresistible desire to return to the tents, to lie, to run, to roll +on the sand; to wander about the plains with the flocks, to feel nothing +over her head, between the yellow stars in the sky and the blue stars in +her face, except the thin, threadbare, patched stuff, through which she +could see spots of fire in the sky, when she awoke during the night. + +"She made me understand all that in such simple and powerful words, that +I felt quite sure that she was not lying, and pitied her, and I asked +her: + +"'Why did you not tell me that you wished to go away for a time?' + +"'Because you would not have allowed me...' + +"'If you had promised to come back, I should have consented.' + +"'You would not have believed me.' + +"Seeing that I was not angry, she began to laugh, and said: + +"'You see that is all over; I have come home again, and here I am. I only +wanted a few days there. I have had enough of it now, it is finished and +passed; the feeling is cured. I have come back, and have not that longing +any more. I am very glad, and you are very kind.' + +"'Come into the house,' I said to her. + +"She got up, and I took her hand, her delicate hand, with its slender +fingers, and triumphant in her rags, with her bracelets and her necklace +ringing, she went gravely towards my house, where Mohammed was waiting +for us, but before going in, I said: + +"'Allouma, whenever you want to return to your own people, tell me, and +I will allow you to go.' + +"'You promise?' + +"'Yes, I promise.' + +"'And I will make you a promise also. When I feel ill or unhappy'--and +here she put her hand to her forehead, with a magnificent gesture--'I +shall say to you: "I must go yonder," and you will let me go.' + +"I went with her to her room, followed by Mohammed, who was +carrying some water, for there had been no time to tell the wife of +Abd-el-Kader-el-Hadam that her mistress had returned. As soon as she got +into the room, and saw the wardrobe with the looking-glass in the door, +she ran up to it, like a child does when it sees its mother. She looked +at herself for a few seconds, made a grimace, and then in a rather cross +voice, she said to the looking-glass: + +"'Just you wait a moment; I have some silk dresses in the wardrobe. +I shall be beautiful in a few minutes.' + +"And I left her alone, to act the coquette to herself. + +"Our life began its usual course again, as formerly, and I felt more and +more under the influence of the strange, merely physical attractions of +that girl, for whom, at the same time, I felt a kind of paternal +contempt. For two months all went well, and then I felt that she was +again becoming nervous, agitated, and rather low-spirited, and one day +I said to her:-- + +"'Do you want to return home again?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'And you did not dare to tell me?' + +"'I did not venture to.' + +"'Go, if you wish to; I give you leave.' + +"She seized my hands and kissed them, as she did in all her outbursts of +gratitude, and the same morning she disappeared. + +"She came back, as she had done the first time, at the end of about three +weeks, in rags, covered with dust, and satiated with her Nomad life of +sand and liberty. In two years she returned to her own people four times +in this fashion. + +"I took her back, gladly, without any feelings of jealousy, for with me +jealousy can only spring from love as we Europeans understand it. I might +very likely have killed her if I had surprised her in the act of +deceiving me, but I should have done it, just as one half kills a +disobedient dog, from sheer violence. I should not have felt those +torments, that consuming fire--Northern jealousy. I have just said that +I should have killed her like a disobedient dog, and, as a matter of +fact, I loved her somewhat in the same manner as one loves some very +highly bred horse or dog, which it is impossible to replace. She was a +splendid animal, a sensual animal, an animal made for pleasure, and which +possessed the body of a woman. + +"I cannot tell you what an immeasurable distance separated our two souls, +although our hearts perhaps occasionally warmed towards each other. She +was something belonging to my house, she was part of my life, she had +become a very agreeable, daily, regular requirement with me, to which I +clung, and which the sensual man in me loved, that in me which was only +eyes and sensuality. + +"Well, one morning, Mohammed came into my room with a strange look on his +face, that uneasy look of the Arabs, which resembles the furtive look of +a cat, face to face with a dog, and when I noticed his expression, I +said: + +"'What is the matter, now?' + +"'Allouma has gone away.' + +"I began to laugh, and said:--'Where has she gone to?' + +"'Gone away altogether, _mo'ssieuia_!' + +"'What do you mean by _gone away altogether_; you are mad, my man.' + +"'No, _mo'ssieuia_.' + +"'Why has she gone away? Just explain yourself; come!' + +"He remained motionless, and evidently did not wish to speak, and then he +had one of those explosions of Arab rage, which make us stop in streets +in front of two demoniacs, whose oriental silence and gravity suddenly +give place to the most violent gesticulations, and the most ferocious +vociferations, and I gathered, amidst his shouts, that Allouma had run +away with my shepherd, and when I had partially succeeded in calming +him, I managed to extract the facts from him one by one. + +"It was a long story, but at last I gathered that he had been watching my +mistress, who used to meet a sort of vagabond whom my steward had hired +the month before, behind the neighboring cactus woods, or in the ravine +where the oleanders flourished. The night before, Mohammed had seen her +go out without seeing her return, and he repeated, in an exasperated +manner:--'Gone, _mo'ssieuia_; she has gone away!' + +"I do not know why, but his conviction, the conviction that she had run +away with this vagabond, laid hold of me irresistibly in a moment. It +was absurd, unlikely, and yet certain in virtue of that very +unreasonableness, which constitutes female logic. + +"Boiling over with indignation, I tried to recall the man's features, and +I suddenly remembered having seen him the previous week, standing on a +mound amidst his flock, and watching me. He was a tall Bedouin, the color +of whose bare limbs was blended with that of his rags; he was a type of a +barbarous brute, with high cheek bones, and a hooked nose, a retreating +chin, thin legs, and a tall carcass in rags, with the shifty eyes of a +jackal. + +"I did not doubt for a moment that she had run away with that beggar. +Why? Because she was Allouma, a daughter of the desert. A girl from the +pavement in Paris would have run away with my coachman, or some thief in +the suburbs. + +"'Very well,' I said to Mohammed. Then I got up, opened my window, and +began to draw in the stifling South wind, for the sirocco was blowing, +and I thought to myself:-- + +"Good heavens! she is ... a woman, like so many others. Does anybody know +what makes them act, what makes them love, what makes them follow, or +throw over a man? One certainly does know, occasionally; but often one +does not, and sometimes one is in doubt. Why did she run away with that +repulsive brute? Why? Perhaps, because the wind had been blowing +regularly from the South, for a month; that was enough; a breath of wind! +Does she know, do they know, even the cleverest of them, why they act? +No more than a weather-cock that turns with the wind. An imperceptible +breeze, makes the iron, brass, zinc, or wooden arrow revolve, just in +the same manner as some imperceptible influence, some undiscernible +impression moves the female heart, and urges it on to resolutions, and it +does not matter whether they belong to town or country, the suburbs or +the desert. + +"They can then feel, provided that they reason and understand, why they +have done one thing rather than another, but, for the moment, they do +not know, for they are the playthings of their own sensibility, the +thoughtless, giddy-headed slaves of events, of their surroundings, of +chance meetings, and of all the sensations with which their soul and +their body trembles!" + +Monsieur Auballe had risen, and, after walking up and down the room once +or twice, he looked at me, and said, with a smile:-- + +"That is love in the desert!" + +"Suppose she were to come back?" I asked him. + +"Horrid girl!" he replied. + +"But I should be very glad if she did return to me." + +"And you would pardon the shepherd?" + +"Good heavens, yes! With women, one must always pardon ... or else +pretend not to see things." + + + + +A FAMILY AFFAIR + + +The Neuilly steam-tram had just passed the _Porte Maillot_, and was going +along the broad avenue that terminates at the Seine. The small engine +that was attached to the car whistled to warn any obstacle to get out of +its way, sent out its steam, and panted like a person out of breath from +running does, and its pistons made a rapid noise, like iron legs that +were running. The oppressive heat of the end of a July day lay over the +whole city, and from the road, although there was not a breath of wind +stirring, there arose a white, chalky, opaque, suffocating, and warm +dust, which stuck to the moist skin, filled the eyes, and got into the +lungs, and people were standing in the doors of their houses in search +of a little air. + +The windows of the steam-tram were down, and the curtains fluttered in +the wind, and there were very few passengers inside, because on such warm +days people preferred the top or the platforms. Those few consisted of +stout women in strange toilets, of those shopkeepers' wives from the +suburbs, who made up for the distinguished looks which they did not +possess, by ill-timed dignity; of gentlemen who were tired of the office, +with yellow-faces, who stooped rather, and with one shoulder higher than +the other, in consequence of their long hours of work bending over the +desk. Their uneasy and melancholy faces also spoke of domestic troubles, +of constant want of money, of former hopes, that had been finally +disappointed; for they all belonged to that army of poor, threadbare +devils who vegetate economically in mean, plastered houses, with a tiny +piece of neglected garden in the midst of those fields where night soil +is deposited, which are on the outskirts of Paris. + +A short, fat man, with a puffy face and a big stomach, dressed all in +black, and wearing a decoration in his button-hole, was talking to a +tall, thin man, dressed in a dirty, white linen suit, that was all +unbuttoned, with a white Panama hat on. The former spoke so slowly and +hesitatingly, that it occasionally almost seemed as if he stammered; he +was Monsieur Caravan, chief clerk in the Admiralty. The other, who had +formerly been surgeon on board a merchant ship, had set up in practice +in Courbevoie, where he applied the vague remnants of medical knowledge +which he had retained after an adventurous life, to the wretched +population of that district. His name was Chenet, and strange rumors +were current as to his morality. + +Monsieur Caravan had always led the normal life of a man in a Government +office. For the last thirty years he had invariably gone the same way to +his office every morning, and had met the same men going to business at +the same time and nearly on the same spot, and he returned home every +evening the same way, and again met the same faces which he had seen +growing old. Every morning, after buying his halfpenny paper at the +corner of the _Faubourg Saint Honoré_, he bought his two rolls, and then +he went into his office, like a culprit who is giving himself up to +justice, and he got to his desk as quickly as possible, always feeling +uneasy, as he was expecting a rebuke for some neglect of duty of which he +might have been guilty. + +Nothing had ever occurred to change the monotonous order of his +existence, for no event affected him except the work of his office, +perquisites, gratuities, and promotion. He never spoke of anything but of +his duties, either at the Admiralty or at home, for he had married the +portionless daughter of one of his colleagues. His mind, which was in a +state of atrophy from his depressing daily work, had no other thoughts, +hopes or dreams than such as related to the office, and there was a +constant source of bitterness that spoilt every pleasure that he might +have had, and that was the employment of so many commissioners of the +navy, _tinmen_, as they were called, because of their silver-lace, as +first-class clerks; and every evening at dinner he discussed the matter +hotly with his wife, who shared his angry feelings, and proved to their +own satisfaction that it was in every way unjust to give places in Paris, +to men who ought to be employed in the navy. + +He was old now, and had scarcely noticed how his life was passing, for +school had merely been exchanged, without any transition, for the office, +and the ushers, at whom he had formerly trembled, were replaced by his +chiefs, whom he was terribly afraid of. When he had to go into the rooms +of these official despots, it made him tremble from head to foot, and +that constant fear had given him a very awkward manner in their presence, +a humble demeanor, and a kind of nervous stammering. + +He knew nothing more about Paris than a blind man could know, who was led +to the same spot by his dog every day, and if he read the account of any +uncommon events, or of scandals, in his halfpenny paper, they appeared +to him like fantastic tales, which some pressman had made up out of his +own head, in order to amuse the inferior _employés_. He did not read the +political news, which his paper frequently altered, as the cause which +subsidized them might require, for he was not fond of innovations, and +when he went through the Avenue of the _Champs-Elysées_ every evening, +he looked at the surging crowd of pedestrians, and at the stream of +carriages, like a traveler who has lost his way in a strange country. + +As he had completed his thirty years of obligatory service that year, on +the first of January, he had had the cross of the _Legion of Honor_ +bestowed upon him, which, in the semi-military public offices, is a +recompense for the miserable slavery--the official phrase is, _loyal +services_ of unfortunate convicts who are riveted to their desk. That +unexpected dignity gave him a high and new idea of his own capacities, +and altogether altered him. He immediately left off wearing light +trousers and fancy waistcoats, and wore black trousers and long coats, +on which his _ribbon_, which was very broad, showed off better. He got +shaved every morning, trimmed his nails more carefully, changed his linen +every two days, from a legitimate sense of what was proper, and of +respect for the national _Order_, of which he formed a part, and from +that day he was another Caravan, scrupulously clean, majestic and +condescending. + +At home, he said, "my cross," at every moment, and he had become so +proud of it, that he could not bear to see other men wearing any other +ribbon in their button-holes. He got especially angry on seeing strange +orders:--"Which nobody ought to be allowed to wear in France," and he +bore Chenet a particular grudge, as he met him on a tramcar every +evening, wearing a decoration of some sort or another, white, blue, +orange, or green. + +The conversation of the two men, from the _Arc de Triomphe_ to Neuilly, +was always the same, and on that day they discussed, first of all, +various local abuses which disgusted them both, and the Mayor of Neuilly +received his full share of their blame. Then, as invariably happens in +the company of a medical man, Caravan began to enlarge on the chapter of +illness, as, in that manner, he hoped to obtain a little gratuitous +advice, if he was careful not to show his book. His mother had been +causing him no little anxiety for some time; she had frequent and +prolonged fainting fits, and, although she was ninety, she would not +take care of herself. + +Caravan grew quite tender-hearted when he mentioned her great age, +and more than once asked Doctor Chenet, emphasizing the word +_doctor_--although he had no right to the title, being only an _Officier +de Santé_, and, as such, not fully qualified--whether he had often met +anyone as old as that. And he rubbed his hands with pleasure; not, +perhaps, that he cared very much about seeing the good woman last for +ever here on earth, but because the long duration of his mother's life +was, as it were, an earnest of old age for himself, and he continued: + +"Oh! In my family, we last long, and I am sure that, unless I meet with +an accident, I shall not die until I am very old." + +The _medico_ looked at him with pity, and glanced for a moment at his +neighbor's red face, his short, thick neck, his "corporation," as Chenet +called it to himself, that hung down between two flaccid, fat legs, and +his apoplectic rotundity of the old, flabby official, and, lifting the +white Panama hat which he wore, from his head, he said, with a snigger:-- + +"I am not so sure of that, old fellow; your mother is as tough as nails, +and I should say that your life is not a very good one." + +This rather upset Caravan, who did not speak again until the tram put +them down at their destination, where the two friends got out, and Chenet +asked his friend to have a glass of vermouth at the _Café du Globe_, +opposite, which both of them were in the habit of frequenting. The +proprietor, who was a friend of theirs, held out two fingers to them, +which they shook across the bottles on the counter, and then they joined +three of their friends, who were playing at dominoes, and who had been +there since midday. They exchanged cordial greetings, with the usual +inquiries:--"Anything fresh?" and then the three players continued their +game, and held out their hands without looking up, when the others wished +them "Good-night," and then they both went home to dinner. + +Caravan lived in a small, two-storied house in Courbevoie, near where +the roads meet; the ground floor was occupied by a hair-dresser. Two +bedrooms, a dining-room and a kitchen, formed the whole of their +apartments, and Madame Caravan spent nearly her whole time in cleaning +them up, while her daughter, Marie-Louise, who was twelve, and her son, +Philippe-Auguste, were running about with all the little, dirty, +mischievous brats of the neighborhood, and playing in the gutters. + +Caravan had installed his mother, whose avarice was notorious in the +neighborhood, and who was terribly thin, in the room above them. She +was always in a bad temper, and she never passed a day without +quarreling and flying into furious tempers. She used to apostrophize the +neighbors, who were standing at their own doors, the coster-mongers, the +street-sweepers, and the street-boys, in the most violent language, and +the latter, to have their revenge, used to follow her at a distance when +she went out, and call out rude things after her. + +A little servant from Normandy, who was incredibly giddy and thoughtless, +performed the household work, and slept on the second floor, in the same +room as the old woman, for fear of anything happening to her in the +night. + +When Caravan got in, his wife, who suffered from a chronic passion for +cleaning, was polishing up the mahogany chairs that were scattered about +the room, with a piece of flannel. She always wore cotton gloves, and +adorned her head with a cap, which was ornamented with many colored +ribbons, which was always tilted on one ear, and whenever anyone caught +her polishing, sweeping, or washing, she used to say:-- + +"I am not rich; everything is very simple in my house, but cleanliness is +my luxury, and that is worth quite as much as any other." + +As she was gifted with sound, obstinate, practical common sense, she led +her husband in everything. Every evening during dinner, and afterwards, +when they were in bed, they talked over the business in the office for +a long time, and, although she was twenty years younger than he, he +confided everything to her, as if she had had the direction, and followed +her advice in every matter. + +She had never been pretty, and now she had grown ugly; in addition to +that, she was short and thin, while her careless and tasteless way of +dressing herself, hid her few, small feminine attributes, which might +have been brought out if she had possessed any skill in dress. Her +petticoats were always awry, and she frequently scratched herself, no +matter on what place, totally indifferent as to who might see her, and so +persistently that anybody who saw her, would think that she was suffering +from something like the itch. The only ornaments that she allowed herself +were silk ribbons, which she had in great profusion, and of various +colors mixed together, in the pretentious caps which she wore at home. + +As soon as she saw her husband she got up and said, as she kissed his +whiskers: + +"Did you remember Potin, my dear?" + +He fell into a chair, in consternation, for that was the fourth time on +which he had forgotten a commission that he had promised to do for her. + +"It is a fatality," he said; "it is no good for me to think of it all day +long, for I am sure to forget it in the evening." + +But as she seemed really so very sorry, she merely said, quietly: + +"You will think of it to-morrow, I daresay. Anything fresh at the +office?" + +"Yes, a great piece of news: another tinman has been appointed second +chief clerk," and she became very serious. + +"So he succeeds Ramon, this was the very post that I wanted you to have. +And what about Ramon?" + +"He retires on his pension." + +She grew furious, and her cap slid down on her shoulder, and she +continued: + +"There is nothing more to be done in that shop now. And what is the name +of the new commissioner?" + +"Bonassot." + +She took up the _Naval Year Book_, which she always kept close at hand, +and looked him up. + +"'Bonassot--Toulon. Born in 1851. Student-Commissioner in 1871. +Sub-Commissioner in 1875.' Has he been to sea?" she continued, and at +that question Caravan's looks cleared up, and he laughed until his sides +shook. + +"Just like Balin--just like Balin, his chief." And he added an old office +joke, and laughed more than ever: + +"It would not even do to send them by water to inspect the +_Point-du-Jour_, for they would be sick on the penny steamboats on +the Seine." + +But she remained as serious as if she had not heard him, and then she +said in a low voice, while she scratched her chin: + +"If only we had a Deputy to fall back upon. When the Chamber hears +everything that is going on at the Admiralty, the Minister will be turned +out..." + +She was interrupted by a terrible noise on the stairs. Marie-Louise and +Philippe-Auguste, who had just come in from the gutter, were giving each +other slaps all the way upstairs. Their mother rushed at them furiously, +and taking each of them by an arm, she dragged them into the room, +shaking them vigorously, but as soon as they saw their father, they +rushed up to him, and he kissed them affectionately, and taking one of +them on each knee, he began to talk to them. + +Philippe-Auguste was an ugly, ill-kempt little brat, dirty from head to +foot, with the face of an idiot, and Marie-Louise was already like her +mother--spoke like her, repeated her words, and even imitated her +movements. She also asked him whether there was anything fresh at the +office, and he replied merrily: + +"Your friend, Ramon, who comes and dines here every Sunday, is going to +leave us, little one. There is a new second head-clerk." + +She looked at her father, and with a precocious child's pity, she said: + +"So somebody has been put over your head again!" + +He stopped laughing, and did not reply, and then, in order, to create a +diversion, he said, addressing his wife, who was cleaning the windows: + +"How is mamma, up there?" + +Madame Caravan left off rubbing, turned round, pulled her cap up, as it +had fallen quite on to her back, and said, with trembling lips: + +"Ah! yes; just speak to your mother about this, for she has created a +pretty scene. Just think that a short time ago Madame Lebaudin, the +hairdresser's wife, came upstairs to borrow a packet of starch of me, +and, as I was not at home, your mother called her _a beggar woman_, and +turned her out; but I gave it to the old woman. She pretended not to +hear, like she always does when one tells her unpleasant truths, but +she is no more deaf than I am, as you know. It is all a sham, and the +proof of it is, that she went up to her own room immediately, without +saying a word." + +Caravan did not utter a word, and at that moment the little servant +came in to announce dinner. In order to let his mother know, he took a +broom-handle, which always stood in a corner, and rapped loudly on the +ceiling three times, and they went into the dining-room. Madame Caravan, +junior, helped the soup, and waited for the old woman, but she did not +come, and the soup was getting cold, so they began to eat slowly, and +when their plates were empty, they waited again, and Madame Caravan, +who was furious, attacked her husband: + +"She does it on purpose, you know that as well as I do. But you always +uphold her." + +He, in great perplexity between the two, sent Marie-Louise to fetch her +grandmother, and he sat motionless, with his eyes down, while his wife +tapped her glass angrily with her knife. In about a minute, the door +flew open suddenly, and the child came in again, out of breath and very +pale, and said very quickly: + +"Grandmamma has fallen down on the ground." + +Caravan jumped up, threw his table-napkin down, and rushed upstairs, +while his wife, who thought it was some trick of her mother-in-law's, +followed more slowly, shrugging her shoulders, as if to express her +doubt. When they got upstairs, however, they found the old woman lying at +full length in the middle of the room, and when they turned her over they +saw that she was insensible and motionless, while her skin looked more +wrinkled and yellow than usual, and her eyes were closed, her teeth +clenched, and her thin body was stiff. + +Caravan knelt down by her, and began to moan: + +"My poor mother! my poor mother!" he said. But the other Madame Caravan +said: + +"Bah! She has only fainted again, that is all, and she has done it to +prevent us from dining comfortably, you may be sure of that." + +They put her on the bed, undressed her completely, and Caravan, his wife, +and the servant began to rub her, but, in spite of their efforts, she did +not recover consciousness, so they sent Rosalie, the servant, to fetch +_Doctor_ Chenet. He lived a long way off, on the quay going towards +Suresnes, and so it was considerable time before he arrived. He came at +last, however, and, after having looked at the old woman, felt her pulse, +auscultated her, he said:--"It is all over." + +Caravan threw himself on the body, sobbing violently; he kissed his +mother's rigid face, and wept so, that great tears fell on the dead +woman's face, like drops of water, and, naturally, Madame Caravan, +Junior, showed a decorous amount of grief, and uttered feeble moans, +as she stood behind her husband, while she rubbed her eyes vigorously. + +But, suddenly, Caravan raised himself up, with his thin hair in disorder, +and, looking very ugly in his grief, said:-- + +"But ... are you sure, doctor?... Are you quite sure?..." + +The medical stooped over the body, and, handling it with professional +dexterity, like a shopkeeper might do, when showing off his goods, he +said:--"See, my dear friend, look at her eye." + +He raised the eyelid, and the old woman's looks reappeared under his +finger, and were altogether unaltered, unless, perhaps, the pupil was +rather larger, and Caravan felt a severe shock at the sight. Then +Monsieur Chenet took her thin arm, forced the fingers open, and said, +angrily, as if he had been contradicted: + +"Just look at her hand; I never make a mistake, you may be quite sure of +that." + +Caravan fell on the bed, and almost bellowed, while his wife, still +whimpering, did what was necessary. + +She brought the night-table, on which she spread a table napkin, and +placed four wax candles on it, which she lighted; then she took a sprig +of box, which was hanging over the chimney glass, and put it between +the candles, into the plate, which she filled with clean water, as she +had no holy water. But, after a moment's rapid reflection, she threw a +pinch of salt into the water, no doubt, thinking she was performing some +sort of act of consecration by doing that, and when she had finished, she +remained standing motionless, and the medical man, who had been helping +her, whispered to her: + +"We must take Caravan away." + +She nodded assent, and, going up to her husband, who was still on his +knees, sobbing, she raised him up by one arm, while Chenet took him by +the other. + +They put him into a chair, and his wife kissed his forehead, and then +began to lecture him. Chenet enforced her words, and preached firmness, +courage, and resignation--the very things which are always wanting in +such overwhelming misfortunes--and then both of them took him by the arms +again and led him out. + +He was crying like a great child, with convulsive hiccoughs; his arms +were hanging down, and his legs seemed useless, and he went downstairs +without knowing what he was doing, and moving his legs mechanically. +They put him into the chair which he always occupied at dinner, in front +of his empty soup plate. And there he sat, without moving, with his eyes +fixed on his glass, and so stupefied with grief, that he could not even +think. + +In a corner, Madame Caravan was talking with the doctor, and asking what +the necessary formalities were, as she wanted to obtain practical +information. At last, Monsieur Chenet, who appeared to be waiting for +something, took up his hat and prepared to go, saying that he had not +dined yet; whereupon, she exclaimed:-- + +"What! you have not dined? But stop here, doctor; don't go. You shall +have whatever we can give you, for, of course, you will understand that +we do not fare sumptuously." However, he made excuses and refused, but +she persisted, and said:-- + +"You really must stop; at times like this, people like to have friends +near them, and, besides that, perhaps you will be able to persuade my +husband to take some nourishment; he must keep up his strength." + +The doctor bowed, and, putting down his hat, he said:-- + +"In that case, I will accept your invitation, Madame." + +She gave Rosalie, who seemed to have lost her head, some orders, and then +sat down, "to pretend to eat," as she said, "to keep the _doctor_ +company." + +The soup was brought in again, and Monsieur Chenet took two helpings. +Then there came a dish of tripe, which exhaled a smell of onions, and +which Madame Caravan made up her mind to taste. + +"It is excellent," the doctor said, at which she smiled, and, turning to +her husband, she said:-- + +"Do take a little, my poor Alfred, only just to put something into your +stomach. Remember you have got to pass the night watching by her!" + +He held out his plate, docilely, just as he would have gone to bed, if +he had been told to, obeying her in everything, without resistance and +without reflection, and, therefore, he ate; the doctor helped himself +three times, while Madame Caravan, from time to time, fished out a large +piece at the end of her fork, and swallowed it with a sort of studied +inattention. + +When a salad bowl full of macaroni was brought in, the doctor said: + +"By Jove! That is what I am very fond of." And this time, Madame Caravan +helped everybody. She even filled the children's saucers, which they had +scraped clean, and who, being left to themselves, had been drinking wine +without any water, and were now kicking each other under the table. + +Chenet remembered that Rossini, the composer, had been very fond of that +Italian dish, and suddenly he exclaimed:-- + +"Why! that rhymes, and one could begin some lines like this: + + _"The Maestro Rossini + Was fond of macaroni."_ + +Nobody listened to him, however. Madame Caravan, who had suddenly grown +thoughtful, was thinking of all the probable consequences of the event, +while her husband made bread pellets, which he put on the table-cloth, +and looked at with a fixed, idiotic stare. As he was devoured by thirst, +he was continually raising his glass full of wine to his lips, and the +consequences were that his senses, which had already been rather upset by +the shock and grief, seemed to dance about vaguely in his head, as if +they were going to vanish altogether. + +Meanwhile, the doctor, who had been drinking away steadily, was getting +visibly drunk, and Madame Caravan herself felt the reaction which follows +all nervous shocks, and was agitated and excited, and although she had +been drinking nothing but water, she felt her head rather confused. + +By-and-bye, Chenet began to relate stories of deaths, that appeared funny +to him. In that suburb of Paris, that is full of people from the +provinces, one meets with that indifference towards death were it even +a father or mother, which all peasants show; that want of respect, that +unconscious ferociousness which is so common in the country, and so rare +in Paris, and he said: + +"Why, I was sent for last week to the _Rue du Puteaux_, and when I went, +I found the sick person (and there was the whole family calmly sitting +near the bed) finishing a bottle of liquor of aniseed, which had been +bought the night before to satisfy the dying man's fancy." + +But Madame Caravan was not listening; she was continually thinking of the +inheritance, and Caravan was incapable of understanding anything. + +Soon coffee was served, which had been made very strong, and as every cup +was well qualified with cognac, it made all their faces red, and confused +their ideas still more; to make matters still worse, Chenet suddenly +seized the brandy bottle and poured out "a drop just to wash their mouths +out with," as he termed it, for each of them, and then, without speaking +any more, overcome in spite of themselves, by that feeling of animal +comfort which alcohol affords after dinner, they slowly sipped the sweet +cognac, which formed a yellowish syrup at the bottom of their cups. + +The children had gone to sleep, and Rosalie carried them off to bed, and +then, Caravan, mechanically obeying that wish to forget oneself which +possesses all unhappy persons, helped himself to brandy again several +times, and his dull eyes grew bright. At last the doctor rose to go, and +seizing his friend's arm, he said: + +"Come with me; a little fresh air will do you good. When one is in +trouble, one must not stick to one spot." + +The other obeyed mechanically, put on his hat, took his stick, and went +out, and both of them went arm-in-arm towards the Seine, in the starlight +night. + +The air was warm and sweet, for all the gardens in the neighborhood were +full of flowers at that season of the year, and their scent, which is +scarcely perceptible during the day, seemed to awaken at the approach +of night, and mingled with the light breezes which blew upon them in the +darkness. + +The broad avenue, with its two rows of gaslamps, that extended as far as +the _Arc de Triomphe_, was deserted and silent, but there was the distant +roar of Paris, which seemed to have a reddish vapor hanging over it. It +was a kind of continual rumbling, which was at times answered by the +whistle of a train at full speed, in the distance, traveling to the +ocean, through the provinces. + +The fresh air on the faces of the two men rather overcame them at first, +made the doctor lose his equilibrium a little, and increased Caravan's +giddiness, from which he had suffered since dinner. He walked as if he +were in a dream; his thoughts were paralyzed, although he felt no grief, +for he was in a state of mental torpor that prevented him from suffering, +and he even felt a sense of relief which was increased by the mildness +of the night. + +When they reached the bridge they turned to the right, and they got the +fresh breeze from the river. It rolled along, calm and melancholy, +bordered by tall poplar trees, and the stars looked as if they were +floating on the water and were moving with the current. A slight, white +mist that floated over the opposite banks, filled their lungs with a +sensation of cold, and Caravan stopped suddenly, for he was struck by +that smell from the water, which brought back old memories to his mind. +For he, suddenly, in his mind, saw his mother again, in Picardy, as he +had seen her years before, kneeling in front of their door, and washing +the heaps of linen, by her side, in the stream that ran through their +garden. He almost fancied that he could hear the sound of the wooden +beetle with which she beat the linen, in the calm silence of the country, +and her voice, as she called out to him: + +"Alfred, bring me some soap." And he smelt that odor of the trickling +water, of the mist rising from the wet ground, the heap of wet linen, +which he should never forget, and which came back to him on the very +evening on which his mother died. + +He stopped, with a feeling of despair, and felt heartbroken at that +eternal separation. His life seemed cut in half, all his youth +disappeared, swallowed up by that death. All the _former_ life was over +and done with, all the recollections of his youthful days would vanish; +for the future, there would be nobody to talk to him of what had happened +in days gone by, of the people he had known of old, of his own part of +the country, and of his past life; that was a part of his existence which +existed no longer, and the other might as well end now. + +And then he saw _Mamma_ as she was when younger, wearing well-worn +dresses, which he remembered for such a long time that they seemed +inseparable from her; he recollected her movements, the different tones +of her voice, her habits, her manias, her fits of anger, the wrinkles on +her face, the movements of her thin fingers, and all her well-known +attitudes, which she would never have again, and clutching hold of the +doctor, he began to moan and weep. His lank legs began to tremble, his +whole, stout body was shaken by his sobs, all he could say was: + +"My mother, my poor mother, my poor mother...!" + +But his companion, who was still drunk, and who intended to finish the +evening in certain places of bad repute that he frequented secretly, +made him sit down on the grass by the riverside, and left him almost +immediately, under the pretext that he had to see a patient. + + +Caravan went on crying for a long time, and then, when he had got to the +end of his tears, when his grief had, so to say, run out of him, he again +felt relief, repose, and sudden tranquillity. + +The moon had risen, and bathed the horizon in its soft light. + +The tall poplar trees had a silvery sheen on them, and the mist on the +plain, looked like floating snow; the river, in which the stars were +reflected, and which looked as if it were covered with mother-of-pearl, +was rippled by the wind. The air was soft and sweet, and Caravan inhaled +it almost greedily, and thought that he could perceive a feeling of +freshness, of calm and of superhuman consolation pervading him. + +He really tried to resist that feeling of comfort and relief, and kept on +saying to himself:--"My mother, my poor mother!" ... and tried to make +himself cry, from a kind of a conscientious feeling, but he could not +succeed in doing so any longer and those sad thoughts, which had made him +sob so bitterly a short time before, had almost passed away. In a few +moments, he rose to go home, and returned slowly, under the influence of +that serene night, and with a heart soothed in spite of himself. + +When he reached the bridge he saw that the last tramcar was ready to +start, and the lights through the windows of the _Café du Globe_, and he +felt a longing to tell somebody of the catastrophe that had happened, to +excite pity, to make himself interesting. He put on a woeful face, pushed +open the door, and went up to the counter, where the landlord still was. +He had counted on creating an effect, and had hoped that everybody would +get up and come to him with outstretched hands, and say:--"Why, what is +the matter with you?" But nobody noticed his disconsolate face, so he +rested his two elbows on the counter, and, burying his face in his hands, +he murmured: "Good heavens! Good heavens!" + +The landlord looked at him and said: "Are you ill, Monsieur Caravan?" + +"No, my friend," he replied, "but my mother has just died." + +"Ah!" the other exclaimed, and as a customer at the other end of the +establishment asked for a glass of Bavarian beer, he went to attend to +him, left Caravan almost stupefied at his want of sympathy. + +The three domino players were sitting at the same table which they had +occupied before dinner, totally absorbed in their game, and Caravan went +up to them, in search of pity, but as none of them appeared to notice +him, he made up his mind to speak. + +"A great misfortune has happened to me since I was here," he said. + +All three slightly raised their heads at the same instant, but keeping +their eyes fixed on the pieces which they held in their hands. + +"What do you say?" + +"My mother has just died;" whereupon one of them said: + +"Oh! the devil," with that false air of sorrow which indifferent people +assume. Another, who could not find anything to say, emitted a sort of +sympathetic whistle, shaking his head at the same time, and the third +turned to the game again, as if he were saying to himself: "Is that all!" + +Caravan had expected some of those expressions that are said to "come +from the heart," and when he saw how his news was received, he left the +table, indignant at their calmness before their friend's sorrow, although +at that moment he was so dazed with grief, that he hardly felt it, and +went home. When he got in, his wife was waiting for him in her nightgown, +and sitting in a low chair by the open window, still thinking of the +inheritance. + +"Undress yourself," she said; "we will talk when we are in bed." + +He raised his head, and looking at the ceiling, he said: + +"But ... there is nobody up there." + +"I beg your pardon, Rosalie is with her, and you can go and take her +place at three o'clock in the morning, when you have had some sleep." + +He only partially undressed, however, so as to be ready for anything that +might happen, and after tying a silk handkerchief round his head, he +joined his wife, who had just got in between the sheets, and for some +time they remained side by side, and neither of them spoke. She was +thinking. + +Even in bed, her night-cap was adorned with a red bow, and was pushed +rather over one ear, as was the way with all the caps that she wore, and, +presently, she turned towards him and said: + +"Do you know whether your mother made a will?" + +He hesitated for a moment, and then replied: + +"I ... I do not think so.... No, I am sure that she did not." + +His wife looked at him, and she said, in a low, furious voice: + +"I call that infamous; here we have been wearing ourselves out for ten +years in looking after her, and have boarded and lodged her! Your sister +would not have done so much for her, nor I either, if I had known how I +was to be rewarded! Yes, it is a disgrace to her memory! I daresay that +you will tell me that she paid us, but one cannot pay one's children in +ready money for what they do; that obligation is recognized after death; +at any rate, that is how honorable people act. So I have had all my worry +and trouble for nothing! Oh, that is nice! that is very nice!" + +Poor Caravan, who felt nearly distracted, kept on saying: + +"My dear, my dear, please, please be quiet." + +She grew calmer by degrees, and, resuming her usual voice and manner, she +continued: + +"We must let your sister know, to-morrow." + +He started, and said: + +"Of course, we must; I had forgotten all about it; I will send her a +telegram the first thing in the morning." + +"No," she replied, like a woman who had foreseen everything; "no, do not +send it before ten or eleven o'clock, so that we may have time to turn +round before she comes. It does not take more than two hours to get here +from Charenton, and we can say that you lost your head from grief. If we +let her know in the course of the day, that will be soon enough, and will +give us time to look round." + +But Caravan put his hand to his forehead, and, in the same timid voice +in which he always spoke of his chief, the very thought of whom made him +tremble, he said: + +"I must let them know at the office." + +"Why?" she replied. "On such occasions like this, it is always excusable +to forget. Take my advice, and don't let him know; your chief will not be +able to say anything to you, and you will put him in a nice fix." + +"Oh! yes, that I shall, and he will be in a terrible rage, too, when he +notices my absence. Yes, you are right; it is a capital idea, and when I +tell him that my mother is dead, he will be obliged to hold his tongue." + +And he rubbed his hands in delight at the joke, when he thought of his +chief's face; while the body of the dead old woman lay upstairs, and the +servant was asleep close to it. + +But Madame Caravan grew thoughtful, as if she were pre-occupied by +something, which she did not care to mention, but at last she said: + +"Your mother had given you her clock, had she not; the girl playing at +cup and ball?" + +He thought for a moment, and then replied: + +"Yes, yes; she said to me (but it was a long time ago, when she first +came here): 'I shall leave the clock to you, if you look after me well.'" + +Madame Caravan was reassured, and regained her serenity, and said: + +"Well, then, you must go and fetch it out of her room, for if we get your +sister here, she will prevent us from having it." + +He hesitated. + +"Do you think so?..." + +That made her angry. + +"I certainly think so; as soon as it is in our possession, she will know +nothing at all about where it came from; it belongs to us. It is just the +same with the chest of drawers with the marble top, that is in her room; +she gave it me one day when she was in a good temper. We will bring it +down at the same time." + +Caravan, however, seemed incredulous, and said: + +"But, my dear, it is a great responsibility!" + +She turned on him furiously. + +"Oh! Indeed! Will you never alter? You would let your children die of +hunger, rather than make a move. Does not that chest of drawers belong to +us, as she gave it to me? And if your sister is not satisfied, let her +tell me so, me! I don't care a straw for your sister. Come, get up, and +we will bring down what your mother gave us, immediately." + +Trembling and vanquished, he got out of bed, and began to put on his +trousers, but she stopped him: + +"It is not worth while to dress yourself; your drawers are quite enough; +I mean to go as I am." + +They both left the room in their night clothes, went upstairs quite +noiselessly, opened the door and went into the room, where the four +lighted tapers and the plate with the sprig of box alone seemed to be +watching the old woman in her rigid repose; for Rosalie, who was lying +back in the easy chair with her legs stretched out, her hands folded in +her lap, and her head on one side, was also quite motionless, and was +snoring with her mouth wide open. + +Caravan took the clock, which was one of those grotesque objects that +were produced so plentifully under the Empire. A girl in gilt bronze was +holding a cup and ball, and the ball formed the pendulum. + +"Give that to me," his wife said, "and take the marble top off the chest +of drawers." + +He put the marble on his shoulder with a considerable effort, and they +left the room. Caravan had to stoop in the door-way, and trembled as he +went downstairs, while his wife walked backwards, so as to light him, and +held the candlestick in one hand, while she had the clock under her other +arm. + +When they were in their own room, she heaved a sigh. + +"We have got over the worst part of the job," she said; "so now let us go +and fetch the other things." + +But the drawers were full of the old woman's wearing apparel, which they +must manage to hide somewhere, and Madame Caravan soon thought of a plan. + +"Go and get that wooden box in the passage; it is hardly worth anything, +and we may just as well put it here." + +And when he had brought it upstairs, the change began. One by one, she +took out all the collars, cuffs, chemises, caps, all the well-worn things +that had belonged to the poor woman lying there behind them, and arranged +them methodically in the wooden box, in such a manner as to deceive +Madame Braux, the deceased woman's other child, who would be coming the +next day. + +When they had finished, they first of all carried the drawers downstairs, +and the remaining portion afterwards, each of them holding an end, and it +was some time before they could make up their minds where it would stand +best; but at last they settled upon their own room, opposite the bed, +between the two windows, and as soon as it was in its place, Madame +Caravan filled it with her own things. The clock was placed on the +chimney-piece in the dining-room, and they looked to see what the effect +was, and they were both delighted with it, and agreed that nothing could +be better. Then they got into bed, she blew out the candle, and soon +everybody in the house was asleep. + +It was broad daylight when Caravan opened his eyes again. His mind was +rather confused when he woke up, and he did not clearly remember what had +happened, for a few minutes; when he did, he felt it painfully, and +jumped out of bed, almost ready to cry again. + +He very soon went to the room overhead, where Rosalie was still sleeping +in the same position as the night before, for she did not wake up once +during the whole time. He sent her to do her work, put fresh tapers in +the place of those that had burnt out, and then he looked at his mother, +revolving in his brain those apparently profound thoughts, those +religious and philosophical commonplaces, which trouble people of +mediocre minds, in the face of death. + +But he went down stairs as soon as his wife called him. She had written +out a list of what had to be done during the morning, which rather +frightened him when he saw that he would have to do all this: + + 1. Give information of the death to the Mayor's officer. + 2. See the doctor who had attended her. + 3. Order the coffin. + 4. Give notice at the church. + 5. Go to the undertaker. + 6. Order the notices of her death at the printer's. + 7. Go to the lawyer. + 8. Telegraph the news to all the family. + +Besides all this there were a number of small commissions; so he took his +hat and went out, and as the news had got abroad, Madame Caravan's female +friends and neighbors soon began to come in, and begged to be allowed to +see the body. There had been a scene at the hairdresser's, on the ground +floor, about the matter, between husband and wife, while he was shaving a +customer; for while she was knitting the woman had said: "Well, there is +one less, and as great a miser as one ever meets with. I certainly was +not very fond of her; but, nevertheless, I must go and have a look at +her." + +The husband, while lathering his _patient's_ chin, said: "That is another +queer fancy! Nobody but a woman would think of such a thing. It is not +enough for them to worry you during life, but they cannot even leave you +at peace when you are dead." But his wife, without disconcerting herself +the least, replied: "The feeling is stronger than I, and I must go. It +has been on me since the morning. If I was not to see her, I should think +about it all my life, but when I have had a good look at her, I shall be +satisfied." + +The knight of the razor shrugged his shoulders, and remarked in a low +voice to the gentleman whose cheek he was scraping: "I just ask you, what +sort of ideas do you think these confounded females have? I should not +amuse myself by going to see a corpse!" But his wife had heard him, and +replied very quietly: "But it is so, it is so." And then, putting her +knitting on the counter, she went upstairs, to the first floor, where she +met two other neighbors, who had just come, and who were discussing the +event with Madame Caravan, who was giving them the details, and they all +went together to the mortuary chamber. The four women went in softly, +and, one after the other, sprinkled the bed clothes with the holy water, +knelt down, made the sign of the cross while they mumbled a prayer, then +they got up, and open-mouthed, regarded the corpse for a long time, while +the daughter-in-law of the dead woman, with her handkerchief to her face, +pretended to be sobbing piteously. + +When she turned about to walk away, whom should she perceive standing +close to the door but Marie-Louise and Philippe-Auguste, who were +curiously taking stock of things. Then, forgetting to control her +chagrin, she threw herself upon them with uplifted hands, crying out +in a furious voice, "Will you get out of this, you filthy brats." + +Ten minutes later, in going upstairs again with another contingent of +neighbors, she prayed, wept profusely, performed all her duties, and +found once more her two children, who had followed her up stairs. She +again boxed their ears soundly, but the next time she paid no heed to +them, and at each fresh arrival of visitors the two urchins always +followed in the wake, crowded themselves up in a corner, and imitating +slavishly everything they saw their mother do. + +When the afternoon came round the crowds of curious people began to +diminish, and soon there were no more visitors. Madame Caravan, returning +to her own apartments, began to make the necessary preparations for the +funeral ceremony, and the defunct was hence left by herself. + +The window of the room was open. A torrid heat entered along with the +clouds of dust; the flames of the four candles were flickering in the +direction of the immobile corpse, and upon the cloth which covered the +face, the closed eyes, the two hands stretched out, small flies alighted, +came, went, and careered up and down incessantly, being the only +companions of the old woman during the next hour. + +Marie-Louise and Philippe-Auguste, however, had now left the house, and +were running up and down the street. They were soon surrounded by their +playmates, by little girls, especially, who were older, and who were much +more interested to inquire into all the mysteries of life, asking +questions after the manner of persons of great importance. + +"Then your grandmother is dead?" "Yes, she died yesterday evening." "How, +in what way did she meet her death?" + +Then Marie began to explain, telling all about the candles and the +cadaverous face. It was not long before great curiosity was aroused in +the breasts of all the children, and they asked to be allowed to go +upstairs to look at the departed. + +It was not long before Marie-Louise had arranged a group for a first +visit, consisting of five girls and two boys--the biggest and the most +courageous. She made them take off their shoes so that they might not +be discovered. The troupe filed into the house and mounted the stairs as +stealthily as an army of mice. + +Once in the chamber, the little girl, imitating her mother, regulated the +ceremony. She solemnly walked in advance of her comrades, went down on +her knees, made the sign of the cross, moistened her lips with the holy +water, stood up again, sprinkled the bed, and while the children, all +crowded together, were approaching--frightened and curious, and eager +to look at the face and hands of the deceased--she began suddenly to +simulate sobbing, and to bury her eyes in her little handkerchief. Then, +becoming instantly consoled, on thinking of the other children who were +downstairs waiting at the door, she withdrew in haste, returning in a +minute with another group, then a third, for all the little ruffians of +the country-side, even to the little beggars in rags, had congregated in +order to participate in this new pleasure; and each time she repeated her +mother's grimaces with absolute perfection. + +At length, however, she became tired. Some game or other attracted the +children away from the house, and the old grandmother was left alone, +forgotten suddenly by everybody. + +A dismal gloom pervaded the chamber, and upon the dry and rigid features +of the corpse, the dying flames of the candles cast occasional gleams of +light. + +Towards 8 o'clock, Caravan ascended to the chamber of death, closed the +windows, and renewed the candles. On entering now he was quite composed, +evidently accustomed already to regard the corpse as though it had been +there for a month. He even went the length of declaring that, as yet, +there was not any signs of decomposition, making this remark just at the +moment when he and his wife were about to sit down at table. "Pshaw!" she +responded, "she is now in wood; she will keep there for a year." + +The soup was eaten without a word being uttered by anyone. The children, +who had been free all day, now worn out by fatigue, were sleeping soundly +on their chairs, and nobody ventured on breaking the silence. + +Suddenly the flame of the lamp went down. Mdme. Caravan immediately +turned up the wick, a prolonged gurgling noise ensued, and the light went +out. It had been forgotten during the day to buy oil. To send for it now +to the grocers' would keep back the dinner, and everybody began to look +for candles, but none were to be found except the night lights which had +been placed upon the tables upstairs, in the death chamber. + +Mdme. Caravan, always prompt in her decisions, quickly dispatched +Marie-Louise to fetch two, and her return was awaited in total darkness. + +The footsteps of the girl who had ascended the stairs were distinctly +heard. There followed now a silence for a few seconds, then the child +descended precipitately. She threw open the door affrighted, and in +a choked voice murmured: "Oh! papa, grandmamma is dressing herself!" + +Caravan bounded to his feet with such precipitance that his chair rolled +over against the chair. He stammered out: "You say?... What is that you +say?" + +But Marie-Louise, gasping with emotion, repeated: +"Grand ... grand ... grandmamma is putting on her clothes, she is coming +down stairs." + +Caravan rushed boldly up the staircase, followed by his wife, +dumbfounded; but he came to a standstill before the door of the second +floor, overcome with terror, not daring to enter. What was he going to +see? Mdme. Caravan, more courageous, turned the handle of the door and +stepped forward into the room. + +The room seemed to become darker, and in the middle of it, a tall +emaciated figure moved about. The old woman stood upright, and in +awakening from her lethargic sleep, before even full consciousness had +returned to her, in turning upon her side, and raising herself on her +elbow, she had extinguished three of the candles which burned near the +mortuary bed. Then, recovering her strength, she got out of bed and began +to seek for her things. The absence of her chest of drawers had at first +given her some trouble, but, after a little, she had succeeded in finding +her things at the bottom of the wooden trunk, and was now quietly +dressing. She emptied the plateful of holy water, replaced the box which +contained the latter behind the looking-glass and arranged the chairs in +their places, and was ready to go downstairs when there appeared before +her her son and daughter-in-law. + +Caravan rushed forward, seized her by the hands, embraced her with +tears in his eyes, while his wife, who was behind him, repeated in a +hypocritical tone of voice: "Oh, what a blessing! Oh, what a blessing!" + +But the old woman, without being at all moved, without even appearing to +understand, as rigid as a statue, and with glazed eyes, simply asked: +"Will the dinner soon be ready?" + +He stammered out, not knowing what he said: "O, yes, mother, we have been +waiting for you." + +And with an alacrity, unusual in him, he took her arm, while Mdme. +Caravan, the younger, seized the candle and lighted them downstairs, +walking backwards in front of them, step by step, just as she had +done the previous night, in front of her husband, who was carrying the +marble. + +On reaching the first floor, she ran up against people who were +ascending. It was the Charenton family, Mdme. Braux, followed by her +husband. + +The wife, tall, fleshy, with a dropsical stomach which threw her trunk +far out behind her, opened wide her astonished eyes, ready to take +flight. The husband, a shoemaker socialist, a little hairy man, the +perfect image of a monkey, murmured, quite unconcerned: "Well, what next? +Is she resurrected?" + +As soon as Mdme. Caravan recognized them, she made despairing signs to +them, then, speaking aloud, she said: "Mercy! How do you mean!... Look +there! What a happy surprise!" + +But Mdme. Braux, dumbfounded, understood nothing; she responded in a low +voice: "It was your dispatch which made us come; we believed it was all +over." + +Her husband, who was behind her, pinched her to make her keep silent. He +added with a malignant laugh, which his thick beard concealed: "It was +very kind of you to invite us here. We set out in post haste."--which +remark showed clearly the hostility which had for a long time reigned +between the households. Then, just as the old woman had arrived at +the last steps, he pushed forward quickly and rubbed against her cheeks +the hair which covered his face, bawling out in her ear, on account of +her deafness: "How well you look, mother; sturdy as usual, hey!" + +Mdme. Braux, in her stupor at seeing the old woman whom they all believed +to be dead, dared not even embrace her; and her enormous belly blocked up +the passage and hindered the others from advancing. The old woman, uneasy +and suspicious, but without speaking, looked at everyone around her; and +her little gray eyes, piercing and hard, fixed themselves now on the one +and now on the other, and they were so terrible in their expression that +the children became frightened. + +Caravan, to explain matters, said: "She has been somewhat ill, but she is +better now; quite well, indeed, are you not, mother?" + +Then the good woman, stopping in her walk, responded in a husky voice, +as though it came from a distance: "It was syncope. I heard you all the +while." + +An embarrassing silence followed. They entered the dining-room, and in a +few minutes they all sat down to an improvised dinner. + +Only M. Braux had retained his self-possession; his gorilla features +grinned wickedly, while he let fall some words of double meaning which +painfully disconcerted everyone. + +But the clock in the hall kept on ticking every second; and Rosalie, lost +in astonishment, came to seek out Caravan, who darted a fierce glance at +her, as she threw down his serviette. His brother-in-law even asked him +whether it was not one of his days to hold a reception, to which he +stammered out, in answer: "No, I have only been executing a few +commissions; nothing more." + +Next, a packet was brought in, which he began to open sadly, and from +which dropped out unexpectedly a letter with black borders. Then, +reddening up to the very eyes, he picked up the letter hurriedly, and +pushed it into his waistcoat pocket. + +His mother had not seen it! She was looking intently at her clock, which +stood on the mantelpiece, and the embarrassment increased in midst of a +glacial silence. Turning her face towards her daughter, the old woman, +from whose eyes flashed fierce malice, said: "On Monday, you must take me +away from here, so that I can see your little girl. I want so much to see +her." Madame Braux, her features illuminated, exclaimed: "Yes, mother, +that I will," while Mdme. Caravan, the younger, became pale, and seemed +to be enduring the most excruciating agony. The two men, however, +gradually drifted into conversation, and soon became embroiled in a +political discussion. Braux maintained the most revolutionary and +communistic doctrines, gesticulating and throwing about his arms, his +eyes darting like a blood-hound's. "Property, sir," he said, "is robbery +perpetrated on the working classes; the land is the common property of +every man; hereditary rights are an infamy and a disgrace." But, +hereupon, he suddenly stopped, having all the appearance of a man who has +just said something foolish; then, resuming, after a pause, he said, in +softer tones: "But I can see quite well that this is not the proper +moment to discuss such things." + +The door was opened, and Doctor Chenet appeared. For a moment he seemed +bewildered, but regaining his usual smirking expression of countenance, +he jauntily approached the old woman, and said: "Ah, hah! mamma, you are +better to-day. Oh! I never had any doubt but you would come round again; +in fact, I said to myself as I was mounting the staircase, 'I have an +idea that I shall find the old one on her feet once more;'" and he tapped +her gently on the back: "Ah! she is as solid as the Pont-Neuf, she will +see us all out; you shall see if she does not." + +He sat down, accepted the coffee that was offered him, and soon began to +join in the conversation of the two men, backing up Braux, for he himself +had been mixed up in the Commune. + +Now, the old woman, feeling herself fatigued, wished to leave the room, +at which Caravan rushed forward. She thereupon fixed him in the eyes and +said to him: "You, you, must carry my clock and chest of drawers up +stairs again without a moment's delay." "Yes, mamma," he replied, +yawning; "yes, I will do so." The old woman then took the arm of her +daughter and withdrew from the room. The two Caravans remained rooted to +the floor, silent, plunged in the deepest despair, while Braux rubbed his +hands and sipped his coffee, gleefully. + +Suddenly Mdme. Caravan, consumed with rage, rushed at him, exclaiming: +"You are a thief, a footpad, a cur. I would spit in your face, if ... I +would ... I ... would...." She could find nothing further to say, +suffocating as she was, with rage, while he still sipped his coffee, +with a smile. + +His wife returning just then, looked menacingly at her sister-in-law, and +both--the one with her enormous fat stomach, the other, epileptic and +spare, voice changed, hands trembling--flew at one another and seized +each other by the throat. + +Chenet and Braux now interposed, and the latter taking his better half by +the shoulders pushed her out of the door in front of him, shouting to his +sister-in-law: "Go away, you slut: you are a disgrace to your relations;" +and the two were heard in the street bellowing and shouting at the +Caravans, until after they had disappeared from sight. + +M. Chenet also took his departure, leaving the Caravans alone, face to +face. The husband soon fell back on his chair, and with the cold sweat +standing out in beads on his temples, murmured: "What shall I say to my +chief to-morrow?" + + + + +THE ODALISQUE OF SENICHOU + + +In Senichou, which is a suburb of Prague, there lived about twenty +years ago, two poor but honest people, who earned their bread by the +sweat of their brow; he worked in a large printing establishment, +and his wife employed her spare time as a laundress. Their pride, and +their only pleasure, was their daughter Viteska, who was a vigorous, +voluptuous-looking, handsome girl of eighteen, whom they brought up very +well and carefully. She worked for a dress-maker, and was thus able to +help her parents a little, and she made use of her leisure moments to +improve her education, and especially her music. She was a general +favorite in the neighborhood on account of her quiet modest demeanor, and +she was looked upon as a model by the whole suburb. + +When she went to work in the town, the tall girl with her magnificent +head, which resembled that of an ancient, Bohemian Amazon, with its +wealth of black hair, and her dark, sparkling yet soft eyes, attracted +the looks of passers-by, in spite of her shabby dress, much more than the +graceful, well-dressed ladies of the aristocracy. Frequently some young, +wealthy lounger would follow her home; and even try to get into +conversation with her, but she always managed to get rid of them and +their importunities, and she did not require any protector, for she was +quite capable of protecting herself from any insults. + +One evening, however, she met a man on the suspension bridge, whose +strange appearance made her give him a look which evinced some interest, +but perhaps even more surprise. He was a tall, handsome man with bright +eyes and a black beard; he was very sunburnt, and in his long coat, which +was like a caftan, with a red fez on his head, he gave those who saw him +the impression of an Oriental; he had noticed her look all the more as he +himself had been so struck by her poor, and at the same time regal, +appearance, that he remained standing and looking at her in such a way, +that he seemed to be devouring her with his eyes, so that Viteska, who +was usually so fearless, looked down. She hurried on and he followed her, +and the quicker she walked, the more rapidly he followed her, and, at +last, when they were in a narrow, dark street in the suburb, he suddenly +said in an insinuating voice: "May I offer you my arm, my pretty girl?" +"You can see that I am old enough to look after myself," Viteska replied +hastily; "I am much obliged to you, and must beg you not to follow me +any more; I am known in this neighborhood, and it might damage my +reputation." "Oh! You are very much mistaken if you think you will get +rid of me so easily," he replied. "I have just come from the East and +am returning there soon, come with me, and as I fancy that you are as +sensible as you are beautiful, you will certainly make your fortune +there, and I will bet that before the end of a year, you will be covered +with diamonds, and be waited on by eunuchs and female slaves." + +"I am a respectable girl, sir," she replied proudly, and tried to go on +in front, but the stranger was immediately at her side again. "You were +born to rule," he whispered to her. "Believe me, and I understand the +matter, that you will live to be a Sultaness, if you have any luck." The +girl did not give him any answer, but walked on. "But, at any rate, +listen to me," the tempter continued. "I will not listen to anything; +because I am poor, you think it will be easy for you to seduce me," +Viteska exclaimed: "but I am as virtuous as I am poor, and I should +despise any position which I had to buy with shame." They had reached +the little house where her parents lived, and she ran in quickly, and +slammed the door behind her. + +When she went into the town the next morning, the stranger was waiting +at the corner of the street where she lived, and bowed to her very +respectfully. "Allow me to speak a few words with you," he began. "I feel +that I ought to beg your pardon for my behavior yesterday." "Please let +me go on my way quietly," the girl replied. "What will the neighbors +think of me?" "I did not know you," he went on, without paying any +attention to her angry looks, "but your extraordinary beauty attracted +me. Now that I know that you are as virtuous as you are charming, I wish +very much to become better acquainted with you. Believe me, I have the +most honorable intentions." + +Unfortunately, the bold stranger had taken the girl's fancy, and she +could not find it in her heart to refuse him. "If you are really in +earnest," she stammered in charming confusion, "do not follow me about +in the public streets, but come to my parents' house like a man of honor, +and state your intentions there." "I will certainly do so, and +immediately, if you like," the stranger replied, eagerly. "No, no," +Viteska said; "but come this evening if you like." + +The stranger bowed and left her, and really called on her parents in the +evening. He introduced himself as Ireneus Krisapolis, a merchant from +Smyrna, spoke of his brilliant circumstances, and finally declared that +he loved Viteska passionately. "That is all very nice and right," the +cautious father replied, "but what will it all lead to? Under no +circumstances can I allow you to visit my daughter. Such a passion as +yours often dies out as quickly as it arises, and a respectable girl is +easily robbed of her virtue." "And suppose I make up my mind to marry +your daughter?" the stranger asked, after a moment's hesitation. "Then +I shall refer you to my child, for I shall never force Viteska to marry +against her will," her father said. + +The stranger seized the pretty girl's hand, and spoke in glowing terms of +his love for her, of the luxury with which she would be surrounded in his +house, of the wonders of the East, to which he hoped to take her, and at +last Viteska consented to become his wife. Thereupon the stranger hurried +on the arrangements for the wedding, in a manner that made the most +favorable impression on them all, and during the time before their +marriage he lay at her feet like her humble slave. + +As soon as they were married, the newly-married couple set off on their +journey to Smyrna and promised to write as soon as they got there, but +a month, then two and three, passed without the parents, whose anxiety +increased every day, receiving a line from them, until at last the father +in terror applied to the police. + +The first thing was to write to the Consul at Smyrna for information: +his reply was to the effect that no merchant of the name of Ireneus +Krisapolis was known in Smyrna, and that he had never been there. The +police, at the entreaties of the frantic parents, continued their +investigations, but for a long time without any result. At last, however, +they obtained a little light on the subject, but it was not at all +satisfactory. The police at Pestle said that a man, whose personal +appearance exactly agreed with the description of Viteska's husband, had +a short time before carried off two girls from the Hungarian capital, to +Turkey, evidently intending to trade in that coveted, valuable commodity +there, but that when he found that the authorities were on his track he +had escaped from justice by a sudden flight. + + * * * * * + +Four years after Viteska's mysterious disappearance, two persons, a man +and a woman, met in a narrow street in Damascus, in a scarcely less +strange manner, than when the Greek merchant met Viteska on the +suspension bridge at Prague. The man with the black beard, the red fez, +and the long, green caftan, was no one else than Ireneus Krisapolis; +matters appeared to be going well with him; he had his hands comfortably +thrust into the red shawl which he had round his waist, and a negro was +walking behind him with a large parasol, while another carried his +_Chiloque_ after him. A noble Turkish lady met him in a litter borne +by four slaves; she was wrapped like a ghost in a white veil, only that +a pair of large, dark, threatening eyes flashed at the merchant. + +He smiled, for he thought that he had found favor in the eyes of an +Eastern houri, and that flattered him; but he soon lost sight of her in +the crowd, and forgot her almost immediately. The next morning however, +a eunuch of the pasha's came to him, to his no small astonishment, and +told him to come with him. He took him to the Sultan's most powerful +deputy, who ruled as an absolute despot in Damascus. They went through +dark, narrow passages, and curtains were pushed aside, which rustled +behind them again. At last they reached a large rotunda, the center of +which was occupied by a beautiful fountain, while scarlet divans ran all +around it. Here the eunuch told the merchant to wait, and left him. He +was puzzling his brains what the meaning of it all could be, when +suddenly a tall, commanding woman came into the apartment. Again a pair +of large, threatening eyes looked at him through the veil, while he knew +from her green, gold-embroidered caftan, that if it was not the pasha's +wife, it was at least one of his favorites, who was before him, and so he +hurriedly knelt down, and crossing his hands on his breast, he put his +head on to the ground before her. But a clear, diabolical laugh made him +look up, and when the beautiful Odalisque threw back her veil, he uttered +a cry of terror, for his wife, his deceived wife, whom he had sold, was +standing before him. + +"Do you know me?" she asked with quiet dignity. "Viteska!" "Yes, that was +my name when I was your wife," she replied quickly, in a contemptuous +voice; "but now that I am the pasha's wife, my name is Sarema. I do not +suppose you ever expected to find me again, you wretch, when you sold me +in Varna to an old Jewish profligate, who was only half alive. You see I +have got into better hands, and I have made my fortune, as you said I +should do. Well? What do you expect of me; what thanks, what reward?" + +The wretched man was lying overwhelmed, at the feet of the woman whom he +had so shamefully deceived, and could not find a word to say; he had felt +that he was lost, and had not even got the courage to beg for mercy. "You +deserve death, you miscreant," Sarema continued. "You are in my hands, +and I can do whatever I please with you, for the pasha has left your +punishment to me alone. I ought to have you impaled, and to feast my eyes +on your death agonies. That would be the smallest compensation for all +the years of degradation that I have been through, and which I owe to +you." "Mercy, Viteska! Mercy!" the wretched man cried, trembling all +over, and raising his hands to her in supplication. + +The Odalisque's only reply was a laugh, in which rang all the cruelty of +an insulted woman's deceived heart. It seemed to give her pleasure to see +the man whom she had loved, and who had so shamefully trafficked in her +beauty, in his mortal agony, as he cringed before her, whining for his +life, as he clung to her knees, but at last she seemed to relent +somewhat. + +"I will give your life, you miserable wretch," she said, "but you shall +not go unpunished." So saying, she clapped her hands, and four black +eunuchs came in, and seized the favorite's unfortunate husband and in a +moment bound his hands and feet. + +"I have altered my mind, and he shall not be put to death," Sarema said, +with a smile that made the traitor's blood run cold in his veins; "but +give him a hundred blows with the bastinade, and I will stand by and +count them." "For God's sake," the merchant screamed, "I can never endure +it." "We will see about that," the favorite said, coldly, "and if you +die under it, it was allotted you by fate; I am not going to retract my +orders." + +She threw herself down on the cushions, and began to smoke a long pipe, +which a female slave handed to her on her knees. At a sign from her the +eunuchs tied the wretched man's feet to the pole, by which the soles of +the culprit were raised, and began the terrible punishment. Already at +the tenth blow the merchant began to roar like a wild animal, but his +wife whom he had betrayed, remained unmoved, carelessly blowing the blue +wreaths of smoke into the air, and resting on her lovely arm, she watched +his features, which were distorted by pain, with merciless enjoyment. + +During the last blows he only groaned gently, and then he fainted. + + * * * * * + +A year later the dealer was caught with his female merchandise by the +police in an Austrian town, and handed over to justice, when he made a +full confession, and by that means the parents of the _Odalisque of +Senichou_ heard of their daughter's position. As they knew that she was +happy and surrounded by luxury, they made no attempt to get her out of +the Pasha's hands, who, like a thorough Mussulman, had become the slave +of his slave. + +The unfortunate husband was sent over to the frontier when he was +released from prison. His shameful traffic, however, flourishes still, +in spite of all the precautions of the police and of the consuls, and +every year he provides the harems of the East with those voluptuous +_Boxclanas_, especially from Bohemia and Hungary, who, in the eyes of +a Mussulman, vie for the prize of beauty, with the slender Circassian +women. + + + + +A GOOD MATCH + + +Strauss' band was playing in the saloons of the Horticultural Society, +which was so full that the young cadet Hussar-sergeant Max B., who had +nothing better to do on an afternoon when he was off duty than to drink a +glass of good beer and to listen to a new waltz tune, had already been +looking about for a seat for some time, when the head waiter, who knew +him, quickly took him to an unoccupied place, and without waiting for his +orders, brought him a glass of beer. A very gentlemanly-looking man, and +three elegantly dressed ladies were sitting at the table. + +The cadet saluted them with military politeness, and sat down, but almost +before he could put the glass to his lips, he noticed that the two elder +ladies, who appeared to be married, turned up their noses very much at +his taking a seat at their table, and even said a few words which he +could not catch, but which no doubt referred unpleasantly to him. "I am +afraid I am in the way here," the cadet said; and he got up to leave, +when he felt a pull at his sabre-tasch beneath the table, and at the same +time the gentleman felt bound to say with some embarrassment: "Oh! not at +all; on the contrary, we are very pleased that you have chosen this +table." + +Thereupon the cadet resumed his seat, not so much because he took the +gentleman's invitation as sincere, but because the silent request to +remain, which he had received under the table, and which was much more +sincerely meant, had raised in him one of those charming illusions, which +are so frequent in our youth, and which promised so much happiness, with +electrical rapidity. He could not doubt for a moment, that the daring +invitation came from the third, the youngest and prettiest of the ladies, +into whose company a fortunate accident had thrown him. + +From the moment that he had sat down by her, however, she did not deign +to bestow even another look on him, much less a word, and to the young +hussar, who was still rather inexperienced in such matters, this seemed +rather strange; but he possessed enough natural tact not to expose +himself to a rebuff by any hasty advances, but quietly to wait further +developments of the adventure on the part of the heroine of it. This gave +him the opportunity of looking at her more closely, and for this he +employed the moments when their attention was diverted from him, and was +taken up by conversation among themselves. + +The girl, whom the others called Angelica, was a thorough Viennese +beauty, not exactly regularly beautiful, for her features were not Roman +or Greek, and not even strictly German, and yet they possessed every +female charm, and were seductive, in the fullest sense of the word. Her +strikingly small nose, which in a lady's-maid might have been called +impudent, and her little mouth with its voluptuously full lips, which +would have been called lustful in a street-walker, imparted an +indescribable piquant charm to her small head, which was surmounted by +an imposing tower of that soft brown hair which is so characteristic of +Viennese women. Her bright eyes were full of good sense, and a merry +smile lurked continually in the most charming little dimples near her +mouth and on her chin. + +In less than a quarter of an hour, our cadet was fettered, with no more +will of his own than a slave has, to the triumphal chariot of this +delightful little creature, and as he hoped and believed--for ever. +And he was a man worth capturing. He was tall and slim, but muscular, and +looked like an athlete, and at the time he had one of those handsome, +open faces which women like so much. His honest, dark eyes showed +strength of will, courage and strong passions, and that, women also like. + +During an interval in the music, an elderly gentleman, with the ribbon of +an order in his button-hole, came up to the table, and from the manner in +which he greeted them, it was evident that he was an old friend. From +their conversation, which was carried on in a very loud tone of voice, +and with much animation, in the bad, Viennese fashion, the cadet gathered +that the gentleman who was with the ladies, was a Councilor of Legation, +and that the eldest lady was his wife, while the second lady was his +married, and the youngest his unmarried, sister-in-law. When they at last +rose to go, the pretty girl, evidently intentionally, put her velvet +jacket, trimmed with valuable sable, very loosely over her shoulders; +then she remained standing at the exit, and slowly put it on, so that the +cadet had an opportunity to get close to her. "Follow us," she whispered +to him, and then ran after the others. + +The cadet was only too glad to obey her directions, and followed them at +a distance, without being observed, to the house where they lived. A week +passed without his seeing the pretty Angelica again, or without her +giving him any sign of life. The waiter in the Horticultural Society's +grounds, whom he asked about them, could tell him nothing more than that +they were people of position, and a few days later the cadet saw them all +again at a concert, but he was satisfied with looking at his ideal from a +distance. She, however, when she could do so without danger, gave him +one of those coquettish looks which inexperienced young men imagine +express the innermost feelings of a pure, virgin heart. On that occasion +she left the grounds with her sisters, much earlier, and as she passed +the handsome cadet, she let a small piece of rolled-up paper fall, which +only contained the words: "Come at ten o'clock to-night, and ring the +bell." + +He was outside the house at the stroke of ten and rang, but his +astonishment knew no bounds when, instead of Angelica or her confidential +maid, the housekeeper opened the door. She saw his confusion, and quickly +put an end to it by taking his hand, and pulling him into the house. +"Come with me," she whispered; "I know all about it. The young lady will +be here directly, so come along." Then she lead him through the kitchen +into a room which was shut off from the rest of the house, and which she +had apparently furnished for similar meetings, on her own account, and +left him there by himself, and the cadet was rather surprised to see the +elegant furniture, a wide, soft couch, and some rather obscene pictures +in broad, gilt frames. In a few minutes, the beautiful girl came, in, and +without any further ceremony, threw her arms round the young soldier's +neck. In her _negligée_, she appeared to him much more beautiful than in +her elegant outdoor dress, but the virginal fragrance which then pervaded +her, had given way to that voluptuous atmosphere which surrounds a young +newly-married woman. + +Angelica, whose little feet were encased in blue velvet slippers lined +with ermine, and who was wrapped in a richly embroidered, white +dressing-gown, that was trimmed with lace, drew the handsome cadet down +on to the couch with graceful energy, and almost before he exactly knew +what he had come for, she was his, and the young soldier, who was half +dazed at his unexpected victory and good fortune, did not leave her until +after twelve o'clock. He returned every night at ten, rang the bell, and +was admitted by the girl's slyly-smiling confidante, and a few moments +later was clasping his little goddess, who used to wrap her delicate, +white limbs sometimes in dark sable, and at others in princely ermine, +in his arms. Every time they partook of a delicious supper, laughed and +joked and loved each other like only young, good-looking people do love, +and frequently they entertained one another until morning. + +Once the cadet attempted diffidently to pay the housekeeper for her +services, and also for the supper, but she refused his money with a +laugh, and said that everything was already settled; and the young +soldier had reveled in this manner in boundless bliss for four months, +when, by an unfortunate accident, he met his mistress in the street one +day. She was alone, but in spite of this she contracted her delicate, +finely-arched eyebrows angrily, when he was about to speak to her, and +turned her head away. This hurt the honest young fellow's feelings, and +when that evening she drew him to her bosom, that was rising and falling +tempestuously under the black velvet that covered it, he remonstrated +with her quietly, but emphatically.--She made a little grimace, and +looking at him coldly and angrily, she at last said, shortly: "I forbid +you to take any notice of me out of doors. I do not choose to recognize +you; do you understand?" + +The cadet was surprised and did not reply, but the harmony of his +pleasures was destroyed by a harsh discord. For some time he bore his +misery in silence and with resignation, but at last the situation became +unendurable; his mistress's fiery kisses seemed to mock him, and the +pleasure which she gave him to degrade him, so at last he summoned up +courage, and in his open way, he came straight to the point. + +"What do you think of our future, Angelica?" She wrinkled her brows a +little. "Do not let us talk about it; at any rate not to-day." "Why not? +We must talk about it sooner or later," he replied, "and I think it is +high time for me to explain my intentions to you, if I do not wish to +appear as a dishonorable scoundrel in your eyes." She looked at him in +surprise. "I look upon you as one of the best and most honorable of men, +Max," she said, soothingly, after a pause. "And do you trust me also?" +"Of course I do." "Are you convinced that I love you honestly?" "Quite." +"Then do not hesitate any longer to bestow your hand upon me," her lover +said, in conclusion. "What are you thinking about?" she cried, quickly, +in a tone of refusal. "What is to be the end of our connection? What is +at any rate not permissible with a woman, is wrong and dishonorable +with a girl. You yourself must feel lowered if you do not become my wife +as soon as possible." "What a narrow-minded view," Angelica replied, +angrily, "but as you wish it, I will give you my opinion on the subject, +but ... by letter." "No, no; now, directly." + +The pretty girl did not speak for some time, and looked down, but +suddenly she looked at her lover, and a malicious, mocking smile lurked +in the corners of her mouth. "Well, I love you, Max, I love you really +and ardently," she said, carelessly; "but I can never be your wife. If +you were an officer I might perhaps marry you; yes, I certainly would, +but as it is, it is impossible." "Is that your last word?" the cadet +said, in great excitement. She only nodded, and then put her full, white +arms round his neck, with all the security of a mistress who is granting +some favor to her slave; but on that occasion she was mistaken. He sprang +up, seized his sword and hurried out of the room, and she let him go, for +she felt certain that he would come back again, but he did not do so, and +when she wrote to him, he did not answer her letters, and still did not +come; so at last she gave him up. + +It was a bad, a very bad, experience for the honorable young fellow; the +highborn, frivolous girl had trampled on all the ideals and illusions of +his life with her small feet, for he then saw only too clearly, that she +had not loved him, but that he had only served her pleasures and her +lusts, while he, he had loved her so truly! + +About a year after the catastrophe with charming Angelica, the handsome +cadet happened to be in his captain's quarters, and accidentally saw a +large photograph of a lady on his writing table, and on going up +and looking at it, he recognized--Angelica. + +"What a beautiful girl," he said, wishing to find out how the land lay. +"That is the lady I am going to marry," the captain, whose vanity was +flattered, said, "and she is as pure and as good as an angel, just +as she is as beautiful as one, and into the bargain she comes of a very +good and very rich family; in short, in the fullest sense of the word, +she is 'a good match.'" + + + + +A FASHIONABLE WOMAN + + +It can easily be proved that Austria is far richer in talented men in +every domain, than North Germany, but while men are systematically +drilled there for the vocation which they choose, like the Prussian +soldiers are, with us they lack the necessary training, especially +technical training, and consequently very few of them get beyond mere +diletantism. Leo Wolfram was one of those intellectual diletantes, and +the more pleasure one took in his materials and characters, which were +usually boldly taken from real life, and in a certain political, and what +is still more, in a plastic plot, the more he was obliged to regret that +he had never learnt to compose or to mold his characters, or to write; in +one word, that he had never become a literary artist, but how greatly he +had in himself the materials for a master of narration, his "Dissolving +Views," and still more his _Goldkind_,[4] prove. + +[Footnote 4: Golden Child.] + +This Goldkind is a striking type of our modern society, and the novel of +that name contains all the elements of a classic novel, although of +course in a crude, unfinished state. What an exact reflection of our +social circumstances Leo Wolfram gave in that story our present +reminiscences will show, in which a lady of that race plays the principal +part. + +It may be ten years ago, that every day four very stylishly dressed +persons went to dine in a corner of the small dining-room of one of the +best hotels in Vienna, who, both there and elsewhere, gave occasion +for a great amount of talk. They were an Austrian landowner, his charming +wife, and two young diplomatists, one of whom came from the North, while +the other was a pure son of the South. There was no doubt that the lady +came in for the greatest share of the general interest in every respect. + +The practiced observer and discerner of human nature easily recognized +in her one of those characters which Goethe has so aptly named +"problematical," for she was one of those individuals who are always +dissatisfied and at variance with themselves and with the world, who are +a riddle to themselves, and who can never be relied on, and with the +interesting and captivating, though unfortunate contradictions in her +nature, she made a strong impression on everybody, even by her mere +outward appearance. She was one of those women who are called beautiful, +without their being really so. Her face, as well as her figure, was +wanting in æsthetic lines, but there was no doubt that, in spite of that, +or perhaps on that very account, she was the most dangerous, infatuating +woman that one could imagine. + +She was tall and thin, and there was a certain hardness about her figure, +which became a charm through the vivacity and grace of her movements; her +features harmonized with her figure, for she had a high, clever, cold +forehead, a strong mouth with sensual lips, and an angular, sharp chin, +the effect of which was, however, diminished by her slightly turned-up, +small nose, her beautifully arched eyebrows, and her large, animated, +swimming blue eyes. + +In her face, which was almost too full of expression for a woman, there +was as much feeling, kindness and candor as there was calculation, +coolness and deceit, and when she was angry and drew her upper lip up, so +as to show her dazzlingly white teeth, it had even a devilish look of +wickedness and cruelty, and at that time, when women still wore their own +hair, the beauty of her long, chestnut plaits, which she fastened on the +top of her head like a crown, was very striking. Besides this, she was +remarkable for her elegant, tasteful dresses, and a bearing which united +to the dignity of a lady of rank that undefinable something which makes +actresses and women who belong to the higher classes of the _demi-monde_ +so interesting to us. + +In Paris she would have been taken for a kept woman, but in Vienna the +best drawing-rooms were open to her, and she was not looked upon as more +respectable or as less respectable than any other aristocratic beauties. + +Her husband decidedly belonged to that class of men whom that witty +writer, Balzac, so delightfully calls _les hommes prédestinés_ in his +_Physiologie du Mariage_. Without doubt, he was a very good-looking man, +but he bore that stamp of insignificance which so often conceals +coarseness and vulgarity, and was one of those men who, in the long run, +become unendurable to a woman of refined tastes. He had a good private +income, but his wife understood the art of enjoying life, and so a +deficit in the yearly accounts of the young couple became the rule, +without causing the lively lady to check her noble passion in the least +on that account; she kept horses and carriages, rode with the greatest +boldness, had her box at the opera, and gave beautiful little suppers, +which at that time was the highest aim of a Viennese woman of her class. + +One of the two young diplomats who accompanied her, a young Count, +belonging to a well-known family in North Germany, and who was a perfect +gentleman in the highest sense of the word, was looked upon as her +adorer, while the other, who was his most intimate friend, yet, in spite +of his ancient name and his position as attaché to a foreign legation, +gave people that distinct impression that he was an adventurer, which +makes the police keep such a careful eye on some persons, and he had the +reputation of being an unscrupulous and dangerous duellist. Short, thin, +with a yellow complexion, with strongly-marked but engaging features, an +aquiline nose and bright, dark eyes, he was the typical picture of a man +who seduces women and kills men. + +The handsome woman appeared to be in love with the Count, and to take an +interest in his friend; at least, that was the construction that the +others in the dining-room put upon the situation, as far as it could +be made out from the behavior and looks of the people concerned, and +especially from their looks, for it was strange how devotedly and +ardently the beautiful woman's blue eyes rested on the Count, and with +what wild, diabolical sympathy she gazed at the Italian from time to +time, and it was hard to guess whether there was most love or hatred in +that glance. None of the four, however, who were then dining and chatting +so gaily together, had any presentiment at the time that they were +amusing themselves over a mine, which might explode at any moment, and +bury them all. + +It was the husband of the beautiful woman who provided the tinder. One +day he told her that she must make up her mind to the most rigid +retrenchment, give up her box at the opera, and sell her carriage and +horses, if she did not wish to risk her whole position in society. Her +creditors had lost all patience, and were threatening to distrain on her +property, and even to put her in prison. She made no reply to this +revelation, but during dinner she said to the Count, in a whisper, that +she must speak to him later, and would, therefore, come to see him at his +house. When it was dark, she came thickly veiled, and after she had +responded to his demonstrations of affection for some time, with more +patience than amiableness, she began. Their conversation is extracted +from his diary. + +"You are so unconcerned and happy, while misery and disgrace are +threatening me!" "Please explain what you mean!" "I have incurred some +debts." "Again?" he said reproachfully, "why do you not come to me at +once, for you must do it in the end, and then at least you would avoid +any exposure?" "Please do not take me to task," she replied; "you know it +only makes me angry. I want some money; can you give me some?" "How much +do you want?" She hesitated, for she had not the courage to name the real +amount, but at last she said, in a low voice: "Five thousand florins."[5] +It was evidently only a small portion of what she really required, so +he replied: "I am sure you want more than that!" "No." "Really not?" "Do +not make me angry." + +[Footnote 5: About £500, nominally.] + +He shrugged his shoulders, went to his strong box and gave her the money, +whereupon she nodded, and giving him her hand, she said: "You are always +kind, and as long as I have you, I am not afraid; but if I were to lose +you, I should be the most unhappy woman in the world." "You always have +the same fears; but I shall never leave you; it would be impossible for +me to separate from you," the Count exclaimed. "And if you die?" she +interrupted him hastily. "If I die?" the Count said, with a peculiar +smile. "I have provided for you in that eventuality also." "Do you +mean to say" ... she stammered, flushed, and her large, lovely eyes +rested on her lover with an indescribable expression in them. He, +however, opened a drawer in his writing-table, and took out a document, +which he gave her. It was his will. She opened it with almost indecent +haste, and when she saw the amount--thirty thousand florins--she grew +pale to her very lips. + +It was a moment in which the germs of a crime were sown in her breast, +but one of those crimes which cannot be touched by the Criminal Code. A +few days after she had paid her visit to the Count, she herself received +one from the Italian. In the course of conversation he took a jewel case +out of his breast pocket and asked her opinion of the ornaments, as she +was well-known for her taste in such matters, telling her at the same +time, that it was intended as a present for an actress, with whom he was +on intimate terms.--"It is a magnificent set!" she said, as she looked at +it. "You have made an excellent selection." Then she suddenly became +absorbed in thought, while her nostrils began to quiver, and that touch +of cold cruelty played on her lips. + +"Do you think that the lady for whom this ornament is intended will be +pleased with it?" the Italian asked. "Certainly," she replied; "I myself +would give a great deal to have it." "Then may I venture to offer it to +you?" the Italian said. + +She blushed, but did not refuse it, but the same evening she rushed into +her lover's room in a state of the greatest excitement. "I am beside +myself," she stammered; "I have been most deeply insulted." "By whom?" +the Count asked, excitedly. "By your friend, who has dared to send me +some jewelry to-day. I suppose he looks upon me as a lost woman; perhaps +I am already looked upon as belonging to the _demi-monde_, and this I owe +to you, to you alone, and to my mad love for you, to which I have +sacrificed my honor and everything. Everything!" She threw herself down +and sobbed, and would not be pacified until the Count gave her his word +of honor that he would set aside every consideration for his friend, and +obtain satisfaction for her at any price. He met the Italian the same +evening at a card party and questioned him. + +"I did not, in the first place, send the lady the jewelry, but I gave it +to her myself, not, however, until she had asked me to do so." "That is a +shameful lie!" the Count shouted, furiously. Unfortunately, there were +others present, and his friend took the matter seriously, so the next +morning he sent his seconds to the Count. + +Some of their real friends tried to settle the matter in another way, but +his bad angel, his mistress, who required thirty thousand florins, drove +the Count to his death. He was found in the Prater, with his friend's +bullet in his chest. A letter in his pocket spoke of suicide, but the +police did not doubt for a moment that a duel had taken place. Suspicion +soon fell on the Italian, but when they went to arrest him, he had +already made his escape. + +The husband of the beautiful, problematical woman, called on the +broken-hearted father of the man who had been killed in the duel, and who +had hastened to Vienna on receipt of a telegraphic message, a few hours +after his arrival, and demanded the money. "My wife was your son's most +intimate friend," he stammered, in embarrassment, in order to justify his +action as well as he could. "Oh! I know that," the old Count replied, +"and female friends of that kind want to be paid immediately, and in +full. Here are the thirty thousand florins." + +And our _Goldkind_? She paid her debts, and then withdrew from the scene +for a while. She had been compromised, certainly, but then, she had risen +in value in the eyes of those numerous men who can only adore and +sacrifice themselves for a woman when her foot is on the threshold of +vice and crime. + +I saw her last during the Franco-German war, in the beautiful +_Mirabell-garden_ at Salzburg. She did not seem to feel any qualms of +conscience, for she had become considerably stouter, which made her more +attractive, more beautiful, and consequently, more dangerous, than she +was before. + + + + +THE CARNIVAL OF LOVE + + +The Princess Leonie was one of those beautiful, brilliant enigmas, who +irresistibly allure everyone like a Sphinx, for she was young, charming, +and singularly lovely, and understood how to heighten her charms not a +little by carefully-chosen dresses. She was a great lady of the right +stamp, and was very intellectual into the bargain, which is not the case +with all aristocratic ladies; she also took great interest in art and +literature, and it was even said that she patronized one of our poets in +a manner which was worthy of the Medicis, and that she strewed the +beautiful roses of continual female sympathy on to his thorny path. All +this was evident to everybody, and had nothing strange about it, but the +world would have liked to know the history of that woman, and to look +into the depths of her soul, and because people could not do this in +Princess Leonie's case, they thought it very strange. + +No one could read that face, which was always beautiful, always cheerful, +and always the same; no one could fathom those large, dark, unfathomable +eyes, which hid their secrets under the unvarying brilliancy of majestic +repose, like a mountain lake, whose waters look black on account of their +depth. For everybody was agreed that the beautiful princess had her +secrets, interesting and precious secrets, like all other ladies of our +fashionable world. + +Most people looked upon her as a flirt who had no heart, and even no +blood, and they asserted that she was only virtuous because the power of +loving was denied her, but that she took all the more pleasure in seeing +that she was loved, and that she set her trammels and enticed her +victims, until they surrendered at discretion at her feet, so that she +might leave them to their fate, and hurry off in pursuit of some fresh +game. + +Others declared that the beautiful woman had met with her romances in +life, and was still having them, but, as a thorough Messalina, she knew +how to conceal her adventures as cleverly as that French queen who had +every one of her lovers thrown into the cold waters of the Seine, as soon +as he quitted her soft, warm arms, and she was described thus to Count +Otto F., a handsome cavalry officer, who had made the acquaintance of the +beautiful, dangerous woman at that fashionable watering place, Karlsbad, +and had fallen deeply in love with her. + +Even before he had been introduced to her, the Princess had already +exchanged fiery, encouraging glances with him, and when a brother officer +took him to call on her, she welcomed him with a smile which appeared to +promise him happiness, but after he had paid his court to her for a +month, he did not seem to have made any progress, and as she possessed in +a high degree the skill of being able to avoid even the shortest private +interviews, it appeared as if matters would go no further than that +delightful promise. + +Night after night, the enamored young officer walked along the garden +railings of her villa as close to her windows as possible, without being +noticed by any one, and at last fortune seemed to favor him. The moon, +which was nearly at the full, was shining brightly, and in its silvery +light he saw a tall, female figure, with large plaits round her head, +coming along the grave path; he stood still, as he thought he recognized +the Princess, but as she came nearer he saw a pretty girl, whom he did +not know, and who came up to the railings and said to him with a smile: +"What can I do for you, Count?" mentioning his name. + +"You seem to know me, Fräulein." "Oh! I am only the Princess's +lady's-maid." ... "But you could do me a great favor." "How?" she asked +quickly: "You might give the Princess a letter." ... "I should not +venture to do that," the girl replied with a peculiar, half-mocking, +half-pitying smile, and with a deep curtsey, she disappeared behind +the raspberry bushes which formed a hedge along the railings. + +The next morning, as the Count, with several other ladies and gentlemen, +was accompanying the Princess home from the pump-room, the fair coquette +let her pocket-handkerchief fall just outside her house. The young +officer took this for a hint, so he picked it up, concealed the letter +that he had written, which he always kept about him so as to be prepared +for any event, in the folds of the soft cambric, and gave it back to the +Princess, who quickly put it into her pocket. That also seemed to him to +be a good augury, and, in fact, in the course of a few hours he received +a note in disguised handwriting, by the post, in which his bold wooing +was graciously entertained, and an appointment was made for the same +night in the pavilion of the Princess's villa. + +The happiness of the enamored young officer knew no bounds; he kissed the +letter a hundred times, thanked the Princess when he met her in the +afternoon where the band was playing by his animated looks, which she +either did not or could not understand, and at night was standing an hour +before the appointed time behind the wall at the bottom of the garden. + +When the church clock struck eleven he climbed over it and jumped on to +the ground on the other side, and looked about him carefully; then he +went up to the small, white-washed summer-house, where the Princess had +promised to meet him, on tiptoe. He found the door ajar, went in, and +at the same moment he felt two soft arms thrown round him. "Is it +you, Princess?" he asked, in a whisper, for the pavilion was in +total darkness, as the venetian blinds were drawn. "Yes, Count, it is +I." ... "How cruel." ... "I love you, but I am obliged to conceal my +passion under the mask of coldness because of my social position." + +As she said this, the enamored woman, who was trembling on his breast +with excitement, drew him on to a couch that occupied one side of the +pavilion, and began to kiss him ardently. The lovers spent two blissful +hours in delightful conversation and intoxicating pleasures; then she +bade him farewell, and told him to remain where he was until she had gone +back to the house. He obeyed her, but could not resist looking at her +through the venetian blinds, and he saw her tall, slim figure as she went +along the gravel path with an undulating walk. She wore a white boumous, +which he recognized as having seen in the pump-room; her soft, black hair +fell down over her shoulders, and before she disappeared into the villa +she stood for a moment and looked back, but he could not see her face, +as she wore a thick veil. + +When Count F. met the Princess the next morning in company with other +ladies, when the band was playing, she showed an amount of unconstraint +which confused him, and while she was joking in the most unembarrassed +manner, he turned crimson and stammered out such a lot of nonsense that +the ladies noticed it, and made him the target for their wit. None of +them was bolder or more confident in their attacks on him than the +Princess, so that at last he looked upon the woman who concealed so much +passion in her breast, and who yet could command herself so thoroughly, +as a kind of miracle, and at last said to himself: "The world is right; +woman is a riddle!" + +The Princess remained there for some weeks longer, and always maintained +the same polite and friendly, but cool and sometimes ironical, demeanor +towards him, but he easily endured being looked upon as her unfortunate +adorer by the world, for at least every other day a small, scented note, +stamped with her arms and signed _Leonie_, summoned him to the pavilion, +and there he enjoyed the full, delightful possession of the beautiful +woman. It, however, struck him as strange that she would never let him +see her face. Her head was always covered with a thick black veil, +through which he could see her eyes, which sparkled with love, +glistening; he passed his fingers through her hair, he saw her well-known +dresses, and once he succeeded in getting possession of one of her +pocket-handkerchiefs, on which the name _Leonie_ and the princely coronet +were magnificently embroidered. + +When she returned to Vienna for the winter, a note from her invited him +to follow her there, and as he had indefinite leave of absence from his +regiment, he could obey the commands of his divinity. As soon as he +arrived there he received another note, which forbade him to go to her +house, but promised him a speedy meeting in his rooms, and so the young +officer had the furniture elegantly renovated, and looked forward to a +visit from the beautiful woman with all a lover's impatience. + +At last she came, wrapped in a magnificent cloak of green velvet, trimmed +with ermine, but still thickly veiled, and before she came in she made it +a condition that the room in which he received her should be quite dark, +and after he had put out all the lights she threw off her fur, and her +coldness gave way to the most impetuous tenderness. + +"What is the reason that you will never allow me to see your dear, +beautiful face?" the officer asked. "It is a whim of mine, and I suppose +I have the right to indulge in whims," she said, hastily. "But I so long +once more to see your splendid figure and your lovely face in full +daylight," the Count continued. "Very well then, you shall see me at the +Opera this evening." + +She left him at six o'clock, after stopping barely an hour with him, and +as soon as her carriage had driven off he dressed and went to the opera. +During the overture, he saw the Princess enter her box and looking +dazzlingly beautiful; she was wearing the same green velvet cloak, +trimmed with ermine, that he had had in his hands a short time before, +but almost immediately she let it fall from her shoulders, and showed a +bust which was worthy of the Goddess of Love. She spoke with her husband +with much animation, and smiled with her usual cold smile, though she did +not give her adorer even a passing look, but, in spite of this, he felt +the happiest of mortals. + +In Vienna, however, the Count was not as fortunate as he had been at +Karlsbad, where he had first met her, for his beautiful mistress only +came to see him once a week; often she only stopped a short time with +him, and once nearly six weeks passed without her favoring him at all, +and she did not even make any excuse for remaining away. Just then, +however, Leonie's husband accidentally made the young officer's +acquaintance at the Jockey Club, took a fancy to him, and asked him +to go and see him at his house. + +When he called and found the Princess alone his heart felt as if it would +burst with pleasure, and seizing her hand, he pressed it ardently to his +lips. "What are you doing, Count?" she said, drawing back. "You are +behaving very strangely." "We are alone," the young officer whispered, +"so why this mask of innocence? Your cruelty is driving me mad, for it is +six weeks since you came to see me last." "I certainly think you are out +of your mind," the Princess replied, with every sign of the highest +indignation, and hastily left the drawing-room. Nothing else remained for +the Count but to do the same thing, but his mind was in a perfect whirl, +and he was quite incapable of explaining to himself the Princess's +enigmatical behavior. He dined at an hotel with some friends, and when he +got home he found a note in which the Princess begged him to pardon her, +and promised to justify her conduct, for which purpose she would see him +at eight o'clock that evening. + +Scarcely, however, had he read her note, when two of his brother-officers +came to see him, and asked him, with well-simulated anxiety, whether he +were ill. When he said that he was perfectly well, one of them continued, +laughing: "Then please explain the occurrence that is in everybody's +mouth to-day, in which you play such a comical part."--"I, a comical +part?" the Count shouted.--"Well, is it not very comical when you call on +a lady like Princess Leonie, whom you do not know, to upbraid her for her +cruelty, and most unceremoniously call her _thou_[6]?" + +[Footnote 6: In Germany, _thou du_, is only used between near relations, +lovers, very intimate friends, to children, servants, &c.--TRANSLATOR.] + +That was too much; Count F. might pardon the Princess for pretending +not to know him in society, but that she should make him a common +laughing-stock, nearly drove him mad. "If I call the Princess _thou_," +he exclaimed, "it is because I have the right to do so, as I will +prove."--His comrades shrugged their shoulders, but he asked them to +come again punctually at seven o'clock, and then he made his +preparations. + +At eight o'clock his divinity made her appearance, still thickly veiled, +but on this occasion wearing a valuable sable cloak. As usual, Count F. +took her into the dark-room and locked the outer door; then he opened +that which led into his bedroom, and his two friends came in, each with a +candle in his hand.--The lady in the sable cloak cried out in terror when +Count F. pulled off her veil, but then it was his turn to be surprised, +for it was not the Princess Leonie who stood before him, but her pretty +lady's-maid, who, now she was discovered, confessed that love had driven +her to assume her mistress's part, in which she had succeeded perfectly, +on account of the similarity of their figure, eyes and hair. She had +found the Count's letter in the Princess's pocket-handkerchief when they +were at Karlsbad and had answered it. She had made him happy, and had +heightened the illusion which her figure gave rise to by borrowing the +Princess's dresses. + +Of course the Count was made great fun of, and turned his back on Vienna +hastily that same evening, but the pretty lady's-maid also disappeared +soon after the catastrophe, and only by those means escaped from her +mistress's well-merited anger; for it turned out that that gallant little +individual had already played the part of her mistress more than once, +and had made all those hopeless adorers of the Princess, who had found +favor in her own eyes, happy in her stead. + +Thus the enigma was solved which Princess Leonie seemed to have proposed +to the world. + + + + +A DEER PARK IN THE PROVINCES + + +It is not very long ago that an Hungarian Prince, who was in an Austrian +cavalry regiment, was quartered in a wealthy Austrian garrison town. The +ladies of the local aristocracy naturally did everything they could to +allure the new comer, who was young, good-looking, animated and amusing, +into their nets, and at last one of the ripe beauties, who was now +resting there on her amorous laurels, after innumerable victories on the +hot floors of Viennese society, succeeded in taking him in her toils, but +only for a short time, for she had very nearly reached that limit in age +where, on the man's side, love ceases and esteem begins. But she had more +sense than most women, and she recognized the fact in good time, and as +she did not wish to give up the principal character which she played in +society there so easily, she reflected as to what means she could employ +to bind him to her in another manner. It is well known that the notorious +Marchioness de Pompadour, who was one of the mistresses of Louis XV. of +France, when her own charms did not suffice to fetter that changeable +monarch, conceived the idea of securing the chief power in the State and +in society for herself, by having a pavilion in the deer park, which +belonged to her, and where Louis XV. was in the habit of hunting, fitted +up with every accommodation of a harem, where she brought beautiful women +and girls of all ranks of life to the arms of her royal lover. + +Inspired by that historical example, the baroness began to arrange +evening parties, balls, and private theatricals in the winter, and in the +summer excursions into the country, and thus she gave the Prince, who at +that time was still, so to say, at her feet, the opportunity of plucking +fresh flowers. But even this clever expedient did not avail in the long +run, for beautiful women were scarce in that provincial town, and the few +which the local aristocracy could produce were not able to offer the +Prince any fresh attractions, when he had made their closer acquaintance. +At last, therefore, he turned his back on the highly-born Messalinas, and +began to bestow marked attention on the pretty women and girls of the +middle classes, either in the streets or when he was in his box at the +theater. + +There was one girl in particular, the daughter of a well-to-do merchant, +who was supposed to be the most beautiful girl in the capital, on to +whom his opera glass was constantly leveled, and whom he even followed +occasionally without being noticed. But Baroness Pompadour soon got wind +of this unprincely taste, and determined to do everything in her power to +keep her lover and the whole nobility, which was threatened, from such an +unheard-of disgrace, as an intrigue of a Prince with a girl of the middle +classes, would have been in her eyes. "It is really sad," the outraged +baroness once said to me, "that in these days princes and monarchs choose +their mistresses only from the stage, or even from the scum of the +people. But it is the fault of our ladies themselves. They mistake their +vocation! Ah! Where are those delightful times when the daughters of the +first families looked upon it as an honor to become their princes' +mistresses?" + +Consequently, the horror of the blue-blooded, aristocratic lady was +intense when the Prince, in his usual, amiable, careless manner, +suggested to her to people her deer park with girls of the lower orders. + +"It is a ridiculous prejudice," the Prince said on that occasion, "which +obliges us to shut ourselves off from the other ranks, and to confine +ourselves altogether to our own circle, for monotony and boredom are the +inevitable consequences of it. How many honorable men of sense and +education, and especially how many charming women and girls there are, +who do not belong to the aristocracy, who would infuse fresh life and a +new charm into our dull, listless society! I very much wish that a lady +like you would make a beginning, and would give up this exclusiveness, +which cannot be maintained in these days, and would enrich our circle +with the charming daughters of middle class families." + +A wish of the Prince's was as good as a command; so the baroness made a +wry face, but she accommodated herself to the circumstances, and promised +to invite some of the prettiest girls of the _plebs_ to a ball in a few +days. She really issued a number of invitations, and even condescended to +drive to the house of each of them in person. "But I must ask one thing +of you," she said to each of the pretty girls, "and that is to come +dressed as simply as possible; washing muslins will be best. The Prince +dislikes all finery and ostentation and he would be very vexed with me if +I were the cause of any extravagance on your part." + +The great day arrived; it was quite an event for the little town, and all +classes of society were in a state of the greatest excitement. The +pretty, plebeian girls, with her whom the Prince had first noticed at +their head, appeared in all their innocence, in plain, washing dresses, +according to the Prince's orders, with their hair plainly dressed, and +without any ornaments, except their own fresh, buxom charms. When they +were all captives in the den of the proud, aristocratic lioness, the poor +little mice were very much terrified when suddenly the aristocratic +ladies came into the ball-room, rustling in whole oceans of silks and +lace, with their haughty heads changed into so many hanging gardens of +Semiramis, loaded with all the treasures of India, and radiant as the +sun. + +At first the poor girls looked down in shame and confusion, and Baroness +Pompadour's eyes glistened with all the joy of triumph, but her +ill-natured pleasure did not last long, for the intrigue, on which the +Prince's ignoble passions were to make shipwreck, recoiled on the +highly-born lady patroness of the deer park. + +It was not the aristocratic ladies in their magnificent toilettes that +threw the girls from the middle classes into the shade, but, on the +contrary, those pretty girls in their washing dresses, and with the plain +but splendid ornament of their abundant hair looked far more charming +than they would have done in silk dresses with long trains, and with +flowers in their hair, and the novelty and unwontedness of their +appearance there allured not only the Prince, but all the other gentlemen +and officers, so that the proud grand-daughters of the lions, griffins, +and eagles, were quite neglected by the gentlemen, who danced almost +exclusively with the pretty girls of the middle classes. + +The faded lips of the baronesses and countesses uttered many a "_For +Shame_!" but all in vain, neither was it any good for the Baroness to +make up her mind that she would never again put a social medley before +the Prince in her drawing-room, for he had seen through her intrigue, and +gave her up altogether. _Sic transit gloria mundi!_ + +She, however, consoled herself as best she could. + + + + +THE WHITE LADY + + +Fortuna, the goddess of chance and good luck, has always been _Cupid's_ +best ally and Arnold T., who was a lieutenant in a hussar regiment, was +evidently a special favorite of both those roguish deities. + +This good-looking, well-bred young officer had been an enthusiastic +admirer of the two Countesses W., mother and daughter, during a tolerably +long leave of absence, which he spent with his relations in Vienna. He +had admired them from the _Prater_, and worshiped them at the opera, but +he had never had an opportunity of making their acquaintance, and when he +was back at his dull quarters in Galicia, he liked to think about those +two aristocratic beauties. Last summer his regiment was transferred to +Bohemia, to a wildly romantic district, that had been made illustrious +by a talented writer, which abounded in magnificent woods, lofty +mountain-forests and castles, and which was a favorite summer resort +of the neighboring aristocracy. + +Who can describe his joyful surprise, when he and his men were quartered +in an old, weather-beaten castle in the middle of a wood, and he learnt +from the house-steward who received him that the owner of the castle was +the husband, and, consequently, also the father of his Viennese ideals. +An hour after he had taken possession of his old-fashioned, but +beautifully furnished, room in a side-wing of the castle, he put on +his full-dress uniform, and throwing his dolman over his shoulders, he +went to pay his respects to the Count and the ladies. + +He was received with the greatest cordiality. The Count was delighted to +have a companion when he went out shooting, and the ladies were no less +pleased at having some one to accompany them on their walks in the +forests, or on their rides, so that he felt only half on the earth, and +half in the seventh heaven of Mohammedan bliss. Before supper he had time +to inspect the house more closely, and even to take a sketch of the +large, gloomy building from a favorable point. The ancient seat of the +Counts of W. was really very gloomy; in fact it created a sinister, +uncomfortable feeling. The walls, which were crumbling away here and +there, and which were covered with dark ivy; the round towers, which +harbored jackdaws, owls, and hawks; the Æolian harp, which complained +and sighed and wept in the wind; the stones in the castle yard, which +were overgrown with grass; the cloisters, in which every footstep +re-echoed; the great ancestral portraits which hung on the walls, coated +as it were with dark, mysterious veils by the centuries which had passed +over them--all this recalled to him the legends and fairy tales +of his youth, and he involuntarily thought of the _Sleeping Beauty in the +Wood_, and of _Blue Beard_, of the cruel mistress of the Kynast,[7] and +that aristocratic tigress of the Carpathians, who obtained the unfading +charms of eternal youth by bathing in human blood. + +[Footnote 7: A Castle, now a well-preserved ruin, in the Giant Mountains +in N. Germany. The legend is that its mistress, Kunigerude, vowed to +marry nobody except the Knight who should ride round the parapet of the +Castle, and many perished in the attempt. At last one of them succeeded +in performing the feat, but he merely sternly rebuked her, and took his +leave. He was accompanied by his wife, disguised as his page, according +to some versions of the legend.--TRANSLATOR.] + +He came in to supper where he found himself for the first time in company +with all the members of the family, just in the frame of mind that was +suitable for ghosts, and was not a little surprised when his host told +him, half smiling and half seriously, that the "White Lady" was +disturbing the castle again, and that she had latterly been seen very +often. "Yes, indeed," Countess Ida exclaimed; "You must take care, Baron, +for she haunts the very wing where your room is." The hussar was just in +the frame of mind to take the matter seriously, but, on the other hand, +when he saw the dark, ardent eyes of the Countess, and then the merry +blue eyes of her daughter fixed on him, any real fear of ghosts was quite +out of the question with him. For Baron T. feared nothing in this world, +but he possessed a very lively imagination, which could conjure up +threatening forms from another world so plainly that sometimes he felt +very uncomfortable at his own fancies. But on the present occasion that +malicious apparition had no power over him; the ladies took care of that, +for both of them were beautiful and amiable. + +The Countess was a mature Venus of thirty-six, of middle height, and with +the voluptuous figure of a true Viennese, with bright eyes, thick dark +hair, and beautiful white teeth, while her daughter Ida, who was +seventeen, had light hair and the pert little nose of the china figures +of shepherdesses in the dress of the period of Louis XIV., and was short, +slim, and full of French grace. Besides them and the Count, a son of +twelve and his tutor were present at supper. It struck the hussar as +strange that the tutor, who was a strongly-built young man, with a +winning face and those refined manners which the greatest plebeian +quickly acquires when brought into close and constant contact with the +aristocracy, was treated with great consideration by all the family +except the Countess, who treated him very haughtily. She assumed a +particularly imperious manner towards her son's tutor, and she either +found fault with, or made fun of, everything that he did, while he put +up with it all with smiling humility. + +Before supper was over their conversation again turned on to the ghost, +and Baron T. asked whether they did not possess a picture of the _White +Lady_. "Of course we have one," they all replied at once; whereupon Baron +T. begged to be allowed to see it. "I will show it you to-morrow," the +Count said. "No, Papa, now, immediately," the younger lady said +mockingly; "just before the ghostly hour, such a thing creates a much +greater impression." + +All who were present, not excepting the boy and his tutor, took a candle +and then they walked as if they had formed a torchlight procession, to +the wing of the house where the hussar's room was. There was a life-size +picture of the _White Lady_ hanging in a Gothic passage near his room, +among other ancestral portraits, and it by no means made a terrible +impression on anyone who looked at it, but rather the contrary. The +ghost, dressed in stiff, gold brocade and purple velvet, and with a hawk +on her wrist, looked like one of those seductive Amazons of the fifteenth +century, who exercised the art of laying men and game at their feet with +equal skill. + +"Don't you think that the _White Lady_ is very like mamma?" Countess Ida +said, interrupting the Baron's silent contemplation of the picture. +"There is no doubt of it," the hussar replied, while the Countess smiled +and the tutor turned red, and they were still standing before the +picture, when a strong gust of wind suddenly extinguished all the lights, +and they all uttered a simultaneous cry. The _White Lady_, the little +Count whispered, but she did not come, and as it was luckily a moonlight +night, they soon recovered from their momentary shock. The family retired +to their apartments, while the hussar and the tutor went to their own +rooms, which were situated in the wing of the castle which was haunted by +the _White Lady_; the officer's being scarcely thirty yards from the +portrait, while the tutor's were rather further down the corridor. + +The hussar went to bed, and was soon fast asleep, and though he had +rather uneasy dreams nothing further happened. But while they were at +breakfast the next morning, the Count's body-servant told them, with +every appearance of real terror, that as he was crossing the court-yard +at midnight, he had suddenly heard a noise like bats in the open +cloisters, and when he looked he distinctly saw the _White Lady_ gliding +slowly through them; but they merely laughed at the poltroon, and though +our hussar laughed also, he fully made up his mind, without saying a word +about it, to keep a look-out for the ghost that night. + +Again they had supper alone, without any company, had some music and +pleasant talk and separated at half-past eleven. The hussar, however, +only went to his room for form's sake; he loaded his pistols, and when +all was quiet in the castle, he crept down into the court-yard and took +up his position behind a pillar which was quite hidden in the shade, +while the moon, which was nearly at the full, flooded the cloisters with +its clear, pale light. + +There were no lights to be seen in the castle except from two windows, +which were those of the Countess's apartments, and soon they were also +extinguished. The clock struck twelve, and the hussar could scarcely +breathe from excitement; the next moment, however, he heard the noise +which the Count's body-servant had compared to that of bats, and almost +at the same instant a white figure glided slowly through the open +cloisters and passed so close to him, that it almost made his blood +curdle, and then it disappeared in the wing of the castle which he and +the tutor occupied. + +The officer who was usually so brave, stood as though he was paralyzed +for a few moments, but then he took heart, and feeling determined to make +the nearer acquaintance of the spectral beauty, he crept softly up the +broad staircase and took up his position in a deep recess in the +cloisters, where nobody could see him. + +He waited for a long time; he heard every quarter strike, and at last, +just before the close of the _witching hour_, he heard the same noise +like the rustling of bats, and then she came, he felt the flutter of her +white dress, and she stood before him--it was indeed the Countess. + +He presented his pistol at her as he challenged her, but she raised her +hand menacingly. "Who are you?" he exclaimed. "If you are really a ghost, +prove it, for I am going to fire." "For heaven's sake!" the White Lady +whispered, and at the same instant two white arms were thrown round him, +and he felt a full, warm bosom heaving against his own. + +After that night the ghost appeared more frequently still. Not only did +the _White Lady_ make her appearance every night in the cloisters, only +to disappear in the proximity of the hussar's rooms as long as the family +remained at the castle, but she even followed them to Vienna. + +Baron T., who went to that capital on leave of absence during the +following winter, and who was the Count's guest at the express wish of +his wife, was frequently told by the footman that although hitherto she +had seemed to be confined to the old castle in Bohemia, she had shown +herself now here, now there, in the mansion in Vienna, in a white dress +and making a noise like the wings of a bat, and bearing a striking +resemblance to the beautiful Countess. + + + + +CAUGHT + + +A young and charming lady, who was a member of the Viennese aristocracy, +went last summer, like young and charming ladies usually do, to a +fashionable Austrian watering place, Carlsbad, which is much frequented +by foreigners, without her husband. + +As is usually the case in their rank of life, she had married from family +considerations and for money; and the short spell of _Love after +Marriage_ was not sufficient to take deep root, and after she had +satisfied family traditions and her husband's wishes by giving birth +to a son and heir, they both went their way; the young, handsome and +fascinating man to his clubs, the race-course, and behind the scenes at +the theaters, and his charming, coquettish wife to her box at the opera, +to the ice in winter, and to some fashionable watering place in the +summer. + +On the present occasion she brought a young, very highly-connected Pole +with her from one of the latter resorts, who enjoyed all the rights and +the liberty of an avowed favorite, and who had to perform all the duties +of a slave. + +As is usual in such cases, the lady rented a small house in one of the +suburbs of Vienna, had it beautifully furnished and received her lover +there. She was always dressed very attractively, sometimes as _La Belle +Hélène_ in Offenbach's Opera, only rather more after the ancient Greek +fashion; another time as an Odalisque in the Sultan's harem, and another +time as a lighthearted Suabian girl, and so forth. In winter, however, +she grew tired of such meetings, and she wanted to have matters more +comfortable, so she took it into her head to receive her lover in her own +house. But how was it to be done? That, however, gave her no particular +difficulty, as is the case with every woman, when once she has made up +her mind to a thing, and after thinking it over for a day or two she went +to the next _rendez-vous_, with a fully prepared plan of war. + +The Pole was one of those types of handsome men which are rare; he was +almost womanly in his delicate features, of the middle height, slim and +well-made, and he resembled a youthful Bacchus who might very easily be +made to pass for a Venus by the help of false locks; the more so as there +was not even the slightest down on his lips. The lady, therefore, who was +very fertile in resources, suggested to the handsome Pole that he might +just as well transform himself into a handsome Polish lady, so that he +might, under the cover of the ever feminine, be able to visit her +undisturbed, and as it was winter, the thick, heavy, capacious dress +assisted the metamorphosis. + +The lady, accordingly, bought a number of very beautiful costumes for her +lover, and in the course of a few days she told her husband that a +charming young Polish lady, whose acquaintance she had made in the +summer at Carlsbad, was going to spend the winter in Vienna, and would +very frequently come and see her. Her husband listened to her with the +greatest indifference, for it was one of his fundamental rules never to +make love to any of his wife's female friends, and he went to his club as +usual at night, and the next day had forgotten all about the Polish lady. + +And now, half an hour after the husband had left the house, a cab drove +up and a tall, slim, heavily veiled lady got out and went up the thickly +carpeted stairs, only to be metamorphosed into the most ardent lover in +the young woman's _boudoir_. The young Pole grew accustomed to his female +attire so quickly that he even ventured to appear in the streets in it, +and when he began to make conquests, and aristocratic gentlemen and +successful speculators on the Stock Exchange looked at him significantly, +and even followed him, he took a real pleasure in the part he was +playing, and began to understand the pleasure a coquette feels in +tormenting men. + +The young Pole became more and more daring, until at last one evening he +went to a private box at the opera, wrapped in an ermine cloak, on to +which his dark, false curls fell in heavy waves. + +A handsome young man in a box opposite to him ogled him incessantly from +the first moment, and the young Pole responded in a manner which made the +other bolder every minute. At the end of the third act, the box opener +brought the fictitious Venus a small bouquet with a card concealed in it, +on which was written in pencil: "You are the most lovely woman in the +world, and I implore you on my knees to grant me an interview." The young +Pole read the name of the man who had been captivated so quickly, and, +with a peculiar smile, wrote on a card on which nothing but the name +"Valeska" was printed: "After the theater," and sent Cupid's messenger +back with it. + +When the spurious Venus was about to enter her carriage after the +performance, thickly veiled and wrapped in her ermine cloak, the handsome +young man was standing by it with his hat off, and he opened the door for +her. She was kind enough to allow him to get in with her and during their +drive she talked to him in the most charming manner, but she was cruel +enough to dismiss him without pity before they reached her house, and +this she did every time. For she went to the theater each night now, and +every evening she received an ardent note, and every evening she allowed +the amorous swain to accompany her as far as her house, and men were +beginning to envy him on account of his brilliant conquest, when a +catastrophe happened which was very surprising for all concerned. + +The husband of the lady in whose eyes the Pole had found favor, surprised +the loving couple one day under circumstances which made any +justification impossible. But while he, trembling with rage and jealousy, +was drawing a small Circassian dagger which hung against the wall from +its sheath, and as his wife threw herself, half-fainting, on to a couch, +the young Pole had hastily put the false curls on to his head, and had +slipped into the silk dress and the sable cloak which he had been wearing +when he came into his mistress's boudoir. "What does this mean," the +husband stammered, "Valeska?"--"Yes, sir," the young Pole replied; +"Valeska, who has come here to show your wife a few love letters, +which." ... "No, no," the deceived, but nevertheless guilty, husband said +in imploring accents; "no, that is quite unnecessary." And at the same +time he put the dagger back into its sheath. "Very well then, there is a +truce between us," the Pole observed coolly, "but do not forget what +weapons I possess, and which I mean to retain against all contingencies." + +Then the gentlemen bowed politely to each other, and the unexpected +meeting came to an end. + +From that time forward, the terms on which the young married couple lived +together assumed the character of that everlasting peace, which President +Grant once promised to the whole world in his message to all nations. The +young woman did not find it necessary to make her lover put on +petticoats, and the husband constantly accompanied the real Valeska a +good deal further than he did the false one on that memorable occasion. + + + + +CHRISTMAS EVE + + +"The Christmas-eve supper![8] Oh! no, I shall never go in for that again!" +Stout Henri Templier said that in a furious voice, as if some one had +proposed some crime to him, while the others laughed and said: + +"What are you flying into a rage about?" + +[Footnote 8: A great institution in France, and especially in Paris, at +which black puddings are an indispensable dish.--TRANSLATOR.] + +"Because a Christmas-eve supper played me the dirtiest trick in the +world, and ever since I have felt an insurmountable horror for that night +of imbecile gayety." + +"Tell us what it is?" + +"You want to know what it was? Very well then, just listen. + +"You remember how cold it was two years ago at Christmas; cold enough to +kill poor people in the streets. The Seine was covered with ice; the +pavements froze one's feet through the soles of one's boots, and the +whole world seemed to be at the point of going to pot. + +"I had a big piece of work on, and so I refused every invitation to +supper, as I preferred to spend the night at my writing table. I dined +alone and then began to work. But about ten o'clock I grew restless at +the thought of the gay and busy life all over Paris, at the noise in the +streets which reached me in spite of everything, at my neighbors' +preparations for supper, which I heard through the walls. I hardly knew +any longer what I was doing; I wrote nonsense, and at last I came to the +conclusion that I had better give up all hope of producing any good work +that night. + +"I walked up and down my room; I sat down and got up again. I was +certainly under the mysterious influence of the enjoyment outside, and +I resigned myself to it. So I rang for my servant and said to her: + +"'Angela, go and get a good supper for two; some oysters, a cold +partridge, some crayfish, hams and some cakes. Put out two bottles of +champagne, lay the cloth and go to bed.' + +"She obeyed in some surprise, and when all was ready, I put on my great +coat and went out. A great question was to be solved: 'Whom was I going +to bring in to supper?' My female friends had all been invited elsewhere, +and if I had wished to have one, I ought to have seen about it +beforehand, so I thought that I would do a good action at the same time, +and I said to myself: + +"'Paris is full of poor and pretty girls who will have nothing on their +table to-night, and who are on the look out for some generous fellow. I +will act the part of Providence to one of them this evening; and I will +find one if I have to go into every pleasure resort, and have to question +them and hunt for one till I find one to my choice.' And I started off on +my search. + +"I certainly found many poor girls, who were on the look-out for some +adventure, but they were ugly enough to give any man a fit of +indigestion, or thin enough to freeze as they stood if they had stopped, +and you all know that I have a weakness for stout women. The more flesh +they have, the better I like them, and a female colossus would drive me +out of my senses with pleasure. + +"Suddenly, opposite the Théâtre des Variétés, I saw a face to my liking. +A good head, and then two protuberances, that on the chest very +beautiful, and that on the stomach simply surprising; it was the stomach +of a fat goose. I trembled with pleasure, and said: + +"'By Jove! What a fine girl!' + +"It only remained for me to see her face. A woman's face is the dessert, +while the rest is ... the joint. + +"I hastened on, and overtook her, and turned round suddenly under a gas +lamp. She was charming, quite young, dark, with large, black eyes, and +I immediately made my proposition, which she accepted without any +hesitation, and a quarter of an hour later, we were sitting at supper in +my lodgings. 'Oh! how comfortable it is here,' she said as she came in, +and she looked about her with evident satisfaction at having found a +supper and a bed, on that bitter night. She was superb; so beautiful that +she astonished me, and so stout that she fairly captivated me. + +"She took off her cloak and hat, sat down and began to eat; but she +seemed in low spirits, and sometimes her pale face twitched as if she +were suffering from some hidden sorrow. + +"'Have you anything troubling you?' I asked her. + +"'Bah! Don't let us think of troubles!' + +"And she began to drink. She emptied her champagne glass at a draught, +filled it again, and emptied it again, without stopping, and soon a +little color came into her cheeks, and she began to laugh. + +"I adored her already, kissed her continually, and discovered that she +was neither stupid, nor common, nor coarse as ordinary street-walkers +are. I asked her for some details about her life, but she replied: + +"'My little fellow, that is no business of yours!' Alas! an hour +later.... + +"At last it was time to go to bed, and while I was clearing the table, +which had been laid in front of the fire, she undressed herself quickly, +and got in. My neighbors were making a terrible din, singing and +laughing like lunatics, and so I said to myself: + +"'I was quite right to go out and bring in this girl; I should never have +been able to do any work.' + +"At that moment, however, a deep groan made me look round, and I said: + +"'What is the matter with you, my dear?' + +"She did not reply, but continued to utter painful sighs, as if she were +suffering horribly, and I continued: + +"'Do you feel ill?' And suddenly she uttered a cry, a heartrending cry, +and I rushed up to the bed, with a candle in my hand. + +"Her face was distorted with pain, and she was wringing her hands, +panting and uttering long, deep groans, which sounded like a rattle in +the throat, and which are so painful to hear, and I asked her in +consternation: + +"'What is the matter with you? Do tell me what is the matter.' + +"'Oh! my stomach! my stomach!' she said. I pulled up the bed-clothes, and +I saw ... My friends, she was in labor. + +"Then I lost my head, and I ran and knocked at the wall with my fists, +shouting: 'Help! help!' + +"My door was opened almost immediately, and a crowd of people came in, +men in evening dress, women in low necks, harlequins, Turks, Musketeers, +and this inroad startled me so, that I could not explain myself, and +they, who had thought that some accident had happened, or that a crime +had been committed, could not understand what was the matter. At last, +however, I managed to say: + +"'This ... this ... woman ... is being confined.' + +"Then they looked at her, and gave their opinion, and a Friar, +especially, declared that he knew all about it, and wished to assist +nature, but as they were all as drunk as pigs, I was afraid that they +would kill her, and I rushed downstairs without my hat, to fetch an old +doctor, who lived in the next street. When I came back with him, the +whole house was up; the gas on the stairs had been relighted, the lodgers +from every floor were in my room, while four boatmen were finishing my +champagne and lobsters. + +"As soon as they saw me they raised a loud shout, and a milkmaid +presented me with a horrible little wrinkled specimen of humanity, that +was mewing like a cat, and said to me: + +"'It is a girl.' + +"The doctor examined the woman, declared that she was in a dangerous +state, as the event had occurred immediately after supper, and he took +his leave, saying he would immediately send a sick nurse and a wet nurse, +and an hour later, the two women came, bringing all that was requisite +with them. + +"I spent the night in my armchair, too distracted to be able to think of +the consequences, and almost as soon as it was light, the doctor came +again, who found his patient very ill, and said to me: + +"'Your wife, Monsieur....' + +"'She is not my wife,' I interrupted him. + +"'Very well then, your mistress; it does not matter to me.' + +"He told me what must be done for her, what her diet must be, and then +wrote a prescription. + +"What was I to do? Could I send the poor creature to the hospital? I +should have been looked upon as a brute in the house and in all the +neighborhood, and so I kept her in my rooms, and she had my bed for six +weeks. + +"I sent the child to some peasants at Poissy to be taken care of, and she +still costs me fifty francs[9] a month, for as I had paid at first, I +shall be obliged to go on paying as long as I live, and later on, she +will believe that I am her father. But to crown my misfortunes, when the +girl had recovered ... I found that she was in love with me, madly in +love with me, the baggage!" + +[Footnote 9: £2] + +"Well?" + +"Well, she had grown as thin as a homeless cat, and I turned the skeleton +out of doors, but she watches for me in the streets, hides herself, so +that she may see me pass, stops me in the evening when I go out, in order +to kiss my hand, and, in fact, worries me enough to drive me mad; and +that is why I never keep Christmas eve now." + + + + +WORDS OF LOVE + + +Sunday.-- + +You do not write to me, I never see you, you never come, so I must +suppose that you have ceased to love me. But why? What have I done? Pray +tell me, my own dear love. I love you so much, so dearly! I should like +always to have you near me, to kiss you all day while I called you every +tender name that I could think of. I adore you, I adore you, I adore you, +my beautiful cock.--Your affectionate hen, + +SOPHIE. + + * * * * * + +Monday.-- + +My dear friend, + +You will absolutely understand nothing of what I am going to say to you, +but that does not matter, and if my letter happens to be read by another +woman, it may be profitable to her. + +Had you been deaf and dumb, I should no doubt have loved you for a very +long time, and the cause of what has happened is, that you can talk; that +is all. + +In love, you see, dreams are always made to sing, but in order that they +might do so, they must not be interrupted, and when one talks between two +kisses, one always interrupts that frenzied dream which our souls indulge +in, unless they utter sublime words; and sublime words do not come out of +the little mouths of pretty girls. + +You do not understand me at all, do you? So much the better, and I will +go on. You are certainly one of the most charming and adorable women whom +I have ever seen. + +Are there any eyes on earth that contain more dreams than yours, more +unknown promises, greater depths of love? I do not think so. And when +that mouth of yours, with its two round lips, smiles, and shows the +glistening white teeth, one is tempted to say that there issues from this +ravishing mouth ineffable music, something inexpressibly delicate, a +sweetness which extorts sighs. + +It is then that you quietly call out to me, my great and renowned +"lady-killer," and it then seems to me as though I had suddenly found +an entrance into your thoughts, which I can see is ministering to your +soul--that little soul of a pretty, little creature, yes, pretty, +but--and that is what troubles me, don't you see, troubles me more than +tongue can tell. I would much prefer never to see you at all. + +You go on pretending not to understand anything, do you not? I calculate +on that. + +Do you remember the first time you came to see me at my residence? +How gaily you stepped inside, an odor of violets, which clung to your +skirts, heralding your entrance; how we regarded each other, for ever +so long, without uttering a word, after which we embraced like two +fools.... Then ... then from that time to this, we have never exchanged +a word. + +But when we separated, did not our trembling hands and our eyes say many +things, things ... which cannot be expressed in any language. At least, I +thought so; and when you went away, you murmured: + +"We shall meet again soon!" + +That was all you said, and you will never guess what delightful dreams +you left me, all that I, as it were, caught a glimpse of, all that I +fancied I could guess in your thoughts. + +You see, my poor child, for men who are not stupid, who are rather +refined and somewhat superior, love is such a complicated instrument, +that the merest trifle puts it out of order. You women never perceive the +ridiculous side of certain things when you love, and you fail to see the +grotesqueness of some expressions. + +Why does a word which sounds quite right in the mouth of a small, dark +woman, seem quite wrong and funny in the mouth of a fat, light-haired +woman? Why are the wheedling ways of the one, altogether out of place +in the other? + +Why is it that certain caresses which are delightful from the one, should +be wearisome from the other? Why? Because in everything, and especially +in love, perfect harmony, absolute agreement in motion, voice, words, and +in demonstrations of tenderness, are necessary, with the person who +moves, speaks and manifests affection; it is necessary in age, in height, +in the color of the hair, and in the style of beauty. + +If a woman of thirty-five, who has arrived at the age of violent, +tempestuous passion, were to preserve the slightest traces of the +caressing archness of her love affairs at twenty, were not to understand +that she ought to express herself differently, look at her lover +differently, and kiss him differently were not to see that she ought to +be Dido and not a Juliette, she would infallibly disgust nine lovers out +of ten, even if they could not account to themselves for their +estrangement. Do you understand me? No. I hoped so. + +From the time that you turned on your tap of tenderness, it was all over +for me, my dear friend. Sometimes we would embrace for five minutes, in +one interminable kiss, one of those kisses which make lovers close their +eyes, as if part of it would escape through their looks, as if to +preserve it entire in that clouded soul which it is ravaging. And then, +when our lips separated, you would say to me: + +"That was nice, you fat old dog." + +At such moments, I could have beaten you; for you gave me successively +all the names of animals and vegetables which you doubtless found in some +_cookery book_, or _Gardener's Manual_. But that is nothing. + +The caresses of love are brutal, bestial, and if one comes to think of +it, grotesque! ... Oh! My poor child, what joking elf, what perverse +sprite could have prompted the concluding words of your letter to me? I +have made a collection of them, but out of love for you, I will not show +them to you. + +And you really sometimes said things which were quite inopportune, and +you managed now and then to let out an exalted: _I love you!_ on such +singular occasions, that I was obliged to restrain a strong desire to +laugh. There are times when the words: _I love you!_ are so out of place, +that they become indecorous; let me tell you that. + +But you do not understand me, and many other women will also not +understand me, and think me stupid, though that matters very little to +me. Hungry men eat like gluttons, but people of refinement are disgusted +at it, and they often feel an invincible dislike for a dish, on account +of a mere trifle. It is the same with love, as it is with cookery. + +What I cannot comprehend, for example, is, that certain women who fully +understand the irresistible attraction of fine, embroidered stockings, +the exquisite charm of shades, the witchery of valuable lace concealed +in the depths of their underclothing, the exciting jest of hidden luxury, +and all the subtle delicacies of female elegance, never understand the +invincible disgust with which words that are out of place, or foolishly +tender, inspire us. + +At times coarse and brutal expressions work wonders, as they excite the +senses, and make the heart beat, and they are allowable at the hours of +combat. Is not that sentence of Cambronne's sublime? [10] + +[Footnote 10: At Waterloo, General Cambronne is reported to have said, +when called on to surrender:--_The Guard dies, but does not surrender._ +But according to Victor Hugo, in _Les Miserables_, he used the +expression _Merde_! which cannot be put into English fit for ears +polite.--TRANSLATOR.] + +Nothing shocks us that comes at the right time; but then, we must also +know when to hold our tongue, and to avoid phrases _à la Paul de Kock_, +at certain moments. + +And I embrace you passionately, on the condition that you say nothing, + +RENE. + + + + +A DIVORCE CASE + + +M. Chassel advocate, rises to speak: Mr. President and gentlemen of the +jury. The cause that I am charged to defend before you, requires medicine +rather than justice; and is much more a case of pathology than a case of +ordinary law. At first blush the facts seem very simple. + +A young man, very rich, with a noble and cultivated mind, and a generous +heart, becomes enamored of a young lady, who is the perfection of beauty, +more than beautiful, in fact; she is adorable, besides being as gracious, +as she is charming, as good and true as she is tender and pretty, and he +marries her. For some time, he comports himself towards her not only as a +devoted husband, but as a man full of solicitude and tenderness. Then he +neglects her, misuses her, seems to entertain for her an insurmountable +aversion, an irresistible disgust. One day he even strikes her, not only +without any cause, but also without the faintest pretext. I am not going, +gentlemen, to draw a picture of silly allurements, which no one would +comprehend. I shall not paint to you the wretched life of those two +beings, and the horrible grief of this young woman. It will be sufficient +to convince you, if I read some fragments from a journal written up every +day by that poor young man, by that poor fool! For it is in the presence +of a fool, gentlemen, that we now find ourselves, and the case is all the +more curious, all the more interesting, seeing that, in many points, it +recalls the insanity of the unfortunate prince who recently died, of the +witless king who reigned platonically over Bavaria. I shall hence +designate this case--poetic folly. + +You will readily call to mind all that has been told of that most +singular prince. He caused to be erected amid the most magnificent +scenery his kingdom afforded, veritable fairy castles. The reality even +of the beauty of the things themselves, as well as of the places, did not +satisfy him. He invented, he created, in these improbable manors, +factitious horizons, obtained by means of theatrical artifices, changes +of view, painted forests, fabled empires, in which the leaves of the +trees became precious stones. He had the Alps, and glaciers, steppes, +deserts of sand made hot by a blazing sun; and at nights, under the rays +of the real moon, lakes which sparkled from below by means of fantastic +electric lights. Swans floated on the lakes which glistened with skiffs, +while an orchestra, composed of the finest executants in the world, +inebriated with poetry the soul of the royal fool. That man was chaste, +that man was a virgin. He lived only to dream, his dream, his dream +divine. One evening he took out with him in his boat, a lady, young and +beautiful, a great artiste, and he begged her to sing. Intoxicated +herself by the magnificent scenery, by the languid softness of the air, +by the perfume of flowers, and by the ecstacy of that prince, both young +and handsome, she sang, she sang as women sing who have been touched by +love; then, overcome, trembling, she falls on the bosom of the king in +order to seek out his lips. But he throws her into the lake, and seizing +his oars, rows back to the shore, without concerning himself, whether +anybody has saved her or not. + +Gentlemen of the jury, we find ourselves in presence of a case similar in +every way to that. I shall say no more now, except to read some passages +from the journal which we unexpectedly came upon in the drawer of an old +secretary. + + * * * * * + +How sad and weary is everything; always the same, always hateful. How I +dream of a land more beautiful, more noble, more varied. What a poor +conception they have of their God, if their God existed, or if he had not +created other things, elsewhere. Always woods, little woods, waves which +resemble waves, plains which resemble plains, everything is sameness and +monotony. And Man? Man? What a horrible animal! wicked, haughty and +repugnant! + + * * * * * + +It is essential to love, to love perdition, without seeing that which one +loves. For, to see is to comprehend, and to comprehend is to embrace. It +is necessary to love, to become intoxicated by it, just as one gets drunk +with wine, even to the extent that one knows no longer what one is +drinking. And to drink, to drink, to drink, without drawing breath, day +and night! + + * * * * * + +I have found her, I believe. She has about her something ideal which does +not belong to this world, and which furnishes wings to my dream. Ah! my +dream! How it reveals to me beings different from what they really are! +She is a blonde, a delicate blonde, with hair whose delicate shade is +inexpressible. Her eyes are blue! Only blue eyes can penetrate my soul. +All women, the woman who lives in my heart, reveal themselves to me in +the eye, only in the eyes. Oh! what a mystery, what a mystery is the eye! +The whole universe lives in it, inasmuch as it sees, inasmuch as it +reflects. It contains the universe, both things and beings, forests +and oceans, men and beasts, the settings of the sun, the stars, the +arts--all, all, it sees; it collects and absorbs all; and there is still +more in it; the eye of itself has a soul; it has in it the man who +thinks, the man who loves, the man who laughs, the man who suffers! Oh! +regard the blue eyes of women, those eyes that are as deep as the sea, as +changeful as the sky, so sweet, so soft, soft as the breezes, sweet as +music, luscious as kisses; and transparent, so clear that one sees behind +them, discerns the soul, the blue soul which colors them, which animates +them, which electrifies them. Yes, the soul has the color of the looks. +The blue soul alone contains in itself that which dreams; it bears its +azure to the floods and into space. The eye! Think of it, the eye! It +imbibes the visible life, in order to nourish thought. It drinks in the +world, color, movement, books, pictures, all that is beautiful, all that +is ugly, and weaves ideas out of them. And when it regards us, it gives +us the sensation of a happiness that is not of this earth. It informs us +of that of which we have always been ignorant; it makes us comprehend +that the realities of our dreams are but noisome ordures. + + * * * * * + +I love her too for her walk. "Even when the bird walks one feels that it +has wings," as the poet has said. When she passes one feels that she is +of another race from ordinary women, of a race more delicate, and more +divine. I shall marry her to-morrow. But I am afraid, I am afraid of so +many things! + + * * * * * + +Two beasts, two dogs, two wolves, two foxes, cut their way through the +plantation and encounter one another. One of each two is male, the other +female. They couple. They couple in consequence of an animal instinct, +which forces them to continue the race, their race, the one from which +they have sprung, the hairy coat, the form, movements and habitudes. The +whole of the animal creation do the same without knowing why. + +We human beings, also. + +It is for this I have married; I have obeyed that insane passion which +throws us in the direction of the female. + + * * * * * + +She is my wife. In accordance with my ideal desires, she comes very +nearly to realize my unrealizable dream. But in separating from her, even +for a second, after I have held her in my arms, she becomes no more than +the being whom nature has made use of, to disappoint all my hopes. + +Has she disappointed them? No. And why have I grown weary of her, become +loath even to touch her; she cannot graze even the palm of my hand, or +the tip of my lips, but my heart throbs with unutterable disgust, not +perhaps disgust of her, but a disgust more potent, more widespread, more +loathsome; the disgust, in a word, of carnal love so vile in itself that +it has become for all refined beings, a shameful thing, which is +necessary to conceal, which one never speaks of save in a whisper, nor +without blushing. + + * * * * * + +I can no longer bear the idea of my wife coming near me, calling me by +name, with a smile; I cannot look at her, nor touch even her arm, I +cannot do it any more. At one time I thought to be kissed by her, would +be to transport me to St. Paul's seventh heaven. One day, she was +suffering from one of those transient fevers, and I smelled in her +breath, a subtle, slight almost imperceptible puff of human putridity; I +was completely overthrown. + +Oh! the flesh, with its seductive and eager smell, a putrefaction which +walks, which thinks, which speaks, which looks, which laughs, in which +nourishment ferments and rots, which, nevertheless, is rose-colored, +pretty, tempting, deceitful as the soul itself. + + * * * * * + +Why flowers alone, which smell so sweet, those large flowers, glittering +or pale, whose tones and shades make my heart tremble and trouble my +eyes. They are so beautiful, their structure is so finished, so varied +and sensual, semi-opened like human organs, more tempting than mouths, +and streaked with turned up lips, teeth, flesh, seed of life powders, +which, in each, gives forth a distinct perfume. + +They reproduce themselves, they alone, in the world, without polluting +their inviolable race, shedding around them the divine influence of their +love, the odoriferous incense of their caresses, the essence of their +incomparable body, of their body adorned with every grace, with every +elegances of every shape and form; who have likewise the coquetry of +every hue of color, and the inebriating seduction of every variety of +perfume. + + * * * * * + +FRAGMENTS WHICH WERE SELECTED SIX MONTHS LATER. + + +I love flowers, not as flowers, but as material and delicious beings; +I pass my days and my nights in beds of flowers, where they have been +concealed from the public view like the women of a harem. + +Who knows, except myself, the sweetness, the infatuation, the quivering, +carnal, ideal, superhuman ecstacy of these tendernesses; and those kisses +upon the bare flesh of a rose, upon the blushing flesh, upon the white +skin, so miraculously different, delicate, rare, subtle, unctuous, of +these adorable flowers! + +I have flower-beds that no one has seen except myself, and which I tend +myself. + +I enter there as one would glide into a place of secret pleasure. In the +lofty glass gallery, I pass first through a collection of enclosed +carollas, half open or in full bloom, which incline towards the ground, +or towards the roof. This is the first kiss they have given me. + +The flowers just mentioned, these flowers which adorn the vestibule of my +mysterious passions, are my servants and not my favorites. + +They salute me by the change of their color and by their first +inhalations. They are darlings, coquettes, arranged in eight rows to the +right, eight rows, the left, and so laid out that they look like two +gardens springing up from under my feet. + +My heart palpitates, my eyes flash at the sight of them; my blood rushes +through my veins, my soul is elated, and my hands tremble from desire as +soon as I touch them. I pass on. There are three closed doors at the +bottom of that gallery. I can make my choice of them. I have three +harems. + +But I enter most often the habitation of the orchids, my little +wheedlers, by preference. Their chamber is low, suffocating. The humid +and hot air make the skin moist, takes away the breath and causes the +fingers to quiver. They come, these strange girls, from a country marshy, +burning and unhealthy. They draw you towards them as do the sirens, are +as deadly as poison, admirably fantastic, enervating, dreadful. The +butterflies here would also seem to have enormous wings, tiny feet, and +eyes! Yes! they have also eyes! They look at me, they see me, prodigious, +incomparable beings, fairies, daughters of the sacred earth, of the +impalpable air, and of hot sun rays, that mother bountiful of the +universe. Yes, they have wings, they have eyes, and nuances that no +painter could imitate, every charm, every grace, every form that one +could dream of. These wombs are transverse, odoriferous and transparent, +ever open for love and more tempting than all the flesh of women. The +unimaginable designs of their little bodies inebriates the soul, and +transports it to a paradise of images and of voluptuous ideals. They +tremble upon their stems as though they would fly. When they do fly do +they come to me? No, it is my heart that hovers o'er them, like a mystic +male, tortured by love. + +No wing of any animal can keep pace with them. We are alone, they and I, +in the lighted prison which I have constructed for them. I regard them, I +contemplate them, I admire them, I adore them, the one after the other. + +How healthy, strong and rosy, a rosiness that moistens the lips of +desire! How I love them! The border is frizzled, paler than their throat, +where the carolla hides itself away; a mysterious mouth, seductive sugar +under the tongue, exhibiting and unveiling the delicate, admirable and +sacred organs of these divine little creatures which smell so exquisitely +and do not speak. + +I sometimes have a passion for some of them that lasts as long as their +existence, which only embraces a few days and nights. I then have them +taken away from the common gallery and enclosed in a pretty glass cabin, +in which there murmurs a jet of water over against a tropical gazon, +which has been brought from one of the Pacific Islands. And I remain +close to it, ardent, feverish and tormented, knowing that its death is +near, and watch it fading away, while that in thought, I possess it, +aspire to its love, drink it in, and then pluck its short life with an +inexpressible caress. + + * * * * * + +When he had finished the reading of these fragments, the advocate +continued: + +"Decency, gentlemen of the jury, hinders me from communicating to you the +extraordinary avowals of this shameless, idealistic fool. The fragments +that I have just submitted to you will be sufficient, in my opinion, to +enable you to appreciate this instance of mental malady, less rare in our +epoch of hysterical insanity and of corrupt decadence than most of us +believe. + +"I think, then, that my client is more entitled than any women whatever +to claim a divorce, in the exceptional circumstances in which the +disordered senses of her husband has placed her." + + + + +WHO KNOWS? + + +I + +My God! My God! I am going to write down at last what has happened to me. +But how can I? How dare I? The thing is so bizarre, so inexplicable, so +incomprehensible, so silly! + +If I were not perfectly sure of what I have seen, sure that there was not +in my reasoning any defect, no error in my declarations, no lacune in the +inflexible sequence of my observations, I should believe myself to be the +dupe of a simple hallucination, the sport of a singular vision. After +all, who knows? + +Yesterday I was in a private asylum, but I went there voluntarily, out of +prudence and fear. Only one single human being knows my history, and that +is the doctor of the said asylum. I am going to write to him. I really do +not know why? To disembarrass myself? For I feel as though I were being +weighed down by an intolerable nightmare. + +Let me explain. + +I have always been a recluse, a dreamer, a kind of isolated philosopher, +easy-going, content with but little, harboring ill-feeling against no +man, and without even having a grudge against heaven. I have constantly +lived alone, consequently, a kind of torture takes hold of me when I find +myself in the presence of others. How is this to be explained? I for one +cannot. I am not averse from going out into the world, from conversation, +from dining with friends, but when they are near me for any length of +time, even the most intimate friends, they bore me, fatigue me, enervate +me, and I experience an overwhelming torturing desire, to see them get up +to depart, or to take themselves away, and to leave me by myself. + +That desire is more than a craving; it is an irresistible necessity. And +if the presence of people, with whom I find myself, were to be continued; +if I were compelled, not only to listen, but also to follow, for any +length of time, their conversation, a serious accident would assuredly +take place. What kind of accident? Ah! who knows? Perhaps a slight +paralytic stroke? Yes, probably! + +I like so much to be alone that I cannot even endure the vicinage of +other beings sleeping under the same roof. I cannot live in Paris, +because when there I suffer the most acute agony. I lead a moral life, +and am therefore tortured in my body and in my nerves by that immense +crowd which swarms, which lives around even when it sleeps. Ah! the +sleeping of others is more painful still than their conversation. And I +can never find repose when I know, when I feel, that on the other side of +a wall, several existences are interrupted by these regular eclipses of +reason. + +Why am I thus? Who knows? The cause of it is perhaps very simple. I get +tired very soon with everything that does not emanate from me. And there +are many people in similar case. + +We are, on earth, two distinct races. Those who have need of others, +whom others distract, engage, soothe, whom solitude harasses, pains, +stupefies, like the forward movement of a terrible glacier, or the +traversing of the desert; and those, on the contrary, whom others weary, +tire, bore, silently torture, while isolation calms them, bathes them in +the repose of independency, and plunges them into the humors of their own +thoughts. In fine, there is here a normal, physical phenomenon. Some are +constituted to live a life without themselves, others, to live a life +within themselves. As for me, my exterior associations are abruptly and +painfully short-lived, and, as they reach their limits, I experience in +my whole body and in my whole intelligence, an intolerable uneasiness. + +As a result of this, I became attached, or rather, I had become much +attached to inanimate objects, which have for me the importance of +beings, and my house has become, had become, a world in which I lived an +active and solitary life, surrounded by all manner of things, furniture, +familiar knick-knacks, as sympathetic in my eyes as the visages of human +beings. I had filled my mansion with them, little by little, I had +adorned it with them, and I felt an inward content and satisfaction, was +more happy than if I had been in the arms of a desirable female, whose +wonted caresses had become a soothing and delightful necessity. + +I had had this house constructed in the center of a beautiful garden, +which hid it from the public highways, and which was near the entrance to +a city where I could find, on occasion, the resources of society, for +which, at moments, I had a longing. All my domestics slept in a separate +building which was situated at some considerable distance from my house, +at the far end of the kitchen garden, which was surrounded by a high +wall. The obscure envelopment of the nights, in the silence of my +invisible and concealed habitation, buried under the leaves of the great +trees, were so reposeful and so delicious, that I hesitated every +evening, for several hours, before I could retire to my couch, in order +to enjoy the solitude a little longer. + +One day _Signad_ had been played at one of the city theaters. It was the +first time that I had listened to that beautiful, musical, and fairy-like +drama, and I had derived from it the liveliest pleasures. + +I returned home on foot, with a light step, my head full of sonorous +phrases, and my mind haunted by delightful visions. It was night, the +dead of night, and so dark that I could hardly distinguish the broad +highway, and whence I stumbled into the ditch more than once. From the +custom's-house, at the barriers to my house, was about a mile, perhaps a +little more, or a leisurely walk of about twenty minutes. It was one +o'clock in the morning, one o'clock or maybe half-past one; the sky had +by this time cleared somewhat and the crescent appeared, the gloomy +crescent of the last quarter of the moon. The crescent of the first +quarter is, that which rises about five or six o'clock in the evening; +is clear, gay and fretted with silver; but the one which rises after +midnight is reddish, sad and desolating; it is the true Sabbath crescent. +Every prowler by night has made the same observation. The first, though +as slender as a thread, throws a faint joyous light which rejoices the +heart and lines the ground with distinct shadows; the last, sheds hardly +a dying glimmer, and is so wan that it occasions hardly any shadows. + +In the distance, I perceived the somber mass of my garden, and I know +not why I was seized with a feeling of uneasiness at the idea of going +inside. I slowed my pace, and walked very softly, the thick cluster of +trees having the appearance of a tomb in which my house was buried. + +I opened my outer gate, and I entered the long avenue of sycamores, which +ran in the direction of the house, arranged vault-wise like a high +tunnel, traversing opaque masses, and winding round the turf lawns, +on which baskets of flowers, in the pale darkness, could be indistinctly +discerned. + +In approaching the house, I was seized by a strange feeling, I could hear +nothing, I stood still. In the trees there was not even a breath of air. +"What is the matter with me then?" I said to myself. For ten years I had +entered and re-entered in the same way, without ever experiencing the +least inquietude. I never had any fear at nights. The sight of a man, +a marauder, or a thief, would have thrown me into a fit of anger, and I +would have rushed at him without any hesitation. Moreover, I was armed, I +had my revolver. But I did not touch it, for I was anxious to resist that +feeling of dread with which I was permeated. + +What was it? Was it a presentiment? That mysterious presentiment which +takes hold of the senses of men who have witnessed something which, to +them, is inexplicable? Perhaps? Who knows? + +In proportion as I advanced, I felt my skin quiver more and more, and +when I was close to the wall, near the outhouses of my vast residence, +I felt that it would be necessary for me to wait a few minutes before +opening the door and going inside. I sat down, then, on a bench, under +the windows of my drawing room. I rested there, a little fearful, with my +head leaning against the wall, my eyes wide open under the shade of the +foliage. For the first few minutes, I did not observe anything unusual +around me; I had a humming noise in my ears, but that happened often to +me. Sometimes it seemed to me that I heard trains passing, that I heard +clocks striking, that I heard a multitude on the march. + +Very soon, those humming noises became more distinct, more concentrated, +more determinable, I was deceiving myself. It was not the ordinary +tingling of my arteries which transmitted to my ears these rumbling +sounds, but it was a very distinct, though very confused, noise which +came, without any doubt whatever, from the interior of my house. I +distinguished through the walls this continued noise, I should rather say +agitation than noise, an indistinct moving about of a pile of things, as +if people were tossing about, displacing, and carrying away +surreptitiously all my furniture. + +I doubted, however, for some considerable time yet, the evidence of my +ears. But having placed my ear against one of the outhouses, the better +to discover what this strange disturbance was that was inside my house, +I became convinced, certain, that something was taking place in my +residence, which was altogether abnormal and incomprehensible. I had no +fear, but I was--how shall I express it--paralyzed by astonishment. I did +not draw my revolver, knowing very well that there was no need of my +doing so. I listened. + +I listened a long time, but could come to no resolution, my mind being +quite clear, though in myself I was naturally anxious. I got up and +waited, listening always to the noise, which gradually increased, and at +intervals grew very loud, and which seemed to become an impatient, angry +disturbance, a mysterious commotion. + +Then, suddenly, ashamed of my timidity, I seized my bunch of keys, I +selected the one I wanted, I guided it into the lock, turned it twice, +and, pushing the door with all my might, sent it banging against the +partition. + +The collision sounded like the report of a gun, and there responded to +that explosive noise, from roof to basement of my residence, a formidable +tumult. It was so sudden, so terrible, so deafening, that I recoiled +a few steps, and though I knew it to be wholly useless, I pulled my +revolver out of its case. + +I continued to listen for some time longer. I could distinguish now an +extraordinary pattering upon the steps of my grand staircase, on the +waxed floors, on the carpets, not of boots, nor of naked feet, but of +iron, and wooden crutches, which resounded like cymbals. Then I suddenly +discerned, on the threshold of my door, an arm chair, my large reading +easy chair, which set off waddling. It went away through my garden. +Others followed it, those of my drawing-room, then my sofas, dragging +themselves along like crocodiles on their short paws; then all my chairs, +bounding like goats, and the little footstools, hopping like rabbits. + +Oh! what a sensation! I slunk back into a clump of bushes where I +remained crouched up, watching, meanwhile, my furniture defile past, +for everything walked away, the one behind the other, briskly or slowly, +according to its weight or size. My piano, my grand piano, bounded past +with the gallop of a horse and a murmur of music in its sides; the +smaller articles slid along the gravel like snails, my brushes, crystal, +cups and saucers, which glistened in the moonlight. I saw my writing desk +appear, a rare curiosity of the last century, which contained all the +letters I had ever received, all the history of my heart, an old history +from which I have suffered so much! Besides, there was inside of it a +great many cherished photographs. + +Suddenly--I no longer had any fear--I threw myself on it, seized it as +one would seize a thief, as one would seize a wife about to run away; but +it pursued its irresistible course, and despite my efforts and despite my +anger, I could not even retard its pace. As I was resisting in +desperation that insuperable force, I was thrown to the ground in my +struggle with it. It then rolled me over, trailed me along the gravel, +and the rest of my furniture which followed it, began to march over me, +tramping on my legs and injuring them. When I loosed my hold, other +articles passed over my body, just as a charge of cavalry does over the +body of a dismounted soldier. + +Seized at last with terror, I succeeded in dragging myself out of the +main avenue, and in concealing myself again among the shrubbery, so as +to watch the disappearance of the most cherished objects, the smallest, +the least striking, the least unknown which had once belonged to me. + +I then heard, in the distance, noises which came from my apartments, +which sounded now as if the house were empty, a loud noise of shutting +of doors. They were being slammed from top to bottom of my dwelling, +even the door which I had just opened myself unconsciously, and which +had closed of itself, when the last thing had taken its departure. I +took flight also, running towards the city, and I only regained my +self-composure on reaching the boulevards, where I met belated people. +I rang the bell of a hotel where I was known. I had knocked the dust off +my clothes with my hands, and I told the porter how that I had lost my +bunch of keys, which included also that of the kitchen garden, where my +servants slept in a house standing by itself, on the other side of the +wall of the enclosure, which protected my fruits and vegetables from the +raids of marauders. + +I covered myself up to the eyes in the bed which was assigned to me; +but I could not sleep, and I waited for the dawn in listening to the +throbbing of my heart. I had given orders that my servants were to be +summoned to the hotel at daybreak, and my _valet de chambre_ knocked at +my door at seven o'clock in the morning. + +His countenance bore a woeful look. + +"A great misfortune has happened during the night, monsieur," said he. + +"What is it?" + +"Somebody has stolen the whole of monsieur's furniture, all, everything, +even to the smallest articles." + +This news pleased me. Why? Who knows? I was complete master of myself, +bent on dissimulating, on telling no one of anything I had seen; +determined on concealing and in burying in my heart of hearts, a +terrible secret. I responded: + +"They must then be the same people who have stolen my keys. The police +must be informed immediately. I am going to get up, and I will rejoin you +in a few moments." + +The investigation into the circumstances under which the robbery might +have been committed lasted for five months. Nothing was found, not +even the smallest of my knick-knacks, nor the least trace of the +thieves. Good gracious! If I had only told them what I knew.... If I +had said ... I had been locked up--I, not the thieves--and that I was +the only person who had seen everything from the first. + +Yes I but I knew how to keep silence. I shall never refurnish my house. +That were indeed useless. The same thing would happen again. I had no +desire even to re-enter the house, and I did not re-enter it; I never +visited it again. I went to Paris, to the hotel, and I consulted doctors +in regard to the condition of my nerves, which had disquieted me a good +deal ever since that fatal night. + +They advised me to travel, and I followed their council. + + +II + +I began by making an excursion into Italy. The sunshine did me much good. +During six months I wandered about from Genoa to Venice, from Venice to +Florence, from Florence to Rome, from Rome to Naples. Then I traveled +over Sicily, a country celebrated for its scenery and its monuments, +relics left by the Greeks and the Normans. I passed over into Africa, +I traversed at my ease that immense desert, yellow and tranquil, in which +the camels, the gazelles, and the Arab vagabonds, roam about, where, in +the rare and transparent atmosphere, there hovers no vague hauntings, +where there is never any night, but always day. + +I returned to France by Marseilles, and in spite of all the Provençal +gaiety, the diminished clearness of the sky made me sad. I experienced, +in returning to the continent, the peculiar sensation, of an illness +which I believed had been cured, and a dull pain which predicted that +the seeds of the disease had not been eradicated. + +I then returned to Paris. At the end of a month, I was very dejected. It +was in the autumn, and I wished to make, before the approach of winter, +an excursion through Normandy, a country with which I was unacquainted. + +I began my journey, in the best of spirits, at Rouen, and for eight days +I wandered about passive, ravished and enthusiastic, in that ancient +city, in that astonishing museum of extraordinary Gothic monuments. + +But, one afternoon, about four o'clock, as I was sauntering slowly +through a seemingly unattractive street, by which there ran a stream as +black as the ink called "Eau de Robec," my attention, fixed for the +moment on the quaint, antique appearance of some of the houses, was +suddenly turned away by the view of a series of second-hand furniture +shops, which succeeded one another, door after door. + +Ah! they had carefully chosen their locality, these sordid traffickers +in antiquaries, in that quaint little street, overlooking that sinister +stream of water, under those tile and slate-pointed roofs in which still +grinned the vanes of byegone days. + +At the end of these grim storehouses you saw piled up sculptured chests, +Rouen, Sévre, and Moustier's pottery, painted statues, others of oak, +Christs, Virgins, Saints, church ornaments, chasubles, capes, even sacred +vases, and an old gilded wooden tabernacle, where a god had hidden +himself away. Oh! What singular caverns are in those lofty houses, +crowded with objects of every description, where the existence of things +seems to be ended, things which have survived their original possessors, +their century, their times, their fashions, in order to be bought as +curiosities by new generations. + +My affection for bibelots was awakened in that city of antiquaries. I +went from shop to shop crossing, in two strides, the four plank rotten +bridges thrown over the nauseous current of the Eau de Robec. + +Heaven protect me! What a shock! One of my most beautiful wardrobes was +suddenly descried by me, at the end of a vault, which was crowded with +articles of every description and which seemed to be the entrance to some +catacombs of a cemetery of ancient furniture. I approached my wardrobe, +trembling in every limb, trembling to such an extent that I dare not +touch it. I put forth my hand, I hesitated. It was indeed my wardrobe, +nevertheless; a unique wardrobe of the time of Louis XIII., recognizable +by anyone who had only seen it once. Casting my eyes suddenly a little +farther, towards the more somber depths of the gallery, I perceived three +of my tapestry covered chairs; and farther on still, my two Henry II. +tables, such rare treasures that people came all the way from Paris to +see them. + +Think! only think in what a state of mind I now was! I advanced, +haltingly, quivering with emotion, but I advanced, for I am brave, +I advanced like a knight of the dark ages. + +I found, at every step, something that belonged to me; my brushes, my +books, my tables, my silks, my arms, everything, except the bureau full +of my letters, and that I could not discover. + +I walked on, descending to the dark galleries, in order to ascend next +to the floors above. I was alone, I called out, nobody answered, I was +alone; there was no one in that house--a house as vast and tortuous +as a labyrinth. + +Night came on, and I was compelled to sit down in the darkness on one +of my own chairs, for I had no desire to go away. From time to time I +shouted, "Hullo, hullo, somebody." + +I had sat there, certainly, for more than an hour, when I heard steps, +steps soft and slow, I knew not where, I was unable to locate them, but +bracing myself up, I called out anew, whereupon I perceived a glimmer +of light in the next chamber. + +"Who is there?" said a voice. + +"A buyer," I responded. + +"It is too late to enter thus into a shop." + +"I have been waiting for you for more than an hour," I answered. + +"You can come back to-morrow." + +"To-morrow I must quit Rouen." + +I dared not advance, and he did not come to me. I saw always the glimmer +of his light, which was shining on a tapestry on which were two angels +flying over the dead on a field of battle. It belonged to me also. I +said: + +"Well, come here." + +"I am at your service," he answered. + +I got up and went towards him. + +Standing in the center of a large room was a little man, very short and +very fat, phenomenally fat, a hideous phenomenon. + +He had a singular beard, straggling hair, white and yellow, and not a +hair on his head. Not a hair! + +As he held his candle aloft at arm's length in order to see me, his +cranium appeared to me to resemble a little moon, in that vast chamber, +encumbered with old furniture. His features were wrinkled and blown, and +his eyes could not be seen. + +I bought three chairs which belonged to myself, and paid at once a large +sum for them, giving him merely the number of my room at the hotel. They +were to be delivered the next day before nine o'clock. + +I then started off. He conducted me, with much politeness, as far as the +door. + +I immediately repaired to the commissaire's office at the central police +depot, and I told the commissaire of the robbery which had been +perpetrated and of the discovery I had just made. He required time to +communicate by telegraph with the authorities who had originally charge +of the case, for information, and he begged me to wait in his office +until an answer came back. An hour later, an answer came back, which was +in accord with my statements. + +"I am going to arrest and interrogate this man at once," he said to me, +"for he may have conceived some sort of suspicion, and smuggled away out +of sight what belongs to you. Will you go and dine and return in two +hours: I shall then have the man here, and I shall subject him to a fresh +interrogation in your presence." + +"Most gladly, monsieur. I thank you with my whole heart." + +I went to dine at my hotel and I ate better than I could have believed. +I was quite happy now; "that man was in the hands of the police," I +thought. + +Two hours later I returned to the office of the police functionary, who +was waiting for me. + +"Well, monsieur," said he, on perceiving me, "we have not been able to +find your man. My agents cannot put their hands on him." + +Ah! I felt myself sinking. + +"But ... you have at least found his house?" I asked. + +"Yes, certainly; and what is more, it is now being watched and guarded +until his return. As for him, he has disappeared." + +"Disappeared?" + +"Yes, disappeared. He ordinarily passes his evenings at the house of +a female neighbor, who is also a furniture broker, a queer sort of +sorceress, the widow Bidoin. She has not seen him this evening and cannot +give any information in regard to him. We must wait until to-morrow." + +I went away. Ah! how sinister the streets of Rouen seemed to me, now +troubled and haunted! + +I slept so badly that I had a fit of nightmare every time I went off to +sleep. + +As I did not wish to appear too restless or eager, I waited till 10 +o'clock the next day before reporting myself to the police. + +The merchant had not reappeared. His shop remained closed. + +The commissary said to me: + +"I have taken all the necessary steps. The court has been made acquainted +with the affair. We shall go together to that shop and have it opened, +and you shall point out to me all that belongs to you." + +We drove there in a cab. Police agents were stationed round the building; +there was a locksmith, too, and the door of the shop was soon opened. + +On entering, I could not discover my wardrobes, my chairs, my tables; I +saw nothing, nothing of that which had furnished my house, no, nothing, +although on the previous evening, I could not take a step without +encountering something that belonged to me. + +The chief commissary, much astonished, regarded me at first with +suspicion. + +"My God, monsieur," said I to him, "the disappearance of these articles +of furniture coincides strangely with that of the merchant." + +He laughed. + +"That is true. You did wrong in buying and paying for the articles which +were your own property, yesterday. It was that that gave him the cue." + +"What seems to me incomprehensible," I replied, "is, that all the places +that were occupied by my furniture are now filled by other furniture." + +"Oh!" responded the commissary, "he has had all night, and has no doubt +been assisted by accomplices. This house must communicate with its +neighbors. But have no fear, monsieur; I will have the affair promptly +and thoroughly investigated. The brigand shall not escape us for long, +seeing that we are in charge of the den." + + * * * * * + +Ah! My heart, my heart, my poor heart, how it beat! + +I remained a fortnight at Rouen. The man did not return. Heavens! good +heavens! That man, what was it that could have frightened and surprised +him! + +But, on the sixteenth day, early in the morning, I received from my +gardener, now the keeper of my empty and pillaged house, the following +strange letter: + + * * * * * + +Monsieur: + +I have the honor to inform monsieur, that there happened something, the +evening before last, which nobody can understand, and the police no more +than the rest of us. The whole of the furniture has been returned, not +one piece is missing--everything is in its place, up to the very smallest +article. The house is now the same in every respect as it was before the +robbery took place. It is enough to make one lose one's head. The thing +took place during the night Friday--Saturday. The roads are dug up as +though the whole barrier had been dragged from its place up to the door. +The same thing was observed the day after the disappearance of the +furniture. + +We are anxiously expecting monsieur, whose very humble and obedient +servant, I am, + +Raudin, Phillipe. + + * * * * * + +Ah! no, no, ah! never, never, ah! no. I shall never return there! + +I took the letter to the commissary of police. + +"It is a very dexterous restitution," said he. "Let us bury the hatchet. +We shall, however, nip the man one of these days." + +But he has never been nipped. No. They have not nipped him, and I am +afraid of him now, as though he were a ferocious animal that had been let +loose behind me. + +Inexplicable! It is inexplicable, this monster of a moon-struck skull! +We shall never get to comprehend it. I shall not return to my former +residence. What does it matter to me? I am afraid of encountering that +man again, and I shall not run the risk. + +I shall not risk it! I shall not risk it! I shall not risk it! + +And if he returns, if he takes possession of his shop, who is to prove +that my furniture was on his premises? There is only my testimony against +him; and I feel that that is not above suspicion. + +Ah! no! This kind of existence was no longer possible. I was not able to +guard the secret of what I had seen. I could not continue to live like +the rest of the world, with the fear upon me that those scenes might be +re-enacted. + +I have come to consult the doctor who directs this lunatic asylum, and +I have told him everything. + +After he had interrogated me for a long time, he said to me: + +"Will you consent, monsieur, to remain here for some time?" + +"Most willingly, monsieur." + +"You have some means?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Will you have isolated apartments?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Would you care to receive any friends?" + +"No, monsieur, no, nobody. The man from Rouen might take it into his head +to pursue me here to be revenged on me." + +And I have been alone, alone, all, all alone, for three months. I am +growing tranquil by degrees. I have no longer any fears. If the antiquary +should become mad ... and if he should be brought into this asylum! Even +prisons themselves are not places of security. + + + + +SIMON'S PAPA + + +Noon had just struck. The school-door opened and the youngsters tumbled +out rolling over each other in their haste to get out quickly. But +instead of promptly dispersing and going home to dinner as was their +daily wont, they stopped a few paces off, broke up into knots and set to +whispering. + +The fact was that that morning Simon, the son of La Blanchotte, had, for +the first time, attended school. + +They had all of them in their families heard talk of La Blanchotte; and, +although in public she was welcome enough, the mothers among themselves +treated her with compassion of a somewhat disdainful kind, which the +children had caught without in the least knowing why. + +As for Simon himself, they did not know him, for he never went +abroad, and did not go galloping about with them through the streets +of the village or along the banks of the river. Therefore, they loved +him but little; and it was with a certain delight, mingled with +considerable astonishment, that they met and that they recited to +each other this phrase, set afoot by a lad of fourteen or fifteen who +appeared to know all, all about it, so sagaciously did he wink. "You +know ... Simon ... well, he has no papa." + +La Blanchotte's son appeared in his turn upon the threshold of the +school. + +He was seven or eight years old. He was rather pale, very neat, with +a timid and almost awkward manner. + +He was on the point of making his way back to his mother's house when the +groups of his school-fellows perpetually whispering and watching him with +the mischievous and heartless eyes of children bent upon playing a nasty +trick, gradually surrounded him and ended by enclosing him altogether. +There he stood fixed amidst them, surprised and embarrassed, not +understanding what they were going to do with him. But the lad who had +brought the news, puffed up with the success he had met with already, +demanded: + +"How do you name yourself, you?" + +He answered: "Simon." + +"Simon what?" retorted the other. + +The child, altogether bewildered, repeated: "Simon." + +The lad shouted at him: "One is named Simon something ... that is not +a name ... Simon indeed." + +And he, on the brink of tears, replied for the third time: + +"I am named Simon." + +The urchins fell a-laughing. The lad triumphantly lifted up his voice: +"You can see plainly that he has no papa." + +A deep silence ensued. The children were dumbfounded by this +extraordinary, impossible monstrous thing--a boy who had not a papa; they +looked upon him as a phenomenon, an unnatural being, and they felt that +contempt, until then inexplicable, of their mothers for La Blanchotte +grow upon them. As for Simon, he had propped himself against a tree to +avoid falling and he remained as though struck to the earth by an +irreparable disaster. He sought to explain, but he could think of no +answer for them, to deny this horrible charge that he had no papa. At +last he shouted at them quite recklessly: "Yes, I have one." + +"Where is he?" demanded the boy. + +Simon was silent, he did not know. The children roared, tremendously +excited; and these sons of toil, most nearly related to animals, +experienced that cruel craving which animates the fowls of a farm-yard +to destroy one among themselves as soon as it is wounded. Simon suddenly +espied a little neighbor, the son of a widow, whom he had always seen, as +he himself was to be seen, quite alone with his mother. + +"And no more have you," he said, "no more have you a papa." + +"Yes," replied the other, "I have one." + +"Where is he?" rejoined Simon. + +"He is dead," declared the brat with superb dignity, "he is in the +cemetery, is my papa." + +A murmur of approval rose amidst the scapegraces, as if this fact of +possessing a papa dead in a cemetery had caused their comrade to grow big +enough to crush the other one who had no papa at all. And these rogues, +whose fathers were for the most part evil-doers, drunkards, thieves and +ill-treaters of their wives, hustled each other as they pressed closer +and closer, as though they, the legitimate ones, would stifle in their +pressure one who was beyond the law. + +He who chanced to be next Simon suddenly put his tongue out at him with +a waggish air and shouted at him: + +"No papa! No papa!" + +Simon seized him by the hair with both hands and set to work to demolish +his legs with kicks, while he bit his cheek ferociously. A tremendous +struggle ensued between the two combatants, and Simon found himself +beaten, torn, bruised, rolled on the ground in the middle of the ring of +applauding vagabonds. As he arose mechanically brushing his little blouse +all covered with dust with his hand, some one shouted at him: + +"Go and tell your Papa." + +He then felt a great sinking in his heart. They were stronger than he +was, they had beaten him and he had no answer to give them, for he knew +well that it was true that he had no Papa. Full of pride he attempted +for some moments to struggle against the tears which were suffocating +him. He had a choking fit, and then without cries he commenced to weep +with great sobs which shook him incessantly. Then a ferocious joy broke +out among his enemies, and, naturally, just as with savages in their +fearful festivals, they took each other by the hand and set about dancing +in a circle about him as they repeated as a refrain: + +"No Papa! No Papa!" + +But Simon quite suddenly ceased sobbing. Frenzy overtook him. There were +stones under his feet, he picked them up and with all his strength hurled +them at his tormentors. Two or three were struck and rushed off yelling, +and so formidable did he appear that the rest became panic stricken. +Cowards, as a crowd always is in the presence of an exasperated man, +they broke up and fled. Left alone, the little thing without a father set +off running towards the fields, for a recollection had been awakened +which brought his soul to a great determination. He made up his mind to +drown himself in the river. + +He remembered, in fact, that eight days before a poor devil who begged +for his livelihood, had thrown himself into the water because he had no +more money. Simon had been there when they had fished him out again; and +the sight of the fellow, who usually seemed to him so miserable, and +ugly, had then struck him--his pale cheeks, his long drenched beard and +his open eyes being full of calm. The bystanders had said: + +"He is dead." + +And someone had said: + +"He is quite happy now." + +And Simon wished to drown himself also because he had no father, just +like the wretched being who had no money. + +He reached the neighborhood of the water and watched it flowing. Some +fishes were sporting briskly in the clear stream and occasionally made +a little bound and caught the flies flying on the surface. He stopped +crying in order to watch them, for their housewifery interested him +vastly. But, at intervals, as in the changes of a tempest, altering +suddenly from tremendous gusts of wind, which snap off the trees and +then lose themselves in the horizon, this thought would return to him +with intense pain: + +"I am about to drown myself because I have no Papa." + +It was very warm and fine weather. The pleasant sunshine warmed the +grass. The water shone like a mirror. And Simon enjoyed some minutes the +happiness of that languor which follows weeping, in which he felt very +desirous of falling asleep there upon the grass in the warmth. + +A little green frog leapt from under his feet. He endeavored to catch it. +It escaped him. He followed it and lost it three times following. At last +he caught it by one of its hind legs and began to laugh as he saw the +efforts the creature made to escape. It gathered itself up on its large +legs and then with a violent spring suddenly stretched them out as stiff +as two bars; while, its eye wide open in its round, golden circle, it +beat the air with its front limbs which worked as though they were hands. +It reminded him of a toy made with straight slips of wood nailed zigzag +one on the other, which by a similar movement regulated the exercise of +the little soldiers stuck thereon. Then he thought of his home and next +of his mother, and overcome by a great sorrow he again began to weep. His +limbs trembled; and he placed himself on his knees and said his prayers +as before going to bed. But he was unable to finish them, for such +hurried and violent sobs overtook him that he was completely overwhelmed. +He thought no more, he no longer saw anything around him and was wholly +taken up in crying. + +Suddenly a heavy hand was placed upon his shoulder, and a rough voice +asked him: + +"What is it that causes you so much grief, my fine fellow?" + +Simon turned round. A tall workman with a black beard and hair all +curled, was staring at him good naturedly. He answered with his eyes +and throat full of tears: + +"They have beaten me ... because ... I ... have no ... Papa ... no +Papa." + +"What!" said the man smiling, "why everybody has one." + +The child answered painfully amidst his spasms of grief: + +"But I ... I ... I have none." + +Then the workman became serious. He had recognized La Blanchotte's son, +and although but recently come to the neighborhood he had a vague idea of +her history. + +"Well," said he, "console yourself my boy, and come with me home to your +mother. They will give you ... a Papa." + +And so they started on the way, the big one holding the little one by the +hand, and the man smiled afresh, for he was not sorry to see this +Blanchotte, who was, it was said, one of the prettiest girls of the +country-side, and, perhaps, he said to himself, at the bottom of his +heart, that a lass who had erred might very well err again. + +They arrived in front of a little and very neat white house. + +"There it is," exclaimed the child, and he cried "Mamma." + +A woman appeared and the workman instantly left off smiling, for he at +once perceived that there was no more fooling to be done with the tall +pale girl who stood austerely at her door as though to defend from one +man the threshold of that house where she had already been betrayed by +another. Intimidated, his cap in his hand, he stammered out: + +"See, madam, I have brought back your little boy who had lost himself +near the river." + +But Simon flung his arms about his mother's neck and told her, as he +again began to cry: + +"No, mamma, I wished to drown myself, because the others had beaten +me ... had beaten me ... because I have no Papa." + +A burning redness covered the young woman's cheeks, and, hurt to the +quick, she embraced her child passionately, while the tears coursed down +her face. The man, much moved, stood there, not knowing how to get away. +But Simon suddenly ran to him and said: + +"Will you be my Papa?" + +A deep silence ensued. La Blanchotte, dumb and tortured with shame, +leaned herself against the wall, both her hands upon her heart. The child +seeing that no answer was made him, replied: + +"If you do not wish it, I shall return to drown myself." + +The workman took the matter as a jest and answered laughing: + +"Why, yes, I wish it certainly." + +"What is your name, then?" went on the child, "so that I may tell the +others when they wish to know your name?" + +"Phillip," answered the man. + +Simon was silent a moment so that he might get the name well into his +head; then he stretched out his arms quite consoled as he said: + +"Well, then, Phillip, you are my Papa." + +The workman, lifting him from the ground kissed him hastily on both +cheeks, and then made off very quickly with great strides. + +When the child returned to school next day he was received with a +spiteful laugh, and at the end of school when the lads were on the point +of recommencing, Simon threw these words at their heads as he would +have done a stone: "He is named Phillip, my Papa." + +Yells of delight burst out from all sides. + +"Phillip who? ... Phillip what? What on earth is Phillip? Where did you +pick up your Phillip?" + +Simon answered nothing; and immovable in faith he defied them with his +eye, ready to be martyred rather than fly before them. The school-master +came to his rescue and he returned home to his mother. + +During three months, the tall workman, Phillip, frequently passed by the +Blanchotte's house, and sometimes he made bold to speak to her when he +saw her sewing near the window. She answered him civilly, always +sedately, never joking with him, nor permitting him to enter her house. +Notwithstanding which, being, like all men, a bit of a coxcomb, he +imagined that she was often rosier than usual when she chatted with him. + +But a fallen reputation is so difficult to recover and always remains so +fragile that, in spite of the shy reserve, La Blanchotte maintained they +already gossiped in the neighborhood. + +As for Simon, he loved his new Papa much, and walked with him nearly +every evening when the day's work was done. He went regularly to school +and mixed with great dignity with his school-fellows without ever +answering them back. + +One day, however, the lad who had first attacked him said to him: + +"You have lied. You have not a Papa named Phillip." + +"Why do you say that?" demanded Simon, much disturbed. + +The youth rubbed his hands. He replied: + +"Because if you had one he would be your mamma's husband." + +Simon was confused by the truth of this reasoning, nevertheless he +retorted: + +"He is my Papa all the same." + +"That can very well be," exclaimed the urchin with a sneer, "but that is +not being your Papa altogether." + +La Blanchotte's little one bowed his head and went off dreaming in the +direction of the forge belonging to old Loizon, where Phillip worked. + +This forge was as though entombed in trees. It was very dark there, the +red glare of a formidable furnace alone lit up with great flashes five +blacksmiths, who hammered upon their anvils with a terrible din. They +were standing enveloped in flame, like demons, their eyes fixed on the +red-hot iron they were pounding; and their dull ideas rose and fell with +their hammers. + +Simon entered without being noticed and went quietly to pluck his friend +by the sleeve. He turned himself round. All at once the work came to a +standstill and all the men looked on very attentive. Then, in the midst +of this unaccustomed silence, rose the little slender pipe of Simon: + +"Phillip, explain to me what the lad at La Michande has just told me, +that you are not altogether my Papa." + +"And why that?" asked the smith. + +The child replied with all its innocence: + +"Because you are not my mamma's husband." + +No one laughed. Philip remained standing, leaning his forehead upon +the back of his great hands, which supported the handle of his hammer +standing upright upon the anvil. He mused. His four companions watched +him, and, quite a tiny mite among these giants, Simon anxiously waited. +Suddenly, one of the smiths, answering to the sentiment of all, said to +Phillip: + +"La Blanchotte is all the same a good and honest girl, and stalwart and +steady in spite of her misfortune, and one who would make a worthy wife +for a honest man." + +"That is true," remarked the three others. + +The smith continued: + +"Is it this girl's fault if she has fallen? She had been promised +marriage and I know more than one who is much respected to-day, and who +sinned every bit as much." + +"That is true," responded the three men in chorus. + +He resumed: + +"How hard she has toiled, poor thing, to educate her lad all alone, and +how much she has wept since she no longer goes out, save to go to church, +God only knows." + +"This also is true," said the others. + +Then no more was heard than the bellows which fanned the fire of the +furnace. Phillip hastily bent himself down to Simon: + +"Go and tell your mamma that I shall come to speak to her." + +Then he pushed the child out by the shoulders. He returned to his work +and with a single blow the five hammers again fell upon their anvils. +Thus they wrought the iron until nightfall, strong, powerful, happy, +like hammers satisfied. But just as the great bell of a cathedral +resounds upon feast days above the jingling of the other bells, so +Phillip's hammer, dominating the noise of the others, clanged second +after second with a deafening uproar. And he, his eye on fire, plied his +trade vigorously, erect amid the sparks. + +The sky was full of stars as he knocked at La Blanchotte's door. He had +his Sunday blouse on, a fresh shirt, and his beard was trimmed. The young +woman showed herself upon the threshold and said in a grieved tone: + +"It is ill to come thus when night has fallen, Mr. Phillip." + +He wished to answer, but stammered and stood confused before her. + +She resumed: + +"And still you understand quite well that it will not do that I should be +talked about any more." + +Then he said all at once: + +"What does that matter to me, if you will be my wife!" + +No voice replied to him, but he believed that he heard in the shadow of +the room the sound of a body which sank down. He entered very quickly; +and Simon, who had gone to his bed, distinguished the sound of a kiss and +some words that his mother said very softly. Then he suddenly found +himself lifted up by the hands of his friend, who, holding him at the +length of his herculean arms, exclaimed to him: + +"You will tell them, your school-fellows, that your papa is Phillip Remy, +the blacksmith, and that he will pull the ears of all who do you any +harm." + +On the morrow, when the school was full and lessons were about to begin, +little Simon stood up quite pale with trembling lips: + +"My papa," said he in a clear voice, "is Phillip Remy, the blacksmith, +and he has promised to box the ears of all who do me any harm." + +This time no one laughed any longer, for he was very well known, was +Phillip Remy, the blacksmith, and was a papa of whom anyone in the world +would have been proud. + + + + +PAUL'S MISTRESS + + +The Restaurant Grillon, a small commonwealth of boatmen, was slowly +emptying. In front of the door all was a tumult of cries and calls, +while the jolly dogs in white flannels gesticulated with oars on their +shoulders. + +The ladies in bright spring toilets stepped aboard the skiffs with +care, and seating themselves astern, arranged their dresses, while the +landlord of the establishment, a mighty individual with a red beard, +of renowned strength, offered his hand to the pretty dears, with great +self-possession, keeping the frail craft steady. + +The rowers, bare-armed, with bulging chests, took their places in their +turn, posing for their gallery, as they did so, a gallery consisting of +middle class people dressed in their Sunday clothes, of workmen and +soldiers leaning upon their elbows on the parapet of the bridge, all +taking a great interest in the sight. + +The boats one by one cast off from the landing stage. The oarsmen bent +themselves forward and then threw themselves backwards with an even +swing, and under the impetus of the long curved oars, the swift skiffs +glided along the river, got far away, grew smaller and finally +disappeared under the other bridge, that of the railway, as they +descended the stream towards La Grenouillère. One couple only remained +behind. The young man, still almost beardless, slender, and of pale +countenance, held his mistress, a thin little brunette, with the gait of +a grasshopper, by the waist; and occasionally they gazed into each others +eyes. The landlord shouted: + +"Come, Mr. Paul, make haste," and they drew near. + +Of all the guests of the house, Mr. Paul was the most liked and most +respected. He paid well and punctually, while the others hung back for +a long time, if indeed they did not vanish insolvent. Besides which he +acted as a sort of walking advertisement for the establishment, inasmuch +as his father was a senator. And when a stranger would inquire: "Who on +earth is that little chap who thinks so much of himself because of his +girl?" some habituè would reply, half-aloud, with a mysterious and +important air: "Don't you know? That is Paul Baron, a senator's son." + +And invariably the other could not restrain himself from exclaiming: + +"Poor devil! He is not half mashed." + +Mother Grillon, a worthy and good business woman, described the young man +and his companion as "her two turtle-doves," and appeared quite moved by +this passion, profitable for her house. + +The couple advanced at a slow pace; the skiff, Madeleine, was ready, when +at the moment of embarking therein they kissed each other, which caused +the public collected on the bridge to laugh, and Mr. Paul taking the +oars, they left also for La Grenonillère. + +When they arrived it was just upon three o'clock and the large floating +café overflowed with people. + +The immense raft, sheltered by a tarpaulin roof, is attached to the +charming island of Croissy by two narrow foot bridges, one of which leads +into the center of this aquatic establishment, while the other unites its +end with a tiny islet planted with a tree and surnamed "The Flower Pot," +and thence leads to land near the bath office. + +Mr. Paul made fast his boat alongside the establishment, climbed over the +railing of the café and then grasping his mistress's hand assisted her +out of the boat and they both seated themselves at the end of a table +opposite each other. + +On the opposite side of the river along the market road, a long string of +vehicles was drawn up. Fiacres alternated with the fine carriages of the +swells; the first, clumsy, with enormous bodies crushing the springs, +drawn by a broken down hack with hanging head and broken knees; the +second, slightly built on light wheels, with horses slender and straight, +their heads well up, their bits snowy with foam, while the coachman, +solemn in his livery, his head erect in his high collar, waited bolt +upright, his whip resting on his knee. + +The bank was covered with people who came off in families, or in gangs, +or two by two, or alone. They plucked blades of grass, went down to the +water, remounted the path, and all having attained the same spot, stood +still awaiting the ferryman. The clumsy punt plied incessantly from bank +to bank, discharging its passengers on to the island. The arm of the +river (named the Dead Arm) upon which this refreshment wharf lay, +appeared asleep, so feeble was the current. Fleets of yawls, of skiffs, +of canoes, of podoscaphs (a light boat propelled by wheels set in motion +by a treadle), of gigs, of craft of all forms and of all kinds, crept +about upon the motionless stream, crossing each other, intermingling, +running foul of one another, stopping abruptly under a jerk of the arms +to shoot off afresh under a sudden strain of the muscles gliding swiftly +along like great yellow or red fishes. + +Others arrived incessantly; some from Chaton up the stream; others from +Bougival down it; laughter crossed the water from one boat to another, +calls, admonitions or imprecations. The boatmen exposed the bronzed and +knotted flesh of their biceps to the heat of the day; and similar to +strange flowers, which floated, the silk parasols, red, green, blue, or +yellow, of the ladies seated near the helm, bloomed in the sterns of the +boats. + +A July sun flamed high in the heavens; the atmosphere seemed full of +burning merriment: not a breath of air stirred the leaves of the willows +or poplars. + +Down there the inevitable Mont-Valerien erected its fortified ramparts, +tier above tier, in the intense light; while on the right the divine +slopes of Louveniennes following the bend of the river disposed +themselves in a semi-circle, displaying in their order across the rich +and shady lawns, of large gardens, the white walls of country seats. + +Upon the outskirts of La Grenonillère a crowd of promenaders moved about +beneath the giant trees which make this corner of the island the most +delightful park in the world. + +Women and girls with breasts developed beyond all measurement, with +exaggerated bustles, their complexions plastered with rouge, their eyes +daubed with charcoal, their lips blood-red, laced up, rigged out in +outrageous dresses--trailed the crying bad taste of their toilets over +the fresh green sward; while beside them young men postured in their +fashion-plate accouterments with light gloves, varnished boots, canes, +the size of a thread, and single eye-glasses punctuating the insipidity +of their smiles. + +The island is narrow opposite La Grenonillère, and on its other side, +where also a ferry-boat plies, bringing people unceasingly across from +Croissy, the rapid branch of the river, full of whirlpools and eddies and +foam, rushes along with the strength of a torrent. + +A detachment of pontoon-soldiers, in the uniform of artillerymen, is +encamped upon this bank, and the soldiers seated in a row on a long beam +watched the water flowing. + +In the floating establishment there was a boisterous and uproarious +crowd. The wooden tables upon which the spilt refreshments made little +sticky streams, were covered with half empty glasses and surrounded by +half tipsy individuals. All this crowd shouted, sang and brawled. The +men, their hats at the backs of their heads, their faces red, with the +brilliant eyes of drunkards, moved about vociferously in need of a row +natural to brutes. The women, seeking their prey for the night, caused +themselves to be treated, in the meantime; and in the free space between +the tables, the ordinary local public predominated a whole regiment of +boatmen, _Rowkickersup_, with their companions in short flannel +petticoats. + +One of them carried on at the piano and appeared to play with his feet +as well as his hands; four couples bounded through a quadrille, and some +young men watched them, polished and correct, who would have looked +proper, if in spite of all, vice itself had appeared. + +For there, one tastes in full all the pomp and vanity of the world, all +its well bred debauchery, all the seamy side of Parisian society; a +mixture of counter-jumpers, of strolling players, of the lowest +journalists, of gentlemen in tutelage, of rotten stock-jobbers, of +ill-famed debauchées, of used-up old, fast men; a doubtful crowd of +suspicious characters, half-known, half gone under, half-recognized, +half-cut, pickpockets, rogues, procurers of women, sharpers with +dignified manners, and a bragging air, which seems to say: "I shall +rend the first who treats me as a scoundrel." + +This place reeks of folly, stinks of the scum and the gallantry of the +shops. Male and female there give themselves airs. There dwells an odor +of love, and there one fights for a yes, or for a no, in order to sustain +a worm-eaten reputation, which a stroke of the sword or a pistol bullet +would destroy further. + +Some of the neighboring inhabitants looked in out of curiosity every +Sunday; some young men, very young, appeared there every year to learn +how to live, some promenaders lounging about showed themselves there; +some greenhorns wandered thither. It is with good reason named La +Grenonillère. At the side of the covered wharf where they drank, and +quite close to the Flower Pot, people bathed. Those among the women +who possessed the requisite roundness of form came there to display their +wares naked and to make clients. The rest, scornful, although well filled +out with wadding, shored up with springs, corrected here and altered +there, watched their sisters dabbling with disdain. + +The swimmers crowded on to a little platform to dive thence head +foremost. They are either straight like vine poles, or round like +pumpkins, gnarled like olive branches, they are bowed over in front, +or thrown backwards by the size of their stomachs and are invariably +ugly, they leap into the water which splashes almost over the drinkers +in the café. + +Notwithstanding the great trees which overhang the floating-house, and +notwithstanding the vicinity of the water a suffocating heat fills the +place. The fumes of the spilt liquors mix with the effluvium of the +bodies and with that of the strong perfumes with which the skin of the +traders in love is saturated and which evaporate in this furnace. But +beneath all these diverse scents a slight aroma of vice-powder lingered, +which now disappeared and then reappeared, which one was perpetually +encountering as though some concealed hand had shaken an invisible +powder-puff in the air. The show was upon the river whither the perpetual +coming and going of the boats attracts the eyes. The boatwomen sprawled +upon their seats opposite their strong-wristed males, and contemplated +with contempt the dinner hunters prowling about the island. + +Sometimes when a train of boats, just started, passed at full speed, the +friends who stayed ashore gave shouts, and all the people suddenly seized +with madness set to work yelling. + +At the bend of the river towards Chaton fresh boats showed themselves +unceasingly. They came nearer and grew larger, and if only faces were +recognized, the vociferations broke out anew. + +A canoe covered with an awning and manned by four women came slowly down +the current. She who rowed was little, thin, faded, in a cabin boy's +costume, her hair drawn up under an oil-skin cap. Opposite her, a lusty +blonde, dressed as a man, with a white flannel jacket, lay upon her back +at the bottom of the boat, her legs in the air, on the seat at each side +of the rower, and she smoked a cigarette, while at each stroke of the +oars, her chest and stomach quivered, shaken by the shock. Quite at the +back, under the awning, two handsome girls, tall and slender, one dark +and the other fair, held each other by the waist as they unceasingly +watched their companions. + +A cry arose from La Grenonillère, "There is Lesbos," and there became all +at once a furious clamor; a terrifying scramble took place; the glasses +were knocked down; people clambered on to the tables; all in a frenzy of +noise bawled: "Lesbos! Lesbos! Lesbos!" The shout rolled along, became +indistinct, was no longer more than a kind of tremendous howl, and then +suddenly it seemed to start anew, to rise into space, to cover the plain, +to fill the foliage of the great trees, to extend itself to the distant +slopes, to go even to the sun. + +The rower, in the face of this ovation, had quietly stopped. The handsome +blonde extended upon the bottom of the boat, turned her head with a +careless air, as she raised herself upon her elbows; and the two girls +at the back commenced laughing as they saluted the crowd. + +Then the hullaballoo was doubled, making the floating establishment +tremble. The men took off their hats, the women waved their +handkerchiefs, and all voices, shrill or deep, together cried: + +"Lesbos." + +One would have said that these people, this collection of the corrupt, +saluted a chief like the squadrons which fire guns when an admiral passes +along the line. + +The numerous fleet of boats also acclaimed the women's boat, which awoke +from its sleepy motion to land rather farther off. + +Mr. Paul, contrary to the others, had drawn a key from his pocket and +whistled with all his might. His nervous mistress grew paler, caught him +by the arm to cause him to be quiet, and upon this occasion she looked +at him with fury in her eyes. But he appeared exasperated, as though +borne away by jealousy of some man by deep anger, instinctive and +ungovernable. He stammered, his lips quivering with indignation: + +"It is shameful! They ought to be drowned like dogs with a stone about +the neck." + +But Madeleine instantly flew into a rage; her small and shrill voice +became hissing, and she spoke volubly, as though pleading her own cause: + +"And what has it to do with you--you indeed? Are they not at liberty to +do what they wish since they owe nobody anything. A truce with your airs +and mind your own business...." + +But he cut her speech short: + +"It is the police whom it concerns, and I will have them marched off to +St. Lazare; so I will." + +She gave a start: + +"You?" + +"Yes, I! And in the meantime I forbid you to speak to them, you +understand, I forbid you to do so." + +Then she shrugged her shoulders and grew calm in a moment: + +"My friend, I shall do as I please; if you are not satisfied, be off, and +instantly. I am not your wife, am I? Very well then, hold your tongue." + +He made no reply and they stood face to face, their mouths tightly closed +and their breathing rapid. + +At the other end of the great café of wood the four women made their +entry. The two in men's costumes marched in front: the one thin like an +oldish tomboy, with yellow lines on her temples; the other filled out her +white flannel garments with her fat, swelling out her big trousers with +her buttocks; she swayed about like a fat goose with enormous legs and +yielding knees. Their two friends followed them, and the crowd of boatmen +thronged about to shake their hands. + +They had all four hired a small cottage close to the water's edge, and +they lived there as two households would have lived. + +Their vice was public, recognized, patent. People talked of it as a +natural thing, which almost excited their sympathy, and whispered in +very low tones strange stories of dramas begotten of furious feminine +jealousies, of the stealthy visit of well-known women and of actresses +to the little house close to the water's edge. + +A neighbor, horrified by these scandalous rumors, apprised the police, +and the inspector, accompanied by a man, had come to make inquiry. The +mission was a delicate one; it was impossible, in short, to reproach +these women, who did not abandon themselves to prostitution with +anything. The inspector, very much puzzled, indeed, ignorant of the +nature of the offenses suspected, had asked questions at random, and +made a lofty report conclusive of their innocence. + +They laughed about it all the way to St. Germain. They walked about La +Grenonillère establishment with stately steps like queens; and seemed to +glory in their fame, rejoicing in the gaze that was fixed on them, so +superior to this crowd, to this mob, to these plebeians. + +Madeleine and her lover watched them approach and in the girl's eyes a +fire lightened. + +When the two first had reached the end of the table, Madeleine cried: + +"Pauline!" + +The large woman turned herself and stopped, continuing all the time to +hold the arm of her feminine cabin boy: + +"Good gracious, Madeleine.... Do come and talk to me, my dear." + +Paul squeezed his fingers upon his mistress's wrist; but she said to him, +with such an air: + +"You know, my fine fellow, you can be off;" he said nothing and remained +alone. + +Then they chatted in low voices, standing all three of them. Many +pleasant jests passed their lips, they spoke quickly; and Pauline looked +now and then at Paul, by stealth, with a shrewd and malicious smile. + +At last, putting up with it no longer, he suddenly raised himself and in +a single bound was at their side, trembling in every limb. He seized +Madeleine by the shoulders: + +"Come. I wish it," said he. "I have forbidden you to speak to these +scoundrels." + +Whereupon Pauline raised her voice and set to work blackguarding him with +her Billingsgate vocabulary. All the bystanders laughed; they drew near +him; they raised themselves on tiptoe in order the better to see him. He +remained dumbfounded under this downpour of filthy abuse. It appeared to +him that these words, which came from that mouth and fell upon him, +defiled him like dirt, and, in presence of the row which was beginning, +he fell back, retraced his steps, and rested his elbows on the railing +towards the river, turning his back upon the three victorious women. + +There he stayed watching the water, and sometimes with rapid gesture as +though he plucked it out, he removed with his sinewy fingers the tear +which had formed in his eye. + +The fact was that he was hopelessly in love, without knowing why, +notwithstanding his refined instincts, in spite of his reason, in spite, +indeed, of his will. He had fallen into this love as one falls into a +sloughy hole. Of a tender and delicate disposition, he had dreamed of +liaisons, exquisite, ideal and impassioned, and there that little bit of +a woman, stupid like all girls, with an exasperating stupidity, not even +pretty, thin and a spitfire, had taken him prisoner, possessing him from +head to foot, body and soul. He underwent this feminine bewitchery, +mysterious and all powerful, this unknown power, this prodigious +domination, arising no one knows whence, from the demon of the flesh, +which casts the most sensible man at the feet of some girl or other +without there being anything in her to explain her fatal and sovereign +power. + +And there at his back he felt that some infamous thing was brewing. +Shouts of laughter cut him to the heart. What should he do? He knew well, +but he could not do it. + +He steadily watched an angler upon the bank opposite him, and his +motionless line. + +Suddenly, the worthy man jerked a little silver fish, which wriggled at +the end of his line, out of the river. Then he endeavored to extract his +hook, hoisted and turned it, but in vain. At last, losing patience, he +commenced to pull it out, and all the bleeding gullet of the beast, with +a portion of its intestines, came out. Paul shuddered, rent himself to +his heart-strings. It seemed to him that the hook was his love and that +if he should pluck it out, all that he had in his breast would come +out in the same way at the end of a curved iron fixed in the depths of +his being, of which Madeleine held the line. + +A hand was placed upon his shoulder; he started and turned; his mistress +was at his side. They did not speak to each other; and she rested, like +him, with her elbows upon the railing, her eyes fixed upon the river. + +He sought for what he ought to say to her and could find nothing. He did +not even arrive at disentangling his own emotions; all that he was +sensible of was joy at feeling her there close to him, come back again, +and a shameful cowardice, a craving to pardon everything, to permit +everything, provided she never left him. + +At last, at the end of some minutes, he asked her in a very gentle voice: + +"Do you wish that we should leave? It will be nicer in the boat." + +She answered: "Yes, my puss." + +And he assisted her into the skiff, pressing her hands, all softened, +with some tears still in his eyes. Then she looked at him with a smile +and they kissed each other anew. + +They re-ascended the river very slowly, skirting the bank planted with +willows, covered with grass, bathed and still in the afternoon warmth. +When they had returned to the Restaurant Grillon, it was barely six +o'clock. Then leaving their boat they set off on foot on the island +towards Bezons, across the fields and along the high poplars which +bordered the river. The long grass ready to be mowed was full of flowers. +The sun, which was sinking, showed himself from beneath a sheet of red +light, and in the tempered heat of the closing day the floating +exhalations from the grass, mingled with the damp scents from the river, +filled the air with a soft languor, with a happy light, as though with a +vapor of well-being. + +A soft weakness overtakes the heart, and a species of communion with this +splendid calm of evening, with this vague and mysterious chilliness of +outspread life, with the keen and melancholy poetry which seems to arise +from flowers and things, develops itself revealed at this sweet and +pensive time to the senses. + +He felt all that; but she did not understand anything of it, for her +part. They walked side by side; and, suddenly tired of being silent, she +sang. She sang with her shrill and false voice, something which pervaded +the streets, an air catching the memory, which rudely destroyed the +profound and serene harmony of the evening. + +Then he looked at her and he felt an unsurpassable abyss between them. +She beat the grass with her parasol, her head slightly inclined, +contemplating her feet and singing, spinning out the notes, attempting +trills, and venturing on shakes. Her smooth little brow, of which he was +so fond, was at that time absolutely empty! empty! There was nothing +therein but this music of a bird-organ; and the ideas which formed there +by chance were like this music. She did not understand anything of him; +they were now separated as if they did not live together. Did then his +kisses never go any further than her lips? + +Then she raised her eyes to him and laughed again. He was moved to the +quick and, extending his arms in a paroxysm of love, he embraced her +passionately. + +As he was rumpling her dress she ended by disengaging herself, murmuring +by way of compensation as she did so: + +"Go; I love you well, my puss." + +But he seized her by the waist and seized by madness, carried her rapidly +away. He kissed her on the cheek, on the temple, on the neck, all the +while dancing with joy. They threw themselves down panting at the edge of +a thicket, lit up by the rays of the setting sun, and before they had +recovered breath they became friends again without her understanding his +transport. + +They returned, holding each other by the hand, when suddenly, across the +trees, they perceived on the river, the canoe manned by the four women. +The large Pauline also saw them, for she drew herself up and blew kisses +to Madeleine. And then she cried: + +"Until to-night!" + +Madeleine replied: + +"Until to-night!" + +Paul believed he suddenly felt his heart enveloped in ice. + +They re-entered the house for dinner. + +They installed themselves in one of the arbors, close to the water, and +set about eating in silence. When night arrived, they brought a candle +inclosed in a glass globe, which lit them up with a feeble and glimmering +light; and they heard every moment the bursting out of the shouts of the +boatmen in the great saloon on the first floor. + +Towards dessert, Paul, taking Madeleine's hand, tenderly said to her: + +"I feel very tired, my darling; unless you have any objection, we will go +to bed early." + +She, however, understood the ruse, and shot an enigmatical glance at him, +that glance of treachery which so readily appears at the bottom of a +woman's eyes. Then having reflected she answered: + +"You can go to bed if you wish, but I have promised to go to the ball at +La Grenonillère." + +He smiled in a piteous manner, one of those smiles with which one veils +the most horrible suffering, but he replied in a coaxing but agonized +tone: + +"If you were very kind, we should remain here, both of us." + +She indicated no with her head, without opening her mouth. + +He insisted: + +"I beg of you, my Bichette." + +Then she roughly broke out: + +"You know what I said to you. If you are not satisfied the door is open. +No one wishes to keep you. As for myself, I have promised; I shall go." + +He placed his two elbows upon the table, covered his face with his hands +and remained there pondering sorrowfully. + +The boat people came down again, bawling as usual. They set off in their +vessels for the ball at La Grenonillère. + +Madeleine said to Paul: + +"If you are not coming, say so, and I will ask one of these gentlemen to +take me." + +Paul rose: + +"Let us go!" murmured he. + +And they left. + +The night was black, full of stars, overpowered by a burning air, by +oppressive breaths of wind, burdened with heat and emanations, with +living germs, which, mixed with the breeze, destroyed its freshness. It +imparted to the face a heated caress, made one breathe more quickly, gasp +a little, so thick and heavy did it seem. The boats started on their way +bearing venetian lanterns at the prow. It was not possible to distinguish +the craft, but only these little colored lights, swift and dancing up and +down like glow-worms in a fit; and voices sounded from all sides in the +shade. The young people's skiff glided gently along. Now and then, when a +fast boat passed near them, they could, for a moment, see the white back +of the rower, lit up by his lantern. + +When they turned the elbow of the river, La Grenonillère appeared to them +in the distance. The establishment, en fête, was decorated with sconces, +with colored garlands draped with clusters of lights. On the Seine some +great barges moved about slowly, representing domes, pyramids and +elaborate erections in fires of all colors. Illuminated festoons hung +right down to the water, and sometimes a red or blue lantern, at the end +of an immense invisible fishing-rod, seemed like a great swinging star. + +All this illumination spread a light around the café, lit up the great +trees on the bank, from top to bottom, the trunks of which stood out in +pale gray and the leaves in a milky green upon the deep black of the +fields and the heavens. The orchestra, composed of five suburban artists, +flung far its public-house ball-music, poor and jerky, which caused +Madeleine to sing anew. + +She desired to enter at once. Paul desired first to take a turn on the +island, but he was obliged to give way. The attendance was more select. +The boatmen, always alone, remained with some thinly scattered citizens, +and some young men flanked by girls. The director and organizer of this +can-can majestic, in a jaded black suit, walked about in every direction, +his head laid waste by his old trade of purveyor of public amusements, +at a cheap rate. + +The large Pauline and her companions were not there; and Paul breathed +again. + +They danced; couples opposite each other, capered in the most distracted +manner, throwing their legs in the air, until they were upon a level with +the noses of their partners. + +The women, whose thighs were disjointed, skipped amid such a flying +upwards of their petticoats that the lower portions of their frames were +displayed. They kicked their feet up above their heads with astounding +facility, balanced their bodies, wagged their backs and shook their +sides, shedding around them a powerful scent of sweating womanhood. + +The men were squatted like toads, some making obscene signs; some turned +and twisted themselves, grimacing and hideous; some turned like a wheel +on their hands, or, perhaps, trying to make themselves funny, sketched +the manners of the day with exaggerated gracefulness. + +A fat servant-maid and two waiters served refreshments. + +This café-boat being only covered with a roof and having no wall +whatever, to shut it in, the hare-brained dance was displayed in the face +of the peaceful night and of the firmament powdered with stars. + +Suddenly, Mount Valerien, yonder opposite, appears illumined, as if a +conflagration had been set ablaze behind it. The radiance spreads itself +and deepens upon the sky, describing a large luminous circle of wan and +white light. Then something or other red appeared, grew greater, shining +with a burning red, like that of hot metal upon the anvil. That gradually +developed into a round body which seemed to arise from the earth; and the +moon, freeing herself from the horizon, rose slowly into space. In +proportion as she ascended, the purple tint faded and became yellow, +a shining bright yellow, and the satellite appeared to grow smaller in +proportion as her distance increased. + +Paul watched her for sometime, lost in contemplation, forgetting his +mistress, and when he returned to himself the latter had vanished. + +He sought for her, but could not find her. He threw his anxious eye over +table after table, going to and fro unceasingly, inquiring after her from +this one and that one. No one had seen her. He was thus tormented with +disquietude, when one of the waiters said to him: + +"You are looking for Madame Madeleine, are you not? She has left but +a few moments ago, in company with Madame Pauline." And at the same +instant, Paul perceived the cabin-boy and the two pretty girls standing +at the other end of the café, all three holding each others' waists and +lying in wait for him, whispering to one another. He understood, and, +like a madman, dashed off into the island. + +He first ran towards Chatou, but having reached the plain, retraced his +steps. Then he began to search the dense coppices, occasionally roamed +about distractedly, halting to listen. + +The toads all round about him poured out their metallic and short notes. + +Towards Bougival, some unknown bird warbled some song which reached him +from the distance. + +Over the large lawns the moon shed a soft light, resembling powdered +wool; it penetrated the foliage and shone upon the silvered bark of the +poplars, and riddled with its brilliant rays the waving tops of the +great trees. The entrancing poetry of this summer night had, in spite of +himself, entered into Paul, athwart his infatuated anguish, and stirred +his heart with a ferocious irony, increasing even to madness, his craving +for an ideal tenderness, for passionate outpourings of the bosom of an +adored and faithful woman. He was compelled to stop, choked by hurried +and rending sobs. + +The crisis over, he started anew. + +Suddenly, he received what resembled the stab of a poignard. There, +behind that bush, some people were kissing. He ran thither; and found an +amorous couple whose faces were entwined, united in an endless kiss. + +He dared not call, knowing well that she would not respond, and he had +also a frightful dread of discovering them all at once. + +The flourishes of the quadrilles, with the ear-splitting solos of the +cornet, the false shriek of the flute, the shrill squeaking of the +violin, irritated his feelings, and exasperated his sufferings. Wild and +limping music was floating under the trees, now feeble, now stronger, +wafted hither and thither by the breeze. + +Suddenly, he said to himself, that possibly she had returned. Yes, she +had returned! Why not? He had stupidly lost his head, without cause, +carried away by his fears, by the inordinate suspicions which had for +some time overwhelmed him. + +Seized by one of these singular calms which will sometimes occur in cases +of the greatest despair, he returned towards the ball-room. + +With a single glance of the eye, he took in the whole room. He made the +round of the tables, and abruptly again found himself face to face with +the three women. He must have had a doleful and queer expression of +countenance, for all three together burst into merriment. + +He made off, returned into the island, threw himself across the coppice +panting. He listened again, listened a long time, for his ears were +singing. At last, however, he believed he heard a little farther off a +little, sharp laugh, which he recognized at once; and he advanced very +quietly, on his knees, removing the branches from his path, his heart +beating so rapidly, that he could no longer breathe. + +Two voices murmured some words, the meaning of which he did not +understand, and then they were silent. + +Next, he was possessed by a frightful longing to fly, to save himself, +for ever, from this furious passion which threatened his existence. He +was about to return to Chatou and take the train, resolved never to come +back again, never again to see her. But her likeness suddenly rushed in +upon him, and he mentally pictured that moment in the morning when she +would wake in their warm bed, and would press herself coaxingly against +him, throwing her arms around his neck, her hair disheveled, and a little +entangled on the forehead, her eyes still shut and her lips apart ready +to receive the first kiss. The sudden recollection of this morning caress +filled him with frantic recollection and the maddest desire. + +The couple began to speak again; and he approached, doubled in two. Then +a faint cry rose from under the branches quite close to him. He advanced +again, always as though in spite of himself, invisibly attracted, without +being conscious of anything ... and he saw them. + +And he stood there astounded and distracted, as though he had there +suddenly discovered a corpse, dead and mutilated. Then, in an involuntary +flash of thought, he remembered the little fish whose entrails he had +felt being torn out.... But Madeleine murmured to her companion, in the +same tone in which she had often called him by name, and he was seized +by such a fit of anguish that he fled with all his might. + +He struck against two trees, fell over a root, set off again and suddenly +found himself near the river, opposite its rapid branch, which was lit up +by the moon. The torrent-like current made great eddies where the light +played upon it. The high bank dominated the river like a cliff, leaving a +wide obscure zone at its foot where the eddies made themselves heard in +the darkness. + +On the other bank, the country seats of Croissy ranged themselves and +could be plainly seen. + +Paul saw all this as though in a dream, he thought of nothing, understood +nothing, and all things, even his very existence, appeared vague, +far-off, forgotten, done with. + +The river was there. Did he know what he was doing? Did he wish to die? +He was mad. He turned himself, however, towards the island, towards her, +and in the still air of the night, in which the faint and persistent +burden of the public house band was borne up and down, he uttered, in +a voice frantic with despair, bitter beyond measure, and superhuman, a +frightful cry: + +"Madeleine." + +His heartrending call shot across the great silence of the sky, and sped +all around the horizon. + +Then, with a tremendous leap, with the bound of a wild animal, he jumped +into the river. The water rushed on, closed over him, and from the place +where he had disappeared a series of great circles started, enlarging +their brilliant undulations, until they finally reached the other bank. +The two women had heard the noise of the plunge. Madeleine drew herself +up and exclaimed: + +"It is Paul," a suspicion having arisen in her soul, "he has drowned +himself;" and she rushed towards the bank, where Pauline rejoined her. + +A clumsy punt, propelled by two men, turned and returned on the spot. One +of the men rowed, the other plunged into the water a great pole and +appeared to be looking for something. Pauline cried: + +"What are you doing? What is the matter?" + +An unknown voice answered: + +"It is a man who has just drowned himself." + +The two ghastly women, squeezing each other tightly, followed the +maneuvers of the boat. The music of La Grenonillère continued to sound in +the distance, and appeared with its cadences to accompany the movements +of the somber fisherman; and the river which now concealed a corpse, +whirled round and round, illuminated. The search was prolonged. The +horrible suspense made Madeleine shiver all over. At last, after at +least half an hour, one of the men announced: + +"I have got it." + +And he pulled up his long pole very gently, very gently. Then something +large appeared upon the surface. The other mariner left his oars, and +they both uniting their strength and hauling upon the inert weight, +caused it to tumble over into their boat. + +Then they made for the land, seeking a place well lighted and low. At the +moment when they landed, the women also arrived. The moment she saw him, +Madeleine fell back with horror. In the moonlight he already appeared +green, with his mouth, his eyes, his nose, his clothes full of slime. His +fingers closed and stiff, were hideous. A kind of black and liquid +plaster covered his whole body. The face appeared swollen, and from his +hair, glued up by the ooze, there ran a stream of dirty water. + +"Do you know him?" asked one. + +The other, the Croissy ferryman, hesitated: + +"Yes, it certainly seems to me that I have seen that head; but you know +when like that one cannot recognize anyone easily." And then, suddenly: + +"Why, it's Mr. Paul." + +"Who is Mr. Paul?" inquired his comrade. + +The first answered: + +"Why, Mr. Paul Baron, the son of the senator, the little chap who was so +amorous." + +The other added, philosophically: + +"Well, his fun is ended now; it is a pity, all the same, when one is so +rich!" + +Madeleine sobbed and fell to the ground. Pauline approached the body and +asked: + +"Is he indeed quite dead?" + +"Quite?" + +The men shrugged their shoulders. + +"Oh! after that length of time for certain." + +Then one of them asked: + +"Was it at the Grillon that he lodged?" + +"Yes," answered the other; "we had better take him back there, there will +be something to be made of it." + +They embarked again in their boat and set out, moving off slowly on +account of the rapid current; and yet, a long time after they were out of +sight, from the place where the women remained, the regular splash of the +oars in the water could be heard. + +Then Pauline took the poor weeping Madeleine in her arms, petted her, +embraced her for a long while, consoled her. + +"What would you have; it is not your fault, is it? It is impossible to +prevent men committing folly. He wished it, so much the worse for him, +after all!" + +And then lifting her up: + +"Come, my dear, come and sleep at the house; it is impossible for you to +go back to the Grillon to-night." + +And she embraced her again. + +"Come, we will cure you," said she. + +Madeleine arose, and weeping all the while, but with fainter sobs, her +head upon Pauline's shoulder, as though it had found a refuge in a closer +and more certain affection, more familiar and more confiding, set off +with very slow steps. + + + + +THE RABBIT + + +Old Lecacheur appeared at the door of his house at his usual hour, +between five and a quarter past five in the morning, to look after +his men who were going to work. + +With a red face, only half awake, his right eye open and the left nearly +closed, he was buttoning his braces over his fat stomach with some +difficulty while he was all the time looking into every corner of the +farm-yard with a searching glance. The sun was darting his oblique rays +through the beech-trees by the side of the ditch and the apple trees +outside, and was making the cocks crow on the dung-hill, and the pigeons +coo on the roof. The smell of the cow stalls came through the open door, +and mingled in the fresh morning air, with the pungent odor of the stable +where the horses were neighing, with their heads turned towards the +light. + +As soon as his trousers were properly fastened, Lecacheur came out, and +went first of all towards the hen-house to count the morning's eggs, for +he had been afraid of thefts for some time; but the servant girl ran up +to him with lifted arms and cried: + +"Master! Master! they have stolen a rabbit during the night." + +"A rabbit?" + +"Yes, Master, the big gray rabbit, from the hutch on the left;" whereupon +the farmer quite opened his left eye, and said, simply: + +"I must see that." + +And off he went to inspect it. The hutch had been broken open and the +rabbit was gone. Then he became thoughtful, closed his right eye again, +and scratched his nose, and after a little consideration, he said to the +frightened girl, who was standing stupidly before her master: + +"Go and fetch the gendarmes; say I expect them as soon as possible." + +Lecacheur was mayor of the village, Pairgry-le Gras, and ruled it like a +master, on account of his money and position, and as soon as the servant +had disappeared in the direction of the village, which was only about +five hundred yards off, he went into the house to have his morning coffee +and to discuss the matter with his wife, whom he found on her knees in +front of the fire, trying to get it to burn up quickly, and as soon as he +got to the door, he said: + +"Somebody has stolen the gray rabbit." + +She turned round so quickly that she found herself sitting on the floor, +and looking at her husband with distressed eyes, she said: + +"What is it, Cacheux! Somebody has stolen a rabbit?" + +"The big gray one." + +She sighed. + +"How sad! Who can have done it?" + +She was a little, thin, active, neat woman, who knew all about farming, +and Lecacheur had his own ideas about the matter. + +"It must be that fellow Polyte." + +His wife got up suddenly and said in a furious voice: + +"He did it! he did it! You need not look for anyone else. He did it! You +have said it, Cacheux!" + +All her peasant's fury, all her avarice, all her rage of a saving woman +against the man of whom she had always been suspicious, and against the +girl whom she had always suspected, showed themselves in the contraction +of her mouth, and the wrinkles in her cheeks and forehead of her thin +exasperated face. + +"And what have you done?" she asked. + +"I have sent for the gendarmes." + +This Polyte was a laborer, who had been employed on the farm for a few +days, and who had been dismissed by Lecacheur for an insolent answer. He +was an old soldier, and was supposed to have retained his habits of +marauding and debauchery, from his campaigns in Africa. He did anything +for a livelihood, but whether he were a mason, a navvy, a reaper, whether +he broke stones or lopped trees, he was always lazy, and so he remained +nowhere, and he had, at times, to change his neighborhood to obtain work. + +From the first day that he came to the farm, Lecacheur's wife had +detested him, and now she was sure that he had committed the robbery. + +In about half an hour the two gendarmes arrived. Brigadier Sénateur was +very tall and thin, and Gendarme Lenient, short and fat. Lecacheur made +them sit down and told them the affair, and then they went and saw the +scene of the theft, in order to verify the fact that the hutch had been +broken open, and to collect all the proofs they could. When they got back +to the kitchen, the mistress brought in some wine, filled their glasses +and asked with a distrustful look. + +"Shall you catch him?" + +The brigadier, who had his sword between his legs, appeared thoughtful. +Certainly, he was sure of taking him, if he was pointed out to him, but +if not, he could not answer for being able to discover him, himself, and +after reflecting for a long time, he put this simple question: + +"Do you know the thief?" + +And Lecacheur replied, with a look of Normandy slyness in his eyes: + +"As for knowing him, I do not, as I did not see him commit the robbery. +If I had seen him, I should have made him eat it raw, skin and flesh, +without a drop of cider to wash it down. But as for saying who it is, +I cannot, although I believe it is that good-for-nothing Polyte." + +Then he related at length his troubles with Polyte, his leaving his +service, his bad reputation, things which had been told him, accumulating +insignificant and minute proofs, and then, the brigadier, who had been +listening very attentively while he emptied his glass and filled it +again, with an indifferent air, turned to his gendarme and said: + +"We must go and look in the cottage of Severin's wife." At which the +gendarme smiled and nodded three times. + +Then Madame Lecacheur came to them, and very quietly, with all a +peasant's cunning, questioned the brigadier in her turn. That shepherd +Severin, a simpleton, a sort of a brute who had been brought up and +grown up among his bleating flocks, and who knew scarcely anything +besides them in the world, had nevertheless preserved the peasant's +instinct for saving, at the bottom of his heart. For years and years he +must have hidden in hollow trees and crevices in the rocks, all that he +earned, either as shepherd, or by curing animal's sprains (for the +bone-setter's secret had been handed down to him by the old shepherd +whose place he took), by touch or word, and one day he bought a small +property consisting of a cottage and a field, for three thousand francs. + +A few months later, it became known that he was going to marry a servant, +notorious for her bad morals, the innkeeper's servant. The young fellows +said that the girl, knowing that he was pretty well off, had been to his +cottage every night, and had taken him, overcome him, led him on to +matrimony, little by little, night by night. + +And then, having been to the mayor's office and to church, she now lived +in the house which her man had bought, while he continued to tend his +flocks, day and night, on the plains. + +And the brigadier added: + +"Polyte has been sleeping with her for three weeks, for the thief has no +place of his own to go to!" + +The gendarme make a little joke: + +"He takes the shepherd's blankets." + +Madame Lecacheur, who was seized by a fresh access of rage, of rage +increased by a married woman's anger against debauchery, exclaimed: + +"It is she, I am sure. Go there. Ah! the blackguard thieves!" + +But the brigadier was quite unmoved. + +"A minute," he said. "Let us wait until twelve o'clock, as he goes and +dines there every day. I shall catch them with it under their noses." + +The gendarme smiled, pleased at his chief's idea, and Lecacheur also +smiled now, for the affair of the shepherd struck him as very funny: +deceived husbands are always amusing. + + * * * * * + +Twelve o'clock had just struck when the brigadier, followed by his man, +knocked gently three times at the door of a little lonely house, situated +at the corner of a wood, five hundred yards from the village. + +They had been standing close against the wall, so as not to be seen from +within, and they waited. As nobody answered, the brigadier knocked again +in a minute or two. It was so quiet, that the house seemed uninhabited; +but Lenient, the gendarme, who had very quick ears, said that he heard +somebody moving about inside, and then Sénateur got angry. He would not +allow anyone to resist the authority of the law for a moment, and, +knocking at the door with the hilt of his sword, he cried out: + +"Open the door, in the name of the law." + +As this order had no effect, he roared out: + +"If you do not obey, I shall smash the lock. I am the brigadier of the +gendarmerie, by G--! Here Lenient." + +He had not finished speaking when the door opened and Sénateur saw before +him a fat girl, with a very red color, blowzy, with pendant breasts, a +big stomach and broad hips, a sort of sanguine and bestial female, the +wife of the shepherd Severin, and he went into the cottage. + +"I have come to pay you a visit, as I want to make a little search," he +said, and he looked about him. On the table there was a plate, a jug of +cider and a glass half full, which proved that a meal had been going on. +Two knives were lying side by side, and the shrewd gendarme winked at his +superior officer. + +"It smells good," the latter said. + +"One might swear that it was stewed rabbit," Lenient added, much amused. + +"Will you have a glass of brandy?" the peasant woman asked. + +"No, thank you; I only want the skin of the rabbit that you are eating." + +She pretended not to understand, but she was trembling. + +"What rabbit?" + +The brigadier had taken a seat, and was calmly wiping his forehead. + +"Come, come, you are not going to try and make us believe that you live +on couch grass. What were you eating there all by yourself for your +dinner?" + +"I? Nothing whatever, I swear to you. A mite of butter on my bread." + +"You are a novice, my good woman, _a mite of butter on your +bread_.... You are mistaken; you ought to have said: a mite of butter on +the rabbit. By G--d, your butter smells good! It is special butter, extra +good butter, butter fit for a wedding; certainly, not household butter!" + +The gendarme was shaking with laughter, and repeated: + +"Not household butter, certainly." + +As brigadier Sénateur was a joker, all the gendarmes had grown facetious, +and the officer continued: + +"Where is your butter?" + +"My butter?" + +"Yes, your butter." + +"In the jar." + +"Then where is the butter jar?" + +"Here it is." + +She brought out an old cup, at the bottom of which there was a layer of +rancid, salt butter, and the brigadier smelt it, and said, with a shake +of his head: + +"It is not the same. I want the butter that smells of the rabbit. Come, +Lenient, open your eyes; look under the sideboard, my good fellow, and I +will look under the bed." + +Having shut the door, he went up to the bed and tried to move it; but it +was fixed to the wall, and had not been moved for more than half a +century, apparently. Then the brigadier stooped, and made his uniform +crack. A button had flown off. + +"Lenient," he said. + +"Yes, brigadier?" + +"Come here my lad and look under the bed; I am too tall. I will look +after the sideboard." + +He got up and waited while his man executed his orders. + +Lenient, who was short and stout, took off his kepi, laid himself on his +stomach, and putting his face on the floor looked at the black cavity +under the bed, and then, suddenly, he exclaimed: + +"All right, here we are!" + +"What have you got? The rabbit?" + +"No, the thief." + +"The thief! Pull him out, pull him out!" + +The gendarme had put his arms under the bed and laid hold of something, +and he was pulling with all his might, and at last a foot, shod in a +thick boot, appeared, which he was holding in his right hand. The +brigadier took it, crying: + +"Pull! pull!" + +And Lenient, who was on his knees by that time, was pulling at the other +leg. But it was a hard job, for the prisoner kicked out hard, and arched +up his back across the bed. + +"Courage! courage! pull! pull!" Sénateur cried, and they pulled him with +all their strength so that the wooden bar gave way, and he came out as +far as his head; but at last they got that out also, and they saw the +terrified and furious face of Polyte, whose arms remained stretched out +under the bed. + +"Pull away!" the brigadier kept on exclaiming. Then they heard a strange +noise, and as the arms followed the shoulders, and the hands the arms, +and, in the hands the handle of a saucepan, and at the end of the handle +the saucepan itself, which contained stewed rabbit. + +"Good Lord! good Lord!" the brigadier shouted in his delight, while +Lenient took charge of the man; and the rabbit's skin, an overwhelming +proof, was discovered under the mattress, and then the gendarmes returned +in triumph to the village with their prisoner and their booty. + + * * * * * + +A week later, as the affair had made much stir, Lecacheur, on going into +the _Mairie_ to consult the school-master, was told that the shepherd +Severin had been waiting for him for more than an hour, and he found him +sitting on a chair in a corner, with his stick between his legs. When he +saw the mayor, he got up, took off his cap, and said: + +"Good morning, Maître Cacheux;" and then he remained standing, timid and +embarrassed. + +"What do you want?" the former said. + +"This is it, Monsieur. Is it true that somebody stole one of your rabbits +last week?" + +"Yes, it is quite true, Severin." + +"Who stole the rabbit?" + +"Polyte Ancas, the laborer." + +"Right! right! And is it also true that it was found under my bed ..." + +"What do you mean, the rabbit?" + +"The rabbit and then Polyte." + +"Yes, my poor Severin, quite true, but who told you?" + +"Pretty well everybody. I understand! And I suppose you know all about +marriages, as you marry[11] people?" + +[Footnote 11: In France, Civil Marriage is compulsory, though frequently +followed by the religious rite.--TRANSLATOR.] + +"What about marriage?" + +"With regard to one's rights." + +"What rights?" + +"The husband's rights and then the wife's rights." + +"Of course I do." + +"Oh! Then just tell me, M'sieu Cacheux, has my wife the right to go to +bed with Polyte?" + +"What do you mean by going to bed with Polyte?" + +"Yes, has she any right before the law, and seeing that she is my wife, +to go to bed with Polyte?" + +"Why of course not, of course not." + +"If I catch him there again, shall I have the right to thrash him and her +also?" + +"Why ... why ... why, yes." + +"Very well, then; I will tell you why I want to know. One night last +week, as I had my suspicions, I came in suddenly, and they were not +behaving properly. I chucked Polyte out, to go and sleep somewhere else; +but that was all, as I did not know what my rights were. This time I did +not see them; I only heard of it from others. That is over, and we will +not say any more about it; but if I catch them again ... by G--d if I +catch them again, I will make them lose all taste for such nonsense, +Maître Cacheux, as sure as my name is Severin ..." + + + + +THE TWENTY-FIVE FRANCS OF THE MOTHER-SUPERIOR + + +He certainly looked very droll, did Daddy Pavilly, with his great, spider +legs and his little body, his long arms and his pointed head, surrounded +by a flame of red hair on the top of the crown. + +He was a clown, a peasant clown by nature, born to play tricks, to act +parts, simple parts, as he was a peasant's son and was himself a peasant, +who could scarcely read. Yes! God had certainly created him to amuse +others, the poor country devils who have neither theaters nor fêtes, and +he amused them conscientiously. In the café people treated him to drink +in order to keep him there, and he drank intrepidly, laughing and joking, +hoaxing everybody without vexing anyone, while the people were laughing +heartily around him. + +He was so droll that the very girls could not resist him, ugly as he was, +because he made them laugh so. He would drag them about joking all the +while, and he tickled and squeezed them, saying such funny things that +they held their sides while they pushed him away. + +Towards the end of June he engaged himself for the harvest to farmer Le +Harivan, near Rouville. For three whole weeks he amused the harvesters, +male and female, by his jokes, both by day and night. During the day, +when he was in the fields, he wore an old straw hat which hid his red +shock head, and one saw him gathering up the yellow grain and tying it +into bundles with his long, thin arms; and then suddenly stopping to make +a funny movement which made the laborers, who always kept their eyes on +him, laugh all over the field. At night he crept, like some crawling +animal, in among the straw in the barn where the women slept, causing +screams and exciting a disturbance. They drove him off with their wooden +clogs, and he escaped on all fours, like a fantastic monkey, amidst +volleys of laughter from the whole place. + +On the last day, as the wagon full of reapers, decked with ribbons and +playing bag-pipes, shouting and singing with pleasure and drink, went +along the white, high road, slowly drawn by six dapple-gray horses, +driven by a lad in a blouse, with a rosette in his cap, Pavilly, in the +midst of the sprawling women, danced like a drunken satyr, and kept the +little dirty-faced boys and astonished peasants, standing staring at him +open-mouthed on the way to the farm. + +Suddenly, as they got to the gate of Le Harivan's farm yard, he gave a +leap as he was lifting up his arms, but unfortunately, as he came down, +he knocked against the side of the long wagon, fell over it onto the +wheel, and rebounded into the road. His companions jumped out, but he did +not move; one eye was closed, while the other was open, and he was pale +with fear, while his long limbs were stretched out in the dust, and when +they touched his right leg he began to scream, and when they tried to +make him stand up, he immediately fell down. + +"I think one of his legs is broken," one of the men said. + +And so it really was. Harivan, therefore, had him laid on a table and +sent off a man on horseback to Rouville to fetch the doctor, who came an +hour later. + +The farmer was very generous and said that he would pay for the man's +treatment in the hospital, so that the doctor carried Pavilly off in his +carriage to the hospital, and had him put into a white-washed ward, where +his fracture was reduced. + +As soon as he knew that it would not kill him, and that he would be taken +care of, cuddled, cured, and fed without having anything to do except to +lie on his back between the sheets, Pavilly's joy was unbounded, and he +began to laugh silently and continuously, so as to show his decayed +teeth. + +Whenever one of the Sisters of Mercy came near his bed he made grimaces +of satisfaction, winking, twisting his mouth awry and moving his nose, +which was very long and mobile. His neighbors in the ward, ill as they +were, could not help laughing, and the Mother-Superior often came to his +bedside, to be amused for a quarter of an hour, and he invented all kinds +of jokes and stories for her, and as he had all the makings of a +strolling actor in him, he would be devout in order to please her, and +spoke of religion with the serious air of a man who knows that there are +times when jokes are out of place. + +One day, he took it into his head to sing to her. She was delighted and +came to see him more frequently, and then she brought him a hymn-book, so +as to utilize his voice. Then he might be seen sitting up in bed, for he +was beginning to be able to move, singing the praises of the Almighty and +of Mary, in a falsetto voice, while the kind, stout sister stood by him +and beat time with her finger. When he could walk, the Superior offered +to keep him for some time longer to sing in chapel, to serve at Mass and +to fulfill the duties of sacristan, and he accepted. For a whole month he +might be seen in his surplice, limping and singing the psalms and the +responses, with such movements of his head, that the number of the +faithful increased, and that people deserted the parish Church to attend +Vespers at the hospital. + +But as everything must come to an end in this world, they were obliged +to discharge him, when he was quite cured, and the Superior gave him +twenty-five francs in return for his services. + +As soon as Pavilly found himself in the street with all that money in his +pocket, he asked himself what he was going to do. Should he return to the +village? Certainly not before having a drink, for he had not had one for +a long time, and so he went into a café. He did not go into the town more +than two or three times a year, and so he had a confused and intoxicating +recollection of an orgie, on one of those visits in particular, and so he +asked for a glass of the best brandy, which he swallowed at a gulp to +grease the passage, and then he had another to see how it tasted. + +As soon as the strong and fiery brandy had touched his palate and tongue, +awakening more vividly than ever the sensation of alcohol which he was so +fond of, and so longed for, which caresses, and stings, and burns the +mouth, he knew that he should drink a whole bottle of it, and so he asked +immediately what it cost, so as to spare himself having it in detail. +They charged him three francs, which he paid, and then he began quietly +to get drunk. + +However, he was methodical in it, as he wished to keep sober enough for +other pleasures, and so, as soon as he felt that he was on the point of +seeing the fireplace bow to him, he got up and went out with unsteady +steps, with his bottle under his arm, in search of a house where girls +of easy virtue lived. + +He found one, with some difficulty, after having asked a carter, who did +not know of one; a postman, who directed him wrong; a baker, who began to +swear and called him an old pig; and lastly, a soldier, who was obliging +enough to take him to it, advised him to choose _La Reine_. + +Although it was barely twelve o'clock, Pavilly went into that palace of +delights, where he was received by a servant, who wanted to turn him out +again. But he made her laugh by making a grimace, showed her three +francs, the usual price of the special provisions of the place, and +followed her with difficulty up a dark staircase, which led to the first +floor. + +When he had been shown into a room, he asked for _la Reine_, and had +another drink out of the bottle, while he waited. But very shortly, the +door opened and a girl came in. She was tall, fat, red-faced, enormous. +She looked at the drunken fellow, who had fallen into a seat, with the +eye of a judge of such matters, and said: + +"Are you not ashamed of yourself, at this time of day?" + +"Ashamed of what, Princess?" he stammered. + +"Why, of disturbing a lady, before she has even had time to eat her +dinner." + +He wanted to have a joke, so he said: + +"There is no such thing as time, for the brave." + +"And there ought to be no time for getting drunk, either, old guzzler." + +At this he got angry: + +"I am not a guzzler, and I am not drunk." + +"Not drunk?" + +"No, I am not." + +"Not drunk? Why, you could not even stand straight;" and she looked at +him angrily, thinking that all this time her companions were having their +dinner. + +"I ... I could dance a polka," he replied, getting up, and to prove his +stability he got onto the chair, made a pirouette and jumped onto the +bed, where his thick, muddy shoes made two great marks. + +"Oh! you dirty brute!" the girl cried, and rushing at him, she struck him +a blow with her fist in the stomach, such a blow that Pavilly lost his +balance, fell and struck the foot of the bed, and making a complete +somersault tumbled onto the night-table, dragging the jug and basin with +him, and then rolled onto the ground, roaring. + +The noise was so loud, and his cries so piercing, that everybody in the +house rushed in, the master, mistress, servant, and the staff. + +The master picked him up, but as soon as he had put him on his legs, the +peasant lost his balance again, and then began to call out that his leg +was broken, the other leg, the sound one. + +It was true, so they sent for a doctor, and it happened to be the same +one who had attended him at Le Harivan's. + +"What! Is it you again?" he said. + +"Yes, M'sieu." + +"What is the matter with you?" + +"Somebody has broken my other leg for me, M'sieu." + +"Who did it, old fellow?" + +"Why, a female." + +Everybody was listening. The girls in their dressing gowns, with their +mouths still greasy from their interrupted dinner, the mistress of the +house furious, the master nervous. + +"This will be a bad job," the doctor said. "You know that the municipal +authorities look upon you with very unfavorable eyes, so we must try and +hush the matter up." + +"How can it be managed?" the master of the place asked. + +"Why the best way would be to send him back to the hospital, from which +he has just come out, and to pay for him there." + +"I would rather do that," the master of the house replied, "than have any +fuss made about the matter." + +So half an hour later, Pavilly returned drunk and groaning to the ward +which he had left an hour before. The Superior lifted up her hands in +sorrow, for she liked him, and with a smile, for she was glad to have +him back. + +"Well, my good fellow, what is the matter with you now?" + +"The other leg is broken, Madame." + +"So you have been getting onto another load of straw, you old joker?" + +And Pavilly, in great confusion, but still sly, said, with hesitation: + +"No... no.... Not this time, no ... not this time. No ... no.... It was +not my fault, not my fault ...A mattress caused this." + +She could get no other explanation out of him, and never knew that his +relapse was due to her twenty-five francs. + + + + +THE VENUS OF BRANIZA + + +Some years ago there lived in Braniza, a celebrated Talmadist, who was +renowned no less on account of his beautiful wife, than of his wisdom, +his learning, and his fear of God. The Venus of Braniza deserved that +name thoroughly, for she deserved it for herself, on account of her +singular beauty, and even more as the wife of a man who was deeply versed +in the Talmud; for the wives of the Jewish philosophers are, as a rule, +ugly, or even possess some bodily defect. + +The Talmud explains this, in the following manner. It is well known that +marriages are made in heaven, and at the birth of a boy a divine voice +calls out the name of his future wife, and _vice versâ_. But just as a +good father tries to get rid of his good wares out of doors, and only +uses the damaged stuff at home for his children, so God bestows those +women whom other men would not care to have, on the Talmudists. + +Well, God made an exception in the case of our Talmudist, and had +bestowed a Venus on him, perhaps only in order to confirm the rule by +means of this exception, and to make it appear less hard. His wife was +a woman who would have done honor to any king's throne, or to the +pedestal in any sculpture gallery. Tall, and with a wonderful, voluptuous +figure, she carried a strikingly beautiful head, surmounted by thick, +black plaits, on her proud shoulders, while two large, dark eyes +languished and glowed beneath her long lashes, and her beautiful hands +looked as if they were carved out of ivory. + +This beautiful woman, who seemed to have been designed by nature to rule, +to see slaves at her feet, to provide occupation for the painter's brush, +the sculptor's chisel and the poet's pen, lived the life of a rare and +beautiful flower, which is shut up in a hot house, for she sat the whole +day long wrapped up in her costly fur jacket and looked down dreamily +into the street. + +She had no children; her husband, the philosopher, studied, and prayed, +and studied again from early morning until late at night; his mistress +was _the Veiled Beauty_, as the Talmudists call the Kabbalah. She paid +no attention to her house, for she was rich and everything went of its +own accord, just like a clock, which has only to be wound up once a week; +nobody came to see her, and she never went out of the house; she sat and +dreamed and brooded and--yawned. + + * * * * * + +One day when a terrible storm of thunder and lightning had spent all its +fury over the town, and all windows had been opened in order to let the +Messiah in, the Jewish Venus was sitting as usual in her comfortable easy +chair, shivering in spite of her fur jacket, and was thinking, when +suddenly she fixed her glowing eyes on the man who was sitting before the +Talmud, swaying his body backwards and forwards, and said suddenly: + +"Just tell me, when will Messias, the Son of David, come?" + +"He will come," the philosopher replied, "when all the Jews have become +either altogether virtuous or altogether vicious, says the Talmud." + +"Do you believe that all the Jews will ever become virtuous," the Venus +continued. + +"How am I to believe that!" + +"So Messias will come, when all the Jews have become vicious?" + +The philosopher shrugged his shoulders and lost himself again in the +labyrinth of the Talmud, out of which, so it is said, only one man +returned unscathed, and the beautiful woman at the window again looked +dreamily out onto the heavy rain, while her white fingers played +unconsciously with the dark fur of her splendid jacket. + + * * * * * + +One day the Jewish philosopher had gone to a neighboring town, where an +important question of ritual was to be decided. Thanks to his learning, +the question was settled sooner than he had expected, and instead of +returning the next morning, as he had intended, he came back the same +evening with a friend, who was no less learned than himself. He got out +of the carriage at his friend's house, and went home on foot, and was +not a little surprised when he saw his windows brilliantly illuminated, +and found an officer's servant comfortably smoking his pipe in front of +his house. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked in a friendly manner, but with some +curiosity, nevertheless. + +"I am looking out, in case the husband of the beautiful Jewess should +come home unexpectedly." + +"Indeed? Well, mind and keep a good look out." + +Saying this, the philosopher pretended to go away, but went into the +house through the garden entrance at the back. When he got into the first +room, he found a table laid for two, which had evidently only been left a +short time previously. His wife was sitting as usual at her bed room +window wrapped in her fur jacket, but her cheeks were suspiciously red, +and her dark eyes had not got their usual languishing look, but now +rested on her husband with a gaze which expressed at the same time +satisfaction and mockery. At that moment he kicked against an object on +the floor, which emitted a strange sound, which he picked up and examined +in the light. It was a pair of spurs. + +"Who has been here with you?" the Talmudist said. + +The Jewish Venus shrugged her shoulders contemptuously, but did not +reply. + +"Shall I tell you? The Captain of Hussars has been with you." + +"And why should he not have been here with me?" she said, smoothing the +fur on her jacket with her white hand. + +"Woman! are you out of your mind?" + +"I am in full possession of my senses," she replied, and a knowing smile +hovered round her red voluptuous lips. "But must I not also do my part, +in order that Messias may come and redeem us poor Jews?" + + + + +LA MORILLONNE + + +They called her _La Morillonne_[12] because of her black hair and of her +complexion, which resembled autumnal leaves, and because of her mouth +with thick purple lips, which were like blackberries, when she curled +them. + +[Footnote 12: Black Grapes.] + +That she should be born as dark as this in a district where everybody was +fair, and engendered by a father and mother with tow-colored hair and a +complexion like butter was one of the mysteries of atavism. One of her +female ancestors must have had an intimacy with one of those traveling +tinkers who, have gone about the country from time immemorial, with faces +the color of bistre and indigo, crowned by a wisp of light hair. + +From that ancestor she derived, not only her dark complexion, but also +her dark soul, her deceitful eyes, whose depths were at times illuminated +by flashes of every vice, her eyes of an obstinate and malicious animal. + +Handsome? Certainly not, nor even pretty. Ugly, with an absolute +ugliness! Such a false look! Her nose was flat, and had been smashed by +a blow, while her unwholesome looking mouth was always slobbering with +greediness, or uttering something vile. Her hair was thick and untidy, +and a regular nest for vermin, to which may be added a thin, feverish +body, with a limping walk. In short, she was a perfect monster, and yet +all the young men of the neighborhood had made love to her, and whoever +had been so honored, longed for her society again. + +From the time that she was twelve, she had been the mistress of every +fellow in the village. She had corrupted boys of her own age in every +conceivable manner and place. + +Young men at the risk of imprisonment, and even steady, old, notable and +venerable men, such as the farmer at Eclausiaux, Monsieur Martin, the +ex-mayor and other highly respectable men, had been taken by the manners +of that creature, and the reason why the rural policeman was not severe +upon them, in spite of his love for summoning people before the +magistrates, was, so people said, that he would have been obliged to take +out a summons against himself. + +The consequence was that she had grown up without being interfered with, +and was the mistress of every fellow in the village, as the school-master +said; who had himself been one of _the fellows_. But the most curious +part of the business was that no one was jealous. They handed her on from +one to the other, and when someone expressed his astonishment at this to +her one day, she said to this unintelligent stranger: + +"Is everybody not satisfied?" + +And then, how could any one of them, even if he had been jealous, have +monopolized her? They had no hold on her. She was not selfish, and though +she accepted all gifts, whether in kind or in money, she never asked for +anything and she even appeared to prefer paying herself after her own +fashion, by stealing. All she seemed to care about as her reward was +pilfering, and a crown put into her hand, gave her less pleasure than +a halfpenny which she had stolen. Neither was it any use to dream of +ruling her as the sole male, or as the proud master of the hen roost, +for which of them, no matter how broad shouldered he was, would have been +capable of it? Some had tried to vanquish her, but in vain. + +How then, could any of them claim to be her master? It would have been +the same as wishing to have the sole right of baking their bread in the +common oven, in which the whole village baked. + +But there was one man who formed the exception, and that was Bru, the +shepherd. + +He lived in the fields in his movable hut, on cakes made of unleavened +dough, which he kneaded on a stone and baked in the hot ashes, now here, +now there, is a hole dug out in the ground, and heated with dead wood. +Potatoes, milk, hard cheese, blackberries, and a small cask of old gin +that he had distilled himself, were his daily pittance; but he knew +nothing about love, although he was accused of all sorts of horrible +things, and therefore nobody dared abuse him to his face; in the first +place, because Bru was a spare and sinewy man, who handled his shepherd's +crook like a drum-major does his staff; next, because of his three sheep +dogs, who had teeth like wolves, and who knew nobody except their master; +and lastly, for fear of the evil eye. For Bru, it appeared, knew spells +which would blight the corn, give the sheep foot rot, the cattle the +_rinder pest_, make cows die in calving, and set fire to the ricks and +stacks. + +But as Bru was the only one who did not loll out his tongue after La +Morillonne, naturally one day she began to think of him, and she declared +that she, at any rate, was not afraid of his evil eye, and so she went +after him. + +"What do you want?" he said, and she replied boldly: + +"What do I want? I want you." + +"Very well," he said, "but then you must belong to me alone." + +"All right," was her answer, "if you think you can please me." + +He smiled and took her into his arms, and she was away from the village +for a whole week. She had, in fact, become entirely Bru's exclusive +property. + +The village grew excited. They were not jealous of each other, but they +were of him. What! Could she not resist him. Of course he had charms and +spells against every imaginable thing. And they grew furious. Next they +grew bold, and watched from behind a tree. She was still as lively as +ever, but he, poor fellow, seemed to have become suddenly ill, and +required the most tender nursing at her hands. The villagers, however, +felt no compassion for the poor shepherd, and so, one of them, more +courageous than the rest, advanced towards the hut with his gun in his +hand: + +"Tie up your dogs," he cried out from a distance; "fasten them up, Bru, +or I shall shoot them." + +"You need not be frightened of the dogs," _La Morillonne_ replied; "I +will be answerable for it that they will not hurt you;" and she smiled as +the young man with the gun went towards her. + +"What do you want?" the shepherd said. + +"I can tell you," she replied. "He wants me and I am very willing. +There!" + +Bru began to cry, and she continued: + +"You are a good for nothing." + +And she went off with the lad, while Bru seized his crook, seeing which +the young fellow raised his gun. + +"Seize him! seize him!" the shepherd shouted, urging on his dogs, while +the other had already got his finger on the trigger to fire at them. But +_La Morillonne_ pushed down the muzzle and called out: + +"Here, dogs! here! Prr, prr, my beauties!" + +And the three dogs rushed up to her, licked her hands and frisked about +as they followed her, while she called to the shepherd from the distance: + +"You see, Bru, they are not at all jealous!" + +And then, with a short and evil laugh, she added: + +"They are my property now." + + + + +WAITER, A "BOCK"[13] + + +[Footnote 13: A French imitation of German Lager Beer.] + +Why did I enter, on this particular evening, a certain beer shop? I +cannot explain it. It was bitterly cold. A fine rain, a watery dust +floated about, which enshrouded the gas jets in a transparent fog, made +the pavements that passed under the shadow of the shop fronts glitter, +and which at once exhibited the soft slush and the soiled feet of the +passers-by. + +I was going nowhere in particular; was simply having a short walk after +dinner. I had passed the Credit Lyonnais, the Rue Vivienne, besides +several other streets. Thereupon, I suddenly descried a large public +house, which was more than half full. I walked inside, with no object in +view. I was not the least thirsty. + +By a searching sweep of the eye I sought out a place where I would not be +too much crowded, and so I went and sat down by the side of a man who +seemed to me to be old, and who smoked a halfpenny clay pipe, which had +become as black as coal. From six to eight beer saucers were piled up on +the table in front of him, indicating the number of "bocks" he had +already absorbed. With the same sweep of the eye I had recognized a +"regular toper," one of those frequenters of beer-houses, who come in the +morning as soon as the place is open, and only go way in the evening when +it is about to close. He was dirty, bald to about the middle of the +cranium, while his long, powder and salt, gray hair, fell over the neck +of his frock coat. His clothes, much too large for him, appeared to have +been made for him at a time when he carried a great stomach. One could +guess that the pantaloons were not suspended from braces, and that this +man could not take ten paces without his having to stop to pull them up +and to readjust them. Did he wear a vest? The mere thought of his boots +and that which they enveloped filled me with horror. The frayed cuffs +were as perfectly black at the edges as were his nails. + +As soon as I had sat down near him, this queer creature said to me in a +tranquil tone of voice: + +"How goes it with you?" + +I turned sharply round to him and closely scanned his features, whereupon +he continued: + +"I see you do not recognize me." + +"No, I do not." + +"Des Barrets." + +I was stupefied. It was Count Jean des Barrets, my old college chum. + +I seized him by the hand, and was so dumbfounded that I could find +nothing to say. I, at length, managed to stammer out: + +"And you, how goes it with yourself?" + +He responded placidly: + +"With me? Just as I like." + +He became silent. I wanted to be friendly, and I selected this phrase: + +"What are you doing now?" + +"You see what I am doing," he answered, quite resignedly. + +I felt my face getting red. I insisted: + +"But every day?" + +"Every day is alike to me," was his response accompanied with a thick +puff of tobacco smoke. + +He then tapped on the top of the marble table with a sou, to attract the +attention of the waiter, and called out: + +"Waiter, two 'bocks.'" + +A voice in the distance repeated: + +"Two bocks, instead of four." + +Another voice, more distant still, shouted out: + +"Here they are, sir, here they are." + +Immediately there appeared a man with a white apron, carrying two +"bocks," which he sat down foaming on the table, the spouts facing over +the edge, on to the sandy floor. + +Des Barrets emptied his glass at a single draught and replaced it on the +table. He next asked: + +"What is there new?" + +"I know of nothing new, worth mentioning, really," I stammered: + +"But nothing has grown old, for me; I am a commercial man." + +In an equable tone of voice, he said; + +"Indeed ... does that amuse you?" + +"No, but what do you mean to assert? Surely you must do something!" + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"I only mean, how do you pass your time!" + +"What's the use of occupying myself with anything. For my part, I do +nothing at all, as you see, never anything. When one has not got a sou +one can understand why one has to go to work. What is the good of +working? Do you work for yourself, or for others? If you work for +yourself you do it for your own amusement, which is all right; if you +work for others, you reap nothing but ingratitude." + +Then sticking his pipe into his whiskers, he called out anew: + +"Waiter, a 'bock.' It makes me thirsty to keep calling so. I am not +accustomed to that sort of thing. Yes, yes, I do nothing; I let things +slide, and I am growing old. In dying I have nothing to regret. If so, I +should remember nothing, outside this public house. I have no wife, no +children, no cares, no sorrows, nothing. That is the very best thing that +could happen to one." + +He then emptied the glass which had meanwhile been fetched to him, passed +his tongue over his lips, and resumed his pipe. + +I looked at him stupefied. I asked him: + +"But you have not always been like that?" + +"Pardon me, sir; ever since I left college." + +"That is not a proper life to lead, my dear sir; it is simple horrible. +Come, you must indeed have done something, you must have loved something, +you must have friends." + +"No; I get up at noon, I come here, I have my breakfast, I drink my +'bock,' I remain until the evening, I have my dinner, I drink 'bock.' +Then about one in the morning, I return to my couch, because the place +closes up. And it is this latter that embitters me more than anything. +For the last ten years, I have passed six years on this bench, in my +corner; and the other four in my bed, never changing. I talk sometimes +with the habitues." + +"But on arriving in Paris what did you do at first?" + +"I paid my devoirs to the Café de Medicis." + +"What next?" + +"Next? I crossed the water and came here." + +"Why did you even take that trouble?" + +"What do you mean? One cannot remain all one's life in the Latin Quarter. +The students make too much noise. But I do not move about any longer. +Waiter, a 'bock.'" + +I now began to think that he was making fun of me, and I continued: + +"Come now, be frank. You have been the victim of some great sorrow; +despair in love, no doubt! It is easy to see that you are a man whom +misfortune has hit hard. What age are you?" + +"I am thirty years of age, but I look to be forty-five at least." + +I regarded him straight in the face. His shrunken figure, so badly cared +for, gave one the impression that he was an old man. On the summit of his +cranium, a few long hairs shot straight up from the skin of doubtful +cleanness. He had enormous eyelashes, a large moustache, and a thick +beard. Suddenly, I had a kind of vision. I know not why; the vision of a +basin filled with noisome water, the water which should have been applied +to that poll. I said to him: + +"Verily, you look to be more than that age. Of a certainty you must have +experienced some great disappointment." + +He replied: + +"I tell you that I have not. I am old because I never take air. There is +nothing that vitiates the life of a man more than the atmosphere of a +café." + +I could not believe him. + +"You must surely have been married as well? One could not get as +bald-headed as you are without having been much in love." + +He shook his head, sending down his back little white things which fell +from the end of his locks: + +"No, I have always been virtuous." + +And raising his eyes towards the luster, which beat down on our heads, he +said: + +"If I am bald-headed, it is the fault of the gas. It is the enemy of +hair. Waiter, a 'bock.' You must be thirsty also?" + +"No, thank you. But you certainly interest me. Since when did you have +your first discouragement? Your life is not normal, it is not natural. +There is something under it all." + +"Yes, and it dates from my infancy. I received a heavy blow when I was +very young, and that turned my life into darkness, which will last to the +end." + +"How did it come about?" + +"You wish to know about it? Well, then, listen. You recall, of course, +the castle in which I was brought up, seeing that you used to visit it +for five or six months during the vacations? You remember that large, +gray building, in the middle of a great park, and the long avenues of +oaks, which opened towards the four cardinal points! You remember my +father and mother, both of whom were ceremonious, solemn and severe. + +"I worshiped my mother; I was suspicious of my father; but I respected +both, accustomed always as I was to see everyone bow before them. They +were in the country, Monsieur le Comte and Madame la Comtesse; while our +neighbors, the Tannemares', the Ravelets', the Brennevilles', showed the +utmost consideration for my parents. + +"I was then thirteen years old. I was happy, satisfied with everything, +as one is at that age, full of joy and vivacity. + +"Now towards the end of September, a few days before my entering college, +while I was enjoying myself in the mazes of the park, climbing the trees +and swinging on the branches, I descried in crossing an avenue, my father +and mother, who were walking along. + +"I recall the thing as though it were yesterday. It was a very stormy +day. The whole line of trees bent under the pressure of the wind, +groaned, and seemed to utter cries--cries, though dull, yet deep, that +the whole forest rang under the tempest. + +"Evening came on. It was dark in the thickets. The agitation of the wind +and the branches excited me, made me bound about like an idiot, and howl +in imitation of the wolves. + +"As soon as I perceived my parents, I crept furtively towards them, under +the branches, in order to surprise them, as though I had been a veritable +rodent. But becoming seized with fear, I stopped a few paces from them. +My father, a prey to the most ferocious passion, cried: + +"'Your mother is a fool; moreover, it is not your mother that is the +question, it is you. I tell you that I want money, and I will make you +sign this.' + +"My mother responded in a firm voice: + +"'I will not sign it. It is Jean's fortune, I shall guard it for him and +I will not allow you to devour it with strange women, as you have your +own heritage.' + +"Then my father, full of rage, wheeled round and seized his wife by the +throat, and began to slash her full in the face with the disengaged hand. + +"My mother's hat fell off, her hair became all disheveled and spread over +her back; she essayed to parry the blows, but she could not escape from +them. And my father, like a madman, banged and banged. My mother rolled +over on the ground, covering her face in both her hands. Then he turned +her over on her back in order to batter her still more, pulling away her +hands which were covering her face. + +"As for me, my friend, it seemed as though the world had come to an end, +that the eternal laws had changed. I experienced the overwhelming dread +that one has in presence of things supernatural, in presence of +irreparable disasters. My boyish head whirled round, floated. I began to +cry with all my might, without knowing why, a prey to terror, to grief, +to a dreadful bewilderment. My father heard me, turned round, and, on +seeing me, made as though he would rush towards me. I believed that he +wanted to kill me, and I fled like a haunted animal, running straight in +front of me in the woods. + +"I ran perhaps for an hour, perhaps for two, I know not. Darkness had set +in, I tumbled over some thick herb, exhausted, and I lay there lost, +devoured by terror, eaten up by a sorrow capable of breaking for ever the +heart of a poor infant. I became cold, I became hungry. At length day +broke. I dared neither get up, walk, return home, nor save myself, +fearing to encounter my father whom I did not wish to see again. + +"I should probably have died of misery and of hunger at the foot of a +tree, if the guard had not discovered me and led me away by force. + +"I found my parents wearing their ordinary aspect. My mother alone spoke +to me: + +"'How you have frightened me, you naughty boy; I have been the whole +night sleepless.' + +"I did not answer, but began to weep. My father did not utter a single +word. + +"Eight days later I entered college. + +"Well, my friend, it was all over with me. I had witnessed the other side +of things, the bad side; I have not been able to perceive the good side +since that day. What things have passed in my mind, what strange +phenomena has warped my ideas? I do not know. But I no longer have a +taste for anything, a wish for anything, a love for anybody, a desire for +anything whatever, nor ambition, nor hope. And I perceive always my poor +mother on the ground, lying in the avenue, while my father is maltreating +her. My mother died a few years after; my father lives still. I have not +seen him since. Waiter, a 'bock.'" + +A waiter brought him his "bock," which he swallowed at a gulp. But, in +taking up his pipe again, trembling as he was he broke it. Then he made a +violent gesture: + +"Zounds! This is indeed a grief, a real grief. I have had it for a month, +and it was coloring so beautifully!" + +He darted through the vast saloon, which was now full of smoke and of +people drinking, uttering his cry: + +"Waiter, a 'bock'--and a new pipe." + + + + +REGRET + + +Monsieur Savel, who was called in Mantes, "Father Savel," had just risen +from bed. He wept. It was a dull autumn day; the leaves were falling. +They fell slowly in the rain, resembling another rain, but heavier and +slower. M. Savel was not in good spirit. He walked from the fireplace +to the window, and from the window to the fireplace. Life has its somber +days. It will no longer have any but somber days for him now, for he has +reached the age of sixty-two. He is alone, an old bachelor, with nobody +about him. How sad it is to die alone, all alone, without the +disinterested affection of anyone! + +He pondered over his life, so barren, so void. He recalled the days gone +by, the days of his infancy, the house, the house of his parents; his +college days, his follies, the time of his probation in Paris, the +illness of his father, his death. He then returned to live with his +mother. They lived together, the young man and the old woman, very +quietly, and desired nothing more. At last the mother died. How sad a +thing is life! He has lived always alone, and now, in his turn, he, too, +will soon be dead. He will disappear, and that will be the finish. There +will be no more of Savel upon the earth. What a frightful thing! Other +people will live, they will live, they will laugh. Yes, people will go on +amusing themselves, and he will no longer exist! Is it not strange that +people can laugh, amuse themselves, be joyful under that eternal +certainty of death! If this death were only probable, one could then have +hope; but no, it is inevitable, as inevitable as that night follows the +day. + +If, however, his life had been complete! If he had done something; if he +had had adventures, grand pleasures, successes, satisfaction of some kind +or another. But now, nothing. He had done nothing, never anything but +rise from bed, eat, at the same hours, and go to bed again. And he has +gone on like that, to the age of sixty-two years. He had not even taken +unto himself a wife, as other men do. Why? Yes, why was it that he was +not married? He might have been, for he possessed considerable means. Was +it an opportunity which had failed him? Perhaps! But one can create +opportunities. He was indifferent; that was all. Indifference had been +his greatest drawback, his defect, his vice. Have some men missed their +lives through indifference! To certain natures, it is so difficult for +them to get out of bed, to move about, to take long walks, to speak, to +study any question. + +He had not even been in love. No woman had reposed on his bosom, in a +complete abandon of love. He knew nothing of this delicious anguish of +expectation, of the divine quivering of the pressed hand, of the ecstacy +of triumphant passion. + +What superhuman happiness must inundate your heart, when lips encounter +lips for the first time, when the grasp of four arms makes one being of +you, a being unutterably happy, two beings infatuated with one another. + +M. Savel was sitting down, his feet on the fender, in his dressing gown. +Assuredly his life had been spoiled, completely spoiled. He had, however, +loved. He had loved secretly, dolorously and indifferently, just as was +characteristic of him in everything. Yes, he had loved his old friend, +Madame Saudres, the wife of his old companion, Saudres. Ah! if he had +known her as a young girl! But he had encountered her too late; she was +already married. Unquestionably he would have asked her hand; that he +would! How he had loved her, nevertheless, without respite, since the +first day he had set eyes on her! + +He recalled, without emotion, all the times he had seen her, his grief on +leaving her, the many nights that he could not sleep, because of his +thinking of her. + +In the mornings he always got up somewhat less amorous than in the +evening. + +Why? + +Seeing that she was formerly pretty, and "crumy," blonde, curl, joyous. +Saudres was not the man she would have selected. She was now fifty-two +years of age. She seemed happy. Ah! if she had only loved him in days +gone by; yes, if she had only loved him! And why should she not have +loved him, he, Savel, seeing that he loved her so much, yes, she, Madame +Saudres! + +If only she could have divined something--Had she not divined anything, +had she not seen anything, never comprehended anything? But! Then what +would she have thought? If he had spoken what would she have answered? + +And Savel asked himself a thousand other things. He reviewed his whole +life, seeking to grasp again a multitude of details. + +He recalled all the long evenings spent at the house of Saudres, when the +latter's wife was young and so charming. + +He recalled many things that she had said to him, the sweet intonations +of her voice, the little significant smiles that meant so much. + +He recalled the walks that the three of them had had, along the banks of +the Seine, their lunches on the grass on the Sundays, for Saudres was +employed at the sub-prefecture. And all at once the distant recollection +came to him, of an afternoon spent with her in a little plantation on the +banks of the river. + +They had set out in the morning, carrying their provisions in baskets. +It was a bright spring morning, one of those days which inebriate one. +Everything smelt fresh, everything seemed happy. The voices of the birds +sounded more joyous, and the flapping of their wings more rapid. They had +lunch on the grass, under the willow trees, quite close to the water, +which glittered in the sun's rays. The air was balmy, charged with the +odors of fresh vegetation; they had drunk the most delicious wines. How +pleasant everything was on that day! + +After lunch, Saudres went to sleep on the broad of his back, "The best +nap he had in his life," said he, when he woke up. + +Madame Saudres had taken the arm of Savel, and they had started to walk +along the river's bank. + +She leaned tenderly on his arm. She laughed and said to him: "I am +intoxicated, my friend, I am quite intoxicated." He looked at her, his +heart going patty-patty. He felt himself grow pale, fearful that he had +not looked too boldly at her, and that the trembling of his hand had not +revealed his passion. + +She had decked her head with wild flowers and water-lilies, and she had +asked him: "Do you not like to see me appear thus?" + +As he did not answer--for he could find nothing to say, he should rather +have gone down on his knees--she burst out laughing, a sort of +discontented laughter, which she threw straight in his face, saying: +"Great goose, what ails you? You might at least speak!" + +He felt like crying, and could not even yet find a word to say. + +All these things came back to him now, as vividly as on the day when they +took place. Why had she said this to him, "Great goose. What ails you! +You might at least speak!" + +And he recalled how tenderly she had leaned on his arm. And in passing +under a shady tree he had felt her ear leaning against his cheek, and he +had tilted his head abruptly, for fear that she had not meant to bring +their flesh into contact. + +When he had said to her: "Is it not time to return?" she darted at him a +singular look. "Certainly," she said, "certainly," regarding him at the +same time in a curious manner. He had not thought of anything then; and +now the whole thing appeared to him quite plain. + +"Just as you like, my friend. If you are tired let us go back." + +And he had answered: "It is not that I am fatigued; but Saudres has +perhaps woke up now." + +And she had said: "If you are afraid of my husband's being awake, that is +another thing. Let us return." + +In returning she remained silent and leaned no longer on his arm. Why? + +At that time it had never occurred to him to ask himself "why." Now he +seemed to apprehend something that he had not then understood. + +What was it? + +M. Savel felt himself blush, and he got up at a bound, feeling thirty +years younger, believing that he now understood Madame Saudres then to +say, "I love you." + +Was it possible! That suspicion which had just entered his soul, tortured +him. Was it possible that he could not have seen, not have dreamed! + +Oh! if that could be true, if he had rubbed against such good fortune +without laying hold of it! + +He said to himself: "I wish to know. I cannot remain in this state of +doubt. I wish to know!" He put on his clothes quickly, dressed in hot +haste. He thought: "I am sixty-two years of age, she is fifty-eight; +I may ask her that now without giving offense." + +He started out. + +The Saudres's house was situated on the other side of the street, almost +directly opposite his own. He went up to it, knocked, and a little +servant came to open the door. + +"You there at this hour, ill, Savel! Has some accident happened to you?" + +M. Savel responded: + +"No, my girl; but go and tell your mistress that I want to speak to her +at once." + +"The fact is, Madame is preparing her stock of pear-jams for the winter, +and she is standing in front of the fire. She is not dressed, as you may +well understand." + +"Yes, but go and tell her that I wish to see her on an important matter." + +The little servant went away, and Savel began to walk, with long, nervous +strides, up and down the drawing-room. He did not feel himself the least +embarrassed, however. Oh! he was merely going to ask her something, as he +would have asked her about some cooking receipt, and that was: "Do you +know that I am sixty-two years of age!" + +The door opened; and Madame appeared. She was now a gross woman, fat and +round, with full cheeks, and a sonorous laugh. She walked with her arms +away from her body, and her sleeves tucked up to the shoulders, her bare +arms all smeared with sugar juice. She asked, anxiously: + +"What is the matter with you, my friend; you are not ill, are you?" + +"No, my dear friend; but I wish to ask you one thing, which to me is of +the first importance, something which is torturing my heart, and I want +you to promise that you will answer me candidly." + +She laughed, "I am always candid. Say on." + +"Well, then. I have loved you from the first day I ever saw you. Can you +have any doubt of this?" + +She responded, laughing, with something of her former tone of voice. + +"Great goose! what ails you? I knew it well from the very first day!" + +Savel began to tremble. He stammered out: "You knew it? Then--" + +He stopped. + +She asked: + +"Then?... What?" + +He answered: + +"Then ... what would you think?... what ... what.... What would you +have answered?" + +She broke forth into a peal of laughter, which made the sugar juice run +off the tips of her fingers on to the carpet. + +"I? But you did not ask me anything. It was not for me to make a +declaration." + +He then advanced a step towards her. + +"Tell me ... tell me.... You remember the day when Saudres went to sleep +on the grass after lunch ... when we had walked together as far as the +bend of the river, below ..." + +He waited, expectantly. She had ceased to laugh, and looked at him, +straight in the eyes. + +"Yes, certainly, I remember it." + +He answered, shivering all over. + +"Well ... that day ... if I had been ... if I had +been ... enterprising ... what would you have done?" + +She began to laugh as only a happy woman can laugh, who has nothing to +regret, and responded, frankly, in a voice tinged with irony: + +"I would have yielded, my friend." + +She then turned on her heels and went back to her jam-making. + +Savel rushed into the street, cast down, as though he had encountered +some great disaster. He walked with giant strides, through the rain, +straight on, until he reached the river, without thinking where he was +going. When he reached the bank he turned to the right and followed it. +He walked a long time, as if urged on by some instinct. His clothes were +running with water, his hat was bashed in, as soft as a piece of rag, +and dripping like a thatched roof. He walked on, straight in front of +him. At last, he came to the place where they had lunched so long, long +ago, the recollection of which had tortured his heart. He sat down under +the leafless trees, and he wept. + + + + +THE PORT + + +PART I + +Having sailed from Havre on the 3rd of May, 1882, for a voyage in the +China seas, the square-rigged three-master, _Notre Dame des Vents_, made +her way back into the port of Marseilles, on the 8th of August, 1886, +after an absence of four years. When she had discharged her first cargo +in the Chinese port for which she was bound, she had immediately found a +new freight for Buenos Ayres, and from that place had conveyed goods to +Brazil. + +Other passages, then damage repairs, calms ranging over several months, +gales which knocked her out of her course--all the accidents, adventures, +and misadventures of the sea, in short--had kept far from her country, +this Norman three-master, which had come back to Marseilles with her hold +full of tin boxes containing American preserves. + +At her departure, she had on board, besides the captain and the mate, +fourteen sailors, eight Normans and six Britons. On her return, there +were left only five Britons and four Normans; the other Briton had died +while on the way; the four Normans having disappeared under various +circumstances, had been replaced by two Americans, a negro, and a +Norwegian carried off, one evening, from a tavern in Singapore. + +The big vessel, with reefed sails and yards crossed over her masts, drawn +by a tug from Marseilles, rocking over a sweep of rolling waves which +subsided gently on becoming calm, passed in front of the Château d'If, +then under all the gray rocks of the roadstead, which the setting sun +covered with a golden vapor; and she entered the ancient port, in which +are packed together, side by side, ships from every part of the world, +pell mell, large and small, of every shape and every variety of rigging, +soaking like a "bouillabaise" of boats in this basin too limited in +extent, full of putrid water, where shells touch each other, rub against +each other, and seem to be pickled in the juice of the vessels. + +_Notre Dame des Vents_ took up her station between an Italian brig and an +English schooner, which made way to let this comrade slip in between +them; then, when all the formalities of the custom-house and of the port +had been complied with, the captain authorized the two-thirds of his crew +to spend the night on shore. + +It was already dark. Marseilles was lighted up. In the heat of this +summer's evening a flavor of cooking with garlic floated over the noisy +city, filled with the clamor of voices, of rolling vehicles, of the +crackling of whips, and of southern mirth. + +As soon as they felt themselves on shore, the ten men, whom the sea had +been tossing about for some months past, proceeded along quite slowly +with the hesitating steps of persons who are out of their element, +unaccustomed to cities, two by two, procession. + +They swayed from one side to another as they walked, looked about them, +smelling out the lanes opening out on the harbor, rendered feverish by +the amorous appetite which had been growing to maturity in their bodies +during their last sixty-six days at sea. The Normans strode on in front, +led by Célestin Duclos, a tall young fellow, sturdy and waggish, who +served as a captain for the others every time they set forth on land. He +divined the places worth visiting, found out by-ways after a fashion of +his own, and did not take much part in the squabbles so frequent among +sailors in seaport towns. But, once he was caught in one, he was afraid +of nobody. + +After some hesitation as to which of the obscure streets which lead down +to the waterside, and from which arise heavy smells, a sort of exhalation +from closets, they ought to enter, Célestin gave the preference to a kind +of winding passage, where gleamed over the doors projecting lanterns +bearing enormous numbers on their rough colored glass. Under the narrow +arches at the entrance to the houses, women wearing aprons like servants, +seated on straw chairs, rose up on seeing them coming near, taking three +steps towards the gutter which separated the street into two halves, and +which cut off the path from this file of men, who sauntered along at +their leisure, humming and sneering, already getting excited by the +vicinity of those dens of prostitutes. + +Sometimes, at the end of a hall, appeared, behind a second open door, +which presented itself unexpectedly, covered over with dark leather, a +big wench, undressed, whose heavy thighs and fat calves abruptly outlined +themselves under her coarse white cotton wrapper. Her short petticoat had +the appearance of a puffed out girdle; and the soft flesh of her breast, +her shoulders, and her arms, made a rosy stain on a black velvet corsage +with edgings of gold lace. She kept calling out from her distant corner, +"Will you come here, my pretty boys?" and sometimes she would go out +herself to catch hold of one of them, and to drag him towards her door +with all her strength, fastening on to him like a spider drawing forward +an insect bigger than itself. The man, excited by the struggle, would +offer a mild resistance, and the rest would stop to look on, undecided +between the longing to go in at once and that of lengthening this +appetizing promenade. Then when the woman, after desperate efforts, had +brought the sailor to the threshold of her abode, in which the entire +band would be swallowed up after him, Célestin Duclos, who was a judge of +houses of this sort, suddenly exclaimed: "Don't go in there, Marchand! +That's not the place." + +The man, thereupon, obeying this direction, freed himself with a brutal +shake; and the comrades formed themselves into a band once more, pursued +by the filthy insults of the exasperated wench, while other women, all +along the alley, in front of them, came out past their doors, attracted +by the noise, and in hoarse voices threw out to them invitations coupled +with promises. They went on, then, more and more stimulated, from the +combined effects of the coaxings and the seductions held out as baits to +them by the choir of portresses of love all over the upper part of the +street, and the ignoble maledictions hurled at them by the choir at the +lower end--the despised choir of disappointed wenches. From time to time, +they met another band--soldiers marching along with spurs jingling at +their heels--sailors again--isolated citizens--clerks in business houses. +On all sides might be seen fresh streets, narrow, and studded all over +with those equivocal lanterns. They pursued their way still through this +labyrinth of squalid habitation, over those greasy pavements through +which putrid water was oozing, between those walls filled with women's +flesh. + +At last, Duclos made up his mind, and, drawing up before a house of +rather attractive exterior, made all his companions follow him in there. + + +PART II + +Then followed a scene of thorough going revelry. For four hours the six +sailors gorged themselves with love and wine. Six months' pay was thus +wasted. + +In the principal room in the tavern they were installed as masters, +gazing with malignant glances at the ordinary customers, who were seated +at the little tables in the corners, where one of the girls, who was +left free to come and go, dressed like a big baby or a singer at a +café-concert, went about serving them, and then seated herself near them. +Each man, on coming in, had selected his partner, whom he kept all the +evening, for the vulgar taste is not changeable. They had drawn three +tables close up to them; and, after the first bumper, the procession +divided into two parts, increased by as many women as there were seamen, +had formed itself anew on the staircase. On the wooden steps, the four +feet of each couple kept tramping for some time, while this long file of +lovers got swallowed up behind the narrow doors leading into the +different rooms. + +Then they came down again to have a drink, and, after they had returned +to the rooms descended the stairs once more. + +Now, almost intoxicated, they began to howl. Each of them, with bloodshot +eyes, and his chosen female companion on his knee, sang or bawled, struck +the table with his fist, shouted while swilling wine down his throat, set +free the human brute. In the midst of them, Célestin Duclos, pressing +close to him, a big damsel with red cheeks, who sat astride over his +legs, gazed at her ardently. Less tipsy than the others, not that he had +taken less drink, he was as yet occupied with other thoughts, and, more +tender than his comrades, he tried to get up a chat. His thoughts +wandered a little, escaped him, and then came back, and disappeared +again, without allowing him to recollect exactly what he meant to say. + +"What time--what time--how long are you here?" + +"Six months," the girl answered. + +He seemed to be satisfied with her, as if this were a proof of good +conduct, and he went on questioning her: + +"Do you like this life?" + +She hesitated, then in a tone of resignation. + +"One gets used to it. It is not more worrying than any other kind of +life. To be a servant-girl or else a scrub is always a nasty occupation." + +He looked as if he also approved of the truthful remark. + +"You are not from this place?" said he. + +She answered merely by shaking her head. + +"Do you come from a distance?" + +She nodded, still without opening her lips. + +"Where is it you come from?" + +She appeared to be thinking, to be searching her memory, then said +falteringly: + +"From Perpignan." + +He was once more perfectly satisfied, and said: + +"Ah! yes." + +In her turn she asked: + +"And you, are you a sailor?" + +"Yes, my beauty." + +"Do you come from a distance?" + +"Ah! yes. I have seen countries, ports, and everything." + +"You have been round the world, perhaps?" + +"I believe you, twice rather than once." + +Again she seemed to hesitate, to search in her brain for something that +she had forgotten, then, in a tone somewhat different, more serious: + +"Have you met many ships in your voyages?" + +"I believe you, my beauty." + +"You did not happen to see the _Notre Dame des Vents_?" + +He chuckled: + +"No later than last week." + +She turned pale, all the blood leaving her cheeks, and asked: + +"Is that true, perfectly true?" + +"'Tis true as I tell you." + +"Honor bright! you are not telling me a lie?" + +He raised his hand. + +"Before God, I'm not!" said he. + +"Then do you know whether Célestin Duclos is still on her?" + +He was astonished, uneasy, and wished, before answering, to learn +something further. + +"Do you know him?" + +She became distrustful in turn. + +"Oh! 'tis not myself--'tis a woman who is acquainted with him." + +"A woman from this place?" + +"No, from a place not far off." + +"In the street?" + +"What sort of a woman?" + +"Why, then, a woman--a woman like myself." + +"What has she to say to him, this woman?" + +"I believe she is a country-woman of his." + +They stared into one another's hand, watching one another, feeling, +divining that something of a grave nature was going to arise between +them. + +He resumed: + +"I could see her there, this woman." + +"What would you say to her?" + +"I would say to her--I would say to her--that I had seen Célestin +Duclos." + +"He is quite well--isn't he?" + +"As well as you or me--he is a strapping young fellow." + +She became silent again, trying to collect her ideas; then slowly: + +"Where has the _Notre Dame des Vents_ gone to?" + +"Why, just to Marseilles." + +She could not repress a start. + +"Is that really true?" + +"'Tis really true." + +"Do you know Duclos?" + +"Yes, I do know him." + +She still hesitated; then in a very gentle tone: + +"Good! That's good!" + +"What do you want with him?" + +"Listen!--you will tell him--nothing!" + +He stared at her, more and more perplexed. At last, he put this question +to her: + +"Do you know him, too, yourself?" + +"No," said she. + +"Then what do you want with him?" + +Suddenly, she made up her mind what to do, left her seat, rushed over to +the bar where the landlady of the tavern presided, seized a lemon, which +she tore open, and shed its juice into a glass, then she filled this +glass with pure water, and carrying it across to him: + +"Drink this!" + +"Why?" + +"To make it pass for wine. I will talk to you afterwards." + +He drank it without further protest, wiped his lips with the back of his +hand, then observed: + +"That's all right. I am listening to you." + +"You will promise not to tell him you have seen me, or from whom you +learned what I am going to tell you. You must swear not to do so." + +He raised his hand. + +"All right. I swear I will not." + +"Before God?" + +"Before God." + +"Well, you will tell him that his father died, that his mother died, that +his brother died, the whole three in one month, of typhoid fever, in +January, 1883--three years and a half ago." + +In his turn, he felt all his blood set in motion through his entire body, +and for a few seconds he was so much overpowered that he could make no +reply; then he began to doubt what she had told him, and asked: + +"Are you sure?" + +"I am sure." + +"Who told it to you?" + +She laid her hands on his shoulders, and looking at him out of the depths +of her eyes: + +"You swear not to blab?" + +"I swear that I will not." + +"I am his sister!" + +He uttered that name in spite of himself: + +"Francoise?" + +She contemplated him once more with a fixed stare, then, excited by a +wild feeling of terror, a sense of profound horror, she faltered in a +very low tone, almost speaking into his mouth: + +"Oh! oh! it is you, Célestin." + +They no longer stirred, their eyes riveted in one another. + +Around them, his comrades were still yelling. The sounds made by glasses, +by fists, by heels keeping time to the choruses, and the shrill cries of +the women, mingled with the roar of their songs. + +He felt her leaning on him, clasping him, ashamed and frightened, his +sister. Then, in a whisper, lest anyone might hear him, so hushed that +she could scarcely catch his words: + +"What a misfortune! I have made a nice piece of work of it!" + +The next moment, her eyes filled with tears, and she faltered: + +"Is that my fault?" + +But, all of a sudden, he said: + +"So then, they are dead?" + +"They are dead." + +"The father, the mother, and the brother?" + +"The three in one month, and I told you. I was left by myself with +nothing but my clothes, for I was in debt to the apothecary and the +doctor and for the funeral of the three, and had to pay what I owed with +the furniture." + +"After that I went as a servant to the house of Mait'e Cacheux--you know +him well--the cripple. I was just fifteen at the time, for you went away +when I was not quite fourteen. I tripped with him. One is so senseless +when one is young. Then I went as a nursery-maid to the notary who +debauched me also, and brought me to Havre, where he took a room for me. +After a little while, he gave up coming to see me. For three days I lived +without eating a morsel of food; and then, not being able to get +employment, I went to a house, like many others. I, too, have seen +different places--ah! and dirty places! Rouen, Evreux, Lille, Bordeaux, +Perpignan, Nice, and then Marseilles, where I am now!" + +The tears started from her eyes, flowed over her nose, wet her cheeks, +and trickled into her mouth. + +She went on: + +"I thought you were dead, too?--my poor Cèlestin." + +He said: + +"I would not have recognized you myself--you were such a little thing +then, and here you are so big!--but how is it that you did not recognize +me?" + +She answered with a despairing movement of her hands: + +"I see so many men that they all seem to me alike." + +He kept his eyes still fixed on her intently, oppressed by an emotion +that dazed him, and filled him with such pain as to make him long to cry +like a little child that has been whipped. He still held her in his +arms, while she sat astride on his knees, with his open hands against the +girl's back; and now by sheer dint of looking continually at her, he at +length recognized her, the little sister left behind in the country with +all those whom she had seen die, while he had been tossing on the seas. +Then, suddenly taking between his big seaman's paws this head found once +more, he began to kiss her, as one kisses kindred flesh. And after that, +sobs, a man's deep sobs, heaving like great billows, rose up in his +throat, resembling the hiccoughs of drunkenness. + +He stammered: + +"And this is you--this is you, Francoise--my little Francoise!"-- + +Then, all at once, he sprang up, began swearing in an awful voice, and +struck the table such a blow with his fists that the glasses were knocked +down and smashed. After that, he advanced three steps, staggered, +stretched out his arms, and fell on his face. And he rolled on the +ground, crying out, beating the floor with his hands and feet, and +uttering such groans that they seemed like a death-rattle. + +All those comrades of his stared at him, and laughed. + +"He's not a bit drunk," said one. + +"He ought to be put to bed," said another. "If he goes out, we'll all be +run in together." + +Then, as he had money in his pockets, the landlady offered to let him +have a bed, and his comrades, themselves so much intoxicated that they +could not stand upright, hoisted him up the narrow stairs to the +apartment of the woman who had just been in his company, and who remained +sitting on a chair, at the foot of that bed of crime, weeping quite as +freely as he had wept, until the morning dawned. + + + + +THE HERMIT + + +We had gone to see, with some friends, the old hermit installed on an +antique mound covered with tall trees, in the midst of the vast plain +which extends from Cannes to La Napoule. + +On our return we spoke of those strange lay solitaries, numerous in +former times, but now a vanished race. We sought to find out the moral +causes, and endeavored to determine the nature of the griefs which +in bygone days had driven men into solitudes. + +All of a sudden one of our companions said: + +"I have known two solitaries--a man and a woman. The woman must be +living still. She dwelt, five years ago, on the ruins of a mountain top +absolutely deserted on the coast of Corsica, fifteen or twenty kilometers +away from every house. She lived there with a maid-servant. I went to see +her. She had certainly been a distinguished woman of the world. She +received me with politeness and even in a gracious manner, but I know +nothing about her, and I could find out nothing about her. + +"As for the man, I am going to relate to you his ill-omened adventure: + + * * * * * + +Look round! You see over there that peaked woody mountain which stands +by itself behind La Napoule in front of the summits of the Esterel; it is +called in the district Snake Mountain. There is where my solitary lived +within the walls of a little antique temple about a dozen years ago. + +Having heard about him, I resolved to make his acquaintance, and I set +out for Cannes on horseback one March morning. Leaving my steed at the +inn at La Napoule, I commenced climbing on foot that singular cave, about +one hundred and fifty perhaps, or two hundred meters in height, and +covered with aromatic plants, especially cysti, whose odor is so sharp +and penetrating that it irritates you and causes you discomfort. The soil +is stony, and you can see gliding over the pebbles long adders which +disappear in the grass. Hence this well-deserved appellation of Snake +Mountain. On certain days, the reptiles seem to spring into existence +under your feet when you climb the declivity exposed to the rays of the +sun. They are so numerous that you no longer venture to go on, and +experience a strange sense of uneasiness, not fear, for those creatures +are harmless, but a sort of mysterious terror. I had several times the +peculiar sensation of climbing a sacred mountain of antiquity, a +fantastic hill perfumed and mysterious, covered with cysti and inhabited +by serpents and crowned with a temple. + +This temple still exists. They told me, at any rate, that it was a +temple; for I did not seek to know more about it so as not to destroy the +illusion. + +So then, one March morning, I climbed up there under the pretext of +admiring the country. On reaching the top, I perceived, in fact, walls +and a man sitting on a stone. He was scarcely more than forty years of +age, though his hair was quite white; but his beard was still almost +black. He was fondling a cat which had cuddled itself upon his knees, and +did not seem to mind me. I took a walk around the ruins, one portion of +which covered over and shut in by means of branches, straw, grass and +stones, was inhabited by him, and I made my way towards the place which +he occupied. + +The view here is splendid. On the right is the Esterel with its peaked +summit strangely carved, then the boundless sea stretching as far as the +distant coast of Italy with its numerous capes, facing Cannes, the +Lerins Islands green and flat, which look as if they were floating, and +the last of which shows in the direction of the open sea an old +castellated fortress with battlemented towers built in the very waves. + +Then, commanding a view of green mountain-side where you could see, at an +equal distance, like innumerable eggs laid on the edge of the shore the +long chaplet of villas and white villages built among the trees rose the +Alps, whose summits are still shrouded in a hood of snow. + +I murmured: + +"Good heavens, this is beautiful!" + +The man raised his head, and said: + +"Yes, but when you see it every day, it is monstrous." + +Then he spoke, he chatted, and tired himself with talking--my solitary, +I detained him. + +I did not tarry long that day, and only endeavored to ascertain the color +of misanthropy. He created on me especially the impression of being bored +with other people, weary of everything, hopelessly disillusioned and +disgusted with himself as well as the rest. + +I left him after a half-hour's conversation. But I came back, eight hours +later, and once again in the following week, then every week, so that +before two months we were friends. + +Now, one evening at the close of May, I decided that the moment had +arrived, and I brought provisions in order to dine with him on Snake +Mountain. + +It was one of those evenings of the South so odorous in that country +where flowers are cultivated just as wheat is in the North, in that +country where every essence that perfumes the flesh and the dress of +women is manufactured, one of those evenings when the breath of the +innumerable orange-trees with which the gardens and all the recesses of +the dales are planted, excite and cause languor so that old men have +dreams of love. + +My solitary received me with manifest pleasure. He willingly consented to +share in my dinner. + +I made him drink a little wine, to which he had ceased to be accustomed. +He brightened up and began to talk about his past life. He had always +resided in Paris, and had, it seemed to me, lived a gay bachelor's life. + +I asked him abruptly: + +"What put into your head this funny notion of going to live on the top of +a mountain?" + +He answered immediately: + +"Her! it was because I got the most painful shock that a man can +experience. But why hide from you this misfortune of mine? It will make +you pity me, perhaps! And then--I have never told anyone--never--and +I would like to know, for once, what another thinks of it, and how he +judges it." + +"Born in Paris, brought up in Paris, I grew to manhood and spent my life +in that city. My parents had left me an income of some thousands of +francs a year, and I procured as a shelter, a modest and tranquil place +which enabled me to pass as wealthy for a bachelor. + +"I had, since my youth, led a bachelor's life. You know what that is. +Free and without family, resolved not to take a legitimate wife, I passed +at one time three months with one, at another time six months with +another, then a year without a companion, taking as my prey the mass +of women who are either to be had for the asking or bought. + +"This every day, or, if you like the phrase better, commonplace, +existence agreed with me, satisfied my natural tastes for changes and +silliness. I lived on the boulevard, in theaters and cafés, always out of +doors, always without a regular home, though I was comfortably housed. I +was one of those thousands of beings who let themselves float like corks, +through life, for whom the walls of Paris are the walls of the world, +and who have no care about anything, having no passion for anything. I +was what is called a good fellow, without accomplishments and without +defects. That is all. And I judge myself correctly. + +"Then, from twenty to forty years, my existence flowed along slowly or +rapidly without any remarkable event. How quickly they pass, the +monstrous years of Paris, when none of those memories worth fixing the +date of find way into the soul, these long and yet hurried years, trivial +and gay, when you eat, drink and laugh without knowing why, your lips +stretched out towards all they can taste and all they can kiss, without +having a longing for anything. You are young, and you grow old without +doing any of the things that others do, without any attachment, any root, +any bond, almost without friends, without family, without wife, without +children. + +"So, gently and quickly, I reached my fortieth year; and in order to +celebrate this anniversary, I invited myself to take a good dinner all +alone in one of the principal cafés. + +"After dinner, I was in doubt as to what I would do. I felt disposed to +go to a theater; and then the idea came into my head to make a pilgrimage +to the Latin quarters, where I had in former days lived as a law-student. +So I made my way across Paris, and without premeditation went in to one +of those public-houses where you are served by girls. + +"The one who attended at my table was quite young, pretty, and +merry-looking. I asked her to take a drink, and she at once consented. +She sat down opposite me, and gazed at me with a practiced eye, without +knowing with what kind of a male she had to do. She was a fair-haired +woman, or rather a fair-haired girl, a fresh, quite fresh young creature, +whom you guessed to be rosy and plump under her swelling bodice. I talked +to her in that flattering and idiotic style which we always adopt with +girls of this sort; and as she was truly charming, the idea suddenly +occurred to me to take her with me--always with a view to celebrating my +fortieth year. It was neither a long nor difficult task. She was free, +she told me, for the past fortnight, and she forthwith accepted my +invitation to come and sup with me in the Halles when her work would be +finished. + +"As I was afraid lest she might give me the slip--you never can tell what +may happen, or who may come into those drink-shops, or what wind may blow +into a woman's head--I remained there all the evening waiting for her. + +"I, too, had been free for the past month or two, and watching this +pretty debutante of love going from table to table, I asked myself the +question whether it would not be worth my while to make a bargain with +her to live with me for some time. I am here relating to you one of those +ordinary adventures which occur every day in the lives of men in Paris. + +"Excuse me for such gross details. Those who have not loved in a poetic +fashion take and choose women, as you choose a chop in a butcher's shop +without caring about anything save the quality of their flesh. + +"Accordingly, I took her to her own house--for I had a regard for my own +sheets. It was a little working-girl's lodgings in the fifth story, clean +and poor, and I spent two delightful hours there. This little girl had a +certain grace and a rare attractiveness. + +"When I was about to leave the room, I advanced towards the mantelpiece +in order to place there the stipulated present, after having agreed on a +day for a second meeting with the girl, who remained in bed, I got a +vague glimpse of a clock without a globe, two flower-vases and two +photographs, one of them very old, one of those proofs on glass called +daguerreo-types. I carelessly bent forward towards this portrait, and I +remained speechless at the sight, too amazed to comprehend.... It was my +own, the first portrait of myself, which I had got taken in the days when +I was a student in the Latin Quarter. + +"I abruptly snatched it up to examine it more closely. I did not deceive +myself--and I felt a desire to burst out laughing, so unexpected and +queer did the thing appear to me. + +"I asked: + +"'Who is this gentleman?' + +"She replied: + +"'Tis my father, whom I did not know. Mamma left it to me, telling me to +keep it, as it might be useful to me, perhaps, one day--' + +"She hesitated, began to laugh, and went on: + +"'I don't know in what way, upon my word. I don't think he'll care to +acknowledge me.' + +"My heart went beating wildly, like the mad gallop of a runaway horse. I +replaced the portrait, laying it down flat on the mantelpiece. On top of +it I placed, without even knowing what I was doing, two notes for a +hundred francs, which I had in my pocket, and I rushed away, exclaiming: + +"'We'll meet again soon--by-bye, darling--by-bye.' + +"I heard her answering: + +"'Till Tuesday.' + +"I was on the dark staircase, which I descended, groping my way down. + +"When I got into the open air, I saw that it was raining, and I started +at a great pace down some street or other. + +"I walked straight on, stupefied, distracted, trying to jog my memory! +Was this possible? Yes. I remembered all of a sudden a girl who had +written to me, about a month after our rupture, that she was going +to have a child by me. I had torn or burned the letter, and had forgotten +all about the matter. I should have looked at the woman's photograph over +the girl's mantelpiece. But would I have recognized it? It was the +photograph of an old woman, it seemed to me. + +"I reached the quay. I saw a bench, and sat down on it. It went on +raining. People passed from time to time under umbrellas. Life appeared +to me odious and revolting, full of miseries, of shames, of infamies +deliberate or unconscious. My daughter!... I had just perhaps possessed +my own daughter! And Paris, this vast Paris, somber, mournful, dirty, +sad, black, with all those houses shut up, was full of such things, +adulteries, incests, violated children, I recalled to mind what I had +been told about bridges haunted by the infamous votaries of vice. + +"I had acted, without wishing it, without being aware of it, in a worse +fashion than these ignoble beings. I had entered my own daughter's bed! + +"I was on the point of throwing myself into the water. I was mad! I +wandered about till dawn, then I came back to my own house to think. + +"I thereupon did what appeared to me the wisest thing. I desired a notary +to send for this little girl, and to ask her under what conditions her +mother had given her the portrait of him whom she supposed to be her +father, stating that he was intrusted with this duty by a friend. + +"The notary executed my commands. It was on her death-bed that this woman +had designated the father of her daughter, and in the presence of a +priest, whose name was given to me. + +"Then, still in the name of this unknown friend, I got half of my fortune +sent to this child, about one hundred and forty thousand francs, of which +she could only get the income. Then I resigned my employment--and here I +am. + +"While wandering along this shore, I found this mountain, and I stopped +there--up to what time I am unable to say! + +"What do you think of me, and of what I have done?" + +I replied as I extended my hand towards him: + +"You have done what you ought to do. Many others would have attached less +importance to this odious fatality." + +He went on: + +"I know that, but I was nearly going mad on account of it. It seems I had +a sensitive soul without ever suspecting it. And now I am afraid of +Paris, as believers are bound to be afraid of Hell. I have received a +blow on the head--that is all--a blow resembling the fall of a tile when +one is passing through the street. I am getting better for some time +past." + +I quitted my solitary. I was much disturbed by his narrative. + +I saw him again twice, then I went away, for I never remain in the South +after the month of May. + +When I came back in the following year the man was no longer on Snake +Mountain; and I have never since heard anything about him. + +This is the history of my hermit. + + + + +THE ORDERLY + + +The cemetery, filled with officers, looked like a field covered with +flowers. The kepis and the red trousers, the stripes and the gold +buttons, the shoulder-knots of the staff, the braid of the chasseurs and +the hussars, passed through the midst of the tombs, whose crosses, white +or black, opened their mournful arms--their arms of iron, marble, or +wood--over the vanished race of the dead. + +Colonel Limousin's wife had just been buried. She had been drowned, two +days before, while taking a bath. It was over. The clergy had left; but +the colonel, supported by two brother-officers, remained standing in +front of the pit, at the bottom of which he saw still the oaken coffin, +wherein lay, already decomposed, the body of his young wife. + +He was almost an old man, tall and thin, with white moustache; and, three +years ago, he had married the daughter of a comrade, left an orphan on +the death of her father, Colonel Sortis. + +The captain and the lieutenant, on whom their commanding officer was +leaning, attempted to lead him away. He resisted, his eyes full of tears, +which he heroically held back, and murmuring, "No, no, a little while +longer!" he persisted in remaining there, his legs bending under him, at +the side of that pit, which seemed to him bottomless, an abyss into which +had fallen his heart and his life, all that he held dear on earth. + +Suddenly, General Ormont came up, seized the colonel by the arm, and +dragging him from the spot almost by force said: "Come, come, my old +comrade! you must not remain here." + +The colonel thereupon obeyed, and went back to his quarters. As he opened +the door of his study, he saw a letter on the table. When he took it in +his hands, he was near falling with surprise and emotion; he recognized +his wife's handwriting. And the letter bore the post-mark and the date +of the same day. He tore open the envelope and read: + + * * * * * + +"Father, + +"Permit me to call you still father, as in days gone by. When you receive +this letter, I shall be dead and under the clay. Therefore, perhaps, you +may forgive me. + +"I do not want to excite your pity or to extenuate my sin. I only want to +tell the entire and complete truth, with all the sincerity of a woman +who, in an hour's time, is going to kill herself. + +"When you married me through generosity, I gave myself to you through +gratitude, and I loved you with all my girlish heart. I loved you as I +loved my own father--almost as much; and one day, while I sat on your +knee, and you were kissing me, I called you 'Father' in spite of myself. +It was a cry of the heart, instinctive, spontaneous. Indeed, you were to +me a father, nothing but a father. You laughed, and you said to me, +'Address me always in that way, my child; it gives me pleasure.' + +"We came to the city; and--forgive me, father--I fell in love. Ah! I +resisted long, well, nearly two years--and then I yielded, I sinned, I +became a fallen woman. + +"And as to him? You will never guess who he is. I am easy enough about +that matter, since there were a dozen officers always around me and with +me, whom you called my twelve constellations. + +"Father, do not seek to know him, and do not hate him. He only did what +any man, no matter whom, would have done in his place, and then I am sure +that he loved me, too, with all his heart. + +"But listen! One day we had an appointment in the isle of Becasses--you +know the little isle, close to the mill. I had to get there by swimming, +and he had to wait for me in a thicket, and then to remain there till +nightfall, so that nobody should see him going away. I had just met him +when the branches opened, and we saw Philippe, your orderly, who had +surprised us. I felt that we were lost, and I uttered a great cry. +Thereupon he said to me--he, my lover--'Go, swim back quietly, my +darling, and leave me here with this man.' + +"I went away so excited that I was near drowning myself, and I came back +to you expecting that something dreadful was about to happen. + +"An hour later, Philippe said to me in a low tone, in the lobby outside +the drawing-room where I met him: 'I am at madame's orders, if she has +any letters to give me.' Then I knew that he had sold himself, and that +my lover had bought him. + +"I gave him some letters, in fact--all my letters--he took them away, and +brought me back the answers. + +"This lasted about two months. We had confidence in him, as you had +confidence in him yourself. + +"Now, father, here is what happened. One day, in the same isle which I +had to reach by swimming, but this time alone, I found your orderly. This +man had been waiting for me; and he informed me that he was going to +reveal everything about us to you, and deliver to you the letters which +he had kept, stolen, if I did not yield to his desires. + +"Oh! father, father, I was filled with fear--a cowardly fear, an unworthy +fear, a fear above all of you who had been so good to me, and whom I had +deceived--fear on his account too--you would have killed him--for myself +also perhaps! I cannot tell; I was mad, desperate; I thought of once more +buying this wretch who loved me, too--how shameful! + +"We are so weak, we women, we lose our heads more easily than you do. And +then, when a woman once falls, she always falls lower and lower. Did I +know what I was doing? I understood only that one of you two and I were +going to die--and I gave myself to this brute. + +"You see, father, that I do not seek to excuse myself. + +"Then, then--then what I should have foreseen happened--he had the better +of me again and again, when he wished, by terrifying me. He, too, has +been my lover, like the other, every day. Is not this abominable? And +what punishment, father? + +"So then it is all over with me. I must die. While I lived, I could not +confess such a crime to you. Dead, I dare everything. I could not do +otherwise than die--nothing could have washed me clean--I was too +polluted. I could no longer love or be loved. It seemed to me that I +stained everyone by merely allowing my hand to be touched. + +"Presently I am going to take my bath, and I will never come back. + +"This letter for you will go to my lover. It will reach him when I am +dead, and without anyone knowing anything about it, he will forward it to +you, accomplishing my last wishes. And you shall read it on your return +from the cemetery. + +"Adieu, father! I have no more to tell you. Do whatever you wish, and +forgive me." + + * * * * * + +The colonel wiped his forehead, which was covered with perspiration. His +coolness; the coolness of days when he had stood on the field of battle, +suddenly came back to him. He rang. + +A man-servant made his appearance. "Send in Philippe to me," said he. +Then, he opened the drawer of his table. + +The man entered almost immediately--a big soldier with red moustache, a +malignant look, and a cunning eye. + +The colonel looked him straight in the face. + +"You are going to tell me the name of my wife's lover." + +"But, my colonel--" + +The officer snatched his revolver out of the half-open drawer. + +"Come! quick! You know I do not jest!" + +"Well--my colonel--it is Captain Saint-Albert." + +Scarcely had he pronounced this name when a flame flashed between his +eyes, and he fell on his face, his forehead pierced by a ball. + + + + +DUCHOUX + + +While descending the wide staircase of the club heated like a +conservatory by the stove the Baron de Mordiane had left his fur-coat +open; therefore, when the huge street-door closed behind him he felt a +shiver of intense cold run through him, one of those sudden and painful +shivers which make us feel sad, as if we were stricken with grief. +Moreover, he had lost some money, and his stomach for some time past had +troubled him, no longer permitting him to eat as he liked. + +He went back to his own residence; and, all of a sudden, the thought of +his great, empty apartment, of his footman asleep in the ante-chamber, of +the dressing-room in which the water kept tepid for the evening toilet +simmered pleasantly under the chafing-dish heated by gas, and the bed, +spacious, antique, and solemn-looking, like a mortuary couch, caused +another chill, more mournful still than that of the icy atmosphere, to +penetrate to the bottom of his heart, the inmost core of his flesh. + +For some years past he had felt weighing down on him that load of +solitude which sometimes crushes old bachelors. Formerly, he had been +strong, lively, and gay, giving all his days to sport and all his nights +to festive gatherings. Now, he had grown dull, and no longer took +pleasure in anything. Exercise fatigued him; suppers and even dinners +made him ill; women annoyed him as much as they had formerly amused him. + +The monotony of evenings all like each other, of the same friends met +again in the same place, at the club, of the same game with a good hand +and a run of luck, of the same talk on the same topics, of the same witty +remarks by the same lips, of the same jokes on the same themes, of the +same scandals about the same women, disgusted him so much as to make him +feel at times a veritable inclination to commit suicide. He could no +longer lead this life regular and inane, so commonplace, so frivolous and +so dull at the same time, and he felt a longing for something tranquil, +restful, comfortable, without knowing what. + +He certainly did not think of getting married, for he did not feel in +himself sufficient fortitude to submit to the melancholy, the conjugal +servitude, to that hateful existence of two beings, who, always together, +knew one another so well that one could not utter a word which the other +would not anticipate, could not make a single movement which would not be +foreseen, could not have any thought or desire or opinion which would not +be divined. He considered that a woman could only be agreeable to see +again when you know her but slightly, when there is something mysterious +and unexplored attached to her, when she remains disquieting, hidden +behind a veil. Therefore, what he would require was a family without +family-life, wherein he might spend only a portion of his existence; and, +again, he was haunted by the recollection of his son. + +For the past year he had been constantly thinking of this, feeling +an irritating desire springing up within him to see him, to renew +acquaintance with him. He had become the father of this child, while +still a young man, in the midst of dramatic and touching incidents. The +boy dispatched to the South, had been brought up near Marseilles without +ever hearing his father's name. + +The latter had at first paid from month to month for the nurture, then +for the education and the expense of holidays for the lad, and finally +had provided an allowance for him on making a sensible match. A discreet +notary had acted as an intermediary without ever disclosing anything. + +The Baron de Mordiane accordingly knew merely that a child of his was +living somewhere in the neighborhood of Marseilles, that he was looked +upon as intelligent and well-educated, that he had married the daughter +of an architect and contractor, to whose business he had succeeded. He +was also believed to be worth a lot of money. + +Why should he not go and see this unknown son without telling his name, +in order to form a judgment about him at first and to assure himself that +he would be able, in case of necessity, to find an agreeable refuge in +this family? + +He had acted handsomely towards the young man, had settled a good fortune +on him, which had been thankfully accepted. He was, therefore, certain +that he would not find himself clashing against any inordinate sense of +self-importance; and this thought, this desire, which every day returned +to him afresh, of setting out for the South, tantalized him like a kind +of itching sensation. A strange self-regarding feeling of affection +also attracted him, bringing before his mental vision this pleasant, +warm abode by the seaside, where he would meet his young and pretty +daughter-in-law, his grandchildren, with outstretched arms, and his son, +who would recall to his memory the charming and short-lived adventure of +bygone years. He regretted only having given so much money, and that this +money had prospered in the young man's hands, thus preventing him from +any longer presenting himself in the character of a benefactor. + +He hurried along, with all these thoughts running through his brain, and +the collar of his fur-coat wrapped round his head. Suddenly he made up +his mind. A cab was passing; he hailed it, drove home, and, when his +valet, just roused from a nap, had opened the door. + +"Louis," said he, "we start to-morrow evening for Marseilles. We'll +remain there perhaps a fortnight. You will make all the necessary +preparations." + +The train rushed on past the Rhone with its sandbanks, then through +yellow plains, bright villages, and a wide expanse of country, shut in +by bare mountains, which rose on the distant horizon. + +The Baron de Mordiane, waking up after a night spent in a sleeping +compartment of the train, looked at himself, in a melancholy fashion, +in the little mirror of his dressing-case. The glaring sun of the South +showed him some wrinkles which he had not observed before--a condition +of decrepitude unnoticed in the imperfect light of Parisian rooms. He +thought, as he examined the corners of his eyes, and saw the rumpled +lids, the temples, the skinny forehead: + +"Damn it, I've not merely got the gloss taken off--I've become quite an +old fogy." + +And his desire for rest suddenly increased, with a vague yearning, born +in him for the first time, to take his grandchildren on his knees. + +About one o'clock in the afternoon, he arrived in a landau which he had +hired at Marseilles, in front of one of those houses of Southern France +so white, at the end of their avenues of plane-trees that they dazzle us +and make our eyes droop. He smiled as he pursued his way along the walk +before the house, and reflected: + +"Deuce take it! this is a nice place." + +Suddenly, a young rogue of five or six made his appearance, starting out +of a shrubbery, and remained standing at the side of the path, staring at +the gentleman with eyes wide open. + +Mordiane came over to him: + +"Good morrow, my boy." + +The brat made no reply. + +The baron, then, stooping down, took him up in his arms to kiss him, but, +the next moment, suffocated by the smell of garlic with which the child +seemed impregnated all over, he put him back again on the ground, +muttering: + +"Oh! it is the gardener's son." + +And he proceeded towards the house. + +The linen was hanging out to dry on a cord before the door--shirts and +chemises, napkins, dish-cloths, aprons, and sheets, while a row of socks, +hanging from strings one above the other, filled up an entire window, +like sausages exposed for sale in front of a pork-butcher's shop. + +The baron announced his arrival. A servant-girl appeared, a true servant +of the South, dirty and untidy, with her hair hanging in wisps and +falling over her face, while her petticoat under the accumulation of +stains which had soiled it had retained only a certain uncouth remnant +of its old color, a hue suitable for a country fair or a mountebank's +tights. + +He asked: + +"Is M. Duchoux at home?" + +He had many years ago, in the mocking spirit of a skeptical man of +pleasure, given this name to the foundling, in order that it might not be +forgotten that he had been picked up under a cabbage. + +The servant-girl asked: + +"Do you want M. Duchoux?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, he is in the big room drawing up his plans." + +"Tell him that M. Merlin wishes to speak to him." + +She replied, in amazement: + +"Hey! go inside then, if you want to see him." + +And she bawled out: + +"Monsieur Duchoux--a call." + +The baron entered, and in a spacious apartment, rendered dark by the +windows being half-closed, he indistinctly traced out persons and things, +which appeared to him very slovenly looking. + +Standing in front of a table laden with articles of every sort, a little +bald man was tracing lines on a large sheet of paper. + +He interrupted his work, and advanced two steps. His waistcoat left open, +his unbuttoned breeches, and his turned-up shirt-sleeves, indicated that +he felt hot, and his muddy shoes showed that it had rained hard some days +before. + +He asked with a very pronounced southern accent: + +"Whom have I the honor of--?" + +"Monsieur Merlin--I came to consult you about a purchase of +building-ground." + +"Ha! ha! very well!" + +And Duchoux, turning towards his wife, who was knitting in the shade: + +"Clear off a chair, Josephine." + +Mordiane then saw a young woman, who appeared already old, as women look +old at twenty-five in the provinces, for want of attention to their +persons, regular washing, and all the little cares bestowed on feminine +toilet which make them fresh, and preserve, till the age of fifty, the +charm and beauty of the sex. With a neckerchief over her shoulders, her +hair clumsily braided--though it was lovely hair, thick and black, you +could see that it was badly brushed--she stretched out towards a chair +hands like those of a servant, and removed an infant's robe, a knife, a +fag-end of packe-bread, an empty flower-pot, and a greasy plate left on +the seat, which she then moved over towards the visitor. + +He sat down, and presently noticed that Duchoux's work-table had on it, +in addition to the books and papers, two salads recently gathered, a +wash-hand basin, a hair-brush, a napkin, a revolver, and a number of cups +which had not been cleaned. + +The architect perceived this look, and said with a smile: + +"Excuse us! there is a little disorder in the room--it is owing to the +children." + +And he drew across his chair, in order to chat with his client. + +"So then you are looking out for a piece of ground in the neighborhood of +Marseilles?" + +His breath, though not close to the baron, carried towards the latter +that odor of garlic which the people of the South exhale as flowers do +their perfume. + +Mordiane asked: + +"Is it your son that I met under the plane-trees?" + +"Yes. Yes, the second." + +"You have two of them?" + +"Three, monsieur; one a year." + +And Duchoux looked full of pride. + +The baron was thinking: + +"If they all have the same perfume, their nursery must be a real +conservatory." + +He continued: + +"Yes, I would like a nice piece of ground near the sea, on a little +solitary strip of beach--" + +Thereupon Duchoux proceeded to explain. He had ten, twenty, fifty, a +hundred, or more, pieces of ground of the kind required, at different +prices and suited to different tastes. He talked just as a fountain +flows, smiling, self-satisfied, wagging his bald round head. + +And Mordiane was reminded of a little woman, fair-haired, slight, with +a somewhat melancholy look, and a tender fashion of murmuring, "My +darling," of which the mere remembrance made the blood stir in his veins. +She had loved him passionately, madly, for three months; then, becoming +pregnant in the absence of her husband, who was a governor of a colony, +she had run away and concealed herself, distracted with despair and +terror, till the birth of the child, which Mordiane carried off one +summer's evening, and which they had not laid eyes on afterwards. + +She died of consumption three years later, over there, in the colony of +which her husband was governor, and to which she had gone across to join +him. And here, in front of him, was their son, who was saying, in the +metallic tones with which he rang out his closing words: + +"This piece of ground, monsieur, is a rare chance--" + +And Mordiane recalled the other voice, light as the touch of a gentle +breeze, as it used to murmur: + +"My darling, we shall never part--" + +And he remembered that soft, deep, devoted glance in those eyes of blue, +as he watched the round eye, also blue, but vacant, of this ridiculous +little man, who, for all that, bore a resemblance to his mother. + +Yes, he looked more and more like her every moment--like her in accent, +in movement, in his entire deportment--he was like her in the way an ape +is like a man; but still he was hers; he displayed a thousand external +characteristics peculiar to her, though in an unspeakably distorted, +irritating, and revolting form. + +The baron was galled, haunted as he was all of a sudden by this +resemblance, horrible, each instant growing stronger, exasperating, +maddening, torturing him like a nightmare, like a weight of remorse. + +He stammered out: + +"When can we look at this piece of ground together?" + +"Why, to-morrow, if you like." + +"Yes, to-morrow. At what hour?" + +"One o'clock." + +"All right." + +The child he had met in the avenue appeared before the open door, +exclaiming: + +"Dada!" + +There was no answer. + +Mordiane had risen up with a longing to escape, to run off, which made +his legs tremble. This "dada" had hit him like a bullet. It was to _him_ +that it was addressed, it was intended for him, this "dada," smelling +of garlic--this "dada" of the South. + +Oh! how sweet had been the perfume exhaled by her, his sweetheart of +bygone days! + +Duchoux saw him to the door. + +"This house is your own?" said the baron. + +"Yes, monsieur; I bought it recently. And I am proud of it. I am a child +of accident, monsieur, and I don't want to hide it; I am proud of it. I +owe nothing to anyone; I am the son of my own efforts; I owe everything +to myself." + +The little boy, who remained on the threshold, kept still exclaiming, +though at some distance away from them: + +"Dada!" + +Mordiane, shaking with a shivering fit, seized with panic, fled as one +flies away from a great danger. + +"He is going to guess who I am, to recognize me," he thought. "He is +going to take me in his arms, and to call out to me, 'Dada,' while giving +me a kiss perfumed with garlic." + +"To-morrow, monsieur." + +"To-morrow, at one o'clock." + +The landau rolled over the white road. + +"Coachman! to the railway-station!" + +And he heard two voices, one far away and sweet, the faint, sad voice +of the dead, saying: "My darling," and the other sonorous, sing-song, +frightful, bawling out, "Dada," just as people bawl out, "Stop him!" +when a thief is flying through the street. + +Next evening, as he entered the club, the Count d'Etreillis said to him: + +"We have not seen you for the last three days. Have you been ill?" + +"Yes, a little unwell. I get headaches from time to time." + + + + +OLD AMABLE + + +PART I + +The humid, gray sky seemed to weigh down on the vast brown plain. The +odor of Autumn, the sad odor of bare, moist lands, of fallen leaves, of +dead grass, made the stagnant evening air more thick and heavy. The +peasants were still at work, scattered through the fields, waiting for +the stroke of the Angelus to call them back to the farm-houses, whose +thatched roofs were visible here and there through the branches of the +leafless trees which protected the apple-gardens against the wind. + +At the side of the road, on a heap of clothes, a very small male child +seated with its legs apart, was playing with a potato, which he now and +then let fall on his dress, while five women bent down with their rumps +in the air, were picking sprigs of colza in the adjoining plain. With a +slow continuous movement, all along the great cushions of earth which the +plow had just turned up, they drove in sharp wooden stakes, and then +cast at once into the hole so formed the plant, already a little +withered, which sank on the side; then they covered over the root, and +went on with their work. + +A man who was passing, with a whip in his hand, and wearing wooden shoes, +stopped near the child, took it up, and kissed it. Then one of the women +rose up, and came across to him. She was a big, red-haired girl, with +large hips, waist, and shoulders, a tall Norman woman, with yellow hair +in which there was a blood-red tint. + +She said, in a resolute voice: + +"Here you are, Césaire--well?" + +The man, a thin young fellow with a melancholy air, murmured: + +"Well, nothing at all--always the same." + +"He won't have it?" + +"He won't have it." + +"What are you going to do?" + +"What do you say I ought to do?" + +"Go see the curé." + +"I will." + +"Go at once!" + +"I will." + +And they stared at each other. He held the child in his arms all the +time. He kissed it once more, and then put it down again on the woman's +clothes. + +In the distance, between two farm-houses, could be seen a plow drawn by a +horse, and driven along by a man. They moved on very gently, the horse, +the plow, and the laborer, under the dim evening sky. + +The woman went on: + +"What, then, did your father say?" + +"He said he would not have it." + +"Why wouldn't he have it?" + +The young man pointed towards the child whom he had just put back on the +ground, then with a glance he drew her attention to the man drawing the +plow yonder there. + +And he said emphatically: + +"Because 'tis his--this child of yours." + +The girl shrugged her shoulders, and in an angry tone said: + +"Faith everyone knows it well--that it is Victor's. And what about it +after all? I made a slip. Am I the only woman that did? My mother also +made a slip before me, and then yours did the same before she married +your dad! Who is it that hasn't made a slip in the country. I made a slip +with Victor, because he took advantage of me while I was asleep in the +barn, it's true, and afterwards it happened between us when I wasn't +asleep. I certainly would have married him if he weren't a servant-man. +Am I a worse woman for that?" + +The man said simply: + +"As for me, I like you just as you are, with or without the child. 'Tis +only my father that opposes me. All the same, I'll see about settling the +business." + +She answered: + +"Go to the curé at once." + +"I'm going to him." + +And he set forth with his heavy peasant's tread; while the girl, with her +hands on her hips, turned round to pick her colza. + +In fact, the man who thus went off, Césaire Houlbréque, the son of deaf +old Amable Houlbréque, wanted to marry in spite of his father, Céleste +Lévesque, who had a child by Victor Lecoq, a mere laborer on his parent's +farm, turned out of doors for this act. + +Moreover, the hierarchy of caste does not exist in the fields, and if the +laborer is thrifty, he becomes, by taking a farm in his turn, the equal +of his former master. + +So Césaire Houlbrèque went off with his whip under his arm, brooding over +his own thoughts, and lifting up one after the other his heavy wooden +shoes daubed with clay. Certainly he desired to marry Céleste Lévesque. +He wanted her with her child, because it was the woman he required. He +could not say why: but he knew it, he was sure of it. He had only to look +at her to be convinced of it, to feel himself quite jolly, quite stirred +up, as it were turned into a pure animal through contentment. He even +found a pleasure in kissing the little boy, Victor's little boy, because +he had come out of her. + +And he gazed, without hate, at the distant profile of the man who was +driving his plow along on the horizon's edge. + +But old Amable did not want this marriage. He opposed it with the +obstinacy of a deaf man, with a violent obstinacy. + +Césaire in vain shouted in his ear, in that ear which still heard a few +sounds: + +"I'll take good care of you, daddy. I tell you she's a good girl and +strong, too, and also thrifty." + +The old man repeated: + +"As long as I live, I won't see her your wife." + +And nothing could get the better of him, nothing could bend his severity. +One hope only was left to Césaire. Old Amable was afraid of the curé +through apprehension of the death which he felt drawing nigh. He had not +much fear of the good God nor of the Devil nor of Hell nor of Purgatory, +of which he had no conception, but he dreaded the priest, who represented +to him burial, as one might fear the doctors through horror of diseases. +For the last eight days Céleste, who knew this weakness of the old man, +had been urging Césaire to go and find the curé; but Césaire always +hesitated, because he had not much liking for the black robe, which +represented to him hands always stretched out for collections for blessed +bread. + +However, he made up his mind, and he proceeded towards the presbytery, +thinking in what manner he would speak about his case. + +The Abbe Raffin, a lively little priest, thin and never shaved, was +awaiting his dinner-hour while warming his feet at his kitchen-fire. + +As soon as he saw the peasant entering, he asked, merely turning round +his head: + +"Well, Césaire, what do you want?" + +"I'd like to have a talk with you, M. le Curé." + +The man remained standing, intimidated, holding his cap in one hand and +his whip in the other. + +"Well, talk." + +Césaire looked at the housekeeper, an old woman who dragged her feet +while putting on the cover for her master's dinner at the corner of the +table in front of the window. + +He stammered: + +"'Tis--'tis a sort of confession." + +Thereupon, the Abbe Raffin carefully surveyed his peasant. He saw his +confused countenance, his air of constraint, his wandering eyes, and he +gave orders to the housekeeper in these words: + +"Marie, go away for five minutes to your room, while I talk to Césaire." + +The servant cast on the man an angry glance, and went away grumbling. + +The clergyman went on: + +"Come, now, spin out your yarn." + +The young fellow still hesitated, looked down at his wooden shoes, moved +about his cap, then, all of a sudden, he made up his mind: + +"Here it is: I want to marry Céleste Lévesque." + +"Well, my boy, what's there to prevent you?" + +"The father won't have it." + +"Your father?" + +"Yes, my father." + +"What does your father say?" + +"He says she has a child." + +"She's not the first to whom that happened, since our Mother Eve." + +"A child by Victor Lecoq, Anthione Loisel's servant-man." + +"Ha! ha! So he won't have it?" + +"He won't have it." + +"What! not at all?" + +"No, no more than an ass that won't budge an inch, saving your presence." + +"What do you say to him yourself in order to make him decide?" + +"I say to him that she's a good girl, and strong too, and thrifty also." + +"And this does not make him settle it. So you want me to speak to him?" + +"Exactly. You speak to him." + +"And what am I to tell your father?" + +"Why, what you tell people in your sermons to make them give you sous." + +In the peasant's mind every effort of religion consisted in loosening the +purses, in emptying the pockets of men in order to fill the heavenly +coffer. It was a kind of huge commercial establishment, of which the +curés were the clerks, sly, crafty clerks, sharp as anyone must be who +does business for the good God at the expense of the country people. + +He knew full well that the priests rendered services, great services to +the poorest, to the sick and dying, that they assisted, consoled, +counseled, sustained, but all this by means of money, in exchange for +white pieces, for beautiful glittering coins, with which they paid for +sacraments and masses, advice and protection, pardon of sins and +indulgences, purgatory and paradise accompanying the yearly income, and +the generosity of the sinner. + +The Abbe Raffin, who knew his man, and who never lost his temper, burst +out laughing. + +"Well, yes, I'll tell your father my little story; but you, my lad, +you'll go there--to the sermon." + +Houlbrèque extended his hand in order to give a solemn assurance: + +"On the word of a poor man, if you do this for me, I promise that I +will." + +"Come, that's all right. When do you wish me to go and find your father?" + +"Why the sooner the better--to-night if you can." + +"In half-an-hour, then, after supper." + +"In half-an-hour." + +"That's understood. So long, my lad." + +"Good-bye till we meet again, Monsieur le Curé; many thanks." + +"Not at all, my lad." + +And Césaire Houlbrèque returned home, his heart relieved of a great +weight. + +He held on lease a little farm, quite small, for they were not rich, his +father and he. Alone with a female servant, a little girl of fifteen, who +made the soup, looked after the fowls, milked the cows and churned the +butter, they lived hardly, though Césaire was a good cultivator. But they +did not possess either sufficient lands or sufficient cattle to gain more +than the indispensable. + +The old man no longer worked. Sad, like all deaf people, crippled with +pains, bent double, twisted, he went through the fields leaning on his +stick, watching the animals and the men with a hard, distrustful eye. +Sometimes, he sat down on the side of a ditch, and remained there without +moving for hours, vaguely pondering over the things that had engrossed +his whole life, the price of eggs and corn, the sun and the rain which +spoil the crops or make them grow. And, worn out by rheumatism, his old +limbs still drank in the humidity of the soul, as they had drunk in for +the past sixty years, the moisture of the walls of his low thatched house +covered over with humid straw. + +He came back at the close of the day, took his place at the end of the +table, in the kitchen, and when the earthen pot containing the soup had +been placed before him, he caught it between his crooked fingers, which +seemed to have kept the round form of the jar, and, winter and summer, he +warmed his hands, before commencing to eat, so as to lose nothing, not +even a particle of the heat that came from the fire, which costs a great +deal, neither one drop of soup into which fat and salt have to be put, +nor one morsel of bread, which comes from the wheat. + +Then, he climbed up a ladder into a loft where he had his straw-bed, +while his son slept below-stairs at the end of a kind of niche near the +chimney-piece and the servant shut herself up in a kind of cave, a black +hole which was formerly used to store the potatoes. + +Césaire and his father scarcely ever talked to each other. From time +to time only, when there was a question of selling a crop or buying +a calf, the young man took the advice of his father, and making a +speaking-trumpet of his two hands, he bawled out his views into his ear, +and old Amable either approved of them or opposed them in a slow, hollow +voice that came from the depths of his stomach. + +So, one evening, Césaire, approaching him as if about to discuss the +purchase of a horse or a heifer, communicated to him at the top of his +voice his intention to marry Céleste Lévesque. + +Then, the father got angry. Why? On the score of morality? No, certainly. +The virtue of a girl is scarcely of importance in the country. But his +avarice, his deep, fierce instinct for sparing, revolted at the idea +that his son should bring up a child which he had not begotten himself. +He had thought suddenly, in one second, on the soup the little fellow +would swallow before being useful in the farm. He had calculated all +the pounds of bread, all the pints of cider, that this brat would consume +up to his fourteenth year; and a mad anger broke loose from him against +Césaire who had not bestowed a thought on all this. + +He replied, with an usual strength of voice: + +"Have you lost your senses?" + +Thereupon, Césaire began to enumerate his reasons, to speak about +Céleste's good points, to prove that she would be worth a thousand times +what the child would cost. But the old man doubted these advantages, +while he could have no doubts as to the child's existence; and he replied +with emphatic repetition, without giving any further explanation: + +"I will not have it! I will not have it! As long as I live, this won't be +done!" + +And at this point they had remained for the last three months, without +one or the other giving in, resuming at least once a week the same +discussion, with the same arguments, the same words, the same gestures, +and the same fruitlessness. + +It was then that Céleste had advised Césaire to go and ask for the curé's +assistance. + +On arriving home the peasant found his father already seated at table, +for he was kept late by his visit to the presbytery. + +They dined in silence face to face, ate a little bread and butter after +the soup and drank a glass of cider. Then they remained motionless in +their chairs, with scarcely a glimmer of light, the little servant-girl +having carried off the candle in order to wash the spoons, wipe the +glasses, and cut beforehand the crusts of bread for next morning's +breakfast. + +There was a knock at the door, which was immediately opened; and the +priest appeared. The old man raised towards him an anxious eye full of +suspicion, and, foreseeing danger, he was getting ready to climb up his +ladder when the Abbe Raffin laid his hand on his shoulder, and shouted +close to his temple: + +"I want to have a talk with you, Father Amable." + +Césaire had disappeared, taking advantage of the door being open. He did +not want to listen, so much was he afraid, and he did not want his hopes +to crumble with each obstinate refusal of his father. He preferred to +learn the truth at once, good or bad, later on; and he went out into the +night. It was a moonless night, a starless night, one of those foggy +nights when the air seems thick with humidity. A vague odor of apples +floated through the farm-yard, for it was the season when the earliest +apples were gathered, the "soon ripe" ones, as they are called in the +language of the peasantry. As Césaire passed along by the cattle-sheds, +the warm smell of living beasts sleeping on manure was exhaled through +the narrow windows; and he heard near the stables the stamping of horses +who remained standing, and the sound of their jaws tearing and bruising +the hay on the racks. + +He went straight ahead, thinking about Céleste. In this simple nature, +whose ideas were scarcely more than images generated directly by objects, +thoughts of love only formulated themselves by calling up before the +mind the picture of a big red-haired girl, standing in a hollow road, and +laughing with her hands on her hips. + +It was thus he saw her on the day when he first took a fancy for her. He +had, however, known her from infancy but never had he been so struck by +her as on that morning. They had stopped to talk for a few minutes, and +then he went away; and as he walked along he kept repeating: + +"Faith, she's a fine girl, all the same. 'Tis a pity she made a slip with +Victor." + +Till evening, he kept thinking of her, and also on the following morning. + +When he saw her again, he felt something tickling the end of his throat, +as if a cock's feather had been driven through his mouth into his chest, +and since then, every time he found himself near her, he was astonished +at this nervous tickling which always commenced again. + +In three months, he made up his mind to marry her, so much did she please +him. He could not have said whence came this power over him, but he +explained it by these words: + +"I am possessed by her," as if he felt the desire of this girl within him +with as much dominating force as one of the powers of Hell. He scarcely +bothered himself about her transgression. So much the worse, after all; +it did her no harm, and he bore no grudge against Victor Lecoq. + +But if the curé was not going to succeed, what was he to do? He did not +dare to think of it, so much did this anxious question torment him. + +He reached the presbytery and seated himself near the little gateway to +await for the priest's return. + +He was there perhaps half-an-hour when he heard steps on the road, and he +soon distinguished although the night was very dark, the still darker +shadow of the sautane. + +He rose up, his legs giving way under him, not even venturing to speak, +not daring to ask a question. + +The clergyman perceived him, and said gayly: + +"Well, my lad, 'tis all right." + +Césaire stammered: + +"All right, 'tisn't possible." + +"Yes, my lad, but not without trouble. What an old ass your father is!" + +The peasant repeated: + +"'Tisn't possible!" + +"Why, yes. Come and look me up to-morrow at midday in order to settle +about the publication of the banns." + +The young man seized the curé's hand. He pressed it, shook it, bruised +it, while he stammered: + +"True--true--true, Monsieur le Curé, on the word of an honest man, you'll +see me to-morrow--at your sermon." + + +PART II + +The wedding took place in the middle of December. It was simple, the +bridal pair not being rich. Césaire, attired in new clothes, was ready +since eight o'clock in the morning to go and fetch his betrothed and +bring her to the Mayor's office; but, it was too early, he seated himself +before the kitchen-table, and waited for the members of the family and +the friends who were to accompany him. + +For the last eight days, it had been snowing, and the brown earth, the +earth already fertilized by the autumn savings had become livid, sleeping +under a great sheet of ice. + +It was cold in the thatched houses adorned with white caps; and the round +apples in the trees of the enclosures seemed to be flowering, powdered as +they had been in the pleasant month of their blossoming. + +This day, the big northern clouds, the gray clouds laden with glittering +rain had disappeared, and the blue sky showed itself above the white +earth on which the rising sun cast silvery reflections. + +Césaire looked straight before him through the window, thinking of +nothing happy. + +The door opened, two women entered, peasant women in their Sunday +clothes, the aunt and the cousin of the bridegroom, then three men, his +cousins, then a woman who was a neighbor. They sat down on chairs, and +they remained motionless and silent, the women on one side of the +kitchen, the men on the other suddenly seized with timidity, with that +embarrassed sadness which takes possession of people assembled for a +ceremony. One of the cousins soon asked: + +"It is not the hour--is it?" + +Césaire replied: + +"I am much afraid it is." + +"Come on! Let us start," said another. + +Those rose up. Then Césaire, whom a feeling of uneasiness had taken +possession of, climbed up the ladder of the loft to see whether his +father was ready. The old man, always as a rule an early riser, had not +yet made his appearance. His son found him on his bed of straw, wrapped +up in his blanket, with his eyes open, and a malicious look in them. + +He bawled out into his ear: "Come, daddy, get up. 'Tis the time for the +wedding." + +The deaf man murmured in a doleful tone: + +"I can't, I have a sort of cold over me that freezes my back. I can't +stir." + +The young man, dumbfounded, stared at him, guessing that this was a +dodge. + +"Come, daddy, we must force you to go." + +"Look here! I'll help you." + +And he stooped towards the old man, pulled off his blanket, caught him by +the arm and lifted him up. But the old Amable began to whine: + +"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! What suffering! Ooh! I can't. My back is stiffened up. +'Tis the wind that must have rushed in through this cursed roof." + +"Well, you'll have no dinner, as I'm having a spread at Polyte's inn. +This will teach you what comes of acting mulishly." + +And he hurried down the ladder, then set out for his destination, +accompanied by his relatives and guests. + +The men had turned up their trousers so as not to soil the ends of them +in the snow. The women held up their petticoats and showed their lean +ankles, their gray woolen stockings, and their bony shanks resembling +broomsticks. And they all moved forward balancing themselves on their +legs, one behind the other without uttering a word in a very gingerly +fashion through caution lest they might miss their way owing to flat, +uniform uninterrupted sweep of snow that obliterated the track. + +As they approached some of the farm houses, they saw one or two persons +waiting to join them, and the procession went on without stopping, and +wound its way forward, following the invisible outlines of the road, so +that it resembled a living chaplet with black beads undulating through +the white country side. + +In front of the bride's door, a large group was stamping up and down the +open space awaiting the bridegroom. When he appeared they gave him a loud +greeting; and presently, Céleste came forth from her room, clad in a blue +dress, her shoulders covered with a small red shawl, and her head adorned +with orange-flowers. + +But everyone asked Césaire: + +"Where's your father?" he replied with embarrassment. + +"He couldn't move on account of the pains." + +And the farmers tossed their heads with an incredulous and waggish air. + +They directed their steps towards the Mayor's office. Behind the pair +about to be wedded, a peasant woman carried Victor's child, as if it were +going to be baptized; and the male peasants, in pairs, now went on, with +arms linked, through the snow with the movements of a sloop at sea. + +After having been united by the Mayor in the little municipal house, the +pair were made one by the curé, in his turn, in the modest house of the +good God. He blessed their couplement by promising them fruitfulness, +then he preached to them on the matrimonial virtues, the simple and +healthful virtues of the country, work, concord, and fidelity, while the +child, seized with cold, began bawling behind the backs of the +newly-married pair. + +As soon as the couple reappeared on the threshold of the church, shots +were discharged in the moat of the cemetery. Only the barrels of the guns +could be seen whence came forth rapid jets of smoke; then a head could be +seen gazing at the procession. It was Victor Lecoq celebrating the +marriage of his old sweetheart, wishing her happiness and sending her his +good wishes with explosions of powder. He had employed some friends of +his, five or six laboring men, for these salvoes of musketry. It could be +seen that he carried the thing off well. + +The repast was given in Polyte Cacheprune's inn. Twenty covers were laid +in the great hall where people dined on market-days, and the big leg of +mutton turning before the spit, the fowl browned under their own gravy, +the chitterling roasting over the warm bright fire, filled the house with +a thick odor of coal sprinkled with fat--the powerful and heavy odor of +rustic fare. + +They sat down to table at midday, and speedily the soup flowed into the +plates. The faces already had brightened up; mouths opened to utter loud +jokes, and eyes were laughing with knowing winks. They were going to +amuse themselves and no mistake. + +The door opened, and old Amable presented himself. He seemed in bad humor +and his face wore a scowl, and he dragged himself forward on his sticks, +whining at every step to indicate his suffering. The sight of him caused +great annoyance; but suddenly, his neighbor, Daddy Malivoire, a big +joker, who knew all the little tricks and ways of people, began to yell, +just as Césaire used to do, by making a speaking-trumpet of his hands. + +"Hallo, my cute old boy, you have a good nose on you to be able to smell +Polyte's cookery from your own house!" + +An immense laugh burst forth from the throats of those present. +Malivoire, excited by his success, went on: + +"There is nothing for the rheumatics like a chitterling poultice! It +keeps your belly warm, along with a glass of three-six!" + +The men uttered shouts, banged the table with their fists, laughed, +bending on one side and raising up their bodies again as if they were +each working a pump. The women clucked like hens, while the servants +wriggled, standing against the walls. Old Amable was the only one that +did not laugh, and, without making any reply, waited till they made room +for him. + +They found a place for him in the middle of the table facing his +daughter-in-law, and, as soon as he was seated, he began to eat. It was +his son who was paying, after all it was right he should take his share. +With each ladlefull of soup that fell into his stomach, with each +mouthful of bread or meat crushed under his gums, with each glass of +cider or wine that flowed through his gullet, he thought he was regaining +something of his own property, getting back a little of his money which +all those gluttons were devouring, saving in fact, a portion of his own +means. And he ate in silence with the obstinacy of a miser who hides his +coppers, with the gloomy tenacity which he exhibited in former days in +his persistent toils. + +But all of a sudden he noticed at the end of the table Céleste's child +on a woman's lap, and his eye remained fixed on the little boy. He went +on eating, with his glance riveted on the youngster, into whose mouth the +woman who minded him every now and then put a little stuffing which he +nibbled at. And the old man suffered more from every mouthful taken in by +this little grub than by all that the others swallowed. + +The meal lasted till evening. Then everyone went back home. + +Césaire raised up old Amable. + +"Come, daddy, we must go home," said he. + +And put the old man's two sticks in his hands + +Césaire took her child in her arms, and they went on slowly through the +pale night whitened by the snow. The deaf old man, three-fourths tipsy, +and even more malicious under the influence of drink, persisted in not +going on. Several times he even sat down with the object of making his +daughter-in-law catch cold, and he kept whining, without uttering a word, +giving vent to a sort of continuous groaning as if he were in pain. + +When they reached home, he at once climbed up to his loft, while Césaire +made a bed for the child near the deep niche where he was going to lie +down with his wife. But as the newly wedded pair could not sleep +immediately, they heard the old man for a long time moving about on his +bed of straw, and he even talked loudly several times, whether it was +that he was dreaming or that he let his thoughts escape through his +mouth, in spite of himself, without being able to keep them back, under +the obsession of a fixed idea. + +When he came down his ladder, next morning, he saw his daughter-in-law +looking after the house-keeping. + +She cried out to him: + +"Come, daddy, hurry on! Here's some good soup." + +And she placed at the end of the table the round black gray pot filled +with smoking liquid. He sat down without giving any answer, seized the +hot jar, warmed his hands with it in his customary fashion; and, as it +was very cold, even pressed it against his breast, to try to make a +little of the living heat of the boiling water enter into him, into his +old body stiffened by so many winters. + +Then he took his sticks and went out into the fields, covered with ice, +till it was time for dinner, for he had seen Céleste's youngster still +asleep in a big soap-box. + +He did not take his place in the household. He lived in the thatched +house, as in bygone days, but he seemed not to belong to it any longer, +to be no longer interested in anything, to look upon those people, his +son, the wife, and the child as strangers whom he did not know, to whom +he never spoke. + +The winter glided by. It was long and severe. + +Then the early spring made the seeds sprout forth again, and the peasants +once more, like laborious ants, passed their days in the fields, toiling +from morning till night, under the wind and under the rain, along the +furrows of brown earth which brought forth the bread of men. + +The year promised well for the newly-married pair. The crops grew thick +and heavy. There were no slow frosts, and the apples bursting into bloom +let fall into the grass their rosy white snow, which promised a hail of +fruit for the autumn. + +Césaire toiled hard, rose early and left off work late, in order to save +the expense of a laboring man. + +His wife said to him sometimes: + +"You'll make yourself ill in the long run." + +He replied: + +"Certainly not. I'm a good judge." + +Nevertheless, one evening he came home so fatigued that he had to go to +bed without supper. He rose up next morning at the usual hour, but he +could not eat, in spite of his fast on the previous night, and he had to +come back to the house in the middle of the afternoon in order to go to +bed again. In the course of the night, he began to cough; he turned round +on his straw couch, feverish, with his forehead burning, his tongue dry, +and his throat parched by a burning thirst. + +However, at daybreak, he went towards his grounds, but, next morning, +the doctor had to be sent for, and pronounced him very ill from an +inflammation of the chest. + +And he no longer quitted the obscure niche which he made use of to sleep +in. He could be heard coughing, panting, and tossing about in the +interior of this hole. In order to see him, to give his medicine, and to +apply cupping-glasses, it was necessary to bring a candle towards the +entrance. Then one could see his narrow head with his long matted beard +underneath a thick lacework of spiders' webs, which hung and floated when +stirred by the air. And the hands of the sick man seemed dead under the +dingy sheets. + +Céleste watched him with restless activity, made him take physic, applied +blister plasters to him, and was constantly waving up and down the house, +while the old Amable remained at the side of his loft, watching at a +distance the gloomy cave where his son was dying. He did not come near +him, through hatred of the wife, sulking like an ill-tempered dog. + +Six more days passed, then, one morning, as Céleste, who was now asleep +on the ground on two loose bundles of straw, was going to see whether her +man was better, she no longer heard his rapid breathing from the interior +of his low bed. Terror stricken, she asked: + +"Well, Césaire, what sort of a night had you?" + +He did not answer. She put out her hand to touch him, and the flesh on +his face felt cold as ice. She uttered a great cry, the long cry of a +woman overpowered with fright. He was dead. + +At this cry, the deaf old man appeared, at the top of his ladder, and +when he saw Céleste rushing to call for help, he quickly descended, felt +in his turn the flesh of his son, and suddenly realizing what had +happened, went to shut the door from the inside, to prevent the wife +from reentering, and to resume possession of his dwelling, since his son +was no longer living. + +Then he sat down on a chair by the dead man's side. + +Some of the neighbors arrived, called out, and knocked. He did not hear +them. One of them broke the glass of the window, and jumped into the +room. Others followed. The door was opened again, and Céleste reappeared, +all in tears, with swollen face, and bloodshot eyes. Then, old Amable, +vanquished, without uttering a word, climbed back to his loft. + +The funeral took place next morning, then, after the ceremony, the +father-in-law and the daughter-in-law found themselves alone in the +farm-house with the child. + +It was the usual dinner hour. She lighted the fire, divided the soup, and +placed the plated on the table, while the old man sat on the chair +waiting without appearing to look at her. When the meal was ready, she +bawled out in his ear: + +"Come, daddy, you must eat." He rose up, took his seat at the end of the +table, emptied his pot, masticated his bread and butter, drank his two +glasses of cider, and then took himself off. + +It was one of those warm days, one of those enjoyable days when life +ferments, palpitates, blooms all over the surface of the soil. + +Old Amable pursued a little path across the fields. He watched the young +wheat and the young oats, thinking that his son was now under the clay, +his poor boy. He went on at his customary pace, dragging his legs after +him in a limping fashion. And, as he was all alone in the plain, all +alone under the blue sky, in the midst of the growing crops, all alone +with the larks, which he saw hovering above his head, without hearing +their light song, he began to weep while he proceeded on his way. + +Then he sat down close to a pool, and remained there till evening, gazing +at the little birds that came there to drink; then, as the night was +falling, he returned to the house, supped without saying a word, and +climbed up to his loft. + +And his life went on as in the past. Nothing was changed, except that his +son, Césaire, slept in the cemetery. + +What could he, an old man, do? He could work no longer; he was now good +for nothing except to swallow the soup prepared by his daughter-in-law. +And he did swallow it in silence, morning and evening, watching with an +eye of rage, the little boy also taking soup, right opposite him, at the +other side of the table. Then he went out, prowled about the fields in +the fashion of a vagabond, went hiding behind the barns, where he slept +for an hour or two, as if he were afraid of being seen, and then he came +back at the approach of night. + +But Céleste's mind began to be occupied by graver anxieties. The grounds +needed a man to look after them and work them. Somebody should be there +always to go through the fields, not a mere hired laborer, but a big +cultivator, a master, who would know the business and have the care of +the farm. A lone woman could not manage the farming, watch the price of +corn, and direct the sale and purchase of cattle. Then ideas came into +her head, simple practical ideas, which she had turned over in her head +at night. She could not marry again before the end of the year, and it +was necessary at once to take care of pressing interests, immediate +interests. + +Only one man could extricate her from embarrassment, Victor Lecoq, the +father of her child. He was strong and well acquainted with farming +business; with a little money in his pocket, he would make an excellent +cultivator. She was aware of his skill, having known him while he was +working on his parents' farm. + +So, one morning, seeing him passing along the road with a cart of dung, +she went out to meet him. When he perceived her, he drew up his horses +and she said to him, as if she had met him the night before: + +"Good morrow, Victor--are you quite well, the same as ever?" + +He replied: + +"I'm quite well, the same as ever--and how are you?" + +"Oh, I'd be all right, only that I'm alone in the house, which bothers me +on account of the grounds." + +Then they remained chatting for a long time, leaning against the wheel of +the heavy cart. The man every now and then lifted up his cap to scratch +his forehead, and began thinking, while she, with flushed cheeks, went on +talking warmly, told him about her views, her plans, her projects for the +future. In the end, he said, in a low tone: + +"Yes, it can be done." + +She opened her hand like a countryman clinching a bargain, and asked: + +"Is it agreed?" + +He pressed her outstretched hand. + +"'Tis agreed." + +"'Tis fixed, then, for Sunday next?" + +"'Tis fixed for Sunday next." + +"Well, good morning, Victor." + +"Good morning, Madame Houlbrèque." + + +PART III + +This Sunday was the day of the village festival, the annual festival in +honor of the patron saint, which in Normandy is called the assembly. + +For the last eight days quaint looking vehicles, in which lay the +wandering families of fancy fair owners, lottery managers, keepers of +shooting galleries, and other forms of amusement or exhibitors of +curiosities, which the peasants call "monster-makers," could be seen +coming along the roads drawn slowly by gray or chestnut horses. + +The dirty caravans with their floating curtains accompanied by a +melancholy-looking dog, who trotted, with his head down, between the +wheels, drew up one after the other, in the green fronting the Mayor's +office. Then a tent was erected in front of each traveling abode, and +inside this tent could be seen through the holes in the canvas glittering +things, which excited the envy or the curiosity of the village brats. + +As soon as the morning of the fête arrived, all the booths were opened, +displaying their splendors of glass or porcelain; and the peasants on +their way to mass, regarded already with looks of satisfaction, these +modest shops, which, nevertheless, they saw again each succeeding year. + +From the early part of the afternoon, there was a crowd on the green. +From every neighboring village, the farmers arrived, shaken along with +their wives and children in the two-wheeled open cars, which made a +rattling sound as they oscillated like cradles. They unyoked at their +friends' houses, and the farm-yards were filled with strange looking +traps, gray, high, lean, crooked, like long clawed creatures from the +depths of the sea. And each family, with the youngsters in front, and the +grown up ones behind, came to the assembly with tranquil steps, smiling +countenances, and open hands, big hands, red and bony, accustomed to work +and apparently tired of their temporary rest. + +A tumbler played on a trumpet. The barrel-organ accompanying the wooden +horses sent through the air its shrill jerky notes. The lottery-wheel +made a whirring sound like that of cloth being torn, and every moment the +crack of the rifle could be heard. And the slowly moving throng passed on +quietly in front of the booths after the fashion of paste in a fluid +condition, with the motions of a flock of sheep and the awkwardness of +heavy animals rushing along at haphazard. + +The girls, holding one another's arms, in groups of six or eight, kept +bawling out songs; the young men followed them making jokes, with their +caps over their ears, and their blouses stiffened with starch, swollen +out like blue balloons. + +The whole country-side was there--masters, laboring men, and +women-servants. + +Old Amable himself, wearing his old-fashioned green frock-coat, had +wished to see the assembly, for he never failed to attend on such an +occasion. + +He looked at the lotteries, stopped in front of the shooting galleries to +criticise the shots, and interested himself specially in a very simple +game, which consisted in throwing a big wooden ball into the open mouth +of a mannikin carved and painted on a board. + +Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Daddy Malivoire, who +exclaimed: + +"Ha, daddy! Come and have a glass of spirits." + +And they sat down before the table of a rustic inn placed in the open +air. + +They drank one glass of spirits, then two, then three; and old Amable +once more wandered through the assembly. His thoughts became slightly +confused, he smiled without knowing why, he smiled in front of the +lotteries, in front of the wooden horses, and especially in front of the +killing game. He remained there a long time, filled with delight when he +saw a holidaymaker knocking down the gendarme or the curé, two +authorities which he instinctively distrusted. Then he went back to the +inn, and drank a glass of cider to cool himself. It was late, night came +on. A neighbor came to warn him: + +"You'll get back home late for the stew, daddy." + +Then he set out on his way to the farm house. A soft shadow, the warm +shadow of a spring night, was slowly descending on the earth. + +When he reached the front door, he thought he saw through the window +which was lighted up, two persons in the house. He stopped, much +surprised, then he went in, and he saw Victor Lecoq seated at the table, +with a plate filled with potatoes before him, taking his supper in the +very same place where his son had sat. + +And, all of a sudden, he turned round, as if he wanted to go away. The +night was very dark now. Céleste started up, and shouted at him: + +"Come quick, daddy! Here's some good stew to finish off the assembly +with." + +Thereupon he complied through inertia, and sat down watching in turn +the man, the woman and the child. Then, he began to eat quietly as on +ordinary days. + +Victor Lecoq seemed quite at home, talked from time to time to Céleste, +took up the child in his lap, and kissed him. And Céleste again served +him with food, poured out drink for him, and appeared content while +speaking to him. Old Amable followed them with a fixed look without +hearing what they were saying. + +When he had finished supper (and he had scarcely eaten anything, so much +did he feel his heart wrung) he rose up, and in place of ascending to his +loft as he did every night he opened the yard door, and went out into the +open air. + +When he had gone, Céleste, a little uneasy, asked: + +"What is he going to do?" + +Victor replied in an indifferent tone: + +"Don't bother yourself. He'll come back when he's tired." + +Then, she saw after the house, washed the plates and wiped the table, +while the man quietly took off his clothes. Then he slipped into the dark +and hollow bed in which she had slept with Césaire. + +The yard door reopened, old Amable again presented himself. As soon as he +had come in, he looked round on every side with the air of an old dog on +the scent. He was in search of Victor Lecoq. As he did not see him, he +took the candle off the table, and approached the dark niche in which his +son had died. In the interior of it he perceived the man lying under the +bed clothes and already asleep. Then the deaf man noiselessly turned +round, put back the candle, and went out into the yard. + +Céleste had finished her work. She put her son into his bed, arranged +everything, and waited her father-in-law's return before lying down +herself beside Victor. + +She remained sitting on a chair, without moving her hands, and with her +eyes fixed on vacancy. + +As he did not come back she murmured in a tone of impatience and +annoyance: + +"This good-for-nothing old man will burn four sous' worth of candle on +us." + +Victor answered her from under the bed clothes. + +"'Tis over an hour since he went out. We'd want to see whether he fell +asleep on the bench before the door." + +She declared: + +"I'm going there." + +She rose up, took the light, and went out, making a shade of her hand in +order to see through the darkness. + +She saw nothing in front of the door, nothing on the bench, nothing on +the dung pit, where the old man used sometimes to sit in hot weather. + +But, just as she was on the point of going in again, she chanced to raise +her eyes towards the big apple tree, which sheltered the entrance to the +farm house, and suddenly she saw two feet belonging to a man who was +hanging at the height of her face. + +She uttered terrible cries: + +"Victor! Victor! Victor!" + +He ran out in his shirt. She could not utter another word, and turning +round her head, so as not to see, she pointed towards the tree with her +outstretched arm. + +Not understanding what she meant, he took the candle in order to find +out, and in the midst of the foliage lit up from below, he saw old Amable +hanged high up by the neck with a stable-halter. + +A ladder was fixed at the trunk of the apple tree. + +Victor rushed to look for a bill-hook, climbed up the tree, and cut the +halter. But the old man was already cold, and he put out his tongue +horribly with a frightful grimace. + + + + +MAGNETISM + + +It was at the close of a dinner-party of men, at the hour of endless +cigars and incessant sips of brandy, amidst the smoke and the torpid +warmth of digestion and the slight confusion of heads generated by such +a quantity of eatables and by the absorption of so many different +liquors. + +Those present were talking about magnetism, about Donato's tricks, and +about Doctor Charcot's experiences. All of a sudden, those men, so +skeptical, so happy-go-lucky, so indifferent to religion of every sort, +began telling stories about strange occurrences, incredible things which +nevertheless had really happened, they contended, falling back into +superstitions, beliefs, clinging to these last remnants of the marvelous, +becoming devotees of this mystery of magnetism, defending it in the name +of science. There was only one person who smiled, a vigorous young +fellow, a great pursuer of girls in the town, and a hunter also of frisky +matrons, in whose mind there was so much incredulity about everything +that he would not even enter upon a discussion of such matters. + +He repeated with a sneer: + +"Humbug! humbug! humbug! We need not discuss Donato, who is merely a very +smart juggler. As for M. Charcot, who is said to be a remarkable man of +science, he produces on me the effect of those story-tellers of the +school of Edgar Poe, who end by going mad through constantly reflecting +on queer cases of insanity. He has set forth some nervous phenomena, +which are unexplained and inexplicable; he makes his way into that +unknown region which men explore every day, and not being able to +comprehend what he sees, he remembers perhaps too well the explanations +of certain mysteries given by speaking on these subjects, that would be +quite a different thing from your repetition of what he says." + +The words of the unbeliever were listened to with a kind of pity, as if +he had blasphemed in the midst of an assembly of monks. + +One of these gentlemen exclaimed: + +"And yet miracles were performed in former days." + +But the other replied: "I deny it. Why cannot they be performed any +longer?" + +Thereupon, each man referred to some fact, or some fantastic +presentiment, or some instance of souls communicating with each other +across space, or some case of secret influences produced by one being or +another. And they asserted, they maintained that these things had +actually occurred, while the skeptic went on repeating energetically: + +"Humbug! humbug! humbug!" + +At last he rose up, threw away his cigar, and with his hands in his +pockets, said: "Well, I, too, am going to relate to you two stories, and +then I will explain them to you. Here they are: + +"In the little village of Etretat, the men, who are all seafaring folk, +go every year to Newfoundland to fish for cod. Now, one night the little +son of one of these fishermen woke up with a start, crying out that his +father was dead. The child was quieted, and again he woke up exclaiming +that his father was drowned. A month later the news came that his father +had, in fact, been swept off the deck of his smack by a billow. The widow +then remembered how her son had wakened up and spoken of his father's +death. Everyone said it was a miracle, and the affair caused a great +sensation. The dates were compared, and it was found that the accident +and the dream had very nearly coincided, whence they drew the conclusion +that they had happened on the same night and at the same hour. And +there is the mystery of magnetism." + +The story-teller stopped suddenly. + +Thereupon, one of those who had heard him, much affected by the +narrative, asked: + +"And can you explain this?" + +"Perfectly monsieur. I have discovered the secret. The circumstance +surprised me and even embarrassed me very much; but, I, you see, do not +believe on principle. Just as others begin by believing, I begin by +doubting; and when I don't at all understand, I continue to deny that +there can be any telegraphic communication between souls, certain that my +own sagacity will be enough to explain it. Well, I have gone on inquiring +into the matter, and I have ended, by dint of questioning all the wives +of the absent seamen, in convincing myself that not a week passed without +one of themselves or their children dreaming and declaring when they woke +up that the father was drowned. The horrible and continual fear of this +accident makes them always talk about it. Now, if one of these frequent +predictions coincides, by a very simple chance, with the death of the +person referred to, people at once declare it to be a miracle; for they +suddenly lose sight of all the other predictions of misfortune that have +remained unconfirmed. I have myself known fifty cases where the persons +who made the prediction forgot all about it in a week afterwards. But, +if in fact the man was dead, then the recollection of the thing is +immediately revived, and people will be ready to believe in the +intervention of God, according to some, and magnetism, according to +others." + +One of the smokers remarked: + +"What you say is right enough; but what about your second story?" + +"Oh! my second story is a very delicate matter to relate. It is to myself +it happened, and so I don't place any great value on my own view of the +matter. One is never a good judge in a case where he is one of the +parties concerned. At any rate, here it is: + +"Among my acquaintances in society there was a young woman on whom I had +never bestowed a thought, whom I had never even looked at attentively, +never taken any notice of, as the saying is. + +"I classed her among the women of no importance, though she was not quite +bad-looking; in fact, she appeared to me to possess eyes, a nose, a +mouth, some sort of hair--just a colorless type of countenance. She was +one of those beings on whom one only thinks by accident, without taking +any particular interest in the individual, and who never excites desire. + +"Well, one night, as I was writing some letters by my own fireside before +going to bed, I was conscious, in the midst of that train of sensual +images that sometimes float before one's brain in moments of idle +reverie, while I held the pen in my hand, of a kind of light breath +passing into my soul, a little shudder of the heart, and immediately, +without reason, without any logical connection of thought, I saw +distinctly, saw as If I touched her, saw from head to foot, uncovered, +this young woman for whom I had never cared save in the most superficial +manner when her name happened to recur to my mind. And all of a sudden I +discovered in her a heap of qualities which I had never before observed, +a sweet charm, a fascination that made me languish; she awakened in me +that sort of amorous uneasiness which sends me in pursuit of a woman. But +I did not remain thinking of her long. I went to bed and was soon asleep. +And I dreamed. + +"You have all had these strange dreams which render you masters of the +impossible, which open to you doors that cannot be passed through, +unexpected joys, impenetrable arms? + +"Which of us in these agitated, exciting, palpitating slumbers, has not +held, clasped, embraced, possessed with an extraordinary acuteness of +sensation, the woman with whom our minds were occupied? And have you ever +noticed what superhuman delight these good fortunes of dreams bestow upon +us? Into what mad intoxication they cast you! with what passionate spasms +they shake you! and with what infinite, caressing, penetrating tenderness +they fill your heart for her whom you hold fainting and hot in that +adorable and bestial illusion which seems so like reality! + +"All this I felt with unforgettable violence. This woman was mine, so +much mine that the pleasant warmth of her skin remained between my +fingers, the odor of her skin remained in my brain, the taste of her +kisses remained on my lips, the sound of her voice lingered in my ears, +the touch of her clasp still clung to my side, and the burning charm of +her tenderness still gratified my senses long after my exquisite but +disappointing awakening. + +"And three times the same night I had a renewal of my dream. + +"When the day dawned she beset me, possessed me, haunted my brain and my +flesh to such an extent that I no longer remained one second without +thinking of her. + +"At last, not knowing what to do, I dressed myself and went to see her. +As I went up the stairs to her apartment, I was so much overcome by +emotion that I trembled, and my heart panted; I was seized with +vehement desire from head to foot. + +"I entered the apartment. She rose up the moment she heard my name +pronounced; and suddenly our eyes met in a fixed look of astonishment. + +"I sat down. + +"I uttered in a faltering tone some commonplaces which she seemed not +to hear. I did not know what to say or to do. Then, abruptly, I flung +myself upon her; seizing her with both arms; and my entire dream was +accomplished so quickly, so easily, so madly, that I suddenly began to +doubt whether I was really awake. She was, after this, my mistress for +two years." + +"What conclusion do you draw from it?" said a voice. + +The story-teller seemed to hesitate. + +"The conclusion I draw from it--well, by Jove, the conclusion is that it +was just a coincidence! And, in the next place, who can tell? Perhaps it +was some glance of hers which I had not noticed and which came back that +night to me--one of those mysterious and unconscious evocations of memory +which often bring before us things ignored by our own consciousness, +unperceived by our minds!" + +"Let that be just as you wish it," said one of his table companions, when +the story was finished, "but if you don't believe in magnetism after +that, you are an ungrateful fellow, my dear boy!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT, +VOLUME IV (OF 8)*** + + +******* This file should be named 17377-8.txt or 17377-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/7/17377 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume IV (of 8)</p> +<p> The Old Maid -- The Awakening -- In the Spring -- The Jennet -- Rust -- The Substitute -- The Relic -- The Man with the Blue Eyes -- Allouma -- A Family Affair -- The Odalisque of Senichou -- A Good Match -- A Fashionable Woman -- The Carnival of Love -- A Deer Park in the Provinces -- The White Lady -- Caught -- Christmas Eve -- Words of Love -- A Divorce Case -- Who Knows? -- Simon's Papa -- Paul's Mistress -- The Rabbit -- The Twenty-Five Francs of the Mother Superior -- The Venus of Braniza -- La Morillonne -- Waiter, A "Bock" -- Regret -- The Port -- The Hermit -- The Orderly -- Duchoux -- Old Amable -- Magnetism</p> +<p>Author: Guy de Maupassant</p> +<p>Release Date: December 22, 2005 [eBook #17377]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT, VOLUME IV (OF 8)***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (https://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>The Works of Guy de Maupassant</h1> + +<h2>VOLUME IV</h2> + +<h2>THE OLD MAID AND OTHER STORIES</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>NATIONAL LIBRARY COMPANY<br /> +NEW YORK</h4> + +<h4>COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY<br /> +BIGELOW, SMITH & CO,</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#THE_OLD_MAID">THE OLD MAID</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_AWAKENING">THE AWAKENING</a><br /> +<a href="#IN_THE_SPRING">IN THE SPRING</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_JENNET">THE JENNET</a><br /> +<a href="#RUST">RUST</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_SUBSTITUTE">THE SUBSTITUTE</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_RELIC">THE RELIC</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_MAN_WITH_THE_BLUE_EYES">THE MAN WITH THE BLUE EYES</a><br /> +<a href="#ALLOUMA">ALLOUMA</a><br /> +<a href="#A_FAMILY_AFFAIR">A FAMILY AFFAIR</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_ODALISQUE_OF_SENICHOU">THE ODALISQUE OF SENICHOU</a><br /> +<a href="#A_GOOD_MATCH">A GOOD MATCH</a><br /> +<a href="#A_FASHIONABLE_WOMAN">A FASHIONABLE WOMAN</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_CARNIVAL_OF_LOVE">THE CARNIVAL OF LOVE</a><br /> +<a href="#A_DEER_PARK_IN_THE_PROVINCES">A DEER PARK IN THE PROVINCES</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_WHITE_LADY">THE WHITE LADY</a><br /> +<a href="#CAUGHT">CAUGHT</a><br /> +<a href="#CHRISTMAS_EVE">CHRISTMAS EVE</a><br /> +<a href="#WORDS_OF_LOVE">WORDS OF LOVE</a><br /> +<a href="#A_DIVORCE_CASE">A DIVORCE CASE</a><br /> +<a href="#WHO_KNOWS">WHO KNOWS?</a><br /> +<a href="#SIMONS_PAPA">SIMON'S PAPA</a><br /> +<a href="#PAULS_MISTRESS">PAUL'S MISTRESS</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_RABBIT">THE RABBIT</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_TWENTY-FIVE_FRANCS_OF_THE_MOTHER-SUPERIOR">THE TWENTY-FIVE FRANCS OF THE MOTHER-SUPERIOR</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_VENUS_OF_BRANIZA">THE VENUS OF BRANIZA</a><br /> +<a href="#LA_MORILLONNE">LA MORILLONNE</a><br /> +<a href="#WAITER_A_BOCKM">WAITER, A "BOCK"</a><br /> +<a href="#REGRET">REGRET</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_PORT">THE PORT</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_HERMIT">THE HERMIT</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_ORDERLY">THE ORDERLY</a><br /> +<a href="#DUCHOUX">DUCHOUX</a><br /> +<a href="#OLD_AMABLE">OLD AMABLE</a><br /> +<a href="#MAGNETISM">MAGNETISM</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_OLD_MAID" id="THE_OLD_MAID"></a>THE OLD MAID</h2> + + +<p>Count Eustache d'Etchegorry's solitary country house had the appearance +of a poor man's home, where people do not have enough to eat every day in +the week, where the bottles are more frequently filled at the pump than +in the cellar, and where they wait until it is dark before lighting the +candles.</p> + +<p>It was an old and sordid building; the walls were crumbling to pieces, +the grated, iron gates were eaten away by rust, the holes in the broken +windows had been mended with old newspapers, and the ancestral portraits +which hung against the walls, showed that it was no tiller of the soil, +nor miserable laborer whose strength had gradually worn out and bent his +back, who lived there. Great, knotty elm trees sheltered it, as if they +had been a tall, green screen, and a large garden, full of wild +rose-trees and of straggling plants, as well as of sickly-looking +vegetables, which sprang up half-withered from the sandy soil, went +down as far as the bank of the river.</p> + +<p>From the house, one could hear the monotonous sound of the water, which +at one time rushed yellow and impetuous towards the sea, and then again +flowed back, as if driven by some invisible force towards the town which +could be seen in the distance, with its pointed spires, its ramparts, and +its ships at anchor by the side of the quay, and its citadel built on the +top of a hill.</p> + +<p>A strong smell of the sea came from the offing, mingled with the resinous +smell of pine logs, and of the large nets with great pieces of sea-weed +clinging to them, which were drying in the sun.</p> + +<p>Why had Monsieur d'Etchegorry, who did not like the country, who was of a +sociable rather than of a solitary nature, for he never walked alone, but +kept step with the retired officers who lived there, and frequently +played game after game at <i>piquet</i> at the <i>café</i>, when he was in town, +buried himself in such a solitary place, by the side of a dusty road at +Boucau, a village close to the town, where on Sundays the soldiers took +off their tunics, and sat in their shirt sleeves in the public-houses, +drank the thin wine of the country, and teased the girls.</p> + +<p>What secret reasons had he for selling the mansion which he had possessed +at Bayonne, close to the bishop's palace, and condemning his daughter, a +girl of nineteen, to such a dull, listless, solitary life; counting the +minutes far from everybody, as if she had been a nun, no one knew, but +most people said that he had lost immense sums in gambling, and had +wasted his fortune and ruined his credit in doubtful speculations. They +wondered whether he still regretted the tender, sweet woman whom he had +lost, who died one evening, after years of suffering, like a church lamp +whose oil has been consumed to the last drop. Was he seeking for perfect +oblivion, for that soothing repose in nature, in which a man becomes +enervated, and which envelopes him like a moist, warm cloth? How could he +be satisfied with such an existence? With the bad cooking, and the +careless, untidy ways of a char-woman, and with the shabby clothes, that +were discolored by use!</p> + +<p>His numerous relations had been anxious about it at first, and had tried +to cure him of his apparent hypochondria, and to persuade him to employ +himself with something, but as he was obstinate, avoided them, rejected +their friendly offers with arrogance and self-sufficiency, even his +brothers had abandoned him, and almost renounced him. All their affection +had been transferred to the poor child who shared his solitude, and who +endured all that wretchedness with the resignation of a saint. Thanks to +them, she had a few gleams of pleasure in their exile, and was not +dressed like a beggar girl, but received invitations, and appeared here +and there at some ball, concert or tennis party, and the girl was +extremely grateful to them for it all, although she would much have +preferred that nobody should have held out a helping hand to her, but +have left her to her dull life, without any day dreams or homesickness, +so that she might grow used to her lot, and day by day lose all that +remained to her of her pride of race and of her youth.</p> + +<p>With her sensitive and proud mind, she felt that she was treated exactly +like others were in society, that people showed her either too much pity +or too much indifference, that they knew all about her side life of +undeserved poverty, and that in the folds of her muslin dress they could +smell the mustiness of her home. If she was animated, or buoyed up with +secret hopes in her heart, if there was a smile on her lips, and her eyes +were bright when she went out at the gate, and the horses carried her off +to town at a rapid trot, she was all the more low-spirited and tearful +when she returned home, and she used to shut herself up in her room and +find fault with her destiny, declared to herself that she would imitate +her father, show relations and friends politely out, with a passive and +resigned gesture, and make herself so unpleasant and embarrassing that +they would grow tired of it in the end, leave long intervals between +their visits, and finally would not come to see her at all, but would +turn away from her, as if from a hospital where incurable patients were +dying.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the older the count grew, the more the supplies in the +small country house diminished, and the more painful and harder existence +became. If a morsel of bread was left uneaten on the table, if an +unexpected dish was served up at table, if she put a piece of ribbon into +her hair, he used to heap violent, spiteful reproaches on her, torrents +of rage which defile the mouth, and violent threats like those of a +madman, who is tormented by some fixed idea. Monsieur d'Etchegorry had +dismissed the servant and engaged a char-woman, whom he intended to pay, +merely by small sums on account, and he used to go to market with a +basket on his arm.</p> + +<p>He locked up every morsel of food, used to count the lumps of sugar and +charcoal, and bolted himself in all day long in a room that was larger +than the rest, and which for a long time had served as a drawing-room. +At times he would be rather more gentle, as if he were troubled by vague +thoughts, and used to say to his daughter, in an agonized voice, and +trembling all over: "You will never ask me for any accounts, I +say?... You will never demand your mother's fortune?"</p> + +<p>She always gave him the required promise, did not worry him with any +questions, nor give vent to any complaints, and thinking of her cousins, +who would have good dowries, who were growing up happily and peacefully, +amidst careful and affectionate surroundings and beautiful old furniture, +who were certain to be loved, and to get married some day, and she asked +herself why fate was so cruel to some, and so kind to others, and what +she had done to deserve such disfavor.</p> + +<p>Marie-des-Anges d'Etchegorry, without being absolutely pretty, possessed +all the charm of her age, and everybody liked her. She was as tall and +slim as a lily, with beautiful, fine, soft fair hair, eyes of a dark, +undecided color, which reminded one of those springs in the depths of the +forests, in which a ray of the sun is but rarely reflected—mirrors which +changed now to violet, then to the color of leaves, but most frequently +of a velvety blackness—and her whole being exhaled a freshness of +childhood, and something that could not be described, but which was +pleasant, wholesome and frank.</p> + +<p>She lived on through a long course of years, growing old, faithful to +the man who might have given her his name, honorable, having resisted +temptations and snares, worthy of the motto which used to be engraved +on the tombs of Roman matrons before the Cæsars: "<i>She spun wool, and +kept at home</i>."</p> + +<p>When she was just twenty-one, Marie-des-Anges fell in love, and her +beautiful, dark, restless eyes for the first time became illuminated with +a look of dreamy happiness. For someone seemed to have noticed her; he +waltzed with her more frequently than he did with the other girls, spoke +to her in a low voice, dangled at her petticoats, and discomposed her so +much, that she flushed deeply as soon as she heard the sound of his +voice.</p> + +<p>His name was André de Gèdrè; he had just returned from Sénégal, where +after several months of daily fighting in the desert, he had won his +sub-lieutenant's epaulets.</p> + +<p>With his thin, surnburnt, yellow face, looking awkward in his tight coat, +in which his broad shoulders could not distend themselves comfortably, +and in which his arms, which had formerly been used to cut right and +left, were cramped in their tight sleeves, he looked like one of those +pirates of old, who used to scour the seas, pillaging, killing, hanging +their prisoners to the yard-arms, who were ready to engage a whole fleet, +and who returned to the port laden with booty, and occasionally with +waifs and strays picked up at sea.</p> + +<p>He belonged to a race of buccaneers or of heroes, according to the breeze +which swelled his sails and carried him North or South. Over head and +ears in debt, reduced to discounting doubtful legacies, to gambling at +Casinos, and to mortgaging the few acres of land that he had remaining at +much below their value, he nevertheless managed to make a pretty good +figure in his hand to mouth existence; he never gave in, never showed the +blows that he had received, and waited for the last struggle in a state +of blissful inactivity, while he sought for renewed strength and +philosophy from the caressing lips of women.</p> + +<p>Marie-des-Anges seemed to him to be a toy which he could do with as +he liked. She had the flavor of unripe fruit; left to herself, and +sentimental as she was, she would only offer a very brief resistance to +his attacks, and would soon yield to his will, and when he was tired of +her and threw her off, she would bow to the inevitable, and would not +worry him with violent scenes, nor stand in his way, with threats on her +lips. And so he was kind, and used to wheedle her, and by degrees +enveloped her in the meshes of a net, which continually hemmed her in +closer and closer. He gained entire possession of her heart and +confidence, and without expressing any wish or making any promises, +managed so to establish his influence over her, that she did nothing +but what he wished.</p> + +<p>Long before Monsieur de Gèdrè had addressed any passionate words to her, +or any avowal which immediately introduces warmth and danger into a +flirtation, Marie-des-Anges had betrayed herself with the candor of a +little girl, who does not think she is doing any wrong, and cannot hide +what she thinks, what she is dreaming about, and the tenderness which +lies hidden at the bottom of her heart, and she no longer felt that +horror of life which had formerly tortured her. She no longer felt +herself alone, as she had done formerly—so alone, so lost, even among +her own people, that everything had become indifferent to her.</p> + +<p>It was very pleasant and soothing to love and to think that she was +loved, to have a furtive and secret understanding with another heart, +to imagine that he was thinking of her at the same time that she was +thinking of him, to shelter herself timidly under his protection, to +feel more unhappy each time she left him, and to experience greater +happiness every time they met.</p> + +<p>She wrote him long letters, which she did not venture to send him when +they were written, for she was timid and feared that he would make fun of +them, and she sang the whole day through, like a lark that is intoxicated +with the sun, so that Monsieur d'Etchegorry scarcely recognized her any +longer.</p> + +<p>Soon they made appointments together in some secluded spot, meeting for a +few minutes in the aisles of the cathedral and behind the ramparts, or on +the promenade of the <i>Alleés-Marinès</i>, which was always dark, on account +of the dense foliage.</p> + +<p>And at last, one evening in June, when the sky was so studded with stars +that it might have been taken for a triumphal route of some sovereign, +strewn with precious stones and rare flowers, Monsieur de Gèdrè went into +the large, neglected garden.</p> + +<p>Marie-des-Anges was waiting for him in a somber walk with witch elms on +either side and listening for the least noise, looking at the closed +windows of the house, and nearly fainting, as much from fear as from +happiness. They spoke in a low voice. She was close to him and he must +have heard the beating of her heart, into which he had cast the first +seeds of love, and he put his arms around her and clasped her gently, as +if she had been some little bird that he was afraid of hurting, but which +he did not wish to allow to escape.</p> + +<p>She no longer knew what she was doing, but was in a state of entire +intense, supreme happiness. She shivered, and yet something burning +seemed to permeate her whole being under her skin, from the nape of her +neck to her feet, like a stream of burning spirit, and she would not have +had the strength to disengage herself or to take a step forward, so she +leant her head instinctively and very tenderly against André's shoulder. +He kissed her hair, touched her forehead with his lips, and at last put +them against hers. The girl felt as if she were going to die, and +remained inert and motionless, with her eyes full of tears.</p> + +<p>He came nearly every evening for two months. She had not the courage to +repel him and to speak to him seriously of the future, and could not +understand why he had not yet asked her father for her hand and had not +fulfilled his former promises, until, one Sunday, as she was coming from +High Mass, walking on before her cousins, Marie-des-Anges heard the +following words, from a group in which André was standing, and he was +the speaker: "Oh! no," he said, "you are altogether mistaken; I should +never do anything so foolish.... One does not marry a girl without a +halfpenny; one takes her for one's mistress."</p> + +<p>The unhappy girl mastered her feelings, went down the steps of the porch +quite steadily, but feeling utterly crushed, as if by the news of some +terrible disaster, and joined the servant, who was waiting for her, to +accompany her back to Boucau. The effects of what she had heard were to +give her a serious illness and for some time she hovered between life +and death, consumed and wasted by a violent fever; and when after a +fortnight's suffering, she grew convalescent, and looked at herself +in the glass, she recoiled, as if she had been face to face with an +apparition, for there was nothing left of her former self.</p> + +<p>Her eyes were dull, her cheeks pale and hollow, and there were white +streaks in her silky, light hair. Why had she not succumbed to her +illness? Why had destiny reserved her for such a trial, and increased her +unhappy lot, that of disappointed hopes, thus? But when that rebellious +feeling was over, she accepted her cross, fell into a state of ardent +devotion and became crystallized in the torpor of an old woman, tried +with all her might to rid her memory of any recollections that had become +incrusted in it, and to put a thick black veil between herself and the +past.</p> + +<p>She never walked in the garden now, and never went to Bayonne, and she +would have liked to have choked herself, and to have beaten herself, +when, in spite of her efforts and of her will, she remembered her lost +happiness, and when some sensual feeling and a longing for past pleasures +agitated her body afresh.</p> + +<p>That lasted for four years, which finished her and altogether destroyed +her good looks and she had the figure and the appearance of an old maid, +when her father suddenly died, just as he was going to sit down to +dinner; and when the lawyer, who was summoned immediately, had ransacked +the cupboards and drawers, discovered a mass of securities, of +bank-notes, and of gold, which Count d'Etchegorry, who was eaten up +with avarice, had amassed eagerly, and hidden away, it was found that +Mademoiselle Marie-des-Anges, who was his sole heiress, possessed an +income of fifty thousand francs.</p> + +<p>She received the news without any emotion, for of what use was such a +fortune to her now, and what should she do with it? Her eyes, alas! had +been too much opened by all the tears that had fallen from them for her +to delude herself with visionary hopes, and her heart had been too +cruelly wounded to warm itself by lying illusions, and she was seized by +melancholy when she thought that in future she would be coveted, she who +had been kept at arm's length, as if she had been a leper; that men would +come after her money with odious impatience, that now that she was worn +out and ugly, tired of everything and everybody, she would most certainly +have plenty of suitors to refuse, and that perhaps he would come back to +her, attracted by that amount of money, like a hawk hovering over its +prey, that he would try to re-kindle the dead cinders, to revive some +spark in them and to obtain pardon for his cowardice.</p> + +<p>Oh! With what bitter pleasure she could have thrown those millions into +the road to the ragged beggars, or scattered them about like manna to all +who were suffering and dying of hunger, and who had neither roof nor +hearth! She naturally soon became the target at which everyone aimed, the +goal for which all those who had formerly disdained her most, now eagerly +tried.</p> + +<p>Monsieur de Gèdrè was not long before he was in the ranks of her suitors, +as she had foreseen, and caused her that last heart-burning of seeing him +humble, kneeling at her feet, acting a comedy, trying every means of +overcoming her resistance, and to regain possession of that heart, which +was closed against him, after having been entirely his, in all its +adorable virginity.</p> + +<p>And Marie-des-Anges had loved him so deeply that his letters in which he +recalled the past, and stirred up all the recollections of their love, +their kisses, and their dreams, softened her in spite of herself, and +came across her profound, incurable sadness, like a factitious light, the +reflection of a bonfire, which, from a distance, illuminates a prison +cell for a moment.</p> + +<p>He was poor himself and had not wished, so he said, to drag her into his +life of privation and shifts, and she thought to herself that perhaps he +had been right; and thus sensibly, like a mother or an elder sister, who +has become indulgent and wishes to close her eyes and her ears against +everything, to forgive again, to forgive always, she excused him, and +tried to remember nothing but those months of tenderness and of ecstacy, +those months of happiness, and that he had been the first, the only man +who, in the course of her unhappy, wasted life, had given her a moment's +peace, had caused her to dream, and had made her happy, and youthful and +loving.</p> + +<p>He had been charitable towards her and she would be so a hundred fold +towards him; and so she grew happy again, when she said to herself that +she would be his benefactress, that even with his hard heart, he could +not accept the sacrifice from a woman, who, like so many others, might +have returned him evil for evil, but who preferred to be kind and +maternal, after having been in love with him, without some feelings +of gratitude and emotion.</p> + +<p>And that resolution transfigured her, restored to her temporarily, +something of her youth, which had so soon fled away, and a poor, heroic +saint amongst all the saints, she took refuge in a Carmelite convent, so +as to escape from this returning temptation, and to bequeath everything +of which she could lawfully dispose, to Monsieur de Gèdrè.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_AWAKENING" id="THE_AWAKENING"></a>THE AWAKENING</h2> + + +<p>During the three years that she had been married, she had not left the +<i>Val de Ciré</i>, where her husband possessed two cotton-mills. She led a +quiet life, and although she had no children, she was quite happy in her +house among the trees, which the work-people called the <i>château</i>.</p> + +<p>Although Monsieur Vasseur was considerably older than she was, he was +very kind. She loved him, and no guilty thought had ever entered her +mind.</p> + +<p>Her mother came and spent every summer at Ciré, and then returned to +Paris for the winter, as soon as the leaves began to fall.</p> + +<p>Jeanne coughed a little every autumn, for the narrow valley through which +the river wound, grew foggy for five months. First of all, slight mists +hung over the meadows, making all the low-lying ground look like a large +pond, out of which the roof of the houses rose.</p> + +<p>Then that white vapor, which rose like a tide, enveloped everything, and +turned the valley into a land of phantoms, through which men moved about +like ghosts, without recognizing each other ten yards off, and the trees, +wreathed in mist, and dripping with moisture, rose up through it.</p> + +<p>But the people who went along the neighboring hills, and who looked down +upon the deep, white depression of the valley, saw the two huge chimneys +of Monsieur Vasseur's factories, rising above the mist below. Day and +night they vomited forth two long trails of black smoke, and that alone +indicated that people were living in that hollow, which looked as if it +were filled with a cloud of cotton.</p> + +<p>That year, when October came, the medical men advised the young woman +to go and spend the winter in Paris with her mother, as the air of the +valley was dangerous for her weak chest, and she went. For a month or so, +she thought continually of the house which she had left, to which she +seemed rooted, and whose well-known furniture and quiet ways she loved +so much, but by degrees she grew accustomed to her new life, and got to +liking entertainments, dinners and evening parties, and balls.</p> + +<p>Till then, she had retained her girlish manners, she had been undecided +and rather sluggish; she walked languidly, and had a tired smile, but now +she became animated and merry, and was always ready for pleasure. Men +paid her marked attentions, and she was amused at their talk, and made +fun of their gallantries, as she felt sure that she could resist them, +for she was rather disgusted with love, from what she had learned of it +in marriage.</p> + +<p>The idea of giving up her body to the coarse caresses of such bearded +creatures, made her laugh with pity, and shudder a little with ignorance.</p> + +<p>She asked herself how women could consent to those degrading contacts +with strangers, as they were already obliged to endure them with their +legitimate husbands. She would have loved her husband much more if they +had lived together like two friends, and had restricted themselves to +chaste kisses, which are the caresses of the soul.</p> + +<p>But she was much amused by their compliments, by the desire which showed +itself in their eyes, and which she did not share, by their declarations +of love, which they whispered into her ear as they were returning to the +drawing-room after some grand dinner, by their words, which were murmured +so low that she almost had to guess them, and which left her blood quite +cool, and her heart untouched, while they gratified her unconscious +coquetry, while they kindled a flame of pleasure within her, and while +they made her lips open, her eyes glow bright, and her woman's heart, +to which homage was due, quiver with delight.</p> + +<p>She was fond of those <i>tête-à-têtes</i> when it was getting dusk, when a man +grows pressing, stammers, trembles and falls on his knees. It was a +delicious and new pleasure to her to know that they felt that passion +which left her quite unmoved, to say <i>no</i>, by a shake of the head, and +with her lips, to withdraw her hands, to get up and calmly ring for +lights, and to see the man who had been trembling at her feet, get up, +confused and furious when he heard the footman coming.</p> + +<p>She often had a hard laugh, which froze the most burning words, and said +harsh things, which fell like a jet of icy water on the most ardent +protestations, while the intonations of her voice were enough to make any +man who really loved her, kill himself, and there were two especially who +made obstinate love to her, although they did not at all resemble one +another.</p> + +<p>One of them, Paul Péronel, was a tall man of the world, gallant and +enterprising, a man who was accustomed to successful love affairs, and +who knew how to wait, and when to seize his opportunity.</p> + +<p>The other, Monsieur d'Avancelle, quivered when he came near her, scarcely +ventured to express his love, but followed her like a shadow, and gave +utterance to his hopeless desire by distracted looks, and the assiduity +of his attentions to her, and she made him a kind of slave who followed +her steps, and whom she treated as if he had been her servant.</p> + +<p>She would have been much amused if anybody had told her that she would +love him, and yet she did love him, after a singular fashion. As she saw +him continually, she had grown accustomed to his voice, to his gestures, +and to his manner, as one grows accustomed to those with whom one meets +continually. Often his face haunted her in her dreams, and she saw him +as he really was; gentle, delicate in all his actions, humble, but +passionately in love, and she awoke full of those dreams, fancying that +she still heard him, and felt him near her, until one night (most likely +she was feverish), she saw herself alone with him in a small wood, where +they were both of them sitting on the grass. He was saying charming +things to her, while he pressed and kissed her hands.</p> + +<p>She could feel the warmth of his skin and of his breath, and she was +stroking his hair, in a very natural manner.</p> + +<p>We are quite different in our dreams to what we are in real life. She +felt full of love for him, full of calm and deep love, and was happy in +stroking his forehead and in holding him against her. Gradually he put +his arms round her, kissed her eyes and her cheeks without her attempting +to get away from him; their lips met, and she yielded.</p> + +<p>When she saw him again, unconscious of the agitation that he had caused +her, she felt that she grew red, and while he was telling her of his +love, she was continually recalling to mind their previous meeting, +without being able to get rid of the recollection.</p> + +<p>She loved him, loved him with refined tenderness, which arose chiefly +from the remembrance of her dream, although she dreaded the +accomplishment of the desires which had arisen in her mind.</p> + +<p>At last, he perceived it, and then she told him everything, even to the +dread of his kisses, and she made him swear that he would respect her, +and he did so. They spent long hours of transcendental love together, +during which their souls alone embraced, and when they separated, they +were enervated, weak and feverish.</p> + +<p>Sometimes their lips met, and with closed eyes they reveled in that long, +yet chaste caress; she felt, however, that she could not resist much +longer, and as she did not wish to yield, she wrote and told her husband +that she wanted to come to him, and to return to her tranquil, solitary +life. But in reply, he wrote her a very kind letter, and strongly advised +her not to return in the middle of the winter, and so expose herself to a +sudden change of climate, and to the icy mists of the valley, and she was +thunderstruck, and angry with that confiding man, who did not guess, who +did not understand, the struggles of her heart.</p> + +<p>February was a warm, bright month, and although she now avoided being +alone with Monsieur Avancelle, she sometimes accepted his invitation to +drive round the lake in the <i>Bois de Boulogne</i> with him, when it was +dusk.</p> + +<p>On one of those evenings, it was so warm that it seemed as if the sap in +every tree and plant were rising. Their cab was going at a walk; it was +growing dusk, and they were sitting close together, holding each others' +hands, and she said to herself:</p> + +<p>"It is all over, I am lost!" for she felt her desires rising in her +again, the imperious want for that supreme embrace, which she had +undergone in her dream. Every moment their lips sought each other, clung +together and separated, only to meet again immediately.</p> + +<p>He did not venture to go into the house with her, but left her at her +door, more in love with him than ever, and half fainting.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Paul Péronel was waiting for her in the little drawing-room, +without a light, and when he shook hands with her, he felt how feverish +she was. He began to talk in a low, tender voice, lulling her worn-out +mind with the charm of amorous words.</p> + +<p>She listened to him without replying, for she was thinking of the other; +she thought she was listening to the other, and thought she felt him +leaning against her, in a kind of hallucination. She saw only him, and +did not remember that any other man existed on earth, and when her ears +trembled at those three syllables: "I love you," it was he, the other +man, who uttered them, who kissed her hands, who strained her to his +breast, like the other had done shortly before in the cab. It was he +who pressed victorious kisses on her lips, it was his lips, it was he +whom she held in her arms and embraced, whom she was calling to, with all +the longings of her heart, with all the over-wrought ardor of her body.</p> + +<p>When she awoke from her dream, she uttered a terrible cry. Captain +Fracasse was kneeling by her, and thanking her, passionately, while he +covered her disheveled hair with kisses, and she almost screamed out: +"Go away! go away! go away!"</p> + +<p>And as he did not understand what she meant, and tried to put his arm +round her waist again, she writhed, as she stammered out:</p> + +<p>"You are a wretch, and I hate you! Go away! go away!" And he got up in +great surprise, took up his hat, and went.</p> + +<p>The next day she returned to <i>Val de Ciré</i>, and her husband, who had not +expected her for some time, blamed her for a freak.</p> + +<p>"I could not live away from you any longer," she said.</p> + +<p>He found her altered in character, and sadder than formerly, but when he +said to her:</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with you? You seem unhappy. What do you want?" she +replied:</p> + +<p>"Nothing. Happiness exists only in our dreams, in this world."</p> + +<p>Avancelle came to see her the next summer, and she received him without +any emotion, and without regret, for she suddenly perceived that she had +never loved him, except in a dream, from which Paul Péronel had brutally +roused her.</p> + +<p>But the young man, who still adored her, thought as he returned to Paris:</p> + +<p>"Women are really very strange, complicated and inexplicable beings."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IN_THE_SPRING" id="IN_THE_SPRING"></a>IN THE SPRING</h2> + + +<p>When the first fine spring days come, and the earth awakes and assumes +its garment of verdure, when the perfumed warmth of the air blows on our +faces and fills our lungs, and even appears to penetrate to our heart, we +feel vague longings for undefined happiness, a wish to run, to walk at +random, to inhale the spring. As the winter had been very severe the year +before, this longing assumed an intoxicating feeling in May; it was like +a superabundance of sap.</p> + +<p>Well, one morning on waking, I saw from my window the blue sky glowing in +the sun above the neighboring houses. The canaries hanging in the windows +were singing loudly, and so were the servants on every floor; a cheerful +noise rose up from the streets, and I went out, with my spirits as bright +as the day was, to go—I did not exactly know where. Everybody I met +seemed to be smiling; an air of happiness appeared to pervade everything, +in the warm light of returning spring. One might almost have said that a +breeze of love was blowing through the city, and the young women whom I +saw in the streets in their morning toilettes, in the depths of whose +eyes there lurked a hidden tenderness, and who walked with languid grace, +filled my heart with agitation.</p> + +<p>Without knowing how or why, I found myself on the banks of the Seine. +Steamboats were starting for Suresnes, and suddenly I was seized by an +unconquerable wish to have a walk through the woods. The deck of the +<i>mouche</i><a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> was crowded with passengers, for the sun in early spring +draws you out of the house, in spite of yourself, and everybody moves +about, goes and comes, and talks to his neighbor.</p> + +<p>I had a female neighbor; a little work-girl, no doubt, who possessed +the true Parisian charm; a little head, with light curly hair, which +looked like frizzed light, came down to her ears and descended to the +nape of her neck, danced in the wind, and then became such fine, such +light-colored down, that one could scarcely see it, but on which one +felt an irresistible desire to impress a shower of kisses.</p> + +<p>Under the magnetism of my looks, she turned her head towards me, and then +immediately looked down, while a slight fold, which looked as if she were +ready to break out into a smile, also showed that fine, silky, pale down +which the sun was gilding a little.</p> + +<p>The calm river grew wider; the atmosphere was warm and perfectly still, +but a murmur of life seemed to fill all space.</p> + +<p>My neighbor raised her eyes again, and, this time, as I was still looking +at her, she smiled, decidedly. She was charming like that, and in her +passing glance, I saw a thousand things, which I had hitherto been +ignorant of, for I saw unknown depths, all the charm of tenderness, all +the poetry which we dream of, all the happiness which we are continually +in search of, in it. I felt an insane longing to open my arms and to +carry her off somewhere, so as to whisper the sweet music of words of +love into her ears.</p> + +<p>I was just going to speak to her, when somebody touched me on the +shoulder, and when I turned round in some surprise, I saw an ordinary +looking man, who was neither young nor old, and who gazed at me sadly:</p> + +<p>"I should like to speak to you," he said.</p> + +<p>I made a grimace, which he no doubt saw, for he added:</p> + +<p>"It is a matter of importance."</p> + +<p>I got up, therefore, and followed him to the other end of the boat, and +then he said:</p> + +<p>"Monsieur, when winter comes, with its cold, wet and snowy weather, +your doctor says to you constantly: 'Keep your feet warm, guard against +chills, colds, bronchitis, rheumatism and pleurisy.'</p> + +<p>"Then you are very careful, you wear flannel, a heavy great coat and +thick shoes, but all this does not prevent you from passing two months in +bed. But when spring returns, with its leaves and flowers, its warm, soft +breezes, and its smell of the fields, which cause you vague disquiet and +causeless emotion, nobody says to you:</p> + +<p>"Monsieur, beware of love! It is lying in ambush everywhere; it is +watching for you at every corner; all its snares are laid, all its +weapons are sharpened, all its guiles are prepared! Beware of +love.... Beware of love. It is more dangerous than brandy, bronchitis, +or pleurisy! It never forgives, and makes everybody commit irreparable +follies."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Monsieur, I say that the French Government ought to put large +public notices on the walls, with these words: '<i>Return of Spring. French +citizens, beware of love!</i>' just as they put: '<i>Beware of paint.</i>'</p> + +<p>"However, as the government will not do this, I must supply its place, +and I say to you: 'Beware of love,' for it is just going to seize you, +and it is my duty to inform you of it, just as in Russia they inform +anyone that his nose is frozen."</p> + +<p>I was much astonished at this individual, and assuming a dignified +manner, I said:</p> + +<p>"Really, Monsieur, you appear to me to be interfering in a matter which +is no business of yours."</p> + +<p>He made an abrupt movement, and replied:</p> + +<p>"Ah! Monsieur! Monsieur! If I see that a man is in danger of being +drowned at a dangerous spot, ought I to let him perish? So just listen to +my story, and you will see why I ventured to speak to you like this.</p> + +<p>"It was about this time last year that it occurred. But, first of all, I +must tell you that I am a clerk in the Admirality, where our chiefs, the +commissioners, take their gold lace and quill-driving officers seriously, +and treat us like fore-top men on board a ship. Well, from my office I +could see a small bit of blue sky and the swallows, and I felt inclined +to dance among my portfolios.</p> + +<p>"My yearning for freedom grew so intense, that, in spite of my +repugnance, I went to see my chief, who was a short, bad-tempered man, +who was always in a rage. When I told him that I was not well, he looked +at me, and said: 'I do not believe it, Monsieur, but be off with you! Do +you think that any office can go on, with clerks like you?' I started at +once, and went down the Seine. It was a day like this, and I took the +<i>mouche</i>, to go as far as Saint Cloud. Ah! What a good thing it would +have been if my chief had refused me permission to leave the office for +the day!</p> + +<p>"I seemed to myself to expand in the sun. I loved it all; the steamer, +the river, the trees, the houses, my fellow-passengers, everything. I +felt inclined to kiss something, no matter what; it was love, laying its +snare. Presently, at the Trocadéro, a girl, with a small parcel in her +hand, came on board and sat down opposite to me. She was certainly +pretty; but it is surprising, Monsieur, how much prettier women seem to +us when it is fine, at the beginning of the spring. Then they have an +intoxicating charm, something quite peculiar about them. It is just like +drinking wine after the cheese.</p> + +<p>"I looked at her, and she also looked at me, but only occasionally, like +that girl did at you, just now; but at last, by dint of looking at each +other constantly, it seemed to me that we knew each other well enough to +enter into conversation, and I spoke to her, and she replied. She was +decidedly pretty and nice, and she intoxicated me, Monsieur!</p> + +<p>"She got out at Saint-Cloud, and I followed her. She went and delivered +her parcel, and when she returned, the boat had just started. I walked by +her side, and the warmth of the air made us both sigh. 'It would be very +nice in the woods,' I said. 'Indeed, it would!' she replied. 'Shall we go +there for a walk, Mademoiselle?'</p> + +<p>"She gave me a quick, upward look, as if to see exactly what I was like, +and then, after a little hesitation, she accepted my proposal, and soon +we were there, walking side by side. Under the foliage, which was still +rather thin, the tall, thick, bright, green grass, was inundated by the +sun, and full of small insects that also made love to one another, and +birds were singing in all directions. My companion began to jump and to +run, intoxicated by the air, and the smell of the country, and I ran and +jumped behind her. How stupid we are at times, Monsieur!</p> + +<p>"Then she wildly sang a thousand things; opera airs, and the song of +<i>Musette</i>! The song of <i>Musette</i>! How poetical it seemed to me, then! I +almost cried over it. Ah! Those silly songs make us lose our heads; and, +believe me, never marry a woman who sings in the country, especially if +she sings the song of <i>Musette</i>!</p> + +<p>"She soon grew tired, and sat down on a grassy slope, and I sat down at +her feet, and took her hands, her little hands, that were so marked with +the needle, and that moved me. I said to myself: 'These are the sacred +marks of toil.' Oh! Monsieur, do you know what those sacred marks of +labor mean? They mean all the gossip of the workroom, the whispered +blackguardism, the mind soiled by all the filth that is talked; they mean +lost chastity, foolish chatter, all the wretchedness of daily bad habits, +all the narrowness of ideas which belongs to women of the lower orders, +united in the girl whose sacred fingers bear <i>the sacred marks of toil</i>.</p> + +<p>"Then we looked into each other's eyes for a long while. Oh! What power a +woman's eye has! How it agitates us, how it invades our very being, takes +possession of us, and dominates us. How profound it seems, how full of +infinite promises! People call that looking into each other's souls! Oh! +Monsieur, what humbug! If we could see into each other's souls, we should +be more careful of what we did. However, I was caught, and crazy after +her, and tried to take her into my arms, but she said: 'Paws off!' Then I +knelt down, and opened my heart to her, and poured out all the affection +that was suffocating me, on her knees. She seemed surprised at my change +of manner, and gave me a sidelong glance, as if to say: 'Ah! So that is +the way women make a fool of you, old fellow! Very well, we will see. +In love, Monsieur, we are all artists, and women are the dealers.'</p> + +<p>"No doubt I could have had her, and I saw my own stupidity later, but +what I wanted was not a woman's person; it was love, it was the ideal. +I was sentimental, when I ought to have been using my time to a better +purpose.</p> + +<p>"As soon as she had had enough of my declarations of affection, she got +up, and we returned to Saint-Cloud, and I did not leave her until we got +to Paris; but she had looked so sad as we were returning, that at last I +asked her what was the matter. 'I am thinking,' she replied, 'that this +has been one of those days of which we have but few in life.' And my +heart beat so that it felt as if it would break my ribs.</p> + +<p>"I saw her on the following Sunday, and the next Sunday, and every +Sunday. I took her to Bougival, Saint-Germain, Maisons-Lafitte, Poissy; +to every suburban resort of lovers.</p> + +<p>"The little jade, in turn, pretended to love me, until, at last, I +altogether lost my head, and three months later I married her.</p> + +<p>"What can you expect, Monsieur, when a man is a clerk, living alone, +without any relations, or anyone to advise him? One says to oneself: 'How +sweet life would be with a wife!'</p> + +<p>"And so one gets married, and she calls you names from morning till +night, understands nothing, knows nothing, chatters continually, sings +the song of <i>Musette</i> at the top of her voice (oh! that song of +<i>Musette</i>, how tired one gets of it!); quarrels with the charcoal dealer, +tells the porter of all her domestic details, confides all the secrets of +her bedroom to the neighbor's servant, discusses her husband with the +trades-people, and has her head so stuffed with such stupid stories, with +such idiotic superstitions, with such extraordinary ideas and such +monstrous prejudices, that I—for what I have said, applies more +particularly to myself—shed tears of discouragement every time I +talked to her."</p> + +<p>He stopped, as he was rather out of breath, and very much moved, and I +looked at him, for I felt pity for this poor, artless devil, and I was +just going to give him some sort of answer, when the boat stopped. We +were at Saint-Cloud.</p> + +<p>The little woman who had so taken my fancy, got up in order to land. She +passed close to me, and gave me a side glance and a furtive smile; one of +those smiles that drive you mad; then she jumped on the landing-stage. +I sprang forward to follow her, but my neighbor laid hold of my arm, I +shook myself loose, however, whereupon he seized the skirt of my coat, +and pulled me back, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"You shall not go! You shall not go!" in such a loud voice, that +everybody turned round and laughed, and I remained standing motionless +and furious, but without venturing to face scandal and ridicule, and the +steamboat started.</p> + +<p>The little woman on the landing-stage looked at me as I went off with +an air of disappointment, while my persecutor rubbed his hands, and +whispered to me:</p> + +<p>"I have done you a great service, you must acknowledge."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_JENNET" id="THE_JENNET"></a>THE JENNET</h2> + + +<p>Every time he held an inspection on the review ground, General Daumont de +Croisailles was sure of a small success, and of receiving a whole packet +of letters from women the next day.</p> + +<p>Some were almost illegible, scribbled on paper with a love emblem at the +top, by some sentimental milliner; the others ardent, as if saturated +with curry, letters which excited him, and suggested the delights of +kisses to him.</p> + +<p>Among them, also, there were some which evidently came from a woman of +the world, who was tired of her monotonous life, had lost her head, and +let her pen run on, without exactly knowing what she was writing, with +those mistakes in spelling here and there which seemed to be in unison +with the disordered beating of her heart.</p> + +<p>He certainly looked magnificent on horseback; there was something of the +fighter, something bold and mettlesome about him, <i>a valiant look</i>, as +our grandmothers used to say, when they threw themselves into the arms +of the conquerors, between two campaigns, though the same conquerors had +loud, rough voices, even when they were making love, as they had to +dominate the noise of the firing, and violent gestures, as if they were +using their swords and issuing orders, who did not waste time over +useless refinements, and in squandering the precious hours which were +counted so avariciously, in minor caresses, but sounded the charge +immediately, and made the assault, without meeting with any more +resistance than they did from a redoubt.</p> + +<p>As soon as he appeared, preceded by dragoons, with his sword in his hand, +amidst the clatter of hoofs and jingle of scabbards and bridles, while +plumes waved and uniforms glistened in the sun, a little in front of his +staff, sitting perfectly upright in the saddle, and with his cocked hat +with its black plumes, slightly on one side, the surging crowd, which was +kept in check by the police officers, cheered him as if he had been some +popular minister, whose journey had been given notice of beforehand by +posters and proclamations.</p> + +<p>That tumult of strident voices that went from one end of the great square +to the other, which was prolonged like the sound of the rising tide, +which beats against the shore with ceaseless noise, that rattle of +rifles, and the sound of the music that alternated with blasts of the +trumpets all along the line, made the General's heart swell with +unspeakable pride.</p> + +<p>He attudinized in spite of himself, and thought of nothing but +ostentation, and of being noticed. He continually touched his horse with +his spurs, and worried it, so as to make it appear restive, and to prance +and rear, to champ its bit, and to cover it with foam, and then he would +continue his inspection, galloping from regiment to regiment with a +satisfied smile, while the good old infantry captains, sitting on their +thin Arab horses, with their toes well stuck out, said to one another:</p> + +<p>"I should not like to have to ride a confounded, restive brute like that, +I know!"</p> + +<p>But the General's aide-de-camp, little Jacques de Montboron, could easily +have reassured them, for he knew those famous thoroughbreds, as he had +had to break them in, and had received a thousand trifling instructions +about them.</p> + +<p>They were generally more or less spavined brutes, which he had bought at +Tattersall's auctions for a ridiculous price, and so quiet and well in +hand that they might have been held with a silk thread, but with a good +shape, bright eyes, and coats that glistened like silk. They seemed to +know their part, and stepped out, pranced and reared, and made way for +themselves, as if they had just come out of the riding-school at Saumur.</p> + +<p>That was his daily task, his obligatory service.</p> + +<p>He broke them in, one after another, and transformed them into veritable +mechanical horses, accustomed them to bear the noise of trumpets and +drums, and of firing, without starting, tired them out by long rides the +evening before every review, and bit his lips to prevent himself from +laughing when people declared that General Daumont de Croisailles was +a first-rate rider, who was really fond of danger.</p> + +<p>A rider! That was almost like writing history! But the aide-de-camp +discreetly kept up the illusion, outdid the others in flattery, and +related unheard-of feats of the General's horsemanship.</p> + +<p>And, after all, breaking in horses was not more irksome than carrying on +a monotonous and dull correspondence about the buttons on the gaiters, or +than thinking over projects of mobilization, or than going through +accounts in which he lost himself like in a labyrinth. He had not, from +the very first day that he entered the military academy at Saint-Cyr, +learned that sentence which begins the rules of the <i>Interior Service</i>, +in vain:</p> + +<p>"As discipline constitutes the principal strength of an army, it is very +important for every superior to obtain absolute respect, and instant +obedience from his inferiors."</p> + +<p>He did not resist, but accustomed himself thus to become a sort of +Monsieur Loyal, spoke to his chief in the most flattering manner, and +reckoned on being promoted over the heads of his fellow officers.</p> + +<p>General Daumont de Croisailles was not married and did not intend to +disturb the tranquillity of his bachelor life as long as he lived, for +he loved all women, whether they were dark, fair or red-haired, too +passionately to love only one, who would grow old, and worry him with +useless complaints.</p> + +<p>Gallant, as they used to be called in the good old days, he kissed the +hands of those women who refused him their lips, and as he did not wish +to compromise his dignity, and be the talk of the town, he had rented a +small house just outside it.</p> + +<p>It was close to the canal, in a quiet street with courtyards and shady +gardens, and as nothing is less amusing than the racket of jealous +husbands, or the brawling of excited women who are disputing or raising +their voices in lamentation, and as it is always necessary to foresee +some unfortunate incident or other in the amorous life, some unlucky +mishap, some absurdly imprudent action, some forgotten love appointment, +the house had five different doors.</p> + +<p>So discreet, that he reassured even the most timid, and certainly not +given to melancholy, he understood extremely well how to vary his kisses +and his ways of proceeding; how to work on women's feelings, and to +overcome their scruples, to obtain a hold over them through their +curiosity to learn something new, by the temptation of a comfortable, +well-furnished, warm room, that was fragrant with flowers, and where +a little supper was already served as a prologue to the entertainment. +His female pupils would certainly have deserved the first prize in a +love competition.</p> + +<p>So men mistrusted that ancient Lovelace as if he had been the plague, +when they had plucked some rare and delicious fruit, and had sketched out +some charming adventure, for he always managed to discover the weak spot, +and to penetrate into the place.</p> + +<p>To some, he held out the lure of debauch without any danger attached +to it, the desire of finishing their amorous education, of reveling in +perverted enjoyment, and to others he held out the irresistible argument +that seduced Danae, that of gold.</p> + +<p>Others, again, were attracted by his cocked hat and feathers, and by the +conceited hope of seeing him at their knees, of throwing their arms round +him as if he had been an ordinary lover, although he was a general who +rode so imposingly, who was covered with decorations, and to whom all the +regiments presented arms simultaneously, the chief whose orders could not +be commented on or disputed, and who had such a martial +and haughty look.</p> + +<p>His pay, allowances and his private income of fifteen thousand francs,<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +all went in this way, like water that runs out drop by drop, from a +cracked bottle.</p> + +<p>He was continually on the alert, and looked out for intrigues with the +acuteness of a policeman, followed women about, had all the impudence and +all the cleverness of the fast man who has made love for forty years, +without ever meaning anything serious, who knows all its lies, tricks and +illusions, and who can still do a march without halting on the road, or +requiring too much music to put him in proper trim. And in spite of his +age and gray hairs, he could have given a sub-lieutenant points, and was +very often loved for himself, which is the dream of men who have passed +forty, and do not intend to give up the game just yet.</p> + +<p>And there were not a dozen in the town who could, without lying, have +declared to a jealous husband or a suspicious lover, that they had not, +at any rate, once staid late in the little house in the Eglisottes +quarter, who could have denied that they had not returned more +thoughtful. Not a dozen, certainly, and, perhaps, not six!</p> + +<p>Among that dozen or six, however, was Jacques de Montboron's mistress. +She was a little marvel, that Madame Courtade, whom the Captain had +unearthed in an ecclesiastical warehouse in the Faubourg Saint-Exupère, +and not yet twenty. They had begun by smiling at each other, and by +exchanging those long looks when they met, which seemed to ask for +charity.</p> + +<p>Montboron used to pass in front of the shop at the same hours, stopped +for a moment with the appearance of a lounger who was loitering about the +streets, but immediately her supple figure appeared, pink and fair, +shedding the brightness of youth and almost childhood round her, while +her looks showed that she was delighted at little gallant incidents which +dispelled the monotony and weariness of her life for a time, and gave +rise to vague but delightful hopes.</p> + +<p>Was love, that love which she had so constantly invoked, really knocking +at her door at last, and taking pity on her unhappy isolation? Did that +officer, whom she met whenever she went out, as if he had been faithfully +watching her, when coming out of church, or when out for a walk in the +evening, who said so many delightful things to her with his wheedling +eyes, really love her as she wished to be loved, or was he merely amusing +himself at that game, because he had nothing better to do in their quiet +little town?</p> + +<p>But in a short time he wrote to her, and she replied to him, and at last +they managed to meet in secret, to make appointments, and talk together.</p> + +<p>She knew all the cunning tricks of a simple girl, who has tasted the most +delicious of sweets with the tip of her tongue, and acting in concert, +and giving each other the word, so that there might be no awkward +mistake, they managed to make the husband their unwitting accomplice, +without his having the least idea of what was going on.</p> + +<p>Courtade was an excellent fellow, who saw no further than the tip of his +nose, incapable of rebelling, flabby, fat, steeped in devotion, and +thinking too much about heaven to see what a plot was being hatched +against him, in our unhappy vale of tears, as the psalters say.</p> + +<p>In the good old days of confederacies, he would have made an excellent +chief of a corporation; he loved his wife more like a father than a +husband, considering that at his age a man ought no longer to think of +such trifles, and that, after all, the only real happiness in life was +to keep a good table and to have a good digestion, and so he ate like +four canons, and drank in proportion.</p> + +<p>Only once during his whole life had he shown anything like energy—but +he used to relate that occurrence with all the pride of a conqueror, +recalling his most heroic battle—and that was on the evening when +he refused to allow the bishop to take his cook away, quite regardless +of any of the consequences of such a daring deed.</p> + +<p>In a few weeks, the Captain became his regular table companion, and his +best friend. He had begun by telling him in a boastful manner that, in +order to keep a vow that he had made to St. George, during the charge +up the slope at Yron, during the battle of Gravelotte, he wished to send +two censers and a sanctuary lamp to his village church.</p> + +<p>Courtade did his utmost, and all the more readily as this unexpected +customer did not appear to pay any regard to money. He sent for several +goldsmiths, and showed Montboron models of all kinds; he hesitated, +however, and did not seem able to make up his mind, and discussed the +subject, designed ornaments himself, gained time, and thus managed to +spend several hours every day in the shop.</p> + +<p>In fact, he was quite at home in the place, shook hands with Courtade, +called him "my dear fellow," and did not wince when he took his arm +familiarly before other people, and introduced him to his customers +as, "My excellent friend, the Marquis de Montboron." He could go in and +out of the house as he pleased, whether the husband was at home or not.</p> + +<p>The censers and the lamp were sent in due course to Montboron's château +at Pacy-sur-Romanche (in Normandy), and when the package was undone, it +caused the greatest surprise to Jacques' mother, who was more accustomed +to receiving requests for money from her son, than ecclesiastical +objects.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, however, without rhyme or reason, little Madame Courtade became +insupportable and enigmatical. Her husband could not understand it at +all, and grew uneasy, and continually consulted his friend the Captain.</p> + +<p>Etiennette's character seemed to have completely changed; she found +fifty pretexts for deserting the shop, for coming late, for avoiding +<i>tête-à-têtes</i>, in which people come to explanations, and mutually become +irritated, though such matters usually end in a reconciliation, amidst a +torrent of kisses.</p> + +<p>She disappeared for days at a time, and soon, Montboron, who was not +fitted to play the part of a Sganarelle, either by age or temperament, +became convinced that his mistress was making him wear the horns, that +she was hobnobbing with the General, and that she was in possession of +one of the five keys of the house in the Eglisottes quarter; and as he +was as jealous as an Andalusian, and felt a horror for that kind of +pleasantry, he swore that he would make his rival pay a hundred fold +for the trick which he had played him.</p> + +<p>The Fourteenth of July was approaching, when there was to be a grand +parade of the whole garrison on the large review ground, and all along +the paling, which divided the spectators from the soldiers, itinerant +dealers had put up their stalls, and there were mountebanks' and +somnambulists' booths, menageries, and a large circus, which had gone +through the town in caravans, with a great noise of trumpets and of +drums.</p> + +<p>He had given his aide-de-camp his instructions beforehand, for he was +more anxious than ever to surprise people, and to have a horse like an +equestrian statue, an animal which should outdo that famous black horse +of General Boulanger's, about which the Parisian loungers had talked so +much, and told Montboron not to mind what the price was, as long as he +found him a suitable charger.</p> + +<p>When the Captain, a few days before the review, brought him a chestnut +jennet, with a long tail and flowing mane, which would not keep quiet for +five seconds, but kept on shaking its head, had extraordinary action, +answered the slightest touch of the leg, and stepped out as if it knew no +other motion, General Daumont de Croisailles showered compliments upon +him, and assured him that he knew few officers who possessed his +intelligence and his value, and that he should not forget him when the +proper time came for recommending him for promotion.</p> + +<p>Not a muscle of the Marquis de Montboron's face moved, and when the day +of the review arrived, he was at his post on the staff that followed the +General, who sat as upright as a dart in the saddle, and looked at the +crowd to see whether he could not recognize some old or new female friend +there, while his horse pranced and plunged.</p> + +<p>He rode onto the review ground, amidst the increasing noise of applause, +with a smile upon his lips, when, suddenly, at the moment that he +galloped up into the large square, formed by the troops drawn up in a +line, the band of the fifty-third regiment struck up a quick march, and, +as if obeying a preconcerted signal, the jennet began to turn round, and +to accelerate its speed, in spite of the furious tugs at the bridle which +the rider gave.</p> + +<p>The horse performed beautifully, followed the rhythm of the music, and +appeared to be acting under some invisible impulse, and the General had +such a comical look on his face, he looked so disconcerted, rolled his +eyes, and seemed to be the prey to such terrible exasperation, that he +might have been taken for some character in a pantomime, while his staff +followed him, without being able to comprehend this fresh fancy of his.</p> + +<p>The soldiers presented arms, the music did not stop, though the +instrumentalists were much astonished at this interminable ride.</p> + +<p>The General at last became out of breath, and could scarcely keep in the +saddle, and the women, in the crowded ranks of the spectators, gave +prolonged, nervous laughs, which made the old <i>roué's</i> ears tingle with +excitement.</p> + +<p>The horse did not stop until the music ceased, and then it knelt down +with bent head, and put its nostrils into the dust.</p> + +<p>It nearly gave General de Croisailles an attack of the jaundice, +especially when he found out that it was his aide-de-camp's <i>tit for +tat</i>, and that the horse came from a circus which was giving performances +in the town. And what irritated him all the more was, that he could not +even set it down against Montboron and have him sent to some terrible +out-of-the-way hole, for the Captain sent in his resignation, wisely +considering that sooner or later he should have to pay the costs of +that little trick, and that the chances were that he should not get any +further promotion, but remain stationary, like a cab which some bilker +has left standing for hours at one end of an arcade, while he has made +his escape at the other.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RUST" id="RUST"></a>RUST</h2> + + +<p>During nearly his whole life, he had had an insatiable love for sport. He +went out every day, from morning till night, with the greatest ardor, in +summer and winter, spring and autumn, on the marshes, when it was close +time on the plains and in the woods. He shot, he hunted, he coursed, he +ferreted; he spoke of nothing but shooting and hunting, he dreamt of it, +and continually repeated:</p> + +<p>"How miserable any man must be who does not care for sport!"</p> + +<p>And now that he was past fifty, he was well, robust, stout and vigorous, +though rather bald, and he kept his moustache cut quite short, so that it +might not cover his lips, and interfere with his blowing the horn.</p> + +<p>He was never called by anything but his first Christian name, Monsieur +Hector, but his full name was Baron Hector Gontran de Coutelier, and he +lived in a small manor house which he had inherited, in the middle of the +woods; and though he knew all the nobility of the department, and met its +male representatives out shooting and hunting, he only regularly visited +one family, the Courvilles, who were very pleasant neighbors, and had +been allied to his race for centuries, and in their house he was liked, +and taken the greatest care of, and he used to say: "If I were not a +sportsman, I should like to be here always."</p> + +<p>Monsieur de Courville had been his friend and comrade from childhood, +and lived quietly as a gentleman farmer with his wife, daughter and +son-in-law, Monsieur de Darnetot, who did nothing, under the pretext of +being devoted to historical studies.</p> + +<p>Baron de Coutelier often went and dined with his friends, as much with +the object of telling them of the shots he had made, as of anything else. +He had long stories about dogs and ferrets, of which he spoke as if they +were persons of note, whom he knew very well. He analyzed them, and +explained their thoughts and intentions:</p> + +<p>"When Medor saw that the corn-crake was leading him such a dance, he said +to himself: 'Wait a bit, my friend, we will have a joke.' And then, with +a jerk of the head to me, to make me go into the corner of the clover +field, he began to quarter the sloping ground, noisily brushing through +the clover to drive the bird into a corner from which it could not +escape.</p> + +<p>"Everything happened as he had foreseen. Suddenly, the corn-crake found +itself on the borders of the clover, and it could not go any further +without showing itself; Medor stood and pointed, half-looking round at +me, but at a sign from me, he drew up to it, flushed the corn-crake; +<i>bang</i>! down it came, and Medor, as he brought it to me, wagged his tail, +as much as to say: 'How about that, Monsieur Hector?'"</p> + +<p>Courville, Darnetot, and the two ladies laughed very heartily at those +picturesque descriptions into which the Baron threw his whole heart. He +grew animated, moved his arms about, and gesticulated with his whole +body; and when he described the death of anything he had killed, he gave +a formidable laugh, and said:</p> + +<p>"Was not that a good shot?"</p> + +<p>As soon as they began to speak about anything else, he left off +listening, and hummed a hunting song, or a few notes to imitate a hunting +horn, to himself.</p> + +<p>He had only lived for field sports, and was growing old, without thinking +about it, or guessing it, when he had a severe attack of rheumatism, and +was confined to his bed for two months, and nearly died of grief and +weariness.</p> + +<p>As he kept no female servant, for an old footman did all the cooking, he +could not get any hot poultices, nor could he have any of those little +attentions, nor anything that an invalid requires. His gamekeeper was his +sick nurse, and as the servant found the time hang just as heavily on his +hands as it did on his master's, he slept nearly all day and all night in +any easy chair, while the Baron was swearing and flying into a rage +between the sheets.</p> + +<p>The ladies of the De Courville family came to see him occasionally, and +those were hours of calm and comfort for him. They prepared his herb tea, +attended to the fire, served him his breakfast up daintily, by the side +of his bed, and when they were going again, he used to say:</p> + +<p>"By Jove! You ought to come here altogether," which made them laugh +heartily.</p> + +<p>When he was getting better, and was beginning to go out shooting again, +he went to dine with his friends one evening; but he was not at all in +his usual spirits. He was tormented by one continual fear—that he might +have another attack before shooting began, and when he was taking his +leave at night, when the women were wrapping him up in a shawl, and tying +a silk handkerchief round his neck, which he allowed to be done for the +first time in his life, he said in a disconsolated voice:</p> + +<p>"If it goes on like this, I shall be done for."</p> + +<p>As soon as he had gone, Madame Darnetot said to her mother:</p> + +<p>"We ought to try and get the Baron married."</p> + +<p>They all raised their hands at the proposal. How was it that they had +never thought of it before? And during all the rest of the evening they +discussed the widows whom they knew, and their choice fell on a woman of +forty, who was still pretty, fairly rich, very good-tempered and in +excellent health, whose name was Madame Berthe Vilers, and, accordingly, +she was invited to spend a month at the château. She was very dull at +home, and was very glad to come; she was lively and active, and Monsieur +de Coutelier took her fancy immediately. She amused herself with him as +if he had been a living toy, and spent hours in asking him slyly about +the sentiments of rabbits and the machinations of foxes, and he gravely +distinguished between the various ways of looking at things which +different animals had, and ascribed plans and subtle arguments to them, +just as he did to men of his acquaintance.</p> + +<p>The attention she paid him, delighted him, and one evening, to show his +esteem for her, he asked her to go out shooting with him, which he had +never done to any woman before, and the invitation appeared so funny to +her that she accepted it.</p> + +<p>It was quite an amusement for them to fit her out; everybody offered her +something, and she came out in a sort of short riding habit, with boots +and men's breeches, a short petticoat, a velvet jacket, which was too +tight for her across the chest, and a huntsman's black velvet cap.</p> + +<p>The Baron seemed as excited as if he were going to fire his first shot. +He minutely explained to her the direction of the wind, and how different +dogs worked. Then he took her into a field, and followed her as anxiously +as a nurse does when her charge is trying to walk for the first time.</p> + +<p>Medor soon made a point, and stopped with his tail out stiff and one paw +up, and the Baron, standing behind his pupil, was trembling like a leaf, +and whispered:</p> + +<p>"Look out, they are par ... par ... partridges." And almost before he had +finished, there was a loud <i>whirr</i>—<i>whirr</i>, and a covey of large birds +flew up in the air, with a tremendous noise.</p> + +<p>Madame Vilers was startled, shut her eyes, fired off both barrels and +staggered at the recoil of the gun; but when she had recovered her +self-possession, she saw that the Baron was dancing about like a madman, +and that Medor was bringing back the first of the two partridges which +she had killed.</p> + +<p>From that day, Monsieur de Coutelier was in love with her, and used to +say, raising his eyes: "What a woman!" And he used to go and see them +every evening now, and talked about shooting.</p> + +<p>One day, Monsieur de Courville, who was walking part of the way with him, +asked him, suddenly:</p> + +<p>"Why don't you marry her?"</p> + +<p>The Baron was altogether taken by surprise, and said:</p> + +<p>"What? I? Marry her? ... Well ... really...."</p> + +<p>And he said no more for a while, but then, suddenly shaking hands with +his companion, he said:</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, my friend," and quickly disappeared in the darkness.</p> + +<p>He did not go again for three days, but when he reappeared, he was pale +from thinking the matter over, and graver than usual. Taking Monsieur de +Courville aside, he said:</p> + +<p>"That was a capital idea of yours; try and persuade her to accept me, for +one might say that a woman like she is, was made for me, and you and I +shall be able to have some sort of sport together, all the year round."</p> + +<p>As Monsieur de Courville felt certain that his friend would not meet with +a refusal, he replied:</p> + +<p>"Propose to her immediately, my dear fellow, or would you rather that I +did it for you?"</p> + +<p>But the Baron grew suddenly nervous, and said, with some hesitation:</p> + +<p>"No, ... no.... I must go to Paris for ... for a few days. As soon as I +come back, I will give you a definite answer." No other explanation was +forthcoming, and he started the next morning.</p> + +<p>He made a long stay. One, two, three weeks passed, but Monsieur de +Coutelier did not return, and the Courvilles, who were surprised and +uneasy, did not know what to say to their friend, whom they had informed +of the Baron's wishes. Every other day they sent to his house for news of +him, but none of his servants had a line.</p> + +<p>But one evening, while Madame Vilers was singing, and accompanying +herself on the piano, a servant came with a mysterious air, and told +Monsieur de Courville that a gentleman wanted to see him. It was the +Baron, in a traveling suit, who looked much altered and older, and as +soon as he saw his old friend, he seized both his hands, and said, in a +somewhat tired voice: "I have just returned, my dear friend, and I have +come to you immediately; I am thoroughly knocked up."</p> + +<p>Then he hesitated in visible embarrassment, and presently said:</p> + +<p>"I wished to tell you ... immediately ... that ... that business ... you +know what I mean ... must come to nothing."</p> + +<p>Monsieur de Courville looked at him in stupefaction. "Must come to +nothing?... Why?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Do not ask me, please; it would be too painful for me to tell +you; but you may rest assured that I am acting like an honorable man. +I cannot ... I have no right ... no right, you understand, to marry this +lady, and I will wait until she has gone, to come here again; it would be +too painful for me to see her. Good-bye." And he absolutely ran away.</p> + +<p>The whole family deliberated and discussed the matter, surmising a +thousand things. The conclusion they came to was, that the Baron's past +life concealed some great mystery, that, perhaps, he had natural +children, or some connection of long standing. At any rate, the matter +seemed serious, and so as to avoid any difficult complications, they +adroitly informed Madame Vilers of the state of affairs, who returned +home just as much of a widow as she had come.</p> + +<p>Three months more passed, when one evening, when he had dined rather too +well, and was rather unsteady on his legs, Monsieur de Coutelier, while +he was smoking his pipe with Monsieur de Courville, said to him:</p> + +<p>"You would really pity me, if you only knew how continually I am thinking +about your friend."</p> + +<p>But the other, who had been rather vexed at the Baron's behavior in the +circumstances, told him exactly what he thought of him:</p> + +<p>"By Jove, my good friend, when a man has any secrets in his existence, +like you have, he does not make advances to a woman, immediately, as you +did, for you must surely have foreseen the reason why you had to draw +back."</p> + +<p>The Baron left off smoking in some confusion.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and no; at any rate, I could not have believed what actually +happened."</p> + +<p>Whereupon, Monsieur de Courville lost his patience, and replied:</p> + +<p>"One ought to foresee everything."</p> + +<p>But Monsieur de Coutelier replied in a low voice, in case anybody should +be listening: "I see that I have hurt your feelings, and will tell you +everything, so that you may forgive me. You know that for twenty years +I have lived only for sport; I care for nothing else, and think about +nothing else. Consequently, when I was on the point of undertaking +certain obligations with regard to this lady, I felt some scruples of +conscience. Since I have given up the habit of ... of love, there! I +have not known whether I was still capable of ... you know what I +mean ... Just think! It is exactly sixteen years since ... I for the last +time ... you understand what I mean. In this neighborhood, it is not easy +to ... you know. And then, I had other things to do. I prefer to use my +gun, and so before entering into an engagement before the Mayor<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> and +the Priest to ... well, I was frightened. I said to myself: 'Confound it; +suppose I missed fire!' An honorable man always keeps his engagements, +and in this case, I was undertaking sacred duties with regard to this +lady, and so, to feel sure, I made up my mind to go and spend a week in +Paris.</p> + +<p>"At the end of that time, nothing, absolutely nothing occurred. I always +lost the game.... I waited for a fortnight, three weeks, continually +hoping. In the restaurants, I ate a number of highly seasoned dishes, +which upset my stomach, and ... and it was still the same thing ... or +rather, nothing. You will, therefore, understand, that, in such +circumstances, and having assured myself of the fact, the only thing +I could do was ... was ... to withdraw; and I did so."</p> + +<p>Monsieur de Courville had to struggle very hard not to laugh, and he +shook hands with the Baron, saying:</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry for you," and accompanied him half-way home.</p> + +<p>When he got back, and was alone with his wife, he told her everything, +nearly choking with laughter; she, however, did not laugh, but listened +very attentively, and when her husband had finished, she said, very +seriously:</p> + +<p>"The Baron is a fool, my dear; he was frightened, that is all. I will +write and ask Berthe to come back here as soon as possible."</p> + +<p>And when Monsieur de Courville observed that their friend had made such +long and useless attempts, she merely said:</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! When a man loves his wife, you know ... that sort of thing +adjusts itself to the situation."</p> + +<p>And Monsieur de Courville made no reply, as he felt rather confused +himself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SUBSTITUTE" id="THE_SUBSTITUTE"></a>THE SUBSTITUTE</h2> + + +<p>"Madame Bonderoi?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Madame Bonderoi."</p> + +<p>"Impossible."</p> + +<p>"I tell you it is."</p> + +<p>Madame Bonderoi, the old lady in a lace cap, the devout, the holy, the +honorable Madame Bonderoi, whose little false curls looked as if they +were glued round her head.</p> + +<p>"That is the very woman."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Come, you must be mad."</p> + +<p>"I swear to you that it is Madame Bonderoi."</p> + +<p>"Then please give me the details."</p> + +<p>"Here they are. During the life of Monsieur Bonderoi, the lawyer, people +said that she utilized his clerks for her own particular service. She is +one of those respectable middle-class women, with secret vices, and +inflexible principles, of whom there are so many. She liked good-looking +young fellows, and I should like to know what is more natural than that? +Do not we all like pretty girls?"</p> + +<p>"As soon as old Bonderoi was dead, his widow began to live the peaceful +and irreproachable life of a woman with a fair, fixed income. She went to +church assiduously, and spoke evil of her neighbors, but gave no handle +to anyone for speaking ill of her, and when she grew old she became the +little wizened, sour-faced, mischievous woman whom you know. Well, this +adventure, which you would scarcely believe, happened last Friday.</p> + +<p>"My friend, Jean d'Anglemare, is, as you know, a captain in a dragoon +regiment, who is quartered in the barracks in the <i>Rue de la Rivette</i>, +and when he got to his quarters the other morning, he found that two men +of his squadron had had a terrible quarrel. The rules about military +honor are very severe, and so a duel took place between them. After the +duel they became reconciled, and when their officer questioned them, they +told him what their quarrel had been about. They had fought on Madame +Bonderoi's account."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear fellow, about Madame Bonderoi."</p> + +<p>"But I will let Trooper Siballe speak."</p> + +<p>"This is how it was, Captain. About a year and a half ago, I was lounging +about the barrack-yard, between six and seven o'clock in the evening, +when a woman came up and spoke to me, and said, just as if she had been +asking her way: 'Soldier, would you like to earn ten francs a week, +honestly?' Of course, I told her that I decidedly should, and so she +said: 'Come and see me at twelve o'clock to-morrow morning. I am Madame +Bonderoi, and my address is No. 6, <i>Rue de la Tranchée</i>.' 'You may rely +upon my being there, Madame.' And then she went away, looking very +pleased, and she added: 'I am very much obliged to you, soldier.' 'I am +obliged to you, Madame,' I replied. But I plagued my head about the +matter, until the time came, all the same.</p> + +<p>"At twelve o'clock, exactly, I rang the bell, and she let me in herself. +She had a lot of ribbons on her head.</p> + +<p>"'We must make haste,' she said; 'as my servant might come in.'</p> + +<p>"'I am quite willing to make haste,' I replied, 'but what am I to do?'</p> + +<p>"But she only laughed, and replied: 'Don't you understand, you great +knowing fellow?'</p> + +<p>"I was no nearer her meaning, I give you my word of honor, Captain, but +she came and sat down by me, and said:</p> + +<p>"'If you mention this to anyone, I will have you put in prison, so swear +that you will never open your lips about it.'</p> + +<p>"I swore whatever she liked, though I did not at all understand what she +meant, and my forehead was covered with perspiration, so I took my +pocket-handkerchief out of my helmet, and she took it and wiped my brow +with it; then she kissed me, and whispered: 'Then you will?' 'I will do +anything you like, Madame,' I replied, 'as that is what I came for.'</p> + +<p>"Then she made herself clearly understood by her actions, and when I saw +what it was, I put my helmet onto a chair, and showed her that in the +dragoons a man never retires, Captain.</p> + +<p>"Not that I cared much about it, for she was certainly not in her prime, +but it is no good being too particular in such a matter, as ten francs +are scarce, and then I have relations whom I like to help, and I said to +myself: 'There will be five francs for my father, out of that.'</p> + +<p>"When I had done my allotted task, Captain, I got ready to go, though she +wanted me to stop longer, but I said to her:</p> + +<p>"'To everyone their due, Madame. A small glass of brandy costs two sous, +and two glasses cost four.'</p> + +<p>"She understood my meaning, and put a gold ten-franc piece into my hand. +I do not like that coin, because it is so small that if your pockets are +not very well made, and come at all unsewn, one is apt to find it in +one's boots, or not to find it at all, and so, while I was looking at it, +she was looking at me. She got red in the face, as she had misunderstood +my looks, and she said: 'Is not that enough?'</p> + +<p>"'I did not mean that, Madame,' I replied; 'but if it is all the same to +you, I would rather have two five-franc pieces.' And she gave them to me, +and I took my leave. This has been going on for a year and a half, +Captain. I go every Tuesday evening, when you give me leave to go out of +barracks; she prefers that, as her servant has gone to bed then, but last +week I was not well, and I had to go into the infirmary. When Tuesday +came, I could not get out, and I was very vexed, because of the ten +francs which I had been receiving every week, and I said to myself:</p> + +<p>"'If anybody goes there, I shall be done; and she will be sure to take +an artilleryman, and that made me very angry. So I sent for Paumelle, who +comes from my part of the country, and I told him how matters stood:</p> + +<p>"'There will be five francs for you, and five for me,' I said. He agreed, +and went, as I had given him full instructions. She opened the door as +soon as he knocked, and let him in, and as she did not look at his face, +she did not perceive that it was not I, for, you know, Captain, one +dragoon is very like another, with their helmets on.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly, however, she noticed the change, and she asked, angrily: 'Who +are you? What do you want? I do not know you.'</p> + +<p>"Then Paumelle explained matters; he told her that I was not well, and +that I had sent him as my substitute; so she looked at him, made him also +swear to keep the matter secret, and then she accepted him, as you may +suppose, for Paumelle is not a bad-looking fellow, either. But when he +came back, Captain, he would not give me my five francs. If they had been +for myself, I should not have said a word, but they were for my father, +and on that score, I would stand no nonsense, and I said to him:</p> + +<p>"'You are not particular in what you do, for a dragoon; you are a +discredit to your uniform.'</p> + +<p>"He raised his fist, Captain, saying that fatigue duty like that was +worth double. Of course, everybody has his own ideas, and he ought not to +have accepted it. You know the rest."</p> + +<p>"Captain d'Anglemare laughed until he cried as he told me the story, but +he also made me promise to keep the matter a secret, just as he had +promised the two soldiers. So, above all, do not betray me, but promise +me to keep it to yourself."</p> + +<p>"Oh! You may be quite easy about that. But how was it all arranged, in +the end?"</p> + +<p>"How? It is a joke in a thousand!... Mother Bonderoi keeps her two +dragoons, and reserves his own particular day for each of them, and in +that way everybody is satisfied."</p> + +<p>"Oh! That is capital! Really capital!"</p> + +<p>"And he can send his old father and mother the money as usual, and thus +morality is satisfied."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_RELIC" id="THE_RELIC"></a>THE RELIC</h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>To the Abbé Louis d'Ennemare, at Soissons.</i></p> + +<p>"My Dear Abbé:</p> + +<p>"My marriage with your cousin is broken off in the stupidest manner, +on account of a stupid trick which I almost involuntarily played my +intended, in my embarrassment, and I turn to you, my old schoolfellow, +for you may be able to help me out of the difficulty. If you can, I shall +be grateful to you until I die.</p> + +<p>"You know Gilberte, or rather you think you know her, for do we ever +understand women? All their opinions, their ideas, their creeds, are a +surprise to us. They are all full of twists and turns, of the unforeseen, +of unintelligible arguments, or defective logic and of obstinate ideas, +which seem final, but which they alter because a little bird came and +perched on the window ledge.</p> + +<p>"I need not tell you that your cousin is very religious, as she was +brought up by the <i>White</i> (or was it the <i>Black</i>?) <i>Ladies</i> at Nancy. You +know that better than I do, but what you perhaps do not know, is, that +she is just as excitable about other matters as she is about religion. +Her head flies away, just like a leaf being whirled away by the wind; and +she is a woman, or rather a girl, more so than many are, for she is +moved, or made angry in a moment, starting off at a gallop after +affection, just as she does after hatred, and returning in the same +manner; and she is as pretty ... as you know, and more charming than +I can say ... as you will never know.</p> + +<p>"Well, we became engaged, and I adored her, as I adore her still, and she +appeared to love me.</p> + +<p>"One evening, I received a telegram summoning me to Cologne for a +consultation, which might be followed by a serious and difficult +operation, and as I had to start the next morning, I went to wish +Gilberte goodbye, and tell her why I could not dine with them on +Wednesday, but on Friday, the day of my return. Ah! Take care of Fridays, +for I assure you they are unlucky!</p> + +<p>"When I told her that I had to go to Germany, I saw that her eyes filled +with tears, but when I said I should be back very soon, she clapped her +hands, and said:</p> + +<p>"'I am very glad you are going, then! You must bring me back something; a +mere trifle, just a souvenir, but a souvenir that you have chosen for me. +You must find out what I should like best, do you hear? And then I shall +see whether you have any imagination.'</p> + +<p>"She thought for a few moments, and then added:</p> + +<p>"'I forbid you to spend more than twenty francs on it. I want it for the +intention, and for the remembrance of your penetration, and not for its +intrinsic value.'</p> + +<p>"And then, after another moment's silence, she said, in a low voice, and +with downcast eyes.</p> + +<p>"'If it costs you nothing in money, and if it is something very ingenious +and pretty, I will ... I will kiss you.'</p> + +<p>"The next day, I was in Cologne. It was the case of a terrible accident, +which had thrown a whole family into despair, and a difficult amputation +was necessary. They put me up; I might say, they almost locked me up, and +I saw nobody but people in tears, who almost deafened me with their +lamentations; I operated on a man who appeared to be in a moribund state, +and who nearly died under my hands, and with whom I remained two nights, +and then, when I saw that there was a chance for his recovery, I drove to +the station. I had, however, made a mistake in the trains, and I had an +hour to wait, and so I wandered about the streets, still thinking of my +poor patient, when a man accosted me. I do not know German, and he was +totally ignorant of French, but at last I made out that he was offering +me some relics. I thought of Gilberte, for I knew her fanatical devotion, +and here was my present ready to hand, so I followed the man into a shop +where religious objects were for sale, and I bought <i>a small piece of a +bone of one of the Eleven Thousand Virgins</i>.</p> + +<p>"The pretended relic was enclosed in a charming, old silver box, and that +determined my choice, and putting my purchase into my pocket, I went to +the railway station, and so to Paris.</p> + +<p>"As soon as I got home, I wished to examine my purchase again, and on +taking hold of it, I found that the box was open, and the relic lost! It +was no good to hunt in my pocket, and to turn it inside out; the small +bit of bone, which was no bigger than half a pin, had disappeared.</p> + +<p>"You know, my dear little Abbé, that my faith is not very great, but, as +my friend, you are magnanimous enough to put up with my coldness, and to +leave me alone, and to wait for the future, so you say. But I absolutely +disbelieve in the relics of second-hand dealers in piety, and you share +my doubts in that respect. Therefore, the loss of that bit of sheep's +carcass did not grieve me, and I easily procured a similar fragment, +which I carefully fastened inside my jewel, and then I went to see my +intended.</p> + +<p>"As soon as she saw me, she ran up to me, smiling and anxious, and said +to me:</p> + +<p>"'What have you brought me?'</p> + +<p>"I pretended to have forgotten, but she did not believe me, and I made +her beg me, and beseech me, even. But when I saw that she was devoured by +curiosity, I gave her the sacred silver box. She appeared over-joyed.</p> + +<p>"'A relic! Oh! A relic!'</p> + +<p>"And she kissed the box passionately, so that I was ashamed of my +deception. She was not quite satisfied, however, and her uneasiness soon +turned to terrible fear, and looking straight into my eyes, she said:</p> + +<p>"'Are you sure that it is authentic?'</p> + +<p>"'Absolutely certain.'</p> + +<p>"'How can you be so certain?'</p> + +<p>"I was caught, for to say that I had bought it through a man in the +streets, would be my destruction. What was I to say? A wild idea struck +me, and I said, in a low, mysterious voice:</p> + +<p>"'I stole it for you.'</p> + +<p>"She looked at me with astonishment and delight in her large eyes.</p> + +<p>"'Oh! You stole it? Where?'</p> + +<p>"'In the cathedral; in the very shrine of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.'</p> + +<p>"Her heart beat with pleasure, and she murmured:</p> + +<p>"'Oh! Did you really do that ... for me? Tell me ... all about it!'</p> + +<p>"There was an end of it, and I could not go back. I made up a fanciful +story, with precise details. I had given the custodian of the building a +hundred francs to be allowed to go about the building by myself; the +shrine was being repaired, but I happened to be there at the breakfast +time of the workmen and clergy; by removing a small panel, I had been +enabled to seize a small piece of bone (oh! so small), among a quantity +of others, (I said a quantity, as I thought of the amount that the +remains of the skeletons of eleven thousand virgins must produce). Then I +went to a goldsmith's and bought a casket worthy of the relic; and I was +not sorry to let her know that the silver box cost me five hundred +francs.</p> + +<p>"But she did not think of that; she listened to me, trembling; in an +ecstasy, and whispering:</p> + +<p>"'How I love you!' she threw herself into my arms.</p> + +<p>"Just note this: I had committed sacrilege for her sake. I had committed +a theft; I had violated a shrine; violated and stolen holy relics, and +for that she adored me, thought me loving, tender, divine. Such is woman, +my dear Abbé.</p> + +<p>"For two months I was the best of lovers. In her room, she had made a +kind of magnificent chapel in which to keep this bit of mutton chop, +which, as she thought, had made me commit that love-crime, and she worked +up her religious enthusiasm in front of it every morning and evening. I +had asked her to keep the matter secret, for fear, as I said, that I +might be arrested, condemned and given over to Germany, and she kept her +promise.</p> + +<p>"Well, at the beginning of the summer, she was seized with an +irresistible wish to see the scene of my exploit, and she begged her +father so persistently (without telling him her secret reason), that he +took her to Cologne, but without telling me of their trip, according to +his daughter's wish.</p> + +<p>"I need not tell you that I had not seen the interior of the cathedral. I +do not know where the tomb (if there be a tomb), of the Eleven Thousand +Virgins is, and then, it appears that it is unapproachable, alas!</p> + +<p>"A week afterwards, I received ten lines, breaking off our engagement, +and then an explanatory letter from her father, whom she had, somewhat +late, taken into her confidence.</p> + +<p>"At the sight of the shrine, she had suddenly seen through my trickery +and my lie, and had also found out that I was innocent of any other +crime. Having asked the keeper of the relics whether any robbery had +been committed, the man began to laugh, and pointed out to them how +impossible such a crime was, but from the moment I had plunged my profane +hand into venerable relics, I was no longer worthy of my fair-haired +and delicate betrothed.</p> + +<p>"I was forbidden the house; I begged and prayed in vain, nothing could +move the fair devotee, and I grew ill from grief. Well, last week, her +cousin, Madame d'Arville, who is yours also, sent word to me that she +should like to see me, and when I called, she told me on what conditions +I might obtain my pardon, and here they are. I must bring her a relic, a +real, authentic relic, certified to be such by Our Holy Father, the Pope, +of some virgin and martyr, and I am going mad from embarrassment and +anxiety.</p> + +<p>"I will go to Rome, if needful, but I cannot call on the Pope +unexpectedly, and tell him my stupid adventure; and, besides, I doubt +whether they let private individuals have relics. Could not you give me +an introduction to some cardinal, or only to some French prelate, who +possesses some remains of a female saint? Or perhaps you may have the +precious object she wants in your collection?</p> + +<p>"Help me out of my difficulty, my dear Abbé, and I promise you that I +will be converted ten years sooner than I otherwise should be!</p> + +<p>"Madame d'Arville, who takes the matter seriously, said to me the other +day:</p> + +<p>"'Poor Gilberte will never marry.'</p> + +<p>"My dear old schoolfellow, will you allow your cousin to die the victim +of a stupid piece of business on my part? Pray prevent her from being the +eleventh thousand and one virgin.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, I am unworthy, but I embrace you, and love you with all my +heart.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Your old friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Henri Fontal."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_MAN_WITH_THE_BLUE_EYES" id="THE_MAN_WITH_THE_BLUE_EYES"></a>THE MAN WITH THE BLUE EYES</h2> + + +<p>Monsieur Pierre Agénor de Vargnes, the Examining Magistrate, was the +exact opposite of a practical joker. He was dignity, staidness, +correctness personified. As a sedate man, he was quite incapable of being +guilty, even in his dreams, of anything resembling a practical joke, +however remotely. I know nobody to whom he could be compared, unless it +be the present president of the French Republic. I think it is useless to +carry the analogy any further, and having said thus much, it will be +easily understood that a cold shiver passed through me when Monsieur +Pierre Agénor de Vargnes did me the honor of sending a lady to wait on +me.</p> + +<p>At about eight o'clock, one morning last winter, as he was leaving the +house to go to the <i>Palais de Justice</i>, his footman handed him a card, +on which was printed:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +DOCTOR JAMES FERDINAND,<br /> +<i>Member of the Academy of Medicine,<br /> +Port-au-Prince,<br /> +Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.</i> +</p> +</div> + +<p>At the bottom of the card, there was written in pencil:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>From Lady Frogère</i></p></div> + +<p>Monsieur de Vargnes knew the lady very well, who was a very agreeable +Creole from Haiti, and whom he had met in many drawing-rooms, and, on the +other hand, though the doctor's name did not awaken any recollections in +him, his quality and titles alone required that he should grant him an +interview, however short it might be. Therefore, although he was in a +hurry to get out, Monsieur de Vargnes told the footman to show in his +early visitor, but to tell him beforehand that his master was much +pressed for time, as he had to go to the Law Courts.</p> + +<p>When the doctor came in, in spite of his usual imperturbability, he could +not restrain a movement of surprise, for the doctor presented that +strange anomaly of being a negro of the purest, blackest type, with the +eyes of a white man, of a man from the North, pale, cold, clear, blue +eyes, and his surprise increased when, after a few words of excuse for +his untimely visit, he added, with an enigmatical smile:</p> + +<p>"My eyes surprise you, do they not? I was sure that they would, and, to +tell you the truth, I came here in order that you might look at them +well, and never forget them."</p> + +<p>His smile, and his words, even more than his smile, seemed to be those of +a madman. He spoke very softly, with that childish, lisping voice, which +is peculiar to negroes, and his mysterious, almost menacing words, +consequently, sounded all the more as if they were uttered at random by +a man bereft of his reason. But his looks, the looks of those pale, cold, +clear, blue eyes, were certainly not those of a madman. They clearly +expressed menace, yes, menace, as well as irony, and, above all, +implacable ferocity, and their glance was like a flash of lightning, +which one could never forget.</p> + +<p>"I have seen," Monsieur de Vargnes used to say, when speaking about it, +"the looks of many murderers, but in none of them have I ever observed +such a depth of crime, and of impudent security in crime."</p> + +<p>And this impression was so strong, that Monsieur de Vargnes thought that +he was the sport of some hallucination, especially as when he spoke about +his eyes, the doctor continued with a smile, and in his most childish +accents: "Of course, Monsieur, you cannot understand what I am saying to +you, and I must beg your pardon for it. To-morrow, you will receive a +letter which will explain it at all to you, but, first all, it was +necessary that I should let you have a good, a careful look at my eyes, +my eyes which are myself, my only and true self, as you will see."</p> + +<p>With these words, and with a polite bow, the doctor went out, leaving +Monsieur de Vargnes extremely surprised, and a prey to this doubt, as he +said to himself:</p> + +<p>"Is he merely a madman? The fierce expression, and the criminal depths of +his looks are perhaps caused merely by the extraordinary contrast between +his fierce looks and his pale eyes."</p> + +<p>And absorbed in these thoughts, Monsieur de Vargnes unfortunately allowed +several minutes to elapse, and then he thought to himself suddenly:</p> + +<p>"No, I am not the sport of any hallucination, and this is no case of an +optical phenomenon. This man is evidently some terrible criminal, and I +have altogether failed in my duty in not arresting him myself at once, +illegally, even at the risk of my life."</p> + +<p>The judge ran downstairs in pursuit of the doctor, but it was too late; +he had disappeared. In the afternoon, he called on Madame Frogère, to ask +her whether she could tell him anything about the matter. She, however, +did not know the negro doctor in the least, and was even able to assure +him that he was a fictitious personage, for, as she was well acquainted +with the upper classes in Haiti, she knew that the Academy of Medicine at +Port-au-Prince had no doctor of that name among its members. As Monsieur +de Vargnes persisted, and gave descriptions of the doctor, especially +mentioning his extraordinary eyes, Madame Frogère began to laugh, and +said:</p> + +<p>"You have certainly had to do with a hoaxer, my dear Monsieur. The eyes +which you have described, are certainly those of a white man, and the +individual must have been painted."</p> + +<p>On thinking it over, Monsieur de Vargnes remembered that the doctor had +nothing of the negro about him, but his black skin, his woolly hair and +beard, and his way of speaking, which was easily imitated, but nothing of +the negro, not even the characteristic, undulating walk. Perhaps, after +all, he was only a practical joker, and during the whole day, Monsieur de +Vargnes took refuge in that view, which rather wounded his dignity as a +man of consequence, but which appeased his scruples as a magistrate.</p> + +<p>The next day, he received the promised letter, which was written, as well +as addressed, in letters cut out of the newspapers. It was as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"MONSIEUR,—</p> + +<p>"Doctor James Ferdinand does not exist, but the man whose eyes you saw +does, and you will certainly recognize his eyes. This man has committed +two crimes, for which he does not feel any remorse, but, as he is a +psychologist, he is afraid of some day yielding to the irresistible +temptation of confessing his crimes. You know better than anyone (and +that is your most powerful aid), with what imperious force criminals, +especially intellectual ones, feel this temptation. That great Poet, +Edgar Poe, has written masterpieces on this subject, which express the +truth exactly, but he has omitted to mention the last phenomenon, which +<i>I</i> will tell you. Yes, I, a criminal, feel a terrible wish for somebody +to know of my crimes, and, when this requirement is satisfied, my secret +has been revealed to a confidant, I shall be tranquil for the future, and +be freed from this demon of perversity, which only tempts us once. Well! +Now that is accomplished. You shall have <i>my</i> secret; from the day that +you recognize me by my eyes, you will try and find out what I am guilty +of, and how I was guilty, and you will discover it, being a master of +your profession, which, by-the-bye, has procured you the honor of having +been chosen by me to bear the weight of this secret, which now is shared +by us, and by us two alone. I say, advisedly, <i>by us two alone</i>. You +could not, as a matter of fact, prove the reality of this secret to +anyone, unless I were to confess it, and I defy you to obtain my public +confession, as I have confessed it to you, <i>and without danger to +myself</i>."</p> +</div> + +<p>Three months later, Monsieur de Vargnes met Monsieur X—— at an evening +party and at first sight, and without the slightest hesitation, he +recognized in him those very pale, very cold, and very clear blue eyes, +eyes which it was impossible to forget.</p> + +<p>The man himself remained perfect impassive, so that Monsieur de Vargnes +was forced to say to himself:</p> + +<p>"Probably I am the sport of a hallucination at this moment, or else there +are two pairs of eyes that are perfectly similar, in the world. And what +eyes! Can it be possible?"</p> + +<p>The magistrate instituted inquiries into his life, and he discovered +this, which removed all his doubts.</p> + +<p>Five years previously, Monsieur X—— had been a very poor, but very +brilliant medical student, who, although he never took his doctor's +degree, had already made himself remarkable by his microbiological +researches.</p> + +<p>A young and very rich widow had fallen in love with him and married him. +She had one child by her first marriage, and in the space of six months, +first the child and then the mother died of typhoid fever, and thus +Monsieur X—— had inherited a large fortune, in due form, and without +any possible dispute. Everybody said that he had attended to the two +patients with the utmost devotion. Now, were these two deaths the two +crimes mentioned in his letter?</p> + +<p>But then, Monsieur X—— must have poisoned his two victims with the +microbes of typhoid fever, which he had skillfully cultivated in them, +so as to make the disease incurable, even by the most devoted care and +attention. Why not?</p> + +<p>"Do you believe it?" I asked Monsieur de Vargnes. "Absolutely," he +replied. "And the most terrible thing about it is, that the villain is +right when he defies me to force him to confess his crime publicly for I +see no means of obtaining a confession, none whatever. For a moment, I +thought of magnetism, but who could magnetize that man with those pale, +cold, bright eyes? With such eyes, he would force the magnetizer to +denounce himself as the culprit."</p> + +<p>And then he said, with a deep sigh:</p> + +<p>"Ah! Formerly there was something good about justice!"</p> + +<p>And when he saw my inquiring looks, he added in a firm and perfectly +convinced voice:</p> + +<p>"Formerly, justice had torture at its command."</p> + +<p>"Upon my word," I replied, with all an author's unconscious and simple +egotism, "it is quite certain that without the torture, this strange tale +would have no conclusion, and that is very unfortunate, as far as regards +the story I intended to make of it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ALLOUMA" id="ALLOUMA"></a>ALLOUMA</h2> + + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>One of my friends had said to me:—</p> + +<p>"If you happen to be near Bordj-Ebbaba while you are in Algeria, be sure +and go to see my old friend Auballe, who has settled there."</p> + +<p>I had forgotten the name of Auballe and of Ebbaba, and I was not thinking +of this planter, when I arrived at his house by pure accident. For a +month, I had been wandering on foot through that magnificent district +which extends from Algiers to Cherchell, Orléansville, and Tiaret. It is +at the same time wooded and bare, grand and charming. Between two hills, +one comes across large pine forests in narrow valleys, through which +torrents rush in the winter. Enormous trees, which have fallen across +the ravine, serve as a bridge for the Arabs, and also for the tropical +creepers, which twine round the dead stems, and adorn them with new life. +There are hollows, in little known recesses of the mountains, of a +terribly beautiful character, and the sides of the brooks, which are +covered with oleanders, are indescribably lovely.</p> + +<p>But what has left behind it the most pleasant recollections of that +excursion, is the long after-dinner walks along the slightly wooded roads +on those undulating hills, from which one can see an immense tract of +country from the blue sea as far as the chain of the Quarsenis, on whose +summit there is the cedar forest of Teniet-el-Haad.</p> + +<p>On that day I lost my way. I had just climbed to the top of a hill, +whence, beyond a long extent of rising ground, I had seen the extensive +plain of Metidja, and then, on the summit of another chain, almost +invisible in the distances that strange monument which is called <i>The +Tomb of the Christian Woman</i>, and which was said to be the burial-place +of the kings of Mauritana. I went down again, going southward, with a +yellow landscape before me, extending as far as the fringe of the desert, +as yellow as if all those hills were covered with lions' skins sewn +together, sometimes a pointed yellow peak would rise out of the midst of +them, like the bristly back of a camel.</p> + +<p>I walked quickly and lightly, like as one does when following tortuous +paths on a mountain slope. Nothing seems to weigh on one in those short, +quick walks through the invigorating air of those heights, neither the +body, nor the heart, nor the thoughts, nor even cares. On that day I +felt nothing of all that crushes and tortures our life; I only felt the +pleasure of that descent. In the distance I saw an Arab encampment, brown +pointed tents, which seemed fixed to the earth, like limpets are to a +rock, or else <i>gourbis</i>, huts made of branches, from which a gray smoke +rose. White figures, men and women, were walking slowly about, and the +bells of the flocks sounded vaguely through the evening air.</p> + +<p>The arbutus trees on my road hung down under the weight of their purple +fruit, which was falling on the ground. They looked like martyred trees, +from which blood-colored sweat was falling, for at the top of every tier +there was a red spot, like a drop of blood.</p> + +<p>The earth all round them was covered with it, and as my feet crushed the +fruit, they left blood-colored traces behind them, and sometimes, as I +went along, I would jump and pick one, and eat it.</p> + +<p>All the valleys were by this time filled with a white vapor, which rose +slowly, like the steam from the flanks of an ox, and on the chain of +mountains that bordered the horizon, on the outskirts of the desert of +Sahara, the sky was in flames. Long streaks of gold alternated with +streaks of blood—blood again! Blood and gold, the whole of human +history—and sometimes between the two there was a small opening in +the greenish azure, far away like a dream.</p> + +<p>How far away I was from all those persons and things with which one +occupies oneself on the boulevards, far from myself also, for I had +become a kind of wandering being, without thought or consciousness, +far from any road, of which I was not even thinking, for as night came +on, I found that I had lost my way.</p> + +<p>The shades of night were falling onto the earth like a shower of +darkness, and I saw nothing before me but the mountains, in the far +distance. Presently, I saw some tents in the valley, into which I +descended, and tried to make the first Arab I met understand in which +direction I wanted to go. I do not know whether he understood me, but +he gave me a long answer, which I did not in the least understand. In +despair, I was about to make up my mind to pass the night wrapped up in +a rug near the encampment, when among the strange words he uttered, I +fancied that I heard the name, <i>Bordj-Ebbaba</i>, and so I repeated:</p> + +<p>"<i>Bordj-Ebbaba.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes."</p> + +<p>I showed him two francs that were a fortune to him, and he started off, +while I followed him. Ah! I followed that pale phantom which strode on +before me bare-footed along stony paths, on which I stumbled continually, +for a long time, and then suddenly I saw a light, and we soon reached the +door of a white house, a kind of fortress with straight walls, and +without any outside windows. When I knocked, dogs began to bark inside, +and a voice asked in French:</p> + +<p>"Who is there?"</p> + +<p>"Does Monsieur Auballe live here?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>The door was opened for me, and I found myself face to face with Monsieur +Auballe himself, a tall man in slippers, with a pipe in his mouth and the +looks of a jolly Hercules.</p> + +<p>As soon as I mentioned my name, he put out both his hands and said:</p> + +<p>"Consider yourself at home here, Monsieur."</p> + +<p>A quarter of an hour later I was dining ravenously, opposite to my host, +who went on smoking.</p> + +<p>I knew his history. After having wasted a great amount of money on women, +he had invested the remnants of his fortune in Algerian landed property +and taken to money-making. It turned out prosperously; he was happy, and +had the calm look of a happy and contented man. I could not understand +how this fast Parisian could have grown accustomed to that monstrous life +in such a lonely spot, and I asked him about it.</p> + +<p>"How long have you been here?" I asked him.</p> + +<p>"For nine years."</p> + +<p>"And have you not been intolerably dull and miserable?"</p> + +<p>"No, one gets used to this country, and ends by liking it. You cannot +imagine how it lays hold on people by those small, animal instincts that +we are ignorant of ourselves. We first become attached to it by our +organs, to which it affords secret gratifications which we do not inquire +into. The air and the climate overcome our flesh, in spite of ourselves, +and the bright light with which it is inundated keeps the mind clear and +fresh, at but little cost. It penetrates us continually by our eyes, and +one might really say that it cleanses the somber nooks of the soul."</p> + +<p>"But what about women?"</p> + +<p>"Ah...! There is rather a dearth of them!"</p> + +<p>"Only <i>rather</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes ... rather. For one can always, even among the Arabs, find +some complaisant, native women, who think of the nights of Roumi."</p> + +<p>He turned to the Arab, who was waiting on me, who was a tall, dark +fellow, with bright, black eyes, that flashed beneath his turban, and +said to him:</p> + +<p>"I will call you when I want you, Mohammed." And then, turning to me, he +said:</p> + +<p>"He understands French, and I am going to tell you a story in which he +plays a leading part."</p> + +<p>As soon as the man had left the room, he began:</p> + +<p>"I had been here about four years, and scarcely felt quite settled yet +in this country, whose language I was beginning to speak, and forced, in +order not to break altogether with those passions that had been fatal to +me in other places, to go to Algiers for a few days, from time to time.</p> + +<p>"I had bought this farm, this <i>bordj</i>, which had been a fortified post, +and was within a few hundred yards from the native encampment, whose man +I employ to cultivate my land. Among the tribe that had settled here, and +which formed a portion of the Oulad-Taadja, I chose, as soon as I arrived +here, that tall fellow whom you have just seen, Mohammed ben Lam'har, who +soon became greatly attached to me. As he would not sleep in a house, not +being accustomed to it, he pitched his tent a few yards from my house, so +that I might be able to call him from my window.</p> + +<p>"You can guess what my life was, I dare say? Every day I was busy with +cleanings and plantations; I hunted a little, I used to go and dine with +the officers of the neighboring fortified posts, or else they came and +dined with me. As for pleasures ... I have told you what they consisted +in. Algiers offered me some which were rather more refined, and from time +to time a complaisant and compassionate Arab would stop me when I was out +for a walk, and offer to bring one of the women of his tribe to my house +at night. Sometimes I accepted, but more frequently I refused, from fear +of the disagreeable consequences and troubles it might entail upon me.</p> + +<p>"One evening, at the beginning of summer, as I was going home, after +going over the farm, as I wanted Mohammed, I went into his tent without +calling him, as I frequently did, and there I saw a woman, a girl, +sleeping almost naked, with her arms crossed under her head, on one of +those thick, red carpets, made of the fine wool of Djebel-Amour, and +which are as soft and as thick as a feather bed. Her body, which was +beautifully white under the ray of light that came in through the raised +covering of the tent, appeared to me to be one of the most perfect +specimens of the human race that I had ever seen, and most of the women +about here are beautiful and tall, and are a rare combination of features +and shape. I let the edge of the tent fall in some confusion, and +returned home.</p> + +<p>"I love women! The sudden flash of this vision had penetrated and +scorched me, and had rekindled in my veins that old, formidable ardor to +which I owe my being here. It was very hot for it was July, and I spent +nearly the whole night at my window, with my eyes fixed on the black +Mohammed's tent made on the ground.</p> + +<p>"When he came into my room the next morning, I looked him closely in the +face, and he hung his head, like a man who was guilty and in confusion. +Did he guess that I knew? I, however, asked him, suddenly:</p> + +<p>"'So you are married, Mohammed?' and I saw that he got red, and he +stammered out: 'No, <i>mo'ssieuia</i>!'</p> + +<p>"I used to make him speak French to me, and to give me Arabic lessons, +which was often productive of a most incoherent mixture of languages; +however, I went on:</p> + +<p>"'Then why is there a woman in your tent?'</p> + +<p>"'She comes from the South,' he said, in a low, apologetic voice.</p> + +<p>"'Oh! So she comes from the South? But that does not explain to me how +she comes to be in your tent.'</p> + +<p>"Without answering my question, he continued:</p> + +<p>"'She is very pretty.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh! Indeed. Another time, please, when you happen to receive a pretty +woman from the South, you will take care that she comes to my <i>gourbi</i>, +and not to yours. You understand me, Mohammed?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, <i>mo'ssieuia</i>,' he repeated, seriously.</p> + +<p>"I must acknowledge that during the whole day I was in a state of +aggressive excitement at the recollection of that Arab girl lying on the +red carpet, and when I went in at dinner time, I felt very strongly +inclined to go to Mohammed's tent again. During the evening, he waited +on me just as usual, and hovered round me with his impassive face, and +several times I was very nearly asking him whether he intended to keep +that girl from the South, who was very pretty, in his camel skin tent for +a long time.</p> + +<p>"Towards nine o'clock, still troubled with that longing for female +society which is as tenacious as the hunting instinct in dogs, I went out +to get some fresh air, and to stroll about a little round that cone of +brown skin through which I could see a brilliant speck of light. I did +not remain long, however, for fear of being surprised by Mohammed in the +neighborhood of his dwelling. When I went in an hour later, I clearly saw +his outline in the tent, and then, taking the key out of my pocket, I +went into the <i>bordj</i>, where besides myself, there slept my steward, two +French laborers, and an old cook whom I had picked up in the Algiers. As +I went up stairs, I was surprised to see a streak of light under my door, +and when I opened it, I saw a girl with the face of a statue sitting on a +straw chair by the side of the table, on which a wax candle was burning; +she was bedizened with all those silver gew-gaws which women in the South +wear on their legs, arms, breast, and even on their stomach. Her eyes, +which were tinged with kohl, to make them look larger, regarded me +earnestly, and four little blue spots, finely tatooed on her skin, marked +her forehead, her cheeks, and her chin. Her arms, which were loaded with +bracelets, were resting on her thighs, which were covered by the long, +red silk skirt that she wore.</p> + +<p>"When she saw me come in, she got up and remained standing in front of +me, covered with her barbaric jewels, in an attitude of proud submission.</p> + +<p>"'What are you doing here?' I said to her in Arabic.</p> + +<p>"'I am here because Mohammed told me to come.'</p> + +<p>"'Very well, sit down.'</p> + +<p>"So she sat down and lowered her eyes, while I examined her attentively.</p> + +<p>"She had a strange, regular, delicate, and rather bestial face, but +mysterious as that of a Buddha. Her lips, which were rather thick and +covered with a reddish efflorescence, which I discovered on the rest of +her body as well, indicated a slight admixture of negro blood, although +her hands and arms were of an irreproachable whiteness.</p> + +<p>"I hesitated what to do with her, and felt excited, tempted and rather +confused, so in order to gain time and to give myself an opportunity for +reflection, I put other questions to her, about her birth, how she came +into this part of the country, and what her connection with Mohammed was. +But she only replied to those that interested me the least, and it was +impossible for me to find out why she had come, with what intention, +by whose orders, nor what had taken place between her and my servant. +However, just as I was about to say to her: 'Go back to Mohammed's tent,' +she seemed to guess my intention, for getting up suddenly, and raising +her two bare arms, on which the jingling bracelets slipped down to her +shoulders, she crossed her hands behind my neck and drew me towards her +with an irresistible air of suppliant longing.</p> + +<p>"Her eyes, which were bright from emotion, from that necessity of +conquering man, which makes the looks of an impure woman as seductive as +those of the feline tribe, allured me, enchained me, deprived me of all +the power of resistance, and filled me with impetuous ardor. It was a +short, sharp struggle of the eyes only, that eternal struggle between +those two human brutes, the male and the female, in which the male is +always beaten.</p> + +<p>"Her hands, which had clasped behind my head, drew me irresistibly, with +a gentle, increasing pressure, as if by mechanical force towards her red +lips, on which I suddenly laid mine while, at the same moment, I clasped +her body, that was covered with jingling silver rings, in an ardent +embrace.</p> + +<p>"She was as strong, as healthy, and as supple as a wild animal, with all +the motions, the ways, the grace, and even something of the odor of a +gazelle, which made me find a rare, unknown zest in her kisses, which +was as strange to my senses as the taste of tropical fruits.</p> + +<p>"Soon—I say soon, although it may have been towards morning—I wished to +send her away, as I thought that she would go in the same way that she +had come; I did not, even, at the moment, ask myself what I should do +with her, or what she would do with me, but as soon as she guessed my +intention, she whispered:</p> + +<p>"'What do you expect me to do if you get rid of me now? I shall have to +sleep on the ground in the open air at night. Let me sleep on the carpet, +at the foot of your bed.'</p> + +<p>"What answer could I give her, or what could I do? I thought that no +doubt Mohammed also would be watching the window of my room, in which a +light was burning, and questions of various natures, that I had not put +to myself during the first minutes, formulated themselves clearly in my +brain.</p> + +<p>"'Stop here,' I replied, 'and we will talk.'</p> + +<p>"My resolution was taken in a moment. As this girl had been thrown into +my arms, in this manner, I would keep her; I would make her a kind of +slave-mistress, hidden in my house, like women in a harem are. When the +time should come that I no longer cared for her, it would be easy for me +to get rid of her in some way or another, for on African soil those sort +of creatures almost belong to us, body and soul, and so I said to her:</p> + +<p>"'I wish to be kind to you, and I will treat you so that you shall not be +unhappy, but I want to know who you are and where you come from?'</p> + +<p>"She saw clearly that she must say something, and she told me her story, +or rather a story, for no doubt she was lying from beginning to end, like +all Arabs always do, with or without any motive.</p> + +<p>"That is one of the most surprising and incomprehensible signs of the +native character—the Arabs always lie. Those people in whom Islam has +become so incarnate that it has become part of themselves, to such an +extent as to model their instincts and modifies the entire race, and to +differentiate it from others in morals just as much as the color of the +skin differentiates a negro from a white man, are liars to the backbone, +so that one can never trust a word that they say. I do not know whether +they owe that to their religion, but one must have lived among them in +order to know the extent to which lying forms part of their being, of +their heart and soul, until it has become a kind of second nature, a very +necessity of life, with them.</p> + +<p>"Well, she told me that she was the daughter of a <i>Caidi</i> of the <i>Ouled +Sidi Cheik</i>, and of a woman whom he had carried off in a raid against the +Touaregs. The woman must have been a black slave, or, at any rate, have +sprung from a first cross of Arab and negro blood. It is well known that +negro women are in great request for harems, where they act as +aphrodisiacs. Nothing of such an origin was to be noticed, however, +except the purple color of her lips, and the dark nipples of her +elongated breasts, which were as supple as if they were on springs. +Nobody who knew anything about the matter, could be mistaken in that. But +all the rest of her belonged to the beautiful race from the South, fair, +supple and with a delicate face which was formed on straight and simple +lines like those of a Hindoo figure. Her eyes, which were very far apart, +still further heightened the somewhat god-like looks of this desert +marauder.</p> + +<p>"I knew nothing exactly about her real life. She related it to me in +incoherent fragments, that seemed to rise up at random from a disordered +memory, and she mixed up deliciously childish observations with them; +a whole vision of a Nomad world, born of a squirrel's brain that had +leapt from tent to tent, from encampment to encampment, from tribe to +tribe. And all this was done with the severe looks that this reserved +people always preserve, with the appearance of a brass idol, and rather +comic gravity.</p> + +<p>"When she had finished, I perceived that I had not remembered anything of +that long story, full of insignificant events, that she had stored up in +her flighty brain, and I asked myself whether she had not simply been +making fun of me by her empty and would-be serious chatter, which told me +nothing about her, nor about any real facts connected with her life.</p> + +<p>"And I thought of that conquered race, among whom we have encamped, or, +rather, who are encamping among us, whose language we are beginning to +speak, whom we see every day, living under the transparent linen of their +tents, on whom we have imposed our laws, our regulations, and our +customs, and about whom we know nothing, nothing more whatever, I assure +you, than if we were not here, and solely occupied in looking at them, +for nearly sixty years. We know no more about what is going on in those +huts made of branches, and under those small canvas cones that are +fastened to the ground by stakes, which are within twenty yards of our +doors, than we know what the so-called civilized Arabs of the Moorish +houses in Algiers do, think, and are. Behind the white-washed walls of +their town houses, behind the partition of their <i>gourbi</i>, which is made +of branches, or behind that thin, brown, camel-haired curtain which the +wind moves, they live close to us, unknown, mysterious, cunning, +submissive, smiling, impenetrable. What if I were to tell you, that when +I look at the neighboring encampment through my field glasses, I guess +that there are superstitions, customs, ceremonies, a thousand practices +of which we know nothing, and which we do not even suspect! Never +previously, in all probability, did a conquered race know so well how +to escape so completely from the real domination, the moral influence +and the inveterate, but useless, investigations of the conquerors.</p> + +<p>"Now I suddenly felt the insurmountable, secret barrier which +incomprehensible nature had set up between the two races, more than I had +ever felt it before, between this girl and myself, between this woman who +had just given herself to me, who had yielded herself to my caresses and +to me, who had possessed her, and, thinking of it for the first time, I +said to her: 'What is your name?'</p> + +<p>"She did not speak for some moments, and I saw her start, as if she had +forgotten that I was there, and then, in her eyes that were raised to +mine, I saw that that moment had sufficed for her to be overcome by +sleep, by irresistible, sudden, almost overwhelming sleep, like +everything that lays hold of the mobile senses of women, and she +answered, carelessly, suppressing a yawn:</p> + +<p>"'Allouma.'</p> + +<p>"'Do you want to go sleep?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' she replied.</p> + +<p>"'Very well then, go to sleep!'</p> + +<p>"She stretched herself out tranquilly by my side, lying on her stomach, +with her forehead resting on her folded arms, and I felt almost +immediately that fleeting, untutored thoughts were lulled in repose, +while I began to ponder, as I lay by her side, and tried to understand it +all. Why had Mohammed given her to me? Had he acted the part of a +magnanimous servant, who sacrifices himself for his master, even to the +extent of giving up the woman whom he had brought into his own tent, to +him? Or had he, on the other hand, obeyed a more complex and more +practical, though less generous impulse, in handing over this girl who +had taken my fancy, to my embrace? An Arab, when it is a question of +women, is rigorously modest and unspeakably complaisant, and one can no +more understand his rigorous and easy morality, than one can all the rest +of his sentiments. Perhaps, when I accidentally went to his tent, I had +merely forestalled the benevolent intentions of this thoughtful servant, +who had intended this woman, who was his friend and accomplice, or +perhaps even his mistress, for me.</p> + +<p>"All these suppositions assailed me, and fatigued me so much, that, at +last, in my turn, I fell into a profound sleep, from which I was roused +by the creaking of my door, and Mohammed came in, to call me as usual. He +opened the window, through which a flood of light streamed in, and fell +onto Allouma who was still asleep; then he picked up my trousers, coat +and waistcoat from the floor in order to brush them. He did not look at +the woman who was lying by my side, did not seem to know or remark that +she was there, and preserved his ordinary gravity, demeanor and looks. +But the light, the movement, the slight noise which his bare feet made, +the feeling of the fresh air on her skin and in her lungs, roused Allouma +from her lethargy. She stretched out her arms, turned over, opened her +eyes, and looked at me and then Mohammed with the same indifference; then +she sat up in bed and said: 'I am hungry.'</p> + +<p>"'What would you like?'</p> + +<p>"'Kahoua.'</p> + +<p>"'Coffee and bread and butter.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes.'</p> + +<p>"Mohammed remained standing close to our bed, with my clothes under his +arm, waiting for my orders.</p> + +<p>"'Bring breakfast for Allouma and me,' I said to him.</p> + +<p>"He went out, without his face betraying the slightest astonishment or +anger, and as soon as he had left the room, I said to the girl:</p> + +<p>"'Will you live in my house?'</p> + +<p>"'I should like to, very much.'</p> + +<p>"'I will give you a room to yourself, and a woman to wait on you.'</p> + +<p>"'You are very generous, and I am grateful to you.'</p> + +<p>"'But if you behave badly, I shall send you away immediately.'</p> + +<p>"'I will do everything that you wish me to.'</p> + +<p>"She took my hand, and kissed it as a token of submission, and just then +Mohammed came in, carrying a tray with our breakfast on it, and I said to +him:—</p> + +<p>"'Allouma is going to live here. You must spread a carpet on the floor of +the room at the end of the passage, and get Abd-El-Kader-El-Hadara's wife +to come and wait on her.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, <i>mo'ssieuia</i>.'</p> + +<p>"That was all.</p> + +<p>"An hour later, my beautiful Arab was installed in a large, airy, light +room, and when I went in to see that everything was in order, she asked +me in a supplicating voice, to give her a wardrobe with a looking-glass +in the doors. I promised her one, and then I left her squatting on the +carpet from Djebel-Amour, with a cigarette in her mouth, and gossiping +with the old Arab woman I had sent for, as if they had known each other +for years."</p> + + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>"For a month I was very happy with her, and I got strangely attached to +this creature belonging to another race, who seemed to me almost to +belong to some other species, and to have been born on a neighboring +planet.</p> + +<p>"I did not love her; no, one does not love the women of that primitive +continent. This small, pale blue flower of Northern countries never +unfolds between them and us, or even between them and their natural +males, the Arabs. They are too near to human animalism, their hearts are +too rudimentary, their feelings are not refined enough to rouse that +sentimental exaltation in us, which is the poetry of love. Nothing +intellectual, no intoxication of thought or feeling is mingled with that +sensual intoxication which those charming nonentities excite in us. +Nevertheless, they captivate us like the others do, but in a different +fashion, which is less tenacious, and, at the same time, less cruel and +painful.</p> + +<p>"I cannot even now explain precisely what I felt for her. I said to you +just now that this country, this bare Africa, without any arts, void of +all intellectual pleasures, gradually captivates us by its climate, by +the continual mildness of the dawn and sunset, by its delightful light, +and by the feeling of well-being with which it fills all our organs. +Well, then! Allouma captivated me in the same manner, by a thousand +hidden, physical, alluring charms, and by the procreative seductiveness, +not of her embraces, for she was of thoroughly oriental supineness in +that respect, but of her sweet self-surrender.</p> + +<p>"I left her absolutely free to come and go as she liked, and she +certainly spent one afternoon out of two with the wives of my native +agricultural laborers. Often also, she would remain for nearly a whole +day admiring herself in front of a mahogany wardrobe with a large +looking-glass in the doors that I had got from Miliana.</p> + +<p>"She admired herself conscientiously, standing before the glass doors, in +which she followed her own movements with profound and serious attention. +She walked with her head somewhat thrown back, in order to be able to see +whether her hips and loins swayed properly; went away, came back again, +and then, tired with her own movements, she sat down on a cushion and +remained opposite to her own reflection, with her eyes fixed on her face +in the glass, and her whole soul absorbed in that picture.</p> + +<p>"Soon, I began to notice that she went out nearly every morning after +breakfast, and that she disappeared altogether until evening, and as I +felt rather anxious about this, I asked Mohammed whether he knew what +she could be doing during all these long hours of absence, but he replied +very calmly:</p> + +<p>"'Do not be uneasy. It will be the Feast of Ramadan soon, and so she goes +to say her prayers.'</p> + +<p>"He also seemed delighted at having Allouma in the house, but I never +once saw anything suspicious between them, and so I accepted the +situation as it was, and let time, accident, and life act for themselves.</p> + +<p>"Often, after I had inspected my farm, my vineyards, and my clearings, I +used to take long walks. You know the magnificent forests in this part of +Algeria, those almost impenetrable ravines, where fallen pine trees hem +the mountain torrents, and those little valleys filled with oleanders, +which look like oriental carpets stretching along the banks of the +streams. You know that at every moment, in these woods and on these +hills, where one would think that nobody had ever penetrated, one +suddenly sees the white dome of a shrine that contains the bones of a +humble, solitary marabout, which was scarcely visited from time to time, +even by the most confirmed believers, who had come from the neighboring +villages with a wax candle in their pocket, to set up before the tomb of +the saint.</p> + +<p>"Now one evening as I was going home, I was passing one of these +Mohammedan chapels, and, looking in through the door, which was always +open, I saw a woman praying before the altar. That Arab woman, sitting on +the ground in that dilapidated building, into which the wind entered as +it pleased, and heaped up the fine, dry pine needles in yellow heaps in +the corners. I went near to see better, and recognized Allouma. She +neither saw nor heard me, so absorbed was she with the saint, to whom she +was speaking in a low voice, as she thought that she was alone with him, +and telling this servant of God all her troubles. Sometimes she stopped +for a short time to think, to try and recollect what more she had to say, +so that she might not forget anything that she wished to confide to him; +then, again, she would grow animated, as if he had replied to her, as if +he had advised her to do something that she did not want to do, and the +reasons for which she was impugning, and I went away as I had come, +without making any noise, and returned home to dinner.</p> + +<p>"That evening, when I sent for her, I saw that she had a thoughtful look, +which was not usual with her.</p> + +<p>"'Sit down there,' I said, pointing to her place on the couch by my side. +As soon as she had sat down, I stooped to kiss her, but she drew her head +away quickly, and, in great astonishment, I said to her:</p> + +<p>"'Well, what is the matter?'</p> + +<p>"'It is the Ramadan,' she said.</p> + +<p>"I began to laugh, and said: 'And the Marabout has forbidden you to allow +yourself to be kissed during the Ramadan?'</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; I am an Arab woman, and you are a Roumi!'</p> + +<p>"'And it would be a great sin?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, yes!'</p> + +<p>"'So you ate nothing all day, until sunset?'</p> + +<p>"'No, nothing.'</p> + +<p>"'But you had something to eat after sundown?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes.'</p> + +<p>"'Well, then, as it is quite dark now, you ought not to be more strict +about the rest than you are about your mouth.'</p> + +<p>"She seemed irritated, wounded, and offended, and replied with an amount +of pride that I had never noticed in her before:—</p> + +<p>"'If an Arab girl were to allow herself to be touched by a Roumi during +the Ramadan, she would be cursed for ever.'</p> + +<p>"'And that is to continue for a whole month?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, for the whole of the month of Ramadan,' she replied, with great +determination.</p> + +<p>"I assumed an irritated manner and said:—'Very well, then, you can go +and spend the Ramadan with your family.'</p> + +<p>"She seized my hands, and, laying them on my heart, she said:—</p> + +<p>"'Oh! Please do not be unkind, and you shall see how nice I will be. We +will keep Ramadan together, if you like. I will look after you, and spoil +you, but don't be unkind.'</p> + +<p>"I could not help smiling at her funny manner and her unhappiness, and +I sent her to go to sleep at home, but, an hour later, just as I was +thinking about going to bed, there came two little taps at my door, +which were so slight, however, that I scarcely heard them; but when I +said:—'Come in,' Allouma appeared carrying a large tray covered with +Arab dainties; fried balls of rice, covered with sugar, and a variety of +other strange, Nomad pastry.</p> + +<p>"She laughed, showing her white teeth, and repeated:—'Come, we will keep +Ramadan together.'</p> + +<p>"You know that the fast, which begins at dawn and ends at twilight, at +the moment when the eye can no longer distinguish a black from a white +thread, is followed every evening by small, friendly entertainments, at +which eating is kept up until the morning, and the result is that for +such of the natives as are not very scrupulous, Ramadan consists of +turning day into night, and night into day. But Allouma carried her +delicacy of conscience further than this. She placed her tray between us +on the divan, and taking a small, sugared ball between her long, slender +fingers, she put it into my mouth, and whispered:—'Eat it, it is very +good.'</p> + +<p>"I munched the light cake, which was really excellent, and asked +her:—'Did you make that?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes.'</p> + +<p>"'For me?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, for you.'</p> + +<p>"'To enable me to support Ramadan?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh! Don't be so unkind! I will bring you some every day.'</p> + +<p>"Oh! the terrible month that I spent! A sugared, insipidly sweet month; a +month that nearly drove me mad; a month of spoiling and of temptation, of +anger and of vain efforts against an invincible resistance, but at last +the three days of Beiram came, which I celebrated in my own fashion, and +Ramadan was forgotten.</p> + +<p>"The summer went on, and it was very hot, and in the first days of +autumn, Allouma appeared to me to be pre-occupied and absent-minded, and, +seemingly, taking no interest in anything, and, at last, when I sent for +her one evening, she was not to be found in her room. I thought that she +was roaming about the house, and I gave orders to look for her. She had +not come in, however, and so I opened my window, and called out:—</p> + +<p>"'Mohammed,' and the voice of the man, who was lying in his tent, +replied:—</p> + +<p>"'Yes, <i>mo'ssieuia</i>.'</p> + +<p>"'Do you know where Allouma is?'</p> + +<p>"'No, <i>mo'ssieuia</i> ... it is not possible ... is Allouma lost?'</p> + +<p>"A few moments later, my Arab came into my room, so agitated that he +could not master his feelings, and I said:</p> + +<p>"'Is Allouma lost?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, she is lost.'</p> + +<p>"'It is impossible.'</p> + +<p>"'Go and look for her,' I said.</p> + +<p>"He remained standing where he was, thinking, seeking for her motives, +and unable to understand anything about it. Then he went into the empty +room, where Allouma's clothes were lying about, in oriental disorder. He +examined everything, as if he had been a police officer, or, rather, he +smelt like a dog, and then, incapable of a lengthened effort, he +murmured, resignedly:—</p> + +<p>"'She has gone, she has gone!'</p> + +<p>"I was afraid that some accident had happened to her; that she had fallen +into some ravine and sprained herself, and I immediately sent all the men +about the place off with orders to look for her until they should find +her, and they hunted for her all that night, all the next day, and all +the week long, but nothing was discovered that could put us upon her +track. I suffered, for I missed her very much; my house seemed empty, +and my existence a void. And then, disgusting thoughts entered my mind. I +feared that she might have been carried off, or even murdered, but when I +spoke about it to Mohammed, and tried to make him share my fears, he +invariably replied:</p> + +<p>"'No; gone away.'</p> + +<p>"Then he added the Arab word <i>r'ezale</i>, which means <i>gazelle</i>, as if he +meant to say that she could run quickly, and that she was far away.</p> + +<p>"Three weeks passed, and I had given up all hopes of seeing my Arab +mistress again, when one morning Mohammed came into my room, with every +sign of joy in his face, and said to me:</p> + +<p>"'<i>Mo'ssieuia</i>, Allouma has come back.'</p> + +<p>"I jumped out of bed and said:</p> + +<p>"'Where is she?'</p> + +<p>"'She does not dare to come in! There she is, under the tree.'</p> + +<p>"And stretching out his arm, he pointed out to me, through the window, a +whitish spot at the foot of an olive tree.</p> + +<p>"I got up immediately, and went out to where she was. As I approached +what looked like a mere bundle of linen thrown against the gnarled trunk +of the tree, I recognized the large, dark eyes, the tattooed stars, and +the long, regular features of that semi-wild girl who had so captivated +my senses. As I advanced towards her, I felt inclined to strike her, to +make her suffer pain, and to have my revenge, and so I called out to her +from a little distance:</p> + +<p>"'Where have you been?'</p> + +<p>"She did not reply, but remained motionless and inert, as if she were +scarcely alive, resigned to my violence, and ready to receive my blows. +I was standing up, close to her, looking in stupefaction at the rags with +which she was covered, at those bits of silk and muslin, covered with +dust, torn and dirty, and I repeated, raising my hand, as if she had been +a dog:</p> + +<p>"'Where have you come from?'</p> + +<p>"'From yonder,' she said, in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"'Where is that?'</p> + +<p>"'From the tribe.'</p> + +<p>"'What tribe?'</p> + +<p>"'Mine.'</p> + +<p>"'Why did you go away?'</p> + +<p>"When she saw that I was not going to beat her, she grew rather bolder, +and said in a low voice: "'I was obliged to do it.... I was forced to go, +I could not stop in the house any longer.'</p> + +<p>"I saw tears in her eyes, and immediately felt softened. I leaned over +her, and when I turned round to sit down, I noticed Mohammed, who was +watching us at a distance, and I went on, very gently:</p> + +<p>"'Come, tell me why you ran away?'</p> + +<p>"Then she told me, that for a long time in her Nomad's heart she had felt +the irresistible desire to return to the tents, to lie, to run, to roll +on the sand; to wander about the plains with the flocks, to feel nothing +over her head, between the yellow stars in the sky and the blue stars in +her face, except the thin, threadbare, patched stuff, through which she +could see spots of fire in the sky, when she awoke during the night.</p> + +<p>"She made me understand all that in such simple and powerful words, that +I felt quite sure that she was not lying, and pitied her, and I asked +her:</p> + +<p>"'Why did you not tell me that you wished to go away for a time?'</p> + +<p>"'Because you would not have allowed me...'</p> + +<p>"'If you had promised to come back, I should have consented.'</p> + +<p>"'You would not have believed me.'</p> + +<p>"Seeing that I was not angry, she began to laugh, and said:</p> + +<p>"'You see that is all over; I have come home again, and here I am. I only +wanted a few days there. I have had enough of it now, it is finished and +passed; the feeling is cured. I have come back, and have not that longing +any more. I am very glad, and you are very kind.'</p> + +<p>"'Come into the house,' I said to her.</p> + +<p>"She got up, and I took her hand, her delicate hand, with its slender +fingers, and triumphant in her rags, with her bracelets and her necklace +ringing, she went gravely towards my house, where Mohammed was waiting +for us, but before going in, I said:</p> + +<p>"'Allouma, whenever you want to return to your own people, tell me, and +I will allow you to go.'</p> + +<p>"'You promise?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, I promise.'</p> + +<p>"'And I will make you a promise also. When I feel ill or unhappy'—and +here she put her hand to her forehead, with a magnificent gesture—'I +shall say to you: "I must go yonder," and you will let me go.'</p> + +<p>"I went with her to her room, followed by Mohammed, who was +carrying some water, for there had been no time to tell the wife of +Abd-el-Kader-el-Hadam that her mistress had returned. As soon as she got +into the room, and saw the wardrobe with the looking-glass in the door, +she ran up to it, like a child does when it sees its mother. She looked +at herself for a few seconds, made a grimace, and then in a rather cross +voice, she said to the looking-glass:</p> + +<p>"'Just you wait a moment; I have some silk dresses in the wardrobe. +I shall be beautiful in a few minutes.'</p> + +<p>"And I left her alone, to act the coquette to herself.</p> + +<p>"Our life began its usual course again, as formerly, and I felt more and +more under the influence of the strange, merely physical attractions of +that girl, for whom, at the same time, I felt a kind of paternal +contempt. For two months all went well, and then I felt that she was +again becoming nervous, agitated, and rather low-spirited, and one day +I said to her:—</p> + +<p>"'Do you want to return home again?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes.'</p> + +<p>"'And you did not dare to tell me?'</p> + +<p>"'I did not venture to.'</p> + +<p>"'Go, if you wish to; I give you leave.'</p> + +<p>"She seized my hands and kissed them, as she did in all her outbursts of +gratitude, and the same morning she disappeared.</p> + +<p>"She came back, as she had done the first time, at the end of about three +weeks, in rags, covered with dust, and satiated with her Nomad life of +sand and liberty. In two years she returned to her own people four times +in this fashion.</p> + +<p>"I took her back, gladly, without any feelings of jealousy, for with me +jealousy can only spring from love as we Europeans understand it. I might +very likely have killed her if I had surprised her in the act of +deceiving me, but I should have done it, just as one half kills a +disobedient dog, from sheer violence. I should not have felt those +torments, that consuming fire—Northern jealousy. I have just said that +I should have killed her like a disobedient dog, and, as a matter of +fact, I loved her somewhat in the same manner as one loves some very +highly bred horse or dog, which it is impossible to replace. She was a +splendid animal, a sensual animal, an animal made for pleasure, and which +possessed the body of a woman.</p> + +<p>"I cannot tell you what an immeasurable distance separated our two souls, +although our hearts perhaps occasionally warmed towards each other. She +was something belonging to my house, she was part of my life, she had +become a very agreeable, daily, regular requirement with me, to which I +clung, and which the sensual man in me loved, that in me which was only +eyes and sensuality.</p> + +<p>"Well, one morning, Mohammed came into my room with a strange look on his +face, that uneasy look of the Arabs, which resembles the furtive look of +a cat, face to face with a dog, and when I noticed his expression, I +said:</p> + +<p>"'What is the matter, now?'</p> + +<p>"'Allouma has gone away.'</p> + +<p>"I began to laugh, and said:—'Where has she gone to?'</p> + +<p>"'Gone away altogether, <i>mo'ssieuia</i>!'</p> + +<p>"'What do you mean by <i>gone away altogether</i>; you are mad, my man.'</p> + +<p>"'No, <i>mo'ssieuia</i>.'</p> + +<p>"'Why has she gone away? Just explain yourself; come!'</p> + +<p>"He remained motionless, and evidently did not wish to speak, and then he +had one of those explosions of Arab rage, which make us stop in streets +in front of two demoniacs, whose oriental silence and gravity suddenly +give place to the most violent gesticulations, and the most ferocious +vociferations, and I gathered, amidst his shouts, that Allouma had run +away with my shepherd, and when I had partially succeeded in calming +him, I managed to extract the facts from him one by one.</p> + +<p>"It was a long story, but at last I gathered that he had been watching my +mistress, who used to meet a sort of vagabond whom my steward had hired +the month before, behind the neighboring cactus woods, or in the ravine +where the oleanders flourished. The night before, Mohammed had seen her +go out without seeing her return, and he repeated, in an exasperated +manner:—'Gone, <i>mo'ssieuia</i>; she has gone away!'</p> + +<p>"I do not know why, but his conviction, the conviction that she had run +away with this vagabond, laid hold of me irresistibly in a moment. It +was absurd, unlikely, and yet certain in virtue of that very +unreasonableness, which constitutes female logic.</p> + +<p>"Boiling over with indignation, I tried to recall the man's features, and +I suddenly remembered having seen him the previous week, standing on a +mound amidst his flock, and watching me. He was a tall Bedouin, the color +of whose bare limbs was blended with that of his rags; he was a type of a +barbarous brute, with high cheek bones, and a hooked nose, a retreating +chin, thin legs, and a tall carcass in rags, with the shifty eyes of a +jackal.</p> + +<p>"I did not doubt for a moment that she had run away with that beggar. +Why? Because she was Allouma, a daughter of the desert. A girl from the +pavement in Paris would have run away with my coachman, or some thief in +the suburbs.</p> + +<p>"'Very well,' I said to Mohammed. Then I got up, opened my window, and +began to draw in the stifling South wind, for the sirocco was blowing, +and I thought to myself:—</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! she is ... a woman, like so many others. Does anybody know +what makes them act, what makes them love, what makes them follow, or +throw over a man? One certainly does know, occasionally; but often one +does not, and sometimes one is in doubt. Why did she run away with that +repulsive brute? Why? Perhaps, because the wind had been blowing +regularly from the South, for a month; that was enough; a breath of wind! +Does she know, do they know, even the cleverest of them, why they act? +No more than a weather-cock that turns with the wind. An imperceptible +breeze, makes the iron, brass, zinc, or wooden arrow revolve, just in +the same manner as some imperceptible influence, some undiscernible +impression moves the female heart, and urges it on to resolutions, and it +does not matter whether they belong to town or country, the suburbs or +the desert.</p> + +<p>"They can then feel, provided that they reason and understand, why they +have done one thing rather than another, but, for the moment, they do +not know, for they are the playthings of their own sensibility, the +thoughtless, giddy-headed slaves of events, of their surroundings, of +chance meetings, and of all the sensations with which their soul and +their body trembles!"</p> + +<p>Monsieur Auballe had risen, and, after walking up and down the room once +or twice, he looked at me, and said, with a smile:—</p> + +<p>"That is love in the desert!"</p> + +<p>"Suppose she were to come back?" I asked him.</p> + +<p>"Horrid girl!" he replied.</p> + +<p>"But I should be very glad if she did return to me."</p> + +<p>"And you would pardon the shepherd?"</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, yes! With women, one must always pardon ... or else +pretend not to see things."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_FAMILY_AFFAIR" id="A_FAMILY_AFFAIR"></a>A FAMILY AFFAIR</h2> + + +<p>The Neuilly steam-tram had just passed the <i>Porte Maillot</i>, and was going +along the broad avenue that terminates at the Seine. The small engine +that was attached to the car whistled to warn any obstacle to get out of +its way, sent out its steam, and panted like a person out of breath from +running does, and its pistons made a rapid noise, like iron legs that +were running. The oppressive heat of the end of a July day lay over the +whole city, and from the road, although there was not a breath of wind +stirring, there arose a white, chalky, opaque, suffocating, and warm +dust, which stuck to the moist skin, filled the eyes, and got into the +lungs, and people were standing in the doors of their houses in search +of a little air.</p> + +<p>The windows of the steam-tram were down, and the curtains fluttered in +the wind, and there were very few passengers inside, because on such warm +days people preferred the top or the platforms. Those few consisted of +stout women in strange toilets, of those shopkeepers' wives from the +suburbs, who made up for the distinguished looks which they did not +possess, by ill-timed dignity; of gentlemen who were tired of the office, +with yellow-faces, who stooped rather, and with one shoulder higher than +the other, in consequence of their long hours of work bending over the +desk. Their uneasy and melancholy faces also spoke of domestic troubles, +of constant want of money, of former hopes, that had been finally +disappointed; for they all belonged to that army of poor, threadbare +devils who vegetate economically in mean, plastered houses, with a tiny +piece of neglected garden in the midst of those fields where night soil +is deposited, which are on the outskirts of Paris.</p> + +<p>A short, fat man, with a puffy face and a big stomach, dressed all in +black, and wearing a decoration in his button-hole, was talking to a +tall, thin man, dressed in a dirty, white linen suit, that was all +unbuttoned, with a white Panama hat on. The former spoke so slowly and +hesitatingly, that it occasionally almost seemed as if he stammered; he +was Monsieur Caravan, chief clerk in the Admiralty. The other, who had +formerly been surgeon on board a merchant ship, had set up in practice +in Courbevoie, where he applied the vague remnants of medical knowledge +which he had retained after an adventurous life, to the wretched +population of that district. His name was Chenet, and strange rumors +were current as to his morality.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Caravan had always led the normal life of a man in a Government +office. For the last thirty years he had invariably gone the same way to +his office every morning, and had met the same men going to business at +the same time and nearly on the same spot, and he returned home every +evening the same way, and again met the same faces which he had seen +growing old. Every morning, after buying his halfpenny paper at the +corner of the <i>Faubourg Saint Honoré</i>, he bought his two rolls, and then +he went into his office, like a culprit who is giving himself up to +justice, and he got to his desk as quickly as possible, always feeling +uneasy, as he was expecting a rebuke for some neglect of duty of which he +might have been guilty.</p> + +<p>Nothing had ever occurred to change the monotonous order of his +existence, for no event affected him except the work of his office, +perquisites, gratuities, and promotion. He never spoke of anything but of +his duties, either at the Admiralty or at home, for he had married the +portionless daughter of one of his colleagues. His mind, which was in a +state of atrophy from his depressing daily work, had no other thoughts, +hopes or dreams than such as related to the office, and there was a +constant source of bitterness that spoilt every pleasure that he might +have had, and that was the employment of so many commissioners of the +navy, <i>tinmen</i>, as they were called, because of their silver-lace, as +first-class clerks; and every evening at dinner he discussed the matter +hotly with his wife, who shared his angry feelings, and proved to their +own satisfaction that it was in every way unjust to give places in Paris, +to men who ought to be employed in the navy.</p> + +<p>He was old now, and had scarcely noticed how his life was passing, for +school had merely been exchanged, without any transition, for the office, +and the ushers, at whom he had formerly trembled, were replaced by his +chiefs, whom he was terribly afraid of. When he had to go into the rooms +of these official despots, it made him tremble from head to foot, and +that constant fear had given him a very awkward manner in their presence, +a humble demeanor, and a kind of nervous stammering.</p> + +<p>He knew nothing more about Paris than a blind man could know, who was led +to the same spot by his dog every day, and if he read the account of any +uncommon events, or of scandals, in his halfpenny paper, they appeared +to him like fantastic tales, which some pressman had made up out of his +own head, in order to amuse the inferior <i>employés</i>. He did not read the +political news, which his paper frequently altered, as the cause which +subsidized them might require, for he was not fond of innovations, and +when he went through the Avenue of the <i>Champs-Elysées</i> every evening, +he looked at the surging crowd of pedestrians, and at the stream of +carriages, like a traveler who has lost his way in a strange country.</p> + +<p>As he had completed his thirty years of obligatory service that year, on +the first of January, he had had the cross of the <i>Legion of Honor</i> +bestowed upon him, which, in the semi-military public offices, is a +recompense for the miserable slavery—the official phrase is, <i>loyal +services</i> of unfortunate convicts who are riveted to their desk. That +unexpected dignity gave him a high and new idea of his own capacities, +and altogether altered him. He immediately left off wearing light +trousers and fancy waistcoats, and wore black trousers and long coats, +on which his <i>ribbon</i>, which was very broad, showed off better. He got +shaved every morning, trimmed his nails more carefully, changed his linen +every two days, from a legitimate sense of what was proper, and of +respect for the national <i>Order</i>, of which he formed a part, and from +that day he was another Caravan, scrupulously clean, majestic and +condescending.</p> + +<p>At home, he said, "my cross," at every moment, and he had become so +proud of it, that he could not bear to see other men wearing any other +ribbon in their button-holes. He got especially angry on seeing strange +orders:—"Which nobody ought to be allowed to wear in France," and he +bore Chenet a particular grudge, as he met him on a tramcar every +evening, wearing a decoration of some sort or another, white, blue, +orange, or green.</p> + +<p>The conversation of the two men, from the <i>Arc de Triomphe</i> to Neuilly, +was always the same, and on that day they discussed, first of all, +various local abuses which disgusted them both, and the Mayor of Neuilly +received his full share of their blame. Then, as invariably happens in +the company of a medical man, Caravan began to enlarge on the chapter of +illness, as, in that manner, he hoped to obtain a little gratuitous +advice, if he was careful not to show his book. His mother had been +causing him no little anxiety for some time; she had frequent and +prolonged fainting fits, and, although she was ninety, she would not +take care of herself.</p> + +<p>Caravan grew quite tender-hearted when he mentioned her great age, +and more than once asked Doctor Chenet, emphasizing the word +<i>doctor</i>—although he had no right to the title, being only an <i>Officier +de Santé</i>, and, as such, not fully qualified—whether he had often met +anyone as old as that. And he rubbed his hands with pleasure; not, +perhaps, that he cared very much about seeing the good woman last for +ever here on earth, but because the long duration of his mother's life +was, as it were, an earnest of old age for himself, and he continued:</p> + +<p>"Oh! In my family, we last long, and I am sure that, unless I meet with +an accident, I shall not die until I am very old."</p> + +<p>The <i>medico</i> looked at him with pity, and glanced for a moment at his +neighbor's red face, his short, thick neck, his "corporation," as Chenet +called it to himself, that hung down between two flaccid, fat legs, and +his apoplectic rotundity of the old, flabby official, and, lifting the +white Panama hat which he wore, from his head, he said, with a snigger:—</p> + +<p>"I am not so sure of that, old fellow; your mother is as tough as nails, +and I should say that your life is not a very good one."</p> + +<p>This rather upset Caravan, who did not speak again until the tram put +them down at their destination, where the two friends got out, and Chenet +asked his friend to have a glass of vermouth at the <i>Café du Globe</i>, +opposite, which both of them were in the habit of frequenting. The +proprietor, who was a friend of theirs, held out two fingers to them, +which they shook across the bottles on the counter, and then they joined +three of their friends, who were playing at dominoes, and who had been +there since midday. They exchanged cordial greetings, with the usual +inquiries:—"Anything fresh?" and then the three players continued their +game, and held out their hands without looking up, when the others wished +them "Good-night," and then they both went home to dinner.</p> + +<p>Caravan lived in a small, two-storied house in Courbevoie, near where +the roads meet; the ground floor was occupied by a hair-dresser. Two +bedrooms, a dining-room and a kitchen, formed the whole of their +apartments, and Madame Caravan spent nearly her whole time in cleaning +them up, while her daughter, Marie-Louise, who was twelve, and her son, +Philippe-Auguste, were running about with all the little, dirty, +mischievous brats of the neighborhood, and playing in the gutters.</p> + +<p>Caravan had installed his mother, whose avarice was notorious in the +neighborhood, and who was terribly thin, in the room above them. She +was always in a bad temper, and she never passed a day without +quarreling and flying into furious tempers. She used to apostrophize the +neighbors, who were standing at their own doors, the coster-mongers, the +street-sweepers, and the street-boys, in the most violent language, and +the latter, to have their revenge, used to follow her at a distance when +she went out, and call out rude things after her.</p> + +<p>A little servant from Normandy, who was incredibly giddy and thoughtless, +performed the household work, and slept on the second floor, in the same +room as the old woman, for fear of anything happening to her in the +night.</p> + +<p>When Caravan got in, his wife, who suffered from a chronic passion for +cleaning, was polishing up the mahogany chairs that were scattered about +the room, with a piece of flannel. She always wore cotton gloves, and +adorned her head with a cap, which was ornamented with many colored +ribbons, which was always tilted on one ear, and whenever anyone caught +her polishing, sweeping, or washing, she used to say:—</p> + +<p>"I am not rich; everything is very simple in my house, but cleanliness is +my luxury, and that is worth quite as much as any other."</p> + +<p>As she was gifted with sound, obstinate, practical common sense, she led +her husband in everything. Every evening during dinner, and afterwards, +when they were in bed, they talked over the business in the office for +a long time, and, although she was twenty years younger than he, he +confided everything to her, as if she had had the direction, and followed +her advice in every matter.</p> + +<p>She had never been pretty, and now she had grown ugly; in addition to +that, she was short and thin, while her careless and tasteless way of +dressing herself, hid her few, small feminine attributes, which might +have been brought out if she had possessed any skill in dress. Her +petticoats were always awry, and she frequently scratched herself, no +matter on what place, totally indifferent as to who might see her, and so +persistently that anybody who saw her, would think that she was suffering +from something like the itch. The only ornaments that she allowed herself +were silk ribbons, which she had in great profusion, and of various +colors mixed together, in the pretentious caps which she wore at home.</p> + +<p>As soon as she saw her husband she got up and said, as she kissed his +whiskers:</p> + +<p>"Did you remember Potin, my dear?"</p> + +<p>He fell into a chair, in consternation, for that was the fourth time on +which he had forgotten a commission that he had promised to do for her.</p> + +<p>"It is a fatality," he said; "it is no good for me to think of it all day +long, for I am sure to forget it in the evening."</p> + +<p>But as she seemed really so very sorry, she merely said, quietly:</p> + +<p>"You will think of it to-morrow, I daresay. Anything fresh at the +office?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, a great piece of news: another tinman has been appointed second +chief clerk," and she became very serious.</p> + +<p>"So he succeeds Ramon, this was the very post that I wanted you to have. +And what about Ramon?"</p> + +<p>"He retires on his pension."</p> + +<p>She grew furious, and her cap slid down on her shoulder, and she +continued:</p> + +<p>"There is nothing more to be done in that shop now. And what is the name +of the new commissioner?"</p> + +<p>"Bonassot."</p> + +<p>She took up the <i>Naval Year Book</i>, which she always kept close at hand, +and looked him up.</p> + +<p>"'Bonassot—Toulon. Born in 1851. Student-Commissioner in 1871. +Sub-Commissioner in 1875.' Has he been to sea?" she continued, and at +that question Caravan's looks cleared up, and he laughed until his sides +shook.</p> + +<p>"Just like Balin—just like Balin, his chief." And he added an old office +joke, and laughed more than ever:</p> + +<p>"It would not even do to send them by water to inspect the +<i>Point-du-Jour</i>, for they would be sick on the penny steamboats on +the Seine."</p> + +<p>But she remained as serious as if she had not heard him, and then she +said in a low voice, while she scratched her chin:</p> + +<p>"If only we had a Deputy to fall back upon. When the Chamber hears +everything that is going on at the Admiralty, the Minister will be turned +out..."</p> + +<p>She was interrupted by a terrible noise on the stairs. Marie-Louise and +Philippe-Auguste, who had just come in from the gutter, were giving each +other slaps all the way upstairs. Their mother rushed at them furiously, +and taking each of them by an arm, she dragged them into the room, +shaking them vigorously, but as soon as they saw their father, they +rushed up to him, and he kissed them affectionately, and taking one of +them on each knee, he began to talk to them.</p> + +<p>Philippe-Auguste was an ugly, ill-kempt little brat, dirty from head to +foot, with the face of an idiot, and Marie-Louise was already like her +mother—spoke like her, repeated her words, and even imitated her +movements. She also asked him whether there was anything fresh at the +office, and he replied merrily:</p> + +<p>"Your friend, Ramon, who comes and dines here every Sunday, is going to +leave us, little one. There is a new second head-clerk."</p> + +<p>She looked at her father, and with a precocious child's pity, she said:</p> + +<p>"So somebody has been put over your head again!"</p> + +<p>He stopped laughing, and did not reply, and then, in order, to create a +diversion, he said, addressing his wife, who was cleaning the windows:</p> + +<p>"How is mamma, up there?"</p> + +<p>Madame Caravan left off rubbing, turned round, pulled her cap up, as it +had fallen quite on to her back, and said, with trembling lips:</p> + +<p>"Ah! yes; just speak to your mother about this, for she has created a +pretty scene. Just think that a short time ago Madame Lebaudin, the +hairdresser's wife, came upstairs to borrow a packet of starch of me, +and, as I was not at home, your mother called her <i>a beggar woman</i>, and +turned her out; but I gave it to the old woman. She pretended not to +hear, like she always does when one tells her unpleasant truths, but +she is no more deaf than I am, as you know. It is all a sham, and the +proof of it is, that she went up to her own room immediately, without +saying a word."</p> + +<p>Caravan did not utter a word, and at that moment the little servant +came in to announce dinner. In order to let his mother know, he took a +broom-handle, which always stood in a corner, and rapped loudly on the +ceiling three times, and they went into the dining-room. Madame Caravan, +junior, helped the soup, and waited for the old woman, but she did not +come, and the soup was getting cold, so they began to eat slowly, and +when their plates were empty, they waited again, and Madame Caravan, +who was furious, attacked her husband:</p> + +<p>"She does it on purpose, you know that as well as I do. But you always +uphold her."</p> + +<p>He, in great perplexity between the two, sent Marie-Louise to fetch her +grandmother, and he sat motionless, with his eyes down, while his wife +tapped her glass angrily with her knife. In about a minute, the door +flew open suddenly, and the child came in again, out of breath and very +pale, and said very quickly:</p> + +<p>"Grandmamma has fallen down on the ground."</p> + +<p>Caravan jumped up, threw his table-napkin down, and rushed upstairs, +while his wife, who thought it was some trick of her mother-in-law's, +followed more slowly, shrugging her shoulders, as if to express her +doubt. When they got upstairs, however, they found the old woman lying at +full length in the middle of the room, and when they turned her over they +saw that she was insensible and motionless, while her skin looked more +wrinkled and yellow than usual, and her eyes were closed, her teeth +clenched, and her thin body was stiff.</p> + +<p>Caravan knelt down by her, and began to moan:</p> + +<p>"My poor mother! my poor mother!" he said. But the other Madame Caravan +said:</p> + +<p>"Bah! She has only fainted again, that is all, and she has done it to +prevent us from dining comfortably, you may be sure of that."</p> + +<p>They put her on the bed, undressed her completely, and Caravan, his wife, +and the servant began to rub her, but, in spite of their efforts, she did +not recover consciousness, so they sent Rosalie, the servant, to fetch +<i>Doctor</i> Chenet. He lived a long way off, on the quay going towards +Suresnes, and so it was considerable time before he arrived. He came at +last, however, and, after having looked at the old woman, felt her pulse, +auscultated her, he said:—"It is all over."</p> + +<p>Caravan threw himself on the body, sobbing violently; he kissed his +mother's rigid face, and wept so, that great tears fell on the dead +woman's face, like drops of water, and, naturally, Madame Caravan, +Junior, showed a decorous amount of grief, and uttered feeble moans, +as she stood behind her husband, while she rubbed her eyes vigorously.</p> + +<p>But, suddenly, Caravan raised himself up, with his thin hair in disorder, +and, looking very ugly in his grief, said:—</p> + +<p>"But ... are you sure, doctor?... Are you quite sure?..."</p> + +<p>The medical stooped over the body, and, handling it with professional +dexterity, like a shopkeeper might do, when showing off his goods, he +said:—"See, my dear friend, look at her eye."</p> + +<p>He raised the eyelid, and the old woman's looks reappeared under his +finger, and were altogether unaltered, unless, perhaps, the pupil was +rather larger, and Caravan felt a severe shock at the sight. Then +Monsieur Chenet took her thin arm, forced the fingers open, and said, +angrily, as if he had been contradicted:</p> + +<p>"Just look at her hand; I never make a mistake, you may be quite sure of +that."</p> + +<p>Caravan fell on the bed, and almost bellowed, while his wife, still +whimpering, did what was necessary.</p> + +<p>She brought the night-table, on which she spread a table napkin, and +placed four wax candles on it, which she lighted; then she took a sprig +of box, which was hanging over the chimney glass, and put it between +the candles, into the plate, which she filled with clean water, as she +had no holy water. But, after a moment's rapid reflection, she threw a +pinch of salt into the water, no doubt, thinking she was performing some +sort of act of consecration by doing that, and when she had finished, she +remained standing motionless, and the medical man, who had been helping +her, whispered to her:</p> + +<p>"We must take Caravan away."</p> + +<p>She nodded assent, and, going up to her husband, who was still on his +knees, sobbing, she raised him up by one arm, while Chenet took him by +the other.</p> + +<p>They put him into a chair, and his wife kissed his forehead, and then +began to lecture him. Chenet enforced her words, and preached firmness, +courage, and resignation—the very things which are always wanting in +such overwhelming misfortunes—and then both of them took him by the arms +again and led him out.</p> + +<p>He was crying like a great child, with convulsive hiccoughs; his arms +were hanging down, and his legs seemed useless, and he went downstairs +without knowing what he was doing, and moving his legs mechanically. +They put him into the chair which he always occupied at dinner, in front +of his empty soup plate. And there he sat, without moving, with his eyes +fixed on his glass, and so stupefied with grief, that he could not even +think.</p> + +<p>In a corner, Madame Caravan was talking with the doctor, and asking what +the necessary formalities were, as she wanted to obtain practical +information. At last, Monsieur Chenet, who appeared to be waiting for +something, took up his hat and prepared to go, saying that he had not +dined yet; whereupon, she exclaimed:—</p> + +<p>"What! you have not dined? But stop here, doctor; don't go. You shall +have whatever we can give you, for, of course, you will understand that +we do not fare sumptuously." However, he made excuses and refused, but +she persisted, and said:—</p> + +<p>"You really must stop; at times like this, people like to have friends +near them, and, besides that, perhaps you will be able to persuade my +husband to take some nourishment; he must keep up his strength."</p> + +<p>The doctor bowed, and, putting down his hat, he said:—</p> + +<p>"In that case, I will accept your invitation, Madame."</p> + +<p>She gave Rosalie, who seemed to have lost her head, some orders, and then +sat down, "to pretend to eat," as she said, "to keep the <i>doctor</i> +company."</p> + +<p>The soup was brought in again, and Monsieur Chenet took two helpings. +Then there came a dish of tripe, which exhaled a smell of onions, and +which Madame Caravan made up her mind to taste.</p> + +<p>"It is excellent," the doctor said, at which she smiled, and, turning to +her husband, she said:—</p> + +<p>"Do take a little, my poor Alfred, only just to put something into your +stomach. Remember you have got to pass the night watching by her!"</p> + +<p>He held out his plate, docilely, just as he would have gone to bed, if +he had been told to, obeying her in everything, without resistance and +without reflection, and, therefore, he ate; the doctor helped himself +three times, while Madame Caravan, from time to time, fished out a large +piece at the end of her fork, and swallowed it with a sort of studied +inattention.</p> + +<p>When a salad bowl full of macaroni was brought in, the doctor said:</p> + +<p>"By Jove! That is what I am very fond of." And this time, Madame Caravan +helped everybody. She even filled the children's saucers, which they had +scraped clean, and who, being left to themselves, had been drinking wine +without any water, and were now kicking each other under the table.</p> + +<p>Chenet remembered that Rossini, the composer, had been very fond of that +Italian dish, and suddenly he exclaimed:—</p> + +<p>"Why! that rhymes, and one could begin some lines like this:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"The Maestro Rossini</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Was fond of macaroni."</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nobody listened to him, however. Madame Caravan, who had suddenly grown +thoughtful, was thinking of all the probable consequences of the event, +while her husband made bread pellets, which he put on the table-cloth, +and looked at with a fixed, idiotic stare. As he was devoured by thirst, +he was continually raising his glass full of wine to his lips, and the +consequences were that his senses, which had already been rather upset by +the shock and grief, seemed to dance about vaguely in his head, as if +they were going to vanish altogether.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the doctor, who had been drinking away steadily, was getting +visibly drunk, and Madame Caravan herself felt the reaction which follows +all nervous shocks, and was agitated and excited, and although she had +been drinking nothing but water, she felt her head rather confused.</p> + +<p>By-and-bye, Chenet began to relate stories of deaths, that appeared funny +to him. In that suburb of Paris, that is full of people from the +provinces, one meets with that indifference towards death were it even +a father or mother, which all peasants show; that want of respect, that +unconscious ferociousness which is so common in the country, and so rare +in Paris, and he said:</p> + +<p>"Why, I was sent for last week to the <i>Rue du Puteaux</i>, and when I went, +I found the sick person (and there was the whole family calmly sitting +near the bed) finishing a bottle of liquor of aniseed, which had been +bought the night before to satisfy the dying man's fancy."</p> + +<p>But Madame Caravan was not listening; she was continually thinking of the +inheritance, and Caravan was incapable of understanding anything.</p> + +<p>Soon coffee was served, which had been made very strong, and as every cup +was well qualified with cognac, it made all their faces red, and confused +their ideas still more; to make matters still worse, Chenet suddenly +seized the brandy bottle and poured out "a drop just to wash their mouths +out with," as he termed it, for each of them, and then, without speaking +any more, overcome in spite of themselves, by that feeling of animal +comfort which alcohol affords after dinner, they slowly sipped the sweet +cognac, which formed a yellowish syrup at the bottom of their cups.</p> + +<p>The children had gone to sleep, and Rosalie carried them off to bed, and +then, Caravan, mechanically obeying that wish to forget oneself which +possesses all unhappy persons, helped himself to brandy again several +times, and his dull eyes grew bright. At last the doctor rose to go, and +seizing his friend's arm, he said:</p> + +<p>"Come with me; a little fresh air will do you good. When one is in +trouble, one must not stick to one spot."</p> + +<p>The other obeyed mechanically, put on his hat, took his stick, and went +out, and both of them went arm-in-arm towards the Seine, in the starlight +night.</p> + +<p>The air was warm and sweet, for all the gardens in the neighborhood were +full of flowers at that season of the year, and their scent, which is +scarcely perceptible during the day, seemed to awaken at the approach +of night, and mingled with the light breezes which blew upon them in the +darkness.</p> + +<p>The broad avenue, with its two rows of gaslamps, that extended as far as +the <i>Arc de Triomphe</i>, was deserted and silent, but there was the distant +roar of Paris, which seemed to have a reddish vapor hanging over it. It +was a kind of continual rumbling, which was at times answered by the +whistle of a train at full speed, in the distance, traveling to the +ocean, through the provinces.</p> + +<p>The fresh air on the faces of the two men rather overcame them at first, +made the doctor lose his equilibrium a little, and increased Caravan's +giddiness, from which he had suffered since dinner. He walked as if he +were in a dream; his thoughts were paralyzed, although he felt no grief, +for he was in a state of mental torpor that prevented him from suffering, +and he even felt a sense of relief which was increased by the mildness +of the night.</p> + +<p>When they reached the bridge they turned to the right, and they got the +fresh breeze from the river. It rolled along, calm and melancholy, +bordered by tall poplar trees, and the stars looked as if they were +floating on the water and were moving with the current. A slight, white +mist that floated over the opposite banks, filled their lungs with a +sensation of cold, and Caravan stopped suddenly, for he was struck by +that smell from the water, which brought back old memories to his mind. +For he, suddenly, in his mind, saw his mother again, in Picardy, as he +had seen her years before, kneeling in front of their door, and washing +the heaps of linen, by her side, in the stream that ran through their +garden. He almost fancied that he could hear the sound of the wooden +beetle with which she beat the linen, in the calm silence of the country, +and her voice, as she called out to him:</p> + +<p>"Alfred, bring me some soap." And he smelt that odor of the trickling +water, of the mist rising from the wet ground, the heap of wet linen, +which he should never forget, and which came back to him on the very +evening on which his mother died.</p> + +<p>He stopped, with a feeling of despair, and felt heartbroken at that +eternal separation. His life seemed cut in half, all his youth +disappeared, swallowed up by that death. All the <i>former</i> life was over +and done with, all the recollections of his youthful days would vanish; +for the future, there would be nobody to talk to him of what had happened +in days gone by, of the people he had known of old, of his own part of +the country, and of his past life; that was a part of his existence which +existed no longer, and the other might as well end now.</p> + +<p>And then he saw <i>Mamma</i> as she was when younger, wearing well-worn +dresses, which he remembered for such a long time that they seemed +inseparable from her; he recollected her movements, the different tones +of her voice, her habits, her manias, her fits of anger, the wrinkles on +her face, the movements of her thin fingers, and all her well-known +attitudes, which she would never have again, and clutching hold of the +doctor, he began to moan and weep. His lank legs began to tremble, his +whole, stout body was shaken by his sobs, all he could say was:</p> + +<p>"My mother, my poor mother, my poor mother...!"</p> + +<p>But his companion, who was still drunk, and who intended to finish the +evening in certain places of bad repute that he frequented secretly, +made him sit down on the grass by the riverside, and left him almost +immediately, under the pretext that he had to see a patient.</p> + + +<p>Caravan went on crying for a long time, and then, when he had got to the +end of his tears, when his grief had, so to say, run out of him, he again +felt relief, repose, and sudden tranquillity.</p> + +<p>The moon had risen, and bathed the horizon in its soft light.</p> + +<p>The tall poplar trees had a silvery sheen on them, and the mist on the +plain, looked like floating snow; the river, in which the stars were +reflected, and which looked as if it were covered with mother-of-pearl, +was rippled by the wind. The air was soft and sweet, and Caravan inhaled +it almost greedily, and thought that he could perceive a feeling of +freshness, of calm and of superhuman consolation pervading him.</p> + +<p>He really tried to resist that feeling of comfort and relief, and kept on +saying to himself:—"My mother, my poor mother!" ... and tried to make +himself cry, from a kind of a conscientious feeling, but he could not +succeed in doing so any longer and those sad thoughts, which had made him +sob so bitterly a short time before, had almost passed away. In a few +moments, he rose to go home, and returned slowly, under the influence of +that serene night, and with a heart soothed in spite of himself.</p> + +<p>When he reached the bridge he saw that the last tramcar was ready to +start, and the lights through the windows of the <i>Café du Globe</i>, and he +felt a longing to tell somebody of the catastrophe that had happened, to +excite pity, to make himself interesting. He put on a woeful face, pushed +open the door, and went up to the counter, where the landlord still was. +He had counted on creating an effect, and had hoped that everybody would +get up and come to him with outstretched hands, and say:—"Why, what is +the matter with you?" But nobody noticed his disconsolate face, so he +rested his two elbows on the counter, and, burying his face in his hands, +he murmured: "Good heavens! Good heavens!"</p> + +<p>The landlord looked at him and said: "Are you ill, Monsieur Caravan?"</p> + +<p>"No, my friend," he replied, "but my mother has just died."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" the other exclaimed, and as a customer at the other end of the +establishment asked for a glass of Bavarian beer, he went to attend to +him, left Caravan almost stupefied at his want of sympathy.</p> + +<p>The three domino players were sitting at the same table which they had +occupied before dinner, totally absorbed in their game, and Caravan went +up to them, in search of pity, but as none of them appeared to notice +him, he made up his mind to speak.</p> + +<p>"A great misfortune has happened to me since I was here," he said.</p> + +<p>All three slightly raised their heads at the same instant, but keeping +their eyes fixed on the pieces which they held in their hands.</p> + +<p>"What do you say?"</p> + +<p>"My mother has just died;" whereupon one of them said:</p> + +<p>"Oh! the devil," with that false air of sorrow which indifferent people +assume. Another, who could not find anything to say, emitted a sort of +sympathetic whistle, shaking his head at the same time, and the third +turned to the game again, as if he were saying to himself: "Is that all!"</p> + +<p>Caravan had expected some of those expressions that are said to "come +from the heart," and when he saw how his news was received, he left the +table, indignant at their calmness before their friend's sorrow, although +at that moment he was so dazed with grief, that he hardly felt it, and +went home. When he got in, his wife was waiting for him in her nightgown, +and sitting in a low chair by the open window, still thinking of the +inheritance.</p> + +<p>"Undress yourself," she said; "we will talk when we are in bed."</p> + +<p>He raised his head, and looking at the ceiling, he said:</p> + +<p>"But ... there is nobody up there."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, Rosalie is with her, and you can go and take her +place at three o'clock in the morning, when you have had some sleep."</p> + +<p>He only partially undressed, however, so as to be ready for anything that +might happen, and after tying a silk handkerchief round his head, he +joined his wife, who had just got in between the sheets, and for some +time they remained side by side, and neither of them spoke. She was +thinking.</p> + +<p>Even in bed, her night-cap was adorned with a red bow, and was pushed +rather over one ear, as was the way with all the caps that she wore, and, +presently, she turned towards him and said:</p> + +<p>"Do you know whether your mother made a will?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated for a moment, and then replied:</p> + +<p>"I ... I do not think so.... No, I am sure that she did not."</p> + +<p>His wife looked at him, and she said, in a low, furious voice:</p> + +<p>"I call that infamous; here we have been wearing ourselves out for ten +years in looking after her, and have boarded and lodged her! Your sister +would not have done so much for her, nor I either, if I had known how I +was to be rewarded! Yes, it is a disgrace to her memory! I daresay that +you will tell me that she paid us, but one cannot pay one's children in +ready money for what they do; that obligation is recognized after death; +at any rate, that is how honorable people act. So I have had all my worry +and trouble for nothing! Oh, that is nice! that is very nice!"</p> + +<p>Poor Caravan, who felt nearly distracted, kept on saying:</p> + +<p>"My dear, my dear, please, please be quiet."</p> + +<p>She grew calmer by degrees, and, resuming her usual voice and manner, she +continued:</p> + +<p>"We must let your sister know, to-morrow."</p> + +<p>He started, and said:</p> + +<p>"Of course, we must; I had forgotten all about it; I will send her a +telegram the first thing in the morning."</p> + +<p>"No," she replied, like a woman who had foreseen everything; "no, do not +send it before ten or eleven o'clock, so that we may have time to turn +round before she comes. It does not take more than two hours to get here +from Charenton, and we can say that you lost your head from grief. If we +let her know in the course of the day, that will be soon enough, and will +give us time to look round."</p> + +<p>But Caravan put his hand to his forehead, and, in the same timid voice +in which he always spoke of his chief, the very thought of whom made him +tremble, he said:</p> + +<p>"I must let them know at the office."</p> + +<p>"Why?" she replied. "On such occasions like this, it is always excusable +to forget. Take my advice, and don't let him know; your chief will not be +able to say anything to you, and you will put him in a nice fix."</p> + +<p>"Oh! yes, that I shall, and he will be in a terrible rage, too, when he +notices my absence. Yes, you are right; it is a capital idea, and when I +tell him that my mother is dead, he will be obliged to hold his tongue."</p> + +<p>And he rubbed his hands in delight at the joke, when he thought of his +chief's face; while the body of the dead old woman lay upstairs, and the +servant was asleep close to it.</p> + +<p>But Madame Caravan grew thoughtful, as if she were pre-occupied by +something, which she did not care to mention, but at last she said:</p> + +<p>"Your mother had given you her clock, had she not; the girl playing at +cup and ball?"</p> + +<p>He thought for a moment, and then replied:</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; she said to me (but it was a long time ago, when she first +came here): 'I shall leave the clock to you, if you look after me well.'"</p> + +<p>Madame Caravan was reassured, and regained her serenity, and said:</p> + +<p>"Well, then, you must go and fetch it out of her room, for if we get your +sister here, she will prevent us from having it."</p> + +<p>He hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?..."</p> + +<p>That made her angry.</p> + +<p>"I certainly think so; as soon as it is in our possession, she will know +nothing at all about where it came from; it belongs to us. It is just the +same with the chest of drawers with the marble top, that is in her room; +she gave it me one day when she was in a good temper. We will bring it +down at the same time."</p> + +<p>Caravan, however, seemed incredulous, and said:</p> + +<p>"But, my dear, it is a great responsibility!"</p> + +<p>She turned on him furiously.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Indeed! Will you never alter? You would let your children die of +hunger, rather than make a move. Does not that chest of drawers belong to +us, as she gave it to me? And if your sister is not satisfied, let her +tell me so, me! I don't care a straw for your sister. Come, get up, and +we will bring down what your mother gave us, immediately."</p> + +<p>Trembling and vanquished, he got out of bed, and began to put on his +trousers, but she stopped him:</p> + +<p>"It is not worth while to dress yourself; your drawers are quite enough; +I mean to go as I am."</p> + +<p>They both left the room in their night clothes, went upstairs quite +noiselessly, opened the door and went into the room, where the four +lighted tapers and the plate with the sprig of box alone seemed to be +watching the old woman in her rigid repose; for Rosalie, who was lying +back in the easy chair with her legs stretched out, her hands folded in +her lap, and her head on one side, was also quite motionless, and was +snoring with her mouth wide open.</p> + +<p>Caravan took the clock, which was one of those grotesque objects that +were produced so plentifully under the Empire. A girl in gilt bronze was +holding a cup and ball, and the ball formed the pendulum.</p> + +<p>"Give that to me," his wife said, "and take the marble top off the chest +of drawers."</p> + +<p>He put the marble on his shoulder with a considerable effort, and they +left the room. Caravan had to stoop in the door-way, and trembled as he +went downstairs, while his wife walked backwards, so as to light him, and +held the candlestick in one hand, while she had the clock under her other +arm.</p> + +<p>When they were in their own room, she heaved a sigh.</p> + +<p>"We have got over the worst part of the job," she said; "so now let us go +and fetch the other things."</p> + +<p>But the drawers were full of the old woman's wearing apparel, which they +must manage to hide somewhere, and Madame Caravan soon thought of a plan.</p> + +<p>"Go and get that wooden box in the passage; it is hardly worth anything, +and we may just as well put it here."</p> + +<p>And when he had brought it upstairs, the change began. One by one, she +took out all the collars, cuffs, chemises, caps, all the well-worn things +that had belonged to the poor woman lying there behind them, and arranged +them methodically in the wooden box, in such a manner as to deceive +Madame Braux, the deceased woman's other child, who would be coming the +next day.</p> + +<p>When they had finished, they first of all carried the drawers downstairs, +and the remaining portion afterwards, each of them holding an end, and it +was some time before they could make up their minds where it would stand +best; but at last they settled upon their own room, opposite the bed, +between the two windows, and as soon as it was in its place, Madame +Caravan filled it with her own things. The clock was placed on the +chimney-piece in the dining-room, and they looked to see what the effect +was, and they were both delighted with it, and agreed that nothing could +be better. Then they got into bed, she blew out the candle, and soon +everybody in the house was asleep.</p> + +<p>It was broad daylight when Caravan opened his eyes again. His mind was +rather confused when he woke up, and he did not clearly remember what had +happened, for a few minutes; when he did, he felt it painfully, and +jumped out of bed, almost ready to cry again.</p> + +<p>He very soon went to the room overhead, where Rosalie was still sleeping +in the same position as the night before, for she did not wake up once +during the whole time. He sent her to do her work, put fresh tapers in +the place of those that had burnt out, and then he looked at his mother, +revolving in his brain those apparently profound thoughts, those +religious and philosophical commonplaces, which trouble people of +mediocre minds, in the face of death.</p> + +<p>But he went down stairs as soon as his wife called him. She had written +out a list of what had to be done during the morning, which rather +frightened him when he saw that he would have to do all this:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">1. Give information of the death to the Mayor's officer.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">2. See the doctor who had attended her.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">3. Order the coffin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">4. Give notice at the church.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">5. Go to the undertaker.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">6. Order the notices of her death at the printer's.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">7. Go to the lawyer.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">8. Telegraph the news to all the family.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Besides all this there were a number of small commissions; so he took his +hat and went out, and as the news had got abroad, Madame Caravan's female +friends and neighbors soon began to come in, and begged to be allowed to +see the body. There had been a scene at the hairdresser's, on the ground +floor, about the matter, between husband and wife, while he was shaving a +customer; for while she was knitting the woman had said: "Well, there is +one less, and as great a miser as one ever meets with. I certainly was +not very fond of her; but, nevertheless, I must go and have a look at +her."</p> + +<p>The husband, while lathering his <i>patient's</i> chin, said: "That is another +queer fancy! Nobody but a woman would think of such a thing. It is not +enough for them to worry you during life, but they cannot even leave you +at peace when you are dead." But his wife, without disconcerting herself +the least, replied: "The feeling is stronger than I, and I must go. It +has been on me since the morning. If I was not to see her, I should think +about it all my life, but when I have had a good look at her, I shall be +satisfied."</p> + +<p>The knight of the razor shrugged his shoulders, and remarked in a low +voice to the gentleman whose cheek he was scraping: "I just ask you, what +sort of ideas do you think these confounded females have? I should not +amuse myself by going to see a corpse!" But his wife had heard him, and +replied very quietly: "But it is so, it is so." And then, putting her +knitting on the counter, she went upstairs, to the first floor, where she +met two other neighbors, who had just come, and who were discussing the +event with Madame Caravan, who was giving them the details, and they all +went together to the mortuary chamber. The four women went in softly, +and, one after the other, sprinkled the bed clothes with the holy water, +knelt down, made the sign of the cross while they mumbled a prayer, then +they got up, and open-mouthed, regarded the corpse for a long time, while +the daughter-in-law of the dead woman, with her handkerchief to her face, +pretended to be sobbing piteously.</p> + +<p>When she turned about to walk away, whom should she perceive standing +close to the door but Marie-Louise and Philippe-Auguste, who were +curiously taking stock of things. Then, forgetting to control her +chagrin, she threw herself upon them with uplifted hands, crying out +in a furious voice, "Will you get out of this, you filthy brats."</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later, in going upstairs again with another contingent of +neighbors, she prayed, wept profusely, performed all her duties, and +found once more her two children, who had followed her up stairs. She +again boxed their ears soundly, but the next time she paid no heed to +them, and at each fresh arrival of visitors the two urchins always +followed in the wake, crowded themselves up in a corner, and imitating +slavishly everything they saw their mother do.</p> + +<p>When the afternoon came round the crowds of curious people began to +diminish, and soon there were no more visitors. Madame Caravan, returning +to her own apartments, began to make the necessary preparations for the +funeral ceremony, and the defunct was hence left by herself.</p> + +<p>The window of the room was open. A torrid heat entered along with the +clouds of dust; the flames of the four candles were flickering in the +direction of the immobile corpse, and upon the cloth which covered the +face, the closed eyes, the two hands stretched out, small flies alighted, +came, went, and careered up and down incessantly, being the only +companions of the old woman during the next hour.</p> + +<p>Marie-Louise and Philippe-Auguste, however, had now left the house, and +were running up and down the street. They were soon surrounded by their +playmates, by little girls, especially, who were older, and who were much +more interested to inquire into all the mysteries of life, asking +questions after the manner of persons of great importance.</p> + +<p>"Then your grandmother is dead?" "Yes, she died yesterday evening." "How, +in what way did she meet her death?"</p> + +<p>Then Marie began to explain, telling all about the candles and the +cadaverous face. It was not long before great curiosity was aroused in +the breasts of all the children, and they asked to be allowed to go +upstairs to look at the departed.</p> + +<p>It was not long before Marie-Louise had arranged a group for a first +visit, consisting of five girls and two boys—the biggest and the most +courageous. She made them take off their shoes so that they might not +be discovered. The troupe filed into the house and mounted the stairs as +stealthily as an army of mice.</p> + +<p>Once in the chamber, the little girl, imitating her mother, regulated the +ceremony. She solemnly walked in advance of her comrades, went down on +her knees, made the sign of the cross, moistened her lips with the holy +water, stood up again, sprinkled the bed, and while the children, all +crowded together, were approaching—frightened and curious, and eager +to look at the face and hands of the deceased—she began suddenly to +simulate sobbing, and to bury her eyes in her little handkerchief. Then, +becoming instantly consoled, on thinking of the other children who were +downstairs waiting at the door, she withdrew in haste, returning in a +minute with another group, then a third, for all the little ruffians of +the country-side, even to the little beggars in rags, had congregated in +order to participate in this new pleasure; and each time she repeated her +mother's grimaces with absolute perfection.</p> + +<p>At length, however, she became tired. Some game or other attracted the +children away from the house, and the old grandmother was left alone, +forgotten suddenly by everybody.</p> + +<p>A dismal gloom pervaded the chamber, and upon the dry and rigid features +of the corpse, the dying flames of the candles cast occasional gleams of +light.</p> + +<p>Towards 8 o'clock, Caravan ascended to the chamber of death, closed the +windows, and renewed the candles. On entering now he was quite composed, +evidently accustomed already to regard the corpse as though it had been +there for a month. He even went the length of declaring that, as yet, +there was not any signs of decomposition, making this remark just at the +moment when he and his wife were about to sit down at table. "Pshaw!" she +responded, "she is now in wood; she will keep there for a year."</p> + +<p>The soup was eaten without a word being uttered by anyone. The children, +who had been free all day, now worn out by fatigue, were sleeping soundly +on their chairs, and nobody ventured on breaking the silence.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the flame of the lamp went down. Mdme. Caravan immediately +turned up the wick, a prolonged gurgling noise ensued, and the light went +out. It had been forgotten during the day to buy oil. To send for it now +to the grocers' would keep back the dinner, and everybody began to look +for candles, but none were to be found except the night lights which had +been placed upon the tables upstairs, in the death chamber.</p> + +<p>Mdme. Caravan, always prompt in her decisions, quickly dispatched +Marie-Louise to fetch two, and her return was awaited in total darkness.</p> + +<p>The footsteps of the girl who had ascended the stairs were distinctly +heard. There followed now a silence for a few seconds, then the child +descended precipitately. She threw open the door affrighted, and in +a choked voice murmured: "Oh! papa, grandmamma is dressing herself!"</p> + +<p>Caravan bounded to his feet with such precipitance that his chair rolled +over against the chair. He stammered out: "You say?... What is that you +say?"</p> + +<p>But Marie-Louise, gasping with emotion, repeated: +"Grand ... grand ... grandmamma is putting on her clothes, she is coming +down stairs."</p> + +<p>Caravan rushed boldly up the staircase, followed by his wife, +dumbfounded; but he came to a standstill before the door of the second +floor, overcome with terror, not daring to enter. What was he going to +see? Mdme. Caravan, more courageous, turned the handle of the door and +stepped forward into the room.</p> + +<p>The room seemed to become darker, and in the middle of it, a tall +emaciated figure moved about. The old woman stood upright, and in +awakening from her lethargic sleep, before even full consciousness had +returned to her, in turning upon her side, and raising herself on her +elbow, she had extinguished three of the candles which burned near the +mortuary bed. Then, recovering her strength, she got out of bed and began +to seek for her things. The absence of her chest of drawers had at first +given her some trouble, but, after a little, she had succeeded in finding +her things at the bottom of the wooden trunk, and was now quietly +dressing. She emptied the plateful of holy water, replaced the box which +contained the latter behind the looking-glass and arranged the chairs in +their places, and was ready to go downstairs when there appeared before +her her son and daughter-in-law.</p> + +<p>Caravan rushed forward, seized her by the hands, embraced her with +tears in his eyes, while his wife, who was behind him, repeated in a +hypocritical tone of voice: "Oh, what a blessing! Oh, what a blessing!"</p> + +<p>But the old woman, without being at all moved, without even appearing to +understand, as rigid as a statue, and with glazed eyes, simply asked: +"Will the dinner soon be ready?"</p> + +<p>He stammered out, not knowing what he said: "O, yes, mother, we have been +waiting for you."</p> + +<p>And with an alacrity, unusual in him, he took her arm, while Mdme. +Caravan, the younger, seized the candle and lighted them downstairs, +walking backwards in front of them, step by step, just as she had +done the previous night, in front of her husband, who was carrying the +marble.</p> + +<p>On reaching the first floor, she ran up against people who were +ascending. It was the Charenton family, Mdme. Braux, followed by her +husband.</p> + +<p>The wife, tall, fleshy, with a dropsical stomach which threw her trunk +far out behind her, opened wide her astonished eyes, ready to take +flight. The husband, a shoemaker socialist, a little hairy man, the +perfect image of a monkey, murmured, quite unconcerned: "Well, what next? +Is she resurrected?"</p> + +<p>As soon as Mdme. Caravan recognized them, she made despairing signs to +them, then, speaking aloud, she said: "Mercy! How do you mean!... Look +there! What a happy surprise!"</p> + +<p>But Mdme. Braux, dumbfounded, understood nothing; she responded in a low +voice: "It was your dispatch which made us come; we believed it was all +over."</p> + +<p>Her husband, who was behind her, pinched her to make her keep silent. He +added with a malignant laugh, which his thick beard concealed: "It was +very kind of you to invite us here. We set out in post haste."—which +remark showed clearly the hostility which had for a long time reigned +between the households. Then, just as the old woman had arrived at +the last steps, he pushed forward quickly and rubbed against her cheeks +the hair which covered his face, bawling out in her ear, on account of +her deafness: "How well you look, mother; sturdy as usual, hey!"</p> + +<p>Mdme. Braux, in her stupor at seeing the old woman whom they all believed +to be dead, dared not even embrace her; and her enormous belly blocked up +the passage and hindered the others from advancing. The old woman, uneasy +and suspicious, but without speaking, looked at everyone around her; and +her little gray eyes, piercing and hard, fixed themselves now on the one +and now on the other, and they were so terrible in their expression that +the children became frightened.</p> + +<p>Caravan, to explain matters, said: "She has been somewhat ill, but she is +better now; quite well, indeed, are you not, mother?"</p> + +<p>Then the good woman, stopping in her walk, responded in a husky voice, +as though it came from a distance: "It was syncope. I heard you all the +while."</p> + +<p>An embarrassing silence followed. They entered the dining-room, and in a +few minutes they all sat down to an improvised dinner.</p> + +<p>Only M. Braux had retained his self-possession; his gorilla features +grinned wickedly, while he let fall some words of double meaning which +painfully disconcerted everyone.</p> + +<p>But the clock in the hall kept on ticking every second; and Rosalie, lost +in astonishment, came to seek out Caravan, who darted a fierce glance at +her, as she threw down his serviette. His brother-in-law even asked him +whether it was not one of his days to hold a reception, to which he +stammered out, in answer: "No, I have only been executing a few +commissions; nothing more."</p> + +<p>Next, a packet was brought in, which he began to open sadly, and from +which dropped out unexpectedly a letter with black borders. Then, +reddening up to the very eyes, he picked up the letter hurriedly, and +pushed it into his waistcoat pocket.</p> + +<p>His mother had not seen it! She was looking intently at her clock, which +stood on the mantelpiece, and the embarrassment increased in midst of a +glacial silence. Turning her face towards her daughter, the old woman, +from whose eyes flashed fierce malice, said: "On Monday, you must take me +away from here, so that I can see your little girl. I want so much to see +her." Madame Braux, her features illuminated, exclaimed: "Yes, mother, +that I will," while Mdme. Caravan, the younger, became pale, and seemed +to be enduring the most excruciating agony. The two men, however, +gradually drifted into conversation, and soon became embroiled in a +political discussion. Braux maintained the most revolutionary and +communistic doctrines, gesticulating and throwing about his arms, his +eyes darting like a blood-hound's. "Property, sir," he said, "is robbery +perpetrated on the working classes; the land is the common property of +every man; hereditary rights are an infamy and a disgrace." But, +hereupon, he suddenly stopped, having all the appearance of a man who has +just said something foolish; then, resuming, after a pause, he said, in +softer tones: "But I can see quite well that this is not the proper +moment to discuss such things."</p> + +<p>The door was opened, and Doctor Chenet appeared. For a moment he seemed +bewildered, but regaining his usual smirking expression of countenance, +he jauntily approached the old woman, and said: "Ah, hah! mamma, you are +better to-day. Oh! I never had any doubt but you would come round again; +in fact, I said to myself as I was mounting the staircase, 'I have an +idea that I shall find the old one on her feet once more;'" and he tapped +her gently on the back: "Ah! she is as solid as the Pont-Neuf, she will +see us all out; you shall see if she does not."</p> + +<p>He sat down, accepted the coffee that was offered him, and soon began to +join in the conversation of the two men, backing up Braux, for he himself +had been mixed up in the Commune.</p> + +<p>Now, the old woman, feeling herself fatigued, wished to leave the room, +at which Caravan rushed forward. She thereupon fixed him in the eyes and +said to him: "You, you, must carry my clock and chest of drawers up +stairs again without a moment's delay." "Yes, mamma," he replied, +yawning; "yes, I will do so." The old woman then took the arm of her +daughter and withdrew from the room. The two Caravans remained rooted to +the floor, silent, plunged in the deepest despair, while Braux rubbed his +hands and sipped his coffee, gleefully.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Mdme. Caravan, consumed with rage, rushed at him, exclaiming: +"You are a thief, a footpad, a cur. I would spit in your face, if ... I +would ... I ... would...." She could find nothing further to say, +suffocating as she was, with rage, while he still sipped his coffee, +with a smile.</p> + +<p>His wife returning just then, looked menacingly at her sister-in-law, and +both—the one with her enormous fat stomach, the other, epileptic and +spare, voice changed, hands trembling—flew at one another and seized +each other by the throat.</p> + +<p>Chenet and Braux now interposed, and the latter taking his better half by +the shoulders pushed her out of the door in front of him, shouting to his +sister-in-law: "Go away, you slut: you are a disgrace to your relations;" +and the two were heard in the street bellowing and shouting at the +Caravans, until after they had disappeared from sight.</p> + +<p>M. Chenet also took his departure, leaving the Caravans alone, face to +face. The husband soon fell back on his chair, and with the cold sweat +standing out in beads on his temples, murmured: "What shall I say to my +chief to-morrow?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_ODALISQUE_OF_SENICHOU" id="THE_ODALISQUE_OF_SENICHOU"></a>THE ODALISQUE OF SENICHOU</h2> + + +<p>In Senichou, which is a suburb of Prague, there lived about twenty +years ago, two poor but honest people, who earned their bread by the +sweat of their brow; he worked in a large printing establishment, +and his wife employed her spare time as a laundress. Their pride, and +their only pleasure, was their daughter Viteska, who was a vigorous, +voluptuous-looking, handsome girl of eighteen, whom they brought up very +well and carefully. She worked for a dress-maker, and was thus able to +help her parents a little, and she made use of her leisure moments to +improve her education, and especially her music. She was a general +favorite in the neighborhood on account of her quiet modest demeanor, and +she was looked upon as a model by the whole suburb.</p> + +<p>When she went to work in the town, the tall girl with her magnificent +head, which resembled that of an ancient, Bohemian Amazon, with its +wealth of black hair, and her dark, sparkling yet soft eyes, attracted +the looks of passers-by, in spite of her shabby dress, much more than the +graceful, well-dressed ladies of the aristocracy. Frequently some young, +wealthy lounger would follow her home; and even try to get into +conversation with her, but she always managed to get rid of them and +their importunities, and she did not require any protector, for she was +quite capable of protecting herself from any insults.</p> + +<p>One evening, however, she met a man on the suspension bridge, whose +strange appearance made her give him a look which evinced some interest, +but perhaps even more surprise. He was a tall, handsome man with bright +eyes and a black beard; he was very sunburnt, and in his long coat, which +was like a caftan, with a red fez on his head, he gave those who saw him +the impression of an Oriental; he had noticed her look all the more as he +himself had been so struck by her poor, and at the same time regal, +appearance, that he remained standing and looking at her in such a way, +that he seemed to be devouring her with his eyes, so that Viteska, who +was usually so fearless, looked down. She hurried on and he followed her, +and the quicker she walked, the more rapidly he followed her, and, at +last, when they were in a narrow, dark street in the suburb, he suddenly +said in an insinuating voice: "May I offer you my arm, my pretty girl?" +"You can see that I am old enough to look after myself," Viteska replied +hastily; "I am much obliged to you, and must beg you not to follow me +any more; I am known in this neighborhood, and it might damage my +reputation." "Oh! You are very much mistaken if you think you will get +rid of me so easily," he replied. "I have just come from the East and +am returning there soon, come with me, and as I fancy that you are as +sensible as you are beautiful, you will certainly make your fortune +there, and I will bet that before the end of a year, you will be covered +with diamonds, and be waited on by eunuchs and female slaves."</p> + +<p>"I am a respectable girl, sir," she replied proudly, and tried to go on +in front, but the stranger was immediately at her side again. "You were +born to rule," he whispered to her. "Believe me, and I understand the +matter, that you will live to be a Sultaness, if you have any luck." The +girl did not give him any answer, but walked on. "But, at any rate, +listen to me," the tempter continued. "I will not listen to anything; +because I am poor, you think it will be easy for you to seduce me," +Viteska exclaimed: "but I am as virtuous as I am poor, and I should +despise any position which I had to buy with shame." They had reached +the little house where her parents lived, and she ran in quickly, and +slammed the door behind her.</p> + +<p>When she went into the town the next morning, the stranger was waiting +at the corner of the street where she lived, and bowed to her very +respectfully. "Allow me to speak a few words with you," he began. "I feel +that I ought to beg your pardon for my behavior yesterday." "Please let +me go on my way quietly," the girl replied. "What will the neighbors +think of me?" "I did not know you," he went on, without paying any +attention to her angry looks, "but your extraordinary beauty attracted +me. Now that I know that you are as virtuous as you are charming, I wish +very much to become better acquainted with you. Believe me, I have the +most honorable intentions."</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the bold stranger had taken the girl's fancy, and she +could not find it in her heart to refuse him. "If you are really in +earnest," she stammered in charming confusion, "do not follow me about +in the public streets, but come to my parents' house like a man of honor, +and state your intentions there." "I will certainly do so, and +immediately, if you like," the stranger replied, eagerly. "No, no," +Viteska said; "but come this evening if you like."</p> + +<p>The stranger bowed and left her, and really called on her parents in the +evening. He introduced himself as Ireneus Krisapolis, a merchant from +Smyrna, spoke of his brilliant circumstances, and finally declared that +he loved Viteska passionately. "That is all very nice and right," the +cautious father replied, "but what will it all lead to? Under no +circumstances can I allow you to visit my daughter. Such a passion as +yours often dies out as quickly as it arises, and a respectable girl is +easily robbed of her virtue." "And suppose I make up my mind to marry +your daughter?" the stranger asked, after a moment's hesitation. "Then +I shall refer you to my child, for I shall never force Viteska to marry +against her will," her father said.</p> + +<p>The stranger seized the pretty girl's hand, and spoke in glowing terms of +his love for her, of the luxury with which she would be surrounded in his +house, of the wonders of the East, to which he hoped to take her, and at +last Viteska consented to become his wife. Thereupon the stranger hurried +on the arrangements for the wedding, in a manner that made the most +favorable impression on them all, and during the time before their +marriage he lay at her feet like her humble slave.</p> + +<p>As soon as they were married, the newly-married couple set off on their +journey to Smyrna and promised to write as soon as they got there, but +a month, then two and three, passed without the parents, whose anxiety +increased every day, receiving a line from them, until at last the father +in terror applied to the police.</p> + +<p>The first thing was to write to the Consul at Smyrna for information: +his reply was to the effect that no merchant of the name of Ireneus +Krisapolis was known in Smyrna, and that he had never been there. The +police, at the entreaties of the frantic parents, continued their +investigations, but for a long time without any result. At last, however, +they obtained a little light on the subject, but it was not at all +satisfactory. The police at Pestle said that a man, whose personal +appearance exactly agreed with the description of Viteska's husband, had +a short time before carried off two girls from the Hungarian capital, to +Turkey, evidently intending to trade in that coveted, valuable commodity +there, but that when he found that the authorities were on his track he +had escaped from justice by a sudden flight.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Four years after Viteska's mysterious disappearance, two persons, a man +and a woman, met in a narrow street in Damascus, in a scarcely less +strange manner, than when the Greek merchant met Viteska on the +suspension bridge at Prague. The man with the black beard, the red fez, +and the long, green caftan, was no one else than Ireneus Krisapolis; +matters appeared to be going well with him; he had his hands comfortably +thrust into the red shawl which he had round his waist, and a negro was +walking behind him with a large parasol, while another carried his +<i>Chiloque</i> after him. A noble Turkish lady met him in a litter borne +by four slaves; she was wrapped like a ghost in a white veil, only that +a pair of large, dark, threatening eyes flashed at the merchant.</p> + +<p>He smiled, for he thought that he had found favor in the eyes of an +Eastern houri, and that flattered him; but he soon lost sight of her in +the crowd, and forgot her almost immediately. The next morning however, +a eunuch of the pasha's came to him, to his no small astonishment, and +told him to come with him. He took him to the Sultan's most powerful +deputy, who ruled as an absolute despot in Damascus. They went through +dark, narrow passages, and curtains were pushed aside, which rustled +behind them again. At last they reached a large rotunda, the center of +which was occupied by a beautiful fountain, while scarlet divans ran all +around it. Here the eunuch told the merchant to wait, and left him. He +was puzzling his brains what the meaning of it all could be, when +suddenly a tall, commanding woman came into the apartment. Again a pair +of large, threatening eyes looked at him through the veil, while he knew +from her green, gold-embroidered caftan, that if it was not the pasha's +wife, it was at least one of his favorites, who was before him, and so he +hurriedly knelt down, and crossing his hands on his breast, he put his +head on to the ground before her. But a clear, diabolical laugh made him +look up, and when the beautiful Odalisque threw back her veil, he uttered +a cry of terror, for his wife, his deceived wife, whom he had sold, was +standing before him.</p> + +<p>"Do you know me?" she asked with quiet dignity. "Viteska!" "Yes, that was +my name when I was your wife," she replied quickly, in a contemptuous +voice; "but now that I am the pasha's wife, my name is Sarema. I do not +suppose you ever expected to find me again, you wretch, when you sold me +in Varna to an old Jewish profligate, who was only half alive. You see I +have got into better hands, and I have made my fortune, as you said I +should do. Well? What do you expect of me; what thanks, what reward?"</p> + +<p>The wretched man was lying overwhelmed, at the feet of the woman whom he +had so shamefully deceived, and could not find a word to say; he had felt +that he was lost, and had not even got the courage to beg for mercy. "You +deserve death, you miscreant," Sarema continued. "You are in my hands, +and I can do whatever I please with you, for the pasha has left your +punishment to me alone. I ought to have you impaled, and to feast my eyes +on your death agonies. That would be the smallest compensation for all +the years of degradation that I have been through, and which I owe to +you." "Mercy, Viteska! Mercy!" the wretched man cried, trembling all +over, and raising his hands to her in supplication.</p> + +<p>The Odalisque's only reply was a laugh, in which rang all the cruelty of +an insulted woman's deceived heart. It seemed to give her pleasure to see +the man whom she had loved, and who had so shamefully trafficked in her +beauty, in his mortal agony, as he cringed before her, whining for his +life, as he clung to her knees, but at last she seemed to relent +somewhat.</p> + +<p>"I will give your life, you miserable wretch," she said, "but you shall +not go unpunished." So saying, she clapped her hands, and four black +eunuchs came in, and seized the favorite's unfortunate husband and in a +moment bound his hands and feet.</p> + +<p>"I have altered my mind, and he shall not be put to death," Sarema said, +with a smile that made the traitor's blood run cold in his veins; "but +give him a hundred blows with the bastinade, and I will stand by and +count them." "For God's sake," the merchant screamed, "I can never endure +it." "We will see about that," the favorite said, coldly, "and if you +die under it, it was allotted you by fate; I am not going to retract my +orders."</p> + +<p>She threw herself down on the cushions, and began to smoke a long pipe, +which a female slave handed to her on her knees. At a sign from her the +eunuchs tied the wretched man's feet to the pole, by which the soles of +the culprit were raised, and began the terrible punishment. Already at +the tenth blow the merchant began to roar like a wild animal, but his +wife whom he had betrayed, remained unmoved, carelessly blowing the blue +wreaths of smoke into the air, and resting on her lovely arm, she watched +his features, which were distorted by pain, with merciless enjoyment.</p> + +<p>During the last blows he only groaned gently, and then he fainted.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A year later the dealer was caught with his female merchandise by the +police in an Austrian town, and handed over to justice, when he made a +full confession, and by that means the parents of the <i>Odalisque of +Senichou</i> heard of their daughter's position. As they knew that she was +happy and surrounded by luxury, they made no attempt to get her out of +the Pasha's hands, who, like a thorough Mussulman, had become the slave +of his slave.</p> + +<p>The unfortunate husband was sent over to the frontier when he was +released from prison. His shameful traffic, however, flourishes still, +in spite of all the precautions of the police and of the consuls, and +every year he provides the harems of the East with those voluptuous +<i>Boxclanas</i>, especially from Bohemia and Hungary, who, in the eyes of +a Mussulman, vie for the prize of beauty, with the slender Circassian +women.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_GOOD_MATCH" id="A_GOOD_MATCH"></a>A GOOD MATCH</h2> + + +<p>Strauss' band was playing in the saloons of the Horticultural Society, +which was so full that the young cadet Hussar-sergeant Max B., who had +nothing better to do on an afternoon when he was off duty than to drink a +glass of good beer and to listen to a new waltz tune, had already been +looking about for a seat for some time, when the head waiter, who knew +him, quickly took him to an unoccupied place, and without waiting for his +orders, brought him a glass of beer. A very gentlemanly-looking man, and +three elegantly dressed ladies were sitting at the table.</p> + +<p>The cadet saluted them with military politeness, and sat down, but almost +before he could put the glass to his lips, he noticed that the two elder +ladies, who appeared to be married, turned up their noses very much at +his taking a seat at their table, and even said a few words which he +could not catch, but which no doubt referred unpleasantly to him. "I am +afraid I am in the way here," the cadet said; and he got up to leave, +when he felt a pull at his sabre-tasch beneath the table, and at the same +time the gentleman felt bound to say with some embarrassment: "Oh! not at +all; on the contrary, we are very pleased that you have chosen this +table."</p> + +<p>Thereupon the cadet resumed his seat, not so much because he took the +gentleman's invitation as sincere, but because the silent request to +remain, which he had received under the table, and which was much more +sincerely meant, had raised in him one of those charming illusions, which +are so frequent in our youth, and which promised so much happiness, with +electrical rapidity. He could not doubt for a moment, that the daring +invitation came from the third, the youngest and prettiest of the ladies, +into whose company a fortunate accident had thrown him.</p> + +<p>From the moment that he had sat down by her, however, she did not deign +to bestow even another look on him, much less a word, and to the young +hussar, who was still rather inexperienced in such matters, this seemed +rather strange; but he possessed enough natural tact not to expose +himself to a rebuff by any hasty advances, but quietly to wait further +developments of the adventure on the part of the heroine of it. This gave +him the opportunity of looking at her more closely, and for this he +employed the moments when their attention was diverted from him, and was +taken up by conversation among themselves.</p> + +<p>The girl, whom the others called Angelica, was a thorough Viennese +beauty, not exactly regularly beautiful, for her features were not Roman +or Greek, and not even strictly German, and yet they possessed every +female charm, and were seductive, in the fullest sense of the word. Her +strikingly small nose, which in a lady's-maid might have been called +impudent, and her little mouth with its voluptuously full lips, which +would have been called lustful in a street-walker, imparted an +indescribable piquant charm to her small head, which was surmounted by +an imposing tower of that soft brown hair which is so characteristic of +Viennese women. Her bright eyes were full of good sense, and a merry +smile lurked continually in the most charming little dimples near her +mouth and on her chin.</p> + +<p>In less than a quarter of an hour, our cadet was fettered, with no more +will of his own than a slave has, to the triumphal chariot of this +delightful little creature, and as he hoped and believed—for ever. +And he was a man worth capturing. He was tall and slim, but muscular, and +looked like an athlete, and at the time he had one of those handsome, +open faces which women like so much. His honest, dark eyes showed +strength of will, courage and strong passions, and that, women also like.</p> + +<p>During an interval in the music, an elderly gentleman, with the ribbon of +an order in his button-hole, came up to the table, and from the manner in +which he greeted them, it was evident that he was an old friend. From +their conversation, which was carried on in a very loud tone of voice, +and with much animation, in the bad, Viennese fashion, the cadet gathered +that the gentleman who was with the ladies, was a Councilor of Legation, +and that the eldest lady was his wife, while the second lady was his +married, and the youngest his unmarried, sister-in-law. When they at last +rose to go, the pretty girl, evidently intentionally, put her velvet +jacket, trimmed with valuable sable, very loosely over her shoulders; +then she remained standing at the exit, and slowly put it on, so that the +cadet had an opportunity to get close to her. "Follow us," she whispered +to him, and then ran after the others.</p> + +<p>The cadet was only too glad to obey her directions, and followed them at +a distance, without being observed, to the house where they lived. A week +passed without his seeing the pretty Angelica again, or without her +giving him any sign of life. The waiter in the Horticultural Society's +grounds, whom he asked about them, could tell him nothing more than that +they were people of position, and a few days later the cadet saw them all +again at a concert, but he was satisfied with looking at his ideal from a +distance. She, however, when she could do so without danger, gave him +one of those coquettish looks which inexperienced young men imagine +express the innermost feelings of a pure, virgin heart. On that occasion +she left the grounds with her sisters, much earlier, and as she passed +the handsome cadet, she let a small piece of rolled-up paper fall, which +only contained the words: "Come at ten o'clock to-night, and ring the +bell."</p> + +<p>He was outside the house at the stroke of ten and rang, but his +astonishment knew no bounds when, instead of Angelica or her confidential +maid, the housekeeper opened the door. She saw his confusion, and quickly +put an end to it by taking his hand, and pulling him into the house. +"Come with me," she whispered; "I know all about it. The young lady will +be here directly, so come along." Then she lead him through the kitchen +into a room which was shut off from the rest of the house, and which she +had apparently furnished for similar meetings, on her own account, and +left him there by himself, and the cadet was rather surprised to see the +elegant furniture, a wide, soft couch, and some rather obscene pictures +in broad, gilt frames. In a few minutes, the beautiful girl came, in, and +without any further ceremony, threw her arms round the young soldier's +neck. In her <i>negligée</i>, she appeared to him much more beautiful than in +her elegant outdoor dress, but the virginal fragrance which then pervaded +her, had given way to that voluptuous atmosphere which surrounds a young +newly-married woman.</p> + +<p>Angelica, whose little feet were encased in blue velvet slippers lined +with ermine, and who was wrapped in a richly embroidered, white +dressing-gown, that was trimmed with lace, drew the handsome cadet down +on to the couch with graceful energy, and almost before he exactly knew +what he had come for, she was his, and the young soldier, who was half +dazed at his unexpected victory and good fortune, did not leave her until +after twelve o'clock. He returned every night at ten, rang the bell, and +was admitted by the girl's slyly-smiling confidante, and a few moments +later was clasping his little goddess, who used to wrap her delicate, +white limbs sometimes in dark sable, and at others in princely ermine, +in his arms. Every time they partook of a delicious supper, laughed and +joked and loved each other like only young, good-looking people do love, +and frequently they entertained one another until morning.</p> + +<p>Once the cadet attempted diffidently to pay the housekeeper for her +services, and also for the supper, but she refused his money with a +laugh, and said that everything was already settled; and the young +soldier had reveled in this manner in boundless bliss for four months, +when, by an unfortunate accident, he met his mistress in the street one +day. She was alone, but in spite of this she contracted her delicate, +finely-arched eyebrows angrily, when he was about to speak to her, and +turned her head away. This hurt the honest young fellow's feelings, and +when that evening she drew him to her bosom, that was rising and falling +tempestuously under the black velvet that covered it, he remonstrated +with her quietly, but emphatically.—She made a little grimace, and +looking at him coldly and angrily, she at last said, shortly: "I forbid +you to take any notice of me out of doors. I do not choose to recognize +you; do you understand?"</p> + +<p>The cadet was surprised and did not reply, but the harmony of his +pleasures was destroyed by a harsh discord. For some time he bore his +misery in silence and with resignation, but at last the situation became +unendurable; his mistress's fiery kisses seemed to mock him, and the +pleasure which she gave him to degrade him, so at last he summoned up +courage, and in his open way, he came straight to the point.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of our future, Angelica?" She wrinkled her brows a +little. "Do not let us talk about it; at any rate not to-day." "Why not? +We must talk about it sooner or later," he replied, "and I think it is +high time for me to explain my intentions to you, if I do not wish to +appear as a dishonorable scoundrel in your eyes." She looked at him in +surprise. "I look upon you as one of the best and most honorable of men, +Max," she said, soothingly, after a pause. "And do you trust me also?" +"Of course I do." "Are you convinced that I love you honestly?" "Quite." +"Then do not hesitate any longer to bestow your hand upon me," her lover +said, in conclusion. "What are you thinking about?" she cried, quickly, +in a tone of refusal. "What is to be the end of our connection? What is +at any rate not permissible with a woman, is wrong and dishonorable +with a girl. You yourself must feel lowered if you do not become my wife +as soon as possible." "What a narrow-minded view," Angelica replied, +angrily, "but as you wish it, I will give you my opinion on the subject, +but ... by letter." "No, no; now, directly."</p> + +<p>The pretty girl did not speak for some time, and looked down, but +suddenly she looked at her lover, and a malicious, mocking smile lurked +in the corners of her mouth. "Well, I love you, Max, I love you really +and ardently," she said, carelessly; "but I can never be your wife. If +you were an officer I might perhaps marry you; yes, I certainly would, +but as it is, it is impossible." "Is that your last word?" the cadet +said, in great excitement. She only nodded, and then put her full, white +arms round his neck, with all the security of a mistress who is granting +some favor to her slave; but on that occasion she was mistaken. He sprang +up, seized his sword and hurried out of the room, and she let him go, for +she felt certain that he would come back again, but he did not do so, and +when she wrote to him, he did not answer her letters, and still did not +come; so at last she gave him up.</p> + +<p>It was a bad, a very bad, experience for the honorable young fellow; the +highborn, frivolous girl had trampled on all the ideals and illusions of +his life with her small feet, for he then saw only too clearly, that she +had not loved him, but that he had only served her pleasures and her +lusts, while he, he had loved her so truly!</p> + +<p>About a year after the catastrophe with charming Angelica, the handsome +cadet happened to be in his captain's quarters, and accidentally saw a +large photograph of a lady on his writing table, and on going up +and looking at it, he recognized—Angelica.</p> + +<p>"What a beautiful girl," he said, wishing to find out how the land lay. +"That is the lady I am going to marry," the captain, whose vanity was +flattered, said, "and she is as pure and as good as an angel, just +as she is as beautiful as one, and into the bargain she comes of a very +good and very rich family; in short, in the fullest sense of the word, +she is 'a good match.'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_FASHIONABLE_WOMAN" id="A_FASHIONABLE_WOMAN"></a>A FASHIONABLE WOMAN</h2> + + +<p>It can easily be proved that Austria is far richer in talented men in +every domain, than North Germany, but while men are systematically +drilled there for the vocation which they choose, like the Prussian +soldiers are, with us they lack the necessary training, especially +technical training, and consequently very few of them get beyond mere +diletantism. Leo Wolfram was one of those intellectual diletantes, and +the more pleasure one took in his materials and characters, which were +usually boldly taken from real life, and in a certain political, and what +is still more, in a plastic plot, the more he was obliged to regret that +he had never learnt to compose or to mold his characters, or to write; in +one word, that he had never become a literary artist, but how greatly he +had in himself the materials for a master of narration, his "Dissolving +Views," and still more his <i>Goldkind</i>,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> prove.</p> + +<p>This Goldkind is a striking type of our modern society, and the novel of +that name contains all the elements of a classic novel, although of +course in a crude, unfinished state. What an exact reflection of our +social circumstances Leo Wolfram gave in that story our present +reminiscences will show, in which a lady of that race plays the principal +part.</p> + +<p>It may be ten years ago, that every day four very stylishly dressed +persons went to dine in a corner of the small dining-room of one of the +best hotels in Vienna, who, both there and elsewhere, gave occasion +for a great amount of talk. They were an Austrian landowner, his charming +wife, and two young diplomatists, one of whom came from the North, while +the other was a pure son of the South. There was no doubt that the lady +came in for the greatest share of the general interest in every respect.</p> + +<p>The practiced observer and discerner of human nature easily recognized +in her one of those characters which Goethe has so aptly named +"problematical," for she was one of those individuals who are always +dissatisfied and at variance with themselves and with the world, who are +a riddle to themselves, and who can never be relied on, and with the +interesting and captivating, though unfortunate contradictions in her +nature, she made a strong impression on everybody, even by her mere +outward appearance. She was one of those women who are called beautiful, +without their being really so. Her face, as well as her figure, was +wanting in æsthetic lines, but there was no doubt that, in spite of that, +or perhaps on that very account, she was the most dangerous, infatuating +woman that one could imagine.</p> + +<p>She was tall and thin, and there was a certain hardness about her figure, +which became a charm through the vivacity and grace of her movements; her +features harmonized with her figure, for she had a high, clever, cold +forehead, a strong mouth with sensual lips, and an angular, sharp chin, +the effect of which was, however, diminished by her slightly turned-up, +small nose, her beautifully arched eyebrows, and her large, animated, +swimming blue eyes.</p> + +<p>In her face, which was almost too full of expression for a woman, there +was as much feeling, kindness and candor as there was calculation, +coolness and deceit, and when she was angry and drew her upper lip up, so +as to show her dazzlingly white teeth, it had even a devilish look of +wickedness and cruelty, and at that time, when women still wore their own +hair, the beauty of her long, chestnut plaits, which she fastened on the +top of her head like a crown, was very striking. Besides this, she was +remarkable for her elegant, tasteful dresses, and a bearing which united +to the dignity of a lady of rank that undefinable something which makes +actresses and women who belong to the higher classes of the <i>demi-monde</i> +so interesting to us.</p> + +<p>In Paris she would have been taken for a kept woman, but in Vienna the +best drawing-rooms were open to her, and she was not looked upon as more +respectable or as less respectable than any other aristocratic beauties.</p> + +<p>Her husband decidedly belonged to that class of men whom that witty +writer, Balzac, so delightfully calls <i>les hommes prédestinés</i> in his +<i>Physiologie du Mariage</i>. Without doubt, he was a very good-looking man, +but he bore that stamp of insignificance which so often conceals +coarseness and vulgarity, and was one of those men who, in the long run, +become unendurable to a woman of refined tastes. He had a good private +income, but his wife understood the art of enjoying life, and so a +deficit in the yearly accounts of the young couple became the rule, +without causing the lively lady to check her noble passion in the least +on that account; she kept horses and carriages, rode with the greatest +boldness, had her box at the opera, and gave beautiful little suppers, +which at that time was the highest aim of a Viennese woman of her class.</p> + +<p>One of the two young diplomats who accompanied her, a young Count, +belonging to a well-known family in North Germany, and who was a perfect +gentleman in the highest sense of the word, was looked upon as her +adorer, while the other, who was his most intimate friend, yet, in spite +of his ancient name and his position as attaché to a foreign legation, +gave people that distinct impression that he was an adventurer, which +makes the police keep such a careful eye on some persons, and he had the +reputation of being an unscrupulous and dangerous duellist. Short, thin, +with a yellow complexion, with strongly-marked but engaging features, an +aquiline nose and bright, dark eyes, he was the typical picture of a man +who seduces women and kills men.</p> + +<p>The handsome woman appeared to be in love with the Count, and to take an +interest in his friend; at least, that was the construction that the +others in the dining-room put upon the situation, as far as it could +be made out from the behavior and looks of the people concerned, and +especially from their looks, for it was strange how devotedly and +ardently the beautiful woman's blue eyes rested on the Count, and with +what wild, diabolical sympathy she gazed at the Italian from time to +time, and it was hard to guess whether there was most love or hatred in +that glance. None of the four, however, who were then dining and chatting +so gaily together, had any presentiment at the time that they were +amusing themselves over a mine, which might explode at any moment, and +bury them all.</p> + +<p>It was the husband of the beautiful woman who provided the tinder. One +day he told her that she must make up her mind to the most rigid +retrenchment, give up her box at the opera, and sell her carriage and +horses, if she did not wish to risk her whole position in society. Her +creditors had lost all patience, and were threatening to distrain on her +property, and even to put her in prison. She made no reply to this +revelation, but during dinner she said to the Count, in a whisper, that +she must speak to him later, and would, therefore, come to see him at his +house. When it was dark, she came thickly veiled, and after she had +responded to his demonstrations of affection for some time, with more +patience than amiableness, she began. Their conversation is extracted +from his diary.</p> + +<p>"You are so unconcerned and happy, while misery and disgrace are +threatening me!" "Please explain what you mean!" "I have incurred some +debts." "Again?" he said reproachfully, "why do you not come to me at +once, for you must do it in the end, and then at least you would avoid +any exposure?" "Please do not take me to task," she replied; "you know it +only makes me angry. I want some money; can you give me some?" "How much +do you want?" She hesitated, for she had not the courage to name the real +amount, but at last she said, in a low voice: "Five thousand florins."<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +It was evidently only a small portion of what she really required, so +he replied: "I am sure you want more than that!" "No." "Really not?" "Do +not make me angry."</p> + +<p>He shrugged his shoulders, went to his strong box and gave her the money, +whereupon she nodded, and giving him her hand, she said: "You are always +kind, and as long as I have you, I am not afraid; but if I were to lose +you, I should be the most unhappy woman in the world." "You always have +the same fears; but I shall never leave you; it would be impossible for +me to separate from you," the Count exclaimed. "And if you die?" she +interrupted him hastily. "If I die?" the Count said, with a peculiar +smile. "I have provided for you in that eventuality also." "Do you +mean to say" ... she stammered, flushed, and her large, lovely eyes +rested on her lover with an indescribable expression in them. He, +however, opened a drawer in his writing-table, and took out a document, +which he gave her. It was his will. She opened it with almost indecent +haste, and when she saw the amount—thirty thousand florins—she grew +pale to her very lips.</p> + +<p>It was a moment in which the germs of a crime were sown in her breast, +but one of those crimes which cannot be touched by the Criminal Code. A +few days after she had paid her visit to the Count, she herself received +one from the Italian. In the course of conversation he took a jewel case +out of his breast pocket and asked her opinion of the ornaments, as she +was well-known for her taste in such matters, telling her at the same +time, that it was intended as a present for an actress, with whom he was +on intimate terms.—"It is a magnificent set!" she said, as she looked at +it. "You have made an excellent selection." Then she suddenly became +absorbed in thought, while her nostrils began to quiver, and that touch +of cold cruelty played on her lips.</p> + +<p>"Do you think that the lady for whom this ornament is intended will be +pleased with it?" the Italian asked. "Certainly," she replied; "I myself +would give a great deal to have it." "Then may I venture to offer it to +you?" the Italian said.</p> + +<p>She blushed, but did not refuse it, but the same evening she rushed into +her lover's room in a state of the greatest excitement. "I am beside +myself," she stammered; "I have been most deeply insulted." "By whom?" +the Count asked, excitedly. "By your friend, who has dared to send me +some jewelry to-day. I suppose he looks upon me as a lost woman; perhaps +I am already looked upon as belonging to the <i>demi-monde</i>, and this I owe +to you, to you alone, and to my mad love for you, to which I have +sacrificed my honor and everything. Everything!" She threw herself down +and sobbed, and would not be pacified until the Count gave her his word +of honor that he would set aside every consideration for his friend, and +obtain satisfaction for her at any price. He met the Italian the same +evening at a card party and questioned him.</p> + +<p>"I did not, in the first place, send the lady the jewelry, but I gave it +to her myself, not, however, until she had asked me to do so." "That is a +shameful lie!" the Count shouted, furiously. Unfortunately, there were +others present, and his friend took the matter seriously, so the next +morning he sent his seconds to the Count.</p> + +<p>Some of their real friends tried to settle the matter in another way, but +his bad angel, his mistress, who required thirty thousand florins, drove +the Count to his death. He was found in the Prater, with his friend's +bullet in his chest. A letter in his pocket spoke of suicide, but the +police did not doubt for a moment that a duel had taken place. Suspicion +soon fell on the Italian, but when they went to arrest him, he had +already made his escape.</p> + +<p>The husband of the beautiful, problematical woman, called on the +broken-hearted father of the man who had been killed in the duel, and who +had hastened to Vienna on receipt of a telegraphic message, a few hours +after his arrival, and demanded the money. "My wife was your son's most +intimate friend," he stammered, in embarrassment, in order to justify his +action as well as he could. "Oh! I know that," the old Count replied, +"and female friends of that kind want to be paid immediately, and in +full. Here are the thirty thousand florins."</p> + +<p>And our <i>Goldkind</i>? She paid her debts, and then withdrew from the scene +for a while. She had been compromised, certainly, but then, she had risen +in value in the eyes of those numerous men who can only adore and +sacrifice themselves for a woman when her foot is on the threshold of +vice and crime.</p> + +<p>I saw her last during the Franco-German war, in the beautiful +<i>Mirabell-garden</i> at Salzburg. She did not seem to feel any qualms of +conscience, for she had become considerably stouter, which made her more +attractive, more beautiful, and consequently, more dangerous, than she +was before.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_CARNIVAL_OF_LOVE" id="THE_CARNIVAL_OF_LOVE"></a>THE CARNIVAL OF LOVE</h2> + + +<p>The Princess Leonie was one of those beautiful, brilliant enigmas, who +irresistibly allure everyone like a Sphinx, for she was young, charming, +and singularly lovely, and understood how to heighten her charms not a +little by carefully-chosen dresses. She was a great lady of the right +stamp, and was very intellectual into the bargain, which is not the case +with all aristocratic ladies; she also took great interest in art and +literature, and it was even said that she patronized one of our poets in +a manner which was worthy of the Medicis, and that she strewed the +beautiful roses of continual female sympathy on to his thorny path. All +this was evident to everybody, and had nothing strange about it, but the +world would have liked to know the history of that woman, and to look +into the depths of her soul, and because people could not do this in +Princess Leonie's case, they thought it very strange.</p> + +<p>No one could read that face, which was always beautiful, always cheerful, +and always the same; no one could fathom those large, dark, unfathomable +eyes, which hid their secrets under the unvarying brilliancy of majestic +repose, like a mountain lake, whose waters look black on account of their +depth. For everybody was agreed that the beautiful princess had her +secrets, interesting and precious secrets, like all other ladies of our +fashionable world.</p> + +<p>Most people looked upon her as a flirt who had no heart, and even no +blood, and they asserted that she was only virtuous because the power of +loving was denied her, but that she took all the more pleasure in seeing +that she was loved, and that she set her trammels and enticed her +victims, until they surrendered at discretion at her feet, so that she +might leave them to their fate, and hurry off in pursuit of some fresh +game.</p> + +<p>Others declared that the beautiful woman had met with her romances in +life, and was still having them, but, as a thorough Messalina, she knew +how to conceal her adventures as cleverly as that French queen who had +every one of her lovers thrown into the cold waters of the Seine, as soon +as he quitted her soft, warm arms, and she was described thus to Count +Otto F., a handsome cavalry officer, who had made the acquaintance of the +beautiful, dangerous woman at that fashionable watering place, Karlsbad, +and had fallen deeply in love with her.</p> + +<p>Even before he had been introduced to her, the Princess had already +exchanged fiery, encouraging glances with him, and when a brother officer +took him to call on her, she welcomed him with a smile which appeared to +promise him happiness, but after he had paid his court to her for a +month, he did not seem to have made any progress, and as she possessed in +a high degree the skill of being able to avoid even the shortest private +interviews, it appeared as if matters would go no further than that +delightful promise.</p> + +<p>Night after night, the enamored young officer walked along the garden +railings of her villa as close to her windows as possible, without being +noticed by any one, and at last fortune seemed to favor him. The moon, +which was nearly at the full, was shining brightly, and in its silvery +light he saw a tall, female figure, with large plaits round her head, +coming along the grave path; he stood still, as he thought he recognized +the Princess, but as she came nearer he saw a pretty girl, whom he did +not know, and who came up to the railings and said to him with a smile: +"What can I do for you, Count?" mentioning his name.</p> + +<p>"You seem to know me, Fräulein." "Oh! I am only the Princess's +lady's-maid." ... "But you could do me a great favor." "How?" she asked +quickly: "You might give the Princess a letter." ... "I should not +venture to do that," the girl replied with a peculiar, half-mocking, +half-pitying smile, and with a deep curtsey, she disappeared behind +the raspberry bushes which formed a hedge along the railings.</p> + +<p>The next morning, as the Count, with several other ladies and gentlemen, +was accompanying the Princess home from the pump-room, the fair coquette +let her pocket-handkerchief fall just outside her house. The young +officer took this for a hint, so he picked it up, concealed the letter +that he had written, which he always kept about him so as to be prepared +for any event, in the folds of the soft cambric, and gave it back to the +Princess, who quickly put it into her pocket. That also seemed to him to +be a good augury, and, in fact, in the course of a few hours he received +a note in disguised handwriting, by the post, in which his bold wooing +was graciously entertained, and an appointment was made for the same +night in the pavilion of the Princess's villa.</p> + +<p>The happiness of the enamored young officer knew no bounds; he kissed the +letter a hundred times, thanked the Princess when he met her in the +afternoon where the band was playing by his animated looks, which she +either did not or could not understand, and at night was standing an hour +before the appointed time behind the wall at the bottom of the garden.</p> + +<p>When the church clock struck eleven he climbed over it and jumped on to +the ground on the other side, and looked about him carefully; then he +went up to the small, white-washed summer-house, where the Princess had +promised to meet him, on tiptoe. He found the door ajar, went in, and +at the same moment he felt two soft arms thrown round him. "Is it +you, Princess?" he asked, in a whisper, for the pavilion was in +total darkness, as the venetian blinds were drawn. "Yes, Count, it is +I." ... "How cruel." ... "I love you, but I am obliged to conceal my +passion under the mask of coldness because of my social position."</p> + +<p>As she said this, the enamored woman, who was trembling on his breast +with excitement, drew him on to a couch that occupied one side of the +pavilion, and began to kiss him ardently. The lovers spent two blissful +hours in delightful conversation and intoxicating pleasures; then she +bade him farewell, and told him to remain where he was until she had gone +back to the house. He obeyed her, but could not resist looking at her +through the venetian blinds, and he saw her tall, slim figure as she went +along the gravel path with an undulating walk. She wore a white boumous, +which he recognized as having seen in the pump-room; her soft, black hair +fell down over her shoulders, and before she disappeared into the villa +she stood for a moment and looked back, but he could not see her face, +as she wore a thick veil.</p> + +<p>When Count F. met the Princess the next morning in company with other +ladies, when the band was playing, she showed an amount of unconstraint +which confused him, and while she was joking in the most unembarrassed +manner, he turned crimson and stammered out such a lot of nonsense that +the ladies noticed it, and made him the target for their wit. None of +them was bolder or more confident in their attacks on him than the +Princess, so that at last he looked upon the woman who concealed so much +passion in her breast, and who yet could command herself so thoroughly, +as a kind of miracle, and at last said to himself: "The world is right; +woman is a riddle!"</p> + +<p>The Princess remained there for some weeks longer, and always maintained +the same polite and friendly, but cool and sometimes ironical, demeanor +towards him, but he easily endured being looked upon as her unfortunate +adorer by the world, for at least every other day a small, scented note, +stamped with her arms and signed <i>Leonie</i>, summoned him to the pavilion, +and there he enjoyed the full, delightful possession of the beautiful +woman. It, however, struck him as strange that she would never let him +see her face. Her head was always covered with a thick black veil, +through which he could see her eyes, which sparkled with love, +glistening; he passed his fingers through her hair, he saw her well-known +dresses, and once he succeeded in getting possession of one of her +pocket-handkerchiefs, on which the name <i>Leonie</i> and the princely coronet +were magnificently embroidered.</p> + +<p>When she returned to Vienna for the winter, a note from her invited him +to follow her there, and as he had indefinite leave of absence from his +regiment, he could obey the commands of his divinity. As soon as he +arrived there he received another note, which forbade him to go to her +house, but promised him a speedy meeting in his rooms, and so the young +officer had the furniture elegantly renovated, and looked forward to a +visit from the beautiful woman with all a lover's impatience.</p> + +<p>At last she came, wrapped in a magnificent cloak of green velvet, trimmed +with ermine, but still thickly veiled, and before she came in she made it +a condition that the room in which he received her should be quite dark, +and after he had put out all the lights she threw off her fur, and her +coldness gave way to the most impetuous tenderness.</p> + +<p>"What is the reason that you will never allow me to see your dear, +beautiful face?" the officer asked. "It is a whim of mine, and I suppose +I have the right to indulge in whims," she said, hastily. "But I so long +once more to see your splendid figure and your lovely face in full +daylight," the Count continued. "Very well then, you shall see me at the +Opera this evening."</p> + +<p>She left him at six o'clock, after stopping barely an hour with him, and +as soon as her carriage had driven off he dressed and went to the opera. +During the overture, he saw the Princess enter her box and looking +dazzlingly beautiful; she was wearing the same green velvet cloak, +trimmed with ermine, that he had had in his hands a short time before, +but almost immediately she let it fall from her shoulders, and showed a +bust which was worthy of the Goddess of Love. She spoke with her husband +with much animation, and smiled with her usual cold smile, though she did +not give her adorer even a passing look, but, in spite of this, he felt +the happiest of mortals.</p> + +<p>In Vienna, however, the Count was not as fortunate as he had been at +Karlsbad, where he had first met her, for his beautiful mistress only +came to see him once a week; often she only stopped a short time with +him, and once nearly six weeks passed without her favoring him at all, +and she did not even make any excuse for remaining away. Just then, +however, Leonie's husband accidentally made the young officer's +acquaintance at the Jockey Club, took a fancy to him, and asked him +to go and see him at his house.</p> + +<p>When he called and found the Princess alone his heart felt as if it would +burst with pleasure, and seizing her hand, he pressed it ardently to his +lips. "What are you doing, Count?" she said, drawing back. "You are +behaving very strangely." "We are alone," the young officer whispered, +"so why this mask of innocence? Your cruelty is driving me mad, for it is +six weeks since you came to see me last." "I certainly think you are out +of your mind," the Princess replied, with every sign of the highest +indignation, and hastily left the drawing-room. Nothing else remained for +the Count but to do the same thing, but his mind was in a perfect whirl, +and he was quite incapable of explaining to himself the Princess's +enigmatical behavior. He dined at an hotel with some friends, and when he +got home he found a note in which the Princess begged him to pardon her, +and promised to justify her conduct, for which purpose she would see him +at eight o'clock that evening.</p> + +<p>Scarcely, however, had he read her note, when two of his brother-officers +came to see him, and asked him, with well-simulated anxiety, whether he +were ill. When he said that he was perfectly well, one of them continued, +laughing: "Then please explain the occurrence that is in everybody's +mouth to-day, in which you play such a comical part."—"I, a comical +part?" the Count shouted.—"Well, is it not very comical when you call on +a lady like Princess Leonie, whom you do not know, to upbraid her for her +cruelty, and most unceremoniously call her <i>thou</i><a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>?"</p> + +<p>That was too much; Count F. might pardon the Princess for pretending +not to know him in society, but that she should make him a common +laughing-stock, nearly drove him mad. "If I call the Princess <i>thou</i>," +he exclaimed, "it is because I have the right to do so, as I will +prove."—His comrades shrugged their shoulders, but he asked them to +come again punctually at seven o'clock, and then he made his +preparations.</p> + +<p>At eight o'clock his divinity made her appearance, still thickly veiled, +but on this occasion wearing a valuable sable cloak. As usual, Count F. +took her into the dark-room and locked the outer door; then he opened +that which led into his bedroom, and his two friends came in, each with a +candle in his hand.—The lady in the sable cloak cried out in terror when +Count F. pulled off her veil, but then it was his turn to be surprised, +for it was not the Princess Leonie who stood before him, but her pretty +lady's-maid, who, now she was discovered, confessed that love had driven +her to assume her mistress's part, in which she had succeeded perfectly, +on account of the similarity of their figure, eyes and hair. She had +found the Count's letter in the Princess's pocket-handkerchief when they +were at Karlsbad and had answered it. She had made him happy, and had +heightened the illusion which her figure gave rise to by borrowing the +Princess's dresses.</p> + +<p>Of course the Count was made great fun of, and turned his back on Vienna +hastily that same evening, but the pretty lady's-maid also disappeared +soon after the catastrophe, and only by those means escaped from her +mistress's well-merited anger; for it turned out that that gallant little +individual had already played the part of her mistress more than once, +and had made all those hopeless adorers of the Princess, who had found +favor in her own eyes, happy in her stead.</p> + +<p>Thus the enigma was solved which Princess Leonie seemed to have proposed +to the world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_DEER_PARK_IN_THE_PROVINCES" id="A_DEER_PARK_IN_THE_PROVINCES"></a>A DEER PARK IN THE PROVINCES</h2> + + +<p>It is not very long ago that an Hungarian Prince, who was in an Austrian +cavalry regiment, was quartered in a wealthy Austrian garrison town. The +ladies of the local aristocracy naturally did everything they could to +allure the new comer, who was young, good-looking, animated and amusing, +into their nets, and at last one of the ripe beauties, who was now +resting there on her amorous laurels, after innumerable victories on the +hot floors of Viennese society, succeeded in taking him in her toils, but +only for a short time, for she had very nearly reached that limit in age +where, on the man's side, love ceases and esteem begins. But she had more +sense than most women, and she recognized the fact in good time, and as +she did not wish to give up the principal character which she played in +society there so easily, she reflected as to what means she could employ +to bind him to her in another manner. It is well known that the notorious +Marchioness de Pompadour, who was one of the mistresses of Louis XV. of +France, when her own charms did not suffice to fetter that changeable +monarch, conceived the idea of securing the chief power in the State and +in society for herself, by having a pavilion in the deer park, which +belonged to her, and where Louis XV. was in the habit of hunting, fitted +up with every accommodation of a harem, where she brought beautiful women +and girls of all ranks of life to the arms of her royal lover.</p> + +<p>Inspired by that historical example, the baroness began to arrange +evening parties, balls, and private theatricals in the winter, and in the +summer excursions into the country, and thus she gave the Prince, who at +that time was still, so to say, at her feet, the opportunity of plucking +fresh flowers. But even this clever expedient did not avail in the long +run, for beautiful women were scarce in that provincial town, and the few +which the local aristocracy could produce were not able to offer the +Prince any fresh attractions, when he had made their closer acquaintance. +At last, therefore, he turned his back on the highly-born Messalinas, and +began to bestow marked attention on the pretty women and girls of the +middle classes, either in the streets or when he was in his box at the +theater.</p> + +<p>There was one girl in particular, the daughter of a well-to-do merchant, +who was supposed to be the most beautiful girl in the capital, on to +whom his opera glass was constantly leveled, and whom he even followed +occasionally without being noticed. But Baroness Pompadour soon got wind +of this unprincely taste, and determined to do everything in her power to +keep her lover and the whole nobility, which was threatened, from such an +unheard-of disgrace, as an intrigue of a Prince with a girl of the middle +classes, would have been in her eyes. "It is really sad," the outraged +baroness once said to me, "that in these days princes and monarchs choose +their mistresses only from the stage, or even from the scum of the +people. But it is the fault of our ladies themselves. They mistake their +vocation! Ah! Where are those delightful times when the daughters of the +first families looked upon it as an honor to become their princes' +mistresses?"</p> + +<p>Consequently, the horror of the blue-blooded, aristocratic lady was +intense when the Prince, in his usual, amiable, careless manner, +suggested to her to people her deer park with girls of the lower orders.</p> + +<p>"It is a ridiculous prejudice," the Prince said on that occasion, "which +obliges us to shut ourselves off from the other ranks, and to confine +ourselves altogether to our own circle, for monotony and boredom are the +inevitable consequences of it. How many honorable men of sense and +education, and especially how many charming women and girls there are, +who do not belong to the aristocracy, who would infuse fresh life and a +new charm into our dull, listless society! I very much wish that a lady +like you would make a beginning, and would give up this exclusiveness, +which cannot be maintained in these days, and would enrich our circle +with the charming daughters of middle class families."</p> + +<p>A wish of the Prince's was as good as a command; so the baroness made a +wry face, but she accommodated herself to the circumstances, and promised +to invite some of the prettiest girls of the <i>plebs</i> to a ball in a few +days. She really issued a number of invitations, and even condescended to +drive to the house of each of them in person. "But I must ask one thing +of you," she said to each of the pretty girls, "and that is to come +dressed as simply as possible; washing muslins will be best. The Prince +dislikes all finery and ostentation and he would be very vexed with me if +I were the cause of any extravagance on your part."</p> + +<p>The great day arrived; it was quite an event for the little town, and all +classes of society were in a state of the greatest excitement. The +pretty, plebeian girls, with her whom the Prince had first noticed at +their head, appeared in all their innocence, in plain, washing dresses, +according to the Prince's orders, with their hair plainly dressed, and +without any ornaments, except their own fresh, buxom charms. When they +were all captives in the den of the proud, aristocratic lioness, the poor +little mice were very much terrified when suddenly the aristocratic +ladies came into the ball-room, rustling in whole oceans of silks and +lace, with their haughty heads changed into so many hanging gardens of +Semiramis, loaded with all the treasures of India, and radiant as the +sun.</p> + +<p>At first the poor girls looked down in shame and confusion, and Baroness +Pompadour's eyes glistened with all the joy of triumph, but her +ill-natured pleasure did not last long, for the intrigue, on which the +Prince's ignoble passions were to make shipwreck, recoiled on the +highly-born lady patroness of the deer park.</p> + +<p>It was not the aristocratic ladies in their magnificent toilettes that +threw the girls from the middle classes into the shade, but, on the +contrary, those pretty girls in their washing dresses, and with the plain +but splendid ornament of their abundant hair looked far more charming +than they would have done in silk dresses with long trains, and with +flowers in their hair, and the novelty and unwontedness of their +appearance there allured not only the Prince, but all the other gentlemen +and officers, so that the proud grand-daughters of the lions, griffins, +and eagles, were quite neglected by the gentlemen, who danced almost +exclusively with the pretty girls of the middle classes.</p> + +<p>The faded lips of the baronesses and countesses uttered many a "<i>For +Shame</i>!" but all in vain, neither was it any good for the Baroness to +make up her mind that she would never again put a social medley before +the Prince in her drawing-room, for he had seen through her intrigue, and +gave her up altogether. <i>Sic transit gloria mundi!</i></p> + +<p>She, however, consoled herself as best she could.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_WHITE_LADY" id="THE_WHITE_LADY"></a>THE WHITE LADY</h2> + + +<p>Fortuna, the goddess of chance and good luck, has always been <i>Cupid's</i> +best ally and Arnold T., who was a lieutenant in a hussar regiment, was +evidently a special favorite of both those roguish deities.</p> + +<p>This good-looking, well-bred young officer had been an enthusiastic +admirer of the two Countesses W., mother and daughter, during a tolerably +long leave of absence, which he spent with his relations in Vienna. He +had admired them from the <i>Prater</i>, and worshiped them at the opera, but +he had never had an opportunity of making their acquaintance, and when he +was back at his dull quarters in Galicia, he liked to think about those +two aristocratic beauties. Last summer his regiment was transferred to +Bohemia, to a wildly romantic district, that had been made illustrious +by a talented writer, which abounded in magnificent woods, lofty +mountain-forests and castles, and which was a favorite summer resort +of the neighboring aristocracy.</p> + +<p>Who can describe his joyful surprise, when he and his men were quartered +in an old, weather-beaten castle in the middle of a wood, and he learnt +from the house-steward who received him that the owner of the castle was +the husband, and, consequently, also the father of his Viennese ideals. +An hour after he had taken possession of his old-fashioned, but +beautifully furnished, room in a side-wing of the castle, he put on +his full-dress uniform, and throwing his dolman over his shoulders, he +went to pay his respects to the Count and the ladies.</p> + +<p>He was received with the greatest cordiality. The Count was delighted to +have a companion when he went out shooting, and the ladies were no less +pleased at having some one to accompany them on their walks in the +forests, or on their rides, so that he felt only half on the earth, and +half in the seventh heaven of Mohammedan bliss. Before supper he had time +to inspect the house more closely, and even to take a sketch of the +large, gloomy building from a favorable point. The ancient seat of the +Counts of W. was really very gloomy; in fact it created a sinister, +uncomfortable feeling. The walls, which were crumbling away here and +there, and which were covered with dark ivy; the round towers, which +harbored jackdaws, owls, and hawks; the Æolian harp, which complained +and sighed and wept in the wind; the stones in the castle yard, which +were overgrown with grass; the cloisters, in which every footstep +re-echoed; the great ancestral portraits which hung on the walls, coated +as it were with dark, mysterious veils by the centuries which had passed +over them—all this recalled to him the legends and fairy tales +of his youth, and he involuntarily thought of the <i>Sleeping Beauty in the +Wood</i>, and of <i>Blue Beard</i>, of the cruel mistress of the Kynast,<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and +that aristocratic tigress of the Carpathians, who obtained the unfading +charms of eternal youth by bathing in human blood.</p> + +<p>He came in to supper where he found himself for the first time in company +with all the members of the family, just in the frame of mind that was +suitable for ghosts, and was not a little surprised when his host told +him, half smiling and half seriously, that the "White Lady" was +disturbing the castle again, and that she had latterly been seen very +often. "Yes, indeed," Countess Ida exclaimed; "You must take care, Baron, +for she haunts the very wing where your room is." The hussar was just in +the frame of mind to take the matter seriously, but, on the other hand, +when he saw the dark, ardent eyes of the Countess, and then the merry +blue eyes of her daughter fixed on him, any real fear of ghosts was quite +out of the question with him. For Baron T. feared nothing in this world, +but he possessed a very lively imagination, which could conjure up +threatening forms from another world so plainly that sometimes he felt +very uncomfortable at his own fancies. But on the present occasion that +malicious apparition had no power over him; the ladies took care of that, +for both of them were beautiful and amiable.</p> + +<p>The Countess was a mature Venus of thirty-six, of middle height, and with +the voluptuous figure of a true Viennese, with bright eyes, thick dark +hair, and beautiful white teeth, while her daughter Ida, who was +seventeen, had light hair and the pert little nose of the china figures +of shepherdesses in the dress of the period of Louis XIV., and was short, +slim, and full of French grace. Besides them and the Count, a son of +twelve and his tutor were present at supper. It struck the hussar as +strange that the tutor, who was a strongly-built young man, with a +winning face and those refined manners which the greatest plebeian +quickly acquires when brought into close and constant contact with the +aristocracy, was treated with great consideration by all the family +except the Countess, who treated him very haughtily. She assumed a +particularly imperious manner towards her son's tutor, and she either +found fault with, or made fun of, everything that he did, while he put +up with it all with smiling humility.</p> + +<p>Before supper was over their conversation again turned on to the ghost, +and Baron T. asked whether they did not possess a picture of the <i>White +Lady</i>. "Of course we have one," they all replied at once; whereupon Baron +T. begged to be allowed to see it. "I will show it you to-morrow," the +Count said. "No, Papa, now, immediately," the younger lady said +mockingly; "just before the ghostly hour, such a thing creates a much +greater impression."</p> + +<p>All who were present, not excepting the boy and his tutor, took a candle +and then they walked as if they had formed a torchlight procession, to +the wing of the house where the hussar's room was. There was a life-size +picture of the <i>White Lady</i> hanging in a Gothic passage near his room, +among other ancestral portraits, and it by no means made a terrible +impression on anyone who looked at it, but rather the contrary. The +ghost, dressed in stiff, gold brocade and purple velvet, and with a hawk +on her wrist, looked like one of those seductive Amazons of the fifteenth +century, who exercised the art of laying men and game at their feet with +equal skill.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think that the <i>White Lady</i> is very like mamma?" Countess Ida +said, interrupting the Baron's silent contemplation of the picture. +"There is no doubt of it," the hussar replied, while the Countess smiled +and the tutor turned red, and they were still standing before the +picture, when a strong gust of wind suddenly extinguished all the lights, +and they all uttered a simultaneous cry. The <i>White Lady</i>, the little +Count whispered, but she did not come, and as it was luckily a moonlight +night, they soon recovered from their momentary shock. The family retired +to their apartments, while the hussar and the tutor went to their own +rooms, which were situated in the wing of the castle which was haunted by +the <i>White Lady</i>; the officer's being scarcely thirty yards from the +portrait, while the tutor's were rather further down the corridor.</p> + +<p>The hussar went to bed, and was soon fast asleep, and though he had +rather uneasy dreams nothing further happened. But while they were at +breakfast the next morning, the Count's body-servant told them, with +every appearance of real terror, that as he was crossing the court-yard +at midnight, he had suddenly heard a noise like bats in the open +cloisters, and when he looked he distinctly saw the <i>White Lady</i> gliding +slowly through them; but they merely laughed at the poltroon, and though +our hussar laughed also, he fully made up his mind, without saying a word +about it, to keep a look-out for the ghost that night.</p> + +<p>Again they had supper alone, without any company, had some music and +pleasant talk and separated at half-past eleven. The hussar, however, +only went to his room for form's sake; he loaded his pistols, and when +all was quiet in the castle, he crept down into the court-yard and took +up his position behind a pillar which was quite hidden in the shade, +while the moon, which was nearly at the full, flooded the cloisters with +its clear, pale light.</p> + +<p>There were no lights to be seen in the castle except from two windows, +which were those of the Countess's apartments, and soon they were also +extinguished. The clock struck twelve, and the hussar could scarcely +breathe from excitement; the next moment, however, he heard the noise +which the Count's body-servant had compared to that of bats, and almost +at the same instant a white figure glided slowly through the open +cloisters and passed so close to him, that it almost made his blood +curdle, and then it disappeared in the wing of the castle which he and +the tutor occupied.</p> + +<p>The officer who was usually so brave, stood as though he was paralyzed +for a few moments, but then he took heart, and feeling determined to make +the nearer acquaintance of the spectral beauty, he crept softly up the +broad staircase and took up his position in a deep recess in the +cloisters, where nobody could see him.</p> + +<p>He waited for a long time; he heard every quarter strike, and at last, +just before the close of the <i>witching hour</i>, he heard the same noise +like the rustling of bats, and then she came, he felt the flutter of her +white dress, and she stood before him—it was indeed the Countess.</p> + +<p>He presented his pistol at her as he challenged her, but she raised her +hand menacingly. "Who are you?" he exclaimed. "If you are really a ghost, +prove it, for I am going to fire." "For heaven's sake!" the White Lady +whispered, and at the same instant two white arms were thrown round him, +and he felt a full, warm bosom heaving against his own.</p> + +<p>After that night the ghost appeared more frequently still. Not only did +the <i>White Lady</i> make her appearance every night in the cloisters, only +to disappear in the proximity of the hussar's rooms as long as the family +remained at the castle, but she even followed them to Vienna.</p> + +<p>Baron T., who went to that capital on leave of absence during the +following winter, and who was the Count's guest at the express wish of +his wife, was frequently told by the footman that although hitherto she +had seemed to be confined to the old castle in Bohemia, she had shown +herself now here, now there, in the mansion in Vienna, in a white dress +and making a noise like the wings of a bat, and bearing a striking +resemblance to the beautiful Countess.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CAUGHT" id="CAUGHT"></a>CAUGHT</h2> + + +<p>A young and charming lady, who was a member of the Viennese aristocracy, +went last summer, like young and charming ladies usually do, to a +fashionable Austrian watering place, Carlsbad, which is much frequented +by foreigners, without her husband.</p> + +<p>As is usually the case in their rank of life, she had married from family +considerations and for money; and the short spell of <i>Love after +Marriage</i> was not sufficient to take deep root, and after she had +satisfied family traditions and her husband's wishes by giving birth +to a son and heir, they both went their way; the young, handsome and +fascinating man to his clubs, the race-course, and behind the scenes at +the theaters, and his charming, coquettish wife to her box at the opera, +to the ice in winter, and to some fashionable watering place in the +summer.</p> + +<p>On the present occasion she brought a young, very highly-connected Pole +with her from one of the latter resorts, who enjoyed all the rights and +the liberty of an avowed favorite, and who had to perform all the duties +of a slave.</p> + +<p>As is usual in such cases, the lady rented a small house in one of the +suburbs of Vienna, had it beautifully furnished and received her lover +there. She was always dressed very attractively, sometimes as <i>La Belle +Hélène</i> in Offenbach's Opera, only rather more after the ancient Greek +fashion; another time as an Odalisque in the Sultan's harem, and another +time as a lighthearted Suabian girl, and so forth. In winter, however, +she grew tired of such meetings, and she wanted to have matters more +comfortable, so she took it into her head to receive her lover in her own +house. But how was it to be done? That, however, gave her no particular +difficulty, as is the case with every woman, when once she has made up +her mind to a thing, and after thinking it over for a day or two she went +to the next <i>rendez-vous</i>, with a fully prepared plan of war.</p> + +<p>The Pole was one of those types of handsome men which are rare; he was +almost womanly in his delicate features, of the middle height, slim and +well-made, and he resembled a youthful Bacchus who might very easily be +made to pass for a Venus by the help of false locks; the more so as there +was not even the slightest down on his lips. The lady, therefore, who was +very fertile in resources, suggested to the handsome Pole that he might +just as well transform himself into a handsome Polish lady, so that he +might, under the cover of the ever feminine, be able to visit her +undisturbed, and as it was winter, the thick, heavy, capacious dress +assisted the metamorphosis.</p> + +<p>The lady, accordingly, bought a number of very beautiful costumes for her +lover, and in the course of a few days she told her husband that a +charming young Polish lady, whose acquaintance she had made in the +summer at Carlsbad, was going to spend the winter in Vienna, and would +very frequently come and see her. Her husband listened to her with the +greatest indifference, for it was one of his fundamental rules never to +make love to any of his wife's female friends, and he went to his club as +usual at night, and the next day had forgotten all about the Polish lady.</p> + +<p>And now, half an hour after the husband had left the house, a cab drove +up and a tall, slim, heavily veiled lady got out and went up the thickly +carpeted stairs, only to be metamorphosed into the most ardent lover in +the young woman's <i>boudoir</i>. The young Pole grew accustomed to his female +attire so quickly that he even ventured to appear in the streets in it, +and when he began to make conquests, and aristocratic gentlemen and +successful speculators on the Stock Exchange looked at him significantly, +and even followed him, he took a real pleasure in the part he was +playing, and began to understand the pleasure a coquette feels in +tormenting men.</p> + +<p>The young Pole became more and more daring, until at last one evening he +went to a private box at the opera, wrapped in an ermine cloak, on to +which his dark, false curls fell in heavy waves.</p> + +<p>A handsome young man in a box opposite to him ogled him incessantly from +the first moment, and the young Pole responded in a manner which made the +other bolder every minute. At the end of the third act, the box opener +brought the fictitious Venus a small bouquet with a card concealed in it, +on which was written in pencil: "You are the most lovely woman in the +world, and I implore you on my knees to grant me an interview." The young +Pole read the name of the man who had been captivated so quickly, and, +with a peculiar smile, wrote on a card on which nothing but the name +"Valeska" was printed: "After the theater," and sent Cupid's messenger +back with it.</p> + +<p>When the spurious Venus was about to enter her carriage after the +performance, thickly veiled and wrapped in her ermine cloak, the handsome +young man was standing by it with his hat off, and he opened the door for +her. She was kind enough to allow him to get in with her and during their +drive she talked to him in the most charming manner, but she was cruel +enough to dismiss him without pity before they reached her house, and +this she did every time. For she went to the theater each night now, and +every evening she received an ardent note, and every evening she allowed +the amorous swain to accompany her as far as her house, and men were +beginning to envy him on account of his brilliant conquest, when a +catastrophe happened which was very surprising for all concerned.</p> + +<p>The husband of the lady in whose eyes the Pole had found favor, surprised +the loving couple one day under circumstances which made any +justification impossible. But while he, trembling with rage and jealousy, +was drawing a small Circassian dagger which hung against the wall from +its sheath, and as his wife threw herself, half-fainting, on to a couch, +the young Pole had hastily put the false curls on to his head, and had +slipped into the silk dress and the sable cloak which he had been wearing +when he came into his mistress's boudoir. "What does this mean," the +husband stammered, "Valeska?"—"Yes, sir," the young Pole replied; +"Valeska, who has come here to show your wife a few love letters, +which." ... "No, no," the deceived, but nevertheless guilty, husband said +in imploring accents; "no, that is quite unnecessary." And at the same +time he put the dagger back into its sheath. "Very well then, there is a +truce between us," the Pole observed coolly, "but do not forget what +weapons I possess, and which I mean to retain against all contingencies."</p> + +<p>Then the gentlemen bowed politely to each other, and the unexpected +meeting came to an end.</p> + +<p>From that time forward, the terms on which the young married couple lived +together assumed the character of that everlasting peace, which President +Grant once promised to the whole world in his message to all nations. The +young woman did not find it necessary to make her lover put on +petticoats, and the husband constantly accompanied the real Valeska a +good deal further than he did the false one on that memorable occasion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHRISTMAS_EVE" id="CHRISTMAS_EVE"></a>CHRISTMAS EVE</h2> + + +<p>"The Christmas-eve supper!<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Oh! no, I shall never go in for that again!" +Stout Henri Templier said that in a furious voice, as if some one had +proposed some crime to him, while the others laughed and said:</p> + +<p>"What are you flying into a rage about?"</p> + +<p>"Because a Christmas-eve supper played me the dirtiest trick in the +world, and ever since I have felt an insurmountable horror for that night +of imbecile gayety."</p> + +<p>"Tell us what it is?"</p> + +<p>"You want to know what it was? Very well then, just listen.</p> + +<p>"You remember how cold it was two years ago at Christmas; cold enough to +kill poor people in the streets. The Seine was covered with ice; the +pavements froze one's feet through the soles of one's boots, and the +whole world seemed to be at the point of going to pot.</p> + +<p>"I had a big piece of work on, and so I refused every invitation to +supper, as I preferred to spend the night at my writing table. I dined +alone and then began to work. But about ten o'clock I grew restless at +the thought of the gay and busy life all over Paris, at the noise in the +streets which reached me in spite of everything, at my neighbors' +preparations for supper, which I heard through the walls. I hardly knew +any longer what I was doing; I wrote nonsense, and at last I came to the +conclusion that I had better give up all hope of producing any good work +that night.</p> + +<p>"I walked up and down my room; I sat down and got up again. I was +certainly under the mysterious influence of the enjoyment outside, and +I resigned myself to it. So I rang for my servant and said to her:</p> + +<p>"'Angela, go and get a good supper for two; some oysters, a cold +partridge, some crayfish, hams and some cakes. Put out two bottles of +champagne, lay the cloth and go to bed.'</p> + +<p>"She obeyed in some surprise, and when all was ready, I put on my great +coat and went out. A great question was to be solved: 'Whom was I going +to bring in to supper?' My female friends had all been invited elsewhere, +and if I had wished to have one, I ought to have seen about it +beforehand, so I thought that I would do a good action at the same time, +and I said to myself:</p> + +<p>"'Paris is full of poor and pretty girls who will have nothing on their +table to-night, and who are on the look out for some generous fellow. I +will act the part of Providence to one of them this evening; and I will +find one if I have to go into every pleasure resort, and have to question +them and hunt for one till I find one to my choice.' And I started off on +my search.</p> + +<p>"I certainly found many poor girls, who were on the look-out for some +adventure, but they were ugly enough to give any man a fit of +indigestion, or thin enough to freeze as they stood if they had stopped, +and you all know that I have a weakness for stout women. The more flesh +they have, the better I like them, and a female colossus would drive me +out of my senses with pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly, opposite the Théâtre des Variétés, I saw a face to my liking. +A good head, and then two protuberances, that on the chest very +beautiful, and that on the stomach simply surprising; it was the stomach +of a fat goose. I trembled with pleasure, and said:</p> + +<p>"'By Jove! What a fine girl!'</p> + +<p>"It only remained for me to see her face. A woman's face is the dessert, +while the rest is ... the joint.</p> + +<p>"I hastened on, and overtook her, and turned round suddenly under a gas +lamp. She was charming, quite young, dark, with large, black eyes, and +I immediately made my proposition, which she accepted without any +hesitation, and a quarter of an hour later, we were sitting at supper in +my lodgings. 'Oh! how comfortable it is here,' she said as she came in, +and she looked about her with evident satisfaction at having found a +supper and a bed, on that bitter night. She was superb; so beautiful that +she astonished me, and so stout that she fairly captivated me.</p> + +<p>"She took off her cloak and hat, sat down and began to eat; but she +seemed in low spirits, and sometimes her pale face twitched as if she +were suffering from some hidden sorrow.</p> + +<p>"'Have you anything troubling you?' I asked her.</p> + +<p>"'Bah! Don't let us think of troubles!'</p> + +<p>"And she began to drink. She emptied her champagne glass at a draught, +filled it again, and emptied it again, without stopping, and soon a +little color came into her cheeks, and she began to laugh.</p> + +<p>"I adored her already, kissed her continually, and discovered that she +was neither stupid, nor common, nor coarse as ordinary street-walkers +are. I asked her for some details about her life, but she replied:</p> + +<p>"'My little fellow, that is no business of yours!' Alas! an hour +later....</p> + +<p>"At last it was time to go to bed, and while I was clearing the table, +which had been laid in front of the fire, she undressed herself quickly, +and got in. My neighbors were making a terrible din, singing and +laughing like lunatics, and so I said to myself:</p> + +<p>"'I was quite right to go out and bring in this girl; I should never have +been able to do any work.'</p> + +<p>"At that moment, however, a deep groan made me look round, and I said:</p> + +<p>"'What is the matter with you, my dear?'</p> + +<p>"She did not reply, but continued to utter painful sighs, as if she were +suffering horribly, and I continued:</p> + +<p>"'Do you feel ill?' And suddenly she uttered a cry, a heartrending cry, +and I rushed up to the bed, with a candle in my hand.</p> + +<p>"Her face was distorted with pain, and she was wringing her hands, +panting and uttering long, deep groans, which sounded like a rattle in +the throat, and which are so painful to hear, and I asked her in +consternation:</p> + +<p>"'What is the matter with you? Do tell me what is the matter.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh! my stomach! my stomach!' she said. I pulled up the bed-clothes, and +I saw ... My friends, she was in labor.</p> + +<p>"Then I lost my head, and I ran and knocked at the wall with my fists, +shouting: 'Help! help!'</p> + +<p>"My door was opened almost immediately, and a crowd of people came in, +men in evening dress, women in low necks, harlequins, Turks, Musketeers, +and this inroad startled me so, that I could not explain myself, and +they, who had thought that some accident had happened, or that a crime +had been committed, could not understand what was the matter. At last, +however, I managed to say:</p> + +<p>"'This ... this ... woman ... is being confined.'</p> + +<p>"Then they looked at her, and gave their opinion, and a Friar, +especially, declared that he knew all about it, and wished to assist +nature, but as they were all as drunk as pigs, I was afraid that they +would kill her, and I rushed downstairs without my hat, to fetch an old +doctor, who lived in the next street. When I came back with him, the +whole house was up; the gas on the stairs had been relighted, the lodgers +from every floor were in my room, while four boatmen were finishing my +champagne and lobsters.</p> + +<p>"As soon as they saw me they raised a loud shout, and a milkmaid +presented me with a horrible little wrinkled specimen of humanity, that +was mewing like a cat, and said to me:</p> + +<p>"'It is a girl.'</p> + +<p>"The doctor examined the woman, declared that she was in a dangerous +state, as the event had occurred immediately after supper, and he took +his leave, saying he would immediately send a sick nurse and a wet nurse, +and an hour later, the two women came, bringing all that was requisite +with them.</p> + +<p>"I spent the night in my armchair, too distracted to be able to think of +the consequences, and almost as soon as it was light, the doctor came +again, who found his patient very ill, and said to me:</p> + +<p>"'Your wife, Monsieur....'</p> + +<p>"'She is not my wife,' I interrupted him.</p> + +<p>"'Very well then, your mistress; it does not matter to me.'</p> + +<p>"He told me what must be done for her, what her diet must be, and then +wrote a prescription.</p> + +<p>"What was I to do? Could I send the poor creature to the hospital? I +should have been looked upon as a brute in the house and in all the +neighborhood, and so I kept her in my rooms, and she had my bed for six +weeks.</p> + +<p>"I sent the child to some peasants at Poissy to be taken care of, and she +still costs me fifty francs<a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> a month, for as I had paid at first, I +shall be obliged to go on paying as long as I live, and later on, she +will believe that I am her father. But to crown my misfortunes, when the +girl had recovered ... I found that she was in love with me, madly in +love with me, the baggage!"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Well, she had grown as thin as a homeless cat, and I turned the skeleton +out of doors, but she watches for me in the streets, hides herself, so +that she may see me pass, stops me in the evening when I go out, in order +to kiss my hand, and, in fact, worries me enough to drive me mad; and +that is why I never keep Christmas eve now."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WORDS_OF_LOVE" id="WORDS_OF_LOVE"></a>WORDS OF LOVE</h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Sunday.—</p> + +<p>You do not write to me, I never see you, you never come, so I must +suppose that you have ceased to love me. But why? What have I done? Pray +tell me, my own dear love. I love you so much, so dearly! I should like +always to have you near me, to kiss you all day while I called you every +tender name that I could think of. I adore you, I adore you, I adore you, +my beautiful cock.—Your affectionate hen,</p> + +<p>SOPHIE.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Monday.—</p> + +<p>My dear friend,</p> + +<p>You will absolutely understand nothing of what I am going to say to you, +but that does not matter, and if my letter happens to be read by another +woman, it may be profitable to her.</p> + +<p>Had you been deaf and dumb, I should no doubt have loved you for a very +long time, and the cause of what has happened is, that you can talk; that +is all.</p> + +<p>In love, you see, dreams are always made to sing, but in order that they +might do so, they must not be interrupted, and when one talks between two +kisses, one always interrupts that frenzied dream which our souls indulge +in, unless they utter sublime words; and sublime words do not come out of +the little mouths of pretty girls.</p> + +<p>You do not understand me at all, do you? So much the better, and I will +go on. You are certainly one of the most charming and adorable women whom +I have ever seen.</p> + +<p>Are there any eyes on earth that contain more dreams than yours, more +unknown promises, greater depths of love? I do not think so. And when +that mouth of yours, with its two round lips, smiles, and shows the +glistening white teeth, one is tempted to say that there issues from this +ravishing mouth ineffable music, something inexpressibly delicate, a +sweetness which extorts sighs.</p> + +<p>It is then that you quietly call out to me, my great and renowned +"lady-killer," and it then seems to me as though I had suddenly found +an entrance into your thoughts, which I can see is ministering to your +soul—that little soul of a pretty, little creature, yes, pretty, +but—and that is what troubles me, don't you see, troubles me more than +tongue can tell. I would much prefer never to see you at all.</p> + +<p>You go on pretending not to understand anything, do you not? I calculate +on that.</p> + +<p>Do you remember the first time you came to see me at my residence? +How gaily you stepped inside, an odor of violets, which clung to your +skirts, heralding your entrance; how we regarded each other, for ever +so long, without uttering a word, after which we embraced like two +fools.... Then ... then from that time to this, we have never exchanged +a word.</p> + +<p>But when we separated, did not our trembling hands and our eyes say many +things, things ... which cannot be expressed in any language. At least, I +thought so; and when you went away, you murmured:</p> + +<p>"We shall meet again soon!"</p> + +<p>That was all you said, and you will never guess what delightful dreams +you left me, all that I, as it were, caught a glimpse of, all that I +fancied I could guess in your thoughts.</p> + +<p>You see, my poor child, for men who are not stupid, who are rather +refined and somewhat superior, love is such a complicated instrument, +that the merest trifle puts it out of order. You women never perceive the +ridiculous side of certain things when you love, and you fail to see the +grotesqueness of some expressions.</p> + +<p>Why does a word which sounds quite right in the mouth of a small, dark +woman, seem quite wrong and funny in the mouth of a fat, light-haired +woman? Why are the wheedling ways of the one, altogether out of place +in the other?</p> + +<p>Why is it that certain caresses which are delightful from the one, should +be wearisome from the other? Why? Because in everything, and especially +in love, perfect harmony, absolute agreement in motion, voice, words, and +in demonstrations of tenderness, are necessary, with the person who +moves, speaks and manifests affection; it is necessary in age, in height, +in the color of the hair, and in the style of beauty.</p> + +<p>If a woman of thirty-five, who has arrived at the age of violent, +tempestuous passion, were to preserve the slightest traces of the +caressing archness of her love affairs at twenty, were not to understand +that she ought to express herself differently, look at her lover +differently, and kiss him differently were not to see that she ought to +be Dido and not a Juliette, she would infallibly disgust nine lovers out +of ten, even if they could not account to themselves for their +estrangement. Do you understand me? No. I hoped so.</p> + +<p>From the time that you turned on your tap of tenderness, it was all over +for me, my dear friend. Sometimes we would embrace for five minutes, in +one interminable kiss, one of those kisses which make lovers close their +eyes, as if part of it would escape through their looks, as if to +preserve it entire in that clouded soul which it is ravaging. And then, +when our lips separated, you would say to me:</p> + +<p>"That was nice, you fat old dog."</p> + +<p>At such moments, I could have beaten you; for you gave me successively +all the names of animals and vegetables which you doubtless found in some +<i>cookery book</i>, or <i>Gardener's Manual</i>. But that is nothing.</p> + +<p>The caresses of love are brutal, bestial, and if one comes to think of +it, grotesque! ... Oh! My poor child, what joking elf, what perverse +sprite could have prompted the concluding words of your letter to me? I +have made a collection of them, but out of love for you, I will not show +them to you.</p> + +<p>And you really sometimes said things which were quite inopportune, and +you managed now and then to let out an exalted: <i>I love you!</i> on such +singular occasions, that I was obliged to restrain a strong desire to +laugh. There are times when the words: <i>I love you!</i> are so out of place, +that they become indecorous; let me tell you that.</p> + +<p>But you do not understand me, and many other women will also not +understand me, and think me stupid, though that matters very little to +me. Hungry men eat like gluttons, but people of refinement are disgusted +at it, and they often feel an invincible dislike for a dish, on account +of a mere trifle. It is the same with love, as it is with cookery.</p> + +<p>What I cannot comprehend, for example, is, that certain women who fully +understand the irresistible attraction of fine, embroidered stockings, +the exquisite charm of shades, the witchery of valuable lace concealed +in the depths of their underclothing, the exciting jest of hidden luxury, +and all the subtle delicacies of female elegance, never understand the +invincible disgust with which words that are out of place, or foolishly +tender, inspire us.</p> + +<p>At times coarse and brutal expressions work wonders, as they excite the +senses, and make the heart beat, and they are allowable at the hours of +combat. Is not that sentence of Cambronne's sublime? <a name="FNanchor_J_10" id="FNanchor_J_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Nothing shocks us that comes at the right time; but then, we must also +know when to hold our tongue, and to avoid phrases <i>à la Paul de Kock</i>, +at certain moments.</p> + +<p>And I embrace you passionately, on the condition that you say nothing,</p> + +<p>RENE.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_DIVORCE_CASE" id="A_DIVORCE_CASE"></a>A DIVORCE CASE</h2> + + +<p>M. Chassel advocate, rises to speak: Mr. President and gentlemen of the +jury. The cause that I am charged to defend before you, requires medicine +rather than justice; and is much more a case of pathology than a case of +ordinary law. At first blush the facts seem very simple.</p> + +<p>A young man, very rich, with a noble and cultivated mind, and a generous +heart, becomes enamored of a young lady, who is the perfection of beauty, +more than beautiful, in fact; she is adorable, besides being as gracious, +as she is charming, as good and true as she is tender and pretty, and he +marries her. For some time, he comports himself towards her not only as a +devoted husband, but as a man full of solicitude and tenderness. Then he +neglects her, misuses her, seems to entertain for her an insurmountable +aversion, an irresistible disgust. One day he even strikes her, not only +without any cause, but also without the faintest pretext. I am not going, +gentlemen, to draw a picture of silly allurements, which no one would +comprehend. I shall not paint to you the wretched life of those two +beings, and the horrible grief of this young woman. It will be sufficient +to convince you, if I read some fragments from a journal written up every +day by that poor young man, by that poor fool! For it is in the presence +of a fool, gentlemen, that we now find ourselves, and the case is all the +more curious, all the more interesting, seeing that, in many points, it +recalls the insanity of the unfortunate prince who recently died, of the +witless king who reigned platonically over Bavaria. I shall hence +designate this case—poetic folly.</p> + +<p>You will readily call to mind all that has been told of that most +singular prince. He caused to be erected amid the most magnificent +scenery his kingdom afforded, veritable fairy castles. The reality even +of the beauty of the things themselves, as well as of the places, did not +satisfy him. He invented, he created, in these improbable manors, +factitious horizons, obtained by means of theatrical artifices, changes +of view, painted forests, fabled empires, in which the leaves of the +trees became precious stones. He had the Alps, and glaciers, steppes, +deserts of sand made hot by a blazing sun; and at nights, under the rays +of the real moon, lakes which sparkled from below by means of fantastic +electric lights. Swans floated on the lakes which glistened with skiffs, +while an orchestra, composed of the finest executants in the world, +inebriated with poetry the soul of the royal fool. That man was chaste, +that man was a virgin. He lived only to dream, his dream, his dream +divine. One evening he took out with him in his boat, a lady, young and +beautiful, a great artiste, and he begged her to sing. Intoxicated +herself by the magnificent scenery, by the languid softness of the air, +by the perfume of flowers, and by the ecstacy of that prince, both young +and handsome, she sang, she sang as women sing who have been touched by +love; then, overcome, trembling, she falls on the bosom of the king in +order to seek out his lips. But he throws her into the lake, and seizing +his oars, rows back to the shore, without concerning himself, whether +anybody has saved her or not.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen of the jury, we find ourselves in presence of a case similar in +every way to that. I shall say no more now, except to read some passages +from the journal which we unexpectedly came upon in the drawer of an old +secretary.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>How sad and weary is everything; always the same, always hateful. How I +dream of a land more beautiful, more noble, more varied. What a poor +conception they have of their God, if their God existed, or if he had not +created other things, elsewhere. Always woods, little woods, waves which +resemble waves, plains which resemble plains, everything is sameness and +monotony. And Man? Man? What a horrible animal! wicked, haughty and +repugnant!</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>It is essential to love, to love perdition, without seeing that which one +loves. For, to see is to comprehend, and to comprehend is to embrace. It +is necessary to love, to become intoxicated by it, just as one gets drunk +with wine, even to the extent that one knows no longer what one is +drinking. And to drink, to drink, to drink, without drawing breath, day +and night!</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>I have found her, I believe. She has about her something ideal which does +not belong to this world, and which furnishes wings to my dream. Ah! my +dream! How it reveals to me beings different from what they really are! +She is a blonde, a delicate blonde, with hair whose delicate shade is +inexpressible. Her eyes are blue! Only blue eyes can penetrate my soul. +All women, the woman who lives in my heart, reveal themselves to me in +the eye, only in the eyes. Oh! what a mystery, what a mystery is the eye! +The whole universe lives in it, inasmuch as it sees, inasmuch as it +reflects. It contains the universe, both things and beings, forests +and oceans, men and beasts, the settings of the sun, the stars, the +arts—all, all, it sees; it collects and absorbs all; and there is still +more in it; the eye of itself has a soul; it has in it the man who +thinks, the man who loves, the man who laughs, the man who suffers! Oh! +regard the blue eyes of women, those eyes that are as deep as the sea, as +changeful as the sky, so sweet, so soft, soft as the breezes, sweet as +music, luscious as kisses; and transparent, so clear that one sees behind +them, discerns the soul, the blue soul which colors them, which animates +them, which electrifies them. Yes, the soul has the color of the looks. +The blue soul alone contains in itself that which dreams; it bears its +azure to the floods and into space. The eye! Think of it, the eye! It +imbibes the visible life, in order to nourish thought. It drinks in the +world, color, movement, books, pictures, all that is beautiful, all that +is ugly, and weaves ideas out of them. And when it regards us, it gives +us the sensation of a happiness that is not of this earth. It informs us +of that of which we have always been ignorant; it makes us comprehend +that the realities of our dreams are but noisome ordures.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>I love her too for her walk. "Even when the bird walks one feels that it +has wings," as the poet has said. When she passes one feels that she is +of another race from ordinary women, of a race more delicate, and more +divine. I shall marry her to-morrow. But I am afraid, I am afraid of so +many things!</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Two beasts, two dogs, two wolves, two foxes, cut their way through the +plantation and encounter one another. One of each two is male, the other +female. They couple. They couple in consequence of an animal instinct, +which forces them to continue the race, their race, the one from which +they have sprung, the hairy coat, the form, movements and habitudes. The +whole of the animal creation do the same without knowing why.</p> + +<p>We human beings, also.</p> + +<p>It is for this I have married; I have obeyed that insane passion which +throws us in the direction of the female.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>She is my wife. In accordance with my ideal desires, she comes very +nearly to realize my unrealizable dream. But in separating from her, even +for a second, after I have held her in my arms, she becomes no more than +the being whom nature has made use of, to disappoint all my hopes.</p> + +<p>Has she disappointed them? No. And why have I grown weary of her, become +loath even to touch her; she cannot graze even the palm of my hand, or +the tip of my lips, but my heart throbs with unutterable disgust, not +perhaps disgust of her, but a disgust more potent, more widespread, more +loathsome; the disgust, in a word, of carnal love so vile in itself that +it has become for all refined beings, a shameful thing, which is +necessary to conceal, which one never speaks of save in a whisper, nor +without blushing.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>I can no longer bear the idea of my wife coming near me, calling me by +name, with a smile; I cannot look at her, nor touch even her arm, I +cannot do it any more. At one time I thought to be kissed by her, would +be to transport me to St. Paul's seventh heaven. One day, she was +suffering from one of those transient fevers, and I smelled in her +breath, a subtle, slight almost imperceptible puff of human putridity; I +was completely overthrown.</p> + +<p>Oh! the flesh, with its seductive and eager smell, a putrefaction which +walks, which thinks, which speaks, which looks, which laughs, in which +nourishment ferments and rots, which, nevertheless, is rose-colored, +pretty, tempting, deceitful as the soul itself.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Why flowers alone, which smell so sweet, those large flowers, glittering +or pale, whose tones and shades make my heart tremble and trouble my +eyes. They are so beautiful, their structure is so finished, so varied +and sensual, semi-opened like human organs, more tempting than mouths, +and streaked with turned up lips, teeth, flesh, seed of life powders, +which, in each, gives forth a distinct perfume.</p> + +<p>They reproduce themselves, they alone, in the world, without polluting +their inviolable race, shedding around them the divine influence of their +love, the odoriferous incense of their caresses, the essence of their +incomparable body, of their body adorned with every grace, with every +elegances of every shape and form; who have likewise the coquetry of +every hue of color, and the inebriating seduction of every variety of +perfume.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>FRAGMENTS WHICH WERE SELECTED SIX MONTHS LATER.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>I love flowers, not as flowers, but as material and delicious beings; +I pass my days and my nights in beds of flowers, where they have been +concealed from the public view like the women of a harem.</p> + +<p>Who knows, except myself, the sweetness, the infatuation, the quivering, +carnal, ideal, superhuman ecstacy of these tendernesses; and those kisses +upon the bare flesh of a rose, upon the blushing flesh, upon the white +skin, so miraculously different, delicate, rare, subtle, unctuous, of +these adorable flowers!</p> + +<p>I have flower-beds that no one has seen except myself, and which I tend +myself.</p> + +<p>I enter there as one would glide into a place of secret pleasure. In the +lofty glass gallery, I pass first through a collection of enclosed +carollas, half open or in full bloom, which incline towards the ground, +or towards the roof. This is the first kiss they have given me.</p> + +<p>The flowers just mentioned, these flowers which adorn the vestibule of my +mysterious passions, are my servants and not my favorites.</p> + +<p>They salute me by the change of their color and by their first +inhalations. They are darlings, coquettes, arranged in eight rows to the +right, eight rows, the left, and so laid out that they look like two +gardens springing up from under my feet.</p> + +<p>My heart palpitates, my eyes flash at the sight of them; my blood rushes +through my veins, my soul is elated, and my hands tremble from desire as +soon as I touch them. I pass on. There are three closed doors at the +bottom of that gallery. I can make my choice of them. I have three +harems.</p> + +<p>But I enter most often the habitation of the orchids, my little +wheedlers, by preference. Their chamber is low, suffocating. The humid +and hot air make the skin moist, takes away the breath and causes the +fingers to quiver. They come, these strange girls, from a country marshy, +burning and unhealthy. They draw you towards them as do the sirens, are +as deadly as poison, admirably fantastic, enervating, dreadful. The +butterflies here would also seem to have enormous wings, tiny feet, and +eyes! Yes! they have also eyes! They look at me, they see me, prodigious, +incomparable beings, fairies, daughters of the sacred earth, of the +impalpable air, and of hot sun rays, that mother bountiful of the +universe. Yes, they have wings, they have eyes, and nuances that no +painter could imitate, every charm, every grace, every form that one +could dream of. These wombs are transverse, odoriferous and transparent, +ever open for love and more tempting than all the flesh of women. The +unimaginable designs of their little bodies inebriates the soul, and +transports it to a paradise of images and of voluptuous ideals. They +tremble upon their stems as though they would fly. When they do fly do +they come to me? No, it is my heart that hovers o'er them, like a mystic +male, tortured by love.</p> + +<p>No wing of any animal can keep pace with them. We are alone, they and I, +in the lighted prison which I have constructed for them. I regard them, I +contemplate them, I admire them, I adore them, the one after the other.</p> + +<p>How healthy, strong and rosy, a rosiness that moistens the lips of +desire! How I love them! The border is frizzled, paler than their throat, +where the carolla hides itself away; a mysterious mouth, seductive sugar +under the tongue, exhibiting and unveiling the delicate, admirable and +sacred organs of these divine little creatures which smell so exquisitely +and do not speak.</p> + +<p>I sometimes have a passion for some of them that lasts as long as their +existence, which only embraces a few days and nights. I then have them +taken away from the common gallery and enclosed in a pretty glass cabin, +in which there murmurs a jet of water over against a tropical gazon, +which has been brought from one of the Pacific Islands. And I remain +close to it, ardent, feverish and tormented, knowing that its death is +near, and watch it fading away, while that in thought, I possess it, +aspire to its love, drink it in, and then pluck its short life with an +inexpressible caress.</p></div> + +<p>When he had finished the reading of these fragments, the advocate +continued:</p> + +<p>"Decency, gentlemen of the jury, hinders me from communicating to you the +extraordinary avowals of this shameless, idealistic fool. The fragments +that I have just submitted to you will be sufficient, in my opinion, to +enable you to appreciate this instance of mental malady, less rare in our +epoch of hysterical insanity and of corrupt decadence than most of us +believe.</p> + +<p>"I think, then, that my client is more entitled than any women whatever +to claim a divorce, in the exceptional circumstances in which the +disordered senses of her husband has placed her."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WHO_KNOWS" id="WHO_KNOWS"></a>WHO KNOWS?</h2> + + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>My God! My God! I am going to write down at last what has happened to me. +But how can I? How dare I? The thing is so bizarre, so inexplicable, so +incomprehensible, so silly!</p> + +<p>If I were not perfectly sure of what I have seen, sure that there was not +in my reasoning any defect, no error in my declarations, no lacune in the +inflexible sequence of my observations, I should believe myself to be the +dupe of a simple hallucination, the sport of a singular vision. After +all, who knows?</p> + +<p>Yesterday I was in a private asylum, but I went there voluntarily, out of +prudence and fear. Only one single human being knows my history, and that +is the doctor of the said asylum. I am going to write to him. I really do +not know why? To disembarrass myself? For I feel as though I were being +weighed down by an intolerable nightmare.</p> + +<p>Let me explain.</p> + +<p>I have always been a recluse, a dreamer, a kind of isolated philosopher, +easy-going, content with but little, harboring ill-feeling against no +man, and without even having a grudge against heaven. I have constantly +lived alone, consequently, a kind of torture takes hold of me when I find +myself in the presence of others. How is this to be explained? I for one +cannot. I am not averse from going out into the world, from conversation, +from dining with friends, but when they are near me for any length of +time, even the most intimate friends, they bore me, fatigue me, enervate +me, and I experience an overwhelming torturing desire, to see them get up +to depart, or to take themselves away, and to leave me by myself.</p> + +<p>That desire is more than a craving; it is an irresistible necessity. And +if the presence of people, with whom I find myself, were to be continued; +if I were compelled, not only to listen, but also to follow, for any +length of time, their conversation, a serious accident would assuredly +take place. What kind of accident? Ah! who knows? Perhaps a slight +paralytic stroke? Yes, probably!</p> + +<p>I like so much to be alone that I cannot even endure the vicinage of +other beings sleeping under the same roof. I cannot live in Paris, +because when there I suffer the most acute agony. I lead a moral life, +and am therefore tortured in my body and in my nerves by that immense +crowd which swarms, which lives around even when it sleeps. Ah! the +sleeping of others is more painful still than their conversation. And I +can never find repose when I know, when I feel, that on the other side of +a wall, several existences are interrupted by these regular eclipses of +reason.</p> + +<p>Why am I thus? Who knows? The cause of it is perhaps very simple. I get +tired very soon with everything that does not emanate from me. And there +are many people in similar case.</p> + +<p>We are, on earth, two distinct races. Those who have need of others, +whom others distract, engage, soothe, whom solitude harasses, pains, +stupefies, like the forward movement of a terrible glacier, or the +traversing of the desert; and those, on the contrary, whom others weary, +tire, bore, silently torture, while isolation calms them, bathes them in +the repose of independency, and plunges them into the humors of their own +thoughts. In fine, there is here a normal, physical phenomenon. Some are +constituted to live a life without themselves, others, to live a life +within themselves. As for me, my exterior associations are abruptly and +painfully short-lived, and, as they reach their limits, I experience in +my whole body and in my whole intelligence, an intolerable uneasiness.</p> + +<p>As a result of this, I became attached, or rather, I had become much +attached to inanimate objects, which have for me the importance of +beings, and my house has become, had become, a world in which I lived an +active and solitary life, surrounded by all manner of things, furniture, +familiar knick-knacks, as sympathetic in my eyes as the visages of human +beings. I had filled my mansion with them, little by little, I had +adorned it with them, and I felt an inward content and satisfaction, was +more happy than if I had been in the arms of a desirable female, whose +wonted caresses had become a soothing and delightful necessity.</p> + +<p>I had had this house constructed in the center of a beautiful garden, +which hid it from the public highways, and which was near the entrance to +a city where I could find, on occasion, the resources of society, for +which, at moments, I had a longing. All my domestics slept in a separate +building which was situated at some considerable distance from my house, +at the far end of the kitchen garden, which was surrounded by a high +wall. The obscure envelopment of the nights, in the silence of my +invisible and concealed habitation, buried under the leaves of the great +trees, were so reposeful and so delicious, that I hesitated every +evening, for several hours, before I could retire to my couch, in order +to enjoy the solitude a little longer.</p> + +<p>One day <i>Signad</i> had been played at one of the city theaters. It was the +first time that I had listened to that beautiful, musical, and fairy-like +drama, and I had derived from it the liveliest pleasures.</p> + +<p>I returned home on foot, with a light step, my head full of sonorous +phrases, and my mind haunted by delightful visions. It was night, the +dead of night, and so dark that I could hardly distinguish the broad +highway, and whence I stumbled into the ditch more than once. From the +custom's-house, at the barriers to my house, was about a mile, perhaps a +little more, or a leisurely walk of about twenty minutes. It was one +o'clock in the morning, one o'clock or maybe half-past one; the sky had +by this time cleared somewhat and the crescent appeared, the gloomy +crescent of the last quarter of the moon. The crescent of the first +quarter is, that which rises about five or six o'clock in the evening; +is clear, gay and fretted with silver; but the one which rises after +midnight is reddish, sad and desolating; it is the true Sabbath crescent. +Every prowler by night has made the same observation. The first, though +as slender as a thread, throws a faint joyous light which rejoices the +heart and lines the ground with distinct shadows; the last, sheds hardly +a dying glimmer, and is so wan that it occasions hardly any shadows.</p> + +<p>In the distance, I perceived the somber mass of my garden, and I know +not why I was seized with a feeling of uneasiness at the idea of going +inside. I slowed my pace, and walked very softly, the thick cluster of +trees having the appearance of a tomb in which my house was buried.</p> + +<p>I opened my outer gate, and I entered the long avenue of sycamores, which +ran in the direction of the house, arranged vault-wise like a high +tunnel, traversing opaque masses, and winding round the turf lawns, +on which baskets of flowers, in the pale darkness, could be indistinctly +discerned.</p> + +<p>In approaching the house, I was seized by a strange feeling, I could hear +nothing, I stood still. In the trees there was not even a breath of air. +"What is the matter with me then?" I said to myself. For ten years I had +entered and re-entered in the same way, without ever experiencing the +least inquietude. I never had any fear at nights. The sight of a man, +a marauder, or a thief, would have thrown me into a fit of anger, and I +would have rushed at him without any hesitation. Moreover, I was armed, I +had my revolver. But I did not touch it, for I was anxious to resist that +feeling of dread with which I was permeated.</p> + +<p>What was it? Was it a presentiment? That mysterious presentiment which +takes hold of the senses of men who have witnessed something which, to +them, is inexplicable? Perhaps? Who knows?</p> + +<p>In proportion as I advanced, I felt my skin quiver more and more, and +when I was close to the wall, near the outhouses of my vast residence, +I felt that it would be necessary for me to wait a few minutes before +opening the door and going inside. I sat down, then, on a bench, under +the windows of my drawing room. I rested there, a little fearful, with my +head leaning against the wall, my eyes wide open under the shade of the +foliage. For the first few minutes, I did not observe anything unusual +around me; I had a humming noise in my ears, but that happened often to +me. Sometimes it seemed to me that I heard trains passing, that I heard +clocks striking, that I heard a multitude on the march.</p> + +<p>Very soon, those humming noises became more distinct, more concentrated, +more determinable, I was deceiving myself. It was not the ordinary +tingling of my arteries which transmitted to my ears these rumbling +sounds, but it was a very distinct, though very confused, noise which +came, without any doubt whatever, from the interior of my house. I +distinguished through the walls this continued noise, I should rather say +agitation than noise, an indistinct moving about of a pile of things, as +if people were tossing about, displacing, and carrying away +surreptitiously all my furniture.</p> + +<p>I doubted, however, for some considerable time yet, the evidence of my +ears. But having placed my ear against one of the outhouses, the better +to discover what this strange disturbance was that was inside my house, +I became convinced, certain, that something was taking place in my +residence, which was altogether abnormal and incomprehensible. I had no +fear, but I was—how shall I express it—paralyzed by astonishment. I did +not draw my revolver, knowing very well that there was no need of my +doing so. I listened.</p> + +<p>I listened a long time, but could come to no resolution, my mind being +quite clear, though in myself I was naturally anxious. I got up and +waited, listening always to the noise, which gradually increased, and at +intervals grew very loud, and which seemed to become an impatient, angry +disturbance, a mysterious commotion.</p> + +<p>Then, suddenly, ashamed of my timidity, I seized my bunch of keys, I +selected the one I wanted, I guided it into the lock, turned it twice, +and, pushing the door with all my might, sent it banging against the +partition.</p> + +<p>The collision sounded like the report of a gun, and there responded to +that explosive noise, from roof to basement of my residence, a formidable +tumult. It was so sudden, so terrible, so deafening, that I recoiled +a few steps, and though I knew it to be wholly useless, I pulled my +revolver out of its case.</p> + +<p>I continued to listen for some time longer. I could distinguish now an +extraordinary pattering upon the steps of my grand staircase, on the +waxed floors, on the carpets, not of boots, nor of naked feet, but of +iron, and wooden crutches, which resounded like cymbals. Then I suddenly +discerned, on the threshold of my door, an arm chair, my large reading +easy chair, which set off waddling. It went away through my garden. +Others followed it, those of my drawing-room, then my sofas, dragging +themselves along like crocodiles on their short paws; then all my chairs, +bounding like goats, and the little footstools, hopping like rabbits.</p> + +<p>Oh! what a sensation! I slunk back into a clump of bushes where I +remained crouched up, watching, meanwhile, my furniture defile past, +for everything walked away, the one behind the other, briskly or slowly, +according to its weight or size. My piano, my grand piano, bounded past +with the gallop of a horse and a murmur of music in its sides; the +smaller articles slid along the gravel like snails, my brushes, crystal, +cups and saucers, which glistened in the moonlight. I saw my writing desk +appear, a rare curiosity of the last century, which contained all the +letters I had ever received, all the history of my heart, an old history +from which I have suffered so much! Besides, there was inside of it a +great many cherished photographs.</p> + +<p>Suddenly—I no longer had any fear—I threw myself on it, seized it as +one would seize a thief, as one would seize a wife about to run away; but +it pursued its irresistible course, and despite my efforts and despite my +anger, I could not even retard its pace. As I was resisting in +desperation that insuperable force, I was thrown to the ground in my +struggle with it. It then rolled me over, trailed me along the gravel, +and the rest of my furniture which followed it, began to march over me, +tramping on my legs and injuring them. When I loosed my hold, other +articles passed over my body, just as a charge of cavalry does over the +body of a dismounted soldier.</p> + +<p>Seized at last with terror, I succeeded in dragging myself out of the +main avenue, and in concealing myself again among the shrubbery, so as +to watch the disappearance of the most cherished objects, the smallest, +the least striking, the least unknown which had once belonged to me.</p> + +<p>I then heard, in the distance, noises which came from my apartments, +which sounded now as if the house were empty, a loud noise of shutting +of doors. They were being slammed from top to bottom of my dwelling, +even the door which I had just opened myself unconsciously, and which +had closed of itself, when the last thing had taken its departure. I +took flight also, running towards the city, and I only regained my +self-composure on reaching the boulevards, where I met belated people. +I rang the bell of a hotel where I was known. I had knocked the dust off +my clothes with my hands, and I told the porter how that I had lost my +bunch of keys, which included also that of the kitchen garden, where my +servants slept in a house standing by itself, on the other side of the +wall of the enclosure, which protected my fruits and vegetables from the +raids of marauders.</p> + +<p>I covered myself up to the eyes in the bed which was assigned to me; +but I could not sleep, and I waited for the dawn in listening to the +throbbing of my heart. I had given orders that my servants were to be +summoned to the hotel at daybreak, and my <i>valet de chambre</i> knocked at +my door at seven o'clock in the morning.</p> + +<p>His countenance bore a woeful look.</p> + +<p>"A great misfortune has happened during the night, monsieur," said he.</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Somebody has stolen the whole of monsieur's furniture, all, everything, +even to the smallest articles."</p> + +<p>This news pleased me. Why? Who knows? I was complete master of myself, +bent on dissimulating, on telling no one of anything I had seen; +determined on concealing and in burying in my heart of hearts, a +terrible secret. I responded:</p> + +<p>"They must then be the same people who have stolen my keys. The police +must be informed immediately. I am going to get up, and I will rejoin you +in a few moments."</p> + +<p>The investigation into the circumstances under which the robbery might +have been committed lasted for five months. Nothing was found, not +even the smallest of my knick-knacks, nor the least trace of the +thieves. Good gracious! If I had only told them what I knew.... If I +had said ... I had been locked up—I, not the thieves—and that I was +the only person who had seen everything from the first.</p> + +<p>Yes I but I knew how to keep silence. I shall never refurnish my house. +That were indeed useless. The same thing would happen again. I had no +desire even to re-enter the house, and I did not re-enter it; I never +visited it again. I went to Paris, to the hotel, and I consulted doctors +in regard to the condition of my nerves, which had disquieted me a good +deal ever since that fatal night.</p> + +<p>They advised me to travel, and I followed their council.</p> + + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>I began by making an excursion into Italy. The sunshine did me much good. +During six months I wandered about from Genoa to Venice, from Venice to +Florence, from Florence to Rome, from Rome to Naples. Then I traveled +over Sicily, a country celebrated for its scenery and its monuments, +relics left by the Greeks and the Normans. I passed over into Africa, +I traversed at my ease that immense desert, yellow and tranquil, in which +the camels, the gazelles, and the Arab vagabonds, roam about, where, in +the rare and transparent atmosphere, there hovers no vague hauntings, +where there is never any night, but always day.</p> + +<p>I returned to France by Marseilles, and in spite of all the Provençal +gaiety, the diminished clearness of the sky made me sad. I experienced, +in returning to the continent, the peculiar sensation, of an illness +which I believed had been cured, and a dull pain which predicted that +the seeds of the disease had not been eradicated.</p> + +<p>I then returned to Paris. At the end of a month, I was very dejected. It +was in the autumn, and I wished to make, before the approach of winter, +an excursion through Normandy, a country with which I was unacquainted.</p> + +<p>I began my journey, in the best of spirits, at Rouen, and for eight days +I wandered about passive, ravished and enthusiastic, in that ancient +city, in that astonishing museum of extraordinary Gothic monuments.</p> + +<p>But, one afternoon, about four o'clock, as I was sauntering slowly +through a seemingly unattractive street, by which there ran a stream as +black as the ink called "Eau de Robec," my attention, fixed for the +moment on the quaint, antique appearance of some of the houses, was +suddenly turned away by the view of a series of second-hand furniture +shops, which succeeded one another, door after door.</p> + +<p>Ah! they had carefully chosen their locality, these sordid traffickers +in antiquaries, in that quaint little street, overlooking that sinister +stream of water, under those tile and slate-pointed roofs in which still +grinned the vanes of byegone days.</p> + +<p>At the end of these grim storehouses you saw piled up sculptured chests, +Rouen, Sévre, and Moustier's pottery, painted statues, others of oak, +Christs, Virgins, Saints, church ornaments, chasubles, capes, even sacred +vases, and an old gilded wooden tabernacle, where a god had hidden +himself away. Oh! What singular caverns are in those lofty houses, +crowded with objects of every description, where the existence of things +seems to be ended, things which have survived their original possessors, +their century, their times, their fashions, in order to be bought as +curiosities by new generations.</p> + +<p>My affection for bibelots was awakened in that city of antiquaries. I +went from shop to shop crossing, in two strides, the four plank rotten +bridges thrown over the nauseous current of the Eau de Robec.</p> + +<p>Heaven protect me! What a shock! One of my most beautiful wardrobes was +suddenly descried by me, at the end of a vault, which was crowded with +articles of every description and which seemed to be the entrance to some +catacombs of a cemetery of ancient furniture. I approached my wardrobe, +trembling in every limb, trembling to such an extent that I dare not +touch it. I put forth my hand, I hesitated. It was indeed my wardrobe, +nevertheless; a unique wardrobe of the time of Louis XIII., recognizable +by anyone who had only seen it once. Casting my eyes suddenly a little +farther, towards the more somber depths of the gallery, I perceived three +of my tapestry covered chairs; and farther on still, my two Henry II. +tables, such rare treasures that people came all the way from Paris to +see them.</p> + +<p>Think! only think in what a state of mind I now was! I advanced, +haltingly, quivering with emotion, but I advanced, for I am brave, +I advanced like a knight of the dark ages.</p> + +<p>I found, at every step, something that belonged to me; my brushes, my +books, my tables, my silks, my arms, everything, except the bureau full +of my letters, and that I could not discover.</p> + +<p>I walked on, descending to the dark galleries, in order to ascend next +to the floors above. I was alone, I called out, nobody answered, I was +alone; there was no one in that house—a house as vast and tortuous +as a labyrinth.</p> + +<p>Night came on, and I was compelled to sit down in the darkness on one +of my own chairs, for I had no desire to go away. From time to time I +shouted, "Hullo, hullo, somebody."</p> + +<p>I had sat there, certainly, for more than an hour, when I heard steps, +steps soft and slow, I knew not where, I was unable to locate them, but +bracing myself up, I called out anew, whereupon I perceived a glimmer +of light in the next chamber.</p> + +<p>"Who is there?" said a voice.</p> + +<p>"A buyer," I responded.</p> + +<p>"It is too late to enter thus into a shop."</p> + +<p>"I have been waiting for you for more than an hour," I answered.</p> + +<p>"You can come back to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow I must quit Rouen."</p> + +<p>I dared not advance, and he did not come to me. I saw always the glimmer +of his light, which was shining on a tapestry on which were two angels +flying over the dead on a field of battle. It belonged to me also. I +said:</p> + +<p>"Well, come here."</p> + +<p>"I am at your service," he answered.</p> + +<p>I got up and went towards him.</p> + +<p>Standing in the center of a large room was a little man, very short and +very fat, phenomenally fat, a hideous phenomenon.</p> + +<p>He had a singular beard, straggling hair, white and yellow, and not a +hair on his head. Not a hair!</p> + +<p>As he held his candle aloft at arm's length in order to see me, his +cranium appeared to me to resemble a little moon, in that vast chamber, +encumbered with old furniture. His features were wrinkled and blown, and +his eyes could not be seen.</p> + +<p>I bought three chairs which belonged to myself, and paid at once a large +sum for them, giving him merely the number of my room at the hotel. They +were to be delivered the next day before nine o'clock.</p> + +<p>I then started off. He conducted me, with much politeness, as far as the +door.</p> + +<p>I immediately repaired to the commissaire's office at the central police +depot, and I told the commissaire of the robbery which had been +perpetrated and of the discovery I had just made. He required time to +communicate by telegraph with the authorities who had originally charge +of the case, for information, and he begged me to wait in his office +until an answer came back. An hour later, an answer came back, which was +in accord with my statements.</p> + +<p>"I am going to arrest and interrogate this man at once," he said to me, +"for he may have conceived some sort of suspicion, and smuggled away out +of sight what belongs to you. Will you go and dine and return in two +hours: I shall then have the man here, and I shall subject him to a fresh +interrogation in your presence."</p> + +<p>"Most gladly, monsieur. I thank you with my whole heart."</p> + +<p>I went to dine at my hotel and I ate better than I could have believed. +I was quite happy now; "that man was in the hands of the police," I +thought.</p> + +<p>Two hours later I returned to the office of the police functionary, who +was waiting for me.</p> + +<p>"Well, monsieur," said he, on perceiving me, "we have not been able to +find your man. My agents cannot put their hands on him."</p> + +<p>Ah! I felt myself sinking.</p> + +<p>"But ... you have at least found his house?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly; and what is more, it is now being watched and guarded +until his return. As for him, he has disappeared."</p> + +<p>"Disappeared?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, disappeared. He ordinarily passes his evenings at the house of +a female neighbor, who is also a furniture broker, a queer sort of +sorceress, the widow Bidoin. She has not seen him this evening and cannot +give any information in regard to him. We must wait until to-morrow."</p> + +<p>I went away. Ah! how sinister the streets of Rouen seemed to me, now +troubled and haunted!</p> + +<p>I slept so badly that I had a fit of nightmare every time I went off to +sleep.</p> + +<p>As I did not wish to appear too restless or eager, I waited till 10 +o'clock the next day before reporting myself to the police.</p> + +<p>The merchant had not reappeared. His shop remained closed.</p> + +<p>The commissary said to me:</p> + +<p>"I have taken all the necessary steps. The court has been made acquainted +with the affair. We shall go together to that shop and have it opened, +and you shall point out to me all that belongs to you."</p> + +<p>We drove there in a cab. Police agents were stationed round the building; +there was a locksmith, too, and the door of the shop was soon opened.</p> + +<p>On entering, I could not discover my wardrobes, my chairs, my tables; I +saw nothing, nothing of that which had furnished my house, no, nothing, +although on the previous evening, I could not take a step without +encountering something that belonged to me.</p> + +<p>The chief commissary, much astonished, regarded me at first with +suspicion.</p> + +<p>"My God, monsieur," said I to him, "the disappearance of these articles +of furniture coincides strangely with that of the merchant."</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"That is true. You did wrong in buying and paying for the articles which +were your own property, yesterday. It was that that gave him the cue."</p> + +<p>"What seems to me incomprehensible," I replied, "is, that all the places +that were occupied by my furniture are now filled by other furniture."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" responded the commissary, "he has had all night, and has no doubt +been assisted by accomplices. This house must communicate with its +neighbors. But have no fear, monsieur; I will have the affair promptly +and thoroughly investigated. The brigand shall not escape us for long, +seeing that we are in charge of the den."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Ah! My heart, my heart, my poor heart, how it beat!</p> + +<p>I remained a fortnight at Rouen. The man did not return. Heavens! good +heavens! That man, what was it that could have frightened and surprised +him!</p> + +<p>But, on the sixteenth day, early in the morning, I received from my +gardener, now the keeper of my empty and pillaged house, the following +strange letter:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Monsieur:</p> + +<p>I have the honor to inform monsieur, that there happened something, the +evening before last, which nobody can understand, and the police no more +than the rest of us. The whole of the furniture has been returned, not +one piece is missing—everything is in its place, up to the very smallest +article. The house is now the same in every respect as it was before the +robbery took place. It is enough to make one lose one's head. The thing +took place during the night Friday—Saturday. The roads are dug up as +though the whole barrier had been dragged from its place up to the door. +The same thing was observed the day after the disappearance of the +furniture.</p> + +<p>We are anxiously expecting monsieur, whose very humble and obedient +servant, I am,</p> + +<p>Raudin, Phillipe.</p></div> + +<p>Ah! no, no, ah! never, never, ah! no. I shall never return there!</p> + +<p>I took the letter to the commissary of police.</p> + +<p>"It is a very dexterous restitution," said he. "Let us bury the hatchet. +We shall, however, nip the man one of these days."</p> + +<p>But he has never been nipped. No. They have not nipped him, and I am +afraid of him now, as though he were a ferocious animal that had been let +loose behind me.</p> + +<p>Inexplicable! It is inexplicable, this monster of a moon-struck skull! +We shall never get to comprehend it. I shall not return to my former +residence. What does it matter to me? I am afraid of encountering that +man again, and I shall not run the risk.</p> + +<p>I shall not risk it! I shall not risk it! I shall not risk it!</p> + +<p>And if he returns, if he takes possession of his shop, who is to prove +that my furniture was on his premises? There is only my testimony against +him; and I feel that that is not above suspicion.</p> + +<p>Ah! no! This kind of existence was no longer possible. I was not able to +guard the secret of what I had seen. I could not continue to live like +the rest of the world, with the fear upon me that those scenes might be +re-enacted.</p> + +<p>I have come to consult the doctor who directs this lunatic asylum, and +I have told him everything.</p> + +<p>After he had interrogated me for a long time, he said to me:</p> + +<p>"Will you consent, monsieur, to remain here for some time?"</p> + +<p>"Most willingly, monsieur."</p> + +<p>"You have some means?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, monsieur."</p> + +<p>"Will you have isolated apartments?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, monsieur."</p> + +<p>"Would you care to receive any friends?"</p> + +<p>"No, monsieur, no, nobody. The man from Rouen might take it into his head +to pursue me here to be revenged on me."</p> + +<p>And I have been alone, alone, all, all alone, for three months. I am +growing tranquil by degrees. I have no longer any fears. If the antiquary +should become mad ... and if he should be brought into this asylum! Even +prisons themselves are not places of security.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SIMONS_PAPA" id="SIMONS_PAPA"></a>SIMON'S PAPA</h2> + + +<p>Noon had just struck. The school-door opened and the youngsters tumbled +out rolling over each other in their haste to get out quickly. But +instead of promptly dispersing and going home to dinner as was their +daily wont, they stopped a few paces off, broke up into knots and set to +whispering.</p> + +<p>The fact was that that morning Simon, the son of La Blanchotte, had, for +the first time, attended school.</p> + +<p>They had all of them in their families heard talk of La Blanchotte; and, +although in public she was welcome enough, the mothers among themselves +treated her with compassion of a somewhat disdainful kind, which the +children had caught without in the least knowing why.</p> + +<p>As for Simon himself, they did not know him, for he never went +abroad, and did not go galloping about with them through the streets +of the village or along the banks of the river. Therefore, they loved +him but little; and it was with a certain delight, mingled with +considerable astonishment, that they met and that they recited to +each other this phrase, set afoot by a lad of fourteen or fifteen who +appeared to know all, all about it, so sagaciously did he wink. "You +know ... Simon ... well, he has no papa."</p> + +<p>La Blanchotte's son appeared in his turn upon the threshold of the +school.</p> + +<p>He was seven or eight years old. He was rather pale, very neat, with +a timid and almost awkward manner.</p> + +<p>He was on the point of making his way back to his mother's house when the +groups of his school-fellows perpetually whispering and watching him with +the mischievous and heartless eyes of children bent upon playing a nasty +trick, gradually surrounded him and ended by enclosing him altogether. +There he stood fixed amidst them, surprised and embarrassed, not +understanding what they were going to do with him. But the lad who had +brought the news, puffed up with the success he had met with already, +demanded:</p> + +<p>"How do you name yourself, you?"</p> + +<p>He answered: "Simon."</p> + +<p>"Simon what?" retorted the other.</p> + +<p>The child, altogether bewildered, repeated: "Simon."</p> + +<p>The lad shouted at him: "One is named Simon something ... that is not +a name ... Simon indeed."</p> + +<p>And he, on the brink of tears, replied for the third time:</p> + +<p>"I am named Simon."</p> + +<p>The urchins fell a-laughing. The lad triumphantly lifted up his voice: +"You can see plainly that he has no papa."</p> + +<p>A deep silence ensued. The children were dumbfounded by this +extraordinary, impossible monstrous thing—a boy who had not a papa; they +looked upon him as a phenomenon, an unnatural being, and they felt that +contempt, until then inexplicable, of their mothers for La Blanchotte +grow upon them. As for Simon, he had propped himself against a tree to +avoid falling and he remained as though struck to the earth by an +irreparable disaster. He sought to explain, but he could think of no +answer for them, to deny this horrible charge that he had no papa. At +last he shouted at them quite recklessly: "Yes, I have one."</p> + +<p>"Where is he?" demanded the boy.</p> + +<p>Simon was silent, he did not know. The children roared, tremendously +excited; and these sons of toil, most nearly related to animals, +experienced that cruel craving which animates the fowls of a farm-yard +to destroy one among themselves as soon as it is wounded. Simon suddenly +espied a little neighbor, the son of a widow, whom he had always seen, as +he himself was to be seen, quite alone with his mother.</p> + +<p>"And no more have you," he said, "no more have you a papa."</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the other, "I have one."</p> + +<p>"Where is he?" rejoined Simon.</p> + +<p>"He is dead," declared the brat with superb dignity, "he is in the +cemetery, is my papa."</p> + +<p>A murmur of approval rose amidst the scapegraces, as if this fact of +possessing a papa dead in a cemetery had caused their comrade to grow big +enough to crush the other one who had no papa at all. And these rogues, +whose fathers were for the most part evil-doers, drunkards, thieves and +ill-treaters of their wives, hustled each other as they pressed closer +and closer, as though they, the legitimate ones, would stifle in their +pressure one who was beyond the law.</p> + +<p>He who chanced to be next Simon suddenly put his tongue out at him with +a waggish air and shouted at him:</p> + +<p>"No papa! No papa!"</p> + +<p>Simon seized him by the hair with both hands and set to work to demolish +his legs with kicks, while he bit his cheek ferociously. A tremendous +struggle ensued between the two combatants, and Simon found himself +beaten, torn, bruised, rolled on the ground in the middle of the ring of +applauding vagabonds. As he arose mechanically brushing his little blouse +all covered with dust with his hand, some one shouted at him:</p> + +<p>"Go and tell your Papa."</p> + +<p>He then felt a great sinking in his heart. They were stronger than he +was, they had beaten him and he had no answer to give them, for he knew +well that it was true that he had no Papa. Full of pride he attempted +for some moments to struggle against the tears which were suffocating +him. He had a choking fit, and then without cries he commenced to weep +with great sobs which shook him incessantly. Then a ferocious joy broke +out among his enemies, and, naturally, just as with savages in their +fearful festivals, they took each other by the hand and set about dancing +in a circle about him as they repeated as a refrain:</p> + +<p>"No Papa! No Papa!"</p> + +<p>But Simon quite suddenly ceased sobbing. Frenzy overtook him. There were +stones under his feet, he picked them up and with all his strength hurled +them at his tormentors. Two or three were struck and rushed off yelling, +and so formidable did he appear that the rest became panic stricken. +Cowards, as a crowd always is in the presence of an exasperated man, +they broke up and fled. Left alone, the little thing without a father set +off running towards the fields, for a recollection had been awakened +which brought his soul to a great determination. He made up his mind to +drown himself in the river.</p> + +<p>He remembered, in fact, that eight days before a poor devil who begged +for his livelihood, had thrown himself into the water because he had no +more money. Simon had been there when they had fished him out again; and +the sight of the fellow, who usually seemed to him so miserable, and +ugly, had then struck him—his pale cheeks, his long drenched beard and +his open eyes being full of calm. The bystanders had said:</p> + +<p>"He is dead."</p> + +<p>And someone had said:</p> + +<p>"He is quite happy now."</p> + +<p>And Simon wished to drown himself also because he had no father, just +like the wretched being who had no money.</p> + +<p>He reached the neighborhood of the water and watched it flowing. Some +fishes were sporting briskly in the clear stream and occasionally made +a little bound and caught the flies flying on the surface. He stopped +crying in order to watch them, for their housewifery interested him +vastly. But, at intervals, as in the changes of a tempest, altering +suddenly from tremendous gusts of wind, which snap off the trees and +then lose themselves in the horizon, this thought would return to him +with intense pain:</p> + +<p>"I am about to drown myself because I have no Papa."</p> + +<p>It was very warm and fine weather. The pleasant sunshine warmed the +grass. The water shone like a mirror. And Simon enjoyed some minutes the +happiness of that languor which follows weeping, in which he felt very +desirous of falling asleep there upon the grass in the warmth.</p> + +<p>A little green frog leapt from under his feet. He endeavored to catch it. +It escaped him. He followed it and lost it three times following. At last +he caught it by one of its hind legs and began to laugh as he saw the +efforts the creature made to escape. It gathered itself up on its large +legs and then with a violent spring suddenly stretched them out as stiff +as two bars; while, its eye wide open in its round, golden circle, it +beat the air with its front limbs which worked as though they were hands. +It reminded him of a toy made with straight slips of wood nailed zigzag +one on the other, which by a similar movement regulated the exercise of +the little soldiers stuck thereon. Then he thought of his home and next +of his mother, and overcome by a great sorrow he again began to weep. His +limbs trembled; and he placed himself on his knees and said his prayers +as before going to bed. But he was unable to finish them, for such +hurried and violent sobs overtook him that he was completely overwhelmed. +He thought no more, he no longer saw anything around him and was wholly +taken up in crying.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a heavy hand was placed upon his shoulder, and a rough voice +asked him:</p> + +<p>"What is it that causes you so much grief, my fine fellow?"</p> + +<p>Simon turned round. A tall workman with a black beard and hair all +curled, was staring at him good naturedly. He answered with his eyes +and throat full of tears:</p> + +<p>"They have beaten me ... because ... I ... have no ... Papa ... no +Papa."</p> + +<p>"What!" said the man smiling, "why everybody has one."</p> + +<p>The child answered painfully amidst his spasms of grief:</p> + +<p>"But I ... I ... I have none."</p> + +<p>Then the workman became serious. He had recognized La Blanchotte's son, +and although but recently come to the neighborhood he had a vague idea of +her history.</p> + +<p>"Well," said he, "console yourself my boy, and come with me home to your +mother. They will give you ... a Papa."</p> + +<p>And so they started on the way, the big one holding the little one by the +hand, and the man smiled afresh, for he was not sorry to see this +Blanchotte, who was, it was said, one of the prettiest girls of the +country-side, and, perhaps, he said to himself, at the bottom of his +heart, that a lass who had erred might very well err again.</p> + +<p>They arrived in front of a little and very neat white house.</p> + +<p>"There it is," exclaimed the child, and he cried "Mamma."</p> + +<p>A woman appeared and the workman instantly left off smiling, for he at +once perceived that there was no more fooling to be done with the tall +pale girl who stood austerely at her door as though to defend from one +man the threshold of that house where she had already been betrayed by +another. Intimidated, his cap in his hand, he stammered out:</p> + +<p>"See, madam, I have brought back your little boy who had lost himself +near the river."</p> + +<p>But Simon flung his arms about his mother's neck and told her, as he +again began to cry:</p> + +<p>"No, mamma, I wished to drown myself, because the others had beaten +me ... had beaten me ... because I have no Papa."</p> + +<p>A burning redness covered the young woman's cheeks, and, hurt to the +quick, she embraced her child passionately, while the tears coursed down +her face. The man, much moved, stood there, not knowing how to get away. +But Simon suddenly ran to him and said:</p> + +<p>"Will you be my Papa?"</p> + +<p>A deep silence ensued. La Blanchotte, dumb and tortured with shame, +leaned herself against the wall, both her hands upon her heart. The child +seeing that no answer was made him, replied:</p> + +<p>"If you do not wish it, I shall return to drown myself."</p> + +<p>The workman took the matter as a jest and answered laughing:</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, I wish it certainly."</p> + +<p>"What is your name, then?" went on the child, "so that I may tell the +others when they wish to know your name?"</p> + +<p>"Phillip," answered the man.</p> + +<p>Simon was silent a moment so that he might get the name well into his +head; then he stretched out his arms quite consoled as he said:</p> + +<p>"Well, then, Phillip, you are my Papa."</p> + +<p>The workman, lifting him from the ground kissed him hastily on both +cheeks, and then made off very quickly with great strides.</p> + +<p>When the child returned to school next day he was received with a +spiteful laugh, and at the end of school when the lads were on the point +of recommencing, Simon threw these words at their heads as he would +have done a stone: "He is named Phillip, my Papa."</p> + +<p>Yells of delight burst out from all sides.</p> + +<p>"Phillip who? ... Phillip what? What on earth is Phillip? Where did you +pick up your Phillip?"</p> + +<p>Simon answered nothing; and immovable in faith he defied them with his +eye, ready to be martyred rather than fly before them. The school-master +came to his rescue and he returned home to his mother.</p> + +<p>During three months, the tall workman, Phillip, frequently passed by the +Blanchotte's house, and sometimes he made bold to speak to her when he +saw her sewing near the window. She answered him civilly, always +sedately, never joking with him, nor permitting him to enter her house. +Notwithstanding which, being, like all men, a bit of a coxcomb, he +imagined that she was often rosier than usual when she chatted with him.</p> + +<p>But a fallen reputation is so difficult to recover and always remains so +fragile that, in spite of the shy reserve, La Blanchotte maintained they +already gossiped in the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>As for Simon, he loved his new Papa much, and walked with him nearly +every evening when the day's work was done. He went regularly to school +and mixed with great dignity with his school-fellows without ever +answering them back.</p> + +<p>One day, however, the lad who had first attacked him said to him:</p> + +<p>"You have lied. You have not a Papa named Phillip."</p> + +<p>"Why do you say that?" demanded Simon, much disturbed.</p> + +<p>The youth rubbed his hands. He replied:</p> + +<p>"Because if you had one he would be your mamma's husband."</p> + +<p>Simon was confused by the truth of this reasoning, nevertheless he +retorted:</p> + +<p>"He is my Papa all the same."</p> + +<p>"That can very well be," exclaimed the urchin with a sneer, "but that is +not being your Papa altogether."</p> + +<p>La Blanchotte's little one bowed his head and went off dreaming in the +direction of the forge belonging to old Loizon, where Phillip worked.</p> + +<p>This forge was as though entombed in trees. It was very dark there, the +red glare of a formidable furnace alone lit up with great flashes five +blacksmiths, who hammered upon their anvils with a terrible din. They +were standing enveloped in flame, like demons, their eyes fixed on the +red-hot iron they were pounding; and their dull ideas rose and fell with +their hammers.</p> + +<p>Simon entered without being noticed and went quietly to pluck his friend +by the sleeve. He turned himself round. All at once the work came to a +standstill and all the men looked on very attentive. Then, in the midst +of this unaccustomed silence, rose the little slender pipe of Simon:</p> + +<p>"Phillip, explain to me what the lad at La Michande has just told me, +that you are not altogether my Papa."</p> + +<p>"And why that?" asked the smith.</p> + +<p>The child replied with all its innocence:</p> + +<p>"Because you are not my mamma's husband."</p> + +<p>No one laughed. Philip remained standing, leaning his forehead upon +the back of his great hands, which supported the handle of his hammer +standing upright upon the anvil. He mused. His four companions watched +him, and, quite a tiny mite among these giants, Simon anxiously waited. +Suddenly, one of the smiths, answering to the sentiment of all, said to +Phillip:</p> + +<p>"La Blanchotte is all the same a good and honest girl, and stalwart and +steady in spite of her misfortune, and one who would make a worthy wife +for a honest man."</p> + +<p>"That is true," remarked the three others.</p> + +<p>The smith continued:</p> + +<p>"Is it this girl's fault if she has fallen? She had been promised +marriage and I know more than one who is much respected to-day, and who +sinned every bit as much."</p> + +<p>"That is true," responded the three men in chorus.</p> + +<p>He resumed:</p> + +<p>"How hard she has toiled, poor thing, to educate her lad all alone, and +how much she has wept since she no longer goes out, save to go to church, +God only knows."</p> + +<p>"This also is true," said the others.</p> + +<p>Then no more was heard than the bellows which fanned the fire of the +furnace. Phillip hastily bent himself down to Simon:</p> + +<p>"Go and tell your mamma that I shall come to speak to her."</p> + +<p>Then he pushed the child out by the shoulders. He returned to his work +and with a single blow the five hammers again fell upon their anvils. +Thus they wrought the iron until nightfall, strong, powerful, happy, +like hammers satisfied. But just as the great bell of a cathedral +resounds upon feast days above the jingling of the other bells, so +Phillip's hammer, dominating the noise of the others, clanged second +after second with a deafening uproar. And he, his eye on fire, plied his +trade vigorously, erect amid the sparks.</p> + +<p>The sky was full of stars as he knocked at La Blanchotte's door. He had +his Sunday blouse on, a fresh shirt, and his beard was trimmed. The young +woman showed herself upon the threshold and said in a grieved tone:</p> + +<p>"It is ill to come thus when night has fallen, Mr. Phillip."</p> + +<p>He wished to answer, but stammered and stood confused before her.</p> + +<p>She resumed:</p> + +<p>"And still you understand quite well that it will not do that I should be +talked about any more."</p> + +<p>Then he said all at once:</p> + +<p>"What does that matter to me, if you will be my wife!"</p> + +<p>No voice replied to him, but he believed that he heard in the shadow of +the room the sound of a body which sank down. He entered very quickly; +and Simon, who had gone to his bed, distinguished the sound of a kiss and +some words that his mother said very softly. Then he suddenly found +himself lifted up by the hands of his friend, who, holding him at the +length of his herculean arms, exclaimed to him:</p> + +<p>"You will tell them, your school-fellows, that your papa is Phillip Remy, +the blacksmith, and that he will pull the ears of all who do you any +harm."</p> + +<p>On the morrow, when the school was full and lessons were about to begin, +little Simon stood up quite pale with trembling lips:</p> + +<p>"My papa," said he in a clear voice, "is Phillip Remy, the blacksmith, +and he has promised to box the ears of all who do me any harm."</p> + +<p>This time no one laughed any longer, for he was very well known, was +Phillip Remy, the blacksmith, and was a papa of whom anyone in the world +would have been proud.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PAULS_MISTRESS" id="PAULS_MISTRESS"></a>PAUL'S MISTRESS</h2> + + +<p>The Restaurant Grillon, a small commonwealth of boatmen, was slowly +emptying. In front of the door all was a tumult of cries and calls, +while the jolly dogs in white flannels gesticulated with oars on their +shoulders.</p> + +<p>The ladies in bright spring toilets stepped aboard the skiffs with +care, and seating themselves astern, arranged their dresses, while the +landlord of the establishment, a mighty individual with a red beard, +of renowned strength, offered his hand to the pretty dears, with great +self-possession, keeping the frail craft steady.</p> + +<p>The rowers, bare-armed, with bulging chests, took their places in their +turn, posing for their gallery, as they did so, a gallery consisting of +middle class people dressed in their Sunday clothes, of workmen and +soldiers leaning upon their elbows on the parapet of the bridge, all +taking a great interest in the sight.</p> + +<p>The boats one by one cast off from the landing stage. The oarsmen bent +themselves forward and then threw themselves backwards with an even +swing, and under the impetus of the long curved oars, the swift skiffs +glided along the river, got far away, grew smaller and finally +disappeared under the other bridge, that of the railway, as they +descended the stream towards La Grenouillère. One couple only remained +behind. The young man, still almost beardless, slender, and of pale +countenance, held his mistress, a thin little brunette, with the gait of +a grasshopper, by the waist; and occasionally they gazed into each others +eyes. The landlord shouted:</p> + +<p>"Come, Mr. Paul, make haste," and they drew near.</p> + +<p>Of all the guests of the house, Mr. Paul was the most liked and most +respected. He paid well and punctually, while the others hung back for +a long time, if indeed they did not vanish insolvent. Besides which he +acted as a sort of walking advertisement for the establishment, inasmuch +as his father was a senator. And when a stranger would inquire: "Who on +earth is that little chap who thinks so much of himself because of his +girl?" some habituè would reply, half-aloud, with a mysterious and +important air: "Don't you know? That is Paul Baron, a senator's son."</p> + +<p>And invariably the other could not restrain himself from exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Poor devil! He is not half mashed."</p> + +<p>Mother Grillon, a worthy and good business woman, described the young man +and his companion as "her two turtle-doves," and appeared quite moved by +this passion, profitable for her house.</p> + +<p>The couple advanced at a slow pace; the skiff, Madeleine, was ready, when +at the moment of embarking therein they kissed each other, which caused +the public collected on the bridge to laugh, and Mr. Paul taking the +oars, they left also for La Grenonillère.</p> + +<p>When they arrived it was just upon three o'clock and the large floating +café overflowed with people.</p> + +<p>The immense raft, sheltered by a tarpaulin roof, is attached to the +charming island of Croissy by two narrow foot bridges, one of which leads +into the center of this aquatic establishment, while the other unites its +end with a tiny islet planted with a tree and surnamed "The Flower Pot," +and thence leads to land near the bath office.</p> + +<p>Mr. Paul made fast his boat alongside the establishment, climbed over the +railing of the café and then grasping his mistress's hand assisted her +out of the boat and they both seated themselves at the end of a table +opposite each other.</p> + +<p>On the opposite side of the river along the market road, a long string of +vehicles was drawn up. Fiacres alternated with the fine carriages of the +swells; the first, clumsy, with enormous bodies crushing the springs, +drawn by a broken down hack with hanging head and broken knees; the +second, slightly built on light wheels, with horses slender and straight, +their heads well up, their bits snowy with foam, while the coachman, +solemn in his livery, his head erect in his high collar, waited bolt +upright, his whip resting on his knee.</p> + +<p>The bank was covered with people who came off in families, or in gangs, +or two by two, or alone. They plucked blades of grass, went down to the +water, remounted the path, and all having attained the same spot, stood +still awaiting the ferryman. The clumsy punt plied incessantly from bank +to bank, discharging its passengers on to the island. The arm of the +river (named the Dead Arm) upon which this refreshment wharf lay, +appeared asleep, so feeble was the current. Fleets of yawls, of skiffs, +of canoes, of podoscaphs (a light boat propelled by wheels set in motion +by a treadle), of gigs, of craft of all forms and of all kinds, crept +about upon the motionless stream, crossing each other, intermingling, +running foul of one another, stopping abruptly under a jerk of the arms +to shoot off afresh under a sudden strain of the muscles gliding swiftly +along like great yellow or red fishes.</p> + +<p>Others arrived incessantly; some from Chaton up the stream; others from +Bougival down it; laughter crossed the water from one boat to another, +calls, admonitions or imprecations. The boatmen exposed the bronzed and +knotted flesh of their biceps to the heat of the day; and similar to +strange flowers, which floated, the silk parasols, red, green, blue, or +yellow, of the ladies seated near the helm, bloomed in the sterns of the +boats.</p> + +<p>A July sun flamed high in the heavens; the atmosphere seemed full of +burning merriment: not a breath of air stirred the leaves of the willows +or poplars.</p> + +<p>Down there the inevitable Mont-Valerien erected its fortified ramparts, +tier above tier, in the intense light; while on the right the divine +slopes of Louveniennes following the bend of the river disposed +themselves in a semi-circle, displaying in their order across the rich +and shady lawns, of large gardens, the white walls of country seats.</p> + +<p>Upon the outskirts of La Grenonillère a crowd of promenaders moved about +beneath the giant trees which make this corner of the island the most +delightful park in the world.</p> + +<p>Women and girls with breasts developed beyond all measurement, with +exaggerated bustles, their complexions plastered with rouge, their eyes +daubed with charcoal, their lips blood-red, laced up, rigged out in +outrageous dresses—trailed the crying bad taste of their toilets over +the fresh green sward; while beside them young men postured in their +fashion-plate accouterments with light gloves, varnished boots, canes, +the size of a thread, and single eye-glasses punctuating the insipidity +of their smiles.</p> + +<p>The island is narrow opposite La Grenonillère, and on its other side, +where also a ferry-boat plies, bringing people unceasingly across from +Croissy, the rapid branch of the river, full of whirlpools and eddies and +foam, rushes along with the strength of a torrent.</p> + +<p>A detachment of pontoon-soldiers, in the uniform of artillerymen, is +encamped upon this bank, and the soldiers seated in a row on a long beam +watched the water flowing.</p> + +<p>In the floating establishment there was a boisterous and uproarious +crowd. The wooden tables upon which the spilt refreshments made little +sticky streams, were covered with half empty glasses and surrounded by +half tipsy individuals. All this crowd shouted, sang and brawled. The +men, their hats at the backs of their heads, their faces red, with the +brilliant eyes of drunkards, moved about vociferously in need of a row +natural to brutes. The women, seeking their prey for the night, caused +themselves to be treated, in the meantime; and in the free space between +the tables, the ordinary local public predominated a whole regiment of +boatmen, <i>Rowkickersup</i>, with their companions in short flannel +petticoats.</p> + +<p>One of them carried on at the piano and appeared to play with his feet +as well as his hands; four couples bounded through a quadrille, and some +young men watched them, polished and correct, who would have looked +proper, if in spite of all, vice itself had appeared.</p> + +<p>For there, one tastes in full all the pomp and vanity of the world, all +its well bred debauchery, all the seamy side of Parisian society; a +mixture of counter-jumpers, of strolling players, of the lowest +journalists, of gentlemen in tutelage, of rotten stock-jobbers, of +ill-famed debauchées, of used-up old, fast men; a doubtful crowd of +suspicious characters, half-known, half gone under, half-recognized, +half-cut, pickpockets, rogues, procurers of women, sharpers with +dignified manners, and a bragging air, which seems to say: "I shall +rend the first who treats me as a scoundrel."</p> + +<p>This place reeks of folly, stinks of the scum and the gallantry of the +shops. Male and female there give themselves airs. There dwells an odor +of love, and there one fights for a yes, or for a no, in order to sustain +a worm-eaten reputation, which a stroke of the sword or a pistol bullet +would destroy further.</p> + +<p>Some of the neighboring inhabitants looked in out of curiosity every +Sunday; some young men, very young, appeared there every year to learn +how to live, some promenaders lounging about showed themselves there; +some greenhorns wandered thither. It is with good reason named La +Grenonillère. At the side of the covered wharf where they drank, and +quite close to the Flower Pot, people bathed. Those among the women +who possessed the requisite roundness of form came there to display their +wares naked and to make clients. The rest, scornful, although well filled +out with wadding, shored up with springs, corrected here and altered +there, watched their sisters dabbling with disdain.</p> + +<p>The swimmers crowded on to a little platform to dive thence head +foremost. They are either straight like vine poles, or round like +pumpkins, gnarled like olive branches, they are bowed over in front, +or thrown backwards by the size of their stomachs and are invariably +ugly, they leap into the water which splashes almost over the drinkers +in the café.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the great trees which overhang the floating-house, and +notwithstanding the vicinity of the water a suffocating heat fills the +place. The fumes of the spilt liquors mix with the effluvium of the +bodies and with that of the strong perfumes with which the skin of the +traders in love is saturated and which evaporate in this furnace. But +beneath all these diverse scents a slight aroma of vice-powder lingered, +which now disappeared and then reappeared, which one was perpetually +encountering as though some concealed hand had shaken an invisible +powder-puff in the air. The show was upon the river whither the perpetual +coming and going of the boats attracts the eyes. The boatwomen sprawled +upon their seats opposite their strong-wristed males, and contemplated +with contempt the dinner hunters prowling about the island.</p> + +<p>Sometimes when a train of boats, just started, passed at full speed, the +friends who stayed ashore gave shouts, and all the people suddenly seized +with madness set to work yelling.</p> + +<p>At the bend of the river towards Chaton fresh boats showed themselves +unceasingly. They came nearer and grew larger, and if only faces were +recognized, the vociferations broke out anew.</p> + +<p>A canoe covered with an awning and manned by four women came slowly down +the current. She who rowed was little, thin, faded, in a cabin boy's +costume, her hair drawn up under an oil-skin cap. Opposite her, a lusty +blonde, dressed as a man, with a white flannel jacket, lay upon her back +at the bottom of the boat, her legs in the air, on the seat at each side +of the rower, and she smoked a cigarette, while at each stroke of the +oars, her chest and stomach quivered, shaken by the shock. Quite at the +back, under the awning, two handsome girls, tall and slender, one dark +and the other fair, held each other by the waist as they unceasingly +watched their companions.</p> + +<p>A cry arose from La Grenonillère, "There is Lesbos," and there became all +at once a furious clamor; a terrifying scramble took place; the glasses +were knocked down; people clambered on to the tables; all in a frenzy of +noise bawled: "Lesbos! Lesbos! Lesbos!" The shout rolled along, became +indistinct, was no longer more than a kind of tremendous howl, and then +suddenly it seemed to start anew, to rise into space, to cover the plain, +to fill the foliage of the great trees, to extend itself to the distant +slopes, to go even to the sun.</p> + +<p>The rower, in the face of this ovation, had quietly stopped. The handsome +blonde extended upon the bottom of the boat, turned her head with a +careless air, as she raised herself upon her elbows; and the two girls +at the back commenced laughing as they saluted the crowd.</p> + +<p>Then the hullaballoo was doubled, making the floating establishment +tremble. The men took off their hats, the women waved their +handkerchiefs, and all voices, shrill or deep, together cried:</p> + +<p>"Lesbos."</p> + +<p>One would have said that these people, this collection of the corrupt, +saluted a chief like the squadrons which fire guns when an admiral passes +along the line.</p> + +<p>The numerous fleet of boats also acclaimed the women's boat, which awoke +from its sleepy motion to land rather farther off.</p> + +<p>Mr. Paul, contrary to the others, had drawn a key from his pocket and +whistled with all his might. His nervous mistress grew paler, caught him +by the arm to cause him to be quiet, and upon this occasion she looked +at him with fury in her eyes. But he appeared exasperated, as though +borne away by jealousy of some man by deep anger, instinctive and +ungovernable. He stammered, his lips quivering with indignation:</p> + +<p>"It is shameful! They ought to be drowned like dogs with a stone about +the neck."</p> + +<p>But Madeleine instantly flew into a rage; her small and shrill voice +became hissing, and she spoke volubly, as though pleading her own cause:</p> + +<p>"And what has it to do with you—you indeed? Are they not at liberty to +do what they wish since they owe nobody anything. A truce with your airs +and mind your own business...."</p> + +<p>But he cut her speech short:</p> + +<p>"It is the police whom it concerns, and I will have them marched off to +St. Lazare; so I will."</p> + +<p>She gave a start:</p> + +<p>"You?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I! And in the meantime I forbid you to speak to them, you +understand, I forbid you to do so."</p> + +<p>Then she shrugged her shoulders and grew calm in a moment:</p> + +<p>"My friend, I shall do as I please; if you are not satisfied, be off, and +instantly. I am not your wife, am I? Very well then, hold your tongue."</p> + +<p>He made no reply and they stood face to face, their mouths tightly closed +and their breathing rapid.</p> + +<p>At the other end of the great café of wood the four women made their +entry. The two in men's costumes marched in front: the one thin like an +oldish tomboy, with yellow lines on her temples; the other filled out her +white flannel garments with her fat, swelling out her big trousers with +her buttocks; she swayed about like a fat goose with enormous legs and +yielding knees. Their two friends followed them, and the crowd of boatmen +thronged about to shake their hands.</p> + +<p>They had all four hired a small cottage close to the water's edge, and +they lived there as two households would have lived.</p> + +<p>Their vice was public, recognized, patent. People talked of it as a +natural thing, which almost excited their sympathy, and whispered in +very low tones strange stories of dramas begotten of furious feminine +jealousies, of the stealthy visit of well-known women and of actresses +to the little house close to the water's edge.</p> + +<p>A neighbor, horrified by these scandalous rumors, apprised the police, +and the inspector, accompanied by a man, had come to make inquiry. The +mission was a delicate one; it was impossible, in short, to reproach +these women, who did not abandon themselves to prostitution with +anything. The inspector, very much puzzled, indeed, ignorant of the +nature of the offenses suspected, had asked questions at random, and +made a lofty report conclusive of their innocence.</p> + +<p>They laughed about it all the way to St. Germain. They walked about La +Grenonillère establishment with stately steps like queens; and seemed to +glory in their fame, rejoicing in the gaze that was fixed on them, so +superior to this crowd, to this mob, to these plebeians.</p> + +<p>Madeleine and her lover watched them approach and in the girl's eyes a +fire lightened.</p> + +<p>When the two first had reached the end of the table, Madeleine cried:</p> + +<p>"Pauline!"</p> + +<p>The large woman turned herself and stopped, continuing all the time to +hold the arm of her feminine cabin boy:</p> + +<p>"Good gracious, Madeleine.... Do come and talk to me, my dear."</p> + +<p>Paul squeezed his fingers upon his mistress's wrist; but she said to him, +with such an air:</p> + +<p>"You know, my fine fellow, you can be off;" he said nothing and remained +alone.</p> + +<p>Then they chatted in low voices, standing all three of them. Many +pleasant jests passed their lips, they spoke quickly; and Pauline looked +now and then at Paul, by stealth, with a shrewd and malicious smile.</p> + +<p>At last, putting up with it no longer, he suddenly raised himself and in +a single bound was at their side, trembling in every limb. He seized +Madeleine by the shoulders:</p> + +<p>"Come. I wish it," said he. "I have forbidden you to speak to these +scoundrels."</p> + +<p>Whereupon Pauline raised her voice and set to work blackguarding him with +her Billingsgate vocabulary. All the bystanders laughed; they drew near +him; they raised themselves on tiptoe in order the better to see him. He +remained dumbfounded under this downpour of filthy abuse. It appeared to +him that these words, which came from that mouth and fell upon him, +defiled him like dirt, and, in presence of the row which was beginning, +he fell back, retraced his steps, and rested his elbows on the railing +towards the river, turning his back upon the three victorious women.</p> + +<p>There he stayed watching the water, and sometimes with rapid gesture as +though he plucked it out, he removed with his sinewy fingers the tear +which had formed in his eye.</p> + +<p>The fact was that he was hopelessly in love, without knowing why, +notwithstanding his refined instincts, in spite of his reason, in spite, +indeed, of his will. He had fallen into this love as one falls into a +sloughy hole. Of a tender and delicate disposition, he had dreamed of +liaisons, exquisite, ideal and impassioned, and there that little bit of +a woman, stupid like all girls, with an exasperating stupidity, not even +pretty, thin and a spitfire, had taken him prisoner, possessing him from +head to foot, body and soul. He underwent this feminine bewitchery, +mysterious and all powerful, this unknown power, this prodigious +domination, arising no one knows whence, from the demon of the flesh, +which casts the most sensible man at the feet of some girl or other +without there being anything in her to explain her fatal and sovereign +power.</p> + +<p>And there at his back he felt that some infamous thing was brewing. +Shouts of laughter cut him to the heart. What should he do? He knew well, +but he could not do it.</p> + +<p>He steadily watched an angler upon the bank opposite him, and his +motionless line.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, the worthy man jerked a little silver fish, which wriggled at +the end of his line, out of the river. Then he endeavored to extract his +hook, hoisted and turned it, but in vain. At last, losing patience, he +commenced to pull it out, and all the bleeding gullet of the beast, with +a portion of its intestines, came out. Paul shuddered, rent himself to +his heart-strings. It seemed to him that the hook was his love and that +if he should pluck it out, all that he had in his breast would come +out in the same way at the end of a curved iron fixed in the depths of +his being, of which Madeleine held the line.</p> + +<p>A hand was placed upon his shoulder; he started and turned; his mistress +was at his side. They did not speak to each other; and she rested, like +him, with her elbows upon the railing, her eyes fixed upon the river.</p> + +<p>He sought for what he ought to say to her and could find nothing. He did +not even arrive at disentangling his own emotions; all that he was +sensible of was joy at feeling her there close to him, come back again, +and a shameful cowardice, a craving to pardon everything, to permit +everything, provided she never left him.</p> + +<p>At last, at the end of some minutes, he asked her in a very gentle voice:</p> + +<p>"Do you wish that we should leave? It will be nicer in the boat."</p> + +<p>She answered: "Yes, my puss."</p> + +<p>And he assisted her into the skiff, pressing her hands, all softened, +with some tears still in his eyes. Then she looked at him with a smile +and they kissed each other anew.</p> + +<p>They re-ascended the river very slowly, skirting the bank planted with +willows, covered with grass, bathed and still in the afternoon warmth. +When they had returned to the Restaurant Grillon, it was barely six +o'clock. Then leaving their boat they set off on foot on the island +towards Bezons, across the fields and along the high poplars which +bordered the river. The long grass ready to be mowed was full of flowers. +The sun, which was sinking, showed himself from beneath a sheet of red +light, and in the tempered heat of the closing day the floating +exhalations from the grass, mingled with the damp scents from the river, +filled the air with a soft languor, with a happy light, as though with a +vapor of well-being.</p> + +<p>A soft weakness overtakes the heart, and a species of communion with this +splendid calm of evening, with this vague and mysterious chilliness of +outspread life, with the keen and melancholy poetry which seems to arise +from flowers and things, develops itself revealed at this sweet and +pensive time to the senses.</p> + +<p>He felt all that; but she did not understand anything of it, for her +part. They walked side by side; and, suddenly tired of being silent, she +sang. She sang with her shrill and false voice, something which pervaded +the streets, an air catching the memory, which rudely destroyed the +profound and serene harmony of the evening.</p> + +<p>Then he looked at her and he felt an unsurpassable abyss between them. +She beat the grass with her parasol, her head slightly inclined, +contemplating her feet and singing, spinning out the notes, attempting +trills, and venturing on shakes. Her smooth little brow, of which he was +so fond, was at that time absolutely empty! empty! There was nothing +therein but this music of a bird-organ; and the ideas which formed there +by chance were like this music. She did not understand anything of him; +they were now separated as if they did not live together. Did then his +kisses never go any further than her lips?</p> + +<p>Then she raised her eyes to him and laughed again. He was moved to the +quick and, extending his arms in a paroxysm of love, he embraced her +passionately.</p> + +<p>As he was rumpling her dress she ended by disengaging herself, murmuring +by way of compensation as she did so:</p> + +<p>"Go; I love you well, my puss."</p> + +<p>But he seized her by the waist and seized by madness, carried her rapidly +away. He kissed her on the cheek, on the temple, on the neck, all the +while dancing with joy. They threw themselves down panting at the edge of +a thicket, lit up by the rays of the setting sun, and before they had +recovered breath they became friends again without her understanding his +transport.</p> + +<p>They returned, holding each other by the hand, when suddenly, across the +trees, they perceived on the river, the canoe manned by the four women. +The large Pauline also saw them, for she drew herself up and blew kisses +to Madeleine. And then she cried:</p> + +<p>"Until to-night!"</p> + +<p>Madeleine replied:</p> + +<p>"Until to-night!"</p> + +<p>Paul believed he suddenly felt his heart enveloped in ice.</p> + +<p>They re-entered the house for dinner.</p> + +<p>They installed themselves in one of the arbors, close to the water, and +set about eating in silence. When night arrived, they brought a candle +inclosed in a glass globe, which lit them up with a feeble and glimmering +light; and they heard every moment the bursting out of the shouts of the +boatmen in the great saloon on the first floor.</p> + +<p>Towards dessert, Paul, taking Madeleine's hand, tenderly said to her:</p> + +<p>"I feel very tired, my darling; unless you have any objection, we will go +to bed early."</p> + +<p>She, however, understood the ruse, and shot an enigmatical glance at him, +that glance of treachery which so readily appears at the bottom of a +woman's eyes. Then having reflected she answered:</p> + +<p>"You can go to bed if you wish, but I have promised to go to the ball at +La Grenonillère."</p> + +<p>He smiled in a piteous manner, one of those smiles with which one veils +the most horrible suffering, but he replied in a coaxing but agonized +tone:</p> + +<p>"If you were very kind, we should remain here, both of us."</p> + +<p>She indicated no with her head, without opening her mouth.</p> + +<p>He insisted:</p> + +<p>"I beg of you, my Bichette."</p> + +<p>Then she roughly broke out:</p> + +<p>"You know what I said to you. If you are not satisfied the door is open. +No one wishes to keep you. As for myself, I have promised; I shall go."</p> + +<p>He placed his two elbows upon the table, covered his face with his hands +and remained there pondering sorrowfully.</p> + +<p>The boat people came down again, bawling as usual. They set off in their +vessels for the ball at La Grenonillère.</p> + +<p>Madeleine said to Paul:</p> + +<p>"If you are not coming, say so, and I will ask one of these gentlemen to +take me."</p> + +<p>Paul rose:</p> + +<p>"Let us go!" murmured he.</p> + +<p>And they left.</p> + +<p>The night was black, full of stars, overpowered by a burning air, by +oppressive breaths of wind, burdened with heat and emanations, with +living germs, which, mixed with the breeze, destroyed its freshness. It +imparted to the face a heated caress, made one breathe more quickly, gasp +a little, so thick and heavy did it seem. The boats started on their way +bearing venetian lanterns at the prow. It was not possible to distinguish +the craft, but only these little colored lights, swift and dancing up and +down like glow-worms in a fit; and voices sounded from all sides in the +shade. The young people's skiff glided gently along. Now and then, when a +fast boat passed near them, they could, for a moment, see the white back +of the rower, lit up by his lantern.</p> + +<p>When they turned the elbow of the river, La Grenonillère appeared to them +in the distance. The establishment, en fête, was decorated with sconces, +with colored garlands draped with clusters of lights. On the Seine some +great barges moved about slowly, representing domes, pyramids and +elaborate erections in fires of all colors. Illuminated festoons hung +right down to the water, and sometimes a red or blue lantern, at the end +of an immense invisible fishing-rod, seemed like a great swinging star.</p> + +<p>All this illumination spread a light around the café, lit up the great +trees on the bank, from top to bottom, the trunks of which stood out in +pale gray and the leaves in a milky green upon the deep black of the +fields and the heavens. The orchestra, composed of five suburban artists, +flung far its public-house ball-music, poor and jerky, which caused +Madeleine to sing anew.</p> + +<p>She desired to enter at once. Paul desired first to take a turn on the +island, but he was obliged to give way. The attendance was more select. +The boatmen, always alone, remained with some thinly scattered citizens, +and some young men flanked by girls. The director and organizer of this +can-can majestic, in a jaded black suit, walked about in every direction, +his head laid waste by his old trade of purveyor of public amusements, +at a cheap rate.</p> + +<p>The large Pauline and her companions were not there; and Paul breathed +again.</p> + +<p>They danced; couples opposite each other, capered in the most distracted +manner, throwing their legs in the air, until they were upon a level with +the noses of their partners.</p> + +<p>The women, whose thighs were disjointed, skipped amid such a flying +upwards of their petticoats that the lower portions of their frames were +displayed. They kicked their feet up above their heads with astounding +facility, balanced their bodies, wagged their backs and shook their +sides, shedding around them a powerful scent of sweating womanhood.</p> + +<p>The men were squatted like toads, some making obscene signs; some turned +and twisted themselves, grimacing and hideous; some turned like a wheel +on their hands, or, perhaps, trying to make themselves funny, sketched +the manners of the day with exaggerated gracefulness.</p> + +<p>A fat servant-maid and two waiters served refreshments.</p> + +<p>This café-boat being only covered with a roof and having no wall +whatever, to shut it in, the hare-brained dance was displayed in the face +of the peaceful night and of the firmament powdered with stars.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, Mount Valerien, yonder opposite, appears illumined, as if a +conflagration had been set ablaze behind it. The radiance spreads itself +and deepens upon the sky, describing a large luminous circle of wan and +white light. Then something or other red appeared, grew greater, shining +with a burning red, like that of hot metal upon the anvil. That gradually +developed into a round body which seemed to arise from the earth; and the +moon, freeing herself from the horizon, rose slowly into space. In +proportion as she ascended, the purple tint faded and became yellow, +a shining bright yellow, and the satellite appeared to grow smaller in +proportion as her distance increased.</p> + +<p>Paul watched her for sometime, lost in contemplation, forgetting his +mistress, and when he returned to himself the latter had vanished.</p> + +<p>He sought for her, but could not find her. He threw his anxious eye over +table after table, going to and fro unceasingly, inquiring after her from +this one and that one. No one had seen her. He was thus tormented with +disquietude, when one of the waiters said to him:</p> + +<p>"You are looking for Madame Madeleine, are you not? She has left but +a few moments ago, in company with Madame Pauline." And at the same +instant, Paul perceived the cabin-boy and the two pretty girls standing +at the other end of the café, all three holding each others' waists and +lying in wait for him, whispering to one another. He understood, and, +like a madman, dashed off into the island.</p> + +<p>He first ran towards Chatou, but having reached the plain, retraced his +steps. Then he began to search the dense coppices, occasionally roamed +about distractedly, halting to listen.</p> + +<p>The toads all round about him poured out their metallic and short notes.</p> + +<p>Towards Bougival, some unknown bird warbled some song which reached him +from the distance.</p> + +<p>Over the large lawns the moon shed a soft light, resembling powdered +wool; it penetrated the foliage and shone upon the silvered bark of the +poplars, and riddled with its brilliant rays the waving tops of the +great trees. The entrancing poetry of this summer night had, in spite of +himself, entered into Paul, athwart his infatuated anguish, and stirred +his heart with a ferocious irony, increasing even to madness, his craving +for an ideal tenderness, for passionate outpourings of the bosom of an +adored and faithful woman. He was compelled to stop, choked by hurried +and rending sobs.</p> + +<p>The crisis over, he started anew.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, he received what resembled the stab of a poignard. There, +behind that bush, some people were kissing. He ran thither; and found an +amorous couple whose faces were entwined, united in an endless kiss.</p> + +<p>He dared not call, knowing well that she would not respond, and he had +also a frightful dread of discovering them all at once.</p> + +<p>The flourishes of the quadrilles, with the ear-splitting solos of the +cornet, the false shriek of the flute, the shrill squeaking of the +violin, irritated his feelings, and exasperated his sufferings. Wild and +limping music was floating under the trees, now feeble, now stronger, +wafted hither and thither by the breeze.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, he said to himself, that possibly she had returned. Yes, she +had returned! Why not? He had stupidly lost his head, without cause, +carried away by his fears, by the inordinate suspicions which had for +some time overwhelmed him.</p> + +<p>Seized by one of these singular calms which will sometimes occur in cases +of the greatest despair, he returned towards the ball-room.</p> + +<p>With a single glance of the eye, he took in the whole room. He made the +round of the tables, and abruptly again found himself face to face with +the three women. He must have had a doleful and queer expression of +countenance, for all three together burst into merriment.</p> + +<p>He made off, returned into the island, threw himself across the coppice +panting. He listened again, listened a long time, for his ears were +singing. At last, however, he believed he heard a little farther off a +little, sharp laugh, which he recognized at once; and he advanced very +quietly, on his knees, removing the branches from his path, his heart +beating so rapidly, that he could no longer breathe.</p> + +<p>Two voices murmured some words, the meaning of which he did not +understand, and then they were silent.</p> + +<p>Next, he was possessed by a frightful longing to fly, to save himself, +for ever, from this furious passion which threatened his existence. He +was about to return to Chatou and take the train, resolved never to come +back again, never again to see her. But her likeness suddenly rushed in +upon him, and he mentally pictured that moment in the morning when she +would wake in their warm bed, and would press herself coaxingly against +him, throwing her arms around his neck, her hair disheveled, and a little +entangled on the forehead, her eyes still shut and her lips apart ready +to receive the first kiss. The sudden recollection of this morning caress +filled him with frantic recollection and the maddest desire.</p> + +<p>The couple began to speak again; and he approached, doubled in two. Then +a faint cry rose from under the branches quite close to him. He advanced +again, always as though in spite of himself, invisibly attracted, without +being conscious of anything ... and he saw them.</p> + +<p>And he stood there astounded and distracted, as though he had there +suddenly discovered a corpse, dead and mutilated. Then, in an involuntary +flash of thought, he remembered the little fish whose entrails he had +felt being torn out.... But Madeleine murmured to her companion, in the +same tone in which she had often called him by name, and he was seized +by such a fit of anguish that he fled with all his might.</p> + +<p>He struck against two trees, fell over a root, set off again and suddenly +found himself near the river, opposite its rapid branch, which was lit up +by the moon. The torrent-like current made great eddies where the light +played upon it. The high bank dominated the river like a cliff, leaving a +wide obscure zone at its foot where the eddies made themselves heard in +the darkness.</p> + +<p>On the other bank, the country seats of Croissy ranged themselves and +could be plainly seen.</p> + +<p>Paul saw all this as though in a dream, he thought of nothing, understood +nothing, and all things, even his very existence, appeared vague, +far-off, forgotten, done with.</p> + +<p>The river was there. Did he know what he was doing? Did he wish to die? +He was mad. He turned himself, however, towards the island, towards her, +and in the still air of the night, in which the faint and persistent +burden of the public house band was borne up and down, he uttered, in +a voice frantic with despair, bitter beyond measure, and superhuman, a +frightful cry:</p> + +<p>"Madeleine."</p> + +<p>His heartrending call shot across the great silence of the sky, and sped +all around the horizon.</p> + +<p>Then, with a tremendous leap, with the bound of a wild animal, he jumped +into the river. The water rushed on, closed over him, and from the place +where he had disappeared a series of great circles started, enlarging +their brilliant undulations, until they finally reached the other bank. +The two women had heard the noise of the plunge. Madeleine drew herself +up and exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"It is Paul," a suspicion having arisen in her soul, "he has drowned +himself;" and she rushed towards the bank, where Pauline rejoined her.</p> + +<p>A clumsy punt, propelled by two men, turned and returned on the spot. One +of the men rowed, the other plunged into the water a great pole and +appeared to be looking for something. Pauline cried:</p> + +<p>"What are you doing? What is the matter?"</p> + +<p>An unknown voice answered:</p> + +<p>"It is a man who has just drowned himself."</p> + +<p>The two ghastly women, squeezing each other tightly, followed the +maneuvers of the boat. The music of La Grenonillère continued to sound in +the distance, and appeared with its cadences to accompany the movements +of the somber fisherman; and the river which now concealed a corpse, +whirled round and round, illuminated. The search was prolonged. The +horrible suspense made Madeleine shiver all over. At last, after at +least half an hour, one of the men announced:</p> + +<p>"I have got it."</p> + +<p>And he pulled up his long pole very gently, very gently. Then something +large appeared upon the surface. The other mariner left his oars, and +they both uniting their strength and hauling upon the inert weight, +caused it to tumble over into their boat.</p> + +<p>Then they made for the land, seeking a place well lighted and low. At the +moment when they landed, the women also arrived. The moment she saw him, +Madeleine fell back with horror. In the moonlight he already appeared +green, with his mouth, his eyes, his nose, his clothes full of slime. His +fingers closed and stiff, were hideous. A kind of black and liquid +plaster covered his whole body. The face appeared swollen, and from his +hair, glued up by the ooze, there ran a stream of dirty water.</p> + +<p>"Do you know him?" asked one.</p> + +<p>The other, the Croissy ferryman, hesitated:</p> + +<p>"Yes, it certainly seems to me that I have seen that head; but you know +when like that one cannot recognize anyone easily." And then, suddenly:</p> + +<p>"Why, it's Mr. Paul."</p> + +<p>"Who is Mr. Paul?" inquired his comrade.</p> + +<p>The first answered:</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Paul Baron, the son of the senator, the little chap who was so +amorous."</p> + +<p>The other added, philosophically:</p> + +<p>"Well, his fun is ended now; it is a pity, all the same, when one is so +rich!"</p> + +<p>Madeleine sobbed and fell to the ground. Pauline approached the body and +asked:</p> + +<p>"Is he indeed quite dead?"</p> + +<p>"Quite?"</p> + +<p>The men shrugged their shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Oh! after that length of time for certain."</p> + +<p>Then one of them asked:</p> + +<p>"Was it at the Grillon that he lodged?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the other; "we had better take him back there, there will +be something to be made of it."</p> + +<p>They embarked again in their boat and set out, moving off slowly on +account of the rapid current; and yet, a long time after they were out of +sight, from the place where the women remained, the regular splash of the +oars in the water could be heard.</p> + +<p>Then Pauline took the poor weeping Madeleine in her arms, petted her, +embraced her for a long while, consoled her.</p> + +<p>"What would you have; it is not your fault, is it? It is impossible to +prevent men committing folly. He wished it, so much the worse for him, +after all!"</p> + +<p>And then lifting her up:</p> + +<p>"Come, my dear, come and sleep at the house; it is impossible for you to +go back to the Grillon to-night."</p> + +<p>And she embraced her again.</p> + +<p>"Come, we will cure you," said she.</p> + +<p>Madeleine arose, and weeping all the while, but with fainter sobs, her +head upon Pauline's shoulder, as though it had found a refuge in a closer +and more certain affection, more familiar and more confiding, set off +with very slow steps.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_RABBIT" id="THE_RABBIT"></a>THE RABBIT</h2> + + +<p>Old Lecacheur appeared at the door of his house at his usual hour, +between five and a quarter past five in the morning, to look after +his men who were going to work.</p> + +<p>With a red face, only half awake, his right eye open and the left nearly +closed, he was buttoning his braces over his fat stomach with some +difficulty while he was all the time looking into every corner of the +farm-yard with a searching glance. The sun was darting his oblique rays +through the beech-trees by the side of the ditch and the apple trees +outside, and was making the cocks crow on the dung-hill, and the pigeons +coo on the roof. The smell of the cow stalls came through the open door, +and mingled in the fresh morning air, with the pungent odor of the stable +where the horses were neighing, with their heads turned towards the +light.</p> + +<p>As soon as his trousers were properly fastened, Lecacheur came out, and +went first of all towards the hen-house to count the morning's eggs, for +he had been afraid of thefts for some time; but the servant girl ran up +to him with lifted arms and cried:</p> + +<p>"Master! Master! they have stolen a rabbit during the night."</p> + +<p>"A rabbit?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Master, the big gray rabbit, from the hutch on the left;" whereupon +the farmer quite opened his left eye, and said, simply:</p> + +<p>"I must see that."</p> + +<p>And off he went to inspect it. The hutch had been broken open and the +rabbit was gone. Then he became thoughtful, closed his right eye again, +and scratched his nose, and after a little consideration, he said to the +frightened girl, who was standing stupidly before her master:</p> + +<p>"Go and fetch the gendarmes; say I expect them as soon as possible."</p> + +<p>Lecacheur was mayor of the village, Pairgry-le Gras, and ruled it like a +master, on account of his money and position, and as soon as the servant +had disappeared in the direction of the village, which was only about +five hundred yards off, he went into the house to have his morning coffee +and to discuss the matter with his wife, whom he found on her knees in +front of the fire, trying to get it to burn up quickly, and as soon as he +got to the door, he said:</p> + +<p>"Somebody has stolen the gray rabbit."</p> + +<p>She turned round so quickly that she found herself sitting on the floor, +and looking at her husband with distressed eyes, she said:</p> + +<p>"What is it, Cacheux! Somebody has stolen a rabbit?"</p> + +<p>"The big gray one."</p> + +<p>She sighed.</p> + +<p>"How sad! Who can have done it?"</p> + +<p>She was a little, thin, active, neat woman, who knew all about farming, +and Lecacheur had his own ideas about the matter.</p> + +<p>"It must be that fellow Polyte."</p> + +<p>His wife got up suddenly and said in a furious voice:</p> + +<p>"He did it! he did it! You need not look for anyone else. He did it! You +have said it, Cacheux!"</p> + +<p>All her peasant's fury, all her avarice, all her rage of a saving woman +against the man of whom she had always been suspicious, and against the +girl whom she had always suspected, showed themselves in the contraction +of her mouth, and the wrinkles in her cheeks and forehead of her thin +exasperated face.</p> + +<p>"And what have you done?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I have sent for the gendarmes."</p> + +<p>This Polyte was a laborer, who had been employed on the farm for a few +days, and who had been dismissed by Lecacheur for an insolent answer. He +was an old soldier, and was supposed to have retained his habits of +marauding and debauchery, from his campaigns in Africa. He did anything +for a livelihood, but whether he were a mason, a navvy, a reaper, whether +he broke stones or lopped trees, he was always lazy, and so he remained +nowhere, and he had, at times, to change his neighborhood to obtain work.</p> + +<p>From the first day that he came to the farm, Lecacheur's wife had +detested him, and now she was sure that he had committed the robbery.</p> + +<p>In about half an hour the two gendarmes arrived. Brigadier Sénateur was +very tall and thin, and Gendarme Lenient, short and fat. Lecacheur made +them sit down and told them the affair, and then they went and saw the +scene of the theft, in order to verify the fact that the hutch had been +broken open, and to collect all the proofs they could. When they got back +to the kitchen, the mistress brought in some wine, filled their glasses +and asked with a distrustful look.</p> + +<p>"Shall you catch him?"</p> + +<p>The brigadier, who had his sword between his legs, appeared thoughtful. +Certainly, he was sure of taking him, if he was pointed out to him, but +if not, he could not answer for being able to discover him, himself, and +after reflecting for a long time, he put this simple question:</p> + +<p>"Do you know the thief?"</p> + +<p>And Lecacheur replied, with a look of Normandy slyness in his eyes:</p> + +<p>"As for knowing him, I do not, as I did not see him commit the robbery. +If I had seen him, I should have made him eat it raw, skin and flesh, +without a drop of cider to wash it down. But as for saying who it is, +I cannot, although I believe it is that good-for-nothing Polyte."</p> + +<p>Then he related at length his troubles with Polyte, his leaving his +service, his bad reputation, things which had been told him, accumulating +insignificant and minute proofs, and then, the brigadier, who had been +listening very attentively while he emptied his glass and filled it +again, with an indifferent air, turned to his gendarme and said:</p> + +<p>"We must go and look in the cottage of Severin's wife." At which the +gendarme smiled and nodded three times.</p> + +<p>Then Madame Lecacheur came to them, and very quietly, with all a +peasant's cunning, questioned the brigadier in her turn. That shepherd +Severin, a simpleton, a sort of a brute who had been brought up and +grown up among his bleating flocks, and who knew scarcely anything +besides them in the world, had nevertheless preserved the peasant's +instinct for saving, at the bottom of his heart. For years and years he +must have hidden in hollow trees and crevices in the rocks, all that he +earned, either as shepherd, or by curing animal's sprains (for the +bone-setter's secret had been handed down to him by the old shepherd +whose place he took), by touch or word, and one day he bought a small +property consisting of a cottage and a field, for three thousand francs.</p> + +<p>A few months later, it became known that he was going to marry a servant, +notorious for her bad morals, the innkeeper's servant. The young fellows +said that the girl, knowing that he was pretty well off, had been to his +cottage every night, and had taken him, overcome him, led him on to +matrimony, little by little, night by night.</p> + +<p>And then, having been to the mayor's office and to church, she now lived +in the house which her man had bought, while he continued to tend his +flocks, day and night, on the plains.</p> + +<p>And the brigadier added:</p> + +<p>"Polyte has been sleeping with her for three weeks, for the thief has no +place of his own to go to!"</p> + +<p>The gendarme make a little joke:</p> + +<p>"He takes the shepherd's blankets."</p> + +<p>Madame Lecacheur, who was seized by a fresh access of rage, of rage +increased by a married woman's anger against debauchery, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"It is she, I am sure. Go there. Ah! the blackguard thieves!"</p> + +<p>But the brigadier was quite unmoved.</p> + +<p>"A minute," he said. "Let us wait until twelve o'clock, as he goes and +dines there every day. I shall catch them with it under their noses."</p> + +<p>The gendarme smiled, pleased at his chief's idea, and Lecacheur also +smiled now, for the affair of the shepherd struck him as very funny: +deceived husbands are always amusing.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Twelve o'clock had just struck when the brigadier, followed by his man, +knocked gently three times at the door of a little lonely house, situated +at the corner of a wood, five hundred yards from the village.</p> + +<p>They had been standing close against the wall, so as not to be seen from +within, and they waited. As nobody answered, the brigadier knocked again +in a minute or two. It was so quiet, that the house seemed uninhabited; +but Lenient, the gendarme, who had very quick ears, said that he heard +somebody moving about inside, and then Sénateur got angry. He would not +allow anyone to resist the authority of the law for a moment, and, +knocking at the door with the hilt of his sword, he cried out:</p> + +<p>"Open the door, in the name of the law."</p> + +<p>As this order had no effect, he roared out:</p> + +<p>"If you do not obey, I shall smash the lock. I am the brigadier of the +gendarmerie, by G—! Here Lenient."</p> + +<p>He had not finished speaking when the door opened and Sénateur saw before +him a fat girl, with a very red color, blowzy, with pendant breasts, a +big stomach and broad hips, a sort of sanguine and bestial female, the +wife of the shepherd Severin, and he went into the cottage.</p> + +<p>"I have come to pay you a visit, as I want to make a little search," he +said, and he looked about him. On the table there was a plate, a jug of +cider and a glass half full, which proved that a meal had been going on. +Two knives were lying side by side, and the shrewd gendarme winked at his +superior officer.</p> + +<p>"It smells good," the latter said.</p> + +<p>"One might swear that it was stewed rabbit," Lenient added, much amused.</p> + +<p>"Will you have a glass of brandy?" the peasant woman asked.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you; I only want the skin of the rabbit that you are eating."</p> + +<p>She pretended not to understand, but she was trembling.</p> + +<p>"What rabbit?"</p> + +<p>The brigadier had taken a seat, and was calmly wiping his forehead.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, you are not going to try and make us believe that you live +on couch grass. What were you eating there all by yourself for your +dinner?"</p> + +<p>"I? Nothing whatever, I swear to you. A mite of butter on my bread."</p> + +<p>"You are a novice, my good woman, <i>a mite of butter on your +bread</i>.... You are mistaken; you ought to have said: a mite of butter on +the rabbit. By G—d, your butter smells good! It is special butter, extra +good butter, butter fit for a wedding; certainly, not household butter!"</p> + +<p>The gendarme was shaking with laughter, and repeated:</p> + +<p>"Not household butter, certainly."</p> + +<p>As brigadier Sénateur was a joker, all the gendarmes had grown facetious, +and the officer continued:</p> + +<p>"Where is your butter?"</p> + +<p>"My butter?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, your butter."</p> + +<p>"In the jar."</p> + +<p>"Then where is the butter jar?"</p> + +<p>"Here it is."</p> + +<p>She brought out an old cup, at the bottom of which there was a layer of +rancid, salt butter, and the brigadier smelt it, and said, with a shake +of his head:</p> + +<p>"It is not the same. I want the butter that smells of the rabbit. Come, +Lenient, open your eyes; look under the sideboard, my good fellow, and I +will look under the bed."</p> + +<p>Having shut the door, he went up to the bed and tried to move it; but it +was fixed to the wall, and had not been moved for more than half a +century, apparently. Then the brigadier stooped, and made his uniform +crack. A button had flown off.</p> + +<p>"Lenient," he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, brigadier?"</p> + +<p>"Come here my lad and look under the bed; I am too tall. I will look +after the sideboard."</p> + +<p>He got up and waited while his man executed his orders.</p> + +<p>Lenient, who was short and stout, took off his kepi, laid himself on his +stomach, and putting his face on the floor looked at the black cavity +under the bed, and then, suddenly, he exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"All right, here we are!"</p> + +<p>"What have you got? The rabbit?"</p> + +<p>"No, the thief."</p> + +<p>"The thief! Pull him out, pull him out!"</p> + +<p>The gendarme had put his arms under the bed and laid hold of something, +and he was pulling with all his might, and at last a foot, shod in a +thick boot, appeared, which he was holding in his right hand. The +brigadier took it, crying:</p> + +<p>"Pull! pull!"</p> + +<p>And Lenient, who was on his knees by that time, was pulling at the other +leg. But it was a hard job, for the prisoner kicked out hard, and arched +up his back across the bed.</p> + +<p>"Courage! courage! pull! pull!" Sénateur cried, and they pulled him with +all their strength so that the wooden bar gave way, and he came out as +far as his head; but at last they got that out also, and they saw the +terrified and furious face of Polyte, whose arms remained stretched out +under the bed.</p> + +<p>"Pull away!" the brigadier kept on exclaiming. Then they heard a strange +noise, and as the arms followed the shoulders, and the hands the arms, +and, in the hands the handle of a saucepan, and at the end of the handle +the saucepan itself, which contained stewed rabbit.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord! good Lord!" the brigadier shouted in his delight, while +Lenient took charge of the man; and the rabbit's skin, an overwhelming +proof, was discovered under the mattress, and then the gendarmes returned +in triumph to the village with their prisoner and their booty.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A week later, as the affair had made much stir, Lecacheur, on going into +the <i>Mairie</i> to consult the school-master, was told that the shepherd +Severin had been waiting for him for more than an hour, and he found him +sitting on a chair in a corner, with his stick between his legs. When he +saw the mayor, he got up, took off his cap, and said:</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Maître Cacheux;" and then he remained standing, timid and +embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" the former said.</p> + +<p>"This is it, Monsieur. Is it true that somebody stole one of your rabbits +last week?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is quite true, Severin."</p> + +<p>"Who stole the rabbit?"</p> + +<p>"Polyte Ancas, the laborer."</p> + +<p>"Right! right! And is it also true that it was found under my bed ..."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, the rabbit?"</p> + +<p>"The rabbit and then Polyte."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my poor Severin, quite true, but who told you?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty well everybody. I understand! And I suppose you know all about +marriages, as you marry<a name="FNanchor_K_11" id="FNanchor_K_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_K_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> people?"</p> + +<p>"What about marriage?"</p> + +<p>"With regard to one's rights."</p> + +<p>"What rights?"</p> + +<p>"The husband's rights and then the wife's rights."</p> + +<p>"Of course I do."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Then just tell me, M'sieu Cacheux, has my wife the right to go to +bed with Polyte?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by going to bed with Polyte?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, has she any right before the law, and seeing that she is my wife, +to go to bed with Polyte?"</p> + +<p>"Why of course not, of course not."</p> + +<p>"If I catch him there again, shall I have the right to thrash him and her +also?"</p> + +<p>"Why ... why ... why, yes."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then; I will tell you why I want to know. One night last +week, as I had my suspicions, I came in suddenly, and they were not +behaving properly. I chucked Polyte out, to go and sleep somewhere else; +but that was all, as I did not know what my rights were. This time I did +not see them; I only heard of it from others. That is over, and we will +not say any more about it; but if I catch them again ... by G—d if I +catch them again, I will make them lose all taste for such nonsense, +Maître Cacheux, as sure as my name is Severin ..."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_TWENTY-FIVE_FRANCS_OF_THE_MOTHER-SUPERIOR" id="THE_TWENTY-FIVE_FRANCS_OF_THE_MOTHER-SUPERIOR"></a>THE TWENTY-FIVE FRANCS OF THE MOTHER-SUPERIOR</h2> + + +<p>He certainly looked very droll, did Daddy Pavilly, with his great, spider +legs and his little body, his long arms and his pointed head, surrounded +by a flame of red hair on the top of the crown.</p> + +<p>He was a clown, a peasant clown by nature, born to play tricks, to act +parts, simple parts, as he was a peasant's son and was himself a peasant, +who could scarcely read. Yes! God had certainly created him to amuse +others, the poor country devils who have neither theaters nor fêtes, and +he amused them conscientiously. In the café people treated him to drink +in order to keep him there, and he drank intrepidly, laughing and joking, +hoaxing everybody without vexing anyone, while the people were laughing +heartily around him.</p> + +<p>He was so droll that the very girls could not resist him, ugly as he was, +because he made them laugh so. He would drag them about joking all the +while, and he tickled and squeezed them, saying such funny things that +they held their sides while they pushed him away.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of June he engaged himself for the harvest to farmer Le +Harivan, near Rouville. For three whole weeks he amused the harvesters, +male and female, by his jokes, both by day and night. During the day, +when he was in the fields, he wore an old straw hat which hid his red +shock head, and one saw him gathering up the yellow grain and tying it +into bundles with his long, thin arms; and then suddenly stopping to make +a funny movement which made the laborers, who always kept their eyes on +him, laugh all over the field. At night he crept, like some crawling +animal, in among the straw in the barn where the women slept, causing +screams and exciting a disturbance. They drove him off with their wooden +clogs, and he escaped on all fours, like a fantastic monkey, amidst +volleys of laughter from the whole place.</p> + +<p>On the last day, as the wagon full of reapers, decked with ribbons and +playing bag-pipes, shouting and singing with pleasure and drink, went +along the white, high road, slowly drawn by six dapple-gray horses, +driven by a lad in a blouse, with a rosette in his cap, Pavilly, in the +midst of the sprawling women, danced like a drunken satyr, and kept the +little dirty-faced boys and astonished peasants, standing staring at him +open-mouthed on the way to the farm.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, as they got to the gate of Le Harivan's farm yard, he gave a +leap as he was lifting up his arms, but unfortunately, as he came down, +he knocked against the side of the long wagon, fell over it onto the +wheel, and rebounded into the road. His companions jumped out, but he did +not move; one eye was closed, while the other was open, and he was pale +with fear, while his long limbs were stretched out in the dust, and when +they touched his right leg he began to scream, and when they tried to +make him stand up, he immediately fell down.</p> + +<p>"I think one of his legs is broken," one of the men said.</p> + +<p>And so it really was. Harivan, therefore, had him laid on a table and +sent off a man on horseback to Rouville to fetch the doctor, who came an +hour later.</p> + +<p>The farmer was very generous and said that he would pay for the man's +treatment in the hospital, so that the doctor carried Pavilly off in his +carriage to the hospital, and had him put into a white-washed ward, where +his fracture was reduced.</p> + +<p>As soon as he knew that it would not kill him, and that he would be taken +care of, cuddled, cured, and fed without having anything to do except to +lie on his back between the sheets, Pavilly's joy was unbounded, and he +began to laugh silently and continuously, so as to show his decayed +teeth.</p> + +<p>Whenever one of the Sisters of Mercy came near his bed he made grimaces +of satisfaction, winking, twisting his mouth awry and moving his nose, +which was very long and mobile. His neighbors in the ward, ill as they +were, could not help laughing, and the Mother-Superior often came to his +bedside, to be amused for a quarter of an hour, and he invented all kinds +of jokes and stories for her, and as he had all the makings of a +strolling actor in him, he would be devout in order to please her, and +spoke of religion with the serious air of a man who knows that there are +times when jokes are out of place.</p> + +<p>One day, he took it into his head to sing to her. She was delighted and +came to see him more frequently, and then she brought him a hymn-book, so +as to utilize his voice. Then he might be seen sitting up in bed, for he +was beginning to be able to move, singing the praises of the Almighty and +of Mary, in a falsetto voice, while the kind, stout sister stood by him +and beat time with her finger. When he could walk, the Superior offered +to keep him for some time longer to sing in chapel, to serve at Mass and +to fulfill the duties of sacristan, and he accepted. For a whole month he +might be seen in his surplice, limping and singing the psalms and the +responses, with such movements of his head, that the number of the +faithful increased, and that people deserted the parish Church to attend +Vespers at the hospital.</p> + +<p>But as everything must come to an end in this world, they were obliged +to discharge him, when he was quite cured, and the Superior gave him +twenty-five francs in return for his services.</p> + +<p>As soon as Pavilly found himself in the street with all that money in his +pocket, he asked himself what he was going to do. Should he return to the +village? Certainly not before having a drink, for he had not had one for +a long time, and so he went into a café. He did not go into the town more +than two or three times a year, and so he had a confused and intoxicating +recollection of an orgie, on one of those visits in particular, and so he +asked for a glass of the best brandy, which he swallowed at a gulp to +grease the passage, and then he had another to see how it tasted.</p> + +<p>As soon as the strong and fiery brandy had touched his palate and tongue, +awakening more vividly than ever the sensation of alcohol which he was so +fond of, and so longed for, which caresses, and stings, and burns the +mouth, he knew that he should drink a whole bottle of it, and so he asked +immediately what it cost, so as to spare himself having it in detail. +They charged him three francs, which he paid, and then he began quietly +to get drunk.</p> + +<p>However, he was methodical in it, as he wished to keep sober enough for +other pleasures, and so, as soon as he felt that he was on the point of +seeing the fireplace bow to him, he got up and went out with unsteady +steps, with his bottle under his arm, in search of a house where girls +of easy virtue lived.</p> + +<p>He found one, with some difficulty, after having asked a carter, who did +not know of one; a postman, who directed him wrong; a baker, who began to +swear and called him an old pig; and lastly, a soldier, who was obliging +enough to take him to it, advised him to choose <i>La Reine</i>.</p> + +<p>Although it was barely twelve o'clock, Pavilly went into that palace of +delights, where he was received by a servant, who wanted to turn him out +again. But he made her laugh by making a grimace, showed her three +francs, the usual price of the special provisions of the place, and +followed her with difficulty up a dark staircase, which led to the first +floor.</p> + +<p>When he had been shown into a room, he asked for <i>la Reine</i>, and had +another drink out of the bottle, while he waited. But very shortly, the +door opened and a girl came in. She was tall, fat, red-faced, enormous. +She looked at the drunken fellow, who had fallen into a seat, with the +eye of a judge of such matters, and said:</p> + +<p>"Are you not ashamed of yourself, at this time of day?"</p> + +<p>"Ashamed of what, Princess?" he stammered.</p> + +<p>"Why, of disturbing a lady, before she has even had time to eat her +dinner."</p> + +<p>He wanted to have a joke, so he said:</p> + +<p>"There is no such thing as time, for the brave."</p> + +<p>"And there ought to be no time for getting drunk, either, old guzzler."</p> + +<p>At this he got angry:</p> + +<p>"I am not a guzzler, and I am not drunk."</p> + +<p>"Not drunk?"</p> + +<p>"No, I am not."</p> + +<p>"Not drunk? Why, you could not even stand straight;" and she looked at +him angrily, thinking that all this time her companions were having their +dinner.</p> + +<p>"I ... I could dance a polka," he replied, getting up, and to prove his +stability he got onto the chair, made a pirouette and jumped onto the +bed, where his thick, muddy shoes made two great marks.</p> + +<p>"Oh! you dirty brute!" the girl cried, and rushing at him, she struck him +a blow with her fist in the stomach, such a blow that Pavilly lost his +balance, fell and struck the foot of the bed, and making a complete +somersault tumbled onto the night-table, dragging the jug and basin with +him, and then rolled onto the ground, roaring.</p> + +<p>The noise was so loud, and his cries so piercing, that everybody in the +house rushed in, the master, mistress, servant, and the staff.</p> + +<p>The master picked him up, but as soon as he had put him on his legs, the +peasant lost his balance again, and then began to call out that his leg +was broken, the other leg, the sound one.</p> + +<p>It was true, so they sent for a doctor, and it happened to be the same +one who had attended him at Le Harivan's.</p> + +<p>"What! Is it you again?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, M'sieu."</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with you?"</p> + +<p>"Somebody has broken my other leg for me, M'sieu."</p> + +<p>"Who did it, old fellow?"</p> + +<p>"Why, a female."</p> + +<p>Everybody was listening. The girls in their dressing gowns, with their +mouths still greasy from their interrupted dinner, the mistress of the +house furious, the master nervous.</p> + +<p>"This will be a bad job," the doctor said. "You know that the municipal +authorities look upon you with very unfavorable eyes, so we must try and +hush the matter up."</p> + +<p>"How can it be managed?" the master of the place asked.</p> + +<p>"Why the best way would be to send him back to the hospital, from which +he has just come out, and to pay for him there."</p> + +<p>"I would rather do that," the master of the house replied, "than have any +fuss made about the matter."</p> + +<p>So half an hour later, Pavilly returned drunk and groaning to the ward +which he had left an hour before. The Superior lifted up her hands in +sorrow, for she liked him, and with a smile, for she was glad to have +him back.</p> + +<p>"Well, my good fellow, what is the matter with you now?"</p> + +<p>"The other leg is broken, Madame."</p> + +<p>"So you have been getting onto another load of straw, you old joker?"</p> + +<p>And Pavilly, in great confusion, but still sly, said, with hesitation:</p> + +<p>"No... no.... Not this time, no ... not this time. No ... no.... It was +not my fault, not my fault ...A mattress caused this."</p> + +<p>She could get no other explanation out of him, and never knew that his +relapse was due to her twenty-five francs.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_VENUS_OF_BRANIZA" id="THE_VENUS_OF_BRANIZA"></a>THE VENUS OF BRANIZA</h2> + + +<p>Some years ago there lived in Braniza, a celebrated Talmadist, who was +renowned no less on account of his beautiful wife, than of his wisdom, +his learning, and his fear of God. The Venus of Braniza deserved that +name thoroughly, for she deserved it for herself, on account of her +singular beauty, and even more as the wife of a man who was deeply versed +in the Talmud; for the wives of the Jewish philosophers are, as a rule, +ugly, or even possess some bodily defect.</p> + +<p>The Talmud explains this, in the following manner. It is well known that +marriages are made in heaven, and at the birth of a boy a divine voice +calls out the name of his future wife, and <i>vice versâ</i>. But just as a +good father tries to get rid of his good wares out of doors, and only +uses the damaged stuff at home for his children, so God bestows those +women whom other men would not care to have, on the Talmudists.</p> + +<p>Well, God made an exception in the case of our Talmudist, and had +bestowed a Venus on him, perhaps only in order to confirm the rule by +means of this exception, and to make it appear less hard. His wife was +a woman who would have done honor to any king's throne, or to the +pedestal in any sculpture gallery. Tall, and with a wonderful, voluptuous +figure, she carried a strikingly beautiful head, surmounted by thick, +black plaits, on her proud shoulders, while two large, dark eyes +languished and glowed beneath her long lashes, and her beautiful hands +looked as if they were carved out of ivory.</p> + +<p>This beautiful woman, who seemed to have been designed by nature to rule, +to see slaves at her feet, to provide occupation for the painter's brush, +the sculptor's chisel and the poet's pen, lived the life of a rare and +beautiful flower, which is shut up in a hot house, for she sat the whole +day long wrapped up in her costly fur jacket and looked down dreamily +into the street.</p> + +<p>She had no children; her husband, the philosopher, studied, and prayed, +and studied again from early morning until late at night; his mistress +was <i>the Veiled Beauty</i>, as the Talmudists call the Kabbalah. She paid +no attention to her house, for she was rich and everything went of its +own accord, just like a clock, which has only to be wound up once a week; +nobody came to see her, and she never went out of the house; she sat and +dreamed and brooded and—yawned.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>One day when a terrible storm of thunder and lightning had spent all its +fury over the town, and all windows had been opened in order to let the +Messiah in, the Jewish Venus was sitting as usual in her comfortable easy +chair, shivering in spite of her fur jacket, and was thinking, when +suddenly she fixed her glowing eyes on the man who was sitting before the +Talmud, swaying his body backwards and forwards, and said suddenly:</p> + +<p>"Just tell me, when will Messias, the Son of David, come?"</p> + +<p>"He will come," the philosopher replied, "when all the Jews have become +either altogether virtuous or altogether vicious, says the Talmud."</p> + +<p>"Do you believe that all the Jews will ever become virtuous," the Venus +continued.</p> + +<p>"How am I to believe that!"</p> + +<p>"So Messias will come, when all the Jews have become vicious?"</p> + +<p>The philosopher shrugged his shoulders and lost himself again in the +labyrinth of the Talmud, out of which, so it is said, only one man +returned unscathed, and the beautiful woman at the window again looked +dreamily out onto the heavy rain, while her white fingers played +unconsciously with the dark fur of her splendid jacket.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>One day the Jewish philosopher had gone to a neighboring town, where an +important question of ritual was to be decided. Thanks to his learning, +the question was settled sooner than he had expected, and instead of +returning the next morning, as he had intended, he came back the same +evening with a friend, who was no less learned than himself. He got out +of the carriage at his friend's house, and went home on foot, and was +not a little surprised when he saw his windows brilliantly illuminated, +and found an officer's servant comfortably smoking his pipe in front of +his house.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing here?" he asked in a friendly manner, but with some +curiosity, nevertheless.</p> + +<p>"I am looking out, in case the husband of the beautiful Jewess should +come home unexpectedly."</p> + +<p>"Indeed? Well, mind and keep a good look out."</p> + +<p>Saying this, the philosopher pretended to go away, but went into the +house through the garden entrance at the back. When he got into the first +room, he found a table laid for two, which had evidently only been left a +short time previously. His wife was sitting as usual at her bed room +window wrapped in her fur jacket, but her cheeks were suspiciously red, +and her dark eyes had not got their usual languishing look, but now +rested on her husband with a gaze which expressed at the same time +satisfaction and mockery. At that moment he kicked against an object on +the floor, which emitted a strange sound, which he picked up and examined +in the light. It was a pair of spurs.</p> + +<p>"Who has been here with you?" the Talmudist said.</p> + +<p>The Jewish Venus shrugged her shoulders contemptuously, but did not +reply.</p> + +<p>"Shall I tell you? The Captain of Hussars has been with you."</p> + +<p>"And why should he not have been here with me?" she said, smoothing the +fur on her jacket with her white hand.</p> + +<p>"Woman! are you out of your mind?"</p> + +<p>"I am in full possession of my senses," she replied, and a knowing smile +hovered round her red voluptuous lips. "But must I not also do my part, +in order that Messias may come and redeem us poor Jews?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LA_MORILLONNE" id="LA_MORILLONNE"></a>LA MORILLONNE</h2> + + +<p>They called her <i>La Morillonne</i><a name="FNanchor_L_12" id="FNanchor_L_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_L_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> because of her black hair and of her +complexion, which resembled autumnal leaves, and because of her mouth +with thick purple lips, which were like blackberries, when she curled +them.</p> + +<p>That she should be born as dark as this in a district where everybody was +fair, and engendered by a father and mother with tow-colored hair and a +complexion like butter was one of the mysteries of atavism. One of her +female ancestors must have had an intimacy with one of those traveling +tinkers who, have gone about the country from time immemorial, with faces +the color of bistre and indigo, crowned by a wisp of light hair.</p> + +<p>From that ancestor she derived, not only her dark complexion, but also +her dark soul, her deceitful eyes, whose depths were at times illuminated +by flashes of every vice, her eyes of an obstinate and malicious animal.</p> + +<p>Handsome? Certainly not, nor even pretty. Ugly, with an absolute +ugliness! Such a false look! Her nose was flat, and had been smashed by +a blow, while her unwholesome looking mouth was always slobbering with +greediness, or uttering something vile. Her hair was thick and untidy, +and a regular nest for vermin, to which may be added a thin, feverish +body, with a limping walk. In short, she was a perfect monster, and yet +all the young men of the neighborhood had made love to her, and whoever +had been so honored, longed for her society again.</p> + +<p>From the time that she was twelve, she had been the mistress of every +fellow in the village. She had corrupted boys of her own age in every +conceivable manner and place.</p> + +<p>Young men at the risk of imprisonment, and even steady, old, notable and +venerable men, such as the farmer at Eclausiaux, Monsieur Martin, the +ex-mayor and other highly respectable men, had been taken by the manners +of that creature, and the reason why the rural policeman was not severe +upon them, in spite of his love for summoning people before the +magistrates, was, so people said, that he would have been obliged to take +out a summons against himself.</p> + +<p>The consequence was that she had grown up without being interfered with, +and was the mistress of every fellow in the village, as the school-master +said; who had himself been one of <i>the fellows</i>. But the most curious +part of the business was that no one was jealous. They handed her on from +one to the other, and when someone expressed his astonishment at this to +her one day, she said to this unintelligent stranger:</p> + +<p>"Is everybody not satisfied?"</p> + +<p>And then, how could any one of them, even if he had been jealous, have +monopolized her? They had no hold on her. She was not selfish, and though +she accepted all gifts, whether in kind or in money, she never asked for +anything and she even appeared to prefer paying herself after her own +fashion, by stealing. All she seemed to care about as her reward was +pilfering, and a crown put into her hand, gave her less pleasure than +a halfpenny which she had stolen. Neither was it any use to dream of +ruling her as the sole male, or as the proud master of the hen roost, +for which of them, no matter how broad shouldered he was, would have been +capable of it? Some had tried to vanquish her, but in vain.</p> + +<p>How then, could any of them claim to be her master? It would have been +the same as wishing to have the sole right of baking their bread in the +common oven, in which the whole village baked.</p> + +<p>But there was one man who formed the exception, and that was Bru, the +shepherd.</p> + +<p>He lived in the fields in his movable hut, on cakes made of unleavened +dough, which he kneaded on a stone and baked in the hot ashes, now here, +now there, is a hole dug out in the ground, and heated with dead wood. +Potatoes, milk, hard cheese, blackberries, and a small cask of old gin +that he had distilled himself, were his daily pittance; but he knew +nothing about love, although he was accused of all sorts of horrible +things, and therefore nobody dared abuse him to his face; in the first +place, because Bru was a spare and sinewy man, who handled his shepherd's +crook like a drum-major does his staff; next, because of his three sheep +dogs, who had teeth like wolves, and who knew nobody except their master; +and lastly, for fear of the evil eye. For Bru, it appeared, knew spells +which would blight the corn, give the sheep foot rot, the cattle the +<i>rinder pest</i>, make cows die in calving, and set fire to the ricks and +stacks.</p> + +<p>But as Bru was the only one who did not loll out his tongue after La +Morillonne, naturally one day she began to think of him, and she declared +that she, at any rate, was not afraid of his evil eye, and so she went +after him.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" he said, and she replied boldly:</p> + +<p>"What do I want? I want you."</p> + +<p>"Very well," he said, "but then you must belong to me alone."</p> + +<p>"All right," was her answer, "if you think you can please me."</p> + +<p>He smiled and took her into his arms, and she was away from the village +for a whole week. She had, in fact, become entirely Bru's exclusive +property.</p> + +<p>The village grew excited. They were not jealous of each other, but they +were of him. What! Could she not resist him. Of course he had charms and +spells against every imaginable thing. And they grew furious. Next they +grew bold, and watched from behind a tree. She was still as lively as +ever, but he, poor fellow, seemed to have become suddenly ill, and +required the most tender nursing at her hands. The villagers, however, +felt no compassion for the poor shepherd, and so, one of them, more +courageous than the rest, advanced towards the hut with his gun in his +hand:</p> + +<p>"Tie up your dogs," he cried out from a distance; "fasten them up, Bru, +or I shall shoot them."</p> + +<p>"You need not be frightened of the dogs," <i>La Morillonne</i> replied; "I +will be answerable for it that they will not hurt you;" and she smiled as +the young man with the gun went towards her.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" the shepherd said.</p> + +<p>"I can tell you," she replied. "He wants me and I am very willing. +There!"</p> + +<p>Bru began to cry, and she continued:</p> + +<p>"You are a good for nothing."</p> + +<p>And she went off with the lad, while Bru seized his crook, seeing which +the young fellow raised his gun.</p> + +<p>"Seize him! seize him!" the shepherd shouted, urging on his dogs, while +the other had already got his finger on the trigger to fire at them. But +<i>La Morillonne</i> pushed down the muzzle and called out:</p> + +<p>"Here, dogs! here! Prr, prr, my beauties!"</p> + +<p>And the three dogs rushed up to her, licked her hands and frisked about +as they followed her, while she called to the shepherd from the distance:</p> + +<p>"You see, Bru, they are not at all jealous!"</p> + +<p>And then, with a short and evil laugh, she added:</p> + +<p>"They are my property now."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WAITER_A_BOCKM" id="WAITER_A_BOCKM"></a>WAITER, A "BOCK"<a name="FNanchor_M_13" id="FNanchor_M_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_M_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></h2> + + +<p>Why did I enter, on this particular evening, a certain beer shop? I +cannot explain it. It was bitterly cold. A fine rain, a watery dust +floated about, which enshrouded the gas jets in a transparent fog, made +the pavements that passed under the shadow of the shop fronts glitter, +and which at once exhibited the soft slush and the soiled feet of the +passers-by.</p> + +<p>I was going nowhere in particular; was simply having a short walk after +dinner. I had passed the Credit Lyonnais, the Rue Vivienne, besides +several other streets. Thereupon, I suddenly descried a large public +house, which was more than half full. I walked inside, with no object in +view. I was not the least thirsty.</p> + +<p>By a searching sweep of the eye I sought out a place where I would not be +too much crowded, and so I went and sat down by the side of a man who +seemed to me to be old, and who smoked a halfpenny clay pipe, which had +become as black as coal. From six to eight beer saucers were piled up on +the table in front of him, indicating the number of "bocks" he had +already absorbed. With the same sweep of the eye I had recognized a +"regular toper," one of those frequenters of beer-houses, who come in the +morning as soon as the place is open, and only go way in the evening when +it is about to close. He was dirty, bald to about the middle of the +cranium, while his long, powder and salt, gray hair, fell over the neck +of his frock coat. His clothes, much too large for him, appeared to have +been made for him at a time when he carried a great stomach. One could +guess that the pantaloons were not suspended from braces, and that this +man could not take ten paces without his having to stop to pull them up +and to readjust them. Did he wear a vest? The mere thought of his boots +and that which they enveloped filled me with horror. The frayed cuffs +were as perfectly black at the edges as were his nails.</p> + +<p>As soon as I had sat down near him, this queer creature said to me in a +tranquil tone of voice:</p> + +<p>"How goes it with you?"</p> + +<p>I turned sharply round to him and closely scanned his features, whereupon +he continued:</p> + +<p>"I see you do not recognize me."</p> + +<p>"No, I do not."</p> + +<p>"Des Barrets."</p> + +<p>I was stupefied. It was Count Jean des Barrets, my old college chum.</p> + +<p>I seized him by the hand, and was so dumbfounded that I could find +nothing to say. I, at length, managed to stammer out:</p> + +<p>"And you, how goes it with yourself?"</p> + +<p>He responded placidly:</p> + +<p>"With me? Just as I like."</p> + +<p>He became silent. I wanted to be friendly, and I selected this phrase:</p> + +<p>"What are you doing now?"</p> + +<p>"You see what I am doing," he answered, quite resignedly.</p> + +<p>I felt my face getting red. I insisted:</p> + +<p>"But every day?"</p> + +<p>"Every day is alike to me," was his response accompanied with a thick +puff of tobacco smoke.</p> + +<p>He then tapped on the top of the marble table with a sou, to attract the +attention of the waiter, and called out:</p> + +<p>"Waiter, two 'bocks.'"</p> + +<p>A voice in the distance repeated:</p> + +<p>"Two bocks, instead of four."</p> + +<p>Another voice, more distant still, shouted out:</p> + +<p>"Here they are, sir, here they are."</p> + +<p>Immediately there appeared a man with a white apron, carrying two +"bocks," which he sat down foaming on the table, the spouts facing over +the edge, on to the sandy floor.</p> + +<p>Des Barrets emptied his glass at a single draught and replaced it on the +table. He next asked:</p> + +<p>"What is there new?"</p> + +<p>"I know of nothing new, worth mentioning, really," I stammered:</p> + +<p>"But nothing has grown old, for me; I am a commercial man."</p> + +<p>In an equable tone of voice, he said;</p> + +<p>"Indeed ... does that amuse you?"</p> + +<p>"No, but what do you mean to assert? Surely you must do something!"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p> + +<p>"I only mean, how do you pass your time!"</p> + +<p>"What's the use of occupying myself with anything. For my part, I do +nothing at all, as you see, never anything. When one has not got a sou +one can understand why one has to go to work. What is the good of +working? Do you work for yourself, or for others? If you work for +yourself you do it for your own amusement, which is all right; if you +work for others, you reap nothing but ingratitude."</p> + +<p>Then sticking his pipe into his whiskers, he called out anew:</p> + +<p>"Waiter, a 'bock.' It makes me thirsty to keep calling so. I am not +accustomed to that sort of thing. Yes, yes, I do nothing; I let things +slide, and I am growing old. In dying I have nothing to regret. If so, I +should remember nothing, outside this public house. I have no wife, no +children, no cares, no sorrows, nothing. That is the very best thing that +could happen to one."</p> + +<p>He then emptied the glass which had meanwhile been fetched to him, passed +his tongue over his lips, and resumed his pipe.</p> + +<p>I looked at him stupefied. I asked him:</p> + +<p>"But you have not always been like that?"</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, sir; ever since I left college."</p> + +<p>"That is not a proper life to lead, my dear sir; it is simple horrible. +Come, you must indeed have done something, you must have loved something, +you must have friends."</p> + +<p>"No; I get up at noon, I come here, I have my breakfast, I drink my +'bock,' I remain until the evening, I have my dinner, I drink 'bock.' +Then about one in the morning, I return to my couch, because the place +closes up. And it is this latter that embitters me more than anything. +For the last ten years, I have passed six years on this bench, in my +corner; and the other four in my bed, never changing. I talk sometimes +with the habitues."</p> + +<p>"But on arriving in Paris what did you do at first?"</p> + +<p>"I paid my devoirs to the Café de Medicis."</p> + +<p>"What next?"</p> + +<p>"Next? I crossed the water and came here."</p> + +<p>"Why did you even take that trouble?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean? One cannot remain all one's life in the Latin Quarter. +The students make too much noise. But I do not move about any longer. +Waiter, a 'bock.'"</p> + +<p>I now began to think that he was making fun of me, and I continued:</p> + +<p>"Come now, be frank. You have been the victim of some great sorrow; +despair in love, no doubt! It is easy to see that you are a man whom +misfortune has hit hard. What age are you?"</p> + +<p>"I am thirty years of age, but I look to be forty-five at least."</p> + +<p>I regarded him straight in the face. His shrunken figure, so badly cared +for, gave one the impression that he was an old man. On the summit of his +cranium, a few long hairs shot straight up from the skin of doubtful +cleanness. He had enormous eyelashes, a large moustache, and a thick +beard. Suddenly, I had a kind of vision. I know not why; the vision of a +basin filled with noisome water, the water which should have been applied +to that poll. I said to him:</p> + +<p>"Verily, you look to be more than that age. Of a certainty you must have +experienced some great disappointment."</p> + +<p>He replied:</p> + +<p>"I tell you that I have not. I am old because I never take air. There is +nothing that vitiates the life of a man more than the atmosphere of a +café."</p> + +<p>I could not believe him.</p> + +<p>"You must surely have been married as well? One could not get as +bald-headed as you are without having been much in love."</p> + +<p>He shook his head, sending down his back little white things which fell +from the end of his locks:</p> + +<p>"No, I have always been virtuous."</p> + +<p>And raising his eyes towards the luster, which beat down on our heads, he +said:</p> + +<p>"If I am bald-headed, it is the fault of the gas. It is the enemy of +hair. Waiter, a 'bock.' You must be thirsty also?"</p> + +<p>"No, thank you. But you certainly interest me. Since when did you have +your first discouragement? Your life is not normal, it is not natural. +There is something under it all."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and it dates from my infancy. I received a heavy blow when I was +very young, and that turned my life into darkness, which will last to the +end."</p> + +<p>"How did it come about?"</p> + +<p>"You wish to know about it? Well, then, listen. You recall, of course, +the castle in which I was brought up, seeing that you used to visit it +for five or six months during the vacations? You remember that large, +gray building, in the middle of a great park, and the long avenues of +oaks, which opened towards the four cardinal points! You remember my +father and mother, both of whom were ceremonious, solemn and severe.</p> + +<p>"I worshiped my mother; I was suspicious of my father; but I respected +both, accustomed always as I was to see everyone bow before them. They +were in the country, Monsieur le Comte and Madame la Comtesse; while our +neighbors, the Tannemares', the Ravelets', the Brennevilles', showed the +utmost consideration for my parents.</p> + +<p>"I was then thirteen years old. I was happy, satisfied with everything, +as one is at that age, full of joy and vivacity.</p> + +<p>"Now towards the end of September, a few days before my entering college, +while I was enjoying myself in the mazes of the park, climbing the trees +and swinging on the branches, I descried in crossing an avenue, my father +and mother, who were walking along.</p> + +<p>"I recall the thing as though it were yesterday. It was a very stormy +day. The whole line of trees bent under the pressure of the wind, +groaned, and seemed to utter cries—cries, though dull, yet deep, that +the whole forest rang under the tempest.</p> + +<p>"Evening came on. It was dark in the thickets. The agitation of the wind +and the branches excited me, made me bound about like an idiot, and howl +in imitation of the wolves.</p> + +<p>"As soon as I perceived my parents, I crept furtively towards them, under +the branches, in order to surprise them, as though I had been a veritable +rodent. But becoming seized with fear, I stopped a few paces from them. +My father, a prey to the most ferocious passion, cried:</p> + +<p>"'Your mother is a fool; moreover, it is not your mother that is the +question, it is you. I tell you that I want money, and I will make you +sign this.'</p> + +<p>"My mother responded in a firm voice:</p> + +<p>"'I will not sign it. It is Jean's fortune, I shall guard it for him and +I will not allow you to devour it with strange women, as you have your +own heritage.'</p> + +<p>"Then my father, full of rage, wheeled round and seized his wife by the +throat, and began to slash her full in the face with the disengaged hand.</p> + +<p>"My mother's hat fell off, her hair became all disheveled and spread over +her back; she essayed to parry the blows, but she could not escape from +them. And my father, like a madman, banged and banged. My mother rolled +over on the ground, covering her face in both her hands. Then he turned +her over on her back in order to batter her still more, pulling away her +hands which were covering her face.</p> + +<p>"As for me, my friend, it seemed as though the world had come to an end, +that the eternal laws had changed. I experienced the overwhelming dread +that one has in presence of things supernatural, in presence of +irreparable disasters. My boyish head whirled round, floated. I began to +cry with all my might, without knowing why, a prey to terror, to grief, +to a dreadful bewilderment. My father heard me, turned round, and, on +seeing me, made as though he would rush towards me. I believed that he +wanted to kill me, and I fled like a haunted animal, running straight in +front of me in the woods.</p> + +<p>"I ran perhaps for an hour, perhaps for two, I know not. Darkness had set +in, I tumbled over some thick herb, exhausted, and I lay there lost, +devoured by terror, eaten up by a sorrow capable of breaking for ever the +heart of a poor infant. I became cold, I became hungry. At length day +broke. I dared neither get up, walk, return home, nor save myself, +fearing to encounter my father whom I did not wish to see again.</p> + +<p>"I should probably have died of misery and of hunger at the foot of a +tree, if the guard had not discovered me and led me away by force.</p> + +<p>"I found my parents wearing their ordinary aspect. My mother alone spoke +to me:</p> + +<p>"'How you have frightened me, you naughty boy; I have been the whole +night sleepless.'</p> + +<p>"I did not answer, but began to weep. My father did not utter a single +word.</p> + +<p>"Eight days later I entered college.</p> + +<p>"Well, my friend, it was all over with me. I had witnessed the other side +of things, the bad side; I have not been able to perceive the good side +since that day. What things have passed in my mind, what strange +phenomena has warped my ideas? I do not know. But I no longer have a +taste for anything, a wish for anything, a love for anybody, a desire for +anything whatever, nor ambition, nor hope. And I perceive always my poor +mother on the ground, lying in the avenue, while my father is maltreating +her. My mother died a few years after; my father lives still. I have not +seen him since. Waiter, a 'bock.'"</p> + +<p>A waiter brought him his "bock," which he swallowed at a gulp. But, in +taking up his pipe again, trembling as he was he broke it. Then he made a +violent gesture:</p> + +<p>"Zounds! This is indeed a grief, a real grief. I have had it for a month, +and it was coloring so beautifully!"</p> + +<p>He darted through the vast saloon, which was now full of smoke and of +people drinking, uttering his cry:</p> + +<p>"Waiter, a 'bock'—and a new pipe."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="REGRET" id="REGRET"></a>REGRET</h2> + + +<p>Monsieur Savel, who was called in Mantes, "Father Savel," had just risen +from bed. He wept. It was a dull autumn day; the leaves were falling. +They fell slowly in the rain, resembling another rain, but heavier and +slower. M. Savel was not in good spirit. He walked from the fireplace +to the window, and from the window to the fireplace. Life has its somber +days. It will no longer have any but somber days for him now, for he has +reached the age of sixty-two. He is alone, an old bachelor, with nobody +about him. How sad it is to die alone, all alone, without the +disinterested affection of anyone!</p> + +<p>He pondered over his life, so barren, so void. He recalled the days gone +by, the days of his infancy, the house, the house of his parents; his +college days, his follies, the time of his probation in Paris, the +illness of his father, his death. He then returned to live with his +mother. They lived together, the young man and the old woman, very +quietly, and desired nothing more. At last the mother died. How sad a +thing is life! He has lived always alone, and now, in his turn, he, too, +will soon be dead. He will disappear, and that will be the finish. There +will be no more of Savel upon the earth. What a frightful thing! Other +people will live, they will live, they will laugh. Yes, people will go on +amusing themselves, and he will no longer exist! Is it not strange that +people can laugh, amuse themselves, be joyful under that eternal +certainty of death! If this death were only probable, one could then have +hope; but no, it is inevitable, as inevitable as that night follows the +day.</p> + +<p>If, however, his life had been complete! If he had done something; if he +had had adventures, grand pleasures, successes, satisfaction of some kind +or another. But now, nothing. He had done nothing, never anything but +rise from bed, eat, at the same hours, and go to bed again. And he has +gone on like that, to the age of sixty-two years. He had not even taken +unto himself a wife, as other men do. Why? Yes, why was it that he was +not married? He might have been, for he possessed considerable means. Was +it an opportunity which had failed him? Perhaps! But one can create +opportunities. He was indifferent; that was all. Indifference had been +his greatest drawback, his defect, his vice. Have some men missed their +lives through indifference! To certain natures, it is so difficult for +them to get out of bed, to move about, to take long walks, to speak, to +study any question.</p> + +<p>He had not even been in love. No woman had reposed on his bosom, in a +complete abandon of love. He knew nothing of this delicious anguish of +expectation, of the divine quivering of the pressed hand, of the ecstacy +of triumphant passion.</p> + +<p>What superhuman happiness must inundate your heart, when lips encounter +lips for the first time, when the grasp of four arms makes one being of +you, a being unutterably happy, two beings infatuated with one another.</p> + +<p>M. Savel was sitting down, his feet on the fender, in his dressing gown. +Assuredly his life had been spoiled, completely spoiled. He had, however, +loved. He had loved secretly, dolorously and indifferently, just as was +characteristic of him in everything. Yes, he had loved his old friend, +Madame Saudres, the wife of his old companion, Saudres. Ah! if he had +known her as a young girl! But he had encountered her too late; she was +already married. Unquestionably he would have asked her hand; that he +would! How he had loved her, nevertheless, without respite, since the +first day he had set eyes on her!</p> + +<p>He recalled, without emotion, all the times he had seen her, his grief on +leaving her, the many nights that he could not sleep, because of his +thinking of her.</p> + +<p>In the mornings he always got up somewhat less amorous than in the +evening.</p> + +<p>Why?</p> + +<p>Seeing that she was formerly pretty, and "crumy," blonde, curl, joyous. +Saudres was not the man she would have selected. She was now fifty-two +years of age. She seemed happy. Ah! if she had only loved him in days +gone by; yes, if she had only loved him! And why should she not have +loved him, he, Savel, seeing that he loved her so much, yes, she, Madame +Saudres!</p> + +<p>If only she could have divined something—Had she not divined anything, +had she not seen anything, never comprehended anything? But! Then what +would she have thought? If he had spoken what would she have answered?</p> + +<p>And Savel asked himself a thousand other things. He reviewed his whole +life, seeking to grasp again a multitude of details.</p> + +<p>He recalled all the long evenings spent at the house of Saudres, when the +latter's wife was young and so charming.</p> + +<p>He recalled many things that she had said to him, the sweet intonations +of her voice, the little significant smiles that meant so much.</p> + +<p>He recalled the walks that the three of them had had, along the banks of +the Seine, their lunches on the grass on the Sundays, for Saudres was +employed at the sub-prefecture. And all at once the distant recollection +came to him, of an afternoon spent with her in a little plantation on the +banks of the river.</p> + +<p>They had set out in the morning, carrying their provisions in baskets. +It was a bright spring morning, one of those days which inebriate one. +Everything smelt fresh, everything seemed happy. The voices of the birds +sounded more joyous, and the flapping of their wings more rapid. They had +lunch on the grass, under the willow trees, quite close to the water, +which glittered in the sun's rays. The air was balmy, charged with the +odors of fresh vegetation; they had drunk the most delicious wines. How +pleasant everything was on that day!</p> + +<p>After lunch, Saudres went to sleep on the broad of his back, "The best +nap he had in his life," said he, when he woke up.</p> + +<p>Madame Saudres had taken the arm of Savel, and they had started to walk +along the river's bank.</p> + +<p>She leaned tenderly on his arm. She laughed and said to him: "I am +intoxicated, my friend, I am quite intoxicated." He looked at her, his +heart going patty-patty. He felt himself grow pale, fearful that he had +not looked too boldly at her, and that the trembling of his hand had not +revealed his passion.</p> + +<p>She had decked her head with wild flowers and water-lilies, and she had +asked him: "Do you not like to see me appear thus?"</p> + +<p>As he did not answer—for he could find nothing to say, he should rather +have gone down on his knees—she burst out laughing, a sort of +discontented laughter, which she threw straight in his face, saying: +"Great goose, what ails you? You might at least speak!"</p> + +<p>He felt like crying, and could not even yet find a word to say.</p> + +<p>All these things came back to him now, as vividly as on the day when they +took place. Why had she said this to him, "Great goose. What ails you! +You might at least speak!"</p> + +<p>And he recalled how tenderly she had leaned on his arm. And in passing +under a shady tree he had felt her ear leaning against his cheek, and he +had tilted his head abruptly, for fear that she had not meant to bring +their flesh into contact.</p> + +<p>When he had said to her: "Is it not time to return?" she darted at him a +singular look. "Certainly," she said, "certainly," regarding him at the +same time in a curious manner. He had not thought of anything then; and +now the whole thing appeared to him quite plain.</p> + +<p>"Just as you like, my friend. If you are tired let us go back."</p> + +<p>And he had answered: "It is not that I am fatigued; but Saudres has +perhaps woke up now."</p> + +<p>And she had said: "If you are afraid of my husband's being awake, that is +another thing. Let us return."</p> + +<p>In returning she remained silent and leaned no longer on his arm. Why?</p> + +<p>At that time it had never occurred to him to ask himself "why." Now he +seemed to apprehend something that he had not then understood.</p> + +<p>What was it?</p> + +<p>M. Savel felt himself blush, and he got up at a bound, feeling thirty +years younger, believing that he now understood Madame Saudres then to +say, "I love you."</p> + +<p>Was it possible! That suspicion which had just entered his soul, tortured +him. Was it possible that he could not have seen, not have dreamed!</p> + +<p>Oh! if that could be true, if he had rubbed against such good fortune +without laying hold of it!</p> + +<p>He said to himself: "I wish to know. I cannot remain in this state of +doubt. I wish to know!" He put on his clothes quickly, dressed in hot +haste. He thought: "I am sixty-two years of age, she is fifty-eight; +I may ask her that now without giving offense."</p> + +<p>He started out.</p> + +<p>The Saudres's house was situated on the other side of the street, almost +directly opposite his own. He went up to it, knocked, and a little +servant came to open the door.</p> + +<p>"You there at this hour, ill, Savel! Has some accident happened to you?"</p> + +<p>M. Savel responded:</p> + +<p>"No, my girl; but go and tell your mistress that I want to speak to her +at once."</p> + +<p>"The fact is, Madame is preparing her stock of pear-jams for the winter, +and she is standing in front of the fire. She is not dressed, as you may +well understand."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but go and tell her that I wish to see her on an important matter."</p> + +<p>The little servant went away, and Savel began to walk, with long, nervous +strides, up and down the drawing-room. He did not feel himself the least +embarrassed, however. Oh! he was merely going to ask her something, as he +would have asked her about some cooking receipt, and that was: "Do you +know that I am sixty-two years of age!"</p> + +<p>The door opened; and Madame appeared. She was now a gross woman, fat and +round, with full cheeks, and a sonorous laugh. She walked with her arms +away from her body, and her sleeves tucked up to the shoulders, her bare +arms all smeared with sugar juice. She asked, anxiously:</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with you, my friend; you are not ill, are you?"</p> + +<p>"No, my dear friend; but I wish to ask you one thing, which to me is of +the first importance, something which is torturing my heart, and I want +you to promise that you will answer me candidly."</p> + +<p>She laughed, "I am always candid. Say on."</p> + +<p>"Well, then. I have loved you from the first day I ever saw you. Can you +have any doubt of this?"</p> + +<p>She responded, laughing, with something of her former tone of voice.</p> + +<p>"Great goose! what ails you? I knew it well from the very first day!"</p> + +<p>Savel began to tremble. He stammered out: "You knew it? Then—"</p> + +<p>He stopped.</p> + +<p>She asked:</p> + +<p>"Then?... What?"</p> + +<p>He answered:</p> + +<p>"Then ... what would you think?... what ... what.... What would you +have answered?"</p> + +<p>She broke forth into a peal of laughter, which made the sugar juice run +off the tips of her fingers on to the carpet.</p> + +<p>"I? But you did not ask me anything. It was not for me to make a +declaration."</p> + +<p>He then advanced a step towards her.</p> + +<p>"Tell me ... tell me.... You remember the day when Saudres went to sleep +on the grass after lunch ... when we had walked together as far as the +bend of the river, below ..."</p> + +<p>He waited, expectantly. She had ceased to laugh, and looked at him, +straight in the eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly, I remember it."</p> + +<p>He answered, shivering all over.</p> + +<p>"Well ... that day ... if I had been ... if I had +been ... enterprising ... what would you have done?"</p> + +<p>She began to laugh as only a happy woman can laugh, who has nothing to +regret, and responded, frankly, in a voice tinged with irony:</p> + +<p>"I would have yielded, my friend."</p> + +<p>She then turned on her heels and went back to her jam-making.</p> + +<p>Savel rushed into the street, cast down, as though he had encountered +some great disaster. He walked with giant strides, through the rain, +straight on, until he reached the river, without thinking where he was +going. When he reached the bank he turned to the right and followed it. +He walked a long time, as if urged on by some instinct. His clothes were +running with water, his hat was bashed in, as soft as a piece of rag, +and dripping like a thatched roof. He walked on, straight in front of +him. At last, he came to the place where they had lunched so long, long +ago, the recollection of which had tortured his heart. He sat down under +the leafless trees, and he wept.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_PORT" id="THE_PORT"></a>THE PORT</h2> + + +<h4>PART I</h4> + +<p>Having sailed from Havre on the 3rd of May, 1882, for a voyage in the +China seas, the square-rigged three-master, <i>Notre Dame des Vents</i>, made +her way back into the port of Marseilles, on the 8th of August, 1886, +after an absence of four years. When she had discharged her first cargo +in the Chinese port for which she was bound, she had immediately found a +new freight for Buenos Ayres, and from that place had conveyed goods to +Brazil.</p> + +<p>Other passages, then damage repairs, calms ranging over several months, +gales which knocked her out of her course—all the accidents, adventures, +and misadventures of the sea, in short—had kept far from her country, +this Norman three-master, which had come back to Marseilles with her hold +full of tin boxes containing American preserves.</p> + +<p>At her departure, she had on board, besides the captain and the mate, +fourteen sailors, eight Normans and six Britons. On her return, there +were left only five Britons and four Normans; the other Briton had died +while on the way; the four Normans having disappeared under various +circumstances, had been replaced by two Americans, a negro, and a +Norwegian carried off, one evening, from a tavern in Singapore.</p> + +<p>The big vessel, with reefed sails and yards crossed over her masts, drawn +by a tug from Marseilles, rocking over a sweep of rolling waves which +subsided gently on becoming calm, passed in front of the Château d'If, +then under all the gray rocks of the roadstead, which the setting sun +covered with a golden vapor; and she entered the ancient port, in which +are packed together, side by side, ships from every part of the world, +pell mell, large and small, of every shape and every variety of rigging, +soaking like a "bouillabaise" of boats in this basin too limited in +extent, full of putrid water, where shells touch each other, rub against +each other, and seem to be pickled in the juice of the vessels.</p> + +<p><i>Notre Dame des Vents</i> took up her station between an Italian brig and an +English schooner, which made way to let this comrade slip in between +them; then, when all the formalities of the custom-house and of the port +had been complied with, the captain authorized the two-thirds of his crew +to spend the night on shore.</p> + +<p>It was already dark. Marseilles was lighted up. In the heat of this +summer's evening a flavor of cooking with garlic floated over the noisy +city, filled with the clamor of voices, of rolling vehicles, of the +crackling of whips, and of southern mirth.</p> + +<p>As soon as they felt themselves on shore, the ten men, whom the sea had +been tossing about for some months past, proceeded along quite slowly +with the hesitating steps of persons who are out of their element, +unaccustomed to cities, two by two, procession.</p> + +<p>They swayed from one side to another as they walked, looked about them, +smelling out the lanes opening out on the harbor, rendered feverish by +the amorous appetite which had been growing to maturity in their bodies +during their last sixty-six days at sea. The Normans strode on in front, +led by Célestin Duclos, a tall young fellow, sturdy and waggish, who +served as a captain for the others every time they set forth on land. He +divined the places worth visiting, found out by-ways after a fashion of +his own, and did not take much part in the squabbles so frequent among +sailors in seaport towns. But, once he was caught in one, he was afraid +of nobody.</p> + +<p>After some hesitation as to which of the obscure streets which lead down +to the waterside, and from which arise heavy smells, a sort of exhalation +from closets, they ought to enter, Célestin gave the preference to a kind +of winding passage, where gleamed over the doors projecting lanterns +bearing enormous numbers on their rough colored glass. Under the narrow +arches at the entrance to the houses, women wearing aprons like servants, +seated on straw chairs, rose up on seeing them coming near, taking three +steps towards the gutter which separated the street into two halves, and +which cut off the path from this file of men, who sauntered along at +their leisure, humming and sneering, already getting excited by the +vicinity of those dens of prostitutes.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, at the end of a hall, appeared, behind a second open door, +which presented itself unexpectedly, covered over with dark leather, a +big wench, undressed, whose heavy thighs and fat calves abruptly outlined +themselves under her coarse white cotton wrapper. Her short petticoat had +the appearance of a puffed out girdle; and the soft flesh of her breast, +her shoulders, and her arms, made a rosy stain on a black velvet corsage +with edgings of gold lace. She kept calling out from her distant corner, +"Will you come here, my pretty boys?" and sometimes she would go out +herself to catch hold of one of them, and to drag him towards her door +with all her strength, fastening on to him like a spider drawing forward +an insect bigger than itself. The man, excited by the struggle, would +offer a mild resistance, and the rest would stop to look on, undecided +between the longing to go in at once and that of lengthening this +appetizing promenade. Then when the woman, after desperate efforts, had +brought the sailor to the threshold of her abode, in which the entire +band would be swallowed up after him, Célestin Duclos, who was a judge of +houses of this sort, suddenly exclaimed: "Don't go in there, Marchand! +That's not the place."</p> + +<p>The man, thereupon, obeying this direction, freed himself with a brutal +shake; and the comrades formed themselves into a band once more, pursued +by the filthy insults of the exasperated wench, while other women, all +along the alley, in front of them, came out past their doors, attracted +by the noise, and in hoarse voices threw out to them invitations coupled +with promises. They went on, then, more and more stimulated, from the +combined effects of the coaxings and the seductions held out as baits to +them by the choir of portresses of love all over the upper part of the +street, and the ignoble maledictions hurled at them by the choir at the +lower end—the despised choir of disappointed wenches. From time to time, +they met another band—soldiers marching along with spurs jingling at +their heels—sailors again—isolated citizens—clerks in business houses. +On all sides might be seen fresh streets, narrow, and studded all over +with those equivocal lanterns. They pursued their way still through this +labyrinth of squalid habitation, over those greasy pavements through +which putrid water was oozing, between those walls filled with women's +flesh.</p> + +<p>At last, Duclos made up his mind, and, drawing up before a house of +rather attractive exterior, made all his companions follow him in there.</p> + + +<h4>PART II</h4> + +<p>Then followed a scene of thorough going revelry. For four hours the six +sailors gorged themselves with love and wine. Six months' pay was thus +wasted.</p> + +<p>In the principal room in the tavern they were installed as masters, +gazing with malignant glances at the ordinary customers, who were seated +at the little tables in the corners, where one of the girls, who was +left free to come and go, dressed like a big baby or a singer at a +café-concert, went about serving them, and then seated herself near them. +Each man, on coming in, had selected his partner, whom he kept all the +evening, for the vulgar taste is not changeable. They had drawn three +tables close up to them; and, after the first bumper, the procession +divided into two parts, increased by as many women as there were seamen, +had formed itself anew on the staircase. On the wooden steps, the four +feet of each couple kept tramping for some time, while this long file of +lovers got swallowed up behind the narrow doors leading into the +different rooms.</p> + +<p>Then they came down again to have a drink, and, after they had returned +to the rooms descended the stairs once more.</p> + +<p>Now, almost intoxicated, they began to howl. Each of them, with bloodshot +eyes, and his chosen female companion on his knee, sang or bawled, struck +the table with his fist, shouted while swilling wine down his throat, set +free the human brute. In the midst of them, Célestin Duclos, pressing +close to him, a big damsel with red cheeks, who sat astride over his +legs, gazed at her ardently. Less tipsy than the others, not that he had +taken less drink, he was as yet occupied with other thoughts, and, more +tender than his comrades, he tried to get up a chat. His thoughts +wandered a little, escaped him, and then came back, and disappeared +again, without allowing him to recollect exactly what he meant to say.</p> + +<p>"What time—what time—how long are you here?"</p> + +<p>"Six months," the girl answered.</p> + +<p>He seemed to be satisfied with her, as if this were a proof of good +conduct, and he went on questioning her:</p> + +<p>"Do you like this life?"</p> + +<p>She hesitated, then in a tone of resignation.</p> + +<p>"One gets used to it. It is not more worrying than any other kind of +life. To be a servant-girl or else a scrub is always a nasty occupation."</p> + +<p>He looked as if he also approved of the truthful remark.</p> + +<p>"You are not from this place?" said he.</p> + +<p>She answered merely by shaking her head.</p> + +<p>"Do you come from a distance?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, still without opening her lips.</p> + +<p>"Where is it you come from?"</p> + +<p>She appeared to be thinking, to be searching her memory, then said +falteringly:</p> + +<p>"From Perpignan."</p> + +<p>He was once more perfectly satisfied, and said:</p> + +<p>"Ah! yes."</p> + +<p>In her turn she asked:</p> + +<p>"And you, are you a sailor?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my beauty."</p> + +<p>"Do you come from a distance?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! yes. I have seen countries, ports, and everything."</p> + +<p>"You have been round the world, perhaps?"</p> + +<p>"I believe you, twice rather than once."</p> + +<p>Again she seemed to hesitate, to search in her brain for something that +she had forgotten, then, in a tone somewhat different, more serious:</p> + +<p>"Have you met many ships in your voyages?"</p> + +<p>"I believe you, my beauty."</p> + +<p>"You did not happen to see the <i>Notre Dame des Vents</i>?"</p> + +<p>He chuckled:</p> + +<p>"No later than last week."</p> + +<p>She turned pale, all the blood leaving her cheeks, and asked:</p> + +<p>"Is that true, perfectly true?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis true as I tell you."</p> + +<p>"Honor bright! you are not telling me a lie?"</p> + +<p>He raised his hand.</p> + +<p>"Before God, I'm not!" said he.</p> + +<p>"Then do you know whether Célestin Duclos is still on her?"</p> + +<p>He was astonished, uneasy, and wished, before answering, to learn +something further.</p> + +<p>"Do you know him?"</p> + +<p>She became distrustful in turn.</p> + +<p>"Oh! 'tis not myself—'tis a woman who is acquainted with him."</p> + +<p>"A woman from this place?"</p> + +<p>"No, from a place not far off."</p> + +<p>"In the street?"</p> + +<p>"What sort of a woman?"</p> + +<p>"Why, then, a woman—a woman like myself."</p> + +<p>"What has she to say to him, this woman?"</p> + +<p>"I believe she is a country-woman of his."</p> + +<p>They stared into one another's hand, watching one another, feeling, +divining that something of a grave nature was going to arise between +them.</p> + +<p>He resumed:</p> + +<p>"I could see her there, this woman."</p> + +<p>"What would you say to her?"</p> + +<p>"I would say to her—I would say to her—that I had seen Célestin +Duclos."</p> + +<p>"He is quite well—isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"As well as you or me—he is a strapping young fellow."</p> + +<p>She became silent again, trying to collect her ideas; then slowly:</p> + +<p>"Where has the <i>Notre Dame des Vents</i> gone to?"</p> + +<p>"Why, just to Marseilles."</p> + +<p>She could not repress a start.</p> + +<p>"Is that really true?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis really true."</p> + +<p>"Do you know Duclos?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do know him."</p> + +<p>She still hesitated; then in a very gentle tone:</p> + +<p>"Good! That's good!"</p> + +<p>"What do you want with him?"</p> + +<p>"Listen!—you will tell him—nothing!"</p> + +<p>He stared at her, more and more perplexed. At last, he put this question +to her:</p> + +<p>"Do you know him, too, yourself?"</p> + +<p>"No," said she.</p> + +<p>"Then what do you want with him?"</p> + +<p>Suddenly, she made up her mind what to do, left her seat, rushed over to +the bar where the landlady of the tavern presided, seized a lemon, which +she tore open, and shed its juice into a glass, then she filled this +glass with pure water, and carrying it across to him:</p> + +<p>"Drink this!"</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"To make it pass for wine. I will talk to you afterwards."</p> + +<p>He drank it without further protest, wiped his lips with the back of his +hand, then observed:</p> + +<p>"That's all right. I am listening to you."</p> + +<p>"You will promise not to tell him you have seen me, or from whom you +learned what I am going to tell you. You must swear not to do so."</p> + +<p>He raised his hand.</p> + +<p>"All right. I swear I will not."</p> + +<p>"Before God?"</p> + +<p>"Before God."</p> + +<p>"Well, you will tell him that his father died, that his mother died, that +his brother died, the whole three in one month, of typhoid fever, in +January, 1883—three years and a half ago."</p> + +<p>In his turn, he felt all his blood set in motion through his entire body, +and for a few seconds he was so much overpowered that he could make no +reply; then he began to doubt what she had told him, and asked:</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure."</p> + +<p>"Who told it to you?"</p> + +<p>She laid her hands on his shoulders, and looking at him out of the depths +of her eyes:</p> + +<p>"You swear not to blab?"</p> + +<p>"I swear that I will not."</p> + +<p>"I am his sister!"</p> + +<p>He uttered that name in spite of himself:</p> + +<p>"Francoise?"</p> + +<p>She contemplated him once more with a fixed stare, then, excited by a +wild feeling of terror, a sense of profound horror, she faltered in a +very low tone, almost speaking into his mouth:</p> + +<p>"Oh! oh! it is you, Célestin."</p> + +<p>They no longer stirred, their eyes riveted in one another.</p> + +<p>Around them, his comrades were still yelling. The sounds made by glasses, +by fists, by heels keeping time to the choruses, and the shrill cries of +the women, mingled with the roar of their songs.</p> + +<p>He felt her leaning on him, clasping him, ashamed and frightened, his +sister. Then, in a whisper, lest anyone might hear him, so hushed that +she could scarcely catch his words:</p> + +<p>"What a misfortune! I have made a nice piece of work of it!"</p> + +<p>The next moment, her eyes filled with tears, and she faltered:</p> + +<p>"Is that my fault?"</p> + +<p>But, all of a sudden, he said:</p> + +<p>"So then, they are dead?"</p> + +<p>"They are dead."</p> + +<p>"The father, the mother, and the brother?"</p> + +<p>"The three in one month, and I told you. I was left by myself with +nothing but my clothes, for I was in debt to the apothecary and the +doctor and for the funeral of the three, and had to pay what I owed with +the furniture."</p> + +<p>"After that I went as a servant to the house of Mait'e Cacheux—you know +him well—the cripple. I was just fifteen at the time, for you went away +when I was not quite fourteen. I tripped with him. One is so senseless +when one is young. Then I went as a nursery-maid to the notary who +debauched me also, and brought me to Havre, where he took a room for me. +After a little while, he gave up coming to see me. For three days I lived +without eating a morsel of food; and then, not being able to get +employment, I went to a house, like many others. I, too, have seen +different places—ah! and dirty places! Rouen, Evreux, Lille, Bordeaux, +Perpignan, Nice, and then Marseilles, where I am now!"</p> + +<p>The tears started from her eyes, flowed over her nose, wet her cheeks, +and trickled into her mouth.</p> + +<p>She went on:</p> + +<p>"I thought you were dead, too?—my poor Cèlestin."</p> + +<p>He said:</p> + +<p>"I would not have recognized you myself—you were such a little thing +then, and here you are so big!—but how is it that you did not recognize +me?"</p> + +<p>She answered with a despairing movement of her hands:</p> + +<p>"I see so many men that they all seem to me alike."</p> + +<p>He kept his eyes still fixed on her intently, oppressed by an emotion +that dazed him, and filled him with such pain as to make him long to cry +like a little child that has been whipped. He still held her in his +arms, while she sat astride on his knees, with his open hands against the +girl's back; and now by sheer dint of looking continually at her, he at +length recognized her, the little sister left behind in the country with +all those whom she had seen die, while he had been tossing on the seas. +Then, suddenly taking between his big seaman's paws this head found once +more, he began to kiss her, as one kisses kindred flesh. And after that, +sobs, a man's deep sobs, heaving like great billows, rose up in his +throat, resembling the hiccoughs of drunkenness.</p> + +<p>He stammered:</p> + +<p>"And this is you—this is you, Francoise—my little Francoise!"—</p> + +<p>Then, all at once, he sprang up, began swearing in an awful voice, and +struck the table such a blow with his fists that the glasses were knocked +down and smashed. After that, he advanced three steps, staggered, +stretched out his arms, and fell on his face. And he rolled on the +ground, crying out, beating the floor with his hands and feet, and +uttering such groans that they seemed like a death-rattle.</p> + +<p>All those comrades of his stared at him, and laughed.</p> + +<p>"He's not a bit drunk," said one.</p> + +<p>"He ought to be put to bed," said another. "If he goes out, we'll all be +run in together."</p> + +<p>Then, as he had money in his pockets, the landlady offered to let him +have a bed, and his comrades, themselves so much intoxicated that they +could not stand upright, hoisted him up the narrow stairs to the +apartment of the woman who had just been in his company, and who remained +sitting on a chair, at the foot of that bed of crime, weeping quite as +freely as he had wept, until the morning dawned.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_HERMIT" id="THE_HERMIT"></a>THE HERMIT</h2> + + +<p>We had gone to see, with some friends, the old hermit installed on an +antique mound covered with tall trees, in the midst of the vast plain +which extends from Cannes to La Napoule.</p> + +<p>On our return we spoke of those strange lay solitaries, numerous in +former times, but now a vanished race. We sought to find out the moral +causes, and endeavored to determine the nature of the griefs which +in bygone days had driven men into solitudes.</p> + +<p>All of a sudden one of our companions said:</p> + +<p>"I have known two solitaries—a man and a woman. The woman must be +living still. She dwelt, five years ago, on the ruins of a mountain top +absolutely deserted on the coast of Corsica, fifteen or twenty kilometers +away from every house. She lived there with a maid-servant. I went to see +her. She had certainly been a distinguished woman of the world. She +received me with politeness and even in a gracious manner, but I know +nothing about her, and I could find out nothing about her.</p> + +<p>"As for the man, I am going to relate to you his ill-omened adventure:</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Look round! You see over there that peaked woody mountain which stands +by itself behind La Napoule in front of the summits of the Esterel; it is +called in the district Snake Mountain. There is where my solitary lived +within the walls of a little antique temple about a dozen years ago.</p> + +<p>Having heard about him, I resolved to make his acquaintance, and I set +out for Cannes on horseback one March morning. Leaving my steed at the +inn at La Napoule, I commenced climbing on foot that singular cave, about +one hundred and fifty perhaps, or two hundred meters in height, and +covered with aromatic plants, especially cysti, whose odor is so sharp +and penetrating that it irritates you and causes you discomfort. The soil +is stony, and you can see gliding over the pebbles long adders which +disappear in the grass. Hence this well-deserved appellation of Snake +Mountain. On certain days, the reptiles seem to spring into existence +under your feet when you climb the declivity exposed to the rays of the +sun. They are so numerous that you no longer venture to go on, and +experience a strange sense of uneasiness, not fear, for those creatures +are harmless, but a sort of mysterious terror. I had several times the +peculiar sensation of climbing a sacred mountain of antiquity, a +fantastic hill perfumed and mysterious, covered with cysti and inhabited +by serpents and crowned with a temple.</p> + +<p>This temple still exists. They told me, at any rate, that it was a +temple; for I did not seek to know more about it so as not to destroy the +illusion.</p> + +<p>So then, one March morning, I climbed up there under the pretext of +admiring the country. On reaching the top, I perceived, in fact, walls +and a man sitting on a stone. He was scarcely more than forty years of +age, though his hair was quite white; but his beard was still almost +black. He was fondling a cat which had cuddled itself upon his knees, and +did not seem to mind me. I took a walk around the ruins, one portion of +which covered over and shut in by means of branches, straw, grass and +stones, was inhabited by him, and I made my way towards the place which +he occupied.</p> + +<p>The view here is splendid. On the right is the Esterel with its peaked +summit strangely carved, then the boundless sea stretching as far as the +distant coast of Italy with its numerous capes, facing Cannes, the +Lerins Islands green and flat, which look as if they were floating, and +the last of which shows in the direction of the open sea an old +castellated fortress with battlemented towers built in the very waves.</p> + +<p>Then, commanding a view of green mountain-side where you could see, at an +equal distance, like innumerable eggs laid on the edge of the shore the +long chaplet of villas and white villages built among the trees rose the +Alps, whose summits are still shrouded in a hood of snow.</p> + +<p>I murmured:</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, this is beautiful!"</p> + +<p>The man raised his head, and said:</p> + +<p>"Yes, but when you see it every day, it is monstrous."</p> + +<p>Then he spoke, he chatted, and tired himself with talking—my solitary, +I detained him.</p> + +<p>I did not tarry long that day, and only endeavored to ascertain the color +of misanthropy. He created on me especially the impression of being bored +with other people, weary of everything, hopelessly disillusioned and +disgusted with himself as well as the rest.</p> + +<p>I left him after a half-hour's conversation. But I came back, eight hours +later, and once again in the following week, then every week, so that +before two months we were friends.</p> + +<p>Now, one evening at the close of May, I decided that the moment had +arrived, and I brought provisions in order to dine with him on Snake +Mountain.</p> + +<p>It was one of those evenings of the South so odorous in that country +where flowers are cultivated just as wheat is in the North, in that +country where every essence that perfumes the flesh and the dress of +women is manufactured, one of those evenings when the breath of the +innumerable orange-trees with which the gardens and all the recesses of +the dales are planted, excite and cause languor so that old men have +dreams of love.</p> + +<p>My solitary received me with manifest pleasure. He willingly consented to +share in my dinner.</p> + +<p>I made him drink a little wine, to which he had ceased to be accustomed. +He brightened up and began to talk about his past life. He had always +resided in Paris, and had, it seemed to me, lived a gay bachelor's life.</p> + +<p>I asked him abruptly:</p> + +<p>"What put into your head this funny notion of going to live on the top of +a mountain?"</p> + +<p>He answered immediately:</p> + +<p>"Her! it was because I got the most painful shock that a man can +experience. But why hide from you this misfortune of mine? It will make +you pity me, perhaps! And then—I have never told anyone—never—and +I would like to know, for once, what another thinks of it, and how he +judges it."</p> + +<p>"Born in Paris, brought up in Paris, I grew to manhood and spent my life +in that city. My parents had left me an income of some thousands of +francs a year, and I procured as a shelter, a modest and tranquil place +which enabled me to pass as wealthy for a bachelor.</p> + +<p>"I had, since my youth, led a bachelor's life. You know what that is. +Free and without family, resolved not to take a legitimate wife, I passed +at one time three months with one, at another time six months with +another, then a year without a companion, taking as my prey the mass +of women who are either to be had for the asking or bought.</p> + +<p>"This every day, or, if you like the phrase better, commonplace, +existence agreed with me, satisfied my natural tastes for changes and +silliness. I lived on the boulevard, in theaters and cafés, always out of +doors, always without a regular home, though I was comfortably housed. I +was one of those thousands of beings who let themselves float like corks, +through life, for whom the walls of Paris are the walls of the world, +and who have no care about anything, having no passion for anything. I +was what is called a good fellow, without accomplishments and without +defects. That is all. And I judge myself correctly.</p> + +<p>"Then, from twenty to forty years, my existence flowed along slowly or +rapidly without any remarkable event. How quickly they pass, the +monstrous years of Paris, when none of those memories worth fixing the +date of find way into the soul, these long and yet hurried years, trivial +and gay, when you eat, drink and laugh without knowing why, your lips +stretched out towards all they can taste and all they can kiss, without +having a longing for anything. You are young, and you grow old without +doing any of the things that others do, without any attachment, any root, +any bond, almost without friends, without family, without wife, without +children.</p> + +<p>"So, gently and quickly, I reached my fortieth year; and in order to +celebrate this anniversary, I invited myself to take a good dinner all +alone in one of the principal cafés.</p> + +<p>"After dinner, I was in doubt as to what I would do. I felt disposed to +go to a theater; and then the idea came into my head to make a pilgrimage +to the Latin quarters, where I had in former days lived as a law-student. +So I made my way across Paris, and without premeditation went in to one +of those public-houses where you are served by girls.</p> + +<p>"The one who attended at my table was quite young, pretty, and +merry-looking. I asked her to take a drink, and she at once consented. +She sat down opposite me, and gazed at me with a practiced eye, without +knowing with what kind of a male she had to do. She was a fair-haired +woman, or rather a fair-haired girl, a fresh, quite fresh young creature, +whom you guessed to be rosy and plump under her swelling bodice. I talked +to her in that flattering and idiotic style which we always adopt with +girls of this sort; and as she was truly charming, the idea suddenly +occurred to me to take her with me—always with a view to celebrating my +fortieth year. It was neither a long nor difficult task. She was free, +she told me, for the past fortnight, and she forthwith accepted my +invitation to come and sup with me in the Halles when her work would be +finished.</p> + +<p>"As I was afraid lest she might give me the slip—you never can tell what +may happen, or who may come into those drink-shops, or what wind may blow +into a woman's head—I remained there all the evening waiting for her.</p> + +<p>"I, too, had been free for the past month or two, and watching this +pretty debutante of love going from table to table, I asked myself the +question whether it would not be worth my while to make a bargain with +her to live with me for some time. I am here relating to you one of those +ordinary adventures which occur every day in the lives of men in Paris.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me for such gross details. Those who have not loved in a poetic +fashion take and choose women, as you choose a chop in a butcher's shop +without caring about anything save the quality of their flesh.</p> + +<p>"Accordingly, I took her to her own house—for I had a regard for my own +sheets. It was a little working-girl's lodgings in the fifth story, clean +and poor, and I spent two delightful hours there. This little girl had a +certain grace and a rare attractiveness.</p> + +<p>"When I was about to leave the room, I advanced towards the mantelpiece +in order to place there the stipulated present, after having agreed on a +day for a second meeting with the girl, who remained in bed, I got a +vague glimpse of a clock without a globe, two flower-vases and two +photographs, one of them very old, one of those proofs on glass called +daguerreo-types. I carelessly bent forward towards this portrait, and I +remained speechless at the sight, too amazed to comprehend.... It was my +own, the first portrait of myself, which I had got taken in the days when +I was a student in the Latin Quarter.</p> + +<p>"I abruptly snatched it up to examine it more closely. I did not deceive +myself—and I felt a desire to burst out laughing, so unexpected and +queer did the thing appear to me.</p> + +<p>"I asked:</p> + +<p>"'Who is this gentleman?'</p> + +<p>"She replied:</p> + +<p>"'Tis my father, whom I did not know. Mamma left it to me, telling me to +keep it, as it might be useful to me, perhaps, one day—'</p> + +<p>"She hesitated, began to laugh, and went on:</p> + +<p>"'I don't know in what way, upon my word. I don't think he'll care to +acknowledge me.'</p> + +<p>"My heart went beating wildly, like the mad gallop of a runaway horse. I +replaced the portrait, laying it down flat on the mantelpiece. On top of +it I placed, without even knowing what I was doing, two notes for a +hundred francs, which I had in my pocket, and I rushed away, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"'We'll meet again soon—by-bye, darling—by-bye.'</p> + +<p>"I heard her answering:</p> + +<p>"'Till Tuesday.'</p> + +<p>"I was on the dark staircase, which I descended, groping my way down.</p> + +<p>"When I got into the open air, I saw that it was raining, and I started +at a great pace down some street or other.</p> + +<p>"I walked straight on, stupefied, distracted, trying to jog my memory! +Was this possible? Yes. I remembered all of a sudden a girl who had +written to me, about a month after our rupture, that she was going +to have a child by me. I had torn or burned the letter, and had forgotten +all about the matter. I should have looked at the woman's photograph over +the girl's mantelpiece. But would I have recognized it? It was the +photograph of an old woman, it seemed to me.</p> + +<p>"I reached the quay. I saw a bench, and sat down on it. It went on +raining. People passed from time to time under umbrellas. Life appeared +to me odious and revolting, full of miseries, of shames, of infamies +deliberate or unconscious. My daughter!... I had just perhaps possessed +my own daughter! And Paris, this vast Paris, somber, mournful, dirty, +sad, black, with all those houses shut up, was full of such things, +adulteries, incests, violated children, I recalled to mind what I had +been told about bridges haunted by the infamous votaries of vice.</p> + +<p>"I had acted, without wishing it, without being aware of it, in a worse +fashion than these ignoble beings. I had entered my own daughter's bed!</p> + +<p>"I was on the point of throwing myself into the water. I was mad! I +wandered about till dawn, then I came back to my own house to think.</p> + +<p>"I thereupon did what appeared to me the wisest thing. I desired a notary +to send for this little girl, and to ask her under what conditions her +mother had given her the portrait of him whom she supposed to be her +father, stating that he was intrusted with this duty by a friend.</p> + +<p>"The notary executed my commands. It was on her death-bed that this woman +had designated the father of her daughter, and in the presence of a +priest, whose name was given to me.</p> + +<p>"Then, still in the name of this unknown friend, I got half of my fortune +sent to this child, about one hundred and forty thousand francs, of which +she could only get the income. Then I resigned my employment—and here I +am.</p> + +<p>"While wandering along this shore, I found this mountain, and I stopped +there—up to what time I am unable to say!</p> + +<p>"What do you think of me, and of what I have done?"</p> + +<p>I replied as I extended my hand towards him:</p> + +<p>"You have done what you ought to do. Many others would have attached less +importance to this odious fatality."</p> + +<p>He went on:</p> + +<p>"I know that, but I was nearly going mad on account of it. It seems I had +a sensitive soul without ever suspecting it. And now I am afraid of +Paris, as believers are bound to be afraid of Hell. I have received a +blow on the head—that is all—a blow resembling the fall of a tile when +one is passing through the street. I am getting better for some time +past."</p> + +<p>I quitted my solitary. I was much disturbed by his narrative.</p> + +<p>I saw him again twice, then I went away, for I never remain in the South +after the month of May.</p> + +<p>When I came back in the following year the man was no longer on Snake +Mountain; and I have never since heard anything about him.</p> + +<p>This is the history of my hermit.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_ORDERLY" id="THE_ORDERLY"></a>THE ORDERLY</h2> + + +<p>The cemetery, filled with officers, looked like a field covered with +flowers. The kepis and the red trousers, the stripes and the gold +buttons, the shoulder-knots of the staff, the braid of the chasseurs and +the hussars, passed through the midst of the tombs, whose crosses, white +or black, opened their mournful arms—their arms of iron, marble, or +wood—over the vanished race of the dead.</p> + +<p>Colonel Limousin's wife had just been buried. She had been drowned, two +days before, while taking a bath. It was over. The clergy had left; but +the colonel, supported by two brother-officers, remained standing in +front of the pit, at the bottom of which he saw still the oaken coffin, +wherein lay, already decomposed, the body of his young wife.</p> + +<p>He was almost an old man, tall and thin, with white moustache; and, three +years ago, he had married the daughter of a comrade, left an orphan on +the death of her father, Colonel Sortis.</p> + +<p>The captain and the lieutenant, on whom their commanding officer was +leaning, attempted to lead him away. He resisted, his eyes full of tears, +which he heroically held back, and murmuring, "No, no, a little while +longer!" he persisted in remaining there, his legs bending under him, at +the side of that pit, which seemed to him bottomless, an abyss into which +had fallen his heart and his life, all that he held dear on earth.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, General Ormont came up, seized the colonel by the arm, and +dragging him from the spot almost by force said: "Come, come, my old +comrade! you must not remain here."</p> + +<p>The colonel thereupon obeyed, and went back to his quarters. As he opened +the door of his study, he saw a letter on the table. When he took it in +his hands, he was near falling with surprise and emotion; he recognized +his wife's handwriting. And the letter bore the post-mark and the date +of the same day. He tore open the envelope and read:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Father,</p> + +<p>"Permit me to call you still father, as in days gone by. When you receive +this letter, I shall be dead and under the clay. Therefore, perhaps, you +may forgive me.</p> + +<p>"I do not want to excite your pity or to extenuate my sin. I only want to +tell the entire and complete truth, with all the sincerity of a woman +who, in an hour's time, is going to kill herself.</p> + +<p>"When you married me through generosity, I gave myself to you through +gratitude, and I loved you with all my girlish heart. I loved you as I +loved my own father—almost as much; and one day, while I sat on your +knee, and you were kissing me, I called you 'Father' in spite of myself. +It was a cry of the heart, instinctive, spontaneous. Indeed, you were to +me a father, nothing but a father. You laughed, and you said to me, +'Address me always in that way, my child; it gives me pleasure.'</p> + +<p>"We came to the city; and—forgive me, father—I fell in love. Ah! I +resisted long, well, nearly two years—and then I yielded, I sinned, I +became a fallen woman.</p> + +<p>"And as to him? You will never guess who he is. I am easy enough about +that matter, since there were a dozen officers always around me and with +me, whom you called my twelve constellations.</p> + +<p>"Father, do not seek to know him, and do not hate him. He only did what +any man, no matter whom, would have done in his place, and then I am sure +that he loved me, too, with all his heart.</p> + +<p>"But listen! One day we had an appointment in the isle of Becasses—you +know the little isle, close to the mill. I had to get there by swimming, +and he had to wait for me in a thicket, and then to remain there till +nightfall, so that nobody should see him going away. I had just met him +when the branches opened, and we saw Philippe, your orderly, who had +surprised us. I felt that we were lost, and I uttered a great cry. +Thereupon he said to me—he, my lover—'Go, swim back quietly, my +darling, and leave me here with this man.'</p> + +<p>"I went away so excited that I was near drowning myself, and I came back +to you expecting that something dreadful was about to happen.</p> + +<p>"An hour later, Philippe said to me in a low tone, in the lobby outside +the drawing-room where I met him: 'I am at madame's orders, if she has +any letters to give me.' Then I knew that he had sold himself, and that +my lover had bought him.</p> + +<p>"I gave him some letters, in fact—all my letters—he took them away, and +brought me back the answers.</p> + +<p>"This lasted about two months. We had confidence in him, as you had +confidence in him yourself.</p> + +<p>"Now, father, here is what happened. One day, in the same isle which I +had to reach by swimming, but this time alone, I found your orderly. This +man had been waiting for me; and he informed me that he was going to +reveal everything about us to you, and deliver to you the letters which +he had kept, stolen, if I did not yield to his desires.</p> + +<p>"Oh! father, father, I was filled with fear—a cowardly fear, an unworthy +fear, a fear above all of you who had been so good to me, and whom I had +deceived—fear on his account too—you would have killed him—for myself +also perhaps! I cannot tell; I was mad, desperate; I thought of once more +buying this wretch who loved me, too—how shameful!</p> + +<p>"We are so weak, we women, we lose our heads more easily than you do. And +then, when a woman once falls, she always falls lower and lower. Did I +know what I was doing? I understood only that one of you two and I were +going to die—and I gave myself to this brute.</p> + +<p>"You see, father, that I do not seek to excuse myself.</p> + +<p>"Then, then—then what I should have foreseen happened—he had the better +of me again and again, when he wished, by terrifying me. He, too, has +been my lover, like the other, every day. Is not this abominable? And +what punishment, father?</p> + +<p>"So then it is all over with me. I must die. While I lived, I could not +confess such a crime to you. Dead, I dare everything. I could not do +otherwise than die—nothing could have washed me clean—I was too +polluted. I could no longer love or be loved. It seemed to me that I +stained everyone by merely allowing my hand to be touched.</p> + +<p>"Presently I am going to take my bath, and I will never come back.</p> + +<p>"This letter for you will go to my lover. It will reach him when I am +dead, and without anyone knowing anything about it, he will forward it to +you, accomplishing my last wishes. And you shall read it on your return +from the cemetery.</p> + +<p>"Adieu, father! I have no more to tell you. Do whatever you wish, and +forgive me."</p></div> + +<p>The colonel wiped his forehead, which was covered with perspiration. His +coolness; the coolness of days when he had stood on the field of battle, +suddenly came back to him. He rang.</p> + +<p>A man-servant made his appearance. "Send in Philippe to me," said he. +Then, he opened the drawer of his table.</p> + +<p>The man entered almost immediately—a big soldier with red moustache, a +malignant look, and a cunning eye.</p> + +<p>The colonel looked him straight in the face.</p> + +<p>"You are going to tell me the name of my wife's lover."</p> + +<p>"But, my colonel—"</p> + +<p>The officer snatched his revolver out of the half-open drawer.</p> + +<p>"Come! quick! You know I do not jest!"</p> + +<p>"Well—my colonel—it is Captain Saint-Albert."</p> + +<p>Scarcely had he pronounced this name when a flame flashed between his +eyes, and he fell on his face, his forehead pierced by a ball.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="DUCHOUX" id="DUCHOUX"></a>DUCHOUX</h2> + + +<p>While descending the wide staircase of the club heated like a +conservatory by the stove the Baron de Mordiane had left his fur-coat +open; therefore, when the huge street-door closed behind him he felt a +shiver of intense cold run through him, one of those sudden and painful +shivers which make us feel sad, as if we were stricken with grief. +Moreover, he had lost some money, and his stomach for some time past had +troubled him, no longer permitting him to eat as he liked.</p> + +<p>He went back to his own residence; and, all of a sudden, the thought of +his great, empty apartment, of his footman asleep in the ante-chamber, of +the dressing-room in which the water kept tepid for the evening toilet +simmered pleasantly under the chafing-dish heated by gas, and the bed, +spacious, antique, and solemn-looking, like a mortuary couch, caused +another chill, more mournful still than that of the icy atmosphere, to +penetrate to the bottom of his heart, the inmost core of his flesh.</p> + +<p>For some years past he had felt weighing down on him that load of +solitude which sometimes crushes old bachelors. Formerly, he had been +strong, lively, and gay, giving all his days to sport and all his nights +to festive gatherings. Now, he had grown dull, and no longer took +pleasure in anything. Exercise fatigued him; suppers and even dinners +made him ill; women annoyed him as much as they had formerly amused him.</p> + +<p>The monotony of evenings all like each other, of the same friends met +again in the same place, at the club, of the same game with a good hand +and a run of luck, of the same talk on the same topics, of the same witty +remarks by the same lips, of the same jokes on the same themes, of the +same scandals about the same women, disgusted him so much as to make him +feel at times a veritable inclination to commit suicide. He could no +longer lead this life regular and inane, so commonplace, so frivolous and +so dull at the same time, and he felt a longing for something tranquil, +restful, comfortable, without knowing what.</p> + +<p>He certainly did not think of getting married, for he did not feel in +himself sufficient fortitude to submit to the melancholy, the conjugal +servitude, to that hateful existence of two beings, who, always together, +knew one another so well that one could not utter a word which the other +would not anticipate, could not make a single movement which would not be +foreseen, could not have any thought or desire or opinion which would not +be divined. He considered that a woman could only be agreeable to see +again when you know her but slightly, when there is something mysterious +and unexplored attached to her, when she remains disquieting, hidden +behind a veil. Therefore, what he would require was a family without +family-life, wherein he might spend only a portion of his existence; and, +again, he was haunted by the recollection of his son.</p> + +<p>For the past year he had been constantly thinking of this, feeling +an irritating desire springing up within him to see him, to renew +acquaintance with him. He had become the father of this child, while +still a young man, in the midst of dramatic and touching incidents. The +boy dispatched to the South, had been brought up near Marseilles without +ever hearing his father's name.</p> + +<p>The latter had at first paid from month to month for the nurture, then +for the education and the expense of holidays for the lad, and finally +had provided an allowance for him on making a sensible match. A discreet +notary had acted as an intermediary without ever disclosing anything.</p> + +<p>The Baron de Mordiane accordingly knew merely that a child of his was +living somewhere in the neighborhood of Marseilles, that he was looked +upon as intelligent and well-educated, that he had married the daughter +of an architect and contractor, to whose business he had succeeded. He +was also believed to be worth a lot of money.</p> + +<p>Why should he not go and see this unknown son without telling his name, +in order to form a judgment about him at first and to assure himself that +he would be able, in case of necessity, to find an agreeable refuge in +this family?</p> + +<p>He had acted handsomely towards the young man, had settled a good fortune +on him, which had been thankfully accepted. He was, therefore, certain +that he would not find himself clashing against any inordinate sense of +self-importance; and this thought, this desire, which every day returned +to him afresh, of setting out for the South, tantalized him like a kind +of itching sensation. A strange self-regarding feeling of affection +also attracted him, bringing before his mental vision this pleasant, +warm abode by the seaside, where he would meet his young and pretty +daughter-in-law, his grandchildren, with outstretched arms, and his son, +who would recall to his memory the charming and short-lived adventure of +bygone years. He regretted only having given so much money, and that this +money had prospered in the young man's hands, thus preventing him from +any longer presenting himself in the character of a benefactor.</p> + +<p>He hurried along, with all these thoughts running through his brain, and +the collar of his fur-coat wrapped round his head. Suddenly he made up +his mind. A cab was passing; he hailed it, drove home, and, when his +valet, just roused from a nap, had opened the door.</p> + +<p>"Louis," said he, "we start to-morrow evening for Marseilles. We'll +remain there perhaps a fortnight. You will make all the necessary +preparations."</p> + +<p>The train rushed on past the Rhone with its sandbanks, then through +yellow plains, bright villages, and a wide expanse of country, shut in +by bare mountains, which rose on the distant horizon.</p> + +<p>The Baron de Mordiane, waking up after a night spent in a sleeping +compartment of the train, looked at himself, in a melancholy fashion, +in the little mirror of his dressing-case. The glaring sun of the South +showed him some wrinkles which he had not observed before—a condition +of decrepitude unnoticed in the imperfect light of Parisian rooms. He +thought, as he examined the corners of his eyes, and saw the rumpled +lids, the temples, the skinny forehead:</p> + +<p>"Damn it, I've not merely got the gloss taken off—I've become quite an +old fogy."</p> + +<p>And his desire for rest suddenly increased, with a vague yearning, born +in him for the first time, to take his grandchildren on his knees.</p> + +<p>About one o'clock in the afternoon, he arrived in a landau which he had +hired at Marseilles, in front of one of those houses of Southern France +so white, at the end of their avenues of plane-trees that they dazzle us +and make our eyes droop. He smiled as he pursued his way along the walk +before the house, and reflected:</p> + +<p>"Deuce take it! this is a nice place."</p> + +<p>Suddenly, a young rogue of five or six made his appearance, starting out +of a shrubbery, and remained standing at the side of the path, staring at +the gentleman with eyes wide open.</p> + +<p>Mordiane came over to him:</p> + +<p>"Good morrow, my boy."</p> + +<p>The brat made no reply.</p> + +<p>The baron, then, stooping down, took him up in his arms to kiss him, but, +the next moment, suffocated by the smell of garlic with which the child +seemed impregnated all over, he put him back again on the ground, +muttering:</p> + +<p>"Oh! it is the gardener's son."</p> + +<p>And he proceeded towards the house.</p> + +<p>The linen was hanging out to dry on a cord before the door—shirts and +chemises, napkins, dish-cloths, aprons, and sheets, while a row of socks, +hanging from strings one above the other, filled up an entire window, +like sausages exposed for sale in front of a pork-butcher's shop.</p> + +<p>The baron announced his arrival. A servant-girl appeared, a true servant +of the South, dirty and untidy, with her hair hanging in wisps and +falling over her face, while her petticoat under the accumulation of +stains which had soiled it had retained only a certain uncouth remnant +of its old color, a hue suitable for a country fair or a mountebank's +tights.</p> + +<p>He asked:</p> + +<p>"Is M. Duchoux at home?"</p> + +<p>He had many years ago, in the mocking spirit of a skeptical man of +pleasure, given this name to the foundling, in order that it might not be +forgotten that he had been picked up under a cabbage.</p> + +<p>The servant-girl asked:</p> + +<p>"Do you want M. Duchoux?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, he is in the big room drawing up his plans."</p> + +<p>"Tell him that M. Merlin wishes to speak to him."</p> + +<p>She replied, in amazement:</p> + +<p>"Hey! go inside then, if you want to see him."</p> + +<p>And she bawled out:</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Duchoux—a call."</p> + +<p>The baron entered, and in a spacious apartment, rendered dark by the +windows being half-closed, he indistinctly traced out persons and things, +which appeared to him very slovenly looking.</p> + +<p>Standing in front of a table laden with articles of every sort, a little +bald man was tracing lines on a large sheet of paper.</p> + +<p>He interrupted his work, and advanced two steps. His waistcoat left open, +his unbuttoned breeches, and his turned-up shirt-sleeves, indicated that +he felt hot, and his muddy shoes showed that it had rained hard some days +before.</p> + +<p>He asked with a very pronounced southern accent:</p> + +<p>"Whom have I the honor of—?"</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Merlin—I came to consult you about a purchase of +building-ground."</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! very well!"</p> + +<p>And Duchoux, turning towards his wife, who was knitting in the shade:</p> + +<p>"Clear off a chair, Josephine."</p> + +<p>Mordiane then saw a young woman, who appeared already old, as women look +old at twenty-five in the provinces, for want of attention to their +persons, regular washing, and all the little cares bestowed on feminine +toilet which make them fresh, and preserve, till the age of fifty, the +charm and beauty of the sex. With a neckerchief over her shoulders, her +hair clumsily braided—though it was lovely hair, thick and black, you +could see that it was badly brushed—she stretched out towards a chair +hands like those of a servant, and removed an infant's robe, a knife, a +fag-end of packe-bread, an empty flower-pot, and a greasy plate left on +the seat, which she then moved over towards the visitor.</p> + +<p>He sat down, and presently noticed that Duchoux's work-table had on it, +in addition to the books and papers, two salads recently gathered, a +wash-hand basin, a hair-brush, a napkin, a revolver, and a number of cups +which had not been cleaned.</p> + +<p>The architect perceived this look, and said with a smile:</p> + +<p>"Excuse us! there is a little disorder in the room—it is owing to the +children."</p> + +<p>And he drew across his chair, in order to chat with his client.</p> + +<p>"So then you are looking out for a piece of ground in the neighborhood of +Marseilles?"</p> + +<p>His breath, though not close to the baron, carried towards the latter +that odor of garlic which the people of the South exhale as flowers do +their perfume.</p> + +<p>Mordiane asked:</p> + +<p>"Is it your son that I met under the plane-trees?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Yes, the second."</p> + +<p>"You have two of them?"</p> + +<p>"Three, monsieur; one a year."</p> + +<p>And Duchoux looked full of pride.</p> + +<p>The baron was thinking:</p> + +<p>"If they all have the same perfume, their nursery must be a real +conservatory."</p> + +<p>He continued:</p> + +<p>"Yes, I would like a nice piece of ground near the sea, on a little +solitary strip of beach—"</p> + +<p>Thereupon Duchoux proceeded to explain. He had ten, twenty, fifty, a +hundred, or more, pieces of ground of the kind required, at different +prices and suited to different tastes. He talked just as a fountain +flows, smiling, self-satisfied, wagging his bald round head.</p> + +<p>And Mordiane was reminded of a little woman, fair-haired, slight, with +a somewhat melancholy look, and a tender fashion of murmuring, "My +darling," of which the mere remembrance made the blood stir in his veins. +She had loved him passionately, madly, for three months; then, becoming +pregnant in the absence of her husband, who was a governor of a colony, +she had run away and concealed herself, distracted with despair and +terror, till the birth of the child, which Mordiane carried off one +summer's evening, and which they had not laid eyes on afterwards.</p> + +<p>She died of consumption three years later, over there, in the colony of +which her husband was governor, and to which she had gone across to join +him. And here, in front of him, was their son, who was saying, in the +metallic tones with which he rang out his closing words:</p> + +<p>"This piece of ground, monsieur, is a rare chance—"</p> + +<p>And Mordiane recalled the other voice, light as the touch of a gentle +breeze, as it used to murmur:</p> + +<p>"My darling, we shall never part—"</p> + +<p>And he remembered that soft, deep, devoted glance in those eyes of blue, +as he watched the round eye, also blue, but vacant, of this ridiculous +little man, who, for all that, bore a resemblance to his mother.</p> + +<p>Yes, he looked more and more like her every moment—like her in accent, +in movement, in his entire deportment—he was like her in the way an ape +is like a man; but still he was hers; he displayed a thousand external +characteristics peculiar to her, though in an unspeakably distorted, +irritating, and revolting form.</p> + +<p>The baron was galled, haunted as he was all of a sudden by this +resemblance, horrible, each instant growing stronger, exasperating, +maddening, torturing him like a nightmare, like a weight of remorse.</p> + +<p>He stammered out:</p> + +<p>"When can we look at this piece of ground together?"</p> + +<p>"Why, to-morrow, if you like."</p> + +<p>"Yes, to-morrow. At what hour?"</p> + +<p>"One o'clock."</p> + +<p>"All right."</p> + +<p>The child he had met in the avenue appeared before the open door, +exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Dada!"</p> + +<p>There was no answer.</p> + +<p>Mordiane had risen up with a longing to escape, to run off, which made +his legs tremble. This "dada" had hit him like a bullet. It was to <i>him</i> +that it was addressed, it was intended for him, this "dada," smelling +of garlic—this "dada" of the South.</p> + +<p>Oh! how sweet had been the perfume exhaled by her, his sweetheart of +bygone days!</p> + +<p>Duchoux saw him to the door.</p> + +<p>"This house is your own?" said the baron.</p> + +<p>"Yes, monsieur; I bought it recently. And I am proud of it. I am a child +of accident, monsieur, and I don't want to hide it; I am proud of it. I +owe nothing to anyone; I am the son of my own efforts; I owe everything +to myself."</p> + +<p>The little boy, who remained on the threshold, kept still exclaiming, +though at some distance away from them:</p> + +<p>"Dada!"</p> + +<p>Mordiane, shaking with a shivering fit, seized with panic, fled as one +flies away from a great danger.</p> + +<p>"He is going to guess who I am, to recognize me," he thought. "He is +going to take me in his arms, and to call out to me, 'Dada,' while giving +me a kiss perfumed with garlic."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow, monsieur."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow, at one o'clock."</p> + +<p>The landau rolled over the white road.</p> + +<p>"Coachman! to the railway-station!"</p> + +<p>And he heard two voices, one far away and sweet, the faint, sad voice +of the dead, saying: "My darling," and the other sonorous, sing-song, +frightful, bawling out, "Dada," just as people bawl out, "Stop him!" +when a thief is flying through the street.</p> + +<p>Next evening, as he entered the club, the Count d'Etreillis said to him:</p> + +<p>"We have not seen you for the last three days. Have you been ill?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, a little unwell. I get headaches from time to time."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="OLD_AMABLE" id="OLD_AMABLE"></a>OLD AMABLE</h2> + + +<h4>PART I</h4> + +<p>The humid, gray sky seemed to weigh down on the vast brown plain. The +odor of Autumn, the sad odor of bare, moist lands, of fallen leaves, of +dead grass, made the stagnant evening air more thick and heavy. The +peasants were still at work, scattered through the fields, waiting for +the stroke of the Angelus to call them back to the farm-houses, whose +thatched roofs were visible here and there through the branches of the +leafless trees which protected the apple-gardens against the wind.</p> + +<p>At the side of the road, on a heap of clothes, a very small male child +seated with its legs apart, was playing with a potato, which he now and +then let fall on his dress, while five women bent down with their rumps +in the air, were picking sprigs of colza in the adjoining plain. With a +slow continuous movement, all along the great cushions of earth which the +plow had just turned up, they drove in sharp wooden stakes, and then +cast at once into the hole so formed the plant, already a little +withered, which sank on the side; then they covered over the root, and +went on with their work.</p> + +<p>A man who was passing, with a whip in his hand, and wearing wooden shoes, +stopped near the child, took it up, and kissed it. Then one of the women +rose up, and came across to him. She was a big, red-haired girl, with +large hips, waist, and shoulders, a tall Norman woman, with yellow hair +in which there was a blood-red tint.</p> + +<p>She said, in a resolute voice:</p> + +<p>"Here you are, Césaire—well?"</p> + +<p>The man, a thin young fellow with a melancholy air, murmured:</p> + +<p>"Well, nothing at all—always the same."</p> + +<p>"He won't have it?"</p> + +<p>"He won't have it."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?"</p> + +<p>"What do you say I ought to do?"</p> + +<p>"Go see the curé."</p> + +<p>"I will."</p> + +<p>"Go at once!"</p> + +<p>"I will."</p> + +<p>And they stared at each other. He held the child in his arms all the +time. He kissed it once more, and then put it down again on the woman's +clothes.</p> + +<p>In the distance, between two farm-houses, could be seen a plow drawn by a +horse, and driven along by a man. They moved on very gently, the horse, +the plow, and the laborer, under the dim evening sky.</p> + +<p>The woman went on:</p> + +<p>"What, then, did your father say?"</p> + +<p>"He said he would not have it."</p> + +<p>"Why wouldn't he have it?"</p> + +<p>The young man pointed towards the child whom he had just put back on the +ground, then with a glance he drew her attention to the man drawing the +plow yonder there.</p> + +<p>And he said emphatically:</p> + +<p>"Because 'tis his—this child of yours."</p> + +<p>The girl shrugged her shoulders, and in an angry tone said:</p> + +<p>"Faith everyone knows it well—that it is Victor's. And what about it +after all? I made a slip. Am I the only woman that did? My mother also +made a slip before me, and then yours did the same before she married +your dad! Who is it that hasn't made a slip in the country. I made a slip +with Victor, because he took advantage of me while I was asleep in the +barn, it's true, and afterwards it happened between us when I wasn't +asleep. I certainly would have married him if he weren't a servant-man. +Am I a worse woman for that?"</p> + +<p>The man said simply:</p> + +<p>"As for me, I like you just as you are, with or without the child. 'Tis +only my father that opposes me. All the same, I'll see about settling the +business."</p> + +<p>She answered:</p> + +<p>"Go to the curé at once."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to him."</p> + +<p>And he set forth with his heavy peasant's tread; while the girl, with her +hands on her hips, turned round to pick her colza.</p> + +<p>In fact, the man who thus went off, Césaire Houlbréque, the son of deaf +old Amable Houlbréque, wanted to marry in spite of his father, Céleste +Lévesque, who had a child by Victor Lecoq, a mere laborer on his parent's +farm, turned out of doors for this act.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the hierarchy of caste does not exist in the fields, and if the +laborer is thrifty, he becomes, by taking a farm in his turn, the equal +of his former master.</p> + +<p>So Césaire Houlbrèque went off with his whip under his arm, brooding over +his own thoughts, and lifting up one after the other his heavy wooden +shoes daubed with clay. Certainly he desired to marry Céleste Lévesque. +He wanted her with her child, because it was the woman he required. He +could not say why: but he knew it, he was sure of it. He had only to look +at her to be convinced of it, to feel himself quite jolly, quite stirred +up, as it were turned into a pure animal through contentment. He even +found a pleasure in kissing the little boy, Victor's little boy, because +he had come out of her.</p> + +<p>And he gazed, without hate, at the distant profile of the man who was +driving his plow along on the horizon's edge.</p> + +<p>But old Amable did not want this marriage. He opposed it with the +obstinacy of a deaf man, with a violent obstinacy.</p> + +<p>Césaire in vain shouted in his ear, in that ear which still heard a few +sounds:</p> + +<p>"I'll take good care of you, daddy. I tell you she's a good girl and +strong, too, and also thrifty."</p> + +<p>The old man repeated:</p> + +<p>"As long as I live, I won't see her your wife."</p> + +<p>And nothing could get the better of him, nothing could bend his severity. +One hope only was left to Césaire. Old Amable was afraid of the curé +through apprehension of the death which he felt drawing nigh. He had not +much fear of the good God nor of the Devil nor of Hell nor of Purgatory, +of which he had no conception, but he dreaded the priest, who represented +to him burial, as one might fear the doctors through horror of diseases. +For the last eight days Céleste, who knew this weakness of the old man, +had been urging Césaire to go and find the curé; but Césaire always +hesitated, because he had not much liking for the black robe, which +represented to him hands always stretched out for collections for blessed +bread.</p> + +<p>However, he made up his mind, and he proceeded towards the presbytery, +thinking in what manner he would speak about his case.</p> + +<p>The Abbe Raffin, a lively little priest, thin and never shaved, was +awaiting his dinner-hour while warming his feet at his kitchen-fire.</p> + +<p>As soon as he saw the peasant entering, he asked, merely turning round +his head:</p> + +<p>"Well, Césaire, what do you want?"</p> + +<p>"I'd like to have a talk with you, M. le Curé."</p> + +<p>The man remained standing, intimidated, holding his cap in one hand and +his whip in the other.</p> + +<p>"Well, talk."</p> + +<p>Césaire looked at the housekeeper, an old woman who dragged her feet +while putting on the cover for her master's dinner at the corner of the +table in front of the window.</p> + +<p>He stammered:</p> + +<p>"'Tis—'tis a sort of confession."</p> + +<p>Thereupon, the Abbe Raffin carefully surveyed his peasant. He saw his +confused countenance, his air of constraint, his wandering eyes, and he +gave orders to the housekeeper in these words:</p> + +<p>"Marie, go away for five minutes to your room, while I talk to Césaire."</p> + +<p>The servant cast on the man an angry glance, and went away grumbling.</p> + +<p>The clergyman went on:</p> + +<p>"Come, now, spin out your yarn."</p> + +<p>The young fellow still hesitated, looked down at his wooden shoes, moved +about his cap, then, all of a sudden, he made up his mind:</p> + +<p>"Here it is: I want to marry Céleste Lévesque."</p> + +<p>"Well, my boy, what's there to prevent you?"</p> + +<p>"The father won't have it."</p> + +<p>"Your father?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my father."</p> + +<p>"What does your father say?"</p> + +<p>"He says she has a child."</p> + +<p>"She's not the first to whom that happened, since our Mother Eve."</p> + +<p>"A child by Victor Lecoq, Anthione Loisel's servant-man."</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! So he won't have it?"</p> + +<p>"He won't have it."</p> + +<p>"What! not at all?"</p> + +<p>"No, no more than an ass that won't budge an inch, saving your presence."</p> + +<p>"What do you say to him yourself in order to make him decide?"</p> + +<p>"I say to him that she's a good girl, and strong too, and thrifty also."</p> + +<p>"And this does not make him settle it. So you want me to speak to him?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly. You speak to him."</p> + +<p>"And what am I to tell your father?"</p> + +<p>"Why, what you tell people in your sermons to make them give you sous."</p> + +<p>In the peasant's mind every effort of religion consisted in loosening the +purses, in emptying the pockets of men in order to fill the heavenly +coffer. It was a kind of huge commercial establishment, of which the +curés were the clerks, sly, crafty clerks, sharp as anyone must be who +does business for the good God at the expense of the country people.</p> + +<p>He knew full well that the priests rendered services, great services to +the poorest, to the sick and dying, that they assisted, consoled, +counseled, sustained, but all this by means of money, in exchange for +white pieces, for beautiful glittering coins, with which they paid for +sacraments and masses, advice and protection, pardon of sins and +indulgences, purgatory and paradise accompanying the yearly income, and +the generosity of the sinner.</p> + +<p>The Abbe Raffin, who knew his man, and who never lost his temper, burst +out laughing.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, I'll tell your father my little story; but you, my lad, +you'll go there—to the sermon."</p> + +<p>Houlbrèque extended his hand in order to give a solemn assurance:</p> + +<p>"On the word of a poor man, if you do this for me, I promise that I +will."</p> + +<p>"Come, that's all right. When do you wish me to go and find your father?"</p> + +<p>"Why the sooner the better—to-night if you can."</p> + +<p>"In half-an-hour, then, after supper."</p> + +<p>"In half-an-hour."</p> + +<p>"That's understood. So long, my lad."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye till we meet again, Monsieur le Curé; many thanks."</p> + +<p>"Not at all, my lad."</p> + +<p>And Césaire Houlbrèque returned home, his heart relieved of a great +weight.</p> + +<p>He held on lease a little farm, quite small, for they were not rich, his +father and he. Alone with a female servant, a little girl of fifteen, who +made the soup, looked after the fowls, milked the cows and churned the +butter, they lived hardly, though Césaire was a good cultivator. But they +did not possess either sufficient lands or sufficient cattle to gain more +than the indispensable.</p> + +<p>The old man no longer worked. Sad, like all deaf people, crippled with +pains, bent double, twisted, he went through the fields leaning on his +stick, watching the animals and the men with a hard, distrustful eye. +Sometimes, he sat down on the side of a ditch, and remained there without +moving for hours, vaguely pondering over the things that had engrossed +his whole life, the price of eggs and corn, the sun and the rain which +spoil the crops or make them grow. And, worn out by rheumatism, his old +limbs still drank in the humidity of the soul, as they had drunk in for +the past sixty years, the moisture of the walls of his low thatched house +covered over with humid straw.</p> + +<p>He came back at the close of the day, took his place at the end of the +table, in the kitchen, and when the earthen pot containing the soup had +been placed before him, he caught it between his crooked fingers, which +seemed to have kept the round form of the jar, and, winter and summer, he +warmed his hands, before commencing to eat, so as to lose nothing, not +even a particle of the heat that came from the fire, which costs a great +deal, neither one drop of soup into which fat and salt have to be put, +nor one morsel of bread, which comes from the wheat.</p> + +<p>Then, he climbed up a ladder into a loft where he had his straw-bed, +while his son slept below-stairs at the end of a kind of niche near the +chimney-piece and the servant shut herself up in a kind of cave, a black +hole which was formerly used to store the potatoes.</p> + +<p>Césaire and his father scarcely ever talked to each other. From time +to time only, when there was a question of selling a crop or buying +a calf, the young man took the advice of his father, and making a +speaking-trumpet of his two hands, he bawled out his views into his ear, +and old Amable either approved of them or opposed them in a slow, hollow +voice that came from the depths of his stomach.</p> + +<p>So, one evening, Césaire, approaching him as if about to discuss the +purchase of a horse or a heifer, communicated to him at the top of his +voice his intention to marry Céleste Lévesque.</p> + +<p>Then, the father got angry. Why? On the score of morality? No, certainly. +The virtue of a girl is scarcely of importance in the country. But his +avarice, his deep, fierce instinct for sparing, revolted at the idea +that his son should bring up a child which he had not begotten himself. +He had thought suddenly, in one second, on the soup the little fellow +would swallow before being useful in the farm. He had calculated all +the pounds of bread, all the pints of cider, that this brat would consume +up to his fourteenth year; and a mad anger broke loose from him against +Césaire who had not bestowed a thought on all this.</p> + +<p>He replied, with an usual strength of voice:</p> + +<p>"Have you lost your senses?"</p> + +<p>Thereupon, Césaire began to enumerate his reasons, to speak about +Céleste's good points, to prove that she would be worth a thousand times +what the child would cost. But the old man doubted these advantages, +while he could have no doubts as to the child's existence; and he replied +with emphatic repetition, without giving any further explanation:</p> + +<p>"I will not have it! I will not have it! As long as I live, this won't be +done!"</p> + +<p>And at this point they had remained for the last three months, without +one or the other giving in, resuming at least once a week the same +discussion, with the same arguments, the same words, the same gestures, +and the same fruitlessness.</p> + +<p>It was then that Céleste had advised Césaire to go and ask for the curé's +assistance.</p> + +<p>On arriving home the peasant found his father already seated at table, +for he was kept late by his visit to the presbytery.</p> + +<p>They dined in silence face to face, ate a little bread and butter after +the soup and drank a glass of cider. Then they remained motionless in +their chairs, with scarcely a glimmer of light, the little servant-girl +having carried off the candle in order to wash the spoons, wipe the +glasses, and cut beforehand the crusts of bread for next morning's +breakfast.</p> + +<p>There was a knock at the door, which was immediately opened; and the +priest appeared. The old man raised towards him an anxious eye full of +suspicion, and, foreseeing danger, he was getting ready to climb up his +ladder when the Abbe Raffin laid his hand on his shoulder, and shouted +close to his temple:</p> + +<p>"I want to have a talk with you, Father Amable."</p> + +<p>Césaire had disappeared, taking advantage of the door being open. He did +not want to listen, so much was he afraid, and he did not want his hopes +to crumble with each obstinate refusal of his father. He preferred to +learn the truth at once, good or bad, later on; and he went out into the +night. It was a moonless night, a starless night, one of those foggy +nights when the air seems thick with humidity. A vague odor of apples +floated through the farm-yard, for it was the season when the earliest +apples were gathered, the "soon ripe" ones, as they are called in the +language of the peasantry. As Césaire passed along by the cattle-sheds, +the warm smell of living beasts sleeping on manure was exhaled through +the narrow windows; and he heard near the stables the stamping of horses +who remained standing, and the sound of their jaws tearing and bruising +the hay on the racks.</p> + +<p>He went straight ahead, thinking about Céleste. In this simple nature, +whose ideas were scarcely more than images generated directly by objects, +thoughts of love only formulated themselves by calling up before the +mind the picture of a big red-haired girl, standing in a hollow road, and +laughing with her hands on her hips.</p> + +<p>It was thus he saw her on the day when he first took a fancy for her. He +had, however, known her from infancy but never had he been so struck by +her as on that morning. They had stopped to talk for a few minutes, and +then he went away; and as he walked along he kept repeating:</p> + +<p>"Faith, she's a fine girl, all the same. 'Tis a pity she made a slip with +Victor."</p> + +<p>Till evening, he kept thinking of her, and also on the following morning.</p> + +<p>When he saw her again, he felt something tickling the end of his throat, +as if a cock's feather had been driven through his mouth into his chest, +and since then, every time he found himself near her, he was astonished +at this nervous tickling which always commenced again.</p> + +<p>In three months, he made up his mind to marry her, so much did she please +him. He could not have said whence came this power over him, but he +explained it by these words:</p> + +<p>"I am possessed by her," as if he felt the desire of this girl within him +with as much dominating force as one of the powers of Hell. He scarcely +bothered himself about her transgression. So much the worse, after all; +it did her no harm, and he bore no grudge against Victor Lecoq.</p> + +<p>But if the curé was not going to succeed, what was he to do? He did not +dare to think of it, so much did this anxious question torment him.</p> + +<p>He reached the presbytery and seated himself near the little gateway to +await for the priest's return.</p> + +<p>He was there perhaps half-an-hour when he heard steps on the road, and he +soon distinguished although the night was very dark, the still darker +shadow of the sautane.</p> + +<p>He rose up, his legs giving way under him, not even venturing to speak, +not daring to ask a question.</p> + +<p>The clergyman perceived him, and said gayly:</p> + +<p>"Well, my lad, 'tis all right."</p> + +<p>Césaire stammered:</p> + +<p>"All right, 'tisn't possible."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my lad, but not without trouble. What an old ass your father is!"</p> + +<p>The peasant repeated:</p> + +<p>"'Tisn't possible!"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes. Come and look me up to-morrow at midday in order to settle +about the publication of the banns."</p> + +<p>The young man seized the curé's hand. He pressed it, shook it, bruised +it, while he stammered:</p> + +<p>"True—true—true, Monsieur le Curé, on the word of an honest man, you'll +see me to-morrow—at your sermon."</p> + + +<h4>PART II</h4> + +<p>The wedding took place in the middle of December. It was simple, the +bridal pair not being rich. Césaire, attired in new clothes, was ready +since eight o'clock in the morning to go and fetch his betrothed and +bring her to the Mayor's office; but, it was too early, he seated himself +before the kitchen-table, and waited for the members of the family and +the friends who were to accompany him.</p> + +<p>For the last eight days, it had been snowing, and the brown earth, the +earth already fertilized by the autumn savings had become livid, sleeping +under a great sheet of ice.</p> + +<p>It was cold in the thatched houses adorned with white caps; and the round +apples in the trees of the enclosures seemed to be flowering, powdered as +they had been in the pleasant month of their blossoming.</p> + +<p>This day, the big northern clouds, the gray clouds laden with glittering +rain had disappeared, and the blue sky showed itself above the white +earth on which the rising sun cast silvery reflections.</p> + +<p>Césaire looked straight before him through the window, thinking of +nothing happy.</p> + +<p>The door opened, two women entered, peasant women in their Sunday +clothes, the aunt and the cousin of the bridegroom, then three men, his +cousins, then a woman who was a neighbor. They sat down on chairs, and +they remained motionless and silent, the women on one side of the +kitchen, the men on the other suddenly seized with timidity, with that +embarrassed sadness which takes possession of people assembled for a +ceremony. One of the cousins soon asked:</p> + +<p>"It is not the hour—is it?"</p> + +<p>Césaire replied:</p> + +<p>"I am much afraid it is."</p> + +<p>"Come on! Let us start," said another.</p> + +<p>Those rose up. Then Césaire, whom a feeling of uneasiness had taken +possession of, climbed up the ladder of the loft to see whether his +father was ready. The old man, always as a rule an early riser, had not +yet made his appearance. His son found him on his bed of straw, wrapped +up in his blanket, with his eyes open, and a malicious look in them.</p> + +<p>He bawled out into his ear: "Come, daddy, get up. 'Tis the time for the +wedding."</p> + +<p>The deaf man murmured in a doleful tone:</p> + +<p>"I can't, I have a sort of cold over me that freezes my back. I can't +stir."</p> + +<p>The young man, dumbfounded, stared at him, guessing that this was a +dodge.</p> + +<p>"Come, daddy, we must force you to go."</p> + +<p>"Look here! I'll help you."</p> + +<p>And he stooped towards the old man, pulled off his blanket, caught him by +the arm and lifted him up. But the old Amable began to whine:</p> + +<p>"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! What suffering! Ooh! I can't. My back is stiffened up. +'Tis the wind that must have rushed in through this cursed roof."</p> + +<p>"Well, you'll have no dinner, as I'm having a spread at Polyte's inn. +This will teach you what comes of acting mulishly."</p> + +<p>And he hurried down the ladder, then set out for his destination, +accompanied by his relatives and guests.</p> + +<p>The men had turned up their trousers so as not to soil the ends of them +in the snow. The women held up their petticoats and showed their lean +ankles, their gray woolen stockings, and their bony shanks resembling +broomsticks. And they all moved forward balancing themselves on their +legs, one behind the other without uttering a word in a very gingerly +fashion through caution lest they might miss their way owing to flat, +uniform uninterrupted sweep of snow that obliterated the track.</p> + +<p>As they approached some of the farm houses, they saw one or two persons +waiting to join them, and the procession went on without stopping, and +wound its way forward, following the invisible outlines of the road, so +that it resembled a living chaplet with black beads undulating through +the white country side.</p> + +<p>In front of the bride's door, a large group was stamping up and down the +open space awaiting the bridegroom. When he appeared they gave him a loud +greeting; and presently, Céleste came forth from her room, clad in a blue +dress, her shoulders covered with a small red shawl, and her head adorned +with orange-flowers.</p> + +<p>But everyone asked Césaire:</p> + +<p>"Where's your father?" he replied with embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"He couldn't move on account of the pains."</p> + +<p>And the farmers tossed their heads with an incredulous and waggish air.</p> + +<p>They directed their steps towards the Mayor's office. Behind the pair +about to be wedded, a peasant woman carried Victor's child, as if it were +going to be baptized; and the male peasants, in pairs, now went on, with +arms linked, through the snow with the movements of a sloop at sea.</p> + +<p>After having been united by the Mayor in the little municipal house, the +pair were made one by the curé, in his turn, in the modest house of the +good God. He blessed their couplement by promising them fruitfulness, +then he preached to them on the matrimonial virtues, the simple and +healthful virtues of the country, work, concord, and fidelity, while the +child, seized with cold, began bawling behind the backs of the +newly-married pair.</p> + +<p>As soon as the couple reappeared on the threshold of the church, shots +were discharged in the moat of the cemetery. Only the barrels of the guns +could be seen whence came forth rapid jets of smoke; then a head could be +seen gazing at the procession. It was Victor Lecoq celebrating the +marriage of his old sweetheart, wishing her happiness and sending her his +good wishes with explosions of powder. He had employed some friends of +his, five or six laboring men, for these salvoes of musketry. It could be +seen that he carried the thing off well.</p> + +<p>The repast was given in Polyte Cacheprune's inn. Twenty covers were laid +in the great hall where people dined on market-days, and the big leg of +mutton turning before the spit, the fowl browned under their own gravy, +the chitterling roasting over the warm bright fire, filled the house with +a thick odor of coal sprinkled with fat—the powerful and heavy odor of +rustic fare.</p> + +<p>They sat down to table at midday, and speedily the soup flowed into the +plates. The faces already had brightened up; mouths opened to utter loud +jokes, and eyes were laughing with knowing winks. They were going to +amuse themselves and no mistake.</p> + +<p>The door opened, and old Amable presented himself. He seemed in bad humor +and his face wore a scowl, and he dragged himself forward on his sticks, +whining at every step to indicate his suffering. The sight of him caused +great annoyance; but suddenly, his neighbor, Daddy Malivoire, a big +joker, who knew all the little tricks and ways of people, began to yell, +just as Césaire used to do, by making a speaking-trumpet of his hands.</p> + +<p>"Hallo, my cute old boy, you have a good nose on you to be able to smell +Polyte's cookery from your own house!"</p> + +<p>An immense laugh burst forth from the throats of those present. +Malivoire, excited by his success, went on:</p> + +<p>"There is nothing for the rheumatics like a chitterling poultice! It +keeps your belly warm, along with a glass of three-six!"</p> + +<p>The men uttered shouts, banged the table with their fists, laughed, +bending on one side and raising up their bodies again as if they were +each working a pump. The women clucked like hens, while the servants +wriggled, standing against the walls. Old Amable was the only one that +did not laugh, and, without making any reply, waited till they made room +for him.</p> + +<p>They found a place for him in the middle of the table facing his +daughter-in-law, and, as soon as he was seated, he began to eat. It was +his son who was paying, after all it was right he should take his share. +With each ladlefull of soup that fell into his stomach, with each +mouthful of bread or meat crushed under his gums, with each glass of +cider or wine that flowed through his gullet, he thought he was regaining +something of his own property, getting back a little of his money which +all those gluttons were devouring, saving in fact, a portion of his own +means. And he ate in silence with the obstinacy of a miser who hides his +coppers, with the gloomy tenacity which he exhibited in former days in +his persistent toils.</p> + +<p>But all of a sudden he noticed at the end of the table Céleste's child +on a woman's lap, and his eye remained fixed on the little boy. He went +on eating, with his glance riveted on the youngster, into whose mouth the +woman who minded him every now and then put a little stuffing which he +nibbled at. And the old man suffered more from every mouthful taken in by +this little grub than by all that the others swallowed.</p> + +<p>The meal lasted till evening. Then everyone went back home.</p> + +<p>Césaire raised up old Amable.</p> + +<p>"Come, daddy, we must go home," said he.</p> + +<p>And put the old man's two sticks in his hands</p> + +<p>Césaire took her child in her arms, and they went on slowly through the +pale night whitened by the snow. The deaf old man, three-fourths tipsy, +and even more malicious under the influence of drink, persisted in not +going on. Several times he even sat down with the object of making his +daughter-in-law catch cold, and he kept whining, without uttering a word, +giving vent to a sort of continuous groaning as if he were in pain.</p> + +<p>When they reached home, he at once climbed up to his loft, while Césaire +made a bed for the child near the deep niche where he was going to lie +down with his wife. But as the newly wedded pair could not sleep +immediately, they heard the old man for a long time moving about on his +bed of straw, and he even talked loudly several times, whether it was +that he was dreaming or that he let his thoughts escape through his +mouth, in spite of himself, without being able to keep them back, under +the obsession of a fixed idea.</p> + +<p>When he came down his ladder, next morning, he saw his daughter-in-law +looking after the house-keeping.</p> + +<p>She cried out to him:</p> + +<p>"Come, daddy, hurry on! Here's some good soup."</p> + +<p>And she placed at the end of the table the round black gray pot filled +with smoking liquid. He sat down without giving any answer, seized the +hot jar, warmed his hands with it in his customary fashion; and, as it +was very cold, even pressed it against his breast, to try to make a +little of the living heat of the boiling water enter into him, into his +old body stiffened by so many winters.</p> + +<p>Then he took his sticks and went out into the fields, covered with ice, +till it was time for dinner, for he had seen Céleste's youngster still +asleep in a big soap-box.</p> + +<p>He did not take his place in the household. He lived in the thatched +house, as in bygone days, but he seemed not to belong to it any longer, +to be no longer interested in anything, to look upon those people, his +son, the wife, and the child as strangers whom he did not know, to whom +he never spoke.</p> + +<p>The winter glided by. It was long and severe.</p> + +<p>Then the early spring made the seeds sprout forth again, and the peasants +once more, like laborious ants, passed their days in the fields, toiling +from morning till night, under the wind and under the rain, along the +furrows of brown earth which brought forth the bread of men.</p> + +<p>The year promised well for the newly-married pair. The crops grew thick +and heavy. There were no slow frosts, and the apples bursting into bloom +let fall into the grass their rosy white snow, which promised a hail of +fruit for the autumn.</p> + +<p>Césaire toiled hard, rose early and left off work late, in order to save +the expense of a laboring man.</p> + +<p>His wife said to him sometimes:</p> + +<p>"You'll make yourself ill in the long run."</p> + +<p>He replied:</p> + +<p>"Certainly not. I'm a good judge."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, one evening he came home so fatigued that he had to go to +bed without supper. He rose up next morning at the usual hour, but he +could not eat, in spite of his fast on the previous night, and he had to +come back to the house in the middle of the afternoon in order to go to +bed again. In the course of the night, he began to cough; he turned round +on his straw couch, feverish, with his forehead burning, his tongue dry, +and his throat parched by a burning thirst.</p> + +<p>However, at daybreak, he went towards his grounds, but, next morning, +the doctor had to be sent for, and pronounced him very ill from an +inflammation of the chest.</p> + +<p>And he no longer quitted the obscure niche which he made use of to sleep +in. He could be heard coughing, panting, and tossing about in the +interior of this hole. In order to see him, to give his medicine, and to +apply cupping-glasses, it was necessary to bring a candle towards the +entrance. Then one could see his narrow head with his long matted beard +underneath a thick lacework of spiders' webs, which hung and floated when +stirred by the air. And the hands of the sick man seemed dead under the +dingy sheets.</p> + +<p>Céleste watched him with restless activity, made him take physic, applied +blister plasters to him, and was constantly waving up and down the house, +while the old Amable remained at the side of his loft, watching at a +distance the gloomy cave where his son was dying. He did not come near +him, through hatred of the wife, sulking like an ill-tempered dog.</p> + +<p>Six more days passed, then, one morning, as Céleste, who was now asleep +on the ground on two loose bundles of straw, was going to see whether her +man was better, she no longer heard his rapid breathing from the interior +of his low bed. Terror stricken, she asked:</p> + +<p>"Well, Césaire, what sort of a night had you?"</p> + +<p>He did not answer. She put out her hand to touch him, and the flesh on +his face felt cold as ice. She uttered a great cry, the long cry of a +woman overpowered with fright. He was dead.</p> + +<p>At this cry, the deaf old man appeared, at the top of his ladder, and +when he saw Céleste rushing to call for help, he quickly descended, felt +in his turn the flesh of his son, and suddenly realizing what had +happened, went to shut the door from the inside, to prevent the wife +from reentering, and to resume possession of his dwelling, since his son +was no longer living.</p> + +<p>Then he sat down on a chair by the dead man's side.</p> + +<p>Some of the neighbors arrived, called out, and knocked. He did not hear +them. One of them broke the glass of the window, and jumped into the +room. Others followed. The door was opened again, and Céleste reappeared, +all in tears, with swollen face, and bloodshot eyes. Then, old Amable, +vanquished, without uttering a word, climbed back to his loft.</p> + +<p>The funeral took place next morning, then, after the ceremony, the +father-in-law and the daughter-in-law found themselves alone in the +farm-house with the child.</p> + +<p>It was the usual dinner hour. She lighted the fire, divided the soup, and +placed the plated on the table, while the old man sat on the chair +waiting without appearing to look at her. When the meal was ready, she +bawled out in his ear:</p> + +<p>"Come, daddy, you must eat." He rose up, took his seat at the end of the +table, emptied his pot, masticated his bread and butter, drank his two +glasses of cider, and then took himself off.</p> + +<p>It was one of those warm days, one of those enjoyable days when life +ferments, palpitates, blooms all over the surface of the soil.</p> + +<p>Old Amable pursued a little path across the fields. He watched the young +wheat and the young oats, thinking that his son was now under the clay, +his poor boy. He went on at his customary pace, dragging his legs after +him in a limping fashion. And, as he was all alone in the plain, all +alone under the blue sky, in the midst of the growing crops, all alone +with the larks, which he saw hovering above his head, without hearing +their light song, he began to weep while he proceeded on his way.</p> + +<p>Then he sat down close to a pool, and remained there till evening, gazing +at the little birds that came there to drink; then, as the night was +falling, he returned to the house, supped without saying a word, and +climbed up to his loft.</p> + +<p>And his life went on as in the past. Nothing was changed, except that his +son, Césaire, slept in the cemetery.</p> + +<p>What could he, an old man, do? He could work no longer; he was now good +for nothing except to swallow the soup prepared by his daughter-in-law. +And he did swallow it in silence, morning and evening, watching with an +eye of rage, the little boy also taking soup, right opposite him, at the +other side of the table. Then he went out, prowled about the fields in +the fashion of a vagabond, went hiding behind the barns, where he slept +for an hour or two, as if he were afraid of being seen, and then he came +back at the approach of night.</p> + +<p>But Céleste's mind began to be occupied by graver anxieties. The grounds +needed a man to look after them and work them. Somebody should be there +always to go through the fields, not a mere hired laborer, but a big +cultivator, a master, who would know the business and have the care of +the farm. A lone woman could not manage the farming, watch the price of +corn, and direct the sale and purchase of cattle. Then ideas came into +her head, simple practical ideas, which she had turned over in her head +at night. She could not marry again before the end of the year, and it +was necessary at once to take care of pressing interests, immediate +interests.</p> + +<p>Only one man could extricate her from embarrassment, Victor Lecoq, the +father of her child. He was strong and well acquainted with farming +business; with a little money in his pocket, he would make an excellent +cultivator. She was aware of his skill, having known him while he was +working on his parents' farm.</p> + +<p>So, one morning, seeing him passing along the road with a cart of dung, +she went out to meet him. When he perceived her, he drew up his horses +and she said to him, as if she had met him the night before:</p> + +<p>"Good morrow, Victor—are you quite well, the same as ever?"</p> + +<p>He replied:</p> + +<p>"I'm quite well, the same as ever—and how are you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'd be all right, only that I'm alone in the house, which bothers me +on account of the grounds."</p> + +<p>Then they remained chatting for a long time, leaning against the wheel of +the heavy cart. The man every now and then lifted up his cap to scratch +his forehead, and began thinking, while she, with flushed cheeks, went on +talking warmly, told him about her views, her plans, her projects for the +future. In the end, he said, in a low tone:</p> + +<p>"Yes, it can be done."</p> + +<p>She opened her hand like a countryman clinching a bargain, and asked:</p> + +<p>"Is it agreed?"</p> + +<p>He pressed her outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>"'Tis agreed."</p> + +<p>"'Tis fixed, then, for Sunday next?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis fixed for Sunday next."</p> + +<p>"Well, good morning, Victor."</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Madame Houlbrèque."</p> + + +<h4>PART III</h4> + +<p>This Sunday was the day of the village festival, the annual festival in +honor of the patron saint, which in Normandy is called the assembly.</p> + +<p>For the last eight days quaint looking vehicles, in which lay the +wandering families of fancy fair owners, lottery managers, keepers of +shooting galleries, and other forms of amusement or exhibitors of +curiosities, which the peasants call "monster-makers," could be seen +coming along the roads drawn slowly by gray or chestnut horses.</p> + +<p>The dirty caravans with their floating curtains accompanied by a +melancholy-looking dog, who trotted, with his head down, between the +wheels, drew up one after the other, in the green fronting the Mayor's +office. Then a tent was erected in front of each traveling abode, and +inside this tent could be seen through the holes in the canvas glittering +things, which excited the envy or the curiosity of the village brats.</p> + +<p>As soon as the morning of the fête arrived, all the booths were opened, +displaying their splendors of glass or porcelain; and the peasants on +their way to mass, regarded already with looks of satisfaction, these +modest shops, which, nevertheless, they saw again each succeeding year.</p> + +<p>From the early part of the afternoon, there was a crowd on the green. +From every neighboring village, the farmers arrived, shaken along with +their wives and children in the two-wheeled open cars, which made a +rattling sound as they oscillated like cradles. They unyoked at their +friends' houses, and the farm-yards were filled with strange looking +traps, gray, high, lean, crooked, like long clawed creatures from the +depths of the sea. And each family, with the youngsters in front, and the +grown up ones behind, came to the assembly with tranquil steps, smiling +countenances, and open hands, big hands, red and bony, accustomed to work +and apparently tired of their temporary rest.</p> + +<p>A tumbler played on a trumpet. The barrel-organ accompanying the wooden +horses sent through the air its shrill jerky notes. The lottery-wheel +made a whirring sound like that of cloth being torn, and every moment the +crack of the rifle could be heard. And the slowly moving throng passed on +quietly in front of the booths after the fashion of paste in a fluid +condition, with the motions of a flock of sheep and the awkwardness of +heavy animals rushing along at haphazard.</p> + +<p>The girls, holding one another's arms, in groups of six or eight, kept +bawling out songs; the young men followed them making jokes, with their +caps over their ears, and their blouses stiffened with starch, swollen +out like blue balloons.</p> + +<p>The whole country-side was there—masters, laboring men, and +women-servants.</p> + +<p>Old Amable himself, wearing his old-fashioned green frock-coat, had +wished to see the assembly, for he never failed to attend on such an +occasion.</p> + +<p>He looked at the lotteries, stopped in front of the shooting galleries to +criticise the shots, and interested himself specially in a very simple +game, which consisted in throwing a big wooden ball into the open mouth +of a mannikin carved and painted on a board.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Daddy Malivoire, who +exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Ha, daddy! Come and have a glass of spirits."</p> + +<p>And they sat down before the table of a rustic inn placed in the open +air.</p> + +<p>They drank one glass of spirits, then two, then three; and old Amable +once more wandered through the assembly. His thoughts became slightly +confused, he smiled without knowing why, he smiled in front of the +lotteries, in front of the wooden horses, and especially in front of the +killing game. He remained there a long time, filled with delight when he +saw a holidaymaker knocking down the gendarme or the curé, two +authorities which he instinctively distrusted. Then he went back to the +inn, and drank a glass of cider to cool himself. It was late, night came +on. A neighbor came to warn him:</p> + +<p>"You'll get back home late for the stew, daddy."</p> + +<p>Then he set out on his way to the farm house. A soft shadow, the warm +shadow of a spring night, was slowly descending on the earth.</p> + +<p>When he reached the front door, he thought he saw through the window +which was lighted up, two persons in the house. He stopped, much +surprised, then he went in, and he saw Victor Lecoq seated at the table, +with a plate filled with potatoes before him, taking his supper in the +very same place where his son had sat.</p> + +<p>And, all of a sudden, he turned round, as if he wanted to go away. The +night was very dark now. Céleste started up, and shouted at him:</p> + +<p>"Come quick, daddy! Here's some good stew to finish off the assembly +with."</p> + +<p>Thereupon he complied through inertia, and sat down watching in turn +the man, the woman and the child. Then, he began to eat quietly as on +ordinary days.</p> + +<p>Victor Lecoq seemed quite at home, talked from time to time to Céleste, +took up the child in his lap, and kissed him. And Céleste again served +him with food, poured out drink for him, and appeared content while +speaking to him. Old Amable followed them with a fixed look without +hearing what they were saying.</p> + +<p>When he had finished supper (and he had scarcely eaten anything, so much +did he feel his heart wrung) he rose up, and in place of ascending to his +loft as he did every night he opened the yard door, and went out into the +open air.</p> + +<p>When he had gone, Céleste, a little uneasy, asked:</p> + +<p>"What is he going to do?"</p> + +<p>Victor replied in an indifferent tone:</p> + +<p>"Don't bother yourself. He'll come back when he's tired."</p> + +<p>Then, she saw after the house, washed the plates and wiped the table, +while the man quietly took off his clothes. Then he slipped into the dark +and hollow bed in which she had slept with Césaire.</p> + +<p>The yard door reopened, old Amable again presented himself. As soon as he +had come in, he looked round on every side with the air of an old dog on +the scent. He was in search of Victor Lecoq. As he did not see him, he +took the candle off the table, and approached the dark niche in which his +son had died. In the interior of it he perceived the man lying under the +bed clothes and already asleep. Then the deaf man noiselessly turned +round, put back the candle, and went out into the yard.</p> + +<p>Céleste had finished her work. She put her son into his bed, arranged +everything, and waited her father-in-law's return before lying down +herself beside Victor.</p> + +<p>She remained sitting on a chair, without moving her hands, and with her +eyes fixed on vacancy.</p> + +<p>As he did not come back she murmured in a tone of impatience and +annoyance:</p> + +<p>"This good-for-nothing old man will burn four sous' worth of candle on +us."</p> + +<p>Victor answered her from under the bed clothes.</p> + +<p>"'Tis over an hour since he went out. We'd want to see whether he fell +asleep on the bench before the door."</p> + +<p>She declared:</p> + +<p>"I'm going there."</p> + +<p>She rose up, took the light, and went out, making a shade of her hand in +order to see through the darkness.</p> + +<p>She saw nothing in front of the door, nothing on the bench, nothing on +the dung pit, where the old man used sometimes to sit in hot weather.</p> + +<p>But, just as she was on the point of going in again, she chanced to raise +her eyes towards the big apple tree, which sheltered the entrance to the +farm house, and suddenly she saw two feet belonging to a man who was +hanging at the height of her face.</p> + +<p>She uttered terrible cries:</p> + +<p>"Victor! Victor! Victor!"</p> + +<p>He ran out in his shirt. She could not utter another word, and turning +round her head, so as not to see, she pointed towards the tree with her +outstretched arm.</p> + +<p>Not understanding what she meant, he took the candle in order to find +out, and in the midst of the foliage lit up from below, he saw old Amable +hanged high up by the neck with a stable-halter.</p> + +<p>A ladder was fixed at the trunk of the apple tree.</p> + +<p>Victor rushed to look for a bill-hook, climbed up the tree, and cut the +halter. But the old man was already cold, and he put out his tongue +horribly with a frightful grimace.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MAGNETISM" id="MAGNETISM"></a>MAGNETISM</h2> + + +<p>It was at the close of a dinner-party of men, at the hour of endless +cigars and incessant sips of brandy, amidst the smoke and the torpid +warmth of digestion and the slight confusion of heads generated by such +a quantity of eatables and by the absorption of so many different +liquors.</p> + +<p>Those present were talking about magnetism, about Donato's tricks, and +about Doctor Charcot's experiences. All of a sudden, those men, so +skeptical, so happy-go-lucky, so indifferent to religion of every sort, +began telling stories about strange occurrences, incredible things which +nevertheless had really happened, they contended, falling back into +superstitions, beliefs, clinging to these last remnants of the marvelous, +becoming devotees of this mystery of magnetism, defending it in the name +of science. There was only one person who smiled, a vigorous young +fellow, a great pursuer of girls in the town, and a hunter also of frisky +matrons, in whose mind there was so much incredulity about everything +that he would not even enter upon a discussion of such matters.</p> + +<p>He repeated with a sneer:</p> + +<p>"Humbug! humbug! humbug! We need not discuss Donato, who is merely a very +smart juggler. As for M. Charcot, who is said to be a remarkable man of +science, he produces on me the effect of those story-tellers of the +school of Edgar Poe, who end by going mad through constantly reflecting +on queer cases of insanity. He has set forth some nervous phenomena, +which are unexplained and inexplicable; he makes his way into that +unknown region which men explore every day, and not being able to +comprehend what he sees, he remembers perhaps too well the explanations +of certain mysteries given by speaking on these subjects, that would be +quite a different thing from your repetition of what he says."</p> + +<p>The words of the unbeliever were listened to with a kind of pity, as if +he had blasphemed in the midst of an assembly of monks.</p> + +<p>One of these gentlemen exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"And yet miracles were performed in former days."</p> + +<p>But the other replied: "I deny it. Why cannot they be performed any +longer?"</p> + +<p>Thereupon, each man referred to some fact, or some fantastic +presentiment, or some instance of souls communicating with each other +across space, or some case of secret influences produced by one being or +another. And they asserted, they maintained that these things had +actually occurred, while the skeptic went on repeating energetically:</p> + +<p>"Humbug! humbug! humbug!"</p> + +<p>At last he rose up, threw away his cigar, and with his hands in his +pockets, said: "Well, I, too, am going to relate to you two stories, and +then I will explain them to you. Here they are:</p> + +<p>"In the little village of Etretat, the men, who are all seafaring folk, +go every year to Newfoundland to fish for cod. Now, one night the little +son of one of these fishermen woke up with a start, crying out that his +father was dead. The child was quieted, and again he woke up exclaiming +that his father was drowned. A month later the news came that his father +had, in fact, been swept off the deck of his smack by a billow. The widow +then remembered how her son had wakened up and spoken of his father's +death. Everyone said it was a miracle, and the affair caused a great +sensation. The dates were compared, and it was found that the accident +and the dream had very nearly coincided, whence they drew the conclusion +that they had happened on the same night and at the same hour. And +there is the mystery of magnetism."</p> + +<p>The story-teller stopped suddenly.</p> + +<p>Thereupon, one of those who had heard him, much affected by the +narrative, asked:</p> + +<p>"And can you explain this?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly monsieur. I have discovered the secret. The circumstance +surprised me and even embarrassed me very much; but, I, you see, do not +believe on principle. Just as others begin by believing, I begin by +doubting; and when I don't at all understand, I continue to deny that +there can be any telegraphic communication between souls, certain that my +own sagacity will be enough to explain it. Well, I have gone on inquiring +into the matter, and I have ended, by dint of questioning all the wives +of the absent seamen, in convincing myself that not a week passed without +one of themselves or their children dreaming and declaring when they woke +up that the father was drowned. The horrible and continual fear of this +accident makes them always talk about it. Now, if one of these frequent +predictions coincides, by a very simple chance, with the death of the +person referred to, people at once declare it to be a miracle; for they +suddenly lose sight of all the other predictions of misfortune that have +remained unconfirmed. I have myself known fifty cases where the persons +who made the prediction forgot all about it in a week afterwards. But, +if in fact the man was dead, then the recollection of the thing is +immediately revived, and people will be ready to believe in the +intervention of God, according to some, and magnetism, according to +others."</p> + +<p>One of the smokers remarked:</p> + +<p>"What you say is right enough; but what about your second story?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! my second story is a very delicate matter to relate. It is to myself +it happened, and so I don't place any great value on my own view of the +matter. One is never a good judge in a case where he is one of the +parties concerned. At any rate, here it is:</p> + +<p>"Among my acquaintances in society there was a young woman on whom I had +never bestowed a thought, whom I had never even looked at attentively, +never taken any notice of, as the saying is.</p> + +<p>"I classed her among the women of no importance, though she was not quite +bad-looking; in fact, she appeared to me to possess eyes, a nose, a +mouth, some sort of hair—just a colorless type of countenance. She was +one of those beings on whom one only thinks by accident, without taking +any particular interest in the individual, and who never excites desire.</p> + +<p>"Well, one night, as I was writing some letters by my own fireside before +going to bed, I was conscious, in the midst of that train of sensual +images that sometimes float before one's brain in moments of idle +reverie, while I held the pen in my hand, of a kind of light breath +passing into my soul, a little shudder of the heart, and immediately, +without reason, without any logical connection of thought, I saw +distinctly, saw as If I touched her, saw from head to foot, uncovered, +this young woman for whom I had never cared save in the most superficial +manner when her name happened to recur to my mind. And all of a sudden I +discovered in her a heap of qualities which I had never before observed, +a sweet charm, a fascination that made me languish; she awakened in me +that sort of amorous uneasiness which sends me in pursuit of a woman. But +I did not remain thinking of her long. I went to bed and was soon asleep. +And I dreamed.</p> + +<p>"You have all had these strange dreams which render you masters of the +impossible, which open to you doors that cannot be passed through, +unexpected joys, impenetrable arms?</p> + +<p>"Which of us in these agitated, exciting, palpitating slumbers, has not +held, clasped, embraced, possessed with an extraordinary acuteness of +sensation, the woman with whom our minds were occupied? And have you ever +noticed what superhuman delight these good fortunes of dreams bestow upon +us? Into what mad intoxication they cast you! with what passionate spasms +they shake you! and with what infinite, caressing, penetrating tenderness +they fill your heart for her whom you hold fainting and hot in that +adorable and bestial illusion which seems so like reality!</p> + +<p>"All this I felt with unforgettable violence. This woman was mine, so +much mine that the pleasant warmth of her skin remained between my +fingers, the odor of her skin remained in my brain, the taste of her +kisses remained on my lips, the sound of her voice lingered in my ears, +the touch of her clasp still clung to my side, and the burning charm of +her tenderness still gratified my senses long after my exquisite but +disappointing awakening.</p> + +<p>"And three times the same night I had a renewal of my dream.</p> + +<p>"When the day dawned she beset me, possessed me, haunted my brain and my +flesh to such an extent that I no longer remained one second without +thinking of her.</p> + +<p>"At last, not knowing what to do, I dressed myself and went to see her. +As I went up the stairs to her apartment, I was so much overcome by +emotion that I trembled, and my heart panted; I was seized with +vehement desire from head to foot.</p> + +<p>"I entered the apartment. She rose up the moment she heard my name +pronounced; and suddenly our eyes met in a fixed look of astonishment.</p> + +<p>"I sat down.</p> + +<p>"I uttered in a faltering tone some commonplaces which she seemed not +to hear. I did not know what to say or to do. Then, abruptly, I flung +myself upon her; seizing her with both arms; and my entire dream was +accomplished so quickly, so easily, so madly, that I suddenly began to +doubt whether I was really awake. She was, after this, my mistress for +two years."</p> + +<p>"What conclusion do you draw from it?" said a voice.</p> + +<p>The story-teller seemed to hesitate.</p> + +<p>"The conclusion I draw from it—well, by Jove, the conclusion is that it +was just a coincidence! And, in the next place, who can tell? Perhaps it +was some glance of hers which I had not noticed and which came back that +night to me—one of those mysterious and unconscious evocations of memory +which often bring before us things ignored by our own consciousness, +unperceived by our minds!"</p> + +<p>"Let that be just as you wish it," said one of his table companions, when +the story was finished, "but if you don't believe in magnetism after +that, you are an ungrateful fellow, my dear boy!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Fly.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> £600.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Civil marriage is obligatory in France, whether a religious +ceremony takes place or not.—TRANSLATOR.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Golden Child.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> About £500, nominally.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> In Germany, <i>thou du</i>, is only used between near relations, +lovers, very intimate friends, to children, servants, &c.—TRANSLATOR.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> A Castle, now a well-preserved ruin, in the Giant Mountains +in N. Germany. The legend is that its mistress, Kunigerude, vowed to +marry nobody except the Knight who should ride round the parapet of the +Castle, and many perished in the attempt. At last one of them succeeded +in performing the feat, but he merely sternly rebuked her, and took his +leave. He was accompanied by his wife, disguised as his page, according +to some versions of the legend.—TRANSLATOR.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> A great institution in France, and especially in Paris, at +which black puddings are an indispensable dish.—TRANSLATOR.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> £2</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_10" id="Footnote_J_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> At Waterloo, General Cambronne is reported to have said, +when called on to surrender:—<i>The Guard dies, but does not surrender.</i> +But according to Victor Hugo, in <i>Les Miserables</i>, he used the +expression <i>Merde</i>! which cannot be put into English fit for ears +polite.—TRANSLATOR.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_K_11" id="Footnote_K_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_K_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> In France, Civil Marriage is compulsory, though frequently +followed by the religious rite.—TRANSLATOR.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_L_12" id="Footnote_L_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_L_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Black Grapes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_M_13" id="Footnote_M_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_M_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> A French imitation of German Lager Beer.</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT, VOLUME IV (OF 8)***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 17377-h.txt or 17377-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/7/17377">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/7/17377</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/17377.txt b/17377.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..127359f --- /dev/null +++ b/17377.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12359 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume IV (of +8), by Guy de Maupassant + + +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: The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume IV (of 8) + The Old Maid -- The Awakening -- In the Spring -- The Jennet -- Rust -- The Substitute -- The Relic -- The Man with the Blue Eyes -- Allouma -- A Family Affair -- The Odalisque of Senichou -- A Good Match -- A Fashionable Woman -- The Carnival of Love -- A Deer Park in the Provinces -- The White Lady -- Caught -- Christmas Eve -- Words of Love -- A Divorce Case -- Who Knows? -- Simon's Papa -- Paul's Mistress -- The Rabbit -- The Twenty-Five Francs of the Mother Superior -- The Venus of Braniza -- La Morillonne -- Waiter, A "Bock" -- Regret -- The Port -- The Hermit -- The Orderly -- Duchoux -- Old Amable -- Magnetism + + +Author: Guy de Maupassant + + + +Release Date: December 22, 2005 [eBook #17377] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT, +VOLUME IV (OF 8)*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT + +VOLUME IV + +The Old Maid and Other Stories + + + + + + + +National Library Company +New York +Copyright, 1909, by +Bigelow, Smith & Co. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + THE OLD MAID + + THE AWAKENING + + IN THE SPRING + + THE JENNET + + RUST + + THE SUBSTITUTE + + THE RELIC + + THE MAN WITH THE BLUE EYES + + ALLOUMA + + A FAMILY AFFAIR + + THE ODALISQUE OF SENICHOU + + A GOOD MATCH + + A FASHIONABLE WOMAN + + THE CARNIVAL OF LOVE + + A DEER PARK IN THE PROVINCES + + THE WHITE LADY + + CAUGHT + + CHRISTMAS EVE + + WORDS OF LOVE + + A DIVORCE CASE + + WHO KNOWS? + + SIMON'S PAPA + + PAUL'S MISTRESS + + THE RABBIT + + THE TWENTY-FIVE FRANCS OF THE MOTHER SUPERIOR + + THE VENUS OF BRANIZA + + LA MORILLONNE + + WAITER, A "BOCK" + + REGRET + + THE PORT + + THE HERMIT + + THE ORDERLY + + DUCHOUX + + OLD AMABLE + + MAGNETISM + + + + +THE OLD MAID + + +Count Eustache d'Etchegorry's solitary country house had the appearance +of a poor man's home, where people do not have enough to eat every day in +the week, where the bottles are more frequently filled at the pump than +in the cellar, and where they wait until it is dark before lighting the +candles. + +It was an old and sordid building; the walls were crumbling to pieces, +the grated, iron gates were eaten away by rust, the holes in the broken +windows had been mended with old newspapers, and the ancestral portraits +which hung against the walls, showed that it was no tiller of the soil, +nor miserable laborer whose strength had gradually worn out and bent his +back, who lived there. Great, knotty elm trees sheltered it, as if they +had been a tall, green screen, and a large garden, full of wild +rose-trees and of straggling plants, as well as of sickly-looking +vegetables, which sprang up half-withered from the sandy soil, went +down as far as the bank of the river. + +From the house, one could hear the monotonous sound of the water, which +at one time rushed yellow and impetuous towards the sea, and then again +flowed back, as if driven by some invisible force towards the town which +could be seen in the distance, with its pointed spires, its ramparts, and +its ships at anchor by the side of the quay, and its citadel built on the +top of a hill. + +A strong smell of the sea came from the offing, mingled with the resinous +smell of pine logs, and of the large nets with great pieces of sea-weed +clinging to them, which were drying in the sun. + +Why had Monsieur d'Etchegorry, who did not like the country, who was of a +sociable rather than of a solitary nature, for he never walked alone, but +kept step with the retired officers who lived there, and frequently +played game after game at _piquet_ at the _cafe_, when he was in town, +buried himself in such a solitary place, by the side of a dusty road at +Boucau, a village close to the town, where on Sundays the soldiers took +off their tunics, and sat in their shirt sleeves in the public-houses, +drank the thin wine of the country, and teased the girls. + +What secret reasons had he for selling the mansion which he had possessed +at Bayonne, close to the bishop's palace, and condemning his daughter, a +girl of nineteen, to such a dull, listless, solitary life; counting the +minutes far from everybody, as if she had been a nun, no one knew, but +most people said that he had lost immense sums in gambling, and had +wasted his fortune and ruined his credit in doubtful speculations. They +wondered whether he still regretted the tender, sweet woman whom he had +lost, who died one evening, after years of suffering, like a church lamp +whose oil has been consumed to the last drop. Was he seeking for perfect +oblivion, for that soothing repose in nature, in which a man becomes +enervated, and which envelopes him like a moist, warm cloth? How could he +be satisfied with such an existence? With the bad cooking, and the +careless, untidy ways of a char-woman, and with the shabby clothes, that +were discolored by use! + +His numerous relations had been anxious about it at first, and had tried +to cure him of his apparent hypochondria, and to persuade him to employ +himself with something, but as he was obstinate, avoided them, rejected +their friendly offers with arrogance and self-sufficiency, even his +brothers had abandoned him, and almost renounced him. All their affection +had been transferred to the poor child who shared his solitude, and who +endured all that wretchedness with the resignation of a saint. Thanks to +them, she had a few gleams of pleasure in their exile, and was not +dressed like a beggar girl, but received invitations, and appeared here +and there at some ball, concert or tennis party, and the girl was +extremely grateful to them for it all, although she would much have +preferred that nobody should have held out a helping hand to her, but +have left her to her dull life, without any day dreams or homesickness, +so that she might grow used to her lot, and day by day lose all that +remained to her of her pride of race and of her youth. + +With her sensitive and proud mind, she felt that she was treated exactly +like others were in society, that people showed her either too much pity +or too much indifference, that they knew all about her side life of +undeserved poverty, and that in the folds of her muslin dress they could +smell the mustiness of her home. If she was animated, or buoyed up with +secret hopes in her heart, if there was a smile on her lips, and her eyes +were bright when she went out at the gate, and the horses carried her off +to town at a rapid trot, she was all the more low-spirited and tearful +when she returned home, and she used to shut herself up in her room and +find fault with her destiny, declared to herself that she would imitate +her father, show relations and friends politely out, with a passive and +resigned gesture, and make herself so unpleasant and embarrassing that +they would grow tired of it in the end, leave long intervals between +their visits, and finally would not come to see her at all, but would +turn away from her, as if from a hospital where incurable patients were +dying. + +Nevertheless, the older the count grew, the more the supplies in the +small country house diminished, and the more painful and harder existence +became. If a morsel of bread was left uneaten on the table, if an +unexpected dish was served up at table, if she put a piece of ribbon into +her hair, he used to heap violent, spiteful reproaches on her, torrents +of rage which defile the mouth, and violent threats like those of a +madman, who is tormented by some fixed idea. Monsieur d'Etchegorry had +dismissed the servant and engaged a char-woman, whom he intended to pay, +merely by small sums on account, and he used to go to market with a +basket on his arm. + +He locked up every morsel of food, used to count the lumps of sugar and +charcoal, and bolted himself in all day long in a room that was larger +than the rest, and which for a long time had served as a drawing-room. +At times he would be rather more gentle, as if he were troubled by vague +thoughts, and used to say to his daughter, in an agonized voice, and +trembling all over: "You will never ask me for any accounts, I +say?... You will never demand your mother's fortune?" + +She always gave him the required promise, did not worry him with any +questions, nor give vent to any complaints, and thinking of her cousins, +who would have good dowries, who were growing up happily and peacefully, +amidst careful and affectionate surroundings and beautiful old furniture, +who were certain to be loved, and to get married some day, and she asked +herself why fate was so cruel to some, and so kind to others, and what +she had done to deserve such disfavor. + +Marie-des-Anges d'Etchegorry, without being absolutely pretty, possessed +all the charm of her age, and everybody liked her. She was as tall and +slim as a lily, with beautiful, fine, soft fair hair, eyes of a dark, +undecided color, which reminded one of those springs in the depths of the +forests, in which a ray of the sun is but rarely reflected--mirrors which +changed now to violet, then to the color of leaves, but most frequently +of a velvety blackness--and her whole being exhaled a freshness of +childhood, and something that could not be described, but which was +pleasant, wholesome and frank. + +She lived on through a long course of years, growing old, faithful to +the man who might have given her his name, honorable, having resisted +temptations and snares, worthy of the motto which used to be engraved +on the tombs of Roman matrons before the Caesars: "_She spun wool, and +kept at home_." + +When she was just twenty-one, Marie-des-Anges fell in love, and her +beautiful, dark, restless eyes for the first time became illuminated with +a look of dreamy happiness. For someone seemed to have noticed her; he +waltzed with her more frequently than he did with the other girls, spoke +to her in a low voice, dangled at her petticoats, and discomposed her so +much, that she flushed deeply as soon as she heard the sound of his +voice. + +His name was Andre de Gedre; he had just returned from Senegal, where +after several months of daily fighting in the desert, he had won his +sub-lieutenant's epaulets. + +With his thin, surnburnt, yellow face, looking awkward in his tight coat, +in which his broad shoulders could not distend themselves comfortably, +and in which his arms, which had formerly been used to cut right and +left, were cramped in their tight sleeves, he looked like one of those +pirates of old, who used to scour the seas, pillaging, killing, hanging +their prisoners to the yard-arms, who were ready to engage a whole fleet, +and who returned to the port laden with booty, and occasionally with +waifs and strays picked up at sea. + +He belonged to a race of buccaneers or of heroes, according to the breeze +which swelled his sails and carried him North or South. Over head and +ears in debt, reduced to discounting doubtful legacies, to gambling at +Casinos, and to mortgaging the few acres of land that he had remaining at +much below their value, he nevertheless managed to make a pretty good +figure in his hand to mouth existence; he never gave in, never showed the +blows that he had received, and waited for the last struggle in a state +of blissful inactivity, while he sought for renewed strength and +philosophy from the caressing lips of women. + +Marie-des-Anges seemed to him to be a toy which he could do with as +he liked. She had the flavor of unripe fruit; left to herself, and +sentimental as she was, she would only offer a very brief resistance to +his attacks, and would soon yield to his will, and when he was tired of +her and threw her off, she would bow to the inevitable, and would not +worry him with violent scenes, nor stand in his way, with threats on her +lips. And so he was kind, and used to wheedle her, and by degrees +enveloped her in the meshes of a net, which continually hemmed her in +closer and closer. He gained entire possession of her heart and +confidence, and without expressing any wish or making any promises, +managed so to establish his influence over her, that she did nothing +but what he wished. + +Long before Monsieur de Gedre had addressed any passionate words to her, +or any avowal which immediately introduces warmth and danger into a +flirtation, Marie-des-Anges had betrayed herself with the candor of a +little girl, who does not think she is doing any wrong, and cannot hide +what she thinks, what she is dreaming about, and the tenderness which +lies hidden at the bottom of her heart, and she no longer felt that +horror of life which had formerly tortured her. She no longer felt +herself alone, as she had done formerly--so alone, so lost, even among +her own people, that everything had become indifferent to her. + +It was very pleasant and soothing to love and to think that she was +loved, to have a furtive and secret understanding with another heart, +to imagine that he was thinking of her at the same time that she was +thinking of him, to shelter herself timidly under his protection, to +feel more unhappy each time she left him, and to experience greater +happiness every time they met. + +She wrote him long letters, which she did not venture to send him when +they were written, for she was timid and feared that he would make fun of +them, and she sang the whole day through, like a lark that is intoxicated +with the sun, so that Monsieur d'Etchegorry scarcely recognized her any +longer. + +Soon they made appointments together in some secluded spot, meeting for a +few minutes in the aisles of the cathedral and behind the ramparts, or on +the promenade of the _Allees-Marines_, which was always dark, on account +of the dense foliage. + +And at last, one evening in June, when the sky was so studded with stars +that it might have been taken for a triumphal route of some sovereign, +strewn with precious stones and rare flowers, Monsieur de Gedre went into +the large, neglected garden. + +Marie-des-Anges was waiting for him in a somber walk with witch elms on +either side and listening for the least noise, looking at the closed +windows of the house, and nearly fainting, as much from fear as from +happiness. They spoke in a low voice. She was close to him and he must +have heard the beating of her heart, into which he had cast the first +seeds of love, and he put his arms around her and clasped her gently, as +if she had been some little bird that he was afraid of hurting, but which +he did not wish to allow to escape. + +She no longer knew what she was doing, but was in a state of entire +intense, supreme happiness. She shivered, and yet something burning +seemed to permeate her whole being under her skin, from the nape of her +neck to her feet, like a stream of burning spirit, and she would not have +had the strength to disengage herself or to take a step forward, so she +leant her head instinctively and very tenderly against Andre's shoulder. +He kissed her hair, touched her forehead with his lips, and at last put +them against hers. The girl felt as if she were going to die, and +remained inert and motionless, with her eyes full of tears. + +He came nearly every evening for two months. She had not the courage to +repel him and to speak to him seriously of the future, and could not +understand why he had not yet asked her father for her hand and had not +fulfilled his former promises, until, one Sunday, as she was coming from +High Mass, walking on before her cousins, Marie-des-Anges heard the +following words, from a group in which Andre was standing, and he was +the speaker: "Oh! no," he said, "you are altogether mistaken; I should +never do anything so foolish.... One does not marry a girl without a +halfpenny; one takes her for one's mistress." + +The unhappy girl mastered her feelings, went down the steps of the porch +quite steadily, but feeling utterly crushed, as if by the news of some +terrible disaster, and joined the servant, who was waiting for her, to +accompany her back to Boucau. The effects of what she had heard were to +give her a serious illness and for some time she hovered between life +and death, consumed and wasted by a violent fever; and when after a +fortnight's suffering, she grew convalescent, and looked at herself +in the glass, she recoiled, as if she had been face to face with an +apparition, for there was nothing left of her former self. + +Her eyes were dull, her cheeks pale and hollow, and there were white +streaks in her silky, light hair. Why had she not succumbed to her +illness? Why had destiny reserved her for such a trial, and increased her +unhappy lot, that of disappointed hopes, thus? But when that rebellious +feeling was over, she accepted her cross, fell into a state of ardent +devotion and became crystallized in the torpor of an old woman, tried +with all her might to rid her memory of any recollections that had become +incrusted in it, and to put a thick black veil between herself and the +past. + +She never walked in the garden now, and never went to Bayonne, and she +would have liked to have choked herself, and to have beaten herself, +when, in spite of her efforts and of her will, she remembered her lost +happiness, and when some sensual feeling and a longing for past pleasures +agitated her body afresh. + +That lasted for four years, which finished her and altogether destroyed +her good looks and she had the figure and the appearance of an old maid, +when her father suddenly died, just as he was going to sit down to +dinner; and when the lawyer, who was summoned immediately, had ransacked +the cupboards and drawers, discovered a mass of securities, of +bank-notes, and of gold, which Count d'Etchegorry, who was eaten up +with avarice, had amassed eagerly, and hidden away, it was found that +Mademoiselle Marie-des-Anges, who was his sole heiress, possessed an +income of fifty thousand francs. + +She received the news without any emotion, for of what use was such a +fortune to her now, and what should she do with it? Her eyes, alas! had +been too much opened by all the tears that had fallen from them for her +to delude herself with visionary hopes, and her heart had been too +cruelly wounded to warm itself by lying illusions, and she was seized by +melancholy when she thought that in future she would be coveted, she who +had been kept at arm's length, as if she had been a leper; that men would +come after her money with odious impatience, that now that she was worn +out and ugly, tired of everything and everybody, she would most certainly +have plenty of suitors to refuse, and that perhaps he would come back to +her, attracted by that amount of money, like a hawk hovering over its +prey, that he would try to re-kindle the dead cinders, to revive some +spark in them and to obtain pardon for his cowardice. + +Oh! With what bitter pleasure she could have thrown those millions into +the road to the ragged beggars, or scattered them about like manna to all +who were suffering and dying of hunger, and who had neither roof nor +hearth! She naturally soon became the target at which everyone aimed, the +goal for which all those who had formerly disdained her most, now eagerly +tried. + +Monsieur de Gedre was not long before he was in the ranks of her suitors, +as she had foreseen, and caused her that last heart-burning of seeing him +humble, kneeling at her feet, acting a comedy, trying every means of +overcoming her resistance, and to regain possession of that heart, which +was closed against him, after having been entirely his, in all its +adorable virginity. + +And Marie-des-Anges had loved him so deeply that his letters in which he +recalled the past, and stirred up all the recollections of their love, +their kisses, and their dreams, softened her in spite of herself, and +came across her profound, incurable sadness, like a factitious light, the +reflection of a bonfire, which, from a distance, illuminates a prison +cell for a moment. + +He was poor himself and had not wished, so he said, to drag her into his +life of privation and shifts, and she thought to herself that perhaps he +had been right; and thus sensibly, like a mother or an elder sister, who +has become indulgent and wishes to close her eyes and her ears against +everything, to forgive again, to forgive always, she excused him, and +tried to remember nothing but those months of tenderness and of ecstacy, +those months of happiness, and that he had been the first, the only man +who, in the course of her unhappy, wasted life, had given her a moment's +peace, had caused her to dream, and had made her happy, and youthful and +loving. + +He had been charitable towards her and she would be so a hundred fold +towards him; and so she grew happy again, when she said to herself that +she would be his benefactress, that even with his hard heart, he could +not accept the sacrifice from a woman, who, like so many others, might +have returned him evil for evil, but who preferred to be kind and +maternal, after having been in love with him, without some feelings +of gratitude and emotion. + +And that resolution transfigured her, restored to her temporarily, +something of her youth, which had so soon fled away, and a poor, heroic +saint amongst all the saints, she took refuge in a Carmelite convent, so +as to escape from this returning temptation, and to bequeath everything +of which she could lawfully dispose, to Monsieur de Gedre. + + + + +THE AWAKENING + + +During the three years that she had been married, she had not left the +_Val de Cire_, where her husband possessed two cotton-mills. She led a +quiet life, and although she had no children, she was quite happy in her +house among the trees, which the work-people called the _chateau_. + +Although Monsieur Vasseur was considerably older than she was, he was +very kind. She loved him, and no guilty thought had ever entered her +mind. + +Her mother came and spent every summer at Cire, and then returned to +Paris for the winter, as soon as the leaves began to fall. + +Jeanne coughed a little every autumn, for the narrow valley through which +the river wound, grew foggy for five months. First of all, slight mists +hung over the meadows, making all the low-lying ground look like a large +pond, out of which the roof of the houses rose. + +Then that white vapor, which rose like a tide, enveloped everything, and +turned the valley into a land of phantoms, through which men moved about +like ghosts, without recognizing each other ten yards off, and the trees, +wreathed in mist, and dripping with moisture, rose up through it. + +But the people who went along the neighboring hills, and who looked down +upon the deep, white depression of the valley, saw the two huge chimneys +of Monsieur Vasseur's factories, rising above the mist below. Day and +night they vomited forth two long trails of black smoke, and that alone +indicated that people were living in that hollow, which looked as if it +were filled with a cloud of cotton. + +That year, when October came, the medical men advised the young woman +to go and spend the winter in Paris with her mother, as the air of the +valley was dangerous for her weak chest, and she went. For a month or so, +she thought continually of the house which she had left, to which she +seemed rooted, and whose well-known furniture and quiet ways she loved +so much, but by degrees she grew accustomed to her new life, and got to +liking entertainments, dinners and evening parties, and balls. + +Till then, she had retained her girlish manners, she had been undecided +and rather sluggish; she walked languidly, and had a tired smile, but now +she became animated and merry, and was always ready for pleasure. Men +paid her marked attentions, and she was amused at their talk, and made +fun of their gallantries, as she felt sure that she could resist them, +for she was rather disgusted with love, from what she had learned of it +in marriage. + +The idea of giving up her body to the coarse caresses of such bearded +creatures, made her laugh with pity, and shudder a little with ignorance. + +She asked herself how women could consent to those degrading contacts +with strangers, as they were already obliged to endure them with their +legitimate husbands. She would have loved her husband much more if they +had lived together like two friends, and had restricted themselves to +chaste kisses, which are the caresses of the soul. + +But she was much amused by their compliments, by the desire which showed +itself in their eyes, and which she did not share, by their declarations +of love, which they whispered into her ear as they were returning to the +drawing-room after some grand dinner, by their words, which were murmured +so low that she almost had to guess them, and which left her blood quite +cool, and her heart untouched, while they gratified her unconscious +coquetry, while they kindled a flame of pleasure within her, and while +they made her lips open, her eyes glow bright, and her woman's heart, +to which homage was due, quiver with delight. + +She was fond of those _tete-a-tetes_ when it was getting dusk, when a man +grows pressing, stammers, trembles and falls on his knees. It was a +delicious and new pleasure to her to know that they felt that passion +which left her quite unmoved, to say _no_, by a shake of the head, and +with her lips, to withdraw her hands, to get up and calmly ring for +lights, and to see the man who had been trembling at her feet, get up, +confused and furious when he heard the footman coming. + +She often had a hard laugh, which froze the most burning words, and said +harsh things, which fell like a jet of icy water on the most ardent +protestations, while the intonations of her voice were enough to make any +man who really loved her, kill himself, and there were two especially who +made obstinate love to her, although they did not at all resemble one +another. + +One of them, Paul Peronel, was a tall man of the world, gallant and +enterprising, a man who was accustomed to successful love affairs, and +who knew how to wait, and when to seize his opportunity. + +The other, Monsieur d'Avancelle, quivered when he came near her, scarcely +ventured to express his love, but followed her like a shadow, and gave +utterance to his hopeless desire by distracted looks, and the assiduity +of his attentions to her, and she made him a kind of slave who followed +her steps, and whom she treated as if he had been her servant. + +She would have been much amused if anybody had told her that she would +love him, and yet she did love him, after a singular fashion. As she saw +him continually, she had grown accustomed to his voice, to his gestures, +and to his manner, as one grows accustomed to those with whom one meets +continually. Often his face haunted her in her dreams, and she saw him +as he really was; gentle, delicate in all his actions, humble, but +passionately in love, and she awoke full of those dreams, fancying that +she still heard him, and felt him near her, until one night (most likely +she was feverish), she saw herself alone with him in a small wood, where +they were both of them sitting on the grass. He was saying charming +things to her, while he pressed and kissed her hands. + +She could feel the warmth of his skin and of his breath, and she was +stroking his hair, in a very natural manner. + +We are quite different in our dreams to what we are in real life. She +felt full of love for him, full of calm and deep love, and was happy in +stroking his forehead and in holding him against her. Gradually he put +his arms round her, kissed her eyes and her cheeks without her attempting +to get away from him; their lips met, and she yielded. + +When she saw him again, unconscious of the agitation that he had caused +her, she felt that she grew red, and while he was telling her of his +love, she was continually recalling to mind their previous meeting, +without being able to get rid of the recollection. + +She loved him, loved him with refined tenderness, which arose chiefly +from the remembrance of her dream, although she dreaded the +accomplishment of the desires which had arisen in her mind. + +At last, he perceived it, and then she told him everything, even to the +dread of his kisses, and she made him swear that he would respect her, +and he did so. They spent long hours of transcendental love together, +during which their souls alone embraced, and when they separated, they +were enervated, weak and feverish. + +Sometimes their lips met, and with closed eyes they reveled in that long, +yet chaste caress; she felt, however, that she could not resist much +longer, and as she did not wish to yield, she wrote and told her husband +that she wanted to come to him, and to return to her tranquil, solitary +life. But in reply, he wrote her a very kind letter, and strongly advised +her not to return in the middle of the winter, and so expose herself to a +sudden change of climate, and to the icy mists of the valley, and she was +thunderstruck, and angry with that confiding man, who did not guess, who +did not understand, the struggles of her heart. + +February was a warm, bright month, and although she now avoided being +alone with Monsieur Avancelle, she sometimes accepted his invitation to +drive round the lake in the _Bois de Boulogne_ with him, when it was +dusk. + +On one of those evenings, it was so warm that it seemed as if the sap in +every tree and plant were rising. Their cab was going at a walk; it was +growing dusk, and they were sitting close together, holding each others' +hands, and she said to herself: + +"It is all over, I am lost!" for she felt her desires rising in her +again, the imperious want for that supreme embrace, which she had +undergone in her dream. Every moment their lips sought each other, clung +together and separated, only to meet again immediately. + +He did not venture to go into the house with her, but left her at her +door, more in love with him than ever, and half fainting. + +Monsieur Paul Peronel was waiting for her in the little drawing-room, +without a light, and when he shook hands with her, he felt how feverish +she was. He began to talk in a low, tender voice, lulling her worn-out +mind with the charm of amorous words. + +She listened to him without replying, for she was thinking of the other; +she thought she was listening to the other, and thought she felt him +leaning against her, in a kind of hallucination. She saw only him, and +did not remember that any other man existed on earth, and when her ears +trembled at those three syllables: "I love you," it was he, the other +man, who uttered them, who kissed her hands, who strained her to his +breast, like the other had done shortly before in the cab. It was he +who pressed victorious kisses on her lips, it was his lips, it was he +whom she held in her arms and embraced, whom she was calling to, with all +the longings of her heart, with all the over-wrought ardor of her body. + +When she awoke from her dream, she uttered a terrible cry. Captain +Fracasse was kneeling by her, and thanking her, passionately, while he +covered her disheveled hair with kisses, and she almost screamed out: +"Go away! go away! go away!" + +And as he did not understand what she meant, and tried to put his arm +round her waist again, she writhed, as she stammered out: + +"You are a wretch, and I hate you! Go away! go away!" And he got up in +great surprise, took up his hat, and went. + +The next day she returned to _Val de Cire_, and her husband, who had not +expected her for some time, blamed her for a freak. + +"I could not live away from you any longer," she said. + +He found her altered in character, and sadder than formerly, but when he +said to her: + +"What is the matter with you? You seem unhappy. What do you want?" she +replied: + +"Nothing. Happiness exists only in our dreams, in this world." + +Avancelle came to see her the next summer, and she received him without +any emotion, and without regret, for she suddenly perceived that she had +never loved him, except in a dream, from which Paul Peronel had brutally +roused her. + +But the young man, who still adored her, thought as he returned to Paris: + +"Women are really very strange, complicated and inexplicable beings." + + + + +IN THE SPRING + + +When the first fine spring days come, and the earth awakes and assumes +its garment of verdure, when the perfumed warmth of the air blows on our +faces and fills our lungs, and even appears to penetrate to our heart, we +feel vague longings for undefined happiness, a wish to run, to walk at +random, to inhale the spring. As the winter had been very severe the year +before, this longing assumed an intoxicating feeling in May; it was like +a superabundance of sap. + +Well, one morning on waking, I saw from my window the blue sky glowing in +the sun above the neighboring houses. The canaries hanging in the windows +were singing loudly, and so were the servants on every floor; a cheerful +noise rose up from the streets, and I went out, with my spirits as bright +as the day was, to go--I did not exactly know where. Everybody I met +seemed to be smiling; an air of happiness appeared to pervade everything, +in the warm light of returning spring. One might almost have said that a +breeze of love was blowing through the city, and the young women whom I +saw in the streets in their morning toilettes, in the depths of whose +eyes there lurked a hidden tenderness, and who walked with languid grace, +filled my heart with agitation. + +Without knowing how or why, I found myself on the banks of the Seine. +Steamboats were starting for Suresnes, and suddenly I was seized by an +unconquerable wish to have a walk through the woods. The deck of the +_mouche_[1] was crowded with passengers, for the sun in early spring +draws you out of the house, in spite of yourself, and everybody moves +about, goes and comes, and talks to his neighbor. + +[Footnote 1: Fly.] + +I had a female neighbor; a little work-girl, no doubt, who possessed +the true Parisian charm; a little head, with light curly hair, which +looked like frizzed light, came down to her ears and descended to the +nape of her neck, danced in the wind, and then became such fine, such +light-colored down, that one could scarcely see it, but on which one +felt an irresistible desire to impress a shower of kisses. + +Under the magnetism of my looks, she turned her head towards me, and then +immediately looked down, while a slight fold, which looked as if she were +ready to break out into a smile, also showed that fine, silky, pale down +which the sun was gilding a little. + +The calm river grew wider; the atmosphere was warm and perfectly still, +but a murmur of life seemed to fill all space. + +My neighbor raised her eyes again, and, this time, as I was still looking +at her, she smiled, decidedly. She was charming like that, and in her +passing glance, I saw a thousand things, which I had hitherto been +ignorant of, for I saw unknown depths, all the charm of tenderness, all +the poetry which we dream of, all the happiness which we are continually +in search of, in it. I felt an insane longing to open my arms and to +carry her off somewhere, so as to whisper the sweet music of words of +love into her ears. + +I was just going to speak to her, when somebody touched me on the +shoulder, and when I turned round in some surprise, I saw an ordinary +looking man, who was neither young nor old, and who gazed at me sadly: + +"I should like to speak to you," he said. + +I made a grimace, which he no doubt saw, for he added: + +"It is a matter of importance." + +I got up, therefore, and followed him to the other end of the boat, and +then he said: + +"Monsieur, when winter comes, with its cold, wet and snowy weather, +your doctor says to you constantly: 'Keep your feet warm, guard against +chills, colds, bronchitis, rheumatism and pleurisy.' + +"Then you are very careful, you wear flannel, a heavy great coat and +thick shoes, but all this does not prevent you from passing two months in +bed. But when spring returns, with its leaves and flowers, its warm, soft +breezes, and its smell of the fields, which cause you vague disquiet and +causeless emotion, nobody says to you: + +"Monsieur, beware of love! It is lying in ambush everywhere; it is +watching for you at every corner; all its snares are laid, all its +weapons are sharpened, all its guiles are prepared! Beware of +love.... Beware of love. It is more dangerous than brandy, bronchitis, +or pleurisy! It never forgives, and makes everybody commit irreparable +follies." + +"Yes, Monsieur, I say that the French Government ought to put large +public notices on the walls, with these words: '_Return of Spring. French +citizens, beware of love!_' just as they put: '_Beware of paint._' + +"However, as the government will not do this, I must supply its place, +and I say to you: 'Beware of love,' for it is just going to seize you, +and it is my duty to inform you of it, just as in Russia they inform +anyone that his nose is frozen." + +I was much astonished at this individual, and assuming a dignified +manner, I said: + +"Really, Monsieur, you appear to me to be interfering in a matter which +is no business of yours." + +He made an abrupt movement, and replied: + +"Ah! Monsieur! Monsieur! If I see that a man is in danger of being +drowned at a dangerous spot, ought I to let him perish? So just listen to +my story, and you will see why I ventured to speak to you like this. + +"It was about this time last year that it occurred. But, first of all, I +must tell you that I am a clerk in the Admirality, where our chiefs, the +commissioners, take their gold lace and quill-driving officers seriously, +and treat us like fore-top men on board a ship. Well, from my office I +could see a small bit of blue sky and the swallows, and I felt inclined +to dance among my portfolios. + +"My yearning for freedom grew so intense, that, in spite of my +repugnance, I went to see my chief, who was a short, bad-tempered man, +who was always in a rage. When I told him that I was not well, he looked +at me, and said: 'I do not believe it, Monsieur, but be off with you! Do +you think that any office can go on, with clerks like you?' I started at +once, and went down the Seine. It was a day like this, and I took the +_mouche_, to go as far as Saint Cloud. Ah! What a good thing it would +have been if my chief had refused me permission to leave the office for +the day! + +"I seemed to myself to expand in the sun. I loved it all; the steamer, +the river, the trees, the houses, my fellow-passengers, everything. I +felt inclined to kiss something, no matter what; it was love, laying its +snare. Presently, at the Trocadero, a girl, with a small parcel in her +hand, came on board and sat down opposite to me. She was certainly +pretty; but it is surprising, Monsieur, how much prettier women seem to +us when it is fine, at the beginning of the spring. Then they have an +intoxicating charm, something quite peculiar about them. It is just like +drinking wine after the cheese. + +"I looked at her, and she also looked at me, but only occasionally, like +that girl did at you, just now; but at last, by dint of looking at each +other constantly, it seemed to me that we knew each other well enough to +enter into conversation, and I spoke to her, and she replied. She was +decidedly pretty and nice, and she intoxicated me, Monsieur! + +"She got out at Saint-Cloud, and I followed her. She went and delivered +her parcel, and when she returned, the boat had just started. I walked by +her side, and the warmth of the air made us both sigh. 'It would be very +nice in the woods,' I said. 'Indeed, it would!' she replied. 'Shall we go +there for a walk, Mademoiselle?' + +"She gave me a quick, upward look, as if to see exactly what I was like, +and then, after a little hesitation, she accepted my proposal, and soon +we were there, walking side by side. Under the foliage, which was still +rather thin, the tall, thick, bright, green grass, was inundated by the +sun, and full of small insects that also made love to one another, and +birds were singing in all directions. My companion began to jump and to +run, intoxicated by the air, and the smell of the country, and I ran and +jumped behind her. How stupid we are at times, Monsieur! + +"Then she wildly sang a thousand things; opera airs, and the song of +_Musette_! The song of _Musette_! How poetical it seemed to me, then! I +almost cried over it. Ah! Those silly songs make us lose our heads; and, +believe me, never marry a woman who sings in the country, especially if +she sings the song of _Musette_! + +"She soon grew tired, and sat down on a grassy slope, and I sat down at +her feet, and took her hands, her little hands, that were so marked with +the needle, and that moved me. I said to myself: 'These are the sacred +marks of toil.' Oh! Monsieur, do you know what those sacred marks of +labor mean? They mean all the gossip of the workroom, the whispered +blackguardism, the mind soiled by all the filth that is talked; they mean +lost chastity, foolish chatter, all the wretchedness of daily bad habits, +all the narrowness of ideas which belongs to women of the lower orders, +united in the girl whose sacred fingers bear _the sacred marks of toil_. + +"Then we looked into each other's eyes for a long while. Oh! What power a +woman's eye has! How it agitates us, how it invades our very being, takes +possession of us, and dominates us. How profound it seems, how full of +infinite promises! People call that looking into each other's souls! Oh! +Monsieur, what humbug! If we could see into each other's souls, we should +be more careful of what we did. However, I was caught, and crazy after +her, and tried to take her into my arms, but she said: 'Paws off!' Then I +knelt down, and opened my heart to her, and poured out all the affection +that was suffocating me, on her knees. She seemed surprised at my change +of manner, and gave me a sidelong glance, as if to say: 'Ah! So that is +the way women make a fool of you, old fellow! Very well, we will see. +In love, Monsieur, we are all artists, and women are the dealers.' + +"No doubt I could have had her, and I saw my own stupidity later, but +what I wanted was not a woman's person; it was love, it was the ideal. +I was sentimental, when I ought to have been using my time to a better +purpose. + +"As soon as she had had enough of my declarations of affection, she got +up, and we returned to Saint-Cloud, and I did not leave her until we got +to Paris; but she had looked so sad as we were returning, that at last I +asked her what was the matter. 'I am thinking,' she replied, 'that this +has been one of those days of which we have but few in life.' And my +heart beat so that it felt as if it would break my ribs. + +"I saw her on the following Sunday, and the next Sunday, and every +Sunday. I took her to Bougival, Saint-Germain, Maisons-Lafitte, Poissy; +to every suburban resort of lovers. + +"The little jade, in turn, pretended to love me, until, at last, I +altogether lost my head, and three months later I married her. + +"What can you expect, Monsieur, when a man is a clerk, living alone, +without any relations, or anyone to advise him? One says to oneself: 'How +sweet life would be with a wife!' + +"And so one gets married, and she calls you names from morning till +night, understands nothing, knows nothing, chatters continually, sings +the song of _Musette_ at the top of her voice (oh! that song of +_Musette_, how tired one gets of it!); quarrels with the charcoal dealer, +tells the porter of all her domestic details, confides all the secrets of +her bedroom to the neighbor's servant, discusses her husband with the +trades-people, and has her head so stuffed with such stupid stories, with +such idiotic superstitions, with such extraordinary ideas and such +monstrous prejudices, that I--for what I have said, applies more +particularly to myself--shed tears of discouragement every time I +talked to her." + +He stopped, as he was rather out of breath, and very much moved, and I +looked at him, for I felt pity for this poor, artless devil, and I was +just going to give him some sort of answer, when the boat stopped. We +were at Saint-Cloud. + +The little woman who had so taken my fancy, got up in order to land. She +passed close to me, and gave me a side glance and a furtive smile; one of +those smiles that drive you mad; then she jumped on the landing-stage. +I sprang forward to follow her, but my neighbor laid hold of my arm, I +shook myself loose, however, whereupon he seized the skirt of my coat, +and pulled me back, exclaiming: + +"You shall not go! You shall not go!" in such a loud voice, that +everybody turned round and laughed, and I remained standing motionless +and furious, but without venturing to face scandal and ridicule, and the +steamboat started. + +The little woman on the landing-stage looked at me as I went off with +an air of disappointment, while my persecutor rubbed his hands, and +whispered to me: + +"I have done you a great service, you must acknowledge." + + + + +THE JENNET + + +Every time he held an inspection on the review ground, General Daumont de +Croisailles was sure of a small success, and of receiving a whole packet +of letters from women the next day. + +Some were almost illegible, scribbled on paper with a love emblem at the +top, by some sentimental milliner; the others ardent, as if saturated +with curry, letters which excited him, and suggested the delights of +kisses to him. + +Among them, also, there were some which evidently came from a woman of +the world, who was tired of her monotonous life, had lost her head, and +let her pen run on, without exactly knowing what she was writing, with +those mistakes in spelling here and there which seemed to be in unison +with the disordered beating of her heart. + +He certainly looked magnificent on horseback; there was something of the +fighter, something bold and mettlesome about him, _a valiant look_, as +our grandmothers used to say, when they threw themselves into the arms +of the conquerors, between two campaigns, though the same conquerors had +loud, rough voices, even when they were making love, as they had to +dominate the noise of the firing, and violent gestures, as if they were +using their swords and issuing orders, who did not waste time over +useless refinements, and in squandering the precious hours which were +counted so avariciously, in minor caresses, but sounded the charge +immediately, and made the assault, without meeting with any more +resistance than they did from a redoubt. + +As soon as he appeared, preceded by dragoons, with his sword in his hand, +amidst the clatter of hoofs and jingle of scabbards and bridles, while +plumes waved and uniforms glistened in the sun, a little in front of his +staff, sitting perfectly upright in the saddle, and with his cocked hat +with its black plumes, slightly on one side, the surging crowd, which was +kept in check by the police officers, cheered him as if he had been some +popular minister, whose journey had been given notice of beforehand by +posters and proclamations. + +That tumult of strident voices that went from one end of the great square +to the other, which was prolonged like the sound of the rising tide, +which beats against the shore with ceaseless noise, that rattle of +rifles, and the sound of the music that alternated with blasts of the +trumpets all along the line, made the General's heart swell with +unspeakable pride. + +He attudinized in spite of himself, and thought of nothing but +ostentation, and of being noticed. He continually touched his horse with +his spurs, and worried it, so as to make it appear restive, and to prance +and rear, to champ its bit, and to cover it with foam, and then he would +continue his inspection, galloping from regiment to regiment with a +satisfied smile, while the good old infantry captains, sitting on their +thin Arab horses, with their toes well stuck out, said to one another: + +"I should not like to have to ride a confounded, restive brute like that, +I know!" + +But the General's aide-de-camp, little Jacques de Montboron, could easily +have reassured them, for he knew those famous thoroughbreds, as he had +had to break them in, and had received a thousand trifling instructions +about them. + +They were generally more or less spavined brutes, which he had bought at +Tattersall's auctions for a ridiculous price, and so quiet and well in +hand that they might have been held with a silk thread, but with a good +shape, bright eyes, and coats that glistened like silk. They seemed to +know their part, and stepped out, pranced and reared, and made way for +themselves, as if they had just come out of the riding-school at Saumur. + +That was his daily task, his obligatory service. + +He broke them in, one after another, and transformed them into veritable +mechanical horses, accustomed them to bear the noise of trumpets and +drums, and of firing, without starting, tired them out by long rides the +evening before every review, and bit his lips to prevent himself from +laughing when people declared that General Daumont de Croisailles was +a first-rate rider, who was really fond of danger. + +A rider! That was almost like writing history! But the aide-de-camp +discreetly kept up the illusion, outdid the others in flattery, and +related unheard-of feats of the General's horsemanship. + +And, after all, breaking in horses was not more irksome than carrying on +a monotonous and dull correspondence about the buttons on the gaiters, or +than thinking over projects of mobilization, or than going through +accounts in which he lost himself like in a labyrinth. He had not, from +the very first day that he entered the military academy at Saint-Cyr, +learned that sentence which begins the rules of the _Interior Service_, +in vain: + +"As discipline constitutes the principal strength of an army, it is very +important for every superior to obtain absolute respect, and instant +obedience from his inferiors." + +He did not resist, but accustomed himself thus to become a sort of +Monsieur Loyal, spoke to his chief in the most flattering manner, and +reckoned on being promoted over the heads of his fellow officers. + +General Daumont de Croisailles was not married and did not intend to +disturb the tranquillity of his bachelor life as long as he lived, for +he loved all women, whether they were dark, fair or red-haired, too +passionately to love only one, who would grow old, and worry him with +useless complaints. + +Gallant, as they used to be called in the good old days, he kissed the +hands of those women who refused him their lips, and as he did not wish +to compromise his dignity, and be the talk of the town, he had rented a +small house just outside it. + +It was close to the canal, in a quiet street with courtyards and shady +gardens, and as nothing is less amusing than the racket of jealous +husbands, or the brawling of excited women who are disputing or raising +their voices in lamentation, and as it is always necessary to foresee +some unfortunate incident or other in the amorous life, some unlucky +mishap, some absurdly imprudent action, some forgotten love appointment, +the house had five different doors. + +So discreet, that he reassured even the most timid, and certainly not +given to melancholy, he understood extremely well how to vary his kisses +and his ways of proceeding; how to work on women's feelings, and to +overcome their scruples, to obtain a hold over them through their +curiosity to learn something new, by the temptation of a comfortable, +well-furnished, warm room, that was fragrant with flowers, and where +a little supper was already served as a prologue to the entertainment. +His female pupils would certainly have deserved the first prize in a +love competition. + +So men mistrusted that ancient Lovelace as if he had been the plague, +when they had plucked some rare and delicious fruit, and had sketched out +some charming adventure, for he always managed to discover the weak spot, +and to penetrate into the place. + +To some, he held out the lure of debauch without any danger attached +to it, the desire of finishing their amorous education, of reveling in +perverted enjoyment, and to others he held out the irresistible argument +that seduced Danae, that of gold. + +Others, again, were attracted by his cocked hat and feathers, and by the +conceited hope of seeing him at their knees, of throwing their arms round +him as if he had been an ordinary lover, although he was a general who +rode so imposingly, who was covered with decorations, and to whom all the +regiments presented arms simultaneously, the chief whose orders could not +be commented on or disputed, and who had such a martial +and haughty look. + +His pay, allowances and his private income of fifteen thousand francs,[2] +all went in this way, like water that runs out drop by drop, from a +cracked bottle. + +[Footnote 2: L600.] + +He was continually on the alert, and looked out for intrigues with the +acuteness of a policeman, followed women about, had all the impudence and +all the cleverness of the fast man who has made love for forty years, +without ever meaning anything serious, who knows all its lies, tricks and +illusions, and who can still do a march without halting on the road, or +requiring too much music to put him in proper trim. And in spite of his +age and gray hairs, he could have given a sub-lieutenant points, and was +very often loved for himself, which is the dream of men who have passed +forty, and do not intend to give up the game just yet. + +And there were not a dozen in the town who could, without lying, have +declared to a jealous husband or a suspicious lover, that they had not, +at any rate, once staid late in the little house in the Eglisottes +quarter, who could have denied that they had not returned more +thoughtful. Not a dozen, certainly, and, perhaps, not six! + +Among that dozen or six, however, was Jacques de Montboron's mistress. +She was a little marvel, that Madame Courtade, whom the Captain had +unearthed in an ecclesiastical warehouse in the Faubourg Saint-Exupere, +and not yet twenty. They had begun by smiling at each other, and by +exchanging those long looks when they met, which seemed to ask for +charity. + +Montboron used to pass in front of the shop at the same hours, stopped +for a moment with the appearance of a lounger who was loitering about the +streets, but immediately her supple figure appeared, pink and fair, +shedding the brightness of youth and almost childhood round her, while +her looks showed that she was delighted at little gallant incidents which +dispelled the monotony and weariness of her life for a time, and gave +rise to vague but delightful hopes. + +Was love, that love which she had so constantly invoked, really knocking +at her door at last, and taking pity on her unhappy isolation? Did that +officer, whom she met whenever she went out, as if he had been faithfully +watching her, when coming out of church, or when out for a walk in the +evening, who said so many delightful things to her with his wheedling +eyes, really love her as she wished to be loved, or was he merely amusing +himself at that game, because he had nothing better to do in their quiet +little town? + +But in a short time he wrote to her, and she replied to him, and at last +they managed to meet in secret, to make appointments, and talk together. + +She knew all the cunning tricks of a simple girl, who has tasted the most +delicious of sweets with the tip of her tongue, and acting in concert, +and giving each other the word, so that there might be no awkward +mistake, they managed to make the husband their unwitting accomplice, +without his having the least idea of what was going on. + +Courtade was an excellent fellow, who saw no further than the tip of his +nose, incapable of rebelling, flabby, fat, steeped in devotion, and +thinking too much about heaven to see what a plot was being hatched +against him, in our unhappy vale of tears, as the psalters say. + +In the good old days of confederacies, he would have made an excellent +chief of a corporation; he loved his wife more like a father than a +husband, considering that at his age a man ought no longer to think of +such trifles, and that, after all, the only real happiness in life was +to keep a good table and to have a good digestion, and so he ate like +four canons, and drank in proportion. + +Only once during his whole life had he shown anything like energy--but +he used to relate that occurrence with all the pride of a conqueror, +recalling his most heroic battle--and that was on the evening when +he refused to allow the bishop to take his cook away, quite regardless +of any of the consequences of such a daring deed. + +In a few weeks, the Captain became his regular table companion, and his +best friend. He had begun by telling him in a boastful manner that, in +order to keep a vow that he had made to St. George, during the charge +up the slope at Yron, during the battle of Gravelotte, he wished to send +two censers and a sanctuary lamp to his village church. + +Courtade did his utmost, and all the more readily as this unexpected +customer did not appear to pay any regard to money. He sent for several +goldsmiths, and showed Montboron models of all kinds; he hesitated, +however, and did not seem able to make up his mind, and discussed the +subject, designed ornaments himself, gained time, and thus managed to +spend several hours every day in the shop. + +In fact, he was quite at home in the place, shook hands with Courtade, +called him "my dear fellow," and did not wince when he took his arm +familiarly before other people, and introduced him to his customers +as, "My excellent friend, the Marquis de Montboron." He could go in and +out of the house as he pleased, whether the husband was at home or not. + +The censers and the lamp were sent in due course to Montboron's chateau +at Pacy-sur-Romanche (in Normandy), and when the package was undone, it +caused the greatest surprise to Jacques' mother, who was more accustomed +to receiving requests for money from her son, than ecclesiastical +objects. + +Suddenly, however, without rhyme or reason, little Madame Courtade became +insupportable and enigmatical. Her husband could not understand it at +all, and grew uneasy, and continually consulted his friend the Captain. + +Etiennette's character seemed to have completely changed; she found +fifty pretexts for deserting the shop, for coming late, for avoiding +_tete-a-tetes_, in which people come to explanations, and mutually become +irritated, though such matters usually end in a reconciliation, amidst a +torrent of kisses. + +She disappeared for days at a time, and soon, Montboron, who was not +fitted to play the part of a Sganarelle, either by age or temperament, +became convinced that his mistress was making him wear the horns, that +she was hobnobbing with the General, and that she was in possession of +one of the five keys of the house in the Eglisottes quarter; and as he +was as jealous as an Andalusian, and felt a horror for that kind of +pleasantry, he swore that he would make his rival pay a hundred fold +for the trick which he had played him. + +The Fourteenth of July was approaching, when there was to be a grand +parade of the whole garrison on the large review ground, and all along +the paling, which divided the spectators from the soldiers, itinerant +dealers had put up their stalls, and there were mountebanks' and +somnambulists' booths, menageries, and a large circus, which had gone +through the town in caravans, with a great noise of trumpets and of +drums. + +He had given his aide-de-camp his instructions beforehand, for he was +more anxious than ever to surprise people, and to have a horse like an +equestrian statue, an animal which should outdo that famous black horse +of General Boulanger's, about which the Parisian loungers had talked so +much, and told Montboron not to mind what the price was, as long as he +found him a suitable charger. + +When the Captain, a few days before the review, brought him a chestnut +jennet, with a long tail and flowing mane, which would not keep quiet for +five seconds, but kept on shaking its head, had extraordinary action, +answered the slightest touch of the leg, and stepped out as if it knew no +other motion, General Daumont de Croisailles showered compliments upon +him, and assured him that he knew few officers who possessed his +intelligence and his value, and that he should not forget him when the +proper time came for recommending him for promotion. + +Not a muscle of the Marquis de Montboron's face moved, and when the day +of the review arrived, he was at his post on the staff that followed the +General, who sat as upright as a dart in the saddle, and looked at the +crowd to see whether he could not recognize some old or new female friend +there, while his horse pranced and plunged. + +He rode onto the review ground, amidst the increasing noise of applause, +with a smile upon his lips, when, suddenly, at the moment that he +galloped up into the large square, formed by the troops drawn up in a +line, the band of the fifty-third regiment struck up a quick march, and, +as if obeying a preconcerted signal, the jennet began to turn round, and +to accelerate its speed, in spite of the furious tugs at the bridle which +the rider gave. + +The horse performed beautifully, followed the rhythm of the music, and +appeared to be acting under some invisible impulse, and the General had +such a comical look on his face, he looked so disconcerted, rolled his +eyes, and seemed to be the prey to such terrible exasperation, that he +might have been taken for some character in a pantomime, while his staff +followed him, without being able to comprehend this fresh fancy of his. + +The soldiers presented arms, the music did not stop, though the +instrumentalists were much astonished at this interminable ride. + +The General at last became out of breath, and could scarcely keep in the +saddle, and the women, in the crowded ranks of the spectators, gave +prolonged, nervous laughs, which made the old _roue's_ ears tingle with +excitement. + +The horse did not stop until the music ceased, and then it knelt down +with bent head, and put its nostrils into the dust. + +It nearly gave General de Croisailles an attack of the jaundice, +especially when he found out that it was his aide-de-camp's _tit for +tat_, and that the horse came from a circus which was giving performances +in the town. And what irritated him all the more was, that he could not +even set it down against Montboron and have him sent to some terrible +out-of-the-way hole, for the Captain sent in his resignation, wisely +considering that sooner or later he should have to pay the costs of +that little trick, and that the chances were that he should not get any +further promotion, but remain stationary, like a cab which some bilker +has left standing for hours at one end of an arcade, while he has made +his escape at the other. + + + + +RUST + + +During nearly his whole life, he had had an insatiable love for sport. He +went out every day, from morning till night, with the greatest ardor, in +summer and winter, spring and autumn, on the marshes, when it was close +time on the plains and in the woods. He shot, he hunted, he coursed, he +ferreted; he spoke of nothing but shooting and hunting, he dreamt of it, +and continually repeated: + +"How miserable any man must be who does not care for sport!" + +And now that he was past fifty, he was well, robust, stout and vigorous, +though rather bald, and he kept his moustache cut quite short, so that it +might not cover his lips, and interfere with his blowing the horn. + +He was never called by anything but his first Christian name, Monsieur +Hector, but his full name was Baron Hector Gontran de Coutelier, and he +lived in a small manor house which he had inherited, in the middle of the +woods; and though he knew all the nobility of the department, and met its +male representatives out shooting and hunting, he only regularly visited +one family, the Courvilles, who were very pleasant neighbors, and had +been allied to his race for centuries, and in their house he was liked, +and taken the greatest care of, and he used to say: "If I were not a +sportsman, I should like to be here always." + +Monsieur de Courville had been his friend and comrade from childhood, +and lived quietly as a gentleman farmer with his wife, daughter and +son-in-law, Monsieur de Darnetot, who did nothing, under the pretext of +being devoted to historical studies. + +Baron de Coutelier often went and dined with his friends, as much with +the object of telling them of the shots he had made, as of anything else. +He had long stories about dogs and ferrets, of which he spoke as if they +were persons of note, whom he knew very well. He analyzed them, and +explained their thoughts and intentions: + +"When Medor saw that the corn-crake was leading him such a dance, he said +to himself: 'Wait a bit, my friend, we will have a joke.' And then, with +a jerk of the head to me, to make me go into the corner of the clover +field, he began to quarter the sloping ground, noisily brushing through +the clover to drive the bird into a corner from which it could not +escape. + +"Everything happened as he had foreseen. Suddenly, the corn-crake found +itself on the borders of the clover, and it could not go any further +without showing itself; Medor stood and pointed, half-looking round at +me, but at a sign from me, he drew up to it, flushed the corn-crake; +_bang_! down it came, and Medor, as he brought it to me, wagged his tail, +as much as to say: 'How about that, Monsieur Hector?'" + +Courville, Darnetot, and the two ladies laughed very heartily at those +picturesque descriptions into which the Baron threw his whole heart. He +grew animated, moved his arms about, and gesticulated with his whole +body; and when he described the death of anything he had killed, he gave +a formidable laugh, and said: + +"Was not that a good shot?" + +As soon as they began to speak about anything else, he left off +listening, and hummed a hunting song, or a few notes to imitate a hunting +horn, to himself. + +He had only lived for field sports, and was growing old, without thinking +about it, or guessing it, when he had a severe attack of rheumatism, and +was confined to his bed for two months, and nearly died of grief and +weariness. + +As he kept no female servant, for an old footman did all the cooking, he +could not get any hot poultices, nor could he have any of those little +attentions, nor anything that an invalid requires. His gamekeeper was his +sick nurse, and as the servant found the time hang just as heavily on his +hands as it did on his master's, he slept nearly all day and all night in +any easy chair, while the Baron was swearing and flying into a rage +between the sheets. + +The ladies of the De Courville family came to see him occasionally, and +those were hours of calm and comfort for him. They prepared his herb tea, +attended to the fire, served him his breakfast up daintily, by the side +of his bed, and when they were going again, he used to say: + +"By Jove! You ought to come here altogether," which made them laugh +heartily. + +When he was getting better, and was beginning to go out shooting again, +he went to dine with his friends one evening; but he was not at all in +his usual spirits. He was tormented by one continual fear--that he might +have another attack before shooting began, and when he was taking his +leave at night, when the women were wrapping him up in a shawl, and tying +a silk handkerchief round his neck, which he allowed to be done for the +first time in his life, he said in a disconsolated voice: + +"If it goes on like this, I shall be done for." + +As soon as he had gone, Madame Darnetot said to her mother: + +"We ought to try and get the Baron married." + +They all raised their hands at the proposal. How was it that they had +never thought of it before? And during all the rest of the evening they +discussed the widows whom they knew, and their choice fell on a woman of +forty, who was still pretty, fairly rich, very good-tempered and in +excellent health, whose name was Madame Berthe Vilers, and, accordingly, +she was invited to spend a month at the chateau. She was very dull at +home, and was very glad to come; she was lively and active, and Monsieur +de Coutelier took her fancy immediately. She amused herself with him as +if he had been a living toy, and spent hours in asking him slyly about +the sentiments of rabbits and the machinations of foxes, and he gravely +distinguished between the various ways of looking at things which +different animals had, and ascribed plans and subtle arguments to them, +just as he did to men of his acquaintance. + +The attention she paid him, delighted him, and one evening, to show his +esteem for her, he asked her to go out shooting with him, which he had +never done to any woman before, and the invitation appeared so funny to +her that she accepted it. + +It was quite an amusement for them to fit her out; everybody offered her +something, and she came out in a sort of short riding habit, with boots +and men's breeches, a short petticoat, a velvet jacket, which was too +tight for her across the chest, and a huntsman's black velvet cap. + +The Baron seemed as excited as if he were going to fire his first shot. +He minutely explained to her the direction of the wind, and how different +dogs worked. Then he took her into a field, and followed her as anxiously +as a nurse does when her charge is trying to walk for the first time. + +Medor soon made a point, and stopped with his tail out stiff and one paw +up, and the Baron, standing behind his pupil, was trembling like a leaf, +and whispered: + +"Look out, they are par ... par ... partridges." And almost before he had +finished, there was a loud _whirr_--_whirr_, and a covey of large birds +flew up in the air, with a tremendous noise. + +Madame Vilers was startled, shut her eyes, fired off both barrels and +staggered at the recoil of the gun; but when she had recovered her +self-possession, she saw that the Baron was dancing about like a madman, +and that Medor was bringing back the first of the two partridges which +she had killed. + +From that day, Monsieur de Coutelier was in love with her, and used to +say, raising his eyes: "What a woman!" And he used to go and see them +every evening now, and talked about shooting. + +One day, Monsieur de Courville, who was walking part of the way with him, +asked him, suddenly: + +"Why don't you marry her?" + +The Baron was altogether taken by surprise, and said: + +"What? I? Marry her? ... Well ... really...." + +And he said no more for a while, but then, suddenly shaking hands with +his companion, he said: + +"Good-bye, my friend," and quickly disappeared in the darkness. + +He did not go again for three days, but when he reappeared, he was pale +from thinking the matter over, and graver than usual. Taking Monsieur de +Courville aside, he said: + +"That was a capital idea of yours; try and persuade her to accept me, for +one might say that a woman like she is, was made for me, and you and I +shall be able to have some sort of sport together, all the year round." + +As Monsieur de Courville felt certain that his friend would not meet with +a refusal, he replied: + +"Propose to her immediately, my dear fellow, or would you rather that I +did it for you?" + +But the Baron grew suddenly nervous, and said, with some hesitation: + +"No, ... no.... I must go to Paris for ... for a few days. As soon as I +come back, I will give you a definite answer." No other explanation was +forthcoming, and he started the next morning. + +He made a long stay. One, two, three weeks passed, but Monsieur de +Coutelier did not return, and the Courvilles, who were surprised and +uneasy, did not know what to say to their friend, whom they had informed +of the Baron's wishes. Every other day they sent to his house for news of +him, but none of his servants had a line. + +But one evening, while Madame Vilers was singing, and accompanying +herself on the piano, a servant came with a mysterious air, and told +Monsieur de Courville that a gentleman wanted to see him. It was the +Baron, in a traveling suit, who looked much altered and older, and as +soon as he saw his old friend, he seized both his hands, and said, in a +somewhat tired voice: "I have just returned, my dear friend, and I have +come to you immediately; I am thoroughly knocked up." + +Then he hesitated in visible embarrassment, and presently said: + +"I wished to tell you ... immediately ... that ... that business ... you +know what I mean ... must come to nothing." + +Monsieur de Courville looked at him in stupefaction. "Must come to +nothing?... Why?" + +"Oh! Do not ask me, please; it would be too painful for me to tell +you; but you may rest assured that I am acting like an honorable man. +I cannot ... I have no right ... no right, you understand, to marry this +lady, and I will wait until she has gone, to come here again; it would be +too painful for me to see her. Good-bye." And he absolutely ran away. + +The whole family deliberated and discussed the matter, surmising a +thousand things. The conclusion they came to was, that the Baron's past +life concealed some great mystery, that, perhaps, he had natural +children, or some connection of long standing. At any rate, the matter +seemed serious, and so as to avoid any difficult complications, they +adroitly informed Madame Vilers of the state of affairs, who returned +home just as much of a widow as she had come. + +Three months more passed, when one evening, when he had dined rather too +well, and was rather unsteady on his legs, Monsieur de Coutelier, while +he was smoking his pipe with Monsieur de Courville, said to him: + +"You would really pity me, if you only knew how continually I am thinking +about your friend." + +But the other, who had been rather vexed at the Baron's behavior in the +circumstances, told him exactly what he thought of him: + +"By Jove, my good friend, when a man has any secrets in his existence, +like you have, he does not make advances to a woman, immediately, as you +did, for you must surely have foreseen the reason why you had to draw +back." + +The Baron left off smoking in some confusion. + +"Yes, and no; at any rate, I could not have believed what actually +happened." + +Whereupon, Monsieur de Courville lost his patience, and replied: + +"One ought to foresee everything." + +But Monsieur de Coutelier replied in a low voice, in case anybody should +be listening: "I see that I have hurt your feelings, and will tell you +everything, so that you may forgive me. You know that for twenty years +I have lived only for sport; I care for nothing else, and think about +nothing else. Consequently, when I was on the point of undertaking +certain obligations with regard to this lady, I felt some scruples of +conscience. Since I have given up the habit of ... of love, there! I +have not known whether I was still capable of ... you know what I +mean ... Just think! It is exactly sixteen years since ... I for the last +time ... you understand what I mean. In this neighborhood, it is not easy +to ... you know. And then, I had other things to do. I prefer to use my +gun, and so before entering into an engagement before the Mayor[3] and +the Priest to ... well, I was frightened. I said to myself: 'Confound it; +suppose I missed fire!' An honorable man always keeps his engagements, +and in this case, I was undertaking sacred duties with regard to this +lady, and so, to feel sure, I made up my mind to go and spend a week in +Paris. + +[Footnote 3: Civil marriage is obligatory in France, whether a religious +ceremony takes place or not.--TRANSLATOR.] + +"At the end of that time, nothing, absolutely nothing occurred. I always +lost the game.... I waited for a fortnight, three weeks, continually +hoping. In the restaurants, I ate a number of highly seasoned dishes, +which upset my stomach, and ... and it was still the same thing ... or +rather, nothing. You will, therefore, understand, that, in such +circumstances, and having assured myself of the fact, the only thing +I could do was ... was ... to withdraw; and I did so." + +Monsieur de Courville had to struggle very hard not to laugh, and he +shook hands with the Baron, saying: + +"I am very sorry for you," and accompanied him half-way home. + +When he got back, and was alone with his wife, he told her everything, +nearly choking with laughter; she, however, did not laugh, but listened +very attentively, and when her husband had finished, she said, very +seriously: + +"The Baron is a fool, my dear; he was frightened, that is all. I will +write and ask Berthe to come back here as soon as possible." + +And when Monsieur de Courville observed that their friend had made such +long and useless attempts, she merely said: + +"Nonsense! When a man loves his wife, you know ... that sort of thing +adjusts itself to the situation." + +And Monsieur de Courville made no reply, as he felt rather confused +himself. + + + + +THE SUBSTITUTE + + +"Madame Bonderoi?" + +"Yes, Madame Bonderoi." + +"Impossible." + +"I tell you it is." + +Madame Bonderoi, the old lady in a lace cap, the devout, the holy, the +honorable Madame Bonderoi, whose little false curls looked as if they +were glued round her head. + +"That is the very woman." + +"Oh! Come, you must be mad." + +"I swear to you that it is Madame Bonderoi." + +"Then please give me the details." + +"Here they are. During the life of Monsieur Bonderoi, the lawyer, people +said that she utilized his clerks for her own particular service. She is +one of those respectable middle-class women, with secret vices, and +inflexible principles, of whom there are so many. She liked good-looking +young fellows, and I should like to know what is more natural than that? +Do not we all like pretty girls?" + +"As soon as old Bonderoi was dead, his widow began to live the peaceful +and irreproachable life of a woman with a fair, fixed income. She went to +church assiduously, and spoke evil of her neighbors, but gave no handle +to anyone for speaking ill of her, and when she grew old she became the +little wizened, sour-faced, mischievous woman whom you know. Well, this +adventure, which you would scarcely believe, happened last Friday. + +"My friend, Jean d'Anglemare, is, as you know, a captain in a dragoon +regiment, who is quartered in the barracks in the _Rue de la Rivette_, +and when he got to his quarters the other morning, he found that two men +of his squadron had had a terrible quarrel. The rules about military +honor are very severe, and so a duel took place between them. After the +duel they became reconciled, and when their officer questioned them, they +told him what their quarrel had been about. They had fought on Madame +Bonderoi's account." + +"Oh!" + +"Yes, my dear fellow, about Madame Bonderoi." + +"But I will let Trooper Siballe speak." + +"This is how it was, Captain. About a year and a half ago, I was lounging +about the barrack-yard, between six and seven o'clock in the evening, +when a woman came up and spoke to me, and said, just as if she had been +asking her way: 'Soldier, would you like to earn ten francs a week, +honestly?' Of course, I told her that I decidedly should, and so she +said: 'Come and see me at twelve o'clock to-morrow morning. I am Madame +Bonderoi, and my address is No. 6, _Rue de la Tranchee_.' 'You may rely +upon my being there, Madame.' And then she went away, looking very +pleased, and she added: 'I am very much obliged to you, soldier.' 'I am +obliged to you, Madame,' I replied. But I plagued my head about the +matter, until the time came, all the same. + +"At twelve o'clock, exactly, I rang the bell, and she let me in herself. +She had a lot of ribbons on her head. + +"'We must make haste,' she said; 'as my servant might come in.' + +"'I am quite willing to make haste,' I replied, 'but what am I to do?' + +"But she only laughed, and replied: 'Don't you understand, you great +knowing fellow?' + +"I was no nearer her meaning, I give you my word of honor, Captain, but +she came and sat down by me, and said: + +"'If you mention this to anyone, I will have you put in prison, so swear +that you will never open your lips about it.' + +"I swore whatever she liked, though I did not at all understand what she +meant, and my forehead was covered with perspiration, so I took my +pocket-handkerchief out of my helmet, and she took it and wiped my brow +with it; then she kissed me, and whispered: 'Then you will?' 'I will do +anything you like, Madame,' I replied, 'as that is what I came for.' + +"Then she made herself clearly understood by her actions, and when I saw +what it was, I put my helmet onto a chair, and showed her that in the +dragoons a man never retires, Captain. + +"Not that I cared much about it, for she was certainly not in her prime, +but it is no good being too particular in such a matter, as ten francs +are scarce, and then I have relations whom I like to help, and I said to +myself: 'There will be five francs for my father, out of that.' + +"When I had done my allotted task, Captain, I got ready to go, though she +wanted me to stop longer, but I said to her: + +"'To everyone their due, Madame. A small glass of brandy costs two sous, +and two glasses cost four.' + +"She understood my meaning, and put a gold ten-franc piece into my hand. +I do not like that coin, because it is so small that if your pockets are +not very well made, and come at all unsewn, one is apt to find it in +one's boots, or not to find it at all, and so, while I was looking at it, +she was looking at me. She got red in the face, as she had misunderstood +my looks, and she said: 'Is not that enough?' + +"'I did not mean that, Madame,' I replied; 'but if it is all the same to +you, I would rather have two five-franc pieces.' And she gave them to me, +and I took my leave. This has been going on for a year and a half, +Captain. I go every Tuesday evening, when you give me leave to go out of +barracks; she prefers that, as her servant has gone to bed then, but last +week I was not well, and I had to go into the infirmary. When Tuesday +came, I could not get out, and I was very vexed, because of the ten +francs which I had been receiving every week, and I said to myself: + +"'If anybody goes there, I shall be done; and she will be sure to take +an artilleryman, and that made me very angry. So I sent for Paumelle, who +comes from my part of the country, and I told him how matters stood: + +"'There will be five francs for you, and five for me,' I said. He agreed, +and went, as I had given him full instructions. She opened the door as +soon as he knocked, and let him in, and as she did not look at his face, +she did not perceive that it was not I, for, you know, Captain, one +dragoon is very like another, with their helmets on. + +"Suddenly, however, she noticed the change, and she asked, angrily: 'Who +are you? What do you want? I do not know you.' + +"Then Paumelle explained matters; he told her that I was not well, and +that I had sent him as my substitute; so she looked at him, made him also +swear to keep the matter secret, and then she accepted him, as you may +suppose, for Paumelle is not a bad-looking fellow, either. But when he +came back, Captain, he would not give me my five francs. If they had been +for myself, I should not have said a word, but they were for my father, +and on that score, I would stand no nonsense, and I said to him: + +"'You are not particular in what you do, for a dragoon; you are a +discredit to your uniform.' + +"He raised his fist, Captain, saying that fatigue duty like that was +worth double. Of course, everybody has his own ideas, and he ought not to +have accepted it. You know the rest." + +"Captain d'Anglemare laughed until he cried as he told me the story, but +he also made me promise to keep the matter a secret, just as he had +promised the two soldiers. So, above all, do not betray me, but promise +me to keep it to yourself." + +"Oh! You may be quite easy about that. But how was it all arranged, in +the end?" + +"How? It is a joke in a thousand!... Mother Bonderoi keeps her two +dragoons, and reserves his own particular day for each of them, and in +that way everybody is satisfied." + +"Oh! That is capital! Really capital!" + +"And he can send his old father and mother the money as usual, and thus +morality is satisfied." + + + + +THE RELIC + + +_To the Abbe Louis d'Ennemare, at Soissons._ + +"My Dear Abbe: + +"My marriage with your cousin is broken off in the stupidest manner, +on account of a stupid trick which I almost involuntarily played my +intended, in my embarrassment, and I turn to you, my old schoolfellow, +for you may be able to help me out of the difficulty. If you can, I shall +be grateful to you until I die. + +"You know Gilberte, or rather you think you know her, for do we ever +understand women? All their opinions, their ideas, their creeds, are a +surprise to us. They are all full of twists and turns, of the unforeseen, +of unintelligible arguments, or defective logic and of obstinate ideas, +which seem final, but which they alter because a little bird came and +perched on the window ledge. + +"I need not tell you that your cousin is very religious, as she was +brought up by the _White_ (or was it the _Black_?) _Ladies_ at Nancy. You +know that better than I do, but what you perhaps do not know, is, that +she is just as excitable about other matters as she is about religion. +Her head flies away, just like a leaf being whirled away by the wind; and +she is a woman, or rather a girl, more so than many are, for she is +moved, or made angry in a moment, starting off at a gallop after +affection, just as she does after hatred, and returning in the same +manner; and she is as pretty ... as you know, and more charming than +I can say ... as you will never know. + +"Well, we became engaged, and I adored her, as I adore her still, and she +appeared to love me. + +"One evening, I received a telegram summoning me to Cologne for a +consultation, which might be followed by a serious and difficult +operation, and as I had to start the next morning, I went to wish +Gilberte goodbye, and tell her why I could not dine with them on +Wednesday, but on Friday, the day of my return. Ah! Take care of Fridays, +for I assure you they are unlucky! + +"When I told her that I had to go to Germany, I saw that her eyes filled +with tears, but when I said I should be back very soon, she clapped her +hands, and said: + +"'I am very glad you are going, then! You must bring me back something; a +mere trifle, just a souvenir, but a souvenir that you have chosen for me. +You must find out what I should like best, do you hear? And then I shall +see whether you have any imagination.' + +"She thought for a few moments, and then added: + +"'I forbid you to spend more than twenty francs on it. I want it for the +intention, and for the remembrance of your penetration, and not for its +intrinsic value.' + +"And then, after another moment's silence, she said, in a low voice, and +with downcast eyes. + +"'If it costs you nothing in money, and if it is something very ingenious +and pretty, I will ... I will kiss you.' + +"The next day, I was in Cologne. It was the case of a terrible accident, +which had thrown a whole family into despair, and a difficult amputation +was necessary. They put me up; I might say, they almost locked me up, and +I saw nobody but people in tears, who almost deafened me with their +lamentations; I operated on a man who appeared to be in a moribund state, +and who nearly died under my hands, and with whom I remained two nights, +and then, when I saw that there was a chance for his recovery, I drove to +the station. I had, however, made a mistake in the trains, and I had an +hour to wait, and so I wandered about the streets, still thinking of my +poor patient, when a man accosted me. I do not know German, and he was +totally ignorant of French, but at last I made out that he was offering +me some relics. I thought of Gilberte, for I knew her fanatical devotion, +and here was my present ready to hand, so I followed the man into a shop +where religious objects were for sale, and I bought _a small piece of a +bone of one of the Eleven Thousand Virgins_. + +"The pretended relic was enclosed in a charming, old silver box, and that +determined my choice, and putting my purchase into my pocket, I went to +the railway station, and so to Paris. + +"As soon as I got home, I wished to examine my purchase again, and on +taking hold of it, I found that the box was open, and the relic lost! It +was no good to hunt in my pocket, and to turn it inside out; the small +bit of bone, which was no bigger than half a pin, had disappeared. + +"You know, my dear little Abbe, that my faith is not very great, but, as +my friend, you are magnanimous enough to put up with my coldness, and to +leave me alone, and to wait for the future, so you say. But I absolutely +disbelieve in the relics of second-hand dealers in piety, and you share +my doubts in that respect. Therefore, the loss of that bit of sheep's +carcass did not grieve me, and I easily procured a similar fragment, +which I carefully fastened inside my jewel, and then I went to see my +intended. + +"As soon as she saw me, she ran up to me, smiling and anxious, and said +to me: + +"'What have you brought me?' + +"I pretended to have forgotten, but she did not believe me, and I made +her beg me, and beseech me, even. But when I saw that she was devoured by +curiosity, I gave her the sacred silver box. She appeared over-joyed. + +"'A relic! Oh! A relic!' + +"And she kissed the box passionately, so that I was ashamed of my +deception. She was not quite satisfied, however, and her uneasiness soon +turned to terrible fear, and looking straight into my eyes, she said: + +"'Are you sure that it is authentic?' + +"'Absolutely certain.' + +"'How can you be so certain?' + +"I was caught, for to say that I had bought it through a man in the +streets, would be my destruction. What was I to say? A wild idea struck +me, and I said, in a low, mysterious voice: + +"'I stole it for you.' + +"She looked at me with astonishment and delight in her large eyes. + +"'Oh! You stole it? Where?' + +"'In the cathedral; in the very shrine of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.' + +"Her heart beat with pleasure, and she murmured: + +"'Oh! Did you really do that ... for me? Tell me ... all about it!' + +"There was an end of it, and I could not go back. I made up a fanciful +story, with precise details. I had given the custodian of the building a +hundred francs to be allowed to go about the building by myself; the +shrine was being repaired, but I happened to be there at the breakfast +time of the workmen and clergy; by removing a small panel, I had been +enabled to seize a small piece of bone (oh! so small), among a quantity +of others, (I said a quantity, as I thought of the amount that the +remains of the skeletons of eleven thousand virgins must produce). Then I +went to a goldsmith's and bought a casket worthy of the relic; and I was +not sorry to let her know that the silver box cost me five hundred +francs. + +"But she did not think of that; she listened to me, trembling; in an +ecstasy, and whispering: + +"'How I love you!' she threw herself into my arms. + +"Just note this: I had committed sacrilege for her sake. I had committed +a theft; I had violated a shrine; violated and stolen holy relics, and +for that she adored me, thought me loving, tender, divine. Such is woman, +my dear Abbe. + +"For two months I was the best of lovers. In her room, she had made a +kind of magnificent chapel in which to keep this bit of mutton chop, +which, as she thought, had made me commit that love-crime, and she worked +up her religious enthusiasm in front of it every morning and evening. I +had asked her to keep the matter secret, for fear, as I said, that I +might be arrested, condemned and given over to Germany, and she kept her +promise. + +"Well, at the beginning of the summer, she was seized with an +irresistible wish to see the scene of my exploit, and she begged her +father so persistently (without telling him her secret reason), that he +took her to Cologne, but without telling me of their trip, according to +his daughter's wish. + +"I need not tell you that I had not seen the interior of the cathedral. I +do not know where the tomb (if there be a tomb), of the Eleven Thousand +Virgins is, and then, it appears that it is unapproachable, alas! + +"A week afterwards, I received ten lines, breaking off our engagement, +and then an explanatory letter from her father, whom she had, somewhat +late, taken into her confidence. + +"At the sight of the shrine, she had suddenly seen through my trickery +and my lie, and had also found out that I was innocent of any other +crime. Having asked the keeper of the relics whether any robbery had +been committed, the man began to laugh, and pointed out to them how +impossible such a crime was, but from the moment I had plunged my profane +hand into venerable relics, I was no longer worthy of my fair-haired +and delicate betrothed. + +"I was forbidden the house; I begged and prayed in vain, nothing could +move the fair devotee, and I grew ill from grief. Well, last week, her +cousin, Madame d'Arville, who is yours also, sent word to me that she +should like to see me, and when I called, she told me on what conditions +I might obtain my pardon, and here they are. I must bring her a relic, a +real, authentic relic, certified to be such by Our Holy Father, the Pope, +of some virgin and martyr, and I am going mad from embarrassment and +anxiety. + +"I will go to Rome, if needful, but I cannot call on the Pope +unexpectedly, and tell him my stupid adventure; and, besides, I doubt +whether they let private individuals have relics. Could not you give me +an introduction to some cardinal, or only to some French prelate, who +possesses some remains of a female saint? Or perhaps you may have the +precious object she wants in your collection? + +"Help me out of my difficulty, my dear Abbe, and I promise you that I +will be converted ten years sooner than I otherwise should be! + +"Madame d'Arville, who takes the matter seriously, said to me the other +day: + +"'Poor Gilberte will never marry.' + +"My dear old schoolfellow, will you allow your cousin to die the victim +of a stupid piece of business on my part? Pray prevent her from being the +eleventh thousand and one virgin. + +"Pardon me, I am unworthy, but I embrace you, and love you with all my +heart. + +"Your old friend, + +"Henri Fontal." + + + + +THE MAN WITH THE BLUE EYES + + +Monsieur Pierre Agenor de Vargnes, the Examining Magistrate, was the +exact opposite of a practical joker. He was dignity, staidness, +correctness personified. As a sedate man, he was quite incapable of being +guilty, even in his dreams, of anything resembling a practical joke, +however remotely. I know nobody to whom he could be compared, unless it +be the present president of the French Republic. I think it is useless to +carry the analogy any further, and having said thus much, it will be +easily understood that a cold shiver passed through me when Monsieur +Pierre Agenor de Vargnes did me the honor of sending a lady to wait on +me. + +At about eight o'clock, one morning last winter, as he was leaving the +house to go to the _Palais de Justice_, his footman handed him a card, +on which was printed: + + + DOCTOR JAMES FERDINAND, + _Member of the Academy of Medicine, + Port-au-Prince, + Chevalier of the Legion of Honor._ + +At the bottom of the card, there was written in pencil: + + _From Lady Frogere_ + +Monsieur de Vargnes knew the lady very well, who was a very agreeable +Creole from Haiti, and whom he had met in many drawing-rooms, and, on the +other hand, though the doctor's name did not awaken any recollections in +him, his quality and titles alone required that he should grant him an +interview, however short it might be. Therefore, although he was in a +hurry to get out, Monsieur de Vargnes told the footman to show in his +early visitor, but to tell him beforehand that his master was much +pressed for time, as he had to go to the Law Courts. + +When the doctor came in, in spite of his usual imperturbability, he could +not restrain a movement of surprise, for the doctor presented that +strange anomaly of being a negro of the purest, blackest type, with the +eyes of a white man, of a man from the North, pale, cold, clear, blue +eyes, and his surprise increased when, after a few words of excuse for +his untimely visit, he added, with an enigmatical smile: + +"My eyes surprise you, do they not? I was sure that they would, and, to +tell you the truth, I came here in order that you might look at them +well, and never forget them." + +His smile, and his words, even more than his smile, seemed to be those of +a madman. He spoke very softly, with that childish, lisping voice, which +is peculiar to negroes, and his mysterious, almost menacing words, +consequently, sounded all the more as if they were uttered at random by +a man bereft of his reason. But his looks, the looks of those pale, cold, +clear, blue eyes, were certainly not those of a madman. They clearly +expressed menace, yes, menace, as well as irony, and, above all, +implacable ferocity, and their glance was like a flash of lightning, +which one could never forget. + +"I have seen," Monsieur de Vargnes used to say, when speaking about it, +"the looks of many murderers, but in none of them have I ever observed +such a depth of crime, and of impudent security in crime." + +And this impression was so strong, that Monsieur de Vargnes thought that +he was the sport of some hallucination, especially as when he spoke about +his eyes, the doctor continued with a smile, and in his most childish +accents: "Of course, Monsieur, you cannot understand what I am saying to +you, and I must beg your pardon for it. To-morrow, you will receive a +letter which will explain it at all to you, but, first all, it was +necessary that I should let you have a good, a careful look at my eyes, +my eyes which are myself, my only and true self, as you will see." + +With these words, and with a polite bow, the doctor went out, leaving +Monsieur de Vargnes extremely surprised, and a prey to this doubt, as he +said to himself: + +"Is he merely a madman? The fierce expression, and the criminal depths of +his looks are perhaps caused merely by the extraordinary contrast between +his fierce looks and his pale eyes." + +And absorbed in these thoughts, Monsieur de Vargnes unfortunately allowed +several minutes to elapse, and then he thought to himself suddenly: + +"No, I am not the sport of any hallucination, and this is no case of an +optical phenomenon. This man is evidently some terrible criminal, and I +have altogether failed in my duty in not arresting him myself at once, +illegally, even at the risk of my life." + +The judge ran downstairs in pursuit of the doctor, but it was too late; +he had disappeared. In the afternoon, he called on Madame Frogere, to ask +her whether she could tell him anything about the matter. She, however, +did not know the negro doctor in the least, and was even able to assure +him that he was a fictitious personage, for, as she was well acquainted +with the upper classes in Haiti, she knew that the Academy of Medicine at +Port-au-Prince had no doctor of that name among its members. As Monsieur +de Vargnes persisted, and gave descriptions of the doctor, especially +mentioning his extraordinary eyes, Madame Frogere began to laugh, and +said: + +"You have certainly had to do with a hoaxer, my dear Monsieur. The eyes +which you have described, are certainly those of a white man, and the +individual must have been painted." + +On thinking it over, Monsieur de Vargnes remembered that the doctor had +nothing of the negro about him, but his black skin, his woolly hair and +beard, and his way of speaking, which was easily imitated, but nothing of +the negro, not even the characteristic, undulating walk. Perhaps, after +all, he was only a practical joker, and during the whole day, Monsieur de +Vargnes took refuge in that view, which rather wounded his dignity as a +man of consequence, but which appeased his scruples as a magistrate. + +The next day, he received the promised letter, which was written, as well +as addressed, in letters cut out of the newspapers. It was as follows: + + * * * * * + +"MONSIEUR,-- + +"Doctor James Ferdinand does not exist, but the man whose eyes you saw +does, and you will certainly recognize his eyes. This man has committed +two crimes, for which he does not feel any remorse, but, as he is a +psychologist, he is afraid of some day yielding to the irresistible +temptation of confessing his crimes. You know better than anyone (and +that is your most powerful aid), with what imperious force criminals, +especially intellectual ones, feel this temptation. That great Poet, +Edgar Poe, has written masterpieces on this subject, which express the +truth exactly, but he has omitted to mention the last phenomenon, which +_I_ will tell you. Yes, I, a criminal, feel a terrible wish for somebody +to know of my crimes, and, when this requirement is satisfied, my secret +has been revealed to a confidant, I shall be tranquil for the future, and +be freed from this demon of perversity, which only tempts us once. Well! +Now that is accomplished. You shall have _my_ secret; from the day that +you recognize me by my eyes, you will try and find out what I am guilty +of, and how I was guilty, and you will discover it, being a master of +your profession, which, by-the-bye, has procured you the honor of having +been chosen by me to bear the weight of this secret, which now is shared +by us, and by us two alone. I say, advisedly, _by us two alone_. You +could not, as a matter of fact, prove the reality of this secret to +anyone, unless I were to confess it, and I defy you to obtain my public +confession, as I have confessed it to you, _and without danger to +myself_." + + * * * * * + +Three months later, Monsieur de Vargnes met Monsieur X---- at an evening +party and at first sight, and without the slightest hesitation, he +recognized in him those very pale, very cold, and very clear blue eyes, +eyes which it was impossible to forget. + +The man himself remained perfect impassive, so that Monsieur de Vargnes +was forced to say to himself: + +"Probably I am the sport of a hallucination at this moment, or else there +are two pairs of eyes that are perfectly similar, in the world. And what +eyes! Can it be possible?" + +The magistrate instituted inquiries into his life, and he discovered +this, which removed all his doubts. + +Five years previously, Monsieur X---- had been a very poor, but very +brilliant medical student, who, although he never took his doctor's +degree, had already made himself remarkable by his microbiological +researches. + +A young and very rich widow had fallen in love with him and married him. +She had one child by her first marriage, and in the space of six months, +first the child and then the mother died of typhoid fever, and thus +Monsieur X---- had inherited a large fortune, in due form, and without +any possible dispute. Everybody said that he had attended to the two +patients with the utmost devotion. Now, were these two deaths the two +crimes mentioned in his letter? + +But then, Monsieur X---- must have poisoned his two victims with the +microbes of typhoid fever, which he had skillfully cultivated in them, +so as to make the disease incurable, even by the most devoted care and +attention. Why not? + +"Do you believe it?" I asked Monsieur de Vargnes. "Absolutely," he +replied. "And the most terrible thing about it is, that the villain is +right when he defies me to force him to confess his crime publicly for I +see no means of obtaining a confession, none whatever. For a moment, I +thought of magnetism, but who could magnetize that man with those pale, +cold, bright eyes? With such eyes, he would force the magnetizer to +denounce himself as the culprit." + +And then he said, with a deep sigh: + +"Ah! Formerly there was something good about justice!" + +And when he saw my inquiring looks, he added in a firm and perfectly +convinced voice: + +"Formerly, justice had torture at its command." + +"Upon my word," I replied, with all an author's unconscious and simple +egotism, "it is quite certain that without the torture, this strange tale +would have no conclusion, and that is very unfortunate, as far as regards +the story I intended to make of it." + + + + +ALLOUMA + + +I + +One of my friends had said to me:-- + +"If you happen to be near Bordj-Ebbaba while you are in Algeria, be sure +and go to see my old friend Auballe, who has settled there." + +I had forgotten the name of Auballe and of Ebbaba, and I was not thinking +of this planter, when I arrived at his house by pure accident. For a +month, I had been wandering on foot through that magnificent district +which extends from Algiers to Cherchell, Orleansville, and Tiaret. It is +at the same time wooded and bare, grand and charming. Between two hills, +one comes across large pine forests in narrow valleys, through which +torrents rush in the winter. Enormous trees, which have fallen across +the ravine, serve as a bridge for the Arabs, and also for the tropical +creepers, which twine round the dead stems, and adorn them with new life. +There are hollows, in little known recesses of the mountains, of a +terribly beautiful character, and the sides of the brooks, which are +covered with oleanders, are indescribably lovely. + +But what has left behind it the most pleasant recollections of that +excursion, is the long after-dinner walks along the slightly wooded roads +on those undulating hills, from which one can see an immense tract of +country from the blue sea as far as the chain of the Quarsenis, on whose +summit there is the cedar forest of Teniet-el-Haad. + +On that day I lost my way. I had just climbed to the top of a hill, +whence, beyond a long extent of rising ground, I had seen the extensive +plain of Metidja, and then, on the summit of another chain, almost +invisible in the distances that strange monument which is called _The +Tomb of the Christian Woman_, and which was said to be the burial-place +of the kings of Mauritana. I went down again, going southward, with a +yellow landscape before me, extending as far as the fringe of the desert, +as yellow as if all those hills were covered with lions' skins sewn +together, sometimes a pointed yellow peak would rise out of the midst of +them, like the bristly back of a camel. + +I walked quickly and lightly, like as one does when following tortuous +paths on a mountain slope. Nothing seems to weigh on one in those short, +quick walks through the invigorating air of those heights, neither the +body, nor the heart, nor the thoughts, nor even cares. On that day I +felt nothing of all that crushes and tortures our life; I only felt the +pleasure of that descent. In the distance I saw an Arab encampment, brown +pointed tents, which seemed fixed to the earth, like limpets are to a +rock, or else _gourbis_, huts made of branches, from which a gray smoke +rose. White figures, men and women, were walking slowly about, and the +bells of the flocks sounded vaguely through the evening air. + +The arbutus trees on my road hung down under the weight of their purple +fruit, which was falling on the ground. They looked like martyred trees, +from which blood-colored sweat was falling, for at the top of every tier +there was a red spot, like a drop of blood. + +The earth all round them was covered with it, and as my feet crushed the +fruit, they left blood-colored traces behind them, and sometimes, as I +went along, I would jump and pick one, and eat it. + +All the valleys were by this time filled with a white vapor, which rose +slowly, like the steam from the flanks of an ox, and on the chain of +mountains that bordered the horizon, on the outskirts of the desert of +Sahara, the sky was in flames. Long streaks of gold alternated with +streaks of blood--blood again! Blood and gold, the whole of human +history--and sometimes between the two there was a small opening in +the greenish azure, far away like a dream. + +How far away I was from all those persons and things with which one +occupies oneself on the boulevards, far from myself also, for I had +become a kind of wandering being, without thought or consciousness, +far from any road, of which I was not even thinking, for as night came +on, I found that I had lost my way. + +The shades of night were falling onto the earth like a shower of +darkness, and I saw nothing before me but the mountains, in the far +distance. Presently, I saw some tents in the valley, into which I +descended, and tried to make the first Arab I met understand in which +direction I wanted to go. I do not know whether he understood me, but +he gave me a long answer, which I did not in the least understand. In +despair, I was about to make up my mind to pass the night wrapped up in +a rug near the encampment, when among the strange words he uttered, I +fancied that I heard the name, _Bordj-Ebbaba_, and so I repeated: + +"_Bordj-Ebbaba._" + +"Yes, yes." + +I showed him two francs that were a fortune to him, and he started off, +while I followed him. Ah! I followed that pale phantom which strode on +before me bare-footed along stony paths, on which I stumbled continually, +for a long time, and then suddenly I saw a light, and we soon reached the +door of a white house, a kind of fortress with straight walls, and +without any outside windows. When I knocked, dogs began to bark inside, +and a voice asked in French: + +"Who is there?" + +"Does Monsieur Auballe live here?" I asked. + +"Yes." + +The door was opened for me, and I found myself face to face with Monsieur +Auballe himself, a tall man in slippers, with a pipe in his mouth and the +looks of a jolly Hercules. + +As soon as I mentioned my name, he put out both his hands and said: + +"Consider yourself at home here, Monsieur." + +A quarter of an hour later I was dining ravenously, opposite to my host, +who went on smoking. + +I knew his history. After having wasted a great amount of money on women, +he had invested the remnants of his fortune in Algerian landed property +and taken to money-making. It turned out prosperously; he was happy, and +had the calm look of a happy and contented man. I could not understand +how this fast Parisian could have grown accustomed to that monstrous life +in such a lonely spot, and I asked him about it. + +"How long have you been here?" I asked him. + +"For nine years." + +"And have you not been intolerably dull and miserable?" + +"No, one gets used to this country, and ends by liking it. You cannot +imagine how it lays hold on people by those small, animal instincts that +we are ignorant of ourselves. We first become attached to it by our +organs, to which it affords secret gratifications which we do not inquire +into. The air and the climate overcome our flesh, in spite of ourselves, +and the bright light with which it is inundated keeps the mind clear and +fresh, at but little cost. It penetrates us continually by our eyes, and +one might really say that it cleanses the somber nooks of the soul." + +"But what about women?" + +"Ah...! There is rather a dearth of them!" + +"Only _rather_?" + +"Well, yes ... rather. For one can always, even among the Arabs, find +some complaisant, native women, who think of the nights of Roumi." + +He turned to the Arab, who was waiting on me, who was a tall, dark +fellow, with bright, black eyes, that flashed beneath his turban, and +said to him: + +"I will call you when I want you, Mohammed." And then, turning to me, he +said: + +"He understands French, and I am going to tell you a story in which he +plays a leading part." + +As soon as the man had left the room, he began: + +"I had been here about four years, and scarcely felt quite settled yet +in this country, whose language I was beginning to speak, and forced, in +order not to break altogether with those passions that had been fatal to +me in other places, to go to Algiers for a few days, from time to time. + +"I had bought this farm, this _bordj_, which had been a fortified post, +and was within a few hundred yards from the native encampment, whose man +I employ to cultivate my land. Among the tribe that had settled here, and +which formed a portion of the Oulad-Taadja, I chose, as soon as I arrived +here, that tall fellow whom you have just seen, Mohammed ben Lam'har, who +soon became greatly attached to me. As he would not sleep in a house, not +being accustomed to it, he pitched his tent a few yards from my house, so +that I might be able to call him from my window. + +"You can guess what my life was, I dare say? Every day I was busy with +cleanings and plantations; I hunted a little, I used to go and dine with +the officers of the neighboring fortified posts, or else they came and +dined with me. As for pleasures ... I have told you what they consisted +in. Algiers offered me some which were rather more refined, and from time +to time a complaisant and compassionate Arab would stop me when I was out +for a walk, and offer to bring one of the women of his tribe to my house +at night. Sometimes I accepted, but more frequently I refused, from fear +of the disagreeable consequences and troubles it might entail upon me. + +"One evening, at the beginning of summer, as I was going home, after +going over the farm, as I wanted Mohammed, I went into his tent without +calling him, as I frequently did, and there I saw a woman, a girl, +sleeping almost naked, with her arms crossed under her head, on one of +those thick, red carpets, made of the fine wool of Djebel-Amour, and +which are as soft and as thick as a feather bed. Her body, which was +beautifully white under the ray of light that came in through the raised +covering of the tent, appeared to me to be one of the most perfect +specimens of the human race that I had ever seen, and most of the women +about here are beautiful and tall, and are a rare combination of features +and shape. I let the edge of the tent fall in some confusion, and +returned home. + +"I love women! The sudden flash of this vision had penetrated and +scorched me, and had rekindled in my veins that old, formidable ardor to +which I owe my being here. It was very hot for it was July, and I spent +nearly the whole night at my window, with my eyes fixed on the black +Mohammed's tent made on the ground. + +"When he came into my room the next morning, I looked him closely in the +face, and he hung his head, like a man who was guilty and in confusion. +Did he guess that I knew? I, however, asked him, suddenly: + +"'So you are married, Mohammed?' and I saw that he got red, and he +stammered out: 'No, _mo'ssieuia_!' + +"I used to make him speak French to me, and to give me Arabic lessons, +which was often productive of a most incoherent mixture of languages; +however, I went on: + +"'Then why is there a woman in your tent?' + +"'She comes from the South,' he said, in a low, apologetic voice. + +"'Oh! So she comes from the South? But that does not explain to me how +she comes to be in your tent.' + +"Without answering my question, he continued: + +"'She is very pretty.' + +"'Oh! Indeed. Another time, please, when you happen to receive a pretty +woman from the South, you will take care that she comes to my _gourbi_, +and not to yours. You understand me, Mohammed?' + +"'Yes, _mo'ssieuia_,' he repeated, seriously. + +"I must acknowledge that during the whole day I was in a state of +aggressive excitement at the recollection of that Arab girl lying on the +red carpet, and when I went in at dinner time, I felt very strongly +inclined to go to Mohammed's tent again. During the evening, he waited +on me just as usual, and hovered round me with his impassive face, and +several times I was very nearly asking him whether he intended to keep +that girl from the South, who was very pretty, in his camel skin tent for +a long time. + +"Towards nine o'clock, still troubled with that longing for female +society which is as tenacious as the hunting instinct in dogs, I went out +to get some fresh air, and to stroll about a little round that cone of +brown skin through which I could see a brilliant speck of light. I did +not remain long, however, for fear of being surprised by Mohammed in the +neighborhood of his dwelling. When I went in an hour later, I clearly saw +his outline in the tent, and then, taking the key out of my pocket, I +went into the _bordj_, where besides myself, there slept my steward, two +French laborers, and an old cook whom I had picked up in the Algiers. As +I went up stairs, I was surprised to see a streak of light under my door, +and when I opened it, I saw a girl with the face of a statue sitting on a +straw chair by the side of the table, on which a wax candle was burning; +she was bedizened with all those silver gew-gaws which women in the South +wear on their legs, arms, breast, and even on their stomach. Her eyes, +which were tinged with kohl, to make them look larger, regarded me +earnestly, and four little blue spots, finely tatooed on her skin, marked +her forehead, her cheeks, and her chin. Her arms, which were loaded with +bracelets, were resting on her thighs, which were covered by the long, +red silk skirt that she wore. + +"When she saw me come in, she got up and remained standing in front of +me, covered with her barbaric jewels, in an attitude of proud submission. + +"'What are you doing here?' I said to her in Arabic. + +"'I am here because Mohammed told me to come.' + +"'Very well, sit down.' + +"So she sat down and lowered her eyes, while I examined her attentively. + +"She had a strange, regular, delicate, and rather bestial face, but +mysterious as that of a Buddha. Her lips, which were rather thick and +covered with a reddish efflorescence, which I discovered on the rest of +her body as well, indicated a slight admixture of negro blood, although +her hands and arms were of an irreproachable whiteness. + +"I hesitated what to do with her, and felt excited, tempted and rather +confused, so in order to gain time and to give myself an opportunity for +reflection, I put other questions to her, about her birth, how she came +into this part of the country, and what her connection with Mohammed was. +But she only replied to those that interested me the least, and it was +impossible for me to find out why she had come, with what intention, +by whose orders, nor what had taken place between her and my servant. +However, just as I was about to say to her: 'Go back to Mohammed's tent,' +she seemed to guess my intention, for getting up suddenly, and raising +her two bare arms, on which the jingling bracelets slipped down to her +shoulders, she crossed her hands behind my neck and drew me towards her +with an irresistible air of suppliant longing. + +"Her eyes, which were bright from emotion, from that necessity of +conquering man, which makes the looks of an impure woman as seductive as +those of the feline tribe, allured me, enchained me, deprived me of all +the power of resistance, and filled me with impetuous ardor. It was a +short, sharp struggle of the eyes only, that eternal struggle between +those two human brutes, the male and the female, in which the male is +always beaten. + +"Her hands, which had clasped behind my head, drew me irresistibly, with +a gentle, increasing pressure, as if by mechanical force towards her red +lips, on which I suddenly laid mine while, at the same moment, I clasped +her body, that was covered with jingling silver rings, in an ardent +embrace. + +"She was as strong, as healthy, and as supple as a wild animal, with all +the motions, the ways, the grace, and even something of the odor of a +gazelle, which made me find a rare, unknown zest in her kisses, which +was as strange to my senses as the taste of tropical fruits. + +"Soon--I say soon, although it may have been towards morning--I wished to +send her away, as I thought that she would go in the same way that she +had come; I did not, even, at the moment, ask myself what I should do +with her, or what she would do with me, but as soon as she guessed my +intention, she whispered: + +"'What do you expect me to do if you get rid of me now? I shall have to +sleep on the ground in the open air at night. Let me sleep on the carpet, +at the foot of your bed.' + +"What answer could I give her, or what could I do? I thought that no +doubt Mohammed also would be watching the window of my room, in which a +light was burning, and questions of various natures, that I had not put +to myself during the first minutes, formulated themselves clearly in my +brain. + +"'Stop here,' I replied, 'and we will talk.' + +"My resolution was taken in a moment. As this girl had been thrown into +my arms, in this manner, I would keep her; I would make her a kind of +slave-mistress, hidden in my house, like women in a harem are. When the +time should come that I no longer cared for her, it would be easy for me +to get rid of her in some way or another, for on African soil those sort +of creatures almost belong to us, body and soul, and so I said to her: + +"'I wish to be kind to you, and I will treat you so that you shall not be +unhappy, but I want to know who you are and where you come from?' + +"She saw clearly that she must say something, and she told me her story, +or rather a story, for no doubt she was lying from beginning to end, like +all Arabs always do, with or without any motive. + +"That is one of the most surprising and incomprehensible signs of the +native character--the Arabs always lie. Those people in whom Islam has +become so incarnate that it has become part of themselves, to such an +extent as to model their instincts and modifies the entire race, and to +differentiate it from others in morals just as much as the color of the +skin differentiates a negro from a white man, are liars to the backbone, +so that one can never trust a word that they say. I do not know whether +they owe that to their religion, but one must have lived among them in +order to know the extent to which lying forms part of their being, of +their heart and soul, until it has become a kind of second nature, a very +necessity of life, with them. + +"Well, she told me that she was the daughter of a _Caidi_ of the _Ouled +Sidi Cheik_, and of a woman whom he had carried off in a raid against the +Touaregs. The woman must have been a black slave, or, at any rate, have +sprung from a first cross of Arab and negro blood. It is well known that +negro women are in great request for harems, where they act as +aphrodisiacs. Nothing of such an origin was to be noticed, however, +except the purple color of her lips, and the dark nipples of her +elongated breasts, which were as supple as if they were on springs. +Nobody who knew anything about the matter, could be mistaken in that. But +all the rest of her belonged to the beautiful race from the South, fair, +supple and with a delicate face which was formed on straight and simple +lines like those of a Hindoo figure. Her eyes, which were very far apart, +still further heightened the somewhat god-like looks of this desert +marauder. + +"I knew nothing exactly about her real life. She related it to me in +incoherent fragments, that seemed to rise up at random from a disordered +memory, and she mixed up deliciously childish observations with them; +a whole vision of a Nomad world, born of a squirrel's brain that had +leapt from tent to tent, from encampment to encampment, from tribe to +tribe. And all this was done with the severe looks that this reserved +people always preserve, with the appearance of a brass idol, and rather +comic gravity. + +"When she had finished, I perceived that I had not remembered anything of +that long story, full of insignificant events, that she had stored up in +her flighty brain, and I asked myself whether she had not simply been +making fun of me by her empty and would-be serious chatter, which told me +nothing about her, nor about any real facts connected with her life. + +"And I thought of that conquered race, among whom we have encamped, or, +rather, who are encamping among us, whose language we are beginning to +speak, whom we see every day, living under the transparent linen of their +tents, on whom we have imposed our laws, our regulations, and our +customs, and about whom we know nothing, nothing more whatever, I assure +you, than if we were not here, and solely occupied in looking at them, +for nearly sixty years. We know no more about what is going on in those +huts made of branches, and under those small canvas cones that are +fastened to the ground by stakes, which are within twenty yards of our +doors, than we know what the so-called civilized Arabs of the Moorish +houses in Algiers do, think, and are. Behind the white-washed walls of +their town houses, behind the partition of their _gourbi_, which is made +of branches, or behind that thin, brown, camel-haired curtain which the +wind moves, they live close to us, unknown, mysterious, cunning, +submissive, smiling, impenetrable. What if I were to tell you, that when +I look at the neighboring encampment through my field glasses, I guess +that there are superstitions, customs, ceremonies, a thousand practices +of which we know nothing, and which we do not even suspect! Never +previously, in all probability, did a conquered race know so well how +to escape so completely from the real domination, the moral influence +and the inveterate, but useless, investigations of the conquerors. + +"Now I suddenly felt the insurmountable, secret barrier which +incomprehensible nature had set up between the two races, more than I had +ever felt it before, between this girl and myself, between this woman who +had just given herself to me, who had yielded herself to my caresses and +to me, who had possessed her, and, thinking of it for the first time, I +said to her: 'What is your name?' + +"She did not speak for some moments, and I saw her start, as if she had +forgotten that I was there, and then, in her eyes that were raised to +mine, I saw that that moment had sufficed for her to be overcome by +sleep, by irresistible, sudden, almost overwhelming sleep, like +everything that lays hold of the mobile senses of women, and she +answered, carelessly, suppressing a yawn: + +"'Allouma.' + +"'Do you want to go sleep?' + +"'Yes,' she replied. + +"'Very well then, go to sleep!' + +"She stretched herself out tranquilly by my side, lying on her stomach, +with her forehead resting on her folded arms, and I felt almost +immediately that fleeting, untutored thoughts were lulled in repose, +while I began to ponder, as I lay by her side, and tried to understand it +all. Why had Mohammed given her to me? Had he acted the part of a +magnanimous servant, who sacrifices himself for his master, even to the +extent of giving up the woman whom he had brought into his own tent, to +him? Or had he, on the other hand, obeyed a more complex and more +practical, though less generous impulse, in handing over this girl who +had taken my fancy, to my embrace? An Arab, when it is a question of +women, is rigorously modest and unspeakably complaisant, and one can no +more understand his rigorous and easy morality, than one can all the rest +of his sentiments. Perhaps, when I accidentally went to his tent, I had +merely forestalled the benevolent intentions of this thoughtful servant, +who had intended this woman, who was his friend and accomplice, or +perhaps even his mistress, for me. + +"All these suppositions assailed me, and fatigued me so much, that, at +last, in my turn, I fell into a profound sleep, from which I was roused +by the creaking of my door, and Mohammed came in, to call me as usual. He +opened the window, through which a flood of light streamed in, and fell +onto Allouma who was still asleep; then he picked up my trousers, coat +and waistcoat from the floor in order to brush them. He did not look at +the woman who was lying by my side, did not seem to know or remark that +she was there, and preserved his ordinary gravity, demeanor and looks. +But the light, the movement, the slight noise which his bare feet made, +the feeling of the fresh air on her skin and in her lungs, roused Allouma +from her lethargy. She stretched out her arms, turned over, opened her +eyes, and looked at me and then Mohammed with the same indifference; then +she sat up in bed and said: 'I am hungry.' + +"'What would you like?' + +"'Kahoua.' + +"'Coffee and bread and butter.' + +"'Yes.' + +"Mohammed remained standing close to our bed, with my clothes under his +arm, waiting for my orders. + +"'Bring breakfast for Allouma and me,' I said to him. + +"He went out, without his face betraying the slightest astonishment or +anger, and as soon as he had left the room, I said to the girl: + +"'Will you live in my house?' + +"'I should like to, very much.' + +"'I will give you a room to yourself, and a woman to wait on you.' + +"'You are very generous, and I am grateful to you.' + +"'But if you behave badly, I shall send you away immediately.' + +"'I will do everything that you wish me to.' + +"She took my hand, and kissed it as a token of submission, and just then +Mohammed came in, carrying a tray with our breakfast on it, and I said to +him:-- + +"'Allouma is going to live here. You must spread a carpet on the floor of +the room at the end of the passage, and get Abd-El-Kader-El-Hadara's wife +to come and wait on her.' + +"'Yes, _mo'ssieuia_.' + +"That was all. + +"An hour later, my beautiful Arab was installed in a large, airy, light +room, and when I went in to see that everything was in order, she asked +me in a supplicating voice, to give her a wardrobe with a looking-glass +in the doors. I promised her one, and then I left her squatting on the +carpet from Djebel-Amour, with a cigarette in her mouth, and gossiping +with the old Arab woman I had sent for, as if they had known each other +for years." + + +II + +"For a month I was very happy with her, and I got strangely attached to +this creature belonging to another race, who seemed to me almost to +belong to some other species, and to have been born on a neighboring +planet. + +"I did not love her; no, one does not love the women of that primitive +continent. This small, pale blue flower of Northern countries never +unfolds between them and us, or even between them and their natural +males, the Arabs. They are too near to human animalism, their hearts are +too rudimentary, their feelings are not refined enough to rouse that +sentimental exaltation in us, which is the poetry of love. Nothing +intellectual, no intoxication of thought or feeling is mingled with that +sensual intoxication which those charming nonentities excite in us. +Nevertheless, they captivate us like the others do, but in a different +fashion, which is less tenacious, and, at the same time, less cruel and +painful. + +"I cannot even now explain precisely what I felt for her. I said to you +just now that this country, this bare Africa, without any arts, void of +all intellectual pleasures, gradually captivates us by its climate, by +the continual mildness of the dawn and sunset, by its delightful light, +and by the feeling of well-being with which it fills all our organs. +Well, then! Allouma captivated me in the same manner, by a thousand +hidden, physical, alluring charms, and by the procreative seductiveness, +not of her embraces, for she was of thoroughly oriental supineness in +that respect, but of her sweet self-surrender. + +"I left her absolutely free to come and go as she liked, and she +certainly spent one afternoon out of two with the wives of my native +agricultural laborers. Often also, she would remain for nearly a whole +day admiring herself in front of a mahogany wardrobe with a large +looking-glass in the doors that I had got from Miliana. + +"She admired herself conscientiously, standing before the glass doors, in +which she followed her own movements with profound and serious attention. +She walked with her head somewhat thrown back, in order to be able to see +whether her hips and loins swayed properly; went away, came back again, +and then, tired with her own movements, she sat down on a cushion and +remained opposite to her own reflection, with her eyes fixed on her face +in the glass, and her whole soul absorbed in that picture. + +"Soon, I began to notice that she went out nearly every morning after +breakfast, and that she disappeared altogether until evening, and as I +felt rather anxious about this, I asked Mohammed whether he knew what +she could be doing during all these long hours of absence, but he replied +very calmly: + +"'Do not be uneasy. It will be the Feast of Ramadan soon, and so she goes +to say her prayers.' + +"He also seemed delighted at having Allouma in the house, but I never +once saw anything suspicious between them, and so I accepted the +situation as it was, and let time, accident, and life act for themselves. + +"Often, after I had inspected my farm, my vineyards, and my clearings, I +used to take long walks. You know the magnificent forests in this part of +Algeria, those almost impenetrable ravines, where fallen pine trees hem +the mountain torrents, and those little valleys filled with oleanders, +which look like oriental carpets stretching along the banks of the +streams. You know that at every moment, in these woods and on these +hills, where one would think that nobody had ever penetrated, one +suddenly sees the white dome of a shrine that contains the bones of a +humble, solitary marabout, which was scarcely visited from time to time, +even by the most confirmed believers, who had come from the neighboring +villages with a wax candle in their pocket, to set up before the tomb of +the saint. + +"Now one evening as I was going home, I was passing one of these +Mohammedan chapels, and, looking in through the door, which was always +open, I saw a woman praying before the altar. That Arab woman, sitting on +the ground in that dilapidated building, into which the wind entered as +it pleased, and heaped up the fine, dry pine needles in yellow heaps in +the corners. I went near to see better, and recognized Allouma. She +neither saw nor heard me, so absorbed was she with the saint, to whom she +was speaking in a low voice, as she thought that she was alone with him, +and telling this servant of God all her troubles. Sometimes she stopped +for a short time to think, to try and recollect what more she had to say, +so that she might not forget anything that she wished to confide to him; +then, again, she would grow animated, as if he had replied to her, as if +he had advised her to do something that she did not want to do, and the +reasons for which she was impugning, and I went away as I had come, +without making any noise, and returned home to dinner. + +"That evening, when I sent for her, I saw that she had a thoughtful look, +which was not usual with her. + +"'Sit down there,' I said, pointing to her place on the couch by my side. +As soon as she had sat down, I stooped to kiss her, but she drew her head +away quickly, and, in great astonishment, I said to her: + +"'Well, what is the matter?' + +"'It is the Ramadan,' she said. + +"I began to laugh, and said: 'And the Marabout has forbidden you to allow +yourself to be kissed during the Ramadan?' + +"Oh, yes; I am an Arab woman, and you are a Roumi!' + +"'And it would be a great sin?' + +"'Oh, yes!' + +"'So you ate nothing all day, until sunset?' + +"'No, nothing.' + +"'But you had something to eat after sundown?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'Well, then, as it is quite dark now, you ought not to be more strict +about the rest than you are about your mouth.' + +"She seemed irritated, wounded, and offended, and replied with an amount +of pride that I had never noticed in her before:-- + +"'If an Arab girl were to allow herself to be touched by a Roumi during +the Ramadan, she would be cursed for ever.' + +"'And that is to continue for a whole month?' + +"'Yes, for the whole of the month of Ramadan,' she replied, with great +determination. + +"I assumed an irritated manner and said:--'Very well, then, you can go +and spend the Ramadan with your family.' + +"She seized my hands, and, laying them on my heart, she said:-- + +"'Oh! Please do not be unkind, and you shall see how nice I will be. We +will keep Ramadan together, if you like. I will look after you, and spoil +you, but don't be unkind.' + +"I could not help smiling at her funny manner and her unhappiness, and +I sent her to go to sleep at home, but, an hour later, just as I was +thinking about going to bed, there came two little taps at my door, +which were so slight, however, that I scarcely heard them; but when I +said:--'Come in,' Allouma appeared carrying a large tray covered with +Arab dainties; fried balls of rice, covered with sugar, and a variety of +other strange, Nomad pastry. + +"She laughed, showing her white teeth, and repeated:--'Come, we will keep +Ramadan together.' + +"You know that the fast, which begins at dawn and ends at twilight, at +the moment when the eye can no longer distinguish a black from a white +thread, is followed every evening by small, friendly entertainments, at +which eating is kept up until the morning, and the result is that for +such of the natives as are not very scrupulous, Ramadan consists of +turning day into night, and night into day. But Allouma carried her +delicacy of conscience further than this. She placed her tray between us +on the divan, and taking a small, sugared ball between her long, slender +fingers, she put it into my mouth, and whispered:--'Eat it, it is very +good.' + +"I munched the light cake, which was really excellent, and asked +her:--'Did you make that?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'For me?' + +"'Yes, for you.' + +"'To enable me to support Ramadan?' + +"'Oh! Don't be so unkind! I will bring you some every day.' + +"Oh! the terrible month that I spent! A sugared, insipidly sweet month; a +month that nearly drove me mad; a month of spoiling and of temptation, of +anger and of vain efforts against an invincible resistance, but at last +the three days of Beiram came, which I celebrated in my own fashion, and +Ramadan was forgotten. + +"The summer went on, and it was very hot, and in the first days of +autumn, Allouma appeared to me to be pre-occupied and absent-minded, and, +seemingly, taking no interest in anything, and, at last, when I sent for +her one evening, she was not to be found in her room. I thought that she +was roaming about the house, and I gave orders to look for her. She had +not come in, however, and so I opened my window, and called out:-- + +"'Mohammed,' and the voice of the man, who was lying in his tent, +replied:-- + +"'Yes, _mo'ssieuia_.' + +"'Do you know where Allouma is?' + +"'No, _mo'ssieuia_ ... it is not possible ... is Allouma lost?' + +"A few moments later, my Arab came into my room, so agitated that he +could not master his feelings, and I said: + +"'Is Allouma lost?' + +"'Yes, she is lost.' + +"'It is impossible.' + +"'Go and look for her,' I said. + +"He remained standing where he was, thinking, seeking for her motives, +and unable to understand anything about it. Then he went into the empty +room, where Allouma's clothes were lying about, in oriental disorder. He +examined everything, as if he had been a police officer, or, rather, he +smelt like a dog, and then, incapable of a lengthened effort, he +murmured, resignedly:-- + +"'She has gone, she has gone!' + +"I was afraid that some accident had happened to her; that she had fallen +into some ravine and sprained herself, and I immediately sent all the men +about the place off with orders to look for her until they should find +her, and they hunted for her all that night, all the next day, and all +the week long, but nothing was discovered that could put us upon her +track. I suffered, for I missed her very much; my house seemed empty, +and my existence a void. And then, disgusting thoughts entered my mind. I +feared that she might have been carried off, or even murdered, but when I +spoke about it to Mohammed, and tried to make him share my fears, he +invariably replied: + +"'No; gone away.' + +"Then he added the Arab word _r'ezale_, which means _gazelle_, as if he +meant to say that she could run quickly, and that she was far away. + +"Three weeks passed, and I had given up all hopes of seeing my Arab +mistress again, when one morning Mohammed came into my room, with every +sign of joy in his face, and said to me: + +"'_Mo'ssieuia_, Allouma has come back.' + +"I jumped out of bed and said: + +"'Where is she?' + +"'She does not dare to come in! There she is, under the tree.' + +"And stretching out his arm, he pointed out to me, through the window, a +whitish spot at the foot of an olive tree. + +"I got up immediately, and went out to where she was. As I approached +what looked like a mere bundle of linen thrown against the gnarled trunk +of the tree, I recognized the large, dark eyes, the tattooed stars, and +the long, regular features of that semi-wild girl who had so captivated +my senses. As I advanced towards her, I felt inclined to strike her, to +make her suffer pain, and to have my revenge, and so I called out to her +from a little distance: + +"'Where have you been?' + +"She did not reply, but remained motionless and inert, as if she were +scarcely alive, resigned to my violence, and ready to receive my blows. +I was standing up, close to her, looking in stupefaction at the rags with +which she was covered, at those bits of silk and muslin, covered with +dust, torn and dirty, and I repeated, raising my hand, as if she had been +a dog: + +"'Where have you come from?' + +"'From yonder,' she said, in a whisper. + +"'Where is that?' + +"'From the tribe.' + +"'What tribe?' + +"'Mine.' + +"'Why did you go away?' + +"When she saw that I was not going to beat her, she grew rather bolder, +and said in a low voice: "'I was obliged to do it.... I was forced to go, +I could not stop in the house any longer.' + +"I saw tears in her eyes, and immediately felt softened. I leaned over +her, and when I turned round to sit down, I noticed Mohammed, who was +watching us at a distance, and I went on, very gently: + +"'Come, tell me why you ran away?' + +"Then she told me, that for a long time in her Nomad's heart she had felt +the irresistible desire to return to the tents, to lie, to run, to roll +on the sand; to wander about the plains with the flocks, to feel nothing +over her head, between the yellow stars in the sky and the blue stars in +her face, except the thin, threadbare, patched stuff, through which she +could see spots of fire in the sky, when she awoke during the night. + +"She made me understand all that in such simple and powerful words, that +I felt quite sure that she was not lying, and pitied her, and I asked +her: + +"'Why did you not tell me that you wished to go away for a time?' + +"'Because you would not have allowed me...' + +"'If you had promised to come back, I should have consented.' + +"'You would not have believed me.' + +"Seeing that I was not angry, she began to laugh, and said: + +"'You see that is all over; I have come home again, and here I am. I only +wanted a few days there. I have had enough of it now, it is finished and +passed; the feeling is cured. I have come back, and have not that longing +any more. I am very glad, and you are very kind.' + +"'Come into the house,' I said to her. + +"She got up, and I took her hand, her delicate hand, with its slender +fingers, and triumphant in her rags, with her bracelets and her necklace +ringing, she went gravely towards my house, where Mohammed was waiting +for us, but before going in, I said: + +"'Allouma, whenever you want to return to your own people, tell me, and +I will allow you to go.' + +"'You promise?' + +"'Yes, I promise.' + +"'And I will make you a promise also. When I feel ill or unhappy'--and +here she put her hand to her forehead, with a magnificent gesture--'I +shall say to you: "I must go yonder," and you will let me go.' + +"I went with her to her room, followed by Mohammed, who was +carrying some water, for there had been no time to tell the wife of +Abd-el-Kader-el-Hadam that her mistress had returned. As soon as she got +into the room, and saw the wardrobe with the looking-glass in the door, +she ran up to it, like a child does when it sees its mother. She looked +at herself for a few seconds, made a grimace, and then in a rather cross +voice, she said to the looking-glass: + +"'Just you wait a moment; I have some silk dresses in the wardrobe. +I shall be beautiful in a few minutes.' + +"And I left her alone, to act the coquette to herself. + +"Our life began its usual course again, as formerly, and I felt more and +more under the influence of the strange, merely physical attractions of +that girl, for whom, at the same time, I felt a kind of paternal +contempt. For two months all went well, and then I felt that she was +again becoming nervous, agitated, and rather low-spirited, and one day +I said to her:-- + +"'Do you want to return home again?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'And you did not dare to tell me?' + +"'I did not venture to.' + +"'Go, if you wish to; I give you leave.' + +"She seized my hands and kissed them, as she did in all her outbursts of +gratitude, and the same morning she disappeared. + +"She came back, as she had done the first time, at the end of about three +weeks, in rags, covered with dust, and satiated with her Nomad life of +sand and liberty. In two years she returned to her own people four times +in this fashion. + +"I took her back, gladly, without any feelings of jealousy, for with me +jealousy can only spring from love as we Europeans understand it. I might +very likely have killed her if I had surprised her in the act of +deceiving me, but I should have done it, just as one half kills a +disobedient dog, from sheer violence. I should not have felt those +torments, that consuming fire--Northern jealousy. I have just said that +I should have killed her like a disobedient dog, and, as a matter of +fact, I loved her somewhat in the same manner as one loves some very +highly bred horse or dog, which it is impossible to replace. She was a +splendid animal, a sensual animal, an animal made for pleasure, and which +possessed the body of a woman. + +"I cannot tell you what an immeasurable distance separated our two souls, +although our hearts perhaps occasionally warmed towards each other. She +was something belonging to my house, she was part of my life, she had +become a very agreeable, daily, regular requirement with me, to which I +clung, and which the sensual man in me loved, that in me which was only +eyes and sensuality. + +"Well, one morning, Mohammed came into my room with a strange look on his +face, that uneasy look of the Arabs, which resembles the furtive look of +a cat, face to face with a dog, and when I noticed his expression, I +said: + +"'What is the matter, now?' + +"'Allouma has gone away.' + +"I began to laugh, and said:--'Where has she gone to?' + +"'Gone away altogether, _mo'ssieuia_!' + +"'What do you mean by _gone away altogether_; you are mad, my man.' + +"'No, _mo'ssieuia_.' + +"'Why has she gone away? Just explain yourself; come!' + +"He remained motionless, and evidently did not wish to speak, and then he +had one of those explosions of Arab rage, which make us stop in streets +in front of two demoniacs, whose oriental silence and gravity suddenly +give place to the most violent gesticulations, and the most ferocious +vociferations, and I gathered, amidst his shouts, that Allouma had run +away with my shepherd, and when I had partially succeeded in calming +him, I managed to extract the facts from him one by one. + +"It was a long story, but at last I gathered that he had been watching my +mistress, who used to meet a sort of vagabond whom my steward had hired +the month before, behind the neighboring cactus woods, or in the ravine +where the oleanders flourished. The night before, Mohammed had seen her +go out without seeing her return, and he repeated, in an exasperated +manner:--'Gone, _mo'ssieuia_; she has gone away!' + +"I do not know why, but his conviction, the conviction that she had run +away with this vagabond, laid hold of me irresistibly in a moment. It +was absurd, unlikely, and yet certain in virtue of that very +unreasonableness, which constitutes female logic. + +"Boiling over with indignation, I tried to recall the man's features, and +I suddenly remembered having seen him the previous week, standing on a +mound amidst his flock, and watching me. He was a tall Bedouin, the color +of whose bare limbs was blended with that of his rags; he was a type of a +barbarous brute, with high cheek bones, and a hooked nose, a retreating +chin, thin legs, and a tall carcass in rags, with the shifty eyes of a +jackal. + +"I did not doubt for a moment that she had run away with that beggar. +Why? Because she was Allouma, a daughter of the desert. A girl from the +pavement in Paris would have run away with my coachman, or some thief in +the suburbs. + +"'Very well,' I said to Mohammed. Then I got up, opened my window, and +began to draw in the stifling South wind, for the sirocco was blowing, +and I thought to myself:-- + +"Good heavens! she is ... a woman, like so many others. Does anybody know +what makes them act, what makes them love, what makes them follow, or +throw over a man? One certainly does know, occasionally; but often one +does not, and sometimes one is in doubt. Why did she run away with that +repulsive brute? Why? Perhaps, because the wind had been blowing +regularly from the South, for a month; that was enough; a breath of wind! +Does she know, do they know, even the cleverest of them, why they act? +No more than a weather-cock that turns with the wind. An imperceptible +breeze, makes the iron, brass, zinc, or wooden arrow revolve, just in +the same manner as some imperceptible influence, some undiscernible +impression moves the female heart, and urges it on to resolutions, and it +does not matter whether they belong to town or country, the suburbs or +the desert. + +"They can then feel, provided that they reason and understand, why they +have done one thing rather than another, but, for the moment, they do +not know, for they are the playthings of their own sensibility, the +thoughtless, giddy-headed slaves of events, of their surroundings, of +chance meetings, and of all the sensations with which their soul and +their body trembles!" + +Monsieur Auballe had risen, and, after walking up and down the room once +or twice, he looked at me, and said, with a smile:-- + +"That is love in the desert!" + +"Suppose she were to come back?" I asked him. + +"Horrid girl!" he replied. + +"But I should be very glad if she did return to me." + +"And you would pardon the shepherd?" + +"Good heavens, yes! With women, one must always pardon ... or else +pretend not to see things." + + + + +A FAMILY AFFAIR + + +The Neuilly steam-tram had just passed the _Porte Maillot_, and was going +along the broad avenue that terminates at the Seine. The small engine +that was attached to the car whistled to warn any obstacle to get out of +its way, sent out its steam, and panted like a person out of breath from +running does, and its pistons made a rapid noise, like iron legs that +were running. The oppressive heat of the end of a July day lay over the +whole city, and from the road, although there was not a breath of wind +stirring, there arose a white, chalky, opaque, suffocating, and warm +dust, which stuck to the moist skin, filled the eyes, and got into the +lungs, and people were standing in the doors of their houses in search +of a little air. + +The windows of the steam-tram were down, and the curtains fluttered in +the wind, and there were very few passengers inside, because on such warm +days people preferred the top or the platforms. Those few consisted of +stout women in strange toilets, of those shopkeepers' wives from the +suburbs, who made up for the distinguished looks which they did not +possess, by ill-timed dignity; of gentlemen who were tired of the office, +with yellow-faces, who stooped rather, and with one shoulder higher than +the other, in consequence of their long hours of work bending over the +desk. Their uneasy and melancholy faces also spoke of domestic troubles, +of constant want of money, of former hopes, that had been finally +disappointed; for they all belonged to that army of poor, threadbare +devils who vegetate economically in mean, plastered houses, with a tiny +piece of neglected garden in the midst of those fields where night soil +is deposited, which are on the outskirts of Paris. + +A short, fat man, with a puffy face and a big stomach, dressed all in +black, and wearing a decoration in his button-hole, was talking to a +tall, thin man, dressed in a dirty, white linen suit, that was all +unbuttoned, with a white Panama hat on. The former spoke so slowly and +hesitatingly, that it occasionally almost seemed as if he stammered; he +was Monsieur Caravan, chief clerk in the Admiralty. The other, who had +formerly been surgeon on board a merchant ship, had set up in practice +in Courbevoie, where he applied the vague remnants of medical knowledge +which he had retained after an adventurous life, to the wretched +population of that district. His name was Chenet, and strange rumors +were current as to his morality. + +Monsieur Caravan had always led the normal life of a man in a Government +office. For the last thirty years he had invariably gone the same way to +his office every morning, and had met the same men going to business at +the same time and nearly on the same spot, and he returned home every +evening the same way, and again met the same faces which he had seen +growing old. Every morning, after buying his halfpenny paper at the +corner of the _Faubourg Saint Honore_, he bought his two rolls, and then +he went into his office, like a culprit who is giving himself up to +justice, and he got to his desk as quickly as possible, always feeling +uneasy, as he was expecting a rebuke for some neglect of duty of which he +might have been guilty. + +Nothing had ever occurred to change the monotonous order of his +existence, for no event affected him except the work of his office, +perquisites, gratuities, and promotion. He never spoke of anything but of +his duties, either at the Admiralty or at home, for he had married the +portionless daughter of one of his colleagues. His mind, which was in a +state of atrophy from his depressing daily work, had no other thoughts, +hopes or dreams than such as related to the office, and there was a +constant source of bitterness that spoilt every pleasure that he might +have had, and that was the employment of so many commissioners of the +navy, _tinmen_, as they were called, because of their silver-lace, as +first-class clerks; and every evening at dinner he discussed the matter +hotly with his wife, who shared his angry feelings, and proved to their +own satisfaction that it was in every way unjust to give places in Paris, +to men who ought to be employed in the navy. + +He was old now, and had scarcely noticed how his life was passing, for +school had merely been exchanged, without any transition, for the office, +and the ushers, at whom he had formerly trembled, were replaced by his +chiefs, whom he was terribly afraid of. When he had to go into the rooms +of these official despots, it made him tremble from head to foot, and +that constant fear had given him a very awkward manner in their presence, +a humble demeanor, and a kind of nervous stammering. + +He knew nothing more about Paris than a blind man could know, who was led +to the same spot by his dog every day, and if he read the account of any +uncommon events, or of scandals, in his halfpenny paper, they appeared +to him like fantastic tales, which some pressman had made up out of his +own head, in order to amuse the inferior _employes_. He did not read the +political news, which his paper frequently altered, as the cause which +subsidized them might require, for he was not fond of innovations, and +when he went through the Avenue of the _Champs-Elysees_ every evening, +he looked at the surging crowd of pedestrians, and at the stream of +carriages, like a traveler who has lost his way in a strange country. + +As he had completed his thirty years of obligatory service that year, on +the first of January, he had had the cross of the _Legion of Honor_ +bestowed upon him, which, in the semi-military public offices, is a +recompense for the miserable slavery--the official phrase is, _loyal +services_ of unfortunate convicts who are riveted to their desk. That +unexpected dignity gave him a high and new idea of his own capacities, +and altogether altered him. He immediately left off wearing light +trousers and fancy waistcoats, and wore black trousers and long coats, +on which his _ribbon_, which was very broad, showed off better. He got +shaved every morning, trimmed his nails more carefully, changed his linen +every two days, from a legitimate sense of what was proper, and of +respect for the national _Order_, of which he formed a part, and from +that day he was another Caravan, scrupulously clean, majestic and +condescending. + +At home, he said, "my cross," at every moment, and he had become so +proud of it, that he could not bear to see other men wearing any other +ribbon in their button-holes. He got especially angry on seeing strange +orders:--"Which nobody ought to be allowed to wear in France," and he +bore Chenet a particular grudge, as he met him on a tramcar every +evening, wearing a decoration of some sort or another, white, blue, +orange, or green. + +The conversation of the two men, from the _Arc de Triomphe_ to Neuilly, +was always the same, and on that day they discussed, first of all, +various local abuses which disgusted them both, and the Mayor of Neuilly +received his full share of their blame. Then, as invariably happens in +the company of a medical man, Caravan began to enlarge on the chapter of +illness, as, in that manner, he hoped to obtain a little gratuitous +advice, if he was careful not to show his book. His mother had been +causing him no little anxiety for some time; she had frequent and +prolonged fainting fits, and, although she was ninety, she would not +take care of herself. + +Caravan grew quite tender-hearted when he mentioned her great age, +and more than once asked Doctor Chenet, emphasizing the word +_doctor_--although he had no right to the title, being only an _Officier +de Sante_, and, as such, not fully qualified--whether he had often met +anyone as old as that. And he rubbed his hands with pleasure; not, +perhaps, that he cared very much about seeing the good woman last for +ever here on earth, but because the long duration of his mother's life +was, as it were, an earnest of old age for himself, and he continued: + +"Oh! In my family, we last long, and I am sure that, unless I meet with +an accident, I shall not die until I am very old." + +The _medico_ looked at him with pity, and glanced for a moment at his +neighbor's red face, his short, thick neck, his "corporation," as Chenet +called it to himself, that hung down between two flaccid, fat legs, and +his apoplectic rotundity of the old, flabby official, and, lifting the +white Panama hat which he wore, from his head, he said, with a snigger:-- + +"I am not so sure of that, old fellow; your mother is as tough as nails, +and I should say that your life is not a very good one." + +This rather upset Caravan, who did not speak again until the tram put +them down at their destination, where the two friends got out, and Chenet +asked his friend to have a glass of vermouth at the _Cafe du Globe_, +opposite, which both of them were in the habit of frequenting. The +proprietor, who was a friend of theirs, held out two fingers to them, +which they shook across the bottles on the counter, and then they joined +three of their friends, who were playing at dominoes, and who had been +there since midday. They exchanged cordial greetings, with the usual +inquiries:--"Anything fresh?" and then the three players continued their +game, and held out their hands without looking up, when the others wished +them "Good-night," and then they both went home to dinner. + +Caravan lived in a small, two-storied house in Courbevoie, near where +the roads meet; the ground floor was occupied by a hair-dresser. Two +bedrooms, a dining-room and a kitchen, formed the whole of their +apartments, and Madame Caravan spent nearly her whole time in cleaning +them up, while her daughter, Marie-Louise, who was twelve, and her son, +Philippe-Auguste, were running about with all the little, dirty, +mischievous brats of the neighborhood, and playing in the gutters. + +Caravan had installed his mother, whose avarice was notorious in the +neighborhood, and who was terribly thin, in the room above them. She +was always in a bad temper, and she never passed a day without +quarreling and flying into furious tempers. She used to apostrophize the +neighbors, who were standing at their own doors, the coster-mongers, the +street-sweepers, and the street-boys, in the most violent language, and +the latter, to have their revenge, used to follow her at a distance when +she went out, and call out rude things after her. + +A little servant from Normandy, who was incredibly giddy and thoughtless, +performed the household work, and slept on the second floor, in the same +room as the old woman, for fear of anything happening to her in the +night. + +When Caravan got in, his wife, who suffered from a chronic passion for +cleaning, was polishing up the mahogany chairs that were scattered about +the room, with a piece of flannel. She always wore cotton gloves, and +adorned her head with a cap, which was ornamented with many colored +ribbons, which was always tilted on one ear, and whenever anyone caught +her polishing, sweeping, or washing, she used to say:-- + +"I am not rich; everything is very simple in my house, but cleanliness is +my luxury, and that is worth quite as much as any other." + +As she was gifted with sound, obstinate, practical common sense, she led +her husband in everything. Every evening during dinner, and afterwards, +when they were in bed, they talked over the business in the office for +a long time, and, although she was twenty years younger than he, he +confided everything to her, as if she had had the direction, and followed +her advice in every matter. + +She had never been pretty, and now she had grown ugly; in addition to +that, she was short and thin, while her careless and tasteless way of +dressing herself, hid her few, small feminine attributes, which might +have been brought out if she had possessed any skill in dress. Her +petticoats were always awry, and she frequently scratched herself, no +matter on what place, totally indifferent as to who might see her, and so +persistently that anybody who saw her, would think that she was suffering +from something like the itch. The only ornaments that she allowed herself +were silk ribbons, which she had in great profusion, and of various +colors mixed together, in the pretentious caps which she wore at home. + +As soon as she saw her husband she got up and said, as she kissed his +whiskers: + +"Did you remember Potin, my dear?" + +He fell into a chair, in consternation, for that was the fourth time on +which he had forgotten a commission that he had promised to do for her. + +"It is a fatality," he said; "it is no good for me to think of it all day +long, for I am sure to forget it in the evening." + +But as she seemed really so very sorry, she merely said, quietly: + +"You will think of it to-morrow, I daresay. Anything fresh at the +office?" + +"Yes, a great piece of news: another tinman has been appointed second +chief clerk," and she became very serious. + +"So he succeeds Ramon, this was the very post that I wanted you to have. +And what about Ramon?" + +"He retires on his pension." + +She grew furious, and her cap slid down on her shoulder, and she +continued: + +"There is nothing more to be done in that shop now. And what is the name +of the new commissioner?" + +"Bonassot." + +She took up the _Naval Year Book_, which she always kept close at hand, +and looked him up. + +"'Bonassot--Toulon. Born in 1851. Student-Commissioner in 1871. +Sub-Commissioner in 1875.' Has he been to sea?" she continued, and at +that question Caravan's looks cleared up, and he laughed until his sides +shook. + +"Just like Balin--just like Balin, his chief." And he added an old office +joke, and laughed more than ever: + +"It would not even do to send them by water to inspect the +_Point-du-Jour_, for they would be sick on the penny steamboats on +the Seine." + +But she remained as serious as if she had not heard him, and then she +said in a low voice, while she scratched her chin: + +"If only we had a Deputy to fall back upon. When the Chamber hears +everything that is going on at the Admiralty, the Minister will be turned +out..." + +She was interrupted by a terrible noise on the stairs. Marie-Louise and +Philippe-Auguste, who had just come in from the gutter, were giving each +other slaps all the way upstairs. Their mother rushed at them furiously, +and taking each of them by an arm, she dragged them into the room, +shaking them vigorously, but as soon as they saw their father, they +rushed up to him, and he kissed them affectionately, and taking one of +them on each knee, he began to talk to them. + +Philippe-Auguste was an ugly, ill-kempt little brat, dirty from head to +foot, with the face of an idiot, and Marie-Louise was already like her +mother--spoke like her, repeated her words, and even imitated her +movements. She also asked him whether there was anything fresh at the +office, and he replied merrily: + +"Your friend, Ramon, who comes and dines here every Sunday, is going to +leave us, little one. There is a new second head-clerk." + +She looked at her father, and with a precocious child's pity, she said: + +"So somebody has been put over your head again!" + +He stopped laughing, and did not reply, and then, in order, to create a +diversion, he said, addressing his wife, who was cleaning the windows: + +"How is mamma, up there?" + +Madame Caravan left off rubbing, turned round, pulled her cap up, as it +had fallen quite on to her back, and said, with trembling lips: + +"Ah! yes; just speak to your mother about this, for she has created a +pretty scene. Just think that a short time ago Madame Lebaudin, the +hairdresser's wife, came upstairs to borrow a packet of starch of me, +and, as I was not at home, your mother called her _a beggar woman_, and +turned her out; but I gave it to the old woman. She pretended not to +hear, like she always does when one tells her unpleasant truths, but +she is no more deaf than I am, as you know. It is all a sham, and the +proof of it is, that she went up to her own room immediately, without +saying a word." + +Caravan did not utter a word, and at that moment the little servant +came in to announce dinner. In order to let his mother know, he took a +broom-handle, which always stood in a corner, and rapped loudly on the +ceiling three times, and they went into the dining-room. Madame Caravan, +junior, helped the soup, and waited for the old woman, but she did not +come, and the soup was getting cold, so they began to eat slowly, and +when their plates were empty, they waited again, and Madame Caravan, +who was furious, attacked her husband: + +"She does it on purpose, you know that as well as I do. But you always +uphold her." + +He, in great perplexity between the two, sent Marie-Louise to fetch her +grandmother, and he sat motionless, with his eyes down, while his wife +tapped her glass angrily with her knife. In about a minute, the door +flew open suddenly, and the child came in again, out of breath and very +pale, and said very quickly: + +"Grandmamma has fallen down on the ground." + +Caravan jumped up, threw his table-napkin down, and rushed upstairs, +while his wife, who thought it was some trick of her mother-in-law's, +followed more slowly, shrugging her shoulders, as if to express her +doubt. When they got upstairs, however, they found the old woman lying at +full length in the middle of the room, and when they turned her over they +saw that she was insensible and motionless, while her skin looked more +wrinkled and yellow than usual, and her eyes were closed, her teeth +clenched, and her thin body was stiff. + +Caravan knelt down by her, and began to moan: + +"My poor mother! my poor mother!" he said. But the other Madame Caravan +said: + +"Bah! She has only fainted again, that is all, and she has done it to +prevent us from dining comfortably, you may be sure of that." + +They put her on the bed, undressed her completely, and Caravan, his wife, +and the servant began to rub her, but, in spite of their efforts, she did +not recover consciousness, so they sent Rosalie, the servant, to fetch +_Doctor_ Chenet. He lived a long way off, on the quay going towards +Suresnes, and so it was considerable time before he arrived. He came at +last, however, and, after having looked at the old woman, felt her pulse, +auscultated her, he said:--"It is all over." + +Caravan threw himself on the body, sobbing violently; he kissed his +mother's rigid face, and wept so, that great tears fell on the dead +woman's face, like drops of water, and, naturally, Madame Caravan, +Junior, showed a decorous amount of grief, and uttered feeble moans, +as she stood behind her husband, while she rubbed her eyes vigorously. + +But, suddenly, Caravan raised himself up, with his thin hair in disorder, +and, looking very ugly in his grief, said:-- + +"But ... are you sure, doctor?... Are you quite sure?..." + +The medical stooped over the body, and, handling it with professional +dexterity, like a shopkeeper might do, when showing off his goods, he +said:--"See, my dear friend, look at her eye." + +He raised the eyelid, and the old woman's looks reappeared under his +finger, and were altogether unaltered, unless, perhaps, the pupil was +rather larger, and Caravan felt a severe shock at the sight. Then +Monsieur Chenet took her thin arm, forced the fingers open, and said, +angrily, as if he had been contradicted: + +"Just look at her hand; I never make a mistake, you may be quite sure of +that." + +Caravan fell on the bed, and almost bellowed, while his wife, still +whimpering, did what was necessary. + +She brought the night-table, on which she spread a table napkin, and +placed four wax candles on it, which she lighted; then she took a sprig +of box, which was hanging over the chimney glass, and put it between +the candles, into the plate, which she filled with clean water, as she +had no holy water. But, after a moment's rapid reflection, she threw a +pinch of salt into the water, no doubt, thinking she was performing some +sort of act of consecration by doing that, and when she had finished, she +remained standing motionless, and the medical man, who had been helping +her, whispered to her: + +"We must take Caravan away." + +She nodded assent, and, going up to her husband, who was still on his +knees, sobbing, she raised him up by one arm, while Chenet took him by +the other. + +They put him into a chair, and his wife kissed his forehead, and then +began to lecture him. Chenet enforced her words, and preached firmness, +courage, and resignation--the very things which are always wanting in +such overwhelming misfortunes--and then both of them took him by the arms +again and led him out. + +He was crying like a great child, with convulsive hiccoughs; his arms +were hanging down, and his legs seemed useless, and he went downstairs +without knowing what he was doing, and moving his legs mechanically. +They put him into the chair which he always occupied at dinner, in front +of his empty soup plate. And there he sat, without moving, with his eyes +fixed on his glass, and so stupefied with grief, that he could not even +think. + +In a corner, Madame Caravan was talking with the doctor, and asking what +the necessary formalities were, as she wanted to obtain practical +information. At last, Monsieur Chenet, who appeared to be waiting for +something, took up his hat and prepared to go, saying that he had not +dined yet; whereupon, she exclaimed:-- + +"What! you have not dined? But stop here, doctor; don't go. You shall +have whatever we can give you, for, of course, you will understand that +we do not fare sumptuously." However, he made excuses and refused, but +she persisted, and said:-- + +"You really must stop; at times like this, people like to have friends +near them, and, besides that, perhaps you will be able to persuade my +husband to take some nourishment; he must keep up his strength." + +The doctor bowed, and, putting down his hat, he said:-- + +"In that case, I will accept your invitation, Madame." + +She gave Rosalie, who seemed to have lost her head, some orders, and then +sat down, "to pretend to eat," as she said, "to keep the _doctor_ +company." + +The soup was brought in again, and Monsieur Chenet took two helpings. +Then there came a dish of tripe, which exhaled a smell of onions, and +which Madame Caravan made up her mind to taste. + +"It is excellent," the doctor said, at which she smiled, and, turning to +her husband, she said:-- + +"Do take a little, my poor Alfred, only just to put something into your +stomach. Remember you have got to pass the night watching by her!" + +He held out his plate, docilely, just as he would have gone to bed, if +he had been told to, obeying her in everything, without resistance and +without reflection, and, therefore, he ate; the doctor helped himself +three times, while Madame Caravan, from time to time, fished out a large +piece at the end of her fork, and swallowed it with a sort of studied +inattention. + +When a salad bowl full of macaroni was brought in, the doctor said: + +"By Jove! That is what I am very fond of." And this time, Madame Caravan +helped everybody. She even filled the children's saucers, which they had +scraped clean, and who, being left to themselves, had been drinking wine +without any water, and were now kicking each other under the table. + +Chenet remembered that Rossini, the composer, had been very fond of that +Italian dish, and suddenly he exclaimed:-- + +"Why! that rhymes, and one could begin some lines like this: + + _"The Maestro Rossini + Was fond of macaroni."_ + +Nobody listened to him, however. Madame Caravan, who had suddenly grown +thoughtful, was thinking of all the probable consequences of the event, +while her husband made bread pellets, which he put on the table-cloth, +and looked at with a fixed, idiotic stare. As he was devoured by thirst, +he was continually raising his glass full of wine to his lips, and the +consequences were that his senses, which had already been rather upset by +the shock and grief, seemed to dance about vaguely in his head, as if +they were going to vanish altogether. + +Meanwhile, the doctor, who had been drinking away steadily, was getting +visibly drunk, and Madame Caravan herself felt the reaction which follows +all nervous shocks, and was agitated and excited, and although she had +been drinking nothing but water, she felt her head rather confused. + +By-and-bye, Chenet began to relate stories of deaths, that appeared funny +to him. In that suburb of Paris, that is full of people from the +provinces, one meets with that indifference towards death were it even +a father or mother, which all peasants show; that want of respect, that +unconscious ferociousness which is so common in the country, and so rare +in Paris, and he said: + +"Why, I was sent for last week to the _Rue du Puteaux_, and when I went, +I found the sick person (and there was the whole family calmly sitting +near the bed) finishing a bottle of liquor of aniseed, which had been +bought the night before to satisfy the dying man's fancy." + +But Madame Caravan was not listening; she was continually thinking of the +inheritance, and Caravan was incapable of understanding anything. + +Soon coffee was served, which had been made very strong, and as every cup +was well qualified with cognac, it made all their faces red, and confused +their ideas still more; to make matters still worse, Chenet suddenly +seized the brandy bottle and poured out "a drop just to wash their mouths +out with," as he termed it, for each of them, and then, without speaking +any more, overcome in spite of themselves, by that feeling of animal +comfort which alcohol affords after dinner, they slowly sipped the sweet +cognac, which formed a yellowish syrup at the bottom of their cups. + +The children had gone to sleep, and Rosalie carried them off to bed, and +then, Caravan, mechanically obeying that wish to forget oneself which +possesses all unhappy persons, helped himself to brandy again several +times, and his dull eyes grew bright. At last the doctor rose to go, and +seizing his friend's arm, he said: + +"Come with me; a little fresh air will do you good. When one is in +trouble, one must not stick to one spot." + +The other obeyed mechanically, put on his hat, took his stick, and went +out, and both of them went arm-in-arm towards the Seine, in the starlight +night. + +The air was warm and sweet, for all the gardens in the neighborhood were +full of flowers at that season of the year, and their scent, which is +scarcely perceptible during the day, seemed to awaken at the approach +of night, and mingled with the light breezes which blew upon them in the +darkness. + +The broad avenue, with its two rows of gaslamps, that extended as far as +the _Arc de Triomphe_, was deserted and silent, but there was the distant +roar of Paris, which seemed to have a reddish vapor hanging over it. It +was a kind of continual rumbling, which was at times answered by the +whistle of a train at full speed, in the distance, traveling to the +ocean, through the provinces. + +The fresh air on the faces of the two men rather overcame them at first, +made the doctor lose his equilibrium a little, and increased Caravan's +giddiness, from which he had suffered since dinner. He walked as if he +were in a dream; his thoughts were paralyzed, although he felt no grief, +for he was in a state of mental torpor that prevented him from suffering, +and he even felt a sense of relief which was increased by the mildness +of the night. + +When they reached the bridge they turned to the right, and they got the +fresh breeze from the river. It rolled along, calm and melancholy, +bordered by tall poplar trees, and the stars looked as if they were +floating on the water and were moving with the current. A slight, white +mist that floated over the opposite banks, filled their lungs with a +sensation of cold, and Caravan stopped suddenly, for he was struck by +that smell from the water, which brought back old memories to his mind. +For he, suddenly, in his mind, saw his mother again, in Picardy, as he +had seen her years before, kneeling in front of their door, and washing +the heaps of linen, by her side, in the stream that ran through their +garden. He almost fancied that he could hear the sound of the wooden +beetle with which she beat the linen, in the calm silence of the country, +and her voice, as she called out to him: + +"Alfred, bring me some soap." And he smelt that odor of the trickling +water, of the mist rising from the wet ground, the heap of wet linen, +which he should never forget, and which came back to him on the very +evening on which his mother died. + +He stopped, with a feeling of despair, and felt heartbroken at that +eternal separation. His life seemed cut in half, all his youth +disappeared, swallowed up by that death. All the _former_ life was over +and done with, all the recollections of his youthful days would vanish; +for the future, there would be nobody to talk to him of what had happened +in days gone by, of the people he had known of old, of his own part of +the country, and of his past life; that was a part of his existence which +existed no longer, and the other might as well end now. + +And then he saw _Mamma_ as she was when younger, wearing well-worn +dresses, which he remembered for such a long time that they seemed +inseparable from her; he recollected her movements, the different tones +of her voice, her habits, her manias, her fits of anger, the wrinkles on +her face, the movements of her thin fingers, and all her well-known +attitudes, which she would never have again, and clutching hold of the +doctor, he began to moan and weep. His lank legs began to tremble, his +whole, stout body was shaken by his sobs, all he could say was: + +"My mother, my poor mother, my poor mother...!" + +But his companion, who was still drunk, and who intended to finish the +evening in certain places of bad repute that he frequented secretly, +made him sit down on the grass by the riverside, and left him almost +immediately, under the pretext that he had to see a patient. + + +Caravan went on crying for a long time, and then, when he had got to the +end of his tears, when his grief had, so to say, run out of him, he again +felt relief, repose, and sudden tranquillity. + +The moon had risen, and bathed the horizon in its soft light. + +The tall poplar trees had a silvery sheen on them, and the mist on the +plain, looked like floating snow; the river, in which the stars were +reflected, and which looked as if it were covered with mother-of-pearl, +was rippled by the wind. The air was soft and sweet, and Caravan inhaled +it almost greedily, and thought that he could perceive a feeling of +freshness, of calm and of superhuman consolation pervading him. + +He really tried to resist that feeling of comfort and relief, and kept on +saying to himself:--"My mother, my poor mother!" ... and tried to make +himself cry, from a kind of a conscientious feeling, but he could not +succeed in doing so any longer and those sad thoughts, which had made him +sob so bitterly a short time before, had almost passed away. In a few +moments, he rose to go home, and returned slowly, under the influence of +that serene night, and with a heart soothed in spite of himself. + +When he reached the bridge he saw that the last tramcar was ready to +start, and the lights through the windows of the _Cafe du Globe_, and he +felt a longing to tell somebody of the catastrophe that had happened, to +excite pity, to make himself interesting. He put on a woeful face, pushed +open the door, and went up to the counter, where the landlord still was. +He had counted on creating an effect, and had hoped that everybody would +get up and come to him with outstretched hands, and say:--"Why, what is +the matter with you?" But nobody noticed his disconsolate face, so he +rested his two elbows on the counter, and, burying his face in his hands, +he murmured: "Good heavens! Good heavens!" + +The landlord looked at him and said: "Are you ill, Monsieur Caravan?" + +"No, my friend," he replied, "but my mother has just died." + +"Ah!" the other exclaimed, and as a customer at the other end of the +establishment asked for a glass of Bavarian beer, he went to attend to +him, left Caravan almost stupefied at his want of sympathy. + +The three domino players were sitting at the same table which they had +occupied before dinner, totally absorbed in their game, and Caravan went +up to them, in search of pity, but as none of them appeared to notice +him, he made up his mind to speak. + +"A great misfortune has happened to me since I was here," he said. + +All three slightly raised their heads at the same instant, but keeping +their eyes fixed on the pieces which they held in their hands. + +"What do you say?" + +"My mother has just died;" whereupon one of them said: + +"Oh! the devil," with that false air of sorrow which indifferent people +assume. Another, who could not find anything to say, emitted a sort of +sympathetic whistle, shaking his head at the same time, and the third +turned to the game again, as if he were saying to himself: "Is that all!" + +Caravan had expected some of those expressions that are said to "come +from the heart," and when he saw how his news was received, he left the +table, indignant at their calmness before their friend's sorrow, although +at that moment he was so dazed with grief, that he hardly felt it, and +went home. When he got in, his wife was waiting for him in her nightgown, +and sitting in a low chair by the open window, still thinking of the +inheritance. + +"Undress yourself," she said; "we will talk when we are in bed." + +He raised his head, and looking at the ceiling, he said: + +"But ... there is nobody up there." + +"I beg your pardon, Rosalie is with her, and you can go and take her +place at three o'clock in the morning, when you have had some sleep." + +He only partially undressed, however, so as to be ready for anything that +might happen, and after tying a silk handkerchief round his head, he +joined his wife, who had just got in between the sheets, and for some +time they remained side by side, and neither of them spoke. She was +thinking. + +Even in bed, her night-cap was adorned with a red bow, and was pushed +rather over one ear, as was the way with all the caps that she wore, and, +presently, she turned towards him and said: + +"Do you know whether your mother made a will?" + +He hesitated for a moment, and then replied: + +"I ... I do not think so.... No, I am sure that she did not." + +His wife looked at him, and she said, in a low, furious voice: + +"I call that infamous; here we have been wearing ourselves out for ten +years in looking after her, and have boarded and lodged her! Your sister +would not have done so much for her, nor I either, if I had known how I +was to be rewarded! Yes, it is a disgrace to her memory! I daresay that +you will tell me that she paid us, but one cannot pay one's children in +ready money for what they do; that obligation is recognized after death; +at any rate, that is how honorable people act. So I have had all my worry +and trouble for nothing! Oh, that is nice! that is very nice!" + +Poor Caravan, who felt nearly distracted, kept on saying: + +"My dear, my dear, please, please be quiet." + +She grew calmer by degrees, and, resuming her usual voice and manner, she +continued: + +"We must let your sister know, to-morrow." + +He started, and said: + +"Of course, we must; I had forgotten all about it; I will send her a +telegram the first thing in the morning." + +"No," she replied, like a woman who had foreseen everything; "no, do not +send it before ten or eleven o'clock, so that we may have time to turn +round before she comes. It does not take more than two hours to get here +from Charenton, and we can say that you lost your head from grief. If we +let her know in the course of the day, that will be soon enough, and will +give us time to look round." + +But Caravan put his hand to his forehead, and, in the same timid voice +in which he always spoke of his chief, the very thought of whom made him +tremble, he said: + +"I must let them know at the office." + +"Why?" she replied. "On such occasions like this, it is always excusable +to forget. Take my advice, and don't let him know; your chief will not be +able to say anything to you, and you will put him in a nice fix." + +"Oh! yes, that I shall, and he will be in a terrible rage, too, when he +notices my absence. Yes, you are right; it is a capital idea, and when I +tell him that my mother is dead, he will be obliged to hold his tongue." + +And he rubbed his hands in delight at the joke, when he thought of his +chief's face; while the body of the dead old woman lay upstairs, and the +servant was asleep close to it. + +But Madame Caravan grew thoughtful, as if she were pre-occupied by +something, which she did not care to mention, but at last she said: + +"Your mother had given you her clock, had she not; the girl playing at +cup and ball?" + +He thought for a moment, and then replied: + +"Yes, yes; she said to me (but it was a long time ago, when she first +came here): 'I shall leave the clock to you, if you look after me well.'" + +Madame Caravan was reassured, and regained her serenity, and said: + +"Well, then, you must go and fetch it out of her room, for if we get your +sister here, she will prevent us from having it." + +He hesitated. + +"Do you think so?..." + +That made her angry. + +"I certainly think so; as soon as it is in our possession, she will know +nothing at all about where it came from; it belongs to us. It is just the +same with the chest of drawers with the marble top, that is in her room; +she gave it me one day when she was in a good temper. We will bring it +down at the same time." + +Caravan, however, seemed incredulous, and said: + +"But, my dear, it is a great responsibility!" + +She turned on him furiously. + +"Oh! Indeed! Will you never alter? You would let your children die of +hunger, rather than make a move. Does not that chest of drawers belong to +us, as she gave it to me? And if your sister is not satisfied, let her +tell me so, me! I don't care a straw for your sister. Come, get up, and +we will bring down what your mother gave us, immediately." + +Trembling and vanquished, he got out of bed, and began to put on his +trousers, but she stopped him: + +"It is not worth while to dress yourself; your drawers are quite enough; +I mean to go as I am." + +They both left the room in their night clothes, went upstairs quite +noiselessly, opened the door and went into the room, where the four +lighted tapers and the plate with the sprig of box alone seemed to be +watching the old woman in her rigid repose; for Rosalie, who was lying +back in the easy chair with her legs stretched out, her hands folded in +her lap, and her head on one side, was also quite motionless, and was +snoring with her mouth wide open. + +Caravan took the clock, which was one of those grotesque objects that +were produced so plentifully under the Empire. A girl in gilt bronze was +holding a cup and ball, and the ball formed the pendulum. + +"Give that to me," his wife said, "and take the marble top off the chest +of drawers." + +He put the marble on his shoulder with a considerable effort, and they +left the room. Caravan had to stoop in the door-way, and trembled as he +went downstairs, while his wife walked backwards, so as to light him, and +held the candlestick in one hand, while she had the clock under her other +arm. + +When they were in their own room, she heaved a sigh. + +"We have got over the worst part of the job," she said; "so now let us go +and fetch the other things." + +But the drawers were full of the old woman's wearing apparel, which they +must manage to hide somewhere, and Madame Caravan soon thought of a plan. + +"Go and get that wooden box in the passage; it is hardly worth anything, +and we may just as well put it here." + +And when he had brought it upstairs, the change began. One by one, she +took out all the collars, cuffs, chemises, caps, all the well-worn things +that had belonged to the poor woman lying there behind them, and arranged +them methodically in the wooden box, in such a manner as to deceive +Madame Braux, the deceased woman's other child, who would be coming the +next day. + +When they had finished, they first of all carried the drawers downstairs, +and the remaining portion afterwards, each of them holding an end, and it +was some time before they could make up their minds where it would stand +best; but at last they settled upon their own room, opposite the bed, +between the two windows, and as soon as it was in its place, Madame +Caravan filled it with her own things. The clock was placed on the +chimney-piece in the dining-room, and they looked to see what the effect +was, and they were both delighted with it, and agreed that nothing could +be better. Then they got into bed, she blew out the candle, and soon +everybody in the house was asleep. + +It was broad daylight when Caravan opened his eyes again. His mind was +rather confused when he woke up, and he did not clearly remember what had +happened, for a few minutes; when he did, he felt it painfully, and +jumped out of bed, almost ready to cry again. + +He very soon went to the room overhead, where Rosalie was still sleeping +in the same position as the night before, for she did not wake up once +during the whole time. He sent her to do her work, put fresh tapers in +the place of those that had burnt out, and then he looked at his mother, +revolving in his brain those apparently profound thoughts, those +religious and philosophical commonplaces, which trouble people of +mediocre minds, in the face of death. + +But he went down stairs as soon as his wife called him. She had written +out a list of what had to be done during the morning, which rather +frightened him when he saw that he would have to do all this: + + 1. Give information of the death to the Mayor's officer. + 2. See the doctor who had attended her. + 3. Order the coffin. + 4. Give notice at the church. + 5. Go to the undertaker. + 6. Order the notices of her death at the printer's. + 7. Go to the lawyer. + 8. Telegraph the news to all the family. + +Besides all this there were a number of small commissions; so he took his +hat and went out, and as the news had got abroad, Madame Caravan's female +friends and neighbors soon began to come in, and begged to be allowed to +see the body. There had been a scene at the hairdresser's, on the ground +floor, about the matter, between husband and wife, while he was shaving a +customer; for while she was knitting the woman had said: "Well, there is +one less, and as great a miser as one ever meets with. I certainly was +not very fond of her; but, nevertheless, I must go and have a look at +her." + +The husband, while lathering his _patient's_ chin, said: "That is another +queer fancy! Nobody but a woman would think of such a thing. It is not +enough for them to worry you during life, but they cannot even leave you +at peace when you are dead." But his wife, without disconcerting herself +the least, replied: "The feeling is stronger than I, and I must go. It +has been on me since the morning. If I was not to see her, I should think +about it all my life, but when I have had a good look at her, I shall be +satisfied." + +The knight of the razor shrugged his shoulders, and remarked in a low +voice to the gentleman whose cheek he was scraping: "I just ask you, what +sort of ideas do you think these confounded females have? I should not +amuse myself by going to see a corpse!" But his wife had heard him, and +replied very quietly: "But it is so, it is so." And then, putting her +knitting on the counter, she went upstairs, to the first floor, where she +met two other neighbors, who had just come, and who were discussing the +event with Madame Caravan, who was giving them the details, and they all +went together to the mortuary chamber. The four women went in softly, +and, one after the other, sprinkled the bed clothes with the holy water, +knelt down, made the sign of the cross while they mumbled a prayer, then +they got up, and open-mouthed, regarded the corpse for a long time, while +the daughter-in-law of the dead woman, with her handkerchief to her face, +pretended to be sobbing piteously. + +When she turned about to walk away, whom should she perceive standing +close to the door but Marie-Louise and Philippe-Auguste, who were +curiously taking stock of things. Then, forgetting to control her +chagrin, she threw herself upon them with uplifted hands, crying out +in a furious voice, "Will you get out of this, you filthy brats." + +Ten minutes later, in going upstairs again with another contingent of +neighbors, she prayed, wept profusely, performed all her duties, and +found once more her two children, who had followed her up stairs. She +again boxed their ears soundly, but the next time she paid no heed to +them, and at each fresh arrival of visitors the two urchins always +followed in the wake, crowded themselves up in a corner, and imitating +slavishly everything they saw their mother do. + +When the afternoon came round the crowds of curious people began to +diminish, and soon there were no more visitors. Madame Caravan, returning +to her own apartments, began to make the necessary preparations for the +funeral ceremony, and the defunct was hence left by herself. + +The window of the room was open. A torrid heat entered along with the +clouds of dust; the flames of the four candles were flickering in the +direction of the immobile corpse, and upon the cloth which covered the +face, the closed eyes, the two hands stretched out, small flies alighted, +came, went, and careered up and down incessantly, being the only +companions of the old woman during the next hour. + +Marie-Louise and Philippe-Auguste, however, had now left the house, and +were running up and down the street. They were soon surrounded by their +playmates, by little girls, especially, who were older, and who were much +more interested to inquire into all the mysteries of life, asking +questions after the manner of persons of great importance. + +"Then your grandmother is dead?" "Yes, she died yesterday evening." "How, +in what way did she meet her death?" + +Then Marie began to explain, telling all about the candles and the +cadaverous face. It was not long before great curiosity was aroused in +the breasts of all the children, and they asked to be allowed to go +upstairs to look at the departed. + +It was not long before Marie-Louise had arranged a group for a first +visit, consisting of five girls and two boys--the biggest and the most +courageous. She made them take off their shoes so that they might not +be discovered. The troupe filed into the house and mounted the stairs as +stealthily as an army of mice. + +Once in the chamber, the little girl, imitating her mother, regulated the +ceremony. She solemnly walked in advance of her comrades, went down on +her knees, made the sign of the cross, moistened her lips with the holy +water, stood up again, sprinkled the bed, and while the children, all +crowded together, were approaching--frightened and curious, and eager +to look at the face and hands of the deceased--she began suddenly to +simulate sobbing, and to bury her eyes in her little handkerchief. Then, +becoming instantly consoled, on thinking of the other children who were +downstairs waiting at the door, she withdrew in haste, returning in a +minute with another group, then a third, for all the little ruffians of +the country-side, even to the little beggars in rags, had congregated in +order to participate in this new pleasure; and each time she repeated her +mother's grimaces with absolute perfection. + +At length, however, she became tired. Some game or other attracted the +children away from the house, and the old grandmother was left alone, +forgotten suddenly by everybody. + +A dismal gloom pervaded the chamber, and upon the dry and rigid features +of the corpse, the dying flames of the candles cast occasional gleams of +light. + +Towards 8 o'clock, Caravan ascended to the chamber of death, closed the +windows, and renewed the candles. On entering now he was quite composed, +evidently accustomed already to regard the corpse as though it had been +there for a month. He even went the length of declaring that, as yet, +there was not any signs of decomposition, making this remark just at the +moment when he and his wife were about to sit down at table. "Pshaw!" she +responded, "she is now in wood; she will keep there for a year." + +The soup was eaten without a word being uttered by anyone. The children, +who had been free all day, now worn out by fatigue, were sleeping soundly +on their chairs, and nobody ventured on breaking the silence. + +Suddenly the flame of the lamp went down. Mdme. Caravan immediately +turned up the wick, a prolonged gurgling noise ensued, and the light went +out. It had been forgotten during the day to buy oil. To send for it now +to the grocers' would keep back the dinner, and everybody began to look +for candles, but none were to be found except the night lights which had +been placed upon the tables upstairs, in the death chamber. + +Mdme. Caravan, always prompt in her decisions, quickly dispatched +Marie-Louise to fetch two, and her return was awaited in total darkness. + +The footsteps of the girl who had ascended the stairs were distinctly +heard. There followed now a silence for a few seconds, then the child +descended precipitately. She threw open the door affrighted, and in +a choked voice murmured: "Oh! papa, grandmamma is dressing herself!" + +Caravan bounded to his feet with such precipitance that his chair rolled +over against the chair. He stammered out: "You say?... What is that you +say?" + +But Marie-Louise, gasping with emotion, repeated: +"Grand ... grand ... grandmamma is putting on her clothes, she is coming +down stairs." + +Caravan rushed boldly up the staircase, followed by his wife, +dumbfounded; but he came to a standstill before the door of the second +floor, overcome with terror, not daring to enter. What was he going to +see? Mdme. Caravan, more courageous, turned the handle of the door and +stepped forward into the room. + +The room seemed to become darker, and in the middle of it, a tall +emaciated figure moved about. The old woman stood upright, and in +awakening from her lethargic sleep, before even full consciousness had +returned to her, in turning upon her side, and raising herself on her +elbow, she had extinguished three of the candles which burned near the +mortuary bed. Then, recovering her strength, she got out of bed and began +to seek for her things. The absence of her chest of drawers had at first +given her some trouble, but, after a little, she had succeeded in finding +her things at the bottom of the wooden trunk, and was now quietly +dressing. She emptied the plateful of holy water, replaced the box which +contained the latter behind the looking-glass and arranged the chairs in +their places, and was ready to go downstairs when there appeared before +her her son and daughter-in-law. + +Caravan rushed forward, seized her by the hands, embraced her with +tears in his eyes, while his wife, who was behind him, repeated in a +hypocritical tone of voice: "Oh, what a blessing! Oh, what a blessing!" + +But the old woman, without being at all moved, without even appearing to +understand, as rigid as a statue, and with glazed eyes, simply asked: +"Will the dinner soon be ready?" + +He stammered out, not knowing what he said: "O, yes, mother, we have been +waiting for you." + +And with an alacrity, unusual in him, he took her arm, while Mdme. +Caravan, the younger, seized the candle and lighted them downstairs, +walking backwards in front of them, step by step, just as she had +done the previous night, in front of her husband, who was carrying the +marble. + +On reaching the first floor, she ran up against people who were +ascending. It was the Charenton family, Mdme. Braux, followed by her +husband. + +The wife, tall, fleshy, with a dropsical stomach which threw her trunk +far out behind her, opened wide her astonished eyes, ready to take +flight. The husband, a shoemaker socialist, a little hairy man, the +perfect image of a monkey, murmured, quite unconcerned: "Well, what next? +Is she resurrected?" + +As soon as Mdme. Caravan recognized them, she made despairing signs to +them, then, speaking aloud, she said: "Mercy! How do you mean!... Look +there! What a happy surprise!" + +But Mdme. Braux, dumbfounded, understood nothing; she responded in a low +voice: "It was your dispatch which made us come; we believed it was all +over." + +Her husband, who was behind her, pinched her to make her keep silent. He +added with a malignant laugh, which his thick beard concealed: "It was +very kind of you to invite us here. We set out in post haste."--which +remark showed clearly the hostility which had for a long time reigned +between the households. Then, just as the old woman had arrived at +the last steps, he pushed forward quickly and rubbed against her cheeks +the hair which covered his face, bawling out in her ear, on account of +her deafness: "How well you look, mother; sturdy as usual, hey!" + +Mdme. Braux, in her stupor at seeing the old woman whom they all believed +to be dead, dared not even embrace her; and her enormous belly blocked up +the passage and hindered the others from advancing. The old woman, uneasy +and suspicious, but without speaking, looked at everyone around her; and +her little gray eyes, piercing and hard, fixed themselves now on the one +and now on the other, and they were so terrible in their expression that +the children became frightened. + +Caravan, to explain matters, said: "She has been somewhat ill, but she is +better now; quite well, indeed, are you not, mother?" + +Then the good woman, stopping in her walk, responded in a husky voice, +as though it came from a distance: "It was syncope. I heard you all the +while." + +An embarrassing silence followed. They entered the dining-room, and in a +few minutes they all sat down to an improvised dinner. + +Only M. Braux had retained his self-possession; his gorilla features +grinned wickedly, while he let fall some words of double meaning which +painfully disconcerted everyone. + +But the clock in the hall kept on ticking every second; and Rosalie, lost +in astonishment, came to seek out Caravan, who darted a fierce glance at +her, as she threw down his serviette. His brother-in-law even asked him +whether it was not one of his days to hold a reception, to which he +stammered out, in answer: "No, I have only been executing a few +commissions; nothing more." + +Next, a packet was brought in, which he began to open sadly, and from +which dropped out unexpectedly a letter with black borders. Then, +reddening up to the very eyes, he picked up the letter hurriedly, and +pushed it into his waistcoat pocket. + +His mother had not seen it! She was looking intently at her clock, which +stood on the mantelpiece, and the embarrassment increased in midst of a +glacial silence. Turning her face towards her daughter, the old woman, +from whose eyes flashed fierce malice, said: "On Monday, you must take me +away from here, so that I can see your little girl. I want so much to see +her." Madame Braux, her features illuminated, exclaimed: "Yes, mother, +that I will," while Mdme. Caravan, the younger, became pale, and seemed +to be enduring the most excruciating agony. The two men, however, +gradually drifted into conversation, and soon became embroiled in a +political discussion. Braux maintained the most revolutionary and +communistic doctrines, gesticulating and throwing about his arms, his +eyes darting like a blood-hound's. "Property, sir," he said, "is robbery +perpetrated on the working classes; the land is the common property of +every man; hereditary rights are an infamy and a disgrace." But, +hereupon, he suddenly stopped, having all the appearance of a man who has +just said something foolish; then, resuming, after a pause, he said, in +softer tones: "But I can see quite well that this is not the proper +moment to discuss such things." + +The door was opened, and Doctor Chenet appeared. For a moment he seemed +bewildered, but regaining his usual smirking expression of countenance, +he jauntily approached the old woman, and said: "Ah, hah! mamma, you are +better to-day. Oh! I never had any doubt but you would come round again; +in fact, I said to myself as I was mounting the staircase, 'I have an +idea that I shall find the old one on her feet once more;'" and he tapped +her gently on the back: "Ah! she is as solid as the Pont-Neuf, she will +see us all out; you shall see if she does not." + +He sat down, accepted the coffee that was offered him, and soon began to +join in the conversation of the two men, backing up Braux, for he himself +had been mixed up in the Commune. + +Now, the old woman, feeling herself fatigued, wished to leave the room, +at which Caravan rushed forward. She thereupon fixed him in the eyes and +said to him: "You, you, must carry my clock and chest of drawers up +stairs again without a moment's delay." "Yes, mamma," he replied, +yawning; "yes, I will do so." The old woman then took the arm of her +daughter and withdrew from the room. The two Caravans remained rooted to +the floor, silent, plunged in the deepest despair, while Braux rubbed his +hands and sipped his coffee, gleefully. + +Suddenly Mdme. Caravan, consumed with rage, rushed at him, exclaiming: +"You are a thief, a footpad, a cur. I would spit in your face, if ... I +would ... I ... would...." She could find nothing further to say, +suffocating as she was, with rage, while he still sipped his coffee, +with a smile. + +His wife returning just then, looked menacingly at her sister-in-law, and +both--the one with her enormous fat stomach, the other, epileptic and +spare, voice changed, hands trembling--flew at one another and seized +each other by the throat. + +Chenet and Braux now interposed, and the latter taking his better half by +the shoulders pushed her out of the door in front of him, shouting to his +sister-in-law: "Go away, you slut: you are a disgrace to your relations;" +and the two were heard in the street bellowing and shouting at the +Caravans, until after they had disappeared from sight. + +M. Chenet also took his departure, leaving the Caravans alone, face to +face. The husband soon fell back on his chair, and with the cold sweat +standing out in beads on his temples, murmured: "What shall I say to my +chief to-morrow?" + + + + +THE ODALISQUE OF SENICHOU + + +In Senichou, which is a suburb of Prague, there lived about twenty +years ago, two poor but honest people, who earned their bread by the +sweat of their brow; he worked in a large printing establishment, +and his wife employed her spare time as a laundress. Their pride, and +their only pleasure, was their daughter Viteska, who was a vigorous, +voluptuous-looking, handsome girl of eighteen, whom they brought up very +well and carefully. She worked for a dress-maker, and was thus able to +help her parents a little, and she made use of her leisure moments to +improve her education, and especially her music. She was a general +favorite in the neighborhood on account of her quiet modest demeanor, and +she was looked upon as a model by the whole suburb. + +When she went to work in the town, the tall girl with her magnificent +head, which resembled that of an ancient, Bohemian Amazon, with its +wealth of black hair, and her dark, sparkling yet soft eyes, attracted +the looks of passers-by, in spite of her shabby dress, much more than the +graceful, well-dressed ladies of the aristocracy. Frequently some young, +wealthy lounger would follow her home; and even try to get into +conversation with her, but she always managed to get rid of them and +their importunities, and she did not require any protector, for she was +quite capable of protecting herself from any insults. + +One evening, however, she met a man on the suspension bridge, whose +strange appearance made her give him a look which evinced some interest, +but perhaps even more surprise. He was a tall, handsome man with bright +eyes and a black beard; he was very sunburnt, and in his long coat, which +was like a caftan, with a red fez on his head, he gave those who saw him +the impression of an Oriental; he had noticed her look all the more as he +himself had been so struck by her poor, and at the same time regal, +appearance, that he remained standing and looking at her in such a way, +that he seemed to be devouring her with his eyes, so that Viteska, who +was usually so fearless, looked down. She hurried on and he followed her, +and the quicker she walked, the more rapidly he followed her, and, at +last, when they were in a narrow, dark street in the suburb, he suddenly +said in an insinuating voice: "May I offer you my arm, my pretty girl?" +"You can see that I am old enough to look after myself," Viteska replied +hastily; "I am much obliged to you, and must beg you not to follow me +any more; I am known in this neighborhood, and it might damage my +reputation." "Oh! You are very much mistaken if you think you will get +rid of me so easily," he replied. "I have just come from the East and +am returning there soon, come with me, and as I fancy that you are as +sensible as you are beautiful, you will certainly make your fortune +there, and I will bet that before the end of a year, you will be covered +with diamonds, and be waited on by eunuchs and female slaves." + +"I am a respectable girl, sir," she replied proudly, and tried to go on +in front, but the stranger was immediately at her side again. "You were +born to rule," he whispered to her. "Believe me, and I understand the +matter, that you will live to be a Sultaness, if you have any luck." The +girl did not give him any answer, but walked on. "But, at any rate, +listen to me," the tempter continued. "I will not listen to anything; +because I am poor, you think it will be easy for you to seduce me," +Viteska exclaimed: "but I am as virtuous as I am poor, and I should +despise any position which I had to buy with shame." They had reached +the little house where her parents lived, and she ran in quickly, and +slammed the door behind her. + +When she went into the town the next morning, the stranger was waiting +at the corner of the street where she lived, and bowed to her very +respectfully. "Allow me to speak a few words with you," he began. "I feel +that I ought to beg your pardon for my behavior yesterday." "Please let +me go on my way quietly," the girl replied. "What will the neighbors +think of me?" "I did not know you," he went on, without paying any +attention to her angry looks, "but your extraordinary beauty attracted +me. Now that I know that you are as virtuous as you are charming, I wish +very much to become better acquainted with you. Believe me, I have the +most honorable intentions." + +Unfortunately, the bold stranger had taken the girl's fancy, and she +could not find it in her heart to refuse him. "If you are really in +earnest," she stammered in charming confusion, "do not follow me about +in the public streets, but come to my parents' house like a man of honor, +and state your intentions there." "I will certainly do so, and +immediately, if you like," the stranger replied, eagerly. "No, no," +Viteska said; "but come this evening if you like." + +The stranger bowed and left her, and really called on her parents in the +evening. He introduced himself as Ireneus Krisapolis, a merchant from +Smyrna, spoke of his brilliant circumstances, and finally declared that +he loved Viteska passionately. "That is all very nice and right," the +cautious father replied, "but what will it all lead to? Under no +circumstances can I allow you to visit my daughter. Such a passion as +yours often dies out as quickly as it arises, and a respectable girl is +easily robbed of her virtue." "And suppose I make up my mind to marry +your daughter?" the stranger asked, after a moment's hesitation. "Then +I shall refer you to my child, for I shall never force Viteska to marry +against her will," her father said. + +The stranger seized the pretty girl's hand, and spoke in glowing terms of +his love for her, of the luxury with which she would be surrounded in his +house, of the wonders of the East, to which he hoped to take her, and at +last Viteska consented to become his wife. Thereupon the stranger hurried +on the arrangements for the wedding, in a manner that made the most +favorable impression on them all, and during the time before their +marriage he lay at her feet like her humble slave. + +As soon as they were married, the newly-married couple set off on their +journey to Smyrna and promised to write as soon as they got there, but +a month, then two and three, passed without the parents, whose anxiety +increased every day, receiving a line from them, until at last the father +in terror applied to the police. + +The first thing was to write to the Consul at Smyrna for information: +his reply was to the effect that no merchant of the name of Ireneus +Krisapolis was known in Smyrna, and that he had never been there. The +police, at the entreaties of the frantic parents, continued their +investigations, but for a long time without any result. At last, however, +they obtained a little light on the subject, but it was not at all +satisfactory. The police at Pestle said that a man, whose personal +appearance exactly agreed with the description of Viteska's husband, had +a short time before carried off two girls from the Hungarian capital, to +Turkey, evidently intending to trade in that coveted, valuable commodity +there, but that when he found that the authorities were on his track he +had escaped from justice by a sudden flight. + + * * * * * + +Four years after Viteska's mysterious disappearance, two persons, a man +and a woman, met in a narrow street in Damascus, in a scarcely less +strange manner, than when the Greek merchant met Viteska on the +suspension bridge at Prague. The man with the black beard, the red fez, +and the long, green caftan, was no one else than Ireneus Krisapolis; +matters appeared to be going well with him; he had his hands comfortably +thrust into the red shawl which he had round his waist, and a negro was +walking behind him with a large parasol, while another carried his +_Chiloque_ after him. A noble Turkish lady met him in a litter borne +by four slaves; she was wrapped like a ghost in a white veil, only that +a pair of large, dark, threatening eyes flashed at the merchant. + +He smiled, for he thought that he had found favor in the eyes of an +Eastern houri, and that flattered him; but he soon lost sight of her in +the crowd, and forgot her almost immediately. The next morning however, +a eunuch of the pasha's came to him, to his no small astonishment, and +told him to come with him. He took him to the Sultan's most powerful +deputy, who ruled as an absolute despot in Damascus. They went through +dark, narrow passages, and curtains were pushed aside, which rustled +behind them again. At last they reached a large rotunda, the center of +which was occupied by a beautiful fountain, while scarlet divans ran all +around it. Here the eunuch told the merchant to wait, and left him. He +was puzzling his brains what the meaning of it all could be, when +suddenly a tall, commanding woman came into the apartment. Again a pair +of large, threatening eyes looked at him through the veil, while he knew +from her green, gold-embroidered caftan, that if it was not the pasha's +wife, it was at least one of his favorites, who was before him, and so he +hurriedly knelt down, and crossing his hands on his breast, he put his +head on to the ground before her. But a clear, diabolical laugh made him +look up, and when the beautiful Odalisque threw back her veil, he uttered +a cry of terror, for his wife, his deceived wife, whom he had sold, was +standing before him. + +"Do you know me?" she asked with quiet dignity. "Viteska!" "Yes, that was +my name when I was your wife," she replied quickly, in a contemptuous +voice; "but now that I am the pasha's wife, my name is Sarema. I do not +suppose you ever expected to find me again, you wretch, when you sold me +in Varna to an old Jewish profligate, who was only half alive. You see I +have got into better hands, and I have made my fortune, as you said I +should do. Well? What do you expect of me; what thanks, what reward?" + +The wretched man was lying overwhelmed, at the feet of the woman whom he +had so shamefully deceived, and could not find a word to say; he had felt +that he was lost, and had not even got the courage to beg for mercy. "You +deserve death, you miscreant," Sarema continued. "You are in my hands, +and I can do whatever I please with you, for the pasha has left your +punishment to me alone. I ought to have you impaled, and to feast my eyes +on your death agonies. That would be the smallest compensation for all +the years of degradation that I have been through, and which I owe to +you." "Mercy, Viteska! Mercy!" the wretched man cried, trembling all +over, and raising his hands to her in supplication. + +The Odalisque's only reply was a laugh, in which rang all the cruelty of +an insulted woman's deceived heart. It seemed to give her pleasure to see +the man whom she had loved, and who had so shamefully trafficked in her +beauty, in his mortal agony, as he cringed before her, whining for his +life, as he clung to her knees, but at last she seemed to relent +somewhat. + +"I will give your life, you miserable wretch," she said, "but you shall +not go unpunished." So saying, she clapped her hands, and four black +eunuchs came in, and seized the favorite's unfortunate husband and in a +moment bound his hands and feet. + +"I have altered my mind, and he shall not be put to death," Sarema said, +with a smile that made the traitor's blood run cold in his veins; "but +give him a hundred blows with the bastinade, and I will stand by and +count them." "For God's sake," the merchant screamed, "I can never endure +it." "We will see about that," the favorite said, coldly, "and if you +die under it, it was allotted you by fate; I am not going to retract my +orders." + +She threw herself down on the cushions, and began to smoke a long pipe, +which a female slave handed to her on her knees. At a sign from her the +eunuchs tied the wretched man's feet to the pole, by which the soles of +the culprit were raised, and began the terrible punishment. Already at +the tenth blow the merchant began to roar like a wild animal, but his +wife whom he had betrayed, remained unmoved, carelessly blowing the blue +wreaths of smoke into the air, and resting on her lovely arm, she watched +his features, which were distorted by pain, with merciless enjoyment. + +During the last blows he only groaned gently, and then he fainted. + + * * * * * + +A year later the dealer was caught with his female merchandise by the +police in an Austrian town, and handed over to justice, when he made a +full confession, and by that means the parents of the _Odalisque of +Senichou_ heard of their daughter's position. As they knew that she was +happy and surrounded by luxury, they made no attempt to get her out of +the Pasha's hands, who, like a thorough Mussulman, had become the slave +of his slave. + +The unfortunate husband was sent over to the frontier when he was +released from prison. His shameful traffic, however, flourishes still, +in spite of all the precautions of the police and of the consuls, and +every year he provides the harems of the East with those voluptuous +_Boxclanas_, especially from Bohemia and Hungary, who, in the eyes of +a Mussulman, vie for the prize of beauty, with the slender Circassian +women. + + + + +A GOOD MATCH + + +Strauss' band was playing in the saloons of the Horticultural Society, +which was so full that the young cadet Hussar-sergeant Max B., who had +nothing better to do on an afternoon when he was off duty than to drink a +glass of good beer and to listen to a new waltz tune, had already been +looking about for a seat for some time, when the head waiter, who knew +him, quickly took him to an unoccupied place, and without waiting for his +orders, brought him a glass of beer. A very gentlemanly-looking man, and +three elegantly dressed ladies were sitting at the table. + +The cadet saluted them with military politeness, and sat down, but almost +before he could put the glass to his lips, he noticed that the two elder +ladies, who appeared to be married, turned up their noses very much at +his taking a seat at their table, and even said a few words which he +could not catch, but which no doubt referred unpleasantly to him. "I am +afraid I am in the way here," the cadet said; and he got up to leave, +when he felt a pull at his sabre-tasch beneath the table, and at the same +time the gentleman felt bound to say with some embarrassment: "Oh! not at +all; on the contrary, we are very pleased that you have chosen this +table." + +Thereupon the cadet resumed his seat, not so much because he took the +gentleman's invitation as sincere, but because the silent request to +remain, which he had received under the table, and which was much more +sincerely meant, had raised in him one of those charming illusions, which +are so frequent in our youth, and which promised so much happiness, with +electrical rapidity. He could not doubt for a moment, that the daring +invitation came from the third, the youngest and prettiest of the ladies, +into whose company a fortunate accident had thrown him. + +From the moment that he had sat down by her, however, she did not deign +to bestow even another look on him, much less a word, and to the young +hussar, who was still rather inexperienced in such matters, this seemed +rather strange; but he possessed enough natural tact not to expose +himself to a rebuff by any hasty advances, but quietly to wait further +developments of the adventure on the part of the heroine of it. This gave +him the opportunity of looking at her more closely, and for this he +employed the moments when their attention was diverted from him, and was +taken up by conversation among themselves. + +The girl, whom the others called Angelica, was a thorough Viennese +beauty, not exactly regularly beautiful, for her features were not Roman +or Greek, and not even strictly German, and yet they possessed every +female charm, and were seductive, in the fullest sense of the word. Her +strikingly small nose, which in a lady's-maid might have been called +impudent, and her little mouth with its voluptuously full lips, which +would have been called lustful in a street-walker, imparted an +indescribable piquant charm to her small head, which was surmounted by +an imposing tower of that soft brown hair which is so characteristic of +Viennese women. Her bright eyes were full of good sense, and a merry +smile lurked continually in the most charming little dimples near her +mouth and on her chin. + +In less than a quarter of an hour, our cadet was fettered, with no more +will of his own than a slave has, to the triumphal chariot of this +delightful little creature, and as he hoped and believed--for ever. +And he was a man worth capturing. He was tall and slim, but muscular, and +looked like an athlete, and at the time he had one of those handsome, +open faces which women like so much. His honest, dark eyes showed +strength of will, courage and strong passions, and that, women also like. + +During an interval in the music, an elderly gentleman, with the ribbon of +an order in his button-hole, came up to the table, and from the manner in +which he greeted them, it was evident that he was an old friend. From +their conversation, which was carried on in a very loud tone of voice, +and with much animation, in the bad, Viennese fashion, the cadet gathered +that the gentleman who was with the ladies, was a Councilor of Legation, +and that the eldest lady was his wife, while the second lady was his +married, and the youngest his unmarried, sister-in-law. When they at last +rose to go, the pretty girl, evidently intentionally, put her velvet +jacket, trimmed with valuable sable, very loosely over her shoulders; +then she remained standing at the exit, and slowly put it on, so that the +cadet had an opportunity to get close to her. "Follow us," she whispered +to him, and then ran after the others. + +The cadet was only too glad to obey her directions, and followed them at +a distance, without being observed, to the house where they lived. A week +passed without his seeing the pretty Angelica again, or without her +giving him any sign of life. The waiter in the Horticultural Society's +grounds, whom he asked about them, could tell him nothing more than that +they were people of position, and a few days later the cadet saw them all +again at a concert, but he was satisfied with looking at his ideal from a +distance. She, however, when she could do so without danger, gave him +one of those coquettish looks which inexperienced young men imagine +express the innermost feelings of a pure, virgin heart. On that occasion +she left the grounds with her sisters, much earlier, and as she passed +the handsome cadet, she let a small piece of rolled-up paper fall, which +only contained the words: "Come at ten o'clock to-night, and ring the +bell." + +He was outside the house at the stroke of ten and rang, but his +astonishment knew no bounds when, instead of Angelica or her confidential +maid, the housekeeper opened the door. She saw his confusion, and quickly +put an end to it by taking his hand, and pulling him into the house. +"Come with me," she whispered; "I know all about it. The young lady will +be here directly, so come along." Then she lead him through the kitchen +into a room which was shut off from the rest of the house, and which she +had apparently furnished for similar meetings, on her own account, and +left him there by himself, and the cadet was rather surprised to see the +elegant furniture, a wide, soft couch, and some rather obscene pictures +in broad, gilt frames. In a few minutes, the beautiful girl came, in, and +without any further ceremony, threw her arms round the young soldier's +neck. In her _negligee_, she appeared to him much more beautiful than in +her elegant outdoor dress, but the virginal fragrance which then pervaded +her, had given way to that voluptuous atmosphere which surrounds a young +newly-married woman. + +Angelica, whose little feet were encased in blue velvet slippers lined +with ermine, and who was wrapped in a richly embroidered, white +dressing-gown, that was trimmed with lace, drew the handsome cadet down +on to the couch with graceful energy, and almost before he exactly knew +what he had come for, she was his, and the young soldier, who was half +dazed at his unexpected victory and good fortune, did not leave her until +after twelve o'clock. He returned every night at ten, rang the bell, and +was admitted by the girl's slyly-smiling confidante, and a few moments +later was clasping his little goddess, who used to wrap her delicate, +white limbs sometimes in dark sable, and at others in princely ermine, +in his arms. Every time they partook of a delicious supper, laughed and +joked and loved each other like only young, good-looking people do love, +and frequently they entertained one another until morning. + +Once the cadet attempted diffidently to pay the housekeeper for her +services, and also for the supper, but she refused his money with a +laugh, and said that everything was already settled; and the young +soldier had reveled in this manner in boundless bliss for four months, +when, by an unfortunate accident, he met his mistress in the street one +day. She was alone, but in spite of this she contracted her delicate, +finely-arched eyebrows angrily, when he was about to speak to her, and +turned her head away. This hurt the honest young fellow's feelings, and +when that evening she drew him to her bosom, that was rising and falling +tempestuously under the black velvet that covered it, he remonstrated +with her quietly, but emphatically.--She made a little grimace, and +looking at him coldly and angrily, she at last said, shortly: "I forbid +you to take any notice of me out of doors. I do not choose to recognize +you; do you understand?" + +The cadet was surprised and did not reply, but the harmony of his +pleasures was destroyed by a harsh discord. For some time he bore his +misery in silence and with resignation, but at last the situation became +unendurable; his mistress's fiery kisses seemed to mock him, and the +pleasure which she gave him to degrade him, so at last he summoned up +courage, and in his open way, he came straight to the point. + +"What do you think of our future, Angelica?" She wrinkled her brows a +little. "Do not let us talk about it; at any rate not to-day." "Why not? +We must talk about it sooner or later," he replied, "and I think it is +high time for me to explain my intentions to you, if I do not wish to +appear as a dishonorable scoundrel in your eyes." She looked at him in +surprise. "I look upon you as one of the best and most honorable of men, +Max," she said, soothingly, after a pause. "And do you trust me also?" +"Of course I do." "Are you convinced that I love you honestly?" "Quite." +"Then do not hesitate any longer to bestow your hand upon me," her lover +said, in conclusion. "What are you thinking about?" she cried, quickly, +in a tone of refusal. "What is to be the end of our connection? What is +at any rate not permissible with a woman, is wrong and dishonorable +with a girl. You yourself must feel lowered if you do not become my wife +as soon as possible." "What a narrow-minded view," Angelica replied, +angrily, "but as you wish it, I will give you my opinion on the subject, +but ... by letter." "No, no; now, directly." + +The pretty girl did not speak for some time, and looked down, but +suddenly she looked at her lover, and a malicious, mocking smile lurked +in the corners of her mouth. "Well, I love you, Max, I love you really +and ardently," she said, carelessly; "but I can never be your wife. If +you were an officer I might perhaps marry you; yes, I certainly would, +but as it is, it is impossible." "Is that your last word?" the cadet +said, in great excitement. She only nodded, and then put her full, white +arms round his neck, with all the security of a mistress who is granting +some favor to her slave; but on that occasion she was mistaken. He sprang +up, seized his sword and hurried out of the room, and she let him go, for +she felt certain that he would come back again, but he did not do so, and +when she wrote to him, he did not answer her letters, and still did not +come; so at last she gave him up. + +It was a bad, a very bad, experience for the honorable young fellow; the +highborn, frivolous girl had trampled on all the ideals and illusions of +his life with her small feet, for he then saw only too clearly, that she +had not loved him, but that he had only served her pleasures and her +lusts, while he, he had loved her so truly! + +About a year after the catastrophe with charming Angelica, the handsome +cadet happened to be in his captain's quarters, and accidentally saw a +large photograph of a lady on his writing table, and on going up +and looking at it, he recognized--Angelica. + +"What a beautiful girl," he said, wishing to find out how the land lay. +"That is the lady I am going to marry," the captain, whose vanity was +flattered, said, "and she is as pure and as good as an angel, just +as she is as beautiful as one, and into the bargain she comes of a very +good and very rich family; in short, in the fullest sense of the word, +she is 'a good match.'" + + + + +A FASHIONABLE WOMAN + + +It can easily be proved that Austria is far richer in talented men in +every domain, than North Germany, but while men are systematically +drilled there for the vocation which they choose, like the Prussian +soldiers are, with us they lack the necessary training, especially +technical training, and consequently very few of them get beyond mere +diletantism. Leo Wolfram was one of those intellectual diletantes, and +the more pleasure one took in his materials and characters, which were +usually boldly taken from real life, and in a certain political, and what +is still more, in a plastic plot, the more he was obliged to regret that +he had never learnt to compose or to mold his characters, or to write; in +one word, that he had never become a literary artist, but how greatly he +had in himself the materials for a master of narration, his "Dissolving +Views," and still more his _Goldkind_,[4] prove. + +[Footnote 4: Golden Child.] + +This Goldkind is a striking type of our modern society, and the novel of +that name contains all the elements of a classic novel, although of +course in a crude, unfinished state. What an exact reflection of our +social circumstances Leo Wolfram gave in that story our present +reminiscences will show, in which a lady of that race plays the principal +part. + +It may be ten years ago, that every day four very stylishly dressed +persons went to dine in a corner of the small dining-room of one of the +best hotels in Vienna, who, both there and elsewhere, gave occasion +for a great amount of talk. They were an Austrian landowner, his charming +wife, and two young diplomatists, one of whom came from the North, while +the other was a pure son of the South. There was no doubt that the lady +came in for the greatest share of the general interest in every respect. + +The practiced observer and discerner of human nature easily recognized +in her one of those characters which Goethe has so aptly named +"problematical," for she was one of those individuals who are always +dissatisfied and at variance with themselves and with the world, who are +a riddle to themselves, and who can never be relied on, and with the +interesting and captivating, though unfortunate contradictions in her +nature, she made a strong impression on everybody, even by her mere +outward appearance. She was one of those women who are called beautiful, +without their being really so. Her face, as well as her figure, was +wanting in aesthetic lines, but there was no doubt that, in spite of that, +or perhaps on that very account, she was the most dangerous, infatuating +woman that one could imagine. + +She was tall and thin, and there was a certain hardness about her figure, +which became a charm through the vivacity and grace of her movements; her +features harmonized with her figure, for she had a high, clever, cold +forehead, a strong mouth with sensual lips, and an angular, sharp chin, +the effect of which was, however, diminished by her slightly turned-up, +small nose, her beautifully arched eyebrows, and her large, animated, +swimming blue eyes. + +In her face, which was almost too full of expression for a woman, there +was as much feeling, kindness and candor as there was calculation, +coolness and deceit, and when she was angry and drew her upper lip up, so +as to show her dazzlingly white teeth, it had even a devilish look of +wickedness and cruelty, and at that time, when women still wore their own +hair, the beauty of her long, chestnut plaits, which she fastened on the +top of her head like a crown, was very striking. Besides this, she was +remarkable for her elegant, tasteful dresses, and a bearing which united +to the dignity of a lady of rank that undefinable something which makes +actresses and women who belong to the higher classes of the _demi-monde_ +so interesting to us. + +In Paris she would have been taken for a kept woman, but in Vienna the +best drawing-rooms were open to her, and she was not looked upon as more +respectable or as less respectable than any other aristocratic beauties. + +Her husband decidedly belonged to that class of men whom that witty +writer, Balzac, so delightfully calls _les hommes predestines_ in his +_Physiologie du Mariage_. Without doubt, he was a very good-looking man, +but he bore that stamp of insignificance which so often conceals +coarseness and vulgarity, and was one of those men who, in the long run, +become unendurable to a woman of refined tastes. He had a good private +income, but his wife understood the art of enjoying life, and so a +deficit in the yearly accounts of the young couple became the rule, +without causing the lively lady to check her noble passion in the least +on that account; she kept horses and carriages, rode with the greatest +boldness, had her box at the opera, and gave beautiful little suppers, +which at that time was the highest aim of a Viennese woman of her class. + +One of the two young diplomats who accompanied her, a young Count, +belonging to a well-known family in North Germany, and who was a perfect +gentleman in the highest sense of the word, was looked upon as her +adorer, while the other, who was his most intimate friend, yet, in spite +of his ancient name and his position as attache to a foreign legation, +gave people that distinct impression that he was an adventurer, which +makes the police keep such a careful eye on some persons, and he had the +reputation of being an unscrupulous and dangerous duellist. Short, thin, +with a yellow complexion, with strongly-marked but engaging features, an +aquiline nose and bright, dark eyes, he was the typical picture of a man +who seduces women and kills men. + +The handsome woman appeared to be in love with the Count, and to take an +interest in his friend; at least, that was the construction that the +others in the dining-room put upon the situation, as far as it could +be made out from the behavior and looks of the people concerned, and +especially from their looks, for it was strange how devotedly and +ardently the beautiful woman's blue eyes rested on the Count, and with +what wild, diabolical sympathy she gazed at the Italian from time to +time, and it was hard to guess whether there was most love or hatred in +that glance. None of the four, however, who were then dining and chatting +so gaily together, had any presentiment at the time that they were +amusing themselves over a mine, which might explode at any moment, and +bury them all. + +It was the husband of the beautiful woman who provided the tinder. One +day he told her that she must make up her mind to the most rigid +retrenchment, give up her box at the opera, and sell her carriage and +horses, if she did not wish to risk her whole position in society. Her +creditors had lost all patience, and were threatening to distrain on her +property, and even to put her in prison. She made no reply to this +revelation, but during dinner she said to the Count, in a whisper, that +she must speak to him later, and would, therefore, come to see him at his +house. When it was dark, she came thickly veiled, and after she had +responded to his demonstrations of affection for some time, with more +patience than amiableness, she began. Their conversation is extracted +from his diary. + +"You are so unconcerned and happy, while misery and disgrace are +threatening me!" "Please explain what you mean!" "I have incurred some +debts." "Again?" he said reproachfully, "why do you not come to me at +once, for you must do it in the end, and then at least you would avoid +any exposure?" "Please do not take me to task," she replied; "you know it +only makes me angry. I want some money; can you give me some?" "How much +do you want?" She hesitated, for she had not the courage to name the real +amount, but at last she said, in a low voice: "Five thousand florins."[5] +It was evidently only a small portion of what she really required, so +he replied: "I am sure you want more than that!" "No." "Really not?" "Do +not make me angry." + +[Footnote 5: About L500, nominally.] + +He shrugged his shoulders, went to his strong box and gave her the money, +whereupon she nodded, and giving him her hand, she said: "You are always +kind, and as long as I have you, I am not afraid; but if I were to lose +you, I should be the most unhappy woman in the world." "You always have +the same fears; but I shall never leave you; it would be impossible for +me to separate from you," the Count exclaimed. "And if you die?" she +interrupted him hastily. "If I die?" the Count said, with a peculiar +smile. "I have provided for you in that eventuality also." "Do you +mean to say" ... she stammered, flushed, and her large, lovely eyes +rested on her lover with an indescribable expression in them. He, +however, opened a drawer in his writing-table, and took out a document, +which he gave her. It was his will. She opened it with almost indecent +haste, and when she saw the amount--thirty thousand florins--she grew +pale to her very lips. + +It was a moment in which the germs of a crime were sown in her breast, +but one of those crimes which cannot be touched by the Criminal Code. A +few days after she had paid her visit to the Count, she herself received +one from the Italian. In the course of conversation he took a jewel case +out of his breast pocket and asked her opinion of the ornaments, as she +was well-known for her taste in such matters, telling her at the same +time, that it was intended as a present for an actress, with whom he was +on intimate terms.--"It is a magnificent set!" she said, as she looked at +it. "You have made an excellent selection." Then she suddenly became +absorbed in thought, while her nostrils began to quiver, and that touch +of cold cruelty played on her lips. + +"Do you think that the lady for whom this ornament is intended will be +pleased with it?" the Italian asked. "Certainly," she replied; "I myself +would give a great deal to have it." "Then may I venture to offer it to +you?" the Italian said. + +She blushed, but did not refuse it, but the same evening she rushed into +her lover's room in a state of the greatest excitement. "I am beside +myself," she stammered; "I have been most deeply insulted." "By whom?" +the Count asked, excitedly. "By your friend, who has dared to send me +some jewelry to-day. I suppose he looks upon me as a lost woman; perhaps +I am already looked upon as belonging to the _demi-monde_, and this I owe +to you, to you alone, and to my mad love for you, to which I have +sacrificed my honor and everything. Everything!" She threw herself down +and sobbed, and would not be pacified until the Count gave her his word +of honor that he would set aside every consideration for his friend, and +obtain satisfaction for her at any price. He met the Italian the same +evening at a card party and questioned him. + +"I did not, in the first place, send the lady the jewelry, but I gave it +to her myself, not, however, until she had asked me to do so." "That is a +shameful lie!" the Count shouted, furiously. Unfortunately, there were +others present, and his friend took the matter seriously, so the next +morning he sent his seconds to the Count. + +Some of their real friends tried to settle the matter in another way, but +his bad angel, his mistress, who required thirty thousand florins, drove +the Count to his death. He was found in the Prater, with his friend's +bullet in his chest. A letter in his pocket spoke of suicide, but the +police did not doubt for a moment that a duel had taken place. Suspicion +soon fell on the Italian, but when they went to arrest him, he had +already made his escape. + +The husband of the beautiful, problematical woman, called on the +broken-hearted father of the man who had been killed in the duel, and who +had hastened to Vienna on receipt of a telegraphic message, a few hours +after his arrival, and demanded the money. "My wife was your son's most +intimate friend," he stammered, in embarrassment, in order to justify his +action as well as he could. "Oh! I know that," the old Count replied, +"and female friends of that kind want to be paid immediately, and in +full. Here are the thirty thousand florins." + +And our _Goldkind_? She paid her debts, and then withdrew from the scene +for a while. She had been compromised, certainly, but then, she had risen +in value in the eyes of those numerous men who can only adore and +sacrifice themselves for a woman when her foot is on the threshold of +vice and crime. + +I saw her last during the Franco-German war, in the beautiful +_Mirabell-garden_ at Salzburg. She did not seem to feel any qualms of +conscience, for she had become considerably stouter, which made her more +attractive, more beautiful, and consequently, more dangerous, than she +was before. + + + + +THE CARNIVAL OF LOVE + + +The Princess Leonie was one of those beautiful, brilliant enigmas, who +irresistibly allure everyone like a Sphinx, for she was young, charming, +and singularly lovely, and understood how to heighten her charms not a +little by carefully-chosen dresses. She was a great lady of the right +stamp, and was very intellectual into the bargain, which is not the case +with all aristocratic ladies; she also took great interest in art and +literature, and it was even said that she patronized one of our poets in +a manner which was worthy of the Medicis, and that she strewed the +beautiful roses of continual female sympathy on to his thorny path. All +this was evident to everybody, and had nothing strange about it, but the +world would have liked to know the history of that woman, and to look +into the depths of her soul, and because people could not do this in +Princess Leonie's case, they thought it very strange. + +No one could read that face, which was always beautiful, always cheerful, +and always the same; no one could fathom those large, dark, unfathomable +eyes, which hid their secrets under the unvarying brilliancy of majestic +repose, like a mountain lake, whose waters look black on account of their +depth. For everybody was agreed that the beautiful princess had her +secrets, interesting and precious secrets, like all other ladies of our +fashionable world. + +Most people looked upon her as a flirt who had no heart, and even no +blood, and they asserted that she was only virtuous because the power of +loving was denied her, but that she took all the more pleasure in seeing +that she was loved, and that she set her trammels and enticed her +victims, until they surrendered at discretion at her feet, so that she +might leave them to their fate, and hurry off in pursuit of some fresh +game. + +Others declared that the beautiful woman had met with her romances in +life, and was still having them, but, as a thorough Messalina, she knew +how to conceal her adventures as cleverly as that French queen who had +every one of her lovers thrown into the cold waters of the Seine, as soon +as he quitted her soft, warm arms, and she was described thus to Count +Otto F., a handsome cavalry officer, who had made the acquaintance of the +beautiful, dangerous woman at that fashionable watering place, Karlsbad, +and had fallen deeply in love with her. + +Even before he had been introduced to her, the Princess had already +exchanged fiery, encouraging glances with him, and when a brother officer +took him to call on her, she welcomed him with a smile which appeared to +promise him happiness, but after he had paid his court to her for a +month, he did not seem to have made any progress, and as she possessed in +a high degree the skill of being able to avoid even the shortest private +interviews, it appeared as if matters would go no further than that +delightful promise. + +Night after night, the enamored young officer walked along the garden +railings of her villa as close to her windows as possible, without being +noticed by any one, and at last fortune seemed to favor him. The moon, +which was nearly at the full, was shining brightly, and in its silvery +light he saw a tall, female figure, with large plaits round her head, +coming along the grave path; he stood still, as he thought he recognized +the Princess, but as she came nearer he saw a pretty girl, whom he did +not know, and who came up to the railings and said to him with a smile: +"What can I do for you, Count?" mentioning his name. + +"You seem to know me, Fraeulein." "Oh! I am only the Princess's +lady's-maid." ... "But you could do me a great favor." "How?" she asked +quickly: "You might give the Princess a letter." ... "I should not +venture to do that," the girl replied with a peculiar, half-mocking, +half-pitying smile, and with a deep curtsey, she disappeared behind +the raspberry bushes which formed a hedge along the railings. + +The next morning, as the Count, with several other ladies and gentlemen, +was accompanying the Princess home from the pump-room, the fair coquette +let her pocket-handkerchief fall just outside her house. The young +officer took this for a hint, so he picked it up, concealed the letter +that he had written, which he always kept about him so as to be prepared +for any event, in the folds of the soft cambric, and gave it back to the +Princess, who quickly put it into her pocket. That also seemed to him to +be a good augury, and, in fact, in the course of a few hours he received +a note in disguised handwriting, by the post, in which his bold wooing +was graciously entertained, and an appointment was made for the same +night in the pavilion of the Princess's villa. + +The happiness of the enamored young officer knew no bounds; he kissed the +letter a hundred times, thanked the Princess when he met her in the +afternoon where the band was playing by his animated looks, which she +either did not or could not understand, and at night was standing an hour +before the appointed time behind the wall at the bottom of the garden. + +When the church clock struck eleven he climbed over it and jumped on to +the ground on the other side, and looked about him carefully; then he +went up to the small, white-washed summer-house, where the Princess had +promised to meet him, on tiptoe. He found the door ajar, went in, and +at the same moment he felt two soft arms thrown round him. "Is it +you, Princess?" he asked, in a whisper, for the pavilion was in +total darkness, as the venetian blinds were drawn. "Yes, Count, it is +I." ... "How cruel." ... "I love you, but I am obliged to conceal my +passion under the mask of coldness because of my social position." + +As she said this, the enamored woman, who was trembling on his breast +with excitement, drew him on to a couch that occupied one side of the +pavilion, and began to kiss him ardently. The lovers spent two blissful +hours in delightful conversation and intoxicating pleasures; then she +bade him farewell, and told him to remain where he was until she had gone +back to the house. He obeyed her, but could not resist looking at her +through the venetian blinds, and he saw her tall, slim figure as she went +along the gravel path with an undulating walk. She wore a white boumous, +which he recognized as having seen in the pump-room; her soft, black hair +fell down over her shoulders, and before she disappeared into the villa +she stood for a moment and looked back, but he could not see her face, +as she wore a thick veil. + +When Count F. met the Princess the next morning in company with other +ladies, when the band was playing, she showed an amount of unconstraint +which confused him, and while she was joking in the most unembarrassed +manner, he turned crimson and stammered out such a lot of nonsense that +the ladies noticed it, and made him the target for their wit. None of +them was bolder or more confident in their attacks on him than the +Princess, so that at last he looked upon the woman who concealed so much +passion in her breast, and who yet could command herself so thoroughly, +as a kind of miracle, and at last said to himself: "The world is right; +woman is a riddle!" + +The Princess remained there for some weeks longer, and always maintained +the same polite and friendly, but cool and sometimes ironical, demeanor +towards him, but he easily endured being looked upon as her unfortunate +adorer by the world, for at least every other day a small, scented note, +stamped with her arms and signed _Leonie_, summoned him to the pavilion, +and there he enjoyed the full, delightful possession of the beautiful +woman. It, however, struck him as strange that she would never let him +see her face. Her head was always covered with a thick black veil, +through which he could see her eyes, which sparkled with love, +glistening; he passed his fingers through her hair, he saw her well-known +dresses, and once he succeeded in getting possession of one of her +pocket-handkerchiefs, on which the name _Leonie_ and the princely coronet +were magnificently embroidered. + +When she returned to Vienna for the winter, a note from her invited him +to follow her there, and as he had indefinite leave of absence from his +regiment, he could obey the commands of his divinity. As soon as he +arrived there he received another note, which forbade him to go to her +house, but promised him a speedy meeting in his rooms, and so the young +officer had the furniture elegantly renovated, and looked forward to a +visit from the beautiful woman with all a lover's impatience. + +At last she came, wrapped in a magnificent cloak of green velvet, trimmed +with ermine, but still thickly veiled, and before she came in she made it +a condition that the room in which he received her should be quite dark, +and after he had put out all the lights she threw off her fur, and her +coldness gave way to the most impetuous tenderness. + +"What is the reason that you will never allow me to see your dear, +beautiful face?" the officer asked. "It is a whim of mine, and I suppose +I have the right to indulge in whims," she said, hastily. "But I so long +once more to see your splendid figure and your lovely face in full +daylight," the Count continued. "Very well then, you shall see me at the +Opera this evening." + +She left him at six o'clock, after stopping barely an hour with him, and +as soon as her carriage had driven off he dressed and went to the opera. +During the overture, he saw the Princess enter her box and looking +dazzlingly beautiful; she was wearing the same green velvet cloak, +trimmed with ermine, that he had had in his hands a short time before, +but almost immediately she let it fall from her shoulders, and showed a +bust which was worthy of the Goddess of Love. She spoke with her husband +with much animation, and smiled with her usual cold smile, though she did +not give her adorer even a passing look, but, in spite of this, he felt +the happiest of mortals. + +In Vienna, however, the Count was not as fortunate as he had been at +Karlsbad, where he had first met her, for his beautiful mistress only +came to see him once a week; often she only stopped a short time with +him, and once nearly six weeks passed without her favoring him at all, +and she did not even make any excuse for remaining away. Just then, +however, Leonie's husband accidentally made the young officer's +acquaintance at the Jockey Club, took a fancy to him, and asked him +to go and see him at his house. + +When he called and found the Princess alone his heart felt as if it would +burst with pleasure, and seizing her hand, he pressed it ardently to his +lips. "What are you doing, Count?" she said, drawing back. "You are +behaving very strangely." "We are alone," the young officer whispered, +"so why this mask of innocence? Your cruelty is driving me mad, for it is +six weeks since you came to see me last." "I certainly think you are out +of your mind," the Princess replied, with every sign of the highest +indignation, and hastily left the drawing-room. Nothing else remained for +the Count but to do the same thing, but his mind was in a perfect whirl, +and he was quite incapable of explaining to himself the Princess's +enigmatical behavior. He dined at an hotel with some friends, and when he +got home he found a note in which the Princess begged him to pardon her, +and promised to justify her conduct, for which purpose she would see him +at eight o'clock that evening. + +Scarcely, however, had he read her note, when two of his brother-officers +came to see him, and asked him, with well-simulated anxiety, whether he +were ill. When he said that he was perfectly well, one of them continued, +laughing: "Then please explain the occurrence that is in everybody's +mouth to-day, in which you play such a comical part."--"I, a comical +part?" the Count shouted.--"Well, is it not very comical when you call on +a lady like Princess Leonie, whom you do not know, to upbraid her for her +cruelty, and most unceremoniously call her _thou_[6]?" + +[Footnote 6: In Germany, _thou du_, is only used between near relations, +lovers, very intimate friends, to children, servants, &c.--TRANSLATOR.] + +That was too much; Count F. might pardon the Princess for pretending +not to know him in society, but that she should make him a common +laughing-stock, nearly drove him mad. "If I call the Princess _thou_," +he exclaimed, "it is because I have the right to do so, as I will +prove."--His comrades shrugged their shoulders, but he asked them to +come again punctually at seven o'clock, and then he made his +preparations. + +At eight o'clock his divinity made her appearance, still thickly veiled, +but on this occasion wearing a valuable sable cloak. As usual, Count F. +took her into the dark-room and locked the outer door; then he opened +that which led into his bedroom, and his two friends came in, each with a +candle in his hand.--The lady in the sable cloak cried out in terror when +Count F. pulled off her veil, but then it was his turn to be surprised, +for it was not the Princess Leonie who stood before him, but her pretty +lady's-maid, who, now she was discovered, confessed that love had driven +her to assume her mistress's part, in which she had succeeded perfectly, +on account of the similarity of their figure, eyes and hair. She had +found the Count's letter in the Princess's pocket-handkerchief when they +were at Karlsbad and had answered it. She had made him happy, and had +heightened the illusion which her figure gave rise to by borrowing the +Princess's dresses. + +Of course the Count was made great fun of, and turned his back on Vienna +hastily that same evening, but the pretty lady's-maid also disappeared +soon after the catastrophe, and only by those means escaped from her +mistress's well-merited anger; for it turned out that that gallant little +individual had already played the part of her mistress more than once, +and had made all those hopeless adorers of the Princess, who had found +favor in her own eyes, happy in her stead. + +Thus the enigma was solved which Princess Leonie seemed to have proposed +to the world. + + + + +A DEER PARK IN THE PROVINCES + + +It is not very long ago that an Hungarian Prince, who was in an Austrian +cavalry regiment, was quartered in a wealthy Austrian garrison town. The +ladies of the local aristocracy naturally did everything they could to +allure the new comer, who was young, good-looking, animated and amusing, +into their nets, and at last one of the ripe beauties, who was now +resting there on her amorous laurels, after innumerable victories on the +hot floors of Viennese society, succeeded in taking him in her toils, but +only for a short time, for she had very nearly reached that limit in age +where, on the man's side, love ceases and esteem begins. But she had more +sense than most women, and she recognized the fact in good time, and as +she did not wish to give up the principal character which she played in +society there so easily, she reflected as to what means she could employ +to bind him to her in another manner. It is well known that the notorious +Marchioness de Pompadour, who was one of the mistresses of Louis XV. of +France, when her own charms did not suffice to fetter that changeable +monarch, conceived the idea of securing the chief power in the State and +in society for herself, by having a pavilion in the deer park, which +belonged to her, and where Louis XV. was in the habit of hunting, fitted +up with every accommodation of a harem, where she brought beautiful women +and girls of all ranks of life to the arms of her royal lover. + +Inspired by that historical example, the baroness began to arrange +evening parties, balls, and private theatricals in the winter, and in the +summer excursions into the country, and thus she gave the Prince, who at +that time was still, so to say, at her feet, the opportunity of plucking +fresh flowers. But even this clever expedient did not avail in the long +run, for beautiful women were scarce in that provincial town, and the few +which the local aristocracy could produce were not able to offer the +Prince any fresh attractions, when he had made their closer acquaintance. +At last, therefore, he turned his back on the highly-born Messalinas, and +began to bestow marked attention on the pretty women and girls of the +middle classes, either in the streets or when he was in his box at the +theater. + +There was one girl in particular, the daughter of a well-to-do merchant, +who was supposed to be the most beautiful girl in the capital, on to +whom his opera glass was constantly leveled, and whom he even followed +occasionally without being noticed. But Baroness Pompadour soon got wind +of this unprincely taste, and determined to do everything in her power to +keep her lover and the whole nobility, which was threatened, from such an +unheard-of disgrace, as an intrigue of a Prince with a girl of the middle +classes, would have been in her eyes. "It is really sad," the outraged +baroness once said to me, "that in these days princes and monarchs choose +their mistresses only from the stage, or even from the scum of the +people. But it is the fault of our ladies themselves. They mistake their +vocation! Ah! Where are those delightful times when the daughters of the +first families looked upon it as an honor to become their princes' +mistresses?" + +Consequently, the horror of the blue-blooded, aristocratic lady was +intense when the Prince, in his usual, amiable, careless manner, +suggested to her to people her deer park with girls of the lower orders. + +"It is a ridiculous prejudice," the Prince said on that occasion, "which +obliges us to shut ourselves off from the other ranks, and to confine +ourselves altogether to our own circle, for monotony and boredom are the +inevitable consequences of it. How many honorable men of sense and +education, and especially how many charming women and girls there are, +who do not belong to the aristocracy, who would infuse fresh life and a +new charm into our dull, listless society! I very much wish that a lady +like you would make a beginning, and would give up this exclusiveness, +which cannot be maintained in these days, and would enrich our circle +with the charming daughters of middle class families." + +A wish of the Prince's was as good as a command; so the baroness made a +wry face, but she accommodated herself to the circumstances, and promised +to invite some of the prettiest girls of the _plebs_ to a ball in a few +days. She really issued a number of invitations, and even condescended to +drive to the house of each of them in person. "But I must ask one thing +of you," she said to each of the pretty girls, "and that is to come +dressed as simply as possible; washing muslins will be best. The Prince +dislikes all finery and ostentation and he would be very vexed with me if +I were the cause of any extravagance on your part." + +The great day arrived; it was quite an event for the little town, and all +classes of society were in a state of the greatest excitement. The +pretty, plebeian girls, with her whom the Prince had first noticed at +their head, appeared in all their innocence, in plain, washing dresses, +according to the Prince's orders, with their hair plainly dressed, and +without any ornaments, except their own fresh, buxom charms. When they +were all captives in the den of the proud, aristocratic lioness, the poor +little mice were very much terrified when suddenly the aristocratic +ladies came into the ball-room, rustling in whole oceans of silks and +lace, with their haughty heads changed into so many hanging gardens of +Semiramis, loaded with all the treasures of India, and radiant as the +sun. + +At first the poor girls looked down in shame and confusion, and Baroness +Pompadour's eyes glistened with all the joy of triumph, but her +ill-natured pleasure did not last long, for the intrigue, on which the +Prince's ignoble passions were to make shipwreck, recoiled on the +highly-born lady patroness of the deer park. + +It was not the aristocratic ladies in their magnificent toilettes that +threw the girls from the middle classes into the shade, but, on the +contrary, those pretty girls in their washing dresses, and with the plain +but splendid ornament of their abundant hair looked far more charming +than they would have done in silk dresses with long trains, and with +flowers in their hair, and the novelty and unwontedness of their +appearance there allured not only the Prince, but all the other gentlemen +and officers, so that the proud grand-daughters of the lions, griffins, +and eagles, were quite neglected by the gentlemen, who danced almost +exclusively with the pretty girls of the middle classes. + +The faded lips of the baronesses and countesses uttered many a "_For +Shame_!" but all in vain, neither was it any good for the Baroness to +make up her mind that she would never again put a social medley before +the Prince in her drawing-room, for he had seen through her intrigue, and +gave her up altogether. _Sic transit gloria mundi!_ + +She, however, consoled herself as best she could. + + + + +THE WHITE LADY + + +Fortuna, the goddess of chance and good luck, has always been _Cupid's_ +best ally and Arnold T., who was a lieutenant in a hussar regiment, was +evidently a special favorite of both those roguish deities. + +This good-looking, well-bred young officer had been an enthusiastic +admirer of the two Countesses W., mother and daughter, during a tolerably +long leave of absence, which he spent with his relations in Vienna. He +had admired them from the _Prater_, and worshiped them at the opera, but +he had never had an opportunity of making their acquaintance, and when he +was back at his dull quarters in Galicia, he liked to think about those +two aristocratic beauties. Last summer his regiment was transferred to +Bohemia, to a wildly romantic district, that had been made illustrious +by a talented writer, which abounded in magnificent woods, lofty +mountain-forests and castles, and which was a favorite summer resort +of the neighboring aristocracy. + +Who can describe his joyful surprise, when he and his men were quartered +in an old, weather-beaten castle in the middle of a wood, and he learnt +from the house-steward who received him that the owner of the castle was +the husband, and, consequently, also the father of his Viennese ideals. +An hour after he had taken possession of his old-fashioned, but +beautifully furnished, room in a side-wing of the castle, he put on +his full-dress uniform, and throwing his dolman over his shoulders, he +went to pay his respects to the Count and the ladies. + +He was received with the greatest cordiality. The Count was delighted to +have a companion when he went out shooting, and the ladies were no less +pleased at having some one to accompany them on their walks in the +forests, or on their rides, so that he felt only half on the earth, and +half in the seventh heaven of Mohammedan bliss. Before supper he had time +to inspect the house more closely, and even to take a sketch of the +large, gloomy building from a favorable point. The ancient seat of the +Counts of W. was really very gloomy; in fact it created a sinister, +uncomfortable feeling. The walls, which were crumbling away here and +there, and which were covered with dark ivy; the round towers, which +harbored jackdaws, owls, and hawks; the AEolian harp, which complained +and sighed and wept in the wind; the stones in the castle yard, which +were overgrown with grass; the cloisters, in which every footstep +re-echoed; the great ancestral portraits which hung on the walls, coated +as it were with dark, mysterious veils by the centuries which had passed +over them--all this recalled to him the legends and fairy tales +of his youth, and he involuntarily thought of the _Sleeping Beauty in the +Wood_, and of _Blue Beard_, of the cruel mistress of the Kynast,[7] and +that aristocratic tigress of the Carpathians, who obtained the unfading +charms of eternal youth by bathing in human blood. + +[Footnote 7: A Castle, now a well-preserved ruin, in the Giant Mountains +in N. Germany. The legend is that its mistress, Kunigerude, vowed to +marry nobody except the Knight who should ride round the parapet of the +Castle, and many perished in the attempt. At last one of them succeeded +in performing the feat, but he merely sternly rebuked her, and took his +leave. He was accompanied by his wife, disguised as his page, according +to some versions of the legend.--TRANSLATOR.] + +He came in to supper where he found himself for the first time in company +with all the members of the family, just in the frame of mind that was +suitable for ghosts, and was not a little surprised when his host told +him, half smiling and half seriously, that the "White Lady" was +disturbing the castle again, and that she had latterly been seen very +often. "Yes, indeed," Countess Ida exclaimed; "You must take care, Baron, +for she haunts the very wing where your room is." The hussar was just in +the frame of mind to take the matter seriously, but, on the other hand, +when he saw the dark, ardent eyes of the Countess, and then the merry +blue eyes of her daughter fixed on him, any real fear of ghosts was quite +out of the question with him. For Baron T. feared nothing in this world, +but he possessed a very lively imagination, which could conjure up +threatening forms from another world so plainly that sometimes he felt +very uncomfortable at his own fancies. But on the present occasion that +malicious apparition had no power over him; the ladies took care of that, +for both of them were beautiful and amiable. + +The Countess was a mature Venus of thirty-six, of middle height, and with +the voluptuous figure of a true Viennese, with bright eyes, thick dark +hair, and beautiful white teeth, while her daughter Ida, who was +seventeen, had light hair and the pert little nose of the china figures +of shepherdesses in the dress of the period of Louis XIV., and was short, +slim, and full of French grace. Besides them and the Count, a son of +twelve and his tutor were present at supper. It struck the hussar as +strange that the tutor, who was a strongly-built young man, with a +winning face and those refined manners which the greatest plebeian +quickly acquires when brought into close and constant contact with the +aristocracy, was treated with great consideration by all the family +except the Countess, who treated him very haughtily. She assumed a +particularly imperious manner towards her son's tutor, and she either +found fault with, or made fun of, everything that he did, while he put +up with it all with smiling humility. + +Before supper was over their conversation again turned on to the ghost, +and Baron T. asked whether they did not possess a picture of the _White +Lady_. "Of course we have one," they all replied at once; whereupon Baron +T. begged to be allowed to see it. "I will show it you to-morrow," the +Count said. "No, Papa, now, immediately," the younger lady said +mockingly; "just before the ghostly hour, such a thing creates a much +greater impression." + +All who were present, not excepting the boy and his tutor, took a candle +and then they walked as if they had formed a torchlight procession, to +the wing of the house where the hussar's room was. There was a life-size +picture of the _White Lady_ hanging in a Gothic passage near his room, +among other ancestral portraits, and it by no means made a terrible +impression on anyone who looked at it, but rather the contrary. The +ghost, dressed in stiff, gold brocade and purple velvet, and with a hawk +on her wrist, looked like one of those seductive Amazons of the fifteenth +century, who exercised the art of laying men and game at their feet with +equal skill. + +"Don't you think that the _White Lady_ is very like mamma?" Countess Ida +said, interrupting the Baron's silent contemplation of the picture. +"There is no doubt of it," the hussar replied, while the Countess smiled +and the tutor turned red, and they were still standing before the +picture, when a strong gust of wind suddenly extinguished all the lights, +and they all uttered a simultaneous cry. The _White Lady_, the little +Count whispered, but she did not come, and as it was luckily a moonlight +night, they soon recovered from their momentary shock. The family retired +to their apartments, while the hussar and the tutor went to their own +rooms, which were situated in the wing of the castle which was haunted by +the _White Lady_; the officer's being scarcely thirty yards from the +portrait, while the tutor's were rather further down the corridor. + +The hussar went to bed, and was soon fast asleep, and though he had +rather uneasy dreams nothing further happened. But while they were at +breakfast the next morning, the Count's body-servant told them, with +every appearance of real terror, that as he was crossing the court-yard +at midnight, he had suddenly heard a noise like bats in the open +cloisters, and when he looked he distinctly saw the _White Lady_ gliding +slowly through them; but they merely laughed at the poltroon, and though +our hussar laughed also, he fully made up his mind, without saying a word +about it, to keep a look-out for the ghost that night. + +Again they had supper alone, without any company, had some music and +pleasant talk and separated at half-past eleven. The hussar, however, +only went to his room for form's sake; he loaded his pistols, and when +all was quiet in the castle, he crept down into the court-yard and took +up his position behind a pillar which was quite hidden in the shade, +while the moon, which was nearly at the full, flooded the cloisters with +its clear, pale light. + +There were no lights to be seen in the castle except from two windows, +which were those of the Countess's apartments, and soon they were also +extinguished. The clock struck twelve, and the hussar could scarcely +breathe from excitement; the next moment, however, he heard the noise +which the Count's body-servant had compared to that of bats, and almost +at the same instant a white figure glided slowly through the open +cloisters and passed so close to him, that it almost made his blood +curdle, and then it disappeared in the wing of the castle which he and +the tutor occupied. + +The officer who was usually so brave, stood as though he was paralyzed +for a few moments, but then he took heart, and feeling determined to make +the nearer acquaintance of the spectral beauty, he crept softly up the +broad staircase and took up his position in a deep recess in the +cloisters, where nobody could see him. + +He waited for a long time; he heard every quarter strike, and at last, +just before the close of the _witching hour_, he heard the same noise +like the rustling of bats, and then she came, he felt the flutter of her +white dress, and she stood before him--it was indeed the Countess. + +He presented his pistol at her as he challenged her, but she raised her +hand menacingly. "Who are you?" he exclaimed. "If you are really a ghost, +prove it, for I am going to fire." "For heaven's sake!" the White Lady +whispered, and at the same instant two white arms were thrown round him, +and he felt a full, warm bosom heaving against his own. + +After that night the ghost appeared more frequently still. Not only did +the _White Lady_ make her appearance every night in the cloisters, only +to disappear in the proximity of the hussar's rooms as long as the family +remained at the castle, but she even followed them to Vienna. + +Baron T., who went to that capital on leave of absence during the +following winter, and who was the Count's guest at the express wish of +his wife, was frequently told by the footman that although hitherto she +had seemed to be confined to the old castle in Bohemia, she had shown +herself now here, now there, in the mansion in Vienna, in a white dress +and making a noise like the wings of a bat, and bearing a striking +resemblance to the beautiful Countess. + + + + +CAUGHT + + +A young and charming lady, who was a member of the Viennese aristocracy, +went last summer, like young and charming ladies usually do, to a +fashionable Austrian watering place, Carlsbad, which is much frequented +by foreigners, without her husband. + +As is usually the case in their rank of life, she had married from family +considerations and for money; and the short spell of _Love after +Marriage_ was not sufficient to take deep root, and after she had +satisfied family traditions and her husband's wishes by giving birth +to a son and heir, they both went their way; the young, handsome and +fascinating man to his clubs, the race-course, and behind the scenes at +the theaters, and his charming, coquettish wife to her box at the opera, +to the ice in winter, and to some fashionable watering place in the +summer. + +On the present occasion she brought a young, very highly-connected Pole +with her from one of the latter resorts, who enjoyed all the rights and +the liberty of an avowed favorite, and who had to perform all the duties +of a slave. + +As is usual in such cases, the lady rented a small house in one of the +suburbs of Vienna, had it beautifully furnished and received her lover +there. She was always dressed very attractively, sometimes as _La Belle +Helene_ in Offenbach's Opera, only rather more after the ancient Greek +fashion; another time as an Odalisque in the Sultan's harem, and another +time as a lighthearted Suabian girl, and so forth. In winter, however, +she grew tired of such meetings, and she wanted to have matters more +comfortable, so she took it into her head to receive her lover in her own +house. But how was it to be done? That, however, gave her no particular +difficulty, as is the case with every woman, when once she has made up +her mind to a thing, and after thinking it over for a day or two she went +to the next _rendez-vous_, with a fully prepared plan of war. + +The Pole was one of those types of handsome men which are rare; he was +almost womanly in his delicate features, of the middle height, slim and +well-made, and he resembled a youthful Bacchus who might very easily be +made to pass for a Venus by the help of false locks; the more so as there +was not even the slightest down on his lips. The lady, therefore, who was +very fertile in resources, suggested to the handsome Pole that he might +just as well transform himself into a handsome Polish lady, so that he +might, under the cover of the ever feminine, be able to visit her +undisturbed, and as it was winter, the thick, heavy, capacious dress +assisted the metamorphosis. + +The lady, accordingly, bought a number of very beautiful costumes for her +lover, and in the course of a few days she told her husband that a +charming young Polish lady, whose acquaintance she had made in the +summer at Carlsbad, was going to spend the winter in Vienna, and would +very frequently come and see her. Her husband listened to her with the +greatest indifference, for it was one of his fundamental rules never to +make love to any of his wife's female friends, and he went to his club as +usual at night, and the next day had forgotten all about the Polish lady. + +And now, half an hour after the husband had left the house, a cab drove +up and a tall, slim, heavily veiled lady got out and went up the thickly +carpeted stairs, only to be metamorphosed into the most ardent lover in +the young woman's _boudoir_. The young Pole grew accustomed to his female +attire so quickly that he even ventured to appear in the streets in it, +and when he began to make conquests, and aristocratic gentlemen and +successful speculators on the Stock Exchange looked at him significantly, +and even followed him, he took a real pleasure in the part he was +playing, and began to understand the pleasure a coquette feels in +tormenting men. + +The young Pole became more and more daring, until at last one evening he +went to a private box at the opera, wrapped in an ermine cloak, on to +which his dark, false curls fell in heavy waves. + +A handsome young man in a box opposite to him ogled him incessantly from +the first moment, and the young Pole responded in a manner which made the +other bolder every minute. At the end of the third act, the box opener +brought the fictitious Venus a small bouquet with a card concealed in it, +on which was written in pencil: "You are the most lovely woman in the +world, and I implore you on my knees to grant me an interview." The young +Pole read the name of the man who had been captivated so quickly, and, +with a peculiar smile, wrote on a card on which nothing but the name +"Valeska" was printed: "After the theater," and sent Cupid's messenger +back with it. + +When the spurious Venus was about to enter her carriage after the +performance, thickly veiled and wrapped in her ermine cloak, the handsome +young man was standing by it with his hat off, and he opened the door for +her. She was kind enough to allow him to get in with her and during their +drive she talked to him in the most charming manner, but she was cruel +enough to dismiss him without pity before they reached her house, and +this she did every time. For she went to the theater each night now, and +every evening she received an ardent note, and every evening she allowed +the amorous swain to accompany her as far as her house, and men were +beginning to envy him on account of his brilliant conquest, when a +catastrophe happened which was very surprising for all concerned. + +The husband of the lady in whose eyes the Pole had found favor, surprised +the loving couple one day under circumstances which made any +justification impossible. But while he, trembling with rage and jealousy, +was drawing a small Circassian dagger which hung against the wall from +its sheath, and as his wife threw herself, half-fainting, on to a couch, +the young Pole had hastily put the false curls on to his head, and had +slipped into the silk dress and the sable cloak which he had been wearing +when he came into his mistress's boudoir. "What does this mean," the +husband stammered, "Valeska?"--"Yes, sir," the young Pole replied; +"Valeska, who has come here to show your wife a few love letters, +which." ... "No, no," the deceived, but nevertheless guilty, husband said +in imploring accents; "no, that is quite unnecessary." And at the same +time he put the dagger back into its sheath. "Very well then, there is a +truce between us," the Pole observed coolly, "but do not forget what +weapons I possess, and which I mean to retain against all contingencies." + +Then the gentlemen bowed politely to each other, and the unexpected +meeting came to an end. + +From that time forward, the terms on which the young married couple lived +together assumed the character of that everlasting peace, which President +Grant once promised to the whole world in his message to all nations. The +young woman did not find it necessary to make her lover put on +petticoats, and the husband constantly accompanied the real Valeska a +good deal further than he did the false one on that memorable occasion. + + + + +CHRISTMAS EVE + + +"The Christmas-eve supper![8] Oh! no, I shall never go in for that again!" +Stout Henri Templier said that in a furious voice, as if some one had +proposed some crime to him, while the others laughed and said: + +"What are you flying into a rage about?" + +[Footnote 8: A great institution in France, and especially in Paris, at +which black puddings are an indispensable dish.--TRANSLATOR.] + +"Because a Christmas-eve supper played me the dirtiest trick in the +world, and ever since I have felt an insurmountable horror for that night +of imbecile gayety." + +"Tell us what it is?" + +"You want to know what it was? Very well then, just listen. + +"You remember how cold it was two years ago at Christmas; cold enough to +kill poor people in the streets. The Seine was covered with ice; the +pavements froze one's feet through the soles of one's boots, and the +whole world seemed to be at the point of going to pot. + +"I had a big piece of work on, and so I refused every invitation to +supper, as I preferred to spend the night at my writing table. I dined +alone and then began to work. But about ten o'clock I grew restless at +the thought of the gay and busy life all over Paris, at the noise in the +streets which reached me in spite of everything, at my neighbors' +preparations for supper, which I heard through the walls. I hardly knew +any longer what I was doing; I wrote nonsense, and at last I came to the +conclusion that I had better give up all hope of producing any good work +that night. + +"I walked up and down my room; I sat down and got up again. I was +certainly under the mysterious influence of the enjoyment outside, and +I resigned myself to it. So I rang for my servant and said to her: + +"'Angela, go and get a good supper for two; some oysters, a cold +partridge, some crayfish, hams and some cakes. Put out two bottles of +champagne, lay the cloth and go to bed.' + +"She obeyed in some surprise, and when all was ready, I put on my great +coat and went out. A great question was to be solved: 'Whom was I going +to bring in to supper?' My female friends had all been invited elsewhere, +and if I had wished to have one, I ought to have seen about it +beforehand, so I thought that I would do a good action at the same time, +and I said to myself: + +"'Paris is full of poor and pretty girls who will have nothing on their +table to-night, and who are on the look out for some generous fellow. I +will act the part of Providence to one of them this evening; and I will +find one if I have to go into every pleasure resort, and have to question +them and hunt for one till I find one to my choice.' And I started off on +my search. + +"I certainly found many poor girls, who were on the look-out for some +adventure, but they were ugly enough to give any man a fit of +indigestion, or thin enough to freeze as they stood if they had stopped, +and you all know that I have a weakness for stout women. The more flesh +they have, the better I like them, and a female colossus would drive me +out of my senses with pleasure. + +"Suddenly, opposite the Theatre des Varietes, I saw a face to my liking. +A good head, and then two protuberances, that on the chest very +beautiful, and that on the stomach simply surprising; it was the stomach +of a fat goose. I trembled with pleasure, and said: + +"'By Jove! What a fine girl!' + +"It only remained for me to see her face. A woman's face is the dessert, +while the rest is ... the joint. + +"I hastened on, and overtook her, and turned round suddenly under a gas +lamp. She was charming, quite young, dark, with large, black eyes, and +I immediately made my proposition, which she accepted without any +hesitation, and a quarter of an hour later, we were sitting at supper in +my lodgings. 'Oh! how comfortable it is here,' she said as she came in, +and she looked about her with evident satisfaction at having found a +supper and a bed, on that bitter night. She was superb; so beautiful that +she astonished me, and so stout that she fairly captivated me. + +"She took off her cloak and hat, sat down and began to eat; but she +seemed in low spirits, and sometimes her pale face twitched as if she +were suffering from some hidden sorrow. + +"'Have you anything troubling you?' I asked her. + +"'Bah! Don't let us think of troubles!' + +"And she began to drink. She emptied her champagne glass at a draught, +filled it again, and emptied it again, without stopping, and soon a +little color came into her cheeks, and she began to laugh. + +"I adored her already, kissed her continually, and discovered that she +was neither stupid, nor common, nor coarse as ordinary street-walkers +are. I asked her for some details about her life, but she replied: + +"'My little fellow, that is no business of yours!' Alas! an hour +later.... + +"At last it was time to go to bed, and while I was clearing the table, +which had been laid in front of the fire, she undressed herself quickly, +and got in. My neighbors were making a terrible din, singing and +laughing like lunatics, and so I said to myself: + +"'I was quite right to go out and bring in this girl; I should never have +been able to do any work.' + +"At that moment, however, a deep groan made me look round, and I said: + +"'What is the matter with you, my dear?' + +"She did not reply, but continued to utter painful sighs, as if she were +suffering horribly, and I continued: + +"'Do you feel ill?' And suddenly she uttered a cry, a heartrending cry, +and I rushed up to the bed, with a candle in my hand. + +"Her face was distorted with pain, and she was wringing her hands, +panting and uttering long, deep groans, which sounded like a rattle in +the throat, and which are so painful to hear, and I asked her in +consternation: + +"'What is the matter with you? Do tell me what is the matter.' + +"'Oh! my stomach! my stomach!' she said. I pulled up the bed-clothes, and +I saw ... My friends, she was in labor. + +"Then I lost my head, and I ran and knocked at the wall with my fists, +shouting: 'Help! help!' + +"My door was opened almost immediately, and a crowd of people came in, +men in evening dress, women in low necks, harlequins, Turks, Musketeers, +and this inroad startled me so, that I could not explain myself, and +they, who had thought that some accident had happened, or that a crime +had been committed, could not understand what was the matter. At last, +however, I managed to say: + +"'This ... this ... woman ... is being confined.' + +"Then they looked at her, and gave their opinion, and a Friar, +especially, declared that he knew all about it, and wished to assist +nature, but as they were all as drunk as pigs, I was afraid that they +would kill her, and I rushed downstairs without my hat, to fetch an old +doctor, who lived in the next street. When I came back with him, the +whole house was up; the gas on the stairs had been relighted, the lodgers +from every floor were in my room, while four boatmen were finishing my +champagne and lobsters. + +"As soon as they saw me they raised a loud shout, and a milkmaid +presented me with a horrible little wrinkled specimen of humanity, that +was mewing like a cat, and said to me: + +"'It is a girl.' + +"The doctor examined the woman, declared that she was in a dangerous +state, as the event had occurred immediately after supper, and he took +his leave, saying he would immediately send a sick nurse and a wet nurse, +and an hour later, the two women came, bringing all that was requisite +with them. + +"I spent the night in my armchair, too distracted to be able to think of +the consequences, and almost as soon as it was light, the doctor came +again, who found his patient very ill, and said to me: + +"'Your wife, Monsieur....' + +"'She is not my wife,' I interrupted him. + +"'Very well then, your mistress; it does not matter to me.' + +"He told me what must be done for her, what her diet must be, and then +wrote a prescription. + +"What was I to do? Could I send the poor creature to the hospital? I +should have been looked upon as a brute in the house and in all the +neighborhood, and so I kept her in my rooms, and she had my bed for six +weeks. + +"I sent the child to some peasants at Poissy to be taken care of, and she +still costs me fifty francs[9] a month, for as I had paid at first, I +shall be obliged to go on paying as long as I live, and later on, she +will believe that I am her father. But to crown my misfortunes, when the +girl had recovered ... I found that she was in love with me, madly in +love with me, the baggage!" + +[Footnote 9: L2] + +"Well?" + +"Well, she had grown as thin as a homeless cat, and I turned the skeleton +out of doors, but she watches for me in the streets, hides herself, so +that she may see me pass, stops me in the evening when I go out, in order +to kiss my hand, and, in fact, worries me enough to drive me mad; and +that is why I never keep Christmas eve now." + + + + +WORDS OF LOVE + + +Sunday.-- + +You do not write to me, I never see you, you never come, so I must +suppose that you have ceased to love me. But why? What have I done? Pray +tell me, my own dear love. I love you so much, so dearly! I should like +always to have you near me, to kiss you all day while I called you every +tender name that I could think of. I adore you, I adore you, I adore you, +my beautiful cock.--Your affectionate hen, + +SOPHIE. + + * * * * * + +Monday.-- + +My dear friend, + +You will absolutely understand nothing of what I am going to say to you, +but that does not matter, and if my letter happens to be read by another +woman, it may be profitable to her. + +Had you been deaf and dumb, I should no doubt have loved you for a very +long time, and the cause of what has happened is, that you can talk; that +is all. + +In love, you see, dreams are always made to sing, but in order that they +might do so, they must not be interrupted, and when one talks between two +kisses, one always interrupts that frenzied dream which our souls indulge +in, unless they utter sublime words; and sublime words do not come out of +the little mouths of pretty girls. + +You do not understand me at all, do you? So much the better, and I will +go on. You are certainly one of the most charming and adorable women whom +I have ever seen. + +Are there any eyes on earth that contain more dreams than yours, more +unknown promises, greater depths of love? I do not think so. And when +that mouth of yours, with its two round lips, smiles, and shows the +glistening white teeth, one is tempted to say that there issues from this +ravishing mouth ineffable music, something inexpressibly delicate, a +sweetness which extorts sighs. + +It is then that you quietly call out to me, my great and renowned +"lady-killer," and it then seems to me as though I had suddenly found +an entrance into your thoughts, which I can see is ministering to your +soul--that little soul of a pretty, little creature, yes, pretty, +but--and that is what troubles me, don't you see, troubles me more than +tongue can tell. I would much prefer never to see you at all. + +You go on pretending not to understand anything, do you not? I calculate +on that. + +Do you remember the first time you came to see me at my residence? +How gaily you stepped inside, an odor of violets, which clung to your +skirts, heralding your entrance; how we regarded each other, for ever +so long, without uttering a word, after which we embraced like two +fools.... Then ... then from that time to this, we have never exchanged +a word. + +But when we separated, did not our trembling hands and our eyes say many +things, things ... which cannot be expressed in any language. At least, I +thought so; and when you went away, you murmured: + +"We shall meet again soon!" + +That was all you said, and you will never guess what delightful dreams +you left me, all that I, as it were, caught a glimpse of, all that I +fancied I could guess in your thoughts. + +You see, my poor child, for men who are not stupid, who are rather +refined and somewhat superior, love is such a complicated instrument, +that the merest trifle puts it out of order. You women never perceive the +ridiculous side of certain things when you love, and you fail to see the +grotesqueness of some expressions. + +Why does a word which sounds quite right in the mouth of a small, dark +woman, seem quite wrong and funny in the mouth of a fat, light-haired +woman? Why are the wheedling ways of the one, altogether out of place +in the other? + +Why is it that certain caresses which are delightful from the one, should +be wearisome from the other? Why? Because in everything, and especially +in love, perfect harmony, absolute agreement in motion, voice, words, and +in demonstrations of tenderness, are necessary, with the person who +moves, speaks and manifests affection; it is necessary in age, in height, +in the color of the hair, and in the style of beauty. + +If a woman of thirty-five, who has arrived at the age of violent, +tempestuous passion, were to preserve the slightest traces of the +caressing archness of her love affairs at twenty, were not to understand +that she ought to express herself differently, look at her lover +differently, and kiss him differently were not to see that she ought to +be Dido and not a Juliette, she would infallibly disgust nine lovers out +of ten, even if they could not account to themselves for their +estrangement. Do you understand me? No. I hoped so. + +From the time that you turned on your tap of tenderness, it was all over +for me, my dear friend. Sometimes we would embrace for five minutes, in +one interminable kiss, one of those kisses which make lovers close their +eyes, as if part of it would escape through their looks, as if to +preserve it entire in that clouded soul which it is ravaging. And then, +when our lips separated, you would say to me: + +"That was nice, you fat old dog." + +At such moments, I could have beaten you; for you gave me successively +all the names of animals and vegetables which you doubtless found in some +_cookery book_, or _Gardener's Manual_. But that is nothing. + +The caresses of love are brutal, bestial, and if one comes to think of +it, grotesque! ... Oh! My poor child, what joking elf, what perverse +sprite could have prompted the concluding words of your letter to me? I +have made a collection of them, but out of love for you, I will not show +them to you. + +And you really sometimes said things which were quite inopportune, and +you managed now and then to let out an exalted: _I love you!_ on such +singular occasions, that I was obliged to restrain a strong desire to +laugh. There are times when the words: _I love you!_ are so out of place, +that they become indecorous; let me tell you that. + +But you do not understand me, and many other women will also not +understand me, and think me stupid, though that matters very little to +me. Hungry men eat like gluttons, but people of refinement are disgusted +at it, and they often feel an invincible dislike for a dish, on account +of a mere trifle. It is the same with love, as it is with cookery. + +What I cannot comprehend, for example, is, that certain women who fully +understand the irresistible attraction of fine, embroidered stockings, +the exquisite charm of shades, the witchery of valuable lace concealed +in the depths of their underclothing, the exciting jest of hidden luxury, +and all the subtle delicacies of female elegance, never understand the +invincible disgust with which words that are out of place, or foolishly +tender, inspire us. + +At times coarse and brutal expressions work wonders, as they excite the +senses, and make the heart beat, and they are allowable at the hours of +combat. Is not that sentence of Cambronne's sublime? [10] + +[Footnote 10: At Waterloo, General Cambronne is reported to have said, +when called on to surrender:--_The Guard dies, but does not surrender._ +But according to Victor Hugo, in _Les Miserables_, he used the +expression _Merde_! which cannot be put into English fit for ears +polite.--TRANSLATOR.] + +Nothing shocks us that comes at the right time; but then, we must also +know when to hold our tongue, and to avoid phrases _a la Paul de Kock_, +at certain moments. + +And I embrace you passionately, on the condition that you say nothing, + +RENE. + + + + +A DIVORCE CASE + + +M. Chassel advocate, rises to speak: Mr. President and gentlemen of the +jury. The cause that I am charged to defend before you, requires medicine +rather than justice; and is much more a case of pathology than a case of +ordinary law. At first blush the facts seem very simple. + +A young man, very rich, with a noble and cultivated mind, and a generous +heart, becomes enamored of a young lady, who is the perfection of beauty, +more than beautiful, in fact; she is adorable, besides being as gracious, +as she is charming, as good and true as she is tender and pretty, and he +marries her. For some time, he comports himself towards her not only as a +devoted husband, but as a man full of solicitude and tenderness. Then he +neglects her, misuses her, seems to entertain for her an insurmountable +aversion, an irresistible disgust. One day he even strikes her, not only +without any cause, but also without the faintest pretext. I am not going, +gentlemen, to draw a picture of silly allurements, which no one would +comprehend. I shall not paint to you the wretched life of those two +beings, and the horrible grief of this young woman. It will be sufficient +to convince you, if I read some fragments from a journal written up every +day by that poor young man, by that poor fool! For it is in the presence +of a fool, gentlemen, that we now find ourselves, and the case is all the +more curious, all the more interesting, seeing that, in many points, it +recalls the insanity of the unfortunate prince who recently died, of the +witless king who reigned platonically over Bavaria. I shall hence +designate this case--poetic folly. + +You will readily call to mind all that has been told of that most +singular prince. He caused to be erected amid the most magnificent +scenery his kingdom afforded, veritable fairy castles. The reality even +of the beauty of the things themselves, as well as of the places, did not +satisfy him. He invented, he created, in these improbable manors, +factitious horizons, obtained by means of theatrical artifices, changes +of view, painted forests, fabled empires, in which the leaves of the +trees became precious stones. He had the Alps, and glaciers, steppes, +deserts of sand made hot by a blazing sun; and at nights, under the rays +of the real moon, lakes which sparkled from below by means of fantastic +electric lights. Swans floated on the lakes which glistened with skiffs, +while an orchestra, composed of the finest executants in the world, +inebriated with poetry the soul of the royal fool. That man was chaste, +that man was a virgin. He lived only to dream, his dream, his dream +divine. One evening he took out with him in his boat, a lady, young and +beautiful, a great artiste, and he begged her to sing. Intoxicated +herself by the magnificent scenery, by the languid softness of the air, +by the perfume of flowers, and by the ecstacy of that prince, both young +and handsome, she sang, she sang as women sing who have been touched by +love; then, overcome, trembling, she falls on the bosom of the king in +order to seek out his lips. But he throws her into the lake, and seizing +his oars, rows back to the shore, without concerning himself, whether +anybody has saved her or not. + +Gentlemen of the jury, we find ourselves in presence of a case similar in +every way to that. I shall say no more now, except to read some passages +from the journal which we unexpectedly came upon in the drawer of an old +secretary. + + * * * * * + +How sad and weary is everything; always the same, always hateful. How I +dream of a land more beautiful, more noble, more varied. What a poor +conception they have of their God, if their God existed, or if he had not +created other things, elsewhere. Always woods, little woods, waves which +resemble waves, plains which resemble plains, everything is sameness and +monotony. And Man? Man? What a horrible animal! wicked, haughty and +repugnant! + + * * * * * + +It is essential to love, to love perdition, without seeing that which one +loves. For, to see is to comprehend, and to comprehend is to embrace. It +is necessary to love, to become intoxicated by it, just as one gets drunk +with wine, even to the extent that one knows no longer what one is +drinking. And to drink, to drink, to drink, without drawing breath, day +and night! + + * * * * * + +I have found her, I believe. She has about her something ideal which does +not belong to this world, and which furnishes wings to my dream. Ah! my +dream! How it reveals to me beings different from what they really are! +She is a blonde, a delicate blonde, with hair whose delicate shade is +inexpressible. Her eyes are blue! Only blue eyes can penetrate my soul. +All women, the woman who lives in my heart, reveal themselves to me in +the eye, only in the eyes. Oh! what a mystery, what a mystery is the eye! +The whole universe lives in it, inasmuch as it sees, inasmuch as it +reflects. It contains the universe, both things and beings, forests +and oceans, men and beasts, the settings of the sun, the stars, the +arts--all, all, it sees; it collects and absorbs all; and there is still +more in it; the eye of itself has a soul; it has in it the man who +thinks, the man who loves, the man who laughs, the man who suffers! Oh! +regard the blue eyes of women, those eyes that are as deep as the sea, as +changeful as the sky, so sweet, so soft, soft as the breezes, sweet as +music, luscious as kisses; and transparent, so clear that one sees behind +them, discerns the soul, the blue soul which colors them, which animates +them, which electrifies them. Yes, the soul has the color of the looks. +The blue soul alone contains in itself that which dreams; it bears its +azure to the floods and into space. The eye! Think of it, the eye! It +imbibes the visible life, in order to nourish thought. It drinks in the +world, color, movement, books, pictures, all that is beautiful, all that +is ugly, and weaves ideas out of them. And when it regards us, it gives +us the sensation of a happiness that is not of this earth. It informs us +of that of which we have always been ignorant; it makes us comprehend +that the realities of our dreams are but noisome ordures. + + * * * * * + +I love her too for her walk. "Even when the bird walks one feels that it +has wings," as the poet has said. When she passes one feels that she is +of another race from ordinary women, of a race more delicate, and more +divine. I shall marry her to-morrow. But I am afraid, I am afraid of so +many things! + + * * * * * + +Two beasts, two dogs, two wolves, two foxes, cut their way through the +plantation and encounter one another. One of each two is male, the other +female. They couple. They couple in consequence of an animal instinct, +which forces them to continue the race, their race, the one from which +they have sprung, the hairy coat, the form, movements and habitudes. The +whole of the animal creation do the same without knowing why. + +We human beings, also. + +It is for this I have married; I have obeyed that insane passion which +throws us in the direction of the female. + + * * * * * + +She is my wife. In accordance with my ideal desires, she comes very +nearly to realize my unrealizable dream. But in separating from her, even +for a second, after I have held her in my arms, she becomes no more than +the being whom nature has made use of, to disappoint all my hopes. + +Has she disappointed them? No. And why have I grown weary of her, become +loath even to touch her; she cannot graze even the palm of my hand, or +the tip of my lips, but my heart throbs with unutterable disgust, not +perhaps disgust of her, but a disgust more potent, more widespread, more +loathsome; the disgust, in a word, of carnal love so vile in itself that +it has become for all refined beings, a shameful thing, which is +necessary to conceal, which one never speaks of save in a whisper, nor +without blushing. + + * * * * * + +I can no longer bear the idea of my wife coming near me, calling me by +name, with a smile; I cannot look at her, nor touch even her arm, I +cannot do it any more. At one time I thought to be kissed by her, would +be to transport me to St. Paul's seventh heaven. One day, she was +suffering from one of those transient fevers, and I smelled in her +breath, a subtle, slight almost imperceptible puff of human putridity; I +was completely overthrown. + +Oh! the flesh, with its seductive and eager smell, a putrefaction which +walks, which thinks, which speaks, which looks, which laughs, in which +nourishment ferments and rots, which, nevertheless, is rose-colored, +pretty, tempting, deceitful as the soul itself. + + * * * * * + +Why flowers alone, which smell so sweet, those large flowers, glittering +or pale, whose tones and shades make my heart tremble and trouble my +eyes. They are so beautiful, their structure is so finished, so varied +and sensual, semi-opened like human organs, more tempting than mouths, +and streaked with turned up lips, teeth, flesh, seed of life powders, +which, in each, gives forth a distinct perfume. + +They reproduce themselves, they alone, in the world, without polluting +their inviolable race, shedding around them the divine influence of their +love, the odoriferous incense of their caresses, the essence of their +incomparable body, of their body adorned with every grace, with every +elegances of every shape and form; who have likewise the coquetry of +every hue of color, and the inebriating seduction of every variety of +perfume. + + * * * * * + +FRAGMENTS WHICH WERE SELECTED SIX MONTHS LATER. + + +I love flowers, not as flowers, but as material and delicious beings; +I pass my days and my nights in beds of flowers, where they have been +concealed from the public view like the women of a harem. + +Who knows, except myself, the sweetness, the infatuation, the quivering, +carnal, ideal, superhuman ecstacy of these tendernesses; and those kisses +upon the bare flesh of a rose, upon the blushing flesh, upon the white +skin, so miraculously different, delicate, rare, subtle, unctuous, of +these adorable flowers! + +I have flower-beds that no one has seen except myself, and which I tend +myself. + +I enter there as one would glide into a place of secret pleasure. In the +lofty glass gallery, I pass first through a collection of enclosed +carollas, half open or in full bloom, which incline towards the ground, +or towards the roof. This is the first kiss they have given me. + +The flowers just mentioned, these flowers which adorn the vestibule of my +mysterious passions, are my servants and not my favorites. + +They salute me by the change of their color and by their first +inhalations. They are darlings, coquettes, arranged in eight rows to the +right, eight rows, the left, and so laid out that they look like two +gardens springing up from under my feet. + +My heart palpitates, my eyes flash at the sight of them; my blood rushes +through my veins, my soul is elated, and my hands tremble from desire as +soon as I touch them. I pass on. There are three closed doors at the +bottom of that gallery. I can make my choice of them. I have three +harems. + +But I enter most often the habitation of the orchids, my little +wheedlers, by preference. Their chamber is low, suffocating. The humid +and hot air make the skin moist, takes away the breath and causes the +fingers to quiver. They come, these strange girls, from a country marshy, +burning and unhealthy. They draw you towards them as do the sirens, are +as deadly as poison, admirably fantastic, enervating, dreadful. The +butterflies here would also seem to have enormous wings, tiny feet, and +eyes! Yes! they have also eyes! They look at me, they see me, prodigious, +incomparable beings, fairies, daughters of the sacred earth, of the +impalpable air, and of hot sun rays, that mother bountiful of the +universe. Yes, they have wings, they have eyes, and nuances that no +painter could imitate, every charm, every grace, every form that one +could dream of. These wombs are transverse, odoriferous and transparent, +ever open for love and more tempting than all the flesh of women. The +unimaginable designs of their little bodies inebriates the soul, and +transports it to a paradise of images and of voluptuous ideals. They +tremble upon their stems as though they would fly. When they do fly do +they come to me? No, it is my heart that hovers o'er them, like a mystic +male, tortured by love. + +No wing of any animal can keep pace with them. We are alone, they and I, +in the lighted prison which I have constructed for them. I regard them, I +contemplate them, I admire them, I adore them, the one after the other. + +How healthy, strong and rosy, a rosiness that moistens the lips of +desire! How I love them! The border is frizzled, paler than their throat, +where the carolla hides itself away; a mysterious mouth, seductive sugar +under the tongue, exhibiting and unveiling the delicate, admirable and +sacred organs of these divine little creatures which smell so exquisitely +and do not speak. + +I sometimes have a passion for some of them that lasts as long as their +existence, which only embraces a few days and nights. I then have them +taken away from the common gallery and enclosed in a pretty glass cabin, +in which there murmurs a jet of water over against a tropical gazon, +which has been brought from one of the Pacific Islands. And I remain +close to it, ardent, feverish and tormented, knowing that its death is +near, and watch it fading away, while that in thought, I possess it, +aspire to its love, drink it in, and then pluck its short life with an +inexpressible caress. + + * * * * * + +When he had finished the reading of these fragments, the advocate +continued: + +"Decency, gentlemen of the jury, hinders me from communicating to you the +extraordinary avowals of this shameless, idealistic fool. The fragments +that I have just submitted to you will be sufficient, in my opinion, to +enable you to appreciate this instance of mental malady, less rare in our +epoch of hysterical insanity and of corrupt decadence than most of us +believe. + +"I think, then, that my client is more entitled than any women whatever +to claim a divorce, in the exceptional circumstances in which the +disordered senses of her husband has placed her." + + + + +WHO KNOWS? + + +I + +My God! My God! I am going to write down at last what has happened to me. +But how can I? How dare I? The thing is so bizarre, so inexplicable, so +incomprehensible, so silly! + +If I were not perfectly sure of what I have seen, sure that there was not +in my reasoning any defect, no error in my declarations, no lacune in the +inflexible sequence of my observations, I should believe myself to be the +dupe of a simple hallucination, the sport of a singular vision. After +all, who knows? + +Yesterday I was in a private asylum, but I went there voluntarily, out of +prudence and fear. Only one single human being knows my history, and that +is the doctor of the said asylum. I am going to write to him. I really do +not know why? To disembarrass myself? For I feel as though I were being +weighed down by an intolerable nightmare. + +Let me explain. + +I have always been a recluse, a dreamer, a kind of isolated philosopher, +easy-going, content with but little, harboring ill-feeling against no +man, and without even having a grudge against heaven. I have constantly +lived alone, consequently, a kind of torture takes hold of me when I find +myself in the presence of others. How is this to be explained? I for one +cannot. I am not averse from going out into the world, from conversation, +from dining with friends, but when they are near me for any length of +time, even the most intimate friends, they bore me, fatigue me, enervate +me, and I experience an overwhelming torturing desire, to see them get up +to depart, or to take themselves away, and to leave me by myself. + +That desire is more than a craving; it is an irresistible necessity. And +if the presence of people, with whom I find myself, were to be continued; +if I were compelled, not only to listen, but also to follow, for any +length of time, their conversation, a serious accident would assuredly +take place. What kind of accident? Ah! who knows? Perhaps a slight +paralytic stroke? Yes, probably! + +I like so much to be alone that I cannot even endure the vicinage of +other beings sleeping under the same roof. I cannot live in Paris, +because when there I suffer the most acute agony. I lead a moral life, +and am therefore tortured in my body and in my nerves by that immense +crowd which swarms, which lives around even when it sleeps. Ah! the +sleeping of others is more painful still than their conversation. And I +can never find repose when I know, when I feel, that on the other side of +a wall, several existences are interrupted by these regular eclipses of +reason. + +Why am I thus? Who knows? The cause of it is perhaps very simple. I get +tired very soon with everything that does not emanate from me. And there +are many people in similar case. + +We are, on earth, two distinct races. Those who have need of others, +whom others distract, engage, soothe, whom solitude harasses, pains, +stupefies, like the forward movement of a terrible glacier, or the +traversing of the desert; and those, on the contrary, whom others weary, +tire, bore, silently torture, while isolation calms them, bathes them in +the repose of independency, and plunges them into the humors of their own +thoughts. In fine, there is here a normal, physical phenomenon. Some are +constituted to live a life without themselves, others, to live a life +within themselves. As for me, my exterior associations are abruptly and +painfully short-lived, and, as they reach their limits, I experience in +my whole body and in my whole intelligence, an intolerable uneasiness. + +As a result of this, I became attached, or rather, I had become much +attached to inanimate objects, which have for me the importance of +beings, and my house has become, had become, a world in which I lived an +active and solitary life, surrounded by all manner of things, furniture, +familiar knick-knacks, as sympathetic in my eyes as the visages of human +beings. I had filled my mansion with them, little by little, I had +adorned it with them, and I felt an inward content and satisfaction, was +more happy than if I had been in the arms of a desirable female, whose +wonted caresses had become a soothing and delightful necessity. + +I had had this house constructed in the center of a beautiful garden, +which hid it from the public highways, and which was near the entrance to +a city where I could find, on occasion, the resources of society, for +which, at moments, I had a longing. All my domestics slept in a separate +building which was situated at some considerable distance from my house, +at the far end of the kitchen garden, which was surrounded by a high +wall. The obscure envelopment of the nights, in the silence of my +invisible and concealed habitation, buried under the leaves of the great +trees, were so reposeful and so delicious, that I hesitated every +evening, for several hours, before I could retire to my couch, in order +to enjoy the solitude a little longer. + +One day _Signad_ had been played at one of the city theaters. It was the +first time that I had listened to that beautiful, musical, and fairy-like +drama, and I had derived from it the liveliest pleasures. + +I returned home on foot, with a light step, my head full of sonorous +phrases, and my mind haunted by delightful visions. It was night, the +dead of night, and so dark that I could hardly distinguish the broad +highway, and whence I stumbled into the ditch more than once. From the +custom's-house, at the barriers to my house, was about a mile, perhaps a +little more, or a leisurely walk of about twenty minutes. It was one +o'clock in the morning, one o'clock or maybe half-past one; the sky had +by this time cleared somewhat and the crescent appeared, the gloomy +crescent of the last quarter of the moon. The crescent of the first +quarter is, that which rises about five or six o'clock in the evening; +is clear, gay and fretted with silver; but the one which rises after +midnight is reddish, sad and desolating; it is the true Sabbath crescent. +Every prowler by night has made the same observation. The first, though +as slender as a thread, throws a faint joyous light which rejoices the +heart and lines the ground with distinct shadows; the last, sheds hardly +a dying glimmer, and is so wan that it occasions hardly any shadows. + +In the distance, I perceived the somber mass of my garden, and I know +not why I was seized with a feeling of uneasiness at the idea of going +inside. I slowed my pace, and walked very softly, the thick cluster of +trees having the appearance of a tomb in which my house was buried. + +I opened my outer gate, and I entered the long avenue of sycamores, which +ran in the direction of the house, arranged vault-wise like a high +tunnel, traversing opaque masses, and winding round the turf lawns, +on which baskets of flowers, in the pale darkness, could be indistinctly +discerned. + +In approaching the house, I was seized by a strange feeling, I could hear +nothing, I stood still. In the trees there was not even a breath of air. +"What is the matter with me then?" I said to myself. For ten years I had +entered and re-entered in the same way, without ever experiencing the +least inquietude. I never had any fear at nights. The sight of a man, +a marauder, or a thief, would have thrown me into a fit of anger, and I +would have rushed at him without any hesitation. Moreover, I was armed, I +had my revolver. But I did not touch it, for I was anxious to resist that +feeling of dread with which I was permeated. + +What was it? Was it a presentiment? That mysterious presentiment which +takes hold of the senses of men who have witnessed something which, to +them, is inexplicable? Perhaps? Who knows? + +In proportion as I advanced, I felt my skin quiver more and more, and +when I was close to the wall, near the outhouses of my vast residence, +I felt that it would be necessary for me to wait a few minutes before +opening the door and going inside. I sat down, then, on a bench, under +the windows of my drawing room. I rested there, a little fearful, with my +head leaning against the wall, my eyes wide open under the shade of the +foliage. For the first few minutes, I did not observe anything unusual +around me; I had a humming noise in my ears, but that happened often to +me. Sometimes it seemed to me that I heard trains passing, that I heard +clocks striking, that I heard a multitude on the march. + +Very soon, those humming noises became more distinct, more concentrated, +more determinable, I was deceiving myself. It was not the ordinary +tingling of my arteries which transmitted to my ears these rumbling +sounds, but it was a very distinct, though very confused, noise which +came, without any doubt whatever, from the interior of my house. I +distinguished through the walls this continued noise, I should rather say +agitation than noise, an indistinct moving about of a pile of things, as +if people were tossing about, displacing, and carrying away +surreptitiously all my furniture. + +I doubted, however, for some considerable time yet, the evidence of my +ears. But having placed my ear against one of the outhouses, the better +to discover what this strange disturbance was that was inside my house, +I became convinced, certain, that something was taking place in my +residence, which was altogether abnormal and incomprehensible. I had no +fear, but I was--how shall I express it--paralyzed by astonishment. I did +not draw my revolver, knowing very well that there was no need of my +doing so. I listened. + +I listened a long time, but could come to no resolution, my mind being +quite clear, though in myself I was naturally anxious. I got up and +waited, listening always to the noise, which gradually increased, and at +intervals grew very loud, and which seemed to become an impatient, angry +disturbance, a mysterious commotion. + +Then, suddenly, ashamed of my timidity, I seized my bunch of keys, I +selected the one I wanted, I guided it into the lock, turned it twice, +and, pushing the door with all my might, sent it banging against the +partition. + +The collision sounded like the report of a gun, and there responded to +that explosive noise, from roof to basement of my residence, a formidable +tumult. It was so sudden, so terrible, so deafening, that I recoiled +a few steps, and though I knew it to be wholly useless, I pulled my +revolver out of its case. + +I continued to listen for some time longer. I could distinguish now an +extraordinary pattering upon the steps of my grand staircase, on the +waxed floors, on the carpets, not of boots, nor of naked feet, but of +iron, and wooden crutches, which resounded like cymbals. Then I suddenly +discerned, on the threshold of my door, an arm chair, my large reading +easy chair, which set off waddling. It went away through my garden. +Others followed it, those of my drawing-room, then my sofas, dragging +themselves along like crocodiles on their short paws; then all my chairs, +bounding like goats, and the little footstools, hopping like rabbits. + +Oh! what a sensation! I slunk back into a clump of bushes where I +remained crouched up, watching, meanwhile, my furniture defile past, +for everything walked away, the one behind the other, briskly or slowly, +according to its weight or size. My piano, my grand piano, bounded past +with the gallop of a horse and a murmur of music in its sides; the +smaller articles slid along the gravel like snails, my brushes, crystal, +cups and saucers, which glistened in the moonlight. I saw my writing desk +appear, a rare curiosity of the last century, which contained all the +letters I had ever received, all the history of my heart, an old history +from which I have suffered so much! Besides, there was inside of it a +great many cherished photographs. + +Suddenly--I no longer had any fear--I threw myself on it, seized it as +one would seize a thief, as one would seize a wife about to run away; but +it pursued its irresistible course, and despite my efforts and despite my +anger, I could not even retard its pace. As I was resisting in +desperation that insuperable force, I was thrown to the ground in my +struggle with it. It then rolled me over, trailed me along the gravel, +and the rest of my furniture which followed it, began to march over me, +tramping on my legs and injuring them. When I loosed my hold, other +articles passed over my body, just as a charge of cavalry does over the +body of a dismounted soldier. + +Seized at last with terror, I succeeded in dragging myself out of the +main avenue, and in concealing myself again among the shrubbery, so as +to watch the disappearance of the most cherished objects, the smallest, +the least striking, the least unknown which had once belonged to me. + +I then heard, in the distance, noises which came from my apartments, +which sounded now as if the house were empty, a loud noise of shutting +of doors. They were being slammed from top to bottom of my dwelling, +even the door which I had just opened myself unconsciously, and which +had closed of itself, when the last thing had taken its departure. I +took flight also, running towards the city, and I only regained my +self-composure on reaching the boulevards, where I met belated people. +I rang the bell of a hotel where I was known. I had knocked the dust off +my clothes with my hands, and I told the porter how that I had lost my +bunch of keys, which included also that of the kitchen garden, where my +servants slept in a house standing by itself, on the other side of the +wall of the enclosure, which protected my fruits and vegetables from the +raids of marauders. + +I covered myself up to the eyes in the bed which was assigned to me; +but I could not sleep, and I waited for the dawn in listening to the +throbbing of my heart. I had given orders that my servants were to be +summoned to the hotel at daybreak, and my _valet de chambre_ knocked at +my door at seven o'clock in the morning. + +His countenance bore a woeful look. + +"A great misfortune has happened during the night, monsieur," said he. + +"What is it?" + +"Somebody has stolen the whole of monsieur's furniture, all, everything, +even to the smallest articles." + +This news pleased me. Why? Who knows? I was complete master of myself, +bent on dissimulating, on telling no one of anything I had seen; +determined on concealing and in burying in my heart of hearts, a +terrible secret. I responded: + +"They must then be the same people who have stolen my keys. The police +must be informed immediately. I am going to get up, and I will rejoin you +in a few moments." + +The investigation into the circumstances under which the robbery might +have been committed lasted for five months. Nothing was found, not +even the smallest of my knick-knacks, nor the least trace of the +thieves. Good gracious! If I had only told them what I knew.... If I +had said ... I had been locked up--I, not the thieves--and that I was +the only person who had seen everything from the first. + +Yes I but I knew how to keep silence. I shall never refurnish my house. +That were indeed useless. The same thing would happen again. I had no +desire even to re-enter the house, and I did not re-enter it; I never +visited it again. I went to Paris, to the hotel, and I consulted doctors +in regard to the condition of my nerves, which had disquieted me a good +deal ever since that fatal night. + +They advised me to travel, and I followed their council. + + +II + +I began by making an excursion into Italy. The sunshine did me much good. +During six months I wandered about from Genoa to Venice, from Venice to +Florence, from Florence to Rome, from Rome to Naples. Then I traveled +over Sicily, a country celebrated for its scenery and its monuments, +relics left by the Greeks and the Normans. I passed over into Africa, +I traversed at my ease that immense desert, yellow and tranquil, in which +the camels, the gazelles, and the Arab vagabonds, roam about, where, in +the rare and transparent atmosphere, there hovers no vague hauntings, +where there is never any night, but always day. + +I returned to France by Marseilles, and in spite of all the Provencal +gaiety, the diminished clearness of the sky made me sad. I experienced, +in returning to the continent, the peculiar sensation, of an illness +which I believed had been cured, and a dull pain which predicted that +the seeds of the disease had not been eradicated. + +I then returned to Paris. At the end of a month, I was very dejected. It +was in the autumn, and I wished to make, before the approach of winter, +an excursion through Normandy, a country with which I was unacquainted. + +I began my journey, in the best of spirits, at Rouen, and for eight days +I wandered about passive, ravished and enthusiastic, in that ancient +city, in that astonishing museum of extraordinary Gothic monuments. + +But, one afternoon, about four o'clock, as I was sauntering slowly +through a seemingly unattractive street, by which there ran a stream as +black as the ink called "Eau de Robec," my attention, fixed for the +moment on the quaint, antique appearance of some of the houses, was +suddenly turned away by the view of a series of second-hand furniture +shops, which succeeded one another, door after door. + +Ah! they had carefully chosen their locality, these sordid traffickers +in antiquaries, in that quaint little street, overlooking that sinister +stream of water, under those tile and slate-pointed roofs in which still +grinned the vanes of byegone days. + +At the end of these grim storehouses you saw piled up sculptured chests, +Rouen, Sevre, and Moustier's pottery, painted statues, others of oak, +Christs, Virgins, Saints, church ornaments, chasubles, capes, even sacred +vases, and an old gilded wooden tabernacle, where a god had hidden +himself away. Oh! What singular caverns are in those lofty houses, +crowded with objects of every description, where the existence of things +seems to be ended, things which have survived their original possessors, +their century, their times, their fashions, in order to be bought as +curiosities by new generations. + +My affection for bibelots was awakened in that city of antiquaries. I +went from shop to shop crossing, in two strides, the four plank rotten +bridges thrown over the nauseous current of the Eau de Robec. + +Heaven protect me! What a shock! One of my most beautiful wardrobes was +suddenly descried by me, at the end of a vault, which was crowded with +articles of every description and which seemed to be the entrance to some +catacombs of a cemetery of ancient furniture. I approached my wardrobe, +trembling in every limb, trembling to such an extent that I dare not +touch it. I put forth my hand, I hesitated. It was indeed my wardrobe, +nevertheless; a unique wardrobe of the time of Louis XIII., recognizable +by anyone who had only seen it once. Casting my eyes suddenly a little +farther, towards the more somber depths of the gallery, I perceived three +of my tapestry covered chairs; and farther on still, my two Henry II. +tables, such rare treasures that people came all the way from Paris to +see them. + +Think! only think in what a state of mind I now was! I advanced, +haltingly, quivering with emotion, but I advanced, for I am brave, +I advanced like a knight of the dark ages. + +I found, at every step, something that belonged to me; my brushes, my +books, my tables, my silks, my arms, everything, except the bureau full +of my letters, and that I could not discover. + +I walked on, descending to the dark galleries, in order to ascend next +to the floors above. I was alone, I called out, nobody answered, I was +alone; there was no one in that house--a house as vast and tortuous +as a labyrinth. + +Night came on, and I was compelled to sit down in the darkness on one +of my own chairs, for I had no desire to go away. From time to time I +shouted, "Hullo, hullo, somebody." + +I had sat there, certainly, for more than an hour, when I heard steps, +steps soft and slow, I knew not where, I was unable to locate them, but +bracing myself up, I called out anew, whereupon I perceived a glimmer +of light in the next chamber. + +"Who is there?" said a voice. + +"A buyer," I responded. + +"It is too late to enter thus into a shop." + +"I have been waiting for you for more than an hour," I answered. + +"You can come back to-morrow." + +"To-morrow I must quit Rouen." + +I dared not advance, and he did not come to me. I saw always the glimmer +of his light, which was shining on a tapestry on which were two angels +flying over the dead on a field of battle. It belonged to me also. I +said: + +"Well, come here." + +"I am at your service," he answered. + +I got up and went towards him. + +Standing in the center of a large room was a little man, very short and +very fat, phenomenally fat, a hideous phenomenon. + +He had a singular beard, straggling hair, white and yellow, and not a +hair on his head. Not a hair! + +As he held his candle aloft at arm's length in order to see me, his +cranium appeared to me to resemble a little moon, in that vast chamber, +encumbered with old furniture. His features were wrinkled and blown, and +his eyes could not be seen. + +I bought three chairs which belonged to myself, and paid at once a large +sum for them, giving him merely the number of my room at the hotel. They +were to be delivered the next day before nine o'clock. + +I then started off. He conducted me, with much politeness, as far as the +door. + +I immediately repaired to the commissaire's office at the central police +depot, and I told the commissaire of the robbery which had been +perpetrated and of the discovery I had just made. He required time to +communicate by telegraph with the authorities who had originally charge +of the case, for information, and he begged me to wait in his office +until an answer came back. An hour later, an answer came back, which was +in accord with my statements. + +"I am going to arrest and interrogate this man at once," he said to me, +"for he may have conceived some sort of suspicion, and smuggled away out +of sight what belongs to you. Will you go and dine and return in two +hours: I shall then have the man here, and I shall subject him to a fresh +interrogation in your presence." + +"Most gladly, monsieur. I thank you with my whole heart." + +I went to dine at my hotel and I ate better than I could have believed. +I was quite happy now; "that man was in the hands of the police," I +thought. + +Two hours later I returned to the office of the police functionary, who +was waiting for me. + +"Well, monsieur," said he, on perceiving me, "we have not been able to +find your man. My agents cannot put their hands on him." + +Ah! I felt myself sinking. + +"But ... you have at least found his house?" I asked. + +"Yes, certainly; and what is more, it is now being watched and guarded +until his return. As for him, he has disappeared." + +"Disappeared?" + +"Yes, disappeared. He ordinarily passes his evenings at the house of +a female neighbor, who is also a furniture broker, a queer sort of +sorceress, the widow Bidoin. She has not seen him this evening and cannot +give any information in regard to him. We must wait until to-morrow." + +I went away. Ah! how sinister the streets of Rouen seemed to me, now +troubled and haunted! + +I slept so badly that I had a fit of nightmare every time I went off to +sleep. + +As I did not wish to appear too restless or eager, I waited till 10 +o'clock the next day before reporting myself to the police. + +The merchant had not reappeared. His shop remained closed. + +The commissary said to me: + +"I have taken all the necessary steps. The court has been made acquainted +with the affair. We shall go together to that shop and have it opened, +and you shall point out to me all that belongs to you." + +We drove there in a cab. Police agents were stationed round the building; +there was a locksmith, too, and the door of the shop was soon opened. + +On entering, I could not discover my wardrobes, my chairs, my tables; I +saw nothing, nothing of that which had furnished my house, no, nothing, +although on the previous evening, I could not take a step without +encountering something that belonged to me. + +The chief commissary, much astonished, regarded me at first with +suspicion. + +"My God, monsieur," said I to him, "the disappearance of these articles +of furniture coincides strangely with that of the merchant." + +He laughed. + +"That is true. You did wrong in buying and paying for the articles which +were your own property, yesterday. It was that that gave him the cue." + +"What seems to me incomprehensible," I replied, "is, that all the places +that were occupied by my furniture are now filled by other furniture." + +"Oh!" responded the commissary, "he has had all night, and has no doubt +been assisted by accomplices. This house must communicate with its +neighbors. But have no fear, monsieur; I will have the affair promptly +and thoroughly investigated. The brigand shall not escape us for long, +seeing that we are in charge of the den." + + * * * * * + +Ah! My heart, my heart, my poor heart, how it beat! + +I remained a fortnight at Rouen. The man did not return. Heavens! good +heavens! That man, what was it that could have frightened and surprised +him! + +But, on the sixteenth day, early in the morning, I received from my +gardener, now the keeper of my empty and pillaged house, the following +strange letter: + + * * * * * + +Monsieur: + +I have the honor to inform monsieur, that there happened something, the +evening before last, which nobody can understand, and the police no more +than the rest of us. The whole of the furniture has been returned, not +one piece is missing--everything is in its place, up to the very smallest +article. The house is now the same in every respect as it was before the +robbery took place. It is enough to make one lose one's head. The thing +took place during the night Friday--Saturday. The roads are dug up as +though the whole barrier had been dragged from its place up to the door. +The same thing was observed the day after the disappearance of the +furniture. + +We are anxiously expecting monsieur, whose very humble and obedient +servant, I am, + +Raudin, Phillipe. + + * * * * * + +Ah! no, no, ah! never, never, ah! no. I shall never return there! + +I took the letter to the commissary of police. + +"It is a very dexterous restitution," said he. "Let us bury the hatchet. +We shall, however, nip the man one of these days." + +But he has never been nipped. No. They have not nipped him, and I am +afraid of him now, as though he were a ferocious animal that had been let +loose behind me. + +Inexplicable! It is inexplicable, this monster of a moon-struck skull! +We shall never get to comprehend it. I shall not return to my former +residence. What does it matter to me? I am afraid of encountering that +man again, and I shall not run the risk. + +I shall not risk it! I shall not risk it! I shall not risk it! + +And if he returns, if he takes possession of his shop, who is to prove +that my furniture was on his premises? There is only my testimony against +him; and I feel that that is not above suspicion. + +Ah! no! This kind of existence was no longer possible. I was not able to +guard the secret of what I had seen. I could not continue to live like +the rest of the world, with the fear upon me that those scenes might be +re-enacted. + +I have come to consult the doctor who directs this lunatic asylum, and +I have told him everything. + +After he had interrogated me for a long time, he said to me: + +"Will you consent, monsieur, to remain here for some time?" + +"Most willingly, monsieur." + +"You have some means?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Will you have isolated apartments?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Would you care to receive any friends?" + +"No, monsieur, no, nobody. The man from Rouen might take it into his head +to pursue me here to be revenged on me." + +And I have been alone, alone, all, all alone, for three months. I am +growing tranquil by degrees. I have no longer any fears. If the antiquary +should become mad ... and if he should be brought into this asylum! Even +prisons themselves are not places of security. + + + + +SIMON'S PAPA + + +Noon had just struck. The school-door opened and the youngsters tumbled +out rolling over each other in their haste to get out quickly. But +instead of promptly dispersing and going home to dinner as was their +daily wont, they stopped a few paces off, broke up into knots and set to +whispering. + +The fact was that that morning Simon, the son of La Blanchotte, had, for +the first time, attended school. + +They had all of them in their families heard talk of La Blanchotte; and, +although in public she was welcome enough, the mothers among themselves +treated her with compassion of a somewhat disdainful kind, which the +children had caught without in the least knowing why. + +As for Simon himself, they did not know him, for he never went +abroad, and did not go galloping about with them through the streets +of the village or along the banks of the river. Therefore, they loved +him but little; and it was with a certain delight, mingled with +considerable astonishment, that they met and that they recited to +each other this phrase, set afoot by a lad of fourteen or fifteen who +appeared to know all, all about it, so sagaciously did he wink. "You +know ... Simon ... well, he has no papa." + +La Blanchotte's son appeared in his turn upon the threshold of the +school. + +He was seven or eight years old. He was rather pale, very neat, with +a timid and almost awkward manner. + +He was on the point of making his way back to his mother's house when the +groups of his school-fellows perpetually whispering and watching him with +the mischievous and heartless eyes of children bent upon playing a nasty +trick, gradually surrounded him and ended by enclosing him altogether. +There he stood fixed amidst them, surprised and embarrassed, not +understanding what they were going to do with him. But the lad who had +brought the news, puffed up with the success he had met with already, +demanded: + +"How do you name yourself, you?" + +He answered: "Simon." + +"Simon what?" retorted the other. + +The child, altogether bewildered, repeated: "Simon." + +The lad shouted at him: "One is named Simon something ... that is not +a name ... Simon indeed." + +And he, on the brink of tears, replied for the third time: + +"I am named Simon." + +The urchins fell a-laughing. The lad triumphantly lifted up his voice: +"You can see plainly that he has no papa." + +A deep silence ensued. The children were dumbfounded by this +extraordinary, impossible monstrous thing--a boy who had not a papa; they +looked upon him as a phenomenon, an unnatural being, and they felt that +contempt, until then inexplicable, of their mothers for La Blanchotte +grow upon them. As for Simon, he had propped himself against a tree to +avoid falling and he remained as though struck to the earth by an +irreparable disaster. He sought to explain, but he could think of no +answer for them, to deny this horrible charge that he had no papa. At +last he shouted at them quite recklessly: "Yes, I have one." + +"Where is he?" demanded the boy. + +Simon was silent, he did not know. The children roared, tremendously +excited; and these sons of toil, most nearly related to animals, +experienced that cruel craving which animates the fowls of a farm-yard +to destroy one among themselves as soon as it is wounded. Simon suddenly +espied a little neighbor, the son of a widow, whom he had always seen, as +he himself was to be seen, quite alone with his mother. + +"And no more have you," he said, "no more have you a papa." + +"Yes," replied the other, "I have one." + +"Where is he?" rejoined Simon. + +"He is dead," declared the brat with superb dignity, "he is in the +cemetery, is my papa." + +A murmur of approval rose amidst the scapegraces, as if this fact of +possessing a papa dead in a cemetery had caused their comrade to grow big +enough to crush the other one who had no papa at all. And these rogues, +whose fathers were for the most part evil-doers, drunkards, thieves and +ill-treaters of their wives, hustled each other as they pressed closer +and closer, as though they, the legitimate ones, would stifle in their +pressure one who was beyond the law. + +He who chanced to be next Simon suddenly put his tongue out at him with +a waggish air and shouted at him: + +"No papa! No papa!" + +Simon seized him by the hair with both hands and set to work to demolish +his legs with kicks, while he bit his cheek ferociously. A tremendous +struggle ensued between the two combatants, and Simon found himself +beaten, torn, bruised, rolled on the ground in the middle of the ring of +applauding vagabonds. As he arose mechanically brushing his little blouse +all covered with dust with his hand, some one shouted at him: + +"Go and tell your Papa." + +He then felt a great sinking in his heart. They were stronger than he +was, they had beaten him and he had no answer to give them, for he knew +well that it was true that he had no Papa. Full of pride he attempted +for some moments to struggle against the tears which were suffocating +him. He had a choking fit, and then without cries he commenced to weep +with great sobs which shook him incessantly. Then a ferocious joy broke +out among his enemies, and, naturally, just as with savages in their +fearful festivals, they took each other by the hand and set about dancing +in a circle about him as they repeated as a refrain: + +"No Papa! No Papa!" + +But Simon quite suddenly ceased sobbing. Frenzy overtook him. There were +stones under his feet, he picked them up and with all his strength hurled +them at his tormentors. Two or three were struck and rushed off yelling, +and so formidable did he appear that the rest became panic stricken. +Cowards, as a crowd always is in the presence of an exasperated man, +they broke up and fled. Left alone, the little thing without a father set +off running towards the fields, for a recollection had been awakened +which brought his soul to a great determination. He made up his mind to +drown himself in the river. + +He remembered, in fact, that eight days before a poor devil who begged +for his livelihood, had thrown himself into the water because he had no +more money. Simon had been there when they had fished him out again; and +the sight of the fellow, who usually seemed to him so miserable, and +ugly, had then struck him--his pale cheeks, his long drenched beard and +his open eyes being full of calm. The bystanders had said: + +"He is dead." + +And someone had said: + +"He is quite happy now." + +And Simon wished to drown himself also because he had no father, just +like the wretched being who had no money. + +He reached the neighborhood of the water and watched it flowing. Some +fishes were sporting briskly in the clear stream and occasionally made +a little bound and caught the flies flying on the surface. He stopped +crying in order to watch them, for their housewifery interested him +vastly. But, at intervals, as in the changes of a tempest, altering +suddenly from tremendous gusts of wind, which snap off the trees and +then lose themselves in the horizon, this thought would return to him +with intense pain: + +"I am about to drown myself because I have no Papa." + +It was very warm and fine weather. The pleasant sunshine warmed the +grass. The water shone like a mirror. And Simon enjoyed some minutes the +happiness of that languor which follows weeping, in which he felt very +desirous of falling asleep there upon the grass in the warmth. + +A little green frog leapt from under his feet. He endeavored to catch it. +It escaped him. He followed it and lost it three times following. At last +he caught it by one of its hind legs and began to laugh as he saw the +efforts the creature made to escape. It gathered itself up on its large +legs and then with a violent spring suddenly stretched them out as stiff +as two bars; while, its eye wide open in its round, golden circle, it +beat the air with its front limbs which worked as though they were hands. +It reminded him of a toy made with straight slips of wood nailed zigzag +one on the other, which by a similar movement regulated the exercise of +the little soldiers stuck thereon. Then he thought of his home and next +of his mother, and overcome by a great sorrow he again began to weep. His +limbs trembled; and he placed himself on his knees and said his prayers +as before going to bed. But he was unable to finish them, for such +hurried and violent sobs overtook him that he was completely overwhelmed. +He thought no more, he no longer saw anything around him and was wholly +taken up in crying. + +Suddenly a heavy hand was placed upon his shoulder, and a rough voice +asked him: + +"What is it that causes you so much grief, my fine fellow?" + +Simon turned round. A tall workman with a black beard and hair all +curled, was staring at him good naturedly. He answered with his eyes +and throat full of tears: + +"They have beaten me ... because ... I ... have no ... Papa ... no +Papa." + +"What!" said the man smiling, "why everybody has one." + +The child answered painfully amidst his spasms of grief: + +"But I ... I ... I have none." + +Then the workman became serious. He had recognized La Blanchotte's son, +and although but recently come to the neighborhood he had a vague idea of +her history. + +"Well," said he, "console yourself my boy, and come with me home to your +mother. They will give you ... a Papa." + +And so they started on the way, the big one holding the little one by the +hand, and the man smiled afresh, for he was not sorry to see this +Blanchotte, who was, it was said, one of the prettiest girls of the +country-side, and, perhaps, he said to himself, at the bottom of his +heart, that a lass who had erred might very well err again. + +They arrived in front of a little and very neat white house. + +"There it is," exclaimed the child, and he cried "Mamma." + +A woman appeared and the workman instantly left off smiling, for he at +once perceived that there was no more fooling to be done with the tall +pale girl who stood austerely at her door as though to defend from one +man the threshold of that house where she had already been betrayed by +another. Intimidated, his cap in his hand, he stammered out: + +"See, madam, I have brought back your little boy who had lost himself +near the river." + +But Simon flung his arms about his mother's neck and told her, as he +again began to cry: + +"No, mamma, I wished to drown myself, because the others had beaten +me ... had beaten me ... because I have no Papa." + +A burning redness covered the young woman's cheeks, and, hurt to the +quick, she embraced her child passionately, while the tears coursed down +her face. The man, much moved, stood there, not knowing how to get away. +But Simon suddenly ran to him and said: + +"Will you be my Papa?" + +A deep silence ensued. La Blanchotte, dumb and tortured with shame, +leaned herself against the wall, both her hands upon her heart. The child +seeing that no answer was made him, replied: + +"If you do not wish it, I shall return to drown myself." + +The workman took the matter as a jest and answered laughing: + +"Why, yes, I wish it certainly." + +"What is your name, then?" went on the child, "so that I may tell the +others when they wish to know your name?" + +"Phillip," answered the man. + +Simon was silent a moment so that he might get the name well into his +head; then he stretched out his arms quite consoled as he said: + +"Well, then, Phillip, you are my Papa." + +The workman, lifting him from the ground kissed him hastily on both +cheeks, and then made off very quickly with great strides. + +When the child returned to school next day he was received with a +spiteful laugh, and at the end of school when the lads were on the point +of recommencing, Simon threw these words at their heads as he would +have done a stone: "He is named Phillip, my Papa." + +Yells of delight burst out from all sides. + +"Phillip who? ... Phillip what? What on earth is Phillip? Where did you +pick up your Phillip?" + +Simon answered nothing; and immovable in faith he defied them with his +eye, ready to be martyred rather than fly before them. The school-master +came to his rescue and he returned home to his mother. + +During three months, the tall workman, Phillip, frequently passed by the +Blanchotte's house, and sometimes he made bold to speak to her when he +saw her sewing near the window. She answered him civilly, always +sedately, never joking with him, nor permitting him to enter her house. +Notwithstanding which, being, like all men, a bit of a coxcomb, he +imagined that she was often rosier than usual when she chatted with him. + +But a fallen reputation is so difficult to recover and always remains so +fragile that, in spite of the shy reserve, La Blanchotte maintained they +already gossiped in the neighborhood. + +As for Simon, he loved his new Papa much, and walked with him nearly +every evening when the day's work was done. He went regularly to school +and mixed with great dignity with his school-fellows without ever +answering them back. + +One day, however, the lad who had first attacked him said to him: + +"You have lied. You have not a Papa named Phillip." + +"Why do you say that?" demanded Simon, much disturbed. + +The youth rubbed his hands. He replied: + +"Because if you had one he would be your mamma's husband." + +Simon was confused by the truth of this reasoning, nevertheless he +retorted: + +"He is my Papa all the same." + +"That can very well be," exclaimed the urchin with a sneer, "but that is +not being your Papa altogether." + +La Blanchotte's little one bowed his head and went off dreaming in the +direction of the forge belonging to old Loizon, where Phillip worked. + +This forge was as though entombed in trees. It was very dark there, the +red glare of a formidable furnace alone lit up with great flashes five +blacksmiths, who hammered upon their anvils with a terrible din. They +were standing enveloped in flame, like demons, their eyes fixed on the +red-hot iron they were pounding; and their dull ideas rose and fell with +their hammers. + +Simon entered without being noticed and went quietly to pluck his friend +by the sleeve. He turned himself round. All at once the work came to a +standstill and all the men looked on very attentive. Then, in the midst +of this unaccustomed silence, rose the little slender pipe of Simon: + +"Phillip, explain to me what the lad at La Michande has just told me, +that you are not altogether my Papa." + +"And why that?" asked the smith. + +The child replied with all its innocence: + +"Because you are not my mamma's husband." + +No one laughed. Philip remained standing, leaning his forehead upon +the back of his great hands, which supported the handle of his hammer +standing upright upon the anvil. He mused. His four companions watched +him, and, quite a tiny mite among these giants, Simon anxiously waited. +Suddenly, one of the smiths, answering to the sentiment of all, said to +Phillip: + +"La Blanchotte is all the same a good and honest girl, and stalwart and +steady in spite of her misfortune, and one who would make a worthy wife +for a honest man." + +"That is true," remarked the three others. + +The smith continued: + +"Is it this girl's fault if she has fallen? She had been promised +marriage and I know more than one who is much respected to-day, and who +sinned every bit as much." + +"That is true," responded the three men in chorus. + +He resumed: + +"How hard she has toiled, poor thing, to educate her lad all alone, and +how much she has wept since she no longer goes out, save to go to church, +God only knows." + +"This also is true," said the others. + +Then no more was heard than the bellows which fanned the fire of the +furnace. Phillip hastily bent himself down to Simon: + +"Go and tell your mamma that I shall come to speak to her." + +Then he pushed the child out by the shoulders. He returned to his work +and with a single blow the five hammers again fell upon their anvils. +Thus they wrought the iron until nightfall, strong, powerful, happy, +like hammers satisfied. But just as the great bell of a cathedral +resounds upon feast days above the jingling of the other bells, so +Phillip's hammer, dominating the noise of the others, clanged second +after second with a deafening uproar. And he, his eye on fire, plied his +trade vigorously, erect amid the sparks. + +The sky was full of stars as he knocked at La Blanchotte's door. He had +his Sunday blouse on, a fresh shirt, and his beard was trimmed. The young +woman showed herself upon the threshold and said in a grieved tone: + +"It is ill to come thus when night has fallen, Mr. Phillip." + +He wished to answer, but stammered and stood confused before her. + +She resumed: + +"And still you understand quite well that it will not do that I should be +talked about any more." + +Then he said all at once: + +"What does that matter to me, if you will be my wife!" + +No voice replied to him, but he believed that he heard in the shadow of +the room the sound of a body which sank down. He entered very quickly; +and Simon, who had gone to his bed, distinguished the sound of a kiss and +some words that his mother said very softly. Then he suddenly found +himself lifted up by the hands of his friend, who, holding him at the +length of his herculean arms, exclaimed to him: + +"You will tell them, your school-fellows, that your papa is Phillip Remy, +the blacksmith, and that he will pull the ears of all who do you any +harm." + +On the morrow, when the school was full and lessons were about to begin, +little Simon stood up quite pale with trembling lips: + +"My papa," said he in a clear voice, "is Phillip Remy, the blacksmith, +and he has promised to box the ears of all who do me any harm." + +This time no one laughed any longer, for he was very well known, was +Phillip Remy, the blacksmith, and was a papa of whom anyone in the world +would have been proud. + + + + +PAUL'S MISTRESS + + +The Restaurant Grillon, a small commonwealth of boatmen, was slowly +emptying. In front of the door all was a tumult of cries and calls, +while the jolly dogs in white flannels gesticulated with oars on their +shoulders. + +The ladies in bright spring toilets stepped aboard the skiffs with +care, and seating themselves astern, arranged their dresses, while the +landlord of the establishment, a mighty individual with a red beard, +of renowned strength, offered his hand to the pretty dears, with great +self-possession, keeping the frail craft steady. + +The rowers, bare-armed, with bulging chests, took their places in their +turn, posing for their gallery, as they did so, a gallery consisting of +middle class people dressed in their Sunday clothes, of workmen and +soldiers leaning upon their elbows on the parapet of the bridge, all +taking a great interest in the sight. + +The boats one by one cast off from the landing stage. The oarsmen bent +themselves forward and then threw themselves backwards with an even +swing, and under the impetus of the long curved oars, the swift skiffs +glided along the river, got far away, grew smaller and finally +disappeared under the other bridge, that of the railway, as they +descended the stream towards La Grenouillere. One couple only remained +behind. The young man, still almost beardless, slender, and of pale +countenance, held his mistress, a thin little brunette, with the gait of +a grasshopper, by the waist; and occasionally they gazed into each others +eyes. The landlord shouted: + +"Come, Mr. Paul, make haste," and they drew near. + +Of all the guests of the house, Mr. Paul was the most liked and most +respected. He paid well and punctually, while the others hung back for +a long time, if indeed they did not vanish insolvent. Besides which he +acted as a sort of walking advertisement for the establishment, inasmuch +as his father was a senator. And when a stranger would inquire: "Who on +earth is that little chap who thinks so much of himself because of his +girl?" some habitue would reply, half-aloud, with a mysterious and +important air: "Don't you know? That is Paul Baron, a senator's son." + +And invariably the other could not restrain himself from exclaiming: + +"Poor devil! He is not half mashed." + +Mother Grillon, a worthy and good business woman, described the young man +and his companion as "her two turtle-doves," and appeared quite moved by +this passion, profitable for her house. + +The couple advanced at a slow pace; the skiff, Madeleine, was ready, when +at the moment of embarking therein they kissed each other, which caused +the public collected on the bridge to laugh, and Mr. Paul taking the +oars, they left also for La Grenonillere. + +When they arrived it was just upon three o'clock and the large floating +cafe overflowed with people. + +The immense raft, sheltered by a tarpaulin roof, is attached to the +charming island of Croissy by two narrow foot bridges, one of which leads +into the center of this aquatic establishment, while the other unites its +end with a tiny islet planted with a tree and surnamed "The Flower Pot," +and thence leads to land near the bath office. + +Mr. Paul made fast his boat alongside the establishment, climbed over the +railing of the cafe and then grasping his mistress's hand assisted her +out of the boat and they both seated themselves at the end of a table +opposite each other. + +On the opposite side of the river along the market road, a long string of +vehicles was drawn up. Fiacres alternated with the fine carriages of the +swells; the first, clumsy, with enormous bodies crushing the springs, +drawn by a broken down hack with hanging head and broken knees; the +second, slightly built on light wheels, with horses slender and straight, +their heads well up, their bits snowy with foam, while the coachman, +solemn in his livery, his head erect in his high collar, waited bolt +upright, his whip resting on his knee. + +The bank was covered with people who came off in families, or in gangs, +or two by two, or alone. They plucked blades of grass, went down to the +water, remounted the path, and all having attained the same spot, stood +still awaiting the ferryman. The clumsy punt plied incessantly from bank +to bank, discharging its passengers on to the island. The arm of the +river (named the Dead Arm) upon which this refreshment wharf lay, +appeared asleep, so feeble was the current. Fleets of yawls, of skiffs, +of canoes, of podoscaphs (a light boat propelled by wheels set in motion +by a treadle), of gigs, of craft of all forms and of all kinds, crept +about upon the motionless stream, crossing each other, intermingling, +running foul of one another, stopping abruptly under a jerk of the arms +to shoot off afresh under a sudden strain of the muscles gliding swiftly +along like great yellow or red fishes. + +Others arrived incessantly; some from Chaton up the stream; others from +Bougival down it; laughter crossed the water from one boat to another, +calls, admonitions or imprecations. The boatmen exposed the bronzed and +knotted flesh of their biceps to the heat of the day; and similar to +strange flowers, which floated, the silk parasols, red, green, blue, or +yellow, of the ladies seated near the helm, bloomed in the sterns of the +boats. + +A July sun flamed high in the heavens; the atmosphere seemed full of +burning merriment: not a breath of air stirred the leaves of the willows +or poplars. + +Down there the inevitable Mont-Valerien erected its fortified ramparts, +tier above tier, in the intense light; while on the right the divine +slopes of Louveniennes following the bend of the river disposed +themselves in a semi-circle, displaying in their order across the rich +and shady lawns, of large gardens, the white walls of country seats. + +Upon the outskirts of La Grenonillere a crowd of promenaders moved about +beneath the giant trees which make this corner of the island the most +delightful park in the world. + +Women and girls with breasts developed beyond all measurement, with +exaggerated bustles, their complexions plastered with rouge, their eyes +daubed with charcoal, their lips blood-red, laced up, rigged out in +outrageous dresses--trailed the crying bad taste of their toilets over +the fresh green sward; while beside them young men postured in their +fashion-plate accouterments with light gloves, varnished boots, canes, +the size of a thread, and single eye-glasses punctuating the insipidity +of their smiles. + +The island is narrow opposite La Grenonillere, and on its other side, +where also a ferry-boat plies, bringing people unceasingly across from +Croissy, the rapid branch of the river, full of whirlpools and eddies and +foam, rushes along with the strength of a torrent. + +A detachment of pontoon-soldiers, in the uniform of artillerymen, is +encamped upon this bank, and the soldiers seated in a row on a long beam +watched the water flowing. + +In the floating establishment there was a boisterous and uproarious +crowd. The wooden tables upon which the spilt refreshments made little +sticky streams, were covered with half empty glasses and surrounded by +half tipsy individuals. All this crowd shouted, sang and brawled. The +men, their hats at the backs of their heads, their faces red, with the +brilliant eyes of drunkards, moved about vociferously in need of a row +natural to brutes. The women, seeking their prey for the night, caused +themselves to be treated, in the meantime; and in the free space between +the tables, the ordinary local public predominated a whole regiment of +boatmen, _Rowkickersup_, with their companions in short flannel +petticoats. + +One of them carried on at the piano and appeared to play with his feet +as well as his hands; four couples bounded through a quadrille, and some +young men watched them, polished and correct, who would have looked +proper, if in spite of all, vice itself had appeared. + +For there, one tastes in full all the pomp and vanity of the world, all +its well bred debauchery, all the seamy side of Parisian society; a +mixture of counter-jumpers, of strolling players, of the lowest +journalists, of gentlemen in tutelage, of rotten stock-jobbers, of +ill-famed debauchees, of used-up old, fast men; a doubtful crowd of +suspicious characters, half-known, half gone under, half-recognized, +half-cut, pickpockets, rogues, procurers of women, sharpers with +dignified manners, and a bragging air, which seems to say: "I shall +rend the first who treats me as a scoundrel." + +This place reeks of folly, stinks of the scum and the gallantry of the +shops. Male and female there give themselves airs. There dwells an odor +of love, and there one fights for a yes, or for a no, in order to sustain +a worm-eaten reputation, which a stroke of the sword or a pistol bullet +would destroy further. + +Some of the neighboring inhabitants looked in out of curiosity every +Sunday; some young men, very young, appeared there every year to learn +how to live, some promenaders lounging about showed themselves there; +some greenhorns wandered thither. It is with good reason named La +Grenonillere. At the side of the covered wharf where they drank, and +quite close to the Flower Pot, people bathed. Those among the women +who possessed the requisite roundness of form came there to display their +wares naked and to make clients. The rest, scornful, although well filled +out with wadding, shored up with springs, corrected here and altered +there, watched their sisters dabbling with disdain. + +The swimmers crowded on to a little platform to dive thence head +foremost. They are either straight like vine poles, or round like +pumpkins, gnarled like olive branches, they are bowed over in front, +or thrown backwards by the size of their stomachs and are invariably +ugly, they leap into the water which splashes almost over the drinkers +in the cafe. + +Notwithstanding the great trees which overhang the floating-house, and +notwithstanding the vicinity of the water a suffocating heat fills the +place. The fumes of the spilt liquors mix with the effluvium of the +bodies and with that of the strong perfumes with which the skin of the +traders in love is saturated and which evaporate in this furnace. But +beneath all these diverse scents a slight aroma of vice-powder lingered, +which now disappeared and then reappeared, which one was perpetually +encountering as though some concealed hand had shaken an invisible +powder-puff in the air. The show was upon the river whither the perpetual +coming and going of the boats attracts the eyes. The boatwomen sprawled +upon their seats opposite their strong-wristed males, and contemplated +with contempt the dinner hunters prowling about the island. + +Sometimes when a train of boats, just started, passed at full speed, the +friends who stayed ashore gave shouts, and all the people suddenly seized +with madness set to work yelling. + +At the bend of the river towards Chaton fresh boats showed themselves +unceasingly. They came nearer and grew larger, and if only faces were +recognized, the vociferations broke out anew. + +A canoe covered with an awning and manned by four women came slowly down +the current. She who rowed was little, thin, faded, in a cabin boy's +costume, her hair drawn up under an oil-skin cap. Opposite her, a lusty +blonde, dressed as a man, with a white flannel jacket, lay upon her back +at the bottom of the boat, her legs in the air, on the seat at each side +of the rower, and she smoked a cigarette, while at each stroke of the +oars, her chest and stomach quivered, shaken by the shock. Quite at the +back, under the awning, two handsome girls, tall and slender, one dark +and the other fair, held each other by the waist as they unceasingly +watched their companions. + +A cry arose from La Grenonillere, "There is Lesbos," and there became all +at once a furious clamor; a terrifying scramble took place; the glasses +were knocked down; people clambered on to the tables; all in a frenzy of +noise bawled: "Lesbos! Lesbos! Lesbos!" The shout rolled along, became +indistinct, was no longer more than a kind of tremendous howl, and then +suddenly it seemed to start anew, to rise into space, to cover the plain, +to fill the foliage of the great trees, to extend itself to the distant +slopes, to go even to the sun. + +The rower, in the face of this ovation, had quietly stopped. The handsome +blonde extended upon the bottom of the boat, turned her head with a +careless air, as she raised herself upon her elbows; and the two girls +at the back commenced laughing as they saluted the crowd. + +Then the hullaballoo was doubled, making the floating establishment +tremble. The men took off their hats, the women waved their +handkerchiefs, and all voices, shrill or deep, together cried: + +"Lesbos." + +One would have said that these people, this collection of the corrupt, +saluted a chief like the squadrons which fire guns when an admiral passes +along the line. + +The numerous fleet of boats also acclaimed the women's boat, which awoke +from its sleepy motion to land rather farther off. + +Mr. Paul, contrary to the others, had drawn a key from his pocket and +whistled with all his might. His nervous mistress grew paler, caught him +by the arm to cause him to be quiet, and upon this occasion she looked +at him with fury in her eyes. But he appeared exasperated, as though +borne away by jealousy of some man by deep anger, instinctive and +ungovernable. He stammered, his lips quivering with indignation: + +"It is shameful! They ought to be drowned like dogs with a stone about +the neck." + +But Madeleine instantly flew into a rage; her small and shrill voice +became hissing, and she spoke volubly, as though pleading her own cause: + +"And what has it to do with you--you indeed? Are they not at liberty to +do what they wish since they owe nobody anything. A truce with your airs +and mind your own business...." + +But he cut her speech short: + +"It is the police whom it concerns, and I will have them marched off to +St. Lazare; so I will." + +She gave a start: + +"You?" + +"Yes, I! And in the meantime I forbid you to speak to them, you +understand, I forbid you to do so." + +Then she shrugged her shoulders and grew calm in a moment: + +"My friend, I shall do as I please; if you are not satisfied, be off, and +instantly. I am not your wife, am I? Very well then, hold your tongue." + +He made no reply and they stood face to face, their mouths tightly closed +and their breathing rapid. + +At the other end of the great cafe of wood the four women made their +entry. The two in men's costumes marched in front: the one thin like an +oldish tomboy, with yellow lines on her temples; the other filled out her +white flannel garments with her fat, swelling out her big trousers with +her buttocks; she swayed about like a fat goose with enormous legs and +yielding knees. Their two friends followed them, and the crowd of boatmen +thronged about to shake their hands. + +They had all four hired a small cottage close to the water's edge, and +they lived there as two households would have lived. + +Their vice was public, recognized, patent. People talked of it as a +natural thing, which almost excited their sympathy, and whispered in +very low tones strange stories of dramas begotten of furious feminine +jealousies, of the stealthy visit of well-known women and of actresses +to the little house close to the water's edge. + +A neighbor, horrified by these scandalous rumors, apprised the police, +and the inspector, accompanied by a man, had come to make inquiry. The +mission was a delicate one; it was impossible, in short, to reproach +these women, who did not abandon themselves to prostitution with +anything. The inspector, very much puzzled, indeed, ignorant of the +nature of the offenses suspected, had asked questions at random, and +made a lofty report conclusive of their innocence. + +They laughed about it all the way to St. Germain. They walked about La +Grenonillere establishment with stately steps like queens; and seemed to +glory in their fame, rejoicing in the gaze that was fixed on them, so +superior to this crowd, to this mob, to these plebeians. + +Madeleine and her lover watched them approach and in the girl's eyes a +fire lightened. + +When the two first had reached the end of the table, Madeleine cried: + +"Pauline!" + +The large woman turned herself and stopped, continuing all the time to +hold the arm of her feminine cabin boy: + +"Good gracious, Madeleine.... Do come and talk to me, my dear." + +Paul squeezed his fingers upon his mistress's wrist; but she said to him, +with such an air: + +"You know, my fine fellow, you can be off;" he said nothing and remained +alone. + +Then they chatted in low voices, standing all three of them. Many +pleasant jests passed their lips, they spoke quickly; and Pauline looked +now and then at Paul, by stealth, with a shrewd and malicious smile. + +At last, putting up with it no longer, he suddenly raised himself and in +a single bound was at their side, trembling in every limb. He seized +Madeleine by the shoulders: + +"Come. I wish it," said he. "I have forbidden you to speak to these +scoundrels." + +Whereupon Pauline raised her voice and set to work blackguarding him with +her Billingsgate vocabulary. All the bystanders laughed; they drew near +him; they raised themselves on tiptoe in order the better to see him. He +remained dumbfounded under this downpour of filthy abuse. It appeared to +him that these words, which came from that mouth and fell upon him, +defiled him like dirt, and, in presence of the row which was beginning, +he fell back, retraced his steps, and rested his elbows on the railing +towards the river, turning his back upon the three victorious women. + +There he stayed watching the water, and sometimes with rapid gesture as +though he plucked it out, he removed with his sinewy fingers the tear +which had formed in his eye. + +The fact was that he was hopelessly in love, without knowing why, +notwithstanding his refined instincts, in spite of his reason, in spite, +indeed, of his will. He had fallen into this love as one falls into a +sloughy hole. Of a tender and delicate disposition, he had dreamed of +liaisons, exquisite, ideal and impassioned, and there that little bit of +a woman, stupid like all girls, with an exasperating stupidity, not even +pretty, thin and a spitfire, had taken him prisoner, possessing him from +head to foot, body and soul. He underwent this feminine bewitchery, +mysterious and all powerful, this unknown power, this prodigious +domination, arising no one knows whence, from the demon of the flesh, +which casts the most sensible man at the feet of some girl or other +without there being anything in her to explain her fatal and sovereign +power. + +And there at his back he felt that some infamous thing was brewing. +Shouts of laughter cut him to the heart. What should he do? He knew well, +but he could not do it. + +He steadily watched an angler upon the bank opposite him, and his +motionless line. + +Suddenly, the worthy man jerked a little silver fish, which wriggled at +the end of his line, out of the river. Then he endeavored to extract his +hook, hoisted and turned it, but in vain. At last, losing patience, he +commenced to pull it out, and all the bleeding gullet of the beast, with +a portion of its intestines, came out. Paul shuddered, rent himself to +his heart-strings. It seemed to him that the hook was his love and that +if he should pluck it out, all that he had in his breast would come +out in the same way at the end of a curved iron fixed in the depths of +his being, of which Madeleine held the line. + +A hand was placed upon his shoulder; he started and turned; his mistress +was at his side. They did not speak to each other; and she rested, like +him, with her elbows upon the railing, her eyes fixed upon the river. + +He sought for what he ought to say to her and could find nothing. He did +not even arrive at disentangling his own emotions; all that he was +sensible of was joy at feeling her there close to him, come back again, +and a shameful cowardice, a craving to pardon everything, to permit +everything, provided she never left him. + +At last, at the end of some minutes, he asked her in a very gentle voice: + +"Do you wish that we should leave? It will be nicer in the boat." + +She answered: "Yes, my puss." + +And he assisted her into the skiff, pressing her hands, all softened, +with some tears still in his eyes. Then she looked at him with a smile +and they kissed each other anew. + +They re-ascended the river very slowly, skirting the bank planted with +willows, covered with grass, bathed and still in the afternoon warmth. +When they had returned to the Restaurant Grillon, it was barely six +o'clock. Then leaving their boat they set off on foot on the island +towards Bezons, across the fields and along the high poplars which +bordered the river. The long grass ready to be mowed was full of flowers. +The sun, which was sinking, showed himself from beneath a sheet of red +light, and in the tempered heat of the closing day the floating +exhalations from the grass, mingled with the damp scents from the river, +filled the air with a soft languor, with a happy light, as though with a +vapor of well-being. + +A soft weakness overtakes the heart, and a species of communion with this +splendid calm of evening, with this vague and mysterious chilliness of +outspread life, with the keen and melancholy poetry which seems to arise +from flowers and things, develops itself revealed at this sweet and +pensive time to the senses. + +He felt all that; but she did not understand anything of it, for her +part. They walked side by side; and, suddenly tired of being silent, she +sang. She sang with her shrill and false voice, something which pervaded +the streets, an air catching the memory, which rudely destroyed the +profound and serene harmony of the evening. + +Then he looked at her and he felt an unsurpassable abyss between them. +She beat the grass with her parasol, her head slightly inclined, +contemplating her feet and singing, spinning out the notes, attempting +trills, and venturing on shakes. Her smooth little brow, of which he was +so fond, was at that time absolutely empty! empty! There was nothing +therein but this music of a bird-organ; and the ideas which formed there +by chance were like this music. She did not understand anything of him; +they were now separated as if they did not live together. Did then his +kisses never go any further than her lips? + +Then she raised her eyes to him and laughed again. He was moved to the +quick and, extending his arms in a paroxysm of love, he embraced her +passionately. + +As he was rumpling her dress she ended by disengaging herself, murmuring +by way of compensation as she did so: + +"Go; I love you well, my puss." + +But he seized her by the waist and seized by madness, carried her rapidly +away. He kissed her on the cheek, on the temple, on the neck, all the +while dancing with joy. They threw themselves down panting at the edge of +a thicket, lit up by the rays of the setting sun, and before they had +recovered breath they became friends again without her understanding his +transport. + +They returned, holding each other by the hand, when suddenly, across the +trees, they perceived on the river, the canoe manned by the four women. +The large Pauline also saw them, for she drew herself up and blew kisses +to Madeleine. And then she cried: + +"Until to-night!" + +Madeleine replied: + +"Until to-night!" + +Paul believed he suddenly felt his heart enveloped in ice. + +They re-entered the house for dinner. + +They installed themselves in one of the arbors, close to the water, and +set about eating in silence. When night arrived, they brought a candle +inclosed in a glass globe, which lit them up with a feeble and glimmering +light; and they heard every moment the bursting out of the shouts of the +boatmen in the great saloon on the first floor. + +Towards dessert, Paul, taking Madeleine's hand, tenderly said to her: + +"I feel very tired, my darling; unless you have any objection, we will go +to bed early." + +She, however, understood the ruse, and shot an enigmatical glance at him, +that glance of treachery which so readily appears at the bottom of a +woman's eyes. Then having reflected she answered: + +"You can go to bed if you wish, but I have promised to go to the ball at +La Grenonillere." + +He smiled in a piteous manner, one of those smiles with which one veils +the most horrible suffering, but he replied in a coaxing but agonized +tone: + +"If you were very kind, we should remain here, both of us." + +She indicated no with her head, without opening her mouth. + +He insisted: + +"I beg of you, my Bichette." + +Then she roughly broke out: + +"You know what I said to you. If you are not satisfied the door is open. +No one wishes to keep you. As for myself, I have promised; I shall go." + +He placed his two elbows upon the table, covered his face with his hands +and remained there pondering sorrowfully. + +The boat people came down again, bawling as usual. They set off in their +vessels for the ball at La Grenonillere. + +Madeleine said to Paul: + +"If you are not coming, say so, and I will ask one of these gentlemen to +take me." + +Paul rose: + +"Let us go!" murmured he. + +And they left. + +The night was black, full of stars, overpowered by a burning air, by +oppressive breaths of wind, burdened with heat and emanations, with +living germs, which, mixed with the breeze, destroyed its freshness. It +imparted to the face a heated caress, made one breathe more quickly, gasp +a little, so thick and heavy did it seem. The boats started on their way +bearing venetian lanterns at the prow. It was not possible to distinguish +the craft, but only these little colored lights, swift and dancing up and +down like glow-worms in a fit; and voices sounded from all sides in the +shade. The young people's skiff glided gently along. Now and then, when a +fast boat passed near them, they could, for a moment, see the white back +of the rower, lit up by his lantern. + +When they turned the elbow of the river, La Grenonillere appeared to them +in the distance. The establishment, en fete, was decorated with sconces, +with colored garlands draped with clusters of lights. On the Seine some +great barges moved about slowly, representing domes, pyramids and +elaborate erections in fires of all colors. Illuminated festoons hung +right down to the water, and sometimes a red or blue lantern, at the end +of an immense invisible fishing-rod, seemed like a great swinging star. + +All this illumination spread a light around the cafe, lit up the great +trees on the bank, from top to bottom, the trunks of which stood out in +pale gray and the leaves in a milky green upon the deep black of the +fields and the heavens. The orchestra, composed of five suburban artists, +flung far its public-house ball-music, poor and jerky, which caused +Madeleine to sing anew. + +She desired to enter at once. Paul desired first to take a turn on the +island, but he was obliged to give way. The attendance was more select. +The boatmen, always alone, remained with some thinly scattered citizens, +and some young men flanked by girls. The director and organizer of this +can-can majestic, in a jaded black suit, walked about in every direction, +his head laid waste by his old trade of purveyor of public amusements, +at a cheap rate. + +The large Pauline and her companions were not there; and Paul breathed +again. + +They danced; couples opposite each other, capered in the most distracted +manner, throwing their legs in the air, until they were upon a level with +the noses of their partners. + +The women, whose thighs were disjointed, skipped amid such a flying +upwards of their petticoats that the lower portions of their frames were +displayed. They kicked their feet up above their heads with astounding +facility, balanced their bodies, wagged their backs and shook their +sides, shedding around them a powerful scent of sweating womanhood. + +The men were squatted like toads, some making obscene signs; some turned +and twisted themselves, grimacing and hideous; some turned like a wheel +on their hands, or, perhaps, trying to make themselves funny, sketched +the manners of the day with exaggerated gracefulness. + +A fat servant-maid and two waiters served refreshments. + +This cafe-boat being only covered with a roof and having no wall +whatever, to shut it in, the hare-brained dance was displayed in the face +of the peaceful night and of the firmament powdered with stars. + +Suddenly, Mount Valerien, yonder opposite, appears illumined, as if a +conflagration had been set ablaze behind it. The radiance spreads itself +and deepens upon the sky, describing a large luminous circle of wan and +white light. Then something or other red appeared, grew greater, shining +with a burning red, like that of hot metal upon the anvil. That gradually +developed into a round body which seemed to arise from the earth; and the +moon, freeing herself from the horizon, rose slowly into space. In +proportion as she ascended, the purple tint faded and became yellow, +a shining bright yellow, and the satellite appeared to grow smaller in +proportion as her distance increased. + +Paul watched her for sometime, lost in contemplation, forgetting his +mistress, and when he returned to himself the latter had vanished. + +He sought for her, but could not find her. He threw his anxious eye over +table after table, going to and fro unceasingly, inquiring after her from +this one and that one. No one had seen her. He was thus tormented with +disquietude, when one of the waiters said to him: + +"You are looking for Madame Madeleine, are you not? She has left but +a few moments ago, in company with Madame Pauline." And at the same +instant, Paul perceived the cabin-boy and the two pretty girls standing +at the other end of the cafe, all three holding each others' waists and +lying in wait for him, whispering to one another. He understood, and, +like a madman, dashed off into the island. + +He first ran towards Chatou, but having reached the plain, retraced his +steps. Then he began to search the dense coppices, occasionally roamed +about distractedly, halting to listen. + +The toads all round about him poured out their metallic and short notes. + +Towards Bougival, some unknown bird warbled some song which reached him +from the distance. + +Over the large lawns the moon shed a soft light, resembling powdered +wool; it penetrated the foliage and shone upon the silvered bark of the +poplars, and riddled with its brilliant rays the waving tops of the +great trees. The entrancing poetry of this summer night had, in spite of +himself, entered into Paul, athwart his infatuated anguish, and stirred +his heart with a ferocious irony, increasing even to madness, his craving +for an ideal tenderness, for passionate outpourings of the bosom of an +adored and faithful woman. He was compelled to stop, choked by hurried +and rending sobs. + +The crisis over, he started anew. + +Suddenly, he received what resembled the stab of a poignard. There, +behind that bush, some people were kissing. He ran thither; and found an +amorous couple whose faces were entwined, united in an endless kiss. + +He dared not call, knowing well that she would not respond, and he had +also a frightful dread of discovering them all at once. + +The flourishes of the quadrilles, with the ear-splitting solos of the +cornet, the false shriek of the flute, the shrill squeaking of the +violin, irritated his feelings, and exasperated his sufferings. Wild and +limping music was floating under the trees, now feeble, now stronger, +wafted hither and thither by the breeze. + +Suddenly, he said to himself, that possibly she had returned. Yes, she +had returned! Why not? He had stupidly lost his head, without cause, +carried away by his fears, by the inordinate suspicions which had for +some time overwhelmed him. + +Seized by one of these singular calms which will sometimes occur in cases +of the greatest despair, he returned towards the ball-room. + +With a single glance of the eye, he took in the whole room. He made the +round of the tables, and abruptly again found himself face to face with +the three women. He must have had a doleful and queer expression of +countenance, for all three together burst into merriment. + +He made off, returned into the island, threw himself across the coppice +panting. He listened again, listened a long time, for his ears were +singing. At last, however, he believed he heard a little farther off a +little, sharp laugh, which he recognized at once; and he advanced very +quietly, on his knees, removing the branches from his path, his heart +beating so rapidly, that he could no longer breathe. + +Two voices murmured some words, the meaning of which he did not +understand, and then they were silent. + +Next, he was possessed by a frightful longing to fly, to save himself, +for ever, from this furious passion which threatened his existence. He +was about to return to Chatou and take the train, resolved never to come +back again, never again to see her. But her likeness suddenly rushed in +upon him, and he mentally pictured that moment in the morning when she +would wake in their warm bed, and would press herself coaxingly against +him, throwing her arms around his neck, her hair disheveled, and a little +entangled on the forehead, her eyes still shut and her lips apart ready +to receive the first kiss. The sudden recollection of this morning caress +filled him with frantic recollection and the maddest desire. + +The couple began to speak again; and he approached, doubled in two. Then +a faint cry rose from under the branches quite close to him. He advanced +again, always as though in spite of himself, invisibly attracted, without +being conscious of anything ... and he saw them. + +And he stood there astounded and distracted, as though he had there +suddenly discovered a corpse, dead and mutilated. Then, in an involuntary +flash of thought, he remembered the little fish whose entrails he had +felt being torn out.... But Madeleine murmured to her companion, in the +same tone in which she had often called him by name, and he was seized +by such a fit of anguish that he fled with all his might. + +He struck against two trees, fell over a root, set off again and suddenly +found himself near the river, opposite its rapid branch, which was lit up +by the moon. The torrent-like current made great eddies where the light +played upon it. The high bank dominated the river like a cliff, leaving a +wide obscure zone at its foot where the eddies made themselves heard in +the darkness. + +On the other bank, the country seats of Croissy ranged themselves and +could be plainly seen. + +Paul saw all this as though in a dream, he thought of nothing, understood +nothing, and all things, even his very existence, appeared vague, +far-off, forgotten, done with. + +The river was there. Did he know what he was doing? Did he wish to die? +He was mad. He turned himself, however, towards the island, towards her, +and in the still air of the night, in which the faint and persistent +burden of the public house band was borne up and down, he uttered, in +a voice frantic with despair, bitter beyond measure, and superhuman, a +frightful cry: + +"Madeleine." + +His heartrending call shot across the great silence of the sky, and sped +all around the horizon. + +Then, with a tremendous leap, with the bound of a wild animal, he jumped +into the river. The water rushed on, closed over him, and from the place +where he had disappeared a series of great circles started, enlarging +their brilliant undulations, until they finally reached the other bank. +The two women had heard the noise of the plunge. Madeleine drew herself +up and exclaimed: + +"It is Paul," a suspicion having arisen in her soul, "he has drowned +himself;" and she rushed towards the bank, where Pauline rejoined her. + +A clumsy punt, propelled by two men, turned and returned on the spot. One +of the men rowed, the other plunged into the water a great pole and +appeared to be looking for something. Pauline cried: + +"What are you doing? What is the matter?" + +An unknown voice answered: + +"It is a man who has just drowned himself." + +The two ghastly women, squeezing each other tightly, followed the +maneuvers of the boat. The music of La Grenonillere continued to sound in +the distance, and appeared with its cadences to accompany the movements +of the somber fisherman; and the river which now concealed a corpse, +whirled round and round, illuminated. The search was prolonged. The +horrible suspense made Madeleine shiver all over. At last, after at +least half an hour, one of the men announced: + +"I have got it." + +And he pulled up his long pole very gently, very gently. Then something +large appeared upon the surface. The other mariner left his oars, and +they both uniting their strength and hauling upon the inert weight, +caused it to tumble over into their boat. + +Then they made for the land, seeking a place well lighted and low. At the +moment when they landed, the women also arrived. The moment she saw him, +Madeleine fell back with horror. In the moonlight he already appeared +green, with his mouth, his eyes, his nose, his clothes full of slime. His +fingers closed and stiff, were hideous. A kind of black and liquid +plaster covered his whole body. The face appeared swollen, and from his +hair, glued up by the ooze, there ran a stream of dirty water. + +"Do you know him?" asked one. + +The other, the Croissy ferryman, hesitated: + +"Yes, it certainly seems to me that I have seen that head; but you know +when like that one cannot recognize anyone easily." And then, suddenly: + +"Why, it's Mr. Paul." + +"Who is Mr. Paul?" inquired his comrade. + +The first answered: + +"Why, Mr. Paul Baron, the son of the senator, the little chap who was so +amorous." + +The other added, philosophically: + +"Well, his fun is ended now; it is a pity, all the same, when one is so +rich!" + +Madeleine sobbed and fell to the ground. Pauline approached the body and +asked: + +"Is he indeed quite dead?" + +"Quite?" + +The men shrugged their shoulders. + +"Oh! after that length of time for certain." + +Then one of them asked: + +"Was it at the Grillon that he lodged?" + +"Yes," answered the other; "we had better take him back there, there will +be something to be made of it." + +They embarked again in their boat and set out, moving off slowly on +account of the rapid current; and yet, a long time after they were out of +sight, from the place where the women remained, the regular splash of the +oars in the water could be heard. + +Then Pauline took the poor weeping Madeleine in her arms, petted her, +embraced her for a long while, consoled her. + +"What would you have; it is not your fault, is it? It is impossible to +prevent men committing folly. He wished it, so much the worse for him, +after all!" + +And then lifting her up: + +"Come, my dear, come and sleep at the house; it is impossible for you to +go back to the Grillon to-night." + +And she embraced her again. + +"Come, we will cure you," said she. + +Madeleine arose, and weeping all the while, but with fainter sobs, her +head upon Pauline's shoulder, as though it had found a refuge in a closer +and more certain affection, more familiar and more confiding, set off +with very slow steps. + + + + +THE RABBIT + + +Old Lecacheur appeared at the door of his house at his usual hour, +between five and a quarter past five in the morning, to look after +his men who were going to work. + +With a red face, only half awake, his right eye open and the left nearly +closed, he was buttoning his braces over his fat stomach with some +difficulty while he was all the time looking into every corner of the +farm-yard with a searching glance. The sun was darting his oblique rays +through the beech-trees by the side of the ditch and the apple trees +outside, and was making the cocks crow on the dung-hill, and the pigeons +coo on the roof. The smell of the cow stalls came through the open door, +and mingled in the fresh morning air, with the pungent odor of the stable +where the horses were neighing, with their heads turned towards the +light. + +As soon as his trousers were properly fastened, Lecacheur came out, and +went first of all towards the hen-house to count the morning's eggs, for +he had been afraid of thefts for some time; but the servant girl ran up +to him with lifted arms and cried: + +"Master! Master! they have stolen a rabbit during the night." + +"A rabbit?" + +"Yes, Master, the big gray rabbit, from the hutch on the left;" whereupon +the farmer quite opened his left eye, and said, simply: + +"I must see that." + +And off he went to inspect it. The hutch had been broken open and the +rabbit was gone. Then he became thoughtful, closed his right eye again, +and scratched his nose, and after a little consideration, he said to the +frightened girl, who was standing stupidly before her master: + +"Go and fetch the gendarmes; say I expect them as soon as possible." + +Lecacheur was mayor of the village, Pairgry-le Gras, and ruled it like a +master, on account of his money and position, and as soon as the servant +had disappeared in the direction of the village, which was only about +five hundred yards off, he went into the house to have his morning coffee +and to discuss the matter with his wife, whom he found on her knees in +front of the fire, trying to get it to burn up quickly, and as soon as he +got to the door, he said: + +"Somebody has stolen the gray rabbit." + +She turned round so quickly that she found herself sitting on the floor, +and looking at her husband with distressed eyes, she said: + +"What is it, Cacheux! Somebody has stolen a rabbit?" + +"The big gray one." + +She sighed. + +"How sad! Who can have done it?" + +She was a little, thin, active, neat woman, who knew all about farming, +and Lecacheur had his own ideas about the matter. + +"It must be that fellow Polyte." + +His wife got up suddenly and said in a furious voice: + +"He did it! he did it! You need not look for anyone else. He did it! You +have said it, Cacheux!" + +All her peasant's fury, all her avarice, all her rage of a saving woman +against the man of whom she had always been suspicious, and against the +girl whom she had always suspected, showed themselves in the contraction +of her mouth, and the wrinkles in her cheeks and forehead of her thin +exasperated face. + +"And what have you done?" she asked. + +"I have sent for the gendarmes." + +This Polyte was a laborer, who had been employed on the farm for a few +days, and who had been dismissed by Lecacheur for an insolent answer. He +was an old soldier, and was supposed to have retained his habits of +marauding and debauchery, from his campaigns in Africa. He did anything +for a livelihood, but whether he were a mason, a navvy, a reaper, whether +he broke stones or lopped trees, he was always lazy, and so he remained +nowhere, and he had, at times, to change his neighborhood to obtain work. + +From the first day that he came to the farm, Lecacheur's wife had +detested him, and now she was sure that he had committed the robbery. + +In about half an hour the two gendarmes arrived. Brigadier Senateur was +very tall and thin, and Gendarme Lenient, short and fat. Lecacheur made +them sit down and told them the affair, and then they went and saw the +scene of the theft, in order to verify the fact that the hutch had been +broken open, and to collect all the proofs they could. When they got back +to the kitchen, the mistress brought in some wine, filled their glasses +and asked with a distrustful look. + +"Shall you catch him?" + +The brigadier, who had his sword between his legs, appeared thoughtful. +Certainly, he was sure of taking him, if he was pointed out to him, but +if not, he could not answer for being able to discover him, himself, and +after reflecting for a long time, he put this simple question: + +"Do you know the thief?" + +And Lecacheur replied, with a look of Normandy slyness in his eyes: + +"As for knowing him, I do not, as I did not see him commit the robbery. +If I had seen him, I should have made him eat it raw, skin and flesh, +without a drop of cider to wash it down. But as for saying who it is, +I cannot, although I believe it is that good-for-nothing Polyte." + +Then he related at length his troubles with Polyte, his leaving his +service, his bad reputation, things which had been told him, accumulating +insignificant and minute proofs, and then, the brigadier, who had been +listening very attentively while he emptied his glass and filled it +again, with an indifferent air, turned to his gendarme and said: + +"We must go and look in the cottage of Severin's wife." At which the +gendarme smiled and nodded three times. + +Then Madame Lecacheur came to them, and very quietly, with all a +peasant's cunning, questioned the brigadier in her turn. That shepherd +Severin, a simpleton, a sort of a brute who had been brought up and +grown up among his bleating flocks, and who knew scarcely anything +besides them in the world, had nevertheless preserved the peasant's +instinct for saving, at the bottom of his heart. For years and years he +must have hidden in hollow trees and crevices in the rocks, all that he +earned, either as shepherd, or by curing animal's sprains (for the +bone-setter's secret had been handed down to him by the old shepherd +whose place he took), by touch or word, and one day he bought a small +property consisting of a cottage and a field, for three thousand francs. + +A few months later, it became known that he was going to marry a servant, +notorious for her bad morals, the innkeeper's servant. The young fellows +said that the girl, knowing that he was pretty well off, had been to his +cottage every night, and had taken him, overcome him, led him on to +matrimony, little by little, night by night. + +And then, having been to the mayor's office and to church, she now lived +in the house which her man had bought, while he continued to tend his +flocks, day and night, on the plains. + +And the brigadier added: + +"Polyte has been sleeping with her for three weeks, for the thief has no +place of his own to go to!" + +The gendarme make a little joke: + +"He takes the shepherd's blankets." + +Madame Lecacheur, who was seized by a fresh access of rage, of rage +increased by a married woman's anger against debauchery, exclaimed: + +"It is she, I am sure. Go there. Ah! the blackguard thieves!" + +But the brigadier was quite unmoved. + +"A minute," he said. "Let us wait until twelve o'clock, as he goes and +dines there every day. I shall catch them with it under their noses." + +The gendarme smiled, pleased at his chief's idea, and Lecacheur also +smiled now, for the affair of the shepherd struck him as very funny: +deceived husbands are always amusing. + + * * * * * + +Twelve o'clock had just struck when the brigadier, followed by his man, +knocked gently three times at the door of a little lonely house, situated +at the corner of a wood, five hundred yards from the village. + +They had been standing close against the wall, so as not to be seen from +within, and they waited. As nobody answered, the brigadier knocked again +in a minute or two. It was so quiet, that the house seemed uninhabited; +but Lenient, the gendarme, who had very quick ears, said that he heard +somebody moving about inside, and then Senateur got angry. He would not +allow anyone to resist the authority of the law for a moment, and, +knocking at the door with the hilt of his sword, he cried out: + +"Open the door, in the name of the law." + +As this order had no effect, he roared out: + +"If you do not obey, I shall smash the lock. I am the brigadier of the +gendarmerie, by G--! Here Lenient." + +He had not finished speaking when the door opened and Senateur saw before +him a fat girl, with a very red color, blowzy, with pendant breasts, a +big stomach and broad hips, a sort of sanguine and bestial female, the +wife of the shepherd Severin, and he went into the cottage. + +"I have come to pay you a visit, as I want to make a little search," he +said, and he looked about him. On the table there was a plate, a jug of +cider and a glass half full, which proved that a meal had been going on. +Two knives were lying side by side, and the shrewd gendarme winked at his +superior officer. + +"It smells good," the latter said. + +"One might swear that it was stewed rabbit," Lenient added, much amused. + +"Will you have a glass of brandy?" the peasant woman asked. + +"No, thank you; I only want the skin of the rabbit that you are eating." + +She pretended not to understand, but she was trembling. + +"What rabbit?" + +The brigadier had taken a seat, and was calmly wiping his forehead. + +"Come, come, you are not going to try and make us believe that you live +on couch grass. What were you eating there all by yourself for your +dinner?" + +"I? Nothing whatever, I swear to you. A mite of butter on my bread." + +"You are a novice, my good woman, _a mite of butter on your +bread_.... You are mistaken; you ought to have said: a mite of butter on +the rabbit. By G--d, your butter smells good! It is special butter, extra +good butter, butter fit for a wedding; certainly, not household butter!" + +The gendarme was shaking with laughter, and repeated: + +"Not household butter, certainly." + +As brigadier Senateur was a joker, all the gendarmes had grown facetious, +and the officer continued: + +"Where is your butter?" + +"My butter?" + +"Yes, your butter." + +"In the jar." + +"Then where is the butter jar?" + +"Here it is." + +She brought out an old cup, at the bottom of which there was a layer of +rancid, salt butter, and the brigadier smelt it, and said, with a shake +of his head: + +"It is not the same. I want the butter that smells of the rabbit. Come, +Lenient, open your eyes; look under the sideboard, my good fellow, and I +will look under the bed." + +Having shut the door, he went up to the bed and tried to move it; but it +was fixed to the wall, and had not been moved for more than half a +century, apparently. Then the brigadier stooped, and made his uniform +crack. A button had flown off. + +"Lenient," he said. + +"Yes, brigadier?" + +"Come here my lad and look under the bed; I am too tall. I will look +after the sideboard." + +He got up and waited while his man executed his orders. + +Lenient, who was short and stout, took off his kepi, laid himself on his +stomach, and putting his face on the floor looked at the black cavity +under the bed, and then, suddenly, he exclaimed: + +"All right, here we are!" + +"What have you got? The rabbit?" + +"No, the thief." + +"The thief! Pull him out, pull him out!" + +The gendarme had put his arms under the bed and laid hold of something, +and he was pulling with all his might, and at last a foot, shod in a +thick boot, appeared, which he was holding in his right hand. The +brigadier took it, crying: + +"Pull! pull!" + +And Lenient, who was on his knees by that time, was pulling at the other +leg. But it was a hard job, for the prisoner kicked out hard, and arched +up his back across the bed. + +"Courage! courage! pull! pull!" Senateur cried, and they pulled him with +all their strength so that the wooden bar gave way, and he came out as +far as his head; but at last they got that out also, and they saw the +terrified and furious face of Polyte, whose arms remained stretched out +under the bed. + +"Pull away!" the brigadier kept on exclaiming. Then they heard a strange +noise, and as the arms followed the shoulders, and the hands the arms, +and, in the hands the handle of a saucepan, and at the end of the handle +the saucepan itself, which contained stewed rabbit. + +"Good Lord! good Lord!" the brigadier shouted in his delight, while +Lenient took charge of the man; and the rabbit's skin, an overwhelming +proof, was discovered under the mattress, and then the gendarmes returned +in triumph to the village with their prisoner and their booty. + + * * * * * + +A week later, as the affair had made much stir, Lecacheur, on going into +the _Mairie_ to consult the school-master, was told that the shepherd +Severin had been waiting for him for more than an hour, and he found him +sitting on a chair in a corner, with his stick between his legs. When he +saw the mayor, he got up, took off his cap, and said: + +"Good morning, Maitre Cacheux;" and then he remained standing, timid and +embarrassed. + +"What do you want?" the former said. + +"This is it, Monsieur. Is it true that somebody stole one of your rabbits +last week?" + +"Yes, it is quite true, Severin." + +"Who stole the rabbit?" + +"Polyte Ancas, the laborer." + +"Right! right! And is it also true that it was found under my bed ..." + +"What do you mean, the rabbit?" + +"The rabbit and then Polyte." + +"Yes, my poor Severin, quite true, but who told you?" + +"Pretty well everybody. I understand! And I suppose you know all about +marriages, as you marry[11] people?" + +[Footnote 11: In France, Civil Marriage is compulsory, though frequently +followed by the religious rite.--TRANSLATOR.] + +"What about marriage?" + +"With regard to one's rights." + +"What rights?" + +"The husband's rights and then the wife's rights." + +"Of course I do." + +"Oh! Then just tell me, M'sieu Cacheux, has my wife the right to go to +bed with Polyte?" + +"What do you mean by going to bed with Polyte?" + +"Yes, has she any right before the law, and seeing that she is my wife, +to go to bed with Polyte?" + +"Why of course not, of course not." + +"If I catch him there again, shall I have the right to thrash him and her +also?" + +"Why ... why ... why, yes." + +"Very well, then; I will tell you why I want to know. One night last +week, as I had my suspicions, I came in suddenly, and they were not +behaving properly. I chucked Polyte out, to go and sleep somewhere else; +but that was all, as I did not know what my rights were. This time I did +not see them; I only heard of it from others. That is over, and we will +not say any more about it; but if I catch them again ... by G--d if I +catch them again, I will make them lose all taste for such nonsense, +Maitre Cacheux, as sure as my name is Severin ..." + + + + +THE TWENTY-FIVE FRANCS OF THE MOTHER-SUPERIOR + + +He certainly looked very droll, did Daddy Pavilly, with his great, spider +legs and his little body, his long arms and his pointed head, surrounded +by a flame of red hair on the top of the crown. + +He was a clown, a peasant clown by nature, born to play tricks, to act +parts, simple parts, as he was a peasant's son and was himself a peasant, +who could scarcely read. Yes! God had certainly created him to amuse +others, the poor country devils who have neither theaters nor fetes, and +he amused them conscientiously. In the cafe people treated him to drink +in order to keep him there, and he drank intrepidly, laughing and joking, +hoaxing everybody without vexing anyone, while the people were laughing +heartily around him. + +He was so droll that the very girls could not resist him, ugly as he was, +because he made them laugh so. He would drag them about joking all the +while, and he tickled and squeezed them, saying such funny things that +they held their sides while they pushed him away. + +Towards the end of June he engaged himself for the harvest to farmer Le +Harivan, near Rouville. For three whole weeks he amused the harvesters, +male and female, by his jokes, both by day and night. During the day, +when he was in the fields, he wore an old straw hat which hid his red +shock head, and one saw him gathering up the yellow grain and tying it +into bundles with his long, thin arms; and then suddenly stopping to make +a funny movement which made the laborers, who always kept their eyes on +him, laugh all over the field. At night he crept, like some crawling +animal, in among the straw in the barn where the women slept, causing +screams and exciting a disturbance. They drove him off with their wooden +clogs, and he escaped on all fours, like a fantastic monkey, amidst +volleys of laughter from the whole place. + +On the last day, as the wagon full of reapers, decked with ribbons and +playing bag-pipes, shouting and singing with pleasure and drink, went +along the white, high road, slowly drawn by six dapple-gray horses, +driven by a lad in a blouse, with a rosette in his cap, Pavilly, in the +midst of the sprawling women, danced like a drunken satyr, and kept the +little dirty-faced boys and astonished peasants, standing staring at him +open-mouthed on the way to the farm. + +Suddenly, as they got to the gate of Le Harivan's farm yard, he gave a +leap as he was lifting up his arms, but unfortunately, as he came down, +he knocked against the side of the long wagon, fell over it onto the +wheel, and rebounded into the road. His companions jumped out, but he did +not move; one eye was closed, while the other was open, and he was pale +with fear, while his long limbs were stretched out in the dust, and when +they touched his right leg he began to scream, and when they tried to +make him stand up, he immediately fell down. + +"I think one of his legs is broken," one of the men said. + +And so it really was. Harivan, therefore, had him laid on a table and +sent off a man on horseback to Rouville to fetch the doctor, who came an +hour later. + +The farmer was very generous and said that he would pay for the man's +treatment in the hospital, so that the doctor carried Pavilly off in his +carriage to the hospital, and had him put into a white-washed ward, where +his fracture was reduced. + +As soon as he knew that it would not kill him, and that he would be taken +care of, cuddled, cured, and fed without having anything to do except to +lie on his back between the sheets, Pavilly's joy was unbounded, and he +began to laugh silently and continuously, so as to show his decayed +teeth. + +Whenever one of the Sisters of Mercy came near his bed he made grimaces +of satisfaction, winking, twisting his mouth awry and moving his nose, +which was very long and mobile. His neighbors in the ward, ill as they +were, could not help laughing, and the Mother-Superior often came to his +bedside, to be amused for a quarter of an hour, and he invented all kinds +of jokes and stories for her, and as he had all the makings of a +strolling actor in him, he would be devout in order to please her, and +spoke of religion with the serious air of a man who knows that there are +times when jokes are out of place. + +One day, he took it into his head to sing to her. She was delighted and +came to see him more frequently, and then she brought him a hymn-book, so +as to utilize his voice. Then he might be seen sitting up in bed, for he +was beginning to be able to move, singing the praises of the Almighty and +of Mary, in a falsetto voice, while the kind, stout sister stood by him +and beat time with her finger. When he could walk, the Superior offered +to keep him for some time longer to sing in chapel, to serve at Mass and +to fulfill the duties of sacristan, and he accepted. For a whole month he +might be seen in his surplice, limping and singing the psalms and the +responses, with such movements of his head, that the number of the +faithful increased, and that people deserted the parish Church to attend +Vespers at the hospital. + +But as everything must come to an end in this world, they were obliged +to discharge him, when he was quite cured, and the Superior gave him +twenty-five francs in return for his services. + +As soon as Pavilly found himself in the street with all that money in his +pocket, he asked himself what he was going to do. Should he return to the +village? Certainly not before having a drink, for he had not had one for +a long time, and so he went into a cafe. He did not go into the town more +than two or three times a year, and so he had a confused and intoxicating +recollection of an orgie, on one of those visits in particular, and so he +asked for a glass of the best brandy, which he swallowed at a gulp to +grease the passage, and then he had another to see how it tasted. + +As soon as the strong and fiery brandy had touched his palate and tongue, +awakening more vividly than ever the sensation of alcohol which he was so +fond of, and so longed for, which caresses, and stings, and burns the +mouth, he knew that he should drink a whole bottle of it, and so he asked +immediately what it cost, so as to spare himself having it in detail. +They charged him three francs, which he paid, and then he began quietly +to get drunk. + +However, he was methodical in it, as he wished to keep sober enough for +other pleasures, and so, as soon as he felt that he was on the point of +seeing the fireplace bow to him, he got up and went out with unsteady +steps, with his bottle under his arm, in search of a house where girls +of easy virtue lived. + +He found one, with some difficulty, after having asked a carter, who did +not know of one; a postman, who directed him wrong; a baker, who began to +swear and called him an old pig; and lastly, a soldier, who was obliging +enough to take him to it, advised him to choose _La Reine_. + +Although it was barely twelve o'clock, Pavilly went into that palace of +delights, where he was received by a servant, who wanted to turn him out +again. But he made her laugh by making a grimace, showed her three +francs, the usual price of the special provisions of the place, and +followed her with difficulty up a dark staircase, which led to the first +floor. + +When he had been shown into a room, he asked for _la Reine_, and had +another drink out of the bottle, while he waited. But very shortly, the +door opened and a girl came in. She was tall, fat, red-faced, enormous. +She looked at the drunken fellow, who had fallen into a seat, with the +eye of a judge of such matters, and said: + +"Are you not ashamed of yourself, at this time of day?" + +"Ashamed of what, Princess?" he stammered. + +"Why, of disturbing a lady, before she has even had time to eat her +dinner." + +He wanted to have a joke, so he said: + +"There is no such thing as time, for the brave." + +"And there ought to be no time for getting drunk, either, old guzzler." + +At this he got angry: + +"I am not a guzzler, and I am not drunk." + +"Not drunk?" + +"No, I am not." + +"Not drunk? Why, you could not even stand straight;" and she looked at +him angrily, thinking that all this time her companions were having their +dinner. + +"I ... I could dance a polka," he replied, getting up, and to prove his +stability he got onto the chair, made a pirouette and jumped onto the +bed, where his thick, muddy shoes made two great marks. + +"Oh! you dirty brute!" the girl cried, and rushing at him, she struck him +a blow with her fist in the stomach, such a blow that Pavilly lost his +balance, fell and struck the foot of the bed, and making a complete +somersault tumbled onto the night-table, dragging the jug and basin with +him, and then rolled onto the ground, roaring. + +The noise was so loud, and his cries so piercing, that everybody in the +house rushed in, the master, mistress, servant, and the staff. + +The master picked him up, but as soon as he had put him on his legs, the +peasant lost his balance again, and then began to call out that his leg +was broken, the other leg, the sound one. + +It was true, so they sent for a doctor, and it happened to be the same +one who had attended him at Le Harivan's. + +"What! Is it you again?" he said. + +"Yes, M'sieu." + +"What is the matter with you?" + +"Somebody has broken my other leg for me, M'sieu." + +"Who did it, old fellow?" + +"Why, a female." + +Everybody was listening. The girls in their dressing gowns, with their +mouths still greasy from their interrupted dinner, the mistress of the +house furious, the master nervous. + +"This will be a bad job," the doctor said. "You know that the municipal +authorities look upon you with very unfavorable eyes, so we must try and +hush the matter up." + +"How can it be managed?" the master of the place asked. + +"Why the best way would be to send him back to the hospital, from which +he has just come out, and to pay for him there." + +"I would rather do that," the master of the house replied, "than have any +fuss made about the matter." + +So half an hour later, Pavilly returned drunk and groaning to the ward +which he had left an hour before. The Superior lifted up her hands in +sorrow, for she liked him, and with a smile, for she was glad to have +him back. + +"Well, my good fellow, what is the matter with you now?" + +"The other leg is broken, Madame." + +"So you have been getting onto another load of straw, you old joker?" + +And Pavilly, in great confusion, but still sly, said, with hesitation: + +"No... no.... Not this time, no ... not this time. No ... no.... It was +not my fault, not my fault ...A mattress caused this." + +She could get no other explanation out of him, and never knew that his +relapse was due to her twenty-five francs. + + + + +THE VENUS OF BRANIZA + + +Some years ago there lived in Braniza, a celebrated Talmadist, who was +renowned no less on account of his beautiful wife, than of his wisdom, +his learning, and his fear of God. The Venus of Braniza deserved that +name thoroughly, for she deserved it for herself, on account of her +singular beauty, and even more as the wife of a man who was deeply versed +in the Talmud; for the wives of the Jewish philosophers are, as a rule, +ugly, or even possess some bodily defect. + +The Talmud explains this, in the following manner. It is well known that +marriages are made in heaven, and at the birth of a boy a divine voice +calls out the name of his future wife, and _vice versa_. But just as a +good father tries to get rid of his good wares out of doors, and only +uses the damaged stuff at home for his children, so God bestows those +women whom other men would not care to have, on the Talmudists. + +Well, God made an exception in the case of our Talmudist, and had +bestowed a Venus on him, perhaps only in order to confirm the rule by +means of this exception, and to make it appear less hard. His wife was +a woman who would have done honor to any king's throne, or to the +pedestal in any sculpture gallery. Tall, and with a wonderful, voluptuous +figure, she carried a strikingly beautiful head, surmounted by thick, +black plaits, on her proud shoulders, while two large, dark eyes +languished and glowed beneath her long lashes, and her beautiful hands +looked as if they were carved out of ivory. + +This beautiful woman, who seemed to have been designed by nature to rule, +to see slaves at her feet, to provide occupation for the painter's brush, +the sculptor's chisel and the poet's pen, lived the life of a rare and +beautiful flower, which is shut up in a hot house, for she sat the whole +day long wrapped up in her costly fur jacket and looked down dreamily +into the street. + +She had no children; her husband, the philosopher, studied, and prayed, +and studied again from early morning until late at night; his mistress +was _the Veiled Beauty_, as the Talmudists call the Kabbalah. She paid +no attention to her house, for she was rich and everything went of its +own accord, just like a clock, which has only to be wound up once a week; +nobody came to see her, and she never went out of the house; she sat and +dreamed and brooded and--yawned. + + * * * * * + +One day when a terrible storm of thunder and lightning had spent all its +fury over the town, and all windows had been opened in order to let the +Messiah in, the Jewish Venus was sitting as usual in her comfortable easy +chair, shivering in spite of her fur jacket, and was thinking, when +suddenly she fixed her glowing eyes on the man who was sitting before the +Talmud, swaying his body backwards and forwards, and said suddenly: + +"Just tell me, when will Messias, the Son of David, come?" + +"He will come," the philosopher replied, "when all the Jews have become +either altogether virtuous or altogether vicious, says the Talmud." + +"Do you believe that all the Jews will ever become virtuous," the Venus +continued. + +"How am I to believe that!" + +"So Messias will come, when all the Jews have become vicious?" + +The philosopher shrugged his shoulders and lost himself again in the +labyrinth of the Talmud, out of which, so it is said, only one man +returned unscathed, and the beautiful woman at the window again looked +dreamily out onto the heavy rain, while her white fingers played +unconsciously with the dark fur of her splendid jacket. + + * * * * * + +One day the Jewish philosopher had gone to a neighboring town, where an +important question of ritual was to be decided. Thanks to his learning, +the question was settled sooner than he had expected, and instead of +returning the next morning, as he had intended, he came back the same +evening with a friend, who was no less learned than himself. He got out +of the carriage at his friend's house, and went home on foot, and was +not a little surprised when he saw his windows brilliantly illuminated, +and found an officer's servant comfortably smoking his pipe in front of +his house. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked in a friendly manner, but with some +curiosity, nevertheless. + +"I am looking out, in case the husband of the beautiful Jewess should +come home unexpectedly." + +"Indeed? Well, mind and keep a good look out." + +Saying this, the philosopher pretended to go away, but went into the +house through the garden entrance at the back. When he got into the first +room, he found a table laid for two, which had evidently only been left a +short time previously. His wife was sitting as usual at her bed room +window wrapped in her fur jacket, but her cheeks were suspiciously red, +and her dark eyes had not got their usual languishing look, but now +rested on her husband with a gaze which expressed at the same time +satisfaction and mockery. At that moment he kicked against an object on +the floor, which emitted a strange sound, which he picked up and examined +in the light. It was a pair of spurs. + +"Who has been here with you?" the Talmudist said. + +The Jewish Venus shrugged her shoulders contemptuously, but did not +reply. + +"Shall I tell you? The Captain of Hussars has been with you." + +"And why should he not have been here with me?" she said, smoothing the +fur on her jacket with her white hand. + +"Woman! are you out of your mind?" + +"I am in full possession of my senses," she replied, and a knowing smile +hovered round her red voluptuous lips. "But must I not also do my part, +in order that Messias may come and redeem us poor Jews?" + + + + +LA MORILLONNE + + +They called her _La Morillonne_[12] because of her black hair and of her +complexion, which resembled autumnal leaves, and because of her mouth +with thick purple lips, which were like blackberries, when she curled +them. + +[Footnote 12: Black Grapes.] + +That she should be born as dark as this in a district where everybody was +fair, and engendered by a father and mother with tow-colored hair and a +complexion like butter was one of the mysteries of atavism. One of her +female ancestors must have had an intimacy with one of those traveling +tinkers who, have gone about the country from time immemorial, with faces +the color of bistre and indigo, crowned by a wisp of light hair. + +From that ancestor she derived, not only her dark complexion, but also +her dark soul, her deceitful eyes, whose depths were at times illuminated +by flashes of every vice, her eyes of an obstinate and malicious animal. + +Handsome? Certainly not, nor even pretty. Ugly, with an absolute +ugliness! Such a false look! Her nose was flat, and had been smashed by +a blow, while her unwholesome looking mouth was always slobbering with +greediness, or uttering something vile. Her hair was thick and untidy, +and a regular nest for vermin, to which may be added a thin, feverish +body, with a limping walk. In short, she was a perfect monster, and yet +all the young men of the neighborhood had made love to her, and whoever +had been so honored, longed for her society again. + +From the time that she was twelve, she had been the mistress of every +fellow in the village. She had corrupted boys of her own age in every +conceivable manner and place. + +Young men at the risk of imprisonment, and even steady, old, notable and +venerable men, such as the farmer at Eclausiaux, Monsieur Martin, the +ex-mayor and other highly respectable men, had been taken by the manners +of that creature, and the reason why the rural policeman was not severe +upon them, in spite of his love for summoning people before the +magistrates, was, so people said, that he would have been obliged to take +out a summons against himself. + +The consequence was that she had grown up without being interfered with, +and was the mistress of every fellow in the village, as the school-master +said; who had himself been one of _the fellows_. But the most curious +part of the business was that no one was jealous. They handed her on from +one to the other, and when someone expressed his astonishment at this to +her one day, she said to this unintelligent stranger: + +"Is everybody not satisfied?" + +And then, how could any one of them, even if he had been jealous, have +monopolized her? They had no hold on her. She was not selfish, and though +she accepted all gifts, whether in kind or in money, she never asked for +anything and she even appeared to prefer paying herself after her own +fashion, by stealing. All she seemed to care about as her reward was +pilfering, and a crown put into her hand, gave her less pleasure than +a halfpenny which she had stolen. Neither was it any use to dream of +ruling her as the sole male, or as the proud master of the hen roost, +for which of them, no matter how broad shouldered he was, would have been +capable of it? Some had tried to vanquish her, but in vain. + +How then, could any of them claim to be her master? It would have been +the same as wishing to have the sole right of baking their bread in the +common oven, in which the whole village baked. + +But there was one man who formed the exception, and that was Bru, the +shepherd. + +He lived in the fields in his movable hut, on cakes made of unleavened +dough, which he kneaded on a stone and baked in the hot ashes, now here, +now there, is a hole dug out in the ground, and heated with dead wood. +Potatoes, milk, hard cheese, blackberries, and a small cask of old gin +that he had distilled himself, were his daily pittance; but he knew +nothing about love, although he was accused of all sorts of horrible +things, and therefore nobody dared abuse him to his face; in the first +place, because Bru was a spare and sinewy man, who handled his shepherd's +crook like a drum-major does his staff; next, because of his three sheep +dogs, who had teeth like wolves, and who knew nobody except their master; +and lastly, for fear of the evil eye. For Bru, it appeared, knew spells +which would blight the corn, give the sheep foot rot, the cattle the +_rinder pest_, make cows die in calving, and set fire to the ricks and +stacks. + +But as Bru was the only one who did not loll out his tongue after La +Morillonne, naturally one day she began to think of him, and she declared +that she, at any rate, was not afraid of his evil eye, and so she went +after him. + +"What do you want?" he said, and she replied boldly: + +"What do I want? I want you." + +"Very well," he said, "but then you must belong to me alone." + +"All right," was her answer, "if you think you can please me." + +He smiled and took her into his arms, and she was away from the village +for a whole week. She had, in fact, become entirely Bru's exclusive +property. + +The village grew excited. They were not jealous of each other, but they +were of him. What! Could she not resist him. Of course he had charms and +spells against every imaginable thing. And they grew furious. Next they +grew bold, and watched from behind a tree. She was still as lively as +ever, but he, poor fellow, seemed to have become suddenly ill, and +required the most tender nursing at her hands. The villagers, however, +felt no compassion for the poor shepherd, and so, one of them, more +courageous than the rest, advanced towards the hut with his gun in his +hand: + +"Tie up your dogs," he cried out from a distance; "fasten them up, Bru, +or I shall shoot them." + +"You need not be frightened of the dogs," _La Morillonne_ replied; "I +will be answerable for it that they will not hurt you;" and she smiled as +the young man with the gun went towards her. + +"What do you want?" the shepherd said. + +"I can tell you," she replied. "He wants me and I am very willing. +There!" + +Bru began to cry, and she continued: + +"You are a good for nothing." + +And she went off with the lad, while Bru seized his crook, seeing which +the young fellow raised his gun. + +"Seize him! seize him!" the shepherd shouted, urging on his dogs, while +the other had already got his finger on the trigger to fire at them. But +_La Morillonne_ pushed down the muzzle and called out: + +"Here, dogs! here! Prr, prr, my beauties!" + +And the three dogs rushed up to her, licked her hands and frisked about +as they followed her, while she called to the shepherd from the distance: + +"You see, Bru, they are not at all jealous!" + +And then, with a short and evil laugh, she added: + +"They are my property now." + + + + +WAITER, A "BOCK"[13] + + +[Footnote 13: A French imitation of German Lager Beer.] + +Why did I enter, on this particular evening, a certain beer shop? I +cannot explain it. It was bitterly cold. A fine rain, a watery dust +floated about, which enshrouded the gas jets in a transparent fog, made +the pavements that passed under the shadow of the shop fronts glitter, +and which at once exhibited the soft slush and the soiled feet of the +passers-by. + +I was going nowhere in particular; was simply having a short walk after +dinner. I had passed the Credit Lyonnais, the Rue Vivienne, besides +several other streets. Thereupon, I suddenly descried a large public +house, which was more than half full. I walked inside, with no object in +view. I was not the least thirsty. + +By a searching sweep of the eye I sought out a place where I would not be +too much crowded, and so I went and sat down by the side of a man who +seemed to me to be old, and who smoked a halfpenny clay pipe, which had +become as black as coal. From six to eight beer saucers were piled up on +the table in front of him, indicating the number of "bocks" he had +already absorbed. With the same sweep of the eye I had recognized a +"regular toper," one of those frequenters of beer-houses, who come in the +morning as soon as the place is open, and only go way in the evening when +it is about to close. He was dirty, bald to about the middle of the +cranium, while his long, powder and salt, gray hair, fell over the neck +of his frock coat. His clothes, much too large for him, appeared to have +been made for him at a time when he carried a great stomach. One could +guess that the pantaloons were not suspended from braces, and that this +man could not take ten paces without his having to stop to pull them up +and to readjust them. Did he wear a vest? The mere thought of his boots +and that which they enveloped filled me with horror. The frayed cuffs +were as perfectly black at the edges as were his nails. + +As soon as I had sat down near him, this queer creature said to me in a +tranquil tone of voice: + +"How goes it with you?" + +I turned sharply round to him and closely scanned his features, whereupon +he continued: + +"I see you do not recognize me." + +"No, I do not." + +"Des Barrets." + +I was stupefied. It was Count Jean des Barrets, my old college chum. + +I seized him by the hand, and was so dumbfounded that I could find +nothing to say. I, at length, managed to stammer out: + +"And you, how goes it with yourself?" + +He responded placidly: + +"With me? Just as I like." + +He became silent. I wanted to be friendly, and I selected this phrase: + +"What are you doing now?" + +"You see what I am doing," he answered, quite resignedly. + +I felt my face getting red. I insisted: + +"But every day?" + +"Every day is alike to me," was his response accompanied with a thick +puff of tobacco smoke. + +He then tapped on the top of the marble table with a sou, to attract the +attention of the waiter, and called out: + +"Waiter, two 'bocks.'" + +A voice in the distance repeated: + +"Two bocks, instead of four." + +Another voice, more distant still, shouted out: + +"Here they are, sir, here they are." + +Immediately there appeared a man with a white apron, carrying two +"bocks," which he sat down foaming on the table, the spouts facing over +the edge, on to the sandy floor. + +Des Barrets emptied his glass at a single draught and replaced it on the +table. He next asked: + +"What is there new?" + +"I know of nothing new, worth mentioning, really," I stammered: + +"But nothing has grown old, for me; I am a commercial man." + +In an equable tone of voice, he said; + +"Indeed ... does that amuse you?" + +"No, but what do you mean to assert? Surely you must do something!" + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"I only mean, how do you pass your time!" + +"What's the use of occupying myself with anything. For my part, I do +nothing at all, as you see, never anything. When one has not got a sou +one can understand why one has to go to work. What is the good of +working? Do you work for yourself, or for others? If you work for +yourself you do it for your own amusement, which is all right; if you +work for others, you reap nothing but ingratitude." + +Then sticking his pipe into his whiskers, he called out anew: + +"Waiter, a 'bock.' It makes me thirsty to keep calling so. I am not +accustomed to that sort of thing. Yes, yes, I do nothing; I let things +slide, and I am growing old. In dying I have nothing to regret. If so, I +should remember nothing, outside this public house. I have no wife, no +children, no cares, no sorrows, nothing. That is the very best thing that +could happen to one." + +He then emptied the glass which had meanwhile been fetched to him, passed +his tongue over his lips, and resumed his pipe. + +I looked at him stupefied. I asked him: + +"But you have not always been like that?" + +"Pardon me, sir; ever since I left college." + +"That is not a proper life to lead, my dear sir; it is simple horrible. +Come, you must indeed have done something, you must have loved something, +you must have friends." + +"No; I get up at noon, I come here, I have my breakfast, I drink my +'bock,' I remain until the evening, I have my dinner, I drink 'bock.' +Then about one in the morning, I return to my couch, because the place +closes up. And it is this latter that embitters me more than anything. +For the last ten years, I have passed six years on this bench, in my +corner; and the other four in my bed, never changing. I talk sometimes +with the habitues." + +"But on arriving in Paris what did you do at first?" + +"I paid my devoirs to the Cafe de Medicis." + +"What next?" + +"Next? I crossed the water and came here." + +"Why did you even take that trouble?" + +"What do you mean? One cannot remain all one's life in the Latin Quarter. +The students make too much noise. But I do not move about any longer. +Waiter, a 'bock.'" + +I now began to think that he was making fun of me, and I continued: + +"Come now, be frank. You have been the victim of some great sorrow; +despair in love, no doubt! It is easy to see that you are a man whom +misfortune has hit hard. What age are you?" + +"I am thirty years of age, but I look to be forty-five at least." + +I regarded him straight in the face. His shrunken figure, so badly cared +for, gave one the impression that he was an old man. On the summit of his +cranium, a few long hairs shot straight up from the skin of doubtful +cleanness. He had enormous eyelashes, a large moustache, and a thick +beard. Suddenly, I had a kind of vision. I know not why; the vision of a +basin filled with noisome water, the water which should have been applied +to that poll. I said to him: + +"Verily, you look to be more than that age. Of a certainty you must have +experienced some great disappointment." + +He replied: + +"I tell you that I have not. I am old because I never take air. There is +nothing that vitiates the life of a man more than the atmosphere of a +cafe." + +I could not believe him. + +"You must surely have been married as well? One could not get as +bald-headed as you are without having been much in love." + +He shook his head, sending down his back little white things which fell +from the end of his locks: + +"No, I have always been virtuous." + +And raising his eyes towards the luster, which beat down on our heads, he +said: + +"If I am bald-headed, it is the fault of the gas. It is the enemy of +hair. Waiter, a 'bock.' You must be thirsty also?" + +"No, thank you. But you certainly interest me. Since when did you have +your first discouragement? Your life is not normal, it is not natural. +There is something under it all." + +"Yes, and it dates from my infancy. I received a heavy blow when I was +very young, and that turned my life into darkness, which will last to the +end." + +"How did it come about?" + +"You wish to know about it? Well, then, listen. You recall, of course, +the castle in which I was brought up, seeing that you used to visit it +for five or six months during the vacations? You remember that large, +gray building, in the middle of a great park, and the long avenues of +oaks, which opened towards the four cardinal points! You remember my +father and mother, both of whom were ceremonious, solemn and severe. + +"I worshiped my mother; I was suspicious of my father; but I respected +both, accustomed always as I was to see everyone bow before them. They +were in the country, Monsieur le Comte and Madame la Comtesse; while our +neighbors, the Tannemares', the Ravelets', the Brennevilles', showed the +utmost consideration for my parents. + +"I was then thirteen years old. I was happy, satisfied with everything, +as one is at that age, full of joy and vivacity. + +"Now towards the end of September, a few days before my entering college, +while I was enjoying myself in the mazes of the park, climbing the trees +and swinging on the branches, I descried in crossing an avenue, my father +and mother, who were walking along. + +"I recall the thing as though it were yesterday. It was a very stormy +day. The whole line of trees bent under the pressure of the wind, +groaned, and seemed to utter cries--cries, though dull, yet deep, that +the whole forest rang under the tempest. + +"Evening came on. It was dark in the thickets. The agitation of the wind +and the branches excited me, made me bound about like an idiot, and howl +in imitation of the wolves. + +"As soon as I perceived my parents, I crept furtively towards them, under +the branches, in order to surprise them, as though I had been a veritable +rodent. But becoming seized with fear, I stopped a few paces from them. +My father, a prey to the most ferocious passion, cried: + +"'Your mother is a fool; moreover, it is not your mother that is the +question, it is you. I tell you that I want money, and I will make you +sign this.' + +"My mother responded in a firm voice: + +"'I will not sign it. It is Jean's fortune, I shall guard it for him and +I will not allow you to devour it with strange women, as you have your +own heritage.' + +"Then my father, full of rage, wheeled round and seized his wife by the +throat, and began to slash her full in the face with the disengaged hand. + +"My mother's hat fell off, her hair became all disheveled and spread over +her back; she essayed to parry the blows, but she could not escape from +them. And my father, like a madman, banged and banged. My mother rolled +over on the ground, covering her face in both her hands. Then he turned +her over on her back in order to batter her still more, pulling away her +hands which were covering her face. + +"As for me, my friend, it seemed as though the world had come to an end, +that the eternal laws had changed. I experienced the overwhelming dread +that one has in presence of things supernatural, in presence of +irreparable disasters. My boyish head whirled round, floated. I began to +cry with all my might, without knowing why, a prey to terror, to grief, +to a dreadful bewilderment. My father heard me, turned round, and, on +seeing me, made as though he would rush towards me. I believed that he +wanted to kill me, and I fled like a haunted animal, running straight in +front of me in the woods. + +"I ran perhaps for an hour, perhaps for two, I know not. Darkness had set +in, I tumbled over some thick herb, exhausted, and I lay there lost, +devoured by terror, eaten up by a sorrow capable of breaking for ever the +heart of a poor infant. I became cold, I became hungry. At length day +broke. I dared neither get up, walk, return home, nor save myself, +fearing to encounter my father whom I did not wish to see again. + +"I should probably have died of misery and of hunger at the foot of a +tree, if the guard had not discovered me and led me away by force. + +"I found my parents wearing their ordinary aspect. My mother alone spoke +to me: + +"'How you have frightened me, you naughty boy; I have been the whole +night sleepless.' + +"I did not answer, but began to weep. My father did not utter a single +word. + +"Eight days later I entered college. + +"Well, my friend, it was all over with me. I had witnessed the other side +of things, the bad side; I have not been able to perceive the good side +since that day. What things have passed in my mind, what strange +phenomena has warped my ideas? I do not know. But I no longer have a +taste for anything, a wish for anything, a love for anybody, a desire for +anything whatever, nor ambition, nor hope. And I perceive always my poor +mother on the ground, lying in the avenue, while my father is maltreating +her. My mother died a few years after; my father lives still. I have not +seen him since. Waiter, a 'bock.'" + +A waiter brought him his "bock," which he swallowed at a gulp. But, in +taking up his pipe again, trembling as he was he broke it. Then he made a +violent gesture: + +"Zounds! This is indeed a grief, a real grief. I have had it for a month, +and it was coloring so beautifully!" + +He darted through the vast saloon, which was now full of smoke and of +people drinking, uttering his cry: + +"Waiter, a 'bock'--and a new pipe." + + + + +REGRET + + +Monsieur Savel, who was called in Mantes, "Father Savel," had just risen +from bed. He wept. It was a dull autumn day; the leaves were falling. +They fell slowly in the rain, resembling another rain, but heavier and +slower. M. Savel was not in good spirit. He walked from the fireplace +to the window, and from the window to the fireplace. Life has its somber +days. It will no longer have any but somber days for him now, for he has +reached the age of sixty-two. He is alone, an old bachelor, with nobody +about him. How sad it is to die alone, all alone, without the +disinterested affection of anyone! + +He pondered over his life, so barren, so void. He recalled the days gone +by, the days of his infancy, the house, the house of his parents; his +college days, his follies, the time of his probation in Paris, the +illness of his father, his death. He then returned to live with his +mother. They lived together, the young man and the old woman, very +quietly, and desired nothing more. At last the mother died. How sad a +thing is life! He has lived always alone, and now, in his turn, he, too, +will soon be dead. He will disappear, and that will be the finish. There +will be no more of Savel upon the earth. What a frightful thing! Other +people will live, they will live, they will laugh. Yes, people will go on +amusing themselves, and he will no longer exist! Is it not strange that +people can laugh, amuse themselves, be joyful under that eternal +certainty of death! If this death were only probable, one could then have +hope; but no, it is inevitable, as inevitable as that night follows the +day. + +If, however, his life had been complete! If he had done something; if he +had had adventures, grand pleasures, successes, satisfaction of some kind +or another. But now, nothing. He had done nothing, never anything but +rise from bed, eat, at the same hours, and go to bed again. And he has +gone on like that, to the age of sixty-two years. He had not even taken +unto himself a wife, as other men do. Why? Yes, why was it that he was +not married? He might have been, for he possessed considerable means. Was +it an opportunity which had failed him? Perhaps! But one can create +opportunities. He was indifferent; that was all. Indifference had been +his greatest drawback, his defect, his vice. Have some men missed their +lives through indifference! To certain natures, it is so difficult for +them to get out of bed, to move about, to take long walks, to speak, to +study any question. + +He had not even been in love. No woman had reposed on his bosom, in a +complete abandon of love. He knew nothing of this delicious anguish of +expectation, of the divine quivering of the pressed hand, of the ecstacy +of triumphant passion. + +What superhuman happiness must inundate your heart, when lips encounter +lips for the first time, when the grasp of four arms makes one being of +you, a being unutterably happy, two beings infatuated with one another. + +M. Savel was sitting down, his feet on the fender, in his dressing gown. +Assuredly his life had been spoiled, completely spoiled. He had, however, +loved. He had loved secretly, dolorously and indifferently, just as was +characteristic of him in everything. Yes, he had loved his old friend, +Madame Saudres, the wife of his old companion, Saudres. Ah! if he had +known her as a young girl! But he had encountered her too late; she was +already married. Unquestionably he would have asked her hand; that he +would! How he had loved her, nevertheless, without respite, since the +first day he had set eyes on her! + +He recalled, without emotion, all the times he had seen her, his grief on +leaving her, the many nights that he could not sleep, because of his +thinking of her. + +In the mornings he always got up somewhat less amorous than in the +evening. + +Why? + +Seeing that she was formerly pretty, and "crumy," blonde, curl, joyous. +Saudres was not the man she would have selected. She was now fifty-two +years of age. She seemed happy. Ah! if she had only loved him in days +gone by; yes, if she had only loved him! And why should she not have +loved him, he, Savel, seeing that he loved her so much, yes, she, Madame +Saudres! + +If only she could have divined something--Had she not divined anything, +had she not seen anything, never comprehended anything? But! Then what +would she have thought? If he had spoken what would she have answered? + +And Savel asked himself a thousand other things. He reviewed his whole +life, seeking to grasp again a multitude of details. + +He recalled all the long evenings spent at the house of Saudres, when the +latter's wife was young and so charming. + +He recalled many things that she had said to him, the sweet intonations +of her voice, the little significant smiles that meant so much. + +He recalled the walks that the three of them had had, along the banks of +the Seine, their lunches on the grass on the Sundays, for Saudres was +employed at the sub-prefecture. And all at once the distant recollection +came to him, of an afternoon spent with her in a little plantation on the +banks of the river. + +They had set out in the morning, carrying their provisions in baskets. +It was a bright spring morning, one of those days which inebriate one. +Everything smelt fresh, everything seemed happy. The voices of the birds +sounded more joyous, and the flapping of their wings more rapid. They had +lunch on the grass, under the willow trees, quite close to the water, +which glittered in the sun's rays. The air was balmy, charged with the +odors of fresh vegetation; they had drunk the most delicious wines. How +pleasant everything was on that day! + +After lunch, Saudres went to sleep on the broad of his back, "The best +nap he had in his life," said he, when he woke up. + +Madame Saudres had taken the arm of Savel, and they had started to walk +along the river's bank. + +She leaned tenderly on his arm. She laughed and said to him: "I am +intoxicated, my friend, I am quite intoxicated." He looked at her, his +heart going patty-patty. He felt himself grow pale, fearful that he had +not looked too boldly at her, and that the trembling of his hand had not +revealed his passion. + +She had decked her head with wild flowers and water-lilies, and she had +asked him: "Do you not like to see me appear thus?" + +As he did not answer--for he could find nothing to say, he should rather +have gone down on his knees--she burst out laughing, a sort of +discontented laughter, which she threw straight in his face, saying: +"Great goose, what ails you? You might at least speak!" + +He felt like crying, and could not even yet find a word to say. + +All these things came back to him now, as vividly as on the day when they +took place. Why had she said this to him, "Great goose. What ails you! +You might at least speak!" + +And he recalled how tenderly she had leaned on his arm. And in passing +under a shady tree he had felt her ear leaning against his cheek, and he +had tilted his head abruptly, for fear that she had not meant to bring +their flesh into contact. + +When he had said to her: "Is it not time to return?" she darted at him a +singular look. "Certainly," she said, "certainly," regarding him at the +same time in a curious manner. He had not thought of anything then; and +now the whole thing appeared to him quite plain. + +"Just as you like, my friend. If you are tired let us go back." + +And he had answered: "It is not that I am fatigued; but Saudres has +perhaps woke up now." + +And she had said: "If you are afraid of my husband's being awake, that is +another thing. Let us return." + +In returning she remained silent and leaned no longer on his arm. Why? + +At that time it had never occurred to him to ask himself "why." Now he +seemed to apprehend something that he had not then understood. + +What was it? + +M. Savel felt himself blush, and he got up at a bound, feeling thirty +years younger, believing that he now understood Madame Saudres then to +say, "I love you." + +Was it possible! That suspicion which had just entered his soul, tortured +him. Was it possible that he could not have seen, not have dreamed! + +Oh! if that could be true, if he had rubbed against such good fortune +without laying hold of it! + +He said to himself: "I wish to know. I cannot remain in this state of +doubt. I wish to know!" He put on his clothes quickly, dressed in hot +haste. He thought: "I am sixty-two years of age, she is fifty-eight; +I may ask her that now without giving offense." + +He started out. + +The Saudres's house was situated on the other side of the street, almost +directly opposite his own. He went up to it, knocked, and a little +servant came to open the door. + +"You there at this hour, ill, Savel! Has some accident happened to you?" + +M. Savel responded: + +"No, my girl; but go and tell your mistress that I want to speak to her +at once." + +"The fact is, Madame is preparing her stock of pear-jams for the winter, +and she is standing in front of the fire. She is not dressed, as you may +well understand." + +"Yes, but go and tell her that I wish to see her on an important matter." + +The little servant went away, and Savel began to walk, with long, nervous +strides, up and down the drawing-room. He did not feel himself the least +embarrassed, however. Oh! he was merely going to ask her something, as he +would have asked her about some cooking receipt, and that was: "Do you +know that I am sixty-two years of age!" + +The door opened; and Madame appeared. She was now a gross woman, fat and +round, with full cheeks, and a sonorous laugh. She walked with her arms +away from her body, and her sleeves tucked up to the shoulders, her bare +arms all smeared with sugar juice. She asked, anxiously: + +"What is the matter with you, my friend; you are not ill, are you?" + +"No, my dear friend; but I wish to ask you one thing, which to me is of +the first importance, something which is torturing my heart, and I want +you to promise that you will answer me candidly." + +She laughed, "I am always candid. Say on." + +"Well, then. I have loved you from the first day I ever saw you. Can you +have any doubt of this?" + +She responded, laughing, with something of her former tone of voice. + +"Great goose! what ails you? I knew it well from the very first day!" + +Savel began to tremble. He stammered out: "You knew it? Then--" + +He stopped. + +She asked: + +"Then?... What?" + +He answered: + +"Then ... what would you think?... what ... what.... What would you +have answered?" + +She broke forth into a peal of laughter, which made the sugar juice run +off the tips of her fingers on to the carpet. + +"I? But you did not ask me anything. It was not for me to make a +declaration." + +He then advanced a step towards her. + +"Tell me ... tell me.... You remember the day when Saudres went to sleep +on the grass after lunch ... when we had walked together as far as the +bend of the river, below ..." + +He waited, expectantly. She had ceased to laugh, and looked at him, +straight in the eyes. + +"Yes, certainly, I remember it." + +He answered, shivering all over. + +"Well ... that day ... if I had been ... if I had +been ... enterprising ... what would you have done?" + +She began to laugh as only a happy woman can laugh, who has nothing to +regret, and responded, frankly, in a voice tinged with irony: + +"I would have yielded, my friend." + +She then turned on her heels and went back to her jam-making. + +Savel rushed into the street, cast down, as though he had encountered +some great disaster. He walked with giant strides, through the rain, +straight on, until he reached the river, without thinking where he was +going. When he reached the bank he turned to the right and followed it. +He walked a long time, as if urged on by some instinct. His clothes were +running with water, his hat was bashed in, as soft as a piece of rag, +and dripping like a thatched roof. He walked on, straight in front of +him. At last, he came to the place where they had lunched so long, long +ago, the recollection of which had tortured his heart. He sat down under +the leafless trees, and he wept. + + + + +THE PORT + + +PART I + +Having sailed from Havre on the 3rd of May, 1882, for a voyage in the +China seas, the square-rigged three-master, _Notre Dame des Vents_, made +her way back into the port of Marseilles, on the 8th of August, 1886, +after an absence of four years. When she had discharged her first cargo +in the Chinese port for which she was bound, she had immediately found a +new freight for Buenos Ayres, and from that place had conveyed goods to +Brazil. + +Other passages, then damage repairs, calms ranging over several months, +gales which knocked her out of her course--all the accidents, adventures, +and misadventures of the sea, in short--had kept far from her country, +this Norman three-master, which had come back to Marseilles with her hold +full of tin boxes containing American preserves. + +At her departure, she had on board, besides the captain and the mate, +fourteen sailors, eight Normans and six Britons. On her return, there +were left only five Britons and four Normans; the other Briton had died +while on the way; the four Normans having disappeared under various +circumstances, had been replaced by two Americans, a negro, and a +Norwegian carried off, one evening, from a tavern in Singapore. + +The big vessel, with reefed sails and yards crossed over her masts, drawn +by a tug from Marseilles, rocking over a sweep of rolling waves which +subsided gently on becoming calm, passed in front of the Chateau d'If, +then under all the gray rocks of the roadstead, which the setting sun +covered with a golden vapor; and she entered the ancient port, in which +are packed together, side by side, ships from every part of the world, +pell mell, large and small, of every shape and every variety of rigging, +soaking like a "bouillabaise" of boats in this basin too limited in +extent, full of putrid water, where shells touch each other, rub against +each other, and seem to be pickled in the juice of the vessels. + +_Notre Dame des Vents_ took up her station between an Italian brig and an +English schooner, which made way to let this comrade slip in between +them; then, when all the formalities of the custom-house and of the port +had been complied with, the captain authorized the two-thirds of his crew +to spend the night on shore. + +It was already dark. Marseilles was lighted up. In the heat of this +summer's evening a flavor of cooking with garlic floated over the noisy +city, filled with the clamor of voices, of rolling vehicles, of the +crackling of whips, and of southern mirth. + +As soon as they felt themselves on shore, the ten men, whom the sea had +been tossing about for some months past, proceeded along quite slowly +with the hesitating steps of persons who are out of their element, +unaccustomed to cities, two by two, procession. + +They swayed from one side to another as they walked, looked about them, +smelling out the lanes opening out on the harbor, rendered feverish by +the amorous appetite which had been growing to maturity in their bodies +during their last sixty-six days at sea. The Normans strode on in front, +led by Celestin Duclos, a tall young fellow, sturdy and waggish, who +served as a captain for the others every time they set forth on land. He +divined the places worth visiting, found out by-ways after a fashion of +his own, and did not take much part in the squabbles so frequent among +sailors in seaport towns. But, once he was caught in one, he was afraid +of nobody. + +After some hesitation as to which of the obscure streets which lead down +to the waterside, and from which arise heavy smells, a sort of exhalation +from closets, they ought to enter, Celestin gave the preference to a kind +of winding passage, where gleamed over the doors projecting lanterns +bearing enormous numbers on their rough colored glass. Under the narrow +arches at the entrance to the houses, women wearing aprons like servants, +seated on straw chairs, rose up on seeing them coming near, taking three +steps towards the gutter which separated the street into two halves, and +which cut off the path from this file of men, who sauntered along at +their leisure, humming and sneering, already getting excited by the +vicinity of those dens of prostitutes. + +Sometimes, at the end of a hall, appeared, behind a second open door, +which presented itself unexpectedly, covered over with dark leather, a +big wench, undressed, whose heavy thighs and fat calves abruptly outlined +themselves under her coarse white cotton wrapper. Her short petticoat had +the appearance of a puffed out girdle; and the soft flesh of her breast, +her shoulders, and her arms, made a rosy stain on a black velvet corsage +with edgings of gold lace. She kept calling out from her distant corner, +"Will you come here, my pretty boys?" and sometimes she would go out +herself to catch hold of one of them, and to drag him towards her door +with all her strength, fastening on to him like a spider drawing forward +an insect bigger than itself. The man, excited by the struggle, would +offer a mild resistance, and the rest would stop to look on, undecided +between the longing to go in at once and that of lengthening this +appetizing promenade. Then when the woman, after desperate efforts, had +brought the sailor to the threshold of her abode, in which the entire +band would be swallowed up after him, Celestin Duclos, who was a judge of +houses of this sort, suddenly exclaimed: "Don't go in there, Marchand! +That's not the place." + +The man, thereupon, obeying this direction, freed himself with a brutal +shake; and the comrades formed themselves into a band once more, pursued +by the filthy insults of the exasperated wench, while other women, all +along the alley, in front of them, came out past their doors, attracted +by the noise, and in hoarse voices threw out to them invitations coupled +with promises. They went on, then, more and more stimulated, from the +combined effects of the coaxings and the seductions held out as baits to +them by the choir of portresses of love all over the upper part of the +street, and the ignoble maledictions hurled at them by the choir at the +lower end--the despised choir of disappointed wenches. From time to time, +they met another band--soldiers marching along with spurs jingling at +their heels--sailors again--isolated citizens--clerks in business houses. +On all sides might be seen fresh streets, narrow, and studded all over +with those equivocal lanterns. They pursued their way still through this +labyrinth of squalid habitation, over those greasy pavements through +which putrid water was oozing, between those walls filled with women's +flesh. + +At last, Duclos made up his mind, and, drawing up before a house of +rather attractive exterior, made all his companions follow him in there. + + +PART II + +Then followed a scene of thorough going revelry. For four hours the six +sailors gorged themselves with love and wine. Six months' pay was thus +wasted. + +In the principal room in the tavern they were installed as masters, +gazing with malignant glances at the ordinary customers, who were seated +at the little tables in the corners, where one of the girls, who was +left free to come and go, dressed like a big baby or a singer at a +cafe-concert, went about serving them, and then seated herself near them. +Each man, on coming in, had selected his partner, whom he kept all the +evening, for the vulgar taste is not changeable. They had drawn three +tables close up to them; and, after the first bumper, the procession +divided into two parts, increased by as many women as there were seamen, +had formed itself anew on the staircase. On the wooden steps, the four +feet of each couple kept tramping for some time, while this long file of +lovers got swallowed up behind the narrow doors leading into the +different rooms. + +Then they came down again to have a drink, and, after they had returned +to the rooms descended the stairs once more. + +Now, almost intoxicated, they began to howl. Each of them, with bloodshot +eyes, and his chosen female companion on his knee, sang or bawled, struck +the table with his fist, shouted while swilling wine down his throat, set +free the human brute. In the midst of them, Celestin Duclos, pressing +close to him, a big damsel with red cheeks, who sat astride over his +legs, gazed at her ardently. Less tipsy than the others, not that he had +taken less drink, he was as yet occupied with other thoughts, and, more +tender than his comrades, he tried to get up a chat. His thoughts +wandered a little, escaped him, and then came back, and disappeared +again, without allowing him to recollect exactly what he meant to say. + +"What time--what time--how long are you here?" + +"Six months," the girl answered. + +He seemed to be satisfied with her, as if this were a proof of good +conduct, and he went on questioning her: + +"Do you like this life?" + +She hesitated, then in a tone of resignation. + +"One gets used to it. It is not more worrying than any other kind of +life. To be a servant-girl or else a scrub is always a nasty occupation." + +He looked as if he also approved of the truthful remark. + +"You are not from this place?" said he. + +She answered merely by shaking her head. + +"Do you come from a distance?" + +She nodded, still without opening her lips. + +"Where is it you come from?" + +She appeared to be thinking, to be searching her memory, then said +falteringly: + +"From Perpignan." + +He was once more perfectly satisfied, and said: + +"Ah! yes." + +In her turn she asked: + +"And you, are you a sailor?" + +"Yes, my beauty." + +"Do you come from a distance?" + +"Ah! yes. I have seen countries, ports, and everything." + +"You have been round the world, perhaps?" + +"I believe you, twice rather than once." + +Again she seemed to hesitate, to search in her brain for something that +she had forgotten, then, in a tone somewhat different, more serious: + +"Have you met many ships in your voyages?" + +"I believe you, my beauty." + +"You did not happen to see the _Notre Dame des Vents_?" + +He chuckled: + +"No later than last week." + +She turned pale, all the blood leaving her cheeks, and asked: + +"Is that true, perfectly true?" + +"'Tis true as I tell you." + +"Honor bright! you are not telling me a lie?" + +He raised his hand. + +"Before God, I'm not!" said he. + +"Then do you know whether Celestin Duclos is still on her?" + +He was astonished, uneasy, and wished, before answering, to learn +something further. + +"Do you know him?" + +She became distrustful in turn. + +"Oh! 'tis not myself--'tis a woman who is acquainted with him." + +"A woman from this place?" + +"No, from a place not far off." + +"In the street?" + +"What sort of a woman?" + +"Why, then, a woman--a woman like myself." + +"What has she to say to him, this woman?" + +"I believe she is a country-woman of his." + +They stared into one another's hand, watching one another, feeling, +divining that something of a grave nature was going to arise between +them. + +He resumed: + +"I could see her there, this woman." + +"What would you say to her?" + +"I would say to her--I would say to her--that I had seen Celestin +Duclos." + +"He is quite well--isn't he?" + +"As well as you or me--he is a strapping young fellow." + +She became silent again, trying to collect her ideas; then slowly: + +"Where has the _Notre Dame des Vents_ gone to?" + +"Why, just to Marseilles." + +She could not repress a start. + +"Is that really true?" + +"'Tis really true." + +"Do you know Duclos?" + +"Yes, I do know him." + +She still hesitated; then in a very gentle tone: + +"Good! That's good!" + +"What do you want with him?" + +"Listen!--you will tell him--nothing!" + +He stared at her, more and more perplexed. At last, he put this question +to her: + +"Do you know him, too, yourself?" + +"No," said she. + +"Then what do you want with him?" + +Suddenly, she made up her mind what to do, left her seat, rushed over to +the bar where the landlady of the tavern presided, seized a lemon, which +she tore open, and shed its juice into a glass, then she filled this +glass with pure water, and carrying it across to him: + +"Drink this!" + +"Why?" + +"To make it pass for wine. I will talk to you afterwards." + +He drank it without further protest, wiped his lips with the back of his +hand, then observed: + +"That's all right. I am listening to you." + +"You will promise not to tell him you have seen me, or from whom you +learned what I am going to tell you. You must swear not to do so." + +He raised his hand. + +"All right. I swear I will not." + +"Before God?" + +"Before God." + +"Well, you will tell him that his father died, that his mother died, that +his brother died, the whole three in one month, of typhoid fever, in +January, 1883--three years and a half ago." + +In his turn, he felt all his blood set in motion through his entire body, +and for a few seconds he was so much overpowered that he could make no +reply; then he began to doubt what she had told him, and asked: + +"Are you sure?" + +"I am sure." + +"Who told it to you?" + +She laid her hands on his shoulders, and looking at him out of the depths +of her eyes: + +"You swear not to blab?" + +"I swear that I will not." + +"I am his sister!" + +He uttered that name in spite of himself: + +"Francoise?" + +She contemplated him once more with a fixed stare, then, excited by a +wild feeling of terror, a sense of profound horror, she faltered in a +very low tone, almost speaking into his mouth: + +"Oh! oh! it is you, Celestin." + +They no longer stirred, their eyes riveted in one another. + +Around them, his comrades were still yelling. The sounds made by glasses, +by fists, by heels keeping time to the choruses, and the shrill cries of +the women, mingled with the roar of their songs. + +He felt her leaning on him, clasping him, ashamed and frightened, his +sister. Then, in a whisper, lest anyone might hear him, so hushed that +she could scarcely catch his words: + +"What a misfortune! I have made a nice piece of work of it!" + +The next moment, her eyes filled with tears, and she faltered: + +"Is that my fault?" + +But, all of a sudden, he said: + +"So then, they are dead?" + +"They are dead." + +"The father, the mother, and the brother?" + +"The three in one month, and I told you. I was left by myself with +nothing but my clothes, for I was in debt to the apothecary and the +doctor and for the funeral of the three, and had to pay what I owed with +the furniture." + +"After that I went as a servant to the house of Mait'e Cacheux--you know +him well--the cripple. I was just fifteen at the time, for you went away +when I was not quite fourteen. I tripped with him. One is so senseless +when one is young. Then I went as a nursery-maid to the notary who +debauched me also, and brought me to Havre, where he took a room for me. +After a little while, he gave up coming to see me. For three days I lived +without eating a morsel of food; and then, not being able to get +employment, I went to a house, like many others. I, too, have seen +different places--ah! and dirty places! Rouen, Evreux, Lille, Bordeaux, +Perpignan, Nice, and then Marseilles, where I am now!" + +The tears started from her eyes, flowed over her nose, wet her cheeks, +and trickled into her mouth. + +She went on: + +"I thought you were dead, too?--my poor Celestin." + +He said: + +"I would not have recognized you myself--you were such a little thing +then, and here you are so big!--but how is it that you did not recognize +me?" + +She answered with a despairing movement of her hands: + +"I see so many men that they all seem to me alike." + +He kept his eyes still fixed on her intently, oppressed by an emotion +that dazed him, and filled him with such pain as to make him long to cry +like a little child that has been whipped. He still held her in his +arms, while she sat astride on his knees, with his open hands against the +girl's back; and now by sheer dint of looking continually at her, he at +length recognized her, the little sister left behind in the country with +all those whom she had seen die, while he had been tossing on the seas. +Then, suddenly taking between his big seaman's paws this head found once +more, he began to kiss her, as one kisses kindred flesh. And after that, +sobs, a man's deep sobs, heaving like great billows, rose up in his +throat, resembling the hiccoughs of drunkenness. + +He stammered: + +"And this is you--this is you, Francoise--my little Francoise!"-- + +Then, all at once, he sprang up, began swearing in an awful voice, and +struck the table such a blow with his fists that the glasses were knocked +down and smashed. After that, he advanced three steps, staggered, +stretched out his arms, and fell on his face. And he rolled on the +ground, crying out, beating the floor with his hands and feet, and +uttering such groans that they seemed like a death-rattle. + +All those comrades of his stared at him, and laughed. + +"He's not a bit drunk," said one. + +"He ought to be put to bed," said another. "If he goes out, we'll all be +run in together." + +Then, as he had money in his pockets, the landlady offered to let him +have a bed, and his comrades, themselves so much intoxicated that they +could not stand upright, hoisted him up the narrow stairs to the +apartment of the woman who had just been in his company, and who remained +sitting on a chair, at the foot of that bed of crime, weeping quite as +freely as he had wept, until the morning dawned. + + + + +THE HERMIT + + +We had gone to see, with some friends, the old hermit installed on an +antique mound covered with tall trees, in the midst of the vast plain +which extends from Cannes to La Napoule. + +On our return we spoke of those strange lay solitaries, numerous in +former times, but now a vanished race. We sought to find out the moral +causes, and endeavored to determine the nature of the griefs which +in bygone days had driven men into solitudes. + +All of a sudden one of our companions said: + +"I have known two solitaries--a man and a woman. The woman must be +living still. She dwelt, five years ago, on the ruins of a mountain top +absolutely deserted on the coast of Corsica, fifteen or twenty kilometers +away from every house. She lived there with a maid-servant. I went to see +her. She had certainly been a distinguished woman of the world. She +received me with politeness and even in a gracious manner, but I know +nothing about her, and I could find out nothing about her. + +"As for the man, I am going to relate to you his ill-omened adventure: + + * * * * * + +Look round! You see over there that peaked woody mountain which stands +by itself behind La Napoule in front of the summits of the Esterel; it is +called in the district Snake Mountain. There is where my solitary lived +within the walls of a little antique temple about a dozen years ago. + +Having heard about him, I resolved to make his acquaintance, and I set +out for Cannes on horseback one March morning. Leaving my steed at the +inn at La Napoule, I commenced climbing on foot that singular cave, about +one hundred and fifty perhaps, or two hundred meters in height, and +covered with aromatic plants, especially cysti, whose odor is so sharp +and penetrating that it irritates you and causes you discomfort. The soil +is stony, and you can see gliding over the pebbles long adders which +disappear in the grass. Hence this well-deserved appellation of Snake +Mountain. On certain days, the reptiles seem to spring into existence +under your feet when you climb the declivity exposed to the rays of the +sun. They are so numerous that you no longer venture to go on, and +experience a strange sense of uneasiness, not fear, for those creatures +are harmless, but a sort of mysterious terror. I had several times the +peculiar sensation of climbing a sacred mountain of antiquity, a +fantastic hill perfumed and mysterious, covered with cysti and inhabited +by serpents and crowned with a temple. + +This temple still exists. They told me, at any rate, that it was a +temple; for I did not seek to know more about it so as not to destroy the +illusion. + +So then, one March morning, I climbed up there under the pretext of +admiring the country. On reaching the top, I perceived, in fact, walls +and a man sitting on a stone. He was scarcely more than forty years of +age, though his hair was quite white; but his beard was still almost +black. He was fondling a cat which had cuddled itself upon his knees, and +did not seem to mind me. I took a walk around the ruins, one portion of +which covered over and shut in by means of branches, straw, grass and +stones, was inhabited by him, and I made my way towards the place which +he occupied. + +The view here is splendid. On the right is the Esterel with its peaked +summit strangely carved, then the boundless sea stretching as far as the +distant coast of Italy with its numerous capes, facing Cannes, the +Lerins Islands green and flat, which look as if they were floating, and +the last of which shows in the direction of the open sea an old +castellated fortress with battlemented towers built in the very waves. + +Then, commanding a view of green mountain-side where you could see, at an +equal distance, like innumerable eggs laid on the edge of the shore the +long chaplet of villas and white villages built among the trees rose the +Alps, whose summits are still shrouded in a hood of snow. + +I murmured: + +"Good heavens, this is beautiful!" + +The man raised his head, and said: + +"Yes, but when you see it every day, it is monstrous." + +Then he spoke, he chatted, and tired himself with talking--my solitary, +I detained him. + +I did not tarry long that day, and only endeavored to ascertain the color +of misanthropy. He created on me especially the impression of being bored +with other people, weary of everything, hopelessly disillusioned and +disgusted with himself as well as the rest. + +I left him after a half-hour's conversation. But I came back, eight hours +later, and once again in the following week, then every week, so that +before two months we were friends. + +Now, one evening at the close of May, I decided that the moment had +arrived, and I brought provisions in order to dine with him on Snake +Mountain. + +It was one of those evenings of the South so odorous in that country +where flowers are cultivated just as wheat is in the North, in that +country where every essence that perfumes the flesh and the dress of +women is manufactured, one of those evenings when the breath of the +innumerable orange-trees with which the gardens and all the recesses of +the dales are planted, excite and cause languor so that old men have +dreams of love. + +My solitary received me with manifest pleasure. He willingly consented to +share in my dinner. + +I made him drink a little wine, to which he had ceased to be accustomed. +He brightened up and began to talk about his past life. He had always +resided in Paris, and had, it seemed to me, lived a gay bachelor's life. + +I asked him abruptly: + +"What put into your head this funny notion of going to live on the top of +a mountain?" + +He answered immediately: + +"Her! it was because I got the most painful shock that a man can +experience. But why hide from you this misfortune of mine? It will make +you pity me, perhaps! And then--I have never told anyone--never--and +I would like to know, for once, what another thinks of it, and how he +judges it." + +"Born in Paris, brought up in Paris, I grew to manhood and spent my life +in that city. My parents had left me an income of some thousands of +francs a year, and I procured as a shelter, a modest and tranquil place +which enabled me to pass as wealthy for a bachelor. + +"I had, since my youth, led a bachelor's life. You know what that is. +Free and without family, resolved not to take a legitimate wife, I passed +at one time three months with one, at another time six months with +another, then a year without a companion, taking as my prey the mass +of women who are either to be had for the asking or bought. + +"This every day, or, if you like the phrase better, commonplace, +existence agreed with me, satisfied my natural tastes for changes and +silliness. I lived on the boulevard, in theaters and cafes, always out of +doors, always without a regular home, though I was comfortably housed. I +was one of those thousands of beings who let themselves float like corks, +through life, for whom the walls of Paris are the walls of the world, +and who have no care about anything, having no passion for anything. I +was what is called a good fellow, without accomplishments and without +defects. That is all. And I judge myself correctly. + +"Then, from twenty to forty years, my existence flowed along slowly or +rapidly without any remarkable event. How quickly they pass, the +monstrous years of Paris, when none of those memories worth fixing the +date of find way into the soul, these long and yet hurried years, trivial +and gay, when you eat, drink and laugh without knowing why, your lips +stretched out towards all they can taste and all they can kiss, without +having a longing for anything. You are young, and you grow old without +doing any of the things that others do, without any attachment, any root, +any bond, almost without friends, without family, without wife, without +children. + +"So, gently and quickly, I reached my fortieth year; and in order to +celebrate this anniversary, I invited myself to take a good dinner all +alone in one of the principal cafes. + +"After dinner, I was in doubt as to what I would do. I felt disposed to +go to a theater; and then the idea came into my head to make a pilgrimage +to the Latin quarters, where I had in former days lived as a law-student. +So I made my way across Paris, and without premeditation went in to one +of those public-houses where you are served by girls. + +"The one who attended at my table was quite young, pretty, and +merry-looking. I asked her to take a drink, and she at once consented. +She sat down opposite me, and gazed at me with a practiced eye, without +knowing with what kind of a male she had to do. She was a fair-haired +woman, or rather a fair-haired girl, a fresh, quite fresh young creature, +whom you guessed to be rosy and plump under her swelling bodice. I talked +to her in that flattering and idiotic style which we always adopt with +girls of this sort; and as she was truly charming, the idea suddenly +occurred to me to take her with me--always with a view to celebrating my +fortieth year. It was neither a long nor difficult task. She was free, +she told me, for the past fortnight, and she forthwith accepted my +invitation to come and sup with me in the Halles when her work would be +finished. + +"As I was afraid lest she might give me the slip--you never can tell what +may happen, or who may come into those drink-shops, or what wind may blow +into a woman's head--I remained there all the evening waiting for her. + +"I, too, had been free for the past month or two, and watching this +pretty debutante of love going from table to table, I asked myself the +question whether it would not be worth my while to make a bargain with +her to live with me for some time. I am here relating to you one of those +ordinary adventures which occur every day in the lives of men in Paris. + +"Excuse me for such gross details. Those who have not loved in a poetic +fashion take and choose women, as you choose a chop in a butcher's shop +without caring about anything save the quality of their flesh. + +"Accordingly, I took her to her own house--for I had a regard for my own +sheets. It was a little working-girl's lodgings in the fifth story, clean +and poor, and I spent two delightful hours there. This little girl had a +certain grace and a rare attractiveness. + +"When I was about to leave the room, I advanced towards the mantelpiece +in order to place there the stipulated present, after having agreed on a +day for a second meeting with the girl, who remained in bed, I got a +vague glimpse of a clock without a globe, two flower-vases and two +photographs, one of them very old, one of those proofs on glass called +daguerreo-types. I carelessly bent forward towards this portrait, and I +remained speechless at the sight, too amazed to comprehend.... It was my +own, the first portrait of myself, which I had got taken in the days when +I was a student in the Latin Quarter. + +"I abruptly snatched it up to examine it more closely. I did not deceive +myself--and I felt a desire to burst out laughing, so unexpected and +queer did the thing appear to me. + +"I asked: + +"'Who is this gentleman?' + +"She replied: + +"'Tis my father, whom I did not know. Mamma left it to me, telling me to +keep it, as it might be useful to me, perhaps, one day--' + +"She hesitated, began to laugh, and went on: + +"'I don't know in what way, upon my word. I don't think he'll care to +acknowledge me.' + +"My heart went beating wildly, like the mad gallop of a runaway horse. I +replaced the portrait, laying it down flat on the mantelpiece. On top of +it I placed, without even knowing what I was doing, two notes for a +hundred francs, which I had in my pocket, and I rushed away, exclaiming: + +"'We'll meet again soon--by-bye, darling--by-bye.' + +"I heard her answering: + +"'Till Tuesday.' + +"I was on the dark staircase, which I descended, groping my way down. + +"When I got into the open air, I saw that it was raining, and I started +at a great pace down some street or other. + +"I walked straight on, stupefied, distracted, trying to jog my memory! +Was this possible? Yes. I remembered all of a sudden a girl who had +written to me, about a month after our rupture, that she was going +to have a child by me. I had torn or burned the letter, and had forgotten +all about the matter. I should have looked at the woman's photograph over +the girl's mantelpiece. But would I have recognized it? It was the +photograph of an old woman, it seemed to me. + +"I reached the quay. I saw a bench, and sat down on it. It went on +raining. People passed from time to time under umbrellas. Life appeared +to me odious and revolting, full of miseries, of shames, of infamies +deliberate or unconscious. My daughter!... I had just perhaps possessed +my own daughter! And Paris, this vast Paris, somber, mournful, dirty, +sad, black, with all those houses shut up, was full of such things, +adulteries, incests, violated children, I recalled to mind what I had +been told about bridges haunted by the infamous votaries of vice. + +"I had acted, without wishing it, without being aware of it, in a worse +fashion than these ignoble beings. I had entered my own daughter's bed! + +"I was on the point of throwing myself into the water. I was mad! I +wandered about till dawn, then I came back to my own house to think. + +"I thereupon did what appeared to me the wisest thing. I desired a notary +to send for this little girl, and to ask her under what conditions her +mother had given her the portrait of him whom she supposed to be her +father, stating that he was intrusted with this duty by a friend. + +"The notary executed my commands. It was on her death-bed that this woman +had designated the father of her daughter, and in the presence of a +priest, whose name was given to me. + +"Then, still in the name of this unknown friend, I got half of my fortune +sent to this child, about one hundred and forty thousand francs, of which +she could only get the income. Then I resigned my employment--and here I +am. + +"While wandering along this shore, I found this mountain, and I stopped +there--up to what time I am unable to say! + +"What do you think of me, and of what I have done?" + +I replied as I extended my hand towards him: + +"You have done what you ought to do. Many others would have attached less +importance to this odious fatality." + +He went on: + +"I know that, but I was nearly going mad on account of it. It seems I had +a sensitive soul without ever suspecting it. And now I am afraid of +Paris, as believers are bound to be afraid of Hell. I have received a +blow on the head--that is all--a blow resembling the fall of a tile when +one is passing through the street. I am getting better for some time +past." + +I quitted my solitary. I was much disturbed by his narrative. + +I saw him again twice, then I went away, for I never remain in the South +after the month of May. + +When I came back in the following year the man was no longer on Snake +Mountain; and I have never since heard anything about him. + +This is the history of my hermit. + + + + +THE ORDERLY + + +The cemetery, filled with officers, looked like a field covered with +flowers. The kepis and the red trousers, the stripes and the gold +buttons, the shoulder-knots of the staff, the braid of the chasseurs and +the hussars, passed through the midst of the tombs, whose crosses, white +or black, opened their mournful arms--their arms of iron, marble, or +wood--over the vanished race of the dead. + +Colonel Limousin's wife had just been buried. She had been drowned, two +days before, while taking a bath. It was over. The clergy had left; but +the colonel, supported by two brother-officers, remained standing in +front of the pit, at the bottom of which he saw still the oaken coffin, +wherein lay, already decomposed, the body of his young wife. + +He was almost an old man, tall and thin, with white moustache; and, three +years ago, he had married the daughter of a comrade, left an orphan on +the death of her father, Colonel Sortis. + +The captain and the lieutenant, on whom their commanding officer was +leaning, attempted to lead him away. He resisted, his eyes full of tears, +which he heroically held back, and murmuring, "No, no, a little while +longer!" he persisted in remaining there, his legs bending under him, at +the side of that pit, which seemed to him bottomless, an abyss into which +had fallen his heart and his life, all that he held dear on earth. + +Suddenly, General Ormont came up, seized the colonel by the arm, and +dragging him from the spot almost by force said: "Come, come, my old +comrade! you must not remain here." + +The colonel thereupon obeyed, and went back to his quarters. As he opened +the door of his study, he saw a letter on the table. When he took it in +his hands, he was near falling with surprise and emotion; he recognized +his wife's handwriting. And the letter bore the post-mark and the date +of the same day. He tore open the envelope and read: + + * * * * * + +"Father, + +"Permit me to call you still father, as in days gone by. When you receive +this letter, I shall be dead and under the clay. Therefore, perhaps, you +may forgive me. + +"I do not want to excite your pity or to extenuate my sin. I only want to +tell the entire and complete truth, with all the sincerity of a woman +who, in an hour's time, is going to kill herself. + +"When you married me through generosity, I gave myself to you through +gratitude, and I loved you with all my girlish heart. I loved you as I +loved my own father--almost as much; and one day, while I sat on your +knee, and you were kissing me, I called you 'Father' in spite of myself. +It was a cry of the heart, instinctive, spontaneous. Indeed, you were to +me a father, nothing but a father. You laughed, and you said to me, +'Address me always in that way, my child; it gives me pleasure.' + +"We came to the city; and--forgive me, father--I fell in love. Ah! I +resisted long, well, nearly two years--and then I yielded, I sinned, I +became a fallen woman. + +"And as to him? You will never guess who he is. I am easy enough about +that matter, since there were a dozen officers always around me and with +me, whom you called my twelve constellations. + +"Father, do not seek to know him, and do not hate him. He only did what +any man, no matter whom, would have done in his place, and then I am sure +that he loved me, too, with all his heart. + +"But listen! One day we had an appointment in the isle of Becasses--you +know the little isle, close to the mill. I had to get there by swimming, +and he had to wait for me in a thicket, and then to remain there till +nightfall, so that nobody should see him going away. I had just met him +when the branches opened, and we saw Philippe, your orderly, who had +surprised us. I felt that we were lost, and I uttered a great cry. +Thereupon he said to me--he, my lover--'Go, swim back quietly, my +darling, and leave me here with this man.' + +"I went away so excited that I was near drowning myself, and I came back +to you expecting that something dreadful was about to happen. + +"An hour later, Philippe said to me in a low tone, in the lobby outside +the drawing-room where I met him: 'I am at madame's orders, if she has +any letters to give me.' Then I knew that he had sold himself, and that +my lover had bought him. + +"I gave him some letters, in fact--all my letters--he took them away, and +brought me back the answers. + +"This lasted about two months. We had confidence in him, as you had +confidence in him yourself. + +"Now, father, here is what happened. One day, in the same isle which I +had to reach by swimming, but this time alone, I found your orderly. This +man had been waiting for me; and he informed me that he was going to +reveal everything about us to you, and deliver to you the letters which +he had kept, stolen, if I did not yield to his desires. + +"Oh! father, father, I was filled with fear--a cowardly fear, an unworthy +fear, a fear above all of you who had been so good to me, and whom I had +deceived--fear on his account too--you would have killed him--for myself +also perhaps! I cannot tell; I was mad, desperate; I thought of once more +buying this wretch who loved me, too--how shameful! + +"We are so weak, we women, we lose our heads more easily than you do. And +then, when a woman once falls, she always falls lower and lower. Did I +know what I was doing? I understood only that one of you two and I were +going to die--and I gave myself to this brute. + +"You see, father, that I do not seek to excuse myself. + +"Then, then--then what I should have foreseen happened--he had the better +of me again and again, when he wished, by terrifying me. He, too, has +been my lover, like the other, every day. Is not this abominable? And +what punishment, father? + +"So then it is all over with me. I must die. While I lived, I could not +confess such a crime to you. Dead, I dare everything. I could not do +otherwise than die--nothing could have washed me clean--I was too +polluted. I could no longer love or be loved. It seemed to me that I +stained everyone by merely allowing my hand to be touched. + +"Presently I am going to take my bath, and I will never come back. + +"This letter for you will go to my lover. It will reach him when I am +dead, and without anyone knowing anything about it, he will forward it to +you, accomplishing my last wishes. And you shall read it on your return +from the cemetery. + +"Adieu, father! I have no more to tell you. Do whatever you wish, and +forgive me." + + * * * * * + +The colonel wiped his forehead, which was covered with perspiration. His +coolness; the coolness of days when he had stood on the field of battle, +suddenly came back to him. He rang. + +A man-servant made his appearance. "Send in Philippe to me," said he. +Then, he opened the drawer of his table. + +The man entered almost immediately--a big soldier with red moustache, a +malignant look, and a cunning eye. + +The colonel looked him straight in the face. + +"You are going to tell me the name of my wife's lover." + +"But, my colonel--" + +The officer snatched his revolver out of the half-open drawer. + +"Come! quick! You know I do not jest!" + +"Well--my colonel--it is Captain Saint-Albert." + +Scarcely had he pronounced this name when a flame flashed between his +eyes, and he fell on his face, his forehead pierced by a ball. + + + + +DUCHOUX + + +While descending the wide staircase of the club heated like a +conservatory by the stove the Baron de Mordiane had left his fur-coat +open; therefore, when the huge street-door closed behind him he felt a +shiver of intense cold run through him, one of those sudden and painful +shivers which make us feel sad, as if we were stricken with grief. +Moreover, he had lost some money, and his stomach for some time past had +troubled him, no longer permitting him to eat as he liked. + +He went back to his own residence; and, all of a sudden, the thought of +his great, empty apartment, of his footman asleep in the ante-chamber, of +the dressing-room in which the water kept tepid for the evening toilet +simmered pleasantly under the chafing-dish heated by gas, and the bed, +spacious, antique, and solemn-looking, like a mortuary couch, caused +another chill, more mournful still than that of the icy atmosphere, to +penetrate to the bottom of his heart, the inmost core of his flesh. + +For some years past he had felt weighing down on him that load of +solitude which sometimes crushes old bachelors. Formerly, he had been +strong, lively, and gay, giving all his days to sport and all his nights +to festive gatherings. Now, he had grown dull, and no longer took +pleasure in anything. Exercise fatigued him; suppers and even dinners +made him ill; women annoyed him as much as they had formerly amused him. + +The monotony of evenings all like each other, of the same friends met +again in the same place, at the club, of the same game with a good hand +and a run of luck, of the same talk on the same topics, of the same witty +remarks by the same lips, of the same jokes on the same themes, of the +same scandals about the same women, disgusted him so much as to make him +feel at times a veritable inclination to commit suicide. He could no +longer lead this life regular and inane, so commonplace, so frivolous and +so dull at the same time, and he felt a longing for something tranquil, +restful, comfortable, without knowing what. + +He certainly did not think of getting married, for he did not feel in +himself sufficient fortitude to submit to the melancholy, the conjugal +servitude, to that hateful existence of two beings, who, always together, +knew one another so well that one could not utter a word which the other +would not anticipate, could not make a single movement which would not be +foreseen, could not have any thought or desire or opinion which would not +be divined. He considered that a woman could only be agreeable to see +again when you know her but slightly, when there is something mysterious +and unexplored attached to her, when she remains disquieting, hidden +behind a veil. Therefore, what he would require was a family without +family-life, wherein he might spend only a portion of his existence; and, +again, he was haunted by the recollection of his son. + +For the past year he had been constantly thinking of this, feeling +an irritating desire springing up within him to see him, to renew +acquaintance with him. He had become the father of this child, while +still a young man, in the midst of dramatic and touching incidents. The +boy dispatched to the South, had been brought up near Marseilles without +ever hearing his father's name. + +The latter had at first paid from month to month for the nurture, then +for the education and the expense of holidays for the lad, and finally +had provided an allowance for him on making a sensible match. A discreet +notary had acted as an intermediary without ever disclosing anything. + +The Baron de Mordiane accordingly knew merely that a child of his was +living somewhere in the neighborhood of Marseilles, that he was looked +upon as intelligent and well-educated, that he had married the daughter +of an architect and contractor, to whose business he had succeeded. He +was also believed to be worth a lot of money. + +Why should he not go and see this unknown son without telling his name, +in order to form a judgment about him at first and to assure himself that +he would be able, in case of necessity, to find an agreeable refuge in +this family? + +He had acted handsomely towards the young man, had settled a good fortune +on him, which had been thankfully accepted. He was, therefore, certain +that he would not find himself clashing against any inordinate sense of +self-importance; and this thought, this desire, which every day returned +to him afresh, of setting out for the South, tantalized him like a kind +of itching sensation. A strange self-regarding feeling of affection +also attracted him, bringing before his mental vision this pleasant, +warm abode by the seaside, where he would meet his young and pretty +daughter-in-law, his grandchildren, with outstretched arms, and his son, +who would recall to his memory the charming and short-lived adventure of +bygone years. He regretted only having given so much money, and that this +money had prospered in the young man's hands, thus preventing him from +any longer presenting himself in the character of a benefactor. + +He hurried along, with all these thoughts running through his brain, and +the collar of his fur-coat wrapped round his head. Suddenly he made up +his mind. A cab was passing; he hailed it, drove home, and, when his +valet, just roused from a nap, had opened the door. + +"Louis," said he, "we start to-morrow evening for Marseilles. We'll +remain there perhaps a fortnight. You will make all the necessary +preparations." + +The train rushed on past the Rhone with its sandbanks, then through +yellow plains, bright villages, and a wide expanse of country, shut in +by bare mountains, which rose on the distant horizon. + +The Baron de Mordiane, waking up after a night spent in a sleeping +compartment of the train, looked at himself, in a melancholy fashion, +in the little mirror of his dressing-case. The glaring sun of the South +showed him some wrinkles which he had not observed before--a condition +of decrepitude unnoticed in the imperfect light of Parisian rooms. He +thought, as he examined the corners of his eyes, and saw the rumpled +lids, the temples, the skinny forehead: + +"Damn it, I've not merely got the gloss taken off--I've become quite an +old fogy." + +And his desire for rest suddenly increased, with a vague yearning, born +in him for the first time, to take his grandchildren on his knees. + +About one o'clock in the afternoon, he arrived in a landau which he had +hired at Marseilles, in front of one of those houses of Southern France +so white, at the end of their avenues of plane-trees that they dazzle us +and make our eyes droop. He smiled as he pursued his way along the walk +before the house, and reflected: + +"Deuce take it! this is a nice place." + +Suddenly, a young rogue of five or six made his appearance, starting out +of a shrubbery, and remained standing at the side of the path, staring at +the gentleman with eyes wide open. + +Mordiane came over to him: + +"Good morrow, my boy." + +The brat made no reply. + +The baron, then, stooping down, took him up in his arms to kiss him, but, +the next moment, suffocated by the smell of garlic with which the child +seemed impregnated all over, he put him back again on the ground, +muttering: + +"Oh! it is the gardener's son." + +And he proceeded towards the house. + +The linen was hanging out to dry on a cord before the door--shirts and +chemises, napkins, dish-cloths, aprons, and sheets, while a row of socks, +hanging from strings one above the other, filled up an entire window, +like sausages exposed for sale in front of a pork-butcher's shop. + +The baron announced his arrival. A servant-girl appeared, a true servant +of the South, dirty and untidy, with her hair hanging in wisps and +falling over her face, while her petticoat under the accumulation of +stains which had soiled it had retained only a certain uncouth remnant +of its old color, a hue suitable for a country fair or a mountebank's +tights. + +He asked: + +"Is M. Duchoux at home?" + +He had many years ago, in the mocking spirit of a skeptical man of +pleasure, given this name to the foundling, in order that it might not be +forgotten that he had been picked up under a cabbage. + +The servant-girl asked: + +"Do you want M. Duchoux?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, he is in the big room drawing up his plans." + +"Tell him that M. Merlin wishes to speak to him." + +She replied, in amazement: + +"Hey! go inside then, if you want to see him." + +And she bawled out: + +"Monsieur Duchoux--a call." + +The baron entered, and in a spacious apartment, rendered dark by the +windows being half-closed, he indistinctly traced out persons and things, +which appeared to him very slovenly looking. + +Standing in front of a table laden with articles of every sort, a little +bald man was tracing lines on a large sheet of paper. + +He interrupted his work, and advanced two steps. His waistcoat left open, +his unbuttoned breeches, and his turned-up shirt-sleeves, indicated that +he felt hot, and his muddy shoes showed that it had rained hard some days +before. + +He asked with a very pronounced southern accent: + +"Whom have I the honor of--?" + +"Monsieur Merlin--I came to consult you about a purchase of +building-ground." + +"Ha! ha! very well!" + +And Duchoux, turning towards his wife, who was knitting in the shade: + +"Clear off a chair, Josephine." + +Mordiane then saw a young woman, who appeared already old, as women look +old at twenty-five in the provinces, for want of attention to their +persons, regular washing, and all the little cares bestowed on feminine +toilet which make them fresh, and preserve, till the age of fifty, the +charm and beauty of the sex. With a neckerchief over her shoulders, her +hair clumsily braided--though it was lovely hair, thick and black, you +could see that it was badly brushed--she stretched out towards a chair +hands like those of a servant, and removed an infant's robe, a knife, a +fag-end of packe-bread, an empty flower-pot, and a greasy plate left on +the seat, which she then moved over towards the visitor. + +He sat down, and presently noticed that Duchoux's work-table had on it, +in addition to the books and papers, two salads recently gathered, a +wash-hand basin, a hair-brush, a napkin, a revolver, and a number of cups +which had not been cleaned. + +The architect perceived this look, and said with a smile: + +"Excuse us! there is a little disorder in the room--it is owing to the +children." + +And he drew across his chair, in order to chat with his client. + +"So then you are looking out for a piece of ground in the neighborhood of +Marseilles?" + +His breath, though not close to the baron, carried towards the latter +that odor of garlic which the people of the South exhale as flowers do +their perfume. + +Mordiane asked: + +"Is it your son that I met under the plane-trees?" + +"Yes. Yes, the second." + +"You have two of them?" + +"Three, monsieur; one a year." + +And Duchoux looked full of pride. + +The baron was thinking: + +"If they all have the same perfume, their nursery must be a real +conservatory." + +He continued: + +"Yes, I would like a nice piece of ground near the sea, on a little +solitary strip of beach--" + +Thereupon Duchoux proceeded to explain. He had ten, twenty, fifty, a +hundred, or more, pieces of ground of the kind required, at different +prices and suited to different tastes. He talked just as a fountain +flows, smiling, self-satisfied, wagging his bald round head. + +And Mordiane was reminded of a little woman, fair-haired, slight, with +a somewhat melancholy look, and a tender fashion of murmuring, "My +darling," of which the mere remembrance made the blood stir in his veins. +She had loved him passionately, madly, for three months; then, becoming +pregnant in the absence of her husband, who was a governor of a colony, +she had run away and concealed herself, distracted with despair and +terror, till the birth of the child, which Mordiane carried off one +summer's evening, and which they had not laid eyes on afterwards. + +She died of consumption three years later, over there, in the colony of +which her husband was governor, and to which she had gone across to join +him. And here, in front of him, was their son, who was saying, in the +metallic tones with which he rang out his closing words: + +"This piece of ground, monsieur, is a rare chance--" + +And Mordiane recalled the other voice, light as the touch of a gentle +breeze, as it used to murmur: + +"My darling, we shall never part--" + +And he remembered that soft, deep, devoted glance in those eyes of blue, +as he watched the round eye, also blue, but vacant, of this ridiculous +little man, who, for all that, bore a resemblance to his mother. + +Yes, he looked more and more like her every moment--like her in accent, +in movement, in his entire deportment--he was like her in the way an ape +is like a man; but still he was hers; he displayed a thousand external +characteristics peculiar to her, though in an unspeakably distorted, +irritating, and revolting form. + +The baron was galled, haunted as he was all of a sudden by this +resemblance, horrible, each instant growing stronger, exasperating, +maddening, torturing him like a nightmare, like a weight of remorse. + +He stammered out: + +"When can we look at this piece of ground together?" + +"Why, to-morrow, if you like." + +"Yes, to-morrow. At what hour?" + +"One o'clock." + +"All right." + +The child he had met in the avenue appeared before the open door, +exclaiming: + +"Dada!" + +There was no answer. + +Mordiane had risen up with a longing to escape, to run off, which made +his legs tremble. This "dada" had hit him like a bullet. It was to _him_ +that it was addressed, it was intended for him, this "dada," smelling +of garlic--this "dada" of the South. + +Oh! how sweet had been the perfume exhaled by her, his sweetheart of +bygone days! + +Duchoux saw him to the door. + +"This house is your own?" said the baron. + +"Yes, monsieur; I bought it recently. And I am proud of it. I am a child +of accident, monsieur, and I don't want to hide it; I am proud of it. I +owe nothing to anyone; I am the son of my own efforts; I owe everything +to myself." + +The little boy, who remained on the threshold, kept still exclaiming, +though at some distance away from them: + +"Dada!" + +Mordiane, shaking with a shivering fit, seized with panic, fled as one +flies away from a great danger. + +"He is going to guess who I am, to recognize me," he thought. "He is +going to take me in his arms, and to call out to me, 'Dada,' while giving +me a kiss perfumed with garlic." + +"To-morrow, monsieur." + +"To-morrow, at one o'clock." + +The landau rolled over the white road. + +"Coachman! to the railway-station!" + +And he heard two voices, one far away and sweet, the faint, sad voice +of the dead, saying: "My darling," and the other sonorous, sing-song, +frightful, bawling out, "Dada," just as people bawl out, "Stop him!" +when a thief is flying through the street. + +Next evening, as he entered the club, the Count d'Etreillis said to him: + +"We have not seen you for the last three days. Have you been ill?" + +"Yes, a little unwell. I get headaches from time to time." + + + + +OLD AMABLE + + +PART I + +The humid, gray sky seemed to weigh down on the vast brown plain. The +odor of Autumn, the sad odor of bare, moist lands, of fallen leaves, of +dead grass, made the stagnant evening air more thick and heavy. The +peasants were still at work, scattered through the fields, waiting for +the stroke of the Angelus to call them back to the farm-houses, whose +thatched roofs were visible here and there through the branches of the +leafless trees which protected the apple-gardens against the wind. + +At the side of the road, on a heap of clothes, a very small male child +seated with its legs apart, was playing with a potato, which he now and +then let fall on his dress, while five women bent down with their rumps +in the air, were picking sprigs of colza in the adjoining plain. With a +slow continuous movement, all along the great cushions of earth which the +plow had just turned up, they drove in sharp wooden stakes, and then +cast at once into the hole so formed the plant, already a little +withered, which sank on the side; then they covered over the root, and +went on with their work. + +A man who was passing, with a whip in his hand, and wearing wooden shoes, +stopped near the child, took it up, and kissed it. Then one of the women +rose up, and came across to him. She was a big, red-haired girl, with +large hips, waist, and shoulders, a tall Norman woman, with yellow hair +in which there was a blood-red tint. + +She said, in a resolute voice: + +"Here you are, Cesaire--well?" + +The man, a thin young fellow with a melancholy air, murmured: + +"Well, nothing at all--always the same." + +"He won't have it?" + +"He won't have it." + +"What are you going to do?" + +"What do you say I ought to do?" + +"Go see the cure." + +"I will." + +"Go at once!" + +"I will." + +And they stared at each other. He held the child in his arms all the +time. He kissed it once more, and then put it down again on the woman's +clothes. + +In the distance, between two farm-houses, could be seen a plow drawn by a +horse, and driven along by a man. They moved on very gently, the horse, +the plow, and the laborer, under the dim evening sky. + +The woman went on: + +"What, then, did your father say?" + +"He said he would not have it." + +"Why wouldn't he have it?" + +The young man pointed towards the child whom he had just put back on the +ground, then with a glance he drew her attention to the man drawing the +plow yonder there. + +And he said emphatically: + +"Because 'tis his--this child of yours." + +The girl shrugged her shoulders, and in an angry tone said: + +"Faith everyone knows it well--that it is Victor's. And what about it +after all? I made a slip. Am I the only woman that did? My mother also +made a slip before me, and then yours did the same before she married +your dad! Who is it that hasn't made a slip in the country. I made a slip +with Victor, because he took advantage of me while I was asleep in the +barn, it's true, and afterwards it happened between us when I wasn't +asleep. I certainly would have married him if he weren't a servant-man. +Am I a worse woman for that?" + +The man said simply: + +"As for me, I like you just as you are, with or without the child. 'Tis +only my father that opposes me. All the same, I'll see about settling the +business." + +She answered: + +"Go to the cure at once." + +"I'm going to him." + +And he set forth with his heavy peasant's tread; while the girl, with her +hands on her hips, turned round to pick her colza. + +In fact, the man who thus went off, Cesaire Houlbreque, the son of deaf +old Amable Houlbreque, wanted to marry in spite of his father, Celeste +Levesque, who had a child by Victor Lecoq, a mere laborer on his parent's +farm, turned out of doors for this act. + +Moreover, the hierarchy of caste does not exist in the fields, and if the +laborer is thrifty, he becomes, by taking a farm in his turn, the equal +of his former master. + +So Cesaire Houlbreque went off with his whip under his arm, brooding over +his own thoughts, and lifting up one after the other his heavy wooden +shoes daubed with clay. Certainly he desired to marry Celeste Levesque. +He wanted her with her child, because it was the woman he required. He +could not say why: but he knew it, he was sure of it. He had only to look +at her to be convinced of it, to feel himself quite jolly, quite stirred +up, as it were turned into a pure animal through contentment. He even +found a pleasure in kissing the little boy, Victor's little boy, because +he had come out of her. + +And he gazed, without hate, at the distant profile of the man who was +driving his plow along on the horizon's edge. + +But old Amable did not want this marriage. He opposed it with the +obstinacy of a deaf man, with a violent obstinacy. + +Cesaire in vain shouted in his ear, in that ear which still heard a few +sounds: + +"I'll take good care of you, daddy. I tell you she's a good girl and +strong, too, and also thrifty." + +The old man repeated: + +"As long as I live, I won't see her your wife." + +And nothing could get the better of him, nothing could bend his severity. +One hope only was left to Cesaire. Old Amable was afraid of the cure +through apprehension of the death which he felt drawing nigh. He had not +much fear of the good God nor of the Devil nor of Hell nor of Purgatory, +of which he had no conception, but he dreaded the priest, who represented +to him burial, as one might fear the doctors through horror of diseases. +For the last eight days Celeste, who knew this weakness of the old man, +had been urging Cesaire to go and find the cure; but Cesaire always +hesitated, because he had not much liking for the black robe, which +represented to him hands always stretched out for collections for blessed +bread. + +However, he made up his mind, and he proceeded towards the presbytery, +thinking in what manner he would speak about his case. + +The Abbe Raffin, a lively little priest, thin and never shaved, was +awaiting his dinner-hour while warming his feet at his kitchen-fire. + +As soon as he saw the peasant entering, he asked, merely turning round +his head: + +"Well, Cesaire, what do you want?" + +"I'd like to have a talk with you, M. le Cure." + +The man remained standing, intimidated, holding his cap in one hand and +his whip in the other. + +"Well, talk." + +Cesaire looked at the housekeeper, an old woman who dragged her feet +while putting on the cover for her master's dinner at the corner of the +table in front of the window. + +He stammered: + +"'Tis--'tis a sort of confession." + +Thereupon, the Abbe Raffin carefully surveyed his peasant. He saw his +confused countenance, his air of constraint, his wandering eyes, and he +gave orders to the housekeeper in these words: + +"Marie, go away for five minutes to your room, while I talk to Cesaire." + +The servant cast on the man an angry glance, and went away grumbling. + +The clergyman went on: + +"Come, now, spin out your yarn." + +The young fellow still hesitated, looked down at his wooden shoes, moved +about his cap, then, all of a sudden, he made up his mind: + +"Here it is: I want to marry Celeste Levesque." + +"Well, my boy, what's there to prevent you?" + +"The father won't have it." + +"Your father?" + +"Yes, my father." + +"What does your father say?" + +"He says she has a child." + +"She's not the first to whom that happened, since our Mother Eve." + +"A child by Victor Lecoq, Anthione Loisel's servant-man." + +"Ha! ha! So he won't have it?" + +"He won't have it." + +"What! not at all?" + +"No, no more than an ass that won't budge an inch, saving your presence." + +"What do you say to him yourself in order to make him decide?" + +"I say to him that she's a good girl, and strong too, and thrifty also." + +"And this does not make him settle it. So you want me to speak to him?" + +"Exactly. You speak to him." + +"And what am I to tell your father?" + +"Why, what you tell people in your sermons to make them give you sous." + +In the peasant's mind every effort of religion consisted in loosening the +purses, in emptying the pockets of men in order to fill the heavenly +coffer. It was a kind of huge commercial establishment, of which the +cures were the clerks, sly, crafty clerks, sharp as anyone must be who +does business for the good God at the expense of the country people. + +He knew full well that the priests rendered services, great services to +the poorest, to the sick and dying, that they assisted, consoled, +counseled, sustained, but all this by means of money, in exchange for +white pieces, for beautiful glittering coins, with which they paid for +sacraments and masses, advice and protection, pardon of sins and +indulgences, purgatory and paradise accompanying the yearly income, and +the generosity of the sinner. + +The Abbe Raffin, who knew his man, and who never lost his temper, burst +out laughing. + +"Well, yes, I'll tell your father my little story; but you, my lad, +you'll go there--to the sermon." + +Houlbreque extended his hand in order to give a solemn assurance: + +"On the word of a poor man, if you do this for me, I promise that I +will." + +"Come, that's all right. When do you wish me to go and find your father?" + +"Why the sooner the better--to-night if you can." + +"In half-an-hour, then, after supper." + +"In half-an-hour." + +"That's understood. So long, my lad." + +"Good-bye till we meet again, Monsieur le Cure; many thanks." + +"Not at all, my lad." + +And Cesaire Houlbreque returned home, his heart relieved of a great +weight. + +He held on lease a little farm, quite small, for they were not rich, his +father and he. Alone with a female servant, a little girl of fifteen, who +made the soup, looked after the fowls, milked the cows and churned the +butter, they lived hardly, though Cesaire was a good cultivator. But they +did not possess either sufficient lands or sufficient cattle to gain more +than the indispensable. + +The old man no longer worked. Sad, like all deaf people, crippled with +pains, bent double, twisted, he went through the fields leaning on his +stick, watching the animals and the men with a hard, distrustful eye. +Sometimes, he sat down on the side of a ditch, and remained there without +moving for hours, vaguely pondering over the things that had engrossed +his whole life, the price of eggs and corn, the sun and the rain which +spoil the crops or make them grow. And, worn out by rheumatism, his old +limbs still drank in the humidity of the soul, as they had drunk in for +the past sixty years, the moisture of the walls of his low thatched house +covered over with humid straw. + +He came back at the close of the day, took his place at the end of the +table, in the kitchen, and when the earthen pot containing the soup had +been placed before him, he caught it between his crooked fingers, which +seemed to have kept the round form of the jar, and, winter and summer, he +warmed his hands, before commencing to eat, so as to lose nothing, not +even a particle of the heat that came from the fire, which costs a great +deal, neither one drop of soup into which fat and salt have to be put, +nor one morsel of bread, which comes from the wheat. + +Then, he climbed up a ladder into a loft where he had his straw-bed, +while his son slept below-stairs at the end of a kind of niche near the +chimney-piece and the servant shut herself up in a kind of cave, a black +hole which was formerly used to store the potatoes. + +Cesaire and his father scarcely ever talked to each other. From time +to time only, when there was a question of selling a crop or buying +a calf, the young man took the advice of his father, and making a +speaking-trumpet of his two hands, he bawled out his views into his ear, +and old Amable either approved of them or opposed them in a slow, hollow +voice that came from the depths of his stomach. + +So, one evening, Cesaire, approaching him as if about to discuss the +purchase of a horse or a heifer, communicated to him at the top of his +voice his intention to marry Celeste Levesque. + +Then, the father got angry. Why? On the score of morality? No, certainly. +The virtue of a girl is scarcely of importance in the country. But his +avarice, his deep, fierce instinct for sparing, revolted at the idea +that his son should bring up a child which he had not begotten himself. +He had thought suddenly, in one second, on the soup the little fellow +would swallow before being useful in the farm. He had calculated all +the pounds of bread, all the pints of cider, that this brat would consume +up to his fourteenth year; and a mad anger broke loose from him against +Cesaire who had not bestowed a thought on all this. + +He replied, with an usual strength of voice: + +"Have you lost your senses?" + +Thereupon, Cesaire began to enumerate his reasons, to speak about +Celeste's good points, to prove that she would be worth a thousand times +what the child would cost. But the old man doubted these advantages, +while he could have no doubts as to the child's existence; and he replied +with emphatic repetition, without giving any further explanation: + +"I will not have it! I will not have it! As long as I live, this won't be +done!" + +And at this point they had remained for the last three months, without +one or the other giving in, resuming at least once a week the same +discussion, with the same arguments, the same words, the same gestures, +and the same fruitlessness. + +It was then that Celeste had advised Cesaire to go and ask for the cure's +assistance. + +On arriving home the peasant found his father already seated at table, +for he was kept late by his visit to the presbytery. + +They dined in silence face to face, ate a little bread and butter after +the soup and drank a glass of cider. Then they remained motionless in +their chairs, with scarcely a glimmer of light, the little servant-girl +having carried off the candle in order to wash the spoons, wipe the +glasses, and cut beforehand the crusts of bread for next morning's +breakfast. + +There was a knock at the door, which was immediately opened; and the +priest appeared. The old man raised towards him an anxious eye full of +suspicion, and, foreseeing danger, he was getting ready to climb up his +ladder when the Abbe Raffin laid his hand on his shoulder, and shouted +close to his temple: + +"I want to have a talk with you, Father Amable." + +Cesaire had disappeared, taking advantage of the door being open. He did +not want to listen, so much was he afraid, and he did not want his hopes +to crumble with each obstinate refusal of his father. He preferred to +learn the truth at once, good or bad, later on; and he went out into the +night. It was a moonless night, a starless night, one of those foggy +nights when the air seems thick with humidity. A vague odor of apples +floated through the farm-yard, for it was the season when the earliest +apples were gathered, the "soon ripe" ones, as they are called in the +language of the peasantry. As Cesaire passed along by the cattle-sheds, +the warm smell of living beasts sleeping on manure was exhaled through +the narrow windows; and he heard near the stables the stamping of horses +who remained standing, and the sound of their jaws tearing and bruising +the hay on the racks. + +He went straight ahead, thinking about Celeste. In this simple nature, +whose ideas were scarcely more than images generated directly by objects, +thoughts of love only formulated themselves by calling up before the +mind the picture of a big red-haired girl, standing in a hollow road, and +laughing with her hands on her hips. + +It was thus he saw her on the day when he first took a fancy for her. He +had, however, known her from infancy but never had he been so struck by +her as on that morning. They had stopped to talk for a few minutes, and +then he went away; and as he walked along he kept repeating: + +"Faith, she's a fine girl, all the same. 'Tis a pity she made a slip with +Victor." + +Till evening, he kept thinking of her, and also on the following morning. + +When he saw her again, he felt something tickling the end of his throat, +as if a cock's feather had been driven through his mouth into his chest, +and since then, every time he found himself near her, he was astonished +at this nervous tickling which always commenced again. + +In three months, he made up his mind to marry her, so much did she please +him. He could not have said whence came this power over him, but he +explained it by these words: + +"I am possessed by her," as if he felt the desire of this girl within him +with as much dominating force as one of the powers of Hell. He scarcely +bothered himself about her transgression. So much the worse, after all; +it did her no harm, and he bore no grudge against Victor Lecoq. + +But if the cure was not going to succeed, what was he to do? He did not +dare to think of it, so much did this anxious question torment him. + +He reached the presbytery and seated himself near the little gateway to +await for the priest's return. + +He was there perhaps half-an-hour when he heard steps on the road, and he +soon distinguished although the night was very dark, the still darker +shadow of the sautane. + +He rose up, his legs giving way under him, not even venturing to speak, +not daring to ask a question. + +The clergyman perceived him, and said gayly: + +"Well, my lad, 'tis all right." + +Cesaire stammered: + +"All right, 'tisn't possible." + +"Yes, my lad, but not without trouble. What an old ass your father is!" + +The peasant repeated: + +"'Tisn't possible!" + +"Why, yes. Come and look me up to-morrow at midday in order to settle +about the publication of the banns." + +The young man seized the cure's hand. He pressed it, shook it, bruised +it, while he stammered: + +"True--true--true, Monsieur le Cure, on the word of an honest man, you'll +see me to-morrow--at your sermon." + + +PART II + +The wedding took place in the middle of December. It was simple, the +bridal pair not being rich. Cesaire, attired in new clothes, was ready +since eight o'clock in the morning to go and fetch his betrothed and +bring her to the Mayor's office; but, it was too early, he seated himself +before the kitchen-table, and waited for the members of the family and +the friends who were to accompany him. + +For the last eight days, it had been snowing, and the brown earth, the +earth already fertilized by the autumn savings had become livid, sleeping +under a great sheet of ice. + +It was cold in the thatched houses adorned with white caps; and the round +apples in the trees of the enclosures seemed to be flowering, powdered as +they had been in the pleasant month of their blossoming. + +This day, the big northern clouds, the gray clouds laden with glittering +rain had disappeared, and the blue sky showed itself above the white +earth on which the rising sun cast silvery reflections. + +Cesaire looked straight before him through the window, thinking of +nothing happy. + +The door opened, two women entered, peasant women in their Sunday +clothes, the aunt and the cousin of the bridegroom, then three men, his +cousins, then a woman who was a neighbor. They sat down on chairs, and +they remained motionless and silent, the women on one side of the +kitchen, the men on the other suddenly seized with timidity, with that +embarrassed sadness which takes possession of people assembled for a +ceremony. One of the cousins soon asked: + +"It is not the hour--is it?" + +Cesaire replied: + +"I am much afraid it is." + +"Come on! Let us start," said another. + +Those rose up. Then Cesaire, whom a feeling of uneasiness had taken +possession of, climbed up the ladder of the loft to see whether his +father was ready. The old man, always as a rule an early riser, had not +yet made his appearance. His son found him on his bed of straw, wrapped +up in his blanket, with his eyes open, and a malicious look in them. + +He bawled out into his ear: "Come, daddy, get up. 'Tis the time for the +wedding." + +The deaf man murmured in a doleful tone: + +"I can't, I have a sort of cold over me that freezes my back. I can't +stir." + +The young man, dumbfounded, stared at him, guessing that this was a +dodge. + +"Come, daddy, we must force you to go." + +"Look here! I'll help you." + +And he stooped towards the old man, pulled off his blanket, caught him by +the arm and lifted him up. But the old Amable began to whine: + +"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! What suffering! Ooh! I can't. My back is stiffened up. +'Tis the wind that must have rushed in through this cursed roof." + +"Well, you'll have no dinner, as I'm having a spread at Polyte's inn. +This will teach you what comes of acting mulishly." + +And he hurried down the ladder, then set out for his destination, +accompanied by his relatives and guests. + +The men had turned up their trousers so as not to soil the ends of them +in the snow. The women held up their petticoats and showed their lean +ankles, their gray woolen stockings, and their bony shanks resembling +broomsticks. And they all moved forward balancing themselves on their +legs, one behind the other without uttering a word in a very gingerly +fashion through caution lest they might miss their way owing to flat, +uniform uninterrupted sweep of snow that obliterated the track. + +As they approached some of the farm houses, they saw one or two persons +waiting to join them, and the procession went on without stopping, and +wound its way forward, following the invisible outlines of the road, so +that it resembled a living chaplet with black beads undulating through +the white country side. + +In front of the bride's door, a large group was stamping up and down the +open space awaiting the bridegroom. When he appeared they gave him a loud +greeting; and presently, Celeste came forth from her room, clad in a blue +dress, her shoulders covered with a small red shawl, and her head adorned +with orange-flowers. + +But everyone asked Cesaire: + +"Where's your father?" he replied with embarrassment. + +"He couldn't move on account of the pains." + +And the farmers tossed their heads with an incredulous and waggish air. + +They directed their steps towards the Mayor's office. Behind the pair +about to be wedded, a peasant woman carried Victor's child, as if it were +going to be baptized; and the male peasants, in pairs, now went on, with +arms linked, through the snow with the movements of a sloop at sea. + +After having been united by the Mayor in the little municipal house, the +pair were made one by the cure, in his turn, in the modest house of the +good God. He blessed their couplement by promising them fruitfulness, +then he preached to them on the matrimonial virtues, the simple and +healthful virtues of the country, work, concord, and fidelity, while the +child, seized with cold, began bawling behind the backs of the +newly-married pair. + +As soon as the couple reappeared on the threshold of the church, shots +were discharged in the moat of the cemetery. Only the barrels of the guns +could be seen whence came forth rapid jets of smoke; then a head could be +seen gazing at the procession. It was Victor Lecoq celebrating the +marriage of his old sweetheart, wishing her happiness and sending her his +good wishes with explosions of powder. He had employed some friends of +his, five or six laboring men, for these salvoes of musketry. It could be +seen that he carried the thing off well. + +The repast was given in Polyte Cacheprune's inn. Twenty covers were laid +in the great hall where people dined on market-days, and the big leg of +mutton turning before the spit, the fowl browned under their own gravy, +the chitterling roasting over the warm bright fire, filled the house with +a thick odor of coal sprinkled with fat--the powerful and heavy odor of +rustic fare. + +They sat down to table at midday, and speedily the soup flowed into the +plates. The faces already had brightened up; mouths opened to utter loud +jokes, and eyes were laughing with knowing winks. They were going to +amuse themselves and no mistake. + +The door opened, and old Amable presented himself. He seemed in bad humor +and his face wore a scowl, and he dragged himself forward on his sticks, +whining at every step to indicate his suffering. The sight of him caused +great annoyance; but suddenly, his neighbor, Daddy Malivoire, a big +joker, who knew all the little tricks and ways of people, began to yell, +just as Cesaire used to do, by making a speaking-trumpet of his hands. + +"Hallo, my cute old boy, you have a good nose on you to be able to smell +Polyte's cookery from your own house!" + +An immense laugh burst forth from the throats of those present. +Malivoire, excited by his success, went on: + +"There is nothing for the rheumatics like a chitterling poultice! It +keeps your belly warm, along with a glass of three-six!" + +The men uttered shouts, banged the table with their fists, laughed, +bending on one side and raising up their bodies again as if they were +each working a pump. The women clucked like hens, while the servants +wriggled, standing against the walls. Old Amable was the only one that +did not laugh, and, without making any reply, waited till they made room +for him. + +They found a place for him in the middle of the table facing his +daughter-in-law, and, as soon as he was seated, he began to eat. It was +his son who was paying, after all it was right he should take his share. +With each ladlefull of soup that fell into his stomach, with each +mouthful of bread or meat crushed under his gums, with each glass of +cider or wine that flowed through his gullet, he thought he was regaining +something of his own property, getting back a little of his money which +all those gluttons were devouring, saving in fact, a portion of his own +means. And he ate in silence with the obstinacy of a miser who hides his +coppers, with the gloomy tenacity which he exhibited in former days in +his persistent toils. + +But all of a sudden he noticed at the end of the table Celeste's child +on a woman's lap, and his eye remained fixed on the little boy. He went +on eating, with his glance riveted on the youngster, into whose mouth the +woman who minded him every now and then put a little stuffing which he +nibbled at. And the old man suffered more from every mouthful taken in by +this little grub than by all that the others swallowed. + +The meal lasted till evening. Then everyone went back home. + +Cesaire raised up old Amable. + +"Come, daddy, we must go home," said he. + +And put the old man's two sticks in his hands + +Cesaire took her child in her arms, and they went on slowly through the +pale night whitened by the snow. The deaf old man, three-fourths tipsy, +and even more malicious under the influence of drink, persisted in not +going on. Several times he even sat down with the object of making his +daughter-in-law catch cold, and he kept whining, without uttering a word, +giving vent to a sort of continuous groaning as if he were in pain. + +When they reached home, he at once climbed up to his loft, while Cesaire +made a bed for the child near the deep niche where he was going to lie +down with his wife. But as the newly wedded pair could not sleep +immediately, they heard the old man for a long time moving about on his +bed of straw, and he even talked loudly several times, whether it was +that he was dreaming or that he let his thoughts escape through his +mouth, in spite of himself, without being able to keep them back, under +the obsession of a fixed idea. + +When he came down his ladder, next morning, he saw his daughter-in-law +looking after the house-keeping. + +She cried out to him: + +"Come, daddy, hurry on! Here's some good soup." + +And she placed at the end of the table the round black gray pot filled +with smoking liquid. He sat down without giving any answer, seized the +hot jar, warmed his hands with it in his customary fashion; and, as it +was very cold, even pressed it against his breast, to try to make a +little of the living heat of the boiling water enter into him, into his +old body stiffened by so many winters. + +Then he took his sticks and went out into the fields, covered with ice, +till it was time for dinner, for he had seen Celeste's youngster still +asleep in a big soap-box. + +He did not take his place in the household. He lived in the thatched +house, as in bygone days, but he seemed not to belong to it any longer, +to be no longer interested in anything, to look upon those people, his +son, the wife, and the child as strangers whom he did not know, to whom +he never spoke. + +The winter glided by. It was long and severe. + +Then the early spring made the seeds sprout forth again, and the peasants +once more, like laborious ants, passed their days in the fields, toiling +from morning till night, under the wind and under the rain, along the +furrows of brown earth which brought forth the bread of men. + +The year promised well for the newly-married pair. The crops grew thick +and heavy. There were no slow frosts, and the apples bursting into bloom +let fall into the grass their rosy white snow, which promised a hail of +fruit for the autumn. + +Cesaire toiled hard, rose early and left off work late, in order to save +the expense of a laboring man. + +His wife said to him sometimes: + +"You'll make yourself ill in the long run." + +He replied: + +"Certainly not. I'm a good judge." + +Nevertheless, one evening he came home so fatigued that he had to go to +bed without supper. He rose up next morning at the usual hour, but he +could not eat, in spite of his fast on the previous night, and he had to +come back to the house in the middle of the afternoon in order to go to +bed again. In the course of the night, he began to cough; he turned round +on his straw couch, feverish, with his forehead burning, his tongue dry, +and his throat parched by a burning thirst. + +However, at daybreak, he went towards his grounds, but, next morning, +the doctor had to be sent for, and pronounced him very ill from an +inflammation of the chest. + +And he no longer quitted the obscure niche which he made use of to sleep +in. He could be heard coughing, panting, and tossing about in the +interior of this hole. In order to see him, to give his medicine, and to +apply cupping-glasses, it was necessary to bring a candle towards the +entrance. Then one could see his narrow head with his long matted beard +underneath a thick lacework of spiders' webs, which hung and floated when +stirred by the air. And the hands of the sick man seemed dead under the +dingy sheets. + +Celeste watched him with restless activity, made him take physic, applied +blister plasters to him, and was constantly waving up and down the house, +while the old Amable remained at the side of his loft, watching at a +distance the gloomy cave where his son was dying. He did not come near +him, through hatred of the wife, sulking like an ill-tempered dog. + +Six more days passed, then, one morning, as Celeste, who was now asleep +on the ground on two loose bundles of straw, was going to see whether her +man was better, she no longer heard his rapid breathing from the interior +of his low bed. Terror stricken, she asked: + +"Well, Cesaire, what sort of a night had you?" + +He did not answer. She put out her hand to touch him, and the flesh on +his face felt cold as ice. She uttered a great cry, the long cry of a +woman overpowered with fright. He was dead. + +At this cry, the deaf old man appeared, at the top of his ladder, and +when he saw Celeste rushing to call for help, he quickly descended, felt +in his turn the flesh of his son, and suddenly realizing what had +happened, went to shut the door from the inside, to prevent the wife +from reentering, and to resume possession of his dwelling, since his son +was no longer living. + +Then he sat down on a chair by the dead man's side. + +Some of the neighbors arrived, called out, and knocked. He did not hear +them. One of them broke the glass of the window, and jumped into the +room. Others followed. The door was opened again, and Celeste reappeared, +all in tears, with swollen face, and bloodshot eyes. Then, old Amable, +vanquished, without uttering a word, climbed back to his loft. + +The funeral took place next morning, then, after the ceremony, the +father-in-law and the daughter-in-law found themselves alone in the +farm-house with the child. + +It was the usual dinner hour. She lighted the fire, divided the soup, and +placed the plated on the table, while the old man sat on the chair +waiting without appearing to look at her. When the meal was ready, she +bawled out in his ear: + +"Come, daddy, you must eat." He rose up, took his seat at the end of the +table, emptied his pot, masticated his bread and butter, drank his two +glasses of cider, and then took himself off. + +It was one of those warm days, one of those enjoyable days when life +ferments, palpitates, blooms all over the surface of the soil. + +Old Amable pursued a little path across the fields. He watched the young +wheat and the young oats, thinking that his son was now under the clay, +his poor boy. He went on at his customary pace, dragging his legs after +him in a limping fashion. And, as he was all alone in the plain, all +alone under the blue sky, in the midst of the growing crops, all alone +with the larks, which he saw hovering above his head, without hearing +their light song, he began to weep while he proceeded on his way. + +Then he sat down close to a pool, and remained there till evening, gazing +at the little birds that came there to drink; then, as the night was +falling, he returned to the house, supped without saying a word, and +climbed up to his loft. + +And his life went on as in the past. Nothing was changed, except that his +son, Cesaire, slept in the cemetery. + +What could he, an old man, do? He could work no longer; he was now good +for nothing except to swallow the soup prepared by his daughter-in-law. +And he did swallow it in silence, morning and evening, watching with an +eye of rage, the little boy also taking soup, right opposite him, at the +other side of the table. Then he went out, prowled about the fields in +the fashion of a vagabond, went hiding behind the barns, where he slept +for an hour or two, as if he were afraid of being seen, and then he came +back at the approach of night. + +But Celeste's mind began to be occupied by graver anxieties. The grounds +needed a man to look after them and work them. Somebody should be there +always to go through the fields, not a mere hired laborer, but a big +cultivator, a master, who would know the business and have the care of +the farm. A lone woman could not manage the farming, watch the price of +corn, and direct the sale and purchase of cattle. Then ideas came into +her head, simple practical ideas, which she had turned over in her head +at night. She could not marry again before the end of the year, and it +was necessary at once to take care of pressing interests, immediate +interests. + +Only one man could extricate her from embarrassment, Victor Lecoq, the +father of her child. He was strong and well acquainted with farming +business; with a little money in his pocket, he would make an excellent +cultivator. She was aware of his skill, having known him while he was +working on his parents' farm. + +So, one morning, seeing him passing along the road with a cart of dung, +she went out to meet him. When he perceived her, he drew up his horses +and she said to him, as if she had met him the night before: + +"Good morrow, Victor--are you quite well, the same as ever?" + +He replied: + +"I'm quite well, the same as ever--and how are you?" + +"Oh, I'd be all right, only that I'm alone in the house, which bothers me +on account of the grounds." + +Then they remained chatting for a long time, leaning against the wheel of +the heavy cart. The man every now and then lifted up his cap to scratch +his forehead, and began thinking, while she, with flushed cheeks, went on +talking warmly, told him about her views, her plans, her projects for the +future. In the end, he said, in a low tone: + +"Yes, it can be done." + +She opened her hand like a countryman clinching a bargain, and asked: + +"Is it agreed?" + +He pressed her outstretched hand. + +"'Tis agreed." + +"'Tis fixed, then, for Sunday next?" + +"'Tis fixed for Sunday next." + +"Well, good morning, Victor." + +"Good morning, Madame Houlbreque." + + +PART III + +This Sunday was the day of the village festival, the annual festival in +honor of the patron saint, which in Normandy is called the assembly. + +For the last eight days quaint looking vehicles, in which lay the +wandering families of fancy fair owners, lottery managers, keepers of +shooting galleries, and other forms of amusement or exhibitors of +curiosities, which the peasants call "monster-makers," could be seen +coming along the roads drawn slowly by gray or chestnut horses. + +The dirty caravans with their floating curtains accompanied by a +melancholy-looking dog, who trotted, with his head down, between the +wheels, drew up one after the other, in the green fronting the Mayor's +office. Then a tent was erected in front of each traveling abode, and +inside this tent could be seen through the holes in the canvas glittering +things, which excited the envy or the curiosity of the village brats. + +As soon as the morning of the fete arrived, all the booths were opened, +displaying their splendors of glass or porcelain; and the peasants on +their way to mass, regarded already with looks of satisfaction, these +modest shops, which, nevertheless, they saw again each succeeding year. + +From the early part of the afternoon, there was a crowd on the green. +From every neighboring village, the farmers arrived, shaken along with +their wives and children in the two-wheeled open cars, which made a +rattling sound as they oscillated like cradles. They unyoked at their +friends' houses, and the farm-yards were filled with strange looking +traps, gray, high, lean, crooked, like long clawed creatures from the +depths of the sea. And each family, with the youngsters in front, and the +grown up ones behind, came to the assembly with tranquil steps, smiling +countenances, and open hands, big hands, red and bony, accustomed to work +and apparently tired of their temporary rest. + +A tumbler played on a trumpet. The barrel-organ accompanying the wooden +horses sent through the air its shrill jerky notes. The lottery-wheel +made a whirring sound like that of cloth being torn, and every moment the +crack of the rifle could be heard. And the slowly moving throng passed on +quietly in front of the booths after the fashion of paste in a fluid +condition, with the motions of a flock of sheep and the awkwardness of +heavy animals rushing along at haphazard. + +The girls, holding one another's arms, in groups of six or eight, kept +bawling out songs; the young men followed them making jokes, with their +caps over their ears, and their blouses stiffened with starch, swollen +out like blue balloons. + +The whole country-side was there--masters, laboring men, and +women-servants. + +Old Amable himself, wearing his old-fashioned green frock-coat, had +wished to see the assembly, for he never failed to attend on such an +occasion. + +He looked at the lotteries, stopped in front of the shooting galleries to +criticise the shots, and interested himself specially in a very simple +game, which consisted in throwing a big wooden ball into the open mouth +of a mannikin carved and painted on a board. + +Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Daddy Malivoire, who +exclaimed: + +"Ha, daddy! Come and have a glass of spirits." + +And they sat down before the table of a rustic inn placed in the open +air. + +They drank one glass of spirits, then two, then three; and old Amable +once more wandered through the assembly. His thoughts became slightly +confused, he smiled without knowing why, he smiled in front of the +lotteries, in front of the wooden horses, and especially in front of the +killing game. He remained there a long time, filled with delight when he +saw a holidaymaker knocking down the gendarme or the cure, two +authorities which he instinctively distrusted. Then he went back to the +inn, and drank a glass of cider to cool himself. It was late, night came +on. A neighbor came to warn him: + +"You'll get back home late for the stew, daddy." + +Then he set out on his way to the farm house. A soft shadow, the warm +shadow of a spring night, was slowly descending on the earth. + +When he reached the front door, he thought he saw through the window +which was lighted up, two persons in the house. He stopped, much +surprised, then he went in, and he saw Victor Lecoq seated at the table, +with a plate filled with potatoes before him, taking his supper in the +very same place where his son had sat. + +And, all of a sudden, he turned round, as if he wanted to go away. The +night was very dark now. Celeste started up, and shouted at him: + +"Come quick, daddy! Here's some good stew to finish off the assembly +with." + +Thereupon he complied through inertia, and sat down watching in turn +the man, the woman and the child. Then, he began to eat quietly as on +ordinary days. + +Victor Lecoq seemed quite at home, talked from time to time to Celeste, +took up the child in his lap, and kissed him. And Celeste again served +him with food, poured out drink for him, and appeared content while +speaking to him. Old Amable followed them with a fixed look without +hearing what they were saying. + +When he had finished supper (and he had scarcely eaten anything, so much +did he feel his heart wrung) he rose up, and in place of ascending to his +loft as he did every night he opened the yard door, and went out into the +open air. + +When he had gone, Celeste, a little uneasy, asked: + +"What is he going to do?" + +Victor replied in an indifferent tone: + +"Don't bother yourself. He'll come back when he's tired." + +Then, she saw after the house, washed the plates and wiped the table, +while the man quietly took off his clothes. Then he slipped into the dark +and hollow bed in which she had slept with Cesaire. + +The yard door reopened, old Amable again presented himself. As soon as he +had come in, he looked round on every side with the air of an old dog on +the scent. He was in search of Victor Lecoq. As he did not see him, he +took the candle off the table, and approached the dark niche in which his +son had died. In the interior of it he perceived the man lying under the +bed clothes and already asleep. Then the deaf man noiselessly turned +round, put back the candle, and went out into the yard. + +Celeste had finished her work. She put her son into his bed, arranged +everything, and waited her father-in-law's return before lying down +herself beside Victor. + +She remained sitting on a chair, without moving her hands, and with her +eyes fixed on vacancy. + +As he did not come back she murmured in a tone of impatience and +annoyance: + +"This good-for-nothing old man will burn four sous' worth of candle on +us." + +Victor answered her from under the bed clothes. + +"'Tis over an hour since he went out. We'd want to see whether he fell +asleep on the bench before the door." + +She declared: + +"I'm going there." + +She rose up, took the light, and went out, making a shade of her hand in +order to see through the darkness. + +She saw nothing in front of the door, nothing on the bench, nothing on +the dung pit, where the old man used sometimes to sit in hot weather. + +But, just as she was on the point of going in again, she chanced to raise +her eyes towards the big apple tree, which sheltered the entrance to the +farm house, and suddenly she saw two feet belonging to a man who was +hanging at the height of her face. + +She uttered terrible cries: + +"Victor! Victor! Victor!" + +He ran out in his shirt. She could not utter another word, and turning +round her head, so as not to see, she pointed towards the tree with her +outstretched arm. + +Not understanding what she meant, he took the candle in order to find +out, and in the midst of the foliage lit up from below, he saw old Amable +hanged high up by the neck with a stable-halter. + +A ladder was fixed at the trunk of the apple tree. + +Victor rushed to look for a bill-hook, climbed up the tree, and cut the +halter. But the old man was already cold, and he put out his tongue +horribly with a frightful grimace. + + + + +MAGNETISM + + +It was at the close of a dinner-party of men, at the hour of endless +cigars and incessant sips of brandy, amidst the smoke and the torpid +warmth of digestion and the slight confusion of heads generated by such +a quantity of eatables and by the absorption of so many different +liquors. + +Those present were talking about magnetism, about Donato's tricks, and +about Doctor Charcot's experiences. All of a sudden, those men, so +skeptical, so happy-go-lucky, so indifferent to religion of every sort, +began telling stories about strange occurrences, incredible things which +nevertheless had really happened, they contended, falling back into +superstitions, beliefs, clinging to these last remnants of the marvelous, +becoming devotees of this mystery of magnetism, defending it in the name +of science. There was only one person who smiled, a vigorous young +fellow, a great pursuer of girls in the town, and a hunter also of frisky +matrons, in whose mind there was so much incredulity about everything +that he would not even enter upon a discussion of such matters. + +He repeated with a sneer: + +"Humbug! humbug! humbug! We need not discuss Donato, who is merely a very +smart juggler. As for M. Charcot, who is said to be a remarkable man of +science, he produces on me the effect of those story-tellers of the +school of Edgar Poe, who end by going mad through constantly reflecting +on queer cases of insanity. He has set forth some nervous phenomena, +which are unexplained and inexplicable; he makes his way into that +unknown region which men explore every day, and not being able to +comprehend what he sees, he remembers perhaps too well the explanations +of certain mysteries given by speaking on these subjects, that would be +quite a different thing from your repetition of what he says." + +The words of the unbeliever were listened to with a kind of pity, as if +he had blasphemed in the midst of an assembly of monks. + +One of these gentlemen exclaimed: + +"And yet miracles were performed in former days." + +But the other replied: "I deny it. Why cannot they be performed any +longer?" + +Thereupon, each man referred to some fact, or some fantastic +presentiment, or some instance of souls communicating with each other +across space, or some case of secret influences produced by one being or +another. And they asserted, they maintained that these things had +actually occurred, while the skeptic went on repeating energetically: + +"Humbug! humbug! humbug!" + +At last he rose up, threw away his cigar, and with his hands in his +pockets, said: "Well, I, too, am going to relate to you two stories, and +then I will explain them to you. Here they are: + +"In the little village of Etretat, the men, who are all seafaring folk, +go every year to Newfoundland to fish for cod. Now, one night the little +son of one of these fishermen woke up with a start, crying out that his +father was dead. The child was quieted, and again he woke up exclaiming +that his father was drowned. A month later the news came that his father +had, in fact, been swept off the deck of his smack by a billow. The widow +then remembered how her son had wakened up and spoken of his father's +death. Everyone said it was a miracle, and the affair caused a great +sensation. The dates were compared, and it was found that the accident +and the dream had very nearly coincided, whence they drew the conclusion +that they had happened on the same night and at the same hour. And +there is the mystery of magnetism." + +The story-teller stopped suddenly. + +Thereupon, one of those who had heard him, much affected by the +narrative, asked: + +"And can you explain this?" + +"Perfectly monsieur. I have discovered the secret. The circumstance +surprised me and even embarrassed me very much; but, I, you see, do not +believe on principle. Just as others begin by believing, I begin by +doubting; and when I don't at all understand, I continue to deny that +there can be any telegraphic communication between souls, certain that my +own sagacity will be enough to explain it. Well, I have gone on inquiring +into the matter, and I have ended, by dint of questioning all the wives +of the absent seamen, in convincing myself that not a week passed without +one of themselves or their children dreaming and declaring when they woke +up that the father was drowned. The horrible and continual fear of this +accident makes them always talk about it. Now, if one of these frequent +predictions coincides, by a very simple chance, with the death of the +person referred to, people at once declare it to be a miracle; for they +suddenly lose sight of all the other predictions of misfortune that have +remained unconfirmed. I have myself known fifty cases where the persons +who made the prediction forgot all about it in a week afterwards. But, +if in fact the man was dead, then the recollection of the thing is +immediately revived, and people will be ready to believe in the +intervention of God, according to some, and magnetism, according to +others." + +One of the smokers remarked: + +"What you say is right enough; but what about your second story?" + +"Oh! my second story is a very delicate matter to relate. It is to myself +it happened, and so I don't place any great value on my own view of the +matter. One is never a good judge in a case where he is one of the +parties concerned. At any rate, here it is: + +"Among my acquaintances in society there was a young woman on whom I had +never bestowed a thought, whom I had never even looked at attentively, +never taken any notice of, as the saying is. + +"I classed her among the women of no importance, though she was not quite +bad-looking; in fact, she appeared to me to possess eyes, a nose, a +mouth, some sort of hair--just a colorless type of countenance. She was +one of those beings on whom one only thinks by accident, without taking +any particular interest in the individual, and who never excites desire. + +"Well, one night, as I was writing some letters by my own fireside before +going to bed, I was conscious, in the midst of that train of sensual +images that sometimes float before one's brain in moments of idle +reverie, while I held the pen in my hand, of a kind of light breath +passing into my soul, a little shudder of the heart, and immediately, +without reason, without any logical connection of thought, I saw +distinctly, saw as If I touched her, saw from head to foot, uncovered, +this young woman for whom I had never cared save in the most superficial +manner when her name happened to recur to my mind. And all of a sudden I +discovered in her a heap of qualities which I had never before observed, +a sweet charm, a fascination that made me languish; she awakened in me +that sort of amorous uneasiness which sends me in pursuit of a woman. But +I did not remain thinking of her long. I went to bed and was soon asleep. +And I dreamed. + +"You have all had these strange dreams which render you masters of the +impossible, which open to you doors that cannot be passed through, +unexpected joys, impenetrable arms? + +"Which of us in these agitated, exciting, palpitating slumbers, has not +held, clasped, embraced, possessed with an extraordinary acuteness of +sensation, the woman with whom our minds were occupied? And have you ever +noticed what superhuman delight these good fortunes of dreams bestow upon +us? Into what mad intoxication they cast you! with what passionate spasms +they shake you! and with what infinite, caressing, penetrating tenderness +they fill your heart for her whom you hold fainting and hot in that +adorable and bestial illusion which seems so like reality! + +"All this I felt with unforgettable violence. This woman was mine, so +much mine that the pleasant warmth of her skin remained between my +fingers, the odor of her skin remained in my brain, the taste of her +kisses remained on my lips, the sound of her voice lingered in my ears, +the touch of her clasp still clung to my side, and the burning charm of +her tenderness still gratified my senses long after my exquisite but +disappointing awakening. + +"And three times the same night I had a renewal of my dream. + +"When the day dawned she beset me, possessed me, haunted my brain and my +flesh to such an extent that I no longer remained one second without +thinking of her. + +"At last, not knowing what to do, I dressed myself and went to see her. +As I went up the stairs to her apartment, I was so much overcome by +emotion that I trembled, and my heart panted; I was seized with +vehement desire from head to foot. + +"I entered the apartment. She rose up the moment she heard my name +pronounced; and suddenly our eyes met in a fixed look of astonishment. + +"I sat down. + +"I uttered in a faltering tone some commonplaces which she seemed not +to hear. I did not know what to say or to do. Then, abruptly, I flung +myself upon her; seizing her with both arms; and my entire dream was +accomplished so quickly, so easily, so madly, that I suddenly began to +doubt whether I was really awake. She was, after this, my mistress for +two years." + +"What conclusion do you draw from it?" said a voice. + +The story-teller seemed to hesitate. + +"The conclusion I draw from it--well, by Jove, the conclusion is that it +was just a coincidence! And, in the next place, who can tell? Perhaps it +was some glance of hers which I had not noticed and which came back that +night to me--one of those mysterious and unconscious evocations of memory +which often bring before us things ignored by our own consciousness, +unperceived by our minds!" + +"Let that be just as you wish it," said one of his table companions, when +the story was finished, "but if you don't believe in magnetism after +that, you are an ungrateful fellow, my dear boy!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT, +VOLUME IV (OF 8)*** + + +******* This file should be named 17377.txt or 17377.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/7/17377 + + + +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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