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diff --git a/old/prbhm10.txt b/old/prbhm10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..846fcfd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/prbhm10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1894 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext A Prince of Bohemia, by Honore de Balzac +#69 in our series by Honore de Balzac + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz + + + + + +A Prince of Bohemia + +by Honore de Balzac + +Translated by Clara Bell and others + + + + +DEDICATION + + To Henri Heine. + + I inscribe this to you, my dear Heine, to you that represent in + Paris the ideas and poetry of Germany, in Germany the lively and + witty criticism of France; for you better than any other will know + whatsoever this Study may contain of criticism and of jest, of + love and truth. + +DE BALZAC. + + + + +A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA + + + +"My dear friend," said Mme. de la Baudraye, drawing a pile of +manuscript from beneath her sofa cushion, "will you pardon me in our +present straits for making a short story of something which you told +me a few weeks ago?" + +"Anything is fair in these times. Have you not seen writers serving up +their own hearts to the public, or very often their mistress' hearts +when invention fails? We are coming to this, dear; we shall go in +quest of adventures, not so much for the pleasure of them as for the +sake of having the story to tell afterwards." + +"After all, you and the Marquise de Rochefide have paid the rent, and +I do not think, from the way things are going here, that I ever pay +yours." + +"Who knows? Perhaps the same good luck that befell Mme. de Rochefide +may come to you." + +"Do you call it good luck to go back to one's husband?" + +"No; only great luck. Come, I am listening." + +And Mme. de la Baudraye read as follows: + + "Scene--a splendid salon in the Rue de Chartres-du-Roule. One of + the most famous writers of the day discovered sitting on a settee + beside a very illustrious Marquise, with whom he is on such terms + of intimacy, as a man has a right to claim when a woman singles + him out and keeps him at her side as a complacent /souffre- + douleur/ rather than a makeshift." + +"Well," says she, "have you found those letters of which you spoke +yesterday? You said that you could not tell me all about /him/ without +them?" + +"Yes, I have them." + +"It is your turn to speak; I am listening like a child when his mother +begins the tale of /Le Grand Serpentin Vert/." + +"I count the young man in question in that group of our acquaintances +which we are wont to style our friends. He comes of a good family; he +is a man of infinite parts and ill-luck, full of excellent +dispositions and most charming conversation; young as he is, he is +seen much, and while awaiting better things, he dwells in Bohemia. +Bohemianism, which by rights should be called the doctrine of the +Boulevard des Italiens, finds its recruits among young men between +twenty and thirty, all of them men of genius in their way, little +known, it is true, as yet, but sure of recognition one day, and when +that day comes, of great distinction. They are distinguished as it is +at carnival time, when their exuberant wit, repressed for the rest of +the year, finds a vent in more or less ingenious buffoonery. + +"What times we live in! What an irrational central power which allows +such tremendous energies to run to waste! There are diplomatists in +Bohemia quite capable of overturning Russia's designs, if they but +felt the power of France at their backs. There are writers, +administrators, soldiers, and artists in Bohemia; every faculty, every +kind of brain is represented there. Bohemia is a microcosm. If the +Czar would buy Bohemia for a score of millions and set its population +down in Odessa--always supposing that they consented to leave the +asphalt of the boulevards--Odessa would be Paris with the year. In +Bohemia, you find the flower doomed to wither and come to nothing; the +flower of the wonderful young manhood of France, so sought after by +Napoleon and Louis XIV., so neglected for the last thirty years by the +modern Gerontocracy that is blighting everything else--that splendid +young manhood of whom a witness so little prejudiced as Professor +Tissot wrote, 'On all sides the Emperor employed a younger generation +in every way worthy of him; in his councils, in the general +administration, in negotiations bristling with difficulties or full of +danger, in the government of conquered countries; and in all places +Youth responded to his demands upon it. Young men were for Napoleon +the /missi hominici/ of Charlemagne.' + +"The word Bohemia tells you everything. Bohemia has nothing and lives +upon what it has. Hope is its religion; faith (in oneself) its creed; +and charity is supposed to be its budget. All these young men are +greater than their misfortune; they are under the feet of Fortune, yet +more than equal to Fate. Always ready to mount and ride an /if/, witty +as a /feuilleton/, blithe as only those can be that are deep in debt +and drink deep to match, and finally--for here I come to my point--hot +lovers and what lovers! Picture to yourself Lovelace, and Henri +Quatre, and the Regent, and Werther, and Saint-Preux, and Rene, and +the Marechal de Richelieu--think of all these in a single man, and you +will have some idea of their way of love. What lovers! Eclectic of all +things in love, they will serve up a passion to a woman's order; their +hearts are like a bill of fare in a restaurant. Perhaps they have +never read Stendhal's /De l'Amour/, but unconsciously they put it in +practice. They have by heart their chapters--Love-Taste, Love-Passion, +Love-Caprice, Love-Crystalized, and more than all, Love-Transient. All +is good in their eyes. They invented the burlesque axiom, 'In the +sight of man, all women are equal.' The actual text is more vigorously +worded, but as in my opinion the spirit is false, I do not stand nice +upon the letter. + +"My friend, madame, is named Gabriel Jean Anne Victor Benjamin George +Ferdinand Charles Edward Rusticoli, Comte de la Palferine. The +Rusticolis came to France with Catherine de Medici, having been ousted +about that time from their infinitesimal Tuscan sovereignty. They are +distantly related to the house of Este, and connected by marriage to +the Guises. On the day of Saint-Bartholomew they slew a goodly number +of Protestants, and Charles IX. bestowed the hand of the heiress of +the Comte de la Palferine upon the Rusticoli of that time. The Comte, +however, being a part of the confiscated lands of the Duke of Savoy, +was repurchased by Henri IV. when that great king so far blundered as +to restore the fief; and in exchange, the Rusticoli--who had borne +arms long before the Medici bore them to-wit, /argent/ a cross flory +/azure/ (the cross flower-de-luced by letters patent granted by +Charles IX.), and a count's coronet, with two peasants for supporters +with the motto IN HOC SIGNO VINCIMUS--the Rusticoli, I repeat, +retained their title, and received a couple of offices under the crown +with the government of a province. + +"From the time of the Valois till the reign of Richelieu, as it may be +called, the Rusticoli played a most illustrious part; under Louis XIV. +their glory waned somewhat, under Louis XV. it went out altogether. My +friend's grandfather wasted all that was left to the once brilliant +house with Mlle. Laguerre, whom he first discovered, and brought into +fashion before Bouret's time. Charles Edward's own father was an +officer without any fortune in 1789. The Revolution came to his +assistance; he had the sense to drop his title, and became plain +Rusticoli. Among other deeds, M. Rusticoli married a wife during the +war in Italy, a Capponi, a goddaughter of the Countess of Albany +(hence La Palferine's final names). Rusticoli was one of the best +colonels in the army. The Emperor made him a commander of the Legion +of Honor and a count. His spine was slightly curved, and his son was +wont to say of him laughingly that he was /un comte refait +(contrefait)/. + +"General Count Rusticoli, for he became a brigadier-general at +Ratisbon and a general of the division on the field of Wagram, died at +Vienna almost immediately after his promotion, or his name and ability +would sooner or later have brought him the marshal's baton. Under the +Restoration he would certainly have repaired the fortunes of a great +and noble family so brilliant even as far back as 1100, centuries +before they took the French title--for the Rusticoli had given a pope +to the church and twice revolutionized the kingdom of Naples--so +illustrious again under the Valois; so dexterous in the days of the +Fronde, that obstinate Frondeurs though they were, they still existed +through the reign of Louis XIV. Mazarin favored them; there was the +Tuscan strain in them still, and he recognized it. + +"Today, when Charles Edward de la Palferine's name is mentioned, not +three persons in a hundred know the history of his house. But the +Bourbons have actually left a Foix-Grailly to live by his easel. + +"Ah, if you but knew how brilliantly Charles Edward accepts his +obscure position! how he scoffs at the bourgeois of 1830! What Attic +salt in his wit! He would be the king of Bohemia, if Bohemia would +endure a king. His /verve/ is inexhaustible. To him we owe a map of +the country and the names of the seven castles which Nodier could not +discover." + +"The one thing wanting in one of the cleverest skits of our time," +said the Marquise. + +"You can form your own opinion of La Palferine from a few +characteristic touches," continued Nathan. "He once came upon a friend +of his, a fellow-Bohemian, involved in a dispute on the boulevard with +a bourgeois who chose to consider himself affronted. To the modern +powers that be, Bohemia is insolent in the extreme. There was talk of +calling one another out. + +" 'One moment,' interposed La Palferine, as much Lauzun for the +occasion as Lauzun himself could have been. 'One moment. Monsieur was +born, I suppose?' + +" 'What, sir?' + +" 'Yes, are you born? What is your name?' + +" 'Godin.' + +" 'Godin, eh!' exclaimed La Palferine's friend. + +" 'One moment, my dear fellow,' interrupted La Palferine. 'There are +the Trigaudins. Are you one of them?' + +"Astonishment. + +" 'No? Then you are one of the new dukes of Gaeta, I suppose, of +imperial creation? No? Oh, well, how can you expect my friend to cross +swords with you when he will be secretary of an embassy and ambassador +/some day/, and you will owe him respect? /Godin!/ the thing is non- +existent! You are a nonentity, Godin. My friend cannot be expected to +beat the air! When one is somebody, one cannot fight with a nobody! +Come, my dear fellow--good-day.' + +" 'My respects to madame,' added the friend. + +"Another day La Palferine was walking with a friend who flung his +cigar end in the face of a passer-by. The recipient had the bad taste +to resent this. + +" 'You have stood your antagonist's fire,' said the young Count, 'the +witnesses declare that honor is satisfied.' + +"La Palferine owed his tailor a thousand francs, and the man instead +of going himself sent his assistant to ask for the money. The +assistant found the unfortunate debtor up six pairs of stairs at the +back of a yard at the further end of the Faubourg du Roule. The room +was unfurnished save for a bed (such a bed!), a table, and such a +table! La Palferine heard the preposterous demand--'A demand which I +should qualify as illegal,' he said when he told us the story, 'made, +as it was, at seven o'clock in the morning.' + +" 'Go,' he answered, with the gesture and attitude of a Mirabeau, +'tell your master in what condition you find me.' + +"The assistant apologized and withdrew. La Palferine, seeing the young +man on the landing, rose in the attire celebrated in verse in +/Britannicus/ to add, 'Remark the stairs! Pay particular attention to +the stairs; do not forget to tell him about the stairs!' + +"In every position into which chance has thrown La Palferine, he has +never failed to rise to the occasion. All that he does is witty and +never in bad taste; always and in everything he displays the genius of +Rivarol, the polished subtlety of the old French noble. It was he who +told that delicious anecdote of a friend of Laffitte the banker. A +national fund had been started to give back to Laffitte the mansion in +which the Revolution of 1830 was brewed, and this friend appeared at +the offices of the fund with, 'Here are five francs, give me a hundred +sous change!'--A caricature was made of it.--It was once La +Palferine's misfortune, in judicial style, to make a young girl a +mother. The girl, not a very simple innocent, confessed all to her +mother, a respectable matron, who hurried forthwith to La Palferine +and asked what he meant to do. + +" 'Why, madame,' said he, 'I am neither a surgeon nor a midwife.' + +"She collapsed, but three or four years later she returned to the +charge, still persisting in her inquiry, 'What did La Palferine mean +to do?' + +" 'Well, madame,' returned he, 'when the child is seven years old, an +age at which a boy ought to pass out of women's hands'--an indication +of entire agreement on the mother's part--'if the child is really +mine'--another gesture of assent--'if there is a striking likeness, if +he bids fair to be a gentleman, if I can recognize in him my turn of +mind, and more particularly the Rusticoli air; then, oh--ah!'--a new +movement from the matron--'on my word and honor, I will make him a +cornet of--sugar-plums!' + +"All this, if you will permit me to make use of the phraseology +employed by M. Sainte-Beuve for his biographies of obscurities--all +this, I repeat, is the playful and sprightly yet already somewhat +decadent side of a strong race. It smacks rather of the Parc-aux-Cerfs +than of the Hotel de Rambouillet. It is a race of the strong rather +than of the sweet; I incline to lay a little debauchery to its charge, +and more than I should wish in brilliant and generous natures; it is +gallantry after the fashion of the Marechal de Richelieu, high spirits +and frolic carried rather too far; perhaps we may see in it the +/outrances/ of another age, the Eighteenth Century pushed to extremes; +it harks back to the Musketeers; it is an exploit stolen from +Champcenetz; nay, such light-hearted inconstancy takes us back to the +festooned and ornate period of the old court of the Valois. In an age +as moral as the present, we are bound to regard audacity of this kind +sternly; still, at the same time that 'cornet of sugar-plums' may +serve to warn young girls of the perils of lingering where fancies, +more charming than chastened, come thickly from the first; on the rosy +flowery unguarded slopes, where trespasses ripen into errors full of +equivocal effervescence, into too palpitating issues. The anecdote +puts La Palferine's genius before you in all its vivacity and +completeness. He realizes Pascal's /entre-deux/, he comprehends the +whole scale between tenderness and pitilessness, and, like +Epaminondas, he is equally great in extremes. And not merely so, his +epigram stamps the epoch; the /accoucheur/ is a modern innovation. All +the refinements of modern civilization are summed up in the phrase. It +is monumental." + +"Look here, my dear Nathan, what farrago of nonsense is this?" asked +the Marquise in bewilderment. + +"Madame la Marquise," returned Nathan, "you do not know the value of +these 'precious' phrases; I am talking Sainte-Beuve, the new kind of +French.--I resume. Walking one day arm in arm with a friend along the +boulevard, he was accosted by a ferocious creditor, who inquired: + +" 'Are you thinking of me, sir?' + +" 'Not the least in the world,' answered the Count. + +"Remark the difficulty of the position. Talleyrand, in similar +circumstances, had already replied, 'You are very inquisitive, my dear +fellow!' To imitate the inimitable great man was out of the question. +--La Palferine, generous as Buckingham, could not bear to be caught +empty-handed. One day when he had nothing to give a little Savoyard +chimney-sweeper, he dipped a hand into a barrel of grapes in a +grocer's doorway and filled the child's cap from it. The little one +ate away at his grapes; the grocer began by laughing, and ended by +holding out his hand. + +" 'Oh, fie! monsieur,' said La Palferine, 'your left hand ought not to +know what my right hand doth.' + +"With his adventurous courage, he never refuses any odds, but there is +wit in his bravado. In the Passage de l'Opera he chanced to meet a man +who had spoken slightingly of him, elbowed him as he passed, and then +turned and jostled him a second time. + +" 'You are very clumsy!' + +" 'On the contrary; I did it on purpose.' + +"The young man pulled out his card. La Palferine dropped it. 'It has +been carried too long in the pocket. Be good enough to give me +another.' + +"On the ground he received a thrust; blood was drawn; his antagonist +wished to stop. + +" 'You are wounded, monsieur!' + +" 'I disallow the /botte/,' said La Palferine, as coolly as if he had +been in the fencing-saloon; then as he riposted (sending the point +home this time), he added, 'There is the right thrust, monsieur!' + +"His antagonist kept his bed for six months. + +"This, still following on M. Sainte-Beuve's tracks, recalls the +/raffines/, the fine-edged raillery of the best days of the monarchy. +In this speech you discern an untrammeled but drifting life; a gaiety +of imagination that deserts us when our first youth is past. The prime +of the blossom is over, but there remains the dry compact seed with +the germs of life in it, ready against the coming winter. Do you not +see that these things are symptoms of something unsatisfied, of an +unrest impossible to analyze, still less to describe, yet not +incomprehensible; a something ready to break out if occasion calls +into flying upleaping flame? It is the /accidia/ of the cloister; a +trace of sourness, of ferment engendered by the enforced stagnation of +youthful energies, a vague, obscure melancholy." + +"That will do," said the Marquise; "you are giving me a mental shower +bath." + +"It is the early afternoon languor. If a man has nothing to do, he +will sooner get into mischief than do nothing at all; this invariably +happens in France. Youth at present day has two sides to it; the +studious or unappreciated, and the ardent or /passionne/." + +"That will do!" repeated Mme. de Rochefide, with an authoritative +gesture. "You are setting my nerves on edge." + +"To finish my portrait of La Palferine, I hasten to make the plunge +into the gallant regions of his character, or you will not understand +the peculiar genius of an admirable representative of a certain +section of mischievous youth--youth strong enough, be it said, to +laugh at the position in which it is put by those in power; shrewd +enough to do no work, since work profiteth nothing; yet so full of +life that it fastens upon pleasure--the one thing that cannot be taken +away. And meanwhile a bourgeois, mercantile, and bigoted policy +continues to cut off all the sluices through which so much aptitude +and ability would find an outlet. Poets and men of science are not +wanted. + +"To give you an idea of the stupidity of the new court, I will tell +you of something which happened to La Palferine. There is a sort of +relieving officer on the civil list. This functionary one day +discovered that La Palferine was in dire distress, drew up a report, +no doubt, and brought the descendant of the Rusticolis fifty francs by +way of alms. La Palferine received the visitor with perfect courtesy, +and talked of various persons at court. + +" 'Is it true,' he asked, 'that Mlle. d'Orleans contributes such and +such a sum to this benevolent scheme started by her nephew? If so, it +is very gracious of her.' + +"Now La Palferine had a servant, a little Savoyard, aged ten, who +waited on him without wages. La Palferine called him Father Anchises, +and used to say, 'I have never seen such a mixture of besotted +foolishness with great intelligence; he would go through fire and +water for me; he understands everything--and yet he cannot grasp the +fact that I can do nothing for him.' + +"Anchises was despatched to a livery stable with instructions to hire +a handsome brougham with a man in livery behind it. By the time the +carriage arrived below, La Palferine had skilfully piloted the +conversation to the subject of the functions of his visitor, whom he +has since called 'the unmitigated misery man,' and learned the nature +of his duties and his stipend. + +" 'Do they allow you a carriage to go about the town in this way?' + +" 'Oh! no.' + +"At that La Palferine and a friend who happened to be with him went +downstairs with the poor soul, and insisted on putting him into the +carriage. It was raining in torrents. La Palferine had thought of +everything. He offered to drive the official to the next house on his +list; and when the almoner came down again, he found the carriage +waiting for him at the door. The man in livery handed him a note +written in pencil: + + " 'The carriage has been engaged for three days. Count Rusticoli + de la Palferine is too happy to associate himself with Court + charities by lending wings to Royal beneficence.' + +"La Palferine now calls the civil list the uncivil list. + +"He was once passionately loved by a lady of somewhat light conduct. +Antonia lived in the Rue du Helder; she had seen and been seen to some +extent, but at the time of her acquaintance with La Palferine she had +not yet 'an establishment.' Antonia was not wanting in the insolence +of old days, now degenerating into rudeness among women of her class. +After a fortnight of unmixed bliss, she was compelled, in the interest +of her civil list, to return to a less exclusive system; and La +Palferine, discovering a certain lack of sincerity in her dealings +with him, sent Madame Antonia a note which made her famous. + + " 'MADAME,--Your conduct causes me much surprise and no less + distress. Not content with rending my heart with your disdain, you + have been so little thoughtful as to retain a toothbrush, which my + means will not permit me to replace, my estates being mortgaged + beyond their value. + + " 'Adieu, too fair and too ungrateful friend! May we meet again in + a better world. + +" 'CHARLES EDWARD.' + + +"Assuredly (to avail ourselves yet further of Sainte-Beuve's +Babylonish dialect), this far outpasses the raillery of Sterne's +/Sentimental Journey/; it might be Scarron without his grossness. Nay, +I do not know but that Moliere in his lighter mood would not have said +of it, as of Cyrano de Bergerac's best--'This is mine.' Richelieu +himself was not more complete when he wrote to the princess waiting +for him in the Palais Royal--'Stay there, my queen, to charm the +scullion lads.' At the same time, Charles Edward's humor is less +biting. I am not sure that this kind of wit was known among the Greeks +and Romans. Plato, possibly, upon a closer inspection approaches it, +but from the austere and musical side--" + +"No more of that jargon," the Marquise broke in, "in print it may be +endurable; but to have it grating upon my ears is a punishment which I +do not in the least deserve." + +"He first met Claudine on this wise," continued Nathan. "It was one of +the unfilled days, when Youth is a burden to itself; days when youth, +reduced by the overweening presumption of Age to a condition of +potential energy and dejection, emerges therefrom (like Blondet under +the Restoration), either to get into mischief or to set about some +colossal piece of buffoonery, half excused by the very audacity of its +conception. La Palferine was sauntering, cane in hand, up and down the +pavement between the Rue de Grammont and the Rue de Richelieu, when in +the distance he descried a woman too elegantly dressed, covered, as he +phrased it, with a great deal of portable property, too expensive and +too carelessly worn for its owner to be other than a princess of the +court or of the stage, it was not easy at first to say which. But +after July 1830, in his opinion, there is no mistaking the indications +--the princess can only be a princess of the stage. + +"The Count came up and walked by her side as if she had given him an +assignation. He followed her with a courteous persistence, a +persistence in good taste, giving the lady from time to time, and +always at the right moment, an authoritative glance, which compelled +her to submit to his escort. Anybody but La Palferine would have been +frozen by his reception, and disconcerted by the lady's first efforts +to rid herself of her cavalier, by her chilly air, her curt speeches; +but no gravity, with all the will in the world, could hold out long +against La Palferine's jesting replies. The fair stranger went into +her milliner's shop. Charles Edward followed, took a seat, and gave +his opinions and advice like a man that meant to pay. This coolness +disturbed the lady. She went out. + +"On the stairs she spoke to her persecutor. + +" 'Monsieur, I am about to call upon one of my husband's relatives, an +elderly lady, Mme. de Bonfalot--' + +" 'Ah! Mme. de Bonfalot, charmed, I am sure. I am going there.' + +"The pair accordingly went. Charles Edward came in with the lady, +every one believed that she had brought him with her. He took part in +the conversation, was lavish of his polished and brilliant wit. The +visit lengthened out. That was not what he wanted. + +" 'Madame,' he said, addressing the fair stranger, 'do not forget that +your husband is waiting for us, and only allowed us a quarter of an +hour.' + +"Taken aback by such boldness (which, as you know, is never +displeasing to you women), led captive by the conqueror's glance, by +the astute yet candid air which Charles Edward can assume when he +chooses, the lady rose, took the arm of her self-constituted escort, +and went downstairs, but on the threshold she stopped to speak to him. + +" 'Monsieur, I like a joke----' + +" 'And so do I.' + +"She laughed. + +" 'But this may turn to earnest,' he added; 'it only rests with you. I +am the Comte de la Palferine, and I am delighted that it is in my +power to lay my heart and my fortune at your feet.' + +"La Palferine was at that time twenty-two years old. (This happened in +1834.) Luckily for him, he was fashionably dressed. I can paint his +portrait for you in a few words. He was the living image of Louis +XIII., with the same white forehead and gracious outline of the +temples, the same olive skin (that Italian olive tint which turns +white where the light falls on it), the brown hair worn rather long, +the black 'royale,' the grave and melancholy expression, for La +Palferine's character and exterior were amazingly at variance. + +"At the sound of the name, and the sight of its owner, something like +a quiver thrilled through Claudine. La Palferine saw the vibration, +and shot a glance at her out of the dark depths of almond-shaped eyes +with purpled lids, and those faint lines about them which tell of +pleasures as costly as painful fatigue. With those eyes upon her, she +said--'Your address?' + +" 'What want of address!' + +" 'Oh, pshaw!' she said, smiling. 'A bird on the bough?' + +" 'Good-bye, madame, you are such a woman as I seek, but my fortune is +far from equaling my desire----' + +"He bowed, and there and then left her. Two days later, by one of the +strange chances that can only happen in Paris, he had betaken himself +to a money-lending wardrobe dealer to sell such of his clothing as he +could spare. He was just receiving the price with an uneasy air, after +long chaffering, when the stranger lady passed and recognized him. + +" 'Once for all,' cried he to the bewildered wardrobe dealer, 'I tell +you I am not going to take your trumpet!' + +"He pointed to a huge, much-dinted musical instrument, hanging up +outside against a background of uniforms, civil and military. Then, +proudly and impetuously, he followed the lady. + +"From that great day of the trumpet these two understood one another +to admiration. Charles Edward's ideas on the subject of love are as +sound as possible. According to him, a man cannot love twice, there is +but one love in his lifetime, but that love is a deep and shoreless +sea. It may break in upon him at any time, as the grace of God found +St. Paul; and a man may live sixty years and never know love. Perhaps, +to quote Heine's superb phrase, it is 'the secret malady of the heart' +--a sense of the Infinite that there is within us, together with the +revelation of the ideal Beauty in its visible form. This love, in +short, comprehends both the creature and creation. But so long as +there is no question of this great poetical conception, the loves that +cannot last can only be taken lightly, as if they were in a manner +snatches of song compared with Love the epic. + +"To Charles Edward the adventure brought neither the thunderbolt +signal of love's coming, nor yet that gradual revelation of an inward +fairness which draws two natures by degrees more and more strongly +each to each. For there are but two ways of love--love at first sight, +doubtless akin to the Highland 'second-sight,' and that slow fusion of +two natures which realizes Plato's 'man-woman.' But if Charles Edward +did not love, he was loved to distraction. Claudine found love made +complete, body and soul; in her, in short, La Palferine awakened the +one passion of her life; while for him Claudine was only a most +charming mistress. The Devil himself, a most potent magician +certainly, with all hell at his back, could never have changed the +natures of these two unequal fires. I dare affirm that Claudine not +unfrequently bored Charles Edward. + +" 'Stale fish and the woman you do not love are only fit to fling out +of the window after three days,' he used to say. + +"In Bohemia there is little secrecy observed over these affairs. La +Palferine used to talk a good deal of Claudine; but, at the same time, +none of us saw her, nor so much as knew her name. For us Claudine was +almost a mythical personage. All of us acted in the same way, +reconciling the requirements of our common life with the rules of good +taste. Claudine, Hortense, the Baroness, the Bourgeoise, the Empress, +the Spaniard, the Lioness,--these were cryptic titles which permitted +us to pour out our joys, our cares, vexations, and hopes, and to +communicate our discoveries. Further, none of us went. It has been +shown, in Bohemia, that chance discovered the identity of the fair +unknown; and at once, as by tacit convention, not one of us spoke of +her again. This fact may show how far youth possesses a sense of true +delicacy. How admirably certain natures of a finer clay know the limit +line where jest must end, and all that host of things French covered +by the slang word /blague/, a word which will shortly be cast out of +the language (let us hope), and yet it is the only one which conveys +an idea of the spirit of Bohemia. + +"So we often used to joke about Claudine and the Count--'/Toujours +Claudine?/' sung to the air of /Toujours Gessle/.--'What are you +making of Claudine?'--'How is Claudine?' + +" 'I wish you all such a mistress, for all the harm I wish you,' La +Palferine began one day. 'No greyhound, no basset-dog, no poodle can +match her in gentleness, submissiveness, and complete tenderness. +There are times when I reproach myself, when I take myself to task for +my hard heart. Claudine obeys with saintly sweetness. She comes to me, +I tell her to go, she goes, she does not even cry till she is out in +the courtyard. I refuse to see her for a whole week at a time. I tell +her to come at such an hour on Tuesday; and be it midnight or six +o'clock in the morning, ten o'clock, five o'clock, breakfast time, +dinner time, bed time, any particularly inconvenient hour in the day-- +she will come, punctual to the minute, beautiful, beautifully dressed, +and enchanting. And she is a married woman, with all the complications +and duties of a household. The fibs that she must invent, the reasons +she must find for conforming to my whims would tax the ingenuity of +some of us! . . . Claudine never wearies; you can always count upon +her. It is not love, I tell her, it is infatuation. She writes to me +every day; I do not read her letters; she found that out, but still +she writes. See here; there are two hundred letters in this casket. +She begs me to wipe my razors on one of her letters every day, and I +punctually do so. She thinks, and rightly, that the sight of her +handwriting will put me in mind of her.' + +"La Palferine was dressing as he told us this. I took up the letter +which he was about to put to this use, read it, and kept it, as he did +not ask to have it back. Here it is. I looked for it, and found it as +I promised. + + +"/Monday (Midnight)./ + + " 'Well, my dear, are you satisfied with me? I did not even ask + for your hand, yet you might easily have given it to me, and I + longed so much to hold it to my heart, to my lips. No, I did not + ask, I am so afraid of displeasing you. Do you know one thing? + Though I am cruelly sure that anything I do is a matter of perfect + indifference to you, I am none the less extremely timid in my + conduct: the woman that belongs to you, whatever her title to call + herself yours, must not incur so much as the shadow of blame. In + so far as love comes from the angels in heaven, from whom are no + secrets hid, my love is as pure as the purest; wherever I am I + feel that I am in your presence, and I try to do you honor. + + " 'All that you said about my manner of dress impressed me very + much; I began to understand how far above others are those that + come of a noble race. There was still something of the opera girl + in my gowns, in my way of dressing my hair. In a moment I saw the + distance between me and good taste. Next time you will receive a + duchess, you shall not know me again! Ah! how good you have been + to your Claudine! How many and many a time I have thanked you for + telling me those things! What interest lay in those few words! You + have taken thought for that thing belonging to you called + Claudine? /This/ imbecile would never have opened my eyes; he + thinks that everything I do is right; and besides, he is much too + humdrum, too matter-of-fact to have any feeling for the beautiful. + + " 'Tuesday is very slow of coming for my impatient mind! On + Tuesday I shall be with you for several hours. Ah! when it comes I + will try to think that the hours are months, that it will be so + always. I am living in hope of that morning now, as I shall live + upon the memory of it afterwards. Hope is memory that craves; and + recollection, memory sated. What a beautiful life within life + thought makes for us in this way! + + " 'Sometimes I dream of inventing new ways of tenderness all my + own, a secret which no other woman shall guess. A cold sweat + breaks out over me at the thought that something may happen to + prevent this morning. Oh, I would break with /him/ for good, if + need was, but nothing here could possibly interfere; it would be + from your side. Perhaps you may decide to go out, perhaps to go to + see some other woman. Oh! spare me this Tuesday for pity's sake. + If you take it from me, Charles, you do not know what /he/ will + suffer; I should drive him wild. But even if you do not want me, + or you are going out, let me come, all the same, to be with you + while you dress; only to see you, I ask no more than that; only to + show you that I love you without a thought of self. + + " 'Since you gave me leave to love you, for you gave me leave, + since I am yours; since that day I loved and love you with the + whole strength of my soul; and I shall love you for ever, for once + having loved /you/, no one could, no one ought to love another. + And, you see, when those eyes that ask nothing but to see you are + upon you, you will feel that in your Claudine there is a something + divine, called into existence by you. + + " 'Alas! with you I can never play the coquette. I am like a + mother with her child; I endure anything from you; I, that was + once so imperious and proud. I have made dukes and princes fetch + and carry for me; aides-de-camp, worth more than all the court of + Charles X. put together, have done my errands, yet I am treating + you as my spoilt child. But where is the use of coquetry? It would + be pure waste. And yet, monsieur, for want of coquetry I shall + never inspire love in you. I know it; I feel it; yet I do as + before, feeling a power that I cannot withstand, thinking that + this utter self-surrender will win me the sentiment innate in all + men (so /he/ tells me) for the thing that belongs to them. + + +"/Wednesday/. + + " 'Ah! how darkly sadness entered my heart yesterday when I found + that I must give up the joy of seeing you. One single thought held + me back from the arms of Death!--It was thy will! To stay away was + to do thy will, to obey an order from thee. Oh! Charles, I was so + pretty; I looked a lovelier woman for you than that beautiful + German princess whom you gave me for an example, whom I have + studied at the Opera. And yet--you might have thought that I had + overstepped the limits of my nature. You have left me no + confidence in myself; perhaps I am plain after all. Oh! I loathe + myself, I dream of my radiant Charles Edward, and my brain turns. + I shall go mad, I know I shall. Do not laugh, do not talk to me of + the fickleness of women. If we are inconstant, /you/ are strangely + capricious. You take away the hours of love that made a poor + creature's happiness for ten whole days; the hours on which she + drew to be charming and kind to all that came to see her! After + all, you were the source of my kindness to /him/; you do not know + what pain you give him. I wonder what I must do to keep you, or + simply to keep the right to be yours sometimes. . . . When I think + that you never would come here to me! . . . With what delicious + emotion I would wait upon you!--There are other women more favored + than I. There are women to whom you say, 'I love you.' To me you + have never said more than 'You are a good girl.' Certain speeches + of yours, though you do not know it, gnaw at my heart. Clever men + sometimes ask me what I am thinking. . . . I am thinking of my + self-abasement--the prostration of the poorest outcast in the + presence of the Saviour. + +"There are still three more pages, you see. La Palferine allowed me to +take the letter, with the traces of tears that still seemed hot upon +it! Here was proof of the truth of his story. Marcas, a shy man enough +with women, was in ecstacies over a second which he read in his corner +before lighting his pipe with it. + +" 'Why, any woman in love will write that sort of thing!' cried La +Palferine. 'Love gives all women intelligence and style, which proves +that here in France style proceeds from the matter and not from the +words. See now how well this is thought out, how clear-headed +sentiment is'--and with that he reads us another letter, far superior +to the artificial and labored productions which we novelists write. + +"One day poor Claudine heard that La Palferine was in a critical +position; it was a question of meeting a bill of exchange. An unlucky +idea occurred to her; she put a tolerably large sum in gold into an +exquisitely embroidered purse and went to him. + +" 'Who has taught you as to be so bold as to meddle with my household +affairs?' La Palferine cried angrily. 'Mend my socks and work slippers +for me, if it amuses you. So!--you will play the duchess, and you turn +the story of Danae against the aristocracy.' + +"He emptied the purse into his hand as he spoke, and made as though he +would fling the money in her face. Claudine, in her terror, did not +guess that he was joking; she shrank back, stumbled over a chair, and +fell with her head against the corner of the marble chimney-piece. She +thought she should have died. When she could speak, poor woman, as she +lay on the bed, all that she said was, 'I deserved it, Charles!' + +"For a moment La Palferine was in despair; his anguish revived +Claudine. She rejoiced in the mishap; she took advantage of her +suffering to compel La Palferine to take the money and release him +from an awkward position. Then followed a variation on La Fontaine's +fable, in which a man blesses the thieves that brought him a sudden +impulse of tenderness from his wife. And while we are upon this +subject, another saying will paint the man for you. + +"Claudine went home again, made up some kind of tale as best she could +to account for her bruised forehead, and fell dangerously ill. An +abscess formed in the head. The doctor--Bianchon, I believe--yes, it +was Bianchon--wanted to cut off her hair. The Duchesse de Berri's hair +is not more beautiful than Claudine's; she would not hear of it, she +told Bianchon in confidence that she could not allow it to be cut +without leave from the Comte de Palferine. Bianchon went to Charles +Edward. Charles Edward heard him with much seriousness. The doctor had +explained the case at length, and showed that it was absolutely +necessary to sacrifice the hair to insure the success of the +operation. + +" 'Cut off Claudine's hair!' cried he in peremptory tones. 'No. I +would sooner lose her.' + +"Even now, after a lapse of four years, Bianchon still quotes that +speech; we have laughed over it for half an hour together. Claudine, +informed of the verdict, saw in it a proof of affections; she felt +sure that she was loved. In the face of her weeping family, with her +husband on his knees, she was inexorable. She kept the hair. The +strength that came with the belief that she was loved came to her aid, +the operation succeeded perfectly. There are stirrings of the inner +life which throw all the calculations of surgery into disorder and +baffle the laws of medical science. + +"Claudine wrote a delicious letter to La Palferine, a letter in which +the orthography was doubtful and the punctuation all to seek, to tell +him of the happy result of the operation, and to add that Love was +wiser than all the sciences. + +" 'Now,' said La Palferine one day, 'what am I to do to get rid of +Claudine?' + +" 'Why, she is not at all troublesome; she leaves you master of your +actions,' objected we. + +" 'That is true,' returned La Palferine, 'but I do not choose that +anything shall slip into my life without my consent.' + +"From that day he set himself to torment Claudine. It seemed that he +held the bourgeoise, the nobody, in utter horror; nothing would +satisfy him but a woman with a title. Claudine, it was true, had made +progress; she had learned to dress as well as the best-dressed woman +of the Faubourg Saint-Germain; she had freed her bearing of the +unhallowed traces; she walked with a chastened, inimitable grace; but +this was not enough. This praise of her enabled Claudine to swallow +down the rest. + +"But one day La Palferine said, 'If you wish to be the mistress of one +La Palferine, poor, penniless, and without prospects as he is, you +ought at least to represent him worthily. You should have a carriage +and liveried servants and a title. Give me all the gratifications of +vanity that will never be mine in my own person. The woman whom I +honor with my regard ought never to go on foot; if she is bespattered +with mud, I suffer. That is how I am made. If she is mine, she must be +admired of all Paris. All Paris shall envy me my good fortune. If some +little whipper-snapper seeing a brilliant countess pass in her +brilliant carriage shall say to himself, "Who can call such a divinity +his?" and grow thoughtful--why, it will double my pleasure.' + +"La Palferine owned to us that he flung this programme at Claudine's +head simply to rid himself of her. As a result he was stupefied with +astonishment for the first and probably the only time in his life. + +" 'Dear,' she said, and there was a ring in her voice that betrayed +the great agitation which shook her whole being, 'it is well. All this +shall be done, or I will die.' + +"She let fall a few happy tears on his hand as she kissed it. + +" 'You have told me what I must do to be your mistress still,' she +added; 'I am glad.' + +" 'And then' (La Palferine told us) 'she went out with a little +coquettish gesture like a woman that has had her way. As she stood in +my garrett doorway, tall and proud, she seemed to reach the stature of +an antique sibyl.' + +"All this should sufficiently explain the manners and customs of the +Bohemia in which the young /condottiere/ is one of the most brilliant +figures," Nathan continued after a pause. "Now it so happened that I +discovered Claudine's identity, and could understand the appalling +truth of one line which you perhaps overlooked in that letter of hers. +It was on this wise." + +The Marquise, too thoughtful now for laughter, bade Nathan "Go on," in +a tone that told him plainly how deeply she had been impressed by +these strange things, and even more plainly how much she was +interested in La Palferine. + +"In 1829, one of the most influential, steady, and clever of dramatic +writers was du Bruel. His real name is unknown to the public, on the +play-bills he is de Cursy. Under the Restoration he had a place in the +Civil Service; and being really attached to the elder branch, he sent +in his resignation bravely in 1830, and ever since has written twice +as many plays to fill the deficit in his budget made by his noble +conduct. At that time du Bruel was forty years old; you know the story +of his life. Like many of his brethren, he bore a stage dancer an +affection hard to explain, but well known in the whole world of +letters. The woman, as you know, was Tullia, one of the /premiers +sujets/ of the Academie Royale de Musique. Tullia is merely a +pseudonym like du Bruel's name of de Cursy. + +"For the ten years between 1817 and 1827 Tullia was in her glory on +the heights of the stage of the Opera. With more beauty than +education, a mediocre dancer with rather more sense than most of her +class, she took no part in the virtuous reforms which ruined the corps +de ballet; she continued the Guimard dynasty. She owed her ascendency, +moreover, to various well-known protectors, to the Duc de Rhetore (the +Due de Chaulieu's eldest son), to the influence of a famous +Superintendent of Fine Arts, and sundry diplomatists and rich +foreigners. During her apogee she had a neat little house in the Rue +Chauchat, and lived as Opera nymphs used to live in the old days. Du +Bruel was smitten with her about the time when the Duke's fancy came +to an end in 1823. Being a mere subordinate in the Civil Service, du +Bruel tolerated the Superintendent of Fine Arts, believing that he +himself was really preferred. After six years this connection was +almost a marriage. Tullia has always been very careful to say nothing +of her family; we have a vague idea that she comes from Nanterre. One +of her uncles, formerly a simple bricklayer or carpenter, is now, it +is said, a very rich contractor, thanks to her influence and generous +loans. This fact leaked out through du Bruel. He happened to say that +Tullia would inherit a fine fortune sooner or later. The contractor +was a bachelor; he had a weakness for the niece to whom he is +indebted. + +" 'He is not clever enough to be ungrateful,' said she. + +"In 1829 Tullia retired from the stage of her own accord. At the age +of thirty she saw that she was growing somewhat stouter, and she had +tried pantomime without success. Her whole art consisted in the trick +of raising her skirts, after Noblet's manner, in a pirouette which +inflated them balloon-fashion and exhibited the smallest possible +quantity of clothing to the pit. The aged Vestris had told her at the +very beginning that this /temps/, well executed by a fine woman, is +worth all the art imaginable. It is the chest-note C of dancing. For +which reason, he said, the very greatest dancers--Camargo, Guimard, +and Taglioni, all of them thin, brown, and plain--could only redeem +their physical defects by their genius. Tullia, still in the height of +her glory, retired before younger and cleverer dancers; she did +wisely. She was an aristocrat; she had scarcely stooped below the +noblesse in her /liaisons/; she declined to dip her ankles in the +troubled waters of July. Insolent and beautiful as she was, Claudine +possessed handsome souvenirs, but very little ready money; still, her +jewels were magnificent, and she had as fine furniture as any one in +Paris. + +"On quitting the stage when she, forgotten to-day, was yet in the +height of her fame, one thought possessed her--she meant du Bruel to +marry her; and at the time of this story, you must understand that the +marriage had taken place, but was kept a secret. How do women of her +class contrive to make a man marry them after seven or eight years of +intimacy? What springs do they touch? What machinery do they set in +motion? But, however comical such domestic dramas may be, we are not +now concerned with them. Du Bruel was secretly married; the thing was +done. + +"Cursy before his marriage was supposed to be a jolly companion; now +and again he stayed out all night, and to some extent led the life of +a Bohemian; he would unbend at a supper-party. He went out to all +appearance to a rehearsal at the Opera-Comique, and found himself in +some unaccountable way at Dieppe, or Baden, or Saint-Germain; he gave +dinners, led the Titanic thriftless life of artists, journalists, and +writers; levied his tribute on all the greenrooms of Paris; and, in +short, was one of us. Finot, Lousteau, du Tillet, Desroches, Bixiou, +Blondet, Couture, and des Lupeaulx tolerated him in spite of his +pedantic manner and ponderous official attitude. But once married, +Tullia made a slave of du Bruel. There was no help for it. He was in +love with Tullia, poor devil. + +" 'Tullia' (so he said) 'had left the stage to be his alone, to be a +good and charming wife.' And somehow Tullia managed to induce the most +Puritanical members of du Bruel's family to accept her. From the very +first, before any one suspected her motives, she assiduously visited +old Mme. de Bonfalot, who bored her horribly; she made handsome +presents to mean old Mme. de Chisse, du Bruel's great-aunt; she spent +a summer with the latter lady, and never missed a single mass. She +even went to confession, received absolution, and took the sacrament; +but this, you must remember, was in the country, and under the aunt's +eyes. + +" 'I shall have real aunts now, do you understand?' she said to us +when she came back in the winter. + +"She was so delighted with her respectability, so glad to renounce her +independence, that she found means to compass her end. She flattered +the old people. She went on foot every day to sit for a couple of +hours with Mme. du Bruel the elder while that lady was ill--a +Maintenon's stratagem which amazed du Bruel. And he admired his wife +without criticism; he was so fast in the toils already that he did not +feel his bonds. + +"Claudine succeeded in making him understand that only under the +elastic system of a bourgeois government, only at the bourgeois court +of the Citizen-King, could a Tullia, now metamorphosed into a Mme. du +Bruel, be accepted in the society which her good sense prevented her +from attempting to enter. Mme. de Bonfalot, Mme. de Chisse, and Mme. +du Bruel received her; she was satisfied. She took up the position of +a well-conducted, simple, and virtuous woman, and never acted out of +character. In three years' time she was introduced to the friends of +these ladies. + +" 'And still I cannot persuade myself that young Mme. du Bruel used to +display her ankles, and the rest, to all Paris, with the light of a +hundred gas-jets pouring upon her,' Mme. Anselme Popinot remarked +naively. + +"From this point of view, July 1830 inaugurated an era not unlike the +time of the Empire, when a waiting woman was received at Court in the +person of Mme. Garat, a chief-justice's 'lady.' Tullia had completely +broken, as you may guess, with all her old associates; of her former +acquaintances, she only recognized those who could not compromise her. +At the time of her marriage she had taken a very charming little hotel +between a court and a garden, lavishing money on it with wild +extravagance and putting the best part of her furniture and du Bruel's +into it. Everything that she thought common or ordinary was sold. To +find anything comparable to her sparkling splendor, you could only +look back to the days when Sophie Arnould, a Guimard, or a Duthe, in +all her glory, squandered the fortunes of princes. + +"How far did this sumptuous existence affect du Bruel? It is a +delicate question to ask, and a still more delicate one to answer. A +single incident will suffice to give you an idea of Tullia's +crotchets. Her bed-spread of Brussels lace was worth ten thousand +francs. A famous actress had another like it. As soon as Claudine +heard this, she allowed her cat, a splendid Angora, to sleep on the +bed. That trait gives you the woman. Du Bruel dared not say a word; he +was ordered to spread abroad that challenge in luxury, so that it +might reach the other. Tullia was very fond of this gift from the Duc +de Rhetore; but one day, five years after her marriage, she played +with her cat to such purpose that the coverlet--furbelows, flounces, +and all--was torn to shreds, and replaced by a sensible quilt, a quilt +that was a quilt, and not a symptom of the peculiar form of insanity +which drives these women to make up by an insensate luxury for the +childish days when they lived on raw apples, to quote the expression +of a journalist. The day when the bed-spread was torn to tatters +marked a new epoch in her married life. + +"Cursy was remarkable for his ferocious industry. Nobody suspects the +source to which Paris owes the patch-and-powder eighteenth century +vaudevilles that flooded the stage. Those thousand-and-one +vaudevilles, which raised such an outcry among the /feuilletonistes/, +were written at Mme. du Bruel's express desire. She insisted that her +husband should purchase the hotel on which she had spent so much, +where she had housed five hundred thousand francs' worth of furniture. +Wherefore Tullia never enters into explanations; she understands the +sovereign woman's reason to admiration. + +" 'People made a good deal of fun of Cursy,' said she; 'but, as a +matter of fact, he found this house in the eighteenth century rouge- +box, powder, puffs, and spangles. He would never have thought of it +but for me,' she added, burying herself in the cushions in her +fireside corner. + +"She delivered herself thus on her return from a first night. Du +Bruel's piece had succeeded, and she foresaw an avalanche of +criticisms. Tullia had her At Homes. Every Monday she gave a tea- +party; her society was as select as might be, and she neglected +nothing that could make her house pleasant. There was a bouillotte in +one room, conversation in another, and sometimes a concert (always +short) in the large drawing-room. None but the most eminent artists +performed in the house. Tullia had so much good sense, that she +attained to the most exquisite tact, and herein, in all probability, +lay the secret of her ascendency over du Bruel; at any rate, he loved +her with the love which use and wont at length makes indispensable to +life. Every day adds another thread to the strong, irresistible, +intangible web, which enmeshes the most delicate fancies, takes +captive every most transient mood, and binding them together, holds a +man captive hand and foot, heart and head. + +"Tullia knew Cursy well; she knew every weak point in his armor, knew +also how to heal his wounds. + +"A passion of this kind is inscrutable for any observer, even for a +man who prides himself, as I do, on a certain expertness. It is +everywhere unfathomable; the dark depths in it are darker than in any +other mystery; the colors confused even in the highest lights. + +"Cursy was an old playwright, jaded by the life of the theatrical +world. He liked comfort; he liked a luxurious, affluent, easy +existence; he enjoyed being a king in his own house; he liked to be +host to a party of men of letters in a hotel resplendent with royal +luxury, with carefully chosen works of art shining in the setting. +Tullia allowed du Bruel to enthrone himself amid the tribe; there were +plenty of journalists whom it was easy enough to catch and ensnare; +and, thanks to her evening parties and a well-timed loan here and +there, Cursy was not attacked too seriously--his plays succeeded. For +these reasons he would not have separated from Tullia for an empire. +If she had been unfaithful, he would probably have passed it over, on +condition that none of his accustomed joys should be retrenched; yet, +strange to say, Tullia caused him no twinges on this account. No fancy +was laid to her charge; if there had been any, she certainly had been +very careful of appearances. + +" 'My dear fellow,' du Bruel would say, laying down the law to us on +the boulevard, 'there is nothing like one of these women who have sown +their wild oats and got over their passions. Such women as Claudine +have lived their bachelor life; they have been over head and ears in +pleasure, and make the most adorable wives that could be wished; they +have nothing to learn, they are formed, they are not in the least +prudish; they are well broken in, and indulgent. So I strongly +recommend everybody to take the "remains of a racer." I am the most +fortunate man on earth.' + +"Du Bruel said this to me himself with Bixiou there to hear it. + +" 'My dear fellow,' said the caricaturist, 'perhaps he is right to be +in the wrong.' + +"About a week afterwards, du Bruel asked us to dine with him one +Tuesday. That morning I went to see him on a piece of theatrical +business, a case submitted to us for arbitration by the commission of +dramatic authors. We were obliged to go out again; but before we +started he went to Claudine's room, knocked, as he always does, and +asked for leave to enter. + +" 'We live in grand style,' said he, smiling; 'we are free. Each is +independent.' + +"We were admitted. Du Bruel spoke to Claudine. 'I have asked a few +people to dinner to-day--" + +" 'Just like you!' cried she. 'You ask people without speaking to me; +I count for nothing here.--Now' (taking me as arbitrator by a glance) +'I ask you yourself. When a man has been so foolish as to live with a +woman of my sort; for, after all, I was an opera dancer--yes, I ought +always to remember that, if other people are to forget it--well, under +those circumstances, a clever man seeking to raise his wife in public +opinion would do his best to impose her upon the world as a remarkable +woman, to justify the step he had taken by acknowledging that in some +ways she was something more than ordinary women. The best way of +compelling respect from others is to pay respect to her at home, and +to leave her absolute mistress of the house. Well, and yet it is +enough to awaken one's vanity to see how frightened he is of seeming +to listen to me. I must be in the right ten times over if he concedes +a single point.' + +"(Emphatic negative gestures from du Bruel at every other word.) + +" 'Oh, yes, yes,' she continued quickly, in answer to this mute +dissent. 'I know all about it, du Bruel, my dear, I that have been +like a queen in my house all my life till I married you. My wishes +were guessed, fulfilled, and more than fulfilled. After all, I am +thirty-five, and at five-and-thirty a woman cannot expect to be loved. +Ah, if I were a girl of sixteen, if I had not lost something that is +dearly bought at the Opera, what attention you would pay me, M. du +Bruel! I feel the most supreme contempt for men who boast that they +can love and grow careless and neglectful in little things as time +grows on. You are short and insignificant, you see, du Bruel; you love +to torment a woman; it is your only way of showing your strength. A +Napoleon is ready to be swayed by the woman he loves; he loses nothing +by it; but as for such as you, you believe that you are nothing +apparently, you do not wish to be ruled.--Five-and-thirty, my dear +boy,' she continued, turning to me, 'that is the clue to the riddle.-- +"No," does he say again?--You know quite well that I am thirty-seven. +I am very sorry, but just ask your friends to dine at the /Rocher de +Cancale/. I /could/ have them here, but I will not; they shall not +come. And then perhaps my poor little monologue may engrave that +salutary maxim, "Each is master at home," upon your memory. That is +our character,' she added, laughing, with a return of the opera girl's +giddiness and caprice. + +" 'Well, well, my dear little puss; there, there, never mind. We can +manage to get on together,' said du Bruel, and he kissed her hands, +and we came away. But he was very wroth. + +"The whole way from the Rue de la Victoire to the boulevard a perfect +torrent of venomous words poured from his mouth like a waterfall in +flood; but as the shocking language which he used on occasion was +quite unfit to print, the report is necessarily inadequate. + +" 'My dear fellow, I will leave that vile, shameless opera dancer, a +worn-out jade that has been set spinning like a top to every operatic +air; a foul hussy, an organ-grinder's monkey! Oh, my dear boy, you +have taken up with an actress; may the notion of marrying your +mistress never get a hold on you. It is a torment omitted from the +hell of Dante, you see. Look here! I will beat her; I will give her a +thrashing; I will give it to her! Poison of my life, she sent me off +like a running footman.' + +"By this time we had reached the boulevard, and he had worked himself +up to such a pitch of fury that the words stuck in his throat. + +" 'I will kick the stuffing out of her!' + +" 'And why?' + +" 'My dear fellow, you will never know the thousand-and-one fancies +that slut takes into her head. When I want to stay at home, she, +forsooth, must go out; when I want to go out, she wants me to stop at +home; and she spouts out arguments and accusations and reasoning and +talks and talks till she drives you crazy. Right means any whim that +they happen to take into their heads, and wrong means our notion. +Overwhelm them with something that cuts their arguments to pieces-- +they hold their tongues and look at you as if you were a dead dog. My +happiness indeed! I lead the life of a yard-dog; I am a perfect slave. +The little happiness that I have with her costs me dear. Confound it +all. I will leave her everything and take myself off to a garret. Yes, +a garret and liberty. I have not dared to have my own way once in +these five years.' + +"But instead of going to his guests, Cursy strode up and down the +boulevard between the Rue de Richelieu and the Rue du Mont Blanc, +indulging in the most fearful imprecations, his unbounded language was +most comical to hear. His paroxysm of fury in the street contrasted +oddly with his peaceable demeanor in the house. Exercise assisted him +to work off his nervous agitation and inward tempest. About two +o'clock, on a sudden frantic impulse, he exclaimed: + +" 'These damned females never know what they want. I will wager my +head now that if I go home and tell her that I have sent to ask my +friends to dine with me at the /Rocher de Cancale/, she will not be +satisfied though she made the arrangement herself.--But she will have +gone off somewhere or other. I wonder whether there is something at +the bottom of all this, an assignation with some goat? No. In the +bottom of her heart she loves me!' " + +The Marquise could not help smiling. + +"Ah, madame," said Nathan, looking keenly at her, "only women and +prophets know how to turn faith to account.--Du Bruel would have me go +home with him," he continued, "and we went slowly back. It was three +o'clock. Before he appeared, he heard a stir in the kitchen, saw +preparations going forward, and glanced at me as he asked the cook the +reason of this. + +" 'Madame ordered dinner,' said the woman. 'Madame dressed and ordered +a cab, and then she changed her mind and ordered it again for the +theatre this evening.' + +" 'Good,' exclaimed du Bruel, 'what did I tell you?' + +"We entered the house stealthily. No one was there. We went from room +to room until we reached a little boudoir, and came upon Tullia in +tears. She dried her eyes without affectation, and spoke to du Bruel. + +" 'Send a note to the /Rocher de Cancale/,' she said, 'and ask your +guests to dine here.' + +"She was dressed as only women of the theatre can dress, in a simply- +made gown of some dainty material, neither too costly nor too common, +graceful and harmonious in outline and coloring; there was nothing +conspicuous about her, nothing exaggerated--a word now dropping out of +use, to be replaced by the word 'artistic,' used by fools as current +coin. In short, Tullia looked like a gentlewoman. At thirty-seven she +had reached the prime of a Frenchwoman's beauty. At this moment the +celebrated oval of her face was divinely pale; she had laid her hat +aside; I could see a faint down like the bloom of fruit softening the +silken contours of a cheek itself so delicate. There was a pathetic +charm about her face with its double cluster of fair hair; her +brilliant gray eyes were veiled by a mist of tears; her nose, +delicately carved as a Roman cameo, with its quivering nostrils; her +little mouth, like a child's even now; her long queenly throat, with +the veins standing out upon it; her chin, flushed for the moment by +some secret despair; the pink tips of her ears, the hands that +trembled under her gloves, everything about her told of violent +feeling. The feverish twitching of her eyebrows betrayed her pain. She +looked sublime. + +"Her first words had crushed du Bruel. She looked at us both, with +that penetrating, impenetrable cat-like glance which only actresses +and great ladies can use. Then she held out her hand to her husband. + +" 'Poor dear, you had scarcely gone before I blamed myself a thousand +times over. It seemed to me that I had been horribly ungrateful. I +told myself that I had been unkind.--Was I very unkind?' she asked, +turning to me.--'Why not receive your friends? Is it not your house? +Do you want to know the reason of it all? Well, I was afraid that I +was not loved; and indeed I was half-way between repentance and the +shame of going back. I read the newspapers, and saw that there was a +first night at the Varietes, and I thought you had meant to give the +dinner to a collaborator. Left to myself, I gave way, I dressed to +hurry out after you--poor pet.' + +"Du Bruel looked at me triumphantly, not a vestige of a recollection +of his orations /contra Tullia/ in his mind. + +" 'Well, dearest, I have not spoken to any one of them,' he said. + +" 'How well we understand each other!' quoth she. + +"Even as she uttered those bewildering sweet words, I caught sight of +something in her belt, the corner of a little note thrust sidewise +into it; but I did not need that indication to tell me that Tullia's +fantastic conduct was referable to occult causes. Woman, in my +opinion, is the most logical of created beings, the child alone +excepted. In both we behold a sublime phenomenon, the unvarying +triumph of one dominant, all-excluding thought. The child's thought +changes every moment; but while it possesses him, he acts upon it with +such ardor that others give way before him, fascinated by the +ingenuity, the persistence of a strong desire. Woman is less +changeable, but to call her capricious is a stupid insult. Whenever +she acts, she is always swayed by one dominant passion; and wonderful +it is to see how she makes that passion the very centre of her world. + +"Tullia was irresistible; she twisted du Bruel round her fingers, the +sky grew blue again, the evening was glorious. And ingenious writer of +plays as he is, he never so much as saw that his wife had buried a +trouble out of sight. + +" 'Such is life, my dear fellow,' he said to me, 'ups and downs and +contrasts.' + +" 'Especially life off the stage,' I put in. + +" 'That is just what I mean,' he continued. 'Why, but for these +violent emotions, one would be bored to death! Ah! that woman has the +gift of rousing me.' + +"We went to the Varietes after dinner; but before we left the house I +slipped into du Bruel's room, and on a shelf among a pile of waste +papers found the copy of the /Petites-Affiches/, in which, agreeably +to the reformed law, notice of the purchase of the house was inserted. +The words stared me in the face--'At the request of Jean Francois du +Bruel and Claudine Chaffaroux, his wife----' /Here/ was the +explanation of the whole matter. I offered my arm to Claudine, and +allowed the guests to descend the stairs in front of us. When we were +alone--'If I were La Palferine,' I said, 'I would not break an +appointment.' + +"Gravely she laid her finger on her lips. She leant on my arm as we +went downstairs, and looked at me with almost something like happiness +in her eyes because I knew La Palferine. Can you see the first idea +that occurred to her? She thought of making a spy of me, but I turned +her off with the light jesting talk of Bohemia. + +"A month later, after a first performance of one of du Bruel's plays, +we met in the vestibule of the theatre. It was raining; I went to call +a cab. We had been delayed for a few minutes, so that there were no +cabs in sight. Claudine scolded du Bruel soundly; and as we rolled +through the streets (for she set me down at Florine's), she continued +the quarrel with a series of most mortifying remarks. + +" 'What is this about?' I inquired. + +" 'Oh, my dear fellow, she blames me for allowing you to run out for a +cab, and thereupon proceeds to wish for a carriage.' + +" 'As a dancer,' said she, 'I have never been accustomed to use my +feet except on the boards. If you have any spirit, you will turn out +four more plays or so in a year; you will make up your mind that +succeed they must, when you think of the end in view, and that your +wife will not walk in the mud. It is a shame that I should have to ask +for it. You ought to have guessed my continual discomfort during the +five years since I married you.' + +" 'I am quite willing,' returned du Bruel. 'But we shall ruin +ourselves.' + +" 'If you run into debt,' she said, 'my uncle's money will clear it +off some day.' + +" 'You are quite capable of leaving me the debts and taking the +property.' + +" 'Oh! is that the way you take it?' retorted she. 'I have nothing +more to say to you; such a speech stops my mouth.' + +"Whereupon du Bruel poured out his soul in excuses and protestations +of love. Not a word did she say. He took her hands, she allowed him to +take them; they were like ice, like a dead woman's hands. Tullia, you +can understand, was playing to admiration the part of corpse that +women can play to show you that they refuse their consent to anything +and everything; that for you they are suppressing soul, spirit, and +life, and regard themselves as beasts of burden. Nothing so provokes a +man with a heart as this strategy. Women can only use it with those +who worship them. + +"She turned to me. 'Do you suppose,' she said scornfully, 'that a +Count would have uttered such an insult even if the thought had +entered his mind? For my misfortune I have lived with dukes, +ambassadors, and great lords, and I know their ways. How intolerable +it makes bourgeois life! After all, a playwright is not a Rastignac +nor a Rhetore----' + +"Du Bruel looked ghastly at this. Two days afterwards we met in the +/foyer/ at the Opera, and took a few turns together. The conversation +fell on Tullia. + +" 'Do not take my ravings on the boulevard too seriously,' said he; 'I +have a violent temper.' + +"For two winters I was a tolerably frequent visitor at du Bruel's +house, and I followed Claudine's tactics closely. She had a splendid +carriage. Du Bruel entered public life; she made him abjure his +Royalist opinions. He rallied himself; he took his place again in the +administration; the National Guard was discreetly canvassed, du Bruel +was elected major, and behaved so valorously in a street riot, that he +was decorated with the rosette of an officer of the Legion of Honor. +He was appointed Master of Requests and head of a department. Uncle +Chaffaroux died and left his niece forty thousand francs per annum, +three-fourths of his fortune. Du Bruel became a deputy; but +beforehand, to save the necessity of re-election, he secured his +nomination to the Council of State. He reprinted divers archaeological +treatises, a couple of political pamphlets, and a statistical work, by +way of pretext for his appointment to one of the obliging academies of +the Institut. At this moment he is a Commander of the Legion, and +(after fishing in the troubled waters of political intrigue) has quite +recently been made a peer of France and a count. As yet our friend +does not venture to bear his honors; his wife merely puts 'La Comtesse +du Bruel' on her cards. The sometime playwright has the Order of +Leopold, the Order of Isabella, the cross of Saint-Vladimir, second +class, the Order of Civil Merit of Bavaria, the Papal Order of the +Golden Spur,--all the lesser orders, in short, besides the Grand +Cross. + +"Three months ago Claudine drove to La Palferine's door in her +splendid carriage with its armorial bearings. Du Bruel's grandfather +was a farmer of taxes ennobled towards the end of Louis Quatorze's +reign. Cherin composed his coat-of-arms for him, so the Count's +coronet looks not amiss above a scutcheon innocent of Imperial +absurdities. In this way, in the short space of three years, Claudine +had carried out the programme laid down for her by the charming, +light-hearted La Palferine. + +"One day, just above a month ago, she climbed the miserable staircase +to her lover's lodging; climbed in her glory, dressed like a real +countess of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, to our friend's garret. La +Palferine, seeing her, said, 'You have made a peeress of yourself I +know. But it is too late, Claudine; every one is talking just now +about the Southern Cross, I should like it see it!' + +" 'I will get it for you.' + +"La Palferine burst into a peal of Homeric laughter. + +" 'Most distinctly,' he returned, 'I do /not/ wish to have a woman as +ignorant as a carp for my mistress, a woman that springs like a flying +fish from the green-room of the Opera to Court, for I should like to +see you at the Court of the Citizen King.' + +"She turned to me. + +" 'What is the Southern Cross?' she asked, in a sad, downcast voice. + +"I was struck with admiration for this indomitable love, outdoing the +most ingenious marvels of fairy tales in real life--a love that would +spring over a precipice to find a roc's egg, or to gather the singing +flower. I explained that the Southern Cross was a nebulous +constellation even brighter than the Milky Way, arranged in the form +of a cross, and that it could only be seen in southern latitudes. + +" 'Very well, Charles, let us go,' said she. + +"La Palferine, ferocious though he was, had tears in his eyes; but +what a look there was in Claudine's face, what a note in her voice! I +have seen nothing like the thing that followed, not even in the +supreme touch of a great actor's art; nothing to compare with her +movement when she saw the hard eyes softened in tears; Claudine sank +upon her knees and kissed La Palferine's pitiless hand. He raised her +with his grand manner, his 'Rusticoli air,' as he calls it--'There, +child!' he said, 'I will do something for you; I will put you--in my +will.' + +"Well," concluded Nathan, "I ask myself sometimes whether du Bruel is +really deceived. Truly there is nothing more comic, nothing stranger +than the sight of a careless young fellow ruling a married couple, his +slightest whims received as law, the weightiest decisions revoked at a +word from him. That dinner incident, as you can see, is repeated times +without number, it interferes with important matters. Still, but for +Claudine's caprices, du Bruel would be de Cursy still, one +vaudevillist among five hundred; whereas he is in the House of Peers." + + + +"You will change the names, I hope!" said Nathan, addressing Mme. de +la Baudraye. + +"I should think so! I have only set names to the masks for you. My +dear Nathan," she added in the poet's ear, "I know another case on +which the wife takes du Bruel's place." + +"And the catastrophe?" queried Lousteau, returning just at the end of +Mme. de la Baudraye's story. + +"I do not believe in catastrophes. One has to invent such good ones to +show that art is quite a match for chance; and nobody reads a book +twice, my friend, except for the details." + +"But there is a catastrophe," persisted Nathan. + +"What is it?" + +"The Marquise de Rochefide is infatuated with Charles Edward. My story +excited her curiosity." + +"Oh, unhappy woman!" cried Mme. de la Baudraye. + +"Not so unhappy," said Nathan, "for Maxime de Trailles and La +Palferine have brought about a rupture between the Marquis and Mme. +Schontz, and they mean to make it up between Arthur and Beatrix." + + + +1839 - 1845. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Bruel, Jean Francois du + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Government Clerks + A Start in Life + The Middle Classes + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Daughter of Eve + +Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Middle Classes + +Chaffaroux + Cesar Birotteau + The Middle Classes + +Chocardelle, Mademoiselle + Beatrix + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + +La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de + The Muse of the Department + Cousin Betty + +Laguerre, Mademoiselle + The Peasantry + +La Palferine, Comte de + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + Beatrix + The Imaginary Mistress + +Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + Cousin Betty + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + +Marcas, Zephirin + Z. Marcas + +Nathan, Raoul + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + Letters of Two Brides + The Seamy Side of History + The Muse of the Department + A Man of Business + The Unconscious Humorists + +Nathan, Madame Raoul + The Muse of the Department + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor's Establishment + Ursule Mirouet + Eugenie Grandet + The Imaginary Mistress + A Daughter of Eve + The Unconscious Humorists + +Popinot, Madame Anselme + Cesar Birotteau + Cousin Betty + Cousin Pons + +Rochefide, Marquise de + Beatrix + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + Sarrasine + +Tissot, Pierre-Francois + Father Goriot + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext A Prince of Bohemia, by Honore de Balzac + |